{
    "Contributors": [
        "Vansh Patel"
    ],
    "Source": [
        "health_fact"
    ],
    "URL": [
        "https://huggingface.co/datasets/health_fact"
    ],
    "Categories": [
        "Fact Verification"
    ],
    "Reasoning": [
        "Textual Entailment -> Deductive Reasoning"
    ],
    "Definition": [
        "Given a paragraph and a claim, classify it this way: If the claim contradicts the evidence present in the paragraph, classify the claim as '0'. If the claim has multiple supporting *AND* contradicting evidences, classify the claim as '1'. If the claim has supporting evidence and the paragraph is in overall favor of the claim, then classify the claim as '2'."
    ],
    "Input_language": [
        "English"
    ],
    "Output_language": [
        "English"
    ],
    "Instruction_language": [
        "English"
    ],
    "Domains": [
        "Public Health"
    ],
    "Instances": [
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2005, we spotted a tearjerker on the Internet about a mother who gave up one of her eyes to a son who had lost one of his at an early age. By February 2007 the item was circulating in e-mail in the following shortened version:  My mom only had one eye. I hated her… She was such an embarrassment. She cooked for students and teachers to support the family. There was this one day during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me. I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, “EEEE, your mom only has one eye!” I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear. I confronted her that day and said, “If you’re only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don’t you just die?” My mom did not respond… I didn’t even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was full of anger. I was oblivious to her feelings. I wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with her. So I studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. I had kids of my own. I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts. Then one day, my Mother came to visit me. She hadn’t seen me in years and she didn’t even meet her grandchildren. When she stood by the door, my children laughed at her, and I yelled at her for coming over uninvited. I screamed at her, “How dare you come to my house and scare my children! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!! !” And to this, my mother quietly answered, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,” and she disappeared out of sight. One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. So I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity. My neighbors said that she died. I did not shed a single tear. They handed me a letter that she had wanted me to have. My dearest son, I think of you all the time. I’m sorry that I came to your house and scared your children. I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. I’m sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you were growing up. You see……..when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn’t stand watching you having to grow up with one eye. So I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. With all my love to you, Your mother. In its earlier incarnation, the story identified by implication its location as Korea through statements made by both the mother and the son (the son’s “I left my mother and came to Seoul” and the mother’s “I won’t visit Seoul anymore”). It also supplied a reason for the son’s behavior when his mother arrived unexpectedly to visit him (“My little girl ran away, scared of my mom’s eye” and “I screamed at her, ‘How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter!'”). A further twist was provided in the original: rather than gaining the news of his mother’s death from neighbors (who hand him her letter), the son instead discovered the woman who bore him lying dead on the floor of what used to be his childhood home, her missive to him clutched in her lifeless hand: Give your parents roses while they are alive, not deadMY mom only had one eye. I hated her … she was such an embarrassment. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell … anything for the money we needed she was such an embarrassment. There was this one day during elementary school … It was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school … “your mom only has one eye?!? !” … And they taunted me. I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom, “mom … Why don’t you have the other eye?! If you’re only going to make me a laughingstock, why don’t you just die?!! !” my mom did not respond … I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, it felt good to think that I had said what I’d wanted to say all this time… maybe it was because my mom hadn’t punished me, but I didn’t think that I had hurt her feelings very badly. That night… I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My mom was crying there, so quietly, as if she was afraid that she might wake me. I took a look at her, and then turned away. Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my mother who was crying out of her one eye. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful. Because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty… then I studied real hard. I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied, and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too… now I’m living happily as a successful man. I like it here because it’s a place that doesn’t remind me of my mom. This happiness was getting bigger and bigger, when… what?! Who’s this…it was my mother… still with her one eye. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom’s eye. And I asked her, “who are you? !” “I don’t know you!! !” as if trying to make that real. I screamed at her, “How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter!” “GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!! !” and to this, my mother quietly answered, “oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,” and she disappeared out of sight. Thank goodness… she doesn’t recognize me… I was quite relieved. I told myself that I wasn’t going to care, or think about this for the rest of my life. Then a wave of relief came upon me… One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. So, lying to my wife that I was going on a business trip, I went. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack, that I used to call a house… just out of curiosity there, I found my mother fallen on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand…. it was a letter to me. My son… I think my life has been long enough now… And… I won’t visit Seoul anymore… but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so much… and I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school. …for you… and I’m sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you. You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. as a mom, I couldn’t stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye… so I gave you mine… I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did… the couple times that you were angry with me, I thought to myself, ‘it’s because he loves me…’ my son. Oh, my son… I don’t want you to cry for me, because of my death. My son, I love you my son, I love you so much. With all modern medical technology, transplantation of the eyeball is still impossible. The optic nerve isn’t an ordinary nerve, but instead an inset running from the brain. Modern medicine isn’t able to “connect” an eyeball back to brain after an optic nerve has been severed, let alone transplant the eye from a different person. (The only exception is the cornea, the transparent part in front of the eye: corneas are transplanted to replace injured and opaque ones.) We won’t try to comment on whether any surgeon would accept an eye from a living donor for transplant into another — we’ll leave that to others who are far more knowledgeable about medical ethics and transplant procedures. But we will note that the plot device of a mother’s dramatic sacrifice for the sake of her child’s being revealed in a written communication delivered after her demise appears in another legend about maternal love: the 2008 tale about a woman who left a touching message on her cell phone even as life ebbed from her as she used her body to shield the tot during an earthquake. Giving up one’s own life for a loved one is central to a 2005 urban legend about a boy on a motorcycle who has his girlfriend hug him one last time and put on his helmet just before the crash that kills him and spares her. Returning to the “notes from the dead” theme is the 1995 story about a son who discovers only through a posthumous letter from his mother what their occasional dinner “dates” had meant to her. Another legend we’re familiar with features a meme used in the one-eyed mother story (the coming to light of the enduring love of the person who died for the completely unworthy person she’d lavished it on), but that one involves a terminally ill woman and her cheating husband. In it, an about-to-be-spurned wife begs the adulterous hoon she’d married to stick around for another 30 days and to carry her over the threshold of their home once every day of that month as her way of keeping him around long enough for her to kick the bucket and thus spare their son the knowledge that his parents were on the verge of divorce. Claim: A mother revealed to her child in a letter after her death that she had just one eye because she had donated the other to him.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: That means the great majority of Americans stay within the advised limit of two drinks a day for men and one for women, according to the study that appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “And in fact, most adults don’t drink at all on any given day,” said lead author Patricia Guenther, a nutritionist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. “But the fact remains that it is a significant public health problem that many people do drink to excess.”  Guenther said that members of the committee that drafted the current USDA guidelines on alcohol consumption wanted to know how many adults exceeded the limits. She and her colleagues collected data from a nationally representative survey on health and nutrition, which included about 5,400 adults over age 21. Among other things, each was asked how much alcohol they drank the previous day. The researchers found that 64 percent of men and 79 percent of women said they drank no alcohol at all that day, and another 18 percent of men and 10 percent of women drank within the recommended amounts. Nine percent of men said they had three to four drinks the day before and 8 percent of women said they drank two to three alcoholic beverages, the researchers said. The heaviest drinkers of all were the 8 percent of men who had five or more drinks, and 3 percent of women who had four or more. “Overall the study confirms that rates of unhealthy alcohol use in the U.S. are significant,” said Jennifer Mertens, a research medical scientist at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California, who was not part of the study. Regularly drinking more than recommended levels is “linked to increased alcohol-related problems,” Mertens wrote in an email to Reuters Health. “Binge drinking (more than four drinks on any one day for men and more than three on any one day for women and older adults) even one time can increase the risk of injury from falls, motor vehicle accidents and other accidents,” she added. Among men, the 31-to-30-year-old age group had the most heavy drinkers, at 22 percent. Ammonal women, the heaviest drinkers - 12 percent - were between 51 and 70 years old. Guenther said that’s important to note because it highlights that heavy drinking is not just part of life among the college set. “People need to be aware that there are people of all ages who drink to excess,” she told Reuters Health, adding that the new study is also important because it may help people recognize whether they themselves are drinking more than recommended. \"There are people who don't realize that they are drinking more than what's beneficial to their health,\" she said. SOURCE: bit.ly/X1NVtW Claim: Study says too many Americans still drink too much.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, many people are wondering how likely they are to get it. Often, their second question is: If I get coronavirus, how likely am I to survive it? One chart, created by the website Information is Beautiful, says that 80% of coronavirus cases are \"mild.\" So is that true? The chart is a tad misleading. It makes a blanket statement about the virus while basing its claim on a study by China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and a website called Statistica. The post doesn’t include links to the reports. An important note: The percentage of mild cases shouldn’t be confused with your likelihood of surviving a stint of the virus, also known as COVID-19. Mortality rates differ depending on a person’s age and health. The virus is relatively new. So there’s a lot researchers have yet to nail down. That said, the post is mostly consistent with available data. In February, CNN reported on the release of the study conducted by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology. The study itself said that in confirmed coronavirus cases, 70% were \"normal,\" 25.5% were \"severe\" and 4.5% were \"light.\" But Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of World Health Organization, said during a press conference on Feb. 17 that more than 80% of patients \"have mild disease and will recover.\" Meanwhile, 13.8% of cases suffer severe symptoms and 6.1% are critical. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website on March 13 said a \"complete clinical picture with regard to COVID-19 is not fully known.\" However, the CDC said \"most cases\" are mild, citing a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That study looked at medical records for coronavirus patients documented by the National Health Commission between Dec. 11 and Jan. 29. \"On admission, the degree of severity of COVID-19 was categorized as nonsevere in 926 patients and severe in 173 patients,\" the study reads. That means 84 percent were considered non-severe. Age and baseline health were factors in whether a patient’s illness became severe, the study said. \"Patients with severe disease were older than those with nonsevere disease by a median of seven years. Moreover, the presence of any coexisting illness was more common among patients with severe disease than among those with nonsevere disease,\" it said. The chart says 80.9% of cases are mild. It’s important to note that different age groups have had different levels of severity. However, generally speaking, the chart is on track. We found that mild cases account for roughly 75-to-80% of cases, according to studies published by the WHO and CDC. The statement is mostly accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Claim: Viral image Says 80% of novel coronavirus cases are \"mild.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Craig Shergold is real and             in 1989 when he was 9-years old, a campaign was started on his             behalf to try to break the Guinness world record for greeting cards. The Make-A-Wish Foundation had nothing to do             with it, however, and Craig is now a 22-year old young man who is             alive and well. The story began in 1988 when Craig first complained of             earaches. Antibiotics didn’t help and one day when his             condition seemed desperate, Craig was taken to a hospital for tests,             which revealed a brain tumor. He was so ill his parents were             warned he might not survive. Surgery removed the tumor, but it             kept growing and the outlook was not good. When the             staff at Royal Marsden Hospital in London saw how much get-well             cards cheered it up, it was suggested that a card project be started             to break the Guinness world record. The London office of the             Children’s Wish Foundation (not Make-a-Wish) got on board and the             British press gave visibility to the story. The old Guinness             mark was slightly more than a million cards. That record was             broken by Craig within a few months, but the cards kept             coming. Then along the way, the rumor said he wanted business             cards, not greeting cards. The mail load got so heavy that             Craig’s family ultimately halted mail delivery to their home and             chose to move to a different residence. Now, Craig’s old             address has its own postal code and more than 350 million pieces of             mail have been received. Volunteers remove the stamps, which             are sold, and the mail is then recycled, with the proceeds going to             cancer research. The folks at Guinness have retired the             greeting card category. Although Craig and his family became overwhelmed by the volume of             mail, they ultimately became grateful for one aspect of the             visibility. Word of Craig’s condition reached Virginia             billionaire John Kluge, chairman of Metromedia. He arranged             for Craig to be flown to the U.S. for life-saving surgery at the             University of Virginia Medical Center. A PAX-TV movie about Craig was the result of producer Robert Woods having             received the rumor and sending a card to Craig. Through that,             he learned that Craig was no longer a little boy, but a healthy             young man and the story struck him as a good one for the screen. He and the family have hopes that the film will help quiet the             rumor. updated 11/18/01 For more information:Make A Wish Foundation Comments Claim: An email says that 9-year old Craig Shergold of Carshalton, Great Britain is dying of Cancer.  As a dying wish, he wants to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by collecting the most greeting cards of anybody in history.  The email asks that the cards be sent to an address of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Results of two Phase III trials found bitopertin in combination with antipsychotic therapy did not significantly reduce negative symptoms after 24 weeks of treatment compared with placebo. A third late-stage study is ongoing. Roughly 26 million people are affected by schizophrenia worldwide, but current treatment options for the disorder’s negative symptoms - which include social withdrawal, lack of motivation and reduced emotional reactivity - are limited. “These results are disappointing for people with negative symptoms because more effective treatments are needed for these debilitating effects of schizophrenia,” said Sandra Horning, Roche’s chief medical officer and global head of product development. The data are also a blow for Roche, which has upped its investment in neuroscience in recent years as it looks to branch out beyond its core cancer expertise. It is currently running late-stage studies in Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. Many large pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Novartis and AstraZeneca have cut back on research in the area as new drugs prove hard to find. The success rate for brain drugs in Phase III is poor, averaging around 50 percent against 50-80 percent for other disease areas. Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Fabian Wenner said the results showed Roche was taking more time to succeed in new fields outside of oncology, which he said would be critical to secure sustainable growth in the long term. In recent years Roche has scrapped drugs to treat diabetes and boost levels of “good” high-density cholesterol. While a successful treatment for schizophrenia’s negative symptoms could have notched up more than a billion dollars a year in sales, many analysts had modest expectations for bitopertin. Current consensus forecasts point to annual sales of $407 million by 2017, according to Thomson Reuters Cortellis. Roche is conducting three additional Phase III studies investigating bitopertin for sub-optimally controlled symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions. The drugmaker said it would await the data from its remaining studies before deciding on the next steps for the drug. Claim: Roche's schizophrenia drug misses goal in two late-stage trials.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Dr. Bonnie Arzuaga said Customs and Border Patrol officials met briefly with her and other protest leaders and vowed to pass her organization’s request to start a pilot program to inoculate migrants in detention facilities in San Diego up their chain of command. In the past year, three migrant children have died from influenza after being detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents. They include a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy seen on security footage writhing in agony before he died of influenza in a Border Patrol holding cell. Customs and Border Protection has said they are not equipped to run a vaccination program. “It has never been a CBP practice to administer vaccines,” the agency said in a statement. It added that other agencies are in place to offer such vaccines to people in its custody when appropriate. Arzuaga, a pediatrician from Boston, said the Centers for Disease Control recommends all children above the age of six months be vaccinated against the flu. She said doctors showed up ready to administer vaccines to migrants at a San Diego-area detention facility for free but were kept locked out. So they held an hours-long protest Monday. “We are using our voices as public health physicians to sound the alarm,” said Arzuaga, the founder of Doctors for Camp Closure, representing about 2,000 medical professionals and students. “All we’re trying to do is prevent more deaths.” On Tuesday, about 70 doctors and others demonstrated outside the San Diego Sector Border Patrol headquarters, where four doctors and two others were arrested after laying down on a driveway, preventing employees from leaving. Officials met briefly with the group after the arrests were made, Arzuaga said. On Wednesday, about 40 people held a vigil for those who have died while in detention facilities, gathering at the San Ysidro port of entry, one of the world’s busiest pedestrian crossings. Then she and other demonstration leaders met again with Customs and Border Protection officials. The Department of Homeland Security’s press secretary defended the decision to not let in the doctors, saying on Twitter: “Of course Border Patrol isn’t going to let a random group of radical political activists show up and start injecting people with drugs.”    Arzuaga said she was saddened the administration was attacking her and others for addressing a public health issue. “We’re very much in middle of flu season now,” she said. “We’re sort of missing the window of opportunity to keep people protected, not only people in detention facilities, but also in our communities.” Medical professionals repeatedly asked to be able to vaccinate migrants in letters sent months ago to the Trump administration, including the secretaries of health and human services and homeland security, but got no response. Arzuaga said Wednesday they were told Dr. David Tarantino, the senior medical adviser to Customs and Border Protection, would get back to them. The agency said in a statement that “the men and women of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection also share the concern about the welfare of those who come into our custody, and we stand by our process.”  It noted that it has recently increased its medical staff to more than 250 health care employees working along the border, and migrants sent to longer-term facilities usually receive such vaccinations. But doctors say many migrants are sent from the short-term holding facilities back to Mexico to wait out their asylum requests under a Trump administration policy. There they often live in crowded shelters and unsanitary conditions. ___ This story has been corrected to show the protest was held at Border Patrol headquarters, not at a detention facility. Claim: Doctors end protest to demand flu vaccines for migrants.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 25 April 2018, the front page story of Virginia’s Westmoreland News described the disturbing occurrence of KKK recruitment flyers in front home homes in Colonial Beach, VA: Residents of Colonial Beach found zip-locked bags containing Ku Klux Klan recruitment flyers and DVDs on their front lawns on April 14. […] The material, which includes racist and anti-Semitic messages, appears to have been randomly dispersed to homes in Colonial Beach. The random distribution of recruitment flyers placed in plastic bags (usually including some grains of white rice as a symbol of white supremacy) is currently, and has been for decades, the central way the violent hate group has recruited members. In a move that has generated significant online controversy, the Westmoreland News reproduced a full, un-redacted version of that ad in their story, leading some to brand it has free advertising for the KKK. As reported by Newsweek and local CBS affiliate WTVR, many readers of the paper were outraged: They posted the whole flyer as if they were giving them free advertising,” Colonial Beach resident Betty Tate Thompson told WTVR. “It even had the number on flyer to contact the head of the KKK. Which I thought was totally ridiculous.” […] [On Facebook, Jeremy Edouard Whitfield wrote] “This story could have been told without promoting these lunatics. Them and any other racially biased hate group have no business on the front page of any paper. Or any page for that matter. It is utterly ridiculous that you would print something like this without thinking of the repercussions.” Local law enforcement — who provided the newspaper with a copy of the ad — also objected to its uncensored inclusion in the paper, which included phone numbers and contact info for how to join the group: “That kind of shocked me, and I wrote [the editor] a very strongly worded email,” said [Police Chief Danny] Plott. Plott said the editor called him back with an explanation. “She explained that she wanted to put it in to show people that those of us in Colonial Beach who may think there’s not racism; there is and I think she didn’t expect for this to blow up the way it did and with this outcome,” explained Plott. While the ad was reproduced in full, The Westmoreland News did post a disclaimer on the story with this text: Westmoreland News in no way condones or supports the content or message of this flyer, nor does it condone or support any branch of the Loyal White Knights, or the KKK. Decisions on how to report the occurrence of KKK flyers in the media have not been made consistently in the past. When the Gaston Gazette reported on the appearance of KKK flyers in their region in early 2017, the newspaper redacted the group’s contact information. Richmond, Virginia’s Daily Journal and Ohio’s Sandusky Register both ran partial photograph of flyers found in their respective regions, and those images did not include any recruitment contact info. In October 2016, however, the Huffington Post used a photograph of a KKK flyer found in British Columbia that included the contact info. In each of those cases, it should be noted, the flyer was reproduced as an obvious photograph of a paper document. The front page image used by the Westmoreland Times, however, could be confused for a paid advertisement. Because that was not the case here, however, we rank the claim that the newspaper “ran an ad” for the KKK as a mixture. Claim: The Westmoreland News ran a KKK ad on the front page of their newspaper in April 2018.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of cost in the article. The benefit of eribulin over various treatments chosen by the physicians was clearly stated in the article. “The researchers found that among patients whose cancer had spread, those who took the drug (eribulin) lived a median of 2.5 months longer than those who received a physician-chosen treatment — 13.1 months versus 10.6 months.” Mixed bag. While the story points out the most common side effects, fatigue and depletion of white blood cells, occurred in both study groups, readers aren’t given any sense of how common these were. In fact, they were quite common: these side effects occurred in 54% of those on eribulin and 40% of patients in the treatment of physician’s choice group. This is why we expect stories to quantify harms. To its credit, the article does note that the most common adverse event that caused women to drop out of the eribulin arm was neuropathy, or numbness and pain caused by nerve damage – and it notes a 5% study drop out rate. The article does a good job of noting several times that the women in the trial, known as EMBRACE, all had metastatic breast cancer that had already been heavily treated with various chemotherapies. And it did give the number of women in each arm of the trial and at least mentioned that this was a “global phase 3 study” – although that’s expecting readers to grasp what that really means. We’ll call it barely satisfactory. It’s always a judgment call for journalists on where to draw the line on details to include or leave out. But some that maybe should have been included: The article also fails to mention potential weaknesses of the trial design that were highlighted in the study. The authors of the study pointed out that the treatment of physician’s choice group included several different chemotherapies precluding detailed comparisons with eribulin. There is no disease-mongering. The article includes quotes from an independent expert, Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and from a related editorial also published in The Lancet. The story points out that the study was funded by the company that markets eribulin but it should have further noted that several of the authors of the study received grants or consultancy fees from Eisai. In addition, five of the study authors are employees of Eisai. We’ll rule this one barely satisfactory. The survival benefit for women who were treated with eribulin is clearly presented. The article also included the definition of the treatment of the physician’s choice that was used by the study authors. The article does not report that eribulin, the drug studied, received approval in the United States based on the results of the study. Eribulin is approved for patients who have previously been treated for metastatic breast cancer with at least two chemotherapies, including an anthracycline and a taxane. As a result, the availability of the drug is unclear to readers. Information about drug approval and availability is valuable for patients with metastatic breast cancer. The article establishes the novelty of eribulin by quoting from the study authors, as well as from a related editorial in The Lancet and from an independent authority, Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Dr. Bernik said “This drug shows much promise, and it should certainly be included in additional trials to fully establish its benefit.” The article did not rely solely on a news release. Claim: New Chemo Drug May Benefit Some Breast Cancer Patients",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Bayer shares tumbled more than 12 percent on Wednesday after a unanimous jury in San Francisco federal court found Roundup to be a “substantial factor” in causing California resident Edwin Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The jury decision was a blow to Bayer after the judge in the Hardeman case, at the company’s request, had split the trial, severely limiting evidence plaintiffs could present in the first phase. Tuesday’s defeat on terms considered advantageous to Bayer sets up the second phase to be even tougher and limits the grounds on which the company could appeal any final verdict, the experts said. “The fact that Bayer lost this trial despite it being set up in the most favorable way for them is a huge setback,” said Thomas Rohback, a Connecticut-based defense lawyer. Bayer in a statement on Tuesday said it stood behind the safety of Roundup and was confident the evidence in the second trial phase would show that Monsanto’s conduct was appropriate and the company not liable for Hardeman’s cancer. The company, which bought Monsanto last year, on Wednesday declined to comment beyond that statement. Tuesday’s finding did not address liability, which will be determined following the second trial phase that began on Wednesday. Bayer denies glyphosate or Roundup cause cancer. The German company faces more than 11,200 lawsuits over the popular weed killer. Last August, following the first Roundup trial, a California state court jury issued a $289 million verdict against the company. Two weeks after that verdict, which was later reduced to $78 million and is being appealed, Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann reassured analysts that the company had a new legal strategy based on focusing jurors on the scientific evidence. “Bayer and the joint litigation team are working to ensure that, going forward, this overwhelming science will get the full consideration it deserves,” Baumann said in an Aug. 23 conference call. There is a lot at stake for Bayer, which acquired Roundup maker Monsanto last year for $63 billion. Though Bayer does not break out sales figures for Roundup, glyphosate is the world’s most widely used weed killer, and Roundup is the leading brand. Bayer’s new strategy was focused on keeping out plaintiffs’ allegations that the company improperly influenced scientists, regulators and the public about the safety of Roundup. Bayer has denied it acted inappropriately and said in public statements following the August verdict that it thought the jury was inflamed by the claims of corporate misconduct. Vince Chhabria, the San Francisco federal judge overseeing the Hardeman case, agreed with the company’s argument that such evidence was a “distraction” from the scientific question of whether glyphosate causes cancer. He agreed to split the trial in a January order. Had Bayer had won the first phase, there would have been no second phase looking at company liability. Now that it has lost, almost all of the previously excluded evidence can be presented to the jury. Plaintiffs’ lawyers hit Bayer with those allegations in their opening statements for the second phase on Wednesday. Aimee Wagstaff, one of Hardeman’s lawyers, said Monsanto influenced the science around Roundup through its “cozy” relationship with regulators. Bayer could convince the jury in the second phase that, despite their finding that Roundup played a substantial role in  Hardeman’s cancer, the company was not liable. Experts said that was unlikely. “They could present evidence of how careful they were in developing Roundup, but that’s an uphill battle given that the scientific evidence was their strongest argument,” said Alexandra Lahav, a law professor at the University of Connecticut. A lawyer for Bayer on Wednesday argued that Bayer could not be held liable because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as other regulators worldwide, approved Roundup without a cancer warning. If the Hardeman trial had not been split and a final verdict went against Bayer, the company might have been able to appeal any damages award to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by claiming the jury had been improperly swayed by inflammatory evidence, said Lori Jarvis, a Virginia-based mass tort defense lawyer. That argument will now be difficult to make. “It would not be surprising at all for the 9th Circuit to uphold what the jury did in this case, particularly given the great effort Chhabria put into creating a level playing field for Monsanto,” Jarvis said. Some lawyers said Bayer could still argue on appeal that plaintiffs’ experts and their scientific evidence were insufficient and statistically invalid and should not have been admitted at trial. But they noted the 9th Circuit, which oversees the San Francisco federal court, has generally been permissive in allowing expert testimony. However, experts said it was probably too soon to write off Bayer’s legal strategy, noting future Roundup cases could result in different outcomes. “It’s a relatively early phase in this litigation as a whole and we just need to see more trials to understand Bayer’s liability,” said Adam Zimmerman, a law professor at Los Angeles-based Loyola Law School. Claim: Jury finding upends Bayer's Roundup defense strategy: experts.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On or around 29 March 2016, several unreliable web sites reported that Muslim men in San Bernardino had fired upon hikers in a nearby park, and that the news media (in complicity with local police) covered up the incident (for unspecified reasons): A heavily armed group of men with Middle Eastern appearance was arrested two hours ago outside Los Angeles after opening fire upon Hikers and Campers in a large State Park in the area. According to the victim/witness, there were two groups of men, about 15 per group, armed with heavy weapons, who began shouting “Allah u Akbar” and started firing. The firing allegedly lasted upwards of TWO HOURS before police were able to find callers in the vast California parkland. When police were responding, one group of 15 or so men took-off into the hills, while the other group was captured by police. CALIFORNIA TERROR COVER UP? Heavily-armed Muslims shouting “Allahu Akbar” open fire on campers and hikers in a park. Cops arrest them, then let them go! A heavily armed group of Middle Eastern looking Muslim men was arrested outside Los Angeles after opening fire upon hikers and campers in a large State Park in the area. According to these sites, a group of heavily armed, apparently “Muslim” men (shouting “Allahu Akbar”) shot at hikers and campers in the Deep Creek Hot Springs area of Apple Valley, California. Police responded to the scene and tracked down the armed individuals, but then decided to let them go, and the media supposedly completely ignored the bizarre incident. However, the Los Angeles Times (a major newspaper local to the incident, but somehow unaware of the coverup) published an article on the subject on 29 March 2016. According to the Times, police investigated the reports of shooting, and the armed men they interviewed at the scene were co-operative. No part of that reporting described the men as Muslim, claimed that they had fired at anyone, or indicated that anyone in the group shouted “Allahu Akbar”: The FBI was continuing to question people after receiving reports from campers that a group of armed men in a remote part of Apple Valley fired hundreds of shots Sunday morning. San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies and an FBI agent responded to the area known as Deep Creek Hot Springs after reports of gunshots and chanting in the predawn hours, officials said. According to law enforcement sources, 17 men of Middle Eastern descent were detained. But none were arrested or charged in connection with shooting firearms and they cooperated with deputies, authorities said. Also apparently ignorant of the suppression of news reporting on the incident were Los Angeles television station KCAL, the Victorville Daily Press, and the Press-Enterprise, all of whom also reported on the incident: The men had handguns, a rifle and a shotgun, all of which were registered with the California Department of Justice except for the rifle. Rifles and shotguns do not require registration in California, [Sgt. David] Rodriguez said. The men cooperated with the investigation, and none were found to have a criminal history, authorities said. Deputies also contacted several hikers in the area, but none reported seeing the men shooting guns. Rodriguez said deputies will not be doing any further investigation into the incident. The Press-Enterprise article also described initial reports of the men’s appearance as “inaccurate,” according to police in San Bernardino: Someone called 911 about 8:25 a.m. to report seeing five to seven “subjects wearing turbans” shooting various firearms and hearing more than 100 gunshots, the release said. Deputies later learned that the caller’s description of the men was not accurate, and that one man was wearing a scarf. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office also issued a press release about the incident on 27 March 2016, which read: DATE/TIME: March 27, 2016 / 8:25am INCIDENT: Incident LOCATION: Deep Creek Hot Springs, Apple Valley On Sunday, March 27, 2016, at about 8:25 am, deputies from the Victor Valley Sheriff’s Station responded to reports of shots fired in the Deep Creek Hot Springs area of Apple Valley. The reporting party told the 911 operator more than 100 shots were heard and 5 to 7 subjects wearing turbans were seen in the area shooting assault rifles, handguns, and shotguns. Due to this being a very rural location, Sheriff’s Aviation assisted to conduct an area check for the alleged shooters while patrol units from the Victor Valley Station responded. The sheriff’s helicopter arrived and located a group of males, 17 total, walking away from the creek carrying back packs and other items. Deputies from Apple Valley, Hesperia, and Victorville Police Stations also responded to assist. Shortly after deputies arrived to the area the subjects were detained and searched. Several handguns, a rifle, and a shotgun were found during a search of the backpacks and bedding the subjects had been carrying. The subjects were very cooperative and were interviewed. A local FBI agent responded to assist with interviews. A records check of the subjects, their weapons, and their vehicles was completed. The records check revealed none of the subjects had a criminal history or outstanding warrants, the weapons were registered with the Department of Justice except for the rifle, and the vehicles were also registered. Several hikers were contacted, but none of them witnessed the guns being fired. There was no evidence found that a crime had been committed by any of the subjects who were detained and they were released. As the official incident report stated, no one in the area questioned by police said they had witnessed guns being fired nor reported having been fired upon. Police found and interviewed the group of men in question and discovered that their possession of firearms was in compliance with the law and that none of them had any outstanding warrants or criminal histories. While the caller who reported the men to police claimed five to seven of the men wore turbans and fired assault rifles, police didn’t mention turbans or other headwear, and they noted that the men were in possession of “handguns, a rifle, and a shotgun” (but no “assault rifles”). No credible news reports made any mention of the “Allahu Akbar” claim, and no witnesses stated they had been “shot at” by the men while hiking or camping. Also, the police report described the men only as “males,” not “Middle Eastern males” or “Muslim males.” The web site that started this rumor was Superstation95, which is not a “superstation” at all but rather a repository of misinformation from Hal Turner, who in 2010 was sentenced to 33 months in prison for making death threats against three federal judges. (The name listed in the site’s Contact page is Turner’s criminal lawyer.) That same site similarly (and baselessly) claimed that a woman who crashed into pedestrians on the Las Vegas strip in December 2015 had shouted “Allahu Akbar” and was subsequently rebuked by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for spreading false information: @PatriotBroker This is false and we have addressed the misinformation with @SuperStation95. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  Superstation95 also falsely claimed that the December 2015 San Bernardino mass shooting occurred because the shooter was offended that pork was served at a Christmas party, that all cargo ships ceased transporting goods in January 2016, and that seafood was contaminated with “cancerous tumors” following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Claim: The media covered up an incident in San Bernardino during which several Muslim men fired upon a number of Californian hikers.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A particularly yucky food tale from the early 1990s was a favorite of high school and college students and said a lot about how we feel about fast food:  A woman goes into a fast food restaurant and orders a chicken sandwich with no mayo. She bites into it, tastes some kind of sauce, and looking at her sandwich, realizes that it looks kinda like mayonnaise. She takes it back to the counter where they insist that there was no mayo on the sandwich. Eventually, it turns out that the piece of chicken contained a tumor, and when the woman bit into it it exploded, releasing some kind of pus-like substance. This tale was spread in many variant forms:       Unlike most contaminated food stories, this one couldn’t have happened as told. Fast food chicken sandwiches are made of chopped, processed meat: chicken is ground then reformed into breast-shaped patties. Even those sandwiches fabricated from whole chicken breast couldn’t possibly come through the preparation process with a pus-filled abscess intact, as the meat has to be pounded to spread it out to fit the bun, and to stop it from curving up in the middle the way an unmanipulated chicken breast would (which would make piling on the fixings that much harder). And then there’s frying process — no pus-filled anything is going to survive that. Not only is this a legend about what yucky things might be lurking in our fast food, it’s also a tale that dredges up the specter of cancer. (In the vast majority of tellings a tumor is discovered in the chicken sandwich, not an abscess or a cyst. This, by the way, also eliminates any remaining credibility the story might have, for tumors are hard masses of cancerous flesh without pus.) Claim: The mayonnaise oozing from a chicken sandwich turned out to be pus from a tumor in the chicken.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Republicans are praising conservative fiscal policies and the elimination of a voter-approved surtax on the wealthy. Republican House Leader and gubernatorial candidate Ken Fredette claims Democrats are now rushing to increase state spending and grow government. Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon says Maine’s fiscal health is only as meaningful as the health of its people at a time of an opioid epidemic and a workforce shortage. Democratic Rep. Drew Gattine says the surplus is a chance for a serious discussion about addressing issues like access to health care after voters approved Medicaid expansion in November. Maine’s Economic Forecasting Committee says it expects Republican President Trump’s federal tax reform to spur economic growth. Claim: Lawmakers consider spending, saving $128.5 million surplus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 31 October 2017, the junk news site formerly known as Your News Wire, since rebranded as News Punch, published an article based entirely on an alleged quote from an anonymous “production staffer” accusing actor Kevin Spacey of having sexually abused musician Justin Bieber. Under the headline “Producer Claims Kevin Spacey “Drugged And Raped” Justin Bieber,” News Punch reported: “I’m not trying to play down what Harvey Weinstein is accused of doing,” the production staffer said, “But his victims were adults. Kevin has spent decades using his power and influence to fraternize with young, often underage boys. “Everyone in the industry knows about Kevin. Spacey’s crimes are some of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood. He preys on young usually ‘straight’ male child or teen stars early on in their career, and of course the ‘straight’ victims don’t say a word about it because they are ashamed. Spacey has been accused by numerous people of sexual misconduct, some describing incidents that happened to them when they were teenagers. He is facing felony assault and battery charges, to which he pleaded not guilty. However, YourNewsWire (and now News Punch) has a long track record of inventing sensational quotes and churning up false stories about celebrities or politicians, often quoting made-up “anonymous” sources. The site frequently plays on paranoia over “elite” pedophile rings drummed up by PizzaGate and Qanon conspiracy theories. No other reports to date have suggested that Bieber, who as a child achieved fame as a pop singer, is one of the people accusing Spacey of sexual assault, although some of the accusers have chosen to remain anonymous. And it is telling that the quotes from a supposed House of Cards “production staffer” included in the News Punch article never actually assert what the headline proclaims. Moreover, the quotes published by News Punch appear only on that website, and it’s highly unlikely a person would exclusively report a potential serious criminal act to a junk news site with a track record of fabricating sources. The News Punch article also linked to an earlier story of theirs which falsely claimed Just Bieber had stated that “Evil pedophiles run the music industry.” Claim: A film producer claimed actor Kevin Spacey had \"drugged and raped\" Justin Bieber.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release does not mention cost. A year’s treatment of one form of interferon beta costs about $60,000, according to this article which suggests prices are rising much faster than inflation. Another concern is that some insurers are no longer covering some forms of interferon beta-A, For example, GoodRX.com says that some insurers are no longer covering Avonex, a top selling form of interferon, starting in 2016. Another article from the United Kingdom, however, argued that this kind of drug can be cost-effective over 20 years by reducing the disability of the patients. The release includes many numbers but does not include the statistically insignificant primary outcome results. The final result that researchers indicated they were measuring was the percentage of patients who had relapses at 11 years, which was much closer between the two patient groups than the other (secondary) results that they presented in greater depths. The final results: Those patients without definite MS at 11 years was 76/167 (45%) in the early treatment group and 43/111 (39%) in the delayed treatment group. This result is not statistically significant, a result that was not mentioned in the results section of the paper and represented only a 16% relative rate reduction and 6% absolute rate reduction. What are the risks of treating early vs. the benefit? This release does not mention any potential harms of treatment. There are significant side effects reported to therapy with interferon beta-1b, including depression and thoughts of suicide, according to the National Library of Medicine. No harms were mentioned in the study. We also wonder — if patients routinely receive a therapy before official diagnosis — whether that risks treating people for a condition they do not eventually develop. The published study states that about 85% of people who encounter a single episode of demyelination (often an  early sign of MS) go on to develop MS. Doesn’t that mean 15% never get the disorder at all? Taking injections for a disorder you don’t have seems like potential risk. In the paper, the authors mention but do not quantify the adverse effects and only say that they are consistent with those previously reported. This seems an inadequate description since some patients used the drug for two years longer than others. We rate this as borderline satisfactory. The release does a good job of explaining the double-blind randomized controlled study carried out on a beginning group of more than 400 patients. And to its credit, the release notes one limitation of the study: “participants and researchers learned after the fifth-year tests which participants received the drug and which received the placebo and that after the placebo-control phase of the study, all of the participants received treatment, so there was no untreated control group after that point.” But as noted under the Benefits criteria, the release would have been improved with a discussion of the primary outcome results. There was no disease mongering. The release states that this research was supported by the drug manufacturer Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals but did not spell out that Bayer markets interferon beta-1b under the brand name Betaseron. Nor does the release note that many of the researchers involved with the study have numerous financial ties to Bayer including stock, royalties, consulting, speaking, honoraria, travel and salaried employment. The study was addressing whether early therapy was better than later therapy, so the release should not be held to the standard of comparing interferon to other drugs. However, it’s worth noting here that the number of drugs for treating MS have nearly doubled to 20 over the past three years. The drug is widely available and the news release gives that impression as well. The release explains that this particular study is adding to evidence and is not particularly novel. “Our study adds to the evidence supporting treatment at the earliest sign of the disease and indicates that early treatment has a long-lasting effect on disease activity,” a researcher says in the release. However, another novelty of the study is starting treatment after one event and not waiting for any further events. This could lead to a much larger market for the drug. It could be concerning since some patients only have a few recurrences in their lifetime. There was no unjustifiable language. Claim: Treating at the Earliest Sign of MS May Offer Long-Term Benefit",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Pennsylvania Department of Health says people may have been exposed to measles between Aug. 22 and Aug. 29 in York County and Hershey. Health officials say a patient in WellSpan York Hospital has a confirmed case of measles, which can be highly contagious. The hospital is notifying patients, staff and visitors who were in either the hospital or WellSpan Stony Brook Health Center. Officials say the risk of getting measles is minimal for anyone properly immunized against the disease. Claim: Public warned of possible measles exposure in Pennsylvania.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As states begin to reopen in the face of the coronavirus, social media users are ly claiming California Gov. Gavin Newsom defied his own stay-at-home order to vacation in Montana. \"While California is dying, not because of COVID, but because of the Newsom/Democrat lockdown, I hear Gavin is vacationing in Stevensville, MT!\" said a May 18 Facebook post, adding that locals should \"tape confirmation and share their videos.\" It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) According to the Associated Press, social media users have been claiming Newsom fled to Montana for weeks. The content of the post is wrong. For starters, COVID-19 has killed thousands of Californians — more than 3,600 as of May 22, according to Johns Hopkins University. More to the point, Newsom is not on vacation in Montana, nor has he been there in recent weeks. \"The governor and his family have been in California for the duration of the pandemic,\" said Jesse Melgar, Newsom’s press secretary. Newsom has provided live updates about the state of the coronavirus in California throughout May, broadcasting them to his YouTube channel and social media pages. On May 18, he gave a press conference from Mustards Grill, a restaurant in Napa, California. Montana officials said they’re not aware of any recent trips Newsom has made to their state. \"Gov. Newsom was not in Montana to our knowledge,\" said Erin Loranger, press secretary for Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. \"We can confirm that Gov. Newsom has not been in Stevensville,\" added Stevensville Mayor Brandon Dewey. We searched Google and the Nexis news database and found no credible reports to indicate that Newsom has been to Montana in recent weeks. Other fact-checkers and local news outlets also concluded that posts saying Newsom went there were wrong. California law dictates that Newsom must be within the state’s borders to have the powers of his office, according to the Los Angeles Times. When Newsom has left California in the past, he has typically transferred the governor’s duties to Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis. \"When the governor leaves the state, he is required to give notice, and the lieutenant governor serves as acting governor in his absence,\" said Katie Hanzlik, a spokesperson for Kounalakis. But Kounalakis’ office hasn’t received notice that Newsom would be out of California since early February, Hanzlik said. She shared with PolitiFact a pair of press releases, from Feb. 7 and Feb 11, that said Newsom \"has left the state\" and \"has returned to the state.\" On Feb. 10, Newsom appeared as a guest on ABC’s \"The View,\" which is filmed in New York. The parents of Newsom’s wife, filmmaker and actress Jennifer Siebel Newsom, do own a ranch near Stevensville. The two got married there in 2008, when Newsom was mayor of San Francisco, according to an Associated Press report from the time. Newsom issued a stay-at-home order on March 19, and he recently loosened the criteria that counties must meet in order to begin easing some restrictions. A Facebook post said, \"While California is dying … Gavin (Newsom) is vacationing in Stevensville, MT!\" There is no evidence of this. Newsom’s office said he has not been vacationing in Stevensville, and so did the lieutenant governor’s office, the Montana governor’s office and the Stevensville mayor. Newsom gave a live press conference from a California restaurant on May 18, the day the post went up. Claim: “While California is dying … Gavin (Newsom) is vacationing in Stevensville, MT!”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A facet of U.S. history largely unfamiliar to Americans themselves is the role of indentured servitude in the survival and growth of the original 13 colonies. The earliest settlers needed laborers, but only wealthy people could afford passage to the New World. This led to a system whereby those who lacked means were brought from Europe under contract to work off their passage, room, and board over a period of two to seven years, until they were considered to have earned their freedom. No fewer than half of the immigrants who came to the New World during the colonial period arrived as indentured servants. Among the many thousands of impoverished Europeans brought over in this fashion were men, women, and children from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and elsewhere, but over the intervening centuries the notion has arisen that the Irish, in particular, were shipped to the New World as “white slaves.”  In fact, according to an article first published on the Internet in 2008 and endlessly recirculated since, Irish slaves were not only common in early America, they were more common than African slaves, and often treated more harshly. The article making these claims is usually credited to an individual named John Martin, who, in turn, found most of his “facts” in a 2003 article by James F. Cavanaugh called “Irish Slaves in the Caribbean.” It has gone by many names, but as of mid-2016, the most shared version of the Irish slave narrative was entitled “Irish: The Forgotten White Slaves,” and posted under the byline of a man named Ronald Dwyer. Regardless of who is or isn’t credited with writing it, nearly every iteration of the piece begins in exactly the same way: They came as slaves: human cargo transported on British ships bound for the Americas. They were shipped by the hundreds of thousands and included men, women, and even the youngest of children. Whenever they rebelled or even disobeyed an order, they were punished in the harshest ways. Slave owners would hang their human property by their hands and set their hands or feet on fire as one form of punishment. Some were burned alive and had their heads placed on pikes in the marketplace as a warning to other captives. We don’t really need to go through all of the gory details, do we? We know all too well the atrocities of the African slave trade. But are we talking about African slavery? King James VI and Charles I also led a continued effort to enslave the Irish. Britain’s Oliver Cromwell furthered this practice of dehumanizing one’s next door neighbor. The Irish slave trade began when James VI sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves. Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white. Woven throughout is the implication that the reason so few Americans know anything about the so-called “forgotten” history of Irish slavery is that it has been excluded from “biased” history books. Limerick-based research librarian and historian Liam Hogan takes aim at this notion in a series of papers debunking what he calls “the Irish slaves myth.” There were no Irish slaves in the Americas, Hogan says. People who claim there were are conflating indentured servitude with chattel slavery — two distinct forms of servitude with more differences between them than similarities:  “White indentured servitude was so very different from black slavery as to be from another galaxy of human experience,” as Donald Harman Akenson put it in If the Irish Ran the World: Montserrat, 1630-1730. How so? Chattel slavery was perpetual, a slave was only free once they they were no longer alive; it was hereditary, the children of slaves were the property of their owner; the status of chattel slave was designated by ‘race’, there was no escaping your bloodline; a chattel slave was treated like livestock, you could kill your slaves while applying “moderate correction” and the homicide law would not apply; the execution of ‘insolent’ slaves was encouraged in these slavocracies to deter insurrections and disobedience, and their owners were paid generous compensation for their ‘loss’; an indentured servant could appeal to a court of law if they were mistreated, a slave had no recourse for justice. Hogan pins a 2014 resurgence of the Irish slaves narrative to increasing racial tensions within the United States, situating it within a larger world view desirous of absolving white Europeans of blame for the transatlantic slave trade that brought an estimated 12 million Africans to the New World in lifelong bondage: From Stormfront.org, a self-described online community of white nationalists, to David Icke’s February 2014 interview with Infowars.com, the narrative of the ‘White slaves’ is continuously promoted. The most influential book to claim that there was ‘white slavery’ in Colonial America was Michael Hoffman’s They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of the Enslavement of Whites in Early America. Self-published in 1993, Hoffman, a Holocaust denier, unsurprisingly blames the Atlantic slave trade on the Jews. By blurring the lines between the different forms of unfree labour, these white supremacists seek to conceal the incontestable fact that these slavocracies were controlled by — and operated for the benefit of — white Europeans. This narrative, which exists almost exclusively in the United States, is essentially a form of nativism and racism masquerading as conspiracy theory. That the institution of chattel slavery in America was founded on race is undeniable. Beginning in the late 1600s, the colonies all adopted “slave codes” which, among other things, routinely defined slaves as “Negro” or “African,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:  In all of them the color line was firmly drawn, and any amount ofAfrican heritage established the race of a person as black, with little regard as to whether the person was slave or free. The status of the offspring followed that of the mother, so that the child of a free father and a slave mother was a slave. Slaves had few legal rights: in court their testimony was inadmissible in any litigation involving whites; they could make no contract, nor could they own property; even if attacked, they could not strike a white person. The Dred Scott decision handed down by the Supreme Court in 1857 reaffirmed that racialized definition of slavery. The 7 to 2 decision in Scott v. Sanford held that plaintiff Dred Scott, a black slave, did not qualify as an American citizen and had no standing to sue in federal court because, in part, persons imported as slaves “had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order”: In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument … They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. In terms of historical accuracy, the Irish slave story is a hodgepodge. For example, the “Proclamation of 1625” supposedly requiring all Irish prisoners to be sent overseas did not exist. You won’t find it in any history books. There was a 1603 proclamation by James I ordering that “rogues, vagabonds, idle, and dissolute persons” be “banished and conveyed” to “places and parts beyond the seas,” etc., but this was not directed at the Irish in particular. It was put to use decades later in the wake of the English Civil Wars, however, as a justification for forcibly shipping thousands of Irish prisoners, vagrants, and orphans to the Caribbean as indentured servants. More than any other, this historical fact inspired the notion that the Irish were enslaved. Still, the text wildly exaggerates the number of those treated in this fashion, falsely claiming that “300,000 were sold as slaves.” (Liam Hogan unravels these and similar statistical misrepresentations in “A Review of the Numbers in the Irish Slaves Meme.”)   That thousands of Irish people were carried across the sea against their will and indentured to serve on plantations isn’t disputed. It happened. What’s in question is whether or not they are rightly referred to as “slaves.” Some writers, such as genealogist and Irish Times columnist John Grenham, ask why not: The labor they did was slave labor, and their circumstances were much worse than those of the indentured workers who traveled at the same time and later, not least because indentured work, though often harsh, was voluntary and time-limited. Refusing to call them slaves is quibbling. Is it mere quibbling? Generically speaking, any form of forced labor can be called slavery. But what do we gain by doing so, besides blurring historical distinctions? Consider impressment, the 18th-century British naval practice of kidnapping young men and forcing them to serve on sailing vessels. That’s slavery, in a sense. So is being sentenced to hard labor in prison. But while these share features in common with the institution of chattel slavery in America, they are on a whole separate plane. It isn’t “bias” that keeps legitimate historians from substituting the term “slavery” for “impressment,” “hard labor,” or even “forced indentured servitude.” It’s a simple respect for the facts. Claim: Early in America's history, white Irish slaves outnumbered black slaves and endured worse treatment at the hands of their masters.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Gene therapy is designed to deliver a one-off cure for the patient and drugmakers are typically asking a hefty price that is comparable to the combined costs of alternative life-long treatment. Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said in draft guidance published on Friday that Strimvelis gene therapy used against adenosine deaminase deficiency, or ADA-SCID, improves overall survival compared with standard stem cell transplant therapy. The inherited condition disables the immune system and without treatment, children with ADA-SCID need to be kept in isolation to avoid infections – hence it has become known as the  “bubble baby” or “bubble boy” syndrome. “Strimvelis represents an important development in the treatment of ADA-SCID, offering the potential to cure the immune aspects of the condition and avoid some of the disadvantages of current treatments,” NICE said. “Costing 594,000 euros, the treatment is usually given once only and the effects are thought to be life-long,” it added. The draft guidance marks the first time NICE has applied its new cost effectiveness limits for treatments for very rare conditions. Claim: Britain backs GSK's gene therapy for 'bubble boy' syndrome.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A rumor started circulating during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom in June 2019 that Queen Elizabeth II had “thrown shade” at the American leader by wearing a tiara that symbolically warded off evil and sickness:  The Burmese Ruby Tiara worn by the Queen on that occasion was commissioned in 1973 and included 96 rubies given to Elizabeth as a wedding present by the people of Burma. The House of Garrard, the jewelry company that made the tiara, recently posted an image of this bejeweled headpiece to their Instagram page and explained that the rubies were originally intended as a symbolic  protection against evil and illness: The Queen’s Burmese Ruby Tiara is one of the most symbolic and personal pieces created for Her Royal Highness by the House of Garrard. The 96 rubies mounted in the tiara were originally given to the queen as a wedding gift from the people of Burma, intended as a symbol of protection against illness and evil. #Garrard #royalfamily #heritage #ruby #queenelizabethii The Court Jeweler blog elaborated on that topic: The new ruby tiara was made by Garrard in 1973. The rubies used in the making of the new piece were also a wedding gift; Elizabeth received them from the people of Burma. The gift included precisely 96 rubies, all of which are now set in the tiara. The Burmese people believe that rubies help protect the wearer from the 96 diseases that can afflict the human body — they definitely wanted to ensure that Elizabeth remained hale and hearty. The rubies and diamonds were set in a series of rose motifs, and if you know your English history, you’ll recognize a heraldic rose that combines white and red petals as the Tudor rose. The House of Garrard also posted an image of Queen Elizabeth wearing this tiara during President Trump’s state visit in June 2019: HM Queen Elizabeth II wore a suite of ruby jewels by Garrard to the State Banquet hosted for the US President yesterday. The Burmese Ruby and Diamond Tiara crafted in 1973 was complemented by a magnificent ruby necklace and matching earrings. #Garrard #royalfamily #queenelizabeth #heritage #highjewellery #tiara A post shared by  House Of Garrard (@houseofgarrard) on Jun 4, 2019 at 4:30am PDT   If Her Majesty’s wearing the Burmese Ruby Tiara were a sign of disrespect, one would expect that headpiece to see infrequent use. However, Elizabeth has worn the tiara on numerous occasions since it was commissioned in 1973, including while meeting world leaders such as South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, India’s President Pratibha Patil, Slovenia’s President Danilo Turk, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and French President François Mitterrand. The queen has also worn the tiara during celebratory events such as her silver jubilee in 1977:  In addition, the queen wore this tiara for an official portrait in 1992. That photograph would subsequently be used on the face of the £10 and £20 banknotes from St. Helena:  Given that Queen Elizabeth has worn this tiara in the company of a variety of world leaders and for a number of different special occasions, those claiming that she chose to wear it in June 2019 specifically as a slight against President Trump appear to be revealing more about their own political beliefs than the queen’s. Claim: Queen Elizabeth II wore a Burmese Ruby Tiara as a slight against U.S. President Donald Trump.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a statement, it said the ban, as well as a law making doctors liable to criminal charges for abortions done with the woman’s consent, were both unconstitutional. “The law criminalizing a woman who undergoes abortion of her own will goes beyond the minimum needed to achieve the legislative purpose and limits the right of self-determination of the woman,” it said in its ruling. Seven of the nine justices ruled the law unconstitutional, and two dissented. It had survived a challenge in 2012 when the court split evenly, four to four, as one seat was vacant then. “I believe this ruling frees women from shackles,” said Kim Su-jung, a lawyer representing the plaintiff, a doctor charged with conducting 69 illegal abortions. The ruling reflects a trend towards decriminalizing abortion, as cases of criminal punishment have fallen in recent years. Just eight new cases of illegal abortion were prosecuted in 2017, down from 24 in 2016, judicial data show. Of 14 cases  decided in lower courts in 2017, 10 postponed a ruling on condition that no crime be committed for a fixed time. A survey by polling firm Realmeter last week showed more than 58 percent of South Korean respondents favor scrapping the ban, but a little over 30 percent wanted it retained. Dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse highlighted persistent divisions in opinion. “How could you kill a baby that’s growing inside you? Abortion is a murder,” said Kim Yeong-ju, a 47-year-old mother of two who demonstrated in favor of the ban. But the ruling helps ensure pregnancy is a personal choice, said Lee Ga-hyun, who joined a protest against the law after she saw a friend risk her life using illegal medication for an abortion. “I welcome today’s ruling, which made it possible for women like me and my friend to live their lives freely,” added Lee, 27. The abortion ban dates from 1953, and has not changed materially since South Korea first adopted its criminal law after the 1950-1953 Korean War. Abortion numbers have been dropping, with 49,764 estimated for women between 15 and 44 in 2017, down from 342,433 in 2005 and 168,738 in 2010, as birth control measures spread and the population of women in that age range falls, says the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. A 2017 petition urging the presidential Blue House to scrap the law against abortion and allow abortion medication drew more than 230,000 signatures. At the time, a senior government official said existing law was problematic because it only held women accountable for abortion. President Moon Jae-in, a liberal, has not stated clearly if he supports the law, but has called for more discussions to build consensus. The law prescribes jail for up to a year or fines of up to 2 million won ($1,756) for women who undergo abortion. It also sets terms of up to two years in jail and seven-year license suspensions for medical professionals, including doctors, who provide abortions at the woman’s request. Exemptions now allow abortions within 24 weeks of pregnancy for medical reasons, such as a hereditary disease or grave danger to the mother, or following rape. In all those cases, the law requires the spouse’s permission. “If the case does not fall under an exemption, the law forces the pregnant woman to maintain the pregnancy completely and uniformly, without exception,” the court said. But the law will stay on the books until the end of 2020, it added, to allow time for its revision. In a statement, the government said it would respect the decision and take steps to comply. ($1=1,138.9000 won) Claim: South Korea court strikes down abortion law in landmark ruling.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Houston Health Department announced Tuesday the hospitalizations took place within the past month Dr. David Persse, who is health authority for the Houston Health Department and EMS medical director, says all three teenagers are doing well and improving. Two of the teenagers are no longer hospitalized. Persse declined to provide additional information about the three due to privacy laws. Health officials in Dallas County on Tuesday reported they had identified 14 probable or confirmed cases of severe respiratory illness related to e-cigarettes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified over 450 possible cases in 33 states of lung disease related to vaping, including as many as five deaths. Claim: Houston reports 3 teens treated for vape-related lung issues.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The only cost information is the size of the research project. The story says, “Britain’s leading heart charity launched a 50 million pound ($80 million) research project on Tuesday into the potential of stem cells to regenerate heart tissue and “mend broken hearts”. The story later says, “At a briefing in London to launch a “mending broken hearts” fundraising campaign, scientists said research into stem cells and developmental biology may in future make this possible in people too.” It’s unclear whether they hope to raise $80 million or already have and are hoping to raise more, but what is clear is that there is not a single mention of how much this type of therapy might cost patients and insurers. Any story about an experimental procedure could at least mention that, while costs cannot yet be determined, such approaches will predictably be very expensive when/if they are in clinical use. What’s troubling about not even raising the issue is that stem cell therapy could easily become a treatment only available to those with money. Given that this story is primarily about a fundraising effort, we also think the story should have spent a bit of time explaining the administrative costs of fund raising. The BHF notes a 19% cost for fundrasing, a number comparable to the American Red Cross. There are no benefits quantified. This might be difficult given that there are no human studies for cardiac cell regeneration, but, at a minimum, the story should have quantified some of the benefits (and harms) that occurred in the mice studied or even in the cells. What happened to that tissue? And how many times did the researchers have to try before it worked? We might have given the story a pass on this criterion were it not for the overly optimistic tone and the series of summaries from lab research that are presented without the proper context. There is no attempt to even mention any potential harms of a stem cell approach. Any story that fails to challenge claims that mending hearts could be as simple as recovering from a broken leg – and that the approach might eliminate the need for heart transplants – certainly should at least nod in the direction of potential harms. Or an acknowledgement that it may take a long time to learn what the potential harms may be. The story’s first example for why regenerative cell therapy will work is the often cited zebrafish. “The ability of heart tissue to regenerate already occurs in some animals, such as zebrafish, which can regrow portions of their own hearts if they are damaged.” From there, we are given a menagerie of cellular and animal success stories, never with any discussion of the size of the study, the study design or the many steps in between these studies and human studies. The story says, “Scientists in the United States reported last year that they had been able to turn structural heart cells into beating cells by identifying genes that, in a developing embryo, turn an immature cell into a beating heart cell or cardiomyocyte.” This was done in a lab, not in humans. The same goes for the “thymosin beta 4” study that is referenced. It was done using mice tissue. The disconnected series of “facts” do not provide any context for the average reader and their relationship to the BHF effot remains uncler. Not applicable. The story provided no meaningful background on heart failure, so it can be neither satisfactory nor unsatisfactory on this criterion. The story does not quote a single independent expert. It provides quotes from Dr. Weissberg, the BHF medical director and Dr. Schneider, who runs a BHF research center. Dr. Riley, is noted as leading one of the British research teams. What is not noted is that Dr. Riley has conducted research in cooperation with RegeneRX, a company seeking to commercialize regenerative treatments. (see: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100802/Thymosin-beta-4-is-essential-to-healthy-heart-development-embryonic-survival-Research.aspx ). The marketing materials actually provide more information about alternatives to regenerative therapy than the story. The British Heart Foundation’s website says, “We can encourage lifestyle changes to reduce risks of getting heart disease, and use surgery and drugs to minimise the effects of it, but the human heart cannot heal itself. At the moment, once your heart ‘breaks’, it stays that way. Although the story does not suggest that the treatments noted are available, it does provide the reader with a rather optimistic view of the possibility of such in the near term: “Scientists leading the work for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said they hope that within the next decade they may have experimental drugs in development that would give certain kinds of cells in the heart the ability to regenerate tissue, repair damage and therefore combat heart failure.” Nearly a decade ago, in 2003, a story in the Chronicle of Philanthropy used the same animal – the zebrafish – to predict a therapy allowing humans to regenerate cells: “After all, our livers regenerate to the correct size, and his zebrafish rebuilt the right amount of heart tissue. Once you get cells started along the correct path, he hopes, the genetic instructions will take over, and a broken heart might just fix itself.” Nowhere does the story make it plain that none of the research being discussed has used human subjects and most of it hasn’t even been done in live animal subjects. There are many clinical trials and regulatory hurdles to overcome before a therapy like this would be on the market. The British Heart Foundation is slightly more realistic than this story, saying on its website, “Within five years we hope to begin early clinical trials. Within 10 years we aim to be running full trials. Within a further decade, people living with heart failure could look forward to a brighter future.” The story does a good job capturing the enthusiasm surrounding this field of study. Were a therapy to be developed that allowed people to regenerate their own heart tissue, this truly would be novel. The story, however, does not make it clear that regenerative medicine is a very broad field with a stack of literature a mile high, none of which has come close to doing anything as earth-shaking as regrowing a human organ in a patient. The suggestion that heart cells could theoretically be reprogrammed is not new, with the first publication now almost a decade ago. (see: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa012081 ) Although there is a much better understanding of the underlying biology, a treatment option is still not a foregone conclusion. None of this is clear from the story, and so the question of novelty is left unanswered. We don’t have any direct evidence that the story relied on a written news release, but it clearly relied heavily on a “briefing in London to launch a ‘mending broken hearts’ fundraising campaign”. There are no outside perspectives offered. This is essentially the same thing as relying on a news release. Claim: Scientists look to stem cells to mend broken hearts",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The article fails to report how much the test costs. The article implies that people with \"low\" LDL particles are linked to a 27 percent reduced risk of heart attacks. But the sentence is so unspecific and garbled it’s hard to know what the claimed benefit is. And the story only gives this relative risk reduction figure, not the more helpful context of the absolute risk reduction. The story does not mention the frequency of the test’s false positives or false negatives, both of which could have serious consequences for the patient. The article refers to an article \"recently\" published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology. It does not name the article or specify the date. It appears the study is a paper published in October 2007 based on data collected for the Framingham Offspring Study. This is an observational study, not a clinical trial. The article implies that people who are ignorant about their LDL particle numbers cannot know their true heart disease risk. This can make people needlessly fearful that they need to have this test. The article quotes only one source, William Cromwell, the former chief medical officer of LipoSource, which markets the LipoProfile test. While the story says that Cromwell no longer has financial interest in the company, his co-author on the published study is an executive with LipoSource. This calls into question the reporter’s assertion that Cromwell \"no longer has a relationship with\" his former employer. Under the circumstances, the lack of a clearly independent source is a serious failing. The story does not describe how heart disease risk can be assessed and managed by means other than using the LipoSource test. The article fails to report how and under what conditions the LipoProfile test is available. The article implies the LipoProfile test is a novel method of identifying otherwise hidden heart disease risk using lipid analysis. In fact, there are several tests available and under development that seek to link heart disease risk with a variety of lipid measures other than LDL and HDL numbers. The company’s most recent press release was issued on March 28. It’s not clear whether it triggered this story. No other media have written about the test or the company recently. Claim: Study suggests a second LDL test",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A bottlenose dolphin breaks the surface near Kennedy Space Center in this 2009 photo released by the United States Department of Fish and Wildlife March 3, 2011. REUTERS/USFW/Handout The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared “an unusual mortality event” last week when the number of dead dolphins washing up in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida had reached nearly 60, about half of them newly born or stillborn calves. The death toll along shoreline has climbed to at least 82 since then, many times the normal mortality rate for dolphins along the Gulf Coast this time of year. Although none so far showed outward signs of oil contamination, suspicions immediately turned to petrochemicals that fouled Gulf waters after a BP drilling platform exploded in April 2010, rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor. Eleven workers were killed in the blast, and an estimated 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil spewed into the Gulf over more than three months. Scientists in the Gulf already were in the midst of investigating last year’s discovery of nearly 90 dead dolphins, most of them adults, when officials became alarmed at a surge in dead baby dolphins turning up on beaches in January. The latest spike in deaths, and a high concentration of premature infants among them, has led some experts to speculate that oil ingested or inhaled by dolphins at the time of the spill has taken a belated toll on the marine mammals, possibly leading to dolphin miscarriages. The die-off has come at the start of the first dolphin calving season in the northern Gulf since the BP blowout. But scientists at the independent Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama suggested Thursday that unusually chilly water temperatures in the Gulf may be a key factor. “Everyone wants to blame toxicity due to the oil spill, said Monty Graham, a senior scientist at the Dauphin Island lab. “The oil spill ... very well could have been the cause of the dolphin deaths. But the cold weather could have been the last straw for these animals.”   He noted that water temperatures abruptly plunged from the upper 50s into the 40s off Dauphin Island in January, just before the first two stillborn calves found there were recovered. He said a second wave of dolphin carcasses washed ashore after temperatures dipped again. Fellow Dauphin Island scientist Ruth Carmichael called the arrival of the cold snap “incredibly compelling.”   “The timing of the cold water may have been important because the dolphins were late in their pregnancies, about one to two months from giving birth. That might render them more vulnerable to temperature shocks,” she said. But NOAA officials discounted the significance of chilly weather, saying a similar cold snap in February 2010, months before the oil spill, was accompanied by higher-than-normal mortality among a range of wildlife, including fish and sea turtles. They also cited research showing bottlenose dolphins tend to swim away from extremely cool waters. “These animals have the ability to move away from cold. They don’t stay around in cold water,” said Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi. Scientists on both sides of the argument agreed that if frigid weather were to blame, the end of the die-off is likely at hand as warmer temperatures return. But NOAA experts are bracing for the number of deaths to jump further as the bottlenose calving season reaches full swing in the coming weeks, said Blair Mase, a marine mammal scientist for the agency. Some 2,000 to 5,000 dolphins in the region typically bear their young this time of year. Claim: Scientists debate cause of dolphin deaths.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: America gets a lot of wildfires. Some of them hit grassy rangelands, some hit forests, most are small but some are huge. The 2011 Wallow forest fire in Arizona destroyed over half a million acres. Since 2000, the country has averaged nearly 75,000 fires a year with over 80 million acres lost. There are many causes but Dana Perino, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, focused on just one. Last week on Fox News’ The Five, the conversation turned to climate change and in the middle of making the case that economic growth had to be part of any solution, Perino made a passing reference to fires. \"A lot of the problems with forest fires, the major raging ones that happen in the West,\" Perino said, \"Is because of bad policy that was put in place by environmentalists and not clear out the forests.\" We tried to reach Perino to ask her what she meant by \"a lot\" and what policies she had in mind. We did not hear from her. In this fact-check, we dig into the rich debate over the role of environmentalists and wildfires. In particular, we aim to see if fire damage would have been substantially less if environmental  policies were different. This question is as vast as the nearly 200 million acres managed by U.S. Forest Service, but we found that extensive drought and vast amounts of combustible material played a key role. And what about governments failing to proactively clear out forests? The consensus suggests a mix of factors that include fire policies dating back to the early 1900s and limited budgets to reduce fire hazards. What’s less clear is the role of environmental activists and environmental policies. It is true that environmental regulations and legal challenges by environmental activists frequently delay the work of the Forest Service. It is difficult to say if these delays played a major role in the large fires the country has experienced. Let’s take a look at the big picture, starting with the role of environmentalists. The environmental factor To John Barnwell, director of policy for the Society of American Foresters, a professional education group, the lack of money to prevent fires is primary. But environmentalists and their actions play a role. Barnwell chafes at the long environmental review process and frequent litigation over Environmental Impact Statements that beset the Forest Service. A 2010 analysis from Western Michigan University found that no other agency tops the Forest Service for the number of suits under the National Environmental Policy Act. It averaged about 100 legal challenges each year. In some well-known cases (think of the Spotted Owl in the Pacific Northwest), logging ground to a halt entirely due to environmental protection rules under the Endangered Species Act. Timber harvests on federal land are a fraction of what they were in late 1970s. Ann Camp, a forestry scientist at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, says national environmental groups seem to be intractable to compromise. \"I can tell you from experience that local environmentalists and local chapters of national environmental organizations have been on board for some activities,\" Camp said. \"But the national chapters nixed their involvement and had already decided to contest the outcome -- whatever it was if it included any level of harvesting.\" We found the case of a New Mexico fire where a Forest Service thinning project that might have reduced the damage was delayed by appeals from two environmental groups. On the other hand, we also found examples where environmental groups worked hand in hand with loggers and state and national officials to move many projects forward. And Camp noted that some large fires took place in remote areas where no logging of any sort had ever been planned. Plus, fires have struck in forests where extensive harvests took place. There is no question that environmental rules and lawsuits delay and sometimes block activities on federal lands, but it is difficult to prove that absent those moves that the western states would have avoided their mega fires. And there are several other factors that play a more prominent role, experts say. The paradox of too little fire When Congress wants an impartial analysis, it turns to its in-house think tank, the Congressional Research Service. In 2012, the CRS looked at the causes of wildfire damage. That report said the roots of recent mega fires are \"excess biomass in the forests, due to past logging and grazing and a century of fire suppression, combined with an expanding wildland-urban interface — more people and houses in and near the forests — and climate change, exacerbating drought and insect and disease problems.\" A huge part of the reason we see huge fires today, the CRS report and experts say, is that we were too quick to put out fires. Around 1910 a series of massive fires wiped out entire towns. In two days, Washington, Montana, and Idaho lost 3 million acres of woodland. The fires led to a cry for the federal government to beef up its efforts to put fires out as quickly as possible. \"Our forestry tradition comes from central Europe, which has always had a paradigm that fire was bad for forests,\" Camp said. Historically, periodic fires cleared out the undergrowth while allowing mature, healthy trees to survive. But with the focus on keeping fires small (the mantra was to put out every fire by 10 a.m. the day after it was reported), the amount of combustible material grew. The growth of grazing livestock also reduced naturally occurring fires by creating gaps in the terrain that stopped a fire from spreading. The result: In the 1800s, a natural stand of Ponderosa Pine, a common species in the West, might have a few dozen trees per acre. Today, hundreds of smaller trees might be squeezed into the same area. When fire hits, it burns hotter and moves faster. Instead of running along the ground, it jumps into the crown of the trees where the winds drive it even more. Many millions of acres of forest face this risk. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Forest Service policy began to shift in earnest toward viewing fire as a potential ally in managing the forests. But today, the Forest Service describes this legacy as the equivalent of a toxic dump. A hazard that built up over decades remains in place and is potentially lethal. Too little water The new millennium opened with an extended drought that left much of the western United States primed for fire. Peter Brown, a researcher at Colorado State University, has studied the fingerprints of fires over the centuries in the growth rings of trees. \"Fire is driven by climate,\" Brown said. \"The first thing you need, besides something like a lightning strike for ignition, is dry conditions.\" The years from 2000 to 2004 were spectacularly dry. Colorado State researchers said the drought was the strongest in 800 years. It killed trees, made the ones that lived more vulnerable to insects and turned the ground cover into tinder. The 2011 Wallow fire in Arizona came after a winter with little precipitation. The combination of dry ground, dry wood and grasses and strong winds produced a fire that in five weeks burned as many acres as had burned in the previous 25 years. Too little money, too much land The federal government has tried to come to terms with the legacy of a management policy that left too much fuel in the forests. Just as the nation was entering one its worst periods of fire, the Forest Service laid out an ambitious plan to clear away that excess scrub, brush and small trees. Called the 2000 Cohesive Strategy, it aimed to use controlled burns and physical removal to treat 6.9 million acres per year. An assessment by Northern Arizona University’s Ecological Restoration Institute highlighted the gap between that goal and the reality. In 2011, the agency planned to reduce the risk of fire in an additional 960,000 acres. \"Th­e number of acres treated in Fiscal Year 2011 is not even close to number of acres proposed per year in the 2000 Cohesive Strategy, or that are needed to reduce the threat of catastrophic fire at the landscape scale,\" the assessment said. At the heart of this problem is money. Barnwell said the Forest Service has been so busy fighting fires, it has needed to use the money that had been budgeted to prevent them. \"Over the past 10 years, they borrowed $3.4 billion from other activities to pay for fire suppression,\" Barnwell said. \"Congress will put some of that back, but they’ve missed a season to do really important work. They can never get ahead.\" We found wide agreement that these fire prevention projects need to take place on a very large scale if they are to tamp down on the mega fires. The Congressional Research Service advised that the odds make it unlikely that the land you clear will be the one where a fire will take hold -- there are just too many acres to cover. By the CRS’ count, the odds that any given acre will catch fire are no more than 1 out of 100. Thus, you have to treat a lot of acres and that has not happened. Lastly, Perino broadly faulted policies \"put in place by environmentalists.\" But both the National Environmental Policy Act (1969) and the Endangered Species Act (1973) passed either unanimously or with overwhelming bipartisan support. President Ronald Reagan signed significant revisions into law. Perino’s characterization seems like an oversimplification. Our ruling Perino said, \"A lot of the problems with forest fires is because of bad policy that was put in place by environmentalists.\" The crux of this fact-check really comes down to how you define \"a lot.\" While the record shows that the need for environmental impact statements and legal challenges have a significant impact on Forest Service projects on federal lands, the connection to the extreme fires of the past 15 years is less certain. Where we found broad consensus is that decades of aggressively putting out every fire as quickly as possible, and the use of land for grazing, created circumstances where the forests are brimming with fuel. That in conjunction with extended dry periods have turned them into tinderboxes. The federal strategy to remove that fuel runs up against budget constraints. The limited money is a much greater constraint than environmental policies. In the end, experts acknowledge that environmental policies are an issue, but they generally tip the scale toward other factors when assigning blame. Perino’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Update: The Forest Service drew funds from other programs over a 10-year period to pay for fire suppression. A previous version of this fact-check was unclear on this point.. Claim: A lot of the problems with forest fires ... is because of bad policy (not to clear out the forests) that was put in place by environmentalists.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On May 12 2020, a screenshot of a purported tweet from United States President Donald Trump circulated — in which he purportedly lashed out at Barack Obama and said that his predecessor didn’t “prepair” for the coronavirus pandemic:First and foremost Mr Dumbass it's PREPARE NOT PREPAIR…. Second, Even if the most eloquent studious intelligent President in recent years did fail to prepare you for a pandemic you had four years to prepare yourself dumbass…A post shared by  Tijuan Craft (@crafttijuan) on May 12, 2020 at 3:09pm PDTFirst of all, every single iteration of the tweet we located on Facebook or Instagram showed a very high level of engagement — 92.1K retweets and 181.5K likes. They also all showed an identical number of retweets and likes.Had the tweet been both authentic and that popular, it was likely those numbers would vary as people took screenshots to share, and that some readers might have captured an image of the tweet on mobile or in “night mode.” But it seemed only one screenshot of the purported tweet existed.In it, the following statement was attributed to Trump on Twitter:It is unbelievable that President Obama criticized me for the coronavirus response. He had 8 years to prepair the next president for a pandemic and he failed. I have done a tremendous job. There are still more people alive than dead!In addition to a very mockable misspelling, the tweet displayed a date (May 11 2020). It also included a credulity-bending claim that there were still “more people alive than dead” in the United States. A search on Twitter revealed that people replied to Trump referencing the screenshot (or tweeted the misspelling in commentary about him):@realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse @POTUS @gop #prepair😂😂😂😂😂😂spelling for dummies #DumpTrump2020 #DumbDonald #WorstPresidentEver #loser #spellingchallenged #embarrassing— Deetermined (@deems59) May 13, 2020Go prepair* some hamberders*, and stop talking.— Pamela Peitzman (@pammy_facepaint) May 13, 2020So @realDonaldTrump is saying President @BarackObama neglected to leave a prepair (LOL) a president who can’t spell, him for the pandemic! Well that’s a like he did PREPARE you for this you just ignored it and fired the Pandemic response team. This is ALL on YOU 45!— Lydia Jones (@LadyLakersfan) May 13, 2020How do you even know this? Everyone is angry!!! And at you ass!!! Always looking for a scapegoat!! 😂😂 and it’s spelled “prepare” not “prepair” 🤦🏻‍♀️— J. Leslie Muratalla (@andimnotcrazy) May 13, 2020y’all really chose a guy that spelled prepare like “prepair” and used the wrong “than” in a tweet today. I know he’s done worse, but the spelling & grammar feels personal— kate huey (@katehuey1) May 13, 2020None of those tweets were a direct reply to the purported original “prepair … for a pandemic” tweet. Also, no manual retweets or other traces of any such tweet seemed to exist, which would be likely if the tweet was authentic (and had that high a level of engagement.) We checked ProPublica’s Politwoops page for Trump, which archives all of his (and other politicians’) deleted tweets, and did not find any indication that he had ever tweeted this to begin with.Screenshots of a purported tweet by President Trump indicating he thought it “unbelievable that President Obama criticized him for the coronavirus response” when Obama “had 8 years to prepair the next president for a pandemic and he failed,” and that there “are still more people alive than dead” continued circulating, but there was no evidence Trump actually tweeted the comment or anything of the sort. The source of the tweet was unknown, but it was not a legitimate tweet nor a legitimate misspelling.Comments Claim: United States President Donald Trump tweeted \"\"it is unbelievable that President Obama criticized me for the coronavirus response\" and \"he had 8 years to 'prepair' the next president for a pandemic and he failed.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs of the new approach or the currently available components, continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, are not described. The two components are not cheap and many insurance companies aren’t covering them except in special circumstances. We do receive one set of data on benefits, the 70% vs. 47% for time spent in target blood glucose. We’re unable to verify these numbers, as the abstract available online and MedPageToday coverage both cite \"Time in Target\" as 72% and 50%. Perhaps 70% and 47% come from a different source, such as the press teleconference or presentation. We cannot verify it. Regardless, as we said for the harms, the comparative benefits are not meaningful if we don’t know who the comparator group was. Furthermore, we feel than an independent voice should’ve been provided to tell us the meaning of the benefits. According to the abstract, the key benefits were a) reduced variability and b) reduced time duration and severity of hyperglycemia. What does that mean for patients, or even doctors? Why does glucose deviation matter if, as the abstract says, the average glucose levels were the same in both groups? Just giving us \"70%\" next to a lower number, without an explanation or an identity for the comparator group, says zilch about the value of this research. The investigator is quoted as saying that \"We reduced hypoglycemia by half.\" There’s a dissonant choir of problems with this statement. First, it’s not clear from the sentence’s placement in the article if this result came in the prior study with children or in the current study with adults. (The rest of these points assume the latter.) Second, the article doesn’t identify the comparator group (those who just used the insulin pump), so a relative result is meaningless. So when the claim is made, \"We reduced hypoglycemia by half,\" readers should be told \"half of what?\" Third, the fact that they used a relative risk reduction figure, not an absolute one, is important because this study was so short and small, using relative risk reductions masks the weight (or thinness) of the evidence, especially when we don’t have the statistical significance. Fourth, we’re not sure what data the investigator’s statement of reducing \"hypoglycemia by half\" is based on. In the abstract, it’s says that the time spent below target glucose was approximately half but the difference was not statistically significant, no doubt due to the small power and short duration of the study. If our interpretation is correct, the story’s author has touted a benefit that’s insignificant, statistically speaking. Fifth, it should’ve been clearer about what \"reduced hypoglycemia\" mean? The total time spent below target glucose range — which averaged out over the course of the study — is different than a (severe) hypoglycemic event, which some readers may read in this result. How dangerous is it to spend any time below the target range, if only temporary and possibly briefly? In other words, is it a harm or an efficacy issue? In the abstract, we read about 1 serious case of hypoglycemia  with the insulin pump, 0 with the closed-loop system; but again, with 12 patients using each for a night, statistically we’re not sure what that tells us. Regardless of the true intent of this statement, and the true harms that occurred in the study, an independent analysis may have clarified such confusions. No overt disease mongering. No sources appear to have been quoted besides those on the teleconference. We don’t know the basis for the call, but it sounds like a press briefing. Conflicts are mentioned for the people directly involved in the research. But readers can’t know or judge for themselves whether others who were quoted in the story were truly independent sources – with no funding connection to this research. The artificial pancreas approach isn’t compared to any other alternatives, if only because the article never identifies the comparator group as those using the insulin pump. One the one hand, the article tells us that the technology is emerging, the algorithm is still being developed, and the whole approach is still being researched in future studies. On the other hand, the article’s tone and unbalanced quotes from investigators make the ultimate availability seem like a foregone conclusion, which it isn’t after a 12-subject study. What’s missing is at least some emphasis, ideally early, that this research is quite experimental at this point, with some discussion of the steps between this small study and the technology potentially going to market. The article also takes until the third to last paragraph, after the discussion of the Ritholz study, to explain what an \"artificial pancreas\" actually is; burying that explanation and leading with an illustration of a real human pancreas does nothing but suggest to lay readers that an \"artificial pancreas\" is something like a prosthetic organ, instead of a computer link between extant devices. It could’ve been clearer about how the \"closed loop\" technology is supposed to improve on the available devices. In fact, we’re not sure that the description of the artificial pancreas as a single discrete \"device\" matches what was used in the study, which, according to the abstract, seems to have involved a glucose monitor, a computer, and a human being making adjustments to the patient’s insulin pump. The end of the article explains the artificial pancreas technology, implying that the computer linkage between monitor and pump is the novel part that is still under development. However, we give this criterion an Unsatisfactory rating because a) that explanation was buried in the end, after the Ritholz study summary; b) the article never explained that the aforementioned approach is the goal, not the one used in this study, which seems to have involved manual operators adjusting the patient’s insulin pump as they slept. Little information about how the \"artificial pancreas\" actually works, and what it consists of physically — e.g., how big is the \"device\"? — is provided. This story does not appear to rely overly on the ADA press release. However, we see no evidence of any sources used outside the cited teleconference, which seems like a press briefing. Because of our uncertainty about how much independently vetted reporting took place, we’ll rate this not applicable. Claim: Artificial Pancreas Continues to Show Promise",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: GOP Senate candidate Ed Gillespie says Obamacare won’t help you grow old. \"It’s a law that cuts seniors’ Medicare,\" Gillespie said in a campaign email listing reasons why  he opposes the health care law. This is a well-traveled claim that PolitiFact has met frequently over the years. Paul Logan, Gillespie’s campaign spokesman, backed up the statement, in part, with blurbs from fact checks written by our colleagues in two other PolitiFact bureaus. He pointed to a 2013 PolitiFact National article examining a claim by Scott Brown -- the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in New Hampshire -- that Obamacare \"raises taxes and cuts Medicare.\", saying the law \"definitely raises taxes,\" to help pay for its costs. But our colleagues also said the claim that Obamacare cuts Medicare is a complicated issue that undercut the accuracy of Brown’s full claim. PolitiFact has looked askance at bare statements that Obamacare cuts Medicare, rating them either Half True or  depending on how they are worded. Obamacare, to help cover its costs, also imposed a series of savings. Among them are measures that will reduce the increase in Medicare by $716 billion from 2013 to 2022, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate. It’s important to note that Medicare spending will continue to rise, but at a slower pace than they it would have without the law. And the savings are focused on lowering payments to hospitals and insurance companies -- not beneficiaries. Gillespie’s says that Obamacare cuts \"seniors’ Medicare.\" That suggests the law isn’t just reducing Medicare spending but is actually slicing Medicare benefits. To support that line of reasoning, Logan pointed to a couple of PolitiFact articles in which experts suggested that the reduced payments the law calls for could affect patients’ access to services. PolitiFact Wisconsin noted in October 2012 concerns that slowing growth in Medicare payments might discourage some health care providers from accepting Medicare patients. One area of concern is the Medicare Advantage program, which is run by private insurers and offers greater benefits than traditional Medicare for things such as dental care, free eye glasses and gym memberships. About 30 percent of the 54 million Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S. are enrolled in those plans, according to Kaiser Family Foundation estimates. Those privately run plans cost more per beneficiary than traditional Medicare, and Obamacare  seeks to even out those costs. Some health care analysts have said the law’s Medicare Advantage cost savings might lead to its enrollees’ paying higher premiums or losing some of their extra benefits On the other hand, Gillespie does not mention that the health care law actually adds some new services: It gradually closes that gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage known as the \"doughnut hole,\" funds illness prevention benefits and expands preventative care benefits. Logan also referred us to statements issued by for former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. In March 2010, Webb said said Obamacare would make \"dramatic cuts in Medicare\" and lamented the reductions in Medicare Advantage. Here’s a quick note on the timing of Gillespie’s email. Logan told us it was originally sent in January and was resent by the campaign on Aug. 25 after the Daily Press in Newport News -- which published a weekly PolitiFact Virginia digest --signed up recently to get automated email updates from the campaign. \"Unless you want to single out that particular signup, it would be more accurate to refer to it as a January email rather than an Aug. 25 email,\" Logan said. Because the email is part of the campaign’s ongoing communications about Obamacare -- one that the Gillespie campaign feels free to resend -- we think it’s fair to judge it as a current line of attack from Gillespie’s campaign on the law. Our ruling Gillespie says Obamacare \"cuts seniors’ Medicare,\" a statement that implies the law is reducing benefits across the board. There’s debate among analysts over how the law’s cost savings measures will impact some beneficiaries, particularly seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers. Some of those seniors -- who comprise about 30 percent of Medicare recipients -- may lose some of the extra benefits they had before the law or could see higher premiums. Overall, the health care law slows Medicare’s growth, but spending will still rise significantly and some new services for seniors were added. Claim: Obamacare \"cuts seniors’ Medicare.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As strong winds sent flames roaring into Paradise at 2 miles per minute, emergency personnel and locals realized their escape plans, crafted after a 2008 blaze, would not work. “The lessons we had learned in the past kind of went out of the window due to the sheer speed and intensity of this fire,” Paradise Emergency Operations Coordinator Jim Broshears said in a phone interview. The small mountain town was facing the so-called Camp Fire, one of a series of recent “megafires” fueled by drought, erratic winds and overgrown forests that quickly torch over 100,000 acres. A week after California’s deadliest blaze, which killed at least 71 people, residents were critical of the town’s alert system. Broshears said other towns could save lives if they taught residents to shelter from fire and got more of them to sign up for alerts. As Paradise was engulfed around 8 a.m. on Nov. 8, officials attempted a staggered evacuation using their CodeRED alert system to target a zone at a time. They wanted to avoid the panic and chaos that ensued in 2008 as all 27,000 residents tried to flee at once. With the fire toppling power lines and mobile towers, and residents jamming networks with calls, about 60 percent of CodeRED alerts were delivered, according to Troy Harper a spokesman for OnSolve, the company that provides the service. Between 25 and 50 percent of residents had signed up for the optional system, Broshears said, meaning 30 percent of households, at best, got alerts. As the town burned, officials abandoned the phased evacuation and told everyone to get out, Broshears said. “We felt we morally couldn’t do that and just had to go all out and hope for the best,” said the former Paradise fire chief, who has lived in the town since 1974. Locals like nurse Darrel Wilken said an old-fashioned siren system would have been better than CodeRED. “People who are not connected to the internet or phone need to know there is a fire,” said Wilken. Paradise widened, paved and straightened roads after the 2008 blaze to allow for a speedier evacuation. But the Camp Fire burned across all escape routes. “The flow plan didn’t work,” said Broshears. “We couldn’t flow huge amounts of traffic down an available highway because there was no available highway.”  The fire moved faster than anyone expected, throwing embers that reached 2 miles (3 km) ahead of the flames, Paradise Mayor Jody Jones said. “I don’t know that there’s a city or town in the entire world that could evacuate their entire population all at the same time and not overwhelm their roadway structure,” Jones told CNN in an interview on Saturday. On the ground, residents fought to escape the town. Wilken, 51, got word around 8 a.m. that the fire was 7 miles away. By 8:15 a.m. trees outside his window at the Feather River Hospital were on fire. There was no time to gather ambulances to evacuate the 67 admitted patients as staff had trained to do. “If your car was not on fire, you were the ambulance,” said Wilken, who loaded three patients into his Subaru WRX. His designated escape route was blocked by flames. He wove through back streets and a slalom of burning vehicles, his car exterior melting from the heat, trees and electricity poles falling on vehicles ahead, before reaching safety hours later. As Wilken fled, firefighters and volunteers including resident Mike Boggs tried to get into town. Police had turned all exit routes into contraflows, a move that sped up the evacuation, but obstructed first responders trying to enter Paradise. Boggs went off road and drove up a ditch in his pickup, followed by a fire truck. The 60-year-old iron worker credits a decision after the 2008 blaze with saving his and nearby homes in Butte Valley, near Paradise. He bought 40 cattle that grazed on grass that would have otherwise fed the fire. “Everywhere I put my cows it didn’t burn,” said Boggs. For Broshears, one of the biggest lesson from the Camp Fire was that residents facing a megafire might sometimes be better off sheltering in open spaces, like road intersections, than trying to outrun flames. “It would be ugly but you’d survive,” he said. Claim: Evacuation plan 'out the window' when fire hit California town.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release does not mention costs. The news release encapsulates the differences observed: “The study examined 121 patients at an average of 51 months post-surgery,” it says. “Of this group, 68 patients had experienced their first dislocation, while 53 had recurrent dislocations after being initially treated non-operatively. After treatment with an arthroscopic bankart repair, the postoperative dislocation rate in the first-time injury group was 29%, compared to 62% in those who did not have surgery after their initial injury.” And 7% of those with surgery after the initial dislocation vs 32% after a recurrent dislocation had to have another surgery, according to the release. The news release does not say whether there were any drawbacks associated with undergoing surgery. This quote from the lead author appears to acknowledge their existence: “While young athletes and parents may be wary of surgery, our study shows the advantages of this treatment approach,” commented Marshall. But it does not spell out what those drawbacks might be. The study was based on a retrospective chart review to identify subjects. More than half of identified subjects (296 of 439) were then excluded for various reasons for the next phase of the study, which was a survey, with an 85 percent response rate reported. The study was not a randomized trial, which would have made the results more clear, and which would have allowed a more definitive statement about management of the problem. The release would have been stronger had it pointed out the limitations of retrospective studies and surveys. The news release doesn’t engage in disease mongering. Nor does it say how many people are affected by shoulder instability or even what “shoulder instability” is, how it’s caused, or what its impact is. Any or all of these would have provided useful context. It would have been helpful had the news release noted that Alabama Orthopedic Spine & Sports Medicine Associates carried out the surgeries. The news release refers to “non-operative” interventions, but does not say what they are. The news release does not say how available either procedure is. The release would have been stronger if it had clarified whether all orthopedic surgeons perform this procedure or if it is a specialized procedure only available at certain clinics. The news release does not say anything about the novelty of the surgical intervention or of the non-surgical approaches. Is this the first time this issue has been studied? The release gives no sense as to how this study fits into the wider body of research. The release doesn’t rely on sensational language or make overtly unjustified claims. However, as noted above under the summary and evidence headings, we have some concerns about the way the study findings were presented in the release. The news release says that the research “demonstrated that surgery after a first-time shoulder dislocation lowered the re-injury risks and need for follow-up surgery when compared to those who were initially treated non-operatively and experienced a repeat dislocation prior to surgery.” But the study abstract itself does not justify going that far. Instead, it says simply that “first time dislocators had lower postoperative instability rates and reoperation rates when compared to patients with recurrent dislocations prior to surgical intervention.” Association v. Causation 101. And a quote from the lead author offers a curious view of the role of the physician: “Deciding between a non-operative program or going forward with surgery can be a challenging decision for medical professionals treating shoulder injuries in young athletes,” says Dr. Marshall. That statement implies that treatment decisions are made by medical professionals alone. But the agenda paper offers a more inclusive take: “Young, athletic patients with shoulder instability should be offered early surgical intervention to lower the risk of postoperative instability and reoperation,” it says. Claim: Treating First Time Shoulder Dislocations with Surgery Can Benefit Young Athletes, Study Shows",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This article does a great job of noting the cost and pricing issues inherent in the drug company’s efforts to develop, test and market novel biologicals. The headlong rush to “personalized” medicine, pharmacogenetic approaches to treatment, limited resources even in wealthy nations with gold-plated insurance policies, and the opacity of drug industry research costs make it imperative to explain to the public the realities of medicine’s pricing system. The thoughtful reader will understand that the benefits are modest, as indicated by the well-written headline and carefully worded opening sentence. However, missing from the story was a discussion of the study findings in absolute terms. The story says the study that “heart-attack survivors on one of three doses of canakinumab were 15 percent less likely to suffer another major cardiac event than those on a placebo.” What does this mean in absolute numbers? The way researchers measured it was in events per 100 person-years, and the “events” were non-fatal heart attack, non-fatal stroke, or death from a cardiovascular reason. In the placebo group, there were 4.50 cardiac events per 100 person-years. In the group receiving 150 mg doses of canakinumab, there were 3.86 events per 100 person years. Of the various doses given (50, 150 and 300 milligrams), the 150 mg dose was the only statistically significant result, and it was only because of non-fatal heart attacks. From the get-go, readers are told there are risks to keep in mind. This was entirely absent from the TIME story we reviewed. That said, we wish this Reuters story had discussed the harms more in-depth–how frequent were they? How severe? This was a randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial with a large number of patients. The story doesn’t explain this, nor any of the study’s limitations. No mongering here. This story, which is more of a “business of medicine” story, uses a drug industry analyst source to good effect, and included commentary from the study’s accompanying editorial. Both this story and the TIME story don’t mention that there are many effective and less expensive alternatives to secondary cardiac disease prevention, such as smoking cessation, aspirin, statins, blood pressure control, etc. The lede graph says “Novartis will seek regulatory approval” for the drug’s use against heart disease, “though some experts fear fatal infection risks and a high price may overshadow the medicine’s limited scientific benefits.” At least for now. The story does a pretty good job of explaining what is novel about the the drug’s effects and targeting. The story does not appear to rely on the news release. Claim: Novartis hopeful for novel heart drug, despite 'modest' benefit",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: News stories abound of airline passengers traveling with all sorts of unusual animals under the premise that their non-human companions provide necessary emotional support, such as this one about a bereaved widow who flew with her turkey to San Francisco, where she would be spreading her late husband’s ashes: A Seattle woman who was flying to San Francisco to spread her husband’s ashes took her 25-pound pet turkey on the flight for emotional support. Jodie Smalley, 34, says her turkey, Easter, has been there for her since her husband passed away from cancer three months ago. She had a custom diaper made for Easter for their flight, and she has all the necessary documents that certify the turkey is a legitimate emotional support animal. “Hearing about a turkey on a plane sounds ridiculous,” she said. “But people have no idea what I’ve been through.” While service animals such as seeing-eye dogs have a long history and are familiar to nearly everyone, emotional support animals are a much newer phenomenon. Established law provides for the accommodation of service animals and emotional support animals in housing and other public facilities, but headlines start rolling off the presses when the human half of the pair attempts to travel on an airplane with a non-standard species such as a miniature horse, pig, or monkey. Pot-bellied pigs are often favored as emotional support animals by those who are allergic to dogs. However, pigs don’t always travel well, as illustrated in several news stories of recent years: in November 2014, for instance, a woman was escorted off of a USA Airways flight in Connecticut because her 70-pound pot-bellied pig was squealing uncontrollably, “three times louder than a child,” and defecated in the airplane aisle. In a 2001 incident (again on a USA Airways flight), the passenger informed the airline that her pig was “about a hundred pounds,” but staff were taken aback when the pig arrived and it proved to be closer to 300 pounds. The two women (the pig-owner was traveling with a friend) were assigned bulkhead seats in first class to provide as much space as possible, but they were still forced to plant their feet on the bulkhead for the duration of the six-hour flight to allow adequate space for their porcine companion. Although the pig was calm during the flight, it became frantic upon deplaning, squealing, urinating, and defecating in the close confines of the galley in a frenzied effort to get off the airplane after landing. In May 2003, blind passenger Dan Shaw traveled from Boston to Chicago with his seeing-eye miniature horse, Cuddles, to appear on an episode of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. Shaw chose a miniature horse instead of a dog for his guide animal because horses have much longer lifespans than dogs, and he was afraid of getting emotionally attached to a dog who might have a relatively short life. Shaw purchased a first-class ticket for his horse because, at two feet high and 70 pounds in weight, Cuddles wouldn’t have fit under the seat in front of him in coach. Although American Airlines staff initially debated requiring that Cuddles wear a diaper, they relented when they were assured that Cuddles was housebroken and decided to forego the diaper requirement for the two-hour flight. That turned out to be an unfortunate decision, because Cuddles defecated on the carpet in front of the bulkhead. The fact that the flight’s take-off was delayed 45 minutes may have contributed to Cuddles’ discomfort. We didn’t find any instances of service monkeys being involved in disruptive incidents aboard airplanes, but perhaps that is because most service monkeys are six to ten pound Capuchins who can fit in a carrier under the seat in front of the passenger, just as more typical pets do. With incidents like these appearing in the news, and consumers experiencing the ever-closer confines of coach seating, air travel with unusual animals immediately grabs the public’s attention. In particular, air passengers have taken umbrage at other flyers who are seemingly trying to “game the system” and declare their household pets to be emotional support animals to get their animals on-board for free. In 1986, Congress passed the Air Carrier Access Act, a law intended (in part) to ensure that service animals would be allowed to fly on planes and could not be booted off simply because other passengers object to their presence. Service animals must be under the control of their owners (physically by a leash or cage, or verbally through commands), cannot roam around the cabin, and — contrary to the accidents described in the news stories mentioned above — must be trained not to eliminate on  airplanes. For flights of longer than eight hours, the owners must provide written plans for clean disposal of waste. Although the emergency exit rows with their expanded legroom might seem like a logical place to put a dog or other service animal, those rows must be kept clear at all times for emergencies, so service animals usually end up in the bulkhead rows if they are too large to fit under a seat. Monkeys are the only species permitted by the FAA to travel on a seat instead of the floor (although we’ve read of celebrities purchasing first-class seats for their pet pooches). Airlines, thankfully, are allowed to prohibit passage to unusual service animals such as snakes, rodents, ferrets, and spiders. They can also prohibit farm poultry, but Easter — the widow’s turkey mentioned at the beginning of this article — had been classified as a domesticated bird by Delta Airlines and was thus allowed to fly. (It should be noted that Easter flew without incident: he wore a diaper and reportedly “didn’t make a sound.”) There’s a legal distinction between service animals and emotional support animals. Service animals, usually dogs, are individually trained to assist their owners with disabilities. These include the well-known Seeing Eye Dogs, Hearing Dogs, Psychiatric Service Dogs, Seizure Response Dogs, and dogs who are trained to perform such tasks as pulling a wheelchair, picking up items that have been dropped, reminding a person to take medication, alerting their person to a sound, and so on. Service animals also occasionally include miniature horses such as Cuddles. Emotional Support Animals (ESA), also known as Comfort Animals, are supposed to be used as part of an emotional therapeutic treatment plan. They do not have specific training to provide tasks on behalf of their humans and are not considered service animals under the American Disabilities Act. They may provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes help with depression, anxiety, or other phobias. There is no national standardized certification to document the qualifications of an emotional support animal. Some pet owners have been accused of falsely claiming that their household pet is an emotional support animal to travel for free (since the Air Carrier Access Act prohibits the airlines from charging a fee for such animals) or to get around the limitations that airlines typically impose on the number of pets allowed to travel per cabin. Legally, getting an ESA on an airplane requires documentation from a mental health provider verifying the emotional benefit of the animal. The letter should be less than one year old, prescribe or endorse the animal as an ESA offering benefits for a particular mental disability, and the emotional/mental diagnosis must comply with the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). In practice, however, it is not difficult to find mental health providers who will provide supportive letters. In addition, numerous websites exist that promise to “certify” an owner’s pet as an emotional support animal, charging between $59 and $200 to provide the owner with an ID vest and a certificate — and sometimes the necessary mental health letters as well. While researching this story, we easily found websites that promised “Any dog may qualify,” “Take your pet everywhere. Instant Approval!”, and “It’s easy to register your pet as an emotional support animal!” Two Today investigative writers discovered first-hand the ease with which they could travel with their animals. Jeff Rossen filled out a questionnaire on a ESA web site and was sent an official letter from a mental health professional without ever seeing or speaking to her. He subsequently took two flights with his dog sitting in his lap, and no one from the airlines even asked to see the letter. His colleague, Lindsey Bomnin, received certification from the same web site for a borrowed pot-bellied pig, then took two flights with the pig on her lap. Although obtaining certification for a household pet may seem like a nifty way of avoiding the airlines’ pet fares — or sticking it to an industry which seems to find ever-more-numerous ways of nickel-and-diming their customers — faking a disability ultimately ends up hurting those who really do need their emotional support animals. In addition, claiming that a large and unruly animal is an ESA (like that 300-pound pig) presents a true safety hazard to passengers and crew alike if the animal panics or goes on a rampage. Claim: People can fly with dogs, pot-bellied pigs, turkeys, monkeys, and miniature horses if they claim that their pets are emotional support animals.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The statement gave no reason for their removal, but said forests would be managed under the office of the prime minister for the time being. Bongo had promised to punish anyone implicated in the disappearance of a cache of 392 containers of the wood, which were seized at the port of Owendo in late February and early March. Two Chinese nationals are being held in relation to the case, and last week the head of customs Dieudonne Lewamouo was detained. Gabonese authorities said last month that they had recovered 200 containers. Illegal logging is ravaging the forests of West and equatorial Africa, most of it driven by Chinese demand, but rarely do governments take action against suspected culprits. Since taking over from his father in 2009 - continuing a family dynasty that has exceeded five decades - Ali Ben Bongo has cast himself as an environmental crusader. He has delighted conservation groups by banning raw wood exports, expanding protected zones and creating 13 new national parks. Despite those efforts Gabon remains a hub for poaching, illegal logging and the illicit wildlife trade. Bongo suffered a stroke last October while abroad, but returned home in March. Secrecy surrounding the state of Bongo’s health during his five-month absence has fueled instability in Gabon, where declining oil revenues and widespread poverty have dented his popularity. Claim: Gabon president fires VP, forests minister over hardwood scandal.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The billion-dollar project “MenStar” will target men living with or at risk of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been ravaged by AIDS since the 1980s. “The MenStar coalition is bravely tackling the root cause of this problem — the lack of awareness of HIV prevention amongst hard-to-reach young men,” Harry said at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam. Speaking at the launch, which also featured South African actress Charlize Theron and Ndaba Mandela, the grandson of late President Nelson Mandela, Elton John said: “If we want to end AIDS once and for all, we must make men part of the solution.”  Around 36.7 million people around the world have HIV, according to 2016 figures cited by the United Nations’ HIV/AIDS body UNAIDS. Fewer than half of men living with HIV receive treatment compared with 60 percent of women, it said. “It is time there was a global coalition to teach men to protect themselves. And in doing so, it will teach them to better protect not only their wives and girlfriends, their sisters and daughters, but also, critically, their brothers and their sons,” the British singer said. UNAIDS said this month that the fight against HIV/AIDS was “slipping off track” and while deaths were falling and treatment rates rising, rates of new HIV infections threatened to derail efforts to defeat the disease. Prince Harry said the campaign launch came at “a time when new energetic and innovative solutions are needed more than ever before”. “MenStar” is supported by the U.S. government’s PEPFAR program for tackling HIV/AIDS and by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Experts at the conference hope for the elimination of AIDS worldwide by 2030, but the United Nations warned last Wednesday of a funding gap of £4.6 billion that threatens efforts. Claim: Prince Harry joins Elton John to launch HIV campaign targeting men.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Hanging, poisoning and shooting are the most common suicide methods, the WHO said as it urged governments to adopt suicide prevention plans to help people cope with stress and to reduce access to suicide means. “Suicide is a global public health issue. All ages, sexes and regions of the world are affected (and) each loss is one too many,” the WHO’s report said. Suicide was the second leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 29, after road injury, and among teenage girls aged 15 to 19 it was the second biggest killer after maternal conditions. In teenage boys, suicide ranked third behind road injury and interpersonal violence. Overall, close to 800,000 people die by suicide every year - more than are killed by malaria or breast cancer, or by war or homicide, the WHO said. Global rates have fallen in recent years - with a 9.8% decrease between 2010 and 2016 - but declines were patchy. In the WHO’s Americas region, for example, rates rose by 6% in between 2010 and 2016. The report also found that nearly three times as many men as women die by suicide in wealthy countries, in contrast to low- and middle-income countries, where the rates are more equal. “Suicides are preventable,” said the WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We call on all countries to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programs.”  The WHO said restricting access to pesticides was one of the most effective ways of reducing suicide numbers swiftly. Pesticides are commonly used and usually result in death because they are so toxic, have no antidotes, and are often used in remote areas where there is no nearby medical help. The WHO pointed to studies in Sri Lanka, where bans on pesticides have led to a 70% drop in suicides and an estimated 93,000 lives saved between 1995 and 2015. Claim: Suicide kills one person every 40 seconds, says WHO.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The above-displayed photographs have been circulating on the Internet since at least 2004, usually in e-mail forwards that set them in one of several Arab/Muslim areas (e.g., Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestinian territories) and claim that the boy pictured is being punished under a harsh Sharia  law system that imposes a penalty grossly out of proportion to the nature of the crime (i.e., having his arm crushed under a vehicle because he stole a loaf of bread). These pictures originated with the Iranian news site PeykeIran, who (along with persons who have witnessed similar scenes in other countries) confirmed that what the photographs actually depict is performers hustling money from onlookers by staging a common street act, one in which a subject seemingly allows himself to be run over by a heavy vehicle and then emerges unscathed. This a common act, variations of which are performed by many magicians and accomplished through a variety of means, with no lasting harm done. That the subject is a small boy who grimaces his way through the stunt is all part of the act, intended to elicit sympathy and extra cash from onlookers. (Despite his contorted facial expressions, the boy is not seriously or permanently injured by the process.) It’s difficult to make any definitive statement about Sharia/Islamic law since customs and enforcement can vary from region to region, but although the cutting off  hands may sometimes be the prescribed maximum penalty for cases of theft under the strictest interpretations of Sharia, Islamic law resources consistently note that such punishments shall not be applied to children who have not yet reached puberty (which is defined as the age of 15 for boys), nor for the theft of small-value items or food by the hungry:    The maximum sentence of any violation of law is not applied in every case. In the robbery and theft cases for example, the maximum penalty of hand-cutting applies after the consideration of many factors such as track record and whether the theft was made for profit. In some cases, such as stealing food because of severe hunger or to prevent death, there may not be a penalty. A person’s hand is not amputated when he steals less than the equivalent of 4.374 grams of gold [or] something that is useless. The penalty for the one who steals (when the above conditions are met) is that his/her right arm is amputated. The above photographs do not depict any form of amputation, and it is the child’s left arm which goes under the wheels. Moreover, there are no police, judges, religious authorities, or other officials evident in any of the pictures, just a huckster with a hand-held microphone who drums up business and describes the action for the onlookers visible in the background of the first photo. (Also note the blanket placed under the boy’s arm: something that is useful for a staged stunt but is unlikely to be provided or allowed by those intent on severely punishing a lawbreaker.) The versions of these photographs circulated via e-mail generally leave out the last pictures of the original series, which show the same boy after the conclusion of the stunt: Claim: Photographs show a boy having his arm crushed under a truck as a punishment for stealing bread.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Scripps Health, which operates five hospital campuses in San Diego County, is starting to set up tents outside its clinics to screen people for the virus. “By Friday we will have what we are euphemistically calling COVID cabanas at two of our clinics,” Chris Van Gorder, its chief executive, told Reuters. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday began seeing patients in tents set up in its parking garage. “Patients who present to the emergency department will be screened. If they have respiratory symptoms they will potentially be sent to this area,” said Jeff Smith, the center’s chief operating office. “We are anticipating that some will test positive for coronavirus.”  Members of the American Hospital Association have been advised to prepare for 96 million cases in the next few months, with 4.8 million additional admissions, 1.9 million intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and 480,000 excess deaths - or about 10 times the number caused by a severe flu season. “If we have a full-blown outbreak, as is predicted by almost all the modelers, we may have a situation where we are 75,000 to 100,000 ICU beds short,” Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s national center for disaster preparedness (NCDP), told Reuters. Experts estimate that about 80 percent of people infected with the virus, SARS-CoV-2, will have only mild symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that these patients remain at home, isolating themselves as much as possible. COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, is a highly contagious respiratory illness. About half of the remaining 20 percent of infected individuals are likely to develop serious symptoms, with the most severe cases requiring hospitalization. The elderly and people with underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, are most at risk. There are currently 95,000 ICU beds in the United States, the NCDP says. The number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen steadily to over 1,300, with 38 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Smith at Cedars said the two-hospital center currently has adequate ICU capacity, but is anticipating that the number of patients will grow. “Contingency plans could include caring for patients in anesthesia recovery units or other areas within the hospital,” he said. The 1,400-bed Scripps hospital group has 99 negative pressure isolation rooms used to contain airborne contaminants, three of which are in use - including one patient with COVID-19. If the number of COVID-19 patients surpasses that, Van Gorder said temporary air handlers can be brought in to convert standard rooms - or even an entire wing or floor of a hospital - into isolation units. Tents could also be used to house patients if needed, he said. California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued an executive order clearing the way for the state to “commandeer property,” such as hotels, to quarantine or treat COVID-19 patients. “A lot of our care we are planning to do remotely via telemedicine or video medicine,” the Scripps CEO said. “Hospital beds would be reserved for seriously ill patients.”  Scripps has been working to make sure personnel are “fit tested” for masks, including reusable powered air purifying respirators, or PAPRs, that can be cleaned in about 25 minutes. “We generally have about 1,000 beds that are free on any given day for a surge in illness,” Los Angeles County Public Health Department Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said at a press conference this week. Ferrer said an influx of seriously ill patients who need treatment in an intensive care unit could overwhelm hospitals in the nation’s most populous county. “We are going through the process of identifying decommissioned beds, and other areas within the hospital where we have the ability to expand,” said Jeremy Baker, executive director clinical quality, risk and safety at two Los Angeles-area hospitals run by Providence St. Joseph Health, a 51-hospital chain. “We are constantly reviewing our surge capacity plan to identify other units we could use, such as conference rooms, for less acute treatment.”  He said Providence is also looking to put up screening tents at its clinics to isolate possible COVID-19 patients from emergency rooms, and could shift some non-coronavirus care to its associated nursing homes. “As part of our normal disaster planning process, we do have the ability to put out a call for physicians. We do have an emergency credential process for that,” Baker said. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday that they were entering “a situation where the only analogy is war, and a wartime dynamic,” referring to how the city will deal with a surge in demand for hospital beds. “Hospitals will create brand new capacity,” de Blasio said at a news conference. “I’ll take a parking lot and put up a tent and turn it into an ICU. We’ll turn a cafeteria into an ICU.” Claim: Hospitals plan for 'COVID cabanas,' conference rooms to house patients.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story says that Lupron costs about $5,000 a month but is seldom covered by insurance. Good job to address both points. The story, as noted, cites the Maryland researcher’s claims from small published studies, but also states: \" numerous physicians, researchers and therapists insist there’s no proof mercury causes autism, that Lupron removes mercury or that autistic kids have excessive testosterone.\" The story did a good job dedicating quite a bit of discussion to potential harms from this approach – both known and unknown. The story explained that the Maryland physician promoting the theory \"published a 2006 study contending that 11 autistic children taking Lupron did better on tests of awareness, sociability and behavior. He has since issued other studies finding that mercury leads to excess testosterone and that autistic children have excessive levels of the hormone.\" But then it immediately notes: \"Other doctors said (the) studies were small, were not scientifically sound and were published in journals that do not follow the standard practice of having experts review the methods.\" No disease mongering in this story. Several independent expert sources were quoted. Good job on this as well. The story states that \"untested autism treatments have flourished.\" And it ends with:    It’s clear from the story that Lupron is already used to treat endometrial cancer and prostate cancer. The story might have addressed more directly its current off-label use. It’s also clear that this is about a Maryland medical group taking its idea on the road to South Florida. Ideally, the story might have addressed whether it’s being tried elsewhere. No inordinate claims of novelty. In fact, the story establishes that the one Maryland researcher has been testing this for at least five years. This story did not rely on a news release. Strong enterprise reporting. Claim: Castration Drug Used as Autism Therapy",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Our investigation into this   story did not find any evidence that President Obama delayed important   decisions in the rescue of Captain Phillips. Throughout the entire   ordeal the President was kept informed on the situation with briefings   and twice gave orders to engage the pirates. The Washington Times looked thoroughly   into the incident and came to the same conclusion. In an exclusive   article on 4/22/09, the Times concluded, “President Obama dispatched two   separate teams of Navy commandos to carry out last week’s rescue of a   merchant ship captain held hostage by Somali pirates but left the   operational details and rules of engagement to military commanders.”      Click for Washington Times article. Several versions of this email have been submitted to   TruthorfFction.com and some claim to come from an unnamed USMC General   or Retired Navy Rear Admiral Lou Sarosdy. In an April 21 ,2009   Virginian Pilot article Sarosdy said that he did not write this. Click for Virginian Pilot story. Military   veterans who have read the email doubt that it was written by an   insider, as it claims. The terminology and acronyms used in the email   were not consistent with military standards, indicating that this eRumor   might have been written by a civilian with no or little knowledge of the   military. The acronyms “CPN” for Captain and “RIB” for rigid hull   inflatable boat  if used by anyone in the military would be “Capt.” and   “RHIB” Richards Phillips was the Captain of the   American flagged vessel Maersk Alabama and was rescued by US Navy Seals   after a 5 day ordeal of being held captive by Somali pirates on a   lifeboat. Piracy has been a problem off the East African coast but   this was the first takeover of an American ship by pirates in modern   history. Shortly after midnight   April 8, 2009, while on route to deliver food aid to Uganda and Somalia   the Maersk Alabama was attacked by the pirates about 350 miles off the   coast of Somalia. The Alabama crew of 21 worked feverishly for more than   three hours using fire hoses to fend off boarding attempts by the   pirates. Eventually four pirates armed with AK-47 rifles managed to   board the cargo ship. Sometime during the fight the crew of   the Alabama managed to disable their vessel and went into hiding near the steering compartment. Shortly after that the pirates boat was scuttled. About twelve hours   later the crew emerged and managed to overtake and capture one of the   pirates. The three other pirates had Capt. Phillips prisoner. In an   attempt to secure the safety of his crew, Capt. Phillips offered himself   as a hostage along with a 28 foot lifeboat from the Alabama.. In an   attempt to secure the release of their captain the crew gave freedom to   their pirate prisoner, but the pirates did not reciprocate. Captain   Phillips remained in the hands of his captors. The closest Navy vessel, U.S.S. Bainbridge arrived on the scene on April 9, 2009 at 1AM. In   the meantime, other US Naval vessels and US Navy Seals were on route to   the incident as well. According to the   Washington Times article, there was no delay in granting authorization   to the officers on the scene to take whatever action was necessary to   protect the life of Captain Phillips. A Whitehouse spokesperson gave   truthorfiction.com an event time line of President Obama Actions on the   Pirate Situation in the Indian Ocean off of Somalia. The   Whitehouse used “POTUS”, an acronym for President of the United   States :   TIMELINE Claim:  A forwarded email that blames President Obama   for delays in the rescue of Richard Phillips, the captain of the ship   named the Maersk Alabama, which was taken over by pirates off the coast   of the African country of Somalia. It claims that Obama delayed the   deployment of Navy Seals by 36 hours and limited the rules of engagement   so the rescuers could not act unless Captain Phillips’ life was imminent   danger.      ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 30 October 2017, climate change denier blog “Watts Up With That?” (which bills itself as “the world’s most viewed site on global warming and climate change”) published a guest essay by Leo Goldstein. This essay attempted to use a 1977 Time Magazine cover as evidence that Snopes and other news organizations had used a straw man argument in a previous debunker about Time Magazine and so-called Global Cooling. (Goldstein appears to be under the impression he invented the concept of a straw man argument, and instead calls such a device by his own term “Flooding Fake.” We will use the established nomenclature here). Despite the fact that this article did not once mention the concept of global cooling, and despite the fact that this article was about record-setting cold temperatures in the winter of 1977 and was explicitly filed under the subject “weather,” WUWT described the cover as “An example [of the] global cooling scare of the 70s.” The WUWT post went on to suggest, without evidence, that Time magazine itself wanted to hide the existence of this cover (which is freely available in their online archives) by manufacturing a fake cover for unsuspecting fact-checkers like ourselves to then debunk: That cover is a seriously inconvenient truth for climate alarmists and their media accessories. So, Time attempted to re-write a history. It published a forged version of its own cover. …and then easily debunked it as a photoshopped version of its April 2007 cover. As I will explain below, Time magazine knew it was launching a hoax. The rest of the liberal media popularized it, although it could have easily recognized it. Snopes adopted it, invented additional details that were not present in the Time article, and angrily condemned “climate deniers.” It is clear that Goldstein either willfully ignored the contents of the article, or (as other prolific climate deniers proudly brag about) did not read it in the first place. The article, in brief, discussed anomalously cold temperatures during the winter of 1977, and the effect that such temperatures had on a variety of elements of American life, most notably shortages of natural gas: Still, it is the brutal and unrelenting cold — the Big Freeze — that has transformed the inevitable grousing about the weather into personal agony and national hardship. It was like living in the Arctic—an ominous reminder of how modern man, so proud of his technological mastery of his environment, remains so vulnerable to its whims. Indeed, his very reliance on energy-consuming machines, vehicles and conveniences contributed last week to widespread suffering. To meet soaring energy demands for heating, electrical utilities ordered temporary blackouts in some communities and reduced voltage in others. A genuine crisis developed in the natural-gas industry. Suppliers put into effect emergency plans, cutting all deliveries to thousands of industrial users. Company officials pleaded for school closings, shortened business hours, and thermostats to be turned down to teeth-chattering levels in private homes. Weather, which is the short-term scale fluctuation of temperatures, precipitation and other environmental factors that might describe a singularly cold winter in 1977, is a wholly different concept than climate, which is concerned with long-term averages of weather phenomena, normally referring to time periods no shorter than 30 years. WUWT does reference media reports from the 1970s that, as we discussed in our fact-check of the other purported Time magazine global cooling cover, did indeed raise concerns about a cooling planet. However those reports did not represent in any way a consensus view from the scientific community, and the author of the most notable iteration of that story (published not in Time but in Newsweek), later admitted the article was high on enthusiasm but low on supporting science: Here I must admit mea culpa. In retrospect, I was over-enthusiastic in parts of my Newsweek article. Thus, I suggested a connection between the purported global cooling and increases in tornado activity that was unjustified by climate science. I also predicted a forthcoming impact of global cooling on the world’s food production that had scant research to back it. Claim: A Time magazine cover from 1977 with the title “The Big Freeze” is an example of media fearmongering over  “global cooling” in the 1970s.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A strange story with its toes in both the culinary and medical worlds swept its way online in June 2018, to the point that the author was interviewed by media outlets. We were skeptical, but at least one of the key points tracks with medical reality. The story originated with an anonymous post on a Reddit forum: About 2 years ago I was hit on my motorcycle . The [sic] salvaged my foot but I would never be able to walk on it. I elected to have it amputated. I asked the doctors to keep it. I signed some papers. I got it back, and with the help of some friends cooked a portion of the tibialis anterior. The unidentified man included a link to graphic photographs of the injury, as well as the process of the amputated link as it was prepared and served:  He was described by Vice as a 38-year-old man. When asked how he was able to retain custody of his foot, he said: Most hospitals have policies where they will release your body parts to you because of some religions where you have to be buried whole, so I just signed the paperwork. My mom, who was helping me get back on my feet, so to speak, drove me back to pick it up. She doesn’t know I ate it, though. I went inside and the hospital gave me my foot in a red plastic biowaste bag. I brought it to the car and immediately put it in a cooler. It was pretty bizarre. While the idea of retaining an amputated limb (let alone cooking it) is offbeat, medical professionals have said that it is not unheard of. “This is not common practice in our facility,” said Janet Cortez, the trauma program manager at the University of Utah Hospital: That being said, if a patient would like to retain their amputated body part, they can fill out a form provided upon request by Risk Management. Once the form is complete, the patient provides a copy to the pathology department, who may ‘release’ the body part to its owner within two weeks (if it is free of disease). George Annas, director of the the Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights at the Boston University School of Medicine, said that the only legitimate reason for health officials to intervene against an amputation patient’s request to keep their limb would be concern over a virus or bacteria in its tissue. “The general rule is you have custody of it it, you are considered the owner of your body parts as long as they’re inside of you,” he told PBS in January 2017. “Once it’s taken out, we have some reasonable expectation about what’s going to be done with it.” There are, however, some restrictions: Georgia, Louisiana, and Missouri have laws banning private ownership of body parts. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act also forbids private trade of Native American remains. As for the Reddit user’s ability to cook his erstwhile foot, he said that a friend’s partner prepared it, and added a copy of the recipe. He said of the experience: This particular cut was super beefy. It had a very pronounced, beefy flavor to it. The muscle I cut was tough and chewy. It tasted good, but the experience wasn’t the best. We were unable to fact-check whether the anonymous user’s account of eating his limb was legitimate, but it is — at the very least — plausible. Claim: People who undergo amputations can sign paperwork allowing them to take the removed limbs home after the procedure.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Allen injured his throwing shoulder during the Nov. 11 game at Air Force. He sat out last weekend’s home loss to Fresno State. Bohl says he’s hopeful that Allen can play in this Saturday’s season finale at San Jose State. The coach says the sports medicine staff on Monday were encouraged by the progress Allen was making during treatment. Backup quarterback Nick Smith started in place of Allen against Fresno State, completing 20 of 32 passes for 231 yards and a touchdown. Bohl says he was pleased with Smith’s performance. Claim: Wyoming QB Allen still day-to-day on injury.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does include a hint from the senior author that the treatment would be “accessible,” and presumably the cost of flickering lights would be an issue for most people. Given that the research under consideration here involved mice — and genetically bred mice at that — there’s no way to determine whether the intervention would have any benefit at all to people, let alone to quantify the likely benefits for human. The story does acknowledge this. But in the process, it also overstates what is known about the causes of Alzheimer’s and therefore how relevant this approach is to treating it. The story states flatly that “toxic proteins” are the culprit, but this is the subject of much debate within the Alzheimer’s research community and increasing evidence points against it. This potential treatment is still in mouse trials, so there’s not a lot that can be said at this point about potential harms. The author quotes the researchers, who pointed out that the lights as they were used in the trial “would not be offensive at all for people to have in the background.” The story acknowledges in the third paragraph that the study involved only mice and notes that more research will be needed to determine whether this intervention has any relevance to people. It also acknowledges recent failed drug trials and notes that drugs typically take more than a decade to develop before clinical efficacy is even examined. We’ll award a Satisfactory grade on that basis, but we renew our concern that this is mice–and nothing here is relevant to the lay reader. We think that this is the kind of research that’s better left communicated amongst research audiences, not the general public. The study does not engage in disease mongering. It would be hard to overstate the tragedy of Alzheimer’s disease. We’re a little disappointed that the article closes by conflating dementia with Alzheimer’s, when it tells readers that dementia has passed heart disease as the second leading cause of death in Britain. The senior author of the study is cited (and her quote came from an unattributed news release, see last criterion, below), but so are other researchers. Independent sources appear to have been consulted. The story also notes that the author has formed a company to pursue this, which is an important conflict of interest disclosure. Overall, this story feels inappropriately weighted in several ways, and a lack of background information about the state of the science in treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is one of them. The recently failed Eli Lilly trial is mentioned, but there’s no explanation of other prevention and treatment approaches (some of which are based on an entirely different model of the disease) that are currently under investigation. There’s also no sense of just how little can be done for Alzheimer’s patients at this point in time, nor indeed how devastating the condition is for victims and their families. That kind of information would have provided a much-needed context for the results of the study. The story address availability with this statement: “The latest intervention, scientists predict, should be quicker and cheaper to confirm in humans than pharmaceuticals, which typically take more than a decade to develop and assess for safety before the clinical efficacy is even examined.” OK, quicker and cheaper — but does that mean a year from now or five years or 10? The study author and one external source are quoted explaining that the findings are surprising. Just how novel the approach is would have been better established if the story gave readers background facts about current treatments and results of similar research. For example, other researchers reported earlier this year that light stimulation could purportedly “retrieve lost memories” in Alzheimer’s mice. At the very end we’re told two of the co-authors on the original study are starting a company to investigate therapeutic potential in humans. It would be helpful to know if this company is the first of its kind and whether other researchers are looking into specific types of sensory stimulation as treatment for this disease. The study quotes two independent experts, which is good. But, it uses quotes taken directly from PR materials from the research organization without attribution: Example, this quote: “If humans behave similarly to mice in response to this treatment, I would say the potential is just enormous, because it’s so non-invasive, and it’s so accessible,” said Li-Huei Tsai, director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, and the paper’s senior author. Is taken from here, which published this as: “But if humans behave similarly to mice in response to this treatment, I would say the potential is just enormous, because it’s so noninvasive, and it’s so accessible.” Claim: Strobe lighting provides a flicker of hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “We’ll be discussing a possible payroll tax cut or relief, substantial relief, very substantial relief, that’s a big number,” Trump told reporters. He did not provide details but said a news conference will be held on Tuesday. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top two Democrats in Congress, told reporters that any payroll tax cut should be limited to those affected by the virus. They also said they are crafting new legislation, on the heels of $8.3 billion coronavirus funding enacted last week, that might be ready to be introduced this week. Among proposals that could be included are ensuring water supplies are maintained for people even if they cannot pay their bills as a result of the crisis, expanded unemployment insurance, medical leave and providing food for children who rely on school nutrition programs if schools are shut. Vice President Mike Pence said the administration was consulting Congress on providing paid sick leave to workers, an idea that Democrats already have been trying to advance. The stepped-up response to the coronavirus came as the number of confirmed cases in the United States hit 605, according to Johns Hopkins University. Three additional deaths in Washington state, according to officials, brought the total nationwide to 25. Earlier Monday, Johns Hopkins said that worldwide, there are 113,584 cases, with 3,996 deaths, the majority in China. The Trump administration moves came as stock markets plunged and top health officials urged some people to avoid cruise ships, air travel and big public gatherings. The administration was planning to huddle in coming days with executives of the banking, hospital and health insurance industries. While an across-the-board payroll tax cut has been under discussion, top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and others have advocated specific tax credits, loans or direct subsidies to certain industries or hard-hit areas. A payroll tax cut could encourage consumer spending and help households that might otherwise struggle to make rent and mortgage payments on time or pay medical bills if family members’ work hours are reduced during the coronavirus outbreak. In Florida, state health officials said everyone returning from China, Iran, South Korea and Italy must isolate for 14 days while travelers from other countries affected by the outbreak should monitor their health. Thirty-four U.S. states and the District of Columbia have reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) infections of the respiratory illness COVID-19 that can lead to pneumonia. Louisiana had its first presumed coronavirus case, Governor John Bel Edwards announced on Monday. As worries over the virus deepened, a wave of selling took over Wall Street. The Dow fell a record 2,000 points when trading opened and the S&P 500 posted its largest single-day percentage drop since December 2008, the depths of the financial crisis. A nearly 25% plunge in oil prices contributed to fears of a looming recession. Trump, who often points to the stock market as a gauge of his economic record, criticized news media organizations’ coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and accused Democrats of hyping the situation “far beyond what the facts would warrant.”    The CDC advised colleges and universities to consider asking students studying abroad to return home and cancel or postpone upcoming travel. Several U.S. universities were either moving to virtual instruction or considering the step and limiting gatherings on their campuses. Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, and other health officials say older Americans, especially those with chronic medical concerns, should avoid big social gatherings, cruise ships and airline flights. As leaders in the U.S. Congress reviewed potential plans for operating amid coronavirus, four Republican lawmakers - Senator Ted Cruz and Representatives Paul Gosar, Doug Collins and Matt Gaetz - announced that they would self-quarantine after coming in contact at a conservative political conference with an attendee who later tested positive for the virus. Gaetz traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One on Monday. Republican Representative Mark Meadows, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, will self-quarantine until Wednesday, a spokesman said. Trump and Pence, who is heading the administration’s overall response to the crisis, also attended the conference. The White House said there was no indication either came into contact with the infected attendee. The White House late Monday said that Trump had not received the coronavirus test. Pence said he has not been tested. The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in China late last year, has spread to at least 105 countries and territories. Italy, which has the second-highest death toll, said it was extending to the rest of the country restrictions on movement imposed on much of its wealthy industrial north in an effort to contain the virus. The hardest-hit place in the United States has been a nursing home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, and Washington state is considering mandatory measures such as banning large gatherings but not necessarily imposing massive quarantines. The Life Care Center facility has accounted for most of the 18 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in Washington state. The three new deaths reported on Monday were all former residents of the facility. In California, officials planned to offload 2,400 passengers on Monday and Tuesday from the Grand Princess cruise ship, which was barred from returning to San Francisco last week due to a coronavirus outbreak on board. Most of the passengers will go into quarantine at military bases in the United States, with those requiring immediate medical attention heading to hospitals. The crew of 1,100 will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship, unless they are in need of acute care off the vessel. California has more than 100 confirmed cases, while on the East Coast, cases in New York state rose to 142, up from 105 a day earlier, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked employers in the nation’s most populous city to consider staggering workers’ start times to ease crowding on public transport and to allow more telecommuting where possible. De Blasio said there were 20 confirmed cases in the city as of Monday afternoon. Graphic - Tracking the spread of the novel coronavirus: here Claim: Trump vows 'major' steps to aid U.S. economy amid coronavirus rise.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Heads-up!! Almost every account is being cloned. Your picture and your name are used to create a new face book account (they don’t need your password to do this this). They want your friends to add them to their Facebook account. Your friends will think that it’s you and accept your request. From that point on they can write what they want under your name. I have NO plans to open a new account. Please DO NOT accept a 2nd friend request from “me”. please forward to all your contacts Hi….I actually got another friend request from you yesterday…which I ignored so you may want to check your account. Hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears…then hit forward and all the people you want to forward too….I had to do the people individually. Good Luck! PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT A NEW ONE FROM ME AT THIS TIME. Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept anything from Fabrizio Brambilla. He has a foto with a dog. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your messanger account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept Jayden K. Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Please tell all the contacts in your Messenger list not to accept Anwar Jitou’s [Anwar Jitu’s] contact, it’s a hacker that has the computer connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Si prega di dire a tutti i contatti della tua lista Messenger, di non accettare il contatto di Anwar Jitou [Anwar Jitu], è un hacker che ha il computer collegato nel tuo account Facebook. Se uno dei tuoi contatti lo accetta, sarai anche hackerato, così fai in modo, che tutti i tuoi amici lo sappiano. If you get a request from Sunny Boyie do not except, he is a kidnapper. Send this to all your friends. Hello we are the company Facebook. You must send this to 20 people to stay active. If you don’t you will be disconnected from Facebook. If you think this is fake check the customer service. ALERT!!!!! ALERT!!!!! Don’t accept a friend request from Maggie from Sweden, she is a HACKER.Tell everyone on your list cause if someone on your list adds her then she will be on yours too. She will figure out your computer ID and address, so send this to everyone on your list even if you don’t care for them cause if she hacks them, she hacks YOU too. She is also noted for repeated sexual harrasment and indecent private chatting. PB: BEWARE!!! DO NOT ACCEPT A FRIEND REQUEST FROM TANNER DWYER, CHRISTOPHER BUTTERFIELD, STEFANIA COLAC AND ALEJANDO SPILJNER. THESE ARE HACKERS SO PUT IT ON YOUR WALL. IF SOMEONE ADD’S THEM THEY TAKE YOUR CONTACTS, EMPTY YOUR COMPUTER AND ADDRESSES, SO COPY AND PASTE THIS ON YOUR WALL. WARNING!!!!! DO NOT ACCEPT FRIEND REQUESTS FROM ~~~ BOBBY ROBERTS ~~~ Profile picture is four colored picture ~~ A hacker and fake name!!!! the name will DESTROY EVERYTHING!!! Please… COPY THIS TEXT ON YOUR STATUS SO THAT YOUR FRIENDS ARE WARNED ****************** PASS ON ALONG.. ATTENTION ATTENTION !!! ATTENTION !!! ATTENTION ALL FACEBOOK USERS**… DO NOT ADD *JASON ALLEN*, ALSO IF SOMEBODY CALLED *AMY ALLEN* ADDS YOU, DON’T ACCEPT… IT IS A VIRUS. TELL EVERYBODY, BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS THEM, YOU GET THE VIRUS TOO. **COPY AND PASTE AND PLEASE RE POST* THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY FACEBOOK AND SNOPES ATTENTION **ALL FACEBOOK USERS ** .. DO NOT ADD “LINDA SMITH”, also IF SOMEBODY CALLED “JASON LEE”, ADDS YOU, DON’T ACCEPT IT.. IT IS A VIRUS. TELL EVERYBODY, BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS THEM , YOU GET THE VIRUS TOO . COPY AND PASTE AND PLEASE RE-POST – THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY FB DO NOT ACCEPT ANY FRIENDSHIP INQUIRIES FROM: ROLAND DREYER, MATTHIAS DAMBERGER, MARIO SOMMER, FABIAN BERNEDER OR FRANK BECKER !!!!! THESE ARE HACKERS!!!!! THEY CAN DESTROY THE HARD DISK!!!!! !…PLEASE …COPY TEXT ON YOUR BULLETIN BOARD!! !…SO THAT YOUR FRIENDS ARE PROTECTED Don’t add anyone named rehana n 27 years from leicister .she is a hacker. Tell everyone on your buddy list because if someone on your buddy list adds her, she’ll be on your list too. She’ll figure out your computer ID and address. So copy and paste this message to everyone on your buddy list because if she hacks them your next. I sent to everyone on my list so please send to everyone on your list FROM NEWS FEED: DO NOT ADD HER!!! IF SOMEBODY CALLED “SMARTGRRL15”, ADDS YOU, DON’T ACCEPT IT…IT IS A VIRUS. TELL EVERYBODY, BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON UR LIST ADDS THEM, U GET THE VIRUS TOO. COPY AND PASTE AND PLEASE REPOST ATTENTION:::::::DO NOT ACCEPT FRIEND REQUEST FROM CHRISTOPHER DAVIES AND JESSICA DAVIES, THEY ARE HACKERS. TELL EVERY 1 ON YOUR LIST, BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS THEM, THEY WILL BE ON YOUR LIST TOO. HE’LL FIGURE OUT YOUR COMPUTER’S ID AND ADDRESS, SO COPY & PASTE THIS MESSAGE…… EVEN IF YOU DON’T CARE.. PLEASE ***ATTENTION!!! *** Do not accept a friend request from a CHRISTOPHER BUTTERFIELD he is a hacker. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds him u get him on your list too and he’ll figure out your computer’s ID and address, so copy and paste this message to everyone even if u don’t care for them cause if he hacks their email he hacks your mail too! FORWARD ONTO all!!! IF A PERSON CALLED SIMON ASHTON (SIMON25@HOTMAIL.CO.UK) CONTACTS YOU THROUGH EMAIL DON’T OPEN THE MESSAGE. DELETE IT BECAUSE HE IS A HACKER!! TELL EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS HIM THEN YOU WILL GET HIM ON YOUR LIST. HE WILL FIGURE OUT YOUR ID COMPUTER ADDRESS, SO COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE EVEN IF YOU DONT CARE FOR THEM AND FAST BECAUSE IF HE HACKS THEIR EMAIL HE HACKS YOUR MAIL TOO!!!! !… Can you tell me anything about this that has been going around: ⛔ WARNING ⛔ >>>>>>>>>>>>>> HACKERS VIRUS ATTACKERS ON THE MARCH THIS WEEKEND ON SOCIAL MEDIA BE EXTRA WISE!!! DO NOT CLICK VIDEOS IN YOUR INBOX UNLESS U COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR FRIEND/S TO SEE IF THEY SENT IT ASK THEM TO EXPLAIN BE CAUTIOUS!!! ESPECIALLY BE EXTRA CAREFUL DO NOT CLICK VIDEOS WITH ON IT!!! – THAT ARE SENT TO UR INBOX BY A SO CALLED FRIEND U HARDLY KNOW!!! EVEN IF U KNOW THE PERSON WELL ASK QUESTIONS AGAIN ASK FOR EXPLANATION – AND ASK THEM A PERSONAL QUESTION AND IF THEY SENT IT DO NOT CLICK!!!! IF NO EXPLANATION!!! OR REPLY!!! IGNORE IT!!!! DO NOT OPEN OR CLICK!!! Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept friendship request from james wood . He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them New Hacker warning on FB messenger but did not see it here when I checked for validity. I usually shit these down with a link from Snopes. But there is nothing so here is what I received: Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept anything from Fabrizio Brambilla. He has a foto with a dog. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your messanger account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept friendship request from Andrea Wilson . She is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Please tell all contacts in your messenger list not to accept Dominique Amblard’s request for friendship. He is a hacker who has a system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked. Make sure that all your contacts know it. Thank you. Retransmits as received. The examples reproduced above are multiple variants of a long-running hoax, one which warns readers not to allow contact from a particular person or group because dire consequences will result. The basic form of these hoax warnings is typically drawn from the following template:  Variants of these messages are circulated endlessly, with different names swapped in and out as various pranksters decide to play jokes on people they know by inserting their acquaintances’ names and addresses into the warning in place of the existing information. The most common variant of this hoax is one that warns the reader not to accept Facebook friend requests from “hackers” purportedly named “Christopher Davies” and “Jessica Davies,” otherwise one of the two will wreak some unspecified havoc by being able to “FIGURE OUT UR COMPUTER’S ID AND ADDRESS.” (The latest version also incorporates a hoax warning about the non-existent “Dance of the Pope” cell phone virus.) Of course, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that an e-mail message or a link posted on Facebook might carry a virus payload which could infect your computer and allow it be controlled by a botnet, but virus warnings that correspond to the patterns detailed above can be safely dismissed as japes. In March 2009, the “Simon Ashton” variant of this prank was combined with text referencing the hoax version of the Mail Server Report virus warning: Anyone-using Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning, Direct from both Microsoft and Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail titled ‘Mail Server Report’ If you open either file, a message will appear on your screen saying: ‘It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.’ Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC, And the person who sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password. This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon. AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the anti virus software’s are not capable of destroying it. The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself ‘life owner’. PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY! In June 2017, a new variant of the same hoax emerged, with Anwar Jitou (or Anwar Jitu) taking the role of boogeyman on this occasion. The hoax was particularly prevalent among Italian Facebook users, where the warning message typically read like this: Si prega di dire a tutti i contatti della tua lista Messenger, di non accettare il contatto di Anwar Jitou [Anwar Jitu], è un hacker che ha il computer collegato nel tuo account Facebook. Se uno dei tuoi contatti lo accetta, sarai anche hackerato, così fai in modo, che tutti i tuoi amici lo sappiano. It subsequently spread to the English-speaking internet, where Facebook users were told: Please tell all the contacts in your Messenger list not to accept Anwar Jitou’s [Anwar Jitu’s] contact, it’s a hacker that has the computer connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Additional and very popular identical hoaxes in 2017 included the purported hackers Fabrizio Brambilla and Jayden K. Smith … new names, same old hoax. 2018 brought us a West African version: Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept bright Victor, Desmond kelechi or Sharon Emeka or Okechukwu Anni friendship request is one person using different account and with people’s pictures. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. and more American versions: “Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept friendship request from sherman stuurman . he is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept anything from Lucia Hernandez (Luciana). She has a picture of her sitting by the water)She is a hacker and has the system connected to your messanger account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Please tell All your contacts on messenger not to accept a friend request from klara mesel . She has a picture of her standing holding her glasses…..she is a hacker … copy paste and send to all your contacts. Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept friendship request from Natalie Avalos. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Claim: Accepting a friend request from a stranger will provide hackers with access to your computer and online accounts.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Donald Trump tied the heroin epidemic gripping suburban white communities to the issue central to the campaign: border security and illegal immigration. The rate of heroin-related overdoses has nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, with more than 8,200 deaths that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Appearing on CNBC, Trump argued that this too is tied to weak borders. \"Our youth is being poisoned. You go to places like New Hampshire, where it’s the No. 1 thing, heroin, and it comes from the southern border. And you go to Ohio, as an example, I was there two days ago, and the biggest complaint they have is what’s pouring into there,\" Trump said, before repeating his False claim that Hillary Clinton \"is for open borders.\" We’ve all heard of poppy fields blooming in Afghanistan, but is Trump right that heroin is entering the United States largely through the southern border? Yes. Even though Southwest Asia supplies heroin to most of the rest of the world, nearly all of the heroin available in the United States comes from Mexico and South America. \"Mexico, and to a lesser extent, Colombia, dominate the U.S. heroin market, because of their proximity, established transportation and distribution infrastructure, and ability to satisfy US heroin demand,\" the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wrote in its National Drug Threat Assessment of 2015. \"Mexico continues as the primary supplier of heroin to the United States,\" the White House’s page on the international heroin market reads. \"Estimated cultivation of opium poppy reached 10,500 hectares in 2012, with an estimated pure potential production of 26 metric tons.\" Here’s a chart from the DEA report demonstrating the prevalence of heroin from the southern border:  As you can see, South America and Mexico have been the sources for much of the heroin in U.S. markets for the past two decades. In recent years, Mexican traffickers have expanded by simultaneously wedging black tar heroin into Northeastern markets dominated by Colombian white powder heroin and increasing production and distribution of white powder heroin themselves. Mexican heroin accounted for 45 percent of the total weight of heroin the DEA seized and analyzed in 2012 (South American heroin accounted for 51 percent). By 2014, the proportion of Mexican heroin had grown to 79 percent (South American heroin made up about 17 percent), DEA spokesman Russell Baer told PolitiFact. This market share is also reflected in the amount of heroin seized at the border and the amount grown in Mexico. From 2013 to 2015, the amount of poppy fields cultivated in Mexico increased by 169 percent from 11,000 hectares to 28,000 hectares, according to Baer. In 2008, the total amount of heroin seized at the U.S.-Mexico border (about 560 kilograms) surpassed the amount seized from commercial airlines for the first time (about 400 kilograms). Border seizures nearly quadrupled from 2008 to 2015 (2,210 kilograms), according to data provided to us by Baer. \"The majority of the drugs in the U.S. market are trafficked across the Southwest Border from Mexico into the US. Southwest Border seizures conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, while not the complete picture, provide insight into trafficking trends,\" he said. Traffickers typically smuggle the drugs in through secret compartments in vehicles across the border (illegally and legally), transport them to stash houses in hub cities like Dallas, Los Angeles and Phoenix, and then distribute to the Midwest and East Coast. Here’s a map from the Justice Department that shows how heroin moves through the United States: Our ruling Trump said heroin \"comes from the southern border.\" The vast majority of heroin in the United States comes from Mexico and South America. Claim: Heroin comes in the United States \"from the southern border.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: If Eli Lilly and Co. officials were to sell or spin off Elanco Animal Health, there’s no guarantee the operation would remain in Greenfield, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. The company has had a presence in the city since it built research laboratories in the late 19th century. Lilly CEO David Ricks said last month that the company would likely announce a decision by July. Elanco makes vaccines, antibiotics, food additives and other health products for livestock and pets. It employs about 775 at its campus in Greenfield, a 21,000-person city about 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of Indianapolis. Mayor Chuck Fewell said the city would hate to lose the business. “Elanco is a great corporate partner,” said Fewell. Elanco’s revenue dipped 2 percent last year and analysts said it’s also losing market share to major competitors, including Zoetis and Bayer. The downturn came just as the company was expecting increased sales and profits, helped by its $5.4 billion purchase of Novartis’ animal health division in 2015. Elanco officials are estimating 2018 sales to be “flat to slightly up.” But they said new and recent launches will gradually turn the business around “We expect 2018 to be the year of a kind of transition as we continue to evolve our product mix against headwinds,” said Elanco President Jeff Simmons. ___ Information from: Indianapolis Business Journal, http://www.ibj.com Claim: Indiana city in jeopardy of losing animal health business.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The article provides no cost estimate for  bioidentical hormone replacement therapy; it does, however provide us with the price of Suzanne Somers book, \"Ageless.\" The possible benefits of the treatment are not quantified. One clinician quote mentioned that these products are without FDA approval and he went on to say that they are ‘potentially quite dangerous’. However – this quote did not differentiate between the possibility that products failed to obtain FDA approval or whether they are exempt from seeking FDA approval (the latter is often the case). It would have been helpful to inform readers what sort of danger potential was being alluded and to provide some way to guage the actual type and size of the risk posed. There is actress testimony about the benefits to be obtained through the use of bioidentical hormones. One clinician is quoted as stating that these products ‘deliver renewed energy and reduced menopausal symptoms’. However – we are not given any sort of metric for gauging these benefits (is the effect seen in all women, some women, or a few women; how large is the effect observed – how was it measured, how long was treatment needed for the effect(s) to be realized). Furthermore – we are not given any sort of assurance that there is actual data supporting these claims. Discussing menopause in terms of a battle \"fighting off nasty symptoms\" and describing life after menopause as \"constant and progressive deterioration\" are examples of disease-mongering language. The line \"…without hormones there is no quality of life\" is another. The major source of information for this article is an interview with the actress Suzanne Somers. Two physicians’ opinions are mentioned – in 84 words – but the actress’ opinions warranted 472 words. The story opened with a statement about ‘the spigot to the hormone fountain of youth’ being ‘practically turned off’. This may have lead readers to conclude that hormone replacement therapy is unavailable or at best difficult to obtain; this is not an accurate representation. The ails listed for menopause included symptoms that are not necessarily linked with menopause; further – there are treatments available for problems such as depression or weakening bones. The story made no mention of treatments other than those hyped in the book. The headline and introduction to the story suggested that the focus would be bioidentical hormones. But they actually received little space in this article. The story should have mentioned the controvery and confusion about the terminology \"bioidenticals\"; some are FDA-approved, but those most generally refer to the unregulated, individually compounded mixtures which are not FDA approved. The treatment of symptoms of menopause with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is not new but the story never clearly established that. Even the claims made by the actress profiled in the story are not new; she published a 2004 book, \"The Sexy Years: discover the hormone connection.\" Does not appear to rely on a press release. Claim: Suzanne Somers advocates ‘natural’ approach when treating menopause",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The European Medicines Agency presumes the contaminant in  all three countries is the same as the one identified in  recalled U.S. batches of the drug, a chemical called  over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate, the article on the Journal’s  Web site said. France on Friday began recalling heparin made by  Rotexmedica GmbH, the same company that made heparin which was  recalled from Germany earlier this month, the article said,  citing a spokesman for the European regulator. Moreover, the active ingredient used to make heparin is  being recalled in Italy and Denmark because it is contaminated,  the agency spokesman said. The chemical was made by an Italian  company, Opocrin SpA, which used raw ingredients sourced in  China, the agency spokesman said. Batches of the drug have recently been recalled in Germany  and the United States, where some patients taking the drug  suffered allergic reactions. In both the United States and  Germany, the contamination surfaced in supplies made from  ingredients bought in China, the article said. Claim: Heparin recalled in France, Italy, Denmark: report.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Because this story clearly points out that the drug is only part way through the clinical trial process and still has a long way to go before it might be on the market, we can excuse it for not giving cost estimates. Nevertheless,  It would have been informative for readers to have made some comment about the potential economic impact of a cholesterol drug, given that over 20 Million Americans are currently taking statin. On the day that the trial results were announced, Merck stock went up even though the market as a whole sagged, demonstrating the financial implications of this research. The story emphasizes the safety questions that were at the heart of this trial. It also tells readers plainly that it is unknown whether the changes in cholesterol levels seen in this trial have beneficial health effects. It does an impressive job in describing the uncertainties associated with drug manipulation of HDL blood levels. After reporting that the HDL cholesterol numbers rose from 41 mg/dl to 101 mg/dl, the story quotes an independent source saying, “Currently, we’re not convinced that manipulation of HDL matters, though certainly it’s promising.” Unlike some other stories about these trial results, this report repeatedly tells readers that any discussion of real health benefits will have to wait at least until after a trial designed specifically to measure such outcome is conducted. The story reports that anacetrapib did not show the type of harmful effects (including higher blood pressure and higher rates of cardiovascular problems and death) seen in trials of a similar drug, torcetrapib, which was pulled from testing. However, the story does not make it clear that this trial was designed to detect harms that were at least 25 percent more common in the treatment group than in the placebo group… so it was not powerful enough to rule out side effects that were less common than that threshold. This story clearly states more than once that this trial was primarily intended to look at safety, not possible health benefits. The lead sentence says the drug  “seems to have passed an initial hurdle by proving safe in preliminary trials.” Only then does it mention that trial participants on the drug saw substantial changes in their cholesterol numbers compared to the people who were given a placebo, with the “good” HDL cholesterol levels rising and the “bad” LDL cholesterol levels falling. Comments such as “simultaneously excited and leery” and “Don’t take this to the bank” emphasized that the results are welcome news, but far from conclusive. The story accurately reports that the researchers saw a tendency toward better outcomes, but that the trial lasted only 18 months, and as mentioned above, the trial was not designed to demonstrate health effects. Although this story doesn’t give details about the type of patient included in this trial and the only specific reference is not quite accurate; it does not engage in disease-mongering. The story says that this trial included patients with coronary heart disease, but according to the article on the trial in the New England Journal of Medicine the participants also included people who were considered to have a greater than 20 percent chance of a cardiovascular event (heart attack, stroke, etc.) within 10 years according to standard risk models. While the story erred in describing the trial participants, the error portrays the story as relevant to a narrower, rather than a broader, definition of eligible patients. So we’ll say that it doesn’t oversell the potential population that might be offered this sort of drug. Although this story includes a strong lineup of independent sources that put the results in context for readers, it fails to report either that the trial was sponsored by the drug company developing anacetrapib or that the researcher quoted in the story has financial ties to that and other drug companies. Although the story does note that niacin (spelled incorrectly by the way) is the only drug that reliably increases HDL, we would have liked to have seen a bit more information about the role of diet and exercise and how researchers think a CETP inhibitor like anacetrapib (if approved) might fit into the context of other approaches. The story points out that anacetrapib still must be tested in a large clinical trial and is years away from being considered for approval. We’ll give the story a passing score on this criterion because this class of drugs is indeed new and the story did not exaggerate the novelty. However, the story would have been better if it clearly stated that while no drug in this class has been approved for clinical use, there are other drugs at similar stages of testing. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Experimental Drug Raises Good Cholesterol Levels in Early Trial",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Fort Worth pediatrician who supports continued federal backing of health insurance for children of the working poor suggested it’s an important issue in these parts because 10 percent of Americans start as Texans. In October 2017, Joyce Mauk, president of the Texas Pediatric Society, was quoted by the Austin American-Statesman as saying: \"One in 10 babies born in this country is born in Texas, and so it affects us disproportionately if access to health care is compromised for children. There is nothing good you can say about taking away access to health care for children.\" At the time, Congress had failed to extend its authorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program before federal funding expired at the end of September. Without further action, about 400,000 Texas children and pregnant women were believed to be at risk of losing coverage by early 2018. We wondered about the share of U.S.-born babies birthed in Texas. By phone, Mauk told us she relied on statistics compiled from U.S. states by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that 403,618 Texas births accounted for 10 percent of 3,980,000 births nationally in 2015. We were shortly able to confirm that number, thanks to a January 2017 CDC report tabulating U.S. births. It showed 403,618 Texas births in 2015 made up 10.1 percent of 3,978,497 births nationally. Among the states, the chart shows, only California accounted for a greater share; 491,478 births there accounted for 12.4 percent of U.S. births. Next, we asked the CDC and the Texas Demographic Center, based at the University of Texas at San Antonio, about more recent data and figures giving historical perspective. By email, CDC spokesman Brian Tsai pointed us to bureau-posted 2016 birth counts by state, posted in September 2017, showing that the 406,945 births in Texas that year accounted for 10.3 percent of 3,956,112 births nationally. So, the 1-in-10 figure still holds up. In Texas, to our emailed queries, Lila Valencia of the demographic center provided a chart showing that Texas-born babies have comprised 1 in 10 U.S. births since 2008. From 1960 through 1971, the chart indicates, Texas-born babies made up 6 percent of U.S.-born babies. That share, the chart shows, was 7 percent from 1972 through 1979; 8 percent from 1980 through 1995; and 9 percent from 1996 through 2007. Of late, Valencia elaborated, \"the Texas share of births has been steadily increasing, even following drops in the number of births following the Great Recession,\" Valencia wrote, adding: \"If current total fertility rates and the child-bearing age distribution of women in each state remains the same, we would anticipate the Texas share of births to continue to increase given the younger age distribution of the state, its larger Hispanic share of the population, and its significant population growth relative to other states.\" Our ruling Mauk said 1 in 10 U.S.-born babies is born in Texas. According to government tallies, that’s been so since 2008. The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing. Claim: One in 10 babies born in this country is born in Texas.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release states that golfers tend to be “relatively well off” and: “… the sport is often perceived as expensive … and not a game for the young or those on the lower rungs of the social ladder” The cost to play 18 holes at the course closest to where this review is being written is $27. The fee at St. Andrews Royal and Ancient Golf Club in Scotland — where one of the authors is director of Golf Development — is roughly 10 times that amount. The subtitle of this release claims golf “may not only be good for mind and body, but also for a long life.” More specifically we’re told evidence for this comes from the “systematic review of the available evidence (342 eligible studies)” — and — “the evidence shows that playing golf regularly is associated  with longevity and reducing the risk factors for heart disease/stroke. And it can boost older peoples strength and balance.” Unfortunately, absolutely no data are offered to support these sweeping health claims. The only potential harm from golf mentioned is an increased risk for skin cancer. It’s an important inclusion that prompts us to give a barely passing grade. This nebulous statement is also included: “Compared with other sports, the risk of injury is moderate.” (Rugby and mixed martial arts come to mind). What’s not mentioned is a host of musculoskeletal injuries related to the repetitive and asymmetric nature of swinging a golf club. This study is based on a “modified Delphi method” involving 25 experts “in public health and health policy, and industry leaders.” Their qualifications are not included. The Delphi Method  has experts complete several rounds of anonymous questionnaires with the goal of reaching a consensus. This methodology has several limitations including: it’s subjective, not objective. There are no established guidelines for implementing the surveys. The goal is to reach a convergence of opinion, and — most importantly — the resulting consensus does not equate with causation. Not mentioning the study method and its limitations is a major weakness of this news release. No disease mongering noted. This is the second major weakness of this news release. It’s not mentioned that this “2018 Consensus Statement on Golf and Health” was funded by an unrestricted grant from the World Golf Foundation. Two of the authors receive fees from the European Golf tour and one is the director of Golf Development at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St. Andrews, Scotland. Golf is often referred to as “a good walk spoiled.” Common sense would suggest many of the benefits touted in this news release might also hold for a good walk or hike; unfortunately, no alternatives are mentioned. Golf is widely available worldwide. But as suggested in the release it may be prove unaffordable for many. This news release does not present golf as a novel form of exercise. But we think it clearly overreaches in suggesting a host of health benefits through a news release —  without any supporting evidence. There is no news here, just promotion. Given there is no study here, and the basis of the health claims is nothing more than a subjective consensus statement of experts (some with major conflicts of interest), we find the headline and health recommendations of this news release to be unjustified and overreaching. Claim: Too many people missing out on health benefits of golf, says expert panel",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 4 December 2015 the Facebook page “American Center for Law and Justice” (ACLJ), a Christian advocacy group founded by Pat Robertson, published the above-reproduced image along with the following text: A radical group of atheists is demanding all hotels remove Bibles from their rooms, claiming the Bible “may endanger your health and life.” This is not only absurd, it’s unconstitutional. Help us fight back: http://bit.ly/1N8YmlN The status update claimed a “radical group of atheists” had demanded “all hotels remove Bibles” from their rooms, and references to it in social media asserted that the Bible banners sought to “ban the Bible in ALL hotel rooms.” The link appended to the update pointed to an ACLJ petition titled “Don’t Ban the Bible. Defend It,” which read (in part): Banning the Bible … That’s what one angry atheist group is trying to do in hotels at public universities. The anti-Christian Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) is demanding that the Bible — placed by a Christian group — be banned from university hotel rooms. It’s already had them banned from universities in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. FFRF extremists call the Bible “obnoxious” and insultingly claim that the “[B]ible calls for killing nonbelievers.” It even absurdly claims that it is “unconstitutional to have them” — Bibles — in university hotel rooms. FFRF is legally and constitutionally wrong. It’s time to set the record straight. We’ve been defending constitutionally protected religious speech at the Supreme Court for decades. Now, we’re sending these universities a critical legal letter to protect the Bible. Add your name today: The image asserted simply that “angry atheists [were] trying to ban the Bible,” while the status update maintained a “radical group of atheists is demanding all hotels remove Bibles from their rooms,” and the linked petition claimed “[the] Freedom from Religion Foundation (a non-profit non-theist advocacy group) is demanding that the Bible … be banned from university hotel rooms.” The petition published on Facebook by the ACLJ specifically referenced “university hotel rooms,” which in turn suggested that the conflict in question pertained to religious materials and public institutions. On 30 October 2015, the FFRF had published a press release on the matter which stated that: Northern Illinois University quickly removed all bibles from the Holmes Student Center Hotel after receiving a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation stating that it was unconstitutional to have them there. FFRF Legal Fellow Ryan D. Jayne sent the letter on Oct. 20 to Norm Jenkins, director of the Holmes Student Center, stating, in part: “Providing bibles to Holmes Student Center Hotel guests sends the message that NIU endorses the religious texts. Including bibles sends the message to non-Christian and non-religious guests that they should read the bible, and specifically the version of the bible provided: the Gideon Bible. Certainly, if guests want to read this religious text during their stay, they can bring their own copy or access any of the numerous churches or libraries near the university.” The next day, Oct. 21, Gregory A. Brady, deputy general counsel for Governance and Administration at NIU, responded to FFRF by stating that the university “will be removing any such bibles from their hotel guest rooms.” As such, the 4 December 2015 ACLJ image meme was misleading at the time it was issued. The so-called “Bible ban” involved public universities and the issue of government endorsement of religious texts, not a call to remove all Bibles from all hotel rooms. On 2 December 2015, the ACLJ published an article titled “Angry Atheists Demand Hotels Ban the Bible Comparing Scripture to Danger of Smoking” which held that: The radical anti-Christian Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has launched a crusade to ban the Bible in hotel rooms. Now FFRF is moving beyond public university hotel rooms and demanding that all hotels remove the Bible from bedside tables. Again, removing the Bible from his room is not good enough. This anti-Christian organization will not be satisfied until every Bible is banned from every hotel in America — and even then I’m sure they’ll find a new place to hate. That article referenced a 12 October 2015 article about the issue of hotel rooms and Bibles published on the blog Patheos: FFRF has long complained about the Gideon Bibles. In the late 1980s we launched a national “Bible Free Room” campaign, with limited success. Although this is not a state-church issue (unless the hotel is owned by the state or the military), we consider it an important consumer complaint, much like asking for smoke-free rooms. The Gideon Bibles are not owned by the hotel. Many establishments are dunned into contributing to the Gideons International for the “donation,” which means that we guests are paying for them. The Gideons say that readers are welcome to take the book … Why should we be posting complaints on their book? Can you imagine what would happen if the hospitality industry were placing The God Delusion in every room? To be clear, the 2 December 2015 ACLJ article referenced a think-piece suggesting (not demanding) that hotels offer Bible-free rooms for guests. However, on 7 December 2015 the FFRF issued a press release titled “FFRF Requests ‘Bible-Free’ Hotel Rooms,” which read in part: The Freedom from Religion Foundation … is making a major consumer request to the hospitality industry, asking it to be more hospitable to non-Christian and nonreligious clientele by offering “bible-free” rooms. In early December, FFRF sent a letter to a number of companies, including Wyndham Worldwide, Intercontinental Hotel Groups (Holiday Inn), Choice Hotels International (Quality Inn), Hilton Worldwide, G6 Hospitality (Motel 6), Marriott International, Best Western, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (Radisson, Carlson, Country Inn) and Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Sheraton). FFRF does ask the hotel industry to follow the lead of Gansevoort Hotel Groups, which, to provide a friendlier environment, removed religious materials from guest rooms but provides such materials upon request. Many boutique hotels have likewise stopped serving as a conduit for Protestant missionaries. Travelodge (UK) removed bibles from more than 500 hotels last August “in order not to discriminate against any religion.” Whether the chain of press releases from ACLJ and FFRF regarding Bibles in hotel rooms (both public university lodging and otherwise) were part of a direct rhetorical escalation or simply coincidental was unclear. Further obfuscating the chain of debate were assertions that the FFRF sought to ban “all Bibles” from “all hotel rooms” at any point during the controversy. According to releases from both the FFRF and the ACLJ, the FFRF requested that Bibles be removed from hotel rooms at public universities in or around October 2015, and that request (framed as more broad that it actually was at the time by the ACLJ) was granted. Concurrently, the FFRF asked that commercial hospitality properties consider offering “Bible-free hotel rooms” to non-theists or non-Christian guests. Whether that request involved removal of Bibles from all rooms (with the books remaining available to guests who asked for them) was unclear, but the specific use of the term “Bible-free rooms” and the comparison to smoke-free hotel rooms suggested that the request extended to some (but not all) rooms. Claim: Atheists are trying to ban Bibles from all hotel rooms.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On October 9th, 2016, WikiLeaks disclosed thousands of e-mails from the personal account of Hillary Clinton campaign director John Podesta, also a former counselor to President Barack Obama. Among those files were two e-mails signed by former NASA astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell from the e-mail address terribillionairs@aol.com. The first message, dated 18 January 2015, read:  Subject: email for John Podesta (c/o Eryn) from Edgar Mitchel re meeting ASAP Dear John, As 2015 unfolds, I understand you are leaving the Administration in February. It is urgent that we agree on a date and time to meet to discuss Disclosure and Zero Point Energy, at your earliest available after your departure. My Catholic colleague Terri Mansfield will be there too, to bring us up to date on the Vatican’s awareness of ETI [extraterrestrial intelligence]. Another colleague is working on a new Space Treaty, citing involvement with Russia and China. However with Russia’s extreme interference in Ukraine, I believe we must pursue another route for peace in space and ZPE on Earth. I met with President Obama’s Honolulu childhood friend, US Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto on July 4 at the US Mission in Geneva, when I was able to tell her briefly about zero point energy. I believe we can enlist her as a confidante and resource in our presentation for President Obama. I appreciate Eryn’s assistance in working with Terri to set up our meeting. Best regards, Edgar D. Mitchell, ScD Chief Science Officer & Founder, Quantrek Apollo 14 astronaut 6th man to walk on the Moon  The second message, dated 18 August 2015, included a brief introduction and a series of links to articles that primarily discussed the militarization of space. It bore the same signature as the first e-mail:  Subject: email for John Podesta c/o Eryn re Space Treaty (attached) Dear John,  Because the War in Space race is heating up, I felt you should be aware of several factors as you and I schedule our Skype talk. Remember, our nonviolent ETI from the contiguous universe are helping us bring zero point energy to Earth. They will not tolerate any forms of military violence on Earth or in space. The following information in italics was shared with me by my colleague Carol Rosin, who worked closely for several years with Wernher von Braun before his death. Carol and I have worked on the Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, attached for your convenience. Best regards, Edgar Edgar D. Mitchell, ScD Chief Science Officer & Founder, Quantrek Apollo 14 astronaut 6th man to walk on the Moon  Before diving into the content of these two e-mails, we should identify the players involved. Dr. Edgar Mitchell (who passed away in 2016) was a NASA astronaut who traveled to (and walked on) the moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. A Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, he once completed a record-breaking nine-hour, 24-minute EVA on the surface of the moon. In addition to his distinguished scientific career with NASA, he was a strong believer in metaphysical phenomena. He claimed, for example, that a Toronto-based healer named “Adam Dreamhealer” had cured him of kidney cancer remotely while the two men were separated by thousands of miles. He also was a strong believer in the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and claimed Earth had frequently been visited by aliens. Among the many times he made these assertions was in a 2009 interview with the Guardian:  “We are being visited,” [Mitchell] said. “It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence. I call upon our government to open up … and become a part of this planetary community that is now trying to take our proper role as a spacefaring civilisation.”  Though Mitchell signed the messages, the e-mail address from which they originated belonged to Terri Mansfield (Mitchell’s “Catholic colleague”), who runs a nonprofit that focuses on metaphysical concepts including consciousness, god, extraterrestrial intelligence, and the development of technology that could harness zero point energy (a pseudoscientific concept discussed below). Carol Rosin, whom Mitchell mentions as having helped to collect the links listed in the second e-mail, states on her web site that she is the founder of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space. On the same site, she describes her role as “advis[ing] decision makers and others about applications of technology and information services for human needs, environment, new energy, and peace and security, health and prosperity for all on earth and in space.” Mansfield and Rosin’s connection to Mitchell does not necessarily imply influence or authorship of these emails, as the content is consistent with causes he championed. In fact, Rebecca Hardcastle Wright, a former employee of Mitchell’s, wrote a post attesting to their authenticity, confirming that a Skype meeting with Podesta had been requested by Mitchell but never ended up taking place. As far as the content of the e-mails, there are two (very) loosely connected threads at play. The more straightforward thread (and what ultimately seems to be the primary premise for a Skype meeting, based on the subject lines) is the discussion of adding the United States as a signatory to an amended version of the “Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space,” an international agreement dating back to the 1960’s that prevents governments, essentially, from putting nukes or weapons of mass destruction in orbit or from putting military bases on the moon or on other objects in space. Mitchell and Rosin were arguing for the United States to sign onto an even more restrictive treaty originally proposed  by China and Russia in 2008, which would ban weapons in space outright. The list of links provided by Rosin (primarily news articles and blog posts) all related to international space collaboration and various warnings about countries currently involved in, or planning to be involved in, putting weapons in space. It’s the material in the first e-mail that is a bit more convoluted. That missive opens with an “urgent” request to discuss “zero point energy” and “disclosure.” Disclosure refers to the release of any and all information the U.S. government might have on UFOs. This is, in fact, a topic for which John Podesta openly advocated well before any WikiLeaks referenced the subject, as the Washington Post reported in April of 2016:  “In 2002,” [Leslie] Kean and co-author [of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record] Ralph Blumenthal wrote, “Podesta began publicly supporting what became a landmark Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the Coalition for Freedom of Information, an independent advocacy group. NASA had been stonewalling and refusing to release its records concerning a significant 1965 UFO incident in Kecksburg, PA.” Documents were released, but they “did not include one iota of information relating to the Kecksburg case, despite an earnest and thorough effort by NASA staff.” It’s apparently those documents to which Podesta was referring when, after a brief stint working in the Obama White House, he tweeted that failing to secure the release of UFO files was his “biggest failure of 2014.”  Zero point energy is a concept in quantum physics that refers to the amount of energy a given quantum system has at its lowest quantum state or ground state. The fact that systems at this “zero point” actually still possess some energy has lead to myriad science fiction or pseudoscientific claims of being able to tap into that energy to achieve things currently known to be physically impossible. Mitchell ran a company, listed in his email signature, called Quantrek, which sought, among other things, to harness this zero point energy, according to Terri Mansfield (the woman from whom the e-mails to Podesta originated):  [Mitchell] and his science team researched the application of the quantum hologram as well as zero point energy, the most powerful, cleanest, cheapest, safest, most ubiquitous form of energy for the planet. ZPE will power cars, trains, planes, sea-going vessels, space ships, as well as our homes and buildings. The connection between the zero point energy topic and the space treaty, while not completely articulated in the e-mails, appears to be based on Mansfield’s (and presumably Mitchell’s) belief that as a species humans need to show our obedience to God and embrace extraterrestrial beings by abandoning free will and embracing peace, at which point the aliens will allow us to understand and implement zero point energy. Mansfield explains that connection on her web site:  The ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence) with whom Suzanne and Terri work are peaceful, nonviolent and obedient to God. They are NOT from our universe but from a CONTIGUOUS universe. They are the highest form of intelligence working directly with God. Their purpose is to assist us humans who are eager to bring powerful, safe, clean, cheap, sustainable, ubiquitous, infinite ZERO POINT ENERGY application as THE energy source to our viable Earth. This ZPE energy is centered on the Tau neutrino. When ETI want to make themselves known, they do so with specific colors, sound, touch, scent, taste and manipulation of matter. Examples abound. They frequently turn on lights in our homes when they want our attention. ETI want only what is best for humanity to evolve spiritually, demand obedience given by free will choice, respond with compassion and / or justice, when required. The implication appears to be that extraterrestrials are willing to help us with our zero point energy problems so long as we can demonstrate our peaceful nature. This is presumably what Mitchell is referring to in the second e-mail when he wrote:  Remember, our nonviolent ETI from the contiguous universe are helping us bring zero point energy to Earth. They will not tolerate any forms of military violence on Earth or in space. Though we cannot say for certain, it appears likely that the reference to God and the Vatican stems from Mansfield’s belief system revolving around “obedience to God” and her Catholicism. Claim: Wikileaks’ dump of John Podesta’s e-mails reveal conversations he had with a former NASA astronaut about the existence of aliens, alien technology, and space warfare.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: House Democratic leaders last week released the health care bill they plan to bring to the floor, and it didn't take long for the Republicans to publish a laundry list of complaints about it. We'll be exploring those complaints with a story we'll publish later today or tomorrow, but in the meantime, we'd like to explore one of the points made by Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota. She made the statement on Oct. 30, 2009, on Sean Hannity's show on the Fox News Channel. She said that on Page 92 of the new bill, \"it says specifically that people can't purchase private health insurance after a date certain, which means people will ultimately go into a single-payer plan where it is government providing health care and only one single government system. That's why this is so bad, Sean. This is socialized medicine ... This is, as I said, the crown jewel of socialism. It's what Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have wanted from the very beginning.\" (See her comments starting about the 2:15 mark in  this video  .) We won't rate her opinion that Democrats are proposing the \"crown jewel\" of socialized medicine, or her prediction that it will ultimately lead to a single-payer system. Instead, we're interested in Bachmann's claim that Page 92 of the bill prevents people from buying private health insurance after a certain date. We not only find that she is misinterpreting that one page, but that she's also distorting the other 1,989 pages of a bill that would construct a system largely based on private health insurance. Her claim is a serious misrepresentation of a plan that relies on a marketplace of private coverage. Bachmann's office did not respond to our call or an e-mail, but we found the language that she seemed to be referring to on Page 91 of the new bill: \"The individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.\" To decipher it, we called Karen Pollitz, project director for the Health Policy Institute at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. She said it was a clause that allows people who would be eligible for coverage in the new health care exchange to keep an old policy they like. \"If you have a plan that's in effect prior to the effective date (of the exchange) and you like it, you can keep it,\" she said. (This is similar to a claim we checked back in July when the editorial page of  Investor's Business Daily  said the bill  would outlaw private insurance  . We rated that .) Here's how the exchange would work: Under the House bill, insurance companies would sell individual policies through a government-run health care exchange, and the government would set minimum standards for coverage. For example, the government would require companies to cover people even if they have pre-existing conditions such as serious illnesses or pregnancy. The government would also set levels for minimum coverage for services such as mental health coverage. But if someone liked a plan they owned before the new law kicks in, they'd be able to keep the policy, no matter the level of coverage. The rules would largely prevent insurance companies from changing benefits in these grandfathered plans or altering the premiums. So Bachmann is referring to language that prevents the health insurance companies from enrolling new people in old plans that don't meet the new standards, Pollitz said. Any plan sold after the new law is enacted must provide better coverage. Bachmann is incorrect that people \"can't purchase private health insurance after a date certain.\" To the contrary, a key principle of the bill is to create a new marketplace for people to buy private insurance. People who already get private coverage from their employer would continue to do so and should be able to shop for new plans with different coverage. People who are self-employed or work for small businesses will be able to buy private insurance through the new exchange. In fact, the bill requires that everyone have some form of coverage, Pollitz said. \"Not only do you have to [buy insurance], but you can\" buy it after the bill goes into effect, she said. \"There's no reasonable way to look at Page (91) and say that you couldn't.\" Bachmann isn't just guilty of misinterpreting the language from one page of the bill. She's taken that misinterpretation to a ridiculous extreme — the claim that no private insurance could be sold after a certain date. That ignores the central tenet of a plan that's been discussed for months — that the plan would rely on a marketplace of private insurance. Claim: Page 92 of the House health care bill \"says specifically that people can't purchase private health insurance after a date certain.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The desire for revenge runs deep in all of us. Everyone who has ever been wronged has at one time or another felt the urge to strike a counterblow. Most of us don’t indulge in this pursuit because we’ve deemed the cost of getting even too high to justify the benefits gained, yet we revel in thoughts of comeuppances doled out by others. Such imaginings give us the chance to vicariously experience the joys of retribution, joys we’re not likely to sample in real life, such as the following:  I’ve heard that barmaids and cocktail waitresses have a secret for getting rid of obnoxious customers. Seems they use the eye medication Visine for a little Montezuma’s revenge. A few eyedrops in someone’s drink can apparently leave him sitting on the toilet for the rest of the evening with a nasty case of “the runs.”  The “Visine slipped into the drink” pay back carries additional appeal because it seems to offer an effective yet harmless form of retaliation that could be easily and furtively administered even by the wimpiest of revenge seekers. Also, the mental image of an enemy sent hotfooting for the toilet is a hugely satisfying one, especially in a society that views fecal output as something to be ashamed of. An act of spite that forces the victim into making repeated visits to the john is regarded as not only extremely inconveniencing to him, but degrading as well. Yet all is not well in revenge land. While it is true that Visine is readily obtainable (it’s an non-prescription eye drop manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer), a drink spiked with it is not a sure-fire means of producing diarrhea in the one unfortunate enough to swallow it, and ingestion of such a concoction is downright dangerous, making this “harmless” form of retaliation fraught with hazard. The active ingredient in Visine eye drops is Tetrahydrozoline HCl 0.05%. Swallowing this substance can result in a number of nasty effects, including:  Pfizer’s cautions  to users of Visine include: “If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.” In view of the above list, that advice should not be taken lightly. One thing tetrahydrozoline has not been known to do is to cause sudden onset bouts of severe diarrhea. Although this belief has been around for decades, and everyone knows someone who knows someone who really did administer a Visine mickey to a deserving miscreant and thereby caused him an immediate serious case of the trots, there’s no documented evidence the producthas that effect. Of all the Visine poisoning cases studied by medical observers, we found none that mentioned diarrheal output brought about by the drug. Yet if Visine doesn’t cause diarrhea, it has done things far more terrible. Drinking it can (and has) caused severe depression of the central nervous system. In 1996, a two-year-old child who ingested at most 2 to 3 mL of Visine eye drops became dangerously lethargic and unresponsive to every stimulus except deep pain. Thanks to prompt medical attention the child recovered, but not before enduring intubation and two days’ worth of mechanically-assisted breathing. In June 2014, a 22-year-old woman named Samantha Elizabeth Unger was arrested in Thurmont, Maryland, and charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children. According to police, Unger confessed to poisoning her 3-year-old son by putting Visine in his water bottle and juice bottle (the boy was hospitalized several times but survived) and also causing her 1-year-old son to fall ill when he accidentally consumed the poisoned drinks she had made for his brother. In January 2015 Unger pleaded guilty to six counts of aggravated assault of a victim less than six years old and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. Medical literature reports other cases of small children brought to the brink of crisis by ingestion of tiny amounts of over-the-counter eye drops. The danger is real, and parents are well advised to keep eye drops away from children. Yet it is not only toddlers who risk central nervous system shutdown or other dire results if they swallow Visine, as demonstrated by the following examples:            Revenge seekers still not quite convinced that a Visine mickey finn won’t produce the diarrheal results they crave, or that the drinking of such a potion could potentially result in a life-threatening medical crisis in the object of their prank, should consider one final fact: the act of secreting noxious substances in ingestibles for the purpose of bringing harm to others is called poisoning. It matters not if actual harm results from the attempt — the act itself is enough to land one in the hoosegow. Sightings:   In an episode of television’s CSI (“Revenge Is Best Served Cold,” original air date 26 September 2002), a drink spiked in this fashion caused a death when the eye drops initiated a fatal reaction with chocolate the victim had eaten. Claim: A few drops of Visine brand eye drops taken internally will induce uncontrollable diarrhea.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs are not discussed at all. Given that this release was issued by the manufacturer of Kyleena, the oversight is especially odd. If anyone would be able to speak to potential cost, it would be them. The product appears to be similar to another birth control product also marketed by Bayer, called Mirena. It is not easy to find a clear price for Mirena, but a 2014 story on the site ClearHealthCosts says that Mirena costs in the neighborhood of $700 or $800 — not including any medical fees related to having the device put into place. It is also not clear whether Kyleena may be covered by insurance plans. This gets a satisfactory rating, but it’s really a toss-up. First, the release does offer information on the rate of (presumably unexpected) pregnancies among patients who were using Kyleena. That’s good, and is why we award a satisfactory rating here. However, the information is provided based on the Pearl Index, which most readers are unlikely to be familiar with. The Pearl Index is commonly regarded as a standard metric for evaluating contraceptive effectiveness. The effectiveness of Kyleena is cited as 1.45 pregnancies per 100 women over 5 years of use. That can be compared with other available levonorgestrel products approved for 5 years, which contain higher amounts of active hormone (52 mg levonorgestrel vs 19.5 in Kyleena) and have slightly better effectiveness (0.5 to 1.1 pregnancies per 100 women). An additional benefit of the higher-dose levonorgestrel IUDs for some women is reduction in menstrual bleeding (30-50% of women stop having periods after 2 years of use), as well as reduction in volume of menstrual flow and menstrual cramps. There is no data cited on Kyleena’s effects on these outcomes. The release would have been stronger if it had placed the information in better context. How does it compare to other, similar birth control methods — such as Mirena, which we mentioned above? We’ll address this at greater length below, under the Compare Alternatives criterion. The release goes into this at length, which is good. What would have been even better would have been for the release to compare the likelihood of potential side effects for Kyleena with the likelihood of side effects for other products on the market. The release describes the relevant clinical trial in detail, earning this a satisfactory rating. That said, there is one question that the release does not address at all — whether the trial had a control group. That’s an important point, and it’s not clear why this issue isn’t addressed. There is a strong implication that there was no control group. The lack of control group is not necessarily a problem since the main outcome of interest is prevention of pregnancy. A control group would be helpful in putting the rates of adverse effects into context. No disease mongering here. The release is clearly marked as being from the manufacturer of Kyleena. This is not satisfactory on two levels. First, Kyleena is described as an intrauterine system that releases levonorgestrel in order to prevent pregnancy, and it is described preventing pregnancy for up to five years. Another product from Bayer, Mirena, is an intrauterine device that releases levonorgestrel in order to prevent pregnancy. It also is described as preventing pregnancy for up to five years. When a company is releasing a new product that, to the non-expert audience, looks an awful lot like an existing product, the company needs to clearly describe how the products are different — in terms of mechanism, benefit, cost and risk. Other levonorgestrel-releasing devices/implants include Liletta and Skyla. How does Kyleena differ from them? Second, and more broadly, the efficacy of Kyleena at preventing unwanted pregnancy is not compared to the broader suite of birth control options available. All in all, this is a significant oversight. Potential users of Kyleena should be able to clearly compare the costs, risks and benefits of the new product to existing products. And if the product is as advantageous as the manufacturer wants the market to believe, an up-front comparison would actually help convince consumers. There are two classes of levonorgestrel IUDs currently on the market that vary in the amount of active hormone they contain: 1) 52 mg IUDs (Mirena and Liletta) and 2) a 13.5 mg IUD (Skyla). There are two important differences between them. First, the higher dose IUDs are effective for five years, whereas the lower dose Skyla is effective for three years. Second, there are differences in side effects, which for some women may make one preferable to the other. Mirena and Liletta can reduce the frequency and amount of bleeding, as well as menstrual cramping; Skyla has little effect on these factors. With a lower dose of levonorgestrel  IUD (19.5 mg) compared to the other 5-year IUDs, Kyleena would seem to be Bayer’s effort to create a lower dose IUD that is effective for 5 years. In this context, it would be especially helpful to know how its “side effects” (whether beneficial or not) compare to those of the other IUDs. The release states that Kyleena will be available by prescription in October 2016. As noted above, it’s not clear from this release (at least to a non-expert audience) how Kyleena differs from other, intrauterine levonorgestrel-releasing products that are already on the market. The release doesn’t engage in sensationalistic language. The release may be slightly out-of-bounds, however, when it states, at the top, that “Kyleena offers women an important new long-term, reversible contraception option.”  Who decides what makes something “important”? It’s a tricky question. Based on the limited information in the release, it’s not clear that the term applies here or that the product offers significant differences from other products already on the market. Claim: FDA Approves Bayer's Kyleena™ (Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine System) 19.5 mg for Prevention of Pregnancy for up to Five Years",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Bolz, a Democrat, kicked off her campaign Thursday for Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District. She faces an uphill battle against Fortenberry, who is serving his eighth term in Congress. Bolz, of Lincoln, is pledging to improve access to health care and serve the interest of Nebraska farmers hurt by President Donald Trump’s trade war if elected. She also vows to fight pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The 1st Congressional District includes most of the eastern quarter of the state outside of Omaha and some its suburbs. The district leans Republican and includes Lincoln, Bellevue, Fremont and Norfolk. Claim: Nebraska Sen. Bolz to run for 1st Congressional District.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In his quest for the women’s vote. Democrat Charlie Crist continues to attack Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s record on abortion. \"After it happened, Rick Scott threw a party back at the mansion. What was he celebrating?\" says the Sept. 30 TV ad. \"This: with a stroke of a pen Scott passed some of the most extreme anti-choice laws in the country. Laws requiring mandatory ultrasounds and restricting access to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest.\" \"Rick Scott celebrated taking away your voice and your choice,\" the ad concludes. We have written a lot about Crist’s record of conflicting statements about abortion -- though in this campaign he has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood. Scott, meanwhile, has consistently favored abortion restrictions. We wanted to know if the ad accurately presented what Scott signed into law. We found it was largely correct; Scott did sign legislation that restricted access to abortion. But there a few details here that are important. Scott signed ultrasound bill in 2011 In 2011, Scott signed four abortion-related bills, including one that required all women to receive an ultrasound before undergoing an abortion. Crist had vetoed a similar ultrasound law in 2010, calling it \"almost mean-spirited.\" That was shortly after he left the GOP for his failed bid as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate. The law Scott signed requires women to get the ultrasound as well as an opportunity to review the ultrasound and have it explained to them. (Women can decline to review the ultrasound if they sign a form.) Previously, Florida law required ultrasounds prior to second trimester or later abortions, not first trimester abortions. Though the former law didn’t require first trimester ultrasounds, 29 of 31 abortion clinics did them anyway. The Miami Herald’s Naked Politics blog reported that a month after signing the bills in 2011, Scott held a ceremonial signing with dozens of abortion opponents -- that’s the \"party\" that the ad references. \"You should have the opportunity to see see an ultrasound of your child,\" Scott said in 2011. \"It's your choice. You don't have to. This creates choice. I think it's very positive.\" Abortion law about viability in 2014 Crist’s ad also says Scott signed a law \"restricting access to abortion even in cases of rape or incest.\" That refers to HB 1047, which Scott signed in 2014 to change the timeline for cutting off abortions. The bill banned abortions once a fetus is considered viable, which is typically around 23 or 24 weeks of gestation. Previously, Florida banned abortions in the third trimester, or starting about two weeks later than the new restriction. The main purpose of the 2014 bill was to make all abortions occur earlier -- no matter if the pregnancies were a result of rape or incest. The new law only allows abortion after the point of viability to save the woman’s life or prevent major permanent damage \"other than a psychological condition.\" It doesn’t mention rape or incest. The previous law didn’t mention rape or incest, but it did include a broad exception to \"preserve the health of the pregnant woman.\" That broad language was what some people interpreted to potentially include rape or incest survivors. In reality, however, no woman has received a third-trimester abortion under any exception between 2011 and so far in 2014, according to state data. In 2013, 91 percent of abortions were in the first trimester and 9 percent in the second trimester, according to state data. So that means that women who want to terminate pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape or incest can still do so in the first semester and most of the second trimester -- depending on when a doctor determines viability. Rape and incest are rarely cited in abortions, according to state data. In 2013 there were about 73,000 abortions -- two were in cases of incest and about 272 due to rape -- so combined that equals less than one percent. At the time, Scott spokesman John Tupps wrote in a statement about the law that \"Gov. Scott is pro-life and was glad to sign this bill that protects the lives of children.\" We asked Scott campaign spokesman Greg Blair if Scott supports the rape/incest exception throughout pregnancy or only until the point of viability and Blair told us that he supports those exceptions in \"all cases.\" We asked why Scott then signed the law this session that doesn’t include those exceptions. We didn’t get a response. Finally, the ad said Scott signed \"some of the most extreme anti-choice laws in the country.\" That’s a subjective call, but we should note that Florida hasn’t had widespread clinic closures. A Texas law caused 13 abortion clinics to close there. In Florida, there were 68 abortion clinics when Scott took office and there are 65 now. (Seven closed under Scott, but four new ones opened.) And, Florida had restrictive laws about abortion before Scott took office. Americans United for Life, a group that opposes abortion rights, ranked Florida 26th among states for restricting abortion in 2010 and 25th among states in 2014. NARAL, an organization that supports abortion rights, has given an \"F\" to about half the states, including Florida. Our ruling Crist said in an ad that Scott signed \"laws requiring mandatory ultrasounds and restricting access to abortion even in cases of rape or incest.\" Scott signed a law in 2011 that requires ultrasounds for all women before they get an abortion, and in 2014 he signed a law that stated women could not have an abortion after the point of viability. That means women could not have an abortion about two weeks earlier than before. The only stated exception was to save the woman's life. However, the previous law didn’t expressly include those exceptions either, though it had broad language that could potentially have been used to seek abortion for a rape or incest survivor in the third trimester. No woman, though, has had an abortion in Florida during the third trimester for any reason in recent years, even before the new law. The statement is accurate, but needs additional information. Claim: Charlie Crist Says Rick Scott signed \"laws requiring mandatory ultrasounds and restricting access to abortion even in cases of rape or incest.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Data compiled by the United Nations show slow progress and even backsliding in the areas of child wasting and stunting and other problems related to malnutrition. Worsening inequality means that despite relatively fast economic growth, incomes in the region are not increasing fast enough to help ensure adequate, nutritional diets for hundreds of millions still living in poverty, it says. The report urges that governments combine efforts to end poverty and with nutrition, health and education-oriented policies. The UN’s sustainable development goals for 2030 call for ending hunger and ensuring all people have adequate access to food all around the year. “We are not on track,” said Kundhavi Kadiresan, the FAO’s regional representative. “Progress in reducing undernourishment has slowed a lot in the past few years.” More than a fifth of all people in the Asia-Pacific region are facing moderate to severe food insecurity, meaning they must scrimp on food or go hungry part of the year, and in the worst cases go days without eating. More than half of the 479 million in the region who are undernourished live in South Asia, where more than a third of all children suffer from chronic malnutrition, said the report written by the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization. In India, nearly 21% of children suffer from wasting, a more acute form of malnutrition. Failing to ensure children are well nourished jeopardizes their future development, especially their cognitive abilities — a crucial handicap in the 21st century age of advanced technologies, said Michael Samson, research director of the Economic Policy Research Institute, who spoke at the report’s release in Bangkok. Cognitive abilities cannot be traded or manufactured, so “Investing in the first 1,000 days (of a child’s life) is the most important investment you can make in future productivity,” he said. Governments have begun to implement some policies aimed at addressing the severe shortfalls in child and maternal nutrition . Thailand has provided subsidies that have helped improve the health and diets of families with young children. In neighboring Myanmar, trial programs in the Chin state are being expanded to cover more of the country. The focus is not just on providing cash, but improving awareness about nutrition, family planning and water and sanitation,” said Shein Myint, an assistant director in the Social Protection section of Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare. “From monitoring we see that beneficiaries mainly use the cash to have nutritious food and use it for healthcare costs,” Shein Myint said. Cambodia is expanding a program called NOURISH that originally was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It provides help for impoverished pregnant women and families during the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life. In areas where the program was implemented there was a nearly 20% decrease in stunting and marked improvement in toddlers’ diets, said Laura Cardinal, who directed the program. While many in Asia still do not get enough calories to thrive, in the Pacific the problem is too many empty calories: obesity rates in the Pacific islands are among the world’s highest and rising fast, partly because healthy foods are costly and less available and partly because local cultures focus much on feasting, said Lu’isa Manuofetoa, the acting chief executive for Tonga’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. “People like to have feasts all the time, that’s something we need to change,” she said. Claim: UN: Nearly a half-billion in Asia-Pacific still going hungry.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The new program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is an example of how doctors are adapting and loosening normal protocols to ease the strain on emergency rooms and intensive care units in New York state, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Since last week, more than 200 people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, have been sent home with a pulse oximeter to track their oxygen levels. A doctor or nurse practitioner follows up with them via video conference. “Some of these patients might have been on the borderline of admission,” Dr. Rahul Sharma, who is overseeing the program as the chief of emergency medicine at Presbyterian’s Weill Cornell Medical Center, said in an interview. An oximeter is a small electronic device that clips onto a fingertip to indirectly measure the oxygen saturation of a patient’s blood. In severe COVID-19 cases, the virus can block up the lungs, hindering their ability to pass oxygen from the air into the bloodstream. While most who contract the virus recover, it has killed at least 4,900 people in the city, according to a Reuters tally. Click tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T for a GRAPHIC tracking the coronavirus in the United States. Some of the NewYork-Presbyterian patients are also being sent home with a 30lb (14 kg) portable oxygen concentrating machine which sends oxygen-rich air through a nasal cannula, a two-pronged tube inserted into the nostrils. The patient is asked to log their oximeter readings to share with a doctor or nurse practitioner at 12-hour and 24-hour consultations. The patient may be re-admitted to the hospital  if they take a turn for the worse. No patient in the program is known to have died at home as of Wednesday, but about 15 percent were asked to return to hospital to be admitted for inpatient care, a hospital spokeswoman said. At least two other hospital systems outside of New York unveiled similar new programs using oximeters in late March. Doctors at other hospitals said Presbyterian’s approach could have benefits for patients with a disease about which they still have much to learn. “There’s no guarantees in either direction, there are risks to hospitalization and there are risks with sending people home,” Dr. Laura Burke, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in an interview. Doctors have noticed there can be a worrisome lag in symptoms among some COVID-19 patients, with oxygen saturation dropping for some time before a patient is aware of breathing problems. For patients that turn up at an emergency department with other COVID-19 symptoms, giving a pulse oximeter to use at home could be one way to “err on the side of safety,” Burke said. Claim: New York hospital sends some 'borderline' COVID-19 patients home with oxygen monitors.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Experts say disentangling folklore from fact is not easy in fitness, where misconceptions are as pervasive as push-ups and as stubborn as love handles. Jennifer Burke, a fitness manager at a Crunch gym in West Hollywood, California, said many women still worry that weight training will create big and bulky muscles. “Women say ‘I don’t want to get bulky,’ but unless you take in extra calories or testosterone supplements, that’s just not going to happen,” said Burke, who eases reluctant clients into resistance training gently, with body-weight exercises. “When they see their bodies getting long lean muscles, getting toned, they trust you a little more and you can start adding in dumbbells and machines,” Burke said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults engage in muscle-strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups - legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms - two or more days a week. “A lot of people think if they want to lose a lot of weight they should do cardio, but the best thing is to add in resistance training as well,” Burke said. “You’ll get bigger, faster results because you’re working on lean muscle tissue which burns more calories in the long run.”  While it’s true that muscle weighs more than fat, it’s also more compact. “Five pounds (2.3 kilograms) of muscle is the size of your fist. Five pounds of fat is the size of your forearm” she said. Burke added that another misconception is that lower-intensity exercise such as the fat-burning setting on most cardio machines is better for burning calories. “That’s absolutely not true,” said Burke. “If you increase the intensity you’ll burn more calories.”  The CDC’s rule of thumb is that one minute of vigorous-intensity activity is about the same as two minutes of moderate-intensity activity. Stephanie Huckabee, a South Carolina-based fitness instructor, said people who believe it is necessary to exercise every day are setting themselves up for failure. “I tell my clients to expect days when they don’t exercise,” said Huckabee. “That’s just being realistic.”  Another fiction, Huckabee said, is that you can move fat away from a problem area. “When I wanted to reduce my stomach, I had to do an all-over conditioning program to get that fat tissue to shrink,” she said. “Cardio will burn the fat over all. After that, you can work on sculpting an area with resistance training.”  Burke said one of the biggest fitness myths is that crunches can banish belly fat. “You build your six-pack in the kitchen,” she said, while noting that no one will see even the most developed abdominals if they’re hiding under a layer of fat. Moira Merrithew, co-founder of Merrithew Health & Fitness, said one of the most common misconceptions is that it’s always good to stretch before a game of football or a run. “For some athletes probably the worst thing they can do is stretch before they run,” said Merrithew, who is based in Toronto, Canada. “There’s simply no hard and fast rule,” said Merrithew, a former dancer. “Pilates is good for dancers before they go out, because it mobilizes the joints. There are so many effects that stretching can and cannot have. There are limits to really pushing that stretch.”  And even the most dedicated couch potato cannot turn muscle to fat, according to Carol Torgan, a consultant exercise physiologist with the American College of Sports Medicine. “Muscles and fat are two different types of cells. It would be like turning apples into oranges,” she said. More troubling is the fallacy that one can never drink too much water. “It can result in a condition known as hyponatremia, in which there is an imbalance of water to salt,” Torgan said. “This is also known as water intoxication or over-hydration, and can be extremely serious.” Claim: Fitness experts separate folklore from fact.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: President Donald Trump touted the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as the \"biggest trade deal ever made\" shortly after signing it into law. BIGGEST TRADE DEAL EVER MADE, the USMCA, was signed yesterday and the Fake News Media barely mentioned it. They never thought it could be done. They have zero credibility! His tweet built on past claims that the USMCA is the \"largest,\" \"most significant,\" \"modern\" and \"balanced\" trade agreement. The revised agreement mostly updates NAFTA, which has been in place since 1994 and was previously the largest U.S. trade deal ever signed. The USMCA adds significant changes for the auto industry and implements new policies on intellectual property protection, the Canadian dairy market, and labor and environmental standards. Trump overreaches by calling it the \"biggest trade deal ever made.\" For one, it’s not a trade agreement from scratch; it’s building off of NAFTA. And two, this neglects larger trade pacts across the world. In 2018, the European Union signed a trade agreement with Japan, covering a quarter of the global economy and 600 million people. Although the Trans-Pacific Partnership never came into force, it included the same three USMCA partners –– the United States, Canada and Mexico –– as well as nine other Pacific Rim countries and would have represented nations with 40% of global gross domestic product. Trump withdrew the United States from the pact his first week in office. Then there is the mammoth 1994 Uruguay Round trade talks, which included the United States and 122 other countries, kicking off the World Trade Organization. The initial membership of the WTO \"accounted for more than 90% of international trade in goods and services,\" found the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The WTO now has more than 160 members, including China. Trump’s campaign pointed us to evidence that shows how substantial the USMCA is for the United States alone. The latest International Trade Administration data shows that total U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico (under NAFTA) is the largest of any U.S. free trade partners. As a percentage of total trade, Canada and Mexico account for about 30% of U.S. goods exports and imports, according to a 2019 Census Bureau report on top trading partners. Trump tweeted that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, is the \"biggest trade deal ever made.\" The deal is more incremental than Trump describes. It updates NAFTA and introduces changes for the auto industry and the United States’ access to Canada’s dairy market. It also implements new policies on intellectual property protection, labor and environmental standards and digital trade. In terms of U.S. trade deals, the USMCA replaces NAFTA as the biggest American deal. Overall, multiple other trade deals around the world eclipse the USMCA in terms of the number of countries involved and economic output. Claim: Donald Trump Says the USMCA is the “biggest trade deal ever made.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Hidden in the middle of a story about the effects of social media disinformation on a pregnant woman is a statistic that might give readers pause, but it is chilling — and accurate.The information was part of a February 20 2020 NBC News story on “freebirth” advocacy groups:A woman in America today is 50 percent more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth than her mother was. While many of these deaths are preventable and have more to do with access than improper medical care, the statistic itself can lead women to doubt medical institutions. Meanwhile, one-third of U.S. women give birth by C-section, a rate experts have called alarming for a procedure that can save lives but also comes with increased health risks to mothers and babies.The passage links to a separate NBC story from October 2018 covering a widely-publicized post by Neel Shah, a Harvard University professor of gynecology and reproductive biology. Shah wrote in the Harvard Health Blog:In 1990, about 17 maternal deaths were recorded for every 100,000 pregnant women in the United States. While relatively rare, this number has risen steadily over the last 25 years, indicating a worsening safety problem. In 2015, more than 26 deaths were recorded per 100,000 pregnant women. This means that compared with their own mothers, American women today are 50 percent more likely to die in childbirth. And the risk is consistently three to four times higher for black women than white women, irrespective of income or education.Additionally, for every death, pregnancy-related conditions, such as high blood pressure or blood clotting disorders, result in up to 100 severe injuries. For every severe injury, tens of thousands of women suffer from inadequately treated physical or mental illnesses, as well as the broader disempowerment mothers face in the absence of paid parental leave policies and other social support.However, Shah added that very few of these deaths occurred during the birthing process; in four out of each five cases of maternal death, the victim passed away “in the weeks and months before or after birth,” representing a failure of not just medical care, but also of social and medical support for mothers:A few days after having a baby, American women are sent home from the hospital, infant in hand. More often than not, mother and family are left on their own until a cursory 15-minute visit with a healthcare provider several weeks later. During long gaps between checkups, mothers experience deep worry for their infants. They struggle with rapidly accelerated responsibilities, extreme sleep deprivation, and relentless pressure to return to work. And all while recovering from pregnancy and adjusting to parenthood — a transition that marks one of life’s greatest physiological endurance tests. Too often, this experience is isolating, disempowering, and mortally dangerous. And over time, these risks are getting increasingly severe.In its February 2020 story about 28-year-old “Judith,” NBC News linked Shah’s findings to a bigger dissatisfaction concerning maternal care; a study published in the journal Reproductive Health also cited by the network found that one in six women reported mistreatment including “violations of physical privacy,” as well as physical and verbal abuse, by their providers during the pregnancy and birth process.According to the network Judith’s own mistrust and bad medical experiences drew her to the “freebirth” community online, which advocates for women to give birth without any involvement from caregivers. Her immersion was abetted by Facebook:There were doubts — sprouted from seeds planted by real-life friends who knew about her plan and doctors whom Judith had to see to sign up for state insurance benefits. But Judith had fortified herself against the creeping unease with the stories she read online from freebirthing mothers and the real-time support she received on Facebook. With a little help from algorithms that nudged increasingly questionable information and sources her way, Judith had become a part of the internet’s most extreme pregnancy communities.However, Judith’s refusal to accept medical help extended into her 42nd week of pregnancy, when medical professionals recommend that prospective mothers have an induction to “jump-start” the birthing process. When she noticed complications 10 hours into her own process, though, Judith sought medical help. But it was too late to prevent her from suffering a stillbirth.NBC reported that at least one private Facebook group advocating for freebirth, with 2,000 members, still used a photograph of Judith’s pregnant belly taken at the 42-week mark as its banner image. But she shared her experience with the network, she said, to help other women who might be taken in by those groups.“Sad stories aren’t out there nearly as much,” Judith said. “Maybe my extreme story could help somebody.” Claim: Women in the United States are 50 percent more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes compared to their mothers.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The costs of screening vary dramatically, not only by test but also by the terms of a person’s health care insurance coverage. Insurance may completely cover the cost of screening, but depending on their insurance, people who get follow-up tests to check a suspicious screening test result may get hit with thousands of dollars in medical bills. Especially since the task force highlighted the importance of individuals deciding on the right type of colon cancer screening for themselves, which certainly includes their insurance coverage, the story should have mentioned costs. Also, though not directly addressed in these guidelines, it is worth noting that colon cancer screening is covered under the Affordable Care Act, but that workup of an abnormal screening test may not be. The story does not quantify the benefits of the different colon cancer screening methods. While we’re sympathetic to the challenges of doing so on deadline–especially when the task force went out of its way to not cover this ground–this nonetheless should have been included. The effectiveness of different screening tests differ, as well as the quality of that evidence, and readers would welcome knowing these differences in quantified terms. The story should have mentioned some of the potential harms of screening, ranging from anxiety over a worrisome result to bleeding, colon perforation, sedation-related events and other problems. Also, since the story specifically included comments lauding colonoscopy, it should have also mentioned that colonoscopy accounts for most of the serious harms caused by colon cancer screening. The USPSTF recommendation is the result of not only a structured review of available studies on colon cancer screening, but also new analyses of the data, in order to seek a deeper understanding of the pros and cons of various screening strategies. Though the story could have done a lot more to explain that, enough of the basics are included to warrant a Satisfactory here. The story ideally would have explained what sets this recommendation apart from other reports that come from various groups of experts giving their opinions. Also, it should have noted that the USPSTF gave the recommendation for screening between ages 50 and 75 an “A” grade (the highest level of confidence), while screening of those over 75 (based on individual considerations) received only a “C” grade (moderate certainty). If anything, this story more restrained than the USPSTF recommendation, which strongly urges colon cancer screening, saying that the biggest problem is that nearly one-third of eligible adults have never been screened. The story includes comments from a physician who is not on the USPSTF and who expresses a different viewpoint. We won’t mark down the story for not discussing conflicts of interest because the USPSTF is a voluntary, publicly-funded body and none of the members reported any conflicts in their disclosure forms. The story lists all the screening techniques the USPSTF looked at. It notes that the report intentionally did not rank the techniques and includes a dissenting opinion from a physician who was not part of the task force. It was also worth mentioning that an average risk person who is informed about the screening may chose not to be screened as a reasonable choice, but only as part of a shared decision making process with her/his doctor. It is clear that all of the screening tests mentioned in the story are generally available. The story points out that this report and recommendation is an update of one the USPSTF issued in 2008. It is clear that all of the screening tests mentioned in the story have been available for years, except for a DNA-based stool test that the story notes was approved recently. The story includes comments from an independent physician, which is enough to squeak by as Satisfactory on this rating. However, it should be noted that all of the comments from the USPSTF came from a news release. Although the story clearly attributes the source of the USPSTF comments, which is good, ideally there would also have been at least some original commentary directly from task force members, providing unique insights not found in the news release. Claim: Expert Panel Reaffirms Need for Colon Cancer Screen Beginning at Age 50",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Okposo missed the final few weeks of Buffalo’s season with a previously undisclosed illness. In a letter posted on the team’s website Monday, Okposo said a routine hit in practice caused his mood to change and other problems that required hospitalization. The 29-year-old said he lost his appetite, had a negative reaction to sleep medications and that at one point he weighed less than 200 pounds. He spent time in the Neuro Surgical ICU at Buffalo General Hospital to be stabilized. Okposo’s playing weight is listed at 218 pounds. Okposo played in a 4-on-4 summer league game in Minnesota with other NHL players last week and reported feeling great. New general manager Jason Botterill said Okposo was on track to be ready for training camp. “I’ve worked with a lot of different people — concussion experts and people who have dealt with concussions themselves — and I feel confident in the fact that I can play hockey again,” Okposo said in the letter. “In fact, I know I can play again. I know I can play and not worry about hitting my head, which is a major hurdle for someone who’s dealt with this. If I didn’t feel 100 percent right now, that probably wouldn’t be the case.” Okposo’s last NHL game was March 27 against Florida. He had 19 goals and 26 assists for 45 points in 65 games during his first season with Buffalo. He signed a $42 million, seven-year contract with the Sabres last summer. ___ For more AP NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey Claim: Okposo says he’s healthy after concussion put him in ICU.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There’s no direct cost to walking an hour a day, so we won’t ding the story for omitting discussion of cost. However, there is clearly a time cost involved, and many people may struggle to find the time for exercise if it means less time for paying work or caregiving. Others, especially older adults, may have medical problems that preclude the exercise. We wish the story had mentioned these factors. The story provides no numbers. It doesn’t tell us how much risk of death is increased by sitting 8 hours a day, or how much it is reduced by exercise. It tells us that “Not exercising and sitting all day is as dangerous as being obese or smoking,” but how dangerous is that? We can’t think of any harms from engaging in a brisk hour-long walk. Injury is always a possibility, but that’s apparent enough that we don’t think the story was obligated to discuss this. The story inappropriately uses cause-and-effect language in the headline and elsewhere that overstates what this study can tell us (e.g. “To reverse damage of sitting, take a brisk, hour-long walk”). It should have said that walking, sitting, etc. are “associated with” or “linked to” health effects, but not that walking can “undo” or “reverse” damage. In the study itself, the researchers provide a long list of limitations that suggest a lack of certainty regarding the strength of these conclusions. But the story did not report on any of them. For example, the researchers state,”we attempted to minimise bias from reverse causation (ie, illness causing individuals to become sedentary) by including apparently healthy participants; however, we cannot fully rule this bias out.”  What this means is that the results could be skewed by individuals who had undiagnosed, subclinical disease that caused them to become less likely to exercise. While the assumption is that lack of exercise makes people sick, perhaps the reverse is true in some cases, which would obviously affect results from a study such as this one. No disease-mongering. The story gets credit here for quoting the author of an accompanying editorial. But we’d point out that it probably wouldn’t have been hard to find someone who would have looked at the study more critically and offered some comment on its limitations. The story is basically a comparison of the competing effects of exercise vs. sedentary behavior. The story addresses this as an issue with this line: Andersen said that some cultures make it easier than others to squeeze in an hour of exercise every day, noting that in Denmark and much of Scandinavia, about half of all people either cycle or walk to work. Although the story nods to previous research, noting that “Previous studies have found that prolonged sitting can raise the chances of heart disease, various cancers and an earlier death,” it doesn’t explain that this study is meant to address a specific issue that has generated conflicting results in previous research. Here’s how the researchers put it: Two other meta-analyses had examined the associations of sitting time with non-communicable disease incidence and mortality. One of these concluded that prolonged sitting time was associated with increased risks of deleterious health outcomes regardless of physical activity level, whereas the other concluded that physical activity (no details on the amount of activity were provided) seemed to attenuate the increased risk of all-cause mortality due to high sitting. In other words, this newer study was attempting to answer this question: Given the conflicting results from older research, what role does physical activity play, if any, in counteracting prolonged daily sitting? Although the story quotes from a news release, it acknowledges the source of the quotation and also includes an interview with the author of the accompanying commentary. It’s apparent that there was some independent reporting done here. Claim: To reverse damage of sitting, take a brisk, hour-long walk",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Department of Health and Welfare says the cat in Owyhee County was behaving aggressively and bit its owner. It tested positive for a strain of rabies normally associated with bats. The department’s state public health veterinarian Dr. Leslie Tengelsen says in a prepared statement that rabies is fatal virtually 100% of the time. She says the cat was likely exposed to a rabid bat, and that’s how it became infected. Tengelsen says pet owners should vaccinate their dogs, cats, ferrets and horses against the disease. Ten bats have tested positive for rabies in Idaho this year. Claim: Idaho officials say cat has rabies, first case in decades.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A 14-year old schoolgirl has suffered serious complications after a flu shot allegedly left the young girl terribly ill and with severe cramps, until the family doctor finally realized weeks later she had been impregnated by the vaccine, reports the Forth Worth Telegram this week. “She had all the typical symptoms of a pregnant woman. It’s not the first time a young woman falls pregnant without the consent of her parents, but the girl seemed sincere when she said she had never had sexual relations with a boy, and she urged me to check her hymen, which I eventually did, and to my utter surprise, the hymen was fully intact. It is impossible she has been impregnated by male sperm” she assures. “In my 26 years of practice, I have never heard once of such a thing as someone being impregnated by a vaccine, but I did some research and found out it is more common than most people think”. The claim cleverly layered the suggestion of a falsehood within its own fabrication to facilitate the spread of the story. Due to that sleight of hand, readers surmised the girl had lied about her sexual experience and had blamed the flu vaccine to deflect suspicion about the true nature of her pregnancy. None of this (neither the girl’s claims nor the article reporting them) was true, however. World News Daily Report is just one of many fake news sites that print fictitious articles, as noted in their disclaimer: Claim: A teenage schoolgirl in Texas became pregnant through a flu vaccination.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Both MI and FIT rely on patients engaging in multiple sessions with a trained therapist. Whether done in a for-profit country like the United States or a country that partially or fully subsidizes health care, there are cost considerations. The cost of those sessions, and follow-up consultations, was not mentioned. The release describes benefits in terms of kilograms lost at six months and twelve months after the FIT/MI intervention. Benefits are also described in terms of centimeters lost from their waist circumference. This information would have been more meaningful if it had provided information about the starting weight and waist circumference for the groups, since that would have shed light on whether one group would find it more difficult to shed kilograms or centimeters. Some forms of weight loss can pose risks for patients, such as various fad diets or when people with a sedentary lifestyle suddenly begin engaging in rigorous exercise. But this study does not appear to have evaluated how people tried to lose weight, instead focusing on the extent to which they were motived to make changes based on the intervention. Because of the nature of the study, we’ll rate this as not applicable. However, it would have been valuable to include language encouraging people to talk to a health care provider before making abrupt changes to their lifestyle. The release does a fairly good job of describing the study design. However, as noted above, some crucial information is missing. Did the FIT and MI groups have comparable numbers of men and women? Were the groups comparable in age? Were the groups comparable in terms of overall health? Essentially, the release should make clear whether the researchers were comparing apples and oranges. What’s more, it would be important to know what steps the people in each group took to lose weight. If both groups consisted of comparable demographics AND both consisted solely of people who started watching what they ate and engaging in more light exercise, then the hypothesis holds that FIT was responsible for the difference in outcomes. But even if both groups were comparable demographically, but one group happened to adopt a different weight loss approach, that could account for the difference. In other words, it’s possible that some unknown variable was responsible for the FIT group’s success — because it’s not clear whether the study controlled for that. The release specifically notes that the study did not dictate how study participants chose to lose weight. But the study should still have tracked what those efforts looked like, in order to determine FIT’s role in the weight loss. Weight loss is not inherently good. The release refers, once, to study participants as being “overweight,” but it’s not clear what they mean. Are these people who could stand to lose a pound or two? Or are they morbidly obese? It is possible to be both healthy and “overweight,” depending on how you define those terms. In the paper, they define “overweight” as having a body mass index (BMI) of greater than or equal to 25. Having a BMI of 25 puts you exactly on the borderline between “normal” and “overweight” — and the BMI itself is a very incomplete means of measuring an individual’s body fat and assessing health. The funding source is clearly identified. There are no apparent conflicts of interest, though the release would have been stronger if it had addressed this directly. The release addresses this, sort of, when it states: “Most people agree that in order to lose weight, you need to eat less and exercise more, but in many cases, people simply aren’t motivated enough to heed this advice – however much they might agree with it. So FIT comes in with the key aim of encouraging someone to come up with their own imagery of what change might look and feel like to them, how it might be achieved and kept up, even when challenges arise.” That’s enough to earn it a satisfactory ranking, particularly since it is consistent with the underlying study. However, it would be more valuable to see how effective FIT is when used in conjunction with proven weight loss techniques. The release describes FIT as a “new motivational intervention.” Is it in widespread use? How difficult would it be for someone to find a practice that can provide FIT for weight loss? The release doesn’t address this. The release refers to FIT as “novel” and “new” — but (as noted above), researchers have been publishing on FIT since at least May 2016. We’ll give the release the benefit of the doubt here since reasonable people can disagree on what constitutes novelty or “new-ness.” This 2016 paper looked at the use of FIT to inform dietary choices for people who wanted to lose weight. The new paper appears to be the first to look specifically at weight loss, but that context is missing since the release does not place the work in context with other research in the field. The release avoids unjustifiable language. Claim: Weight loss can be boosted fivefold thanks to novel mental imagery technique",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There are many unanswered questions about the connection between the Zika virus and microcephaly, a birth defect in which the baby’s head is much smaller than expected. Not every baby of an infected woman develops this syndrome, and the mechanism by which the virus might affect the fetus is uncertain. But moving around on the Internet is an entirely different take on the tie between Zika and microcephaly. It doesn’t exist, according to certain blogs, tweets and articles on conspiracy-leaning websites. The Canadian-based Centre for Research on Globalization, a group that advances ideas it feels the \"mainstream press\" ignores, had an article Feb. 4, 2016, from Dr. Gary Kohls that challenged the linkage theory and said the primary suspect is DTaP,  a common vaccination to prevent whooping cough (along with tetanus and diphtheria). \"In the whole week of reports that I heard or read about, not a single interviewer asked about – and not a single ‘expert’ or mainstream journalists ever mentioned the most likely triggering cause of the epidemic, and that is the neurotoxic, cytotoxic, genotoxic, aluminum that was in every DTaP shot, a vaccine that had been recently mandated (early in 2015) by the Brazilian government to be injected into pregnant women – and therefore into their fetuses,\" Kohls wrote. So is DTaP is the \"most likely triggering cause\" of microcephaly? Most of Kohls’ article describes why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pharmaceutical companies and researchers would care to blame the Zika virus rather than the vaccine, but its main point is the overlap of the microcephaly incidence and Brazil’s immunization campaign. Brazil did begin vaccinating pregnant women starting in late 2014. (Hat tip to Brazilian fact-checker Cristina Tardáguila at Lupa News.) However, according to the Brazilian Health Department press release, the vaccine they distributed was a version called Tdap. This was part of an international push to reduce whooping cough in infants. Inoculating mothers late in pregnancy allowed them to pass antibodies to their unborn children. For the rest of this fact-check, we look at Tdap. The Web article named the incorrect vaccine, but if there’s any merit to Kohls’ case -- and there isn’t -- it lies with the vaccine Brazil used. Kohl also wrote that \"there are 35 other countries across the globe that have confirmed cases of Zika virus illness, but none are having any microcephaly reports.\" The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control does show about that number of countries and territories where Zika has been found, but in 13 of those places, there are few cases. Either no instances of Zika have been found in the past two months, or the number of cases was less than 10. So it’s a bit misleading to suggest that the absence of microcephaly disproves the link between the birth defect and the Zika virus. If we find more detailed statistics on the number of cases of Zika and microcephaly, we’ll update this item, but there’s a much bigger problem with Kohls’ statement. Evidence on the safety of Tdap The weakest part of the argument that Tdap plays a role in microcephaly is that  pregnant women in the United States, and elsewhere, have been getting the vaccine and there is no hint of a connection to microcephaly. Elyse Kharbanda is a top national researcher on vaccine safety at HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Minneapolis. \"Our research has not shown any link between Tdap vaccination in pregnant women and microcephaly in their children,\" Kharbanda told us. Melissa Brower in the CDC press office reiterated that point. \"Our safety monitoring is continuous,\" Brower said. \"We have not observed any unusual or unexpected patterns of reporting that would indicate a potential safety problem with maternal Tdap vaccination and microcephaly as a birth outcome.\" A 2015 study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association included over 29,000 pregnant women in six states. It found no problems of any birth defects for any woman who was vaccinated with Tdap during pregnancy. Another JAMA study looked at over 26,000 pregnant women in California and reached the same conclusion. Researchers at the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program further affirm the safety of Tdap. Director and specialist in pediatric infectious diseases Buddy Creech said nothing shows any link between the vaccine and microcephaly or any other birth defect. Creech also noted that the vaccine is given later in pregnancy, between weeks 27 and 36. That timing is important. \"Most organ development and structural changes are occurring in the first trimester,\" Creech said. \"It’s after the period of most intense organ development, so it removes the question of whether a vaccine caused congenital heart disease, etc.\" However, the CDC says in some cases, microcephaly can occur after the first trimester, so in theory, a vaccination could overlap with the onset of microcephaly. But that doesn’t change the rest of the research pattern. The United Kingdom launched a vaccination program in 2012, making Tdap available to about 700,000 pregnant women. Researchers looked at the impact on about 20,000 of them and found no increase in pregnancy risks. On a related note, the New England Journal of Medicine reports that the Zika virus was found in the brain tissue of an aborted fetus suffering from microcephaly. While this says nothing about the role of Tdap, it does directly link the Zika virus to a particular birth defect. We contacted the editors at the Centre for Research on Globalization and they said they forwarded our questions to Kohls. If we hear back, we’ll update this item. Our ruling An online article on the website of the Centre for Research of Globalization said the DTaP vaccine is the mostly likely cause of microcephaly in Brazil. First of all, Brazil used Tdap, a slightly different version of the vaccine. More important, not a bit of evidence supports the assertion that either variety lies behind microcephaly. Many thousands of pregnant women in the United States and around the world have been getting this vaccine for at least five years and multiple studies have found no ill effects on their babies. Not a single study has raised a red flag for any birth defect and certainly not microcephaly. In addition, administering the vaccine later in pregnancy reduces the likelihood that it will interfere with fetal development. The statement is inaccurate in every respect including naming the wrong version of the vaccine used in Brazil. Claim: The most likely triggering cause of (microcephaly)\" is the \"DTaP shot, a vaccine that had been recently mandated by the Brazilian government to be injected into pregnant women.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Authorities were assessing the damage after firefighters battled flames fanned by strong winds through the night and lightning strikes sparked new blazes in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia’s most populous states. Conditions were milder Saturday and forecast to remain relatively benign for the next week. “In the scheme of things, we did OK last night,” said Andrew Crisp, Victoria’s emergency management commissioner. New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters that officials were “extremely relieved” the fires were not more destructive overnight. A man suffered burns protecting a home near Tumbarumba in southern New South Wales and was airlifted to a Sydney hospital in serious condition to undergo surgery, Fitzsimmons said. Several firefighters received minor burns and one suffered shortness of breath, but they were not admitted to a hospital, he said. With no heavy rain expected, the 640,000-hectare (1.58 million-acre) blaze that formed overnight when two fires joined in the Snowy Mountains region near Tumbarumba, close to the Victorian border, is expected to burn for weeks, officials said. The fire crisis in Australia has killed at least 26 people, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and scorched an area larger than the U.S. state of Indiana since September. It also has brought accusations that Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government needs to take more action to counter climate change, which experts say has worsened the blazes. Thousands of protesters rallied late Friday in Sydney and Melbourne, calling for Morrison to be fired and for Australia to take tougher action on global warming. The protesters carried placards saying, “We deserve more than your negligence,” “This is ecosystem collapse” and “We can’t breathe,” referring to wildfire smoke that has choked both cities. Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal and liquid natural gas. Australians are also among the worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita. On Friday, thousands of people in the path of fires fled to evacuation centers, while some chose to ignore evacuation orders and stayed to defend their homes. Evan Harris, who lives in the New South Wales rural village of Burragate, said police and fire crews told him he should leave his cottage because of the threat. He told them he wasn’t going anywhere. Burragate was choked with smoke for several hours Friday and was directly in a fire’s path. A fire strike team and several members of the Australian Army arrived to try to save properties, and they were prepared to hunker down in a fire station if the flames overran them. In the end, the winds died down and so did the fire. But crews worry the flames will flare up again during a fire season that could continue for months. Harris said he likes to live off the grid in his remote home, which is made from mud bricks. He has no electricity, instead using batteries to power the lights and a small wood burner to heat water. The cottage itself has a warm and cozy feel. And Harris feels like he has a point to make. “If this house survives, I think it will be a bit of a wake-up call for people,” he said. “That maybe people should start building like this, instead of over-exorbitant houses.” Harris prepared for the blazes by tacking sheets of iron over his windows and clearing the area around the house of grass and shrubbery that might have caught fire. He dug a hole away from the cottage to house his gas canisters. Harris said he was disappointed in the environmental destruction and that people should be paying attention to the more sustainable way that indigenous Australians previously lived. “This is a result of the human species demanding too much of the environment,” he said of the wildfires. ____ Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report. Claim: 2 Aussie wildfires merge into inferno; man seriously burned.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Democrat is nominating Renee D. Coleman-Mitchell, a health care executive, to oversee the health department. Coleman-Mitchell is executive director of Cougar Health Services at Washington State University. She previously worked at the Connecticut Department of Public Health, beginning in 1986 with the HIV/AIDS division. Lamont is also nominating Andrew N. Mais of Wilton to oversee the insurance department. Mais specializes in insurance regulation at the Deloitte Center for Financial Services in Stamford, where he has worked since 2011. He previously worked at the New York State Insurance Department. Both appointees await legislative confirmation. Claim: Lamont fills top public health, insurance agency jobs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Federal, state and local leaders are constantly searching for every spare dollar or threatening to raise taxes to keep things running in this sluggish economy. So it surprised us when Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed made this claim when discussing his first-year accomplishments:  \"When I came in, the reserves of the city of Atlanta were $7.4 million,\" Reed said in a speech to the YMCA Hungry Club lunch forum on Nov. 30. \"As I stand here ... the reserves of the city of Atlanta are in excess of $56 million.\" How did the city get this done? Are the city's numbers correct? Atlanta, like most governments, has several accounts to manage its finances. The main account the city uses to pay for most services (police, fire, parks and recreation) is called the \"general fund.\" Some city services, such as water and sewer service, are paid through different funds. The general fund, which currently has a budget of about $560 million, is paid for through a combination of property taxes, sales taxes, business licenses, a hotel/motel tax it shares with state government, permits, court fines and other sources. Atlanta's budget year, which the city calls \"fiscal year,\" begins July 1 and ends June 30. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009, the city says it had a reserve fund of about $7.4 million. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, the mayor says the city's general fund reserve is at least $56 million. Some city data show the total is $58 million, which drew Reed some praise from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in a Christmas Day column. So how does the city say it got there? It began in June 2009, when the City Council voted 8-7 to put $27 million in its general fund reserve and raised property taxes by about $240 for the average city homeowner. Then-Mayor Shirley Franklin and her staff felt the city eventually needed a rainy day fund of about $100 million to protect the city if the economy falters, in hopes of avoiding what happened in 2008, when Atlanta, after feeling the first ripples of the recession, laid off several hundred employees and cut back a host of services. Skyrocketing employee pension costs, falling revenue from the recession and some bad long-standing budgeting practices were found to be the primary culprits of the financial troubles at City Hall. A key moment in building its reserves took place in the early months of 2009. The Franklin administration was conservative in its estimates of how much it would receive in revenue during fiscal year 2010. It expected scores of property owners to appeal their assessments, said Duriya Farooqui, a top city official under Franklin who is now one of Reed's deputy chief operating officers. Lower assessments typically mean lower property values. Lower property values mean less paid in property taxes, which account for approximately 35 percent of Atlanta's general fund revenue. As a result of the conservative estimates, city officials say revenue was $13 million above expectations. A city spreadsheet for May 2010 offers a further glimpse into the mayor's claim. In addition to showing higher-than-expected revenue, several city agencies spent much less than budgeted. By the end of June, the following departments were under budget: In many cases, city officials say some vacant positions were not filled. Atlanta said two departments, Corrections and Public Works, were over budget by a combined $2.6 million. Farooqui said Reed and his staff told department heads on track to spend less than budgeted to end the fiscal year at those lower levels. The city also got help from the federal government. The Obama administration gave Atlanta nearly $5 million in stimulus funds it used for job training, Farooqui said. Atlanta also re-examined its lease agreements and engaged in new spending practices, Farooqui said. By this past June, the end of the city's fiscal year, Atlanta officials reported a general fund balance of $68 million. City officials said they were able to add nearly $12.3 million to the reserve through principal and other interest payments. That includes the $27 million reserve, the higher-than-expected revenue and controlled spending. Under city guidelines, one-quarter of that money must be used for large-scale projects. Subtract that and Atlanta is left with about $51 million. Once you carry the $7 million in the reserve fund from fiscal year 2009, the reserve is about $58 million. City Councilman Howard Shook, chairman of the council's budget committee in 2008 and 2009, said he does not dispute the mayor's math. Shook said the city has tighter fiscal management, largely aided by Atlanta's new (albeit over-budget) Oracle computer system that better tracks spending. The councilman said the painful budget cuts in 2008 and the council's decision to raise property taxes in 2009 helped. \"A lot of the most painful medicine was taken before the new administration came in,\" Shook said. Roger Lusby III, a certified public accountant, looked at some of the city's monthly budget spreadsheets at AJC PolitiFact's request. Lusby said Atlanta's numbers seem accurate, but he wanted to see more information about its reserves, how the city is handling its massive pension liability and how it manages its severance pay. Those and other factors, Lusby said, may give him a better idea of how solid the city's surplus estimate is. Lusby said he would reserve ruling that the city's claim is true until its books are audited by an independent firm, which city officials said is scheduled to be done early this year. \"I think [Reed] is doing a good job, but I hope he's working with accurate information,\" said Lusby, managing partner of the Alpharetta office of Frazier & Deeter, a certified public accounting firm. The spreadsheets show Reed's claim seems on the money. But, as Lusby noted, the city's fiscal year 2010 books haven't been audited. Farooqui said \"there is no reason to believe the numbers will change dramatically\" after the audit. Since there's additional information that may come from the audit, we reserve the right to change the ruling if there is significant information that shows the city's numbers were on target or incorrect. For now, we'll be a little conservative here and rate Reed's statement as . Claim: The city of Atlanta has $56 million in its reserves.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: One of the consequences he suffered from the disease was cortical vision impairment, or CVI. This occurs when the eyes are healthy and able to see, but the brain is not interpreting what is being visualized. “He can see little slits of light, but it doesn’t have any meaning, any form,” said Martha McCardle, Tripp’s grandmother. Fortunately for Tripp, he’s getting therapy from the only person in Mississippi to have undergone extensive training and experience working with children with CVI. University of Southern Mississippi graduate Jillian Colon is the first official CVI Range Endorsee in the state. She sees children with the impairment at The Children’s Center for Communication and Development at Southern Miss. “I knew she was really good,” McCardle said. “She worked with him so well on his eyes. “I didn’t even know what CVI stood for, and she was very patient to explain it to me.” When someone can’t see, the first inclination is to think there is a problem with the eyes. That impulse is not correct with CVI. “CVI is when — due to some brain injury or damage, — the brain has difficulty processing visual information,” Colon said. “Kids (with CVI) will go to see if they need glasses and an exam will show their eyes are fine.” In normal vision, the eye takes a picture of an object and sends the message to the brain via optic nerves. The brain recognizes the image and integrates it with other sensory messages such as hearing, touch, smell and taste. In people with CVI, the eye takes a picture of the object and sends the message to the brain, but the message is not properly processed because of abnormal brain function. The condition is usually diagnosed by a neurologist or ophthalmologist. Colon said certain habits of children with CVI may indicate they are experiencing the disorder. “If the child likes to look out the window or look at the ceiling fan or is not making eye contact with you,” she said. “If you bring your hand to the child’s face, they may not blink.” Children may also have distinct color preferences, preference for looking at lights, viewing objects up close and at odd angles, viewing moving objects and difficulty visualizing new surroundings or objects. In Tripp’s case, he likes to look at lights and the colors red, yellow and hot pink. Colon uses this information to work with him. His grandmother has also used a red lollipop and a flashlight to stimulate him. CVI is caused by anything that damages the visual parts of the brain. That can be a stroke, decreased oxygenation, decreased blood supply, increased pressure, seizure, metabolic disease, infection, head trauma or other neurologic disorders. With so many causes of CVI, and an increasing number of premature babies surviving with brain injuries, Colon expects to be busy. “There are a lot of kids who have these characteristics that haven’t been assessed or diagnosed,” she said. “I want to help as many kids as possible. “I hope to meet these kids whose parents want help with their vision and meet with these therapists and provide knowledge about the subject.” According to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated 10.5 percent of children with developmental disabilities have CVI. The condition is also prevalent in developing countries, where a large number of babies are born with oxygen deprivation. Colon said some things can be done to help a child with CVI. “At school or at their desk — give them a black background with a single object on it,” she said “Outline words in their favorite color. “Reduce complexity in their environment — don’t have the child sit in front of a cluttered shelf. Turn them away from natural light.” Vision can improve with CVI, but treatment of the underlying neurologic disease is essential. Then, as the brain matures, new connections can develop and the initial injury or deficit may be overcome. For Tripp, who suffered several complications from his meningitis that could have caused CVI, little steps are meaningful. “We’re extremely proud of him,” McCardle said. “Jillian is awesome with him. “She had a silver salad bowl with dimples in it and the light would bounce off it. He responded to it. This might seem like small things to other people, but they’re major hurdles to us. We celebrate every one.” Colon has hope that children like Tripp will improve with the right therapy. “The children will always need some sort of adaptation little or big to use their vision the best they can,” she said. “We’re trying to get information about CVI out to more people so there is a better understanding of it, so children who are young and present the characteristics can get the interventions they need. “The younger we start with these children, the better.” At a glance CVI: Cortical Vision Impairment is a decreased visual response caused by a neurological problem affecting the visual part of the brain. ___ Information from: The Hattiesburg American, http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com Claim: CVI: The impairment affecting children whose eyes are fine.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the only debate between major-party candidates for Texas lieutenant governor, Republican nominee Dan Patrick stood by his objections to a Texas law authored by his Democratic opponent that enables some children living in the state without legal authorization to qualify for in-state college tuition. Patrick, a Houston state senator, went on to say Sept. 29, 2014, that after the tuition proposal passed into law in 2001, state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, the Democratic nominee, supported another questionable move. \"She voted to give illegal immigrants in this country free health care -- not emergency health care but total free health care,\" Patrick said. \"That was about seven years ago and that bill didn’t pass.\" We were curious about the described vote. By email, Patrick spokesman Alejandro Garcia said Patrick was referring to Van de Putte’s vote for a proposal that cleared the Senate in 2003, Senate Bill 309. Garcia said the legislation required \"local hospitals to provide emergency care to patients regardless of immigration status. Opponents claimed the bill would drive up the costs of health care and increase taxes to provide care to illegal immigrants. Van de Putte supported this measure knowing that it would benefit illegal immigrants at a cost to taxpayers,\" Garcia wrote. We’d been down this path with Patrick before. In May 2014, we rated  his claim that the Senate had earlier approved free health care for illegal immigrants. Let’s unspool afresh. Senators including Van de Putte on May 5, 2003, gave voice-vote approval to the proposal, which a May 5, 2003, Senate Journal entry summarized as \"providing health care services without regard to a person's immigration status.\" At the time, Patrick, a talk-radio host, wasn’t yet a senator. The legislation said a city, county or public hospital \"may use money from local sources to provide health care services to a person without regard to the person's immigration status and shall establish a cost-share system for persons receiving health care services.\" At an April 2003 committee hearing, authoring Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, said it permitted hospitals to draw on local revenue to provide preventive services to residents regardless of a patient’s immigration standing. Sylvia Garcia, then a Harris County commissioner, testified the proposal would hasten outpatient services, heading off health problems early and saving money thanks to fewer emergency-room visits. Proponents described the legislation as vital after the then-Texas attorney general (and future U.S. senator), John Cornyn, issued an advisory opinion in July 2001 stating that unless lawmakers allowed the Harris County Hospital District (and others, presumably) to deliver preventive services to patients regardless of immigration status, the district couldn’t give such care without violating the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which required state legislatures to intervene if states wanted hospitals to go ahead and do so. Notably, Cornyn’s letter made it clear some health services already were provided to patients regardless of immigration status--as mandated by federal law. Cornyn’s letter said the district was required by law to provide emergency care to residents regardless of their legal status. Lance Lunsford, spokesman for the Texas Hospital Association, which describes itself as the political and educational advocate for more than 430 hospitals and health systems statewide, told us a federal law from the 1980s, the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act, made free emergency care available to illegal immigrants. According to a federal website, that act required Medicare-participating hospitals that offer emergency services to provide a medical exam when a request is made for an emergency condition, including active labor, regardless of an individual's ability to pay. Cornyn’s letter also said federal law permitted public health services including immunizations and testing and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases. Still, he wrote, the 1996 law specified that any other state or local health benefit could be provided only if a state law \"affirmatively provides for such eligibility.\" Mike Stafford, the Harris County attorney, reacted to Cornyn’s letter by advising the local hospital district to stop giving discounted preventive care because it violates federal law, according to a July 12, 2001, Associated Press news story. \"It's up to the Texas Legislature to step in now and, if they want to create an exception for this, it's allowable,\" Stafford said. In 2003, Senate Bill 309 died in the House, though advocates including Lunsford said the permission to provide such services ended up in House Bill 2292, a major 2003 overhaul of health care agencies. Section 285.201 of the Texas Health and Safety code \"affirmatively establishes\" the eligibility of undocumented residents to receive non-emergency public health benefits funded locally by public hospital districts. And in the end, did the legislation expand free health care for illegal immigrants? When we inquired, King Hillier, a vice president of the Harris County Hospital District, said by phone that \"basically\" the district had already been providing non-emergency services when the issue reached lawmakers. Hillier stressed the permissive quality of the proposal; funding and delivery of services was left up to local governments. Finally, Hillier noted the Senate version of the law envisioned a system of patients sharing costs, which has resulted, he said. Our ruling Patrick said Van de Putte \"voted to give illegal immigrants in this country free health care--not emergency health care but total free health care.\" The 2003 proposal in question didn’t provide immigrants free across-the-board health care. Rather, the measure permitted (and didn’t require) local governing bodies to provide (or, it appears, resume providing) non-emergency services to residents regardless of immigration status, an action that was predicted to improve outcomes and head off costly emergency care to which all residents were already entitled per federal law. Significantly, too, the proposal envisioned patients sharing costs. Diagnosis: . – The statement is not accurate. Claim: Leticia Van de Putte \"voted to give illegal immigrants in this country free health care--not emergency health care but total free health care.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In late May 2018, amid controversies over “zero tolerance” positions on immigration taken by the administration of United States President Donald Trump, social media users began sharing an image of rosaries taken by immigration authorities at the border: Rosaries confiscated from undocumented migrants by US border patrol agents. From a story in the @NewYorker https://t.co/lmVmPzM04f pic.twitter.com/n7iABgKFbY — Michael J. O’Loughlin (@MikeOLoughlin) March 20, 2017  The image went viral amid swelling outrage over the ongoing treatment of migrants in the United States and those seeking refuge and asylum within its borders. In April 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new policy in which the government would pursue criminal charges against any migrant caught making an unauthorized border crossing and take their accompanying children away from them. Since then, readers have been angered by stories of the federal government failing to account for hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children, and reports that hundreds of children — including dozens under age 4 — had been removed from their parents’ care by immigration agents. However, this was not a new image as of 2018. It was taken from a gallery published along with a 12 March 2017 story in The New Yorker and depicts the work of photographer Thomas Kiefer, who used to work as a janitor for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Ajo, Arizona. The rosaries, he explained, were taken from immigrants along with other personal effects when they were arrested by border agents. Kiefer, who quit his CBP job in 2014, fished the unclaimed items out of trash cans as he cleaned. They would later become part of a photography collection he called “El Sueño Americano”: Spending time with the confiscated items — collecting them, curating them, looking at them, photographing them — changed Kiefer’s relationship to his job. Before, he’d been punching the clock so that he could get back to photography; now he felt awakened to hundreds of human dramas playing out around him during each shift. He’d always known, technically, about the C.B.P.’s strict confiscation policies, which were posted on bilingual signs and applied to all items classified as either “non-essential” or “potentially lethal.” But he hadn’t spent much time thinking about these policies, and he hadn’t realized how broadly they were applied, or just how many of the confiscated items — including cell phones and wallets, many still containing I.D.s, prepaid debit cards, and cash — were ending up in the trash, never to be returned. Increasingly, Kiefer felt uncomfortable at work: angry at the system that employed him, sad for the people being “processed,” and afraid that he would be caught making off with government property. But he kept sneaking out what he could, kept building his piles, and kept taking pictures, which at first he showed to no one. CBP spokesman Carlos Diaz told us that items taken away from immigrants upon arrest can be returned if the owner retrieves them — but according to immigrant advocacy organization No More Deaths, many never see their belongings again. According to a 2014 report authored by the organization: The failure to return peoples’ belongings upon deportation represents one more way that ICE and CBP have failed to uphold basic law enforcement standards and human rights norms in their rush to expand the United States’ detention and deportation apparatus. Items taken may include religious effects, but as No More Deaths points out, they include almost anything but the clothing being worn. Generally, personal property is held for 30 days after an arrest and then destroyed. In 2016, David Hill, a volunteer for No More Deaths who is tasked with helping reunite deported migrants with property taken by authorities described to the publication Vice a wide range of confiscated items: “weddings rings, rosaries, and children’s artwork” along with identification cards, money, cell phones and medication: Due to the 30-day rule and the potential for belongings to be lost between agencies involved, immigrants are regularly deported with only the clothes on their back. No cellphones, no ID, no cash. We asked CBP for more detail on their policy on confiscation of personal belongings and how items are returned but did not receive a response. Claim: Immigration authorities are taking rosaries away from immigrants at the border.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The day before the U.S. House of Representatives approved the health care reform bill, Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who is running for the U.S. Senate, fired off this accusation about the Republican frontrunner: \"Marco Rubio thinks that government shouldn't be in the health care business at all. \"Meek made that statement on his campaign Web site March 20, 2010 -- the day before the historic vote. Here is the full quote: Rubio's \"ideas on health care could jeopardize Medicare and veterans' care, programs which cover more than 5 million Floridians. Marco Rubio thinks that government shouldn't be in the health care business at all. That means these programs could be shut down. Moreover, his obstruction of the current health care bill means we could lose our best chance ever to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions and to close the Medicare prescription drug coverage 'donut hole.' That's what he stands for. If he were in the Senate he would lead the charge to scrap health care reform. If elected, he has sworn to do everything he can to repeal it. \"Meek has leveled a sweeping claim that Rubio thinks government should get out of the health care business entirely -- in a state where millions of voters depend on government health care such as Medicare and veterans programs. We know that Rubio is against the Democratic-led health care reform plan that the House approved March 21, but is it fair to say he wants government out of health care entirely?Meek's e-mail cites two sources: an article \"Scrap Obamacare Today\" written by Rubio on March 15, in Human Events, a conservative publication, and a blog item in The Buzz, a St. Petersburg Times politics blog. Both quote Rubio criticizing the health care proposal. \"The President’s health care proposal is a deeply flawed plan that should be scrapped entirely in favor of a truly bipartisan approach that pursues step-by-step reforms,'' Rubio wrote in Human Events March 15. Meek's campaign also cited a March 3 press release from Rubio in which he spoke against \"government-run health care. \"\"Unfortunately, my opponent [Charlie Crist] disagrees and has said he would not scrap this bill and process. It underscores why, fundamentally, this campaign is about trust. It’s about who Floridians can trust to go to Washington to unapologetically stand on principle against ideas like the stimulus, cap-and-trade and government-run health care,\" Rubio said in the press release. The Meek campaign's logic is that Rubio's use of \"government-run health care\" in that paragraph has a broader meaning that indicates he's not just against the Obama reform plan, he's against all government health programs.Meek's campaign also cited Rubio's vote in the Florida House of Representatives April 6, 2006, against a Democratic amendment to an appropriations bill that reduced contract services by $5 million and included funding for a dental program for veterans. The Meek campaign also cited three Rubio votes on the Cover Florida state health care initiative requiring coverage for prenatal care and prostate screening and mammograms. All three amendments, introduced by Democrat Dan Gelber, ultimately failed and Rubio voted against them. Rubio voted in favor of the overall bill. But we find those citations are flimsy evidence for a big, sweeping claim that could alarm Florida voters, particularly senior citizens. In our view it's clear that \"government-run health care\" was referring to the Obama plan and it doesn't prove that Rubio is against programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.Rubio's campaign also provided us with some evidence that he does believe government has a role in health care:* Rubio wrote an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel Dec. 3, 2009, about the proposed health care bill that indicated he was concerned about cuts in Medicare: \"The bill also would expand a financially unsustainable Medicaid entitlement program that is already straining state budgets. And it would fundamentally hurt Medicare by taking away access to Medicare Advantage plans and installing a new government bureaucracy to oversee Medicare reimbursements. \"* In 2000, Rubio was part of a unanimous vote in favor of hearing screening for newborns and a unanimous vote related to expanding Kidcare, a health program for poor children. In 2004, Rubio voted in favor of changes to Kidcare. He also voted for changes to the Kidcare program in 2004 fought by Democrats because of changes to eligibility requirements.Our own search turned up a few other examples that showed that Rubio has supported certain health care programs or proposals.In a Feb. 19 interview on Morning Joe, Rubio said Medicare \"needs to be reformed,\" but did not provide details.Rubio supported expanding Florida's controversial Medicaid reform, which was initiated by former Gov. Jeb Bush in an effort to allow private companies to compete to provide serves for the poor, with the hope that it would slow growth in costs.Rubio was quoted in a March 6, 2008, Miami Herald article about the rising costs of Medicaid and the need to save it: \"Florida simply cannot afford to continue doing business like we are currently. In order to save the Medicaid system, continuing reform is vital. Expanding Medicaid Reform into Miami-Dade County is an important step in creating a system that can survive and is a step that we should enact this session. \"In addition, Rubio supported a budget in 2008 that included an estimated $15.7 billion for Medicaid from federal and state sources, according to Florida's Medicaid expenditure estimating conference. Here is a list that shows Medicaid expenditures over several sessions when Rubio was in the House. Someone who believed government \"shouldn't be in the health care business at all\" wouldn't be supporting Medicaid.Another piece of evidence: A budget list compiled by the governor's office shows Rubio supported money for Jackson Memorial Hospital, a public hospital. \"The budget list also links Rubio to a $20 million special line item for Jackson Memorial Hospital in 2008. Months later, Rubio established a consulting firm with a former aide and scored an $8,000 monthly consulting contract with the hospital,'' the Miami Herald wrote in a March 10 article.The Meek campaign has failed to prove its claim. Rubio clearly has spoken against the federal health care bill, which he has repeatedly referred to as a \"government takeover\" of health care (a characterization we've repeatedly rated ). But Rubio's votes and his comments indicate he has supported government health programs such as Medicaid. Lambasting a health care reform bill isn't the same as declaring that \"government shouldn't be in the health care business at all.\" Claim: Marco Rubio thinks that government shouldn't be in the health care business at all.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Boston jury acquitted another employee, pharmacist Joseph Evanosky, of all charges after several days of deliberations. The defendants were among 14 people charged in 2014 following an investigation into the outbreak, which sickened almost 800 people. The CDC put the death toll at 64 as of October 2013. Federal prosecutors say more than 100 people have now died. The outbreak was blamed on contaminated injections of medical steroids made at the now-closed New England Compounding Center in Framingham, given mostly to people with back pain. Prosecutors said the New England Compounding Center made drugs in unsanitary conditions, sent untested products and deceived regulators. The workers convicted Thursday were not accused of producing or sending the injections that caused the outbreak, but of sending and approving other contaminated and substandard drugs. “Over the course of years, the defendants callously disregarded patient health by cutting corners and prioritizing profits over safety. And they got away with it by defrauding federal and state regulators,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a statement. Evanosky, who worked in one of the compounding pharmacy’s so-called clean rooms, where the drugs were made, was cleared of racketeering and other offenses. “He was an innocent man who never should have been charged in the first place,” said his attorney, Mark Pearlstein. Among those found guilty was part owner Gregory Conigliaro, who was charged with conspiring to defraud the Food and Drug Administration. His lawyer declined to comment. Pharmacist Gene Svirskiy was the only defendant convicted of the most serious charge of racketeering. An email requesting comment was sent to a lawyer for Svirskiy, who was also found guilty of mail fraud charges. Other defendants, including pharmacist Christopher Leary, were acquitted of several counts but convicted of others. Leary’s attorney, Paul V. Kelly, said the legal team plans to file post-trial motions and will appeal if necessary. Attorney John Cunha Jr. blasted prosecutors for bringing what he called an “outrageous” case against his client, pharmacist Alla Stepanets. Stepanets, who was accused of approving drug shipments with fake patient names like “Donald Trump,” was found guilty only of misdemeanor charges. “The number of not guiltys shows you how severely overcharged this case was,” Cunha said. So far, 11 people charged in the meningitis outbreak investigation have been convicted. Two other pharmacists are scheduled to go to trial next year. In January, Glenn Chin, a supervisory pharmacist, was sentenced to eight years in prison after he was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud. He was cleared of second-degree murder charges, which could have brought a life sentence. Co-Owner Barry Cadden is serving a nine-year prison term for his role in the outbreak. He was also acquitted of second-degree murder. ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that more than 100 people have died as of December 2018, not 76. ___ Follow Alanna Durkin Richer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/aedurkinricher Claim: 5 convicted in meningitis outbreak case; 1 acquitted.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Andy Rooney, the curmudgeonly commentator who closed every Sunday broadcast of television’s 60 Minutes news magazine with a (typically sardonic) essay about some aspect of everyday life, was — thanks to the Internet — as well-known for what he didn’t say as he was for what he really did say. One compilation of various political observations we previously covered was a prime example of widely-circulated Andy Rooney apocrypha, as was the following example from 2003:  Andy Rooney on Monica:Can you believe it? Monica turned 28 this week. It seems like only yesterday that she was crawling round the White House on her hands and knees. Andy Rooney on Vegetarians: Vegetarian — that’s an old Indian word meaning “lousy hunter.” Andy Rooney on Prisoners: Did you know that it costs forty-thousand dollars a year to house each prisoner? Gee, for forty-thousand bucks apiece, I’ll take a few prisoners into my house. I live in Los Angeles. I already have bars on the windows. I don’t think we should give free room and board to criminals. I think they should have to run twelve hours a day on a treadmill and generate electricity. And if they don’t want to run, they can rest in the chair that’s hooked up to the generator. Andy Rooney on Fabric Softeners: My wife uses fabric softener. I never knew what that stuff was for. Then I noticed women coming up to me, sniffing, then saying under their breath, “Married!” and walking away. Fabric Softeners are how our wives mark their territory. We can take off the ring, but it’s hard to get that April fresh scent out of your clothes. Andy Rooney on Morning Differences: Men and women are different in the morning. We men wake up aroused in the morning. We can’t help it. We just wake up and we want you. And the women are thinking, ‘How can he want me the way I look in the morning?’ It’s because we can’t see you. We have no blood anywhere near our optic nerve. Andy Rooney on Phone-in-Polls: You know those shows where people call in and vote on different issues? Did you ever notice there’s always like 18% “I don’t know”. It costs 90 cents to call up and vote . . . They’re voting “I don’t know.” “Honey, I feel very strongly about this. Give me the phone. (Into phone) I DON’T KNOW! (hangs up, looking proud) Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe you’re not sure about.” This guy probably calls up phone sex girls for $2.95. (into phone) “I’m not in the mood.” Andy Rooney on Cripes: My wife’s from the midwest. Very nice people there. Very wholesome. They use words like ‘Cripes’ — ‘For Cripes sake.’ Who would that be; Jesus Cripes? The son of ‘Gosh’ of the church of ‘Holy Moly’? I’m not making fun of it. You think I wanna burn in ‘Heck’? Andy Rooney on Grandma: My grandmother has a bumper sticker on her car that says, ‘Sexy Senior Citizen.’ You don’t want to think of your grandmother that way, do you? Out entering wet shawl contests. Makes you wonder where she got that dollar she gave you for your birthday. Andy Rooney on Answering Machines: Did you ever hear one of those corny, positive messages on someone’s answering machine? “Hi! It’s a great day and I’m out enjoying it right now. I hope you are too. The thought for the day is ‘Share the love. '” Beep. “Uh, yeah . . . this is the VD clinic calling . . . Speaking of being positive, your test is back. Stop sharing the love.” There were some quick giveaways that not everything on this list came from the pen of Andy Rooney: making risqué jokes about Monica Lewinsky and “morning arousals” just wasn’t his style; he wouldn’t have written “I live in Los Angeles” since he was a long-time east coast resident; and was well into his 80s at the time this piece began to circulate, so he was not likely to have been speaking of his grandmother in the present tense. (Of course, Mr. Rooney did have a lengthy career as a writer, so some of these items could conceivably have come from his older pieces.) Like most items of this ilk, this list circulated for many years, with new items being added and others dropped off as it trudged from inbox to inbox. The first two entries (about Monica Lewinsky and vegetarians) are common jokes tacked on much later; at other times the list included some or all of the following additional entries:  Award Shows: Can you believe how many award shows they have now? They have awards for commercials. The Cleo Awards. A whole show full of commercials. I taped it and then I fast-forwarded through the whole thing. Pregnancy: It’s weird when pregnant women feel the baby kicking. They say, “Oh my God. He’s kicking. Do you wanna feel it?” I always feel awkward reaching over there. Come on! It’s weird to ask someone to feel your stomach. I don’t do that when I have gas. “Oh my God … give me your hand … It won’t be long now …” Ads in Bills: Have you ever noticed that they put advertisements in with your bills now? Like bills aren’t distasteful enough, they have to stuff junk mail in there with them. I get back at them. I put garbage in with my check when I mail it in. Coffee grinds, banana peels … I write, “Could you throw this away for me? Thank you.” Life Cycle: The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. And what do you get at the end of it? A death. What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, then you got to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, get laid, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating in warm liquid … and you check out as a gleam in somebody’s eye! Claim: A list compiles Andy Rooney's wry observations on a variety of topics.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Republican Congressman Tom McClintock has expressed a lot of skepticism over the threat of COVID-19. He’s also described stay-at-home orders intended to slow the novel coronavirus as \"profoundly un-American.\" \"The more data we receive, the more questions come up over this policy, including how severe is this disease actually?\" McClintock, who represents a large swath of rural California east of Sacramento, said on CapRadio’s Insight program on April 29. \"Does it justify destroying the jobs of millions of Californians? How many poverty-related deaths have we set into motion by plunging Californians into unemployment?\" McClintock then claimed: \"The flu killed 80,000 Americans last year according to the CDC.\" Similar statements about the flu are circulating on social media, in apparent efforts to downplay or question the threat of COVID-19. There’s a lot that’s still unknown about the coronavirus, and plenty of time to judge whether California’s actions helped or not. But the data on how many Americans died from the flu is pretty clear. We decided to take a look and fact check McClintock’s claim. Our research A spokesperson for McClintock initially pointed to a September 2018 Associated Press article headlined \"CDC: 80,000 people died of flu last winter in U.S., highest death toll in 40 years.\" The article cited Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the source of the information. It described the disease’s death toll as the highest in at least four decades. That total referred to the 2017-18 influenza season, which was two years ago. Notably, the CDC revised it down to 61,000 deaths, though many news articles still have the now out-dated 80,000 figure in their headlines. The CDC explained on its website the lower number is \"based on more recently available information,\" and said there’s \"a trade-off between timeliness and accuracy,\" when it publishes its initial estimates. Last year, the CDC tallied 34,000 deaths during the 2018-19 influenza season, nowhere near McClintock’s figure. McClintock's spokesperson said the congressman, at the time he made his statement, had not noticed the date of the news article. She said \"it has since been brought to his attention that the CDC later revised its number to 61,000.\" In early March, PolitiFact National spoke with infectious disease experts who cautioned against comparing the flu and COVID-19. McClintock’s claim about flu deaths suggests he believes the coronavirus threat is overblown. \"The prevalence of flu is higher at this moment in time,\" said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security, in the March 10 article. \"[But] pound for pound, if you had both viruses, the one that’s more likely to make you die is the coronavirus.\" Experts told PolitiFact in early May that COVID-19 still appears more lethal than the seasonal flu, noting that infection fatality rates that may seem small can lead to mounting death tolls. As of May 5, COVID-19 had killed 70,847 Americans, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. Our rating Rep. Tom McClintock claimed \"the flu killed 80,000 Americans last year, according to the CDC.\" In reality, 34,000 Americans died of the flu during the 2018-19 influenza season, according to the federal agency. McClintock said he relied on a 2018 news article, which cited the CDC’s initial estimate of 80,000 deaths for the 2017-18 influenza season, a figure the agency later revised down to 61,000 deaths. The outdated figure remains in many 2018 news headlines. In the end, the congressman cited the wrong year and failed to note that a significant downward revision had been made, making his claim misleading at best. The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Claim: “The flu killed 80,000 Americans last year according to the CDC.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The ceremony harkens back to a time when early Chinese settlers to Taiwan used to pray to mountain gods and local deities for protection against wild animals and other threats. Each new year, the fattened pigs are slaughtered and the carcasses decorated and paraded through the streets of Sanxia, a traditional district in northern Taiwan, to the temple. The owner of the biggest pig wins the competition and with it an auspicious sign that the year to come will be a lucky one. “This is a custom at our Tzu Shih Yeh (founder ancestor) temple in Sanxia. We cannot abolish this tradition,” said Liu Ching-sheng, owner of this year’s winning pig. Animal protection groups say the process of fattening the animals — a pig raised for the ceremony can weigh more than 800 kg (1763 lbs) compared to a normal weight of 120 kg — is cruel. “Just like for us humans, obesity in animals is a disease,” Chen Yu-min, director of the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan, told Reuters Television. She said the pigs’ movements are restricted while they are fattened and the additional weight puts a strain on their internal organs. “In addition to the inhumane process of fattening is the last moment when they are about to be slaughtered. This moment is actually very cruel and inhumane,” she said. Claim: Taiwan's 'holy pig' festival cruel, says rights group.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Labor experts agree that Gov. Scott Walker’s move to curtail collective bargaining rights for public employees is a dramatic departure from Wisconsin’s labor-friendly past. The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO has launched TV and radio spots condemning the plan while the Wisconsin Club for Growth is airing a TV ad supporting the changes. We’ll look at the Club for Growth ad in a separate item. The TV ad from the AFL-CIO centers on this message, delivered by a narrator:  \"There’s now a move under way in Madison to take away the rights of thousands of teachers, nurses and other trusted public employees. A bill to take away any say they have in the workplace, and eliminate their union.\" The visual backdrop includes lines from news articles about Walker’s plan. Among the snippets: A  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story that reads Walker’s plan would eliminate \"any say on benefits and work rules\" and an Associated Press story that reads \"all collective bargaining rights would be removed for state and local public employees.\" Is the ad correct that the plan would \"eliminate\" union representation for thousands and wipe out \"any say\" they have through collective bargaining. When asked to back up the claims, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Stephanie Bloomingdale cited a Wheeler Report analysis that summarizes the budget-repair bill. Let’s take a deeper look at claim. Most of the debate has focused on what bargaining rights will be curtailed and the overall effect of the plan. Digging deeper, the bill does eliminate all bargaining rights -- wages, benefits, working conditions -- for specific categories of public employees. It would roll back the rights to organize unions and bargain for benefits for 30,000 University of Wisconsin System faculty and academic staff. Those rights were approved by Democrats in the 2009-'11 budget. Not all of the 30,000 have joined a union, though. So far, under those rights, faculty at two universities, UW-Superior and UW-Eau Claire, have formed unions. The measure would also repeal collective bargaining rights for some 5,000 home health care workers and for 2,800 employees of University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, including nurses. It would also eliminate current collective bargaining rights of licensed child care providers. All of that is also discussed in summaries of the bill and a letter from Walker to state employees. As for the other public employees -- a much larger group that includes schoolteachers, local government workers and about half of 76,000 state employees -- the bill would allow collective bargaining only on a base pay rate (not overtime or special pay issues), and on raises only within the rate of inflation. That means no bargaining on fringe benefits, working conditions, outsourcing, safety and other issues. So, the TV ad is correct on many of its main points. But it also overreaches. For instance, it suggests that the outright elimination of bargaining rights would cover all public employees. But they would not be completely eliminated for teachers outside of higher education, one group cited. Or for all \"other trusted public employees.\" Indeed, the ad does not mention that there would be no change for firefighters, police and state trooper unions -- a fact that has drawn its own criticism. (Firefighters are part of AFL-CIO; police are not.) That incomplete information is underlined when the ad flashes a portion of a Feb. 10, 2011, Associated Press story, highlighting the words: \"All collective bargaining rights would be removed for state and local public employees.\" That’s a selectively edited version of the AP story, which added a significant phrase to that line: \"except when it comes to wages.\" The effect is to make Walker’s sweeping plan look even bolder. Let’s look at the rest of the message as presented in the ad. Would workers \"take away any say\" in the workplace, as the ad claims? Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said public employees would continue to have a say on working conditions -- not through unions, but through civil service laws. He noted those laws contain ways to file workplace grievances, and ensure employees are hired based on merit and experience, and are fired only for just cause. But civil service systems are not in place at all Wisconsin municipalities and leave a lot of workers uncovered, according to Andrew Phillips, general counsel for the Wisconsin Counties Association. For instance, about one-third of counties have no civil service system, and of the two-thirds that do, many only apply to deputy sheriffs, he said. The Legislature was considering changes to address this. What about the question of whether the unions would be eliminated? Clearly, some workers would have the right to organize directly eliminated, while many others would not. Bloomingdale, the AFL-CIO official, acknowledges that the bill before the Legislature does not directly eliminate all subjects of collective bargaining -- but nearly all of them. She argues the bill’s provisions overall discredit the unions’ role and therefore endanger them. One example she cites: Raises for unionized workers would be capped at inflation, but pay for nonunion employees is not. That disparity would hurt union membership, Bloomingdale said. Other aspects of the bill: As Walker noted in his letter, employers would be prohibited from collecting union dues on behalf of the unions, members of collective bargaining units will not be required to pay dues, and there would have to be a vote every year on the status of the union. We asked experts including academics and lawyers on both sides of labor-management talks about the assertion that  -- on a practical basis -- the plan would mean the death of public employee unions. James Scott, a management-side attorney who represents Milwaukee County, said the changes are dramatic, but not unprecedented. He said nine states totally prohibit collective bargaining for public employees, and 10 others restrict it to police/fire, or teachers or state employees. His view of how life would be under the proposal:  \"There isn’t much utility in belonging to a public sector labor union other than perhaps the social side of it,\" Scott said. He said calling it a death knell for unions might be \"a little bit\" too strong, but not much. Timothy Hawks, whose law firm represents municipal and state employees, said if the bill goes through as drafted \"you have busted every (public employee) union in the state.\" A state official with a stake in both sides of labor disputes, Peter Davis, general counsel at the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, said it was a \"fair prediction\" public sector workers would walk away from paying dues. Cheryl Maranto, chairman of the management department at Marquette University’s College of Business Administration, said the bill would have the effect of \"totally eliminating public sector bargaining in the state\" by rendering the unions \"irrelevant and powerless.\" In the historical view, she said Walker’s Democratic predecessor, Jim Doyle, overreached with pro-union moves and now Walker is going too far in the opposite direction. Let’s get to the bottom line. The AFL-CIO ad claims \"thousands\" of workers, including teachers, would lose all say in the workplace and see their union eliminated under Walker’s budget-repair bill. The measure would eliminate bargaining rights for some groups of public employees, including nurses and teachers in higher education. That total tallies out to \"thousands,\" but the ad presents the question as if all public employees would lose all bargaining rights. It even selectively shortens a news account to underline this point. That is an overreach, at least as an immediate consequence of the bill. As for the future, three of our four experts agreed with the union contention that it could be the end result in the future. The fourth felt it was only a small stretch. The PolitiFact definition for  is: The statement is accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. That’s what this ad does. And that’s the ruling: . Claim: For thousands of public employees, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill would \"take away any say they have in the workplace, and eliminate their union.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On July 17 2019, a Facebook user shared a post (archived here), claiming an image of a map plotted the locations of “reported cases of flesh eating bacteria” that summer.In the status update, the user wrote:I will no longer be going to the beach or on the sand. *There also asking woman not to shave there legs for 2 days before they go to the beach because if u have any type of cut u will get it.A lady got it just on the sand.This stuff is Horrible!A number of people responded with similar vows to avoid beaches based on the alarming map.We searched to see if the map originated with any news stories about dangerous levels of “flesh eating bacteria” at Gulf Coast beaches, and found versions of the same map shared as early as 2010. Both TinEye and Google Image Search returned a mixture of results.However, earlier iterations of the map were attached to content related to a British Petroleum oil spill in April 2010. Google suggested “flesh eating bacteria Florida 2017 map” as a name for the image, indicating that the map was mislabeled as early as 2017:It is true that some counties in Florida have experienced an uptick in cases of an illness mislabeled as “flesh-eating disease,” and public health officials attributed the infections to water pollution:Vibrio vulnificus infections aren’t the type of thing the region’s paradise promoters necessarily want to talk about, yet there were more potentially deadly cases documented in Lee and Collier counties last year than anywhere else in Florida.It’s commonly called flesh-eating disease, a not-quite-accurate nickname that makes public health officials cringe, because the microbes that cause it don’t really eat people; the toxins they produce can destroy soft tissue, and, in serious cases, cause death. Symptoms after contact include: chills, fever, swelling, blistering, skin lesions, severe pain, low blood pressure and discharge from wound. Without treatment, death can occur in just a few days.Since 2008, Vibrio vulnificus has infected 346 people in Florida, killing 99 — more than 28 percent of those who contracted the disease. Last year, the bacteria infected 49 people in Florida, killing 11 of them, which is one more death and three more infections over 2016.However, officials also noted that the risk of infection remains extremely rare for most people:Even though the chance of getting a Vibrio infection is about the same as getting hit by lightning, some environmental advocates worry it might become even more common if water pollution isn’t curbed.The Facebook map indicated numerous cases of the illness ranging from Florida’s coasts across to Texas, including Louisiana. On August 1 2019, People reported on the grand total of cases in the United States that year:Of the reported cases [in 2019], seven occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, where flesh-eating bacteria, especially the vibrio species, have thrived for years because of the year-round warm waters. In April, a man fishing in Ozona, Florida, contracted the bacteria. Two months later, the same thing happened to a 12-year-old girl vacationing in Destin, Florida. Just a few days later, a 77-year-old woman died after walking along Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island in the same state.After the Fourth of July weekend, five people developed flesh-eating bacteria — a man in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, a woman in California, and two men who died from necrotizing fasciitis, one in Okaloosa County, Florida and another on Magnolia Beach in Texas.Cases from other areas include one in Waterloo, Alabama, along the Tennessee River, another at Ocean View Beach near Norfolk, Virginia, one at Colonial Beach in Virginia, on the Potomac River, one on Ocean City, Maryland’s bay side and another from the Green River in Kentucky.The “reported cases of flesh eating bacteria” map spreading in 2019 was a map created in 2010 in relation to the BP oil spill. Cases of the bacterial infections were reported across the United States, but they were far fewer in number than the map suggested. Officials indicated that chances of contracting an infection from the water for most people remain very low. Claim: An image shows reported cases of \"flesh eating bacteria\" in 2019.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Grocery store receipts are rumored to contain chemicals that may disrupt the endocrine system and have been linked in scientific studies to hormone-related cancers and other health concerns. This claim is true. Three-quarters of receipts made from thermal paper are thought to contain bisphenol A (BPA), a known endocrine disrupter that has been linked to infertility and hormone-related cancers, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Environmental Research. Claim: Some grocery store receipts contain chemicals linked to infertility and hormone-related cancers.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The panel voted 10-1 in favor of the drug, which would, if approved, be sold under the brand name Zontivity. The FDA is not bound to follow the advice of its advisory panels but typically does so. Results from a trial known as TRA 2P were “robust,” panelists said, and justified approval for patients who had suffered a heart attack. They agreed with the company that the drug should not be used in patients with a history of stroke, since there was an increased risk of bleeding in the brain in this group of patients. “I think this drug addresses a real unmet medical need,” said Dr. Philip Sager, consulting professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. The vote followed a positive analysis by reviewers for the FDA, whose report, published on Monday, also recommended the drug be approved. Vorapaxar works by preventing blood cells, or platelets, from clumping together and forming clots in the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks. Other anti-platelets include aspirin and Plavix, which is made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Merck’s drug works in a different way, by inhibiting a receptor known as PAR-1. The drug increased the overall risk of bleeding in clinical trials, though the risk in patients who had not had a stroke did not outweigh the drug’s benefit, panelists said. Still, Dr. Sanjay Kaul, a cardiologist and professor at UCLA School of Medicine who voted in favor of approval, urged the FDA to “do its due diligence” around the bleeding risk. Each year about 190,000 Americans have a second heart-related event, according to Merck. Standard therapy to prevent a second episode often includes treatment with aspirin and Plavix. Vorapaxar would be given in addition to standard treatment. “The results of today’s advisory committee mark an important milestone in our effort to bring vorapaxar to appropriate patients with a history of heart attack,” Dr. Daniel Bloomfield, who leads Merck’s cardiovascular research, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the FDA as it completes its review.”  Merck has proposed that the drug’s label urge caution when prescribing the drug for patients who weigh less than 60 kilograms (132 lbs) since the risk of bleeding in these patients appears to be higher than in heavier patients. Panelists could not reach a consensus recommendation on how lower-weight patients should be treated. Representatives from the FDA said they will continue to discuss the matter before making their final ruling. Claim: FDA advisory panel backs Merck's blood clot-preventing drug.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: About a dozen people were arrested. Nearly two dozen people participated in a “lie-in,” calling for a “moral revival” of the health care system and an immediate expansion of Medicaid. Following that protest, about a dozen demonstrators blocked U.S. Highway 1 in front of the capitol and were arrested by Columbia police. Those arrested were holding two signs, one of which read “Death Runs the Statehouse,” while the other read “Our Blood Your Hands!” Columbia minister Charles Rhodes, one of the arrested protesters, said it’s time for clergy and citizens alike to take a stand against what he called moral wrongs. “There are people who are burdened by the cost of medical care,” Rhodes said. “One party has tried to destroy Obamacare and that impacts poor people, the elderly, a whole variety of people.” At the rally, physician David Keely of Rock Hill told protesters to question their local lawmakers about their stance on health care and demand answers before the June 12 primaries and November general elections. “In my 40 years of primary care medicine, I’ve taken care of many individuals that if we were able to keep them on preventative medications, we would have prevented heart attacks or strokes,” Keely said. The public health professional said South Carolina has an “incredible waste” in the health care system that is benefiting people with higher income. There are significant health disparities compared to people with a lower income, Keely said. The Rev. William Barber, campaign president and co-chair, told The Associated Press ahead of last week’s rally in North Carolina that South Carolina lawmakers are creating “policy violence.” “When you have a legislature and governor that is blocking living wages and health care expansion, those policies produce death,” Barber said. Monday’s rally was the fourth recent one in Columbia and one of several held at state capitols nationwide. The 40-day nonviolent national campaign will conclude in two weeks with a rally in Washington. Claim: Over a dozen arrests in SC following 4th Poor People’s Rally.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (known as WIC for short), a federal program that provides nutritional assistance to malnourished mothers and children, was enacted in 1972 as an amendment to the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. Initially funded as a two-year pilot program, WIC was permanently reauthorized by Congress in 1975 and today offers federal grants to states for “supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.” The program is administrated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Impetus for the legislation is usually credited to an accumulating body of research in the 1960s identifying hunger and malnutrition as a major national problem. A 1969 report by the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health concluded that hunger and poverty existed on a “disgraceful scale” across the United States, and urged the federal government to take immediate action to close the “hunger gap” among poorer Americans. After some pilot programs launched by the Nixon administration failed to produce the desired results, a bill containing the WIC amendment and improvements to existing school nutrition programs was passed by Congress in 1972. There is an alternative account of how WIC came about, however. According to this narrative,  the program grew out of (or was at least inspired by) organized efforts by the Black Panther Party (BPP) to help feed single mothers and their children in predominantly African-American communities in the late 1960s. Here it is in meme form, as posted in February 2017 recognition of Black History Month: Black Panthers Women Infant & Child – #BlackHistoryMonth –> https://t.co/ySsVWT2Jwo pic.twitter.com/ihT5riFDiK — AFROPUNK (@afropunk) February 13, 2017  One also finds the claim repeated on web sites such as Counter Current News and Urban Intellectuals, who cite as evidence a list of 65 community programs allegedly created by the Black Panthers during their heyday, including a “WIC (Women Infants, and Children) Program.” But though it’s easily corroborated that the Panthers launched a community food program in 1968 called Free Breakfast for Children, an effort some believe provided inspiration for the federal government’s school breakfast program (if not for WIC itself), we could find no evidence that the Panthers ever operated a program called WIC, or which bore any close resemblance to the USDA program. The roll-out of the Free Breakfast for Children program marked a turning point, however short-lived, in the Black Panthers’ public image. From its inception as an armed, revolutionary organization in 1966 (J. Edgar Hoover called BPP “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”), press coverage of the Panthers was overwhelmingly negative, focusing exclusively on their militant rhetoric and violent confrontations with police. The breakfast program provided the opportunity to show a kinder, gentler side of the party, albeit still fraught with revolutionary politics. The New York Times reported in June 1969: In the Bay Area, every chapter of the Black Panther Party is involved in providing free breakfasts for children. The project involves at least six cities in the state. “Right now,” Bobby Seale, chairman and co-founder of the party said last week, “we are feeding over 1,000 kids every day right here in the Bay Area.” Seale added that the program, which was also operating in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles, Kansas City and other major cities, feeds 10,000 children daily. […] In addition to what they can collect at the rallies and demonstrations, the Panthers also make the rounds of business establishments in the area. Their demand that merchants doing business in the black communities make contributions is firm. One large supermarket, Safeway, is now the target of a Panther-led boycott because, according to Seale, it refused to contribute $100 a week to the breakfast program. While the Panthers say that the program was initiated “to feed hungry children,” they make no effort to mask its political side. Most of the church basements and halls where the breakfasts are served have huge posters and pictures of Black Panther leaders and heroes of the black nationalist movement pasted on the walls. The “Free Huey” shouts are almost constant. “Free Huey” is a Panther slogan that refers to Huey Newton, one of the founders of the organization and its minister of defense who was jailed last year after a manslaughter conviction arising from the fatal shooting of an Oakland policeman. That it was partly a public relations effort doesn’t change the fact that the Panthers were providing a sorely needed service to impoverished children which could very well have provided the impetus for the federal government to step in. There is no doubt, moreover, that members of Congress charged with solving America’s hunger problem were aware of the free breakfast program. Testifying before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs in May 1969, California legislator Jesse Unruh said, “The Black Panthers are supplying more free breakfasts to California school children than the federal government does.” It was intended (and no doubt heard) as a wake-up call. Still, it’s hard to make the case that the Panthers’ program served as an exact prototype for Sen. Hubert Humphrey’s WIC legislation, which was still three years away from being introduced in Congress. There were few real similarities between the programs. Although the Panthers launched other initiatives (including free medical clinics) to help people in various communities, the free breakfasts were for children alone. As its name implies, the federal government’s Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children was much broader in scope. Plus, it had nothing to do with serving breakfast. There was a separate USDA program for that. The federal School Breakfast Program was established under the Child Nutrition Act in 1966, and it had already been in operation for three years by the time the Black Panther Party instituted its community-based programs. That’s not to say that school breakfasts were an unqualified success, however. Partly because it met with political resistance and funding constraints, it took years for the federal program to ramp up to the point where it even came close to meeting the needs of the population it was meant to help. The Panthers helped expose the many shortcomings of that and other government food assistance programs. Historian Susan Levine, author of School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program, gives the Panthers their due in that regard, but noted in an interview with Eater.com that lobbying groups such as the Committee on School Lunch Participation likely had a greater effect on federal policy: “The Panthers were part of the general context in the late 1960s,” Levine says. “But I think CSLP was probably more specifically influential, because they actually went to Congress and testified, and their report got a lot of attention in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death.” Claim: The Black Panther Party created the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program that provides supplemental food assistance to single mothers and their children.