"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society." - George Washington
Were mammoths done in by a fragmented alien comet 13,000 years ago?
Probably, says a team of researchers studying melt-glass material from sedimentary rock in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Syria. Scientists report the material discovered—formed at temperatures as high as 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit—isn’t cosmic, volcanic, or man-made, and is consistent with similar stuff found in places like Arizona’s Meteor Crater.
Science Alert: 13,000 Years Ago, a Comet Set Earth on Fire Says Shocking New Evidence Roughly 12,800 years ago, planet Earth went through a brief cold snap that was unrelated to any ice age. For years, there have been geologists that have argued that this period was caused by an airburst or meteor fragments (known as the Younger Dryas Impact Theory).
This event is believed to have caused widespread destruction and the demise of the Clovis culture in North American.
This theory has remained controversial since it was first proposed. However, an international team of scientists recently discovered geological evidence in South America that could settle the debate.
As the latest indication of an impact that took place during the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) period, this crater indicates that the effects of this event may have been more widespread than previously thought.
The paper which describes the team's findings recently appeared in the journal Science Reports.
The team was led by Chilean paleontologist Mario Pino and included multiple geologists from Chile and the United States, as well as James Kennett – the professor emeritus of geology at UC Santa Barbara.
As they indicate in their study, this latest impact crater was found in the Osorno province in southern Chile.
As Kennett noted in a recent article in The Current (a university press maintained by UCSB), the crater would have led to widespread destruction, characterized by biomass burning, megafaunal extinctions and global cooling.
"It's much more extreme than I ever thought when I started this work," he said. "The more work that has been done, the more extreme it seems."
The 31km-wide depression came to light when scientists examined radar images of the island's bedrock.
Investigations suggest the feature was probably dug out by a 1.5km-wide iron asteroid sometime between about 12,000 and three million years ago.
But without drilling through nearly 1km of ice to sample the bed directly, scientists can't be more specific.
"We will endeavour to do this; it would certainly be the best way to get the 'dead fish on the table' (acknowledge the issue, rather than leaving it), so to speak," Prof Kurt Kjær, from the Danish Museum of Natural History, told BBC News.
If confirmed, the crater would be the first of any size that has been observed under one of Earth's continental ice sheets.
Scientific American: Did a Comet Hit Earth 12,000 Years Ago?
Nanodiamonds found across North America suggest that major climate change could have been cosmically instigated "Very strong impact indicators are found in the sediments directly above, and often shrouding in the case of Murray Springs, the remains of these animals and the people who were hunting them," says archaeologist and study co-author Doug Kennett of the University of Oregon in Eugene, the son in the father–son team helping to advance the new impact theory. "Is it a comet? Is it a carbonaceous chondrite? Was it fragmented? Was it focused? Based on the distribution of the diamonds, it was certainly large scale." Preliminary searches further afield—Europe, Asia and South America—have turned up similar minerals and elements in sediments of the same age, Kennett says, and his own work on California's Channel Islands tells a tale of a massive burn-off, followed by erosion and a total change in the flora of the region. "It's consistent with a fragmentary body breaking up with air shocks and possible surface impacts in various parts of North America. It could be above the ice sheet or offshore in the ocean," he says, explaining why no impact crater(s) has been found to date. "Immediate effects on the ground include high temperatures and pressures triggering major transformations of the vegetation, knocking trees over but also burning." And that would make the climate shift of the Younger Dryas a closer cousin to the massive asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. "This is an event that happened on one day," Kennett notes. "We're going to need high-resolution climate records, archaeological records, paleontological records to try to explore the effects." Read full article.
A general overview of extinct species of humans. Most MYSTERIOUS Extinct Human Species! From prehistoric neanderthal fossils to ancient ancestor dna, here is a top 10 list of strange mysteries explaining human evolution!
Another interesting one is a species that had a flat face and larger brains than us, again;
Here is an extinct species of human that may have had a much higher IQ than us and not to mention a larger brain;
Another theory I want to emphasize is that there may have been alot of variation in early humans and thus alot of people who are basically just one species of humans may have been classified into many. A brow ridge can have many shapes, i.e. it can be big or large and differ from person to person. We simply don't have enough information but we did find a bunch of skulls of various sizes in the same area and time period, so it does suggest many skull shape variations was normal in ancient times even more than today.
Here is the jawbone of a human that could be very large. A giant compared to us.
