TV News LIES

Congolese authorities say that suspected Ebola cases have now passed 900 in the ongoing outbreak in the east of the country.

The Congolese ministry of communication, in a post on X on Sunday, said there were 904 suspected cases and 119 suspected deaths.

Authorities had previously announced more than 700 suspected Ebola cases, and more than 170 suspected deaths, mostly in Ituri province, where the outbreak is centred.

The World Health Organization has said the outbreak now poses a “very high” risk for the Democratic Republic of Congo, but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.

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When abortion restrictions are in the news, as they have been for several weeks, research shows that many Americans take that as a signal to stock up on abortion medications even if they're not pregnant.

Now, for the first time, a Planned Parenthood affiliate is offering what's called the "advance provision" of abortion medication. The initiative, shared exclusively with NPR, launched Thursday and is called "Just In Case Abortion Pills." It means people can have the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol on their shelf to be used in the future if they want to end an early pregnancy.

"As evidence supporting this model of care has continued to grow, and with supportive policy environments in Washington and in Hawai'i, this really is the right time for us to step into this space," says Rebecca Gibron, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai'i, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky.

A range of telehealth organizations have offered prescriptions of abortion medication in advance for the past several years. Elisa Wells, co-founder of the website about medication abortion called Plan C, says this move by a Planned Parenthood affiliate is significant.

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By the time the American surgeon who contracted Ebola in Congo was flown to Germany for treatment Tuesday, he was barely able to stand on his own, according to two leaders of the Christian missionary group where he worked.

Dr. Scott Myhre, the East and Central Africa area director for the group, called Serge, described the scene as Dr. Peter Stafford departed.

“There were people in full — we call it PPE — the personal protective equipment, and they’re completely covered, and he’s hanging on them barely strong enough to walk,” Myhre said. “He looked really tired and really sick.”

Stafford worked at Nyankunde Hospital, which is in Congo’s Ituri province, where the Ebola outbreak is centered. Days before the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the outbreak, Stafford operated on a 33-year-old patient with severe abdominal pain, Myhre said. At the time, doctors thought the patient had a gallbladder infection.

Stafford “did an abdominal procedure and found that the gallbladder was normal and closed him up, but this patient subsequently died the next day,” Myhre said.

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Yet another item that may be in your pantry has been recalled over possible salmonella contamination.

A recall notice shared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shows select croutons sold at Kroger stores in 17 states are being pulled from the shelves because an ingredient, a dry milk powder, may have been contaminated with salmonella.

The latest item is Kroger Homestyle Cheese Garlic Croutons, which are sold in 5-ounce pouches with a UPC of 0 11110 81353 4. The recall only impacts pouches with any of the below use-by dates:

FEB 17 27   FEB 18 27   FEB 27 27   FEB 28 27
MAR 6 27   MAR 9 27   MAR 21 27
APR 1 27    APR 7 27

According to the notice, affected crouton pouches were sold at Kroger stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin between March 7 and April 7 of this year.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the croutons, officials said.

Salmonella are bacteria that cause the illness salmonellosis. You can become infected by drinking or interacting with contaminated water; touching animals, their feces, or their spaces (a recent outbreak was linked to backyard poultry); or by eating contaminated food.

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The Trump administration has announced a plan to kill Biden-era drinking water limits on four Pfas “forever chemicals”, and to delay the implementation of standards for two other compounds.

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing two separate rules to delay and rescind the limits. The rules must go through an approval process that can take several years, and almost certainly will be challenged in court.

The Trump administration’s plan comes just two years after the US Environmental Protection Agency set legally enforceable drinking water limits for six of the most dangerous Pfas compounds that have been studied. The chemicals include some of the most toxic substances, and are linked to a range of cancers and other serious health problems.

The new Trump plan aims to undo or delay those limits, which public health advocates say would put the nation’s health at risk. Pfas are ubiquitous in the environment and estimated to be contaminating drinking water for more than 200 million people across the US.

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The federal hantavirus response has laid bare the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. and global health, renewing concerns among public health experts that the U.S. is not prepared for a bigger health crisis.

Career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been fired or left the agency, and there are far fewer people available to respond to outbreaks and to communicate with the public.

That has largely left political appointees in charge of updating the public.

As the administration scales its response, several top health officials who were previously some of the most publicly critical of the COVID-19 response must now communicate the accurate level of risk posed by the hantavirus.

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