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On September 20 2019, a Facebook page shared the following screenshot of a purported headline: “Man suffers heart attack, dies at work, coworkers gather for group selfie thinking he’d fallen asleep”:In an appended status update, the page just commented “BRUH,” and no links to any related article were included. A search for the elusive headline turned up an iFunny.co post published on the same day as the Facebook status above.If the original headline (“Man suffers heart attack, dies at work, coworkers gather for group selfie thinking he’d fallen asleep”) ever existed, it didn’t return any search results and was likely quite old.But the attached image was a different story. On February 2 2016, it was shared to Reddit’s photoshopping subreddit r/PSBattles, with a title encouraging users to creatively edit “this man sleeping in the office in front of his co-workers”:PsBattle: This man sleeping in the office in front of his colleagues. from photoshopbattlesOn the same day, the same image appeared on Reddit’s r/TIFU (“Today I Fucked Up“), but that post has since been deleted:TIFU by falling asleep at the job on my second day from tifuOn February 3 2016, the Huffington Post covered what was at the time a viral news sensation. Two days later, CBC identified the sleeping man as an intern in Montreal, Canada:A Montreal intern woke up to a burst of laughter on his second day at a new job Tuesday after his co-workers had gathered around to take a now viral photo of him – with his mouth wide open, asleep at his desk.Eduard Paraschivescu has been undergoing training at a company called Gsoft that afternoon. He has a slight anemia, so when he felt tired, he leaned back in his chair and about 20 minutes later he realized he’d dozed off.One of the reasons he knew this was because his co-workers were around him when he woke up, laughing, and taking pictures and videos.He also found a message saying he should bring in doughnuts in the next day. He said he did, and that he hasn’t lost his job.But it was Paraschivescu himself who took the extra step of posting a photo on Reddit, where it was picked up by the PhotoshopBattles subreddit.A “Man suffers heart attack, dies at work, coworkers gather for group selfie thinking he’d fallen asleep” headline screenshot offers an object lesson in a common trajectory for “fake news” items and how they come to be. At some point in time, someone paired the viral “sleeping intern” photograph from 2016 with an outlandish and untrue headline reflecting an old urban legend about an office worker who had once remained dead and unnoticed at their desk for five days.In 2000 and 2001, that similar (and also false) claim circulated, reflective of fears that we are quite literally only “warm bodies” to employers — so much so that desk deaths could conceivably have no effect on whether our workplaces carry on without us. Its previous virality showed that the image itself is eye-catching and shareable, more so when paired with a compelling headline. However, a quick image search showed that the original photograph moved from one subreddit to another before becoming a viral hit on its own in 2016. Claim: A photograph shows a dead man whose unwitting co-workers arranged a \"funny selfie,\" believing he was just sleeping.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Swiss police said on Friday that they stormed the home of the 54-year-old man, who had barricaded himself inside, was armed with a knife and had issued repeated threats. An unidentified woman with him was also arrested. The man had been free on bail since August. His trial began on March 6, but he stopped turning up in court on Thursday. The case came to the attention of the Swiss authorities after an HIV-positive patient told a Berne hospital he had traced his infection back to acupuncture treatments carried out by the accused. The man has denied the charges. According to Swiss media, the majority of the infected individuals were students of a music school run by the man, who also ran an acupuncture practice. In accordance with Swiss criminal proceedings, the suspect’s identity has not been released. Claim: Swiss police arrest \"healer\" accused of infecting 16 with HIV.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 23 April 2016, a photograph purportedly showing “where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico” started circulating on Facebook along with the claim that these “two bodies of water never mix.” Subsequent postings of the image included an additional (misspelled) claim, that this lack of mixing is proof of God’s existence:  The Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. The two bodies of water never mix with each other; allowing the Gulf of Mexico to retain its clear, blue color. Simply amazing! That just proves that their is a GOD!!!! Who else can let WATER meet and touch but NEVER mix together???? #illwait   Although some viewers proclaimed that this visual effect was a beautiful creation of God, this image actually shows a man-made hypoxic event that is harmful to the environment. The image was actually taken from a video originally published by Marlin Magazine in November 2015:  This video captured a fluctuating dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is caused when high-nutrient water full of nitrogen and phosphorus from the Mississippi River pours into the Gulf. That leads to large algae blooms, altered food chains, and hypoxic (oxygen deficient) waters: Forty-one percent of the continental United States (1.2 million square miles) drains into the Mississippi River and then out to the Gulf of Mexico. The majority of the land in Mississippi’s watershed is farm land. Seventy percent of nutrient loads that cause hypoxia are a result of agricultural runoff caused by rain washing fertilizer off of the land and into streams and rivers. Additionally, 12 million people live in urban areas that border the Mississippi, and these areas constantly discharge treated sewage into rivers. The farm and urban discharge includes nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous that is very important for the growth of phytoplankton. About 1.7 million tons of these nutrients are deliverd by rivers into the Gulf of Mexico every year. This huge influx of nutrients causes massive phytoplankton blooms to occur, this in turn leads to a large increase in zooplankton that feed on phytoplankton. Large amounts of dead phytoplankton and zooplankton waste then accumulate on the bottom of the seabed. The decomposition of this matter depletes the oxygen in the area faster than it can be replaced. This leads to large hypoxic areas called Dead Zones. These dead zones tend to occur in the summer and fluctuate in size. According to a fact sheet published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average size of the dead zone is around 6,000 square miles. While the above-quoted Facebook posts claim that these waters do not mix, they do — and the water from the Mississippi River has a major effect on marine life in the Gulf of Mexico: Nutrient overloading and algal blooms lead to eutrophication, which has been shown to reduce benthic biomass and biodiversity. Hypoxic water supports fewer organisms and has been linked to massive fish kills in the Black Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico is a major source area for the seafood industry. The Gulf supplies 72% of U.S. harvested shrimp, 66% of harvested oysters, and 16% of commercial fish (Potash and Phosphate Institutes of the U.S. and Canada, 1999). Consequently, if the hypoxic zone continues or worsens, fishermen and coastal state economies will be greatly impacted. The image at the top of this post also doesn’t show a static line drawn between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. While the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium called this dead zone a recurring environmental problem, the distinct color differences are not a permanent year-round fixture. While the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is man made, a similar aesthetic is achieved naturally in other parts of the world, such as the Gulf of Alaska, where glacial rivers mix with the ocean. Claim: A photograh showing a body of water with two distinct colors is a permanent location where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since 2014, climate-change deniers have squeezed millions of views, Facebook shares, and Twitter retweets by retelling a story alleging the discovery of “faked” NASA data designed to “fit a climate change narrative.” Though copied almost wholesale from a blog post, the version of the story that has had the most online traction was published on the one-stop conspiracy theory/supplement shop that goes by the name Natural News. The article suggested: In what might be the largest scientific fraud ever uncovered, NASA and the NOAA have been caught red-handed altering historical temperature data to produce a “climate change narrative” that defies reality. […] We now know that historical temperature data for the continental United States were deliberately altered by NASA and NOAA scientists in a politically-motivated attempt to rewrite history and claim global warming is causing U.S. temperatures to trend upward. There is a lot to unpack here, but the first thing you need to know is records of global surface temperatures are constantly refined based on the addition of new data, fresh statistical analyses, or new historical insight into the history of a specific source of data. Reporting on such a shift as something to “uncover” betrays a potentially willful ignorance of how climate science operates. These changes are publicly reported, based on stated scientific criteria, and subjected to rigorous internal and external peer review. The “smoking gun” concerns a climate record known as the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP). These records are based on a massive global dataset of temperature stations from around the world, combining several collections of data originally collected by individual weather stations. The record provides “a measure of the changing global surface temperature with monthly resolution for the period since 1880, when a reasonably global distribution of meteorological stations was established.” To argue for evidence of “faked” data, Natural News, as well as the original blog post, highlighted a version of the GISTEMP record for the United States first published in 1999, comparing it to one published later, in 2012. The record, these sources point out, has shifted:  (These charts plot how far off each year’s average U.S. temperature differs from the average temperature for the entire period 1951–1980; the frame labeled “a” is from 1999.) It should be no shock that the data shifted following 1999, as illustrated graphically in the above diagram, because NASA published multiple papers in 1999 and 2001 about these changes and why they were made. Links to these papers can be found on the NASA website, which also publicly summarizes the changes in several other places. Writing for the climate information website Skeptical Science, Berkeley Earth research scientist Zeke Hausfather, whose work (in part) independently analyzes adjustments made by government agencies’ climate records, explained the need for making adjustments to such datasets in general. A primary misconception, he argues, is that an “unadjusted global temperature record” — which necessarily has to take into account not only the temperature reading at a given recording station, but also how to translate that data spatially to come up with a single annual or monthly number — is not really a thing that exists to begin with: There are a number of folks who question the need for adjustments at all. Why not just use raw temperatures, they ask, since those are pure and unadulterated? The problem is that … there is really no such thing as a pure and unadulterated temperature record. Temperature stations in the U.S. are mainly operated by volunteer observers (the Cooperative Observer Network, or co-op stations for short). Many of these stations were set up in the late 1800s and early 1900s as part of a national network of weather stations, focused on measuring day-to-day changes in the weather rather than decadal-scale changes in the climate. Nearly every single station in the network in the network has been moved at least once over the last century, with many having 3 or more distinct moves. Most of the stations have changed [the type of instruments used]. Observation times have shifted from afternoon to morning at most stations since 1960, as part of an effort by the National Weather Service to improve precipitation measurements. So what were the issues that led to changes between the 1999 record and the later record? According to NASA’s GISTEMP website, “Starting in the 1990s, the methodology took into account documented non-climatic biases in the raw data and eliminated or corrected unrealistic outliers.” The goal of these adjustments is to remove shoddy data from the dataset using pre-established methodologies, not to fit a “climate change narrative.” These “non-climatic biases” include things like stations taking temperature measurements at different times of day, stations physically moving locations (sometimes to a different elevation), and other artifacts that produce change in a record not attributable to climate or weather. These non-climatic biases were identified and their method of adjustment described in a publicly available 2001 paper found, among other places, on NASA’s website. They included: Additionally, post-1999 GISTEMP records employ models to fill in areas with missing data to make a more complete record from a spatial perspective. The methods used and their effect on the data are all disclosed online. However the issues described above are largely moot at the time of this writing in 2019. The GISTEMP analyses at issue above concern a formulation of the dataset (GISTEMP v3) that has been replaced by an improved model named GISTEMP v4, which includes a much larger set of data and a whole other set of adjustments. All told, the most significant effect of all these changes came from the time-of-day adjustments. Collectively, the adjustments served to produce a slightly increased warming trend in the United States record compared to the earlier records. The largest adjustments are the time of observation debiasing and station history adjustment, each of which increases the mean warming over the United States by about 0.15ºC over the 100 years. The net of all five adjustments to the … record is a warming of about 0.3ºC Claim: NASA and NOAA faked climate data in the GISTEMP global temperature record to exaggerate global warming. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is known to feud with President Donald Trump, really pose – and smile – in front of a Trump 2020 sign? Nope. An altered version of a real photo of Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ca., with the sign added behind the congresswomen, is going around social media. Text near the top of the manipulated photo says, \"This is so funny. Keep it posted on Facebook and other social media. And along the bottom, \"Please, please keep this picture going!!\" The image was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) A reverse-image search led us to the original photo, which doesn’t include the sign, and was shared by Waters in a tweet on Feb. 17, 2018: Last week, the @american_heart and Congressional Caucus for Women hosted the annual congressional wear red day photo! pic.twitter.com/AXewJPPU3S Pelosi and Waters were wearing red as part of the American Heart Association’s \"Go Red For Women\" movement, which aims to increase women’s heart health awareness and end heart disease and stroke in women. This photo is doctored. Claim: A photo shows Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi posing and smiling in front of a Trump 2020 sign.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Are loosies a terrorist revenue stream? State Rep. Rick Saccone thinks so. During a session ahead of a vote on the state budget’s revenue package last week, Saccone, a Republican from Allegheny County, objected to a proposed $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase Wednesday. The new tax, which Governor Wolf signed into law later that day, raises the state’s levy to $2.60 per pack. Saccone viewed this as earning revenue off the backs of the poor, but also he was wary that price hikes might encourage smuggling rings that send money to violent extremists. \"We as a legislature are not only ready to trample on the poor, who disproportionately bear the burden of that tax,\" he told the body, \"we’re prepared to disregard the ugly consequence that driving the price too high nurtures illegal tobacco sales, which have been connected to funding terrorism against us. I’ll say that again, folks: Illegal tobacco sales, price driven too high, has been connected to at least several cases of funding terrorism against us in multi-year investigations over the last decade and a half.\" Saccone wasn’t the only representative to raise such concerns. \"Interstate 81 is a smuggler’s alley. Now Pennsylvania will be a stop on Smuggler’s Alley,\" State Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican from Lebanon County, said earlier in his remarks. \"And what kind of folks are in the cigarette smuggling business and what else do they do with their money? Are they also involved in other illegal activities? Are they involved in human trafficking? Are they funding Hezbollah or ISIS? We don’t know.\" Later, in an interview with PolitiFact PA, Saccone pointed to a noteworthy 2015 State Department report, \"The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security.\" \"Internationally, it fuels transnational crime, corruption, and terrorism,\" the report’s authors wrote. \"The illicit trade in tobacco products remains a lucrative revenue stream for many criminal actors and illicit networks.\" Is it fair to consider price hikes drivers? David Merriman, a University of Chicago researcher who studies how consumers react to cigarette taxes, said in an email, \"There is high quality scientific evidence that relatively high cigarette taxes/prices are associated with increased illicit sales.\" Saccone said the while many details may be classified, the links from reported probes are clear. \"We know that these terrorist organizations are branching out and they’re using multiple activities to fund their operations, especially in foreign countries,\" he said. \"I’m not saying the sale of cigarettes is the only source… but we know we can tie, according to these government reports and some of these operations, at least some of cigarette smuggling to the funding of terrorism.\" Many of the examples in the State Department report, and many of the examples we found through broader research, were not domestic. One-eyed Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, also known as the \"Marlboro Man,\" has entered the realm of legend not only for his prowess as a cigarette smuggler across Northern Africa, but also because U.S. intelligence has yet to confirm whether he’s actually dead or not. In 2004, an anti-terrorism law passed that prohibits importing missiles made specifically to blow up planes. The first person convicted under this law was Yi Qing Chen, a top smuggler in a Chinese crime ring that was busted in two connected probes: Operation Smoking Dragon and Operation Royal Charm, the latter being a FBI-staged yacht wedding where the lucky couple were actually undercover agents, and the suspects were invited guests. Chen, who was the arrested in Operation Smoking Dragon, had smuggled counterfeit money, military-grade weapons, methamphetamines, cigarettes and missiles, among other items. It’s not extraordinary to say that internationally, organized crime rings have developed far-reaching black market networks, illicit cigarettes being one of the industries. But how common is the case Saccone described— a black market growing thanks to the higher cigarette prices found in a particular state, and that market funnelling money to violent extremists? According to Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market: Characteristics, Policy Context, and Lessons from International Experiences, 226-page National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study, not that common: \"Overall, given the total number of terrorism-related tobacco investigations in the United States (keeping in mind that smuggling cases are likely to receive priority if they can be linked to terrorism), as well as the dollar amounts involved in those cases, the link between the U.S. illicit tobacco market and terrorism appears to be minor.\" From the 2002 and 2003 fiscal years, the report states, out of nearly 300 tobacco cases at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), only eight were \"linked to terrorism.\" As the report notes, the underground market evades a good deal of statistical reporting. And while many investigations may look at both terrorist affiliations and illicit tobacco, both charges don’t always stick. Take the Knoxville man who pleaded guilty to cigarette smuggling in 2010. The FBI began investigating him after wiretapping conversations in which he seemed like an Al Qaeda recruiter. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, the terror charge fell to the wayside after a lie-detector test backed his explanation: that on the phone calls, he was merely kidding. We reached out to ATF for cases that had led to convictions on both counts. ATF pointed to the 25 indictments resulting from Operation Smokescreen, which focused on an interstate cigarette smuggling ring. This group of illegal tobacco traders in North Carolina and Michigan operated primarily in the late ’90s, led to multiple arrests and convictions for cigarette smuggling and assisting Hezbollah. (One of the men, according to the Village Voice, donated $3,500 to the combatant group.) Arrests were made from 2000 to 2002. We found another example. Reportedly, a cigarette smuggler helped the Lackawanna Six, a group of Yemeni-American friends who were Al-Qaeda trainees, finance their trip to training camp in Afghanistan. Some of the men allegedly had smuggled cigarettes themselves. They were arrested in 2002, the magic number in both investigations -- which means 15 years is not out of the realm of possibility. These are the most high-profile examples of domestic cigarette smuggling connected to terrorism financing post-2001. We weren’t able to find more recent cases. \"[T]here is also no systematic evidence of sustained links between the global illicit tobacco trade and terrorism,\" according to the report. Our ruling Rep. Saccone said in a house session, \"Illegal tobacco sales, price driven too high, has been connected to at least several cases of funding terrorism against us in multi-year investigations over the last decade and a half.\" Most of the trouble with this statement are its implications: American cigarette smuggling does not have strong presence in terrorism financing. Saccone himself admitted that he had heard of no such incidence in Philadelphia, where a cigarette tax bumped prices up in 2014. But, there have been cases, as he mentioned. In our research and from our correspondence with ATF, we were only able to find two groups that had financed terrorist activities through illicit tobacco sale, the Lackawanna Six and an interstate North Carolina-Michigan smuggling ring, both leading to multiple convictions. Claim: Illegal tobacco sales, price driven too high, has been connected to at least several cases of funding terrorism against us in multi-year investigations over the last decade and a half.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As evidence that the country is closer to socialist than capitalist these days, radio and talk show host Glenn Beck recently made this claim about John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy: \"I mean, we've got czars now,\" Beck said during his July 22, 2009, program. \"Czars like John Holdren, who has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population.\" Political figures like Holdren, who are little-known by most Americans, make easy targets. And Beck's biting quick hit on Holdren provides a healthy enough dose of outrage on which to hang his argument. But is it true? Beck's allegation has its roots in a book Holdren co-authored with Paul and Annie Ehrlich more than three decades ago called  Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment  . Conservative bloggers have quoted the book extensively, and often out of context, to make the point that Holdren has advocated positions such as the ones Beck stated. We obtained the book to see exactly what Holdren, then a young man, wrote (or co-wrote). The book is just over 1,000 pages, and it clearly makes that case that an explosion in population presented a grave crisis. Although it is a textbook, the authors don't shy away from presenting a point of view. As the preface states, \"We have tried throughout the book to state clearly where we stand on various matters of controversy.\" In a section on \"Involuntary Fertility Control,\" Holdren and the other authors discuss various \"coercive\" means of population control — including putting sterilants in the drinking water. But they stop well short of advocating such measures. Here's a few excerpts: \"The third approach to population limitation is that of involuntary fertility control. Several coercive proposals deserve discussion, mainly because some countries may ultimately have to resort to them unless current trends in birth rates are rapidly reversed by other means. ...  \"Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control. Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today, nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock. ...  \"Again, there is no sign of such an agent on the horizon. And the risk of serious, unforeseen side effects would, in our opinion, militate against the use of any such agent, even though this plan has the advantage of avoiding the need for socioeconomic pressures that might tend to discriminate against particular groups or penalize children.\" Later, the authors conclude, \"Most of the population control measures beyond family planning discussed above have never been tried. Some are as yet technically impossible and others are and probably will remain unacceptable to most societies (although, of course, the potential effectiveness of those least acceptable measures may be great). \"Compulsory control of family size is an unpalatable idea, but the alternatives may be much more horrifying. As those alternatives become clearer to an increasing number of people in the 1980s, they may begin demanding such control. A far better choice, in our view, is to expand the use of milder methods of influencing family size preferences, while redoubling efforts to ensure that the means of birth control, including abortion and sterilization, are accessible to every human being on Earth within the shortest possible time. If effective action is taken promptly against population growth, perhaps the need for the more extreme involuntary or repressive measures can be averted in most countries.\" And here's the part that some have interpreted as Holdren advocating for forced abortions. \"To date, there has been no serious attempt in Western countries to use laws to control excessive population growth, although there exists ample authority under which population growth could be regulated. For example, under the United States Constitution, effective population-control programs could be enacted under the clauses that empower Congress to appropriate funds to provide for the general welfare and to regulate commerce, or under the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Such laws constitutionally could be very broad. Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society. Few today consider the situation in the United States serious enough to justify compulsion, however.\" This comes in a section discussing population law. The authors argue that compulsory abortions could potentially be allowed under U.S. law \"if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society.\" Again, that's a far cry from advocating or proposing such a position. In the book, the authors certainly advocate making abortions readily accessible for women who want to get them. But they never advocate forced abortions. Big difference. In response to the comments from Beck and others, Holdren's office issued this statement: \"The quotations used to suggest that Dr. Holdren supports coercive approaches to limiting population growth were taken from a 1977 college textbook on environmental science and policy, of which he was the third author. The quoted material was from a section of the book that described different possible approaches to limiting population growth and then concluded that the authors’ own preference was to employ the noncoercive approaches before the environmental and social impacts of overpopulation led desperate societies to employ coercive ones. Dr. Holdren has never been an advocate of compulsory abortions or other repressive means of population limitation.\" Holdren's office also provided a statement from Annie and Paul Ehrlich, the co-authors: \"We have been shocked at the serious mischaracterization of our views and those of John Holdren in blog posts based on misreadings of our jointly-authored 1000-page 1977 textbook, ECOSCIENCE. We were not then,  never have been, and are not now 'advocates' of the Draconian measures for population limitation described — but not recommended — in the book's 60-plus small-type pages cataloging the full spectrum of population policies that, at the time, had either been tried in some country or analyzed by some commentator. Under questioning by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., during his Senate confirmation hearing, Holdren said he \"no longer thinks it's productive to focus on optimum population for the United States. ... I think the key thing today is that we need to work to improve the conditions that all of our citizens face economically, environmentally, and in other respects. And we need to aim for something that I have for years been calling 'sustainable prosperity.'\" Vitter continued with his line of question, asking directly, \"Do you think determining optimal population is a proper role of government?\" Said Holdren: \"No, senator, I do not. ... I think the proper role of government is to develop and deploy the policies with respect to economy, environment, security, that will ensure the well-being of the citizens we have.\" But with regard to Beck's claim that Holdren \"has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population,\" the text of the book clearly does not support that. We think a thorough reading shows that these were ideas presented as approaches that had been discussed. They were not posed as suggestions or proposals. In fact, the authors make clear that they did not support coercive means of population control. Certainly, nowhere in the book do the authors advocate for forced abortions. Some have argued that Holdren's view of the imminent and grave global dangers posed by overpopulation should provide pause, given Holdren's current view that global warming now presents imminent and grave global dangers. That's a matter for reasoned debate. But in seeking to score points for a political argument, Beck seriously mischaracterizes Holdren's positions. Holdren didn't advocate those ideas then. And, when asked at a Senate confirmation hearing, Holdren said he did not support them now. We think it's irresponsible to pluck a few lines from a 1,000-page, 30-year-old textbook, and then present them out of context to dismiss Holdren's long and distinguished career. Claim: John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, \"has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population.",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In early 2019, California Sen. Kamala Harris became one of the first few Democrats to announce her candidacy for the U.S. presidency in 2020. Her announcement on 21 January prompted the kind of scrutiny and commentary that has become typical when any high-profile politician officially declares designs on the White House. In the case of Harris, some observers focused on her background as the San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, and her reputation as a “law-and-order” prosecutor. As part of this scrutiny, old video footage re-emerged online that some commentators said showed Harris “boasting” and “laughing” about prosecuting poor parents — especially one homeless woman — for the truancy of their children. On 28 January, journalist Walker Bragman posted video clips from a speech Harris delivered in 2010 at the California Commonwealth Club, a public-policy forum: Kamala Harris at an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club in 2010, explaining her decision as San Francisco DA to get tough on truancy. Critics of truancy crackdowns say such efforts unfairly target poor parents and children without actually helping students. pic.twitter.com/GKkDpayxuv — Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 28, 2019   These video clips prompted news articles and opinion columns claiming that Harris, purportedly showing a callous and uncaring attitude towards the plight of poor people, had been caught on camera “laughing” and “boasting” about her prosecution of a homeless mother. Fox News posted an article with the headline “2010 video shows Kamala Harris boasting about prosecuting parents, including homeless mom with two jobs, whose kids missed classes.” Nathan Robinson wrote an opinion column for The Guardian with the headline “Kamala Harris laughed about jailing parents over truancy. But it’s not funny”: “Harris cheerfully recounts the story of sending an attorney from her office to intimidate a homeless single mother whose children were missing school. She smiles as she recalls how she instructed her subordinates to ‘look really mean’ so that the mother would take the threat of jail seriously.” The website Grit Post published an article with the headline “Kamala Harris Once Bragged About Prosecuting a Homeless Single Mom Working Two Jobs.” The January 2019 controversy centered on a speech Harris gave on 14 January 2010 at the California Commonwealth Club, at a time when she was the district attorney (D.A.) of San Francisco and was running for California attorney general. She was also promoting her 2009 book Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer. In her speech, Harris recounted her experiences and record as San Francisco D.A. and advocated a “smart-on-crime” approach to criminal justice, which she outlined as a combination of aggressive prosecution of violent crime, along with with her “Back on Track” program, which was designed to reduce recidivism (re-offending) among 18-24-year-old, first-time, low-level drug offenders, many of whom Harris noted were parents. Harris also spoke about the anti-truancy campaign she led as San Francisco D.A., one that preceded a significant decline in elementary school truancy and absenteeism in San Francisco but attracted some criticism for confronting parents with the potential legal consequences of allowing their children to miss school, as well as occasionally imposing criminal penalties. In the lead-up to the remarks that resurfaced in January 2019, Harris discussed the value of education and described the impetus for her truancy crackdown as being the high prevalence of high school dropouts among homicide victims and perpetrators. As she framed it, the anti-truancy initiative was motivated by a desire to prevent, in advance, the kind of educational disengagement linked to future violent criminality and victimization:  … I believe a child going without education is tantamount to a crime, so I decided I was going to start prosecuting parents for truancy. Well, this was a little controversial in San Francisco [laughs] and frankly my staff went bananas, they were very concerned because we didn’t know at the time whether I was going to have an opponent in my re-election race. But I said ‘Look, I’m done. This is a serious issue, and I’ve got a little political capital and I’m going to spend some of it.’ And this is what we did. We recognized that, in that [anti-truancy] initiative, as a prosecutor and law enforcement [official], I have a huge stick, the school district has got a carrot — let’s work in tandem around our collective objective and goal, which is to get those kids in school. So to that end…I sent a letter out on my letterhead, to every parent in the school district, outlining the connection that was statistically proven, between elementary school truancy, high school dropouts, who will become a victim of crime and who will become a perpetrator of crime. We sent it out to everyone. A friend of mine actually called me and he said “Kamala, my wife got the letter. She freaked out. She brought all the kids into the living room, held up the letter, said ‘If you don’t go to school, Kamala’s going to put you and me in jail?! '” [laughs] Yes, we achieved the intended effect. And here’s what we also did — we created what we called the D.A. Mediation Program where we assigned prosecutors to go and sit with the administrators and principals when they met with all the parents. And frankly, you know the prosecutors in my office who volunteered to do this? My homicide prosecutors, my gang prosecutors. And they went over there and I said “When you go over there, look really mean” [laughs] and so they did. And invariably the parents said “Well who’s the mean-looking dude?” and the principal would say “Well that’s someone that mean D.A. Kamala Harris sent over here ‘cos she said she’s going to start prosecuting you if we can’t work this out. And through that initiative we found cases like the case of the woman who was by herself, raising her three children, holding down two jobs, and homeless. She just needed some help. But by shining this infrared spotlight of “public safety” on the fact that her children aren’t in school, we were able to figure that out, get her access to services that exist, and through that process, the attendance of her children improved, we dismissed the charges against her and overall we’ve improved attendance for this population in San Francisco by 20 percent over the last two years. The first fact to note is that Harris, according to her account, did not prosecute the homeless woman in question to the extent of a criminal trial, conviction, and punishment, because that was not the ultimate goal of the program. The anti-truancy program worked in that case as it was intended. By confronting the mother with the negative potential outcome of criminal conviction, San Francisco authorities were able to bring her into a process that involved providing her help and resources that she would otherwise not have received, while also motivating her (albeit in a coercive manner that some observers have criticized) to ensure her children attended school, thus making it statistically less likely they would end up as the victims or perpetrators of crime. As Harris said, that outcome meant her office was able to dismiss the charges against the mother. Harris wrote about the same woman in her 2009 book Smart on Crime, many of whose anecdotes she repeated in her Commonwealth Club speech. There she specified that the provision of services, a key part of the truancy policy that many 2019 critics did not mention, included finding housing for the previously homeless woman: “The picture began to brighten. At one high school, overall attendance among the one hundred students in the [District Attorney] mediation program improved 40 percent. At another elementary school, we saw a 75 percent drop in the number of chronically absent students. Along the way, we learned some things about the situations some of these families faced and found we could help. For example, we met a mother with three children who was homeless and holding down two jobs trying to get her situation under control; we referred her to community resources to find stable housing and get her children to school.” So when Harris recounted with satisfaction the story of that homeless woman, she was in fact describing a case in which the anti-truancy program had the result of forcing the woman, on pain of prosecution, into an administrative process whereby she was provided with housing and services and given both help and coercive incentive, which resulted in her children’s attending school more. Further details on the mechanics and procedures involved in the truancy initiative can be found here, but the key point is that the purpose of the program was not to criminally prosecute or jail parents of truant children. In fact, such an outcome would mean the program had failed. Its purpose was to use the threat of prosecution to “bring parents to the table” and initiate a series of steps that  (crucially) involved providing services and resources to parents and did indeed have the effect of lowering the rate of truancy in San Francisco. That is not to support or defend the program itself, or endorse the remarks made by Kamala Harris in her 2010 speech, or the tone in which they were delivered. Rather, our point here is to accurately describe what the program actually entailed, and therefore what it was Harris recounted with satisfaction before the Commonwealth Club. What Harris was celebrating or “boasting” or “bragging” about was not the prosecution or jailing of a homeless mother, but rather the fact that the successful implementation of her anti-truancy program had avoided the need to prosecute or jail that mother. And it had the effect of bringing her children back to school, an outcome that is linked to a lower statistical risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of crime. It is therefore a significant misunderstanding (or misrepresentation) of the facts to claim, as Fox News did, that Harris was “boasting” about prosecuting parents, or to claim, as Grit Post did, that “Kamala Harris once bragged about prosecuting a homeless single mom working two jobs.” Nathan Robinson, in his column for The Guardian, conflated two separate anecdotes and falsely claimed that Harris had “cheerfully recounted” her instructions to prosecutors to “look really mean” in order to “intimidate a homeless single mother.” Harris was recalling her instructions to prosecutors when attending D.A. mediations involving dozens of parents and school administrators, not gleefully ordering them to target a specific homeless mother for intimidation. It is true, though, that the threat of prosecution and the involvement of San Francisco’s top prosecutor, District Attorney Kamala Harris, was an essential component of the anti-truancy program, even if its end goal was not the criminal prosecution of parents. So it is understandable that some observers in 2019 misunderstood or misrepresented the actual mechanics and purpose of the anti-truancy program and therefore the meaning and significance of what Harris said in her January 2010 speech at the Commonwealth Club. Claim: U.S. Senator Kamala Harris bragged, boasted or laughed about prosecuting a homeless single mother in a January 2010 speech. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Keytruda is already approved as a cost-effective treatment in melanoma but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) had initially blocked its use in lung cancer. “If companies work with us to price drugs reasonably and manage any uncertainties in the evidence base, we can continue to recommend patients have routine access to the treatments they need,” Carole Longson, director of the NICE centre for health technology evaluation, said in a statement on Friday. Keytruda has proved highly effective in fighting non-small cell lung cancer in patients with high levels of a protein called PD-L1, which makes them more receptive to immunotherapy. The average cost of a course of treatment in Britain is around 29,000 pounds ($36,500) at the full list price but the National Health Service will pay less after getting a confidential discount. ($1 = 0.7934 pounds) Claim: Merck wins UK okay for Keytruda in lung cancer after price cut.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Demand for plant-based foods is growing fast as consumers worried about the environmental impact of meat production and keen to avoid a meat-heavy diet on health grounds look for alternative protein sources. JUST’s products including JUST Egg, a scrambled egg imitation made from mung beans, are available in the United States, Canada, China and Singapore, with sales evenly split between retailers including Walmart (WMT.N), Safeway and Whole Foods (AMZN.O), and restaurants such as Tim Hortons (QSR.TO). Chief Executive Josh Tetrick said cutting the costs of JUST Egg was key to broader acceptance. It is “really important for us to become one of the lowest cost proteins on the planet,” he said. “Today, our cost is 22 cents per serving. Our goal is to get to 12 cents next year and then ultimately below five.”  The cheapest supermarket eggs from non-caged hens cost around 16 cents each. Tetrick told Reuters that after launching in Europe a next logical step is achieving profitability, in advance of a possible listing to raise money. He has already raised about $250 million from investors around the world, including Mitsui, Temasek, China Construction Bank, Founders Fund, the Benioff family and the Heineken family. Tetrick, whose company employs about 120 people, sees his JUST Egg in European outlets in the next few months. “We will be launching in some locations, retailers and restaurants in Europe,” he said on the sidelines of an event in Zurich last week. Investors are taking notice of the growth in plant-based foods. U.S. startup Beyond Meat’s (BYND.O) stock has nearly tripled since it went public in May even though it is yet to turn a profit. Tetrick said his San Francisco-based company had hired longtime food industry executive Dave Wagstaff, with experience at global giants like McCain and free-range egg brand Happy Egg, to head its European team. “Our partners in Europe today include (Italian egg company) Eurovo, they’re doing the manufacturing and distribution, as well as German poultry group PHW and (online food delivery platform) Delivery Hero (DHER.DE).”  Tetrick said he was confident the company could get a slice of the $260 billion global egg market “if we get it right”. “We figured out the technology, but now we have to execute.”  Tetrick said the company was expecting low- to mid-double- digit million dollar revenues this year and should multiply sales by around seven next year. “Our most important financial objective is operating profitability,” he said. “We’ll get there some time in the next year.” Claim: In the last six years of Cianci’s administration violent crime was down in the United States. It was down in the region. It was down in Rhode Island. But it was up in Providence.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most prevalent flu strain this season is H1N1 - the same strain that caused the 2009 pandemic and afflicts otherwise healthy children and young adults. Flu is now widespread in 35 states, according to the CDC. Rates are particularly high in 13 states, mostly in the South and Southwest: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. “The trend of low vaccination rates among younger adults is particularly troubling this year, when they are more at risk than usual for the effects of the H1N1 strain of flu that’s circulating,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, the nonprofit health advocacy group that released the latest findings. The analysis found that overall, 45 percent of all Americans got a flu shot during the 2012-13 season, the most recent period for which full season data are available. That was up slightly from 41.8 percent in the 2011-12 season. But among U.S. adults aged 18-64, only 35.7 percent got a flu shot during the 2012-2013 flu season. That compared with 56.6 percent of children age 6 months to 17 years, and 66.2 percent of seniors 65 and older who were vaccinated during 2012-2013. Among U.S. states, vaccination rates were highest last season in Massachusetts at 57.5 percent, and lowest in Florida at 34.1 percent. Only 12 states had vaccination rates of 50 percent or higher: Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Tennessee. The CDC recommends all American 6 months and older get vaccinated each year. Claim: Many younger U.S. adults skipping flu shots: report.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 18 March 2017, the author of a blog called “Mountains and Mustard Seeds” published a post about her personal experience with serious medical complications caused by a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. These drugs include: That post (headlined “This Antibiotic Will Ruin You”) highlights somewhat recent announcements made by the FDA requiring new warning labels and suggested limitations on their use: The antibiotics you took or are taking for your sinus infection, UTI, skin infection, laser eye surgery…ect [sic]…may have already damaged you. Cipro, Levaquin, Avalox, nearly every generic ending in “quin”, “oxacin,””ox,”…are all part of a large family of antibiotics called “Fluoroquinolones.” The FDA finally updated their warning on these antibiotics as of July 2016. They cite “multiple system damage that may be irreversible.” Permanent you guys. […]  In 2010, I took Cipro for a UTI and it changed my life forever. A round of antibiotics literally changed the path I was walking, into a path that I couldn’t even crawl on. Multiple spontaneous tendon and ligament ruptures, spinal degeneration, and arthritis that is widespread. We are talking multiple joint dislocations and surgeries to most of my large joints and spine. Twenty surgeries in the last 7 years if you wanna count. While our post does not seek to verify the author’s personal story, the information presented regarding documented complications from this class of antibiotics is factual. The Food and Drug Administration, since July 2008, has issued a series of increasingly strong notices regarding the rare (but serious) risk of tendon rupture, tendonitis, and neurologic damage resulting in pain or numbness. These alerts culminated in a revised “Boxed Warning” and new prescribing recommendations, as described in a 26 July 2016 FDA safety announcement:  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved changes to the labels of fluoroquinolone antibacterial drugs for systemic use (i.e., taken by mouth or by injection). These medicines are associated with disabling and potentially permanent side effects of the tendons, muscles, joints, nerves, and central nervous system that can occur together in the same patient. As a result, we revised the Boxed Warning, FDA’s strongest warning, to address these serious safety issues. We also added a new warning and updated other parts of the drug label, including the patient Medication Guide. As a 2015 review of adverse effects from fluoroquinolone antibiotics explained, the class of drugs has a long history of use for a broad range of conditions, and uses a unique mechanism that actively destroys bacterial DNA: Fluoroquinolone (FQs) antibiotics were first approved by the FDA for marketing in the 1980s. Since then, FQs have been used extensively to treat a wide range of infections and, although not approved by the FDA for prevention, are also increasingly used as prophylaxis against infection among persons with cancer and other immune compromised states. That same report, which used data collected by the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) to demonstrate the reality of these risks, stated that while the exact mechanism by which fluoroquinolones may contribute to tendon damage is unclear, it does likely involve mitochondrial damage as described in the Mountains and Mustard Seed post: The mechanism by which [Fluoroquinolones or FQs] cause tendon injury is unclear. […] FQs cause oxidative stress in tenocyte cells through overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This overproduction has direct toxic effects in the extracellular matrix. In addition, FQs cause mitochondrial toxicity and apoptosis. In other words, the drugs cause damage to, and sometimes kill, tendon cells by overproducing oxygen-containing chemicals, and can also harm a cells vital mitochondrial DNA. To be clear, the risks are still somewhat rare. Depending on which drug is used and what studies you base your analysis on, tendonitis and tendon rupture are estimated to occur in 0.14 percent to 0.4 percent of cases, though experts agree the true incidence is likely higher due to underreporting. According to multiple studies, these risks are higher in elderly populations, non-obese populations, and especially patients also prescribed glucocorticoid steroids, which are used to treat inflammation, among other things. Because of the potentially permanent and disabling effect of these risks, the FDA argues, the risk-to-benefit ratio has shifted enough to merit limiting their prescription to cases of absolute necessity, per their July 2016 notice: We have determined that fluoroquinolones should be reserved for use in patients who have no other treatment options for acute bacterial sinusitis, (ABS), acute bacterial exacerbation of chronic bronchitis (ABECB), and uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) because the risk of these serious side effects generally outweighs the benefits in these patients. For some serious bacterial infections the benefits of fluoroquinolones outweigh the risks, and it is appropriate for them to remain available as a therapeutic option. The author of the “Mountains and Mustard Seeds” post also alluded to potential psychiatric complications: Fluoroquinolones cross the blood brain barrier. This can result in psychiatric events, depression, and suicidal thoughts. I was incredibly fortunate not to have the psychiatric side of this. This, too, is accurate, although the recent changes to FDA warnings were not spurred by any new incidents or developments regarding mental health events. A 2003 study using data collected by the Italian government estimated that psychiatric effects from fluoroquinolones occur in about 1.8 percent of cases, with a majority of those cases being minor and self-resolving. Claim: The FDA has updated its warnings for — and recommended limitations on — prescribing a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones, citing potentially irreversible side-effects including tendon damage and rupture.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A persistent but inaccurate talking point is that the United States turned down coronavirus testing kits from the World Health Organization. We found that WHO never offered kits to the United States, and when a reporter asked President Donald Trump if that was true, he confirmed, and took it a step further. \"No. 1, nothing was offered,\" Trump said March 17. \"No. 2, it was a bad test.\" There is zero evidence that the WHO’s preferred test is unreliable. Based on a test developed in Berlin, Germany, by the end of February, WHO had purchased and sent materials to over 100 countries for 1.4 million tests. A review from the National University of Singapore reported that the German test gave neither  positives, nor  negatives. In technical terms, it was \"highly sensitive and specific,\" and did not \"cross-react with other coronaviruses.\" Before Trump spoke, top officials explained that the United States wanted a test that came through American commercial vendors and had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The head of the U.S. Public Health Service, Adm. Brett Giroir, said the WHO protocol had not been submitted to the FDA. The head of the White House coronavirus response, Deborah Birx, said that a few months from now, the public would see that other tests used around the world were not as good as the U.S. one. We asked the White House press office if Birx was talking about the WHO test and got no comment. Trump said that the coronavirus test used by WHO \"was a bad test.\" In the lab, the test was found to produce neither  positives nor negatives. The White House produced no evidence that the test under-performed. Claim: The WHO coronavirus test “was a bad test.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Just after midnight Eastern time on October 2 2020, news broke that United States President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for novel coronavirus; a screenshot of a September 18 2020 tweet began circulating shortly thereafter:Attributed to user @JohnCammo, it read:Trump’s October surprise will be the announcement of “his infection.” Fake, but quite dramatic. This twist will blow Biden off the screens, the “Trump COVID watch” dominating every minute of every day. Then, 14 days later, Trump will emerge, 100% cured by hydroxychloroquine.Typically, the screenshots were not linked to an actual tweet. On occasion and as seen above, the date and timestamp of the tweet were circled.‘October Surprise’: A Brief HistoryMost Americans are familiar with the concept of an “October Surprise.” In American political parlance, the term is defined as follows:In American political jargon, an October surprise is a news event deliberately created or timed to influence the outcome of an election, particularly one for the U.S. presidency, or sometimes an event occurring spontaneously that has the same effect. Because the date for national elections (as well as many state and local elections) is in early November, events that take place in October have greater potential to influence the decisions of prospective voters. Thus these relatively last-minute news stories could either completely change the entire course of an election or strongly reinforce the inevitable.The term “October surprise” was coined by William Casey when he served as campaign manager of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign. [2] However, there were October election-upending events that predated the coining of the term.Twitter Predictions in General, and Finding @JohnCammo’s TweetA brief scan of @JohnCammo’s timeline didn’t immediately lead to the tweet seen in the screenshots, and it’s not uncommon for Twitter “predictions” to go viral, regardless of how true (or how real) they might actually be.Twitter’s unique features exclude the ability to alter the content of a tweet directly, although on occasion seemingly impressive predictions are created through the tweeting and deleting of multiple prognostications, and then quietly deleting the incorrect ones.On other occasions, they’re just strong inferences or off-the-cuff quips that end up suffused with meaning by later events. The former occurred after Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash:Did a Twitter Post Predict Kobe Bryant’s Death in a Helicopter Crash in 2012?An example of the latter transpired when FARK’s Drew Curtis seemed to predict an eventful 2020 — several years prior:Did FARK’s Drew Curtis ‘Predict’ a Difficult 2020 — in 2015?The original tweet from the @JohnCammo account was not easy to find after it generated significant interest on October 2 2020. But one user helpfully retweeted it:Here’s @JohnCammo’s original October surprise prediction from 9/18 for those who want to see the original and don’t have time to scroll through his millions of replies to find it. https://t.co/Z9XtLoQwYC— ParmesanPopcorn (@ParmesanPopcorn) October 2, 2020The tweet was real, and it was accurately described:Trump’s October surprise will be the announcement of “his infection.”  Fake, but quite dramatic. This twist will blow Biden off the screens, the “Trump COVID watch” dominating every minute of every day. Then, 14 days later, Trump will emerge, 100% cured by hydroxychloroquine.— JohnCammo (@JohnCammo) September 18, 2020It was difficult to find in part because it was not a standalone tweet, but a reply to the following tweet:Can't see everyone, obviously. But watching the video of the Wisconsin event it looks like virtually no one is wearing a mask and it's being held in a county that is in the midst of a major outbreak. Awesome.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 18, 2020Of note is that @JohnCammo did not just predict Trump’s infection, but ensuing events that have yet to take place as of October 2 2020, and which remain to be seen.TL;DRTwitter account @JohnCammo’s “October surprise” tweet about Donald Trump’s COVID-19 infection was real, and was indeed shared on September 18 2020. The tweet appeared two weeks before news of Trump’s positive test result broke late on the evening of October 1 2020, or early in the morning on October 2 2020 on the East Coast.Comments Claim: On September 18 2020, Twitter user @JohnCammo tweeted that President Trump's \"October Surprise\" would involve a positive test result.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Across the country and around the world, pundits are saying Gov. Bob McDonnell performed a career-defining flip-flop Wednesday by urging fellow Republicans in the General Assembly to ease legislation mandating ultrasounds before an abortion. The Guardian in London called it a \"U-Turn;\" Al Sharpton on \"PoliticsNation\" called it a \"huge turn-around;\" Slate called it a \"backtrack.\" Politico wrote: \"The conservative blogosphere collectively bemoaned Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s decision to withdraw his support for legislation requiring invasive ultrasounds to be performed before abortions.\" The narrative, in many of the stories, is that McDonnell’s action will harm his chances to become the vice-presidential candidate on the Republican national ticket this year. So we wheeled out our Flip-O-Meter to see if McDonnell really did change his position in the ultrasound controversy. On the morning of Jan. 31, during an interview on WTOP radio, McDonnell announced his support of legislation requiring physicians, before an performing an abortion, to conduct an ultrasound and present the image of the fetus to the mother. Here’s an excerpt from his talk with broadcaster Mark Segraves:  Segraves: \"But what do you support – the idea of having a woman have to take a sonogram before getting an abortion? Is that something you would support?\" McDonnell: \"An ultrasound – yes, I actually was the original sponsor of that bill about 10 years ago, to give a woman the right to know all the information before she makes the choice.\" Segraves: \"Well, giving her the right to know and mandating a procedure are two completely different things.\" McDonnell: \"Yeah, but I think it gives full information – an ultrasound is used – it’s modern technology, the costs have been driven down, to be able to have that  information before making, what most people say is a very important, serious, life-changing decision, I think, is appropriate.\" McDonnell didn’t get into the types of ultrasounds or the details of the bill. And the legislation did not specify any type of sonogram that must be performed. Several hours later, debate on the Senate floor cast the bill in a new light. Several Democrats,  for the first time, argued that the common \"jelly on the belly\" abdominal sonogram -- in which a wand is rubbed over a woman’s stomach -- may not be sensitive enough to render the image of a fetus in the first months of pregnancy. In such cases, they said, the abortion law would require physicians to conduct invasive transvaginal ultrasounds -- even against a mother’s will -- to get an image. The first news account disclosing that the bill would require transvaginal ultrasounds ran on Feb. 3. After that, the story went viral. The bill, which critics called \"state-sanctioned rape,\" earned the ridicule from Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live. More than 1,000 people protested at the state Capitol on Feb. 21. Then, on Feb. 22, McDonnell urged the Republican-controlled General Assembly to amend the bill so that no woman would be required to have a transvaginal ultrasound. In a written statement, the governor said he had been initially unaware that the legislation would require the invasive procedure. \"I have come to understand that the medical practice and standard of care currently guide physicians to use other procedures to find the gestational age of the child, when abdominal ultrasounds cannot do so,\" McDonnell wrote. The House amended the bill as the governor requested. The measure is pending in the Senate. So, is there any evidence McDonnell reversed himself on mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds before an abortion? The answer is no. The governor, on Jan. 31, endorsed the general concept of mandating ultrasounds before abortions. Hours later, several senate Democrats revealed the legislation would require some use of transvaginal ultrasounds, even against a woman’s will. There is no record that McDonnell ever endorsed or defended mandatory use of the invasive procedure. Did McDonnell alter his long-held support for requiring women to undergo a non-invasive, external ultrasound before an abortion? The answer, again, is no. He still backs that. Despite all the uproar, we cannot find any change in McDonnell’s stance. Claim: On mandatory ultrasounds before abortions.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Senators sent the measure to the Assembly as the nation struggles to stem the highest number of measles cases in decades and as state efforts to strengthen vaccine requirements draw emotional opposition. The California proposal would give state public health officials instead of local doctors the authority to decide which children can skip their shots before attending school. Democratic Sen. Richard Pan of Sacramento said his proposal is needed because some “unscrupulous physicians” have been selling medical immunization exemptions since California ended non-medical exemptions in 2016. Under the plan, doctors would have to certify that they examined the patient and then send the state health department the reason they are recommending the exemption. State and county health officials also could revoke exemptions if they are found to be fraudulent or don’t meet federal immunization standards. “This is about keeping our community safe,” Pan said. He said exemptions would still be allowed for the less than 1 percent of students who should avoid vaccinations because they have a severe allergic reaction or impaired immunity from a liver problem, the HIV virus, chemotherapy or other conditions. But those with legitimate concerns would then be safer in school because the vast majority of their fellow students would be vaccinated, Pan said. “It’s scary to me that this state is becoming a police state,” Victoria Kennicutt of Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, said after watching the debate with other opponents. “It’s an issue that should be between the parents and the doctor, not involving the government.” She said her daughter, Charlotte, broke out in hives after her shots at 6 months and 1 year, developing a high fever that lasted a week and regressing in her speech. She worries that her now-2-year-old daughter’s medical exemption will be voided if the measure becomes law and said she will move out of state rather than comply. The measure passed on a party-line 24-10 vote, with no Republican support. Four Democratic lawmakers did not vote, with two Democratic senators saying it goes too far or reneges on lawmakers’ earlier promise not to infringe on medical exemptions. Several Republican lawmakers said they agree the state should crack down on doctors who sell medical exemptions but that they should be sanctioned by the state medical board through the normal disciplinary process. “Why isn’t the medical board dealing with these bad actors?” Sen. Jeff Stone said. The Republican from Temecula called Pan’s bill “a dangerous intrusion, not only into the doctor-patient relationship but also the personal liberties of the parents and their children.” Pan said the medical board has been frustrated in its efforts. “These families are not cooperating because they’re in cahoots with the physician,” Pan said. “They are truly unable to go after these physicians who are acting unprofessionally.” ___ Associated Press journalist Adam Beam contributed to this story. Claim: Tougher vaccine rules move forward in California.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since January, PolitiFact has fact-checked more than 100 claims about COVID-19. Some of the falsehoods, such as conspiracy theories about the virus’ spread, are quite elaborate. A more recent Facebook post is not one of those claims. In a March 19 post, a Facebook user said the coronavirus doesn’t actually exist. \"There is no virus,\" the user wrote in all capital letters. \"The government is trying to enforce martial law and place a chip inside of us as a ‘vaccine.’\" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It had more than 8,000 shares as of March 19. (Screenshot from Facebook) The post is bogus — it’s similar to a conspiracy theory that falsely claims the media and politicians have fabricated the threat of COVID-19. There is ample evidence that the coronavirus is real and infecting hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Scientists have traced the first confirmed case of COVID-19 to Hubei Province, China, in November. Several news outlets covered the subsequent outbreak in the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. From there, the coronavirus spread to more than 100 countries around the world. As of March 19, more than 191,000 people had been infected and 7,807 had been killed by the virus, according to the World Health Organization. Footage from a variety of news outlets has documented the spread of COVID-19. Scientists have isolated the genetic data and approximate origin of the virus, as well as how different groups of people are affected. They’ve also released microscopic images of coronavirus virions. All three have their origins in bats and cause symptoms like cough, shortness of breath and fever. COVID-19 is a \"novel,\" or new, coronavirus, meaning it had not been previously identified. The WHO has declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic and global health emergency. On the advice of health officials, several countries — including France, Italy and Spain — have ordered nationwide lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus. Coronavirus prevention measures have caused the plunge of global financial markets, as well as layoffs across the country. To claim that the virus at the center of the pandemic does not exist, as the Facebook post does, is inaccurate and ridiculous. Claim: Facebook post Says \"there is no\" COVID-19 virus.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., weighs a potential presidential bid in 2016, a long list of politicians are considering whether to run for his Senate seat. That includes U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, according to a Politico report on Feb. 17. (She’s not a lock on the Democratic side. A Tampa Bay Times Florida Insider Poll suggests U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy of Palm Beach County and newly elected U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham of Leon County could also be strong contenders.) One group was quick to attack Wasserman Schultz’s potential candidacy: The pro-pot lobby. Last year, she opposed Florida’s medical marijuana ballot initiative, which received almost 58 percent support, two points shy of passage. She also voted against a congressional amendment supported by advocates for medical marijuana. \"She’s voted repeatedly to send terminally ill patients to prison. And we’re certainly going to make sure Floridians know that — not to mince words,\" Bill Piper, national affairs director with the Drug Policy Alliance, told Politico. Did Wasserman Schultz repeatedly take votes to send dying patients to prison? Politico reported in a follow-up article that Wasserman Schultz offered to change her opposition if Orlando lawyer John Morgan, the force behind the Florida ballot initiative, stopped bashing her, which she denied in an interview with the Sun Sentinel. Morgan hopes to get a revised version on the ballot in 2016. Wasserman Schultz’s marijuana voting record The Drug Policy Alliance pointed to several of Wasserman Schultz’s votes, including on a congressional amendment that banned the use of federal money to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. The goal of the amendment, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., was to prevent federal agents from raiding retail operations in states where medical pot is legal. (We looked at a similar claim by another pro-pot group about her vote in 2014.) Wasserman Schultz, one of 17 Democrats in the House to vote against the amendment on May 30, 2014, said she didn’t want to \"limit the executive branch’s ability to enforce current federal law at their discretion.\" The language was attached to another bill and signed into law in December. (She voted against similar failed amendments four times between 2005 and 2012.) Her vote on those amendments \"was very much focused on patients, and the fear of arrest they and their caregivers live under,\" Piper told PolitiFact Florida. He also argued that the Florida ballot measure -- which Wasserman Schultz opposed -- would have protected patients using medical marijuana. Last year, she said the Florida ballot initiative was \"written too broadly and stops short of ensuring strong regulatory oversight from state officials.\" Piper also pointed to Wasserman Schultz’s \"no\" vote on an April 2014 congressional amendment on a spending bill for Veterans Affairs. The amendment, which failed, would have allowed VA doctors to talk to their patients about medical marijuana in states in which it is legal. But it’s a stretch to say that her \"no\" vote means she wants dying patients to go to prison. Wasserman Schultz spokesman Sean Bartlett told the Washington Post at the time that she felt it was premature to vote on the amendment. She wanted to wait for the results of a study approved by the federal government to look at marijuana’s potential effects on post-traumatic stress disorder. Do feds put terminally ill patients in prison? Do these votes mean she repeatedly voted to send terminally ill patients to prison? That’s a stretch. Even before her 2014 congressional votes, there were reasons that users were not a priority for the feds. In 2013, U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued a memorandum to federal attorneys telling them to focus on cartels or other criminal organizations. Beyond that, the Justice Department said it was content to allow state and local agencies \"to address marijuana activity through enforcement of their own narcotics laws.\" The pro-pot lobby has pointed to cases of growers prosecuted for serving ill patients, including transplant recipient Jerry Duval, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Duval was a state-registered caregiver but prosecutors argued he peddled pot to non-patients. One high-profile case remains pending -- initially dubbed Kettle Falls 5, named for defendants in eastern Washington. Prosecutors say the five defendants were conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana, and they were also charged with possessing firearms. One defendant, Larry Harvey, told USA Today that the pot he grew was for personal medical use. On Feb. 18, the Justice Department dropped the charges against Harvey, 71, who was recently diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer. However, the charges remain for his wife, two other relatives and a family friend. Law professors we interviewed told us that the federal government hasn’t focused on individuals who simply use marijuana for their own medical needs, and that was true even before the congressional amendment passed. \"The feds don't send people to prison for using marijuana,\" Vanderbilt law Professor Robert Mikos told PolitiFact Florida. \"They do deny some benefits to users (like access to some VA services). And the law authorizes prison for users. But the law is not enforced so rigidly.\" George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, an adjunct scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that the amendment passed last year \"may well constrain federal prosecution of medical marijuana suppliers in states where their activities are legal.\" However, he added, the fact that the Kettle Falls case is still going forward shows such prosecutions still can happen. Our ruling Wasserman Schultz \"voted repeatedly to send terminally ill patients to prison,\" Piper said. She voted against amendments to ban the federal government from interfering with state medical marijuana laws. In theory, advocates believe that the amendment -- which passed late in 2014 after multiple attempts -- prevents the feds from going after sick marijuana users in states that allow medical marijuana. However, even before the amendment passed, dying patients who simply smoked joints that they obtained legally were not being hauled off to prison en masse by federal agents. Instead, the federal government focused on major suppliers or distributors. Saying Wasserman Schultz voted to send people to prison significantly exaggerates the issue. The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Claim: Drug Policy Alliance Says Debbie Wasserman Schultz \"voted repeatedly to send terminally ill patients to prison.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An undated police mugshot photo shows Jean-Claude Mas, the founder of the French Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) company, displayed on the \"red notice\" posted by Interpol on its website. REUTERS/Interpol In the first arrests since the two-year-old scandal made headlines worldwide in December, Mas and a second executive at his now defunct company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) were seized at their homes in southern France shortly after dawn. The detention could lead within hours to Mas being placed under formal investigation on suspicion of manslaughter and causing bodily harm. That could in due course lead to criminal charges, which would carry longer sentences than those he now faces in a fraud case expected to be tried around October. Women who have been campaigning against PIP since French authorities banned its products nearly two years ago welcomed the move as giving them a sense that the law was now in action:   “It’s been too long,” said Murielle Ajellio, who heads an association for women with implants. Up to now, she said: “You feel like you’re fighting against the wind.”   French authorities have been criticized for being slow to react to a case that has sown fear among tens of thousands of women who carry PIP implants. French inspectors ordered them off the market in March 2010, due to concerns over their quality. But only last month did officials in Paris recommend their surgical removal, drawing attention to the problem for patients worldwide who had been fitted with products from the company, which was at one time the third biggest global supplier. Lawyers for women in France who have filed complaints over PIP implants welcomed the arrests and said there must be no escaping justice for the 72-year-old Mas, who has been quoted as deriding those suing him as being motivated only by money. “This is a comfort for the victims,” said Laurent Gaudon, whose clients are pursuing PIP and surgeons who used its implants for fraud. “It’s the feeling that justice is advancing and they have not been forgotten. It’s the assurance that the guilty are at last going to be held accountable.”   Philippe Courtois, who represents 1,300 people with PIP implants, said Mas should not be freed pending any trial. Mas and PIP’s former chief executive Claude Couty were questioned at home, as police conducted searches. They were then moved to police custody in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, under the orders of prosecutor Jacques Dallest. PIP enjoyed years of success with international sales, but behind the scenes employees, and Mas himself, have admitted to hiding from certification agencies the fact they were using cheap, industrial silicone, not approved for medical use. Health authorities in France and elsewhere have stressed that PIP’s products carry no proven link to cancer, but surgeons report that they have abnormally high rupture rates. Responses to the problem have varied among different foreign authorities. Thursday’s arrests follow an investigation opened in Marseille, close to PIP’s former premises, on December 8 after the death from cancer in 2010 of a woman with PIP implants. Mas and Couty can be held for up to 48 hours while a judge decides whether to open a formal probe and, if so, what bail conditions, if any, to set. A trial date could be years away, given the extent of inquiry required, but the graver manslaughter case could make it harder for Mas to avoid appearing in court later this year on other charges of fraud and deception. That latter case targets half a dozen former PIP executives and could also carry prison terms for them of several years. It has dragged on as investigators have had to quiz up to 2,700 women who have filed complaints over PIP implants. Mas, who sold some 300,000 implants around the world, has acknowledged that he used unapproved silicone but dismissed fears that it constituted a health risk. Earlier in January, leaks from a police document showed Mas admitting to lying about the quality of PIP’s implants and describing the women filing complaints against him as just seeking money. The comments sparked public anger against him. PIP closed down in March 2010 after regulators discovered it was using a non-approved, industrial silicone gel, and pulled its implants off the market. Last month, the French government advised women with PIP implants to have them removed, and said it would pay for the operations in France, sparking alarm around the world. Officials in several other countries, including Britain and Brazil, have asked women to visit their doctors for checks. France has called for tighter European Union regulations on medical devices in wake of the PIP affair, saying suppliers of prosthetics should require the same sort of authorization as manufacturers of prescription medicines. Claim: French breast implant boss arrested.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As it usually does, the Healthy Skeptic column itemized costs of the products in question. See “evidence” criterion above The story explained: “Over-the-counter testosterone products may carry hidden dangers. A 2008 study in Clinical Cancer Research found that two men taking a supplement called Teston-6 developed unusually aggressive, fast-growing prostate cancer. Lab tests showed that the product contained hormones (including testosterone) that weren’t on the label, a common issue with noNPRescription products. The manufacturer quickly pulled it from the market. “The problem with these sorts of supplements is that they don’t have to meet the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration,” says Dolores Lamb, a coauthor of the Teston-6 study and professor of urology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.” Claim: The Healthy Skeptic: Products make testosterone claims",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Democrat-Herald reported Thursday that Linn County Health Officer Dr. William Muth said the student attends Green Acres Elementary School. Muth said that the Public Health Department is working with school officials to identify students and staff who had close contact with the student Jan. 9-12. Muth sent a letter to parents saying meningococcal disease is not highly contagious, but close contacts should get antibiotics to prevent disease. The disease is caused by a bacterium that lives in the noses and throat. It causes serious disease only if it enters the blood stream and spreads throughout the body. The disease can be deadly and kills about 10 of every 100 persons infected. ___ Information from: Albany Democrat-Herald, http://www.dhonline.com Claim: Oregon 2nd-grader diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs are not applicable as there is no diagnostic test developed yet. Quantified benefits do not apply, as this study was not a clinical trial. Quantified harms are not directly applicable to this type of research. Note, however, that there is a harm of assigning a label of \"pre RA\" to a perfectly healthy person with a positive blood test of unknown significance. There are always potential harms of screening; as in this story, though, they are often ignored. Claim: Blood Test May Predict Rheumatoid Arthritis",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No cost information, whatsoever. This rating is borderline as the article noted: “They said for women using the drug, the number of additional ‘satisfying sexual events’ averaged out to about 0.5 per month.”  What would give this increased meaning is what the baseline was. If the baseline is zero or 0.5, maybe increasing that by half a satisfying sexual encounter might be meaningful. If the baseline is 10, does half an additional encounter make any difference? Later in the article we learn that “10% more patients” had meaningful sexual encounters, but what exactly does that mean? “10%” of what? The article tips decisively into Not Satisfactory territory with its unbalanced focus on unrepresentative anecdotes depicting women who had “life-changing” improvements. We learn the drugs have side effects but nothing about the fainting, falls and somnolence that are known side effects of the drug. The patient with the testimonial is quoted saying: “I should be able to choose whether the side effects are worth the benefit.” We agree. But we also agree that anyone reading this article should get a sense of what those side effects are likely to be and how often they occur. A systematic review is the highest form of evidence and it’s at the peak of the evidence pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid is anecdote and opinion. And yet the story puts these two pieces of evidence on an equal footing and seems to give them equal weight. People who criticize systematic reviews and ‘tear them apart’  have to indicate why the review is faulty. Instead we get a conflicted clinician with known ties to an organization dependent on pharmaceutical money and pharmaceutical companies promoting drugs for female sexual problems saying that the study had “erroneous conclusions.” And the main reason given is that the review included unpublished studies — when withholding those studies from the review would have introduced a clear bias. This is completely unacceptable. If the studies are erroneous, we need to hear a plausible explanation as to why — preferably from someone who’s not conflicted by relationships with drug manufacturers. There are many who would say that HSDD is a construction by the pharmaceutical industry keen to capitalize off women’s sexual health. Whether you agree with that perspective or not, if you are writing about a controversial condition, you must include some coverage of that controversy, otherwise you are at risk of further medicalizing and hyping a condition that maybe doesn’t, in most cases, warrant a medical treatment approach. It was unfortunate not to have included the many and direct ties between those attacking the review (such as the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, which is supported by pharmaceutical manufacturers) and one of their board members, Dr. Lauren Streicher, who has declared ties to Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Shionogi & Co., Ltd. We know that patient testimony at the flibanserin hearings at the FDA was supported by Sprout, the maker of flibanserin, which gave financial support to those attending the hearings. But it is unclear if the patient mentioned in this story received such support. The ‘alternative’ in the clinical studies was, presumably, a placebo, yet as some commentators have noted, the drug has never been tested against a more holistic approach that acknowledges the complexity of female sexuality and which address physical, psychological, and social factors. The story notes that the drug has been on the market since October, 2015. This is definitely a novelty and the article reflects that accurately. Other than Dr. Lauren Streicher and the patient Jodi Cole who seem to keep appearing and reappearing in other stories on this study, there is no evidence of being overly-reliant on a press release. Claim: 'Female Viagra' gets mixed reviews",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In France and Germany, senior officials said the United States was paying far above the market price for medical-grade masks from No. 1 producer China, on occasion winning contracts through higher bids even after European buyers believed a deal was done, and Brazil’s health minister reported a similar incident. “Money is irrelevant. They pay any price because they are desperate,” one high-level official in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling CDU/CSU group told Reuters. A German government source said: “Americans are on the move, carrying a lot of money.”  Since the virus was first recorded in China late last year, the pandemic has spread around the world. Governments in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere are desperately trying to build up supplies for medics, nursing home staff and the public. Now, with global cases surpassing one million and the outbreak exploding in the United States, the competition for precious stocks is intensifying further. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the U.S. government is now recommending Americans wear cloth face coverings on a voluntary basis to stem the spread of the virus, but the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend wearing medical-grade masks. He also said he was signing a directive to stop the export of N95 respirator masks, which provide essential protection for healthcare workers, and other U.S. medical equipment. U.S.-listed multinational 3M Co (MMM.N) said Friday that the White House had ordered it to stop all shipments to Canada and Latin America of respirators that it manufactures in the United States, despite what 3M called “significant humanitarian implications.”      Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the blocking the flow of equipment across the border would be a “mistake” that could backfire, noting that the country’s healthcare professionals go to work in Detroit every day. In another case, an order of 200,000 masks bound for Germany from a 3M factory in China were “confiscated” in Bangkok, Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel, said in a statement, calling it an “act of modern piracy.”   “Even in times of global crisis you shouldn’t use Wild West methods,” he said. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters this week that U.S. companies and the government have been paying above market price for much of the gear purchased overseas. The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, said the United States would not stop buying “until we have way too much” and could still be searching out protective gear abroad through August. “We’ve gotten our hands on every bit of it that we can,” the official said. Lea Crager, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency coordinating the search for medical supplies abroad, said disasters often lead to price increases for certain goods. “If it causes some sort of a supply chain disruption, you’re going to see costs rise for an essential commodity,” Crager said. “It just happens.”  In Brazil, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said this week that China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the U.S. government sent more than 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products. “Our purchases, which we expected to complete in order to be able to supply, many were dropped,” said the minister in an interview on Wednesday. On Thursday, Mandetta said Brazil had finally succeeded in placing a 1.2 billion reais ($228 million) order for equipment, although it will only be delivered in 30 days. A second German source employed by a company now helping Merkel’s government to order masks said the last weekend of March had been a turning point, and drew a link with the United States’ increased presence in the market. Contracts no longer guaranteed delivery, the source said, adding: “Demand is much, much bigger than supply.”     In France, three regional leaders painted a similar picture. Jean Rottner said it was a constant fight to ensure mask orders arrived in his Grand Est region, where the outbreak first took hold before spreading west towards Paris. He said consignments were changing hands at the last minute. “On the (airport) tarmac, the Americans get out their cash and pay three or four times what we have offered,” Rottner told radio RTL France on Wednesday. Rottner’s counterpart in the greater Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, said she had been beaten to an order by a country with deep pockets, although she did not name the United States. “We found supplies a few days ago but failed to buy them after others outbid us,” Pecresse told Franceinfo radio on Friday. “They were prepared to pay three times the market price.”   The French Foreign Ministry said it was verifying the reports. But one official doubted that action would be taken. “It boils down to market forces,” the official said. “The one who pays the most gets the prize.” Claim: U.S. coronavirus supply spree sparks outrage among allies.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Heart-warming stories about businesses stepping up to help people struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic have flooded the internet. Unfortunately not all of them are true. This Facebook post, for example, claims that families can receive free baby formula during the pandemic. It reads: \"If any parents have run out of formula or are running low - call the number on the back of your canister and explain to them the virus has affected your abilities to find any formula - they will send you a case free of charge! I know, enfamil and goodstart do this! Saw a few mommies posts & figured it could be worth a try!\" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) This isn’t a legitimate offer. Several formula producers have released statements addressing the rumor, including the ones mentioned in the text. Infant formula brand Enfamil tweeted about the rumor and released a statement saying it’s false: \"Please also note that contrary to rumors in some online social networks, we are not distributing free cases of formula. We are instead focused on ensuring equitable availability for every baby based on what we know and in anticipation of what might develop in the coming weeks. Gerber, a worldwide producer of baby food and infant formula, did the same on its website: \"We are aware of rumors claiming that Gerber is giving away free formula in response to the out of stocks. While this is not true, we are committed to our goal of supporting babies and families with dependable, affordable nutrition, and you can find information about discounts by visiting https://gerber.com/coupons.\" Formula brand Similac also addressed the rumor. It reads: \"While some social media posts have rumored we’re providing free cases of infant formula, this is not true. We value you as a customer and appreciate your patience as we all work together to ensure the ongoing and consistent distribution of the Similac products your baby needs. Our focus is on working closely with our local teams, retail partners, and government authorities to help safeguard the availability of infant formula products for all families and their infants.\" Aptamil, a formula brand in the United Kingdom, said on its website that the company is unable to send out free formula products due to strict regulations in the UK. \"This is not true and I’m really sorry to hear that people are spreading false rumours at such a worrying time,\" an Aptamil spokesperson told Yahoo News UK. \"The World Health Organization guidelines on the promotion of breastmilk substitutes strictly prohibit us from giving out free milk under any circumstances.\" This is a hoax. Formula companies say they aren’t shipping free formula to anyone. ! Claim: Facebook post Says businesses will give you free baby formula during the coronavirus outbreak.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: 26 June 2019 Update: The Associated Press has reported that Beth Chapman has died at age 51. Details here. In September 2017, reality TV star and wife to “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” Beth Chapman, revealed she had been diagnosed with Stage 2 throat cancer. At the time, Chapman had surgery and underwent a rocky recovery period, but by November 2017 the family announced that she was cancer free. A year later, however, her cancer returned, and the family confirmed that Chapman had undergone emergency surgery “to clear a throat blockage that was obstructing her airways.” She has been active discussing her battle with cancer on social media since then. On 7 April 2019, Duane “Dog” Chapman confirmed that his wife had again been hospitalized, this time due to a buildup of fluid in her lungs:  Several dubious websites or social media pages have created clickbait that apparently generated rumors Chapman had passed away. For example, a 7 April 2017 YouTube video from the account “StarsNews” ran with the confusing title: “Sad News Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Wife Beth Chapman May Passed Away Expected Soon …,” which has received over 1.5 million views and which, based on the comments on the page, several people took to mean that Beth Chapman had passed away. The image used as the thumbnail for that video has been shared on Twitter with the text “RIP Beth” and on other accounts. Factually speaking, however, Chapman was hospitalized and released. On 7 April 2019, a lawyer for the Chapman family told People that “Beth was hospitalized yesterday. She’s now resting at home.” Indeed, since that time she has posted updates regularly to social media. For example, on 14 April 2019, Chapman posted a picture of herself on Instagram with the statement, “Don’t forget the reason for the season”:  A post shared by Beth Chapman (@mrsdog4real) on Apr 14, 2019 at 1:02pm PDT  On 20 April 2019, another misleading item appeared on the website “everydaydevotional.com” with the headline “Beth Chapman Death 2019: Did Beth Chapman Die from Dog the Bounty Hunter?” Opening the article, the reader is presented with the bolded text “positively yes.” That answer, however, misleadingly referenced a question from the body of the text — “is Beth Chapman alive?” — and not the headline question. Similar to the StarsNews YouTube video, several commenters on the page took this to mean that she had passed away. The same day as that dubious post, though, Chapman posted to her Twitter account. Claim: Beth Chapman, wife of Duane “Dog” Chapman from the reality TV show “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” died in April 2019. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: During a recent interview with Fox News, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., raised the specter of the Internal Revenue Service -- an agency currently under fire for appearing to target conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status -- collecting a database full of \"intimate\" details about Americans. Referring to an inspector general’s report on IRS scrutiny of conservative groups, Bachmann said, \"So now we find out these people are making decisions based on our politics and beliefs, and they're going to be in charge of our health care. There's a huge national database that's being created right now. Your health care, my health care, all the Fox viewers health care, their personal, intimate, most close to the vest secrets will be in that database, and the IRS is in charge of that database? So the IRS will have the ability potentially -- will they? -- to deny health care, to deny access, to delay health care? This is serious! Based upon our political beliefs? That's why we have to repeal Obamacare. And I still think it's possible.\" We’ve already rated two of her claims from this exchange, which came during a May 15, 2013, interview on the Fox News show On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. We gave Bachmann a False for saying that the IRS is \"going to be in charge of our health care,\" and we gave her a rating for her claim that \"The IRS will have the ability potentially\" to deny or delay health care. In this item, we’ll focus on whether it’s correct to say that the IRS is going to be in charge of \"a huge national database\" on health care that will include Americans’ \"personal, intimate, most close-to-the-vest-secrets.\" After the interview with Van Susteren aired, Dan Kotman, a spokesman for Bachmann, told PolitiFact that she stands by her charge. As evidence, he cited a passage from a Wall Street Journal editorial published one day before her television appearance. The editorial described a Federal Data Services hub that is taking \"the IRS's own records (for income and employment status) and centralizing them with information from Social Security (identity), Homeland Security (citizenship), Justice (criminal history), HHS (enrollment in entitlement programs and certain medical claims data) and state governments (residency). The data hub will be used as the verification system for ObamaCare's complex subsidy formula. ... \"Good luck in advance to anyone who gets caught in this system's gears, assuming it even works. Centralizing so much personal information in one place is another invitation for the IRS wigglers in some regional office—or maybe higher up—to make political decisions about enforcement.\" We see four key questions for fact-checking Bachmann’s claim. First, is the government constructing a database? Second, will the IRS be \"in charge\" of it? Third, would it include \"personal\" or \"intimate\" details? And fourth, would it affect all, or most, Americans? We’ll take these issues in order. Is the government constructing a database? Not by the traditional definition of \"database.\" The \"hub\" the government is creating is a mechanism for extracting data from a variety of databases that exist at other agencies. The hub doesn’t collect, centralize and store data; it is designed to allow real-time access to data that resides on the servers of other agencies in order to verify transactions related to the health insurance exchanges created under Obama’s law. In an April 22, 2013, release, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a part of HHS, said that it has completed the hub’s technical design and is in the midst of testing it. \"The hub will not store consumer information, but will securely transmit data between state and federal systems to verify consumer application information,\" the center said in the statement. HHS pledges \"strict privacy controls to safeguard personal information,\" added Brian Cook, a spokesman for the department. \"This is not a huge national database of health records,\" said Deven McGraw, director of the health privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, which advocates for Internet freedom. Will the IRS be \"in charge\" of the hub? No. It’s being built by HHS, specifically by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. To ensure compatibility, the IRS needs to cooperate with HHS on the effort, but the IRS has only a supporting role in building the system, and the IRS will not be able to use the hub to view information in the other agencies’ databases. Will the hub include \"personal\" or \"intimate\" details? The hub is not designed to access, much less store, information like body mass index, or whether you have a serious illness or ingrown toenails. The hub will be able to tell if someone has insurance or not, but it will not access records about their health. It could access other \"personal\" details beyond health status, including adjusted gross income and Social Security numbers, but those already exist in federal databases, so the hub wouldn’t represent an expansion of federal data collection. Would the hub affect all, or most Americans? No. The data won’t be accessed by the hub unless an individual logs on to the new insurance exchanges in order to purchase insurance. An estimated 28.6 million Americans might be eligible for health insurance subsidies on the exchange in 2014, though the Congressional Budget Office has suggested that many fewer Americans will actually sign up, at least at first -- 6 million in 2014 and 22 million in 2017. So the numbers of Americans who might eventually interact with the hub aren’t trivial -- but it’s important to note that even if everyone who’s eligible takes the opportunity to use the exchanges, they would represent a small fraction of all Americans. People who have employer-provided insurance or are on Medicare, Medicaid, veterans health care or most other forms of government-provided insurance should have no need to interact with the hub at all. Our ruling Bachmann said the IRS is going to be \"in charge\" of \"a huge national database\" on health care that will include Americans’ \"personal, intimate, most close-to-the-vest-secrets.\" The congresswoman chooses to believe that the IRS and the rest of the government intend to delve ever-further into Americans’ personal lives. We can’t predict what will happen in the future, but as best we can tell now, she has mischaracterized the intent and limitations of the hub. It’s not a \"database.\" The IRS isn’t running it. It won’t include \"intimate\" health data. And most Americans won’t need to interact with it at all. Claim: The IRS is going to be \"in charge\" of \"a huge national database\" on health care that will include Americans’ \"personal, intimate, most close-to-the-vest-secrets.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A quote from the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator about its response to the COVID-19 pandemic has begun circulating online among social media users criticizing it for its implications regarding for-profit healthcare.The quote has been used for a graphic showing Dr. Deborah Birx alongside United States President Donald Trump, with the caption stating:During a COVID-19 press conference, Dr. Birx let it slip that the lack of testing is because it wasn’t profitable enough for private labs:“It takes a tech full-time. At $50 a test, it wasn’t enough to hire another tech to run the machine full-time. At $100 a test it is.”Birx’s remarks were taken from an April 16 2020 press conference she gave alongside Trump. She was responding to a question regarding the lack of available testing for states that might not meet “phase one” of the Trump administration’s alleged criteria for resuming business practices amid the outbreak.According to the White House transcript of the press conference, the reporter asked “Truthfully, for those states that aren’t ready to go to phase one to get through these phases, do we have an idea of how many millions, tens of millions of tests they’re going to need for them to get through these phases? Any number out there? Of tests of any sort?”Birx responded:You’ve heard me talk about tests for a while from the podium, and I think what has happened over the last several weeks is hospitals and clinics that could move to the more point-of-care tests move to those point-of-care tests. And what it’s left is an amazing array of capacity that exists in the country for at least a million more tests per week.So we have a whole team working lab by lab to see what it would take to turn on all of those labs that aren’t running the pieces of equipment now. So you see in the system — I just said to you there’s a million more tests per week — that we have tests sitting there and equipment sitting there. And now we have to really deal with each single lab to really figure out what they need.And I just want to thank Administrator Verma — Seema Verma — who went through with us, and thanks to the lab directors, they really explained to us: highly technical difficulty to run some of these big pieces of equipment. Because you have to allocate the samples, you have to centrifuge, you have to put them on the machine. It takes a tech full-time. At $50 a test, it wasn’t enough to hire another technician to run the machine full-time. So at $100 a test, it is.So those are the kinds of changes we have to make bit by bit by bit. But that alone doubles our testing capacity per week.So we’re committed to work with laboratories to answer every one of their issues with the state and local governments. And, I think, frankly, in every conversation I have — and the governors will say, “I need 5,000 people tested.” And I say, “Well, at the University of X, there are 6,700 tests waiting for you.” So it’s more of making sure that every governor and every public health official knows exactly where every lab is and where the tests are so we can create with them a real understanding so all these tests can be run.So, yes, there is twice the capacity right now.When asked whether she would be assuring state governors that they could have these tests, though, Trump stepped in to claim that the United States had “tremendous testing capacity.” The press conference was concluded shortly thereafter.Comments Claim: Dr. Deborah Birx said at a press conference concerning testing for COVID-19 that \"At $50 a test, it wasn’t enough to hire another technician to run the machine full-time. So at $100 a test, it is.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While there’s no doubt the 2016 election cycle has been one of the more unusual ones in recent history, perhaps the culmination of the parade of bizarre rumors about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is that she was killed off in 1998 and is now represented by one of her many clones. Rumors have abounded that Clinton’s health is failing, alongside the idea that she has every disease from subcortical vascular dementia to Parkinson’s. These claims were bolstered by footage of Clinton nearly collapsing while leaving a 11 September 2016 ceremony due to a pneumonia diagnosis, which also sparked a new round of death rumors. But on 15 September 2016, a blog called “Ascension with Mother Earth and Current State of Affairs” took the weirdness to a whole new extreme by seemingly mashing all the rumors about Clinton into one giant conglomeration: Fact: Hillary Clinton has been dead since 1998. Another fact: The entire Clinton Family was eliminated and cloned beneath Camp David at the same time — including Chelsea (who’s husband is her handler; Huma is Hillary’s handler) Meaning, none of the current human replicas claiming to be true Clinton’s have a soul, and none are in fact human. This is how and why they always lie in public sly no matter the social cost. They’re soulless beings, performing daily tasks based on a common agenda set forth by their dark nobility handlers. Wow, that’s a lot to digest, right? Let’s go a little further down the rabbit hole shall we. Fact: What you have been watching all of years are human replicas or laboratory grown clones. They can be grown to full maturity in less than 3 days now, and their entire memories transferred–and even stored on computers–then downloaded into replacement clones. There are half dozen Bill and Hillary’s that travel with the Clinton entourages and are on reserve 24/7/355 should the hero clone fail. Sadly, there none left for Hillary on Sunday, so a well trained body double was pressed into action first to walk out of Chelsea’s apartment post fall, then today was made to do public appearances like on Hillary’s campaign plane as well as that faux North Carolina press conference. For starters, there were no known instances of human cloning (let alone advanced cloning that could result in a fully-mature adult in three days), until 2008, when scientists successfully cloned a human embryo. To date, there are no known cloned humans to have grown past the very early stages of gestation: From a technical perspective, cloning humans and other primates is more difficult than in other mammals. One reason is that two proteins essential to cell division, known as spindle proteins, are located very close to the chromosomes in primate eggs. Consequently, removal of the egg’s nucleus to make room for the donor nucleus also removes the spindle proteins, interfering with cell division. In other mammals, such as cats, rabbits and mice, the two spindle proteins are spread throughout the egg. So, removal of the egg’s nucleus does not result in loss of spindle proteins. In addition, some dyes and the ultraviolet light used to remove the egg’s nucleus can damage the primate cell and prevent it from growing. It’s rather subjective to claim that clones wouldn’t have “souls” considering a clone would be, in effect, a distinct living organism and also the idea of a soul is more theological than scientific. The problematic distinction of who has a soul and who does not can be seen in the the late 6th Century European debate over whether or not women had souls. To additionally claim the entire Clinton family was wiped out or “eliminated” in 1998 is of course beyond the pale, as Bill Clinton was the sitting U.S. President until 2001. Hillary Clinton has held high-profile political offices, both as a New York senator and Secretary of State, since 1998 as well. The family has been continuously in the public eye and there is no sign that anything so catastrophic happened to them. Moreover the claim that “their entire memories transferred — and even stored on computers — then downloaded into replacement clones” seems to be plagiarized from science fiction. Claim: The real Hillary Clinton has been dead since 1998 and was replaced with a clone.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: State Sen. Dave Marsden says expanding Medicaid in Virginia will save lives. And he points to Massachusetts’ experience as proof. \"When Massachusetts got health care, their mortality rate went down either 2.9 or 3.9 percent -- whatever -- but it saved lives,\" Marsden, D-Fairfax, said during a June 18 radio interview. Marsden’s comments, made on the John Fredericks Show, came amid fiery partisan debate over whether to expand Medicaid eligibility to as many as 400,000 low-income and disabled Virginians. Under provisions of the Affordable Care Act, Uncle Sam would pay the entire tab through 2016 and 90 percent of added cost down the road. On June 12, the Republican-led General Assembly passed a two-year state budget designed to close Democratic routes toward expansion. We found Marsden’s comment interesting and wondered whether whether the death rate in Massachusetts really did fall by at least 2.9 percent after then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, signed a health reform bill in 2006 that expanded Medicaid and mandated individual health care coverage. Brent McKenzie, Marsden’s legislative assistant, said the statement was based on a study by  the Harvard School of Public Health that was published in May 2014 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers examined the death rates in Massachusetts counties before and after the reforms were enacted, looking at the periods from 2001-2005 and 2007-2010. They concluded that the death rate per 100,000 people aged 20 to 64 dropped dropped 3.2 percent during the years after the reforms. The data was compared to statistics of people in the same age group from 531 counties in 46 states that had not undergone coverage expansions. The researchers concluded that the decline in Massachusetts was 2.9 percent greater than the average of the U.S. counties that had not expanded coverage. \"What we found in Massachusetts after reform was a significant reduction in deaths from the kinds of illnesses where we expect health care to have the biggest impact, including infections, cancer and cardiovascular disease,\" Benjamin Sommers, an assistant professor of health policy at Harvard and a report co-author, said in a news release announcing the results. The study also found the largest death rate drops occurred in Massachusetts counties that had low insurance coverage prior to the reforms. A key advantage of the Harvard study was its size -- examining an estimated 270,000 Massachusetts adults gained insurance through the reform. Although the study found a correlation between health care coverage and lower death rates, there’s on-going debate over whether the reforms caused that result. The Harvard School of Public Health report estimated that state’s mandatory insurance laws prevented about 320 deaths a year. But researchers cautioned that they couldn’t definitively \"establish cause and effect\" between the lowered death rate and the reforms. They also noted that the results in Massachusetts \"may not generalize to other states.\" \"We find significant reduction in mortality among nonelderly adults in Massachusetts since its 2006 reform relative to a control group in counties of similar counties in states without such reforms,\" the report says. \"Although this analysis cannot demonstrate causality, the results offer suggestive evidence that the Affordable Care Act -- modeled after the Massachusetts law -- may impact not only coverage and access but also mortality.\" An article in the New York Times said health economists viewed the report as strong evidence that the Massachusetts’ health care overhaul had saved lives, but noted experts also said the study \"will not settle the long-debated question on whether being insured prolongs life.\" Some analysts quoted in The Times and in a Boston Globe article said the results add to a body of research showing health care coverage extends lives. But skeptics questioned whether the death rate drop found in the study would occur so quickly after the Massachusetts reforms took root. The Harvard report notes other studies have looked at the effect of health insurance on mortality and the results have been mixed. A 2012 report in the New England Journal of Medicine found that several states that expanded their Medicaid eligibility programs before Obamacare passed in 2010 saw \"significant decreases in mortality.\" The researchers noted, however, that they \"cannot definitively show causality.\" In contrast, a 2011 study of Medicaid expansion in Oregon did not find a link between health insurance and death rates. A 2013 follow-up study found that the state’s Medicaid expansion led to better mental health and lower financial strain among beneficiaries, but researchers did not find improvement in important physical attributes such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Our ruling Marsden said that after Massachusetts enacted its sweeping health care reform in 2006, its mortality rate dropped by at least 2.9 percent, \"saving lives.\" His statement correctly summarizes a recent study finding the state’s death rate dropped by 3.2 percent among 20-64 year-olds. The decline was 2.9 percent greater than the average of a comparison group of 531 counties across the nation. But Marsden reaches a little when he says the results proved the health reforms \"saved lives.\" Researchers believe that’s the case, but caution they could not establish a \"cause and effect\" between the lowered death rate and the health reforms. So Marsden’s statement is accurate, but needs a little clarification. Claim: After Massachusetts passed a mandatory health insurance law \"their mortality rate went down...it saved lives.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No dollar signs here, which — as we discovered — is quite an oversight, given the steep costs of adalimumab. Prednisone costs about $0.33 per mg, and chronic uveitis patients take anywhere from 10 mg to 60 mg per day. Looking at the minimum number (which patients are usually tapered to 6 months into their treatment), that’s a cost of more than $1,190 a year. In comparison, the name-brand of adalimumab, Humira, costs about $54.49 per mg. In the study, patients received adalimumab on a bi-weekly basis, receiving some 1,640 mg of the drug over 80 weeks if they didn’t drop out. That adds up to a total of $89,400 — an average of $58,000 per year or $1,120 per week. The benefits are well-represented in the release, and so is their context. By working adalimumab into the standard treatment, most of the key measurements of uveitis are held in check for nearly twice as long in a typical patient — 24 weeks instead of 13 weeks. This represents improvement — but not a cure — for a chronic disease. The harms covered in the study were glossed over in the release, in particular by this sentence: “[P]atients in the adalimumab group reported serious adverse effects, such as respiratory tract infections and allergic reactions, more frequently than those in the placebo group.” Given what was left out, we’ll mark this one unsatisfactory. What’s not mentioned is that 16% patients in the adalimumab group dropped out compared to less than 7% in the placebo group. We also learned that some of the adverse events that triggered dropout weren’t included in the release: “Adverse events leading to discontinuation of participation in the trial were more common in the adalimumab group and included choroidal neovascularization, blurred vision, reduced visual acuity, fatigue, malaise, and suicidal ideation.” Something simple that the release could have characterized about the adalimumab treatment’s harms, but didn’t: it had three times the rate of “adverse events” and twice as many serious adverse events. Including any of these numbers — and some of the harms that taking corticosterids like prednisone can cause (the best we get is “many unwanted side effects”) — would have put the harms and benefits of the adalimumab treatment into clearer context. This is perhaps the greatest strength of the release. It not only clearly explains the reasons for the drug trial and the metrics of measurement, but also the activity through which the drug might work. The report involves a randomized controlled trial, so a strong evidence level is expected, and the release did note the industry sponsorship. It’s well known that studies sponsored by industry report favorable results more frequently, which makes some sense, in that companies wouldn’t test drugs they didn’t have strong preliminary evidence for. But it’s also possible that industry sponsorship can bias the conduct and reporting of such studies to make a positive outcome more likely. We couldn’t find anything that would scare a reader. In fact, the release perhaps went a little too far to the other end of the spectrum and didn’t mention the word “blindness” once, which is a possible outcome of uveitis if left untreated. The release dedicates a whole paragraph to summarizing potential conflicts of interest, which is welcome and we hope to see this kind of transparency showing up in more releases in the future. It further directs readers to the published study’s supplementary documents for more extensive disclosure information. In the PDF of supplementary materials we learned that only two out of the 17 authors had no conflicts of interest to declare. Although the release mentions the weakness of corticosteroids in uveitis treatment, it doesn’t go far enough in explaining how steroids compare with adalimumab, even though steroids were given to the patients concurrently with adalimumab in “diminishing doses” throughout the trial. It’s worth noting, especially for comparison with adalimumab, how the long-term use of corticosteroid drugs work against uveitis symptoms by suppressing the body’s entire immune system — and, as a side effect, metabolism — not just one specific target of inflammation. Humira also suppresses the body’s immune system although through a different mechanism. The level of detail is good here, noting that the FDA recently approved adalimumab for noninfectious uveitis, how it was previously approved for other conditions, and in which types of uveitis it’s generally ok to treat. The novelty is somewhat nuanced, but explained well enough: Uveitis is a bag full of symptoms, and the damage involved can span across the entire eye. By measuring how it affected the most frequent symptoms, “the study’s results broaden the applicability of treatment for patients” and possibly help lead to longer-term solutions for uveitis. We didn’t see anything that’s cause for alarm. Claim: Humira Provides Effective, Non-Steroid Alternative for Eye Inflammation",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Back in March 2013, a Twitter user posted an image of Magic Johnson (who is HIV positive) having blood drawn alongside the worrisome claim that Johnson was “donating blood for charity,” a rumor which later evolved to indicate the blood was to be used for leukemia and lymphoma patients:   At the time the initial tweet began to circulate, the image was traced back to its original source, which proved to be a documentary titled Endgame: AIDS in Black America. The rumor died down until a fake news site rediscovered the picture and false attribution and ran with them, adding the embellishment about leukemia and lymphoma patients. That article stated:  Retired NBA star, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has decided to run a blood drive in conjunction with American Red Cross to support the National Awareness Month for Leukemia and Lymphoma. So far, Johnson has had a of 1,827 donors including himself and has saved about 438 patients so far. Many people are finding it odd and a bit terrifying that Johnson is donating his blood as well since he has been diagnosed as HIV+ since November of 1991. Since then, it has been reported that Magic’s HIV cell count remains so low that it is considered dormant. Although considered dormant, the virus still lives within Johnson. Claim: HIV-positive basketball star Earvin \"Magic\" Johnson donated blood to patients with leukemia. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story doesn’t mention how much this therapy might cost or how it might compare to the current standard treatment, hormone replacement therapy. According to the website CostHelper, hormone replacement therapy costs $10 to $85 per month for patients without insurance. The story said women who took MLE4901 — who had been experiencing at least seven hot flashes per day — “had the frequency of their hot flashes reduced by 72 percent and the severity of hot flashes decreased by 38 percent. This improvement started as early as three days after first taking the drug and relief continued for the whole month of treatment.” These are relative risk reductions. It would have been more informative to state how often women typically had hot flashes before treatment, and how often they had them afterward, using absolute numbers. Similarly, the story does not state what sort of scale was used to rate the severity of the hot flashes. Rather than describe the benefit as a 38% reduction, the story could have stated the typical severity of hot flashes on that scale before and after treatment. Also, what were the changes in the placebo group? More: Reporting the findings: Absolute vs relative risk. It also says, “Sleep and concentration improved after three days, too, which was an added bonus. The researchers noted that those improvements could have been related to the reduction in hot flashes.” The story would have been more informative had it quantified both the number of women who experienced improvements after three days — since that was the key finding — and their improvements in sleep and concentration, since that’s a benefit many women would care about. The story states that a “previous study on MLE4901 was associated with liver toxicity in a few participants, which resolved when they stopped taking it. They hope slightly modifying the drug may improve that side effect.” That harm should have been mentioned higher in the story, rather in the second-to-last paragraph. In addition, the story doesn’t say anything about what adverse effects were observed in this particular study — that information should have been included. The story does some things right, mentioning this was a “small study” involving 37 women who had at least seven hot flashes per day. The groups received either MLE4901 twice a day for 4 weeks, or a placebo pill on the same schedule. Two weeks later the groups swapped their treatments. However, it doesn’t explore whether the women in the study were representative of the “millions” the story claimed might be helped by such a drug. For example, it’s unclear how many women in menopause have at least seven hot flashes per day, which seems like a very high number. More importantly, the story is misleading when it states that “larger studies” on MLE4901 are underway. According to a news release, the “specific compound” tested in this trial “will not be taken further in trials, due to side effects that may affect liver function. However, two very similar drugs, which also block NKB but do not appear to carry these side effects have entered larger patient trials, with one such trial launched in the US last year.” It remains to be seen whether the “similar drugs” will have the same effect. The lead of the story refers to “millions of women in menopause who suffer with hot flashes.” The story later states, “About 70 percent of postmenopausal women experience vasomotor symptoms -— the familiar hot flashes — which, in some cases, last for years. However, it’s far from clear how many women might stand to benefit from this type of drug. As mentioned under Quality of Evidence, the story doesn’t make clear how many women experience the high frequency of hot flashes of those who were in this study. The story uses only quotes in a news release and contains no independent sources. Two of the authors of the study are employees of Millendo Therapeutics, which has licensed the rights to the compound. Two other authors are listed on a patent related to this method of treatment. The story does the minimum by mentioning the current standard treatment, hormone replacement therapy. It states: “The previous ‘go to’ therapy was supplemental estrogen, which proved to have side effects like blood clots or even breast cancer.” While it’s laudable to bring up estrogen replacement and its drawbacks, it also misleading to call it a “previous go to,” since it’s still the standard therapy for menopausal symptoms. Also, the story doesn’t say whether this drug has been compared to hormone replacement in terms of effectiveness. Also, the story doesn’t mention other therapies such as low-dose antidepressants and lifestyle changes that might relieve hot flashes. The story states states: “Larger studies on MLE4901 are underway in the U.S. and U.K. that will help gain an understanding of the drug’s safety and effectiveness. Like any new drug, safety and effectiveness have to be proven to the FDA before the drug can be offered in the U.S.” The story quotes a researcher who says “this new analysis confirms the beneficial effect is obtained very quickly — within just three days.” That’s backed by the conclusion of the analysis itself, which reads that the drug “rapidly relieves (hot flashes) without the need for estrogen exposure.” The story appears to be based entirely from a news release. This quote is taken directly from the news release without attribution: The potential for this drug class to really improve many of the symptoms of the menopause, such as hot [flashes], difficulty sleeping, weight gain, and poor concentration, is huge,” lead author Dr. Julia Prague of the Imperial College London. “To see the lives of our participants change so dramatically and so quickly was so exciting, and suggests great promise for the future of this new type of treatment.” Claim: Menopause 'hot flash' medicine could cut symptom by three quarters, trial shows",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In March 2018, a series of news articles sparked reports that a group of doctors in Canada were resisting and protesting against a pay increase offered to them by the provincial government in Quebec: Hundreds of Canadian doctors, medical specialists and residents, as well as medical students, have signed a petition protesting their own pay raises, instead asking that the money be reallocated to help nurses and patients in need. “We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,” reads the letter, originally posted in French, the official language in the Canadian province. It is true that hundreds of doctors signed the petition, but the group opposing the deals makes up only a small fraction of all the doctors in the province of Quebec, a piece of context not mentioned in most reports. On 25 February 2018, MQRP (which stands for Médecins Québécois pour le Régime Public, or Quebecois Doctors for the Public Plan, a group of 500 Quebecois doctors dedicated to retaining the province’s universal public health system) published an open letter explaining their opposition to pay hikes negotiated between doctors’ unions and the provincial government. These increases are all the more shocking given that our fellow nurses, clerks and other employees are suffering very difficult working conditions, while our patients live with the lack of access to needed services caused by the draconian cuts of recent years, and the centralization of power at the Ministry of Health. The only thing that seems to be immune to cuts is our pay. …We Quebecois doctors demand that the pay increases granted be cancelled and the resources of the system be better distributed for the benefit of all health workers and to ensure the system of healthcare that the people of Quebec deserve. As of 21 March, the letter had garnered 944 signatures from people describing themselves as doctors or medical students. It’s not clear whether or how MQRP is able to prevent someone who is not a registered medical professional from signing the online petition, so we can’t be sure how many of the names listed under the letter actually belong to health professionals. Even if they all do, the 944 names listed on 21 March 2018 would still make up only 4.5 percent of the total number of doctors in Quebec. (According to the Collège des Médecins du Quebec, the standards-setting professional body for doctors in Quebec, there are nearly 21,000 active, registered doctors in the province as of 1 January 2018.) Canada’s CBC News reported that the provincial government had struck two major pay deals with doctors: As part of a deal reached earlier this month, the province’s 10,000 medical specialists will see their annual salary rise from $4.7 billion to $5.4 billion in 2023, an increase of 1.4 per cent each year. According to data compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, specialists in Quebec make, on average, $403,537 a year, compared to $367,154 in Ontario. Quebec’s GPs signed an eight-year deal with the province last October that sees their pay increase by an average of 1.8 per cent per year. Claim: In February and March 2018, hundreds of Canadian doctors signed a petition asking for the cancellation of pay deals from which they would personally benefit.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The absence of cost information is unfortunate in this release. In general, the public has little experience of or understanding of the overall costs of routine, widespread screening. Sources put the cost of A1C screening at anywhere from $12 to $65. There are nearly 4 million live births in the U.S. each year, and many more pregnancies. Even if we use a $35 midpoint price, that’s $140 million just to screen for gestational diabetes. Worth it? Maybe. Particularly given that the glucose tolerance test given later in pregnancy has an average cost of $60 to $85, according to some sources. And the savings to be realized in potentially preventing gestational diabetes could be substantial. In any case, cost considerations are important in the overall scheme of health care delivery and limited health care dollars. The release quantifies the results and potential benefits by noting that each 0.1 percent increase in HbA1c levels above 5.1 percent  in early pregnancy was associated with a 22 percent higher risk for gestational diabetes. The blood test itself is virtually harmless, and overall fairly reliable, but results can be skewed by a variety of unrelated diseases and lifestyle factors, resulting in false positives and negatives. The release notes the observational nature of the data and the relatively small number of women overall in the two groups analyzed and compared. Readers don’t learn much about the population of women studied — age, race, number of pregnancies, socioeconomic status, comorbidities, etc. But given that the release makes clear more research would be needed to prove the association identified in the study, we give this a “satisfactory” rating. No mongering, but no data about frequency of the disorder, either. Although not explicit, it seems clear the research was funded by NIH. There currently is no standardized screening test for identifying gestational diabetes in the first trimester. Earlier research into the usefulness of HbA1c testing for gestational diabetes in early pregnancy have been limited to high risk groups. The release makes clear that this test is far from ready for use in clinical screening. It states: The test is not currently recommended to diagnose gestational diabetes at any point in pregnancy. The release is clear about the theoretical potential of the test to determine early risk, and eventually, the theoretical potential of lifestyle changes to modify that risk. None here. Claim: Blood test may identify gestational diabetes risk in first trimester",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers. By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile. That federal cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency. Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks. “We basically wasted two months,” Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP. As early as mid-January, U.S. officials could see that hospitals in China’s Hubei province were overwhelmed with infected patients, with many left dependent on ventilator machines to breathe. Italy soon followed, with hospitals scrambling for doctors, beds and equipment. HHS did not respond to questions about why federal officials waited to order medical supplies until stocks were running critically low. But President Donald Trump has asserted that the federal government should take a back seat to states when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. Trump and his appointees have urged state and local governments, and hospitals, to buy their own masks and breathing machines, saying requests to the dwindling national stockpile should be a last resort. “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. “It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.” Experts in emergency preparedness and response have expressed dismay at such statements, saying the federal government must take the lead in ensuring medical supplies are available and distributed where they are needed most. “States do not have the purchasing power of the federal government. They do not have the ability to run a deficit like the federal government. They do not have the logistical power of the federal government,” said Sebelius, who served as governor of Kansas before running the nation’s health care system. Because of the fractured federal response to COVID-19, state governors say they’re now bidding against federal agencies and each other for scarce supplies, driving up prices. “You now literally will have a company call you up and say, ‘Well, California just outbid you,’” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. “It’s like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator.” For nearly a month, Trump rebuffed calls from Cuomo and others to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to order companies to increase production of ventilators and personal protective equipment. He suggested the private sector was acting sufficiently on its own. More than three months after China revealed the first COVID-19 cases, Trump finally relented last week, saying he will order companies to ramp up production of critical supplies. By then, confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the United States had surged to the highest in the world. Now, the number of people infected in the U.S. has climbed to more than 312,000 and deaths have topped 8,500. Trump spent January and February playing down the threat from the new virus. He derided warnings of pandemic reaching the U.S. as a hoax perpetrated by Democrats and the media. As the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on Jan. 30, Trump assured the American people that the virus was “very well under control” and he predicted “a very good ending.” His administration was so confident that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Feb. 7 that the government had airlifted nearly 18 tons of donated respirator masks, surgical masks, gowns and other medical supplies to China. On Feb. 24, the White House sent Congress an initial $2.5 billion funding request to address the coronavirus outbreak. The next day, federal health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the virus was spreading quickly in the U.S. and predicted that disruptions to daily life could be “severe,” including school and business closures. Unfazed, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers on Feb. 27 that “the immediate risk to the American public remains low.” During those crucial early weeks when the U.S. could have been tracking the spread of the disease and containing it, hardly anyone was being tested after a series of federal blunders led to a shortage of tests and testing capacity, as AP reported last month. Without data showing how widespread the disease was, federal and state governments failed to prepare. By the middle of March, hospitals in New York, Seattle and New Orleans were reporting a surge in sick patients. Doctors and nurses took to social media to express their alarm at dwindling supplies of such basic equipment as masks and gowns. Trump accused some Democratic governors of exaggerating the need and derided those that criticized the federal response as complainers and snakes. “I want them to be appreciative,” Trump said on March 27. At the start of the crisis, an HHS spokeswoman said the Strategic National Stockpile had about 13 million N95 respirator masks, which filter out about 95% of all liquid or airborne particles and are critical to prevent health care workers from becoming infected. That’s just a small fraction of what hospitals need to protect their workers, who normally would wear a new mask for each patient, but who now are often issued only one to last for days. Trump during a White House briefing on March 26 claimed that he had inherited an “empty shelf” from the Obama administration, but added that “we’re really filling it up, and we fill it up rapidly.” Federal purchasing records, however, show the Trump administration delayed making big orders for additional supplies until the virus had taken root and was spreading. HHS first announced its intent to purchase 500 million N95 masks on March 4, with plans to distribute them over the next 18 months. The following day, Congress passed an $8.3 billion coronavirus spending bill, more than three times what the White House had originally asked for. Eight days later, on March 13, Trump declared the outbreak a national emergency. That was almost six weeks after the WHO’s action. By then, thousands of U.S. schools had closed, the National Basketball Association had put its season on temporary hiatus and there were 1,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. The government had already sent tens of thousands of masks, gloves and gowns from the stockpile to Washington state, which was hit early with a coronavirus outbreak. But state officials even then said the supplies weren’t enough. Federal contracting records show that HHS had made an initial order March 12 for $4.8 million of N95 masks from 3M, the largest U.S.-based manufacturer, which had ramped up production weeks earlier in response to the pandemic. HHS followed up with a larger $173 million order on March 21, but those contracts don’t require 3M to start making deliveries to the national stockpile until the end of April. That’s after the White House has projected the pandemic will reach its peak. On Thursday, Trump threatened in a Tweet to “hit 3M hard” through a Defense Production Act order, saying the company “will have a big price to pay!” He gave no specifics. HHS declined this past week to say how many N95 masks it has on hand. But as of March 31, the White House said more than 11.6 million had been distributed to state and local governments from the national stockpile — about 90% of what was available at the start of the year. Dr. Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, testified before Congress last month that the country would need roughly 3.5 billion N-95 respirators to get through the pandemic, but the national supply chain then had just about 1% of that amount. Greg Burel, director of the Strategic National Stockpile from 2007 until his retirement at the start of this year, said the cache was only ever intended to serve as a short-term “bridge-stock.” The stockpile was created in 1999 to prevent supply-chain disruptions for the predicted Y2K computer problems. It expanded after 9/11 to prepare for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. Congress provided money in 2006 to prepare for a potential influenza pandemic, though Burel said much of that stock was used during the H1N1 flu outbreak three years later. “There’s never enough money to buy everything that we want to see on those shelves,” said Burel, who stressed the stockpile uses its annual funding to prepare for a wide array of potential threats. “Most of the time, commercially available products like masks can be bought in quantity at the time of an event.” This time, it hasn’t worked out that way. As AP reported last month, much of the world’s supply of N95 masks and other basic medical supplies is made in China, the first nation hit by COVID-19. As a result, the Chinese government required its producers to reserve N95 respirators for domestic use. China resumed exports of the precious masks only in recent days. Experts are now worried the U.S. will also soon exhaust its supply of ventilators, which can cost upward of $12,000 each. The White House said Tuesday that it had already distributed nearly half the breathing machines in the stockpile, which at the beginning of March had 16,660; some of them dated back to the flurry of post-9/11 purchasing. An additional 2,425 were out for maintenance. Cuomo said New York may need as many as 40,000 ventilators to deal with the outbreak that is already overwhelming hospitals there. Throughout March, governors and mayors of big cities urged Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to direct private companies to ramp up production of ventilators. It wasn’t until last week that Trump finally said he would use that power to order General Motors to begin manufacturing ventilators — work the company had already announced was underway. The federal government had made an effort to prepare for a surge in the need for ventilators, but it was allowed to languish. Since 2014, HHS has paid a private company, Respironics Inc., $13.8 million to develop a cheaper, less complicated ventilator that could be bought in bulk to replenish the national stockpile. In September, HHS placed a $32.8 million order with the Dutch-owned company for 10,000 of the new model, set for delivery by 2022, federal contracts show. Respironics’ parent company, Royal Philips, said it’s planning to double U.S. production of ventilators to 2,000 a week by the end of May. Steve Klink, a spokesman for Royal Philips in Amsterdam, said the company is now focused on producing its other commercial models and will deliver the first ventilators to the national stockpile by August, long after the White House projects COVID-19 cases will peak. Trump, who pledged on March 27 that his administration would ensure that 100,000 additional ventilators would be made available “within 100 days,” said on Thursday that he’ll use the Defense Production Act to order Respironics and other ventilator makers to step up production. It’s not clear that Trump’s order would translate into the 100,000 new ventilators he promised. In a House Oversight and Reform Committee briefing last week, top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials hedged, saying 100,000 ventilators would be available by late June “at the earliest.” Cuomo predicted on Friday that New York would run out within days. With coronavirus deaths in his state surging, the governor vowed to use his authority to seize ventilators, masks and protective gear from private hospitals that aren’t utilizing them. Meanwhile, federal health authorities are lowering standards. New guidance from the Food and Drug Administration allows hospitals to use emergency ventilators typically used in ambulances and anesthesia gas machines in place of standard ventilators. The agency also said nightstand CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnea and snoring could also be used to keep coronavirus patients breathing, as a last resort. The CDC advised health care workers last month to use homemade masks or bandanas if they run out of proper gear. Across the country, hospitals have issued urgent pleas for volunteers who know how to sew. President Trump provided his own input, suggesting that Americans without access to factory-produced masks could cover their faces with scarves. “A scarf is highly recommended by the professionals,” Trump said during a White House briefing Wednesday. “And I think, in a certain way, depending on the fabric — I think, in a certain way, a scarf is better. It’s actually better.” ___ Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck ___ Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org ___ This story has been updated to correct that Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, not March 14. Claim: U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 8 December 2016, fake news site Thug Life Videos published an article reporting that a Canadian man named Kenneth Gillespie had been hospitalized for penile frostbite after drunkenly attempting to have sexual relations with a snowman: A 64 year-old was rushed into Centre hospitalier de l’Université Laval [in December 2016] with a most unusual medical complaint. He had frostbite of the P*NIS after getting drunk and trying to have s*x with a SNOWMAN. Kenneth Gillespie is known to locals as a drunk and a bit of a lecherous type, but this latest episode has had dire consequences. He was found passed out clutching onto his frozen junk by neighbors at 1.30am on Sunday morning and they called the ambulance straight away. The doctor in charge of Mr. Gillespie, Dr. Marc Arnadeu said this to a local TV news crew: “Frostbite of that area may sound funny but it is very serious indeed. Frostbite, of course, can cause infection and gangrene and ultimately this has led to Mr. Gillespie’s member being amputated. It’s very sad.” The snowman is thought to be okay, though. It’s since been rebuilt and cleaned … Some in Gillespie’s neighborhood are less than pleased, though. One told the Montreal Gazette this: “ … Several people have already vowed to dismember him after what he did to the kids’ snowman. He left a pile of empty bottles, a wrecked snowman and a trail of frozen man-juice in the middle of the community recreation ground. This b*stard’s worse than Bill Cosby.” On the surface, the tale of the sexy snowman appeared to be typical hoax news cooked up to garner social media traction. But iterations of a near-identical claim had been published several years earlier by Uproxx, The Frisky, and several radio blogs, all of which aren’t generally considered fake news sites. Uproxx’s 25 January 2013 item placed “Kenneth Guillespie” in Britain and made no mention of neighbors referencing Bill Cosby (who was not widely accused of sexual misconduct until October 2014, long after the snowman tale began trekking across the Internet): Regardless, this dude from the UK is obviously a freak in every way, so of course he was able to stick his diseased dong into an ice sculpture and impale it mercilessly until shooting a load. Habitual drunkard Kenneth Guillespie, 64, was found half-naked and screaming in agony next to the remains of the five-foot snow sculpture. And when he arrived for treatment at North Central infirmary in Blackburn, shocked medics found the booze-soaked layabout was suffering from FROSBITE of the JOHNSON. Someone At the hospital said that “Ken’s a regular visitor to A&E. Normally it’s just bumps and scrapes – or someone has giving him an ass whoopin’. “Occasionally he’ll get trapped in something or get an object wedged up him. But this is the most bizarre mishap yet.” But The unemployed former postman may not remain in one peice if the return to the scene of his whitemarish coupling — as local residents are said to be on the warpath. Ian Jessop of the Ramsgreave and Brownhill Community Security said: “ … He left” a pile of empty bottles, a wrecked snowman and a trail of frozen man-juice in the middle of the community recreation ground.” Most accounts cited a (since-deleted) page on a web site called Busted in Acadiana which was dated 21 January 2013 and featured a (once widely-circulated) photograph of what appeared to be news article evidencing the claim: That image led to the original source of the story, Sunday Sport, an outlet described by Wikipedia as somewhat akin to the Weekly World News as an unambiguous peddler of complete fabrications: Claim: An habitual alcohol abuser lost his penis to frostbite after a drunken sexual encounter with a snowman.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not mentioned the proposed cost of lapatinib. The story provides early data from a trial of metastatic breast cancer patients. Cancers in these patients remained stable (i.e. it did not spread further in the body) nearly twice as long with the addition of lapatinib to chemotherapy (8.5 months vs. 4.5 months). There were fewer incidents of metastases to the brain in the women who took lapatinib and chemotherapy compared with chemotherapy alone (4 vs. 11 cases of cancer spreading to the brain). However, many drugs have been shown to effective in prolonging response in metastatic disease without impacting length of life so it would be good to get data on survival data to back up these claims or at least on quality of life to see whether it made a difference and how much. Cardiac side effects are reported as less serious than those seen in patients who were treated with Herceptin and chemotherapy. However, this comparison with Herceptin is not a fair one. In trials of Herceptin, the incidence of cardiac problems was about 4% at 3 years, so the reduction to 2.5% with lapatinib appears to be an improvement, but there is not enough information in this story on length of time patients took lapatinib and Herceptin to get those figures (and whether those are statistically different). Although long-term cardiac problems are less of an issue for metastatic patients, this side effect is potentially a big issue for early-stage breast cancer patients – a group of women for which this drug is already being tested as an alternative to Herceptin. The story does a good job describing the trial design and discussing the preliminary outcomes for further metastases and cardiac effects. However, the story provides a powerful but premature suggestion of equivalence between Herceptin and lapatinib and suggests that lapatinib may have superior benefits and reduced harms – despite the fact that the trial was in only 392 patients and it wasn’t a head-to head comparison with Herceptin. There is no evidence of disease mongering. The story accurately notes that only 20-25% of women would be eligible to take lapatinib, as they have the more aggressive form of breast cancer. The story relies solely on sources associated with GlaxoSmithKline. The lead author of the study is cited, however, the study was sponsored by this drug manufacturer. Additional oncology researchers are needed for perspective on the results of lapatinib in metastatic breast cancer patients. The story mentions Herceptin (generic name trastuzumab) and chemotherapy (here, Xeloda) as other treatments for HER-2 positive breast cancer. The story mentions that lapatinib is still being tested in clinical trails and is not yet available for sale. The story says that “GlaxoSmithKline plans to submit the drug for regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe by the end of this year,” and later mentions Glaxo’s “high hopes for Tykerb.” It would have been better to get some other perspectives about these prospects, other than comments from the company or company-sponsored researchers. Tykerb (generic name lapatinib) is a new drug for the treatment of metastatic HER-2 positive breast cancer. The story discusses the mechanism by which this drug would inhibit tumor-cell growth. The story acknowledges that it took a quote from the principal investigator from a statement released by the drug company. The only other perspective in the story comes from a drug company staff scientist. There is no evidence of any independent reporting. Claim: Glaxo Touts Experimental Tykerb As Effective Breast-Cancer Treament",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Mistrust of first responders and widespread misinformation propagated by some community leaders has led many in affected areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to refuse vaccinations. Instead, they turn to traditional healers, whose clinics have contributed to the hemorrhagic fever’s spread. “It is not an imaginary disease,” Tshisekedi said after arriving in the city of Beni on his first tour of eastern Congo since being inaugurated in January. “If we follow the instructions, in two or three months Ebola will be finished,” he optimistically told a crowd after having his temperature taken and washing his hands, as required of all incoming passengers to Beni airport. Congo has suffered 10 outbreaks of Ebola, which causes severe vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding, since the virus was discovered there in 1976. The current one has seen 1,264 confirmed and probable cases and 814 deaths since it was declared last August. It is surpassed only by the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, in which more than 28,000 cases were reported and more than 11,000 people died. Following a series of attacks on treatment centers by unidentified assailants in February and March, the current outbreak is now spreading at its fastest rate yet. More than 100 cases were confirmed last week. Tshisekedi, who won a disputed election last December to succeed Joseph Kabila, also called on Tuesday for the disarmament of dozens of militia that operate in the east and whose presence has complicated the Ebola response. “The time of armed groups is over,” he said. “The new government is reaching out to these children of the country to surrender arms through disarmament programmes.” Claim: Ebola is real, Congo president tells skeptical population.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does address how the USPSTF recommendations may affect insurance coverage of mammography screening, as well as related congressional action mandating that insurers cover such screening. However, the story does not tell readers the bottom line: how much would a mammogram cost if it were not covered by insurance? While we found varying estimates, a 2011 paper stated that the overall cost of a mammogram was $266 — a considerable sum, and likely out of reach for many women. This was a shortcoming of both the Washington Post and New York Times stories. The story does not offer any detailed information on the potential benefits associated with mammogram screening. Instead, the story uses vague language, describing the USPSTF’s recommendations as saying that “screening mammography had the greatest benefit for women ages 50 to 74” and that “the likelihood of benefit is less” for women in their 40s. Exactly how much different are the potential benefits for these groups? That’s an important point, and the story doesn’t tell us. The story does note that the USPSTF recommendations are aimed only at women with an average risk of breast cancer, and it attempts to explain what that means, noting that it refers to women “who don’t have specific risk factors for breast cancer such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations or a family history of the disease.” That’s useful information for readers, but the story could have noted that there are other factors that place women at elevated risk. A history of prior breast surgery, especially if the pathology demonstrated atypical hyperplasia [an abnormal overgrowth of cells] significantly increases the risk of a subsequent breast cancer. In addition, a woman’s menstrual history, age at first pregnancy, and other factors also influence risk. There are several risk assessment models that are widely available, but are underutilized, to help women and their physicians assess risk. It would have been helpful to at least acknowledge this, as there remains a lot of confusion over just what constitutes “average risk.” The story addresses harms briefly in two places. In one place, the story refers to “the anxiety and potential harm caused by over-diagnosis and false positives,” though it doesn’t explain what over-diagnosis or false positives mean (potentially leaving many readers in the dark). The story also notes that “The most serious potential harm is unneeded treatment for a type of cancer that would not have become a threat to a woman’s health during her lifetime.” But it doesn’t give readers any idea of how serious this harm might be, or how common this scenario is. In short, the story does enough to earn a Satisfactory rating, but could have (and should have) done more. It’s worth noting that the New York Times piece did a top-notch job discussing harms. The story does, however, make clear that women should be informed consumers, and that — if well-informed — women should have the authority to weigh potential benefits against potential harms and make their own decisions about when and how often to get screened. That’s an important point, and one worth making. There is no specific study to evaluate or discuss in a story like this one; the USPSTF’s recommendations are based on an evaluation of all the available research literature on breast cancer screening and mammography. However, the story could have simply said that. As it is, while the story does tell readers what the USPSTF is, it doesn’t say anything about what the task force based its recommendations on. No disease mongering here. The story incorporates input from several independent sources. Comments from Fran Visco of the National Breast Cancer Coalition are worth repeating: “Women are capable of understanding the complexities of the issue, evaluating the evidence and making their own health decisions.” The alternatives in a story like this one are the recommendations from other organizations. And the story does explain varying recommendations from the USPSTF and two other groups: the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Cancer Society. The story makes clear that the use of mammograms as breast cancer screening tools is longstanding and well established. The story also discusses insurance coverage issues that would affect availability for many women. The story does tell readers that the new recommendations on mammograms and breast cancer screening are consistent with the USPSTF’s 2009 recommendations — which triggered a fierce (and still ongoing) debate over the issue. The story also offers a good primer on congressional action related to the debate, particularly as pertains to legislation that mandates insurance coverage of mammograms for breast cancer screening. The story clearly includes original reporting and goes beyond what would be found in a news release. Claim: New breast cancer screening guidelines at odds with Congress",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 24 January 2017, the Facebook page “Live Action” published a video purportedly showing “Prenatal Care Deception” at Planned Parenthood, which has approximately 650 health centers operated by 57 affiliates across the U.S. The gist of the video’s presentation was that Planned Parenthood lies about providing reproductive and health services such as prenatal care, instead focusing solely on providing abortions:  This video quotes snippets of Richards’ saying: “Prenatal care. These are the kinds of services that folks depend on Planned Parenthood for,” and “a president who will fight for pre-natal care!” We could not find the specific origins of the first snippet, but it’s clear that Richards was listing several services that Planned Parenthood provides (and not claiming they offer only or primarily prenatal care), as she said “these are the kinds of services that folks depend on planned Parenthood for. But Live Action apparently omitted the first portion of her statement. The second snippet came from a 2016 speech in which Richards endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The portion of the speech included in the Live Action video was less about what services Planned Parenthood offers and more about what qualities the organization was looking for in a U.S. president: They want a president who believes access to health care isn’t a luxury — it’s a human right. They want a president who understands that being pro-choice also means being able to choose to have a child — and a president who will fight for prenatal care, head start, health care for kids and first class public schools because it takes a village! They want a president who will stand up to the gun lobby and demand safety for kids in schools, folks in church, and women getting healthcare — no matter what. They want a president who will demand nobody is paid less just because they are a woman — we deserve 100 cents on the dollar! They want a president who believes that access to health care isn’t a luxury it’s a human right. They also want a president who understands that being pro-choice actually means being able to choose to have a child. And a president who will fight for pre-natal care, and head start, and health care for kids, and excellent public education. Because as someone so famously said, it takes a village to raise a child. The video also used a quote from Lori Lamerand, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan, to make it seem as if the organization were unjustly touting their prenatal care services. According to the video, Lamerand said: “Prenatal care! Um — and that — that is what we want to focus on. That is what is so vital.” But again, this quote was taken out of context from a speech Lamerand gave during the Pink Bus Tour in 2011, and according to Planned Parenthood, Lamerand “spoke about the vital services like birth control, pap smears, and preventative cancer screenings, which Planned Parenthood provides to women who otherwise might go without.” The context of these quotes is important since Live Action shared this video with the title “the Prenatal Care Deception.” In order to set up the “deception,” Live Action needed to try to establish that Planned Parenthood supposedly unjustly bragged about the prominence of their prenatal care services before offering supposed audio recordings of calls with Planned Parenthood representatives who stated that the organization did not in fact provide these services. Although Planned Parenthood does provide prenatal care services, those services are not a primary part of their operation. According to organization’s annual report for 2014-2015, they only provided 17,419 instances of prenatal care services (compared to 3,533,522 STD tests and 323,999 abortions.) Live Action offered no evidence that Planned Parenthood lied about these numbers, or that Planned Parenthood claimed they provide prenatal care services at all of their health centers. Not only did Live Action present Planned Parenthood’s comments without proper context, their investigation also presented a misleading picture about the services provided by the organization. We can’t verify if every one of the phone call recordings offered in the above-displayed video was genuine, but we can say that the claim “only 5 [Planned Parenthood] facilities out of 97” provide prenatal care is misleading at best. First of all, Planned Parenthood operates more than 650 facilities in the United States. In California alone, we found 13 Planned Parenthood clinics that advertise prenatal services. Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic (PPHP), which operates health centers in Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland counties, New York, provides prenatal care in 6 of their 10 health centers. We also found that many of the Planned Parenthood clinics that do not provide prenatal care services do nonetheless state they offer resources to assist those in need of finding such care: “If you choose to continue a pregnancy, we will provide you with a list of resources to help you obtain prenatal care.” (We also surveyed several Planned Parenthood offices ourselves. For example, we called the Family First Health Center in Fresno, California, who confirmed to us that they do in fact offer prenatal care services. We also contacted the Planned Parenthood office in Tempe, Arizona (one of the first locations mentioned in the video), who told us that they did not provide prenatal care services themselves but directed us to a nearby facility, the Mountain Park Health Center, that does.) The Live Action video is based on the implication that Planned Parenthood claimed to provide prenatal care services at all of their facilities, or that the organization was misleading the public about how often it provides these services. However, that simply isn’t the case: Mary Alice Carter, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, pointed out the group’s history of being targeted with selectively edited videos, and said that the new video tried to hold the organization to a standard it had not set for itself. “It is safe to say that not every single one of our health centers provides prenatal care, and we’ve never said otherwise,” Ms. Carter said. According to an annual report published in 2015, the most recent period for which information was available, eight Planned Parenthood affiliates of the 59 that existed at the time reported that they had provided 17,419 individual prenatal services. Ms. Carter said that “100 percent” of the organization’s health centers would provide what would be considered an initial prenatal visit, which would include a referral for further prenatal services that would be available elsewhere. It should be noted that the organization’s web site states that “Planned Parenthood health centers focus on prevention: 80 percent of our patients receive services to prevent unintended pregnancy,” and that Live Action chose to compare prenatal services (approximately 17,000 in 2014-2015) to abortions (more than 300,000) for this video, which gave the misleading impression that Planned Parenthood rarely provides reproductive health services other than abortions. In reality, Planned Parenthood provides more STD screenings (4,218,149), contraception services (2,945,059), and cancer screenings (682,208) than they do abortions. Claim: A video investigation showed that Planned Parenthood lies about providing prenatal care.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An FDA spokesperson confirmed the approval, but provided no other details. Pristiq is a derivative of Wyeth’s widely used Effexor depression drug and the company had hoped it would be approved long before Effexor loses its U.S. patent protection in 2010 and faces generic competition. But some analysts have dismissed Pristiq as a “me, too” drug, with few distinguishing characteristics and modest sales potential. Wyeth also has tested Pristiq as a treatment for hot flashes in post-menopausal women, but the FDA last summer said it could not approve the drug for that condition until Wyeth resolved concerns about potentially serious heart and liver problems. The company plans to begin a new study in coming months to verify its safety. The drugmaker has not cited any major advantages Pristiq might have over the $3.8 billion-a-year Effexor in treating depression, but has suggested it may be less likely to interact with other medicines because it is broken down differently. “This is a very important condition,” said Wyeth Chief Executive Officer Bernard Poussot, “and physicians need all the options” in treating patients. Despite skepticism among many industry analysts about the drug’s commercial appeal, Poussot said in an interview that Wyeth remains confident Pristiq will eventually garner annual sales of $1 billion or more as a treatment for depression. Mehta Partners analyst Shaojing Tong said Pristiq may surprise naysayers and post decent sales despite its lackluster profile, even after cheaper generic forms of Effexor hit the market. “It could wind up with sales of $500 million to $1 billion because so many patients switch between depression drugs” to obtain relief, and Pristiq will be one of the relatively few available options, Tong said. Wyeth in December said a low-dose 50-milligram form of Pristiq was effective in two late-stage depression trials and far better tolerated than a 100-milligram version that failed to win U.S. approval in early 2007. The 100-milligram version had proved ineffective in one of the Phase III studies, tarnishing overall results of the two trials. Wyeth submitted results last summer of the studies, one conducted in the United States and one conducted overseas, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In studies of the 100-milligram dose of Pristiq conducted more than a year ago, a high percentage of patients complained of nausea and stopped taking the drug, creating doubts that doctors would prescribe it or patients take it even if it were approved. Wyeth scrapped that formulation and began studies of the now-approved 50-milligram pill, hoping it would not cause nausea. The percentage of patients who dropped out of the trials because of side effects was similar to those who received a placebo, indicating the lower dosage pill was tolerated. The FDA in early 2007 refused to approve the 100-milligram formulation, in part because of long-standing quality-control lapses at a Wyeth plant in Puerto Rico where Pristiq was to be manufactured. The problems have since been fixed and the 50 milligram pill is manufactured there. Shares of Wyeth were unchanged in after-hours electronic trading on Friday from their closing share price of $43.62 on the New York Stock Exchange. Claim: Wyeth Wins U.S. OK to Sell Pristiq for Depression.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In an address on the anniversary of the economic stimulus, President Barack Obama boasted that despite the massive and rapid spending in the $862 billion package, you're not hearing about money being misspent. \"I was still concerned -- Joe (Biden) and I were just talking in the back -- when this thing passed we said $787 billion -- somewhere there’s going to be some story of some money that ended up being misspent; $787 billion spent out over 18 months, that's a lot -- that's a lot of money,\" Obama said. \"And it is a testimony to Vice President Biden and his team that, as Joe puts it, the dog, so far at least, hasn't barked. \" But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell put out a press release titled \"Stimulus Anniversary Gifts to Taxpayers: One Year of Spending Taxpayer Dollars Studying Malt Liquor and Marijuana, Researching Drunk Mice, Funding Martini Bars and Steakhouses, and Examining Facebook.\" It lists 15 stimulus projects. We took a look at several items on this list, as well as a few from House Republican Leader John Boehner to see if they were as billed. In this item, we look at McConnell's claim that the stimulus includes \"$219,000 to study the sex lives of female college freshmen.\" We couldn't resist checking this one out.Especially after reading a Sept. 8, 2009, story in the (Syracuse) Daily Orange, that begins, \"Five hundred Syracuse University freshmen will divulge the details of their sex lives as part of a women's health study\" ... paid for with $219,000 in stimulus funds.Alas, the academic rendering of the study on the government's stimulus Web site, recovery.gov, doesn't read nearly as provocatively:\"Scientific Rationale: The transition from adolescence to adulthood involves important developmental challenges. Events during this key developmental phase can profoundly shape and influence academic and occupational achievement as well as affect health outcomes. During this time, women are particularly vulnerable to a number of health threats including depressive, anxiety and eating disorders; psychosomatic conditions; intimate partner coercion and violence; and sexually transmitted infections. Understanding gender-based health disparities is an important public health goal. Preliminary scientific reports suggest that intimate encounters between partners who have no expectation of a romantic commitment may be increasing and that these encounters may be partly responsible for gender-based health disparities. However, little research has investigated the health consequences of such encounters using a large sample, a longitudinal design, reliable and valid measures, and sophisticated data analyses. \"Later, it's translated more plainly: They will study the physical and mental health consequences of hookups.In other words, this is a public health study (funded through the Department of Health and Human Services), not a submission to Penthouse.The two-year survey will track health-related behaviors such as tobacco use, alcohol use, exercise and physical activity, sleep and sexual behavior as well as psychosomatic and mental health symptoms. The findings will be used \"to inform parents, educators, medical and public health professionals, and to guide the development of more effective health promotion and disease prevention programs. \"In the Daily Orange story, the man conducting the study, Syracuse University professor of psychology and medicine Michael Carey, defended it as a worthwhile study that will help improve approaches to intervention in women's health. \"The Women's Health Project includes sexual behavior … because of the increasing recognition that social and health problems are linked to sexual behavior … and that there has been little scientific study of the topic despite its potential health implications,\" Carey said. \"Women have been traditionally neglected in health research, even though they are disproportionately vulnerable to a number of health threats,\" such as sexually transmitted diseases and eating disorders, Carey said. Although Carey applied to the National Institutes of Health for funding long before the stimulus was even being considered, he said stimulus funds are appropriate for the study. \"The funds invested in this project do help to support jobs and will quickly find their way back into the local economy,\" Carey said. \"Moreover, investing in health and health research is as important to the revitalization of our economy as are investments in our physical infrastructure. \"As for the jobs, there won't be many direct ones. According to the recovery.gov synopsis, the study will involve a half-time research assistant and part-time temporary assistants. While McConnell's characterization of the study packs a good political punch, we think the actual study isn't nearly as ... sexy ... as he makes it out to be. It's a public health study. And so we rule this claim . Claim: The stimulus includes \"$219,000 to study the sex lives of female college freshmen.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: After less than a day of deliberations, the jury in New Brunswick, New Jersey rejected claims by Rosalind Henry and her husband, who had alleged that Henry’s mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure, was caused by the company’s talc products. J&J is facing some 10,600 liability lawsuits across the United States over its talc products, most involving claims that they caused ovarian cancer, and that the company knew of and concealed risks associated with the products. The company, which is based just a few miles from the courtroom where the latest case took place, said it was pleased with the unanimous jury verdict. “We have deep sympathy for anyone diagnosed with any form of cancer and appreciate that people are looking for answers. However, Johnson’s baby powder is not the cause of this disease,” the company said in a statement. It said decades of scientific testing by academic institutions and regulators have shown its talc to be safe and free of asbestos. A lawyer for Henry did not immediately return a request for comment. During trial, Henry’s lawyers said J&J had known for decades about asbestos fibers in its talc, but hid the evidence from regulators and consumers. J&J has been fighting talc cancer lawsuits for several years, but the litigation shifted in recent months to include allegations of asbestos contamination. Plaintiffs now claim asbestos fibers in the products are causing both ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. In April, J&J lost the first trial over such allegations when a jury in New Jersey awarded $117 million to a man suffering from mesothelioma and his wife. It lost another trial in May, when a California jury awarded $25.7 million to a woman diagnosed with mesothelioma. Both decisions are under appeal. Since then, the company has had four mistrials in similar  cases because jurors could not reach a verdict or because the plaintiff died. In July, a Missouri jury hit J&J with a massive $4.69 billion verdict in the first trial alleging asbestos contamination has caused ovarian cancer in 22 women. That decision is also under appeal. Claim: Jury clears J&J of liability in New Jersey talc cancer case.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Domestic violence has been a problem all too often ignored, covered up, and swept under the rug. Many well-intentioned and successful efforts have been made in the last few decades to bring the issue to public attention; to get the word out to women that they need not suffer silent, helpless, and alone; to advertise that there are organizations victims can turn to for help and support; and to educate others in spotting the signs of abuse. Unfortunately, nearly every cause will encompass a sub-group of advocates who, either through deliberate disingenuousness or earnest gullibility, end up spreading “noble lies” in the furtherance of that cause. The myth of Super Bowl Sunday violence is one such noble lie. The claim that Super Bowl Sunday is “the biggest day of the year for violence against women” is a case study of how easily an idea congruous with what people want to believe can be implanted in the public consciousness and anointed as “fact” even when there is little or no supporting evidence behind it. Christina Hoff Sommers charted a timeline of how the apocryphal statistic about domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday was widely (if erroneously) publicized over the course of a few days leading up to the Super Bowl in January 1993:  Thursday, January 28 A news conference was called in Pasadena, California, the site of the forthcoming Super Bowl game, by a coalition of women’s groups. At the news conference reporters were informed that significant anecdotal evidence suggested that Super Bowl Sunday is “the biggest day of the year for violence against women.” Prior to the conference, there had been reports of increases as high as 40 percent in calls for help from victims that day. At the conference, Sheila Kuehl of the California Women’s Law Center cited a study done at Virginia’s Old Dominion University three years before, saying that it found police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Redskins during the 1988-89 season. The presence of Linda Mitchell at the conference, a representative of a media “watchdog” group called Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), lent credibility to the cause.At about this time a very large media mailing was sent by Dobisky Associates, warning at-risk women, “Don’t remain at home with him during the game.” The idea that sports fans are prone to attack wives or girlfriends on that climactic day persuaded many men as well: Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times would soon be referring to the “Abuse Bowl.”  Friday, January 29 Lenore Walker, a Denver psychologist and author of The Battered Woman, appeared on “Good Morning America” claiming to have compiled a ten-year record showing a sharp increase in violent incidents against women on Super Bowl Sundays. Here, again, a representative from FAIR, Laura Flanders, was present to lend credibility to the cause. Saturday, January 30 A story in the Boston Globe written by Linda Gorov reported that women’s shelters and hotlines are “flooded with more calls from victims [on Super Bowl Sunday] than on any other day of the year.” Gorov cited “one study of women’s shelters out West” that “showed a 40 percent climb in calls, a pattern advocates said is repeated nationwide, including in Massachusetts.” Commentators were quick to offers reasons why this “fact” was so obviously true: Men are mostly loutish brutes, and football is the epitome of mindless, aggressive, violent, testosterone-driven macho posturing, so certainly during the culmination of the football season and its final, spectacular, massively-hyped “super” game, more men than ever were going to express their excitement or disappointment by smacking their wives and girlfriends around. So much attention did the “Super Bowl abuse” stories garner that NBC aired a public service announcement before the 1993 game to remind men that domestic violence is a crime. Ken Ringle, a reporter for the Washington Post, was one of the few journalists to bother to check the sources behind the stories. When he contacted Janet Katz, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, and one of the authors of the study cited during the January 28 news conference, he found: Janet Katz, professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion and one of the authors of that study, said “that’s not what we found at all. “One of the most notable findings, she said, was that an increase of emergency room admissions “was not associated with the occurrence of football games in general, nor with watching a team lose.” When they looked at win days alone, however, they found that the number of women admitted for gunshot wounds, stabbings, assaults, falls, lacerations and wounds from being hit by objects was slightly higher than average. But certainly not 40 percent. “These are interesting but very tentative findings, suggesting what violence there is from males after football may spring not from a feeling of defensive insecurity, which you’d associate with a loss, but from the sense of empowerment following a win. We found that significant. But it certainly doesn’t support what those women are saying in Pasadena,” Katz said. Likewise, Ringle checked the claim made by Dobisky Associates (the organization that had mailed warnings to women advising them not to stay at home with their husbands on Super Bowl Sunday) that “Super Bowl Sunday is the one day in the year when hot lines, shelters, and other agencies that work with battered women get the most reports and complaints of domestic violence.” Dobisky’s source for this quote was Charles Patrick Ewing, a professor at the University at Buffalo, but Professor Ewing told Ringle he’d never said it: “I don’t think anybody has any systematic data on any of this,” said Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist and author of “Battered Women Who Kill.”Yet Ewing is quoted in the release from Dobisky Associates declaring “Super Bowl Sunday is one day in the year when hot lines, shelters and other agencies that work with battered women get the most reports and complaints of domestic violence.” “I never said that,” Ewing said. “I don’t know that to be true.” Told of Ewing’s response, Frank Dobisky acknowledged that the quote should have read “one of the days of the year.” That could mean one of many days in the year. In addition, Ringle learned that Linda Gorov, the Boston Globe reporter who’d written that women’s shelters and hotlines are “flooded with more calls from victims [on Super Bowl Sunday] than on any other day of the year” hadn’t even seen the study she’d cited in support of that statement but had merely been told about it by Linda Mitchell, the FAIR representative who was present at the January 28 news conference that had kicked off the whole issue. Did any evidence back up the assertion that Super Bowl Sunday was the leading day for domestic violence? When the Washington Post‘s Ringle attempted to follow the chain by contacting Linda Mitchell of FAIR, Mitchell said her source had been Lenore Walker, the Denver psychologist who’d appeared on “Good Morning America” the day after the news conference. Ms. Walker’s office referred Ringle to Michael Lindsey, another Denver psychologist who was also an authority on battered women. Mr. Lindsey told Ringle that “I haven’t been any more successful than you in tracking down any of this” and asked, “You think maybe we have one of these myth things here?” The upshot? It turned out that Super Bowl Sunday in 1993 (as in other years) was not a significantly different day for those who monitor domestic abuse hotlines and staff battered women’s shelters:  Those who work with the victims of domestic violence in Connecticut reported no increase in cases [on the day after the Super Bowl], after a barrage of publicity on the potential link between Super Bowl gatherings and family violence. An increase in domestic violence predicted for Super Bowl Sunday did not happen in Columbus, authorities said, and others nationwide said women’s rights activists were spreading the wrong message. Despite some pregame hype about the “day of dread” for some women, Columbus-area domestic violence counselors said that [Super Bowl] Sunday, although certainly violent for some women, was relatively routine. So, on what day of the year is domestic violence against women most prevalent, if not Super Bowl Sunday? It appears domestic violence doesn’t peak on any one specific day, but it does rise at  particular times of the year. For example, a 2006 study published in the Handbook of Sports and Media that examined over 1.3 million domestic violence police reports from every day of the year in 15 NFL cities found only a very small rise in domestic violence dispatches on (or just after) Super Bowl Sunday, but nearly a quintupling of domestic violence police dispatch reports around major holidays such as Christmas. A 2007 study that analyzed patterns of women fleeing domestic abuse found that the highest intake rates of women with children at shelters coincided not with Super Bowl Sunday, but with breaks in the school calendar such as Christmas vacation, spring break, and summer vacation (although that study surveyed when women most often fled from their abusers rather than when they actually experienced the abuse that prompted them to flee). The weeks and months after the 1993 Super Bowl saw a fair amount of backpedaling by those who had propagated the Super Bowl Sunday violence myth, but as usual the retractions and corrections received far less attention than the sensational-but-false stories everyone wanted to believe, and the bogus Super Bowl statistic remains a widely-cited and believed piece of misinformation. As Sommers concluded, “How a belief in that misandrist canard can make the world a better place for women is not explained.” Claim: More women are victims of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Democrat opposed to an abortion-related measure suggested that a snip exclusive to men has proved less safe than an abortion. Rep. Mary González of Clint asked the proposal’s author, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, in May 2017 floor debate: \"First and foremost, did you know that an abortion procedure is actually... safer than a vasectomy?\" Capriglione, R-Southlake, replied that he hadn’t researched complications from procedures other than abortion and he also doesn’t believe all outcomes of abortion procedures in Texas are currently reported. His House Bill 2962 requires hospitals to submit reports to the state on abortion complications. Capriglione added: \"Not all medical procedures are equally important.\" Maybe not. Still, are abortions safer than vasectomies? Representative cites Texas figures, Kentucky story A González aide, Andrea Chevalier, said by email the legislator based her abortion-vasectomy safety claim on figures in a Texas Tribune news story and a Kentucky report. The cited June 2016 news story says that according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, fewer than 1 percent of Texas abortions in 2014 resulted in any complication to the woman. The story says the overall number of abortions in Texas had dropped to 54,902 from 63,849 in 2013 in the wake of changes in law, advanced by Republicans, expected to drive down the number of abortions by imposing hospital-level safety standards for clinics and requiring physician-providers to hold admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Chevalier said that according to a 2006 article by two Kentucky physicians, the incidence of complications such as infection and bleeding from vasectomies can be as high as 15 percent. The article, published in American Family Physician, includes a chart indicating that how a man’s scrotum is penetrated to begin a vasectomy can result in different complication rates. \"No-scalpel vasectomy has been shown to reduce the risk of complications (i.e., bleeding and infection) compared with the incision technique,\" the article says. The chart, citing three studies published from 1990 through 2002, shows varied complication rates of 0.2 percent to 15.9 percent--and also wide variations in the results:     SOURCE: Study, \"Vasectomy: An Update,\" American Family Physician, Dec. 15, 2016 (accessed May 15, 2017) We tried to reach the lead author of the update, Tennessee physician Paul Dassow, and didn’t hear back. We turned next to our own research. Abortion complications When we queried DSHS officials about complications due to abortions or vasectomies, spokesman Chris Van Deusen said by email the state doesn’t track fall-out from vasectomies. Van Deusen otherwise pointed us to agency-posted counts indicating that 54,310 Texas residents had abortions in the state in 2015. A separate chart says 52,938 abortion procedures led to no reported complications with 25 procedures resulting in complications, including 10 hemorrhages--which breaks out to a complication rate of less than one-tenth of 1 percent:         ^^ Abortions that took place outside of Texas. SOURCE: Chart on web page, \"Selected Characteristics of Induced Terminations of Pregnancy, Texas Residence, 2015,\" Texas Department of State Health Services, last updated March 22, 2017 (accessed May 15, 2017) For national perspective, we emailed Rebecca Wind of the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health and abortion rights nonprofit. Wind answered by pointing out the institute’s January 2017 \"fact sheet,\" which states a first-trimester abortion carries a risk of less than 0.05 percent of \"major complications that might need hospital care.\" A footnote notes a California study, published in 2013, that tallied a total of six major complications after 11,487 abortions. The study said complications of any kind--mostly minor--occurred 1.3 percent of the time. Also to our email inquiry, Barbara Tims of the Texas Medical Association pointed out a 2015 review of 57 studies of abortion complications published from 1980 through April 2015. With few exceptions, the review said, 1 percent or fewer first-trimester abortions resulted in \"cervical laceration needing sutures or hemorrhage that required medical management.\" Also, the report said, physicians who provided antibiotics to women after an abortion said that less than 2 percent of the patients developed infections. The researchers wrote: \"Major complications following first-trimester aspiration abortion were very rare. Unanticipated abdominal procedures and hemorrhage requiring transfusion occurred in ≤0.1% of abortions, and the proportion of patients requiring hospitalization to treat major complications was less than <0.5% in most studies reviewed. Vasectomy complications Wind said the institute doesn’t have expertise on vasectomy complications. But she helped us track down a 2005 analysis of available worldwide evidence for a British medical journal that said: \"Vasectomy, though safe and relatively simple, requires a high level of expertise to minimize complications.\" An accompanying chart indicates a 2 percent chance of hematoma, meaning swelling due to blood clotting. \"The incidence of hematoma formation,\" the article states, \"seems to correlate with the surgical experience. The hematoma rate was 4.6% for those performing 1–10 vasectomies per year, as against 1.6% for those performing 11–50 vasectomies a year,\" the article states, footnoting a U.S. study published in 1987. On the high end, the chart shows an average 3.4 percent chance of infection which the article says includes wound, urinary and epididymal infection. Separately, Tims of the TMA pointed out a July 2016 article from the Canadian Urological Association, footnoted to studies from 1984 through 2007, describing varied complication rates from vasectomies. The article states: \"Men must be informed about wound care and the potential for early complications: infection (0.2‒1.5%), bleeding or hematoma (4‒20%), and primary surgical failure (0.2‒5%). Men should also be made aware of late complications: chronic scrotal pain (1‒14%) and delayed vasectomy failure (0.05‒1%).\" We also queried the American Urological Association; by email, spokesman Brandon Corbett guided us to its \"Guideline\" for physicians, last amended in 2015, which states: \"The rates of surgical complications\" from vasectomies \"such as symptomatic hematoma and infection are 1-2%. These rates vary with the surgeon's experience and the criteria used to diagnose these conditions.\" Our ruling González said an \"abortion procedure is actually safer than a vasectomy.\" Both procedures rarely have complications, a clarification missing from this declaration. That said, abortion procedures appear to have lower complication rates. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Claim: An \"abortion procedure is actually safer than a vasectomy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Undercover videos in which Planned Parenthood officials discuss harvesting fetal tissue appall state Sen. Dick Black, R-Loudoun. A staunch opponent of abortion, Black is seeking to link the controversy to his Democratic opponent this fall, Jill McCabe, a pediatric emergency room physician. McCabe \"supports selling late term abortions for bigger body parts,\" Black tweeted on July 28. He renewed the charge on Aug. 4, tweeting that McCabe \"supports late term abortions. Larger baby parts are more profitable.\" So we decided to examine Black’s charge. Let’s start with some background. The controversy over fetal parts erupted last month when the Center for Medical Progress, a conservative group that opposes abortion, released a nine-minute video secretly taped during a 2014 lunch with Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services. The center says the tape shows Nucatola talking about performing partial-birth abortions to keep body parts intact in order to \"sell\" them. The video put Planned Parenthood on the defensive and ignited Republican calls to end federal funding for the group and for investigations into its practices. Planned Parenthood provides a wide array of health services to women -- 97 percent of which are not related to abortions. The organization has denounced the secret taping as a misleading campaign by anti-abortion activists. Officials of the group say fetal tissues are integral to medical research and that the organization does not profit from their sale. Allegations by Black and others that profits were made raise legal questions. Federal law bars clinics from selling fetal tissue for gain. It’s legal, however, for clinics to donate the tissue for scientific research and receive reimbursement for their \"reasonable\" costs in providing the tissue. Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood, has said the organization’s clinics don’t sell fetal tissue for profit but do provide it for research and are reimbursed for their collection costs. In the video, Nucatola discusses fees of $30 to $100 per specimen provided. Arthur Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, told PolitiFact National that the fees Nucatola discusses don’t appear geared to making a profit. Many of the sales are made to brokers -- middlemen who process the tissue and then sell it to researchers at significant markups. A vial of highly concentrated fetal liver cells, for example, can sell for about $24,000. The brokers say their prices reflect their high costs of buying medical equipment and employing skilled technicians. Now, let’s get back to Black’s claim that McCabe supports selling fetal tissue for profit. Chris Lore, Black’s legislative assistant, told us the senator’s statement isn’t based on any statement from McCabe explicitly supporting the practice. Instead, Lore said, it’s implicit by the support she’s received from Planned Parenthood.The group has endorsed McCabe and has given her a 100 percent rating. Lore also noted McCabe has been endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. In addition to those endorsements, Lore noted that amid the controversy, McCabe was quoted in a newspaper saying she still supports Planned Parenthood. \"You take those two facts into consideration and it seems her position is pretty clear,\" Lore said. Lore forwarded a copy of a Loudoun Times-Mirror story in which McCabe was asked about whether she still welcomed Planned Parenthood’s support in the wake of the controversy. \"I'm a doctor, and I take care of patients, including women,\" McCabe was quoted as saying. \"Women need health care choices and Planned Parenthood provides that. That's kind of the end of it for me.\" We contacted Lore a second time for more information. After we spoke with him, Black posted this message on Twitter: \"PolitiFact is desperate to give cover to @DrJillMcCabe to give cover for supporting late term abortions. #MediaLies #PPSellsBabyParts.\" We also reached out to McCabe to see what her position was on late term abortions and selling tissue for a profit. We heard back from Kyle Sutton, her campaign manager. \"Jill McCabe does not support late term abortions, but as a doctor she does understand that there are unfortunately circumstances where a pregnancy proceeding to full-term is not in the best health interest of either a mother, or child,\" Sutton wrote in an email. What about selling fetal tissue for profit? \"Jill does not support selling fetal tissue for profit, the same way she does not support any illegal activities, because they're illegal,\" Sutton wrote. We also asked McCabe if she supports Planned Parenthood providing tissue for research at cost, without a profit. \"As a doctor, Jill McCabe understands life-saving medical research,\" her campaign manager wrote in an email. In an Aug. 1 story in the Washington Post story said McCabe said she had seen the Planned Parenthood videos and found them \"concerning.\" But the newspaper also quoted her saying that \"Planned Parenthood is an important organization that provides vital services.\" Our ruling Sen. Dick Black says McCabe, \"supports late term abortions. Larger baby parts are more profitable.\" McCabe indicates she supports late term abortions in instances when it is \"in the best health interest\" of the mother or child. She says she opposes the sale of fetal tissue for profit. Black links McCabe’s qualified support for late term abortions to what he says is an effort to profit from the sale of \"large baby parts.\" In effect, he’s accusing his opponent of supporting an illegal practice because U.S. law bans the sale of fetal tissue for profit. It’s incumbent of Black to prove his inflammatory claim and he offers nothing but speculation. Claim: Dick Black Says Jill McCabe \"supports late term abortions. Larger baby parts are more profitable.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Donald Trump turned to polling data to justify his proposal to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States. \"According to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population,\" the Republican presidential candidate said in a Dec. 7 statement. \"Most recently, a poll from the Center for Security Policy released data showing 25 percent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad, and 51 percent of those polled agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to shariah.\" There’s a lot packed into that quote, but we decided to focus on Trump’s claim that 25 percent of Muslims polled by the Center for Security Policy agree that global jihad justifies violence against Americans. While the study Trump cited does exist, it’s not at all clear that it supports his argument that \"there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.\" There are several important problems with the survey that call into question whether the results are representative of the entire U.S. Muslim population. Trump’s poll The Center for Security Policy, a hawkish think tank, surveyed 600 Muslims and released findings in June under the headline, \"Poll of U.S. Muslims Reveals Ominous Levels Of Support For Islamic Supremacists’ Doctrine of Shariah, Jihad.\" Among the findings is 25 percent of respondents agreed either slightly or strongly with the statement \"Violence against Americans here in the United States can be justified as part of the global jihad.\" About 64 percent disagreed. The first problem with the Center for Security policy poll has to do with methodology. It was an online, opt-in survey, which tend to produce less reliable samples because respondents choose to participate. In traditional polling methods, everyone in a population has a chance of being selected for the survey, meaning the results generally reflect the country’s demographics. Numerous respected polling groups, like Survey Monkey, use opt-in surveys, said Christopher C. Hull, a former adjunct professor at Georgetown University who now works with the Center for Security Policy and answered an inquiry from PolitiFact on the group’s behalf. He added that the method is useful for reaching small populations, such as U.S. Muslims, who only make up about 1 percent of the population. Hull did caution, however, that \"one cannot extrapolate directly from an online, opt-in survey to the broader U.S. population.\" One notable finding buried in the full survey data: It found that 23 percent of the U.S. Muslims surveyed said they are \"not at all familiar with\" the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, and 18 percent said they are not familiar with al-Qaida. Experts said it seems illogical that such a large percentage of American Muslims would not have knowledge of the two groups. \"The al-Qaida number seems entirely implausible and likely a canary in a coal mine as to the unrepresentativeness of this survey,\" said David Dutwin, executive vice president and chief methodologist at SSRS, a research firm. There may be further problems with the poll, including the reality that many American Muslims are immigrants and not fluent in English, and that the survey asked leading questions with limited response choices, according to a critique by the Washington Post’s Philip Bump. It’s also worth noting that the head of the Center for Security Policy, Frank Gaffney, has articulated a variety of theories about Muslim extremists that verge on conspiracy, such as the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the United States government and the false narrative that President Barack Obama is Muslim. Robert Oldendick, executive director of the Institute for Public Service and Policy Research at the University of South Carolina, reviewed the survey methodology made available by the Center for Security Policy but said he still didn’t have enough information to assess whether it’s a good or bad poll. The group has not disclosed how the surveyors targeted participants and what the response rate was. \"I would view these results very cautiously,\" Oldendick said. \"It may be right, but it may not be. But the information to identify the quality of the sample is just not there.\" Compared with Pew Trump also mentioned research by the Pew Research Center as support for his proposal. On a key point, the results of the Center for Security Policy study diverge from the results of a 2011 Pew Research study, a traditional telephone survey of 1,033 U.S. Muslims. The methodology of the Pew poll, and the organization’s reputation, is considered solid by public-opinion experts. The Pew survey asked whether \"suicide bombing/other violence against civilians is justified to defend Islam from its enemies.\" Just 1 percent said it is \"often\" justified, while 12 percent said it is \"sometimes\" or \"rarely\" justified. Eighty-one percent said it is \"never\" justified. According to Pew in 2011, about 13 percent of American Muslims said they believe that violence in the name of Islam is justifiable. That’s half the rate of the Center for Security Policy finding of 25 percent. The 2011 Pew study also found that a \"significant minority\" -- 21 percent -- of American Muslims feel that there is a great deal or a fair amount of support for extremism in the American Muslim community. The Center for Security Policy survey results do not directly back up Trump’s proposal to stop Muslims from entering the United States, said Kellyanne Conway, president of the Polling Company, which conducted the survey on the center’s behalf. \"We did not -- nor would we -- ask whether the U.S. should ban all Muslims,\" she said. The Center for Security Policy poll has touched a nerve because it \"asked questions that other polling firms are refusing to ask,\" Hull said, defending the results. \"When people do not like the results of a poll, they attack the poll’s methodology and sponsor,\" he said. \"This situation is no different.\" Our ruling Trump said that 25 percent of U.S. Muslims \"agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad.\" Trump is referring to a poll conducted by the Center for Security Policy. However, polling experts raise numerous questions about the validity of the poll’s results, including its \"opt-in\" methodology and the dubiously large percentages of respondents who said they were unaware of ISIS or al-Qaida. Moreover, an official with the Center for Security Policy cautioned against generalizing the poll results to the entire Muslim-American community. Another survey, which experts consider credible, found levels about half as high as what the Center for Security Policy poll found. Claim: Donald Trump Says 25 percent of U.S. Muslims \"agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2019, right-leaning websites responded with outrage to what they presented as a new curricular requirement for schoolchildren in the state of California. In a viral 27 January Facebook video, the “Freedom Project’s” Duke Pesta claimed that “The state of California is now moving to mandate that kindergarten teachers teach five-year-olds 15 different genders in every single California kindergarten school.” FreedomProject’s Alex Newman joined in, calling the purported policy “absolute insanity masquerading as education,” “sick,” and an example of “the destruction of civilization”:  “The California Department of Education is working on a plan to teach kindergartners that there are at least 15 different ‘genders.’ The materials under the scheme also claim it is impossible to know whether babies are boys, girls, or something else, because they cannot talk yet. Parents will not be notified and are not allowed to opt their children out of the indoctrination sessions.” That Freedom Project article carried the headline “California Wants to Teach Kindergartners There are 15 Genders” and cited an earlier report from the right-leaning FaithWire website headlined “15 Genders? California Educators Push to Force Progressive Ideology on Elementary Students,” adding that: “California elementary school students could soon be the targets of progressive sexual indoctrination if new health guidelines are approved. The guidelines, listed under the California Department of Education’s proposed Health Education Framework, include educational resources that teach children to reject gender stereotypes and embrace a rainbow of possible gender options. One recommended book called Who Are You? teaches that there are at least 15 genders, and that it’s impossible to determine whether a baby is a boy, a girl or something else.” In reality, FreedomProject and FaithWire’s coverage of the guidelines was grossly misleading, as a brief examination of the guidelines revealed. The Health Education Framework (HEF) is a lengthy document created by the California State Board of Education (SBE) and designed to set out various policies and guidelines on several areas relating to the health, well-being, and development of K-12 students. In January 2019, the SBE updated and revised the HEF for the year ahead, and as part of that effort, the document was put through a process of public feedback and consultation. As of 28 January, the draft of the HEF was around 820 pages long and had nine chapters. In one section of Chapter 3, the document set out guidelines for educating first-grade students (not “kindergartners,” as FreedomProject falsely claimed) about growth and development, and a sub-section called “Partnering with the family” made the following suggestions (on page 70): At this young age, it is important for students to recognize parents, guardians, caretakers, and other trusted adults as resources for information on growth and development…Setting a foundation for dialogue at this early age can establish a comfortable rapport between students and their parents, guardians, or caretakers as they encounter more complex subjects related to growth and development. Parents, guardians, or caretakers receive a handout with suggestions on how to initiate a conversation on growth and development with their child. Books such as It’s Not the Stork! A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends by Robie H. Harris (2008) or Who Are You? : The Kids Guide to Gender Identity by Brook Pessin-Whedbee (2017) can be shared together. So FreedomProject’s Pesta made two substantive factual errors within the first sentence of that group’s viral Facebook video, claiming “The state of California is now moving to mandate that kindergarten teachers teach five-year-olds 15 different genders in every single California kindergarten school.” In reality, the relevant section of the guidelines related to first-graders, not kindergartners, and provided recommended reading materials for parents, not teachers. Pessin-Whedbee’s book Who Are You? addresses issues surrounding gender identity among children and advises that an individual child is best-placed to decide his or her own gender identity, which the book distinguishes from “the sex assigned to you at birth, male or female.” Parents and adults “make a guess” at a baby’s gender, the book says, “by looking at their bodies.” Pages 16-21 of Who Are You? read as follows: Some people say there are only two genders. But there are really many genders. You are who you say you are, because YOU know you best. For some people, the grown-ups guessed right about their body and their gender. This is called cisgender — when someone’s identity matches their sex assigned at birth. And for some people, there are more than just two choices. These are just a few words people use: trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, transgender, gender neutral, agender, neutrois, bigender, third gender, two-spirit … and there are even more words people are using to describe their experience. This is called the gender spectrum. It’s not clear what the source was for the figure of “at least 15 genders.” Who Are You? mentioned 12 descriptive terms for the concept of gender identity, not 12 (or 15) separate and distinct gender identities. The other suggested book, It’s Not the Stork!, addresses issues around how babies are made, how children grow and develop, and how they can become familiar with their own bodies and understand personal physical boundaries, among other questions. Interestingly, that book only mentions and recognizes two genders, male and female, and many pages are dedicated to explaining to children how “boys and girls” differ — especially anatomically — and the ways in which they are similar or the same. Although Robie H. Harris’ and Michael Emberley’s book makes a point of showing children that gender stereotypes are not set in stone, it does not differentiate between birth-assigned sex and gender identity, stating: “One of the ways that you can tell boys and girls apart is by their bodies. Girls’ and boys’ bodies are mostly — but not exactly — the same. Girls and women have a vagina. Boys and men have a penis. These are some of the special parts of our bodies that make a person a boy or a man — or a girl or a woman.” Although the book acknowledges same-sex relationships and parenthood (“Some families … have two mommies, some have two daddies”), it does not mention or acknowledge gender fluidity or transgender identity, stating more than once that “Girls grow up to be women, boys grow up to be men.” These explanations go against those contained in Who Are You?, which explicitly states “there are really many genders,” as opposed to the two (male/female, boy/girl, man/woman) outlined in It’s Not the Stork! This is significant because the same sentence in Chapter 3 of the draft HEF suggests both books to parents to read with their children. However, neither the FaithWire nor FreedomProject coverage of the document mentioned the second book. This was a conspicuous omission that created the grossly misleading impression that the California Department of Education was engaged in an effort to force only one view of gender identity on parents and children. Clearly, that was not the case. After all, if the inclusion of Who Are You? in the draft framework meant, as its critics claimed, that the education department was attempting to “indoctrinate” children into the view that “there are really many genders,” then as a matter of logical necessity the inclusion of It’s Not the Stork! in the same sentence and the same section of the draft framework would mean the department was also attempting to “indoctrinate” children into the view that “Girls and women have a vagina, boys and men have a penis” — the very same viewpoint that FreedomProject and FaithWire purported to be defending in the first place. Perhaps the most serious factual error in FreedomProject and FaithWire’s coverage of the draft 2019 HEF was their claim that the curriculum (which they said included the book Who Are You?) was mandatory, and that parents and guardians who did not approve of it had no recourse. In their article, FaithWire wrote: “What about parents who would prefer that their children not be exposed to errant gender ideology? Unfortunately, there would be no opt-out option.” In his article, Newman claimed that “Parents will not be notified and are not allowed to opt their children out of the indoctrination sessions.” In FreedomProject’s viral Facebook video, Pesta solemnly warned: “Moms and dads will be utterly unable to opt their kids out of this. You will not be able to hold your five-year-old kindergarten kid home if they’re teaching ’15 genders,’ you’re going to have to — under the peril of the law — compel your kids to attend this.” That claim was utterly false. As we’ve established — and as even a brief check of the draft framework would have revealed to FreedomProject — Who Are You? was recommended as reading material for parents, not teachers, and the document said only that the two books listed there “can be shared” between parents and their children, not that they must be shared. A spokesperson for the California Department of Education confirmed the optional nature of the recommendations, writing to us in an email that: “The purpose of the framework is to provide guidance for teachers and administrators. There is nothing mandatory about the guidance offered in the framework … LEAs [school districts] are not obligated to use any suggested curriculum or handouts referenced in the framework.” Claim: In 2019, California education authorities formulated a policy that, if implemented, would force parents to allow their children to be taught that \"there are 15 genders.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story provided the costs for the FDA approved Provenge ($93,000/patient); as XL184 is under study and not available for sale, there was no information about what its costs might be. The story included the numbers of men who were seen to have improvement in their bone scans. While reporting on the improved bone scans seen in the men treated with XL184, the story did include some balance by indicating that this scan change might not translate into a change in the cancer in the bone and that nothing was yet known about how the drug affected longer term outcomes. The increase in median longevity observed with Provenge was reported from one study, without including the insight from the two other larger scale studies. In a split decision, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. There was no mention of any possible harms associated with XL184 even though information available from the company indicates that fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, high blood pressure, rash, ‘hand-foot syndrome’, and cough have been seen in the small cohort of men treated with XL 184 for 6 weeks or more. And while indicating that Provenge helped men with advanced prostate cancer live 4 months longer, there was no mention of any harms associated with use of this drug. This story provided no information other than positive findings of the study and the number of men treated. There was no information about the study design, length of treatment, length of follow-up or adverse events that were reported. The story did not do an adequate job detailing the level of information coming out of the ongoing study on XL184. While reporting that 19 out of 20 patients experienced improvement in their bone scans, it only mentioned that ‘some’ patients were able to stop taking pain medications as after taking XL184. Having a better looking bone scan is really not a meaningful endpoint for patients. Although the story indicated that the results reported on were ‘very early results’ it should have explained what was meant by this statement. XL184 is currently being studied in a shotgun trial where the investigational compound is being tried in patients with a variety (in this case 9) different solid tumors. It is a phase II trial; and it is currently underway. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story quoted at least one clinical expert who did not appear to have ties to the study reported on or the company that makes the drug. It would have greatly improved this story if insight from an expert on prostate cancer, especially castration-resistant prostate cancer had provided a context for evaluating the benefit of the drugs reported on – including quality of life issues. The story did an inadequate job of explaining the target group of men who would be appropriate candidates to consider Provenge or for the study of XL184. And while mentioning that Taxotere, a drug currently used to treat advanced prostate cancer, has not been shown to have much affect on bone scans, the story could have seized the opportunity to explain that the benefits seen with Taxotere have not yet been demonstrated for XL184. The story went on to add that drugs like Zometa and denosumab, used to treat bone lesions in men with advanced prostate cancer, haven’t been shown to fight cancer itself. In fact – neither has XL184. At this point – what we know is that after 6 weeks of treatment XL184 improves the picture seen on bone scan. But we do not yet know whether it changes the course of the cancer itself – i.e. do men live longer? The story provided clear information about the availability of Provenge and XL184. The story was clear about the novelty of the two drugs presented. We can’t be sure of the extent to which the story relied on a news release. We know there was independent reporting because we know that several interviews were conducted. But if the study results had yet to be presented and have not been published, where did the information come from? There was a company press release (http://www.exelixis.com/investors-media/press-releases ) and/or review of a poster before it was presented and/or there were advance interviews with researchers promoting their work. Claim: In Small Test, Experimental Prostate Drug Shows Promise",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Not long ago, Nabipur was a quiet farming village in northern India. Now the village is home to at least a dozen furnaces burning a steady stream of tires to make low-quality oil in a process known as pyrolysis. Global trade in waste tires has almost doubled in the past five years, mainly to developing countries like India and Malaysia, according to customs data provided to the United Nations. Britain is currently the largest exporter, followed by Italy and the United States. India is by far the biggest buyer, accounting for 32% of global imports last year, up from 7% five years ago, the U.N. data shows. Many of the tires are sent to recycling operations that comply with emissions and waste disposal regulations. But there is also a vast trade to backyard pyrolysis operations that do not, according to local authorities. In May, Reuters revealed that a mass poisoning in southern Malaysia had links to companies engaged in pyrolysis. Using unpublished customs data and interviews with dozens of industry sources, Reuters documented a growing international trade in waste tires that pollute the communities that host them, according to local authorities and health experts. For many developed countries, shipping tires abroad is cheaper than recycling them domestically. That helped drive international trade in rubber waste to nearly 2 million tonnes in 2018, equivalent to 200 million tyres, from 1.1 million tonnes in 2013. The trade has also been fed by ravenous fuel demand for industrial furnaces in countries like India, the emergence of inexpensive Chinese pyrolysis equipment, and weak regulations worldwide. FACTBOX on the tyre trade:  Tires are not defined as hazardous under the Basel Convention, which governs trade in dangerous waste, meaning there are few restrictions on trading them internationally unless specified by the importing country. In most countries, including China and the United States, the majority of scrap tires are handled domestically and dumped in landfills, recycled or used as fuel in factories producing products like cement and paper. (GRAPHIC: Recycling and reuse of tires - here)  Pyrolysis supporters say the process can be a relatively clean way of disposing of tires and turning them into useful fuel. However, controlling emissions and processing waste residue from the burning of a product that is made up a wide range of chemicals, and synthetic and natural rubber is expensive and difficult to make profitable on a mass scale. State-of-the-art plants can cost tens of millions of dollars, whereas basic Chinese-made pyrolysis equipment is available from online retailers for as little as $30,000. An Indian government audit found that as of July 2019 there were 637 licensed pyrolysis plants countrywide, of which 270 were not complying with environmental standards and 116 had been shut down. The audit said most operators used rudimentary equipment that exposed workers to fine carbon particles and led to dust, oil and air pollution leaking into the plant and surroundings. Industry sources say several hundred more unlicensed pyrolysis businesses are operating across India. Pyrolysis plants have mushroomed in the southern Malaysian state of Johor over the last decade, industry sources said, where they supply fuel for ships. At one plant visited by Reuters near the Johor town of Kulai, Bangladeshi immigrants covered in carbon dust shovelled tires imported from Australia and Singapore into a Chinese-made furnace. They lived onsite in a hut next to the kilns. “People don’t know where old tyres go,” said the owner, who gave his name only as Sam. “But if my factory doesn’t exist, where will the tires go?” He said he had a license to operate. Reuters could not verify this. The environmental impact of pyrolysis in places like India and Malaysia is making some exporting countries take notice. Australia, a major exporter of tyres to Southeast Asia and India, said in August it would ban waste exports, including tires, although it did not give a timeline. Australia was “aware of allegations of unsustainable processing of waste tires in some importing countries” and did not want “to be part of such practices”, said a spokesman for Trevor Evans, the official who oversees waste reduction. Burning tyres without adequate emissions controls can release numerous toxic chemicals and gases into the environment, as well as particulates, said Lalit Dandona, head of the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative, a group of research bodies mapping health issues across India. (GRAPHIC: What's in a tire? - here)  He said the short-term effects for those exposed to smoke from burning tires included skin irritation and lung infections and that prolonged exposure could result in heart attacks and lung cancer. Other government bodies worldwide, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have made similar conclusions. In a 1997 report, the EPA said emissions from burning tires included dioxins, sulphur oxides and a range of metals including mercury and arsenic. Many of the tires that end up in Indian villages like Nabipur start their lives in Britain. Indian waste tire imports from Britain alone in 2018 amounted to 263,000 tonnes - 13% of the total volume of tires traded worldwide - compared with 48,000 tonnes in 2013. (GRAPHIC: Where India imports its waste tires - here)  Most European countries require tyre manufacturers and suppliers to organize tire collection and treatment, meaning there are more home-grown recycling operations. There are no such requirements in Britain, however, which means that small firms can easily obtain licenses to collect waste tires and sell them abroad. Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said it fully implements the rules of the Basel Convention but needs to do more about waste tires. DEFRA said it planned to make producers more responsible for old tires, as well as increase monitoring of shipments. (GRAPHIC: Top tire waste importing countries - here)  Once in India, the tires are dispersed between recyclers who shred them for use in road-building or sports fields, firms that burn them as cheap fuel to make cement or bricks, and legal and illegal pyrolysis plants, importers and exporters said. India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association estimates that most imported waste tyres end up in pyrolysis plants, according to the group’s deputy director, Vinay Vijayvargia. Faced with a growing backlash from environmental groups and residents living near pyrolysis plants, India is considering banning all but the most sophisticated operations. The country’s environmental court is expected to rule on the proposed ban in January. Six years ago, there were no pyrolysis plants in Nabipur, 70 miles south of New Delhi. Now there are 10, with most operating at night to avoid scrutiny, residents said. Reuters visited three small plants in the village. At one, tires embossed with ‘Made in Germany’ and ‘Made in U.S.A.’ lay strewn on the floor and thick sludge seeped from pipes protruding from incineration drums. Most tires used for vehicles in India are made domestically. Workers wore no safety equipment, and their skin and clothes were covered in black soot. The owner, Pankaj, said a trader sells him tires imported from abroad. Villagers said they have suffered from breathing difficulties and eye and throat infections since the plants began expanding, and farmers had found black dust in their soil. Reuters could not independently verify the claims. It was also not possible to verify if the operations were licensed. “Used tires are not available locally, so they import from abroad,” said Shiva Choudhary, a businessman who leases out construction equipment in Nabipur. “They clean their own country and dump their garbage on us.” Claim: Trading tires: How the West fuels a waste crisis in Asia.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No cost information was provided, leaving a big hole in the story. The range in costs here is wide, and some of the more invasive procedures would be quite costly. None would be covered by insurance unless necessitated by a medical condition. The benefits are discussed but not adequately quantified. Harms are mentioned here, and we appreciate that. We do think, though, that some hard numbers should have been put to the risks associated with more of the enhancement procedures. We give it a pass, though, for at least providing harms data for the penile extenders that are touted as the method with the biggest benefit. It says, “More than 70 of them used penile extenders, with six experiencing minor problems such as bruising, pain and itching. These devices yielded average flaccid length increases of between 0.2 inches and 1 inch, Gontero said, and men achieving better results noted their satisfaction.” The story provided some information about the study design (a retrospective review of the literature), and the way it examined various aspects of penile enhancement. But the story lacked any discussion of the study’s limitations, including the methods for choosing studies to review, the homogeneneity of the populations studied and the like. Importantly, none of the studies examined actually compared treatment approaches, and the authors concluded that comparative studies need to be performed. The story does an adequate job avoiding disease-mongering, explaining that most men who seek penile enhancement are, in fact, quite average. It quotes one of the urologist-authors: “most men complaining of inadequate penile size do have associated sexual problems even if their penile dimensions fall within the normal range — so-called dysmorphophobic penis.”  The story also notes this “is a condition consisting of an imaginary flaw in the physical appearance”. Some authors have addressed the medicalization of dysmorphophobias in general, not the specific “dysmorphophobic penis” referred to in the story: Given all of the concern about past editions of the DSM (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual – the psychiatry tome that names and categories psychiatric disorders) and the current DSM redrafting underway, the story could have done more on this point. But we’ll give it a satisfactory score, nonetheless, since it at least used terms such as “average…normal… imaginary flaw.” The story uses independent sources, and we applaud that. We wish that the second independent source quoted had not been a penile enhancement practitioner. The story did not, however, note that the co-author of the study has conducted research for a European company that produces a penile traction device and is a member of the company’s medical advisers (http://www.andromedical.com/medical-committee/committee-members/). This was not included in the conflict of interest statement that was published with the study, but this is a reminder that reporters should perform basic background checks when covering research and quoting experts. Given that so much of the story comes back to the idea that men don’t really “need” these procedures, it would have been worth discussing whether there are any other ways to help men feel better about their body type or their perceived sexual inadequacy. Obviously people seek therapy for sexual disorders, but that was addressed only briefly: “Gontero noted that cognitive behavioral therapy might help build confidence in some men.”  After all of the attention the story gave to medical/physical interventions, the cognitive behavioral work seemed to deserve more attention. The story suggests but does not makes it clear that many “treatments” are available. It implies that surgical procedures are performed by urologists and plastic surgeons. We would have liked to have seen some additional comments about the availability of and a definition of traction methods. A comment on the frequency of these procedures from one of the plastic surgery societies would have been a good addition. Besides the comment, “urologists are constantly approached by men concerned about their penis size,” we are not given any idea about how widespread or available are the methods to address these concerns. And cognitive behavioral therapy isn’t given much attention at all. Because the story adequately explained that it was reporting on a retrospective review of the medical literature – by definition it was not reporting on novel conclusions – only the overview of past studies. The story does not rely on a news release. Claim: When Size Matters, Men Can Turn to Penile Extenders: Study",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 25 June 2018, a Russian mining company named Uralasbest, which is one of the world’s largest producers of asbestos, posted a message of support for President Trump on their official Facebook and VK (a Russian version of Facebook) pages. The post included photographs of packed asbestos material adorned with the face of Trump and the text “Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States.”  Asbestos is a mineral that was once widely used in construction projects for its fire resistant properties, but research has since linked it to a variety of cancers, most notably lung cancer and mesothelioma. The non-profit health and environmental protection Environmental Working Group, who first called attention to the Uralasbest post, provided an English translation of the text that was shared alongside the image: “Donald is on our side! … He supported the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, who stated that his agency would no longer deal with negative effects potentially derived from products containing asbestos. Donald Trump supported a specialist and called asbestos ‘100% safe after application. '” These images, as they were posted to the official social media accounts of Uralasbest, are genuine. Also genuine is President Trump’s support of the asbestos industry. Trump once opined, in his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback, that efforts to reduce and regulate asbestos (a material he claimed was “100% safe” once applied) in building construction were part of a mob-led conspiracy: “I believe that the movement against asbestos was led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal. Great pressure was put on politicians, and as usual, the politicians relented.” Claim: A Russian asbestos company placed a seal with the face of President Donald Trump on their product with the note \"Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: [Collected via e-mail, June 2012] IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: Do Not Delete this message until it is extended to others .. On Sunday, a family picnic, brought with them few drinks in tin. However, on Monday, two family members (who joined the picnic) were admitted to hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit space. One died on Wednesday. Autopsy results concluded it hit Leptospirosis. The bacteria, known as LEPTOSPIRA interrogans, is stuck to the tin cans, and were drunk, without the use of glasses, cups or sip straws. Test results showed that the soda tin was infected from mice urine, and that had dried, the mice’ urine containing Leptospirosis. It is highly recommended to rinse the parts evenly on all soda cans before drinking it. Cans are usually stored in the warehouse and delivered direct to retail stores without cleaning. A study shows that the top of all beverage cans are more contaminated than public toilets (full of germs and bacteria.) So, clean it with water before putting it to your mouth in order to avoid contamination. [Collected via e-mail, 2005] DEADLY SODA CANS VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ This incident happened recently in north Texas. We need to be even more careful everywhere. A woman went boating one Sunday, taking with her some cans of coke which she put in the refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken into Intensive Care Unit and on Wednesday she died. The autopsy revealed a certain Leptospirose caused by the can of coke from which she had drunk, not using a glass. A test showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis. Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly recommended to wash thoroughly the upper part of soda cans before drinking out of them as they have been stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without being cleaned. A study at NYCU showed that the tops of soda cans are more contaminated than public toilets i.e.. full of germs and bacteria. So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident. [Collected via e-mail, 2002] FOR ALL THOSE PEOPLE THAT DRINK STRAIGHT FROM THE CAN. This incident happened recently in Belgium. A woman went boating one Sunday, taking with her some cans of coke which she put in the refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken into ICU and on Wednesday she died. The autopsy revealed a certain Leptospirosis caused by the can of coke from which she had drunk straight out of, not using a glass. A test showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis. Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly recommended to wash thoroughly the upper part of soda cans before drinking out of them as they have been stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without with being cleaned. A study in Spain showed that the tops of soda cans are more contaminated then public toilets i.e full of germs and bacteria. So to wash them with water is advised before putting it to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident. Please pass this on. [Collected via e-mail, 1998] Whenever you buy a can of coke or whatever, please make sure that you wash the top with running water and soap or if not available drink with a straw. A family friend’s friend died after drinking a can of soda! Apparently, she didn’t clean the top before drinking from the can. The top was encrusted with dried rat’s urine which is toxic and obviously lethal!!!!! Canned drinks and other food stuff are stored in warehouses and containers that are usually infested with rodents and then get transported to the retail outlets without being properly cleaned. So you know what to do from now on folks. Please forward this message to the people you care about…  Ever since the late 1990s, multiple accounts shared online have been spreading the tale of deaths purportedly caused by people who unwitting drank from soda cans whose exteriors were contaminated with rat urine. In keeping with standard scarelore, the names of the victim and where and when these tragic events happened were not included in these stories (although when writer informs us that the victim was “a family friend’s friend” in an attempt to establish his connection to the events described), and a search of news items fails to turn up anything about anyone’s having died in the fashion described. By September 1999 a expanded variation of the “deadly rat excretions” theme with additional details appeared on the Internet:  A stock clerk was sent to clean up a storeroom at their Maui location. When he got back, he was complaining that the storeroom was really filthy, and that he had noticed dried mouse or rat droppings in some areas. A couple of days later, he started feeling like he was coming down with stomach flu, achy joints, headache, and he started throwing up. He went to bed and never really got up. Within two days he was so ill and weak. His blood sugar count was down to 66 and his face and eyeballs were yellow. He was rushed to the emergency at Pali Momi, where they said he was suffering from massive organ failure! The doctor, in ER, transferred him to St. Francis Hospital and notifies all his relatives as he didn’t have long to live. In ICU of St. Francis Hospital, a team of doctors were trying desperately to stabilize him. They said that even if by some miracle he pulled through, he would need a new liver, kidneys, pancreas and bladder. He died shortly before midnight. None of us would have ever made the connection between his job and his death, but the doctors specifically asked if he had been in a warehouse or exposed to dried rat or mouse droppings at any time. They said there is a virus (much like Hanta virus) that lives in dried rat and mouse droppings. Once dried, these droppings are like dust, and can be easily inhaled or ingested if a person is not careful to wash their hands and face thoroughly, or wear protective gear. An autopsy is being conducted to verify the doctors’ suspicions and tissue samples have been sent to the CDC in Atlanta. Please be extremely careful to always rinse off the tops of any canned sodas or foods, and wipe off pasta packaging, cereal boxes, etc. Almost everything you buy in a supermarket was stored in a warehouse at one time or another, and stores themselves often have rodents. I worked in grocery wholesaling long enough to know that even the cleanest store has mice or rats. Despite the vividness of the story, nothing about such a death turned up in the news, and there was no record of anyone, store clerk or otherwise, dying at the St. Francis Hospital after coming in contact with rodent droppings. Adding to this story’s implausibility were the questions raised by the few checkable details offered in the text. The St. Francis Hospital is in Honolulu, as is the Pali Momi Medical Center. Honolulu is on the island of Oahu. We’re told the doomed store clerk was working in Maui. Someone who’d become ill on Maui likely would have first gone to a medical facility on that island even if he was later transferred by air or sea 75 miles to the larger facility in Honolulu. More simply, even if a sickly store clerk in Maui did end up in the St. Francis Hospital on Oahu, he shouldn’t have been seen in an emergency room on Oahu; he should have first visited or been taken to an emergency room on Maui. As the National Center for Infectious Diseases noted of this e-mail:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has received several inquiries about an e-mail report of a stock clerk who became infected with hantavirus while working in a storeroom. According to the e-mail message, the infection resulted from exposure to dried rodent droppings that were contaminated with hantavirus. The e-mail message warns the reader to take precautions when handling items such as soda cans and grocery packages (for example, cereal boxes) because they may be contaminated with hantavirus. The e-mail report is untrue. CDC could not substantiate this report of a hantavirus infection, nor has CDC been asked to participate in an investigation of the incident described in the e-mail. Most scares contain a vague whiff of plausibility, and this is true with both stories listed above. Although there is nothing inherently toxic about urine or feces from a healthy rat, excretions from a sick rat are another kettle of fish, and perhaps that is what this bit of scarelore is addressing. There have been several rat urine stories in the news of late. Leptospirosis, better known as Weil’s disease, is a potentially deadly illness caused by bacteria passed along to humans in contact with urine from diseased animals (rats, frogs, rabbits, snakes, pigs and dogs). It is picked up rurally from swimming in contaminated lakes and reservoirs. In cities, the bacteria are passed along more easily — people splashing through puddles in areas that have a large rodent population might contract the disease, and eating or drinking contaminated food and water is always a danger. Leptospirosis can also be contracted by rubbing eyes with dirty hands. People with open cuts and wounds are especially vulnerable to the bacteria, as it can be picked up almost anywhere. As the rat population in cities grows, so does the potential for contact with this disease. Leptospirosis typically causes aches, pains and fever that go away on their own. One in ten cases includes high fever, jaundice, meningitis (inflammation of the brain lining), acute kidney failure, internal bleeding and, occasionally, death. Victims can die if they develop serious kidney or liver complications. In extreme cases, death follows three to six days after infection. The disease is treatable with antibiotics. In November 1998 leptospirosis killed eight people and hospitalized one hundred in China. In the same month in 1997, 22 people died from the same cause out of the 300 who were infected with it. In the United States, 100 to 200 cases of leptospirosis occur each year (with about half of those in Hawaii), according to the Center for Disease Control. Another disease passed on through rat urine is hantavirus. It is transmitted to humans through breathing in particles of an infected rodent’s urine, droppings or saliva. The virus becomes airborne when excrement dries. Early symptoms mimic the flu and can progress to respiratory failure. Since 1993, 21 deaths in the United States have been blamed on this disease. In general, urine-encrusted soda cans are not the most likely purveyors of these diseases. Most cans of soda are packaged into cardboard boxes while still on the production line and thus aren’t at any risk of contamination. Additionally, once bottlers have mixed soft drink syrup in with soda water and sweetener, they try to get the finished product to the consumer as expeditiously as possible. Soft drink bottlers don’t warehouse large inventories of finished product for any length of time — freshness is everything, so the product is moved out quickly, leaving little opportunity for rodents to use the tops of cans as latrines. Nonetheless, it’s still always a good idea to wipe off cans from exposed six-packs or those dispensed from drink machines, if for no other reason than to avoid picking up something passed on by the human handlers of the product. Claim: Death and disease from leptospirosis is spread by rat urine on soda cans.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Rick Green of Dripping Springs, in an April 13 Republican primary runoff for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court, told a Montgomery County group that voters don’t have to guess his judicial philosophy -- they can look at his legislative voting record. Green served two terms in the Texas House from 1999 to 2003; he lost his seat in 2002 to Democrat Patrick Rose. According to a video of his Jan. 14 Montgomery County remarks posted on his campaign Web site, Green encouraged listeners to check his House history, saying: \"As a state rep, I was considered the fourth-most conservative in the Legislature.”Is that so? To support his claim, Green's campaign pointed us to the 1999 Texas Conservative Report, a publication of the Free Enterprise PAC, an advocate for limited government and \"traditional values.\" It has since become the Heritage Alliance PAC.The 1999 report tracks dozens of votes made by every legislator in that year's regular session. To evaluate House members, a panel chose 64 votes on \"economic, social, governmental and education issues\" that the group said “showed signs of a liberal or conservative philosophy.” Lawmakers were graded based on the number of times they voted with the conservative position.Green and two other members of the 150-member House voted the group's preferred way 88 percent of the time; only three members leaned the group's way more often. (The average score was 43 percent.) By that measure, Green shared the “fourth-most conservative” honors with GOP Reps. John Davis of Houston and Charlie Howard of Sugar Land. Senators were rated separately, leaving Green's statement open to interpretation whether he was claiming to be the fourth-most conservative in the whole Legislature (which would be an overstatement) or just the House (which was accurate).The report lists 28 criteria that define how positions were identified as conservative, including if legislation made government more efficient, strengthened the family's importance as the foundation of the nation, reduced the overall tax burden or protected a citizen's ability to make a living.In summarizing its ratings, the group highlighted 12 votes on topics ranging from property taxes to abortion to standardized testing.One vote was on a bill that would have expanded the state's hate crimes law by, among other things, enhancing criminal penalties and specifying which groups would be protected against bias crimes, including those targeted because of their \"race, color, disability, religion, national origin or ancestry, age, status as a pregnant person, gender, or sexual preference.\" The Free Enterprise PAC said \"nay\" was the conservative vote in this case because the measure would have given \"special rights to an individual or group\" and did not support \"traditional Judeo/Christian moral values.\" Green was in the minority in voting no. That bill eventually failed, though a hate crimes measure later passed into law during the 2001 legislative session. Green also received a thumbs-up from the group for voting against a bill requiring people younger than 18 to wear a bicycle helmet when riding on public roads or paths. That measure did not become law. All in all, Green was one of 32 House members the group designated a Leader of Excellence in 1999. Not noted by Green in Montgomery County: Based on some of his votes in the 2001 legislative session -- Green's last -- he slipped in the group's conservative rankings.Not that Green became a liberal. The group's 2001 report states that Green took its favored position 65 percent of the time, compared to a House average of 34 percent. He tied with three others as the 11th-most conservative House member. Thirty members sided more often with the group's preferred positions. Green, who served on Heritage Alliance's board of directors from March through November 2009, was not designated a Leader of Excellence by the group in 2001 because he sided with it in less than 70 percent of the rated votes.As before, the group's 2001 report spotlights 12 votes, which covered topics ranging from the death penalty to the minimum wage to mental illness. The votes included two that the group penalized Green for, both voice votes, in which passage is determined by choruses of \"ayes\" and \"nays\" on the House floor.The first was on a proposal to mandate that health insurance policies in Texas cover anorexia and bulimia as serious mental illnesses, and the second was on a bill requiring the state attorney general's office to use gender-neutral terminology in publications. Neither became law. For both, the group's preferred position was to oppose them. When we asked Heritage Alliance President Richard Ford how the group was able to tell tell whether a legislator had voted yes or no in those instances, he said he could not recall how those votes were treated because the report was done so long ago.We have a hunch why the group marked Green as voting the wrong way on the two bills. After a voice vote is held, individual members may request that their vote be separately recorded as for or against. It appears that Free Enterprise gave conservative credit only to the lawmakers who did that on those two measures, and Green was not one of them, according to the House Journal.His wife, Kara Green, the campaign's treasurer, said her husband did not support either measure. Summing up: Green accurately recaps his conservative ranking — albeit by a single group, the Free Enterprise PAC, during his first of two terms. He omits the fact that he was not considered fourth-most conservative in his second term, according to the group. Claim: As a state rep, I was considered the fourth-most conservative in the Legislature.”",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Imagine for a moment what your life would be like without a phone, corded or wireless. How would you contact emergency services if there was a fire or a serious injury? How would you contact a potential new employer, or keep in touch with a current one? How would you contact your utility company about a power outage, or a doctor about your sick child? How would you keep in touch with your loved ones and your community? In this day and age, telecommunications services are a real necessity, and not being able to afford them is a real liability. Those types of questions prompted the Federal Communication Commission to implement the Lifeline benefit program for income-eligible consumers in 1984. That program had two parts: Lifeline Assistance, which provided discounts on basic monthly landline telephone service at the primary residence of qualified telephone subscribers, and Lifeline Link-Up, which provided discounts on the initial installation fee for landline telephone service at the primary residence of qualified telephone subscribers. As cell phone usage has increased and cell phone service fees have dropped, the Lifeline program has been expanded to include wireless technology. Prepaid cell phone companies have spun off government-approved subsidiaries (such as Safelink Wireless, Assurance Wireless, and Reachout Wireless) to specialize in providing Lifelife-covered telephone services to qualifying participants: Examples:   [Collected via e-mail, October 2009] Have you heard this one? THE OBAMAPHONE Actually in the state of Wisconsin it is 250 minutes of Free Air Time and they are running TV ads promoting it. No Bull Just when you think you’ve heard it all,, our illustrious Congress quietly comes up with a new zinger to put their hands in your pockets, and pick them while you aren’t watching. Isn’t this just wonderful! I was standing in line at the checkout counter at Wal Mart and as I looked at the line behind me, I saw a couple of people talking about what looked like identical new cell phones, bragging about the fact that their phones were free and so was the airtime. The woman in line behind me had heard the same exchange and turned to the young man behind her and asked, “Is that a new type of cell phone?” The young man replied, “Yes, this is my new ‘Obama phone'”. She asked him what an “Obama phone” was, and he went on to say that, “Welfare recipients are now eligible to receive” what he described as (1) a FREE new cell phone, and (2) approximately 70 FREE minutes of air time every month. Needless to say, I was a little skeptical about his answer, so when I got back home, I ‘Googled’ it, and lo and behold, he was telling the truth. This was what I discovered: SafeLink Wireless is a government supported program that provides a free cell phone and airtime each month for income-eligible customers. In other words, your tax dollars are being distributed to a wireless phone provider to provide welfare recipients with free cell phones and airtime. I don’t know about you, but as for me, enough is enough. We are $14 Trillion in debt, Congress is balking at continuing unemployment payments to those who want to work, and Congress is increasing the dole-out to dead beats. The ship of State is sinking, and it’s sinking fast. The old concept of getting ahead through hard work has flown out the window. It has been replaced by Obama’s and Congress’ idea of “Hope and Change.” The country has changed all right, changed to “Why should I work for it, when I can get it for free?” [Collected via e-mail, October 2009] Here’s another Obama program that we taxpayers are footing the bill for. I had a former employee call me earlier today inquiring about a job, and at the end of the conversation he gave me his phone number. I asked the former employee if this was a new cell phone number and he told me yes this was his “Obama phone.” I asked him what an “Obama phone” was and he went on to say that welfare recipients are now eligible to receive (1) a FREE new phone and (2) approx 70 minutes of FREE minutes every month. I was a little skeptical so I Googled it and low and behold he was telling the truth. TAX PAYER MONEY IS BEING REDISTRIBUTED TO WELFARE RECIPIENTS FOR FREE CELL PHONES. This program was started earlier this year. Enough is enough, the ship is sinking and it’s sinking fast. The very foundations that this country was built on are being shaken. The age old concepts of God, family, and hard work have flown out the window and are being replaced with “Hope and Change” and “Change we can believe in.” From that basic framework, rumors like the ones encapsulated in the Examples cited above have circulated, claiming that “the Obama administration created a program to give free cell phones paid for by taxpayer money to welfare recipients.” All the elements of such statements are erroneous or exaggerated: All telecommunications service providers and certain other providers of telecommunications must contribute to the federal USF based on a percentage of their interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues. These companies include wireline phone companies, wireless phone companies, paging service companies and certain Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers. Some consumers may notice a “Universal Service” line item on their telephone bills. This line item appears when a company chooses to recover its USF contributions directly from its customers by billing them this charge. The FCC does not require this charge to be passed on to customers. Each company makes a business decision about whether and how to assess charges to recover its Universal Service costs. These charges usually appear as a percentage of the consumer’s phone bill. Companies that choose to collect Universal Service fees from their customers cannot collect an amount that exceeds their contribution to the USF. They also cannot collect any fees from a Lifeline program participant. The costs of administering the Lifeline program have increased greatly with the move towards cellular telephone services, leading the FCC to approve a comprehensive overhaul of the program in January 2012 intended to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. A number of web sites touting Lifeline benefits and imitating the look of government web sites have sprung up on the Internet, but those sites are privately operated ones created to promote the sales of cellular services and have no official connection to the federal government or the current presidential administration: By 2010, Virgin Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, i-Wireless, Head Start, Consumer Cellular, Midwestern Telecom, Allied Wireless, and others had free phone plans. That’s why you can find all these “free cell phone” websites that look kind of shady, like Obamaphone.net or FreeGovernmentCellPhones.net. In 2011, the FCC said that these carriers were “fiercely competing for the business of low-income consumers by marketing ‘free’ phones.” TracFone spokesman Jose Fuentes [said], “We’ve had a lot of fly-by-night companies come in.” Fuentes estimated that more than 1,700 wireless companies were part of Lifeline. Between 2008 and 2012, the number of people with Lifeline phones grew from 7.1 million to 12.5 million. These companies may be fly-by-night at providing cell phone service, but they are pretty good at marketing, and as the rush of merchandise tied to his inauguration showed, Obama’s name seems to move product. Additional information: AFFORDABLE TELEPHONE SERVICE FOR INCOME-ELIGIBLE CONSUMERS Claim: The Obama administration created a program to provide free cell phones to welfare recipients.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In May 2020, a video supposedly showing a line of fire burning across a field was widely shared on social media. On the Nature is Fucking Lit section of Reddit, this video was shared with the caption: “Poplar fluff burning in Spain.”  🔥 Poplar fluff burning in Spain from      NatureIsFuckingLit    The visuals in this video are unusual, to say the least, and left some viewers wondering if the attached caption was accurate. Is this a real video or a digital edit? Was this video really taken in Spain? What’s poplar fluff? The earliest version of this video that we could find was posted to the Club De Montaña Calahorra Facebook page on the afternoon of May 6. This Facebook page posted two videos of the incident, one of which was accompanied by a simple caption warning viewers to “cuidado con las pelusas” or “watch out for lint.”  The video was quickly picked up by Spanish news outlets, such as Cope, which reported that the video was filmed at a park (Parque del Cidacos) in Calahorra, a municipality in La Rioja, Spain. The local news outlet La Rioja reported that a “white cloak” had covered Parque del Cidacos for the last few days, but that this fire suddenly turned everything green (translated via Google): During the last days, everyone who walked through the Cidacos de Calahorra park did so surrounded by a white cloak. It had not snowed, no. It was the color that the poplar fluff left on the green areas. Well, all that white color has been removed in one fell swoop. It has burned and the moment has been captured by a reader who has passed the video to us. As if it were a choreography, the fire has eliminated the lint, revealing the green color of the lawn before the gaze and surprise of those who have been caught that moment in the park of the town of La Rioja. The “fluff” in the above-displayed video is actually seeds from the poplar tree. The city of Calgary provided the following information about “fluff” on a web page dedicated to the “problems with polar trees”:  This “fluff” is actually poplar seeds that are produced by the female trees of the species, but it’s not the fluff or the seeds that are making you sneeze. Most allergists agree that the real culprits are native grasses and other plants that are flowering just as the poplars are seeding. Poplar trees do create pollen, but it is produced by the male tree in early spring, long before fluff season. Cutting down the female trees won’t cure your pollen allergy. In addition to creating literal headaches for those with allergies, this fluff is also flammable and can contribute to the spread of wildfires. In June 2019, the City of Winnipeg told CTV News that an unusually large amount of poplar fluff likely worsened a fire in Assiniboine Forest: Claim: A video shows the fluff of poplar trees burning across a field in Spain. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The cause of death for nearly 300 ringed, bearded and spotted seals since June 1, 2018, is not known, according to the fisheries arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the management agency for the marine mammals. “We’re looking at a broad spectrum of possible causes and trying to rule out what we can and narrow it down,” NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Julie Speegle said. Viruses, bacteria and algal blooms are possible causes. Water temperature in the northern Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea the last two summers have been higher than normal. The agency is looking at possible ecosystem influences, including diminished sea ice, Speegle said. Alaska Native coastal communities hunt all three seals for meat and hides as part of a subsistence life. NOAA Fisheries received reports of 282 dead seals, almost five times more than the average number of reported strandings, according to the agency. The count included 85 bearded seals, 66 ringed seals, 40 spotted seals and 91 seals that were not identified. The deaths occurred over all age groups. The deaths both years occurred mostly from June to September. Some stranded seals were missing fur or were skinnier than normal, but the time between death and discovery of a carcass hinder investigators. “Many of the seals have been pretty badly decomposed so it’s been hard to identify exactly what the fat layer is,” Speegle said. Federal law defines an unusual mortality event as strandings that involve a significant die-off and demand an immediate response. The declaration allows the agency to focus resources on an investigation. Bearded seals get their name from short snouts covered with thick, long, white whiskers. Bearded seals give birth and rear pups on drifting pack ice. Ringed seals are the smallest of Alaska’s ice seals and are the main prey of polar bears. They get their name from small, light-colored circles on their coats. Ringed seals are the only seals that thrive in completely ice-covered Arctic waters. They use strong claws to maintain breathing holes in thick ice and give birth in lairs dug in snow that accumulates on top of ice. Young pups cannot survive in cold water until they have grown a blubber layer. Spotted seals are medium-size seals with light coats and dark spots. They often are found at the outer margins of shifting ice floes. NOAA Fisheries also declared an unusual mortality event following abnormal molting and deaths of ice seals and walruses from 2011 to 2016. A definitive cause was not identified. But biologists don’t believe that event, marked by animals with hair loss and skin lesions, is connected to the current event. The agency estimated that 657 seals were affected over those six years. Ringed seals and some populations of bearded seals are listed as threatened species because of the loss of sea ice due to climate warming. The Center for Biological Diversity in June sued the Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service for not designating critical habitat for threatened ringed and bearded seals. Claim: US biologists eye unusual deaths of Alaska ice seals.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A total of 87 bills in 34 states of all political stripes seek to save money on prescription drugs, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. Six of those states are considering bills that would allow drugs to be imported from Canada, where they cost an average 30 percent less than in the United States. One is liberal Vermont, where lawmakers have revived a nearly 2-decade old proposal. Conservative Utah is considering a similar proposal. Maryland is looking at creating a commission that would regulate drug costs. “States have to balance budgets,” said Trish Riley, executive director of the health policy academy, based in Portland, Maine. “You budget a certain amount of money for drugs in a state employee health program or a Medicaid program, and you’re surprised by the mid-year increases that are unpredictable and huge.” The stakes are high not only for state governments, government employees and Medicaid recipients, but also for anyone else paying for prescription drugs. The federal government does not control drug prices, which are set by drug companies and are subject to costs and competition, while Medicaid negotiates cheaper drugs for low-income Americans. But one hope is that importing drugs can put downward pressure on domestic costs for all, said Utah state Rep. Norm Thurston, a Republican who introduced a drug-import bill in his state. “It’s not a liberal-conservative thing,” he said. “It’s not a Democrat-Republican thing.” Of the pharmaceutical industry, he said, “it makes them compete against themselves.” The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group for drugmakers, argues the proposals would threaten people’s health because quality could not be assured. Safety has nothing to do with the potential for tainted drugs from Canada, said Thurston, whose bill could be debated by the Utah House on Monday. “The No. 1 threat to patient safety related to prescription drugs in our state is that the drugs are so expensive that people don’t take them,” Thurston said. “We don’t have any widespread problem in our state with counterfeit drugs.” Allowing patients to buy medication from other countries with strict drug standards, such as Canada, is an idea that has long been floated in Washington by lawmakers of both parties. But each time, it has been blocked by the powerful drug lobby. President Donald Trump has supported opening up imports, and in his State of the Union speech called drug prices an “injustice” and promised action this year. But it’s still unclear whether his administration will take the importation route. New Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has favored other steps to increase competition domestically. Federal law since 2003 has allowed the U.S. health secretary to give states permission to import drugs, but such permission has never been granted. Federal drug-import legislation, introduced by Vermont’s independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders last year, is once again being considered by Congress, though states are taking the bolder approaches. The drug-import concept was highlighted almost two decades ago by Sanders, at the time a U.S. representative, when he took busloads of Vermonters to Quebec to visit Canadian doctors and fill prescriptions. Leukemia patient Jayne Rivera, 59, of Lyndonville, Vermont, has been living on Social Security disability, and her medical costs have been paid by Medicare. While most costs are covered, a year ago she was still paying $60 to $70 a week for about 20 prescriptions. She just learned a $2,000 a month prescription will be covered, bringing her monthly drug bill down to about $40 a month. But the affordability question still nags at her. “It’s that worry,” she said. “OK, I need this medicine because it’s keeping me alive. I live on disability. With all my other bills and everything, I don’t have extra money for medication.” While many states are focused on their budgets, the New Hampshire legislature is considering a proposal designed to ensure pharmacists are allowed to tell customers whether they are getting the best deal. In Vermont, a Senate committee Feb. 4 approved a proposal to create a bulk purchasing program that would import drugs from Canada, following strict safety guidelines, so they could be distributed by pharmacies at a fraction of their American price. State Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, a liberal, said the idea isn’t as far-fetched as it once was. He pointed to Utah, a conservative state with a powerful congressional delegation, as being furthest down the path toward legalizing prescription drug imports from Canada. “There seems to be a bipartisan coalition that the American people are getting ripped off,” Ashe said, “and these huge spikes in prices in recent years have been a more egregious story than what we knew back in the ’90s when Bernie was starting to take those road trips.” Claim: States look to lower drug costs, consider Canadian imports.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The infant from Tuaran town in Sabah state tested positive for vaccine-derived polio virus type 1 on Friday after he was hospitalized with fever and muscle weakness. He is on respiratory support but his condition is stable, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said in a statement Monday. Malaysia is the second Asian country to have reported a polio case after an outbreak in the Philippines in September. The World Health Organization says polio, which has been largely eradicated, remains endemic in only Pakistan and Afghanistan. Dzulkefly said tests showed the baby’s strain had genetic links to the polio virus detected in Philippines and investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the infection. Malaysia’s last polio case occurred in 1992 and the country was declared polio-free in 2000. The health ministry said the strain was believed to have originated from a weakened virus contained in oral polio vaccine that was excreted from the body through feces and possibly spread in an unsanitary environment to those who haven’t been immunized. Dzulkefly said Malaysia switched from oral vaccine to inactivated polio vaccine since 2008, that is given to children via injection in a combination with several vaccines for other infectious diseases including diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. The government fully halted the use of oral vaccine three years ago, but he stressed the country has not had any reports of vaccine-derived polio cases from the use of over 80 million doses of the oral vaccine. “The first polio case since Malaysia was polio-free upset us,” Dzulkefly said. Vaccination has been stepped up in the infant’s home village after investigations showed 25 out of 204 children, aged between 2 months and 15 years, were not vaccinated against polio, he said. “All of these children are non-citizens and have been given polio vaccines. This activity is being expanded to other risky areas to prevent transmission,” he said. Officers are also educating villagers about polio and preventive measures, he said. Tests have been carried out to those close to the infant and from the environment, he said, adding that so far wastewater samplings from six sewage treatment plants in Sabah showed no presence of wild polio virus or vaccine-derived strains. Health officers are also bolstering surveillance to detect those who has muscle paralysis, a symptom of polio, though none have been detected so far, he said. There is no known cure for polio, which can only be prevented with vaccines. Claim: Malaysia vaccinating for polio after first case in 27 years .",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Biogen had announced in March that it would terminate two large clinical trials of aducanumab because they were likely to fail. Within weeks, a group of company researchers set out to understand what went wrong. As they studied data from a larger pool of patients who received the drug, they began to question that conclusion. In the months that followed, Biogen kept its own trial investigators and committee overseeing the trial in the dark about the possibility that some patients had benefited from high doses of the therapy, researchers told Reuters. The company said it brought in outside Alzheimer’s experts and statisticians to help it parse the new findings, and sought feedback from U.S. regulators on whether it could be considered for approval. The result, made public on Tuesday, was an astounding reversal. Biogen will seek U.S. approval for the therapy early next year, once again raising hopes for patients suffering from the brain-wasting disease. Biogen shares gained 27% on investor hopes for a multibillion-dollar blockbuster. The risks for Biogen remain high. Wall Street analysts cast doubt on whether Biogen’s analysis would pass muster with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration without an additional years-long trial to confirm the findings. Several Alzheimer’s researchers questioned why one trial appeared to succeed, while another with the same design failed. Many experts say they are reserving judgment until Biogen presents more detailed data in December. Company executives are reluctant to characterize their interactions with the FDA, but said they worked closely with the agency until they were confident in the findings. Biogen was only willing to move forward with seeking approval for aducanumab after meeting twice with FDA. The final decision was made immediately after the second of those meetings, which took place on Monday, Biogen officials said. For the FDA “to say it’s reasonable to file an application after two extensive discussions with them, formal meetings as well as a number of informal discussions, I think it’s significant,” Biogen research chief Al Sandrock said in an interview. Biogen’s earlier decision to terminate the trials was viewed as the final nail in the coffin for the so-called “amyloid hypothesis” - the theory that removing a protein associated with Alzheimer’s could stave off this fatal form of dementia. Many similar drugs had previously failed. Globally, 131 million people are expected to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s by 2050, up from 50 million today. Any successful treatment could be worth $10 billion or more in annual sales, industry analysts say. The March announcement also raised concerns about a second therapy, BAN2401, that works in a similar way. Biogen is partnering with Japan’s Eisai on both drugs. Ivan Cheung, Eisai’s chief executive, said in an interview that he expects aducanumab’s revival will energize enrollment in a late-stage study of BAN2401, with results expected in 2022. Patients taking the highest dose of BAN2401 showed some encouraging results in a midstage trial last year. “That’s why in the Phase III trial, we are only studying the highest dose,” Cheung said. The two aducanumab trials - Engage and Emerge - started a month apart in 2015. Each had about 1,640 patients. As they progressed, the company made changes in the trial that expanded the number of patients who received a higher dose. As part of a planned “futility analysis,” outside monitors reviewed half of the data as of December 2018 to determine whether the drug had a reasonable chance of success. “So many of us felt that this might be the drug that would cross the finish line,” said Dr. Sharon Cohen, director of the Toronto Memory program, who led one of the studies. In March, she received the answer: the therapy looked like a dud. However, patients continued to receive treatment in the interim. Cohen believes the fact that some patients got a higher dose for longer helped swing results in the Emerge study, which ultimately showed a benefit. A month after announcing the failure, Biogen began analyzing results from both trials, including additional data from patients who later completed treatment. By the time Biogen had its first FDA meeting in mid-June, the company knew that one of the studies had succeeded, and understood that dose was important, said Samantha Budd Haeberlein, who runs Biogen’s Alzheimer’s program. “We did a great deal of analysis in close contact with the FDA to really understand what occurred in these trials,” Haeberlein said. “It took several months to work through that.”  During that entire stretch, Cohen said she and fellow investigators were waiting to hear why the drug had failed. They expected a presentation in July during the Alzheimer’s Association annual meeting, but none came. “I was completely unaware of what had been discovered until last Sunday,” said Dr. Anton Porsteinsson, a principal investigator for the trials from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Porsteinsson said Biogen asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement before sharing the new analysis. Cohen said she first reviewed the new data on Monday in what she called a “top secret” meeting. She said the company wanted a few investigators to hear the findings ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, but had concerns about insider trading. Many still question why only one trial succeeded. “The signal from the positive trial was kind of convincing,” said Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s expert Dr. Ronald Petersen, who has been a paid adviser for Biogen. It showed a 23% reduction in a key measure of cognitive decline. “But the other study, which was meant to be identical, didn’t show it,” he said. “That’s the challenge there.” Claim: Biogen's secret campaign to bring its Alzheimer's drug back from the ashes.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: State officials said they’re concerned about the Nebraska Health Care Cash Fund, which covers the cost of a variety of programs, from compulsive gambling assistance to biomedical research. “The Legislature keeps drawing more money out of it than what’s going in,” Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts said in a recent interview. “For long-term stability, you’re going to have to set priorities about what you’re going to spend money on.” The fund holds money from Nebraska’s share of a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies as well as excess Medicaid dollars the state received under a federal program that was discontinued in 2005. State investment officials have warned in recent years that the $477.8 million fund faces a long-term risk and lawmakers are eating into its principal as well as the interest from its investment returns. Nebraska State Investment Officer Michael Walden-Newman sent a memo to lawmakers in September warning that the fund will steadily decline unless spending is reduced. Walden-Newman predicted that, by 2035, the fund will be 80% of its current size, or 50% when adjusted for inflation. Walden-Newman said the money from the fund is already invested aggressively and suggested that lawmakers cap their withdrawals at no more than $54 million annually. Nebraska distributed $62.9 million from the fund in the last fiscal year. Sen. John Stinner, the chairman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers may eventually have to trim the fund if tobacco payments decrease, but he argued that it’s currently sustainable because settlement payments are flowing into the fund and replenishing it each year. Stinner said lawmakers will convene a hearing this fall to discuss the issue. “We think (the tobacco settlement payments) may go down over a period of time, and we may have to adjust the fund in the future,” he said. Ricketts said he was also concerned that the fund was being used for expenses other than what was originally intended. A 2018 report by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids found that states were spending just a small fraction of their tobacco settlement money on anti-smoking programs. States collected $27.3 billion in revenue from the settlement in the fiscal year that ended in June, but spent only 2.4% of that amount on prevention and cessation programs, according to the report. Under the settlement, states had no restrictions on how they could spend the money, and many have used it to pay for unrelated programs or to plug budget holes. Of the $62.9 million that Nebraska spent last fiscal year, about $2.6 million went to tobacco prevention programs, according to a September report from the Nebraska State Investment Council. The rest went to reimbursement rates for behavioral health care providers, children’s health insurance aid, public health centers and other programs. The issue surfaced earlier this year when Nebraska lawmakers voted to pull an additional $500,000 a year from the fund to pay for community-based services for people with brain injuries. The chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee, which monitors many of the programs that receive health care cash fund money, said the proposal would worsen the problem for future lawmakers. “We have got to stop taking that money,” Sen. Sara Howard, of Omaha, said during legislative debate. “It will not be there when we need it most.” Supporters of the proposal argued that community-based services could ultimately save the state money by keeping people with brain injuries out of more expensive institutional care. Howard said she would like to see the fund replenished by raising Nebraska’s 64-cent-per-pack cigarette tax. ___ Follow Grant Schulte at https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte Claim: Officials worry about Nebraska children’s health care fund.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On CNN, a panel of commentators discussed some of the health-policy issues surrounding Jimmy Kimmel’s revelation the night before that his newborn had to have surgery for a rare heart defect. In a video clip that went viral, Kimmel devoted the monologue of his ABC late-night show to telling the story of the birth of his son, Billy. Shortly after he was born, doctors discovered a serious congenital heart defect known as tetralogy of Fallot. The doctors were able to operate on Billy, and their efforts appear to be successful, though additional surgeries may eventually be needed. In addition to drawing widespread popular interest in his son’s story, Kimmel touched on the current debate over whether or how to overhaul the Affordable Care Act. In the monologue, he urged lawmakers not to return Americans to the days before the law, when a pre-existing condition -- like his son’s -- could prevent you from securing health insurance. \"If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,\" Kimmel said. \"I think that’s something that whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?\" Kimmel’s monologue inspired a discussion of health care policy on a CNN segment moderated by anchor Kate Bolduan the following day. At one point, CNN commentator Margaret Hoover noted that, for all the concern about Kimmel’s situation, poor families would be less likely than a celebrity to have access to a world-class surgical team. Referring to the Kimmel surgery, she said, \"Medicaid has stopped providing this kind of service. Our health care system is broken, and the poorest of us cannot afford it.\" We wondered whether she was correct, so we started contacting experts. Before we could finish our research, Hoover emailed us to say that she had misspoken. \"The point I had intended to make was that poorer families, especially those who have received health coverage under the ACA, have largely received it through Medicaid expansion, which increasingly isn't accepted at hospitals,\" she said in an email. \"Sadly, in an emotional segment, I misspoke,\" Hoover told us. Hoover said she realized she had said something wrong when she began seeing criticism in her Twitter mentions. Hoover tweeted a correction shortly after our email exchange: \"Correction to misspeaking w/ @KateBolduan: I accidentally said Medicaid has stopped providing ‘that kind of service.’ … Point I intended to make was that hospitals increasingly don’t accept Medicaid. … Which means poor families have a harder time getting Kimmel’s level of care already.\" For the record, the experts we contacted agreed that Medicaid has not done anything to cut off its beneficiaries from complex pediatric surgeries like the one Kimmel’s son underwent. Hoover’s initial remark on CNN was \"totally incorrect,\" said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University. In fact, she said, \"Medicaid is the major source of health insurance coverage for children’s hospitals and the specialized services they offer.\" MaryBeth Musumeci, associate director of the Kaiser Family Foundation, added that Medicaid covers a broad range of services for children under its Early Periodic Screening Diagnostic and Treatment benefit, called EPSDT. Any state that accepts Medicaid funding must offer EPSDT to children from birth through age 21, she said. As a practical matter, this means that Medicaid must cover necessary services for children’s physical or mental health, even if that service is not covered by Medicaid for adults in that state, she said. At PolitiFact, our policy is to correct a speaker’s original misstatement while noting subsequent corrections by the speaker. Hoover, for her part, did have a point when she mentioned the relative lack of access for Medicaid beneficiaries. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while 85 percent of physicians accepted new patients with private insurance, only 69 percent accepted new patients with Medicaid. Hoover pointed to this column, by Scott W. Atlas, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, to support her point. \"People on Medicaid have more challenges accessing specialists than the privately insured, and the more high-tech and innovative, the more challenging that may be,\" said Gail Wilensky, who headed Medicare and Medicaid under President George H.W. Bush. Our ruling Hoover said that, regarding the surgery that saved Kimmel’s son, \"Medicaid has stopped providing this kind of service.\" That’s wrong -- Medicaid does cover this kind of service, and indeed, the federal-state program is a key source of reimbursement for children’s hospitals. Hoover quickly acknowledged that she was wrong and tweeted a correction. Claim: Regarding the surgery that saved Jimmy Kimmel's son, \"Medicaid has stopped providing this kind of service.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story appears to deal with cost by including an estimate used by the researchers that treatment for people with schizophrenia costs $26,000 to $31,000 per year on average. However, there is no estimate of the cost of the weekly cognitive therapy sessions that are the central point of the story. Also, the story includes a claim by the lead researcher that this therapy would replace and be more effective than current therapy, and gave it credit for preventing an expensive hospitalization, but cost-comparisons were not part of the experiment nor is any other evidence provided in the story to support the claims. The story presents a series of success stories that gives readers a one-sided view of the results and glosses over the limitations of the design of this trial and the narrow selection of patients with extreme symptoms that raise questions about the conclusions and the relevance of these results to typical patients. The benefits reported in this trial are not quantified. Perhaps the only potential harm of cognitive therapy would be wasting time and money on something that turns out not to produce the desired benefits. Still, since resources for mental health treatment are extremely limited and often not well covered by private insurance plans, the story could have addressed this potential downside. As noted above, the story does not make clear that the patients included in this trial were not average patients. A more serious shortcoming is the failure to explain to readers that there was no “placebo” control treatment or that with this sort of treatment it is not possible to blind the clinician to the type of treatment the patient is receiving. The researchers noted these important limitations in their journal article: “The [cognitive therapy] condition involved more patient contact than the [standard treatment] condition, raising the possibility that nonspecific patient contact factors are contributing to the observed group differences. Additionally, both therapists and patients were aware of the condition and participation in an experiment, introducing possible bias in the reported outcomes.” Readers should have been told that this trial does not actually prove that cognitive therapy alone explains the observed improvements. It could be that getting a weekly session with a PhD therapist using another type of approach could also produce benefits; that’s a question this trial did not address. This trial was done at just a single center. The therapists were more highly trained than therapists seen in routine clinical care. Both the duration of the trial and the outcome measured used were changed during the study. These are red flags raising questions about the quality of the science and the relevance to routine clinical practice. This story presents the results as far more conclusive than the study design warrants. This trial included only low-functioning patients with problems much more severe than the average patient. In their journal article the researchers described them as “patients with chronic schizophrenia selected from the extreme end of the low-functioning continuum,” but the story implies that the therapy could benefit anyone with schizophrenia. There were other special characteristics of the study population which raise questions about whether the results apply to the general population: two-thirds of the participants were African-American, and men outnumbered women 2-to-1 (a more extreme difference than seen in the general population). Also, the researchers ended up randomizing only a third of the patients initially invited to participate, further raising questions about how relevant the result are to average patients. The story does include independent sources. And while the story does not mention who funded the trial, the disclosure section of the journal article does not reveal obvious serious conflicts. However, it appears that all of the quoted experts use cognitive therapy in their practices, which may have limited the critical examination of the limitations of this trial. The story mentions some of the strengths and weaknesses of drug treatment for schizophrenia. However, it gives the reader no sense of the magnitude. “Most medications affect the delusions and hallucinations”…. but how much of an effect? The article notes that it is difficult to find therapists trained in cognitive therapy. The story puts this trial in the context of a half-century of study of cognitive therapy. It reports that testing cognitive therapy with this type of patient is new. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Penn team finds success with talk therapy for schizophrenics",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On Oct. 10, 2019, many readers came across news stories about an invasive species of fish called the snakehead fish that had been discovered in Georgia. While these stories largely dealt with wildlife officials’ attempts to eradicate the species, what caught the attention of most readers were brief mentions of this fish’s unique ability to survive on land. CNN reported: A snakehead fish that survives on land was discovered in Georgia. Officials want it dead An invasive fish species that can breathe air and survive on land has been found in Georgia for the first time. And officials are warning anyone who comes into contact with the species to kill it immediately. An angler caught the northern snakehead fish this month in a pond in Gwinnett County, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division said Tuesday. “Thanks to the quick report by an angler, our staff was able to investigate and confirm the presence of this species in this water body,” said Matt Thomas, chief of fisheries for the Wildlife Resources Division. “We are now taking steps to determine if they have spread from this water body and, hopefully, keep it from spreading to other Georgia waters.” The snakehead fish can truly survive on land. However, some readers may have been left with the impression that this species of fish can live on land for an indefinite period of time. There are approximately 21 species of snakehead fish. The northern snakehead (Channa argus) is a bimodal breathing fish thanks to a lung-like labyrinth organ near its gills. The snakehead can store atmospheric oxygen in this organ and then draw from this supply as it swims. This allows the snakehead to survive in low oxygen water. This fish can also use its unique bimodal breathing ability to move between bodies of waters. The Smithsonian writes: Unlike most fish, the northern snakehead has little sacs above its gills that function almost like lungs; the fish can surface and suck air into the sacs, then draw oxygen from the stored air as it swims. The air sacs are handy for surviving in waters that are low in oxygen, and even allow the fish to survive out of water for a couple of days, as long as it doesn’t dry out. A research article published in Biology Open in 2018 elaborated on the air-breathing abilities of the snakehead:  The northern snakehead (Channa argus) is a species of air-breathing fish that is widely distributed in East Asia. This fish has a peculiar accessory breathing organ, the suprabranchial chamber, by which the fish breathes air at the water’s surface using a cough-like mechanism (Ishimatsu and Itazawa, 1981; Lefevre et al., 2014), making possible short-term survival out of water (Nagata and Nakata, 1988). The suprabranchial chamber of Channa possesses a richly vascularized wall for gas exchange. It communicates with the buccopharyngeal cavity through a ventral opening guarded by a ‘shutter’ plate bone outgrowth of the first branchial arch, which can close the inhalant aperture of the suprabranchial chamber during expiration (Munshi, 1962). While a snakehead’s ability to breath air may certainly come as a surprise to many, this is not the only species of fish with this ability. Andy Turko, the co-author of a 2015 study into one such species, the mangrove rivulus, spoke to National Geographic about these amphibious fish:  Fish use gills to take in oxygen from the water. But many fish, like the mangrove rivulus, have adaptations that let them breathe air. For instance, mangrove rivulus “have specialized skin that takes on many of the roles of gills,” such as maintaining salt levels, Turko says. […] The walking catfish, a Southeast Asian native that’s invaded South Florida, has an extra organ that supports its gills and helps it take in oxygen from the air. This is not the first time that the snakehead has made national news. In 2002, there was a bit of a panic after snakeheads were found in a pond in Crofton, Maryland. The snakehead fish’s ability to survive on land, its scary-sounding name, and the fact that it is considered an invasive species, led to a full-blown media circus about the discovery as the public imagined “monster fish” stalking the woods in search of prey. The incident even inspired a couple of horror movies, such as “Frankenfish” and “Snakehead Terror”:   The snakehead can truly survive out of water for a few days. However, this fish does not have the ability to traverse long distances over land, nor is it an adept ground hunter. Whit Gibbons, professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote in 2017: Young snakeheads eat a variety of zooplankton and small aquatic insects. Adults eat other fish, sometimes one-third the length of their own bodies, as well as crawfish and frogs. Snakeheads are different from most other fish, which cannot survive for long out of water. Adult northern snakeheads have gills but can also gulp air and have been documented to live out of water for up to four days. However, although a young one may travel overland for several feet, a full-grown adult is too large to move effectively, so your pet chihuahua will probably be safe if it can make it to the pet door. Here’s a video of a snakehead in Thailand as it “walks,” crawls, or wiggles its way back to the water: Claim: The snakehead fish can survive on land. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Gov. Rick Perry touts Texas as a model state that escaped the recession with few battle scars and a lot of jobs, if you're looking for one. An unemployment rate significantly below the national rate is one reason folks are coming here — 1,000 people daily, according to Perry. \"I am pleased to receive the endorsement of the Southwest Movers Association, which plays a key role in supporting the more than 1,000 people who move to Texas every day,\" he said Dec. 29. \"As our state continues to grow, I look forward to working with members and stakeholders of SMA to ensure that Texas remains a top destination for job seekers.\" Matthew Thompson, a senior writer and editor at the Office of the Governor, said the governor's staff divided the state's annual population growth by 365 days to estimate how much the population swells daily. The statistics came from the U.S. Census Bureau. Between July 1, 2008 and July 1, 2009, Texas gained 478,012 more people — more than any other state (California, still boasting the biggest population overall, was second with 381,000 new people). That's about 1,300 people per day, by Thompson's calculation. But 478,000 is the net population change. It includes births as well as people relocating to Texas, after accounting for deaths and people leaving the state. So, what part of that net figure represents newcomers? With help from the U.S. Census Bureau, we learned that about 635 people come to Texas every day, on average. A census official based that number on average daily net migration from other states (393) plus average daily net migration from other countries (242). A separate estimate of the actual number of people entering the state comes from the Internal Revenue Service, which tracks the addresses of people who file taxes each year, and reports that information to the Census Bureau. The IRS found that 493,840 people switched their residence to Texas between the time they filed in 2007 and when they filed in 2008 — that's about 1,353 people each day. (The IRS' data are slightly older than the figures Perry cites as evidence for his claim.) In the end, Perry came close to getting it right, though he didn't take into account in-state births or people moving away. Statistically speaking, of course, a set number of people aren't moving to Texas every day because that number varies. But if you rely on IRS data collected in 2007 and 2008, more than 1,300 people on average were relocating here during that time frame. We rule Perry's claim , even if he wasn't using the right data as evidence. Claim: More than 1,000 people ... move to Texas every day.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 16 May 2019, the entertainment website TMZ reported that former WWE wrestler Ric Flair (real name Richard Fliehr) was rushed to the hospital for a medical emergency. As Flair’s fans fretted over the news, a few opportunists started to spread false rumors about “Nature Boy’s” condition. The official-looking Twitter account @WWEUmiverse, for example, posted an image of Flair and asserted that the wrestler had passed away. This account used a handle resembling the WWE’s actual account (at @WWEUniverse) in order to fool viewers with hoax stories. The fake account misspelled “Universe” with an “m”:  The disreputable website LFRSolutions also posted a fake news story about the wrestler’s health. Shortly after Flair was hospitalized, the website published a story claiming that Flair had been declared brain dead:  WWE Ric Flair has been declared brain dead after a medical emergency led him to being hospitalized earlier today. According to several news reports, it’s unclear what medical emergency led him to the hospital to begin with but sources have now said that the wrestling legend’s is no longer functioning although his other organs are still working at this time. Ric Flair is still on a breathing machine until his family gives permission to disconnect him but as of now, he is declared brain dead, thus legally dead. LFRSolutions is not a genuine news source. This website frequently publishes misinformation, and although it does carry a disclaimer, that disclaimer is so small that most readers would need a magnifying glass to decipher it:  The disclaimer reads: “The stories posted on LFRSolutions.com are for entertainment purposes only. The stories may mimic articles found in the headlines, but rest assured they are purely satirical.” Ric Flair was hospitalized on 16 May 2019, but reports about his dying or being declared brain dead were hoaxes that originated with disreputable sources. Claim: WWE wrestler Ric Flair was declared brain dead on 16 May 2019. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs are not included. Comparing the cost of the three treatment options mentioned in the release — CT-guided pRF, CT-guided steroid injections, and lumbar disk surgery — would have been appropriate and helpful. An assumption is made that the cost of this procedure is less than a surgical intervention. This is often not the case, and “minimally” invasive approaches can cost more. The news release reports these 1-year outcomes: The terminology here is very vague. It would have been helpful to clarify what the rate and probability of “perceived recovery” mean, and how they’re measured. The release leads with a phrase we find problematic: “minimally invasive.” For many readers this connotes a quick, “safe and effective” intervention as mentioned in the release. But “minimally invasive” can potentially have more complications than a prior “more invasive” approach. No instrumentation close to the spine or its nerve roots is risk-free. Nerve damage and infection are two potential complications that should have been mentioned. This is a major weakness of the news release because the following key points are omitted: No disease mongering. Chronic lower back pain is not only very common and very difficult to treat, but it’s also one of the leading causes of disability and missed work days. Study funding is not included. A review of the meeting abstract reveals no conflicts of interest disclosed by the seven authors. The news release defines what alternatives are available for acute back pain with sciatica, including pain medications, cortisteroids and surgery. It details outcomes in patients treated with steroid injections compared with pRF. It’s not made clear for readers if this is an experimental therapy, or if it is widely available. The procedure is, in fact, a refined technique of an older procedure. The release doesn’t explain what’s novel about the research. The rPF procedure has been used extensively for a variety of chronic pain conditions for years. The headline is misleading. The source of back pain is usually unknown and even if an imaging study demonstrates a disc herniation it is usually not the identifiable cause of the pain. The title could lead people to seek treatment for their imaging finding but not resolve their pain. It’s unjustified to make broad claims as found in the headline based on unpublished data. Claim: Pulsed radiofrequency relieves acute back pain and sciatica",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A new variant on anti-vaccine paranoia emerged on 26 October 2016, when a dubious news site published an article linking a vaccine to what it described as a government effort to hurt black women. The three-paragraph “story” was based on statements from “government anesthesiologist” Henry Rothschild but didn’t contain any actual quotes from that putative doctor, let alone provide any links or citations for his alleged remarks. According to Rothschild, the government “knowingly” injected black women with an epidural during childbirth the contained a birth defect-inducing vaccine called Terminar which it notes is “Spanish for terminate.” (This translations is technically true, but the verb is most often used in the context of finishing a task.) Rothschild also allegedly said that the vaccine was used between 2010 and 2014, with no accounting for the years since, or any reason identified for the furtive plot besides this bombastic claim:  Terminar was design [sic] to break down African American/Black women ovaries exposing them to different germs and multiple diseases which will likely produce a child with serious birth defects and serious illnesses. We contacted Fammtv.com to ask for more information that might substantiate their claims, but they had not responded as of the time of publication of this article. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has not published epidural use statistics for the years mentioned in the story, but a study of epidural use rates in 27 states in 2008 showed that 62 percent of Black women used epidurals during childbirth. (We have contacted the CDC seeking epidural usage rates between 2010 and 2014.) However, a 2014 study by the American Public Health Association (APHA), tracking 13.5 million live births in the U.S. between 1999 and 2007, undermines Fammtv’s allegations: the APHA study showed “much higher ocurrences” of more birth defects among American Indian/Alaska Native children (and not African-Americans) compared to white children. The existence of a drug “breaking down Black womens’ ovaries” would presumably have led to a greater incidence of birth defects being reported in African-American communities. Claim: The government \"knowingly\" injected a birth defect-inducing vaccine into epidurals between 2010 and 2014 to hurt Black women",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A 38-year-old man from Quanzhou city died after being found infected earlier on Friday, Xinhua said, citing the province’s health and family planning commission. Xinhua said this was the first human case of H7N9 in Fujian this year. Separately, Xinhua said two people were infected with H7N9 in eastern Zhejiang province — a 79-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that seven more people in China have been found to be infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu in the past week, taking to around 150 the total number of cases so far. The H7N9 bird flu emerged last year in China and has infected around 150 people there and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing at least 45 of them. Experts say there is no evidence as yet of any easy or sustained person-to person transmission of the strain. But an early scientific analysis of probable transmission of the new flu from person to person, published last August, gave the strongest proof yet that it can at times jump between people and so could cause a human pandemic. The WHO said the source of the human infections was still being investigated. It stressed it does not advise any special screening for people going in and out of China, nor does it recommend any travel or trade curbs. Claim: China reports one more H7N9 bird flu death.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 1 May 2017, the web site World News Daily Report (a notorious purveyor of fake news) posted an article seemingly reporting that a babysitter in Cincinnati, Ohio was admitted to a local hospital after paramedics found a toddler wedged in her vagina: Latifah Brown called 911 around 9:30 PM last night, reporting that she had a baby stuck in her vagina. The operator first assumed that she was giving birth at home and dispatched an ambulance to the site. The paramedics had quite a surprise when they arrived on the site and saw what was actually happening. One of the paramedics, Brian Whitmore, related the incident in an interview with WBNS-10 TV. “The little boy wore a diaper and pyjamas, but he had his legs and abdomen stuck in the woman’s vagina.” The paramedics spent more than an hour on the site trying to release the child from his difficult position but were unable to get the toddler out. After being transported to a hospital, where doctors successfully removed the baby (the article continues), Brown confessed to “deliberately inserting the child in her vaginal cavity” and was charged by police with “aggravated child neglect.” Not a word of which is true. As we have noted on many occasions (and as World News Daily Report states on its own disclaimer page), all of the content on the site is fictional: Claim: A 31-year-old Cincinnati woman was taken to the hospital after the 14-month-old toddler she was babysitting got stuck in her vaginal cavity.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No cost of calcium and vitamin D supplements was provided. Did not present estimate of absolute risk or benefit. Article failed to mention that calcium and vitamin D supplementation increased the risk of kidney stones. Although the experts quoted were clear that the trial was not a ringing endorsement for the use of these supplements to reduce fracture rate, they also cast the use of these supplements in a light more positive than the current study suggested. Though mention was made that these results come from the Women’s Health Initiative and that it was a comparison of women taking supplements to women taking dummy pills, the story never mentioned that this was a randomized clinical trial. Benefits of calcium and vitamin D supplement were presented as percent reduction in hip fracture rates without the context of how often they occur. The reduction in hip fracture rate reported in the study was 12% (as compared to 29% for those who took the supplements regularly). However the article presented the 21% reduced rate for women over 60 but the story never reported the overall 12% rate. No mention made of other approaches to bone loss such as engaging in weight bearing exercise, or prescription medications to enhance bone building or inhibit bone resorption. This article reports on a study to test the common use of calcium by women to ensure bone health. Given the multiple sources cited, it does not appear this story was based solely on a news release Claim: Study Shows Limited Benefits From Calcium",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2020, readers asked us about the accuracy of reports that claimed Paula White, a televangelist and spiritual adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, had prayed for “all satanic pregnancies to miscarry.” On Jan. 27, for example, Business Insider published an article with the headline “Paula White, a White House Employee and Trump’s Spiritual Advisor, Calls for ‘Satanic Pregnancies to Miscarry Right Now. '” That piece reported that: Paula White, a controversial televangelist who joined the White House in an official capacity last year, is arguing that the content of a sermon she delivered on January 5, which mentioned adversaries of President Donald Trump and soon after advocated for divine forces to cause the miscarriage of babies in “satanic wombs,” was taken out of context. In a video of the sermon posted by Right Wing Watch, a news outlet that “monitors and exposes the activities of Radical Right political organizations,” White can be heard mentioning adversaries of the president before calling on God to miscarry babies convinced by what she called “satanic wombs.”   Similar articles were published by CNN and TIME magazine. The 94-second video clip first emerged on the Twitter account of Right Wing Watch, on Jan. 24. The footage was then posted by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimons, a left-leaning writer on religion, who captioned it as follows: “‘We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now’ — Special Adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative Paula White.” In response to Graves-Fitzsimons tweet, White herself wrote: “I don’t normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context. I was praying Eph 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life…” I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context. I was praying Eph 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life… https://t.co/tKEUs4muwZ — Paula White-Cain (@Paula_White) January 26, 2020  The clip appears to show White in the middle of a stream of pronouncements, invocations, and prayers during a service at her church, the New Destiny Christian Center, in Apopka, Florida. CNN reported that the service in question took place on Jan. 5, but as of Jan. 28, the original, full-length video was no longer available on the website or social media profiles of White or the church. Bearing in mind the video shows a 94-second excerpt from a much longer service, the following is a transcript of that segment: We interrupt that which has been deployed to hurt the church in this season, that which has been deployed to hurt this nation. In the name of Jesus, forgive us for our sins. Come on, I need you guys to pray. We cancel every surprise from the witchcraft [sic] and the marine kingdom — any hex, any spell, any witchcraft, any spirit of control, any Jezebel, anything that the enemy desires through spells, through witchcraft, through any way that is manipulation, demonic manipulation. We curse that. We break it, according to the word of God. In the name of Jesus, we come against the marine kingdom, we come against the animal kingdom, the woman who rides upon the waters. We break the power, in the name of Jesus, and we declare that any strange winds, any strange winds that have been sent to hurt the church, sent against this nation, sent against our president, sent against myself, sent against others — we break it by the superior blood of Jesus right now. In the name of Jesus, we arrest every infirmity, affliction, fatigue, weariness, weakness, fear, sickness, any self-righteousness, any self-serving action, God. Let pride fall, let pride fall, let pride fall, let pride fall, in the name of Jesus. We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now. We declare that anything that’s been conceived in satanic wombs, that it will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm … We put a series of questions about those remarks to Paula White Ministries, asking her to elaborate on her claim that she had been taken out of context, and also asking her to clarify whether she was referring literally to miscarriages, pregnancies, and wombs, or instead using figurative or symbolic language. We also asked her organization to share a copy of the full-length video of the service in question. Unfortunately, we received no response. Claim: In January 2020, Paula White prayed for all \"satanic pregnancies\" to \"miscarry right now.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Just as urban legends and rumors eventually become attached to the most famous exemplars of the subjects they discuss (e.g., any fast food-related legend, no matter where it originates, will inevitably be told about McDonald’s), so do many of the spurious medical articles circulated on the Internet eventually become attributed to the world-renowned Johns Hopkins university, medical school, and hospitals. A putative “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins Hospital” began as an e-mailed preface to another piece about the supposed dangers of using microwave ovens to heat food stored in plastic containers:  CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL, US – PLEASE READ  1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size. 2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime. 3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors. 4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors. 5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system. 6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc. 7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs. 8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction. 9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications. 10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites. 11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. CANCER CELLS FEED ON: a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt. b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved. c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer. d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it. 12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup. 13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells. 14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells. 15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life. 16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells. Both of those articles were said to have originated with Johns Hopkins, but neither was issued by (or had any connection to) the Johns Hopkins university or hospital, and Johns Hopkins has disclaimed the contents of both:  Information falsely attributed to Johns Hopkins called, “CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS” describes properties of cancer cells and suggests ways of preventing cancer. Johns Hopkins did not publish the information, which often is an email attachment, nor do we endorse its contents. The email also contains an incorrect spelling of our institution as “John” Hopkins; whereas, the correct spelling is “Johns” Hopkins. Another hoax email that has been circulating since 2004 regarding plastic containers, bottles, wrap claiming that heat releases dioxins which cause cancer also was not published by Johns Hopkins. The web site of Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center also noted of the “Cancer Update” e-mail that:  It has become such a problem that the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and individual cancer centers like the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have posted warnings on their Web sites. Emails offering easy remedies for avoiding and curing cancer are the latest Web-influenced trend. To gain credibility, the anonymous authors falsely attribute their work to respected research institutions like Johns Hopkins. This is the case with the so-called “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins.” The gist of this viral email is that cancer therapies of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy do not work against the disease and people should instead choose a variety of dietary strategies. Traditional therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, work. The evidence is the millions of cancer survivors in the United States today who are alive because of these therapies. We recognize that treatments don’t work in every patient, or sometimes work for awhile and then stop working, and there are some cancers that are more difficult to cure than others. These problems are the focus of ongoing cancer research. Claim: Johns Hopkins Hospital issued a \"cancer update\" detailing how cancer spreads and recommending methods for treating the disease.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Japan had 175 domestic cases of infection from the virus as of Wednesday evening, separate from 705 from a cruise liner quarantined near Tokyo early this month and 14 from returnees on charter flights from Wuhan, China, public broadcaster NHK said. The northern island of Hokkaido, the most affected area in Japan with 38 cases, reported another death while a Tokyo man in his 80s also died, bringing the country’s total fatalities to seven including four from the cruise liner. “We know that this virus will only spread even more and yet we can’t even get tested,” said one mother in Hokkaido’s Sapporo city, adding she hoped testing capacity would be expanded. Government guidelines say people should call designated hotlines for consultation on whether they should get tested if they have cold-like symptoms, a fever of 37.5 Celsius or extreme tiredness or breathing problems for four days or more. In the meantime, they should stay at home. The elderly, pregnant women or those with certain medical conditions that put them at risk should make the call if they have such symptoms for two or more days, the guidelines say. “The most important goal of testing is to test those with symptoms, especially the elderly or those with pre-existing conditions who are at risk of becoming seriously ill,” a health ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I think there are people who are worried and want to be tested but ... that would overwhelm the capacity of medical facilities and we couldn’t treat those who need treatment.”  South Korea, besides testing members of the church at the center of a surge in cases, advises people to get tested if they have a fever or respiratory problems. Japan Medical Association President Yoshitake Yokokura told a news conference the group would investigate reports that people referred by doctors to local health centers for tests were being turned away due to manpower shortages, NHK said. Grilled in parliament by opposition party leader Yukio Edano, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said that 6,300 tests were conducted from Feb. 18 to 24 for an average of 900 per day, while up to 3,800 tests could be done daily. “There are many people who say they cannot be tested although their fever continues,” Edano said. “Our country’s resources are not being fully mobilized.”  Masahiro Kami, a doctor and head of the non-profit Medical Governance Research Institute, said the government should test more people sooner to prevent deaths. “They should test early and treat early but instead they are testing after people have pneumonia to confirm the virus,” Kami said. But some other independent experts agreed with the government approach. “It isn’t good to do tests just to ease public anxiety,” said Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist at Kobe University who this month criticized Japan’s handling of the virus-hit cruise liner. “If they test everyone with light symptoms, the medical system will puncture,” he said, adding authorities needed to do more to explain the guidelines and gain public understanding. (This story corrects paragraphs 5-6 to say guidelines are for people to call hotlines, not to get tested.) Claim: Japan defends cautious approach on coronavirus testing amid concerns.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The authors of “Like a virgin (mother)” - whose prose is devoid of irony - say such scientifically impossible claims show researchers must use care in interpreting self-reported behavior. Fallible memory, beliefs and wishes can cause people to err in what they tell scientists. Based on interviews with 7,870 women and girls ages 15 to 28, 45 of the 5,340 pregnancies in this group through the years - 0.8 percent - occurred in women who reported that they conceived independent of men. The figure does not include pregnancies that result from in vitro fertilization or other assisted reproductive technology. Each year, the BMJ Christmas edition publishes untraditional science papers. In addition to the report on virgin pregnancies, the latest BMJ includes papers on whether there is a local baby boom nine months after home sports teams triumph (only a small one, but statistically significant) and whether an apple a day would keep the British doctor away (yes, saving about 8,500 lives in the United Kingdom each year, about as many as would expanding the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs to everyone over 50). For the study of putative virgin pregnancies, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed data from the thousands of teenage girls and young women who took part in the long-running National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The girls were 12 to 18 years old when they entered the study in the 1994-95 school year and were interviewed periodically about their health and behavior over 14 years, including via computer as a way to encourage them to be candid when answering questions about their sexual history. The 45 women and girls who became pregnant despite, according to what they told interviewers, being virgins at the time of conception differed in several ways from peers who acknowledged that men had had a role in their procreation. Of those who said they became pregnant as virgins, 31 percent also said they had signed chastity pledges; 15 percent of nonvirgins who became pregnant said they had signed such pledges, in which a girl vows not to have sex until she marries. The 45 self-described virgins who reported having become pregnant and the 36 who gave birth were also more likely than nonvirgins to say their parents never or rarely talked to them about sex and birth control. About 28 percent of the “virgin” mothers’ parents (who were also interviewed) indicated they didn’t have enough knowledge to discuss sex and contraception with their daughters, compared to 5 percent of the parents of girls who became pregnant and said they had had intercourse. The ostensibly chaste mothers were also less likely to know how to use condoms, according to the report. UNC biostatistician Amy Herring and public health expert Carolyn Halpern led the group. The researchers found that although the mothers in question were more likely to have boys than girls, and to be pregnant during the weeks leading up to Christmas, neither similarity to the Virgin Mary was statistically significant. Claim: Claims of virgin births in U.S. near 1 percent: study.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Client Julius Wayne Dudley (L) reacts as volunteer Jeffrey Pierre-Paul picks his finger for a cholesterol test in the Family Van in Boston, Massachusetts August 9, 2010. REUTERS/Brian Snyder “I work from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I don’t have time to go to the hospital. Here I can just walk in,” the 34-year-old teacher’s assistant said recently as she waited during her lunch break for a test. “I have kids to support. I can’t afford to take a day off from work.”   Santiago is one of some 3,000 people each year who visit the Family Van for free checks of their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol level. The nonprofit clinic affiliated with Harvard University provides simple tests that can give an early warning of an impending health problem or help manage an existing condition, such as diabetes. The van — which visits six low-income neighborhoods around Boston weekly — is one of about 2,000 such mobile clinics in the United States. Advocates say the approach can help control the rising cost of health care by helping people with chronic diseases to stay out of the emergency room, often the first recourse for inner-city residents. “Our medical system in this country is focused on illness. What we are doing is helping people when they’re sick,” said Jennifer Bennet, executive director of the Family Van, which is backed by Harvard Medical School. “It would be a lot less expensive and people’s quality of life would be vastly improved if we as a society and as a country start to look at addressing these problems long before they get to that acute stage.”   The United States spends some $2.5 trillion on health care each year. That works out to about 15 percent of gross domestic product, considerably higher than any other developed economy, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. A growing number of clinics like the Family Van operate in the United States, according to the Mobile Health Clinics Network, which has been tracking clinic numbers for six years and finds more each time it conducts its informal census. “There is no doubt about it, it’s growing,” said Darien DeLorenzo, executive director of the San Francisco-based group. The mobile clinics are largely nonprofit and most provide general medical care, though smaller numbers specialize in dentistry or mammography. Many urban clinics keep budgets tight by relying on healthcare educators and students as staff, referring patients to doctors or hospitals when more is needed. Their rural counterparts more frequently have doctors and nurses on board, to serve communities without health care facilities. The Family Van estimates that every dollar it spends on its operations pays off $36 in economic benefits, including the effect of averting nonemergency visits to hospital emergency rooms and the value of the tests it provides. The average visit to the Family Van costs $117, versus $923 for a nonemergency visit to a hospital emergency room, according to an analysis by the clinic, Harvard Medical School and other experts. These programs can also help push the nation’s overall medical tab down by alerting people to nascent health problems before they become critical, advocates said. “When you’re serving the underserved, healthcare is a luxury,” said Kathy Ficco, executive director of community health at the St. Joseph Mobile Health Clinic in Rohnert Park, California, which operates a similar clinic. “Their main focus is food and shelter ... It’s not until a problem creates pain or suffering that they will seek care.”   A visit to the Family Van can take as little as seven minutes, though staffers will spend as much as 45 minutes with people who have questions about their conditions. “Going to the hospital takes a long time,” said Badshah Rahman, 38, who stopped in on an August afternoon for a regular blood pressure check. “This is really easy.”   Many of the Family Van’s patients are regular visitors who drop in every few weeks. That level of frequency may be the clinics’ greatest benefit. “What you need there is ongoing monitoring of folks with chronic conditions and to the extent they don’t have that kind of ongoing monitoring in the traditional health care system, the van fills in that gap ... that’s terrific,” said Michael Sparer, chair of the department of health policy and management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Still, he noted, clinics staffed by educators cannot provide the same level of care as a visit to a doctor. “They are a stopgap solution,” Sparer said. Even in Massachusetts, where a law passed in 2006 requires almost every resident to have health insurance, many inner-city residents turn to hospital emergency rooms first. This is a problem that may play out across the United States in the wake of the healthcare reform law, which aims to extend health insurance to 32 million uninsured Americans. “Everybody has a doctor on paper but they can’t get in,” the Family Van’s Bennet said. “The number of doctors hasn’t changed, just the number of people who have insurance.” Claim: Mobile clinics seen as way to cut U.S. health bill.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Chicago native made the announcement Thursday during a summit for his nonprofit organization SocialWorks , saying those involved “want to change the way that mental health resources are being accessed.” Six mental health providers in Cook County will each get $100,000 grants and SocialWorks is starting an initiative called “My State of Mind” to help connect people with treatment. Members of the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Chicago Department of Public Health were on hand for the announcement. Also Thursday, the rapper whose real name is Chancelor Bennett, announced plans to give money to 20 additional Chicago Public Schools. His nonprofit has given millions to Chicago schools in recent years . Claim: Chance the Rapper giving $1M to boost mental health services.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The nonprofit, called We Are Montana, was started by Cora Neumann, a public health expert who ran for U.S. Senate earlier this year, the Helena Independent Record reports. Neumann, as a first-time candidate, raised more than $643,840 and left about $200,600 in the bank when she dropped out of the race upon the entrance of Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. She’s now using some of that money to kick-start the organization, which will serve as a public health information and training hub for rural and Native communities in the state. “Getting timely and comprehensive public health information to local leaders makes a huge difference in a community’s ability to respond, and to not respond from fear but grounded knowledge,” Neumann said Wednesday. While Neumann said the state has done a good job of getting information out in the immediate response to COVID-19, the focus needs to shift to building a strong public health infrastructure to prepare for any potential surges in cases going forward and help people adapt to the new normal. “There’s the immediate response and then there’s the long-term mitigation and control and management,” Neumann said. ” … We should have a public health infrastructure that’s strong enough to handle something like this without having to shut the economy down. There is a real tension and concern between shutting down the economy as a pandemic mitigation tool.” As the state begins to lift some of the regulations it had in place, Neumann said rural and Native communities remain at acute risk in part because of existing challenges around sufficient access to health care, the prevalence of preexisting conditions and lack of economic resources that come with their own host of health side effects. We Are Montana will hold regular meetings on policy and to strengthen connections around the state. Neumann said the organization will also conduct a public health assessment with local and county-level leaders in frontier, small and medium-size communities, in partnership with the Montana Public Health Association. In addition to working with local public health leaders, We Are Montana is partnering with organizations like Western Native Voice. Among early efforts of the project will be a COVID-19 relief fund, an effort led by Western Native Voice. The relief fund has a goal of raising $50,000 to help tribal nationals in Montana meet immediate needs and acquire supplies such as personal protective equipment, food and medication. One of the first things identified is a need for water heaters in homes on some tribal nations, said Marci McLean, the executive director of Western Native Voice. The heightened need for hand-washing has shown how many homes lack sufficient hot water. Other pressing needs are masks, gloves and cleaning supplies. Money should also be directed toward medication delivery, McLean said. With the Indian Health Service limiting how many people can enter facilities at a time or the need for self-isolation, getting medications to those who need them can be a problem. Another reason Indian Country faces challenges from COVID-19 are the high number of people who can share a single house and the frequency of several generations living under one roof. “Where do you go isolate? We don’t have the luxury of having a camper trailer in our driveway or vacant house or vacant room,” McLean said. “We need to provide isolation space should we have an outbreak on one of our tribal nations.” McLean said while COVID-19 comes with its own set of challenges, it’s also putting a bright spotlight on ongoing, long-term problems Indian Country has faced. “One Band-Aid covers up one issue but it doesn’t cover up the root cause,” McLean said. “A long-term accomplishment I would like to see is getting to those root causes, addressing those root causes and having that long-term plan from a public health perspective to address the root causes of the disparities in our communities. We have root causes that are being exposed and we’re talking about how to address them at a broader level than just small pockets of people in some communities talking about them.” Claim: New nonprofit tackles COVID-19 in Native, rural communities.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Volkswagen is readying two Chinese factories to build electric cars next year. The Chinese plants will have a production capacity of 600,000 vehicles, according to Volkswagen’s plans, which have not been previously reported - revealing VW’s ability to industrialise production faster than other pioneers in the electric vehicle market. Tesla is still trying to reach its goal of making more than 500,000 cars a year by building a new factory in Shanghai, China, while VW can rely on an established workforce in two of its plants in Anting and Foshun to build zero-emission cars. The scale and speed of VW’s electrification push marks a shift in favour of established manufacturers that can use existing factories and profit from combustion-engined sport  utility vehicles (SUVs) to scale up faster than startups. “The truth is barriers to entry in autos remain high,” said Max Warburton, an analyst at Bernstein Research. “Making cars is hard. The move to electric vehicles will be expensive, but will probably be led by traditional manufacturers.”   VW is leveraging its large infrastructure of suppliers, factories and workers, long a handicap to its profitability, more aggressively than rivals BMW, Renault SA, General Motors Co and Tesla, which were all quicker to sell a custom-designed electric car. Rather than adjusting production gradually, and using multi-powertrain platforms, Volkswagen is making a massive bet on a dedicated electric vehicle architecture, known as MEB, in the hope of increasing economies of scale sufficiently to push down the price of electric cars to around 20,000 euros ($22,262). The Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker is retooling eight plants across the globe by 2022 to specialise in manufacturing electric cars, and license its electric MEB platform to rivals, senior VW executives told Reuters, putting it on track to become the world’s largest maker of zero-emission vehicles. Tesla has emerged as a serious competitor with a credible car, its Model 3, Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess told Reuters last week. But startups have a hard time entering mass production without sufficient production facilities, he said. “The question is, can you expand your production quickly enough? The capital intensity is increasing,” Diess said. To fund its own electrification shift, the German carmaker aims to increase sales of VW SUVs, with combustion engines, to 40% of overall sales by 2020 from 23% in 2018. The powerstation that supplies energy for VW’s flagship e-vehicle factory in Zwickau, Germany, marked by two tall chimneys, was built to power production of the combustion-engined Volkswagen Golf. Now Zwickau can piggyback off this infrastructure to ramp up production to 330,000 VW ID electric cars by 2021. Volkswagen Group will increase economies of scale by rolling out electric vehicle platforms to its Audi, Skoda and Seat and Porsche brands. Volkswagen Group will be in a position to build 22 million electric cars by 2028, of which 11.6 million could come out of Chinese factories, VW said. For a graphic version of story \"Global automakers invest in electric vehicles\", click: tmsnrt.rs/2Hcr3H4  VW’s expansion push comes at a time when investors have started to question businesses delivering growth without real profit, a change in sentiment that is crippling the ability of several electric car pioneers to raise more cash. Back in 2016, Tesla said it wanted to build more than 500,000 Model 3 cars by 2018, a goal it has failed to meet. This year it expects to deliver 360,000 to 400,000 cars, a target that includes selling all models. Tesla’s struggles have dampened optimism about how easy it is to enter the car business, making it harder for China’s NIO, backed by internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd, as well as others like Faraday Future and Byton Ltd, to fund the next stage of growth: capital-intensive volume production and sales. “So much respect for those doing high volume manufacturing, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted earlier this month. “It’s insanely hard, but you make a real thing that people value. My hat is off to you.”   After starting trial production runs at its factory in Shanghai, Tesla now hopes to reach its 500,000-vehicle  target in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2020. Tesla is also looking for a site to start production in Europe. Volkswagen is converting two German plants, Hanover and Zwickau, to build electric vehicles and will retool other factories including plants in China: Foshan which VW runs together with its joint-venture partner FAW-Volkswagen, and another in Anting, which VW runs together with SAIC. It will retool plants in Emden and Dresden in Germany, Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in United States, as part of a 30 billion-euro ($33.24 billion)investment push into e-mobility by 2023. As a result, Volkswagen Group will be the No. 1 electric vehicle producer globally by 2025, while Tesla is likely to remain a niche player, according to UBS autos analyst Patrick Hummel. The cutthroat rivalry between automakers and software companies started when Alphabet Inc’s Google presented a prototype autonomous vehicle in 2012, leading analysts and industry executives to fear a so-called Nokia moment. This occurs when a new player from the tech sector unveils a superior design, in the way that Apple Inc presented the iPhone in 2007, ending Nokia’s dominance of the mobile handset business. Today, Tesla’s cars are generally perceived as cutting-edge and potentially more sophisticated than VW’s. Volkswagen’s ID.3,  which starts production this year, has an operating range of between 330 and 550 kilometers (205 to 341 miles), below the 560 km long-range Model 3 version offered by Tesla. That is because Tesla has a sophisticated software algorithm to control how much electricity goes to the electric motor, air conditioning, seat heaters, in-car infotainment, and cooling system. Volkswagen’s edge is more blunt: price and massive economies of scale. The ID.3 has a starting price of under 30,000 euros  ($33,363) in Germany. By contrast, Tesla’s Model 3 had an average selling price of $50,000 in the second quarter. The long-range version retails for 52,390 euros in Germany. The VW vehicle’s lower price comes from the carmaker’s ability to place large orders which, by nature of their size, help drive down the price. Volkswagen is investing 50 billion euros ($55.5 billion) to buy battery cells and will also license its MEB electric car platform to rival carmakers to further increase economies of scale. That is, Volkswagen will make that huge investment if suppliers can keep up. “There is a lot of investment,” Stefan Sommer, Volkswagen Group’s board member responsible for procurement, told Reuters last month. “But even the big companies like Samsung, CATL, LG Chem, the big guys, SK, they hesitate to take so much money and invest because they are not seeing the market on the other side.”   “We are now seeing the first battery plants, LG in Poland, CATL in Germany, they don’t have the skilled workforce. That will be the bottleneck,” Sommer said. “It’s a learning curve everybody has to work through. This will cause some lags in supply. We have no other choice.”  VW plans to license its electric MEB vehicle platform to rival Ford Motor Co, which will give VW $10 billion in revenue over the next six years. Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen’s member of the board who oversees production of electric vehicles, told Reuters, “Ford and Volkswagen’s agreement will be a blueprint for further licensing deals.”   In the short term, Volkswagen and its Chinese joint venture partners will invest 15 billion euros to produce 15 different electric cars for China alone by 2025. “The first MEB-based vehicle is an SUV model,” Volkswagen said about its China push. For a graphic version of story \"Global automakers invest in electric vehicles\", click: tmsnrt.rs/2Hcr3H4 Claim: VW ramps up China electric car factories, taking aim at Tesla.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Less than a year after Chinese scientists caused an international furor by saying they had genetically modified human embryos, Kathy Niakan, a stem cell scientist from London’s Francis Crick Institute, was granted a license to carry out similar experiments. “The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has approved a research application from the Francis Crick Institute to use new ‘gene editing’ techniques on human embryos,” Niakan’s lab said on Monday. It said the work carried out “will be for research purposes and will look at the first seven days of a fertilized egg’s development, from a single cell to around 250 cells”. The scientists will not be allowed to develop the modified embryos for clinical purposes or implant them into any women. Niakan plans to carry out her experiments using what is known as CRISPR-Cas9, a technology that is already the subject of fierce international debate because of fears that it could be used to create babies to order. CRISPR can enable scientists to find and modify or replace genetic defects. Many experts have called it “game-changing”. David King, director of the UK campaign group Human Genetics Alert, said Niakan’s plans would eventually lead to “a future of consumer eugenics”. “This research will allow the scientists to refine the techniques for creating GM babies,” he said in a statement. But Sarah Norcross, director of Progress Educational Trust, which campaigns for ethically sound research in genetics, said the HFEA’s decision was “a victory for level-headed regulation over moral panic”. Niakan says she has no intention of genetically altering embryos for use in human reproduction, but wants to deepen scientific understanding of how a healthy human embryo develops, something that could, in the long term, help to improve infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). The work will be carried out on embryos that have become surplus to donor patients IVF treatment. At a briefing for reporters in London last month, she said the first gene she planned to target was one called Oct4, which she believes may have a crucial role in the earliest stages of human fetal development. Bruce Whitelaw, a professor of animal biotechnology at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute on Scotland, said the HFEA’s decision had been reached “after robust assessment”. “This project, by increasing our understanding of how the early human embryo develops and grows, will add to the basic scientific knowledge needed for devising strategies to assist infertile couples and reduce the anguish of miscarriage,” he said in an emailed comment. Claim: Britain gives scientist go-ahead to genetically modify human embryos.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: When Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) took their oaths of office on 3 January 2019, they became the first Muslim women to be sworn in as members of Congress. A week-and-a-half later, on 12 January, an article appeared on a website called “So Right It Hurts” alleging that Tlaib and Omar had already co-sponsored legislation adding two Islamic observances, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, to the roster of federally recognized holidays and were laying plans to add even more: Freshman Congressmen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have wasted no time in shaking up the US House of Representatives. Early Friday morning, Omar and Tlaib introduced a bill adding Islamic holidays to the Federal calendar which has traditionally only recognized American holidays. Omar and Tlaib’s bill would add Eid Al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan and the four-day-long celebration of Eid Al-Adha to the list of Federally recognized holidays, potentially granting reasons to banks, schools, and other businesses to remain closed for five additional days per year. Omar and Tlaib justified their work as making America more inclusive of it’s Muslim-American population and moving us further away from our history as a primarily Christian nation. The women are also considering a last minute addition to their bill that would allow for regular Salah time breaks for school children and workers as well as a designated area in each public business where Muslims could perform Salah, the five daily prayers plus the Friday prayer, unmolested. However, as of mid-January 2019, neither Tlaib nor Omar was shown on the website of the U.S. Congress as having sponsored (or co-sponsored) any legislation at all, much less legislation pertaining to Islamic affairs. It seems unlikely, moreover, that the first legislative endeavor of any fledgling representative would be trying to create new federal holidays. The last time Congress passed a bill designating a new federal holiday was in 1983 when Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday received formal recognition. No president since Ronald Reagan has signed such a bill. In point of fact, the story was fabricated from start to finish. A disclaimer on the So Right It Hurts website describes its content as “paradoxical,” and “for parody purposes only”: “All information on the Site and our mobile app are paradoxical, that is a ‘literary work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule.’ These articles range from misleading to wildly imaginative and are provided in good faith the reader understands that, however, we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information on the Site or our mobile application.” A notice on the site’s “About Us” page phrases it even more succinctly: Claim: U.S. Representatives Rashid Tlaib and Ilhan Omar co-sponsored legislation to recognize Muslim holidays as federal holidays.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2019, Second Lady Karen Pence faced widespread criticism after the White House announced she had taken a job as a part-time art teacher at a Christian school in Northern Virginia, an institution that, according to some news reports, bars LGBT teachers, staff and students. A White House press release announced that Pence — wife of Vice President Mike Pence — had returned to the K-8 elementary school where she worked from 2001 to 2013 while her husband was a U.S. Representative for the 2nd and 6th Congressional Districts of Indiana: “Today, Karen Pence is back in the classroom, not as the Second Lady of the United States, but as Mrs. Pence to teach art classes for children at an elementary school in Northern Virginia. Mrs. Pence will teach twice a week at Immanuel Christian School until May. Mrs. Pence accepted this wonderful opportunity to teach art in early December 2018. ‘I am excited to be back in the classroom and doing what I love to do, which is to teach art to elementary students,’ said Mrs. Pence. ‘I have missed teaching art, and it’s great to return to the school where I taught art for twelve years.”’ The announcement quickly received negative press due to requirements that Immanuel Christian School places on would-be employees and parents of would-be students. The Huffington Post published an article with the headline “Karen Pence is Working at a School That Bans LGBTQ Employees and Kids.” The article read: “Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, started at a job this week teaching art at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia. It’s not a school where everyone is welcome. In a “parent agreement” posted online, the school says it will refuse admission to students who participate in or condone homosexual activity, HuffPost learned through an investigation into discriminatory admissions policies. The 2018 employment application also makes candidates sign a pledge not to engage in homosexual activity or violate the ‘unique roles of male and female. '”  The New York Times‘ headline was “Karen Pence Is Teaching at Christian School That Bars L.G.B.T. Students and Teachers,” an ABC News report carried the headline “Second lady Karen Pence to teach at school with ban against LGBT students, parents and teachers,” Yahoo! News reported “Karen Pence works at school that bans homosexuality” and CNN reported that the school “bans gay students and parents.” Salon.com and the Daily Beast published similar articles, which also averred that the school barred LGBT employees and students. At the heart of these claims were two documents posted on the website of the school, which is in Springfield, Virginia, about 12 miles southwest of downtown Washington, D.C. and is closely affiliated with Immanuel Bible Church. The first document is the employment application required of anyone applying for a job as a teacher, teaching assistant or substitute teacher at the school. As part of that application, would-be staff are required to sign and initial each of 13 “articles of employment.” The document prefaces those articles with the following introduction:  “Immanuel Christian School is a non-profit religious educational organization and is supported as a ministry of Immanuel Bible Church. More importantly, our school is a community of believers who have joined together to meet the spiritual and academic needs of our community, representing Jesus Christ. Our school promotes behavior consistent with the Holy Scriptures. Consequently, when joining Immanuel Christian School, you freely and willingly agree to the standards of behavior outlined in this policy. The standards included in the policy are not exhaustive; rather, they provide a guideline of conduct we believe is in accordance with biblical standards. Please read, initial each item, and sign as indicated.” Would-be teachers are required to affirm that they are born-again Christians, that they are or will become active members of a local “theologically conservative” church, that they will avoid “careless speech and actions” (for example in social media postings) and that they will in general act in a way that upholds and promotes the conservative, Christian, biblically founded mission and values of the school. Article 8 goes into specific details about behaviors that are not permitted of would-be employees, and outlines examples of what school authorities regard as prohibited “moral misconduct.” This is the section of the employment application that caused widespread controversy in January 2019: I will strive to live a personal life of moral purity that is separated from the world according to Scriptures, as defined by the Statement of Faith of Immanuel Bible Church and agreed upon by the Elders and Pastors of Immanuel Bible Church. I understand that the term “marriage” has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive covenant union as delineated in Scripture and that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other and that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity is engaged in outside of marriage between a man and a woman. Further, I will maintain a lifestyle based on biblical standards of moral conduct. Moral misconduct which violates the bona fide occupational qualifications for employees includes, but is not limited to, such behaviors as the following: heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female, sexual harassment, use or viewing of pornographic material or websites, and sexual abuse or improprieties toward minors as defined by Scripture and federal or state law. So in order to be considered as a potential employee of Immanuel Christian School, an applicant must sign a personal commitment not to engage in homosexual sexual activity, “transgender identity” or “any other violation of the unique roles of male and female.” The document does not explicitly prohibit teachers from being gay, lesbian or bisexual (or prohibit individuals who are gay, lesbian or bisexual from teaching at the school) as such, but rather it prohibits them from engaging in homosexual sexual activity. This appears to be in keeping with a widespread position, common to many Christian denominations, that persons with same-sex sexual preferences ought not to be condemned or excluded on the basis of those preferences alone, but only on the condition that they strictly exercise chastity, and refrain from publicly identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual or engaging in same-sex and extra-marital relationships or sexual activity. It is a point of considerable philosophical dispute — and beyond the scope of a fact check — whether barring gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from giving full expression to their sexual identities and orientations while being members of a church, for example, or teaching at a school, is itself tantamount to effectively barring gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from those organizations. For example, Dignity USA, a group that advocates inclusion and participation for LGBTQI Catholics, defines its viewpoint in the following way: We believe that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex Catholics in our diversity are members of Christ’s mystical body, numbered among the People of God. We have an inherent dignity because God created us, Christ died for us, and the Holy Spirit sanctified us in Baptism, making us temples of the Spirit, and channels through which God’s love becomes visible. Because of this, it is our right, our privilege, and our duty to live the sacramental life of the Church, so that we might become more powerful instruments of God’s love working among all people. We believe that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex persons can express their sexuality and gender identities and expressions in a manner that is consonant with Christ’s teaching. We believe that we can express our sexuality physically, in a unitive manner that is loving, life-giving, and life-affirming. We believe that all sexuality should be exercised in an ethically responsible and unselfish way. We believe that our transgender and queer communities can express their core identities in a sincere, affirming and authentic manner. By contrast, the official position of the Catholic church (as articulated in the Catechism) is that homosexual sexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law” but that homosexual persons “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” on the condition that they exercise chastity. Article 8 in Immanuel Christian School’s articles of employment does specifically and explicitly designate “transgender identity” as a form of unacceptable moral misconduct. Unlike the ambiguity of the document’s position towards homosexual persons (as opposed to homosexual sexual acts), this clearly amounts to a ban on transgender persons from working at the school as teachers, substitute teachers or teaching assistants. The second document at the heart of the January 2019 controversy over Karen Pence’s employment at the school was a “parent agreement,” which parents of would-be students are required to “support” as part of the application process for being admitted to the school. It’s not clear whether parents are required to sign the agreement before their child can be accepted for enrollment at the school, but the document prefaces the list of 15 commitments with the following statement: “I agree that Immanuel Christian School should maintain its objective of thoroughly Christian education and should show evidence of that in policies for academic work, student behavior, and all relationships with students, employees, school families, churches, and the community. I will cooperate with Immanuel Christian School (ICS) in the following ways.” The sixth of these commitments reads as follows: I understand the biblical role of Immanuel Christian School is to partner with families to encourage students to be imitators of Christ. This necessarily involves the school’s understanding and belief regarding biblical morality and standards of conduct. I understand that the school reserves the right, within its sole discretion, to refuse admission to an applicant or to discontinue enrollment of a student if the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home, the activities of a parent or guardian, or the activities of the student are counter to, or are in opposition to, the biblical lifestyle the school teaches. This includes, but is not limited to contumacious behavior, divisive conduct, and participating in, supporting, or condoning sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity, promoting such practices, or being unable to support the moral principles of the school. (Lev. 20:13 and Romans 1:27.) I acknowledge the importance of a family culture based on biblical principles and embrace biblical family values such as a healthy marriage between one man and one woman. My role as spiritual mentor to my children will be taken seriously. So the school reserves the right to refuse to admit or to expel a student if either that student or their parents or guardians engage in, support, condone or promote homosexual or bisexual activity. Although this does not explicitly bar gay, lesbian or bisexual persons from attending the school or sending their children there, it could reasonably be regarded as an implicit ban on openly gay, lesbian or bisexual persons doing so. It is extremely difficult to imagine a scenario in which openly gay, lesbian or bisexual parents could, in good faith, present themselves to school authorities as upholding a requirement that they not support, condone, or promote homosexual or bisexual activity, especially if that activity is not regarded as limited to sexual acts, but rather includes same-sex relationships. Similarly, it is extremely difficult to imagine a scenario in which the parents of children who have openly expressed their own emerging or settled homosexual or bisexual orientation could, in good faith, present their children for attendance at the school while also committing to not support or condone homosexual or bisexual “activity.”   Significantly, the document cites Chapter 20, Verse 13 of the book of Leviticus as the scriptural basis for its ban on the promotion or support of homosexual acts by parents or students. That verse famously reads: “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” We asked the White House whether Karen Pence had signed and initialed all 13 of the “articles of employment” for Immanuel Christian School, including Article 8, and whether she regarded that document, along with the “parent agreement,” as amounting to a formal or de facto ban on LGBT staff, parents and students. We did not receive a response in time for publication. Similarly, we asked Immanuel Christian School whether the provisions of Article 8 in the articles of employment, taken together with the parent agreement, were intended to be a formal or de facto ban on LGBT staff, parents and students, but we did not receive a response in time for publication. Claim: In January 2019, Second Lady Karen Pence began working as a teacher at a school that bans LGBT teachers and students.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On December 18 2019, United States President Donald Trump was impeached on two counts by the House of Representatives; that night and the following day, screenshots and quotations of a tweet purportedly from his son Donald Trump Jr. to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton circulated in the aftermath:Screenshots of the tweet placed its date in September 2016. That month, Clinton had made remarks in which she described some of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables”:We’re going to put comprehensive quality affordable health care within reach for more people, including for mental health and addiction. We’re gonna take on youth homelessness, and as my wonderful, extraordinary, great daughter said, we are going to end the cruel and dangerous practice of conversion therapy. We’re going to keep working toward an AIDS-free generation, a goal that I set as secretary of state, and with your help we’re going to pass comprehensive gun laws…I know there are only 60 days left to make our case — and don’t get complacent, don’t see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think well he’s done this time. We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?Clinton’s husband, former United States President Bill Clinton, was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998:In January 1998, news broke that President Clinton had engaged in an affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. This story was political dynamite, not just because it was a sex scandal, but also because it had dire legal implications … To many observers, impeachment or resignation seemed to be the only resolution.Clinton’s scandal dominated political news in 1998. Late that year, the House voted to impeach him:On August 17, 1998, following his testimony before a federal grand jury on the matter, Clinton acknowledged in a televised address to the nation his “inappropriate” conduct with Lewinsky and admitted that he had misled the nation and embarrassed his family. But he did not admit to having lied, having instructed anyone else to lie, or orchestrating a cover-up involving anyone else.Starr then sent his report to the House of Representatives alleging that there were grounds for impeaching Clinton for lying under oath, obstruction of justice, abuse of powers, and other offenses. After a vitriolic series of televised House hearings and the release of thousands of documents — many in graphic detail — the House Judiciary Committee, on a strictly partisan vote, recommended that an impeachment inquiry commence. The House adopted two articles of impeachment, charging the President with perjury in his grand jury testimony and obstructing justice in his dealings with various potential witnesses.However, the Senate did not have a two-thirds majority, and Clinton was not removed from office.As for Donald Trump Jr.’s “You know what’s deplorable? Being Impeached!! !” tweet, it was both genuine and still on his timeline as of December 2019. Trump Jr. sent the tweet on September 10 2019, not long after Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment became viral news:Dear Clintons,You know what's deplorable?Being Impeached!! !#BasketOfDeplorables— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 10, 2016 Claim: Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, \"Do you know what's deplorable? Being impeached!\" to the Clintons in September 2016.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: One drug showed particular ability to reach tumors in the brain, which are notoriously tough to treat. The other pairs a sort of homing device for cancer cells with a payload of chemotherapy that’s released when it reaches its target. “It’s a guided missile. It’s able to bring the chemotherapy directly to the cancer cell,” said the study leader, Dr. Ian Krop of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Results were disclosed at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and in the New England Journal of Medicine. From 15% to 20% of breast cancers are “HER2-positive” — they have too much of a protein called HER2 on their cell surfaces, driven by an overactive gene that promotes cancer growth. Krop led a study of 253 such women to test the guided missile drug, called T-DXd, given as an infusion every three weeks. These women had tried on average six previous treatments before the experimental drug. Different doses were tested, and 184 women got what turned out to be the best one. Among those women, 61% saw their tumors shrink at least 30%. In 6% of them, no signs of cancer were seen in at least two followup scans. Although the experimental drug was not tested against others, the response rate is three to four times better than what’s usually seen in this situation, Krop said. The median time until cancer worsened was 16 months, and to see anything hold such serious cancers at bay for more than a year is exciting, he said. Side effects were substantial, though. About 60% of women had low blood counts, nausea, anemia or fatigue, and 15% stopped treatment because of them. Most serious: Twenty-five developed lung inflammation, and four died of it. This is a rare side effect with other drugs for this type of cancer, but it was much more common with the experimental drug. Doctors can watch patients closely and give anti-inflammatory medicines if it occurs, Krop said. Because these cancers generally prove fatal, the drug “is still beneficial for most patients,” he said. An independent expert, Dr. Jennifer Litton of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said it may be possible to give patients preventative anti-inflammatory medicines. It’s worth the risk because the drug’s benefit is so great, she said. The study was sponsored by the drug’s developers, Daiichi Sankyo Inc. and AstraZeneca, and they are seeking approval for the medicine in the U.S., Japan and Europe. Krop consults for the companies. Dana-Farber’s Dr. Eric Winer helped lead a study of the other experimental medicine — tucatinib, from Seattle Genetics. “It’s a drug that’s particularly able to get into the brain,” he said, and half of the 612 participants had cancer that had spread there. “These patients had nothing” that worked, and they’re often excluded from tests of new drugs because their outlook is so poor, Litton said. All were given usual treatments — Herceptin and the chemo drug Xeloda — plus tucatinib or dummy pills. After two years, 45% of those on tucatinib were alive versus 27% of the others. Among the women whose cancer had spread to the brain, one quarter were alive with no worsening of those tumors a year later. None of the women in the comparison group achieved that. Diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and some liver side effects were a little more common with tucatinib. About 6% of the tucatinib group stopped treatment because of side effects versus 3% of the others. Litton said she put some patients on studies of the drug “and they did really well.”  Seattle Genetics sponsored the study and Winer and others consult for the company. ___ Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: New drugs show rare promise against advanced breast cancer.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Numero Uno pizza is served at Pizzeria Uno in Chicago January 20, 2010. REUTERS/John Gress The scuttled changes, which would have stripped pizza’s status as a vegetable and limited how often French fries could be served, stemmed from a 2010 child nutrition law calling on schools to improve the nutritional quality of lunches served to almost 32 million U.S. school children. The action is a win for the makers of frozen French fries and pizza and comes just weeks after the deep-pocketed food, beverage and restaurant industries successfully weakened government proposals for voluntary food marketing guidelines to children. “It’s an important victory,” said Corey Henry, spokesman for the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI). That trade association lobbied Congress on behalf of frozen pizza sellers like ConAgra Foods Inc and Schwan Food Co and French   fry makers McCain Foods Ltd and J.R. Simplot Co, the latter best known as a supplier to fast-food company McDonald’s Corp.   “Our concern is that the standards would force companies in many respects to change their products in a way that would make them unpalatable to students,” Henry said. Other AFFI members include H.J. Heinz Co, General Mills Inc and Kraft Foods Inc. The school lunch provisions were a small part of a mammoth bill that provides money for all parts of the federal government. The House sent the bill to the Senate for final Congressional approval. “They started out with French fries and now they have moved on to pizza,” said Jared Polis, Colorado Democrat, who lamented the government’s subsidy of unhealthy diets through school meals. “Pizza alone (without side dishes) ... common sense, it’s not a vegetable.”   Calls to Minnesota-based Schwan and its external public relations firm and ConAgra were not returned. Mark Dunn, AFFI’s chairman and J.R. Simplot’s main lobbyist, referred requests for comment to a company spokesman, who declined to respond. Polis mentioned French fries in reference to a provision in the bill that would have blocked the government from limiting servings of white potatoes to one cup per week in meals served through the roughly $18 billion U.S. school meals program overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition to potatoes, USDA also proposed limits on starchy vegetables including corn, green peas and lima beans, while requiring lunches to serve a wider variety of fruit and vegetables. Another provision bars the USDA from changing the way it credits tomato paste, used in pizza. The change would have required pizza to have at least a half-cup of tomato paste to qualify as a vegetable serving. Current rules, which likely will remain in place, require just two tablespoons of tomato paste. According to a USDA report from November 2007, pizza and French fries were among the most commonly consumed lunch foods by participants in the national school lunch program. Sam Farr of California, the Democratic leader on the appropriations subcommittee in charge of the USDA, said the interference with USDA rule-writing was “wrong” and “shouldn’t be done”. Still, Farr supported passage of the overall bill. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Wednesday that U.S. school children would still see more fruit and vegetables, more grains, more low-fat milk and less salt and fat in meals despite the language in the spending bill. “First of all, we can assure parents of school-age children (that) USDA will do everything it can” to improve the nutritional quality of school meals, as required by the 2010 child nutrition law. Vilsack was speaking via teleconference from Hanoi during a U.S. trade trip. Healthier school lunches are a cornerstone of First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to end childhood obesity. Nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese and the numbers are growing. “Clearly more pizza and French fries in schools is not good for kids, but it’s good for companies that make pizza and French fries,” said Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group that advocates better food and nutrition policies. Wootan said U.S. food makers trumpet products they say are healthy while at the same time lobbying against regulations aimed at improving the nutritional quality of their products. “A year ago, I was walking the halls of Congress arm-in-arm with the food industry, fighting for healthier school lunches,” Wootan said. “Today, we are on opposite sides, and I’m battling to keep them from weakening school nutrition standards and school marketing guidelines and other provisions.” Claim: House protects pizza as a vegetable.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story discusses costs in a very interesting way – because the point of the research was modifying human behavior by paying “rewards” of cash to patients and sometimes doctors. What we didn’t find in the story is the “cost” of manpower to run a program like this. How much would it cost (besides the actual cost of $1,204 per patient-doctor pair) to administer this? How practical is it? We applaud the writer for including this paragraph – giving the real context that matters most. Italics added by editor. “Still to come is an analysis of whether the amounts paid in the study – up to $1,024 over the course of a year – would be worth it, in terms of avoiding the costs of treating a certain number of heart attacks and strokes.” Overall, the story does an excellent job of addressing the cost trade-offs. There were four patient groups. The story does a great job of describing the precise benefits, in terms of blood cholesterol, that each patient group showed (if any). The group that benefited the most was the one where both patients and doctors received incentives. That group showed a drop of 33.6 points in LDL cholesterol, compared to a 25.1 drop in the group that received no money. It may have been useful to include a sense of how that reduction might translate into reduced risk of a heart attack (one could use the risk calculator the story mentions to calculate an estimate, or ask one of the sources to help with this). But while quantifying the drops in cholesterol is important, we also wanted to know whether the incentives actually translated to increased compliance with the medication regimen. Other factors beyond the medication usage (diet, genetics, etc.) may have impacted participants’ cholesterol levels, so it would be interesting to know if the cholesterol results were confirmed by the medication adherence findings. The story does a nice job describing some of the subtle downsides associated with the pay-for-taking-meds approach as well as the side effects of the meds themselves. All four groups in the study, even those who did not receive any payment, were issued electronic pill bottles. As one commenter said “they might have felt they were being watched.” The bottles sent a signal of some sort when opened, so that researchers would know who opened the top. Another commenter pointed out that if money as incentive works for a short-term, how do we know patients would continue past the payment stage? These limitations are part of why one outside commenter described the results as “a nice first step.” The story makes clear the methods and comparison in the randomized controlled study, and the quality of evidence. It includes important elements like study size and study design, and it touches on some limitations. There is no disease mongering. The story goes beyond just “satisfactory.” Extra stars for including a patient (who was not involved) who is an advocate in this area, as well as researchers not involved in the study. The piece does a great job on this. The alternatives in this case would be other ways to motivate patients to take statins, and we think the story does this well. The story makes clear that paying cash to patients to take medicine is an experimental idea, not something that your local doctor is likely to offer. But with that said, it might have been helpful to ask one of the sources about how widespread this approach is and in what contexts it is being used (there are examples around the country). The story accurately suggests that’s what’s novel here is paying both patients and physicians to improve compliance. The story could have been clearer about the fact that there are a number of other studies looking at patient financial incentives. The story mentions one example (related to smoking) in the introduction, but it could have gone further. The story does not rely on a news release, but is a fine example of where extra reporting can provide context. Claim: Penn study: Pay patients to take their pills",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Under current laws, scooters can only be driven on roads, they need to carry license plates, and riders require a motorcycle license. The world-record sprinter and co-founder of Bolt Mobility announced the launch at an event in a Tokyo restaurant on Friday. The initial goal is to limit its scooter rentals to private land, which is exempted from the traffic regulations, and to be operating on 40 university campuses by the end of 2020. Beyond that, representatives of the year-old American start-up are talking with regulators about easing restrictions, arguing its scooters can reduce traffic congestion and thereby reduce emissions. Bolt hopes his celebrity can help deliver that message. “We’re still talking and trying to figure out how to push forward and do better things for the environment, because that’s where it started,” he said in an interview with Reuters following the event. “This is the future.”   Bolt Mobility aims to be in 20 cities globally by the end of this year and 50 across eight countries in 2020. Earlier this year, it launched in New York, Paris and Washington. E-scooter sharing has become a popular option for so-called “last-mile” commutes in many urban centers worldwide, but they have also created problems. In San Francisco, customers have abandoned the vehicles on public walkways, spurring the city attorney to call them a “public nuisance.”   Paris has tightened rules on where scooters can be ridden following two deaths and scores of injuries. An elderly cyclist died after colliding with an e-scooter in Singapore in September. In Tokyo, e-scooters are still a rarity, and under current laws are treated as low-powered motorcycles. However there is growing momentum for making them more mainstream. At the Tokyo Motor Show this month, hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, visitors could try out electric scooters built by Japanese and foreign startups. The world’s largest e-scooter company, Lime, joined the Japanese lobby group Microbility Promotion Council on Thursday. However a change in regulation may take some time, despite the backing of some Japanese government officials. “Even though everyone says it’s very convenient, safety has to be the top priority,” an official at Japan’s transport ministry said, declining to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the media. “That’s going to be an extremely high hurdle.” Claim: Ken Paxton Says Barack Obama \"acknowledged over 20 times\" that his administration’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans \"immigration edict was a violation of law and the separation of powers.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The outbreak of the contagious skin disease caused by parasitic mites was officially identified at the Kona Community Hospital last week, hospital officials said. The hospital has not said how many people have been infected, but officials said more cases are likely to appear. Scabies is caused by mites that burrow under the skin and lay eggs, leading to intense itching, according to the state Disease Outbreak Control Division. Symptoms can take about two to four weeks to appear after infection. It can cause a pimple-like rash to form. It spreads from skin-to-skin contact or contact with mite-covered items. Scabies can be treated by medicated skin cream or lotion followed by a hot bath, according to the division. Lisa Downing, the hospital’s director of Infection Prevention and Employee Health, told West Hawaii Today that the outbreak was found after an “overabundance of people” reported similar symptoms. The hospital removes employees with active cases, keeping them out of the facility for 24 hours after treatment. Downing wouldn’t say how many employees were infected by scabies, but she said a department in the hospital had staffing issues for a time last week. “We had a little bit of a staffing issue in one of these departments, and it was actually handled very well,” Downing said. “So at no time did we have lack of staff or lack of qualified staff to take care of our patients, but we were a little strained in that one particular area.” She didn’t name the department. The hospital’s procedures and protocols for infectious outbreaks have been implemented. “Our people do a really good job of following our protocols here,” Downing said. “Nothing like this has ever happened before, and I can pretty much guarantee you that everyone is going to be hyper vigilant from this point forward.” Claim: Big Island hospital struck by outbreak of scabies.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Health officials say they’re trying to identify other students on the Oxford campus who may be exposed to infection and plan to test about 500 people for tuberculosis. People who are going to be tested will get a letter, and the state says a second round of testing may be necessary. People who are infected will be treated to prevent tuberculosis from developing, but people who haven’t developed the disease aren’t contagious. State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers says tuberculosis investigations at schools and universities are sometimes necessary. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Brandi Hephner LaBanc says the university is working closely with state health officials. Claim: Tuberculosis infection found at University of Mississippi.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A reader recently sent us a years-old chain email that has morphed into something more timely. It now has the heading, \"IMPORTANT ACTION INFORMATION FOR NOVEMBER, 2014  VOTE.\" For years before that, though, the chain email has floated around the Internet, making the scary claim that \"at age 76 when you most need it most, you are not eligible for cancer treatment. Cancer hospital will ration care according to the patient's age.\" PolitiFact Oregon gave this a rating of  when they looked at it in 2013. The email -- which has changed somewhat as it has zigzagged around social media -- can be identified by its attribution of the information to Judge David Kithil of Marble Falls, Texas. (More on him later.) It opens with a dire warning: \"MEDICARE AT AGE 76, IMPORTANT PLEASE READ - ANYONE WHO DOUBTS THIS IS TRUE CAN DOWNLOAD THE NEW OBAMA CARE AND LOOK UP THE PAGES MENTIONED. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING......THIS should be read by everyone, especially important to those over 75..... If you are younger, then it may apply to your parents….\" However, the email is hardly up-to-date -- it’s been circulating since 2009 and apparently stems from a list of tweets by blogger Peter Fleckenstein about H.R. 3200. That was an early version of the legislation that later became the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Many aspects of that original bill never made it into law, and other provisions have been misinterpreted or exaggerated by the email’s author. In fact, our friends at FactCheck.org found that just four of the email’s 48 claims were accurate. Here, we'll recap what we know about the cancer claim and a few of the email's other points. The cancer claim The email bases its claim about the age-based rationing of cancer care on page 272 of H.R. 3200, section 1145. But the claim is not correct. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law in March 2010. It does not include rationing for cancer treatment based on age or any other demographic factor. Nor did the precursor bill, H.R. 3200, include a cut-off age for cancer treatments. One provision of H.R. 3200 did include a section on \"treatment of certain cancer hospitals,\" but this simply allowed Medicare -- the federally run health plan for those older than 65 -- to allocate more funding to cancer hospitals if they incurred higher costs. The American Nurses Association called this the \"opposite of rationing.\" Under current legislation, \"all medically necessary treatment is covered by Medicare. Including cancer treatments, regardless of age,\" said Katherine Fitzpatrick of the Medicare Rights Center, an advocacy group, in a June 2013 interview. The Medicare Rights Center and AARP, the largest national organization of seniors, agree that hospital admittance has to do with billing under parts A or B of Medicare. Under the version of the Affordable Care Act that was adopted, Medicare payments to hospitals can be reduced if patients are readmitted within 30 days for certain conditions, such as pneumonia, but that’s not what the email claims. Meanwhile, the email raises a legitimate concern -- \"rationing\" -- but does so in a misleading way. \"Everyone hates the word ‘rationing,’ \" Harvard University health-policy specialist Katherine Baicker told PolitiFact in 2009. But rationing is not something that suddenly appeared in the Affordable Care Act, she added. \"From an economics perspective, there's no way around rationing. Some care is being rationed now. Everyone isn't getting everything.\" It’s theoretically possible to spend an unlimited amount on health care, but as a society, we only have a limited amount of public resources -- so tough decisions have to be made on how to allocate those resources. Before the Affordable Care Act was passed, \"rationing\" occurred when private insurers denied coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, or denied reimbursement for certain basic services, or priced their plans too high for certain consumers to pay. If anything, John F. Holahan, a fellow at the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center, said in an earlier interview that private insurers are historically more likely to deny health services than Medicare is. \"That's the argument you hear people making,\" he said. \"But I think they have it backwards.\" A final word. Remember Judge Kithil, the supposed author of the email? He’s disowned it. \"I wish it would die. I can’t control it,\" David Kithil told PolitiFact Oregon in 2013. \"I don’t know how something like that goes viral.\" The former judge recalled that he wrote a letter to his local newspaper in 2009, protesting the initial version of the health care act. The letter was published in the River Cities Daily Tribune, circulation 5,000. Somehow, he said, it was republished online. Kithil said he wants readers to disregard his letter, since it is outdated and based on legislation that did not become law. \"I’ve had calls from all over the country -- 300 to 400 calls over three or four years on this,\" he said at the time. He said he pleads with the callers, \"Don’t pass it on. It’s not accurate anymore. Trash it.\" Our ruling The chain email says that the Affordable Care Act requires that, \"at age 76 when you most need it most, you are not eligible for cancer treatment. … Cancer hospital will ration care according to the patient's age.\" With this email, longevity has not meant accuracy: Seniors do not need to worry about their cancer care being yanked away once they reach age 76. The claims are based on an incorrect understanding of a bill that never passed. The Affordable Care Act does not include any sections on seniors losing their treatment eligibility once they reach age 76. Claim: The Affordable Care Act says that \"at age 76 when you most need it most, you are not eligible for cancer treatment. …  Cancer hospital will ration care according to the patient's age.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: But leaders with many of the companies trying to fill those posts statewide - in areas such as manufacturing, health care and transportation - say they are stymied by a lack of workers ready, willing or able to do the work. A decades-long education message that economic development leaders say stigmatized the trades, and an opioid crisis draining America’s “prime” pool of 25- to 54 year-old workers, have fueled the troubling trend - a situation further complicated by the fact that a generation of baby boomers is now retiring. State officials predict that the hiring woes will only get worse, with the demand for already plentiful jobs such as truck-driver and nurse to see double digit surges by 2024. The need for electricians - much like many other trades - is expected to surge by more than 12 percent, Department of Labor data shows. “It’s the best time in a long time to be looking for a new job,” Johnstown Area Regional Industries Workforce Development Director Deb Balog said, pointing to Cambria County’s 1,000 or more ever-changing job postings monthly since last summer. But for communities such as New Castle, Johnstown and Sharon - areas where unemployment still falls between 5.2 percent (Mercer County) and 6.3 percent (Lawrence County) - the timing couldn’t be worse. ‘We aren’t prepared’ To Gale Measel Jr, of New Castle-based GEM Building Contractors, the problem shouldn’t be a surprise. Manufacturers and the communities they call home “ramped down” for so long that they didn’t consider the possibility of a rebound in the industry, he said. “We have been down and diminished so long,” Measel said. “We have been so low-profile so anti-economic growth for so long (that) we aren’t prepared for any of it.” Balog said there’s more behind the worker shortage than the rapid retirement of a generation of employees. There was an unintended consequence delivered to their Generation X and Millennial offspring. “For decades, the message we were telling high school students was that if they wanted to succeed in life, they had to go to college - they needed that four-year degree,” Balog said. “Ten years ago, there was no push here to train people in the trades or to guide them toward jobs in fields like transportation.” A growing number of jobs that were ignored - or never considered - are now in high demand. “I’ve never seen labor shortages as severe as they are right now - particularly in the skilled trades,” said Shawn Kaufman, human resources director for Somerset-based Riggs Industries. His company was looking to fill dozens of production field jobs such as welding, mechanics, machine operators and painters as of early May. This is happening in areas of Pennsylvania and the nation where blue-collar work once fed many families. Nursing - a field that has provided plenty of well-paying jobs to communities across the United States for decades - is also seeing shortages, driven not by a shallow worker pool but by a surging demand. The pool of qualified candidates might not be large enough to fill Pennsylvania’s projected need forecasted for the years ahead, Quality Life Services Chief Administrative officer Susie Tack Beardsley said. “It used to be nursing was the way to go if you were a woman who wanted a career, but women have so many more options now,” said Beardsley, whose company owns the 204-bed Golden Hill Nursing Home in New Castle. That’s “a wonderful thing” for women in general, she said, but it can leave those tasked with filling licensed nursing positions struggling to fill their rolls. Statewide shortages The state provides data on high-priority jobs to help regional workforce boards figure out where to invest their money, said Keith Bailey, director of the Center for Workforce Information and Analysis for the Department of Labor and Industry. That means trying to help identify areas where their investment might stretch the farthest while helping the most workers and employers. The state also projects what jobs are expected to be in demand, while sorting the information based on the level of training or education needed to do the work. Analysts focus on the “imbalance between what’s needed and what’s available,” Bailey said. As more stores add self-service lanes for shoppers, the number of cashiers needed in Pennsylvania is expected to decline. There were almost 148,000 cashiers in Pennsylvania in 2014, according to Labor and Industry projections. By 2024, that number will be done to 147,000, but there are still 6,000 openings a year for people to do that job. Similarly, while shopping malls struggle with store vacancies, the number of retail salespeople needed across the state is only expected to increase slightly. There were 196,000 retail salespeople in 2014. That’s expected to increase to 202,000 in 2024. There are a projected 7,400 job openings a year for that job. The Wolf Administration has tried to tackle the needs for more and better-trained workers on a number of fronts. The governor has asked the Legislature to provide $50 million in the 2018-19 budget to pay for a variety of workforce development initiatives, which the administration has touted as PAsmart. ‘No longer a luxury’ Some of the fastest-growing jobs in the next few years will be in health care, but labor estimates suggest there will also be strong demand for truck drivers and some industrial jobs. The state predicts these looming increases: —Nursing assistants - 12 percent by 2024, with 2,700 job openings a year. Starting pay is about $23,420, with average pay at $29,190. —Registered nurses - 14 percent by 2024, with close to 5,000 job openings a year. Pay starts at $51,340 a year and averages $68,770. —Electricians - 14 percent, with 600 job openings a year. Pay starts at $38,330 and averages $60,160. —Carpenters - 10 percent, with 1,000 job openings a year. Pay starts at $29,700 a year and averages $48,600. —Tractor-trailer drivers - 12.4 percent, with 2,335 openings a year. Pay starts at $31,410 and averages $45,270. Pennsylvania’s key stakeholders - employers, colleges and other educators - need to prepare to fill the void, the Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Conference on Community Development leaders warned. In their 2017 report “Inflection Point,” the economic development group projected a work-force shortfall of more than 80,000 through 2027 across a 10-county region spanning from Lawrence County to Fayette County. “Our numbers do not add up,” Allegheny Conference Chairman and PNC Financial Services Group CEO Bill Demchak wrote, saying changes must be made to change course. “With Baby Boomers retiring, not enough skilled workers to take their place and slow inward migration ... we are at a critical moment for the future of our region.” Bob Garrett, president of the Greater Susquehanna Chamber of Commerce agreed. For those working to spur economic growth and business development at a local level, practical solutions must be found, he said. “This is no longer a luxury,” he said. “This is not something we can afford to just chat about over cocktails.” ___ David Hurst is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. John Finnerty is based in Harrisburg and covers state government and politics. The New Castle News, Sharon Herald, Meadville Tribune and The Daily Item of Sunbury contributed to this report. ___ Online:  https://bit.ly/2GXQO92  ___ Information from: The Tribune-Democrat, http://www.tribune-democrat.com Claim: ‘Critical moment’ for firms amid retirements, opioid crisis.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Affordability of fish varies widely around the world so we can understand not bringing up costs. The intervention advocated is consuming a fish protein called parvalbumin, or PV for short. Some readers may be curious if this protein can be found in the fish oils that are widely marketed. Nonetheless, the issue of cost doesn’t seem entirely applicable here. The release doesn’t include any numbers to help put the benefits claimed in context. Early in the news release a lead author is quoted as saying: Parvalbumin collects up the ‘Parkinson’s protein’ and actually prevents it from aggregating, simply by aggregating itself first. Lower down in the news release it says: Increasing the amount of fish in our diet might be a simple way to fight off Parkinson’s disease The italics are ours to emphasize that unjustified leaps of causality, and unjustified language, are used to imply benefits that can’t be supported by this study. This study simply hypothesizes that PV, by binding with alpha-synuclein, prevents it from forming amyloid chains with other proteins. We’ve written many times about the uncertainty surrounding amyloids (of all types/subtypes) as a sign of, or contributor to, neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. The news release is dominated by suggestions that parvalbumin could help with Parkinson’s and perhaps other neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, ALS and Huntington’s but only at the very end do we learn it’s been studied as a a cause of fish allergies. Is this the only harm? We don’t know because harms aren’t included. A major problem with this news release is that it does not mention this was an in vitro experiment; that is, conducted in a controlled environment outside a living organism (aka a laboratory experiment). Above all else that should be highlighted clearly and early in the news release. It should also be made clear that no cause and effect relationship between amyloid proteins and the development of any neurologic disease has ever been established. Put another way, anything that inhibits amyloid formation — whether it be a diet, drug, or something else — does not equate with either preventing or treating any diseases of the brain. While there is no overt disease mongering, there are subtle influences here. For example,  the reader is told of a linkage of amyloid and a host of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and then an author notes: “These diseases come with age, and people are living longer and longer. There’s going to be an explosion of these diseases in the future – and the scary part is that we currently have no cures. So we need to follow up on anything that looks promising.” The clear take away message being conveyed is these disease are of concern and eating fish is the answer. The funding sources for the study and any potential conflicts among the researchers are not mentioned in the release. The published article acknowledges funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Olle Engqvist Foundation and the Chalmers Foundation. No alternatives to preventing Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are mentioned. On the surface this omission may seem justified since there are none. But perhaps it would help readers to tell them this up front. The following is our suggested wording: “Please note there are no interventions of any kind proven to prevent any neurodegenerative disease. Furthermore, no cause and effect relationship between amyloid (of any kind) and these diseases have ever been established. Finally, this is an in vitro study, so no conclusions regarding clinical efficacy in humans can be made.” Fish is widely available. We’re told the protein of interest, parvalbumin, is found in higher concentrations in certain species, and that this concentration is seasonal and tends to peak in late summer. This is not the first research attempting to link parvalbumin with a host of neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s. And while there is no direct clear claim of novelty, “shining a light…” suggests this is a new discovery. There are glimpses of cautious language in this news release such as: “It will be interesting  to study how parvalbumin distributes within human tissues in more depth.” “The team is careful to note that no definite links (between higher fish consumption) can be established at this point.” But this is drowned out by unjustified phrasing (italicized) like this: “Amyloids are not necessarily a bad thing, but can be responsible for various diseases.” “increasing the amount of fish in our diet might be a simple way to fight off Parkinson’s disease.” “Other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Huntington’s disease are also caused by certain amyloid structures interfering in the brain.” Finally, the evidence here is in fish. Not humans. And even if it was in humans the language used in this news release would still be unjustified. Claim: Eating more fish could prevent Parkinson's disease",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 28 August 2016, the web site Associated Media Coverage reported that eleven U.S. states had outlawed the use of electronic cigarettes inside cars: Eleven states working in conjunction with the U.S Department of Transportation (D.O.T) have agreed to implement an ordinance banning the use of electronic cigarettes in vehicles – meaning if you are a resident of one of the impacted states, you will be prohibited from utilizing an electronic cigarette while inside your vehicle. The U.S Department of Transportation, who admittedly placed pressure on state officials to implement the ordinance within their respective states are hopeful that representatives across the country will take notice and agree to implement and enforce a similar ban by early 2017. According to Colton Husker, a U.S Department Transportation representative, the ordinance was born out of a necessity to keep drivers safe. According to statistics published on the D.O.T website, approximately 5,834 automobile fatalities related to distracted drivers occurred across the country throughout 2015. This is an almost 30% increase to the 4,523 fatalities reported in 2014. The statistics found on the D.O.T website indicate that approximately 57% of all automobile fatalities in both 2014 and 2015 were reportedly caused by distracted drivers. According to Husker, drivers are becoming increasingly more distracted by the use of electronic cigarettes as the devices are becoming more popular. Representatives from the 11- states that have agreed to implement the ordinance (California, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and New York) have said that their states will begin implementing the ordinance as soon as Early-November 2016 and expect all residents and motorists to be in compliance immediately upon implementation. All participating states have agreed to implement the ordinance by January 3rd, 2017. Included with the article was a list of purported penalties for non-compliance with the new laws, including fines and suspension of driving privileges: First Offense: $100 fine Second Offense: $250 fine Third Offense: $500 fine Fourth Offense: $825 fine, 60-day Suspension of Driver’s License Notably, no other news outlet reported on the multi-state law purportedly affecting drivers across the country despite the widespread popularity of e-cigarettes. That’s because the report was false: Associated Media Coverage is a fake news site that typically spreads fabrications pertaining to non-existent laws and statutes which would affect a specific subset of the population. Prior falsehoods from the site include tales of a looming motorcycle curfew in March 2016, a motorcycle speed ban in August 2016, an impending FDA e-juice ban not long after that, and a claim several jurisdictions were codifying a “two pet maximum” ordinance (meaning many households would be forced to rehome beloved pets). Claim: Eleven states have banned the use of electronic cigarettes inside cars.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Speaking in Minnesota ahead of the Democratic National Convention, President Donald Trump compared the ongoing surge of coronavirus cases in the U.S. to the situation in New Zealand, where the virus returned recently after more than 100 days of no community spread. \"When you look at the rest of the world ... now all the sudden, a lot of the places that they were using to hold up, they’re having a big surge,\" Trump said Aug. 17 in a speech at an airport in Mankato, Minn. \"They were holding up names of countries, and now they’re saying, ‘Whoops.’\" \"In fact, even New Zealand. You see what's going on in New Zealand?\" the president continued. \"They beat it. They beat it. It was like front page, they beat it, because they wanted to show me something. The problem is, big surge in New Zealand. It's terrible. We don't want that.\" New Zealand, an island nation of about 5 million people, saw the return of the virus’ community spread on Aug. 11 after months with no locally transmitted cases. But on Aug. 17, the day of Trump’s remark, New Zealand had reported just nine new COVID-19 cases. The previous day, it reported 13 new cases, up from seven new cases on Aug. 15. On Aug. 18, following Trump’s comment, New Zealand reported another 13 new cases. The new cases in recent days have caused alarm in New Zealand, where strict lockdown policies and travel restrictions aim to put a lid on the virus. The leadership has responded by postponing the country’s election and locking down Auckland, its largest city. Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of California, Irvine, said it’s a stretch for Trump to say New Zealand had ever \"beat\" the virus, since the pandemic was raging elsewhere and New Zealand has needed mitigation efforts to keep cases low. But New Zealand’s new cases are a far cry from the outbreak in the U.S., which has reported more than 50,000 new cases per day for most of August and July, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The seven-day average of new cases in the U.S. was 50,927 on Aug. 17. \"That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in quite a while,\" Brooke Nichols, an assistant professor of global health at Boston University, said of Trump’s claim comparing the two nations. As of Aug. 18, New Zealand’s health ministry had recorded 1,643 confirmed and probable cases in total, along with 22 deaths. There are currently 90 active cases in the country. The U.S. leads the world in cumulative cases and deaths, by contrast. It has seen nearly 5.5 million cases and more than 171,000 deaths as of Aug. 18. That’s a quarter of the world’s known cases in a country that, with around 330 million people, represents about 4% of the global population. The disparity is wide even when you adjust for the size of both countries. According to the World Health Organization, the United States has 16,175 confirmed cases for every 1 million people. New Zealand has 268 confirmed cases per million people. It isn’t. New Zealand’s leaders were quick to dismiss Trump’s suggestion that the \"big surge\" in their country was something the U.S. would not \"want.\" Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Trump’s comparison between the two nations was \"patently wrong,\" according to local reports. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gestures during the opening ceremony for Redcliffs School in Christchurch, New Zealand, on June 25, 2020. (AP) \"I don’t think there’s any comparison between New Zealand’s current cluster and the tens of thousands of cases that are being seen daily in the United States,\" Ardern added Aug. 18. Nichols, the Boston University professor, agreed. \"New Zealand has had a few dozen cases in the last week, the United States has had a few dozen new cases in the last couple of minutes,\" Nichols said. \"I wish we were ‘surging’ like New Zealand is.\" The White House and Trump campaign did not respond to our inquiries by deadline. Trump said: \"The problem is, big surge in New Zealand. It's terrible. We don't want that.\" New Zealand reported nine new cases on Aug. 17, the day of Trump’s remark. The U.S., by contrast, has frequently reported more than 50,000 cases per day since July. Claim: The coronavirus has seen a “big surge in New Zealand. It's terrible. We don't want that.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It didn’t take long after the enactment of a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill for critics to blame Democrats for larding it with unnecessary spending. One Facebook post that was shared at least 15,000 times features a photograph of a smiling, young waitress. The text says: \"I lost my job. But I'll sleep better knowing: $25 million of (coronavirus) relief aid went to the Kennedy Center. $350,000,000 went to refugee resettlement. $75 million went to PBS. $25 million went to congressional salaries and expenses. Thanks, Democrats. It couldn't have happened without you.\" Some of this text in the post accurately describes elements included in the final version of the bill. However, it also includes some inaccuracies, and the broader depiction of the bill — in which laid-off workers get nothing, at the expense of special interests — is significantly skewed. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We’ll take a look at the text, piece by piece. This is accurate. The funding would go for such purposes as \"deep cleaning,\" maintenance, telework upgrades, employee compensation, rent and utilities for the performing arts center. The Kennedy Center is a federal entity funded by ticket revenue and congressional appropriations, so receiving funding through a congressional bill isn’t unusual. In a statement, the Democratic House leadership said that the Kennedy Center has lost more than $20 million in unrecoverable costs from canceled performances and has lost the ability to generate revenue from ticket sales in the interim. \"Without the assistance in the bill, the Kennedy Center would become completely insolvent and potentially unable to reopen,\" the statement said. If \"refugee resettlement\" is supposed to mean resettling refugees in the United States, that’s not entirely accurate. The bill doesn’t say specifically where the $350 million earmarked for \"Department of State migration and refugee assistance\" will go, but much of it may end up as humanitarian assistance to other countries as they grapple with internal displacement of individuals and families due to the virus. Indeed, the Trump administration’s State Department touted its role in this regard as recently as a March 27 news release. \"The U.S. Government is leading the world’s humanitarian and health assistance response to the COVID-19 pandemic,\" the release said, citing an initial investment of $274 million for other countries in need, plus the World Health Organization and UNICEF, prior to passage of the relief bill. \"We are mobilizing all necessary resources to respond rapidly, both at home and abroad.\" This is broadly accurate. The funding is for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn funds public broadcasters such as PBS. The bill provides \"stabilization support\" for stations seeing declines in non-federal revenues. \"Public media stations are the backbone for most communities’ emergency alert, public safety, first-responder and homeland-security services,\" the Democratic leadership statement said. \"If stations are forced to cut jobs, reduce content and services, or close, the nation’s ability to deliver emergency alerts will be significantly diminished.\" As with the money for the Kennedy Center, it is standard practice for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to receive its funding from congressional legislation. Social media users might think this refers to a pay boost for lawmakers, but we’ve previously rated that assertion . Hollander said there is $25 million for the House in the stimulus to support the chamber’s \"capability to telework,\" including equipment purchases and improvements to the computer network. There is also money to reimburse the staff of the House Child Care Center, cover the costs of food service contracts and pay the House sergeant-at-arms. Separately, the Senate is slated to get $10 million from the stimulus; $1 million will go to the sergeant-at-arms’ office to remain available for coronavirus response, while $9 million will be reserved for \"miscellaneous items,\" including reimbursement for workers at the Senate Employee Child Care Center. None of the money in the bill would go toward paying lawmakers anything more than their current salary level. While some of these provisions mirror elements of a bill offered by House Democrats, that bill never received consideration. Instead, the Senate and the House passed a bill drawn up by leading senators of both parties. The Senate passed the bill 96-0, while the House approved it by a voice vote, a method used for widely supported measures. Because almost all members of both parties approved the bills, Republicans and Democrats alike deserve whatever credit or blame comes from the bill. The biggest misleading element of the post is the notion that the laid-off waitress will get nothing out of the bill. That couldn’t be more wrong. First, assuming she earns less than $75,000 a year, she’ll get $1,200 tax-free from the government, no strings attached. Second, the bill includes historically generous add-on amounts to state unemployment payments. The bill sets aside $260 billion to increase state unemployment payments by $600 a week, or the equivalent of more than $30,000 a year. If the state gives you $400 a week, a fairly typical amount, then you’ll be getting a total of $1,000 a week, or the equivalent of $52,000 a year. (If you made less than this before you lost your job, you’ll actually be earning more than you did previously, at least during the four months provided for in the bill.) The bill also incentivizes states to waive waiting periods for receiving benefits, and provides funds for states to lengthen the time limits for receiving their unemployment benefits by 13 weeks. Meanwhile, in a landmark move, the bill recognizes that gig workers — from freelancers to Uber drivers — need economic assistance in times like these. So they will qualify for the enhanced unemployment provisions in the new bill. A Facebook post shows a waitress saying, \"I lost my job. But I'll sleep better knowing\" that the coronavirus relief bill included funding for the Kennedy Center, refugee resettlement, PBS, and congressional salaries: \"Thanks, Democrats.\" While the post oversimplifies some of those provisions, they are indeed part of the bill. However, the post gives the strong impression that the bill offers nothing to laid-off workers, and that’s flat wrong. Every American earning less than the income caps will get a $1,200 check, and anyone who starts drawing unemployment payments will see those topped up by additional federal payments of $600 a month. Also, the bill that was passed received almost blanket support from both Republicans and Democrats. Claim: Shows a waitress saying, \"I lost my job. But I'll sleep better knowing” that the coronavirus relief bill included funding for the Kennedy Center, refugee resettlement, PBS, and congressional salaries: “Thanks, Democrats”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since the first implementation of Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United State during World War I, jokes have abounded about people who mistakenly believed the springtime adjustment of clocks somehow created an “extra” hour of daylight (when all it did was shift the time of day that daylight hours occurred) or that it had a deleterious effect on crops and farm animals (who are oblivious to humans’ methods of keeping time). Now that stock of humor has been increased with the additional claim that the lengthened Daylight Saving Time period which was implemented in 2007 (when DST began three weeks earlier than in previous years and stayed in effect for an additional week longer in the fall) contributed to record high temperatures recorded across the U.S. in the late winter and early spring by producing a daily extra hour of “warming” daylight. One such item quoted above was indeed published as a letter to the editor by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on 16 April 2007:  You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two. This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they? Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects. CONNIE M. MESKIMEN Hot Springs  However, this missive was not intended to be taken literally, as its author, Connie Meskimen, is a Little Rock lawyer known for penning sarcastic letters with tongue planted firmly in cheek, such as the following:  I enjoy Paul Greenberg’s column and regard it as an oasis in a desert of pretty bad writing (and in the case of Philip Martin, very bad writing). I have to take issue with the substance of his Feb. 9 column, however. In this missive, he lambastes the recent film “American Beauty” as being superficial, unduly politically incorrect and, most surprisingly, lacking in spirituality. He says, “There is not one sign of prayer, sacrament, church or any kind of simplicity, especially spiritual.” Perhaps he should review the plot again for spirituality. It goes like this: A middle-aged man abandons his quest for material goods and quits his job. He shows compassion for the social misfits around him, most notably the closet homosexual next door and his misfit son. He is tempted by his daughter’s Lolita-like friend and finds redemption in the end by refusing her advances. He is then killed and speaks to us after his death about salvation (from on high, judging from the camera angle). Hmmm, as Humphrey Bogart would say. Seems like I have read this story somewhere else. Imagine my delight when I opened my paper Dec. 14 to find not one, not two, but — count ’em — three movie reviews by Philip Martin on the same page. Martin has made himself the Ginsu knife of the world of letters (but wait, there’s more), albeit without the cutting edge. In his review of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings,” we are treated to this insight in the form of a sentence fragment, which in fact is an entire paragraph: “Because a movie is not a book.” He favors us with this incisive information after telling us that he saw the movie in Manhattan. It is difficult for one to discern the relevance of this bit of information other than to remind us that Martin was in Manhattan. I guess it wasn’t playing in Paris. In his review of “Not Another Teen Movie,” he provides us with this: “Unfortunately a stupid movie that knows that it is stupid is not the same as a funny movie.” It is an absolute tragedy that Groucho Marx didn’t have Martin to write his straight lines. In his review of “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” Martin finds it necessary to compare the Coen brothers to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Martin states that the Coens “are like that other fellow Minnesotan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, insofar as they have the knack of saying very little very beautifully.” How appropriate. Martin, like some of his fellow Arkansans, has the knack of saying very little very often. Oh, well. I suppose there are those enamored of Martin’s style. As the existentialist philosopher Jean Boyd opined, one man’s weed is another’s flower. Nonetheless, Connie Meskimen’s controversial “Daylight Saving” missive prompted a number of responses from Democrat-Gazette readers, ranging from expressions of incredulity that such a letter could have been written (let alone published) to hopes that it was all meant as a joke:  Re Connie Meskimen’s comments on Daylight Saving Time exacerbating warming: It is hard to believe in this day and time that there are still people who believe that night and day are controlled by human beings. That the world rotates on an axis and moves around the sun is apparently an unknown scientific fact to some people. Whether we put a time frame around this occurrence is a human need. There is no more daylight than usual, regardless of the time. I can’t believe the Democrat-Gazette would even print such drivel. Oh, wait. Maybe it is because it is another attempt to bash liberals. How sad. I am baffled by your accepting, much less featuring, the letter about Daylight Saving Time. Did the editor accept the premise that our warmer March was due to the extra hour of daylight? Or was the intent to show how illogical those opposed to the concept of global warming can be? The bias of the writer is shown by “You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate.” There is later reference to the “liberal Congress.” The notion reminds me of earlier arguments that with Daylight Saving Time, the hens would get confused and not know when to lay their eggs. Nature and weather are, of course, unrelated to our choice of how we divide the day. In fact, it is only in relatively recent times that we divided the day into 24 hours and had clocks. Re the letter from Connie M. Meskimen about Daylight Saving Time: Oh, please, please, please tell me that the date of that submission was April 1. A recent letter to the editor excoriated Congress for changing the start of Daylight Saving Time. The writer said that the abnormally high temperatures in March were due to the effects of the extra hour of daylight. In fact, the letter even insinuated that the change to Daylight Saving Time was a plot by Congress to exacerbate the effects of global warming and make it a bigger political issue. I have some bad news for the letter writer. In March, we had the exact same number of hours of daylight as we do every March. While Congress has the power to change many laws, it cannot change the laws of nature. All the members did was change the time on our clocks. They did not actually add any hours of daylight. Having just read the letter from Connie M. Meskimen of Hot Springs, I’m at a loss to figure out how she thinks Daylight Saving Time, even if it is “another plot by a liberal Congress,” could have any effect on how many hours of daylight or darkness there are in the world. Congress may and does make a lot of dumb moves, but this is one thing it can’t change. All those “legions of bugs and snakes” crawling around don’t have clocks, just natural instinct, which tells them when it’s warm enough and light enough to crawl around. On the other hand, maybe it is I who don’t understand Daylight Saving Time. No doubt mine will not be the only response to letter writer Connie Meskimen. First of all, she is correct to acknowledge the changes we’ve all seen in seasonal patterns. Sadly, though, she apparently doesn’t want to believe that this is indeed a result of global climate change, which will continue to have an impact on our environment until notable measures are taken to slow the damage being done to our atmosphere. To deny that the problem exists is just willful ignorance. With regard to the extension of Daylight Saving Time, I would like to point out that this measure was enacted by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed by a Republican president as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. So much for her vast, left-wing, liberal conspiracy. But perhaps her most bizarre thinking is that somehow Congress has created an extra hour of daylight out of thin air. Anyone with even a basic understanding of reality knows that the number of hours of daylight we have on any given day isn’t altered by simply resetting a clock. We also know that this simple shift of time can help reduce the consumption of energy by delaying the increased need and use of electricity after sundown. Perhaps Meskimen can find an elementary school student to explain it to her. Re the letter from Connie M. Meskimen: I am somewhat confused. She states that we’ve had the “hottest March since the beginning of the last century,” and she goes on to blame Congress for that due to the earlier than normal time change. Well, we did “spring forward” a few weeks earlier than we have in the past. What I am confused about is, no matter whether our clocks are set forward one hour or back one hour, don’t we continue to have the same amount of daylight hours every day? I have decided, though, to be very careful about my voting in 2008. Whether conservative or liberal, I don’t want to be guilty of voting in someone who has that much power over our weather! Evidently Mr. Meskimen received a number of direct inquiries about his bit of satire, as afterwards the voicemail at his office phone presented callers with the following message: “If you are calling about the Daylight Savings Time letter and wish to explain global warming or daylight savings time to me, I would urge you to get a sense of humor and/or a life, in that order. Unless, of course, you want to pay me for an interview; if so, please leave your telephone number and I will expediently return your call.” A few sharp-eyed readers pointed out that another tongue-in-cheek letter similar to Mr. Meskimen’s had appeared in the Aspen Times a month earlier:  Dear Editor: I am sure that if you have been out on the trails of our wonderful mountains lately you have noticed the snow is disappearing rapidly, and there are rocks and trees poking through at levels seemingly unprecedented in the memory of those of us that pay attention to such things. It is heartbreaking to see their majestic finery slipping away so early. Ah, the locals say, global warming is to blame! They have seen the movie by Albert Gore and are convinced, and even our own Aspen Skiing Co. is buying it. But the true culprit is right under their noses, on the faces of their watches, foisted upon us by another sainted Democrat — one Franklin Delano Roosevelt! Yes, my friends, I am speaking of the insidious evil known as daylight-saving time! When we switched our clocks ahead on March 10, we not only lost an hour of sleep for one night, we added an hour of sunlight to every evening until next November. Any fool can tell you that afternoon sun is the hottest sun, as that is the hottest part of the day! Think of the damage an extra hour of solar radiation does to the snow on our mountains. And this year, with a Democrat congress, daylight-saving time was moved up four weeks, adding all that extra melting time. It will be a wonder if there is even a snow bank left to play in when April rolls around. Now is the time for all right thinking Americans to call their congressman to tell them that this madness must stop, before Aspen and its economy melts away. Claim: A letter to the editor suggested that 2007's early start to Daylight Saving Time contributed to global warming.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The agency will judge that benefit with a two-part test: Are e-cigarettes effective in getting smokers to quit? And, if so, does that benefit outweigh the health damage to new e-cigarette users - including teenagers - who never smoked in the first place? That’s a particularly high hurdle for the largest e-cigarette maker, Juul Labs Inc, according to a Reuters analysis of the latest available data on trends in cigarette and e-cigarette use from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data show that e-cigarettes are having little impact in reducing U.S. cigarette smoking, while growth in vaping since 2015 has come entirely from users under 25 years old, including teenagers. Those trends present a special problem for Juul because of its dominance of the U.S. market and its enormous popularity among teenagers, according to more than a half dozen tobacco researchers and medical experts who assessed the data at Reuters’ request. “I don’t see it as a surmountable hurdle,” Suzanne Colby, a tobacco researcher at Brown University, said of the FDA standard for public health benefits. “The data look like their product differentially attracts youth instead of adults, in such great numbers.”  Between 2017 and 2018 - the period when Juul rapidly grew to become the U.S. market leader - e-cigarette use among U.S. adults grew from 2.8% of the population to 3.2%, according to the CDC. But rates of cigarette smoking among adults barely budged, dropping from 14% to 13.7% - not enough to be statistically significant, according to the CDC. (For a graphic showing vaping trends for various age groups, see: here )  Use of e-cigarettes by high-school students, by contrast, shot up by 78% over the same period – from 11.7% to 20.8% of students, data from the CDC and the FDA show. Juul is by far the most popular e-cigarette among teens, with more than half of high school and middle school students naming it as their favorite brand in surveys by the CDC and the FDA. Moreover, the biggest growth in adult e-cigarette use came among the youngest age cohort of adults, people aged 18 to 24. E-cigarette use among young adults is nearly four times more common than among those aged 45 to 64, the CDC numbers show. Another dynamic that undermines the public-health case for e-cigarettes is the large proportion of “dual users.” The most recent federal data show that 41% of adult e-cigarette users continue to also smoke cigarettes. Some studies show dual use could be more harmful than smoking alone. A study last December found people who used both products tested higher than cigarette smokers for a range of volatile organic compounds and other toxins associated with tobacco-related disease. A separate study last year of heart disease risk among e-cigarette users found that dual use was “more dangerous than using either product alone.”  For the industry as a whole, the usage data cast serious doubts on whether e-cigarettes are providing a clear benefit among adult smokers, said Brian King, a deputy director at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “When it comes to net public health impact, you have to consider both ends of the scale,” King said. “Right now it does appear the youth initiation is outweighing the adult use.”  Juul declined a request for an interview with executives including CEO K.C. Crosthwaite, a veteran of Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc who took the helm in September, on how it plans to pass the FDA’s regulatory test. As pressure on the company has mounted, Crosthwaite has made the FDA application process a central goal, laying off 650 employees, including many in marketing, last month in an effort to restructure the company to focus on regulatory approval. In written responses to questions from Reuters, Juul said it believes its products “already are playing a critical role in transitioning adult smokers from combustible cigarettes and have the potential to convert tens of millions of smokers in the U.S.” The company cited studies it has commissioned showing that between 30% to 50% of adult smokers who use Juul “switch completely from smoking cigarettes within six months.”  Juul has said its customers are “the world’s 1 billion smokers,” but the company did not directly address questions about the disparity in youth and adult uptake in the United States. Juul acknowledged it must address any potential impact on nonsmokers who start using e-cigarettes. It said it is “committed to working cooperatively with regulators, public health officials and other stakeholders to combat underage use and convert adult smokers.”  In October, Crosthwaite brought on another Altria executive, Joe Murillo, who helped navigate a successful FDA application for IQOS, a Phillip Morris International Inc product that heats up but doesn’t burn packages of ground-up tobacco. Altria has an agreement with Philip Morris to market IQOS in the United States. The IQOS device is one of only two tobacco products that have successfully made it through the FDA process. Juul’s competitors in the U.S. market face the same regulatory challenge. One rival, Japan Tobacco International, says it is confident in the FDA application it filed in August for its Logic products because it contains company data showing the brand - unlike Juul - is used overwhelmingly by older adults. Anthony Hemsley, an executive for Japan Tobacco International’s U.S. division, acknowledged the population-wide trends in e-cigarette and cigarette use. But he pointed out that the FDA’s decision on net public health benefit will be made on a product-by-product basis - not across the entire industry. He added that Juul has “a significant challenge ahead of them, in overcoming the concerns that exist out there.”   The FDA declined requests for an interview with Mitch Zeller, who heads tobacco regulation at the agency, about its oversight of e-cigarettes. In written answers to questions, the agency did not directly address the population-level data on smoking and vaping trends but said it is “tasked with threading a public health needle” in crafting regulations on e-cigarette firms. A Reuters investigation in November detailed how Juul’s developers used tobacco industry research and patents to formulate its smooth but potent “nicotine salts” blend of liquid nicotine, a key factor in its popularity among teenagers. The report showed company leaders were aware of the product’s popularity among teenagers soon after its 2015 launch, contradicting statements that Juul was caught off guard by teenage use last year. Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told Reuters that he agreed with public health advocates and tobacco researchers that whatever benefits Juul may be having for cigarette smokers are offset by attracting children who otherwise wouldn’t have tried other tobacco products. Before Gottlieb left the department in April, he and his staff explored the option of halting sales of Juul and similar high-nicotine devices if their popularity continued rising among teens. “We could take these products off the market tomorrow,” he said. “We don’t need the applications.”   (For a graphic tracking the rise of vaping amid regulatory delays, see: here)   Juul and the FDA did not respond to questions on Gottlieb’s assertion that the agency should immediately remove Juul and similar products from the market. E-cigarettes have been available in the United States since at least 2007, but the FDA did not formally get authority over the industry until nine years later, in 2016. The agency initially tried to regulate e-cigarettes as a drug, which would have carried more stringent requirements for e-cigarette firms, such as extensive clinical trials or animal testing. E-cigarette makers sued the FDA and won, leaving the agency to regulate the devices as tobacco products. FDA officials started crafting a rule to regulate e-cigarettes in 2011, but the industry pushed back and successfully delayed the rule until May 2016, in the final months of the administration of President Barack Obama. During that time, Juul and dozens of competitors introduced products that were grandfathered into the market because they were already being sold before the regulation took effect. The rule extended certain cigarette restrictions to e-cigarettes, like requiring health warning labels, setting a minimum sales age of 18 and prohibitions on free samples. A key part of the new rule also required e-cigarette makers to submit applications to the agency by August 2018 - demonstrating why their products provide a net benefit to public health - along with studies and data on potential toxins in the products. When Gottlieb was appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the agency in 2017, one of his first moves was to delay that deadline by four years, a decision public health advocates criticized. Just months later, school administrators, parents and politicians raised alarms about the rapid rise of vaping among high schoolers, who were particularly transfixed with the Juul device. Some public health advocates feared the new administration’s commitment to the Obama-era regulations after an initial three-month delay, as the FDA faced litigation from the industry. Gottlieb declined to comment  on whether the some in the administration wanted to kill the regulations but said his effort to push them forward was “not an easy process.” He said he delayed the deadline because the previous administration had not drafted guidelines that companies could follow for the application process, leaving the agency open to a legal challenge from the regulated industries. “They would have sued me, and I would have lost,” he said. But today’s FDA could – and should – pull Juul and other products from the market, Gottlieb said. “I thought that’s where the agency would land,” he said. In March, just before he left the agency, Gottlieb said publicly that the FDA was considering prohibiting sales of cartridge-based e-cigarettes like Juul from the market if teen usage rates went up for a second year in a row. Federal youth tobacco survey data first released in September showed that teenage usage did in fact keep rising, with the percentage of teenagers reporting they used e-cigarettes in the last 30 days growing from nearly 21% to more than 27%. In a statement, the FDA said it has sent more than 1,100 warning letters to retailers selling to minors; issued warning letters to companies marketing teen-friendly e-cigarette products, such as those with sweet flavors; and launched advertising campaigns aimed at e-cigarette prevention in schools. “Taken together, all of these efforts have had a wide-ranging impact on the manufacturing, marketing and selling” of e-cigarettes, the agency said. “FDA’s work is constant in its effort to keep these products out of the hands of kids.” Claim: A video shows two people waving guns at protesters in front of their home. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The plan is a “clear and present danger” to the health and well-being of Canadians who need prescription medications, said John Adams, the volunteer chairman of the Best Medicines Coalition, a non-profit organization representing 28 national patient organizations. Adams told The Canadian Press the existing supply of drugs in Canada is not always sufficient to meet the current needs of Canadians, let alone a sudden surge in demand from south of the border. Diabetes Canada is one of more than a dozen organizations that signed a letter urging the Canadian government to safeguard the country’s drug supply. “It’s clear to us that whatever measures need to be put in place to prevent, for example, large-scale importation by online pharmacies or large-scale importation by large U.S. states, has to be put in place because Canada is not structured to produce an amount of medications required for a population that size,” Kimberley Hanson, executive director of Diabetes Canada, told the CBC. The Trump administration’s announcement also came as a surprise to Canadian health officials. Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor’s office said while U.S. and Canadian officials have “mutual interest” in fostering lower drug prices, details of Wednesday’s announcement by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar were not discussed beforehand. “While we’re aware of ongoing state-led initiatives to import Canadian drugs, we weren’t consulted on specifics,” the office said in a statement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged Thursday that Health Canada will ensure there is a “steady and solid supply” of medications for Canadians regardless of external or international pressures. The Trump administration said Wednesday it will create a way for Americans to legally import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada for the first time, reversing years of refusals by health authorities at a time of public outcry over high prices for life-sustaining medications. The plan still has to go through time-consuming regulatory approval and could face court challenges from drugmakers. “The landscape and the opportunities for safe linkage between drug supply chains has changed,” Azar said. “That is part of why, for the first time in HHS’s history, we are open to importation. We want to see proposals from states, distributors, and pharmacies that can help accomplish our shared goal of safe prescription drugs at lower prices.” Claim: Canadians worried by plan to let Americans import drugs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not a relevant criterion in this case as the comparison is made between breast milk and formula. Both feeding methods entail costs, both financial and other, that we feel are beyond the scope of the coverage. There are a couple of improvements we recommend here. First, we wish that the drop in odds of ROP had been reported more precisely, as there are many different combinations of variables being compared in the study. To start, the disease ROP is separated into 1) any-stage and 2) severe. (These terms are used here and there in the article but not defined.) For each level of ROP, the study makes the following comparisons: Out of the four comparisons, the drop in odds of ROP (any-stage or severe) of breast milk versus formula is the most eye-catching in the fourth comparison. This also happens to be the comparison reported in the second paragraph of the article. While we do not wish to presume this comparison was cherry-picked, we feel that if word count had been a factor in limiting the reporting of only one comparison above, the second comparison is the one that should have been reported. This is because the sample size is largest for the second comparison, giving more credence (or as statisticians might say, more power) to the numbers. More precision is also warranted regarding the specific comparison being made. The statistics cited in the second paragraph fail to mention that the comparison is between exclusive human milk and exclusive formula. Later in the article, two more statistics, a 75% drop and 46% drop in the odds of ROP, are cited. Here, it would’ve been good to qualify the statistic by stating that these numbers relate to drops in any-stage ROP. Moreover, these are relative risk comparisons, and so it’s unclear if these impressive-sounding drops in risk translate to large absolute numbers. The story could have clarified that. In the framework of our criteria, the intervention in this study is the feeding of human milk. The potential harms of human milk do not seem to warrant a discussion in this article however. Sometimes statisticians sound like broken records with their “correlation is not causation” warnings. The article is one step ahead in this case. We find the following sentences that would make every statistician proud: However, the new analysis only showed an association between breast milk and a reduced risk of ROP. It did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship due to the study’s design. Also, the article shows a good grasp of the evidence quality by reporting some of the limitations of the study, including the limitation that the study looked only at a mother’s own breast milk, not donor milk. The story safely clears our bar here, but it could have done even better to avoid phrases such as this one: “Breast-feeding a premature infant may help reduce the risk of a serious eye problem known as retinopathy of prematurity.” The active verb “help reduce” suggests a cause-and-effect relationship that, as the story tells us, is not appropriate to imply with a study such as this one. We paused to take a second look at the statement that ROP “has become a leading cause of childhood blindness in recent time.” That sounds scary, but the story qualifies things nicely when it notes, “The greater incidence of ROP is likely due to the increasing survival rate of very preterm babies in developed countries.” That’s good context because it explains that the condition is actually a consequence of a positive trend in health care. Thumbs up here for interviewing an independent source, Dr. Adolfo Llanos. Although, we question the choice to end the article with the following quote from Dr. Llanos The takeaway from this study, Llanos said, is to breast-feed as long as possible, if possible. That’s slightly puzzling, since the stated conclusion in the original study is much more tentative Based on current limited evidence, in very preterm newborns, human milk feeding potentially plays a protective role in preventing any-stage ROP and severe ROP. The story would have probably done better to omit this source’s simplistic conclusion. The article does not mention other preventative measures to take against ROP besides breast milk and formula. But neither does the original study, so we’ll leave this criterion as not applicable. We won’t dock points from the story for not discussing the availability of formula and breast milk. Although those topics could certainly sustain such a discussion had the story chosen to address them. The article clearly identifies the underlying study being based on a reanalysis of five previously published studies on ROP (or what is known in the lingo as a meta-analysis). The article might have indicated that this is one of the first such meta-analyses done on ROP. We can be fairly confident that the article did not rely solely on a news release, especially since it has an independent source. Claim: Breast-Feeding Linked to Reduced Risk of Preemie Eye Problem",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Much of the focus of the piece was on costs. The story did an adequate job quantifying the operative mortality, blood transfusion and length-of-stay rates among the three groups studied. (Unfortunately, it did so inconsistently – sometimes giving data for all 3 types of surgery, sometimes providing results for only 2 surgical approaches.) We’ll give it a satisfactory score here. But are these the outcomes that really matter? That’s something we address in the “Evidence” criterion below. As with the benefits criterion above, the details provided were adequate. The story nodded in the direction of the accompanying editorial, but we wish it had captured the important points as written by the editorialist: While this study provides some important information that will help patients, providers and policy makers make these value judgments, it fails to capture 3 important elements. First, as the authors note, the costs estimates do not include the capital investment of purchasing a robotic system or the indirect economic benefits of patients’ early return to work and increased productivity. Second, the analysis fails to capture the human cost of the learning curve. In other words, as providers learn new surgical techniques, outcomes are often worse for patients early in the learning curve as hypothesized by Hu and others. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the study fails to capture patient reported outcomes such as postoperative pain, return to baseline functional status and health related quality of life, all of which are highly germane to the procedures under study here. It is difficult, if not impossible, to assess the costeffectiveness of minimally invasive technologies without including these critical outcomes. Future comparative effectiveness studies of these techniques must include patient reported outcomes as the primary end point if they are to inform the debate regarding the value of our interventions. No disease mongering at play here. The story included some input from the editorial writer – although, as stated above in the “Evidence” criterion – perhaps not to its greatest effectiveness. The focus of the story was on a study comparing robot-assisted surgery with two other surgical techniques. The availability of all 3 surgical approaches studies – while not explicitly described – could be inferred from the study details reported. The story didn’t provide any context on the growing body of literature about comparative effectiveness questions in this field as robotic surgery proliferates. It does not appear that the story relied on a news release. Claim: Robotic surgeries costlier but safer: study",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On March 11 2020, Facebook page “The Other 98%” shared a screenshot of a popular Twitter exchange between author Stephen King and another Twitter user, during which King denied the COVID-19 global pandemic was “like The Stand,” and a person replied to ask King if he “had even read” that book:Social media users likely encountered comparisons between coronavirus strain COVID-19 and the “superflu,” also known as “Captain Trips,” from Stephen King’s 1978 novel The Stand (or the subsequent popular miniseries adaptation aired on network television in 1994) during the 2020 pandemic. The Stand was a memorable entry in the horror sub-genre of epidemiological thrillers, although its core virus had a staggering mortality rate of 99.4 percent.On March 8 2020, King — presumably tired of hearing comparisons between COVID-19 and the events of The Stand — tweeted that the spread of the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus was “eminently survivable,” and referenced his novel:No, coronavirus is NOT like THE STAND. It’s not anywhere near as serious. It’s eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions.— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 8, 2020King noted that COVID-19 was not “anywhere near as serious” as The Stand‘s superflu; while known information about novel coronavirus was in flux, new research was published on a daily basis in medical journals globally. Research published on March 12 2020 in The Lancet (“Real estimates of mortality following COVID-19 infection”) noted that an often-referenced mortality rate between three and four percent might “underestimate the potential threat of COVID-19 in symptomatic patients.”Researchers further reported that updated knowledge about COVID-19’s trajectory in patients showed that the time between symptom onset and death “ranged from about 2 weeks to 8 weeks”:As of March 1, 2020, 79 968 patients in China and 7169 outside of China had tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Among Chinese patients, 2873 deaths had occurred, equivalent to a mortality rate of 3·6% (95% CI 3·5–3·7), while 104 deaths from COVID-19 had been reported outside of China (1·5% [1·2–1·7]). However, these mortality rate estimates are based on the number of deaths relative to the number of confirmed cases of infection, which is not representative of the actual death rate; patients who die on any given day were infected much earlier, and thus the denominator of the mortality rate should be the total number of patients infected at the same time as those who died. Notably, the full denominator remains unknown because asymptomatic cases or patients with very mild symptoms might not be tested and will not be identified. Such cases therefore cannot be included in the estimation of actual mortality rates, since actual estimates pertain to clinically apparent COVID-19 cases….The later research proposed a mortality rate possibly between five and six percent — higher than the 3.4 percent case-fatality rate often cited, but significantly lower than the 99.4 percent rate King wrote about in The Stand:We re-estimated mortality rates by dividing the number of deaths on a given day by the number of patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection 14 days before. On this basis, using WHO data on the cumulative number of deaths to March 1, 2020, mortality rates would be 5·6% (95% CI 5·4–5·8) for China and 15·2% (12·5–17·9) outside of China. Global mortality rates over time using a 14-day delay estimate are shown in the figure, with a curve that levels off to a rate of 5·7% (5·5–5·9), converging with the current WHO estimates. Estimates will increase if a longer delay between onset of illness and death is considered. A recent time-delay adjusted estimation indicates that mortality rate of COVID-19 could be as high as 20% in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. These findings show that the current figures might underestimate the potential threat of COVID-19 in symptomatic patients.Going back to King’s tweet observing that COVID-19 was nothing like the virus in The Stand, a fellow Twitter user responded:And how the hell would you know?! Did you even read that book?Screenshots of the tweets together were popular because, of course, King wrote The Stand. However, the same user’s account appeared to be used exclusively for “trolling” other Twitter users, and responses across that specific timeline were entirely sarcastic in nature — repeatedly further baiting people taking the tweet seriously to clarify the difference between having read something and having written it:But did he READ it? Writing and reading are two entirely different exercises. I think even a Historian like Mr. King would agree!It is true Stephen King tweeted on March 8 2020 that novel coronavirus strain COVID-19 was unlike the virus in his epidemiology horror novel The Stand, and further true that a widely-shared reply concerned whether King had “even read” the book he authored. Most commenters on shares appeared to believe the response was sincere, but it was taken out of context from a troll account devoted solely to baiting Twitter users into silly and pointless debates. Claim: A Twitter user responded to Stephen King's assertion the COVID-19 pandemic was \"not like The Stand,\" sincerely asking King if he \"even read\" a book he actually wrote.",
            "output": "1"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Republican storyline on the crisis in Crimea ties Russian aggression to foreign policy mistakes by President Barack Obama. Former Vice President Dick Cheney pressed this interpretation of events in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation. \"We have created an image around the world, not just for the Russians, of weakness, of indecisiveness,\" Cheney said. \"The Syrian situation is a classic. We got all ready to do something. A lot of the allies signed on. At the last minute, Obama backed off.\" Cheney obviously thought Syria was a telling example, because he came back and said it again a few moments later. International support for military intervention in Syria was a muddy business, and we thought we should look at where America’s allies stood after chemical weapons were used in Syria. Were \"a lot of them ready to go\"? We reached out to Cheney, via the Republican National Committee, to learn which allies he had in mind. The RNC made an effort but we did not hear back before we published. A quick recap In August 2012, President Obama told reporters that the United States had no plans to use military force against Syria but \"a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus.\" A year later, an attack on an opposition-held suburbs on the outskirts of Damascus brought matters to a head. The bodies brought into hospitals and the illness that struck the doctors and nurses that treated the victims pointed to the use of chemical weapons. The attack took place on Aug. 21 and within a week, the administration was talking about launching air strikes at weapon depots and military command centers in Syria. Under the best of circumstances for the White House, any such military action would come with some sort of endorsement from the United Nations Security Council and the participation of America’s key European and Middle Eastern allies. Who signed on and who didn’t Both France and Britain were early supporters of a limited air strike. French President Francois Hollande said, \"France is ready to punish those who took the heinous decision to gas innocents.\" British Prime Minister David Cameron said the international response should be legal and proportionate, while a top official was quoted as saying it was \"reasonable to assume our armed forces are making contingency plans.\" But while Cameron was counted among those ready to attack, the British parliament took a different view. At the end of August, dozens of members of Cameron’s own party deserted him, and a motion to back the use of force failed by 13 votes. It was an unprecedented loss for a prime minister, and Cameron said he would cancel a military deployment that had already begun. Support among the other European states was equally hard to find. Italy said it would only go along if the U.N. Security Council approved the use of force. Germany was seen as a pivotal player and was clearly against military action. With opinion polls showing over 60 percent of Germans favoring diplomacy over force, and elections just a few weeks away, the German government stopped well short of endorsing a military response. Germany signed on to a G20 statement that called the use of poisonous gas a war crime and said the Syrian government was the likely culprit. But having said that, the statement added, \"The EU underscores at the same time the need to move forward with addressing the Syrian crisis through the U.N. process.\" The role of the United Nations was critical because the strongest legal justification for an air strike would come through the U.N. Security Council. That was impossible since two permanent members, Russia and China, had made it clear they would veto any such resolution. The strongest support within NATO came from Turkey. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia was the most eager to see an attack on Syria, a long-time political foe. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were also on board. However, the Arab League never approved a military strike. As the White House aimed to muster international backing, it looked for ways to maintain a sense of momentum. On Sept. 6, it released a joint statement from Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The statement called for \"a strong international response to this grave violation of the world’s rules and conscience that will send a clear message that this kind of atrocity can never be repeated. Those who perpetrated these crimes must be held accountable.\" However, the nature of \"a strong international response\" was left undefined. At one point, the administration said 25 nations had signed on but that did not mean they all endorsed air strikes. Ultimately, even France said it wanted to wait for a final report from U.N. chemical weapons inspectors. By mid September, the United States and Russia had struck a deal that sidelined the use of force in exchange for Syria giving up its chemical weapons. That process is underway but is behind schedule. Our ruling Cheney said a lot of allies \"got ready to go\" on Syria and \"signed on,\" but Obama backed out. Actually, very few American allies were \"ready to go.\" We counted France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia as countries that were supportive. And France’s support seemed to wane as time went on. Among the \"no\" crowd were key allies like the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. In fact, the United Kingdom’s parliament offered an embarrassing rebuke to Cameron when it blocked British participation. The Arab League did not endorse the military action, nor did the United Nations. Obama has said he declined to pursue military action because Syria agreed to weapons inspections. There’s no dispute that for whatever reason, military action was not pursued in Syria. But Cheney was re-writing history when he said \"a lot of the allies signed on.\" Claim: On Syria, \"a lot of the allies signed on. At the last minute, Obama backed off.",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 26 September 2018, the Institute for Digital Archaeology unveiled a replica of Palmyra, Syria’s iconic Triumphal Arch on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The following day, Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about sexual assault allegations stemming from their time in high school. Although these two events had little connection to one another (other than taking place in the same city), web sites such as EndOfTheAmericanDream.com published articles which questioned the coincidental timing of the arch’s appearance in Washington:   Is it just a coincidence that the “Arch of Baal” has been erected in Washington D.C. on the exact same week that Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are testifying before Congress? The future of the U.S. Supreme Court is literally hanging in the balance, and many believe that it is quite odd that this ancient pagan symbol has been put up at this precise moment in time. According to the official website of the Institute for Digital Archaeology, the Arch of Palmyra was unveiled on the National Mall on September 26th, and it will remain there until September 29th. You can view a photograph of the arch standing directly in front of the U.S. Capitol building right here. Just one day after this arch was put up, Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testified before Congress. Perhaps this is all just a “giant coincidence”, but things of this importance usually don’t happen by accident. The elite deeply understand that symbols have power, and the fact that the Arch of Baal has been placed directly across from the U.S. Capitol is highly significant. The article went on to connect the Triumphal Arch, or Monumental Arch, which was built around 200 A.D. and served as an entrance way to the Temple of Bel, to ritualistic Baal worship and the sacrificing of children. It’s appearance just before Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee was more than coincidental, the article argued, as Kavanaugh could be instrumental in making abortion illegal: In the end, the debate over whether or not to confirm Brett Kavanaugh comes down to the issue of abortion, and this vote in the Senate is going to have tremendous implications for the future of our country … We have murdered far more children than they ever did in the ancient Middle East, and our fate will be the same as theirs if we don’t turn things around as a society. And now an ancient symbol of child sacrifice has been erected directly across from the U.S. Capitol at the precise moment when the future of the U.S. Supreme Court is hanging in the balance. Is this just a coincidence? While the author of this article may see the Triumphal Arch as some sort of symbol related to abortion laws and a seat on the Supreme Court, American politics aren’t the focus of the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA). The IDA uses state-of-the-art technology to replicate ancient structures as part of their mission to preserve our collective cultural heritage. When the Monumental Arch in Syria was destroyed by Islamic State extremists in August 2015, the IDA set off to recreate a portion of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. IDA founder Roger Michel said that his intention for recreating this famous arch was to show the Islamic State that anything they blew up could be rebuilt: Oxford’s Institute for Digital Archaeology is the creation of American lawyer/archaeologist Roger Michel, with help from Harvard and Dubai. Michel is currently using similar technology to Rutelli’s — better, he claims — to build a 3D facsimile arch from Palmyra’s destroyed Temple of Bel. It is to be unveiled in London’s Trafalgar Square on 19 April and will then travel on to New York. “My intention,” declares Michel, “is to show Islamic State that anything they can blow up we can rebuild exactly as it was before, and rebuild it again and again. We will use technology to disempower Isis.” A replica of the famous arch has already been displayed in New York, London, Florence, and Dubai. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel were both on hand to unveil the monument in Washington, D.C., in September 2018: The Institute for Digital Archaeology, together with its principal partner, the Dubai Future Foundation, documents, preserves and reconstructs heritage objects at sites throughout the Middle East and Europe around the world. It works closely with the United Nations, UNESCO, the British Council and major universities. IDA Director, Roger Michel said of today’s unveiling: It is fitting that the arch has made its way to the place that symbolizes Roman-style representative democracy, an historical legacy that is reflected as much in the classical buildings of Washington as in the design of Palmyra’s monumental classical arch.” Mr Engel summed up the proceedings by declaring that “today we stand shoulder to shoulder, our voices as one, we will not let the terrorists erase history, we are in solidarity with the people of Syria, who have been subjected to such unimaginable horror by ISIS and the Assad Regime. We need to stay committed to ending this barbarity. Projects like this recreation of the Arch of Palmyra are a critical way to celebrate these iconic pieces and keep them very much alive and present in our collective consciousness.” The arch will remain on the Mall at 6th St (opposite the National Gallery of Art) through September 29th. Claim: A photograph shows the Arch of Baal erected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: All those warnings you heard about secondhand smoke from your mother, federal government PSAs and school D.A.R.E. instructors? Bogus, a Fox Business host claimed recently. In a discussion about waning personal freedom in the free world, pundit John Stossel went off about the onslaught of government rules and regulations telling Americans what they can do and when, where and how they can do it. He used cigarette-smoking as an example, arguing that business owners should have the right to allow smoking in their bars or restaurants even where ordinances or laws ban the practice. \"Yeah, they kill smokers,\" Stossel said on Fox & Friends of cigarettes. \"But there is no good data showing secondhand smoke kills people.\" A Fox spokeswoman did not return our inquiry, and Stossel, who has long questioned the lethal nature of secondhand smoke, did not reply to emails and tweets. (The exchange in question was a follow-up to a Dec. 4 segment on his Thursday show, when he said, \"the secondhand smoke scare turns out to be bunk. But the smokers still take it.\") Stossel’s definition of \"good\" might be different than ours, but there is plenty of scientific research and consensus that secondhand smoke does indeed kill people. Secondhand smoke is a mixture of smoke emitted from the burning end of a cigarette or other tobacco products and what’s exhaled by smokers. It’s regarded as a cancer-causing agent, a \"known human carcinogen\" (a healthful classification, that is not). The government has campaigned for tough anti-smoking policies in public places and workplaces as a way to protect Americans from secondhand smoke, saying there is no safe level of exposure. Reports from the country’s top doctors say these laws are reducing risk. The U.S. surgeon general has released 31 reports about the effects of smoking since 1964. These reports are extremely detailed, summarizing the latest research on smoking and peer-reviewed by dozens of the nation’s top scientists. Consensus on secondhand smoke really began to form in the 1980s, even as the tobacco industry’s\"doubt-creation machine\" spun opposing talking points, said Dr. Jonathan Samet, senior scientific editor of the 2014 surgeon general report and director of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Global Health. The surgeon general’s 2006 report stated rather bluntly that inhaling secondhand smoke \"causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease in nonsmoking adults.\" Involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke killed more than 49,000 nonsmokers in 2005, plus 430 newborns who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the report said. In 2014, the acting surgeon general released a new report, one that factored in input from more than 80 contributing authors and 150 reviewers who are experts in medicine and public health. Secondhand smoke can also increase risk of stroke, the new report found. Beyond that, involuntary exposure poses significant problems for children, worsening asthma and leading to other respiratory conditions. Since 1964, the report said, 2.46 million non-smokers have died from exposure to secondhand smoke. How does the government calculate its numbers? Scientists don’t keep a count of deaths by secondhand smoke as recorded in death certificates. (Death certificates don’t list \"secondhand smoke\" as a cause of death.) Instead, they rely on statistical methods used by epidemiologists, who are experts in disease patterns within populations. To figure out lung cancer deaths from secondhand smoke, for instance, the individual risk of lung cancer is analyzed next to the proportion of people exposed to secondhand smoke. It’s a complicated statistical analysis (page 659 explains more), one with which Stossel obviously finds fault. But it’s not unusual. The same method is used to attribute the number of deaths from obesity through diabetes, for example, Samet said. \"This is the basic way to use to understand how the disease is exposed to this risk,\" Samet said. \"We understand that there are uncertainties that go with this, but this is a very basic tool. ... The approach here is embedded in science and policy and understanding how much a disease is caused by something.\" The surgeon general is not alone in major scientific organizations linking secondhand smoke with deadly diseases. There’s also the World Health Organization’s International Center for Research on Cancer, the Environmental Protection Agency, the American Cancer Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. \"At this point, the evidence is firm and very powerful, and important conclusions have been reached,\" Samet said. You can quibble over specific numbers since they’re approximations, said Gary Giovino, a professor of health behavior at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. But not that secondhand smoke kills, he said. \"Chronic exposure produces disease and death,\" Giovino said. How do folks such as Stossel respond? The libertarian Cato Institute published a response to the 2006 surgeon general’s report on secondhand smoke that highlighted testimony before a committee of the British Parliament by Oxford epidemiologist Richard Peto. Peto, who has studied the causes of cancer and the effects of smoking, testified that he could not quantify deaths from secondhand smoke because \"these hazards cannot be directly measured.\" (The story was written by Gio Gori, an epidemiologist who wrote publications on behalf of the industry-backed Tobacco Institute refuting studies about nicotine’s harmful effects.) Conversely, some scientists say the government is actually undercounting secondhand smoke-related deaths. \"The criticism … is not that they overestimate the risk, it’s that they’re underestimating it,\"  said Stanton Glantz, a University of California San Francisco medicine professor and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. And dog lovers, beware: New evidence shows secondhand smoke can also kill pets, including lung and nasal cancer in dogs and malignant lymphoma in cats. Our ruling Stossel said \"there is no good data showing secondhand smoke kills people.\" His definition of good obviously differs with the vast majority of scientists and researchers studying the effects of secondhand smoke. They say the data does show that secondhand smoke kills people. And that the data is indeed solid. Stossel’s claim rates . Claim: There is no good data showing secondhand smoke kills people.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: The Massachusetts study, reported online by the New England Journal of Medicine, was halted after six months because the men using a hormone gel were developing so many heart, breathing and skin problems compared to patients applying a placebo gel to their shoulders or upper arms every day. “I think the study raises important questions about the safety of giving testosterone to older individuals,” Dr. Shalender Bhasin of the Boston University School of Medicine said in a telephone interview. Levels of testosterone, the so-called male hormone, decline with age in men. Supplementing it in healthy men can build muscle mass and strength and lower the risk of disability. The new test was the first to assess its effectiveness in men over 65 who already had mobility problems such as difficulty walking two blocks or climbing 10 stairs. The 209 volunteers, with an average age of 74, also tended to suffer from obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol at the start of the test. “One would expect that from a frail, older population,” said Bhasin. Recipients of the testosterone gel, sold under the brand name Testim by Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, became better at walking up stairs and performing chest- and leg-press exercises. But by the time the study was terminated, 23 patients in the testosterone group and five in the placebo group had experienced a bad side effect such as fainting, chest pain or heart attack. One man in the testosterone group died of a suspected heart attack. The numbers were too small to be statistically significant and the side effects encompassed a lot of different diagnoses, which may mean that chance played a role in the results. Yet men receiving testosterone had more serious side effects and more side effects considered to be life-threatening, the researchers said, lasting for three months after the trial ended. “The study was designed to study mobility limitation, a common syndrome with the elderly that predicts disability, poor quality of life and mortality,” Auxilium said in a statement. “We believe these men are not representative of the typical testosterone replacement therapy population.”   Bhasin was surprised by the finding. “Testosterone is not currently approved for older men with age-related decline or mobility problems,” he said. However it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for other patients. Doctors thinking of prescribing testosterone for their older patients should realize that the treatment may pose a serious risk, Bhasin said. “There may be safety issues that they should weigh in their decision,” he said. Testosterone causes salt and water retention and that could have been a factor, the researchers said. The National Institute on Aging, which paid for the trial, also noted that the men in the study may have been getting exceptionally high doses of testosterone. Auxilium said they were getting double to triple the recommended dose. Claim: Testosterone gel linked to heart problems.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: According to various unreliable sources, plainspoken comedian and former The View co-host Rosie O’Donnell said publicly that she’d like to smear her menstrual blood all over either Christians‘ faces or pro-life people‘s faces — depending on which version you read. Both versions are misrepresentations of what O’Donnell actually said. On 12 August 2015, O’Donnell made a call-in appearance on the SiriusXM radio talk show Just Jenny, on which the topic of moment was menstrual blood. Specifically, the show’s host, Jenny Hutt, and another guest had been criticizing marathon runner Kiran Gandhi’s decision to run the London Marathon that year without wearing a tampon. O’Donnell took exception to their critical remarks. “I can’t believe two smart, intelligent women who I love, both named Jenny, are on the radio saying periods are disgusting,” she said, comparing the discussion to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s then-recent comment about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who had questioned him during a televised debate about his misogynistic statements toward women (including O’Donnell herself). “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes,” Trump said of Kelly afterward. “Blood coming out of her wherever.” Trump later tweeted that he had meant “blood coming out of her ‘nose,'” but he was widely understood as having purposely implied that Kelly must be having her period. According to O’Donnell, such demeaning comments are part of a widening “war on women” in America: Bigger than any specific people, there’s a war on women that’s happening in this country, starting with basic abortion rights, freedom to choose, that we fought for in the sixties and seventies, that women died for, bleeding in back alleys from hanger abortions. Women fought for equality in this country, and right now, politically, it’s being taken away from us, and it doesn’t help with you guys thinking, “Oh, that woman who showed the blood, the menstruation blood — ew, that was disgusting, she’s not fun to have dinner with. Come on, ladies. This prompted agreement from host Jenny Hutt, who admitted, “There is still shame associated with periods.” “From men!” O’Donnell replied. “From men, ladies, and it doesn’t help when the women do it!” She continued: If you’ve got a period, you’re gonna bleed. That blood is gonna keep the baby alive in your stomach, and the children that you love. It’s part of being a human. Men get erections and semen comes out. Let’s get off the period talk unless you’re gonna be empowering. I’d like to take my period blood that I no longer have and write, you know, “You’re all assholes.” I’d like to smear it all over some people’s faces. So don’t jump on the bandwagon with the period, please. We all have periods, okay? Based on the context of her remarks, the most reasonable interpretation would seem to be that O’Donnell was targeting people — mainly men, in her eyes — who had engaged in menstrual shaming, not specifically Christians or pro-life advocates. Claim: During a radio interview, Rosie O'Donnell said, \"I'd like to take my period blood and smear it all over Christians' [or pro-life people's] faces.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: More than 20 million tonnes of disposable diapers are burned or dumped in landfills globally every year - a major environmental problem since their use became widespread in the 1960s and 1970s. Part of the problem is that collecting, cleaning and breaking diapers into their component parts - plastic, cellulose and super absorbent polymer - is tricky and expensive. The other issue is that no-one has been able to establish a market for the recycled output, dooming previous commercial efforts to failure. Fater, a Pescara, Italy-based business that became a joint venture in 1992, believes it will be able to address these issues, backed by governments, consumers and other companies goaded into action by a new global awareness of the looming crisis of plastics pollution. The new Italian government, in particular, has made finding “circular economy” solutions a pillar of its populist agenda. “Nappies are made of the highest quality plastics and we’ve shown they can be recycled to extract high-value building blocks,” says Marcello Somma, Fater’s director of research and development and business development. For P&G, the world’s leading diaper maker and one of the biggest contributors to the problem with nearly 27 percent of the $44 billion diaper market, Fater ticks several boxes. P&G aims to be able to recycle absorbent hygiene products (AHP), as diapers, incontinence pads and feminine hygiene products are known, in 10 cities by 2030, according to its latest sustainability agenda. In the long term, it hopes to use 100 percent renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging. Roberto Marinucci, P&G’s vice president of global baby wipes, sustainability and the joint venture, said the company had still not established whether consumers would be willing to pay a premium for diapers they know are going to be recycled, but it was clear they want brands to care about the environment. “We believe that the first reason, which is doing the right thing for the consumer, is sufficient enough to convince us to go ahead with the project,” Marinucci said in an interview. Under EU regulations, Fater cannot sell the output of its diaper recycling operation, located near Venice, until it proves there is a market for it. To that end, it has been working on prospective clients and now has 11 letters of intent with businesses like bioplastic manufacturers and paper mills. P&G is also part of an EU-backed group of 13 companies developing end products for the output. They include bioplastic manufacturer, Novamont, which can use the cellulose to make pharmaceutical ingredients. Fater says the plastic from recycled diapers can be used to make school desks and urban playgrounds, cellulose can become viscose fabric or specialty paper, and super-absorbent polymer can be used in gardening and flood barriers. P&G has no plans to use Fater’s output in its diapers, which include Pampers and Luvs, until it completes consumer research on the idea, Marinucci said. In the interim, he said, the company may use the plastics for bottle caps. The biggest delay to the project has been regulatory, Marinucci said, but he predicts it will get the EU green light in the next 12 months. In the meantime, after several years in development, Fater’s plant is operating at about a third of its 10,000-tonne annual capacity to provide samples and build stockpiles. The plant expects to generate annual revenue equal to 50 percent of the cost of its machinery, Marinucci said. “We’re working on well-grounded assumptions, but they’re still assumptions,” he said. If it works, it could be expanded. Government efforts to resolve the problem of plastics pollution gained urgency last year when China announced it would stop importing foreign waste. China in 2016 took in 7.3 million tonnes of waste plastics - 56 percent of world imports. Fater is not the first to attempt diaper recycling. UK-based Knowaste was forced to close its 70,000 tonne-per-year recycling plant in Holland in 2007 after a new incinerator beat it on cost and it was unable to find markets for the final product. Efforts to open another facility have failed so far but Knowaste continues to invest in technology and is now considering a plant in the Middle East. “We were way ahead of the curve and maybe went too soon. But the market is now showing clear signs of maturing,” said company CEO Roy Brown. Fater’s patented process starts with local waste management utility Contarina SpA, which collects used diapers and other AHP from curbside bins or large users like hospitals from more than 50 local towns, trucking them in to the 1,000-sq meter plant. After dry cleaning the diapers using contact steam and disposing of the human waste in waste water treatment plants, one ton of AHP waste can yield 150 kg of cellulose, 75 kg of absorbing material and 75 kg of mixed plastic. Starting at the end of 2020, a small-scale biorefinery in Amsterdam will be able to process the recovered secondary raw materials and convert them into biologically-based products like biodegradable plastics and biofertilizers. Guy Schanschieff, founder of UK-based reusable diaper brand Bambino Mio, says he has seen others try and fail to recycle diapers over the years. For one thing, busy parents can’t always deposit diapers in the required bins, he said. “At the end of the day, it’s a disposable product and it’s going to be thrown away,” said Schanschieff, who is also chairman of the Nappy Alliance trade group. “Not creating the waste in the first place is always going to be the best thing.” Claim: Waste not, want not: P&G venture aims to squeeze new life out of Italy's dirty diapers.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: P&G, with roughly $68 billion in annual revenue, said it has invested millions in creating and testing refills for detergents over the years and is now trying to push in to mainstream beauty and body care refills – which are virtually  unheard of. It recently began offering some Olay face-cream jars with refill pouches on Olay.com, telling Reuters it has plans to expand the sales of the pouches in Europe early next year. “We’re learning on our legs so I don’t know that we’re in a position to say, ‘Hey, here’s the magic to selling refills,’” P&G spokesman Damon Jones said. Beauty products retailer The Body Shop, owned by Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos SA NATU3.SA, says it plans to roll out “refill stations” in its stores globally next year, allowing shoppers to buy reusable metal containers to fill with Body Shop shower gels or creams. The company had offered refills at its stores in the early 1990s, but discontinued them in 2003, citing a lack of consumer demand. Unilever, which has set targets for reducing and recycling plastic by 2025, in October announced the planned launch of “refill sticks” of deodorants under its Dove line of personal care products on Loopstore.com. The website, operated by recycling company TerraCycle, offers consumers the chance to buy some household products in ultra-durable packaging with refills delivered to their doors, milkman-style. Across the consumer goods industry, results for refillable products have been mixed so far as many shoppers are far too set in their ways to be easily weaned from living in a throwaway culture. While refills are less expensive to purchase - generally priced at 20% to 30% less per item than the containers they are aimed to replenish, according to Unilever - shoppers have so far, for the most part, failed to snap them up, the companies said. SC Johnson & Son Inc, marketer of Windex and Pledge, said refills and concentrates so far have not played well with either Americans or Europeans over the decade they have been offered, with unit sales of such products pretty much flat. It pulled concentrated refills for Shout stain remover off the shelves because they were not selling very well. In 2010, Unilever put 20-liter tanks to dispense detergents in Walmart Inc’s (WMT.N) British supermarket chain Asda, and provided flexible pouches for customers to refill. But with leaky machines, safety and maintenance problems and the high costs of upkeep, Unilever said the tests fell short of expectations. Asda was also unhappy because the tanks occupied a lot of space. “None of them sell very well – it is a convenience issue,” SC Johnson CEO Fisk Johnson told Reuters. Johnson said some people find it painstaking to wash and refill bottles themselves while others worry that smaller bottles filled with concentrates are less “bang-for-your-buck” than the larger ones they have used for years. Still, the privately held company said it was expanding its refill offerings this year to address concerns surrounding plastic waste and is also testing refill stations for cleaning products with UK retailer Waitrose, owned by Britain’s John Lewis [JLPLC.UL]. The Waitrose tests are showing the first signs of progress in refill sales, Johnson said, and the company is now thinking of expanding the project. Even if consumers are comfortable using refills for some household goods, it is more complicated to sell them for products like Pantene shampoo and Olay creams, P&G spokesman Jones said. For instance, with beauty products, the look and feel of packaging is a big factor in creating and maintaining customer loyalty, while delivering an environmental benefit, he said. Some shoppers say they want to buy refillable products, but that the offerings are not available at many stores. Earlier this year, dozens of consumers took to social media to urge The Body Shop to bring back its refill counters. “Refill, refill, refill!” Twitter user @JaiChipperfield said on July 22, joining a thread in which several other shoppers demanded the return of refills. “Seems to me that judging by these comments your customers want to see the return of refills,” @JaiChipperfield added. “Me too, it would be brilliant to see that return.”  The Body Shop eventually responded to those pleas. “Now with the renewed focus on sustainability, we believe it is the right time to return with it,” Body Shop spokeswoman Lucy Muircroft told Reuters this week. Claim: Mike Pence Says Hillary Clinton \"wants to increase Syrian refugees to this country by 550 percent.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The state agency reports that 241 cases of Lyme disease have been reported in 60 of Ohio’s 88 counties this year. The number of cases has risen steadily the last five years, with 160 reported last year after only 93 in 2013. Lyme disease is passed to humans by deer ticks and can cause flu-like illnesses, muscle pain and headaches. A rash shaped like a bull’s-eye is often seen around tick bites. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources recommends people walk in the middle of trails and tuck in clothing to prevent bites. Claim: Ohio officials say tick-borne Lyme Disease still a threat.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Christelle Ilboudo, a pediatrician and pediatric infectious diseases expert at MU Health Care, distinctly remembers the day the boy’s family brought him in to be evaluated. At first the family thought it was just a virus of some kind. His whole body was stiff, and he had a fever. They finally decided to make him an appointment one morning when he tried walking to their bedroom and collapsed to the floor, Ilboudo explained. The boy hadn’t been vaccinated, the Columbia Missourian reported. “He luckily survived, but one vaccination could have prevented that — like so many other diseases we are beginning to see again,” Ilboudo said. The reappearance in the U.S. of diseases that were once thought to be eradicated, specifically, measles, has prompted national alarm and calls for more action by the federal government to urge vaccination. On March 13, a measles case was confirmed in eastern Missouri due to out-of-state exposure. It was not confirmed whether the person had been vaccinated. The World Health Organization announced vaccine hesitancy as one of the 10 threats to global health in 2019. The organization identified complacency, inconvenience in accessing vaccines and lack of confidence as key reasons underlying hesitancy. According to the United Health Foundation, Missouri ranked 21st alongside Alabama for vaccination rates of children ages 19 months to just under age 3. This is the age range when the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination is first administered. Among the recommended vaccinations is the MMR vaccine, which protects against the three viral diseases. They typically affect younger children and can be dangerous due to how fast they spread. Measles can be identified by a pinpoint rash, and if not treated, can lead to pneumonia, brain inflammation, seizures and permanent brain damage, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In data collected by the CDC, there has been an annual increase in measles cases. Last year, 15 states, Missouri included, reported a total of 372 measles cases. As of March 14, the same states reported 268 cases. The CDC also reported that a majority of the 2018 cases came from international travel. That year had the greatest number of imported cases since measles was eliminated from the U.S. in 2000. Although more cases are being reported nationwide, states are taking stances that vary across the board. In Missouri, two bills were introduced this year that would eliminate the religious belief exemption and allow minors to consent to vaccinations. In response, another two bills were introduced in opposition that would prohibit discrimination against children who are not vaccinated in medical settings and require medical practitioners to provide informational paperwork to parents prior to vaccination. All 50 states allow some K-12 medical vaccination exemptions; 47 states allow religious exemptions; and 17 states allow personal belief exemptions. Missouri allows both medical and religious exemptions but not personal belief exemptions for K-12. However, Missouri law does allow a parental exemption at any preschool, day care or nursery school if the parent or guardian files a written objection with the day care administrator. In the 17 states that allow for personal belief exemptions, it can be as simple as a box check for parents. Meanwhile, measles outbreaks are increasing among unvaccinated children, specifically in Washington and Texas. These are two of 17 states that allow for personal belief exemptions. In late February, an Arizona legislative panel voted to expand its exemption list, making it easier for parents to opt out. In an interview with NPR, Jessica Rigler, branch chief of public health preparedness at Arizona’s department of health services, said more than 5,000 kindergartners in the state could fall sick with measles if there were an outbreak. There is also new, additional evidence that parents’ fear of vaccine safety is unfounded. The results of a 10-year Danish study of 10,000 children, released on March 5, validated the results of a 2002 study that found no relationship between MMR vaccination and autism. The link has been debunked repeatedly since a now discredited and retracted 1998 study published in The Lancet linking the vaccine to autism. The doctor who conducted the study later lost his license for “irresponsible and dishonest” actions. In a phone interview, Anders Peter Hviid, head epidemiologist in the recent study, talked about why his team decided to repeat their earlier research. “Given the worrying trend in vaccine hesitancy, we felt that it was worth revisiting the link in a larger cohort with more follow-up time and also address some of the anti-vaxxer criticisms of our 2002 study,” Hviid said. “I feel passionate about good science and reason,” he said. “Vaccination is the reasonable choice based on the vast majority of scientific evidence.” One of the questions that concerned parents had was related to the age the vaccination was administered and the relationship it appeared to have with the age autism symptoms presented. Parents are told to get their children vaccinated with MMR between 12 and 15 months old. That’s about the time that parents will begin to notice the regression in developmental milestones that might signal autism, Ilboudo said. That prompts parents to make a causal connection, “even though (the study) was discredited, parents accept it as an explanation to a question no one has the answer to,” Ilboudo said. Major websites like Facebook, Pinterest and Google have taken steps toward removing vaccine misinformation online in response to repeated posts that promoted false information about vaccines. On March 4, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kyle E. Yasuda, called upon the chief executives of Google, Facebook and Pinterest, “to work together to combat the dangerous spread of vaccine misinformation online.” Facebook released a blog post stating its plan of action. For now, the problem persists. Anti-vaccination groups are still appearing in searches, the opposite of what was described in the blog. A spokesperson on behalf of Instagram and Facebook announced on March 21 to the public that this is going to be a “long-term commitment.” The key is getting parents who read misinformation online to stop sharing the content and if there is a concern, to get them off the internet and engaged in an honest conversation with their child’s health care provider. But, it can be tricky. Ultimately, Ilboudo said, building trust between parents and health care providers could reverse the trend. The key is asking the parent what their specific concerns are and addressing them with scientific evidence. “It’s about having an honest conversation with your doctor,” Ilboudo said. “We don’t profit off of vaccinations — we recommend them because we believe it is the best choice to prolong the child’s life.” ___ Information from: Columbia Missourian, http://www.columbiamissourian.com Claim: Missouri faces vaccination hesitancy amid measles case.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “I saw news of trash overflowing the world...sea animals dying from eating plastic...I felt I must do something,” says the 48-year-old entrepreneur, who leads an online community of more than 20,000 people seeking to practice a waste-free lifestyle. But individual efforts alone can’t fully stop the 8 million tonnes of plastic that make their way to the ocean each year,  and with four of the five worst ocean polluters in Southeast Asia, the region’s governments must take action, he says. “Policymaking to address the issue must be treated with urgency as well,” said Thanaboon. A summit for leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) being hosted by Thailand this weekend is expected to adopt the Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in ASEAN Region. Thailand, the current chair of the group, has lauded the declaration as a “big step” for the region, whose coasts have seen whales and sea turtles wash up dead in recent years with large amounts of plastic rubbish in their stomachs. ASEAN members Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand are among the five countries throwing the most plastic waste into oceans, according to a 2015 report co-authored by  environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy. China is the worst offender. “Every ASEAN country agrees that marine debris is a common problem that we must address urgently,” Wijarn Simachaya, permanent secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, told Reuters. Unlike the European Union’s central bans and targets, Wijarn said the ASEAN declaration will outline broad ideas but it will be up to each country what it would take home to implement. The declaration will come ahead of next week’s G20 summit in Japan, which assembles 20 major economies and will also aim to tackle marine plastic pollution. Environmentalists welcomed ASEAN’s move to adopt the joint declaration, but there are worries that implementation will be a challenge, because the group has a code of non-interference that would leave necessary policymaking in the hands of individual member countries. “This declaration will be a new milestone, but it will be just words on paper if there is no change in policies,” Tara Buakamsri, director of Greenpeace Thailand, told Reuters. He said ASEAN countries should urgently all ban single-use plastic first for the declaration to be effective. “There is no other way,” Tara said. Globally, up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Of 300 million tonnes of plastic waste the world produces annually, 8 million end up in the oceans, killing marine life and entering the human food chain, it says. According to Ocean Conservancy, 60 percent of the debris comes from China and the four ASEAN nations. “It’s a good step as this is the first time ASEAN formally acknowledges the issue of marine debris,” said marine biologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat. Each year, Thailand generates about 2 million tonnes of plastic waste, only about 25% of which gets recycled. The rest goes to incineration or landfill, where about 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes leaks into the ocean. Environmentalists commend initiatives by some major retailers to cut back on plastic bags, but say most businesses will not take action unless there is a stricter push from policy initiatives. CP All, which operates over 10,000 7-Eleven convenience stores across the country, said it has saved 464 million bags from circulation since December, donating more than 92 million baht saved from the process to public hospitals around the country. Thailand’s largest retail conglomerate Central Group said last month it aimed to reduce plastic bags by 150 million this year by giving customers rewards incentives. Governments should “act more drastically” by introducing immediate bans on single-use plastic so that more businesses follow suit, said Nattapong Nithi-Uthai, who leads volunteer network Trash Hero that cleans up the Gulf of Thailand in southern Pattani province. He also said ASEAN should aim to significantly improve its waste management schemes, as well as hold producers of consumer goods accountable. “There should be designated places for every single item to go. If things are piled up somewhere, they can leak into the ocean,” he said. “Producers should also be made responsible for taking back the single-use plastic they produce ... This might make them think twice about producing single-use packaging.” Claim: Southeast Asian nations, among worst ocean polluters, aim to curb plastic debris.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Warnings about the dangers of using cellular phones in the presence of gasoline fumes began circulating on the Internet in 1999: Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 1999] Cell Phones In case you do not know, there was an incident where a driver suffered burns and his car severely damaged when gasoline vapors ignited an explosion while he was talking on his mobile phone standing near the attendant who was pumping the gas. All the electronic devices in gas stations are protected with explosive containment devices, (intrinsically safe) while cell phones are not. READ YOUR HANDBOOK! Mobile phone makers Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia, all print cautions in their user handbooks that warn against mobile phones in “gas stations, fuel storage sites, and chemical factories.” Exxon has begun placing “warning stickers” at its gasoline stations. The threat mobile phones pose to gas stations and their users is primarily the result of their ability to produce sparks that can be generated by the high-powered battery inside the phone. Please pass this on. [Collected on the Internet, 1999] *** PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS *** Mobile phones an explosive risk at gas stations. Switch off your mobile phone while filling your car. This is the latest advice for mobile phone users and gas station attendants alike from the Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC), which has recently informed all its affiliates to be on alert for people chatting on mobiles while pumping gas, a practice it asserts can cause explosions. “There have been several explosions in Southeast Asia and Europe and we hope similar tragedies can be avoided in Taiwan,” said David Tung from CPC’s main engineering division. According to a report released by Shell Chemicals, a driver in Indonesia suffered burns and his car was severely damaged when petrol vapor exploded after being ignited by static electricity from the mobile phone he was using. Apparently, the driver had been talking on a mobile phone as a gas station attendant filled his car with petrol. When the driver bent down close to the petrol tank to check whether it was full, the vapor exploded. In Belgium, customers have been prohibited from using mobile phones within 10 meters of gas stations and warnings are posted everywhere to remind people of the danger, according to a Belgian newspaper. The threat mobile phones pose to gas stations and their users around the world is largely due to their ability to produce sparks. These can be generated by the high-powered battery inside the phone, which is itself, a possible cause of fire. But the electromagnetic waves emitted by the phone are more than sufficient to create considerable static electricity that heats the surrounding air and if the flammable vapor is concentrated enough, causes an explosion. But other electronic devices installed in the gas stations are safe. “All the electronic devices in gas stations are protected with explosive containment devices, while cellular phones are not,” Tung explained. Mobile phone makers Motorola, Ericsson and Nokia, all print cautions in their user handbooks that warn against mobile phones in “gas stations, fuel storage sites and chemical factories.” But the danger is still being ignored by many users who continue to talk on their cellular phones while filling up at gas stations. “Asking them to turn off the phone is the only thing we can do now, but not all the users like to : some of them even get mad with me,” one attendant at a gas station complained. In fact, if danger is to be avoided, all transmitting devices – not just mobile phones – should be switched off near gas stations and locations housing flammable substances. Mobile phones should also be switched off near sensitive electronic equipment, in places such as hospitals and airports for public safety reasons. Taken from ‘The China Post’ by Chris Lang. Though both versions of the original Internet warning alluded to an accident in Indonesia wherein a driver was burned and his car badly damaged as a result of such an explosion, no reports ever surfaced in the news media to confirm the incident. Moreover, nothing turned up about similar explosions in other countries. If sparks from cell phones were touching off conflagrations at gas pumps around the world, as suggested at the time, the phenomenon escaped the media’s notice. Such rumors were furthered in May 1999 when a lengthy article appeared in the Bangkok Post supporting this warning. It mentioned “a recent report in the China Post newspaper” and from there proceeded to parrot the warning given in the longer example quoted above, complete with reference to the report by Shell Chemicals on the injuries suffered by the man in Indonesia and the Chinese Petroleum Corporation’s instructions to filling stations to get drivers to switch off their phones while fueling. Okay, so the bit about a guy in Indonesia being turned into a human fireball didn’t stand up. But what about persistent rumors concerning another supposed victim, this time an Australian man, supposedly done in by using his mobile phone as he refueled? Although in 1999 oil companies told the South China Morning Post they had heard reports of an Australian man being blown up recently when his phone rang as he was filling his car with gasoline, fire service heads in Australia insist the incident never happened. As for incidents elsewhere in the world, after several reports were circulated in the United States claiming mobile phones had been blamed for fires at gas stations, both the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) and the American Petroleum Institute issued statements denying the risk. The CTIA said, “There is no evidence whatsoever that a wireless phone has ever caused ignition or explosion at a station anywhere in the world. Wireless phones don’t cause gas stations to blow up. Warnings being posted in petrol stations simply perpetuate the myth.” The American Petroleum Institute said, “We can find no evidence of someone using a cellphone causing any kind of accident, no matter how small, at a gas station anywhere in the world.” In June 2002 another authoritative-sounding warning on this subject began circulating on the Internet: The Shell Oil Company recently issued a warning about three incidents where Mobile Phones have ignited fumes while being answered or ringing during fueling operations. What specifically happenedCase 1 The phone was placed on the car’s trunk lid during fueling, it rang and the ensuing fire destroyed the car and the gasoline pump. Case 2 An individual suffered severe burns to their face when fumes ignited as they answered a call while refueling their car. Case 3 An individual suffered burns to the thigh and groin as fumes ignited when the phone, which was in their pocket, rang while they were fueling their car. What should you learn from this? It is a misconception that Mobile Phones are intrinsically safe and can’t ignite fuel/fumes. Mobile phones that light up when switched on, or when they ring, have enough energy released to provide a spark for ignition. Mobile phones should not be used in filling stations, or when fueling lawn mowers, boats etc. Mobile phones should not be used around other materials that generate flammable or explosive fumes or dust (i.e. solvents, chemicals, gases, grain dust etc.). Mobile phones should be turned off before entering an area where other materials that generate flammable or explosive fumes or dust is located. Please share this with employees who do not have access to email, family members and friends to help keep everyone safe. Though we looked long and hard, we never found documentation confirming any of the three incidents described in the that warning. Moreover, Shell denied having issued a warning of this nature: We understand that there is an email, purportedly official Shell communication, circulating which describes various incidents that are supposed to have occurred as a result of mobile phones ringing while at a retail station.Please be advised that the email in question does NOT originate from Shell Malaysia and we are unable to confirm any of the incidents quoted. There was a warning memo which originated at a Shell loading station in California, but it was issued only to caution employees about the potential dangers of static-related hazards at fueling stations; it said nothing about cell phones touching off fires. (The “three incidents” e-mail quoted above was teamed with a separate warning about the hazards posed by static electricity, a topic covered on our Static Quo page.) Okay, so it hasn’t happened yet. Is there still a potential, as yet unrealized risk in using cell phones while refueling? According to some experts, there is a danger that using a mobile phone near gas pumps could touch off an explosion, but not only have we found no real-life instances of such an explosion occurring, we don’t know anyone who has demonstrated experimentally that it’s even possible (including the folks at The Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters program). Even so, gas pumps in Australia bear stickers cautioning motorists to turn off their phones while refueling; Shell in Malaysia has affixed similar stickers to each of its gas pumps; numerous pumps in the U.S.A. are similarly adorned; Canada’s major gas pump operators have banned customers from using mobile phones while at the gas pump; and in 1999 the city of Cicero, Illinois, passed the first law in the USA banning the use of cellular phones at gas stations. All of this activity was in the nature of CYA cautions rather than a response to a documented hazard. Cellular phone manufacturers Nokia and Ericsson have said the risk is very small that something will happen when one uses a cell phone at a gas station, but since there is a risk, it should be counted. Nokia also said that the company has been recommending for a long time that mobile phones should be turned off while the car is being refueled. What it is about a cellular phone that could possibly trigger an explosion is difficult to fathom, however. The claim that the batteries used in a cellular phone can ignite gasoline seems specious, since cellular phone batteries are the same voltage as automobile batteries (12V D.C.) but deliver far less current. Likewise, the claim that a “cellular phone ringer uses more than 100 volts for excitation” is a curious artifact of the “regular” telephone era: cellular phones don’t have ringers; they produce audio tones that simulate the sound of a ringing telephone. News reports routinely attribute gas pump fires to cell phone use whenever a fire occurs at a service station where such a phone was in use at the time, and police and firefighters at the scene often simply assume the connection between the two to be valid. Later investigations, however, have always shown in such cases that the press reports were wrong, that something else (usually a discharge of static electricity) touched off the fires, and the presence of cell phones was coincidental rather than causal. Claim: The use of cellular phones poses a danger of touching off explosions at gas stations",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In late January 2018, several readers asked about a disturbing Facebook video showing a teenage girl displaying a series of cards alleging that a Georgia judge placed her with an abusive parent. The teenager, Maddie Kelley, claims that her mother had beaten her badly enough to cause bruises and had hit her head against the wall. The video in question was originally shared to the Facebook page “Concerned citizens against Judge Grubbs Cobb County GA” in January 2016; the reasons for its renewed popularity in January 2018 are unclear: This judge put me back with my mom Tha abuses me Posted by Maddie Kelley on Monday, January 11, 2016 Some commenters posted screenshots of what appeared to be a deleted post originally shared by the Adairsville Police Department in January 2016, saying that the child welfare officials and police had found the claims to be unsubstantiated:  On 25 January 2018, the Adairsville Police Department’s official page responded to comments from one of many people still concerned about Maddie Kelley’s welfare:  We contacted the Adairsville Police Department to ask whether there were any further updates, and they responded: Claim: Georgia teenager Maddie Kelley is endangered and needs help.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Britain is the first G7 country to commit to a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target for 2050. “From driving our cars, to catching a train or taking a flight abroad, it is crucial that we ensure transport is as environmentally friendly as possible,” said transport secretary Grant Schapps. Due to be complete next year, the plan will set out in detail what government, business and society must do to deliver the significant emissions reductions needed from all forms of transport. It will also consider how technology can encourage changes to the way people and goods move across the country, the government said. Climate change activists, including one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion, defied a police order to end protests on Tuesday after a week of disruption in London targeting Britain’s transport ministry. Among other things, the activists oppose plans to run the HS2 rail project through ancient woodlands. The transport ministry says the rail line will slash journey times between central and northern England and the capital and be much more efficient in carbon terms than driving. The government also introduced an environment bill in parliament on Tuesday to help create legally binding targets to protect the environment and reduce pollution. The bill will also establish an office for environment protection which will hold the government to account on its progress towards the 2050 net zero emissions target. Experts say the net zero target will require sweeping changes across the energy, transport, heating and buildings sectors. Britain’s business secretary Andrea Leadsom told a parliamentary committee the government would produce a long-awaited energy white paper in the first quarter of next year. That is expected to outline the government’s ambitions for the future of the country’s energy system. “I am very ambitious about our decarbonisation ambitions and the need to set targets and milestones to enable business to get on with it with a very clear steer from government,” Leadsom said. Claim: Britain to complete plan next year to reach net zero transport emissions.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sen. Angus King says he’s co-sponsoring the Flu Vaccine Act, which is aimed at creating flu vaccines that offer more effective and long-lasting protection against influenza. King says the proposal calls for an investment of $1 billion over five years for the National Institutes of Health. The funding would be a significant bump from current levels. King says Congress has dedicated $100 million to $140 million for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 for universal flu vaccine research. King has also joined other senators in asking the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for an update on research initiatives about a universal flu vaccine. Claim: Senators: Double funding for universal flu vaccine research.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The jury ruling ended the trial that began Sept. 26 in the case brought by Deborah Giannecchini of Modesto, California. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. The suit accused Johnson & Johnson of “negligent conduct” in making and marketing its baby powder. “We are pleased the jury did the right thing. They once again reaffirmed the need for Johnson & Johnson to warn the public of the ovarian cancer risk associated with its product,” Jim Onder, an attorney for the plaintiff, told The Associated Press. “We deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by ovarian cancer,” Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman with Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.” Earlier this year, two other lawsuits in St. Louis ended in jury verdicts worth a combined $127 million. But two others in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge who said there wasn’t reliable evidence that talc leads to ovarian cancer, an often fatal but relatively rare form of cancer. Ovarian cancer accounts for about 22,000 of the 1.7 million new cases of cancer expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year. About 2,000 women have filed similar suits, and lawyers are reviewing thousands of other potential cases, most generated by ads touting the two big verdicts out of St. Louis — a $72 million award in February to relatives of an Alabama woman who died of ovarian cancer, and a $55 million award in May to a South Dakota survivor of the disease. Much research has found no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene, and most major health groups have declared talc harmless. Johnson & Johnson, whose baby powder dominates the market, maintains it’s perfectly safe. But Onder of the Onder Law Firm in suburban St. Louis, which represented plaintiffs in all three St. Louis cases, cited other research that began connecting talcum powder to ovarian cancer in the 1970s. He said case studies have indicated that women who regularly use talc on their genital area face up to a 40 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer. Onder has accused Johnson & Johnson of marketing toward overweight women, blacks and Hispanics — the very same women most at-risk for ovarian cancer, he said. Factors known to increase a women’s risk of ovarian cancer include age, obesity, use of estrogen therapy after menopause, not having any children, certain genetic mutations and personal or family history of breast or ovarian cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies genital use of talc as “possibly carcinogenic.” The National Toxicology Program, made up of parts of several different government agencies, has not fully reviewed talc. Talc is a mineral that is mined from deposits around the world, including the U.S. The softest of minerals, it’s crushed into a white powder. It’s been widely used in cosmetics and other personal care products to absorb moisture since at least 1894, when Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder was launched. But it’s mainly used in a variety of other products, including paint and plastics. The two St. Louis verdicts were the first talcum powder cases in which money was awarded. A federal jury in 2013 sided with another South Dakota woman, but it ordered no damages, a spokeswoman for Onder’s firm said. Johnson & Johnson has been targeted before by health and consumer groups over ingredients in its products, including Johnson’s No More Tears baby shampoo. The company agreed in 2012 to eliminate 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, both considered probable carcinogens, from all products by 2015. Claim: Jury awards more than $70M to woman in baby powder lawsuit.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The new cases include 39 patients linked to previous cases, 17 new cases deemed to be imported ones, and 53 awaiting investigation, Anupong Sujariyakul, an expert in preventive medicine at the Disease Control Department, told reporters. The government urged people to stay home and introduced a state of emergency earlier this week, banning foreigners and closing public facilities and businesses in major cities until April 30. Essential businesses such as supermarkets and pharmacies remain open, but commercial banks will be closed this weekend before they are reopen on Monday. “If we don’t do anything, the number until end of April may exceed 3,500 cases,” Anupong said. Bangkok has the highest total number of coronavirus cases at 534, while the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani have a total of 79 cases, health ministry data showed. Narathiwat and Pattani are in lockdown while several other provinces have issued orders to restrict the operating times of 24-hour convenience stores. Claim: Thailand reports new coronavirus death as total cases reach 1,245.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Friday’s 208-199 vote, with all but one Republican opposed, advances what boils down to a campaign-season display of Democratic economic and health-care priorities. It has no chance of becoming law as written, but will likely spark difficult negotiations with the White House and Senate Republicans. Any product would probably be the last major COVID-19 response bill before November’s presidential and congressional elections. The enormous Democratic measure would cost more than the prior four coronavirus bills combined. It would deliver almost $1 trillion for state and local governments, another round of $1,200 direct payments to individuals and help for the unemployed, renters and homeowners, college debt holders and the struggling Postal Service. “Not to act now is not only irresponsible in a humanitarian way, it is irresponsible because it’s only going to cost more,” warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “More in terms of lives, livelihood, cost to the budget, cost to our democracy.” Republicans mocked the bill as a bloated Democratic wish-list that was dead on arrival in the GOP-led Senate and, for good measure, faced a White House veto threat. Party leaders say they want to assess how $3 trillion approved earlier is working and see if some states’ partial business reopenings would spark an economic revival that would ease the need for more safety net programs. Republicans are also sorting through internal divisions and awaiting stronger signals from President Donald Trump about what he will support. “Phase Four is going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, using Washington insider-speak for the measure. “But it’s going to happen in a much better way for the American people.” Trump and top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are insisting the next measure should protect reopening businesses from liability lawsuits. The president is also demanding a cut to payroll taxes, but GOP leaders are not yet onboard. The daylong debate painted a Capitol scene that’s become common in the era of coronavirus, even as it remains disconcerting. The sparsely populated House floor was dotted with lawmakers and aides wearing protective masks and even gloves, though some Republicans lacked them. Many members looked shaggier and sported beards they had not worn weeks ago. Roll call votes lasted over an hour each because lawmakers were voting in small groups to limit crowding. To enhance  the bill’s political impact, Democrats named their measure “The Heroes Act” for the payments it would provide front-line emergency workers. With more than 86,000 Americans dead, 1.4 million confirmed infections and 36 million filing unemployment claims in an frozen economy, Democrats saw GOP opposition as an easy campaign-season target. “Are you kidding me?” said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, of Republican assertions that it was time to stop spending more money. “Where do you guys live? Food lines at our food banks around the block? In the United States of America?”  Republicans saw the bill as a Democratic political blunder. They said overly generous unemployment benefits discouraged people from returning to work, and attacked language helping immigrants in the U.S. illegally get federal benefits. They also singled out provisions helping states set up voting by mail and easing the marijuana industry’s access to banks. “It may help the cannabis industry, but it won’t help Main Street,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.  Pelosi pushed the measure through after overcoming party divisions aggravated by election pressures. Some moderate Democrats opposed the package for its price tag and politically fraught provisions like assisting marijuana businesses. A few progressive Democrats were upset because it did not do more, such as guaranteeing workers’ salaries and bolstering their health insurance coverage. Fourteen Democrats voted against the measure. Nearly all are centrists and number among the party’s most vulnerable lawmakers in November’s elections: freshmen from districts Trump won in 2016. Among them was Rep. Cindy Axne of Iowa, who labeled the measure “bloated.” Another, Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, tweeted, “This bill strays far beyond delivering relief or responding to an urgent crisis, & it has no chance at becoming law.”  Republicans were already planning to use the day’s votes against other moderate Democrats who backed Friday’s legislation and face competitive reelection races. Clearly, the bipartisan consensus that produced four previous coronavirus bills was crumbling quickly. Polls show GOP voters are satisfied with the federal response and aren’t agitating for more. Self-branded deficit hawks are citing the massive increase in the spiraling $25 trillion national debt. Some congressional aides said the Democratic bill’s real price tag could breach $3.5 trillion. A partial estimate of tax provisions alone revealed eye-popping costs: $412 billion to renew $1,200 cash payments to individuals, more than $100 billion to pay health insurance premiums for the unemployed and $164 billion to make an “employee retention” tax credit for businesses more generous. Republicans leaders faced disunity between conservatives who feel enough has been done and pragmatists who back rescuing the Postal Service from looming insolvency and delivering cash to revenue-starved state and local governments. The huge price tag and a lack of consultation with Republicans by Pelosi cemented GOP opposition. “This bill is nothing more than the Democratic policy agenda masquerading as a response to the coronavirus crisis,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. He said the bill is “going nowhere, and is going nowhere fast.”  Liberal Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., also opposed the bill. She told reporters that if constituents ask her if the bill would put money in their pockets or preserve their health care, “I can’t tell them yes.”  The lone Republican backing the legislation was Rep. Peter King of New York, who is retiring. Claim: Democrats push new $3T coronavirus relief bill through House.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 24 March 2016, social media users began sharing articles reporting that students at Emory University were “traumatized” by graffiti promoting Donald Trump, and that “emergency counseling” had been offered to those who felt their “safe spaces” had been violated. Many Twitter users linked to an article published about the controversy by the Emory Wheel, the university’s student-run newspaper. The term “counseling” only appeared in the item’s comments section, and “safe spaces” was included as a paraphrase (meaning the purportedly oversensitive students invoking the concept hadn’t actually used the words): Grievances were not restricted to shortcomings of the administration. “[Faculty] are supporting this rhetoric by not ending it,” said one student, who went on to say that “people of color are struggling academically because they are so focused on trying to have a safe community and focus on these issues [related to having safe spaces on campus].” What the article (prior to an update) described was a political protest inspired by the Trump graffiti: Students protested yesterday at the Emory Administration Building following a series of overnight, apparent pro-Donald Trump for president chalkings throughout campus. Roughly 40 students gathered shortly after 4:30 p.m. in the outdoors space between the Administration Building and Goodrich C. White Hall; many students carried signs featuring slogans such as “Stop Trump” or “Stop Hate”[.] A 23 March 2016 Mediate article was one of the first that reported students were offered not just counseling, but emergency counseling (as if some major catastrophe had occurred on campus): A group of students at Emory University led a campus-wide protest after someone wrote ‘Donald Trump 2016’ in chalk across campus, leading the university to provide “emergency counseling” sessions in response. According to student paper The Emory Wheel, the triggered students protested outside the administration building chanting, “You are not listening! Come speak to us, we are in pain!” However, the sole citation for the “counseling” claim was the same Emory Wheel article which, again, made no mention of any such offer or demand. Britain’s Daily Mail repeated the “emergency counseling” claim, but that site also linked to Emory University content, which itself made no such statement: After the chalk markings started to appear, and pictures began appearing on The Tab, student organizations offered counselling to anyone who may have been impacted by what they had seen. Mediaite linked to Fox Sports, which claimed (in its own words) that “[t]he student government association is OFFERING EMERGENCY COUNSELING FOR STUDENTS TRIGGERED BY THE TRUMP 2016 CAMPUS CHALKINGS.” Fox Sports then reproduced an e-mail sent by student government representatives (i.e. students, not adult faculty or administrators) offering support for events, not counseling: That being said, by nature of the fact that for a significant portion of our student population, the messages represent particularly bigoted opinions, policies, and rhetoric directed at populations represented at Emory University, we would like to express our concern regarding the values espoused by the messages displayed, and our sympathy for the pain experienced by members of our community… It is clear to us that these statements are triggering for many of you. As a result, both College Council and the Student Government Association pledge to stand in solidarity with those communities who feel threatened by this incident and to help navigate the student body through it and the environment of distrust and unease it has created. To that end, Emergency Funds within the College Council monetary policy were created to provide time-sensitive funds during circumstances involving discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and such funds are available to any student organization looking to sponsor events in response to this incident. In context, it seemed much more likely that the e-mail described protest events, not counseling (which was never originally insinuated). Some attention focused on Emory’s efforts to identify the rogue Trump chalker, but the Emory Wheel made clear that the actions were in dispute because use of chalk to mark structures is only permitted on certain campus areas. The Trump chalkings appeared campus-wide, and therefore broke rules about acceptable use of chalk on campus: The University will review footage “up by the hospital [from] security cameras” to identify those who made the chalkings, Wagner told the protesters. He also added that if they’re students, they will go through the conduct violation process, while if they are from outside of the University, trespassing charges will be pressed. While it was true that several dozen Emory University students protested in response to the Trump chalk scrawlings, we were unable to substantiate that anyone (student or administrator) offered emergency counseling, or, indeed, counseling or any sort. Neither did anyone seek counseling that we could see, and no students complained “safe spaces” were violated (though at least one said they felt “unsafe”). The Emory University media brouhaha was one of several distorted claims of rampant political correctness on college campuses and elsewhere, with several (embellished) details repeated by major outlets such as the Daily Mail, Mediaite, and the Washington Post. Just a few weeks before the Emory controversy, several web sites inaccurately claimed students were offered counseling over the presence of mini sombreros at a party. Another viral Facebook post claimed Captain America was deemed offensive and banned; a Brooklyn principal was falsely accused of banning the Pledge of Allegiance, Thanksgiving, and Christmas; and another faux outrage popped up over a satirical poster claiming popular Halloween costumes were not politically correct and kids wearing them would be denied candy. In nearly all such claims, details of the actual controversy were obfuscated by embellished elements framing students or schools as overly sensitive. While it was true some students of color expressed that the large number of Trump chalkings made them uneasy, most simply gathered to express their political distaste for the presidential candidate and his platforms on issues of race and religion. On 25 March 2016, Emory protest organizer Jonathan Peraza contacted us and linked to a 24 March 2016 statement about the controversy issued by involved students on campus: Subsequent media reports have tried to frame this case as one about “coddled” and “oversensitive” students; however, LET US BE CLEAR: We are not scared of the chalk. We are not mad about being politically challenged. We are rightfully angry because we also exercise our first amendment right to freedom of speech and there are people on this campus, and in this country, who as a result choose to threaten us and twist the truth to protect their own bigotry. Firstly, we are not asking that these students censor their politics, nor are we asking that administration chooses to intervene in student politics. Rather, what we are asking for is equality and equity — we want a streamlined, consistent method of communication to deal with instances of unrest on Emory’s campus. This means race, color and economic status should not determine whether or not the University needs to be prompted to send out a response of acknowledgement of events. Secondly, we ask the Emory University Student Body and individuals nationally to fight for our right of freedom of speech the way they have for Trump supporters. Claim: Students at Emory University were offered \"emergency counseling\" after pro-Trump graffiti appeared overnight in campus \"safe spaces.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 11 August 2017, dubious site Proud-Patriots.com falsely reported that the family of California senator (and Senate President Pro Tempore) Kevin de León had been targeted for deportation by President Donald Trump because they are allegedly all undocumented: The Democrats are not immune to survive [sic] the huge pressure on them and their followers from the new laws for illegal immigrants. The DNC opposed every law which confronts their open borders agenda. Kevin de Leon, a California Democrat State Senate leader admitted that with this new reform, half of his family is unlawfully on US soil. The article uses quotes from a speech given by de León on 31 January 2017, in which he said: …The reality is, with the executive order and the criteria that has been developed, many individuals – I can tell you, half of my family would be eligible for deportation under the executive order. Because, if they got a false social security card, if they got a false identification, if they got a false driver’s license prior to us passing AB-60, if they got a false green card. And anyone who has family members who are undocumented knows that almost entirely everybody has secured some sort of false identification, that’s what you need to survive, to work – they are eligible for massive deportation. De León’s remarks related to a 25 January 2017 executive order signed by Donald Trump, which ordered the enhancement of immigration law enforcement, especially in so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions. The article offers no evidence that either President Trump or Immigration and Customs Enforcement had targeted or was about to target members of de León’s family. Furthermore, a spokesperson for de León told us that the family members to whom the senator was referring have already become naturalized United States citizens or permanent residents. The Senator generalized that half his family would have been eligible for deportation under Trump’s new standards. Those members were naturalized during the Reagan era and are now citizens or permanent residents. Claim: President Donald Trump has targeted the family of California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León for deportation.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Supporters say a so-called “single-payer” system would ensure everyone has access to health care the same way the public education system provides education to all children, regardless of income. Backers say a Medicare for all system would essentially cut out insurance companies as intermediaries between patients and doctors and instead allow health care providers to seek reimbursement directly from the government. Critics say such a system amounts to government-run health care. Supporters include Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton, Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton and Rep. Denise Garlick of Needham, all Democrats. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Massachusetts Statehouse. Claim: Massachusetts lawmakers weigh ‘Medicare for all’ bill.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Dr. Leon Eisenberg, who passed away at the age of 87 in 2009, was a prominent figure in the field of child psychiatry who during the 1950s and 60s conducted medical studies of children with developmental problems, including some of the first rigorous studies of autism and attention deficit disorder. As described by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Dr. Eisenberg “transformed child psychiatry by advocating research into developmental problems”: Early in his medical career, in the mid-1950s, Leon Eisenberg became fascinated with the childhood mind. Wanting to know more, he broke free from the shackles of the Freudian psychoanalytic dogma that dominated child psychiatry at the time to conduct groundbreaking biologically based research of childhood developmental problems. This research included the first randomised clinical drug trials in child psychiatry. “I think what Leon brought to the field was a different way of thinking — thinking out of the box,” said David DeMaso, chairman of psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. “He was thinking in terms of biology, of evidence based treatment, way before anybody else. His was a bio-psycho-social model at a time when psychoanalytical thinking was the norm.” Eisenberg’s direct involvement as a child psychiatry researcher was over by 1967, when he moved to Harvard Medical School as chief of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. But in a dozen years he had helped transform the discipline. Although describing Dr. Eisenberg as the “inventor” or “father” of attention deficit disorder (ADD) and/or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might be challenged by some as a bit of an exaggeration, he unquestionably contributed a great deal to the body of knowledge on which modern diagnoses and treatment of those disorders is based. Given Dr. Eisenberg’s recognized authority and expertise in this field, therefore, those who feel that ADD and ADHD are misused and over-employed diagnoses which serve to “excuse bullying and recklessness” and “offer a sense of alleviation of personal responsibility among those diagnosed” would indeed find validation if Dr. Eisenberg had proclaimed “ADHD is a fictitious disease”: Example: [Collected via e-mail, May 2013] I’ve been seeing this story making the rounds about how the alleged “inventor” of ADHD (a Dr. Eisenberg) had a sort of deathbed confession, and, in an interview with Der Spiegel 7 months before he died at 87, said, “ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease.” Leon Eisenberg, the father of ADHD, is quoted as saying in Der Spiegel that “ADHD is a fictitious disease” (shortly before his death). The claim that Dr. Eisenberg asserted “ADHD is a fictitious disease” is reproduced on countless web sites as something he said “seven months before his death in his last interview,” which would place the date of his utterance around February 2009. When documentation for the putative quote is provided, it references an article (often described as a “cover story”) published in the German weekly Der Spiegel on 2 February 2012. We found that the German-language version of Der Spiegel ran an article in 2012 that skeptically examined the large increase in diagnoses of mental disorders in recent years and quoted Dr. Eisenberg on that subject. A software-based translation of that article from German to English does describe Dr. Eisenberg as the “father of ADHD” and report that during his “last interview” he said something similar to “ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease.” However, when one allows for the vagaries of translation from German to English and reads the statement in context, it’s clear that Dr. Eisenberg wasn’t asserting that ADHD isn’t a real disorder, but rather that he thought the influence of genetic predispositions for ADHD (rather than social/environmental risk factors) were vastly overestimated: One out of every ten 10-year-old boys already takes an ADHD drug daily. But the scientific father of ADHD has followed the explosion of prescriptions with growing horror. Leon Eisenberg took over the management of psychiatry at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and became one of the most famous psychiatrists in the world. In his last interview, seven months before his death from prostate cancer at the age of 87, he distanced himself from his youthful indiscretion. A tall, thin man with glasses and suspenders opened the door to his apartment in Harvard Square in 2009, invited me to the kitchen table, and poured coffee. He said that he never would have thought his discovery would someday become so popular. “ADHD is a prime example of a fabricated disorder,” Eisenberg said. “The genetic predisposition to ADHD is completely overrated.” Instead, child psychiatrists should more thoroughly determine the psychosocial reasons that can lead to behavioral problems, Eisenberg said. Are there fights with parents, are there are problems in the family? Such questions are important, but they take a lot of time, Eisenberg said, adding with a sigh: “Prescribe a pill for it very quickly.” On a related note, an August 2012 Der Spiegel English-language interview with (now retired) Harvard psychologist Dr. Jerome Kagan quoted Dr. Kagan as being critical of “fuzzy diagnostic practices” and the over-prescription of drugs such as Ritalin for behavioral problems in children, and as referring to ADHD as “an invention”: SPIEGEL: In the 1960s, mental disorders were virtually unknown among children. Today, official sources claim that one child in eight in the United States is mentally ill. Kagan: That’s true, but it is primarily due to fuzzy diagnostic practices. Let’s go back 50 years. We have a 7-year-old child who is bored in school and disrupts classes. Back then, he was called lazy. Today, he is said to suffer from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). That’s why the numbers have soared. SPIEGEL: Experts speak of 5.4 million American children who display the symptoms typical of ADHD. Are you saying that this mental disorder is just an invention? Kagan: That’s correct; it is an invention. Every child who’s not doing well in school is sent to see a pediatrician, and the pediatrician says: “It’s ADHD; here’s Ritalin.” In fact, 90 percent of these 5.4 million kids don’t have an abnormal dopamine metabolism. The problem is, if a drug is available to doctors, they’ll make the corresponding diagnosis. Claim: Dr. Leon Eisenberg, the ‘father’ of ADHD, said just before his death that ADHD ‘is a prime example of a fictitious disease.’",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On August 18 2019, Facebook page “Smooth AF” shared a screenshot of a tweet claiming that University of Findlay students had discovered a chemical compound that “kills glioblastoma cells”:At the top of the image was an August 15 2019 tweet from WTOL reporter @JonWTOL:Students at @ufindlay college of pharmacy have developed a chemical compound that kills gliobastoma (brain cancer) cells.They have also refined it to ignore healthy brain tissue and focus on the cancer cells.Story at 5:30 pic.twitter.com/AnNxZ3TMrG— Jon Monk (@JonWTOL) August 15, 2019It read in part:Students at @ufindlay college of pharmacy have developed a chemical compound that kills gliobastoma (brain cancer) cells.They have also refined it to ignore healthy brain tissue and focus on the cancer cells.In the Facebook screenshot, the tweet and image were shown, minus a final sentence about a news segment. Underneath those, a second tweet read:make this go viral before it suddenly doesn’t existOne highly popular comment on the tweet was shared more than 20,000 times on Twitter. It claimed that cancer had already been “cured,” and that the government was suppressing that cure to preserve pharmaceutical industry profits — commentary similar to the second tweet shown in the Facebook post:Basically the cure for cancer has basically been discovered but the government doesn’t want it coming out bc cancer gives the pharmaceutical industry so much money.Comments on both the tweet and the Facebook post often espoused the view that a discovery like one described in the tweet would be seen as unfavorable to “big pharma.” A follow-up tweet referenced a lengthier companion video on the WTOL site.In the video, the same reporter, Jon Monk, says that the difficulty in developing therapies for glioblastoma include identifying compounds that can target cancer cells while at the same time not harming healthy brain cells. Monk indicates a compound known as RK-15 is “a hundred times more selective” in targeting cancer cells over healthy brain cells, but the benchmark by which the efficacy of “one hundred times” was determined was not described.During the two-minute segment, Monk says that the discovery is a breakthrough “that could very well lead to future treatment” for glioblastoma, not that the students developed an actual applicable therapy for the illness. He also says that glioblastoma has a ten percent five-year survival rate; a November 2017 item on Cancer.org provides the respective five-year survival rates for glioblastoma in three age groups as 19 percent, eight percent, and five percent.A separate WNWO report published on August 15 2019 bears a headline stating that “University of Findlay researchers discover new drug to treat brain cancer.” But at the end of the article, it clarifies that the discovery may not yet be “a drug” as most readers understand it:Researchers said the next step is to test on animals, then continue clinical testing on humans before it could get approved by the FDA.They said it typically takes 10 to 15 years for a new drug to get from the lab to the patient. The team at the University of Findlay is on year two.News about the RK-15 discovery also made it to Reddit’s r/futurology. A top comment on that thread addresses some points of confusion about the process of developing such findings into actual drugs:Went and saw the video.Experts made similar observations — even if the discovery is promising, it is still many years away from any practical application. Epidemiologist @GidMK responded with information about how novel and untested the discovery was based on the report’s limited detail:According to the story this hasn’t even moved to rodent testing yet>99% of treatments that make it to this stage fail before being used in people— Health Nerd (@GidMK) August 18, 2019Another medical expert noted that many therapies are in development, but are far from becoming viable options for cancer patients:So wait, two pharm students…had access to large scale animal labs? Had teams recruiting patients for safety trials, and then enrolled hundreds of patients for clinical efficacy trials?There are hundreds of cancer cures that work in petri dishes and even mice but not humans.— John Jiao, MD 🏥 (@JohnJiao) August 18, 2019However, those science-based observations were nearly drowned in a sea of conspiracy-oriented replies that the student researchers were “at risk” of being killed or silenced — comments that skimmed over the medical commentary noting that many similar treatments were already in development (and scores more would not progress to a trial stage):that’s great and all but watch them die from “mysterious deaths” and the compound suddenly disappears— 𝔯𝔥𝔦𝔞𝔫𝔫𝔬𝔫 𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔷𝔞𝔟𝔢𝔱𝔥 (@tattooheartafi) August 18, 2019If they want to live , they need to hide. It’s so sad to say, but every scientist/person that finds a cure comes up missing or dead 😔— ɕأɑʀɑ ℘εƴƭℴ ɳ ♡ (@CiaraaaNicole) August 18, 2019A number of local news affiliates reported on the pharmacy students’ discovery of RK-15, stating that it “very well may” lead to eventual glioblastoma therapies. Many readers and commenters appeared to infer the students had invented a drug ready for market, which was not the case. Separate comments suggested that the students were at risk of harm due to mysterious forces determined to suppress cancer cures, a common but baseless conspiracy theory predicated in part on confusion about the manner in which drugs are researched, developed, and readied for market — as well as incomplete reporting and headlines suggesting the discovery was a drug ready to be offered to to cancer patients at the time the reports appeared. Claim: University of Findlay research students discovered a chemical compound that kills glioblastoma cells.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The initial version of the story that we reviewed did not address cost. An update to the story, posted after our review, noted the drug costs more than $4,000 annually. The story relies entirely on relative risks to convey the benefits found in the study — most notably in the headline. We think that estimates based on relative risk can be misleading in isolation, and so we always prefer for stories to include a measure of absolute risk reduction as well. For example, the abstract of the study explains that the “slashing” of deaths mentioned in the headline means that the death rate was 5.7% in the Jardiance group compared with 8.3% in the placebo group. The article didn’t mention any harms associated with Jardiance, a type of SGLT2 inhibitor. Some mention of potential adverse effects is always appropriate in stories about new drugs. A close call on this one. The story makes it clear that this was a trial comparing empagliflozin to placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes who were at high risk of cardiovascular disease. And it lays out the main outcomes. But beyond that, it doesn’t tell us much. And it allows the lead study author to speculate — prematurely perhaps — that the study “would prompt medical societies to recommend in their treatment guidelines that Jardiance be used for type 2 diabetics that have a history of heart disease or are at risk of cardiovascular events.” While that’s possible, we don’t really know what these societies will recommend until they actually synthesize this evidence together with other available data — and so the story could have pushed back on that point. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here. There’s no evidence of disease mongering in the story. The initial version of this story includes only comments from Dr. Bernard Zinman, the lead investigator. The updated version of the story includes additional perspectives on the research, but neither version of the story makes it clear the the study was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly, or that Dr Zinman and other co-authors disclosed financial relationships with Boehringer Ingelheim related to the study and outside of the study. This is a novel preventative therapy and designated as an add-on, not a replacement, to standard therapy which include statins to lower cholesterol, and blood pressure drugs. The story mentions Invokana, another drug in the same class as empagliflozin, and it talks about cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood pressure medication. The story notes that Jardiance was approved for use in the United States last fall, so it’s clear that the drug is available. The drug is newsworthy because it is the first drug to have shown a significant reduction in cardiovascular events in people with type 2 diabetes — and the story makes this clear. The story includes quotes from interview with Dr. Zinman, so we know that it went beyond the news release issued for the study. Claim: Lilly diabetes drug slashes deaths 32 pct in heart-risk patients",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “Black Friday” is the (originally derisive, now mainstream) term for the phenomenon that takes place in the U.S. on the day after Thanksgiving Thursday, when millions of consumers who get the day off from work or school crowd into stores for what is traditionally considered the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The origins of the term “Black Friday” have become somewhat obscured in the mists of time, however, leading people to invent fanciful explanations for how that phrase became attached to the day after Thanksgiving. One example posits that the term started with a tradition of slaveowners or slave traders using that day as an opportunity for selling their wares:  The use of “Black Friday” as a descriptor for the day after Thanksgiving has nothing to do with the selling of slaves, though, and the term didn’t originate until nearly a century after the practice of slavery was abolished in the U.S. The earliest known use of “Black Friday” in such a context stems from 1951 and referred to the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving in order to have four consecutive days off (because that day was not yet commonly offered as a paid day off by employers): WHAT TO DO ABOUT “FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING” “Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis” is a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects. At least that’s the feeling of those who have to get production out, when the “Black Friday” comes along. The shop may be half empty, but every absentee was sick — and can prove it. What to do? Many companies have tried the standard device of denying Thanksgiving Day pay to employees absent the day before and after the holiday. Trouble is, you can’t deny pay to those legitimately ill. But what’s legitimate? Tough to decide these days of often miraculously easy doctors’ certificates. Glenn L. Martin, Baltimore aircraft manufacturer has another solution: When you decide you want to sweeten up the holiday kitty, pick Black Friday to add to the list. That’s just what Martin has done. Friday after Thanksgiving is the company’s seventh paid holiday. We’re not suggesting more paid holidays just to get out of a hole. But, if you can make a good trade in bargaining, there are lots of worse things than having a holiday on a day that was half holiday anyway. Shouldn’t cost too much for that reason, either. By 1961 the term “Black Friday” (and “Black Saturday” as well) was being commonly used in a derisive sense by Philadelphia police, who had to deal with the mayhem and headaches caused by all the extra pedestrian and vehicular traffic created by hordes of shoppers heading for the city’s downtown stores on the two days after Thanksgiving: For downtown merchants throughout the nation, the biggest shopping days normally are the two following Thanksgiving Day. Resulting traffic jams are an irksome problem to the police and, in Philadelphia, it became customary for officers to refer to the post-Thanksgiving days as Black Friday and Black Saturday. In a 1994 article, former Philadelphia Bulletin reporter Joseph P. Barrett recalled how he took part in popularizing the term “Black Friday” throughout Philadelphia in the early 1960s, from which it eventually spread into nationwide usage: The term “Black Friday” came out of the old Philadelphia Police Department’s traffic squad. The cops used it to describe the worst traffic jams which annually occurred in Center City on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It was the day that Santa Claus took his chair in the department stores and every kid in the city wanted to see him. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season. Schools were closed. Late in the day, out-of-town visitors began arriving for the Army-Navy football game. Every “Black Friday,” no traffic policeman was permitted to take the day off. The division was placed on 12 hours of duty, and even the police band was ordered to Center City. It was not unusual to see a trombone player directing traffic. Two officers were assigned to intersections along Market Street to control the throngs of pedestrians. The department also placed police officers outside parking garages because the “lot filled” signs failed to deter motorists from lining up on the curb lane outside the garage. This reduced street size from two lanes to one. This caused traffic to back up and block traffic at the next intersection. This caused massive gridlock. In 1959, the old Evening Bulletin assigned me to police administration, working out of City Hall. Nathan Kleger was the police reporter who covered Center City for the Bulletin. In the early 1960s, Kleger and I put together a front-page story for Thanksgiving and we appropriated the police term “Black Friday” to describe the terrible traffic conditions. [W]e used it year after year. Then television picked it up. One popular alternative explanation for the origins of “Black Friday” is that it is the day on which retailers finally began to show a profit for the year (in accounting terms, moving from being “in the red” to “in the black”) after operating at an overall loss from January through mid-November: If the day is the year’s biggest for retailers, why is it called Black Friday? Because it is a day retailers make profits — black ink, said Grace McFeeley of Cherry Hill Mall. “I think it came from the media,” said William Timmons of Strawbridge & Clothier. “It’s the employees, we’re the ones who call it Black Friday,” said Belle Stephens of Moorestown Mall. “We work extra hard. It’s a long hard day for the employees.” Claim: The term \"Black Friday\" originated with the practice of selling off slaves on the day after Thanksgiving.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Capital Press reports that U.S. District Judge Michael Simon was expected to reach a decision in the long-running case on Friday after hearing arguments from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which granted a 10-year grazing permit Dwight and Steven Hammond after Trump’s pardon. The renewal prompted a coalition of environmental groups to sue. Simon in July limited where the Hammonds could graze their cattle, but let them continue to use other portions of the public allotments for their ranching operation in remote southeastern Oregon while the environmental groups continued with their legal challenge. The Hammonds, a father and son who raise cattle near Diamond, Oregon, were convicted of arson in 2012 for setting a fire on federal land that burned about 140 acres. They were initially sentenced to minimal terms and released. But the Hammonds were sent back to prison in 2016 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that they must both complete the federal mandatory minimum sentence of five years for arson. Their rearrest sparked a protest that developed into a 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016, led by two sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. The standoff got international attention and ended shortly after authorities shot and killed the protestors’ spokesman as a small group of the occupiers drove to a meeting in Burns. The Western Watersheds Project, the Center for Biological Diversity and Wildearth Guardians filed a motion earlier this year to revoke the Hammonds’ grazing permits on the grounds that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke should not have granted the permits given the Hammonds’ past conviction. David Becker, an attorney for the environmental groups, told the judge that “livestock grazing on public lands is a privilege, not a right.” “Like any privilege, it’s subject to revocation if it’s abused,” he said. During their 2012 arson trial, the Hammonds said they burned the federal lands to destroy invasive weeds. Prosecutors said they burned the land to cover up the fact that they had illegally killed a herd deer on the land. Claim: Judge considers Hammond Ranches grazing permit.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A man lights a friend's cigarette as they stand in front of an advertisement for the China World shopping mall in central Beijing March 22, 2011. REUTERS/David Gray China, which has more than 300 million smokers, will require businesses to display prominent no-smoking signs, forbid vending machines from selling cigarettes and ensure that designated outdoor smoking zones not affect pedestrian traffic, according to a ministry statement reported in Chinese media on Thursday. Businesses should educate customers about the health hazards of smoking and workers should attempt to stop smokers from lighting up, the ministry said. The ministry did not state specific penalties — a sign that the new ban might not be rigorously enforced. China, the world’s largest cigarette producer, has embarked on years of half-hearted campaigns to stub out the habit in some cities. The government previously it would ban smoking in all hospitals and medical facilities from 2011. In 2008, Beijing formally pledged to restrict smoking in most public venues in the city, including government offices and public transport, but most of these venues remain choked with smoke and non-smoking signs are routinely ignored. In the southern city of Guangzhou, smokers who light up in certain public places only have to pay a 50 yuan ($7.625) fine, a limited deterrent in one of China’s richest cities, even as state news agency Xinhua dubbed it “the nation’s toughest smoking ban.”   Although nearly 1.2 million Chinese people die from smoking-related diseases each year, the habit is deeply entrenched in public life. Chinese cigarettes, among the cheapest in the world, are considered an important part of socializing. More than half of all male Chinese doctors smoke. Less smoking could reduce smoking-related health costs, but would also hurt government revenue, as the tobacco industry provides nearly one-tenth of tax revenues. ($1 = 6.558 Chinese yuan) Claim: China to ban smoking at indoor public places.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While debating abortion rights, a Republican Florida House member made a startling claim: Doctors who perform abortions are to blame for reducing the African-American population in the United States. \"In America alone, without the Nazi Holocaust, without the Ku Klux Klan, Planned Parenthood and other abortionists have reduced our black population by more than 25 percent since 1973,\" said the House member, Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights. Van Zant is sponsoring a bill (HB 845) that would criminalize abortions performed because of the race or sex of the fetus, and during debate, he suggested that abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood are targeting African-Americans. Do statistics about the African-American population in the United States support his claim? What we found in this case is that Van Zant makes a complicated, and largely unsubstantiated leap of logic. Taken at its most literal meaning, his statement is preposterous. The black population grew by 67 percent, not decreased by 25 percent, from 1973 to 2010, according to U.S. Census figures. Interpreting his statement the way Van Zant and other anti-abortion groups intend -- that the U.S. black population would be at least 25 percent higher were it not for Roe v. Wade -- is also fraught with problems. To start, federal data for abortions is imprecise, and that’s not even factoring in the additional layer of abortions by race. Van Zant’s claim is largely based on guesstimates. Then there’s the bigger issue of arguing that every fetus would be alive today had the pregnancy not have been aborted, a premise social scientists called over-simplified and inaccurate. We’ll take you through it. How does Van Zant get there? Van Zant’s legislative aide gave us a packet of information relating to his remarks, including print-outs from Abort73.com, an antiabortion advocacy group, on abortion and race. Here, we found a similarly worded version of Van Zant’s claim. \"From 1973 to 2012, abortion reduced the black population by 30 percent, and that doesn’t even factor in all the children that would have been born to those aborted a generation ago,\" Abort73.com states. The website explains how it gets to 30 percent (we’re not vouching for the methodology, mind you): 17 million black babies were aborted since Roe v. Wade (55 million total abortions, as reported by National Right to Life, multiplied by 31 percent, which is what they say is the average rate of abortions by black women since 1973). The black population (people who identified as only black, not a combination of races, to the Census) was around 39 million people in 2010. So the black population, once you include 17 million would-be babies, should be 56 million people. That’s how they get the talking point. So is it reasonable or accurate? Data limitations and manipulations The U.S. Census Bureau, not surprisingly, does not come up with projections for what a population would have been without abortions. (We checked.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not have a complete record of the number of abortions on black mothers since Roe v. Wade. We knew from the start the agency’s abortion data is incomplete, as not every state reports abortion data to the feds. Florida, for example, reports its abortions but does not break down the mother’s race or age. The center, which only started collecting racial/ethnic abortion data from state health departments in 1990, compiled this spreadsheet for us, emphasizing it has many caveats. By the CDC’s count, there have been 39.3 million abortions since 1973. Between 1990 and 2009, 4 million of those were by black women. We checked with the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion and uses a different method to count abortions. Instead of collecting data from state health departments, the Guttmacher Institute surveys a sample of abortion providers every few years. From 1973 to 2008, the most recent year for which their data is available, nearly 50 million legal abortions occurred in the United States. The Guttmacher Institute also does not have a total for abortions by race and ethnicity since 1973, as the group started collecting demographic data of women obtaining abortions in 1994. Their findings do not offer totals, just a proportion of abortions to each racial group. In 2008, white women accounted for 36 percent of abortions, black women for 30 percent, Hispanic women for 25 percent and non-Hispanic women of other races for 9 percent, according to Guttmacher’s tally. Not so simple There is one thing not up for debate: If all of the black women who had abortions had decided to carry their pregnancies to term, there would be more black people alive today. But Van Zant’s number is considerably inflated, social scientists told us. \"The claim that all terminated pregnancies would be alive today is ,\" said Elwood Carlson, a Florida State University sociology professor who specializes in demography for reproductive health, adult mortality and family. Some of the pregnancies would have ended by stillbirths and spontaneous abortions, which end an estimated 15 to 20 percent of pregnancies, said Karin Brewster, director of FSU’s Center for Demography and Population Health. Plus, black Floridians are twice as likely as white Floridians to have spontaneous pregnancy losses, Carlson said. And even among the pregnancies ending with birth, some of those babies would have died as infants. The rate of infant death after live birth is also twice as high for black Floridians as for white Floridians, he said. Further, he said, the risk of involuntary death for black Floridians is twice as high as the risk to white Floridians from conception through adulthood. \"Induced abortions are only the tip of an iceberg of unequal life chances faced by black citizens of Florida, an iceberg that has been part of life in the state for at least the last half-century and which is showing no signs of drifting away,\" he said. Elwood criticized Van Zant for isolating black abortions and not also mentioning there would be more white, Hispanic and Asian citizens if not for abortion. Other criticisms from the sources we consulted said it is inappropriate to take correlational data and make causal inferences, and that we don’t know what effect an abortion has on subsequent family planning. Some of the people counted in 2010 may not have been conceived had their mothers elected to carry their first pregnancy. Before we close, we’ll point out that Van Zant’s claim does not bolster his case that minority abortions happen because of race, as most abortions are performed because the mother cannot afford a child or having a child would interfere with other responsibilities at work, school or to other children. Our ruling Van Zant made a fiery case for his bill preventing gender- and race-based abortions, saying abortion providers like Parent Parenthood -- without the Nazis or the KKK --  \"have reduced our black population by more than 25 percent since 1973.\" Van Zant’s statement is wildly incorrect by the most literal measure -- the African-American population has increased since 1973. There’s also problems with the claim if you buy into Van Zant’s logic. Namely, abortion statistics are incomplete and/or difficult to interpret. And there’s no one-to-one correlation between an abortion and the population today. Claim: Abortionists have reduced our black population by more than 25 percent since 1973.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Experimental health tests don’t have public price tags. However, this story gives readers a rare and helpful ballpark estimate, and one that compares it to an alternative (ultrasound): “It might be tens or hundreds of dollars, rather than thousands,” a study author told BuzzFeed. The story lists out many of the details about what the researchers measured, and how those results compare to the current standard assessment tools, such as ultrasound. Readers don’t get a sense of what harms a false-positive test might expose a mother and her child too, and the rate here (nearly 17%) is rather high. Based on studies of the alternative test method — i.e. ultrasound — the risks of false-positive test/misdiagnosis include high stress and anxiety, depression, expensive and unnecessary treatments, and other possible harms. (The most common interventions for increased risk of preterm birth include progesterone supplements and bedrest.) For a story targeting the general public, all of our skeptical itches are scratched in this criterion. We’re told in fairly plain English how the tests works to pick up genetic material, and that it’s already used by other blood tests. We also get a short synopsis of the study’s limitations, with the story describing how it was small (with 38 women) and didn’t include ethnicities other than white or black. Finally, some rare yet illustrative numbers on efficacy are provided: false-positive results (3 in 18 pregnancies were supposedly at risk but became full-term) and false-positive results (4 in 5 did become at-risk preterm pregnancies). These types of details stated in plain language really help readers make sense of an otherwise complex study. The story describes some scary risks related to preterm deliveries, but nothing unwarranted to establish why a test for potential preterm deliveries might be important. We don’t get a crucial outside perspective on the study; the only source named in the story is one of the lead authors. On the plus side, the story is very thorough given its short length, and it offers a blunt if not skeptical summary on the research. It also helps that we’re told the study was funded by the March of Dimes and “other nonprofit sources,” and that the authors have applied to patent the blood test, implying they stand to profit from its approval and widespread use. BuzzFeed’s story establishes early on that ultrasound tests are the go-to method for determining pregnancies that are at-risk for preterm delivery, among other complications. It also gives the accuracy of that test as a measure (48%) and compares it to the experimental test’s accuracy (45%). The story is clear about the test’s availability in above-the-fold copy, stating it “is still experimental and not yet available outside of a research lab.” There’s even a reference to it being experimental in the story summary. (But why not include “experimental” in the headline, too?) The story references other unnamed blood tests that use cfRNA, though it clinches the novelty of the experimental preterm pregnancy test through an anecdote from one of the researchers. However, the story does not comment on other biomarkers (blood tests to detect factors correlated with preterm birth). As context, there have been many other biomarkers studied that have not proven to have clinical utility. Over 72 studies of biomarkers involving almost 90,000 women were examined in a 2011 review, which concluded that none, alone or in combination, were clinically useful to predict spontaneous preterm birth in asymptomatic women. There is much more work to be done to establish whether this new test performs well, and readers need that critical context. We didn’t detect any obvious signs of copy/pasting claims, researcher quotes, etc. Claim: This Blood Test Could Help Predict If A Pregnancy Is At Risk For Premature Labor",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Rep. Raul Grijalva (gri-HAWL-vah) on Tuesday sent a letter to Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt objecting to the department changing plans to allow employees to work on upcoming offshore lease sales, seismic permits and a five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan in Alaska and elsewhere. “One of the most striking features of the current government shutdown, brought about entirely by the President’s insistence on building an entirely unnecessary border wall, is the way the administration has bent over backwards to ensure that the pain of the shutdown falls only on ordinary Americans and the environment, and not on the oil and gas industry,” the Arizona Democrat wrote. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota, and Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-California, also signed the letter. McCollum chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the Interior Department. Grijalva called on Bernhardt to reverse course, and if he refuses, to provide a briefing on the legal justification for what appeared to be a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money in advance of an appropriation. Interior spokeswoman Faith Vander Voort in an email response said department officials would be happy to meet with the Natural Resources Committee as appropriate. “And we are confident that we are fully meeting our legal obligations,” she said. Grijalva said President Donald Trump’s “temper tantrum” over a wall built on the border with Mexico has taken a toll, with 800,000 federal workers missing paychecks, Native Americans at risk of losing access to food and health care, travelers facing extended delays in airport and national parks piling up with trash. He called it outrageous that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management updated its contingency plan allowing employees to work to comply with the administration’s America First energy strategy. The administration cares only about its favorite industry, he said. “Your department has continued to hold public meetings on oil and gas development on the North Slope of Alaska, refused to extend the comment period for leasing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and opened up the Bureau of Land Management field offices to allow drilling permits to continue to be issued,” Grijalva said. Connie Gillette, BOEM chief of public affairs, said by email the agency is using carry-over money appropriated for the 2018 fiscal year for the activities. Lowenthal, the incoming chairman Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, said federal workers are being brought in without pay to service the oil and gas industry. BOEM staffers who deal with renewable energy remain furloughed, he said in a statement. “If you are an oil and gas company awaiting a lease, there is a big open sign at the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management,” Lowenthal said. Claim: US lawmaker opposes drilling permit work during shutdown.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The case involves Texas’ move to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood clinics following the release by anti-abortion activists of graphic, secretly recorded videos in 2015. A state inspector general said the video appeared to show Planned Parenthood had improperly changed how abortions were performed so that better specimens could be preserved for medical research. Planned Parenthood and a group of Medicaid beneficiaries sued to preserve Medicaid coverage for cancer screenings, birth control access and other non-abortion-related health services for nearly 11,000 low-income women at 30 clinics statewide. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled that Texas officials had provided no evidence of wrongdoing and that the videos that launched Republican efforts across the U.S. to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider were insufficient as evidence. He issued an injunction blocking Texas from withholding the funding. In January, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit said Sparks should give greater weight to state findings on whether Planned Parenthood clinic staff members are qualified under Medicaid’s medical and ethical standards. But Judge Edith Jones, who wrote the opinion, made clear she also wanted the full 5th Circuit to take a broader look at the issue. The full court agreed, leading to Tuesday’s hearing. The issue has a complicated history at the 5th Circuit. In 2016, a three-judge 5th Circuit panel unanimously upheld a lower court’s injunction preventing Louisiana from cutting the organization’s Medicaid funding. But one of the judges, Priscilla Owen, later changed her mind, making it a 2-1 decision. Louisiana asked for a full-court rehearing. That led to a 7-7 deadlock in 2017, when the court had only 14 active judges. Since the 2017 deadlock, five nominees of President Donald Trump have filled vacancies on the 5th Circuit. In the January ruling in the Texas case, Jones — a nominee of President Ronald Reagan and among the court’s longest tenured active judges — said the Louisiana case should be revisited. Among the issues: whether Medicaid patients and health care providers should be able to sue over a state’s decision to withhold funding, bypassing state administrative procedures for determining such matters. As he opened arguments Tuesday, Kyle Hawkins of the Texas Attorney General’s Office took aim at the 2017 decision. Federal law does not allow a Medicaid recipient to sue in federal court to block a state’s decision to disqualify the recipient, he said. He acknowledged that the previous 5th Circuit opinion in the Louisiana case said otherwise. “That decision was wrongly decided and should be overruled today,” he said. Tuesday’s arguments were heard by 16 judges, including four of Trump’s five nominees — the fifth worked for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and as a deputy Texas solicitor general and did not take part. Planned Parenthood and its supporters say in briefs that federal law allows Medicaid patients to obtain assistance “from any institution, agency, community pharmacy, or person, qualified to perform the service.” Among the points discussed during Tuesday’s hearing were whether individuals have the right to choose a qualified provider and how much authority the state has to decide which providers are qualified. Jones and Judge Jennifer Elrod closely questioned Jennifer Sandman, an attorney who argued for multiple Planned Parenthood organizations and for Medicaid beneficiaries. Although the videos have been widely attacked as being heavily edited and inaccurate, they said there was no evidence of that entered into the case record. “Don’t tell us about inaccurate videos,” said Jones, whose January opinion included a still shot of apparent fetal tissue, taken from the video. “Those videos were never challenged by the plaintiffs for accuracy.” Sandman noted multiple criminal investigations in Texas that found no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. It’s unclear when the 5th Circuit will rule. Also unknown is how broadly they will rule — whether they will simply address Sparks’ injunction in the Texas case or issue orders that could alter the Louisiana case and also affect Planned Parenthood funding in Mississippi. The 5th Circuit covers all three states. ___ Follow Kevin McGill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcgill56 Claim: Planned Parenthood funding in Texas at stake in hearing.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Michael Williamson sued the federal agency on Jan. 23 in U.S. District Court in Eugene after a VA contract company notified him that his home health care of nearly 17 years would halt on Feb. 13 because it couldn’t find caregivers, according to the suit. The company, New Horizons, contracts with the VA’s medical facility in Roseburg. Seven days later, the Department of Veteran Affairs reached an agreement with New Horizons to extend care for another 60 days, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian Brown wrote in a court document. Veterans Affairs also will continue to work toward a long-term solution to keep Williamson in his home, U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said in a prepared statement. Officials at Roseburg VA Health Care System told Williamson that they had no other approved caregiving agencies in the area and that he would have to move to a nursing home in San Francisco, Boise or Washington’s Puget Sound, according to the lawsuit filed on Williamson’s behalf by Disability Rights Oregon, an advocacy agency. Emily Cooper, legal director of Disability Rights Oregon, said the VA’s action violated its own regulations, which directs the department to offer a choice of providers and provide continuity of care. Cooper said of the temporary agreement, “It’s a promising first step, but the fight’s not over.” Williamson, 51, served 14 years in the U.S. Air Force. He served in Iraq in 1988 and was in Saudi Arabia before, during and after Desert Storm in the early 1990s. Eleven years after serving in Iraq he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal column, taking away the ability to move, speak, eat and breathe. He is on a ventilator and has a feeding tube for sustenance and medications. But his mind is fully intact, Cooper said. In 2001, the VA recognized a connection between ALS and Gulf War veterans, giving them full disability and survivor benefits. After his diagnosis, Williamson received 100 percent permanent and total service-connected disability benefits, the suit says. New Horizons has provided Williamson with nurse-directed care that includes caregivers who stay around-the-clock in his home. The suit doesn’t detail how much that care costs. According to the agreement that Disability Rights Oregon reached with the federal agency, Veterans Affairs “will continue to make best efforts to explore other possible arrangements with in-home care providers to permit Mr. Williamson to remain in his home for the long term. Such efforts may include working with state administrators and other licensed home health agencies.” Having the VA reach out to state-licensed home care providers will help not only Williamson but other veterans in Oregon, Cooper said. “By filing in court, we not only jump-started these talks,” but now the court may monitor the issue to make sure the VA upholds its agreement, she said. ___ Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com Claim: VA will provide in-home care for Iraq veteran.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Like many other claims about Hillary Clinton’s health during the 2016 election, rumors that Clinton canceled a campaign event after exhibiting “bizarre eye movements” are unfounded. The rumor started with a video that was posted to a YouTube channel dedicated to Clinton conspiracy theories on September 22nd. The video shows a slow-motion close-up of Clinton’s eyes while she spoke at an event in Philadelphia on September 19th, and a caption states: Hillary Clinton began to exhibit bizarre eye movement and strabismus (crossed eyes) during her speech in Philadelphia yesterday before unexpectedly canceling today’s scheduled events. It’s true that Clinton postponed a fundraising lunch planned in North Carolina a day after her speech in Philadelphia — but no reason was given by Clinton’s campaign, CBS affiliate WNCN reports: Meanwhile, Clinton campaign officials said Monday afternoon that a Tuesday fundraiser in Chapel Hill was postponed. The Clinton event was billed as “lunch with Hillary Rodham Clinton” and had four donation levels to attend. Those contribution levels were described as $100,000, which featured “chair reception with Hillary,” $33,000, which included a “host reception with Hillary,” $5,000, which included “preferred seating” and $2,700. No reason was given for postponement of the Clinton event, which was planned to take place at the home of Betty Craven and Michael Warner. The notion that Clinton suffers from strabismus dates back to a head injury she suffered in a December 2012 fall. Bill Clinton was quoted as saying the injury “required six months of very serious work to get over” back in 2014. Clinton’s political opponents, including Karl Rove, argued that there were long-term effects of the head injury that could affect her judgment and ability to serve as president (Rove later backed off from those claims, but they still persist today). The American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Stabismus reports that stroke is the leading cause of strabismus in adults, but it can also be the result of brain damage that impairs eye control or damage to nerves that control the eyes. However, Clinton doesn’t appear to exhibit strabismus in the viral YouTube video. The video does not appear to show horizontal strabismus (cross eyes) or vertical strabismus (a lazy eye) — which are the two main types. Rather, the video is extremely zoomed in and plays in slow motion so it looks strange when Clinton looks from side to side while she talks. A full video of the speech can be viewed here, and Clinton’s eyes don’t look unusual when it’s played in real time. It’s not clear why Clinton canceled her North Carolina fundraiser, but video of her at the rally in Philadelphia doesn’t appear to match strabismus. That’s why we’re reporting this one as fiction. Claim:  Hillary Clinton was forced to cancel a campaign event after a video showed her making lizard-like “bizarre eye movements” that prove she’s suffering the lingering effects of head trauma. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story mentions the total amount that Americans spent on chondroitin supplements ($810 million in 2005), but not the individual's cost of purchasing the pills. The story states that chondroitin is no better than placebo, a conclusion that might seem difficult to quantify. But the authors of the analysis illustrate this non-difference nicely in a piece of data missing in the news report. The effect of chondroitin on pain, they found, was equivalent to an improvement of 0.6 millimeters on a 10-centimeter scale—in other words, extremely tiny. The story notes that there were no side effects from chondroitin and quotes an editorialist explaining that there was no harm in taking the supplements if patients felt they migh relieve pain. The news story mentions that the research analysis focused on three of the “largest and most complete studies.” It's interesting to note the limitations and flaws of the other 17 studies that the researchers did not analyze. In addition to being small, as the news story notes, these randomized, double-blind trials showed tremendous variance in their results, did not adequately conceal from patients whether they received chondroitin or placebo, and failed to include dropouts in their analyses. The story contained no elements of disease mongering. Osteoarthritis afflicts some 20 million Americans. It’s an important and often painful and disabling disease. The story includes quotes from interviews with two good sources—the lead author of the new research paper and a spokesperson for a trade group for supplement makers. It also cites an accompanying editorial in the journal that published the research. The news story notes that glucosamine is used to treat osteoarthritis (alone or in combination with chondroitin), but neglects to mention other nonoperative strategies that help patients cope with arthritis pain. These include analgesics, exercise and physical therapy, devices such as canes and braces, and others. The news story mentions that chondroitin is a dietary supplement, suggesting that it is available in stores that sell supplements. Readers should be able to infer that chondroitin is not an entirely novel therapy, since there are already at least 20 randomized trials examining its purported benefits. The story did not appear to rely solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Chondroitin of little help for arthritis, study says",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This story ran in the U.S. edition of the Guardian. Generally, we expect those stories to acknowledge that the U.S. patients have to pay for their healthcare, and what those costs might be. However, in this case, because the research is looking at some benefits specific to the UK’s National Health Service, we’ll rate this N/A. It does include a small mention on this topic: “Partial replacements are also cheaper, say researchers from Oxford University.” The story tells readers that “Many more people facing surgery for knee problems would be better off with a partial rather than total knee replacement, which should allow them to recover faster.” But it doesn’t tell readers how much faster. It also doesn’t make clear what the benefits of the surgery are compared to, well, not having any surgery at all. In addition to not quantifying the benefits, the story also doesn’t tell readers exactly what the researchers were measuring, which were “quality adjusted life years” (QALYs). QALYs are a way of accounting for both the quantity and quality of a patient’s life, and are used primarily in an economic context. i.e., QALYs are used to assess the cost-effectiveness, or value, of a medical procedure. In this case, the study found that patients had QALY gains for partial replacements, compared to total knee replacements, and that the gains varied depending on both the patient’s sex and age. The QALY outcomes were also influenced by whether the person conducting the partial surgery did such operations frequently. What risks are associated with getting either surgery? The story simply doesn’t tell us. When considering harms, one needs to keep in mind the side effects of surgery, the recovery from surgery, how they function after recovery and then whether there are differences in the need for subsequent procedures. It’s not clear from the story how the study was conducted. In one place it refers to “an analysis of the data routinely collected by the National Joint Registry.” Elsewhere the story cites a researcher as saying that the study was “able to use real data, from very large numbers of people, about their actual operations, their [general practitioner] visit, and their own reported quality of life outcomes in a way that is not always possible.” But, put simply, that’s rather vague. What sort of data were they looking at? How were they using the data? Were there limitations in the data that required researchers to make any assumptions? The story doesn’t tell us. Ideally, such analyses would use experimental data. However, this study uses observational data. Little is provided about where this data came from and how patients who had one procedure or the other differed. The lack of details makes it harder for the reader to understand what was done in this study. One possible concern here would be that there is an assumption that surgery — either partial or total replacement — is a foregone conclusion for patients who have osteoarthritis of the knee. That’s not true — there are other treatment options available. However, the story doesn’t quite say that. It instead says that osteoarthritis is “the main reason for [knee replacement] surgery.” Because there are certainly cases of osteoarthritis where replacement, or partial replacement, are indicated — and it can be inferred that the story is referring only to those cases — this gets a satisfactory rating. The story does not appear to incorporate input from any independent sources. All the quotes were taken from the news release, without attribution. If, as we noted under “Disease Mongering,” the story is focused only on patients that require either partial or total knee replacement, then the only alternatives are, well, partial or total knee replacement. And the story refers explicitly to both. But there are nuances missing. The partial procedure is thought to be a simpler one. As such, it may lead patients to undergo surgery at an earlier stage than they may otherwise have if they had the full replacement. As such, an alternative of waiting would be reasonable. This really is the challenge. There are few things between conservative measures and surgery for patients with knee arthritis. The story makes clear that partial knee replacement surgery is available. This is not the first study to evaluate the outcomes of partial knee procedures (see this 2011 paper, for example). It is not even the first study to compare the outcomes from partial surgery to the outcomes from total knee replacements (see these two studies on the same cohort of patients from 1998 and 2009). So what sets this new study apart? The story does cite a researcher as saying “The main strength of this study is that we were able to use real data, from very large numbers of people, about their actual operations, their GP visit, and their own reported quality of life outcomes in a way that is not always possible.” However, without at least some discussion of the previous work, any comparison is impossible. It appears that all of the information in the story, including the quotes from the study authors, comes from a news release issued by the study authors’ research institution. The story does not credit the news release. For example, this quote appears in both the news story and the news release: “The main strength of this study is that we were able to use real data, from very large numbers of people, about their actual operations, their GP visit, and their own reported quality of life outcomes in a way that is not always possible.” Claim: Partial rather than full knee replacements better for many – report",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The run-up to Christmas coincides with peak demand for the delicacy, France’s favorite festive treat, made from duck or goose liver. Marie-Pierre Pe from foie gras makers group CIFOG, said on Monday that prices could be 10 percent higher this Christmas after the French government’s decision last year to cull all ducks and geese, and halt output for four months, in a bid to contain the virus. Farmers hope that stricter measures in place at French farms to spare birds from contamination after last year’s crisis will better protect their industry should the current outbreak of the H5N8 strain, already seen in neighboring Germany and Switzerland and other European countries, hit France. “When I heard about new bird flu cases in Europe, I thought: It can’t be true, the nightmare is not going to start all over again,” Pe told Reuters. “We did all that is needed to prepare farmers since the start of the year but we are never immune from birds contaminating a farm,” she said. Producers estimate the freezing of output had cost the industry around 500 million euros ($539 million), including a 270 million euros loss in sales and additional costs for new biosecurity material. The 25 percent drop in output and higher costs will lead to the rise in prices of foie gras products this year, Pe said. Sold whole or as a pate, foie gras is considered a gourmet food in Western and Asian cuisine, but the practice of force-feeding has often been criticized as cruel by animal activists. CIFOG held regular meetings with farmers this year to explain biosecurity measures put in place after the crisis, such as better protecting food and water from wild birds, Pe said. Farmers in southwestern France, the top foie gras producing region, also face stricter rules to avoid contamination between farms, notably through equipment disinfection. As well as Germany and Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia, have also reported outbreaks of the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu in recent weeks. No case of bird flu has been found in France so far this time but the country raised surveillance measures on Thursday to keep wild migrating birds from transmitting the virus to farm poultry. Denmark ordered farmers to keep their poultry indoors on Monday due to the bird flu threat and Germany said it was considering ordering farmers to keep their flocks inside. Claim: French foie gras makers worry as bird flu spreads in Europe.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Arizona Senate candidate Bobby Wilson brought up an extraordinary personal take on the issue of gun violence during a public meeting in July 2018, describing the time, 55 years earlier, when he had used a gun to defend himself against a crazed attacker: The only way to stop a crazy madman from killing innocent people is you better have a good guy there with a gun. And I’m here to tell you I’m living proof of that … When I was 18 years old, somebody was hell-bent on killing me in my sleep one night. At three o’clock in the morning, I woke up to find a rifle in my face — a semi-automatic rifle, at that — and the bullets start[ed] flying, and I started diving for cover. I dodged six bullets before I managed to crawl under my bed where I kept a loaded, single-shot .22 [rifle]. And except for that single-shot .22, I would be dead. I would’ve been dead in 1963. Here’s how an Arizona Daily Star reporter tweeted about the account Wilson gave at that meeting: Wilson, who is repeatedly booed by the audience for various reasons (including saying everyone is good Christians) describes how he was nearly killed in his bed by a man who broke into his home, wanted to kill him. Wilson was able to shoot with a loaded gun he kept under his bed. pic.twitter.com/b0djHCXYLb — Joe Ferguson (@joeferguson) July 10, 2018  What Wilson didn’t convey during that meeting was that the person who allegedly tried to kill him as he slept was his own mother, whom Wilson shot dead. Nor did he mention the fact that his teenaged sister was beaten to death in the same incident. However, his extraordinary anecdote prompted an investigation by the Arizona Republic newspaper, which brought to light some disturbing details from the episode, prompted shocked reactions on social media, and garnered the attention of the national news media. The deaths In June 1963, Wilson was arrested and charged with the murder of his mother, Lavonne Wilson (52), and his sister, Judy Wilson (17), at the family’s home in Hugo, Oklahoma. According to local news reports from the time, as well as Choctaw County court records which we obtained, the 18-year-old Wilson gave shifting accounts of his involvement (although Wilson now denies this). On 23 June 1963, police told the Lawton Constitution newspaper that Wilson (whose legal name was John Robert Wiste) at first claimed he was awakened by an explosion occurring in the early morning hours of 20 June and fled the family home before it went up in flames. He reportedly told police that he returned to the house later that day, found his mother and sister dead, and put them in bed. But according to later news reports, by that time autopsies of his mother and sister had confirmed that they had died before the fire started, and Wilson subsequently led police to the location of a rifle. Two days later, the Lawton Constitution reported that Wilson had confessed to killing both women and then setting fire to the house. (In an email to us, Wilson denied ever confessing to the murders.) The trials After attending his mother’s and sister’s funerals, Wilson was arrested and charged with two counts of murder. His lawyers, Vester Songer and Hal Welch, argued that Wilson had suffered amnesia, could not remember key events from the night of 19-20 June, and therefore was not fit to stand trial or offer a “rational defense.” Choctaw County District Court Judge Howard Phillips ordered that Wilson be admitted to Eastern State Hospital for three months for medical and psychiatric evaluation. In September 1963, Dr. Ruth Annadown, Acting Medical Superintendent at the hospital, wrote to Judge Phillips to say that “It is the opinion of the staff that the patient has a complete amnesia for the allegations.” Having interviewed Wilson, Dr. Walter E. Blevins, Staff Physician at the hospital, relayed the young man’s own description of the night his mother and sister died. It is worth quoting extensively, because it constitutes an account of Wilson’s memories of that night, offered just five weeks afterwards: On interview the patient states that he had gotten along fairly well with his mother until the last two or three years then they began to argue about practically everything, but mostly about the girls he would go with and using the family automobile. The arguments had gotten particularly heated over the past six months. He states that his mother would fly into a rage about the girl he was going with and had told him repeatedly that he would have to quit going with her. On the night that his mother and sister died he states that he had gone to bed and was asleep when his mother came in; she awakened him and started to argue with him about his girl friend and told him that he could not use the family car again. She also told him he would have to leave and proceeded to pack his clothes and put them in the car. He told her he was not going to leave, whereupon she picked up a loaded automatic, .22 rifle at the foot of the patient’s bed and pointed it at him. The patient states that she clicked off the safety on the rifle and he became frightened. He says in his own mind he had to get the rifle because he knew that in her frame of mind she might shoot him. At this point he states that he cannot remember what happened, but when he came to himself his mother and sister were lying on the floor and blood was everywhere. He says that he did not know whether they were dead or not, but that they did not seem to [be] breathing. He says he laid them on the bed and took the gun to the car and thought about running, but decided against this and went back inside the house. He then thought about killing himself, but was afraid someone else might be blamed for it. He then took some gasoline and poured it around in the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom and then struck a match. He states that there was an explosion and he either jumped or was blown through a window on to the ground. He states that the explosion burned his hands and face. A neighbor hearing the explosion came over and took him to the hospital. In an email, Wilson told us that Dr. Blevins was “mistaken” in his report about the interview, saying that “He actually [was] referring to the allegations of law enforcement at the time, which was [sic] proven wrong at the trial.” According to court records and news reports, Wilson’s first prosecution for murder ended in a mistrial in 1965, but the case was set for a retrial in 1966. Wilson and his lawyers maintained that he still suffered from complete amnesia about the crucial events of 20 June 1963, and Dr. Moorman Prosser, a psychiatrist, gave expert testimony to that effect, writing: He still has a very real and complete amnesia for that period of time when his mother and sister were allegedly shot with a gun held by him. It is my studied opinion that this man cannot recall or recount this period and could not possibly assist you in explaining or accounting for his action in this interval of time. In March 1966, Judge Phillips ordered that a jury decide whether Wilson’s amnesia meant he was incapable of mounting a proper defense. The jury sided with Wilson, but the case was not dismissed outright. As the Arizona Republic reported in 2018, the case was “suspended” on the basis that Wilson might someday recover his memories from that night and be in a position to present a proper defense. In December 1973, with the murder charges still pending and Wilson then 29 years old, his lawyers petitioned Choctaw County District Court to dismiss the case, arguing that the seven-year delay had been unreasonable and denied him his constitutional right to a speedy trial: The aforementioned delay, none of which was occasioned by defendant in any respect, has resulted in substantial prejudice to defendant’s right to a speedy trial herein, due to the fact that relevant testimony from witnesses favorable to the defendant is no longer available due to the death of such witnesses, and it now appears and [sic] difficult and unlikely that testimony relevant to defendant’s mental condition at the time of the occurrence of the incident which gave rise to the filing of this information will now be available to defendant. The court agreed and dismissed all charges against Wilson. Later life In a 2017 interview with Arizona’s Green Valley News, Wilson averred that he obtained a degree in political science from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1968 and a law degree from Texas Tech University in 1973. Wilson practiced law in Burleson, Texas, before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1995, taking a position as law lecturer in Maricopa County Community Colleges and starting a private investigation firm. He told the Green Valley News that “I didn’t take the Arizona bar. I’d already done the law thing in spades, and I just wanted to move straight into something else completely different.” However, Wilson told us in an email that he tried to take the Arizona bar exam in 2012 but his efforts to practice law there were thwarted by an old controversy. That old controversy was that Wilson had stopped practicing law in the state of Texas under a cloud of misconduct allegations in the early 1990s. He had been convicted of defrauding a client by committing forgery in Johnson County and was suspended from the practice of law in June 1990, but in the ensuing years Wilson persisted in advertising his services as an attorney and billing and collecting legal fees from client, according to the State Bar of Texas. While disciplinary action was pending against Wilson for alleged professional misconduct in July 1994, the Supreme Court of Texas received a letter written by a “Robert J. Wilson” announcing his resignation from the state bar, and the court thereafter ordered that Wilson’s “law license be cancelled and revoked and his name be … dropped and deleted from the list of persons licensed to practice law in the State of Texas.” The resignation letter read (in part): I have been a member [of the bar] since 1973, and I must report that I no longer desire to be a member of an organization that engages (at least in my case) in a policy of persecution, rather than to protect the interests of the general public. Your office’s handling of the case is not something The State Bar should be proud of. I have dismissed my Counter Claim against The State Bar, but since I no longer am a resident of Texas, I may refile the matter in Federal Court. My decision is not yet firm on this. I no longer intend to return to the practice of law, since I’ve decided life is too short to be engaged in continuing litigation with The State Bar of Texas simply because I stood up for my rights which is obviously not the thing to do when dealing with The State Bar of Texas. The Texas Supreme Court revoked and cancelled Wilson’s state law license the following month. Wilson told us in an email that he had never resigned from the bar; that the resignation letter had been sent by “some unknown person” who had forged his signature. Wilson told us that he had written to the State Bar of Texas in 2012 asking to be reinstated so that he could practice law in Arizona, but his requests were denied. As of July 2018, the State Bar of Texas web site lists Wilson as having been “not eligible to practice law in Texas” since August 1994. Recovered memories In 2010, Wilson published his memoirs in book form as Bobby’s Trials, in which he asserted that he had never confessed to killing either his mother or sister, and that corrupt and abusive police had lied to the local press about the case. In the book Wilson gave a detailed account of the events of that fateful night, claiming that early in his legal career (about ten years after the deaths), he visited a crime scene at a gas station in Texas while representing a client, and the odors of blood and gasoline brought back a full, conscious recollection of what had happened in the early morning hours of 20 June 1963. Since then, Wilson has averred he remembers that his sister was killed when his mother, aiming for him, struck her with the butt of a rifle. He has admitted that he shot his mother dead, but he denies setting the house on fire, claiming instead that his mother’s wild shooting caused jars of gasoline stored in his bedroom to smash and spill, and the house subsequently exploded when a light switch shorted. In Bobby’s Trials he described the event in a markedly different fashion than was recorded by Dr. Blevins back in 1963: I had been in a deep sleep that morning, when suddenly I was startled by my mother shaking me violently and shouting, “Get up!” “I don’t have any pants on,” I said. “Get up now!” The barrel of my .22 caliber Mossberg fully loaded semi-automatic was pointed at me. I slid my feet out from under the bed covers, turned my back on my mother, and pulled up my jeans, when she screamed again. “Don’t turn your back on me, you sorry bastard. Think you can leave me for some worthless bitch like your father did? I’ll show you.” I turned around to face the rifle barrel and the crazed look of a woman out of her mind. She was going to shoot me. I had no doubt. I reached up and pulled the ceiling light string, and the only light source in my room was gone. The room was immediately totally black. I fell to the floor and crawled on my hands and knees behind my steel frame bed, trying to hide and looking for cover. Blam blam blam blam blam blam. She started shooting, six times. Muzzle flashes and bullets flew all across my room. Bullets and empty shells struck the walls, the floor, and the steel bed frame of my bed and ricocheted all around. I heard glass breaking and things falling from the walls. A shadow moved through the open door of our adjoining bedrooms, and Mother thought it was me. She was startled, and her shadow swung that Mossberg rifle by its barrel like a baseball bat. There was a sickening thud and moan as a body crashed into the steel headboard of my bed frame and fell to the floor. I had always kept my small single-shot .22 caliber rifle under my bed … I looked over the top of my bed and could see Mother’s shadow under that single ceiling light bulb. She held the rifle in one hand and was trying to find that string with the other hand as she turned in slow circles while trying to turn on that light bulb. I knew I was a dead man if she managed to turn on that light. There was no question in my mind now that she had gone completely crazy and would kill me and anyone else who got in her way. I only had one chance to survive this encounter, and I took it. I raised and pointed the short rifle toward where her head should be, and I fired. She collapsed near my bed without a sound. I pulled myself up with one hand on my bed, reached for that still swinging light string, and pulled it. I was greeted by the most horrible sight a boy could possibly encounter. Lying in a bloody heap on the floor was my mother, on top of my sister. Both were bleeding profusely from head wounds. Both were still breathing heavily and slowly. One of my mother’s eyes was gone; just a bloody eye socket remained. Sister’s long brown hair was heavily matted in blood. Blood was everywhere. Mother still had her work clothes on. Sister was in her pajamas, now soaked in blood. In an email, Wilson told us that “I stand by the wording and information in my book, ‘Bobby’s Trials,’ it is the most accurate description of what occurred.” Claim: Arizona State Senate candidate Bobby Wilson fatally shot his mother in 1963.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: One of the more popular provisions in the Affordable Care Act is the one that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to people who already have health problems. Pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, depression and diabetes are among the most common ailments that can get in the way of being accepted by a new insurance company. The health care law tackled this problem in two steps. Starting with children, as of September 2010, insurers could not deny coverage, charge significantly higher premiums, require an extended waiting period or curtail benefits due to a pre-existing condition. The second step takes place Jan. 1, 2014, when the same protections kick in for adults. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., appearing Aug. 5, 2013, on PoliticsNation on MSNBC, chastised Republicans for wanting to repeal Obamacare, saying many benefits would be lost. \"Half of all adults have a pre-existing condition that will go away in terms of insurance coverage on January 1st,\" Schakowsky said. \"I mean, what a blessing that is for sick Americans, for people who are walking around uninsured or underinsured.\" We know that Americans face a lot of health challenges, but do half of adults have a pre-existing condition? In the eye of the insurer There are a range of estimates for the number of people with health issues that would put them at risk of running afoul of an insurance company. One reason is that insurers have different lists of conditions that raise a red flag. Similarly, researchers can take a conservative approach and use a short list, or be more expansive with a longer one. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, examined five studies on the prevalence of pre-existing conditions. The lowest estimate counted just eight diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. That study came up with about 36 million people between 19 and 64 who have one of those health issues. Another study used a list of 60 conditions and arrived at a number of 60 million who might be vulnerable to denial of coverage, and the GAO itself used medical survey data and reached a high-end estimate of 122 million. As percentages, this translates into a low-end estimate of 20 percent of American adults potentially at risk, 66 percent on the high end, with a midpoint of 32 percent. An analysis from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services came up with a roughly similar range of 19 percent to 50 percent. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, notes that projections of the scope of the problem can miss the mark. The administration expected about 375,000 people would enroll in a special insurance program for those who had been denied coverage but as of January 2013, only about 107,000 had. That said, many factors apart from health could have affected enrollments. The main caveat with these studies is they estimate the number of people who have a health issue that might lead to denial of coverage by an insurance company. That describes a group of people who are at risk. What’s missing is an estimate of the number of people who actually run into the problem of being denied coverage. A limited analysis emerged from the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2009. Using data from four of the country’s largest private insurers, committee investigators found that the companies had denied coverage to one out of seven people based on pre-existing conditions during a three-year period. The denial rate rose each year, increasing by nearly 50 percent over the three years while at the same time, the number of new applications for coverage only rose by about 16 percent. Survey says Another line of data comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation and its monthly tracking polls. In June 2013, Kaiser reported that 49 percent of adults said that they or a family member has heart disease, diabetes, cancer or another condition that generally triggers an issue with insurance companies. Within that group, about a fourth of them reported that coverage had been denied or higher premiums had been charged due to a pre-existing condition. This is far from a perfect fit with the other studies. To say someone in your family has a health condition is essentially reporting at the household level, while the GAO and other studies were estimating the number of individuals. And if we do the math, it seems like about an eighth, or 12 percent of the households had actually run into a problem with a health insurance company. The Kaiser survey does affirm that the problem is substantive and relatively widespread, although not necessarily as broad as the higher estimates in the studies. Our ruling Schakowsky said that half of all adults suffer from a pre-existing condition. Studies reflect a range of estimates and Schakowsky’s figure falls at the high end. A government analysis points to a mid-range estimate of 32 percent, a significant fraction of the adult population. Claim: Half of all adults have a pre-existing condition\" that could affect their health care coverage.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 5 December 2017, the UK tabloid Metro attempted to revive discussion of an enigmatic and poorly understood disease linked to heavy long-term cannabis consumption by pushing the word “scromit” — a portmanteau of “scream” and “vomit” — onto an unsuspecting public: Doctors said users have been taken to hospital after suffering extreme bouts of ‘scromiting’ – which means they are screaming and vomiting at the same time. This new word was invented by staff at emergency rooms across the US, who are seeing more and more people turn up yelling in pain and throwing up all over the place. Its [sic] believed the scromiting is caused by a condition called Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) which affects people who have consumed weed for a long period of time. Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (called CHS for short) is, indeed, a real condition. It was first described in a 2004 case report of 19 patients in Australia. A 2016 report described the progression of the illness this way: Classically, CHS progresses into three distinct phases: prodromal [early symptoms], hyperemetic [severe vomiting] , and recovery. During the prodromal phase, the patient develops early morning nausea, a fear of vomiting, and abdominal discomfort. Afterward, the hyperemetic phase consists of incapacitating nausea and profuse vomiting. Most patients complain of mild abdominal pain and weight loss. Patients are relieved by taking hot showers. The recovery stage begins with cessation of cannabis use. The majority of patients will develop this symptom within 1-5 years after the beginning of consumption. Among the most pressing mysteries about the condition are what causes some heavy marijuana users to develop it when many other heavy users do not. A 2011 review of the literature has concluded: …the mechanism by which cannabis induced hyperemesis is presently unknown. Similarly unknown is the reason why the excessive vomiting phase of the syndrome is alleviated by a hot bath or shower, even though this, enigmatically, appears to be the most effective short-term treatment of the condition: The most effective treatment during the hyperemetic phase of CHS is the use of hot showers by patients. The effects of this learned behavior are temperature-dependent, fast acting, but short-lived. Hot showers improve symptoms of nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and decreased appetite during the hyperemetic phase. The precise mechanism by which hot bathing produces a rapid reduction in the symptoms of CHS is unknown. Another question is the degree to which increasingly legal marijuana has played a role in increased diagnosis of the disease. While diagnoses have been rising, it is hard to develop a conclusive understanding of a disease only recently defined in the medical literature. One 2015 study attempted to address this by comparing pre-legalization cases of cyclical vomiting in Colorado emergency rooms to post-legalization cases, seeing a marked increase post legalization, but their numbers were limited by a lack of specific information on each patient’s drug use: The prevalence of cyclic vomiting presentations nearly doubled after the liberalization of medical marijuana. Patients presenting with cyclic vomiting in the postliberalization period were more likely to endorse marijuana use, although it is unclear whether this was secondary to increased marijuana use, more accurate marijuana reporting, or both. The final claim made by Metro concerns the use and origin of the word “scromiting,” which they claim was invented by staff at emergency rooms across the United States, “who are seeing more and more people turn up yelling in pain and throwing up all over the place.” Outside of this unsourced statement and its reappearance in articles referencing the original Metro report, we can find no evidence of this term’s widespread and specific use as it concerns any cannabis-related ailment. Based on the term’s inclusion in the internet-slang database Urban Dictionary since at least 2008, its use likely pre-dates emergency room CHS cases. However, the condition, its symptoms, and its occurrence, as described by Metro and other outlets, is accurate. As such, we rank the claim that “people are ‘scromiting’ after smoking too much cannabis” as mostly true, though the condition itself is rare. Finally, this syndrome is reasonably self-limiting, as CHS is generally resolved fairly simply: through cessation of cannabis consumption. Claim: An increase in documented cases of people \"scromiting\" (screaming while vomiting) is linked to chronic heavy marijuana use.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Girl Scout cookies don’t fund Planned Parenthood. Also, contrary to many allegations, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), the national organization, doesn’t have a relationship with Planned Parenthood. Some regional Girl Scout councils have, however, partnered with Planned Parenthood to provide sex education in the past. The first call for a Girl Scout cookie boycott came in 2004 from Pro-Life Waco, a Texas-based pro-life organization. The group became angry when a local council offered a sex education program in partnership with a Planned Parenthood office in Waco. The confrontation led to a showdown between leaders of Pro-Life Waco and then-Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Kathy Clonginger on the “Today” show in March 2004. In a transcript of the exchange, Clogninger defended the council’s decision: The Girl Scouts in Waco, Texas, really made a decision based on local community context, they decided that in this particular situation that it would be in the best interest of girls and their families to discontinue the relationship with Planned Parenthood. Girl Scouts is the largest voice for, and advocate for girls across the country. Know that girls grow up with very complex issues facing them. And so we do, across the country, tackle the issues of human sexuality and body image and all of the thing that’s girls are facing. And we partner with many organizations. We have relationships with our church communities, with YWCAs, and with Planned Parenthood organizations across the country, to bring information-based sex education programs to girls. …It’s really impossible for girls to grow up in today’s society with out having access to good information. We will continue to partner with organizations across this nation, and local community Girl Scouts will make decisions based on their local community partnerships and the needs of their girls and their families. Clonginger didn’t acknowledge a national partnership between GSUSA and Planned Parenthood, and there’s no evidence that there ever was one. GSUSA says that the national chapter “does not take a position to develop materials” or programs regarding human sexuality, birth control or abortion. Rather, those decisions are made at the local level by parents, volunteers and council members: Parents or guardians make all decisions regarding program participation that may be of a sensitive nature. Consistent with that belief, GSUSA directs councils, including volunteer leaders, to get written parental permission for any locally planned program that could be considered sensitive. In 2014, GSUSA CEO Anna Maria Chavez denied a national relationship between GSUSA and Planned Parenthood in a YouTube video: We do not now, nor have we ever, had a relationship with Planned Parenthood. Girl Scouts of the USA believes that reproductive issues are deeply private matters, best left to families. I find it unsettling that anyone would use the Girl Scout brand to have very adult conversations. A box of Girl Scout cookies is not a political statement; it’s an investment in a little girl… Given Clonginger’s earlier remarks, Chavez’s statement has caused some confusion. The simple explanation is that Clonginger acknowledge local “relationships” between councils and Planned Parenthood while Chavez denied a national partnership between GSUSA and Planned Parenthood. There’s also been some confusion about where money from Girl Scout cookie sales go. A sale proceeds from local troops stay within local councils. GSUSA doesn’t get a cut of the revenue, but it does get licensing royalties from bakers of the cookies: Girl Scout troops and groups must pool their proceeds to pay for program supplies, activities, and group travel. Girl Scouts may not earn proceeds as individuals; however, Girl Scout councils offer a wide variety of recognition items, program- and store-related credits, and travel experiences that girls are eligible to earn individually based on their sales. All troop proceeds and other rewards earned through participation in the Girl Scout Cookie Program must be used to enhance each girl’s Girl Scout experience. Each Girl Scout council releases an annual report each year. The only way to know how your local council spends those dollars is to review its annual report, or to ask a local staff member. Comments Claim:  Pro-life activists say Girl Scout cookie sales benefit Planned Parenthood and have called for a boycott.  ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In November 2017, unreliable web sites spread a fabricated story about a so-called “new outbreak” of human papillomavirus (HPV), which can lead to genital warts and various cancers. The Native Love web site wrote: Students from Kisii University, Kenya and the general public at large have been warned against kissing carelessly due to an outbreak of Human papilloma virus, which has seen several people admitted at Kisii level 5 hospital after testing positive to the disease. The HPV is gradually circulating Kenya and gradually making its way into the Southern parts of Africa and will soon hit Africa at large. Africans are believed to travel a lot to all parts of the world. So if proper awareness is not created, this is likely to hit the whole world in no distance time. You are hereby advised to warn and inform family members, friends, well wishers and colleagues about this deadly disease that kills faster than HIV/AIDS. The same article was published by Discover Newz and The Daily Berries. It also had a previous iteration in a March 2017 story published by HIN News South Africa. The earliest version of the story that we found dates from May 2016, and was published by Trending In Kenya, a web site that is registered in Nairobi and posts fake articles alleging devil worship and alien creatures, and sensationalist celebrity gossip. Mzansi Live, which is listed by the fact-checking agency Africa Check as a known fake news web site in South Africa, also published the story, but notably switched the location of the university in question from Kenya to Johannesburg. There is no truth to the story, which is not corroborated by any reporting in reliable local news media. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa has made no reference to any particular “outbreak” of HPV in recent years. HPV is a collection of strains of viral infection, transmitted by skin and mucous membrane contact (rather than the exchange of bodily fluids) during a variety of sexual activities. It is the world’s most common sexually transmitted infection, but in most cases does not come with harmful symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Which is why an HPV infection can go undetected for decades. Certain strains of HPV can lead to genital warts and various types of cancer, including cervical and oral cancer. If a case of HPV does result in a cancerous tumor, it often takes years and even decades  to develop, according to the National Cancer Institute. So the fake articles present an implausible and misleading picture of free-kissing college students suddenly falling deathly ill and being admitted to hospital due to an outbreak of HPV. That is simply not how HPV spreads, and it is not an accurate depiction of its repercussions. According to Nechama Brodie, who runs the research and training division of Africa Check, fabricated health scares such as this one are universal, but also occur within a very specific context. “This plays into a well-established trope of poorly-informed myths around healthcare in Africa,” Brodie told us by phone from South Africa. The juxtaposition of HPV and HIV is no accident. “It’s confusing HPV with HIV, and HIV is still a big ‘scare factor,'” Brodie adds. HIV/AIDS looms large in this article, a long shadow cast by the damage it has inflicted in Africa (particularly Southern Africa). The fundamental message conveyed by the story is “this is worse than AIDS,” Brodie says, adding there are rumors HIV “doesn’t exist, [or] HIV was invented by white colonialists, [or] it was introduced to control the black population,” among others. In addition to this strain of misinformation, there are false claims about what causes HIV to spread, and how it could be cured. The apex of this, according to Brodie, came during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki in South Africa during the early 2000’s. Mbeki indulged in “HIV/AIDS denialism,” supported theories that herbal remedies and vitamins could cure AIDS and — most damagingly — refused to approve the provision of cheap antiretroviral drugs. Claim: Authorities in Kenya warned of a new outbreak of HPV that spreads through kissing and is deadlier than HIV/Aids.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The $115 million campaign by the Food and Drug Administration will target the 10 million people aged 12 to 17 who are open to trying cigarettes or who are already experimenting with them and are in danger of becoming regular smokers, the FDA said. The campaign is the first of several scheduled to be launched over the next two years that will target at risk, rural, gay, African American, and American Indian youth. The goal of the campaigns is to reduce the number of youth cigarette smokers by at least 300,000 within three years, the FDA said. The first, called “The Real Cost” campaign, will launch on February 11 and targets marginalized youngsters who may be starting to turn to tobacco as a way of coping with poor or stressful lives, Mitch Zeller, head of the FDA’s tobacco products division, said at a media briefing on Monday. The ads will appear in print and on TV and radio as well as on billboards and at bus stops, addressing typical teenage issues such as concerns with appearance and the desire to strike out and become independent. One series of ads features a bully who demands money. A print ad shows a small, greasy-haired bully standing inside a school locker yelling, “Outside Now, Punk.” The tag line says: “You wouldn’t take it from a tiny bully, but when you’re hooked on tobacco, you’re taking it from a cigarette.”  Another series of ads focuses on the cosmetic damage cigarettes can cause, especially to the skin and teeth. In one TV ad a young girl goes into a convenience store to buy a packet of cigarettes. She hands over the money but the clerk says “it’s not enough.” The girl reaches up and peels a large piece of skin off her face and slides it across the counter. In a similar ad a young man asks for a packet of menthol cigarettes. When told by the clerk that the money is not enough he takes a wrench, pulls out one of his teeth, and hands that over too. The ads, which were created by the advertising agency DraftFCB, a unit of Interpublic Group have been rigorously tested with the target audience, Zeller said, adding that he is “very optimistic” they will achieve the desired results of turning some kids away from smoking. To judge whether campaign is successful, the FDA plans to monitor 8,000 young people over two years to measure changes in attitudes toward tobacco and on behavior before and after the campaign’s launch. Each day, more than 3,200 people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette and more than 700 become daily smokers, the FDA said. Ninety percent of adult smokers start smoking before the age of 18, “which is why early intervention is so critical,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said at the briefing. The campaigns are expected to cost $400 million altogether. They are being funded with fees paid to the FDA by the tobacco industry under a 2009 law that gives the FDA authority to regulate cigarettes, cigarette tobacco and roll your own tobacco. The agency is expected shortly to extend its regulatory authority to electronic cigarettes and cigars. The proposed regulations are currently being reviewed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. Claim: FDA launching major anti-tobacco campaign aimed at youth.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While it might be premature to speculate about the exact costs of an experimental vaccine, offering no discussion at all is a major flaw in this story. Cost is a central, vital part to this narrative because any health technology developed to be used in the world’s poorest countries are only going to matter to those people if it is affordable. The APPROACH trial randomly assigned 393 volunteers from five countries to receive one of seven experimental vaccines or a placebo. While the report notes that “the mosaic vaccine was the best tolerated and also capable of generating anti-HIV immune responses in all the people who received the shots,” one is tempted to ask: Compared to what? How is it possible to determine the benefits of the vaccine when we don’t have any quantitative sense of how the vaccine/ comparators performed? That being said, the story makes it clear that these immune response results, interesting though they may be, are not the outcome that matters — and this is a very important qualifier. It also uses results from previous animal studies to suggest how the vaccine might ultimately perform in people. It does this in a way that isn’t inappropriately optimistic. We’re on the fence with this rating but will give the benefit of the doubt. The story says the Ad26 vaccine was the “best tolerated” of several approaches, but doesn’t tell us what may have occurred in people who didn’t tolerate it so well. The potential indirect harms of a vaccine program could also have been mentioned. The vaccine is expected to work only about 50 to 60 percent of the time, according to the researchers. If people feel less pressure to employ other proven measures to control HIV (condoms, etc) because of the vaccine, then it’s possible some harm could occur due to false reassurance. The story gets good marks for not exaggerating what we should conclude from the available research, i.e. :  “we still don’t know if the vaccine will protect humans from the virus, since the studies so far have only looked at safety and immune responses, not efficacy. And many medicines that look promising in animals, and safe in humans, don’t pan out in clinical trials focused on efficacy.” There is no disease mongering here. Barouch, the lead investigator, is only identified with the vaccine center but his previous disclosures show he has licensed patents to Crucell Holland, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which is funding the current research. The extent of his financial involvement with them should’ve been made more clear. The article mentions many of the other important public health measures to control HIV (education, public awareness campaigns, condom use, etc) and other vaccines in trials. The story makes it clear the vaccine is still in development and not likely to be available any time soon. What is “novel” here is the type of vaccine under development, since it attempts to encompass the diversity in HIV found around the globe. The story fairly establishes the vaccine’s novel approach. There is little evidence of an overreliance on a news release, especially with the use of many caveats warning that this research shouldn’t be overinterpreted and the use of at least one outside source. Claim: There's a promising new HIV vaccine candidate in the pipeline",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As the Democratic race has tightened, the Hillary Clinton campaign has portrayed Sen. Barack Obama as inconsistent on abortion rights. \"In the Illinois state Senate, on issue after issue, my opponent voted 'present,' instead of yes or no. Seven of those votes were on a women's right to choose,\" Sen. Clinton said in a December 2007 speech in Iowa. In the days leading up to Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, 2008, several other groups repeated the charge against Obama via e-mails. The facts here are not in dispute. Obama did vote present on seven bills that attempted to restrict abortion. His defenders argue that it was a tactic to disrupt legislation that would be used against Democrats in swing districts. It's worth pausing here to explain what the \"present\" vote means. The Illinois Legislature allows members to vote \"yes,\" \"no,\" or \"present.\" Bills need \"yes\" votes to pass, so a vote of \"present\" counts the same as a \"no.\" Thus, Obama's \"present\" votes on bills seeking to restrict abortion counted the same as if he had voted \"no.\" All of the bills passed by in the Senate by sizable margins. The seven votes were on proposals that abortion opponents have successfully passed in other places. Two bills outlawed the late-term procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion. Two bills required parental notification for minors seeking abortions. Three bills were for so-called \"born alive\" legislation, which require doctors to administer medical care to aborted fetuses that survive the abortion process in hopes that the fetuses can survive. No one questions that Obama opposed the seven pieces of legislation; indeed, he is mentioned in news reports from the time as being against several of the measures. Rather, Obama's critics say he ducked a \"no\" vote; supporters say it was a tactical move. Those interpretations seem to have split the leaders of the Illinois abortion rights movement. Obama should have voted \"no\" on those bills, said Bonnie Grabenhofer, president of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for Women, which has endorsed Clinton. \"We think the way you talk about a bill and the way you stand up is important,\" she said. \"It was a strategy that allowed people to take political cover as opposed to talking about why the bill was a bad bill and clearly saying no.\" But Pam Sutherland, president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, said Obama was helping advance a prochoice agenda by voting present. \"He always was going to vote 'no' on these bills. We needed to keep some of our moderate Democrats from voting yes, which is something you never want to happen,\" Sutherland said. By having a well-known supporter of abortion rights also vote present, it gave other Democrats cover, she said. Regardless of the interpretation of the \"present\" votes, Obama has received extremely positive ratings from organizations that promote abortion rights. Even Grabenhofer's organization, the NOW Illinois political action committee, endorsed Obama twice after the \"present\" votes. The group did not endorse in the U.S. Senate race in 2004, she said, in part because of the present votes. Steve Trombley of Planned Parenthood in Chicago has defended Obama's prochoice bona fides, even though Planned Parenthood has not endorsed in the race. \"Barack Obama has always been committed to a woman's right to choose. He has a 100 percent pro-choice voting record both in the U.S. Senate and the Illinois Senate,\" Trombley wrote in a statement posted on the Obama campaign Web site. \"I don't know why Illinois NOW has changed its opinion of Barack Obama since his record has remained the same and since his time as a state senator, he has only demonstrated a full and steady commitment to choice,\" Trombley added. Both Clinton and Obama have their supporters among the abortion rights movement. Clinton arguably has the bigger endorsements. She has been endorsed by the National Organization for Women and EMILY's List, an organization dedicated to electing prochoice women. Obama has some high-profile endorsements as well, such as Kate Michelman, former president, NARAL Prochoice America, who sided with Obama after John Edwards dropped out of the race. Obama also has the support of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the first executive director of EMILY's List, who has publicly defended Obama as a strong supporter of abortion rights. We checked her statement  here  and found it to be . Two other large groups, NARAL Prochoice America and Planned Parenthood, are not endorsing. Planned Parenthood, however, has given both candidates 100 percent ratings for their records on abortion. We stipulate that there are clearly different interpretations of the significance of Obama's \"present\" votes. But there's no doubt he made them. So we find Clinton's statement to be . Claim: In the Illinois Legislature, Barack Obama \"voted 'present,' instead of yes or no\" on seven votes involving abortion rights.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Rumors holding that Hillary Clinton had a “meltdown,” threw a water glass at a staffer, and engaged in a curse-filled tirade following NBC’s Commander-in-Chief Forum with host Matt Lauer have been circulating since the Democratic presidential nominee participated in that forum, which aired on 7 September 2016. While these rumors did seem to be rooted in a little truth — the Clinton campaign was not happy with the questions Lauer asked (or didn’t ask) during the event — claims that Clinton threw a “hissy fit” over it were unfounded. The website Victurus Libertas was the first to promulgate this rumor, publishing an article headlined “Temper! Temper! Hillary Goes on Rampage for Over An Hour — Throwing Glass at Staffer’s Head.” Although Victurus Libertas linked to credible reports from NY Mag  and Yahoo! News detailing that Clinton’s campaign was miffed with Lauer for not fact-checking Republican candidate Donald Trump during the event, they cited Politico as their source for the claim that Clinton had thrown a water glass at a staffer: And Politico‘s headlines read:  “Liberals Lash Out at Lauer, NBC“. It seems to me, no one is “lashing out” but Hillary. Hillary’s meltdown included throwing a water glass at a staffer — narrowly missing her head, and demanding Matt Lauer be fired! She was overheard threatening executives at NBC saying “If I lose, we all go down and that Fascist Fuck will have us swinging from nooses! What the fuck is wrong with you idiots?” None of this information appeared in the cited Politico report, however. Politico published an article headlined “Liberals Lash Out at Lauer, NBC,” reporting that Clinton’s campaign and supporters were upset with interviewer Lauer for posing “unbalanced questions”: At an event that saw both Clinton and conservative challenger Donald Trump challenged on their stances toward national defense and foreign policy, liberal operatives and Clinton supporters took exception to what they perceived as unbalanced questions, criticizing Lauer for failing to push back on false statements by Trump and for spending a significant amount of time on Clinton’s email scandal. But Politico did not report that Hillary Clinton threw a water glass at anyone’s head, threatened the firing of Matt Lauer, or called Donald Trump a “fascist fuck.” All of that was invented by Victurus Libertas in an apparent attempt to smear the Democratic candidate, and it served as the basis for a longer, highly embellished version of the rumor that began circulating via e-mail in October 2016: Subject: Matt Lauer & Hillary what REALLY happened…. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE NBC PRESIDENTIAL FORUM WITH MATT LAUER? DEMOCRAT HILLARY CLINTON’S BEHIND THE SCENES TIRADE AFTER NBC’s MATT LAUER ASKED CLINTON ONE QUESTION SHE HAD NOT PRE-APPROVED. VETERAN NBC CAMERAMAN: ‘YOU REALLY HAD TO SEE THIS TO BELIEVE IT … SHE CAME APART – LITERALLY UNGLUED; SHE IS THE MOST FOUL-MOUTHED WOMAN I’VE EVER HEARD … AND THAT VOICE AT SCREECH LEVEL … AWFUL!’ “SHE LOOKED SO ENRAGED THAT WE ALL THOUGHT HER HEAD WOULD EXPLODE … IT WAS A FULL-ON MELT-DOWN, AND THEN SHE SCREAMED SHE’D GET THAT F–––ING LAUER FIRED FOR THIS. IT WENT ON FOR AT LEAST A HALF HOUR; WE ALL THOUGHT THE EMS WOULD BE THE NEXT CALL.”  NBC Associate Producer of Forum: Behind the scenes, NBC technicians and cameramen at the Wednesday night, Commander-in-Chief Forum (Sept 7) report that Hillary Clinton was so angry and incensed that she had been ‘blind-sided’ by one question she was not prepared for and had not approved in advance. “When her time in front of the cameras ended, Clinton shook the hand Lauer extended to her and smiled once more for the wide camera shot and then Hillary proceeded to pick up a full glass of water and threw it at the face of her assistant and the screaming started. She was in a full meltdown and no one on her staff dared speak with her — she went kind of manic and didn’t have any control over herself at that point. How these people work with this woman is amazing to me. Most of the small military audience were cordoned off, their seating not close to Mrs. Clinton, but certainly they heard her screaming because it was loud … and she really didn’t seem to care who heard any of it.” Republican Donald Trump also appeared, in a separate telecast from Hillary Clinton’s and arrived with his two sons but no entourage or assistants in tow. The NBC cameramen involved in his segment said he was a ‘true gentleman’ and Trump and his sons spoke to everyone and thanked them for inviting him to speak: “It was a pleasure to answer your questions Matt.” Hillary Clinton’s segment was much different. According to people working on the sidelines, “When Matt posed the one legitimate question about the FBI investigation concerning her homemade server and the unsecured emails, we could see she was beginning to boil and her eyes looked to pop.” “It was toward the end of her interview so she was becoming unglued by the time Lauer finished with questioning. Hillary went ballistic, throwing a huge tantrum and screaming at her staff, “you f–––ing idiots, you were supposed to have this thing set up for me and you’ve screwed it up! If that fucking bastard wins we all hang from nooses! Lauer’s finished … and if I lose it’s all on you ass—-s for screwing this up.” Clinton finally stormed off the military ‘set’ and the assistant producer said she was screaming that she wanted to talk to “the idiot who set this mess up … you do not blindside me – ever!” and continued to demand to speak with executives at Comcast, parent company to NBC Universal. Her dozen or more aides were visibly disturbed and tried to calm her down when she started shaking uncontrollably. That did not stop her from demanding an executive “on the phone, now!” She was told the executive-in-charge of the forum was ready to talk with her and she was led away by two rather large aides who appeared to help her walk. The TV executives got the message with all of the censuring headlines that followed over the next couple of days when it seemed the entire media turned on Matt Lauer for behaving in a “partisan” manner and “being grossly unfair and critical of the former secretary of state.” Matt Lauer was heavily criticized on air by the Clinton campaign the rest of the week with most of the mainstream media joining in. The media appeared to frame Matt’s one serious question as the Clinton campaign was doing…”an unfair and partisan attack on Mrs. Clinton.” Matt Lauer is still facing major backlash following his 23 minutes with Hillary Clinton. Privately, many reporters said Matt handed the Democrat nominee the expected softball questions, but made the decision to ask about the emails because, “the American people deserve an answer from the former secretary of state.” Calls were made to New York Times, Washington Post and Huffington Post and Twitter executives with orders to “Crush Matt Lauer”. As you can easily see with all the headlines from these MSM sources, they did as they were told by the Clinton campaign. Hillary also screamed that she would be “treated with respect at the debates or heads will roll.” Staffers at the Clinton campaign report that they fear her wrath and uncontrollable outbursts, and one described Hillary as “an egotistical psychopath”. Since Hillary does not allow any staff to have cell phones when she is in their presence, no footage is available, but Hillary will never let this rest. She has made it clear that she wants Matt Lauer to be “persona non grata – for putting her on the spot.” Interim DNC chairman Donna Brazile, the first black woman to hold the position, was singled out by Hillary during the rant. She screamed at Donna, “I’m so sick of your face. You stare at the wall like a brain dead buffalo, while letting that f–––ing Lauer get away with this. What are you good for, really? Get the f––– to work janitoring this mess — do I make myself clear?” A female NBC executive said that Donna Brazile looked at Mrs. Clinton and never flinched, which seemed to enrage Hillary all the more. The executive continued, “It was the most awful and terrible…and racist display — such a profane meltdown I have ever witnessed from anyone, and I will never forget it. That woman should never see the inside of the oval office I can tell you that. She was unhinged and just continued to verbally abuse everyone — she was out of control.” The earliest iteration of that longer narrative we could uncover was posted to the message board of the web site MTStars, where it was presented without citations, source information, audio, video, or any other documentation that the described these events actually transpired. It should also be noted that no credible news outlets reported that Clinton went on a cursed-filled tirade after the Commander-in-Chief Forum, or that she threw a water glass at a staffer’s head. Claim: Hillary Clinton threw a tantrum, and a water glass, after NBC's \"Commander-in-Chief\" Forum in September 2016.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It also said eight of the 520 crew on the Balmoral, operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, had also fallen ill with the bug, identified as a norovirus. The Balmoral left Southampton, England on April 16 for a 34-day cruise, making stops in Portugal and Bermuda before putting in at Norfolk, Virginia, where it first arrived in the United States late last month. CDC officials said at that time that 153 passengers and six crew had been infected by norovirus. Health officials and an epidemiologist boarded the ship at its next stop in Baltimore, Maryland to assess the outbreak and the response. The CDC said specimens collected and onboard tested positive for norovirus, and would be sent to CDC for additional testing. Fred. Olsen said in an April 29 statement that a “gastro-enteritis type illness” had affected a number of guests, with seven cases in isolation at that point. It said two U.S. nationals were on board, with the majority of passengers from the United Kingdom. When the Balmoral docked at Portland, Maine, over the weekend, media reported witnesses seeing surfaces being constantly wiped down. The ship was due to stop at St. John,  New Brunswick, Canada, on Monday. CDC said the cruise line had taken actions in response to the outbreak, including increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures, collecting stool specimens, daily reporting of  illness and dispatching public health and sanitation managers   to oversee and assist with implementation of sanitation and outbreak response. Balmoral has capacity for 1,350 passengers, and is the largest and newest ship in the cruise line’s fleet. Claim: Quarter of passengers on British cruise ship fall sick with norovirus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost range estimates for statins are given in the story. Story explains that those with fatal cancers were 63% less likely to have ever taken a statin, but then goes on to explain that “it’s also possible that statins don’t prevent certain cancers at all.” Good job briefly mentioning statin side effects of muscle pain, nausea, gas, and liver dysfunction. The story is very clear about the potential holes in the study results and what it would take to actually prove that statins protect against aggressive cancer. No disease mongering here. Ends with “Researchers agreed that until there’s clearer evidence for benefit, men with healthy hearts shouldn’t seek out statin prescriptions for the purpose of lowering their prostate cancer risks.” Important perspective added by independent expert from Duke who was not involved in the study. Final line of the story quotes an independent expert saying “that other strategies for lowering cholesterol — such as eating better and exercising regularly — are ways almost everyone can lower their disease risks in the meantime.” The story states that about one-quarter of adults age 45 and older in the U.S. take statins to lower cholesterol and protect against heart attacks. No inordinate claims of novelty were made. It’s clear that the story did not rely on a news release. Claim: Statins tied to lower risk of fatal prostate cancer",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Gun Owners of America has recently taken aim at an unlikely subject: health care reform. In the last few weeks, GOA has sent out several action alerts to members criticizing the health care reform bill that passed the Senate Finance Committee last week. The bill, authored by Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., was supported by all of the committee's Democrats, as well as Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. It will now be merged with another Senate health care bill and go to the full Senate. On Oct. 9, 2009, the day before the Finance Committee began voting on amendments to the Baucus bill, GOA sent an alert to members titled, \"ObamaCare Could be Used to Ban Guns in Home Self-Defense.\" The conservative group speculated about the impact of the health care bill on gun owners, hypothesizing that, in a bid to control spiraling health care costs, the administration will target people who have \"excessively dangerous\" behaviors that officials believe raise the cost of health care. The group warned that gun ownership — particularly keeping \"a loaded firearm for self-defense\" — is likely to be high on that list. The memo accuses Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius — who would have significant influence over any new health care policy — of having a \"well-established antipathy to the Second Amendment\" because she vetoed concealed-carry gun legislation when she was governor of Kansas. The Obama administration is so antigun, the group contends, that \"it is even possible that the Obama-prescribed policy could preclude reimbursement of any kind in a household which keeps a loaded firearm for self-defense.\" In this item, we'll scrutinize the claim that the Baucus bill \"could be used to ban guns in home self-defense.\" To start, we turn to the committee-passed version of the legislation itself. The sweeping health care bill would leave in place the current private insurance system in which most people get coverage from their employer. But the bill would set federal rules for the individual market — that is, for policies purchased by people who are self-employed or have lost their coverage. President Barack Obama and other Democrats have often said the new rules are needed because companies that sell policies on the individual market are often able to impose restrictions about pre-existing conditions and put limitations on coverage. The rules for the individual market would also apply to the \"small group\" market, which serves smaller employers and their workers. We looked carefully at the language in the Baucus bill and found no mention of either \"gun\" or \"firearm.\" So there's no explicit support in the bill for the group's claim. Okay, says GOA, but guns could still be a target because of the emphasis on discouraging unhealthy behaviors. \"The ObamaCare bill already contains language that will punish Americans who engage in unhealthy behavior by allowing insurers to charge them higher insurance premiums,\" the group said in its alert. The group is right that the bill does allow higher premiums based on behavior — specifically, the use of tobacco. The Baucus bill would allow insurers to alter premiums based on tobacco use, age, family composition and cost differences in different geographical regions. The bill establishes a series of ratios for how much these factors can be used to adjust premiums upward. Tobacco users, for instance, could be charged 1.5 times the standard rate under the bill. (There is no such provision in the House bill.) Another provision could provide a loophole that allows behavioral factors to play a wider role in setting premiums. The bill would expand some rules now in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, that allow employees to be rewarded if they participate in wellness programs. Taking part in a wellness program — such as tobacco cessation or a gym membership — can mean lower premiums or co-pays. The bill would increase the size of discounts that can be offered to beneficiaries who enroll in these programs. Some advocacy groups and labor unions have warned this could be a sneaky way of excluding less-healthy workers. And Mike Hammond, GOA's legislative counsel, said that such policies indicate that the bill \"is going in a behavioral direction.\" So, GOA has a point that the Baucus bill opens the door to rating health insurance premiums based on behaviors. But the group is making a huge leap to suggest that could mean the government would target gun owners. In the alert, GOA leaves out two important pieces of context. —  People with \"unhealthy behaviors\" would actually get stronger protections under the Baucus bill  . Currently, states oversee the individual insurance market with a patchwork of rules. According to the Senate Finance Committee, only one state fully bars premiums from being adjusted for any reasons. Seven states allow limited adjustments for reasons such as age, while 11 allow premiums to vary based on health factors. The remaining 31 — a majority of all states — have not passed any laws restricting what factors insurers can use in setting rates. Under Baucus's bill, the federal rules would take over and put restrictions on when insurers could charge higher premiums as we explain above. This means that for most states, gun owners — or people with other behaviors that the government might theoretically deem \"unhealthy\" — would actually get more explicit protection under the Baucus bill than they have now. Today, laws in most states would not keep an insurer from discriminating against gun owners in setting premiums; under the Baucus bill, gun owners would have this protection enshrined in law. —  There's no indication in the bill that gun ownership is contemplated as a future factor in premium-setting  . Even if you assume that health care reform is rushing headlong into a new era in which behavior defines health premiums — which is just speculation at this point — there is nothing in the Baucus bill that says, or even suggests, that gun ownership would be cited as a behavioral factor. Every behavioral factor explicitly cited in the bill concerns pure medical issues, such as a lowered cholesterol level, maintainance of a certain body mass index, quitting smoking or losing a specified amount of weight. GOA's Hammond argues that in his experience, bills that start narrowly have a tendency to expand their reach. \"So I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that what can be done will be done,\" he said. But we find insufficient evidence to support the group's overheated rhetoric. Ultimately, we find that while the GOA is right that a more behavioral approach to pricing health care seems to be gaining steam, it is a giant and overly speculative leap to say that the Baucus bill \"could be used to ban guns in home self-defense.\" There is nothing in the bill itself to indicate that is contemplated. We find the statement . Claim: The Baucus health care bill \"could be used to ban guns in home self-defense.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: During an April 27, 2011, interview with Stuart Varney of Fox News, Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., argued against eliminating certain tax breaks for oil companies -- an idea that had gained support in recent weeks as gasoline prices soared nationwide. Boren argued that the biggest financial pain from ending such tax breaks would be felt by smaller companies like those based in his oil-rich state. The tax breaks, he said, \"go to small independent companies like we have in Oklahoma. Did you know a vast majority of the production in the United States comes from small independent oil and gas companies? And the new rigs that are … drilling right now in the United States, they are not the ExxonMobils of the world. They are the Devons, the Chesapeakes, and even smaller companies that are based in Oklahoma that are employing a lot of … Democrats (in) blue-collar jobs. And the president needs to understand that.\" We wondered whether \"small independent oil and gas companies\" actually account for \"a vast majority of the production in the United States.\" We turned to the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the trade group that represents independent oil and gas companies. They pointed us to a study the group commissioned from the consulting firm IHS Global Insight and released earlier this month. The study compared the reach of the \"independent\" sector to the bigger firms in the industry. It defined independents as \"all North American operators in the lower 48 states and Alaska, excluding BG, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ENI, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon, Murphy, Occidental, Petrobras, Repsol, Shell, Statoil, and Total.\" Using the statistical tables provided, we calculated a few relevant percentages. We’ll summarize them here:  U.S. oil and gas production for 2010 (amount produced) Onshore: Independents accounted for 72 percent of production Offshore: Independents accounted for 42 percent of production Total: Independents accounted for 67 percent of production  U.S. oil and gas production for 2010 (dollar value) Onshore: Independents accounted for 70 percent of value Offshore: Independents accounted for 37 percent of value Total: Independents accounted for 62 percent of value  So independents accounted for between 62 percent and 67 percent of domestic oil and gas production in 2010. That’s a healthy majority, but we think Boren’s description of it as \"a vast majority\" is exaggerated. There’s another factor to consider. Boren said he was referring to \"small independent oil and gas companies.\" The statistics above certainly include some of those smaller companies, but it also includes some that aren’t so small. These include the two that Boren specifically mentioned. Devon Energy Corp. reported $9.9 billion in total revenue and $4.6 billion in net income in 2010, while Chesapeake Energy Corp reported $9.4 billion total revenue in 2010 and $1.8 billion in net income. Both companies are small compared to, say, ExxonMobil Corp ($105 billion in revenues, $9.3 billion in net income for 2010), but they’re hardly run out of someone’s basement. So we think the suggestion that those companies qualify as \"small independent oil and gas companies\" is misleading. Ultimately, Boren makes a valid point that a majority of U.S. oil production comes not from the biggest multinational oil companies but from independent firms. Still, it’s not a \"vast majority,\" as he said, and some of the firms in the \"independent\" category -- including the two he cited by name -- are hardly what most people would consider \"small.\" Claim: A vast majority of the production in the United States comes from small independent oil and gas companies.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 8 June 2016, the web site Oklahoma Watch published a report concerning the purchase of Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machines (ERADs) by the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, which gives the state a new tool to conduct civil forfeitures: The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety has purchased several devices capable of seizing funds loaded on to prepaid debit cards to aid troopers in roadside seizures of suspected drug-trafficking proceeds. The portable card scanners are designed to be carried in law enforcement vehicles, allow troopers to freeze and seize money loaded onto a prepaid debit card, and to return money to an account whose funds were seized or frozen. The vehicle-mounted scanners are also capable of retrieving and storing limited account information from other cards as well, such as banking debit cards, credit cards and “payment account information from virtually any magnetic stripe card,” according to the website and patent documents of the device manufacturer, Texas-based ERAD Group Inc. ERAD stands for Electronic Recovery and Access to Data. Shortly after the Oklahoma Watch article was published, a petition was started on ActionSprout.io, which claimed that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol now had a device that could take money out of your bank account: Oklahoma Highway Patrol have begun using a new device called ERAD. This device allows cops to scan any credit or ATM cards and seize any money connected with that card. How is this legal? A REPUBLICAN state senator has already sounded off on this civil liberties nightmare. “We’ve seen single mom’s stuff be taken,” he said, “a cancer survivor his drugs taken… We’ve seen innocent people’s stuff being taken. We’ve seen where the money goes and how it’s been misspent.” The petition is, whether intentionally or not, misleading. While the state of Oklahoma has purchased ERADs, the devices are not capable of taking money directly out of bank accounts; according to a FAQ section on the Texas-based ERAD group’s web site, the devices only work with prepaid cards: Fin Cen defines prepaid access as “access to funds or the value of funds that have been paid in advance and can be retrieved or transferred at some point in the future through an electronic device or vehicle, such as a card, code, electronic serial number, mobile identification number, or personal identification number.” Open Loop prepaid cash cards, closed loop retailer gift cards and stored-value cards are example of prepaid access devices. The ERAD group writes that these devices after customs officials noticed a “significant number of prepaid cash cards moving across the border”: Even with probable cause, they had no way of identifying the card value, freezing the funds or seizing the money at the point of arrest. ERAD-Prepaid solved that problem by condensing a process that takes many days, weeks or months into one that takes a few seconds. Civil forfeiture is a major issue in Oklahoma. While law enforcement officials argue that it is a necessary measure to curb drug trafficking, critics claim that these seizures often affect innocent people: Law enforcement officials in Oklahoma and elsewhere describe civil asset forfeiture as an important weapon against the drug trade, allowing them to target illicit proceeds that may not be in proximity to contraband. They say ERAD technology is a necessary tool to keep up with criminals who have begun putting money on prepaid cards in order to avoid having cash seized by police. “If someone has 300 cards taped up and hidden inside the dash of a vehicle, we’re going to check that,” Lt. John Vincent, public information officer for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, told Oklahoma Watch. […] A hidden stack of hundreds of cash cards may seem inherently suspicious, but critics of civil asset forfeiture say hypotheticals like this obscure concerns that the practice is overused, often in ways that violate people’s due process and property rights. “Whether someone has 100 debit cards or one, that in and of itself is not illegal,” state Sen. Kyle Loveless (R), who has spearheaded an unsuccessful push to overhaul Oklahoma’s civil forfeiture laws, told The Huffington Post. Officers in Oklahoma can’t wipe out anyone’s bank account with an ERAD, but they can use these devices, along with current civil forfeiture laws in the state, to check, freeze, and seize funds on prepaid cards. Claim: The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is using a device called an \"ERAD\" to seize money from people's bank accounts.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: When President Barack Obama gave a major address on climate change on June 25, 2013, he reached back more than three decades for a personal anecdote to support his argument. \"Now, what you'll hear from the special interests and their allies in Congress is that (my climate change plan) will kill jobs and crush the economy and basically end American free-enterprise as we know it,\" Obama said. \"And the reason I know you'll hear those things is because that's what they said every time America sets clear rules and better standards for our air and our water and our children's health. \"And every time they've been wrong,\" Obama continued. \"when I was going to school in 1979, 1980 in Los Angeles, there were days where folks couldn't go outside -- and the sunsets were spectacular -- because of all the pollution in the air. \"At the time when we passed the Clean Air Act, to try to get rid of some of this smog, some of the same doomsayers were saying, ‘New pollution standards will decimate the auto industry.’ Guess what? It didn't happen. Our air got cleaner.\" Many Twitter users asked us whether it was really true that during Obama’s days in Los Angeles \"there were days where folks couldn't go outside. … because of all the pollution in the air.\" We’ll start with some background on smog. The smog predominant in Los Angeles -- formally known as \"photochemical smog\" -- is created when light reacts with motor vehicle and industrial emissions to form ground-level ozone. This ozone can make it difficult to breathe, causing asthma attacks and lung inflammation, as well as making eyes itchy and watery. In the United States, at least, Los Angeles has been ground zero for smog for decades, due to its heavy automobile usage, its industrial base and the presence of mountains and valleys, which prevent polluted air from floating elsewhere. Los Angeles smog emerged in the 1940s and worsened from the 1950s to the 1970s. It got so bad in October 1954 that the city virtually shut down for the entire month (and gas masks were common, as the photograph below illustrates). Smog became so closely identified with Los Angeles that \"smog in a can\" became a popular gag gift. Today, Los Angeles still has smog -- in April 2013, the American Lung Association ranked L.A. first in the nation for ozone pollution, as well as fourth for particulate pollution such as dust and soot. But concerted environmental efforts have reduced the extent of the problem significantly. In rising order of seriousness, smog alerts for southern California start with health advisories and move upwards to stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3. The last stage 3 smog alert came in 1974 -- so long ago that Ronald Reagan was still governor. The last stage 2 alert came in 1988, and there has been only one stage 1 alert since 1998 (it came in 2003). \"Peak ozone levels in southern California today are roughly one-third of what they were in the late 1970s, due to aggressive and innovative air pollution controls here,\" said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the air-pollution control agency for Los Angeles, Orange County and portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. So what would Obama have experienced when he was a student at Occidental, the college he attended before transferring to Columbia University for his junior and senior year? We can approximate the impact based on statistical and anecdotal evidence. Occidental, located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood northeast of downtown L.A., would have been subject to many of the smog risks typical of the region from 1979 to 1981. According to South Coast Air Quality Management District data, a health advisory -- a comparatively low-level alert -- was issued somewhere in the agency’s region of jurisdiction 169 times in 1979, 152 times in 1980 and 159 times in 1981. The stage 1 threshold was met 120, 101, and 99 times during those three years. Even allowing that Occidental itself may have experienced just a fraction of these episodes, the university still would have faced a significant number. So what did these advisories mean in a practical sense? For a health advisory, the lowest of these levels, all children are supposed to \"discontinue prolonged, vigorous outdoor exercise lasting longer than one hour,\" and \"susceptible persons, such as those with heart or lung disease\" should \"avoid outdoor activity,\" including \"calisthenics, basketball, running, soccer, football, tennis, swimming laps, and water polo.\" For the more severe stage 1 episodes, all children are supposed to \"discontinue all vigorous outdoor activities regardless of duration,\" including \"physical education classes, sports practices, and athletic competitions.\" Finally, for stage 2 or stage 3, all children are supposed to \"discontinue all outdoor activities.\" This suggests that Obama’s claim is slightly exaggerated. He said that \"there were days where folks couldn't go outside,\" but nothing in the rules addressed what healthy adults could do, including healthy college-age kids. Rather, the rules addressed adults with compromised health as well as children. Still, the reality of smog alerts was not pretty, and by all accounts, staying inside, if feasible, was certainly preferable. The White House pointed us to a Newsweek article from Sept. 24, 1979, when Obama was just settling in at Occidental, that documents what it called the worst L.A. smog in 24 years. \"Tennis courts stood empty,\" the article said. \"Golf courses lay nearly deserted. Schools canceled recess, and the usual parade of joggers around Pasadena's Rose Bowl dwindled to just a handful.\" We found other first-hand testimony. Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College in the Los Angeles suburb of Claremont, recalls enduring smog alerts when he was a student at neighboring Pitzer College in the mid 1970s. \"There were way too many days when you could not see the mountain that today frames my office window,\" he said. \"It was possible to not know it was there for months at a time.\" And William Kelly, the co-author of Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, recalls attending Occidental a few years before Obama. \"When I got there in 1973, I played a vigorous game of basketball in an un-air-conditioned gym,\" Kelly said. \"I don't remember the end of the game, just waking up in the early evening with a pounding headache and watering eyes and wheezing in my dorm room. Turns out there was a stage 2 smog alert going on that afternoon, and I didn't have a clue.\" Our ruling Obama said that as a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1981, \"there were days where folks couldn't go outside. … because of all the pollution in the air.\" The idea that \"folks couldn’t go outside\" is an oversimplification. The advisories -- and they were only advisories -- were aimed at children and people who had existing health concerns. But Obama is right that smog was a severe problem at the time in the Los Angeles region. Claim: As a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1981, \"there were days where folks couldn't go outside. … because of all the pollution in the air.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story mentions 12-week cost of varenicline (which must be taken twice daily), but the story would have been better if it gave cost comparison with existing treatments. The story is even handed and this new therapy is not embraced as a magic bullet. Numbers are framed appropriately, however there is no quantiative comparison of one-year abstinence rates with existing drug and non-drug therapies. There is no discussion of any side effects of the drug. Nausea, headaches insomnia and other stomach problems were the most common in the vanenicline group, but none of these are mentioned in the broadcast. There is brief discussion of abstinence rates, but no mention of the design of the varenicline trials. Without describing the trials as controlled, blinded, randomized, or not, it is impossible to assess the strength of the information.The numbers were from two fairly well-designed randomized, double-blind trials (N=2000 total). Abstinence was evaluated between varenicline, bupropion (Zyban) and placebo groups at 12 weeks, then continuous abstinence for another 40 weeks. There does not seem to be evidence of disease mongering, though there is the question of whether 32 million trying to quit would need drug treatment. Prevalence rates of addicted smokers are from the Center for Disease Control. Data is presented on screen as provided by Pfizer, the funder of the two varenicline trials. Dr. Riggotti, who is cited, is not affliated with the varenicline study. She is an anti-smoking advocate and the Director of the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. If time allowed, another outside expert opinion would be appropriate. Mentions other drug treatments such as nicotine replacement therapies with similar one-year abstinence rates. No mention of behavioral component of treatment or that varenicline was compared with bupropion, which has also had similar abstinence rates when compared against placebo in randomized controlled studies. There is acknowledgment in the story that the long-term smoking cessation might be accomplished by a number of available therapies, and varenicline is only one option. The story mentions recent FDA approval of the drug to aid in smoking cessation, however, there is no discussion of when it will be available. The drug was given priority status and fast-tracked for approval due to the “significant improvement” over existing therapies for smoking cessation. The story does a good job of listing this as just one more measure in the arsenal of smoking cessation aids. But there is not much discussion of how this is different from nicotine itself as varenicline is described as binding to the same receptor. The critical difference (and the reason this is truly novel) is that it is a partially active drug (that is it does not create the same intensity of effect as nicotine) and that it does not bind to all the subtypes of nicotine receptors. No evidence the story relies solely on a press release. There are sources cited not affiliated with the studies or Pfizer. Claim: Anti-smoking drug receives FDA approval",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story did not address costs. To see why this is such a serious omission, look no further than this comment that was posted below the story online on the CNN website: “This is great, but if your insurance won’t cover any Autism treatments, what’s the point? I have a 3.5 yr old and two year old boys, both on the Autism spectrum. Our insurance covers nothing for them with regard to any treatment. It’s left to us to absorb. Both require intensive speech and behavioral therapy at a cost of roughly $5,000 per month. I barely make $5,000 a month for a family of 4. …I wholeheartedly approve of the advances they are making, but if insurance won’t cover anything, why bother?” Nowhere does the story address the significance of this:  that the main benefit of this test appears to be that it detected with 80% accuracy during a very small timeframe that a child had an older sibling with autism. This means that the study correctly identified most of the time a risk factor that was already known to the parents of the chlid and to the researchers. So, in effect, the study had no actual benefit for the kids or the parents. At least the HealthDay story paraphrased one independent expert who noted that  “the study predicted who was at high risk of autism, but it’s unknown if those babies actually went on to develop autism”. This seems like a giant hole that should have been explored. Neither story quantified the harms. The obvious harm is parental anxiety and labeling an infant as having autism when there must be at least some risk of false positives. This was framed as a potential screening test. All screening tests carry potential harms. Journalists often report only on screening tests’ potential benefits. This story did a better job than the HealthDay story of explaining the study’s design, and it did probe some of the evidence through the use of independent experts. It also included this important statement: “Doctors and scientists not connected to the study are intrigued by the results but caution that this is very early research and not something concerned parents can be looking for as a screening tool for their babies any time soon.” There were multiple, cautionary notes in the article that were missing from the HealthDay piece. While the story could have been more critical and done much more to help readers understand the limitations of the study, we felt that it did an adequate job. This story did a better job than the HealthDay story to avoid disease-mongering. It accurately stated the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders and the much higher risk seen in siblings. We felt the overall tone of the story was still too anxiety-provoking, though, and it ended on a curious note with a fundraising plea from a researcher. The story made good use of outside experts, although we were dismayed to see the cliched “holy grail” reference, so beloved by researchers and journalists. The story failed to compare this diagnostic approach to existing approaches, saying only that “Bosl says the first children enrolled in his study are now at 2 and 3 years old, which is the age when  autism usually is diagnosed. This will now allow the researchers to evaluate them for autism and then look back at the brain activity patterns of the children who do fit the clinical criteria for autism.” How they are going to be evaluated for autism remains a big question. One presumes that they will be given a battery of behavioral tests, which, for now, are the gold standard. This should have been explained and the reasons why children younger than 2 cannot be accurately screened should have been explored. The story made it clear that this was an experimental diagnostic tool and not ready for the pediatrician’s office. The story is quite clear that EEG is not new but that the analysis method is new. The study was a novel contribution to the literature in that the study screens earlier, during infancy, in siblings of affected children. At the same time, we wish the story had placed this finding into a broader context. In December, CNN ran a story that sounded so similar we had to check the dates on this story to make sure it was not the same one. That story said, “Scientists are finding more pieces of the autism puzzle of with the help of MRI scans of brain circuitry, according to a study published Thursday online in the journal Autism Research.” Why not offer more context on other research that you’ve already reported on? The story didn’t rely on a news release. Claim: Brain scans may someday detect autism",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No cost estimates are provided. But cost is a big deal with this drug. According to a November 2016 story by The Verge, erenumab could cost $8,000-$20,000 a year — or about $667-$1,667 per monthly injection. We understand that this story originated in the UK, where perhaps there’s a different journalistic attitude about the importance of citing costs because the UK has a National Health Service, unlike the US. But this story appeared in the US edition of the Guardian, so big deal cost estimates matter. This story does a decent job summing up the study design and presenting key results from the study, down to the differences between dosage and even placebo groups. While we give the story a satisfactory score on this criterion, we also suggest that the numbers could have been explained far more clearly. Our heads are still spinning a bit from this paragraph in the story: The research revealed that by months four to six, at least a 50% reduction in mean migraine days per month was achieved for just over 43% of patients injected under the skin with 70-mg of erenumab each month, while half of patients injected with the higher dose of 140-mg had such results. However, those given a placebo also saw benefits, with 26.6% of participants in this group experiencing such a reduction. A sidebar infographic would have helped, breaking down precisely how many days, how many people, and on what dose. Yes, the results were quantified, but in a less than optimal way. The story teases us with the tidbit that erenumab may come with fewer side effects, yet not one of them or their potential frequency is established. The reported adverse event numbers are important: About 63% of the placebo group experienced at least one, compared to 55.5%-57.3% of the drug groups. Some key numbers from the study are recapped, including how roughly half of patients in the erenumab groups saw an approximately 50% decline in migraine-days-per-month. But the article also compared this result to the placebo group’s result of 26.6%, which suggests perhaps half of the effect might not be attributable to the drug — and added a source’s brief explanation as to why that number may have been so high. (Injections, the source says, tend to trigger strong placebo effects.) A quote by an outside expert highlights the debilitating pain that many migraine sufferers experience, plus the real-world ramifications of that pain. Statistics are provided to give an estimate of how common migraines are, but we think it’s always best practice to provide a source for such statistics, and none was provided by The Guardian. Many news stories fail this test, but this one shines: Not only does the article cite an expert who wasn’t involved in the study, but it also discloses that the drugmakers of erenumab — Amgen and Novartis — funded the study, supplied the drug, and did the data analyses. (One thing the story missed, though: The first draft of the study was put together by a company-funded writer.) The quotes from the principal investigator demand further explanation and context. He calls his study: “an incredibly important step forward for migraine understanding and migraine treatment….“The results…represent a real transition for migraine patients from poorly understood, re-purposed treatments, to a specific migraine-designed therapy.”  But readers weren’t told anything about other treatments. Imagine taking one of the commonly-used drugs for migraine and now hearing – perhaps for the first time – that it is a poorly understood drug. The story should have explained what treatments the researcher was talking about, and, in an ideal story, would have compared results from this study with what is known about effectiveness of other treatments. More puzzling is why The Guardian didn’t mention in this story that another migraine study was reported in the same issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. And Dr. Peter Goadsby, lead investigator of the study that The Guardian reported on, was also involved in the other study as well. So why mention only one? Is it possible that it’s because the King’s College PR news release only mentioned one? The availability of erenumab was never clear established. Yes, one could deduce that a Phase III trial was just reported, so it probably isn’t on the market yet. But the story never said that. In addition, there can still be a troubled road between completion of a Phase III trial and approval. For a story that trumpeted “incredibly important step forward….start of a real change (in treatment)…first drug in 20 years proven to prevent migraine attacks” and other superlatives, the story could have helped readers see through one trial’s optimism to explain what pitfalls might lie ahead. The story did describe the novelty of laboratory-made antibodies to prevent migraines. But, as already noted in the “Alternatives” criterion above, The Guardian didn’t even mention in this story that another migraine study was reported in the same issue of the New England Journal of Medicine  involving another antibody drug – fremanezumab. So erenumab – the subject of this story – isn’t the only game in town. It’s not even the only game in this class. What were the results from the fremanezumab study? And how are the two agents different? We got nowhere near those questions – much less answers – from The Guardian in this story. The story quotes the principal investigator, Peter Goadsby, but doesn’t note the source of those quotes: A press release by King’s College London, where Goadsby is a professor. So when The Guardian reports that Goadsby “said” such and such, it implies that he said it directly to someone at The Guardian. But he did not. In fact, we don’t even know if Goadsby “said” those things or wrote them, in a note to the PR people. It’s not a best practice to grab quotes from a PR news release while failing to attribute the source. Claim: Migraine drug could halve the length of attacks, study shows",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On April 30, 2017, U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) provoked an outcry at a town hall meeting in Neenah when pressed to explain his support for defunding the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. A woman doing the questioning warned Grothman that he shouldn’t use Planned Parenthood’s abortion services as an excuse to pull funding, because the agency is already prohibited from using federal funds to support abortion procedures. Grothman’s quick response: \"Planned Parenthood is the biggest abortion provider in the country.\" He added that the group is an outspoken advocate for what he termed \"controversial\" services. To be sure, Planned Parenthood does more than abortions. Services include screening for sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, sex education and general health care. Indeed, in a one-year period from  2014 to 2015, 87 percent of patients visited Planned Parenthood clinics for services other than abortion, PolitiFact Wisconsin found in February 2017. Grothman’s statement about the \"biggest abortion provider\" was one we’ve seen in various forms from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley of Boston and National Public Radio. Does it hold up? Running the numbers There’s no complete, centralized database that tallies abortions, much less breaks that number down by providers. But there is strong indirect evidence backing Grothman’s claim. Planned Parenthood self-reports that 323,999 abortions were performed at its facilities nationwide for the year ending September 30, 2015. That represents 35 percent of the 926,200 U.S. abortions estimated for calendar year 2014, the latest year studied by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and advocacy organization whose survey-based data on abortions is widely quoted by both sides in the abortion debate. Grothman maintains 49 percent of abortions are performed by Planned Parenthood. That’s because he uses the smaller base of 664,000 abortions -- the figure reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number is based on voluntary reporting. Here’s what we heard from two groups deeply involved in the abortion issue: -- Planned Parenthood is the largest single provider of abortion care in the United States, according to the Abortion Care Network, a national association for independent abortion providers. It’s worth noting that local providers unaffiliated with a national organization -- including freestanding clinics and private practice hospitals -- collectively do the majority of the procedures. -- The 35 percent \"easily\" makes Planned Parenthood \"the nation's largest abortion chain,\" and there’s no evidence any other provider is close, according to the National Right to Life Committee. More about Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood’s abortion services grew rapidly between 2000 and 2015, rising by 127,000 procedures at a time when the total number of abortions nationwide was falling significantly. The agency operates some 660 centers across the country. About half offer abortions, according to  agency spokeswoman Beth Lynk. Its facilities see patients from all 50 states, though one state, North Dakota, has no Planned Parenthood health center. The Moorhead, Minn., health center is two blocks from the state border and serves predominately North Dakota patients. A Planned Parenthood spokesperson said the agency doesn’t track the numbers on other providers and wouldn’t venture an opinion on Grothman’s claim. But Jennifer Thibodeau, a spokesperson for the Abortion Care Network summed up the general feeling among informed observers this way: \"There is no other national organization that operate on the scale they do.\" Our rating Grothman told constituents that \"Planned Parenthood is the biggest abortion provider in the country.\" The agency’s national network of clinics stands apart from other providers as the undisputed leader when it comes to providing abortion services. This is one of those truisms that is basically, well, . (Editor's note, June 7, 2017: An earlier version of this item quoted Grothman as saying that Planned Parenthood is an outspoken advocate for \"controversial\" services such as birth control. A spokesperson for his office said on June 7, 2017 that the video, in which Grothman's voice is hard to hear at times, may have led people to that conclusion, but that Grothman does not believe birth control is a controversial service. The birth control quote had no bearing on the congressman’s statement about Planned Parenthood and its role in abortions, so the rating of  is unchanged.) Claim: Planned Parenthood is the biggest abortion provider in the country.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story notes that a whole-body DXA scan costs “$45 to $350 or more” and is generally not covered by insurance. While readers can do the math, it would have been very useful for the story to point out what the costs of scanning at the intervals suggested (up to every 3 months) would amount to over time. The story notes that some DXA scanners “estimate how much visceral fat you have, a measure that can help predict risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.” It also states that scans show “the amount of fat and lean tissue in each body part, such as the right arm or left leg—information that can be helpful for athletes to see if an injured limb is regaining muscle.” However, these claims are not quantified. How much different might one’s risk for diabetes or cardiovasular disease be on a DXA scan vs. traditional body composition measures? How much faster might one recover from an injury using DXA monitoring? To its credit, the story does note that one study found that 18.5% of women with a normal BMI had excess fat when measured using a DXA scan — “making them ‘skinny fat. '” But readers aren’t told what “skinny fat” means — does it have health implications? Does it increase risk and by how much? More quantification here would have helped readers judge the value of this tool. The story gets credit for noting that DXA scans involve radiation, and for explaining exactly how much radiation one may be exposed to during a scan. However, that information could have been placed in a more health-relevant context. The DXA scan, the story says, exposes someone to “about the same as one day of background radiation” and compares the dose to chest x-rays and mammograms. The story would have have stronger if it had explained whether that means low risk or high. A few more details would have been helpful here. This is Not Satisfactory for a simple reason: there is nothing presented to show that measuring body composition with a scan vs. other ways leads to any improved outcomes, whether intermediate or long term or whether we’re talking about weight loss, building muscle mass, increasing athletic performance, or preventing heart disease. This is a really important issue that was neglected by the coverage. If readers are going to be tempted to get an expensive scan over using a bathroom scale and a mirror, they should have some assurance that it will actually lead to better results — or at least be warned if we don’t have enough evidence to judge. [Editor’s note: On Twitter, well-known cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol, editor of Medscape, greeted the story with this comment: “Just what we don’t need: a high tech, whole body scan to show loss of fat.”] It’s arguable that this story contributes to concentrating on appearance rather than health, and may get people with a normal BMI worrying about whether they are “skinny fat” — without offering any evidence that this is a real problem. However, since we didn’t see any egregious exaggerations of the obesity problem, we’ll give the benefit of the doubt. There are multiple sources here with conflicts of interest, but they are all clearly identified — and the story includes at least two sources who appear to have no conflict of interest. However, it would not have been difficult to find someone with a much more skeptical take on this technology, and we wish that perspective had been included. The story addresses four other techniques used for assessing body fat: BMI, water weighing, bioimpedance and pinching folded skin with calipers. The story would’ve been more useful had it mentioned that there appear to be no comparative effectiveness studies on long term outcomes using these different methods. Tough call here. The story says that DXA scans are “available at a growing number of spas, hospitals and doctor’s offices.” But the statement comes from a company representative. What does “growing number” mean? Are you likely to be able to find this outside of posh resorts and major cities? DXA scans are clearly distinct from other techniques for assessing body composition, but it’s not new. Researchers have been writing about using DXA scans to assess body composition since the early 1990s. The story gives a sense of why this is newsworthy now when it says, “A DXA scan (pronounced dexa) is commonly used to measure bone density, but recently has been increasingly used to measure body composition.” We’ll call that good enough for a Satisfactory rating. There is enough original reporting here that we can be sure the story wasn’t based entirely on a news release. Claim: Too Much Fat? Try a Whole-Body Scan Procedure gives far more data than a body-mass index",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Wisconsin isn’t the only state stirring national political headlines. In Michigan, a new law allows the governor to take over local governments deemed to be in financial trouble. Benton Harbor is one of several Michigan municipalities that failed a financial \"stress test\" and is now under the control of a state-appointed manager who, among other things, has the power to scrap contracts with public employee unions. Local elected officials are no longer in control. Protests are mounting over what critics have called a \"dictatorship\" and at least once lawsuit claims the measure gives the state \"czar-like\" powers. Could financial \"martial law\" declarations be coming to Wisconsin? According to long-time Democratic activist Ed Garvey, such steps are next on the agenda of Republican Gov. Scott Walker. He first raised the issue April 14, 2011 on his  Fightingbob.com blog, then repeated it in subsequent postings, on Wisconsin Public Radio and in an interview with PolitiFact Wisconsin. Rick Ungar, a blogger on Forbes.com, picked up Garvey’s assertions April 16 with a posting entitled \"Gov. Scott Walker Reportedly Planning Financial Martial Law in Wisconsin.\" Two days later, during an April 18 radio interview, Walker vehemently denied being involved with any such plan. So has Garvey exposed Team Walker’s next controversial political push? Now, we can’t rule on prospective claims -- what will happen in the future. But we can look at what Garvey says he has already done -- expose plans that are under way -- and whether his evidence supports his own claim. Let’s go to Garvey’s original blog post. \"We have discovered that Wisconsin's governor has the same twisted idea for Wisconsin as Michigan's governor does of his state,\" Garvey wrote April 14, 2011 on his blog. \"The state would be allowed to take over local governments if financial management standards are not met. Who decides? The governor or a newly elected uber comptroller. (I am not making this up.)\" He adds: \"The secret plan is being prepared by the state's largest law firm, Foley & Lardner, for the Greater Milwaukee Committee, the Bradley Foundation, the governor, and key legislators.\" A closer look at the evidence shows it’s not as Machiavellian as Garvey claims. Garvey discovered a recently launched website, Makeityourmilwaukeecounty.com That spells out a legislative initiative. However, it’s hardly a secret. The site is the online version of a project launched by a Greater Milwaukee Committee task force. It’s an outgrowth of a years-long effort by the private business group to study and recommend reforms to Milwaukee County government. The task force’s recommendations drew attention in an Oct. 9, 2010 column by the Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice, who wrote the recommendations were back-burnered so as not to come out before the November election for governor. In November, PolitiFact Wisconsin looked at a claim by the state Democratic Party that GMC chairman and Walker campaign chairman Michael Grebe killed release of the report before the election. We said the claim was Barely True. In February, the GMC task force made its recommendations public and the website launched about the same time. The report calls for several initiatives, including: \"Develop a statewide fiscal stress test through the State Department of Revenue to help local governments maintain fiscal health.\" So, the site does talk about a \"stress test,\" but that’s not the same as the \"martial law\" style approach in Michigan. In fact, the website explicitly says the group is opposed to that approach: \"The Initiative does not support this type of legislation in Wisconsin.\" What’s more, according to GMC president Julia Taylor, about half the states have a \"fiscal scorecard.\" The thinking, she said, is that the more the public knows about how their local government is faring, the sooner problems can be headed off. Taylor said she wasn’t sure when a bill including the GMC’s plan would be introduced or by whom. \"It’s very, very early in the process,\" she said. \"At this point we don’t have draft language.\" To be sure, some heavy-hitters are working with the GMC to build support for the recommendations and hammer them into legislation -- including lobbyists with Foley & Lardner, former state legislator Mary Panzer and public relations firm Mueller Communications. And the GMC is chaired by Grebe, who was Walker’s campaign chairman and led the governor’s transition team. Grebe also heads the conservative Bradley Foundation. So, it may be easy to see why Garvey tries to connect some of the dots. What about the essence of Garvey’s claim, that he discovered Walker’s involvement with the plan being discussed -- and, therefore, his support of it? As Milwaukee County executive, Walker expressed support for the GMC efforts. But in the wake of Garvey’s first blog post, he issued a sharp denial about involvement now. \"No truth to it whatsoever. Absolutely a bogus story,\" Walker said April 18, 2011 in an interview with WTMJ-AM (620)  talk show host Charlie Sykes. \"There's nobody on my staff, nobody in my administration, I'm certainly not working anything remotely close to that.\" Nevertheless, Garvey said in an interview that he still believes that Walker is involved. \"I think that’s true,\" he said. \"It all sort of fits in with a pattern.\" But thinking something is true and showing it to be true are two different things. Garvey says he discovered a secret plot by Walker to push Michigan-style legislation that would allow the state to test the finances of local governments and then take over the bad apples. The Greater Milwaukee Committee is proposing a \"good-government\" style website that would allow citizens to compare and contrast the health of local government finances. But it explicitly stops short of a Michigan-style approach. What’s more, Garvey did not uncover it (it was previously announced by the group) and he’s provided no direct evidence of involvement from Walker, who vehemently denies it. The measure could change through the legislative process, but that’s the future. Garvey had a \"scoop.\" But it was more of the gardening -- and not journalistic -- variety. Claim: Ed Garvey Says he has exposed plans by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to push legislation that would allow the state to declare financial martial law and take over municipal governments.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: The prospect of wholesale economic and social collapse exerts a peculiar magnetism on some people. The fight against the Ebola virus is custom-made for such speculations and conservative radio host Glenn Beck raised them in full during the Oct. 15 broadcast of his radio show. Beck envisioned fearful Americans avoiding trips to the mall, leading to a downward spiral in consumer spending. Although to date, the virus has only been known to be transmitted by contact with the bodily fluids of one infected person, Beck said that would change. \"Think of this America, please think of this,\" Beck said. \"Every time somebody new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates. It's going to go aerosol.\" To go \"aerosol\" would mean water droplets from a sneeze or a cough could transmit the disease. There is no recorded case of this occurring with Ebola; one study positively asserts that the virus does not spread this way. Still, Beck argued that the 8,000 victims of Ebola in West Africa represent 8,000 \"different combinations\" of Ebola. Around PunditFact, we say there’s no way to check a prediction, but what we can do is dig deeper into Beck’s claim that the Ebola virus mutates with each new person it infects. We contacted Beck’s producers and they added some nuance that Beck left out. \"Many of those mutations mean nothing, but some of them might be able to change the way the virus behaves inside the human body,\" the producers said in an email. According to two top infectious disease researchers, Beck is correct that the virus mutates, but left out what his producers later noted -- namely that not every mutation does anything to make Ebola more deadly or more difficult to treat. The explanation why can get technical, but you can break down what happens as a series of steps that reduce the impact of these genetic changes. By the way, both researchers also said that the virus doesn’t need a new victim to mutate. It mutates inside its host, even if it is never passed on. Most mutations hurt the virus You need to understand a basic fact about Ebola. As of now, there is no \"cure,\" as in there are no drugs that kill Ebola. Doctors treat the symptoms of Ebola while the body fights the virus. In that respect, it’s like the flu. Adam Lauring is an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Lauring explained that because Ebola is an RNA virus, each time it replicates in a person’s body, there’s a good chance that small changes will take place. But Lauring emphasized that most changes do not strengthen the virus or make it more resistant to human defenses. In fact, the typical mutation has the opposite effect. \"The available data consistently show that most newly generated mutations in RNA viruses reduce fitness,\" Lauring said. \"That is, most mutations are made and then lost from the population. They do not take hold.\" Put simply, the virus might mutate but it doesn’t really matter. Lauring said we should keep in mind that the Ebola virus largely works through the proteins it produces. The virus’ genes make the proteins and then the proteins help the virus infect more parts of the body. Lauring’s point is that with most mutations, the genes produce a protein that doesn’t do what the virus needs and that copy of the virus dies. Most mutations don’t change anything With the virus replicating itself billions of times in a single victim, some genetic drift will take hold. But in this group, there are two basic types: synonymous and non-synonymous. The difference is in how they affect proteins. \"Synonymous mutations don’t change the protein sequence,\" Lauring said. Remember, the proteins determine how the virus works. If the proteins remain the same, so does the virus, for all practical purposes. (This is cellular biology so things are more complicated.) Since non-synonymous mutations change proteins, we’d want to know how often they happen in Ebola. Fortunately, a large team of researchers published a paper that goes directly to that point. Stephen Gire, a researcher at the Sabeti Lab at Harvard University, was one of the authors. Gire and his colleagues recently took samples from 78 patients in Sierra Leone over a three-week period. When they drilled down into the virus’ genome, they found 40 mutations that had taken place in \"protein coding regions.\" About a third were non-synonymous. Put another way, 14 were able to change the proteins in the virus. The other 26 left the virus functionally as it had been before. Of that group of 14, eight occurred in regions that Gire called functionally interesting. But Gire emphasized, \"that doesn’t necessarily mean that these mutations changed or helped the virus.\" Without more research, Gire said it’s impossible to know if these mutations actually made the virus more successful as an organism, and more able to move from one person to the next. Mutations might not be passed on Gire and his colleagues found that even those mutations that propagated in a victim’s bloodstream might go nowhere. \"We have many instances where we see a mutation pop up, but then there are no transmissions from that patient and so that mutation potentially dies off,\" Gire said. This gets back to the central topic in Beck’s statement. It isn’t a question of whether the virus mutates, but whether it adapts to new environments and spreads out in a new form. \"Mutation is not evolution,\" said Lauring. A solemn reminder This isn’t to say Ebola is not a serious threat. Gire and his co-authors wrote that \"continued progression of this epidemic could afford an opportunity for viral adaptation, underscoring the need for rapid containment.\" At the very end of the article, there is this dedication: \"Tragically, five co-authors, who contributed greatly to public health and research efforts in Sierra Leone, contracted EVD (Ebola) and lost their battle with the disease before this manuscript could be published: Mohamed Fullah, Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi, Alice Kovoma, and S. Humarr Khan. We wish to honor their memory.\" Our ruling Beck warned that every time someone new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates. First, mutation and replication go hand in hand and infecting a new person doesn’t change that. But the much larger point is that Beck is painting mutations with a broad brush. Most of them hurt the virus and are automatic dead-ends. Of those that don’t actually hurt it, about two-thirds don’t change how Ebola functions. Of those that change how the virus functions, there’s no data to say whether the functional changes matter. However, the most recent study in West Africa found that many new varieties are not passed on to new victims. Beck’s statement about Ebola mutations is partially accurate but leaves out important details. Claim: Every time somebody new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: The White House has new ammunition for those fighting for Medicaid expansion: It would create jobs. The study by the White House Council of Economic Advisers — titled \"Missed Opportunities\" — provides a state-by-state analysis of how many jobs would be created by expanding Medicaid. The number for Florida: 63,800 jobs between 2014 and 2017. The study is part of the Obama administration’s promotion of the Affordable Care Act, which includes the federal government picking up the initial tab for Medicaid expansion. Democrats including former Gov. Charlie Crist are using the study to attack Scott for Florida’s decision not to expand Medicaid. Crist is expected to win his primary and face Scott in November. \"Expanding Medicaid would create 63k jobs -- but Rick Scott still won’t do it,\" Crist said on Twitter July 2. Florida’s Republican-led Legislature opposes expanding Medicaid. Scott once opposed it, too, but switched positions in 2013 and now supports it. Supporters of the expansion say Scott hasn’t done enough to turn the Legislature around. Here, though, we wanted to focus on jobs. Would expanding Medicaid create 63,000 jobs? White House study Medicaid is a joint state and federal program aimed at providing health insurance to the very poor. The 2010 Affordable Care Act encourages states to expand eligibility and agreed to pay 100 percent of the expansion for the first three years, declining to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond. The expansion would have covered an additional 848,000 Floridians. Studies predicting job growth are based on the idea that as states expand Medicaid, new patients will access medical services they haven’t in the past. Extra revenue will allow health care facilities to hire new workers. The new study relies on previous studies, including one about the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, in which some residents got Medicaid through a lottery. Research showed people in Medicaid got preventative tests such as mammograms, cholesterol screening and pap smears compared to the control group. The White House predicts that Medicaid expansion would allow tens of thousands of Floridians to get those preventative tests. If Florida expanded Medicaid, it would get $15 billion from the federal government between 2014 and 2016. That would lead to 63,800 cumulative \"job years\" between 2014-17. It defines a \"job year\" as one person employed for one year. The study focuses on short-term job growth -- not what would happen to jobs over the long-term. The report briefly touches on the possibility that access to Medicaid could cause some people to work less or not at all -- while healthier, less financially stressed people might work more. It cites one study that found Medicaid enrollment had a statistically insignificant impact on labor supply, while other research found reductions in labor supply. Other studies on expanding Medicaid in Florida have arrived at different numbers. The Florida Hospital Association’s most recent analysis in 2013 predicts 120,000 jobs each year over about a decade -- the association supports expansion. Moody’s, a financial analysis firm that doesn’t have a position on the health care law, last year predicted Medicaid expansion would create 10,000 to 30,000 jobs in Florida. Kaiser Family Foundation summarized 32 studies Medicaid expansion in various states including Florida and predicted that it will have a positive effect on jobs over the next decade. Experts offer caveats or criticisms of report Many experts we interviewed generally agreed that the federal government pumping more money into the state to expand Medicaid would lead to new jobs, though they cautioned it’s difficult to pinpoint a number. \"It is next to impossible to know exactly how many jobs (or which jobs) are created by a policy like this, given the many other changes in the landscape,\" said Harvard professor of health economics Katherine Baicker. While the federal government picks up the initial expansion costs, in later years the states will have to contribute. That will \"wreak havoc\" on long-term state budgets because state spending on Medicaid is forecasted to outpace state tax revenues, said Dan White, who authored the Moody’s report. Ultimately it’s a judgment call by elected officials if the cost of expansion 10 years down the line is worth the number of jobs it will provide, he said. Michael Tanner, a health care expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, says the report ignores one side of the equation. \"What about tax money Floridians have to pay into the system because we are spending more money on Medicaid? What about jobs lost because of that?\" We asked Scott’s campaign for his opinion about the jobs’ report and got back a statement that didn’t address our question. Our ruling Crist said, \"Expanding Medicaid would create 63k jobs.\" A study released by the White House said federal dollars that Florida would have gotten to expand Medicaid would create 63,800 jobs between 2014 and 2017. Most of the health care experts we interviewed agreed that injecting billions of federal dollars into Florida for Medicaid would spark some job growth, but it’s difficult to pinpoint a number, particularly as there are other changes in the health care landscape. Other studies have found numbers as high as 120,000 and as low as 10,000. Claim: Expanding Medicaid would create 63k jobs.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: The Food and Drug Administration said a study of the gel,  called Regranex, found an increase in the number of cancer  deaths among patients who had been prescribed the gel three or  more times. Regranex, approved for U.S. patients in 1997, is a  prescription gel used to treat diabetic leg and foot wounds. “At this time, FDA believes that there may be some evidence  for an increased risk of death from cancer in patients who had  repeated treatments with Regranex,” the FDA said in a  statement. “Because there are known risks associated with  diabetic foot and leg ulcers that do not heal, the potential  risk of using Regranex should be weighed against the benefit  for each individual patient.”    Barbara Montresor, a spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson’s  Ethicon Inc unit that makes the gel, said the company was  working with the agency and that Regranex is safe when used as  directed. Patients with diabetes — a disease in which blood levels  of sugar are too high — are more susceptible to developing leg  and foot wounds because they are less able to feel their feet. Concern arose following a study of adult diabetes patients  through an insurance plan database that found an increase in  cancer deaths from January 1998 through June 2003. No single  type of cancer was identified, the FDA said. The agency did not say who conducted the study or how many  patients were included, and an FDA spokeswoman declined to  comment. In an earlier study completed in 2001, more cancers were  found in Regranex patients than in those who did not use the  gel, the agency added. Ethicon’s Montresor did not immediately respond to a  request seeking more details on the studies. Shares of Johnson & Johnson closed down 8 cents at $64.62  on the New York Stock Exchange. Claim: Cancer risk seen with J&J foot gel: FDA.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: On CBS's Face the Nation on March 28, 2010, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said she will now work to repeal the health care reform bill recently signed by President Barack Obama. \"That's what I believe the American people want us to do,\" Bachmann said. \"Again the New England Journal of Medicine released a survey the week that President Obama signed Obamacare stating that over 30 percent of American physicians would leave the profession if the government took over health care. That's very serious going forward.\" First things first, the survey Bachmann is referring to was not a survey by the NEJM, nor was it published in the highly respected, peer-reviewed medical journal. It was a survey conducted by the Medicus Firm, a physicians recruiting service, and initially reported in January 2010. The firm wrote an article about the survey results, which was first published on the firm's Web site. The article was later reprinted in Recruiting Physicians Today, an advertising newsletter put out on the NEJM's Career Center Web site. The Medicus Firm neither paid to have the article published, nor was it paid for the article. It was never published in the actual New England Journal of Medicine. But it's easy to see how someone might have been confused. Although the small print explains that the survey was done by the Medicus Firm, the article prominently states at the top, \"From the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine\" and carries the NEJM seal. In mid March, people at the NEJM began to see Twitter messages citing the survey, and calling it an NEJM survey. Jennifer Zeis, a spokeswoman for the New England Journal of Medicine, said NEJM sent out several Tweets explaining that it was not an NEJM survey. And on March 17, 2010, they put up a disclaimer on the NEJM Career Center Web site: \"Recruiting Physicians Today is a free advertiser newsletter published by the Worldwide Advertising Sales and Marketing Department in the publishing division of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Each issue of the newsletter features research and content produced by physician recruiting firms and other independent groups involved in physician employment. \"On December 17, 2009 The Medicus Firm, a national physician search firm based in Dallas and Atlanta, published the results of a survey they conducted with 1,000 physicians regarding their attitudes toward health reform. \"The opinions expressed in the article linked to above represent those of The Medicus Firm only. That article does not represent the opinions of the New England Journal of Medicine or the Massachusetts Medical Society.\" Said Zeis: \"It seems that along the way, people thought this was NEJM content and it wasn't. It had nothing to do with the NEJM editorial side at all.\" Dave Dziok, a spokesman for Bachmann, said any confusion is the fault of the New England Journal of Medicine, not Bachmann. \"I know they’re doing what they can to distance themselves from the survey done by Medicus, but the fact of the matter is the New England Journal of Medicine has leant both its name and crest to the newsletter in which it was published,\" Dziok said. \"Nowhere in their newsletter do they make the disclaimer that what’s contained within it has nothing to do with the New England Journal of Medicine,\" he said. \"In fact, quite the contrary seeing as how their name is all over it. The NEJM may not have conducted the research itself as they’re stating now after the fact, but it’s certainly misleading on their end to have their name all over a publication like the one that was released with the results and then distance themselves from everything contained within it afterwards. They can’t have it both ways.\" We note that the NEJM disclaimer went up on the Web site 10 days before Bachmann made her statement on Face the Nation. And the same day the disclaimer was posted, the left-leaning Media Matters Web site explained the error, after it was reported on Fox News. Okay, so the survey was not conducted by or published in the New England Journal of Medicine. But Medicus spokeswoman Andrea Santiago said that while it was not a scientific survey, the results should not be dismissed either. The firm randomly e-mailed surveys to 2,250 physicians from their database of tens of thousands, and stopped sending them out when they had reached 1,195 responses. And contrary to the allegations of some critics, it is not a database entirely made up of doctors looking for work, Santiago said. It's a continuously updated database that originated eight years ago, she said, and includes lists of physicians purchased by the firm. The relevant question here was, \"How do you think the passage of health reform WITHOUT a public option would affect your professional/practice plans, if at all?\" A majority of physicians, 70 percent, responded, \"no change\"; while 22 percent said they \"would try to retire early\"; 8 percent said they \"would try to leave medical practice even if not near retirement age\"; and 1 percent said they would go back into practicing medicine. \"We feel like it was in line with what we were hearing from physicians on the phone,\" Santiago said. Many doctors already feel like they are being pushed out of business by declining reimbursement rates and rising malpractice insurance premiums, she said, and \"the health care reform bill exacerbates the issue.\" And it comes at a crucial time, she said, when the legislation will create a demand for many more doctors. However, she said, the results of the survey have been \"over-sensationalized\" by some as a warning that 30 percent of doctors will be leaving the profession immediately. \"Obviously that's not going to happen,\" she said, noting that the survey didn't ask point-blank if physicians were going to leave, but rather if they would \"try\" to leave. \"But I do think it's going to impact the workforce in a significant way. We thought the results were thought-provoking.\" We haven't found a reliable, independent poll of physicians asking how many would leave the profession if the health care bill passed that we could compare to the Medicus survey. The findings are consistent with a survey conducted by Investor's Business Daily back in September 2009, but we looked at that survey in October after it was cited by Glenn Beck, and concluded the results were suspect due to a number of possible influences on results. We note that the New England Journal of Medicine's Health Reform Center did publish the results of a physician survey conducted by Salomeh Keyhani and Alex Federman, internists and researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. They did not ask doctors if they would consider quitting as the Medicus poll did, but it did find that 63 percent of doctors surveyed favored giving patients a choice between public and private insurance, which is in sharp contrast to the findings of the Medicus survey. In our previous story, we noted several factors with that survey that gave us pause about that study, such as the fact that the poll received financial support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which favors health care reform, that the authors belong to a physicians organization that supports a public option, and that they donated to the Obama campaign. Still, according to an NEJM spokeswoman, the survey underwent a rigorous editorial review process that included review by staff and associate editors. In other words, it got the NEJM stamp of approval, whereas the Medicus survey did not. In conclusion, surveys performed by or published in the New England Journal of Medicine carry the weight of the journal's reputation and rigorous editorial review. Citing them as the source of a survey, as Bachmann did, lends credibility. But it was not an NEJM survey. Nor was it published in the NEJM. It was published in a free advertising newsletter geared toward the physician recruitment industry. It was conducted by a physician recruiting service that has a horse in this race. And it was not a scientific survey. We can understand how Bachmann and others may have been confused about the source of the survey. The labeling of the article as \"From the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine\" is easy to misconstrue. An NEJM spokesman said they are reviewing their policies to make sure this kind of confusion doesn't happen again. But on top of getting the source wrong, we think Bachmann sensationalizes the Medicus results, saying that \"30 percent of American physicians would leave the profession\" if the health care bill passed. The survey language was that they would \"try to leave\" or \"try to retire early\" if it passed. There's a difference. Claim: The New England Journal of Medicine released a survey the week that President Obama signed Obamacare stating that over 30 percent of American physicians would leave the profession if the government took over health care.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: “A baby that consumes a product from amongst these few (faulty) tins, can become sick with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and headaches,” Nestle Germany said on its website late on Wednesday. “We urge you to immediately seek out a doctor in such cases.”  The faulty products were amongst Alfamino 400-gram tins produced under the batch number 80250346GA. Nestle warned parents not to give the formula produced under this batch to their children, adding faulty products could be recognized by their grey or green color after preparation. Claim: Nestle recalls batch of Alfamino infant formula in Germany.",
