'How Much Did Celebrities Influence Public Opinion on COVID?'

 Through the use of social media, celebrities and other people in the public eye helped to shape the public discourse and opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic and public health efforts, according to an analysis of over 45,000 tweets posted from January 2020 to March 2022.

While there were small differences in sentiment observed, a "broadly polarized negative tone" was noted among certain public figures who shared a consistent pattern of emotional content related to their risk perceptions, political ideologies, and health-protective behaviors, reported Arash Shaban-Nejad, MPH, PhD, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, and co-authors.

During these first 2 years of the pandemic, tweets by well-known figures such as Joe Rogan, Eric Clapton, and former President Donald Trump included mostly negative sentiments about COVID vaccines and other public health measures like masking, with tweets showing a clear pattern of increasing negativity over time, the authors noted in BMJ Health & Care Informatics

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Notably, posts shared by politicians and news anchors, such as Tucker Carlson, appeared to have the greatest influence on the public.

"The risk of severe negative health outcomes increases with failure to comply with health-protective behavior recommendations set forth by public health officials," Shaban-Nejad told MedPage Today. "Our findings suggest that polarized messages from societal elites may downplay these risks."

"Clinically, negative perceptions of COVID-19 have given rise to vaccine hesitancy and vaccine refusal in the U.S. and other populations," he added. "The less-than-ideal vaccination rates led to avoidable illnesses, comorbidities, and increased deaths."

Analysis of social media activity could be used by public health officials and policy makers to fight misinformation on platforms like Twitter, the researchers said, pointing out that more data-driven communication efforts could bolster infection prevention and control initiatives for COVID or potential future disease outbreaks.

"Health professionals and public health organizations, in partnership with other community groups, must proactively and efficiently use technology and media to share clear health messages in accessible language, disseminate correct information, develop and advocate nonpartisan public health policies, and inform [and] educate the public about misinformation," said Shaban-Nejad.

Katrine Wallace, PhD, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health, has developed her own social media presence pushing back against mis- and disinformation. She told MedPage Today that this research adds evidence to a trend that she has personally witnessed over the last several years.

"I can tell you that from my own anecdotal experience, but to have some data to actually say, 'Look, this is proven now' -- that is powerful because it shows that our anecdotal experience is really happening," noted Wallace, who was not involved in the study.

Wallace said that the focus of the analysis on 12 public figures -- also including Nicki Minaj, Aaron Rodgers, Novak Djokovic, Rand Paul, Phil Valentine, Ted Cruz, Candace Owens, and Ron DeSantis -- was a great first step, but these people are not the true source of the misinformation that she has seen throughout the pandemic, though they play a role in spreading the misinformation to very large audiences.

"The real issue is that this information doesn't start with them," she explained. "This information starts with the more medical misinformation spreaders like Robert Malone and Peter McCullough, and then it gets disseminated by the Joe Rogans."

"I see them as being like a conduit, a big platform to then platform this medical misinformation, but I don't think it starts with them," she stressed.

For this analysis, Shaban-Nejad and colleagues looked at approximately 13 million tweets. After excluding posts from suspected bots or highly repetitive accounts, they then searched for posts that mentioned COVID vaccine-related terms and the names of one of those 12 public figures together. The final dataset included 45,255 tweets posted by 34,407 unique users.

They used an AI model called DistilRoBERTa, using a team of five researchers who manually labeled about 4,000 tweets as either positive or negative based on its sentiment toward COVID vaccines. Those labeled tweets were used to train the AI model to recognize sentiment of the overall dataset.

Shaban-Nejad and team noted that more analysis should be done to determine the correlation between negative sentiments shared by public figures and specific "monumental events" that occurred during the pandemic, such as the authorization of the vaccines, adding that finding that connection could help "revolutionize" responses to future disease outbreaks.

Wallace agreed that more research in this area would be critical in effectively fighting misinformation in future outbreaks, which she noted could be a matter of life or death.

"Most people who died of COVID after the vaccines were available died as a direct result of misinformation," she said.

Disclosures

This work was partially supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Primary Source

BMJ Health & Care Informatics

Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowWhite BM, et al "Exploring celebrity influence on public attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic: Social media shared sentiment analysis" BMJ Health Care Inform 2023; DOI: 10.1136/ bmjhci-2022-100665.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/103207

eFFECTOR Therapeutics Shares Fall After Data From COVID-19 Treatment Trial

 