When our ancestors first migrated out of Africa around 60,000 years ago, they were not alone. At least two of our hominid cousins had made the same journey—Neanderthals and Denisovans. Neanderthals, the better known of the two species, left Africa about 300,000 years ago and settled in Europe and parts of western Asia. The Denisovans are a much more recent addition to the human family tree. In 2008, paleoanthropologists digging in a cave in southern Siberia unearthed a 40,000-year-old adult tooth and an exquisitely preserved fossilized pinkie bone that had belonged to a young girl who was between five and seven years old when she died. Recently, scientists successfully extracted nuclear DNA from the pinkie bone and conducted comparison studies with the genomes of modern humans and Neanderthals. Studies show the girl was closely related to Neanderthals, yet distinct enough to merit classification as a new species of archaic humans, which scientists named “Denisovan” after the cave where the pinkie bone was found. The Denisovan genome also suggests the young girl had brown hair, eyes, and skin. ... According to one theory, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans are all descended from the ancient human Homo heidelbergensis. Between 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, an ancestral group of H. heidelbergensis left Africa and then split shortly after. One branch ventured northwestward into West Asia and Europe and became the Neanderthals. The other branch moved east, becoming Denisovans. By 130,000 years ago, H. heidelbergensis in Africa had become Homo sapiens—our ancestors—who did not begin their own exodus from Africa until about 60,000 years ago. By comparing the genomes of apes, Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans, scientists hope to identify DNA segments unique to the different groups. Early results already suggest modern humans underwent genetic changes involved with brain function and nervous system development, including ones involved in language development, after splitting from Neanderthals and Denisovans. Identifying and understanding these genetic tweaks could help explain why our species survived and thrived while our close relatives died out.
Scientists have found evidence for a mysterious “ghost population” of ancient humans that lived in Africa about half a million years ago and whose genes live on in people today.
Traces of the unknown ancestor emerged when researchers analysed genomes from west African populations and found that up to a fifth of their DNA appeared to have come from the missing relatives.
... Unlike today, the world was once home to many related species or subspecies of human. And when they stumbled upon one another, mating was not out of the question. As a result, modern Europeans carry a smattering of Neanderthal genes, while indigenous Australians, Polynesians and Melanesians carry genes from Denisovans, another group of archaic humans.
Previous studies have hinted that other ancient humansonce roamed Africa, but without any fossils or DNA to pore over, researchers have struggled to learn more about them.
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The findings are far from definitive, but according to the scientists’ best estimates, the ghost population split from the ancestors of Neanderthals and modern humans between 360,000 and 1m years ago. The group of perhaps 20,000 individuals then bred with the ancestors of modern west Africans at some point in the past 124,000 years.
But other explanations are possible, Sankararaman said. There may have been multiple waves of mating over many thousands of years. Or a number of different populations of so-far-unknown archaic human relatives. “It’s very likely that the true picture is much more complicated,” he said. Details of the work are published in Science Advances.
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“It’s an exciting moment because these studies open a window showing us that there is much more than we thought to learn about our ancestors. But actually knowing who those ancestors were, how they interacted, and where they existed is going to take fieldwork to find their fossil and archaeological remains.
“We do not know what this African population may have been. It is tempting to speculate. But I’ve got to say it is just too soon to know. We haven’t discovered enough fossils in most of Africa to say we know what was there.”
Science Mag:Genetic data on half a million Brits reveal ongoing evolution and Neanderthal legacy Neanderthals are still among us, Janet Kelso realized 8 years ago. She had helped make the momentous discovery that Neanderthals repeatedly mated with the ancestors of modern humans—a finding that implies people outside of Africa still carry Neanderthal DNA today. Ever since then, Kelso has wondered exactly what modern humans got from those prehistoric liaisons—beyond babies. How do traces of the Neanderthal within shape the appearance, health, or personalities of living people? For years, evolutionary biologists couldn't get their rubber-gloved hands on enough people's genomes to detect the relatively rare bits of Neanderthal DNA, much less to see whether or how our extinct cousins' genetic legacy might influence disease or physical traits. But a few years ago, Kelso and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, turned to a new tool—the UK Biobank (UKB), a large database that holds genetic and health records for half a million British volunteers. The researchers analyzed data from 112,338 of those Britons—enough that "we could actually look and say: ‘We see a Neanderthal version of the gene and we can measure its effect on phenotype in many people—how often they get sunburned, what color their hair is, and what color their eyes are,’" Kelso says. They found Neanderthal variants that boost the odds that a person smokes, is an evening person rather than a morning person, and is prone to sunburn and depression.
