Wednesday, October 15, 2014

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Romney leads among likely 2016 Iowa Republican caucusgoers in new poll


Iowa Republicans are hoping Mitt Romney will change his mind about running for president in 2016.
Despite the 2012 Republican nominee’s continued assertions that he will not run for president again, Romney is still the top pick for likely Iowa Republican 2016 caucusgoers, according to a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa poll released Tuesday.
Romney was the top vote-getter in the poll with 17 percent and Dr. Ben Carson, a conservative neurosurgeon who has never held public office, came in second with 11 percent.
Carson told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Monday night that the chances of him running are “50/50.”
Iowa Republicans were less enthusiastic about other potential candidates, most of whom currently hold public office and are better nationally recognized.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul came in third in the poll with 10 percent, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush failed to make waves with 6 percent and 4 percent each.
The poll results came a day after Romney’s wife Ann insisted to the Los Angeles Times that there was no chance of a third Romney presidential bid.
“Done,” she said. “Completely. Not only Mitt and I are done, but the kids are done. Done. Done. Done.”
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a wide lead on the competition with 53 percent. Massachussets Sen. Elizabeth Warren came in second with 10 percent.

Pentagon withheld information about decades-old chemical weapons during Iraq War, report claims



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This photo shows the interior of a chemical weapons facility in Iraq (AP)
American troops were exposed to chemical weapons multiple times in the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while the Pentagon kept their discoveries of the expired or degraded weapons secret from investigators, fellow soldiers, and military doctors, according to a published report. 
The New York Times reported late Tuesday that American troops reported finding approximately 5,000 chemical warheads, shells, or aviation bombs in the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On at least six occasions, soldiers were wounded by those weapons, which had been manufactured before 1991. In all, the paper reported that 17 U.S. soldiers and seven Iraqi police officers were exposed to chemical agents during the war. The U.S. government said its number was slightly higher, but did not release a specific figure. 
The paper reported that most of the agents were discovered around the Muthanna State Establishment northwest of Baghdad, which had been a center of chemical weapons production in the 1980s. The complex has been held by Islamic State militants since June. The Iraqi government told the United Nations that approximately 2,500 chemical rockets remained on the grounds of the facility when it had fallen to the militants. 
In the months after the 2003 invasion, The Times reports, the Pentagon first made searching for chemical weapons a lower priority in the midst of attacks from insurgents, then withheld data from high-level investigations, including the Iraq Study Group in 2004 and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2006. During the latter investigation, the paper reports, U.S. soldiers discovered more than 2,400 chemical rockets, some containing sarin gas, at a former Republican Guard compund. All appeared to have been buried before the first Gulf War in 1991. 
As late as 2010, Iraqi troops were discovering chemical weapons that appeared to have been collected elsewhere by U.S. or Iraqi army units and had not been secured properly, according to The Times. The ultimate responsibility for locating, securing, and destroying the weapons was to fall to Nouri al-Maliki's Iraqi government. The paper reports that a plan was drafted to entomb the Muthanna site in concrete, but the remains of the facility were overrun by Islamic State before the plan could be put into action. 
The Times also reports that as the U.S. stay in Iraq dragged on, doctors became less aware of how to treat wounds sustained by chemical weapons. Military officials reportedly attributed the soldiers' wounds to conventional weapons or other factors to prevent acknowledging the discovery of pre-1991 chemical weapons. In one case, a wounded soldier who suffered burns and blisters due to mustard gas was presented with a Purple Heart by former Secretary of the Army Peter Geren. Weeks later, he was told that he had been denied the medal because the Army had determined that his wounds had not been suffered in enemy action. 
The Army reportedly admitted to The Times that it had not followed its guidelines for treating soldiers exposed to chemical weapons in the years following the invasion. It vowed to identify troops and veterans who had been exposed and follow up on their cases.

Dallas nurses allege 'no protocol, no system' in treatment of Ebola patient


Nurses at a Dallas hospital have claimed that a haphazard and sloppy care system was maintained during the treatment of Thomas Eric Duncan, who became the first person to die of the Ebola virus in America last week. 
The caregivers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital alleged that Duncan was left in an open area of the hospital's emergency room for hours and that nurses worked for days without protective gear in a statement released late Tuesday by the largest U.S. nurses' union. 
The statement from the nurses came two days after one of their own, 26-year-old Nina Pham, tested positive for the virus and entered treatment at the hospital. She is listed as being in stable condition. Pham was one of over 70 staffers who cared for Duncan during his illness and who are being monitored for possible infection.  
Deborah Burger of National Nurses United claimed that the nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their garments, worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient whose symptoms included explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting.
RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, said the statement came from "several" and "a few" nurses, but she refused repeated inquiries to state how many. She said the organization had vetted the claims, and that the nurses cited were in a position to know what had occurred at the hospital. She refused to elaborate.
Wendell Watson, a Presbyterian spokesman, did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.
"Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very seriously," he said in a statement. "We have numerous measures in place to provide a safe working environment, including mandatory annual training and a 24/7 hotline and other mechanisms that allow for anonymous reporting."
He said the hospital would "review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees."
Among the other allegations raised by the nurses are that Duncan's lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital's pneumatic tubes, opening the possibility of contaminating the specimen delivery system. The nurses also alleged that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.
The statement also claimed that Duncan was initially kept in a non-isolated area of the hospital's emergency room for several hours before being moved. Patients who were exposed to him were allegedly only kept in isolation for a day before being moved to be with other patients. In the same vein, the nurses claim that they were made to treat other patients while also treating Duncan, and were offered no more than an optional seminar to deal with changing guidelines. 
 "There was no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient, there was no protocol, there was no system," Burger said.
Even today, Burger said, some hospital staff at the Dallas hospital do not have proper equipment to handle the outbreak.
"Hospital managers have assured nurses that proper equipment has been ordered but it has not arrived yet," she said.
The nurses' statement said they had to "interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available," even as he produced "a lot of contagious fluids." Duncan's medical records, which his family shared with The Associated Press, underscore some of those concerns.
Almost 12 hours after he arrived in the emergency room by ambulance, his hospital chart says Duncan "continues to have explosive diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and projectile vomiting." He was feverish and in pain.
When Ebola was suspected but unconfirmed, a doctor wrote "using the disposable shoe covers should also be considered." At that point, by all protocols, those shoe covers should have been mandatory to prevent anyone from tracking contagious body fluids around the hospital.
A few days later, however, entries in the hospital charts suggest that protection was improving.
"RN entered room in Tyvek suits, triple gloves, triple boots, and respirator cap in place," wrote a nurse.
The Presbyterian nurses are not represented by Nurses United or any other union. DeMoro and Burger said the nurses claimed they had been warned by the hospital not to speak to the media or they would be fired. They did not specify whether the nurses making the claims were among Duncan's caregivers.
The AP has attempted since last week to contact dozens of individuals involved in Duncan's care. Those who responded to reporters' inquiries have so far been unwilling to speak.
David R. Wright, deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which monitors patient safety and has the authority to withhold federal funding, said his agency is going to want to get all of the information the nurses provided.
"We can't talk about whether we're going to investigate or not, but we'd be interested in hearing that information," he said.
CDC officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Duncan first sought care at the hospital's ER late on Sept. 25 and was sent home the next morning. He was rushed by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept. 28. Unlike his first visit, mention of his recent arrival from Liberia immediately roused suspicion of an Ebola risk, records show.
The CDC said Tuesday 76 people at the hospital could have been exposed to Duncan after his second ER visit. Another 48 people are being monitored for possible exposure before he was hospitalized.

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