If you misled others about your COVID status or prevention measures, you’re not alone
CHICAGO — During the height of the pandemic, 4 in 10 Americans misled others about their COVID-19 status or their adherence to public health measures designed to prevent the spread of the virus, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Network Open, a journal of the Chicago-based American Medical Association.
Researchers found that about 42% of adults admitted they had engaged in some form of misrepresentation related to having COVID-19,vaccination or compliance with pandemic protocols. The results were based on a survey of more than 1,700 adults nationwide conducted in December 2021 — a time when coronavirus cases were surging across the country.
“These data point out to us that a strategy that relies on people admitting to having symptoms or the actual diagnosis may not be the best strategy in future pandemics,” said Angela Fagerlin, senior author of the study and the chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at University of Utah Health. “The data suggest many people will be dishonest for a variety of different reasons.”
She added that researchers were a bit surprised by the level of reported misrepresentation “given the gravity of the situation.”
In the study, around 18% of those surveyed reported that at some point during the pandemic they thought or knew they had COVID-19 but failed to mention that to another individual they were with or about to be with in person. More than 24% reported telling an in-person contact that they were taking more COVID-19 precautions than they actually were.
About 20% of those polled did not mention having the virus or thinking they might have the virus when screened to enter a health care office.
—Chicago Tribune
Merced man charged with 4 counts of murder in family kidnapping
LOS ANGELES — The Merced man accused of kidnapping and killing a family was charged Monday with four counts of first-degree murder for each life lost, prosecutors announced.
The Merced County district attorney’s office said in a press release that it will not make a determination this year on whether to pursue the death penalty in the case of Jesus Manuel Salgado, 48, who is accused of abducting an 8-month-old girl and her parents as well as her uncle, from their trucking business off South Highway 59 last week.
District Attorney Kimberly Lewis declined to comment on the case beyond the charges.
Salgado was charged in the deaths of Jasdeep Singh, 36; his wife, Jasleen Kaur, 27; their 8-month-old daughter, Aroohi Dheri;and Singh’s brother, Amandeep Singh, 39.
The investigation into the disappearance of the family began Oct. 3 after police found Amandeep Singh’s Dodge Ram truck on fire in the town of Winton.
When family members couldn’t locate Amandeep or his brother, sister-in-law or their baby, they reported the family as missing.
The search led investigators with the Merced County Sheriff’s Office to the family business, Unison Trucking, where video surveillance showed a suspect abducting the family at gunpoint and leading them away in the truck.
—Los Angeles Times
Trump lawyer Christina Bobb points finger at colleague for claim all documents at Mar-a-Lago had been returned
Christina Bobb, a lawyer who signed the letter certifying that former President Donald Trump had returned all sensitive documents,is reportedly pointing the finger at a fellow lawyer for drafting the false claim.
The former TV anchor told federal investigators that Evan Corcoran, a more senior member of Trump’s legal team, ordered her to sign the statement falsely suggesting the former president had complied with a subpoena for the top-secret documents, NBC News reported Monday.
The feds say they consider Bobb to be a witness, not a target, in the sprawling probe into Trump’s mishandling of the documents.
“She is not going to be charged,” one source told NBC after Bobb’s questioning on Friday.
Bobb’s cooperation moves Corcoran into the legal hot seat where he could potentially face charges or professional legal sanctions if he told a colleague to make false claims to federal authorities.
The feds would want to know who, if anyone, instructed Corcoran to concoct the false statement. A previous lawyer for Trump has said he refused the former president’s demand that he make a similar false claim earlier.
The June 3 letter from Bobb forms a key milestone in the investigation into the documents that Trump improperly took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort home.
The statement claimed that Trump no longer had any documents marked as classified and had complied with a grand jury subpoena demanding their return.
In the weeks after receiving the statements, the feds determined it was not true. They proceeded to obtain a search warrant for parts of Mar-a-Lago.
—New York Daily News
Venezuela death toll at 36 after heavy rain brings mudslides
The death toll from mudslides in Venezuela due to heavy rains over the weekend climbed to 36 people in a small city southwest of Caracas, where dozens of people are still missing.
“We’re attending the most urgent issue which is search for people,” Delcy Rodriguez said on state television during a visit to Las Tejerias, a city of about 50,000 people located some 50 miles from Caracas. The updated death toll was announced by the interior ministry on Monday, which said 56 people were still missing.
More than 300 homes were destroyed and over 750 were damaged, Rodriguez said. About 1,200 rescuers responded to the scene,sending people who’d lost their homes to shelters, cleaning up the streets and restoring electricity service.
In a rare public appearance, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro visited the area on Monday, after declaring it a disaster zone and announcing three days of national mourning on Sunday. The presidential press account on Twitter showed him greeting residents and said the first lady traveled with him.
Rains swept through central and western Venezuela over the last days. Military have been deployed to conduct search and rescue operations, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said in a tweet on Sunday.
Tropical rain pummeled 120 municipalities, Maduro said on state TV this week.
—Bloomberg News