BBC: Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables Professor Alison Brooks, from George Washington University, told BBC News: "We have found pollen grains in Neanderthal sites before but you never know whether they were eating the plant or sleeping on them or what. "But here we have a case where a little bit of the plant is in the mouth so we know that the Neanderthals were consuming the food." More like us One question raised by the study is why the chemical studies on Neanderthal bones have been wide of the mark. According to Professor Brooks, the tests were measuring proteins levels, which the researchers assumed came from meat. "We've tended to assume that if you have a very high value for protein in the diet that must come from meat. But... it's possible that some of the protein in their diet was coming from plants," she said. This study is the latest to suggest that, far from being brutish savages, Neanderthals were more like us than we previously thought.
One of the key traits of behavioural modernity is the capacity to use, interpret and respond to symbols. We know that Homo sapiens have been doing this for at least 80,000 years. But its predecessor in parts of Eurasia, the Neanderthal, a human ancestor that became extinct around 40,000 years ago, has traditionally been regarded as uncultured and behaviourally inferior. Now our new study, published in Science, has challenged this view by showing that Neanderthals were able to create cave art.
However, evidence for such behaviour by other human species is far more contentious. There are some tantalising clues that Neanderthals in Europe also used body ornamentation around 40,000 to 45,000 years ago. But scientists have so far argued that this must have been inspired by the modern humans who had just arrived there – we know that humans and Neanderthals interacted and even interbred.
One of the key traits of behavioural modernity is the capacity to use, interpret and respond to symbols. We know that Homo sapiens have been doing this for at least 80,000 years. But its predecessor in parts of Eurasia, the Neanderthal, a human ancestor that became extinct around 40,000 years ago, has traditionally been regarded as uncultured and behaviourally inferior. Now our new study, published in Science, has challenged this view by showing that Neanderthals were able to create cave art.
However, evidence for such behaviour by other human species is far more contentious. There are some tantalising clues that Neanderthals in Europe also used body ornamentation around 40,000 to 45,000 years ago. But scientists have so far argued that this must have been inspired by the modern humans who had just arrived there – we know that humans and Neanderthals interacted and even interbred.
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A new era
We used uranium-thorium dating to investigate cave art from three previously discovered sites in Spain. In La Pasiega, northern Spain, we showed that a red linear motif is older than 64,800 years. In Ardales, southern Spain, various red painted stalagmite formations date to different episodes of painting, including one between 45,300 and 48,700 years ago, and another before 65,500 years ago. In Maltravieso in western central Spain, we showed a red hand stencil is older than 66,700 years.
These results demonstrate that cave art was being created in all three sites at least 20,000 years prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens in western Europe. They show for the first time that Neanderthals did produce cave art, and that is was not a one off event. It was created in caves across the full breadth of Spain, and at Ardales it occurred at multiple times over at least an 18,000-year period. Excitingly, the types of paintings produced (red lines, dots and hand stencils) are also found in caves elsewhere in Europe so it would not be surprising if some of these were made by Neanderthals, too. We don’t know the exact meaning of the paintings, such as the ladder shape, but we do know they must have been important to Neanderthals. Some of them were painted in pitch black areas deep in the caves – requiring the preparation of a light source as well as the pigment. The locations appear deliberately selected, the ceilings of low overhangs or impressive stalagmite formations. These must have been meaningful symbols in meaningful places. ... It is perhaps also now time that we move beyond a focus on what makes Homo sapiens and Neanderthals different. Modern humans may have “replaced” Neanderthals, but it is becoming increasingly clear that Neanderthals had similar cognitive and behavioural abilities – they were, in fact, equally “human”. Science Daily: 40,000 year old evidence that Neanderthals wove string Researchers have discovered the first evidence of cord making by Neanderthals, dating back more than 40,000 years, on a flint fragment from the prehistoric site of Abri du Maras in the south of France.
Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were no less technologically advanced than Homo sapiens.
An international team, including researchers from the CNRS, have discovered the first evidence of cord making, dating back more than 40,000 years (1), on a flint fragment from the prehistoric site of Abri du Maras in the south of France (2). Microscopic analysis showed that these remains had been intertwined, proof of their modification by humans. Photographs revealed three bundles of twisted fibres, plied together to create one cord. In addition, spectroscopic analysis revealed that these strands were made of cellulose, probably from coniferous trees.