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        },
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            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services authorized the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to use those funds to pay for short term care for patients admitted at large institutions for mental disease, rather than continuing to limit treatment to facilities with fewer than 16 beds. The state sought to extend the expanded substance abuse and serious mental illness components of the Healthy Indiana Plan through 2025. The Medicaid waiver took effect Wednesday, The Times of Northwest Indiana  reported. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services previously had authorized Medicaid funds to be used in the state for inpatient treatment at institutions for mental disease when a person is diagnosed with substance use disorder. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration says that because about one in four people with mental illness also has a substance abuse problem, the new waiver will ensure consistency in their treatment. “This waiver allows Indiana to, for the first time, offer the full continuum of treatment for Hoosiers with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders,” said FSSA Secretary Dr. Jennifer Sullivan. State records show only about half of Indiana Medicaid members receiving inpatient psychiatric services between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019, obtained them at an institution for mental diseases. The waiver is expected to allow for longer inpatient stays, improved stabilization and more successful transitions back into homes and communities, while also driving down costs associated with overuse of hospital emergency rooms for mental health problems and psychiatric crises. “My 2020 ‘Next Level’ Agenda is focused on improving the lives of Hoosiers, and a key part centers around increasing the capacity of mental health services throughout the state,” said Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb. “With this waiver in hand, we will begin to accomplish this on day one of the new year,” Holcomb said. Claim: US OKs Medicaid funds for large mental health facilities.",
            "output": "2"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, who filed the multibillion-dollar case, argued in a state court in the city of Norman that J&J should be forced to pay for helping cause the “worst manmade public health crisis in our state’s history.”  His case is the first to reach trial from around 2,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for a drug epidemic the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says led to a record 47,600 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2017. The non-jury trial came after Oklahoma resolved claims against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP in March for $270 million and against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd on Sunday for $85 million, leaving only J&J as a defendant. Brad Beckworth, a lawyer for the state, told Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman that New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J, along with Purdue and Teva, used misleading marketing beginning in the 1990s to push doctors to prescribe more opioids. Beckworth said J&J, which sold the painkillers Duragesic and Nucynta, marketed the opioids as “safe and effective for everyday pain” while downplaying their addictive qualities, helping create a drug oversupply. He said J&J was motivated to boost prescriptions not only because it sold opioid painkillers, but because it also grew and imported raw materials opioid manufacturers like Purdue used. “If you have an oversupply, people will die,” Beckworth said. J&J lawyer Larry Ottway countered that its products made up a small share of opioids prescribed in Oklahoma and carried U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved labels that warned of the  addictive risks. “You have to examine the details because facts are stubborn things,” he said. He also argued Oklahoma was seeking to “stretch” the bounds of a public nuisance statute in order to force it to pay up to $17.5 billion to help the state address the epidemic for the next 30 years. The case is being closely watched by plaintiffs in other opioid lawsuits, particularly the 1,850 cases consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio, who has been pushing for a settlement ahead of an October trial. Some plaintiffs’ lawyers have compared the cases to litigation by states against the tobacco industry that led to a $246 billion settlement in 1998. (The story fixes spelling of J&J lawyer in paragraph nine.) Claim: “The NFL agreed to give the domestic terror group, BLM, 250 million dollars.”",
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            "input": "Paragraph: China closed Shanghai Disneyland and part of the Great Wall and suspended public transportation in 10 cities as it rushed to contain the virus, stranding millions of people at the start of the country’s Lunar New Year holiday. France reported two cases on Friday evening, the first ones discovered in Europe. More were likely, Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said. Wuhan, a city of 11 million where the virus was first identified, is in virtual lockdown. Nearly all flights at Wuhan’s airport have been canceled and checkpoints block the main roads leading out of town. As the city slides into isolation, pharmacies have begun to run out of supplies and hospitals have been flooded with nervous residents. The city is rushing to build a 1,000-bed hospital by Monday, state media said. Despite the lockdown, the virus is already spreading further afield. The vast majority of the cases and all of the deaths have been in China, but it has also been detected in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Nepal and the United States. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the new virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it had 63 patients under investigation, with two confirmed cases, both in people who had traveled to Wuhan. Following a congressional briefing by health officials, Republican U.S. Senator John Barrasso, a former physician, said people in the United States with the virus may have been infected up to 14 days ago in China. “We want to try to stop and prevent people from coming to the United States if they have it,” Barrasso told reporters, without providing details of how that might be accomplished. Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China. The newly identified coronavirus has created alarm because there are still many unknowns surrounding it such as how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. It can cause pneumonia, which has been deadly in some cases. Symptoms include fever, difficulty breathing and coughing. Most of the fatalities have been in elderly patients, many with pre-existing medical conditions, the World Health Organization said. As of Thursday, China’s National Health Commission said there were 830 confirmed cases and 26 deaths. Most cases have been in Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated in a market that traded illegally in wildlife. As China scrambles to contain the outbreak, it has suspended transportation in 10 cities in the central province of Hubei, where Wuhan is located, the Hubei Daily reported. The country will take further, more targeted measures, state television reported, citing a State Council meeting on Friday. It did not give further details. “Local authorities should take more responsibility and have a stronger sense of urgency,” state broadcaster CCTV said. Week-long celebrations to welcome the Year of the Rat began on Friday, raising fears that the infection rate could accelerate as hundreds of millions of people travel to see family at home and abroad. In Wuhan, a handful of people got off a high-speed train that pulled into the city’s station on Friday but nobody boarded. “What choice do I have? It’s Chinese New Year. We have to see our family,” said a man getting off the train who gave his family name Hu. As part of the restrictions, some sections of the Great Wall near Beijing will be closed from Saturday, state media said. Beijing’s Lama Temple, where people traditionally make offerings for the new year, has closed, as have some other temples and the Forbidden City, the capital’s most famous tourist attraction. Shanghai Disneyland will close starting on Saturday. The theme park has a 100,000 daily capacity and sold out during last year’s new year holiday. Film premieres have been postponed and McDonald’s suspended business in five cities in Hubei province. “There’s so much news, so much data, every 10 minutes there’s an update, it’s frightening, especially for people like us in a severely hit area,” Lily Jin, 30, a resident of Wuhan, told Reuters by phone. The WHO said on Thursday it was a “bit too early” to designate the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, which would require countries to step up their response. That decision could well be reassessed in coming days as the situation evolves, said Anthony Fauci, the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s top infectious disease official, adding that it was “open to question” whether shutting down travel would have a major effect. “The mass involuntary quarantine in Wuhan and its neighboring cities is counterproductive,” added Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University Law School in Washington. “A lockdown of Wuhan will drive the epidemic underground, provoking fear and panic.”   Some experts believe the virus is not as dangerous as the one that caused the 2002-03 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which also began in China and killed nearly 800 people, or the one that caused Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has killed more than 700 people since 2012. Three international research teams - using different approaches - have begun work on vaccines, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations said. Markets have been roiled this week on fears that the outbreak will curb travel and hurt economic demand. Shares in luxury goods companies have been particularly hard hit on fears of a drop in demand from China. Claim: China heads into Lunar New Year on shutdown as virus spreads to Europe.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There have been many printed             references to this story and connected it to the great American band             leader, Tommy Dorsey. But the classic gospel song “Precious Lord Take My Hand”             was actually written by a different man with the same name. The trombonist and band leader named Tommy Dorsey was born in 1905             and died in 1956. Tommy Dorsey the composer of “Precious Lord Take My Hand”             was a jazz pianist and composer was born in 1899 and died in 1993. He is regarded by many as the father of gospel music. After a successful career as a blues musician, he switched to gospel             music. For more than 40 years, he was the choir director Chicago’s Pilgrim             Baptist Church. The actual story of the tragic death of his wife is a bit different             from the eRumor. In an account in his own words written for Guideposts Magazine,             Dorsey said he was actually scheduled to be in St. Louis to sing for             a revival. He had anxiety about going because his wife was in her 9th month of             pregnancy             When he left his home to head for St. Louis, he realized that he had             forgotten his music case, so he returned to get it and found his             wife sleeping. He stood next to her and felt that something was telling him to stay             home. He decided to leave and headed back to his car for the drive to the             meetings. The next night at the revival and after he had finished singing, a             telegram was handed to him that said his wife had just died. He returned home to learn that his wife had given birth to a baby             boy before she died. Before the night was over, the baby had died as well. Dorsey went through a difficult period after that. He said he wanted to give up serving the Lord and go back to jazz. One of the thoughts that haunted him was whether his reluctance to             leave his pregnant wife had been a leading from God and whether he             had been disobedient by ignoring it. He vowed that he would never be insensitive to such a leading again. It was during a subsequent visit to a friend that he sat down at a             piano and found himself at peace and a melody being played. That became the song “Precious Lord Take My Hand.”             Dorsey wrote, “As the Lord gave me             these words and melody, He also healed my spirit. I learned that             when we are in our deepest grief, when we feel farthest from God,             this is when He is closest, and when we are most open to His             restoring power. And so I go on living for God willingly and             joyfully, until that day comes when He will take me and gently lead             me home.”    Comments Claim:   The story of a jazz             musician named Tommy who went through a personal tragedy that led to             his writing the song “Precious Lord Take My Hand.”             He was Tommy Dorsey, the great trombonist and band leader.    ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Dr. Keith Albow wrote a column in February 2017 that concluded President Trump is “stone cold sane” and that, based on his business empire, Trump is a genius. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, and in the opening months of Trump’s presidency, however, Dr. Keith Albow has not made his support for Trump — and his opposition to Hillary Clinton — a secret. It should also be noted that Albow has routinely disclosed that he’s never personally evaluated the president in an in-person examination. The commentary written by Dr. Keith Albow on President appeared at Fox News in February 2017 under the headline, “Relax, Trump is Stone Cold Sane.” After acknowledging that he has never personally examined Trump, Albow wrote: Donald Trump is stone cold sane. When a man acquires billions of dollars through complex real estate transactions, invests in many countries, goes on to phenomenal success in television and turns his name into a worldwide brand, it is very unlikely that he is mentally unstable. When the same man obviously enjoys the love and respect of his children and his wife, who seem to rely on him for support and guidance, it is extraordinarily unlikely that he is mentally unstable. When the same man walks into the political arena and deftly defeats 16 Republican opponents and then the Democratic heir-apparent to a two-term president’s administration, the odds of that man being mentally unstable become vanishingly thin. Dr. Keith Albow also pointed the stock market rally after President Trump’s inauguration as evidence that the president was sane because the market doesn’t like uncertainty and investors “can take the measure of a man pretty darn well.” Albow’s column was widely circulated via forwarded emails and in social media posts. Many times the commentary was described as a letter by Dr. Keith Albow on Trump, but it was actually an op-ed published by Fox News. Dr. Keith Albow also spoke about President Trump’s mental stability during the campaign. Albow said on Fox News, via a transcript and video posted at the left-wing media watchdog Media Matters for America website, that Trump had demonstrated great restraint when the size of his hands became a topic of discussion during a debate: “Well, sure, it’s something that every candidate probably does, probably should do. Psychology’s a very powerful tool to unearth what does get under people’s skin, if you will. But listen, with Donald Trump, kind of what you see is what you get. I have to say, when the small hands issue was raised during the debate, this supposedly got the Clinton campaign very excited. They thought, “Man, he’s off his game.” He wasn’t off his game at all. Freud would have been standing up, like applauding, standing ovation. To be able to address such an intensely personal issue and say, “Listen, there’s no problem in that department,” to me that showed an incredible degree of psychological strength. With Donald Trump, he may err, he may make errors in saying what he thinks, telling us the truth, saying things that are gritty, perhaps attacking with some unkind words, which he could scale back, but you know what, his demons are on his sleeve. There’s not a lot of psychoanalysis that hasn’t been presented already.” In addition to supporting Trump, Dr. Keith Albow also openly opposed Hillary Clinton’s candidacy during the 2016 election. In September 2016, Albow penned another column that appeared at Fox News under the headline, “Dr. Keith Ablow: Hillary Clinton — Inside the mind of a shameless liar.” In the column, Albow concludes: Hillary Clinton is the one whose psychological make up would seem to leave her vulnerable. Her penchant for lying is a problem, but the really big problem is that she seems unable to determine when her lies are registering with audiences as clearly untrue. At the core, people who lie transparently do so because they lack empathy—the ability to intuit and vicariously experience what others are thinking and feeling. Locked behind walls of narcissism or arrogance or imperiousness, consumed with the pursuit of power, they can’t tell convincing lies because they can’t truly resonate with how their words and mannerisms are being received. It’s important to note that in publicly rendering his opinion on both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton without an in-person examination, Albow defied the American Psychology Association’s so-called “Goldwater Rule,” which prohibits mental health professionals from rendering opinions on subjects without first examining them. Just as in the case of rumors that President Trump is suffering from dementia (a claim we found to unproven), any claims made by mental health professionals about politicians without first examining them should be considered their personal, not medical, opinion. Comments Claim:  A letter by Dr. Keith Albow said President Trump is “stone cold sane” and that “there’s a genius in the Oval Office” in response to critics who have questioned the president’s mental fitness. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Amid a growing awareness that sex trafficking is a problem in Rhode Island, the public access program \"State of the State\" broadcast a discussion of the issue. During the show, host Rebecca Quigley offered several statistics about sex workers. One in particular caught our ear. \"Once a woman enters into the sex trade,\" she said, \"her average life expectancy is seven years, with AIDS and homicide as the top killers.\" So if a 18-year-old woman starts working as a prostitute, she's likely to be dead by age 25? We decided to check out that provocative statistic. We found the claim echoed in many sites on the Internet, including Ohio Catholic Conference, The Straight Dope, CNN and others. In contrast, we located a 2004 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology that used 33 years of data to examine the lives of female prostitutes in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Nearly 2,000 were ultimately tracked. Some had been in the business for a few years, others for much longer. The researchers found that fewer than 8 percent died over the three decades. When we tracked down the authors, they said the actual life expectancy, like so many statistics used in the prostitution debate, isn't really known. But, they said, it's not seven years. \"If you had a life expectancy that short, you'd have difficulty replenishing the pool with new prostitutes,\" said coauthor Devon D. Brewer, who directs Interdisciplinary Scientific Research, a Seattle-based research and consulting firm. \"It's tough to put into words how dramatic an overstatement that is. There's zero basis that I'm aware of for making statements like that.\" \"The truth is, the vast majority of women who enter into prostitution leave the trade alive, so to say a life expectancy of seven years . . . There is no basis for anything that incredibly dramatic,\" he said. \"That's a statement that gains credence because it's repeated so often and it perhaps has very little to do with reality,\" said chief author John J. Potterat, now retired from the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment in Colorado Springs. When we heard back from Quigley, she cited several sources we had seen that made the same claim, including an article from Emergency Physicians Monthly that traced a variant of the claim to Melissa Farley, clinical psychologist, founder and director of Prostitution Research and Education, based in San Francisco. She's an anti-prostitution activist. Farley told us that, although she's heard the statistic, she's never seen any documentation to back it up. What is true, the experts all agreed, is that prostitution is a very dangerous profession. The fact that the seven-year statistic is wrong, said Brewer, the Seattle scholar, \"doesn't take away from the fact that the risk of death that prostitute women face is higher than any other set of women ever studied, at least the risk of homicide. Does that mean most prostitutes are getting killed? No. It means compared to other women in other professions it's the one you're mostly likely to be murdered in.\" Brewer and his colleagues estimated that the women they studied faced a 1 percent chance of being murdered during their prostitution career. That murder rate, by the way, has also spawned another bogus statistic — that prostitutes typically die around age 34. What Brewer, Potterat and their colleagues actually found was that among the 21 prostitutes in their study who were murdered, their average age when they died was 34. As retired call girl Maggie McNeill noted last year in the Washington Post, to say that's \"the average life expectancy of all street workers, or of all sex workers . . . would be analogous to saying that because the average soldier who is killed in battle is 21 years old, the average man who joins the military dies at 21.\" Quigley's best source supporting her claim — and one we found as well — was the FBI. In an FBI document titled \"FY 2011 Budget Request At A Glance,\" the bureau asks for $333 million and 831 positions to fight child exploitation. The fact sheet claims, \"Studies estimate between 200,000 and 300,000 children are being forced into prostitution at any given time in the United States. The average age of a new child prostitute is 13, and the life expectancy after becoming a child prostitute is 7 years.\" No source is cited. We couldn't find another FBI document that repeated the seven-year claim. So the FBI was only talking about child prostitution, not prostitution in general. And when we contacted the FBI, the agency repudiated the statistic. Spokesman Christopher M. Allen said that after checking with the bureau's Violent Crimes Against Children Section, it appears that the seven-year life expectancy claim may have come from a case the FBI handled, one that involved several victims. \"It should not be considered a general statement of FBI findings,\" Allen wrote in an email. Our ruling Rebecca Quigley said, \"Once a woman enters into the sex trade, her average life expectancy is seven years.\" She — like many others on the Internet — are incorrectly quoting a FBI budget report that only deals with child prostitution and offers no documentation. And the FBI is now trying to set the record straight. There’s little doubt that prostitution can be one of the most dangerous endeavors undertaken by a woman. But the seven-year claim is flat out . (If you have a claim you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, email us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.) Claim: Once a woman enters into the sex trade, her average life expectancy is seven years.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Benzene is a harmful chemical that can exist both   inside vehicles and in the open air but warnings such as this eRumor about airing out your car interior   may be overblown. The American Chemical Society released a report in 2007 saying that   the interiors of motor vehicles were found to contain of  a “wide   variety of synthetic materials, which emit volatile organic compounds.”    The investigation concluded that there was no indication of the   emissions being any sort of “apparent health hazard of parked motor   vehicle indoor air.”   Click for report. Benzene comes from   coal and petroleum products and is one   of the most commonly made chemicals in the United States. It is a colorless liquid with a sweet   smell that evaporates when it makes contact with the air. Benzene   is present in cigarette smoke, car exhausts, and can also be found in glues and   paints, according to the Center   for Disease Control (CDC). The   CDC   Fact Sheet on Benzene says, “Breathing in unusually high doses of   benzene can cause difficulty in thinking, changes in heart function,   unconsciousness, or death. In smaller amounts over longer periods of   time, benzene can also decrease the formation of blood cells. Benzene is   considered to be a cancer-causing chemical.”   Exposure   to benzene can come from consuming contaminated food or beverages but   most people come into contact with it by breathing it in the air. The   CDC says, “Benzene gets into the air from forest fires, car emissions,   gasoline vapors, and tobacco smoke. People who work with petroleum   products, including gasoline, are exposed to benzene by touching or   breathing in the chemical.”  This warning   might have been sparked by a report from almost decade ago by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research   Organization (CSIRO). In a  December 19, 2001 report, the organization found “high levels of air   toxic emissions in new motor vehicles for up to six months and longer   after they leave the showroom.” That research, however was conducted on   three automobiles manufactured in Australia and one imported vehicle,   the origin of which was not revealed. updated 04/29/10 Comments Claim:  A warning about a chemical   called benzene that is linked to cancer such as leukemia .  The   warning says that benzene can build up inside parked automobiles and   suggests that drivers roll down   their windows to ventilate the car’s interior prior to switching on   the air conditioner.      ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no discussion of the costs involved with hormone replacement therapy although, with a story about risks of HRT, it is somewhat understandable that a discussion of costs was not vital. The story does not quantify the risks of hormone therapy, in absolute terms or otherwise. This is particularly important for this subject because the risks involved are relatively small. For example, in the study, the risk of breast cancer was less than one half of one percent per year in the hormone therapy group. The story mentions blood clots, breast cancer, and heart attack as risks of hormone therapy. Other than to describe the study as \"sweeping\" the story does not adequately describe the strength of the new evidence. Most importantly, the story does not explain that these findings do not necessarily apply to younger women who take hormone therapy for shorter periods of time. The story does not engage in disease mongering. The story quotes more than one expert. The story briefly mentions that \"many women taking HRT are getting a treatment which is considered safer, often at half the dose and only for a couple of years\" but that gives the viewer little information about what that option is or how much safer it may be. Clearly hormone therapy is available. Clearly hormone therapy is not a new idea. Because the story quotes multiple experts, the viewer can assume the story did not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. Claim: Women who quit hormone therapy still live with cancer risk",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Outlining a global plan to fight the viral disease and get ahead of a potential global outbreak, the WHO said the next influenza pandemic “is a matter of when, not if”. “The threat of pandemic influenza is ever-present,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, said in a statement. “We must be vigilant and prepared – the cost of a major influenza outbreak will far outweigh the price of prevention.”  The world’s last flu pandemic was caused by the H1N1 virus, which spread around the world in 2009 and 2010. Studies of that pandemic found that at least one in five people worldwide were infected in the first year, and the death rate was 0.02 percent. Global health experts and the WHO warn there is a risk that a more deadly flu virus will one day jump from animals to people, mutate and infect many hundreds of thousands of people. Flu viruses are multiple and ever-changing, and they infect around a billion people every year around the world in seasonal outbreaks. Of those infections, around 3 to 5 million are severe cases, leading to between 290,000 and 650,000 seasonal flu-related respiratory deaths. Vaccines can help prevent some cases, and the WHO recommends annual vaccination - especially for people working in health care and for vulnerable people such as the old, the very young and people with underlying illness. The WHO plan - which it described as its most comprehensive to date - includes measures to try to protect populations as much as possible from annual outbreaks of seasonal flu, as well as prepare for a pandemic. Its two main goals, the WHO said, are to improve worldwide capacities for surveillance and response - by urging all governments to develop a national flu plan, and to develop better tools to prevent, detect, control and treat flu, such as more effective vaccines and antiviral drugs. Claim: World must prepare for inevitable next flu pandemic, WHO says.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Florida’s closely watched U.S. Senate race pits incumbent Republican Marco Rubio against Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy. Recently, Rubio got some help from the free-market group Americans for Prosperity, which created an ad attacking Murphy as \"Pay-More Patrick.\" One of the claims in the ad was an attack on Murphy’s support for the Affordable Care Act, a law sometimes called Obamacare after the president who signed it into law. In the ad, a narrator says, \"Patrick Murphy says he wants to serve in the U.S. Senate, but who does he really want to serve? As a member of Congress, ‘Pay-More’ Patrick has voted for big payouts to special interests. Our health care premiums are going up, and 300,000 Floridians have lost their health insurance. And yet, ‘Pay-More’ Patrick voted not once, not twice, but nine times for Obamacare.\" Here, we’ll check the assertion that \"300,000 Floridians have lost their health insurance\" as a result of Obamacare. Where the number came from The 300,000 figure has a long history. As we have noted previously, it stems from the 300,000 policyholders in October 2013 who received notices from the insurance company Florida Blue that their insurance plans didn’t meet the new rules under the Affordable Care Act. Those rules were intended to phase out \"bare bones\" plans that didn’t include features like prescription drug coverage or hospital stays. Florida Blue sent those 300,000 customers letters informing them that their plans would end and offering guidance on how to get signed up for a new plan. \"Florida Blue is proactively communicating to these members to help them understand how this transition affects them,\" the company said at the time. \"Prior to their 2014 renewal date, each member will receive a letter that instructs them to contact Florida Blue to review their migration options. These new plans will offer members access to more comprehensive benefits in 2014.\" Opponents of the Affordable Care Act seized on the 300,000 number as a sign of problems for the newly implemented law, and it became an issue during the 2014 campaign cycle. Twice, we took issue with the use of the statistic for not providing full context about the number. Rubio himself earned a rating for saying, \"300,000 people are going to lose their individual coverage because of Obamacare. Now those people next year, they don’t have health insurance.\" Since the company provided assistance with switching plans, we argued that Rubio was jumping the gun by saying flatly that they wouldn’t have insurance. What has happened since? So what happened to those 300,000 people in the succeeding three years? As it turns out, the vast majority of the 300,000 found coverage -- with Florida Blue. \"More than 80 percent of the approximately 300,000 members remained with Florida Blue,\" company spokesman Paul C. Kluding told PolitiFact. That would leave at most 60,000 people -- not 300,000 -- who lost their health insurance as a result of that provision of the law. But even that number is probably high. Remember, the 80 percent figure refers to the policyholders who remained with Florida Blue. But the other 20 percent didn’t necessarily become uninsured -- they just didn’t get a Florida Blue plan. They could have found another private plan, or they could have found other private insurance -- including a plan purchased on one of the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces. So at the very least, the ad reanimates a years-old number that was known to be preliminary and in flux. Florida’s new insurance signups The use of the 300,000 number is misleading in a second way: It ignores the coverage gains of the Affordable Care Act in the state. More than 1.7 million Floridians purchased plans through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces between Nov. 1, 2015, and Feb. 1, 2016. And the number affected by the law could have been many more if Florida had moved to expand Medicaid under the law, as many other states did. This is a big enough increase to wipe out the 300,000 policies \"lost\" -- which, as we noted, is an exaggerated number -- and it positively dwarfs the 60,000 number, which itself might be exaggerated. The impact of the Affordable Care Act on Florida can be seen clearly in newly released federal data on uninsured residents in every state. In 2013, 20 percent of Floridians lacked health coverage. In 2014, that number fell to 16.6 percent, and in 2015, it fell again to 13.3 percent. That’s a decrease in Florida’s uninsured population by one-third over two years. Americans for Prosperity responds Andres Malave, a spokesman for Americans for Prosperity, made several arguments for why the message of the ad was valid. One is that those 300,000 faced administrative headaches in continuing their insurance or finding a new plan, sometimes more than once. He also had a point that not all of the 1.7 million residents who purchased a marketplace plan were uninsured before that. However, the overall uninsured rates suggest that many people were indeed moving from uninsured to insured over the previous two years. (Malave argued that the recovering economy in the state deserves credit for the higher insurance coverage rates, rather than just the Affordable Care Act.) Our ruling Americans for Prosperity said that \"300,000 Floridians have lost their health insurance\" as a result of Obamacare. Even in 2013 this assertion was not entirely correct, and now, more than three years later, we know it’s not correct. Only about 60,000 people failed to re-up with Florida Blue, and there’s a good chance that many of those 60,000 found coverage elsewhere -- including through the Obamacare exchanges. Indeed, in the most recent year, the Obamacare marketplace has enabled 1.7 million Floridians to sign up for coverage, a far bigger number than the losses cited in the ad. Finally, the uninsured rate in Florida has fallen by one-third since 2013, which paints a very different picture than the ad’s zombie statistic. Claim: 300,000 Floridians have lost their health insurance\" as a result of Obamacare.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 15 February 2017, the web site ConservativeDailyPost.com published an inaccurate story bearing the headline, “Post-Emergency Report Concludes: CA Governor Directed Critical Dam Funds To Programs For Illegals,” and reporting that a nonexistent post-emergency report found that California governor Jerry Brown spent $25 billion on programs for undocumented immigrants rather than investing in fixing the Oroville Dam, leading to current dangerous conditions in Northern California: Despite warnings about the flood danger posed by the Oroville Dam twelve years ago, flaky California Democratic Governor Jerry Brown ignored the warnings in favor of spending $25 billion per year on illegal immigrants. Now the chickens are coming home to roost as rainstorms later in the week could cause the neglected portion of the dam to dump large amounts of water on downtown Oroville. Brown stands revealed as spending money on unlawful immigrants rather than protecting the more than 20 million farmers and residential consumers the dam provides water to. While it is true that environmental groups have been warning state and federal authorities about structural deficiencies at Oroville Dam since well before Brown took office, the dam and programs for undocumented immigrants are funded from separate budget sources, thus spending on one does not impact the other. Ted Thomas, spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources, told us: Lake Oroville is part of the State Water Project, which is owned and operated by the California Department of Water Resources. All of the construction, operation, and maintenance costs of the State Water Project are paid by the 29 public water agencies (known as the SWP contractors) that take delivery of water from the project. ConservativeDailyPost.com linked to an article from the Washington Times, which quoted conservatives critical of the California governor for failing to address issues with the dam while spending on programs for undocumented people and a high-speed rail project. The article cites others who said President Trump should help repair the dam, instead of building a new wall at the U.S.-Mexico border: Critics of California’s willingness to spend billions of dollars on high-speed rail and services for illegal immigrants were quick to draw parallels to the state’s failure to invest in the Oroville Dam. The cost of fixing the spillway alone is now $200 million. Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative student group Turning Point USA, fired off a meme Monday saying, “California Governor Jerry Brown spends $25 billion per year to support illegal immigrants/I wonder how much Governor Brown spent to maintain the Oroville Dam?” Others defended Mr. Brown, pointing out that the emergency spillway had never been used until this year and that the catastrophic rainstorms came as a shock, especially after five years of drought. Still others turned the crisis into an opportunity to blast Mr. Trump, saying he should repair the Oroville Dam instead of building a wall on the southern border. While the article doesn’t say where Kirk’s meme sourced its “$25 billion” figure, a 2014 study by immigrant reduction proponents Federation for American Immigration Reform claimed that undocumented immigrants cost the Golden State $25.3 billion annually. The claim is questionable, however, because the group lumps U.S. citizens born to undocumented immigrants in with non-citizen children when estimating the cost of education: Nearly half of those expenditures ($12.3 billion) result from the costs of K-12 education for the children of illegal aliens — both those illegally in the country and those born in the United States. Another major outlay ($2.1 billion) results from the need to provide supplemental English language instruction to Limited English Proficient students, many of whom are children of illegal aliens. Together, these educational costs are 57.1 percent of total expenditures. Further, the study is vague about items like how researchers estimated public safety and judicial costs and what figures they used to estimate health care costs — and here again, the group lumped in children who are American citizens born to undocumented parents along with children who are undocumented. We could not locate any confirmation that undocumented people cost California taxpayers $25 billion yearly, and this report appears flawed because it includes American citizens in its estimation of that cost. What is true is that environmental experts have been warning officials since at least 2003 about the now-compromised spillway that is threatening to collapse and flood communities below. As early as 2003, Friends of the River, the Sierra Club, and the South Yuba River Citizens League have been warning state and federal officials that the spillway was unsound. In a 2003 letter, the groups wrote: We are concerned that the physical structure of the ungated spillway may not comport well with the exist well with the existing reservoir regulation manual that calls for use of reservoir surcharge space by utilizing the Dam’s ungated spillway when appropriate…  At present, the ungated spillway at Oroville Dam consists of a spillway lip only – and utilizes a hillside as the project spillway. Utilizing such a spillway has the potential to cause severe damage to the downstream hillside, project facilities, and downstream environments located in the path of the flood release… We do not believe that it is in the Department’s best interest to pursue a relicensing strategy that might in practice reduce the effective flood control space at Oroville Dam. Rather, it would seem prudent to seek approval from FERC for modifications to the Dam such as the construction of a spillway below the ungated spillway lip that would allow Dam operators to operate the Dam consistent with the existing and desired flood operation rules without causing significant damages or disruption to project land and facilities. The Washington Post explains: In October 2005, as the Oroville Dam was going through a re-licensing process, the three groups filed a motion urging a federal regulatory agency to require state officials to armor the emergency spillway with concrete so that in the event of extreme rain and flooding, water would not freely cascade down and erode the hillside. The upgrade would have cost millions of dollars and no one wanted to foot the bill, said Ronald Stork, senior policy advocate for Friends of the River, one of the groups that filed the motion. “When the dam is overfull, water goes over that weir and down the hillside, taking much of the hillside with it,” Stork told The Washington Post. “That causes huge amounts of havoc. There’s roads, there’s transmission lines, power lines that are potentially in the way of that water going down that auxiliary spillway.” Federal officials, however, determined that nothing was wrong and the emergency spillway, which can handle 350,000 cubic feet of water per second, “would perform as designed” and sediment resulting from erosion would be insignificant, according to a July 2006 memo from John Onderdonk, then a senior civil engineer for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Eleven years later, flooding due to mid-February 2017 storms forced nearly 200,000 residents living in the dam’s shadow to evacuate their homes. As of 16 February 2017, crews are working to shore up the structure as more heavy rain is expected in the coming week. Stork told us: We were told not to worry our pretty little heads and they just ignored the issue of throwing the hillside into the channel below, saying that would never happen. Mother Nature just demonstrated they were incorrect. Claim: The state of California ignored structural issues with the Oroville dam and paid for programs to benefit undocumented people instead.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a video ad, Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte presents Republican nominee Dan Patrick as too extreme on vital public safety issues. The ad’s narrator initially says Patrick, a Houston senator, \"would deny victims of rape any options at all,\" a claim rooted in Patrick’s statement in a January 2014 debate that he would permit an abortion only to save the life of an endangered mother. \"And,\" the narrator says, \"he voted against funding to test the backlog of rape kits. Allowing rapists to walk free.\" Patrick, the narrator says, \"is just too dangerous.\" Did Patrick vote against testing backlogged rape kits, letting rapists walk? Van de Putte cites Patrick vote against 2014-15 state budget Manny Garcia, a spokesman for Van de Putte, a San Antonio state senator, told us by email the basis of her rape-kit claim was Patrick’s vote against the final version of the overall 2014-15 state budget that cleared the Senate in May 2013. A backup document Garcia sent over noted a June 6, 2013, Texas Tribune news story stating that the budget allotted $11 million to the Texas Department of Public Safety \"to help address the state’s massive backlog of untested rape kits. \"In 2011,\" the story said, \"the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1636, by state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, which requires that state law enforcement agencies report the number of untested rape kits and submit a certain number to DPS for testing.\" The story said the new funding would  \"cover the outsourcing costs to have the kits tested, and DPS estimates that based on historical data, about half of the untested kits will yield traces of DNA.\" According to legislative records, Davis in May 2011 won unanimous Senate approval of her proposal when it was sent to the House and again in the body’s concurrence with House amendments--meaning Patrick voted \"aye\" twice as well. We asked the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault about the impact of the funding. A staff attorney, Chris Kaiser, said by email the tests are just starting to happen, but it’s \"reasonable to assume that out of all those kits there will be some investigations and prosecutions resulting from DNA hits. However, we’re talking about fairly long-term effects of the 82nd Legislature’s funding, not immediate analysis that is helping to scoop offenders off the streets today.\" Patrick’s actions in 2013 session Next, we focused on Patrick’s actions. As noted in a previous fact check, Patrick was among four senators who voted against the final version of the 2014-15 state budget. In a May 30, 2013, public interview with the Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith, Patrick said he voted \"no\" -- after backing earlier versions -- because education initiatives, including funds to pay for students to take the SAT, weren’t in it. He did not mention the budgeted money to test the kits. Legislative records show Patrick supporting, and even having a hand in launching, the spending to test the kits. Patrick serves on the Senate Finance Committee, which on March 13, 2013, unanimously voted in favor of the panel’s version of Senate Bill 1, the budget act, including the money for testing the kits. To our inquiry about Patrick’s position on the rape-kit expenditure in the 2013 session, Torie Camp, an Austin consultant who was then a TAASA official, emailed us what she described as a March 13, 2013, Senate Finance Committee document indicating Patrick was among a subset of senators to initially put the kit funding into the budget. The document, including the typed notation \"tentative work group decisions,\" indicates several committee members, including Patrick, were tasked as a \"work group\" with resolving the finance panel’s public safety new spending items. And, the document indicates, those senators by that date had agreed to pencil in $10.95 million in state revenue to pay for outsourcing DNA screening and testing services for approximately 10,000 sexual assault kits a year. (The document is also posted online by the Legislative Budget Board which has also posted a similar document indicating the commitment of money to the kits was an unsettled issue for senators as of Feb. 12, 2013.) On March 20, 2013, Patrick was among 28 senators who voted to advance the budget (including the kit-test funding) to the House, according to the Senate Journal entry for that day. Two senators (though not Patrick) voted \"no.\" Generally in the 2013 session, Camp said by phone, \"we never got a sense that anybody was opposed to this money in there. This wasn’t something anybody wanted to oppose.\" Rapists walking free? Camp said that after the budget took effect in September 2013, DPS proceeded to bid out the tests of the kits to private laboratories which, Camp said, started working through kits in fall 2014. Camp said it makes sense that some of the resulting DNA \"hits,\" to be passed along by DPS to local police departments, will lead to individuals being convicted of assaults -- and be taken off the streets. For now,\" she said, \"we’re just not far enough into the process to know we’re going to take sexual offenders off the streets. But my guess is we will.\" By email, DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said that effective June 2014, the agency had an agreement for the University of North Texas Health Science Center to test about 1,000 kits. Also, Vinger said, the department has contracted with companies in Dallas and Virginia to test the kits. \"In the coming months, we will ultimately direct agencies where to send their kits,\" he said. \"The actual testing is expected to take place over two years.\" Vinger said DPS doesn’t track successful prosecutions related to sexual assault testing  — whether via kits or other evidence. Vinger also said \"backlog\" is misleading in reference to the kits now being tested since most of them hadn’t previously been submitted to a crime lab for testing, based on decisions by local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, he said. In August 2013, according to a New York Times/Texas Tribune news story published at the time, DPS estimated there were close to 20,000 untested kits statewide per information from various law enforcement agencies. The story said the untested kits had collected in police evidence rooms amid tight budgets, overworked crime labs and, in some cases, determinations by authorities that there was insufficient cause to test a kit. By email, we pointed out to Van de Putte that Patrick evidently played a role in initially putting the money for testing the kits into the budget and there is no indication his vote against the full final budget allowed rapists to walk. Garcia, stressing Patrick’s opposition to the final budget, emailed: \"If it was up to him alone, the budget would not have passed at that point in time, Meaning that testing for the rape kits would not be funded.\" Our ruling Van de Putte said Patrick voted \"against funding to test the backlog of rape kits, allowing rapists to walk free.\" This claim is flawed in various ways -- starting with blaming Patrick for a result that didn’t come to be. In reality, Patrick appears to have been among senators to initially put the kit-test funding into the state budget. And while he voted against the final overall budget, there’s no indication he did so to stop the kits from being tested. Also, the contention that rapists walked free as a result of Patrick’s action is incorrect. The funding (to repeat) passed into law. When a statement is incorrect and ridiculous, the Truth-O-Meter warms up in a hurry. ! PANTS ON FIRE – The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim. Claim: In 2013,\" Dan Patrick voted \"against funding to test the backlog of rape kits, allowing rapists to walk free.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While WebMD missed the cost component, Reuters smartly raised this issue and discussed how future research will be funded. “All of the funding for the University of Pennsylvania’s gene therapy work has come from the academic community, but the work is expensive. ‘We are looking for corporate partners as we head into Phase II trials,’ Kalos said.” As in the WebMD story, this story stated that, “Two participants in the Phase I trial have been in remission for up to a year. A third had a strong anti-tumor response, and his cancer remains in check.” The WebMD story provided more details, though. The story gave short shrift to potential harms. The WebMD story stated more plainly that patients suffered debilitating side effects and, in one case, had to be treated with steroids that may have hindered the effectiveness of the cancer therapy. The story allowed the study’s authors, who are understandably excited by the findings, to make overly effusive statements that overshadow some of the more cautionary notes in the story. For example, the story quotes Dr. Michael Kalos saying, “We put a key onto the surface of the T-cells that fits into a lock that only the cancer cells have.” The story then goes on to say that the patients “had to be treated with an immunity-boosting drug since the targeted molecule, CD-19, is also present on certain normal immune-system cells.” That doesn’t sound like a key that only fits cancer. The story could have overtly addressed this dissonace to help explain it to readers who may have been confused. The story did not engage in disease-mongering. Both stories cited just one outside source. The Reuters story, though, did a superior job here by quoting someone who had some words of caution. Dr. Walter Urba of the Providence Cancer Center in Portland warned that “the long-term viability of the treatment is still unknown.” We were surprised to see no mention of radiation, chemotherapy or bone marrow transplants in this story. At a minimum, the WebMD story discussed bone marrow transplants. The story does note the study is a Phase 1 trial iin the 4th sentence and also notes that researchers intend to enroll four more subjects. WebMD did a better job showing that, even for people hoping to enroll in a trial for this therapy, the odds will be long. We wish stories would take for granted that readers know what Phase I and Phase II means. Satisfactory job establishing the novelty – even in the first line of the story. Neither story relied on this University of Pennsylvania news release. Claim: Gene therapy shown to destroy leukemia tumors",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The broadcast mentioned that a breast ultrasound is less expensive than MRI, but it does not list the cost. Medicare reimbursement for breast ultrasound is $85, \"which does not fully cover the costs of perfoming and interpreting the examination.\" [ref Berg]. This highlights the common cost problem of insurance payments not being sufficient to cover costs. The same situation applies for mammography – hospitals lose money on every mammogram they do. The source article contains information on issues related to increased resources anticipated with additional screening. Discussion could have easily been included. The story does quantify some of the benefits of treatment, namely, 49% of cancers were detected by mammogram alone, and 78% of cancers were detected by mammography plus ultrasound. The broadcast does not list important absolute data included in the study, namely, that the addition of ultrasound found about 4 additional cancers per 1000 women (7.6 per 1000 with mammography v. 11.8 per 1000 with ultrasound and mammography). We believe that absolute benefit data are far more helpful for viewers and should have been included. The story mentioned the potential harms of treatment, which may be an increase in false-positives, unnecessary biopsy, and anxiety. False positives may decrease with additional screening, such as an MRI, or when ultrasound is done annually. The high rate of false positives with mammography plus ultrasound meant that only about 1 in 10 women with cancer suspected on combined screening turned out to have cancer when biopsy was done, whereas about 1 in 5 women with abnormal mammograms alone actually had cancer. The story does not adequately discuss the study design, which is important, as it is one of the few large-scale randomized controlled trials evaluating ultrasound as an additional screening method for women with dense breasts. The story simply says this study was \"the most definitive so far.\" Why? Who says? Women with breast cancer are very well-informed and understandably curious for context and in-depth analysis. This story could have done more on this count. The story does not engage in disase mongering. The focus of the broadcast a review of a peer-reviewed JAMA paper showing ultrasound in addition to  mammography may find more early-stage cancers in women with dense breast tissue. The story appropriately mentions the population at higher-risk, and why traditional screening methods may miss early-stage cancer in these women. The only physician or expert interviewed in the story was someone who only commented on how ultrasound works – not on the findings of the study. So the merits of the study were taken at face value without any independent expert perspective. The story mentioned MRI as a supplemental screening method for women at very high risk of breast cancer or recurrence due to a variety of risk factors, including dense breast tissue. The story also mentions breast biospy if there is a suspicion of cancer. Importantly, the story mentioned that screening may need to be tailored to a woman’s individual risk profile, as well as her prefered screening schedule based on risks and benefits. Ultrasound machines are typically available in most medical centers. The broadcast does not mention that physicians and ultrasonographers in the study cited were trained using standardized screening protocols. In a real-world clinical setting, the availability of properly trained physicians and technicians can vary, resulting in greater false-negative or false-positive test results. The editorial accompanying the source article states, \"It is questionable whether the diagnostic accuracy achieved in the study..would have been the same if nonradiologists had performed screening ultrasound.\" It is not the usual standard to do any other screening (aside from mammogram) in women with dense breast tissue situations, except for super high-risk BRCA carriers who now get MRI as well. Ultrasound is already available, as implied in the story, and not a new method of treatment. The study provides good evidence of the value of ultrasound as an additional screening tool. The story has some independent reporting and information does not appear to be taken from a press release. Claim: Finding cancer that mammograms can miss",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs were reported. Much more clearly than the competing WSJ story, Reuters reported: “”Testing might lead to more harm than good.” Unlike the competing Wall Street Journal story, this story was clear about the potential harms: “it’s well known that the scans expose patients to a high dose of X-rays, which can increase their likelihood of developing cancer. And the dyes used to enhance the images cause kidney damage in a significant portion of people.” Clear, succinct summary of the evidence. No disease mongering. An author of the paper, and the author of an accompanying editorial were quoted. The story ends with the researcher saying “doctors should focus on patients’ lifestyle and traditional risk factors such as smoking and obesity.” The story was clear that the scans are not currently recommended by guidelines but that “there have been several reports of doctors doing CCTA heart scans in healthy patients, although the practice is currently discouraged by the American Heart Association.” The relative novelty of the screening test could be deduced from the story. It’s clear that the story did not rely on a news release. Claim: Heart scans tied to “evidence-free” treatment: study",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: At the AP Legislative Planning Session on Jan. 19, 2011, Florida’s chief financial officer lobbed a claim about auto insurance shenanigans. \"Of the top five cities for staged automobile accidents, three are in Florida. … We rank No. 1 in the country in staged auto accidents,\" Jeff Atwater said. We have long known that Florida is special, the reluctant recipient of certain superlatives. These two claims seemed almost too good to be true, but were they? We decided to delve in. Atwater made the remarks less than a week after the topic of fabricating car crashes for cash grabbed several headlines, including a front-page story in the Jan. 16 edition of the Miami Herald. A story earlier in the week chronicled the arrest of five people in Miami-Dade and a sixth in Naples. They were charged with faking car accidents after police say they hired people to stage wrecks or file false claims with insurance companies using drivers’ personal injury protection insurance policies. All told, the scammers billed insurance companies up to $170,000 for medical treatment that was never performed, according to the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud. The issue of fraud related to personal injury protection, or PIP, insurance has been of interest to Atwater. His office issued a press release reporting that PIP-related fraud costs the average Florida family as much as $400 a year. Four Florida cities are among the top 10 in PIP fraud – Hialeah, Tampa, Orlando and, yes, Miami. The Herald reported that more than 400 people were charged in the past two years with PIP fraud. And so, Atwater vowed to keep a spotlight on PIP fraud. \"The thieves committing these scams need to know that it’s my plan to put them behind bars,\" said Atwater, a Republican from North Palm Beach. It was only a few days later that Atwater talked about the fraud cases in Florida at the AP meeting. According to spokeswoman Alexis Lambert, his statements were based on a May 10, 2010, report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, an Illinois not-for-profit that teams up with various insurers and law enforcement agencies in an effort to prosecute insurance criminals. The study showed that reports of \"staged accident questionable claims\" spiked 46 percent from 2007 through 2009. The top five states that generated the most \"staged accident QCs,\" or questionable claims, were: (1) Florida, 3,006; (2) New York, 1,680; (3) California, 1,619; (4) Texas, 792; and (5) Illinois, 433. The five cities that saw the \"most staged accident QCs\" were: (1) New York, 1,304; (2) Tampa, 562; (3) Miami, 511 (4) Orlando, 422; and (5) Houston, 376. These revelations don’t come as a surprise to observers. \"I think it’s a generality that Florida ranks well up there,\" said James Quiggle, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, a Washington, D.C., anti-fraud watchdog. \"I don’t think anyone who sees the national picture will dispute that.\" According to a 2007-2008 report from the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, Florida led the nation in 2005 in the recovery of insurance fraud-related losses through court-ordered restitution. These court findings suggest Florida has ranked high across the board. Despite his intention to put a spotlight on auto insurance fraud, Atwater fails to note that the numbers are for \"questionable claims.\" These, according to National Insurance Crime Bureau spokesman Frank Scafidi, are not the same as actual staged accidents. An analogy might be the difference between a charge and a conviction. The terms may often be used interchangeably, but law enforcement personnel and attorneys certainly know the difference. \"We stress to people to keep in mind that these are initial referrals and not definitive acts of fraud, although most of these will certainly be fraud,\" Scafidi wrote in an e-mail message. Scafidi elaborated. In 2009, NICB reports that there were 85,201 questionable claims submitted and just 4,802 of that number were related to staged accidents. In an average year, he notes, more than 48 million claims are filed by the Insurance Services Office, a company that maintains claims data. That said, only 0.17 percent of the claims were deemed suspicious or questionable, and only about one in 20 of those involved questions of staged accidents. The sample is not enough to draw conclusions on, Scafidi added, but, \"It is a useful tool for analysis and for us to see where the potential fraud hot spots are.\" Atwater is mostly correct about the high numbers of auto fraud cases coming from Florida, but he neglects to mention that the numbers he referred to are \"questionable claims,\" not yet confirmed as actual staged accidents. It’s an important detail. For omitting that clarification. Claim: Of the top five cities for staged automobile accidents, three are in Florida. … We rank No. 1 in the country in staged auto accidents.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Editors note: This item was revised on April 1, 2014 to reflect the fact that increases of 300 and 800 percent represent four- and nine-fold increases respectively. The ruling remains the same. In the debate over whether marijuana should be legalized, one issue is the question of potency. Critics of legalization argue that the street drug now available for sale is not the marijuana that a lot of baby boomers and Generation Xers have used. One of them, Heidi Heilman, director of New England field development for Smart Approaches to Marijuana and president of the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, raised the issue March 13 in a commentary in The Providence Journal. \"Today’s marijuana is 300 percent to 800 percent more potent than the pot of yesteryear,\" she wrote. \"Such dangerous levels of THC heighten mental illness and addiction risks for those who smoke marijuana — especially for kids with developing brains.\" THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, available by prescription, is the key active ingredient in marijuana. It's well established that the potency of marijuana has increased over time. On Jan. 24, PolitiFact national ruled that when former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy said that marijuana today is \"genetically modified,\" with THC levels that \"far surpass the marijuana\" of the 1970s. Heilman was being more specific. Because something 100 percent more potent is actually twice as potent, she was saying that the potency of today's marijuana is now four to nine times greater than \"yesteryear,\" a rather vague starting point. Nonetheless, we wanted to see if her statement was on target or her statistic was a bit high. Heilman was quick to send us several pieces of information. The first was a graph showing a rapid increase in potency from 1960 to 2011, a 52-year span. It shows the ratio of THC in marijuana going from 0.2 percent to 11.4 percent. That's an increase of 5,700 percent, well outside the range cited by Heilman. But are those numbers reliable? The graph says the information came from a study in the Journal of Forensic Science. But that study was published in 2010, and only covered a 16-year period that ends in 2008. Its authors, researchers at the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi, examined 46,000 samples of marijuana seized during law enforcement raids. They found that the THC concentrations of marijuana had risen by about 171 percent in that time period, well below the 300 to 800 percent increase cited by Heilman. We also contacted the Drug Enforcement Administration in Boston and Washington and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. They referred us back to the research center at Ole Miss, which has been monitoring THC content at least since the early 1970s. The researchers there sent us copies of their reports, all published in the journal, along with test results that included the most recent data. We also secured some of their quarterly reports. We found that even though the report Heilman cited didn’t back up her claim, the Ole Miss data did. YEAR Tested % THC YEAR Tested % THC YEAR Tested % THC 1972 34 0.18 1986 1370 2.36 2000 3148 4.92 1973 33 0.22 1987 1550 2.96 2001 2716 5.36 1974 114 0.36 1988 1640 3.18 2002 2413 6.4 1975 149 0.48 1989 1075 3.04 2003 2517 6.31 1976 209 0.98 1990 1108 3.24 2004 2637 7.24 1977 251 1.76 1991 2148 3.09 2005 3004 7.24 1978 130 1.73 1992 3336 3.08 2006 2891 7.76 1979 220 1.53 1993 3031 3.38 2007 3114 8.74 1980 151 2.15 1994 3024 3.50 2008 2775 8.89 1981 249 2.11 1995 4792 3.77 2009 3079 8.34 1982 435 3.07 1996 2451 4.09 2010 2720 10.7 1983 1145 3.30 1997 2496 4.64 2011 2342 11.13 1984 1030 3.31 1998 2283 4.47 2012 2055 12.3 1985 1449 2.83 1999 2692 4.6     In 2012, the most recent year in which testing has been completed, the average THC concentration was 12.3 percent. That would be 300 percent higher (or four times stronger) than 1992 levels, when the average was 3.08 percent. And it would be 800 percent higher (or nine times stronger) than the average level of 0.98 percent found in 1976. How high could the THC content potentially go? One specimen, seized on Sept. 11, 2007, was found to have a THC content of 37.2 percent. Our ruling Heidi Heilman said, \"Today’s marijuana is 300 percent to 800 percent more potent than the pot of yesteryear.\" Long-term testing shows that, on average, today's marijuana is three times more potent than pre-1993 marijuana and eight times more potent than grass seized in 1976 and earlier. (If you have a claim you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, email us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.) Claim: Today’s marijuana is 300 percent to 800 percent more potent than the pot of yesteryear.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: President Donald Trump has repeatedly boasted about his success in getting federal judges confirmed, while at the same time complaining that Senate Democrats are slow-walking his judicial nominees.But a report issued this month by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service indicates that while the average time for confirmation is historically high, Trump’s appointees were confirmed faster than in President Barack Obama’s first year.Trump has also boasted about the “gift” of so many judicial vacancies left for him by Obama, suggesting that “maybe [Obama] got complacent” toward the end of his presidency. In reality, the reason Trump was left so many vacancies is that Republicans virtually stopped confirming federal judges appointed by Obama during his final two years as president.In speeches, interviews and tweets, Trump regularly boasts about the number of confirmed federal judges as a sign of his success. Just as often, Trump criticizes Senate Democrats — and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, in particular — for “obstructing” or “slow-walking” his judicial appointments.Here are a few examples:This week, Schumer fired back.“Well, you know, they can’t have it both ways,” Schumer said during a press conference on May 15. “They can’t brag that they put in more judges than anybody else and then, at the same time, say they’re not getting — they’re being obstructed. So they ought to figure out where they’re at.”On May 2, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service released a report, “U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations During President Trump’s First Year in Office: Comparative Analysis with Recent Presidents,” that provides some historical context.CRS Finding: Trump had the most circuit court confirmations of any first-year president since at least Harry Truman. The report found that in his first year, Trump nominated 19 people to the U.S. circuit court of appeals, 12 of whom were confirmed during his first year; and he nominated 49 people to U.S. district court judgeships, six of whom were confirmed in Trump’s first year.The 12 circuit court confirmations is the most for any first year president dating to at least 1945, CRS said.A Los Angeles Times analysis concluded, “One year into his presidency, Donald Trump is among the most successful presidents when it comes to appointing federal judges.” The analysis found Trump ranked sixth out of 19 top ranking presidents for the highest number of federal circuit and district court judges appointed in their first year.CRS Finding: Trump’s judicial nominees were confirmed more quickly than Obama’s. According to CRS, in Trump’s first year it took an average of 115 days and a median of 109 days between nomination and confirmation. (Median is the midpoint, meaning half took more than 109 days and half were less. )That’s a relatively long wait time by historical standards, but it’s less time — by average and median — than for those appointed by Obama in his first year. (Both Trump and Obama enjoyed a Senate majority from their own party in their first year. )“Of the four Presidents included in the table, President Trump’s first-year nominees had the second longest average and median number of days from nomination to confirmation (President Obama’s nominees had the longest average and median — 137 and 130 days, respectively),” the CRS report said.The CRS report also notes that, “The average and median number of days from nomination to confirmation for President Trump’s first-year nominees represent a departure from the upward trend in the length of time first-year nominees waited to be confirmed during the previous three presidencies. Specifically, it is the first instance over the past several presidencies in which the average and median wait times from nomination to confirmation of a President’s first-year nominees were both shorter than the average and median wait times of his immediate predecessor’s first-year nominees.”CRS Finding: Half of Trump’s circuit court nominees were approved in less than 100 days – the highest percentage of any president since Bill Clinton. It also marks the first time since 1993 that at least half of a president’s first-year circuit court nominees were confirmed in less than 100 days, CRS noted. Six of Trump’s 12 circuit court nominees were approved in less than 100 days, but none of Obama’s three and only two of Bush’s six were approved that quickly, the report found.The wait times for district court nominees have been decidedly longer for Trump. Two district court nominees, Dabney L. Friedrich and Scott L. Palk, waited 173 and 171 days, respectively, the longest wait times since 2001 in a president’s first year.Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program and president of the Governance Institute, provided us more up-to-date data on Trump’s federal court nominees.As of May 16, Trump had 21 circuit judges confirmed, including two earlier this week, Wheeler said. The median from nomination to confirmation of the circuit court judges was 131 days. Trump has had 17 district court judges confirmed with a median confirmation length of 180 days.At the same point in his presidency, Obama had 16 district confirmations with a median length of 125 days. The median for his nine circuit confirmations was 218 days, Wheeler said.“The important point is that median days to confirmation have been increasing steadily [for presidents leading up to Trump],” Wheeler said. “So far, Trump confirmations have been quicker.”CRS Finding: A higher percentage of Trump’s district court nominees were less qualified than Obama’s, while the percentage of qualified circuit court judges was about the same.CRS made several other observations about Trump’s federal court nominees compared to his immediate predecessors.Among Trump’s 19 nominees for circuit court judge, 84 percent received a rating of well-qualified by the American Bar Association. That’s about the same percentage as Obama’s (83 percent). However, among Trump’s 49 district court nominees, just 53 percent were rated well-qualified (compared to 86 percent from Obama).CRS Finding: Trump’s judicial nominees face more procedural opposition. CRS also found more general opposition to Trump’s nominees by Democrats.“Floor consideration of U.S. circuit and district court nominations during the first year of the Trump presidency frequently involved the use of the cloture process to reach Senate confirmation,” CRS wrote.A cloture motion is used to limit debate and requires three-fifths, or 60 votes, to pass. In Trump’s first year, CRS said “cloture was used for each of the 12 circuit court nominations that received a final up-or-down vote and for 5 of the 6 district court nominations that received a final vote. In contrast, during the first years of the other three presidencies included in this report’s analysis, the cloture process was used once to reach an up-or-down vote on a circuit or district court nomination.”Even so, as we said, Trump’s nominees took less time to be confirmed than Obama’s.“Additionally,” CRS wrote, “the confirmation of nominees always occurred by roll call vote (rather than by unanimous consent or voice vote) and, for most circuit court nominations, was marked by a relatively high number of ‘nay’ votes among Senators not belonging to the President’s party.”We should also note that Trump usually couches his complaint about Democrats obstructing judicial nominees with a more general complain about Democrats slow-walking all of his government appointees.A joint project of the Partnership for Public Service and the Washington Post tracks roughly 600 “key executive branch nominations through the confirmation process.” According to the project’s data, as of May 17, the Senate had confirmed 426 of his appointments, with another 195 pending. The average time to confirm was 85 days — 18 days longer than Obama’s and longer than for former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.But, as we wrote in “Who’s to Blame for Slow Confirmations?” in October, Trump and the Democrats both share some blame for the longer confirmation process under Trump.Trump also revises history when he talks about the number of vacancies on the federal court he inherited from the Obama administration.Here’s how Trump put it during a fundraiser in Missouri on March 14.Trump, March 14: So I come and there’s this whole pile of papers on my desk – these are federal judges, these are applications. I said, “How many do we appoint?” “145.” “145!” Because for two years, two and a half years, almost none were appointed by President Obama. So I say thank you, President Obama.Two weeks later, Trump expounded on the same topic during a speech in Ohio.Trump, March 30: You know, when I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed. Now, I don’t know why Obama left that. It was like a big, beautiful present to all of us. Why the hell did he leave that? Maybe he got complacent.But now we have about 145 federal district judges. We have 17 court of appeals judges. And as I said, we have the one Supreme Court justice. But think of 145 district judges. That’s world-changing, country-changing, USA-changing. And we’re going all out. We have unbelievably talented, smart, great people being put in those slots.But we were left a present. I never said this before. It was like the gift from Heaven. We were left judges. They’re the ones that judge on your disputes. They judge on what’s fair on the environment and what’s not fair; where they’re going to take your farms and factories away, and where they’re not. Amazing. It was the gift. Thank you very much, President Obama. We all appreciate it. Thank you. What happened? How did he do that? How did he do that?When Trump took office, in January 2017, there were 112 federal judicial vacancies. By the end of the year, that number had grown to 144. And was at 146 as of May 18.That’s a high number, and according to the Federal Bar Association it is “straining the capacity of the federal courts to administer justice in an adequate and timely manner.”But is Obama to blame for the high number of vacancies? No, it was not the result of complacency by Obama, as Trump suggested, but rather resistance to Obama’s judicial nominations from Senate Republicans who took over a majority during the last two years of Obama’s presidency.“On the matter of obstruction, consider why Trump has so many vacancies to fill: because Republicans, when they took control of the Senate in 2015, practically stopped confirming judges,” Wheeler, from Brookings told us. “They confirmed 18 in those two years. In the final two years of Reagan’s eight years, with Democrats in the Senate majority, 83 confirmations. With Clinton, in final two years, with Republicans in the majority, 73. In Bush’s final two of eight years, with Democrats in the majority, 68.”We should also note that Republicans blocked Obama’s attempt to fill a Supreme Court opening. Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in March of 2016, but the Senate Republicans refused to consider his nomination.In early January 2017, just before Trump took office, there were 59 federal court nominees pending. That’s why Trump inherited so many vacancies. Claim: On Senate confirmation of judicial nominees, “the Democrats are holding them up beyond anything -- beyond comprehension, they're holding them up.”",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Seymour police say a person walking their dog found the child Tuesday afternoon along a fence row about 20 yards (18 meters) from a road on Seymour’s southeast side. Officers called to the scene found that the baby was alive and doctors at Seymour’s Schneck Medical Center determined that the infant was healthy. Detective Sgt. C.J. Foster says in a statement that no arrests have been made and police are investigating. Foster says the city that’s located about 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of Indianapolis has a baby box at one of its fire stations where people can relinquish newborns anonymously, without fear of prosecution. Claim: Pedestrian finds baby alive in bag along Indiana roadway.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While no costs were discussed, the suggestion that the device might be expensive was made: “The night flashes require special technology and equipment, beyond just a smartphone, which are still in development, Zeitzer said.” We’ll consider this nod in the direction of cost sufficient for a Satisfactory rating, since it would be difficult to say exactly how much such a device would cost at this stage. Benefits of those who experience the flashing light therapy over those who have the continuous light therapy were described this way: “A series of flashes similar to a camera flash delivered every 10 seconds over a 60-minute period delayed sleepiness by two hours, compared to a 36-minute delay for those exposed to continuous light for an hour.” These quotes were also helpful in quantifying and understanding the benefits: “In essence, using the night before you traveled from California to N.Y. would move your circadian system two-thirds of the way there before you even left,” Zeitzer said. Arriving in New York, you would be synced to the local time after one day, he said. The report indicated there was no harm involved:  “In a previous study, the short flashes of light at night did not interrupt sleep or reduce its quality.” This report also indicated helpful additional information from an outside observer, Anna Wirz-Justice, professor emeritus at the Center for Chronobiology at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who was not part of the new study, who said: “Mistiming light therapy can make jet lag worse.” This report rates satisfactory on the quality of evidence by including cautionary advice from an outside observer saying that independent verification needs to happen: It is “far too early – neither the methodology is available [to] outside research, nor any guidance about safety, nor tests of simulated jet lag in an appropriate ‘realistic’ protocol,”  according to Anna Wirz-Justice. The report included this helpful phrase to indicate that this isn’t a ‘real’ disease: “’Jet lag itself is really a nuisance syndrome as it is self-resolving,’ said senior author Jamie Zeitzer, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California.” This article scores well on consulting an independent source by quoting a researcher who was not part of the study, Anna Wirz-Justice, professor emeritus at the Center for Chronobiology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. The study could have made reference to other systematic reviews of therapies used to treat jet lag, such as Cochrane Reviews on caffeine or melatonin. This article made it fairly clear that this technology wasn’t ready for consumers by mentioning that further research needed to happen and that frequent flyers shouldn’t try this on their own. The article is clear that the study is based on substantial theory about the effects of light on circadian rhythms and mentions previous research that the team had carried out, so there is no misleading representation as to the technique’s novelty. Given the helpful comments from an outside (not involved in the study) researcher, we would say the report did not substantially rely on a news release. Claim: Flashing night-lights may help lessen jet lag, circadian problems",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A foreign ministry letter seen by The Associated Press says the WHO representative to Burundi, Walter Kazadi Mulombo, has been declared persona non grata and must leave the East African nation by Friday. The letter says three WHO experts also must go. The letter gives no explanation for the expulsions. Reached by phone and asked for details, Foreign Minister Ezechiel Nibigira hung up Thursday morning. The WHO representative, Mulombo, did not immediately respond to phone calls. The WHO Africa regional chief, Matshidiso Moeti, described Mulombo as an “extremely competent person” and said the WHO was communicating with Burundi “to clarify and understand the reasoning for the decision they have taken.” The day that election campaigning in Burundi began late last month, images circulated online of crowded political rallies with President Pierre Nkurunziza in attendance. Moeti messaged the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about it, the Africa CDC chief has said. The Africa CDC chief, John Nkengasong, on Thursday called Burundi’s action “unfortunate” and said any differences should be addressed by dialogue instead of actions that affect the pandemic response, “We don’t have the luxury of kicking out the WHO,” he told reporters. “This war has to be won in a coordinated fashion, and coordination is key. We’re in dire need of expertise. ... We encourage countries to do the right thing .” Burundi has 27 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, but some citizens and others have raised concerns that more exist. Authorities have been accused of downplaying the virus and relying on divine protection, while rights groups have alleged squalid conditions and lack of access to quarantine facilities. Burundi is using virus restrictions to limit election observers, however, telling the East African regional bloc that any arriving foreigners would face a 14-day quarantine. The election is May 20. Holding a vote that allows the virus to spread could make it “extremely difficult” for a country to contain it later, the Africa CDC chief said. “If an election is conducted that limits space for people to come together, it’s OK. But if you cannot ensure that ... then it’s gonna put you in danger.”  Burundi’s previous election in 2015 sparked deadly political turmoil as Nkurunziza successfully ran for a third term that some said he had no right to pursue. This time he’s not running, but critics have accused the ruling party of targeting the leading opposition party and its supporters ahead of the vote. Some fear further unrest if this election’s results are disputed over allegations of rigging. This is not the first time Burundi’s government has expelled a United Nations official. It kicked out the U.N. human rights office a year ago after the U.N. repeatedly raised concerns about killings and other alleged abuses following the 2015 vote. Burundi also became the first country to leave the International Criminal Court after ICC judges authorized an investigation into allegations of state-sponsored crimes including murder, rape and torture. ___ Cara Anna in Johannesburg contributed. Claim: Burundi kicks out top WHO official in country ahead of vote.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Cavaliers forward writes in an essay for the Players’ Tribune that he had a panic attack during a game this season and he has spent most of his life afraid to accept there was something wrong with him. “For 29 years, I thought about mental health as someone else’s problem,” he said. Love says he was stricken with anxiety Nov. 5 during a home game against the Atlanta Hawks. Love adds that he had been under family stress and hadn’t been sleeping well. After briefly being winded while playing 15 minutes in the first half, he felt his heart racing and couldn’t catch his breath during a timeout in the third quarter. “It’s hard to describe, but everything was spinning, like my brain was trying to climb out of my head,” said Love, a five-time All-Star now sidelined after breaking his left hand last month. “The air felt thick and heavy. My mouth was like chalk. I remember our assistant coach yelling something about a defensive set. I nodded, but I didn’t hear much of what he said. By that point, I was freaking out.” Love was taken to the Cleveland Clinic, but tests didn’t reveal anything abnormal. He returned to playing at a high level, but was puzzled by what happened and burdened about people finding out. Although he did not mention it in his essay, titled “Everyone Is Going Through Something,” Love left a Jan. 20 game against Oklahoma City under similar circumstances. He also missed the team’s practice the following day. Those absences prompted the now infamous heated team meeting in which former teammate Isaiah Thomas and others questioned why Love had been excused. The exchange led to tense days around the Cavs, who rebuilt their roster by trading Thomas and four other players before the deadline. Love’s father, Stan, also played in the NBA. Kevin Love says he always struggled with the stigma attached to an athlete who shows weakness. “Growing up, you figure out really quickly how a boy is supposed to act,” he said. “You learn what it takes to ‘be a man.’ It’s like a playbook: Be strong. Don’t talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own. So for 29 years of my life, I followed that playbook.” The Cavs encouraged Love to see a therapist and he gets counseling a few times a month when the team is at home. Love said he drew courage to go public with his issues after Toronto All-Star DeMar DeRozan’s recently acknowledged he has had bouts of depression. After playing against DeRozan for years, Love said he would have never guessed one of the game’s best players was having problems similar to his own. “The reality is that we probably have a lot in common with what our friends and colleagues and neighbors are dealing with,” Love wrote. “So I’m not saying everyone should share all their deepest secrets — not everything should be public and it’s every person’s choice. But creating a better environment for talking about mental health . that’s where we need to get to.” Love’s revelations promoted praise from teammate LeBron James, who posted on Twitter: “You’re even more powerful now than ever before @kevinlove!!! Salute and respect brother!” Love ended his piece by encouraging anyone dealing with inner struggle to seek help. “So if you’re reading this and you’re having a hard time, no matter how big or small it seems to you, I want to remind you that you’re not weird or different for sharing what you’re going through,” he said. “Just the opposite. It could be the most important thing you do. It was for me.” Claim: Cavs’ Love discloses bouts with panic attacks, mental health.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A detail view of the Coffinette for the Viscera of Tutankhamun is shown on display at the \"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs\" exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art during a media preview in Los Angeles June 15, 2005. REUTERS/Fred Prouser There has been speculation about the fate of the boy king, who died sometime around 1324 BC probably at age 19, since the 1922 discovery of his intact tomb in Egypt’s Valley of Kings. Tests performed on 16 royal mummies found four, including Tut, had contracted a severe form of malaria that likely cut short Tut’s reign — ruling out murder or some other sickness. Scientists from Egypt, Germany and elsewhere, including Zahi Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, compiled results from genetic and radiological testing performed on the mummies between 2007 and 2009. The results clarify details about the 155-year-long 18th Dynasty that included Tutankhamen, who inherited the throne at age 11. The scientists speculated Tut was weakened by a broken leg possibly from a fall. That and a malaria infection led to his death, they believe. Tut was afflicted with a cleft palate, mild clubfoot in his left foot and other bone ailments. He and some family members had a form of Kohler disease, which can cause foot bones to collapse from lack of blood but would not have been fatal. “Tutankhamen had multiple disorders, and some of them might have reached the cumulative character of an inflammatory, immune-suppressive — and thus weakening — syndrome. He might be envisioned as a young but frail king who needed canes to walk,” Hawass wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Besides the priceless gold artifacts found in Tut’s tomb, he was also equipped for the afterlife with some 130 canes and staves — some with signs of wear — and a veritable pharmacy. The scientists were also fairly certain they identified the mummies belonging to Tut’s father, Akhenaten, and his grandmother, Tiye, based on shared blood groups. They shot down speculation that Tut and his forebears had severe abnormalities, ruling out Marfan syndrome and another condition that could have led to enlarged breasts. “It is unlikely that either Tutankhamen or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique. It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealized fashion,” Hawass wrote. Claim: Tests show King Tut died from malaria, study says.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: New Hampshire Public Radio  reports a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services says staff are working on an application for a waiver. The spokesperson said there will be opportunities for public comment before the application is completed. Federal law currently prohibits the use of Medicaid dollars to pay for mental health care at facilities with more than 16 beds, to prevent the so-called “warehousing” of mental health patients with public funds. Earlier this month the Trump administration announced it would allow states to apply for exemptions to that requirement, as long as they meet certain other criteria. Claim: NH to apply for Medicaid waiver on mental health treatment.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: She says the measure was “fake” legalization because marijuana remains prohibited by federal law, and users, including medicinal pot patients and their caregiver, still risk having their lives ruined by prosecution and jail time. But in what appears to be a largely symbolic move of her own, Chippi is now leading an effort to have Nederland, population about 1,500, declared the world’s first “sanctuary” for therapeutic and spiritual consumers of the drug. Based on the “sanctuary city” laws that dozens of U.S. cities used to shield Central and Southern American refugees from deportation in the 1980s, the proposal is likely to go to residents for a vote in the fall. “Just like with immigration policy, we need a place where people can be protected,” said Chippi, speaking in her shop near the foot of the snow-capped Indian Peaks Wilderness. Protecting the spiritual use of cannabis is crucial for the 46-year-old, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Janis Joplin. Several years ago she founded the Closer to the Heart Cannabis Ministry, which she says has more than 300 members who believe marijuana is the Biblical Tree of Life, and that its use is a sacrament. She opened Nederland’s first medical pot dispensary in 2009, and eventually had more than 2,400 patients, she said. But Chippi shut its doors the following year, angered by regulations passed by Colorado lawmakers that she viewed as a “violation of the constitutional rights of sick people.” She has since sued the state six times seeking changes in the rules and greater clarity for users and caregiver. At the same time, she began planning a “sanctuary” ordinance. The proposal, drafted by Denver attorney Danyel Joffe, would prohibit the town from using funds to enforce any marijuana law affecting therapeutic or spiritual uses of cannabis, as long as its use harmed no one else. “I wanted to help them because it’s my belief that cannabis is not an evil weed. There are people who use it for spiritual purposes,” Joffe said. “Yes, some people abuse it, but that doesn’t mean other people should be harmed as a result.”  Nederland, which began life in the 1850s as a trading post where European settlers could do business with local Ute Indians, later turned into a mining town. In more recent decades it became a draw for hippies and those attracted to its quirky, easy-going ambience. This month the town hosted its annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, celebrating an effort by a Norwegian immigrant to preserve his grandfather’s corpse. The event features music, beer and events such as coffin races, a polar plunge and frozen salmon tossing. Town Administrator Alisha Reis said the Nederland attorney’s office does not have an opinion on Chippi’s proposed ordinance yet because she has not formally submitted it. “We are planning to process this initiative just like any other,” Reis told Reuters. Claim: Colorado pot campaigner seeks 'sanctuary' status for mountain town.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., shared a video that used manipulated footage of activist Ady Barkan to falsely accuse former Vice President Joe Biden of wanting to defund the police. Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, has repeatedly rejected that position. The video created the false impression by splicing together clips from a July interview between Biden and Barkan, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS. Barkan speaks through the use of a computerized device that translates his eye movements into an artificial voice. The manipulation hinged on a portion of the interview where Biden talked about police reform. Scalise’s video spliced Barkan’s words to make it seem like he asked if Biden agreed \"that we can redirect some of the funding for police.\" But that was not a question that Barkan posed. The video was altered to add \"for police.\" \"These are not my words,\" Barkan said in a tweet asking Scalise to remove the video and apologize to the disability community. \"I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts. You and your team have doctored my words for your own political gain.\" . @SteveScalise, These are not my words. I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts. You and your team have doctored my words for your own political gain. Please remove this video immediately. You owe the entire disability community an apology. https://t.co/N6G5RgMXlO The manipulated video was first reported by the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, who tweeted screenshots highlighting its deceptive editing. Twitter flagged the video as \"manipulated,\" after which Scalise deleted it and posted a new version that omitted the spliced footage of Barkan. The video was flagged according to Twitter’s policy against \"synthetic and manipulated media,\" a Twitter spokesperson confirmed. There's a clip here of @AdyBarkan, who has ALS and speaks via voice assistance, asking Biden about \"re-directing\" public safety funding. The clip alters the quote. It splices \"for police\" into it, using Barkan's artificial voice. https://t.co/WKkbRzlrXF https://t.co/mUysm9YDeQ pic.twitter.com/uofqi9428E A Scalise spokesperson said the edit combined two of Barkan’s questions for time and clarity, and Scalise stood by the false suggestion that Biden wants to defund the police on Twitter. \"Look, it shouldn’t have been edited,\" Scalise said on Fox News. \"But at the same time, the comments were always about — in fact, twice in that interview, he asked Joe Biden if he was for redirecting money away from police. And in both times, Joe Biden said yes.\" In fact, Biden has proposed additional police reforms and oversight and called for a $300 million investment in a community policing grant program. The Biden-Barkan interview was posted July 8 by NowThis News, which edited it down to about 27 minutes. The Biden campaign previously gave PolitiFact an unedited audio recording of the exchange, since NowThis trimmed some of Biden’s responses to condense the conversation. The unedited audio shows that when Barkan steered the conversation toward racism and police brutality, Biden made clear that he does not support defunding the police. It also shows that, despite what Scalise’s video suggests, Barkan never asked, \"Do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding for police?\" Scalise’s video, which can be viewed via the Internet Archive, spliced two of Barkan’s questions together. The questions came as Barkan proposed redirecting some police funds to social services. \"We can reduce the responsibilities assigned to police and redirect some of the funding for police into social services, mental health counseling, and affordable housing,\" Barkan said, suggesting that one particular killing might not have happened had a \"wellness counselor\" showed up at the scene instead of an officer. \"Are you open to that kind of reform?\" \"Yes, I proposed that kind of reform,\" Biden said, according to the unedited audio. \"And by the way, the idea though, that’s not the same as getting rid of or defunding all the police.\" As Biden continued explaining his proposals for police reform, Barkan interjected: \"But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?\" \"Yes. Absolutely,\" Biden said. \"And by the way, not just redirect, condition them. If they don’t eliminate chokeholds, they don’t get Byrne grants. If they don’t do the following, they don’t get any help.\" Biden described a similar idea for oversight during an interview with CBS News in June. \"No, I don’t support defunding the police,\" he said. \"I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community.\" Biden has proposed investing an additional $300 million in the Community Oriented Policing Services Program, or COPS. The program provides police departments with technical and training assistance, hiring grants and access to mental health and wellness resources. Biden has rejected the idea of defunding the police multiple times: in a spokesperson’s statement, in an op-ed, in a number of local and national news interviews, and in a questionnaire from an organization of law enforcement officers. Those in Barkan’s circle shared that takeaway. \"Ady Barkan and Vice President Biden agreed on a lot, and disagreed on issues like Medicare for All and defunding the police,\" said Liz Jaff, the president of Barkan’s Be A Hero political fund, in a statement on Scalise's video that Barkan shared on Twitter. Previously, Jaff told CNN that \"though Ady would have loved Joe Biden to announce in this interview that he is in favor of defunding the police, the vice president never said it.\" Scalise shared a video that said Barkan asked Biden, \"Do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding for police?\" That’s not what Barkan asked. The video spliced together audio from two different questions, taking advantage of the fact that Barkan speaks with computer voice assistance. Biden has repeatedly said he does not support defunding the police, including during his conversation with Barkan. Claim: Steve Scalise Says Ady Barkan asked Joe Biden, “Do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding for police?”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Geron did not say why the patients had dropped out of the trial or if the sponsor, the Mayo Clinic, had stopped the study prematurely. Geron said the patients in the study would continue to receive the drug and be monitored according to the study design. Stifel Nicolaus & Co analyst Brian Klein said the limited information that Geron released in a regulatory filing on Monday could call into question the tolerability and durability of the treatment. “It looks like the therapy for a majority of the patients, or at least a good percentage of the patients, is going to be limited to less than a year,” he told Reuters. The Mayo Clinic had begun the trial for a group of blood cancers, known as myeloid malignancies, in November 2012. “The drug may only be appropriate for patients who have very severe disease,” Klein said. Geron said that data from the 79 patients would be enough to support the drug’s development. The company plans to conduct a mid-stage trial testing the drug, imetelstat, in patients with myelofibrosis - a rare blood disorder - in the first half of the year. Geron said in November that four of the first 18 patients with myelofibrosis enrolled in the Mayo Clinic’s study were free of the disease. Imetelstat is designed to inhibit telomerase, an enzyme that enables rapid multiplication of cancer cells. Geron’s shares were down 18 percent at $4.60 in late-morning trading on the Nasdaq. Claim: Geron shares fall after cancer drug study update.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Huang, a government employee in the industrial northern city of Taoyuan, immediately calls the 27-year-old woman to tell her the police are coming to check on her whereabouts. “The police will confirm your location,” Huang tells her. “You won’t be punished as long as you’re actually at home,” she adds, referring to fines of up to T$1 million ($33,051) for people who step outside before their mandatory 14-day quarantine expires. For those who follow the rules, the outcome is more pleasant: a stipend, and goodie bags that can include items ranging from masks and instant noodles to free packages for online gaming and movie services, plus snacks. Such steps are one of the reasons Taiwan, which sits next door to China and has close economic ties with it, has been able so far to avoid the fate of many of its neighbours and control its virus outbreak, with just 267 cases so far. Taiwan’s approach, combining early controls on Chinese visitors, vigorous contact tracing for all cases, technology and now stringent 14-day quarantines for all arrivals, has won it praise and support around the world, including from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But like many places, Taiwan is now dealing with an upsurge in imported cases, and pockets of local outbreaks where there is no obvious link to other infections - a vexing problem for a government aiming to track the source of each. Taiwan is in the middle of what Health Minister Chen Shih-chung has called a “crucial” two-week period to control the virus, with tens of thousands of Taiwanese flooding home from places wrestling with a surge in cases, such as the United States and Britain. Some health workers, tasked with missions that include tracking patients’ contact history to delivering care bags to those in quarantine, have expressed concerns the system could be overstretched if cases jump sharply in the coming weeks. “Many hospitals are getting nervous, trying to secure enough hospital beds and respirators,” said Su Po-wen, deputy head of Taoyuan’s public health department. “Our staff are working very hard for the time being, but if we can make it through these two weeks the situation will be less tense.”  A few Taiwanese politicians have said the government should be tougher, and that President Tsai Ing-wen should issue an emergency order forbidding foreign travel. Freddy Lim, a rock star and independent legislator, said not doing so was dangerous. “As the epidemic continues to grow, there are still people wilfully leaving the country, getting infected and then coming back, becoming a loophole in epidemic prevention,” he said. Taiwan is also not rolling out widespread testing, as South Korea and some other countries have done, triggering concerns in Taiwan media that the island might have more cases than reported. Vice President Chen Chien-jen, a U.S.-trained epidemiologist and health minister during the 2003-2004 SARS crisis, said widespread testing is a waste of resources in Taiwan, where workers have been able to trace almost all cases and their contacts. For now, the government says its quarantine system is working. Taiwan has 86,000 people in quarantine, mostly at home but also in hotels for those who don’t live on the island. On top of large fines for breaking the rules, the government has threatened to name and shame quarantine breakers. Taiwan has also deployed an “electronic fence” that uses mobile telephones to track those in home quarantines. “We want people to know that we are serious,” Taoyuan health worker Huang told Reuters. “The police will dash off to get you even if you are merely turning your phone off.”   More than 220 people have been fined a total of over T$18 million for breaking quarantine rules, official data shows. The approach is not all stick, however. The government has rolled out incentives to get the public onboard with the quarantine programme. Taiwanese can order up to three masks a week online and pick them up from convenience stores across the island, a  government-led effort to address panic buying after authorities teamed up with manufacturers to boost their daily supply to more than 12 million masks. In Taoyuan alone, more than 10,000 “care bags” have been delivered to people ordered to stay at home for 14 days. A daily subsidy of T$1,000 is also given to those quarantined at home, although it is withheld from people who travelled abroad against government advice. “We hope the home care bags cheer people up,” said Huang Tsui-mi of Taoyuan’s Public Health Department. “Having to spend 14 days at home, we don’t want them to get too bored.” Claim: Taiwan's carrot-and-stick approach to virus fight wins praise, but strains showing.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Chalk false reports that Jim Morrison has been found living in a Paris retirement community up to a fake news website. Fake news website The Nevada County Scooper started the rumor with a report that appeared under the headline, “Jim Morrison Found Alive in Paris Assisted Living Community.” The report claims that a Paris beat reporter named Belda Sauve broke the story after investigating Morrison’s death for 45 years:  “I was contacted by a nurse from Petites Soeurs des Pauvres, an assisted living hospital for the infirmed,” Ms. Sauvé told the Scooper. “This nurse informed me that she was caring for a patient named Jacques Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The patient, who is suffering fromalcoholism and liver and kidney failure, as well as moderate dementia, told her he was the grandson of the famous French post-impressionist artist, Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec. Everyone believed his story because they knew that the senior Toulouse-Lautrec was a raging alcoholic that cavorted with prostitutes.” “Over time, however, this patient would tell the nurses stories that didn’t seem to fit his originalnarrative. Stories of rock concerts, sexual orgies, and massive alcohol and illegal drug usage. At first, they brushed it off as his dementia talking,” whispered Ms. Sauvé. “One of the nurses, who had read the Morrison biography, No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Danny Sugarman, began to relate the patients stories to those in the biography. Simple addition sent them to me,” exclaimed the proud journalist. “I stopped by the hospital and interviewed Mr. Toulouse-Lautrec. We had great conversations about poetry and art, the Louvre, music, politics, and existentialism. When I mentioned Pamela Courson, Jim Morrison’s soul mate, he retreated within himself and became quiet. I sat there, watching him, silent for more than four hours, working in his brilliant but fragile egg-shell mind. And then he spoke, ‘Strange days have found me here, poisoned by an L.A. woman… waiting for the sun, amongst a feast of friends… lost in a Roman wilderness of pain… the crystal ship is slowly sinking, and the blood in the streets is up to my knees… I am ready to break on through to the other side… I see your pen and paper weave quick minarets… this is the end, my brain is squirming like a toad… Yes, I have taken a face from the ancient gallery…’ The non-sequiturs, that somehow fit, as always, continued to fly for an hour.” The story was quickly shared more than 18,000 times on social media. But The Nevada County Scooper is far from a credible news source, according to its disclaimer: This website is satirical in scope and intent. It provides fake news and social criticism in a satirical setting. If this offends you, you might want to consider doing something else with your time rather than looking at the Internet. Really, the quality of your life will improve dramatically. Our intention is not to fool anyone, but if you do get fooled,  don’t sweat it. Please have fun and lighten up and watch out for Snopes.com. We’re not sure they’ve had all their vaccinations. Questions about Jim Morrison’s death have persisted over the years, but there’s been no conclusive evidence to disprove that Morrison died in a bathtub of heart failure in July 1971. In 2007, a former Paris nightclub manager claimed that Jim Morrison actually died of a heroin overdose in a toilet stall of the club. Two drug dealers dragged Morrison’s body back to his apartment and put him into a bathtub in a last-ditch attempt to revive him, the Associated Press reports. Another theory is that Jim Morrison mistook a pile of heroin for cocaine and died after snorting it. But again, there’s no hard evidence to prove that. No autopsy was performed on Jim Morrison, and Paris prosecutors have said that it’s not likely that a new investigation into his cause of death will be opened. Comments Claim:  Doors frontman Jim Morrison has been found alive in Paris more than 45 years after he supposedly died there. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development says Nora Wineland will replace James Averill, who’s the agency’s deputy director. Wineland currently lives in Missouri, but she’ll relocate to Michigan and assume her state veterinarian duties on Nov. 5. Agriculture and Rural Development Director Gordon Wenk says Wineland brings a “commitment to protecting animal health” and a “deep understanding of federal regulations which is important to Michigan’s farmers and ranchers.” She received her bachelor’s degree in veterinary science and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Michigan State University. She also earned her master’s degree from Colorado State University. Claim: Michigan native set to become state’s new state veterinarian.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: If the new coronavirus gets into your mouth, drinking water or other liquids will wash them down through the oesophagus. Once they’re in the stomach, the acid will kill the virus. If you don't drink enough water more regularly, the virus can enter your windpipes and into the lungs. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold, not Covid-19. These are the symptoms for the common cold, but they don’t rule out Covid-19. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose. Some Covid-19 patients do get pneumonia, and one of the symptoms is a dry cough. A runny nose doesn’t rule out Covid-19. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees. It hates the Sun. There’s no evidence for this. There’s evidence that similar viruses transmit less well in the heat, but many countries with reported Covid-19 cases are experiencing temperatures higher than this. If someone with the new coronavirus sneezes, it travels about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne. How far the droplets spread from a sneeze depends on environmental factors, but it is likely to be several metres. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface - wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap. We don’t know how long the virus survives on surfaces yet—it may be between hours and days. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it. There’s no evidence yet that the virus can survive in clothing and be transmitted this way. Any soiled clothing should be thoroughly washed. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice. There’s no evidence that the temperature of liquids consumed can either protect you from or cure diseases caused by viruses. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes. We don’t know how long the virus can last on the skin, especially not down to the minute. But you should regularly wash your hands. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice. There’s no evidence that this works as a preventative or a cure for the virus. The symptoms of Covid-19 are a sore throat lasting 3 or 4 days. The virus then blends into nasal fluid, enters the trachea and then the lungs causing pneumonia. With pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty breathing. The nasal congestion feels like you're drowning This is a roughly accurate description of the most common symptoms, although not everyone with Covid-19 gets pneumonia, and the symptoms may not come in this exact order or at these times. The NHS does not mention nasal congestion that ‘feels like drowning’ as a specific symptom for Covid-19. Claim 1 of 12 Claim: If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold, not Covid-19.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Farxiga, one of AstraZeneca’s top 10 drugs by sales, is part of the SGLT2-inhibitor class of antidiabetics that cause the kidneys to expel blood sugar from the body through urine. In July, U.S. regulators declined to approve Farxiga as a supplement to insulin in adults with type-1 diabetes where insulin alone was not able to control blood sugar levels. The treatment is already approved in the United States to treat type-2 diabetes, the more common form of the condition. Farxiga competes with rival diabetes drugs, including Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance and Novo Nordisk’s Victoza. Claim: FDA gives fast track status to AstraZeneca's diabetes drug Farxiga.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The world’s No. 1 hamburger chain said on Wednesday it is going to start listing calorie information on menus in some 14,000 U.S. restaurants and drive-throughs - ahead of a national rule that will require larger restaurant chains to make such disclosures. McDonald’s Corp is a trend setter for restaurants and its move in this arena - while prompted by regulations and pressure from public health activists - is likely to force other restaurant operators to follow quickly. The state of California and cities like New York already require that calories be clearly listed on menus. Under the new U.S. healthcare law, restaurants across the country must soon put calorie counts and other nutrition details on menus. The national rules target restaurants with 20 or more locations, as well as other retail food outlets. Most major chains have resisted posting such information, without legislation and the threat of fines. The date for national compliance has been delayed and is not expected to be set until after the U.S. presidential election. McDonald’s was slow to warm to calorie labeling. When labeling proposals were gaining steam several years ago, McDonald’s representatives publicly opposed them. A common complaint was that rules from one jurisdiction to another were inconsistent. Some officials also said calorie disclosures would violate customer privacy. Cindy Goody, senior director of nutrition for McDonald’s USA, described the company’s latest move as a way to help its customers understand their food choices. The company, which is in nearly every U.S. community and serves 25 million U.S. customers daily, is casting the nutrition disclosures as a business opportunity. “It’s a new reason to visit more often,” Goody said. Calorie and other nutrition information already is available on the company’s website. Listing calories on menu boards allows customers to use that information when they are making a decision about what to eat. Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, thinks the national calorie labeling deadline will probably be around the end of 2013 - so customers at McDonald’s will be getting the information about a year earlier than what will be required. Disclosure rules already have helped convince many restaurants, including Starbucks Corp, to cut calories from their food and to highlight healthy options, she said. Those moves matter because Americans get about one-third of their calories from eating out, Wootan said. Amid demands from parents and health activists, McDonald’s also has taken steps to make menu items healthier. It tweaked its popular Happy Meals for children - reducing the french fries portion by more than half and adding apples to every order. This past summer, it rolled out a “Favorites Under 400” menu that highlights products in that calorie range. McDonald’s also plans to add more fresh fruits and vegetables to its menu and has set a goal of decreasing calories, saturated fat and added sugars across its U.S. menu by 2020. Corporate Accountability International has been pressing McDonald’s to make bolder changes to its menus and to stop advertising to children. “To truly address its health impact ... the burger giant (needs) to make more fundamental, far-reaching changes,” said Juliana Shulman, senior organizer for the group’s Value the Meal campaign. More than two years ago, Panera Bread Co became the first national restaurant chain to voluntarily post calories at company-owned stores. Sandwich chain Subway has used calorie disclosures to position itself as a healthier alternative to rivals like McDonald’s and Burger King Worldwide Inc.  McDonald’s shares were down $0.30 at $90.90 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Claim: U.S. McDonald's to put calorie counts in lights.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story makes no mention of costs, even though the costs of statins are easy to find, and, in Canada, because of the universal health care system, the costs of statins to the government should be an easy number to quantify. All benefits are presented in relative terms, which is misleading to readers. For example, the third sentence says, “Researchers found that people who took statin medications had about a 16% reduced risk of renal failure and a 21% lower risk of dying after their surgeries, compared to people who weren’t taking the drugs.” What are the absolute numbers? Well, out of 67,941 people, 1,208 people suffered an acute kidney injury while not taking statins, and 1,039 suffered one while taking statins. That means 169 fewer people suffered an acute kidney injury, and this is making the big assumption that statins had anything to do with it. No risks or harms from statins are mentioned in this story. Statins are a well tolerated class of drugs with a relatively low risk profile, but all drugs carry risks and have side effects. When you start talking about extending statin use to a much larger percentage of the population, those risks become magnified. We felt that some mention of risks was warranted. There is some good information in here about the basic outlines of the study design. The story says, for example, “For the study, researchers looked at the medical records of all seniors who had elective surgery in Ontario, Canada, from 1995 through 2008, a group of 213,347 men and women over age 65. Elective procedures included heart or lung operations, vascular surgery, or surgery in the abdomen, or procedures on the bladder, ureter, or kidneys — except transplants or removal of the kidneys. About half of patients in the study had heart surgeries. Nearly one-third of these patients were taking statin medications before going under the knife.” What was missing was any sense of the limitation of these findings. The study itself goes on at some length about these limitations, including this crucial piece of information: “As with all observational studies, the protective association seen between statin use and AKI may not be causal.” We also thought it worth noting that to be considered a “statin user,” all one had to do was fill a statin prescription in the previous 90 days. Given that someone could have filled a statin prescription on Monday and had surgery on Friday, we don’t think this is a strong enough basis to prove that statins protected kidneys from failing. We don’t think the story intended to engage in disease-mongering, but the story is framed in such a way that the risk of renal failure following surgery is overly hyped. The second sentence of the story says, “For reasons doctors don’t completely understand, this complication, which is called acute kidney injury (AKI) or acute renal failure, is on the rise, and it dramatically increases a patient’s risk of dying during recovery.” It isn’t until later in the story that we are told, “Overall, about 2% of patients experienced renal failure within two weeks of their procedures.” That should ease patients’ concerns a bit until later in the story it says, “Depending on how researchers define it, studies have shown that it may occur in up to 40% of patients.” This sort of whipsawing can turn readers off to a topic and leave them feeling scared and confused. There are no independent sources quoted in this story. There was nothing in the story about current treatment approaches for reducing the risk of renal failure. This leads readers to believe that there is nothing they can do to prevent a renal injury or death other than take statins. Statins are such a widely prescribed class of drug that we feel most readers will understand their availability. The story does hint at this by noting that one-third of the patients who had surgery in this study were taking statins. The story, like the study, points out that the connection between statin use and renal protection has only been seen in animals. We think the story makes it clear to readers that what’s new and important here is showing a relationship in humans as well. The story does not rely solely on a news release, but we do think the story relied too heavily on the study’s abstract. It should have gone deeper into the story to provide readers context. Claim: Statin Drugs May Cut Risk of Kidney Trouble After Surgery",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No officer has been arrested or charged in connection with  the shootings, and a judicial commission set up to investigate  has provided no updates on its progress. The incident was one of the deadliest environmental protests in India in a decade. A working group of United Nations’ human rights experts last May condemned the “apparent excessive and disproportionate use of lethal force by police”. India’s National Human Rights Commission has dropped its inquiry, citing “adequate compensation” paid to victims and attempts by the state to restore law and order, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. At the same time, people surrounding the Vedanta Ltd smelter, since shuttered by the state authorities for allegedly poisoning groundwater, say they are still being intimidated by local police. The company has consistently denied the pollution allegations. Some residents allege they have been detained and beaten by the police, and that they have been refused the right to protest. One activist, S Mugilan, who released a video critical of the police shootings, has been missing since Feb. 15 – the day he held a news conference in state capital Chennai. “People have been intimidated and forced into silence by the police,” said 79-year-old A W D Thilak, the head of the Thoothukudi Bar Association. “This is not real peace, there has been no compromise,” he said. Local police say that all their actions since the shootings have been aimed at keeping the lid on any potential trouble, even if that means curbing some rights to freedom of speech or protest. However, they denied allegations of abuse by officers. Police shot at the protesters without warning on May 22, 2018, according to interviews with multiple witnesses at the time. On that day and on May 23, 12 people were killed with shots to the head and chest, half of them from behind, according to a Reuters analysis of post-mortem reports in December. Another protester died after being allegedly beaten by the police, according to family members. Police said at the time they were overwhelmed and had opened fire because they feared the protesters were about to attack people in government offices and apartments housing Vedanta workers. The Madras High Court in August asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Indian equivalent of the FBI, to file charges within four months. Nine months later, no action has been taken. A senior CBI official declined to comment on why no charges have been filed. A CBI spokesperson did not respond to a request seeking comment. The Judicial Commission declined to comment. The National Human Rights Commission did not respond to a request seeking comment. Meanwhile, Vedanta executives have been pushing to restart the smelter, which was run by its Sterlite subsidiary, with social media postings under hashtags such as #knowthetruth and #reopenSterlite. The smelter was shuttered by a Tamil Nadu government order soon after the killings. The company, which is controlled by the billionaire Anil Agarwal, has said it regretted the shootings occurred and has consistently denied the plant polluted its surroundings. Vedanta did not respond to specific queries on its executives campaigning for reopening its smelter, but said in a statement it had a “strong track record” of corporate social responsibility interventions. The statement listed community schemes it was currently funding, including a plan to plant a million trees and a drinking water project. Santhosh Raj, a 22-year-old protester who witnessed the death of the first man shot that day, said that in mid-January he was abruptly blocked by men on motorbikes who dragged him by his collar and forced him into a jeep, where he was blindfolded. “They started hitting, from all sides. My back hurts even today,” Santhosh told Reuters at his residence in Pandarampatti, a village on the outskirts of Thoothukudi. He said he was switched to a different vehicle and taken to an unknown location where his blindfold was briefly removed so that police could take his photograph. The officers made him sign a document, though he does not know what was in it. Santhosh says police threatened to kill him for campaigning against the smelter’s reopening, and says he was subject to beatings throughout the day. Murali Ramba, the superintendent of police in the Thoothukudi district, said Santhosh had been arrested because he was instigating protests and disrupting law and order. He denied that Santhosh had been abused or threatened. Local residents say the police are clamping down on any attempts to discuss the shootings or the plant shutdown. When villagers hoisted black flags on their terraces in a protest, police seized the flags, the residents said. “If anybody wants to provoke or instigate, the police will not allow it,” Ramba said. The Madras High Court ruled last week that a gathering of up to 500 people would be allowed to mark the anniversary of the shootings on Wednesday. That was despite opposition by the city’s government and the police, who said it could disrupt law and order. In the days and weeks following the protest, local police detained 277 people, mostly aged between 18 to 30, though they were all subsequently released following a court order. The families of the 13 people killed received 2 million rupees ($28,430) each in compensation, according to Sandeep Nanduri, the district’s top administrative official. None of the families are known to have hired a lawyer to seek more, though the Madras High court said in an order in August that the CBI could decide to award higher compensation if it thinks it is warranted following an investigation. Many of those killed, injured or arrested came from  villages around the plant, which is about 10 km (6 miles) from the center of the city. It has meant losses of income, hurting local businesses, and disrupted education. Some have been unable to take up jobs abroad because they face charges. People seeking justice are still being picked up by police, said Hari Raghavan, an activist lawyer. The police “summon people without paying heed to basic things like giving them time to ask for leave from their employer”, said Raghavan, who was himself detained for protesting against Santhosh’s disappearance. Claim: A year on, Indian anti-Vedanta protesters say still await justice.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The additional cost of adding fish and seafood to the diet aren’t discussed. There aren’t benefits to quantify, only results, but the news release reports even those in confusing fashion. It states in the second paragraph that “marine-based omega-3s are eight times more effective at inhibiting tumor development and growth” without giving any sort of baseline for what’s being measured. Further down it states that “exposure to marine-based omega-3s reduced the size of the tumors by 60 to 70 percent and the number of tumors by 30 percent” without saying how much omega-3s the mice consumed or giving the sizes or frequency of tumors. Also, there’s no data on how many mice died. The Cochrane Collaboration (a non-profit that researches and reports on evidence-based medicine) looked at many different human studies and says that so far there is no proof fish oil can treat or prevent cancer-related weight loss, depression, dementia and many other conditions. Some fatty and farm fish contain significant levels of mercury, PCBs, and other contaminants and experts recommend limiting their consumption and avoiding them entirely if you’re pregnant. That isn’t mentioned. The release also conveys an endorsement of fish oil tablets, which can have side effects such as heartburn, nosebleeds, hot flushes, leg cramps, nausea and bad breath. Not until the fifth paragraph does this news release mention that this is a study of mice with an unusual form of breast cancer, not healthy humans. It doesn’t explain how those limit the usefulness of the results. The news release states that the HER-2 form of breast cancer “affects 25 percent of women.” That number seems over-inflated according to other sources. The Mayo Clinic website states “in about 1 of every 5 breast cancers, the cancer cells have a gene mutation that makes an excess of the HER2 protein.” And Cancer Investigation journal put the number of women with HER-2 positive at 19% for women under 49 years and 15% for those over 50 years old. Funding sources and conflicts of interest aren’t mentioned. According to the study, which is behind a paywall, funding came from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Institute of Cancer Research, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund, Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Canada is a world leader in both seafood and flax seed exports. The authors reported no competing interests. The news release doesn’t mention evidence-backed strategies to reduce breast cancer risk such as limiting alcohol consumption and getting exercise. Fatty fish is widely available. The news release notes in the seventh paragraph that it’s the first to compare the impact of different omega-3s on breast cancer tumor growth in mice. The news release gives premature medical advice to “choose omega-3s from fish over flax for cancer prevention” and “consume two to three servings of fish a week,” and suggests without evidence that “omega-3s will likely be beneficial for other types of cancer.” It veers even further astray by conveying a researcher’s view that “supplements and functional foods, such as omega-3 eggs or DHA milk, can offer similar cancer prevention effects.” Claim: Choose Omega-3s from fish over flax for cancer prevention, study finds",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story doesn’t discuss the cost of fried fish, but we think this is common knowledge. Not applicable in this case. Not applicable. The story was about a potentially harmful association, not about benefits of any intervention. Not applicable. The story was based on an observational study and the story was appropriately cautious about any causal link. We love the analysis provided by independent experts: “This is good stuff. It’s a well-done study, but I think one thing to bear in mind is that it’s not specifically a study of stroke risk. You’re looking at a community and seeing how it’s behaving on the whole,” says Daniel Labovitz, a stroke neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. “This study can’t tell you causation. It can’t tell you there’s a direct link between one thing and another, it just tells you they’re associated,” says stroke neurologist Victor Urrutia, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. How might eating fried fish impact stroke? It could be that frying the fish leaches out the omega-3s, says Jeremy Lanford, stroke director at Scott & White Healthcare in Roundrock, Texas. Or the increased fat calorie content from the frying oil may contribute to stroke, says author Nahab. He also notes that fish used for frying, such as cod and haddock, tend to be the types lower in healthy fats. More research is needed to tease out whether cooking methods affect stroke risk, Labovitz says. “In other words, is fried fish a problem, or is it another red herring?” he says. No disease mongering of stroke, and especially not about the concern in the “stroke belt.” The independent experts quoted made the story complete. Terrific analysis of the evidence by the independent experts. A helpful sidebar included this information about alternative sources of omega-3 fatty acids: There isn’t any question about the availability of fried fish, especially in the regions in question. The story explained that this study is “part of a large government-funded study, Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS).” It’s clear that the story didn’t rely on a news release. Claim: Study: Stroke deaths higher where fried fish aplenty",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On Aug. 8, 2019, a Facebook user posted an account of her three dogs’ apparent deaths from algae poisoning, stating that the dogs “contracted blue-green algae poisoning and there was nothing they could do”:  Blue-green algae — cyanobacteria to the scientific community — are a massive, diverse, and ancient group of bacterial species ubiquitous in nature. Massive blooms can occur in environments when significant amounts of nutrients, either from fertilizer or other natural processes, run off into waterways, producing conditions that allow the organisms to overwhelm a body of water. Though not all species of cyanobacteria produce toxins, “species within several genera produce potent toxins, known as cyanotoxins […] all of which can induce severe or fatal illness in animals and people,” according to a review paper published in the scientific journal Toxins. Though equally susceptible to toxic effects of these cyanotoxins, humans are less likely to suffer deadly consequences because they generally do not drink large amounts of algae-contaminated water or roll around in it. Val Beasley, a professor of veterinary, wildlife and ecological toxicology sciences at Pennsylvania State University, told The New York Times that cyanobacterial poisoning of animals is common and occurs seasonally: It happens every single year in the U.S. and around the world. … A lot of times, the neurotoxins will kill the animal before they can get to the veterinarian. … This time of year is when you have the most numbers of cases and people are out and about with their animals and the conditions are ripe for the cyanobacteria to grow. Claim: Blue-green algae (known scientifically as cyanobacteria) are capable of poisoning dogs and other pets. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On Feb. 23, 2010, the Republican Governors Association -- the gubernatorial campaign arm of the national GOP -- fired a shot at Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate for governor of Florida. The RGA, which is backing Republican Bill McCollum, took aim at Sink's career as a top executive at Bank of America and its predecessor in Florida, NationsBank.Here's the entire text of the 15-second advertisement, to be aired on broadcast and cable television outlets:\"As bank president, Alex Sink eliminated thousands of Florida jobs while taking over $8 million in salary and bonuses. Alex Sink. Not one of us. One of them. \"In a fundraising e-mail sent several hours after the ad was launched, the Sink campaign attacked it as \"full of dodges and distortions\" and said it \"misleads Floridians about Alex Sink's record as a business leader.\" We see three questions to probe here. One is whether her banks eliminated \"thousands of Florida jobs\" on Sink's watch. The second is whether the ad correctly describes Sink's compensation. And the third is whether it's fair to lay the blame for the job losses on Sink.We'll take these questions individually.Job lossesWe were unable to track down any official NationsBank documents addressing the issue of job losses from the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's August 1997 acquisition of Jacksonville-based Barnett Bank. But news coverage at the time is consistent in reporting that the company planned to eliminate 6,000 jobs as a result of the merger.A Jan. 1, 1998, Miami Herald article quotes Rusty Rainey, who led the NationsBank-Barnett transition, saying that the merger would cut more than 6,000 jobs. Before the merger, the Herald reported, Barnett employed about 22,000 people and NationsBank had between 8,500 and 9,000 employees in Florida.It's worth noting that the 6,000 figure involves a bit of uncertainty. It's a prediction, rather than an after-the-fact accounting, so the final number may have been higher or lower. (In other reports, the Herald noted that new jobs might be created in back-office processing facilities in Jacksonville and with the expected addition of 60 to 80 supermarket branches.) In addition, Rainey said in the Herald article that the 6,000 target would be met largely by attrition rather than layoffs -- not an implausible goal, given the high rates of employee turnover in the banking industry and the relatively low unemployment levels at the time.Also, the subsequent merger of NationsBank with Bank of America in 1998 created an expected 8,000 job cuts. But that was a national number; the number of jobs lost in Florida specifically was not reported.Ultimately, none of these caveats matter much because the RGA ad was carefully worded. It speaks of \"thousands of Florida jobs,\" rather than citing a specific number of job losses, and it refrains from describing the eliminated jobs as \"layoffs.\" So we find this description accurate. CompensationHere too, we were unable to obtain original tax forms from the Sink campaign, but their contents were widely and consistently reported in 2002, when the gubernatorial campaign of Sink's husband, Democrat Bill McBride, released them to the public.The McBride campaign released Sink's tax returns for 2000 and 2001, which had been filed independently of her husband. Earlier, the campaign had released the couple's jointly filed return from 1999.When her income from these three years is combined, Sink earned in excess of $8 million. According to various news reports at the time, which were based directly on the tax returns released to the media, Sink earned $2.6 million in 1999, $3.4 million in 2000 and $2.8 million in 2001. (She took early retirement in a management shakeup in 2000.) That equals $8.8 million over three years. While that amount squares with the dollar figure cited in the ad, it's worth noting two caveats.One is that this income was earned between two and four years after the merger was announced. However, Sink held the same position at the time -- president of Florida operations for the bank -- and was presiding over the merged entity. So that doesn't strike us as being a major flaw.The other caveat concerns the ad's use of the term \"salary and bonuses.\" In 2002, the Associated Press reported that Sink's 2000 income included \"stock-options and lump-sum pension payments\" and that her 2001 income included \"stock options, deferred compensation and pension\" payments. None of the coverage mentions \"bonus\" payments, and the campaign was not able to clarify whether she received any bonuses or not for those years. The RGA stands behind its characterization. \"To most normal people, any compensation that is over and above your typical salary would be called a bonus,\" said spokesman Tim Murtaugh. \"Very often, these bonuses take the form of some combination of stocks and other compensation. \"But we think the distinction is worth mentioning because in today's post-Wall Street crash environment, saying that a financial-services employee received a lucrative \"bonus\" at the same time the company was cutting jobs is a pretty loaded accusation. Absent any hard evidence that she received what experts would consider a \"bonus,\" we'll downgrade the accuracy of this part of the ad slightly.Who's to blame?So our analysis suggests that the core facts in the ad are pretty accurate. But what about the larger context? Two banking experts noted that Sink did nothing unusual compared to other bank executives during that period of aggressive mergers. Stanley D. Smith, a finance professor at the University of Central Florida, said that the elimination of those jobs in the merger \"would have and should have occurred no matter who the Florida CEO was. That merger was what is called an intramarket merger, where the two banks’ branches and operations overlapped. The premium that NationsBank paid was based on the savings that would occur from the elimination of overlapping branches and operations. Any competent banker would have done the same thing, and those unfortunate job losses are just a normal part of that type of merger. \"James McNulty, a finance professor at Florida Atlantic University, agreed. \"Bank mergers very often involve job losses,\" he said. \"The major reason that banks merge is to improve efficiency, and that involves eliminating positions that are redundant in the combined organization. In many cases jobs are reduced by attrition rather than by firing people -- those who leave are not replaced, and good people that the bank wants to retain are moved to new positions. This happens in most large bank mergers. Blaming it on Alex Sink is preposterous. \"There's one other issue worth considering: Was Sink as personally responsible for slashing jobs as the ad claims?Last May, Sink told reporters in the St. Petersburg Times-Miami Herald Tallahassee bureau that the decision to merge with Barnett was made by corporate executives at NationsBank headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. \"I got a call one day just like the people at Barnett did that said an agreement has been reached,\" she said.Murtaugh of the RGA responds that \"Sink was the president of the bank. Of course she was responsible for decisions made. If she says she wasn’t responsible and was only following orders, what does that say about her ability to tout her business experience? She can’t claim that she wasn’t in charge of decisionmaking and then also claim that she has business decisionmaking experience. \"On that point, we agree. Even if she were not the architect of the deal, she helped implement the merger over the next few years, and received a generous compensation package at the same time. With the exception of the term \"bonus,\" which we think is a bit of a stretch, the RGA ad strikes us as generally accurate. Claim: As bank president, Alex Sink eliminated thousands of Florida jobs while taking over $8 million in salary and bonuses.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio has been called a lot of things over his 12 terms in Congress -- hot head, visionary, renegade, principled, effective and determined. Now, if a burst of activity on websites and blogs in recent weeks is to be believed, DeFazio is something else -- a socialist. And he’s not alone. The posts, all of which piggyback from a single offering that has been replicated on dozens of websites in recent weeks, says there are 70 card-carrying Socialists in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Earl Blumenauer, another Democrat from Oregon. (The number actually varies. Some posts say 70 while others insist it’s either 73 or 76. One post used both 76 and 75 in the same entry.) An Aug. 12 post on the website for a group called Sovereign Citizens United mentions DeFazio and Blumenauer by name. It also says this: \"I’m sure if you asked random people on the street if we had open socialists in the US Congress, they would say – well only Bernie Sanders (Senate). But the right answer is much, much worse.\" \"This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one,\"  says an Aug. 16 post on ConservativeByte.com. \"The radical Marxist-progressives (communists) took control of the Democrat party some time ago. They’ve only become more emboldened with the election of Barack Obama, who was raised as a communist from birth.\" In case you miss the point, the post comes equipped with a large and very bright hammer and sickle emblem. While most of the names politicians are called are opinions, calling a congressman a Socialist sounds both emphatic and exact, which always gets our attention here at PolitiFact Oregon. Another thing that gets our attention is when a claim gets spread far and wide. This one meets that test, too. Here’s a blog post on Aug. 17 by Texas radio host Dan Cofall, whose show airs out of Fort Worth:  \"The magic number ‘70’ is the number of members of the 111th Congress who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). These are not just politicians who vote left of center; these are card-carrying members of ‘The Democratic Socialists of America’.\" Cofall did not respond to an email asking for comment. And we couldn’t reach anyone from ConservativeByte. Before we get to our ruling, let’s begin with some basics. Congress resets itself every two years, which means the current edition is the 112th Congress, not the 111th. Why does that matter? Because the new Congress that begins in January every two years always follows an election and some of the people on the list are no longer in office. Cofall acknowledges this but then continues to list names from the 111th Congress anyway. Those listed as \"card carrying\" socialists who are no longer serving include: Robert Wexler (Florida), Phil Hare (Illinois), John Hall (New York), Alan Grayson (Florida), and Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii). Then there’s this: Real card-carrying Socialists say those members, including DeFazio and Blumenauer, aren’t Socialists. The list that Cofall and dozens more rely upon \"is completely fraudulent,\" said Frank Llewellyn, who served as national director of the Democratic Socialists of America for 10 years until stepping down July 5. There is not one member of Congress who is a formal member of the DSA, Llewellyn said. In order to join, a person must fill out a form and pay dues. Even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is not a formal member of the DSA, Llewellyn said. The last member of Congress who was an actual card-carrying member, he said, was California Democratic Rep. Ron Dellums, who served 28 years in the House until leaving in 1998. Llewellyn and DSA’s new national director, Maria Svart are chagrined for two reasons. First, they have to spend time knocking down reports that never seem to go away. Second, Llewellyn said, \"if we had formal political relationships with 70-odd members, we would be making a lot more money’’ from dues. For the record, both DeFazio and Blumenauer say they’ve never been associated with the Democratic Socialists of America. \"This is another made-up Internet rumor that has no merit,\" DeFazio said. \"I am a proud Democrat who has taken many independent stands over the years. I am anti-so called free trade, pro-American jobs, pro-infrastructure investment, pro-fair taxation, anti-amnesty, pro-balanced budget amendment, pro-Wall Street re-regulation, and pro-audit the Pentagon and Federal Reserve. I am an Oregonian and an independent thinker.\" Blumenauer was equally annoyed. \"No matter which side of the political aisle it comes from, this kind of name calling and rhetoric represents exactly what is wrong with our democracy today,\" he said. \"Rather than bringing people together to solve our nation's problems, it spreads false and divisive allegations throughout the media and the public. It is a major distraction from the real work that needs to get done.\" Bad information gets spread all the time. But where did the number, or numbers, come from? The list purported to have originated with the DSA says this on page two:  Q: How many members of the U.S. Congress are also members of the DSA? A: Seventy  It then lists them by name. What it does not say is that the names are simply lifted en masse from the membership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a collection of liberal-leaning lawmakers that includes DeFazio and Blumenauer but officially, not a single socialist. According to its website, the Progressive Caucus is one of the largest in Congress and works for such causes as economic justice, civil rights and civil liberties as well as global peace and security. Llewellyn said that DSA supports some of the policy positions of the caucus. Voicing support for positions embraced by a group of lawmakers is a routine part of business on Capitol Hill and is employed by organizations as disparate as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Rifle Association and NORML, a group devoted to legalizing the use of marijuana. But agreeing with some positions doesn’t make a member of Congress a card-carrying Socialist. Llewellyn says similar accusations of Socialism (with a capital S) have surfaced every election year since 1991 when the Progressive Caucus was created. \"There’s nothing we can do to stop it, Llewellyn said. \"I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve tried to stop it.\" Misinformation and smear campaigns also are part of political life. But these persistent claims about socialists are riddled with errors and outright lies. Any one of the problems would be sufficient to discredit the report, but taken together, the effort is flagrantly false. Claim: Say Oregon Reps. Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer are \"socialists who are openly serving in the U.S. Congress.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release provides no information about how much the blood ceramide test costs. The primary benefit of the test is that it might enable doctors to identify people who are at higher-than-normal risk for heart attacks and strokes even though they have normal levels of cholesterol and show no evidence of heart blockages. The news release does a good job of explaining the likelihood of having a cardiac event for those with low versus high levels of blood ceramides. In particular, it reports both absolute and relative risk, noting that, among individuals with low LDL (bad cholesterol) levels, cardiovascular disease occurred in 3.7% of those with low ceramide levels but in 16.4% of those with high ceramide levels. Presumably, there is little risk to individuals from the blood test itself. However, it’s important to note that among individuals with low LDL and the highest levels of blood ceramides, 83.6% did not experience cardiovascular disease. This raises the concern that use of the blood ceramide test might increase overtreatment, depending on what a patient’s doctor recommends if the test reveals high ceramide levels. It is not clear what, if anything, individuals can do to reduce their blood ceramide levels. While there’s certainly no harm in encouraging people to change their lifestyles to reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke, some health experts now argue that statins, often prescribed to decrease patients’ cholesterol levels, might do more harm than good for individuals at lower risk of heart disease. The news release wasn’t clear about what this study cannot tell us, which is that we don’t know if the results of the blood test would make doctors change how they treat patients. Given that most patients are already on medication to treat their cardiac risk factors, measuring ceramide levels might not lead to any treatment and would just increase costs. Moreover, it’s not clear whether any changes in treatment would actually produce measurable benefits for patients who are at increased risk according to the test. Another concern here is that the research discussed in the news release was being presented at a scientific conference and had not yet gone through the peer review process for journal publication. Research findings may change when a study report is published in a journal, and for this reason, journalists often are cautioned against building stories around conference reports. In this case, the association between ceramide levels and heart disease has been documented in other research. However, the news release’s contention that those with low LDL but high ceramide levels are four times as likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular event would still be considered a preliminary finding, given the lack of rigorous peer review. Heart disease is a serious and common problem. However, the news release skirts the line here by stating in the second paragraph that “individuals with the highest levels of blood ceramides were found to have a 3- to 4-times greater risk of having a cardiovascular event compared with those with the lowest ceramide score, regardless of their LDL cholesterol level or the presence of a blockage in the heart’s arteries.” Five paragraphs later, it provides the absolute risk information mentioned earlier. What’s missing here are data explaining how heart disease risks for individuals with low LDL cholesterol, no blockages and high ceramide levels compare to the risks among individuals with high LDL cholesterol levels and/or evidence of heart artery blockage. Those numbers would’ve helped put the “3- to 4-times greater risk” in context. The news release states that Mayo Clinic funded the trial and notes in the same paragraph that the ceramide test is available through Mayo Medical Laboratories, making the potential conflict of interest quite clear. It also notes that the study’s senior author is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and chair of the “Division of Clinical Core Laboratory Services” and that Mayo Medical Laboratories collaborated with Finland-based Zora Biosciences to develop the test. The news release doesn’t mention that over the past few years many new blood tests for refining cardiac risk have been researched. Independent expert guidelines do not endorse their use. How well ceramides compare to these blood tests will have to be determined by future studies. The news release states that the “new test is available to health care providers worldwide through Mayo Medical Laboratories.” It is not entirely clear whether this is the only commercially available test of its kind. The news release notes that Mayo Medical Laboratories first released this test in August 2016, and that “the present study is also the first to test its clinical utility in a U.S. population.” However, while this test is new, many similar biomarkers for refining cardiac risk have been proposed over the years. None of the language in the news release rises to the level of what we’d flag here. Claim: New blood test may predict cardiovascular events in patients with or without coronary artery disease, research shows",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Blood collection centers around the country have reported sharp drops in donations, with one even issuing a “red alert” as stocks dwindle. Doctors and other medical personnel have been donating, according to doctors and reports in state media. “Blood reserves have reached their lowest levels in history, and the blood supply for clinical use is facing an unprecedented challenge,” warned the blood collection center in the city of Jining on Feb. 10 on social media platform WeChat. While hospitals are postponing elective surgeries until after the epidemic is controlled, cancer patients, people suffering from blood diseases and critical care patients still need transfusions. The shortage highlights how the epidemic has exacerbated existing problems in China’s healthcare sector. Blood supplies have long been tight. With quarantine measures to prevent the coronavirus spread limiting large gatherings, donation centers are struggling to match regular levels of giving by students, military members, employees at state-owned companies and walk-in contributions. “The number of people on the street has dropped abruptly, the amount of blood donated has dropped suddenly,” a blood collection center in the city of Linyi, in northeast China, warned on WeChat earlier this month. The city of Nanjing needed daily donations from 300 people to meet demand, but only about 10 people a day had donated blood recently, the Jiangsu Province Blood Centre noted on its website on Feb. 6. The Jiangxi Province Blood Centre, which recently issued a “red alert” of low blood supply, sent text messages to more than 30,000 people urging them to donate, according to a Feb. 4 post on its website. Most of the requests are for traditional blood donations, but at least one blood center said it was also collecting plasma from recovered coronavirus patients for use in treating the disease. Shanghai’s collection center noted in a WeChat post this month that more transfusions could be required for coronavirus patients with severe respiratory failure that have to rely on machines to support their heart and lung function. Reached by phone, blood centers in Shanghai, Jiangxi and Jining declined to comment. Jiangsu’s blood center confirmed that donations had slowed dramatically. With many surgeries postponed, the real increase in demand for blood could come after the epidemic is controlled. Some collection centers promoted donations as a way of supporting the fight against the epidemic. Bloodline, a Shanghai-based donation group, launched a drive earlier this month to help address the shortage. “We are trying to give back to the community,” said Ashish Maskay, an orthopedic surgeon and the founder of Bloodline. Claim: China's blood donations dry up as coronavirus outbreak quells giving.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No treatments exist yet. Since there are no treatments yet, this criterion is not applicable. Near the end of the story, a paragraph states that successful treatments are not guaranteed, and that the safety of using the cells in humans has not been proven. The paragraph mentions the possiblity that cancer may be a side effect, and that the most promising type of stem cells have not been shown to develop fully into their original counterparts. This information comes late, but it is satisfactory. The story does an excellent job of describing the history and current status of stem cell research. Readers understand that the evidence of any benefit is preliminary and knowledge still developing. The story generates emotion and sense of urgency by describing how Douglas Melton’s children, who have Type 1 diabetes, could benefit from treatments that may grow out of his research. But Melton does appear to be motivated in part by his children’s stories, and there are many other people in the same situation, hoping for clinical stem cell treatments. In this case, using those anecdotes to frame the piece is not inappropriate. The author quotes four sources, including the subject of the story. All are experts in the field who are familiar with Melton’s and others’ research. All of the sources have some interest in positive outcomes of the research, either personal, professional, political or [presumably] financial. The author should have indicated this. It would have been useful to have the voice of someone who is more skeptical about the safety and imminence of stem cell therapies, but overall the sourcing is satisfactory. The story says that Type 1 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, two targets of stem cell therapies under development, do not have cures. Because the story is not about the treatments, however, it is not necessary to discuss how these patients are currently treated. The story focuses on basic stem cell research conducted in vitro and in animals. It makes clear that clinical applications are not available. It mentions that the FDA has just approved the first small trial of stem cells in patients with severe spinal cord injuries. The story’s detailed history and context allow a reader to appreciate what aspects of stem cell research are new and novel. It is clear that this article did not rely on a news release. Claim: Stem Cell Research: The Quest Resumes",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story doesn’t specifically mention the cost of treatment. However, this piece focuses on a very preliminary trial of an off-label use of an anti-seizure medication. Cost of drug would be useful, but not essential for this piece. No mention of quantitative data from the study. The story says “Those who took the drug showed some improvement in mental function. Brain scans also showed positive changes in brain metabolism.” But it doesn’t tell readers how many people showed improvement or how much improvement or how improvement was measured. How many brain scans showed positive changes? How positive? How was positive measured? The story doesn’t mention side effects of taking valproic acid, which may include liver toxicity. Other side effects include dizziness and upset stomach. One study participant developed acid reflux disease during the trial. The quote that it is “safe and well-tolerated by this population” does not provide enough information for a piece reporting on the results of a published study. Also, 10 weeks is not enough time to assess long-term side effects for this medication in HIV patients. Anti-convulsant drugs like Depakote can have bothersome side effects when taken long term. These include weight gain, edema, sleepiness, and gastrointestinal problems. The story’s description of the study design is incomplete. Of 22 patients, 6 had no cognitive impairment while 16 did. The study only lasted 10 weeks, and while there was a trend towards improvement, measurements of cognitive improvement did not change significantly between the placebo and valproic acid groups. There was, however, an increase in frontal white matter in the treatment arm of cognitively impaired participants, which is viewed as evidence of the effectiveness of the drug. It is important that the story mentions the need for a larger clinical trial to replicate results. 22 people is a very small sample to suggest generalizability of the results for HIV patients with dementia, so the headline is overzealous. And the story allows an interviewee to say that the treatment is well-tolerated and safe. It’s difficult to make that judgment after a trial in just 22 patients. There is still no “cure” for HIV-related dementia. No evidence of disease mongering. The story only discusses treatment limited to patients with HIV-related dementia. However, the story could have provided more explanation of the prevalence or progression to dementia in HIV. The article says the study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and sources are named as the study investigators. The journal article upon which the story is based states that the researchers have no conflicts of interest, but we are not told this in the news story. Stories should include such information. Nonetheless, we give this a satisfactory score. The story doesn’t mention other established or experimental options for treating HIV-related dementia. Mentions study is preliminary to larger clinical trials of valproic acid in HIV-related dementia, so this is not currently a readily available treatment. However, since valproic acid is readily available for use in seizures, this new use would be an “off-label” use. No information on how to enroll in these trials. The story could have improved on these points, but we give it a satisfactory score. By saying that researchers “may have found a new trick for an old anti-seizure drug,” the story is clear on this point. Valproic acid (trade name Depakote) for seizures is not new. Experimental use to improve cognitive function in HIV-related dementia is new. Not yet FDA approved for this use. We can’t be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a news release. However, we can say that story includes no input from any independent sources – only from two co-investigators. Claim: Old drug could cure HIV-linked dementia",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Acting state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Cholakis ruled that the state Public Health and Health Planning Council overstepped its authority last September  when it issued a ban on e-cigarettes and e-liquids flavored with anything other than tobacco or menthol. In a ruling issued this week in Albany, Cholakis said regulating the vaping industry is a job for the state Legislature, not the executive branch, whose function is to implement policy set by lawmakers. The emergency ban was challenged by the Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, and two of its member businesses. The judge granted their request for an injunction against enforcing the ban. The e-cigarette industry argued that the ban would have forced vaping businesses across the state to close. But Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called vaping a public health crisis and accused “unscrupulous vaping companies” of targeting young people with flavors like cotton candy and bubble gum. Cuomo said last month that he would introduce legislation to ban flavored nicotine e-cigarette products as well as vaping advertisements aimed at youth. He said the legislation would also empower the state Department of Health to ban the sale of vaping carrier oils that have been blamed for respiratory ailments. A spokesman for Cuomo called Cholakis’ decision “unfortunate” but noted that the judge said in her ruling that she understood the seriousness of the vaping issue. “That said, we’re reviewing the decision, evaluating our procedural options and moving forward with comprehensive legislation to address the public health concerns related to vaping,” the spokesman, Kyle Kotary, said Saturday. A message seeking comment was left with the vaping association. Regulating e-cigarettes has gained urgency in recent months as vaping illness has risen nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that as of Dec. 17, more than 2,500 people across the United States have reported respiratory issues related to vaping and 54 people are known to have died. Claim: Judge blocks NY ban on flavored vaping products.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Makholm, who moved to Beloit Senior Living a year ago from Suring, Wisconsin, lives independently in her on-site apartment, is on the go and is in almost perfect health. She attends exercise class and book club, does crafts and stops in at happy hour. She enjoys an occasional nip of gin. To celebrate her many happy years, she will be heading up to Suring for a week of birthday festivities including a “doughnuts with Jane” event at her church, where members will tell their favorite stories about her. On July 26, Beloit Senior Living is having a big party for Makholm complete with pink moscato by request. Makholm was a city girl who grew to have a rural heart. She grew up in Chicago as an only child. Her parents had divorced and she grew up with a single mother, unusual at the time for a Catholic family. She worked for John Hancock Insurance in Chicago after graduating high school in 1937. The city girl’s life took a sharp turn after she married her husband Austin in 1941 and the two decided to take over Hill View Jersey Farm in Suring. She moved into the farm house with her in-laws and learned how to cook, wash and milk cows. In the community of 660 people, she became Lutheran and adjusted to rural life. Nearing 100 years of age, Makholm smiles about her farm days which she considered a lot of work but also fun. “They had notoriety of being the second highest producing Jersey herd for butterfat in the state of Wisconsin,” her daughter Alice Olson told the Beloit Daily News . With her kids not wanting to be farmers, the Makholms sold the farm after 35 years. However, Makholm was a long ways off from retirement. Her husband got a job assessing and she had jobs as a CNA, receptionist and in medical records. After surviving a heart attack in her late 60s, her doctor encouraged her to retire to reduce stress. That same doctor then turned around and hired her for five years. Makholm worked into her late 70s. She only stopped working when the doctor passed away. During her many years on the payroll, Makholm also kept busy by acting as general contractor on a new house and put in a pond, shed and island with a bridge. When her husband passed away in 2003, she did renovations and sold the house. At age 86, Makholm would again become general contractor for a double wide mobile home for herself. She obtained all the permits, got people to build the basement and driveway and hired electricians and plumbers. Makholm lived in her latest home for 15 years where she maintained gardens and mowed two acres. She finally decided it was time to consider moving when she was age 98 and her riding lawn mower broke. With her daughter living in Rockton, the plan was for Makholm to move nearby. Always a Packers fan and loyal Wisconsin resident, she opted to stay north of the border and loved what she found at Beloit Senior Living. Makholm can share meals twice a day with residents, but does her own cleaning, takes her own medications and runs her apartment independently. Although it was a big adjustment, Makholm said she keeps moving forward. She’s made friends and participates in all activities. “I just keep busy,” Makholm said. “She’s goes to everything,” her daughter added. “If I try to call her, it’s hard to catch her.” Makholm also goes to Florida with her daughter and son-in-law Larry for three months in the winter. Her daughter credits her longevity to good genes, a smile and a can-do attitude. ___ Information from: Beloit Daily News, http://www.beloitdailynews.com Claim: Wisconsin woman to celebrate 100th birthday.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Not applicable. The cost of watermelon is not in question. The story only reported that \"researchers found that eating six grams of watermelon extract a day for six weeks lowered blood pressure in all nine middle-aged subjects with prehypertension.\" It didn’t say by how much. Was it a difference of159/99 down to, say, 120/80? Exactly how much of a difference in both systolic and diastolic pressures did it make? We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt for at least mentioning that the researchers \"reported no adverse effects.\" Even if there had been any, though, there’s a good chance they may not have shown up in just 9 people. There is no discussion of the limitations of drawing any conclusions from a study of just 9 people. The story mentions \"pilot\" and \"preliminary\" but doesn’t tell the reader anything about the limitations therein. The story states that \"Approximately 60 percent of U.S. adults are prehypertensive or hypertensive.\" No source is cited for that estimate. More importantly, there is no discussion of concerns about the labeling of \"prehypertension\" as a disease. It’s not difficult to find criticism – even from other journalists such as Ray Moynihan, in a recent issue of the journal BMJ. Excerpt: It also allowed one of the researchers to say \"Cardiovascular disease [CVD] continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States. Generally, Americans have been more concerned about their blood cholesterol levels and dietary cholesterol intakes than their overall cardiovascular health risk factors leading to CVD, such as obesity and vascular dysfunction characterized by arterial stiffening and thickness –– issues that functional foods such as watermelon can help to mitigate.\" But this story didn’t investigate any evidence about arterial stiffening and thickness. And it was not about all cardiovascular disease. It was about 9 people with \"pre-hypertension.\" There were no independent sources in the story. The story also failed to disclose that the researchers are supported by grants from the National Watermelon Promotional Board. There was no discussion of any other methods that might be used or have been researched to lower levels of so-called \"pre-hypertension.\" Not applicable. The availability of watermelon is not in question. We’ll again give the story the benefit of the doubt for explaining that there had been some prior research: \"While watermelon or watermelon extract is the best natural source for L-citrulline, it is also available in the synthetic form in pills, which Figueroa used in a previous study of younger, male subjects.\" But it didn’t tell readers whether any of these findings had been confirmed by any other independent research team(s). Entire portions of the story appear to be lifted directly from a Florida State news release. Claim: Eating watermelon could lower your blood pressure",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Democrats in the state Legislature protested in June 2013 when majority Republicans introduced and quickly passed a bill requiring women seeking an abortion to get ultrasound scans. Two months later, the gaping divide between the two parties on abortion -- seen in the bitter floor debate over the bill -- remains wide. That was evident when Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and the Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) were interviewed together on Wisconsin Eye Aug. 7, 2013. Vos said he was proud the new law means that \"every single mother has the opportunity to see the child\" before making a \"final decision to end the life of that baby.\" Democrats who sued to block the law, he added, are \"out there saying it’s more about getting rid of the child than it is about giving information to the mother, and I think that’s sad.\" In response, Barca called the new law \"so irresponsible.\" \"I think it's maybe the first time we've dictated a medical procedure a woman has to go through, whether she can afford it or wants it or believes it’s necessary. In the case of rape … even if you're raped, if you don't report it in the first 30 days, the Republicans will force you to have to have an ultrasound.\" The bill passed on party-line votes, and Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law July 5, 2013. Besides ultrasounds, Act 37 requires doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles. The law’s authors say that means better care if abortions result in urgent medical problems. A judge has temporarily blocked the requirement on doctors, but the ultrasound provision remains in effect. Abortion providers argue the admitting requirement would force closure of two clinics because their doctors don't have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The result, they say, is that abortions in Wisconsin would not be available north of Madison or -- after the 19th week of pregnancy -- anywhere in the state. While the ultrasound provision has drawn much attention, the treatment of sexual assault victims under the bill has drawn relatively little. Is Barca right that women who do not report a rape within 30 days would be required to have an ultrasound? More about the law Under the law, the person performing the ultrasound must describe what is being shown and provide the woman an opportunity to see the ultrasound images. But the woman can't be required to view the images. PolitiFact Wisconsin previously rated False a claim by activist Rachel Campos-Duffy that more than 90 percent of women seeking an abortion decide not to get one after seeing their ultrasound. Research indicates that some women change their mind, but no solid evidence backs her sweeping claim. Barca’s statement was specific to sexual assault victims. The new law explicitly grants an exception -- a \"waiver\" in the bill’s parlance -- from pre-abortion ultrasounds when a pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest, or in cases of medical emergencies. The bill’s definition of \"sexual assault\" includes rape. It covers assaults of the first, second and third-degree. The reporting requirement drew criticism from some lawmakers and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which said that for victims who don’t report a rape, an ultrasound \"only serves to remind them of the trauma caused by the perpetrator.\" Several things have to happen before sexual assault victims qualify for the waiver. -- The woman must state that a report alleging the assault has been made to law enforcement. -- A physician or qualified assistant must confirm the report has been made and make a notation in the woman’s medical file. -- Law enforcement officials must confirm -- confidentially -- that they received the report. So it’s correct to say that rape victims who seek abortions would be required to have an ultrasound unless they report to police. But Barca runs into trouble on part of his statement. He frames his claim around a specific time limit, saying that rape victims don’t just have to make a report to avoid an ultrasound, they have to do so within 30 days. To be sure, that reporting timeframe is the norm in Wisconsin. In 2010, 72 percent of the 4,857 reported sexual assaults were reported within 30 days, state figures show. Still, another 12 percent of those reporting did so after a month but before one year, and another 5 percent did so after a year. No data was available on the rest. But our search of Act 37 and related statutes, plus checks with legislative officials and interest groups, found no evidence of any specific timetable in the law enforcement reporting provision. Rather, victims can report the crime and thereby avoid an ultrasound scan without regard to any time limits. Barca aide Erik Greenfield told us the lawmaker misspoke in mentioning a 30-day time limit. It’s unknown exactly how many rape victims seek abortions but do not report being assaulted. But there is evidence that many sexual assault victims do not report file a report with police, for a variety of reasons. Nationally, a large survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department, showed that 64 percent of rapes or sexual assaults against females were not reported to the police from 2005 to 2010. The leading reasons for not reporting: feared reprisal (20 percent); considered it a personal matter (13 percent); felt police would not help (13 percent); reported to  different official (8 percent); not important enough to report (8 percent); did not want to get perpetrator in trouble (7 percent). In Wisconsin, evidence suggested that only 19 percent of sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement, the state Office of Justice Assistance, said in 2011. OJA was an independent state agency eliminated in the 2013-’15 state budget. Critics of the bill say these numbers strongly suggest that some abortion-seeking assault victims will be non-reporters and therefore will be forced to get an ultrasound. State Sen.  Mary Lazich, the bill’s sponsor, doesn’t deny the possibility, but said victims could avoid that. \"They need to report sexual assaults,\" Lazich, R-New Berlin, told us. Our rating Barca said that a new law passed by Republicans regulating abortion deals with sexual assault victims this way: \"Even if you're raped, if you don't report it in the first 30 days, the Republicans will force you to have to have an ultrasound.\" The law does require an ultrasound when such victims do not report the assault to law enforcers, but there is no 30-day deadline for doing so. Barca’s claim is partially accurate but misses on an important detail that muddles his message. Claim: Under a new law regulating abortions, \"Even if you're raped, if you don't report it in the first 30 days, the Republicans will force you to have an ultrasound.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release doesn’t address cost at all. The release makes clear that the blood test is not ready for clinical use, stating that researchers “hope it will be commercially available within the next five years.” However, if the release is going to discuss what such a diagnostic tool would look like (e.g., “mobile devices that could diagnose concussions on the spot”), it should also provide a ballpark figure on what such a diagnostic tool might cost. The release tells readers that the study correctly identified the presence of traumatic brain injuries 94 percent of the time, and that the levels of GFAP in the blood corresponded to the severity of the injuries. However, the release emphasizes only one side of the biomarker story, focusing entirely on the positive predictive value. While important, we think that the other side of the coin should have been addressed as well. Another presumed benefit of an easy-to-use biomarker blood test to detect concussion would be eliminating the necessity of a CT scan if, in fact, the biomarker had a high negative predictive value. The study notes a 98% negative predictive value. That means if the test comes back negative, there is a very low likelihood that the person has suffered a concussion. This could eliminate the need for a CT scan and any additional treatments. In reality, it is unlikely that a positive test would obviate the need for a CT scan. In fact, one could argue that the presence of a positive result would require a CT scan. The 94% accuracy notation in the press release is incorrect. It should have noted a 94% sensitivity (true positive) and a 47% specificity (true negative). The low specificity means that many positive results will be wrong (see more below under “Harms”). The release is silent on the potential harms that could result from an easy-to-use biomarker test, especially one that has a 47% specificity (the ability of the test to correctly identify those without the condition). A test with only 47% specificity means that more than half of positive results will be “false positives.” The release does not address these “false positives” at all — meaning instances in which the test diagnosed a patient as having brain injury when there was no injury. A false positive could result in additional testing, which may create a financial burden, and — in the case of a CT scan — poses health risks of its own. Second, the release refers to the possibility of using the blood test to make brain injury diagnoses “on the spot.” Quoting one of the researchers who did the study, the release says: “The idea is to get a point-of-care test that could be used on the field to help the coaches, the trainers and the athletic directors, make a decision then and there about whether the child should go back to play.” However, the journal article the release is reporting on notes that GFAP is detectable in the bloodstream “within one hour of injury.” The release does note that such a tool should only be used to “help” adults make decisions about a child’s health, but this still raises some significant questions. What if a coach, for example, takes a blood test before the GFAP has had time to become detectable in the blood stream? Would that give the coach a false sense of confidence that the child is fine and can re-enter the game? The release does not provide many important aspects of the study, The release says that researchers performed CT scans on 152 children and compared the results of those scans with results from the blood test. In fact, the study was of 257 children, of which 197 had blunt head trauma and 60 were trauma controls. Of the 152 children who received CT scans, 18 were found to have traumatic intracranial lesions. That means that 1-out-of 11 of the children scanned has evidence of a concussion. So the results in the story are really only based on 18 children out of the 152 with presumed traumatic head injury. The study authors note in the paper that “a much larger number of children will be required to test the precision of the biomarker.” No disease mongering here. The release notes that the journal article’s lead author receives funding from NIH. The study itself was partially funded by the NIH, a subtle but potentially important distinction. Further, the journal article notes that the lead author is a scientific consultant for Banyan Biomarkers, Inc. — a company that has intellectual property rights to GFAP testing. The journal article also states that the relevant author “receives no stocks or royalties from the company and will not benefit financially from this publication” — but that potential conflict of interest is still worth mentioning in the release. The story provides information on the routine use of CT scanning as the standard for traumatic head injury. Since there are a host of biomarkers under study at the present time to detect concussion, we would have liked to have seen a couple of words on the other research taking place. For example, Banyan Biomarkers has one additional biomarker under study at the present time. The release makes clear that the GFAP test is not available for clinical use, and that the researchers hope to develop a test for clinical applications within the next five years. There is a robust body of literature on GFAP and brain injury, but the release does not mention that research at all. The journal article notes that “To the best of our knowledge this is among the largest published studies to date assessing GFAP in children and youth with mild and moderate [traumatic brain injury] in an [emergency department] setting.” That’s useful context, and the release should have included it. Even better, it could have told readers how this research fits into that existing body of work — is it consistent with previous findings? Does it expand on previous findings? That would be great to know. The release calls the test “simple” in several places whereas our review shows that it would be anything but. Some other examples of hyperbole: “Concussions in kids are detectable by blood test,” “Blood test is 94 percent reliable in detecting concussions in kids, confirmed by CT scans.”  The story backs off in the last line that states “Researchers plan to do more studies with the blood test, but they hope it will be commercially available within the next 5 years.”  That’s not quite good enough, however. In the published results, the authors stated more appropriately, “Further study is required to validate these findings before clinical application.” Claim: Concussions in kids are detectable by blood test",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Oakland County’s health division says Wednesday that the skunks were in Southfield and Farmington Hills and that rabies has been verified so far this year in eight skunks and four bats in the county. Several cases of rabies in skunks have been confirmed in Southfield. Other cases also have been confirmed in Rochester Hills and Troy. Health officials say bats and skunks are the most common carriers of rabies in Michigan. Symptoms in animals include general sickness, swallowing problems and excessive drooling, slow and unusual movement, no apparent fear of humans and aggression. Rabies can be fatal to humans after symptoms begin to occur. Deaths can be prevented with a vaccine administered immediately after exposure. Claim: More cases of rabies in skunks confirmed in Detroit area.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Texas meat processor who questions a government-approved bait that kills feral hogs charges there’s no public research on the product. Will Herring, owner of the Hubbard-based Wild Boar Meat Company, which makes hog meat into pet food, has said he fears the product’s active ingredient--warfarin, long known as a rat poison and human blood thinner--will damage his business. Also, Herring said: \"There’s not one public study, and by public study I mean a study available to the public, that has looked at using the product Kaput to poison feral hogs,\" a comment we spotted in a March 6, 2017, news story in the San Antonio Express-News. A note: Public studies of particular pesticides don’t appear to be mandatory. An Environmental Protection Agency web page about registering pesticides says only that the \"company that wants to produce the pesticide must provide data from studies  that comply with our testing guidelines\" without mention of whether the studies must be public or, say, conducted independently. That web page also says that before registering a product, EPA develops risk assessments evaluating the potential harms to humans, wildlife, fish, and plants, including endangered species and non-target organisms plus any possible contamination of surface water or groundwater from leaching, runoff and \"spray drift.\" Still, Herring persuaded a state district judge to issue a temporary order putting a hold on state rules approving Kaput’s use by state-licensed pesticide applicators and state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, filed a proposal barring the state from registering any lethal pesticide, including warfarin, for feral hog control unless a state agency or university performs and publishes a scientific study weighing the pesticide’s environmental and economic effects. Both moves happened after Sid Miller, the Republican state agriculture commissioner, announced the Texas Department of Agriculture would issue rules limiting Kaput’s sale and use to licensed individuals. When we inquired, the state agency emailed us a spreadsheet indicating that Colorado-based Scimetrics, the company poised to vend Kaput, fielded $136,854 in research grants from TDA from 2013 into 2017. All told in 2016-17, the sheet indicates, the agency awarded $802,500 to fight feral hogs; that counts funds awarded to counties, universities and other agencies. Feral hogs can be fearsome nuisances. Nationally, as many as 750,000 are harvested annually, yet how they ravage rural and suburban lands remains a problem--and Texas is home to more than 2 million of them. No public study? We asked Herring how he reached his conclusion about no public studies. By phone, he told us that he didn’t find specific studies of the product in online searches nor, he said, did Genesis Laboratories, the Colorado-based company that developed the product, provide a study at his firm's inquiry. We also reached Richard Poché, Genesis Labs' president, who conceded that no Kaput study has been formally published. He said, though, the company completed a study in Texas in 2015 submitted under the title \"Field efficacy of a warfarin bait used to control feral hog populations\" for consideration by the Wiley-published Wildlife Society Bulletin, which describes itself as a journal for wildlife practitioners that effectively integrates cutting-edge science with management and conservation, and also covers important policy issues, particularly those that focus on the integration of science and policy. By email, the bulletin’s editor, Kansas State University’s David Haukos, confirmed that study was submitted. In March 2017, Haukos told us: \"The manuscript is currently undergoing peer-review; therefore, no decision has been made concerning publication.\" Poché said by phone the 2015 study was followed up by another in 2016 with a third study underway in 2017, each one based on feeding the Kaput product to feral hogs. Both of the first two studies, he said, decimated exposed hog populations in North Texas study areas; he noted too the bait uses only one-fifth of the warfarin found in conventional rat and mouse baits. We asked for a copy of the 2015 study. By email, Poché said that remains \"confidential business information,\" and that releasing it before publication would leave his company with no control of where it ends up. Poché otherwise provided two of his own March 2017 PowerPoint presentations on Kaput along with the printed program for the April 2016 International Wild Pig Conference program in Myrtle Beach, S.C. A section of the program, \"Feral hog control using a new bait,\" evidently describes a Scimetric study. It opens: \"An EPA Experimental Use Permit was obtained to conduct a field trial using a novel bait to control feral hogs. The product, 12-years under development, was used to determine the efficacy against feral hogs on test sites 50 miles east of Plainview, Texas. Two paraffin bait formulations were tested, containing 0.005% and 0.01% warfarin. Hog activity was monitored pre- and post-treatment using trail cameras near feeders, VHF and GPS transmitting equipment, and bait consumption.\" Next, the summary says: \"Bait was applied in modified commercial feeders with heavy lids. Baiting initiated on June 1 and terminated June 30, 2015. After the 30-day exposure period efficacy on the 5-km treatment plot baited with 0.005% warfarin was 100%, 98.6%, and 97.8% using radio-tracking, trail camera images, and bait consumption. Efficacy on the 0.01% warfarin bait plot was not as effective. Ninety-seven non-target searches were conducted during the treatment and post-treatment phases to examine for mortality, for which none were found,\" an indication other animals weren’t killed by the bait. The text closes: \"The low warfarin concentrate bait proved effective in eliminating wild hogs while posing minimal exposure to non-target wildlife.\" The longer of the PowerPoint presentations includes a slide stating that warfarin was approved as a rodent-killer in 1948 and as a human drug six years later. The presentation also has several slides titled: \"Field Efficacy of a Feral Hog Bait Containing 0.005% Warfarin,\" with a subtitle indicating the slides refer to research in North Texas from 2015 into 2017. Images include feral hogs wearing GPS collars or tagged for tracking by radio. One slide summarizes the research results by different methods of making hog counts:          SOURCE: Presentation, \"Where we’ve been and where we’re going with Warfarin for controlling wild pigs,\" March 1, 2017, Richard Poché, Genesis Labs (received by email from Poché, March 9, 2017) Company: No independent research ‘necessary’ Poché, asked if independent research makes sense before Kaput goes commercial, emailed: \"Not necessary. We do research under what is called Good Laboratory Practices, which is required by the EPA. No one can match the quality and integrity of the work.\" According to an EPA web page, the agency conducts audits to ensure companies developing pesticide products comply with those practices. EPA registration Our search of EPA’s web site led us to a Jan. 3, 2017, agency document indicating that on Jan. 3, 2017, Kaput Feral Hog Bait was registered with the agency under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. \"Registration is in no way to be construed as an endorsement or recommendation of this product by the Agency,\" the document further states. \"In order to protect health and the environment, the Administrator, on his motion, may at any time suspend or cancel the registration of a pesticide in accordance with the Act.\" Also, the document says, the product is \"conditionally registered\" in accord with section 3(c)(7)(a) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; the section says the EPA administrator may conditionally register a pesticide if the pesticide is \"identical or substantially similar\" to a registered pesticide and approving the registration wouldn’t \"significantly increase the risk of any unreasonable adverse effect on the environment.\" Another agency web page says: \"If EPA finds that the pesticide meets the standard for registration, but there are outstanding data requirements, the Agency may, under certain circumstances, grant a ‘conditional’ registration pursuant to FIFRA section 3(c)(7). However, before granting a conditional registration, EPA must determine that, although an application lacks some of the required data, use of the pesticide would not significantly increase the risk of unreasonable adverse effects on people or the environment during the time needed to generate the necessary data.\" We asked Poché about \"outstanding data requirements\" with Kaput, as mentioned generally by the EPA. By email, Poché said a \"1-year storage stability study\" for Kaput has been submitted to the EPA. Poché unpacked: \"An EPA-registered pesticide requires stability of the chemical in the formula available to the public. The product is stored in the marketing container on the shelf at room temperature over a one-year period. The bait is analyzed every 3 months for the warfarin concentration. That analysis is done at the beginning and at 3, 5, 9, and 12 months after manufacturing. The goal is to ensure the bait is good after 1 year and the concentration of warfarin is plus or minus 10% of what the EPA label requires. In our case the concentrations were within 1% of the label requirements,\" Poché said. Over a couple days, we did not draw an EPA response to Herring’s claim. Otherwise the National Pesticide Information Center, which partners Oregon State University with the EPA, responded to our inquiry by pointing out a 1991 EPA \"fact sheet\" on warfarin that states the EPA evaluates pesticides by obtaining from producers a \"complete set of studies showing the human health and environmental effects of each pesticide. The Agency imposes any regulatory controls that are needed to effectively manage each pesticide's risks,\" the sheet says. State intends limits Miller, the state agriculture commissioner, is a former legislator who authored the Texas law enabling hunters to shoot at feral hogs from helicopters. At the TDA, spokeswoman Jennifer Dorsett responded to our inquiry about the absence of public studies of Kaput. Dorsett said by email: \"Kaput is an entirely proprietary product, so studies on the Kaput Feral Hog Bait are owned by the company and you would have to contact them directly to see if they will release them to you.\" Also by email, TDA spokesman Mark Loeffler stressed that while the state agency helped fund Kaput research, its role is generally limited to cataloging pesticides approved by EPA, including Kaput, though Miller applied his authority to make Kaput \"state limited use,\" to be sold by licensed dealers and used by licensed applicators, Loeffler said. \"We do not do state-paid studies of proposed pesticides,\" Loeffler wrote. \"We are not required to do lengthy study of a product because we have little discretion to reject or deny\" registrations, he said. Dorsett otherwise provided a document listing a dozen reports on poisoning feral hogs, issued from 1987 through 2002, including seven titles specifying \"warfarin,\" we tallied. Dorsett said the agency’s toxicologist, Michael Hare, used the reports as references in evaluating Kaput as a state-limited-use pesticide. Dorsett told us relevant research also has involved the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, which says it has officials in nearly every county demonstrating \"the latest technology and best practices to improve the state’s food and fiber system.\" We didn't hear back from the service. Loeffler added that Miller has personally drawn on a 1995 post about warfarin’s history as a rat poison and its toxicity to animals put out by universities teamed in the Extension Toxicology Network. Excerpt: \"Warfarin is only slightly dangerous to humans and domestic animals when used as directed, but care must be taken with young pigs, which are especially susceptible.\" Also, the post says, warfarin--which is insoluble in water--poses no threat to aquatic organisms and is \"practically non-toxic\" to game birds, with chickens \"relatively resistant.\" Our ruling Herring said there’s no public study of Kaput, the product that might soon be available in Texas to attack feral hogs. There’s no public study of that EPA-registered product, we confirmed. But a 2015 study submitted to a science journal would become public if it’s accepted for publication. Also, the effects on feral hogs of warfarin, Kaput’s active ingredient, has been explored in published studies. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Claim: There’s not one public study, and by public study I mean a study available to the public, that has looked at using the product Kaput to poison feral hogs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Echoing the U.S. House speaker, Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin charged President Barack Obama with disregarding many of his own statements by declaring the government would stop deporting millions of unauthorized residents. At a Dec. 2, 2014, hearing, McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson: \"The president said over 20 times that he did not have the legal authority to do this, to take this executive action, and that this is not how democracy works. Do you agree with that prior statement?\" Johnson replied: \"Mr. Chairman, I know from 30 years as a lawyer that when someone paraphrases remarks from somebody, I want to see the full Q-and-A, I want to see the full context to know exactly what the person said. I have looked at various excerpts of remarks by the president concerning his legal authority to act. I do not believe that what we have done is inconsistent with that.\" Shortly before Obama detailed his 2014 moves, PolitiFact in Washington, D.C., found False the Democratic president’s statement that his position hadn’t changed on using executive authority to address immigration. Notably, the administration in June 2012 demonstrated a willingness to apply its discretionary powers by issuing a \"deferred action\" directive that immigration officials not deport young immigrants who had not otherwise run afoul of the law. The move potentially shielded hundreds of thousands of residents under age 30. Critics called the move an abuse of authority. Proponents said it was in keeping with the yet-to-pass DREAM Act providing a path to citizenship for children brought to the U.S. by immigrants not legally permitted to live here. So, Obama used to say his ability to take action ended at deferring action against children of unauthorized residents. But he lately has been saying there were additional things he could and would do. In his Nov. 20, 2014, announcement touching off Republican objections, Obama said he would delay deportations of unauthorized immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more than five years but have children who are citizens or have green cards. If an applicant can pass a background check and pay a fee, he or she could qualify for a work permit and avoid deportation for three years at a time. More than 4 million people could qualify for the program, which is expected to open for applications this spring. It’s one thing for Obama to attempt revisionist history. But is McCaul right that the president previously forswore his authority to act – and more than 20 times? Boehner’s Obama breakdown By email, McCaul spokesman Mike Rosen pointed out a Nov. 19, 2014, blog post by the Republican House speaker, John Boehner, stating Obama had said 22 times he couldn’t ignore or create his own immigration law. We explored each of Boehner’s citations by establishing what Obama said from original source materials including transcripts and news stories. Upshot: About 15 of the tallied Obama statements suggest Obama didn’t think he had the power to do more on immigration by himself, hence backing up McCaul’s statement. We’ll summarize those statements in this story and greater detail lies in the document here. However, around half a dozen of Boehner’s examples showed Obama saying or hinting otherwise about his executive powers or not talking about his independent ability to affect immigrants. Times Obama was silent or signaled he did have power For instance, Boehner brought up two Obama statements from when he was running for president in 2008 and criticizing \"signing statements\" like ones employed by President George W. Bush to interpret legislation signed into law; neither of these items showed Obama bringing up immigration. On July 1, 2010, Obama laid out his hopes Congress would reach an immigration law overhaul. In his remarks, he recognized \"there are those in the immigrants’ rights community who have argued passionately that we should simply provide those who are (here) illegally with legal status, or at least ignore the laws on the books and put an end to deportation until we have better laws. And often this argument is framed in moral terms: Why should we punish people who are just trying to earn a living?\" Obama said such an action would be \"unwise and unfair,\" but he didn’t address whether he thought he had the power to take such action. Boehner’s list also folded in Obama’s reply at an October 2010 MTV/BET event about his position on the military’s since-eclipsed policy of \"don’t ask, don’t tell.\" \"I can’t simply ignore laws that are out there,\" Obama said. But immigration was not part of his reply while to another question, Obama stressed border security and otherwise urged a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws. Boehner also listed Obama’s remarks at an April 2011 event. In that instance, though, the president focused on his desire for bipartisan immigration reform – and didn’t speak explicitly to his executive powers. \"I can't solve this problem by myself,\" Obama said,adding: \"We're going to have to change the laws in Congress.\" At a September 2011 White House roundtable, Obama was asked about granting \"administrative relief\" enabling students lacking legal residency to stay in the country. His answer seemed to indicate he saw wiggle room for the administration, which makes sense given the soon-to-debut deferred-action mandate. Obama initially said: \"I just have to continue to say this notion that somehow I can just change the laws unilaterally is just not true.\" But, he went on, \"what we can do is to prioritize enforcement, since there are limited enforcement resources.\" In a July 2013 Univision interview, which we found excerpted in an NPR news story, Obama was asked if, in the event Congress failed to pass immigration legislation, he could use his power to give amnesty to the estimated 11 million unauthorized U.S. residents. His answer left wiggle room. \"Probably not,\" Obama replied. \"I think that it is very important for us to recognize that the way to solve this problem has to be legislative. I can do some things and have done some things that make a difference in the lives of people by determining how our enforcement should focus.\" A more recent Obama quotation offered by Boehner seemingly contradicts McCaul’s statement. In August 2014, Obama indicated to reporters that he might have room to act on his own. In the face of no congressional movement on immigration legislation, Obama said, \"what I can do is scour our authorities to try to make progress. And we’re going to make sure that every time we take one of these steps that we are working within the confines of my executive power. But I promise you the American people don’t want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for Congress to get something done.\" Times Obama said he couldn’t do more on immigration alone Let’s turn next to Obama statements, from Boehner’s list, that seem to support McCaul’s claim that Obama didn’t think he had independent legal authority to act on immigration -- some made before the deferred-action directive came out. In October 2010, Obama told Eddie \"Piolin\" Sotelo, a radio host on Spanish-speaking Univision, that he couldn’t achieve comprehensive immigration reform without congressional action. \"I am president, I am not king,\" Obama said. \"...I’m committed to making it happen, but I’ve got to have some partners to do it.\" At a Univision event in March 2011, Obama was asked if he could stop deportations of students with an order. That’s \"just not the case,\" Obama said, \"because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed... Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws.\" Simply issuing such an order, he said, \"would not conform with my appropriate role as president.\" Yet he also hinted at wiggle room, saying: \"That does not mean, though, that we can't make decisions, for example, to emphasize enforcement on those who’ve engaged in criminal activity. In an April 2011 speech in Miami and the next month in El Paso, Obama said he couldn’t bypass Congress and change immigration laws himself, saying that’s not how a democracy works. Addressing the National Council of La Raza in July 2011, Obama drew exhortations to act without waiting for congressional agreement. He called that idea \"tempting,\" then said \"that's not how our system works.\" In September 2012, Obama was asked if he would follow up his recent protective move for students by doing something similar for non-criminal immigrants such as the parents of U.S.-born children. Obama replied that \"as the head of the executive branch, there’s a limit to what I can do… we’re still going to, ultimately, have to change the laws in order to avoid some of the heartbreaking stories that you see coming up occasionally,\" as in parents deported. At a presidential debate the next month, Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney were asked: \"What do you plan on doing with immigrants without their green card that are currently living here as productive members of society?\" Obama said: \"I've done everything that I can on my own.\" In a January 2013 Telemundo interview, Obama was asked why he couldn’t protect mothers living here without authorization from deportation as he had aided law-abiding students. \"I’m not a king,\" Obama replied, tracking his response the same month to a similar query from Univision and his reply at a February 2013 Google Hangout town hall where he also said \"we’ve kind of stretched our administrative flexibility as much as we can.\" The same year, Obama was asked by Telemundo if he would consider freezing deportations of the parents of students benefiting from the administration’s 2012 action. Obama replied that if he broadened his protective orders, \"then essentially I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally. So that's not an option.\" We confirmed similar hitches on Obama’s part in a November 2013 speech in in San Francisco and a March 2014 Univision interview. See more detail on these presidential statements in our document here. White House response By email, White House spokesman Eric Schultz responded to our query about McCaul’s claim by pointing out a Nov. 19, 2014, memo from the federal Office of Legal Counsel stating the president’s 2014 actions fit within the government’s discretionary powers. The office, in the Justice Department, is responsible for providing authoritative legal advice to the president and executive-branch agencies. Our ruling McCaul said Obama \"said over 20 times he did not have the legal authority to\" act as he did on immigration. The Texan’s count is too high – we see less than 15 solid examples from 2010 into 2014 – but his statement is spot-on about Obama often saying he couldn’t do more absent congressional action. Claim: President Barack Obama \"said over 20 times he did not have the legal authority\" to act as he did on immigration.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The drug, Amitiza, was approved for women over 18 years  old, but not for men, because its effectiveness was not  conclusively demonstrated, the FDA said in a statement. Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder characterized by  cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea. It affects twice as many women as men, the FDA said. “For some people IBS can be quite disabling, making it  difficult for them to fully participate in everyday  activities,” said Dr. Julie Beitz of the FDA’s Center for Drug  Evaluation and Research. “This drug represents an important  step in helping to provide medical relief from their symptoms.”    The safety and effectiveness of Amitiza was established in  two studies involving 1,154 patients diagnosed with IBS-C, the  agency said. More than 90 percent of patients in the studies  were women. The studies showed that more patients treated with Amitiza  reported moderate or significant relief than those who received  a placebo. The safety of long-term treatment was assessed in a  study in which all patients were treated with Amitiza for a  duration that ranged from 9 months to 13 months, the FDA said. The drug was found to have some side effects, such as  nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, the FDA said. Amitiza is already approved for the treatment of chronic  idiopathic constipation at 24 micrograms twice a day, much  higher than the 8 micrograms twice a day recommended for  treatment of IBS-C.”    The FDA, in its statement, described both Takeda and  Sucampo as manufacturers of Amitiza but a spokesman for Sucampo  said that while both companies market the drug, Sucampo was the  developer. An FDA spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. Claim: FDA approves irritable bowel drug.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The “Asbestos in Talc Symposium,” sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration, was dominated by industry hands: Most of the 21 non-government participants had done work for talc companies, such as testing and serving as expert witnesses and consultants, symposium documents and other records show. Key sessions were led by witnesses for Johnson & Johnson in lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn customers that its Baby Powder was tainted with cancer-causing asbestos, the records show. Others who sought invitations were turned away, including a physician who had testified against J&J in trials that resulted in billions of dollars in damage awards against the company. History was repeating itself. Over the past 50 years, the FDA has relied upon - and often deferred to - industry even as outside experts and consumers repeatedly raised serious health concerns about talc powders and cosmetics, a Reuters investigation found. Again and again since at least the 1970s, the agency has downplayed the risk of asbestos contamination and declined to issue warnings or impose safety standards, according to documents produced in court proceedings and in response to public records requests. The agency said it lacks the authority to require manufacturers to test for asbestos in talc or report any results. And it seldom has ordered its own tests - until recently. Amid heightened scrutiny in Congress, a criminal investigation of J&J and costly jury verdicts against the company, the regulator commissioned tests that found asbestos in 11 talc-based cosmetics, including Johnson’s Baby Powder. J&J recalled 33,000 bottles. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois congressman who chairs a U.S. House subcommittee investigating talc safety, told Reuters it was time for regulators to stop relying on manufacturers’ safety assurances. “When something as serious as cancer or carcinogens are at issue,” Krishnamoorthi said, “self-regulation doesn’t make a lot of sense.”  In written responses to questions from Reuters, the FDA said its resources and authority to regulate the cosmetic industry are limited. The agency said it has no power to ensure the safety of cosmetics before they are put on store shelves, nor to force companies to pull them off when potential hazards are discovered. “We are dependent on manufacturers to take steps to ensure the safety of their products,” the FDA said after announcing a voluntary recall of tainted cosmetics in March. FDA officials declined to comment on the decisions of former employees over the years, saying only that the agency relies on the best information available and that studies “have improved our understanding of how and why asbestos fibers are hazardous.”  The agency said it now recognizes, as the World Health Organization and other public health agencies did years ago, that there is no known safe level of asbestos. FDA officials said their current policy is to act swiftly - and if necessary encourage recalls - even when small amounts are discovered. The regulator has stood by its recent tests of Johnson’s Baby Powder, despite pushback from the company. J&J, the world’s largest producer of talc powders, said in a statement that it recalled the 33,000 bottles of Baby Powder out of an “abundance of caution.” Eleven days later, the company announced that tests by labs it hired had determined that there was no asbestos - other than some contamination it said came from an air conditioner - in samples from the one bottle tested by the FDA and the batch it came from. In written responses to Reuters, J&J said it systematically tests its talc and has always found its powders to be safe and pure. “Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, the FDA and other regulatory bodies defended talc,” J&J’s Chief Executive Alex Gorsky testified in an Oct. 3 deposition. “FDA agreed overall with the position that we had taken with the safety of our talc.”  The company told Reuters that it “has long cooperated (with) and supported the FDA in its mission to protect the public health,” and that any suggestion it has unduly influenced the agency to reduce regulation or standards is “just false.”  The FDA now is under increasing pressure to ensure talc powders and cosmetics are free from asbestos. The agency’s testing of talc-based cosmetics this year followed jury verdicts totaling more than $5 billion against J&J in cancer lawsuits, as well as a Dec. 14 Reuters report showing that J&J knew its raw talc and powders sometimes tested positive for asbestos from the 1970s into the early 2000s and did not report those findings to the agency. J&J has disputed the Reuters report as “one-sided, false and inflammatory.”  In the wake of the Reuters report, the company announced it was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to people familiar with the matter, these include a criminal grand jury probe into how forthright J&J has been about the safety of its powders. The FDA began looking into talc safety in 1971 after researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York found what appeared to be asbestos in unnamed brands of talc powder. Two years later, FDA records show, the agency found asbestos in a sample of Shower to Shower, a J&J powder at the time that was made with the same talc as Johnson’s Baby Powder. The FDA never publicly announced the finding. J&J told Reuters the result was not final, citing findings in an FDA table issued in 1976. But that table, reviewed by Reuters, is ambiguous, listing no result for the type of asbestos found in 1973. J&J told Reuters the gap means no asbestos was found. Assured by J&J and other manufacturers that their talc was safe, the FDA eventually ended its inquiry without taking action because “the potential hazard did not warrant a recall,” Heinz J. Eiermann, a former J&J researcher who at the time ran the agency’s cosmetics division, wrote in a March 1976 memo. That same year, J&J, other talc companies and their trade group, the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association, persuaded FDA officials that manufacturers could monitor the safety of their own products, according to records J&J and the group produced in litigation. The FDA dropped plans to impose testing and purity standards for talc powders and cosmetics. The trade group published its own test, which was voluntary for companies to use. The written standard for that test acknowledges that it cannot detect most types of asbestos at low levels, nor one common type - chrysotile - at all. In a statement to Reuters, the trade group said it believed that chrysotile was not commonly linked to talc used in cosmetics. Chrysotile is the type of asbestos the FDA-commissioned test found in Baby Powder this year. It also was found in several tests conducted by labs for J&J on its talc from 1972 through 2003, according to records produced in litigation. J&J has said that some of the tests were on industrial talc and that others, on Baby Powder talc, reflected background contamination. Asbestos is a loose term for a group of six minerals that readily separate into needles or fibers. Easily inhaled, they are known to cause lung, ovarian and other types of cancer. While most people exposed never get cancer, for some even small amounts are enough to trigger the disease. Just how small has not been established. Talc safety concerns resurfaced in 1983 when a graduate  student scouring geology journals for a toxicology class came across information he considered disturbing: Talc deposits are commonly laced with asbestos, a similar mineral. Philippe Douillet immediately thought of the talc powder his sister used on her baby, he recalled in an interview with Reuters. He urged her to stop using it. Then he petitioned the FDA to require an asbestos warning on talc powders. “It was really obvious to me there was a big issue there,” said Douillet, who now runs a biotechnology company in Miami. When the FDA began evaluating Douillet’s petition, it looked to J&J for key information, agency records show. The FDA’s June 1985 risk assessment relied upon a decade-old letter from the company for the agency’s estimate of the amount of dust babies were exposed to during diapering. That 1974 letter from J&J to the FDA said that, hypothetically, even if babies were exposed to talc powder with as much as 1% asbestos, it would be a far lower concentration than allowed at the time for industrial workers. J&J told Reuters in a statement that “at no point has Johnson & Johnson taken the position that it would consider talc containing 1% asbestos appropriate for sale to consumers.”   In the end, the FDA decided there was no need for an asbestos warning on talc powders. In a July 1986 letter to Douillet, acting associate FDA commissioner J.W. Swanson wrote that the quality of cosmetic talc had improved “and that even when asbestos was present, the levels were so low that no health hazard existed.”  What’s more, Swanson wrote, agency officials had come to question earlier reported findings of asbestos in talc powders. Those doubts, he wrote, were based in part on a paper published in the proceedings of a 1977 scientific conference. Both of the paper’s authors had worked for J&J, one as an asbestos testing contractor and the other as its longtime talc supply manager. The authors argued that some testing methods were apt to misidentify microscopic lookalike rock splinters as asbestos. The industry’s test, the paper said, was designed to avoid this confusion. Other U.S. and European public health authorities have come to regard such splinters as presumptive toxins because of their similarity to asbestos. The FDA defended its 1986 decision to reject Douillet’s petition. In a statement, it said the graduate student “did not provide persuasive evidence that the cosmetic talc produced at the time contained significant amounts of asbestos minerals.”  Eight years later, the regulator received a new request for a warning label on talc powders. This one came from Dr. Samuel Epstein, a University of Illinois environmental medicine professor who chaired the Cancer Prevention Coalition, an advocacy group. Epstein’s 1994 petition didn’t concern asbestos. It raised the possibility that talc, by itself, was a hazard worthy of a warning label. His petition was based on research showing that talc, when used as an antiperspirant and deodorant in underwear, was associated with ovarian cancer. In a brief July 1995 letter, FDA acting cosmetics chief John Bailey told Epstein’s coalition that the agency had taken no action because it had other priorities. Bailey told Reuters in a statement that he issued this “interim” response because the petition lacked scientific support. In 2002, having taken no action on the petition, Bailey moved to the cosmetic trade group, now known as Personal Care Products Council. The council considered him a “key employee” because of his “former employment with the FDA,” according to a tax filing by the group. Now a consultant, Bailey serves as a litigation expert witness to J&J and other talc companies. In his statement to Reuters, Bailey said he had been hired at the council “as a scientist responsible for applying sound science to decision making.” He disputed Reuters’ finding that the FDA deferred to industry, saying the agency takes potential health concerns seriously and does its own evaluations. In 2006, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified use of talc powder in the perineum area - the pelvic region between the legs - as “possibly carcinogenic.” Two years later, Illinois medical scientist Epstein filed a second petition to the FDA seeking a cancer warning label on talc products. J&J went to work to defeat it. In a May 2008 email to colleagues, J&J executive Kathleen K. Wille wrote: “Our response could be a potential source of data and information on which the FDA can base their response.”  Together, J&J, its talc supplier and the Personal Care Products Council arranged for a pair of scientists to assess the published studies that linked talc and ovarian cancer, according to emails and other records produced in litigation. The scientists concluded that the evidence was too weak to consider talc as a cause. At a May 2009 meeting, Bailey, Wille and other industry representatives briefed FDA officials on the assessment, according to a meeting memo produced in litigation by J&J’s talc supplier. Three days later, Wille told colleagues in an email, “We have every confidence that the FDA will dismiss this petition once they have reviewed our submission.”  J&J told Reuters in a statement that the company had been confident because it believed the agency would be swayed by science, which it said supported J&J’s position that talc does not cause ovarian cancer. Before the FDA ruled on the warning requests, however, concerns about asbestos contamination flared again. This time, the FDA’s South Korean counterpart reported finding asbestos in talc powders. Acting on that 2009 report, the FDA commissioned talc tests for the first time in 40 years, hiring Maryland-based AMA Analytical Services Inc, which analyzed 34 samples of talc powders and cosmetics, including Johnson’s Baby Powder. It found no asbestos in any of them. The lab had no experience testing for asbestos in talc. Its prior work focused on building materials such as vinyl flooring, according to the deposition testimony of AMA lab director Andreas Saldivar. The FDA has said Saldivar’s lab used “the most sensitive techniques available” but cautioned that the results were limited to the 34 talc powders and cosmetics tested. The testing had other limitations as well. Saldivar’s lab looked at less talc per sample than other labs that have found asbestos in talc powders. And it did its work in a fraction of the time typical for such analyses, according to a Reuters review of the lab report and interviews with experts who test talc for asbestos. Saldivar’s lab was recently rehired by the FDA. This time, it found the asbestos that led to the first recall of J&J’s iconic Baby Powder. Saldivar declined to comment. In the first verdict of its kind, a South Dakota jury found in October 2013 that J&J had a duty to warn women that research had linked its talc powder to ovarian cancer. No damages were awarded. Then the FDA weighed in on the issue. In April 2014, 20 years after Epstein first contacted the agency, the FDA rejected both of his petitions for warning labels. Its announcement said the science wasn’t strong enough to support a cancer warning, echoing the assessment J&J and its industry partners had presented to the agency in 2009. In court, such arguments have not always proved convincing. In early 2016, a Missouri jury concluded J&J’s powders caused a woman’s ovarian cancer death and awarded her survivors $72 million. An appellate court later set that verdict aside, ruling that the woman had filed her suit in the wrong state. In the aftermath, the FDA asked J&J for “safety literature and data regarding talc,” correspondence shows. The company submitted a report saying no asbestos had “ever been found during any testing” of its talc. Since then, lawsuits have compelled J&J to produce internal documents that show the company knew its talc and powders had tested positive for asbestos on occasion for decades. The company now faces more than 16,000 lawsuits alleging that its powders caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, an incurable cancer. The vast majority are awaiting trial. In court, there have been mixed verdicts, mistrials and some appellate rulings in J&J’s favor. Last year, in response to renewed asbestos concerns, FDA cosmetics chief Dr Linda Katz began organizing the November 2018 symposium and a public hearing on talc testing, now planned for next year. She reached out to J&J for help. J&J vice president Jethro Ekuta responded by sending Katz a letter in June 2018 recommending a list of three talc testing experts. All three had served as defense witnesses or consultants for J&J. Two of the experts Ekuta recommended, as well as a third J&J defense witness, led sessions at the closed-door “Asbestos in Talc Symposium” on Nov. 28, 2018. None of the sessions were led by medical experts who had questioned the safety of talc powders and cosmetics. J&J said that apart from recommending experts, it did not advise the FDA on the symposium. Ekuta, who has left J&J, declined to comment. In a statement to Reuters, the FDA downplayed its role in the symposium, saying the event was “hosted” by the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN), a research group co-founded by the FDA. “No formal or regulatory recommendations were expected or made,” the agency said. In fact, records show, the FDA initiated and paid for the meeting, set the agenda and chose the participants. The meeting set the stage for formal recommendations on how to test products used every day by millions of people. The FDA said a government committee tasked with proposing a standard test for asbestos in talc powders and cosmetics is “continuing to work through issues discussed at the JIFSAN symposium.”  Many FDA meetings are held in public and invite comment. Details on the talc symposium were hard to come by, however, even after it was over. The FDA declined Reuters’ requests to provide a list of participants or any information on what transpired. After Reuters filed a public records request with JIFSAN, the research group posted meeting information online and released planning emails. The guest list showed that more than half of the 54 participants were employed by or recently retired from FDA and other agencies. Of the 21 non-government participants, 17 had either worked for talc companies, done lab testing or served as expert witnesses for the industry, Reuters found. Five of the participants affiliated with talc companies also have served as expert witnesses for plaintiffs. Most of the non-government participants were experts in geology or minerals testing. In a statement, the FDA said it would ordinarily avoid having sessions led by defense or plaintiff witnesses. However, the agency said there are a “limited number of experts worldwide with scientific knowledge” on asbestos testing, standards and results analysis. Not everyone was welcome. Among those turned away was Dr. David Egilman, a clinical professor of family medicine at Brown University. He testified last year in a trial that ended in a $4.69 billion verdict for women alleging J&J’s talc powders caused their ovarian cancers. Egilman told Reuters he was concerned that if the FDA was guided by geologists and industry consultants, it might overlook fundamental questions about which mineral fibers cause cancer. He wanted to offer his expertise, as a physician and researcher, on what technicians should look for under the microscope. Testing hinges “on the determination of what particles or elements should be tested for,” he wrote in a November 2018 email to organizers asking to be included in the symposium. “This is a medical question and not a technical question.”  Katz took a different view. In an email forwarded to Egilman, she said: “This meeting is not intended to discuss health-related issues or concerns.”  She met with Egilman later. Katz also told Egilman that the symposium was not intended to reach any consensus. At its conclusion, however, session leaders, including three who have served as defense witnesses for J&J, drafted what they called “consensus” or “concurrence” reports. Two of the reports reviewed by Reuters embraced industry positions on what fibers should be counted as hazardous, an issue of fierce contention in courtrooms across the country. The reports discouraged counting fibers that may or may not be asbestos, saying that doing so might exaggerate the hazard. That view runs contrary to the positions of other U.S. and European public health officials, who presume mineral fibers that even look like asbestos are toxic. As Arnold Brody, a professor emeritus at Tulane University Medical School, told jurors in a talc powder trial last year, “The lung doesn’t care” what it’s called. These issues are likely to be aired at the public hearing the FDA said it is planning for next year. The gathering could signal how the agency intends to navigate between industry and consumer interests in coming years. Krishnamoorthi, the congressman heading the House investigation into talc safety, said the agency needs to bring consumers and their advocates into the discussion. “In light of the public interest around this particular issue,” he said, “we need to find out what’s going on.” Claim: Certain diabetes drugs found to double bone fracture risk in women",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Amid news headlines that the United States set a daily record for the number of new coronavirus cases, an article widely shared on Facebook made a contrarian claim. Referring to the lead federal agency fighting COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the article’s headline said: \"The CDC may have to stop calling COVID-19 an ‘epidemic’ due to a remarkably low death rate.\" The July 9 article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The claim is flawed in a number of ways. The article appears on the website of Collective Evolution, which describes itself as a \"conscious media company focused on personal transformation.\" The article claims the CDC might have to stop calling COVID-19 an epidemic because the death rate is becoming so low that it wouldn’t meet the CDC’s definition of epidemic. It does not cite any death rate figures. The article cites a CDC webpage, but that page does not refer to death rates in describing what an epidemic is. The CDC page says: \"Epidemic refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area.\" Health officials and leaders have made several official declarations about the novel coronavirus. But the major ones weren’t about declaring an epidemic, and none were made by the CDC: Jan. 30: The World Health Organization declares a global health emergency. Jan. 31: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declares a public health emergency. March 11: The WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic. March 13: President Donald Trump declares a national emergency. In its weekly summary of COVID-19 activity, the CDC gave no indication that a drop in deaths signaled a turning point. The latest report available when the Facebook post was made was for the week ended June 27. It said about death rates: \"Mortality attributed to COVID-19 decreased compared to last week and is currently at the epidemic threshold, but will likely increase as additional death certificates are processed.\" The same statement was made in the latest report, for the week ended July 4. Here’s what that means, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund told PolitiFact: The epidemic threshold \"refers to the point at which the observed proportion of deaths is significantly higher than would be expected at that time of the year in the absence of substantial influenza, and now COVID-related mortality.\" Deaths are a lagging indicator of COVID-19, partly because of a delay in the processing of death certificates. Death rates alone don’t \"have bearing on whether COVID-19 is still an epidemic,\" given that the extent of the outbreak is the primary factor. An article widely shared on Facebook claimed: \"The CDC may have to stop calling COVID-19 an ‘epidemic’ due to a remarkably low death rate.\" The latest CDC statement made public when the Facebook post was made said deaths attributed to COVID-19 decreased from the previous week, but remained at the epidemic threshold, and were likely to increase. Moreover, death rates alone do not define an epidemic. Claim: “The CDC may have to stop calling COVID-19 an ‘epidemic’ due to a remarkably low death rate.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Burundanga is a real drug, but a story about a woman poisoned by burundanga on a business card that has been circulating the web for years is unverified. First, let’s start with what’s true about this viral email warning. Burundanga is derived from trees that grow in the jungles of South America. It’s also called Devil’s Breath, scopolamine or simply “the zombie drug.” It has been used in the medical community to prevent vomiting and motion sickness, but it has become known as “the world’s scariest drug” in the underworld drug trade. In a Vice documentary, a drug dealer in Columbia described how burundanga could be blown into someone’s face and within minutes, “you can guide them wherever you want. It’s like they’re a child.” That’s because the zombie drug blocks the brain’s ability to form memories and strips its victims of free will and reason for days at a time. Reports of burundanga poisoning aren’t uncommon in South America. Criminals often use the drugs to sexually assault or rob their victims. The South American publication El Mundo reported in 2013 that a criminal group had used handwritten notes laced with burundanga to poison four victims — which sounds a lot like burundanga on a business card email warning: (An unknown woman) approached insistently with a small paper with handwritten text while following her as she continued to walk in the company of her two minor children. About 100 meters from the first contact, the affected relates, “I felt something in my head, I began to feel dizzy, legs weighed me while asking me where I was, whether he was married or how many children they had.” We can confirm that burundaga is a real drug used by criminals to leave their victims in a zombie-like trance for days, but we have not been able to verify the specific account of burundanga on a business card poisoning a woman. In fact, we weren’t able to find any accounts of burundanga being used on victims in the U.S. So, many of the details about burundanga from the warning email are true, but we cannot confirm any cases of the drug being used outside of South America. Comments Claim:  A viral warning claims that a drug called burundanga on a business card poisoned a woman and advises people to beware of what has become known as “the zombie drug.” ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2017, rumors appeared on social media that former United States President Barack Obama had been arrested in Japan in connection with large quantities of cocaine purportedly found on his yacht:    The arrest rumor appeared to have originated via a 31 March 2017 blog post from Benjamin Fulford (who days earlier had claimed that the Japanese government was trying to kill him) that was further aggregated by other dubious web sites: Former US President Barack Obama, in custody of the US military police, has informed on his drug dealing bosses, according to sources in Japanese military intelligence. As a result of this, an airplane filled with Afghan Heroin and North Korean amphetamines was impounded at Argyle International Airport on St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean, the sources say. The money raised from this drug flight was intended to be used to finance the operations of Daesh (formerly known as ISIS), the sources say. This impoundment follows the capture of an Obama linked ship containing 4.2 tons of cocaine, the sources note. At the bottom of the post was a citation referencing a 15 March 2017 post on conspiracy site WhatDoesItMean.com about Barack Obama’s supposedly fleeing the scene of a drug bust that took place in the Caribbean on a “fishing vessel named the Lady Michelle” that was linked to the former president:  Obama Flees After Massive Drug Bust Aboard Lady Michelle Vessel In Caribbean An intriguing Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that former President Barack Obama fled Washington D.C. this past Friday (10 March) traveling to New York City, Omaha (Nebraska), San Jose (California) and ending up in Hawaii — all occurring within 36 hours while he sought elite allies to defend him, and keeping him ahead of investigators from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of the Treasury (DoT) seeking to interview him about one of the largest drug busts in American history occurring in the Caribbean aboard a fishing vessel named the Lady Michelle. 4.2 tons of seized cocaine, worth an estimated $125 million, from the President Barack Obama linked fishing vessel named Lady Michelle on 16 February 2017 According to this report, nearly immediately upon taking office as President Donald Trump’s Attorney General on 9 February, Jeff Sessions, as head of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), was handed a top secret file by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey detailing the nearly two-decade long crimes of 12 current and former security and intelligence officers belonging to the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) who for at least 18 years under both the Bush and Obama regimes had smuggled into the United States at least $100 million worth of cocaine. None this was true, as the “Obama drug bust” story originated with the WhatDoesItMean.com is a fake news conspiracy site, described by RationalWiki as follows: Sorcha Faal is the alleged author of an ongoing series of “reports” published at WhatDoesItMean.com, whose work is of such quality that even other conspiracy nutters don’t think much of it. Each report resembles a news story in its style but usually includes a sensational headline barely related to reality and quotes authoritative high-level Russian sources (such as the Russian Federal Security Service) to support its most outrageous claims. Except for the stuff attributed to unverifiable sources, the reports don’t contain much original material. They are usually based on various news items from the mainstream media and/or whatever the clogosphere is currently hyperventilating about, with each item shoehorned into the conspiracy narrative the report is trying to establish. The image used to illustrate the WhatDoesItMean article was taken from an earlier news report about a 16 February 2017 U.S. Coast Guard drug bust off the coast of Suriname that had nothing to do with Barack Obama or Japan:  The U.S. Coast Guard busted four men suspected of smuggling more than four tons of cocaine worth $125 million in the Atlantic Ocean. Officials said on Feb. 16 they intercepted a suspicious fishing boat off Paramaribo, Suriname. The 70-foot vessel was allegedly carrying numerous bales of cocaine, the Coast Guard said. Officials seized 4.2 tons of the drugs, worth an estimated $125 million in wholesale value. Claim: President Obama was arrested in Japan in connection with the seizure of massive amounts of cocaine on his yacht.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A clinical supervisor sets up monitoring equipment in a file photo. Five years of cancer care for America's elderly cost Medicare $21.1 billion, a figure that will swell as the baby boomer generation ages, U.S. government researchers said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Lee Celano Researchers at the National Cancer Institute said the cost of cancer care over five years varies widely by tumor type — from less than $20,000 for an elderly patient with breast cancer or melanoma to more than $40,000 for a patient with lymphoma, brain or other nervous system cancers. The figures, based on people diagnosed with cancer in 2004, suggest the highest costs occur within the first 12 months of care, when people are undergoing costly treatments, and in the last 12 months of life, when in-hospital costs spike. The research by Robin Yabroff of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues, which appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is intended to offer policymakers a tool to prepare as the U.S. population expands and ages. Joseph Lipscomb, a health policy researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, said the study is the first to combine cost estimates and survival data to arrive at long-term national estimates for 18 of the most common types of cancers in the elderly. Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older. The researchers based their estimates on 1999-2003 data from more than 700,000 cancer patients covered by Medicare and more than 1.6 million people covered by Medicare who did not have cancer. These per-patient costs were applied to a five-year survival model and extrapolated to the U.S. Medicare population diagnosed with cancer in 2004. Among the 18 cancer types studied, brain and nervous system cancers were by far the costliest for men in each phase of treatment over five years. In women, these cancers were the most expensive in the first year of diagnosis and the last year of life, but ovarian cancer was the most costly overall. Cancers with the highest costs overall across women in the Medicare population were lung ($2 billion), colorectal ($1.6 billion) and breast ($1.4 billion). Among men they were prostate ($2.3 billion), lung ($2.2 billion) and colorectal ($1.5 billion). The estimates reflect Medicare discounts and are reported in 2004 dollars. “Few of these individual findings are startling; yet, taken together they provide the scientifically strongest picture yet of the incidence costs of cancer in aggregate and by tumor type for the elderly in the United States,” Lipscomb wrote in a commentary. The researchers did not include the cost of treating younger cancer patients, as they tend to receive more costly and aggressive therapies. As newer, more expensive treatments become more widely adopted, however, the cancer estimates for treating Medicare beneficiaries are likely to rise, they said. There were about 10 million Americans living with cancer in 2003. The National Cancer Institute has estimated that, overall, the United States spent $72.1 billion in 2004 in direct costs for cancer care. Claim: Medicare 5-year cancer bill tops $21.1 bln: study.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “Where are they going to go?” Jones said. “We’re honestly like their family.” Jones is among nearly 1,100 employees being laid off at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling and sister facility East Ohio Regional Hospital in nearby Martins Ferry, Ohio. The layoffs are the latest blow to a region on the edge of the Rust Belt that hasn’t fully benefited from the economic recovery that President Donald Trump — who attended a private campaign fundraiser in Wheeling in July — has touted. The area had managed to hang on after steel mills and other manufacturing plants closed, in part by forging a new identity as a health care hub. But after two years of ownership, Irvine, California-based Alecto Healthcare Services announced both hospitals will close by next month. The company cited several factors, including losses of more than $37 million since taking over, increasing facility improvement needs and the lack of a potential partner or buyer, including a cross-town hospital. Acute and emergency admissions were suspended Wednesday night at OVMC, where workers held an emotional candlelight vigil just before midnight. The Appalachian hilltop region’s economy has steadily eroded in recent decades, a trend forecasters expect to continue. Steel mills farther north were shuttered long ago. Aluminum and other manufacturing plants in Ohio left as well. As the jobs went, so have residents. The population in the three-county area on either side of the river about an hour west of Pittsburgh has fallen steadily since the early 1980s, including a 5.3 percent drop from 2010 to 2018. Powered by a natural gas fracking boom, employment rebounded after the Great Recession. But a 2018 report by West Virginia University researchers said the area would need “a significant positive economic shock” to halt long-term declines. North of Wheeling, a natural gas-fired power plant is planned on a reclaimed coal strip mine but would create only 30 permanent jobs. In Ohio, a petrochemical plant proposed in Belmont County has languished in the planning stages for years. A block away from OVMC, the 166-year-old Centre Market District is filled with restaurants and shops that cater to hospital workers and patients’ families. Some business owners said they will be affected by the hospital closing but are prepared to handle it. A few miles east, Wheeling Hospital is one of the state’s top 10 private employers. In Ohio, three of Belmont County’s top employers are hospitals. Doctors who work at the two hospitals will be forced to go elsewhere. Belmont County’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 5.0 percent in July was slightly above the state rate of 4.6 percent but lower than surrounding counties. In Ohio County, where Wheeling is located, the 3.9 percent rate is well below the 4.6 percent state average. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources spokeswoman Allison Adler said DHHR staff and Gov. Jim Justice have “been striving to ensure that as OVMC leaves the Wheeling market, there is no lapse of quality care for those patients transferred to other facilities, and that services provided by OVMC remain available in the community.” “All parties will continue working together and are hopeful that a plan will be in place very soon to maintain as many of the services previously provided by OVMC and in turn keep as many jobs in the Wheeling community as possible.” Calls to the hospital and the parent company about the welfare of those patients weren’t returned. Jones, an activity therapist in the Wheeling hospital’s psychiatric unit, works daily with adults in yoga, music therapy and nutritional education, and takes children to play outside or to a gymnasium. She said OVMC’s 68-bed acute psychiatric facility is the only one of its type within 75 miles. “It takes them a long time to trust people,” Jones said. “These are people, the doors have been shut on their faces time after time after time. They know they can come to us. Now it’s just one more door.” A 7-year-old girl who was abused and removed from her home has been at the psychiatric facility for a month. “If I could take her home, I would,” Jones said. Other children in the facility struggle with anger, depression, anxiety or suicidal issues. “To shut this psych facility down would be tragic for these patients,” Jones said. Katie Matthews, an OVMC radiation therapist for cancer patients, has applied for a job in Pittsburgh. “Most of us are pretty angry,” Matthews said. “In our department, nobody knows where we’re going to go.” Claim: Hospital closings hit hard on the edge of the Rust Belt.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The controversy over lengthy delays at several of the nation’s Veterans Affairs medical facilities, including the Atlanta VA Medical Center in DeKalb County, has drawn significant criticism that those waits may have contributed to veterans’ deaths. One such voice is U.S. Rep. David Scott, a Democrat who represents portions of metro Atlanta. Scott was among lawmakers from both parties calling for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s removal before the secretary resigned last Friday. In an interview with WABE just before that resignation, Scott tried to draw attention to the specific concern of mental health treatment in the scandal, which is compounded by allegations of efforts to cover up the delays. \"We’ve got an average of 5,600 soldiers committing suicide,\" Scott said. \"That’s about 20 a day.\" Back-of-a-napkin math shows an immediate miscalculation. That annual rate of suicides would mean 15 daily suicides. But even with the math blunder, those daily rates seemed striking enough for PolitiFact to want to get to the bottom of the matter. A spokesman for the congressman said he was first drawn to the issue of mental health services for veterans after reading an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation last year. In his WABE interview, Scott blamed Shinseki in particular and the VA in general, saying, \"Nobody has been held accountable for all of those suicides.\" The AJC probe of the VA facility in DeKalb found that more than 500 veterans were on a waiting list to receive mental health care in 2010. Sixteen attempted suicide. The Atlanta VA tried to solve the problem by referring more veterans to outside treatment. But by 2012, that decision created long waiting lists at those outside clinics, according to the AJC investigation. Last year, federal audits tied the deaths of three veterans in Atlanta to poor oversight by hospital staff, including some who had been referred to outside facilities. It was later revealed that a fourth veteran committed suicide in a VA hospital bathroom, prompting the replacement of both the head of the hospital and the mental health director. \"His big concern is for veterans who need help and can’t get it,\" said Scott’s chief of staff, Michael Andel. \"It’s about the delay, especially in getting care in mental health needs.\" Andel referred us to an advocacy and support group, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, and a 2013 newspaper story about a VA study on suicide data. Both cite the daily estimate of 22 suicides by veterans. A closer look at the VA study, however, slightly complicates the issue. Based on the most extensive data ever collected by the VA on suicide, the report does calculate that 22 veterans die each day from suicide. But the estimate applies to all veterans, not soldiers who are on active or reserve services as Scott describes. The estimate relies on state data that identify the dead as veterans. It therefore includes those with or without any history of accessing VA care. A spokeswoman for the VA in Washington confirmed that the report also cites recent increases in the rates of suicide in the general population among middle-age adults between 35 and 64 years of age. The report found the majority of veteran suicides, about 70 percent, were by those age 50 and older. The report found that veterans make up a smaller percentage of the country’s suicides than a previous study in 2007. That suggests that an effort to improve suicide prevention programs at the VA had an effect, the report concludes, while also recommending additional improvements. \"VA must continue to provide a high level of care, and recognize that there is still much more work to do,\" according to the study’s executive summary. \"As long as Veterans die by suicide, we must continue to improve and provide even better services and care.\" Andel said Scott’s statement was a part of the congressman’s effort to use the study’s findings to push for change. Scott supports a proposal from U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon, a Republican from Indiana, to offer employment incentives to psychiatrists who agree to work for the VA to help with the shortage of services. The IAVA has lobbied for a separate bill, the Senate’s Suicide Prevention for America's Veterans Act. Among other things, it calls for recruiting more health care workers to the VA and Department of Defense and reviewing those agencies’ suicide prevention programs. \"We feel the system fails veterans, and that takes us to a point where unfortunately veterans are considering and committing suicide,\" said Nick McCormick, a legislative associate with the IAVA. \"We want to get that information out so there can be change.\" To sum it up, though Scott is a little off on his math, he’s close enough on the daily rates for us. He has a point to drive home, that a lot of veterans are dying by their own hands. The problem is when he attempts to link the daily suicide rates of all military veterans, who may never have visited a VA center, with the current scandal. The study offers no evidence to back up the implication that blame lies with the VA on those deaths. Claim: We’ve got an average of 5,600 soldiers committing suicide. That’s about 20 a day.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: National conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, mindful of a federal law that stepped up the required efficiency of light bulbs, recently aired her qualms about the compact fluorescent light bulbs offered to consumers as more efficient alternatives to traditional incandescent bulbs. In a column included in a Feb. 2 e-mail blast by the Texas Eagle Forum, the founder of the national Eagle Forum said: \"CFL bulbs do not work well in colder temperatures, and most cannot handle dimmer switches; broken CFL bulbs allegedly cause migraines and epilepsy attacks.\" We’ve previously looked into CFL-related claims, so we know there are variations on this theme. For this article, we’re spotlighting Schlafly’s health claim, that broken CFL bulbs allegedly cause migraines and epilepsy attacks. Seeking illumination, we requested elaboration from the person who sent the e-mail blast, Pat Carlson, president of the Texas Eagle Forum. Meantime, we found what looked like Schlafly’s original column, posted online Dec. 21 at WorldNetDaily.com. From the site, we also asked Schlafly for back-up information. Next, we searched online for news stories on CFLs touching off migraines and epileptic episodes. Google led us to an opinion column by Nicolas Loris, a research associate for the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation. In the column, posted online Nov. 10 by the Sacramento Bee, Loris writes: \"Hospitals and medical charities warn that CFL bulbs cause migraines and epilepsy attacks.\" Loris told us by e-mail that his source was a November 2009 article published by a British newspaper, The Daily Mail, which quotes \"medical charities\" saying they have been swamped with complaints that the \"flicker of compact fluorescent bulbs can trigger migraines and epilepsy attacks.\" The article continues: \"The charities are lobbying the (national) government to allow an ‘opt out’ for people with health problems so they can continue to use the older bulbs.\" Stating that about one in 10 people suffers from migraines, the article quotes Lee Tomkins, of the Migraine Action Association, recommending that residents stockpile conventional bulbs and advising people who suffer from migraines to avoid using fluorescent bulbs as reading lights, or in living areas and kitchens. Phew. Who knew? No one in the United States, it initially appeared. With help from the American Academy of Neurology, we reached a national expert on each affliction. Per migraines, Stephen Silberstein, a professor of neurology at the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said a light flickering at a certain frequency can aggravate a headache. But, Silberstein said, there is no evidence that CFLs cause migraines. \"This is bull,\" he said. Marc Nuwer, a professor of clinical neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said strobe lights--such as those in discotheques--can flicker at a rate that would touch off a seizure in about 1 in 200 people. However, Nower said, CFL bulbs flicker at much higher rates not detectable by the human eye; they don’t cause epileptic seizures. Nuwer speculated: \"Someone is talking about some theoretical far-fetched possibility that a broken light would flash\" at the 10 times per second that can cause seizures among a few. \"Even then, that’s really different from a strobe light, which is really bright, lighting up a room.\" Nuwer said his online searches for scientific literature connecting CFLs to epileptic seizures or migraines came up empty. On our behalf, though, he contacted Graham Harding, an international expert on photo-sensitive epilepsy, a form of the disorder in which seizures are triggered by visual stimuli. In e-mails to Nuwer, Harding said that among 174 respondents to an online survey by Epilepsy Action, 4 percent -- seven people -- reported epileptic seizures due to CFL bulbs, and 4 percent due to conventional fluorescent lights, compared to less than 1 percent due to conventional incandescent bulbs. Harding’s e-mail says the 4 percent reporting problems with CFLs referred to the lights flashing on start-up or because the bulbs were faulty. Harding’s e-mail closes: \"So the risk (of induced seizures) is no greater than with normal fluorescent but is more than ordinary filament light bulbs.\" All that said, he continued, since conventional bulbs have been phased out, with fluorescents presumably replacing many of them, the United Kingdom’s Epilepsy Action group has not reported any seizure problems to him. Nuwer also passed along a comment from Robert Fisher, a Stanford University neurologist and director of the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. Fisher said by e-mail that fluorescent lights in the United States and Europe flicker at a higher frequency \"than would be likely to provoke photosensitive seizures.\" But a \"defective light may flicker at a lower frequency\" and such flickering \"can and has caused seizures in a few susceptible individuals... So it could happen, but it would be expected to be a rare occurrence.\" Next, we interviewed Mark Rea, director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center, who said he’s seen no U.S. study demonstrating headaches or epileptic attacks occur because of CFLs. He noted, though, that a 1989 study completed in Great Britain compared the incidence of headaches in an office under different kinds of fluorescent lighting. According to that study, the incidence of eye strain and headaches were cut in half when high-frequency lights were used. Finally, we came across a paper on CFLs’ impact on health adopted by the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks in September 2008. The paper says: \"There is no scientific evidence that fluorescent lamps including CFL(s) induce (epileptic) seizures.\" While flickering light in general can induce migraines, the paper says, scientific \"support for aggravating symptoms by flicker from fluorescent tubes was not found.\" Similarly, while there’s \"evidence showing that flicker can cause seizures in patients with photosensitive epilepsy,\" the paper says, \" there are no reported effects of CFL having such effects.\" Meanwhile, the Texas Eagle Forum’s Carlson relayed a defense of Schlafly’s statement from Schlafly’s son, John. Schlafly pointed out that his mother’s use of the word \"allegedly\" signaled that she was \"not claiming she had scientific proof CFLs cause migraines or epilepsy. However, it is a fact that some people who suffer from migraines or epilepsy believe that CFLs cause or aggravate those painful and debilitating conditions, he said. Our take: Flickering lights of various origins have been linked to migraines and epileptic seizures. But there appears to be no scientific evidence that CFLs, broken or otherwise, cause either disorder. Claim: Phyllis Schlafly Says broken compact fluorescent light bulbs \"allegedly cause migraines and epilepsy attacks.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The problem of gun crime in the United States, and in particular mass shootings in schools and other public places, has defied universally accepted solutions for the past couple of decades. One common proposition, particularly popular among conservatives, is that the primary cause of such shootings is a disintegration of traditional morality and Christian values in the United States. That viewpoint found its way into a Texas U.S. Senate election debate in September 2018, when incumbent Republican senator Ted Cruz argued that “removing God from the public square” and “losing the moral foundation of much of our society” were partly to blame for school shootings: Let me say, as the father of two daughters, there is something deeply wrong that we have these shootings. There are a lot of things behind it that have nothing to do with government. They have things to do with things like removing God from the public square, like losing the moral foundation of much of our society, like losing the binds of community and family. On Twitter, John Rehling criticized what he perceived as Cruz’s argument, offering some comparative statistics on religious affiliation and gun crime in Japan and the state of Texas: Ted Cruz said that school shootings take place because we removed “God from the public square.” Texas is 93% Christian and has a fatal school shooting every year. Japan is 2% Christian and has never had a school shooting. Worst theory ever Ted Cruz said that school shootings take place because we removed “God from the public square.” Texas is 93% Christian and has a fatal school shooting every year. Japan is 2% Christian and has never had a school shooting. Worst theory ever.#TXSenateDebate — JRehling (@JRehling) September 22, 2018  Rehling’s tweet was later reposted by the pro-science Facebook page Skepticus, garnering further exposure for his claims:  The numbers included in Rehling’s tweet were very accurate (although not perfectly so), and the best evidence we found in some instances actually offered stronger support for his overall argument: Christians do indeed make up a large majority of residents of Texas, where on average even more than one fatal school shooting takes place every year. Christians likely make up even less than two percent of the population in Japan, which has no recorded instance of a fatal school shooting, and which has a rate of gun death more than 500 times lower than that seen in the United States. “93 percent Christian” This number appears to be a slight exaggeration, but Rehling’s broader point, that Texas is  overwhelmingly Christian, still stands. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2014 “Religious Landscape Study,” 77 percent of Texans identified as Christian, with evangelical Protestants (31 percent) and Catholics (23 percent) making up the bulk of that contingent. This rate of Christian affiliation ranked joint seventh-highest in the United States. (Louisiana had the highest at 86 percent, and Vermont the lowest at 54 percent.) “A fatal school shooting every year” No official government database tracks shootings that take place in schools or colleges in the United States, so it’s not possible to arrive at a definitive number, but the rate mentioned by Rehling for Texas (one fatal school shooting per year) appears to be a slight underestimation. Perhaps the most reliable and comprehensive unofficial source of data on school shootings is the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which defines a school shooting as “an incident that occurs on property of the elementary, secondary or college campus where there is a death or injury from gunfire.” According to GVA data, Texas experience: So between January 2015 and October 2018, an average of 2.5 fatal school shootings took place in Texas per year, leading to an average of five deaths per year (although the latter figure is heavily skewed by the May 2018 Santa Fe high school shooting, in which 10 people were killed). If one limits the numbers to only include fatal shootings in elementary, middle, and high schools, seven such incidents were recorded between 2015 and 2018, leaving an average of 1.75 shootings per year. Another comprehensive database is the one maintained by Everytown for Gun Safety. Although Everytown is not impartial on the issue of gun violence (they advocate for stricter gun control laws), their database contains good references and sourcing for every such incident, and it also records shootings at colleges as well as elementary and high schools. According to Everytown, Texas schools experienced: Based on those figures, an average of exactly one fatal school shooting per year took place between 2013 and 2018, with an average of 2.5 deaths per year. If one includes suicides, two fatal school shootings occurred per year between 2013 and 2018, accounting for 3.7 deaths per year. Although methodologies and figures vary, Rehling’s claim of “a fatal school shooting every year” in Texas appears to be a very conservative estimate, and likely a significant understatement. Our determination, based on the reliable data sources we consulted, actually provides greater support for Rehling’s broader argument. “2% Christian” This figure actually appears to be a somewhat generous estimate of the prevalence of Christianity in Japanese society. According to the Pew Research Center’s “Global Religious Landscape” study, 1.6 percent of people in Japan identified as Christians in 2010. A November 2017 Pew Research Center presentation cited two sources which gave even lower estimates. According to the University of Michigan’s Japanese General Social Survey, 0.7 percent of Japanese people identified as Christians in 2015, and according to Japanese government research from 2015 the figure was 1.5 percent. Although Rehling’s figure of “2% Christian” appears to be a slight overstatement, our determination once again actually offers greater support to his broader argument. “Has never had a school shooting” We could find no record of a shooting (fatal or otherwise) having taken place at a school or university in Japan in recent memory. Rehling’s assessment is accurate: what is a frequent phenomenon in the United States, including Texas, simply does not happen in Japan. On the whole, Japan has among the lowest rates of gun crime in the developed world. For example, the rate of gun deaths per 100,000 people was 0.02 in Japan in 2014, according to GunPolicy.org, a research initiative run by the University of Sydney, Australia. In the United States, the gun death rate was 10.54 in 2014, a figure that’s more than 500 times higher. A 2016 article on the Japan Times news website asked “What are the chances of a mass shooting in Japan?” and outlined the strict laws and procedures surrounding gun ownership there: In Japan, citizens are banned from possessing, carrying, selling or buying handguns or rifles. Importing gun parts is also prohibited under the Firearm and Sword Control Law. Only licensed hunters are allowed to own shotguns, and the screening process is very strict. Applicants are required to obtain a license from a local government and undergo background checks by police as well as mental and drug tests at hospitals. The gun license must be renewed every three years, and applicants are required to again undergo the various tests. Claim: The school shooting rate in non-Christian Japan is vastly lower than that of mostly Christian Texas.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo signed a measure into law this month that requires public colleges and universities to establish a plan for promptly addressing students’ mental health needs. The new law discourages relying solely on off-campus services. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says 11 states now have a law addressing suicide prevention in higher education. The University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and Community College of Rhode Island don’t appear to have suicide prevention policies that meet the new requirement. They do offer counseling and mental health services and support the state’s efforts. URI told lawmakers it was well-positioned to implement the provisions of the legislation and it has resources in place and a system to respond if there’s a concern with a student. CCRI said it’s currently working on a formal policy on suicide prevention. At Rhode Island College, Chantelle Pseekos, director of the counseling center, said she supports any requirement that helps keep students safe and destigmatizes mental health services. “We, as campus communities, can collaboratively lessen the number of suicides that occur,” Pseekos said. The nonprofit Jed Foundation works to prevent suicide among teenagers and young adults. Nance Roy, the foundation’s chief clinical officer, said the law will make schools review their services and identify any gaps. Nicole Gibson, director of state policy and grassroots advocacy at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said she likes that Rhode Island’s law encourages schools to look at what they can provide on campus, and not just rely on providers in the community. “That would make seeking help just seem more typical,” she said, adding that the foundation actively supports and tracks suicide prevention bills. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in June that suicide rates have been rising in nearly every state. In Rhode Island, the rate rose about 34 percent from 1999 to 2016, according to the data. The schools must present their plans, along with any new policies and training being added, to legislative leaders and the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education by Jan. 1. Claim: Rhode Island law aims to prevent suicides at public colleges.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The original Associated Press story mentions the cost of of Pneumovax $30, and the original AP story also had questions about cost effectiveness of vaccinating younger, otherwise healthy college-age smokers. But both points were cut out in the version published by the NY Daily News. The story does not mention the number of adult smokers under age 65 who would need to be vaccinated to prevent one case of pneumonia. There was little data on this point in the source material, which the story should have noted. The original AP story mentions that the vaccine may not be very effective and may be considered overtreatment in otherwise healthy younger smokers. But the NY Daily News cut out that part in what it published. Neither version mentioned potential side effects of the vaccine, which might include pain if adminstered via the muscle, and allergic reaction, though this is rare. The story does not provide any quantitative evidence on which the new vaccination recommendations were based; however, there are no publicly-available data provided by the CDC or ACIP to report. The story fails to note this lack of evidence, or question experts on this point. The story does note that smokers are four times more likely to develop pneumonia than non-smokers of the same age. The story mentions mortality from pneumonia infections in adults over 65 and notes that death from pneumonia is younger people–even smokers– is relatively rare. The story could have done a better job with sources. In the original AP story there were two sources quoted, one of whom works for the CDC which issued the recommendations, and the other is independent. But the NY Daily News cut out the independent source interview. The story might have included a pulmonologist not on the recommending panel, or at a primary care physician, to give perspective on the current evidence and clinical implications of vaccinating 31 million adult smokers while providing smoking cessation counseling. The original AP story discussed the inefficacy of the vaccine in younger people and mentions that there is no booster available, even though protection drops off after 5-10 years. But the NY Daily News deleted that section. The story does not mention how smoking cessation counseling will be administered with vaccine. The story also mentions deaths from pneumonia in those over 65, but we are not told how pneumonia is typically treated in this population and in younger people, or in smokers in particular. We don’t know how many smokers need to be vaccinated to prevent one case of invasive infection; we don’t know how many cases will be prevented by adopting this new strategy. This uncertainty is not made clear in this article. The story explains that the vaccination is already in use for people over age 65. Recommended pneumonia vaccinations in older adults and those with compromised immune and respiratory systems is not new. The story focused on new recommendations that all adult smokers be vaccinated. There isn’t any evidence that the story relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Panel recommends pneumonia vaccine for adult smokers",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no discussion of the cost of this device (or the cost of a test using the device). One news release put the cost at “less than $15,000.” The news release stated the results “show the device accurately indicated reduced electrical activity in the retina in multiple cell layers in the participants who had schizophrenia, including in cell types that had not been studied before in this disorder.” Presumably this meant that all of the patients with schizophrenia were identified, but there are no numbers. Also, the news release didn’t explain whether the device accurately ruled out schizophrenia in those who didn’t have it. The news release and scientific article both referred to group (averaged) data, which is distinct from individual diagnosis. What’s known about the safety of this device? And what about the chances of false positives or false negatives? The news release didn’t say. It only quoted a researcher stating the test was performed to be “as noninvasive and quick as possible.” There was no mention of limitations of this study, such as the small number of participants. It also wasn’t clear whether the study was blinded; presumably at least the study participants if not the researchers taking the measurements knew their status. A study to show the diagnostic usefulness of the device would require a much larger sample of mostly younger people, positive and negative predictive values, and involve patients with other conditions such as mood and drug abuse disorders. No disease mongering here. But the release doesn’t provide much context about the disease other than a quote from the lead researcher: “Schizophrenia is a devastating disorder, probably the most disabling disorder long term. Although we know quite a bit about it, it’s still not that well understood.” The prevalence of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders in the U.S. is estimated at 0.25 percent to 0.64 percent of the US population. The news release did not mention who funded this study, and it which wasn’t mentioned in the study itself, as far as we could tell. The release also didn’t mention that one of the authors is employed by LKC Technologies, which makes these devices. There was no discussion of how schizophrenia is diagnosed currently, which involves a checklist of symptoms such as delusions, incoherent speech, hallucinations, hearing voices, cognitive problems, or a flattening of emotions that hang on for months. How accurate is that method, and how much does it cost? The release said the device is “common in optometrists’ offices.” The news release said was this is the first time a portable device was used for these tests. The news release also notes that, “Looking at biomarkers in the eye as a way to understand psychiatric disorder is a new field of study,” but the journal article cites studies as far back as 1999. So not so new. The lead sentence oversold this study, indicating that it showed how a common device “may hold the key to faster diagnosis of schizophrenia, predicting relapse and symptom severity and assessing treatment effectiveness.” The news release headline also over-reaches. A better headline might have been the sub-title: “Researchers explore eye function in schizophrenia as a window into the brain.” But further down the news release quoted a researcher stating that the study “should help generate further research” into developing a test clinicians can use to diagnose, treat and monitor people with schizophrenia. And at the end a quote — from lead author Docia Demmin — tempered the assertion by stating “it’s too soon to call this a diagnostic tool.” Claim: Promise of faster, more accessible schizophrenia diagnosis, Rutgers study shows",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It’s true that some Chic-fil-A locations offer a free meal for new moms — but it’s not a companywide promotion. Rumors about a free lunch for new moms at Chic-fil-A date back years. Pregnancy discussion boards are filled with threads about how if new moms-to-be register at a local restaurant and provide their home address, that Chic-fil-A will deliver a free meal to them:  Then, in April 2016, a post about the new mom promotion at Chic-fil-A went viral on Facebook: Attention expecting moms. If u contact ur closest chic fil a close to ur due date or right after u have the baby they offer a new mom meal for FREE. It’s a small platter, 4 large fries or fruit, a gallon of lemonade or tea, and cookies. Pretty cool!!!! So ladies, contact them when its time for this awesome deal. Tag expecting mothers u know. In-store promotions at Chic-fil-A like this one have caused confusion in the past. Last year, it was widely reported that all Chic-fil-A restaurants had a “missing man table” set to honor combat veterans who have gone missing in action. We found that a number of restaurants in the Atlanta market had elected to do that, but that it wasn’t a companywide policy. Click here for that story. The same is true for the free meal for new mothers claim. There’s no definitive list of Chic-fil-A locations that offer free meals for new mom. Thanks to a Houston-based mom blog, however, we can confirm that some restaurants in the area were offering the promotion as of the beginning of January 2015: Many Chick-fil-A locations deliver a New Mommy Meal when you are home from the hospital with your newborn. It’s a small nugget tray, fruit tray, a gallon of sweet tea and a gift for baby. You can sign up in their restaurant, or call your local Chick-fil-A to see if they participate in this program. And the free meal for new moms has also undoubtedly been confused with Chic-fil-A’s “Mom Valet” or “Mommy VIP Service” that some locations rolled out in early 2016. The service enables parents to place an order at the drive-thru window, and then an employee will make up a table inside for the family so they don’t have to stand in line. Again, the only sure way to know exactly what promotions and services your local Chic-fil-A locations offer to mothers is to check with individual restaurant operators. Comments Claim:  Discussion forums and social media have been abuzz with reports that Chic-fil-A offers a free meal for new moms. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Befitting her previous position as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton’s new book, Hard Choices, ranges across the globe, occasionally looking back into history long before she took the helm at the State Department. For instance, Clinton writes that \"in Iran in 1979, the extremists hijacked the broad-based popular revolution against the Shah and established a brutal theocracy.\" We had always closely associated the Iranian Revolution with Islamic fundamentalism. Was Clinton’s summary correct? We checked in with several scholars who have studied the region, and their consensus was that Clinton was broadly correct, despite a bit of oversimplification. First, some background. The revolution began in the late 1970s, amid simmering discontent among Iranians about Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the autocratic leader who operated a feared secret police. Even as he maintained generally (but not uninterrupted) good ties to the West, his standing at home was deteriorating. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, an exiled cleric living in Paris, courted support among critics of the Shah. After a series of strikes and protests, the Shah in January 1979 left for an \"extended vacation,\" never to return home. The handpicked leaders the Shah left behind tried to prevent Khomeini from forming a government, but after the cleric returned to Tehran in February 1979, unrest grew. In mid February, supporters of Khomeini declared a revolutionary state, and within two months, Khomeini won a national referendum. \"The strongest images of Iran's revolution come from those early years\" of 1979 to 1982, wrote Robin Wright in her 2000 book, The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran. \"Many still linger in the minds of outsiders: The demonstrations by rifle-toting mullahs and chador-clad women. The morgue slabs with bullet-riddled bodies of officials from the monarchy and other loyalists who were summarily executed in the course of revolutionary justice. The seizure of the United States Embassy and 52 hostages who, over the next 444 days, were often paraded with crude blindfolds in front of cameras as effigies of Uncle Sam were burned in the background by angry youths. This was the delirium.\" Largely lost in this popular image is the fact that the revolution’s supporters were not exclusively Islamist -- perhaps not even primarily Islamist. The Shah’s regime had made enemies of leftists, nationalists, intellectuals, democrats and the moderately religious. All of these groups, to one degree or another, were supporters of revolution against the Shah. Clinton \"is absolutely correct that the revolution of 1979 was a broad-based revolution against the Shah,\" said Mohsen M. Milani, executive director of the University of South Florida’s World Center for Strategic and Diplomatic Studies. \"In fact, it was one of the most popular revolutions of the modern era.\" Gary Sick, an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran and October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan, agreed. \"The fact is that most of the millions of Iranians who took to the streets to oppose the Shah did not think they were going to replace him with a theocratic state,\" Sick said. \"That was the work of Khomeini and his followers, and it was actively opposed by many of the secular -- and even clerical -- revolutionaries.\" Some of the historians we checked with took mild issue with the phrase \"hijacked,\" since Khomeini -- who for many Americans personifies Islamic extremism -- was always the central player in the revolution. After all, it’s hard to hijack a revolution you’d always led. But there’s an explanation for this paradox: Initially, Khomeini had openly stated that he was not pursuing a theocracy. \"Iran's emergence as a modern theocracy was never written in the heavens,\" Wright wrote in her book. \"Quite the contrary. In earlier pronouncements about a just government Ayatollah Khomeini actually said he didn't advocate clerical rule. … In one of his last interviews before leaving Paris, Ayatollah Khomeini told Le Monde, ‘Our intention is not that religious leaders themselves should administer the state.’ \"Once the tumultuous fanfare of his return died down, the Imam seemed almost uninterested in day-to-day government affairs. The ayatollah, already in his late seventies, instead went back to the dusty theological center of Qom. He seemed content to leave politics to the first revolutionary government of secular technocrats. His role was limited to settling disputes.\" That changed with the effort to write Iran’s Constitution in the fall of 1979. \"Fearful that other changes might further marginalize or even exclude them, Ayatollah Khomeini's followers introduced a process to vet candidates' credentials -- a precedent that time and again allowed them to manipulate future elections, too,\" Wright wrote. \"It worked. They won a majority. And the final draft (of the constitution) ended up thoroughly Islamic.\" Even then, the Islamic revolution wasn’t complete, Wright wrote: \"For the first presidential election in January 1980, a full year after the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini decreed that no clerics could run for president -- further proof that he still didn't intend to establish a total theocracy. Over the next 18 months, however, Iran was wracked by bloodshed as the ruling clergy and their adjutants gradually eliminated former partners -- leftists, nationalists and intellectuals--from any claim to power.\" Iran became fully Islamist in October 1981, when the cleric Ali Khamanei won the third presidential election -- the first election in which clerics were allowed to run. \"As of October 1981,\" Wright wrote, \"the mullahs were no longer only the supervisors and shadows of the state. They now dominated all its branches.\" The experts we talked to quibbled slightly with Clinton’s claim, saying it’s a bit oversimplified. Notably, Clinton inaccurately compresses the time frame. The changes she’s talking about didn’t just happen immediately in 1979 but rather played out in an evolutionary fashion for two years after the Shah fell. \"If you have to do the whole history in 19 words, it's probably okay,\" said John Limbert, historian and political scientist at the U.S. Naval Academy and author of Iran: At War with History. Stephen Kinzer, a Boston University professor and author of the book, Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future, said Clinton is generally correct that \"the Iranian revolution was broad-based, and one faction later seized control, establishing a brutal theocracy.\" Our ruling Clinton said that \"in Iran in 1979, the extremists hijacked the broad-based popular revolution against the Shah and established a brutal theocracy.\" She’s generally correct, experts say, despite questions over whether \"hijacked\" is the right word and whether she used an overly broad time frame. Claim: In Iran in 1979, the extremists hijacked the broad-based popular revolution against the Shah and established a brutal theocracy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Not applicable. Costs weren’t mentioned, but we didn’t think that was a necessity in this case. The story provided the data on the summation of grades showing the difference in folic acid levels in the children in the highest and lowest groups. While it is nice to have absolute grade difference provided, it would have been useful to indicate whether these differences were statistically significant or whether the differences in folic acid intake were clinically significant. Not applicable. Harms not mentioned. The story could have mentioned the potential for excessive folic acid intake to interfere with vitamin B12 uptake which, though unlikely in a teen population, could mask symptoms of B12 deficiency. But we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt on this. The story mentioned the fact that the study was small and that the population differed in an important way from teens in the US who consume food that is supplemented with folic acid. It also pointed out that the study was not a randomized controlled trial so there may have been other differences between the groups of teens found to have high and low amounts of folic acid. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story included quotes from independent sources who helped provide context and perspective on the study and its results. The story mentioned that the food supply in the US was folic acid fortified. The story stated that folic acid is one of the ‘B’ vitamins and that at least in the US, is found in fortified foods. The story could have also mentioned that folic acid is a common ingredient in multivitamin formulations. The story provided good background on folic acid intake. This story did not appear to rely solely on a news release. Claim: Folic acid tied to better grades in Swedish teens",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There’s still no proven, publicly available vaccine for the coronavirus, but misinformation about it is already coursing through the internet. One recent Facebook post shares an image containing inflammatory claims about a coronavirus vaccine that might one day be available to the public. \"The covid-19 vaccine will be mandatory in order to go back too school. They will contain RFID Chips,\" the image in the post reads. It continues: \"Many kids will die from the covid-19 vaccine. Just to remind you the 4 kids that took the vaccine, died immediately.\" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The claims in the post are speculative and misleading in a number of ways, and have been debunked by another fact-checking organization. COVID-19 has killed more than half a million people worldwide, including nearly 130,000 in the U.S. Companies around the world are scrambling to develop a vaccine, and many potential vaccines are undergoing safety trials in humans. Health officials are struggling to reassure some skeptics that a vaccine can be developed quickly without compromising safety. As of June 30, only one coronavirus vaccine had been approved for limited use. The Chinese government has approved it only for military personnel. Currently there is no coronavirus vaccine that has been approved for the American public. And there is no evidence that children have died because they received one of the COVID-19 vaccines being developed. In April, PolitiFact investigated a claim that seven children in Senegal died after receiving COVID-19 vaccines and discovered the Facebook post’s claim was . In May, Reuters also reported that social media posts were incorrect in claiming that a TV news report from 2019 showed the deadly results of a COVID-19 vaccination trial in Guinea. PolitiFact found no evidence that anyone has died from complications related to a trial COVID-19 vaccination. PolitiFact has also debunked several  claims involving the coronavirus vaccine and microchips. The U.S. isn’t developing an \"antivirus\" for COVID-19 that will include an RFID chip, for example. There’s also no evidence that Democrats are pushing for mandatory vaccinations or microchip implants to fight the coronavirus. And there is no evidence yet of any requirement that students be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to school, though some states could require it if a vaccine becomes available. State laws govern immunization requirements for schoolchildren, including those in private schools and daycare centers, but all states allow exemptions for medical reasons, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and some allow exemptions for religious or philosophical reasons. A viral image on Facebook claimed, \"Many kids will die from the covid-19 vaccine. Just to remind you the 4 kids that took the vaccine, died immediately.\" There is no evidence that children have died because of the coronavirus vaccines in development, or that a future vaccine will contain microchips. Claim: “Four kids who took the coronavirus vaccine died immediately.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Moments after the House passed a bill to significantly overhaul the nation’s health care system, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., blasted an email to constituents. While the bill \"doesn’t fix the entire problem,\" he said, it \"begins the process of fixing our broken health care system.\" A PolitiFact reader sent us a copy of Loudermilk’s email and asked us to fact-check it. We zeroed in on one of the exchanges in a \"frequently asked questions\" section that sought to explain some of the bill’s provisions: \"Why are you cutting women’s health services?\" \"We’re not. In fact, we’re expanding women’s access to health services by redirecting Planned Parenthood dollars to community health centers, which vastly outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics.\" Could pushing Planned Parenthood out of the picture really expand women’s access to health care? We found that there are indeed more community health centers than Planned Parenthood clinics -- but that doesn’t mean that redirecting dollars to them will amount to \"expanding women’s access to health services.\" Some background The GOP health care bill bill would effectively block Planned Parenthood for a year from securing reimbursements from Medicaid -- not just for abortions, which is already the case, but for any services, from pap smears to birth control. Planned Parenthood says abortion services are already walled off from payments they get for services that have nothing to do with abortion. But abortion opponents have long argued that the government is tacitly supporting abortion even by reimbursing Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services, saying such money is fungible once it reaches Planned Parenthood’s coffers. The bill’s change could have a significant impact on Planned Parenthood: About 43 percent of the group’s budget comes from the government, including grants and reimbursements, much of which comes from Medicaid. The group says the bill, if enacted, could lead to closures of clinics and leave women without access to vital services, especially in medically underserved areas. Do community health centers \"vastly outnumber\" Planned Parenthood clinics? Loudermilk has a point on the numbers of clinics. We looked at a census of clinics that provide contraceptive services published in April 2017 by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health nonprofit. The group tallied up various types of clinics, the most numerous of which are \"federally qualified health centers\" -- defined by the federal government as \"safety-net providers that primarily provide services typically furnished in an outpatient clinic.\" Such facilities can include community health centers, migrant health centers, homeless health care centers, and public housing primary care centers. For 2015, the census tallied 5,829 federally qualified health centers nationally, compared to 676 Planned Parenthood clinics. That’s a ratio of greater than 8-to-1, so the adjective \"vastly\" seems appropriate. Would the bill redirect money from Planned Parenthood to community health centers? Not necessarily. Planned Parenthood received about $553.7 million from the government in 2015 for its services; the group, however, does not make public what portion of that is specifically from the federal government because the funding streams from different levels of government are sometimes hard to disentangle. The best estimate we can get comes from the Congressional Budget Office, which projected that the provision blocking federal funding to Planned Parenthood would result in $178 million in reduced federal outlays. If the CBO’s projection is accurate, then the increase in federal funding to community health centers in the bill -- $422 million -- would represent a larger federal investment than the money being held back from Planned Parenthood. At first glance, that would seem to make the bill a net expansion in dollars, if you consider only these two line items. However, a couple issues balance against the notion that that this will represent an expansion of care. First, there is no guarantee that the $422 million spent would go towards the same patients, and for the same services, that would be lost due to the Planned Parenthood cuts. The bill does not explicitly require that. Another caveat comes from a different conclusion in the same CBO analysis. \"To the extent that there would be reductions in access to care under the legislation, they would affect services that help women avert pregnancies,\" CBO wrote. \"The people most likely to experience reduced access to care would probably reside in areas without other health care clinics or medical practitioners who serve low-income populations. CBO projects that about 15 percent of those people would lose access to care.\" The immediate loss of care for 15 percent of Planned Parenthood patients also undercuts the argument that money would simply flow from one type of clinic to the other. Would redirecting funding to these centers expand women’s access to health services? There’s reason to be skeptical. For starters, common sense suggests that even if community health centers ended up being able to serve every single patient currently served by Planned Parenthood, that wouldn’t qualify as \"expanding women’s access to health services\" -- it would simply be maintaining it. The closure of as many as 676 Planned Parenthood facilities would require an awful lot of expansion of resources elsewhere just to keep pace, before any \"expansion\" of access begins. And there’s reason to believe that community health centers may not be able to pick up the slack if Planned Parenthood centers disappear. First, there’s a capacity problem. Planned Parenthood centers tend to be unusually efficient in providing health services to women, because that’s their specialty. The average Planned Parenthood clinic served 2,950 patients for contraceptive services in 2015, compared to 320 for the average federally qualified health center, according to the Guttmacher census. \"Because by definition health centers are in medically underserved communities with elevated risk and insufficient primary care, the last thing one does is get rid of any supply,\" Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, told PolitiFact. \"This is the corker. Health centers are overwhelmed with need.\" And currently, community health centers are already operating with a shortage of staff, making any rapid expansion that much trickier. \"Workforce challenges are one of the primary barriers to health center patient growth,\" the National Association of Community Health Centers concluded in a 2016 report on its sector. \"If all health center clinical vacancies were filled today, health centers could serve 2 million more patients.\" And second, community health centers and Planned Parenthood clinics aren’t interchangeable, experts say. Guttmacher data indicates that Planned Parenthood centers \"are considerably more likely to offer a broad range of contraceptive methods than sites operated by other types of agencies. Nearly all Planned Parenthood health centers offer the full range of Food and Drug Administration-approved reversible contraceptive methods,\" compared to half of federally qualified health centers. Rebecca Kreitzer, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recently told the Atlantic that oral contraceptives and condoms are cheap enough that community health clinics can afford to give them out and then request federal reimbursement, but IUDs and contraceptive implants -- two long-term but reversible methods -- are often too expensive for clinics to front without immediate payment. By contrast, Planned Parenthood is a big enough network that it can afford to provide more expensive methods immediately. Because of this, Planned Parenthood clinics are also likelier to have staff on hand with the requisite expertise. \"Just because there is a federally qualified health center near where there is a Planned Parenthood Clinic does not mean we can assume the women going to Planned Parenthood would easily be served,\" said Keith J. Mueller, head of the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Iowa. When the Atlantic investigated how prepared Iowa health clinics were to pick up patients from Planned Parenthood, they found that lists of clinics provided by Republican lawmakers included \"a dentist’s office, a school nurse, and a youth shelter\" as well as one clinic that had closed and several that didn’t provide family-planning services. \"They're assuming we're the alternative,\" Ted Boesen, CEO of the non-profit Iowa Primary Care Association, told the magazine. \"But we're waiting to see what kind of a scale it is.\" Finally, the Energy and Commerce Committee said it’s possible to argue \"that Planned Parenthood provides inferior overall service because they cannot offer holistic care to their patients, as they are a boutique reproductive health provider.\" But experts say the committee’s emphasis on full-spectrum health care is more expensive than reproductive health care \"Because health centers must think about the full spectrum of primary health care for all patients, the absence of a specialized safety-net provider such as Planned Parenthood would be deeply problematic,\" Rosenbaum has written. \"When health centers attempt to respond to a surge in demand, they must think about not just the specialized services lost, but all of the health needs of the patients who find their way to a health center, not to mention those of their families. … As a result, the anticipated cost per patient served is far higher than family planning and related services alone.\" In other words, the higher cost of providing care at community health centers is another reason why the increased federal funding figure in the bill may not be sufficient for replacing the lost Planned Parenthood services. Our ruling Loudermilk said that in the House Republican health care bill, \"we’re expanding women’s access to health services by redirecting Planned Parenthood dollars to community health centers, which vastly outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics.\" Purely on the numbers, he has a point that there are more federally qualified health centers than Planned Parenthood clinics. But the notion that bypassing Planned Parenthood would mean \"expanding\" access is dubious. Challenges of geography, capacity, specialization and cost raise significant questions about whether existing centers, even if they were provided with Planned Parenthood’s federal revenue stream, would be able to maintain the current patient load, much less expand it. UPDATE, May 11, 2017: This report has been updated to include material provided by the House Energy and Commerce Committee that we received a day after the article was published. Our rating remains the same. Claim: In the House Republican health care bill, \"we’re expanding women’s access to health services by redirecting Planned Parenthood dollars to community health centers, which vastly outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The drug, called ipratropium, is made by Boehringer  Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc under the brand names Atrovent  and Combivent. It has largely been replaced by Pfizer Inc’s  Spiriva. It prevents bronchospasms, attacks in which the  airways narrow, making breathing difficult. “This medication may be having some systemic cardiovascular  effect that is increasing the risk of death in COPD patients,”  said Todd Lee of Northwestern University in Chicago, who led  the study. Lee’s team found that military veterans with recently  diagnosed COPD who used Atrovent or Combivent were 34 percent  more likely to die of a heart attack or arrhythmia than COPD  patients using only a similar product called albuterol, or  those who did not take any drugs. Writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the researchers  said they looked at the cause of death of 145,000 veterans with  newly diagnosed COPD from 1999 to 2003. Lee said doctors and patients should be aware of the  potential risk. COPD is an umbrella term for respiratory diseases including  emphysema and chronic bronchitis and is mostly caused by  smoking. An estimated 12 million people in the United States  have COPD, the fourth-leading cause of death. “The safety of drugs for COPD patients has flown under the  radar,” Lee said. In March the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said another  COPD drug called Spiriva, marketed by Pfizer Inc and Boehringer  Ingelheim, may increase the risk of stroke. Claim: Older emphysema drug linked to heart deaths.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: During the 1990s, Australia was confronting a problem similar to the one that regularly confronts Americans: shooting incidents over the previous decade had left more than a hundred people dead, including the infamous Port Arthur massacre in April 1996 that saw one gunman wielding a semi-automatic rifle kill 35 people over the course of a single day (including 20 people with 29 bullets in about 90 seconds): In 1996, Martin Bryant entered a café at the site of a historic penal colony at Port Arthur, Tasmania. The 28-year-old ate lunch before pulling a semi-automatic rifle from his bag and embarking on a killing spree. By the time he was apprehended the next morning, 35 people were dead and 23 had been wounded. Bryant had become the worst mass-murderer in Australia’s history. Australia had experienced mass shootings before, but the Port Arthur massacre shook the nation to its core. Bryant was later assessed to have the IQ of an 11-year-old. He told investigators that he’d paid cash for firearms at a local gun dealer. Shortly afterwards, John Howard, the new Australian prime minister, moved to enact nationwide gun law reform (a process complicated by the fact that the Australian national government had no control over gun ownership or use, so gun reform legislation had to be passed individually by all states and territories). Those reform efforts, known as the 1996 National Firearms Agreement (NFA), included two nationwide gun buybacks, voluntary surrenders, state gun amnesties, a ban on the importation of new automatic and semiautomatic weapons, the tightening of gun owner licensing, and the creation of uniform national standards for gun registration. Australia collected and destroyed an estimated 650,000 firearms (a reduction equivalent to the removal of about forty million guns from the United States), which reduced Australia’s firearms stock by around one-fifth. Around 2001, a piece appeared on the Internet that has been circulated widely and often ever since, attempting to make the case that Australia’s gun reform efforts were a dismal failure in terms of reducing violent crime: From: Ed Chenel, a police officer in Australia. Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in: Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent, Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent; Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent!). In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. (Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!) While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed. There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in “successfully ridding Australian society of guns.” You won’t see this data on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the state Assembly disseminating this information. The Australian experience proves it. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens. Take note Americans, before it’s too late! The conclusions drawn in this piece were both premature and inaccurate, however. In a peer-reviewed paper published by American Law and Economics Review in 2012, researchers Andrew Leigh of Australian National University and Christine Neill of Wilfrid Laurier University found that in the decade following the NFA, firearm homicides (both suicides and intentional killings) in Australia had dropped significantly: In 1997, Australia implemented a gun buyback program that reduced the stock of firearms by around one-fifth (and nearly halved the number of gun-owning households). Using differences across states, we test[ed] whether the reduction in firearms availability affected homicide and suicide rates. We find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%, with no significant effect on non-firearm death rates. The effect on firearm homicides is of similar magnitude but is less precise [somewhere between 35% and 50%]. Similarly, Dr. David Hemenway and Mary Vriniotis of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center found in 2011 that the NFA had been “incredibly successful in terms of lives saved”: For Australia, the NFA seems to have been incredibly successful in terms of lives saved. While 13 gun massacres (the killing of 4 or more people at one time) occurred in Australia in the 18 years before the NFA, resulting in more than one hundred deaths, in the 14 following years (and up to the present), there were no gun massacres. The NFA also seems to have reduced firearm homicide outside of mass shootings, as well as firearm suicide. In the seven years before the NFA (1989-1995), the average annual firearm suicide death rate per 100,000 was 2.6 (with a yearly range of 2.2 to 2.9); in the seven years after the buyback was fully implemented (1998-2004), the average annual firearm suicide rate was 1.1 (yearly range 0.8 to 1.4). In the seven years before the NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate per 100,000 was .43 (range .27 to .60) while for the seven years post NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate was .25 (range .16 to .33) Additional evidence strongly suggests that the buyback causally reduced firearm deaths. First, the drop in firearm deaths was largest among the type of firearms most affected by the buyback. Second, firearm deaths in states with higher buyback rates per capita fell proportionately more than in states with lower buyback rates. While there is no doubt that firearms deaths in Australia have decreased substantially in the years since the implementation of the NFA, how much of that decrease is directly attributable to the NFA is still subject to debate. Much of that debate focuses on the fact that the gun death rate in Australia was already decreasing prior to the time the NFA was introduced: For Australia, a difficulty with determining the effect of the law was that gun deaths were falling in the early 1990s. No study has explained why gun deaths were falling, or why they might be expected to continue to fall. Yet most studies generally assumed that they would have continued to drop without the NFA. Many studies still found strong evidence for a beneficial effect of the law. It’s also true that in both cases, the authors of studies cautioned that NFA-like plans wouldn’t necessarily achieve (and have not achieved) the same results in the United States, in large part because Australia’s geography makes it much easier to control the flow of arms into the country: Several factors are important in assessing the extent to which the results from the Australian buyback can be extrapolated to other countries. Australian borders are more easily controlled than in countries that have land borders. In addition, Australia’s government in general and its policing and customs services in particular are highly organized and effective. The NFA also had an extremely high degree of political support and was quite competently executed. And the buyback was accompanied by a uniform national system for licensing and registration of firearms. These factors should be borne in mind in considering the extent to which the results from the Australian NFA might generalize to other countries. It does not appear that the Australian experience with gun buybacks is fully replicable in the United States. Levitt provides three reasons why gun buybacks in the United States have apparently been ineffective: (a) the buybacks are relatively small in scale (b) guns are surrendered voluntarily, and so are not like the ones used in crime; and (c) replacement guns are easy to obtain. These factors did not apply to the Australian buyback, which was large, compulsory, and the guns on this island nation could not easily be replaced. For example, compared to the buyback of 650,000 firearms, annual imports after the law averaged only 30,000 per year, with many of these bought by law enforcement agencies. Regardless of how much of a cause-and-effect relationship there might be between the NFA and gun deaths in Australia, it’s undeniable that the firearms homicide rate in that country has decreased substantially since the implementation of the NFA. It’s not the case, however, as suggested by the misleading and long out-of-date online piece quoted in the Example block above (which was written way back in 2001) that the overall crime rate in Australia has shot up since the NFA was introduced. The rates of various types of violent crimes (sexual assault, kidnapping, homicides of all types) have scarcely changed at all, and while the robbery rate rose substantially in the 1998-2001 timeframe, it dropped below its pre-NFA level by 2004 and has continually declined since then: Claim: Statistics demonstrate that crime rates in Australia have increased substantially since the government there instituted a gun buy-back program in 1997.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: About two dozen states have moved to loosen the reins on marijuana. The legal ground is shifting and a New York Times Sunday editorial tried to shake things up a bit further. For more than 40 years, federal law has banned pot and lawmakers in many states have voiced reluctance to run afoul of Washington. The paper’s editorial board said the federal government should be silent on marijuana and let states decide for themselves. Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus said she was okay with letting states experiment, but in a discussion on NBC’s Meet the Press on July 27, 2014, Marcus said she was against letting states \"go the full legalization route.\" Her main concern with state’s loosening the rules had to do with teenagers. \"It is a vast social experiment,\" Marcus said. \"We do not know the outcome except that the best evidence is that you lose -- if you use marijuana as a teenager regularly -- eight IQ points.\" We didn’t hear from Marcus, but we’re pretty sure she is citing a 2012 study from Duke University researchers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Duke team led by Madeline Meier studied nearly every child born in the New Zealand town of Dunedin born in the early 1970s. By the time they turned 13, these children had taken their first IQ tests. Follow-up interviews as they grew older determined if they were using marijuana, alcohol or other drugs. They took another battery of IQ tests when they turned 38. The Duke researchers screened out those who had problems with hard drugs, alcohol or schizophrenia. They controlled for the kids who dropped out of school. What they found was the ones who began smoking pot weekly before they turned 18 showed an average drop of about eight IQ points. Some lost more and some lost less but all lost at least a bit. \"Impairment was concentrated among adolescent-onset cannabis users, with more persistent use associated with greater decline,\" the researchers wrote. The study didn’t say this proved that that early and long-term use caused the drop in IQ results. Researchers acknowledged that some unknown variable might be responsible. At the same time, they said it was plausible that pot could be disrupting brain development in teenagers. The report attracted a fair bit of attention. Then, about a year later, another analysis emerged, again published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This one came from Ole Rogeberg, a Norwegian economist, who said he could get the same results as Meier by factoring in socioeconomic status. In short, Rogeberg said the kids from poorer households would lose ground on IQ tests over time because they tended to end up doing work that was less mentally demanding. \"The causal effects estimated in Meier et al. are likely to be overestimates and the true effect could be zero,\" Rogeberg wrote. \"Although it would be too strong to say that the results have been discredited, the methodology is flawed and the causal inference drawn from the results premature.\" Meier shot back that Rogeberg had relied on an economic model and that when her team looked at the incomes of the families, they still found a loss in intelligence that was tied to marijuana. In particular, children from middle-class households were more likely to see a drop in their IQ scores if they started smoking pot early and continued as they aged. However, there was no mention of how large the drop was or how statistically robust it was. Annette Dobson, a statistician at the University of Queensland, commented on the debate. Dobson largely weighed in on Rogeberg’s side, saying the number of long-term pot users in the Dunedin group was small, only 124 reported regular use at any time. \"I suspect that the small sample size limited the extent to which the authors were able to take possible confounding factors, such as socioeconomic status, into account,\" Dobson wrote. \"So are the original results by Meier et al. correct? I don’t believe we can say whether they are or not.\" Our ruling Marcus said the best evidence shows that teenagers who start smoking marijuana will lose eight IQ points. This overstates the actual underlying report. It would be more accurate to say the study showed a higher risk of losing that many points on an IQ test, not that a person necessarily would. More fundamentally, an equally reputable analysis found that IQ loss could be tied to household incomes as much as marijuana use. Clearly, a scientific consensus has yet to emerge, and Marcus ignored the ongoing debate. Claim: The best evidence is that you lose -- if you use marijuana as a teenager regularly -- eight IQ points.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Douglas County HEalth Department said in a news release that both deaths were in people under 18. The department says it’s prohibited by privacy laws from identifying the two children who died and would not give their exact ages or where they lived in Douglas County. The pediatric deaths follow the department’s report earlier this week that two adult flu-related adult deaths in people over 65 years have been reported in Douglas County. Health officials say the very young, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are at greater risk of complications from the respiratory illness. The most recent report from the department on Monday says Douglas County has had 3,758 lab-confirmed flu cases this flu season. The flu season runs through April, so the department urged those who’ve not gotten a flu vaccine to get one. Claim: Health officials in Omaha confirm 2 pediatric flu deaths.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: At the  Des Moines Register  debate on Dec. 12, 2007, Rudy Giuliani acknolwedged a touchy point for his campaign: He supports abortion rights. But he emphasized that he dislikes abortion and repeated a claim he's made before, that while he was mayor of New York City, the number of abortions declined while adoptions rose. \"We reduced abortion. We increased adoptions by 135 percent,\" he said. We've addressed his previous claims with  this ruling  and our article  \"Giuliani's 'culture of life,' defined\"  , but he used different wording and a different number this time, so we'll examine the new statement. He's right that abortions went down. They declined 16.8 percent during Giuliani's eight-year tenure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, his wording suggests he took an active, leading role in reducing abortions. That doesn't square with his record. When we examined his tenure for our previous article, we spoke with key players familiar with his record, and they remembered a decidely abortion-rights mayor who went so far as to sign a proclamation for \"Roe vs. Wade Anniversary Day.\" He also filled out a questionnaire for an abortion-rights group pledging his support for the cause. So for him to say \"we reduced abortion\" seems like a stretch. Two months ago, the Giuliani campaign maintained there was a link between the rise in adoptions and the decline in abortions. They now say he is not linking the two. But we believe many voters could be left with the impression that the two are related. And indeed, we couldn't find any research that showed an increase in adoptions led to a decrease in abortions. There's no question that adoptions rose during his term. But to reach 135 percent requires some serious calculator gymnastics. Two years into his first term, Giuliani created the Administration for Children's Services with a mission to improve the lives of the city's children. The agency aims to help kids in foster care, and it measures its success in large part by how many adoptions it facilitates each year. We focus on page 14 of the ACS 2003 Year End Review, which shows a bar chart of adoptions conducted through the city's child welfare system from 1989 to 2003. Giuliani was mayor from Jan. 1, 1994, to Dec. 31, 2001. His new agency came on line in January 1996. The chart shows a gradual increase in adoptions from 1989 through 1994, then a steeper increase through 1997 — the middle years of Giuliani's tenure. After that year, the numbers decline through 2002. Giuliani has previously said the rate of adoptions went up 65 to 70 percent. His campaign calculated that number by taking adoption rates for the six years before ACS was created and comparing them to the six years after. But now, Giuliani is citing a number twice as large: 135 percent. To get that number, his staff compared adoptions in all eight of his fiscal years against all eight of his predecessors'. This works out to a whopping 133 percent increase in adoptions, which Giuliani rounded up to 135. That's one way to look at it. But a more traditional way, simply comparing adoption rates in the first year of his tenure and in the last year, shows the rate increased by only 17 percent, a point first made by our friends at FactCheck.org. The Giuliani campaign said averaging the rates over two six-year (or now, eight-year) blocks helps smooth out peaks and valleys in individual years caused by social, economic and other forces. The first two years after ACS came on line, there was a spike in adoptions that Giuliani's campaign said was because of a backlog of foster kids waiting to connect with families. It's true, the campaign aides say, the numbers go down significantly in Giuliani's final two years. But they're still higher than those of his predecessor, David Dinkins. We find that's an unorthodox way of comparing the numbers and it relies on a different methodology than the abortion rate. For the abortion statistic, the Giuliani campaign looked at two points in time (the beginning and end of his tenure) and compared the two. Doing that for adoptions yields an increase of 17 percent. But here, they're trying some creative math to boost the number to 133. So, we find that while he's got his numbers right on abortion rates, it's a stretch for the abortion-rights mayor to take credit. We also find he has inflated the adoption figures by getting fancy with his math. It's worth saying again that to arrive at the \"135 percent\" increase in adoption rates the Giuliani campaign had to change the way it had been calculating those rates just a few months ago. We find his overall claim Barely True. Claim: We reduced abortion. We increased adoptions by 135 percent.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost isn’t discussed. Various online estimates for carotid ultrasounds put them at $200-$800. Here’s what the story says: “People with the most intense pulses, which pointed to a greater and more irregular blood flow, were up to 50% more likely to suffer reduced cognitive functions.” First, we need to point out that it wasn’t a pulse researchers were measuring, but something known as forward compression waves (FCW) in the neck arteries. The story doesn’t include vital data-driven information for readers, such as: Also the story never makes it clear that, based on these observational study results, we don’t really know if doctors can “spot dementia 10 years earlier” just because of FCW. Nor that we have no know way of knowing to what extent identifying this risk allows patients to take action to improve their FCW score and therefore improve cognitive outcomes. Some useful reading: Observational studies: Does the language fit the evidence? Association vs. causation Absolute vs relative risk The biggest risk with a screening test like this is incorrect results–false positives and false negatives, which the story never explains. There is significant harm that can result if a person thinks they are at high risk of dementia when they aren’t, or thinks they’re at low-risk when they’re high risk. These are otherwise known as a test’s sensitivity and specificity and they should have been discussed, especially how these unknowns will guide next steps for future research. The story never explains that the study is observational, so cause-and-effect conclusions can’t be drawn. It hints at the need for future research, which would have been a good segue to talk about the limitations of this study. No disease mongering here. However, it is worth noting that the story does make one confusing statement. In a sentence immediately following a paragraph about dementia, the story states that “In the United States, the condition is the sixth biggest cause of death among all adults.” That’s inaccurate. Alzheimer’s disease, specifically, is the sixth leading cause of death among all adults, according to the CDC. Dementia and Alzheimer’s are lumped together by the UK’s Office for National Statistics, which may have led to the confusion. The story does not address conflicts of interest. The study abstract notes that several researchers have ties to The Brain Protection Company. It is not clear to what extent that company may potentially benefit from the findings, if at all. The company does have patents related to dementia treatment (such as this one). The story explains that researchers are attempting to see if the test should be added as part of “routine screening” for risk factors. It would have been helpful to briefly explain what is currently included in routing screening. The story makes clear that more work needs to be done before this becomes anything approaching a standard of care. The story doesn’t put this study in context of previous research. What is already known about FCW and dementia? Is the first study to find a pattern between the two? The story does not appear to be based on a news release. Claim: Five-minute neck scan can spot dementia 10 years earlier, say scientists",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: We’ve come across a number of “doomsday asteroid” rumors over the years. These claims typically stem from fearmongering headlines that make NASA’s observations appear scarier than they actually are. In early March 2020, for instance, tabloids published articles claiming that NASA had issued a warning about a large asteroid approaching Earth that could, it if hit, end civilization. These articles referenced a real asteroid, but they misrepresented NASA’s observations as a “warning” and failed to mention in headlines how the space agency’s data showed the asteroid passing Earth at a safe distance of a nearly 4 million miles (16 times farther than the moon). In March 2020, we came across a fresh variation of this formula. This time, a viral Facebook post claimed that NASA and the Vatican Observatory were hiding the discovery of a doomsday asteroid, and world leaders had implemented a “scapegoat” virus — the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 — in order to distract the global population from their imminent demise and force people to spend more time with family as they sheltered in place:  The World Deserves the Truth…. Please brace yourself for the following information I’m about to share with you. It’s not going to be easy to understand or cope with and I’m sure many will reject the truth entirely, but I can no longer keep this classified information from the public, so do with it what you will. In the first week of November 2019, NASA and the Vatican Observatory both discovered and confirmed a fast approaching comet that is so extremely large that a collision with earth on its current path is inevitable. On November 9th 2019, the United Nations held a secret meeting with world leaders to develop an “exist strategy” to make everyone as comfortable as possible for what scientists have carefully calculated and confirmed as the apocalypse in the months to follow. The plan would implement a scapegoat virus (COVID-19) which will cause flu like symptoms, spread easily/fast, distract from the truth, and force a worldwide quarantine with the sole purpose of initiating home time to be spent with family, while minimizing the overall panic, anarchy, and premature mass casualties that would otherwise take over with public knowledge / foresight of the apocalypse. Unfortunately we are not talking about an obstacle we will have the ability to overcome, this comet will bring with it death and extinction of every living organism we know to exist, a complete global annihilation from which there will be no survivors or Earth as we know it. Understandably the UN doesn’t want to create a global panic, however I truly believe that everyone should have the right to know, and deserves a chance to accept this truth. The details of this information will all be confirmed in the weeks leading up to the end, watch as the global elites step down from their positions by the masses, they will be doing exactly what they want you to do, which is spend time at home with family and be at peace. These are certainly scary times, but it is my hope that we as a civilization can be responsible with this information, and come together to enjoy what brief moments we have left on this beautiful planet. With love, peace, and blessings to all humanity, your brother/friend and recently retired CIA agent, Scott W. This post, in a word, is nonsense. But let’s take a closer look at some of its logical flaws:  The gist of the post is that world leaders released a “scapegoat virus” in order to distract people around the world from their imminent death-by-asteroid. In addition to providing a diversion, this virus also allowed world leaders to announce a global quarantine and force people to stay at home with their families, according to the post. But that isn’t what happened. World leaders did not come together to announce in one voice that everyone should stay home and spend time with family. Rather, the response to the spread of COVID-19 has differed from one country to the next. In the United States, even, some cities and states are currently under shelter-in-place orders, but others are not. If the goal was to make people spend more time with family before the apocalypse, wouldn’t these self-quarantine orders be more uniform? Messaging from the United States government also appears to fly in the face of this rumor. President Donald Trump recently said that he wanted people to get back to work by mid-April, which would, of course, be a futile exercise if he knew the world was truly coming to an end. Trump was also downplaying the seriousness of this disease in early 2020, behavior which would have contradicted decisions made at some alleged “secret meeting” of world leaders in November 2019. If the plan was to force people to spend more time with family, a “scapegoat virus” may not have been the best tactic. Not all families live together under the same roof, or even in the same country. Travel restrictions put in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19 could prevent people from seeing family members for indefinite periods of time. Also, government agencies worldwide have encouraged social distancing, which has left many elderly people separated from families, as the Brooks family tried to demonstrate here:  A message from me and my dad, @Melbrooks. #coronavirus #DontBeASpreader pic.twitter.com/Hqhc4fFXbe — Max Brooks (@maxbrooksauthor) March 16, 2020  Again, if this secret plan was designed to force families to spend time together, a “scapegoat virus” may have caused more problems than this post alleges it solves. Hundreds of thousands of people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and that has caused medical personnel to work overtime. Because they are at risk for contracting the disease, some doctors are practicing social distancing from their own families. While the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down many businesses, such as restaurants and bars, “essential services” are still operating. Delivery drivers, grocery store employees, warehouse workers, etc., are all people with families, too. From what we can tell, world leaders did not convene at the United Nations on this date to discuss the release of a “scapegoat virus” in order to distract attention from a doomsday asteroid. Trump, for instance, attended a college football game in Louisiana on this date, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel was commemorating the fall of the Berlin wall. While, theoretically, this “secret meeting” could have happened via teleconference, we are highly skeptical of the notion that leaders from the 193 sovereign states that are members of the United Nations would have unanimously agreed over the course of a single meeting to let a potentially deadly virus loose in order to distract the world from an asteroid. Central to the post’s bogus claim is the assumption that COVID-19 was human-made. But this idea has been repeatedly debunked by scientists studying the disease. Put simply, COVID-19 was not made in a laboratory. Live Science writes: “No evidence suggests that the virus is man-made. SARS-CoV-2 closely resembles two other coronaviruses that have triggered outbreaks in recent decades, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and all three viruses seem to have originated in bats. In short, the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 fall in line with what we know about other naturally occurring coronaviruses that made the jump from animals to people.” And again, for reasons mentioned above, manufacturing a pandemic does not seem like the ideal way to get people to spend more time among family. Claim: After discovering a doomsday asteroid was approaching Earth, world leaders created the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to distract the world population and force everyone to spend time with their families during Earth's final days. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story never mentions the costs of drug or surgical treatments, even though it discusses numerous treatments. We wish it had spent some time on this point. The story mentions that diet programs can be not “affordable” in the long term, but what about drug treatments? Especially those that have only modest efficacy? How much does a drug like Contrave typically cost a patient? These would have been easy issues to address. The benefits of these drugs are not quantified. Instead, the benefits of exercise and diet are cited, but only to note that those remedies are ultimately ineffectual. This seems to be a selective reading of the literature. Although some harms are mentioned, the story never quantifies them. It should not have to recite detailed rates of adverse events for every drug mentioned, but it would have been nice to see at least one example detailed. This story is all about the quality of the evidence. Dr. Thomas’ quote is a case in point. “”It’s a balance,” Thomas added. Each panel carefully weighs a drug’s effectiveness against its safety. If weight-loss results look good, then potential side effects (unless they’re extremely serious) might not be weighed so heavily. But if a drug isn’t very effective, “then the safety issues become magnified.” So, for example, in the case of lorcaserin, panel members were hesitant to recommend approval because trials “barely proved” effectiveness, Thomas said.” The story engages in disease-mongering by presenting obesity as a disease that can be cured, if only the right pill is developed. Obesity deserves to be treated as a disease, but it doesn’t necessary follow that pharmaceuticals offer the only real hope of effective treatment or prevention. This story is framed as forecast of a frightening future in which drug companies stop investing in experimental weight loss pills… as if the central problem is heavy-handed regulation, rather than the difficulty of altering metabolism and other biological systems in a way that doesn’t produce unhealthy side effects. While there are independent sources that present a variety of viewpoints, readers should have told about the ties some of them have to the pharmaceutical industry. The Obesity Society, which provides the first source in the story, is funded almost entirely by drug companies. One of the quoted experts, Dr. Judith Stern, is an accomplished obesity researcher, but she is also the co-founder of the group that is now the Obesity Society. Dr. Ken Fujioka received $12,400 from drug companies in 2009. None of these conflicts is noted. The story does compare the pill approach to other methods, but we feel that the comparisons are made merely to knock down all other alternatives. This was not a serious comparison. The story’s focus is on the lack of treatment and the inability for any obesity drug to gain any traction. It does a good job on this score. It takes readers carefully through the history of anti-obesity drugs and presents, in broad terms, their successes and subsequent failures. The story does a great job explaining how difficult it has been to find a drug that will actually reduce people’s weight without raising their risk for other problems, particularly cardiovascular problems. The story does not rely on a news release. Claim: Weighing effectiveness versus risk in obesity drugs",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story says Lynparza “will cost $13,886 per month without insurance, according to AstraZeneca.” It mentions that the manufacturer is offering financial assistance to pay for it. However, the story does not compare the cost to other treatments or address the question of whether insurance companies are expected to cover it, which are important questions now that the drug has been approved for use in breast cancer patients. Many patients with metastatic disease worry about reaching their lifetime insurance caps. AstraZeneca also does not specify whether the financial assistance that will be provided will cover the full cost or some percentage of the cost, and how the degree of financial assistance provided will be determined. The story says Lynparza “modestly delayed the time until cancer worsened — 7 months versus 4 months for women given one of three commonly used chemotherapies. About half the study participants responded to Lynparza compared with about a quarter of those only treated with chemotherapy. It’s unknown whether treatment increases survival.” The story could have emphasized that last point more strongly. The outcome that was studied, known as progression-free survival, is a surrogate marker. In fact, the drug claims no benefit in terms of the most vital outcome: extending survival. The story states: “Possible side effects are less severe than for chemotherapy, but serious problems can include blood and bone marrow cancers. Common side effects include nausea, fatigue, respiratory infections and blood count problems.” Although this would be a rare concern, the FDA also says: “Lynparza can cause harm to a developing fetus; women should be advised of the potential risk to the fetus and to use effective contraception. Women taking Lynparza should not breastfeed as it could cause harm to a newborn baby.” The story could have dug deeper into the study’s limitations. For example, it does not say how long the study lasted or what further testing is needed to determine whether responses may vary among different subsets of patients. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, “Given the relatively small size of the study, it is difficult to tell which subset of patients would benefit the most from olaparib.” Further, “More research is needed to determine how well olaparib works in cancers that worsen despite platinum-based chemotherapy, a standard regimen not included in this study, and whether platinum-based chemotherapy would be useful after cancers worsen despite olaparib.” The story does not engage in disease-mongering. However, it could have been more clear in conveying the number of breast cancer patients who might be candidates for this drug. It states: “About 250,000 people each year are diagnosed with breast cancer and just over 40,000 die from it, according to the National Cancer Institute. About 20 percent to 25 percent of patients with hereditary [emphasis added by us] breast cancers have a BRCA mutation. BRCA-related breast cancer often strikes younger people and is harder to treat than other breast cancers.” The story doesn’t say how many people diagnosed with breast cancer actually have a BRCA mutation. According to ASCO, “Up to 3% of all breast cancers occur in people with inherited changes in genes BRCA1 and BRCA2.” The story does not contain any independent sources. Also, it quotes Dr. Susan M. Domchek at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center without stating her institution’s role in the clinical trial. The story just briefly mentions the alternatives–chemotherapy. The story says the FDA just approved the drug for patients with inherited BRCA gene mutations who have undergone chemotherapy, and that it’s been on the market since 2014 for ovarian cancer. Presumably, that means it’s widely available. But, it then mentions that a “companion” blood test was also just approved to look for these genes. It’s not clear if this test specifically will be required before women receive the new drug, and if that test will be available right away. The story describes this as “the first drug aimed at women with advanced breast cancer caused by an inherited flawed gene” and “the first in a new class of medicines called PARP inhibitors to be approved for breast cancer.” While the story does not mimic a news release word-for-word, it relies heavily on two news releases, from AstraZeneca and the FDA. Both of the quotes in the story are from these news releases, for example. Claim: US OKs 1st drug aimed at women with inherited breast cancer",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Robyn Benson was just 22 weeks pregnant when she complained of a headache and then collapsed on her bathroom floor, according to postings on a blog and fundraising site by her husband Dylan Benson. Her fetus, already named Iver Cohen Benson, has continued to grow in the womb. “On December 28th, I lost my wife to a sudden hemorrhage of blood to her brain,” Benson wrote. “Based on my decision, they are attempting to keep her body alive for up to 7 more weeks ... Incredibly, they have been successful in doing this for 5 weeks now.”  The goal is to wait until the fetus reaches 34 weeks, giving the baby a greater chance of survival, according to Benson. He wrote that doctors plan to deliver his son via cesarean section and that the baby will spend his first few weeks in hospital. That sets up a bittersweet deadline for the family, who will welcome a new baby and then take the mother off life support. “It is very difficult to know that our son will grow up never meeting his wonderful mother, and that we will have to say our goodbyes to Robyn within hours of seeing Iver for the first time,” Benson wrote. “She was my rock. She did so much for us, and I can’t believe I won’t get to talk to her again.”  The tragic story differs from a controversial case in Texas, where Marlise Munoz, a pregnant brain-dead woman was removed from life support at her husband’s request last month after a lengthy court battle. Her husband said Munoz had told him she did not want to be kept on life support. Unlike the Benson baby, which is healthier, Munoz’s fetus had already suffered oxygen deprivation and appeared to have deformed lower extremities, according to court documents. Texas authorities had fought to keep Munoz on life support in a case that sparked fierce debate over the rights of a fetus versus the right to die. A spokeswoman for the Vancouver Island health authority confirmed that there is a patient named Robyn Benson in the intensive care unit at the Victoria General Hospital, but was not able to provide further details due to privacy issues. The Benson family’s plight has gripped people across Canada and around the world, with donations on their fundraising site topping C$85,000 ($76,700) early on Tuesday. That has far exceeded the C$36,000 goal set by Benson, who had hoped to raise funds for bills, baby supplies and to allow him to more time at home with his new son after the birth. “I just wanted to reach out and say thank you to each and every one of you that have read our story and to those who have donated and/or shared,” he wrote on the site on Monday. “We are overwhelmed with the response from not only the community, but now the nation and beyond.”  (This story has been refiled to correct spelling of deprivation in seventh paragraph) Claim: Brain-dead Canadian woman kept on life support to save fetus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In mid-April 2019, shortly after a fire broke out at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, an image supposedly showing a screenshot from an episode of the television show The Simpsons started to circulate on social media attached to the claim that the longest-running American sitcom had once again “predicted” the future:  The Simpsons show did not predict the fire at Notre Dame. While a cartoon version of the Notre Dame Cathedral does appear at least once in the fictional town of Springfield, this image has been digitally edited. The original still from the show didn’t feature the church on fire, nor Mr. Burns standing outside. The Notre Dame of Springfield appears in the episode “Husbands and Knives” from the show’s 19th season. As with many other “prediction” rumors, The Simpsons was actually spoofing a previous event, not predicting one that had yet to occur. In this case, the show was parodying The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A description of the episode notes that after Homer undergoes plastic surgery to become a “trophy husband,” he gets chased by an angry mob into the Notre Dame Cathedral of Springfield with Marge in his arms: Homer (in his new hideous look) carrying Marge up the Notre Dame is reminiscent of a scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. After Homer gets his new and disgusting form, Mayor Quimby orders the town to raise their pitchforks and attack Homer. Homer and Marge run to the top of Notre Dame of Springfield tower and Marge, saying she wants a trophy husband, deliberately pushes Homer off the tower. Later Homer wakes up in the hospital, back to his old self, and learns it all was just a dream. While this scene did feature an angry mob carrying pitchforks and torches, the church never actually goes up in flames. Here’s the unedited image (left) and the Simpsons “prediction” image (right): Claim: The Simpsons\" television show predicted the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in France in April 2019. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As congressional town halls across the country increasingly draw loud protests from critics of Democratic health care legislation, a debate is brewing about whether the protests are more raucous than those four years ago against President George W. Bush’s effort to create private accounts for Social Security. In an Aug. 5 blog posting, liberal  New York Times  columnist Paul Krugman wrote:   \"Indeed, activists made trouble in 2005 by asking congressmen tough questions about policy. Activists are making trouble now by shouting congressmen down so they can’t be heard. It’s exactly the same thing, right?\" He continued, \"Seriously, I’ve been searching through news reports on the Social Security town halls, and I can’t find any examples of the kind of behavior we’re seeing now. Yes, there were noisy demonstrations — but they were outside the events. That was even true during the first month or two, when Republicans actually tried having open town halls. Congressmen were very upset by the reception they received, but not, at least according to any of the reports I can find, because opponents were disruptive — crowds booed lines they didn’t like, but that was about it. \"After that, the events were open only to demonstrated loyalists; you may recall the people arrested at a Bush Social Security event in Denver for the crime of … not being Bush supporters. \"So please, no  equivalences. The campaign against Social Security privatization was energetic and no doubt rude, but did not involve intimidation and disruption.\" We decided to join Krugman in looking back to the news clippings. We conclude that while some of the recent conservative protests — such as ones at town halls in Tampa, Little Rock, Ark., Houston, Philadelphia, and Green Bay, Wis.— may have been angrier and more widespread than the ones in 2005, it would be incorrect to suggest, as Krugman does, that the noisy demonstrations against Bush's policies were only taking place outside the events or that disruptions were limited to the occasional boo. We used the Lexis-Nexis news database to find newspaper and wire service stories in calendar year 2005 that included the words \"town hall,\" \"Social Security,\" and a variant of either \"protest,\" \"heckler\" or \"shout.\" The search returned just under 250 articles. Not all were relevant, and a majority of ones that were relevant addressed town halls hosted by President Bush rather than Members of Congress. Generally speaking, the Bush events were, as Krugman correctly notes, held in front of largely handpicked crowds, which meant that little disruption went on inside the hall. Most of them, as he also notes, inspired protests outside, some of them loud and unruly, and all of them kept at a distance by the Secret Service. (At one event in Westfield, N.J., for instance, a protest that included \"hundreds\" of people led to the arrest of nine people on disorderly conduct charges.) But for this comparison, we need to look at town halls sponsored by members of Congress. News coverage was more spotty, but here is a sampling of examples we found in which journalists reported conflict inside an event:   — \"At two stops, morning at Drexel University, afternoon at Widener University, [Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.] encountered skepticism and hostility as he voiced his support for the White House plan to allow creation of personal accounts using payroll taxes. He was heckled by protesters, called a liar, and told that his views were unconscionable. Those sentiments ranged across the age spectrum. …   \"Santorum asked the audience what would happen in 2008. The response he wanted was that the oldest baby boomers would turn 62 and be eligible for early retirement. \"What he got instead, shouted out by an unfriendly voice, was: ‘George Bush will leave office!’   \"Actually, that's scheduled for 2009. But many in the crowd cheered anyway.\" (Feb. 23, 2005,  Philadelphia Inquirer  )   — \"Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., delivered a PowerPoint presentation Thursday night to a packed auditorium in Phoenix. As he laid out the long-term demographic problems for Social Security and expressed his support for private accounts, Shadegg encountered scattered heckling, boos and hisses. (Feb. 26,  Chicago Tribune  )   — A session sponsored by Rep. Chris Chocola, R-Ind., in South Bend, at the downtown branch of the St. Joseph County Public Library \"was a raucous affair, with many of the 100 or so people who attended shouting questions and insults, talking over each other and still bubbling with questions when it was all over. \"One gentleman was so angry when Chocola indicated the hour-long session was coming to an end and wouldn't be extended that he walked out.\" (  South Bend Tribune  , Feb. 27, 2005)   — John Busch, a letter-writer to a newspaper in Chico, Calif., said, \"I attended Congressman Wally Herger's recent town hall meeting in Chico regarding Social Security. I must have witnessed more rude, disrespectful behavior from an audience somewhere along the line, I just can't remember where. The congressman's efforts to provide and gather information were continually thwarted by hecklers who seemed not to care what the congressman had to say, but whose sole reason for attending the meeting was to be rude and disruptive. They certainly accomplished that.\" (May 8, 2005,  Enterprise-Record  of Chico, Calif.)   Republican officials at the time said that about 95 House lawmakers took part in 287 Social Security-related events in February, with more held in March, so in all likelihood, there were many, many events that did not result in news coverage we could find. So we can't say whether there were protests or shouting matches. And some stories noted the meetings were civil. For example, a Feb. 26, 2005,  Chicago Tribune  report found that a meeting held by Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., had \"no booing or shouting or threatening tirades. A volunteer from AARP took notes and politely reminded Renzi that ‘Social Security is a retirement plan and a family protection plan. It is not an investment plan.’\" And a different Chocola event, according to the news account, \"was quiet, orderly and polite, with the 60 or so persons on hand taking turns asking questions and listening to Chocola's response.\" Still, the protests inside and outside town halls, even if they were not universal, clearly rattled Republican leaders. On March 17, 2005,  USA Today  reported:   \"Shaken by raucous protests at open ‘town hall’-style meetings last month, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio and other GOP leaders are urging lawmakers to hold lower-profile events this time. … This month, Republican leaders say they are chucking the open town-hall format. They plan to visit newspaper editorial boards and talk to constituents at Rotary Club lunches, senior citizen centers, chambers of commerce meetings and local businesses. In those settings, ‘there isn't an opportunity for it to disintegrate into something that's less desirable,’ says Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.\" And leaders of the movement against changing Social Security made no bones about being aggressive. Brad Woodhouse, then a spokesman for Americans United to Protect Social Security, the labor-backed group that was a key player in the fight against Bush’s proposal, told the  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  on March 20, 2005 that \"we are going to be getting in the faces of people who are for privatization; they're going to feel the heat. ... It's vociferous, it's rough, it's tough.\" It’s worth noting that today, Woodhouse is on the other side, so to speak — criticizing the people who are disrupting town halls. He is the communications director for the Democratic National Committee and issued a statement on Aug. 4, 2009, blasting \"the Republican Party and Allied Groups’ Mob Rule,\" saying it was \"inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country.\" He continued, \"The right wing extremists’ use of things like devil horns on pictures of our elected officials, hanging members of Congress in effigy, breathlessly questioning the president's citizenship and the use of Nazi SS symbols and the like just shows how outside of the mainstream the Republican Party and their allies are. This type of anger and discord did not serve Republicans well in 2008 — and it is bound to backfire again.\" It is true that there’s nothing in the clips from 2005 about burning members of Congress in effigy or the use of devils’ horns. But Woodhouse’s group employed 28-foot gorillas, duck suits, plates of hot waffles and sheet cakes as props, according to an Aug. 13, 2005, report in the  Albuquerque Tribune  . So while the protests may be more intense this time (devils' horns instead of duck suits), it's clear that there was plenty of disruption inside town hall meetings in 2005, contrary to Krugman's assertions. We find his claim . Claim: During the 2005 fight over Social Security, \"there were noisy demonstrations — but they were outside the events,\" and opponents were \"not disruptive — crowds booed lines they didn’t like, but that was about it.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Turkey’s death toll from the coronavirus jumped by 15 to 59 on Wednesday, and the number of confirmed cases increased by 561 to 2,433. Around 33,000 tests have been conducted in Turkey in the two weeks since the beginning of the outbreak. In a televised address to the nation, Erdogan said Turkey was prepared for every scenario on the outbreak and urged Turks to show patience, understanding and support. “By breaking the speed of the virus’ spread in two to three weeks, we will get through this period as soon as possible with as little damage as possible,” Erdogan said. “Bright days await us, so long as we adhere by the warnings, remain cautious and careful,” he added. “Every citizen’s life is equally valuable for us. That is why we say ‘Stay Home Turkey’.”  Turkey has taken a series of measures to contain the virus, including limiting the use of public spaces, imposing a partial curfew on the elderly, as well as closing schools, cafes and bars, banning mass prayers, and suspending sports matches and flights. Earlier on Wednesday, Education Minister Ziya Selcuk said the closure of all schools would be extended until April 30, and said home schooling would continue during this period. “We will enrich efforts and make sure to meet all needs,” Selcuk told reporters in Ankara. “We can make up for the lost education, but we can’t make up for a disease. What is key is our students’ health.”  Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, speaking alongside Selcuk, said the move was not a break but rather a preventive measure to protect families. On Monday, Koca said Turkey had imported medicine from China that he said was believed to help with the treatment of coronavirus patients, saying the medication was already being administered to patients in intensive care. “As of today, 136 patients in intensive care have received the medicine,” Koca said Wednesday. He said experts and officials would examine the medicine’s impact in coming days. Koca also said 26 patients had recovered as of Tuesday, the first figures for recovery announced in Turkey, including two senior citizens. Claim: Erdogan says Turkey will overcome coronavirus in two-three weeks; school closures extended.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although we can’t confirm all the details of the following item (it may have become embellished through multiple retellings, or it may derive from a source other than the one we located), we can verify that the basics of the incident related are true: Every month in “The Journal of Human Sexuality,” they publish a “case of the month.” One of my favorites involved a married woman who went to the gynecologist complaining of a malodorous discharge. The doctor performed an exam, but the discharge wasn’t characteristic of any of the usual maladies that sometimes plague women. He wasn’t all that alarmed, though, until the results of the pap smear came back. The report indicated that the cells “weren’t human.” It didn’t venture a guess as to the origin of the cells — it just indicated they weren’t a type of cell that you’d see in a human being. The doctor asked the woman to come back for a repeat exam. He put her in the stirrups, inserted his speculum into the woman’s vagina, and scooped out a large piece of loose, decaying flesh. Remarkably, it looked like a long tongue, but certainly not a human tongue. The woman, upon questioning, finally confessed that her husband was a hunter. He had recently brought home a deer and gutted and dressed it in their garage. She saw the tongue, admired its length, and had snuck off with it to use as a masturbatory aid. She didn’t remember leaving it up there. A 1990 article published in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology described a case in which a 29-year-old woman visited a clinic “complaining of missed periods and seeking termination of a possible pregnancy.” The examining physician found and removed a “cylindrical mass of pale-gray tissue” (7 cm long and 3 cm in diameter) from her vagina. The elicitation of “further historical information” from the patient confirmed “the object was a deer tongue used for masturbation.” The journal article provided no details about how the woman had obtained the deer tongue, how long it had been lodged in her vagina, or whether she had truly forgotten about it until she started missing periods. (It’s quite possible the patient inserted the tongue only a day or two earlier, been unable to retrieve it herself, and then made up a story about being concerned over missed periods and a possible pregnancy as a means of prompting a doctor’s examination because she was too embarrassed to disclose to medical personnel the true nature of her complaint.) The authors of the article did, however, explain their motivations for presenting this case history via a medical journal: The topic of autoeroticism usually enters the medical literature through reviews or case reports detailing death or injury. Our review of the Index Medicus found 42 citations under the heading of autoeroticism: 14 of these detailed various psychological aspects of such practices, and 27 were directly related to deaths arising from autoerotic practices. Only one reference reviewed various nonlethal autoerotic practices. Over a 42-year period, Aliabadi et al. recorded 18 patients, only three of whom were women, who presented with foreign-body insertion for erotic purposes. All three women had inserted foreign bodies into the urinary tract. Acts of autoeroticism involving vaginal masturbation with foreign objects are perhaps more common. None to our knowledge have been reported because these do not result in death or injury, and typically would not come to medical attention. The literature discloses examples of foreign bodies extracted from the male and female lower urinary tract because objects of small diameter may be retracted by natural muscular impulses into the proximal urethra and/or bladder. Indeed, according to Kinsey and others >90% of foreign bodies found in the female bladder or urethra are there as a result of masturbation. Also, large objects retrieved from the vagina are found mostly in married women aged 17-30. However, these objects, most commonly bananas, cucumbers, and other large vegetables, rarely come to surgical attention. Claim: A woman sought medical help to remove a deer tongue she had used for self-pleasuring purposes.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It’s the latest flashpoint in a confrontation between the Trump administration and the pharmaceutical industry, which for years successfully has fought off importation proposals. Drugs in other economically advanced countries are often much cheaper because governments set prices. Speaking at a White House event where he pledged to end “surprise medical bills” for patients with health insurance coverage, Trump segued to the subject of prescription drug costs. “We may allow states to buy drugs in other countries if we can buy them for a lesser price, substantially less price, and that is going to be very unique,” he declared. “But we will allow them to go to other countries because the drug companies have treated us very, very unfairly, and the rules and restrictions within our country have been absolutely atrocious.” He added that with “certain permissions” states will be able to import prescription drugs from abroad “if they can buy them for 40%, 50%, 60% less.” Trump’s comments were an obvious reference to an importation plan recently passed by the Florida legislature and expected to be signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally who made it one of his priorities. DeSantis told reporters in Florida on Thursday that he had talked with Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar this week about the plan and that the president told Azar, “You work with this governor to get it done.” Florida’s program would have to be approved by Azar’s department before it could be implemented. Under the plan, Floridians could eventually gain access to cheaper Canadian prescription drugs. Supporters say imported drugs would have to meet federal Food and Drug Administration standards and that 80 percent of drug ingredients used in the U.S. are foreign-made now. The bill overcame stiff opposition from major pharmaceutical companies and medical organizations who claimed importing drugs would lead to risks of counterfeit or ineffective substances and would be difficult for the U.S. or Florida to regulate. Some experts have been skeptical of allowing imports from Canada, partly from concerns about whether Canadian drugmakers have the capacity to supply the much larger U.S. market. But consumer groups have strongly backed the idea, arguing that it will pressure drugmakers to reduce their prices here, where government traditionally has not set such limits. AARP pushed hard for the Florida plan, saying it’s possible to safely import lower-priced, equally effective drugs and it would promote worldwide price competition. CEO Jo Ann Jenkins praised Trump for supporting the Florida legislation, calling it a “sensible drug importation plan to help reduce prescription drug costs.” The drug industry lobby, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the plan will put Floridians at risk, potentially allowing counterfeit or adulterated medications. “These proposals cannot guarantee that patients wouldn’t be put in harm’s way nor is there evidence they will save patients money,” the group said in a statement. ___ Anderson reported from Miami. Claim: Trump backs Fla. plan to import lower-cost meds from abroad.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick opened his full-throated endorsement of Texas legislation targeting transgender access to bathrooms by quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Patrick, joined by the proposal’s author, state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, told reporters at the Texas Capitol on Jan. 5, 2017: \"Martin Luther King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter. \"This legislation, the Texas Privacy Act, that Sen. Kolkhorst is filing today, is unquestionably one of the things that matters,\" Patrick said. \"It’s the right thing to do. I know it, Texans know it and Sen. Kolkhorst knows it.\" Debate over the measure--banning transgender people from using the Texas bathroom of their choice--will play out in the 2017 legislative session. We focused on the origin of Patrick’s King quotation. Patrick offers no backup We didn’t hear back from Patrick about when and where the slain civil rights leader made the singled-out statement, which went noted in the Associated Press’s account of Patrick’s remarks and quoted by the Dallas Morning News. For our part, a web search for the quotation and \"King\" suggested by a professor yielded 2,980 results including books of poetry and documentation that President Clinton similarly quoted King in an April 2000 speech and Sen. Joe Lieberman did so in the Senate in June 2003. So, Patrick was in bipartisan company in crediting the words to King. On the other hand, we were unable to confirm that King made that exact declaration. Also, it’s worth noting, King probably didn’t expound on bathrooms except toward widening access to public facilities. A photo caption We started our look into this topic by trying to gauge if King said the words aired by Patrick. Right off, a web search yielded an undated New York Daily News photo of King giving a speech. The photo caption said: \"King was engaged in a battle with Sheriff Jim Clark over voting rights and voter registration in Selma. On March 8, 1965, King spoke from the pulpit on courage: ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’\" Stanford researchers can’t confirm Separately, though, King experts either said he likely didn’t make the quoted remark or if he did, it’s hard to confirm so with ease. \"That would be a research project,\" said Clayborne Carson, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial professor of history at Stanford University and director of a research institute in King’s name. By phone, Carson told us that’s because the institute’s resources aren’t yet easily searched for a particular quotation. Put another way, he said by email, it’s \"easier to prove what King said on a particular occasion than to prove that he never said the quote in question on any occasion.\" An institute research assistant, Ellen Ingebritsen, later responded that her search of the project’s internal database and documents culled from the institute's King papers didn’t turn up King making the statement. Then again, she said, the institute has yet to catalogue the majority of King’s work from 1965. Otherwise, she said, King letters and telegrams from that year don’t contain the words attributed to King by Patrick. A similar confirmed King statement Story over? Not quite. Other experts helped us find that King made a similar yet less direct statement in the Brown Chapel in Selma, Ala., on Monday, March 8, 1965--the same date noted in the News’s photo caption and also the day after protesters met police violence after attempting to cross a bridge on the way to Montgomery, the state capital. King, who would shortly lead a crossing of the bridge before turning around, said in part: \"A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.\" Here’s King’s remark in context as we found it on an East Tennessee State University web page: \"Deep down in our non-violent creed is the conviction there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they're worth dying for. And if a man happens to be 36-years-old, as I happen to be, some great truth stands before the door of his life--some great opportunity to stand up for that which is right. \"A man might be afraid his home will get bombed, or he's afraid that he will lose his job, or he's afraid that he will get shot, or beat down by state troopers, and he may go on and live until he's 80. He's just as dead at 36 as he would be at 80. The cessation of breathing in his life is merely the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. He died... \"A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. \"So we're going to stand up amid horses. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy-clubs. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs, if they have them. We're going to stand up amid tear gas! \"We're going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free!\" To our inquiry, Doug Burgess, chairman of the university’s history department, said by phone that he posted the excerpt some 15 years ago. Burgess also helped us track down a YouTube video in which we saw King making the remarks, which the video attributes to a Nostalgia Company recording, \"The Greatest Speeches of All Time, Volume II.\" Separately, Carson told us his research took note of a similar King statement made Nov. 5, 1967, at his home church in Atlanta. King, exhorting parishioners to fight for what’s right, said a person’s failure to do so would amount to dying before death. \"You died when you refused to stand up for right, you died when you refused to stand up for truth, you died when you refused to stand up for justice,\" Carson quoted King saying. We also heard back from a King biographer, David Garrow, who said by email that his sense is that King didn’t make the statement aired by Patrick. That \"language does *NOT* in any way sound familiar to me as an exact quote,\" Garrow wrote. \"I believe it is INVALID.\" Garrow summed up: \"Your verdict on this ought to be something like 'Unproven, undocumented, & highly doubtful.’\" Texas professors: Quotation out of context Asked to assess Patrick’s quotation, University of Texas historians Don Carleton and Paul Stekler each opined that Patrick presented King’s sentiment out of historical context. Stekler, who helped produce, direct and write a documentary on the civil rights movement in 1967-68, said by email that King \"was in Selma to try and force federal action to ensure voting rights, a campaign that was successful with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the aftermath of the police riot on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He was advocating the expansion of rights for African-Americans in the South where they had been and were largely disenfranchised.\" Patrick, Stekler wrote, employed King’s purported words in support of restricting the rights of transgender people. \"One use of the quote uses it in support of the expansion of rights, the other in restricting rights,\" Stekler said. Our ruling Per Patrick, King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter. Patrick didn’t show nor did we confirm that King made this direct statement. Then again, Patrick didn’t specify he was quote-unquote directly quoting King while King in 1965 made a longer proclamation that might later have been paraphrased in the 14 words that Patrick and others including President Clinton ultimately attributed to the civil rights icon. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. Claim: Martin Luther King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It’s true that public warnings have been issued about potentially deadly bacteria at Florida beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, but it’s technically not a “flesh-eating” bacteria. Health officials in Florida issued a public warning in June 2015 after bacteria called Vibro vulnificus infected seven people and killed two: “People can get infected with Vibrio vulnificus when they eat raw shellfish,” Florida Health Department spokeswoman Mara Burger said. “Since it is naturally found in warm marine waters, people with open wounds can be exposed to Vibrio vulnificus through direct contact with seawater.”  People with healthy immune systems who eat the bacteria with raw shellfish usually have mild symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. But when Vibro vulnificus enters the body through an open wound, it can be much, much worse, the CDC reports: “Infection with V. vulnificus is a serious health threat that predominantly affects persons with an underlying illness or a compromised immune system, and especially affects persons with liver disease. The organism is a natural inhabitant of warm coastal waters.” The bacteria can cause blood infections (which are fatal 50% of the time) and blistering skin lesions, which is why it’s called a flesh-eating bacteria. In extreme cases, the patient’s limbs have to be amputated to stop the spread of infection, according to the CDC. Public health warnings about the bacteria along Florida’s Gulf Coast aren’t uncommon, either. Warnings were issued in 2013 and 2014, and there were a combined 73 cases reported in those two years. However, public health officials note that Florida beaches receive millions of visitors each summer, so infections are very rare. Health experts have also taken issue with the term “flesh-eating bacteria.” A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health said, via Clearwater Patch, “There is no such medical term (as flesh-eating bacteria) and the organism is not a Pac-man consuming pac-dots.” However, the U.S. National Library of Medicine says that necrotizing soft tissue infections are sometimes (informally) called flesh eating bacteria because that’s how they appear:  “Necrotizing soft tissue infection is a rare but very severe type of bacterial infection. It can destroy the muscles, skin, and underlying tissue. The word ‘necrotizing’ refers to something that causes body tissue to die …The bacteria begins to grow and release harmful substances (toxins) that kill tissue and affect blood flow to the area. As the tissue dies, the bacteria enters the blood and rapidly spreads throughout the body.” So, aside from debate over the definition of flesh-eating bacteria, this eRumor is true. Comments Claim:  Swimmers have been warned about flesh-eating bacteria at Florida beaches along the Gulf of Mexico. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz pointed blame at Republicans -- namely Gov. Rick Scott -- for not doing more to dish out dollars to prevent the spread of the Zika virus. \"While he seems to be saying out loud that he wants Congress and the president to provide more funding, he conveniently leaves out that he cut nearly $1 million dollars from mosquito control and closed down the state’s mosquito research lab a few years ago,\" Wasserman Schultz said at a town hall in Broward County on Aug. 8. Wasserman Schultz is running for re-election in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary against first-time candidate Tim Canova. Did Scott cut funding and close the state’s mosquito research lab? There’s a lot more nuance to this story than Wasserman Schultz lets on. Mosquito control budget The current Zika pandemic took off in May 2015, when Brazil reported cases in connection with more babies being born with abnormally small heads, a condition called microcephaly. When Wasserman Schultz spoke, there had been a total of 422 Zika cases in South Florida, the majority acquired while traveling and 16 locally acquired. Wasserman Schultz told reporters that she was referring to Scott’s budget decisions in 2011. Her spokesman pointed to an article in Politico that explained cuts to state aid to local mosquito control programs. That was Scott’s first budget year after he ran on a platform to slash spending amid the recession. State budget records show that while Florida under Scott cut money to mosquito control his first two years, the state later raised it substantially: 2010-11: $2.2 million (Gov. Charlie Crist's last budget) 2011-12: $1.3 million (Scott’s first budget) 2012-13: $1 million 2013-14: $2.7 million 2014-15: $2.8 million 2015-16: $2.7 million 2016-17: $2.8 million Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott, said that he has invested more than $13.2 million in funding for mosquito prevention and control. Separately, \"Gov. Scott has allocated more than $26 million to combat Zika and will continue to allocate more if necessary,\" she said. Mosquito lab Wasserman Schultz’s claim about the closed lab relates to the Florida A&M University Public Health Entomology Research and Education Center in Panama City Beach. In 2011, Scott vetoed a one-time $500,000 appropriation for the center intended to keep it open after it had faced threats of closure. The center, first opened in 1964, was referred to as the \"mosquito lab\" or PHEREC, and came up with ways to combat mosquitoes. It was once a part of a state department, but in the 1990s it became part of Florida A&M while still receiving state health department dollars and other grants. In 2010 as Florida A&M was cutting millions of dollars from the university amid state cuts, it announced that PHEREC was on the chopping block. Provost Cynthia Hughes Harris said at the time that the university decided to eliminate non-teaching units such as the mosquito lab. In a last-ditch attempt to save the lab, researchers sought a one-time appropriation from the 2011 Legislature for $500,000 late in the budget process. Florida TaxWatch labeled it a \"turkey,\" and Scott vetoed it as part of his $615 million in vetoes as the state was climbing out of the recession. The lab still had $1.4 million -- enough to keep it open -- but the university chose to shutter it anyway, wrote Dr. John Smith, the center’s former director, in a Florida Mosquito Control Association newsletter. \"In fact, there were sufficient reserve funds to continue PHEREC for as much as two or three years without the legislative appropriation,\" Smith wrote. \"Why FAMU did not allow this remains unclear.\" Walter J. Tabachnick, at the time director of the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory at the University of Florida’s site near Vero Beach, warned about the loss of dollars in a blog after the cuts. \"How can one quantify the loss of future opportunities to make progress and improvements in Florida mosquito control?\" he wrote. \"There will be future problems for which we will not have solutions, there will be lost opportunities to make mosquito control more effective, efficient, and environmentally proper.\" However, Tabachnick who remains a professor at UF, told PolitiFact Florida that the decision to close the lab wasn’t by Scott. \"The decision to close PHEREC, to withdraw all funding, was made by Florida A&M, not the governor,\" he said. Meanwhile, the state has funded research at a different university center. The Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory at UF has received $500,000 annually from the state since 2013-14. That money is for research to develop and test formulations, application techniques, and procedures of pesticides and biological control agents to control mosquitoes that can cause public health or a nuisance. Speaking to reporters after her town hall, Wasserman Schultz pointed the finger at Scott for the spread of Zika. \"He bears some responsibility in this problem that we are facing now since we are not as fully prepared as we could be if those cuts had not come down,\" she said. But Tabachnick says it’s not so simple. \"There are no promises in investment in research,\" he said. \"I don’t know what information we may have had or not. It’s like saying if we had more money in cancer, we would find a cure. I can’t say that.\" Our ruling Wasserman Schultz said that Scott \"cut nearly $1 million dollars from mosquito control and closed down the state’s mosquito research lab a few years ago.\" In 2011, the Legislature under Scott did cut about $1 million for mosquito control dropping the total to about $1.3 million and cut it again by about $300,000 the following year. But the state then increased the budget to about $2.7 million the next year and it has remained in that ballpark for four years. Scott also vetoed a one-time appropriation of $500,000 in 2011 for a mosquito lab at FAMU, and the university then shut it down. But the center was already on the university’s chopping block, and the state has since funded another university’s lab. Claim: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Says Gov. Rick Scott \"cut nearly $1 million from mosquito control and closed down the state’s mosquito research lab a few years ago.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A lawmaker seeking to ban the killing of dogs and cats by carbon monoxide says the method is used in 29 animal shelters around Texas, according to a March 19, 2013, Austin American-Statesman news article. We wondered. The claim by Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, was aired as a Senate committee sent Watson’s proposal, Senate Bill 360, to the Senate, which advanced the measure to the House about a week later. The proposal, like companion legislation by Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, would remove a provision from state law permitting a person to euthanize a dog or cat in an animal shelter using compressed carbon monoxide. Other animals, including birds and reptiles, could still be killed by the method, but dogs and cats in shelters could only be killed by injection with sodium pentobarbital, which is considered more humane and less costly. The story said the list of shelters using carbon monoxide--none of them in Central Texas--was compiled by the Texas Humane Legislative Network, a nonprofit that lobbies on behalf of animal welfare, which Watson spokesman Steve Scheibal described as Watson’s source for statistics related to the proposal. In a \"fact sheet\" posted online, the network says it contacted the state’s 1,200-plus cities and found that 32 Texas animal shelters, including one in Greenville, \"continue to utilize the outdated and inhumane carbon monoxide method of euthanasia.\" Separately, in a February 2013 blog post, the network’s vice president, Shelby Bobosky, said more than 30 Texas cities, including Sherman and Terrell, stopped using carbon monoxide euthanasia within the last five years. By email, one of the network’s lobbyists, Jack Erskine, sent us a chart, dated March 18, 2013, listing 31 cities as using carbon monoxide to euthanize animals: Beeville; Bovina; Bracketville; Cuero; Devine; Eagle Pass; El Campo; Freer; Ganado; George West; Grand Saline; Greenville; Hondo; Kenedy; Kermit; Kingsville; Lyford; Mathis; Odessa; Plainview; Portland; Raymondville; Refugio; Sabinal; Seminole; Sinton; Stinnett; Taft; Van Horn; Victoria; and Yoakum. The chart says that all but two of these results were confirmed by the group from Dec. 17, 2012, through March 4, 2013. Practices vary, according to footnotes to the chart quoting email responses from cities. Cuero responded that in 2011, 12 juvenile animals were euthanized by injection while 513 others were subjected to carbon monoxide. Bobosky pointed out that a state rule already bars carbon monoxide from being used to euthanize any animal \"reasonably presumed to be less than 16 weeks of age\" or for \"any animal that could be anticipated to have decreased respiratory function, such as the elderly, sick, injured or pregnant.\" The rule continues: \"Such animals may be resistant to the effects of carbon monoxide and the time required to achieve death in these animals may be significantly increased. In animals with decreased respiratory function, carbon monoxide levels rise slowly, making it more likely that these animals will experience elevated levels of stress.\" According to another footnote to the network’s chart, El Campo said it would start using injection on a trial basis in 2013. Meantime, Freer reported that its shelter had been demolished and no one was currently trained to euthanize animals, while Ganado said its shelter had been shut down and gave no indication if gas would be used in a shelter under construction, according to a footnote. Bobosky said by email that the number of shelters using carbon monoxide has dropped to 29 because Ganado and Freer no longer do so. More broadly, Bobosky said by phone, she and other network volunteers established the list by making public information requests of more than 1,100 Texas cities and towns, starting in November 2011, and asking if jurisdictions had animal shelters using gas to kill dogs and cats. If so, she said, they asked how many animals had been killed by the method in 2011. Bobosky said around 150 cities failed to respond; follow-up interviews indicated none of these cities had shelters. Bobosky said the number of shelters saying they use gas to euthanize has gone down since the network initially inquired in 2011, when the tally was 38 to 40. (She emailed us a network list of cities that do not use gas, among them San Marcos, Seguin and Taylor.) For instance, she said, Sherman ordered its last gas cylinder, which ultimately went unused, in March 2012. \"There is a trend in the last two years to simply stop using gas,\" she said. \"It’s outdated.\" Finally, we spot-checked whether three bigger cities on the list referenced by Watson use carbon monoxide to euthanize dogs and cats. By phone, Sgt. Sherrie Carruth of the Odessa Police Department and Hector Chavez, an Eagle Pass official, separately said their local animal shelters use \"compressed carbon monoxide.\" Joe Lopez, Victoria’s chief animal control officer, told us its shelter uses carbon monoxide to euthanize some dogs and cats, but depends on injections of a sodium pentobarbital solution for puppies, kittens and especially old or sickly cats and dogs. A twist: While not on the network’s list of carbon monoxide users, Maverick County offered a departure from the common practices. Apolonio Rodriguez, the county's road and bridges supervisor, said that about a year ago, the county stopped taking county-collected dogs and cats to the Eagle Pass city shelter to be euthanized, instead \"using the rifle\" to kill such animals. Bobosky, informed of our spot-checks, said the law that Watson seeks to amend already limits residents from euthanizing cats or dogs except by using commercially compressed carbon monoxide or sodium pentobarbital, meaning rifles should not be used. Our ruling Watson said 29 cities use carbon monoxide to euthanize dogs and cats. That’s supported by an advocacy group’s survey research, it appears, though the total also has gone down by more than 10 cities since 2011, according to the group. We rate this claim as . Claim: Kirk Watson Says carbon monoxide is still employed to euthanize dogs and cats in 29 Texas animal shelters.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: For now, some airlines have resorted to suspending change fees for new ticket reservations in the hope of winning over hesitant travelers until it becomes clearer where coronavirus outbreaks are localized and which routes could benefit from price drops. While lower fares have proven effective in the past in reviving demand, aviation consultant Samuel Engel said, “The pocketbook only works so far against emotion.”   The coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has spread around the world, with more new cases now appearing outside China than inside. JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O), which does not fly to Asia, was the first airline to launch free rebooking options last week, as it became clear that cases were not isolated to China. JetBlue pulled together and announced its plan in a matter of hours, President Joanna Geraghty told Reuters. “We tried to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers and think about what we would want if we were, for example, booking a spring-break trip right now,” Geraghty said. U.S. majors have since followed suit with varying waivers on change fees for new reservations to many destinations, a switch from a previous policy that covered only pre-booked flights to areas hardest-hit by the coronavirus. In Latin America, Peruvian low-cost carrier Viva Air was holding a board meeting on Wednesday to discuss measures, Declan Ryan, executive chairman of the board of directors, told Reuters. But with none of the offers so far guaranteeing money-back refunds, travelers say the policies are not enough. “I understand that there are a lot of question marks right now for the industry on how this will unfold, but I don’t feel like there’s a truly customer-friendly policy out here,” said Amanda Elman-Kolb of Chicago, who has put on hold plans for a family trip to Europe in August. Declining demand to fly abroad is not limited to U.S. travelers. International travel to the United States will fall 6% over the next three months amid coronavirus concerns, the largest decline since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the U.S. Travel Association forecast on Tuesday. With extra widebody jets on hand after suspending flights to China, South Korea, Japan and northern Italy, major U.S. airlines are deploying them on domestic routes, a process known as upgauging. American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O), for example, is flying passengers from Chicago to San Francisco on a 787 Dreamliner, rather than just the usual narrowbody like a 737 or an A321. Europe’s biggest carriers warned on Tuesday that the epidemic was upsetting growth, with Ryanair (RYA.I) Chief Executive Michael O’Leary forecasting a “very deflated booking environment” for the next two to three weeks before recovering. “After Easter if things have settled down, temperatures in Europe are rising, I think there will be a significant decline in the spread of the virus. Airlines will then respond with seat promotions, seat sales that will get people back traveling very quickly,” he told Reuters. In the Asia-Pacific region, offers are under way. Malaysian budget airline AirAsia X (AIRX.KL), which was struggling financially even before coronavirus, launched a 499 ringgit ($119.09) one-year pass for unlimited trips to Australia, Japan, Korea, China and India, excluding taxes and fees on each trip - a move that CEO Benyamin Ismail called “unprecedented.”      Fares are softening too on routes not directly affected by travel bans, with Australia to Los Angeles 25% lower in the three weeks ended Feb. 26 compared with the same period last year, data provided to Reuters by Skyscanner showed. In perhaps the most vivid example, Vietnam Airlines JSC HVN.HM last week said it would offer $0 round-trip fares from Ho Chi Minh City to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, excluding taxes and fees, to help stimulate tourism through the end of May. “Airlines have historically shown little hesitance to reduce prices to get volume,” said Wolfe Research analyst Hunter Keay. “One thing we know about leisure air travel demand, it can be very easily stimulated.” Claim: Airlines rush to boost demand as coronavirus shreds playbook for crisis management.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Authorities have all but shut down Wuhan, a city of 11 million and a major transport hub, at what is normally the busiest time of year - the Lunar New Year holiday - when millions of people travel home to visit their families. Millions of people in surrounding cities are virtually stranded after public transport networks were shut to stop the spread of the virus, believed to have originated at a Wuhan market illegally selling wildlife. On one high-speed train carrying a Reuters journalist that stopped in Wuhan station on Friday afternoon, about 10 passengers got off and nobody got on before the train resumed its journey to Changsha. Although it stopped there, Wuhan had been removed from the train’s schedule. “What choice do I have? It’s Chinese New Year. We have to see our family,” said a man getting off the train who gave his family name Hu. Wuhan’s airport is not closed, but nearly all flights have been canceled. Three international flights arriving on Friday would leave with no passengers, an airport official said. China’s biggest ride-hailing company, Didi Chuxing, shut down all services in Wuhan from midday on Friday, adding that service resumption depended on government orders. “Please reduce going out as much as possible, and look after yourselves and your families,” the company told its drivers in a statement. A traffic control map on Baidu maps - China’s equivalent of Google maps - showed a swathe of highways into and around the city closed. Police at one highway checkpoint said special permission would be needed to leave the city. Police also checked incoming vehicles for wild animals. Lying on the banks of the mighty Yangtze River and historically prone to devastating floods, Wuhan stretches across 8,500 square kilometers (3,300 square miles) - five times the size of Greater London - and includes rural areas as well as the sprawling urban conurbation. Some images circulated on social media showed packed hospital corridors, as people - all wearing face masks - waited for consultations. Hospitals made public appeals for supplies. The government has pledged to ensure the city is properly equipped, and on Friday flew in two planes with 32 tonnes of supplies, mostly medical gear and masks. China’s second-largest e-commerce firm, JD.com Inc, said it was donating one million medical masks and other supplies like disinfectant. “My family has hoarded much food, and when we need something, we go downstairs to a supermarket nearby with masks on,” a 30-year-old city resident who works in financial services told Reuters via social media, declining to provide her name. Authorities have warned against price-gouging. Zou Tianjing, 30, an alcoholic drinks distributor, said she was resigned to spending the Lunar New Year at home, reading and watching movies. “A lot of people did not realize how serious the situation was. Just the day before, people were wearing masks but would still go to bars,” she said, speaking on Thursday. Hugo Guo, a 22-year-old university student who had returned home to Wuhan for the holiday, said the restrictions were not having much of an impact on him, although all his dinner plans with friends and family had been canceled. “I’m most worried about whether I will be able to return to school at the right time,” he said, referring to the start of term next month at his university in Shanghai. One foreign resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the transport lockdown was causing problems though he was able to get around, albeit slowly. “I can go anywhere I want to go. I just can’t leave Wuhan.” Claim: 'What choice do I have?' Lock-down strands millions in China's Wuhan.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Internet outrage ensued over a CNN advertisement for a town hall program about the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, which aired on May 14, 2020. The outrage was focused on CNN’s booking of 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, with criticism falsely characterizing her appearance as being that of an “expert panelist.”  Adding to the confusion, a number of news publications ran with the same false narrative. “Greta Thunberg added to CNN’s expert coronavirus panel, Twitter erupts,” read a New York Post headline. “Greta Thunberg Isn’t a Coronavirus Expert,” Reason.com reasoned. Claim: Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg appeared on a CNN \"expert panel\" in a program about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The photo of a weasel riding on the back of a flying woodpecker appears to be real. Amateur photographer Martin Le-May said he was bird watching at a park in Essex, England, when he heard the screech of a bird in distress, Reuters  reports: “I picked my camera up, the bird flew off, and flew toward us. I snapped and took a couple photographs and realized, as I was doing that, there was something on the back of the woodpecker,” Martin le-May said. The photo went viral on Twitter just hours after Martin Le-May posted it. Thousands of users commented on the photo with the hashtag  #weaselpecker. The bird in question is a  European green woodpecker. The species can weigh up to 8 ounces, and its wingspan can measure up to 16 inches, so it’s a pretty large bird. The green woodpecker feeds on insects like ants, beetles and caterpillars — which is probably what the bird in the photo was doing when he was attacked by a  least weasel that latched onto its back. Known as a small but fierce carnivore, the least weasel preys on birds, rabbits and frogs. It eats 40-60% of its bodyweight each day. The photo doesn’t appear to be doctored, either. Henry Farid, a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, said he saw no evidence that the photo was not real, National Geographic  reports: “’’This would have required a nearly perfect and coincidental alignment of the two animals in their original photos so that they could be composited together,” said Farid. “This type of forgery is therefore more difficult to create than, for example, two animals simply standing side-by-side.’ There were also multiple photos of the scene, which would be nearly impossible to replicate, Farid said, There also weren’t any lighting, color, focus or quality differences between the weasel and the bird. And there’s good news: the green woodpecker successfully evaded the weasel’s attack and lived to see another day, Le-May  said: “’The woodpecker landed in front of us and I feared the worst. I guess our presence; maybe 25 meters away, momentarily distracted the weasel. The woodpecker seized the opportunity and flew up and away into some bushes away to our left. Quickly the bird gathered its self respect and flew up into the trees and away from our sight. The woodpecker left with its life, the weasel just disappeared into the long grass, hungry.’”  Comments Claim:   A photo shows a weasel riding on the back of a woodpecker in flight.   ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: One of the many bits of “secret” information that history buffs love to pass around is the rumor that the Seal of the President of the United States undergoes a surreptitious change in wartime, with the regular seal being swapped for slightly a different version in which the eagle’s head is turned to face the talon clutching a group of arrows (rather than facing the talon holding an olive branch, the symbol of peace) as a subtle visual reminder that the nation is at war. This rumor has been made familiar to modern audiences through its mention in the political television drama The West Wing, as well as its inclusion in author Dan Brown’s 2002 political thriller Deception Point:  Herney had always believed the most dominating aspect of the Oval Office was the colorful American eagle emblazoned on the room’s oval carpet. The eagle’s left talon clutched an olive branch and his right a bundle of arrows. Few outsiders knew that during times of peace, the eagle faced left — toward the olive branch. But in times of war, the eagle mysteriously faced right — toward the arrows. The mechanism behind this little parlor trick was the source of quiet speculation among White House staff because it was traditionally known only by the President and the head of housekeeping. The truth behind the enigmatic eagle, Herney had found to be disappointingly mundane. A storage room in the basement contained the second oval carpet, and housekeeping simply swapped the carpets in the dead of night. Although the Seal of the President of the United States has undergone various changes over the years, its design is fixed by executive order and is not altered during wartime, as White House curator Bill Allman explained in response to a July 2004 query:  Q: I got into a debate with a friend after reading the book ‘Deception Point’ by Dan Brown. Is there any truth to the section about switching the carpet in the Oval Office when the country is at war or peace? Specifically, the American Eagle’s talons facing left toward the olive branch in peace and right toward the arrows at times of war. I personally think it’s fiction but my friend is insistent that it is a fact. A: There is just one Seal of the President at any given time, and it does not change according to whether or not the United States is at war. However, the Seal has undergone modifications over the years. President Truman modified the Seal in 1945, and the changes included turning the eagle’s head to face its right as opposed to its left. A press release issued after the new design was approved said, “In the new Coat of Arms, Seal and Flag, the Eagle not only faces to its right — the direction of honor — but also toward the olive branches of peace which it holds in its right talon. Formerly the eagle faced toward the arrows in its left talon — arrows, symbolic of war.”  Although the eagle featured in the Presidential Seal has faced its right ever since, there are items in the White House collection that were made before 1945 that display the eagle facing its left (such as state services, furnishings, architectural elements, etc.) A video posted to the Obama White House YouTube Channel provides further evidence:  The last paragraph of the above-quoted response might provide a clue as to how this rumor began. The Great Seal of the United States includes a coat of arms featuring an eagle clutching thirteen arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other, its head facing to the viewer’s left, towards the talon with the olive branch. Presidential flags had historically featured a similar coat of arms, but in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order that changed the design slightly, such that the eagle’s head was modified face to the viewer’s right, towards the talon holding the arrows:  The coat of arms on the presidential flag changed again in 1945 when President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9646, which made several alterations to the presidential flag and seal, among which was the reversal of the eagle’s head so that it once more faced in the same direction as the one on the Great Seal of the United States:  As biographer David McCullough noted of Truman’s motivation for making the change:  One morning, standing at his desk, [Truman] presented to the press a new presidential flag … “This new flag faces the eagle toward the staff,” Truman explained, “which is looking to the front all the time when you are on the march, and also has him looking at the olive branch for peace, instead of the arrows for war …” Both the flag and presidential seal had been redesigned for the first time since the Wilson years, and Truman meant the shift in the eagle’s gaze to be seen as symbolic of a nation both on the march and dedicated to peace. Possibly, in retrospect, some people recalled that the eagle on the presidential flag or seal had changed around the time of World War I (President Wilson’s executive order was issued eleven months before the U.S. entered that conflict) then changed again just after World War II (President Truman’s executive order was issued less than two months after the formal surrender of Japan), and they mistakenly assumed the events were connected rather than coincidental: A casual observer, unaware that the presidential flag had not been altered at the end of World War I or the beginning of World War II, might have surmised that the eagle’s head had always faced towards the olive branch, and its occasional reversal was a wartime aberration. The notion of a presidential seal that featured as its centerpiece an eagle whose gaze changed direction based upon the state of belligerency in the world was the subject of a wry comment made by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as he was visiting with President Truman in 1946:  Pointing to the President’s seal on the wall of the [train] car, Truman explained that he had had the eagle’s head turned to face the olive branch. Churchill said he thought the eagle’s head should be on a swivel. Claim: During wartime, the Seal of the President of the United States is modified so that the eagle's head faces the opposite direction.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A reader asked us to check whether a medical tax in the Obamacare law killed thousands of jobs, as her Texas congressman recently told her via email. U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, whose district covers parts of Harris County, wrote Oct. 24, 2013, just after a partial government shutdown had ended, describing measures fellow Republicans proposed to avert the shutdown while altering or defunding President Barack Obama’s health care law. One amendment, Poe said, would have repealed \"the costly medical device tax, which has led to the loss of thousands of jobs across the nation.\" PolitiFact has written about the tax before -- particularly to quash a persistent myth that the outdoor sporting goods chain Cabela’s once charged customers for a medical tax \"hidden in Obamacare.\" It’s a 2.3 percent levy on the sale of most medical devices; exceptions include items normally sold directly to the public such as eyeglasses, bandages and hearing aids. The tax, which took effect Jan. 1, 2013, is one of the provisions in the Obamacare law meant to offset costs of expanding health coverage to the uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Poe spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes told us by email, \"Congressman Poe has met with several people in the health care industry who have told him the medical device tax included in the Affordable Care Act has led to thousands of layoffs. We have also read examples of this in the news.\" Hynes cited news stories from 2012 and 2013 describing more than 2,000 completed or planned U.S. job cuts that medical device makers attributed in part to the tax. The Republican National Committee rounded up those examples and others in a Sept. 30, 2013, web post. Among them: Citing the tax specifically, Smith & Nephew cut \"nearly 100 jobs\" in Memphis and Andover, Mass., according to a Jan. 31, 2013, news story in the Memphis Daily News. Kalamazoo, Mich.-based medical technology corporation Stryker expected to complete laying off about 1,000 employees worldwide by the end of 2012, according to a Nov. 19, 2012, Kalamazoo Gazette news story. Stryker named the tax as one reason for the cuts in an earlier press release, the story said. The company didn’t give locations for the job cuts, but an earlier warning identified at least 107 in the U.S., the Gazette said. Citing the tax as one reason, Welch Allyn announced 120 buyouts and layoffs in Central New York as part of global cuts, according to a Sept. 10, 2012, Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard news story. Boston Scientific increased planned job cuts worldwide by 900 to 1,000 positions, according to a Jan. 29, 2013, Associated Press news story. Company president Michael Mahoney said the tax played a role, according to a Jan. 30, 2013, Minneapolis Star Tribune news story. A July 27, 2012, Indiana Business Journal news story said Cook Medical Inc. halted plans to build five plants similar to one employing 300 people; an executive told the Journal the medical tax left the company with \"fewer resources to be able to spend on those kinds of projects.\" Medtronic’s CEO predicted in a March 22, 2010, Wall Street Journal news story that the tax would cost his company 1,000 jobs. A May 22, 2013, Star Tribune news story said Medtronic announced 1,000 cuts worldwide in 2012 and 2,000 cuts worldwide in 2013, with about half of the latter in the U.S. The story cited \"pricing pressures and sluggish sales\" for the May 2013 cuts, but didn’t mention the tax. That story said Medtronic competitor St. Jude Medical, another global company, had announced 800 job cuts in 2012. An earlier Star Tribune news story had reported that executives said the tax was one factor. In total, the news stories pinned at least 1,300 job losses inside the U.S., though most companies did not specify where the cuts would fall. The U.S. medical devices industry, said a July 24, 2013, Forbes news story, \"employs 400,000 Americans directly and is indirectly responsible for almost 2 million more that supply and support the highly-skilled workforce.\" The GOP web post pointed to a 2011 study financed by the Advanced Medical Technology Association, or AdvaMed. It said that the excise tax would cause 10 percent of device manufacturing to move offshore, leading to the loss of 43,000 U.S. jobs. PolitiFact Ohio wrote in a 2012 fact-check that analysis by the research service Bloomberg Government found the AdvaMed study was \"not credible.\" The publisher of an online journal covering the medical device industry, Brian Johnson of MassDevice.com, told Boston public radio station WBUR in a Sept. 30, 2013, interview, that \"the tax is costing the industry thousands of jobs.\" \"In 2012, publicly traded medical device companies cut 10,000 jobs, in part, to brace for the impact of the tax, although it’s impossible to determine how much the tax actually added to those job loss numbers.\" By phone, Johnson told us, \"The long and the short of it is that it's nearly impossible to determine if the tax alone was the cause of layoffs, or if the company used the tax as a good cover for layoffs that were going to happen to begin with. The medical device industry is facing some pretty substantial headwinds that have nothing to do with the excise tax,\" such as the high costs associated with negotiating and completing sales of such devices. Cutting to the bottom line, the Boston radio station asked Johnson, \"So, is this really worth shutting the federal government down over? Don’t these guys make billions of dollars a year? Why can’t they just pass that 2.3 percent on to their customers?\" Johnson said hospital purchasing groups have united in a campaign that \"has been effective in keeping most medical device companies from trying to pass the buck,\" and said that because the tax is on all sales, \"even companies that are losing money have to pay it. This means the tax disproportionately harms young, innovative start-up companies.\" Also, he said, the industry is skeptical of predictions that business will boom as more people join the health-care system. \"Medical device makers argue that the new enrollees in health insurance plans will be young and not in need of the technology they create, such as cardiac stents, hip and knee implants and surgical devices,\" he said. Our ruling Poe said \"the costly medical device tax\" in the Obamacare law \"has led to the loss of thousands of jobs across the nation.\" News stories indicate more than 2,000 such cuts were planned or made partly because of the tax. An industry analyst has said that \"the tax is costing the industry thousands of jobs,\" but also told us that \"it's nearly impossible to determine if the tax alone was the cause of layoffs.\" Poe’s claim is partly accurate but leaves out this important context. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. Claim: Obamacare medical device tax \"has led to the loss of thousands of jobs\" in U.S.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: We have debunked plenty of misinformation about vaccines for COVID-19 that are in development. Next up: more  information tying COVID-19 to the seasonal flu vaccine. An April 16 article shared on social media carries the headline \"New study: The flu vaccine Is ‘significantly associated’ with an increased risk of coronavirus.\" Facebook flagged this story as part of its efforts to combat  news and misinformation on Facebook's News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The article, from a self-described \"conscious media\" website, mainly cites a 2019 study from the U.S. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch that was published in the journal Vaccine in 2020. The study focused on Department of Defense personnel, who have high rates of flu vaccination, and examined whether being vaccinated for a seasonal flu could make someone more or less likely to catch other respiratory viruses. But the study found no connection between the flu shot and an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. That’s because the U.S. Armed Forces study’s data was referring to seasonal common coronaviruses in 2017-18, not the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. (There are seven types of coronaviruses that can infect humans, of which the COVID-19-causing SARS-CoV-2 is one.) This was clarified in the full article, but is ambiguous in the headline. What’s more, Richard Watanabe, a preventative medicine professor at USC, told PolitiFact that the article doesn’t really provide \"strong support for anything they are claiming\" since the study found little correlation between the flu vaccine and such viruses. Even with regard to coronaviruses that predated SARS-CoV-2, the U.S. Armed Forces study concluded that further research is needed, as \"the overall results of the study showed little to no evidence supporting the association of virus interference and influenza vaccination.\" The study’s data had mixed results for individual respiratory viruses and found that vaccinated individuals were \"more likely to have no pathogen detected and reduced risk of influenza when compared to unvaccinated individuals.\" The article also leaves out parts of the study that question the data linking coronavirus cases to the influenza vaccine. For instance, the U.S. Armed Forces study referenced a study from 2013 that had similar results except there was \"no association between influenza vaccination and RSV, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, rhinovirus or coronavirus.\" Edward Belongia, an infectious disease epidemiologist who worked on the 2013 study, explained to FactCheck.org that there is little scientific data to support the speculative theory of the flu vaccine increasing the risk of other respiratory viruses. While this article did specify that the U.S. Armed Forces study was testing common coronaviruses and not COVID-19, the headline was ambiguous and misleading. We rate this headline . Claim: New study: The flu vaccine is 'significantly associated' with an increased risk of coronavirus",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A socially conservative province where the Catholic and Protestant faiths exert strong influence, Northern Ireland allows abortion only when a mother’s life is in danger. The penalty for undergoing or performing an unlawful abortion is life imprisonment. As a result, women facing tragic circumstances such as a pregnancy resulting from rape or a diagnosis of fatal fetal abnormality, meaning that a baby will not survive outside the womb, have been forced to carry their pregnancies to term. “The impact of the criminal law in Northern Ireland does amount to inhuman and degrading treatment by the state,” said Nathalie Lieven, lead counsel for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission which is spearheading the legal action. The commission, an independent body, launched legal action against Northern Ireland’s government in 2014, arguing that the law violates the human rights of women and girls. The case has been working its way through the courts ever since. A panel of seven Supreme Court judges in London will hear arguments for and against the proposed changes during a three-day hearing. They will give their judgment at a later date. Lieven began by giving the judges an overview of detailed evidence provided by several women and girls. One of them, Ashleigh Topley, was told when she was four-and-a-half months pregnant in 2013 that her baby’s limbs were not growing and she was going to die. Topley was told there was nothing to be done and she had to carry on with the pregnancy until her baby died inside the womb, or until she went into labor which would cause the baby to die. Topley had to endure 15 weeks of anguish as the pregnancy progressed. She has described how people would ask her if it was her first child, if she wanted a boy or a girl, and other well-meaning questions which exacerbated her suffering. In the end, Topley went into labor at 35 weeks and the baby girl’s heart stopped. Other cases described to the judges included that of a girl under 13 years old who was pregnant as a result of sexual abuse by a relative. After police and social services got involved, the distraught girl had to be taken outside of Northern Ireland for the first time in her life to have an abortion. Northern Ireland’s elected assembly voted against changing abortion laws in February 2016. The law is far less restrictive in the rest of the United Kingdom, and hundreds of Northern Irish women travel to England every year to have unwanted pregnancies terminated. As well as the parties in the case, the court will hear from organizations that support changing the law, such as Humanists UK, Amnesty International and a United Nations working group on discrimination against women. It will also hear from groups who oppose any reform, such as Catholic bishops from the province and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, which describes the legal action as a “crusade against disabled babies”. (This version of the story includes updates with details from the hearing) Claim: UK Supreme Court hears attempt to change Northern Ireland abortion law.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story indicates both the price of the machine ($30,000) and the cost per use ($200) — a valuable bit of reporting. Due to the lack of evidence reported (see Evidence criterion above), there is no quantification of the risks and benefits of using the device. The story makes clear, with brief references, that the cognitive risks range from minor to major, and that they could impair patients’ subsequent ability to work. However, since the story is about the use of the oxygen monitor device, the story falls short since it does not indicate whether there are any potential harms associated with the device itself. The story does not report the best scientific evidence available about the controversy. Any data likely come from studies supported by the manufacturer, but it still may be worth citing. The absence of data about the story’s key disagreement–or even a clear statement that data is unavailable or inconclusive–is a major shortcoming of the story. The report does not exaggerate the cognitive risks following heart surgery–it uses an estimate of side effects from a New England Journal study. It also permits those who question the validity of those statistics–given the fact that perhaps one third of surgery patients have cognitive issues before surgery–to make their case. The reporter interviews two advocates of the device (one independent, one with industry ties) and one surgeon who is unconvinced of its value. It briefly cites two key studies about cognitive impairment after heart surgery. This sourcing elevates this report into the \"satisfactory\" rating, but barely. The article implicitly compares surgery with and without the oxygen monitoring device, and provides a thorough description of how the device functions in surgery. However, the piece does not write about beating-heart surgery, a method designed partly to make the heart-lung machine, which appears to be responsible for cognitive side effects, unnecessary. This is a significant omission. The story fails to report whether the brain oxygen monitoring device is available at only a few surgical centers or all of them. It also fails to report how difficult it would be for patients to request the device for their own surgery. The article makes clear that the device in question is 10 years old and sometimes used. There is no evidence the article relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Doctors weigh brain-oxygen monitor",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 15 May, Facebook user Kelly Rose Joniec posted an account of her daughter’s hospitalization two days earlier, after accidentally swallowing part of a fidget spinner (an enormously popular children’s toy): We had a pretty eventful Saturday. On the way home from a fun swim meet, I heard Britton make an odd retching noise in the back seat as I was driving. Looking back in the mirror, I saw her face turning red and drool pouring from her mouth – she could utter noises but looked panicked so I immediately pulled over. She pointed to her throat saying she’d swallowed something, so I attempted Heimlich but there was no resistance. She said she’d put part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it and somehow swallowed it. Frantic, I went straight to urgent care where they checked her for choking. They couldn’t discern where the foreign object was located – along the airway or the esophagus. From there we got the red-light treatment via ambulance ? to Texas Children’s Hospital. X-ray showed the spinner bushing lodged in her esophagus. The GI doctor was fascinated…he’d only just learned of fidget spinners that morning when he was at the mall with his son, so it was a surprise to be faced with one in a case a few hours later. He’s also an advocate for related child safety in toys, so he took a special interest in the case. After multiple, very stressful attempts to place an IV, Britton was taken to surgery to endoscopically locate and remove the object. Fortunately we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while…not only because of the initial ingestion, but then the concern about the composition and structure of the object, and finally, the risk with general anesthesia. From this I wish to offer some word of caution to parents. Fidget spinners are the current craze so they are widely distributed. Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings. The bushings pop out easily, so if you have young kids (under 8 yr old) keep in mind that these present a potential choking hazard. [Sidenote: I certainly wasn’t looking for an excuse to tour the brand new Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands but this was a pretty effective way. Staff was great and the facility is very nice…but a little quiet on Saturday afternoons.] A spokesperson for the Texas Children’s Hospital confirmed to us that the basic story is true, and that the image of an x-ray showing the object lodged in the girl’s esophagus is authentic. Kelly Rose Joniec’s daughter Britton was indeed taken to the Texas Children’s Hospital at The Woodlands, near Houston, on Saturday 13 May, and did indeed successfully undergo surgery to remove part of a fidget spinner from her esophagus. However, it’s important to note that this incident was not the result of a property or mechanism intrinsic to the fidget spinner itself. Based on Kelly Rose Joniec’s account, it appears that her daughter Britton separated out a part of the toy, and accidentally swallowed it after putting it in her mouth to clean it. The incident does not appear to have happened while the girl was playing with the fidget spinner. Patty Davis, a spokesperson for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, told us that parents should be aware that choking is a hazard with any small toy:  We know these toys are very new and gaining in popularity, and we would encourage parents to think about how their child interacts with toys. Do they mouth items? If that’s the case, then this may not be a toy for them. Claim: A Texas girl required surgery after she swallowed part of a fidget spinner while cleaning it.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In New York City, where at least 29 inmates and 17 staff in the jail system have been infected by the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday 23 inmates would be released before day’s end and the city would decide within 24 hours  whether to release up to 200 more. He said inmates would be screened to identify those at risk from the virus, which has killed more than 14,000 people across the globe, including 415 in the United States. Officials were still determining how many inmates ultimately should be let out of the city’s 11 jails, who will be eligible and how they will be supervised. “It’s very thorny,” de Blasio told a news conference. City residents need to “have relative comfort” that people who are released are unlikely to commit a “serious crime,” he added. New York City’s Board of Corrections, an independent oversight body, has called on the mayor to release around 2,000 inmates who were severely sick, held on low-level offenses or jailed for parole violations. “It’s the right number to make it work,” board member Dr. Robert Cohen told Reuters. New York City’s jail system is among relatively few that have announced confirmed cases of the coronavirus among inmates or staff. But other jails nationwide are moving to reduce inmate populations before it arrives. In Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma County Jail is working with judges and district attorneys to secure court orders for the release of inmates held on minor misdemeanors and considered minimal security risks. Though the jail has no confirmed coronavirus cases among its 1,500 inmates, the goal is “to get out as many people as possible, keeping in mind the safety of the public,” said spokesman Mark Myers. Jails typically hold people for relatively short periods as they await trial and have more flexibility to reduce populations than state or federal prisons, whose inmates have been convicted and sentenced. While many state prisons have announced steps to limit the spread of the virus such as banning visitors, they generally require a court order to release inmates. Federal prisons face similar restrictions, although President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would consider an executive order to release “totally nonviolent prisoners” from those facilities. As the virus spreads, both jails and prisons share a fundamental problem: how to safeguard a captive population that includes large numbers of people with underlying medical problems. When infections take hold, “it’s a problem for the public,” said Marc Stern, former medical director for the Washington State Department of Corrections and a faculty member at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health. When inmates get sick, “it can spread outside facilities, through officers and staff, to families and the community,” said Stern, who is advising the National Sheriffs’ Association on how jails should manage the coronavirus outbreak. And because inmates are more likely to have chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes and asthma, those who get sick “have a higher chance of needing hospitalization, which is going to use up hospital beds and other scarce resources for the community.”  California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported on Saturday that at least three employees have COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but no inmate infections have been confirmed. Like several other state prison systems, the department is medically screening personnel who enter its facilities. It also is requiring 14-day quarantines for all inmates arriving from county jails, it said. The United States has more people behind bars than any other nation, a total incarcerated population of nearly 2.3 million as of 2017, including nearly 1.5 million in state and federal prisons and another 745,000 in local jails, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Many experts see county and municipal jails as the more pressing concern because their populations are more fluid, so they pose more risk of transmitting the virus both in the jail and the community. Reducing their populations not only limits the number of inmates and staff at risk of contracting the illness, it also enhances their ability to separate the remaining inmates, a crucial step for containing any outbreak, said Michele Deitch, a corrections expert at the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. In Utah, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office has worked with local courts, prosecutors and public defenders to release 81 “non-violent prisoners” with a promise to appear in court at a later date, said Sergeant Carrie Fisher, the office’s spokeswoman. Other jurisdictions are trying to reduce inmate populations by stemming the influx of new arrivals. Last week, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the county had taken steps since late February to reduce the jail’s population by 617 inmates. This was done by releasing inmates with less than 30 days on their sentences and by changing bail requirement policies used to determine which arrestees would get a citation versus being booked into custody, he said. The challenge is to move quickly, experts say, because most jails haven’t planned for such a fast-moving medical crisis. “You could still get a lot of people out,” said Jacob Kang-Brown, a senior researcher at the Vera Institute of Justice, where he studies ways to reduce incarcerated populations. Claim: Releasing inmates, screening staff: U.S. jails and prisons rush to limit virus risks.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Researchers from the University of Essex found that as little as five minutes of a “green activity” such as walking, gardening, cycling or farming can boost mood and self esteem. “We believe that there would be a large potential benefit to individuals, society and to the costs of the health service if all groups of people were to self-medicate more with green exercise,” Barton said in a statement about the study, which was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Many studies have shown that outdoor exercise can reduce the risk of mental illness and improve a sense of well-being, but Jules Pretty and Jo Barton, who led this study, said that until now no one knew how much time needed to be spent on green exercise for the benefits to show. Barton and Pretty looked at data from 1,252 people of different ages, genders and mental health status taken from 10 existing studies in Britain. They analyzed activities such as walking, gardening, cycling, fishing, boating, horse-riding and farming. They found that the greatest health changes occurred in the young and the mentally ill, although people of all ages and social groups benefited. The largest positive effect on self-esteem came from a five-minute dose of “green exercise.”   All natural environments were beneficial, including parks in towns or cities, they said, but green areas with water appeared to have a more positive effect. Claim: Five minutes in the green can boost self esteem.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, of Albany, and Sen. Liz Krueger, of Manhattan, recently introduced a bill that would authorize anyone 14 or older to get immunizations even if their parents object. The two Democrats say too many parents believe unsupported online claims that vaccines are unsafe. The three New York chapters of the academy support the bill, saying young people often are better at discerning false information on the internet. “New York has long recognized that for decision making in health care, in terms of reproductive health care, mental health, substance abuse and emergency services, often adolescents and young adults have a clearer grasp of what kinds of health care decisions make the most sense for them,” they said in a statement Tuesday. The chapters, representing about 5,000 pediatricians statewide, also said: “These young people have a right to protect themselves from diseases that can easily be prevented by immunizations.” The New York Times reported the legislation’s introduction comes amid reported measles outbreaks among Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County. In such communities, vaccination rates can typically lag well behind the rates in other places. Fahy told the Times that too many people have become “complacent” regarding vaccinations. “It’s not just the individual who is at risk when they are not immunized,” she said. “You are putting other people at risk.” The New York legislation was introduced three days after an Ohio teen testified before Congress about how he defied his mother’s anti-vaccine beliefs that he believed were fueled by online conspiracy theories. Ethan Lindenberger, who told federal lawmakers that he got his shots when he turned 18, said more must be done to combat fraudulent claims about vaccine safety. Multiple studies have debunked claims that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations increase the risk for autism. Several states, including Oregon and South Carolina, allow minors to ask for vaccinations without parental approval. Some also require minors to be evaluated to determine if they’re mature enough to make that decision. The New York bill wouldn’t require those types of evaluations. Claim: Pediatrics group backs bill to allow minors to seek vaccines.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: If you are experiencing distress, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit online here. In early June 2019, multiple English-language news outlets, from tabloids to ordinarily reliable national news media, reported that Noa Pothoven, a Dutch teenager and author, had ended her life via euthanasia after asking for and acquiring permission to do so from government officials in the Netherlands. The story, while sensational, was not reported accurately. On 5 June 2019, the Levenseindekliniek, or end-of-life clinic, in the Hague had to release a statement to quell such reports: The End-of-Life Clinic is approached from all over the world for a reaction to the death [of] seventeenth-year-old Noa Pothoven. However, due to privacy rules, we cannot make any statements about this. To put an end to incorrect reporting (in foreign media in particular) about the death, we refer to the statement made by friends of Noa this afternoon: Noa Pothoven did not die of euthanasia. To stop her suffering, she has stopped eating and drinking. The Life-End Clinic deals exclusively with euthanasia and does so explicitly within the Dutch legal framework. As the name and statement of the aforementioned clinic imply, the Netherlands does allow euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide under some circumstances, but that did not occur in the case of Pothoven. It is nnclear is why this story was so widely misreported, because the Dutch language newspaper De Gelderlander reported it accurately. De Gelderlander stated on 2 June 2019 that Pothoven’s sister announced the 17-year-old had died. The paper also reported that six months prior, Pothoven had approached the Levenseindekliniek without her parents’ knowledge and asked if she was eligible for assisted suicide or euthanasia. The answer? “No.” Pothoven was too young, she was reportedly told, and her brain was not fully developed. The source of Pothoven’s anguish was sexual assault: she was raped when she was 11 and 14 years of age, and she suffered from severe psychological disorders including depression and anorexia. Her traumatic journey was made public when she authored a book titled (in English) Winning or Learning. Her last days were spent in a hospital bed in her family’s home saying goodbye to loved ones, according to Dutch news reports. After extensive interventions that included involuntary hospitalization and an induced coma to enable tube-feeding, Pothoven announced in a now-deleted Instagram post that she had made the decision to end her life on her own. Reason monthly magazine observed that the erroneous version of the story resulted in a “strange moral panic” and blank slate upon which “everyone wants to paint their culture war all over.” This is hardly the first time a tragedy originally reported in another language resulted in erroneous or exaggerated news stories in English news media. A questionable story circulated for years on anti-abortion websites claiming that a baby born after a failed abortion was left alone screaming to die. In fact, the tale likely originated with a case in which a baby that could not have survived due to terminal defects was given palliative care at a hospital but was not resuscitated when it died of natural causes. Claim: Dutch teen author Noa Pothoven was voluntarily euthanized.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: When Hillary Clinton holds a rally, it’s usually someone else who introduces her. But at an event in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Oct. 27, it was Clinton who teed up the keynoter, Michelle Obama. It was the first time the current first lady has stumped side-by-side with Clinton, and Clinton was effusive in her praise. She noted Obama’s work on behalf of veterans and young women around the world, and she highlighted Obama’s signature campaign, \"Let’s Move.\" \"She has worked for healthier childhood for our kids here at home,\" Clinton said. \"Better nutrition, more exercise and we are seeing the results. We are seeing kids who are healthier.\" Are America’s kids healthier? We decided to check that out. The first thing to note is that there is no single agreed-upon measure for children’s health. The Clinton campaign pointed us to material on obesity. That’s one yardstick, and while there are some signs of improvement, so far they are limited. The latest government data show that the country has made headway among kids 11 and under, but not among older children. Obesity researcher Ashleley Cockrell Skinner at the Duke University Medical School assessed the data cautiously. \"We aren’t seeing significant reductions, but there are not continued increases, especially among young children,\" Skinner said. The first lady has pushed for healthier eating habits, and there’s encouraging news on that front. The government has the Healthy Eating Index. It measures what people eat against the federal dietary guidelines, as in, are we eating our fruits and vegetables, the right amount of whole grains, and so on. The higher the index, the better. For children 2-17, the index has gone up from 49.5 in 2005-06 to 55.1 in 2011-12. That’s good, but Skinner said that while better diet is important, she’s \"not convinced that improving nutrition alone will improve obesity rates.\" And in any event, Skinner said it would take a long time to see any effect on obesity nationally. By other measures, especially ones that fall outside of Michelle Obama’s work, the trends are negative. We looked at the work of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a body that dates back to the Clinton administration. The forum posts a number of benchmarks. For adolescent depression, the percentage of youth ages 12–17 who had at least one major depressive episode in the past year rose from 9 percent in 2004 to 11.4 percent in 2014. The fraction of kids 5-17 who had their activities limited due to a chronic condition went from 7 percent in 2000 to 9.3 percent in 2014. Asthma for all children 17 and under increased slightly from 12.3 percent in 2000 to 13.5 percent in 2014, although that could be due to better reporting of the disease. On the other hand, because there is no single measure of children’s health, some researchers see longer term gains. Janet Currie is director of the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. Currie looks back to how things stood in 1990. \"There have been dramatic reductions in mortality rates among all children,\" Currie said. \"The declines are even greater among poor children than among non-poor children, so that inequality in mortality has declined.\" Currie also noted that drug and alcohol abuse is down, as is the teen pregnancy rate. Our ruling Clinton said that \"we are seeing kids who are healthier.\" She said that in the context of First Lady Obama’s work on nutrition and exercise, and her campaign staff drew our attention to obesity trends. The latest numbers show less obesity for kids 11 and under, but a continued rise for young teens 12 to 17. As for diet, the government’s index for healthy eating has gone up. On the flip side, several measures such as depression, asthma and curtailed activity are moving in the wrong direction. Claim: We are seeing kids who are healthier.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There isn’t a dollar sign in this release, and we could find no reliable figure for how much each Decipher test costs. (A New York Times article suggests similar genomic tests for prostate cancer cost roughly $3,000, if not more.) We’ve reached out to the company’s PR agency for an average per-test cost, but haven’t received a response in time for the publication of this review. The release states that, according to the latest study, Decipher has the ability to change the minds of both urologists (45%) and radiation oncologists (35%), and get more of them to agree what or what not to do with a patient after removal of his cancerous prostate gland. We’ll give the release credit here for quantifying the main findings of the study. But we’d note that there was potential to go deeper. We’re never told how many patients have issues with recurrent cancer or metastasis. (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services suggests about 40,000 men each year face a high risk.) We also aren’t told how effective radiation or other therapies are after a prostatectomy, nor how effective Decipher might be in saving lives. Most of the clinical trials cited in the article mention only reductions in biochemical progression–a surrogate endpoint. Most of what’s found in the release are rather general statements from doctors who have financial relationships with GenomeDx Biosciences, e.g. “it helped ensure that the ones selected for adjuvant therapy are the ones most likely to benefit from it.” The release doesn’t explain what sorts of risks a patient faces from radiation, hormone, and other “adjuvant” therapies after surgery, and avoiding these seems to be a key point of the Decipher test. We also don’t get any words on how reliable the test actually test is and how often it might return inaccurate results, which is its own kind of risk. The release lacked context on important study limitations, particularly the small sample size of clinicians (only 20 urologists and 26 radiation oncologists) and the small number of patient cases (only 11). We also don’t know how experienced/representative the clinicians are in their specialties, or whether results among academics differed from community practices. The study comments on some of this in its conclusion section, and it would have helped to see something like it in the release: “The sample size of this study is modest, and so additional validation studies are needed to determine the generalizability of the results over a wide range of patient cases and clinicians with varying degrees of expertise.” There’s nothing dramatic or overblown in this release. GenomeDx Biosciences funded the research. The company’s name appears 14 times in the release and its product shows up 29 times. But while the study itself makes detailed and explicit disclosures about funding and potential conflicts of interest (some of the researchers are employees of the company), the news release doesn’t. That’s unfortunate. Prostate cancer is very prevalent, Medicare can cover the cost of a Decipher test, and about half of men who get prostate cancer are covered by Medicare — so GenomeDx Biosciences has a lot to gain from more widespread use of its product. We’re not told if there are any alternatives. Even if Decipher stands alone as a post-operative test, that’s critical information. In the study itself, the authors did provide clinicians with information about risk groups, PSA, and extensive information about the pathology of the cancer. Studies (and guidelines) have used these parameters to guide treatment–it would be useful to know whether the initial decisions followed accepted practice. If not, then clinician education might be a more (cost) effective intervention than providing results from an expensive test. We’re told Decipher is commercially available and that Medicare can pay for the test. A bit of boilerplate text toward the end of the release gets at novelty with this statement: “Decipher generates a risk result that is completely independent and distinct from PSA, Gleason score and other clinical risk factors. Clinical studies from leading cancer centers published in over a dozen medical journals demonstrate that Decipher can accurately predict metastatic disease, which men may benefit from radiation therapy following prostate surgery, and can lead to significant cost-savings for healthcare systems.” That’s good enough for Satisfactory rating, although we caution again that the amount of independent value added from Decipher is unclear. We found no charged or dramatic language. On the contrary, the entire release is pretty staid. Claim: New Study Published on Cover of Urology Finds that Decipher® Prostate Cancer Classifier Reduces Conflicting Treatment Recommendations between Urologists and Radiation Oncologists",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Tissue samples from two gorillas that died in the forests of northern Rwanda in 2009 were infected with the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) virus, according to The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. The research also found that the frequency and severity of respiratory disease outbreaks among mountain gorillas straddling Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo was increasing. “We report conclusive evidence for association of a human virus with death in mountain gorillas. Viral RNA in multiple tissue samples from the adult female indicates that she was infected by an HMPV strain at the time of her death,” it said. With a total known world population of 786, the gorillas are one of the region’s biggest tourist attractions. Visitors pay hundreds of dollars to trek through dense forest and get within meters of the great apes. Their numbers have risen by more than a quarter in the last seven years, a sign conservation efforts are paying off although perhaps at a cost. “Although human proximity to mountain gorillas is essential for their conservation, also crucial is minimizing the risk for human-to-great ape transmission of respiratory pathogens,” the report said. “Because there are fewer than 800 living mountain gorillas, each individual is critically important to the survival of their species,” the project’s executive director Mike Cranfield said. Claim: Human virus linked to mountain gorilla deaths.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen isn’t buying all the talk about newly re-elected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie being a moderate Republican. In a roundtable discussion on CNN’s State of the Union, Rosen painted Christie as out of touch when it comes to women’s reproductive issues. \"Women consistently bring Democrats over the top in these purple states,\" Rosen said during the Nov. 10 show. \"When you look at Chris Christie and you try and take that forward, you’ve got an anti-choice candidate who has vetoed Planned Parenthood funding five times over the course of his governorship.\" With four budgets under his belt, did Christie really veto money for Planned Parenthood five times? Rosen tweeted us a story from LifeNews.com, which opposes abortions, and a (Newark) Star-Ledger newspaper editorial that referenced five vetoes. We looked into it ourselves and found Christie has used his executive power several times to deny funding for family planning clinics, including but not exclusively limited to Planned Parenthood. As a result of the cuts at least six clinics have closed, including two affiliated with Planned Parenthood, our colleagues at PolitiFact New Jersey found. The vetoes have been a real sore spot between the governor and the Democrat-led Legislature since Christie took office. So how many were there exactly? It depends on how you count them. We compiled a timeline using clips from the Star-Ledger and interviews with Planned Parenthood representatives. We could not reach a Christie spokesperson by our deadline. In March 2010, Christie proposed his first budget recommendations amid a $10 billion shortfall with across-the-board cuts, including an $820 million cut for schools. This budget, which outlined Christie’s priorities but still needed approval from the Democratic legislators, also included the elimination of $7.5 million for \"family planning services.\" Legislators then responded by passing a bill to add that funding back in the budget. But Christie struck back. On June 23, 2010, Christie vetoed SB 2139, which aimed to restore $7.5 million in grants for the state’s 58 women’s health and family planning centers, including Planned Parenthood. In his veto letter, Christie cited the state’s budget bind and the existence of other clinics that could perform these services. \"Reproductive health services will continue to be available in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties, including Planned Parenthood clinics, local health department clinics, free standing clinics and hospital-based clinics,\" he wrote. \"Nearly 95,000 women will still receive care through these family planning sites.\" The Legislature tried again the next year. Again Christie said no. Christie vetoed $7.5 million for the family planning centers in the 2011-12 state budget. Same story in 2012. The Legislature passed a supplemental bill, AB 788, to restore the money for family planning centers, but Christie vetoed it. Lastly, on June 29, 2013, Christie vetoed a measure, SB 2825, from Democrats that again tried to restore the $7.5 million for family planning services. That's four clear vetoes, plus the original cut. Additionally, in 2011 and again in 2013, Christie vetoed proposals to expand the state's Medicaid program to cover family planning services for people who earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Services would have included things such as birth control and cervical exams but not abortion, according to the Star-Ledger. The Medicaid expansion would not have directly provided money for Planned Parenthood, but it \"would have provided a new revenue stream to allow Planned Parenthood health centers to see additional patients and offer additional services, said Ed Remsen, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey. So that could be two additional vetoes, depending on how you count it. Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life, pointed out that Christie has maintained funding for other health services and that he defeated a female candidate who made this an issue, suggesting that Rosen’s theory about women not liking Christie rings hollow. Our ruling Rosen said Christie \"vetoed Planned Parenthood funding five times over the course of his governorship.\" Rosen is largely correct, though different people might come to a different figure. We rate her claim . Claim: Hilary Rosen Says Chris Christie \"vetoed Planned Parenthood funding five times over the course of his governorship.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: We’re told that, each year, catheters in hospitals cause 250,000 infections and cost $250 million to treat. That’s important to note and we’re glad it was included. However, the story didn’t tell us how much the intervention costs to implement. But, because this is an intervention that doesn’t have direct consumer costs (unlike, say, a new cancer drug or surgery), we’ll rate this is as N/A. The story attempted to quantify the benefits but missed the mark. What was missing: The chief way to quantify the benefits of such an intervention is to explain, in absolute numbers, how much the infection rate dropped. This can be expressed in terms of “1,000 catheter-days.” In this case, the rate was reduced from 2.28 to 1.54 infections per 1,000 catheter-days in the non-ICU patients. This is a 32% reduction. Use of the catheters themselves was also reduced by the program (which was one of the goals), from 20.1% to 18.8% (1.3% total reduction). Harms aren’t discussed in this story, but improved caretaker education on when and when not to use a catheter, and how to insert one while reducing the risk of infection, doesn’t seem to warrant it. Although there may be some harms from this “bundle,” the study itself was not set up to look for them. We’re not convinced the reader gets a clear enough picture of the study’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, the story didn’t let readers know how many people were enrolled in the study, nor did it point out the lack of a control group, an important limitation in research on quality improvement. We didn’t find any frightening language or graphic depictions of UTIs that would unnecessarily alarm a reader. The writer included comments from Dr. Huang, an editorial writer in NEJM, which suffices as an independent source. But, we’re not told that Dr. Saint — the lead author — is a paid advisory board member for the health services companies Doximity and Jvion. This was probably worth mentioning, since Jvion sells a data product to hospitals “that looks at the patient population and predicts the risk of an illness or condition before symptoms occur” so that “providers are better able to stop hospital acquired conditions, prevent patient suffering and deterioration, target population health activities, and save resources.” The alternative is the status quo, which is discussed in terms of its problems. We’re told the procedure is in use at 600 hospitals, though it would have helped to note they’re spread across 32 states, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. It could have been made clearer that any hospital can use this safety bundle now that the methods are published widely. The “Stop CAUTI” program has been around for years, but it’s implied that hundreds of hospitals have never implemented it before in a systematic way. The scale and duration of the study makes this novel and worth covering. The story included original quotes, presumably from an interview with Dr. Sanjay Saint. While it does extensively quote a NEJM editorial, those views help put the study and its limitations — e.g. no effect on ICUs, where reducing UTIs could do the most to save lives and reduce suffering — into plain view. Claim: Program Cut Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard delivered her comments to U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday as Democratic members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation pushed for a public comment period on the plan to be extended. Erecting taller barriers along the border is one of the hot-button issues fueling the contentious debate over how the United States should boost border security and overhaul its troubled immigration system. Congress for years has struggled to pass any comprehensive reform. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in April issued waivers to environmental laws to clear the way for border wall work in New Mexico and Arizona. The state of California and environmental groups tried to block similar work near San Diego and Calexico but a federal appeals court ruled in February that the Trump administration did not exceed its powers by waiving the environmental rules to speed construction. As part of President Donald Trump’s plan, the government is preparing to replace existing waist-high vehicle barriers with metal bollards along 31 miles (50 kilometers) of the border in Luna County. Another 15 miles (24 kilometers) of taller fencing is planned in Dona Ana County. Garcia Richard, a Democrat, said her agency hasn’t received any inquiries from federal officials regarding rights of way permits or easements that would be required for accessing state trust lands adjacent to proposed construction areas. Saying the Trump administration is obsessed with the idea of a border wall, Garcia Richard suggested that gathering public comment was only symbolic and that little information has been released on how the construction will proceed. “We cannot know the exact impact that this proposal would have on state trust land,” she wrote. “This border project does not come close to meeting even the lowest bar for sustainable land management.” The State Land Office said some of the areas where the work is planned are about 60 feet from state trust land, and extensive digging, trenching and truck traffic is likely. Officials are concerned about air quality as well as damage to surrounding soil and vegetation. The agency also contends that while Customs and Border Protection has agreed to be responsible for environmental planning around the project, there’s no publicly available documentation that federal officials have engaged in environmental planning. Claim: New Mexico land boss concerned about border wall work.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Monarch butterflies are an unexpected victim of the widespread adoption of genetically modified crops, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said last week. A genetically modified organism has had its DNA altered in a way that does not occur in nature. One purpose is to increase the plants’ tolerance to pesticides and herbicides. Opponents of GMOs, as they are called, believe they pose health risks, though there’s no generally accepted science that says GMO products are harmful to health. Environmental impacts, however, are the focus of DeFazio’s claim. DeFazio is an advocate for policies that would require food labels to indicate if the product was made with genetically modified crops. In an appearance on MSNBC with celebrity chef Tom Colicchio on Feb. 12, DeFazio said GMO crops are harmful to nature. \"We certainly know there is going to be secondary harm to the environment,\" he said. \"In fact, monarch butterflies are becoming extinct because of this sort of dumping, (the) huge increase in pesticides’ use because of these modified organisms.\" We decided to take a closer look at the effect of GMOs on the iconic orange and black butterflies. There’s little doubt that the monarch population is on the decline, but experts say that the adoption of genetically modified crops is not the sole factor. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the monarch population has dropped 90 percent over the past 20 years. Every winter, monarch butterflies migrate from the Midwestern United States corn-belt region to the Oyamel fir forests in Mexico. This chart from Monarch Watch, a conservation group, shows the steep population change, in terms of the total area occupied by monarchs during their winter stay in Mexico:  The evidence suggests that DeFazio exaggerated when he said monarchs are \"becoming extinct.\" The World Wildlife Fund classifies them as \"near threatened,\" which means they are \"likely to become endangered in the near future.\" That classification is several steps away from extinct. And conservation experts told us that they are optimistic that the monarch population can be at least partially restored if the right steps are taken. \"Monarchs are not in danger of extinction,\" said Lincoln Brower, a monarch conservation scientist at Sweet Briar College. \"What is endangered is their spectacular migration and overwintering behavior.\" Still, even if they are not on the verge of extinction, monarchs are certainly on the decline, at least for now. Why? Several reasons are evident, including deforestation in Mexico, recent weather patterns and reduced availability of milkweed, the butterflies’ main food source. The deforestation stems from illegal logging in Mexico. It has reduced the areas where monarchs can migrate, affecting their lifecycle. However, the Mexican government has largely curtailed the problem in the past five years, Brower said. As far as weather, a serious drought in Texas a couple years ago reduced the amount of flowers along the monarchs’ migration route. This is a problem because, in order to survive the migration, the butterflies need to pick up nectar along the way. And in 2014, an extra-long winter prevented monarchs from migrating successfully back to the United States from Mexico, Brower told the Washington Post. By far the biggest threat, though, is the lowered prevalence of milkweed, due to the increasing use of GMO crops that can withstand a heavy dose of herbicides, Brower said. Milkweed grows in and around crops such as corn and soybeans that are heavily concentrated in the U.S. Midwest. This is the monarch’s spring, summer and fall habitat, and milkweed serves as both the species’ primary food source and where its larvae grow. The problem is that, unlike the GMO crops in close proximity, the milkweed cannot withstand the herbicides. (Milkweed, like other weeds, can stifle crop yield, so farmers don’t like it.) Brower cautioned that there is not yet certain proof that the expansion of GMO crops is causing milkweed declines. But there is an \"extremely tight correlation\" among the increased use of herbicide-tolerant crops, fewer milkweed plants and the declining monarch population, he said. A 2012 study in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity estimated that between 1990 and 2010, milkweed prevalence declined 58 percent in Midwest agricultural areas. Over the same time frame, the Monarch population declined 81 percent. By 2011, 94 percent of soybean crops were genetically engineered to withstand the widely used herbicide Roundup, and 72 percent of corn crops were herbicide-tolerant. Both genetically modified crops were introduced in the mid 1990s. Additionally, a 2007 congressional ethanol mandate increased the price of corn and soybeans, which encouraged farmers to convert grassland -- where milkweed grows -- into cropland, said Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch and a professor of ecology at the University of Kansas. Some argue that conservationists and the media have placed too much blame on GMOs for the loss of monarchs, saying correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Andrew Kniss, a weed expert at the University of Wyoming, wrote in a blog post that the Insect Conservation and Diversity study does not specifically examine if the adoption of GMO crops and herbicides are the reason why milkweed is dying out. There could be another cause, he said. To back up his point, Kniss pointed to a study out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Pennsylvania State University that showed only limited effects of herbicide-tolerant plants -- and the use of herbicides -- on native plant diversity outside the border of the agricultural field. Our ruling DeFazio said that \"monarch butterflies are becoming extinct\" because of increased use of crops genetically modified to withstand pesticides. The evidence of a connection is suggestive but not conclusive. Monarch populations have been declining alongside a shrinkage in its primary food source -- milkweed -- and the increased use of crops genetically modified to withstand pesticides and herbicides. However, causation has not been established yet, and other culprits -- deforestation and unexpected weather events -- are likely to have played a role as well. Moreover, DeFazio exaggerated when he said that the butterfly species is \"becoming extinct.\" It faces significant challenges, but monarchs remain several steps away from extinction, and many conservationists think the trend can be mitigated. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. Claim: Monarch butterflies are becoming extinct\" because of increased use of crops genetically modified to withstand pesticides.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Minnesota Board of Animal Health said Wednesday it confirmed the results with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The state board already has quarantined the herd and begun its disease investigation. Board officials say they have 10 years of records on the registered herd, which has a good history of chronic wasting disease surveillance. The farm’s current herd inventory is seven adult white-tailed deer. The board will track movements of deer into and out of the herd within the last five years. Chronic wasting disease is fatal to deer and elk, and there are no known treatments or vaccines. Consuming infected meat is not advised. Claim: Chronic wasting disease found in buck on Winona County farm.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A video supposedly showing a piece of raw meat twitching its way off of a dinner table went viral in July 2019. This video was shared by several different outlets under a variety of captions, but most referred to it as the “zombie chicken” video:  The video first starting circulating on Chinese social media sites such as Weibo around June 2019. When the video reached English outlets about a week later, it was frequently accompanied by jokes about “zombie chicken.” However, when Hong Kong News covered this video on June 17, reporters identified the animal as a recently skinned frog. An early posting from the 笑一笑没烦恼 (Laugh, no worries) Facebook page also identified this “zombie” meat as frog. These sources don’t appear to have any first-hand knowledge of the incident, however, so we should take their claims with a grain of salt, too. Speaking of salt … This video shows an extremely fresh cut of meat. While this animal is certainly dead, it’s neurons are still active and seem to be reacting to sodium ion, a chemical compound that can be found in salt and soy sauce. When the Scientific American looked into a similar video back in 2011, they explained: When a creature dies, its neurons don’t stop working right away. So long as there is still enough energy around to maintain that membrane potential, the neurons will work. What you might have noticed is that in the case of the dancing dead, the cooks have added one key ingredient: salt (soy sauce is very salty). Salt — or sodium chloride — is chock full of sodium ions. This overwhelming dose of sodium ions is enough to trigger the still-working neurons into firing, signaling the muscles to contract. Scientific American was commenting on the following video from 2009. While the reaction in this footage is not as severe, it does show how salt can cause a raw piece of meat to twitch:  An article from Brain Stuff further explained why these dead animals appear to “dance” when salted: As you can see, the chef is preparing frog legs for dinner. He has skinned the frog legs and they are ready to be cooked. When he salts them, the muscles start twitching. The obvious question: why does that happen? Because these are fresh frog legs, the cells inside them are all still intact. The biochemical machinery still functions. There is still a source of energy for the muscles in the form of unused ATP molecules stored in the cells. All that the muscles need is something to activate them and they can still contract and relax (until they run out of ATP or something else shuts down the biochemical machinery)… In a living frog, it is a nerve signal from the brain that tells the muscle to contract. In this case, it is the sodium in the salt. While we have been unable to track down the exact origins of this video, this footage likely was filmed at a restaurant that practices ikizukuri, which is a method of preparing live seafood. This method of preparation is most commonly used with fish, but octopus, shrimp, lobster, and frogs can also be prepared this way. In 2012, a restaurant in Tokyo found itself in the path of protesters after a video showing the making of a live frog sashimi dish went viral. Here’s how Fox News described that video (which can be seen here): In the video, a large frog is stabbed, skinned, gutted and served up on an iced plate with a lemon slice and soy sauce. Though the frog is killed instantly by the chef’s knife, it takes a few agonizing minutes for the frog to stop moving. In those moments, you see the creature’s eyes blinking back at the camera while maudlin music plays in the background, and at points the frog flails its arms and flops around on the dish, while its heart is still beating. Although we can’t confirm many of the details about this “zombie chicken” “zombie frog” video, it certainly falls within the realm of plausibility. Claim: A video shows a piece of raw chicken meat \"twitching\" off of a dinner table. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 26 July 2016, Michigan cherry farmer Marc Santucci shared a post on Facebook asserting that he was forced to destroy 14 percent of his tart cherry crop in order to protect the market for cherries imported from overseas: These cherries are beautiful! But, we have to dump 14% of our tart cherry crop on the ground to rot. Why? So we can allow the import of 200 million pounds of cherries from overseas! It just doesn’t seem right. What do you think? Please share this on your Facebook page???. Just to let everyone know we are not allowed to donate or in any way use diverted cherries. I have people who would buy them if I could sell them. Also these are tart cherries with a very short shelf life Santucci’s post slowly circulated on the social network, attracting the attention of blogs and health-conscious social media users through September 2016. As presented, Santucci’s tale sounded like an unbelievable level of bureaucratic interference with the farm industry and left readers wondering whether his report about having to destroy 40,000 pounds of edible cherries in order to “make room” for imported cherries (and was “not allowed to donate or in any way use diverted cherries”) was accurate. Online articles pinned blame for the cherry-chucking on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), citing a 29 July 2016 Detroit Free Press article about the social media controversy that referenced the federal Agricultural Agreement Act of 1937. The Detroit Free Press article only briefly mentioned the USDA as a starting point for a very complex cherry charter, noting that cherries were originally not regulated under the Agricultural Agreement Act, but the cherry industry opted into its provisions in 1995. The act in question was introduced in 1937 due to tumultuous agricultural conditions that exacerbated the Great Depression and aimed to facilitate “orderly marketing conditions for agricultural commodities in interstate commerce” for the express purpose of stabilizing farmers’ income. Cherry industry experts stressed that the 1995 extension of the regulation to include the tart cherry market was voluntary and had been desired by many cherry farmers: At issue is a marketing order imposed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the federal Agricultural Agreement Act of 1937. But that law only applies to the tart cherry industry because growers and processors opted into the order in 1995. “It was created at the industry’s behest. It was voted in by growers and processors. It’s not an imposition from outside,” said Perry Hedin, executive director of the DeWitt-based Cherry Industry Administrative Board [CIAB], which oversees the marketing order not only in Michigan but in all states across the country that produce commercial crops of red tart cherries, including New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. Tart cherries are one of the most volatile crops grown in the U.S., with yields that can vary dramatically year to year, Hedin said. “This whole concept of the marketing order has two goals: to inject a better stability into our markets and improve grower returns,” he said. “The growers have been paid far better prices under the marketing order over the past 20 years than they were before the order was in place.” A 29 July 2016 editorial published  in the Michigan Farm News also addressed what it framed as multiple misrepresentations in Santucci’s viral post, starting with the reason cherry crops were thusly regulated. A horticulture specialist noted that the cherry farmers themselves (not the USDA) had sought market regulation after experiencing damaging price fluctuations: In a classic example of what happens on social media when people form opinions based on emotion instead of fact, a Northwestern Michigan tart cherry grower’s Facebook posting has gone viral, but with faulty information to back up the posting’s claims … The problem, however, said Kevin Robson, horticulture specialist with Michigan Farm Bureau, is that the information posted shows either shallow understanding of the federal marketing order or a deliberate attempt to change the order because of political disagreement. “It’s also enforced by the growers themselves,” he said. “It is for the betterment of the industry as a whole, and a great number of cherry growers have benefited, even those who voted against it.” Administered by the Cherry Industry Administrative Board (CIAB), the order this year required tart cherry processors to keep 29 percent (the farmer’s posting said he was ordered to dump only 14 percent) of the crop they handle off traditional markets (pies, sweetened desserts, etc.) in an attempt to stabilize both prices and supply, which in cherries has been notoriously volatile. “For example,” Reposing said, “in 1988, when the entity was called the Cherry Administrative Board, growers voted to eliminate the marketing order. Prices began to follow a rollercoaster that led, within 10 years, to tart cherry prices that fell into single figures. Some growers went out of business.” In response to prices that were below costs of production, tart cherry growers in seven states petitioned the USDA to put a new order and administrative board in place, and prices began to stabilize. Still, some growers, such as the one who posted the photo of a small pile of cherries, took exception to the order. Generally, the Agricultural Agreement Act ensures relatively stable income for tart cherry farmers in the face of a volatile market, with one of the drawbacks of that stability being that in boom crop years (as 2016 was), farmers may end up with a good deal of product they are precluded from selling on the open market. However, although some outlets claim CIAB heavies visited farms to ensure every cherry lies unchomped, tart cherry farmers have options beyond leaving their surplus crop to “rot in the sun”:  Processors’ options in times of surplus include holding the restricted cherries in surplus — frozen, dried or concentrated — for a later slow year. Farmers also can attempt to sell the surplus cherries in overseas markets or sell them domestically in a newly created market, either as a new product or by convincing a supermarket chain or other end user currently supplied by imported cherries to switch to U.S.-grown, he said. Hedin said Santucci could have worked with the [Cherry Industry Administrative] board to find a place to donate the surplus cherries, which typically aren’t eaten raw like sweet cherries because of their very short shelf-life, but are instead used in products such as pie filling and jams. Likewise, the Michigan Farm News piece stated that: Another misstatement on the Facebook posting, [horticulture specialist Kevin] Robson said, is that growers are not allowed to donate or use the dumped cherries “in any way.” “That’s just not true,” Robson said. “Farmers can use the cherries for research and development, and they could make thousands of cherry pies and donate them to charity if they want. Remember these are tart cherries. They need to be processed — and quickly — to make a viable product. They aren’t sweets that you just eat by the handful.” The Facebook posting wrongly puts the blame for cherry dumping on the marketing order, Robson said, when it is the processor who makes the decision to ask farmers to dump cherries. Santucci himself told Grand Rapids television station WXMI that the dumping of surplus cherries wasn’t expressly mandatory, but their short shelf life makes it difficult to find alternative uses for them: “I was just notified when we started shaking the trees that 14 percent would have to be kept off the market, so it didn’t give me time to find any alternative action,” he said, adding that tart cherries only have a two-day shelf life. It was true that Santucci’s 2016 crop was (as with that of all other cherry growers) subject to a growers’ agreement barring surplus cherries from the marketplace, and Santucci asserted he had insufficient time to properly divert his surplus cherries to other uses or markets. But the agreement under which the tart cherry market is regulated doesn’t mandate surplus cherries be destroyed, nor does the protocol exist to protect foreign imports. Cherry growers in several states voluntarily opted in to a USDA marketing agreement (rather than being forcibly regulated) following a period of instability in the cherry industry, and agriculture experts widely agree the provision provides more protection than harm to cherry growers. Claim: A Michigan farmer was forced to destroy 40,000 edible cherries to make way for cherries imported from outside the U.S.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since California college professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford came forward with sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump’s second U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, no shortage of rumors and hoaxes has targeted her. One of the many derogatory claims made against Dr. Ford is that she lied when she identified herself as a “research psychologist” during her Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on 27 September 2018. The claim originated with Dangerous.com, a website operated by right wing media personality Milo Yiannopoulos. In an article dated 28 September 2018, the site’s editor-in-chief, Chadwick Moore, reported that Ford “may have told a lie” and “may have perjured herself” when she said she was “a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine” because she didn’t appear to be licensed to practice in California. Thus, Dangerous.com reported, Dr. Ford was in violation of state laws forbidding the false representation of oneself as a psychologist:  Just one sentence into her sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford may have told a lie. After thanking members of the committee on Thursday, and while under oath, Ford opened her testimony saying, “My name is Christine Blasey Ford, I am a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.” The issue lies with the word “psychologist,” and Ford potentially misrepresenting herself and her credentials, an infraction that is taken very seriously in the psychology field as well as under California law. We found no evidence that Ford lied, perjured herself, or violated California law when she stated her job title. We also asked Moore whether he followed basic journalistic standards in reaching out the California Board of Psychology, consulting an attorney, or attempting to contact Ford’s attorneys before publishing his report but did not receive a response. Ford holds a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California, which she received on 20 August 1996. She also earned two master’s degrees: one in 1991 from Pepperdine University in clinical psychology, and the other in 2009 from Stanford University School of Medicine in epidemiology. Aside from her research role at Stanford, she is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University. But because Moore was unable to find Ford’s name listed on a public database of licensed psychologists in California, he concluded Ford had violated California Business and Professions Code section 2903 (a), which states that “No person may engage in the practice of psychology, or represent himself or herself to be a psychologist, without a license granted under this chapter, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.” The code does provide an exemption that would cover Ford as a university researcher, however. California Board of Psychology assistant executive officer Jeffrey Thomas told us that the title “psychologist” is indeed protected, meaning that it is against the law to falsely represent oneself as a psychologist without proper certification. But the law does allow those who work at research institutions to state their professional role so long as they note that it is specific to the facility at which they are employed. Thomas pointed us to California Business and Professions Code section 2909, which reads as follows: This chapter shall not be construed as restricting or preventing activities of a psychological nature or the use of the official title of the position for which they were employed on the part of the following persons, provided those persons are performing those activities as part of the duties for which they were employed, are performing those activities solely within the confines of or under the jurisdiction of the organization in which they are employed, and do not render or offer to render psychological services, as defined in Section 2903: (a) Persons who hold a valid and current credential as a school psychologist issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. (b) Persons who are employed in positions as psychologists or psychological assistants by accredited or approved colleges, junior colleges, or universities, or by federal, state, county, or municipal governmental organizations that are not primarily involved in the provision of direct health or mental health services, may conduct research and disseminate their research findings and scientific information. Moore noted that Ford’s job title on the web site for Stanford University School of Medicine appeared to have changed from “research psychologist” to “affiliate” at some point after the Kavanaugh controversy broke, adding to his suspicion that she had misrepresented herself. But it’s unclear whether his assumption was true that Stanford “caught the blunder and edited Ford’s faculty page.” (We reached out multiple times to Stanford media relations staff but received no answer.) However, Dr. Ford has been identified as a research psychologist in university literature as far back as 2003 and up to at least 10 September 2018. We have reached out to Ford’s attorneys, Debra Katz and Michael Bromwich, with questions about Ford’s employment status with Stanford, whether she has any clinical licenses in California under a different name or in any other state, or whether they could comment on allegations she “perjured” herself during her Senate committee testimony but have not yet received a response. However, perjury is defined as knowingly making false statements under oath, so it’s unclear how Ford’s relaying of a job title conferred upon her by her employer could possibly meet that criterion. After publication of this article, Dangerous.com erred yet again in attempting to explain away their previous mistake by claiming that California Business and Professions Code Section 2910 applied to Dr. Ford:  Moore also acknowledged Section 2909 in his original report, and pointed to the fact that the overwhelming majority of academics who do work of a psychological nature are not licensed, and this is perfectly fine and legal. But Moore pointed to the following section of the law, Section 2910 of the same Code, which reads, very explicitly, “This chapter shall not be construed to restrict the practice of psychology on the part of persons who are salaried employees of accredited or approved academic institutions, public schools, or governmental agencies, if those employees are complying with the following: (3) Do not hold themselves out to the public by any title or description of activities incorporating the words “psychology,” “psychological,” or “psychologist.”  Dangerous.com apparently failed to notice (or willfully ignored) that this section of the code specifically refers to, and regulates, the practice of psychology, not the use of the word “psychologist” in a job title. Section 2910 allows persons who are “salaried employees of accredited or approved academic institutions” to gain “the supervised professional experience required for licensure,” as long as that experience is “being accrued consistent with the board’s regulations,” and those persons “have as the primary supervisor a psychologist licensed in the state” and “do not hold themselves out to the public by any title … incorporating the word ‘psychology,’ ‘psychological,’ or ‘psychologist. '” In other words, Section 2910 establishes conditions under which budding psychologists employed by schools and government agencies may obtain practical experience on their way to becoming fully licensed psychologists. As Dr. Ford is a research psychologist who is not seeking a license and does not engage in the practice of psychology as part of her job duties, Section 2910 is not applicable to her situation or job title. We spoke with Antonette Sorrick, Executive Officer for the California Board of Psychology, who concurred with our analysis that Section 2909, not 2910, is the relevant section of code that applies to Dr. Ford’s situation. Claim: Christine Blasey Ford committed perjury by identifying herself as a 'research psychologist' in her Senate committee testimony.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: After several years of contentious debate, in 1845 the United States’ various political factions finally reached enough of a consensus to agree that the benefits of annexing Texas (nominally an independent republic ever since it had been wrested from Mexico after the decisive 1836 battle at San Jacinto, although neither Texas nor Mexico ever accepted the treaties signed a few weeks later) outweighed the pitfalls. As T.R. Fehrenbach noted in his history of Texas, the nascent republic was ill-suited to maintain itself as a sovereign nation, and the presence of such a tenuous political entity in the midst of North America posed a threat to the ambitions and interests of the United States:  Sam Houston’s republic was a struggling frontier community of less than forty thousand people; it was a series of plantations and farms carved out of the Southern forests along the river bottoms extending up from the Gulf, with an utterly colonial economy. Most Texans were subsistence farmers, with a little barter on the side. The planters exported their cotton against imported goods; the balance of trade was yet adverse. The largest towns were frontier outposts with mud streets and at most a few thousand assorted people. There was no money economy, nor any money. There were no banks or improved roads or organized schools. There was no industry — everything from pins to powder had to be imported from the United States. Over this sprawling community the government was only loosely organized . . . real government consisted primarily of sheriffs and justices of the peace. Texas barely approached the basic requirements for statehood. Texas blocked American expansion to the Pacific, and a weak, unstable nation on American borders invited penetration by still-ambitious European powers. The Monroe Doctrine could not by any stretch of the imagination keep British influence out, if Britain chose to fish in Texas waters. The primary stumbling block to Texas’ annexation by the U.S. was that the act was almost certain to provoke war with Mexico, an eventuality which came to pass with the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846. Nonetheless, although the U.S. Senate rejected an annexation treaty with Texas in 1844, it passed an annexation bill on 26 February 1845. Another contentious issue regarding the annexation of Texas by the United States remained, however: slavery. The admission of Texas to the Union posed the potential for upsetting the delicate political balance between free states and slave states. Not only would the annexation of Texas add another slave state to the U.S., but that state would be a vast chunk of territory — nearly four times as large as the then-largest state, Missouri — which would extend the slaveholding portion of the U.S. far beyond its current western boundary. Moreover, the northern portion of Texas intruded beyond the 36°30’N line of latitude which had been established as the demarcation point between free territory and slave territory by the 1820 Missouri Compromise (although the provisions of that compromise technically applied only to “all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana” and therefore did not encompass Texas). For their part, some southerners wanted to be able to carve additional slave states out of the huge Texas territory in order to counter the admission of free states and thereby maintain the balance of power between free and slave states in the Senate. The slavery issue (at the time, 90% of Texans were neither slaves nor slaveholders) was addressed in the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States, approved by Congress on 1 March 1845, which included a provision allowing Texas to be sub-divided into up to four more states with slavery being banned in states carved out of Texas territory north of the Missouri Compromise line and left up to popular sovereignty in states formed south of the line:  New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas and having sufficient population, may, hereafter by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution; and such states as may be formed out of the territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise Line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each State, asking admission shall desire; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory, north of said Missouri Compromise Line, slavery, or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited. Texas was officially admitted to the Union when President James K. Polk signed the Joint Resolution to Admit Texas as a State on 29 December 1845. The most likely possibility that Texas might be split into more than one state was headed off in 1850. California  (recently acquired by the U.S in the war with Mexico) had approved a free-state constitution and petitioned Congress for statehood; meanwhile, Texans were engaged in a border dispute, claiming that their territory included half of present-day New Mexico and part of Colorado. Had the boundary issue been decided in favor of Texas, southerners might have pushed to create a second state out of the larger Texas territory in order to balance California’s admission as a free state. The series of congressional bills collectively known as the Compromise of 1850 (temporarily) settled these troublesome issues by admitting California as a free state and giving Texas $10 million to relinquish its territorial claims, while the pro-slavery section supported these proposals in exchange for the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. The issue of the 36°30’N slavery demarcation line soon became moot when the Missouri Compromise was effectively repealed by the 1854 passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and explicitly ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision. Any real likelihood that Texas might be carved up into additional states was ended when Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, joined the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War, and was not formally re-admitted to the U.S. until after the 1865 ratification of the 13th amendment which abolished slavery throughout the jurisdiction of the United States. Although the provisions of the Texas Annexation document allowing for the creation of four additional states are popularly regarded as a unique curiosity today, they were largely superfluous. Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution already specifically provided for the formation of new states through the junction or division of existing states:  New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress. Claim: A clause in the document annexing Texas to the United States allowed for Texas to be divided into five different states.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Residents like Marina Ortiz listen out for the regular sound of the community recycling truck. Standing by her door, she rushes out into the street, bringing her food waste to the collectors. “When I cook I separate out the remains of the vegetables. The paper and cardboard I give to the collectors, and the food to the vegetables truck,” the 58-year-old housewife said. “The people from the municipality taught us and I’ve been doing it for years. They tell me that later all the waste is turned into earth.”  The municipality of La Pintana now collects 140 tons of plant waste from homes every week, far higher than comparable neighborhoods. That is despite the area having some of the worst socioeconomic indicators in Chile. There are few medical centers and almost no companies or major employers. The news that comes from the area is almost always related to drug trafficking, delinquency and violence. The poverty rate – at around 42% of the 177,000 inhabitants – is far above the national 17% average, a legacy of the area receiving poor families displaced from other richer parts of the capital during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship. “The people of La Pintana have been treated harshly by the state, with no services, no health facilities, no education. There are children in the street, crimes, a lot of inequality,” La Pintana mayor Claudia Pizarro told Reuters. “But this is one of the good things that exist in the community, and we’re a pioneer in this area. We have made efforts to be recognized as a community that takes care of the environment,” she added. Chile, already an environmental leader in Latin America for its use of renewable energy and creation of national parks, is looking to roll out further initiatives as it gears up to host the major COP25 global conference on climate change in December. These include reducing consumption of single-use plastics, trying to cut emissions and increasing the recycling rate. The environment ministry has recently set targets for the recycling of paper, plastics and glass. La Pintana, however, remains a stand-out case. “There is no one who has done this with the level of penetration and perfection that La Pintana has,” said Gonzalo Muñoz, an environmental ‘champion’ for the COP25 in Chile. “It’s surprising that other municipalities have not copied it.”   The process has an economic as well as an environmental benefit, since it reduces the amount of garbage residents send to the landfill, which charges to receive it. “We started in 2005 looking for a way to generate savings to reduce our spending on waste management,” said Felipe Marchant, head of La Pintana’s environmental management division. “It’s the biggest financial burden of the municipalities.”   Carol Valdebenito, an engineer who has worked as an environmental educator in the area for seven years, said it also  brought the community together. “The neighbors not only talk to us about environmental things, but about social issues, their problems and concerns,” she told Reuters as she walked alongside the green recycling truck through pot-holed streets roamed by groups of stray dogs. The trucks deposit the waste at a composting and vermiculture plant, where the garbage slowly transforms into piles of dark earth with a musty odor, full of long, pink worms that do a lot of the work processing the waste. This becomes fertilizer for the nearby municipal nursery, where trees are grown for the green areas of the community. The nursery also researches which species adapt best to climate change and dry weather. “That is the basic concept of what is called the circular economy,” said Marchant. Claim: In an impoverished Chilean suburb, a recycling drive flourishes.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The gel uses the drug tenofovir, sold under the name Viread by Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD.O). The study, released at a meeting of AIDS researchers in India, is a welcome piece of good news for the struggling field of microbicides. It involved 200 sexually active HIV-negative women in the United States and India. “The gel is safe to use, and well tolerated by HIV-negative women. That’s a key message in our findings,” said Dr. Craig Hoesley of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “This sets the stage for larger studies to see if tenofovir can prevent HIV infection.”    Microbicides are products, such as gels or creams, that can be applied vaginally or anally to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. Just last week a study showed one candidate, called Carraguard, did not protect women from infection. Two other potential microbicides have made women more likely to become infected — a spermicide called nonoxynol-9 and a product called Ushercell, made by Toronto, Canada-based Polydex Pharmaceuticals. The tenofovir product appears to be safe, said the research team, funded by the National Institutes of Health, found. It is the first potential microbicide to use a licensed AIDS drug. It was a phase II clinical trial designed to show safety, not that it was effective. “It is a critical time for all of us engaged in HIV prevention, and I truly believe we are turning a corner,” said Sharon Hillier of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who led the study. Women make up 46 percent of the 33.2 million people infected with the AIDS virus, according to the United Nations Agency UNAIDS. Hillier said it is not clear how long tenofovir stays in a woman’s vagina. “Currently, there are very  encouraging studies suggesting that even when tenofovir is gone from the vagina the drug itself is there in the vaginal tissue,” Hillier said in an  e-mail. “The important thing we learned is that covert use, or secret use, is not an important parameter for women, and that in fact we found that 12 percent of the women who used to the gel said it made sex more pleasurable and none of the women said that the gel made sex less pleasurable.”    Eighty percent of the women told to use gel within two hours of having sex said they had done so. “We asked women ‘How acceptable is this as a prevention option, is it too messy, is it a nuisance, and will you use it?’ Our study showed they will use it and they’re not bothered by the gel,” Hoesley said. Claim: Tests of New AIDS Gel Show Promise for Women.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Not applicable. Readers should know the lost cost of aspirin. The story said that aspirin users were 29% less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who used other types of pain relievers or nothing at all. But what was that baseline rate? It’s impossible for readers to judge the scope of the potential benefits when given just the 29% figure. 29% of what? All the story said was that aspirin “carries some side effects.” It never explained what they are nor how often they may occur. Even one additional line in the story could have done this. While the story explained that such a study can’t establish cause and effect, it nonethless still used language suggesting possible beneficial effects: www.healthnewsreview.org/tips-for-understanding-studies.php#tip4 The language used to describe observational studies is important to avoid misleading readers. And it doesn’t take much to make these changes. See our primer. The story also never addressed the limitations of drawing conclusions based on talks at scientific meetings, which have not undergone rigorous peer review. We have a primer on that topic as well. Not applicable only because the story really didn’t give any background on pancreatic cancer, so it couldn’t have disease mongered. No independent source is quoted. We’re really not given any context or background about pancreatic cancer in this short, 320-word story. And we certainly didn’t learn of any other research into ways to prevent pancreatic cancer. Not applicable. The availability of aspirin is not in question. We’re not given any context about whether this is the first and only research that looked at this question. It appears that the story was based solely on a news release, since the researcher quote comes from a news release. And no independent source is cited. Claim: Aspirin Linked to Lower Pancreatic Cancer Risk",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no discussion of the costs associated with prostate cancer screening. However, as the cessation of routine prostate cancer screening for men over the age of 75 was the new recommendation by the task force, cost is not really germane to the discussion. It might have been helpful to include some mention of the potential costs to screening older men and/or cost saving with cessation of screening older men. There are those that are going to interpret the recommendation against routine screening as a cost saving effort. The story outlined for readers that the benefits of routine screening for prostate cancer are uncertain. Without quantifying the frequency, the story mentioned the common side effects of treatment for prostate cancer. The story attempted to explain the conundrum of prostate cancer, prostate cancer treatment, and routine prostate cancer screening. It included numbers indicating that the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer is far in excess of the number who die of prostate cancer. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. It put the natural history of most prostate cancers into appropriate context. The story included comments from a number of individuals with relevant expertise. The story did not do an adequate job of indicating whether those quoted served on the recommendation task force other than for Ned Calonge, who was mentioned as chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force. The story was about the new recommendation regarding routine screening of men older than 75 years of age with PSA test;  the story presented arguments for and against the use of the test. The story mentioned that it was about routine screening of men for prostate cancer. As the story lead with \"The blood test that millions of men undergo each year\", it accurately indicated that this test is readily available. The story was reporting on the release of new guidelines from the US Preventive Services task force, and highlighted that these recommendations differ from the previous version in that they specify that the benefit of routine screening of men older than 75 years of age for prostate cancer is little to none while at the same time, the harms are moderate-to-substantial. Does not  rely exclusively on a press release as it includes numerous quotes from a variety of experts with differing view points. Claim: U.S. Panel Questions Prostate Screening",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: White House Coronavirus Task Force lead member Dr. Anthony Fauci was a widely familiar face throughout the coronavirus pandemic (due in part to what many perceived as a soberingly honest approach to the crisis), and by late March 2020, Fauci was rumored to have “predicted” a virus like COVID-19 and its ripple effects back in January 2017.So relatively candid was Fauci in daily coronavirus briefings that the media regularly raised concerns for his job security. On April 1 2020, The Atlantic published an editorial speculating that Fauci might be unceremoniously dismissed from his high-profile job over his tendency to honestly address the American public.Around the same time, numerous Twitter users made reference to Fauci predicting a Trump-era pandemic in 2017:Fauci is in on it. He knew it was coming. Was talking about this in 2017— Murph am I (@Optimurph_Prime) April 1, 2020Dr. Fauci in 2017, \"No doubt Trump will face surprise infectious disease outbreak\". https://t.co/kguFPV3Y6A— Jacqline Lee (@leejac424) April 1, 2020January 11, 2017“Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there is ‘no doubt’ Donald J. Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious disease outbreak during his presidency.”— 2020 Climate Referendum C Ettinger (@lowerthetemp) April 1, 2020And how exactly did Dr. Fauci know in 2017?? pic.twitter.com/Uhg4vQ8guN— Grumpy's AF Brat (@shannonschoono) April 1, 2020Over on Reddit’s r/conspiracy, the claim appeared in the form of a screenshot (with yellow highlighting) on March 25 2020:Fauci: ‘No doubt’ Trump will face surprise infectious disease outbreak…. said it 2017!!! from conspiracyThe text of the screenshot are transcribed below, with the highlighted portions marked in bold text:Fauci: ‘No doubt’ Trump will face surprise infectious disease outbreak January 11, 2017Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there is “no doubt” Donald J. Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious disease outbreak during his presidency.Fauci has led the NIAID for more than 3 decades, advising the past five United States presidents on global health threats from the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s through to the current Zika virus outbreak.During a forum on pandemic preparedness at Georgetown University, Fauci said the Trump administration will not only be challenged by ongoing global health threats such as influenza and HIV, but also a surprise disease outbreak.“The history of the last 32 years that I have been the director of the NIAID will tell the next administration that there is no doubt they will be faced with the challenges their predecessors were faced with,” he said.That person did not elaborate on why they shared the screenshot to r/conspiracy, but overall interacted a great deal on COVID-19 related Reddit threads.The screenshot showed a January 11 2017 item published by healthcare news aggregator Healio.com. The text shown in the screenshot was accurately represented, and the piece continued with commentary from other experts on infectious disease:Ronald Klain, who coordinated the U.S.’s Ebola response for the Obama administration, said Trump’s virtual silence about the Zika outbreak and harsh comments about American volunteers infected during the West African Ebola outbreak is “not the kind of leadership we need in our next president.”“It’s hard to think of a more important time to show a willingness to speak out in the public health community and the global health community than it is right now on the eve of Donald Trump becoming our next president,” Klain said. “The risks have never been higher, and the question of his perspective on these issues has never been more dubious than it is with Donald Trump.”Fauci and others noted some of the disease outbreaks that recent administrations have faced, including current President Barack Obama, whose administration was tested early on with an H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009. More recently, the administration was forced to repurpose almost $600 million in federal funds set aside for the Ebola outbreak when Republicans rejected Obama’s request for $1.9 billion to fund the nation’s Zika response.The reporting concluded with additional commentary attributed to Fauci in January 2017, first about the Zika virus, and then “the things we are not even thinking about.” Fauci’s primary emphasis appeared to be the recurring nature of pandemics in general:Near the end [of the pandemic preparedness conference], Fauci speculated about the possibility that there will be a resurgence of Zika this summer … Fauci said other concerns for the Trump administration include the potential for a new influenza pandemic and outbreaks of diseases that are not yet on anyone’s radar.“What about the things we are not even thinking about?” he said. “No matter what, history has told us definitively that [outbreaks] will happen because [facing] infectious diseases is a perpetual challenge. It is not going to go away. The thing we’re extraordinarily confident about is that we’re going to see this in the next few years.”A February 2017 Healio.com item in “Infectious Disease News” was similar in content and tone. Several portions of the separate report matched the earlier one verbatim.On January 12 2017, Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) published a brief on Fauci’s remarks two days before on pandemic preparedness. It explained the purpose of the event at which Fauci spoke about the threat of pandemics:As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, Anthony S. Fauci, MD, has worked with five presidents who all faced pandemics early in their presidencies. At “Pandemic Preparedness in the Next US Presidential Administration,” a gathering of students and global health experts from academia, government and advocacy at Georgetown on [January 10 2017], Fauci and other global health leaders encouraged the incoming Trump administration to plan accordingly.“If there’s one message that I want to leave with you today based on my experience, it is that there is no question that there will be a challenge to the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases,” Fauci said.The event was organized by the Center for Global Health Science and Security (GHSS) at Georgetown University Medical Center in partnership with the Harvard Global Health Institute.Fauci was one of several experts quoted in the coverage of the pandemic-related presentation, but he was the only one appearing nightly on television screens during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Others quoted in reporting on the talk tended to emphasize the same points — that when it comes to pandemics, it was less a matter of “if” than “when”:Realizing that a pandemic is inevitable is a significant first step that the incoming Trump administration can take towards improving pandemic preparedness. “No matter how much an administration believes and wants to believe that the secretary of health and human services and other members of the cabinet on the domestic side will be totally focused on a domestic agenda, something will happen at an unexpected point that will change that thinking,” said Bill Steiger, PhD, chief program officer at Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, an international organization dedicated to fighting women’s cancers. “So you might as well prepare for that from the beginning.”Trump wasn’t the only president discussed by those epidemiology experts. Although Fauci’s remarks addressed a then-incoming Trump administration, he lamented a months-long wait for Zika outbreak funding requested in February and granted in September 2016:Setting up a funding mechanism to pay for pandemic response in advance is another critical step the Trump administration can take to prepare for a pandemic, said Amy E. Pope, JD, deputy assistant to the president and deputy homeland security advisor on the National Security Council staff at the White House. There are resources that can be quickly deployed when a community is devastated by a hurricane but not a pandemic, Pope said. “That means we are negotiating with Congress every time we need resources to address an emerging infectious disease and you all know that is a terrible way to do business and does not leave us in a very safe place,” she said.Fauci faced that situation during [2016]’s Zika outbreak. “We need [a public health emergency fund] because of what we had to go through for Zika,” he said. “I mean, it was very, very painful when the president asked for the $1.9 billion in February [2016] and we didn’t get it until September [2016]. That was a very painful process.”Fauci’s excerpted January 2017 commentary was in no way unique; preparing for pandemics before they manifested was a recurring topic whenever Fauci (and other public health experts) was quoted. In November 2018, Fauci once again banged the drum in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presentation, citing several examples of inefficient investment of time and money in “chasing after” new strains:Fauci explained that when influenza pandemics occur, post hoc development of vaccines is often ineffective in response to the pandemic. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, for example, the first human outbreak occurred in March and began to spread worldwide by April. Egg-based vaccines take approximately 6 months to develop and produce, so public health officials presumed that the vaccine would be ready by the typical peak of influenza season in December and January. The vaccine was barely available when the pandemic peaked, and by the time vaccine doses were finally ready to administer, the pandemic had waned; only 90 million doses were used out of the 162 million doses that were produced.Fauci said that the current vaccinology practice of “chasing after” prepandemic influenza is costly and ineffective. For example, influenza experts projected that the 2005 H5N1 outbreak would be a major event, and the United States president at that time requested $7.1 billion for pandemic preparedness, including the development of a vaccine; however, the outbreak never reached the pandemic level in humans. In 2013, significant investment was channeled into developing, producing, and stockpiling a vaccine for the H7N9 strain. However, the H7N9 virus circulating by 2017 had mutated, and the 2013 vaccine no longer provided adequate protection. This required developers to start chasing prepandemic influenza vaccines anew. Fauci argued that the large investments would be better invested in efforts to develop a universal vaccine rather than strain-specific ones.Fauci’s January 2017 Georgetown University keynote speech was cited in the May 2017 National Academies book Global Health and the Future Role of the United States, as was a 2012 paper he co-authored in the New England Journal of Medicine. Once again, Fauci et. al. emphasized the “perpetual” challenge of pandemic preparedness, and once again he cited pandemics from previous administrations:By virtue of their unpredictability and global effect, infectious diseases remain a perpetual challenge for the global community (Fauci and Morens, 2012). Since 1997, each U.S. presidential administration has been faced with an emerging or reemerging infectious disease that assumed high political priority, including HIV/AIDS, H5N1 influenza, SARS, MERS-CoV, Ebola, and Zika (Fauci, 2017).Fauci’s long view of presidents and pandemics is reflected in his National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID) biography, which begins:Dr. Fauci was appointed Director of NIAID in 1984. He oversees an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat established infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and malaria as well as emerging diseases such as Ebola and Zika. NIAID also supports research on transplantation and immune-related illnesses, including autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies. The NIAID budget for fiscal year 2020 is an estimated $5.9 billion.Dr. Fauci has advised six Presidents on HIV/AIDS and many other domestic and global health issues. He was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has saved millions of lives throughout the developing world.A March 8 2020 profile of Fauci in the New York Times is featured on that page (“Not His First Epidemic: Dr. Anthony Fauci Sticks to the Facts”), and in February 2017, Fauci himself wrote a reflection on his January 2017 pandemic presentation, explaining his work on pandemics across six presidential administrations, and concluding:If history has taught us anything, it is that the new [then-incoming Trump] administration is likely to experience at least one infectious disease crisis of significance. We have learned from the past decades that it is important to have strong global surveillance systems; transparency and honest communication with the public; strong public health and health care infrastructure, or capacity building efforts where needed; coordinated and collaborative basic and clinical research; and the development of universal platform technologies to enable the rapid development of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics. We also have learned that it is essential to have a stable and pre-established funding mechanism to utilize during public health emergencies similar to a FEMA-like emergency disaster fund. What we know for certain is that emerging infections will continue to be a perpetual challenge, requiring the attention of all Presidents to come.To be clear, it was absolutely true Dr. Anthony Fauci “predicted” a pandemic occurring during the Trump administration, as part of a January 10 2017 keynote speech about pandemic preparedness at Georgetown University. Fauci’s regular appearance at White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings and the singling out of his remarks on one occasion inadvertently created the impression that Fauci only said such things on one occasion, or that his prediction was specific to Trump. In reality, Fauci regularly warned of coming pandemics, a lack of preparedness for them, and the difficulty in preparing for viruses like SARS-nCoV-2 in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak. His pleas for more robust government response to the threat were frequent, perhaps emphasized by his 2017 warnings going unheeded until the COVID-19 pandemic was well underway. And while we’ve rated this True, the claim could also be rated also Decontextualized due to sloppy and selective presentation. Claim: In January 2017, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted a serious pandemic during U.S. President Donald Trump's tenure in office.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a statement after a two-day visit by WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who met Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as the health and foreign ministers, it said that a better understanding of the virus’ ability to spread from person to person was urgently needed to advise other countries. “The discussions focused on continued collaboration on containment measures in Wuhan, public health measures in other cities and provinces, conducting further studies on the severity and transmissibility of the virus, continuing to share data, and for China to share biological material with WHO,” the WHO said. This would contribute to developing vaccines and treatments. “The two sides agreed that WHO will send international experts to visit China as soon as possible to work with Chinese counterparts on increasing understanding of the outbreak to guide global response efforts,” the WHO added, without giving a time frame. Xi said earlier on Tuesday that China was sure of defeating the “devil” coronavirus that has killed 106 people, spread across the world and rattled financial markets. Tedros can reconvene the WHO Emergency Committee on very short notice as needed, to consider whether the outbreak constitutes an international emergency, the WHO said in the statement, which made no reference to evacuations of foreigners that both sides say were discussed in the Beijing talks. The WHO’s independent panel met twice last week, but declined to declare a global emergency. Claim: China agrees to WHO sending experts to study virus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no mention of costs in this story although the costs of some antihypertensive drugs can be moderately high. Neither did the story disclose that study participants received vouchers for monthly haircuts as well as a small monetary payment to offset the costs of drugs and transportation as enticements to continue with the program, information that was contained in the journal paper but excluded in the story. Regardless, we don’t believe that information is that important to readers in this case so we’ll rate this category as non-applicable. The story clearly states that men in the intervention group experienced a much greater reduction in their blood pressure readings as compared to the control group. It included this quantified statement, “It turned out that, when the guidance was coupled with medication, a blood pressure level of less than 130/80 was achieved among 63.6% of men who participated in the study’s program, versus 11.7% of those who didn’t.” This was a tough one to rate. On one hand, It is hard to envision harms arising from men participating in what appeared to be a safe screening and treatment program for high blood pressure. On the other, the journal paper about this study reported that three individuals experienced acute kidney injury, although that problem disappeared once medications were altered. So, there are risks, and the story would have been stronger had it included them. This was a strong point of the story. It explains that the research compared the results of an interventional group with those of a control group of matched participants and barber shops. It also points out several limitations to the study which readers can consider when evaluating the worth of this research. No disease mongering here. The story includes comments from both a barber-participant in the study and a researcher unconnected to this project. We did not detect any conflicts of interest that should have been disclosed. The story explained the alternative–not receiving special help at the barbershop–and what the outcomes were. It also discussed similar past efforts to help black men at risk of colon cancer. Perhaps more could have been said about the effectiveness rates of other public health programs, but we feel this wasn’t critical. The story makes clear that this research was conducted in the Los Angeles area and cautions that a national study would be needed to show the approach’s applicability in other locales. Readers would not assume that this kind of health care assistance was available in black-owned barber shops elsewhere. The story does a good job discussing this study in the context of previous research, which has involved the use of barber shops and beauty salons as places where patrons might be receptive to health messages. This does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: How barbershops could help lower blood pressure",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The police union in Hollywood has launched a high-profile battle in an effort to oust Chief Frank Fernandez, and they have literally taken their message to the sky. In March, the Police Benevolent Association floated a banner from an airplane that flew over the beach and downtown that declared, \"Hollywood a high crime area. Thanks Chief Fernandez!\" Then on April 15, the PBA posted a billboard on Pembroke Road that stated: \"Hollywood is #1 in Broward homicides in 2013. Thanks Chief Fernandez!\" We decided to investigate whether the homicide statistic is accurate and if Fernandez can be blamed for it. Hollywood police department battles To understand the backdrop of the billboard requires a bit of history about the years of feuds between city officials and police union leaders in this city of 145,000. In 2011, the city declared financial urgency and cut officers’ pay, which led to protests from the union and officer turnover. Fernandez became the city’s assistant city manager overseeing public safety in 2012 and chief in 2013, and he’s been tasked with trying to turn around the long-troubled department. Though Hollywood has a popular beach front that draws tourists and snowbirds, it’s also had some famous scandals in recent years. In 2007, a handful of officers convicted in a scheme that included selling heroin to undercover agents posing as mobsters. (The chief at the time was accused of leaking information about the probe before the arrests, forcing the FBI to bring it to a close prematurely.) A separate group of officers drew national attention in 2009 after one of them crashed into a vehicle, and video captured employees saying they would \"do a little Walt Disney\" to protect the officer and doctor a police report. News reports in the Sun-Sentinel indicate Fernandez has had some success: He has increased recruiting, made physical improvements to the police station and brought a close to contract negotiations. Fernandez also brought in outside consultants to audit the agency, and they found problems with its use-of-force policy, missing internal affairs files and forgotten rape kits, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The union disputes the audit and says it was written by a hired consultant tasked with finding fault. The billboard is the latest round in the battle between the police union and city leaders who say it’s just another ploy. Hollywood crime statistics Jeff Marano, president of the police union, sent us Hollywood crime statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The data showed homicides in the city rose from five in 2012 to 16 in 2013. A spokeswoman for the city didn’t dispute the numbers but said they come with some caveats. First, the homicides were either drug- or gang-related or domestics, Raelin Storey said. \"There were not random acts of murder taking place in the city of Hollywood,\" she said. The reasons behind the homicides aren’t the point, Marano said. \"A homicide is a homicide,\" he said. \"It’s a dead person.\" Assessing whether the number of homicides placed Hollywood in the No. 1 slot in Broward was more complicated because statewide data for 2013 hasn’t been published yet. (Marano said he determined Hollywood was the highest by speaking with a Hollywood homicide detective who speaks with his counterparts at other departments.) So we decided to do our own research and contact law enforcement agencies in Broward County to ask them to supply the number of homicides in their city in 2013. We mostly focused our search on the larger cities or the ones that had more than five homicides in 2012. The results: Hollywood: 16 Fort Lauderdale: 13 Pompano Beach: 8 Lauderhill: 6 Lauderdale Lakes: 5 Oakland Park: 5 Miramar: 4 Pembroke Pines: 0 We did not find any city that had a higher number of homicides than Hollywood in Broward. Not surprisingly, the city pointed to statistics that give residents a more favorable impression of safety in their city. The data from FDLE showed other serious offenses, which include sexual assaults, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and larceny and motor vehicle thefts. In total, those offenses dropped 13 percent in Hollywood in 2013. FDLE data showed that the crime rate dropped from 5,869 in 2012 to 5,050.9 in 2013. Experts pick apart union’s billboard We sent the union’s statement and the city’s recent murder statistics to a few criminologists. Several experts told us that when examining small numbers from one year to the next, a jump can appear significant even when it’s not. To draw meaningful conclusions requires looking at several years of data and examining the nature of the homicides. \"Homicides are rare events in Hollywood, and as such the rates can bounce around quite a bit,\" said James Lynch, chair of the criminology department at the University of Maryland and former director of the federal government’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. We asked Marano to explain why the union pinned the number of homicides on the chief. Marano cited the chief’s \"poor leadership\" and deployment of officers, specifically \"not enough officers assigned to street level crimes.\" But the experts we interviewed rejected the idea that the chief was to blame for the number of murders in one year. \"Let’s assume the facts are correct,\" said Robert Friedmann, a professor emeritus of criminal justice at Georgia State University. \"So does that mean blame chief for it? Unless the chief is the one who shoots the people, I would say absolutely not.\" While there are steps police departments can take in an effort to reduce crime, there are several factors -- including neighborhood and economic conditions and drug and gang activity -- that influence the number of murders in a city in a given year. Those conditions are entirely or largely out of the control of the police, said Ronald L. Akers, a criminology professor at the University of Florida. \"We like to attribute declines in crime rates in a community to good police work, but there is not strong evidence to support that,\" Akers said. \"Similarly, one may want to attribute increases in crime to bad police work or an ineffective police department, but again, where is the evidence to support that? What have the police done any differently in 2013? What if the number of murders come down again in 2014?\" Our ruling The police union’s billboard states, \"Hollywood is #1 in Broward homicides in 2013. Thanks Chief Fernandez!\" Hollywood had 16 homicides in 2013, and we could not find any city that had any more homicides than Hollywood. While the number is correct, the union cherry-picked crime statistics to find one that puts the city in the worst light. At this point, we have no idea if the number is part of a trend or an aberration. We also know that overall, crime decreased. The billboard places the blame on Chief Fernandez, but criminologists say the chief can’t be blamed for the number of murders, especially when it is such a small number. Claim: Hollywood is #1 in Broward homicides in 2013. Thanks Chief Fernandez!",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The state Department of Public Health said Friday the latest case is in a “school-aged child” from Fairfield County. The child contracted measles earlier this month and was not infectious while at school. It is not connected to three previously confirmed cases in Connecticut reported in January and April. Health Commissioner Renée Coleman-Mitchel said the best protection against the highly contagious disease is vaccination. New data released this week showed immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella among kindergarten students in Connecticut has continued to decline in more schools. Democratic State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, who supports eliminating the state’s religious exemption for immunizations, said Friday it is imperative the state increase vaccination rates. Claim: Connecticut confirms 4th case of measles.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Claims about possums and ticks are mostly true — but the amount of ticks one possum kills in a week has been skewed. An “Awesome Possum” meme, as it has become known, was posted at the image-sharing community website FunnyJunk.com in mid-March. Within days, it had been shared thousands of times on Facebook, and the legend of the Awesome Possum was born: INSERT PIC The idea is that even though possums are scary looking scavengers that prowl in the night for animal carcasses to feed on, they actually serve an important purpose: preventing the spread of Lyme disease by “hoovering up and killing” up to 4,000 ticks a week, each. As it turns out, there’s scientific evidence to support the “Awesome Possum” claim. It comes from Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y. The Cary Institute reports: And now ecologists have learned something else about opossums. They’re a sort of magnet when it comes to riding the world of black-legged ticks, which spread Lyme disease. “Don’t hit opossums if they’ve playing dead in the road,” said Richard Ostfeld, of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y. Ostfeld is forest ecologist and an expert on the environmental elements of infectious diseases like Lyme disease. Several years ago, scientists decided to learn about the part different mammals play in the spread of the ticks and the disease. They tested six species — white-footed mice, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums and veerys and catbirds — by capturing and caging them, and then exposing each test subject to 100 ticks. What they found, is that of the six, the opossums were remarkably good at getting rid of the ticks — much more so that any of the others. “I had no suspicion they’d be such efficient tick-killing animals,” Ostfeld said. Indeed, among other opossum traits, there is this: They groom themselves fastidiously, like cats. If they find a tick, they lick it off and swallow it. (The research team on the project went through droppings to find this out. All praise to those who study possum poop.) Extrapolating from their findings, Ostfeld said, the team estimated that in one season, an opossum can kill about 5,000 ticks. So, it’s true that ticks are very good at removing and eating ticks — but not quite as good as the Awesome Possum meme claims. Researchers estimated that one possum could kill about 5,000 ticks in one season — not 4,000 ticks in one year. And the idea that possums stop the spread of Lyme disease is based on a simple cause-and-effect theory: possums help stop the spread of Lyme disease by killing ticks, which carry the disease. That’s why we’re calling this one mostly true. Comments Claim:  Opossums stop the spread of Lyme disease because they kill up to 4,000 ticks a week. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2020, as debate continued in the U.S. about the need to keep social-distancing restrictions in place to limit the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, a popular social media post cited an 1866 legal precedent that supposedly precluded governments from using a state of emergency (such as a pandemic) as a reason for restricting individuals’ rights to freely travel or earn a living:  The social media post (a lengthier version of which can be found here) read as follows: This is NOT an opinion. This was the ruling of The United States Supreme Court shortly after the “civil war” in Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866) which yet stands to this day: “Neither the legislature nor any executive or judicial officer may disregard the provisions of the constitution in case of emergency …” ”Section 98 therefore, ANYONE who declares the suspension of constitutionally guaranteed rights (to freely travel, peacefully assemble, earn a living, freely worship, etc.) and or attempts to enforce such suspension within 50 independent, sovereign, continental United States of America is making war against our constitution(s) and, therefore, we the people. They violate their constitutional oath and, thus, immediately forfeit their office and authority and their proclamations may be disregarded with impunity and that means ANYONE; even the governor and President.” However, the cited case, Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866), was a Civil War-era case about an Indiana resident named Lambdin P. Milligan who was arrested in 1864 by order of a military commander, tried by a military commission, and sentenced to death. Milligan contended that as he was not serving in the U.S. military, was not a prisoner of war, and was not living in a part of the U.S. that was in rebellion against the federal government, the U.S. military had no jurisdiction to arrest, try, and sentence him. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with him that it was unconstitutional for civilians to be tried by military tribunals while civil courts and authority were still functioning. The Milligan case has no real relevance to the issue of whether federal, state, or local governments may impose mandatory temporary restrictions on movement and travel and business operations in order to deal with emergencies, such as pandemics. Moreover, the quoted material cited in the post was not part of the Milligan decision (obviously no mid-19th century source would make reference to the U.S. having 50 states), nor part of any valid court ruling or law that we could find. (What source the cited “Section 98” refers to remains a mystery to us.) Moreover, states have previously used police powers to protect the health, safety, and welfare of persons within their borders and to control the spread of disease within their borders, including enforcing the use of isolation and quarantine. Such powers have been upheld in other legal rulings, such as Jacobsen v. Massachusetts — a 1905 Supreme Court case affirming the legal right of state legislatures to pass laws mandating use of smallpox vaccine by residents — which held that state governments may enact “reasonable regulations” in order to “protect the public health and safety” so long as those regulations do not conflict with federal constitutional authority: Claim: The 1866 \"Ex parte Milligan\" precludes states from enforcing regulations that prevent residents from freely traveling or earning a living.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although the hair test is far from ready for any practical, clinical use, the story speculates that it could be a tool to identify children at risk. If it’s not too soon to make such predictions, it’s not too soon to give readers an idea of what the test might cost. The magnitude of the correlation or association between cortisol and traumatic events was not mentioned, and it is very small. As per the scientific article, the history of traumatic events accounts for only 5 to 13% of the variance in the cortisol levels; the biggest effect on those levels was male or female sex, with boys having about two times higher levels than girls. So many, many other factors are influencing cortisol levels besides these reports of traumatic events. None were mentioned. The other side of the early identification/screening coin is that labeling a child with a mental illness early on and with minimal evidence also has adverse effects with regards to self-image and development. The worst problem with this article is that it makes the classic mistake of jumping to the conclusion that because of the association found, the cortisol test may be used to predict future disease. This goes far beyond the data and we cringed at the headline. The sample size (14 boys and 56 girls) is far too small to even suggest this has some hope of being a diagnostic or screening test. The study authors even admit in their paper that the sample is disappointingly small and a lot more work has to be done to prove the hair-cortisol test’s veracity. The sample included mostly girls because they tended to have more hair to snip from. We also question how good the reported history of traumatic events is, in that it is based on questionnaires to parents. As is a problem for all retrospective studies like this, memories are not perfect, and we would think that some parents would be reluctant to reveal some types of trauma such as physical abuse, witnessing of domestic abuse, and sexual abuse. There’s a big difference between those types of trauma and, for example, moving one’s home or having a skateboard accident and breaking your ankle (or worse). Also, the scientific article notes that no correlation was found with current depressive symptoms and the hair cortisol level, which may not bode well for their overall theory that the cortisol may predict future mental health problems. None. There are no conflicts of interest as determined from the authors’ disclosures in the published study. But the story quotes only the first author of the study in the article, and would have done well to get opinions of the work from at least one independent source. It’s pretty unfortunate that the story did not get an outside perspective, given the nature of the article and its claims. Alternatives to testing cortisol levels in hair were mentioned — as in saliva and blood. Alternatives regarding ways to identify children at risk would seem to abound and likely explain much more than any lab test ever will. For example, kids who come from homes where they aren’t provided with adequate food, from parents with mental health problems, etc. (sociological/environmental variables). We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here but it’s really only a partial Satisfactory. Again, since the story speculates aggressively about the clinical usefulness of this test, we’d like to see some information about how widely available it is. Is this a highly specialized test available only to researchers? Could consumers request such tests from any lab? Such context is important to help readers understand the impact of this research. The news article didn’t give any idea of how novel the research is. Apparently from the scientific article, no prior studies have tried to look at history of past traumatic events and correlate with cortisol levels. Even the hair test, as late as 2016, is described as “relatively new” by the researchers, especially in kids (hair tests for cortisol in adults go back quite a few years). Other background with regard to studies using hair and cortisol and mental illness were reviewed in the scientific article and the Guardian story might have provided a bit more background. We couldn’t find any evidence of any news release about this study. However, because there are no independent sources quoted, we can’t be sure that the story didn’t rely on such a news release that we weren’t able to find (e.g. one that may have been emailed to reporters). The best the story can score here is Not Applicable. Claim: Cortisol levels in children's hair may reveal future mental health risk",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Odd new inventions and commercial products are a frequent source of attention-grabbing news headlines, especially if they stretch credibility. That was the case in 2017, when news outlets around the world reported on Jiftip, an adhesive band designed to offer men an alternative to condoms during sex. In August 2017, Inked published an article with the headline “Teens seal their penis holes closed to avoid using condoms!”  At some point after this, probably thanks to the headline of the Inked article, the rumor mutated from an adhesive product into do-it-yourself territory, prompting a flurry of concerned e-mails to us: Apparently teens are now super glue-ing their urethras shut to avoid using condoms. I hope this is fake! I saw an article on Facebook that was so outrageous I feel it had to be wrong. It states that teens are gluing their penises shut to avoid using condoms. TEENS SEAL THEIR PENIS HOLES CLOSED TO AVOID USING CONDOMS! In August 2016, the Hong Kong-registered Sumina Global Limited registered “Jiftip” as a trademark in the United States. Some 18 months earlier, a businessman named Momo Sumina — whose LinkedIn profile lists him as Sumina Global’s marketing director — applied for a United States patent for “seminal and urinary fluid emission arresting devices, systems, and methods of using the same.” This was a new version of his 2014 application for an invention that Sumina billed as “Urethra Shield — Alternative to the Male Condom”:  In the 2016 patent application, Sumina wrote: A fluid emission arresting device is provided. In some embodiments, the fluid emission arresting device may comprise: a barrier layer made of a flexible material which may comprise a generally planar exterior surface and a generally planar interior surface. An adhesive layer may be applied to the interior surface of the barrier layer and may be configured to attach to the glans of the penis to position the barrier layer over the urethra opening to block fluid from exiting the urethra opening. In further embodiments, once the device is attached to the penis over the urethra opening, the barrier layer may prevent fluid from exiting the urethra so that the urethra may function as a fluid reservoir. United States Patent Office records suggest that the patent application has not been granted as of June 2018. In 2017, Sumina Global posted a short instructional video on how the adhesive device is purported to work:  The Jiftip web site features a shopping cart, where users can — at least in theory — purchase three Jiftip strips for $9, or ten for $24. Before completing an order, customers must agree to the following terms and conditions: While the web site now features repeated emphatic disclaimers about the safety (or otherwise) of using Jiftip (calling it a “backup for your pullout”) the makers of the product previously made bold claims about the safety of using the adhesive to have sex without a condom, variously promoting Jiftip with the slogans “Bareback sex without the worry” and “feeling and freedom of raw sex is safe now.” Sumina, in his original 2014 patent application, billed his invention as an “alternative to the male condom.” The Jiftip web site now stresses the opposite: “Is Jiftip a condom alternative? NO! It’s a sexual pleasure enhancement device.”   The device certainly exists, as the detailed patent application and instructional videos make clear, and the online store embedded in the Jiftip web site would also suggest that the product is for sale. However, we could find no evidence, beyond the web site itself, of anyone actually having bought a pack of the adhesives. Despite the fact that Jiftip is such a novelty and has prompted global headlines and giggling coverage on countless radio talk shows, we were unable to find a single Facebook or Twitter post or photo by a member of the public who had decided to experiment with the widely-publicized product or signed up as a beta tester, nor have we found any product reviews written by journalists or published on consumer web sites. The product is not available for purchase on Amazon, eBay, or Google. The Jiftip web site itself features two comments from men who present themselves as having either used or ordered the product. We asked the makers of Jiftip for some figures relating to sales and beta-testing signups, as well as possible plans for future retail marketing, but we did not receive a response in time for publication. While Jiftip does exist, the prevalence of its usage appears to have been greatly exaggerated in some news reports, and there is absolutely no evidence that “teens” are opting for it at all, much less at a higher rate than their older counterparts, which is probably a good thing. Claim: In 2017 and 2018, teenage boys widely purchased and used a urethra-covering adhesive band called the Jiftip.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Authorities this week said they were investigating 27 cases of infection after rumors on social media suggested the outbreak could be linked to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The World Health Organization said it was aware of the reports, is monitoring the situation and is in contact with the Chinese government about it. “Investigations are still being carried out and authorities cannot yet confirm what pathogen is causing this illness,” said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic. He added that there are several  potential causes of viral pneumonia, many of which are more common than SARS. Chinese municipal health officials in Wuhan said in a statement on their website on Friday that they had ruled out common respiratory diseases, such as influenza, bird flu and adenovirus infection, as the cause. Eleven of those infected were in critical condition and the rest stable, they said, adding that all had been isolated and doctors were observing 121 people with whom they had been in close contact. Clean-up efforts at a seafood market where some victims were vendors have been completed, the city officials said, adding that no obvious human-to-human transmission had been seen and no medical staff had been infected. On Friday, Singapore’s health ministry said it would begin temperature screening on passengers arriving on flights from Wuhan. In 2003, Chinese officials covered up a SARS outbreak for weeks before a growing death toll and rumors forced the government to reveal the epidemic, apologize and vow full candour regarding future outbreaks. The disease, which emerged in southern China late in 2002, spread rapidly to other cities and countries in 2003. More than 8,000 people were infected and 775 died. Wuhan police this week said they had summoned eight people who “posted and forwarded false information online, causing adverse social impact”. Claim: China seeks to identify cause of mystery pneumonia infecting 44.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cass County, which includes Fargo, leads the state with 1,032 positive COVID-19 tests, including 43 new cases reported by health officials on Friday. Burgum last week assigned a task force to spearhead new testing, tracing and isolation strategies for the Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, area. “I think we’ve got a ways to go,” Burgum said at his Friday briefing. “One of the things we’re looking for is, again, execution and cooperation at the local level.” Burgum said 250 people were recently invited to participate in contact tracing in Fargo and 78 showed up. He said the issue is “about us learning how to do better” because trying to arrest a contagious disease takes communication and personal responsibility. The good news, the governor said, is the number of positive tests in the state’s hotspot dropped for the second straight day, where the Red River Valley COVID-19 Task Force has begun testing some people more than once. Of the 2,310 tests completed statewide in the last day, 909 were people who had been previously screened. Many health experts consider hospitalizations and deaths as key figures for tracking spread of the virus. The number of hospitalizations reported Friday dropped by three, to 35. There were two new deaths reported Friday, one in Cass County and one in Grand Forks County, raising the total to 42. Statewide, the number of active cases increased for the fourth straight day, for a total of 648, including 428 in Cass County. Despite what he called a “little bit of a fire burning” in Fargo, Burgum said the Friday report contained “all in all good numbers” and provided “a lot of hope for us.”  Burgum and state Schools Superintendent Kirsten Baesler announced Friday that a virtual graduation ceremony for high school seniors scheduled May 30 will feature Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, actor Josh Duhamel and Nashville recording artists Tigerlily, all of whom are North Dakota high school graduates. Burgum said the event is not intended to replace ceremonies at individual schools but called it another “star-studded celebration” for students. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Claim: North Dakota governor says controlling hotspot is weeks away.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In November 2016, rumors began to swirl that the European Union had ordered the media not to report when terrorism suspects were Muslim, presumably because of pressure from Islamic groups. The stories were mostly fueled like the headlines such as the one reproduced above, which  appears to have been taken from an 18 November 2016 post by the Gatestone Institute:  The institute is headed up by John R. Bolton, a Fox News contributor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is reportedly under consideration by President-elect Donald Trump as his secretary of state. The headline, in turn, was similar to one published by the conservative Daily Mail in Britain on 5 October 2016:  The allegation is taken from a report published a day earlier by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), which was commissioned by the Council of Europe to monitor human rights abuses. However, Bolton’s group failed to note that the council is a separate organization from the European Union, and it issued a recommendation, not a mandate. Both the Mail and the institute portray the report as pinning the blame on the media for an increase in hate crimes and hate speech across the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2016. As the latter group puts it: The ECRI report establishes a direct causal link between some tough headlines in British tabloids and the security of the Muslims in the UK. In other words, the British press is allegedly inciting readers to commit “Islamophobic” acts against Muslims. Criticism of the report centered around this passage: ECRI regrets that a way has not been found to establish an independent press regulator and that, as a result, certain tabloids continue to publish offensive material, as indicated above. ECRI urges the media to take stock of the importance of responsible reporting, not only to avoid perpetuating prejudice and biased information, but also to avoid harm to targeted persons or vulnerable groups. ECRI considers that, in light of the fact that Muslims are increasingly under the spotlight as a result of recent ISIS-related terrorist acts around the world, fuelling prejudice against Muslims shows a reckless disregard, not only for the dignity of the great majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom, but also for their safety. In this context, it draws attention to a recent study by Teesside University suggesting that where the media stress the Muslim background of perpetrators of terrorist acts, and devote significant coverage to it, the violent backlash against Muslims is likely to be greater than in cases where the perpetrators’ motivation is downplayed or rejected in favour of alternative explanations. The Teesside study, which covered the period between March 2014 and February 2015, found that instances of anti-Muslim violence in Europe and Australia increased in the seven-day period immediately after terror attacks, compared to the seven days before. However, that report also stated that there were fewer Islamophobic incidents in Australia following the attack on a Sydney shopping mall in December 2014, pointing out that the reporting focused on the attacker’s history of mental instability and not his religion. While the ECRI did call for an “independent press regulator,” it also stated that it did not want government officials “encroaching on [media outlets’] editorial independence the need to ensure that reporting does not contribute to creating an atmosphere of hostility and rejection towards various minority ethnic groups.” It also said that media practices in the UK had already been criticized in the Leveson Inquiry, a government probe that took place after revelations that News International (owned by Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch) engaged in phone-hacking and other dubious practices. From the ECRI report: The Leveson Report, published in November 2012, pointed out that “certain parts of the press ride roughshod over others, both individuals and the public at large, without any justifiable public interest”, and that a significant number of news stories fail to meet standards of integrity and propriety and reflect a culture of “recklessness in prioritising sensational stories, almost irrespective of the harm these may cause and the rights of those who would be affected”. It also noted a “significant and reckless disregard for accuracy”. The report stated that the Press Complaints Commission was not independent and had failed its purpose, and recommended replacing it with a new, independent, self-regulatory body established by statute, with the dual roles of promoting high standards of journalism and protecting the rights of individuals, and with a range of sanctions available to it. Claim: The European Union ordered reporters to not reporting whether a terrorist is Muslim.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story says that each machine \"costs as much as $300,000.\" It does not provide a per-treatment cost, which would have been nice. It does say, though, that \"Medicare doesn’t specifically pay for use of the NanoKnife, though hospitals and doctors get reimbursement under more general medical-treatment billing codes. Some private insurers, including Arkansas BlueCross BlueShield, decline to cover its use because of the lack of \"scientific evidence of effectiveness in improving health outcomes.\"\" As with the harms, it is difficult to quantify the benefits because of the lack of evidence. Here we think the story relies a little too much on anecdotal evidence. On balance, the story presents a complete picture, though. Because of the lack of evidence, it is difficult to quantify the harms. But the story did a nice job of addressing the harms. \"Some side effects have been reported. Because the device uses large electrical bursts, it can trigger fast heartbeats. Four such cases out of about three dozen patients were described in a recent report by Ken Thomson, a radiologist in Melbourne, Australia. AngioDynamics says that these cases have all been treatable and that the company has taken technical steps to minimize such future occurrences. One case reported to the FDA was of a U.S. patient who in July suffered a serious hemothorax, or blood buildup between the chest wall and lungs. The patient had to stay in the hospital for 16 days, and doctors said an artery \"most likely\" was punctured during the operation. AngioDynamics said in the FDA report that such a puncture is a \"possible complication\" of any such operation.\" This is more detail than is provided in most stories, even when there is much more evidence available. The entire reason for this story is to evaluate the disconnect between the claims being made for these machines and the lack of evidence to support those claims. It does a great job walking readers through the way the machine is supposed to work, the health benefit claims and the paucity of credible evidence for the machine’s benefits. One quibble: AngioDynamics says that the machine has been tested in \"small number of human patients\". What were the results? Why does the company think the results are promising? This story does not engage in disease-mongering. The story quotes a number of outside experts, including Riad Salem, chief of interventional oncology at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital; Ken Thomson, a radiologist in Australia who studied the devices; and  Tim Clark, director of interventional radiology at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia. Importantly, the story also makes the distinction between the claims the company is making and the claims being made by the clinics and hospitals who have bought the machines (and are trying to recoup their investments.) It quotes the CEO of the machine manufacturer saying, \"We are not part of the whole PR machine. It’s not something we are happy about.\" The story does not do a very good job of contrasting this treatment with other treatments. This is disappointing because one of the claims made by the manufacturer’s CEO is: \"We think this is a very promising technology for treating cancer that is otherwise untreatable.\" Some specifics about those cancers and how they are otherwise treated would have been nice. Because the NanoKnife has not been compared to a more traditional surgical approach, the benefits of the new technology are hard to define. Unfortunately the story relies on a biased statement by the CEO of the manufacturer as its sole comparator. The story says that the NanoKnife is \"currently being used in about 13 U.S. hospitals including Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock, Ark., University of Louisville, and Shands Hospital/University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.\" It later says, \"The NanoKnife, which is also available in five hospitals outside the U.S., has so far been used to treat about 300 cancer patients world-wide.\" The story  makes it clear that similar devices have been used for other procedures, but that this is a relatively new therapy for cancer. This story does not rely on a news release. Claim: Some Doctors Question New Cancer Treatment",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The region has led the state this year with 466 new hepatitis A cases in Pasco County, 369 in Pinellas County and 145 in Hillsborough. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Pinellas health officials were the first in Florida to deploy “foot teams” into areas where people at risk for hepatitis A tend to gather. They’ve administered 789 vaccines since May. Now, other counties are undertaking similar efforts. Since January 2018, Florida has recorded 3,395 cases of hepatitis A. The virus affects the liver and spreads through contaminated feces. It causes symptoms like fever, dark urine, yellow-tinged skin or eyes, fatigue and gastric issues. People pass it along by eating or drinking tainted food or water, or through sex. Since 2016, outbreaks have hit 29 states, beginning in California and Michigan, Kaiser Health News reports. More than 25,000 cases have been reported nationally in the last year. In the Tampa Bay area, reports of food service workers infecting others at local restaurants have dominated the news coverage about hepatitis A. Workers who handle food and don’t wash their hands after using the restroom or forgo using gloves can pass the virus onto others. Public health experts say the majority of hepatitis A cases come from white men in their young adult years to middle age. Most are transient, with limited access to sanitation methods and are more commonly drug users. Free hepatitis A vaccines are part of an aggressive effort to beat back an outbreak that recently prompted Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees to declare a statewide emergency. The local health department has already visited one motel in St. Petersburg three times this year. It’s where people rent rooms by the hour, the month, and anything in between. Many of the renters would be homeless, and are at risk for hepatitis A. ___ Information from: Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.), http://www.tampabay.com. Claim: Florida’s hepatitis A outbreak prompts vaccine push.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A long-circulating military rumor maintains that individuals with a high net worth (a million dollars in this iteration) are prohibited from serving due to a supposed propensity for refusing orders:  My colleague works remotely from Japan, as her husband is stationed there. I’m not sure which branch of the U.S. military he serves in, but she stated that if you have a net worth of one million dollars, you are not allowed to serve because people with a high net worth also tend to refuse orders. Is this true? I’ve never heard that before and can’t find anything about it on the web. It’s certainly unambiguous that the majority of active servicemen and women are of modest means. While many now-wealthy folks once served, individuals who’ve abandoned lucrative careers or opportunities (or were born into money) often so rarely opt to serve that such a scenario is newsworthy. However, examples to the contrary remain, one being Senator John McCain’s son James McCain: Mr. McCain did not bring cameras or a retinue. Instead, he brought his youngest son, James McCain, 19, then a private first class in the Marine Corps about to leave for Iraq … Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee, has staked his candidacy on the promise that American troops can bring stability to Iraq. What [Sen. McCain] almost never says is that one of them is his own son, who spent seven months patrolling Anbar Province and learned of his father’s New Hampshire victory in January while he was digging a stuck military vehicle out of the mud. Further back in history, all four of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s sons served in the military despite the family’s wealth: Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. was killed in action in August 1944, President John F. Kennedy was awarded a Purple Heart for heroic actions in the same year, Senator Ted Kennedy enlisted in 1951, and Robert F. Kennedy enlisted in 1944 six weeks before his eighteenth birthday. None circumvented active duty despite their families’ wealth and fame. Clear examples to the contrary regarding wealth and eligibility to serve contradict claims that net worth is an absolute barrier to service due to a high likelihood of insubordination. A similar rumor was addressed in a 20 July 2010 Stars and Stripes column titled “Can winning the lottery get you out of the service?” Although the question addressed in that item didn’t directly pertain to eligibility to serve, it did confirm the existence of scenarios in which newly acquired wealth disrupted a military career: Seaman Don Burdette was one of thousands of sailors aboard the USS Nimitz in 2004. But he was the only one to win millions. And after Burdette hit the California lottery for a $6.5 million payday, it was only a matter of days before the Navy bid him bon voyage. The Rumor Doctor came upon Burdette’s story after a reader downrange asked if it is possible to be discharged after winning a big jackpot. The Doctor scoffed at first, having shot down many ridiculous notions, but it turns out that all the services have some type of system in place that would allow the nouveau riche to slip off their boots and begin a new life. Burdette had served more than two years of a four-year contract at the time. He asked his division chief and others what he should do. They suggested he take the money and sail away. It took about a week-and-a-half to process his request for an honorable discharge, which ultimately had to be approved by his captain … Marines who win the lottery can request an early discharge due to “unique circumstances,” said Marine Corps spokeswoman Maj. Shawn Haney. However, the scenario described didn’t involve a question of eligibility to serve, merely a situation where wealth arose as a factor in the trajectory of a military career. That article also noted that sudden infusions of wealth were a potential distraction of which the military wasn’t unaware, making such discharges perhaps best for all involved (again, in scenarios where individuals received unexpected windfalls in the course of service): And it just makes good sense, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Paul Rhynard, who believes it’s unreasonable to expect a Coast Guardsman who recently won the lottery to perform his duties the same as before. The Coast Guard no longer has any leverage over him, Rhynard said. “He’s not worried about whether he loses his job or not,” Rhynard said. Further supporting information can be found in military forms pertaining to requests for discharge following a “once in a lifetime opportunity”: This provision of AR 635-200 provides for those soldiers who desire to leave active duty but who do not qualify under any other provision of AR 635-200. Recent guidance (MILPER Message NR 97-095) emphasizes that requests under this provision will not be approved unless discharge is clearly “in the best interests of the Army,” not necessarily in the best interests of the soldier. Individual requests which serve only the interest of the soldier, particularly those involving soldiers with critical military skills or bonus recipients, will not be approved except under exceptional circumstances. Requests for separation more than three months before ETS normally will be disapproved. So while branches of the service were aware of and provided for scenarios in which an individual’s sudden wealth placed their continued enlistment at odds with the best interests of the military, we could locate no specific provision barring wealthy individuals from serving, due to probable insubordination or otherwise. It appeared to be true that servicemen or women who encountered a windfall could under some circumstances be relieved of their obligation to serve, but the request seemed to be most often triggered by the individual and not their relevant military branch. It’s possible the rumor was a byproduct of the idea such continued service was not in the “best interests” of the military, but that specific wording was derived from a protocol related to new wealth, not existing high net worth. Claim: Individuals with a high net worth are ineligible to serve in the military because they are more likely to be insubordinate.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Jan. 22 marked the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which protects a woman's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. In honor of the occasion, the Republican Party of Texas linked Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Bill White to what it called a \"gigantic abortion mill\" in Houston. We saw the claim in an e-mail the party distributed last week: \"In Houston, former mayor and now Democratic contender for governor Bill White has presided over the construction of what may be the world's largest abortion clinic. White bills himself as a moderate Democrat, but his administration allowed this 6-floor, 78,000 square foot facility to be built.\" In its e-mail, the GOP added a dramatic kicker: \"And there's more to this awful story: White's director of Health Policy was one Elena Marks. Ms. Marks is (or was) also the Texas head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Bill White's connection to this gigantic abortion mill is undeniable; he holds no claim to being a moderate Democrat.\" That's quite an indictment. Is it true? Katy Bacon, White's campaign spokeswoman, said: \"Bill White had nothing to do with a Planned Parenthood facility.\" Bryan Preston, communications director for the state party, said: \"It happened under his watch, and he had someone working with him in his administration that he appointed that is closely connected to Planned Parenthood.\" What we found: This March, Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas, which opened more than 75 years ago, plans to move from its current location to a building it began refurbishing in 2008 with $17 million in private donations. The seven-story, 78,000-square-foot former Sterling Bank building on Houston's Gulf Freeway will be the biggest Planned Parenthood facility in the United States, according to Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla. The new facility includes a surgical suite that will provide the same services that the current location has offered since 1973. Currently, the clinic performs about 20 abortions per day. Tafolla said more than 90 percent of the clinic's services relate to preventative care, such as breast exams and cervical cancer screening. The city issued Planned Parenthood a demolition permit to begin the project in 2008, and several building permits since for various aspects of the construction, Tafolla said. However, the mayor has no role in approving such permits, said Janice Evans, director of communications for Houston Mayor Annise Parker, White's successor. Evans said: \"We have thousands of building permits, they do not come to (the) city council.\" Andy Icken, Houston's deputy director of public works, said his department reviewed Planned Parenthood's application for building permits to make sure they complied with the city's building code. Icken also said that nobody from the mayor's office interfered with the application process. According to the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, facilities seeking to perform abortions apply to the state Department of State Health Services to be licensed in Texas. City officials do not sign off on whether facilities can perform abortions. What about Elena Marks, White's then-director of health and environmental policy? Did she play a role in getting city approval for the facility? Marks didn't return our phone calls, though we confirmed separately that Marks served on the board of directors for Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas from 1993-2004. In 2007, Marks joined the national board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which doesn't supervise local affiliates but sets general policy for the entire organization, according to Tait Sye, a federation spokesman. Marks previously was the board chair of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the PAC for the national organization. Contrary to the GOP's claim, Marks was never the Texas head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; the position doesn't exist. Since 2001, Marks has personally donated about $3,500 to Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. Her latest donation was in March 2007, according to a search of campaign finance records kept by the Texas Ethics Commission. We found no evidence that Marks used her official position to ensure approval of the building permits. This much is true: White was mayor when Planned Parenthood started renovating a building to become its new facility. Using the GOP's logic, White also \"presided\" over Hurricane Katrina and the Houston Astros going to the World Series and countless other coincidental events. But as far as we could tell, White was no more responsible for the Planned Parenthood construction than he controlled the weather, baseball playoffs or other non-mayoral events. We rate the Texas GOP's claim ridiculously . This story was updated to correct the number of abortions Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas performs each week to 20 per day. Claim: Bill White has presided over the construction of what may be the world's largest abortion clinic.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Editors’ Note: Snopes reviewed Judy Mikovits’ court case and debunked several of her claims in a piece written by Alex Kasprak in 2018. After the “Plandemic” video went viral in May 2020, an outpouring of reader inquires prompted us to add to our reporting in the interests of ensuring that search engines connect readers with the full story. In the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, millions of viewers in America and elsewhere were exposed in May 2020 to a 22-minute installment from the forthcoming film “Plandemic,” a conspiracy-based “documentary” holding that (as synopsized by The Washington Post) “doctors and experts shaping public policy in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic have silenced dissenting voices and misled the public for sinister reasons.” The primary (and virtually sole) source offered by filmmaker Mikki Willis for the contentions made by the movie in that 22-minute installment is Judy Mikovits, who over the course of the segment spins a tale of a government conspiracy led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and has been the prominent public face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. That one installment of “Plandemic” offers far too many bits of misinformation to debunk in a single fact check, so we’ll start here by attempting to unpack the introduction of Mikovits the film offers in its opening in an attempt to establish her as a credible expert voice. The installment opens with the following voice-over narration describing Mikovits’ background, then segues into a Q&A dialog between Willis and Mikovits: Dr. Judy Mikovits has been called one of the most accomplished scientist of her generation. Her 1991 doctoral thesis revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS. At the height of her career. Dr. Mikeovits published a blockbuster article in the journal Science. The controversial article sent shockwaves through the scientific community, as it revealed that the common use of animal and human fetal tissues were unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases. For exposing their deadly secrets, the minions of Big Pharma waged war on Dr. Mikovits, destroying her good name career and personal life. Now, as the fate of nations hang, in the balance, Dr. Mikovits is naming names of those behind the plague of corruption that places all human life in danger. “So you made a discovery that conflicted with the agreed-upon narrative?” “Correct.” “And for that they did everything in their powers to destroy your life?” “Correct.” “You were arrested?” “Correct.” “And then you were put under a gag order.” “For five years, if I went on social media, if I said anything at all, they would find new evidence and put me back in jail. And it was one of the few times I cried, and it was because I knew there was no evidence the first time, and when you can unleash that kind of force to force someone into bankruptcy with a perfect credit score. And so that I couldn’t bring my 97 witnesses, which included the heads, Tony Fauci and Ian Lipkin, the heads of public health in HHS, who would have had to testify that we did absolutely nothing wrong.” “And so what did they charge you with?” “Nothing. “But you were in jail.” “I was held in jail with no charges. I was called a fugitive from justice. No warrant, literally drug me out of the house. Our neighbors are looking at ‘What’s going on here?’ You know, they search my house without a warrant, you literally terrorize my husband for five days, they said if you don’t find the notebooks, if you don’t find the material — which was not in my possession but planted in my house as if you took intellectual property from the laboratory — it was intended to appear as if I took confidential material, names, and intellectual property from the laboratory and I could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I didn’t. Heads of our entire HHS colluded and destroyed my reputation, and the Department of Justice and the FBI sat on it and kept that case under seal, which means you can’t say there’s a case or your lawyers are held in contempt of court. So you can’t even get a lawyer to defend you. So every single due process right was taken away from me, and to this day remains the same. I have no constitutional freedoms or rights.” The “blockbuster article” of Mikovits’ that this opening refers to was a paper published in the journal Science in 2009 that seemingly tied chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) to a retrovirus called XMRV — a finding that, if true, could be a boon to developing treatment for CFS patients. But “Plandemic” makes absolutely no mention of the fact that, as we detailed in a previous article here at Snopes.com, other scientists couldn’t replicate the results of the study, mounting evidence suggested that Mikovits’ findings were actually the result of lab contamination, questions arose over whether Mikovits’ had misrepresented data, and in December 2011 the editors of Science retracted the paper in full, saying they had “lost confidence in the Report and the validity of its conclusion.” Chicago Tribune reported in 2011: Not long after she arrived [at WPI], Mikovits’ team announced a breakthrough. The scientists said they had found evidence of a retrovirus called XMRV significantly more often in the blood of patients diagnosed with CFS than in blood from healthy peers. The journal Science published their paper online Oct. 8, 2009. But as the [Chicago] Tribune reported, Mikovits and others quickly galloped ahead of the findings, which had not been replicated by other scientists. Though she lacked published data to back her up, Mikovits began tying XMRV to autism and other mysterious disorders. A lab offered an XMRV blood test. Patients took antiretroviral drugs meant for HIV patients. At the same time, other scientists began reporting that they could not find evidence of the retrovirus in the blood of patients with CFS — or in anyone else’s. Researchers wondered publicly whether lab contamination could explain Mikovits’ results, and one scientific team published evidence that XMRV was, indeed, a lab contaminant. Mikovits vehemently denied contamination had occurred and attacked scientists unable to replicate her findings. “Some are not trying in completely good faith,” she said in a 2010 interview with the Tribune. Then, a study published in September [2011] showed that the WPI could not reliably find evidence of XMRV in the blood of patients. On Sept. 29, WPI fired Mikovits, according to court filings, and Science said a few days later that it was investigating allegations of data manipulation. “Plandemic” also grossly misrepresents events that occurred shortly before and after the retraction of Mikovits’ paper by Science, presenting them as the result of Mikovits’ having “made a discovery that conflicted with the agreed-upon narrative” — an act that supposedly made Mikovits the target of a vast conspiracy — by the ubiquitous and powerful “they” — to “destroy [her] life.” What “Plandemic” doesn’t mention was that in September 2011, a few months before Science retracted her paper, Mikovits was fired by her employer, the Reno-based Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI), for insubordination connected with her refusal to share a cell line with a former collaborator, Dr. Vincent Lombardi (the first author of 2009 Science paper that proposed the XMRV-chronic fatigue link). According to an affidavit provided in subsequent legal proceedings by another WPI employee, Max Pfost, after learning of her firing, Mikovits asked Pfost to remove notebooks and samples from WPI’s facility and provide them to her. Pfost, who said he “worked closely” with Mikovits and “considered her my boss” at WPI (and whom Mikovits called her “assistant”), stated in his affidavit that he complied with Mikovits’ request, and that Mikovits planned to transfer “grants and research and projects away from WPI based upon the information she [had] stolen”: On Sept. 27, 2011, there was a package delivered to the laboratory at WPI from Japan. The package was addressed to Dr. Lombardi. I opened the package and discovered that it contained cell lines that he was not allowed to have according to Mikovits. I called Judy Mikovits and informed her about the cell lines from Japan addressed to Dr. Lombardi. Mikovits informed me that she “would take care of it.” I have since been told by Annette Whittemore, the Founder, President, and CEO, that Dr. Lombardi was indeed allowed to use the lines from Japan. Judy called [me at home on Sep. 29, 2011] and said she had been fired for insubordination and insolence. She was very angry. She stated that she had had enough of WPI … She stated that WPI would go down and that I should get out too. … [Mikovits] stated that she planned to move the grants from WPI. She stated that she was going to try to move the RO 1 grant and the Department of Defense (DOD) grants and stop the Lipkin study. I expressed some skepticism to Mikovits about whether she could take the research and samples, and stated that Dr. Lombardi would take over the projects and continue on behalf of WPI. Mikovits stated that she was in charge of the research at WPI so technically it was her research and she could move it somewhere else at any time. … Mikovits gave me the keys to her desk and the keys to her office in order that I could gain access and take the WPI materials for [her]. Mikovits then directed me to remove samples from the lab at WPI and all the notebooks from WPI containing irreplaceable research and data and provide them to her at a later date. She kept her laptop computer with the information from WPI with her. [The next day] I went to WPI to attempt to obtain the samples and notebooks for Mikovits … I went into Mikovits’ office and retrieved the materials … I took between 12-20 notebooks for Mikovits. I put half of the notebooks in a backpack and carried the remaining [notebooks] out … I took the notebooks to my car and concealed the notebooks … I drove the notebooks to my mother’s home in Sparks, Nevada, where I stored them in her garage. On or about October 16, 2011, Mikovits flew back to Reno for the purpose of retrieving the notebooks and WPI property … I gave her all of the notebooks I took from WPI … She informed me that she would store them in a safe location. Mikovits rented another car and drove the notebooks to the Los Angeles area. Mikovits informed me that she was hiding out on a boat to avoid being served with papers from WPI. … [Mikovits] has been in contact with Lipkin through others about transferring grants and research and projects away from WPI based upon the information she has stolen. The materials that Mikovits asserts in “Plandemic” were “not in my possession but planted in my house” as part of a conspiracy to make it look like she “took intellectual property from the laboratory” are presumably the notebooks and samples that her subordinate attested he took from the WPI lab at Mikovits’ direction, after she had been terminated by WPI and locked out of her lab, and subsequently delivered to her. In “Plandemic,” Mikovits declares that she was arrested without a warrant and “held in jail with no charges.” But according to contemporaneous reporting, WPI filed a civil lawsuit against Mikovits to compel the return of their “misappropriated property,” and WPI reported the lab notebooks and other materials as stolen to the police force of the University of Nevada at Reno. Mikovits was subsequently arrested as a fugitive in California (where Pfost said she was “hiding out on a boat” to avoid being served in the WPI lawsuit) pursuant to a warrant issued by University of Nevada at Reno police, which listed two felony charges: possession of stolen property and unlawful taking of computer data, equipment, supplies, or other computer-related property. Mikovits spent several days in a California jail until she was released following an arraignment hearing upon posting $100,000 bail and promising to return to court for a Nevada extradition hearing. She subsequently surrendered to police in Reno and returned some of the notebooks taken from WPI at that time. Mikovits also asserts in “Plandemic” that the indefinite conspiratorial “they” searched her house without a warrant, yet in her 2014 book “Plague” she described three Ventura County (California) Sheriff’s deputies arriving at the door “brandishing a yellow piece of paper” and informing her that they had a search warrant, and later in that same book she referred to a search warrant for her home in Nevada issued by the Washoe County District Attorney’s office. As well, in “Plague” she mentioned her attorney questioning the court as to “why Mikovits was arrested on a no bail warrant” — thereby describing a specific aspect of the arrest warrant which she maintains did not exist. (A copy of the California search warrant, which includes reference to the existence of a separate arrest warrant, is viewable here.) Although the criminal charges against Mikovits were eventually dropped, WPI was successful in civil court, obtaining an injunction preventing Mikovits from altering or distributing misappropriated materials and requiring her to return them to WPI. When Mikovits failed to comply with the injunction order “because of concerns for the safety of patient data,” WPI submitted a motion for an Order to Show Cause why Mikovits should not be held in contempt of court: Mikovits, who is also facing related criminal charges for possessing stolen property, returned some of the notebooks and a laptop after being briefly jailed. But WPI filed an affidavit from a computer expert that said all the files had been recently deleted on the laptop. WPI attorney Ann Hall further asserts that Mikovits returned only 18 of the notebooks, withholding half a dozen more that include experiments done between 2006 and 2009. Claim: Researcher Judy Mikovits was arrested without a warrant and jailed without charges for making a controversial scientific discovery.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The state Department of Health announced the new number Monday, a jump from the five cases in teenagers and young adults reported last week. The department says the cases stem from the use of a mix of nicotine and marijuana electronic cigarette products. The symptoms of the disease include coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. The department advises that people who vape experience any of the symptoms that they should visit doctors. Health officials say the first five people found with the disease were hospitalized. Their conditions have improved after treatment. Claim: Utah investigates 21 cases of lung disease linked to vaping.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On the heels of the Las Vegas shooting, two military veterans-turned-congressmen waded into the debate over the country’s response to gun violence. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a former Marine, appeared with Rep. Scott Taylor, R-Va., a former Navy SEAL, on ABC’s This Week Oct. 8 to discuss issues surrounding gun control and the Second Amendment. As the conversation turned toward background checks, Taylor argued the measure doesn’t necessarily help reduce gun violence. \"Actually,\" Moulton countered, \"background checks have been unequivocally shown to reduce gun violence.\" We previously found that around 90 percent of Americans support background checks on every gun sale. While the belief that background checks reduce gun violence appears firmly ingrained, we found that proving the theory — especially \"unequivocally,\" which means without a doubt — is not so clear cut. Moulton’s office pointed us to research by the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety that explored the relationship between background check laws and gun violence rates. Under federal law, background checks are not required for private sales. But 19 states and D.C. have laws on the books that require some sort of background check on private sales of at least some types of private guns. Everytown for Gun Safety compared the rates of gun violence in states that require background checks for private sales to states that do not. They compared the fatality rates along several categories: women shot to death by intimate partners, suicides by gun and law enforcement officers shot and killed in the line of duty. The group found that states with comprehensive background checks had a roughly 50 percent lower rate in each category:  But experts told us that while stark differences between the two groups of states is noteworthy, it should not be taken as unequivocal proof that background checks reduce gun violence. Philip J. Cook, a professor of public policy studies at Duke University and gun control expert, said the comparisons do not control for all of the other variables that may differ between the two groups of states, like relative levels of gun ownership. \"No reasonable person could believe that universal background checks could, all by themselves, cut these rates of gun violence in half,\" he said. Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, said that without controlling for other factors, the data is insufficient for concluding a cause-and-effect relationship about background checks and a reduced gun violence. Moulton’s office also pointed us to research by Webster and several colleagues. The study looked at the effects that a Connecticut law requiring handgun purchasers to get a license had on subsequent homicides. Under the Connecticut law, a prospective handgun buyer had to clear an application process that included a background check to obtain a 5-year license to buy handguns (the law did not not apply to rifles and shotguns). Measures such as the Connecticut law are known in academic circles as \"permit-to-purchase laws.\" Researchers found the Connecticut law was associated with a 40 percent reduction in gun homicides between 1996 and 2005. They determined this by comparing Connecticut’s homicide rates after the law went into effect to rates that would have been expected if the law was never passed, an estimate referred to as \"Synthetic Connecticut\" in the graph below (we’d note this methodology was not without some controversy). Researchers also discovered the large drop in homicides was found only in gun-related killings, not homicides caused by other means, which suggests the law was the driving force behind the reduction. But Webster cautioned that the associated reduction in gun violence could not be attributed solely to background checks, because they were part of a larger regulatory scheme under Connecticut’s permit-to-purchase law. The law required all would-be gun buyers to apply for a permit in person with the local police before making a purchase, regardless of whether the seller was a licensed dealer or private seller. The law also raised the legal age to buy a handgun from 18 to 21 years and obliged would-be purchasers to undergo at least eight hours in a gun safety training course. It also criminalized the sale of a handgun to anyone without a license. Webster said the effects of comprehensive background checks alone couldn’t be de-coupled from the other law’s other provisions. \"Just passing a comprehensive background check law — without other measures relevant to standards for legal gun ownership and accountability and without commitment to really enforce the comprehensive background check laws — may not be sufficient to reduce gun violence if there is not concerted effort to enforce the law,\" Webster said. \"Bottom line,\" he said, \"comprehensive background checks laws saved lives, but when coupled with permit-to-purchase laws.\" Experts we spoke to appeared to agree Moulton was partially right, but overstated the case. According to his reading of the scientific literature, Webster said background checks on all gun transfers are necessary to stop prohibited people from getting guns. But it hasn’t been established scientifically that background checks could do so alone, separate from a broader system of laws and regulations, he said. \"The best evidence for impact on mortality rates is when comprehensive background checks is coupled with permit-to-purchase law requirements,\" Webster said. \"The impact of these laws depends on the legal standards for gun ownership, systems having necessary records and whether the laws are actually enforced.\" David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard University who has written extensively about firearms policy, said he tends to agree with the general thrust of Moulton’s claim, but believes \"unequivocally\" is too strong a word. \"Stronger gun laws and fewer guns are associated, all else equal, with lower rates of gun violence,\" Hemenway said. \"Among all the gun laws, there is probably the best evidence that background checks help reduce gun violence. A handful of studies find that they appear to reduce interpersonal firearm violence (and gun trafficking).\" Cook also said research into the relationship between background checks and gun violence is less clear cut than Moulton suggested. \"The true state of play in the scientific literature is somewhat equivocal,\" he said. Moulton said, \"Background checks have been unequivocally shown to reduce gun violence.\" Research has shown background checks to be associated with reduced gun violence, and they’re believed to be a necessary measure to stop guns from falling into the wrong hands. But it hasn’t been scientifically established that background checks alone could reduce violence, separate from a broader system of laws, regulations and enforcement. In short, the scientific literature is fuzzier than Moulton claims, experts said. We rate this . Claim: Background checks have been unequivocally shown to reduce gun violence.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Speculation about the origin of the novel coronavirus has spread online since the beginning of the pandemic, with Facebook posts and tabloids making baseless claims the virus was created in a lab. But it isn’t only social media users who have perpetuated the conspiracy theory the virus was bioengineered. In Illinois, a prominent state politician suggested the same thing: \"This man-made killer — whoever went in there and man-made it, perhaps they should be in there now trying to figure out how to turn this around,\" Illinois Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford of Maywood said during a May 15 appearance on Fox 32. \"I don’t believe it’s a natural virus,\" Lightford continued, after the program’s host asked Lightford if she thinks the virus did not occur naturally. \"I believe someone was in cahoots for some reason and I think it just got a little bit out of control and spread a whole lot further than they anticipated.\" But to leading experts, the research is clear: the genetic structure of the virus shows it could not have been created in a lab — or be \"man-made,\" as Lightford claimed. An article published March 17 in Nature Medicine says the genetic makeup of the coronavirus does not indicate it was altered. Instead, the researchers who conducted the analysis present two plausible explanations for the origin of the virus: natural selection in an animal host, or natural selection in humans after the virus spread from animals. That finding doesn’t rule out the much-publicized theory the virus may have somehow escaped from a lab in China where it was being studied, though the government there has denied this. But what is known makes it clear the virus itself is not the result of human tampering. \"Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,\" the article states, using the scientific name for the virus that causes COVID-19. Experts from a number of different research and public health institutions, including the World Health Organization, say the most likely explanation for the virus is that it originated in animals. U.S. intelligence officials and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have also said the science indicates the virus was not made in a lab. When we reached out to Lightford, she acknowledged she had no evidence to support her assertion the virus was created by humans. \"I have nothing to back it up,\" she wrote in a text in response to our call. \"I was generally speaking. Only my opinion.\" Lightford said the novel coronavirus was \"man-made.\" But research shows the genetic features of the virus rule out the possibility it was created or manipulated in a lab. The consensus among experts is that it originated in animals before being transmitted to humans. We rate her claim . — The statement is not accurate. Claim: The novel coronavirus was “man-made.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The company Varela works for, Fotmer Life Sciences, has just made the first commercial shipment of medical cannabis from Latin America, 10 kg (22 lb) of dried flowers with high levels of active ingredient THC destined for patients in Australia. The small but landmark export underscores the country’s push into the burgeoning market for legal cannabis, that has medical uses including helping cancer patients manage chronic pain or treating spasms associated with multiple sclerosis. “Our goal is to create a billion-dollar industry here in Uruguay in the next five to seven years,” Jordan Lewis, chief executive of Fotmer Life Sciences, told Reuters at the Montevideo lab. The firm soon hopes to announce shipments to the European Union, where Germany is the key market, he added. Uruguay has been ahead of the curve. It was the first country to legalize the growing, sale and smoking of marijuana in December 2013 in a pioneering social experiment closely watched by other nations debating drug liberalization. The number of countries legalizing the use of medical cannabis is expected to almost double to around 80 in the future, Lewis said, “creating a potential (global) market of $100 billion in the next ten years.”  In the coming weeks the firm will begin exporting 100 kg  each month of dried flowers and cannabis extracts, Lewis said. The potential is clear. While market forecasts range widely, advisory and investment bank Cowen Inc predicts the U.S. cannabis market alone could be worth $80 billion by 2030. In the company’s facilities, in a science park complex 21 km (13 miles) from Montevideo’s center, Varela’s team of scientists are taking things seriously. To get into the white-walled labs, visitors must wear plastic cloth shoes, a tunic, cap, mask and latex gloves. Varela says it is vital to control the quality of the environment for the cannabis plants, especially given the high global standards needed for making medicines as well as in the handling of agricultural products. Each plant has a number and bar code, part of system to track the production process and catch possible genetic issues. There were 350 marijuana plants growing and 27 different genetic varieties when Reuters visited. The plants once ready are transferred to 18 industrial-size greenhouses in Nueva Helvecia, 120 km away, equipped with drying, curing and packaging machinery. Varela, a biochemist, got interested in studying the uses of cannabis while doing a doctorate in the Netherlands. When he returned to Uruguay, he joined one of the early projects being done by Uruguayan Fernando Sassón along with American Lewis. Uruguay’s support for the industry has put it at the forefront of the growing global market, he said. “As we see legalization happening at a global and regional level, Uruguay is pushing ahead to develop highly-qualified people with the right skills really quickly.” Claim: High ambitions: Uruguay cannabis firm targets booming global market for medical marijuana.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As graphic images emerged from Virginia over the weekend of a car crashing into a crowd of people, some turned their attention to a proposed North Carolina law that aims to protect drivers who inadvertently injure protesters in the street. House Bill 330 was introduced in response to protests in Charlotte last fall, when some residents who were upset about the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott blocked interstate highways and other roads in the city. The N.C. House of Representatives approved the bill this spring but it hasn’t been considered by the state Senate. The bill drew renewed scrutiny after an Ohio man named James Fields, 20, allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. The car killed one woman and injured 19 others. The news sparked fears that drivers in North Carolina could hit protesters without legal repercussions. On Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper called for legislators to let the bill die. \"The North Carolina legislature should defeat a bill that grants immunity from liability to motorists who strike protesters. That bill passed the state House and remains alive in the Senate. The Senate should kill it. Full stop. Those who attack protesters, weaponizing their vehicles like terrorists, should find no safe haven in our state.\" he wrote. We wondered whether the bill really \"grants immunity from liability to motorists who strike protesters,\" as Cooper said. A ‘tightly tailored’ bill? Cooper spokesman Ford Porter elaborated on the governor’s statement in an email. \"The purpose of the bill is to immunize certain drivers from findings of liability. Courts already take into consideration the circumstances surrounding an accident – this legislation adds vague new protections specifically for people who hit protesters with their cars,\" Porter said. \"That sends the wrong message and opens the door to potentially serious consequences. Governor Cooper has been clear that our state has no business going down this path.\" The bill’s authors, Republican state Reps. Justin Burr and Chris Millis, released a statement saying the bill is \"tightly tailored\" to protect drivers as well as people who are lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights. \"It is intellectually dishonest and a gross mischaracterization to portray North Carolina House Bill 330 as a protection measure for the act of violence that occurred in Charlottesville this past weekend,\" Burr and Millis said. \"Any individual who committed a deliberate or willful act, such as what happened this weekend in Charlottesville, would face appropriately severe criminal and civil liabilities.\" What the bill says The one-page bill, which is short by legislative standards, aims to provide legal immunity from personal-injury lawsuits to motorists who exercise \"due care\" when driving but injure someone who blocks traffic while participating in a protest. The bill expresses important distinctions: it wouldn’t apply to drivers who injure protesters through \"willful or wanton\" actions; nor would it apply to drivers who injure someone who has a permit to protest in the street. It also wouldn’t apply to someone being criminally prosecuted. And it certainly wouldn’t allow drivers to \"weaponize\" their cars without legal consequence. In short, the bill doesn't grant immunity to anyone who hits a protester on purpose. What it changes Attorneys and legal experts doubt that the bill would have much impact because state laws already offer broad protections to drivers who accidentally hit people who are unlawfully in the street. In North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama and Maryland, state law makes it difficult for a plaintiff to win. Other states apply the doctrine of \"comparative fault.\" Let’s say a protester in a comparative fault state is found to be 20 percent responsible for his or her injury and a driver is found to be 80 percent at fault. State laws in those states merely limit – not block – the amount of money awarded to the protester. In North Carolina, by contrast, state laws apply the doctrine of \"contributory negligence.\" If a defendant proves \"that the Plaintiff is even 1 percent responsible for their injuries – they lose automatically,\" said T. Greg Doucette, a criminal defense and business litigation attorney based in Durham. Doucette said the effect of the bill is unknown because it’s untested. But, on the bill’s surface, it seems to change little about civil litigation. Proving intent If the bill were to pass, how would it play out in court? If a protester is in the street and doesn’t have a permit, but thinks a driver intentionally struck him with his car, the protester would have to prove \"willful and wanton\" intent. Donald Beskind, a Duke University professor who’s practiced law for more than 30 years, said juries in that kind of situation are asked to consider direct and circumstantial evidence. Most cases are clear cut, he said. \"If you want to know if someone was careful, you would want to look at what they were doing at the time of the accident. If they were texting, we would infer they were not careful,\" Beskind said. If someone drove into protesters and \"on the back side of their car there was a sign that said ‘Kill the Antifa,’ we would assume they were being willful,\" he added, referring to the anti-fascist political organization. Inspiring recklessness? Effectiveness or ineffectiveness aside, attorneys said the bill might inspire violent acts by people who don’t understand the laws. \"While I don’t think it would make the Charlottesville thing legal by any stretch of the imagination, it could embolden someone to do something like the Charlottesville guy did,\" said David Stradley, a personal injury lawyer in Raleigh. \"We just don’t need to be encouraging people to do something around a demonstration.\" Our ruling Cooper overstates what this bill would do. And legal experts say that, while untested, the bill doesn't appear to change litigation and might not offer any additional protections at all. Claim: House Bill 330 \"grants immunity from liability to motorists who strike protesters.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Given the statistics on the incidence of osteoarthritis of the knee provided in the release, the cost of viscosupplementation is important. The costs of the material (technically, hyaluronic acid derivatives are medical devices) varies depending on which is chosen but costs range between $300 to $500 per injection. Since osteoarthritis of the knee is a chronic condition, the durability of the injection is an important aspect of costs. Clinical trials suggest that when it is effective, the duration is varied ranging from weeks to up to six months. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons web page, an organization that does not specifically endorse viscosupplementation, “If the injections are effective they may be repeated after a period of time, usually 6 months.” The release is nearly silent on the quantification of benefits of viscosupplementation. It does state, “AMSSM RECOMMENDS viscosupplementation injections for Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) grade II-III knee osteoarthritis in those patients above the age of 60 based on HIGH quality evidence demonstrating benefit using OMERACT-OARSI Responder Rating but the evidence should be downgraded due to indirectness for those under 60 years of age.” What exactly is the high quality evidence? How is it determined? Does it include functional as well and pain levels in the assessment? The reader is simply advised this is high quality evidence. There is also no mention of the longevity of any benefits from viscosupplementation. Does the lubrication, if it has a positive effect, last months or years? How many? There is also little in the way of qualification. Who best qualifies for this treatment? To its credit the release does note that this recommendation appears to fly in the face of all of the evidence from clinical trials. This fact is underscored by a statement from the first author, “We do not treat groups of people we treat individuals,” said Dr. Thomas Trojian, Lead Author and Past AMSSM Board of Director.” Randomized clinical trials are the recognized gold standard for medical interventions. Trials are designed to look at populations and not at individuals per se. All of these clinical trials are likely to have a group of responders to the intervention. In the case of failed trials, the group represents a subset. Since some people received a benefit, but the majority did not, this doesn’t seem like sound ground to stand on. It seems intuitive that injection of a solution into the joint space of the knee should have some downsides. Indeed, a 2012 meta-analysis of 89 clinical trials involving over 12,000 subjects published in Annals of Internal Medicine concluded, “In patients with knee osteoarthritis, viscosupplementation is associated with a small and clinically irrelevant benefit and an increased risk for serious adverse events.” Common side effects of short duration following viscosupplementation include swelling, and feelings of pain and warmth at the injection site. Serious but rare complications include infection, allergic reaction and bleeding. The quality of the evidence is limited to the few comments related to the “network meta-analysis.” We are not provided with any details on the methods, number of patients followed, what metrics were used to determine efficacy (other than the acronym) or how long people were followed. We’re not told why this is deemed a higher quality therapy for older people, just that it is. We’ll have to wait until the actual article is published in January 2016 to find out. The statistics provided are fairly consistent to what is given out by the NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so we see no disease mongering here. The information is being provided by the American Society for Sports Medicine, a multidisciplinary group of clinicians who specialize in sports medicine. There is a potential for an inherent bias. In case that needs spelling out the potential bias is that the association may be seeking new patients beyond its athlete patient base, and expanding into the aging population of “baby boomers” who have the greatest incidence of knee osteoarthritis. The release states that “people are more likely to show clinical improvement with viscosupplementation over placebo (saline) and intra-articular steroids. This is different than studies recently published that say the average response differs.” Unfortunately, the release doesn’t provide any data supporting that claim. Reviewers agreed that most every credible source of information on the management of osteoarthritis of the knee suggest a step-wise progression of treatments including weight reduction, braces, analgesics, and the like. While the release does mention steroid injections it does so dismissively. Weight loss and strengthening exercises are also mentioned as initial management recommendations, but are quickly glazed over because of “controversial” treatment aspects. What is controversial about current OA treatment? The viscosupplementation procedure may be available at many clinics nationwide. We don’t know so we are rating this Not Satisfactory. To be complete the release could have also noted that insurers place some important restrictions for payment and that  Medicare coverage may vary among states. Suggesting that viscosupplementation, which is not a new treatment, should be a mainstay of treatment based on the argument that some may benefit is certainly a novel (and a controversial) idea. That recommendation puts it at odds with what the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says. Here’s what the AAOS has to say about viscosupplementation, “We cannot recommend using hyaluronic acid (HA) for patients with symptomatic OA of the knee,” with a “Strong” rating, based on supporting evidence from 3 high-quality and 11 moderate-quality research studies that met the inclusion criteria. We think the phrase “high quality evidence” was unjustified language in this release because there was no evidence provided. It’s nearly unheard of for a medical association to offer practice “guidance” or a specific treatment recommendation that changes practice without providing copious data to back up that recommendation. Claim: Viscosupplementation Recommended For Appropriate Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 4 March 2017, several dubious news outlets reported that a Japanese man was killed when a six-ton pile of porn he had amassed in his apartment fell and crushed him. While it is true that a Japanese man died in his apartment amidst tons of pornography, the Japanese news website Nikkan Spa!, originally reported that he actually died of a heart attack. Further, despite reports that the man was not found for six months after his death, the Nikkan-Spa! simply reported that the unidentified man’s body was found a month later. Gruesomely, the story notes that the pornography soaked up his “body fluids,” which would normally cause an odor and alert neighbors of his death. “Although it is nightmare talk, this is reality,” the article says. The phenomenon of solitary deaths, or kodokushi, has been a concern in Japan since at least 2005:  According to the Japan Quality of Life Survey, conducted in 2013 by the Japanese government’s Economic and Social Research Institute, 32% of respondents reported that they were somewhat or very concerned about dying alone. According to our own analysis of the data, the worries are negatively correlated with subjective well-being. Worries about solitary death show one of the highest negative correlations with happiness. Claim: A Japanese man was found dead months after being crushed by huge pile of pornography.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: After United States President Donald Trump announced that he had discontinued funding to the World Health Organization, and presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway subsequently blamed the COVID-19 pandemic on the group on April 15 2020, a tweet attributed to the WHO about a dearth of evidence supporting “human-to-human transmission” of what we now call COVID-19 began to be circulated in an apparent smear campaign:The tweet — which was timestamped January 14 2020 — read:Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #ChinaScreenshots of the sort appeared commonly in response tweets to news organizations such as the BBC and New York Times, along with claims the WHO was aware the purported tweet was inaccurate when it was published:They claimed it wasn’t spread from human-to-human on January 14.It also was grouped with other screenshots of the sort, in debates over who was at “fault” for the pandemic:Yeah it's Trump's fault. pic.twitter.com/AGOWeAdwpw— Steve in Burrowtown (@StevenCrowtown) April 7, 2020Typically, shares of the image suggested it showed that the World Health Organization was claiming there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.The tweet itself was authentic and unaltered — but it was, in true disinformation form, presented with misleading and inaccurate context:Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China🇨🇳. pic.twitter.com/Fnl5P877VG— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2020What it said was the following, including an important distinction:Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China🇨🇳.Two days prior on January 12 2020, the WHO’s “Disease outbreak news” section included an alert titled “Novel Coronavirus – China,” which included what was at that point a very recent timeline of transmission:On 11 and 12 January 2020, WHO received further detailed information from the National Health Commission about the outbreak. […]Among the 41 confirmed cases, there has been one death. This death occurred in a patient with serious underlying medical conditions.China shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus on 12 January, which will be of great importance for other countries to use in developing specific diagnostic kits.The cluster was initially reported on 31 December 2019, when the WHO China Country Office was informed. The Chinese authorities identified a new type of coronavirus (novel coronavirus, nCoV), which was isolated on 7 January 2020. Laboratory testing was conducted on all suspected cases identified through active case finding and retrospective review. Other respiratory pathogens such as influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) were ruled out as the cause.According to information conveyed to WHO by Chinese authorities on 11 and 12 January, 41 cases with novel coronavirus infection have been preliminarily diagnosed in Wuhan City. Of the 41 cases reported, seven are severely ill. This is when the one death, mentioned above, was reported, in a patient with other underlying health conditions. Six patients have been discharged from hospital. Symptom onset of the 41 confirmed nCoV cases ranges from 8 December 2019 to 2 January 2020. No additional cases have been detected since 3 January 2020. […]According to the preliminary epidemiological investigation, most cases worked at or were handlers and frequent visitors to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. The government reports that there is no clear evidence that the virus passes easily from person to person.Currently, no case with infection of this novel coronavirus has been reported elsewhere other than Wuhan.According to both the tweet and concurrent update, information was provided to the WHO by public health officials in China. Additionally, the “cluster” of infections was reported just under two weeks prior on December 31 2019, and what was then called “novel coronavirus, nCoV” was identified five days before the press release, on January 7 2020.In essence, that tweet represented a snapshot in time based on the information that was available at the time; it appeared just five days after SARS-CoV-2 was identified, and before that widespread nomenclature was in use. It was followed by a succession of information about COVID-19.The day before the tweet was published, the World Health Organization issued a “WHO statement on novel coronavirus in Thailand,” calling for outbreak preparedness outside China:The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with officials in Thailand and China following reports of confirmation of the novel coronavirus in a person in Thailand.The person was a traveler from Wuhan, China, and was identified by Thai officials on 8 January [2020], and hospitalized that day. The person is recovering from the illness according to Thai officials.The possibility of cases being identified in other countries was not unexpected, and reinforces why WHO calls for on-going active monitoring and preparedness in other countries. WHO has issued guidance on how to detect and treat persons ill with the new virus.On February 6 2020, a release (“WHO to accelerate research and innovation for new coronavirus”) announced that the WHO was “convening a global research and innovation forum to mobilize international action in response to the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV)”:This [meeting] will also fast-track the development and evaluation of effective diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines, while establishing mechanisms for affordable access to vulnerable populations and facilitating community engagement.It was followed by an additional update on February 12 2020. WHO also maintained a regularly updated resource, “Rolling updates on coronavirus disease (COVID-19).” It began with the following entry, which linked to a January 5 2020 update titled “Pneumonia of unknown cause – China”:Pneumonia of unknown cause reported to WHO China Office 31 December 2019At the close of 2019, the WHO China Country Office was informed of a pneumonia of unknown cause, detected in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China. According to the authorities, some patients were operating dealers or vendors in the Huanan Seafood market.Staying in close contact with national authorities, WHO began monitoring the situation and requested further information on the laboratory tests performed and the different diagnoses considered.Several updates later, the WHO announced its first “field visit” to Wuhan:WHO makes field visit to Wuhan, China 21 January 2020The delegation observed and discussed active surveillance processes, temperature screening at Wuhan Tianhe airport, laboratory facilities, infection prevention and control measures at Zhongnan hospital and its associated fever clinics, and the deployment of a test kit to detect the virus.The delegation also discussed public communication efforts and China’s plan to expand the case definition for the novel coronavirus, which will build a clearer picture of the spectrum of severity of the virus.At the end of the visit, the Chinese Government released the primers and probes used in the test kit for the novel coronavirus to help other countries detect it. Chinese experts also shared a range of protocols that will be used in developing international guidelines, including case definitions, clinical management protocols and infection control.On January 30 2020, the WHO declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”:Public Health Emergency of International Concern declared 30 January 2020WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, following a second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened under the International Health Regulations.Acknowledging that cases have been reported in five WHO regions in one month, the Committee noted that early detection, isolating and treating cases, contact tracing and social distancing measures – in line with the level of risk – can all work to interrupt virus spread.And on February 11 2020, the WHO disclosed a name for the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19:🚨 BREAKING 🚨\"We now have a name for the #2019nCoV disease:COVID-19.I’ll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine – COVID-19\"–@DrTedros #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/Kh0wx2qfzk— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 11, 2020Ten days after COVID-19 was officially named, the WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned a window of opportunity to avert a pandemic was closing:Countries with weaker health systems need the 🌍's focus & support now, due to the potential for #COVID19 to spread to those locations.We must take advantage of the window of opportunity we have to contain the outbreak. We don't want to look back later & regret failing to act.— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 21, 2020The following day, the WHO Director-General and Regional Director for Africa “addressed an emergency meeting of ministers of health to agree on a continental strategy for Africa to strengthen preparedness and responses to the COVID-19 outbreak”:It’s great to see African leadership in action. Today’s meeting on #coronavirus convened by the @_AfricanUnion and attended by @WHO and partners is a powerful demonstration of collective political commitment to tackling #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/crsYAZlC1F— Dr Matshidiso Moeti (@MoetiTshidi) February 22, 2020Several updates occurred between that date and February 27 2020, when the WHO issued the following guidance — urging countries to mount a proactive response to the emerging pandemic:What every country should be asking itself 27 February 2020Discussing preparedness for COVID-19, the WHO Director-General listed questions every health minister should be able to answer. Here are a selection:• Are we ready for the first case? • Do we have enough medical oxygen, ventilators and other vital equipment? • How will we know if there are cases in other areas of the country? • Do our health workers have the training and equipment they need to stay safe? • Do we have the right measures at airports and border crossings to test people who are sick? • Do our labs have the right chemicals that allow them to test samples? • Are we ready to treat patients with severe or critical disease? • Do our hospitals and clinics have the right procedures to prevent and control infections? • Do our people have the right information? Do they know what the disease looks like?On March 2 2020, the WHO’s Director-General beseeched world leaders to focus on containing COVID-19, adding there was “no choice but to act now”:Our message to all countries is: this is not one-way street. We can push this #coronavirus back.Your actions now will determine the course of the #COVID19 outbreak in your country.There’s no choice but to act now. pic.twitter.com/osNPVas2Tr— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 2, 2020A day after that, WHO warned of looming personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages the world over:On March 7 2020, WHO marked 100,000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed globally, and tweeted:Every country should urgently take all necessary measures to slow further spread and to protect health systems from becoming overwhelmed with patients seriously ill with #COVID19 https://t.co/4QQ7VcQPe4#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/mO1gBIzVGz— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 7, 2020Finally, on March 11 2020, the WHO officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic:🚨 BREAKING 🚨\"We have therefore made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic\"-@DrTedros #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/JqdsM2051A— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020The screenshot of a January 14 2020 WHO tweet — often accompanied by claims the organization “knew” and “did nothing” to stop COVID-19 — suggested that the organization maintained there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus.” For context, that tweet appeared five days after SARS-CoV-2 was identified, and the case count was low. The World Health Organization, in fact, preceded that statement with “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found …,” indicating their only information was secondhand. Finally, claims the WHO underestimated COVID-19 are implausible in light of its novel coronavirus timeline (date and timestamped), in which the organization repeatedly and with growing urgency implored world governments to contain the disease, before formally identifying a COVID-19 pandemic on March 11 2020. Claim: Image depicts a tweet from the World Health Organization on January 14 2020, indicating there was \"no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In November 2015, debate raged on social media networks regarding the escalating plight of Syrian refugees; during that time, a circulating rumor claimed Anne Frank was denied entry to the United States before her death in the Holocaust. While most Americans were familiar with Anne Frank (and many read her diary in school), the claim labeling her a prospective refugee seemed novel. Its appearance during an ongoing debate about Syrian refugees similarly prompted some skepticism among those who hadn’t before heard it, as Frank’s ordeal and death are a story with which so many are familiar. On 14 February 2007 The New York Times published an article titled “Letters reveal desperate plight of Anne Frank’s family,” reporting that documents newly uncovered by an accident of circumstance revealed the Frank family’s failed attempts at entry to the U.S.:  After lying undisturbed in a New Jersey warehouse for nearly 30 years, documents revealing the desperate efforts of Anne Frank’s family to escape to the United States and Cuba from Nazi-occupied Holland in 1941 have been discovered thanks to a clerical error. “I am forced to look out for emigration and as far as I can see U.S.A. is the only country we could go to,” Anne’s father, Otto, wrote to his college friend, Nathan Straus Jr., the head of the federal Housing Authority, a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt’s and the son of a Macy’s co-owner, asking him to put up a $5,000 bond. “It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance,” Otto Frank wrote. Page by page, the papers illustrate the tortuous process for gaining entry to the United States in those days. Even with powerful connections and money, European Jews could not overcome the State Department’s restrictions against refugees, said two Holocaust scholars who examined the documents. As the war in Europe intensified, so too did Otto Frank’s efforts to transport his family to safety. He ultimately settled on an attempt to enter through Cuba, a plan which never reached fruition:  By June 1941, no one with close relatives still in Germany was allowed into the United States because of suspicions that the Nazis could use them to blackmail refugees into clandestine cooperation. That development ended the possibility of getting the Frank girls out through a children’s rescue agency. Because of the uncertainty, Otto Frank decided to try for a single visa for himself. It was granted and forwarded to him on Dec. 1. No one knows if it arrived. Ten days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and Havana canceled the visa. Reuters covered the discovery on 14 February 2007, including commentary from Holocaust scholars who lamented the family’s failed attempt at passage:  If her father had sought help sooner, “Anne Frank could be a 77-year-old woman living in Boston today, a writer. That is what the YIVO’s documents suggest,” said Richard Breitman, a professor at American University. However, Otto Frank decided to try to escape just as the Nazis were making it more difficult to leave and the United States was making it more difficult to enter, Breitman said. Cuba issued Otto Frank a visa on December 1, 1941, according to the documents, but it was canceled 10 days later when Germany declared war on the United States. A 2007 TIME article provided further details of Otto Frank’s increasingly desperate efforts:  For nine months, they tried to secure visas — first to the U.S. and then to Cuba — until that window shut. Just three letters of the file were written by Otto Frank, all addressed to university friend Nathan Straus Jr., son of a co-owner of Macy’s department store and head of the U.S. Housing Authority. Straus and Frank’s brother-in-law, Julius Hollander, regularly corresponded with two private Jewish agencies, the National Refugee Service in New York and the Boston Committee for Refugees. Straus also contacted the State Department on Frank’s behalf. Hollander and his brother arranged affidavits from their employers, Jacob Hiatt of E.F. Dodge Paper Box Co. and Harry Levine of the New England Novelty Co., both of Leominster, Mass. An April 2015 article titled “Op-Ed: Getting Anne Frank All Wrong” published to Arutz Sheva addressed the plight of Anne Frank and other Jewish refugee children who perished: Otto Frank, Anne’s father, dutifully filled out the small mountain of required application forms and obtained supporting affidavits from the family’s relatives in Massachusetts. But that was not enough for those who zealously guarded America’s gates against refugees. In fact, in 1941, the Roosevelt administration even added a new restriction: no refugee with close relatives in Europe could come to the U.S., on the grounds that the Nazis might hold their relatives hostage in order to force the refugee to undertake espionage for Hitler. That’s right: Anne Frank, Nazi spy. Anne’s mother, Edith, wrote to a friend in 1939: “I believe that all Germany’s Jews are looking around the world, but can find nowhere to go.”  On 4 September 2015, Anne Frank’s step-sister Eva Schloss drew direct parallels between the Syrian refugee crisis and the Jewish refugee crisis of World War II:  “You must not be selfish and you must share whatever you have and help in a desperate situation. They need help from you. “These people have had the courage to do a very difficult thing- to take your family and your whole life to another country requires bravery and strength. This is history repeating itself. “These Syrians are valuable, educated people. These are doctors and nurses who are only too willing to help our society and they will become leaders in the community if you let them.”  The claim that Anne Frank “was a refugee” confused some readers, as they hadn’t heard it prior to the Syrian refugee crisis. But the extent to which Otto Frank tried (and failed) to save his family from death during World War II was only first reported in 2007, and thus didn’t appear in many history lessons before that. Ultimately Frank perished (likely of typhus) at Bergen-Belsen in 1945, shortly after the deaths of her mother and sister Margot. Claim: The family of Anne Frank sought (and was denied) refugee status in the United States.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On July 3 2020, Twitter user Hayes Davenport shared a screenshot of a purported Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) example badge web page, featuring a badge with the number 14188:Unfortunate sample badge number choice in my opinion pic.twitter.com/AWmj1Gh2rV— Hayes Davenport (@hayesdavenport) July 3, 2020Davenport remarked “Unfortunate sample badge number choice in my opinion,” but did not initially explain the significance of the image further. In a subsequent tweet, Davenport linked to the page:https://t.co/J0ZkLkEYJl— Hayes Davenport (@hayesdavenport) July 3, 2020Badge Number 14188, and 1488 as a DogwhistleThe Anti-Defamation League (ADL) includes “1488” or “14/88” in its Hate Symbols Database. A short entry about the numbers as white supremacist code explains:1488 is a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols. The first symbol is 14, which is shorthand for the “14 Words” slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The second is 88, which stands for “Heil Hitler” (H being the 8th letter of the alphabet). Together, the numbers form a general endorsement of white supremacy and its beliefs. As such, they are ubiquitous within the white supremacist movement – as graffiti, in graphics and tattoos, even in screen names and e-mail addresses, such as [email protected] Some white supremacists will even price racist merchandise, such as t-shirts or compact discs, for $14.88.The symbol is most commonly written as 1488 or 14/88, but variations such as 14-88 or 8814 are also common.We referenced that source in a June 29 2020 fact-check about a Trump store commemorative baseball, which was priced at $88:The Trump Store’s $88 BaseballA symbol with a similar history was spotted on shop.donaldjtrump.com (although without a reference to 1488 or 14/88):Is This ‘America First’ Trump 2020 Shirt Real?In September 2018, the number 1488 was spotted in a controversial Department of Health and Human Services apparent admission that it had “lost track” of “1,488” children (a number that was later revealed to be so wildly inaccurate as to be meaningless):1488, huh? 1488 lost children, from the camps? 1488 of 'em, you say. 1488. I see. https://t.co/rHdPlUzoCd— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) September 20, 2018On February 15 2018, another reference appeared from DHS. This time, it was a fourteen-word-long title on a bizarre Department of Homeland Security memo that also bore a remarkable similarity to the neo-Nazi “Fourteen Words” trope that the number “14” references in such signaling. As the Anti-Defamation League pointed out:“14 Words” is a reference to the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The slogan was coined by David Lane, a member of the white supremacist terrorist group known as The Order (Lane died in prison in 2007). The term reflects the primary white supremacist worldview in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: that unless immediate action is taken, the white race is doomed to extinction by an alleged “rising tide of color” purportedly controlled and manipulated by Jews.Because of its widespread popularity, white supremacists reference this slogan constantly, in its full form as well as in abbreviated versions such as “14 Words”, “Fourteen Words,” or simply the number “14.”The “Fourteen Words,” again, is as follows:We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white childrenThe DHS memo’s fourteen-word title read:We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe AgainAt the time, Twitter users questioned whether the length of the title juxtaposed with the phrase “we must secure” was possibly accidental:This is an actual story on an official government website with a 14-word headline starting with \"we must secure\". This is not an accident. There are actual Nazis-who-call-themselves-Nazis at DHS. https://t.co/Q01TRRpNaI— Laurie Voss (@seldo) June 28, 2018An example of the use of “14/88” or “1488” as code can be seen here:Who Runs ‘Journalist Excellence Worldwide’?LAPDonline.org’s ‘14188 Badge’ Page Dates Back to At Least 2006As of July 6 2020, the link Davenport supplied led to this empty page. However, an archive of the page as it was displayed on July 3 2020 proved that the image accurately reflected the content of the page at the time of Davenport’s post:Moreover, the earliest archived version of the page we found was saved on May 8 2006:Before July 2020 brought press scrutiny, the example remained unchanged for more than a decade; it was published no later than May 2006.14/88 or 1488 Isn’t NewThe Southern Poverty Law Center’s Extremist Files’ entry for white nationalist David Lane attributes the authorship of “14 words” to him, and begins:A member of the terrorist group The Order, which was responsible for the 1984 assassination of Jewish radio host Alan Berg and many other crimes, Lane became even more of a movement icon after penning what rapidly became the best-known slogan of the U.S. white supremacist movement, the so-called “14 Words” (“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.”). Sentenced to a total of 190 years for his crimes as a member of The Order, Lane spent his time in prison industriously pumping out racist tracts and other propaganda. After his death, a number of small memorial rallies were held in the United States and several European nations.In a section titled “Background,” the SPLC explains:David Lane was the Renaissance man of late 20th-century white nationalism. But the conspirator, writer, publisher, and theologian is best known on the radical right for coining the “14 Words,” a very popular white supremacist slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.” Also popular is Lane’s “88 Precepts,” a list of statements on what he calls “natural law.” (Among neo-Nazis, because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, 88 stands for “Heil Hitler.”) Lane was known for big proclamations. In his first trial, he told the court: “I do not recognize a government whose single aim is to exterminate my race. … I have given all that I have and all that I am to awake the people from their sleep of death.”The SPLC noted that Lane was imprisoned on charges related to the assassination of Berg in 1984. While in jail, Lane wrote many things — among them those “fourteen words.” In 1995, his wife created the 14 Word Press — indicating the code was well-established and in use in 2006:In prison, Lane wrote furiously, producing many articles for extremist journals with the overriding theme of racial survival. It was there that he authored the “14 Words” and “88 Precepts.” Always anxious to move beyond rhetoric, Lane wrote the article “Strategy,” in which he called for a group of white families to relocate to a remote country. There, they could breed Aryan children and take over the local political system, creating a haven where the white race could prosper. His numerous writings relentlessly targeted the Jews, Christianity, and law enforcement, which he considered “the most brutal and unthinking segment of the population.”To create an official outlet for his popular writings, Lane and wife Katja Lane, whom he married while in prison in 1994, established the 14 Word Press in 1995, dedicated to promotion of Lane’s racist ideology … Katja Lane ran the 14 Word Press, along with friend Ron McVan, out of her home in St. Maries, Idaho, for several years. But in 2001, she announced that she was handing over responsibility for the press to Steve Wiegand of Micetrap Distribution, a New Jersey-based hate-music producer. The press has since gone defunct.Lane’s entry concludes:Today, the doctrines of David Lane live on, embedded in the ideology of many white supremacist groups and called up regularly by the popular hate symbol 14-88 (where 14 stands for the 14 words and 88 stands for “Heil Hitler,” as noted above).SummaryOn July 3 2020, Hayes Davenport drew attention to a LAPDonline.org page (“LAPD Badge Description”), and the unexplained choice of the number “14188” for the “example badge. As of July 6 2020, the link provided by Davenport led to an empty page. Although appearances of the numbers 14, 88, and 1488 have escalated in recent years, the LAPDonline.org page was published no later than May 2006. At that time, the code was already common among white supremacists and white nationalists.Comments Claim: An official Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) badge page used badge number \"14188\" as its example (later deleted).",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Follow-up tests show the new vaginas are indistinguishable from the women’s own tissue and have grown in size as the young women, who got the implants as teens, matured. All four of the women are now sexually active and report normal vaginal function. Two of the four, who were born with a working uterus but no vagina, now menstruate normally. It is not yet clear whether these women can bear children, but because they are menstruating, it suggests their ovaries are working, so it may be possible, said Dr Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. The feat, which Atala and colleagues in Mexico describe in the journal the Lancet, is the latest demonstration from the growing field of regenerative medicine, a discipline in which doctors take advantage of the body’s power to regrow and replace cells. In prior studies, Atala’s team has used the approach to make replacement bladders and urine tubes or urethras in young boys. Atala said the pilot study is the first to show that vaginal organs custom-built in the lab using patients’ own cells can be successfully used in humans, offering a new option for women who need reconstructive surgeries. All four of the women in the study were born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare genetic condition in which the vagina and uterus are underdeveloped or absent. Conventional treatment generally involves the use of grafts made from intestinal tissue or from skin, but both tissues have drawbacks, says Atala, a pediatric urologic surgeon at Wake Forest. Intestinal tissue produces an excess of mucus, which can cause problems with odor. Conventional skin, meanwhile, can collapse. Atala said women with this condition usually seek treatment as teenagers. “They can’t menstruate, especially when they have a severe defect where they don’t have an opening,” he said. This can cause abdominal pain as menstrual blood collects in the abdomen. “It has nowhere else to go,” he added. Girls in the study were aged 13 and 18 at the time of the surgeries, which were performed between June 2005 and October 2008. The researchers started off by collecting a small amount of cells from genital tissue and grew two types of cells in the lab: muscle cells and epithelial cells, a type of cell that lines body cavities. About four weeks later, the team started applying layers of the cells onto a scaffold made of collagen, a material that can be absorbed by the body. They then shaped the organ to fit each patient’s anatomy, and placed it in an incubator. A week later, the team created a cavity in the body and surgically attached the vaginal implants to existing reproductive organs. Once implanted, nerves and blood vessels formed to feed the new organ, and new cells eventually replaced the scaffolding as it was absorbed by the body. “By the six-month time point, you couldn’t tell the difference between engineered organ and the normal organ,” Atala said. The team continued to monitor the young women, taking tissue biopsies, MRI scans and internal exams, for up to eight years from the initial implants. All of these tests showed the engineered vaginas “were similar in makeup and function to native tissue,” said Atlantida-Raya Rivera, director of the HIMFG Tissue Engineering Laboratory at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City, where the surgeries were performed. Professor Martin Birchall of UCL Ear Institute in London, who wrote a commentary in the same journal, said the findings address some important questions about tissue-engineering, including whether tissue will grow as patients grow and whether an organ as large as the vagina can develop blood vessels when implanted in the body. Claim: Scientists grow viable vaginas from girls' own cells.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 22 May 2016 a Facebook user published the above-reproduced photograph and text, reporting that QuikTrip convenience store chain operates a comprehensive program known as “Safe Place” which entails providing secure holding areas for any person in imminent risk of physical harm: This sign is posted at every QuikTrip. A “safe place” sign signifies that, if you are in any danger (domestic violence, sexual assault, lost children, sex trafficking, any fear for your safety) QuikTrip has a secluded and hidden area you can sit in until help arrives. Simply go in and tell any employee you are in need of a safe place. They are trained not to tell anyone you are there until the authorities arrive. Please share this for those who don’t know what these signs mean or how they can get out. You never know what someone is going through, and hopefully you will never need to find a safe place… but if so, now you know. The post implied that each and every QuikTrip location maintains a “secluded and hidden area” in which potential victims of violence could await help while safely secreted away from their attackers. The types of persons purportedly eligible for assistance by QuikTrip encompassed victims (or potential victims) of domestic violence, sex trafficking, or sexual assault, lost children, or anyone in “any fear for [their] safety.” In short, readers of that post would likely infer that should they ever find themselves in a  dangerous situation, the could be assured that the nearest QuikTrip location would be equipped to immediately deal with complex and possibly violent afety situations through the use of an on-site safe room. QuikTrip’s web site mentions the chain’s involvement with the separate Safe Place initiative on their “community” page. According to that information, the ancillary services offered by QuikTrip are a useful and an integral part of the chain: QuikTrip shares a vision of safe neighborhoods and communities. That’s why we’ve partnered with Safe Place to designate our stores as Safe Place sites for at-risk youth. Safe Place is a national nonprofit organization that provides safety for troubled or threatened youth. Since 1991, QuikTrip has been a designated Safe Place, where runaways and at-risk youth can come in off the street, receive food and drink, and wait for a volunteer from a Safe Place agency partner to connect them with professional help or a place to stay until their situation is resolved. In addition to our stores being Safe Place sites, QuikTrip provides grants to the local Safe Place agencies. We’re grateful for the valuable service Safe Place agencies and their volunteers provide. To learn more about Safe Place, visit nationalsafeplace.org. However, QuikTrip’s own page highlights their initiative as primarily serving “at-risk youth” and does not mention victims of domestic violence, sex trafficking, sexual assault, or anyone currently in fear for their safety. Moreover, the page makes no mention of a QuikTrip outlets’ operating hidden or secluded spots wherein those in imminent danger may be safely hidden away from possible attackers, nor their employing specially trained employees equipped to handle complicated situations of impending violence or serious criminal activity. We contacted QuikTrip’s media relations department to ask about the issue, and a company representative confirmed that QuikTrip indeed participates in the Safe Place initiative, and that participation in that program is part of QuikTrip employee training. He also indicated that the program is primarily geared toward runaways and other minors without homes or safe location at which to stay. After discussing the basics of that program we asked about other aspects of the program, primarily those pertaining to more severe criminal activity and people in immediate risk of danger (such as domestic violence or sex trafficking victims). He explained that individuals seeking QuikTrip’s Safe Place assistance generally wait “behind the counter” with an employee for help to arrive, and no “hidden and secluded” areas are available at any QuikTrip locations to hide those being chased by attackers. Moreover, he affirmed that the program specifically targets homeless and at-risk youth, not individuals in imminent danger due to partner violence or human trafficking. The latter class of victims are a concern, as their seeking safety at QuikTrip locations which lack facilities and resources to effectively deal with them could itself lead those persons into harm. A December 2014 Dallas Morning News article offers a more accurate description of the services QuikTrip is equipped to provide to at-risk youth, a description that may have served as the basis for the misleading information later circulated via Facebook: Plano-based City House is working with QuikTrip locations in Collin and Denton counties, which have the yellow Safe Place signs posted prominently at their stores. Youths needing help can go to a QuikTrip 24 hours a day, seven days a week and request help. QuikTrip employees will immediately contact City House, which always has someone on call and available to help. The organization can help youths who are runaways or homeless, who are abused or kicked out of the house, or who are in any unsafe situation. Youth can also text the word “SAFE” and their current location (address, city, state) to 69866 for immediate help nationwide. They will be provided with the closest Safe Place location. Although the QuikTrip Safe Place Facebook post includes some truthful and helpful aspects of QuikTrip’s involvement with the Safe Place program, the myriad inaccuracies it contains means those who take it literally might inadvertently be placed at further risk. It isn’t true that QuikTrip maintains safe rooms of any description for victims at risk of violence, and directing individuals who “fear for their (immediate) safety” to QuikTrip poses a danger not just to potential victims but to QuikTrip employees as well. Specific mentions of domestic violence and sex trafficking in particular conjure up images of people running and hiding from violent and threatening aggressors at QuikTrip outlets, but in almost all the dangerous situations listed in the Facebook post, (potential) victims would be best served visiting a police station rather than a convenience store. Claim: QuikTrip's Safe Place is equipped to provide a safe room and assistance to a variety of victims of violence or persons otherwise in danger.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In November 2016, the web site TMZWorldNews (formerly CelebtriCity) published an article reporting that the cigarette brand Newport planned to introduce marijuana cigarettes dubbed the “Newport Nirvana”: Reynolds American Inc. Chief Marketing Executive Lawrence Harrison, said in an interview that the company has been ecstatic on the idea of marketing cannabis, and has been monitoring the market for some time. It was only when the recent legalization initiatives — winning in Colorado and Washington — that the company finally made the decision to take part in the cannabis market. Harrison added that they have purchased thousands of acres of land to grow natural hemp. The tobacco company has been setting up a distribution process across North and South American territories, to streamline the supply lines. Like its fellow outlets (TMZWorldStar/TMZUncut/TMZBreaking),  TMZWorldNews is a fake news site appropriating the name of popular gossip site TMZ. None included a disclaimer warning readers its content consisted entirely of falsehoods. Prior fabrications from TMZWorldStar and related pages included claims a police officer shot a black baby after mistaking a pacifier for a gun, a penile implant could alert women to cheating romantic partners, a college student fell into a coma after participating in a social media semen-drinking challenge, KKK members committed suicide en masse due to the introduction of the Harriet Tubman $20 bill, a non-existent study proved 80 percent of black men in Atlanta were gay, and police found a satanic dungeon under a Chuck E. Cheese (a falsehood which bears striking resemblance to the late-2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory). Claim: Newport developed marijuana cigarettes which will be available for purchase \"next year.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not discuss the costs of annual mammography screening, or even provide a range of costs. The story does not discuss any health care policy cost repercussions of breast cancer screening recommendations. The story does not discuss the cost of unnecessary biopsies or other treatments for women who have a false positive diagnosis via mammography (greater in women 40-49). The story does note the benefit of screening at age 40-44, 44-49 and for women 50 and older; however, only the relative benefit was given. The story should have reported the number of women in the cohort, who was screened, how long they were followed, and the absolute reduction in breast cancer mortality observed. That has been our standard all along on this site and this is no time to change. The story does a poor job discussing any harms of screening women starting at age 40. We are not told if women 40-44 had more false positive and unncessary biopsies ,or unncessary breast cancer surgery or treatments  for pre-cancerious lesions. We are also not told of the risks of additional radiation exposure on the risk future of breast cancers. We are not given the number needed to harm (NNH) for additional radiation exposure over 10 years of screening. The story tries to summarize the study and to put results in context with other recently published data. But we really expect more of an evaluation of the quality of the evidence than to just quote one of the authors saying he \"could not pinpoint exactly why his findings differed from those of other studies\" and that \"he mentioned certain differences in methodology as a possible factor.\" What? That’s the end of the discussion? These are huge questions. There are many important methodological issues that could/should have been addressed and that WERE addressed by competitors’ stories (see our reviews of the AP, LA Times and NY Times stories.) There are many, many experts who could have been interviewed about research design who could have shed light on these concerns – and some of them were interviewed by competitors. Especially given the back and forth of competing studies (Norway last week, Sweden this week), readers need much more help navigating the evidence. This story just fell short of the mark. The story does provide the NNT (number needed to treat)  to place mortality risk in context here: i.e. screening 1,250 women five times over a 10-year period would save one life. The story cites independent sources, including the Swedish study author and chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s communications committee, as well as other breast cancer researchers who found a benefit in screening younger women and a decline in breast cancer mortality. However, these sources do not  discuss the downsides of treatment. No one is cited to discuss the downsides of mass screening in a group where the risks may outweigh the benefits. Risks of screening low to average risk women in their early 40s include: overtreatment, false positive biopsies, anxiety, and in some cases, a fear and avoidance of future screening when mammography may be of greater benefit. Why not interview a member of the USPSTF to discuss their reaction to this recently published data? The USPSTF guidelines also do note that women at low-average risk discuss screening with their doctor. There is no mandate that women 40-49 not have access to annual screening. Quotes from both Dr. Jennifer Obel of ASCO and from study co-author Hakan Jonsson apparently came from an ASCO teleconference. There was no evidence of any independent research to find independent experts to comment on the study. The story does not discuss the option of NOT screening. It does quote Dr. Jennifer obel saying \"While the optimal schedule of regular mammograms continues to be discussed by experts in the field, the critical message here is that all women starting at age 40 should talk to their doctor to understand the benefits and risks of screening and to understand what is best.\" But the story had already framed the new study as counter to the US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations last November – yet this quote is almost the same thing that USPSTF recommended last Fall. ONLY because the story at least cited the USPSTF’s concerns aboutr screening in the 40s, we will give it a barely satisfactory score, because that at least implies there’s an option of foregoing screening. But we easily could have gone the other way with this criterion score as well. The story does not discuss availability of mammography, but such availability is really not in question. So this is judged not applicable because we can’t give it a satisfactory or an unsatisfactory score. The story just didn’t capture what was new and different and noteworthy about the way in which this research was done. Someone who’s not a journalist, Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society, still captured the \"novelty\" of the research succintly on his blog. He began his explanation, \"There is a bit of a twist in the study which is important to understand.\" Indeed, you can read more about what’s important to understand and why on Dr. Len’s blog, because it wasn’t provided in this story. The answer gets at the heart of the methodology used – and whether it renders the research strong or questionable. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. However, it does appear to rely entirely on what was presented in a teleconference sponsored by the conference host organization. In the end, is that any different that relying on a news release? Was their any independent vetting of claims that took place? There’s no evidence of that. We’ll rule this not applicable. Claim: Mammograms Save Lives for Women in Their 40s, Study Says",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 31 May 2017 President Trump send a late-night tweet that began with a complaint about his press coverage and ended with the non-word “covfefe,” baffling many. While “covfefe” jokes proliferated, some began speculating that Trump had not accidentally flubbed the word “coverage,” but instead had been speaking either in code or Arabic. The #covfefe plot thickens: according to Google Translate, “Cov fe’fe” means سوف فقف “I will stand up” in Arabic. https://t.co/IhIUqQkc4u — Covfefe David Miles (@chrisdavidmiles) June 1, 2017  However, Google Translate brings up nothing at all for  “covfefe” in Arabic. Only by turning it into two words and adding an apostrophe — cov fe’fe — one can create a phrase that Google Translate says means “I will stand up.”   That’s a bit of a stretch — and it’s not even correct, Rasha Sharif, a linguist and language instructor at the DC-based International Center for Language Studies said. Sharif, who is fluent in multiple Arabic dialects, told us by email, “No, the word has nothing to do with the Arabic language.”  In fact, Arabic does not use a “V” sound, which already rules out covfefe or cov fe’fe as a word. Sharif says that she does not trust Google Translate, because anyone can edit the translations. “I found many words translated wrong in the Language tools,” she said. So how do you say “I will stand up” in Arabic? The nearest translation of the phrase is sa aqif or سأقف, Sharif told us. Variations: A separate rumor, this one published by The Marshall Report, held: Covfefe’ (pronounced “cuv – fee- fae”) is an Antediluvian term for “In the end we win.” It was commonly used by the sons of Adam to rail against the evil actions of the fallen who had led man astray. The term gained popularity prior to the great deluge and was rarely used after the flood subsided. It regained favor around the time Nimrod was building his tower, after which it was entirely lost in translation at Babel. The term “antediluvian” does not refer to a language, but a Biblical time period before the Flood. Needless to say, the writer, Dianne Marshall offered no proof for her claim. (The Marshall Report frequently uses “satirical” and fake articles as the bases for its posts.) Another rumor, posted to Facebook by one commenter and printed by the web site Godlike Productions held that word came from a Yiddish folktale about a rare butterfly:  A few people have asked me about President’s Trump’s tweet in which he used the word “covfefe.” Most people think he meant to write “coverage” and they have had quite a bit of fun with it, but actually it is a real word of Yiddish origin, meaning “a futile search” or “a pointless and false quest.” It was originally transliterated from the Hebrew as “kabfefe,” whose etymology is “kab”—relating to the mystical Qabalah—and “fefe,” which is a word for “butterfly.” What Trump was actually saying in Yiddish tweet-speak was, “We are doing great things despite the press’s negative and pointless search, aka fake news.” For those who are interested, the idea of “covfefe” comes from an old Yiddish tale about a foolish Sephardi rabbi who believed he was called to find and destroy the mythical and rare butterfly known as Benshariza, or “Lucifer butterfly”—a name that comes from “Helel ben Shahar,” meaning “shining star” (see Isaiah 14:12; also see Ephesians 2:2, where Satan is called the “prince of the power of the air”). The rabbi claimed that the Benshariza was recognizable by a unique and disturbing pattern on its huge wings, which looked like the moon and star symbol of the god Ba’al-Hadad. He was convinced that this ominous creature housed “the spirit of Satan” and that if he could destroy it, he would free the world of evil. We contacted Ben Kaplan, the Education Administrator at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, who told us by email, after consulting with colleagues:  The Yiddish language and literature scholars at the YIVO Institute confirm that “covfefe” is not a Yiddish word. (However, an anonymous source warns against whispering it three times in the dark, in a mirror, during a full moon.) Isaac L. Bleaman, a PhD candidate and Yiddish scholar at New York University’s Linguistics Department added:  It is obviously a typo for “coverage.” I see no clear (or even unclear) connection to Yiddish. As for the legend cited, if you Google the string “kabfefe” there are only 45 results and all are either typos, or related to the covfefe incident. Nothing found in Google Books. So chances are it was made up. The only Yiddish word “covfefe” brings to mind is kopveytik ‘headache,’ but that would not make sense in the context of the tweet, and it is not an especially common borrowing into Jewish English. So Trump probably has never heard the word, and certainly wouldn’t use it in his English. We know from Trump’s use of “schlonged” in 2015 (a verb that he took from the Jewish English word for ‘penis’ that ultimately derives from the Yiddish noun shlang ‘snake’) that his use of Yiddish borrowings can be rather idiosyncratic. But I don’t think this is one of those Yiddishisms. I’d sooner look for a Russian connection. Claim: Covfefe\" means something, anything.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, announced the funding for the state Department of Health. The grants are administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Most of the money will be used to help hospitals and health care systems prepare for, and respond to, public health emergencies, such as disasters, terrorism, foodborne outbreaks and health epidemics. About $500,000 will go toward improving systems that track infectious diseases and detect and identify public health threats. Reed says this smart investment will help ensure the health department and hospitals respond quickly and effectively when a major disaster strikes. Claim: Health care systems to get $5.5M to prepare for emergencies.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On March 10, 2020, Facebook user Cristina Higgins posted a message from Bergano, Italy, or as she described it the “heart of the coronavirus crisis.” Higgins’ post described how the country was dealing with the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and claimed that “the news media in the US has not captured the severity of what is happening here.” Many Snopes readers inquired about Higgins’ post, which racked up more than a half-million shares within two days, so we have reproduced it in full at the end of this article, and we’ll address a few of the claims made in the post. But first let’s verify that Higgins is the author of this post and that she truly lives in Italy. Attribution on the internet can be a difficult thing. Facebook posts like this are often copied, pasted, and spread across social media where they get attributed to a variety of sources. An unattributed version of this post, for instance, was viewed more than 100,000 times after it was posted to Imgur. Higgins does appear to be the true author of this post, however. NBC News contacted her after the post went viral and reported that she is an American currently living in Italy. NBC News writes: For nearly two weeks, Cristina Higgins, an American who lives in Italy, has traveled no farther from her apartment building than the driveway. Her days begin at the breakfast table with her husband and three children before the kids log online to do their schoolwork from home. The family spends their evenings playing Monopoly in their apartment. […] “We have friends who are getting sick. It’s very stressful,” Higgins told NBC News over the phone from her home in Bergamo, where she, like everyone else, is under government-ordered home isolation, even though she and her family are not sick. “I am nauseous all day long, because every time I look at the news or talk to somebody else, something terrible has happened. And I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” […] Higgins said she rarely posts to Facebook but felt it was important to convey to those outside of Italy who can’t comprehend how bad the situation is that they need to do whatever they can to not pass on the disease. Higgins appears to be the true author of this post. Furthermore, the claims she made in the post, generally speaking, are accurate. Let’s examine a few of her assertions. While COVID-19 has been compared to the flu and has similar symptoms, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that COVID-19 was at least “10 times as lethal” as the seasonal flu. Here’s a clip of Fauci’s testimony: We transcribed the relevant portion below: For the practical understanding of the American people, the seasonal flu that we deal with every year has a mortality of 0.1%. The stated mortality overall of this [coronavirus], when you look at all the data including China, is about 3% […]. If you count all the cases of minimal symptomatic or asymptomatic infection, that probably brings the mortality rate down to 1%. Which means that it is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu. In general, yes. Italy has restricted public gatherings and travel for all 60 million of its residents. Nonessential businesses such as restaurants and bars have been closed, and the country is encouraging social distancing. Food stores and pharmacies are about the only businesses that will be allowed to stay open until restrictions are lifted. CNN reported: Italy has imposed sweeping nationwide restrictions on travel and public life, a desperate attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak that looks set to plunge the world’s eighth largest economy into a steep recession. The measures announced late Monday include travel restrictions on 60 million residents, a ban on public events, the closure of schools, movie theaters, museums and gyms, and limits on opening hours for restaurants, bars and shops. The government took action as the number of deaths caused by coronavirus reached 463 and infections topped 9,000, more than double the number reported in China as a share of the population. The restrictions are in place until at least April 3. One major concern about a viral outbreak is that there won’t be enough beds and supplies to treat sick people. Although Italy may have adequate space to treat people during a normal year, hospitals can become overwhelmed when there is a surge of patients. That is currently the case in Italy. Vox reports: The coronavirus has overwhelmed the country’s health system, particularly in the north. More than 80 percent of the hospital beds in Lombardy, the hardest-hit province, are being occupied by coronavirus patients, according to Bloomberg. Intensive care units are overloaded while elective surgeries have been canceled in the process to free up beds. Stories abound on social media about doctors struggling to meet their patients’ needs, even rationing care. Although older generations are certainly at higher risk of dying from this disease, young people are not immune to COVID-19. The CDC writes that “infections in children have been reported, including in very young children.” While many younger people may have a strong enough immune system to survive the disease, they can catch it, carry it, and spread it to more people. The Verge writes: Most people who are young or healthy and who contract the virus don’t get severely ill. But if you have the virus, even if you don’t get that sick, you might come into contact with people who are more at risk — and pass the virus to them. That’s why it’s so important to stay home if you’re not feeling well. Minimizing the number of people each sick person infects is low-tech, but it’s the best way to slow the spread of a disease like COVID-19. It’s the goal of policies like school closures and event cancellations and why people who might have been exposed to the illness are asked to isolate themselves. For reference, here is the full text of Higgins’s Facebook post: I am writing to you from Bergamo, Italy, at the heart of the coronavirus crisis. The news media in the US has not captured the severity of what is happening here. I am writing this post because each of you, today, not the government, not the school district, not the mayor, each individual citizen has the chance, today to take actions that will deter the Italian situation from becoming your own country’s reality. The only way to stop this virus is to limit contagion. And the only way to limit contagion is for millions of people to change their behavior today. If you are in Europe or the US you are weeks away from where we are today in Italy. I can hear you now. “It’s just a flu. It only affects old people with preconditions” There are 2 reasons why Coronavirus has brought Italy to it’s knees. First it is a flu is devastating when people get really sick they need weeks of ICU – and, second, because of how fast and effectively it spreads. There is 2 week incubation period and many who have it never show symptoms. When Prime Minister Conte announced last night that the entire country, 60 million people, would go on lock down, the line that struck me most was “there is no more time.” Because to be clear, this national lock down, is a hail mary. What he means is that if the numbers of contagion do not start to go down, the system, Italy, will collapse. Why? Today the ICUs in Lombardy are at capacity – more than capacity. They have begun to put ICU units in the hallways. If the numbers do not go down, the growth rate of contagion tells us that there will be thousands of people who in a matter of a week? two weeks? who will need care. What will happen when there are 100, or a 1000 people who need the hospital and only a few ICU places left? On Monday a doctor wrote in the paper that they have begun to have to decide who lives and who dies when the patients show up in the emergency room, like what is done in war. This will only get worse. There are a finite number of drs, nurses, medical staff and they are getting the virus. They have also been working non-stop, non-stop for days and days. What happens when the drs, nurses and medical staff are simply not able to care for the patients, when they are not there? Claim: Cristina Higgins authored a personal account about the spread of COVID-19 in Italy. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Women in gas masks, others with bags on their heads and stay at home posters. If posts on social media are to be believed, these images and more come from the 1918 flu pandemic. \"Photos from the 1918 flu pandemic,\" proclaimed one such recent Facebook post that contained 11 photos. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) PolitiFact conducted reverse image searches to determine the origins of the photos. Of the 11 photos, six bear no connection to the 1918 flu pandemic. Let’s take a look at those first. The first photo features two women with what look like bags over their heads. According to the Associated Press, it was captured in November 1953. \"War surplus gas capes are used by Meriel Bush, left, and Ruth Neuer, in an attempt to dodge the eye-stinging effects of a low-hanging smog and smoke which enveloped Philadelphia for the second straight day,\" reads the AP’s caption. A reverse image search located the image of masked women walking arm in arm on a stock photo website. On the site, the photo is described as, \"Ladies' fashion from 1913. New veil fashions, based on Turkish nose veils.\" When debunking claims that the photo was of the 1918 flu pandemic, AFP Fact Check’s bureau in Thailand contacted the German photo agency, Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo, which was listed as the photographer. \"The original picture description says that the nose veils were the fashion for ladies after the Balkan war,\" Süddeutsche Zeitung’s spokesperson told AFP in an email. The Balkan Wars unfolded from 1912 to 1913. A photo of women in gas masks tending to a stroller is from a June 1941 gas test during World War II, according to Getty Images. \"9th June 1941: A gas masked young mother attends to her child's pram gas mask during a surprise gas test in Kingston,\" reads the Getty Images photo description. One of the images from the post is an advertisement for a Bell Telephone Co. \"People who are in quarantine are not isolated if they have a Bell Telephone,\" the ad reads. Back in May, Snopes.com debunked the claim that this ad was connected to the 1918 pandemic. Versions of this ad existed as early as November 1910. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an ad that was nearly identical, but with a different tag, \"The Bell Telephone Company of Missouri.\" The ad mentions \"quarantine\" and \"the sick,\" but there is no indication it is a direct reference to any particular illness. An image of an ad that encouraged people to stay home was created not in 1918, but in 2020. \"Stay At Home,\" the ad says. \"It has never been easier to save lives.\" Though the graphic illustration may appear vintage, it was made in March in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. A French illustrator named Mathieu Persan made versions of the poster in various languages and posted them on Twitter. If you look closely, you can see his signature on the right side of the illustration. A photo of two women who appear to be visiting over a car window while wearing masks was taken in 1929, during a separate flu epidemic. \"Two women wearing flu masks during a flu epidemic in 1929,\" reads Getty Images’ photo description. The 1928-29 flu epidemic was studied by health professionals using data from the 1918 pandemic. Here’s what we can tell you about the five photos that are actually from the 1918 influenza pandemic time period. A reverse image search identified a photo of a woman wearing a mask as a Getty Images stock photo from February 1919. \"A woman wearing a flu mask during the flu epidemic which followed the First World War,\" reads Getty Images’ caption. A photo showing a sign on a streetcar proclaims, \"Spit spreads death.\" A reverse image search revealed the New York Times had used this photo as a feature image for a story about the 1918 flu. Crediting the photo to the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the Times caption reads, \"An anti-spitting sign posted on streetcar in Philadelphia, October 1918.\" An image shows rows of beds used for treating flu patients from the 1918 pandemic, according to Getty Images. The photo was featured in Wired and Business Insider stories about the visuals from the 1918 flu pandemic. \"All theatres closed until further notice at request of mayor,\" reads a sign behind a young boy. The photo was used in a story published by the Seattle Times in July. Credited to the Museum of History & Industry, the Times’ caption reads, \"A masked newsboy looks west outside the closed Pantages Theatre box office during the influenza pandemic of nearly 102 years ago. Likely, the photo was taken between Oct. 5 and Nov. 11, 1918.\" It was also used in the museum’s webinar about the 1918 pandemic. And a news announcement with a Red Cross nurse wearing a mask is legitimately from 1918, according to The Washington Post and The Guardian. \"A Red Cross nurse wears a gauze mask over her nose and mouth in this 1918 imaged published in the Illustrated Current News of New Haven, Conn.,\" the Washington Post reported in its description of the photo. A Facebook post claims 11 photos are \"photos from the 1918 flu pandemic.\" This is not the case. Five of the 11 photos are from the 1918 influenza pandemic time period; six are not. Claim: Facebook post Says series of 11 photos are “from the 1918 flu pandemic.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota announced on Dec. 16 that legislation they wrote to improve research, prevention, diagnostics and treatment for the diseases has been included in the federal appropriations agreement. The senators are calling the proposal the Kay Hagan Tick Act, after former Sen. Kay Hagan, who died in October due to complications suffered from Powassan virus. Powassan, like Lyme, is a tick-borne infection. The proposal would make several changes, such as requiring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop a national strategy to combat the diseases. It would also authorize the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide $20 million in grants per year to state health departments to improve data collection and make others changes. The appropriations agreement was headed to President Donald Trump for signature late Thursday. Claim: Proposal for Lyme prevention included in appropriations deal.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: University of Chicago Medicine doctors announced Friday that they successfully completed the triple organ transplants on Sarah McPharlin, a 29-year-old woman of Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, and Daru Smith, a 29-year-old father from Chicago’s South Side, within 30 hours of one another. McPharlin had two transplants canceled earlier in the year, pushing her surgery back. “Maybe because it’s only luck that both of those transplants were supposed to be at the same time,” Nir Uriel, the director of heart failure, transplant and mechanical circulatory support for the hospital, said at a news conference Friday. University of Chicago Medicine has performed the most heart-liver-kidney transplants in the world. Just eight minutes after a medical team finished Smith’s liver transplant on Dec. 20, hospital staff learned that donor organs were available for McPharlin. Smith, who finished surgery that day, became only the 16th person in the U.S. to undergo a heart-liver-kidney transplant and hours later on Dec. 21 McPharlin became the 17th. Each surgery required a 22-person team, with some staffers working on both patients. The hospital also performed five other organ transplants during that time period. Smith and McPharlin, who had her first heart transplant at the age of 12, arrived at the Chicago hospital in November. But neither knew they were both seeking a triple transplant when they first met during pre-therapy sessions ahead of surgery. The sessions were quiet and patients didn’t share details about their transplants. But McPharlin’s mother, who quit her job as a school teacher in Michigan to be with her daughter for treatment, pried out of Smith that he was awaiting the same organs as McPharlin. “It’s been mind-blowing and amazing, having someone go through the process with me, gave me more motivation,” Smith, a truck driver, said during a video interview at the hospital Friday. The pair, who are recovering on the same hospital floor, share walks and give each other high-fives when they pass one another in the hallways. Their families are already planning a dinner together in the city once the two are released and feeling better. Nurses say they notice a difference in recovery for the two compared to other transplant patients, because they have gone through the same unusual and debilitating surgery together. McPharlin and Smith notice too. “It was so cool to know we would be able to see each other progress together,” McPharlin, an occupational therapist, said Friday. “It was really cool to see how Daru was getting up in the hall and I knew eventually, or pretty soon, I would be doing the same.” Claim: New hearts forge new friendship for transplant recipients.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “I’d ask you to fund reusable wares and dishwashers in the upcoming year,” parent Julie DesChamps told the school board at a meeting Thursday. “By dedicating the necessary funds now, this board will make the necessary decision to provide environmental stewardship and provide for our students’ health.” Greenwich public school parents and students are rallying around the mantra, “healthier options on reusable trays,” as a town wide Food Services Committee, composed of parents, school and town officials, works to improve the menu in cafeterias and explore the option of outsourcing food production. Improving the food is a decades-old discussion and potential action item that resurfaced last fall. In response to calls from parents and the Board of Education, staff in the Food Services Department have made a number of changes, but the committee is figuring out the logistics and costs of larger-scale changes. PTA Health and Wellness Committee co-chair Nerlyn Pierson said the momentum to make substantive changes is gaining speed. “Any change will require unwavering commitment from the BOE and the BET,” Pierson told the school board. “Commit to make the changes necessary so all students are provided with healthy, nutritious food on nontoxic ware. This shouldn’t be a hollow commitment.” Stephanie Chawla, the mother of a Glenville student and a physicians assistant, created a petition asking for better food and sustainable, eco-friendly food wares. Almost 600 people signed it in five days. In February, the school board discussed taking one school off the National School Lunch Program and outsourcing food production to No Fuss Lunch, a New Jersey-based company. Board members wanted to explore offers from other companies, too, preferably closer to Greenwich. Brigaid, a food service company that began in New London, proposed to consult with the district on ways to introduce more on-site cooking without going off the National School Lunch Plan. That would be necessary if a school were to outsource food preparation to No Fuss Lunch. Leaders of Brigaid also proposed working with the district at a lower cost, based on the growing movement in Greenwich to change food services, school board member Laura Rabin said. While the committee considers staying on the school lunch program or going off, and contracting with either Brigaid or No Fuss Lunch, it is also drafting a healthier menu, with help from volunteer nutritionists, the PTAC Wellness Committee and the Food Services Department, Rabin said. “This isn’t about dollars and cents, this is a moral issue,” said Abbe Large, a member of the Food Service Committee and the Representative Town Meeting. “And with the Styrofoam, it’s becoming a legal problem.” The call for waste reduction comes on the heels of a vote in the Environmental Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly in favor of legislation banning Styrofoam trays, which contain elements that could be harmful to students. “Embrace volunteers ... embrace change,” Large said. “We have to do something now because this topic is affecting students every single day.” Students have also joined the call to reduce waste. Styrene, a common compound in food containers, takes 500 years to break down, and is one of the top 10 materials found in litter along beaches, said Lina Thakor, a Greenwich High School student and member of the Environmental Action Club. “It deeply troubles me that Greenwich Public School uses Styrofoam,” Thakor told the school board. “Students at Greenwich Public Schools run the risk of ingesting chemicals every day, something they’re likely unaware of.” Districts larger than Greenwich have recognized the harmful effects of Styrofoam, and have made changes, she said. “We are a highly educated community that can afford to address issues such as this one,” she said. “Let’s be catalysts of change. I urge you to support the effort of finding an alternative.” While it is too late for the school board to request funding for reusable trays and dishwashers for the upcoming school year, the committee has started looking into metal tray options and the cost of equipping every school with a dishwasher — a request that could go before the board as an appropriation in the future. “We heard loud and clear about the dangers of Styrofoam,” Rabin said. ___ Online: https://bit.ly/2HOOSUY ___ Information from: Greenwich Time, http://www.greenwichtime.com Claim: Group pushes to end plastic foam use in schools.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of the sky-high cost of nivolumab, the drug tested in this study. It’s disappointing because it’s at least the second time MD Anderson has failed to mention the cost of this drug in a news release. In a separate review last fall, HealthNewsReview.org calculated the monthly cost of nivolumab to be in the vicinity of $12,600, excluding administration. Nor does this review address whether a patient’s health insurance is likely to cover the cost. The patients’ response was modest and the news release reflects that. The release quotes a researcher saying, “This study demonstrated responses in five of 18 patients treated at MD Anderson, and many of the patients had significant reductions in their tumor size.” It also gives details of some of those treatment responses. This news release makes no mention of potential harms. According to the Chemocare.com website, more than 30 percent of patients on nivolumab may experience fatigue, low white blood cells, low sodium, shortness of breath, musculoskeletal pain, decreased appetite and cough. The news release falls short here because it fails to explain how a reduction in tumor size or other responses to treatment might translate into what matters to patients: quality of life and survival rates. The news release does note  that “final clinical results” will be reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2016 annual meeting in Chicago, but would have been more helpful if it mentioned when that will occur and what additional data will be released. No disease mongering here. In fact, the news release mentions right off the bat that this form of cancer is “rare.” The news release also highlights the fact that squamous cell cancer (SCCA) is “on the increase,” but it would have been helpful to provide details that might help readers understand why cases are increasing and at what rate. The news release could have been transparent about financial backing. Funding sources are listed, but there is no mention of whether individual researchers have potential conflicts of interest. In our review of MD Anderson’s kidney cancer news release last fall, we noted that one of the researchers involved in that study is a paid consultant to the maker of nivolumab, Bristol-Myers Squibb. That researcher, Padmanee Sharma, M.D., is also part of the anal cancer study team. Neither news release noted her financial tie, and the reader is left to wonder whether any of the researchers have vested interests in the study outcome. Immunotherapy may offer a less toxic alternative to traditional chemotherapy, but there is no mention of that here. In fact, there is no attempt to describe the relative advantages and disadvantages of nivolmab versus the traditional treatment protocol. The release also neglects to mention that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been proven to prevent anal precancerous lesions and has the potential to make this tumor even more rare. The news release squeaks through here, describing nivolumab as “one of the drugs represented among the growing arsenal of immnotherapy therapies.” This might imply to the reader that the drug is already available to treat other conditions. However, it does not state specifically whether the drug has FDA approval for anal cancer or any other application. There is no question of the newness of immunotherapy drugs for treating cancer. The news release heralds this as the “first-ever” study of nivolumab on aggressive anal cancer. Still, the news release could clarify whether this is the first trial of any immunotherapy drug for anal cancer and if so how this study contributes to body of evidence of the potential for immunotherapy drugs to improve treatment options for patients. No outright sensational language, but the news release failed to explain its use of the word “encouraging” to describe study findings. There is no quote from a researcher to back up that adjective. The study abstract only mentions “potential correlations” between immunological biomarkers and clinical outcomes to nivolumab. Claim: First-ever nivolumab study to treat aggressive anal cancer appears promising",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sen. Ted Cruz accused Donald Trump of being a \"Democrat-lite\" candidate who agrees all-too-often with Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. \"Donald can't criticize her policies,\" Cruz said May 1, 2016, on NBC’s Meet the Press. \"You know why? Because he supports them. Donald and Hillary, they're flipsides of the same coin. They've both gotten rich exploiting Washington, exploiting government power. So Donald can't criticize Hillary Clinton on Planned Parenthood, because he agrees with her. They both say it's terrific and that it should keep taxpayer funding.\" Cruz has been a vocal supporter of stripping the health organization of its $500 million in government funding since an anti-abortion group released secretly filmed footage purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials selling fetal tissue for a profit. Courts have not found evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. Do Trump and Clinton, respective frontrunners of the Republican and Democratic primaries, agree about maintaining taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood? There’s no question about Clinton’s support for Planned Parenthood. Throughout the campaign, she has frequently attacked Republicans’ pledge to defund the organization. And Planned Parenthood endorsed Clinton in July, its first-ever presidential primary endorsement. \"I am not only against defunding Planned Parenthood, but I would like to see Planned Parenthood even get more funding,\" Clinton told Fusion in January. Trump’s position is more nuanced. Regarding abortion generally, Trump has several times raised both Republicans’ and Democrats’ eyebrows by changing position. Today, Trump says he’s anti-abortion. As it pertains to taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Trump has been fairly consistent since October 2015. He has said Congress should stop providing the group with federal funding full stop as long as they provide abortions. Here’s a sampling of Trump’s comments on the subject: Aug. 4, 2015: Trump said defunding Planned Parenthood would be worth a government shutdown. When radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Trump if he would support this kind of legislative maneuver, Trump said, \"I would.\" Aug. 11, 2015: Trump backtracked to say he might consider funding for Planned Parenthood services other than abortion. \"I would look at the good aspects of it, and I would also look because I’m sure they do some things properly and good for women,\" he said. \"The abortion aspect of Planned Parenthood should absolutely not be funded.\" This is the closest quote we found to support Cruz’s position. We should note a piece of longstanding legislative language called the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or protecting the mother’s health. So technically, federal funding does not support Planned Parenthood’s abortion services. But people who would like to see Planned Parenthood defunded argue that the money is fungible, so any money the organization receives from the federal government frees up other funds to spend on abortions. Oct. 18, 2015: Trump wouldn’t say outright if he would be willing to shut down the government over defunding Planned Parenthood. But he said, \"Planned Parenthood should absolutely be defunded. I mean if you look at what's going on with that, it's terrible.\" Feb. 13, 2016: Trump and Cruz sparred over Planned Parenthood directly at a South Carolina debate. \"Donald didn't disagree with the substance that he supports taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood,\" Cruz said. \"And Donald has this weird pattern — when you point to his own record he screams, 'Liar, liar, liar.'\" \"Where did I support it?\" asked Trump. \"Where did I support it?\" \"You said Planned Parenthood does wonderful things,\" Cruz said. \"It does do wonderful things, but not as it relates to abortion,\" Trump said. \"There are wonderful things having to do with women's health, but not when it comes to abortion.\" Cruz's campaign pointed us to this exchange as an example of Trump being unwilling to say he would cut off all funding. Feb. 18, 2016: Trump said he respects some of the work Planned Parenthood does for women’s health, but their abortion practices should prevent them from getting funding. \"I said defund. I didn't say pay. I said I have a lot of respect for some of the things they do, the cervical cancer on women,\" he said, but they should not receive tax dollars, \"not while they do abortions.\" Feb. 22, 2016: Trump continued the same narrative. \"Planned Parenthood does a lot of good jobs, a really good job in a lot of different areas. But not on abortion. So I'm not going to fund it if it's doing the abortion. I am not going to fund it.\" March 1, 2016: Even more of the same. \"Millions of women have been helped by Planned Parenthood,\" he said. \"But we're not going to allow, and we're not going to fund, as long as you have the abortion going on at Planned Parenthood, and we understand that and I've said it loud and clear.\" So to recap: Trump’s overarching position on taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood seems to be that he supports defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions, even though he respects some of the other work they do for women’s health. Our ruling Cruz said both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton say Planned Parenthood is \"terrific and that it should keep taxpayer funding.\" Trump and Clinton seem to agree that Planned Parenthood does some positive work as it pertains to things like cancer prevention, and Trump has described that work as \"wonderful.\" However, Clinton supports their abortion services, and Trump does not. He thinks Planned Parenthood should not receive taxpayer dollars as long as they provide abortions. Clinton, on the other hand, has said Planned Parenthood should receive even more funding than it does now. Claim: Ted Cruz Says both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton say Planned Parenthood is \"terrific and that it should keep taxpayer funding.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: During a discussion of American foreign policy and military involvement in the Middle East at the Democratic debate in Iowa, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders turned the discussion to the care provided to American veterans with a startling statistic: 500,000 returned service members have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. \"When you talk about the long-term consequences of war, let's talk about the men and women who came home from war,\" Sanders said. \"The 500,000 who came home with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. And I would hope that in the midst of all of this discussion this country makes certain that we do not turn our backs on the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us.\" Sanders has been making this claim for more than a year, including on Twitter in 2014, in a 2014 CNN interview and at a Minnesota campaign event last summer. But is it true? Have 500,000 American veterans really returned home from recent conflicts with PTSD and brain injuries? Sanders’ claim is at the higher end of the range of estimates available. The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that between 11 and 20 percent of veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) have PTSD in a given year. As of late 2014, about 2.7 million troops had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. That’s a wide range: 11 percent of 2.7 million is 297,000; 20 percent is 540,000. Additionally, a U.S. Senate resolution identifies \"more than 390,000\" cases of PTSD among veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn in Afghanistan, citing the secretary of Veterans Affairs as its source. Those figures only account for PTSD, not traumatic brain injury, or TBI, which Sanders also referenced. A 2013 Congressional Research Service paper on traumatic brain injury found that almost 57,000 Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans were evaluated or treated for \"a condition possibly related to TBI\" by the VA. That number is slippery though. It’s not clear that all of those nearly 57,000 actually received a TBI diagnosis, and it doesn’t account for the potentially thousands more veterans who experienced a traumatic brain injury but did not receive care through the VA. The VA also estimates that brain injuries account for 22 percent of all combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense Department, meanwhile, identifies 333,169 instances of traumatic brain injury among service members between 2000 and 2015. That’s a big number, but there are some caveats that come with it: It includes all U.S. forces, not just those deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and is overwhelmingly comprised of concussions and \"mild TBI\" that by definition lasts less than 24 hours. Also worth noting: that same U.S. Senate resolution noting 390,000 PTSD cases also references \"more than 615,000\" veterans of recent conflicts who have been diagnosed with \"at least 1 mental health disorder.