A new study published yesterday in Jama found that a test used to diagnose patients with lung cancer had a built-in racial bias. The algorithm in the software used to diagnose patients assumed that Black people had naturally weaker lung capacity, raising the threshold for recommending care and making it less likely that they would be prescribed medication. According to the study, up to 40 percent more Black men would have been diagnosed with breathing problems if the bias had been corrected. The study also pointed out that this specific test isn't the only place where racial bias affects medicine. Prejudices and assumptions about racial differences affect patients looking for heart and kidney care as well.
WARNING ABOUT PAYMENT APPS
There's a new warning for people who store money in payment apps like Paypal, Venmo, and Cash App. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPC) said that the funds may not be secure in the case of a crisis, because while traditional bank accounts are secured up to $250,000, money held in a payment app doesn't have the same protections. So if one of these companies ever had a funding issue or was forced to close, customers could lose their money.
Four women were stabbed Monday at Louisiana Tech University in what authorities are describing as a random act of violence by a student who was apprehended within minutes.
A bomb threat forced the pilots of a United flight traveling from Los Angeles to Vancouver to make an emergency landing in San Francisco an hour into the flight.
Rescuers are working around the clock Tuesday to remove debris to extract 40 workers who have been trapped for over two days after an under-construction tunnel collapsed in northern India.
A jury found ex-Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby guilty of two counts of perjury after she lied about the finances of a side business to improperly access retirement funds during the pandemic to purchase two Florida homes.