This discovery highlights unexpected cognitive abilities on the part of Neanderthals, who not only had a good understanding of the mathematics involved in winding the fibres, but also a thorough knowledge of tree growth.
These results, published on 9 April 2020 in Scientific Reports, represent the oldest known proof of textile and cord technology to date.
Note: This article leaves out all the evidence for cometary impact which could alter some conclusions as many people would have been wiped out by the comet including whole cultures, such as the Clovis culture (as one example). Extract from Science Alert: Nine Species of Human Once Walked Earth. Now There's Just One. Did We Kill The Rest?
Nine human species walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Now there is just one. The Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis, were stocky hunters adapted to Europe's cold steppes.
Given how quickly we're discovering new species, more are likely waiting to be found.
By 10,000 years ago, they were all gone. The disappearance of these other species resembles a mass extinction. But there's no obvious environmental catastrophe – volcanic eruptions, climate change, asteroid impact – driving it.
The spread of modern humans out of Africa has caused a sixth mass extinction, a greater than 40,000-year event extending from the disappearance of Ice Age mammals to the destruction of rainforests by civilisation today. But were other humans the first casualties?
Washington (CNN): The Pentagon has officially released three short videos showing "unidentified aerial phenomena" that had previously been released by a private company. Pentagon has confirmed that the UFO videos the Department Of Defense had released to a private company, that spread across the news media which was later confirmed by the Navy, are real. Interviews and video have been released showing aircraft doing the impossible (as explained by experts and experienced military pilots), yet we have reactions that can only be seen as deep seated denial from the experts ranging from Neil deGrass Tyson to SETI science guys who will go as far to play semantics with the word unidentified or pretend that they can see exhaust from a jet on the video or the video of the craft is a recording error indicating they think the Pentagon and its plots are delusional or pulling a con. I think its very revealing that our top "scientific experts" can't believe whats infront of their eyes. Thank god our Constitution outlaws inquisitions with the first amendment, cause this is most certainly a medieval reaction to new information that Galileo must have faced (watered down over the centuries). News media confirmation of UFO videos confirmed by the Pentagon:
CBS: Pentagon officially releases UFO videos The Pentagon has released three videos of what it has officially called "unidentified areal phenomena." The videos, taken by military pilots, were leaked in 2017 and released by the Pentagon after their veracity was confirmed by the Navy in September.
Washington (CNN): The Pentagon has officially released three short videos showing "unidentified aerial phenomena" that had previously been released by a private company.
The videos show what appear to be unidentified flying objects rapidly moving while recorded by infrared cameras. Two of the videos contain service members reacting in awe at how quickly the objects are moving. One voice speculates that it could be a drone
The Navy previously acknowledged the veracity of the videos in September of last year. They are officially releasing them now, "in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos," according to Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough.
"After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems," said Gough in a statement, "and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena."
Ramayana The Animated Movie in English Ramayana (Sri Rama's story) the Animated Movie in English (This movie is considered as the best animated adaptation of the epic)
The Controversial Dating Of The Ramayana Epic (It Could Be Over 9000 Years Old!) Dating the Ramayana varies from 5000 years ago to about 9000 years ago. One of the problems with dating the Ramayana is that in Indian epics parts are often added to it at later times so if all information is considered to be completely accurate then you ignore how these scriptures were put together and if you ignore all the dates altogether then you may be erring too far on the side of caution. I intend to explore all possibilities till I have more evidence, so that's what I'm doing.
Following are the dates of few events from the Ramayana with approximate years:
Rama's Birth Date: 4th December 7323 B.C
Rama-Seeta Married: 7th April 7307 B.C
Rama Exiled: 29th November 7306 B.C.
Hanuman enters Lanka: 1st September 7292 B.C
Hanuman meets Seeta: 2nd September 7292 B.C.
Seetu (Bridge) built on the ocean: 26-30th Oct. 7292 B.C
The War begins: 3rd November 7292 B.C
Kumbhakarna is killed: 7th November 7292 B.C.
Ravana is killed by Rama: 15th November 7292 B.C.
Rama returns to Ayodhya: 6th December 7292 B.C.