• eFFECTOR Therapeutics Inc 
  EFTR-18.1%+ Free Alerts
   announced top-line results from its Phase 1b clinical trial of zotatifin for COVID-19 infection.
• The data demonstrated favorable safety results and positive trends in several measures of antiviral activity. 
• eFFECTOR also presented preclinical data demonstrating the breadth of zotatifin's activity against RNA viruses. 
• Zotatifin was generally well tolerated at all doses, with injection site reactions from the subcutaneous route (all Grade 1 or 2) being the only adverse event showing a potential relationship to zotatifin dose. 
• Trends in antiviral activity favoring zotatifin over placebo were seen by several assessments. In saliva, virus level undetectability (VLU) was achieved approximately twice as fast in the zotatifin-treated subjects compared to placebo, with a median time to VLU of 3 days for zotatifin vs. 7 days for placebo.
• eFFECTOR also presented results from preclinical studies in which zotatifin was active against numerous COVID isolates and other coronaviruses.
• It was 10-100 times more potent than several agents authorized by the FDA for the treatment of COVID, based on concentrations required to achieve comparable reductions in virus yield and protection from virus-induced cytopathic effects in cell-based assays.

https://www.benzinga.com/general/biotech/23/02/30986774/effector-therapeutics-shares-fall-after-data-from-covid-19-treatment-trial

FRESENIUS SE : Receives a Buy rating from Jefferies

 In a research note published by James Vane-Tempest, Jefferies advises its customers to buy the stock. The target price remains set at EUR 35.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/FRESENIUS-SE-CO-KGAA-436083/news/FRESENIUS-SE-Receives-a-Buy-rating-from-Jefferies-43046561/

Caligan urges Anika Therapeutics to conduct review, plans board challenge

 Caligan Partners is urging Anika Therapeutics to consider strategic alternatives including a full sale, and is preparing to nominate directors to the biotech company's board, according to a letter to the board which was seen by Reuters.

Caligan Partners owns a roughly 4% stake in Anika and is ratcheting up pressure to protest an underperforming stock price and losses at the company's joint preservation segment.

"Anika may be better positioned as a private company or as part of a larger organization," Caligan's managing partner, David Johnson, wrote to the board.

Anika's osteoarthritis knee pain relief injection treatments would be attractive to other companies and could be worth almost $60 per share, Johnson wrote. That would be nearly double Friday's closing stock price of $30.57.

On Tuesday, the company's stock price climbed nearly 6% as the broader market declined.

For the past five months, Caligan has tried to engage with Anika's board to discuss ways to boost the share price, which has dropped 41% over the last five years, the letter said.

But the two sides reached an impasse and Johnson wrote that the directors were unwilling to consider alternatives to unlock more value for shareholders.

"Anika's board and management team are confident that the continued successful execution of our strategy will drive significant shareholder value," the company said in a statement.

A representative for the company was not immediately available for comment.

"We believe that in conjunction with a review of Anika's strategic options, fresh perspectives are needed," the letter said. "Anika needs new directors on its Board."

Johnson did not identify his director candidates or say how many he planned to nominate to Anika's seven-person board, where two members will stand for re-election this year.

Anika is best known for its viscosupplement portfolio, including Monovisc and Orthovisc, marketed by Johnson & Johnson.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-caligan-urges-anika-therapeutics-121017316.html

Biden administration unveils broad asylum restrictions at U.S.-Mexico border

 The United States could bar tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border from claiming asylum under a proposal unveiled on Tuesday that would be the most wide-ranging attempt yet by U.S. President Joe Biden's administration to deter unauthorized crossings.

Under the new rules, migrants who do not schedule an appointment at a U.S. border port of entry or use humanitarian programs available to certain nationalities would be ineligible for asylum except in certain cases. They must also first seek and be denied protection in countries they pass through to be able to claim asylum once in the United States.

Reuters first reported details of the measure, which was posted online on Tuesday and will be subject to a 30-day public comment period before being reviewed for final publication.

Biden, a Democrat who took office in 2021 and is expected to seek re-election in 2024, initially pledged to restore asylum access that was curtailed under his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. But advocates and some fellow Democrats have criticized him for increasingly embracing Trump-style restrictions as he has struggled to cope with record numbers of arriving migrants.

Biden's plan to ban certain asylum seekers mirrors similar efforts under Trump that were blocked by federal courts and has drawn similar opposition.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) vowed to fight the Biden rule in court, comparing it to the Trump restriction, which was dubbed a "transit ban" by activists.

"We successfully sued to block the Trump transit ban and will sue again if the Biden administration goes through with its plan," said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney who argued the Trump-era lawsuit.

Families and single adults would be subject to the restrictions while unaccompanied minors would be exempt, according to the rule, issued jointly by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The measure would be temporary and limited to a period of two years, with the possibility to extend it.

Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, said the Biden proposal ignores dangerous conditions and limited asylum capacity in transit countries where migrants will be expected to seek protection.

"It's a terrible example of trying to flout your domestic and international legal obligations," she said.

