Trump Officials Celebrated Efforts to Change CDC Reports ; Details From 533 Million Facebook Users Found on Hacker Website ; and More Picks 4/12
Trump Officials Celebrated Efforts to Change CDC Reports on Coronavirus, Emails Show (Reader Steve)
From the Boston Globe: “Trump appointees in the Health and Human Services department last year privately touted their efforts to block or alter scientists’ reports on the coronavirus to more closely align with then-President Donald Trump’s more optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators. The documents provide further insight into how senior Trump officials approached last year’s explosion of coronavirus cases in the United States. Even as career government scientists worked to combat the virus, a cadre of Trump appointees were attempting to blunt the scientists’ messages, edit their findings, and equip the president with an alternate set of talking points.”
COVID-19 Patient Receives Lung Transplant From Living Donors (Dana)
The author writes, “Doctors in Japan announced Thursday they have successfully performed the world’s first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a patient with severe lung damage from COVID-19. The recipient, identified only as a woman from Japan’s western region of Kansai, is recovering after the nearly 11-hour operation on Wednesday, Kyoto University Hospital said in a statement. It said her husband and son, who donated parts of their lungs, are also in stable condition. The university said it was the world’s first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a person with COVID-19 lung damage. Transplants from brain-dead donors in Japan are still rare, and living donors are considered a more realistic option for patients.”
Facebook Data Leak: Details From 533 Million Users Found on Website for Hackers (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Details from more than 500 million Facebook users have been found available on a website for hackers. The information appears to be several years old but it is another example of the vast amount of information collected by Facebook and other social media sites and the limits to how secure that information is. The availability of the data set was first reported by Business Insider. According to that publication, it contains information from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates and email addresses.”
In Exterminate All the Brutes, Raoul Peck Takes Aim at White Supremacy (Dan)
From the New York Times: “After the success of ‘I Am Not Your Negro,’ HBO gave Peck carte blanche for his next big project. What resulted is a sweeping meditation on colonialism and the nature of truth itself.”
California Restaurateur Posts Video of Live Crab Heist (Reader Steve)
From the Mercury News: “A Morro Bay restaurant owner is asking the public to help identify a man caught on video stealing hundreds of dollars worth of live crabs. Giovanni DeGarimore posted security video on the restaurant’s Facebook page showing the crustacean heist around … at Giovanni’s Fish Market. A man in a hooded jacket drives a Toyota sedan to the restaurant’s outdoor tanks, uses a bolt cutter to break the lock and tosses crabs into a big plastic tub.”