It has been believed that there is no evidence to determine the dates of events in the Ramayanic era. Some historians of the past even refuse to acknowledge that Rama and other characters from the Ramayana even existed. However, Sage Valmiki has recorded the dates if events in detail, albeit by describing the positions of stars and planets. To decipher the astronomical encodings has not been a trivial task, and not many have attempted to do so. It should be noted that the ancient Indians had a prefect method of time measurement. They recorded the 'tithis', days according to the nakshatra on which the moon prevailed, the months, the seasons and even the different Solstices. By therefore noting a particular arrangement of the astronomical bodies, which occur once in many thousand years, the dates of the events can be calculated. Dr. P.V. Vartak has thus attempted to calculate the dates of important incidents that occured during the Ramayanic Era. The correct astronomical records goes to show that Valmiki's has chronicled an account of a true story and also, that the an advanced time measurement system was known to the Hindus (Indians) atleast 9000 years ago. Please refer to Dr. Vartak's celebrated book "Vastav Ramayan" for further reading.
In the translated epic itself, on the first page, is this little tidbit: His strong arms reach below his knee; This is explained in the notes as: Long arms were regarded as a sign of heroic strength.
I have 3 thoughts on this. 1. The first is WHY are longer arms regarded as a sign of heroic strength? Because they are. As you could pull a bowstring further and have more leverage for forceful acts, 2. The second is that maybe this is a remnant of everyday cultural wisdom from a time when long arms were not uncommon and thereby indicating an earlier time and doesn't really apply to Rama except figuratively. 3. When was the last time a human had arms that literally reached below their knees? The answer to that is a, very uncomfortable, millions of years. An easier explanation, and something that could have some geographical backing, was that Rama just had longer arms from genetic mixing with Denisovans or some other race, or it was just an honorific applied to mythical figures derived from an earlier era when long arms were a reality, in which case the older conventional date of approximately 7000 BC maybe the correct one. One can keep the same geographical location, add to that the fact that the earth goes through repetitive cycles, both astronomically and ice age wise, and then we could go back to a time when monkey like men really did exist (with tails!). Just keeping an open mind here. I would also like to add this little tidbit about the Ramayana from this same first chapter A hideous giantess who came Burning for him with lawless flame. Their sister's cries the giants heard. And vengeance in each bosom stirred: The monster of the triple head. And Dúshan to the contest sped. But they and myriad fiends beside Beneath the might of Ráma died. When Rávan, dreaded warrior, knew The slaughter of his giant crew: In reference to this I would like to leave my reader with this talk about the evidence of giants (probably Denisovans or another lost race of humans) that fills the ancient world and the emerging evidence that this wasn't just story telling but based in actual life experiences; Giantology Worldwide | Prehistory's Biggest Secret | Hugh Newman | Megalithomania Hugh Newman is the co-author of 'Giants on Record' with Jim Vieira, and in this talk, he investigates hoaxes, legends, obscure accounts, and academic excavations of giant bones, skulls and skeletons found globally going back thousands of years. Is there a missing chapter of human history that requires more attention?
So how is astronomical dating done? Historian Dr P.V. Vartak says: “Sage Valmiki has recorded the dates of events in detail, albeit by describing the positions of stars and planets. To decipher the astronomical encodings has not been a trivial task, and not many have attempted to do so. It should be noted that the ancient Indians had a perfect method of time measurement. They recorded the ‘tithis’ (days) according to the nakshatra (star) on which the moon prevailed, the months, the seasons and even the different solstices. By noting a particular arrangement of the astronomical bodies, which occurs once in many thousand years, the dates of the events can be calculated.”
Dr Vartak has taken hundreds of illustrated passages from the epic to establish dates. He writes: “Valmiki records the birth of Rama as Chaitra Shuddha Navami (9th), on Punarvasu Nakshatra and five planets were exalted then; Sun in Mesha up to 10 deg; Mars in Capricorn at 28 deg; Jupiter in Cancer at 5 deg; Venus in Pisces at 27 degrees and Saturn in Libra at 20 degrees. (Bala Kanda 18, Shloka 8.9). December 4, 7323 BCE, therefore, is the date of birth of Rama, when the four planets exalted. Ramayana occurred over 9300 years ago.”
Says Professor Achar on email, 'Different scholars have strong opinions and believe their own results are correct. Deeper study of the original texts would help.'