'FILL THE VOID'

The Biden administration began discussing the ban and other Trump-style measures last year as a way to reduce illegal crossings if COVID-era restrictions allowing many migrants to be expelled back to Mexico ended. The administration is moving ahead with tougher asylum rules as the COVID restrictions, known as Title 42, appear likely to sunset on May 11 when the COVID-19 public health emergency terminates.

"Without a meaningful policy change, border encounters could rise, and potentially rise dramatically" after the lifting of Title 42, the text of the proposed rule said, estimating crossings could reach up to 13,000 per day without the COVID restrictions, up from a daily average of about 5,000 in January.

A Biden administration official, who declined to be named, told reporters that the rule "is intended to fill the void that Congress has left by taking no action" to overhaul immigration laws or increase border security funding.

Mexican authorities did not respond to requests for comment.

Biden expanded Title 42 in January to expel additional nationalities while allowing some people from those countries to apply for legal entry by air via humanitarian parole if they have U.S. sponsors. The parole program, for up to 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants per month, would be one of the legal pathways the administration says would allow asylum-seekers to circumvent the proposed restrictions.

Separately, migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border could schedule an appointment at a U.S. land port of entry using an app called CBP One. But since the CBP One effort launched in January, migrants say slots have filled up quickly.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/biden-roll-asylum-restrictions-u-172657351.html

Malcolm X's daughter to sue CIA, FBI, New York police over assassination

 A daughter of Malcolm X, the civil rights activist assassinated 58 years ago to the day on Tuesday, has filed notices that she intends to sue the FBI, the CIA, New York City police and others for his death.

Ilyasah Shabazz accused various federal and New York government agencies of fraudulently concealing evidence that they "conspired to and executed their plan to assassinate Malcolm X."

"For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder," Shabazz said at a news conference at the site of her father's assassination, now a memorial to Malcolm X.

The New York Police Department said it would not comment on pending litigation. The FBI and the CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Malcolm X rose to prominence as the national spokesman of the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim group that espoused Black separatism.

He spent over a decade with the group before becoming disillusioned, publicly breaking with it in 1964 and moderating some of his earlier views on racial separation, angering some Nation of Islam members and drawing death threats.

He was 39 years old when three men with guns shot him onstage as prepared to speak at New York's Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965. Shabazz, who was then 2 years old, was present with her mother and sisters. Soon after, some associates of Malcolm X said they believed various government agencies were aware of the assassination plan and allowed to it happen.

Talmadge Hayer, then a member of the Nation of Islam, confessed in court to being one of the assassins.

In 2021, a New York state judge threw out the convictions of two other men who wrongly spent decades in prison for the murder of Malcolm X, saying there had been a miscarriage of justice. Hayer had long said the two men were innocent and that his accomplices were other Nation of Islam members.

The two men were exonerated at the request of the Manhattan district attorney's office, which said an investigation had found that prosecutors and law enforcement agencies withheld evidence that, had it been turned over, would likely have led to the pair's acquittal.

In Shabazz's notices of claims, which New York law requires be served on certain government agencies before a lawsuit can be filed, Shabazz said she seeks $100 million in damages.

The notices were served with the agencies she intends to sue on Tuesday based on new information that only recently came to light, according to Ben Crump, her attorney, who said he intended to take depositions of government officials.

"It's not just about the trigger men, it's about those who conspired with the trigger men to do this dastardly deed," Crump said at the news conference.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/malcolm-xs-daughter-sue-cia-192741028.html

ChatGPT launches boom in AI-written e-books on Amazon

 Until recently, Brett Schickler never imagined he could be a published author, though he had dreamed about it. But after learning about the ChatGPT artificial intelligence program, Schickler figured an opportunity had landed in his lap.

"The idea of writing a book finally seemed possible," said Schickler, a salesman in Rochester, New York. "I thought 'I can do this.'"

Using the AI software, which can generate blocks of text from simple prompts, Schickler created a 30-page illustrated children’s e-book in a matter of hours, offering it for sale in January through Amazon.com Inc's self-publishing unit.

In the edition, Sammy the Squirrel, crudely rendered also using AI, learns from his forest friends about saving money after happening upon a gold coin. He crafts an acorn-shaped piggy bank, invests in an acorn trading business and hopes to one day buy an acorn grinding stone.

Sammy becomes the wealthiest squirrel in the forest, the envy of his friends and "the forest started prospering," according to the book.

"The Wise Little Squirrel: A Tale of Saving and Investing," available in the Amazon Kindle store for $2.99 - or $9.99 for a printed version - has netted Schickler less than $100, he said. While that may not sound like much, it is enough to inspire him to compose other books using the software.

"I could see people making a whole career out of this," said Schickler, who used prompts on ChatGPT like "write a story about a dad teaching his son about financial literacy."

Schickler is on the leading edge of a movement testing the promise and limitations of ChatGPT, which debuted in November and has sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and beyond for its uncanny ability to create cogent blocks of text instantly.