The problem of dating the Ramayana and Mahabharata is a difficult one, as the texts are syncretic and accretive. The dates recreated by astronomy software cannot be taken as definitive since we do not know whether the verse being dated was part the original core or if it was added later, says Subhash Kak, who teaches at the department of electric and computer engineering at Louisiana State University, and has worked on the history of Indian science. 'Furthermore, we have dates that are sometimes mutually contradictory. The way a poetic description of an astral event in the verses is interpreted is subjective and it lacks scholarly agreement.'
The quest to prove the historicity of the epics by dating them affirmatively is an old pursuit. It is also a politically fraught subject that has been making recurrent headlines. There was a fair amount of opposition when Y Sudershan Rao, a little- known Mahabharata researcher, took over last year as chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), and stated soon after that the Ramayana and Mahabharata are not 'myths' but true accounts of the period. It led to fear among historians that the ICHR would henceforth expend all its energy dating the epics, a field that many historians dub 'unhistorical'. According to a recent news report, the ICHR will soon be taking up research projects on new approaches to writing ancient Indian history based on Sanskrit texts, and revisiting the theme of Aryan immigration into India. It is clear that the epic dating enterprise will be getting a fillip in times to come.
Contemporary dialogue on India's ancient past often resembles the battlefield of Kurukshetra, cleaved into two factions, the Left and the Right, mythology versus history, truth versus bunkum. Beyond the political battleground, if you take a popular vote on this subject, it will show up the duality that the Indian mind is so at ease with: most believe that the truth of our past lies somewhere in between received history and mythology.
Recently Bill O Reilly said something very appropriate, Hannity's association and influence over Trump and Trump's thoughts and beliefs makes him powerful
Media Matters:New study finds that Hannity viewership correlates with more COVID-19 cases and fatalitiesUniversity of Chicago study finds statistical evidence suggesting that “greater viewership of Hannity relative to Tucker Carlson Tonight is strongly associated with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic” So as Hannity encourages his viewers to forsake science in favor protests
Fox News and its biggest star, prime-time host Sean Hannity, have been increasingly relying on controversial television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to provide analysis on the spread and treatment of COVID-19. Now, it has been reported that President Donald Trump -- who often takes cues from Fox and receives advice directly from Hannity -- has told his aides to seek Oz’s advice on treating patients during the pandemic.
In various appearances on Fox News and on Hannity’s radio show, Oz has relentlessly pushed the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment for the coronavirus that Trump and right-wing media have taken an intense interest in promoting. Oz often cites dubious or misleading medical studies to justify his arguments and has suggested that pushback against promoting the drug as a cure for coronavirus might be motivated by a political agenda.
Oz has a controversial history when it comes to medical advice
Oz, who many recognize as the host of ABC’s The Dr. Oz Show, has a troubling history of pushing bogus, unreliable medical theories lacking in evidence, including the promotion of dangerous and discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy. He has also hosted psychics on his show and has defended their work by saying, “Doctors don’t have all the answers.”
Read full article. And attacks a scientific study proving the ineffectiveness and excessive risk of a drug;
Its a good idea to do a review of Hannity and how he likes to misuse his power and influence power, using the coronavirus pandemic misinformation tsunami from Hannity as an example;
Fox News host Sean Hannity has stood out among the network's many misinformers about the coronavirus pandemic. From encouraging viewers to try unproven treatments to downplaying the lethality of coronavirus compared to other diseases to defending President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic, Hannity has downplayed coronavirus dozens of times on his Fox and radio programs over the past month.
Fox’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has been abysmal -- and dangerous. Fox Business fired prime-time host Trish Regan less than a month after she ranted that Trump’s opponents were using the disease as “yet another attempt to impeach the president.” Tucker Carlson has become the face of the network’s racist attempt to rebrand coronavirus as the “Chinese” or “Wuhan” virus in some twisted effort to deflect attention from Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic. Fox’s newsanchors and medical commentators have also contributed to the network’s spread of misinformation. And Hannity, who has at least twiceinterviewed the president about the coronavirus and even appeared in a Fox News public service announcement on the issue, has downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in numerous ways.
On March 9, Hannity suggested that young, healthy Americans have no reason to fear coronavirus and claimed people were faking concern about it to “bludgeon Trump with this new hoax,” echoing a comment Trump had made at a rally in late February. Two days later on his radio program, Hannity promoted a conspiracy theory about the “deep state” allegedly using coronavirus to manipulate the public. But these are just two of the most egregious things Hannity has said about coronavirus; taken as a whole, his commentary falls into six discernible themes: peddling unproven treatments, comparing COVID-19 to other illnesses or focusing on other ways people can die, defending Trump’s response to the pandemic, blaming the media and journalists, downplaying supply shortages, and attacking local and congressional responses.
Hannity downplayed the dangers of coronavirus by peddling unproven treatments
On March 18, Hannity began touting the potential uses of chloroquine for COVID-19 and asked a panel of doctors whether the drug could be used prophylactically. (Evidence for the drug’s effectiveness against coronavirus is reportedly very weak.)
On his March 19 radio show, Hannity suggested vaping prevents people from getting coronavirus.
On March 19, he praised Trump’s focus on chloroquine as well as hydroxychloroquine and misled about who was involved in a study of the drugs’ effectiveness on coronavirus.
Also on March 19, Hannity told Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma that he personally would use the drugs Trump promoted if he had COVID-19.
On the same day, Hannity told listeners of his radio show that he would be “all over” these drugs if he had COVID-19.
On March 20, Hannity forgot the name “hydroxychloroquine” while exaggerating its proven effectiveness in treating COVID-19 and encouraged listeners with symptoms to stock up on the drug.
During a March 23 interview with Vice President Mike Pence, Hannity read him a letter from an unidentified doctor detailing a drug “regimen” the doctor claims prevents coronavirus deaths.
On March 24, Hannity pushed unproven drugs to fight coronavirus: “What are the risks? They seem minimal.”
On his March 24 radio program, Hannity said, “I’m not a doctor” but “I’m interested” in hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat coronavirus.
On March 25, Hannity hosted Dr. Mehmet Oz to advocate the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
On March 31, Hannity again advocated the use of unproven drugs in an interview with Oz, saying they have “shown everywhere I read, tremendous, tremendous opportunities to treat people to prevent death.”
Hannity misleadingly compared coronavirus to less deadly diseases and downplayed it by talking about other ways people can die
During a March 4 interview with Trump, Hannity allowed the president to downplay the death rate from coronavirus without questioning him on it.
On March 6, Hannity joined Dr. Marc Siegel in downplaying the coronavirus; Hannity compared it to H1N1, saying there are “even friends of mine saying, ‘Is this really that bad?’”
On March 10, Hannity attempted to minimize concerns about coronavirus by focusing on deaths from recent violence in Chicago.
On March 11, Hannity argued on his radio show that he isn’t concerned about coronavirus because “we’re all dying.”
Also on March 11, Hannity claimed the flu is “much more dangerous” than coronavirus.
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Hannity downplayed the severe shortage of medical equipment and supplies
On March 11, Hannity said: “Fear not, back here in the U.S., we do have the best doctors, the best scientists, the best medical researchers, the best technology, and we have a president now that is committed to doing, as he said tonight, whatever it will take to save American lives.”
On March 16, Hannity stated: “Our health care system has adequate ventilators, ICU beds, medical professionals.”
On March 27, Hannity told Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop “whining, bitching, and complaining” about the lack of ventilators and supplies.
Hannity misleadingly attacked local government and congressional responses to the pandemic
On March 23, Hannity claimed Democrats blocked the first version of the Senate GOP’s stimulus bill because they “want their Green New Deal” in the legislation.
On March 24, Hannity suggested on his radio program that a crashing economy could cause more deaths from suicide than coronavirus.
On March 25, Hannity claimed on his radio show that if those unemployed by the coronavirus pandemic are given their full salaries they will not want to return to work.
On March 27, Hannity said on his radio program about lifting lockdowns: “We don't want the morgues full, but we also have to eat. You have to balance it.”
On March 31, Hannity attacked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for criticizing the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, accusing him of being “missing in action” and failing to buy 16,000 ventilators as recommended by a 2015 task force. But multiplefact-checks of a similar attack by Trump pointed out that the task force did not recommend buying ventilators because it was not within its mandate. Instead, “using the assumption that there would be a shortage of ventilators in a severe influenza pandemic, the task force created the guidelines to provide ‘an ethical and clinical framework’ for deciding which patients would get one.”
Also on March 31, Hannity attacked Democrats for urging some prisoners to be released to slow the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and jails, saying they are using the pandemic “to advance a political agenda.” After airing a news report on New York releasing some prisoners, Hannity said it was “unbelievable” and a “scary report.”