There were over 200 e-books in Amazon’s Kindle store as of mid-February listing ChatGPT as an author or co-author, including "How to Write and Create Content Using ChatGPT," "The Power of Homework" and poetry collection "Echoes of the Universe." And the number is rising daily. There is even a new sub-genre on Amazon: Books about using ChatGPT, written entirely by ChatGPT.

But due to the nature of ChatGPT and many authors' failure to disclose they have used it, it is nearly impossible to get a full accounting of how many e-books may be written by AI.

The software's emergence has already ruffled some of the biggest technology firms, prompting Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp to hastily debut new functions in Google and Bing, respectively, that incorporate AI.

The rapid consumer adoption of ChatGPT has spurred frenzied activity in tech circles as investors pour money into AI-focused startups and given technology firms new purpose amid the gloom of massive layoffs. Microsoft, for one, received fawning coverage this month over its otherwise moribund Bing search engine after demonstrating an integration with ChatGPT.

But already there are concerns over authenticity, because ChatGPT learns how to write by scanning millions of pages of existing text. An experiment with AI by CNET resulted in multiple corrections and apparent plagiarism before the tech news site suspended its use.

THREAT TO 'REAL' AUTHORS?

Now ChatGPT appears ready to upend the staid book industry as would-be novelists and self-help gurus looking to make a quick buck are turning to the software to help create bot-made e-books and publish them through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing arm. Illustrated children’s books are a favorite for such first-time authors. On YouTube, TikTok and Reddit hundreds of tutorials have spring up, demonstrating how to make a book in just a few hours. Subjects include get-rich-quick schemes, dieting advice, software coding tips and recipes.

“This is something we really need to be worried about, these books will flood the market and a lot of authors are going to be out of work,” said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of writers’ group the Authors Guild. Ghostwriting - by humans - has a long tradition, she said, but the ability to automate through AI could turn book writing from a craft into a commodity.

“There needs to be transparency from the authors and the platforms about how these books are created or you’re going to end up with a lot of low-quality books,” she said.

One author, who goes by Frank White, showed in a YouTube video how in less than a day he created a 119-page novella called “Galactic Pimp: Vol. 1” about alien factions in a far-off galaxy warring over a human-staffed brothel. The book can be had for just $1 on Amazon’s Kindle e-book store. In the video, White says anyone with the wherewithal and time could create 300 such books a year, all using AI.

Many authors, like White, feel no duty to disclose in the Kindle store that their great American novel was written wholesale by a computer, in part because Amazon’s policies do not require it.

When asked for comment by Reuters, Amazon did not address whether it had plans to change or review its Kindle store policies around authors’ use of AI or other automated writing tools. “All books in the store must adhere to our content guidelines, including by complying with intellectual property rights and all other applicable laws,” Amazon spokeswoman Lindsay Hamilton said via email.

A spokeswoman for ChatGPT developer OpenAI declined to comment.

FROM CONCEPTION TO PUBLICATION IN JUST HOURS

Amazon is by far the largest seller of both physical and e-books, commanding well over half of sales in the United States and, by some estimates, over 80% of the e-book market. Its Kindle Direct Publishing service has spawned a cottage industry of self-published novelists, carving out particular niches for enthusiasts of erotic content and self-help books.

Amazon created Kindle Direct Publishing in 2007 to allow anyone to sell and market a book from their couch without the hassle or expense of seeking out literary agents or publishing houses. Generally, Amazon allows authors to publish instantly through the unit without any oversight, splitting whatever proceeds they generate.

That has attracted new AI-assisted authors like Kamil Banc, whose primary job is selling fragrances online, who bet his wife he could make a book from conception to publication in less than one day. Using ChatGPT, an AI image creator and prompts like "write a bedtime story about a pink dolphin that teaches children how to be honest," Banc published an illustrated 27-page book in December. Available on Amazon, "Bedtime Stories: Short and Sweet, For a Good Night’s Sleep" took Banc about four hours to create, he said.

Consumer interest so far has been admittedly sleepy: Banc said sales have totaled about a dozen copies. But readers rated it worthy of five stars, including one who praised its "wonderful and memorable characters."

Banc has since published two more AI-generated books, including an adult coloring book, with more in the works. "It actually is really simple," he said. "I was surprised at how fast it went from concept to publishing."

Not everyone is blown away by the software. Mark Dawson, who has reportedly sold millions of copies of books he wrote himself through Kindle Direct Publishing, was quick to call ChatGPT-assisted novels "dull" in an email to Reuters.

"Merit plays a part in how books are recommended to other readers. If a book gets bad reviews because the writing is dull then it’s quickly going to sink to the bottom."

https://www.yahoo.com/now/chatgpt-launches-boom-ai-written-110836027.html