\" Our ruling Sanders said 500,000 U.S. troops came home from Iraq and Afghanistan \"with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.\" No firm numbers exist for the number of veterans who have returned from America’s most recent conflicts with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries, but Sanders’ claim of 500,000 does fall within the range of estimates provided by the VA and other sources. Sanders’ statement needs that caveat. Claim: 500,000 U.S. troops came home from Iraq and Afghanistan \"with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “States are a critical backstop at a time when we have the Trump-Pence administration stripping away women’s health and rights and when we cannot depend on the Supreme Court,” said Dr. Leana Wen. She spoke in an interview ahead of a keynote speech she’s scheduled to give in Baltimore this week about an administration proposal to prohibit family planning clinics funded by the government’s Title X program from making abortion referrals. Opponents are calling it a “gag rule.” The rule was set to take effect next week, but a federal judge said late Tuesday he would issue a preliminary injunction to block the rule from taking effect, after a lawsuit was filed by attorneys general in 20 mostly Democrat-controlled states, including Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. “With all our champions and supporters, this is the time to be going on the offensive where we can,” said Wen, a physician who is Baltimore’s former health commissioner. Wen cited Maryland as a leader among states opposing the rule. Earlier this month, Maryland became the first state to pass a measure that would end participation in the program if the rule takes effect. Maryland’s legislature is controlled by Democrats, and the bill now goes to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. A Hogan spokesman says the governor will review the bill when it officially reaches his desk. A Maryland law from 2017 would provide state funds for family planning. The Democrat-controlled Massachusetts House and Senate this month also approved state money to offset the potential loss of federal funding due to the rule change, a measure signed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. Other blue states also are considering whether to opt out. Meanwhile, Republican-leaning states have been working to start new legal battles that could prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Alabama has introduced legislation that would make performing an abortion at any state of pregnancy a felony unless the mother’s health is in jeopardy. Kentucky and Mississippi have approved bans on abortion once the fetal heartbeat is detected, which happens as soon as the sixth week of pregnancy. On Monday, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a proposal that would effectively outlaw most abortions in that state, if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Religious conservatives and abortion opponents argue that Title X funding has been used to indirectly subsidize Planned Parenthood, the leading abortion provider in the nation. They have welcomed the president’s rule change. Title X family planning clinics get federal funds to provide people with comprehensive family planning and preventative health services, according to a Health Resources & Services Administration website. Wen said Title X funding is not used for abortions. The funding is used to provide low-income people with affordable birth control, as well as primary and preventive care, including cancer screenings and HIV tests. She said it would not be acceptable in any other medical field for doctors not to provide patients with full medical information. “This is about restricting the practice of medicine,” Wen said. “It’s about politicians making decisions for doctors and for patients. It’s about politicians restricting the ability of doctors to give our patients full and accurate medical information.” Planned Parenthood, which serves 1.6 million of the 4 million women who get care through Title X, has said it will leave the program if the rule is implemented. Claim: Planned Parenthood: States should oppose Trump ‘gag rule’.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Richmond Mayor LeVar Stoney recently said Virginia needs to dramatically expand covid-19 testing before it reopens its economy. \"We’re not doing the kind of real-time, instantaneous testing that I think we need to do in communities throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia,\" Stoney, a Democrat, said during an April 10 interview on Newsradio WRVA. \"We’ve lagged behind other states when it comes to testing.\" We fact checked whether Virginia really is trailing in coronavirus testing. Jim Nolan, Stoney’s communications director, said the mayor got his information from the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University, a widely-cited website for covid-19 data. On every day in mid April, it shows Virginia ranked either 49th or 50th among states in covid-19 testing per capita. On April 21 - the date of this writing - Virginia was last. It had conducted 58,394 tests, or, on a per capita basis, 738 tests per 100,000 residents. The next lowest was California, at 747 tests per 100,000. Across the U.S., 1,168 tests had been conducted per 100,000. New York, hardest hit by covid-10, had tested a leading 3,851 per 100,000. Here’s how Virginia compared to its neighbors, in number of tests per 100.000: West Virginia, 1,514; Tennessee, 1,479; Maryland, 1,142; Kentucky, 941; North Carolina, 794; Virginia, 738. On April 10, when Stoney made his statement, Virginia was 49th in per capita testing, leading Kansas. While Virginia has been at the bottom in testing, other Johns Hopkins data shows it ranks in the middle in the spread of the disease. On April 21, there had been 110 infected Virginians per 100,000. That’s 21st per capita. The controversy Testing numbers have a huge role in debate in Virginia and across the country over when governors should ease their stay-at-home restrictions and allow widespread business reopenings. President Donald Trump has called for lifting restrictions and is urging supporters to \"liberate\" several states where Democratic governors issued the orders. That includes Virginia, where Gov. Ralph Northam's order lasts until June 10. Virginia has seen several recent protests demanding Northam open the state now. Northam, a pediatric neurologist, says he set the date cautiously, noting that some projections show the virus may not peak in Virginia until late May. He recently appointed a work group to ramp up Virginia’s testing. \"The ability to run large numbers of tests is key to lifting restrictions on businesses and gathering,\" Northam said at an April 20 news conference. Northam’s explanation The governor and his advisors say they’ve had trouble competing with other states for scarce testing supplies. \"We’re scouring the country for the equipment to help our institutions increase testing,\" Daniel Carey, Virginia’s Secretary of Health and Human Resources, said on April 17. \"We just haven’t been successful because of the national shortage, but we realize we have to get significantly more testing…\" Northam says Trump has given \"limited guidance\" on how states can work through the competition. Many governors have voiced similar complaints. The Northam administration also gives reasons that may be unique to Virginia. Commissioner of Health Norman Oliver says Virginia had a slow start because - unlike some other states - no Virginia hospitals or labs developed their own tests. That meant, for a while, Virginia had to rely almost solely on the state lab for testing. The state lab was so crunched, Oliver says, that it set guidelines that limited testing to the most vulnerable patients. As a result, he says, many Virginia physicians didn’t seek tests for patients showing mild covid-19 symptoms. Carey also says Virginia’s method of reporting tests may create a time lag that hurts Virginia when compared to other states. Northam says Virginia’s has improved as the state’s private labs, universities and hospitals have begun creating their own tests. During the first three weeks of April, the total number of tests conducted in Virginia has quadrupled. Many states have seen similar expansions. Northam told clinicians this week they should start testing anyone who’s symptomatic. And the state’s now testing all patients and workers in extended-care facilities. Our ruling On April 10, Stoney said Virginia has \"lagged behind other states when it comes to (covid-19) testing.\" On any given date from the eve of the mayor's statement through this April 21 writing, Virginia has been last, or next to last, in per capita testing. Claim: Virginia has “lagged behind other states when it comes to (covid-19) testing.”",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not addressed, which is unacceptable given that both drugs are already on the market. And the costs here are significant. Ten milliliters of Bavencio can cost more than $1,600. The cost of 180 one-milligram tablets of Inlyta can be more than $15,000. (What were the dosages used in this study? The story doesn’t tell us.) The story makes clear to readers that it has no idea about the extent of the benefits: “While the company said the benefit was statistically significant, they did not specify the duration of progression-free survival.” We’re glad that the story makes its ignorance clear, but it raises the very serious question of why they would cover a story about which so little information is available. Potential harms aren’t addressed. Again, this is unacceptable given that both drugs are already on the market. And these problems can be significant. The potential side effects associated with Bavencio include lung, liver and kidney problems. Potential side effects associated with Inlyta include heart failure and serious or fatal bleeding. The story notes that the ongoing study involves patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, and that the study includes a control group that is receiving a drug called Sutent. It doesn’t tell readers how many patients are enrolled in the study or, well, anything else. No disease mongering here. The story does make clear that the information about the ongoing study came from a company that makes one of the relevant drugs. That’s good. However, the story does not incorporate input from any independent sources. The story states that a control group in the study is receiving treatment with a drug called Sutent, and that patients receiving that drug are not faring as well as patients who receive both Bavencio and Inlyta. However, the story doesn’t address whether any patients were receiving both Bavencio and Sutent, nor does it address any other potential treatments for advanced renal cell carcinoma. Are there even other treatment options available? The story doesn’t say. The story does not make clear that Bavencio and Inlyta are already on the market, much less that Bavencio’s current use is for treatment of a skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma. The story provides no context for the research. Are there limited treatment options for advanced renal cell carcinoma? Is the joint use of immunotherapy treatments and anti-cancer drugs a busy area of research? How is this work similar to or different from earlier research? The story addresses none of those questions. The story appears to be drawn entirely from a news release issued by Merck KGaA, the company that makes Bavencio. Of course, it could also have stemmed from a news release issued by Pfizer, the company that makes Inlyta. Given that the story attributes the information solely to Merck makes its release the likely source. Ultimately, it makes little difference: No reporting appears to have gone into the story. Claim: Merck KGaA, Pfizer's immuno-drug shown to alleviate kidney cancer",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no mention of the costs for drug-coated stents or bare metal stents. The story fails to quantify the benefit of decreased incidence of re-stenosis with the use of coated-stents as opposed to bare-metal stents. The title of the article \"Drug may make Stents Deadly\" is about the increased risk of fatal blood clots associated with the use of coated-stents and towards the end of the story, the actual magnitude of that risk (ranging from 0.6 to 2.6 % of patients) is presented. However, the story fails to quantify the harms associated with the use of plain metal stents. It does mention that the risks of re-stenosis after implantation of a plain metal stent is higher than with coated stents, though the story does not provide any information about the size of the risk nor the magnitude of the difference when comparing these two treatment options. The story did not clearly present the risks associated with the use of bare-metal stents. It did not outline the difference in risk of re-stenosis and thrombosis for these two medical devices. The story stated that patients with drug-coated stents had 30 – 40% less collateral blood-vessel function than those with bare-metal stents. It is really not possible to interprete this relative change in the absence of the absolute difference nor some idea of how much collateral blood vessel function is needed for optimum protection. The story owed it to readers to dig deeper and explain this. The story did not do a good job of explaining the problem presented in the opening paragraph, i.e. the formation of blood clots were more likely lethal in individuals receiving drug-coated stents. It would have been helpful to more fully describe the development of collateral circulation to provide blood supply to the heart muscle and how less collateral circulation increases the risk to the heart muscle when a portion of the blood supply to the heart muscle is blocked by a clot. Because the story did not explain when the use of a stent is indicated or not, this piece has a disease mongering quality. The story quotes on3 of the authors of the study reported on as well as an investigator in the field who has no obvious connection with the study. While presenting information supporting a hypothesis for why there is an increased risk of blood clots in the coronary arteries of people who have a coated stent as opposed to a bare metal stent, the story did not do an adequate job of presenting the treatment options of individuals with partial blockage of coronary arteries – i.e. the story failed to mention the role of medical therapy either without stenting or when stent placement is followed by medical therapy. Although the story did mention that it was important for \"doctors to make sure they have selected the correct stent for\" the patient, it would have been more helpful to provide some guidance to readers about how to talk with their doctors to remind them about selecting the stent that is appropriate for that particular patient. The story presented an estimate that 80% of Americans who are treated with a stent receive a drug-coated stent (as opposed to a bare metal stent). The story did, however, neglect to mention what the indications are when a stent (whether bare metal or drug-coated) is recommended. This is a story reporting on the observations from a new study. Does not appear to rely on a press release Claim: Drugs may make stents deadly, study says",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A mysterious international dispute that threatens the recently thawed diplomatic relationship between the United States and Cuba came to light in a 10 August 2017 story first reported by the Associated Press. The report focused on a series of seemingly related illnesses suffered by American and Canadian diplomats serving in Cuba. The original reporting included what later appeared to be speculation from unnamed United States government officials that some form of heretofore unknown sonic weapon was to blame: In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of President Barack Obama’s reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Some of the U.S. diplomats’ symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been attacked with an advanced sonic weapon that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. The U.S. State Department later walked back claims that they specifically had concluded a sonic weapon was at play, saying through a spokesperson that “we do not know who or what is causing these incidents”. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has described the incidents as “health attacks”, and Cuba denies any involvement. As reported by the Associated Press on 18 September 2017, the range of symptoms is nonspecific and vague: Of the 21 medically confirmed U.S. victims, some have permanent hearing loss or concussions, while others suffered nausea, headaches and ear-ringing. Some are struggling with concentration or common word recall, the AP has reported. Some victims felt vibrations or heard loud sounds mysteriously audible in only parts of rooms, leading investigators to consider a potential “sonic attack.” Others heard nothing but later developed symptoms. In sum, the symptoms (none of which are universal to all cases) that have been used in the defense of the claim that a “sonic weapon” was used are as follows: Additional clues into the nature of the attack, including the occurrence of an audible noise in some cases, were provided first by a 20 August 2017 CNN report, reporting that some diplomats heard “a deafeningly loud [but unidentified] sound similar to the buzzing created by insects or metal scraping across a floor”. CBS News reported: Some felt vibrations, and heard sounds — loud ringing or a high-pitch chirping similar to crickets or cicadas. Others heard the grinding noise. The reports of screeching noises in some cases and no noise in most cases initially fed both government and media speculation that a “silent” audible device was most likely used (there are ranges of noise close to audible sound that can be heard by some but not others). The two options, then, would be an infrasonic device (below the audible frequency humans hear) or an ultrasonic device (above that range). The debate about which brand of inaudible noise would be used generally boils down to this: infrasonic waves capable of affecting humans covertly would need to be extremely close to the victim or unrealistically large, and they would not be able to produce a targeted attack, instead affecting a larger and thus more indiscriminate area. Ultrasonic waves could be targeted, focused, and beamed from further away, but are unlikely to cause a bulk of the symptoms ascribed to them and unless the device was physically touching the victim. Before diving into this research, two variables related to sound are necessary to understand what follows. These include the frequency of the noise — defined by the number of waves per unit of time — and also its power, determined by the amount of energy each wave carries. The former is reported in Hz or kHz, with infrasound including noise below 20 Hz, and ultrasound encompassing noise above 20 kHz (20,000 Hz). (The latter is reported in decibels or dB.) Below, we detail the main research regarding the primary symptoms discussed in the reporting of the Cuban “health attacks”, finding a.) that the evidence is fairly weak for both ultrasound and infrasound as the cause for a majority of the symptoms listed and b.) that none of the symptoms can be described entirely by either only infrasound or only ultrasound. Hearing Loss  The source most commonly cited in news reports suggesting that infrasound can cause hearing loss is a 2001 review conducted by the NIH, which stated (with heavy qualification) that research, while sparse, shows “physical damage to the ear or some loss of hearing has been found in humans and/or animals at levels above 140 dB”. The 140 dB measurement is no minor omission of detail, as 140 dB infrasonic waves projected covertly at any distance are essentially impossible. The actual studies reviewed in this NIH document generally suggest the opposite: low-frequency, high-power noise will not cause hearing loss, temporary or otherwise, if below the considerably high energy of 150 dB. Ultrasonic sound is widely considered to be irrelevant to hearing loss. Another 2001 review by Jürgen Altmann, an acoustic weapons expert and physicist at Germany’s Technische Universitaet Dortmund and who investigated the bulk of the literature up to that time, concluded that at ultrasound “the ear is essentially untouched” if levels are below 140 dB. Fatigue, Headaches, Ringing Ears, Vertigo, and Nausea  Based on the reviews performed by both the NIH and by Altmann, there is no scientific consensus on fatigue, headaches, ringing ears, or vertigo as they apply to infrasonic noise. The only symptom in this category discussed as a possible result of infrasonic noise is nausea. Per the NIH: There is no agreement about the biological activity of infrasound. Reported effects include […] nausea, vomiting, and bowel spasm. Altmann (and many others) argued that the gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, and bowel spasms in particular, while frequently reported in the press, have been overblown and cannot conclusively be tied to infrasonic sound: The vertigo and nausea effects in the journalistic articles ascribed to intense infrasound cannot be confirmed. On the other hand, low [but still audible] frequencies of 50-100 Hz at 150 to 155 dB caused mild nausea. Many of the above symptoms (headaches, ringing ears, nausea, and fatigue), however, were once referred to in the literature as “ultrasonic sickness”. This suite of symptoms and their ties to ultrasonic noise was based on numerous reports from workers in proximity to a variety of ultrasonic devices or tools. Altmann has argued that this literature is hard to interpret as these environments contain significant audible sound, as well. A 2013 review of the effects of ultrasound on humans makes a similar argument: Many studies confirmed the appearance of subjective symptoms of exposure to noise emitted by ultrasonic devices like dizziness, balance disturbances, tinnitus and fatigue. It is assumed that those symptoms result from the effect of noise on the vestibular system; however, further studies are necessary. […] According to the results of studies in the 1960s and 1970s, “audible” components of the noise spectrum are, above all, responsible for subjective symptoms among workers exposed to noise emitted by ultrasonic devices. Concentration and memory problems There are few human studies addressing the neurological effects of infrasonic sound on cognition. Within those, a few single studies demonstrate a connection between infrasound and cognition on humans and animals. Overall, however, most research demonstrates no connection at all, and none have suggested permanent or persistent issues after exposure, as stated in the National Institutes of Health’s 2001 review: In several experiments to assess cognitive performance during exposure to infrasound […] no reduction in performance was observed in the subjects. Sole exposure to infrasound at 10 to 15 Hz and 130 to 135 dB for 30 minutes also did not produce changes in autonomic nervous functions. In terms of ultrasound, the 2013 review noted that many concentration issues could be associated with the symptoms of “ultrasonic sickness” without being directly caused by the noise itself: It is worth mentioning that some subjective effects of exposure to ultrasonic noise such as fatigue, headache, discomfort or irritation may disturb human cognitive functions. This body of research refers to the transient appearance of these symptoms when in direct contact with that sound, and makes no suggestion of prolonged memory problems like word recall. Outside of occupational studies that lack relevance to sonic weapon development and by their nature include audible sound as well, there is little evidence in humans to suggest that ultrasound can be the cause for permanent neurological damage. Mild Traumatic Brain Injury  Altmann, author of the 2001 review of acoustic weapons, told the Associated Press: I know of no acoustic effect or device that could produce traumatic brain injury or concussion-like symptoms. The only real mechanism for a damage to the internal organ system such as the brain would be through some sort of powerful internal vibration caused by the strong vibration of the sound waves themselves. Scientists agree that this would best be achieved by infrasound, but the evidence that such frequencies could actually make this happen is quite limited and derived almost entirely from studies on animals or anecdotal reports. A 2009 review published in the journal Military Medicine notes that “remarkable properties have been attributed to infrasound, including the capacity to ‘debilitate people for hours and even days,’ with ‘pulsing in their internal organs and blurred vision, both of which can lead to …, in rare cases, death,'” but this review also highlights the reality that there are nearly no studies to back up such claims. In fact, studies performed as far back as 1978 and as recently as 2009 conclude that an infrasonic weapon used to harm major organ systems would be implausible — if not completely impossible. In terms of ultrasound, it is essentially impossible for this kind of energy to penetrate into the human body without direct contact, as the waves dissipate rapidly through the air (and, it should be noted, pretty rapidly within the body as well). Responding to questions that ultrasonic waves could cause brain damage,  Robin Cleveland, a professor of engineering science at the University of Oxford, told the Guardian he doesn’t buy it: “The sound would have to enter the brain tissue itself […]. If there’s even a tiny bit of air between the sound and your body it doesn’t get through.” Blood Disorders Without knowing more than that a victim experienced “a more serious illness that involved a blood disorder” it is hard to confidently assess plausibility of this this kind of disease except to say that the reasons ultrasonic noise do not explain brain damage would likely hold for any illness that requires sound to penetrate into the body. According to the NIH, the most consistently reported effect of infrasonic noise (though the mechanisms remains unclear) seem to be changes in blood pressure and respiratory rate, which could perhaps be linked to other diseases indirectly. There is no existing evidence that links noise of any kind to the development of a blood disorder. In the End, Neither Infrasound or Ultrasound Work as an Explanation Taking even the most tenuous scientific research at face value, an ultrasonic device could be responsible for the transient occurrence of fatigue, headaches, ringing ears, vertigo, and nausea and (even more dubious) concentration and memory issues. Taking a similarly loose approach for infrasound, this kind of noise could cause hearing loss, nausea, and (most dubiously) some form of organ discomfort or damage. Neither can explain all of the symptoms. Further, there is no real way to create a covert version of either device. F. Joseph Pompei, a former MIT researcher and current chief executive officer of a company that develops devices that focus sound into narrow, targeted beams, told us that a focused or controllable beam of 20Hz (infrasonic) sound would require an array of subwoofers “the size of a stadium”. Conversely, he told us, for an ultrasonic device to penetrate into the body at all, the victim would either have to be submerged in water or have the device in physical contact (both conditions would allow those waves to pass into the body without reflecting off it). This, as well, seems unlikely to be a covert choice for an attack. “It sounds very appealing and interesting, but I find it hard to believe that there actually is such a device,”  John Oghalai, Chair of the Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Southern California, told The Verge. Collectively, the scientific research — which in many cases notes that anecdotal and inaccurate reports in newspapers have long obfuscated the actual science behind the plausibility of such a device — demonstrates that no single brand of sound could create the range of symptoms described by the victims of the Cuban health attacks, and even if they could, a covert device would be hard if not impossible to design. As such we rank the specific claim that an inaudible sonic device adequately explains the health attacks in Cuba as false. On 1 September 2018, the New York Times reported on a theory the government is said to be considering as a cause of the health attacks on American and other diplomats in Cuba: focused beams of microwave energy that can cause both brain damage and the perception of noises when such noises do not exist. This effect, the Times reported, has been known to science since 1961 as the Frey effect or the microwave auditory effect. In a 2017 paper, electrical engineering professor James Lin suggested this phenomenon could explain the events in Havana:  Some readers may find it preposterous or astonishing that auditory perception of (or hearing) microwave pulses is possible. So let me explain. Studies have shown that the auditory phenomenon occurs at a microwave radiation specific-energy-absorption rate threshold of 1.6 W/g for a single 10-μs-wide pulse of microwaves aimed at the subject or subject’s head, for example. Most significantly, high-power microwave pulses may be covertly delivered remotely, so that only the intended target would perceive the sound in his or her own head … Depending on the intensity of the impinging microwave pulses, the level of induced sound pressure could be considerably above the threshold of auditory perception at the cochlea— approaching or exceeding levels of discomfort (including the reported headaches, ringing in the ears, nausea, and problems with balance or vertigo) and even causing potential tissue injury. Douglas H. Smith, the lead author on a March 2018 paper about the Cuban health attacks and the director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said that “microwaves were now considered a main suspect.” The Times also cited “a secretive group of elite scientists that helps the federal government assess new threats to national security” assuggesting that the microwave theory is among those being considered. The weaponization of this technology, the Times reported, has been of interest to both the United States and the former Soviet Union. The Cuban government, via a CNN interview with a member of the Cuban task force investigating the attacks, has pushed back against this theory, suggesting it belongs in the realm of science fiction and that it is inconsistent with the reported circumstances described by the victims:  “If you look at the alleged events, there have been reports that there are several people in a room with thick walls and thick windows and only one person was targeted. This is a kind of weapon that doesn’t exist,” said Dr. Mitchell Valdes-Sosa, a well-known neurologist who is part of the Cuban special task force investigating the alleged attacks. “It’s science fiction, not science,” he said. “First, it was sonic weapons, now microwave. What’s next, kryptonite?” the investigator said in an interview with CNN at his research center in Havana, referring to an earlier theory that sonic weapons emitting high-powered ultrasound waves could have caused the injuries. Claim: An inaudible sonic weapon adequately explains the range of symptoms experienced by diplomats suffering from “health attacks” in Cuba.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: At a debate in Tampa, the Republican presidential candidates were asked this stumper by a Florida tea party supporter: How do you convince senior citizens that Social Security and Medicare need to be changed and still get their vote? Bachmann said she had both the government experience and the private-sector experience to understand how the programs should be changed, but she offered few specifics. She also took the opportunity to criticize the new health care law championed by President Barack Obama, saying, \"We know that President Obama stole over $500 billion out of Medicare to switch it over to Obamacare.\" We've looked into this topic previously, though we haven't heard the specific allegation that the money was \"stolen.\" We'll begin with a review of how the new health care law handles funding for Medicare and for the new parts of the law. To begin with, the health care law leaves in place the major insurance systems: employer-provided insurance, Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for the poor. It attempts to reduce the number of uninsured by expanding Medicaid for the very poor and by offering tax breaks to help people with modest incomes buy insurance. Individuals are required to have insurance or pay a penalty, a mechanism called the \"individual mandate.\" And companies that don't offer insurance to employees have to pay fines, with exceptions for small business and a few other cases. The national health care reform law also made several changes to Medicare, which makes up roughly 12 percent of the federal budget. In a few cases, the law actually increased Medicare spending to provide more benefits and coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a trusted independent source that analyzes the health care system. For instance, the health care law added money to cover prevention services and to fill a gap for enrollees who purchase prescription drugs through the Medicare Part D program. (That coverage gap is often referred to as the doughnut hole.) Other parts of the law are intended to reduce future growth in Medicare spending, to encourage more efficiency and to improve the delivery and quality of care. (An example is paying hospitals less when patients are quickly re-admitted to hospitals after being discharged, to prevent people from being discharged too soon.) The bill doesn't take money out of the current Medicare budget but, rather, it attempts to slow the program's future growth, curtailing just over $500 billion in anticipated spending increases over the next 10 years. Medicare spending will still increase, however. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare spending will reach $929 billion in 2020, up from $499 billion in actual spending in 2009. So while the health care law reduces the amount of future spending growth in Medicare, the law doesn't cut current funding for Medicare. Still, where does the $500 billion in future savings come from? Nearly $220 billion comes from reducing annual increases in payments that health care providers would otherwise receive from Medicare. Other savings include $36 billion from increases in premiums for higher-income beneficiaries and $12 billion from administrative changes. A new national board -- the Independent Payment Advisory Board -- will be tasked to identify $15.5 billion in savings, but the board is prohibited from proposing anything that would ration care or reduce or modify benefits. Then there's another $136 billion in projected savings that would come from changes to the Medicare Advantage program, an alternative to traditional Medicare that has turned out to be much more costly than expected. About 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. If you disregard the incendiary word \"stole,\" it is true that savings from Medicare help pay for other parts of the health care law. That's because Democrats wanted to make sure they did not increase the federal deficit with the new health law. The savings from Medicare offset new spending resulting from the health care bill. Mostly, the new spending in the health care law comes from tax credits to help people of modest incomes buy health insurance and from expanding Medicaid to offer coverage to the poor. The tax credits and other cost-sharing subsidies are estimated to cost $350 billion over 10 years, while the Medicaid expansion costs $434 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Those two initiatives add up to more than $500 billion. So in addition to reducing future Medicare spending, the law also increases Medicare taxes on the wealthy and creates new fees for the health care industry, as well as a few other things, to come up with the needed sums. Now, to address the word \"stole.\" The money was not stolen in any literal sense of the word. Congress passed the law through its normal process, and the cost reductions for Medicare were out in the open during the many weeks that the final law was being negotiated. Bachmann said that, \"We know that President Obama stole over $500 billion out of Medicare to switch it over to Obamacare.\" There is a small amount of truth in her statement in that future savings from Medicare are planned to offset new costs created by the law. But the law attempts to curtail the rapid growth of future Medicare spending, not cut current funding. Additionally, the money was not \"stolen.\" Congress reduced spending on a program through its normal legislative process. That kind of rhetoric is deceptive, and it undermines Bachmann's basic point. We rate her statement . Claim: We know that President Obama stole over $500 billion out of Medicare to switch it over to Obamacare.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who issued some of the earliest social-distancing orders of any governor to combat the spread of the coronavirus, took issue with President Donald Trump’s tweeted solidarity with protesters in several states who were demanding an end to stay-at-home orders. On April 17, Trump tweeted, \"LIBERATE MICHIGAN,\" \"LIBERATE MINNESOTA,\" and \"LIBERATE VIRGINIA,\" apparently referring to demonstrations at state capitols where protesters called for lifting restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. On the April 19 edition of ABC’s \"This Week,\" host George Stephanopoulos asked Inslee, a Democrat, for his reaction to Trump’s tweets. Inslee responded: \"We have an order from governors, both Republicans and Democrats, that basically are designed to protect people's health, literally their lives, (only) to have a president of the United States basically encourage insubordination, to encourage illegal activity. These orders actually are the law of these states. And, again, these are not just Democrats. These are Republican-led states as well. To have an American president to encourage people to violate the law, I can't remember any time during my time in America where we have seen such a thing.\" We wondered whether it’s accurate to call state stay-at-home orders \"laws,\" and whether they conflict with freedoms of speech and assembly under the First Amendment. So we asked legal experts. They agreed that while most fall under the heading of \"proclamations\" or \"executive orders,\" they were issued under legal authority delegated by legislatures, meaning that have the same practical effect. The orders also would have a good chance of being deemed constitutional in court, they said. By now, most states have issued a stay-at-home order and/or requirements for business closures. (The National Governors Association has the complete list.) However, most of these were not laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor — the typical way of passing a state law. Instead, many of them have been made through executive orders, such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois. Others have been made in the form of a \"proclamation,\" such as the orders in Louisiana; a \"directive,\" as was issued in Utah; or simply an \"order,\" as in Idaho. In Inslee’s case, he signed a proclamation establishing stay-at-home rules for Washington state. A spokesman for Inslee said, however, that the proclamation was tantamount to a law, because it was made under authority delegated to the governor’s office by another law that had been passed the conventional way. Inslee’s order was enacted under Washington’s emergency powers law, which authorizes him to \"proclaim a state of emergency\" and make a series of prohibitions pursuant to that emergency, such as \"prohibiting ... any person from being on the public streets.\" Washington's Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, appeared on the April 19 edition of ABC's \"This Week\" Experts told PolitiFact that despite the linguistic and procedural differences between orders and law, the stay-at-home orders effectively carry the force of law. \"Calling it ‘the law of the state’ is fair,\" said I. Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law School professor. \"Statutes passed by legislatures are what most people think of when one says ‘laws,’ but from a lawyer’s point of view, a common-law decision by a judge, a regulation, or an action by the governor would all qualify broadly as ‘the law.’\" James G. Hodge Jr., director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University, called it \"entirely accurate\" to consider an executive order to be a law. Laws can be derived from a constitution, a statute, a regulation, case law, \"or orders implemented through legal means, including emergency powers invoked by governors.\" One thing many orders have in common with laws is enforcement power. Under Inslee’s order, certain violations can result in a misdemeanor. Several other states — including California, Hawaii, Michigan and Oregon — explicitly label violations as potential misdemeanors. New Jersey specifies that violators could be subject to disorderly-conduct charges, carrying imprisonment of up to six months or a fine. (The National Governors Association has a list of selected states’ enforcement powers here.) Just because law enforcement has arrest power in many of these states doesn’t mean they’ll be eager to use it. \"Police can and do enforce stay-at-home orders, but arresting violators and jailing them would defeat the purpose of the order,\" said Nicole Huberfeld, a professor of health law, ethics and human rights at Boston University School of Public Health. Inslee’s spokesman, Mike Faulk, said his boss is not eager to use law-enforcement powers. \"Do we want to bring charges against people? No, we never have,\" Faulk said. \"That’s why we are focused on education and soliciting voluntary compliance before taking legal or regulatory action.\" Gubernatorial stay-at-home orders do pose special concerns for First Amendment rights, particularly freedom of assembly. But fundamental rights can be trumped by public health concerns, experts said. In the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts, for example, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a mandatory vaccination law was a legitimate exercise of state power to protect public health and safety. As for the First Amendment, there are several longstanding exceptions, including the famous \"falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic\" exception, which dates back to the unanimous 1917 decision in Schenck v. United States. \"Time, place, and manner restrictions on speech, including protests, so long as they are not targeted to a particular message, are frequently upheld,\" Huberfeld said. In addition, she said, \"government authority to protect public health, safety, and welfare tends to be read more expansively during an emergency. While silencing people totally would be questionable, during a pandemic that involves a highly contagious disease, the government may find it necessary to prevent public gatherings until such gatherings are deemed safe by health experts.\" Hodge agreed. \"The government can shut down protests to the extent they involve physical gatherings of persons in violation of specific state-based emergency orders,\" he said. \"Rights to speech and assembly do not constitutionally include endangering the health of others, especially in pandemic circumstances involving an easily spread, deadly condition like COVID-19.\" Inslee said that stay-at-home orders \"actually are the law of these states.\" Technically, many have been issued in the form of executive orders or proclamations, rather than a conventional law passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. However, a broad range of legal experts said that executive orders, proclamations and similar orders are equivalent to legislature-passed laws and can be enforced in essentially the same way, and in tandem with existing laws such as disorderly conduct. Claim: Stay-at-home orders “actually are the law of these states.”",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Daily Press reports Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Daniel Carey is seeking nearly $20 million over the next two years, on top of more than $4 million this year, to add 56 beds at Catawba State Hospital. Mental health subcommittee chairman Sen. Creigh Deeds disagrees with the proposal. He’s been fighting since his son died in 2013 to increase efforts to help people struggling with mental illness before they need a hospital. The state legislature has promised more funding for community mental health services. Data from the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration say Virginians get less community care than most Americans. ___ Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com/ Claim: Virginia psychiatric hospitals run short on open beds.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: After two black men died at the hands of police, CNN commentator Van Jones tried to make a case for institutional racism in law enforcement with panelist Harry Houck, a former New York Police Department detective, during the July 7 edition of Erin Burnett Outfront. \"The statistics don't lie about the excessive numbers of stops,\" said Jones, who is black. \"Let's not talk about traffic stops. Let's take something tough like drugs. African-Americans don't use drugs (at a) higher level than whites. (It's) about the same percentage; about 12 percent. But we wind up getting arrested, not 50 percent more. We wind up going to prison six times more because there seems to be some institutional bias. Doesn't that bother you?\" Houck's response: \"That doesn't show any institutional bias.\" We were interested in Jones' statement that blacks don't use drugs at a higher level than whites, yet they the wind up going to prison six times more often. We fact-checked a similar statement in February 2016, when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton declared that \"African-Americans are more likely to be arrested by police and sentenced to longer prison terms for doing the same thing that whites do.\" We rated that statement True. But Jones' comment was less generic, dealing specifically with drugs. When we contacted him, he said he was going away for a while and couldn't remember the source off the top of his head. So we went looking for information. Jones may have been referring to data contained in the 2014 National Research Council report on \"Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences.\" Pages 60 and 61 focus on drug crimes. We'll talk about drug use first. The report says, \"The prevalence of drug use is only slightly higher among blacks than whites for some illicit drugs and slightly lower for others; the difference is not substantial. There is also little evidence, when all drug types are considered, that blacks sell drugs more often than whites.\" We checked the overall data from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Here's the breakdown for all illicit drugs. There are racial differences in the types of drugs being abused, according to surveys by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Blacks, for example, are far less likely to have used marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogens in their lifetime than whites, but — at least in the case of marijuana — whites are more likely to give it up over time. With that backdrop, the National Research Council report says, \"In recent years, drug-related arrest rates for blacks have been three to four times higher than those for whites. In the late 1980s, the rates were six times higher for blacks than for whites.\" Here's the drug arrest rate trend:  But Jones was talking about the rates of imprisonment for drug crimes, not arrest rates. Those numbers turned out to be harder to find. We turned to Nazgol Ghandnoosh, a research analyst for The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group in Washington. She pointed us to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reporting on the number of people going to state prison for drug offenses and numbers from the United States Sentencing Commission on the racial makeup of drug offenders going to federal prison. Those numbers aren't perfect for our comparison. For example, the state prison data only lists inmates based on their most serious offense, so someone convicted of a drug crime may not be listed in that category if that person was given a longer sentence for assault. Adjusting for the number of blacks and whites (another approximation because many Americans are of mixed race), the black imprisonment rate for drug offenses is about 5.8 times higher than it is for whites. That's very close to what Jones said. It should be noted that these numbers vary from source to source. The NAACP's Criminal Justice Fact Sheet asserts that \"five times as many whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites.\" It doesn't list a source. Spokeswoman Raquel Coombs said the ratios may be out of date. We noted in the BJS data that the racial disparity has decreased significantly since 1991. That NAACP 10 percent imprisonment statistic appears to be based on 2003 data analyzed in 2009 by Human Rights Watch. (We also note that the drug-use statistic is easy to misread. Whites aren't five times more likely to use drugs. Five times more whites are using drugs because there are about 5.5 times more whites in the U.S. population than blacks.) We wondered why so many more blacks are going to prison for drug offenses. They're more likely to get caught selling drugs, as Michael Tonry, professor of law at the University of Minnesota, told us back in February. \"Whites are more likely to sell to people they know, and they much more often sell behind closed doors. Blacks sell to people they don't know and in public, which makes them vastly easier to arrest.\" Blacks arrested for drugs are more likely to be sent to jail because they're more likely to have had a previous run-in with the law. Police tend to patrol high-crime areas more aggressively, which tend to be the poor areas, which have a higher proportion of minorities. Thus, they're more likely to be stopped for something and have a rap sheet once a drug charge comes along. As we found in our previous fact-check, their sentences also tend to be longer. Our ruling Jones said that African-Americans don't use drugs at a higher level than whites but wind up going to prison six times more. African-Americans use drugs at roughly the same levels as white Americans, although overall illicit drug use among blacks has been marginally higher than for whites, with some differences in the types of drugs used, according to a national surveys. Jones' bigger point was about the disparity in sentencing, and the rate of African-Americans' incarceration for drug offenses is very close to what Jones said. We rate his claim . Claim: African-Americans don't use drugs at a higher level than whites but \"wind up going to prison six times more.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story is clear on this point, stating: “All the bisphosphonates are now available in generic form, for as little as $5 a month.” The only point of confusion is that the story also refers to “newer osteoporosis drugs retailing for hundreds of dollars or more a month.” However, it doesn’t tell us anything else about these drugs, other than their names. (We’ll get back to that in the “Compare Alternatives” section.) This entire story is essentially about comparing the benefits and risks of bisphosphonate use for treating osteoporosis. The story states early on that “An analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine last month estimated that for every 1,000 women with osteoporosis treated up to five years, bisphosphonates prevented 100 fractures and caused at most 1.” But the story also notes that “Some critics say the new analysis overestimates the benefits and underestimate the number of sudden thigh-bone fractures.” There are some issues with the story handles benefits, but we’ll address that under “Quality of Evidence.”  We’d add that as much as we would like there to be simple and incontrovertible answers to questions surrounding benefits and risks, these numbers simply do not exist. The story mentions potential harms in its lead sentence, referring to “such serious side effects as sudden bone fractures.” As noted above, the entire story is essentially about comparing the benefits and risks of bisphosphonate use for treating osteoporosis. The story does a good job of discussing potential (and serious) side effects such as sudden fracture of the femur and osteonecrosis of the jaw. However, the story doesn’t mention the less serious (but more common) side effects such as heartburn or other gastrointestinal problems. Despite its overall high-quality coverage, the story earns a borderline Not Satisfactory on this criterion, and here’s why: The third sentence in the story states, “An analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine last month estimated that for every 1,000 women with osteoporosis treated up to five years, bisphosphonates prevented 100 fractures and caused at most 1.” Several paragraphs later, the story notes that “Some critics say the new analysis overestimates the benefits and underestimate the number of sudden thigh-bone fractures.” But this is is all the information the story gives readers about the NEJM paper. The story does tell us that the paper’s lead author consults for bisphosphonate manufacturers, which makes it particularly important to talk about where those benefits numbers come from. Unfortunately, reading the NEJM paper won’t shed much light on that — because the benefits information cited in the story stems from a table that draws on information from various previous journal articles. Most readers simply won’t have the time, the expertise or the access needed to track down and sort through those journal articles in order to determine how reliable that benefits information might be. If a story is going to highlight bold benefits statements, it should offer some insight into where those numbers came from. Similarly, if a story is going to include criticism about those numbers, it should include some discussion of who is leveling the criticism and what the critics claim the benefits and potential harms of the drugs to be. We liked that, when discussing osteopenia, the story included a quote from an expert that osteopenia “isn’t a disease. It merely tells us that bone density is in the lower part of normal range. There are an awful lot of people who fall into that category who may never get osteoporosis.” Hurray for paragraphs like this one, which help readers understand what a potentially scary medical term actually means and tells them not to panic. The story incorporates input from several sources, and tells readers precisely what sort of financial ties each source has to relevant drug companies. Kudos. The story discusses various dietary and lifestyle choices that can affect osteoporosis risk, which is great — and earns the story a “Satisfactory” rating here. However, there is one area where the story may have left readers a little confused. The story says “other osteoporosis drugs have different trade-offs,” but doesn’t tell readers what that means. It also says, “Newer osteoporosis drugs retailing for hundreds of dollars or more a month include Forteo (teriparatide) and Prolia (denosumab)” — but then doesn’t tell readers anything else about the drugs. If the drugs are worth mentioning, it’s also worth explaining what they are, how they may be beneficial, or at least what some of those unnamed trade-offs might be. It’s clear that bisphosphonates are in widespread use, and the article at least implied that the generic versions were generally available at the low quoted price — giving readers the tools to select the drug and look at reasonable pricing. The story focuses on an active debate, rather than on a new technique, technology, or drug. There are no claims to novelty, so we’ll rate this as not applicable. The story clearly goes well beyond what would be found in any news release. Claim: More support for osteoporosis drugs",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A fundraising letter making the rounds from a conservative political action committee draws a political line in the sand over light bulbs. \"The Democrats have already voted to BAN our conventional lights bulbs (that you and I use even today!) in favor of DANGEROUS fluorescent light bulbs,\" writes Alan Gottlieb, chairman of AmeriPAC, a political action committee that largely supports conservative Republican candidates. The letter then invites people to read a letter from the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise Action Fund. \"By outlawing incandescent lights in favor of compact fluorescent lighting, the environmentalists said the country would reduce energy consumption by $18 billion a year, or save consumers between $80 to $180 on their electric bills per year,\" the letter states. \"The plus for the globalists? They said it would reduce global warming because one of the causes of global warming is...you guessed it...the old fashioned Tom Edison light bulb.\" The letter seeks contributions and support for S.B. 395, the Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act, sponsored by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., which seeks to repeal the light bulb efficiency standards included in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. \"Help put an end to governmental interference in our lives! Help put an end to Mr. Obama interfering with free enterprise!\" the letter urges, referring to President Barack Obama. We are checking several claims from these light bulb letters, and in this one, we will tackle the central claim that, \"Democrats have already voted to ban our conventional lights bulbs (that you and I use even today!) in favor of dangerous fluorescent light bulbs.\" First off, it's not accurate to pin the law entirely to Democrats. It's true that more Democrats than Republicans voted for the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. But it got a measure of bipartisan support. It passed the House with a 264-163 vote (with 36 Republicans voting in favor). And in the Senate, the vote was 65-27 (with 20 votes in favor from Republicans). And it was signed by Republican President George W. Bush. We also explore the issue of whether fluorescent bulbs release \"dangerous\" amounts of mercury into the environment in a separate fact-check. But the bigger issue here is the claim that the bill bans incandescent light bulbs. Sec. 321 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 spells out the new standards, essentially requiring that light bulbs be 25 percent more efficient than they are now. Specifically, a 100 watt light bulb is to be replaced with a bulb using no more than 72 watts of electricity while still providing comparable light output. The 75-watt, 60-watt and 40-watt bulbs must be replaced by bulbs using no more than 53, 43 and 29 watts respectively. The law phased in the new requirements: first the replacements for the 100-watt bulbs by Jan. 1, 2012; followed by the lower watt bulbs in ensuing years. The curlicue compact fluorescent bulbs and LED light bulbs easily meet the new efficiency standards. But we couldn't find any language in the law that specifically bans incandescent bulbs. So we asked Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise Action Fund to back up the claim that the law \"outlaws\" incandescent light bulbs. Arnold said the bill is filled with vague and confusing language and that there is a de facto ban because the standards are so stringent that no manufacturers will be able to build incandescent bulbs that meet them. \"We believe 'ban' is an accurate term because there is no such thing as what they require,\" Arnold said. \"If it's available, where can I buy it?\" he asked. \"Why doesn't Home Depot carry them?\" Actually, they do, said Randy Moorhead, VP of government affairs at Philips Electronics, one of the three major manufacturers of light bulbs in the U.S.  Philips' new EcoVantage bulb, a halogen incandescent light bulb that runs on 72 watts but throws off as much light as a standard 100 watt bulb (and lasts just as long), shipped out to Home Depot in April, he said. Philips also offers a premium bulb that costs more, but lasts three times longer. Both bulbs are more expensive than the current 100 watt incandescent bulbs, but they more than pay for themselves in savings on electricity to power them (more on that in another fact-check). The two other big players in the industry, Osram Sylvania and GE, have also developed new halogen incandescent bulbs that meet the new efficiency standards. But for those, you'll have to head to Lowe's. Moorhead said industry representatives were closely involved in the legislative process to develop the new efficiency standards and would never have supported a ban of incandescent bulbs. The companies, as well as the legislators who drafted the bill, were keenly aware that the new standards could be met through the development of halogen incandescent light bulbs, he said. \"You don't have to buy fluorescent bulbs,\" said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Jen Stutsman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, said the claims about a ban on incandescent light bulbs are simply wrong. \"It doesn't ban a specific type of light bulb,\" she said. This one is a clear call for us. It's true that the current versions of incandescent light bulbs will be phased out of existence. Compact fluorescent and LED bulbs offer more efficient alternatives, but if incandescent light is your thing, the major light bulb makers have you covered. They have developed and shipped halogen incandescent bulbs that meet the new efficiency standards, so there is no basis in fact to claim they have been banned in favor of fluorescent bulbs. We rule this claim . Claim: The Democrats have already voted to ban our conventional light bulbs ... in favor of dangerous fluorescent light bulbs.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As the protests against an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation escalated in November 2016, environmentalist activists began targeting financial institutions backing the Dakota Access Pipeline and urging supporters to boycott them with various memes shared around social media, or petitions calling on the banks to pull their funds out of the project:  Financial documents from Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline builder, lists a number of large banking institutions that have provided credit for the project, including: Credit Suisse; Royal Bank of Canada; Suntrust Bank; BNP Paribas; HSBC; Citibank; Morgan Stanley; Wells Fargo, Bank of America; and JP Morgan Chase. The Standing Rock Sioux, who fear the pipeline’s route presents a threat to their sacred sites and water supply, have been fighting the project since 2014, but protesters calling themselves “water protectors,” lead by the tribe, have been camping near the site since April 2016 in an effort to stop the project. As of late November 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the land, and the governor of North Dakota, have made statements indicating they want the thousands of demonstrators encamped near the project site to leave. But the demonstration and continued opposition by the Standing Rock Sioux have turned an oil pipeline project into an intensifying cause that has drawn international scrutiny, an open letter from BankTrack notes: The debacle has escalated into a national crisis and an international scandal. A member of the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has been deployed to North Dakota to monitor the situation, while President Obama has intervened to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to examine alternative routes for the pipeline. Meanwhile, the protest at Standing Rock is backed by over a million – and growing – allies worldwide, with numerous solidarity actions springing up across the United States and beyond, including protests at EPFI headquarters and outlets. The world is closely watching how all actors involved will deal with the situation, including the banks that provide financial support to the project. Given the presumed Indigenous rights commitments of EPFIs, it is for us inexplicable that gross violations of Native land titles, threats to water sources and the desecration of burial grounds have not been identified early on as reasons for EPFIs to not provide funding for this project. However, this unfortunately fits into a documented and consistent pattern of disrespect of local communities and Indigenous rights by EPFI-backed projects worldwide. We understand that it is not the role of the EP Association to intervene in specific project situations. Nevertheless, we consider it crucial for the credibility of the Equator Principles as an effective safeguard against violation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights that your meeting calls upon the EPFIs involved in financing DAPL that they take swift action to stop the ongoing violation of the rights of Native Americans. The letter urges the banks to halt further loan payments and raises the concern that the project falls out of line with Equator Principles, a consortium that sets minimum standards to which signing institutions are expected to adhere on matters of community and environmental accountability. According to Energy Transfer Partners, the end project will be a 1,172-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline: ….that will connect the rapidly expanding Bakken and Three Forks production areas in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois” enabling the domestic production of light sweet crude oil “to reach major refining markets in a more direct, cost-effective, safer and environmentally responsible manner. Claim: Wells Fargo and Chase are invested in the Dakota Access Pipeline.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Somehow I doubt this is what Coca-Cola meant by ‘the pause that refreshes.’ Here’s a short newspaper summary from 1985 about the first study undertaken to verify claims about Coke’s contraceptive properties:  ‘OLD COKE’ BETTER THAN ‘NEW COKE?’ Common commodities such as honey and sodium bicarbonate, acidic fruit juices and oils have been used through history as spermicides. Three Harvard researchers note that Coca-Cola is said to be favored for this purpose in some developing countries and was touted in American folklore as a contraceptive aid in years gone by. No documentation of the soft drink’s spermicidal capabilities was found, so Dr. Sharee  Umpierre and two colleagues decided to test Coke in some of its various formulations in their lab. They found that Diet Coke was a most effective spermicide and the original formula Coke was also quite effective, five times more so than the reformulated “new” Coke. “Although not recommended for postcoital contraception, partly because sperm can be found in the oviducts within minutes after intercourse, Coca-Cola products do appear to have a spermicidal effect,” the researchers said in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. “Furthermore, our data indicate that at least in the area of spermicidal effect, ‘Classic’ Coke is it.”   [T]he researchers said they found marked differences in the ability of four different Coca-Cola formulations to act as a spermicide. At the same time, they warned against the use of soft drinks of any kind as douches after intercourse to prevent pregnancy. While there are differences among soft drinks, all fail as effective contraceptives, the researchers noted. To test the sperm-killing abilities of various Coca-Cola products, the three researchers prepared test tubes containing small samples of carefully preserved sperm and poured in small amounts of Diet Coke, New Coke, caffeine-free New Coke and Classic Coke — carefully repeating the test three times for each soda. All of them killed some sperm, but New Coke turned out to be least effective, with Diet Coke having the most pronounced effect overall and Classic Coke recording a five times greater sperm-killing rate than its upstart rival. “Coca-Cola products do appear to have a spermicidal effect,” the study deadpanned. “Furthermore, our data indicate that, at least in the area of spermicidal effect, ‘Classic Coke’ is it.” Coca-Cola saw little humor in the Harvard project. A spokesman said the company hadn’t seen the new report, but “our position is we do not promote any of our products for any medical use.”1  However, other researchers were unable to verify these results in later experiments. Subsequent trials performed by medical researchers in Taiwan (using several varities of both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola) led them to the opposite conclusion, that “cola has little if any spermicidal effect”:  The inhibitory effect of Old Coke, caffeine-free New Coke, New Coke, Diet Coke and Pepsi-Cola on human sperm motility was studied with a trans-membrane migration method. None of them could decrease sperm motility to less than 70% of control within one hour. A previous study which claimed a marked variation of spermicidal potencies among different formulations of Coca-Cola could not be confirmed. Even if cola has a spermicidal effect, its potency is relatively weak as compared with other well-known spermicidal agents. Testing of various cola formulas on sperm motility using a trans-membrane procedure did not decrease motility to less than 70% control in a 1-hour period. Diet Coca-Cola had the strongest spermicidal effect followed by Classic Coca-Cola, Caffeine-free Coca-Cola and New Coca-Cola. Since there are no known substances in cola that effect cellular membranes, the results of these tests were not unusual. Other tests have been done using higher dilution of cola which could effect sperm motility and give different results for spermicidal potencies. The results show that cola has little if any spermicidal effect. Its use in postcoital douching is ineffective and could cause complications such as infection.2  Whichever set of results one wants to believe, those tempted to grab a six-pack and head down to the beach should keep in mind that spermicides themselves aren’t all that effective at preventing pregnancy. Saying Diet Coke kills sperm is like saying a rubber glove makes a decent balloon — you shouldn’t interpret either as meaning that using them creatively will keep you safe from parenthesis. (That’s when you wind up pregnant and end up writing a book about it.) Coca-Cola may not be promoting its product as a spermicidal douche, but the idea ain’t new. Coke (and Dr Pepper in the southern States) douches have been part of contraceptive lore at least since the 1950s, with the common belief being that the carbonic acid in Coke killed the sperm and the sugar “exploded” the sperm cells, while the carbonation of the drink forced the jet of liquid into the vagina. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, this method of parenthood prevention proved somewhat popular because not only was it cheap and universally available at a time when reliable birth control methods were hard to come by, but it also came in its own handy “shake and shoot” disposable applicator. After intercourse, the girl would uncap a warm Coke, put her thumb over the mouth of the bottle, shake up the beverage, then insert the neck of the bottle in her vagina and move her thumb out of the way. The warm well-shaken Coke became an effervescent spermicidal douche, with the traditional (at that time) six-ounce bottle providing what was deemed to be just the right amount for one application. As stated above, this method wasn’t all that effective at preventing pregnancy. Though Coca-Cola might have been a (slight) step up from plain water, douching with any liquid is far too often a case of attempting to close the barn door after the horse has got loose. By the time the douche is fired off, 100,000 or thereabouts sperm are swimming around in the uterus, already out of reach of any douche, even a fizzy one. Women should be reluctant to turn to soda pop douches for another reason besides their ineffectiveness at preventing Momhood — the sugars in them being let loose in that part of a woman’s anatomy can lead to yeast infections, an annoying, difficult-to-cure condition. Oddly, a 1992 study conducted by Nigerian researchers found that, although Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola were ineffective as spermicides, Krest bitter lemon drink fared quite well in this regard, and they recommended additional study to determine whether it might have “great potential as such a contraceptive”:  This study investigated the effects of increase in temperature and in pH of Coca-Cola, Afri-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and Krest bitter lemon drinks (“soft drinks”) produced in Nigeria on the in vitro motility of spermatozoa. Of the drinks, Krest bitter lemon (unadjusted) immobilized all spermatozoa within 1 minute of addition. Conclusion: i) alkalinity decreases the spermicidal action of all drinks except Coca-Cola, and ii) Krest bitter lemon may achieve very high efficacy if used as post-coital douche, especially in the impoverished, densely populated Third World. Other than Krest bitter lemon, the significant decreases in sperm motility were not enough to prevent pregnancy. These findings indicated that researchers should test Krest bitter lemon for effectiveness as a postcoital contraceptive. If indeed it proves effective, it has great potential as such a contraceptive among the poor in the densely population developed countries since it is readily available and inexpensive.3 Claim: Coca-Cola is an effective contraceptive.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The new case was confirmed in Beni, a community that had been an epicenter of the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. It had been nearly 42 days without a case, and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Congo’s declaration had been planned for Monday. “We have been preparing for and expecting more cases,” he said, reflecting the caution that mixed with optimism in recent days. “I am sad,” WHO Africa chief Matshidiso Moeti said in a tweet. Health workers in Congo had been awaiting the end of one global public health emergency — Ebola — while bracing for the arrival of another: the coronavirus. Already, two coronavirus cases have been reported in Beni. “We’ll just have to go for another 42 days,” or the required period of time without a case for the Ebola outbreak to be declared over, said Mike Ryan, the emergencies chief for the WHO. “Maybe that’s our lesson for COVID-19: There is no exit strategy until you’re in control of the situation,” Ryan said. “You must always be ready to start again … never be surprised.” The Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 2,260 lives — second to the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa. The current outbreak declared in August 2018 has occurred in especially challenging conditions amid deadly rebel attacks, community suspicion and some of the world’s weakest infrastructure in remote areas. Some Ebola responders were attacked and killed. And yet the outbreak has seen the use of experimental Ebola vaccines, a welcome development in fighting one of the world’s most notorious diseases. In Beni on Friday, some residents were crushed. “It’s really a shame,” said Mbusa Kyota, who had just heard the news of the new Ebola case on the radio. “Now doctors, and the population, have to multiply their efforts to defeat this outbreak one more time.” Health workers had already been turning their Ebola messaging and other efforts to fighting the coronavirus. “This is a devastating development for the communities in eastern (Congo) who are also under threat from the coronavirus outbreak, in addition to ongoing conflict and displacement,” Kate Moger, a regional vice president with the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement. ___ Cheng reported from London. Claim: New Ebola case in Congo, days before outbreak’s expected end.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: President Donald Trump has been consistent and forceful in his argument that immigration represents a burden on the American taxpayer and the economy. His administration has sought to crack down on illegal immigration and curtail legal immigration, most recently by ordering a 60-day halt on issuance of green cards to people outside the United States. But a Facebook post crediting him with saving billions by denying welfare to \"illegal immigrants\" is inaccurate. \"President Trump has banned welfare for illegal immigrants which will save $57.4 billion a year,\" said the April 9 Facebook post. \"Do you support Trump on this?? I damn sure do!!\" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) There are several wrong premises with the post: Immigrants living in the country illegally and those who arrive on non-immigrant visas (such as students and tourists) are generally not eligible for federal public benefits, even though some pay income taxes and contribute to Social Security. This was the case before Trump became president. The Trump administration issued a rule in August 2019 that broadened the government’s ability to deny visas and permanent-resident status to immigrants who get public benefits or those who may need assistance after their arrival. The rule targets people who are seeking legal admission and those who are here and applying for permanent residency. The Facebook post doesn’t specify where the $57.4 billion figure comes from, but the post mirrors a headline on a Breitbart story. That story, however, was about legal immigration. Here's a more detailed explanation of the inaccuracies. Generally, immigrants living illegally in the United States are ineligible for federal public benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly called food stamps), regular Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. These restrictions are not the result of Trump’s presidency. They may be eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, Emergency Medicaid to cover emergency medical needs, and other emergency assistance, such as short-term non-cash, in-kind emergency disaster relief (which includes things like crisis counseling, shelter, food and water.) For decades, even immigrants who came to the United States legally have been restricted from public assistance for a period. A 1996 law barred immigrants from federal \"means tested\" public benefits for five years. (There are some exemptions; this story has more details.) Additionally, public-charge rules say that immigrants can be turned away if they are likely to depend on public-assistance programs; this type of restriction has been in place for more than 100 years. The Trump administration in August 2019 broadened the interpretation of these rules to make them stricter. But that did not ban welfare for immigrants here illegally. Immigration experts told PolitiFact that under the new rule, immigration officials will be able to deny immigrants visas if they are deemed \"more likely than not\" to use public benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing vouchers. Immigrants who are in the United States legally on temporary visas and have relied on such benefits in the past could also have more difficulty getting a green card. The Facebook post claimed that the purported ban would save Americans $57.4 billion a year. An August 2018 Breitbart headline said, \"Trump’s welfare ban for immigrants would be $57.4B tax cut for Americans.\" The story centered on Trump’s plan for a public-charge rule and immigrants who would \"resettle permanently\" in the United States. That Breitbart story linked to a 2016 post on its website headlined, \"National Academies: Immigrants cost state and local taxpayers $57.4 billion per year.\" A study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine estimated that the annual fiscal cost of first-generation immigrants and their dependents, averaged across 2011-2013, was $57.4 billion. The figure referred to state and local expenses, not federal costs or benefits, and the main cost was education, said Francine D. Blau, a Cornell University economics professor who chaired the panel of researchers studying the economic and fiscal consequences of immigration. \"We find that much of this cost is related to the cost of educating both immigrant children and U.S. citizen children of immigrants (we attribute the entire cost of education to the parents of school age children),\" Blau said via email. \"The cost is smaller if we recognize the public-good aspect of education, that is, the broader social benefits in having a more educated populace.\" The $57.4 billion also included costs of general public services such as police, fire, parks and recreation. It also did not apply only to immigrants in the country illegally. The study relied on data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which did not allow researchers to differentiate between immigrants here legally and illegally, Blau said. A Facebook post said, \"President Trump has banned welfare for illegal immigrants which will save $57.4 billion a year.\" Trump has not done that. Immigrants here illegally were already ineligible for most federal assistance programs. Trump’s administration issued a public-charge rule that would deny legal admission to people who are likely to depend on public benefits and which would make getting lawful permanent residency more difficult for people who are already in the country and used public assistance. The source of the $57.4 billion figure is unclear. A study estimated a $57.4 billion annual cost to state and local governments for first generation immigrants and their dependents. Schooling costs accounted for the bulk of that cost. The post is inaccurate. Claim: “President Trump has banned welfare for illegal immigrants which will save $57.4 billion a year.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Many of the deficiencies discussed above in the \"Evidence\" criterion could also be applied to this criterion. Importantly, the story didn’t do enough to call attention to the small and highly selected sample of patients, which likely biases the results towards greater accuracy than what would be observed in a larger and more diverse sample. There was also inadequate acknowledgment of the fact that this was a study of adults whereas the real need is for diagnostic tool for use in children. Yes, it was acknowledged that the childrens’ studies hadn’t been done but the outcome of these not-yet-done studies was almost treated as a fait accompli. Lastly, we would like to have seen some discussion of a somewhat subtle but important issue that wasn’t addressed. That is, whenever we diagnose a condition with new technology, the group of individuals identified as having the condition, in this case autism, will change. Some previously undiagnosed children will be labeled with autism and some previously labeled with autism will be told that this is not the diagnosis. In addition, the severity of the disease may change (a more sensitive test will likely identify milder cases). Anytime the spectrum of disease changes, we have to ask ourselves, Will the treatments produce the same benefits and harms? Since benefits are often smaller for individuals with milder disease but the adverse effects are the same, the risk benefit ratio often increases with the more sensitive test. As discussed above, the story doesn’t attempt to quantify the harm of false-positive or false-negative diagnoses. It also doesn’t explore the potential harm of labeling someone with borderline symptoms as having autism. In addition, it has now become clear that MRI with contrast is associated with kidney damage. Physicians now check kidney function in all patients prior to an MRI and must weigh the need for the images vs the very small (but tangible) risk of kidney damage. Readers would have been better served by more detail and less unbridled optimism in this piece. To wit: we learn that the scan’s accuracy was \"so high\" that the results were strongly significant despite the study’s small sample size. Instead of  gushing over the test’s accuracy, however, we think the story should have spent more time discussing the limitations of such a small study and the additional research that needs to be conducted to confirm these results. We still don’t know whether the method can differentiate between autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions. And it is unclear whether the results are applicable beyond the small group of high-functioning adult males who were studied. We also think the story failed to provide all of the necessary information about the study’s outcomes. To be effective, diagnostic tests must do more than simply identify individuals with a disease (which is the result this story focused on); they must also rule out those individuals who do not have a disease and do not require treatment. Failure to accomplish the latter will result in an excessively high false-positive rate and could result in much unnecessary treatment of healthy people. We recognize that this is a complex concept to convey in a consumer news story, but the story didn’t even mention the possibility that people without autism could be given an erroneous positive diagnosis. Finally, we should call attention to the story’s speculation about applying the new technology to children. The story quotes one of the study investigators saying there is \"no reason\" why the test wouldn’t work in children, even though it has never been tested in this population. In fact, there are any number of good reasons why this test might be less effective in the developing brain than in a mature one. Someone involved in this story – the reporter? the editor? somebody, please! – should have known this and injected some skepticism into the discussion. The story didn’t exaggerate the prevalence or impact of autism. One of the sources for this story was not involved in the research and has no obvious conflicts of interest. The story notes that autism is currently diagnosed via interviews and patient observation. Although it is clear that this technology is not yet available to the public, the story predicts the new scan \"could be ready for general use in a couple of years.\" Really? Who says? It seems unlikely that any knowledgeable researcher would make such a wildly optimistic prediction on the basis of a 40-person study. But the story treats this forecast as an established fact requiring no attribution, so we can’t tell where it came from. In any case, we think such pie-in-the-sky guesstimates are usually wrong and should be avoided in health journalism. Researchers have long studied the brains of patients with autism using MRI scans. However, the ability to make a clinical diagnosis of autism using MRI would be noteworthy progress. Since this story included two expert interviews, we can be sure it didn’t rely on a news release Claim: Quick brain scan could screen for autism",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story did not mention the costs or cost-effectiveness of any of the interventions. These are important issues. Individuals who opt for yoga classes, for instance, may have to bear the costs themselves. The journalist adequately framed and quantified the benefits in terms of both primary and secondary outcome measures. The article did not discuss adverse events in any of the groups, though the study reported on them. This is an important point, as the New York Times article observed that many people with back pain shy away from exercise programs for fear of exacerbating their symptoms. The article adequately described the randomized controlled trial and its results. However, it did not adequately describe the limitations of this trial—which looked primarily at subjects with mild-to-moderate uncomplicated chronic back pain. It is not clear that the study conclusions apply to individuals with more severe back pain. There was no obvious disease mongering in the article. Members of the general public are legitimately concerned about chronic back pain and its consequences. The New York Times article did not offer commentary from an independent source. The evidence on chronic back pain is complex and challenging, as is the evidence on yoga and stretching. So the article would have benefited from additional expert input. The authors of the clinical trial did not disclose any conflicts-of-interest, so there was no need to report on this criterion in the article. The New York Times feature did not mention a full range of alternative treatments for chronic back pain. However, it did mention several other potential therapies, including medications, physical therapy, and strengthening exercises. The writer probably assumed that yoga classes and stretching programs are widely available across the United States. So we’ll award a “satisfactory” here. But it is not actually all that clear that similar “viniyoga” classes and intensive stretching programs are available in most communities—or that physicians and patients can easily find them. And it is not clear to what extent they are covered by health insurance plans. The article did not discuss the novelty of the treatment interventions. The intensive stretching class would appear be a novel intervention developed for the clinical trial—and similar programs aren’t widely available around the country. The “viniyoga” program may be less novel, but is distinctive nonetheless. The article did not rely on a news release. Group Health in Seattle did release a lengthy press release on this study. But the New York Times article did not appear to use it. Claim: Yoga and Stretching Equally Effective for Back Pain",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Ben Carson said it’s \"total propaganda\" to suggest he had any connection to Mannatech, a maligned nutritional supplement company. At the Oct. 28 Republican presidential debate, hosted by CNBC in Boulder, Colo., moderator Carl Quintanilla asked Carson about his involvement with the company. \"This is a company called Mannatech, a maker of nutritional supplements, with which you had a 10-year relationship,\" Quintanilla said. \"They offered claims they could cure autism, cancer. They paid $7 million to settle a deceptive marketing lawsuit in Texas, and yet your involvement continues. Why?\" \"Well, that’s easy to answer: I didn’t have an involvement with them,\" replied Carson, a former pediatric neurosurgeon. \"That is total propaganda. And this is what happens in our society -- total propaganda. I did a couple speeches for them. I did speeches for other people. They were paid speeches. It is absolutely absurd to say that I had any kind of relationship with them. Do I take the product? Yes. I think it’s a good product.\" Mannatech sells nutritional supplement pills made from larch tree bark and aloe, ingredients with disputed health benefits. The company in 2009 settled the lawsuit, which stemmed from claims that the company was deceptively pitching cures and treatments for illnesses such as cancer and even Down Syndrome. For Carson to say he \"didn’t have an involvement with\" Mannatech is a stretch. While he was not any sort of employee for the company as far as we can tell, it’s hard to see the speeches he’s delivered, as well as other promotional work, as anything but a full-throated endorsement of the product. Further, Mannatech appears to view Carson as a product promoter. First, the speeches. Carson has delivered four to Mannatech, according to the Wall Street Journal. Carson has written these paid remarks off as just several of many diverse speeches the Washington Speakers Bureau have booked for him. But in the speeches, he talks about his personal fondness for the product, which he started taking in conjunction with cancer treatment years ago. For example, Carson delivered remarks to Mannatech sales associates in 2004. In the speech, he talked about his introduction to Mannatech’s supplements and a personal conversation he had with the company’s lead doctor. \"I started taking the product, and within about three weeks, my symptoms went away,\" adding that he toyed with the idea of using only the supplements, rather than undergoing cancer surgery. He said in the remarks that it would be inappropriate for him to be an official spokesman or sales associate, but he does refer people to Mannatech. Since then, he has appeared in Mannatech-produced videos that appear to be promotional materials. In 2011, he answered questions in an interview with Mannatech’s co-CEO and chief science officer. In a 2013 Mannatech video, Carson described his experience with nutritional supplements. \"The wonderful thing about a company like Mannatech is that they recognize that when God made us, he gave us the right fuel. And that fuel was the right kind of healthy food,\" Carson said in the 2013 video. \"Basically what the company is doing is trying to find a way to restore natural diet as a medicine or as a mechanism for maintaining health.\" Carson also talked about his use of nutritional supplements on PBS in 2014, and Mannatech promoted the interview on its homepage. While it’s no longer accessible, the Mannatech website had a specific tag for all articles about Carson. Carson’s campaign requested that Mannatech remove some videos and articles featuring Carson from its website. And since media outlets have started poking around this question, Mannatech has taken down even more, according to reporters at the Wall Street Journal. Our ruling Carson said, \"I didn’t have an involvement with\" the nutritional supplement company Mannatech. As far as we can tell, Carson was not a paid employee or official endorser of the product. However, his claim suggests he has no ties to Mannatech whatsoever. In reality, he got paid to deliver speeches to Mannatech and appeared in promotional videos, and he consistently delivered glowing reviews of the nutritional supplements. As a world-renowned surgeon, Carson’s opinion on health issues carries weight, and Mannatech has used Carson’s endorsement to its advantage. We rate Carson’s claim . Claim: Ben Carson Says he \"didn’t have an involvement with\" nutritional supplement company Mannatech.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A confrontation between officials in Lake Worth Beach, Florida drew attention after a member of the local city commission criticized his colleagues of not taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously.“This is a banana republic, is what you’re turning this place into with your so-called leadership,” Commissioner Omari Hardy told Mayor Pam Triolo during the commission’s March 17 2020 meeting. “We cut people’s utilities this week and made them pay — with what could have been their last check — to turn their lights off in a global health pandemic. But you don’t care about that.”Footage of the argument was covered by news outlets in the area, and was also shared on several social media platforms.The argument erupted after the conclusion of the meeting, during which Triolo granted City Manager Michael Bornstein emergency powers during the outbreak. Hardy criticized the mayor and Bornstein after she cut debate on the matter. He also accused Triolo and the rest of the commission of ignoring his request to hold an emergency meeting on the disease (a novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19) a week earlier.Hardy also told a local news station, WPBF-TV, that electricity and water were cut off for 52 customers who had fallen behind on their payments. An additional 53 customers, he said, were slated to suffer the same penalty the day after the contentious meeting.Bornstein confirmed the inital rash of service cuts and added that the process was carried out automatically for customers who had failed to pay their bill for 72 days. But those customers, he said, would be allowed to resume service without cost. He also promised that no service would be cut while the pandemic is unfolding, though late payments would be due in full after the crisis passes.“We don’t want people stressing during this period,” Bornstein told WPBF. “It’s stressful enough. We’re actually trying to find ways to make people calm down.”In a Facebook post published three days after his argument with Triolo, Hardy said he did not regret confronting her.“We could have directed the city manager to stop shutoffs last week, when I requested an emergency meeting for exactly that purpose,” he said. “Only Commissioner Robinson wanted to meet. The rest said it was unnecessary. So this week, dozens of families had their lights shut off, and my colleagues didn’t want to have any discussion about it, and I lost my cool.” Claim: The city of Lake Worth Beach, Florida cut power and water services to some residents in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Paratek Pharmaceuticals’ Nuzyra was designed to overcome the problem of resistance to tetracycline, an antibiotic widely used until recent years. The company said the Food and Drug Administration approved Nuzyra for treating bacterial pneumonia and severe skin infections. Paratek plans to launch the antibiotic early next year, initially for use in hospitals. It hasn’t disclosed the price. Boston-based Paratek estimates its drug could eventually treat nearly 900,000 hospitalized U.S. patients annually About 2 million Americans get infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year and 23,000 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Paratek tested Nuzyra against several types of bacteria that cause pneumonia and skin infections. The drug was more effective than two standard antibiotics given to patients in comparison groups, company testing showed. Many antibiotics no longer work well, if at all, against some bacterial infections, due to their overuse in medicine and livestock production. Paratek’s drug, also known as omadacycline, is the first in a new class of antibiotics. It’s an updated version of tetracycline, a 65-year-old antibiotic that was a workhorse against skin, respiratory and other infections until increasing resistance limited its use. Paratek created its drug by tweaking tetracycline to block two common ways bacteria use to resist it. The FDA approved both an IV version and a daily pill that patients can switch to when they leave the hospital, the company said. It will eventually market the drug for patients treated at doctors’ offices and clinics. Last week, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced at the United Nations General Assembly a new global effort to fight antibiotic resistance and develop new treatments. The 106 initial participants included drugmakers, government agencies, medical groups and animal food producers. ___ Follow Linda A. Johnson on Twitter: @LindaJ_onPharma ___ The Associated Press Health &amp; Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: US regulators OK updated version of decades-old antibiotic.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no discussion of costs. Why not? You can let a researcher say it’s ready to be used in certain patients, yet you can’t estimate a cost? While reporting that 66 out 67 patients in the study experienced ‘improvement’ in symptoms, it was not clear to readers what exactly was improved, the extent to which it was improved, and what the satisfaction level with the improvement was. There was not an adequate presentation about the benefits from this procedure. The story did not report on any harms observed in the 67 men who took part in the study reported on. The last line of the story indicated that the findings should be considered ‘preliminary’ and an early paragraph indicated that the study had not yet even been presented at the meeting. And, while the story did note that 9 months was insufficient time to measure outcomes, it did not explicity address the limitations of a small case-series (with no comparison group). A story like this must do a better job of helping readers understand why not all studies are equal, why when a researcher says this is “ready to be used” that needs to be backed up by data, and how there is a far greater evidence base for many other approaches to BPH, including other so-called minimally invasive procedures, and including a watch-and-wait approach that many men are happy with – which was never mentioned. The story did not engage in overt disease-mongering. It would have been helpful to know that BPH rarely causes problems that require medical attention, though it can result in symptoms that are bothersome for some men. Clinicians with expertise in treating benign prostatic hyperplasia and without apparent ties to the study reported on were quoted in this story. The story provided some insight about how this new minimally invasive treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia compared with TURP. However it neglected to mention that there are number of surgical techniques and minimally invasive techniques available for which there is comparable effectiveness and fewer complications than TURP. And while the study authors claim the new procedure has value because it didn’t have the higher risk for the need for re-operation, the 9-month follow-up was too short to actually be able to lay claim to this benefit. The oddest part of the story was the line that other minimally invasive treatments “are less effective and have a greater risk of a need for reoperation according to background materials that accompanied the study. (emphasis added)  Does that mean according to marketing materials provided? What was that source of that material? What a silly, unsubstantiated, unsourced thing to include! The story allowed the lead researcher to boast that prostatic artery emoblization was ‘ready to be used in certain patients’. But then it quickly countered that with “but other experts aren’t so sure.” The story could have stated much more emphatically that it is a stretch to think that PAE would be utilized in this new population on the basis of a single, small scale study, presented as an oral presentation at a meeting. Given that the procedure is still experimental at this point, it is unlikely to be widely available. And although the story noted that few physicians are ‘trained to perform the procedure’ it should have been explicit that this is currently not an option for most men. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story a BARELY satisfactory on this criterion. The story seemed to suggest that the procedure reported on was novel; it should have mentioned (as the competing WebMD story did) that it is already in use to treat other non-cancerous, hyperplastic conditions. Does not appear to rely solely on a news release. Claim: New Therapy for Enlarged Prostate May Bypass Unpleasant Side Effects",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This is actually a reasonable question, according to a growing body of scientific research. Daylight saving time is the practice of moving clocks forward by one hour during summer months so that daylight lasts longer into evening. Most of North America and Europe follows the custom, while the majority of countries elsewhere do not. When clocks in almost all of the United States spring forward by an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, it will likely prompt an increase in heart attacks and strokes, cause more car accidents and reduce worker productivity, according to studies. It will also fail to cut the nation’s energy bill, contrary to what the experts once believed. In December, a psychology journal published results showing that federal judges handed out sentences that were on average 5 percent longer the day after daylight saving time began than those given out one week before or after. Disruptions, even minor ones, to human beings’ sleep patterns can have outsized effects, according to researchers. “Our study suggests that sudden, even small changes in sleep could have detrimental effects,” Amneet Sandhu of the University of Colorado told Reuters in 2014 after his study of Michigan hospital data showed a 25 percent jump in heart attacks on the Monday after daylight saving time began. Daylight saving time, which runs until the fall, was widely adopted during World War Two as an energy-saving measure. The rationale was that a later sunset meant people would spend fewer hours using lights inside their homes in the evening. But studies have generally failed to show significant energy savings associated with the shift. Plenty of people expressed frustration on social media on Saturday, as the prospect of losing an hour’s sleep loomed large. “Daylight Savings Time seems like a communist plot to get us all confused and tired and thinking the government wants to help us,” wrote Twitter user Michael Farris Jr. Abolishing daylight saving time – or conversely, extending it year-round – would require a law passed by U.S. Congress. States are allowed to opt out of daylight saving time, but all states are required to follow standard time from November to March. Legislators in some states have tried unsuccessfully to pass laws abandoning daylight saving time, but Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that do not reset their clocks twice a year. For everyone else, Sunday morning will come just a little bit earlier than usual. Claim: Hate daylight saving time? You may have a point, researchers say.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Xolair is sold by both Novartis and Roche, but has lost patent protection in Europe and the United States, leaving it exposed to rivals who are developing copies of the biological drug. None are yet on the market. Novartis said it now plans two Phase III studies for ligelizumab with more than 2,000 patients who suffer from chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), an autoimmune disease that causes persistent itchy reddish welts on the skin. “Despite existing treatment options, too many people continue to struggle with the debilitating and potentially painful symptoms of CSU,” Marcus Maurer, a professor of dermatology and allergy at the Allergie-Centrum-Charite in Berlin, Germany, said in a statement from Novartis. Roche is also developing a new drug, fenebrutinib, to fight CSU and has a Phase II trial, with an expected filing date of after 2021, according to its website. Both companies are looking to develop a more advanced drug than Xolair as India’s Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has a biosimilar copy in the works. Xolair brought in 1.74 billion Swiss francs ($1.75 billion) for Roche last year and $920 million for Novartis. ($1 = 0.9960 Swiss francs) Claim: Novartis's new treatment for hives outperforms Xolair in trials.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) made the controversial decision to “reopen” the state in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Facebook post shared in late April 2020 urged readers to contact the governor’s mansion to request a tour — which were ostensibly canceled until further notice over coronavirus concerns:On April 27 2020, the post shown above was not available — but copies of it were spread throughout social media in different, popular iterations. The text described how the original poster decided to request a tour of the Georgia governor’s mansion as a response to Kemp’s assertion that others in the state — such as hairstylists and bowling alley employees — could safely return to work:Soooooo.. I did a thing.Since Georgia is open now I called the Governor’s Mansion in Atlanta and asked when it will be open for a tour. I would like to schedule one. A very irate staffer told me that there will be NO tours until further notice…Hummmm.. I asked “and why is that??? Surely if nail salons and gyms are open today the mansion would. I find it very unamerican that my rights to visit my Government’s mansion would be infringed upon. Who is your boss?”The irate woman replies.”There is a a nation wide pandemic and the Mansion is being closed for safety purposes.”“Oh really??? You don’t say??? I  still would like to schedule my tour please. The Governor himself said it was safe to come out.”The irate lady hungup in my faceI have time today to play404.261.1776. In case anyone else feels [like] having this question answered.In the copies linked above, some sharers of the post altered the wording slightly and presented the post as if they themselves had written it:So…I did something. Since the State of Georgia is now open, I called the Governor’s Mansion in Atlanta and asked when it would be open for tours as I would like to schedule one. A very annoyed staffer advised that NO tours would be held until further notice. I then asked. “Why is that? Surely if nail salons, gyms and restaurants are now open with social distancing requirements, the Mansion should be open to the public. I find this very ‘Unamerican’ and an infrigement on my rights to visit my state’s Governor’s Mansion.” I also asked her who her supervisor was. The irate woman then replied, “There is currently a nationwide pandemic and the Mansion is closed for safety reasons.” “Really, you don’t say!”, I replied. “I still would like to schedule my tour, please. Governor Kemp advised in a recent public briefing that it’s safe to go out with proper social distancing.” The staffer hung up abruptly! Well, I have time on my hands. If you want to find out why the mansion remains closed, call 404-261-1776!”On April 27 2020, Facebook user Professa Cross said that they were the ones who had written the original post (and subsequently changed its privacy settings); the second post is archived here:Alright everyone. A couple things. If you came here looking for the Governor’s tour post.1. YES I am the original person who made the Governor tour post. I am gonna assume there have been people imitating, perpetrating etc. and someone even said China is spreading my post🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️..lol.2. Some of you were starting to go overboard and get a little crazy so I changed the privacy for that post back to friends only. When you accidentally go viral you gotta stop the flood gate at some point.3. Yall, remember to check your voter status and make yourself heard. You may not be happy w the federal choices but there is always good that can be done in your own local government and community.4. Stay safe everyone and enjoy your day. Wash your hands.Overall, the claims are as follows:Of course, we called 404.261.1776. We were told by a recording that people who were “calling about tours to the mansion” should be advised it was “closed to the public until further notice,” and advised us to visit gov.georgia.gov/governors-mansion/tour-mansion. We did, and a message on the page not only confirmed that we were calling the correct number, it also reiterated that the governor’s mansion was closed “to ensure the health and safety of Georgia families”:Tour the Mansion Public Tours **PUBLIC TOURS CANCELED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: Out of an abundance of caution, we are temporarily canceling public tours until further notice to ensure the health and safety of Georgia families. https://gov.georgia.gov/news **Archived versions of the page from April 21 and April 9 2020 featured the same message, indicating that the mansion had closed previously and had not re-opened. On March 30 2020, the page was again identical — the message was added at some point between March 9 2020 and that date.The most recent pre-pandemic page read:Tour the Mansion Public Tours Please make reservations for groups of 10 or more by contacting the Mansion.In short, Professa Cross referenced the fact Kemp had notably “reopened” the state of Georgia (true), adding the claim that they had called the governor’s mansion (which you can call yourself at (404) 261-1776) in order ask about tours as the state was “opened for business.” That number did go to a line with a message confirming the second part of their claim — despite Georgia’s reopening of business, the mansion remained closed to public tours “for the health and safety of Georgia families.”Comments Claim: Although Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp \"opened\" the state, his mansion remained closed for tours during the COVID-19 pandemic.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Taking an open-air stage in Texas’ progressive-minded capital city, O’Rourke said he wanted to appeal to voters from both parties and independents but called for universal health care and gay rights, warned of the ills of climate change and switched to his fluent Spanish to denounce President Donald Trump’s calls to wall off the U.S.-Mexico border. He also decried the federal government’s war on drugs, saying it disproportionately targets minorities and the poor. “People of the future are counting on us while we can still get this right,” O’Rourke said of changing the direction of Texas, where a Democrat hasn’t won statewide office since 1994. Despite refusing donations from political action committees, O’Rourke has enjoyed monster fundraising that has outpaced Cruz. He said that’s allowed him to focus on “people and that’s how we win this election.” After Nelson took the stage, O’Rourke sang backup to the iconic hit “On the Road Again” while the crowd cheered, many wearing T-shirts or waving signs bearing the candidate’s name. A three-term congressman from El Paso, O’Rourke’s openly moving to the left contrasts to some other Democrats competing in tight, red-state Senate races around the country. Those include Phil Bredesen, a former Democratic governor of Tennessee who has openly embraced the mantra of a moderate and distanced himself from his own party as he tries to win an open seat in a state Trump won two years ago by 26 points, which was nearly three times his 9-point margin of victory in Texas. Arizona Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is also running for Senate as a centrist, despite her early career as a Green Party activist. O’Rourke has kept support of his national party at arm’s length, too, but done so in keeping with his more liberal views, not to tamp them down. He’s also previously suggested that he’s open to abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and impeaching Trump. Cruz and O’Rourke’s second debate had been set for Sunday night at the University of Houston but was postponed. During their first one last week in Dallas, both candidates largely stuck to red meat issues that excite their bases while doing little to attract moderates. O’Rourke said the Nelson event wasn’t about wooing swing voters, either. “It’s a Texas event and it doesn’t get much more Texas than Willie Nelson,” O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said. O’Rourke also took the stage during Nelson’s July Fourth Picnic event in Austin to play guitar for the late-night finales of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “I’ll Fly Away.” But with the Nov. 6 election now looming, the stakes are higher this time. His strategy breaks from those of Texas Democrats who have tried to run as moderates only to fail miserably. When Wendy Davis used a Texas Senate filibuster defending abortion rights to briefly rocket to national notoriety and launch a gubernatorial bid in 2014, she endorsed the open carry of handguns statewide and didn’t hide her past support for the death penalty. It didn’t help, as Republican Greg Abbott beat her by 20-plus points. Paul Sadler, an underfunded former state representative whom Cruz defeated by nearly 16 points in 2012, said the idea that only conservative Democrats have any hope of flipping a state like Texas is changing when it comes to social issues including medical marijuana, which is now legal in 31 states. He said Beto “reflects the more modern, young thinking within the Democratic Party.” “I’m not sure if we really call those issues liberal as opposed to merely reflecting the people we’re supposed to represent,” Sadler said. At 85, Nelson isn’t young, of course. But he’s a longtime advocate for marijuana legalization who founded his own cannabis company for places where it is legal, not including Texas, which only allows low-THC cannabis oil that can’t get a user high to be prescribed to patients with intractable epilepsy. Some detractors have posted online comments chiding Nelson for backing a “socialist” and calling for boycotts, but Nelson has shrugged those off. “I love flack,” he said on ABC’s “The View.” ″We’re not happy ’til they’re not happy.” His cannabis company, Willie’s Reserve, responded to conservatives’ calls to burn Nelson records by deadpanning on Twitter: “If you’re going to burn something, burn Willie’s Reserve.” ___ Follow Will Weissert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apwillweissert ___ Sign up for “Politics in Focus,” a weekly newsletter showcasing the AP’s best political reporting from around the country leading up to the midterm elections: https://bit.ly/2ICEr3D Claim: O’Rourke offers blue vision for red Texas during Nelson show.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sid Miller objected to the recent in-the-night removals of four statues of people with Confederate ties from pedestals at the University of Texas. The big-hatted Republican serving as Texas agriculture commissioner further said most Americans agree that such statues should be left in place. In an August 2017 interview with Karina Kling of Spectrum Cable’s Capital Tonight, Miller disputed the notion that statues venerating Confederate figures touch off controversy. \"I don’t believe they do cause controversy,\" Miller said. \"I saw a poll, I think (on) NPR, 70 or 75 percent of the people would like to see those statues remain up and not taken down.\" We decided to check Miller’s poll claim. A caution: Any comparison of poll results is limited by the amount of information available about how and when each poll was taken, what’s asked (there are invariably variations) and the demographic and partisan mix of each poll’s respondents. So, we recognized that fact-checking Miller’s reference to precise results might prove knotty. Huffington Post round-up A Huffington Post news story published the day Miller was interviewed rolled out the results of a HuffPost/YouGov poll of 1,000 adult U.S. citizens who were surveyed over the web Aug. 15-16, 2017--specifically, 353 Democrats, 397 independents and 246 Republicans, the organization reported. Its poll question:\"Do you favor or oppose removing statues and memorials of Confederate leaders?\" Thirty-three percent favored removals, 48 percent were opposed, 18 percent were unsure. The poll also had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percent so you could speculate that 52 percent of the respondents wanted such statues to stay put. That’s considerably shy of 70-plus percent. But the story noted six other polls taken Aug. 15, 2017, to Aug. 22, 2017, each one asking about Confederate statues three days or more after confrontations between white supremacists and protesters in Charlottesville, Va., crumbled after a driver drove into pedestrians, killing one. Here’s the Huffington Post’s summary of recent statue polls:               SOURCE: Graphic, \"Polls Find Little Support For Confederate Statue Removal — But How You Ask Matters,\" the Huffington Post, Aug. 23, 2017 (accessed Aug. 25, 2017) The Marist Poll We noticed the post-Charlottesville poll showing the largest share of respondents opposed to removing statues was the Marist Poll taken Aug. 14-15, 2017, by mobile and landline phones of 1,125 U.S adults. After the poll interviews, the pollster said, the regionally balanced samples were combined and balanced to reflect the 2013 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey one-year estimates for age, gender, income, race, and region. Marist said that of the 859 registered voters included in the poll, 37 percent were independents, 36 percent were Democrats and 26 percent were Republicans. The poll, taken in collaboration with NPR and the PBS NewsHour, asked: \"Do you think statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy should remain as a historical symbol/be removed because they are offensive to some people?\" Sixty-two percent of the surveyed adults said the statues should remain, 27 percent said they should be removed, 11 percent were unsure. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.9 percentage points meaning you could say close to 65 percent, or as few as 59 percent, of the polled preferred leaving such statues in place. Miller notes a deeper break-out By phone to our inquiry, a Miller campaign spokesman, Todd Smith, said Miller reached his 70 percent or 75 percent figure as an estimate of where Texans stand based on the Marist poll’s detailed results showing 67 percent of moderates and 81 percent of conservative or very conservative respondents said such statues should remain. \"He was trying to extrapolate Texas numbers out of that,\" Smith said. \"I don’t think Commissioner Miller was trying to give an exact number.\" The results also were broken down regionally. Sixty-six percent of respondents in the South favored statues to remain, 23 percent backed removals. Other polls identified by Ariel Edwards-Levy, the Huffington Post’s polling director, suggested 49 percent to 54 percent of respondents oppose statue removals (though it’s again worth stressing it matters how each question was posed and who was polled and how results were weighted). An outlier Only a poll by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, which showcases Democratic clients, delivered contrary results, perhaps because of how its question was framed and worded. The company’s general summary of its poll taken Aug. 18-21, 2017, says: \"Voters have nuanced views when it comes to Confederate monuments. Overall 39% say they support monuments honoring the Confederacy to 34% who say they oppose them. That's basically unchanged from the 42/35 spread we found on this question when we polled it in June.\" Even though voters narrowly support the monuments, the summary says, 58 percent of respondents said \"they support relocating them from government property and moving them to museums or other historic sites where they can be viewed in proper historical context. There's bipartisan support for that approach with Democrats (72/14), independents (52/27), and Republicans (46/42) all in favor of it.\" Public Policy Polling says it surveyed 887 registered voters. Eighty percent of participants, selected through a list based sample, responded by phone with the remaining 20 percent participating on the web. Forty-one percent of respondents self-identified as Democrats, 31 percent as Republicans, 29 percent as independents. After a question about supporting or opposing monuments honoring the Confederacy, the poll asked: \"Do you support or oppose relocating monuments honoring the Confederacy from government property and moving them to museums or other historic sites where they can be viewed in proper historical context?\" Fifty-eight percent supported relocation, 26 percent were opposed, 16 percent were unsure. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percent so you could speculate that as much as 61 percent of respondents supported relocation. Our ruling Miller said a poll showed 70 percent to 75 percent of people oppose the removal of Confederate statues. All but one of the latest national polls, we confirmed, show more Americans in opposition to tumbling such statues than in favor. But most polls show a little more than 50 percent to 54 percent of respondents opposed with only the Marist poll, which Miller mentioned, indicating more than 60 percent in opposition. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. Claim: Sid Miller Says a poll showed 70 percent to 75 percent of people want to see Confederate statues \"remain up and not taken down.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no mention of the cost of the drug but the NYT reported last year that Epidiolex could cost from $2,500 to $5,000 per month. Since the drug isn’t FDA approved, it’s too soon to know whether its cost will be covered by health insurance. The release describes benefits in clear terms, and provides numbers to add context. It states: “Specifically, seizure frequency dropped in the CBD-treated group by 39 percent from a median of nearly 12 convulsive seizures per month before the study to about six; three patients’ seizures stopped entirely. In the placebo group, there was a 13 percent reduction in seizures from about 15 monthly seizures to fourteen.” It also notes that the difference in the degree of seizure reduction between the CBD group and the placebo group was “both statistically significant and clinically consistent.” The release is clear in mentioning the side effects of the use of this drug in the study: “Side effects – experienced by 93.4 percent of patients in the CBD group and 74.6 percent of those treated with placebo – were generally reported as mild or moderate in severity. The most common side effects in the CBD group were vomiting, fatigue and fever. Eight participants from the CBD group withdrew from the trial due to side effects compared to one participant in the placebo group.” The study was a randomized, placebo controlled trial which is considered the highest standard of evidence. While the release didn’t specifically address limitations of this trial, it did recap that this study sought to address some of the limitations present in an earlier open-label study (meaning it wasn’t randomized or compared with a placebo). It states: “The new study confirms results from a December 2015 open-label expanded access program led by Dr. Devinsky that reported reductions in seizure frequency. In that program, both the researchers and patient’s families knew they were receiving CBD, which may have introduced a bias into the results. This new, randomized, controlled clinical study eliminated those concerns as participants and their physicians did not know if they were on CBD or placebo, say the study authors.” The release did say that larger, future trials will look at whether the benefits of cannabidiol can be achieved at lower, and perhaps less toxic doses. No evidence of disease mongering here. The release would have been better if it had provided some additional context about Dravet syndrome or on how researchers believe cannabidiol works to reduce seizures. The release mentions that the trial was funded by GW Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Epidiolex. In the trial, patients in the experimental group had Epidiolex “added to their existing treatment over a 14-week period,” so it is obvious that other treatments are available. But these standard medications are not alternatives to cannabidiol. Instead, cannabidiol is an add-on treatment, not an alternative to existing drugs. The release could have named those standard medications and noted that other cannabidiol compounds are being studied in people with epilepsy. The release states that Epidiolex “has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration” yet, so readers can assume that it is not yet available to the public. The FDA does, however, consider cannabidiol an investigational product for treating children with epilepsy and has “expanded access provisions” that allow its use. This would have been useful information to include in the release. The release states that this was “the first large-scale randomized clinical trial for the compound,” adding that the results were both statistically and clinically significant. The release is timed with the publication of the trial results in the New England Journal of Medicine. Much of what is found in the release was reported in the New York Times on March 14, 2016, but that story noted that full study data was not yet available. The release doesn’t rely on unjustifiable language. It inserts needed nuance in several places. For example, it states: “Cannabidiol should not be viewed as a panacea for epilepsy, but for patients with especially severe forms who have not responded to numerous medications, these results provide hope that we may soon have another treatment option,” according to the lead researcher. Claim: Cannabis Derivative Cannabidiol Reduces Seizures in Severe Epilepsy Disorder",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story describes the cost of a similar existing test for breast cancer but is clear to point out that exact costs are not yet available. The story also mentions several times that the high cost of the test may not be worth the expense. The story does provide a range of percentage risk of having a recurrence. The story could have provided the baseline average risk by way of comparison and could have described what the expected benefit in terms of improved survival could potentially be. The story does not describe any harms of the test. Because the test does not predict whether an individual would actually benefit from chemotherapy, some people could decide to undergo chemotherapy based on the results of the test without realizing any benefit. The story didn’t explicitly state that potential harm and we think it should have. The story doesn’t really give any details on the current study or the overall strength of the evidence to support the use of the test. Although the story points out that the results will be presented at a meeting, it should have made the point that these studies are not rigorously peer-reviewed and evaluated prior to presentation, which makes it more difficult to evaluate the study at this time. The story does not exagerrate the seriousness or prevalence of colon cancer. The story is also clear to describe the target of the test – colon cancers that are large but have not spread beyond the colon. The story quotes multiple experts. Clearly not having the test is the alternative. The story did not need to spell that out, but it could have described what is currently done to determine need for chemotherapy, i.e. pathology and/or imaging tests. The story clearly states that the test is not yet available but that it may be in the near future. The story adequately describes the novelty of the test. Because the story quotes multiple experts, it is reasonable to assume that the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. But it does also appear clear that the news release from the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting is driving the story. Otherwise why not wait until the actual presentation of results – or publication of a peer-reviewed paper? Claim: Test may help predict colon cancer recurrence risk",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The rest of the family, instructed to keep a safe distance, watched the proceedings from afar: Firos standing alone by a mound of fresh earth wailing the Islamic call to prayer through his mask. Two weeks before the healthy 46-year-old mother of two was laughing at a family outing in Bandung, a West Javan city by strawberry fields and volcanoes. Now she is a number on a growing list, one of 26 Indonesian doctors killed by COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. “I regret asking her to go to medical school,” said Bambang Purnomo, her devastated 72-year-old father. “I honestly still cry whenever I think of her.”  A month after recording its first case, Indonesia, with 3,293 infections and 280 deaths, has the highest death toll in Asia after China, where the virus emerged late last year, although health experts fear it could be much higher. The deaths of 26 doctors, and nine nurses, battling the pandemic in Indonesia, a sprawling developing nation of 260 million people, has fanned anxiety about a healthcare system ill-prepared to tackle it. In Italy, where the tally of infections is nearing 140,000, 96 doctors have died. But there have been none among the 4,119 cases in Indonesia’s southeast Asian neighbour of Malaysia. “Indonesia was not well prepared at the beginning, and we also didn’t have much personal protective equipment (PPE),” said Prijo Sidipratomo of the Indonesian medical association. “That is why so many doctors have died.”   Indonesia’s health ministry and coronavirus taskforce declined to comment on the doctors’ deaths. President Joko Widodo offered condolences and praised the dedication of the doctors who died. He announced financial incentives for medical professionals and payouts for the families of workers killed by the disease. But Widodo has resisted strict lockdowns, instead urging Indonesians to adopt social distancing measures and stay home. “The country was already exposed to the virus, but no one realised until March,” Sidipratomo added. “The president was not aggressive and the health minister was saying it was going to be okay.”   Now the world’s fourth-most populous nation is racing against time to contain the spread. Hospitals across the archipelago are chronically ill-equipped, lacking beds, medical staff and intensive care facilities, forcing some doctors to fashion makeshift gear, using raincoats and their own masks. “The government has asked all industries to make PPE in Indonesia, but now we are competing with the virus itself,” said Sidipratomo. “The virus is faster than us. So I guess we are in trouble.”  The government needs to act fast, especially outside the capital, said Adib Khumaidi, the deputy chief of the Indonesian doctors’ association. “Jakarta has a lot of doctors, but what if this happens in Sulawesi, Ambon, Maluku and Papua?” he added, naming some of Indonesia’s far-flung regions. “It will be a big problem.”   The first doctor in her family, Purwarini was head of human resources at a North Jakarta hospital, but she started treating patients when the outbreak hit. After a worrying X-ray, Purwarini checked herself into hospital, said her father, a retired civil servant. As her condition worsened, she was moved to a different hospital that provided a ventilator, but succumbed within a week. The deaths of the doctors and nurses have turned the virus response into a sore point for Indonesian medical professionals. “Together, we talk and we think there is no other thing to do than a lockdown,” said Sidipratomo. After his daughter’s death, Purnomo is also grappling with the realities of the pandemic. “I have cars and a house,” he said, clinging to a framed photograph of his firstborn, “But that has no meaning if my daughter has passed away.”  (Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: here)  (This story corrects byline.) Claim: Indonesian doctor's death exposes heartbreaking risks of coronavirus battle.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Most of organized labor -- nearly all -- is just fine with Jim Kenney’s proposed sugary drinks tax. But the Teamsters have a big problem with it. They’re arguing they’ll lose jobs. Opponents to the tax argue higher prices will lead to decreased sales that will eventually trickle down and cause the soda bottling and delivery industry in Philadelphia to collapse. In fact, the loudest voice against the tax (outside lobbyists for the nation’s largest beverage companies) come from the Teamsters. Literally: They organized a ring of 18-wheelers that circled City Hall, horns blaring, to protest the measure. The first-year mayor wants to tax sugary drinks at three cents per ounce -- an unprecedented tax in America -- and use the revenue to fund pre-K, community schools and the city’s ailing pension fund. In a statement, Teamsters Local 830 secretary Daniel Grace wrote that the implementation of a three-cents-per-ounce sugary drinks tax \"would result in the loss of 2,000 family-sustaining Teamster Union jobs and countless other jobs in the beverage industry.\" But there are about 2,000 people working in the beverage industry in Philadelphia in total. So we decided to look a little deeper into this claim. The American Beverage Association has claimed a soda tax in Philadelphia would result in job loss, but didn’t offer an estimate to PolitiFact and referred us to a local firm handling communications for those opposed to the tax. That firm also didn’t have an estimate on job loss and referred us to Grace, the Teamsters head in Philadelphia who didn’t respond to requests for more information. Instead, his spokesman Frank Keel emailed: \"The Kenney administration has no idea about the Teamsters’ various roles in the beverage industry and no right to question the very real job losses we'll suffer if this regressive three-cents-an-ounce sugary drinks tax is passed into law.\" He again reiterated that \"we stand to lose as many as 2,000 regional jobs in the beverage industry.\" Keel didn’t clarify what was meant by \"regional,\" other than to say \"there are several Teamsters locals in the Philadelphia regional jurisdiction.\" The Kenney administration disputes the figures as a \"doomsday scenario\" and said any job loss suffered due to the implementation of a soda tax will be offset by jobs created by the programming the tax would fund. \"If sugary drink prices go up, then consumers will choose tax-exempt beverages like bottled water and diet drinks instead,\" Kenney’s spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said. \"Small businesses will avoid job loss and maintain their profit margins by selling more tax-exempt drinks; and, accordingly, truck drivers will also be fine because they’ll be delivering more bottled water and diet soda.\" Without their clarification, it’s hard to discern how the Teamsters arrived at their job loss estimate. But economists and studies suggest it’s an overshoot. Robert P. Inman, a professor of business economics and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school, called the estimate of 2,000 job losses \"off the bounds of realistic.\" About 2,000 jobs would represent nearly the entire soda bottling and delivering industry in Philadelphia, and Inman said it’s inaccurate to assume that a three-cents-per-ounce tax on soda would cause the entire industry to crumble. He said his studies show the city could see a reduction in sales in the $150 million to $200 million range. But Inman said people won’t stop buying bottled drinks. They’ll either switch to bottled beverages like water that’s also bottled and delivered by large beverage companies, or they’ll switch to smaller sized bottles that also still need to be bottled and delivered in the city. \"Wherever they’re getting the number from,\" he said, \"it is so far above anything that strikes me as plausible.\" The Teamsters say they don’t buy the idea that the sale of water, diet sodas and the like will increase enough to cover the loss suffered as a result of the soda tax. In Grace’s statement, he wrote: \"Consumers simply don't react that way.\" A 2014 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found a 20 percent tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (which correlates with about a two-cents-per-ounce tax) would result in small job gains. The study isn’t neutral -- it was funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research program. But it found that jobs lost as a result of the tax were offset by jobs created due to consumers switching to untaxed drinks like bottled water. A study published this year by Mexico’s Center for Health Systems Research found that after the country instituted a soda tax, there was a bump: Overall sales increased, largely due to higher amounts of bottled water being purchased. But then, after a year, sales fell to where they were before the tax was passed. The estimate is also higher than any other made before. When city officials floated a soda tax in 2011, the soda companies themselves predicted a job loss of 1,200 people. Al Taubenberger, a current city councilman and the former head of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, said at the time it would cost the city 1,000 jobs. After Baltimore instituted a two-cents tax on beverage containers last year, about 75 people lost their jobs. But Inman said any job loss estimate when it comes to a soda tax is dubious. Without statistical data -- as no other place in America has instituted a three-cents-per-ounce soda tax -- it’s nearly impossible to accurately calculate predicted job loss. \"There’s been no soda tax, so you don’t have any experience who has actually seen what the effects are,\" he said. \"So you end up trying to guess, and you get into this game of ‘your guess is as good as mine.’\" Our Rating The Teamsters claim they stand to lose as many as 2,000 jobs in the region and \"countless\" others if Philadelphia implements a soda tax. This estimate is higher than any estimate floated before and tops what studies show the impact would be. And, at the end of the day, it’s nearly impossible to predict exact job loss as the result of a tax that hasn’t been implemented anywhere else in this way before. Is it within the realm of possibility that 2,000 beverage industry employees would lose their jobs due to the soda tax? Maybe. Is it likely? Not at all. Claim: A three-cents-per-ounce soda tax in Philadelphia \"would result in the loss of 2,000 family-sustaining Teamster Union jobs and countless other jobs in the beverage industry.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story accurately reports that the list price for the self-injection will be $575 per month or $6,900 annually. Even so, it’s disconcerting that the story includes this language from a news release: “The price of Aimovig reflects the value it brings to patients and society, including the financial impact on sufferers, caregivers and employers, while also factoring in critical issues such as patient affordability, and fair and timely access.” The article does note that Amgen said this in a statement. However, the claims go unchallenged by any individual or organization who might not agree that the drug’s price reflects its value. The article, using text adapted from the Amgen/Novartis news release, makes the reduction in headache days sound very impressive, explaining it “reduced the average number of monthly migraine headaches by more than 50 percent for nearly half of study participants. After three months, patients treated with the human antibody were nearly three times more likely to have reduced their migraine days by 50 percent or more than those treated with placebo.” This is followed by “Participants of the study also had a greater average reduction in the number of days with headaches and the number of days they needed to take drugs to stop the migraines.” The FDA news release makes the benefits seem less rosy when describing the findings from the three studies that led to the drug’s approval. It explains that in one study, “over the course of six months, Aimovig-treated patients experienced, on average, one to two fewer monthly migraine days than those on placebo.” The release also notes that in a second study, also in patents with episodic migraine, the patients on Aimovig had, on average, one fewer migraine day per month than those on placebo” while the third study, which enrolled patients with chronic migraine (15 migraine days or more per month) found patients had, on average, 2 1/2 fewer monthly migraine days than those on placebo. We noted a similar problem in a Reuters article about the drug published in April. The headline shouts “no side effects.” Yet, the FDA press release says the most common side effects were injection site reactions and constipation. To date, there is virtually no long-term data on the drug and that needed to be emphasized. One study that led to the drug’s approval reported on patients who had taken the drug for six months. The two other studies reported on patients who had taken the drug for three months. The patient quoted in the article has been on the drug for four years, without side effects. But that is an anecdote. There is no data on long-term use. The story states: “No patients taking erenumab stopped treatment due to adverse side effects, but the scientists noted that more research will needed to investigate if the benefits continue.” The story also states that drug is “formulated as an injection to provide long-lasting protection.” It is given by injection because it was designed as a monoclonal antibody. These drugs are given only by injection, and they are known to cause side effects. The story does not contain enough information about the evidence. For example, did patients in the placebo groups also receive an injection? The story did not disease-monger; there are millions of people who get migraines. That is not in question. Which of the people who get migraines who may potentially be candidates for this drug is less clear. The drug’s marketing materials released along with press release announcing FDA approval say “preventive medication may be an option for approximately 10 million Americans with migraine.” The article notes that the Migraine Research Foundation estimates that more than 39 million Americans suffer from migraine attacks. However, it then goes on to confuse definitions and statistics for chronic and episodic migraine, stating that of that 38 million, “about 4 million have chronic migraine and suffer headache for 10 to 14 days per month. In the medical field, a person with 15 or more migraine days a month is considered chronic;  a person with 14 or fewer migraine days has episodic migraine. The story quotes the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Peter Goadsby, a professor of neurology at Kings College London and the University of California, San Francisco. It does not include the information that Dr. Goadsby is an advisor or consultant for, among others, Amgen and Novartis. He also received grants for clinical research from Amgen–a clear potential conflict of interest. A second source in the story is Dr. Dario Zagar. CMS Open Payment reveals he has received payments from Amgen and numerous other drug companies. This information should have been disclosed. The story quotes one patient who has been on the drug, and who says she now never has migraines. It does not quote anyone who was in the study who did not benefit from the new drug. The story explains that there are other treatments that migraine patients can use to prevent or abort migraines. It also notes that these alternatives do not work for everyone. The story tells readers that the drug has received FDA approval and “should also be paid for by health insurance.” As STAT News points out in this article, it is not yet known whether private insurers or Medicaid or Medicare will cover the medication. Even if private insurers do cover it, patients may be responsible for a co-pay or coinsurance that puts the drug out of their reach financially. The article also does not tell readers that Amgen and Novartis have a patient assistance program called Aimovig Ally that can help them learn about their insurance coverage or possibly get the drug for a reduced cost. The story states that this is a new class of drug for migraines. Sources are quoted who were not included in the news release put out by Amgen and Novartis. Claim: FDA approves new drug that prevents migraines without side effects",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Thailand reported 91 new coronavirus cases and one fatality on Friday, bringing the total to 1,136 cases and five deaths, a health official said on Friday. So far, 97 patients have recovered and gone home. The latest death was of a 50-year-old man in Narathiwat province, bordering Malaysia, who apparently contracted the disease from attending a religious gathering at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur last month, a Thai health official said. The death has led to the lockdown of the southern province by its governor, preventing traffic in and out except for ambulances, trucks carrying essential supplies and official vehicles. The government’s new Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) in Bangkok says provincial governors now have the authority to implement strict regulations to contain the outbreak. “Now is not a normal situation, but its an emergency and people’s movements may be difficult, so everyone should stay home,” said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for CCSA. Authorities in Bangkok, the city with most of the coronavirus cases, have ordered the further shutdown until April 30 of facilities including libraries, museums, playgrounds, sporting grounds, meeting halls, childcare centres and beauty clinics. The government has also extend the closure of shopping malls, eat-in restaurants and other businesses that were shut down earlier this week to April 30 as well. Essential businesses such as supermarkets, grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open in Bangkok, while the government has reopened phone shops, food courts in hospitals and flower shops in markets in the capital. Several provinces have also issued orders to restrict the opening and closing times of 24-hour convenience stores to reduce the time when people are out in public places. Claim: Thailand closes more public facilities as coronavirus cases top 1,100.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On December 12 2019, the Facebook page “Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism” shared the following screenshot of a retweet opining that a $738 billion expenditure for defense (and a Space Force) could be used to fund Medicare for All:Medicare for All? How are we gonna pay for that? ?With THIS money. ⬇️There it is, right there, the money that could be used to give people decent healthcare.THERE IT IS, FUCKERS. https://t.co/Leh24y3dy8— Bill Corbett (@BillCorbett) December 12, 2019In a December 11 2019 tweet, Politico reported that Congress “overwhelmingly passed a $738 billion compromise defense policy bill that would create a Space Force as the newest military service.” @BillCorbett retweeted the tweet, proposing that discretionary spending on a Space Force could be re-appropriated to fund Medicare for All:Medicare for All? How are we gonna pay for that? ?With THIS money. ⬇️There it is, right there, the money that could be used to give people decent healthcare.THERE IT IS, FUCKERS.To start, the claim fell squarely across the line between opinion and verifiable fact; the United States could appropriate more of its budget to a universal health care system like Medicare for All, but budgetary appropriations are to a large degree a matter of partisan opinion. Politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar advocated a shift in spending to Medicare for All and similar investments; fellow Democrats like Pete Buttigieg seemed to oppose that initiative:Not true.Bernie Sanders’s #MedicareForAll plan provides billions of dollars to help displaced workers transition to new employment including job training, relocation support, wage replacement during the transition and pension fund guarantees. No workers will be left behind. https://t.co/hpGUtezKKp— Dr. Victoria Dooley (@DrDooleyMD) December 11, 2019The tweet above didn’t suggest that the $738 billion 2020 defense budget would, alone, fund Medicare for All — it appeared to merely say that some or all of those funds could be diverted from initiatives like a Space Force to universal health care. Even if such a comparison were attempted, variables such as average household spending on health insurance and wildly variable out-of-pocket expenses made such a comparison virtually irrelevant.Finally, the sum would benefit from context against government spending projections and trends. A $738 billion “compromise defense policy bill” mentioned by Politico in the retweeted tweet referenced the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2020:The $738 billion bill would authorize $635 billion for the base Pentagon spending and $23.1 billion for nuclear weapons programs under the Energy Department as well as $71.5 billion for war operations. It also would authorize another $5.3 billion in emergency disaster recovery for military bases damaged by extreme weather.The NDAA’s appropriations amount to only a portion of the federal budget for fiscal year 2020; a version proposed by the White House in March 2019 (FY 2020 began on October 1 2019) totaled “a record $4.746 trillion.” Sixty percent of that $4.746 trillion went to a category of spending which included Medicare and Medicaid as well as Social Security:The government expects to spend $4.746 trillion [in fiscal year 2020]. Almost 60% pays for mandated benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.According to a breakdown of the proposed FY 2020 budget of $4.746 trillion, Medicare and Medicaid combined totaled more than a trillion dollars (and Social Security cost $1.102 trillion):Medicare will cost $679 billion in FY 2020. It subsidizes health care for those over age 65. […]Medicaid costs will be $418 billion in FY 2020. Medicaid provides health care to those with low incomes.A trillion is a thousand billion or a million million. As such, Medicare’s $679 billion projected cost added to Medicaid’s $418 billion projected cost totaled $1.097 billion. We were unable to locate costs to maintain the Affordable Care Act (often referred to as the ACA or, more colloquially, Obamacare) provisions in 2020, and additional issues such as the $938 billion estimated cost of waste (a quarter of healthcare spending) in the current healthcare system further obscured the real costs of the current system in 2019 and 2020:Administrative complexity accounted for the most waste, at $265.6 billion annually. Below that was waste due to pricing failure, which costs $230.7 billion to $240.5 billion annually. Failure of care delivery accounts for $102.4 billion to $165.7 billion annually. Overtreatment or low-value care results in $75.7 billion to $101.2 billion in waste annually. Waste related to fraud and abuse costs between $58.5 billion and $83.9 billion annually. Finally, failure of care coordination generates $27.2 billion to $78.2 billion in waste annually.A clear factor in estimating current spending on healthcare involved individual taxpayer costs, which again, varied widely. Among those costs were premiums, deductibles, co-payments, prescription drugs, uncovered services, uncovered medications, and other expenses borne solely by individual Americans.Sanders’ campaign website page for Medicare for All maintains that the United States spends far more of its National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care costs than other countries, and that many Americans in turn receive substandard health care (or for about 30 million people, no health coverage at all):Today, more than 30 million Americans still don’t have health insurance and even more are underinsured. Even for those with insurance, costs are so high that medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Incredibly, we spend significantly more of our national GDP on this inadequate health care system — far more per person than any other major country. And despite doing so, Americans have worse health outcomes and a higher infant mortality rate than countries that spend much less on health care. Our people deserve better.According to the U.S. Census, 27.5 million people were uninsured in 2018 [PDF]; Sanders’ number appeared to be rounded to 30 million. The World Bank provides annual estimates of the cost of GDP per country compared to the cost of healthcare.Sanders site says the United States spends “significantly more of our national GDP on this inadequate health care system — far more per person than any other major country.” According to the World Bank’s most recent figures for 2016, that claim is true. The United States spent 17 percent of its GDP on healthcare in 2016, compared to Switzerland (12.3), Germany (11.1), Sweden and Japan (10.9), Canada (10.5), and the United Kingdom (9.8. )Iceland’s healthcare to GDP spending was 8.3 percent, less than half that of the United States. In many of those countries (such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan, healthcare is also free at the point of delivery — meaning that citizens are not charged anything by providers. That again leads to a variable in an attempted contrast of outlays due to the amount of money paid at the point of service in co-payments and related costs such as premiums and deductibles.In formulating a comparison, it would be helpful to put a price tag on Medicare for All. And as with the individual outlays (such as co-pays, deductibles, or yearly premiums), those figures are variable to the point that they are nearly meaningless.According to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) examination, there’s no real terra firma when it comes to breaking out the cost of Medicare for All. Buckle up:Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), a co-chair of the Medicare for All Caucus, released a bill [in February 2019] that would adopt a single-payer system, where the federal government replaces private health insurance companies as the sole provider of most health care financing. While we are not aware of any estimates of this particular proposal, similar proposals have been estimated to cost the federal government roughly $28-32 trillion over a decade. […]The proposal is broadly similar to Senator Sanders’s proposed single-payer plan introduced during the 2016 Presidential campaign. While the campaign itself estimated that plan would cost the federal government about $14 trillion over a decade, most other estimates that we are aware of are at least twice that high.At the time, for example, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated roughly that the plan would cost $28 trillion through 2026 (we estimated the Sanders plan in particular would also raise $11 trillion of revenue, leading to $17 trillion of net costs). All other estimates come to similar conclusions.For example, economist Kenneth Thorpe estimated that single-payer health care would cost the federal government $24.7 trillion through 2026, excluding the costs associated with long-term care benefits (likely about $3 trillion). The Urban Institute estimated a $32 trillion cost over the same period, including those long-term care benefits. The Center for Health and Economy (H&E) produced an estimate that the American Action Forum calculates would cost the federal government $36 trillion through 2029.In that grouping of estimates, the cost in trillions was measured in decade-long terms. CFRB cited a ten-year estimate of $28-32 trillion, or $2.8 to $3.2 trillion per year; a 2016 plan estimate issued by Sanders’ campaign in 2016 (through 2026) totaled $14 trillion, or $1.4 trillion annually. Going back to the budget estimates of Medicare and Medicaid in FY 2020 at $679 billion and $418 billion respectively, the then-current outlay for those two programs alone was $1.097 trillion.Sen. Elizabeth Warren estimated a ten-year cost of $20 trillion in new federal spending for Medicare for All, or $2.05 trillion annually — funded in part by employer-supplied contributions. Sanders did not cite a cost for Medicare for All in an undated document, instead tacking costs to an estimated $3.2 trillion annual total spending on healthcare. In that document, Sanders’ proposes revenue totaling several times the current total expenditure.In September 2019, PolitiFact pointed to a debate exchange between former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Sanders over the cost of Medicare for All. Biden, who opposed the plan, claimed it would cost $30 trillion over ten years (or $3 trillion a year). Sanders did not dispute that figure, instead saying the cost of the current system without Medicare for All would cost $50 trillion over the same period:“Joe said that Medicare for All would cost over $30 trillion,” Sanders said. “Status quo, over 10 years, will be $50 trillion.”[…]But if it’s a better deal for citizens depends on the other number Sanders put out there, the $50 trillion cost for keeping the system as it is.That’s not federal health care spending. That’s the government’s estimate of total health care spending across the board, both public and private, over the coming decade. (It’s actually $47 trillion by 2027. )As the site noted, the federal government estimated total health care costs through 2027 at nearly $50 trillion, citing a slightly higher proportion of GDP than the World Bank’s latest 2016 figures, a rise to 17.7 percent (or 17.9 percent, [PDF]). As PolitiFact indicated, the costs were “both public and private,” estimated at $47 trillion. But the highest estimate of $38 trillion (versus the campaign’s lowest estimate of $14 trillion in 2016) involved Medicare for All’s abolishment of co-payments, deductibles, and other point of delivery expenses for Americans.If we split the down the middle the estimate of $14 trillion over ten years with $38 trillion over ten years, we get $26 trillion, or $2.6 trillion per year in government spending. In 2018, all spending on healthcare between the government and individuals was estimated at $3.6 trillion, rising to $6 trillion by 2027 — both figures provided by Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) for 2018. (That figure was similar to even the highest estimate of $38 trillion over 10 years, or $3.8 trillion per year. )The tweet we started with said that the $738 billion appropriation for defense (and, of course, the Space Force) could fund Medicare for All, and fairly there was no indication that sum alone would cover that cost. Although we found no solid projection for the cost of Medicare for All, it seemed to range from $1.4 trillion to $3.8 trillion when ten year estimates were averaged out over a year. Adding the $738 billion to the $1.097 trillion bill for Medicaid and Medicare totaled $1.8 trillion, more than the Sanders’ campaign 2016 estimate for a ten-year cost — but lower than most projected costs broken down to annual amounts. Without a consensus on at least a tight range of Medicare for All costs, any such comparison was largely speculative — but total healthcare spending was about $3.6 trillion in 2018, lower than almost all estimated Medicare for All annual costs. Claim: Current expenditures could likely cover the estimated costs of Medicare for All.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No costs are discussed. But we can understand that since the story is based on an early phase of research – so early that the question might be about its newsworthiness. No potential harms are discussed, nor is it mentioned that the safety profile in humans has yet to be established. The article would have done well to continue the Dr. Eck quote from the press release to include his acknowledgment that \"we still have much to learn about their potential liabilities,\" referring to this new class of compounds. The \"hope\" that the compound will have fewer harms than currently available drugs appears to be based largely on in vitro data. The article provides no evaluation of the evidence beyond what was in the press release, which itself downplays the fact that the evidence is not from humans. The article presents accurate data on lung cancer mortality and NSCLC from the American Cancer Society. No independent source is cited besides the ACS statistics on lung cancer. Any story that allows a researcher to make bold claims such as that this research \"will lead to an effective treatment for the thousands of non-small cell lung cancer patients worldwide\" demands an independent perspective. The article mentions that the compound is being developed for NSCLCs that are resistant to 2 other drugs. However, it does not mention whether those 2 drugs are the only available treatment approaches for patients who might conceivably receive the new compound. Not until the very end of the article do we learn that the dramatic results against NSCLC tumors occurred in mice, not human beings. In fact, it never states the setting for any results — an important point because the article fails to reveal that some results, such as the compound’s apparent ability to spare normal tissues, were achieved in cell lines, not even in mice, according to the press release and article published in Nature. Therefore, most of the article is misleading . Read the pivotal sentence below. Without any mention of animals preceding it, how could we not assume that the lungs, cancers, and powerful treatment effects were in humans? Claim: Compound May Fight Hard-to-Treat Lung Cancer",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth say the funds from the Department of Health and Human Services are intended to provide support services to people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. The care will extend beyond essential medical services, and is aimed at improving overall medical outcomes. Durbin says it will improve the quality of life for patients and families. Duckworth says it builds “on the progress we’ve already made addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.” Claim: Chicago receives $6.7M to help people living with HIV/AIDS.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although there could be modest costs to those who participate in the kinds of exercise used in this study (e.g. a good pair of walking shoes, a set of ankle weights), it’s clear to the reader that walking at a fairly modest clip, and performing some stretches and balance exercises, can be done at home, in malls, in hallways, in public parks and at very little, if any, cost beyond one’s time. However, the exercise intervention described here included a twice-weekly supervised program. Although many senior centers offer similar programs for free, there may well be costs associated with participation outside the research program. The release provided only bare-bones results. We’d have liked to see some indication of the changes in mobility — from what to what — following the exercise program. The release says “Changes in activity were significantly greater in the physical activity intervention group than the health education group from baseline through 24 months.” What does that mean exactly? How much improved were those who took part in physical activity compared to those who didn’t? In addition, the headline and text refer often to reduced risks, but we’re never told exactly what those risk factors are. There is no mention of harms. The release could have noted that harm scores were pretty even among all of the study participants, regardless of the duration of their physical activity, and that the protocol was designed to keep the regimen safe for older, sedentary people. The release noted some of the study limitations and we give them kudos for that. There was another limitation we wish they had highlighted: 14,831 elders were screened for participation with 13,196 excluded due to a variety of factors (health related as well as relocations). This suggests that the generalizability of the study conclusions to the general population should be tempered. It’s not clear that the interventions are widely applicable in the elderly population. More information about the study group and the control group would have added context and clarity to the release. No mongering here. The release is clear that the research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. While some of the researchers disclosed pharma funding in the published study, that funding wasn’t relevant to this research and we agree with the decision not to include it in the release. The release doesn’t mention any alternatives to walking as a physical exercise. Multiple studies have shown benefits to the elderly from resistance training, cardiovascular endurance training, balance and flexibility training. The program of exercise training used in the study is not well described but is presumably within the scope of many senior centers and exercise programs designed for the elderly population. The release would ideally have made it clear that the program was not unique and is likely widely available. The release noted what was novel about the research’s endpoint/conclusion: the “dose” response and the search for a “minimum” level of activity that would confer benefit. None here. Claim: Small increases in physical activity reduce immobility, disability risks in older adults",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The four people who have died of influenza since September are all adults, according to Kentucky’s Department for Public Health. On Thursday, the city of Louisville reported its first death of the flu season. The victim who died Dec. 7 was an elderly person who had not been vaccinated and had underlying medical conditions, the Louisville Metro Department of Health and Wellness said in a news release. Health officials say the current flu season in Kentucky runs from September to May 2020. Louisville has seen a sharp rise in flu cases in the past two weeks, the Louisville health department said. Through Dec. 7, there had been more than 1,600 flu cases this season in the state, according to the Kentucky health department’s weekly influenza report. There have been 124 flu deaths in Louisville since 2015. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that influenza has resulted in between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths each year in the United States since 2010, the department said. Claim: Kentucky reports 4 adults have died of the flu this season.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story reports that Chantix costs about $3 per pill. The lead of the story misstates the results of the study. These researchers measured how a few participants felt after taking Chantix or a placebo and drinking alcohol or a placebo drink. They found that overall the participants did not feel as good after drinking a low dose of alcohol, if they had taken a Chantix pill earlier. However, they didn’t see the same difference with higher doses of alcohol. This test did not look at whether these people voluntarily would change the amount of alcohol they drank when they took Chantix. The story headline and lead both focus on the possibility that Chantix could curb problem drinking. Although some other reports indicate people taking Chantix might drink less that is not what this test looked at. The story does report that Chantix carries a “black box” warning and that there are concerns about depression, suicidal thoughts, and the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The story does note that this test included only 15 people. But it doesn’t remind readers of the limitations in trying to draw conclusions from such a limited sample size. It also points out the researchers are not studying whether Chantix can help problem drinkers. But even though the story’s headline and lead refer to “problem drinkers,” readers are not told that although the participants were considered heavy social drinkers and did smoke some, they were not considered either problem drinkers nor addicted to cigarettes. The story also confuses readers by interchanging endpoints, sometimes referring to reducing alcohol consumption, sometimes talking about how people respond to alcohol. The researchers wrote that this test helps define how people respond to alcohol after taking Chantix. The test did not look at whether Chantix helps people drink less. The story switches back and forth between background from other studies and reports about Chantix and alcohol consumption and the results of this specific test of the specific types of negative feelings produced by combining Chantix and alcohol. The story notes that it “remains to be seen” whether Chantix might ever be recommended to help problem drinkers. However, the overall tone is that the drug could be useful, a message which may encourage people to try using the drug even though this test does not provide evidence that it works to curb alcohol consumption. More important is this point: The source research study excluded alcoholics. Because the news article refers to the effect of Chantix on “problem drinkers” without defining what that means, and includes speculation that there might be a “niche” for this drug for those with “alcohol-dependence issues,”  the reader would be expected to think this article might apply to alcoholics. The story does include an independent source. There was no disclosure statement included with the preview copy of the research article, so it is not known whether any of the researchers have ties to Pfizer (the maker of Chantix) or other pharmaceutical companies in this area. There is no reference to alternatives other than comments from one source that “that new ways of treating alcoholism are much needed.” It could have told readers about naltrexone, acamprosate, or disulfiram, which are already approved by the FDA for the treatment of alcohol dependence (alcoholism). There is no mention of the role of behavioral and psychiatric treatments as alternative or adjunctive care for alcoholics. It is clear that Chantix is currently available to help smokers quit. As mentioned above, other drugs are already used to treat alcohol addiction. Readers of this story should have been given that background. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Stop-Smoking Drug May Also Curb Problem Drinking",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Keithahn likened the idea to being on a safari, and his pitch to the group went something like this: It wasn’t a sure thing — far from it. We might never find an elephant. But at the very least, we would all learn some things about economic development, improving life in Gaylord in the process. And we just might pull it off, creating an osteopathic medical school that could generate physicians where more of them are needed: right here in rural Minnesota. Nearly five years later, that imagined pursuit is beginning to look like a success. The Minnesota College of Osteopathic Medicine, co-founded by Keithahn, is renovating the old school, developing curriculum and working to win accreditation from the American Osteopathic Association. If all goes well, the school plans to open in the fall of 2020 with an inaugural class of 75 students. ___ The nonprofit news outlet MinnPost provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News. ___ Keithahn emphasized that the project won’t be complete until the school is accredited. Nothing is set in stone, just yet. But in further recalling his message to those Gaylord leaders, his aspirations shined through. “If/when we were successful, we would also fill a deep need for physicians who have a passion to live and practice medicine in rural and underserved communities,” he wrote. “This expanded physician workforce could provide the foundation for improving the health of vulnerable populations throughout Minnesota, our country, and the world.” Gaylord, the largest town in Sibley County with about 2,300 residents, might seem like an unusual place for a medical school. It’s located in a remote agricultural region. It’s not a university town. It has no major medical center. Over the past few decades, however, several osteopathic medical schools have opened in small communities across the country. In fact, new osteopathic schools, or branches of existing ones, have opened in 16 states in the past five years, according to the American Osteopathic Association. (Osteopathic training is similar to traditional medicine, though it emphasizes a holistic approach and strong physician-patient relationships. Moreover, few osteopathic schools are designed to produce scientific researchers). The trend has given hope to rural regions that have had difficulty recruiting primary care physicians. Dr. Boyd Buser, a past president of the AOA, said most of the osteopathic colleges that have opened in the past decade are located in areas that have been, as he put it, “medically underserved.” Osteopathic schools, he said, “have a track record of supplying physicians for those areas.” Besides his post at the AOA, Buser also once served as vice president and dean at the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine, in the Appalachian region, which opened about two decades ago. The school, Buser said, is committed to serving areas that need physicians; as of 2016, 42% of its graduates were practicing in rural areas. “It’s kept its promise,” he said of the school. He added: “There’s no strategy, profession-wide, for starting new schools, but often when areas are looking to increase their physician supply they have naturally turned to osteopathic schools.” According to the AOA, there were nearly 31,000 osteopathic medical students in the United States during the 2018-19 school year — a 34% increase from five years earlier — and about 114,000 doctors of osteopathy in the United States in 2018. The organization declined to comment on the proposed Gaylord school. On a late morning in June, foot traffic in Gaylord was light, though several people ate lunch at the Prairie House Family Restaurant, a popular stop along Highway 19. At the school renovation site, workers took a break under the shade of overgrown trees whose branches dangled across the entrance. Many of those trees were marked with an X, to be removed to make way for an entryway and plaza for the medical college. Two years ago, as they explored the possibility of starting a medical school, Keithahn, his wife, Sue Keithahn — who is also an investor in the project — Mayor Don Boeder and other civic leaders took field trips to three osteopathic schools: the Kentucky school, which is in Pikeville; the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harrogate, Tennessee; and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg. The largest of those towns, Pikeville, has fewer than 7,000 residents. Ahead of its visits, the group sent a list of questions to leaders in the three communities. One of them: “Describe your city before the medical school started and how it changed as a result of the school.” Several osteopathic schools have pipeline agreements with nearby colleges, an arrangement also envisioned by the proposed Gaylord school. (Earlier this year, leaders of the college, including Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, slated to be the dean, discussed the possibility of collaboration at a health care panel at Minnesota State University-Mankato). In their research, community leaders found that Gaylord is in a pretty good geographic location for such a school — not too far from regional health care centers in St. Cloud and Mankato, just an hour’s drive from the Twin Cities. The idea began to take shape. Not surprisingly, Boeder didn’t expect to work on a medical school when he became the mayor. He has no background in health care. But these days, time is set aside during each City Council meeting for updates on the medical school. “I didn’t want to lose this opportunity, so I hung on to it as tightly as I could,” he said. Joe Deis dropped a stack of recent editions of The Gaylord Hub, the paper he publishes and edits, on a counter inside the newspaper’s office. Deis is a third-generation owner of the paper, so he has been around to see the city’s fortunes ebb and flow. The weekly newspaper has been covering the progress of the medical school since it was only an idea. The June 20 issue featured two pictures of the school renovation work on the front page; the issue being prepared the day I stopped by included a small update on the project. Deis said the plan was met with some skepticism, initially. ”‘We’ll believe it when we see it’” was kind of the thinking around town,” he said. “But now that all of that construction is going on, it looks promising.” Gaylord’s major employers include Michael Foods — a food processor that specializes in egg products — the door-maker Unidoor Corporation and county government (Gaylord is the seat of Sibley County). A walk through the downtown reveals two banks, a law firm, a barber shop and an insurance agent — all set against the iconic backdrop of a grain elevator. But there’s little retail — not even a coffee shop. “People are looking at the medical school to give us a boost,” Deis said. “Maybe it could lead to a cafe, a coffee shop, maybe a hotel.” Indeed, along with the school renovation, the medical school project includes attached housing for 45 students. City officials also credit the promise of the school with two planned projects: a Grandstay Hotel and an 80-unit apartment complex. Keithahn shared an economic report that suggests the medical school could generate $75 million to $125 million for the local economy, factoring in the renovation project, housing for students, spending at local businesses and other variables. The report used an economic model used by other medical schools, Keithahn said. In sending the report, he added: “The economic impact could eventually be exceeded by the impact on health care from a healthier population that lives longer.” The Minnesota College of Osteopathic Medicine would be the first osteopathic medical school in Minnesota. The University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic both have traditional medical schools. Students at the Gaylord school would follow the familiar med-student road: two years in the classroom, two years of training at clinics and hospitals, several years in residency at a large medical center. The school is working on residency agreements with clinics and health systems in Minnesota and other states in the Upper Midwest. The project would not have been possible without the high-speed internet fiber that RS Fiber Cooperative, an initiative involving several towns in this region, laid through town a few years ago. (Philip Keithahn was also involved in that project). Students will use simulation labs, 3D technology and other technological innovations. While the initial class is expected to have 75 students, classes should eventually double in size, meaning as many as 600 students could be enrolled in the college one day. It’s hoped that by immersing medical students in a rural area, some will want to practice in such a place. Keithahn hopes so. He also hopes the project will change the community’s perception of itself. “Any business that expands in Gaylord or other communities throughout Rural America brings hope to people,” he wrote. “New opportunities are created. People see their community differently, because visitors and people who move to the community made a choice to live and work in the community.” He added: “A rural-focused medical school in Minnesota can showcase the best talents of my friends and neighbors.” Claim: Minnesota bets fiscal future on osteopathic medical school.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sometimes touted as the origin of the phrase “son of a gun,” the apocryphal tale of “the bullet through the balls” is a well-traveled legend, often reported by such infamous urban legend vectors as “Dear Abby,” as in this example from her 6 November 1982 column:  It seems that during the Civil War (May 12, 1863, to be exact), a young Virginia farm girl was standing on her front porch while a battle was raging nearby. A stray bullet first passed through the scrotum of a young Union cavalryman, then lodged in the reproductive tract of the young woman, who thus became pregnant by a man she had not been within 100 feet of! And nine months later she gave birth to a healthy baby! The story, in fact, is completely false. The claim for the miraculous “bullet pregnancy” originated with an article that was printed as a joke in the journal The American Medical Weekly on 7 November 1874. Subsequent journals and books cited the article as fact without checking the original source or realizing that it was a put-on, and the story has been passed down through the years as an “actual case that appeared in a real medical journal many years ago.” The long and tortuous history of this legend begins with an article entitled “ATTENTION GYNAECOLOGISTS! — NOTES FROM THE DIARY OF A FIELD AND HOSPITAL SURGEON, C.S.A.” appearing under the name of an “L.G. Capers, M.D., Vicksburg, Miss.” in the 7 November 1874 issue of The American Medical Weekly. It recounts the now-familiar story of a Confederate field surgeon who dressed the wound of a soldier injured by a bullet that had entered the soldier’s leg, ricocheted off the bone, and carried away his left testicle. Coincidentally, the same surgeon was then called upon a few moments later to administer aid to a young lady who had received a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Exactly 278 days later, the surgeon returned to the village and delivered a baby boy of the wounded women, although she steadfastly maintained that she was still a virgin. The general tone and style of the article should have indicated to the astute reader that the whole thing was a gag. Even if they didn’t, at least a few more obvious clues gave away the joke: The baby was said to have been born “with something wrong about the genitals,” and upon examination the surgeon discovered that the ball which had wounded the soldier and impregnated the woman was lodged in the newborn infant’s scrotum! Even more implausibly, the soldier, when told of his astonishingly-achieved fatherhood, quickly wed the child’s mother! For those who still didn’t catch on to the article’s facetiousness, a note from the editor explaining that the whole thing was a bit of “fun” (complete with a pun on the putative author’s name) was printed in the same journal two weeks later. (Note: The details of battle given in the original article do correspond to actual events. In May of 1863, Union troops under the command of Major General James B. McPherson set out for Raymond, Mississippi, a town about fifteen miles from Jackson, the state capital. On May 12 a unit led by Major General John A. Logan ran into a Confederate brigade under the command of General John Gregg, and the battle of Raymond ensued, with Gregg eventually withdrawing his outnumbered forces from Raymond and heading down the road to Jackson.) Several months later, the British medical journal The Lancet reprinted (portions of) the 1874 article. Then, in 1896, George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle cited (and quoted from) The Lancet as a footnote to a section about artificial impregnation in their book Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. Even Gould and Pyle seem to have recognized the original article’s drollery, however, as they mention that it is included “not because it bears any semblance of possibility, but as a curious example from the realms of imagination in medicine.”  F. Donald Napolitani, M.D., evidently didn’t catch the article’s whimsicality, though, as he presented all the same details as an “authenticated case report” in his 1959 article about “Two Unusual Cases of Gunshot Wounds of the Uterus” for the New York State Journal of Medicine. From then on, one or more of these sources has been cited as proof of an actual occurrence “carefully recorded for the annals of medicine” in everything from American Heritage magazine to “Dear Abby,” with each source accepting the previous ones’ references as accurate citations of a “real” medical journal article. The documents transcribed below include the original 1874 article from The American Medical Weekly that started it all, an editor’s note from a subsequent issue of the same publication explaining the whole thing as a gag, an oft misinterpreted summation from the 1896 book Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, and a 1959 article from the New York State Journal of Medicine by a doctor who didn’t quite get the joke (or do his homework):   by L.G. Capers, M.D., Vicksburg, Miss. How common it is now-a-days, and how natural, too, for men to tell wonderful stories about “the war”; their desperate charges; hair-breadth escapes; numbers who have fallen victims to their feats of personal valor, etc., etc. Then every surgeon has performed any number of wonderful operations before unheard of in the annals of surgery! Until the present moment, I have refrained from bringing before the public, and more particularly the Profession, any of my daring exploits or remarkable surgical procedures; and even now I feel a delicacy in offering the remarkable case, the relation of which is prompted only by a sense of duty to my professional brethren. Doubtless many will pronounce the facts to be presently related as unusual or impossible; to such I need only say, if not, why not? Here are the proofs: On the 12th day of May, 1863, the battle of R. was fought. Gen. G.’s brigade met the advance of Grant’s army, under Gen. L., about one mile from the village of R.  About three hundred yards in rear of my regiment was situated a fine residence, the occupants being a matron, her two daughters, and servants (the host being absent in another army). About 3 o’clock P.M., when the battle was raging most furiously, the above-mentioned lady and her two daughters (aged respectively fifteen and seventeen), filled with interest and enthusiasm, stood bravely in front of their homestead, ready and eager to minister to their wounded countrymen whould they fall in the dreadful fray. Our men were fighting nobly, but pressed by superior numbers, had gradually fallen back to within one hundred and fifty yards of the house. My position being near my regiment, suddenly I beheld a noble, gallant young friend staggering closer, and then fall to the earth. In the same moment a piercing scream from the house reached my ear! I was soon by the side of the young man, and, upon examination, found a compound fracture, with extensive comminution of the left tibia; the ball having ricochetted from these parts, and, in its onward flight, passed through the scrotum, carrying away the left testicle. Scarcely had I finished dressing the wounds of this poor fellow, when the estimable matron came running to me in the greatest distress, begging me to go to one of her daughters, who, she informed me, had been badly wounded a few minutes before. Hastening to the house, I found that the eldest of the young ladies had indeed received a most serious wound. A minnie ball had penetrated the left abdominal parietes, about midway between the umbilicus and anterior spinal process of the ilium, and was lost in the abdominal cavity, leaving a ragged wound behind. Believing there was little or no hope of her recovery, I had only time to prescribe an anodyne, when our army fell back, leaving both field and village in the hands of the enemy. Having remained with my wounded at the village of R., I had the opportunity of visiting the young lady the next day, and, interruptedly, for a period of nearly two months, at the end of which time she had entirely recovered, with no untoward symptoms during treatment; save a severe peritonitis, she seemed as well as ever! About six months after her recovery, the movements of our army brought me again to the village of R., and I was again sent for to see the young lady. She appeared in excellent health and spirits, but her abdomen had become enormously enlarged, so much so as to resemble pregnancy at the seventh or eighth month. Indeed, had I not known the family and the facts of the abdominal wound, I should have so pronounced the case. Under the above circumstances, I failed to give a positive diagnosis, determining to keep the case under surveillance. This I did. Just two hundred and seventy-eight days from the date of the receipt of the wound by the minnie ball, I delivered this same young lady of a fine boy, weighing eight pounds. I was not very much surprised; but imagine the surprise and mortification of the young lady herself, her entire family. This can be better imagined than described. Although I found the hymen intact in my examination before delivery, I gave no credence to the earnest and oft-repeated assertions of the young lady of her innocence and virgin purity. About three weeks from the date of this remarkable birth, I was called to see the child, the grandmother insisting there was “something wrong about the genitals.”  Examination revealed an enlarged, swollen, sensitive scrotum, containing on the right side a hard, roughened substance, evidently foreign. I decided upon operating for its removal at once, and in so doing, extracted from the scrotum a minnie ball, mashed and battered as if it had met in its flight some hard, unyielding substance. To attempt to picture my astonishment would be impossible! What may already seem very plain to my readers, as they glance over this paper, was, to me, at the time, mysterious. It was only after several days and nights of sleepless reflection that a solution flashed before me, and ever since has appeared as clear as the noon-day sun! “What is it?”  The ball I took from the scrotum of the babe was the identical one which, on the 12th of May, shattered the tibia of my young friend, and in its mutilated condition, plunged through his testicle, carrying with it particles of semen and spermatozoa into the abdomen of the young lady, then through her left ovary, and into the uterus, in this manner impregnating her! There can be no other solution of the phenomenon! These convictions I expressed to the family, and, at their solicitations, visited my young soldier friend, laying the case before him in its proper light. At first, most naturally, he appeared skeptical, but concluded to visit the young mother. Whether convinced or not, he soon married her, ere the little boy had attained his fourth month. As a matter of additional interest, I may mention having received a letter during the past year, reporting a happy married state and three children, but neither resembling, to the same marked degree, as the first — our hero — Pater familias! DR. L.G. CAPERS, of Vicksburg, Miss., disclaims responsibility for the truth of that remarkable case of impregnation by a minnie ball, as reported in No. 19 of this Journal. He tells the story as it was told to him. He does not say it is untrue, but is disposed to appositely remember the truth of the old adage, that “accidents may happen in the best regulated families.”  The joke is, that the Doctor reported the case without any signature, but as the editor is indisposed to be made the victim of canards, and recognized the writing sent, he was unwilling to deprive the author of the contemplated fun, and allowed him to enjoy even more of this than was anticipated. The readers have enjoyed the story much, but not enough “to cut capers” after reading it. The following extraordinary incident of accidental impregnation, quoted from the American Medical Weekly1 by the Lancet,2 is given in brief, not because it bears any semblance of possibility, but as a curious example from the realms of imagination in medicine. L. G. Capers of Vicksburg, Miss., relates an incident during the late Civil War, as follows: &nbsp A matron and her two daughters, aged fifteen and seventeen years, filled with the enthusiasm of patriotism, stood ready to minister to the wounds of their countrymen in their fine residence near the scene of the battle of R______, May 12, 1863, between a portion of Grant’s army and some Confederates. During the fray a gallant and noble young friend of the narrator staggered and fell to the earth; at the same time a piercing cry was heard in the house near by. Examination of the wounded soldier showed that a bullet had passed through the scrotum and carried away the left testicle. The same bullet had apparently penetrated the left side of the abdomen of the elder young lady, midway between the umbilicus and the anterior superior spinous process of the ilium, and had become lost in the abdomen. This daughter suffered an attack of peritonitis, but recovered in two months under the treatment administered. Marvelous to relate, just two hundred and seventy-eight days after the reception of the minnie-ball, she was delivered of a fine boy, weighing 8 pounds, to the surprise of herself and the mortification of her parents and friends. The hymen was intact, and the young mother strenuously insisted on her virginity and innocence. About three weeks after this remarkable birth Dr. Capers was called to see the infant, and the grandmother insisted that there was something wrong with the child’s genitals. Examination showed a rough, swollen and sensitive scrotum, containing some hard substance. He operated, and extracted a smashed and battered minie-ball. The doctor, after some meditation, theorized in this manner: &nbsp He concluded that this was the same ball that had carried away the testicle of his young friend, that had penetrated the ovary of the young lady, and, with some spermatozoa upon it, had impregnated her. With this conviction he approached the young man and told him the circumstances; the soldier appeared skeptical at first, but consented to visit the young mother; a friendship ensued which soon ripened into a happy marriage, and the pair had three children, none resembling, in the same degree as the first, the heroic pater familias. &nbsp &nbsp 1131, Nov. 7, 1874. 2476, 1875, i., 35. The following two case histories show the diversity of treatment for gunshot wounds of the uterus. Although not revolutionary in treatment, these two cases are presented for their unusual results. Both cases have been authenticated. Case Reports CASE 2. — This case of a seventeen-year-old girl was reported by Captain L. G. Capers after the Civil War. It is remarkable in its unusualness and in the treatment of the gunshot wounds of the uterus which resulted. While stationed with a regiment on May 12 during the battle of R, his regiment met the advance of the enemy. One mile from the village of R about 100 yards in the rear of the regiment was a fine mansion where a matron and her two daughters and servants were standing about 3:00 P.M. in the afternoon. The battle was raging furiously, and the woman and her two daughters were filled with extreme interest, standing bravely in front of the house, hoping to give some degree of aid to any of the wounded soldiers. Our men were fighting bravely, but pressed by superior forces, they had gradually fallen back to about 100 yards of the house. Since Captain Capers was stationed with the brigade, he suddenly beheld a gallant young lad stagger and fall to the earth. At the same moment a piercing scream came from the vicinity of the house. The young man was examined and found to have a compound fracture with extensive involvement of the left tibia. The bullet evidently had ricocheted from the left portion of the abdomen and in its upward flight passed through the scrotum, carrying away the left testicle. The matron came running in the greatest distress, begging Captain Capers to go to the assistance of one of her daughters, who had been badly wounded. A few moments later, after examining the young lady, who was sitting on the steps and groaning severely, the seriousness of the wound was apparent. The bullet evidently had perforated the girl’s abdomen in the left abdominal parietes about midway between the umbilicus and the interior spinal process of the ilium. Evidently the bullet was still in the spinal canal, and the wound itself was very ragged and irregular. Dressings were applied and medication given, and since the Army had first call on Captain Capers’ services, he left after prescribing a sedative. The town was soon left in the hands of the enemy, but several days later the rest of the brigade settle in the village of R, and Captain Capers had the opportunity of treating the young lady for the next few months. It was apparent that she seemed to have recovered from the severe peritonitis which resulted from the injury. About six months after her recovery, the movement of our Army again brought Captain Capers to the village of R, and again he was sent for by the young lady’s mother. The young lady herself appeared to be in excellent health, but her abdomen had become enormously enlarged, resembling pregnancy of the seventh or eighth month. Captain Capers stated that if it were not for the fact that he knew the injury and had known the family, he should have diagnosed the case as a definite pregnancy. Therefore, under the circumstances, he failed to give a positive diagnosis, determining to keep the young lady under surveillance. Two hundred and seventy-eight days from the receipt of the wound by the young lady, a fine boy weighing 8 pounds was delivered by Captain Capers, since there were very few doctors available at this time in the vicinity of the town. The mortification and mystification of the young lady and her entire family was apparent! In fact, before the examination Captain Capers stated that he gave no credence to the young girl’s assertion of her innocence and virgin purity! About three weeks after this remarkable birth, the Captain was called to see the baby by the grandmother, who stated that there was something wrong about the infant’s genitals. Examination revealed an enlarged, swollen, sensitive scrotum containing in the right side a hard and roughened substance, evidently foreign. The doctor decided to operate for the removal  of this object at once. In doing so, he extracted from the scrotum a mass which was mashed and battered as if it had met in its flight some hard, unyielding substance. Captain Capers stated that he was astonished and that he finally decided, after several days of seriously considering the matter, just how the incident had occurred. He surmised and stated that no other way was possible — that the mass taken from the scrotum of the baby was the identical one which on the twelfth of May had shattered the tibia of the young soldier and then had plunged through the air into the abdomen of the young lady, carrying particles of semen and spermatozoa through her left ovary and into the uterus, in this manner impregnating her! No other solution to this birth was apparent. Captain Capers explained this to the family, and at their solicitation visited the same young soldier, who at first was most skeptical but then appeared very interested in the young lady. Before four months had passed, he had married the young girl. Several years later Captain Capers received a letter from the young man stating that they were happily married and that they now had three children but the last two not resembling to the same marked degree as the first, the young hero, or the young soldier. This case occurred on May 12, 1863, and was reported November 7, 1874, in the medical annals.1               1381 BRONX RIVER AVENUE, BRONX 59 Reference      1. Med. Ann. 1:62 (Nov. 7) 1874. Claim:  A woman became pregnant from being struck by a bullet that had passed through the scrotum of a Civil War soldier.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not mention the cost of the blood test compared to the skin prick test. While it does refer to the contention by some that \"allergists resist blood testing in part to protect their revenue,\" the story does not describe the actual fees surrounding either the blood tests or the skin-prick tests. The story does not quantify the benefits of the blood test compared to the skin test. It is not clear from the story if the blood test results in better outcomes for the patient other than convenience and fewer side effects. The question of whether using the blood test in combination with treatment results in better outcomes for the patient is unanswered. The story only mentions one harm of the blood test – getting the blood drawn itself. The story should have mentioned other harms such as what happens with false positive or negative results or how the results may be misinterpreted by non-allergy specialist clinicians. The story does not describe the strength of the available evidence to support the use of the blood test. Specifically, no data are presented on whether more diagnostic testing will result in better outcomes. The story commits disease mongering by not emphasizing that the blood and skin tests are only used in those with severe allergies. Most people with common pet or seasonal allergies will not require this kind of testing. Furthermore, the story overstates the risk that children with allergies have of developing respiratory problems and asthma later on. The story quotes multiple experts. The story mentions the skin testing and talking with their primary care doctors about their symptoms as alternatives to the blood test. The story does say that the test is available and comments that its use is limited in the U.S. The story does state that the blood tests were developed in the 1970s but that newer tests have become available more recently. Because the story quotes multiple experts, the reader can assume the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. Claim: In testing for allergies, a single shot may suffice",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A small stuffed toy is fanning the flames of another coronavirus conspiracy theory. A Jan. 27 Facebook post about an adorable plushie drew attention to an October 2019 gathering called Event 201. It was designed to help plan for a global pandemic by bringing together business, government, and public health leaders. \"Nobody has been able to explain why they gave out stuffed souvenir Coronavirus toys at #Event201 yet,\" the post reads. \"Almost like this is big fun — for them. Or maybe it’s to commemorate the virus that’ll make them a fortune on vaccines & other treatments we will be forced to buy — Thoughts?\" Underneath the post are three photos: a screen grab of Jan. 27 tweet from the Daily Mail showing images of the coronavirus under a microscope and two images showing small, stuffed toys shaped like orange suns with red rays and black eyes. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We noticed that there have also been many tweets speculating about Event 201’s pandemic simulation. So is it true that this plushie was distributed in commemoration of the coronavirus outbreak? Did the organizers of Event 201 have insider knowledge about this global health scare? No. Here’s what we know. The toy at the center of the controversy is supposed to be a microbe. Two months before the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was detected in Wuhan, China, the Event 201 scenario — which was organized by John Hopkins Center for Health Security World Economic Forum and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation —\"simulated a novel zoonotic coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a severe pandemic,\" according to the Event 201 website. The fictionalized scenario, which was planned in part because there have been two worldwide outbreaks of coronaviruses in the last 20 years, also included 65 million related deaths in 18 months from the pretend coronavirus. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security on Oct. 16, 2019, tweeted a picture of the stuffed microbe as part of its Event 201 registration drive: \"Have you registered for the #Event201 virtual pandemic exercise yet?\" the tweet read. \"See the story of #Event201 play out in real-time and answer tough questions that could arise in a severe pandemic. Register today and be entered to win one of our Event201 giant microbes!\" Have you registered for the #Event201 virtual pandemic exercise yet? See the story of #Event201 play out in real-time and answer tough questions that could arise in a severe pandemic. Register today and be entered to win one of our Event201 giant microbes! https://t.co/phz7Qc0LQL pic.twitter.com/fJZdjH1fVi On Jan. 24, 2020, the John Hopkins Center for Health Security released a statement clarifying that they had not been predicting the current coronavirus outbreak: \"To be clear, the Center for Health Security and partners did not make a prediction during our tabletop exercise. For the scenario, we modeled a fictional coronavirus pandemic, but we explicitly stated that it was not a prediction.\" A World Economic Forum article stated that the Event 201 simulation of a pandemic was meant to \"bring together public and private leaders to inform multi-stakeholder cooperation for pandemic preparedness and response.\" The article argues there needs to be pandemic simulations like these to prepare for the average of 200 epidemics that take place annually. Johns Hopkins has hosted other simulations in recent years, including Dark Winter in 2001, Atlantic Storm in 2005, and Clade X in 2018. A Facebook post says that Event 201 in October 2019 gave out stuffed coronavirus plushies to commemorate a coronavirus outbreak that didn’t start until December 2019. Yes, these plushies are meant to represent coronavirus microbes. They were given out in October — two months before the first cases of the current 2019 coronavirus outbreak appeared — but this was not because the event’s organizers had predicted the Novel Coronavirus to come. They were distributed as part of the registration for a New York event that was centered on preparing for a new coronavirus pandemic because of the history of outbreaks. These plushies were not intended to commemorate the toll that outbreak would bring. Context is everything. Claim: Event 201 “gave out stuffed souvenir coronavirus toys” to “commemorate” Novel coronavirus outbreak",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 19 March 2018, the often-inaccurate Daily Mail added a new story to their ever-popular “alarming new drug trend” collection of reportage. In this case, the scary new drug was “bug spray” (referring generally to insecticide products such as Raid, which contain pyrethroid compounds), with the Daily Mail reporting that “US health officials have seen a surge in the number of people using bug spray to get high. In the last year the alarming trend has been reported in Mississippi, Tennessee and most recently Indiana.” Here, the Daily Mail was attempting to tie three separate incidents, speculatively and sometimes inaccurately reported on by local news outlets, into a single, surging trend. The Mail was able to do by capitalizing on the flaws and ambiguities inherent in the original local news reports — a prime example of the local news-Daily Mail misinformation complex. In reality, no evidence establishes such an “alarming trend,” because only one of the three incidents cited by the Daily Mail involved a confirmed case of a person using an insecticide intentionally as a form of recreational drug. The remaining two reports were based on conjecture and hearsay that either referenced the same incident or were too different to be considered part of the same alleged trend (and were also just as speculative). In July 2017, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi reported that a person had combined methamphetamine with crystals produced from spraying Raid “Hot Shots” on an electrified screen, and then injected that material into his veins. Both local media reports and the Daily Mail used vague language to make it sound as if the situation in Mississippi were part of an increasingly common occurrence, but Chief Deputy Curtis Knight told us that the occurrence was an isolated case: “The incident where an individual was arrested at our facility for allegedly injecting ‘Hot Shot’ bug spray has been an isolated incident. The user and a witness to the use both stated, ‘Hot Shot’ bug spray was sprayed on a screen and electricity applied to crystalize the bug spray then mixed with methamphetamine and injected.” The second “bug-spray” related incident allegedly took place in Tennessee, and it is a memorable tale involving a man allegedly high on a mix of “wasp spray” and methamphetamine breaking into a random family’s home and drinking water from their sink before cutting himself with a knife, jumping out of the house’s second floor window, and throwing feces at police from a nearby tree. While some second-hand news reports suggested the perpetrator admitted to intentionally using this combination of drugs, more detailed reporting held that this suggestion was just an assmuption based on an interpretation of drug trends greatly mirroring the description of the earlier Mississippi event: It’s likely possible because of a dangerous new drug known as ‘Wasp Spray Dope.’ Officials in Lawrence County said drug dealers are crystallizing wasp spray, then mixing them with meth. “It’s fairly new but it seems to be spreading, rapidly,” said Zach Ferguson, an investigator with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to multiple requests for clarification via e-mail, phone, and voicemail, but news reports and a lack of readily available forensic tests for wasp spray imply no confirmation was made that “wasp spray” was found in the perpetrator’s system, or that he knowingly consumed the substance or admitted to intentionally using it, as insinuated by most accounts reporting on this alleged trend. It bears mentioning that a number of drugs, including methamphetamine on its own, can produce similarly bizarre or violent reactions in users. The final and most recent in the list of incidents pointing to this “alarming trend” potentially involved no bug spray at all. The event itself, a series of overdoses at an Indianapolis men’s shelter named Wheeler Mission, occurred in January 2018 and as reported at the time involved no mention of “bug spray”: Over the last two days, 27 people have overdosed on suspected bath salts in or around Wheeler Mission, including 17 who were guests at the downtown men’s shelter. Steve Kerr, Wheeler’s chief development officer, said seven men overdosed inside the building, while another 10 overdosed directly outside the building. All are suspected to have taken bath salts that may have been laced with another drug, he said. According to a follow up report by IndyStar (published a day before the Daily Mail story ran), investigators later concluded that the cause of the overdose was Spice (a name for a synthetic form of cannabis) mixed with some “unknown chemical”: At least 17 guests were believed to have overdosed on “Katie” [or KD] — another mix of spice and an unknown chemical or drug. Most of the men were able to bounce back, but at least one was taken to the hospital and placed on a ventilator that week, according to mission leadership. Indianapolis police said a subsequent investigation led them to several drug houses connected to the distribution of spice mixed with an unknown chemical. Officers made six arrests in connection with the overdoses and confiscated nearly 10 pounds of synthetic marijuana and five handguns. The assertion that the additional chemical was some form of bug spray, and not merely another one of the hundreds of largely unknown chemicals being sold as synthetic marijuana, came from an emergency responder with the Indianapolis Fire Department who was quoted in that same March story: “Indianapolis firefighter Scott Lebherz told IndyStar this variation of KD can take many forms — marijuana, spice, tobacco, even banana leaves — but shares a common trait: all laced with a heavy-duty household bug spray.” We reached out to the Indianapolis Fire Department to ask how they reached the conclusion that the adulterating chemical in these cases was some form of insecticide. An official there told us via e-mail that this was based on stories heard in the field, not from testing: We do not test for Wasp Spray. We have on scene stories told to us — of people spraying their drugs with this and similar products to either enhance the high or confuse drug sniffing dogs. The Indiana Star, the Daily Mail, and numerous other outlets quoted Daniel Rusyniak, the Medical Director of the Indiana Poison Center, to describe the theoretical effects of using pyrethroid as a recreational drug. What is sometimes left out in these reports, however, is his skepticism that pyrethroids would produce the symptoms attributed to them, or that they would be able to cause any enhancement to a high whatsoever. Over the phone, he told us that pyrethroids can cause problems in humans, but only “at concentrations that are probably not going to be achieved unless somebody’s got some good chemistry skills,” adding that “There are a few case reports of people getting [central nervous system] excitation and some seizures and coma, but most people tolerate fairly large amounts of this without a lot of medical complications.” Indeed, the medical literature includes numerous stories of people consuming or even injecting large volumes of pyrethroids and being generally fine without any detour into violent, psychotic, or zombie-like behavior. A 2005 case report, for example, described a 36-year old man who attempted to kill himself by injecting himself with 6 mL of pyrethroid-containing insecticides: A 36-year-old man injected 6 mL of Real Kill Ant and Roach Killer 2 into his antecubital fossa and 2 mL subcutaneously into his abdomen in a suicide attempt. Upon evaluation in the emergency department, 1 hour later, he had pain at the injection site and no other symptoms … He was admitted to inpatient psychiatry and remained clinically well throughout his 3-day course. Speaking specifically of the Indiana incident, Rusyniak — who actually treated some of the people involved in the January 2018 Wheeler Mission overdose incident — told us that the symptoms described were not a unique occurrence, and could be explained by as a result of synthetic cannabis and similar chemicals: “I saw some of the people at the Wheeler Mission, and took care of some of them. [Their symptoms were] indistinguishable from a lot of outbreaks that we’ve seen [that involved only] synthetic cannabinoids.” “The idea that this is somehow unique or different from the clinical effects of the synthetic cannabinoids alone [has not been demonstrated], at least so far,” Rusyniak said. The Indiana incident, is, however, distinct from the previous events alleged to be part of the trend in that the primary drug was synthetic marijuana, not methamphetamine. Claim: Health officials have seen a surge in the number of people using \"bug spray\" to get high.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While some therapeutic strategies appear to have been approved in China and Europe, according to the story, none has been approved in the Unites States, suggesting that cost information isn’t yet relevant. But the story does indicate how expensive these therapies might be, by mentioning a breathtaking bit of pricing by one European company: $1.4 million per injection. This is enough to rate as Satisfactory, though the story could have done more to help patients understand what pricing might look like for gene therapies, which is surely on the minds of the venture capitalists funding the research. The story reports chiefly on what appear to be full recoveries in some mice engineered to have genetic deficiencies, but we’re given no details on the quantified results nor any words of caution on the limitations of extrapolating these benefits to humans. For the one human research trial that’s discussed (for a vision disorder unrelated to Canavan disease), we’re told 21 vision-impaired patients experienced “maximum possible benefit” of vision restoration, a description that sounds like good news, but falls short of quantifying the actual benefits. This one is difficult to evaluate, since most of the current research relates only to animal studies. However, early in the story, the writer reflects on the well-publicized death of a clinical trial participant in 1999 that brought gene therapy trials to an abrupt halt in the United States. Other passages in the story also suggest caution, as does a source later in the story, who notes that risk accompanies many therapies. These details are sufficient to indicate there could be significant harms if these methods move into human testing, and that’s enough to rate as Satisfactory. However, it could have been made clearer that researchers really don’t know the harms yet. The premise of this story is that gene therapy is re-emerging as a promising and investment-worthy treatment. But the bulk of this premise is staked upon two things: Early-stage animal research, and the growing interest of financial backers. It does not balance the enthusiastic statements from researchers and investors by discussing the actual quality of this evidence as it pertains to patients waiting for a cure, except for the ending anecdote where the mother of a terminally ill child can only muster a wordless smile at the news of a promising animal study. It was a poetic way to emotionally portray the hurdles of evidence-backed treatments actually arriving for this woman’s daughter, but we also wanted to see a more analytical discussion of the limitations of animal research to better balance the story. The diseases discussed here are relentless and ultimately lethal. The writer devotes a big chunk of the story to a discussion of investor excitement regarding gene therapy. So although we do not learn who is funding specific scientists or studies, we do learn the venture firms are providing many millions of dollars to support the development effort. The relationship between investors and scientists included as sources in this story is not clear. The story also would have benefitted from quoting researchers who are not part of the studies in question. The story is explicit that at least some of the diseases mentioned have no alternative treatments. However, we did want to note that only at the end does the story explain that this type of is not appropriate for all conditions of the brain, especially those that involve multiple genes. We would have preferred to have that read that at the start of the story, to better balance the blanket statement in the headline (“GENE THERAPY MIGHT BE THE BEST, AND PERHAPS ONLY, CHANCE AT CURING BRAIN DISEASES.”) We’re told early on “there is no treatment and no cure for Canavan disease,” but then later a researcher is quoted as saying: “We have the therapy. We are ready.” The word “therapy” implies effective treatment of people. Therapeutic misconception like this is confusing to readers, and the story needed to counter this confusion by more strongly indicating this specific intervention is and will be experimental for years to come. This was made more confusing by the discussions of available gene therapies for other illnesses, including two that are in use in China and Europe, and one that might be approved in the U.S. How far behind are all the gene therapy approaches discussed in the piece? This is important to counter false hope among patients who may read this story and think that these are signals that availability of these other therapies can’t be far away. The story is clear that scientists have been trying to develop effective gene therapy strategies for years. It also makes a good case that the recent modifications in delivery mechanisms discussed here are indeed news. This story seems independent of news releases and appears to stem from a good bit of reporting work by the journalist. Claim: GENE THERAPY MIGHT BE THE BEST, AND PERHAPS ONLY, CHANCE AT CURING BRAIN DISEASES",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Appalled by controversial videos about the extraction of fetal organs for research, Del. John O’Bannon, R-Henrico, recently asked his constituents whether Virginia should take action against Planned Parenthood. \"Considering the revelation that some Planned Parenthood chapters have been selling the body parts of aborted fetuses for profit, do you support or oppose a state investigation into the Planned Parenthood chapters in Virginia?\" he asked in an 11-question survey that was mailed to constituents and remains on his website. Planned Parenthood has acknowledged that one of its clinics in each of two states - Washington and California - supplies fetal tissue to medical researchers and that the one in California has been getting reimbursed. Scientists have used fetal tissue since the 1930s; such experimentation was instrumental in developing the polio vaccine. Current studies are using the tissue to research maladies including AIDS, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s. Federal law bars organizations performing abortions from profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. The law does, however, allow them to receive \"reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue.\" O’Bannon’s statement that some Planned Parenthood chapters have been selling parts for profit - a claim made by many abortion opponents - is noteworthy because it accuses the organization of illegal acts. So we asked O’Bannon, a neurologist, for proof. He replied in an email: \"Considering the videos revealing the activities of Planned Parenthood officials, I’m surprised you’d ask this question. \"I urge you to watch the videos, obtained by the Center for Medical Progress, in their entirety here,\" O’Bannon wrote, with a hyperlink to the group’s website. The Center for Medical Progress is an anti-abortion group that made national headlines last summer when it released secretly recorded videos that it claimed showed Planned Parenthood officials trying to sell aborted fetus tissue for profit. The director of the center, David Daleiden, posed as a representative of a fake biotech company that was seeking to buy fetal tissue for research. He approached officials from several abortion-providing organizations, including Planned Parenthood. The footage contains graphic descriptions of abortion procedures and the methods for salvaging issue, which may be done only with the mother’s advance permission. Some of the conversations occurred over meals, and Planned Parenthood later apologized for the casual attitude displayed by one official in her discussion with Daleiden, who was undercover. One video shows Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, telling Daleiden that he \"probably\" could obtain tissue for fees ranging from $30 to $100 per specimen. The exact cost, she said, could depend on how much staff time is required to extract the tissue and whether shipping costs were involved. Another video shows Daleiden and an unidentified female colleague - both undercover - meeting with Mary Gatter, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Medical Directors’ Council. Gatter, after much prodding, said the fee for a tissue specimen might be $50 to $75, but she wasn’t sure and would have to consult with others. \"We’re not in it for the money, and we don’t want to be in the position of being accused of selling tissues and stuff like that,\" Gatter said. \"On the other hand, there are costs involved with this.\" Federal law doesn’t define in dollars and cents the \"reasonable payments\" abortion clinics may charge for their costs in extracting fetal tissue. Arthur Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, has told PolitiFact National that the $30 to $100 range cited by Planned Parenthood officials does \"not appear to be out of the ordinary, but no one knows because there is no registry or compendium of fees charged by organizations (or) institutions supplying fetal tissue.\" The videos have provided new fuel for the efforts of anti-abortion groups to convince Congress and state governments to defund Planned Parenthood. They have prompted separate investigations of the organization in at least 18 states - but not Virginia - and by congressional Republicans. So far, 12 states have concluded their investigations without finding evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood, according to a Jan. 28 article by National Public Radio.. Perhaps the most significant results came from Washington, one of the two states in which a Planned Parenthood clinic supplied fetal tissue to researchers. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, issued a report in November that concluded the organization did not profit from the activity in his state. Officials in California, the other state where tissue transactions are known to have occurred, have not launched an investigation. Planned Parenthood, seeking to quell the controversy from the videos, announced in October that it no longer would accept reimbursement for fetal tissues. It also should be noted that on Jan. 24, a Texas grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing and indicted Daleiden on a felony charge of tampering with a government record by fashioning a fake California driver’s license. Sandra Merritt, another center employee who accompanied Daleiden on some of the meetings with Planned Parenthood, was indicted on the same charge. Daleiden also was indicted on a misdemeanor charge related to trying to purchase fetal tissue. Our ruling O’Bannon said \"some Planned Parenthood chapters have been selling the body parts of aborted fetuses for profit.\" As evidence, he points broadly to a series of secretly recorded videos in which anti-abortion advocates - posing undercover as officials of a fake biotech firm seeking to buy fetal tissue for research - met with Planned Parenthood officials. Planned Parenthood acknowledges that one of its clinics in each of two states - Washington and California - supplies fetal tissue to researchers but says they comply with federal law barring a financial profit from the transactions. O’Bannon’s statement implicitly accuses Planned Parenthood of breaking the law, so there’s a burden on him to prove the organization profited from sales. He falls short by simply pointing to the videos in which Planned Parenthood officials, under prodding from the undercover activists, say tissues probably could be obtained for $30 to $100 per sample. A medical ethicist tells us those fees seem to be a \"reasonable\" reimbursement for the cost of supplying the tissue. An investigation by Washington’s attorney general cleared Planned Parenthood of charges it was profiting from the sales in that state. Investigations in 11 other states also have cleared the organization. There’s simply nothing that proves O’Bannon’s claim and much that contradicts it. Claim: John O'Bannon Says \"some Planned Parenthood chapters have been selling the body parts of aborted fetuses for profit.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Funding for Planned Parenthood has become a divisive issue in New Hampshire over the past few years. Republicans have repeatedly tried to redirect taxpayer money away from family planning services because the funds go to organizations that also perform abortions. The group at the center of these debates is Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which bills itself as the largest reproductive health care provider in the region. And this year is no different. A recent headline in a liberal blog caught our eye: \"Lawmaker seeks to defund Planned Parenthood for ‘cutting children into small pieces.’\" It appeared on the liberal Miscellany Blue website. We’re not checking whether it’s accurate for Groen to say abortions are equivalent to \"cutting children into small pieces,\" in this fact check. Instead we’ll look at the history of the bill and whether any state legislators uttered those words. The article points to State Rep. Warren Groen, a Rochester Republican, as both the sponsor of a bill to defund Planned Parenthood and the source of the quote. At the time the blog post was written, author William Tucker says, Groen was identified as the sole sponsor on a legislative services request. The full bill has since been written and posted online as HB 677. It’s now co-sponsored with Republican Rep. Richard Gordon of East Kingston. Neither current bill -- titled \"an act prohibiting the use of public funds for abortion services\" -- nor an earlier version introduced in 2011 target a specific, named group. Instead, they would affect all health care providers that also offer abortion services. The bill suggests that taxpayer dollars going to these groups indirectly subsidize abortions by paying for \"administrative costs, overhead, employee salaries, rent, utilities, and various other expenses,\" and seeks to ban such funding. Of the affected providers, Planned Parenthood is by far the biggest. For 2014-15, it received $737,586 from state contracts, while the Concord Feminist Health Center received $73,218 and the Joan G. Lovering Health Center in Greenland received $89,214. It’s important to note that the state already bars direct public funding for abortions through Medicaid except in case of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. Groen’s bill specifically targets funding for other health services provided by Planned Parenthood and similar agencies. The blog headline is close to accurate, but it oversimplifies somewhat. The measure targets all abortion providers in the state, not just Planned Parenthood. And what about the \"cutting children into small pieces\" quote? It comes from a Feb. 9, 2011, Concord Monitor article about a legislative hearing on the earlier version of Groen’s bill. In the article, Groen is quoted as saying: \"I'm amazed the only way we can find to deliver social services is by spending money on an organization whose specialty is cutting children into small pieces.\" Tucker says he highlighted that four-year-old quote because it referenced Planned Parenthood specifically, and because it was made in the context of a formal hearing. Groen’s latest bill hasn’t yet come up in the House. Groen is a longtime abortion opponent, and he’s been outspoken in his views. He has made similar statements recently, too. In the Dec. 20, 2014, Concord Monitor, for example, he’s quoted as saying: \"Imagine how poverty-stricken the state has to be, when in order for women to get health care they have to reach out to an organization that kills babies for a living?\" Reached by phone, Groen said the quote that ran in the Monitor in 2011 sounded \"pretty accurate to me,\" and the quote that ran in the paper in 2014 was not exact but \"reasonably accurate.\" He also criticized the news media’s focus on Planned Parenthood in the debate. Groen, referring to Planned Parenthood, said \"they have all the money,\" suggesting the group was trying to turn his bill into an attack on them. \"Every reporter wants to talk about Planned Parenthood,\" he said. \"That’s very interesting.\". We’ll note that abortions account for a small fraction of the of the overall health care services provided by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. According to the group, its New Hampshire clinics were visited 22,283 times in 2013. Medical personnel at the clinics performed 1,573 abortions that year, accounting for about 7 percent of all visits. For reference, the clinics did 2,979 breast exams and 1,859 cervical cancer tests over the same timespan. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England only performs first- and early-second-trimester abortions. None would be considered late-term abortions, a type often highlighted by critics of the procedure, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Frizzell. State-level numbers for the number and type of abortions performed in New Hampshire aren’t available from the federal government, as the state does not report them. The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit spun off from Planned Parenthood, reports that 3,200 abortions were performed in the state in 2011. Our ruling A headline in the liberal blog Miscellany Blue declared, \"Lawmaker seeks to defund Planned Parenthood for ‘cutting children into small pieces.’ \" Groen’s proposal doesn’t mention Planned Parenthood, but the effect of the bill would be to strip it, and other similar groups, of state funding. Meanwhile, Groen did make the statement about the group \"cutting children into small pieces\" four years ago, and he’s made similar declarations recently. We aren’t rating the substance of Groen’s accusations, but the headline summarizing what Groen said and what he’s proposing in the bill are generally accurate. Claim: Miscellany Blue Says a \"lawmaker seeks to defund Planned Parenthood for ‘cutting children into small pieces.’",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There’s no discussion of costs for either steroid injections or dry needling. According to costhelper.com, the cost of a steroid injection runs $100 to $300, not including the cost of a doctor’s office visit. Dry needling is considerably less expensive but typically requires more frequent treatments. We found one Kansas physical therapy practice that charges $25 for the first treatment and $20 for additional visits. Both may be covered by insurance. The news release states the results “showed that cortisone injection did not provide better outcomes than dry needling for either pain or function in patients with GTPS. Both groups experienced a decrease in pain and an improved ability to move and complete daily activities.” But there’s no information on how big the benefits were. For example, average pain scores for patients who underwent dry needling dropped from 5.4 to 2.8 on a 10-point scale, while those who received a cortisone injections saw their pain scores go from an average of 6.1 to 3.9. Weighted averages for functionality increased from 3.9 to 7.3 for those who received dry needling versus an increase from 3.4 to 6.1 for patients who had a cortisone injection. The true benefit of either treatment is difficult to determine. This study lacked a placebo group so it’s hard to gauge how it compares with normal healing without being treated. While no harms were reported in the study, the news release still should have mentioned typical side effects of dry needling such as temporary pain, bruising and post-treatment soreness. The release does mention the “potentially harmful effects of steroids” but doesn’t say what they are. The concern over potential complications from steroid injection seems to be magnified while any potential harms from dry needling is ignored. The news release describes the study’s methodology, number of patients, randomized assignment of treatment, length of treatment and other details that give readers a decent grasp of how the results were obtained. It also cautions that “while this study uses a larger sample than most, further studies are warranted. In particular, participants were only followed for six weeks; additional studies over longer time periods will be important.” The release would have been better if it mentioned additional study limitations such as a lack of blinding and the possibility that both treatment groups experienced a placebo effect, as well as the study’s’ recommendation that dry needling be studied in conjunction with rehabilitative physical therapy over a prolonged period. The release doesn’t engage in disease mongering. Hip dysfunction is very common, and the news release doesn’t appear to overstate that. It says GTPS “is estimated to affect 10% to 25% of the general population. This kind of hip pain has been reported to be more common in women and in patients with coexisting low back pain, osteoarthritis, Iliotibial band tenderness, and obesity.” The news release doesn’t mention any conflicts of interest, and none were reported in the study. The release also echoes the study’s statement that funding came from Baylor Scott & White Health, which is a Dallas-based healthcare system. The news release adequately compares dry needling with steroid injections. Still, it could have mentioned other strategies for managing chronic hip pain such as physical therapy. There’s no discussion of what’s involved with dry needling. While steroid injections take about five minutes and are usually done in a physician’s office once every six weeks or more, dry needling is usually performed by a physical therapist and requires more frequent treatments of about 20 minutes apiece. During this six-week study, the dry needling group received an average of 5.4 treatments while those who received cortisone injections had one shot. Dry needling might be more convenient than steroid injections if it’s part of treatment strategy that also involves physical therapy. The news release says this is “the first to directly compare these two treatments for the syndrome.” We found no other studies of a similar nature after a quick online search. The language is this news release is restrained. Claim: Dry needling offers alternative to cortisone injection for hip pain",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Aveo, which was developing the drug with Japan’s Astellas Pharma Inc, said enrollment in the study had been slower than expected and did not improve despite efforts to recruit more patients. The company, which cut 62 percent of its workforce last year to focus on developing the drug as a treatment for breast and colon cancers, said in December that it was not likely to succeed in a mid-stage colon cancer study. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the drug, tivozanib, as a treatment for kidney cancer in June, saying that study results were inconsistent. The breast cancer study, which began in December 2012, was testing the efficacy of tivozanib in combination with another cancer drug on patients with locally recurrent or metastatic triple negative breast cancer. Aveo’s shares, which fell 78 percent in 2013, closed at $1.77 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday. Claim: Aveo Oncology to end breast cancer study due to low enrollment.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Hillary Clinton has a reputation for being cozy with Wall Street -- but in her 2016 campaign, she’s been striking populist tones. Clinton introduced her plan for a variety of economic issues in a speech at the New School in Manhattan on July 14, 2015. As president, she said, she would go \"beyond Dodd-Frank\" -- the regulations on financial institutions that took hold in 2010, following the economic crisis of 2007-08. She said she had been calling for financial regulations since the very early stages of the crisis. \"As we all know, in the years before the crash, financial firms piled risk upon risk, and regulators in Washington either couldn’t or wouldn’t keep up,\" she said. \"I was alarmed by this gathering storm and called for addressing risks of derivatives, cracking down on subprime mortgages and improving financial oversight.\" Clinton used to be the senator from New York, the home of Wall Street. She has a history of campaign backing from the finance industry and of delivering high-priced speeches to finance firms, such as Goldman Sachs. And her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed the repeal of a bank break-up bill, the Glass-Steagall Act -- a deregulation that some critics believe contributed to the financial crisis. So we questioned Hillary Clinton’s record of addressing financial regulations. Did she address derivatives, subprime mortgages and financial oversight so early in the crisis? The 2008 primary campaign While the financial crisis came to a head in summer 2008, problems with housing started to bubble up in 2007 during Clinton’s ill-fated presidential primary campaign. On the trail, Clinton addressed these nascent issues -- particularly the mortgage crisis -- as early as March of that year. Clinton, still a senator at the time, delivered a speech on the volatility of the subprime mortgage market on March 15, 2007. She said too many people were ignoring warning signs. \"The subprime problems are now creating massive issues on Wall Street,\" Clinton said. \"It's a serious problem affecting our housing market and millions of hard-working families.\" She gave specific proposals for addressing subprime mortgages, including expanding the role of the Federal Housing Administration, more borrowing options for underprivileged and first-time homebuyers, more safeguards against predatory lending practices and policies intended to prevent foreclosures. In August that year, she delivered a similar speech about dealing with problems from subprime mortgages. There, she reiterated earlier proposals, and also suggested laws establishing national standards and registration for loan brokers, as well as regulations on lenders. \"I think the subprime market was sort of like the canary in the mine,\" she said. \"You know, it was telling us loudly and clearly, ‘There are problems here.’ \" It didn’t become law, but Clinton sponsored a bill to implement these policies in September 2007. The first time she mentioned derivatives was in a November 2007 speech in Iowa. (A derivative is a financial product that allows investors to hedge against price fluctuations in an underlying asset.) \"We need to start addressing the risks posed by derivatives and other complex financial products,\" she said. \"You can't let Wall Street send the bill to your street with the bright ideas that just don't work out. Derivatives and products like them are posing real risks to families, as Wall Street writes down tens of billions of dollars in investments. Companies are taking the loss of a billion here and a billion there simply because the securities they own are worth less than they thought.\" In the same speech, she spoke again of the risky lending that led to the subprime mortgage crisis, adding that she called on then-President George W. Bush to convene a conference to find a solution. And she also pushed for more oversight of financial markets: \"So as president, I will move to establish the 21st-century oversight we need in a 21st-century global marketplace. I will call for an immediate review of these new investment products and for plans to make them more transparent.\" This November speech angered some of Clinton’s Wall Street donors, according to the New York Times. At the tail-end of her campaign, in March 2008 -- still before the financial crisis hit a peak later that summer -- Clinton released a six-point plan to increase financial regulation. The plan included, in part, more oversight of derivatives and other new financial products, establishment of mortgage standards and strengthened some consumer protections. After becoming secretary of state in 2009, Clinton made noticeably fewer comments on domestic policy and financial regulation. But the record shows that establishing policies to address the then-nascent financial crisis was a key point of her campaign platform in 2007 and 2008. Our ruling Clinton said she \"called for addressing risks of derivatives, cracking down on subprime mortgages and improving financial oversight\" early on in the financial crisis. The crisis hit a peak in summer 2008, though it started to gain traction in 2007. Clinton began addressing the subprime mortgage issue in her appearances in March 2007. Later that year, she took on derivatives. She also proposed specific plans for solving these problems and increasing oversight of financial institutions. Her statement is accurate. Claim: Hillary Clinton Says she \"called for addressing risks of derivatives, cracking down on subprime mortgages and improving financial oversight\" early on in the financial crisis.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A spokeswoman for the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem also says the fair’s lone water ride will be disinfected daily, and drinking fountains will be available inside a building adjacent to the fairgrounds. Spokeswoman Siobhan Olson says the fair is following guidelines established by the N.C. Department of Agriculture for the fair opening Friday. State health officials say more than 120 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease after attending last month’s Mountain State Fair in Fletcher. Health officials said an investigation suggests the outbreak could have been spread by a hot tub display at the fair. Claim: North Carolina fair bans mist fans as health measure.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Drumming classes do more than conjure dreams of rock glory. They provide effective workouts for all sorts of different drummers, from grandmothers to fitness fanatics. Marc Santa Maria of Crunch, the national chain of fitness centers, admits to living out his own rock fantasy as he instructs a drumming Crunch fitness class called Pound. The sticks, he said, are the means to an end. “You’re using the sticks as a mechanism to keep moving, and there’s constant movement,” said Santa Maria, who is Crunch’s New York regional director. “Your core has to be used for all the basic movements.”  Pound is the brainchild of Kirsten Potenza and Cristina Peerenboom, California-based former drummers who set out to fuse conditioning moves and cardio interval training with the distracting fun of drumming. “You’d never think two drummers will come up with a workout,” said Santa Maria. “They’re also inspired by Pilates.”  The Pound workout is featured on Potenza and Peerenboom’s website www.poundfit.com. There is a network of instructors and classes in the United States and they plan to have an at-home version of Pound available on DVD next year. “After the warmup, around the third track, there are three-minute intervals when you’re doing intensive cardio. Then there’s ab work,” said Santa Maria, referring to the abdominal muscles. People in the 45-minute class spend about 40 percent of the time standing, 40 percent seated, and 10 percent on their backs, he added. Dr. J. Timothy Lightfoot, who has played music semi-professionally for a decade, said it’s about time someone tapped into the fitness potential of drumming. “I’m pleasantly surprised to see this is happening,” said Lightfoot, a base player who is fascinated by the movement of drummers. “It’s always been my observation that drummers are incredibly fit, even though they don’t work at it.”  Lightfoot, who is director of the Sydney and JL Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Texas A&M University, said it makes perfect sense to the physiologist to use drumming as conditioning. “It’s very physiologically taxing,” he said. “Runners are primarily using their legs, swimmers are using their upper body most, but drummers are one of the few ‘athletes,’ and I’ll call them that, to have all extremities going at once.”  Lightfoot guesses that a drumming workout class with aerobic and dance elements could burn about 400 calories. Dancer and rhythm aerobics instructor Carrie Ekins originated Drums Alive, a workout which marries aerobic dance and drumming, while recuperating from a hip injury. She found that drumming on boxes helped her mentally as well as aerobically. Drums Alive workouts, which are done in the United States as well as Canada, Europe, Asia, Israel and the Middle East, are popular in senior centers, not just gyms. “The program started when I was sitting in a wheelchair.” said Ekins, who is based in Augsburg, Germany. “Drums Alive aims to reach multiple markets whether one is healthy, ill, young or old.”  Drums Alive has a sitting program for people who can’t train while standing, as well as one specifically designed for kindergartens and schools. She said the choice of music, as well as drumsticks, varies depending on the teacher and the students in the class. Among the benefits of the drumming workout is its accessibility age groups and fitness levels, according to Santa Maria. “There’s a learning curve, but in a few months you can get stronger and more flexible,” he said. “Messing up is not a big deal. Anyone can hold a stick and hit the floor.”  Unlike other classes that require a certain level of fitness or experience, anyone can pound drumsticks. “We many times see performers and we don’t think about their physical exertion,” he said. “Maybe we should think about that.” Claim: For a full-body workout, drumming is the novelty to beat.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu of Los Angeles County repeated a deceptive claim about the GOP health care bill last week after it narrowly passed the U.S. House. Chu said the legislation \"would once again allow being a rape or domestic violence victim to be a pre-existing condition,\" in a press release on May 4, 2017. Chu and all other Democrats in the House opposed the bill, which has an uncertain future in the U.S. Senate. The national PolitiFact team fact-checked similar claims in the headlines of several blogs and rated them . It called the statements \"bombastic\" and \"misleading.\" The Washington Post Fact Checker also rejected this claim, giving it four pinnochios. PolitiFact noted that some blogs have changed their headlines or issued corrections. In a written statement on May 10, 2017, Chu said she stands by her claim: \"While the many fact checks have pointed out that a number of conditions would have to be met first, like state waivers, the fact is that what is currently prohibited has once again become possible thanks to the (American Health Care Act),\" she said. Summary of PolitiFact’s findings PolitiFact Wisconsin also looked at the national PolitiFact’s analysis and summarized it’s findings this way: The GOP bill does not single out any specific medical event or diagnosis as a pre-existing condition. Conditions stemming from a sexual assault or domestic violence, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or certain sexually transmitted diseases, could be judged to be a pre-existing condition. States would have the option to allow insurers to charge higher prices to people with an existing condition, possibly making coverage unaffordable. Here’s what’s wrong with the claim Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies cannot deny coverage or charge higher premiums because a person has a pre-existing medical condition. Republicans’ Affordable Care Act replacement — the American Health Care Act, which the House passed May 4 — weakens those protections. These blog posts get at a real problem with the Republican bill if it were to become law. Victims of sexual assault could, conceivably, find themselves in a situation where they can’t afford insurance because of medical issues that stem from their assault. But the headlines that say the GOP bill makes sexual assault a pre-existing condition are hyperbolic based on the what the bill actually says. They stoke fears that the bill singles out victims of sexual assault, limiting their access to health care specifically. But the Republican bill doesn’t pinpoint any specific medical event or diagnosis as a pre-existing condition; that’s something the insurance companies or individual states would decide. As it stands, anyone with a pre-existing condition could face problems. Problems prior to the Affordable Care Act The blogs discuss anecdotal stories of women who, prior to the Affordable Care Act, were sexually assaulted and then sought treatment stemming from that assault. Later, when these women tried to purchase health insurance, they were denied coverage. These women weren’t necessarily denied coverage because of the sexual assault; rather, it was because of residual treatment they sought afterward, such as taking HIV-preventative medication or seeing a therapist. None of the several health insurance experts we consulted were aware of insurance companies with policies that specify \"sexual assault\" or \"rape\" as a condition to consider when evaluating someone’s eligibility. But insurance resources did regularly list mental health issues or sexually-transmitted illnesses as pre-existing conditions. For example, if a person were pricked with a used needle or had consensual sex with someone they later discovered had HIV, that person might also take HIV preventatives. And because they took that medication, they, like some sexual assault victims, might have trouble buying health insurance on the open market. If a sexual assault victim chose not to seek medical treatment, he or she wouldn’t necessarily face the same challenge in getting insurance. \"This is not something specific about sexual assault,\" said Urban Institute senior fellow Linda Blumberg. \"But to the extent victims of sexual assault are needing to take this (HIV) medication, they’re very vulnerable in terms of getting insurance coverage in the future.\" What repealing the Affordable Care Act could mean The Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent authority on health policy, recently wrote policy papers about pre-existing conditions prior to the Affordable Care Actand how repealing the law would affect women. Neither of those two articles say sexual assault victims would face a particular challenge. The Republicans’ bill doesn’t change what is or is not a pre-existing condition. What it does is allow more consideration of pre-existing conditions than is permitted under the Affordable Care Act. \"The bill just leaves it to the imagination at this point,\" Blumberg said, referring to what insurance companies might consider as a pre-existing condition. To be clear, the bill doesn’t allow insurance providers to deny coverage to someone based on pre-existing conditions outright. But with a waiver, states can allow providers to set premium costs based on an individual’s \"health status.\" Even though the bill puts in some protections, health economists say this could make insurance unaffordable for those with pre-existing conditions. Before the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies were not transparent about what counts as a pre-existing condition, and the House Republican replacement doesn’t change that, said Kathryn Votava, president of health care consulting company Goodcare. This allows for the real possibility that sexual assault victims who seek medical treatment could face challenges in getting health insurance if the Republican bill becomes law, she said. \"Could\" is the key word. What ultimately happens depends on whether the bill is changed in the Senate and how states and insurance companies respond. The lack of transparency, as well as the potential for different policies from state to state, would put a significant burden on consumers trying to figure out whether they can obtain insurance given their health status, said Claire Brindis, director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California San Francisco. For victims of sexual assault in particular, the bill could have a chilling effect, she added. Women might choose not to seek medical treatment after an assault because they are concerned it might affect their ability to get health insurance down the line. Sexual assault \"is the tip of the iceberg,\" Brindis said. \"There are many many other examples of unexpected events that occur in day to day life, that you can’t plan for, can’t avoid.\" Our ruling Various bloggers, and some members of Congress, wrote that under the House Republican health plan, sexual assault and domestic violence is a pre-existing condition. Several websites have since softened their headlines to be more careful, going from \"would\" to \"could.\" The bill does not change what is or is not a pre-existing condition; the health insurance companies write those definitions for themselves. The House bill also does not single out sexual assault or any other medical issue as a pre-existing condition. Prior to the Affordable Care Act, some victims of sexual assault said they had trouble getting health insurance because they sought medical services that the insurance companies viewed as evidence of a pre-existing condition, such as for sexually transmitted illness or mental health. The Republican bill might make it harder for people who have pre-existing conditions to get affordable health care coverage. Victims of sexual assault would face the same challenge as others with pre-existing conditions. But we don’t know for sure given the bill’s current form. PolitiFact National rated this claim . Following the same analysis, PolitiFact California rates Chu’s claim . – The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. UPDATE: This fact check has been updated with a response from Rep. Chu, who issued a statement on May 10, 2017, which reads in full: \"As it stands today, anybody with a preexisting condition is protected thanks to the Affordable Care Act. This includes women, who were previously charged more for a range of care that is, today, considered ‘essential’. The AHCA makes it easier for insurers to earn waivers to charge more for preexisting conditions and leaves the question of what should be covered up to others. In my statement, I said that this bill ‘would once again allow a rape or domestic violence victim to be a pre-existing condition.’ While the many fact checks have pointed out that a number of conditions would have to be met first, like state waivers, the fact is that what is currently prohibited has once again become possible thanks to the AHCA. We should not even be discussing how women can be charged more for their care, even if it requires 2, 3, or 4 extra steps. This bill represents a step backwards for Americans’ health in a number of ways.\" Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. Claim: The GOP health bill \"would once again allow being a rape or domestic violence victim to be a pre-existing condition.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Public health experts consider the infant mortality rate an important indicator of a community's well-being. It is one of the factors that helped land Cuyahoga County in the bottom third of Ohio counties in overall health in a national study released last month by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Cuyahoga, with its major health centers, performed well again on access to primary care in the annual study. But major health centers can't compensate for poverty and the other, often related stressors that contribute to the high infant mortality of Northeast Ohio. Ohio's rate of infant mortality -- 7.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in the first year of life -- is 11th-worst in the nation, said a public radio report on the subject on WCPN's \"Sound of Ideas.\" The most recent rate reported for Cuyahoga County was a dismal 9.1 deaths, according to the Ohio Department of Health, and the average from 2006 to 2010 was 9.7. Among the experts who discussed the subject on WCPN was Dr. Michele Walsh, division chief of neonatology at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. \"Within the three miles surrounding the University Circle area, infant mortality exceeds some Third World countries,\" she said, \"and that is an embarrassment and cannot be allowed to continue.\" PolitiFact Ohio agreed that the rate would be alarming. We wanted to know more. We called Dr. Walsh, who said her statement about the city reflects data from a study conducted by researchers at Case Western Reserve University Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Its extensive research database is called NEO CANDO, for Northeast Ohio Community and Neighborhood Data for Organizing. It draws from a wide variety of sources that include the U.S. Census and the Ohio Department of Health, and it can break down information by neighborhood. For worldwide rates of infant mortality, we checked the authoritative CIA \"World Factbook.\" The term \"Third World,\" which once designated countries not aligned politically with the West or the Communist bloc East, generally refers to underdeveloped and developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Many poorer nations use the term to describe themselves. For our fact-check, we used the listings of Third World countries, as measured by poverty and low human development, from the Nations Online independent reference portal. To stay within three miles of University Circle, we looked at data for neighborhoods on Cleveland's East Side. We found that two neighborhoods, Hough and Mount Pleasant, had infant mortality rates above 27 per 1,000 -- worse than in North Korea, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Samoa, Maldives or the Gaza Strip. Two other neighborhoods -- Kinsman (with an infant mortality rate of 31 per 1,000) and South Collinwood (29) -- had infant mortality worse than was reported in Zimbabwe. Infant mortality in the University Circle neighborhood, according to the NEO CANDO database, was slightly above 69 deaths per 1,000 live births. That exceeds the rate in countries that include, among others, Bangladesh, Haiti, Burma, Cameroon, Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda and Uganda. That number struck us as both anomalous and staggering. We looked for an explanation and got one from researcher Richard Stacklin of the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. The rate for University Circle, he said, reflected the neighborhood’s small statistical base in 2009 of 43 births and 3 infant deaths. He said its most recent three-year average -- a preferable statistic for the neighborhood because it better accounts for fluctuations -- is 18.6 deaths, a figure he noted is still unacceptable and almost double the countywide rate. The average rate worldwide, according to the \"World Factbook,\" is 39.4 per 1,000. The book estimates infant mortality in the United States in 2012 as 6 deaths per 1,000 births -- worse than the average for nations of the European Union and worse than countries including Australia, South Korea and Cuba. Its figures show that some Third World nations have infant mortality rates that are exceeded by those for some neighborhoods within three miles of University Circle. Walsh’s statement rates as . Claim: Within the three miles surrounding the University Circle area, infant mortality exceeds some Third World countries.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: With a climbing death toll from COVID-19 grabbing daily headlines, some social media users have noted that the seasonal flu kills tens of thousands per year, too. But an April 18 Facebook post exaggerates seasonal flu fatalities: \"Flu killed 80k people in the U.S. last year. None of you were afraid because the media didn’t tell you to be!\" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post appears to rely on a number used as a preliminary estimate for the 2017-18 flu season. The final figure for that year was lower than 80,000. And while the number of people who died from flu during the 2018-19 season is still preliminary, it is estimated to be less than half of what the Facebook post claims as well. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses a mathematical model to retroactively estimate the numbers of influenza illnesses, medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States each year. The CDC first looks at in-hospital deaths and then uses death certificate data since not all flu deaths are in the hospital. That 80,000 figure stems from a preliminary estimate provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September 2018. At that time, the CDC said early estimates indicated that \"more than 80,000 people died from flu last season\" — a reference to the 2017-18 flu season. The CDC later updated its estimate for 2017-18 to about 61,000 (though the CDC notes that the true range could be as low as 46,404 and as high as 94,987). The estimate for flu deaths for the following year, 2018-19, is 34,157 deaths, but that number is preliminary and will be updated at a later date when data on contemporary testing practices become available, a CDC spokesman told PolitiFact. The Atlantic explained that seasonal flu deaths are hard to tally. \"Flu deaths are estimated through a model that looks at hospitalizations and death certificates, and accounts for the possibility that many deaths are due to flu but aren’t coded as such,\" The Atlantic wrote. \"If flu deaths were counted like COVID-19 deaths, the number would be substantially lower. This doesn’t mean we’re overestimating the flu. It does mean we are probably underestimating COVID-19.\" Flu deaths are hard to tally. But we know that in September 2018, the CDC announced a preliminary estimate that flu deaths totaled 80,000. Later, the CDC updated its estimate to a lower number: 61,099 deaths. The Facebook post said \"last year\" which we think would refer to the 2018-19 season. The CDC’s preliminary estimate is about 34,157 deaths. Claim: “The flu killed 80,000 people in the U.S. last year”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not discussed, but this is an important factor to consider when evaluating any intervention–and especially one that can be expensive. For example, Autism Service Dogs of America (a group that promotes the use of service dogs for patients with autism) estimates that “the full cost to breed, raise and train an ASDA service dog is over $20,000.” Another organization that trains dogs to work with autism patients estimates the cost at $30,000 (though it does not charge the client — the expense is paid through fundraising initiatives). We don’t claim that these are costs that individual patients would necessarily be responsible for, but they do offer some insight into the potential expenses associated with the care, training and upkeep of therapy animals. It’s not negligible, and it’s worth mentioning. This is a tricky one, given that the focus of the story is on the dearth of quantifiable benefits associated with therapy animals. So, what do we look for? Well, in this case, we looked for some meaningful, big-picture discussion of benefits. For example, the story notes that the body of evidence regarding therapy animals “sometimes has shown positive short-term effects, often found no effect and occasionally identified higher rates of distress.” Is that quantifiable? No. Does it offer meaningful insight into the nature of benefits found in a wide variety of studies on the subject? Yes. Given the thrust of the story, and the in-depth discussion of benefits (or lack thereof), we think this qualifies for a Satisfactory rating. This was a tough call for us: Harms are discussed, but briefly and anecdotally. The brief portion comes in the same quote mentioned above, noting that the body of evidence regarding therapy animals “sometimes has shown positive short-term effects, often found no effect and occasionally identified higher rates of distress” (emphasis added). A little more information there would be welcome. There’s also the issue of immunosuppressed patients coming into contact with therapy animals, and possible harm to the animals, who could be over-worked or subjected to aggressive or harmful treatment from even well-meaning people. Still, some harms are at least acknowledged. The story is focused on a field of research, rather than on any specific study. However, the story provides good background on the shortcomings of much of the relevant literature. For example, the story notes: “Most studies had small sample sizes…and an ‘alarming number’ did not control for other possible reasons for a changed stress level, such as interaction with the animal’s human handler.” It also discussed how media headlines often misstate correlation and causation, a problem we’ve discussed many times. Given the nature of the story, and the scope and complexity of the field being discussed, this earns a Satisfactory rating. We also like that the story includes multiple links to additional material regarding the existing body of research. No disease mongering here. This was a strong point of the story. It cites multiple sources, clearly identifies the affiliation of all sources, and places those affiliations in a context that readers can understand. For example, the story includes input from a source at the Human-Animal Bond Research Initiative (HABRI) — and explains that HABRI is a pet-industry backed organization that funds research on the topic of therapy animals. It’s not clear what the direct alternatives would be here, so we’ll rate this as not applicable. However, the story could have talked first-line treatments such as medications and traditional talk therapy. Therapy animals are meant to extend those mainstream treatments, not replace them. The story makes clear that therapy animals are in widespread use, and offers numerous related examples. However, people may wonder how to get one, and whether their insurance would pay. The story talks about prior research and even gives a Freud anecdote about the impact of a pet on psychotherapy, in an attempt to make clear this is not novel. The story does not appear to be based on a news release. Claim: Therapy animals are everywhere. Proof that they help is not.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the aftermath of a spate of mass shootings in August 2019, attention turned to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tone in discussing the killings, and the wider issue of gun violence in the United States, as well as his comportment in visiting two of the cities affected, El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Trump was criticized for smiling and offering a thumbs-up gesture while visiting an infant whose parents had been shot to death in a massacre in El Paso, and allegations that the president was using the tragedies as an opportunity to gain political capital extended to unfounded rumors that his administration had hired “fake” medical staff to pose with him at a hospital in Dayton. On Aug. 9, the left-leaning Facebook page Occupy Democrats posted a meme that purported to highlight a stark difference in tone and decorum between Trump — who supposedly used a visit to El Paso to brag about crowd sizes and snipe at Democratic presidential candidate and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke — and his predecessors in the Oval Office — who purportedly offered words of comfort and solidarity in the aftermath of previous mass shootings. We received multiple inquires from readers about the accuracy of the meme, which read as follows: “Littleton, I can only say tonight that the prayers of the American people are with you.” — Bill Clinton, after Columbine. “This is a day of mourning for the Virginia Tech community — and it is a day of sadness for our entire nation.” — George H.W. [sic] Bush. “Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation. You are not alone.” — Barack Obama. “Crazy Beto only had like 400 people in a parking lot, they said his crowd was wonderful.” — Deplorable Trump, in El Paso. The caption of the meme read: “SERIOUSLY, what is WRONG with Trump?!?! He REALLY said this to the El Paso victims.”   The Occupy Democrats meme was a largely accurate recounting of four post-shooting statements made by the four most recent occupants of the White House. (Strictly speaking, Trump was addressing medical staff who had treated victims of the El Paso shooting, rather than the victims themselves, and the second quotation was, apparently in error, attributed to George H.W. Bush, rather than George W. Bush.) Despite the authenticity of the quotations, the meme presented an incomplete and rather misleading picture of Trump’s overall comportment in visiting El Paso after the August 2019 massacre there. While the president did indulge in side-sniping about a political opponent who had been fiercely critical of him (something his predecessors markedly did not do in similar circumstances), Trump did also offer words of solidarity and comfort to the victims of the August 2019 massacres, their families, and the wider communities affected by the shootings. Clinton The first quotation in the meme was taken from remarks Bill Clinton delivered in a White House press conference on April 20, 1999, the day of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado. His speech can be read in full here, and viewed in full in the video below. In the most relevant section, Clinton said: “To the families who have lost their loved ones, to the parents who have lost their beloved children, to the wounded children and their families, to the people of the community of Littleton, I can only say tonight that the prayers of the American people are with you.”   Bush The second quotation in the meme came from a speech that George W. Bush gave on April 17, 2007, during a convocation at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, the day after a student shot to death 32 people on that campus. The full text of his speech is available here, and it can be watched in full below. In the section quoted by Occupy Democrats, Bush said: “Laura and I have come to Blacksburg today with hearts full of sorrow. This is a day of mourning for the Virginia Tech community, and it is a day of sadness for our entire nation. We’ve come to express our sympathy. In this time of anguish, I hope you know that people all over this country are thinking about you and asking God to provide comfort for all who have been affected.”    Obama The third quotation in the meme was taken from a speech Barack Obama gave during an interfaith vigil at Newtown High School on Dec. 16, 2012 — two days after a shooting massacre at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The speech can be read in full here, and watched in full in the video below. During the relevant section, Obama said: “Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation. I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts. I can only hope it helps for you to know that you’re not alone in your grief. That our world, too, has been torn apart. That all across this land of ours, we have wept with you, and we’ve pulled our children tight. And you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide. Whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you, to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it. Newtown, you are not alone.”     Trump The fourth and final quotation in the meme consisted of remarks Trump made while talking to hospital staff during a visit to University Medical Center in El Paso on Aug. 7, 2019, four days after a mass shooting at a Walmart store in that city. Police in El Paso have linked the suspected shooter, Patrick Crusius, to a white nationalist manifesto posted online shortly before the massacre began. The author of the manifesto decried what he characterized as a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and espoused the discredited “white genocide” theory. Although the manifesto’s author, thought by El Paso police to be the suspected Walmart shooter, stipulated that his anti-immigrant sentiment predated the elevation of Trump to the presidency, some observers have pointed out areas of overlap between how the president talks about immigration and immigrants, and how the manifesto addressed them. Others, including Democratic politicians and long-standing critics of the president, went further in connecting Trump to the manifesto and the El Paso shooting. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said the manifesto was so similar to Trump’s rhetoric that it “could have been written by the people that write Trump’s speeches.” O’Rourke described the massacre as “an act of terror inspired by [Trump’s] racism.” Conventional news media were not permitted to accompany the president and first lady Melania Trump on their visits with shooting victims, families and medical staff in Dayton and El Paso on Aug. 7, but amateur footage emerged later that showed Trump addressing medical professionals at University Medical Center in El Paso. In the short clip, the president commended the work done by hospital staff in caring for the victims of the shooting, saying “the job you’ve done is incredible,” and “it’s an honor to be with you.” Without any obvious reason or prompt, Trump then shifted to talking about a rally he had held in El Paso in February 2019 (although he mentioned “three months ago,” Trump’s most recent rally in the city was in February, six months earlier): “I was here three months ago and we made a speech and we had a — what was the name of the arena? — that place was packed … That was some crowd, and we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto — Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot, they said, ‘His crowd was wonderful!’ …” This is viewer video of President @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS at @umcelpaso meeting with victims and medical staff. Send us any photos/videos of president Trump’s visit to #ElPaso and we may show it on TV. Upload here: https://t.co/UHa4MdGOH4 pic.twitter.com/DD5otJtYEg — CBS4Local (@CBS4Local) August 8, 2019  Trump was referring in those remarks to a counter-protest held in response to his Feb. 11 rally at the El Paso County Coliseum. The counter-protest was led by O’Rourke and was estimated to have had between 7,000 and 15,000 attendees — considerably more than the “400 people in a parking lot” claimed by Trump. During his rally, Trump thanked the El Paso fire department for allowing 10,000 of his supporters to enter the arena, despite the venue’s having a capacity of 6,500. In response, a spokesperson for the fire department corrected the president, insisting that no special permission had been given, and the number of attendees inside the arena was no greater than its capacity. At other times, Trump claimed that as many as 35,000 supporters had come to the rally, taking into account those outside the arena. For an unknown reason, Trump decided to re-open that six-month-old dispute and grievance over crowd sizes and news coverage, while meeting and praising hospital staff who had treated and cared for the victims of a mass shooting. That struck some observers as grossly inappropriate, and we found no record of former Presidents Obama, Clinton or Bush having engaged in similar behavior while meeting the victims of past shootings or the medical professionals who had treated them. However, Trump’s “crazy Beto” aside was not the extent of his remarks on the massacres in Dayton and El Paso, and the Occupy Democrats meme misled readers by cherry-picking that unscripted moment and comparing it with remarks made by previous presidents from behind a podium, during prepared speeches. In a White House address on Aug. 5, Trump offered sentiments of solidarity and comfort to the victims of the Dayton and El Paso shootings and their families: “The First Lady and I join all Americans in praying and grieving for the victims, their families, and the survivors. We will stand by their side forever. We will never forget. These barbaric slaughters are an assault upon our communities, an attack upon our nation, and a crime against all of humanity. We are outraged and sickened by this monstrous evil — the cruelty, the hatred, the malice, the bloodshed, the terror. Our hearts are shattered for every family whose parents, children, husbands and wives were ripped from their arms and their lives. America weeps for the fallen. “We are a loving nation, and our children are entitled to grow up in a just, peaceful and loving society. Together, we lock arms to shoulder the grief. We ask God in heaven to ease the anguish of those who suffer, and we vow to act with urgent resolve.”   The salient difference between Trump and his three most recent predecessors was not that they gave “presidential” speeches after mass shootings, because Trump, too, gave a relatively dignified speech from the White House. The key difference, in the context of the Occupy Democrats meme, was in Trump’s comportment and behavior when he stepped away from the podium. We therefore rate the truth of this meme as “Mixture.” Claim: In the aftermath of two mass shootings, President Donald Trump attacked a political opponent and bragged about crowd sizes during remarks about the incidents, whereas past presidents offered words of comfort and solidarity.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: \"I just want to assure [you] we're not talking about cutting Medicare benefits.\" Those were President Barack Obama's words to a town hall audience in Portsmouth, N.H; they were meant to ease fears that health care reform will slash Medicare benefits and deprive seniors of the treatments and procedures they need. A \"myth that we've been hearing about is this notion that somehow we're going to be cutting your Medicare benefits,\" Obama said on Aug. 11, 2009. \"We are not. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay? So I just want seniors to be clear about this, because if you look at the polling, it turns out seniors are the ones who are most worried about health care reform. And that's understandable, because they use a lot of care, they've got Medicare, and it's already hard for a lot of people even on Medicare because of the supplements and all the other costs out of pocket that they're still paying.\" \"So I just want to assure we're not talking about cutting Medicare benefits,\" Obama said. Listening to Obama, you'd think that Medicare will remain intact. Yet, others claim Medicare spending will be trimmed quite a bit. AARP  has said  about $231.4 billion could come out of Medicare's budget, while the 60Plus Association, a group that opposes the bill,  says  cuts could top out at $500 billion. Confused? We were, too. There are three versions of health care reform floating around the House, and each dedicates hundreds of pages to Medicare. For this Truth-O-Meter item, we're going to be focusing on the biggest changes to the program. (So far, the Senate Finance Committee, which holds the purse strings to all things health care, hasn't put any ideas on paper.) Before delving into the bill and Obama's claim, a little Medicare 101: There are two basic ways most people get Medicare coverage. They enroll in traditional Medicare and a prescription drug plan through the government and maybe buy a supplemental policy to cover most out-of-pocket costs. Or they enroll in Medicare Advantage programs (they include drug plan), which are run by private insurers. They typically have more generous benefits such as dental and vision coverage. Some plans even pay the patient’s monthly Medicare premium, which can amount to about $100. We found some disagreement about whether Obama is correct that Medicare benefits would not be cut. The House bill will not cut any benefits, said Tricia Neuman, vice president and director of the Medicare Policy Project at the Kaiser Family Foundation. \"What it will do is cut growth in Medicare spending,\" Neuman said. Indeed, some of the biggest savings in the bill — about $196 billion — would come from a permanent reduction in the annual payment adjustments for some Medicare services, including inpatient hospital services and ambulatory care, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That doesn't mean health care providers will stop being paid for taking care of the elderly; rather, they won't see pay increases in the future. Obama also wants to save money on the Medicare Advantage program, which covers about one-fifth of all Medicare patients. \"We do think that systems like Medicare are very inefficient right now, but it has nothing to do at the moment with issues of benefits,\" Obama said in his speech in New Hampshire. \"The inefficiencies all come from things like paying $177 billion to insurance companies in subsidies for something called Medicare Advantage that is not competitively bid, so insurance companies basically get a $177 billion of taxpayer money to provide services that Medicare already provides. And it's no better — it doesn't result in better health care for seniors. It is a giveaway of $177 billion.\" Indeed, a June 2009 MedPAC analysis said that the Advantage plan costs taxpayers on average of 14 percent more than the traditional Medicare plan. The House bills propose to change the benchmarks that set the payments, making them equal to what the government pays for traditional Medicare services. According to the Congressional Budget Office, those changes would translate to a savings of $156 billion over 10 years. We asked experts from both sides of the debate whether all these changes constituted a cut, and most had the same answer: yes and no. On one hand, they might not be considered cuts because nowhere in the bill are benefits actually eliminated, they said. And other parts of the bill expand coverage for seniors and ultimately make some components of Medicare less expensive for patients. For instance, the bill would require the pharmaceutical industry to help pay for prescription drugs. That savings will ultimately help the government cover more drug benefits for more patients. But experts told us the cuts in the Advantage program could lead to some changes. The basic benefits that mirror regular Medicare will stay the same, but the extra benefits that people receive under Advantage could be changed. \"The core benefits of Medicare won't change,\" said Marc Steinberg, deputy director of health policy for Families USA, an advocate for health care consumers. \"Most [Medicare Advantage] plans are solid and resemble traditional Medicare.\" However, some insurance plans have entered the program \"to make a quick buck. They may have to reconsider their budget, which could mean some patients will see changes in the services provided above and beyond traditional Medicare.\" Stuart Guterman, assistant vice president for the Commonwealth Fund’s program on payment system reform, had a similar view. \"People enrolled in (Medicare Advantage) get services that people in traditional care do not get under Medicare,\" he said. \"Insurance companies can afford to cover these services because taxpayer money is subsidizing them. Plans will most likely not offer those extra services, but in no case will [patients] get less Medicare benefits than people in the rest of the program.\" Another example involving regular Medicare coverage: The House bill proposes a $20 billion cut in hospital readmission subsidies. This has to do with patients who re-enter the hospital to be retreated or have procedures fixed. Gail Wilensky, who ran the Medicare program under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, said this is just one example of how cuts to Medicare payments could ultimately trickle down to patients. \"Most of the ways to get money with any certainty is to have it happen quickly, which you do by either raising taxes or whacking prices,\" said Wilensky, now an economist and senior fellow with Project Hope, a health care advocacy group. \"In this case they're whacking prices. ... Are these patients in jeopardy? You can't guarantee they're not.\" That leaves us with Obama's claim that, under the health care reform proposal, Medicare benefits will not be cut. He's right that the bill does not directly trim Medicare benefits; instead, the government is proposing ways to slow or eliminate some Medicare spending to beef up other aspects of the plan. But experts told us it's conceivable or even likely that those financial changes could lead to reduced benefits, particularly for people in the Advantage program. From that perspective, it's a stretch for Obama say that Medicare patients won't see changes in their plans as a result. We give Obama a . Claim: I just want to assure [you] we're not talking about cutting Medicare benefits.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The fruits of this work include the world’s top-selling prescription medicine — the antibody injection Humira sold by AbbVie for treating rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology, George Smith from the University of Missouri and Gregory Winter of Britain’s MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology were awarded the prize for pioneering science in enzymes and antibodies. Arnold, only the fifth woman to win a chemistry Nobel, was awarded half of the nine million Swedish crown ($1 million) prize while Smith and Winter shared the other half. “Some people breed cats and dogs. I breed molecules,” Arnold told Reuters after learning of the award, which she said had come as a complete surprise. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Arnold had transformed science by using the principles of evolution — genetic change and selection — and to evolve new types of proteins very fast. Arnold is the second woman to win a Nobel prize this year after Canada’s Donna Strickland shared the physics award on Tuesday. Her research on enzymes — proteins that catalyze chemical reactions — laid the bedrock for the development of better industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals. “There are enzymes now in detergents that we use in our dishwasher and have been evolved by this process. There are also enzymes that can create new types of biofuels or that catalyze the formation of building blocks for new medicines,” said chairman of the Nobel chemistry committee Claes Gustafsson. “All this you can do with enzymes that Frances Arnold has developed.”  Smith developed a method using a virus that infects bacteria to produce new proteins while Winter used the same phage display technique to engineer the evolution of antibodies, with the aim of producing more effective medicines. Humira, or adalimumab, was the first drug based on Winter’s work to win regulatory approval in 2002. It has since gone on to become a blockbuster, with sales last year of $18 billion. “With this medicine, far fewer people with rheumatoid arthritis are forced to use a wheelchair,” said immunologist Dan Davies of the University of Manchester. Other antibody drugs at the cutting edge of medicine use the same technology, including a number of treatments that have proved highly effective against cancer. Winter said he was surprised by the huge commercial success of antibody drugs, which he put down in large part to the high prices that drug companies have managed to charge for them. “I had no idea they would be so commercially successful ... it was a complete paradigm shift,” he told reporters in a conference call. “Antibodies as a pharmaceutical product are still growing great guns.”  The prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were created and funded in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901. For the first time in decades, the Nobel line-up did not feature a literature award after a rift within the Swedish Academy over a rape scandal involving the husband of a board member left it unable to select a winner. The science and peace prizes are selected by other bodies. Chemistry is the third of this year’s Nobel Prizes after the winners of the medicine and physics awards were announced earlier this week. (Nobel laureates graphic tmsnrt.rs/2y6ATVW) Claim: Trio wins chemistry Nobel for work on antibody drugs, smart enzymes.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Five deaths have been reported among children under 6 who  took the medicine since its approval in 1987, UCB spokesman  Eric Miller said. The drug, known as Tussionex Pennkinetic  Extended-Release Suspension, is approved only for adults and  children age six and older. The prescribing information for doctors specifically says  it should not be used in children younger than 6. Miller said  the company felt that information should be strengthened and  proposed new language to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “We recently proactively reached out to the FDA to update  the Tussionex label,” Miller said. The drug is “safe and effective when used as directed,” he  added. Tussionex is one of eight prescription cough medicines that  contain the narcotic pain reliever hydrocodone, Miller said. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the FDA  planned to issue an alert about Tussionex after numerous  reports of adverse events including some deaths. The Journal  said the FDA had received reports of patients taking higher  doses or more frequent doses than recommended. FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said the agency officials were  “aware of these safety concerns and are working to address  them.”    “We plan to communicate our recommendations to the public  as soon as possible,” she said. Claim: UCB urges stronger warning on cough medicine.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Last week, PolitiFact Oregon heard an earful from fluoride opponents upset with our ruling on their claim that Multnomah County has the 15th lowest cavity rate in the country, as the county hovered at roughly the same percentage as the state of New York. We ruled the statement  because county data is not comparable to state data. Plus, we found that New York didn’t really rank 15th lowest because the cavity numbers posted on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were from varying years and, consequently,  can’t be ranked. Accurate dental health statistics are critical because Portland residents will vote May 21, 2013, on whether to add fluoride to the city’s drinking water. For that fact check, we spoke with Shanie Mason, oral health program manager for the state agency that published the \"Smile Survey\" in 2002 and in 2007. Her office released a draft of the 2012 version last week at the request of The Oregonian. At the time, she cautioned against such comparisons and said, \"We have only compared ourselves against neighboring states with a similar methodology.\" So imagine our surprise when we read this statement in the 2012 draft report: \"In 2007, Oregon scored worse in every major measure of oral health for children compared to 2002. At that time, Oregon ranked 25th – or 7th from the bottom – in percentage of children with untreated decay compared to 32 other states with similar data.\" It’s accurate to say that Oregon measured worse in 2007 when compared to itself in 2002. However, the \"ranked\" numbers looked very much like the numbers erroneously relied on by anti-fluoride campaign Clean Water Portland -- which Mason cautioned against comparing -- when it made its claim about New York and Multnomah County. The CDC posts the percentage of third-graders with \"untreated decay.\" But a spokeswoman for the CDC says the statistics are not meant to be \"ranked\" because they cover different time periods, with some as dated as 1999. The states have different response rates and vary in the percentage of children who qualify for free and reduced-price meals, she said. \"There are many caveats in looking at these data across states,\" wrote Linda S. Orgain in yet another email to PolitiFact Oregon. \"These issues make ranking the states on these children's indicators less meaningful and probably not accurate. We would not recommend doing that.\" We returned to the Oregon Health Authority for a response. Bruce Gutelius, who is presenting the 2012 survey, said in a reply email they wanted to provide context for Oregon’s numbers. He said they had other options -- for example, sticking with 2002 and 2007 Oregon figures, or measuring Oregon against a national figure from 1999-2004 -- but decided that a ranking \"was the most meaningful to provide the needed context.\" We do not see how declaring Oregon No. 25 based on a list of percentages from other states and other years provides meaningful or accurate context. The percentage of third-graders in Oregon who showed evidence of untreated decay in 2006-07 was 35.4. Vermont was at 16.2 percent in 2002-03 and Arkansas was at 42.1 percent in 2001-02. The Smile Survey released last week contains numbers for children ages 6 to 9 -- so we’re talking largely kids in first, second and third grades. This is slightly different from the numbers reflected on the CDC website. In 2011-12, the percentage of children in this group who showed evidence of untreated tooth decay was 20 percent. In 2007 it was 36 percent. That’s a sizable decrease. This week, the Oregon Health Authority also shared statistics for 43 states, including numbers not yet posted to the CDC website. More than 21 percent of third-graders in Oregon and in Alabama have untreated decay for 2011-13. Oregon is in the middle of the pack if you look just at the percentages for the 43 states -- but again, we don’t know how some of the older numbers have shifted since then. We want the state to make recommendations on public health, even if controversial. The Oregon Health Authority has no official position on the city water measure, although public health officials there clearly favor fluoridating water. But we don’t think this was the most responsible way to put perspective on Oregon’s untreated decay percentages. The agency could have run in its 2007 report all the percentages for the 32 states, clearly citing the years and without designating a ranking. In its 2012 report, writers should have deleted the phrase: \"Oregon ranked 25th – or 7th from the bottom.\" The statement is . Claim: Oregon Health Authority Says that in 2007, \"Oregon ranked 25th -- or 7th from the bottom -- in percentage of children with untreated decay compared to 32 other states with similar data.",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Oregon House recently took up a bill that would change the way in which health care providers get consent to test patients for HIV. Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, the House’s newest member, was one of the carriers of the legislation. She gave a moving floor speech, invoking the memory of her father who passed away from complications due to AIDS in the 1980s. \"Much has changed in the past 24 years,\" she said. \"Treatment has reduced transmission.\" Indeed, she noted, a study last year found that those who were being treated for HIV were 96 percent less likely to pass the infection on to their partners. \"The problem is that too many people still go undiagnosed,\" Keny-Guyer said. Testing rates remain stagnant. But, she said, these new guidelines could boost the numbers of those getting tested in Oregon. \"Nationally, 21 percent (of those with HIV) are undiagnosed,\" she told colleagues. \"And in Oregon, only 41 percent of adults have ever been tested.\" We thought the second figure was a little surprising, especially given that the Centers for Disease Control recommends routine screening for all patients between the ages of 13 and 64 and annual screening (at least) for \"high risk\" individuals. According to the CDC website, high risk patients include \"injection-drug users and their sex partners, persons who exchange sex for money or drugs, sex partners of HIV-infected persons, and MSM (men who have sex with men) or heterosexual persons who themselves or whose sex partners have had more than one sex partner since their most recent HIV test.\" Pregnant women are also encouraged to get screened as part of their routine prenatal tests. The CDC doesn’t keep track of testing rates, but its website does link to Kaiser State Health Facts, a huge database supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation. According to that website, the testing figures for Oregon are slightly lower than what Keny-Guyer reported. Less than 37 percent of Oregonians between the ages of 18 and 64 have been tested for HIV. The national average is 40 percent. If you’re talking in the last year, the figures are even lower -- 18 percent in Oregon, 21.5 percent nationwide. The numbers were off slightly from what Keny-Guyer reported on the House floor, so we talked to an aide in her office to see if there was another source we weren’t considering. The aide told us that the representative used numbers from the previous year (2009 rather than 2010) and forwarded us the latest statistics -- the ones we’d already found. We wanted to do our due diligence, so we called up two additional organizations. Michael Kaplan, the executive director of Cascade AIDS project, said Kaiser’s site was the best he could come up with. \"I couldn’t give you a better statistic than they have there,\" he said. Karynn Fish, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Health Authority, told us the same thing. Anything the state had, she said, would be older and less accurate. With that, we turn to our ruling. While speaking about a bill that seeks to raise the rate of HIV testing in Oregon, Keny-Guyer told colleagues that \"only 41 percent of adults have ever been tested.\" The most recent statewide number is actually a bit lower -- 37 percent. But Keny-Guyer used a correct statistic, it was just a year old. We don't consider that significant enough to downgrade our ruling. Claim: Alissa Keny-Guyer Says \"in Oregon only 41 percent of adults have ever been tested\" for HIV.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release briefly mentions the issue of costs with this statement: “Its better outcomes could offset the increased costs of a mobile stroke unit.” We thought the release would have been better if it had noted the nominal cost of clot busting drugs as well as the cost of a CT scanner and additional personnel essential to mobile stroke units, which would be considerable. The release does describe the benefits using numbers, but it does so in such a way that readers could be misled. The entire study only included 658 stroke patients. Half received a clot-busting drug at the hospital and half received it in the ambulance. And yet when presenting the benefits, the release presents them as a rate, saying that “three months after stroke, 182 out of every 1,000 patients treated before arriving at hospital were less disabled, including 58 patients who had zero disability, compared to people who received treatment after reaching the hospital.” How a rate like this based on just 329 patients (half of the total cohort) was derived is never explained, and the description makes it sound like there were thousands of patients in the study. The release does raise risks in a meaningful way. It says: “But tPA is not indicated and could hurt a patient’s chances if they are having a hemorrhagic stroke, in which a blood vessel ruptures. That is why patients need a CT scan to confirm the type of stroke before receiving tPA.” However, that statement could have gone further and noted that some patients with a negative CT scan may have a hemorrhage after getting tPA. The news release does a reasonable job explaining the basics of the study, though this description falls below some earlier language that has the potential to mislead. It says: Researchers analyzed results from 658 stroke patients who were treated with tPA — a drug that dissolves blood clots. About half of the participants received the clot-busting drug at the hospital, and half received it while still in the ambulance. It also notes that the findings were “presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2017.” What’s missing from this is the fact that the findings likely only received limited peer review, since they were not published in a journal. Very low in the release — but at least it was included — it says that the findings did not quite achieve statistical significance. At least that’s how we’re interpreting it. The statement itself is a bit vague, saying, “The findings bordered on statistical significance, suggesting that future clinical trials with a greater number of patients are needed to show similar benefits.” The lack of statistical significance, even with caveats, merits a Not Satisfactory for evidence. Moreover, the release doesn’t tell us why in this apparent re-analysis of the results, only about two-thirds of the patients from the original study were included. There is no disease mongering in the release. The release explains the funding source and points to the abstract, which notes that one of the authors received a modest grant from a pharmaceutical company for a clinical trial for a clot-busting drug. The release does an OK job discussing how the approach being studied compares with the standard of care. It says: “Every second counts, in the current standard of care, patients who experience stroke-like symptoms and call 9-1-1 arriving to the hospital by ambulance are assessed by clinical examination and imaging (CT or MRI scan) in the Emergency Department. This takes a certain amount of time from the patient’s symptom onset which prompted the 9-1-1 call.” Availability is not addressed beyond UCLA’s Mobile Stroke Rescue Program, which collected the data for the study. It would have been good to mention that specialist-staffed mobile stroke units have been popping up in different parts of the country over the last 3-4 years. They are mainly affiliated with larger medical centers and funded by private donations. The release does not adequately establish the novelty of the study or the findings. It does briefly allude to previous research: “Past research showed the sooner that a clot-busting tPA drug is given after an ischemic stroke – one in which a clot is blocking blood flow – the better patients fare.” There have been around a dozen trials on mobile stroke units in recent years, appearing primarily in neurology journals. Some examples: The language is generally cautious enough in the release. The errors are mostly of omission. Claim: Receiving a clot-buster drug before reaching the hospital may reduce stroke disability",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Planned home births made up 2.12 percent of all births in Utah in 2013, according to the report from the Utah Department of Health. The U.S. national rate is less than 1 percent. Utah has one of the highest overall birth rates in the country, influenced by a Mormon culture that tends toward larger families. Women who had a planned home birth in Utah were more likely to be 35 or older, have education beyond high school, be married and have other children, study author Shaheen Hossain, the health department’s data resources program manager, said Tuesday. Interest in home birth has been growing since the 1970s, but has picked up in recent years with movies like “The Business of Being Born” and people posting about home birth on Facebook and Instagram, said Salt Lake City midwife Eve German. German is a licensed midwife who carries a birthing room full of high-tech medical equipment in duffel bags in her car and quickly transfers women to a hospital if something goes awry. “There are plans and protocols and training and mechanisms to keep people safe without having to count on things going well and being normal,” she said. Still, she says home birth is not typically a good option for women with more complicated or higher risk pregnancies, like twins or babies in a breach position. “Midwives are specialists in low-risk births,” German said. Salt Lake City mother Summer Curry, 36, says she had a home birth because she wanted to have her baby without pain medication or medical interventions. Curry had her second daughter in an inflatable birthing tub on Saturday. She said she liked not having to rush to the hospital, and gave birth while her 4-year-old daughter played with her grandmother in the living room. “It was just seamless, and I was comfortable,” she said. The report found that in low-risk pregnancies, the health of babies born at home compared generally well to babies born in hospitals, Hossain said, though home-birth babies tended to score somewhat lower on health exams given five minutes after birth, she said. Exactly what that means in the long run, though, is unclear, and points to the need for more study, especially given the relatively high rate of home births in Utah, Hossain said. Women who labored at home were less likely to have medical procedures like medicine to jump-start labor or epidurals, though they also tended to have more prolonged labor and water that broke before active labor began. The report based on birth-certificate data analyzed from 205,486 births among Utah mothers between 2010 and 2013, of which 3,701 were home births. It did not look at birthing centers or babies accidently born at home. Claim: Utah home-birth rate is double the US average, report says.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The measure would have banned all procedures on intersex children 6 and under unless the Medical Board of California deemed them medically necessary. State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who wrote the measure, called it a civil rights issue and said the bill would “ensure that people who are born intersex are able to make their own choices about their health and their gender identity instead of having other people make those irreversible surgical choices for them.” But a majority of state lawmakers on a key legislative committee thought the bill’s definition of “intersex” was too broad, especially after hearing testimony from a pediatric urologist who said it would limit doctors’ ability to treat patients with complex medical issues. Three Democrats and one Republican on the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee voted to reject the bill after a lengthy public hearing that included testimony from people born with intersex traits — some who supported the bill and others who did not. State Sen. Jerry Hill, a Democrat from San Mateo, said he had an issue with limiting the surgeries until a child was 6. “I look at my granddaughter who is 5, almost 6 — I don’t know if that’s something that she could make that decision on,” he said. Wiener repeatedly told lawmakers that parents would still have the final decision, but he believed delaying the procedures until a child could talk would help parents make it. He said the vote likely means the proposal will not become law this year but vowed to keep trying to pass it in the future. “These are kids who are told from a young age that there is something wrong with them,” Wiener said. “There is nothing wrong with them, there is nothing to be fixed about them, and they deserve the basic human dignity of being able to make decisions about their own bodies.” Intersex people are born with genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit typical definitions for males or females. Examples include people born with both ovaries and male genitals or incompletely formed genitals that can be ambiguous. Between 1% and 2% of the population are born with intersex traits, Wiener said. Bria Brown-King was born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a condition that naturally produces higher levels of testosterone and leads to “secondary male characteristics.” Brown-King said they had surgery when they were 13 after a doctor told them it would make their genitals “appear more normal.” “I don’t know why he assumed to know about how I would or would not want to use my vagina,” Brown-King told lawmakers. Hillary Copp, a pediatric urologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said she opposed the bill because it would remove “all flexibility for trained medical professionals and their loved ones to do what is in the best interest of the patient.” She said many times doctors will advise parents not to operate, noting “we’re not trying to perform sex assignment surgery.” “In fact, we don’t even assign genders. We talk about the baby,” she said. “This is such a complex issue. Of course we want to get it right.” The measure was opposed by several medical groups, including the California Medical Association, which represents doctors. Records show the group donated $50,000 last week to a committee working to reelect Sen. Steve Glazer, a Democrat and chairman of the panel that rejected the bill. The committee that received the donation has no official ties to Glazer’s campaign. Glazer, through a spokesman, declined to comment on the donation. He voiced his concerns about the bill during the committee hearing but did not cast a vote. ___ This story has been corrected to show a quote attributed to state Sen. Bill Dodd should have been attributed to Sen. Jerry Hill. Claim: California rejects unique intersex surgery ban for some kids.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Serge Haroche of France and American David Wineland, both 68, found ways to manipulate the very smallest particles of matter and light to observe strange behavior that previously could only be imagined in equations and thought experiments. Wineland once described his own work as a “parlour trick” that performed the seemingly magical feat of putting an object in two places at once. Other scientists praised the achievements as bringing to life the wildest dreams of science fiction. “The Nobel laureates have opened the door to a new era of experimentation with quantum physics by demonstrating the direct observation of individual quantum particles without destroying them,” said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded them the 8 million crown ($1.2 million) prize. “Perhaps the quantum computer will change our everyday lives in this century in the same radical way as the classical computer did in the last century.”  Haroche said he was walking in the street with his wife when he recognized the Swedish country code on the incoming call to inform him of the award. “I saw the area code 46, then I sat down,” he told reporters in Sweden by telephone. “First I called my children, then I called my closest colleagues, without whom I would never have won this prize,” he said. Asked how he would celebrate, he said: “I will have champagne, of course.”  He told Reuters he hoped the prize would give him a platform “that will allow me to communicate ideas, not just in this field of research but for research in general, fundamental research”. Wineland was asleep at home in Boulder, Colorado, when the phone call from Stockholm arrived before dawn on Tuesday morning, he said at a press conference. (His wife answered.) Physics is the second of this year’s crop of awards; scientists from Britain and Japan shared the first prize on Monday, in medicine, for adult stem cell research. The prizes, which reward achievements in science, literature and peace, were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of Swedish dynamite millionaire Alfred Nobel. “This year’s Nobel Prize recognizes some of the most incredible experimental tests of the weirder aspects of quantum mechanics,” said Jim Al-Khalili, professor of physics at the University of Surrey in Britain. “Until the last decade or two, some of these results were nothing more than ideas in science fiction or, at best, the wilder imaginations of quantum physicists. Wineland and Haroche and their teams have shown just how strange the quantum world really is and opened up the potential for new technologies undreamt of not so long ago.”  Quantum physics studies the behavior of the fundamental building blocks of the universe at a scale smaller than atoms, when tiny particles act in strange ways that can only be described with advanced mathematics. Researchers have long dreamt of building “quantum computers” that would operate using that mathematics - able to conduct far more complicated calculations and hold vastly more data than classical computers. But they could only be built if the behavior of individual particles could be observed. “Single particles are not easily isolated from their surrounding environment, and they lose their mysterious quantum properties as soon as they interact with the outside world,” the Nobel committee explained. “Through their ingenious laboratory methods Haroche and Wineland, together with their research groups, have managed to measure and control very fragile quantum states, which were previously thought inaccessible for direct observation. The new methods allow them to examine, control and count the particles.”  Both scientists work in the field of quantum optics, studying the fundamental interactions between light and matter. The Nobel committee said they used opposite approaches to the same problem: Wineland uses light particles - or photons - to measure and control particles of matter - electrons - while Haroche uses electrons to control and measure photons. In one of the strange properties of quantum mechanics, tiny particles act as if they are simultaneously in two locations, based on the likelihood that they would be found at either, known as a “superposition.”  It was long thought that it would be impossible to demonstrate this in a lab. But Wineland’s “parlour trick” was to hit an atom with laser light, which according to quantum theory had a 50 percent chance of moving it, and observe the atom at two different locations, 80 billionths of a meter apart. In a normal computer, a switch must either be on or off. A quantum computer would work with switches that, like the particles in Wineland’s experiment, behaved as if they were in more than one position at the same time. An example is a computer trying to work out the shortest route around town for a travelling salesman. A traditional computer might try every possible route and then choose the shortest. A quantum computer could do the calculation in one step, as if the salesman travelled each route simultaneously. Wineland is a dedicated experimentalist, not bothered by the bizarre philosophical implications of quantum mechanics, such as the notion that reality does not exist until an observer measures it. “You can find debate on this, but I’m not sure we’re so special in the universe” as to have the power to bring reality into being, he told Reuters. His realism extends to applications of his work. “I wouldn’t recommend anybody buy stock in a quantum computing company,” Wineland told reporters, but he said he was optimistic that it might be possible to build one eventually. He plans to be part of the quest. Asked if his science career was nearing an end, he said he had no plans to retire “until they drag me out of here for being too old”. ($1 = 6.6125 Swedish crowns) Claim: Nobel for quantum \"parlour trick\" that could make super computers.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The deal announced Monday by the Justice Department and federal prosecutors in New Jersey also involves Princeton’s policies regarding requests for reasonable modifications, withdrawals and leaves of absences. Princeton will revise its policies to explicitly describe what accommodations students with disabilities may request and how those requests will be evaluated. It also will revise the websites for its disability services and dean of undergraduate students offices to direct students to relevant policies and procedures for requesting reasonable accommodations. Princeton also will provide annual training — focusing on mental health disability discrimination — for faculty and staff responsible for evaluating and/or deciding reasonable accommodations requests from students. Claim: Princeton revising polices over mental health disabilities.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Three of the biggest hot buttons in politics these days are health care, privacy and guns. Put all three of them together and you get an explosive claim. A reader recently asked us to look into a blog post at the website Mr. Conservative, with the provocative headline, \"Obama Quietly Uses Executive Orders For Two New Gun Control Laws.\" \"Just a few weeks ago,\" the post said, President Barack Obama \"quietly used executive action — one of his new favorite pastimes — that has got gun owners’ feathers in a ruffle. According to Obama’s newest unconstitutionally enacted law, health care professionals are now required to violate HIPAA privacy laws and submit medical data to the government. The illegally obtained data is then used as justification for gun confiscation by the federal government.\" Mr. Conservative’s claims don’t have to do with Obama’s health care law. Obamacare explicitly bars the collection of information about \"the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition\" or the maintenance of \"records of individual ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition.\" Rather, at issue is a proposed rule that would clarify some currently murky interpretations of privacy restrictions under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which set limits on who can share and receive private health information about individuals. The provision cited in the blog post is designed to make clear that state authorities are allowed to share certain information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to screen potential gun purchasers. Under existing federal law, several factors can prevent someone from buying a gun. Most of these have to do with law-enforcement issues, such as a prior felony conviction or a record of domestic abuse. Another one -- the one that’s important for this discussion because it intersects with the health care system -- is involuntary commitment to a mental institution. The instant background check system is supposed to streamline the process of gun purchasing by quickly weeding out those who cannot legally buy a gun. But such a system is only as good as the databases it’s linked to. If someone is ineligible to purchase a gun but their information didn’t get into the right database, then the background check won’t stop the purchase. Several analyses have shown that these databases are far from complete. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, privacy is a key reason cited by states that haven’t provided data about involuntary commitments. The federal government’s argument is that these states are being needlessly cautious. The government says the kind of data being sought for background checks isn’t subject to HIPAA’s privacy restrictions. The HHS proposal would explicitly clarify that point. Let’s take a look at the claim phrase by phrase. • It’s an \"unconstitutionally enacted law.\" Like the old-timey drink known as an egg cream -- which includes neither egg nor cream -- this provision isn’t a law, it isn’t enacted yet and it’s not unconstitutional. A law is a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president; that doesn’t describe this provision. Nor is it an \"executive order,\" the term used in the headline. Executive orders are directives written and personally signed by the president. Instead, it’s an administrative regulation. Specifically, it’s a notice of proposed rulemaking issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. In other words, it’s a policy proposal emerging from a federal agency, with a specified public comment period before the agency decides whether to enact it -- or scrap it. So while it’s fair to say the Obama administration is behind it, it would be incorrect to say it’s already \"enacted.\" It’s currently in the comment phase, and it may not ever be enacted. As for \"unconstitutional,\" the Supreme Court, for one, doesn’t consider the regulatory process to be problematic constitutionally. \"Some people do question the constitutionality of the administrative state, but as far as the Supreme Court is concerned, it's been settled law for almost 100 years that Congress can delegate rulemaking authority to federal agencies,\" said Kermit Roosevelt, a University of Pennsylvania law professor. • \"Health care professionals are now required to violate HIPAA privacy laws to submit medical data to the government\" The information reportable to NICS doesn’t concern physicians’ medical records about diagnoses of mental illness, prescriptions, or treatment recommendations. Rather, the relevant information for gun-buying purposes -- and thus for providing data to NICS -- are decisions by \"a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority.\" As HHS put it when it released the proposed rule, \"Seeking help for mental health problems or getting treatment does not make someone legally prohibited from having a firearm, and nothing in this proposed rule changes that. Furthermore, nothing in this proposed rule would require reporting on general mental health visits or other routine mental health care, or exempt providers solely performing these treatment services from existing privacy rules.\" Importantly, HHS added that \"the proposed modifications would merely permit, and not require, covered entities to report to the NICS.\" That directly conflicts with the blog post’s claim. So, let’s recap: \"Health care professionals\" is misleading -- it’s courts, boards and commissions, not doctors, who would be submitting to NICS. \"Are now\" is wrong because, as we noted, this is a proposal and is not in force yet. \"Required\" is wrong because state entities would be able to submit to NICS, but would not be required to do so. \"To violate HIPAA privacy laws\" is at best misleading because HIPAA already didn’t block the transfer of this kind of data; the proposed rule simply makes that point extra clear. And \"to submit medical data to the government\" is misleading because only involuntary commitment data is sought by NICS, not detailed treatment records. • It’s \"justification for gun confiscation\" The idea that Obama wants to take away Americans’ guns is a durable one among his critics. But it’s unclear the extent to which the HHS proposal would make this scenario more likely. On the surface, all NICS does is prevent ineligible people from newly purchasing a gun. It says nothing about taking away the guns they already own. But if someone is unable to purchase a gun, it also means they’re unable to own a gun. The question is how aggressively this is enforced. Critics of the proposal say that increasing the flow of mental-health information to NICS could promote rise in confiscation. If enacted, the proposal \"would make it clear that the ATF and other federal agencies could troll this database for persons with Alzheimer's, PTSD, ADHD, etc.,\" said Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, a group that has been critical of the HHS proposal. In the group’s official comments to HHS on the proposal, it cited a letter from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that says that 140,000 veterans have been added to the NICS list over the years. Coburn and Gun Owners of America say too many of these veterans are being caught up in the dragnet. In addition, California in 2013 passed a law that allocated $24 million to enforce the confiscation of firearms from people who are not allowed to own them, using a variety of databases; about 30 percent of these people were mentally ill. While NICS only accepts into its database the official determinations of mental incompetency, Hammond warned that there’s no universal standard for incompetency determinations. They may be \"made with little more than a psychiatric diagnosis and perhaps a star-chamber proceeding, in which a supposedly incompetent person is deemed competent to have waived all of his or her rights,\" Hammond said. \"This would mean that the names of persons who had received little due process\" might find their information newly added to NICS, leaving them open to confiscation. But even if these are legitimate concerns, others don’t see the HIPAA proposal as a harbinger of massive gun confiscations. Mark Heyrman, professor at the University of Chicago Law School, called any kind of large-scale gun confiscation effort based on the HHS action \"implausible.\" Jay Corzine, a sociologist who studies gun policy at the University of Central Florida, agreed, saying the proposal strikes a \"reasonable\" balance. Federal law \"proscribes possession of a firearm by persons in these groups and could conceivably lead to seizure of firearms owned prior to their change in status,\" he said. \"This currently occurs in selected situations -- domestic violence cases in some states for example. Not very many people would be impacted, however, and the idea that this is the opening move in a planned campaign for large-scale gun confiscation is far-fetched at best.\" Our ruling The post we’re checking said that, \"according to (Barack) Obama’s newest unconstitutionally enacted law, health care professionals are now required to violate HIPAA privacy laws and submit medical data to the government,\" which is \"then used as justification for gun confiscation.\" The elements of this claim range from misleading to flat-out wrong. The one area of reasonable concern is that some jurisdictions may lack full due process for declaring someone mentally incompetent, potentially putting some people at risk of seeing their guns confiscated. But this depends on how proactively the authorities enforce gun laws. Experts say widespread gun confiscation is implausible. The rule isn’t a law, it isn’t enacted and it isn’t unconstitutional according to Supreme Court jurisprudence. It isn’t a requirement, and it doesn’t involve routine diagnostic data compiled by \"health care professionals\" such as doctors. Claim: According to (Barack) Obama’s newest unconstitutionally enacted law, health care professionals are now required to violate HIPAA privacy laws and submit medical data to the government,\" which is \"then used as justification for gun confiscation.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Colorado Republican Rep. Mike Coffman pulls no punches in an ad accusing his Democratic opponent,  Morgan Carroll, of using her role as a state senator to benefit her \"shady interests\" as a trial lawyer. \"Meet Morgan Carroll, state senator, who’s also Morgan Carroll, personal injury lawyer,\" the narrator says in the ad that aired Sept. 20. \"Morgan Carroll the lawyer has worked for some of the sleaziest firms in the state. And they love frivolous lawsuits.\" The ad shows photos of Carroll on billboards next to slimy-looking lawyers. The narrator says the state senator’s votes resulted in \"making it easier to sue doctors, small businesses, even nurses. Putting her own shady interests first.\" Coffman’s radio version of the ad goes further, accusing Carroll of \"using her position in the state Senate to line her own pockets\" and speaking about an \"odor of corruption,\" the Denver Post reported. We took a hard look at Coffman’s TV ad claim that Carroll's votes resulted in \"making it easier to sue doctors, small businesses, even nurses\"to serve her \"shady interests.\" Carroll became an attorney in 2000, and spent the first decade of her career working with her mother. Their firm mostly represented clients with disabilities, Carroll campaign spokesman Drew Godinich told PolitiFact. In an ad of her own, Carroll recalls that she was a girl when her dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and she watched him get sicker as medical costs wiped out his retirement savings. \"It's why I've dedicated my career to fighting for people with disabilities, helping people stay in their homes and receive the care they need,\" she says. More recently, Carroll worked for two big personal injury law firms whose TV commercials are well-known to Coloradans. She spent two years at the Sawaya Law Firm, then moved to Bachus & Schanker. The Bachus & Schanker website says, \"Morgan Carroll specializes in representing people in personal injury, Workers' Compensation, Social Security Disability and employment law.\" Godinich said Carroll primarily was doing legal research at the firm until about four months ago when she took time off to devote herself to the race against Coffman for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, a crescent-ring of Denver suburbs. The Coffman ad focuses on two bills Carroll worked on. One of them is the Good Samaritans in Health Care Act of 2006, which Coffman says Carroll opposed to make it \"easier to sue\"doctors and nurses. The Republican-sponsored bill granted immunity from civil liability to doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who volunteer at free medical clinics to help people in need. The Coffman ad is misleading. Carroll, who at the time was a House member, voted against the bill in committee after she and the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association raised concerns that the proposed immunity was too broad and could shield a medical professional when a patient was harmed by gross negligence. However, Carroll voted for the bill after it was amended on the floor to grant immunity to medical volunteers from civil liability when an \"act or omission of a volunteer\" resulted in injury, except in cases of gross negligence, reckless misconduct and even violent crimes -- acts that would prevent a volunteer from receiving immunity under the federal Volunteer Protection Act. Ultimately, Carroll supported passage of the law that made it harder -- not easier -- to sue volunteer doctors, nurses and other health-medical professionals -- unless there was evidence of gross negligence. Coffman’s claim that Carroll made it easier to sue small businesses, refers to the \"Job Protection and Civil Rights Enforcement Act of 2013. \"Carroll was a primary sponsor of the bill. State law already allowed someone who prevailed in a complaint about employment discrimination or unfair employment practices before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to sue for back pay, future pay, or to be reinstated or hired if they were improperly fired or denied a job. Carroll’s bill allowed victims of employment discrimination who win a lawsuit to also receive compensatory and punitive damages in cases where it was proved an employer engaged in intentional discrimination. In addition, the bill allowed an employee to be awarded attorney’s fees and costs. But if a judge found a lawsuit was frivolous -- or unjustified -- the court could award attorney’s fees and costs to the employer. The bill capped the maximum compensatory and punitive damages at $10,000 for a business with fewer than five employees, and $25,000 for an employer with five to 14 workers, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Council’s fiscal analysis. The bill and the Legislative Council noted that while federal antidiscrimination laws allow compensatory and punitive damages, those laws don’t protect workers who are discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or if their employer has fewer than 15 employees. Carroll’s state bill allowed people to seek the increased damages when their employer had less than 15 employees or there was discrimination based on sexual orientation. So the legislation, which became law, didn’t make it \"easier to sue\" small businesses -- people could already do that -- but it did allow people the opportunity to win greater financial damages. What about Coffman’s accusation that Carroll engaged in a conflict of interest by voting on bills that financially benefited her work as a trial lawyer? We checked the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission’s records and found no evidence of an ethics complaint having been made against Carroll. The Legislature’s ethics rules state that a lawmaker has a personal or financial interest in legislation \"if the passage or failure of such bill, measure, or question will result in the member deriving a direct financial or pecuniary benefit that is greater than any such benefit derived by or shared by other persons in the member's profession, occupation, industry, or region.\" But a lawmaker will not be deemed to have a personal or financial interest in a bill that \"affects the entire membership of a class to which the member belongs.\" In a part-time \"citizen legislature\" like Colorado’s, this generally allows a doctor/lawmaker to vote on a health care bill, a teacher to vote on an educational bill, and a builder to vote on a construction bill. Our ruling Coffman says Carroll’s votes on state legislation made \"it easier to sue doctors, small businesses, even nurses. Putting her own shady interests first.\" Carroll voted in committee against a bill to grant immunity from civil liability to doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who volunteer at free medical clinics. But Carroll voted for the bill after it was amended on the floor to shield most medical volunteers from lawsuits — except in cases of gross negligence. Carroll did sponsor and vote for an anti-employment discrimination bill that didn’t make it easier to sue small businesses, because existing law already allowed such suits. But her bill did allow for the awarding of compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees against employers of all sizes, including small businesses. Coffman accuses Carroll, who has worked as a lawyer handling disability, employment, workers’ compensation and personal injury cases, of being sleazy and shady with conflicts of interest. But there's no evidence she violated state ethics laws. Claim: Mike Coffman Says state Sen. Morgan Carroll's votes made \"it easier to sue doctors, small businesses, even nurses. Putting her own shady interests first.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A nurse takes care of a newly born baby inside a nursery station at a government Fabella hospital in Manila October 1, 2010. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco By analyzing a sample of the mother’s blood, which contains DNA from the fetus, scientists in Hong Kong and the United States were able to identify all the DNA strands that belong to the child and piece them together. “Before this work, people only could look for one disease at one time but now you can construct a screen for a number of diseases which are prevalent in any particular population,” said lead author Dennis Lo, professor of medicine from the Chinese University in Hong Kong. The research team’s breakthrough was discovering that the mother’s plasma holds the entire foetal genome. Previously, only part of the baby’s DNA was thought to be in the mother’s blood. “Now that we know (the) entire foetal genome is in there, you can look for any disease that is genetically inherited.”   The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine on Thursday, recruited a couple undergoing prenatal diagnosis for a hereditary blood disorder, beta-thalassemia. “In the mother’s blood, 90 percent of the DNA is her own ... and 10 percent is the baby’s. Half of the foetal genome is from father and half from mother,” Lo said. The team found the fetus inherited a beta-thalassemia mutant gene from the father, meaning the baby was a carrier of the disease. Lo described the process as akin to putting together a jigsaw puzzle with millions of pieces — only in this case, 10 times as many pieces from a much larger jigsaw were mixed in with it too. “The whole genome is fragmented into millions of pieces and by this exercise, we assemble it back,” Lo said. “It’s like assembling a jigsaw puzzle with millions of pieces. But to make it more challenging, you mix in 10 times (the number of pieces) from another jigsaw puzzle, that’s the mother’s own DNA. And you are trying to assemble the child’s.”   Experts who were not involved in the study called for caution. “It is too early to apply the technology widely as we are not yet able to interpret many of the results that can be generated accurately,” said Christine Patch, chair of the British Society for Human Genetics. “We do not randomly test pregnancies for a long list of ... conditions that may only manifest in adult life on the basis that individuals may not want to know that information when they are older.” Claim: Baby illness can be scanned in mother's blood: study.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Sharron Angle campaign calls its ad\"The Wave.\" But you may know it as the ad that prompted Joy Behar of ABC's The View to say: \"I'd like to see her do this ad in the south Bronx. Come here, b----. Come to New York and do it.\" Condemned in some Democratic and Hispanic circles as\"racist,\"the ad portrays Angle's opponent in the Nevada Senate race, Harry Reid, as a friend to illegal immigrants. Here's the text of the ad: \"Waves of illegal aliens streaming across our border joining violent gangs, forcing families to live in fear. And what is Harry Reid doing about it? Voting to give illegal aliens Social Security benefits, tax breaks and college tuition, voting against declaring English our national language twice and even siding with Obama and the president of Mexico to block Arizona's tough new immigration law. Harry Reid....it's clear whose side he's on, and it's not yours.\" In a fact-check of a previouscampaign ad, we dealt with Angle's claims that Reid voted to give illegal immigrants Social Security benefits (Barely ) and special tax breaks (False). Here, we're checking the claim that Reid voted against \"declaring English our national language, twice.\" During a big push for a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2006, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., proposed an amendment (S.AMDT.4064) \"to declare English as the national language of the United States and to promote the patriotic integration of prospective U.S. citizens.\" The amendment would have required all official government functions, including steps toward citizenship, to be conducted in English. It also sought to establish that there is no entitlement to receive federal documents or services in languages other than English, unless required by law. Arguing for the amendment, Inhofe said providing multilingual assistance costs the government more than $1 billion per year. Under the Inhofe's proposal, immigrants seeking to become permanent legal residents would have had to prove they had learned English. Reid made an impassioned speech from the Senate floor on May 18, 2006, denouncing the bill as \"racist\" and \"divisive.\" Here's a sampling of some of his comments to give you a flavor of Reid's position:  -- \"While the intent may not be there, I really believe this amendment is racist. I think it is directed basically to people who speak Spanish.\" -- \"I think we should make sure that people who are 911 operators can immediately switch to somebody who can speak Spanish.\" -- \"Today, as I speak, the language of America is English. We want people to integrate, to learn English, but they need tools to do this no matter what their native language. This amendment takes some of those tools away, and we need all of those tools.\" -- \"The fastest growing component of adult education in America today is English as a second language. This will slow that down. This amendment impacts English speakers, reporting of crimes, reporting of diseases, involvement in commerce. Next, is it going to impact upon the right to vote?\" -- \"This amendment is divisive. We should be here to unify our country, not divide it by ethnicity or language differences. I rise in strong opposition to this amendment. Everyone who speaks with an accent knows that they need to learn English as fast as they can. Success in America means the ability to speak English. That is the way it is now. We don’t need this amendment. Speaking English is critical to the functioning of anyone in our country. It is the language of our government, of our nation, and as I have indicated before, air traffic controllers and diplomacy. This amendment, I believe, is unconstitutional. It raises serious concerns that American citizens could lose some of their rights.\" -- \"This amendment directly conflicts with several provisions of federal law, I believe, that guarantee the right of non-English-speaking students to learn English in our public schools.\" -- \"This amendment conflicts with provisions of federal law that require language materials or assistance to be provided to voters in some areas of non-English languages, where there is evidence of educational discrimination resulting in high illiteracy and low registration turnout.\" -- \"There has been substantial evidence of harassment, intimidation, even violence against language minority voters. This provision makes a blatant violation of the 14th and 15th amendments and criminal provisions of the Voting Rights Act more likely to occur.\" -- \"By the very terms of this amendment, persons accused of crimes would be denied the ability, I believe, to receive information material in their native language to assist in their own defense. This clearly violates the due process clause of the fifth amendment of our Constitution.\" -- \"I have talked about public health. This amendment will stand in the way of efforts made to facilitate the transmission of vital information necessary for the receipt of health care and public safety, including informed consent by non-English-speaking patients.\" -- \"I hope we reject this amendment. It is bad policy. It is un-American. It turns back the clock on the substantial gains that language minority citizens have made. I hope that there will be a resounding vote against this. I have no problem going home today and telling the people of the State of Nevada: English is the language of America. We are not going to change that with this amendment. This is divisive, it is mean spirited. I think it is the wrong way to go.\" So tell us how you really feel about the amendment, Senator. Needless to say, Reid voted against it, but with the help of 11 Democrats, the amendment passed 62-35. Interestingly, the Senate also passed a subsequent amendment (S.AMDT.4073) proposed by then Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., \"to declare that English is the common and unifying language of the United States, and to preserve and enhance the role of the English language.\" Reid voted for that amendment, which passed by a vote of 58 to 39. The immigration reform bill did not pass that year, however, and when a second stab at comprehensive immigration reform was undertaken in 2007, Inhofe again proposed an amendment (S.AMDT.1151) \"to declare English as the national language of the government of the United States, and for other purposes.\" Reid again voted against it, though the measure passed 64-33. But that immigration reform bill never came to pass either. To this day, no \"official language\" exists at the federal level. The bottom line here is that Reid twice voted against amendments to \"declare English as the national language of the Government of the United States,\" even as he voted for an amendment \"to declare that English is the common and unifying language of the United States.\" The ad says Reid twice voted against declaring English our national language. Reid not only voted against the bills, he was quite vocal in his opposition. We rate the ad's claim . Claim: Sen. Harry Reid voted \"against declaring English our national language, twice.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Texas women are paid less than men, Wendy Davis stresses. In a March 10, 2014, tweet, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee pointed out that her Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, passed up a chance to say whether he would have vetoed a Davis-sponsored measure related to ensuring equal pay for Texas women that didn’t make it into law. Davis, a Fort Worth state senator, wrote: \"While @GregAbbott_TX dodges questions on the Texas Equal Pay Act, women are still paid 82 cents for every dollar a man earns in Texas.\" We’ll leave it to Abbott and Davis to debate the 2013 measure vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry. But we wondered: Are Texas women still paid 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man? We found that pay gaps persist, though comparisons can be dicey. Comparing women and men doing 'same' job In August 2013, we rated a related Davis claim: \"Texas women make an average of $8,355 less per year than men doing the very same job.\" That’s not necessarily correct for individuals doing the same job. In 2010, $8,355 was the general gap between median salaries of full-time working Texas men and women, according to federal estimates, and the 2012 gap was nearly $500 less than that. Significantly, the research cited by Davis did not drill down to salaries for men and women doing the same jobs. In contrast, 2013 survey results indicated a $2,000 gap between the median pay for Texas men and women with comparable professional experiences holding the same or similar jobs. Annual U.S. Census Bureau surveys But Davis’ recent \"82 cents\" claim wasn’t specific to people doing the same jobs. Responding to our request for back-up information, Davis spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña pointed us to an April 2013 \"fact sheet\" from the National Partnership for Women & Families, an advocacy group for workplace fairness and other issues. The sheet opens: \"In Texas, on average, a woman who holds a full-time job is paid $35,301 per year while a man who holds a full-time job is paid $43,160 per year. This means that women in Texas are paid 82 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to a yearly gap of $7,859 between men and women who work full time in the state.\" That statement is footnoted to the one-year American Community Survey undertaken in 2011 by the U.S Census Bureau and a bureau chart indicating median earnings in the past 12 months by sex by work experience for residents 16 and older. These aligned with the partnership’s fact sheet. Latest available estimate Kliner pointed out, too, that comparable results based on the 2012 ACS were posted online by the bureau in September 2013. The 2012 estimates indicate that median earnings for Texas men who worked full time year-round in the past 12 months were $44,802; for Texas women meeting these criteria, median earnings were $35,453 — or 79 cents for every dollar earned by men who worked full time. Because Davis said women \"still\" earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, we calculated the comparable figure for previous years, according to the bureau’s surveys. We found the comparable figure to be 80 cents in 2006, 2009 and 2010, 79 cents in 2007 and 78 cents in 2008. Separately, we downloaded a bureau chart showing slightly different estimated median earnings for full-time male and female civilian workers in Texas based on the bureau’s 2012 survey. The resulting chart indicated a median wage for full-time working men of--$45,166 for men, $35,518 for women. By this metric, we calculated, civilian full-time female workers in Texas earned an estimated 79 cents for each dollar earned by full-time male workers. In 2011, a bureau chart suggests, the comparable figure was 81 cents. Kliner told us the partnership relies on bureau estimates not limited to civilian workers because it believes that delivers a more complete view of the workforce. \"It is also the chart that has been used historically, so it allows for comparisons over time,\" she wrote. Upshot: The latest available estimate is that Texas women working full time earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by such men in 2012. That was a penny better than in one of the previous six years, the same or a penny less than the result in four of the years and three cents less than the 82 cents estimated for 2011 and relied upon by Davis. Experts note caveats Experts we queried agreed with our math while offering caveats. By email, Lloyd Potter, the state demographer, pointed out that any focus on earnings for full-time workers leaves out part-time workers. Women, he wrote, are more likely to be employed part-time. Still, Potter said, \"if we just looked at part-time workers, again, you’d probably find women earn less.\" In our 2013 fact check, we noted there’s a range of how many hours full-time workers log, and men are more likely than women to be on the job for 41 hours or more per week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because more men work overtime, that should translate into higher earnings for them -- because they are paid more, or because their longer hours lead to more job success -- and contribute to the wage gap. Though more nuanced analysis shows that job differences explain much of the pay gap, experts agree that much of it still cannot be accounted for. That’s where sexism comes in, some say. \"Finally,\" Potter said, \"the differential quoted probably is not adjusted for educational attainment or work experience.\" It is not. \"If it were, we’d probably find the differential would shrink (toward equality) as women tend to have less work experience than men though educational attainment is fairly comparable among adults across sex.\" Austin economist Stuart Greenfield similarly said by email: \"In the aggregate, Sen. Davis’ statement is absolutely, positively correct,\" though he said that \"when one controls for work experience, education, and other factors, the earnings’ differential is reduced.\" National comparisons Greenfield also pointed out a Dec. 2, 2013, Bureau of Labor Statistics press release summarizing median-pay changes among full-time workers over the years: \"In Texas, the ratio of women’s to men’s earnings trended upward from 1997 to 2004. It then fluctuated from 2005 to 2009 before climbing to a series high of 85.6 percent in 2010. However, in the last two years the Texas women’s to men’s earnings ratio has declined 6.0 percentage points to its lowest level since 2001.\" According to the 2012 survey results, Texas women fared better compared to men in their state than women in 24 states. Arizona placed first; women working full time earned 87 cents for every dollar earned by men. (For more than a decade, the graph indicates, Texas women fared better than their male counterparts in the state compared to women versus men in the nation as a whole, though conditions dipped in Texas compared to the nation in 2011 and 2012. We asked Cheryl Abbot, a regional economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to speak to why this was so. See her reply here.) Jennifer Lee, a researcher for the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities, which focuses on programs serving low-income Texans, said of the 79-cent pay difference estimate suggested by the 2012 survey: \"This is how the ‘wage gap’ is usually calculated. If you expand who you’re looking at to include all employed individuals (whether or not they work full-time or year-round), women earn 71 cents for every dollar that a man earns,\" Lee said by email. Lee reminded us of a February 2007 paper by Cornell University labor economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, \"The Gender Pay Gap: Have Women Gone Far Enough?\" The paper states that 53 percent of the gender wage gap stems from variation in job, industry and union status between the genders. According to the paper, major reasons for such wage gaps include: Occupational and industry category (49% of the reason) – Lee said that many women are concentrated in particular occupations. Occupations that are heavily female, such as health care support or personal care and service occupations, tend to pay low wages, she said. For example, home health aides in Texas, who are largely female, earn on average $17,430 per year, Lee said, while women also represent 63% of workers earning minimum-wage or less in Texas. When you break down earnings data by occupation, she said, this gap persists in almost all occupations. Labor Force Experience (10.5%) – A portion of the gap is explained by factors related to work experience, such as interruptions in work for child care, Lee said. Unexplained (41%) – Lee said a large portion of the gap is unexplained by women’s choices. This could be because of conscious or unconscious biases (research shows this is particularly acute against mothers), Lee wrote, while other research shows that different attitudes around wage negotiations may contribute to the gender wage gap. Lee added: \"A lot of people see occupational choices and time off from work as women’s choices. And while this is true, I think it’s important to realize that the choices we make are heavily influenced by the environment in which we make choices, the choices that are available, and how those choices are presented. So while it’s true that more women work in low-wage jobs, there may be reasons why women don’t choose to work in some higher-wage occupations. Similarly, mothers may choose to take time off work to care for young children, but perhaps they wouldn’t if child care were more available or affordable.\" Our ruling Davis said that Texas women are still paid 82 cents for every dollar a man earns in the state. Her figure, based on a 2011 federal survey, reflects median earnings for adults who worked full time in the past 12 months, leaving out part-time workers. It’s also outdated in that according to the latest available survey, taken in 2012, Texas women earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by men (again working full time in the past 12 months), less than what Davis said. We rate this claim as . – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Claim: Women \"are still paid 82 cents for every dollar a man earns in Texas.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In an online conspiracy circulating on Facebook, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, billionaire investor George Soros, and financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are all linked in the ongoing pursuit of a coronavirus vaccine. An Aug. 2 post lists a series of accusations against the four men and claims their partnership was decades in the making. \"As many of you heard, Moderna is in stage 3 of their vaccine testing. If all goes well it'll become federal law to get the vaccine,\" the post begins. Then follows a series of unfounded claims, including: Fauci was the first CEO of Moderna. Fauci and Gates were roommates at Cornell. \"It was at Cornell that Bill Gates designed the RFID (Radio-frequency identification) and patented it under US2006257852.\" \"Moderna was a pharmaceutical company that started in Germany under the name IG Farben. IG Farben is infamous for it's mass production of Zyklon-B, the primary gas used to kill millions during the Holocaust.\" After World War II, IG Farben was \"dissolved and its assets sold off by a Nazi turned American by the name of, you guessed it, George Soros.\" \"Soros rebranded the company as Moderna.\" Jeffrey Epstein was \"primary stockholder of Moderna until his death...His role in Moderna is where he made his fortune and established his connections.\" \"Let that sink in,\" the post ends. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) This post is filled with many accusations, none of them accurate. Let’s take them one by one: No, Massachusetts-based biotech company Moderna Inc. does not trace its lineage to Germany. It was founded in 2010 with the mission of studying a technology known as mRNA to develop new pharmaceuticals and launched operations in 2011. Moderna is in phase 3 of a clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine. IG Farben––formally known in German as Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft––was a chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate established in 1925 and made up of four other German companies: BASF Aktiengesellschaft, Bayer AG, Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft, and Agfa-Gevaert Group, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The company did create a synthetic oil and rubber plant in Auschwitz and used inmates for drug experiments during World War II, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. But after the war, the Allied powers charged top executives with war crimes, and the company was divided into three: Hoechst, Bayer and BASF. We find no indication that IG Farben has any connection to Moderna. Moderna did not respond to our inquiries. Anthony Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health has taken a leading public role in the coronavirus pandemic. He was never CEO of Moderna. He graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1966 and began working for the NIAID two years after graduating, according to multiple sources including the Cornell Daily Sun and the NIH. He has spent the rest of his career in the public sector. Fauci was named director of the institute in 1984 and has overseen research to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and malaria. Gates and Fauci were not roommates at Cornell. First, Fauci was 14 when Gates was born in 1955. Second, Gates didn’t attend Cornell. He studied for two years at Harvard University beginning in 1973. By that time, Fauci was already working for the NIH. Gates later dropped out of Harvard and founded Microsoft. Mario Cardullo was the first to patent the tag in 1973. And while the patent number \"US2006257852\" cited in the post is a real patent, it’s not for the RFID tag. It’s a patent related to the disease known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS). PolitiFact, along with other fact-checkers, has debunked claims that George Soros was a Nazi. Soros survived the Holocaust. When the Nazis invaded Hungary, Soros’ father obtained a false identity for Soros and sent him to live with an agricultural official who passed him off as his Christian godson, according to the New York Times. Soros also did not buy the assets of IG Farben and disguise the company under Moderna. In 1945, when the Allied powers split up IG Farben, Soros was a teenager. Epstein began working at Bear Stearns in 1976 and was promoted to partner in 1980, according to the Miami Herald. In 1982, he opened his own money management firm called J Epstein and Co., where he \"would manage the individual and family fortunes of clients with $1 billion or more,\" according to a 2002 New York Magazine profile on Epstein. In the late 1990s, he renamed the firm to Financial Trust Company and moved the headquarters to the U.S. Virgin Islands to receive a tax break, according to the New York Times. When Moderna was established in 2010, Epstein was serving a one-year probation after being convicted of sex offenses in 2008, contrary to the post. In 2012, he created a start-up business, Southern Trust, to develop algorithms and mine DNA and financial databases, according to the New York Times. The company managed to pay a tax rate of about 3.9% after generating a $300 million profit in 2013, and its corporate filings show no clients, according to the article. He would also start his own international bank, but it’s unclear whether it had any customers. Neither Epstein, nor his management firm, are listed as one of the primary stockholders in Moderna, according to CNN Business and the Wall Street Journal. We found no indication that Epstein was one of the primary stockholders in Moderna when he died on Aug. 10, 2019. He was awaiting trial for federal sex trafficking charges when he committed suicide in his prison cell. A Facebook post claims that the vaccine developer Moderna is connected to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, George Soros and Jeffrey Epstein. But none of the supposed connections are founded. We rate this . Claim: Facebook post Says Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, George Soros and Jeffrey Epstein are connected with Moderna, Inc., and its efforts to create the coronavirus vaccine.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine McCabe announced the lawsuits seeking to collect fines and recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in cleanup costs outside Newark’s Historic Courthouse. The cases involve a former metal-finishing plant in Newark, two dry cleaners in Trenton, a dump with 10,000 cubic yards of waste in Camden, a scrap yard in Kearny and a gas station in East Orange. Attempts to reach the defendants were not successful. Grewal highlighted in particular Nanes Metal Finishing plant in Newark, which operated from 1966 until 1994. He said the site led to the discharge of chemicals into the groundwater that are linked with kidney dysfunction as well as respiratory illness. The state is seeking to recoup $500,000 in cleanup costs that it incurred. It’s the latest in a string of environmental lawsuits the Democratic administration of Gov. Phil Murphy has pursued. Grewal has said previously that under Republican Chris Christie such suits had essentially ceased. Grewal said the state is trying to send a message that polluters won’t be tolerated. Friday’s development focused on communities where the median household income is well below the state average, which stood at about $76,000 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census. The communities are also mostly nonwhite, according to the attorney general’s office. “I want to send a clearer message to those polluters who’ve harmed our resources and our environmental justice communities that we’re going to pursue you, we’re going to hold you accountable, just like we’re holding these six companies accountable,” Grewal said. New Jersey has about 13,000 cases in its polluted site remediation program, according to state figures from August 2019. The cases cover a range of polluted sites, from less to more serious. Grewal said his office and the DEP chose the six locations based on a number of factors, including the ability of defendants to pay, but also areas that have been long neglected, in particular in the state’s poorest areas. Claim: NJ targets pollution in poorer areas with 6 lawsuits.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: For decades, scientists have alleged a connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease, and whether such a link exists has been the subject of a long-standing debate within the scientific community. (Indeed, when silent film great Rudolph Valentino passed away from a perforated ulcer in 1926, rumor held that his demise was caused by his consuming food prepared in aluminum cookware.) The more specific claim about the health dangers cooking with aluminum foil often pops up in viral news stories, such as one published on clickbait site awm.com under the headline “Doctors Now Have Warning: If You Use Aluminum Foil, Stop It or Face Deadly Consequences,” which made the following argument: Simply put, if you cook with aluminum foil, you are playing with your health. The first thing you need to know is that aluminum is bad for your brain. It is a neurotoxic heavy metal that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease for years. This claim rests on three assertions. First, that cooking with aluminum foil will liberate aluminum and be transferred to your food in a form that can be ingested; second, that this aluminum will reach your brain in concentrations high enough to be significant; and third, that high concentrations of aluminum in your brain put you at increased risk of Alzheimer’s. Will cooking with aluminum foil liberate aluminum? Yes, acids typically dissolve metals, and aluminum is no exception. A 2012 study published in the International Journal of Electrochemical Science, which is often cited in viral news stories because of its more alarmist claims about Alzheimer’s, investigated how much aluminum was liberated through the process of cooking food in foil. Not surprisingly, researchers found the amount varied depending upon factors such as temperature and acidity, but that some aluminum did, in fact, leach into food cooked in foil: Aluminum foil used in cooking provides an easy channel for the metal to enter the human body. The increase in cooking temperature causes more leaching. The leaching is also highly dependent on the pH value of the food solution, salt, and spices added to the food solutions. How much of that leached aluminum would stay in your body? Not much — most research on the topic agrees that it’s much less than 1%. A 2011 report published in the journal Neuroscience stated that “healthy humans and laboratory rats absorb between 0.06% and 0.4% of ingested Al”. Could some of that ~0.4% of leached aluminum make it to your brain? Based on studies that directly injected rats with high doses of aluminum, the answer is yes, but not much. According to the World Health Organization, once the aluminum does make it into your bloodstream, a very small percentage (of an already small percentage of ingested aluminum) actually ends up in your brain: “Approximately 60, 25, 10, 3 and 1% of the aluminium body burden is in the bone, lung, muscle, liver and brain, respectively.” The amount of aluminum you would need to eat on a regular basis to see much of a buildup in your brain is unrealistically large. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say some of that leached aluminum does get into your brain. Will it increase your risk factor for Alzheimer’s? The debate over a connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s has gone on for decades, originally inspired by the observation that the brains of Alzheimer’s patients have high concentrations of aluminum compounds and that a major symptom of the disease is the buildup of plaque that contains aluminum compounds. At the moment the field remains mixed on the role of aluminum as a possible risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Both the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada and the international Alzheimer’s Association’s official stance is that aluminum is not a risk factor for the disease. A 2008 CDC toxicology report describes the scientific consensus as follows: Although a possible association was proposed over 40 years ago, this association is still highly controversial and there is little consensus regarding current evidence. A number of studies have found weak associations between living in areas with elevated aluminum levels in drinking water and an increased risk (or prevalence) of Alzheimer’s disease; other studies have not found significant associations. In contrast, no significant associations have been found between tea consumption or antacid use and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease; although the levels of aluminum in tea and antacids are very high compared to drinking water, aluminum from these sources is poorly absorbed. The available data do not suggest that aluminum is a causative agent of Alzheimer’s disease; however, it is possible that it may play a role in the disease development. Claim: Studies have demonstrated that cooking with aluminum foil can result in the ingestion of aluminum, which is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol said he ordered the culling of all fowl within a kilometer (0.6 mile) of six affected farms in northern Pampanga province’s San Luis town. The area has been declared a quarantine zone with a 7-kilometer (4-mile) surveillance area also established around the farms. Pinol said he was informed Thursday that 37,000 birds have died from avian influenza subtype H5, which can cause illness and deaths in both animals and humans. Experts believe the ducks to be the virus carrier, he added. He said he has informed President Rodrigo Duterte, the Department of Health and will report the outbreak to the World Organization for Animal Health. Pinol said farmers did not immediately report the deaths, which spiked in July, because they thought were from ordinary poultry disease. Alene Asteria Vytiaco, an official of the Bureau of Animal Industry, said they will send samples collected from the farms to the World Organization for Animal Health and the Australian Animal Health Laboratory for further testing. ___ This version corrects that the Philippines is ordering fowl, not fouls, to be culled. Claim: Philippines to cull 200,000 fowl after bird flu outbreak.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No cost information was provided, even though the drug is already on the market for another condition. According to GoodRx, one 80 mg auto-injector of the drug costs around $4,700. We are told that “19.5 percent of patients who received only the placebo injections were judged to have met the trial’s specified clinical endpoint — at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of tender and swollen joints — the response rate among those getting the real drug every four weeks was 53.3 percent. Those getting the drug every two weeks didn’t do any better and were slightly more prone to side effects, such as a mild reaction at the injection site.” This is an adequate discussion of the drug’s benefits. We learn that “few serious adverse events were reported for patients receiving the drug, or the placebo” but a close reading of the actual abstract shows that 7 percent of patients taking the drug every two weeks (versus 3 percent on placebo) had serious adverse events. If the absolute effects on benefits are reported why are not the absolute effects of the harms? We think it is important to at least list the major adverse events that occurred during the trial. We learn that this is a randomized, blinded, three-armed, multi-site study that lasted 24 weeks, which is a sufficient description of the quality of evidence. We wish the release had mentioned that it remains uncertain how patients on the drug would fare long-term, beyond the 6 months of the trial. There is no disease mongering. The release provides strong context on the condition as well as how the drug is believed to work. The release states that the manufacturer paid for the trial and the key spokesperson, the principle investigator served as a consultant to Eli Lilly. There was a good explanation about the alternatives — drugs like the TNF inhibitors already on the market such as adalimumab, etanercept and infliximab — but that “only about half of psoriatic arthritis patients who are given TNF inhibitors get better.” We also learn that “another approved monoclonal-antibody that targets IL-17, secukinumab, was approved in 2016 for psoriatic arthritis.” The release notes that the drug has been FDA approved and is available for patients with psoriasis and that Lily has applied for FDA approval for use in patients with psoriatic arthritis as well. The release does an acceptable job of describing the drug’s place in the treatment landscape. It does not make an outward claim of novelty, but it appears to be the first such randomized trial for this type of arthritis. There are no examples of unjustified language. Claim: Drug for refractory psoriatic arthritis shows promise in clinical trial",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Lawmakers won’t have much time to act. They are scheduled to be in session just 37 days over two months, meaning Republicans who control the Legislature will have to reach deals quickly with Gov. Kristi Noem. “It’s pretty fast and furious,” Senate Majority Leader Kris Langer, R-Dell Rapids, said. “It’s a really packed, crazy session.” With limited time in the Capitol, many lawmakers have put issues familiar from last year at the top of their to-do lists, Lawmakers have also spent the last year studying the state’s mental health and addiction resources and have several bills aimed at expanding treatment in rural areas, where they say there is an alarming rate of suicide. Looming over the session will be the ongoing struggles from some of the worst flooding in state history last year. STATE BUDGET When Gov. Kristi Noem presented her proposed budget in December, she warned the Legislature that things were looking lean. She recommended the state hold off on raising salary funding for teachers, state employees and medical providers. But lawmakers said they are looking for a way to give raises. Lawmakers said they will be watching the revenue figures closely throughout the session. They’ve already received some good news — revenue is now $5.1 million over estimates. It will cost more than that to fund the pay increases. The Bureau of Finance and Management estimates that each percentage-point increase in funding will cost about $16 million. That may be tough to find in the budget. The state will receive about $20 million less starting in July when the state can no longer tax internet access because of a congressional mandate. The state’s agriculture industry is coming off a difficult year of flooding and trade uncertainty. The state overhauled its education funding formula three years ago to boost teacher pay. The new law included a half-cent increase in sales tax and promised to increase funding every year by 3% or the inflation rate, whichever is less. For the last two years, though, the state has not met those requirements due to cash flow problems. Democratic legislative leaders argue that the law requires the funding increases. Republicans are often quick to point out that the state’s constitution requires a balanced budget. Noem is also requesting funding for treatment of meth addiction, a Health Sciences building at the University of South Dakota, an upgrade of the state’s emergency-response radio system, and grants to expand broadband internet access. She has proposed a $4.94 billion budget, one of the smallest state budgets in the nation. HEMP The nearly year-long fight between the governor and lawmakers over industrial hemp may resolve quickly in the session. Noem, until now a hemp opponent, has said she won’t veto  a bill legalizing industrial hemp if lawmakers can meet four “guardrails” for the law. She wants hemp to be tightly regulated and for legislators to come up with a way to pay for the hemp program. She also wants law enforcement to have the ability to search hemp fields and facilities. Lawmakers said their plan already meets most of Noem’s criteria and they would be ready to bring it up early in the session. The bill would allow farmers to grow hemp as long as they plant more than 5 acres and keep the THC content of the plant below 0.3%. THC is the compound that produces a high in marijuana. The proposed law would also allow hemp to be processed into CBD oil and other products. Producers would need to obtain a license from the state and a permit to transport it. KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE AND ‘RIOT-BOOSTING’ LAWS The Legislature will take on another issue of last year as it addresses potential demonstrations against the Keystone XL pipeline. Noem has  resurrected the topic of “riot boosting” after parts of a law created last year were nullified by legal proceedings. Many Republicans say they will support her renewed push to prosecute those who “urge” riots. The Legislature last year passed two bills in a matter of days to address potentially disruptive demonstrations against the pipeline. One of the laws aimed to prosecute people who directed or encouraged rioting, known as “riot boosting.”  The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state, arguing that the 2019 legislation violated freedom of speech. A federal judge in September blocked portions of the statutes, and the state agreed not to enforce parts of the laws in a settlement. Noem has already floated draft bills that she says would permit free speech while prosecuting people who “urge” force or violence if it is “imminent.” The proposed legislation would get rid of language the ACLU argued was too broad and could have been used against people encouraging rioters on social media. Instead, Noem’s draft legislation attempts to limit riot boosting prosecution to people who directly urge force or violence and provides protection for peaceful protests. Last year, the riot boosting laws sparked blowback from Native American groups that felt they were being targeted due to their opposition to the pipeline. Noem and lawmakers have said they will be taking more time this year to dig into the legislation and hear from people affected by the bills. A proposal to create an emergency fund for cleanup in the event of a spill is also in the works. The company operating the pipeline would have to pay for the fund. TREATING MENTAL HEALTH Lawmakers say they are alarmed at South Dakota’s suicide rate, especially in rural areas. They will bring a series of bills aimed at improving the state’s mental health resources. The bills aim to make mental health care available across the state through virtual consultations. Lawmakers want to make it possible for counselors or mental health care professionals to help people through phone calls, text, or video consultations. In order to do that, they say they will need broadband internet access in rural communities. Farmers have indicated that many are struggling financially after a rough year of weather and international trade disruptions. South Dakota led the nation in unplanted acres last year after storms and flooding hit many parts of the state. Lawmakers said they will be looking for ways to help farmers recover and encourage growth in the state’s economy. Claim: Lawmakers ready for ‘fast and furious’ session.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Salomon expressed his regret that many Parisians had ventured out in large numbers on Sunday despite official advice to stay at home and a government shutdown on bars and restaurants around the country. “A lot of people have not understood that they need to stay at home, and this low level at which people have adhered means that we are not succeeding in curbing the outbreak of the epidemic,” Salomon told France Inter radio. He added it would be “catastrophic” if France were to reach a stage on deciding whether to save the lives of certain patients over that of others. “This morning, I appeal to all French people to mobilize in the fight,” he said. The number of deaths in France from the coronavirus increased by more than a third on Sunday to 127 and over 5,400 have been infected. Sources told Reuters on Sunday that France is preparing an order that would put its inhabitants under partial lockdown to combat the pandemic, a move that would tighten further restrictions on public life. Claim: France struggling to curb rate of coronavirus pandemic, health official says.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya this week said there has been a “drastic reduction” in the number of new cases in the outbreak which has killed more than 70 people in the southern African nation since October, most of them in the capital, Lusaka. The provision of fresh water, education in waste disposal and personal hygiene and other preventive measures are being taken, the minister said. “The cholera outbreak is being contained,” Chilufya said. WHO is assisting with the vaccination of Lusaka residents against cholera after the delivery of enough doses to immunize one million people. There are plans to vaccinate another one million people in “cholera hotspots” nationwide later this year, WHO said. The United States has provided chlorine drops to purify 120 million liters of water, and six experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in Zambia to work with local health officials, the U.S. Embassy said. A team from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has also traveled to Zambia, treating cholera victims at an emergency clinic set up in a Lusaka stadium. Last week, the Zambian military moved in after some residents in the densely populated Lusaka slum of Kanyama rioted over the removal of market vendors, a measure designed to improve hygiene. The army deployed after police struggled to control rioters who destroyed property and looted shops. The cholera outbreak forced schools to close and public gatherings such as church meetings to be curtailed, though the government says it plans to ease the restrictions. Zambia’s religious affairs minister, Rev. Godfridah Sumaili, declared a week of prayer and fasting under the slogan: “Kick out cholera from the land.” Some Zambians said the observance, set to end on Sunday, is a distraction from alleged government failures to provide public toilets in slums, improve the garbage collection system and address water shortages in Lusaka. Cholera is caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water and can kill within hours if untreated. ___ Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachris Claim: Zambia says new cases dropping in deadly cholera outbreak.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Volunteers and nearly 1,500 rescue personnel concentrated their search on the hard-hit town of Meureudu in Pidie Jaya district near the epicenter of the magnitude 6.5 quake that hit before dawn Wednesday. But the small number of heavy excavators on the scene meant progress was slow. Humanitarian assessment teams fanned out to other areas of the district. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the death toll had risen to 102 and warned it could increase. Search teams were using devices that detect mobile phone signals within a 100-meter (yard) radius to help guide their efforts as they scoured the rubble. The disaster agency said more than 750 people were injured. “We have to move faster to search and rescue possible survivors,” said Iskander Ali, a Pidie Jaya official. Those killed included very young children and the elderly. Mohammad Jafar, 60, said his daughter, granddaughter and grandson died in the quake but he was resigned to it as “God’s will.” He was getting ready for morning prayers when the earthquake hit. He said he and his wife managed to push their way out through the debris. Another man said he found his 9-year-old daughter alive beneath a broken wall at his neighbor’s house. Thousands of people are homeless or afraid to return to their houses. Nugroho said more than 11,000 people have been displaced and are staying at shelters and mosques or with relatives. About 10,500 homes were damaged and dozens of mosques and shop houses collapsed. Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that struck off Sumatra. The magnitude-9.1 quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 100,000 Acehnese. Sulaiman, a Disaster Mitigation Agency official in Aceh, said staple foods for women and babies are most urgently needed. He said medicines are sufficient because assistance is coming from the army, police, state-run companies and local governments. “What’s badly needed now are staple foods such as rice, cooking oil, salted fish and other foods,” said Sulaiman. He said people had complained about a lack of clean water, but the problem has been tackled and electricity supply is returning to normal in many areas. Nugroho, at a news conference in Jakarta, listed as urgent food and clothing, specialist doctors for victims suffering fractures, medical equipment, temporary shelters and heavy excavation equipment. The Indonesian government sent 50 tons of urgent aid to Aceh, including 10 generators, tents, folding beds, baby supplies and body bags. “Every aid and civil society organization is piling into the area with as many boxes of rice, instant noodles, blankets and other aid as they can shift,” said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, which has an assessment team in northern Aceh. It will take at least two more days before there’s a fuller picture of how many people are displaced, he said. The military is setting up an emergency field hospital and sending two dozen doctors, and the Health Ministry is sending a medical team and medicines. The Red Cross sent aid such as water trucks on Wednesday and humanitarian group CARE is leading an assessment team of four international aid groups to avoid duplication of efforts. Aid groups and others are also appealing for donations. Pope Francis, who was speaking at St. Peter’s Square for a Catholic holiday, said he wanted people to know he was praying for the victims of the earthquake, their loved ones and those left homeless. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered about 19 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Sigli, a town near the northern tip of Sumatra, at a depth of 17 kilometers (11 miles). It did not generate a tsunami. Aftershocks have rattled the area. The world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. The 2004 quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh. ___ Wright reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the name of the Aceh disaster mitigation agency official is Sulaiman instead of Iskander. Claim: Aid groups descend on Indonesia quake zone; deaths reach 102.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Waldo Ariel Suero, president of the Dominican Medical Association, has said the alleged the deaths occurred because of patient overcrowding, lack of equipment and bad conditions. He said that the Our Lady of Altagracia Maternity Hospital in Santo Domingo does not have enough incubators and that only three of 10 operating rooms are in use. The hospital has been undergoing renovations since 2014, and the association said it should be temporarily closed, with patients and doctors transferred to other hospitals. Dominican health officials said late Tuesday that the deaths were simply a result of complicated pregnancies and denied Suero’s allegations. Nelson Rodriguez, director of the National Health Service, said some of the babies were born prematurely, had respiratory or neurological problems or congenital cardiac malformations. He said Dominican Republic still has a high infant mortality rate, with 80 percent of deaths blamed on premature births. It is the second time officials raised concerns about a string of hospital deaths in the Dominican Republic. In October 2014, President Danilo Medina dismissed the health minister at the time and the director of the main pediatric public hospital after 10 children died one weekend due to failures in the care and quality of the health center. Claim: Dominican hospital under scrutiny after 14 newborns die.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Democrats ripping jobs gains under Republican Gov. Scott Walker often point to the post-recession progress in Minnesota, where the jobs recovery has outpaced that of Wisconsin. Walker, meanwhile, prefers comparisons to Illinois and its budget problems and big tax hikes. In September 2013, we rated a Minnesota lawmaker’s claim that the Gopher State is \"kicking butt relative to Wisconsin\" on employment, school test scores, workforce education and other rankings. But we haven’t, until now, tested claims of an income gap. Gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke proclaimed such a gap in June 6, 2014 remarks to delegates gathered in Lake Delton for the state Democratic Party’s annual convention. \"As you know,\" Burke said, \"our current governor has made quite a name for himself. His divisive brand of politics may have made national headlines, but those policies have hurt middle-class families right here in Wisconsin.\" She added: \"But the people of Wisconsin, we know Scott Walker. He promised us 250,000 new jobs. But what did we get? We’re 9th out of 10 midwestern states in job growth -- ninth out of 10! And the typical Wisconsin worker makes $5,000 less each year than our neighbors in Minnesota.\" Let’s see if Burke’s statement about a Minnesota advantage in the Walker era holds up. What the numbers show Burke’s campaign cited one source for numbers on earnings. We looked at it and two others. All show Minnesota on top. -- The annual average wage of Minnesota workers was $47,370 as of May 2013 -- $5,060 higher than the $42,310 figure for Wisconsin, according to survey-based estimates published by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2013 data is the most recent available. -- Average earnings per job in 2012 were $53,928 in Minnesota, $4,931 more than Wisconsin’s $48,997, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data. That figure takes in a larger group -- not only workers’ wages and salaries but \"proprietor’s income\" from self-employment. -- The same data, stripped down to exclude proprietor’s income to focus more on regular salaries and wages, shows a gap of $5,757 in Minnesota’s favor, according to research by Dale Knapp at the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. So Burke’s figures are solid. More about the numbers In her convention speech, Burke argued in a general way that Walker’s policies are linked to the wage gap. Given all the factors that influence a state’s economy, experts agree the actions of a governor have a limited effect. Nevertheless, Burke’s claim misses the mark by pinning the gap solely on Walker. The Minnesota-Wisconsin wage gap dates to at least the 1960s, and gradually has grown despite ups and downs. When we asked Burke campaign spokesman Joe Zepecki about that, he argued that Walker's economic policies -- which Walker touts as turning the state around -- haven't improved it or closed that gap. As examples, he cited Walker’s refusal to accept the federal expansion of Medicaid and his opposition to a minimum wage increase. By any of our three measures, the gap did not narrow in Walker’s first two years. It grew significantly based on the average earnings per job data. It held steady if you use the other two methods. The average earnings data shows the Minnesota wage advantage averaged 7.4 percent during the second four-year term of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who preceded Walker. So far under Walker the average is 8.8 percent. The gap of 9.1 percent in 2012, Walker’s second year, is the highest since 2000, when Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was in charge. It’s not that Wisconsin’s average wage has fallen during the Walker era. It’s up 5.5 percent in two years, right around the national average increase. But Minnesota has fared somewhat better, which creates the increase in the gap. In combing through the annual average wage data for the two states, there are some interesting disparities between specific jobs. Minnesota ran up part of its lead on these: Occupation Minnesota average wage Wisconsin average wage Registered nurse $71,160 $64,460 Management, all positions $107,130 $97,920 Dentist $193,100 $177,430 Police and sheriff patrol officer $58,220 $54,140 Social worker (child/family/school) $59,830 $49,720 School bus driver $32,500 $29,190 Computer systems analyst $81,560 $75,170 Lawyer $126,520 $105,080  Wisconsin holds the upper hand in other categories, including: Occupation Minnesota average wage Wisconsin average wage Farm, fishing, forestry $30,910 $31,260 Retail Salesperson $23,730 $24,420 Mortician, undertaker, funeral director $58,340 $65,720 Chiropractor $72,810 $90,170 Pediatrician $185,550 $200,480 According to a bankrate.com calcuator, the Minneapolis area’s cost of living is 8.5% higher than that of the Milwaukee metro area. Our rating Burke told delegates at the state Democratic convention that \"the typical Wisconsin worker makes $5,000 less each year than our neighbors in Minnesota\" under Walker’s policies. The gap is real and Burke hit the mark with her description of it. The gap has grown or held steady in Walker’s time depending on the measuring stick used. Burke didn’t say Walker created the gap, but the disparity is a longstanding one, and one that existed and grew under governors of both political stripes. We rate her claim . Claim: The typical Wisconsin worker makes $5,000 less each year than our neighbors in Minnesota\" under Gov. Scott Walker’s policies.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Doctors in India have been successful in treating coronavirus with a combination of drugs (Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine) and are going to suggest the same medicine globally. India’s ministry of health has advised that the anti-HIV drugs, Lopinavir and Retonovir, are used in some groups of Covid-19 patients. But it is unclear how successful this treatment has been. The other two drugs from the claim are not mentioned in their guidance. Researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center claim to have found an antibody against coronavirus. Researchers in the Netherlands have released research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, on an antibody against the new coronavirus. A 103 year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from Covid-19 after being treated for 6 days in Wuhan, China This has been widely reported in the media. Apple has reopened all 42 China stores. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Apple announced that it had reopened all 42 stores in mainland China after a closure of almost six weeks. Cleveland Clinic developed a Covid-19 test that gives results in hours, not days. The number of new cases in South Korea is declining. Italy is hit hard, experts say, only because they have the oldest population in Europe. Whilst it is true that an older population has contributed to a high number of deaths in Italy, it may not be the sole reason. Scientists in Israel are likely to announce the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Scientists in Israel and elsewhere are working on developing a vaccination to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, but it won’t be ready for the public for over a year. Three Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered and are able to return to everyday life. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Montgomery County, Maryland confirmed that three residents who previously had the virus no longer tested positive. A network of Canadian scientists are making excellent progress in Covid-19 research. At least one group of Canadian scientists has recently announced some progress in understanding Covid-19. A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore. Tulsa County's first positive Covid-19 case has recovered. This individual has had two negative tests, which is the indicator of recovery. Correct, this patient has recovered according to official Tulsa County sources. Two negative tests is one of three official indicators of recovery among people with Covid-19 (who showed symptoms). All seven patients who were getting treated for Covid-19 at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi have recovered. There is a news story reporting that seven patients in this hospital in New Delhi had recovered. However, these were not the only Covid-19 patients in the city. Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid -19 can treat others infected by Covid-19. This is being used as a treatment in some countries, but clinical trials have not yet proved that this is effective. Claim 1 of 15 Claim: Apple has reopened all 42 China stores.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Fahrettin Koca announced Turkey had ordered rapid testing kits from China, as well as medicine that he said he been used to treat coronavirus patients - though he did not give details on the treatments. “Masks produced in Turkey will not be exported while we need them here,” Koca told journalists in Ankara. Turkey’s death toll from the coronavirus increased by seven to 37 on Monday as the number of confirmed cases rose by 293 to 1,529, Koca said. It has carried out more than 24,000 tests, he said, adding without providing details that some patients had recovered. “The cases were mostly from abroad initially, but I can say that through contacts, it has increased ... I can say it has spread almost across the whole country,” the minister said. “We have activated the rapid test kit. Today, 50,000 arrived from China. On Thursday, 300,000 additional kits will come, and we have made arrangements to use up to one million kits,” he added, saying some medical staff had been infected. Earlier, the Hurriyet newspaper quoted Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as saying authorities had raided warehouses storing masks. The government would seize factories if local producers did not agree to sell the masks to the health ministry by Monday night, Soylu was quoted as saying. “God is our witness, they have 10-12 hours or we will seize their factories tomorrow,” he added, according to the report. Turkish producers had been exporting medical gear to a number of countries, including Iran. But Ankara has been increasing controls on the trade to meet its own demands. Last week, it moved to limit private sales by mandating a doctor’s prescription for some masks. Separately, Soylu was quoted as saying 10,750 people had been quarantined across the country, and anyone violating the quarantines would face fines. Claim: Turkey will hire more medics, stop exporting face masks: minister.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: At a Los Angeles anti-abortion rally, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said \"folks in Washington\" have failed \"to protect citizens at every stage in life.\" In President Barack Obama’s first week in office, Perry said, he \"chose to overturn the ‘Mexico City Policy,’ which basically means that your federal tax dollars can now be used to fund abortions all over the world.\" Perry’s June 12 statement landed in national news stories, including reports by National Public Radio and the Associated Press; readers asked us whether Perry was correct. Back story: Obama rescinded what is known as the Mexico City Policy on his third day as president in January 2009, according to news accounts posted online. The policy, first put in place by President Ronald Reagan, requires foreign nongovernmental groups getting U.S. family planning funds to agree that they will not perform or \"actively promote\" abortion as a method of family planning outside of the United States, even if using money from other sources. Those family planning grants are distributed through the U.S. Agency for International Development and are used to fund a variety of activities, including distribution of contraceptives and training of health care workers. Groups may also use the funds to provide emergency treatment for women who have been hurt by or become ill from an abortion. The Reagan administration announced the expanded restrictions at the 1984 International Conference on Population in Mexico City (the source of the policy’s name), saying that the United States \"does not consider abortion an acceptable element of family planning programs and will no longer contribute to those of which it is a part.\" Since then, the Mexico City Policy has been in place during Republican administrations and repealed during Democratic ones. According to a 2001 Congressional Research Service report, the policy defined abortion promotion — banned under the Mexico City Policy — as working \"to increase the availability or use of abortion as a method of family planning.\" Prohibited activities included operating a counseling service that includes information on the benefits and availability of abortion, advising someone that abortion is available and lobbying a foreign government to legalize abortion as a method of family planning. The policy allowed for several exceptions. Among them: A group receiving U.S. funds was allowed to perform abortions if a woman’s life was threatened or if a pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. Aid recipients could also continue to treat women who had been injured during legal or illegal abortions So, is Perry correct that the policy’s 2009 removal by Obama means federal tax dollars can fund abortions all over the world? Not so, says Ellen Starbird, deputy director of USAID’s office of population and reproductive health, because regardless of the Mexico City Policy, a 1973 federal law known as the Helms amendment prohibits U.S. foreign aid from paying for abortions as a method of family planning in foreign countries. A 2010 CRS report says that after 1973 but before the Mexico City Policy came to be, no U.S. funds could be used directly to pay for abortion as a method of family planning abroad, though in countries where abortion was legal, foreign NGOs receiving U.S. aid could use other money to perform them. In those cases, the report says, the groups were required to keep \"segregated accounts for U.S. money in order to demonstrate compliance with the abortion restrictions.\" Once the Mexico City Policy was in place, groups that wanted U.S. family planning aid couldn’t provide abortions, regardless of the funding source. Conversely, now that the policy has been lifted, foreign NGOs that perform abortions can receive U.S. family planning aid. Seems straightforward. But as we’ve learned with other abortion-related fact-checks, it’s not. After learning about the funding restrictions in the Helms amendment, we circled back to Perry’s office. Spokeswoman Catherine Frazier stood by Perry’s statement, saying that \"if U.S. taxpayer money is going to groups that provide abortions, regardless of any other services they provide, it’s going toward promoting and funding abortions.\" Likewise, Kellie Fiedorek, a lawyer for Americans United for Life, a pro-life advocacy group, told us that without the policy intact, \"Americans’ tax dollars may still go to NGOs that provide abortions.\" Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, a pro-life think tank, told us that a group’s ability to move its money around is the key to assessing whether Perry’s statement is accurate. \"If you believe money is fungible, then what Perry said is true,\" Ruse said. That concern also has played prominently in debates in Congress and statehouses over providing domestic abortion providers with funding for other services. Proponents of the Mexico City Policy also say that groups newly getting USAID money for family planning can then free up other funds for abortions. USAID spokesman Nicole Schiegg told us that the agency \"has a robust compliance system in place to ensure that our funds are not used for prohibited activities.\" Starbird told us that if a foreign NGO that provides abortions receives U.S. family planning aid, it is required to keep that money separate from its own. The groups are not allowed \"free rein\" with the funds, she said. Starbird said each award to a foreign NGO is for a specific purpose, and written agreements specify limits such as the Helms’ restriction. She also said recipients are required to account for how the funds are spent, including any money awarded for overhead or indirect costs, and USAID workers monitor the programs. For longer perspective, we asked Barbara Crane, an author of a 2001 article on the Mexico City Policy for Science magazine, about Perry’s statement and the funding issues raised by the policy’s proponents. Crane, a former USAID employee working for Ipas, an international NGO that supports abortion rights, suggested the government takes a chance on money being misspent whenever it makes an award. Crane said, though, that if the government holds groups accountable for delivering the services for which the aid money was awarded, \"there is little opportunity for … the organization to divert funds to support current or new activities in other areas.\" We unsuccessfully sought independent research into how foreign NGOs have spent USAID family-planning money. Separately, Perry’s office offered no evidence of U.S. family planning funds enabling particular NGOs to perform abortions. We also could not determine how many foreign NGOs receive U.S. family planning aid and also perform abortions. Starbird told us that the agency doesn’t ask groups seeking family planning money whether they provide abortions. But Crane, of Ipas, speculated that most don’t engage in abortion-related activities, and many are working in nations that have strict abortion laws. Where does that leave us? With the policy’s repeal, foreign NGOs that perform abortions can receive U.S. family planning money. However, longstanding federal law bars any aid from being spent on abortions, and USAID polices how its family-planning grants are spent. But Perry’s statement retains a sliver of truth in that it’s possible some aid could be misspent or that U.S. aid could free up other money to go toward abortions. We rate the statement Barely True. Editor's note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to . Claim: Rick Perry Says President Barack Obama’s overturning of the Mexico City Policy means federal tax dollars can be used \"to fund abortion all over the world.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Searching for a great gift for all ages? Look no further, Amy Schumer has the product for you. In a recent sketch on her Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer, Schumer and fellow comedian Kyle Dunnigan play infomercial hosts pitching viewers on the perfect \"stocking stuffer\": a handgun. A hopeful buyer laments that he can’t get a gun because he has a criminal record riddled with felonies. \"Caller, you bite your tongue, you silly goose!\" Schumer’s character says. \"You can absolutely get a gun if you have several felonies, as long as you buy it on the Internet or at a gun show.\" \"If you go to a gun show, you can get an unlicensed seller to sell you a gun, no questions asked,\" Dunnigan added We’ve looked at similar claims before. Because this sketch is getting a lot of attention, we wanted to recap whether a felon can actually buy a gun on the Internet or at a gun show. This isn’t the first time Schumer has tackled gun issues; she has been a vocal advocate for stricter gun laws since a gunman killed two and injured many others at a showing of her feature film Trainwreck in a Louisiana movie theater in 2015. But it is her first time on the Truth-O-Meter. The 'gun show loophole' To be clear: The kind of transaction Schumer’s character describes is illegal. Federal law prohibits felons from getting a gun unless their rights have been formally restored. Felons can theoretically get around this obstacle, however, by buying guns from unlicensed sellers who are not required to conduct criminal background checks. This is sometimes referred to as the \"gun show loophole,\" even though it refers to all private sales, and not everyone considers it a loophole. Schumer’s sketch was referring to this aspect of current gun law, said a spokesman for Everytown for Gun Safety, gun control advocacy group Schumer promotes at the end of the sketch. Anyone who repeatedly buys and sells firearms \"with the principal motive of making a profit\" is supposed to get a dealer’s license, whether they deal out of a brick-and-mortar store, a gun show, or online, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Licensed firearm dealers must run background checks on non-licensed buyers before selling them a gun. But the law does not require a dealer’s license for private hobbyists and others who occasionally buy and sell guns. If an individual buys a gun from someone who is not required to have a license, the purchaser does not have to undergo a background check. So a violent felon could buy a gun from a hobbyist over the Internet or at a gun show because he or she would not be subject to a background check. The purchase would still be illegal, because of the buyer’s felon status, but it would not create an immediate red flag. The same thing can happen at a gun show. There are a few important limitations on these sorts of private transactions. First, it is illegal for private sellers to transfer a gun to someone they either know or reasonably believe is prohibited from owning a gun, for example, if the seller knows the buyer is a felon. But private sellers \"can give themselves plausible deniability by not asking the necessary questions,\" Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of California Davis, previously told PolitiFact. So in the case of Schumer’s show, she and her co-host would not have that cushion of plausible deniability because the hopeful buyer told them outright that he is a felon. The giant \"gun show\" banner doesn’t make a difference. Second, private sales, online or otherwise, cannot take place across state lines, so the buyer and seller must be in the same state. And there are many restrictions on shipping guns, so the actual transaction is likely to take place in person, as opposed to the buyer entering credit card information online, and the seller shipping the gun to the buyer’s house. And third, several states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington — and the District of Columbia require background checks for all private gun sales. With all these restrictions, how many people actually buy guns without a background check? The truth is we don’t really know. The only statistics floating around are outdated and flawed. Professors at Northeastern and Harvard universities conducted a gun survey in 2015 that isn’t yet published. The national survey of 4,000 non-institutionalized adults found that 22 percent of the people who purchased guns — at gun shows, stores or elsewhere — underwent no background check, Matthew Miller, professor of Health Sciences and Epidemiology at Northeastern and co-director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, told us in January. When researchers excluded purchases between family and friends, that number dropped to 15 percent, which equates to approximately 5 million gun owners whose most recent purchase did not involve a background check. One more thing: Later in Schumer’s sketch, another hopeful buyer calls in to ask if he can get a gun even though he’s a suspected terrorist on the no-fly list. \"You’re fine, sweet potato fry,\" Schumer’s character says. A March 2015 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office examined how many people applying for gun purchases went through the FBI’s instant background check system and also were on the FBI’s list of \"those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.\" Between February 2004, and December 2014, 2,233 people on the list applied to buy a weapon. Of those, 2,043 were allowed to proceed. Our ruling Schumer’s character said, \"You can absolutely get a gun if you have several felonies as long as you buy it on the Internet or at a gun show.\" The kind of transaction Schumer described is possible, though illegal, and far more complicated than her comment suggests. Federal law prohibits felons from buying guns. But with some effort, they could purchase a gun from private sellers over the Internet or at a gun show without getting caught, because private sellers are not required to run background checks. Schumer is doing a comedy bit, but compared with similar claims we’ve checked, her phrasing makes it sound like buying guns with a felony is easy and lawful. That is not the case. The context is significant. We rate her claim . Claim: You can absolutely get a gun if you have several felonies as long as you buy it on the Internet or at a gun show.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 20 December 2015 a female driver (later identified as a 24-year-old Oregon woman named Lakeisha Holloway) reportedly struck multiple pedestrians with her vehicle on the Las Vegas strip. One individual, 32-year-old Jessica Valenzuela, died in the accident: Woman from Oregon in her 20s is driver of Oldsmobile according to @LVMPD – her 3 y/o was in back. Confirmed intentional act @KTNNews — Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) December 21, 2015  On 21 December 2015, the notoriously unreliable web site Before It’s News published an article reporting that Holloway had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “Allah is great”) during the incident:  According to one eye witness “As we were walking across the street, this car comes flying through the red light. She ran up on the sidewalk and smashed into a group of people walking accross the street and into the group of people at the corner. She did not slow down and appeared to accelerate as she hit the sidewalk.” According to that witness. there is a huge row of plants and bushes separating the sidewalk and the strip, but the woman driver ran through both, at a speed he guessed to be 40-45 miles per hour. “People were flying off the front of her car and people were smashing into other people as she plowed through the crowd.” The witness went on to say “As this unfolded, the only thing I recall as this happened is the insane sound of her car accelerating and the voice from the car was screaming ‘Allah Akbar!’ I’ve heard the sound enough times on the news that I was waiting for a bomb to blow up or guns to start firing.” This was an act of Islamic Terrorism, perpetrated by an Islamic woman driving a car with a three year old child inside, who INTENTIONALLY rode onto the sidewalk to strike innocent people. Police, however, have been instructed by their superiors to NOT use the word “terrorism” in relation to this incident, because Las Vegas does not want tourists to be frightened away from the city. Witness:Female Killer In #LasVegas Shouted 'Allahu Akbar'As She Ran Over 37 Innocent Pple Last Night https://t.co/g1UeFwVigt #tcot @foxnews — Patty (@littlebytesnews) December 21, 2015  The claim appeared concurrently on numerous questionable websites (all with identical wording), but we found no version of that claim reported by a credible news site. Although Las Vegas police didn’t release any specifics about what motive might have been behind Holloway’s deadly actions, media reports hinted at a non-terroristic impetus:  #BREAKING Strip suspect to police: “I am hurting, and I want others to feel my pain!” Coverage on News 3 Live @ 3 pic.twitter.com/b5DBgzbbrk — NBC KSNV News 3 (@News3LV) December 21, 2015  On 21 December 2015, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) issued a press release [PDF] about the incident which stated that: About 30 minutes after the initial incident was reported, an adult female, later identified as 24-year old Lakeisha Holloway, went to the valet area of the Tuscany Hotel located at 255 East Flamingo Road, and asked an employee to call the police. It was believed Holloway was involved in the incident on the Strip and she was taken into custody without incident. A three-year old female was in the vehicle with Holloway who was believed to be her daughter. The child was uninjured and was turned over to Child Protective Services where they will assist in locating other family members. The investigation indicated this incident was intentional and as a result of the investigation initiated by multiple details of the LVMPD, Holloway was arrested and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department transported to the Clark County Detention Center where she currently faces the following charges: – Murder with a Deadly Weapon – Child Abuse or Neglect (felony) – Leaving the Scene of an Accident (felony) Once the remaining victims’ statements and medical records are put together, it is anticipated that Holloway will face a multitude of other charges. LVMPD published video of a press conference to Facebook on 21 December 2015:  Just heading to Absinthe; the show at Ceasars Palace. Was walking down the strip heading to our show; as we parked at the Paris for dinner and walked down the street to go to the show. As we were walking accross the street, this car comes flying through the red light, we had right of way and walking accross the intersection, she ran up on the sidewalk and smashed into a group of people walking accross the street and into the group of people at the corner. She did not slow down and appeared to accelerate as she hit the sidewalk. There’s a huge row of plants and bushes seperating the sidewalk and the strip, she ran through both, probably 40-45 miles per hour. People were flying off the front of her car and people were smashing into other people as she plowed through the crowd. My friend was walking ahead of us as he was making a joke of the minion characters that were lined up on the sidewalk, wanted to pose for a picture, the car hit a bush and the bush smacked into his legs; he buckled from the impact and fell down in writhing pain. He is listed as one of the 36 injured but I will not name his name. We spent the last 5 hours on the strip giving our report to police and this is the first chance I’ve had to come on here and post. I’ve been following this story HERE as I know this is the only place to get the REAL news! As this unfolded, the only thing I recall as this happened is the insane sound of her car accelerating and the voice from the car was screaming Allah Akbar! I’ve heard the sound enough times on the news and posts on here that I was waiting for a bomb to blow up or guns to start firing. My friends ducked into the Hard Rock Casino which is right by the Paris and waited to see if something else was going to happen. After 30 minutes we went back to the street with total chaos, cops and ambulances shutting everything down and a systematic closure of casinos closely. We were told to leave if able, and not to linger but more and more people gathered to see what was going on. I thought this shit wouldn’t hit Vegas but I am first hand proof that’s it’s here, in Sin City with evil Islam at its roots! This bitch was crazy and was screaming with both windows down! I didn’t notice a kid in the car but after reading the news that a toddler was in there it makes me sick! I’m coming down from an adrenaline rush like I’ve never had. I’m ex-Air Force and I wish I was active duty so I could FRY these fuckin radicals from my country! Watch yourselves people; they come out of no-where and will hit you where you least expect it! I don’t think it’s a coincidence it was in front of the Paris either, fuck these fucking terrorists!! Our attempts to contact the official public information department of the LVMPD have so far been unsuccessful, probably due to the large ongoing investigation into the Vegas strip incident of 20 December 2015. However, an individual in the Homicide division with whom we briefly spoke confirmed that potential ties to Islamic terrorism are not currently a focus of the investigation. The rumor’s credibility deficit was so severe that even an InfoWars article described it as “from a dubious source [which] cannot be considered genuine at this time.” On 21 December 2015, the LVMPD repeatedly addressed iterations of the rumor on Twitter and implored social media users not to spread misinformation about the tragedy: @SuperStation95 In times like these it is irresponsible to spread misinformation. There is no evidence that was said, as it did not happen. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @PatriotBroker This is false and we have addressed the misinformation with @SuperStation95. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @Proud__Infidel There is zero evidence that was shouted as it did not happen. Please refrain from spreading misinformation. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @myassinyomouth There is zero evidence that was shouted as it did not happen. No good can come from sharing misinformation. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @TexasSheri @OOAKDEALS NP. In times like these information, correct or not, spreads like wildfire. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @qb_ramirez There is zero evidence that was shouted as it did not happen. This is a tragic, isolated incident. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @qb_ramirez it’s part of a criminal investigation which is ongoing. In any case, releasing critical evidence prematurely can be detrimental. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @DebtAssassin @lvphillies08 there’s no evidence of anyone hearing anything either. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015  @ginah89121 @JerseyGirl @lvphillies08 @DebtAssassin There is no evidence this was shouted. Please help by not continuing the rumor. — LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 22, 2015 Claim: A driver in Las Vegas shouted \"Allahu Akbar\" as she deliberately struck multiple pedestrians with her vehicle, and police have been instructed to suppress that detail of the story.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Nutrition and weight loss, preventative and personalized health, complementary and alternative medicine, and beauty and anti-aging treatments were the biggest growing sectors, the report compiled by the non-profit research center SRI International showed. “All across the world we have seen, from Asia to Europe to Africa to North America, more and more people are consciously thinking about healthy food, exercising, looking to nature, getting massages and doing yoga,” said Ophelia Yeung, a senior consultant for SRI International who led the study. Spa treatments and products, alternative and complementary treatments and weight-loss programs once considered beyond the means of many people, she added, are becoming more mainstream with a growing middle class. While medical care treats illness and disease, wellness is focused on prevention through a variety of healthy habits, nutritional eating, exercise and treatments. To compile the report researchers looked at wellness sectors ranging from mind and body fitness to beauty and anti-aging, spas and workplace wellness. The global spa industry generated $94 billion last year, according to the Global Spa and Wellness Economy Monitor report, up from $60 billion in 2007. With more than 32,000 spas, Europe had the highest revenue of $29.8 billion, followed by the Asia-Pacific region with $18.8 billion and North America with $18.3 billion. Emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa have been growing the fastest in terms of adding spas. In Asia, China and India are leading growth, while in Europe it is Eastern Europe, Russia and the Baltic states. Thermal/mineral springs generated $50 billion worldwide but the biggest industry sector was wellness tourism, or travel associated with maintaining or enhancing one’s personal well-being and health, which accounted for $494 billion. “Wellness travel is a very fast growing segment within travel. That’s because as people become more conscious about a healthy lifestyle they naturally want to extend that when they travel,” Yeung explained. The report showed that the number of people taking international and domestic wellness tourism trips grew by 12 percent from 2012 to 2013. That was 36 percent faster than overall tourism trip growth, which is estimated at 9 percent. The SRI report was commissioned by the annual Global Spa & Wellness Summit. More than 400 wellness industry leaders from 45 countries attended the 2014 summit in Morocco earlier this month. Claim: Global spa, wellness industry estimated at $3.4 trillion: report.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As so-called undocumented immigrants in the U.S. struggled to avoid deportation and risked their health during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, government agencies created potential new challenges for them. In July, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) department announced they would be offering a six-day Citizens Academy training starting in September in Chicago, which would allow civilians and ICE officers to “engage” with each other. Snopes readers shared the following letter from ICE, reportedly sent to potential participants across Chicago, and asked us if it meant the agency would be training civilians to assist in the apprehension of undocumented people. The answer is complicated. We found that this was an actual letter sent by ICE. Although they said they were planning to conduct trainings in September and would show civilians how they made arrests, the notion that this would lead to civilians actually apprehending undocumented people was disputed by the agency. Immigration advocates, however, were skeptical. In order to understand the actual nature and likely outcome of these trainings, we reached out to ICE, as well as immigration advocates, and looked at past examples of such academies. According to an ICE press release, the interactive program would occur once a week over six weeks. Participants would learn about ICE policies and procedures from ERO officers, while officers would hear participants’ perspectives and “debunk myths” about ICE. The curriculum will include, but is not limited to, classroom instruction, visiting an immigration detention center, learning more about the health care ICE provides to those in its custody, and examining ICE’s role in ensuring dignity, respect and due process of an immigration case from start to finish. Many in Chicago received letters from ICE inviting them to apply. The letter said, “attendees will participate in scenario-based training … including, but not limited to defensive tactics, firearms familiarization, and targeted arrests.” Nicole Alberico, an ICE spokesperson, responded to Snopes’ request for more information about the training (emphasis ours): …the academy is not to train members of the public to do the work of trained, federal law enforcement officers. ICE ERO Citizen’s Academy is modeled after other law enforcement community outreach programs – including ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), FBI and local police departments – all with the goal of directly engaging and educating the public. Chicago ERO is looking for a diverse set of influential community leaders – regardless of their stance on ICE – to apply. The spokesperson said that they also had not determined whether media would be permitted to attend the training, as they were considering health precautions because of the pandemic and privacy concerns. In sum, according to their own descriptions, ICE plans on showing civilians how they as an agency carry out arrests but will not be training civilians to do arrests themselves. According to one report, such a Citizens Academy has already taken place in Los Angeles for years, with participants simulating drug busts, arrests, and stakeouts. According to one graduate, the course immersed people in what the agents do. While the Chicago program was to be run by ERO, the Los Angeles Academy was being run under ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) department. The goal of such training appeared to be to get more people to understand ICE’s perspective, see how they operate, and eventually construct a positive image of the agency in various communities. There is no available evidence that such trainings led to civilians participating in actual arrests. Claim: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning a six-day “Citizens Academy” training, including instruction on firearms and how to make arrests, for Chicago residents in September 2020.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It may seem minor, but backers say low-carb’s inclusion could influence nutrition advice that doctors give and help shape government food programs like school lunches. Currently, the guidelines cite the Mediterranean, vegetarian and other diets as examples of healthy eating. “The main point is to get away from a one-size-fits-all diet,” said Nina Teicholz, who has written about low-carb diets. Last year, U.S. health officials said low-carb diets will be reviewed along with other eating styles for the 2020 update to the guidelines. Backers are hopeful because the panel of experts selected to review the evidence includes members nominated by Atkins Nutritionals and a beef industry group. The group had its first meeting last week and is expected to issue a report to help shape the guidelines by next year. Low carb’s consideration comes amid skepticism of nutrition research for producing confusing advice. Low-carb supporters say rising obesity rates show conventional wisdom about nutrition, reflected in the guidelines, doesn’t work for everyone. Some nutrition experts caution that evidence for low-carb diets is new and that it’s unclear what the long-term effects might be. They say criticism of the guidelines is overblown, and blame the food industry for distorting messages to market low-fat snacks full of sugar and massive portions. They note the guidelines have cautioned against sugar since they were introduced in 1980 , and that key recommendations have been largely consistent and remain sound. Low-carb diets generally limit foods like bread, pasta and sugar to less than 30 percent of calories, or around 750 calories for someone eating 2,500 calories a day. The idea of restricting carbohydrates has been around for decades, and many remember the Atkins craze. The ketogenic diet has been used to treat people with epilepsy and has resurfaced as a very low-carb diet embraced by celebrities. Charles Garrison, a mortgage officer in Florida, decided to try the keto diet, including food like waffles made with almond flour. “I don’t plan on being super strict about it forever,” he said. Low-carb diets can work well for people with type 2 diabetes who are more sensitive to carbohydrates. But the benefits of low-carb can also be overblown, and people still have to make sure their overall diet is healthy, said Kevin Hall of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Some nutrition experts say sticking to low-carb diets can be hard, and that people should make changes that can last. Marion Nestle, a nutrition researcher who helped write the 1995 guidelines, said she prefers guidance that encourages healthy habits, such as the types of food to eat or limit. “People don’t eat nutrients, they eat food,” she said. Adding low-carb diets could further muddle messages. The guidelines, now more than 120 pages , also advise people to limit the saturated fat commonly found in meat and butter — foods many link with low-carb diets. Instead of adding another diet to the mix, simplifying the guidelines would be more useful, said Stanford University health policy researcher John Ioannidis. “If we eat more, that will make us obese. That’s 100% correct,” he said. ___ Follow Candice Choi on Twitter: @candicechoi ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: US experts reviewing low-carb, other diets for guidelines.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The 12-year study by the Centers for Disease Control found that bug-borne diseases have more than tripled across the U.S. from 2004 to 2016, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported . During that time period, nine new bug-borne diseases have been introduced. Missouri ranks around the average for mosquito-borne diseases, but is in the top 40 percent in cases of disease caused by tick bites. Christelle Ilboudo, an infectious disease physician for University of Missouri Health Care, said she’s seen more patients are coming in with symptoms. “It seems we have had an increase in cases,” Ilboudo said. “Most cases are seen in the clinic setting without patients seeking to get hospitalized.” Kathy Kinnaman, a nurse practitioner at the Boone County Medical Group in Osage Beach, said she believes increased awareness is causing more patients to seek treatment for bug-borne diseases. She said the most comment cases she sees deal with tick bites. “A tick bite is a tick bite no matter how long you think that tick was on you,” Kinnaman said. “If it actually got onto you and started sucking, then it could cause illness.” Health professionals say ticks should be removed immediately and bites should be monitored closely to see if any symptoms develop. Bites can be prevented by using insect repellant and wearing long sleeves in areas where the bugs live, Ilboudo said. “Some of these diseases can make people very, very sick, so it is not something to take lightly,” Ilboudo said. “The symptoms can be very nonspecific, meaning they may just have a fever and some muscle aches, and most people tend to ignore that.” ___ Information from: Columbia Daily Tribune, http://www.columbiatribune.com Claim: Missouri physicians warn against bug-borne diseases.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 28 December 2017, a tweet from a man in California focused attention on one of less-reported aftereffects of the damage caused by the massive Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017. Ben Boyer’s post criticized the Trump administration’s response to the disaster while describing a recent hospital visit: My wife’s nurse had to stand for 30 mins & administer a drug slowly through a syringe because there are almost no IV bags in the continental U.S. anymore. See, they were all manufactured in a Puerto Rican factory which still isn’t fixed. Meanwhile that stupid swollen prick golfs. This is true. Hospitals in both Puerto Rico and the mainland United States have reported shortages of intravenous fluids and bags since Maria tore through the island — where several medical manufacturing plants are located — in September 2017. According to a Food and Drug Administration analysis released in November 2017, medical manufacturing is a significant part of the island’s economy: Prior to the devastation brought by Hurricane Maria, the medical product manufacturing sector provided, on average, approximately $800 million in local wages over a 12-month period, according to our analysis. This manufacturing industry is a key part of the island’s manufacturing base and is supported by a highly skilled workforce. Among the manufacturers affected was Baxter International, the largest IV bag supplier in the United States; the company says on its website that it ships more than a million units of IV solutions a day. The FDA responded by saying that Baxter and other companies to get priority access to the island territory’s electrical grid. On 28 December 2017, the FDA sent us the following statement: The FDA has been working very closely with industry and local and federal officials to help address the shortage situation for IV saline and other products as a result of Hurricane Maria. This remains a key area of focus for the agency and we expect that the shortage of IV fluids will improve in early 2018 based on the information we are receiving from the manufacturers. In the meantime, we are continuing all of our efforts to increase supplies while concerns remain. Baxter sent us a statement confirming that all of its facilities in the territory are connected to the local electrical grid, with backup diesel generators on tap in case of power outages. The company said it expects to “return to more normal supply levels for products made in Puerto Rico in the coming weeks.” The company did clarify, however, that its Puerto Rican operations did not include manufacture of saline IV solutions, and that production of those products continues to run normally. Baxter added: We are also bringing additional units to the U.S. market through a recent permanent approval from the FDA for IVs produced in one of our North American manufacturing plants. We expect to see this incremental supply benefitting current customers and providing us the opportunity to service other customers in the beginning of 2018. The FDA said in a follow-up statement released on 5 January 2018: FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said a key area of focus is addressing the I.V. saline shortage, which has affected patients, health care providers, and hospitals. He noted that, based on information from the companies, the shortage of I.V. saline fluids is expected to improve early this year. The number of deaths caused by the hurricane remains unclear. Although Puerto Rican authorities initially reported that around 50 people had been killed in the territory as a result of Maria, several accounts have surfaced contradicting that estimate. In early December 2017, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló ordered a recount of the death toll. He said in a statement: We always expected that the number of hurricane-related deaths would increase as we received more factual information — not hearsay — and this review will ensure we are correctly counting everybody. Boyer told us via email that his wife was receiving the treatment as part of her ongoing care for brain cancer; she was first diagnosed in 2009, and her tumor (which is inoperable) became aggressive again in 2015. At the time of his post, he said, he was unaware of the ongoing IV bag shortage: Obviously I knew about the hurricane; I lived in San Juan as a little kid and have been back to Puerto Rico many times. Both my parents worked their whole careers in health care and I knew that was part of the island but didn’t know about the current situation until our excellent nurse told me. At the time he was giving my wife her pre-meds before her chemo infusion – steroids, stomach aids, saline flush, etc. He said of the attention his tweet received: Twitter is very weird in that it’s very hard to tell how something blew up – I know it only had a couple of likes and comments for the first 5 or 6 hours and then clearly some big account RTd it – I wish I knew who it was! After that I started to see lots more RTs including several big names I recognized. As you can see from my account, I mostly tweet dumb jokes, but this was just such a wild thing and I hadn’t heard it from anyone else so I thought it would be informative. Very soon after it started to spread I started seeing lots of nurses and medical professionals jumping on it and I realized that (a) it was a story most people didn’t know about, and (b) it was clearly massively widespread and growing. Claim: United States health care facilities face an intravenous bag shortage because of the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called state lawmakers into special session on Sept. 28, 2011, he touted two dozen legislative initiatives he said would put Wisconsin back to work. Reiterating his campaign promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs, the Republican governor asserted that more than anything else, \"employers and workers want a sense of certainty.\" Health care advocate Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, was certain he didn’t like what he saw in some of the bills on the table. Kraig’s Milwaukee-based group describes itself as a coalition that works to \"advance progressive values and shape the public and political debate around health care, economic development and consumer protection.\" In a news release and in a blog post on Oct. 3, 2011, Kraig said several bills were \"masquerading as job-creation measures which damage the civil justice rights of consumers who are injured by corporate malfeasance\" -- in other words, curbing the rights of injured people to sue. \"Shockingly,\" Kraig added, \"one bill in the current session dangerously grants drug companies and medical device manufacturers immunity from injuries and deaths caused by their products.\" Immunity from lawsuits -- even in cases of injury and death? The bill Kraig criticized was proposed by Sen. Rich Zipperer, R-City of Pewaukee. As long as a drug or device is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the manufacturer or seller of that drug or medical device would be immune from liability, according to the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau. Zipperer spokewoman Hannah Huffman said, however, that there are exceptions. Immunity would not apply if FDA approval were gained through fraud, she said. And although manufacturers could not be sued for a defect in the design of a drug or device if the design had been approved by the FDA, the manufacturer could be sued if it failed to follow the design in the manufacturing process, she said. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families in Washington, D.C., told us she believes the immunity bill would apply to all drugs but perhaps not to all medical devices. Zuckerman, who has done research on the FDA approval processes, said it would depend on how the word approved is interpreted in the bill. Every year, only about 3 percent of new medical devices gain FDA approval, while the rest are \"cleared\" under a less-stringent process by the agency, she said. So, Zipperer’s bill gives broad immunity, with some exceptions, to drug makers but perhaps less immunity to device makers. We asked Kraig for evidence to back what essentially was a blanket statement that the bill \"grants drug companies and medical device manufacturers immunity.\" Kraig initially said his statement was \"over broad and should have included the qualification that this bill covers drugs and medical devices approved by the FDA.\" Later he argued the statement was fair because most people, when they hear a reference to drug makers or medical device manufacturers, would understand that those companies make products that in the vast majority of cases must be approved by the FDA. Kraig also argued that the bill is dangerous because in recent years the FDA’s regulatory powers have been weakened and therefore its approval of a drug or device does not provide as much protection as it once did. As evidence, he cited a report that is critical of a Michigan law that gives immunity to drug manufacturers and that Kraig said is similar to the drug manufacturers part of the Wisconsin’s bill. And he cited a national report on problems people encountered after using drugs and medical devices that had received FDA approval. But arguing a bill is unnecessary or unwise does not get at the question we are examining: Whether the bill does what Kraig said it does in terms of immunity. Our conclusion  Kraig said a bill proposed by a Wisconsin lawmaker \"grants drug companies and medical device manufacturers immunity from injuries and deaths caused by their products.\" He acknowledged that his statement was \"over broad,\" in that immunity applies only when FDA approval has been granted. The bill doesn’t give blanket protection to drug and device makers. But its primary intent is to give them immunity, with some exceptions. We rate Kraig’s statement . Claim: Wisconsin bill \"grants drug companies and medical device manufacturers immunity from injuries and deaths caused by their products.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The decision could undermine President Donald Trump’s support among farmers, an important constituency in the November 2020 election. Some U.S. farmers have already been hurt by the United States’ prolonged trade war with China. “The Administration is moving forward to finalize the 2020 RVO (Renewable Volume Obligations) in line with the agreement that the President made this fall,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said. Deere confirmed he was talking about a proposal unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency in October, which was intended to compensate the biofuel industry for the administration’s expanded use of refinery waivers, but which the industry has largely panned as insufficient. Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, oil refiners are required to blend some 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol into their gasoline every year, but small facilities can be exempted if compliance would hurt them financially. The Trump administration’s EPA has roughly quadrupled the number of the so-called Small Refinery Exemptions, something corn farmers and biofuel producers say has deeply undercut demand for ethanol. The oil industry says the waivers are needed to preserve blue-collar refining jobs and disagrees with the claim that the waivers destroy demand. The EPA plan, devised after weeks of negotiations with both the oil and biofuel industries to resolve the issue, would raise the biofuels volumes that some refineries must blend in 2020 based on U.S. Energy Department recommendations for volumes that should be exempted. Biofuel interests wanted the regulation to be based on volumes that have actually been waived, since the EPA has routinely waived more blending volumes than the DOE has recommended. On Tuesday, more than 1,700 farmers and biofuel advocates sent a letter to Trump, criticizing EPA’s proposal and asking him to directly intervene in the debate. By then, the decision had already been reached. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told the Iowa Corn Growers Association during a meeting in Washington on Tuesday that the administration was sticking with the EPA’s proposal, two sources familiar with the matter said. The plan is expected to be finalized by Friday, one source said. The final rule for 2020 blending requirements is already past its end-November deadline. “EPA has reviewed all comments received during the comment period from the public and we plan to finalize the rule this winter,” EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said. Support across key Midwestern states helped propel Trump to the presidency in 2016, a trend he is hoping to replicate in next year’s election. But some farmers have threatened to withdraw support because of his administration’s handling of biofuel policy. The biofuels news, however, comes amid progress in the United States’ trade war with China, a dispute that has been especially damaging to U.S. farmers. It also comes as Congress readies a vote on the nation’s new trade pact with Mexico and Canada, an agreement also expected to boost farmers’ fortunes. Renewable fuel (D6) credits for 2019 traded at 12.75 cents each on Wednesday, down from 13.25 cents in the previous session, traders said. Claim: I’ll Take a Sperm Test, to Go: First at-Home Male-Infertility Test Debuts",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Washington Post reported Thursday that the nursing home is Sagepoint Senior Living in La Plata, which is south of Washington in Charles County. State regulators say that the nursing home failed to use appropriate protective equipment and failed to separate residents who have coronavirus or who were suspected of having it. The state also said that the facility failed to obtain lab results in a timely manner. The Office Of Health Care Quality will issue the fines to the 165-bed facility until it complies with state regulations. The fine is the first civil penalty issued against a nursing home since the pandemic began. According to state data, Sagepoint has had 34 COVID deaths among patients. One employee has also died. Claim: Nursing home with most virus deaths fined $10K a day.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While it probably can be assumed that the zinc-containing products discussed in the story are relatively inexpensive, the story contained no direct discussion of costs. Readers would have benefited from this information, for example, when evaluating the value of zinc-based cold remedies. The story mentions that zinc lozenges \"may help and probably won’t hurt\" when it comes to colds, but how much will the reader have to pay for a shot at this benefit? Readers’ perceptions would no doubt differ if the product costs $2 vs. $20. The sidebar to this story notes that zinc lozenges have been tested in patients with colds or the flu in 14 studies over 25 years. It noted that benefits were seen in about half of the studies, but no benefits and potential harms were observed in other studies. It quantified the benefits found in one study, where colds, coughs and runny noses were of shorter duration in the zinc group compared with the group that received a placebo lozenge. While it would have been nice to see a description of the studies that found no benefit and/or harm (Were they more or less rigorous than the studies reporting benefits? ), the story does enough to fulfill this criterion. Claim: Zinc may ward off viruses but there are dangers",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story makes no mention of how much all of this equipment costs, or how much it adds to the price of medical treatment. This is a serious–and baffling–omission. The gee-whizness of the story almost immediately begs the question of how much all of this stuff costs. Not a word is mentioned. The established daVinci models cost about $1.5 million. The price of the new Si HD has not been published yet. It is certainly higher than $1.5 million. Analyses have been done that suggest that because surgeries done with daVincis generally produce fewer complications and shorter hospital stays, the devices actually result in lower total costs. This may be true. But again, the story should have mentioned costs. The story does not attempt to quantify the benefits of any of the procedures discussed. Yet it allows interested sources to claim the benefits of better outcomes and fewer side effects. The piece is silent on the potential harms of robot-assisted surgery, which include misapplication [as hospitals that have invested in it seek to use it as much as possible] and exposure to inexperienced users [because this surgery has a learning curve of a reported 18 procedures]. The piece discusses the advantages of belly-button laparopscopic surgery but does not discuss any risks. Being the 9th person in the world to undergo a procedure is not necessarily a good thing. The story presents no evidence that the techniques and technologies profiled are safe or effective. The anecdote at the beginning highlights a prostate cancer patient, who emotionally discusses his desire to live for his family and friends. Yet his case says nothing about the type of surgery he had, trans-navel, and whether that might improve his prognosis. There is no evidence it will. This is therefore a clear case of disease-mongering–using an irrelevant anecdote for nothing more than generating emotions to make the technology seem necessary. The piece at various points says the robot-assisted procedures reduce pain and recovery time and allow previously inaccessible levels of control over minute movements. The segment vividly demonstrates how the device can be used to thread a needle and peel a grape. This all appears to oversell the benefits, another form of disease-mongering. And the host at one point suggests the robotic surgery tools could \"make human hands a quaint artifact of the past\"–a statement that makes accuracy and plausibility look like quaint artifacts too. Sources include: While it does not appear Michael Stifelman of NYU has a standard, disclosable financial conflict of interest regarding the daVinci’s maker, he clearly is an interested party as someone who has devoted his career to use of robotics in surgery. He leads a center that has invested heavily in the technology, needs to generate a lot of patient cases to pay for it, and has ambitions to play the role of leader in the field. There is nothing like balance or context in sourcing here. The segment refers to laparoscopic surgery not done through the navel, and surgery not assisted by a robot, only to assert their inferiority. Several technologies are mentioned in this segment. Navel surgery is presented as cutting-edge–the patient is said to have \"ma[d]e medical history\" as the ninth to have his prostate removed via his navel. Yet the piece says surgeons are also using the technique to perform a variety of surgeries, including hysterectomies and removal of lymph nodes. In either case, the piece doesn’t say where navel surgeries are being done. The story reports that 930 daVinci surgical robots are in use around the country, but that’s a census of mostly the old da Vinci machines, not the featured daVinci Si HD Surgical Systems, with the newer, finer controls and optics. This machine was introduced in April. It is not clear where these newer models are in use. It is reported that voice-activated robot assistants are being developed at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and it’s clear on the video that the devices are not yet on the market. The new generation of daVinci surgery robots was just introduced in April, so it’s safe to call that novel. Surgery through the navel is not widely practiced yet, and the piece is reasonably clear on this. It would have been useful to explain that laparoscopic surgery–through the navel or not, or with a robot or not–is standard practice for many types of surgery. The life-assistant robots mentioned briefly at the end are clearly just in development. We can’t be sure what motivated ABC to devote so much airtime to this segment at this time. Claim: The Cutting Edge: Robotic Surgery, Today!",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The relevant research finding is so far removed from a clinical diagnostic tool — and the story makes that clear — that it’s tough to expect much from the story in regard to cost. The story discusses benefits here: The paper evaluated the brains of 23 deceased football players with CTE, and compared them to the brains of 50 deceased people diagnosed with Alzhiemer’s disease and the brains of 18 deceased non-athletes. When compared to the brains without CTE, researchers found those brains with CTE had significantly higher amounts of CCL11, even when compared to those brains with Alzheimer’s, another degenerative brain disease. Furthermore, they found that the more years someone played football, the higher amount of the protein. How much higher was the protein, in numerical terms? And how do they know it’s significant–that the higher level means anything? All lab values have normal ranges–how do they know if these measurements were abnormal? Instead of providing insight on this, the story explains that it’s really too early to tell if any of this means anything valuable. So why report on it now? If a story is going to speculate about the potential clinical benefits of a new research finding (and this one does), the story should also discuss the harms. It’s worth pointing out, for example, that any test such as this would produce false-positive and false-negative results. Such results could cause unnecessary concern and anxiety and perhaps the loss of a lucrative career — or false reassurance that nothing is wrong when a degenerative process is underway. The story discusses the number of people involved in the study, their different conditions, and why each group is relevant. However, the story would have been stronger if it had noted that the samples used in the study were from the brain and cerebrospinal fluid of individuals. That would better explain why researchers don’t know if the relevant protein can be found in the blood. As it is, the story tells readers that higher levels of CCL11 were found — but not where. The story also makes it clear that there’s a lot more work that needs to be done. No disease mongering here. The story does incorporate input from one independent source — who raised valuable points about the limitations of this discovery and the amount of work that remains to be done. There do not appear to be any conflicts of interest. The story makes it clear that there is no method for diagnosing this brain disorder in living people, and it mentions that other biomarkers are being tested. However, the information was relayed in a somewhat confusing way. The story notes that a diagnostic approach focusing on CCL11 may only be “one part of a larger process.” It then quotes a researcher from the study as saying: “This may be one of the abnormalities [of the disease], but it may take 2-3 to be useful to diagnose CTE.” The story then refers to other studies that have attempted to identify other means of diagnosing CTE in living patients. However, it offers little information on those other diagnostic tools. Presumably, they have significant limitations since we are still unable to diagnose CTE in the living. But perhaps other biomarkers have been found, but not yet incorporated into a reliable diagnostic tool. Either way, we wish that had been more clear — as well as the relevance of these previous studies to the CCL11 research. Once readers get past the first couple paragraphs, the story makes clear that this research is far removed from clinical applications. The story quotes one of the researchers involved in the work as saying “This is something new.” What is new is, apparently, the discovery that CCL11 levels are correlated to CTE. Whether other biomarkers have been identified (as discussed above, under “Compare Alternatives”) but not yet incorporated into diagnostic tools is not clear from the story. Because the story uses a word-for-word quote by one of the researchers from the news release — without disclosing the quote came from a news release — the story rates Not Satisfactory on this criterion. Claim: Researchers identify CTE biomarker that may lead to diagnosis while alive",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Deerfield Village Board approved an ordinance banning the possession of assault weapons, including the AR-15, on April 2. After the ordinance goes into effect in June 2018, residents could be fined up to $1,000 per day for possessing a semi-automatic weapon within city limits. The ordinance states “assault weapons have been increasingly used in an alarming number of notorious mass shooting incidents at public schools, public venues, places of worship and places of public accommodation including, but not limited to, the recent mass shooting incidents in Parkland, Florida (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; 17 people killed), Sutherland Springs, Texas (First Baptist Church; 26 people), Las Vegas, Nevada (Music Festival, 58 people killed), and Orlando, Florida (Pulse Nightclub, 49 people killed).” The village released an FAQ to summarize the assault weapons ban. Weapons meeting the definition of “assault weapon” under the ordinance are those that are semi-automatic, have the ability to accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and have at least one additional feature defined in the ordinance. Police won’t go door-to-door to confiscate assault weapons. Rather, gun owners have been asked to voluntarily surrender the weapons and high-capacity magazines—or to render them inoperable: The Village intends to enforce this ordinance in a manner consistent with other local ordinances. This ordinance will initially be enforced primarily through education and voluntary compliance. A police officer may issue a citation for a violation of this ordinance in the manner provided by law. Weapons being illegally possessed will be confiscated as authorized by the ordinance. Any other enforcement of this ordinance, including search or seizure to effect this ordinance, must comply with the requirements of State and Federal law. Members of the Department will not go “door to door” to ensure compliance. Violators of the assault weapons ban could face a $250 to $1,000 fine for each day that they’re in violation of the ordinance. The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action announced that it would support a legal challenge brought against the group Guns Save Life. The result of the legal challenge remains to be seen, but the ordinance is based on a similar ban approved in nearby Highland Park. That ban was upheld by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015 — and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Chicago also has an assault weapons ban on the books. Comments Claim:  The Village of Deerfield, Illinois, has approved an ordinance banning the possession of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the past week, President Donald Trump has repeatedly spread a false claim that COVID-19 is not as deadly as his own public health agencies have reported. He retweeted a now-deleted post that alleged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \"quietly updated\" the number of coronavirus deaths. He shared another tweet from a senior legal adviser for his reelection campaign that linked to an article whose headline said \"only 9,210 Americans died from COVID-19 alone.\" And, in a Sept. 1 interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Trump said it himself: \"I saw a statistic come out the other day, talking about only 6% of the people actually died from COVID, which is a very interesting — that they died from other reasons.\" \"Well, they had comorbidities, which you’ve gotten criticized for,\" Ingraham responded. She’s right — the president misconstrued data on coronavirus deaths. As of Sept. 3, CDC data show 185,092 Americans had died due to COVID-19, and some estimates put the death toll higher. Trump’s claim traces back to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is part of the CDC. Each Wednesday, the agency releases new provisional death counts for the coronavirus. The data is based on death certificates. In that report, the NCHS notes in a section titled \"Comorbidities\" that, \"for 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.\" \"For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death,\" the report says. Those lines have inspired a rash of claims on social media, including those retweeted by the president, that say the CDC \"adjusted\" its coronavirus death counts and the disease is not as deadly as previously thought. Several other fact-checkers have also debunked them. Let’s recap why they’re wrong. Comorbidities are conditions that patients experience in tandem with a primary condition. Think of conditions like cancer or diabetes, which the CDC has said put people more at risk of death if they contract the coronavirus. The NCHS report shows that the vast majority of coronavirus-related deaths occur in patients with comorbidities. But that doesn’t mean COVID-19 was a non-factor. \"The point that the CDC was trying to make was that a certain percentage of them had nothing else but just COVID-19,\" said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a Sept. 1 interview with \"Good Morning America.\" \"That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of COVID didn’t die of COVID-19 — they did.\" \"The numbers that you’ve been hearing, the 180,000-plus deaths, are real deaths from COVID-19. Let there not be any confusion about that.\" So why do 94% of death certificates that mention COVID-19 also list other conditions? When a coronavirus patient is admitted to the hospital, the virus is listed on their medical record. Since the coronavirus attacks the lungs, perhaps they develop respiratory failure, which would also be listed on their record. Unfortunately, they die after going into cardiac arrest, so doctors take note of that, too. \"The people dying were not going to die but for the acquisition of COVID,\" said Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jeff Lancashire, acting associate director for communications at the NCHS, told us in an email that 92% of the death certificates that mention the coronavirus state that COVID-19 was the \"underlying cause of death.\" \"The underlying cause of death is the condition that began the chain of events that ultimately led to the person’s death,\" Lancashire said. We reached out to the White House and the Trump campaign for a comment, but we haven’t heard back. Trump’s claim is inaccurate and ridiculous. Claim: “Only 6% of the people actually died from COVID.” The others “died from other reasons.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Online rumors continue to claim that different face masks are ineffective in protecting against the spread of COVID-19. We recently fact-checked this  claim, yet new versions on Facebook are now pointing to a warning label that appears to be on the side of a box of disposable surgical masks. The label in the image reads: \"This product is an ear loop mask, this product is not a respirator and will not provide any protections against COVID-19 (coronavirus) and other viruses or contaminants.\" The photo appears to be legitimate. But the words on the label are being misinterpreted as evidence to suggest that masks are not effective. One person who posted the picture wrote: \"Gee....wonder how many people are gonna tell me I haven't done my research now? Black and white. Right there. Even the people making the masks know it's all bull.\" But that’s not what this photo shows. This is a misunderstanding about the kind of protection standard masks provide and a misreading of the disclaimer, which isn’t saying the masks are ineffective at limiting the spread of COVID-19. The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Certain medical-grade masks, such as the N95 respirator, offer the most protection against viral particles for the wearer because it can filter aerosol particles as small as 0.3 micron. But other masks, like the ear-loop ones in the photo or homemade cloth masks, are effective in reducing the spread of the disease, or what health experts call \"source control.\" When you wear these masks it is most helpful to people around you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t recommend that the general public wear medical-grade masks like the N95 because they are in high demand, and officials say they should be reserved for health care workers who are in direct contact with infected patients. As an additional public health measure, the agency recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings to help slow the spread of COVID-19 (emphasis ours): The \"CDC still recommends that you stay at least 6 feet away from other people (social distancing), frequent hand cleaning and other everyday preventive actions. A cloth face covering is not intended to protect the wearer, but it may prevent the spread of virus from the wearer to others. This would be especially important if someone is infected but does not have symptoms.\" Jeremy Howard, a data scientist at the University of San Francisco, wrote an article in the Conversation in favor of universal mask wearing. Howard says that researchers were looking at the wrong question at first – how well a mask protects the wearer from infection – and not how well a mask prevents an infected person from spreading the virus. He said masks function very differently as personal protective equipment versus \"source control.\" A photograph of a box of disposable masks shows a warning label that says the masks \"will not provide any protections against COVID-19.\" Such disclaimers don’t mean that the masks are ineffective at slowing the spread of the disease, but that they don’t protect the wearer as well as medical respirators such as the N95 recommended for use by health care professionals. Disposable and homemade cloth masks are recommended for people to wear because it protects others around them in case they have the virus and may not be showing any symptoms. The users sharing this image are making a  interpretation of the type of protection standard face masks provide. Claim: Facebook post Says a warning label on a box of disposable masks shows that they are ineffective at protecting against the spread of COVID-19.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: More and more, critics are making the case that keeping killer whales in captivity is harmful to the animals and dangerous for the people who train them. SeaWorld, the theme park that showcases the trained whales, is now fighting back. A new ad, part of a multimedia blitz for the company, is headlined, \"Fact: Whales live as long at SeaWorld,\" and it is written in the voice of Chris Dold, a SeaWorld veterinarian. The ad, which has appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, takes specific aim at criticism leveled by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, an animal-rights group that has been among the theme park company’s biggest critics. Here’s a portion of the ad’s text: \"You might have heard attacks from PETA saying our killer whales live only a fraction as long as whales in the wild. They say, ‘In captivity, orcas’ average life span plummets to just nine years.’ But the author of an independent study, Dr. Douglas DeMaster, of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, ‘Survival in the wild is comparable to survival in captivity.’ There’s no other way to say it… PETA is not giving you the facts.\" PETA, meanwhile, pushed back against the ad’s conclusions, citing the average age of whales that have died since 1965. According to PETA’s documentation of captive whale deaths, the average age of death is 12 years old for SeaWorld’s female orcas -- which are expected to survive in the wild for about 50 years. For males -- which are expected to survive in the wild for 30 years -- the average age of death is 16. SeaWorld currently has in its care several whales in their 30s and one in its 40s. Keeping whales in captivity is a complicated issue, and the critical 2013 documentary Blackfish has brought more attention to it. Clearly, longevity is just one factor, and it isn’t the same thing as the quality of the whales’ daily lives. Here, though, we wanted to drill down on SeaWorld’s specific claim that the whales at their parks live just as long as they do in the wild. SeaWorld’s evidence We posed SeaWorld’s claim to DeMaster, the scientist quoted in the ad. He’s the science director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal government agency. Most of the independent experts we contacted agreed that DeMaster is the key scientist to ask about this issue. DeMaster said that SeaWorld is correct -- \"as long as you use data from 2005 to 2013.\" (PETA’s data, by contrast, goes back 40 more years.) On three occasions -- in 1988, 1995 and 2013 -- DeMaster has compiled data that comprehensively compared survival among captive and wild marine mammals. In the 1988 and 1995 papers, DeMaster found differences in the survival rates of marine mammals, including killer whales (also called orcas), depending on whether they lived in the wild or in captivity. The 1995 paper, for instance, found that captive orcas had a 94 percent chance of surviving to the next year in captivity, compared to 98 percent in the wild. That changed by the time DeMaster completed his latest research, in 2013. By then, he found, the annual survival rate for both captive and non-captive killer whales had converged at 98 percent. \"According to recent information there was an improvement in the annual survival rate, to quite close to what you might see in the wild,\" DeMaster told PolitiFact. DeMaster cautioned that he’s not sure of the reason for the improvement in survival, and he said he doesn’t take a position on whether or not large mammals should be kept in captivity. Meanwhile, an Associated Press analysis also cited in the SeaWorld ad -- which is based on the same data DeMaster used, the federal government’s Marine Mammal Inventory Report -- found that the average life expectancy for a killer whale born at SeaWorld was 46 years, which it said was close to the 49-year average life expectancy of a wild orca. Critiquing the SeaWorld evidence So SeaWorld has support for its claim. But the company glosses over some important caveats. • None of the statistical comparisons take into account quality of life, as opposed to length of life. Science is better at measuring longevity than it is at judging how humane a life in captivity is. The mathematical approach \"is totally irrelevant,\" said Dave Duffus, an associate professor of geography at Canada's University of Victoria, who participated on the panel with DeMaster in New Zealand. \"To me the important variable is not how long, rather it is how well, which isn’t a scientific question as much as it is a logical question. Everything about the quality of captive life is in opposition to the wild, which is the product of thousands of generations of natural selection.\" • Merely reaching parity with wild populations isn’t necessarily a major achievement. Simple logic would suggest several reasons why marine mammals should live longer in captivity. Captive animals don’t have to worry about predators, food shortages, fishing nets, or pollution, and they’re given nutritional supplements, vaccines and veterinary care. \"It would sort of make sense that any animal given better medical and nutritional care would live just as long, or longer, than one not given this sort of care,\" said Paul Nachtigall, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program at the University of Hawaii. • The ad focuses on longevity, not survival rates; those are different statistics. The ad’s headline refers to how long whales live, and the text uses terms like \"life span\" and \"life expectancy.\" But those are different things than the statistic DeMaster used that’s favorable to SeaWorld -- annual survival rates. Many experts, including DeMaster, told PolitiFact that annual survival rates are better measurements than longevity. Whales have not been in captivity long enough to know whether they are able to live a full-length life in that setting, DeMaster told PolitiFact. They’ve only been in captivity since the 1960s. Jaap van der Toom, a Dutch biologist who has studied marine mammals, has made a similar point. \"Longevity is basically an incidental finding: it is determined by the oldest animal you find in your sample,\" he has written. \"You can only determine the longevity of a group of animals after all the members of that group have died.\" Well before SeaWorld released its ad, van der Toom published a cheat sheet about how to spin statistics. Referring to the same group of animals, he said, you could use different statistics to paint opposite appraisals. \"If you want to paint a positive picture,\" you could say that \"the life expectancy is 19.5 years\" or \"the majority of the animals will become older than 13 years,\" he wrote. In effect, that’s the approach SeaWorld took. But if you wanted to offer a negative spin, you would say that \"within five years, 23 percent of the animals will have died,\" or that \"one-third of the animals will survive no longer than eight years,\" or \"within 14 years, 50 percent of the animals will be dead.\" Van der Toom summed up: \"To paraphrase an old song: \" ‘t ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it.\" • The data on wild orca populations is sparse. There is data on whale life spans from the Pacific Northwest, but there are orcas all over the world, and there’s no guarantee that all of them have similar life spans and survival rates. In the 1995 paper, DeMaster cautioned that \"comparisons between survival in captivity with survival in the wild will remain tenuous until additional demographic studies are conducted on wild populations.\" Our ruling A SeaWorld ad said \"whales live as long at SeaWorld\" as they do in the wild. At its core, this claim is an oversimplification of a much more complex issue. Recent independent data suggests that survival rates for captive and wild orcas are about equal, but that by itself isn't all that significant, experts told us. The data is limited and comparisons between orcas in captivity and in the wild are tenuous. Experts also noted that logic suggests captive whales should live longer because they don't face predators and receive medical care, which makes SeaWorld's claim further misleading. Lastly, experts said that a simple measurement of survival rates (or lifespan) serves as a smokescreen from the more fundamental question of the conditions for whales in captivity. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. Claim: Whales live as long at SeaWorld\" as they do in the wild.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story merely said the cost has not been announced without noting (as many other stories did) that other biotech treatments cost thousands of dollars per month. The story does report that 32 percent of the men receiving Provenge were alive three years later, compared to 23 percent of the men who received placebo infusions. However, it does not explain that the four month survival advantage in the lead sentence is derived from comparing the median survival of 26 months among men in the treatment arm to 22 months among men in the placebo arm of the trial. The story implies an exaggerated sense of the effect of treatment when it features the founder of a prostate cancer patient advocacy group who \"knows men who have died waiting for Provenge to be approved.\" The statement obscures the fact that more than two-thirds of the men receiving Provenge died within three years and that there was no effect on disease progression. The story reports that 1 percent of study participants dropped out due to side effects and that the most common problems were short-term chills, fever and headache. The AP story – which we also reviewed – had a more complete listing of side effects observed in the trial. The story should have also noted that Provenge was denied approval two years ago, in part because of concerns about possible side effects, including a possible increase in stroke risk, even though no difference was seen in this trial. The lead of this story stated that Provenge helps cancer patients live longer without answering the question, \"Longer than what?\" Only later did the story point out that this study used a placebo control and did not directly compare Provenge to standard treatment with chemotherapy The story mentioned that the participants had advanced cancer, but it should have also emphasized that this treatment has not yet been shown to improve outcomes for men earlier in the course of the disease. The story also included a puzzling reference to another experimental prostate cancer vaccine that extended survival by more than eight months, according to the quoted source. The story does not explain this apparent contradiction with the lead that says Provenge is the first cancer vaccine to extend survival. The story really didn’t discuss the condition of advanced prostate cancer itself in any detail, so this is N/A. The story quotes a researcher not connected with this trial. However, while it points out that the company developing the drug announced the trial results, it failed to point out that the company paid for the trial and that the lead researcher quoted in the story owns stock in the company. The story does point out that chemotherapy is the standard treatment for similar patients. It also makes clear that this trial did not directly compare the experimental therapy with standard chemotherapy. However, readers are likely to come away with the impression that the new therapy has been shown to help patients live longer than standard treatment. The story states that the company plans to apply for FDA approval later this year. The story pointed out that after decades of expermentation this is the first cancer vaccine to demonstrate a survival benefit. However, this story did not mention that this same treatment was denied approval two years ago. The story does not appear to rely primarily on a press release. Claim: Provenge vaccine prolongs life in prostate cancer patients",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of cost – not of the new troponin I test nor of any existing test. Explaining sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive value is admittedly a task in and of itself. But the difficulty in explaining the concepts and applying them to the results of a study does not exempt a story from trying. The story only referred to the new test being “more predictive than other biomarkers” or “more sensitive than the existing one.” But even those relative references weren’t quantified. No sense of the scale of improvement of was provided. That’s not helpful. Since the sensitivity and specificity of the new test was not quantified, the story provided only a glowing report of progress – of benefit. There was no discussion of potential harms. Most physicians and most organizations would frown on making a diagnosis of a heart attack based simply on a blood test. Up To Date, an authoritative resource suggests that patients with a suspicion of having a heart attack have an electrocardiogram, undergo a brief medical history, have a physical examination and have blood drawn for biologic markers. The story suggests that this new blood test can be used alone to make the diagnosis or rule it out. Exaggerating the benefits of a test without placing it into the context provides the readers with a false impression of the test and its utility. Making decisions on the basis of a single blood test could lead to patient harm. There was no critical analysis of the quality of the evidence. The story didn’t even include the following limitations provided by the researchers in the journal article: Our study had several limitations. First, the final diagnosis of acute MI was based substantially on in-house troponin measurements, which might bias the biomarker evaluation toward troponin assays. Because both the index test and reference standard included a change in troponin levels over time, there is the potential for a type of incorporation bias, which may overestimate the measure of diagnostic accuracy of serial hsTnI levels. However, hsTnI appeared to facilitate identification of patients with non–ST-elevation ACS, a diagnosis independent of troponin values. Second, the number of patients with availability of biomarker values differed, which potentially could affect the results. Third, the proportion of patients with MI was rather high compared with that of other studies involving consecutive patients with chest pain, but the number is in line with different European cohorts.Still, this and the fact that only white European patients were enrolled might limit the generalizability of the findings to other populations. There was no disease mongering. The story mentioned that the study was funded by two pharma companies but it did not include any of the individual disclosures included in the journal article itself. And, in terms of sourcing, while the story did include quotes from two independent physicians, neither of them directly addressed the quality of the evidence. One said “we can rule out heart attacks more quickly with the new test” but it wasn’t clear if she had used the test or if she was commenting on the data reported. So we don’t know why she was used as a source. The other spoke in only very general terms about the ultimate goal of such research and about the need for such a blood test – but nothing about the evidence itself. The only comparisons are very broad and lack substantiation with actual data. The study compared the existing test for troponin l and a more specific test and examined the data using different break points and time. Here’s the authors conclusions, “Among patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome, hsTnl (the new test) or cTnl (the existing test) determination 3 hours after admission may facilitate early rule out of MI (heart attack). A serial change in hsTnl or cTnl levels form admission (using the 99th percentile cut off value) to 3 hours after admission may facilitate early diagnosis of AMI.”  The story conclusions don’t seem to match those of the authors. The availability of the new test is left as a mystery by this story. Is it experimental? Is it growing in use already? Is it in widespread use? We’re not told a thing about its availability or use. We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this one for trying to establish the relative novelty of this troponin I test but how it is novel or superior – as already outlined – is not adequately addressed. There’s no evidence that the story relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: New Blood Test May Rule Out Heart Attacks More Quickly",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The study, published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, reached its conclusion after examining 20 years of published research on the issue. The authors say the medical finding have been largely overlooked and overshadowed by concerns that parents should have the right to determine how their children are disciplined. While spanking is certainly not as widespread as it was 20 years ago, many still cling to the practice and see prohibiting spanking as limiting the rights of parents. That point of view highlights the difficulty in changing hearts and minds on the issue, despite a mountain of accumulated evidence showing the damage physical punishment can have on a child, says Joan Durant, a professor at University of Manitoba and one of the authors of the study. “We’re really past the point of calling this a controversy. That’s a word that’s used and I don’t know why, because in the research there really is no controversy,” she said in an interview. “If we had this level of consistency in findings in any other area of health, we would be acting on it. We’d be pulling out all the stops to work on the issue.”   Durant and co-author Ron Ensom, with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, cite research showing that physical punishment makes children more aggressive and antisocial, and can cause cognitive impairment and developmental difficulties. Recent studies suggest it may reduce the brain’s grey matter in areas relevant to intelligence testing. “What people have realized is that physical punishment doesn’t only predict aggression consistently, it also predicts internalizing kinds of difficulties, like depression and substance use,” said Durant. “There are no studies that show any long term positive outcomes from physical punishment.”   While banned in 32 countries, corporal punishment of children retains at least partial social acceptance in much of the world. Debates on the issue typically revolve around the ethics of using violence to enforce discipline. With the study, Durant hopes parents will start to look at the issue from a medical perspective. “What we’re hoping is that physicians will take that message and do more to counsel parents around this and to help them understand that physical punishment isn’t getting them where they want to go,” she said. She also hopes that countries that allow the practice - including Canada - will take another look at their child protection laws. Canada is one of more than 190 countries to have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a 1989 treaty that sets out protections for children. The treaty - which has been ratified by all UN member states except for the United States, Somalia and South Sudan - includes a passage stating that countries must protect children from “all forms of physical or mental violence”. “If we had two or three studies that showed that if you took 500 mg of vitamin C a day you could reduce cancer risk, we would all be taking 500 mg of vitamin C a day,” Durant said. “Here, we have more than 80 studies, I would say more than 100, that show the same thing (about corporal punishment), and yet we keep calling it controversial.” Claim: Spanking kids can cause long-term harm: Canada study.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs of the drugs are not discussed, nor is whether they are generally covered by insurance, or how long kids would have to take them (for a few years? into adolescence? into adulthood?). The story provides some percentages but no absolute numbers. It says: The researchers found fewer and less severe injuries and health problems among the treated children: a 3.6% reduction in sexually transmitted infections; 5.8% fewer children who sought screening for sexually transmitted infections (suggesting they had had an unprotected sexual tryst); and 2% fewer teen pregnancies. That adds up to a lot fewer teenagers in trouble. The Princeton news release about the study provides actual numbers related to outcomes, including injuries, which is missing from the Wall Street Journal story even though the story makes a claim about injuries being less likely. In absolute numbers in a sample of about 14,000 teens diagnosed with ADHD, it translates into 512 fewer teens contracting an STD and 998 fewer having a substance abuse disorder. There also would be 6,122 fewer yearly injury cases for children and teens under 19 years old. We would have liked to have seen both types of statistics included in the story. There is no mention of harms in the story. The adverse effects of the drugs in question would be key information–do they outweigh the benefits put forth in this story? The story explains that the study is a retrospective review of data from Medicaid in one state. Readers need more details to ascertain how strong a conclusion can be made from this kind of data review. They should be told specifically that this kind of study can’t prove that medicating kids with ADHD “reduces risky behavior” nor “keeps them safer.” (This is an error also seen in the news release headline.) The piece makes a reference to one other study, saying “randomized, controlled studies—experiments carefully designed to establish cause-and-effect relationships—have reached the same conclusion: that medication to control ADHD can reduce the high price in psychic pain,” But the study that is linked to is not a randomized, controlled study. It, like the study in question, is a retrospective review of health records. Again, these don’t prove cause and effect. There is no disease mongering in the story. We do note, though, that there seems to be a general assumption with the piece that ADHD is a significant problem that must be treated with medication. There is considerable debate on this point, here’s just one example. And the news release discusses this as well, noting: “Evidence [for long-term benefits of medicating kids with ADHD] so far points to positive effects on some outcomes but not others.” There are no independent sources in the piece, which straddles the line between commentary and news. We found it in the health section where it wasn’t labeled as opinion and the headline reads like a straight news story. But some first-person passages make one wonder if it’s more of an opinion piece. Regardless, we would have liked to have seen at least some references to work outside of this one study, since the claim being made is significant, while the evidence being given for the claim is less so. We want to know: What kind of evidence is required before pediatricians can feel confident saying “treating ADHD will not only take care of immediate behaviors, it will create safer behavior as your child grows?” There is no mention of alternatives in the piece, but there are several. It is clear in the story that the drugs in question are available for prescription. However, the U.S.’s complex behavioral health system and prescription drug payment policies makes obtaining them difficult for many, and the story would have served readers better if it discussed this barrier to access. The piece does not establish the novelty of the findings. Again, this was something better handled by the news release, which states “While previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of medications in treating the core symptoms of ADHD, little has been known about the effects of treatment on health, behavioral and educational outcomes in the long run. Evidence so far points to positive effects on some outcomes but not others.” The story does not rely on the news release. Claim: Medicating Children With ADHD Keeps Them Safer",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: National shortages of masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment have exacerbated concerns that U.S. doctors and nurses are not getting the supplies needed to help COVID-19 patients. The surging demand for masks led President Donald Trump to charge, without evidence, that the equipment earmarked for New York’s hospitals has been \"going out the back door.\" But some people are pointing the blame back at Trump, who downplayed the threat of the virus early on despite warnings from experts about the health care system’s readiness. One claim we’ve heard from politicians, TV commentators and social media users is that the U.S. gave away medical supplies that are now sorely needed at home. \"On February 7, the (World Health Organization) warned about the limited stock of PPE,\" said a March 31 Facebook post, using an acronym for personal protective equipment. \"That same day, the Trump administration announced it was sending 18 tons of masks, gowns and respirators to China. Now our health care workers are dying because of no PPE.\" The post from Blue Dem Warriors was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat potential false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) In this case, the information is largely accurate. The State Department announced on Feb. 7 that it had \"facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials.\" The Facebook post cited as its source of information a CNN editorial criticizing the shipment. The move came more than two weeks after the first U.S. coronavirus case was detected in Washington state on Jan. 21. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted Feb. 7 that the delivery would \"help save lives\" in China, which had reported more than 31,000 cases by then. We have coordinated with U.S. organizations to transport more humanitarian relief to people in Wuhan. Personal protective equipment and other medical supplies donated by these organizations can help save lives in #China and help protect people from the #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/57SN2TXfLP Pompeo touted the assistance again in remarks to reporters on March 31, saying it was an example of American generosity and part of an effort to keep the virus contained to China. The materials sent to China, Pompeo said, were donated by Samaritan’s Purse, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and other private organizations. Boeing and Intermountain Healthcare were also involved, according to a Feb. 15 State Department press release. On Feb. 7, the State Department also pledged to commit up to $100 million in existing funds to assist China and other countries. A State Department spokesperson told us the $100 million promise has been fulfilled with funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The U.S. aid to date also includes about $110 million in humanitarian assistance for up to 64 different countries and roughly $64 million in refugee-related assistance for the United Nations. The spokesperson told us the security and health of Americans comes first, but that \"the spread of COVID-19 is a threat to our shared international security\" and that efforts aimed at responding to the virus abroad are also meant to help mitigate the spread in the U.S. We won’t weigh in on whether the distribution of donated protective equipment to China was the right move. But the Facebook post is correct that the U.S. announced the delivery in February. Other fact-checkers said the same about a similar claim from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. The Facebook post also notes that the timing of the China shipment coincided with a press conference in which the World Health Organization sounded the alarm about a \"limited stock\" of personal protective equipment. That’s accurate. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Feb. 7 of a potential supply shortage across the globe and especially in China. The warning was for the world, not the U.S. in particular. \"The world is facing severe disruption in the market for personal protective equipment,\" Ghebreyesus said. \"Demand is up to 100 times higher than normal and prices are up to 20 times higher.\" Ghebreyesus said the situation was made worse by people outside of patient care using masks, for example. He said health workers and caretakers should be first to receive items from the limited stock, and that health workers in China needed \"the bulk of PPE supplies.\" \"WHO discourages stockpiling of (personal protective equipment) in countries and areas where transmission is low,\" he said. The Facebook post closes by saying \"our health care workers are dying because of no PPE.\" News reports indicate that some health workers — who are at an increased risk of exposure — are among the more than 200,000 infected Americans and over 4,500 who have died. Doctors and nurses have made shortages known and are tweeting the hashtag #GetMePPE. Some medical supplies are now coming into the U.S. from abroad. The White House arranged for the transport of tons of equipment from China, and the New England Patriots recently lent its team plane to pick up 1.2 million N95 masks from China for Massachusetts’ health workers. We asked the State Department whether any of the donated materials sent to China in February made their way back to the U.S., and whether the donations would have gone straight to U.S. hospitals had they not been shipped overseas. We didn’t get answers to those questions. A Facebook post said: \"On February 7, the WHO warned about the limited stock of PPE. That same day, the Trump administration announced it was sending 18 tons of masks, gowns and respirators to China.\" The State Department announced the delivery of nearly 18 tons of donated materials on Feb. 7, the same day that the WHO sounded the alarm about the world’s supply of personal protective equipment. The donated materials came from private groups. Claim: “On February 7, the WHO warned about the limited stock of PPE. That same day, the Trump administration announced it was sending 18 tons of masks, gowns and respirators to China.”",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Some areas of Sydney are set for “catastrophic” conditions on Saturday, and the deadly fires are now engulfing other parts of the country. One person was killed in a car crash on Friday near South Australia’s capital city of Adelaide where an emergency warning is in place, though the precise circumstances surrounding the death is not yet clear. Australia has been fighting wildfires across three states for weeks, with blazes destroying more than 700 homes and nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of bushland. The death of the two firefighters overnight when their fire truck was struck by a falling tree as it traveled through the front line of a fire brought the fires death toll in New South Wales to eight since the start of October. Ten more firefighters were seriously injured on Thursday, with four in South Australia being treated for burns and smoke inhalation. “The worst imaginable set of circumstances unfolded,” New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney. “This hurts everybody to the core.”  Shortly after the pair’s deaths were announced, Morrison issued a statement saying he would return as soon as possible from a family holiday in Hawaii, a trip that has drawn sharp criticism in recent days as the wildfires crisis deepened. “I deeply regret any offence caused to any of the many Australians affected by the terrible bushfires by my taking leave with family at this time,” Morrison said in the statement. Morrison later told 2GB radio that the trip had been planned as a surprise to his young daughters to replace leave originally scheduled for January that he had canceled because of official trips to Japan and India. His return comes as firefighters prepare for “catastrophic” fire danger - the most severe level - in NSW on Saturday as searing heat and high winds are forecast, leading officials to urge people to evacuate their homes early if they live close to bushland. “It is a fairly strong likelihood that we will lose homes tomorrow, it would be a miracle if we don’t,” RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers told reporters in Sydney. There are more than 200 fires burning across Australia - 70 of which are classified as uncontrolled, mostly in NSW. In South Australia, more than 120 blazes have broken out in catastrophic conditions. Bracing for more potential fatalities, authorities said an emergency fire in Lameroo, 210 km (130.5 miles) east of Adelaide may pose a threat to lives directly in its path and urged residents to flee now. Morrison’s conservative Liberal-National coalition government has been under sustained pressure to defend its climate change policies as it has downplayed links to the unprecedented early arrival and severity of this year’s bushfire season. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Morrison’s Sydney residence on Thursday. One protestor, wearing an Hawaiian shirt, carried a sign reading, “ScoMo, where the bloody hell are you?” referencing the leader’s nickname and a well-known international advertisement for Tourism Australia. Australia is one of the world’s largest carbon emitters per capita because of its reliance on coal-fired power plants. It has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 26% from 2005 levels by 2030, but critics accuse Morrison of paying lip service to that commitment. In June, the government approved the construction of a new coal mine in Queensland state by India’s Adani Enterprises that is expected to produce 8 million to 10 million tonnes of thermal coal a year. As Morrison was apologizing on radio on Friday morning, opposition Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese was serving breakfast to firefighters near the front line of a fire in rural Bilpin. The fires have resulted in days of heavy pollution in Sydney, pushing air quality to unprecedented hazardous levels and resulting in viral images of heavy smoke haze over the usually sparkling harbor and landmarks like the Opera House. The fires are being spurred this week, by record temperatures across the country which led NSW, the most populous state with 7 million people, to declare a seven-day state of emergency. Thursday’s declaration gave firefighters broad powers to control government resources, force evacuations, close roads and shut down utilities. Days out from Christmas, a time when many Australians head to the coast for the holidays, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged people to reconsider travel plans. “What is most important for us is that everyone is safe and if that means changing your plans for Christmas, we ask you do to that,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. (GRAPHIC: Forests in flames: Images from space show Australia's bushfires in different light - here) Claim: Bats are pictured on the reverse of a U.S. quarter issued in 2020, an indicator that COVID-19 is connected to a government plot.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not mention costs of the supplements. As we’ve reported, about 70% of the stories we reviewed don’t discuss costs. It’s a bad trend, easily corrected, and takes only another few words in a story. The story doesn’t tell us which symptoms improved, or even a list of what was being measured. There are so many symptoms associated with PMS — ranging from physical to behavioral — that it’s important to know which symptoms they are talking about. Studies of PMS are notorious for showing a strong placebo effect, but we can’t tell whether taking the supplement adds much benefit. The story mentions there were few side effects and mostly “mild.” But what were they? And what does “mild” mean? After all, PMS has a range of symptoms as well. So did this story really help women think about the tradeoffs? Nonetheless, since the story at least mentioned harms, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt – barely. The writer didn’t evaluate the quality of the evidence and didn’t include any independent expert voice doing so either. Single source science stories aren’t healthy. It’s more like stenography than journalism. The story does not exaggerate symptoms of PMS. As stated above, this story needed some independent expert comment. There were also no statements made about conflicts of interest. Since the market for PMS is so big, it would have been helpful to know if these scientists had any vested interest in the results. The story only gave half of the picture of alternative approaches; it mentions other supplements that have been studied for PMS, but fails to note that there are also prescription medications for PMS such as SSRIs. The story described the availability of essential fatty acids in diet and in supplement form. The idea of using supplements for PMS is not new, and the authors mention past research on the same topic. The story shows no sign of original reporting and may have relied largely on a release. But since we didn’t find a news release, we’ll rule this Not Applicable. Claim: Study: Fatty acids can help ease PMS symptoms",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: League officials said Thursday that Gordon was returned to the reserve/commissioner suspended list indefinitely for breaking the terms of his reinstatement under the NFL substance abuse policy. The news came several hours after Gordon said he was stepping away from football to focus on his mental health. Gordon said on Twitter his decision was spurred by his own feelings that he could have a better grasp on things mentally. He thanked the Patriots for their support and vowed to work his way back. “We support Josh Gordon in his continued efforts to focus on his health. His attempt to do so is a private and personal matter, which we intend to respect,” Patriots team officials said. Gordon has been suspended several times by the NFL for violations of its drug policies since being drafted by the Browns in 2012, and missed the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons. After being reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in 2017, Gordon revealed in an interview with GQ magazine that he drank or used marijuana before games. “Probably every game of my career,” he said. Gordon also said in a 2017 mini-documentary on Uninterreupted.com that he took Xanax, cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics. Gordon’s outlook had improved with New England, where he landed in September in a trade after the Browns felt it was time to cut ties. He had 40 receptions for 720 yards and three touchdowns with the Patriots, five years removed from an All-Pro season in 2013 with 87 catches for 1,646 yards and nine touchdowns. Special teams captain and receiver Matt Slater said despite his suspension, Gordon still has support inside the Patriots locker room. “My No. 1 concern is with him as a man,” Slater said. “I’m thankful for the approach he took here, how he was as a teammate. I enjoyed getting to know him in that process and I’ll continue to support him in any way I can.” Safety Devin McCourty said the 27-year-old’s well-being is his biggest concern, not football. “Life comes before all of that,” McCourty said. “I think we wish him the best and care about that more than wins or losses.” New England officials had insulated Gordon and focused him on getting acclimated to the team’s highly-disciplined culture, while also limiting his time with reporters. Coach Bill Belichick said last week that Gordon was thriving on the field, developing chemistry with quarterback Tom Brady and learning the offensive system. “He’s a smart kid, so he learns well,” Belichick said. “For better or worse, he’s been in a lot of different systems. I know it was only one team, but it was a lot of different systems up there. Most everything we’ve asked him to do he’s done somewhere along the line for somebody. “As we go through each week, I would say we’ve gained a little more ground on the overall knowledge of the system,” he said. Gordon said earlier this month he thought he was settling in well with New England. “It felt like home a long time ago,” Gordon said. “The atmosphere is very welcoming. It took me a little bit to get acclimated to the area. Other than that, it’s been pretty smooth so far, and that’s due in part to the facility, the organization, just everybody helping me along the way.” ___ More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Claim: NFL suspends Patriots’ Gordon for substance abuse violation.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The rabbits were given a supplement. Is this supplement available and if so, what does it cost? We’re not told. The story provided comparative quantified specifics on the benefits of sulforaphane in the three groups of rabbits, in the form of percentage decrease in lipid levels. We’ll call that good enough for a Satisfactory rating, although ideally we’d like to see some discussion of what the results might mean for cardiovascular risk in a human. We’ll address that deficiency below under the Evidence criterion. At first glance, it’s hard to imagine there are any dangers: Chemicals in broccoli are harmless, right? But as revealed by this very study–that sulforaphane has the capacity to significantly change blood lab levels–these chemicals can work like medication. That means they also may carry harms, too. In this case, specifically, it’s for people taking the blood thinner Coumadin (warfarin), who must be very careful when eating broccoli and other vegetables rich in Vitamin K. The story does a good job of describing the experiment, which was conducted on 15 rabbits, and it also offers a helpful link to the research article itself. But it makes little effort to help the reader leap the chasm between rabbits and human beings–a problem exacerbated by the headline, which invites application of the results of this small, basic study to people. The only cautionary note in the story occurs at the very end, when the author inserts a “caveat” warning readers that clinical studies in people have not yet been undertaken. It would have been more useful to warn that these findings might not have any application to humans at all. And although this appears to be a randomized clinical trial, the story doesn’t explain if there was blinding of the researchers who were examining the rabbits’ blood vessels. This is important because a lack of blinding could affect the results of observations. See a more detailed explanation for why this and other study details matter. Given the ubiquity of heart disease in the American populace, anything that reduces atherosclerosis should be of keen interest. The danger with this piece is the hyping of early animal research, implying the findings are for readers to act upon now. This story included no quotes from the researchers or outside sources–both could have provided important context and caveats about this kind of early-stage animal research, and the emerging results of this chemical, which also made recent headlines in cancer research, making us curious about why this study, now. As for conflicts of interest, the article didn’t mention any, and because the study coauthors declare none, we will assume that to be the case. There is no discussion of alternate strategies for minimizing either the accumulation of arterial plaques specifically or heart disease generally. The article offers no information on availability of the supplement, nor does it reflect on the type of intervention that might make sense to people (i.e., eat lots of cruciferous veggies, take sulforaphane supplements). The basic nature of the research likely makes all of that premature, but that then raises the question of why a media outlet would publicize research at such an early stage. And this is an important question to ask, because it’s not hard to envision that based on this story alone, companies that make supplements (which are held to a much lower standard of efficacy compared to medication classified as drugs) could start marketing this supplement, and use this single study and news story to back up its usefulness. The text asserts that this study of sulforaphane’s effects on atherosclerosis is the first to examine that link. We could not locate a news release related to this research article, although it seems implausible that WSJ reporters are scouring obscure research journals such as this one for story ideas. But while we have no evidence that the story relied excessively on any news release, we’re hesitant to give credit because there’s no evidence of original reporting. We’ll rate this Not Applicable. Claim: Broccoli May Slow or Reverse Some Atherosclerosis",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It seems to come up regularly following an incident where an alleged lone shooter brings a weapon to their workplace, or in a more positive light, such as when a celebrity breaks their silence to discuss the personal medical struggles they have undergone. Author Ken Kesey wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1962, and the movie starring Jack Nicholson in 1975 is what people still most often think about when they discuss mental facilities — a white, sterile, institution where people are locked up. While it’s true that the U.S. is struggling overall to keep up with the growing need for in-patient facilities across the country, Baxter Regional Medical Center recently opened its own 16-bed adult behavioral health center to meet the needs of the community. According to Jodi Leeker, program director at BRMC, the Hensley Senior Behavior Health Center at BRMC has been around for years, serving members of the 55 and older population, but there hadn’t been any local options for those 18 to 54. A licensed clinical social worker, Leeker has seen the need grow in the 18 years she has been with BRMC. “We had been watching the patients come through our emergency room and saw that there was a need,” Leeker said. Like any other organ in the body, the brain can get sick and that anyone can find themselves in need of help from time to time. “We serve our neighbors, friends, family members,” Leeker said. “Mental health touches everyone; mental health doesn’t discriminate. Anyone can face a crisis.” Before the unit opened on April 4, young adults facing a crisis such as intense depression, anxiety, a bipolar episode, or suicidal thoughts had no other option than go to facilities in Batesville, Little Rock, Fayetteville or West Plains, Missouri. “It’s been frustrating when a patient is in crisis to send them three hours away from their local support system to get help,” Leeker said. Patients will go through medication management, and have opportunities for individual, group and family therapy when appropriate. Other programs are offered to individuals so they learn healthy coping skills so they can regain stability. Nursing Director Crystal Brightwell has been busy interviewing, hiring and training staff to prepare them to serve a younger population, the Baxter Bulletin reported . Brightwell said the average patient will stay in the state-of-the-art unit for three to five days and most insurance plans are accepted. During their stay, patients will have access to primary-care physicians, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and social workers that will address both medical and mental issues and help the individual get back on track. Dr. Tom Foster serves at the unit’s medical director and the behavioral clinical psychiatrist. He has been with BMRC for more than four years and has been with the Hensley Senior Behavior Health Center in that time. Dr. Daniel Goodwin serves as the medical physician. The unit, located on the third floor of BRMC, has a calming color scheme and layout of a high-end day spa. The whole floor was designed with health and safety in mind, from the individual rooms with artist-painted affirmations on the walls, to the rounded corners on the walls and window frames. Like other patients in BRMC, those in the adult behavioral health center have a menu to select their meals from and nicely appointed day room where they can stretch out on recliners, watch television and relax. From the time an individual is admitted, either through a referral, self-admission, or mandatory hold through the emergency room, the staff works to put together a discharge plan for them. Leeker said the staff will set up out-patient therapy and follow ups with the patient’s primary care physician if needed. ___ Information from: The Baxter Bulletin, http://www.baxterbulletin.com Claim: New adult behavioral health unit opens in northern Arkansas.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Several lawmakers are promoting a bill by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that would make it a misdemeanor instead of a felony to intentionally expose someone to HIV, the virus that causes the immune system-weakening disease AIDS. The change would treat HIV like other communicable diseases under California law. Under current law, if a person who knows they are infected with HIV has unprotected sex without telling their partner they have the virus, they can be convicted of a felony and face years of jail time. Intentional transmission of any other communicable disease, even a potentially deadly condition like hepatitis, is a misdemeanor. “These laws were passed at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic when there was enormous fear and ignorance and misinformation around HIV,” Wiener said. “It’s time for California to lead and to repeal these laws to send a clear signal that we are going to take a science-based approach to HIV not a fear-based approach.” Wiener’s bill, SB239, would also repeal California laws that require people convicted of prostitution for the first time to be tested for AIDS and that increase penalties for prostitution if the sex worker tested positive for AIDS in connection with a previous conviction. The original laws were passed during the 1980s and 1990s based on incomplete and outdated science, said Dr. Edward Machtinger, director of the Women’s HIV Program at the University of California, San Francisco. Transmission rates are much lower than people believed when the laws were enacted. Modern treatment dramatically reduces the effects of the virus and chances for transmission, he said. Although modern treatments are highly effective, the current laws deter people from getting tested for HIV and seeking treatment, Wiener said. Between 1988 and 2014, at least 800 people were arrested, charged or otherwise came into contact with the criminal justice system related to their HIV status, according to a study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles. The study found “HIV criminalization” laws disproportionately affected women and people of color. Claim: California lawmakers want to repeal HIV criminalization laws.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Emphasizing the need to bring clean fuel to the world’s poor, James Rockall, CEO of the World LPG Association, recently said that \"more (people) die of indoor air pollution than malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined.\" Rockall’s statement showed up in a tweet from Stanford Energy, a research group at Stanford University, after he spoke there May 9. Rockall confirmed that he did make this claim, and we decided to check it out. Public health researchers have known for some time that in many poorer nations, fumes from dirty cooking stoves pose a health threat. Rockall’s group represents the interests of the liquified petroleum gas industry, but that self-interest aside, there’s no question that gas burns more cleanly than wood or coal. Rockall told us he got his numbers from the World Health Organization. He took a 2016 report on deaths from indoor air pollution and compared that to 2015 estimates of death from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The indoor air pollution deaths, however, were based on 2012 data. To keep the comparison fair, we looked at 2012 mortality estimates for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. We consulted three different sources -- UNAIDS, WHO and the Global Burden of Disease Study -- and used the highest available estimate. Here’s what the numbers show:  Deaths in 2012 HIV/AIDS 1.6 million Malaria 0.8 million TB 1.3  million Total 3.7  million Indoor air pollution total 4.2  million As you can see, the total mortality from the three diseases comes to 3.7 million in 2012, less than the 4.2 million people estimated to have died from diseases attributable to indoor air pollution. Rockall used different underlying estimates to reach a total of 2.9 million deaths due to the three diseases. Our total is higher, but we found no estimates from any source that undercut his basic point. Deaths from indoor air pollution are higher than the sum of deaths from the world’s major leading infectious diseases. Counting deaths from indoor air pollution is more complicated than tracking deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Mark Wilson, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, said it is easier to identify someone who has HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. \"Much more difficult is defining how one dies from indoor air pollution because it will never be the sole immediate cause of death,\" Wilson said. \"Rather, a variety of physiological, immunological and toxicological processes would compromise someone’s health, such that the cause might be defined as some sort of respiratory insufficiency, asthma, heart disease, etcetera.\" The WHO study made various assumptions to link diseases such as lung cancer, pneumonia, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and ischemic heart disease to indoor air pollution. Rockall said more people die of indoor air pollution than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. We compared 2012 estimates of indoor air pollution deaths to a range of estimates for the three infectious diseases for 2012 and later. No matter how we did it, the deaths due to indoor air pollution trumped those due to HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. But an epidemiologist offered the caveat that the indoor air pollution study relied on assumptions that introduce a greater chance of uncertainty than counts of deaths from the leading infectious diseases. For that reason. Claim: More (people) die from indoor air pollution than from malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB combined.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2020, a conspiracy theory spread on Facebook and Twitter which maintained that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explicitly ordered that all deaths in the United States, regardless of their true cause, be attributed to the novel coronavirus or COVID-19:Covid-19 tests are giving an 80 percent false positive rate. they also are counting deaths that have nothing to do with covid-19 in the death toll which means the numbers the media are giving us are completely false.— Reese (@ReeseModeTv) April 11, 2020CDC is skewing the death number counting all deaths as Covid-19 counting a man hit by bus and heart attack victim as covid-19 deaths— Tim (@timber036) April 6, 2020The CDC sends out a Bulletin to all Hospitals and Coroners telling them the NEW WAY to fill out a DEATH CERTIFICATE pertaining to a person who POSSIBLY died of COVID-19…but not the main cause…SO EVERYBODY WHO DIES…DIES OF COVID-19! pic.twitter.com/SsLWDDvWco— Scott C'one (@HardcoreTruther) April 13, 2020Recommended from the CDC to report all deaths as Covid19…money is given to change the cause of death…https://t.co/28Ldn6VB1K— Kkriewer (@kkriewer) April 14, 2020I was wrong. Straight from the CDC website. A confirmed test isn't even necessary to add COVID-19 as the cause of death on the death certificate. \"Assumed\" is all that is required. So assuming is okay for a virus we now little about. Inflating numbers confirmed. pic.twitter.com/Mfrf4WTL2U— Rhonda Banks (@blackie325) April 12, 2020Variations on the rumor also appeared on Reddit:CDC Guidelines Allow Deaths to Be Attributed to COVID-19, Even If They Weren’t – Liberty Headlines from ConservativeThe CDC Confesses to Lying About COVID-19 Death Numbers: The normal rules about reporting deaths have been violated by that city [NY] in the rush to inflate the body count, presumably to steer more taxpayer money to the Big Apple. from conspiracyOccasionally, the posts linked to blog posts about the rumors, writings which invariably attributed the CDC’s purported manipulation of the COVID-19 death toll (measured globally) to a conspiracy aimed at purposely destroying the American economy:Although, an emerging body of evidence suggest shutting down an entire nation may not be a good idea after all to combat such a virus. As Ariel Pablos-Mendez, M.D., MPH a professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, New York and former head of global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) explains:At the end of the day, super-spreader COVID-19 is likely to infect a majority of the population, no matter how far apart we stay from one another in the coming weeks. The good news is that once immune, most people can go back to work. Our containment efforts must focus on the most vulnerable: the elderly and patients with underlying cardiopulmonary diseases.We need to flatten the curve for the elderly but accelerate herd immunity for the healthy so that we don’t kill the economy trying to outrun the pandemic in lockdown. While home isolation for one month might stop an outbreak, it merely sets the clock back as the virus may return if it is not globally defeated.As indicated above, COVID-19 spread globally — any assumptions that its reporting solely affected the United States conveniently elided its effects in other countries. Another subset of theories maintained that the purported inflation of COVID-19 death rates was a cash grab, in which hard-hit states like New York boosted the number of COVID-19 deaths to tap into lucrative federal assistance.Those conspiracy theories were not consistent or congruent. Some claimed that the CDC or other entities would somehow profit more from a higher COVID-19 count of deaths; primarily, the claims were presented as proof that public health officials were gaming the statistics to somehow cause political harm to the sitting United States president.Both linked posts appeared to be aggregations of a piece originally posted by the site GreatGameIndia.com from April 10 2020, itself predicated on a YouTube video uploaded by LibertyFellowshipMT four days earlier. The video featured a woman who identified herself as “Dr. Annie Bukacek,” who began by addressing the “alleged death rate of COVID-19.” (Bukacek was described as “no stranger to controversy” in a 2009 Rewire.News item about how she was investigated on multiple counts of Medicaid fraud in Montana; she also allegedly insisted that her patients pray with her. )Bukacek then referenced answers to her own Facebook post, which queried people about their experiences with COVID-19. Bukacek derided the comments as anecdotal, and immediately thereafter put forth positions based only on anecdotes:A Montana based physician Dr. Annie Bukacek has blown the whistle on how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is exaggerating the COVID-19 death toll by manipulating #Coronavirus death certificates.https://t.co/YBJFNtFWgf— GreatGameIndia (@GreatGameIndia) April 10, 2020She began a speech peppered with emphasis on “quotes” and “end quotes”:I posted the following question on Facebook yesterday: “Know anybody personally with baseline good health who has been hospitalized for COVID-19 alone, or allegedly died from COVID-19?”I asked the question this way because if you know someone personally, you may know their baseline health status and some details of the case, and [testing positive] for COVID-19 does not mean you have the disease. Even asking the question this specifically, I still got some people saying their spouse knows a friend of a friend of a nephew in New York, and some who answered “yes” but didn’t give the details, even though I asked them, “could you please submit some more details?”I got over 350 comments and received dozens of “no” answers, if not scores. Last I counted, there were 3 or 4 who answered “yes” and said their case fit the criteria, and they gave me some details. But even those 3 or 4, giving them the benefit of the doubt that they were answering honestly to the best of their knowledge, does that mean that the person they described was actually stricken with COVID-19?Bukacek subsequently maintained that her experience with death certificates informed her position that COVID-19 was being overstated as a cause of death:Few people know how much individual power and leeway is given to the physician, coroner, or medical examiner signing the death certificate. How do I know this? I’ve been filling out death certificates for over 30 years.More often than we want to admit, we don’t know with certainty the cause of death when we fill out death certificates … that is just life. We are doctors, not God. Autopsies are rarely performed — and even when an autopsy is done the actual cause of death is not always clear. Physicians make their best guesstimate and fill out the form. Then that listed cause of death is entered into a vital records data bank to use for statistical analysis, which then gives out inaccurate numbers — as you can imagine. Those inaccurate numbers then become accepted as factual information, even though much of it is false.So even before we heard of COVID-19, death certificates were based on assumptions and educated guesses that go unquestioned. When it comes to COVID-19 there is the additional data skewer, that is … get this … there is no universal definition of a COVID-19 death. The Centers for Disease Control, updated from yesterday, April 4th [2020], still states that mortality quote unquote data includes both confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19. That’s from their website.Translation? The CDC counts both true COVID-19 cases and speculative guesses of COVID-19 the same. They call it death by COVID-19. They automatically overestimate the real death numbers, by their own admission.On the subject of COVID-19 as a cause of death, Bukacek claimed:To drive this home, we need to understand how the CDC – a national vital statistics system – are instructing physicians to fill out death certificates related to COVID-19. Brace yourselves and please pay attention, and let what I am about to tell you sink in.The assumption of COVID-19 death could be made even without testing. Based on assumption alone, the death can be reported to the public as another COVID-19 casualty. The March 24th 2020 National Vital Statistics System Memo states:“The rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID-19 being the underlying cause more often than not.”The CDC report of cases in the US memo from yesterday states the death numbers are “preliminary, and have not been confirmed.” That’s from the CDC website.Here’s a quote even more laden with meaning. Steven Schwartz, national director of the Division of Vital Statistics says an answer to the question as stated in the organization’s COVID-19 alert, “Should COVID-19 be reported on the death certificate only with a confirmed test?”Check out his answer, and I quote from this memo of which I have a copy:“COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused, or is assumed to have caused, or contributed to death. Certifiers should include as much detail as possible based on their knowledge of the case, medical records, laboratory testing, etc.”I’m sure you all feel so reassured the government is asking doctors to provide their very best guess work. Not.Fact: “COVID-19 caused death” end of quote, and “assumed death by COVID-19″ end of quote are not the same thing, and for those who died from something else and had an incidental finding of COVID-19 positivity dying with COVID-19 is not the same as dying from COVID-19.Bukacek referenced at least two documents in her talk — one of which was a March 24 2020 memo about COVID-19 mortality issued by the National Vital Statistics System [NVSS, PDF] and titled, “New ICD code introduced for COVID-19 deaths.” That reference, emphasis ours, appears above.This is the actual text of that memo, with the questions underlined for clearer reading. That memo specifically described an introduction to a new ICD (International Classification of Diseases) code for COVID-19 deaths on death certificates.New ICD code introduced for COVID-19 deaths This email is to alert you that a newly-introduced ICD code has been implemented to accurately capture mortality data for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on death certificates.Please read carefully and forward this email to the state statistical staff in your office who are involved in the preparation of mortality data, as well as others who may receive questions when the data are released.What is the new code? The new ICD code for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is U07.1, and below is how it will appear in formal tabular list format. U07.1 COVID-19 Excludes: Coronavirus infection, unspecified site (B34.2) Severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS], unspecified (U04.9)The WHO has provided a second code, U07.2, for clinical or epidemiological diagnosis of COVID-19 where a laboratory confirmation is inconclusive or not available. Because laboratory test results are not typically reported on death certificates in the U.S., NCHS is not planning to implement U07.2 for mortality statistics.When will it be implemented? Immediately.Will COVID-19 be the underlying cause? The underlying cause depends upon what and where conditions are reported on the death certificate. However, the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID19 being the underlying cause more often than not.What happens if certifiers report terms other than the suggested terms? If a death certificate reports coronavirus without identifying a specific strain or explicitly specifying that it is not COVID-19, NCHS will ask the states to follow up to verify whether or not the coronavirus was COVID-19. As long as the phrase used indicates the 2019 coronavirus strain, NCHS expects to assign the new code. However, it is preferable and more straightforward for certifiers to use the standard terminology (COVID-19).What happens if the terms reported on the death certificate indicate uncertainty? If the death certificate reports terms such as “probable COVID-19” or “likely COVID-19,” these terms would be assigned the new ICD code. It Is not likely that NCHS will follow up on these cases. If “pending COVID-19 testing” is reported on the death certificate, this would be considered a pending record. In this scenario, NCHS would expect to receive an updated record, since the code will likely result in R99. In this case, NCHS will ask the states to follow up to verify if test results confirmed that the decedent had COVID19.Do I need to make any changes at the jurisdictional level to accommodate the new ICD code? Not necessarily, but you will want to confirm that your systems and programs do not behave as if U07.1 is an unknown code.Should “COVID-19” be reported on the death certificate only with a confirmed test? COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death. Certifiers should include as much detail as possible based on their knowledge of the case, medical records, laboratory testing, etc. If the decedent had other chronic conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed, these conditions can be reported in Part II. (See attached Guidance for Certifying COVID-19 Deaths)The memo was issued specifically to personnel working with ICD codes, an area of medical administration with which the public at large has little familiarity. In other words, in the hands of laymen, the ICD direction was removed from its typical context — medical administration.For instance, the question “What happens if the terms reported on the death certificate indicate uncertainty?” contained instructions about codes likely resulting in “an R99.” “An R99” is unspecified or unknown cause of death, highly relevant information in the context of the claim. That answer explained:If the death certificate reports terms such as “probable COVID-19” or “likely COVID-19,” these terms would be assigned the new ICD code. It Is not likely that NCHS will follow up on these cases. If “pending COVID-19 testing” is reported on the death certificate, this would be considered a pending record. In this scenario, NCHS would expect to receive an updated record, since the code will likely result in R99. In this case, NCHS will ask the states to follow up to verify if test results confirmed that the decedent had COVID19.In the very same memo that Bukacek claimed created a new medical code to classify all deaths as COVID-19 based on guesses and rough estimates, NVSS indicated the use of specific codes would cause requests for states to “verify if test results confirmed that the decedent [was diagnosed with] COVID-19.”That specificity versus ambiguity was again addressed in the memo’s final piece of guidance: “If the decedent had other chronic conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed, these conditions can be reported in Part II.”Bukacek pivoted to a purported quote from Division of Vital Statistics National Director Steven Schwartz:Here’s a quote even more laden with meaning. Steven Schwartz, national director of the Division of Vital Statistics says an answer to the question as stated in the organization’s COVID-19 alert, “Should COVID-19 be reported on the death certificate only with a confirmed test?”Check out his answer, and I quote from this memo of which I have a copy:“COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused, or is assumed to have caused, or contributed to death. Certifiers should include as much detail as possible based on their knowledge of the case, medical records, laboratory testing, etc.”That excerpt was from the memo reproduced above, just above a footer with Schwartz’s contact information. It wasn’t as if those answers were being widely and separately disseminated, and in its proper context, Schwartz was clearly addressing an effort to ensure all contributing cases of COVID-19 were captured as the new ICD code was introduced.Bukacek, as quoted above, referenced additional unspecified information that she claimed appeared on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website on April 4 2020:When it comes to COVID-19 there is the additional data skewer, that is … get this … there is no universal definition of a COVID-19 death. The Centers for Disease Control, updated from yesterday, April 4th [2020], still states that mortality quote unquote data includes both confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19. That’s from their website.Without further clarification, it was impossible to say for sure where Bukacek found the quote, and therefore impossible to verify its context. A likely source, however, was a regularly-updated page (“Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease [COVID-19. ]”) We found a copy of the page archived on April 5 2020 which possibly served as the source for that claim.Both pages, as of April 14 2020, began with an explanation of how COVID-19 deaths were tabulated, and explained why lags in data affected those figures:The provisional counts for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths are based on a current flow of mortality data in the National Vital Statistics System. National provisional counts include deaths occurring within the 50 states and the District of Columbia that have been received and coded as of the date specified. It is important to note that it can take several weeks for death records to be submitted to National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), processed, coded, and tabulated. Therefore, the data shown on this page may be incomplete, and will likely not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period, especially for the more recent time periods. Death counts for earlier weeks are continually revised and may increase or decrease as new and updated death certificate data are received from the states by NCHS. COVID-19 death counts shown here may differ from other published sources, as data currently are lagged by an average of 1–2 weeks.The provisional data presented on this page include the weekly provisional count of deaths in the United States due to COVID-19, deaths from all causes and percent of expected deaths (i.e., number of deaths received over number of deaths expected based on data from previous years), pneumonia deaths (excluding pneumonia deaths involving influenza), and pneumonia deaths involving COVID-19; (a) by week ending date, (b) by age at death, and (c) by specific jurisdictions. Future updates to this release may include additional detail such as demographic characteristics (e.g., sex), additional causes of death (e.g., acute respiratory distress syndrome or other comorbidities), or estimates based on models that account for reporting delays to generate more accurate predicted provisional counts.In its third paragraph, the introduction explained that data are adjusted, and that pneumonia deaths might present as COVID-19 (or vice versa):Pneumonia deaths are included to provide context for understanding the completeness of COVID-19 mortality data and related trends. Deaths due to COVID-19 may be misclassified as pneumonia deaths in the absence of positive test results, and pneumonia may appear on death certificates as a comorbid condition. Thus, increases in pneumonia deaths may be an indicator of excess COVID-19-related mortality. Additionally, estimates of completeness for pneumonia deaths may provide context for understanding the lag in reporting for COVID-19 deaths, as it is anticipated that these causes would have similar delays in reporting, processing, and coding. However, it is possible that reporting of COVID-19 mortality may be slower or faster than for other causes of death, and that the delay may change over time. Analyses to better understand and quantify reporting delays for COVID-19 deaths and related causes are underway. The list of causes provided in these tables may expand in future releases as more data are received, and other potentially comorbid conditions are determined.Nothing in that information described a directive to class any and all deaths to COVID-19 or to say that the coronavirus strain was a cause of death if the patient had contracted it before dying from an unrelated incident — such as getting “hit by a bus.” Further, the NVSS/CDC document noted that the data changed as more details were recorded, and that deaths due to pneumonia or COVID-19 might be adjusted up or down.Daily tables were followed by a “notes” field, stipulations of which seemed to be aligned with Bukacek’s claims:NOTE: Number of deaths reported in this table are the total number of deaths received and coded as of the date of analysis and do not represent all deaths that occurred in that period. *Data during this period are incomplete because of the lag in time between when the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction, age, and cause of death.1 Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, coded to ICD–10 code U07.12 Percent of expected deaths is the number of deaths for all causes for this week in 2020 compared to the average number across the same week in 2017–2019. Previous analyses of 2015–2016 provisional data completeness have found that completeness is lower in the first few weeks following the date of death (7).3 Pneumonia death counts exclude pneumonia deaths involving influenza.No versions of the page were archived prior to April 5 2020, and all archives antedated the March 24 2020 memo introducing the new ICD code: U07.1 COVID-19. That code was referenced in the tables’ notes, and indeed referenced “confirmed or presumed” COVID-19.Nevertheless, the devil was in the details, and Bukacek’s speech advanced the idea the CDC or NVSS was exaggerating the number of deaths deliberately for political purposes.In fact, the CDC/NVSS specifically stated:Deaths due to COVID-19 may be misclassified as pneumonia deaths in the absence of positive test results, and pneumonia may appear on death certificates as a comorbid condition. Thus, increases in pneumonia deaths may be an indicator of excess COVID-19-related mortality.Both the NVSS and the CDC referenced initial ambiguity between pneumonia and COVID-19 deaths pending additional testing, stipulating that at least some data was likely to be revised later. Nothing in that wording suggested non-respiratory causes of death such as accident or injury were being attributed to COVID-19 as the rumors suggested.To recap, rumors that the CDC or NVSS purposefully directed medical personnel to falsify death certificates and count all deaths as COVID-19 related were amplified by Bukacek’s talk, which was viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Her reference to a memo about ICD codes was out of context, and the memo’s wide availability on the internet meant that users could search the “quote, unquote” portions of her commentary, find the memos on the CDC’s website, and conclude that her decontextualized claims were true. In their full context, it was clear neither the CDC nor NVSS were directing mass-misreporting of unrelated death as COVID-19-related — in actuality, the code simply enabled medical administrations to accurately list COVID-19 as a contributed cause where known or suspected. Unconfirmed cases were, per the memos, likely to be adjusted as more data came in. Claim: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is ordering that all deaths no matter the cause be counted as COVID-19 deaths via a new ICD code.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On the last Friday of February 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in South Carolina and made comments during a speech in which he accused Democrats of “politicizing” the coronavirus outbreak that left many with the impression that he had referred to the virus itself as a “hoax.” Various news media outlets and personalities reported that he did so, including syndicated columnist Dana Milbank, who tweeted:  Likewise, Politico ran a story headlined “Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax. '” And in an article headlined “Trump calls coronavirus Democrats’ ‘new hoax,'” NBC News correspondent Lauren Egan wrote: “President Donald Trump accused Democrats of ‘politicizing’ the deadly coronavirus during a campaign rally here on Friday, claiming that the outbreak is ‘their new hoax’ as he continued to downplay the risk in the U.S.”  These prompted inquiries from Snopes readers who asked us to verify the accuracy of the claim. Trump held the rally on Feb. 28 on the eve of the South Carolina Democratic primary, which former Vice President Joe Biden ultimately won. During his roughly one-hour, 20-minute commentary, Trump hit back at his political opponents in the Democratic Party for their critiques of his administration’s handling of a potential pandemic. Here are Trump’s exact words on the topic at the South Carolina rally: Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say, ‘How’s President Trump doing?’ They go, ‘Oh, not good, not good.’ They have no clue. They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa, they can’t even count. No they can’t. They can’t count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know, we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We’re 15 people [cases of coronavirus infection] in this massive country. And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that. In context, Trump did not say in the passage above that the virus itself was a hoax. He instead said that Democrats’ criticism of his administration’s response to it was a hoax. He muddied the waters a few minutes later, however, by comparing the number of coronavirus fatalities in the U.S. (none, at that point in time) to the number of fatalities during an average flu season, and accusing the press of being in “hysteria mode”: So a number that nobody heard of that I heard of recently and I was shocked to hear it, 35,000 people on average die each year from the flu. Did anyone know that? 35,000. That’s a lot of people. It could go to 100,000, it could be 27,000, they say usually a minimum of 27, it goes up to 100,000 people a year who die, and so far we have lost nobody to coronavirus in the United States. Nobody. And it doesn’t mean we won’t, and we are totally prepared, it doesn’t mean we won’t. But think of it. You hear 35 and 40,000 people, and we’ve lost nobody, and you wonder, the press is in hysteria mode. Claim: U.S. President Donald Trump referred to the new coronavirus as a \"hoax.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “This lawsuit is the direct result of unlawful and unconstitutional decisions by the state that threaten significant and long-lasting harm to Montanans and their families,” said Beth Brenneman, attorney for Disability Rights Montana. The 2017 Legislature authorized the health department to cut reimbursement rates for primary health care services for people covered by Medicaid in the case of funding shortfalls, but did not authorize cuts in community-based services for people with physical or developmental disabilities or serious mental illness, the lawsuit argues. The petitioners include mental health and disability services providers and independent living organizations. The lawsuit, filed in District Court in Helena, also argues the Department of Public Health and Human Services failed to follow state rule-making requirements in authorizing the reductions that led providers to cut staff, reduce wages, close offices and discontinue services. The Medicaid cuts also violate the integration mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act because the cuts to community-based services put patients at increased risk of institutionalization, the lawsuit argues. Last week, Gov. Steve Bullock said some cuts would be restored, but it is unclear when or how the rates will change. The health department plans a listening session Wednesday in Helena to set priorities in restoring targeted case management services, such as those provided by the petitioners. Those decisions may not be made until September, the governor’s office has said. “The department looks forward to working with Medicaid providers and the people they serve as the rates are restored,” Sheila Hogan, director of the state health department, said in a statement Tuesday. In the meantime, the petitioners are asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order against the continued cuts and to schedule a hearing on a preliminary injunction. Because of the cuts, clients are losing their homes and their jobs and are seeking services through hospitals, nursing homes or state institutions, the organizations argue. “It is well-established that community-based services for the physically disabled and severely mentally ill are less expensive than institutionalization or placement in less restrictive settings,” the lawsuit argues. The Montana Health Care Association filed a similar lawsuit against the health department in June that also alleges the agency didn’t follow state rule-making processes in reducing Medicaid provider reimbursement rates for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Claim: Disability rights advocates sue Montana over Medicaid cuts.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In July 2018, pop singer Demi Lovato made headlines when she was hospitalized after an overdose. Although she was reportedly recovering well afterwards, one website soon rehashed the news coverage of her overdose and prefaced their write-up with a couple of paragraphs claiming Lovato had passed away:  American pop star and actress Demi Lovato who was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles after a reported heroin overdose has died, spokesman said in a statement. Lovato died at the age of 25 while on admission at the hospital but the statement did not mention the cause of her death. The report of Lovato’s death was false and originated solely with a website called “New York Timely Reports” (whose domain name, nytiwes.com imitates that of the legitimate New York Times). “New York Timely Reports” is a junk news site which has published other celebrity death hoaxes, such as falsely reporting that former president George H.W. Bush had passed away. Claim: Singer and actress Demi Lovato passed away in August 2018.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: More than 100 fires are ablaze in New South Wales and Victoria states, many of which have been burning for several weeks and including a single blaze that stretches more than 60 km (37.2 miles) in a national park north of Sydney. Conditions are expected to worsen from Tuesday, when temperatures are forecast to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and winds are expected to start picking up. “We are expecting to see across large geographic areas high fire dangers,” Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney. “Firefighters are doing kilometers and kilometers of back burning operations, containment line establishment and consolidation.”  Wildfires have killed at least four people, destroyed more than 680 homes and burned more than 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of bushland across eastern Australia since the start of November. Bushfires are common in Australia’s hot, dry summers, but the ferocity and early arrival of the fires in the southern spring is unprecedented. Experts have said climate change has left bushland tinder-dry. Stoked by strong winds, several fires have combined into a single massive blaze that is threatening the region of Hawkesbury, about 50 km north west of Sydney. Authorities have warned the blaze is unlikely to be extinguished until meaningful rain arrives - which is not expected for at least three months - and forecasts indicate the fire could be pushed towards larger population areas. “The big danger is if the winds come from the west and that’s exactly what is forecast,” Hawkesbury City Mayor Barry Calvert told Reuters. “People are trying to clear their gutters, clean up the leaves on the ground, anything they can do to keep their properties safe.”  Calvert said many locals were struggling to move animals and livestock in an area renowned for breeding racehorses. “We’ve opened the showground for people to move their animals, but many people here may have 20 horses and only two horse boxes so they can’t move them quickly,” Calvert told Reuters. The wildfires have blanketed Sydney - home to more than 5 million people - in smoke and ash for more than two weeks, turning the daytime sky orange, obscuring visibility and prompting commuters to wear breathing masks. The city, usually known for its sea breezes, clear skies and beach-dotted coastline, has made several appearances in the top ten lists of the most polluted cities in the world. Severe water restrictions begin in the harbor city on Tuesday. Australia’s worst bushfires on record destroyed thousands of homes in Victoria state in February 2009, killing 173 people and injuring 414. Claim: Genes offer predictions on leukemia",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Given the level of development, cost is not a consideration at this juncture. Benefits were not put in quantified terms. Instead, qualitative terms are used. Phrasing like, “elicited a successful immune response that neutralized heroin…” and, “…hinting that their immune systems were already primed…” provide insight to medical professionals, but are perhaps confusing to lay readers. With research this preliminary, far more caveats were needed to pass this criterion. The story notes “The researchers did not observe any harmful side effects from the intervention.” Having said that, again the study was conducted in four monkeys under highly controlled lab conditions–not in humans. The comment of one of the authors, “We believe this vaccine candidate will prove safe for human trials,” feels premature. On what grounds does he believe this? To have passed this criteria, the story should have said the harms are unknown. It’s not until the fifth paragraph that the story reveals the heroin-tetanus-toxoid vaccine has been administered to mice and four monkeys. This is irresponsible to readers who have been primed to assume otherwise, based on the story’s headline and initial statements. Later in the story we learn that no human research is planned, but are given no explanation as to why. There is no evidence of disease mongering here. Having said that, we would have liked to have seen a comment or two on the rising abuse of heroin and other opioids. The comments of an independent knowledgable source provide balance to the story. However, the story did not disclose that the researcher, Kim D. Janda, has filed a  patent application on this technology. See “Heroin Haptens, Immunoconjugates and Related Uses.” The independent source’s quote explains that this would likely not become a panacea, and other treatment options would still be needed. The story explains that research has not yet taken place in humans, indirectly inferring that it’s not available. The story does not suggest that this research is novel or unique. As noted, other attempts to develop a vaccine for opiate addiction have not worked out. The story closely resembles the news release from the Scripps Institute in substance and in the use of quotes from the researchers. However, because an outside source was quoted, it doesn’t rely solely on the news release. Claim: NEW VACCINE COULD STOP HEROIN ABUSE BY BLOCKING HIGH, STUDY SUGGESTS",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It’s part of his commitment to help every Ohioan reach their “God-given potential,” the first-term Republican told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging year-end interview at the Governor’s Residence. Samples of what he said: ___ MENTAL HEALTH CARE It’s “vitally important” that those with mental issues have the opportunity to get help as early as possible. Improving the state’s current resources is among his priorities in the new year. “Ohio is not where it needs to be in regard to mental health,” he said. ___ OPIOID LAWSUITS A working group DeWine has convened is nearing agreement on the parameters for spending any settlement dollars that come from lawsuits against drugmakers over their role in the opioid crisis, he said. “I think it’s, frankly, pretty much a consensus that this money be used for dealing with addiction problems. ___ YOUTH PRISONS DeWine said he has ordered his director of youth prisons to report back to him on findings this week that Ohio’s rate of assault against juvenile offenders is the highest in the nation. He said he’d like to put in place real-time monitoring of all abuse allegations. “First of all, it’s alarming,” he said. “We have a moral obligation to make sure that the people who are incarcerated, whether young people, whether adults, are taken care of and are not abused.” ___ DIVIDED POLITICS DeWine declined to discuss impeachment proceedings against Republican President Donald Trump. But the former congressman and senator said he believes his administration’s efforts at bipartisan compromise in politically divided Ohio should inspire faith that some politicians can get along. The 72-year-old governor declined to second-guess current congressional representatives, saying being in Congress is “probably more difficult today for a lot of reasons.” Of his successful bipartisan efforts, he said, “”I’m not cocky enough to say that I would be doing that today. I don’t know; I’m not there.” ___ GUNS He said he’s optimistic that a stalled package of gun-law changes will eventually make it through the Legislature. The proposal was praised by the Democratic mayor of Dayton, which was rocked by a mass shooting in August, only to run into resistance in the Republican-controlled Legislature. “I think we’re going to pass it,” DeWine predicted Friday. ___ ABORTION DeWine declined to discuss whether he would sign one of the two Ohio bills that included a description of a medically impossible procedure for  reimplanting ectopic pregnancies. He said he wants to focus first on the legal fate of legislation, enacted in Ohio and elsewhere, that bans abortions after the first fetal heartbeat. “Before we do another else in regard to (those bills), we should let this case work its way, we should see what the United States Supreme Court says,” DeWine said. Asked if that meant he wouldn’t sign any more abortion bills until that decision is made, DeWine said, “I didn’t say that.” He said he is focused on the heartbeat case and not taking positions on other pending abortion legislation at this time. ___ FIRST-YEAR ACHIEVEMENTS DeWine said he’s proud he passed a needed gas-tax increase and a compromise state budget that added funding for mental health and children’s programs and cut income taxes for low-wage earners with support from both parties. Claim: Foster care, mental health, guns on DeWine’s 2020 agenda.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While the fifth-grade student at Walworth Elementary School was getting treatment for leukemia, she received beads of courage from health care professionals to mark every step of the way. Black ones symbolized “pokes,” when Sophia had blood tests or shots. White ones symbolized chemotherapy. Sophia has 24 beads that mark the number of spinal taps she had to endure, the Journal Times reported. Blue beads represented clinic visits. Red meant blood transfusions. She has six of those beads. She received a special bead for hair loss. Yellow marked overnight stays at the hospital. Sophia has nearly 100 of those collected over three years. An ambulance trip earned her a star on her necklace. But there were pains that she suffered for which there were no beads. When Sophia was in first grade, she lost her hair to chemotherapy. At the school she was attending at the time, older students teased her about her baldness. Her mother, Connie, said Sophia never disclosed the teasing until just recently. Sophia and her mom live in Walworth now, and the 11-year-old cancer survivor recently transferred to Walworth Elementary School. On April 10, her teachers held a special half-hour meeting with 60 fellow fifth-graders where Sophia shared her story by explaining each of the beads on her necklace. School counselor Jennifer Ott-Wilson said it is uncommon for her to call students together to meet with a new classmate. Ott-Wilson did it once before for a girl who was suffering from a condition that caused baldness. This meeting was something Sophia wanted to do. “It was Sophia’s decision to tell the class about her experience,” Ott-Wilson said. The fifth-graders quietly filed into the school’s counselors’ office, which was the size of a classroom. They sat on small chairs, overstuffed sofas, bean bag chairs and cross legged on the floor, all facing Sophia. Sophia is a quiet girl, and she was a bit nervous about this special assembly. But she got help from her mom and Ott-Wilson. Connie Stewart said Sophia was 5 years old when her first symptoms occurred. Playing T-ball, she had a hard time running because her back hurt and her legs hurt. Stewart said doctors had a hard time diagnosing what was wrong. Some thought it was growing pains; another thought it was appendicitis. It was not until a doctor took a close look at Sophia’s blood work that he noticed something wrong. He sent Sophia to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa. There, doctors discovered the little girl had leukemia. Stewart said her daughter was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a blood cancer that attacks the body’s immune system. The disease also attacks the body’s main blood-making area, which is near the hips. Sophia said a doctor told her that her “blood factory was malfunctioning.” While the disease can be fatal if it is untreated, compared to other kinds of cancer, it is easier to treat. But that does not mean it was easy for 5-year-old Sophia. “Cancer involves a lot of treatments,” Stewart said. At the assembly in the counselor’s office, Sophia’s new classmates did not ask questions. “What do you want your fellow students to know?” Ott-Wilson asked Sophia. “I don’t know,” Sophia said, still feeling shy. Ott-Wilson asked the students what they thought Sophia felt when she was diagnosed with leukemia. Some students replied “scared;” others said “sad.” Ott-Wilson said she saw courage. “She’s inspired me about what courage is,” Ott-Wilson told the students. Sophia showed photos from events that occurred during her treatment for leukemia. One was a picture of her wearing a hat crocheted by a Walworth library group. Another showed a trip she and her family took to Give Kids the World Village, a nonprofit resort in Florida that provides vacations for children with critical illnesses. And, of course, there were the beads. Strings and strings of them. The beads are manufactured and provided to clinics and hospitals by a nonprofit called the Beads of Courage Program to hand out to children undergoing treatment for life-threatening diseases and injuries. Sophia displayed one special bead, in the shape of an anchor. It represented the support she received from her family and friends while she went through three years of treatments. Stewart said her daughter ended treatments on March 11, 2016. Now, Sophia goes back to a clinic once every three months for blood work, to make sure that the disease does not come back. In a year or so, those will become annual visits. Although she is shy when talking about her illness, Sophia loves to talk about things she likes to do now that she is on her way to wellness. She now plays soccer and competes in track, doing the hurdles, the shot put, throwing discus, and doing the high jump. She feels no pain in her legs. Sophia said she also loved her time at Camp One Step on Geneva Lake, a weeklong camp for children who have cancer. “That’s the best camp ever,” Sophia said. She said last year was her first year at the camp. Sophia sees her future in the kitchen. “I want to bake,” she said. She said she watches and enjoys baking shows on television. She said she loves to bake cookies, cupcakes and brownies. Nobody else in her family is a baker, she added. “I’ll be the first one,” she said. ___ Information from: The Journal Times, http://www.journaltimes.com Claim: 11-year-old shares her story battling cancer with classmates.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story makes no mention of costs, although the diet intervention included weeks of a liquid formula diet, along with support services such as nutritional education and cognitive behavioral therapy. The story quantifies how much weight people lost and how many people went into remission, both in the group on the liquid diet and the control group (in which subject received the usual care for diabetes). That’s good, and worthy of a satisfactory. However, the story does not explain what remission is or how it was measured. The study used hemoglobin A1c levels, which indicate blood sugar levels over the previous three months, and is often used to diagnose type 2 diabetes. Remission was defined as having a hemoglobin A1c level below the threshold for diagnosis without taking any diabetes medications. (This good outcome might still be characterized as pre-diabetes.) In addition, readers aren’t told how high blood sugars readings were before the diet, so it’s impossible to tell how big the change was with weight loss. Harms of the very restricted diet were not mentioned. Were there any problems resulting from months on the liquid diet? Did subjects have trouble adhering to the restrictions? There were quite a few side effects during treatment. According to the study, during the intervention, most common side effects/complaints were constipation (56%), headache (45%), increased cold sensitivity (44%), dizziness (42%). These tended to dissipate over time. The story adeptly described the size, randomization of subjects, and control group nature of the study. The story mentions several difference outcomes in terms of weight loss —  “most of the people in the diet group lost about 22 pounds” and “nearly a quarter of the people who managed their weight were able to lose 33 pounds or more.” We found this phrasing vague and a bit confusing and still don’t know what the average weight loss was in the diet group. No disease-mongering about diabetes here. The story would have been stronger if it had discussed that remission is not the same as a cure–the disease can recur if the behavior change isn’t maintained. The story quotes a study author but no other sources. We think readers deserve to hear from experts not involved with the study at hand to provide context about the findings. The story mentions gastric bypass surgery as another method to dramatic weight loss and that has been shown to reverse diabetes. It also mentioned the high cost of and risk of complications from gastric bypass. Unfortunately, readers cannot compare the cost and harms of the managed diet approach, as the story omits their mention. The story outlines the components of the diet, but not whether an interested could access such care from a physician. Given the extremeness of the diet — the first months are limited to 850 calories a day and education and therapy adjuncts are brought in to help people maintain their progress when switching from the liquid nutrition to real food, not to mention a mountain of evidence on the difficulty of maintaining weight loss — it seems likely that health care providers’ help would be necessary. The story distinguishes the study’s finding from other diabetes-related evidence. Weight loss has previously been shown to prevent people with prediabetes from progressing to diabetes and to help manage diabetes itself. This study shows that a short, extreme intervention can lead to longer term remission. The story does not appear to rely on the new release put out by The Lancet, the journal that published the study. Claim: Weight Loss Really Can Reverse Diabetes, New Study Finds",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Farm-raised, fresh-water Paiche have journeyed from the murky Amazon to restaurants in cities from Houston to Paris. The low-fat, mercury-free white fish may soon be available at select U.S. grocery stores. Paiche, which at up to 220 pounds (100 kgs)is one of the world’s largest fish, fed spear-fishing indigenous peoples for centuries. But their numbers dwindled when nets were introduced in the Amazon and the region’s cities grew and developed. Amazone, a company backed by Peruvian mining and cement conglomerate the Hochschild Group, hopes to save the species from extinction by breeding organic, farm-raised fish for export and releasing some back into the wild. “What really got me most interested was the effort to try to control the commercial fishing of an endangered species,” said Jose Duarte, chef at the Italian Peruvian restaurant Taranta in Boston, Mass. “It’s a really good fish ... it’s almost like a sea bass with a better texture,” said Duarte, who was preparing a daily special of pan-seared Paiche with panca peppers and scalloped potatoes. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has listed Chilean sea bass, also known as Patagonian toothfish, as a fish to avoid because of unsustainable fishing practices and potentially high levels of mercury. Amazone is not yet profitable. It expects to export $3 million worth of frozen Paiche this year, up from $500,000 sold in 2011, when the fish first hit global markets. Paiche, a carnivorous, air-breathing giant also known as Arapaima, can be cut into generous, bone-free fillets. Chefs say it is easy to sear and very difficult to burn due to its high collagen levels. Restaurants such as Robert at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, Area 31 in Miami and Latin Bites in Houston now serve Amazone’s Paiche. It is also sold in Spain, France and Italy. “The idea is to have a supply for global gourmet markets,” said Isaac Gherson, CEO of Amazone. “We don’t want Paiche to become a type of commodity — that would mean exploiting the gain.”   Paiche is also earning a place in Lima, an emerging culinary capital, where celebrity chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino grills Paiche steaks and marinates the fish with lime to make ceviche, a Peruvian staple, at his upscale Malabar restaurant. Amazone sells the fish in the United States through ArtisanFish, a Florida-based wholesaler that markets hormone-free, premium seafood with the goal of protecting the environment. “We have a strong presence in New York, Philadelphia and Washington and we are expanding very soon into the Midwest,” said founder Adrian Burstein. ArtisanFish has negotiated an agreement to sell Paiche in a U.S. retail chain, but Burstein declined to name the retailer due to contract provisions. “It was hard to replace Chilean sea bass with an alternative that has similar qualities but is truly sustainable,” said Burstein. “Now you have an option — Paiche is that option.” Claim: Peru's giant jungle fish hooks conscientious gourmets.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In March 2017, anti-vaccination blogs presented misleading reports concerning a pair of rejected motions that month by the Swedish parliament, also known as the Riksdagen. Frequent purveyors of conspiracy theories and fake news such as YourNewsWire.com reported variations of the following: The Swedish Riksdagen (parliament) rejected seven motions on May 10 that would have enshrined forced vaccinations into law, stating “It would violate our [Swedish Constitution] if we introduced compulsory vaccinations, or mandatory vaccinations.” Noting also the “massive resistance (by Swedes) to all forms of coercion with regard to vaccinations“, the Riksdag also made reference to “frequent serious adverse reactions” in children who receive vaccinations. A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Sweden, the Folkhalsomyndigheten, told us via email on 30 March 2018 that only two — not seven — motions proposing a mandatory vaccination program were rejected in 2017. They added that the proposals were not rejected because vaccinations would be “harmful,” but because “all health care in Sweden, including vaccination programs, is voluntary.” Conspiracy theory blogs also reported that the Riksdagen “banned” mandatory vaccinations. What it did not mention is that the country’s voluntary vaccination program, which covers ten diseases, already dates back decades. While Sweden’s program is voluntary, the vast majority of children are still vaccinated; the Folkhalsomyndigheten spokesperson told us, “More than 97 percent of the 2 year olds have been vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella, for example.” Overall, however, the country experienced an increase in measles cases in 2017. The European Centers for Disease Control reported that Sweden was one of 18 nations where the number of cases reported during the first half of 2017 exceeded that of the same period a year earlier. YourNewsWire.com and similar blogs sourced their stories from a report from an “alternative health” group, the National Health Federation. However, this group has come under its share of scrutiny and criticism. For example, the American Cancer Society excoriated the group in a report concerning “unproven methods” of managing the disease, saying: After study of the literature and other available information, the American Cancer Society has found no evidence that methods of treatment promoted by the National Health Federation (NHF) result in objective benefit in the treatment of cancer in human beings. Lacking such evidence, the American Cancer Society strongly urges individuals with cancer not to seek treatment based on the recommendations of the NHF. Claim: The Swedish parliament rejected seven proposals in May 2017 establishing a mandatory vaccination program, enacting a ban on the practice.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release doesn’t suggest what the procedure might cost. It could be more than the gastric balloons already on the market due to the use of new technology or it could be less since it is less invasive than surgery. It would be useful to provide readers with some idea of how the procedure will be priced in comparison to similar procedures. A web search found prices for gastric balloon procedures ranging from $6,000 to $10,000 across the United States. Whereas the Eprise gastric balloon pill would be available to those with a BMI of 27 and above, according to the release, it is not a permanent weight-loss solution. Not exactly a bargain then? The release presents the benefits in extremely vague terms. We’re told 34 patients took part in a multi-center study and that they lost an average of 22 pounds or 37 percent of their excess weight. We aren’t told whether all patients lost weight, what the average starting weight was, what the age range was, and other useful demographic information. We’re also told that patients “saw improvements in triglycerides and hemoglobin A1c (HgbA1c) levels, risk factors for heart disease and  diabetes.” What sorts of improvements might these be? Unfortunately, there is no published paper or accessible conference abstract to read to find more details and so the meaning remains unclear. The release gives only a very brief mention of harms, citing nausea and vomiting as the most common adverse events reported. However, with a catheter patients might experience irritation in their esophagus or stomach (which could lead to bleeding or ulcers) or infection from bacteria surrounding the balloon. A concern for this type of balloon, which is intended to deflate, would be improper deflating and obstruction of the intestine — a potentially serious complication. The release doesn’t link to a published abstract or study results so it’s not possible to compare the study methodology with what’s presented in the release. It’s pretty clear that this interim report from this study provides limited evidence of the device’s effectiveness, but there are few words of caution in the release. Generally speaking, results presented at scientific conferences should be interpreted very carefully because they haven’t undergone peer review. And news releases that present such results should alert readers to this fact. The release doesn’t engage in disease mongering. The release states that the manufacturer is “studying what it says is the first procedureless gastric balloon. '” It isn’t exactly clear what role the the manufacturer had in the study but the release does disclose that one of the quoted study co-authors “holds an equity position in Allurion Technologies,” the manufacturers of the device. This means he has an ownership interest in the company and will profit if the device is approved and adopted. The release makes several mentions of alternative therapies including traditional gastric balloon surgery, other newly approved gastric balloon devices, bariatric surgery, weight-loss drugs and diet and exercise. The release also suggests the gastric balloon pill would be an option filling a treatment gap between weight-loss drugs and surgery. While the release doesn’t offer data on how the gastric balloon pill compared with all these alternative methods, we’ll give it a pass for the frequent mentions of alternatives. The release makes it clear that the device is not yet commercially available. The device manufacturer claims to be the first to deliver a gastric balloon via capsule. At just 34 patients, and with the results unpublished, the study is just too small to be making claims like this: “Our findings demonstrate that Elipse provides individuals and their caregivers with a safe, effective, and non-invasive weight loss intervention that does not require surgery,endoscopy, or anesthesia.” Claim: Gastric Balloon in a Pill Helps Patients Lose Weight Without Surgery or Endoscopy",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 25 July 2017, the far-right news and opinion web site Freedom Daily posted an article purporting to give an account of a violent Somali Muslim “takeover” of the small town of Shelbyville, Tennessee. Despite its surface resemblance to a news report, however, the post (dubiously bylined “Prissy Holly”) was an ill-informed, opinion-laden attack on the Muslim refugee population of, well … everywhere. It begins: Muslims continue to prove they have little intentions of integrating into modern civilization after fleeing their war-torn countries, as they continue to force Islam and Sharia Law onto unassuming Americans. Cities across America where migrants have been allowed to invade are rapidly transforming into Sharia swamps, just take a look at the startling transformation of cities like Dearborn and Minneapolis. As many Americans were left in shock and horror following the Minnesota woman being violently shot down by a Somali Muslim cop, now Somali migrants have set their sights on another American city to invade. Desperate Tennessee residents are frantically crying out for help, as the small town they once loved and cherished is being completely overrun by hordes of nasty Muslim migrants, who have now started targeting local Christians with violent Islamic crimes. The text becomes more specific as it continues: While it would be wise to keep these terrorists confined to Somalia as much as possible, liberals keep advocating to bring Somali Muslims to America by the thousands, where hordes of Somalis are dumped into American cities annually much to the horror of Americans across the country. And unfortunately for the residents of Shelbyville, Tennessee, a small American town about an hour’s drive from Nashville, they’re now becoming intimately acquainted with exactly what Sharia Law and Islam teaches, after third world migrants were dropped into their town overnight. From reading those paragraphs, one might easily come away with the impression that Shelbyville experienced some massive influx of Somali refugees in recent weeks or months, but that is not the case. Over the past fifteen years, the U.S. has resettled 51 refugees there, of whom 47 were Somali, according to data from the Refugee Processing Center, which tracks refugee resettlement in the United States. The largest number of refugees to resettle in the town in a single year was 11. With a population of around 20,000, these arrivals represent less than one percent of Shelbyville’s total population. Official resettlement isn’t the only way refugees arrive in U.S. communities, however. In the case of Shelbyville, already-resettled refugees began moving there in the early 2000s in order to take advantage of job openings in the local meatpacking industry. Exact counts are hard to come by, although, according to a 2010 U.S. Census estimate, Shelbyville had 446 foreign-born residents originating from sub-Saharan Africa as of that year, amounting to 2.3 percent of the total population. In a small town, that could cause a noticeable cultural shift. But it’s hardly a “takeover.” In point of fact, we learned from Shelbyville Police Chief Jan Phillips that the Somali refugee population of the town has dramatically decreased since that time. A 2015 Census Bureau estimate put the total number of residents of Subsaharan African origin at 166 (less than 1 percent of the population). Needless to say, Phillips dismissed the notion that they had “taken over” Shelbyville as “completely false”. A later paragraph in the Freedom Daily post describes the “culture clash” supposedly happening in the town (emphasis in the original): “They’ve had an impact here. Unfortunately, it’s not been a good impact,” said Brian Mosely, a reporter for the local Shelbyville Times-Gazette stated. “I found that there was just an enormous culture clash going on here,” he said. “The Somalis were, according to a lot of the people I talked to here, were being very, very rude, inconsiderate, very demanding. They would go into stores and haggle over prices. They would also demand to see a male salesperson, would not deal with women in stores. Their culture is totally alien to anything the residents are used to,” Mosely added. But although these remarks by former Shelbyville Times-Gazette reporter Brian Mosely are accurately quoted, they weren’t uttered this year, or last year, or even five years ago. They date from 2009, when Mosely, who had written extensively about the arrival of Somali refugees in Shelbyville during the mid-2000s, was interviewed by the Christian Broadcasting Network. What of the “Muslim migrants” who Freedom Daily says are “targeting local Christians with violent Islamic crimes”? Here’s the one and only example of such a crime they were able to cite (emphasis, again, in the original): But unfortunately for locals, a “culture clash” would soon be the least of their concerns after a series of violent crimes were taken out at the hands of these Somali migrants. Several months ago, the liberal media completely white-washed a series of events where three churches were shot up by Muslims. Jihad Watch was the only one to even report on the story, where AK47’s were used to shatter the windows of multiple churches in the area. They reported: “A Muslim shoots up three churches and nothing is said about his motive or his Islamic identity. Would the same courtesy be shown a Christian who shot up three mosques? Why the coverup? Who is responsible for it? Three churches were shot up in the Shelbyville, TN area starting on the night of Sep 27, 2016. The Horse Mountain Church of Christ was shot 16 more times the night of Sep 29. The Philippi United Methodist Church along with another church was also struck by 7.62 x 39 rounds on the 29th. (7.62 x 39 rounds are consistent with an AK47 or a SKS rifle) The Bedford County Agriculture Center was also attacked with gunfire on the 29th, shattering the front glass. There were also reports of utility boxes being shot during this time.” Although it is based on an actual incident, the Freedom Daily account is a bald-faced misrepresentation of the facts. Contrary to what is claimed, the 2016 Shelbyville church shootings did receive a fair amount of press coverage, in which it was, in fact, routinely reported that the sole suspect, Wendell Tobias Buchanan, was a “recent convert to Islam,” according to his family. What Wendell Tobias Buchanan was not, however, was a Somali refugee. No Somalis were involved or implicated in those attacks in any way. Freedom Daily’s attempt to portray Shelbyville, Tennessee as a community torn asunder by violent foreign jihadists does not hold up to even the most basic scrutiny, trading instead on appeals to emotion and based on false reporting. Even the photographs in the article are fake, Chief Phillips told us. He is correct. An image supposedly showing downtown Shelbyville actually depicts the small town of Bell Buckle, 10 miles away. An uncaptioned photograph showing the police response to a public disturbance was actually taken in the aftermath of the 2015 Dylan Roof church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. Claim: Somali Muslim refugees \"took over\" the small town of Shelbyville, Tennessee and targeted local Christians with \"violent Islamic crimes\".",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Crossroads GPS, a deep-pocketed conservative advocacy group that has been running issue advertisements in a variety of key 2010 Congressional contests, recently produced an ad attacking Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., who's running for a Senate seat against former GOP Rep. Pat Toomey. The ad's narration begins, \"Over half a million Pennsylvanians unemployed, and what's Congressman Joe Sestak done? He voted to gut Medicare, slashing benefits for Pennsylvania seniors. The Obama-Sestak scheme could jeopardize access to care for millions.\" In the visuals, the ad says, \"Reducing benefits for 854,489 seniors,\" a statistic it attributes to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-partisan group that studies health care policy. The ad also says on screen that Sestak \"voted to cut Medicare by $500 billion,\" citing his vote in favor of the Democratic health care bill that was signed into law earlier this year by President Barack Obama. Focusing on seniors makes sense in Pennsylvania: It's the fourth oldest state in the union, with 15.5 percent of its residents over 65, trailing only Florida, West Virginia and Maine. So we thought we'd check to see whether the ad's claims about Medicare cuts were accurate. Initially, we were puzzled by the reference to \"854,489 seniors,\" since it seemed like a remarkably specific number. When we contacted Crossroads GPS, a spokesman pointed us to a Kaiser Family Foundation database on Medicare Advantage, which is an option within Medicare -- the federal health care plan for Americans over 65 -- provided by private insurers. The Kaiser table shows that Crossroads GPS correctly cited the number of Pennsylvania seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage. That number accounts for nearly 39 percent of all Medicare enrollees in the Keystone State, which is higher than the national average of 25 percent. Because the ad focuses on Medicare Advantage, we'll begin with that facet of the new law. As we stated in a recent fact-check of a different ad, the Medicare Advantage program was intended to bring more private sector efficiency to the Medicare program. But the program's higher costs made it a prime target for architects of the new health care law. A June 2009 analysis from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission found that, on average, Medicare Advantage programs cost taxpayers 14 percent more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law phased out the extra payments Medicare Advantage programs were due to receive over the next three to six years, with the goal of bringing their costs in line with traditional Medicare. The changes were designed to save a projected $136 billion. Would these changes translate into \"reducing benefits\" for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, as the Crossroads GPS ad says? The cuts do put in jeopardy some of the more generous benefits that Medicare Advantage plans currently offer, such as dental and vision coverage, enhanced prescription drug coverage, coverage for the beneficiary's Medicare premiums and gym memberships. (The specific benefits differ by plan; indeed, variations in benefit packages are a major way that providers compete with each other for seniors.) \"Many insurers are expected to stop participating in the program, while others will increase the premiums they charge seniors,\" said Michael Tanner, a health care specialist at the libertarian Cato Institute. On the other hand, the new law makes clear that Medicare Advantage providers cannot cut basic Medicare benefits -- just extra benefits that are not available to people getting traditional Medicare. This doesn't make the cuts any less real, but the ad, by not mentioning this context, might give viewers a skewed impression of the law's provisions. In addition, other parts of the new law expand coverage for seniors and ultimately make some components of Medicare less expensive for patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- the federal office that oversees Medicare -- announced last week that, on average, Medicare Advantage premiums will drop by 1 percent between 2010 and 2011. All of this suggests that there will probably be benefit cuts to Medicare Advantage programs but not to the core program. And the exact shape of these changes is not known yet. \"It is not yet clear how plans will respond to payment reductions enacted in the health reform law, nor what these changes will mean for beneficiaries nationwide or in any given state,\" said Tricia Neuman, director of the Medicare Policy Project at the Kaiser Family Foundation. So looking back at the ad's claims, do the Medicare Advantage changes \"gut Medicare\" or \"jeopardize access to care for millions\"? We think \"gut\" is an overheated way of putting it. There will likely be cuts to Medicare Advantage, but to suggest that these will eviscerate the program seems exaggerated, since basic benefits must be preserved. What about the possibility that the changes could \"jeopardize access to care for millions\"? Setting aside the fact that there are not \"millions\" of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in Pennsylvania, we'll acknowledge that there's a risk that some Medicare Advantage providers will look at their financial balance sheets and decide to pull out of the market. But Neuman said that Medicare beneficiaries have an average of 30 plans available to them in 2010 -- and if they can't find one they like, they can always sign up for regular Medicare. That doesn't seem to us like a situation in which access will be jeopardized. What if you assume that the ad was referring to Medicare as a whole (not just to Medicare Advantage) when it talked about gutting Medicare and jeopardizing access to care? Answering this question brings up the $500 billion cut referenced in the ad. The new law would indeed slow the rate of growth of the broader Medicare program by roughly that amount over 10 years. But it's not a slam-dunk that this represents a cut. The new law does not take $500 billion out of the current Medicare budget. Rather, it would slow the program's future growth over 10 years. Medicare spending will still increase -- in fact, the Congressional Budget Office, Congress' non-partisan arbiter on such matters, projects that Medicare spending will reach $929 billion in 2020, up from $499 billion in actual spending in 2009. Such reductions could certainly squeeze future benefits, especially when inflation in the health care sector is taken into account. But once again, we feel that the use of the word \"gut\" and the notion that beneficiaries will find their access to care jeopardized amounts to an exaggeration. The changes in the new law \"are not going to cause any hospital, and few other providers, to drop Medicare patients -- they couldn’t survive without them,\" said Henry Aaron, a health care specialist at the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution. So let's recap. The ad is on fairly safe ground in suggesting that Pennsylvania's 854,489 seniors on Medicare Advantage will see a decline in benefits, but it ignores the fact that no basic benefits will be cut. Meanwhile, the ad uses what we consider overheated language. The changes set in motion by the new law don't strike us, or several experts we spoke to, as ones that will \"gut\" the program or \"jeopardize access to care for millions.\" Claim: Crossroads GPS Says Joe Sestak \"voted to gut Medicare ... reducing benefits for 854,489 seniors\" and jeopardizing \"access to care for millions.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: ClientEarth has taken action against the government before, which resulted in a Supreme Court judgment last year ordering it to submit new air quality plans to the European Commission. But ClientEarth says those plans do not go far enough to tackle nitrogen dioxide emissions and has lodged papers at the High Court to seek an order to quash them and order new ones. “Our plans clearly set out how we will improve the UK’s air quality through a new program of Clean Air Zones, which alongside national action and continued investment in clean technologies will create cleaner, healthier air for all,” a Department for Food and Rural Affairs spokeswoman said in response. Last year the European Commission also began 21 infringement proceedings against EU member nations in breach of existing rules and has proposed more stringent legislation in the face of resistance from some governments. Nitrogen oxides reduce air quality and member states have been flouting EU limits on a range of pollutants associated with more than 400,000 premature deaths per year, according to European Commission data. Under the EU’s Air Quality Directive, member states were supposed to comply with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) limits in 2010, but could have extended that to 2015 if they delivered plans to deal with high levels of the gas, which is produced mainly by diesel engines and causes respiratory illnesses. UK government data last year showed only five out of a total 43 pollution zones in Britain would comply by the end of 2015, 15 zones by 2020, 38 by 2025 and 40 by 2030. The remaining three zones - Greater London, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire urban areas would not even comply by 2030, the data showed. Under plans submitted to the European Commission in December, “Clean Air Zones” would be introduced in areas of Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton where pollution is most serious by 2020. Vehicles such as old buses, taxis, coaches and lorries have to pay a charge to enter these zones but private passenger cars would not be charged. “The government’s plans were an insult to those being made sick and dying from air pollution and failed to consider strong measures to get the worst polluting diesel vehicles out of our town and city centers,” said ClientEarth lawyer Alan Andrews. Claim: UK faces new legal action over air quality.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 12 January 2017, the United States Senate voted 51 to 48 to approve a budget resolution for the upcoming year. At the time of its passage, many news outlets reported that the Senate was “one step closer” to repealing the Affordable Care Act: The Senate took a crucial step to pave the way toward repealing Obamacare early Thursday morning, passing a budget resolution that would let Republicans’ eventual repeal bill move through the chamber with just 51 votes. The measure passed 51-48, with every Senate Democrat present opposing it, and every Senate Republican except Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) supporting it. If the House of Representatives passes the same measure — and they plan to do so later this week — it will go into effect, and make sure that Obamacare repeal cannot be filibustered by Senate Democrats. Shortly after this budget was approved, a viral message started circulating on Facebook which claimed that the Senate had voted to immediately repeal several individual provisions afforded by the ACA:  In Case You Missed It The Senate voted 51 to 48: 1. To end coverage for preexisting conditions, veterans benefits, and aid to rural hospitals. 2. To remove discrimination protection for women in healthcare. 3. Against the provision allowing children to remain on their parent’s insurance till the age of 26. 4. To cut off funding for the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 5. Against ACA contraceptive coverage and maternity care provision. 6. To direct committees to send budget legislation to defund and repeal the Affordable Care Act. For those who get health insurance through work, no pre-existing conditions. Lifetime caps for coverage are back for everyone. Real actions are being taken that will affect more than just the 20-30 million people who will lose their health care coverage and the 3 million people who will lose their jobs. Despite their assertions of this being an action to “repeal and replace,” no viable alternative plan has been proposed. The House votes Friday. As of this moment, no replacement exists. Apparently, Speaker Ryan has had his phones cut off because of the volume of calls, so here is his mailing address: 1233 Longworth HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 Fax: (202) 225-3393 The message continued to be shared on social media for weeks, making the warning that the “House votes Friday” outdated. On 13 January 2017, the House voted 227 to 198 to approve the budget blueprint: The House cleared the way on Friday for speedy action to repeal the Affordable Care Act, putting Congress on track to undo the most significant health care law in a half-century. With a near party-line vote of 227 to 198, the House overcame the opposition of Democrats and the anxieties of some Republicans to approve a budget blueprint that allows Republicans to end major provisions of President Obama’s health care law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. The viral Facebook post does list several provisions afforded by the ACA, and the United States government did start passing legislation that could conceivably lead to the repeal of President Barack Obama’s signature health law in early 2017. However, the Senate did not explicitly vote on 12 January 2017 to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Another message about a potential repeal also appeared on social media at the same time. While the previous message exaggerated the Senate’s 51-48 vote, the following message attempted to warn people about what could happen if the health care law was repealed:  Friends … just a reminder that even if you are safely covered behind employer-provided insurance, the protections set forth in the ACA (Affordable Care Act), apply to you too. And if those protections are repealed along with the rest (or any part) of the program, you will also be affected. That means you may be trapped in a job, because your pre-existing condition may mean you will not qualify for new insurance offered by another employer, and the cost of private insurance would be prohibitive. If your employer shuts down, lays you off, or even changes insurers, well, you are out of luck. The Senate GOP voted this week that they would not require an eventual ACA replacement to protect against discrimination for pre-existing conditions, which was the standard before the ACA. It means that you (a young adult under the age of 26) or your adult children (over 18) may find yourselves without the protection of insurance, as the Senate GOP voted last night that an eventual ACA replacement will not be required to allow young people to remain on their parents’ insurance up to the age of 26. It means that if you have a high-risk pregnancy, or life-threatening illness such as cancer, you may not be able to afford all the care you need, because you may hit lifetime or annual caps. If you have an infant born with any kind of severe medical condition, or premature, they may hit their lifetime insurance cap before they are old enough to walk. The Senate GOP voted last night that an eventual ACA replacement program would not be required to prohibit lifetime insurance caps. It means that if you are a struggling parent who is uninsured or under-insured, you will no longer be able to count on at least your kids getting the routine medical and dental care they need under the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP). The Senate GOP voted that CHIP is not required to be protected by an eventual ACA replacement. These provisions of the ACA affect everyone in this country, not just those without insurance through their employers. Much of the focus on repealing the Affordable Care Act has been on the millions of people who will lose their health insurance. However, as noted in the post above, the ACA actually affects many people beyond those who directly purchased insurance through the government marketplace: Much of the recent attention on the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has focused on the fate of the 22.5 million people likely to lose insurance through a repeal of Medicaid expansion and the loss of protections and subsidies in the individual insurance market. Overlooked in the declarations of who stands to lose under plans to “repeal and replace” the ACA are those enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans — the primary source of coverage for people under 65. Job-based plans offered to employees and their families cover 150 million people in the United States. If the ACA is repealed, they stand to lose critical consumer protections that many have come to expect of their employer plan. The ACA also placed limits on out-of-pocket limits, prevented insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, and extended coverage to dependents until the age of 26. The Facebook post does list some of the provisions that would potentially be lost with the repeal of the ACA, it does not take into account what will be in the the legislation that is to be written in order to replace it. For instance, President Trump said that he wanted the replacement for the ACA to continue coverage for pre-existing conditions. As Republicans have not yet introduced an official replacement, it is as yet difficult to tell exactly how health insurance in the United States will change as a result, or indeed if it will change at all. Claim: The senate voted 51-48 to repeal the Affordable Care Act on 12 January 2017.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story refers to colonoscopies as being “hugely expensive.\" It would have been better to tell readers exactly how much they cost. The story adequately quantifies the mortality benefit from colonoscopy screening. But we wish the story had quantified the benefit in absolute rather than relative terms. The story mentions the risk of perforations, missed cancers and \"unpleasant\" preparation as the risks/side effects of colonoscopy. The story does a good job of describing the current study as well as placing it in context with other studies. The story does not exaggerate the seriousness or prevalence of colon cancer. The story quotes multiple experts. The story does a reasonably good job of describing several alternatives to colonoscopy, such as fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) and virtual colonscopy. The story should have also mentioned flexible sigmoidoscopy and described the advantages and disadvantages of the different screening methods as well as critically evaulating the idea of doing a fecal occult blood test between colonoscopies (rather than just the \"one MD likes it, one doesn’t\" approach that was taken). Clearly colonoscopy is available. Clearly colonoscopy is not a new idea. Because the story quotes multiple experts, the reader can assume the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. Claim: Colonoscopies Miss Many Cancers, Study Finds",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Billy Caldwell, 12, had traveled to Canada with his mother, Charlotte, to get the cannabis oil after Billy’s doctor was ordered to stop prescribing it, but when they flew back into London on Monday customs officials confiscated their supplies. The boy was hospitalized on Friday after suffering several seizures. His case has stirred debate on the therapeutic use of cannabis, with politicians from different parties backing the family and campaigners calling for changes to the law. “This morning, I’ve used an exceptional power as Home Secretary to urgently issue a license to allow Billy Caldwell to be treated with cannabis oil,” the minister, Sajid Javid, said in a statement. “My decision is based on the advice of senior clinicians who have made clear this is a medical emergency.”  Charlotte Caldwell, who says Billy was free of seizures when he was using the cannabis oil, made a statement to reporters outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where her son was being treated. She called for the law to be changed. “No other family should have to go through this sort of ordeal, traveling halfway around the world to get medication which should be freely available to our desperately ill children,” she said. “This is a wake-up call for our country. In the 21st century we need to have a more humane policy, not panic measures. I hope the government reflects upon what happened and what they’ve put our family through these last few days.”  The Home Office had previously said that while it was sympathetic to the child’s plight, it had a duty to stop banned substances from entering Britain. Under British law, cannabis is listed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning that it is not recognized as having a therapeutic value. Schedule 1 drugs can be used for research purposes and clinical trials, but only under a Home Office license. The Caldwell family, who normally live in Northern Ireland, have received support from several members of parliament from different political parties, including Dan Poulter of the ruling Conservative Party. Billy Caldwell had been receiving medicinal cannabis oil on prescription by his family doctor for over a year, but supplies ran out after the Home Office ordered the doctor to stop prescribing it. Claim: UK authorities release confiscated cannabis after boy hospitalized.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As fears spread about a new coronavirus outbreak growing into a pandemic, so did concerns about the readiness of the United States to deal with the virus. Amid a flurry of rumors and news reports, Snopes readers’ attention turned to statements made by Democratic presidential candidates seeking to unseat U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg claimed that the Trump administration had under-prepared the country to deal with a pandemic, and that his budget cuts had hobbled federal health agencies on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus. Although it’s true that Trump’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal does propose a funding cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that budget has not been enacted. As The Washington Post explains, those funding cuts target the CDC’s chronic disease activities: The budget request would trim funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by almost 16 percent. HHS officials said they want the CDC to focus on its core mission of preventing and controlling infectious diseases and on other emerging public health issues, such as opioid abuse. Officials propose to take the money that would normally go to fund individual disease prevention activities and funnel it into a single block grant to states. The budget says chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes have common risk factors, and thus consolidating funds “can help magnify the public health impact.” Although the budget reduces overall funding for global health, from $571 million to $532 million in 2021, officials carved out an extra $50 million for global health security, which are measures aimed at disease detection and emergencies. That bump comes at the expense of international HIV/AIDS programs, which is being cut by about $58 million. This is not the first time Trump’s administration has proposed cuts to the CDC budget. However, such proposals do not always amount to funds lost. As The Associated Press reported on Feb. 26, 2020: Trump’s budgets have proposed cuts to public health, only to be overruled by Congress, where there’s strong bipartisan support for agencies such as the CDC and NIH. Instead, financing has increased. Indeed, the money that government disease detectives first tapped to fight the latest outbreak was a congressional fund created for health emergencies. Some public health experts say a bigger concern than White House budgets is the steady erosion of a CDC grant program for state and local public health emergency preparedness — the front lines in detecting and battling new disease. But that decline was set in motion by a congressional budget measure that predates Trump. Claim: U.S. President Donald Trump cut funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Officials said it was still too early to speculate on the cause of the crash of the C-130 Hercules tanker plane on Thursday, killing its entire crew, just after it dumped a large load of retardant on a huge wildfire in a national park. “We are very much into the evidence gathering phase of the investigation,” Greg Hood, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is leading the investigation, told reporters. “We will not be speculating.”  However, he added that “we have nothing to suggest there was a systemic fault” when asked whether other aircraft in use were safe. Coulson Aviation, the Canadian firm that owned the plane and employed its crew, revealed on Friday that all three were former U.S. military members with extensive flight experience: Captain Ian H. McBeth, 44; First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42; and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr., 43. Firefighters in Australia held a minute’s silence and flags on official buildings in New South Wales (NSW) state, where the plane crashed, were flown at half-mast as a mark of respect on Friday. “We will forever be indebted to the enormous contribution and indeed the ultimate sacrifice that’s been paid as a result of these extraordinary individuals doing a remarkable job,” NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said at a farewell near Sydney airport for 32 U.S. firefighters who were returning home after weeks on duty on Australia. ATSB investigators had to be escorted to the one-kilometer-long crash site by firefighters on Friday and police were still in the process of securing the area, Hood said. Little of the plane was intact and potential hazards included aviation fuel and unexploded pressurized canisters, he added. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/30O47Eq)  Hood said the ATSB expected to retrieve the plane’s black box cockpit voice recorder, use a drone to 3D map the site, analyze both air traffic control and the plane’s data and review the weather at the time of the crash. “We understand there were several witnesses to the accident,” he said. “We hope that some of the witness statements will actually be able to shed light on the sequence of events following the dropping of the retardant.”   A team from Coulson Aviation was due to arrive in Australia on Saturday, along with the aircraft history and maintenance records. Coulson grounded its other large air tankers immediately after the crash but said on Friday they would be returning to work “in the very near future”. There have been two previous crashes involving C-130 Hercules aircraft while fighting wildfires. In a 2002 accident in California the wings of the aircraft folded upward, breaking off the plane before the fuselage rolled and hit the ground upside down, killing all three crew. In 2012, another C-130 crashed in South Dakota, killing four of the six crew, in an accident that was later determined to be weather-related. “Unfortunately, aircraft are one of the riskiest parts of wildland firefighting,” said Eric Kennedy, a disaster and emergency management expert at York University in Toronto, Canada. Kennedy said there many possible causes for Thursday’s crash, but noted that a well-known risk in the C-130 fleet was metal fatigue-induced wing failure. “Reduced visibility, high turbulence, and low flying can all be contributing risk factors for air tanker crashes,” Kennedy said in emailed comments. The death toll from Australia’s devastating bushfires rose to 33 on Friday after police found a body in a home completely destroyed by fire in New South Wales south coast. The body has not yet been formally identified but it is believed to be of the 59-year-old male occupant, state police said in a statement. The toll includes eight firefighters. The fires have also killed millions of animals, razed thousands of homes and destroyed a land area about one-third the size of Germany since September. Around 250 firefighters from the United States and Canada have undertaken deployments in Australia since the start of the season. A 41-strong U.S. team arrived in Melbourne from the United States on Friday to help in eastern Victoria, the state’s Country Fire Authority said. While fire conditions eased in southeastern Australia on Friday, Sydney was choking on a new smoke haze, blown in by a baking hot wind from the fires burning in the south of the state. In New South Wales, firefighters were tackling 65 blazes with only one at the “watch and act” category, meaning there was no immediate threat. In Victoria state, all 37 fires were rated at the lowest level. Claim: Probe into fatal Australia bushfire plane crash complicated by dangers.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This story was more precise on costs than the LA Times, saying, “The devices cost up to $35,000, versus the roughly $25,000 cost of a standard defibrillator. Hospital and doctor fees can raise the total cost over $50,000.” Both stories said, vaguely, that “the cost” of the disease every year is $40 billion. This is confusing to readers for two reasons. One, there is no single payer shelling out $40 billion every year to treat heart failure, and so that number is likely not much more than a very good guess. Two, it leads people to believe that the device, at $50,000 per person, may be a bargain if heart failure right now costs $40 billion to treat. We applaud the Journal for at least raising this issue high in the story. The story cites Eric J. Topol, cardiologist and chief academic officer at Scripps Health, saying, the reduced rate of hospitalizations in the study “may actually present a net reduction in costs from a societal standpoint.” That’s a big what if. As explained above, the story analyzes the benefits in both relative and absolute terms. The story says, “But the study showed an increase in the number of device- or implantation-related complications within 30 days of implant: 118 among 888 patients with the new device, compared to 61 of 898 in the standard defibrillator group.” This is beyond what the LA Times did, and we think it is adequate for this score. The story, in most ways, does a better job than the LA Times in evaluating the quality of the evidence. It mainly accomplishes this by providing more data. For example, it says, “Overall in this study, mild-to-moderate-symptom patients had a 25% relative reduction in death or heart-failure hospitalization with the pacemaker-defibrillators, compared with a standard defibrillator. (This was also a 7.1 percentage point “absolute” reduction in death and hospitalization—33.2% compared with 40.3%. )” By giving readers both the relative reduction and the absolute reduction, the story provides a more complete picture of the findings. The one missing element was something we almost never see in a story that the LA Times provided, which is the number needed to treat (NNT). The Times story says “Fourteen patients had to be treated with the $35,000 device to prevent one death.”  Perhaps this is a smart investment. Providing that NNT figure, though, gives people the right perspective on the findings. The story does not engage in disease-mongering. It did make it sound like heart failure exacerbations happen rapidly, with minor changes in diet. This is not supported by the science. But this is a minor quibble. The story does a good job quoting outside sources, but we wish it had done a better job identifying how many of these folks have conflicts. The story did not adequately explain the comparison between the device and alternatives. For example, research has shown that patients with mild heart-failure can undergo training to take better care of themselves and reduce their number of hospitalizations, too. The story makes it clear that the device studied is in clinical trials for the targeted patient population and that a similar device is on the market. “Just over a month ago, Boston Scientific won federal approval to treat mild-symptom heart-failure patients with such devices. Medtronic is seeking such approval, but already sells it for more severe heart failure patients.” We would have liked to have seen some estimate of how many people have these devices implanted every year. The story makes it clear that there are multiple companies pursing a similar device and that one is already on the market. The story does not rely on a news release. Claim: Heart Device Cuts Death Rate",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This story discussed costs in the context of overall sales figures. “Deciding how best to get smokers to quit for good is a public health challenge. Sales of the nicotine replacement products have risen, Connolly says. Sales totaled $45 million in 1984, when nicotine gum was introduced. Since 1997, sales have totaled more than $800 million annually.” We wish the story had included some examples of the costs of the individual products compared to cigarettes. The cost of 8 weeks of the nicotine patch is approximately $160-200. The story, like the others, provides no hard numbers for quantifying the benefits, but we thought it did an adequate job explaining what the study found. Unlike the NY Times and LA Times stories, this one provided accurate information about the number of subjects who started and completed the study. All three of the stories have the same problem of not explaining whether ultimately two-thirds of the study participants relapsed or the same one-third relapsed at two different intervals. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt with a satisfactory score on this. None of the stories mentioned the potential harms from taking nicotine, as opposed to quitting cold turkey. Nor did they mention the additional risks associated with continuing to smoke instead of making use of a more successful smoking cessation program that would actually help a smoker quit. As the leading risk factor for early death, smoking should be stopped as quickly and effectively as possible. The story, like the others, did a fair job explaining the study design. This one excelled by explaining a key fact about the study. “Most did not use the products. For instance, at the first interview, 77% did not use them. Those who did use them did so for various time periods. At the first interview, the 33% of those who used the products did so for more than six weeks.” This gets to both a potential problem with how comprehensive the study might be and whether it is a good measure of the products’ effectiveness. This isn’t just a question of whether people were compliant. It’s a question of whether the study could adequately judge the products’ effectiveness given the size of the cohort and varying lengths of time people took the drugs. The New York Times story indicates that the lengths of time did not matter, but none of the stories fully addressed this point. No disease mongering. We give the story a pass here because it includes one independent source with good perspective on both the study’s strengths and drawbacks. Half of the people quoted in the story, though, either work for Glaxo or receive funding from Glaxo. The story gave a good, independent perspective about the fact that the preponderance of evidence is leaning toward a combination therapy of drugs and counseling. We like that this story was very specific on what types of nicotine products were studied. “The participants told whether they had used a patch, gum, inhaler, or spray. They told how long they used the product continuously.” The story says that the new study gives a more “real world” picture of nicotine replacement therapies. The story did not rely on any press release. Claim: Nicotine Replacement Treatments May Not Work Long-Term",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Galveston County Health District said Monday the woman, who was 30 to 35 years old, died on Dec. 29 at a local hospital. Officials said the woman was a resident of Galveston County, located southeast of Houston, but declined to release any further details about her, citing confidentiality. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported nearly 2,600 vaping-related illnesses and at least 55 deaths nationwide. In Texas, officials have reported 236 vaping-related illnesses. The two other vaping deaths in Texas, one announced in October and one announced last week, happened in North Texas. Claim: Health officials report third vaping-related death in Texas .",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 8 July 2015, Change.org user Ryan Koch of Des Moines initiated a petition on that site seeking to “Change the name of Cracker Barrel to Caucasian Barrel.” That petition appeared at a time of heightened racial controversy in the United States: in particular, while debate was ongoing about whether display of the Confederate flag should be retired to primarily historical contexts in the wake of a racially-motivated shooting at a Charleston, South Carolina, church on 17 June 2015. The petition facetiously suggested that the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store chain of restaurants and gift shops employed an “offensive slur” in its name: I say all of us European Americans start protesting C****er Barrel. It uses an offensive slur and it is deeply offensive and mocks our long and proud heritage. The name is offensive, their logo stereotypes European Americans as people who sit on chairs and lean against what appears to be a bourbon barrel, claiming we are all a bunch of alcoholics. Sure, they’ll SAY it’s a “cracker” barrel but everyone knows crackers don’t come in barrels, they come in bags and boxes! Change the name C****er Barrel to Caucasian Barrel. After all, white people should have something to be offended by, too! The petition was popular on social media sites, where some users found it clever (and others claimed the joke as their own): I demand that Cracker Barrel immediately change its name to Caucasian Barrel because I am offended — Jamey McMahan (@jameymcmahan75) July 10, 2015 Since @Redskins name is offensive, we should change the @CrackerBarrel name next. #RedskinsNation pic.twitter.com/v9rWHs61YD — David (@dpartenio) July 10, 2015  We need to change the name Cracker Barrel to Caucasian Barrel. I find the word ‘cracker’ highly offensive. — Tyler Lovett (@DontYouLovett) July 10, 2015  The petition suggested the name “Cracker Barrel” was suspect, as “everyone knows crackers don’t come in barrels.” However, an obituary for Cracker Barrel founder Dan Evins published in the Washington Post in 2012 gave the following explanation for the chain’s nomenclature: To distinguish his station from others, he added a small restaurant and gift shop and called the outfit Cracker Barrel — a reference to old-time country stores where people played checkers atop barrels used to carry crackers and other wares. According to NPR, the pejorative term “cracker” was essentially “reclaimed” by poor white people well before the Cracker Barrel chain existed: By the early 1800s, those immigrants to the South started to refer to themselves that way as a badge of honor and a term of endearment. After his tongue-in-cheek petition garnered a good deal of attention, Ryan Koch clarified that it was not meant to be regarded as anything other than a form of satirical expression: I started this satirical petition in lieu [sic] of constant media reports of various groups and organizations constantly wanting to change things throughout the country because they claim they are offended. The petition was meant to shed light on how ridiculous all of the political correctness currently going on in the country is, and how we should focus on real issues such as crime, unemployment, veteran suicide, and corrupt politics rather than cater to everyone who feels they need to be offended. I do not in any way feel the need for, or want Cracker Barrel to change their name. I do not have any ill feelings towards the restaurant chain, and I enjoy dining at their locations frequently. I am not expecting a response from Cracker Barrel in regards to this petition, as they were not involved in the creation of it. Neither Cracker Barrel nor anyone who reads the petition should take its purpose of changing the name seriously. The petition is strictly for satirical and comedic purposes to show how ridiculous political correctness is getting in America. Cracker Barrel themselves said of the issue that: Cracker Barrel is aware of this satirical petition and recognizes that individuals have the right to express their opinion on all types of things. At Cracker Barrel, our mission is Pleasing People. While we respect the opinions of these individuals, our brand is well-known as a home away from home so we have no plans to change our name as it is synonymous with great food and great service. Thousands of people have since signed the “Change the name of Cracker Barrel to Caucasian Barrel” petition, but it doesn’t seem many (if any) considered the missive anything other than a critique of a culture that detractors feel has become too sensitive. On 15 September 2016, a web site covered the ancient nontroversy and revived the rumor that “liberals” sought to change the name of Cracker Barrel, but the petition on which that claim was based remains purely a satirical one. Claim: Liberals\" want to change the name of Cracker Barrel to \"Caucasian Barrel\" because otherwise it's racist.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release makes no mention of the potential cost of the device. A potential source of comparison is Ab toner and waist trimmer electronic belts of various brands sold at Walmart. They vary from the $21.25 Healthmate Forever AB Muscle Stimulation Multi Belt, to the $149 Ab Transform Pro Abdominal, Arm and Leg Training System. The release provides quantification of the benefits of the device but would have been a lot stronger with a better description of what some of the numbers mean. It states: “The reduction in the visceral fat area was 5.37 sq. cm in the 2 treatment per week group, 14.24 sq. cm in the 4 per week group and 16.45 sq. cm in the 7 per week group. Declines in HbA1c were 0.10%, 0.36%, and 0.65% in the 2, 4, and 7 treatment-per-week groups respectively.” It also stated, “About half of all subjects (52.5%) achieved less than 7.0% HbA1c, which is a treatment goal for diabetes” in reference to the first study. (HbA1c refers to glycated haemoglobin (A1c), which identifies average plasma glucose concentration.) But the release doesn’t explain the relationship between lowering of HbA1c and improvements in heat shock protein, an important underpinning of the research. The information detailed in the graphic, while related to the basic research, is confusing since it relates to the animal and not the human research described in the release. A statement from the lead investigator appears premature. Dr. Kondo commented: “Even in patients who have difficulty exercising, such as those who are overweight, elderly, or have some form of disability, this device can be expected to provide acceptable treatment in addition to conventional diabetic medical care.” The belt device is claimed to be well tolerated, but no details on potential harms are given. The release notes: “The team found that a suitable combination of mild electrical stimulation (MES) with heat shock (HS) activated HSP72 more efficiently.” What is the electrical stimulus and how uncomfortable is it? Exactly what is a delivery of heat shock? What temperature is used? And finally is the device battery operated or is it a plug in? All of these unanswered questions seem relevant to understanding the device. The release describes the study methods — the number of participants, the length of treatment, and the results. But the release would have been stronger with a discussion of the study limitations. According to the published study, limitations included its “relatively small sample size and no setting of appropriate placebo control because this apparatus simultaneously delivers heat and mild electric stimulation, both of which are easily recognized by subjects.” No disease mongering here. The release provides a good description of the mechanics of Type 2 diabetes. The release might have been improved with a brief discussion of the prevalence of the disease. The news release notes that the study was funded by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research. The journal article in Scientific Reports also acknowledges the belt device was provided by the Tsuchiya Rubber Co., Ltd. (Kumamoto, Japan). The release mentions exercise and a drug commonly prescribed in Japan to treat Type 2 diabetes, and notes that using the device “One can expect the effects to be similar to exercise therapy.” It also quotes a researcher who suggests the belt could be an add-on to conventional diabetic medical care. But the release provides no indication of how the device actually compares with these existing treatments in terms of outcomes. Even though the researchers advanced from theoretical thinking to animal and human trials there is no discussion of when the device might become available to patients. Heat shock protein has been explored as an important factor in Type 2 diabetes by other researchers. The researchers have taken the basic research and moved it one step closer to patients. The news release doesn’t employ sensational language. Claim: Development of a wearable medical device for type 2 diabetes",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This legislation would create a process to help identify drug price thresholds that supporters of the bill say pose a public health risk. The bill would also immediately address the price of insulin by eliminating deductibles and coinsurance for insulin and capping co-pays at $25 per month. It would also require pharmacists to notify patients if the retail cost of a medication is less than a co-pay or deductible. The Senate is scheduled to debate the bill this week. The release of the Senate plan comes just weeks after Republican Gov. Charlie Baker unveiled a health care bill also designed to stem the growth of costly prescription drugs. Claim: Massachusetts Senate to debate prescription drug price bill.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In December 2017, a viral video left millions of people saddened and horrified by the sight of an emaciated polar bear forced to scavenge in trash cans for food on Canada’s Baffin Island. Photographer Paul Nicklen posted the video on Facebook, garnering almost 30,000 shares within a week, as well as the attention of the national news media. Nicklen, who is also co-founder of the environmental nonprofit group SeaLegacy, wrote: My entire Sea Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear. It’s a soul-crushing scene that still haunts me, but I know we need to share both the beautiful and the heartbreaking if we are going to break down the walls of apathy. This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It’s a slow, painful death. When scientists say polar bears will be extinct in the next 100 years, I think of the global population of 25,000 bears dying in this manner. There is no band aid solution. There was no saving this individual bear. People think that we can put platforms in the ocean or we can feed the odd starving bear. The simple truth is this — if the Earth continues to warm, we will lose bears and entire polar ecosystems. The video was subsequently shared by National Geographic, which reported: Video shows the polar bear clinging to life, its white hair limply covering its thin, bony frame. One of the bear’s back legs drags behind it as it walks, likely due to muscle atrophy. Looking for food, the polar bear slowly rummages through a nearby trashcan used seasonally by Inuit fishers. It finds nothing and resignedly collapses back down onto the ground. The footage is real. Nicklen says it was captured “a few months” before December 2017, at an abandoned Inuit camp on Baffin Island, the enormous land mass southwest of Greenland in the Canadian Arctic. There appears to be no doubt that the animal is suffering from starvation, as National Geographic wrote: The bear’s thin frame and protruding bones are clear indicators of this, and its atrophied muscles suggest it’s been starving for an extended period of time. However, the causes of the bear’s condition were a little bit more complicated. Polar bears live only in the Arctic and eat only meat, their main source being seals. They rely on Arctic seawater to freeze into ice, where they can gain access to seals. But climate change means that these Arctic ice sheets are reducing in size, lowering the number of seals available to polar bears and ultimately, causing them to starve. The risk is higher in places like Baffin Island, where polar bears depend on seasonal ice. According to the Smithsonian Institution, the issue is likely about to become dramatically worse: Recent predictions suggest that warming seawater and air will melt 20 percent or more of the Arctic’s ice cover in the next 40 years — a scary statistic for the many species in the Arctic that rely on seasonal ice cover for vital activities such as breeding and eating. However, Dr. Steven Amstrup, chief scientist for the non-profit Polar Bears International, said in a blog post that climate change may not have been the direct or sole contributing factor in this particular animal’s demise:  Polar bears have few natural predators. Although they normally live a long time, they are not immortal. All eventually die and most do so because they have not been able to capture enough food. This means that malnutrition is a major cause of death for polar bears. Young bears that have not learned well enough how to catch seals, old feeble bears, and bears that have injured themselves, all can succumb to malnutrition under some circumstances. The starvation leading to the event shown in this video could be related to old age, injury (like a broken jaw or teeth that prevent it from catching food), disease, or other factors limiting its success in obtaining prey. However, Amstrup points out that the continued diminishment of sea ice that is expected will make it harder for polar bears in this region to find seals to eat, and therefore make starvation much more likely for sick, lame, very young or very old animals who might otherwise have survived: The problem is that an ever-warmer future means polar bears will have less and less access to their seal prey, so the rate at which bears die from malnutrition/starvation will increase. So, regardless of the proximate cause of this bear’s condition, this heart-wrenching footage provides us with a warning about the future. Hunters from Inuit communities on Baffin Island were also skeptical over whether to link the bear’s condition with climate change; Eric Ootoovak, the vice-chair of the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization, said of the bear: You can really tell he’s sick. He’s not starving. If he was starving, he’d be able to move a bit more than that. Nick Arnalukjuak, who leads a similar group in the island community of Nunavut, called it part of a “normal cycle” for some bears to suffer injury or illness, adding: Claim: A video shows a sick, possibly starving polar bear on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Alarmed by images of the Greenland ice sheets melting and the Amazon rain forests burning, students and workers abandoned schools, shops and offices in nearly every corner of the globe, aiming to stop what they see as a looming environmental catastrophe. The protests started in the Pacific islands, where rising sea levels threaten a way of life, and followed the sun across Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia and on to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. The coordinated student “strike” culminated in New York’s Wall Street, where some investors have embraced the fossil fuel industry. Massive crowds overwhelmed the streets of lower Manhattan, chanting “Save our planet!” while anticipating an address by Thunberg, an international figure who sailed across the Atlantic in an emissions-free yacht ahead of next week’s climate summit at the United Nations. “Right now we are the ones who are making a difference. If no one else will take action, then we will,” Thunberg told tens of thousands of people gathered at a park with a view of the Statue of Liberty. Once she took the stage, the crowd chanted her name, then went silent to hang on her every word. As she paused between sentences, people erupted into applause. “If you belong to that small group of people who feel threatened by us, then we have some very bad news for you. Because this is only the beginning. Change is coming whether they like it or not,” she concluded. Demonstrators in Paris raised a painting of Thunberg as the Virgin Mary, a halo around her head reading, “Our house is on fire.”     “She’s like the icon of our generation,” New York protester Fiamma Cochrane, 17, said, highlighting the leadership role of young people in the international movement to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. Four million people participated worldwide including 300,000 in New York, organizers with the anti-fossil fuels group 350.org said. Reuters could not verify the crowd sizes. Concern has escalated since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the international Paris Accord on climate change and took a series of steps to dismantle environmental protections, including moving on Thursday to block stricter vehicle emissions standards in California. Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are among the world’s only national leaders who publicly question the science of climate change, and they are not taking part in next week’s U.N. climate summit. Thousands gathered across Brazil to take aim at Bolsonaro, who they say is allowing the destruction of the Amazon rainforest to clear space for soy beans and cattle ranching. In August, fires there surged to their greatest level since 2010. “The policy of the Bolsonaro government is the policy of environmental destruction and deepening the climate crisis ... this is why we’re on strike,” said Marcela Pimentel Miranda, an organizer for Youth for Climate’s affiliate in Brasilia. One protester in Sao Paulo held up a picture of Bolsonaro and Trump beneath the hand-written “Abolish fossil fools!”   Demonstrators in Thailand stormed the environment ministry and feigned death, while activists in Berlin and Munich stood on  melting blocks of ice with nooses around their necks to symbolize the earth’s fate when the polar ice caps melt. Protesters in Warsaw staged a performance of people drowning in a sea of plastic waste. “The planet is getting hotter than my imaginary boyfriend,” read a poster held by a teenager in Thailand. “Make love, not CO2” signs were spotted in Berlin and Vienna. While Europeans filled the streets, students in the Solomon Islands gathered at the rising ocean water’s edge wearing traditional grass skirts. The issue is vital to low-lying Pacific islands, which have repeatedly asked wealthier nations to do more to prevent rising sea levels. Global warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels has already led to droughts and heat waves, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and floods, according to scientists. “There is no Planet B,” read a sign hoisted by a young woman in London. In Kenya, around 500 activists marched to demand that the government cancel plans for a coal plant and investigate corruption in hydropower dams. “In Samburu there is a lot of heat, the grass has dried up, there is little water,” said Francis Lentel, a young herdsman in traditional beads, holding a picture of the Earth weeping. The protest movement is putting increasing pressure on governments and companies to respond. German Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled a new climate protection package thrashed out by parties in her coalition during all-night talks. Private industry has also responded. Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos on Thursday pledged to make the largest U.S. e-commerce company net carbon neutral by 2040. Hundreds of workers from Google, Amazon and other technology companies on Friday criticized their industry for being slow to tackle climate change and joined marches in San Francisco and Seattle calling for action. Claim: Inspired by Greta Thunberg, worldwide protest demands climate action.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Clouds of ash from the Taal volcano reached Manila, 65 kilometers (40 miles) to the north, on Sunday, forcing the shutdown of the country’s main airport, with more than 500 flights canceled. The airport partially reopened Monday after the ashfall eased. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or major damage directly blamed on the eruption. A truck, however, skidded out of control on an ash-blanketed road, killing the driver and injuring three companions in Laguna province in an accident police said may have been linked to slippery conditions. The government’s disaster-response agency and other officials reported more than 30,000 villagers fled their homes in the hard-hit province of Batangas and nearby Cavite province. Officials expected the number to swell. Some residents could not immediately flee their ash-blanketed villages because of a lack of transportation and poor visibility. Others refused to leave their homes and farms. “We have a problem — our people are panicking due to the volcano because they want to save their livelihood, their pigs and herds of cows,” Mayor Wilson Maralit of the town of Balete told DZMM radio. “We’re trying to stop them from returning and warning that the volcano can explode again any time and hit them.” Maralit, whose town lies along the shoreline of Taal Lake, which surrounds the erupting volcano, appealed for troops and more police to stop people from sneaking back to their villages. After a cleanup and a shift of ash-laden winds away from Manila, officials partially reopened the main airport and allowed planes to take off. President Rodrigo Duterte’s aircraft was able to land in Manila on Monday from his hometown of Davao, his spokesman said, adding he saw the extent of the disaster from the plane. Taal suddenly rumbled back to life on Sunday, blasting steam, ash and pebbles up to 10 to 15 kilometers (6 to 9 miles) into the sky, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. On Monday, the ash and steam column reached a height of 2 kilometers (about a mile), with lava fountains spurting less than half of that height before falling into the lake waters surrounding the main crater. Lava also spurted from another vent north of the main crater, said Renato Solidum, who heads the institute. Frequent tremors and a buildup of pressure of the 1,020-foot (311-meter) volcano, one of the world’s smallest, however, indicated a major and much more dangerous eruption could still happen, he said. The government volcano-monitoring agency raised the danger level around Taal three notches on Sunday to Level 4, indicating a hazardous eruption within hours to days was possible. Level 5, the highest, means such an eruption is underway. The volcano’s last disastrous eruption happened in 1965, when more than 200 people were killed. Irene de Claro, a mother of four, worried about her father, who stayed behind in their village in Agoncillo while the rest of the family fled. “My father is missing. We don’t know, too, what happened to our house because the ash was up to our knees, it was very dark and the ground was constantly shaking when we left,” de Castro said at a school in the town of Lemery. “Most likely there’s nothing for us to return to. We’re back to zero.” The small island where the volcano lies has long been designated a “permanent danger zone,” though fishing villages have existed there for years. Those residents were all evacuated, volcanology officials said, adding that there should be a total evacuation, too, of endangered communities within a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) radius of Taal, Government work was suspended and schools closed in a wide swath of towns and cities, including Manila, because of the health risks from the ash. Taal is regarded as the second-most restive of about two dozen active volcanoes in the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A long-dormant volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew its top north of Manila in 1991 in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people. About 20 typhoons and other major storms each year also batter the Philippines, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. ___ Gomez reported from Manila. Associated Press journalists Kiko Rosario in Manila and Aaron Favila in Tagaytay contributed to this report. Claim: Lava gushes from volcano near Manila; tens of thousands flee.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Nebraska Medicine and its research and education partner, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, have begun returning most patients — once they’re stable — to their primary care providers for ongoing care. That opens up more appointment slots for new patients. Limited access to psychiatric providers is a regional and national problem, Nebraska Medicine’s behavioral health director, David Cates, told the Omaha World-Herald . Behavioral health providers are clustered in urban areas, leaving rural areas underserved, said Dr. Howard Liu, chairman of medical school’s psychiatry department. And more than half of providers in Nebraska are over age 50 and retiring faster in some cases than they can be replaced. Also, Liu said, the stigma around seeking behavioral health care has lessened somewhat. Cates said psychiatric treatment providers typically follow patients indefinitely, leaving few openings available for new patients. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2019, 92% of outpatient psychiatry visits at Nebraska Medicine were return ones, he said. “We tend to keep patients forever,” Cates said. The new procedure has new patients come via referrals from their primary care provider, with some exceptions. Patients follow one of two tracks after evaluations. Those on a consultation track will have several more visits and, once stable, be referred back to their primary care provider. Those with more persistent or severe conditions will stay under the care of psychiatrists or psychiatric advanced practice providers, all of whom can prescribe medications. The difference between the two tracks depends on the complexity of the patient’s condition, including stability and history, rather than the diagnosis itself. The team that developed the new plan thinks a significant number of patients can be transferred back to primary care providers, Cates said. ___ Information from: Omaha World-Herald, http://www.omaha.com Claim: Group launches plan to improve behavioral care access.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: During a July 10, 2011, appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, host David Gregory asked Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty about the origins of homosexuality. Here’s their exchange:  Gregory: \"Let me ask you about social policy. You've notably said that you're a big fan of Lady Gaga, and even the song Born This Way. There's a lot of debate about a gay marriage pledge in Iowa. And related to that, I wonder, do you agree with some of those who are behind that, that being gay is a choice?\" Pawlenty: \"Well, I have two teenage daughters who listen to Lady Gaga, so I'm subjected to it. And it has some good qualities to it. But as to, as to gay marriage, I'm in support of traditional marriage as between a man and a woman. I have not supported the issues of allowing gay couples to have the same benefits ... as traditional couples. And so this is an issue in Iowa and across the whole country. But I've stood in favor of traditional marriage and traditional relationships in that regard. Gregory: \"Is being gay a choice?\" Pawlenty: \"Well, the science in that regard is in dispute. I mean, the scientists work on that and try to figure out if it's behavioral...\"  Gregory: \"Right.\" Pawlenty: \"...or if it's partly genetic.\" Gregory:\"What do you think?\" Pawlenty: \"Well, I defer to the scientists in that regard.\" Gregory: \"So you, you think it's not a choice.\" Pawlenty: \"Well, there is no....\"  Gregory: \"That you are, as Lady Gaga says, you're born that way.\" Pawlenty: \"There's no scientific conclusion that it's genetic. We don't know that. So we don't know to what extent, you know, it's behavioral, and that's something that's been debated by scientists for a long time. But as I understand the science, there's no current conclusion that it's genetic.\" We decided to rate two of Pawlenty’s statements separately. In another item, we’ll look at whether scientists are \"in dispute\" about whether being gay is a choice. In this item, we’ll look at Pawlenty’s claim that \"there's no scientific conclusion that it's genetic.\" Pawlenty’s word choice -- \"genetic\" -- is pivotal for rating the accuracy of his claim. The way he phrased it, he’s pretty close to accurate. But if he’d said instead that \"there's no scientific conclusion that (being gay) is biological,\" he would have been incorrect. Since the significance of this distinction may not be obvious at first glance, we’ll explain it in detail here. If a trait is \"genetic,\" it means that it comes from the genes encoded in your DNA. Furthermore, arguing that something is genetic suggests that there’s a single, or at least a well-defined, genetic source -- what has sometimes been called a \"gay gene.\" By contrast, if a trait is \"biological\" in origin, it means that it can stem from any number of factors, such as hormone levels or how a fetus develops in the uterus. It would not, however, originate primarily from environmental factors such as childhood experiences -- what one might call the \"nurture\" part of the nature/nurture divide. The typical way of figuring out whether something is caused by genes is through twin studies. Since identical twins share 100 percent of their DNA, any observed differences in traits would be presumed to be influenced by environment rather than genetics. So if being gay was truly, and exclusively, a genetic trait, every set of identical twins should either be both straight, or both gay. In fact, that’s not the case. Even the studies with the strongest linkage show about a 50 percent correlation in sexual orientation between identical twins. Other studies have shown lower rates. Based on these findings, scientists agree that being gay is not caused exclusively by genes. However, being gay does appear to have a genetic component -- just a weaker one. The same study that showed roughly a 50 percent correlation in sexual orientation between identical twins also showed weaker correlations for fraternal twins, who share only 50 percent of their genes on average. That’s pretty much what you’d expect to see if genetics played a role, but not a dominant one. \"Pawlenty is surely right that a genetic explanation has not been proven, and indeed genetics is likely a modest influence on sexual orientation,\" said Michael Bailey, a Northwestern University psychologist who undertook the twin study that showed a 50 percent correlation, as well as another that showed lower correlations. But if being gay is not primarily determined by genes, it doesn’t mean that its origin isn’t biological. Bailey and others find some of the most convincing evidence of the inherent nature of sexual orientation in long-term studies of the rare cases in which hormonally normal boys are reared as girls due to either accidents or certain medical conditions that have left them less obviously male. He said there have been six published cases of hormonally normal males reassigned early as females, and invariably, their sexual orientation was toward females. That’s consistent with their prenatal gender, not with their rearing as girls. The point of these studies is that sexual orientation -- one’s attractions and impulses -- runs very deep and is resistant to social and environmental factors. \"If you can't make a male attracted to other males by cutting off his penis, castrating him, and rearing him as a girl, how likely is any social explanation of male homosexuality?\" Bailey asks. Scientists freely acknowledge that the precise pathways for imparting sexual orientation are not yet understood. \"Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation – heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality -- is determined by any particular factor or factors,\" the American Psychological Association has put it. However, just because scientists don’t know the specific mechanisms that cause sexual orientation doesn’t mean that they aren’t confident that they are biological in nature. \"We do not really know in any definitive way the mix between biological and other explanations, but the evidence for biological contributions is as good or better than for any other factor,\" said Clinton W. Anderson, the associate executive director of the American Psychological Association and the director of its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender concerns office. \"Some have suggested that it’s how you were reared or a failure in bonding to the same-sex parent. But the research to support that is abysmal.\" Jack Drescher, a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, added that \"you’d be hard-pressed to find a reputable scientist who would exclude some aspect of biology\" from the causes of homosexuality. Drescher is a member of the working group on sexual and gender-identity disorders for the forthcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM 5-- the authoritative reference work in the field. At this point, we need to note an important caveat: What we’ve been discussing here applies primarily to gay men. There is actually no solid scientific consensus about the causes of female homosexuality, because the research has been much less extensive. We struggled with the question of how we should factor in what one might call the lesbian exception. Neither Pawlenty nor Gregory specifically referred to either gay men or gay women in their comments. Ultimately, we concluded that the science of what causes women to be gay was too unformed to draw any solid conclusions, so we set it aside as a factor in our ratings. So where does this leave us? Pawlenty said \"there's no scientific conclusion that (being gay) is genetic.\" On that specific question, we found broad agreement that Pawlenty was correct. Scientists told us that genetics may play a role in determining sexual orientation, but the current evidence suggests that it’s not the dominant factor and may ultimately be shown to play just a modest role. But a modest role is still different from no role. And we also think that viewers of the interview might be led to believe that because homosexuality is not primarily caused by genes, there’s no biological cause. In reality, most scientists do believe that sexual orientation is caused by biology, rather than by choice. Claim: There's no scientific conclusion that (being gay) is genetic.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A bill requiring physicians to treat infants who survive abortion attempts is moving through the Legislature without the usual partisan fight, though some lawmakers have questioned whether it addresses an ongoing problem. An anti-abortion activist used a specific figure in a recent committee hearing to reassure lawmakers HB 1129/SB 1636 is necessary. \"The tragedy of infants born alive following attempted abortions is real,\" said Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, on April 9. \"It is not the hypothetical that is sometimes reported. In 2010 alone, 1,270 infants were reported to have died following attempted abortions and notably that is only one year.\" Yoest said without elaborating there are two cases in Florida. After the meeting, reporters asked Yoest about the number she used. Yoest told them the figure came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the CDC, which collects data from most state health departments on the number of legal induced abortions performed each year, does not collect data on infants who die after surviving abortion attempts. Neither does the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research and advocacy group that supports women’s access to abortions and collects abortion data. Neither Guttmacher nor the CDC has published its 2010 data for abortions. \"We have no idea where this number comes from,\" said Rebecca Wind, Guttmacher Institute spokeswoman. A committee analysis says there is no federal requirement to report the number of infants born alive during an attempted abortions. So Rep. Cary Pigman, R-Avon Park, included in his legislation a requirement for physicians who perform abortions in Florida to report cases of infants born alive to the state. \"If in two years time or four years time we find that there are zero cases, it’s a prayer answered,\" Pigman said at an April 4 committee hearing of his bill. \"If we find in two years time that there’s a half dozen cases a year, then we have some issues.\" If there are no statistics or reporting requirements, where did Americans United for Life find this figure? We dug in. Twenty-eight states have laws protecting infants born alive. \"Infants Born Alive\" mirrors a federal law signed by President George W. Bush in 2002. Supporters say it is necessary to enact a state law so there is no doubt that an infant \"born alive\" -- defined as an infant who breathes or has heartbeats or muscle movements, regardless of whether the extraction method was natural or induced  -- must be taken to a hospital for treatment appropriate for gestation age. A failed abortion could result in a live birth in a late-term abortion, which can only be performed if two physicians agree the mother's life is at risk, or if the mother was further into her pregnancy than thought. Physicians under the Florida proposal would have to provide medical care for an infant born alive after an abortion or face a first-degree misdemeanor charge. Pigman, an emergency physician, has referenced similar or exact figures as Yoest in committee hearings, but he characterized them differently and stressed the lack of exact data. In the bill’s first hearing, Pigman mentioned CDC data on deaths for infants from 22 weeks of gestation to seven days after birth called \"other perinatal conditions.\" This category -- which totaled 1,270 deaths in 2010 -- is further broken down into categories of international medical codes for causes of death, including cardiovascular disorders (838 deaths), digestive system disorders (92 deaths), undefined cerebral problems (183 deaths) and \"other conditions originating in the perinatal period\" (130 deaths). \"I don’t know which portion of that 1,270 were due to abortions or some other rare circumstances,\" Pigman said in the April 4 committee. Inside that latter subcategory -- \"other conditions originating in the perinatal period\" -- is a designation called \"termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborn.\" The CDC doesn’t have numbers for that designation for 2010 yet. In 2008, the CDC reported 33 deaths using that designation. Whether the abortion was elective or performed to save the life of the mother is unclear. Americans United for Life spokeswoman Kristi Hamrick said any number is problematic because abortion data is always incomplete. California, for instance, is one of a few states that does not report the number of abortion procedures that happen there. Hamrick directed us to a blog post written by the group's legal team about limited CDC data and anecdotal evidence of infants born alive, including two Florida cases of infants surviving abortion procedures (one died, one survived with catastrophic injuries) and the trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. The post does not support Yoest's specific claim about 1,270 infants who die after abortion procedures, offering instead the more nuanced breakdown for the 1,270 figure that we heard from Pigman. Our ruling Yoest said 1,270 infants in 2010 \"were reported to have died following attempted abortions.\" The figure is based on an \"other\" category of perinatal deaths, but it does not mean what she says it means. Included in this category are babies who die of various other issues, mainly heart problems. We rate her statement . Claim: In 2010 alone, 1,270 infants were reported to have died following attempted abortions and notably that is only one year.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of the eventual price point of this drug. This is important if commonly used drugs like Adderall are becoming available as a generic and subsequently much less expensive. According to GoodRx.com, the cost for a 30-day supply of Adderall ranges from $75 to $150. Costs for Vyvanse, a newer stimulant for ADHD, costs around $250 for 30 pills. Concerta, which came on the market around the same time as Vyvanse, costs about $250 for 30 pills. Generic Ritalin (one of the oldest ADHD stimulant drugs) averages around $45 for a month’s supply. Companies sometimes develop new, yet no more effective or safe, formulations because they can sell them at higher costs as a new patented drug. The news release does a good job of explaining the benefits of the drug to children and adolescents with ADHD in relationship to a placebo and to a standardized measurement of improvement, but does not compare this new drug with existing treatments. It’s difficult to estimate how many people would want a stimulant that lasts 16 hours. Even if they do, it would be much cheaper to take a dose of an existing, shorter acting drug in the early afternoon. The adverse effects are clearly listed and equated with those of other amphetamine drugs. The adverse effects that occurred in more than 5 percent of the subjects included decreased appetite, headache, insomnia, irritability, nausea, weight decrease and dizziness and were similar to those observed with other amphetamine compounds. From the news release, the trial appears to be high quality. It is described as randomized, double-blind, multi-center, placebo-controlled, dose-optimized — all which would suggest the researchers followed high scientific standards. However, there is no accompanying peer-reviewed paper and the raw data and manipulated data are not available. The news release also does not tell us how many of the volunteers were on placebo and how many received the drugs. This release does not take part in disease mongering. It’s clear that the drug sponsor issued the news release and sponsored the study. We’re provided a quote from the study’s principal investigator (PI), Matthew Brams, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, but we’re not told what financial arrangements the PI had with Shire. According to ProPublica’s “Dollars for Docs” database, Brams (one of ProPublica’s designated top earners of speaking and consulting fees from drug companies) has received payments for serving as a consultant for Shire. That’s a disclosure we’d like to see in the news release. While the news release mentions the existence of other drugs, this new drug is not compared to any of them but to placebo and a symptoms standardization tool. The news release states the drug maker hopes to begin marketing the drug during the second half of 2017, after clearing FDA approval. We often look skeptically upon predictions of when a drug may be approved, especially when those predictions come from those with a vested interested, but this date seems far enough off that it won’t raise false hopes. It is unclear from this news release if the drug is novel and if so in what way. It is an amphetamine drug and others like it are already in use. There does not appear to be any unjustifiable claim being made here. Claim: Shire Announces Positive Results of SHP465 Safety and Efficacy Study in Children and Adolescents with ADHD",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On February 20 2019 the Facebook page “Medicare for All” shared a following meme contrasting the purported costs of health care coverage in the United States versus the United Kingdom (and alleging that Americans prefer their system):The meme showed a screenshot of a Tumblr user commenting on a screenshot of a tweet. The first user (@steak_ham/Phantom of the Chopra) commented on purported American preferences with respect to healthcare costs, and the second (@thesummoningdark) added input from the perspective of a resident of Scotland with National Health Service (NHS) coverage:Phantom of the Chopra @steak_hamOne thing Americans love doing is having 20% of their paycheck deducted for their “employer-provided health insurance” and then posting online about having 5% of your paycheck deducted in a universal healthcare system would be communist fascism 10/19/2018 12:13PMthesummoningdarkSo I live in Scotland, a country with free universal healthcare, and this post made me curious about how much that actually costs us. Turns out, roughly 4% of our income tax goes to the National Health Service. For me that’s £10 a month. The equivalent of $13. I have spent more than that on a pizza.In addition to claims which we could check to a degree (health care costs for the individual taxpayer in the United States versus the United Kingdom), it includes characterizations about Americans’ feelings about their health care coverage situation. It is reasonably well demonstrated that opinions on the administration of healthcare are incredibly broad ranging in the United States.Nevertheless, the claim that Americans “love having 20 percent of their paycheck deducted for their ’employer-provided health insurance'” is somewhat checkable. Several rounds of polling have shown 70 percent of Americans support the idea (85 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans in one poll, with 20 percent of respondents in opposition). The idea seems to typically poll at more than half of Americans registering support, although at least one analysis was skeptical of the repeating supportive poll numbers.That said, the opening statement (that Americans “love” the costs of their health coverage) didn’t actually stand up to scrutiny — polls undertaken in recent years have repeatedly showed growing interest in a single-payer healthcare system for the United States, for example.The question of who pays for “employer-provided health insurance” is a sticky one. “Employer responsibility” is a provision of the Affordable Care Act (known colloquially as “Obamacare“), but it involves flowcharts and a number of subclauses around the size of the company and shared costs. A September 2018 Forbes item described the split between employer and employee contribution on average (but with a lot of fluctuation):Health Insurance (typically $5,000 – $30,000) – Your health insurance is the most significant component of your benefits. How can you value what your employer contributes for you and your family, as well as the discount you receive on coverage for participating in a large group plan? According to the 2018 Milliman Medical Index, the cost of healthcare for a typical American family of four covered by an average employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) plan is $28,166, with employers typically picking up 56% of the cost. That means that participation in their company sponsored health care plan is worth at least $15,788 for that family.Of course your insurance costs may be different, and your employer may subsidize more or less of that. In my case, my employer pays 100 percent of my individual health insurance premium. My husband’s employer pays most of the coverage for him and our kids. Don’t dismiss the enormous financial value of company-subsidized health insurance just because it’s a common benefit in large companies. You’d have to earn nearly twice as much as the premium costs to pay for that insurance on your own after taxes.Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual “Employer Health Benefits Survey” routinely examines “trends in employer-sponsored health coverage including premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing provisions, offer rates, wellness programs, and employer practices.” For 2018, KFF found:Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $19,616 this year, up 5% from last year, with workers on average paying $5,547 toward the cost of their coverage. The average deductible among covered workers in a plan with a general annual deductible is $1,573 for single coverage. Fifty-six percent of small firms and 98% of large firms offer health benefits to at least some of their workers, with an overall offer rate of 57%.Obamacare held that that cost not exceed roughly 9.5 percent of annual household income. However, KFF also found that many employers creatively foist the financial burden of healthcare off on employees:The real problem is that health care is very expensive, Levitt said. But most Americans don’t realize the true cost because they are shielded by their employers.Some 150 million people have insurance through work, paying only about $440 a month for a family plan, while employers cover the rest, or about $1,075.For the 10.5 million enrollees on the Obamacare exchanges, health insurance costs are more transparent. And more of the burden falls on the consumers. That is leaving an untold number of Americans opting to remain uninsured, rather than shell out thousands a year for premiums and deductibles. In 2015, 46% of uninsured adults said that they tried to get coverage but did not because it was too expensive, a Kaiser study found.Overall, the cost of healthcare to the individual taxpayer is highly variable. But it is fair to say that the costs regularly ate into paychecks, and just the $440 cited in the excerpt above was a lot more than the £10 or $13 referenced by the Scottish poster in the meme. Which led to the second question: Are UK residents really paying only £10 a month (around USD$13 as of February 2019) for NHS coverage?The poster described it as “free universal healthcare,” a rhetorical point of dispute in the single-payer debate. What advocates of the system’s adoption in the United States mean by that is “free at the point of use/service/delivery”:The first thing that Americans should know about the National Health Service is that it’s free at the point of use to anyone who needs it. You don’t have to fill out much paperwork, and you get no bills, whether you go to see your family doctor, or go to hospital. No one in the UK goes bankrupt through medical costs, no one needs to delay medical treatment until they can afford it, and virtually no one is uninsured.The costs of healthcare coverage in the United States typically is reported in annual terms. A February 2018 BBC fact check on then-recent claims made by President Donald Trump about the NHS reported:If you look at all healthcare spending, including treatment funded privately by individuals, the US spent 17.2% of its GDP on healthcare in 2016, compared with 9.7% in the UK.In pounds per head, that’s £2,892 on healthcare for every person in the UK and £7,617 per person in the US.In June 2018, an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparison found that Americans spent $10,209 per capita on healthcare versus $4,264 in the UK.In the viral Facebook above, the first reader said Americans “love” essentially paying more for their healthcare than UK residents. The second user claimed that their per-paycheck cost was £10 — fairly meaningless without knowing how much they earned or what their other costs might be.Nevertheless, polls repeatedly demonstrate that a full 70 percent of Americans support the introduction of a single-payer system, nullifying the contention that Americans prefer their current system. The precise claims about £10 costs per paycheck were difficult to verify, but recent OECD comparisons proved that Americans shelled out $10,209 versus $4,264 in the UK per capita, making the meme a mixed bag — yes, Americans spend much more on health coverage than people in the UK and no, they aren’t happy about it. Claim: Americans pay 25 percent of their pay for \"employer provided\" health insurance — which they prefer — whereas people in the UK pay £10 per check for NHS coverage.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Indian government had put a hold on exports of hydroxychloroquine as well as on the pain reliever, paracetamol, saying stocks were depleting because of the hit to global supply chains after the coronavirus emerged in China late last year. But Trump spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend seeking supplies and on Monday said India may face retaliation if it didn’t withdraw the ban on exports. India’s neighbours, including Nepal, have also sought the anti-malaria drug. “It has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities,” said Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava. “We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic,” he said. Use of hydroxychloroquine has soared as the United States has quickly become the epicentre of the pandemic, though doctors prescribing it have no idea whether it works. U.S. fatalities from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, hit 10,902 on Monday, rapidly closing in on Italy and Spain, the countries with the greatest loss of life to date, according to a Reuters tally of official data. In addition, the Indian government said it was lifting curbs on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them that includes several antibiotics, such as tinidazole and erythromycin, the hormone progesterone and Vitamin B12. “After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted, “ foreign ministry spokesman Srivastava said. Claim: India allows limited exports of anti-malaria drug after Trump warns of retaliation.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and how long the pandemic will last, but parents across the U.S. can be certain that they will always be able to accompany their children to the hospital. A recent Facebook post claimed that \"if your child gets this virus their (sic) going to hospital alone in a van with people they don’t know... to be with people they don’t know.\" This run-on sentence ended with a soul-crushing statement: \"you will be at home without them in their time of need.\" Before any parents get too worried, this claim is entirely untrue because hospitals need parental consent to treat minors. Dr. John Gilliam explained in an interview with PolitiFact that \"minors can’t consent to treatment, legally.\" Dr. Gilliam works in Oregon as a hospitalist, an in-patient physician who works exclusively in a hospital. Parental consent is still a requirement in New York hospitals, where the virus is spreading rapidly and the New York State Department of Health is introducing temporary new visitor policies. The University of Rochester Medical Center and the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have both announced that recovering adults aren’t allowed any visitors, but children are still allowed to have one guardian accompany them. If your child does have COVID-19 symptoms, the CDC first recommends to not take them to the hospital unless they develop emergency warning signs, such as having trouble breathing or experiencing persistent pain or pressure in the chest. The CDC has published guidelines for treating healthy adults and children with COVID-19 symptoms at home. The CDC also doesn’t consider children a high-risk group for COVID-19 and have found that children who have been confirmed to have the virus \"have generally presented with mild symptoms.\" In the unlikely event that a child is hospitalized for complications from COVID-19, they will have a parent or another guardian by their side. We rate this Facebook post . Claim: “if your child gets this virus their going to hospital alone in a van with people they don’t know...to be with people they don’t know… you will be at home without them in their time of need.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Italy has concluded Covid-19 is not a virus, and people are actually dying of amplified global 5G electromagnetic radiation poisoning. Italy disobeyed world health law from the WHO saying not to carry out autopsies on Covid-19 patients. The WHO never said autopsies couldn’t take place. Italy has found that Covid-19 is actually disseminated intravascular coagulation (thrombosis). The way to cure this is antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants. Antibiotics do not directly treat Covid-19, which is caused by a virus. The anti-inflammatory ibuprofen is being trialled for use against Covid-19 and an anticoagulant has been used in some Covid-19 cases. Aspirin is not a specific cure. Covid-19 is not a virus, but a bacterium being amplified by 5G which causes inflammation and hypoxia. Covid-19 patients can get secondary infections from bacteria. Hypoxia and types of inflammation can be symptoms of Covid-19. There’s no proof Covid-19 is in any way related to 5G. People with Covid-19 should take aspirin 100mg and Apronax or paracetamol. Trials into both of these drugs’ effectiveness in treating Covid-19 are ongoing, but haven’t concluded yet. Paracetamol can ease symptoms but isn’t a specific treatment. Covid-19 clots the blood causing thrombosis, stopping blood flow and oxygenating the heart and lungs. Severe Covid-19 can cause blood clotting problems and issues like this have been seen in Covid-19 patients, but this is not the only thing that can be fatal in patients. In a day, Italy sent home more than 14,000 patients after treating them with Aspirin and Apronax. The Italian Medicines Agency doesn’t mention aspirin or apronax in its list drugs used to treat Covid-19 outside of clinical trials. And there’s no record of a day when 14,000 people were sent home from hospital in Italy. There is an order to incinerate or immediately bury Covid-19 bodies without autopsy. There is no such order. Claim 1 of 10 Claim: Italy has concluded Covid-19 is not a virus, and people are actually dying of amplified global 5G electromagnetic radiation poisoning.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the Sept. 22, 2011, Republican presidential debate, Gov. Rick Perry again defended his foiled 2007 attempt to require Texas girls to be vaccinated against a virus that can cause cervical cancer. Perry, responding to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s charge that his Feb. 2, 2007, order intended to mandate the shots for human papillomavirus, or HPV, was an inappropriate result of lobbying by his former chief of staff, said: \"I got lobbied on this issue. I got lobbied by a 31-year-old young lady who had stage 4 cervical cancer. I spent a lot of time with her. She came by my office, talked to me about this program.\" Did a cancer patient urge Perry to issue the order later nulled by Texas legislators? Nearly three weeks after Perry issued the order, it was widely reported that a Houston woman with late-stage cervical cancer had visited with him. As reported in the Feb. 20, 2007, Austin American-Statesman, Heather Burcham of Houston spoke to reporters summoned by Perry as numerous legislators were indicating they would try to cancel the order. Burcham said then: \"The vaccine has done its job if it saves one person from cancer, let alone knocks out cervical cancer altogether.\" She also signed up to testify at a Texas House hearing, the Statesman reported, but left before she was called to speak. Earlier in the day, she said she wanted to spend the time she had left sharing her story: \"It's my wildest dream come true that I get to maybe reach one person, that my life would not be in vain, that I have lived for a purpose and that I won't die and never have done anything,\" she said. Fast forward. Shortly after the Sept. 22 debate, ABC News said Perry did not meet Burcham until after he’d issued his order. Its news article says Perry \"met Burcham while she was lobbying the Texas legislature to uphold the governor’s executive order. The Legislature ultimately ruled against Burcham and Perry and did away with the vaccine mandate.\" The network, crediting a recent report by Houston’s KTRK-TV, said Perry and Burcham \"struck up a friendship despite the Texas Legislature revoking the governor’s mandate. Perry invited Burcham to a ranch, rode motorcycles with her and even sat at her bed during her final days. Burcham died in July 2007.\" A pre-debate ABC News post, dated Sept. 15, 2011, specifies that Perry and Burcham struck up the friendship after he issued the order. According to a Sept. 23, 2011, Houston Chronicle blog post, Perry spokesman Mark Miner confirmed that Burcham met Perry when she began lobbying the lawmakers to uphold his order. The post quotes Miner saying: \"It was a very inspirational passionate story that he heard from her and he met with her away from the cameras and really built up a relationship with this young girl. Yes, he had (already) signed it, but it was still going through the legislative process. It had a heavy impact on him.\" As noted Sept. 17, 2011, by Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy, Perry’s YouTube posts include a video of Burcham, in a hospital bed, shown at a May 2007 Perry press conference. Seated in a bed, Burcham says: \"I want to change as many people’s lives as I can because I know there is nothing I can do for my own life, but there is something that I can do for others ... It is so important that parents get their children this vaccination.\" Finally, we interviewed Houston developer Craig Wilson, who said Burcham lived with his family off and on for about a decade before she died. Wilson said he doesn’t recall the exact date that Burcham met Perry, though they developed a relationship when she was urging legislators not to unplug the order. \"He did everything he could to make her life better,\" Wilson said, ultimately spending three hours at her bedside before she died and later delivering a eulogy. \"This shows his character as a human being.\" Our ruling: Perry had an ally in Heather Burcham in 2007, but only after he issued his order. In the debate, in contrast, Perry brought up Burcham’s heartfelt advocacy while not speaking to criticism he had been lobbied into the order by a former aide representing a drug company. His statement misled by creating the impression Burcham swayed him to proceed with the executive order. In reality, by all accounts, that just didn’t happen. We rate Perry’s statement . Claim: Rick Perry Says he \"got lobbied\" by a woman with late-stage cancer about vaccinating Texas girls against a virus that can cause cervical cancer.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story fails to indicate how much a Pap test costs, or whether the new guidelines would cost or save money. The story reports that half of women diagnosed with cervical cancer have never had a Pap test, and another 10 percent hadn’t had one in five years. So it at least indirectly addressed benefit. The story reports that many cervical abnormalities discovered by screening \"usually go away on their own, and unnecessary treatment increases girls’ risk of premature labor years later.\" The story does not describe the evidence upon which the guideline revisions are based. Its says only that ACOG \"cited studies.\" The story does nothing to exaggerate the prevalence or severity of cervical cancer. The story essentially cites no sources other than the guidelines themselves. An expert voice or two would have been useful to help people understand the meaning of the guidelines. The story clearly compares the revised screening guidelines with the most recent ones. It also cites the link between women not being screened and getting cervical cancer. The availability of Pap smear tests is not in question in this story. No claim is made for the novelty of Pap tests. The story does not draw from any of the press releases linked to these guidelines. Claim: Report: 20-somethings can go 2 years between Paps",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Afghan man lives with his family at the Malakasa camp, just north of Athens, along with hundreds of asylum seekers. He has been transferred to a hospital in Athens and tests on his contacts will continue as authorities try to trace the route of the virus. Greece confirmed 62 new cases of COVID-19 later in the day, bringing the total in the country to 1,735 since its first case was reported in February. Seventy three people have died. Last week, the Ritsona camp in central Greece was sealed off after 20 tested positive for the new coronavirus. It was the first such facility in the country to be hit since the outbreak of the disease. [L8N2BQ1V9]  Greece has been the main gateway into the European Union for people fleeing conflict in the Middle East and beyond. More than a million people reached its shores from Turkey in 2015-16. At least 110,000 people currently live in migrant facilities - 40,000 of them in overcrowded camps on five islands. “The number (of migrants and refugees) is very large, therefore it is a given, mathematically, that there will be confirmed cases,” Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi told Skai TV. “We have an emergency plan in place ... But it is more difficult to implement it on the islands.”  No cases have been recorded in camps on Greek islands so far. The conservative government wants to replace all existing camps on islands with enclosed detention centers, but its plans have been met with resistance from local authorities and residents who want all facilities shut. To contain the spread of the virus the government also wants new arrivals isolated from the rest of the migrants but most islands have not designated areas of accommodation, ministry officials said. About 120 people who recently arrived on Lesbos have not yet found a shelter, according to sources. Aid groups have urged Greece to evacuate the camps, warning the risk of the fast-moving virus spreading among people living in squalid conditions is high and containing an outbreak in such settings would be “impossible”. The camp in Malakasa, 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Athens, will be put into quarantine for two weeks, the ministry said on Sunday, adding that police guarding the site would be reinforced to ensure the restrictions are implemented. A separate, enclosed facility started operating last month for migrants who arrived after March 1, the ministry said. Greece has imposed a nationwide lockdown and banned arrivals from non-EU countries as well as Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain. The measures have hit its economy which is relying on tourism for a recovery after a decade-long debt crisis. Claim: Greece quarantines second migrant camp after COVID-19 case confirmed.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: US-Patent 8835624 is for the H1N1 virus. The patent with this number was for a strand of DNA that binds to the H1N1 virus, not the virus itself. US patent number 20120251502 is for Ebola. This application number was for a strain of the Ebola virus but the application has now been abandoned. The virus was not created by those who filed the patent. US patent number CA2741523 is for swine flu. This is the application number for a patent for the Ebola virus made to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. This patent has not been granted, and doesn’t mean the Ebola virus was created by someone. 0070031450 A1 is a US patent for BSE (mad cow disease). There is a patent application number one digit away from this that mentions BSE, but is not a patent for BSE itself. ATTC VR-84 is a patent for Zika virus that comes from the Rockefeller Foundation. This is the name of a certain strain of Zika virus, which was first isolated in the 1940s in a lab funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. This strain was not patented. US patents 7897744 and 8506968 are for SARS. The first number is the US patent number for the SARS virus. The patent application was made by the CDC, but after the outbreak in 2002. The second number is a patent for a SARS vaccine which has now expired. US patent 10130701 is for coronavirus. This number is not a patent for the new Wuhan virus, Covid-19. It’s a patent for a weakened version of a virus in the same family as Covid-19, a family which includes the common cold and SARS. Claim 1 of 8 Claim: US patent number CA2741523 is for swine flu.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The cost of adding these foods to your diet would be negligible for most people, although taking supplements over long periods could pose a significant cost. The news release mentions only potential benefits for human beings. There’s no data on how much of these substances might need to be consumed over what period of time and in what quantity to offer cancer protection or tumor shrinkage. A researcher’s comment that “we were able to inhibit tumor growth in mice without toxicity” sheds no meaningful light on these questions. Also, the news release seems to contradict itself by suggesting that eating a diet containing cancer-fighting substances could offer a benefit, but later quoting a researcher saying, “We only need to increase concentration beyond levels found in a healthy diet for an effect on prostate cancer cells.” This comment seems to suggest people would have to take a supplement in order to get a benefit. Plant chemicals are generally considered safe, but there’s potential for toxicity if they’re consumed in combination with certain drugs or at high concentrations. There’s added risk for consumers who buy these substances in the form of dietary supplements, which are not tightly regulated by the FDA. The news release neglects to caution that studying how compounds perform in mouse and human cell lines and in animals doesn’t predict how they will perform in human beings. Extensive human trials are required before any conclusions can be drawn about safety and efficacy. Furthermore, the release touts the potential benefit of these dietary factors: “These compounds minimize one of the risk factors for cancer, inflammation within the body.”  However, it is a huge leap to think even if these compounds could reduce inflammation to a clinically important degree that it would also provide better cancer control. The release doesn’t engage in overt disease mongering. It describes prostate cancer as “the most common cancer afflicting U.S. men.” That’s true, if you don’t count skin cancer. It’s No. 2 to lung cancer when it comes to causing male deaths. The news release states that funders include that National Institutes of Health and the University of Texas System, and there were no conflicts of interest that we could find. While there’s no proven strategy to prevent prostate cancer, there is general advice for reducing overall cancer risk such as quitting smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, and eating a variety of plant foods. Current treatment options include watchful waiting, active surveillance, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. These aren’t mentioned. Speaking of prevention and treatment in the same release really oversimplifies the issues. There are studies showing that chemoprevention with 5-alpha reductase inhibitors can reduce the risk of prostate cancer, although the FDA will not allow manufacturers to suggest these compounds prevent cancer because these agents were associated with an increased risk for high-grade cancers. Treatment options completely depend upon the stage of the cancer–thus range from conservative management to aggressive attempts at curative therapy to palliative care. The role of these substances in any of these settings is obviously completely unknown. These foods can be obtained at most grocery stores; availability is not a question. The release could have lent more clarity by telling readers whether supplements are available. For example, resveratrol supplements are available and have been extensively studied for diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. The news release provides perspective, stating that the research “uses a novel analytical approach to screen numerous plant-based chemicals instead of testing a single agent as many studies do, discovering specific combinations that shrink prostate cancer tumors.” The claim of novelty seems appropriate regarding the approach to screening. It also states that the research “demonstrates how the plant-based chemicals work together. Combining ursolic acid with either curcumin or resveratrol prevents cancer cells from gobbling something that they need to grow, glutamine.” Finally, it acknowledges previous research that has “highlighted the potential therapies found in plants, including chemicals found in foods such as turmeric, apple peels and green tea.” We rate this as unjustifiable for the over-reaching headline: “Starving prostate cancer with what you eat for dinner.” That’s exacerbated by the lead: “When you dine on curry and baked apples, enjoy the fact that you are eating something that could play a role starving — or even preventing — cancer.” Claim: Starving prostate cancer with what you eat for dinner",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Yet despite its hulking appearance, the whale shark has only tiny, almost useless teeth and is sometimes so docile that entire boatloads of people can swim alongside the enigmatic, spotted beast. It’s also one of the least understood animals in the oceans. In an attempt to solve some of the most enduring mysteries, a group of scientists spent several weeks diving with whale sharks in the Galapagos Islands last summer and fall. They tried some never-before-used techniques on the species in the wild: taking blood samples and doing ultrasound exams, all while swimming furiously beside them underwater. Here’s what’s known about these massive marine animals and what scientists are still trying to find out: WHALE OR SHARK? While they are comparable in size to whales, whale sharks are sharks. They typically grow to be bigger than a double-decker bus: between 6 to 16 meters (20 to 52 feet) and more than 20 tons. But as filter feeders, the enormous whale sharks are dangerous only to the plankton, fish eggs and tiny fish they chomp on. The gentle giants aren’t particularly fast when compared to other sharks, but a simple wave of their tail propels them through the water faster than any human could ever swim. They have broad, flat heads and their entire dark-blue bodies are covered in dots that act as camouflage underwater. After years of being overhunted by fishermen, whale sharks are endangered and at risk of extinction. HANGOUT SPOTS Whale sharks prefer warm waters and are often found feeding at locations around the world including Australia, the Philippines, Mexico and even in the oil fields off the coast of Qatar. Hundreds of whale sharks — mostly young males — congregate in these areas at certain times of the year to scoop up fish eggs; it’s unknown where adult females are feeding then. The vastness of the ocean usually makes the shy animals hard to find — Jacques Cousteau only ever saw two in his decades of sea exploration. TRACKING WHALE SHARKS Marine biologists have been tagging whale sharks in recent years to track their movements. Others are trying to answer questions about their life and reproductive cycles. Only one pregnant whale shark has ever been found: In 1995, a dead whale shark was found off the coast of Taiwan with 300 embryos inside, all at different stages of development. “The million-dollar questions are where are they mating, hunting and where do their young live?” said Jonathan Green, director of the Galapagos Whale Shark Project . An international database was launched to identify as many whale sharks as possible through their distinctive dot pattern; each shark has a unique configuration of dots that act like a fingerprint. More than 8,000 sharks have been logged so far. Because scientists can only afford to spend a few weeks in the Galapagos each year, they depend on photos taken by visiting divers to figure out what the whale sharks are up to. So far, none of the sharks spotted in the Galapagos has been seen anywhere else. Researchers in the U.S. and Japan are also working to sequence the whale shark genome. GALAPAGOS DIVES The Galapagos Islands are among the few places in the world where presumably pregnant whale sharks are regularly seen. More than 99 percent of the sharks identified in the volcanic archipelago are female and many have a swollen abdomen that suggests they’re expecting. Some scientists believe pregnant whale sharks are cruising through the Galapagos, perhaps to extreme depths close to the northern-most island or to the open ocean near the equator to give birth. Either place would probably ensure the safety of their offspring from predators until they’re big enough to survive on their own. Yet another theory suggests whale sharks may be giving birth closer to Peru — after two newborn whale sharks were found in fisheries there recently. RESULTS Because of the difficulty of conducting a medical exam on a free-swimming whale shark, researchers only obtained two blood samples, which haven’t yet been tested. The ultrasound exams were inconclusive and Green said more powerful machines are needed. Most ultrasound machines for animals are intended for abdominal walls that are 1 to 2 inches thick — but a whale shark’s abdominal wall is about 8 inches. “When we first started studying these large animals, nobody knew how to go about it,” Green said. “Now that we have better technology and more experience, we will hopefully be able to answer some of the fundamental questions soon.” Besides blood and ultrasound tests, scientists successfully tagged seven sharks. While not a large number, it’s important since so few whale sharks are tracked. The pressure of deep water can cause tags to drop off if the sharks dive below 2,000 meters (6,561 feet), which the animals often do if they’re traveling long distances or possibly giving birth. But any migratory data the scientists collect when sharks stay at shallower depths can help build a picture of the sharks’ life cycle. Green and colleagues are planning further expeditions to the Galapagos later this year to continue their research, including more blood samples and satellite tagging. “When you have so few data points, every single shark is important,” said Robert Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida, who was not part of the Galapagos research. “These aren’t like goldfish where you can get sample sizes of hundreds at a time.” WHY IT MATTERS In the last 75 years, the vast majority of whale sharks have been hunted by people for food and their numbers are still dropping, said Simon Pierce , chief scientist at the Marine Megafauna Foundation . Some biologists worry climate change could hurt the sharks by reducing their food supply: rising ocean temperatures could mean less plankton. “If we do the things that are necessary to conserve the whale sharks, we’ll be conserving the ocean itself,” said Simon Thorrold of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. For Green, who heads the Galapagos project, it’s more personal. “Even after years of diving with whale sharks, I still get goose bumps every time I see that huge blue shadow in the water. It’s an incredibly emotional experience.” ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: Cracking the mysteries of the elusive, majestic whale shark.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a Republican primary, it's often hard to find major policy issues where the candidates disagree.That's why Rick Scott, the former health care CEO running for governor, is trying to make the most of a perceived policy difference with Attorney General Bill McCollum.In new direct mail pieces, Scott is claiming that McCollum supports embryonic stem cell research. Scott, meanwhile, says he would work to ban any embryonic stem cell research in Florida. \"Career politician Bill McCollum -- Testing stem cells. Testing our values,\" the mailer reads. \"Bill McCollum supports embryonic stem cell research. Bill McCollum holds the same position on this issue as Barack Obama, who recently lifted a ban on funding for embryonic stem cell research. \"McCollum disputed Scott's mailer, calling it false (and Scott \"ruthless\") in an interview with the Associated Press on June 7, 2010. \"That's just absolutely not true. I don't know where he got that from,\" McCollum said.Sounds like a case for PolitiFact Florida.For this fact-check, we're going to detail to McCollum's public position on embryonic stem cell research, and then President Obama's. Then we'll see if they're the same, as Scott claims.McCollum's positionEmbryonic stem cells are harvested from embryos that are four or five days old. In almost every case, the stem cells are extracted from left-over embryos created by women attempting to get pregnant through invitro fertilization. Scientists say embryonic stem cells hold great potential, and can be used to test new drugs and have unique regenerative capabilities that could unlock treatments for heart disease, diabetes and other diseases. The embryos are destroyed in the process.To best understand McCollum's position on embryonic stem cell research, we need to start back in 1996 when McCollum was a congressman from Central Florida.That year, Congress attached an amendment to an appropriations bill that limited or banned federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The Dickey Amendment -- named for Arkansas Republican Jay Dickey --- said that the federal government could not fund the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes or fund research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.The appropriations bill -- and the amendment -- passed 371-42. McCollum voted for the measure.The Dickey Amendment hardly ended the discussion, however, nor ultimately clarifies McCollum's position. The NIH produced a legal opinion that essentially created a loophole in the proviso. The federal government could not use tax dollars to create embryonic stem cells, the NIH said, but it could fund research on privately-created stem cell lines.Former President Bill Clinton's administration began crafting policies to fund embryonic stem cell research, but control of the White House changed before the new policies were implemented.Enter President George W. Bush.In August 2001, Bush essentially restated U.S. policy with an executive order.Bush gave a nationally televised speech, outlining his position -- that the federal government could and should fund research on the 60 or so embryonic stem cell lines already in existence, but that it would not fund research on new or future embryonic stem cell lines.Now, jump to the elections of 2004.Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry promised if elected to open new embryonic stem cell lines to federal funding. Bush maintained his opposition.The dichotomy between Kerry and Bush trickled down the Florida Republican Senate primary that year between McCollum and Mel Martinez.Martinez supported Bush's restrictions and pressed McCollum to stake out a position. Throughout 2004, newspapers generically said McCollum favored increased embryonic stem cell research, but provided little context.In July 2004, McCollum said: ''I think appropriate funding for embryonic stem cell research is a pro-life position. It conforms completely with my faith and my belief in the unborn and my belief of when life begins. And I'm one with my conscience and with my Lord. ''Then, in an August 2004 debate, Martinez fired a second bullet on the stem cell issue.According to the Miami Herald accounting of the debate, Martinez said:\"What you should do is define yourself. Do you support President Bush on stem-cell research or do you not?\" Martinez said. \"Or will you continue to side with John Kerry on this very important issue, and one, frankly, that's becoming a dividing issue in the presidential contest? \"McCollum interrupted, the Herald reported.\"Mr. Martinez, you know that I do not believe in stem-cell research that takes a life. \"McCollum then pointed out that other conservatives support the research, and the Herald reported that McCollum has said that test-tube-fertilized embryos that are to be discarded at fertility clinics are not technically human life. He said they should be used for scientific experiments to cure diseases. McCollum lost the primary, and his position on embryonic stem cell research was not questioned again. Until now.Spokeswoman Kristy Campbell explained his current thinking. \"The general has been consistent on this issue,\" Campbell said. \"He's never supported creating embryonic stem cells simply for research. But if the only options were to destroy the stem cells, or use them for research, he's preferred they go to research. \"To recap: McCollum voted for the Dickey Amendment, which blocks federal funding of at least some embryonic stem cell research, but he has consistently advocated for stem cell research beyond that of President Bush. In particular, he has said if the options for embryonic stem cells are destruction or research, he chooses research.Obama's positionObama clearly detailed his position on embryonic stem cell research during the 2008 presidential campaign. \"I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations,\" Obama said in response to a question from the website ScienceDebate.org. \"As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001, through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight,\" Obama wrote. \"I recognize that some people object to government support of research that requires cells to be harvested from human embryos. However, hundreds of thousands of embryos stored in the U.S. in invitro fertilization clinics will not be used for reproductive purposes, and will eventually be destroyed. I believe that it is ethical to use these extra embryos for research that could save lives when they are freely donated for that express purpose. \"Practically, Obama's position was not altogether different that Republican nominee John McCain. McCain said he supported federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, but opposed the \"intentional creation of human embryos for research purposes. \"In March 2009, Obama reversed U.S. policy and lifted Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell funding.Obama's reversal, however, is still somewhat limited by the Dickey Amendment.To recap: Obama supports increased funding for embryonic stem cell research, and reversed Bush's 2001 executive order. He says it is ethical to use extra embryos from invitro fertilization clinics that would otherwise be destroyed.Comparing the twoEmbryonic stem cell research is not a strictly partisan issue.The Republican-controlled Congress in 2005 passed a bill that would ease Bush's stem cell research restrictions, but it was vetoed by Bush. Among those supporting the measure were Republican senators Trent Lott, Orrin Hatch, Bill Frist and Kay Bailey Hutchison, and House Republicans Ginny Brown-Waite, Bill Young and Connie Mack.Bush also vetoed a similar measure in 2007 that passed with some GOP support.The key in this fact check, however, is to see if McCollum and Obama have the \"same\" position.On embryonic stem cell research, it appears McCollum and Obama are awfully close.Obama supports using embryonic stem cells that otherwise would be destroyed for research. McCollum does, too.The only real question is regarding funding. McCollum did vote for the Dickey Amendment, which sought to prevent federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. But in 2004, he talked about \"appropriate funding\" for embryonic stem cell research.Obama, meanwhile, has supported increased federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, saying embryonic stem cells \"may have the potential to help us understand, and possibly cure, some of our most devastating diseases and conditions.\" There's enough of a question when it comes to funding in our minds to add a slight asterisk to Scott's mailer. We rate his claim . Claim: Bill McCollum holds the same position on (embryonic stem cell research) as Barack Obama.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On Thursday – which was the unofficial stoner holiday of 4/20 – supporters of legal marijuana and opponents of the U.S. \"war on drugs\" took to the internet to make the case for their causes. One widely shared image made an unexpected implication – that decriminalizing drugs could be a pro-police move. It features images of police destroying liquor bottles and marijuana plants, with this text: \"Did you know? More American police officers died during prohibition of alcohol than any other time in history. 300 died in 1930 alone. After prohibition ended, police deaths didn't reach 200 a year again until the year Nixon declared war on drugs.\" A quick Google search showed us the image has been popping up on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other websites – and that it has been making the rounds since at least 2015. The message is clear: When the government bans popular substances, like liquor or marijuana, black market trade makes life more dangerous for those enforcing the ban. We wondered, however, if the data actually supported that message. The war on drugs Marijuana and other drugs had been illegal in the United States for years before the federal government – under President Richard Nixon, as the image correctly states – launched what we now call the \"war on drugs.\" In June 1971 Nixon declared \"a full-scale attack on the problem of drug abuse in America.\" He called for harsher drug laws and millions of dollars in extra spending, and Congress complied. Today, spending on the drug war has continued to grow, and the United States has either the largest or second-largest prison population in the world. Yet marijuana remains popular. A CBS poll released Thursday found 61 percent of Americans favor legalizing pot and 33 percent are opposed. It also found 88 percent of Americans support medical marijuana. A 2015 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey reported that 22.2 million people – 7 percent of the U.S. population – had used pot within the last month. That’s about twice the rate at which people are abusing the second-most popular drug, illicit prescription painkillers (see fact-checks on opioids here, here and here). A deadly job? Comparing Prohibition with the drug war is common in American culture. Just listen to the popular 1988 country song \"Copperhead Road\" by Steve Earle, about a man from an Appalachian moonshining clan who switches the family business to weed. But is it also fair to compare police deaths during the two periods? That’s a little iffy. It’s correct that 1930 was the deadliest year in U.S. history for police. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks officer deaths going back to 1791, says 307 officers died in 1930. It’s also correct that police deaths decreased sharply after Prohibition. But the numbers behind the claim that \"police deaths didn't reach 200 a year again until the year Nixon declared war on drugs\" are a bit off. Nixon began the war on drugs in 1971, but police deaths actually topped 200 the year before that in 1970. And that wasn’t any sort of a spike – the number of deaths had been just below 200 all throughout the late 1960s. And that’s not the only thing wrong with this claim. Not all deaths are violent The image clearly uses the violence associated with organized crime to make its point. However, not every officer who dies in any given year is killed by someone else in the line of duty. Many officers die from car crashes, illnesses and other causes. Yet the data this viral post cites on police deaths includes all deaths of police officers each year – violent and non-violent, on-duty and off-duty. In 2007, according to the memorial group, 202 officers died. According to FBI data, 57 of those officers were killed by a criminal while on duty. That means nearly three-fourths of the deaths that year were not the kind of violent deaths this image is alluding to. And even while on duty that year, an officer was more likely to have been killed in an accident than by a criminal. Fewer police deaths We focused on 2007 for a reason. In the last 36 years, only 2007 and 2001 (due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks) have had more than 200 officer deaths. Yet the typical person who sees this image might very well believe that 200 or more police officers are continuing to die each year during the war on drugs. In reality that’s only happened 12 times, and only twice since 1981. Nicholas Kristof wrote in 2015 that toddlers are killed by guns more often than on-duty police officers are. And whatever the cause of officers' deaths in a given period, the war on drugs still doesn’t compare to Prohibition, when for 14 years an average of 252 officers died every year. Since Prohibition ended more than 80 years ago, however, there have been more than 250 officer deaths only twice – in 1973 and 1974. In fact, during most years from the 1990s until today, the number of officer deaths has been roughly the same as 100 years ago, when there were far fewer officers. Our ruling A viral image making the rounds on 4/20 compared the number of police officer deaths during Prohibition to the drug war: \"After prohibition ended, police deaths didn't reach 200 a year again until the year Nixon declared war on drugs,\" the image said. Those numbers aren’t totally accurate, and the comparison itself is misleading. For one, it counts many officers' deaths that had nothing to do with the prohibition of drugs or alcohol, like an officer who dies of cancer or in a car crash on vacation. And despite the direct comparison between the deadly years of Prohibition and the war on drugs, police deaths have largely been on the decline for decades even as the drug war continues and the number of officers has grown significantly. Since the image uses a semi-accurate statistic to make a misleading comparison. Claim: After prohibition ended, police deaths didn't reach 200 a year again until the year Nixon declared war on drugs.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A day after Australia recorded its hottest day on record, thick smoke blanketed the harbor city, shrouded the Opera House and brought many outdoor activities to a halt. The state of emergency declaration gave firefighters broad powers to control government resources, force evacuations, close roads and shut down utilities across New South Wales, which is home to more than 7 million people. Authorities said nearly 120 fires remained ablaze by late afternoon, more than half of which are uncontrolled, and with temperatures forecast to top 45 degrees Celsius (113°F) in some areas, officials warned residents to be on high alert. “The firefront has been spreading very quickly and intensely,” NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney, adding that two firefighters had been airlifted to hospital with burns to their faces and airways. “It’s still a very difficult and dangerous set of circumstances.”  Days out from Christmas, a time when many Australians head to the coast for the holidays, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian advised people to make sure “you are prepared to change your plans should circumstances change.”  In Shoalhaven, a popular coastal destination some 190 km (120 miles) south of Sydney, local mayor Amanda Findley said people were poised to evacuate. “There is a large amount of smoke looming over the city, which shows how close the fire is,” Findley told Reuters by telephone. “It is extremely hot and windy now so we are all worried the fire could spread. People are really worried that they may lose everything.”  The RFS posted footage on its official Twitter account showing firefighters tackling one of the three blazes ringing Sydney. A waterbomber aircraft was dwarfed by thick grey and black billowing cloud as it attempted to douse flames in bushland just meters away from homes. Australia has been battling wildfires across much of its east coast for weeks, leaving six people dead, more than 680 homes destroyed and nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of bushland burnt. Berejiklian said as many as 40 homes had been destroyed on Thursday. Australia on Wednesday broke all-time heat records for the second day running, with maximum temperatures reaching an average of 41.9 degree Celsius, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Some 1,700 firefighters have been deployed across NSW, but officials warned that was still not enough to cover every potential danger and urged people in high risk areas to evacuate while it was still safe to do so. The current state of emergency will last for seven days, while a total fire ban that has been in place since Tuesday will remain until midnight on Saturday. The major fires around Sydney, which is home to more than 5 million people, have resulted in days of heavy pollution in the city usually known for its sparkling harbor and blue skies. One megafire in the Kanangra Boyd National Park to the city’s southwest had crept to the very outskirts of Campbelltown, a suburb of 157,000 people. By late afternoon, Sydney was sitting at No.4 on the IQAir AirVisual live rankings of pollution in global cities, above Dhaka, Mumbai, Shanghai and Jakarta. Many commuters have donned breathing masks in recent weeks as air quality has plunged to hazardous levels not previously seen in the city. NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said the service had experienced a 10% surge in call-outs for patients suffering respiratory conditions over the past week and urged susceptible people to remain indoors and keep their medication close. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has weathered a storm of criticism on social media in recent days for going on an overseas holiday during the emergency, adding to criticism that his government is failing to deliver adequate climate change policies. As local media reported Morrison was in Hawaii on a family holiday, about 500 protesters gathered outside his official Sydney residence to demand urgent action on climate change. Morrison’s office refused to confirm his whereabouts. One protestor, wearing an Hawaiian shirt, carried a sign reading, “ScoMo, where the bloody hell are you?” referencing the leader’s nickname and a decade-old international advertisement for Tourism Australia that was banned in several countries because the language was deemed offensive. Australia’s low-lying Pacific neighbors have been particularly critical of the coal-rich nation’s climate policies following modest progress at the U.N. climate talks in Madrid. “It was particularly disappointing to see our Pacific cousins in Australia actively standing in the way of progress at a time when we have been watching in horror as their own country is ablaze,” Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine said in a statement on Wednesday. Claim: A photograph shows Dr. Anthony Fauci at a baseball game with his mask lowered below his mouth. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The article does an outstanding job of noting the cost of surgery, although the article could have been stronger if it had pointed out the estimated costs of drug therapies, hospitalizations and sometimes institutionalization of children and adults who are severely disabled by some forms of seizure disorders. Although there is some quantification of benefits, the article doesn’t specify the actual number of children who had the primary outcome — a year without seizures. And thus the statement in the lead that brain surgery in the study group can produce a 10-fold increase in the odds of being seizure free after one year will be difficult for readers to put into perspective. And as noted above, the article does not specify how many operations or what types of surgery were performed on what ages of children. Editor’s note: While the story doesn’t state the absolute amount of children who experienced improvement after surgery compared to the control group, the story does give readers enough information to understand the measured benefits. For this reason, we changed our initial rating from Not Satisfactory to Satisfactory. Seventy-seven percent of the children were free of seizures at one year after the surgery, compared with seven percent in a control group of youngsters who received medical therapy alone while waiting for surgery. Harms are explained but again without much quantification. The article describes the general level of evidence but it would have been a much stronger article had it specified the specific types of cognitive and other tests used to evaluate the outcomes in the children. Other details were needed, too: how old the children were; what kind of neurosurgery they had; and what the major limitations of the study were. No mongering. The article does quote a Boston specialist who was not a part of the study, which was conducted in India. The article does note that drug therapies are standard of care, but does not specify what drugs are used. More significantly, because the article does not specify in any real detail what kinds of surgeries were performed on the study group, it is difficult for readers to compare alternatives. Beyond noting that costs are a frequent barrier in India to getting the surgery, the article does not say anything about general availability of the operations, or define categories of candidates. The article notes this is the first trial of its kind in children. This appears to be accurate. There have been very few randomized trials (a recent Cochrane review found only four, and only one compared surgery to medical therapy); there is a recent trial (ERSET) that went down to age 12, but was almost all in adults. One point that’s important to note: There is nothing in the study to support the statement that the earlier surgery is done, the better; only that this shows that it appears to substantially decrease seizure frequency in children, as it has been shown to do in adults. The article quotes outside sources. Claim: First test of anti-epilepsy surgeries in children shows dramatic benefit",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An assessment by the Department of State Health Services didn’t attempt to determine whether the cancers were linked to chemicals beneath homes in the city’s Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. But the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requested the assessment because of residents’ concerns that a plume of polluted groundwater from the Union Pacific site had made some of them sick, and city health officials said it underscored the need for a closer examination. ”I was crying and frustrated,” after learning about the cancer cluster, resident Leisa Glenn told the Houston Chronicle. Creosote, deemed a probable human carcinogen, was used for more than 80 years in a rail yard in the historically black area, until the 1980s, the Chronicle reported. The assessment found that the number of lung and bronchus cancers was, on average, 36% higher than would be expected, esophagus cancers almost 63% higher and larynx cancers 90% higher. But the study cautioned that lifestyle and other factors also could be a cause, and it did not account for how long residents had lived in the area. Still, “the contaminants in the plume are linked to those specific cancers,” found in the assessment, said Loren Hopkins, chief environmental science officer at the Houston Health Department. For example, arsenic is found in creosote and linked to lung cancer. Union Pacific told the Houston Chronicle that it is reviewing the study, which it said it just received. The study was completed in August but the city and residents were never notified by the state. The city health department learned about it at the end of November, officials said. “The fact that there has been shockingly little communication between the state and community is astounding,” said Elena Craft, a toxicologist and senior director of climate and health at the Environmental Defense Fund. Union Pacific bought the site from Southern Pacific in 1996, and in 2014 warned residents against drinking water from wells because of contamination that had moved off-site. It also has been using wells to extract contamination from the plume, and is testing the air in homes for harmful vapors. The state environment agency said in a statement that it “continues to oversee cleanup activities being performed at the site.” Hopkins said city health officials have asked the state for additional studies to determine if there is an environmental link, and to consider liver cancer and non-cancer health effects, which she said also can be caused by chemicals in the plume. In addition, the city health department will conduct a door-to-door health survey, and gather information about people who might have moved away before they were diagnosed with cancer, she said. Hopkins said even if an environmental  link were proven, it likely would have been caused by exposure when pollution levels were higher, because it takes a long time for cancer to develop. Still, she said she was “very surprised” by the findings because it’s often difficult to detect cancer clusters. ”I just feel the anxiety the citizens are suffering from living over this and finding out about the cancer cluster,” she said. “It is tragic, and they are frustrated that things aren’t moving faster.” Claim: Texas IDs cancer cluster in polluted Houston neighborhood.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The “love bug,” a fly in the Bibionidae family (also known as the honeymoon fly, telephone bug, double-headed bug, united bug, and March fly), is a nuisance any Florida motorist is unhappily more than passingly familiar with. Though these bugs neither bite nor sting, at certain times of the year their sheer numbers transform these innocuous insects into airborne hordes seemingly determined to devil anyone fool enough to take to the road. The adults splatter on windshields, lights, grills, and radiators of motor vehicles, and their dried remains can be difficult to remove. Suicidal pairs of love bugs have been known to cause overheating of motors when large numbers of them are drawn into the cooling systems of liquid-cooled engines. Every May and September these sex-crazed critters become an annoyance bordering on intolerable as the air teems with mating pairs. But the “love bugs” haven’t always been part of the Floridian landscape, thus we’ve seen an abundance of “mad scientist” stories about how the state came to be infested with them. (Love bugs are not solely a Floridian plague; they range throughout the Gulf states and into Mexico and Central America, as well as up into Georgia and South Carolina. But they seem particularly enamored of Florida.) Truth is, Mother Nature is far more to be feared than any mad scientist and is far more capricious. In this case, she inspired some of her children to migrate to a new area, and in doing so prompted the creation of a number of rumors which attempt to explain why these critters came to take up residence in places where they weren’t found before:  Love Bugs are actually man-made. Scientists were genetically engineering females of a species of insect that would mate with the male mosquito, but be sterile and produce no offspring. Unfortunately, they accidentally also created a male Love Bug, and a pair somehow escaped into the wild. Since the bugs had no natural predators, their numbers quickly exploded into the millions. Back when I was a student at Florida State, I was told that love bugs were accidentally released from a biological experiment station at the University of Florida. Supposedly, the lovebug was “created” in a lab at UF by crossing a fly and a mosquito in an attempt to create an enemy for mosquito larva. It supposedly got loose and now populates the whole southern US. Love bugs are not the result of a genetic cloning experiment gone wrong, nor were they unwittingly loosed from a research facility charged with studying exotic insects. They also weren’t bio-engineered as a natural solution to the mosquito problem, as love bugs do not eat mosquitoes. These overly amorous critters are native to Central America; the best guess as to how they came to these United States places them as undiscovered stowaways who arrived by ship in Galveston or New Orleans around 1920. They migrated into Florida in 1947 from Louisiana, looked around, liked what they saw, and decided to stay. Their natural capacity for reproduction took care of the rest. Or, as an academic quoted by the Orlando Sentinel observed (with tongue firmly in cheek): Decades ago, with the mosquito population out of control, the University of Florida’s mad scientists decided to fight back. That’s how the red and black lovebugs were created — or at least that’s how an urban legend says it happened. Philip Koehler, an endowed professor in UF’s entomology department, wasn’t sure how the myth started but said it’s impossible. “If we’d created them, they would be orange and blue,” he said. Claim: Love bugs\" are the result of a genetic experiment gone wrong at the University of Florida.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Deaths surged to 161 from 105 on Wednesday while positive cases rose to 11,131 from 9,017, according to provincial announcements compiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.  “This is a critical week in our fight against the coronavirus,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Canada’s public health agency is particularly worried by the spread of the coronavirus in seniors’ residences, which are turning into hotspots in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia - the three biggest provinces by population. It has also expressed concerns about remote, northern indigenous communities, where healthcare is scant. Canada’s military is in talks to offer help if necessary, an official at the ministry of indigenous services told reporters. The health agency predicted a surge in Ontario, which accounts for more than a third of Canada’s 38 million citizens. Ontario premier Doug Ford said he would release sobering internal projections on Friday. “I have to be up front with people, and I’m going to be, and people will see some really stark figures tomorrow,” he said. Click tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in a separate browser for GRAPHIC tracking the global spread of coronavirus. Toronto Mayor John Tory - unhappy that people are defying a shutdown order by gathering in public places - announced officials would mount “a blitz on our parks” to force people back home. “The time for puzzlement at this misbehavior is over,” he told reporters. In Quebec, Premier Francois Legault urged police “to be less tolerant” when dealing with those ignoring orders to stay at home. People can be fined up to C$6,000, he said. Legault, worried about shortages of medical supplies, said Quebec had enough ventilators for another week. Some medical personnel have raised concerns about a lack of personal protection equipment. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said authorities had received over a million masks on Wednesday. New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs told CBC his province would run out of testing kits in about a week if they ramped up efforts to see who had contracted the virus. Trudeau sidestepped requests to outline the projections Ottawa was using. “I think people can imagine a range of scenarios that shows everything from everyone gets suddenly better within the next few weeks to this situation just keeps getting worse,” he said. Claim: Canada faces 'critical week' in coronavirus crisis, death toll jumps.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: When key state legislators approved a multifaceted amendment to cut the budget and make other high-profile changes to the University of Wisconsin System on June 3, 2011, little attention was paid to item number 27. Labeled \"Liability Protections for Scientific Researchers,\" the amendment dealt with changes in the state statute regarding \"crimes against animals.\" About a week later, the Wisconsin Humane Society urged its supporters to protest the move, which university researchers said was necessary to protect vital research from the chilling effect of possible lawsuits or criminal prosecutions urged by animal-rights activists. In a news release on June 13, 2011, the Humane Society said the state legislation would \"exempt scientific researchers from all state animal cruelty laws.\" \"Wisconsin law already exempts bona fide scientific researchers from the statutes prohibiting animal mistreatment … and poisoning,\" the group’s  executive director Anne Reed wrote. \"The budget bill amendment is broader and would exempt researchers from the entirety of Chapter 951, the criminal laws relating to animal cruelty.\" That’s a provocative claim about an apparently major change in state law --  and one that was inserted without public hearing or discussion into a lengthy budget bill. That’s right up our alley. First, a bit of background about the legislation. It grew, in part, out of university concerns about legal liability for researchers in the wake of criminal investigations into the use of sheep and mice in experiments, said Eric Sandgren, director of the UW Research Animal Resources Center. For three decades, UW-Madison used sheep in U.S. Navy-funded experiments related to decompression sickness in divers, Sandgren said. The sheep are euthanized at the end of the experiments. In 2009, Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard found that UW-Madison researchers violated the crimes against animals law. He  declined to prosecute, saying it was not intentional or negligent. In 2010, the Alliance for Animals and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) went to court seeking criminal charges against UW officials in connection with 26 sheep that died as a result of decompression experiments, the Madison Capital Times reported. In that case, a Madison special prosecutor appointed by a judge in May 2011 determined university employees broke no laws, but he \"scolded university officials for not having a better system in place for keeping track of state and federal laws,\" the Capital Times reported. All right, let’s examine the proposed changes. To back up her claim that the budget amendment would exempt researchers from the whole criminal statute, Reed pointed to the proposed amendment approved on June 3 by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. The committee did the preliminary work on the budget, which then went to the Assembly and Senate. The bill markup document creates a new section in Chapter 951, the criminal statute that deals with dognapping, decompression, instigation of fights between animals, nutrition for confined animals and other acts. Under the amendment, the statute would read: \"This chapter does not apply to an animal that is being used for research or experimentation at an educational or research institution or to an animal that is being used for research or experimentation that is regulated under (federal laws).\" The change, as proposed, affects state criminal prohibitions on animal cruelty written into the statutes decades ago. That sounds sweeping, and, indeed, it is accurate to say that the amendment would exempt university researchers from the state statute providing criminal penalties for animal cruelty, Sandgren said. Sandgren defends the proposal and says it will not lead to more abuse. He points to a federal law, the Animal Welfare Act, that is enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture. That law, another federal law, and UW’s own ethical standards, are enough to keep research within legal standards, Sandgren and other supporters of the change contend. One co-sponsor of the multifaceted budget amendment for the university system, Rep. Patricia Strachota (R-West Bend), said a coalition of bioscience researchers sought the liability protection. A Medical College of Wisconsin spokesman said the members of the statewide coalition addressing the issue are: BioForward, Covance, the Medical College of Wisconsin, UW Health, UW Madison, UW System, Wisconsin Alumni Association, and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The proposed change \"removes the cloud of criminal prosecutions\" for bona fide researchers, said Medical College spokesman Richard Katschke. Reed says that is one cause for concern, among several. She said the federal law was not as meaningful, because local district attorneys would be more inclined to listen to complaints than federal authorities. \"That’s why we have state statutes,\" Reed said. Reed also pointed out a potential loophole in the amendment language. While the intent of the budget amendment appeared to be to exempt only bona fide research at educational/research institutions, we found the actual language in the bill markup does not make that distinction. Strachota said legislators were planning to clean up the language to make it clear that only public educational institutions would be exempt. One more issue before we take stock. Sandgren took issue with the wording of a Humane Society e-mail alert to its supporters that said the proposed change means researchers \"can do anything without worrying about any legal protections for animals at all.\" That e-mail alert did not make it explicitly clear, Reed acknowledged, that the society was talking about state legal protections. But the news release published by the group, as well as its website, covered that point. How does it all stack up? The Wisconsin Humane Society says a proposed state statute change will exempt researchers from all the state’s criminal prohibitions against animal cruelty. There’s disagreement about the real-world impact of the change, but the exemption itself is clear. The disagreement is related to federal laws and ethical standards, which would not be affected -- and were not mentioned by the group. Claim: An amendment inserted by lawmakers into the state budget \"exempts scientific researchers from all state animal cruelty laws.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Bureau for Public Health made the recommendation Wednesday for such employees in Kanawha and Putnam counties. Eight food establishments in Kanawha, Putnam and Cabell counties have been identified as having a worker confirmed with hepatitis A. The bureau says in a statement that in each of those instances, a history of drug use was identified in an employee. No customers have become sick and state health officer Dr. Rahul Gupta says the risk of hepatitis A transmission to the general public remains low. Symptoms of hepatitis A include fever, nausea and vomiting. The statement says three vaccination clinics for hepatitis A have been scheduled, including Friday at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. Claim: Shots for food workers urged in 2 West Virginia counties.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: News outlets report Athens-Clarke County Animal Shelter announced Wednesday that the area will be quarantined until Sept. 16. The shelter says several seemingly healthy puppies arrived last week, but by Saturday, one of the puppies became seriously ill and the other two appeared ill. They say the puppies tested positive for parvo and were euthanized after their illness worsened. The shelter says the remaining dogs were vaccinated and are at low risk of infection. The cat area briefly closed in July after some kittens were infected by panleukopenia, which is deadly to unvaccinated felines. Workers euthanized 31 cats. A subsequent test showed negative results for one kitten. Claim: Georgia shelter quarantines dog area for parvovirus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Famed for his work exploring the origins of the universe, Hawking died in March at the age of 76 after spending most of his life confined to a wheelchair with motor neurone disease. Some of his belongings including essays, medals, awards and a copy of his book a “Brief History of Time” signed with a thumbprint were sold online on Thursday alongside letters and manuscripts belonging to Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Hawking’s 117-page dissertation “Properties of expanding universes” from 1965 sold for 584,750 pounds, well ahead of the estimate of up to 150,000. Medals and awards sold for 296,750 pounds, compared with an estimate of 15,000 pounds, while the red motorized wheelchair sold for 296,750 pounds, also compared with an estimate of 15,000 pounds. Auction house Christies ran the nine-day online auction called “On the Shoulders of Giants” to raise money for the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association. It also offered fans of the physicist known for his electronic voice synthesizer a chance to buy some of his possessions. “Stephen Hawking was a huge personality worldwide. He had this amazing ability to connect with people,” Thomas Venning, head of the Books and Manuscripts department at auction house Christie’s London, told Reuters ahead of the event. ($1 = 0.7658 pounds) Claim: Stephen Hawking's thesis and wheelchair sell for $1 million.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The organization celebrated five years since Kyle Parker was hired as president and CEO of the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. It was also the beginning of what would grow from one college to the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, which aims to promote a healthy community. In five years, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant, residency, fellowship and master of science and biomedicine programs have been announced. The colleges plan to offer programs to some of the most-needed services in Arkansas and want to provide resources for students to do them effectively, the Southwest Times Record reported. The master of science and biomedicine, announced recently, is designed for students who wish to become physicians or enter other health care professions but are not yet ready for medical school. It will bridge the gap between students who either may not have a typical undergraduate academic background reflective of a medical career or may be resuming their education after time off. The area features completed housing developments along with in-progress work, such as Heritage Village and the Celebration Garden and Wellness Park, which will honor the college’s anatomical donors. It was announced that Parker gave $100,000 toward the garden and park in honor of his wife and mother. Two streets, Loretta Parker Lane and Renee Parker Way, will be named after the two. Parker also announced the campus’ third building will be devoted to research and visual arts. He hopes this building can pair excellence in learning through research while offering an environment where students can effectively cope with the stress that naturally comes with life and learning. “This is just the beginning of fulfilling the ACHE mission and the dream of changing health care as we know it,” said ACHE Board Chairman David Craig. The college also plans to begin an “Adopt a Doc” program, Parker said, as a way for the community to thank its students. He said residents can “adopt” a student and take them out for pizza or invite them to see the Arkansas foliage this fall. Parker wants to remind students they’re valued and want to stay in the area. Outside of the education being provided, ACHE’s faculty, staff and students strive to be more than consumers of Fort Smith resources and give back to the community that has welcomed the school. They’ve worked with students in the Fort Smith School District, regularly volunteer at numerous local nonprofits and integrated themselves into the community with the college’s “Walk with a Doc” program and outreach opportunities to collect goods for residents in need. Parker said these other activities are the most important to the college when interviewing prospective students. The college received more than 5,000 applications for its upcoming 150-person class. “What’s so important to us is what’s in these students’ hearts,” Parker said. “What we want to know is what’s sitting inside their heart. Who are you as a person? Do you truly care for somebody. Can we get you to serve in one of the most underserved areas in the United States?” Mayor George McGill presented a citation of appreciation from the city’s local representatives and spoke highly of the college and what it’s accomplished. “On behalf of the city of Fort Smith, I wish I could really tell you what it means to this city,” McGill said. “It’s incredible, and it’s the one thing I talk about very often — the impact this medical school and all its bold vision has meant to Fort Smith and all of the River Valley. We’re very blessed to have you here.” ARCOM was one of the first major developments at Chaffee Crossing, and Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Marketing Director Lorie Robertson said its success is due in part to the medical school. “There’s no question that the development associated with the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education has not only contributed but spurred development in general in Chaffee Crossing. We couldn’t be prouder,” Robertson said. “This is a cornerstone for our development and just an amazing realization that continues to change, expand and grow into bigger and greater things for the Fort Smith Region.” Chaffee Crossing has more than $1.6 billion in capital investments, Robertson previously said. Multiple residential and smaller commercial areas have been built, the Fort Smith Public Schools Career and Technology campus will be on the outer edge of the area, and several international companies have plants located at Chaffee. The college will welcome its third class this summer, and as Parker told guests, “y’all ain’t seen nothing yet.” ___ Information from: Southwest Times Record, http://www.swtimes.com/ Claim: Arkansas Colleges of Health Education celebrates 5 years.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: But when your guests are 55 students who won a nationwide healthy recipe contest, it is a fitting feast to promote first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to end childhood obesity. President Barack Obama, who dropped by as a surprise, told the youngsters to spread their healthy eating habits to their friends. “The truth is that parents, it turns out, don’t always have the most influence,” he said. “What really helps is when their friends at school are all like, ‘You’re having chips? I’m sorry, I’m having the Barack-amole,’” he said, referencing a topping on one of the winning recipes, a healthy taco dish. The winners were chosen from nearly 1,000 entries for recipes ranging from “Deliciousness over Rice” to “Secret Service Pizza Delight.”       After speaking to the group, Barack Obama glanced at a table where a girl had knocked something over. “That’s OK,” he told her. “When I’m at state dinners, I’m always spilling things.”  “Usually,” he added, “on my tie.” Claim: Recipe winners dine on brussels sprouts, smoothies at White House.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Pancreatitis, Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2), anaphylaxis, arthritis, encephalitis, aseptic meningitis, pneumonia, deafness, retinitis and epididymitis are also listed as side effects. Death is listed as a side effect of the MMR vaccine. Measles is at the top of the list of the MMR vaccine’s adverse reactions. Atypical measles is listed as one of the “adverse reactions” of the MMR vaccine used in the US and one of the UK brands (it is not “top” of these lists). That’s because people vaccinated with a certain brand of measles jab in the 60s and 70s were still able to get “atypical measles” if they were exposed to a certain measles strain. The other UK brand lists “atypical measles” as a “possible side effect” as some people who were given that MMR vaccine got atypical measles if they also got the old measles jab. Claim 1 of 4 Claim: Death is listed as a side effect of the MMR vaccine.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The jury in Humboldt County Superior Court in Eureka, California rejected claims by Carla Allen who said that her mesothelioma, a tissue cancer closely linked to asbestos exposure, was caused by the company’s talc products, including Johnson’s Baby Powder. J&J denies the allegations, saying decades of scientific testing and regulatory approvals have shown its talc to be safe and asbestos-free. Plaintiffs in the litigation allege that J&J knew of asbestos fibers in its cosmetic talc and concealed risks associated with the products. The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company faces some 11,700 U.S. talc lawsuits, according to an October regulatory filing. More than 9,700 of those cases involve claims over ovarian cancer, recent filings in New Jersey federal court, where most of the cases are consolidated, showed. The remaining plaintiffs allege asbestos in J&J’s talc caused them to develop mesothelioma. J&J in a statement on Wednesday said it was pleased with the jury’s decision in the case of Allen. “While we deeply sympathize with anyone suffering from any form of cancer, the science and facts show that her disease was not caused by her use of our talcum-based products,” the company said. The California jury reached its decision following a roughly seven-week long jury trial, court records showed, but further details were not immediately available. Lawyers for Allen did not immediately respond to a request for comment. J&J has been fighting talc cancer lawsuits for several years, but the litigation shifted in recent months to include allegations of asbestos contamination. Plaintiffs now claim asbestos fibers in the products are causing both ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. J&J to date has been cleared of liability in three mesothelioma cases. It has lost two mesothelioma cases in New Jersey and California, with juries awarding a total of $142 million in damages. Both cases are under appeal. Four additional mesothelioma cases resulted in a mistrial because jurors could not reach a verdict or because the plaintiff died. In July, a Missouri jury hit J&J with a massive $4.69 billion verdict in the first trial alleging asbestos contamination has caused ovarian cancer in 22 women. That decision is also under appeal. Claim: Jury clears J&J of liability in California talc cancer case.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Thousands of people were trapped for more than a week in submerged villages without access to clean water after Cyclone Idai smashed into the Mozambican port city of Beira on March 14, causing catastrophic flooding and killing more than 700 people across three countries in southeast Africa. With tens of thousands of displaced people moved to makeshift camps, relief efforts have increasingly focused on containing outbreaks of waterborne and infectious diseases. David Wightwick, a senior member of the WHO’s response team in Beira, told reporters that seven clinics had been set up in Mozambique to treat cholera patients and that two more would be ready soon. “We have 900,000 doses of oral cholera vaccines which are coming in on Monday, and we will start a vaccination campaign as soon as possible next week,” Wightwick said. Cholera is endemic to Mozambique, which has had regular outbreaks over the past five years. About 2,000 people were infected in the last outbreak, which ended in February 2018, according to the WHO. But the scale of the damage to Beira’s water and sanitation infrastructure, coupled with its dense population, have raised fears that another epidemic would be difficult to put down. Wightwick could not confirm whether there had yet been any deaths from cholera in Mozambique. A Reuters reporter saw the body of a dead child being brought out of an emergency clinic in Beira on Wednesday. The child had suffered acute diarrhea, which can be a symptom of cholera. In nearby Malawi, which was badly hit by flooding and heavy rains in the leadup to Cyclone Idai, the government said arable and livestock farming had been badly affected and that irrigation infrastructure had been damaged. Agriculture ministry spokesman Hamilton Chimala said around 420,000 metric tonnes of maize had been lost, representing roughly 12 percent of the country’s forecast output of 3.3 million metric tonnes in the 2018/19 farming season. Impoverished Malawi is regularly hit by food shortages, so the damage to the country’s staple grain is a cause for concern. Zimbabwe’s Local Government Minister July Moyo said on Wednesday the government would spend another $18 million to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone. As of Wednesday, 713 people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi had died in the tropical storm and in the heavy rains before it hit. Claim: Mozambique to start cholera vaccinations next week after cyclone.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: India banned the sale and import of e-cigarettes this month, warning of an “epidemic” of vaping among young people. The action has affected users nationwide and the plans of international companies including Juul Labs Inc and Philip Morris International, as well as triggering court challenges by local firms. Protesters convened on Saturday to call for vaping devices to be regulated rather than prohibited. But organizers Association of Vapers India said only about 400 people turned up across six cities, adding that some opponents of the ban feared being targeted by police. At one protest in the capital New Delhi, several people used vaping devices. Among them sat a child with a poster that read: “I don’t want my dad to be a smoker”. The government argues the ban is essential to protect people as vaping can lead to nicotine addiction and push users toward consuming tobacco. Vapers say the devices help them stay away from more harmful tobacco cigarettes. More than 900,000 people die each year due to tobacco-related illnesses in India, the government estimates. But the country has 106 million adult smokers, second only to China, making it a lucrative potential market for companies selling both tobacco and vaping products. An Indian health ministry official said the government was determined to stick by its ban, despite the protests and court challenges. “There is no question of a rollback or anything like that,” the official said. Two court challenges that could be pivotal for whether the ban can continue to be enforced are under way in the eastern city of Kolkata, including one by e-cigarette importer Plume Vapour. The company, in a court filing seen by Reuters, argues that the ban will allow cigarette companies to flourish while putting e-cigarette firms out of business. New Delhi protester Aryaman Chaudhary, 25, said he stocked up on vape refills ahead of the ban, but was worried he would eventually run out. “I just want this regulated, not banned ... Everybody has an addiction.” Claim: No vaping ban U-turn, says Indian official, as protests fizzle.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Many eRumors and opinions are still circulating about the Health Care Reform Bill or HR-3200 which was abandoned for a new bill 1990 page bill HR-3962 titled the  “Affordable Health Care for America Act.” On December 24, 2009 the Senate passed the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” by a yea-nay vote of 60-39. The House version of the 2409 page bill is HR-3590. On the afternoon of March 18, 2010 Congress announced that the House posted an additional package, HR-4872 – Reconciliation Act of 2010, that contains 153 pages of fixes to the Healthcare bill. On March 21, 2010, Congress passed the two bills. In November 2010 the Republican Party won majority control of Congress on the campaign promise that they would repeal Obamacare. The new GOP led Congress met on January 19, 2011 to debate the repeal of the Health Care Reform Law. They voted 245 to 189 in favor to repeal the bill. The next step for the bill is to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, has vowed to block it. The text of HR-2 – Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act  can be found at this link: Click for HR-2 The current Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act HR-3590 and the Reconciliation Act of 2010HR-4872 can be viewed on the Thomas Library site:  Click for HR-3590  Click for HR-4872  On October 1, 2013 the Affordable Care Act roll out began with the opening of the long awaited sign up website at  HealthCare.gov. The roll out was shaky after a series of website crashes as people tried to investigate their health care options. A short time later letters from insurance companies began to be sent to nearly 5 million people living in the U.S. notifying them of policy terminations because of new regulations set down by the Affordable care act. When people called the insurance companies they were directed to purchase new policies. TruthOrFiction.Com has a special report. Click here for report. HR-3590 eRumors: Medical devices sold will now have a  2.3% Excise Tax According to the  Internal Revenue Service, “section 4191 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on the sale of certain medical devices by the manufacturer or importer of the device.”  This is a 2.3 % of the sale price of taxable medical devices and went into effect January 1, 2013. Some items are exempt from the tax, such as eyeglasses, contact lenses and hearing aids. According to the Internal Revenue Service, it is the manufacturer or importer of the taxable medical device who is responsible for paying the excise tax, not the consumer. Customers should not see any added taxes on their sales slips but the cost of the actual item to customers could increase as a result of this excise tax. Some versions of this rumor include a photo of a sales slip from a sporting goods chain and allege that the tax is included on sporting equipment. The tax is not applicable on anything other than the medical devices. Real estate sales will be taxed 3.8% Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois released a statement on March 21, 2010  on HR-3590 saying that the health care bill will increase taxes “by imposing a new 3.8% tax on capital gains.” At first, it was believed that taxes and surcharges could be imposed on income over $250,000 for single tax filers and $500,000 for married couples filing together. That imposed tax is to help fund the $210 Billion needed to fund the new Health Care Bill. According to the National Board of Realtors, the new law will take effect January 1, 2013 and  “may impose a 3.8% tax on some (but not all) income from interest, dividends, rents (less expenses) and capital gains (less capital losses).”   It said that this “tax will fall only on individuals with an adjusted gross income (AGI) above $200,000 and couples filing a joint return with more than $250,000 AGI.” To help realtors and investors the National Association of Realtors released a brochure that explains the new tax called, The 3.8% Tax Real Estate Scenarios & Examples Effective January 1, 2013. Click here for a copy of the brochure. The actual tax increases may be generated by the HR-4872 Reconciliation Act according a  March 21, 2010 article by Life and Health News Insurance News. This is also confirmed in a  March 25, 2010 article by CNNMoney.com that said, “couples making $500,000 in wages will pay an additional $2,250. If they made $1 million, they would pay an additional $6,750. In addition, high-income households would also be subject to a new 3.8% Medicare tax on investment income starting in 2013.”  Aspirin Tax become effective June 1, 2013 Effective June 1, 2013, aspirin will be heavily taxed under Obamacare. The only explanation given was that they are white and they work. No other reason was given, but I thought you’d want to know about it. This is someone’s attempt at humor but all kidding aside Obamacare not affects consumer purchases of aspirin but it also affects all over the counter medications and how consumers should purchase them. According to a July 5, 2012 article by Fox News there is a medicine cabinet tax in Obamacare, “which since 2011 has barred the 13.5 million Americans with Health Savings Accounts from purchasing over-the-counter medicines with pre-tax funds.” This is not found in the text of HR-3590 but in the  Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HR-4872). Under the old rules prior to Obamacare consumers could use funds in their HSA or other health insurance tax free savings accounts to purchase medication such as aspirin or allergy drugs. According to the  HSA Resources website funds from HSA may be used to pay for qualified medical expense, such as  ambulance costs, artificial limbs, birth control pills,contact lenses, lab fees,  and prescriptions. Employer healthcare insurance contributions on the 2011 W-2 form will be added to the employee’s gross income The amount entered for employer contributions to the health insurance plans on the W-2 form are for evidence that the employee has health insurance coverage. This amount will not be taxable nor added to the employee’s gross income. In an  April 5, 2010 article called “Health Care Reform: 13 Tax Changes on the Way”, Senior Tax Editor, Joan Pryde of the Washington D.C. based Kiplinger Letters wrote about a “requirement that businesses include the value of the health care benefits they provide to employees on W-2s, beginning with W-2s for 2011. The amount reported is not considered taxable income.”  “The Mark of the Beast” in the Healthcare Bill A new eRumor began circulating in early April 2010 that claims that the new healthcare reform bill includes requirements for every American to have microchips implanted in their bodies that would contain medical and other encoded personal information. The email message says it may be a form of the “Mark of the Beast” indicated in the Bible as one of the signs of the end of the world. It is not true. It refers to what is called in the health care legislation the “National Medical Device Registry.”  The registry does exist in the bill but has nothing to do with requiring implanted microchips in American citizens. It proposes a national database of medical devices that have already been put into people’s bodies such as artificial knees, artificial hips, heart stents, pacemakers, etc. The purpose of the registry is to track the effectiveness and performance of the devices. Whoever originated this eRumor took the wording from the bill about the medical device registry and added their own interpretation that it involved microchips and would apply to every person. Individuals and families can opt out of the health care system if they belong to a religious organization that has a health care sharing ministry Members of some religious organizations may claim a Religious Conscience Exemption if their sects meet the conditions by having a health care sharing ministry that is exempt from taxation under section 501(a). Members of the Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Scientists),  might not object to medical care purchasing health insurance. The church’s official websites says that it teaches members that they “are always free to choose medical treatment, which many individuals feel is the most obvious solution to health difficulties.”  Members might be free to enroll in the health care plan or opt out of it. Amish do not believe an accepting assistance from the government but according to the frequently asked questions section on the Amish.net web site, members of the sect use local doctors, and if they have a medical condition that requires them to do so,  they will seek the help of medical specialists or go to hospitals. The Amish subscribe to health plans or purchase medical insurance and if they are sick, will treat the ailments at home first. Such individuals and families will not be subject to the 2.5% tax. This is outlined on pages 326-328 discuss religious conscience exemptions: ‘‘(2) RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS.— ‘‘(A) RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE EXEMPTION.—Such term shall not include any individual for any month if such individual has in effect an exemption under section 1311(d)(4)(H) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which certifies that such individual is a member of a recognized religious sect or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an adherent of established tenets or teachings of such sect or division as described in such section. ‘‘(B) HEALTH CARE SHARING MINISTRY.— ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Such term shall not include any individual for any month if such individual is a member of a health care sharing ministry for the month. ‘‘(ii) HEALTH CARE SHARING MINISTRY.—The term ‘health care sharing ministry’ means an organization— ‘‘(I) which is described in section 501(c)(3) and is exempt from taxation under section 501(a), ‘‘(II) members of which share a common set of ethical or religious beliefs and share medical expenses among members in accordance with those beliefs and without regard to the State in which a member resides or is employed, ‘‘(III) members of which retain membership even after they develop a medical condition, ‘‘(IV) which (or a predecessor of which) has been in existence at all1 times since December 31, 1999, and medical expenses of its members have been shared continuously and without interruption since at least December 31, 1999, and ‘‘(V) which conducts an annual audit which is performed by an independent certified public accounting firm in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and which is made available to the public upon request. One of the most common errors concerning the Affordable Healthcare Act that is circulating on the Internet is when the messages reference page numbers to the older versions of the bill. Text and page numbers from HR-3200 is often found in messages, video and graphics that have gone viral on the World Wide Web or social network cites such as Facebook. Computer users should exercise discernment before passing them on. HR-3200 eRumors: There are many questions being raised about President Obama’s new proposed health care bill and we will try to answer them. The bill was introduced to Congress as the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” or  H.R. 3200 on July 14, 2009. The Bill was sponsored by Representative  John D. Dingell of the15th district of Michigan. According to the Thomas Library of Congress the bill was “referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, Education and Labor, Oversight and Government Reform, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.” As  of July 28, 2009, The Thomas Library reports, “Latest Major Action: 7/21/2009 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.”     The status of this bill and text can be found at the Thomas Library by searching the bill number H.R. 3200. Click for Thomas Library. Some of the emails circulated about the proposed legislation may, at times, be quoting previous versions of the bill. Mandatory end of life counseling every five years to instruct patients how to determine ways to end suffering To be excluded by the Senate! On August 13, 2009 the Associated Press reported that, “Key senators are excluding a provision on end-of-life care from health overhaul legislation after language in a House bill caused a furor.”  Click for article Betsy McCaughey, a former New York Lt. Governor and conservative health activist, was interviewed on July 16, 2009 on the of former Senator and Presidential candidate Fred Thompson. In the interview she stated that page 425 of the health care bill said that everyone on Social Security & Medicare would have to undergo mandatory counseling every five years to determine ways to end their suffering. The counseling would be more frequent in the case of a terminal illness. McCaughhey’s comments dovetailed with several statements from critics of the health care legislation who claimed that the same portion of the bill could be used to promote euthanasia. House minority Leader John Boehner and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter said that such concerns were valid. They are quoted by LifeNews.com as saying, that the measure “could create a slippery slope for a more permissive environment for euthanasia, mercy-killing, and physican-assisted suicide because it does not clearly exclude counseling about the supposed benefits of killing oneself.” The Vice President of AARP, John Rother, disagrees. He said the bill does not, in his view, create a problem of euthanasia. He said that under the bill, Medicare would be required to cover the consultations for the first time but does not mandate that people get end-of-life consultation. He said that any consultation would be with the patient, the doctor or nurse practitioner—not a government bureaucrat. Pages 424 to 434 in the proposed healthcare bill discusses Advance Care Planning and the mandatory consultation is to discuss end of life services such as hospice care and living wills. Click for Fred Thompson interview. Another eRumor originated by the American Family Association warns of Rationing and Euthanasia  Don Wildmon of the American Family Association (eRumor example #3) warned that Health Care Bill this could be the next next step towards euthanasia. Assisted suicide and euthanasia are not mentioned in the text of the bill and differ greatly from hospice care. Both private medical insurance policies and the proposed Universal Health Care plan have set limitations of coverage and deductibles could be be defined as the “rationing” of benefits. Another eRumor includes a long list of concerns from the organization Family Security Matters. (eRumor Example #2) Pg 22 of the HC Bill mandates the Government will audit books of all employers that self insure. –  A Matter of Interpretation! The text of the bill reads, “The Commissioner, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor Secretary of Labor, shall conduct a study of the large group insured and self-insured employer health care markets.”  There is no mention of  audits. Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill — a Government committee (good luck with that!) will decide what treatments/benefits a person may receive.  The text of the bill reads” IN GENERAL.—There is established a private-public advisory committee which shall be a panel of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced, and premium plans.”  There is no mention of treatment procedures or policies. Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill — YOUR HEALTHCARE WILL BE RATIONED! (they call it allocated) –Disputed! Rationing could be defined as the controlled distribution of resources and goods or services. This section of the bill deal with cost sharing and co-payments and annual limitations,  The text of the bill says, “The cost-sharing incurred under the essential benefits package with respect to an individual (or family) for a year does not exceed the applicable level specified in subparagraph.”   It is then defined as $5,000 per individual and $10,000 per family each year. The setting of co-payments and coverage limitations is a standard procedure for all medical health plans. Pg 42 of HC Bill — The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC Benefits for you.  According to the text of the bill, the commissioner’s duties include the establishment and enforcement of “qualified health benefits plan standards”. The list of his duties also includes the “establishment and operation of a Health Insurance Exchange” and accountability. PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill — HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise. – Disputed! There is no provision to check for citizenship prior to receiving health services even though there are the provisions:. Section 152 is a discrimination clause that basically said that all health services “covered by this Act shall be provided without regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.”   Citizenship is not mentioned. Section 246 on page 143 under the heading of  “NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS” said, “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”  Pg 58 HC Bill — Government will have real-time access to individual’s finances and a National ID Health Card will be issued! Under the heading of “STANDARDS FOR FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS”, this section is for a “real-time (or near realtime) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card”   Co-payments which need to be collected are part of the plan and it also appears that the new health plan is designed to work with insurance supplement programs. There is no mention in the bill that personal finance records would be collected. Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Government will have direct access to your bank accts for election funds transfer. –A Matter of Interpretation! This falls under the heading of “STANDARDS FOR FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS” the bill says,”enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice.”   The text of the bill is not clear if the electronic funds transfers means between the patient and the health care provider. PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community organizations (read: ACORN). Section 164 deals with “REINSURANCE PROGRAM FOR RETIREES” and says, “Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall establish a temporary reinsurance program (in this section referred to as the ‘‘reinsurance program’’) to provide reimbursement to assist participating employment-based plans with the cost of providing health benefits to retirees and to eligible spouses, surviving spouses and dependents of such retirees.”    Unions and community organizations (such as ACORN) do not appear to be singled out in the text of the bill. Also, non union private business that offer retirement plans and benefits for employees exist in the country. Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Government will create an HC Exchange to bring private HC plans under Government control. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill — Government mandates linguistic appropriate services. Example — Translators for illegal aliens.  The text of the bill read, “CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY APPROPRIATE SERVICES AND COMMUNICATIONS.—The entity shall provide for culturally and linguistically appropriate communication and health services.”   Translations Services will be provided for those who do not speak English. Section 246 on page 143 under the heading of  “NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS” said, “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”  This means no benefits provided to illegal aliens. Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Government will use groups, i.e. ACORN & Americorps, to sign up individuals for Government HC plan. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill — Specifics of Benefit Levels for Plans. AARP members — your Health care WILL be rationed. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill — Medicaid Eligible Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue Government on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Government Monopoly. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill — Doctors/ AMA — The Government will tell YOU what you can earn. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE, if he does not have employee insurance -plus he is taxed up to 8%. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay.)  Under the heading of PART VIII—HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES  SUBPART A. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE. and  ‘‘Subpart A—Tax on Individuals Without Acceptable Health Care Coverage.”   There will be a tax imposed  of 2.5% of adjusted income on individuals who do not medical health coverage that is deemed acceptable by the plan. A non resident alien can be defined as a foreigner living and working in the United States on a nonimmigrant visa. If their income is effectively connected with a trade or business in the United States,  non resident aliens are subject to same taxation as any US citizen, according to the US Internal Revenue Service. According text of the bill non resident aliens are not subject to the 2.5% of adjusted income tax. The text of the bill does not indicate that non resident aliens are eligible for benefits. Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (the GOVERNMENT) will have access to ALL Americans’ finances and personal records. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 203 Line 14-15 HC — “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as a tax” , Yes, it actually says that!! Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill — Doctors — doesn’t matter what specialty — will all be paid the same. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 253 Line 10-18 Government sets value of Doctor’s time, professional judgment, etc. Literally, value of humans. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 265 Sec 1131 Government mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what/how much they can own. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion — Government will mandate hospitals cannot expand. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Pg 354 Sec 1177 — Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people! Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 425 Lines 4-12 Government mandates Advance Care Planning Consultations. Think Senior Citizens end of life prodding. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Government provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in how to die. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 427 Lines 15-24 Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The Government has a say in how your life ends. Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  PG 429 Lines 10-12 “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from the Government to end a life! Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATION. 1 monthly payment to a community-based organization. (Like ACORN?) Was under investigation at the time the bill was abandoned  Click of Family Security Matters article. The ‘‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009’’ bill is 1019 pages long and can be viewed with Adobe Reader at:  Click for text of HR-3200. Posted 07/15/10  Updated 11/26/13 Claim:  Several emails circulating about the Obama administration’s proposed Universal Health Care bill.   One concern is that the passage of this bill will levy an additional capital gains tax on the sales of homes of 3.8%. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: China's first cloned pig, stuffed and displayed, is seen in front of a researcher working at the Beijing Genomics institute in Shenzhen July 23, 2010. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu The 20-odd hogs at this farm in Guangdong province in southern China are no ordinary pigs, but rather surrogate sows carrying cloned piglets. With a population projected to grow to 1.44 billion by 2030 from 1.33 billion in 2009, according to World Bank figures, Beijing is hunting for cutting-edge technology to provide better quality food. Du’s colleagues are cloning pigs at a laboratory an hour’s drive from the farm. They remove DNA from skin cells taken from the ear of a prized boar and transfer them into pig egg cells cleared of their nuclei. The resulting embryos are surgically implanted into surrogate sows. “Now we import valuable boars from Denmark and the United States. They are costly to buy, transport and susceptible to a lot of disease during transportation,” said Du, head of cloning and genetic engineering at the Beijing Genomics Institute. “With this technology, we can import small numbers of pigs and mass produce them in China.”   And international experts believe China can take a leading role in promoting the eventual acceptance of cloned animals and even transgenic — or genetically modified (GM) — produce. Ingo Potrykus, the retired, Swiss-based co-inventor of vitamin A-packed “golden rice,” said China could fill a void in securing widespread use and recognition. “To revolutionize regulation ... it needs a lead country to do so, which is politically and economically independent of the GMO-hysteria of the West,” Potrykus, whose invention has proved essential for rice-dependent countries, wrote in an e-mail. “China would have this potential and China could benefit a lot because China has a lot of food security problems ahead.”   Potrykus knows a great deal about the difficulties of winning acceptance for GM and cloned products. His variety was withheld from the market for 10 years because of regulations surrounding transgenic food. At the institute’s laboratory, another geneticist, Zhang Gengyun, is working with colleagues on flasks containing rice saplings — another Chinese staple. They want to identify gene segments in rice that are behind high yields and better root systems, so that more rice may be produced using less land and water. “Now a lot of fertilizers are used and rice cannot totally absorb them. Extra fertilizers are dumped into our water system, which damage our environment,” Zhang said. China has few conventional tools. It needs to feed 22 percent of the world’s population but has only 7 percent of the world’s arable land. Its agriculture minister said in July that China faced a formidable task in meeting demand for grains such as rice, wheat and corn over the next 10 years. Its water resources are meager — amounting to 25 percent of the per capita world average. And a quarter of its water is so polluted it is unfit even for industrial use. China’s grain harvest stood at 530 million tons of grain in 2009 and it will need to increase annual supply by 4 million tons over the next 10 years. Beijing imported U.S. corn for the first time since 2006 and is the world’s top buyer of soybeans. “In China, rice is the most important crop and it uses 50 percent of the freshwater China has each year,” Zhang said. China’s per person consumption of meat is 70 kg (155 pounds) a year, of which 54 percent is pork. That will soar with rising incomes reflecting more affluent areas like Hong Kong, where per capita meat consumption is 120 kg a year, according to Rabobank. “The government wants to secure food supply. The demand is for fresh meat,” said Jean-yves Chow, senior industry analyst at Rabobank in Hong Kong. “It doesn’t want to rely on meat imports.”   The problem is not China’s alone. Leading economist Jeffrey Sachs published articles in Nature magazine in July calling for serious preparations to feed a global population that will grow to 9.1 billion in 2050 from 6.8 billion now. “Climate change and other environmental risks, combined with a still growing population expected to reach around 9 billion by 2050 all spell serious trouble,” Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, wrote in an email. Genetic modification technology will help, he said, but its consequences on human health and the environment must be closely monitored. The United States is a world leader in producing GM crops and the Food and Drug Adiministration has already approved the sale of food from clones and their offspring, saying the products were indistinguishable from those of non-cloned animals. It is yet to rule on whether genetically engineered fish is safe to eat. But genetic modification of food and products from cloned animals meet with resistance in Europe. In China, Du’s department has set up a unit to commercialize cloning and she expects that meat from the offspring of cloned pigs will be on the Chinese market in “a few years.”   Her department is working with China Agricultural University on more muscular and less fatty transgenic pigs — genetically modified rather than cloned — by knocking out the MSTN gene that inhibits muscle growth. “We hope to get pigs with obvious traits of good muscles and faster growth ... a lot of lean meat and less fat,” she said. Zhang’s team hopes to identify the genes they want and transfer them into target rice species in three years using conventional breeding. That, he believes, will skirt whatever fears Chinese consumers may have. “That is not genetic modification. It is conventional breeding ... within 10 years, we can have environmentally friendly species that are water and fertilizer saving,” he said. China’s Agriculture Ministry declined comment on how stringent new regulations on cloned animals or transgenic products are likely to be. It has, however, suggested an open approach in certificates issued for experimental planting of transgenic rice in recent years, according to Chinese press reports. Du said China’s State Food and Drug Administration will need to approve products derived from cloned pigs and any transgenic produce before they are allowed on the market. While experts say meat from cloned animals is no different from naturally conceived animals, Du said more safety assessments were needed for transgenic products. “Transgenic animals have potential risks. It needs a long time to evaluate before they can get into market,” she said. Claim: Technology helps China brace for population growth.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In an interview on a liberal talk show on Madison radio, Russ Feingold answered a question about the Veterans Administration -- hit by scandals nationally and in Wisconsin -- by contrasting himself and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, the man who took his Senate seat in 2010. Mike Crute, co-host of the \"The Devil’s Advocates,\" asked Feingold on Nov. 12, 2015: \"Do you think we have a problem with the Veterans Administration, does it need major reform, or does it simply need more financial resource?\" Feingold, a Democrat who was in the Senate for 18 years, began his reply by saying: \"Well, this is an area of enormous difference between me and the incumbent senator.\" Then he made an attack on Johnson, saying of his Republican opponent in the 2016 Senate race: \"Look, we have to show a genuine commitment to make sure that veterans, when they come home, are able to get a job and that they have timely and adequate health care. The answer is not to privatize the VA. And Ron Johnson said specifically that he hopes the first steps occur to privatize the VA.\" As we’ll see, Johnson has advocated for privatizing elements of the VA -- such as allowing veterans to get medical care outside the VA system. But he has not gone so far to call for replacing a public system with an entirely private one. VA scandals The Veterans Administration’s medical care of veterans, both nationally and in Wisconsin, has been under fire for more than a year and a half. In May 2014, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned from President Barack Obama's cabinet. There had been intense scrutiny of the VA during the previous month, following allegations that 40 patients died while awaiting care at a Phoenix VA hospital where employees kept a secret waiting list to cover up delays. It turned out to be a system-wide problem in which VA employees lied about how quickly they saw patients to take advantage of a program that incentivized VA hospitals if they scheduled a primary care appointment within 14 days. In January 2015, the California-based Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that doctors at the VA medical center in Tomah, Wis., handed out so many narcotic painkillers that some veterans took to calling the place \"Candy Land.\" That led to scrutiny from the VA and state regulators, as well as the arrests of three people on charges of illegal drug sales at the facility. Also in January 2015, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Daniel Bice reported that Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin -- under fire for her office's inaction over alleged overmedication at Tomah -- abruptly ousted one of her top state staffers. And in March 2015, Bice reported that Johnson aides had sat on whistleblower tips about the facility. Johnson on the VA As for Johnson’s position on the VA, there’s no question he has pressed for turning to the private sector for some aspects of care. A couple of weeks after the VA secretary’s resignation, the Senate passed legislation aimed at easing scheduling problems at Veterans Affairs facilities by allowing the VA to contract with private medical facilities -- enabling veterans facing long waits to get quicker treatment. The bill also enabled the VA to use $500 million from its current budget to hire more medical staff. Johnson was one of only three senators to vote no, indicating he wanted to go further, in terms of private options. He said at the time that he preferred another bill, which he co-sponsored, that would have given veterans the ability to receive treatment outside the VA system -- not just from private facilities the VA might contract with. \"I want to fix the problem and I think the best way to fix it is that we give veterans the ability to exit the system if they're not given quality care in a timely manner or if they're too far from a VA (facility),\" Johnson said. The Feingold campaign cited that statement among others as evidence to back Feingold’s claim. These two statements were from March 2015 were the strongest: According to to VoteVets.org, which has produced material criticizing Johnson, Johnson said at a campaign event: \"I’ll tell you from my standpoint, I believe the long-term solution on VA hospitals is, start moving it more toward a private system.\" In an interview with a Wausau, Wis., TV station, Johnson was asked if veterans should be treated in private health care. He said: \"We're moving toward that model. The veterans' health care bill that we did pass, the Choice Act, starts a pilot program. And we need to assess that, we need to look at that very carefully. I don't want to throw everybody under the bus. I think the vast majority of people who work in the VA system are doing it because they really want to provide good, quality care. But, again, it's a bureaucratic, government-run system, and that's just a problem.\" Again, Johnson was advocating a move toward more privatization. But he left the door open to making changes that would stop short of turning to a completely private system. For example, in an October 2015 statement cited by Feingold’s campaign, Johnson said: \"I really do think that is probably the long-term solution for the VA healthcare system is move more towards veterans’ choice. Accessing the private care system as opposed to building new centers that we’re not able to staff. There’s a better way of doing this. And I think it really is relying more on a private healthcare system.\" Our rating Feingold said \"Johnson said specifically that he hopes the first steps occur to privatize the\" Veterans Administration. Johnson has advocated for privatizing at least parts of the VA system, but not for moving to a completely private system. We rate Feingold’s claim . More on Feingold-Johnson National Republican Senatorial Commitee: Says Russ Feingold cast the \"deciding vote\" for the \"largest tax increase\" in history. Feingold: Says Johnson \"opposes entirely a federal minimum wage,\" except perhaps for \"guest workers.\" True. Johnson: Some 8.1 million of the estimated 11 million to 12 million people \"in this country illegally are working.\" Claim: Ron Johnson said specifically that he hopes the first steps occur to privatize the\" Veterans Administration.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 8 July 2018, social media users began sharing a report attributed to television station WLKY in Louisville, Kentucky, about a deadly viral outbreak that was supposedly ravaging the city: The university of louisville hospital has already confirmed 16 deaths within the past 8 hours from a rare strain of hr3211virus Dr hemiln head of internal medicine said this could very will be the biggest outbreak we have ever seen in the united states he warned if you have any symptoms headaches blurred vision bleaking from the ears or rectal area or ringing in your ears to go inside and stay there till medical help arrives again stay indoors do not come in contact with anyone it is known to be spread by airborne go to center for diseases control for further information and atay up to date on wlky for further details as we learn more about This deadly disiease Among the suspect features of that report were its horrendous grammar and misspellings, not to mention the fact that despite its prominent use of the WLKY logo, it was not published on WLKY‘s web site. Outbound links from the social media posts went instead to React365.com, a well-known prank web site that offers tools for users to create their own fake news articles. Within hours of the story’s dissemination, a post on the Louisville station’s Facebook page branded it a fake: PLEASE SHARE: We are aware of a false report from React365.com alleging a “deadly virus outbreak” in Louisville. This is a fake article that uses the WLKY logo and is NOT associated with our station. The website React365.com allows people to create fake articles to “prank your friends.” Please do not share the article to help prevent the spreading of false information. In lieu of removing the article, the prank site reacted to WLKY’s post by deleting the station’s call letters and logo from the page, otherwise leaving it intact. Claim: The University of Louisville Hospital confirmed the deaths of 16 people from a rare strain of the \"HR3211 virus.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As negotiations in the United States government continued through March 3 2020 on a federal spending package to address the spread of the coronavirus strain known as COVID-19, Politico reported on negotiations stalling between Democratic and Republican leaders stalled because of a dispute over the cost of a prospective vaccine, as well as other services:Democrats are insisting the spending package include significant funding to purchase large amounts of coronavirus diagnostics, treatments and vaccine, when it becomes available, which would then be made available to the public free of cost, according to a senior Democratic aide.The Democratic aide said Republicans are trying to eliminate the “fair and reasonable price” federal procurement standard for the vaccines and treatments that will be developed and purchased with the emergency funds. “Fair and reasonable price” is a basic standard to prevent price gouging in federal contracts.Republicans, however, argue they are trying to fight Democratic efforts to create a new set of price controls and that they are not asking for changes to the underlying procurement standards.The bickering appeared to take place along partisan lines and were bolstered by equally political talking points. As the New York Daily News pointed out on Twitter on February 26 2020, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar had already hedged on the issue of affordability for a vaccine while testifying before the House Appropriations Committee. “We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price, because we need the private sector to invest,” Azar said, adding, “Price controls won’t get us there.”Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer has already said that he would call for a vaccine to be covered under Medicare plans. “Seniors who will need this vaccine the most should not have to worry or wonder where they stand once it’s available,” he said on his own Twitter account.But medical experts told Business Insider that a provision in the Affordable Care Act could provide a salve for people using it for their health insurance:Under the ACA, health insurers must cover federally-recommended vaccines at no cost for most people, according to John Cogan, a professor of health insurance law and financial regulation at the University of Connecticut.“Everyone under Obamacare would be covered under this vaccination without cost-sharing,” Cogan told Business Insider. That would extend to the health insurance people get through their employers, as well as to most health insurance programs like Medicaid for children and people with low incomes, he said.The law mandates that vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control are exempt from co-pays and deductibles applied by insurance companies. “There’s an important link between broader healthcare policies like the Affordable Care Act and responding to a potential public health emergency like this virus,” said Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.On March 4 2020, Congressional leaders announced that they had reached an agreement on a roughly $8 billion spending plan to fight the virus. Claim: As the United States government tried to negotiate a response to a novel coronavirus strain, cost issues temporarily stalled passing a bill approving roughly $8 billion in emergency funding.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The ads involving Jarvik had come under scrutiny, including from a U.S. House of Representative Committee as part of an investigation into celebrity endorsements of prescription medicines. Democratic lawmakers had voiced concern that Jarvik’s qualifications were misrepresented in widely seen television commercials touting the blockbuster drug. They said he seemed to be dispensing medical advice even though he is not a practicing physician. On his Web site, Jarvik describes himself as a medical scientist who has worked in the field of artificial hearts for 36 years and does not practice clinical medicine or treat individual patients. “The way in which we presented Dr. Jarvik in these ads has, unfortunately, led to misimpressions and distractions from our primary goal of encouraging patient and physician dialogue on the leading cause of death in the world — cardiovascular disease. We regret this,” Ian Read, Pfizer’s president of worldwide pharmaceutical operations, said in a statement. “Going forward, we commit to ensuring there is greater clarity in our advertising regarding the presentation of spokespeople,” Read said. Claim: Pfizer pulls Lipitor ads with heart expert Jarvik.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Pets that are genetically engineered and manufactured to order may be a dream (or nightmare) of the future, but they aren’t here quite yet:  There is a website, www.genpets.com, that claims to have made genetically engineered “pets” that are part-human and part-animal and are “living, breathing” creatures. Although the web site Genpets.com puts on a good show of spoofing an outlet for the sale of “pre-packaged, bio-engineered pets,” no such product exists. One common giveaway: prospective buyers couldn’t actually order anything through the (since-removed) Genpets store, with the excuse given that “Bio-Genica is still developing its connections and relations with resellers while we get the various approvals needed to sell Genpets worldwide.”  Like similar items we’ve been asked about, Genpets are actually artworks — in this case plastic and latex sculptures (including circuitry and robotics) created in 2005 by then 24-year-old Canadian commercial artist Adam Brandejs. As the artist explained in conjunction with an exhibition of his work, the point of Genpets is to get the public thinking about the concept of bioengineering and how they feel about where that science might lead us:  I’m not against bioengineering, I’m simply hesitant towards where and how and by whom the technology will be used. That’s what this art sums up. I don’t ever want to be confused for as a crazy activist, nor do I want to appear as endorsing this technology. Bioengineering could lead to medical breakthroughs that save lives, but will it? This is more a critique of corporate ethics than of technological ethics. If you’re still caught up on whether they’re real or not, that’s ok, a lot of people are, but that’s not the point of the work. Slow down, stop, and think. Think about why it is that you probably, like most people seeing the work, find it highly disturbing on some level, and yet, still want to buy one. Why is it that you’re so inclined to buy things, no matter what? And what is it that makes this concept so disturbing, or not disturbing to you? Consider both sides of the issue, and consider how we treat animals in farms, and pet stores today. How does that relate? This sculpture is the physical representation of a question. Bioengineering, like any new technology promises a great deal of positive effects. We as a race however tend to put a great deal more faith into technology as a saviour than it necessarily has earned. Through Genpets I question the negative effect that bioengineering can have, for we all know that when it all comes down to it, profit is the bottom line. The question surrounding bioengineering is not in its positive or negative ramifications, or where it can take us; it is whether or not we are responsible enough to go there. When Genpets were exhibited in a Toronto storefront, they created a reaction much like the one now being prompted by the Genpets.com web site:  Genpets seems to create a reaction wherever they go. While in the store window of Iodine Toronto, the shop owner began sleeping in the store as many nights, people would bang at the windows furiously. Some in protest of the small Bio-genetically engineered creatures trapped in plastic, some wanting to wake them up or buy them. Hordes of teens wanting a bioengineered pet met confused, baffled, or even shocked looks from parents. For an upcoming generation, through our own marketing techniques, life and the idea of life are quickly becoming viewed as disposable commodities. Adam Brandejs’ other works include the animatronic flesh shoe and a prosthetic zipper. Claim: The web site Genpets.com sells mass-produced, bioengineered pets.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story reports that the company says the price has not been set. It also notes that “It is a biologic, the most expensive type of drug, and is injected every two weeks.” The story could have offered readers a more detailed picture by noting that a widely prescribed (and heavily advertised) biologic treatment for Crohn’s Disease, Humira, costs about $2,000 per dose or about $50,000 per year. Of course, the amount paid by patients varies widely depending on insurance coverage. The story reports that “most” patients said their itching disappeared within a few months and that nearly 40 percent saw “saw all or almost all of their rash disappear.” Readers need more specifics than that–is “most” 51% or 99% of patients, for example? And how did these results compare to the placebo group? Another problem is that none of the three patients highlighted in the story had less-than-spectacular results. Their stories would have been more emblematic of the bigger picture if at least one of those three had represented the 60 percent of patients–the majority, that is–who did not see their rashes almost disappear and the one in 10 patients who did not report such dramatic reductions in itching. There is also no mention that about one in 5 patients on the experimental drug had to receive “rescue” treatment because symptoms became “unacceptable.” The story does say that patients receiving dupilumab reported slightly more cases of conjunctivitis, and swelling around the injection site, than those receiving the placebo injections. The story would have been more complete if it had also noted that a few patients saw their eczema get worse and that many also reported upper respiratory infections, though the rates were similar to those receiving placebo injections. The story reports some key facts about the study design (comparison to placebo injections), number of patients (nearly 1,400 in two trials) and duration (16 weeks), and that researchers would like to see longer-term data. The story could have been clearer that this trial did not include children, even though children are far more likely than adults to suffer eczema. Also, it did not point out that some of the most dramatic statistics were from secondary endpoint results (including the improvement in itching), which should be viewed with more caution than the primary endpoint (a global assessment of the patient). The story also does not address criticism of the type of primary endpoint used in the trials. As this systematic review revealed, “global assessments are used frequently in studies of AD, but their complete lack of standardized definitions and implementation preclude any meaningful comparisons between studies, which in turn impedes data synthesis to inform clinical decision-making. Standardization is urgently required.” Close attention to study design is especially important when reporting on trials funded and managed by companies seeking approval of the products they are studying. The estimate of the prevalence of “uncontrolled, moderate-to-severe” eczema used in the story seems to be in line with conservative estimates. As noted above, the story would have been better if it had told readers that eczema is far more common in children than adults, and that preliminary studies involving children are just getting underway. This story fails to tell readers that every statistic and every expert quote is from sources funded by the companies, Sanofi and Regeneron, which are seeking approval to sell dupilumab. Not only were both trials funded by the companies, they largely controlled the writing of the New England Journal of Medicine article, to which the researchers “provided input” and “final approval” of material produced with support from “medical writers who were paid by the sponsors.” In a startling omission, readers are not told that the lone “independent” expert receives consulting and speaker fees from Regeneron. The story describes Dr. Mark Boguniewicz as “an atopic dermatitis expert at National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado School of Medicine who was not involved with the study.” The story should have reported that Boguniewicz received more than $37,000 from Regeneron for consulting, speaking and travel reimbursements last year, according to Open Payments, a federal web site that collects reports of industry funding of physicians. The story notes that many creams and lotions fail to provide relief to people with moderate to severe eczema. It also reports that many patients try off-label treatment with immunosuppressive drugs or steroids, which can have serious side effects. The story would have been stronger is it had pointed out that any patient who went to any other course of therapy would be taken out of the study, discouraging any patient from using another therapy if they are still symptomatic. The story reports that the companies are seeking FDA approval of dupilumab and that the agency has given the drug “breakthrough” status, which allows for expedited development and review. It would have been helpful if the story had acknowledged that this doesn’t necessarily mean “breakthrough” in the way many people understand the word. It is clear that this drug would be the first biologic treatment for moderate to severe eczema. It is clear that the story includes original reporting. Claim: New Drug for Severe Eczema Is Successful in 2 New Trials",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 23 August 2017, the American Badass Facebook page posted a widely-shared message about Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell: This is Isaiah Crowell! He plays for the Cleveland Browns and this is the picture he posted on Instagram! As long as he is allowed to remain in the NFL I will not watch or attend another game! He is a piece of dog shit! The post was accompanied by a photograph of Crowell and a screenshot of an artist’s rendering of a hooded man cutting the throat of a police officer. We received several enquiries from readers wanting to know whether Crowell did, in fact, post this image to his Instagram account. He did, on 6 July 2016. He deleted the image after a few minutes and later apologized repeatedly, to the satisfaction of local police. There has been a certain amount of skepticism on social media about the story because the post is no longer on Crowell’s Instagram feed — but that’s because it was removed, not because it was never there. However, many took screenshots of the image, which Cromwell posted with the brief message: “They give polices [sic] all types of weapons and they continuously choose to kill us. #Weak.” On 11 July 2016, Crowell released the following apology via the Cleveland Browns and on his own Twitter account, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He explained that in the days leading up to the post, he had been emotional about the deaths of two black men: Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Crowell posted the image before five police officers were shot dead in Dallas, Texas, not afterwards. Last week was an emotional and difficult week as we saw extreme acts of violence against black men across our country as well as against police officers in Dallas. I posted an image to Instagram in the midst of that emotion that I shouldn’t have and immediately removed it. It was an extremely poor decision and I apologize for that mistake and for offending people. My values and beliefs do not match that image. I am outraged and upset by the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile along with so many others. I am also outraged and saddened by the attacks in Dallas and the deaths of the five honorable police officers (Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith, Brent Thompson and Patrick Zamarripa) who were providing protection while trying to keep peace. We have to be better as a society, it’s not about color, it’s about what’s right and wrong. I was very wrong in posting that image. Every single life matters, every death as a result of violence should be treated with equal outrage and penalty. As of 24 August 2017, the apology is no longer on Crowell’s Twitter account or on Cleveland Browns web site. We asked the club why the apology appears to have been removed, but did not receive a response in time for publication. According to the Plain Dealer, Crowell also posted a video apology to his Facebook account on 13 July 2016 — which has also since been removed. However, the video is available on YouTube, where the Baby Baby account uploaded it on 13 July 2016:  Crowell again cited his frustration and upset at police violence against black men, and again apologized for posting the image. …I knew I was wrong. I’m sorry, and I hope you will understand that is not who I am. I would never wish violence on anyone, especially a police officer. Crowell also pledged to donate his first game check of the season ($35,294, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer) to the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation. We asked the Cleveland Browns why this apology video is no longer viewable on Isaiah Crowell’s Facebook page, but we did not receive a response in time for publication. The next day, Crowell personally apologized to Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams, who told the press that the running back had been “contrite” and “apologetic.” He wanted to personally apologize to myself and law enforcement here in northeast Ohio. A young man, in the heat of the moment, made a bad choice, made a bad decision and he’s apologizing for that. The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association (CPPA) rejected Crowell’s first apology and threatened to refuse to provide security at home games unless Crowell made a “grand gesture” of contrition. However, after Crowell’s follow-up video message and pledged donation, the CPPA accepted his apology. CPPA President Stephen Loomis said the group “appreciated” the running back’s video statement and that he had “made things right.” I appreciate the apology and we accept it. People are allowed to make mistakes in life. Our problem was that first apology. It wasn’t sincere. But Isaiah stepped up to the plate to make a personal apology, and we definitely appreciate his donation to the Fallen Officers Foundation. I’d love to work with Isaiah in the future. How cool would it be if Isaiah and I attended community events together to really make a difference in the city? We are missing opportunities that we should be seizing as law enforcement and athletes in the city. I’m glad we didn’t have to go the route of boycotting Browns games. We would not have enjoyed that. We wanted to give Isaiah the opportunity to make things right, and he did. It’s not entirely clear why this episode has been given renewed attention more than a year later, but it could be related to the start of a new NFL season, as well as particular focus on the Cleveland Browns, amid an ongoing controversy over the national anthem. Claim: Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell once posted to his Instagram profile an artist's rendering of a hooded man cutting the throat of a police officer.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: According to a March 18-24 Reuters/Ipsos poll, U.S. men are clearly taking the coronavirus less seriously than women, who are more likely to support aggressive steps to combat the virus, as well as take personal, proactive measures such as avoiding physical contact and washing their hands more often. And while U.S. men are nearly as likely as women to say they are familiar with the virus that has killed more than 1,100 Americans, the national poll of nearly 4,500 American adults found that they were more likely to dismiss its potential to hurt them. This gender gap is woven throughout American society: it is clear among men and women of the same race, political persuasion and community type. For example, 54% of women said they were “very concerned” about the virus compared with 45% of men. Women were also much more likely to make big changes to their daily routines, according to the poll, which showed 73% of women reported washing their hands more often and using disinfectants more frequently, compared with 60% of men. Seventy-two percent of women say they have been avoiding large public gatherings, 14 percentage points higher than men, and 65% of women said they are now avoiding close physical contact with others, which is 9 points higher than men. Mieke Beth Thomeer, a sociology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said women tend to be disproportionately responsible for “kinkeeping” such as checking on parents and grandparents whose health is now at risk. “They are more likely to call their grandmother at the nursing home or have to figure out what store to go to to find toilet paper, or figure out future meals based only on what’s currently in the pantry,” Thomeer said. “Then added to this, is that women do more childcare to begin with, and so the closing of schools is more impactful – and more likely alarming – for women.”   When respondents were asked what the U.S. government should do to slow the spread of the virus, women were more likely than men to support some of the most aggressive restrictions, such as nighttime curfews, bans on public gatherings, and halting all public transportation and overseas flights. For example, 58% of women supported closing all public schools, compared with 52% of men. A sizable minority of men appeared to be more cavalier than women about the potential of the coronavirus to harm them. Twenty-five percent of men said they “strongly agree” that people are “unnecessarily panicking”, compared with 18% of women. Similarly, men are more likely than women to strongly agree that the media is creating panic about something that “isn’t really a big deal for most people.”  As U.S. authorities tell residents to stay at home and limit all but essential healthcare, the directives aimed at saving lives have hit women particularly hard, according to patients and healthcare providers. While about the same number of men and women said they were familiar with the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, men were less likely to show they understood how it spreads. The virus has infected people in all 50 states, with at least 82,000 positive cases so far recorded, the highest number in New York state, followed by New Jersey then California. Yet 32% of men said that the virus is “mostly a problem for people who travel a lot”, compared with 23% of women. And 28% of men said the virus is “mostly a problem for people who live in urban areas”, versus 17% of women. Sara Mohr, 22, of Mountain View, California, told Reuters in an interview that her boyfriend’s idea of stockpiling medicine was handing her two packs of DayQuil cold and flu capsules and telling her, “We’re fine.”  “Does social distancing include changing the locks so I don’t have to come into contact with my boyfriend who is not taking the Coronavirus as seriously as me?” Mohr mused on Twitter two weeks ago. Celia Gisleson, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said she has had to get back to basics with her boyfriend, including showing him that washing hands also means washing his thumbs. “I clean and wipe down everything and for him, he’s just kind of like, ‘It’s fine, it is what it is,’” she said. Click here to see the full poll results: reut.rs/2JbXeVB and reut.rs/3aibesK Claim: U.S. men less likely to heed health warnings as coronavirus death toll mounts: Reuters Poll.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Department of Ecology rejected a water quality permit that Millennium Bulk Terminals sought because the proposed facility near the city of Longview would have caused “significant and unavoidable harm” to the environment. The department cited effects to air quality, noise pollution and tribal resources, among others. “There are simply too many unavoidable and negative environmental effects for the project to move forward,” Ecology Director Maia Bellon said in a statement. Millennium Bulk Terminals has long hoped to build a facility along the Columbia River to handle up to 44 million tons of coal a year. Trains would carry the coal from Montana, Wyoming and other states, which would be loaded onto ships headed to Asia. William Chapman, the president and CEO of Millennium, said the company will appeal the decision and expects “a fairer and more consistent interpretation of the law.” “Multiple recent decisions by the agency seem biased against the Longview community, and particularly blind to the need for employment opportunities in Cowlitz County,” he said in a written statement. Environmentalists, tribes and others have fiercely opposed the project — which could increase U.S. exports of coal by 40 percent — because of concerns about global warming, coal dust pollution and potential damage to fisheries on the river. Several of those groups lauded Tuesday’s decision. “The state did the right thing today, standing up for clean water, public health and the Pacific Northwest’s iconic endangered salmon runs,” Power Past Coal co-director Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky said in a statement. Businesses, some labor groups and other supporters say the project would create jobs, add tax revenue and boost the local economy. The governor of Wyoming, the nation’s leading coal-producing state, previously traveled to the Pacific Northwest to pitch the importance of coal exports to the governors of Washington and Oregon. Kris Johnson, president of the Association of Washington Business, criticized the process that led to the decision, saying that the project has faced “unprecedented regulatory hurdles.” “We need companies to invest in manufacturing, construction and infrastructure to support trade,” he wrote in a prepared statement. “Instead of turning away investment, our leaders should be encouraging responsible growth.” Montana’s attorney general said he plans to review the decision to make sure the law has been followed. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said that despite Washington’s decision, “Wyoming will continue to work towards a plan that allows for the safe transportation of coal through coastal ports.” An environmental review released in April by Washington’s ecology department and Cowlitz County analyzed potential harm to fish habitat, wetlands, water quality, local communities and more. Of 23 environmental areas, 19 would face harmful effects, and some could not be offset or reduced, officials said at the time. The review found that coal dust pollution from trains would not be major because emissions levels would be below state and federal standards, but pollution from locomotives would raise the cancer risk for one low-income neighborhood. Residents also would see more noise and traffic delays at rail crossings without a quiet zone or other measures, the study said. At full capacity, the project would add 16 more trains through the area and increase the number of ships by 1,680 a year. Gov. Jay Inslee said he was confident that state ecology officials “based their decision on sound science and in accordance with the law.” “It’s absolutely critical that all projects — particularly of this scale — undergo an objective and extensive review that ensures they are able to meet the standards necessary for protecting our land, air and water,” he said in an emailed statement. ___ Associated Press writers Phuong Le in Seattle, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana and Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming contributed. Claim: Washington state deals blow to plan for coal export terminal.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: False reports of a 7-year0ld girl who got breast implants can be traced back to a well-known fake news website. The story appeared at World News Daily report under the headline, “7-year-old Girl Receives Breast Implants for Christmas,” in early February 2017. The report claims that a woman named Dana Mason took her 7-year-old daughter, Juliet, to China have the breast implant procedure done: They left for China on December 22, and the surgery was performed two days later. According to the clinic, the operation took less than two hours and went exactly as planned. The young girl now has a 30C cup, and her mother says she’s “extremely happy about her about her new breasts”. The story was widely shared on social media and re-reported by other fake news outlets (in one version Juliet was supposedly 8-yeas-old when she got breast implants). Many people reacted to the story without checking its source, which its disclaimer clearly states is a fake news website that “assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content.” The rouse about the 7-year-old girl wasn’t a new one, either. In 2014, well-known fake news website Empire News reported that a 10-year-old girl had traveled to Mexico to receive breast implants. That report was also fake. In 1998, there was a factual report published by the U.K.’s Independent newspaper about a 12-year-old girl receiving breast implants. But the procedure was scheduled to correct a deformity in the girl’s chest that had caused her a lot of distress, her surgeon said: “One breast has not developed. On one side she has an A cup and on the other a D cup. She has a problem that she is very upset about,” said Douglas McGeorge, who works for both the public and private sector. “She won’t go out. She won’t go into changing rooms at school. She won’t do sport. She won’t undress in front of friends. Another U.K. family drew scrutiny in 2001 when they made plans for their 16-year-old daughter to get breast implants for a birthday present, the Guardian reports: Jenna, of Warsop Vale, near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, said she had been thinking about breast enlargement since she was 12. She insisted yesterday: “You’ve got to have breasts to be successful. “Every other person you see on television has had implants. I used to pray that my boobs would grow. Then I just thought, what’s the point when I can have implants when I want?” She will be 16 in August. “I just want to be happy with my body and I think having my breasts enlarged will give me more self-confidence.” Her father Martin said he and his wife had been in the plastic surgery industry for a number of years, “so all our children have grown up with plastic surgery. They don’t see anything wrong with it and neither do we”. So, over the last 20 years, stories about children getting breast implants have generated plenty of controversy and attention. That’s probably why clickbait and fake news websites have used false reports like the one about a 7-year-old girl getting breast implants to generate traffic. Comments Claim:  A report of a 7-year-old girl who got breast implants has stirred controversy. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In March 2020, video footage emerged online that reportedly showed Italian army trucks transporting coffins due to overcrowding at a local crematorium. It was a stark and tragic illustration of the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country. We received multiple inquiries from readers about the videos, which were featured in various news articles describing the footage as showing military trucks transporting coffins away from a crematorium in the northern city of Bergamo, because the local death rate from the virus had exceeded its capacity. Tragically, those descriptions were accurate, and the videos did indeed show just such an appalling scenario. Eugenio Iafrate, a resident of Bergamo, posted the following video to Twitter on March 18, along with the caption, “Bergamo this evening. Army truck transporting coffins.” Bergamo questa sera. Camion dell’esercito per trasportare bare. pic.twitter.com/YryHjVXaza — Eugenio Iafrate (@IafrateEugenio) March 18, 2020  That footage later formed the basis of a report published by BBC News. The Italian army takes coffins away in Bergamo as morgues and cemeteries struggle to cope with the number of #coronavirus deaths. Latest in Europe: https://t.co/sAASNXPTjz pic.twitter.com/qaIcXgpXSj — BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) March 19, 2020  We cross-referenced using Google Maps; based on the “PizziKotto” restaurant shown in the video and its proximity to a gas station and green space, the footage appears to have been recorded on Via Borgo Palazzo in Bergamo, a northern Italian city located around 30 miles east of Milan. Another widely-shared still image posted to Twitter was originally published by the Italian news agency ANSA, which quoted provincial national police (Carabinieri) Colonel Paolo Storini as saying: “Unfortunately, the increased number of deaths has brought about an increased number of bodies,  which clearly the [Bergamo] cemeteries could not handle.” Storini said he hoped images of the tragic transport operation would serve as a stark reminder to anyone going out in public too much or “not respecting the rules coming from civil and health authorities.” My blood has frozen in my veins. The air has been punched out of my lungs. Italian Army transports ~60 bodies from overwhelmed Bergamo to Modena and Bologna for cremation. #Covid19 pic.twitter.com/7iGc5VtuRC — Dr Elisabetta (@ViralRNA) March 18, 2020  Another widely-shared video, posted to Twitter on March 19, showed the same army-led transport of coffins. It was captured very close to the site of Iafrate’s footage on Via Borgo Palazzo: A #Bergamo hanno dovuto chiamare l'esercito per caricare camion e camion di bare da destinare a crematori fuori regione. Prima di lamentarvi della proroga del #lockdown riguardatevi sto video in loop.#coronavirusitalia pic.twitter.com/ofR1raGVTb Claim: Images shared in March 2020 showed a convoy of military trucks transporting bodies away from an over-subscribed crematorium in Bergamo, Italy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While the article did not specifically state how much it costs to do a 12 minute yoga session everyday, one can assume it is relatively inexpensive and cost is not really an issue here. Where it becomes an issue is when yoga practitioners attend expensive classes, feel compelled to buy expensive yoga accessories, travel to India to spend time with yoga gurus, and generally spend lots of personal time practicing it, all which could lead to considerable costs. The story notes, “The findings, as reported last month in Topics of Geriatric Rehabilitation, showed improved bone density in the spine and femur of the 227 participants who were moderately or fully compliant with the assigned yoga exercises.” [emphasis ours] What exactly does that mean? How much did bone density improve? Did all 227 subjects see improvement or was the improvement seen in aggregate? There is a big difference between the two and the common take away would be that all saw improvements, which is far from the reality. We also would like to know why only 227 out of 741 original enrollees are reported on. How many of the remaining 500+ participants dropped out? Research study dropout is an important factor as it gives us some idea of the tolerability or acceptability of the ‘treatment.’ The story provides insight into the downsides of bisphosphonate therapy but says nothing about the potential dangers of yoga. It is true that, done correctly, yoga is not likely to produce significant injuries. However, the subjects in the study were not supervised nor was their positioning for each of the poses determined. Incorrect alignment can cause joint strain and joint and injury. In fact, the Times itself has previously reported that yoga can wreck your body! Appropriate caveats about the lack of control group and the fact the study was among self-selected volunteers (perhaps a hint of ‘healthy-people bias’) were helpful. Other limitations of the research, such as the dependence on self-reporting of the participants’ daily yoga practice (people often either forget or give socially appropriate responses in surveys) could have been discussed. No evident disease mongering in this story, except to say that osteoporosis and it’s precursor osteopenia are often heavily mongered diseases simply because bone density is one of many risk factors for hip fractures (that is treatable with drugs) but it is not the most important one. In fact, some argue that bone density is such a low predictor for hip fractures it is worthless as a measure of bone health and simply shouldn’t be employed. Dr. Fishman invested a ‘significant chunk’ of his own money into the research and we appreciate that the story put that financial interest out in the open. Apart from the selling of the DVDs used, it hard to imagine how there could be a significant financial gain from the study. However, given that investment, it wold have been valuable to have comments from others in the field speaking to the study results and the basic premise entailed. This kind of research might be more influenced by more subtle intellectual conflicts of interest, where the researchers are intellectually identified with an idea (yoga=good) and would have difficulty accepting alternative hypotheses. The lack of a control group becomes somewhat problematic as it is possible that a similar group of non-yoga performing people would also see increases in their bone density. The article mentions the tolerability of osteoporosis drugs, though the study wasn’t a comparison between the two. While the study didn’t examine this, comparing yoga’s effects against alternative weight-bearing exercise forms (running, walking) might merit a mention. Yoga is everywhere (the phrase ’12 important yoga poses’ gives 6.2 million hits on google). The report doesn’t make any claims for novelty where none exists. The overall benefits of yoga are fairly well-established, even if those benefits may not be strictly ‘evidence-based’. What is ‘new’ is the research trying to demonstrate effects of yoga on a single parameter (bone density) and we think the researchers should be lauded for trying to apply some rigor to answering these kinds of specific questions. There is no evidence of reliance on a news release Claim: 12 Minutes of Yoga for Better Bone Health",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Those are some of the bold messages Uganda’s leader is emphasizing as health officials try to stem stubbornly high infection rates among young people in this East African country that years ago won praise as a global leader in fighting the epidemic. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected, fewer people are dying from AIDS as treatment is more widely available and patients live normally. Yet some officials and activists worry that success may be encouraging a sense of complacency. The head of HIV prevention at Uganda’s AIDS agency, Dr. Daniel Byamukama, recently asked leaders of a popular church that organizes a retreat for young people to give him 20 minutes to make a presentation about AIDS. They turned him down, saying “AIDS is common sense” these days. Many young people believe “HIV is gone,” he told The Associated Press. In Uganda and neighboring Kenya, countries with two of the world’s highest AIDS rates, campaigners point to lower-than-satisfactory HIV testing rates among adult men, early sexual experiences among many adolescents, inadequate knowledge of HIV and reproductive health and even what UNAIDS calls “a crippling fear of buying condoms” among many Ugandans. Now Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who earned praise in the 1980s for his government’s openness in public campaigns against HIV, believes officials have focused too much on treatment in recent years and wants them to speak simply to young people with messages noting that “HIV is here with us.” An estimated 500 Ugandans die weekly from AIDS-related illnesses. “Why are you in a hurry to have sex at 16, at 18, at 20 and then you die, or you start having problems which you may live with all your life? Why don’t you wait, hold on, you study, finish your degree and then look for a partner at the right time?” Museveni says in a video released as part of a new campaign backed by UNAIDS, a United Nations agency. More than 37 million people were living with HIV worldwide in 2018, with Africa accounting for nearly one in every 25 adults infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization. Africa’s young people, especially girls, are among the worst affected. Girls made up 79% of new HIV infections in people ages 10 to 19 in East and southern Africa in 2017, according to UNAIDS. More than 90% of deaths worldwide from AIDS-related illness among adolescents occurred in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, UNAIDS says. And infection rates among young people likely will rise as Africa experiences a youth boom, with its population of over 1.2 billion expected to double by 2050, according to the UK-based AIDS charity Avert. Health authorities and campaigners in Uganda, with over 70% of its population under age 30, say the fear factor once associated with HIV has dissipated, partly encouraging risky sexual behavior. Only 9% of men aged between 30 and 44 used a condom when they had extramarital sex in 2018, according to official statistics showing a declining rate of condom use. That’s a shift from the past. Uganda, with its ABC strategy — for abstinence, faithfulness and condom use — brought the HIV rate there from 18% in 1992 to under 10% by 2005. Although the HIV rate now stands at just over 6%, the population has soared from 15 million in 1986 to over 42 million today, and in some parts of the country the rate is higher than the national average. “A lot of the young people, now adolescents, were not old enough to see the old HIV, how aggressive it was,” said Dr. Nelson Musoba, chief of the Uganda AIDS Commission. “We are telling them that ... if you are not an adult, please abstain.” Ugandan students of a certain generation often were shown videos of the devastating toll of AIDS on the body and then told to postpone the first act of intercourse. That bluntness was widely seen as effective in discouraging risky sexual behavior. Rubaramira Ruranga, a Ugandan campaigner who has lived with HIV for 35 years, said it is clear the current view of AIDS as just another chronic disease partly encourages risky behavior as people know there is medicine one can take shortly after sexual contact to prevent HIV. “There is this thing that there is medicine, and the psychological part of the problem is almost forgotten,” he said. “Prevention is being misunderstood.” Earlier this year Ugandan health authorities released a report saying an estimated 1,000 people get infected with HIV every week, 34% of them between ages 15 and 24. In Kenya, 51% of all new HIV infections in 2015 occurred in people between 15 and 24, up from 29% in 2013. One in three of all new HIV infections in Kenya occurs among teenagers aged 15 to 19, according to official figures. Rahab Mwaniki, a campaigner with the Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium, cited the problem of “early sexual debut,” saying it leads to teenage pregnancies and exposes many to HIV in a country where 1.6 million people have the virus. Both Kenya and Uganda have intensified efforts to promote self-testing. An oral HIV self-test kit, piloted in Kenya, was launched in Uganda in September by authorities who say they hope it will encourage more men to know their status. Of the 1.4 million Ugandans living with HIV, 14% are not aware of their positive status. It means they are not getting treatment and can infect others. HIV testing “in their privacy and their convenient time” shields men from the rampant stigma preventing many from seeking HIV services in a hospital setting, Mwaniki said. Health officials have similar worries about HIV and youth in southern Africa, the world’s hardest-hit region. In South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa’s most developed country, just 23% of young men have “correct and comprehensive knowledge” about the virus, according to UNAIDS. South Africa has more than 7 million people living with HIV, the most of any country. The U.N., which in August named Ugandan activist Winnie Byanyima to lead its AIDS agency, is leading efforts to end the global epidemic by 2030. Byanyima, who has lost many relatives and friends to AIDS, said after her appointment that while the goal is within reach, “I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead.” She has since spoken of the need in Africa “to remove the barriers and harmful social norms” which leave young people, especially women, more vulnerable to getting HIV. ___ Associated Press writers Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya and Cara Anna in Johannesburg contributed. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Claim: Complacency a concern as AIDS treatment improves in Africa.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Andy Jones, director of the state Office of Substance Misuse and Addiction Prevention, told a Senate committee Thursday that this suggests steps being taken to address opioid abuse are working. “Something’s working,” Jones said, adding later: “It is exciting news to see this trend.” But Jones said there is more work to do. The preliminary data showed there were 100 opioid-related overdose deaths in Alaska in 2017 and 58 last year. In 2017, then-Gov. Bill Walker declared opioid abuse a public health disaster, and the Legislature approved issuance of a standing medical order for a naloxone distribution program through June 2021. Naloxone can help prevent overdose. The state has passed a law addressing opioid prescriptions; sued opioid manufacturers, including the company that makes the prescription opioid painkiller OxyContin; and taken steps on prevention, treatment and enforcement. According to the state, the total cost associated with its response to opioid abuse was $210.9 million over the last two years. That includes federal funds, substance abuse treatment and recovery and prevention grants and treatment costs within the Department of Corrections. The state’s presentation to lawmakers indicated that 80 percent of those in Corrections custody have substance abuse issues. Some of the grant funding was specific to opioids but it mostly addressed substance use disorders generally, according to a state report. Jones said looking broadly at more than one substance is important as the state responds, noting Alaska has issues with other substances. Alcohol remains the state’s biggest problem, “by far,” he said. “The whole thing is that these issues are not helping us create healthy, safe communities that can thrive and prosper off of opportunity because it just takes opportunity away from them,” Michael Duxbury, deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, said after the meeting. Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare on Thursday announced steps it is taking nationally affecting dental plan coverage to address opioid concerns. The company said oral health “is often overlooked as a connection to this epidemic.” For example, the company said first-time opioid prescriptions written by dental health professionals for those 19 and younger will be capped at three days. Policy holders with dependents between 16 and 22 years old will get information about the risks associated with opioids, particularly as it pertains to wisdom teeth extraction. In UnitedHealthcare’s network, dental health professionals make up the top 10 percent of opioid prescribers, the company said. UnitedHealthcare said it has about 620 people on its dental plan in Alaska. Claim: Data suggests opioid-related overdose deaths in Alaska down.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no mention of the costs for the compounds referred to in this release. Nor are the compounds themselves identified which might give some idea of the cost of acquiring them. The release suggests an over-the-counter drug was being developed but no information was provided on what the cost might be to patients. Given that this is pre-clinical research, we have no idea about what the process of isolating the active compounds would be, which would impact cost. The release states that, “compounds in thyme and oregano have demonstrated a greater than 37 percent increase in exercise tolerance and a 15 percent increase in muscle mass of certain body muscles.”  But there is no information as to how these measurements were acquired, or to which of the “certain body muscles” they were referring. And again, there is no mention of what these compounds actually were. Simply throwing out some percentages without providing an adequate context isn’t helpful for readers. If the release had transparently claimed that the benefits listed above applied to the “sedentary mice” finally mentioned at the end of the release, we’d still rate this criteria as Not Satisfactory. The mice were not noted to have cancer, COPD, heart failure, and other conditions which brought about wasting sickness. The findings, as such, are specific to non-human species without any of the conditions that are purported to be creating the setting for wasting. There is no mention of harms from these mysterious, unnamed compounds. And without their identification, readers are left clueless about any risks that might be involved. The inference is that since oregano and thyme are common, edible spices that they would present no harms once prepared in over-the counter products. Where to begin? The cardinal error in this release lies with the fact that it isn’t until the sixth paragraph out of eight paragraphs that we learn the research was done in mice, not humans. The first two paragraphs of the release refer to cachexia, a condition in humans, suggesting to readers that this is what the research was about. The release also says that the experiments were done in “sedentary mice” which may or may not have been an adequate and appropriate animal model for studying this human illness. Readers have no way of knowing, based on the information in the release. Additionally, there is no information in the release revealing where — or if — it was published in a peer-reviewed journal, or presented at a scientific meeting, two standard ways that research institutions insure readers that the science is above board and open to scrutiny. (An email to the media relations staff confirmed that the study hasn’t been published and they declined to provide any further information about the study.) The quoted source in the story, one of the researchers, claims the “discovery was a serendipitous finding,” which raises a red flag, suggesting it might be merely an observation and not a conclusion based on experiments. The researchers do offer a theory as to how this alleged anti-cachexia effect might work, but that’s really just conjecture at this point. We’ll give the release the benefit of the doubt in this category. Cachexia often accompanies serious diseases — including cancer — and effective treatments are needed. But suggesting that an over-the-counter drug, based on commonly used spices tested only in mice, might alleviate this challenging condition seems to be misleading readers hoping for simple answers. There is no mention in the release of who funded this research, nor is there a journal paper which we could find that might offer that information. The release does say that the “discovery” has been licensed to a pharmaceutical firm that plans on developing an over-the-counter drug, and quotes a company official praising the work. There is no information that suggests the researchers are free from any potential conflicts of interest, with that company or other firms. A search of the Google Patents database shows that the lead investigator and the University of Iowa Research Foundation have applied for a patent for the compound. The final paragraph of the release states that, “The treatment of cachexia just doesn’t exist,” but that’s not the case. The medication megase is used in HIV related wasting and it’s often offered to cancer patients as well. Some other interventions used to reduce the effects of cachexia include resistance exercise and a high-protein diet. Psychological interventions are often used, as are other approaches which are aimed at both the cachexia and the underlying disease which causes it. We’ll give the release a Satisfactory in this category since it states that a company has been licensed to develop a drug based on this research, and therefore readers know that it isn’t available yet. If combating cachexia were as simple as using compounds from ordinary spices, then this would be adequately novel. But neither the release nor the research as yet are available tend to bear that out. The work is done in animals, not humans. The compounds are not identified. And the explanation of benefits from those compounds is inadequate for readers to have confidence in these claims. The release uses the word “cure” in the headline, which is unjustified. Claim: Oregano, Thyme May Hold the Cure for Wasting Syndrome Disease",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Federal Trade Commission won agreements from L’Occitane, Inc.; Sensa Products LLC; HCG Diet Direct LLC; and LeanSpa LLC. The settlements required them to drop unsubstantiated claims from their ads and, in some cases, return money to consumers. The FTC also urged media outlets to scrutinize advertisements more carefully to avoid publishing potentially misleading ads, noting that some of the advertisements for the products - from food supplements to skin creams - appeared in mainstream publications. The commission provided guidance for publishers and broadcasters on how to screen weight-loss claims in advertisements. The FTC’s action, codenamed “Operation Failed Resolution,” was timed to coincide with the vows to lose weight so often made, and quickly abandoned, in January. Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, warned that the only slim element of the products is their chance of success. “Resolutions to lose weight are easy to make but hard to keep. And the chances of being successful just by sprinkling something on your food, rubbing cream on your thighs, or using a supplement are slim to none,” Rich said. One agreement was with Sensa, which said that its powder sprinkled on food would cause weight loss and peddled it on television infomercials, magazine advertisements and online ads. The company said the powder “is clinically proven to cause substantial weight loss without dieting or exercise, averaging 30 pounds in six months,” the FTC said in a court filing. In contrast, a study of the product by a Sensa company executive found that users lost an average of 5.6 pounds over six months, the FTC said in its court filing. A one-month supply of Sensa’s powder cost $59.00, plus shipping and handling, the FTC said. Sensa agreed to return $26.5 million to consumers, the commission said. Sensa said in a statement that the company had admitted no wrongdoing and that the FTC did not challenge the product’s safety. “Sensa is incorporating changes to its advertising to comply with the FTC’s consent order and continues to support the brand with new advertising and marketing materials,” the company said. In a separate court filing, the FTC said L’Occitane sold two skin creams that promised “clinically proven slimming effectiveness” and would “visibly reduce the appearance of cellulite.” L’Occitane agreed to pay $450,000 to reimburse customers. There was no evidence that the cream slimmed thighs or reduced cellulite, the FTC said. L’Occitane said it had cooperated fully with the commission, and had implemented “even more rigorous policies and procedures that will guide future clinical testing and ensure that our marketing and advertising comply with FTC regulations and guidelines.”  A third company, HCG Diet Direct, sold liquid drops that it said contained a hormone produced by human placenta that would help people lose weight. Under a settlement, the company agreed to an order requiring it to pay $3.2 million. The judgment was suspended because the company could not pay it. The FTC also reached a settlement with LeanSpa, which had used fake news websites to advertise the acai berry as a weight-loss miracle product until the company was shut down by the FTC and Connecticut attorney general’s office in 2011. Boris Mizhen, a LeanSpa executive, will surrender $7 million in cash and property while his wife, who did not participate in the scheme, will surrender $300,000. Attempts to reach the other two companies by telephone, email or by Twitter were not successful. Claim: Lose weight with skin cream? Fat chance, says U.S. govt.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: San Antonio’s growth was coupled with an eye-popping statistic during the latest Texas Tribune Festival public policy conference. Robert Puente, CEO of the San Antonio Water System, said during a Sept. 20, 2013, panel discussion that the city-owned utility has seen \"67 percent growth in the last 25 years, 0 percent more water used.\" San Antonio has been called a \"poster child\" for water conservation. As it has risen to become the seventh-largest city in the United States, its leadership has used multiple approaches to tackle the water worries facing all of Texas, where the population is rocketing and the future looks dry. But did 67 percent more customers settle in without using more water? By phone, Puente said the percentages he aired \"need to be updated.\" The water system’s vice president for public affairs, Greg Flores, told us by email that Puente’s rates covered 1984 through 2009. During that period, according to a chart Flores sent us, the population served by the utility rose from 800,627 to 1.34 million while water produced fell from 191,431 acre-feet to 186,112 acre-feet (an acre-foot is the amount needed to cover an acre to a depth of 1 foot, equal to 325,851 gallons). That’s a nearly 68 percent increase in population served and a 2.9 percent decrease in water produced. Then again, the cited period wasn’t the latest 25-year time span when Puente spoke. Flores said the chart was generated from the utility’s 2008 statistics. Flores sent a web link to the most recent edition, the utility’s \"2011 Stat Book,\" and gave us the numbers for 2012, which we used to check the six most recent 25-year spans for which data is available. The 2012 data was not available when Puente spoke at the conference, Flores said, though data through 2011 was. \"Compilation of data for a particular year is typically not completed until the end of the following year,\" he said. The 25-year spans showed fluctuations partly explained by the weather: Flores noted that 2011 was \"the single hottest, driest year in Texas\" and said water use remained atypically high through the 2011-13 drought. 2007 was a very wet year for San Antonio, he said. 25-year span Population served Acre-feet used 1987-2012* Up 55.2% Up 23.4% 1986-2011 Up 51.8% Up 21% 1985-2010 Up 55.6% Up 5% 1984-2009 Up 57.6% Down 0.6% 1983-2008 Up 59.9% Up 21.5% 1982-2007 Up 69.1% Down 7.3% *2012 data were unavailable when Puente made his claim. The oldest span we checked, 1982-2007, showed more dramatic change than Puente’s statement: 69 percent growth and a 7 percent drop in water use. But the most recent span for which data was available when he spoke, 1986-2011, saw a 52 percent increase in customers alongside a 21 percent increase in water used. That’s still not bad, a long-time Sierra Club leader told us by phone. Ken Kramer, water resources chairman for Sierra’s Texas chapter, told us, \"It’s still very significant. Especially as compared to other major cities around the state. … It is great that San Antonio is doing this, and it does provide a model for other cities that haven’t had that success yet.\" The trend statewide is toward less water use, Kramer said. State and federal standards, with such requirements as water-efficient showerheads and toilets, have reduced Texans’ per-person water use. Texas as a whole averaged out to about 151 gallons used per person per day in 2007-11, according to the Texas Water Development Board, with the state’s nearly 26 million people using 169 gallons apiece a day during hot, dry 2011. Flores said, and the utility’s stats confirm, that San Antonians reduced per-person water use from around 200 gallons a day in the 1980s (the utility’s stats show the decade averaged out at 197 gallons per day, to be precise) to about 140 gallons a day now (2007-11 average out at 137 gallons per day). Daily water use per capita for 2011 in Texas’ six largest cities shook out this way, according to the water board: Houston, 191 gallons; San Antonio, 148 gallons; Dallas, 197 gallons; Austin, 156 gallons; Fort Worth, 166 gallons; El Paso, 143 gallons. What got San Antonio saving? \"A big federal hammer,\" Puente told us. \"Back in the early 1990s, a federal judge actually was going to lay down pumping rules, limit our ability to pump water out of our aquifer, and gave us till the end of the legislative session to pass certain rules that we would impose on ourselves,\" he said. San Antonio and nearby areas, he said, were hit by the federal deadline because of endangered species that relied on the Edwards Aquifer. Flores outlined some of the Alamo City’s approaches: Smarter use of water pulled from the Edwards, including the nation’s largest direct recycled water delivery system, routing treated wastewater to users such as golf courses, the River Walk and local industry. Pumping all the Edwards water it’s allowed to every year, and storing what it doesn’t use in the Carrizo Aquifer -- which isn’t porous like the Edwards, but hard-packed sand, Flores said. The Edwards water sits there, in fact barely commingling with the Carrizo water, and San Antonio has been extracting it as needed for the past three years. New sources such as a $145 million desalination plant set to start tapping a deeper, saltwater aquifer in 2016. Not pumping as much water in the first place, aka conservation. The water utility educates users and subsidizes ways to use less, both in residential and commercial systems. Flores said the utility has approved conservation projects based on the $400 price to buy rights to an acre-foot of Edwards water for a year. If the project was cheaper than buying the water, the utility implemented the plan. Giving away 325,000 low-flow toilets, even hiring plumbers to help low-income residents install them, cost less than the unsaved water would have, Flores said. Same for helping Coca-Cola retool to clean bottles with pressurized air. Last year, though, mindful of the rising cost of water from the Edwards and other sources, the utility raised the ceiling: Now a project has to save more than buying the water at $1,100 per acre-foot, he said. Outdoor water usage, Puente said, is the next area of focus, with the utility offering rebates to water customers who want to convert a parched part of their lawn to a deck or patio. Our ruling Puente said San Antonio has seen \"67 percent growth in the last 25 years, 0 percent more water used.\" Those are cherry-picked, out-of-date stats, vintage 1984-2009. Up-to-date figures available when Puente spoke, covering 1986-2011, show that as the population served grew 52 percent, water usage increased 21 percent. San Antonio may outpace other cities in water conservation. This claim still washes out as . – The statement is not accurate. Claim: San Antonio has seen \"67% growth\" in water customers \"in the last 25 years, 0% more water used.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A far-right radio host who has supported the rhetoric of white supremacy is spreading misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. In an article published Feb. 1, the Hal Turner Radio Show wrote that the 2019 coronavirus is \"a military bioweapon developed by China’s army\" at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. As evidence, it points to two screenshots from a national database of genetic material. \"Somehow, it got out. The world is now facing a massive wipe-out of humanity as a result,\" the article reads. \"The proof that this virus is a genetically-modified Bat-SARS-Like Virus, manipulated by the Chinese Army, appears below. The evidence is irrefutable.\" The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It has been shared more than 2,000 times. (Screenshot from Hal Turner Radio Show) Since its December outbreak in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has spread rapidly around the world. According to the World Health Organization, more than 40,000 people have been infected in 24 countries. In China, 909 have died. PolitiFact has fact-checked several conspiracy theories about the source of the coronavirus. Some hoaxes suggested that the virus somehow escaped from the Wuhan lab, which deals with some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus. We have found no evidence to back up those claims — and the Hal Turner article is similarly flawed. The Hal Turner Radio Show claims that, because two coronavirus entries in a federal database have similar proteins, they are the same virus. That’s unproven. Hal Turner uses internet and radio broadcasts to float conspiracy theories and hate speech. In 2010, he was sentenced to 33 months in prison for threatening three federal judges over their decision to uphold handgun bans in Chicago. The Hal Turner article cites screenshots of two GenBank entries for coronavirus proteins. GenBank is a database maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information that lists publicly available DNA sequences. The first screenshot shows an entry for an envelope protein for a \"Bat SARS-like coronavirus\" that was submitted in 2018 by the Institute of Military Medicine, Nanjing Command. According to the Universal Protein Resource, an envelope protein is a membrane that \"forms the outermost layer\" of the complete, infective form of certain viruses. The second screenshot is an entry for another envelope protein associated with the \"Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus.\" It was submitted Jan. 5 by the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and School of Public Health at Fudan University. But there are seven kinds of coronaviruses that can infect humans and they have similar envelope proteins. So the match doesn’t prove the two viruses are the same. \"The family of coronaviruses are going to be highly related, just because they are in the same family,\" said Richard Watanabe, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of California’s Keck School of Medicine, in an email. We ran the same NCBI search as the Hal Turner Radio Show and found 78 entries with envelope proteins similar to the 2019 coronavirus. The second claim in the Hal Turner Radio Show’s article is that, since Chinese researchers uploaded its genetic information, the 2019 coronavirus is a military bioweapon. That’s unproven. There is a lab near Wuhan that deals with dangerous pathogens — and some have linked it to China’s biological warfare program. The country denies having such a program, but the U.S. State Department has raised concerns about China’s potential noncompliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans the production of such weapons. Officials are still working to determine the source of the coronavirus outbreak. In its most recent situation summary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that both it and Chinese authorities had isolated the genome of the 2019 coronavirus. Their findings suggest \"a likely single, recent emergence from a virus related to bat coronaviruses and the SARS coronavirus.\" The disease appears to have originated at a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, and it spread from there to 24 countries. Researchers believe the current outbreak pattern suggests the coronavirus may have spread from animal to human at first, and now from human to human. And even if there were, Watanabe said it’s highly unlikely the Chinese military would have uploaded the genetic sequence to a public database maintained by an American government agency. \"China, like the other countries including the U.S., have legitimate biomedical research going on at military facilities,\" Watanabe said. \"Just because they uploaded information, doesn’t make it a bioweapon.\" The Hal Turner Radio Show claimed the coronavirus is \"a MILITARY BIO-WEAPON Developed by China's Army.\" As evidence, the website included two screenshots of coronavirus entries in a federal database of genetic material. The site claimed the two viruses are the same. But all human coronaviruses have similar genetic material, and just because the entries were uploaded by Chinese researchers doesn’t prove that the 2019 coronavirus was developed as a bioweapon. Hal Turner Radio Show’s article is inaccurate. Claim: Hal Turner Radio Show Says the coronavirus is “a MILITARY BIO-WEAPON Developed by China's Army.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story focus is the increased cost of 2nd or 3rd-line chemotherapy drugs aimed at advanced cancer. The story notes that patients are often forced to choose between these treatments and their financial savings. The story appropriately notes that cost should be discussed as an additional side effect of treatment. The story notes via an American Cancer Society rep that it \"costs a billion dollars\" to bring a drug to market; however, we are not told of the typical profit made from these drugs once they are available to patients. A terrific book by Merrill Goozner, \"The $800 Million Pill,\" also pokes holes in the claim of that much in drug R&D. This is an oversight in reporting about cost. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt. The story only discussed costs and side effects. Why were data on benefits left out? The story does not discuss how these newer drugs work or how much quantity and quality they add to patients’ lives. The story does not discuss if newer drugs add months or years to patients lives and if they are any better than older drugs for treating cancer. We are told that some drugs have fewer or different side effects. The story discusses the side effects of certain chemotherapy drugs. While the story is about chemotherapy in general, there was a nice example near the end about a newer regimen that is far more expensive but associated with fewer side effects. The story focuses on the burden of cost, which oncologists have begun to consider with patients as another downside or side effect of chemotherapy regimens. The story notes that there are now guidelines for discussing and planning for the cost of treatment with patients. The story focuses on cost of cancer treatments and provides price estimates for certain chemotherapy drugs. The story does not do a good job explaining how these drugs  treat cancer or extend a patient’s life. The story notes that patients should weigh the benefits of these drugs, but they do not explicitly discuss what this means. The story provides some qualitiative evidence via family stories that these drugs are cost-prohibitive for many patients. It is not necessarily helpful to discuss costs without discussing benefits in absolute terms. The story didn’t give us that evidence. Cancer is of course a prevalent disease; this piece did not hype that fact. The story discusses the small number of people who would be eligible for newly approved and/or experimental drugs to treat advanced cancer. The story includes perspectives from families, patients and oncologists who discuss weighing the benefits of newer chemotherapy drugs with the increased cost. It would have been useful to interview a pharmaceutical manufacturer for a quote on the typical profit of chemotherapy drugs  after recouping money for the development of these drugs. The story provides information on alternative older drugs that may be an option for cancer treatment. The story notes that the tradeoff may be the type of side effects. The story also provides some resources for patients who may qualify for free or reduced-cost medicines. The story focuses on newer chemotherapy regimens that may be unavailable to some people as they are too expensive. The story explains that because the market for chemo certain drugs is small and focused, the cost of the drugs is higher. The story also notes that some patients may qualify for need-based help via hospital and drug-company sponsored assistance. The story discusses newer chemotherapy drugs and the consistent increase in cost–about 15 percent a year. The story contains a great deal of independent reporting and information does not appear to be taken from a press release. Claim: Hard questions about chemo",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story reports that the existing version of this test costs over $4,000. It puts this cost in context by reporting that one of the researchers says some women could still save money if the test results prompt them to skip radiation therapy that can cost more than $21,000 (as well as exposing them to some risks and harms). The story comes very close to meeting this criterion. It reports that this new test put 75 percent of women with this type of breast tumor into a low-risk category and that this information could support a decision to skip radiation therapy… and that the predictions are more accurate than what clinicians usually rely on today. It also notes that for this type of tumor (ductal carcinoma in situ or DCIS), radiation therapy has been shown to reduce the risk of a recurrence in the same breast, though it does not alter survival rates, thus adding valuable context to the decision that this new test is supposed to help women make. However, this story fails to alert readers to a central point: the study did not examine whether this test actually improves outcomes for the patients. In other words, while the researchers can say women with certain test results are less likely to have another DCIS in the same breast, further trials would be needed to determine whether or not changing treatment based on the test results improves the outcomes the women care about, including reserving radiation therapy for those women most likely to benefit. The story does include a comment from an independent expert who says more study is needed before making changes in usual treatment recommendations; but the story would have been even better if it had plainly and prominently stated that this study did not look at whether making treatment decisions based on the results of the new test makes a difference in the long-term health outcomes of women with this sort of DCIS. Although the overall tone of the story presents this test as a clear advance in providing treatment guidance to women with DCIS, it does spell out that 5 percent of women classified by the test as “low-risk” still developed an invasive cancer within 10 years… and that over 80 percent of women labeled as “high-risk” did not develop an invasive breast cancer within 10 years. So readers are told that even with this test, physicians cannot predict the future with certainty. Overall, the story does a good job of describing the study and putting the results in context. But as noted above, it fails to clearly alert readers to the fact that this study did not look at the effect of changing treatment recommendations based on the test results. Many readers may believe the study accomplished more than it actually did. Also, this study was presented at a medical meeting. We like to see stories point out that meeting presentations are not subject to the same level of peer review as articles published in leading medical journals. The story states near the top that this test is intended for the 45,000 women in the United States who are diagnosed each year with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in one of their breasts. The story includes two independent experts who help put the study results in context. It also identifies one source (Shak) as an employee of the company that sells an earlier version of the test. The story would have been better if it had addressed the relationship between the lead researcher and the company, but since it appears (based on other reports) that Dr. Solin did not disclose any conflicts of interest, we will give the story a satisfactory rating on this criterion. The story lays out the conundrum facing women diagnosed with DCIS: that clinicians generally can’t predict which women will ultimately develop invasive disease and which ones will be fine even with little or no treatment. As the story reports, these women and their physicians may decide to opt for conservative treatment, but that many choose to undergo radiation therapy in hopes of reducing the risk of a recurrence. Overall, the story describes this new test as being able to narrow the uncertainty somewhat. The story reports that an earlier version of this test is already on the market and that the company plans to make the new version available within weeks. Since it appears that updating the way this test is used does not require regulatory approval, it seems adequate to rely on the company’s statement about its marketing plans. As mentioned above, the story describes this new test as a refinement of an existing test. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Gene test could spare women from unnecessary radiation",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As Ebola continues to spread in Africa, the United States has committed over $100 million in aid, in the form of both supplies and personnel. But fringe voices on the Web are suggesting that Ebola is even a bigger threat than the U.S. government is letting on. The conspiracy website InfoWars reported this week that \"the U.S. State Department has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola, prompting concerns that the federal government is anticipating the rapid spread of a virus that has already claimed an unprecedented number of lives.\" The InfoWars report cites a press release from Lakeland Industries, which manufactures protective clothing, and the InfoWars report says that \"only 1,400 federal workers are currently in the region (western Africa), suggesting that the 160,000 figure is far higher than what would be required merely for sending medical workers abroad.\" From there, InfoWars cites a German virologist to the effect that Ebola’s death toll will climb to 5 million (the Ebola outbreak has claimed 2,630 deaths at time of writing), and suggests that \"Ebola could have gone airborne to at least a limited extent.\" (We found plenty of other examples of the Hazmat story floating around the Internet.) We’re not going to touch speculation about Ebola’s evolution, but we wanted to check his claim that the State Department has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola, and that their order reflects the federal government’s anticipation of a \"rapid spread\" of Ebola. The press release The Lakeland press release, which announces its increased \"manufacturing capacity\" for the \"specialty protective suits to be worn by health care workers and others being exposed to Ebola,\" only has a sentence relating to the State Department’s order. \"With the U.S. State Department alone putting out a bid for 160,000 suits,\" they say, \"we encourage all protective apparel companies to increase their manufacturing capacity for sealed seam garments so that our industry can do its part in addressing this threat to global health.\" That’s not much to go on, but there’s a crucial distinction that InfoWars glosses over: The press release mentions a bid, not an \"order.\" That means that while a purchase of 160,000 suits may be in the works, it’s not final yet and may not even happen. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spokesman Matt Herrick said that he couldn’t \"speak to specific procurement that is in process and not awarded,\" but confirmed that the Lakeland press release \"is in reference to USAID and our ongoing efforts to secure personal protective equipment to combat the spread of Ebola.\" The bid InfoWars is referring to comes from USAID, which is technically independent of the State Department. The two organizations, though, work closely together. USAID USAID has been providing protective equipment to partners in Africa since March, Herrick said. That includes Hazmat suits like the ChemMax 1 suit referred to in Lakeland’s press release. The suit, while not Ebola-exclusive, is designed to protect against infectious agents. Beyond the suits, USAID’s assistance to African organizations has come in the form of disease-control experts, funding and a variety of emergency supplies. Herrick referred us to this series of press releases on USAID’s efforts. \"Last month, USAID airlifted more than 16 tons of medical supplies and emergency equipment to Liberia,\" Herrick said, including 10,000 Hazmat suits, water treatment units, and plastic sheeting to create Ebola treatment units. That might seem like a lot of suits, but \"the equipment set is designed to be worn just once and then disposed of once treatment is administered,\" said Herrick. \"So many sets are needed for each health provider.\" \"USAID has procured and delivered more than 100,000 suits to date, and we are on track to procure and deliver more than 130,000 additional suits,\" Herrick said. \"The equipment is provided to local health care workers and nongovernmental partners working in the affected countries.\" Herrick wouldn’t elaborate on how the suits from the bid related to USAID’s plans, but the figures he gave are crucial context. The 160,000 suits aren’t actually \"far higher than what would be required merely for sending medical workers abroad,\" as InfoWars claimed. USAID has provided almost that many suits already, and there seems to be an immediate need for more. This information is also public via USAID’s press releases, so it's not as though they’re privately predicting a \"rapid spread\" of Ebola beyond the scope of the current outbreak. Our ruling The website InfoWars claimed that the State Department \"has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola,\" demonstrating that \"the federal government is anticipating the rapid spread of a virus that has already claimed an unprecedented number of lives.\" The federal government agency in question is USAID, but that’s something of a technicality. A USAID official told us that the suits are one use only, so 160,000 suits aren’t actually an astronomical amount. In fact, USAID has already delivered 100,000 suits to the Ebola-infected regions of Africa. Their new bid, while an expansion of their efforts, is in line with what USAID has done so far, and doesn’t demonstrate that the federal government is anticipating any sort of \"rapid spread.\" Claim: The U.S. State Department has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola, prompting concerns that the federal government is anticipating the rapid spread\" of the virus.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Kelly discussed the latest problems at Osawatomie State Hospital on Thursday after federal inspectors again threatened  to pull Medicare funding, The Wichita Eagle reports. Kelly said the facility’s 60-bed Adair Acute Care unit is “way too small to have 60 people with some serious mental health issues in that one place.” She added that the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees state hospitals, is working on improvement plans to lower the number of patients in the unit and provide beds elsewhere. Issues initially came to a head in January 2016 when the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decertified the entire Osawatomie State Hospital in response to security and safety issues, which cost the state millions of dollars a year in federal funds. In December 2017 the agency re-certified the Adair portion of the facility, allowing Osawatomie to again receive Medicare funding for those 60 beds. But federal officials who inspected the unit last year found that treatment for some patients needed to be more frequent and intense. Inspectors also found missing treatment notes and plans that lacked specific goals. The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services has filed a plan to correct the problems, promising  to provide more individualized treatment for patients. Kelly singled out crisis centers as one way to improve the state’s mental health care system. A 2017 law signed by Gov. Sam Brownback allowed the facilities to involuntarily admit individuals for up to 72 hours. Last year, lawmakers approved $2.6 million for mental health care improvements that included funding for the centers. Kelly said Thursday that the investment makes more sense than adding capacity to the state mental health hospitals. KDADS spokeswoman Cara Sloan-Ramos said more detailed information will be released when Kelly presents her proposed budget later this month. But she said the agency will put forward a plan to lift a moratorium on new admissions to Osawatomie that has been in place for years. She also said it will include a continued focus on providing care near patients’ homes and communities. Claim: Gov. Kelly:  Kansas psychiatric hospital unit needs changes.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Opponents of Ohio's estate tax say it hurts the state by driving away wealthy residents. State Rep. Jay Hottinger, a leader of the drive to repeal the tax in the General Assembly, said a \"shockingly high number\" of Ohioans leave because of the tax. But, the Newark Republican acknowledged on the \"Sound of Ideas\" on WCPN 90.3 FM there is no actual number to cite. \"When an individual decides to leave my home community in Licking County, believe it or not, they don't take out a press release,\" he said. \"They don't send it to the news media and say, 'We're leaving the state of Ohio because we want to preserve our assets for our heirs.\" He pointed to individuals instead, naming the founder of Wendy's restaurants as one example. \"Dave Thomas left the state literally on his deathbed to avoid the estate tax,\" Hottinger said. PolitiFact Ohio was stirred. We imagined a dramatic dash for the border in a souped-up medical van. Wanting to know more, we called Hottinger's office for details. When they didn't get back to us, we searched on our own. We found a less dramatic story. Thomas died in 2002, after a decade-long battle with liver cancer, at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He had lived there since 1982, when he moved to Florida after retiring as CEO of Wendy’s at age 49. Prior to that, he had lived in Ohio for 20 years. If his primary goal at that time of his move was to limit the tax exposure his estate would have after his death, he must have been pleasantly surprised to discover that he also gained the year-round ability to play golf (which he loved) and to cruise on his 90-foot yacht, the I. Lorraine (named for his wife), which he was able to dock behind his home. A generous philanthropist, particularly in the interests of children's welfare, medicine and education, Thomas supported (and established) a number of organizations and causes in Florida, as he continued to do in Ohio and elsewhere. He said his greatest regret was not finishing high school, and in 1993 he hired a tutor and passed the G.E.D. exam. Coconut Creek High School in Fort Lauderdale made him part of its senior class, and awarded his high school diploma. He and his wife were king and queen of the senior prom, and Thomas was voted \"Most Likely to Succeed.\" Legal residency is not something that can be established by deathbed conversion. Nor is it determined solely by physical presence. The point is that Thomas, an adoptee who was born in New Jersey and moved constantly as a boy, spending significant periods in Michigan, Tennessee and Indiana, was no mere Florida visitor or latecomer. Though he still had Ohio homes at Buckeye Lake and in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington, he registered to vote in Florida, not as an absentee in Ohio, in 1988. There’s also evidence that Thomas (who was survived by his wife, five children and 16 grandchildren) knew a thing or two about taxes, making us doubt that he would have left tax and estate planning to the eleventh hour. Gov. Bob Taft credited his support for getting passage of a $500 adoption credit on Ohio income taxes in 1999, and President Clinton gave him credit in 1996 for a federal law giving parents a one-time tax credit of $5,000 when they adopt a child. There are other reasons to be skeptical of the claim about Thomas. In examining claims about estate taxes elsewhere, PolitiFact Rhode Island found research reporting that estate taxes have little or no impact on the flow of people from one state to another. The National Tax Journal in 2006 published \"State ‘Death’ Taxes and Elderly Migration -- The Chicken or the Egg?,\" whose authors found no evidence that the elderly were responding to changes in estate taxes. Kail Padquitt, staff economist for The Tax Foundation, a think tank that studies federal and state tax policies, told PolitiFact he hasn’t seen any proof that the prospect of paying estate taxes drives people to move. And if all this wasn’t enough, there’s another key fact to consider. Hottinger’s claim was that Thomas fled the state \"literally on his death bed, to avoid estate tax.\" That clearly isn’t the case, unless he lingered 20 years before passing. And at that, it would have been three years too soon. Until 2005 (three years after Thomas’ death), Florida also had an estate tax. Hottinger’s statement isn’t just inaccurate, it’s also ridiculous. On the Truth-O-Meter, it’s worthy of flame broiling. Claim: Jay Hottinger Says Wendy’s founder \"Dave Thomas left the state literally on his deathbed to avoid the estate tax.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Though the Republican governor said the measure signed late Monday strikes a balance, opponents said it is unconstitutional and promised to sue. The law is expected to take effect in May. The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s longtime holding that states cannot ban abortion before the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually at about 23 weeks. The ban adds to a long list of abortion restrictions in Utah, including a 72-hour waiting period and an in-person informed consent session, Planned Parenthood of Utah said. “This 18-week ban is clearly unconstitutional and part of a broader agenda to ban abortion one law at a time,” president Karrie Galloway said in a statement. The law comes as abortion opponents across the country are emboldened by President Donald Trump’s appointment of conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices and seek cases to challenge Roe v. Wade, the court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has also signed an 18-week ban, and several other states have considered or passed proposals to ban abortion much earlier, once a fetal heartbeat can be found. In Utah, Herbert’s spokesman Paul Edwards said he’s against abortion, and believes lawmakers set an appropriate threshold for respecting a woman’s right to choose while “protecting the unborn.” The measure allows some exceptions, including cases of rape, fatal fetal deformity or serious detriment to the mother’s health. Herbert has said he is  not worried about the potential cost of a lawsuit, estimated at about $2 million if the state loses. The sponsor of the measure, Republican Rep. Cheryl Acton, has said she sponsored it to reduce the number of second-trimester abortions that “shock the conscience.” Herbert also signed into law this year a measure banning abortion if the only reason is a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome. The law contains a so-called trigger clause and wouldn’t go into effect unless a similar measure is upheld elsewhere. Claim: Utah bans abortions after 18 weeks, teeing up legal showdown.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Every year, millions of average Americans legally buy guns in this country. But have thousands of people on the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List also legally purchased guns, and other weapons, on U.S. soil? That’s the claim Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, made following the terrorist attack in San Bernardino. Thompson and others in Congress called for a ban on weapons purchases by anyone on the watch list. The U.S. Senate struck down a bill that sought to accomplish that earlier this month. \"Since 2004, more than 2,000 suspected terrorists have legally purchased weapons in the United States,\" Thompson said on floor of the House of Representatives on Dec. 7, urging passage of the bill. Was this true? We decided to fact-check the eye-opening statement. But first, we wanted to learn more about the list itself. The list, which includes the smaller No Fly List, is a database comprising information about \"those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity,\" according to the FBI. National security officials consider it a key tool in preventing future attacks. Civil liberty groups and some elected leaders have called it unconstitutional, citing a lack of due process and vague standards for inclusion on the list. It’s caused headaches at airport security checkpoints for people with similar names to those on the list, including the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove. The database is believed to include hundreds of thousands of individuals, including roughly 10,000 Americans. But being on the list as a \"suspected terrorist\" does not mean the person has a criminal record, or has ever been charged with a crime. It just means they’re \"reasonably suspected\" by a federal official of being involved in terrorist activity. Our Research We know it’s legal for suspected terrorists to buy weapons — specifically, guns — because that’s the right Thompson and even President Obama have said they want to take away. But how are purchases by suspected terrorists tracked? And how can anyone know for certain that \"more than 2,000\" have legally bought weapons over the past decade in the U.S.? Enter the FBI. The federal agency conducts instant criminal background checks on people seeking to buy firearms at licensed gun stores. In 2004, these checks began examining whether an applicant was on the terrorist watch list. Photo by Andrew Nixon/Capital Public Radio In March, the U.S. Government Accountability Office published an analysis of FBI data showing that from February 2004 through December 2014, 2,043 out of 2,233 weapons applications by people on the terrorist watch list were allowed to proceed. Nearly all applications were for firearms. Three were for explosives, all of which were approved. When we contacted Thompson’s office, a staffer pointed us to the GAO analysis to back up the congressman’s claim. The GAO found an average of about 200 successful weapons purchases by the group of people on the list, each year, during the timeframe. Experts we spoke with told us there’s no way of independently verifying information on the list, as it’s not public. They referred to the GAO analysis as the best estimate available. \"I have no means of independently confirming who is a reasonable suspect even if I knew the names. I imagine this is true of most average persons. We have to go on trust,\" Martha Crenshaw, Stanford University political science professor and expert on terrorism, said in an email. The FBI has declined to comment on the watch list’s current size, but we found an estimate on a 2011 FBI fact-sheet that put it at 420,000 individuals. Of those, only about 8,400 were American citizens or legal residents. Current estimates of the number of people on the list -- foreign and American combined -- now hover around 700,000. A 'plausible number' Two experts who helped oversee the watch list told us the congressman’s claim of \"more than 2,000\" suspected terrorists legally buying weapons over 10 years is realistic. \"That’s certainly a plausible number,\" said Martin Reardon, former chief of the FBI Terrorist Screening Center’s operations branch. The screening center maintains the watch list. Reardon, who now works for an intelligence consulting firm, estimated the number of Americans on it is currently no more than 10,000. Another expert knowledgeable about the list agreed. \"Two thousand, over such a long period of time -- 10 years -- does not actually strike me as being overly large because there are a lot of people in this country that are purchasing firearms,\" said Timothy Edgar, who oversaw civil liberties and national intelligence issues, including the terrorist watch list, under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. \"So it’s not surprising that there’s been a fairly substantial number of encounters with people who are on that terrorist watch list for one reason or another, over the past decade.\" The data show weapons applications, not the number of individuals making those requests. So presumably, the same person could have made multiple applications. Even so, the experts said, the number cited by Thompson could be much higher. Suspected terrorists could have legally bought weapons at gun shows, where transactions are not subject to federal background checks. Faulty list? While there’s data to back up Thompson’s claim, it’s also important to consider the accuracy of the names on the terror watch list. How do we know, for example, that the people on the list really are \"suspected terrorists?\" In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General released an audit  that found that 35 percent of the identities on the watch list at the time were \"associated with FBI cases that did not contain current international terrorism or domestic terrorism designations.\" Many of the records were for people who had originally \"been appropriately watchlisted but should have been removed from the watchlist after the case had been closed,\" the audit said. The American Civil Liberties Union has repeatedly criticized what it calls the \"unconstitutionally vague\" standards for inclusion on the terror watch list. It repeated a call earlier this month for major reforms of the database. Edgar and Reardon both acknowledged the list is \"not perfect.\" Edgar added, however, that many of the early problems with the list, which caused some people with the same name as a suspected terrorist to be stopped at airports, have been resolved. Even if a large chunk of the names on the list are outdated, we presume a majority truly are \"suspected terrorists,\" based on our research and that of the experts we spoke with. Our Ruling Rep. Mike Thompson said recently on the House floor that: \"Since 2004, more than 2,000 suspected terrorists have legally purchased weapons in the U.S.\" He backed up his claim with FBI data that show 2,043 people on the agency’s terror watch list successfully applied for weapons at licensed gun shops over the past decade. There’s no way to track how many people on the list legally bought weapons at gun shows, as those transactions aren’t subject to federal background checks. But it makes sense to assume some did. The congressman left out the fact that a federal audit in 2009 found 35 percent of the identities on the list had no ties to current terrorism cases. The audit said many of the names remained on the list when they should have been removed. But given the large size of the terror watch list — with perhaps 10,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of foreigners — it’s reasonable to assume that 200 or more on the list made legal weapons purchases each year over the past decade. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. Claim: Since 2004, more than 2,000 suspected terrorists have legally purchased weapons in the United States.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The morning after President Donald Trump announced Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to share his thoughts about the president’s pick. Durbin, the Democratic whip and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in the interview he believes Gorsuch should have a hearing, but that the nominee also should meet the required voting standard. \"(Gorsuch) should have a hearing and he should meet the voting standard that Supreme Court nominees are held to of 60 votes. A standard that was met by Elena Kagan as well as Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choices,\" Durbin told the show’s hosts. With Senate Republicans considering the so-called \"nuclear option\" to lower the vote threshold needed to confirm Gorsuch, we decided to double-check Durbin’s declaration. Durbin has a point, but he does oversimplifies the process for Senate votes on Supreme Court nominees. Notably, a formal confirmation vote does not require 60 votes. Voting standard? Of the nearly 4,000 government positions Trump must fill, 1,212 require a Senate confirmation. That includes all Cabinet-level posts as well as hundreds of other senior positions and agency heads. Here’s how the confirmation process will work for Gorsuch: He will testify in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If the committee refers his nomination to the full Senate (a likely outcome due to the Republican majority on the Judiciary Committee), a vote by the full Senate needs to be taken. The Senate majority leader moves to take the Senate into an executive session, the setting in which nominees are confirmed, according to Worth Hester, the assistant director of the Georgetown Government Affairs Institute. Then, the Senate majority leader needs to bring a nominee to a vote by the full Senate. In Gorsuch’s case, barring any outstanding circumstances, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will either get unanimous consent, a process by which every senator agrees to schedule a vote on a nominee. However, if unanimous consent cannot be reached, and if at least one senator filibusters, Sen. McConnell would need to invoke cloture. A \"cloture vote,\" agrees to place a time limit on the consideration of a nominee. A successful cloture requires 60 votes. After the cloture vote, Senate rules allow for 30 additional hours of debate, and then a final confirmation vote occurs, according to Sarah Binder, political scientist at George Washington University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. This confirmation process for some positions became less burdensome thanks to a rule change on Nov. 21, 2013. With the Senate’s Republican minority blocking President Barack Obama’s nominees for executive branch positions and, in particular, appeals court judges, then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., triggered the so-called nuclear option by a successful 52-48 vote, eliminating the 60-vote threshold needed to confirm most nominations, and with it, the threat of a filibuster. The rule change, however, excluded Supreme Court nominees, meaning that such nominations could be filibustered. And that’s something that some Democrats have threatened  to do against the Gorsuch nomination. The Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the Senate -- enough to reach the final vote threshold of 51 votes, but only if they can get that far. Now that we’ve addressed some background information about the nuclear option and current situation at hand, let’s take a look at Durbin’s claim. Nomination and confirmation of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan Following the election of Obama in November 2008, Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and essentially held 59 seats in the Senate because two independents caucused with them. In May 2009, Obama nominated U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York for the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings began on June 1 of that year, and Sotomayor was confirmed by a vote of 68-31 on Aug. 6. Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts did not vote. He died on Aug. 25 -- 15 months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. If Kennedy had been present for the vote, Senate Democrats would have had a filibuster-proof majority. But that didn’t matter because nine Republicans voted to confirm Sotomayor. Then almost exactly one year later, Obama’s nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 6 in a 63-37 vote, with five Republicans voting in favor and one Democrat, former Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voting against. During the confirmation of both Sotomayor and Kagan, Democrats had a comfortable majority that was near filibuster-proof if not for the absence of Kennedy in August 2009 and the lone dissenting Democratic vote by Nelson in August 2010. On the surface, the margins achieved by Sotomayor and Kagan would seem to support Durbin’s argument that the confirmations required 60 votes. However, it’s more complicated than that. The nominations were never filibustered, so no 60-vote cloture motion was required. And the final confirmation required only 51 votes. In fact, two sitting justices -- Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas -- never reached 60 votes in their final tally. The key word that trips up Durbin is \"standard.\" The existing Senate \"standard\" says nothing about reaching 60 votes. If the standard for passing a class is earning a C, and someone gets a B, it doesn’t mean that a B was required to pass the class. The \"standard\" to pass the class is still a C. Whether this longstanding standard lasts into the future, given the degree of polarization in Congress today, is another question entirely. Our rating In an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, Durbin said Obama’s nominees met a standard of 60 votes, \"a standard that was met by Elena Kagan as well as Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choices.\" Obama’s nominees cleared the procedural hurdles and won 60 votes and then some. The Senate confirmed Kagan by a roll call vote of 63-37 in 2010, and Sotomayor was confirmed in 2009 by a vote of 68-31. Kagan and Sotomayor ultimately would have had enough votes to be able to break a filibuster, but they never had to -- and the margins they got on the final, simple-majority vote can’t be used to retroactively define what the \"standard\" was. Claim: Richard Durbin Says President Barack Obama’s nominees met a standard of 60 votes, \"a standard that was met by Elena Kagan as well as Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choices.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a wide-ranging interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” President Donald Trump repeated several false and misleading claims, while putting a new twist on some of them:The president also repeated his false claim that the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that caused the controversial separation of families at the Southern border was “the same as the Obama law.” He again wrongly stated that the U.S. pays “almost the entire cost of NATO to protect Europe,” and he overstated the U.S. trade deficit with China. In his interview with CBS’ Lesley Stahl, the president repeated his unsubstantiated claim that China interfered in the 2016 U.S. election (“I think China meddled too”) and offered a new twist regarding Russia’s role during the presidential campaign. He falsely claimed Russia “wouldn’t be able to help me at all,” even if he had sought out the U.S. adversary for help.Trump, Oct. 14: Do you really think I’d call Russia to help me with an election? Give me a break. They wouldn’t be able to help me at all. Call Russia. It’s so ridiculous.The special counsel’s investigation into the 2016 election is ongoing. But, contrary to the president’s claim, there is evidence that Russia helped Trump’s election chances in multiple ways.In July, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III filed an indictment against 12 members of a Russian military intelligence agency known as the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, or GRU. The officers “engaged in a sustained effort to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and released that information on the internet under the names ‘DCLeaks’ and ‘Guccifer 2.0’, and through another entity,” a Justice Department press release said.“The object of the conspiracy was to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” the indictment said.For example, WikiLeaks, identified as “Organization 1″ in the indictment, released Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails on Oct. 7 less than an hour after the Washington Post reported that Trump once bragged about groping women. “In order to expand their interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Conspirators transferred many of the documents they stole from the DNC and the chairman of the Clinton Campaign to Organization 1,” the indictment said. “The Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, discussed the release of the stolen documents and the timing of those releases with Organization 1 to heighten their impact on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”In addition to the damaging releases of hacked emails, three Russian organizations and 13 Russian nationals were indicted in February for their role in an extensive pro-Trump social media advertising campaign.The indictment alleges that the Internet Research Agency, a Russian-based online propaganda company, oversaw the pro-Trump influence campaign, which was financed by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a man described as “Putin’s cook” or “Putin’s chef,” and his two companies, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering. “From at least April 2016 through November 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, while concealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation through false personas, began to produce, purchase, and post advertisements on U.S. social media and other online sites expressly advocating for the election of then-candidate Trump or expressly opposing Clinton,” according to the indictment, which referred to the Internet Research Agency as the “organization.”Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, told a Senate panel last year that “approximately 126 million people may have been served content from a Page associated with” the Internet Research Agency. At the same hearing, Sean J. Edgett, Twitter’s acting general counsel, said the company identified 36,746 automated accounts, known as bots, that “generated approximately 1.4 million automated, election-related Tweets, which collectively received approximately 288 million impressions.”In addition, Internet Research Agency mobilized Trump supporters for political rallies, focusing on so-called “purple states like Colorado, Virginia & Florida,” according to the indictment, quoting from documents, such as emails and private Facebook messages, obtained during the investigation. Trump, who lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, captured the Electoral College votes and the election by narrowly winning in key swing, or “purple,” states, such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.In a Jan. 6, 2017, report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016″ to “undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency,” as well as “help President-elect Trump’s election chances.” The report “did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcomes of the 2016 election,” because it “does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion.”As he has done in the past, Trump boasted about the relationship he has developed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The president said Kim “understands denuclearization and he’s agreed to it.”That’s not quite accurate. Trump and Kim issued a joint statement in June saying that North Korea will “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” but they have yet to come to an agreement on the terms of a denuclearization plan.“He doesn’t wanna go to war, and we don’t wanna go to war, and he understands denuclearization and he’s agreed to it,” Trump said. “And you see that, he’s agreed to it. No missiles.”When Stahl pressed Trump, asking if North Korea “may actually be building more missiles,” Trump responded, “Well, nobody really knows.”Stahl: But is it true that they haven’t gotten rid of a single weapon, and they may actually be building more missiles-Trump: They want to–Stahl: With nuclear–Trump: And I will tell you that they’re closing up sites.Stahl: But–Trump: Setting it up.Stahl: Is what I said true, that they haven’t? Gotten–Trump: Well, nobody really knows. I mean, people are saying that. I’ve actually said that.Stahl: What? That they’re still building missiles, more missiles?Trump: We don’t really know, Lesley. We really don’t know. But I assume–Stahl: Suspect that?Trump: Let’s say the answer is yes, okay? In the meantime, they haven’t tested a missile. They haven’t tested a rocket. They definitely haven’t done a nuclear test because you know about them real fast. It sort of moves the earth. And we have a relationship now.The Washington Post, citing unnamed U.S. officials, reported on July 30: “Newly obtained evidence, including satellite photos taken in recent weeks, indicates that work is underway on at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs at a large research facility in Sanumdong, on the outskirts of Pyongyang, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe classified intelligence.” That was a month and a half after the meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un.A day after the Post article was published, Fox News confirmed the reports “that North Korea is now busy once again building more missiles.”“U.S. officials telling Fox News, this is a quote, ‘It is business as usual’ at a factory near Pyongyang that builds ICBMs capable of reaching the United States,” reported Greg Palkot, a senior foreign affairs correspondent for Fox News Channel. “Analysis of satellite photography showing, quote, ‘There is no evidence of a halt of work.’ We’re talking about the long-range liquid-fueled missiles used three times last year in test firings that could, potentially, reach the East Coast of the United States. Recent work activity visible.”Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow and director of foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution, told us, “President Trump is technically correct because we aren’t completely sure about what is built at each factory or whether construction will conclude for each missile now in the works.”“But,” he told us via email, “the circumstantial evidence is very strong that North Korea does in fact continue to build more long-range missiles (and nuclear weapons) and that should be the presumption upon which US policy is based.”Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, said in an email to FactCheck.org: “North Korea did not commit to halt missile production, so it is very likely that Pyongyang is continuing to build nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. Kim Jong Un made clear in his January 2018 address that the mass production of nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles was a goal for the upcoming year. Recent satellite imagery indicating activity at missile production sites also points toward the conclusion that North Korea continues to quantitatively expand its nuclear arsenal.”During the Jan. 1, 2018, address referenced by Davenport, Kim Jong Un said, “The nuclear weapons research sector and the rocket industry should mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.”Joshua Pollack, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and editor of the Nonproliferation Review, told us that for the the Washington Post story, some of his CNS colleagues used commercial space imagery and confirmed that “the Sanumdong missile R&D facility is active, although they could not independently establish what activities were underway inside.”“The intelligence community clearly has better resources than CNS does, so I assume that they are in a better position to make such determinations,” Pollack added.“Separately, CNS did independently discover this year that North Korea has pressed ahead with the construction of new production facilities at a different plant, the Chemical Materials Institute, which makes missile components.” Pollack said.That’s consistent, he said, with statements Kim Jong Un made during a visit to the site in August 2017.“So by the available indications, we have concluded that missile production is underway, consistent with plans declared in Kim Jong Un’s Jan 1, 2018 speech — the same speech in which he unveiled his new diplomatic initiative,” Pollack said.The president repeated several claims we’ve written about before:On the administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy: Trump repeatedly claimed that the “zero tolerance” policy that caused the controversial separation of families at the Southern border was “the same as the Obama law. You know, Obama had the same thing.” That’s misleading. There were some family separations under previous administrations, experts told us when we examined this claim in June, but there was no blanket policy to prosecute parents and, therefore, separate them from their children. Members of the Trump administration have claimed that there’s nothing new about this, yet a new policy was announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in early April to refer all illegal border crossings for criminal prosecution. Since children can’t be held in adult detention facilities, the referral resulted in parents being separated from their children.The Department of Homeland Security wasn’t able to provide any figures for family separations under the Obama administration, but it said 2,342 children had been separated from their parents from early May to early June of this year. Trump signed an executive order to end the separations in late June.On NATO: Trump said the United States “shouldn’t be paying almost the entire cost of NATO to protect Europe.” It doesn’t. The U.S. pays just over 22 percent of NATO’s commonly funded budget, which includes civil, military and security investment expenses and is funded through a formula based on the gross national income of each member country.The president has repeatedly complained about indirect NATO spending — what each country spends on its own national defense. But even there, the U.S. share of total defense spending by member countries in 2017 was 67 percent, according to inflation-adjusted figures from NATO.On Christine Blasey Ford: The president was asked why, in a campaign-style rally in Mississippi, he had made fun of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school. Trump said: “What I said is the person that we’re talking about didn’t know the year, the time, the place.” But that’s incorrect. Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the alleged attack occurred in the summer of 1982 in an upstairs bedroom of a house in the Bethesda area of Maryland. What she could not provide was the exact date and address of the alleged attack.On trade with China: Trump repeated his claim that China takes “$500 billion a year out of the United States in the form of trade and others things.” As we wrote in “Trump’s Numbers,” the goods-and-services trade deficit with China was $351 billion for the most recent 12 months on record. In 2017, the U.S. trade deficit in goods with China was $376 billion, but that was partially offset by a trade surplus of $40 billion in services, such as software, legal and communications services, for a total trade balance of negative $336 billion.Correction, Oct. 18, 2018: The story was updated to reflect that CNS used commercial space imagery to confirm activity at the Sanumdong missile R&D facility for the Washington Post story, not after it ran. Claim: Do you really think I’d call Russia to help me with an election? Give me a break. They wouldn’t be able to help me at all.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 26 February 2019, an Idaho couple shared a cautionary tale on Facebook that had garnered over one million shares by the time of this reporting. The post detailed a strange mark on their son’s face and the ultimate diagnosis of a form of strep throat that infects the sinuses:  It is true that a form of strep throat is capable of infecting the nasal passage, sinuses, face, and even other organs. Clinically known as invasive Group A Streptococcal Disease, or iGAS, it occurs when the bacteria responsible for common strep throat infect other organ systems or the bloodstream, as described by the Middlesex-London Health Unit of London, Ontario, which experienced an outbreak of iGAS cases in 2017: Group A streptococcus (GAS) are common bacteria which can cause skin and throat infections, including strep throat and cellulitis … While the majority of GAS infections cause relatively mild illnesses like strep throat and impetigo, sometimes the bacteria can become invasive and can cause more serious and potentially life-threatening infections when they get into muscles, blood and other organs. Symptoms of an iGAS infection depend on the site of the infection and may include fever, chills, sore throat, dizziness, confusion, severe pain, redness or swelling around a wound or injured area. In its most severe form iGAS can result in life-threatening conditions, including necrotizing fasciitis (commonly known as a “flesh-eating disease”), myositis and myonecrosis (muscle inflammation and a “muscle eating” disease, respectively) and Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome (StrepTSS), which can lead to total organ failure. Though it is extremely rare, when the latter occurs a person is at extreme risk and requires medical treatment immediately, as described by Canada’s Globe and Mail in response to the 2017 outbreak: “When strep A gets into tissue or bone — usually because a person has an open wound — it can turn deadly, and quickly. In a matter of hours, an infected person can go from having a mild fever to having flesh-eating bacteria spreading so relentlessly that the only way to stop the infection is by amputating limbs.” iGAS infections often occur in clusters and affect groups more likely to be immunocompromised, but more recent research suggests that adults and children of any age and in any medical condition can contract the disease. Nevertheless, severe iGAS infections remain quite rare, as described in the 2016 book Streptococcus Pyogenes: Basic Biology to Clinical Manifestations: [iGAS outbreaks] were first described in the United States and Europe during the mid- to late 1980s. Since then, reports of StrepTSS in adults and children have emerged worldwide. Most cases have occurred sporadically, though some clusters have been reported. The highest incidence of invasive streptococcal disease occurred in a small Minnesota community, where 26 cases/100,000 population were recorded. In addition, outbreaks have occurred in closed environments, such as nursing homes and hospitals. … Although many of the initial reports described StrepTSS in adults, children are also affected. In 2010, the incidence of invasive infection in children in Utah reached 14 cases/100,000 population. Thus, persons of all ages can be afflicted and, although some have underlying medical conditions such as diabetes and alcoholism many have no predisposing medical condition and are not immunocompromised. Claim: A form of strep infection is capable of affecting the nasal cavity and face.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On April 18 2020, a disturbing image of a purported protest sign from coronavirus anti-lockdown protests in Columbus, Ohio began circulating on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit:Columbus, Ohio, April 18, 2020… pic.twitter.com/Q0ryJp5pOG— Wilson Dizard (@willdizard) April 19, 2020In all iterations, the image was identical. It showed a light-colored, late model minivan, in which a passenger is displaying a sign from their window. That sign depicted a blue rat, a star of David, and blue text reading “THE REAL PLAGUE.”It didn’t take long to verify the details provided in the posts. An April 19 2020 tweet from Cleveland.com carried the image, and indicated that it was taken on April 18 2020 in Columbus:An anti-Semitic sign was displayed during the protest in Columbus on Saturday. https://t.co/J6bMOFmqWd— clevelanddotcom (@clevelanddotcom) April 19, 2020An attached article reported:A photo from [April 18 2020]’s stay-at-home protest at the Statehouse is gaining traction on Twitter for its anti-Semitic message.The photograph captured two men in a minivan. One held a sign with an illustration of rodent with the Star of David on its side and the words “The Real Plague.”The protest movement against coronavirus restrictions has been a mishmash of people. Some adhere to public health officials’ guidance of distancing themselves at least 6 feet apart and wearing masks. They want to return to work. On the more extreme are others who call coronavirus a hoax.But the anti-Semitism might drown out all their messages.On April 20 2020, Columbus Jewish News reported on the protest and the sign, including an image of the same sign displayed in a different image. In that photograph, two men were outside chatting while one held the same sign:That second image also appeared in an April 18 2020 tweet by Ohio politician Rep. Casey Weinstein:Hey! A second pic of these cool dudes from today. #makethemfamous pic.twitter.com/5y8UCJuvNQ— Rep. Casey Weinstein (@RepWeinstein) April 19, 2020A circulating photograph of an anti-Semitic “THE REAL PLAGUE” sign was authentic, unaltered, and properly described. The image was captured at a COVID-19 anti-lockdown protest in Columbus, Ohio. Although a single iteration of the sign being held by a minivan’s passengers spread widely, a second photograph showed two people outside a vehicle — one of whom was holding the same sign.Comments Claim: Image of an anti-Semitic sign (\"the real plague\") was captured at a COVID-19 anti-lockdown protest in Ohio in April 2020.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: That’s a question safety experts and activists are putting to regulators after the devastating fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery in June, worried more disasters are waiting to happen in an industry reliant on old equipment. Last year, U.S. refiners processed nearly 17 million barrels of crude oil every day, the most in the country’s history as it cashes in on a boom in shale oil. But many have decades-old infrastructure, risking outages that could cost the industry billions. The PES refinery is one of nearly 30 in the United States that are more than a century old, while a Reuters review of over 100 operating U.S. refineries that process more than 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day showed they are on average 80 years old. [GRAPHIC: Aging U.S. refineries: tmsnrt.rs/33guhA8]  Refineries frequently update their systems and replace old parts, but the PES fire, along with incidents in Washington state and California earlier this decade, stemmed from equipment installed in the 1970s that had been allowed to run to failure, according to U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) reports. The suspected cause of the PES explosion has raised fears about future incidents because of the leeway given to refiners for inspecting parts, and because some older equipment is exempt from more stringent standards for newly installed parts. “A lot of these refineries around the U.S. are quite old now,” said former CSB managing director Daniel Horowitz, who left the agency last year. “That doesn’t mean that every single piece of equipment dates back to the founding, but they are old and eventually all sorts of components can fail.”  The June 21 Philadelphia blaze was linked to corroded piping that had not been checked since it was installed in 1973, according to the CSB’s initial findings. The fire is still under investigation by the CSB and other public agencies. It caused a fuel leak and explosions that sent toxic hydrofluoric acid (HF) into the air and hurled debris the size of a tractor-trailer across a nearby river, the CSB’s report said. Shortly after the fire, PES filed for bankruptcy protection. Failing, decades-old equipment also sparked a 2010 Tesoro refinery explosion in Anacortes, Washington, that killed seven people, and a Chevron refinery blast in Richmond, California, two years later, according to past CSB reports. In all three cases, the failed equipment contained metal components or designs that were no longer up to industry standards, but their use did not necessarily violate regulations. Regulators offer exemptions for older components, and do not require all pieces of plant machinery to be checked. “That’s a huge problem in this sector, that a lot of codes allow grandfathered equipment to be used even if later standards would have prohibited it,” said Horowitz. The CSB report spurred a letter from top law enforcement official in 13 states, including Pennsylvania, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arguing against a proposed rollback of regulations aimed at preventing accidents involving chemicals such as HF. Regulators overseeing U.S. oil refinery safety, primarily the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the EPA, and code-setting industry groups allow some refinery components to keep being used even if they don’t meet newer standards. The EPA and OSHA were not available for comment. The ruptured PES pipe contained levels of nickel and copper that were permitted when installed, but not under recommendations made two decades later by the American Society for Testing and Materials, now called ASTM International, that still stand, according to the CSB. That pipe elbow corroded at a faster rate than other pieces of the system. Oil industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) has about 175 recommended codes that act as the refinery industry’s standards. The API inspection standards for HF alkylation units used in about one-third of U.S. refineries do not call for every piping component to be inspected. API spokesman Scott Lauermann said that its standard for HF units was recognized as the safest way to operate those units, having been recommended by the CSB. PES said it monitored other parts of the piping system according to industry standards, including an examination of a metal elbow near the one that ruptured, and the testing did not show high levels of corrosion. “PES would not have expected the piping to corrode at different rates because the elbows were installed at the same time and the construction specifications indicated that they were the same materials of construction,” PES vice president of strategy and business development Mark Brandon said via email. The CSB findings added to existing concerns by workers about maintenance at the PES refinery, which was already struggling financially, and in January cut back the scope of a planned large-scale maintenance project days before it was scheduled to begin. PES business agents and managers told union officials and major contractors the work would require between 1,500 and 1,800 contract workers, but that was slashed to just 300 contractors, according to five sources familiar with the plan, while pipes and other materials delivered to the plant were never used. Maintaining and inspecting equipment at refineries is required by the OSHA and EPA, but those agencies don’t tell refineries how or when to inspect. Those details are filled in by industry standards that may not have the enforcement of law. The CSB found that prior to the California and Washington fires, as well as the BP Texas City blast in 2005 that killed 15, internal and external instructions for keeping plants operating safely were either ignored or not followed correctly. That regulatory approach makes rules difficult to enforce and allows problems at refineries to go undiscovered, said Jeff Ruch of environmental advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. In the aftermath of the Washington explosion, a judge dismissed $2.4 million in fines against Tesoro because the state could not prove the refinery failed to comply with enforceable rules for inspection and maintenance of equipment. “In terms of, are we making sure in some sort of holistic way that these refineries are safe, there’s nothing there,” said Ruch. “There’s sort of a vacuum.” Claim: Chris Sununu Says drug dealers have \"overdosed on purpose\" to avoid prosecution.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Obama administration left him with an empty national stockpile for emergencies. \"But they also gave us empty cupboards. The cupboard was bare. You’ve heard the expression, ‘the cupboard was bare.’ So we took over a stockpile with a cupboard that was bare,\" he said in an April 6 White House briefing. In previous briefings Trump described the stockpile as \"empty.\" Trump is exaggerating. While the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted shortcomings in the nation’s stockpile of emergency supplies and equipment, Trump did not inherit bare inventory. It was full of supplies, but not enough to handle this particular pandemic. Most notably, the stockpile was short of N95 masks, the supply of which was depleted following the 2009 H1N1 outbreak during President Barack Obama’s tenure. It expanded to respond to terrorism attacks, hurricanes, the H1N1 flu and ebola. While the locations of the stockpiles’ warehouses are secret, some reporters have been allowed inside, including journalists from the Washington Post in 2018. The Post wrote that there were \"hundreds of thousands of shrink-wrapped boxes of medicines\" and that if the medical countermeasures were laid flat they would cover more than 31 football fields. But Dara Alpert Lieberman, director of government relations for the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health, said that as large as the stockpile is, it’s always been lacking. \"The Strategic National Stockpile has never been funded at adequate levels to invest in new medical countermeasures, replenish expiring products, and purchase other needed medical supplies,\" she said. A 2017 Health and Human Services report showed $324.5 million in replenishment contracts, more than half of that money for anthrax response and only $7 million earmarked for influenza. In November, the director of the stockpile described it as an $8 billion enterprise. \"Even if the needed products are not currently held in house, stockpile experts have purchasing power to get what is needed to protect Americans,\" wrote Greg Burel, who retired in January. But two months later, it became clear that the stockpile didn’t have all the supplies needed for the current pandemic. One thing the stockpile clearly doesn’t have enough of is face masks. News reports found that the N95 face masks were not substantially replenished after H1N1 in 2009, the first year of the Obama administration. The Obama administration distributed 85 million N95 masks, 12.5 million regimens of antiviral drugs and 19.6 million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) for H1N1, also called swine flu. \"The 2009 H1N1 response was the largest known response of a national stock of drugs and medical material, and it was successful,\" Burel wrote in 2019. But experts warned after H1N1 that the supply of masks should have been replenished. Burel told Vice News in March that federal officials were left with \"horrible decisions\" about how to triage spending after H1N1. \"We had to trade off those funds that we had, and we chose to invest in those lifesaving drugs that would not be available from any other source, in the quantity needed, and in time,\" he said. \"I definitely want to see my health care workers protected; that's very important. But if I'm thinking, 'Do I buy this many masks to protect this many workers, or do I buy this many medicines to keep people safe that we can't get elsewhere?' There's no easy answer here.\" Burel told CBS News in March that the stockpile was \"very stressed.\" \"We didn't receive funds to replace those masks, protective gear and the antivirals that we used for H1N1,\" he said. ProPublica found that the budget battles during Obama’s tenure after the Republicans won the 2010 election hurt the stockpile’s budget. In early 2011, Obama’s administration released a budget request for $655 million for the stockpile, an increase of $59 million including to acquire new products. But Congress ultimately allocated $534 million for the 2012 fiscal year, a 10% cut from the prior year, ProPublica found. Across-the-board cuts hit the CDC, which managed the stockpile at the time. In its budget request for 2013, for example, the administration called for a cut of about $48 million to the stockpile. The stockpile \"is a key resource in maintaining public health preparedness and response; however, the current fiscal climate necessitates scaling back,\" the request stated. Budget figures going back to 2009 show overall funding for the stockpile dropped to its lowest in 2013, to about $477 million. Allocations have grown steadily since then to a 2020 budget of $705 million. Despite the Obama-era cuts, Ellen Carlin, a professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security, said it’s an exaggeration to state that the \"cupboard was bare.\" Appropriations to the stockpile during Obama’s presidency, when adjusting for inflation, went up a little, down a little, and then ended up about where they started. \"But those numbers don’t just reflect Obama’s requests. They also reflect congressional appropriations — under Congresses that at times were partially controlled by Republicans,\" she said. It’s difficult to determine what budget cuts meant for PPE since federal officials closely hold the details of the inventory, she said. While the Trump administration points the finger at Obama, Democrats have pointed the finger back at Trump, who also could have taken steps to replenish the stockpile before the current pandemic. But because of the shared executive branch-legislative branch responsibility, Carlin said, \"almost everything about COVID-19 reflects a bipartisan failure across two branches of government.\" The Associated Press reviewed federal purchasing contracts and found \"federal agencies largely waited until mid-March (of this year) to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.\" While HHS said early in the pandemic that the stockpile had 13 million masks, that was only a fraction of what hospitals needed, the AP found. Masks are not the only items that federal officials sought to obtain more of for the stockpile in past years. The New York Times reported on efforts that began 13 years ago — before the Obama administration —  to buy more ventilators. That effort stalled when the company that the federal government secured to design new ventilators didn’t come through, leaving the government to start over with a new company in 2014. Trump said the Obama administration left him with a \"stockpile with a cupboard that was bare.\" In one specific way, he has a point: N95 masks were depleted after the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, and experts warned years ago that the supply should have been replenished. However, Trump made a sweeping generalization and exaggerated when he described the stockpile as a bare cupboard. The former director of the stockpile, just a couple of months before COVID-19 cases appeared in the U.S., described it as an $8 billion enterprise, with extensive holdings of many needed items. Claim: The Obama administration left Trump with a “stockpile with a cupboard that was bare.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: People love to hear and pass along bits of secret information that supposedly enable them to gain advantage by manipulating “the system” to their favor — whether the prize to be won is something as potentially significant as beating a breathalyzer test or keeping points off their driver’s licenses, or as trivial as being able to zip through traffic a little faster than other motorists. That in many cases people are passing along rumors about schemes that don’t work (and that they’ve never had occasion to try for themselves) doesn’t seem to slow their proliferation. A slightly different dynamic is at work in the claim that flashing your high beams at a traffic signal will cause it to change from red to green more quickly:  Many motorists have tried it and discovered that it seemingly performs as advertised, thereby documenting the validity of the claim. What they don’t realize, however, is that they’ve stumbled upon another example of the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy. This strategy works, drivers assume, because stop signals are equipped with sensors that respond to the flashing of strobe lights mounted on emergency vehicles. These traffic pre-emption systems automatically interrupt normal traffic light cycling to allow ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars to pass through intersections more quickly and safely by providing them with a steady stream of green lights while keeping opposing traffic halted with red lights. The adventurous motorist thus tries to trick these sensors by rapidly flashing his car’s high beams as he approaches a red-lighted intersection, and voilà — the light turns from red to green. It works! Of course, in many cases the perceived results are nothing more than coincidence — the light was already about to cycle from red to green, and the flashing high beams had no effect. Also, in many places advance sensors are placed in the road well ahead of controlled intersections. When these advance sensors detect the passage of an automobile, they place a “call” to the next traffic signal; if others sensors detect no vehicles waiting at the next cross street ahead, the signal changes from red to green to allow the oncoming car to flow through the intersection smoothly. Since advance sensors are generally placed at a point about the same distance away from intersections as the point where drivers start flashing their high beams to influence upcoming signals, it can easily appear to the unknowing that such flashing does indeed cause lights to change. A problem with a cause-and-effect belief in this scenario is that many intersections aren’t equipped with strobe-detecting sensors, so motorists end up flashing their lights at traffic signals that don’t care. And even when drivers happen upon strobe-enabled signals, the sensors are set to detect lights flashing at a rate so rapid (in the neighborhood of 14 flashes per second) that a human working a manual headlight switch couldn’t possibly imitate it. Moreover, some traffic pre-emption systems are now activated not just by an on-off alternation of lights, but by a specific pattern of flashing. Claim: Flashing your car's high beams at a traffic signal will cause it to change from red to green more quickly.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the past few days, several state and local governments have taken drastic action to try to contain the spread of the 2019 coronavirus. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced March 19 a statewide \"shelter in place\" order. On March 20, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all nonessential businesses to keep their employees home. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered all restaurants to close except for takeout and delivery. One popular chain message takes these measures a step further. \"Homeland security is preparing to mobilize the national guard. Preparing to dispatch them across the US with military,\" reads the message, which claims it was sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. \"They will also call in 1st responders. They are preparing to announce a nationwide 2 week quarantine for all citizens, All businesses closed.\" (Screenshot from iMessage) A reader sent us the message on March 19. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted a screenshot of a very similar text on March 20. \"Here we go again with the ‘my friend whose dad works in the government’ rumors,\" he said. We’ve seen several other chain messages that ly claim the federal government is set to announce a nationwide quarantine to stem the spread of COVID-19. So we checked this one out, too. The text contains kernels of truth, but its primary message is bogus. There is no evidence that the federal government is set to announce a lockdown like the ones seen in France, Italy and Spain. While the National Guard and the military have been dispatched to some areas of the country hard-hit by the coronavirus, neither the Department of Homeland Security nor FEMA have ordered them to. And the message misinterprets the Stafford Act, a federal disaster relief law that activates FEMA and sends aid to state and local governments. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he is not considering a nationwide quarantine or curfew. He first answered a question about it during a March 16 press conference and reiterated his point in another briefing the following day. \"It’s a very big step. It’s something we talk about, but we haven’t decided to do that,\" he said. More recently, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned misinformation about lockdowns during a March 20 press conference. \"Just urge everyone as they’re seeing information — information that at one time suggested that somehow this virus emanated from the United States Army, information about lockdowns that are taking place — every American, indeed people all around the world, should ensure that where they turn to for information is a reliable source and not a bad actor trying to create and flow information that they know is wrong,\" he said. Large gathering spots were closed for 14 days and National Guard troops are delivering food to people at the request of the state. In California, nonessential businesses — such as bars, dine-in restaurants and gyms — are closed as part of the statewide lockdown. The state has also asked the U.S. Navy for a hospital ship and two mobile hospitals to help treat COVID-19 patients. State and local governments retain the power to quarantine Americans within their own borders. On the federal level, the Department of Homeland Security can screen and quarantine individuals reentering the U.S. from other countries. But forced quarantines are historically rare, and most infected people are allowed to self-quarantine. As for the Stafford Act, Trump invoked the law March 13, thereby authorizing aid for state and local governments grappling with the coronavirus and waiving certain regulations that impede access to health care. The Stafford Act is commonly used during hurricanes and does not necessitate a nationwide lockdown. The chain message is inaccurate. If you receive a chain message that you want us to fact-check, send a screenshot to [email protected]. Claim: The federal government is “preparing to mobilize the national guard,” “dispatch them across the US with military” and “announce a nationwide 1 week quarantine for all citizens.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In early February 2017, various web sites began posting stories regarding a piece of legislation recently passed in the state of Arkansas. Those stories were typically published under misleading headlines such as “New Arkansas Law Allows Rapists to Sue Victims Seeking Abortion” and “Arkansas passes law allowing rapists to prevent victims who want an abortion”: A pregnant woman’s husband will be able to sue to prevent his wife from having an abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, under a new law that could come into effect as early as spring. The new law, Act 45 — the Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act, will also allow husbands to sue doctors who carry out abortions for civil damages, as well as block terminations using injunctions. Parents and legal guardians would also be able to sue to prevent minors from having abortions, raising concerns for victims of sexual abuse and incest. The law in question, titled the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, essentially bans what lawmakers term “dismemberment abortions” (which the medical community refers to as “dilation and evacuation,” or D&E) by making the provision of such a procedure a felony crime. Although the law precludes family members or rapists from suing pregnant women, it does grant spouses, parents, or legal guardians the ability to sue physicians who perform the procedure for damages and obtain injunctions preventing those physicians from performing additional such procedures. JR Davis, spokesman for Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, pointed to a section of the law that prevents damages from being awarded when a terminated pregnancy was the result of a criminal act: “Civil damages shall not be awarded to a plaintiff if the pregnancy resulted from the criminal conduct of the plaintiff.” Thus, a rapist cannot sue his victim and reap any benefits from doing so. Furthermore, the law excludes a woman “who receives or attempts to receive a dismemberment abortion” from civil liability. Davis also pointed out that the language in the law doesn’t enable a woman’s relatives to halt an abortion; rather, it allows them to seek an injunction that prevents “the abortion provider from performing or attempting to perform further dismemberment abortions …” The law, Davis said, was geared toward prosecuting physicians who perform the procedure rather than targeting pregnant women. The thrust of the law is that it makes it a felony for doctors to perform dilation and evacuation abortion procedures, except in cases where such a procedure is necessary to prevent death or physical maiming of the mother. Critics note that the law doesn’t allow an exception for patients to obtain the specified procedure even in cases of rape or incest. According to Davis, the law is “not a prohibition on abortion in the second trimester,” but rather a restriction on a specific abortion method. The ACLU, which plans to challenge the law in court, called it “blatantly unconstitutional” because it bans the most common — and advocates say the safest — method of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy. Bettina Brownstein, ACLU Arkansas co-counsel on the matter, noted in a statement that: The law effectively bans abortions after 14 weeks by making the safest, medically approved procedure a felony. It interferes with best medical practices by substituting safe, evidence-based practices with political ideology … The law imposes an undue burden by placing a substantial obstacle in the way of a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. It is clearly unconstitutional. According to the Associated Press, the new Arkansas law is similar to legislative actions taken by West Virginia and Mississippi, while related bans in Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma are on hold due to ongoing legal challenges. Claim: A new Arkansas law allows rapists to sue their victims to stop an abortion.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An April 21 2020 post on the Facebook page “CALL TO ACTIVISM” purportedly showed a COVID-19 protester in Pennsylvania, whose sign in part urged the re-opening of “Pennslvania,” as well as “we the peaple”:In just two days, the post was shared nearly 50,000 times. Along with text reading “Photo Credit: Miguel Marquez, CNN,” a caption on the image queried:Maybe we shouldn’t take medical advice from someone who can’t spell “people” or the name of their own state?In the photograph, a smiling woman with a red bandanna mask pushed down to expose her face and a red baseball cap on her head held a homemade, hand-lettered, poster board sign bearing a marker-drawn American flag and the following message:RE-OPEN PENNSLVANIAGive me liberty or give me death# We the peapleThe same image minus the yellow text appeared on Reddit’s r/facepalm on April 21 2020:How stupid can someone be? from facepalmIn a submission (“How stupid can someone be?”), the image was zoomed in on the woman and the sign. “Pennsylvania” and “People” were added to the image over the purported misspellings. Additionally, the image’s creator critiqued the flag drawn in marker on the sign:41/50 stars 8/13 stripesOn April 22 2020, the version in the Facebook post was shared to r/Fuckthealtright:The Stupid leading blind.. Trumpies, really what did we expect. from FuckthealtrightPosts like the ones above were part of a larger social media trend involving discourse about protests against non-pharmaceutical interventions for COVID-19, such as lockdowns and quarantines, and the content of (or purported misspellings on) anti-lockdown protest signs. Other notable or viral signs were widely shared not for their implicitly poor spelling, but for the sentiments they expressed:COVID-19 ‘Sacrifice the Weak’ Reopen Tennessee Protest SignOr, in another notable instance, anti-Semitic:‘The Real Plague’ Anti-Semitic Sign Spotted at Ohio Anti-Lockdown COVID-19 Pandemic ProtestBoth signs in the above posts were authentic, unaltered, and correctly dated; both appeared during the same wave of astroturfed protests that began in mid-April 2020.Initially, we were unable to locate any iterations of the image in the news, or shared anywhere other than social media sites mocking the purportedly poor spelling of the sign’s creator.However, in discourse on one of the threads, we located what appeared to be the source of the photo in an image set tweeted by Marquez. The image was not cropped, and its different layout was unlikely to have been matched by reverse image searches.Marquez tweeted three images at 9:46 AM on April 20 2020; the image of the woman with the sign was the second of the three images seen in the tweet:Protesters against stay at home orders gathering in Harrisburg PA. Feels much like a re-re-election rally. pic.twitter.com/z468r0dK4e— Miguel Marquez (@miguelmarquez) April 20, 2020In addition to the inclusion of the image with its misspellings visible as it originally appeared, Marquez provided a date and location for the depicted COVID-19 anti-lockdown protest:Protesters against stay at home orders gathering in Harrisburg PA. Feels much like a re-re-election rally.The misspelled COVID-19 anti-lockdown protest sign was authentic and unaltered, and the creator of the sign did indeed misspell both “Pennsylvania” and “people” as “Pennsylvania” and “peaple.” Marquez captured the image at an April 20 2020 protest in Harrisburg.We contacted CNN’s Miguel Marquez for more information about the image, but we have not yet received a response.Comments Claim: Image of a COVID-19 anti-lockdown protester's sign calling to re-open \"Pennslvania\" and referencing \"we the peaple\" is not doctored or altered in any way.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Despite the vital role automobile seat belts have played in saving thousands and thousands of lives over the last several decades, there is still a group of drivers and passengers who are determined not to wear them, for any number of reasons: because they find them too uncomfortable or confining, because they don’t believe in their efficacy, because they’ve heard that wearing seat belts might actually cost them their lives in certain types of accidents, or because they resent as an unwarranted intrusion of government into private life the plethora of laws now requiring motorists to buckle up. In this vein, we note with a sense of both sadness and irony a couple of articles recently called to our attention. The first is a 17 September 2004 editorial published in the Daily Nebraskan and entitled “Individual Rights Buckle Under Seat Belt Laws,” by Derek Kieper, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in which the writer inveighed against mandatory seat belt laws, opining that “Uncle Sam is not here to regulate every facet of life no matter the consequences,” and that “Democrats and Republicans alike should stand together to stop these laws that are incongruous with the ideals of both parties.”  In the midst of his editorial he noted:  As laws become increasingly strict for seat belts, fewer people will respond positively by buckling up in response to the laws. There seems to be a die-hard group of non-wearers out there who simply do not wish to buckle up no matter what the government does. I belong to this group. Evidently his words were far more prescient than any of us might have wanted, as an article in the 4 January 2005 Lincoln Journal Star reported that Mr. Kieper not only died in a car crash, but the tragic mishap that claimed his life was the very type of accident in which seat belts have proved so effective in saving lives by preventing passengers from being ejected from vehicles:  Derek Kieper was a smart, funny, intense young man who relished a good debate and would do anything for his friends. Kieper, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, died early Tuesday morning when the Ford Explorer he was a passenger in traveled off an icy section of Interstate 80 and rolled several times in a ditch. Kieper, who was riding in the back seat of the Explorer, was ejected from the vehicle. Two others in the vehicle, including the driver, Luke Havermann of Ogallala, and the front-seat passenger, Nick Uphoff of Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, sustained non-life threatening injuries. Havermann and Uphoff, both 21, were being treated at BryanLGH Medical Center West. Derek, who was thrown from the vehicle, was not wearing a seat belt, [Capt. Joe Lefler of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office] said. He said Havermann and Uphoff were wearing seat belts at the time. In a similar vein, in July 2011 a helmetless motorcyclist participating in a ride to protest mandatory helmet laws was killed when he was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle in Onondaga, New York:  Philip A. Contos, 55, of Parish, New York, was on a ride organized by the Onondaga chapter of American Bikers Aimed Towards Education (ABATE). Contos hit his brakes, began fishtailing and lost control of his 1983 Harley Davidson. He shot over the handlebars, hit his head on the pavement and was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, where he was pronounced dead. State police say evidence at the scene plus information from the attending medical expert indicated Contos would have survived had he been wearing a helmet as required by state law. Claim: An anti-seat belt law advocate was killed in automobile accident.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Term limits for Florida's state representatives and senators result in a lot of turnover in Tallahassee after an election. So after the Nov. 2, 2010, election, just how many freshmen House members will there be in 2011? Republican House Speaker Dean Cannon quantified it this way in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, which was posted on its political blog The Buzz on Dec. 8, 2010. The paragraph starts with a paraphrase:  \"Cannon pointed out that freshmen lawmakers account for one-third of the 120-member House, and that two-thirds of the chamber have two years or less experience,\" The Buzz wrote, and then quoted Cannon: \"One of the things I'm really focused on is trying to put people where they can best get up to speed and hit the ground running once we start committee meetings in January.\" If Cannon's math is right, that means the majority of the incoming House would have two years of experience or less -- a high number. Those are the numbers we're checking. First, some background on term limits. A Feb. 7, 2010, article in the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald contains some useful background about milestones in Florida's political history, including the vote in favor of term limits in 1992:  \"A string of scandals in Congress spurred a national movement known as term limits aimed at driving career politicians from office. The Florida campaign is known as 'Eight is Enough' and limits Cabinet members and legislators to eight years in office; it passed with a whopping 77 percent in favor. (Ironically, it does not apply to members of Congress). The full effect wouldn't be clear until eight years later, when the eight-year clock kicked in and the state House saw rampant turnover -- 63 of its 120 members were freshmen. Term limits are blamed today for an assortment of ills, from myopia among legislators to the exaggerated influence of special interest money, lobbyists and even the media.\" We should note here some benefits to term limits: fresh faces may provide new ideas and at least initially could be more in touch with constituents back home. For some national perspective on term limits we turn to the National Conference of State Legislatures that provides this background on its website:  \"Proposals to limit the terms of state legislators have been the subject of public policy debate since 1990, when citizen initiatives limiting the terms of legislators were passed by voters in California, Colorado and Oklahoma. Subsequently, 18 other states adopted term limits, but in four -- Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming -- term limits were thrown out by the state supreme courts, and they have been repealed by the legislatures in Idaho and Utah. That leaves 15 states with term limits for legislators. See our current list of states with term limits for legislators.\" Now back to the new faces -- and relatively new faces -- in the 2011 Legislature. First we turned to Cannon spokeswoman Katie Betta on Dec. 20, 2010, who told us she counted 82 freshman or sophomore legislators -- 44 of those freshmen -- among the 120 state representatives. Betta directed us to the state House website to check her figures. We clicked on the page of each of the 120 members of the House. Each page has some basic biographical information -- heck, even an occasional interesting tidbit such as the recreational interest of newly elected Republican member James W. \"J.W.\" Grant of Tampa: \"Most sports and anything in the woods or on the water.\" The pages also state when each member was first elected to the House, including past service. Here are the totals we found that we will explain in more detail below:   Elected in 2007: 5 Elected in 2008: 33 Elected in 2009: 1 Elected in 2010: 43  That puts the total elected between 2007 and 2010 at 82, so we're at the same starting point as Betta's number. Of the 43 elected this year, three had served in the House previously: Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala), 2000-2007; Gayle Harrell (R-Stuart), 2000-2008; and Irv Slosberg (D-Boca Raton), 2000-2006. Also, two of the 43 were elected in special elections: Janet Cruz (D-Tampa) on Feb. 23 and Matt Gaetz (R-Fort Walton Beach) on April 13. (Cruz and Gaetz then won re-election to full terms this fall.) We define \"freshmen\" as \"first-year beginners,\" like high school or college. If we count as freshmen all 43 members elected at any time in 2010, we get a freshmen class that represents about 36 percent of the House. If we don't count Baxley, Harrell and Slosberg as freshmen -- since they've already worked through several sessions each -- then the freshmen class represents 33 percent. But wait, how should we count Cruz, who was elected Feb. 23 just before the regular two-month session started in March? And Gaetz, who was elected April 13 when that regular session only had about two weeks to go? Should they be counted as freshmen in 2011 even though they participated in votes and had their names attached to several bills in 2010? If we omit both of them as freshmen -- as well as the three who had previously served -- that would drop the percentage to about 32 percent. (For the record, Betta says Cannon also counts Mack Bernard (D-West Palm Beach), who won a special election on Sept. 22, 2009, as a freshman, even though he was active in the 2010 session -- bringing her total to 44, or about 37 percent.) Using any of those four figures -- 32 percent, 33 percent, 36 percent or 37 percent -- we are at or very close to the one-third cited by Cannon. Now what about the other part of Cannon’s description, that two-thirds of the members have two years of experience or less? We counted 33 who were elected in 2008, one elected in 2009, and 43 in 2010. That brought our total since 2008 -- two years -- to 77 members, or 64 percent. (Again, if we don’t count the three lawmakers who served previously and easily have more than two years of experience, the percentage drops to 62 percent. Either way, that's close to two-thirds.) Betta wanted us to count five lawmakers who won special elections in 2007 as sophomores because they would be starting their second two-year terms in 2011. But those five have already worked through the legislative sessions of 2008, 2009 and 2010, and we don't see them as sophomores. So is Cannon correct? He was paraphrased as saying that one-third of the 120-member House are freshmen and two-thirds have two years or less experience. We can split hairs on the experience level of  a few of them, but not enough to change his math. Claim: House Speaker Dean Cannon says that freshmen lawmakers account for one-third of the 120-member House, and that two-thirds of the chamber have two years or less experience.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Back at the end of 2012, the notorious conspiracy-mongering WhatDoesItMean.com web site published a fabricated article holding that then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been injured, and a “top US Navy Seal Commander killed,” when her military plane crashed while she was on a secret mission to Iran to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:  A new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft crash landed nearly 3 weeks ago in the Iranian city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border. Iranian intelligence agents quoted in this GRU report confirm that the C-12 Huron aircraft is still in their possession in Ahvaz, but will only admit that the plane was “forced to land because of technical problems.” The US Navy Seal member reported killed in this bizarre incident, this report says, was indentified as Commander Job W. Price who as a leader of this highly specialized American Special Forces unit protects high-ranking diplomats traveling in Middle Eastern and Asian combat zones. As usual, this was just more of the typical WhatDoesItMean.com conspiracy nuttery, spun around the recent tragic suicide of Commander Job W. Price, the 42-year-old leader of U.S. Navy SEAL Team 4, who had killed himself with a pistol while deployed in Afghanistan a few days earlier. And, as usual, the equally notorious and unreliable (but more professional looking) conspiracy-mongering European Union Times web site reprinted WhatDoesItMean.com’s fabricated article about the secret plane crash. The European Union Times‘ version of the fake article gained enough traction that it was eventually shared by a few U.S. military personnel and U.S. Department of State staffers via e-mail, prompting some confusion and chuckles among its recipients: That likely would have been the end of this fake article’s brief lifespan, except for the fact that its having been forwarded via the Department of State’s e-mail system meant it ended up being included among the archive of 30,322 e-mails sent to and from Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server while she was Secretary of State that were released online by WikiLeaks on 16 March 2016. Shortly after Hillary Clinton collapsed at 9/11 memorial service and spurred the renewal of rumors that she was suffering from, and concealing, a major medical ailment (purportedly of a neurological nature), several fringe political sites picked up on the confluence of the 2012 article’s having recently appeared in a State Dept. e-mail leak and ran with the notion that the original four-year-old WhatDoesItMean.com fake news piece was true, that it proved that Clinton was covering up a serious plane crash injury that had left her “unconscious and bleeding profusely,” and that all of this had been “verified” by WikiLeaks: For years we have been given the story over and over again that Hillary Clinton is fine and she is perfectly healthy. The story line gradually morphed into Hillary “fell” and suffered a concussion, which then, in turn, led to brain clots. Well, color me NOT surprised but apparently that was all a lie told by a couple that wouldn’t know the truth if it bit them! WikiLeaks has released another round of emails exposing some MAJOR bombshells surrounding Hillary. In this latest batch of emails, WikiLeaks reveals that Hillary Clinton was apparently in a C-12 Huron aircraft that was forced to make an emergency landing at Ahwaz International Airport. This airport happens to be located on the border of Iran and Iraq … [a crash landing] left Hillary “unconscious and bleeding profusely” according to the reports released by WikiLeaks. The report indicates that Hillary was on some sort of secret mission and traveling with the members of Seal team 4. One of the members of that team was reportedly killed when the aircraft crash-landed. The government had previously claimed that Commander Job W. Price died of a possible “suicide.” His death was listed as a non-combat related injury. Commander Price was a leader of this highly specialized American Special Forces unit. Their mission was to protect high-ranking diplomats traveling in Middle Eastern and Asian combat zones. US military flight logs recorded by Russian air and space forces confirm that Commander Price, and other members of US Navy Seal Team 4, left their base in Urozgan Province, Afghanistan on a flight to US Naval Support Activity Bahrain where they met up with the then-Secretary of State, Hillary, and all of them transferred to the C-12 Huron and proceeded to fly to Baghdad. As we noted at the head of this article, the fantastic “secret plane crash” tale was a complete fabrication, and it appeared on WikiLeaks only because some State Department staffers had forwarded the article among themselves via-email. The article’s supposed “bombshell” contents originated with (and were reported by no source other than) WhatDoesItMean.com, of whom RationalWiki says: Sorcha Faal is the alleged author of an ongoing series of “reports” published at WhatDoesItMean.com, whose work is of such quality that even other conspiracy nutters don’t think much of it. Each report resembles a news story in its style but usually includes a sensational headline barely related to reality and quotes authoritative high-level Russian sources (such as the Russian Federal Security Service) to support its most outrageous claims. Except for the stuff attributed to unverifiable sources, the reports don’t contain much original material. They are usually based on various news items from the mainstream media and/or whatever the clogosphere is currently hyperventilating about, with each item shoehorned into the conspiracy narrative the report is trying to establish. Claim: Wikileaks documents reveal Hillary Clinton was gravely injured in a plane crash during a secret mission to Iran in 2012.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Q: Did a law go into effect Jan. 30 banning “anyone” from smoking in a car “as long as there are children in the vehicle”? A: No. There is no federal prohibition, although several state and local governments previously had enacted such bans. There is no law or proposed legislation at the federal level that bans smoking in cars with children present.Facebook users recently flagged a story as potentially false that was published in February on amomama.com under the headline: “Smoking in cars with children is illegal starting January 30, 2018.” They were right to be suspicious of the story.The article claims that, since the end of January, smoking in “any private vehicle” with minors present has been punishable by a $100 fine. It says the purported law is aimed at alleviating the (very real) effects of secondhand smoke.Although the story is false, it is based on a tiny kernel of truth.A link in the story leads to a news story posted by Yahoo Lifestyle about a bill, passed Jan. 30 by Alabama’s House of Representatives, that would ban smoking in cars with individuals under the age of 19 present. Violators of that proposed state law would incur a $100 fine.That does not mean that “a ban has been applied since last month,” as the article on amomama.com says. The legislation still must be approved by the state Senate, and Republican Gov. Kay Ivey would have to sign it. Even then, the law would not take effect until the “first day of the third month” following the Alabama governor’s approval, according to language in the bill.But the article does not say that it’s referring to an Alabama bill that hasn’t been enacted. Nor does it specify whether it refers to federal, state or local law.One of the last major federal tobacco-related bills to become law was 2010’s Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act. It did not prohibit smoking in cars with children present.On the other hand, there are eight states, as well as Puerto Rico and Guam, that already had laws to that effect prior to 2018, according to the Public Health Law Center. In addition, a number of cities and towns have passed ordinances of their own.Outside of the United States, England banned smoking in a car with kids in October 2015. The fine in the U.K. is £50, or currently about $70.Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label false stories flagged by readers on the social media network.Sihlangu, Junie. “Smoking in cars with children is illegal starting January 30, 2018.” Amomama.com. Accessed 20 Feb 2018.U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Secondhand Smoke.” Cdc.gov. 30 June 2017, accessed 20 Feb 2018.Cason, Mike. “House passes bill to ban smoking in cars with minors.” AL.com. 30 Jan 2018.“HB 26.” Alabama House of Representatives. Filed 7 Nov 2017.Public Health Law Center. “U.S. Prohibitions on Smoking in Cars with Children.” Oct 2017.“Another US City Makes It Illegal To Smoke In Cars With Kids.” WBZ CBS Boston. 19 Oct 2017.Bowdan, Ann. “Ban prevents smoking in car while driving with children.” WLKY News. 12 May 2016.Sarkar, Monica. “No smoking if the kids are in the car, says England.” CNN. 12 Feb 2015.Holyoke, Cody. “Law forbidding smoking in cars with children present passes in Schenectady.” WRBG Albany. 12 Dec 2016.Hickey, Chuck. “Girl Scouts’ push to ban smoking in vehicles with minors passes Aurora City Council.” Fox 31 Denver. 6 Feb 2018.Holl, John. “THE WEEK; Ban Is Passed on Smokingn In Cars Occupied by Children.” New York Times. 29 Apr 2007.“The dangers of second hand smoke are very, very real!” Rocklandcountygov.com. Accessed 20 Feb 2018.Associated Press. “New City Smoking Ban in Cars Proposed.” New York Times. 17 May 2017.DaRonco, Darren. “Tempe ban on smoking with kids in the car takes effect.” Arizona Republic. 22 Jun 2015. Claim: “Smoking in cars with children is illegal starting January 30, 2018.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: At no time during the release is the potential cost of a possible treatment ever mentioned. That’s understandable since the work is only being done in animal models and far-removed from eventual clinical use. But the release suggests that human use is close at hand. If the procedure were ready for clinical use in humans, it would involve costly eye surgery as well as the very costly and complicated manipulation of human skin cells so that they become stem cells. While the cost of these processes will inevitably fall, it’s likely to remain substantive. Now that we’ve established that the work was done in lab rats, did the news release quantify how successful the experimental approach was? Did it give numbers about how many animals were “treated” and how many benefited? No. The release only stated: “The stem cell injection resulted in 130 days of preserved vision in laboratory rats, which roughly equates to 16 years in humans.”  But that doesn’t give any idea of the rate of effectiveness – even in rats. And equating this – at this early stage – to what could happen in humans is, well, imaginative. The release fails to mention any potential harms from the procedure, although it appears to involve piercing of the eyeball and injecting cells inside. It would also appear that the procedure requires a small slice through the cornea to release pressure within the eye from adding the stem cells. And while the eye is well-known to be one of the fastest healing of our organs, any surgery involves potential risks. While the release does point out that the cells, as they multiply, form a kind of protective layer in the back of the eye, it does not mention — as the actual research paper does — that that layer may interfere with the supply of nutrients to cells in the eye, leading to their death. Nor does the release mention the potential problem of rejection of the foreign cells, which the research paper explains. The release gave no true sense of the huge leap there may be between findings in lab rats and experiments in people. Instead, it pushed heavily the implication that humans will soon benefit. The headline literally says, “Stem cell injection may soon reverse vision loss . . .”  A co-author is quoted saying they’re “close to a time” when this approach can be used on humans. How does one compare rat vision with human vision? In the published journal article about this work, the researchers explain that they used several tests to gauge whether the animals could detect movement and other measure of “seeing.”  But humans require vision to include clarity and detail and the tests used in this research can only provide a gross measure of those factors. Finally, in some of the early Phase I human trials with other stem cell therapies, response was neither universal nor beyond the “promising” stage of improved light recognition. There was no disease-mongering of the serious problem of macular degeneration in the news release. The release includes at the end a listing of funding sources for this research and there is no information to suggest any conflict of interest. The original research paper specifically states there are no conflicts. The news release included no discussion of alternative approaches or other research being done on age-related macular degeneration. There are ongoing early clinical trials of stem cells in the treatment of AMD using cells differently derived than the ones reported here. So there are “alternatives” to this particular type of stem cell therapy that also may show promise. There are a few reports from Japan and elsewhere suggesting that there are alternatives to “bolus injections” of stem cells that may pose risks. In addition, some current federal clinical trials have found that some vitamin and mineral supplements appear to reduce the risk of late-onset of the disease by as much as 25 percent. So this is not the only work being done in this field, as the news release might suggest to some journalists or to the general public. Even a brief mention of other research would have been important context to improve public comprehension. The release suggests, through researcher quotes and other descriptions that this treatment may be just around the corner. That is clearly an exaggeration. The researchers still need more work in animal models. Then they will require FDA approval for an investigational drug. If that comes about, then substantial clinical trials in humans will be needed. All told, that could mean years of additional wor, before the procedure might be available for people. Is that how you would define “soon” or “close to a time”? We will give the news release the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. But here’s why it’s a coin toss. The release states: “This is the first study to show preservation of vision after a single injection of adult-derived human cells into a rat model with age-related macular degeneration.” That may be. There are some ways in which these particular stem cells are novel. But other stem cell approaches have been developed and in some cases are in in early phase human trials or animal tests. However, since we have already dinged this release in the “Alternatives” criterion above for failing to give that context, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt here. The headline’s use of “may soon reverse vision loss,” Svendsen’s quote saying they’re “close to a time” of treating humans, and the cavalier referral to the “next steps” without explaining that means many more years of study, all support a rating of unsatisfactory in this category. Anytime a news release raises hopes for treatment of a now-untreatable disease, it has to live up to those expectations. This one didn’t. Claim: Stem Cell Injection May Soon Reverse Vision Loss Caused By Age-Related Macular Degeneration",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In mid-March 2020,  completely unsubstantiated but frightening rumors began circulating about a four-week-long quarantine blanketing the entire United States, purportedly to begin on April 1 2020.The rumor spread from person to person in individual posts versus moving from one centralized location, often described as information originating with “the Pentagon.” Although minor details changed in some variations, certain elements remained the same:The four-week quarantine rumor spread on Twitter, often citing an “unknown source” inside the Pentagon or another agency:Supposedly we’re going on a 4-week quarantine April 1st? Erik’s birthday is April 7 so he told me to stay with him those four weeks and I said say less 🤪🤪✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/dG5qZw2ohY— 𝔸shley💜 (@ashley13felix) March 16, 2020an unknown source from the US Pentagon said starting april 1 we’ll be going on a 4 week quarantine 😐— jass ♡’s byounggon 🙁😦😘😡 (@perfectgon) March 16, 2020Ok sooo there are rumors going around about the united states having a 4 week quarantine by April 1st. This better not be true. You have like a 97% survival rate of this and a lot of people are saying it is just like a flu on steroids a bit. So can you all calm down a bit please.— Sara (@SaraM05189363) March 16, 2020They’re planning on doing a 4 week quarantine starting April 1st like wtf 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️— shaeli (@sj_roye) March 14, 2020Some versions of the rumor also appeared on Reddit conspiracy subreddits, such as r/conspiracyundone:Under quarantine we will stay home as much as possible. I believe you will still be able to leave your house in most cities but there will be checkpoints where you will have to show Identification. You may even be able to go to the store if any are open but you will be encouraged to stay home. You should have extra supplies and food on hand and as we can see the public is already doing this but they think it’s because of a virus. Its not.Individually circulating iterations of the four-week quarantine rumor attributed information to a “friend of a friend (FOAF)” at Homeland Security, the Air Force, or some other agency — details that created an impression the same information was emanating from various presumably credible sources. In actuality, those attributions were just features of the same rumor, added indiscriminately to add a sense of authoritative origin:Also i am hearing from friends and seeing posts about a 4 week quarantine coming and it's a lot fo rumors about \"my friends fbi friend\" or \"someone I know in the pentagon\" and it explicitly saying to stock up. This is only causing more fear and panic buying!!! Please do not share— Trev (@readytoderez) March 17, 2020There -is- a rumour -supposedly- that the Pentagon is considering attempting a 4 week self imposed quarantine. This rumor coming from a co-worker (I work in federal gov) who supposedly has a friend that works in the Pentagon. That's a MASSIVE undertaking though, & unlikely— Derty~Boi (@BoiDerty) March 14, 2020A “friend of a friend” (or FOAF) is also a common feature in folklore. As with the references to federal agencies and military branches, attributing unsourced information to a friend of a friend implies baseless rumors were obtained from a trusted source — not directly known to the teller, but known through mutual acquaintances.On Facebook, people shared versions of the same message to profiles and groups. Toggling to image results returned an array of previews for a Google Docs link often shared alongside the posts:A PDF anonymously uploaded to Google Docs was often added to the results shown here; it displayed a date of March 11 2020, but it’s not clear exactly when the message began circulating. It read:Anonymous Informant – 4 Week Quarantine to Start ~April 1stAudio Recording given on March 11, 2020: See YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/AizQ5Kx7RToTranscript of Message: Hey you guys, just wanted to give you a crucial update. So my cousin who works for the Pentagon and my aunt that lives in DC and my friend that works for the government in Knoxville… between last night and today I’ve had three people notified me that has not been announced yet but the US [entire USA] is about to go on a four week quarantine which means you cannot leave your home you can’t go to anywhere that you can do sales transactions like grocery store or shopping maybe weeds anything like that so in about two weeks one to two weeks they’re going to announce the shutdown. Once the shutdown is in place, or the warning you know everything from the grocery store is going be cleared out at this time it’s critical that you stock up on canned goods clothes and food things that you’ll be able to survive opportunities from our four weeks for toilet tissue paper towels with bigger than their supports and bleach you got to be able to feed your family.Syntax in the message was bizarre, and a link to a YouTube video was included; as of March 17 2020, that video (uploaded on March 11 2020 by a channel called “444 Prophecy News”) had been viewed nearly 100,000 times. Although the clip circulated as a video, it was in fact an audio message circulating in various forms on numerous platforms.A description for the YouTube iteration linked above indicated outright that it narrated a circulating text/email — words then transcribed on Google Docs as read above:I got this recording on an email today March 11, 2020. Person speaking is anonymous Please share and prepare best you canAgain, variations between these iterations created a false impression that numerous individuals with myriad connections to various federal agencies were spreading information from multiple sources. In actuality, the YouTube clip and the Twitter screen video below were completely identical, a single audio recording of a forwarded text or email:Listen and share US to go on a 4 week shutdown for quarantine. pic.twitter.com/57Pnz6ISqg— Postradamus (@PostUp_bbb) March 13, 2020The clips were narrated by the same woman (likely less an “anonymous informant,” but a recipient of the text), who seemed in essence to be dictating a circulating text message and/or leaving the content of the message as a voicemail:So my stepdaughter forwarded me an audio file of a woman claiming that her cousin, who works at the Pentagon, & her friend who works for the CDC, are saying we are about to face a mandatory 4-week full quarantine. No work or stores. Nowhere at all. Real or BS?— Kitty Bunghole (@SheTiger68) March 17, 2020To reiterate, all of these messages were originating from one single circulating text or email, not numerous federal government insiders, something apparent when viewing iterations from social media platforms.News of the virally spreading four-week quarantine rumor made it to the White House National Security Council on Twitter by March 15 2020, when the account addressed and debunked the rumor:Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown. @CDCgov has and will continue to post the latest guidance on #COVID19. #coronavirus— NSC (@WHNSC) March 16, 2020If you use social media, chances are you saw or heard a rumor that a Pentagon insider advised of a four-week quarantine planned for the United States, and starting on April 1 2020. The National Security Council described the rumor of a pending four-week quarantine a hoax, stating that there was “no national lockdown” being planned. The NSC advised Americans to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for credible updates on COVID-19. Claim: A national four-week quarantine will start on April 1 2020, affecting the entire population of the United States.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Author J.K. Rowling — no stranger to controversy — roiled anger in September 2020 after using her Twitter account to promote an online store selling merchandise bearing “gender critical” or transphobic messages.Rowling posted a photograph of herself wearing a shirt she said she bought from Wild Wymen Workshop, a United Kingdom-based site that, as LGBTQ Nation and other sites reported, features a merchandise section called “gender critical.”Among the items listed in the “gender critical” section are buttons bearing messages that seem less critical and more directly insulting:“This is only offensive to people who subscribe to transgender ideology,” site owner Angela C. Wild posted on the store’s Twitter account. “I don’t believe in gender. I don’t believe anyone is ever born in the wrong body. It is a biological impossibility. I also don’t believe in god, santa or the tooth fairy. You can’t make me subscribe to your cult.”The story spread further on Facebook; for example, one post republishing LGBTQ Nation’s story was shared several thousand times within 24 hours.The author, who has been criticized by both LGBTQ communities and public figures in the past for spreading disinformation about transgender people, also endorsed the online shop amid the release of a new mystery novel she penned under the pseudonym “Robert Galbraith.” Reviewers noted that one of the characters, a man, is depicted dressing like a woman to trick his victims. According to The Guardian:Creed lures his victims into his van by wearing a woman’s coat and wig, but the novel never describes him as a transvestite — although it does tell how, as a young man, he stole women’s underwear from his neighbours and masturbated into it.Writing on Galbraith’s website, Rowling has now revealed that Creed “was loosely based on real-life killers Jerry Brudos and Russell Williams – both master manipulators who took trophies from their victims”.Brudos killed four women in Oregon during the 1960s. As a young man, he stole female underwear from his neighbours, according to The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, which also cites reports of “a large man, dressed in women’s clothing” in the garage from where he abducted his victim Karen Sprinker. Williams was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for murdering two women. The former commander of Canada’s largest air force base, he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, two sexual assaults and 82 counts of breaking and entering, which saw him take hundreds of items of underwear from women and young girls.Rowling, who amassed critical and commercial success writing the Harry Potter book series, has also drawn criticism for choosing the “Galbraith” alias. She described the process behind that name online:I chose Robert because it’s one of my favourite men’s names, because Robert F Kennedy is my hero and because, mercifully, I hadn’t used it for any of the characters in the Potter series or The Casual Vacancy.Galbraith came about for a slightly odd reason. When I was a child, I really wanted to be called ‘Ella Galbraith’, and I’ve no idea why. I don’t even know how I knew that the surname existed, because I can’t remember ever meeting anyone with it. Be that as it may, the name had a fascination for me. I actually considered calling myself L A Galbraith for the Strike series, but for fairly obvious reasons decided that initials were a bad idea.Odder still, there was a well-known economist called J K Galbraith, something I only remembered by the time it was far too late. I was completely paranoid that people might take this as a clue and land at my real identity, but thankfully nobody was looking that deeply at the author’s name.But the nom de plume, which Rowling began using in 2013, is also similar to that of the American psychologist Robert Galbraith Heath, who claimed in one experiment that he could “cure” homosexuality by inserting electrodes into parts of a subject’s brain.Journalist Robert Colvile, who reported on Heath’s practices in 2016, refuted that there was any connection between the Heath, who founded the department of psychiatry and neurology at Tulane University, and Rowling.“We called it one of the ‘great forgotten stories of neuroscience’ because everyone had forgotten it,” Colville wrote in June 2020. “J.K. Rowling did not choose her pseudonym out of homophobia or insensitivity. She could not have known about this guy — who everyone called Robert Heath anyway, or just Bob.”Comments Claim: Author J.K. Rowling promoted a website selling transphobic merchandise.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Some people can’t resist a good conspiracy. Turns out, many also can’t resist one that’s exceptionally easy to disprove. An array of Facebook posts recently surfaced singling out the number 322 and a purported connection to COVID-19. In a social media landscape rife with claims about manufactured COVID case and death tallies, and conspiracies related to vaccines, 5G cell towers and whatever else, the clear implication is there’s something nefarious going on. \"Nothing to see here except synchronized cases all over the world,\" said one post from June 15, 2020. \"Google 322 Covid! Why is 322 a magic number!?!\" screamed another post from the same day. \"How is it that an additional 322 cases of Covid have been reported in Massachusetts, South Korea, Philippines, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Equador, Thailand, Oklahoma, China, Colorado, Armenia, Oman (Middle East), Onondaga (NY), Kerala (India), Simerset (NJ), Kentucky, Wyoming, Borders (UK), Amritsar (India), Thane (India), Camden County (NJ), Iraq, Khaleej (Dubai), and Dakota County (Nebraska)!\" That post was accompanied by 17 different photos noting the number 322 in headlines dating back to March. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook). We found at least 15 different versions of this claim scattered across Facebook, together shared thousands of times. The comments on the various posts offer a smorgasbord of explanations. Some noted the \"Skull and Bones\" secret society at Yale University is also called \"Order 322.\" Others noted the numbers add up to seven, or that terrorist attacks in London and Brussels occurred on March 22 (3/22). Sigh. Allow us to point out the obvious. You can find this supposed connection to COVID-19 with just about any number in the low three-digit range. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic that is unprecedented in this age of media saturation. All manner of local and regional publications have been reporting on COVID-19 case and death numbers for months. There is no time in history where this many media outlets have been so focused for this long on one singular topic — particularly one in which counting stats are so critical and readily available through online searches. In other words, there are a lot of media outlets posting a lot of numbers. And America really loves units of government. Across the nation you’ll find more than 3,000 counties. Beyond that, there are nearly 20,000 incorporated places (primarily cities, towns, villages, boroughs), about 3,000 of which have at least 10,000 people. Add that to the 50 states and, well, the entire rest of the world, and you’ve got a lot of places tallying COVID data that could potentially add up to 322. But in case you’re somehow not convinced yet, we’ll follow the advice of one poster and Google this. We ran a Google News search using the terms \"322 cases\" AND COVID, to find online references to where \"322 cases\" appeared as a unit on a page that also referenced COVID. Then we did the same with the numbers around 322. Here’s what we found as of about noon on June 16, 2020. \"320 cases\" AND COVID — 8,660 results (larger, since many reports round off the numbers) \"321 cases\" AND COVID — 1,170 results \"322 cases\" AND COVID — 1,960 results \"323 cases\" AND COVID — 2,240 results \"324 cases\" AND COVID — 1,600 results \"325 cases\" AND COVID — 2,530 results We’ll spare you another set of bullets, but searches with the word \"deaths\" in place of \"cases\" yields the same type of results. In other words, you can find COVID-19 media reports citing any number in that range. An array of Facebook posts claim a link between the number 322 and COVID-19 in media reports. The implication is that there is something shady or manufactured in the way these tallies are reported. But even in the context of social media in 2020, this is ridiculous. The volume of media reports on COVID-19, the number of cases and the number of local and regional units of government means there is ample opportunity for tallies to add up to just about any number, particularly in the low triple digits. Google searches prove out that 322 isn’t even a particularly common number. We rate this . Claim: Facebook post Says news stories referencing 322 and COVID-19 are proof cases are being “synchronized”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Ricketts announced the winners Monday of the inaugural Nebraska Medicaid Provider Awards. The doctors recognized were Dr. Henry Sakowski, an internal medicine specialist at CHI Health Clinic; Dr. Sharon Hammer, a psychiatrist and assistant psychiatry professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; and Dr. Rebecca Lancaster, a family physician with Methodist Physicians Clinic. Nebraska Medicaid and Long-Term Care Director Matthew Van Patton says each provider has helped the program’s goal of improving health care, improving patient experiences, improving the cost effectiveness of care and improving the provider and staff experience. Claim: 3 Nebraska Medicaid providers honored for serving patients.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 3 September 2017, a Facebook page promoting the anti-vaccine movie “Vaxxed” shared a video of an undeniably cool science experiment (which they appear to have since removed). This video, which featured a chemical reaction between aluminum and mercury resulting in the creation of a grotesque, gothic looking tower of aluminum oxide, is irrelevant to vaccine safety in myriad significant ways. Despite this irrelevance — and without actually offering a concrete scientific principle of which to be afraid — the video was captioned: Hmmm… What mandated medical injections also combine thimerosal (mercury), which still remains in several vaccines and aluminium, used in almost all vaccines? It’s time to reject vaccine MYTH and embrace the truth. The answer to the post’s unnecessarily rhetorical question, which attempts to exploit fears over the mercury based preservative thimerosal and a series of aluminum-containing ingredients in some vaccines, would have been fairly easy to look up prior to posting and then deleting: none. Of all the vaccines approved for use in the United States, only one — a tetanus and diphtheria vaccine — contains both the mercury-derived thimerosal and an aluminum compound (aluminum phosphate). This vaccine, however, is not mandated. It is also irrelevant, because a reaction between thimerosal and aluminum phosphate is fundamentally different than the one in the video. In the original version, posted by YouTube chemical reaction filmer NileRed on 13 August 2017, the two reactants were metallic mercury (Hg) and metallic aluminum (Al). In contrast, the theoretical reactants hypothesized by the post would be thimerosal, a mercury-containing organic compound (C9H9HgNaO2S), and aluminum phosphate (AlPO4), a mineral. These two chemicals share little with the elemental metals used in the video, because they are literally different chemicals. Just because two compounds might share the same element does not de facto mean they will behave in similar fashion. Metallic elemental sodium creates a wildly dangerous explosion if it comes into contact with any moisture. Sodium when chemically bonded with chloride, however, becomes table salt. Finally, the edited version of the video neglected to show how challenging it was to get the reaction started in the first place, as well as to mention the rather significant fact that it included a third chemical to initiate the reaction. Because metallic aluminum, when exposed to oxygen, is naturally coated in aluminum oxide, the mercury needs to be in contact with freshly exposed aluminum metal. The YouTube scientist first tried scraping at the aluminum while the liquid mercury rested on top, then turned things up a notch with the use of a drill. No luck. He finally solved the problem chemically by reacting the aluminum surface with hydrochloric acid, as narrated in the original video: Under normal conditions, aluminum is surrounded by a protective oxide layer. Metallic mercury isn’t able to penetrate through this barrier, so it kind of does nothing. Sometimes it’s possible to get things going by manually scratching away the oxide layer. I tried doing this about two or three times, but it wasn’t working for me. I even tried to bruteforce things using a drill, but that didn’t get things going either. […] I took out all the mercury and I added some dilute hydrochloric acid. The hydrochloric acid quickly reacts with the oxide layer and dissolves it away. This exposes fresh aluminum metal. Needless to say, these are not the conditions (or even the chemicals) one would find in a vaccine of any kind or within the human body. NileRed described the process behind the footage in his video, as well: The major thing going on here is the combination of the mercury with the aluminum to form the amalgam [a chemical term for an aluminum based alloy]. Some of the amalgam that forms gets dissolved in the mercury and makes its way to the top. When it gets there, it comes in contact with oxygen in the air, and it reacts to form white aluminum oxide. This part of the process is pretty short-lived, though, because it quickly gets covered and protected by the oxide. This prevents fibers from growing directly from the mercury, but obviously they continue going out from the sides. […] The dissolved mercury can continue to creep along the surface and amalgamate more aluminum. In theory, this process should keep going until the entire surface is covered with a thick layer of the oxide. Claim: The reaction between metallic mercury and aluminum, which produces a dramatic chain reaction popular on YouTube science channels, is evidence that vaccines are not safe.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Mold and bacteria grows on and in Keurig coffee machines, but the same is true for every other kitchen appliance. Rumors about the dangers of Keurig coffee makers can be traced back to a blog post headlined “Why I Kicked My Keurig to the Curb.” It has appeared on alternative health and wellness websites since 2014. The post reports: When I packed up my kitchen to move 500 miles south, I wanted to make sure that my Keurig was completely empty and dry before it went on the moving truck. IMPOSSIBLE! Keurig.com states, “Once your Keurig home brewer has been primed, you cannot empty the water from the inside. The internal tank of the brewer cannot be drained.” The microbiologist in me is disgusted at the thought. Back in the day when I worked in a hospital lab, we emptied all water reservoirs daily or they would grow bacteria and a biofilm could develop. You are familiar with biofilms if you ever cleaned the goo out of a flower vase after the flowers have died. Biofilms are found wherever there is water and a surface to stick to (like your shower curtain). The author of the post doesn’t make any specific scientific claims about mold or bacteria growth in Keurig coffee makers. Instead, she implies that internal Keurig water reservoirs have to be filled with mold and bacteria because they can’t be emptied. When an ABC news affiliate from Pennsylvania put that claim to the test, however, the bacteria and mold theory didn’t hold water. The station turned to researchers at the Harrisburg University School of Science and Technology to test three Keurig machines for mold and bacteria. The results showed plenty of bacteria on the outside of the machines (mostly from human touching. Swabs from inside the machines came back clean. Leena Pattarkine, a doctor of microbiology at the university, explained: “The internal piping you cannot clean. You cannot completely drain it,” Pattarkine said. We tested water coming out of the machine, it came back clean. But there’s always a chance bacteria or mold could seep out into your cup of joe. “It doesn’t take too long to realize ‘hey I had that coffee, tasted something off or it was smelly,’ or ‘I had that and I felt sick, nauseated or something,’ ” Pattarkine said. In other words, mold and bacteria that can get into your coffee would most likely come from the outside of your Keurig. That much is true for other types of coffee makers and kitchen appliances, too. In fact, scientists in Spain reported in December 2015 that potentially harmful bacteria grows in most types of coffee makers, but coffee itself works as an antibacterial agent: Overall, the bacteria found in coffee waste were similar across all 10 machines, but were highly variable within each community, with up to 67 genera identified in a single machine. The team from the Universitat de València says these bacteria have to be pretty hardy to survive in coffee machines – the coffee itself is an antibacterial agent, and the machines consistently reach temperatures of up to 96°C. So, it’s true that mold and bacteria can grow on Keurig coffee makers, but health risks and warnings have been overblown. That’s why were classifying this one as “misleading.” Comments Claim:  Rumors that Keurig coffee machines harbor bacteria have been circulating the web for years. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Promoting his book, Texas Gov. Rick Perry bemoaned a failure  in Washington to confront Social Security's financial shakiness and praised three Texas counties that quit Social Security nearly 30 years ago. Perry said on CNN's Nov. 4 Parker Spitzer: \"Here's what I think would be a very wise thing. In 1981, Matagorda, Brazoria, and Galveston Counties all opted out of the Social Security program for their employees. Today, their program is very, very well-funded and there is no question about whether it’s going to be funded in\" years to come. Perry said one option going forward would be to let states decide whether to stay in Social Security or take a different approach to retirement savings. A reader asked us if Perry recapped the Texas experience correctly. Last month, we rated Perry's statement that Social Security, the federal program that provides old-age and disability payments, is a Ponzi scheme. The program may be fiscally shaky, but it's not a fraudulent criminal enterprise. In Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington, Perry prefaces a reference to the Texas counties by saying Americans would fare better if they had the choice of making contributions to a private investment plan rather than Social Security. \"Employees in those private plans, having exercised their liberty at Washington's sufferance, are reaping the benefits,\" Perry writes. A footnote points to an April 2005 article on Galveston County's experiences published by a conservative think tank, the National Center for Policy Analysis. That article, co-authored by Ray Holbrook, a former Galveston County judge, says Galveston's county employees \"sought a secure, risk-free alternative to the Social Security system, and it has worked very well for nearly a quarter-century. Our retirees have prospered, and our working people have had the security of generous disability and accidental death benefits.\" According to the article, county employees committed to investing their payroll contributions in fixed-rate guaranteed annuities rather than fluctuating stocks, bonds or mutual funds. The result: Annual rates of return of 6.5 percent averaged over 24 years, the article says, plus substantially better benefits in three Social Security pay-out categories: retirement, survivorship and disability. \"To be sure, our plan wasn't perfect, and we have made some adjustments,\" the article says. \"For instance, a few of our retired county workers are critical of the plan today because they say they are making less money than they would have on Social Security. This is because our plan allowed workers to make 'hardship' withdrawals from the retirement plan during their working years. Some workers withdrew funds for current financial problems and consequently robbed their own future benefits. We closed that option (in January 2005).\" We learned from Rick Gornto, the certified financial planner who helped start and still oversees the alternate plans, that plan participants can take their accumulated earnings in a lump sum or in regular installments once they retire. \"They do have an opportunity to take it out and squander it,\" Gornto said, adding that the lump-sum option might be eliminated in the future. Gornto said the reason that hasn't happened yet is that the annuities began as a supplement to county employees' primary retirement program -- fixed payments through pension plans managed by the Texas County and District Retirement System, which is based in Austin. Perry didn't mention this plan in his book or on CNN. Gornto said the safety net of the county and district retirement plan made it possible to design the alternate plan with its lump-sum feature. If the other pension plan wasn't in place, Gornto said, he probably would have proposed a plan without a lump-sum feature and offering regular post-retirement payments along with the leeway to invest earnings. The 2005 article mentions 1999 reviews of the Galveston plan by the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Social Security Administration. We turned to them next. Among points the agencies raised:  +Low-paid workers stood to get less in monthly retirement payments under the alternate plan than they would under Social Security. In response, the 2005 article says the studies assumed a low 4 percent return on the plans' annuities; actual returns have been substantially higher. +Workers with higher earnings and fewer or no dependents who qualify for Social Security generally fare better under the Galveston plan, particularly in the near term, but workers with lower earnings and more dependents tend to receive more money under Social Security, the report says. +Galveston's retirement funds are invested at the county's discretion and employees do not control investment decisions. During 1981-97, annual interest earned on the plan's fixed annuity contracts averaged an inflation-adjusted 4.62 percent. During the period, annual interest earned on Social Security's investments averaged 4.88 percent, the administration report says. On the plus side, the GAO review notes: \"The alternate plans' benefits are fully funded, while Social Security's promised benefits cannot be met without increasing program revenues.\" Finally, we chased up-to-date information per the Texas plans' health. The county treasurers for Brazoria and Matagorda counties, Amy Perez and Sharon Reynolds, respectively, told us their plans work well. Like a Galveston County official, Perez and Reynolds suggested we gather particulars from Gornto. Gornto said in an interview that a key to the alternate plans' appeal is their guaranteed annual return, now at least 3.75 percent. He added that unlike Social Security, which needs changes to remain financially viable in the long term, the counties' plans don't confront a money-gone date: \"We don't have an 'out-year' question issue because people put their money in, they match it, and whatever it grows to is what they get.\" He said up-front contributions to the plans will remain stable so long as the counties don't go broke, while pay-outs to beneficiaries are certain unless the United States completely devalues its currency. \"The money will be there,\" Gornto said. Gornto forwarded a summary of his firm's review of the Galveston County plan for October 2008 through September 2009. In an interview, he noted that by the end of that year, the plan had $54.1 million available to be paid employees in deferred (or retirement) compensation. Employees and the county combined pitched in about $6 million in payroll contributions through the year. \"The county has adopted this program to replace Social Security,\" Gornto said. \"Until they make a decision to disband the plan, it will always be there.\" For outside expertise, we talked to Keith Brainard, who's the research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. After reviewing the materials Gornto shared with us, Brainard explained that the alternate plan is a defined-contribution plan, similar to a 401k plan, in which benefits are determined solely based on contributions and investment earnings. \"By definition, the plan is always fully funded because the plan pays out only as much as it collects,\" Brainard said in an e-mail. That said, Brainard wrote, the plan lacks three features that are part of Social Security: a minimum benefit for lower-income workers; protection from inflation; and required annuitization, meaning that participants must receive at least some of their benefit as a lifetime income stream, rather than as a single lump-sum. On the other hand, he said, the long-term cost of the Texas plan is clear and certain. Also, unlike Social Security, plan participants own their retirement assets, rather than being entitled only to a monthly benefit for the remainder of their lives. The basic difference between the Texas plan and Social Security, Brainard said, is that the Texas plan is a \"retirement savings plan that provides benefits based on contributions and investment performance, while Social Security is an insurance plan intended chiefly to prevent stark poverty in old age. Social Security promises a certain level of benefits based on salary and other factors, with a minimum benefit for lower-income workers and a maximum for higher-income workers. Both plans present relative advantages and disadvantages, and an argument could be made for providing elements of both plan types for all working Americans.\" And how does Perry's statement fare? Far as we can tell, the alternate plans are healthy and should remain so. But the Texas plans serve employees also eligible, depending on years of service, for the Austin-based pension plan. Perry's larger point, that Americans stand to benefit from swapping out Social Security for alternate plans, doesn't acknowledge this pre-existing safety net in the Texas counties. Claim: In 1981, Matagorda, Brazoria, and Galveston Counties all opted out of the Social Security program for their employees. Today, their program is very, very well-funded and there is no question about whether it’s going to be funded in\" years to come.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: News outlets report everyone was evacuated Friday from the building at Clark Atlanta University. Police say some complained of skin and respiratory irritation. Officials say the injuries were not life-threatening. Nine went to a hospital to be checked out. Police did not say how many patients were students. Police say the chemical was in a container that fell off a cart. The worker pushing the cart had been hired to dispose of chemicals in the building. It’s unclear what was in the container. Hazmat crews were called to investigate. They gave the all-clear Friday evening. Claim: 10 people treated after chemical spill in science building.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not mention costs — particularly important since the treatment might have to be taken for life. It’s reportedly due to come on the market next year. The story reports that two-thirds of people who underwent months of treatment were able at the end of the study to tolerate the equivalent of two peanuts. Unlike the Fox News story, CNN reports on how the control group fared, saying that 53% of those subjects required rescue epinephrine with the final peanut challenge test compared to 11% of subjects in the treatment group. The story describes harms through the profile of one patient: “Ellis experienced stomach cramps and vomiting multiple times during the study,” and once she had an anaphylactic reaction which required medical attention. And this was a successful patient story. The story also reports that 11% of participants dropped out of the study as a result of side effects. However, it left out important issues such as the higher dropout rate — around 20%, mainly due to adverse events — among those who received the treatment, and unknown long-term effects. The story reports the size of the study. It also emphasizes, repeatedly, the limitations of the protection against peanut exposure — not all those treated were protected, and even the positive outcomes were laced with allergic reactions along the way. The story appropriately characterizes peanut allergy as a “potentially life-threatening” condition, with peanut ingestion. It also says peanut and tree nut allergies affect “an estimated 3 million Americans or more,” although it’s not clear what number of those would benefit from this treatment. The story includes several expert sources, including a doctor who was not involved in the study and who does not appear to be funded by potential treatment-makers. The story makes clear that there is currently no approved treatment for peanut allergy. In addition, the profiled patient is described as having to eat her school lunch at a peanut-free table, showing reader the practice of avoiding exposure — currently the only way to manage a peanut allergy. However, the story doesn’t mention that AR101 is among at least four peanut immunotherapy products potentially entering the market. The story makes clear that the treatment is not yet FDA-approved, and is not currently commercially available. The story says that the treatment would be a new one, making clear that no other approved product exists for treating peanut allergy. It doesn’t explain that immunotherapy — which attempts to desensitize people with food allergies by giving them tiny doses of the food they’re allergic to over time — is an old idea. The story goes well beyond the information provided in a news release. Claim: Experimental treatment helps 2 out of 3 peanut allergy sufferers, study finds",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The costs associated with CPAP technology are not presented. No discussion of costs of sleep lab evaluation. No discussion of insurance coverage for these approaches. Estimates of benefits are presented in general terms , e.g.,”I sleep better”, and “I no longer snore”. But an expectation for the size of the benefits obtained, how reproducible they are, and the time needed to realize them is not presented. Early in the story, the CPAP machine is described as looking like Darth Vader on life support. This at least helps with a reasonable image of what the “simple” device looks like. Although health and quality of life claims are made, there is no mention of the type of evidence to support the anecdotal stories presented. Estimate presented for >12 million afflicted with sleep apnea though most are undiagnosed. There are quotes from three different health care providers who work in the area of sleep medicine; there are also several quotes from people who have experienced benefit from the use of CPAP. Article make clear that lifestyle changes, weight reduction, and surgery are other methods that are available and used to help manage this condition. Article does not mention that CPAP devices are FDA approved for the treatment of sleep apnea. However, it is clear that it is a readily available treatment. The story doesn’t claim that this is a new treatment. Neither does it explain that it’s been in use for a long time. The use of constant positive airway pressure (CPAP), a device used to treat obstructive sleep apnea is not new. Such devices, initially used with neonates, begun being used in this adult population in the 1980s. There is no evidence that this story relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Mending broken sleep: Sleep apnea, the dangerous cessation of breathing during sleep, is being diagnosed more and more. A simple machine can bring refreshing relief",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story mentions that currently Herceptin costs $76,700 for 12-month treatment. Presumably that cost would be reduced with 6-month treatment, though it’s unclear to what extent. Readers also are told that the cost is expected to go down as similar drugs by other pharmaceutical companies enter the US market. The story describes the main outcome of the study with numbers: “In both the six- and 12-month groups, about 90 percent of women were cancer-free after four years.” The story makes clear that one motivation for reducing the overall course of Herceptin treatment was to reduce serious side effects, namely cardiac toxicity. Indeed, the shorter treatment halved the number of women who had to stop treatment because of heart issues, to about 4%. The story noted the study size (4,000-plus women), the equivalency of the main outcome, and the reduction of harm. It made clear that analysis is ongoing on other important outcomes, such as quality of life. It also included mostly cautious positive reactions by the sources quoted, including the Chief Medical Officer of Roche, the drug’s maker: “Many, many people in the field have been looking at the question over a number of years, and these data will need to be viewed in the context of that larger group.” However, there was no warning about the fact that the data is preliminary and no one can review it yet (no actual research was “released,” even though the story frames it that way). Important details and concerns may not surface until the complete data are available to be reviewed by the scientific community. No disease-mongering here. The story quotes three sources: a study author, a representative from drug’s maker Roche, and an oncologist not involved in the study. We would have liked to see a bit more information on these people. For instance, the Associated Press reported that the study author, Helena Earl “has consulted for Herceptin’s maker, Roche,” but the company had “no role in the study.” The story informs readers of other studies that have evaluated longer and shorter treatment durations, from six months (inconclusive results) to two years (no benefit). The story makes clear that the current standard of care is 12 months of Herceptin treatment. It also cautions, near the top of the piece, that: “more research will be needed before a wholesale change in medical practice.” The story notes that this is the largest study to date that evaluates a short treatment duration for Herceptin and that it was funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research, not the drug company. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Study Finds More Isn't Better for Roche Breast Cancer Drug",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 17 January 2018, the 8Shit web site published an article reporting that a tourist in Spain had suffered an unfortunate bout of diarrhea while visiting an amusement park: Spain. — A man was enjoying his vacations in one of the most important museums, buildings, gardens, monuments and restaurants in Port Aventura, Spain. He was convinced by his friends to get on the best ride of the park, Ferrari Land. The man, who knew he was suffering from gastroenteritis, accepted, and his nightmare started. On the first slope, at a speed of almost 200km/h (124 mi/h), the man noticed that his stomach was not doing well. At the first looping, he couldn’t stop himself and was forced to let it all out. The shit was flying all over the place and splashed 14 people, who were sharing the exciting ride. Many of them threw up because they had shit on their hair, face and clothing. The man faced no charges because this was involuntarily. The 8Shit article was lifted from information published on the Spanish-language web site Hay Noticia, which read (roughly translated): It happened in an amusement park in Spain. A London family was enjoying their vacation visiting the most important cities, museums, buildings, gardens, monuments, restaurants in the country, and at the request of their two daughters, the Port Aventura amusement park. Candy, the older sister, convinced Sabina to ride in the park’s most thrilling attraction, the Ferrari Land. Sabina, despite suffering from gastroenteritis caused by the change in meals and schedules, reluctantly accepted and accompanied her sister on the ride. Wearing a skirt and flip-flops, they grabbed the rails of the roller coaster car and … their nightmare began. In the first drop, at almost 200km/h, Sabina’s felt sick to her stomach, and she could not control her sphincter, evacuating feces in an almost liquid state that flew out and splashed 14 other people who were also riding the attraction, causing some of them to vomit when they noticed the poop on their faces, hair and clothes. It is still not known if the park’s insurance carrier will be responsible for the damages caused. None of this was true. Hay Noticia‘s disclaimer notes that the site is dedicated to “humor” and “entertainment,” and that all of the site’s content is fiction: The site “Hay Noticia” (http://haynoticia.es) (hereinafter referred to as HN) is a humor site whose purpose is entertainment. The content of HN is fiction and does not correspond to reality. All references, names, brands or institutions that appear on the site are used as contextual elements, as in any novel or other fictional account. Likewise, 8Shit’s disclaimer notes the same of themselves: Claim: A tourist's unfortunate bout of stomach upset on a Spanish roller coaster splashed liquid fecal matter on other customers.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the wake of two bombings in New York, Donald Trump repeated his call for profiling as a way to deter terrorism, citing Israel as a role model. Trump first made the proposal on CBS’ Face the Nation in June 2016, in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando. He suggested it again in two Sept. 19 interviews on Fox News. \"Israel has done an unbelievable job, and they’ll profile. They’ll profile. They see somebody suspicious. They will profile,\" Trump said on Fox and Friends that morning, adding. \"If somebody looks like he’s got a massive bomb on his back, we won’t go to that person and say, ‘I’m sorry’ — because if he looks like he comes from that part of the world. We’re not allowed to profile. Give me a break.\" \"Well, we have no choice. Look, Israel does it. And Israel does it very successfully,\" Trump said to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly that night. \"I am saying, you go in to profile people that maybe look suspicious. I didn't say they were Muslims.\" The Trump campaign told us Trump did not say ethnic or racial profiling, but this denial is misleading. Trump said \"we have no choice\" when O’Reilly asked him how profiling \"Arab or Muslim men\" would work. Israel does perform different types of profiling, but they have other security measures in place as well that experts say are crucial to their success in deterring terrorism. And, the two countries’ security infrastructure are strikingly different. Profiling in Israel Israel practices both predictive profiling and ethnic profiling. The former looks for red flags and suspicious behavior (i.e. arriving for an international flight with no bags) while the latter targets populations seen as more likely to pose risks (i.e. Arab and Muslim men). Amotz Brandes is a former intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Forces and a security agent and profiler at El Al Airlines, Israel’s flagship carrier. He is now a managing partner at the international security firm, Chameleon Associates. Brandes told PolitiFact that Israeli security almost exclusively profiled Arabs and Muslims until the Lod Airport massacre of 1972. That year, a radical Palestinian group recruited gumen from the militant Japanese Red Army for the terrorist attack that killed 26 people at the airport in Tel Aviv. Using non-Arab, non-Muslim gunmen exploited and exposed a weakness in exclusively focusing on someone’s race or ethnicity, Brandes said. Israeli security now consider a much more comprehensive and specific set of indicators to locate potential threats. But Israel \"never really stopped risk-based profiling. They just added threat-based profiling,\" Brandes said, adding for a Jewish state located in a \"very unsafe neighborhood,\" it’s necessary. \"They treat those with Arab ethnicity as higher risk. It’s not a secret. It’s done in many, many ways.\" For example, Ben Gurion International Airport (formerly Lod Airport) labels passengers with numbered stickers, one representing low risk and six very high risk. All fliers are questioned and searched, but those with higher numbers undergo more intensive security screening. According to Israeli journalist Lia Tarachansky, one’s, two’s and three’s are reserved for Jewish Israelis, Jewish non-Israelis and friendly internationals. Arab Israelis and questionable internationals are given a four or higher. Palestinians and Muslims are typically classified as six. The Arab American Institute has documented numerous cases of detentions of Arabs and Muslims lasting upward of 10 hours. In 2014, Ben Gurion installed an automated system for checking bags that some say has improved access for Arab and Muslim passengers. This prompted the Israeli High Court to toss out a lawsuit from the Association of Civil Rights in Israel over ethnic profiling, a decision that the human rights group says didn’t result in the actual prohibition of discrimination. The U.S. State Department’s country profile for Israel warns that Palestinian-Americans and \"U.S. citizens of Arab or Muslim heritage have experienced significant difficulties and unequal and hostile treatment at Israel’s borders and checkpoints.\" The efficacy of ethnic profiling Whether ethnic profiling is actually productive to counterterrorism is a debated question. \"I think it is fair to say that the jury is out and that it would be incorrect to suggest that profiling has been successful in deterring terrorism,\" said Bernard Harcourt, a law and political professor at Columbia University who specializes in penal law and security. In a much-cited 2006 paper, Harcourt found no empirical evidence that racial or ethnic profiling is an effective measure. (Similarly, William Press, a computer scientists at the University of Texas, Austin, has demonstrated that racial profiling is just as effective as random sampling.) Harcourt argues that profiling one group diverts resources from examining others outside the group. So while it may help detect attacks in the short term, profiling could backfire in the long term as \"it may well encourage the recruitment of terrorists from outside the core profile and the substitution of other terrorist acts.\" Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security secretary from 2005-09, offered a similar take in an Intelligence Squared debate (around the 49:15 mark) over racial profiling, which he called the \"lazy man’s way out.\" After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, \"there was a unanimous belief that racial and religious profiling would be not only ineffective, but counterproductive from a security standpoint,\" he said. \"The fact is it would be an engraved invitation to al-Qaida to recruit exactly the kind of people who don’t fit the profile.\" In Israel, analysts noted a shift in who was carrying out attacks as early as a decade ago. \"At first, suicide terrorists were all religious, militant young men recruited from Palestinian universities or mosques. In early 2002, however, the profile began to change as secular Palestinians, women, and even teenage girls volunteered for suicide missions,\" wrote Jonathan Tucker, an influential national security analyst and expert in nuclear nonproliferation, in a 2003 paper. \"Suicide bombers have also sought to foil profiling efforts by shaving their beards, dyeing their hair blond, and wearing Israeli uniforms or even the traditional clothing of orthodox Jews.\" For these reasons, Chertoff and most national security analysts prefer predictive profiling, based on behavior. This approach led Israeli security to thwart a planned terrorist attack by an assailant who didn’t fit the profile and who didn’t even know she was carrying out an attack. In 1986, Anne-Marie Murphy, a pregnant Irish woman, was cleared by Health Airport security, but El Al guards found her suspicious and discovered a false bottom in her carry-on bag with 10 pounds of explosives planted by her Jordanian boyfriend. Murphy thought she was travelling to Israel to get married. Why Israeli security is effective Ben Gurion is widely regarded as one of the safest airports in the world, and El Al one of the safest airlines. But even barring ethnic profiling, to suggest predictive profiling is the reason ignores the full scope of Israeli security. Israel’s entire security apparatus is much more comprehensive than just profiling, experts told us. For starters, the vigilance of the Israeli public is key to how the country prevents terrorism, and ordinary Israelis foil more than 80 percent of attempted terrorist attacks in Israel, according to Tucker. Israel’s intelligence gathering agencies are also more coordinated and specialized than U.S. agencies, expert said. Yoram Schweitzer, an international terrorism expert at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, listed a number of security measures beyond behavior profiling: Israeli airports are much smaller; their perimeters are monitored and screened around the clock; and the entire system is constantly being assessed and improved. There’s also the rigorous selection process for security officers. The personnel are military recruits who must pass intelligence and personality tests. Then they undergo nine weeks of behavior recognition training. Also, the sheer disparity in scale between Israel and the United States is a hurdle to implementing the type of concentrated, high-skilled security apparatus in Israeli airports. Israel has 47 airports, while the United States has more than 13,000, according to the CIA Factbook. While low-risk fliers at Ben Gurion, Israel’s only international airport, are cleared within a few minutes, the average checking time is 57 minutes. The airport saw about 16.3 million passengers in 2015, while more than 100 million moved through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that year. Brandes also sees institutional differences in how the two countries approach security. For one, Israel’s \"entire methodology is based on terrorism\" while U.S. law enforcement \"is geared towards crime and property crime,\" he said. For another, average Israelis are proactive about not only reporting suspicious activity but engaging with it, while \"everyone in the U.S. holds and waits for the police.\" And finally, it’s perplexing for Trump to suggest that the United States isn’t \"allowed to profile.\" (Our friends at the Washington Post Fact-Checker rated this claim Four Pinocchios.) The United States does \"profile people that maybe look suspicious,\" and the Justice Department allows airport security and border patrol to consider race in security screenings. When the TSA attempted to adopt Israeli-style behavioral profiling through a program known as SPOT, the results were less than ideal. Former officers in the program reported in 2012 that 80 percent of passengers targeted at Boston’s Logan Airport were minorities. And a year later, the U.S. Government Accountability concluded that SPOT was ineffective and recommended the program be defunded. \"I think there is a lot to learn from Israel,\" said Brandes, who questioned Trump’s grasp of Israeli security. When he suggests emulate the profiling, \"Does he know that means?\" Our ruling Trump said Israel profiles based on ethnicity and \"does it very successfully.\" This is misleading. Israel takes ethnicity into consideration in their security screenings, but it also takes many other clues into consideration. While Israel is successful at deterring terrorism, profiling is not the sole reason. The country’s robust security apparatus and vigilant population are just as, if not more, key its safety. Claim: Donald Trump Says Israel profiles based on ethnicity and \"does it very successfully.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The National Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday that 25 of the latest cases involved people who had entered from abroad, compared with 18 such cases a day earlier. Five new locally transmitted infections were also reported on Saturday, all in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, up from a day earlier. The mainland has now reported a total of 81,669 cases, while the death toll has risen by three to 3,329. Though daily infections have fallen dramatically from the height of the epidemic in February, when hundreds of new cases were reported daily, Beijing remains unable to completely halt new infections despite imposing some of the most drastic measures to curb the virus’ spread. The so-called imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who have the virus and can give it to others but show no symptoms, have become among China’s chief concerns in recent weeks. The country has closed off its borders to almost all foreigners as the virus spread globally, though most of the imported cases involve Chinese nationals returning from overseas. The central government also has pushed local authorities to identify and isolate the asymptomatic patients. The health commission said 47 new asymptomatic cases were reported in the mainland on Saturday, compared with 64 a day earlier. Claim: Mainland China sees rise in new coronavirus cases.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The South Australian Parliament rejected the bill on Thursday 24 votes to 23, after a heated overnight debate. South Australia almost became the only Australian state or territory to allow assisted suicide. Australia’s Northern Territory became one of the world’s first jurisdictions to legalize mercy killing in 1996. Renowned pro-euthanasia doctor Philip Nitschke helped four people die before the Australian Parliament overturned the law in 1997. While the Australian Parliament can overturn territories’ laws, it does not have the same power over state laws. South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill said on Thursday he felt “gutted” by the defeat. But he was sure a new bill would be introduced in time. The bill was introduced by an opposition lawmaker last month. The major parties do not have policy positions on euthanasia, so lawmakers were given a rare opportunity to vote according to their consciences rather than along party lines. The original bill required patients to have a terminal illness and to be suffering unbearable pain that could not be relieved before they could access medical help to end their lives. They also needed to have their decision endorsed by at least two doctors. Several amendments were passed to tighten access to assisted suicide during the debate, including by making mental health assessments mandatory. The Australian Christian Lobby, a lobby group, described the amended bill as a “cobbled-together compromise” and welcomed its defeat. “As a just and compassionate society, we can find better ways to deal with the suffering which does not draw us into providing state-sanctioned killing,” the lobby’s managing director Lyle Shelton said. Claim: Australian euthanasia law loses by single parliament vote.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No specific brand name interventions mentioned, though it’s implied that medication is frequently used. While we wouldn’t expect the story to list the prices of the many drugs for high blood pressure, we do think the story could have discussed this aspect of seeking treatment. Is it a factor in why so many people don’t treat their high blood pressure? The story makes several references to “greatly magnified” and an “increase” in risk of AD or vascular dementia among those with high blood pressure that goes untreated, but there are no solid data offered to support the claim, nor how treating blood pressure reduces that risk (and to what extent). As with costs, we wouldn’t expect a story like this to cover all the side effects of the myriad treatments. But we do think it could have noted that one reason blood pressure drugs are prescription-only is because they can cause side effects that may need medical management. Unlike what the story said, it is not as simple and carefree as taking “a pill… to help keep [your] brain healthy and sharp.” The story, as noted earlier, is based on comments from the director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The story does not say anything about the nature or quality of the evidence on which the advice is based, or make clear that the last word is far from written about the causes of Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias. The story strongly suggets that people should take blood pressure medication to lower their risk of dementia. The evidence in the story wasn’t strong enough to cross that line. At the very least, the story should have provided links to the studies in this sentence: “At least two large studies have revealed an alarming trend among stroke patients.” It’s also worth noting that the threshold for treatment is under debate, with some saying that blood pressure should be even lower than 130/80. New suggestions like this — that BP control can lower dementia risk — may amplify such concerns by driving even more people in for treatment without a full grasp of the tradeoffs between potential benefits and potential harms. The story quotes an official of the Alzheimer’s Association, which has an obvious interest in the prevention and treatment of AD. But NPR would have added much credibility to the story with some cautionary note from outside sources about the nature of the evidence for blood pressure control and AD prevention. The story indirectly discusses alternatives–such as exercise and diet. It’s clear in the story that blood pressure medications and lifestyle changes are readily available. The story makes it clear that the news “hook” is new research to be presented at the Alzheimer’s Association meeting. (Why not wait for that, to make this story meatier?) The Alzheimer’s Association website is promoting its upcoming July annual meeting, but there was no news release specifically addressing the content of this story. Claim: Worried About Dementia? You Might Want to Check Your Blood Pressure",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not addressed. Would this be a relatively inexpensive treatment? A costly one? Is it too early to tell? Readers won’t be informed of this. Here is how the story addresses benefits regarding the follow-up study: “In the follow-up, which tracked the children for four years after they were treated with the combination therapy, 67% of those who got the combination probiotic and peanut therapy were comfortable eating peanuts, compared to only 4% of those who did not get the treatment. Fewer children in the treated group had an allergic reaction to the peanuts, and they also showed smaller reactions to skin prick tests with peanut allergen.” The description does offer some numbers, but does it adequately “quantify the benefits”? We’ll say yes. However, there are significant problems about the evidence discussion, which we’ll go into under the heading of “Quality of Evidence,” below. Harms aren’t mentioned, which is problematic. The type of immunotherapy used in conjunction with probiotics for this study is called peanut oral immunotherapy. In a 2016 research summary document, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology describe this type of immunotherapy as “one of the more promising new treatments” for peanut allergies. Specifically, the summary noted that “Multiple studies have now shown [oral immunotherapy] to be efficacious at desensitizing peanut-allergic children, but this efficacy comes at the expense of high rates of allergic adverse events, and the risk/benefit ratio of [oral immunotherapy] is an area requiring more study.” This is a complex area, and the research summary is worth reading, but the key point here is that there are risks associated with oral immunotherapy — and this story doesn’t acknowledge them. The story focuses on a follow-up study that involved only 48 participants. The story doesn’t tell readers how many people were involved in the study, nor whether the number of participants is important. The study was a follow-up to a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial — all of which is important to understanding how robust these findings are, and none of which is mentioned in the story. And while the story offered numbers on one measure of benefit (how many patients who received the combination treatment were eating peanuts compared to those who received placebo), it offered no numbers on the other outcomes that were assessed. That can affect how readers view the findings. For example, readers may have had a different perspective on the findings if the story had instead focused on these numbers from the journal article: “Four [combination]-treated participants and six placebo participants reported allergic reactions to peanut after intentional or accidental intake since stopping treatment, but none had anaphylaxis.” No disease mongering here. The story does include input from one independent source, and that source highlights some significant questions regarding the study. For example, as the source notes, it’s not clear what role (if any) the probiotics played in the study outcomes. In other words, it’s not clear if the combination therapy achieved better results than would have been achieved using only immunotherapy without the probiotics. But while the story did touch base with an independent source, it did not clearly address conflicts of interest. Here’s a line from the Aug. 16 news release issued by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI), where the relevant clinical trials were conducted: “This follow up study was initially funded by MCRI and the Australian Food Allergy Foundation. It then received a $15 million funding commitment in 2016 from capital investment firm, OneVentures. A biotech company Prota Therapeutics, was jointly set up by the MCRI and OneVentures to develop [a combined probiotics and oral immunotherapy treatment] towards an FDA approved product with a plan to make the vital treatment available globally to people with peanut allergy.” That’s the sort of thing readers should know. As noted above, the story notes that it is not clear whether the combination therapy works better than treatment that uses only immunotherapy. And the story does refer, briefly, to earlier immunotherapy studies. That’s enough to earn a satisfactory rating here. However, a little more information on standard treatments and up-and-coming immunotherapy research would have made the story much stronger. The story doesn’t address how far along in the development process this combination therapy is, nor how far removed it may be from clinical use. The novelty here would appear to be that this is a long-term follow-up to a study that used probiotics in conjunction with oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy. That’s inferred here, rather than stated explicitly, which isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. But after talking about what impact probiotics might have had in the treatment results, the story ultimately tells readers that figuring out what sets this research apart “may have to wait for another study.” Having to include language like that is likely a sign to steer clear of a headline like this one: “New Therapy May Cure Kids of Peanut Allergy.” Then again, the new therapy may not. By talking to an independent source, the story goes beyond a news release. Claim: A New Therapy May Cure Kids of Peanut Allergy",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The logic behind preventive care seems simple enough: stopping illnesses before they happen will mean fewer pricey procedures at the hospital and lower health care costs for all. Not so, says columnist David Brooks, who was interviewed on the Aug. 14, 2009, edition of the  NewsHour with Jim Lehrer  . He said President Barack Obama claims that \"preventive care saves money,\" but the reality is \"that's not . ... If you're testing people, say, for an illness, you have to give 100 people a test to get five people — to find five people. Now, preventive care is good for health. Everyone agrees on that. But if you look at the CBO studies and the other research, it doesn't save you money. We should do it. But because you have to test so many people to get the few you're really going to prevent serious illness from, you're really not adding up to a lot of cost saving.\" Brooks was talking about a core principle of Obama's health care overhaul: That many costly procedures and treatments can be prevented by catching disease earlier or preventing it all together. Operating under that logic, the House health care bill expands access to procedures such as hypertension screening and vaccines. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer sang the praises of preventive care in an Aug. 10  USA Today  op-ed. \"Reform will also mean higher-quality care by promoting preventive care so health problems can be addressed before they become crises,\" they wrote. \"This, too, will save money. We'll be a much healthier country if all patients can receive regular checkups and tests, such as mammograms and diabetes exams, without paying a dime out-of-pocket.\" Brooks's critique relied on new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office that indicate that preventive care isn't as cost-effective as Pelosi and Hoyer claim. \"The evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall,\" CBO director Douglas Elmendorf wrote in an Aug. 7 letter to Rep. Nathan Deal, the top Republican on a congressional subcommittee involved in the debate. Elmendorf explained that, while the cost of a simple test might be cheap for each individual, the cumulative cost of many tests could be quite expensive:   \"But when analyzing the effects of preventive care on total spending for health care, it is important to recognize that doctors do not know beforehand which patients are going to develop costly illnesses. To avert one case of acute illness, it is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway. ... Preventive care can have the largest benefits relative to costs when it is targeted at people who are most likely to suffer from a particular medical problem; however, such targeting can be difficult because preventive services are generally provided to patients who have the potential to contract a given disease but have not yet shown symptoms of having it.\" In fact, a new government policy to encourage prevention could end up paying for services that people are already receiving, including breast and colon cancer screenings and vaccines, Elmendorf went on. The CBO did not put a price tag on the costs or savings associated with preventive care measures in the House bills because budgeting rules prevent them from doing so. But a few other studies back up the CBO's analysis, including a Feb. 14, 2008, article in the  New England Journal of Medicine  that was written in response to campaign promises for more preventive care. \"Sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention ... are overreaching,\" according to the paper. \"Studies have concluded that preventing illness can in some cases save money but in other cases can add to health care costs.\" And a study conducted by researchers from the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society concluded that, while interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease would prevent many strokes and deaths, \"as they are currently delivered, most of the prevention activities will substantially increase costs.\" So, the consensus is that, while preventive care will almost certainly save lives, it's a stretch to say that it will save government spending on health care. As a result, we give Brooks a . Claim: Preventive care does not save the government money.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In an Aug. 29, 2011, column, Robert Reich, the former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and a frequent liberal commentator, offered a number of statistics to back up his call for worker protests rather than parades on Labor Day. \"Labor Day is traditionally a time for picnics and parades,\" Reich’s column began. \"But this year is no picnic for American workers, and a protest march would be more appropriate than a parade.\" One of the statistics Reich offered was this: \"The ratio of corporate profits to wages is now higher than at any time since just before the Great Depression.\" A reader asked us to check this out, so we did. We turned to statistics compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the federal office that calculates official statistics about the economy. We found numbers for corporate profits as well as for two measures of worker income -- wage and salary disbursements, and total employee compensation received. We then divided corporate profits by both of the income measurements, all the way back to 1929. (Here are the full statistics from 1929 to 2011 as we calculated them.) For wages, we found that Reich was essentially correct. The ratio in 2010 -- the last full year in the statistics -- was .281, which was higher than any year back to at least 1929, the earliest year in the BEA database. The next highest ratio was in 2006, at .265. (We didn’t find pre-1929 data, so the one part of Reich’s statement that we can’t prove is that the ratio was higher \"just before the Great Depression.\") We also looked at total compensation, since the portion of worker compensation delivered outside of wages has grown significantly since 1929. The numbers were slightly different, but the general pattern still held. The ratio in 2010 was .226, which was matched or exceeded in only four years -- 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1950. To capture the most up-to-date trends, we also looked at the ratios for the last six quarters. For both wages and compensation, the ratio has risen steadily over that year-and-a-half period. For wages, the ratio has climbed from .274 in the first quarter of 2010 to .290 in the second quarter of 2011. For compensation, the ratio has risen from .220 in the first quarter of 2010 to .234 in the second quarter of 2011. So numerically, there’s little question that Reich is essentially right. (Or, at least for now he is. Economists note that statistics about corporate profits and wages are often revised after the fact.) A more interesting question is what this trendline actually means. First, we’ll note that the ratio has been remarkably steady over the time we studied. In 2010, corporate income was 168 times what it was in 1929, and wages were 124 times what they were in 1929. But despite the dramatic increases for both measures individually, these two numbers have grown pretty much in tandem. While corporate profits have grown faster, they haven’t grown dramatically faster. Over the eight-decade period, the ratio between corporate profits and wages -- at least prior to 2010 -- almost always hovered between .150 and .235, a pretty narrow range, all things considered. Within this range, the ratio has regularly zigzagged up and down. The ratio has peaked during World War II, the early 1950s, the mid1960s, the mid1990s and the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. The 2010 high broke with this history, making the statistic Reich is talking about all the more striking. And as the quarterly data shows, the spike from 2010 has continued into 2011. This spike has its roots in basic mathematics. The ratio can rise for either of two reasons -- because corporate profits rise, or because wages stagnate. To a greater degree than in past recessions, both of these developments have happened simultaneously in 2010 and 2011. That’s the immediate reason for the ratio’s sudden increase. The ratio was well within historical norms as recently as 2009, the second year of the recession. Today, \"indicators favorable to workers are either absolutely dreadful, like the percentage of the adult population that is employed, or else improving at a not-very-robust rate, like real compensation per hour, while indicators favorable to business owners, such as record profit levels measured in billions of current dollars, are very delightful indeed,\" said Gary Burtless, an economist at the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution. There are any number of explanations for why businesses are so reluctant to invest their profits today. For instance, Dan Mitchell, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the pattern of low corporate investment that we’re seeing today has to do with \"a climate of economic uncertainty, largely thanks to the threat of more taxes and regulations.\" But the explanation that seems to mesh best with our numbers has to do with economic cycles. While the ratio Reich points to is exaggerated today due to an unusually deep recession and an especially sluggish recovery, the general pattern follows that of other recent recessions, said J.D. Foster, an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation. Typically, businesses initially lose ground during a recession, while workers suffer somewhat less, in part due to \"sticky wages\" -- the tendency for worker pay to increase or stagnate rather than fall, even in hard times. This pattern tends to decrease the ratio of corporate profits to wages. However, when the recovery begins, the reverse becomes  -- businesses tend to gain ground faster than workers do, since soft labor markets prevent workers from reaping the rewards of improved productivity. This pushes the ratio of profits to wages higher. Since the current recovery is particularly weak, the increase in the ratio has been even stronger than normal. The hopeful news for workers, Foster says, is that once a recovery gathers steam and new capital-labor equilibrium is reached, workers tend to accelerate their gains. \"Once a strong recovery is under way and labor markets return to normal, total labor compensation tends to catch up, as employers bid for employees out of the extra profit margin they accumulated during the recovery,\" Foster said. \"So once we start heading toward full employment, we can expect total labor compensation to rise very rapidly relative to total income.\" So where does this leave us? On the numbers, Reich’s claim is essentially correct. And in his analysis, Reich doesn’t over-promise on what the data indicate. Amid evidence that these numbers could turn out to be a temporary spike, he resists the temptation to label it the culmination of a long-term trend. We find Reich’s formulation both factually supportable and appropriately cautious in its interpretation. We give it a rating of . Claim: The ratio of corporate profits to wages is now higher than at any time since just before the Great Depression.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Former Mayor Rick Baker says his management of St. Petersburg’s sewage system was so good, it earned statewide recognition. Writing on Facebook, Baker plucked a city achievement from his two terms as proof of his management prowess compared with Mayor Rick Kriseman. Kriseman, Baker’s main opponent in the Aug. 29 primary election, has been hampered by the sewage crisis that developed after the city closed a plant. Baker linked to a Tampa Bay Times story about how fixing the sewage system to reduce spills may lead to higher utility bill payments at the start of the next year. \"Who do you trust to fix this mess?\" Baker asked in a July 28 Facebook post. \"A man who caused the mess and is tens of millions of dollars over budget on the pier, police station and public relations staff? Or a mayor who made St. Petersburg the state's best maintained large sewer system in 2007?\" St. Petersburg did nab its first Wastewater Collection System Award in 2007 under Baker. But Baker’s claim goes further to say St. Petersburg was the state’s best sewer system — which is not entirely true, because only utilities that applied were considered, and not every utility in the state applied. Further, Baker left out the backstory about why the city was pouring so many resources into the sewers at the time. In an interview with PolitiFact Florida, Baker emphasized he has been more precise with his word choice in other instances touting this accomplishment, saying the city was \"named\" the best maintained large sewer system. Still, we wanted to take a look at this specific claim. The award came from the Florida Water Environment Association, a nonprofit group that recognizes utilities for significant accomplishments related to the operation and maintenance of wastewater collection systems among other things. Lane Longley, the division manager of St. Petersburg’s Wastewater Collection Division, submitted the city’s 2007 application. Longley said St. Petersburg started adopting maintenance strategies to prevent spills rather than wait for problems to happen on their own, and those steps reduced the number and magnitude of sanitary sewer overflows from 1999 to 2007. But the award doesn’t reflect a real contest among Florida cities. For one thing, not every city applies for the award. The city of Tampa stopped applying for the FWEA awards decades ago, saying it takes up too much time to gather the information and fill out the applications. A spokeswoman for the city of Orlando said the city has heard of the FWEA, but she couldn’t point to any specific awards the city had won or applied for. And a spokeswoman with the city of Jacksonville said the city was aware of the FWEA, but said it hasn’t won or applied for any awards. What’s more, these other cities could point to other awards. Tampa won a 15-year Directors Award from a different group in 2013 for treating water significantly above minimum standards at the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility. Orlando won recognition from the Water Environment Federation, an FWEA sister organization. Another major issue with Baker’s claim: St. Petersburg made a lot of the improvements because it was under Florida Department of Environmental Protection consent orders that required changes be made to the sewer system. One order started in 2000 and the other started in 2002. Both went on to cover Baker’s entire tenure. After massive spills in the late 1990s, St. Petersburg entered into its first consent order. A spokeswoman for the FDEP said it covered the city's four facilities for unauthorized discharges and included corrective actions pertaining to the collection system and the facilities to address the discharges. The second consent order covered violations and discharges only from the Albert Whitted Facility. In both cases, the state agency assessed civil penalties against the city, but decided to implement programs for environmental enhancement, education and restoration in lieu of payment. Baker acknowledged the city was ordered to improve, but said the improvements were significant nonetheless. \"We invested everything that was recommended to me by either my staff or FDEP under the consent order to get the system to the point where we didn't have spills,\" Baker told the Tampa Bay Times on June 24. \"It was absolutely a success, what we did.\" According to the Tampa Bay Times, the highest year of sewer spending under Baker was 2005, when the city spent $38.5 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. By the end of his second term, spending had dropped to less than $2 million a year. Baker said he started by doing an analysis of the system to evaluate what needed to be done and to prioritize the repairs — and then developed a funding and operational plan. Along the way, the city charted its progress online. As an example, Baker’s campaign sent a graph showing that the city went beyond the requirements laid out in the consent order. The original goal was to rehabilitate 97,680 linear feet of pipe. By September 2008 a little under 160,000 linear feet of pipes had been rehabilitated, according to the city document. Still, the Baker years haven’t escaped criticism when it comes to sewers. Investigators have traced some of the blame for the city’s sewage woes to the city’s decision to close and not reopen the Albert Whitted treatment plant in 2015. That move was approved by the city council in 2011 and carried out under Kriseman. Taking the plant offline reduced capacity and led to the release of millions of gallons of sewage into the Tampa and Boca Ciega bays after major storms in 2015-16. But a draft report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also places much of the blame for the sewage spills on the Kriseman administration, as well as on the past two decades of city leadership, which includes the Baker administration from 2001-10. The FWC report said the city's many sewage problems were not adequately repaired in the past. During Baker’s tenure, most of the projects recommended in the consent order focused on clearing pipelines and hydraulic improvement to increase flow velocities. Some changes related to inflow happened as a result of a consent order, but the report goes on to blame Baker’s administration and others for not doing enough to fix leaky pipes that contributed to the city's sewage problems. \"Claims made by others that they thought the system was fixed and therefore did not need to worry about it were not based in fact,\" the report said. Baker said he made St. Petersburg the state's best-maintained large sewer system in 2007. Baker’s evidence is that the Florida Water Environment Association gave St. Petersburg a Wastewater Collection System Award. But the award was hardly a comprehensive comparison of similarly situated cities in the state. Nor is it the only award that recognizes excellence in sewage management. St. Petersburg was under consent orders for Baker’s tenure that required the city to make improvements to the system. Outside investigators looking into the current sewage crisis have put some blame on Baker’s years for not addressing some problems with the system. This statement is partially accurate, but needs clarification of additional information. Tampa Bay Times senior researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Claim: Rick Baker Says he \"made St. Petersburg the state's best maintained large sewer system in 2007.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The coronavirus outbreak began in China late last year but has since swept the globe. Italy is now the worst-affected nation in the world after China, with 1,016 dead and 15,113 confirmed cases since the contagion came to light there on Feb. 21. A team of nine Chinese medical staff arrived late on Thursday with some 30 tonnes of equipment on a flight organized by the Chinese Red Cross. “In this moment of great stress, of great difficulty, we are relieved to have this arrival of supplies. It is true that it will help only temporarily, but it is still important,” said the head of the Italian Red Cross, Francesco Rocca. “We have a desperate need for these masks right now. We need respirators that the Red Cross will donate to the government. This is for sure a really important donation for our country,” Rocca said. The outbreak risks overwhelming Italian hospitals and some key supplies are running low. In contrast to China, Italy’s partners in the European Union earlier this month refused Rome’s requests for help with medical supplies as they looked to stockpile face masks and other equipment to help their own citizens. Claim: China sends medical supplies, experts to help Italy battle coronavirus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 1 March 2017, the web site World News Daily Report (WNDR) reported that Beaumont, Texas, morgue worker Henri Paul Johnson was inadvertently incinerated by a coworker as he napped on the job: An employee of the Jefferson County morgue died this morning, after being accidentally cremated by one of his coworkers. According to the Beaumont Police Department, 48-year old Henri Paul Johnson decided to take a nap one a stretcher after working for sixteen hours straight. While he was sleeping, another employee mistook him for the corpse of a 52-year old car accident victim and carried him to the crematory. Before anyone could notice the mistake, he had already been exposed to temperatures ranging between 1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and reduced to ashes. Also depicted in the article was Jenna Davis, a coworker who purportedly heard Johnson’s death screams:  Jenna Davis, one of Henri Johnson’s coworkers, says she heard him scream for about 15 seconds after the crematory was activated. “At first, we didn’t understand where the sound was coming from. When we realised what was happening, it was too late. We shut down the heating system, but he was already dead.” As is the case with all content published by WNDR, a fake news site, there was no truth to the story. The article’s photograph of the supposedly deceased morgue worker “Henri Paul Johnson” was actually a picture of a DeSoto County constable Christopher Plumlee, who was arrested in 2015 for DUI. And the photograph of coworker “Jenna Davis” was actually a picture of forensic pathologist Dr. Lisa Funte, taken from a May 2012 Beaumont Enterprise profile of her. Variations: The story was reposted by a site spoofing ABC News (abcnews-us.com) in December 2017 and March 2018: An employee of a local Huntersville funeral home died this morning, after being accidentally cremated by one of his coworkers. According to the Huntersville medical examiner, 48-year old Kenneth Brooks decided to take a nap on a stretcher after working for sixteen hours straight. While he was sleeping, another employee mistook him for the corpse of a 52-year old car accident victim and carried him to the crematory. Before anyone could notice the mistake, he had already been exposed to temperatures ranging between 1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and reduced to ashes. Although names and locations in the article changed, the basic premise (and its lack of veracity) remained the same. The image reproduced above accompanied the story and was taken from a March 2016 WREG report about a funeral home in Atlanta which had nothing to do with a morgue employee who was “accidentally cremated.” In April 2018, the fake news site 8shit.net repurposed this story as an April Fool’s prank in which a morgue employee pretending to be dead was cremated by co-workers: It’s April Fools. Everyone wants to prank their friends, family and even customers, but this man got it very wrong. 27-year old Thomas McClure is now an ex-employee of a morgue in Boston, after he tried to prank his coworkers by pretending he was dead. To achieve his goal, he took an overdose of sleeping pills, with the idea that he was gonna be so unconscious that there would be no way to wake him up. And everything went exactly as planned: He took the pills in the morning and started doing his job. A few minutes later, he fell asleep on the floor and no one was able to wake him up. They tried pouring water on his face, slapping him, but nothing worked. The prank worked like a charm, and all the employees were sad because they thought their friend was dead. Unfortunately, they reached to the conclusion that he was, indeed, dead, and decided to cremate him. Claim: A morgue worker was accidentally cremated while napping or pretending to be dead.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the case “painful”and “sad”. Officials said late Sunday that Ambassador Óscar Ricardo Valero had resigned for health health reasons, and Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, wrote in his Twitter account that Valero “is undergoing neurological treatment”. Mexican news media reported that Valero allegedly also tried to take a T-shift without paying from a shop at the airport after he was called back to Mexico in early December. At the request of relatives, Ebrard’s office published a doctor’s letter saying Valero had been treated for a brain tumor that may have altered his behavior. Ebrard described Valero, 77, a career diplomat with a long pedigree in Mexico’s left, as “a great person.”  A letter by Dr. Ana Luisa Sosa states that Valero was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2012 that resulted in “behavioral changes.” While the tumor was surgically removed years ago, the letter says behavior changes in the last 1 1/2 years — including traffic tickets and “difficulties in personal relationships” — suggests the tumor or its after-effects may have returned or worsened. Video of the bookstore incident earlier this year appears to show the diplomat tucking the book — reportedly worth about $9.50 —  into a stack of papers he is holding and being stopped by security after passing a detector gate on the way out. The incident is especially embarrassing given López Obrador’s main policy aim of promoting honesty among public servants. Claim: Mexico ambassador resigns after book theft allegation.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Chicago Department of Water Management began giving residents lead-testing kits on request following concerns regarding the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and a 2013 Environmental Protection Agency study of Chicago homes. The kits contain one sample bottle for water drawn after taps weren’t used for at least six hours, a bottle used to collect water after taps were running for three minutes and a final bottle to sample water after five minutes. The results found that lead was detected in nearly 70 percent of the almost 2,800 homes tested over the past two years, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration limits lead concentrations in bottled water to 5 parts per billion. Tap water in 30 percent of homes had lead concentrations above the limit. Lake Michigan water is typically free of lead when it leaves the city’s treatment plants. Water becomes contaminated after passing through service lines and internal plumbing made out of lead. Chicago required using lead service lines to connect street mains and homes until Congress prohibited the practice in 1986. Individual property owners are responsible for maintaining service lines, according to the city’s plumbing code. Residents should flush household plumbing for up to five minutes when water hasn’t been used for several hours, city and EPA officials said. Tests taken since January 2016 found that about 20 percent of Chicago homes had high levels of lead even after water was running for three minutes. It is unsafe to consume lead at any level, according to the EPA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ingesting lead can cause brain damage in children and can contribute to heart disease, kidney failure and other health problems in adults. ___ Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com Claim: Chicago residents use kits to test for lead contamination.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: With a total 117,710 confirmed cases, Spain is now second in the number of infections only to the United States, which has a population some seven times larger. Spain’s total death toll now stands at 10,935, second only to Italy, with 13,915 fatalities. On a happier note, Friday marked the first time in more than a week that the number of deaths fell from the previous day, to 932 fatalities from 950. “The increase in the number of cases today is 7%, which confirms the reduction trend we’ve been observing,” said Maria Jose Rallo, the deputy head of health emergency. That is down from a  20% increase one week ago. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has imposed one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, leaving only employees in essential sectors such as health free to travel to and from work. Restaurants, bars and shops are shuttered, and social gatherings are banned. Spaniards have been confined to home since March 14, with an initial 15-day period now extended till April 12. The government is now considering a second extension of the lockdown. The lockdown has frozen business. Fashion giant Inditex’s logistic centres in Spain - the nerve centre of its global retail empire - working at minimum activity. Spain’s largest bank Santander (SAN.MC) said on Friday it had raised its lending capacity to 90 billion euros ($97 billion) after cancelling its dividend. Banks have been inundated with people seeking mortgage holidays. Mortuaries have been overwhelmed, prompting regional authorities to set up a third improvised facility at an ice rink near Madrid on Friday, adapting the 1,800 square-metre space to receive corpses. Soldiers and firefighters set up an emergency hospital on Friday in a sports centre in the Catalan town of Sabadell. The government has set up more than a dozen of these field hospitals around the country to treat patients. “We are at the limit, we are at maximum stress,” said Catalan regional government chief Quim Torra in an interview with Reuters. The region is Spain’s most populous and second worst-hit after Madrid. More than 4,400 people have died in the Madrid region, data showed on Friday. The dead include people in the region’s nursing homes, which house some 50,000 people in the most vulnerable age bracket. Claim: Spain overtakes Italy in coronavirus cases, death rate slows.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Barbosa, 18, blames the break-up on her baby’s abnormally small head and brain damage that doctors link to the Zika virus she contracted during pregnancy. “I think, for him, it was my fault the baby has microcephaly,” said Barbosa, wearing a blue dress and cradling tiny two-week old Sophia in a cramped bare brick house where she now lives with her parents in Brazil’s northeast. “When I most needed his help, he left me.”   The house, which overlooks a polluted stream on the edge of a poor neighborhood, is now home to a family of nine. Only Barbosa’s father has a job doing occasional building work. Her ex-partner, Thersio, says he does not see Sophia, but avoids discussing microcephaly and blames Barbosa’s parents for the break-up. “I gave her the choice, are you your parents’ woman or mine ... And she chose her parents.”   Single parents are common in Brazil where some studies show as many as 1 in 3 children from poor families grow up without their biological father, but doctors on the frontline of the Zika outbreak say they are concerned about how many mothers of babies with microcephaly are being abandoned. With the health service already under strain, abortion prohibited, and the virus hitting the poorest hardest, an absent father is yet another burden on mothers already struggling to cope with raising a child that might never walk or talk. At a specialized microcephaly clinic in Campina Grande, psychologist Jacqueline Loureiro works with mothers to help them cope with stress and trauma. Of the 41 women she counsels, she says only 10 receive adequate financial or emotional support from their partners. “At first many of the women say they have a partner, but as you get to know them better you realize the father is never around and the baby and mother have effectively been abandoned,” Loureiro said. Loureiro blames Brazil’s macho culture, which she says is particularly strong in the northeast. Gender roles are strictly defined and women still tend to care for the baby and look after the household. The added burden of having a child with microcephaly strains this dynamic, says  Loureiro, and often the man ends up leaving or refusing to help. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether it actually causes microcephaly in babies. Brazil said it has confirmed 745 cases of microcephaly since October, and considers most of them related to Zika infections in the mothers. It is investigating another 4,230 cases of suspected microcephaly. Until the World Health Organization declared Zika a global health emergency last month, there was little interest in microcephaly and no data for its toll on parents. But studies into children with other special needs shows it substantially increases the chance of marital breakdown. Jennifer Lewis, who runs the U.S. based Microcephaly Foundation and has a 12-year-old daughter with the condition, is not surprised fathers in northeast Brazil are abandoning partners and children. Her charity has a network of around 5,000 families and she says the majority are single mothers. “I see single mothers all the time, where the fathers have left, the fathers have got scared. I even see married couples where the father has pretty much nothing to do with the child,” she said in a phone interview from Phoenix, Arizona. Campina Grande’s health secretary, Luzia Pinto, told Reuters the city is planning to provide housing for mothers and children with microcephaly through a government housing program in order to help with the crisis. She also ensured a psychologist was hired at the clinic to offer support. Few Brazilian jobs give enough flexibility for parents to better share the responsibility of looking after a child with special needs. This is made even more difficult as parents must often travel for hours to visit the few specialized clinics operating in Brazil. At the clinic in Campina Grande, 20-year-old Rogerio dos Santos is one of only two fathers present. Standing in the whitewashed corridor, he says he’s shocked by the tales of fathers abandoning their children but says it has been hard to get time off at the gas station where he works. For fathers like dos Santos, the support network in Brazil is lacking. Whereas the clinic runs a support group for the mothers, there is no specific help offered for fathers. “There is a certain amount of fatalism about fathers leaving, unfortunately,” said Gary Barker, who promotes gender equality though ProMundo, an organization he founded in Rio de Janeiro 19 years ago and which now works in four countries. For Barker, the health sector needs to offer support specifically for men. “There needs to be an understanding that a baby being born with microcephaly is an event that is going to increase the chance the father’s not going to stick around and he’s going to need some extra hand holding,” he said. In the small town of Algodao de Jandaira, an hour from Campina Grande, Josemary da Silva pours a cold bath to relieve her son Gilberto from the relentless heat. The five-month-old baby with microcephaly stops crying briefly as he is washed in a pale blue plastic tub. The father, after whom Gilberto is named, first saw his son one month after he was born and has rarely visited since. Two months ago he stopped contributing the $30 a month he had paid to help da Silva care for the child. “He says he loves him. But what kind of love is this,” she says as Gilberto starts to cry again. Claim: Brazil's mothers left to raise microcephaly babies alone.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Franklin County effort is an alternative to flushing pills or mixing them in coffee grounds or cat litter. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Franklin County’s Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health board is spending $20,000 to buy 5,000 bags. The Franklin County and Columbus public health departments will distribute the bags during training sessions on using naloxone, a drug used to revive overdose victims. The bags can neutralize up to 45 pills, six patches or six ounces of liquid. A record 4,050 Ohioans died of drug overdoses in 2016, a number expected to rise sharply once 2017 figures are complete. ___ Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com Claim: Ohio county to distribute bags that deactivate drugs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2019, the Zambian Observer reported that a nurse/midwife suffering from terminal cancer had purportedly made a shocking end-of-life confession. During her 1983-95 tenure in the maternity ward at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in the Zambian capital city of Lusaka, the nurse supposedly confessed, she “swapped close to 5000 babies” and gave them to the “wrong” parents (i.e., persons other than the children’s biological parents) “for fun”:  “May God Forgive me for my sins”, says a UTH Nurse” “I used to swap babies at UTH for fun”!, she confessed in her sick bed. “I have terminal cancer and I know I will be dying soon. I wish to confess my sins before God and before all the affected people especially those who were giving birth at UTH during my service. I have found God, Ia, now born again. I have nothing to hide, In the 12 years I worked in the maternity ward at UTH, I swapped close to 5000 babies”, she said. “If you were born in UTH between the years 1983 to 1995 chances are your parents may not be your biological parents. I had developed a habbit of swapping newly born babies just for fun. So take a good look at your siblings, if for example everyone is light and you are darkie … you are that child and I am really sorry for that” “I know I sinned against God and may he forgve me for that. I am also asking Zambians to forgive me for the evil things I was doing to innocent children. I have caused some faithful couples to divorce after going for DNA Tests. Its now that I have realised I was just being used by a demon to do that. I have causeed many mothers to breastfeed children who are not theirs biologically. I dont want to go to Hell for that, Am really sorry I have sinned alot. Please FORGIVE me”, said Sister Elizabeth Bwalya Mwewa. Many readers wrote the article off as an obvious joke, expressing extreme skepticism about the premise of the story and its notion that so many babies could have been switched at birth over an extended period of time (a rate of about one infant a day, every day, for thirteen years) without many parents having raised an issue with hospital administrators — especially if, as claimed, the results of the midwife’s “fun” pranking had caused “multiple couples to divorce after going for DNA tests.”   Nonetheless, according to the Lusaka Times, local officials took the report seriously enough that an investigation was conducted by the  General Nursing Council of Zambia, who turned up no nurse matching the name of the one cited in the  Zambian Observer article:  Preliminary investigations into reports that about 5000 babies where swapped at the UTH between 1983 and 1995 have reviewed that there is no midwife in the General Nursing Council of Zambia Register by the name of Elizabeth Bwalya Mwewa. The investigation has also revealed that no midwife by that name ever existed and later on worked in maternity ward at the University Teaching Hospitals. GNC Manager Regulation and Compliance and Spokesperson Thom Yung’ana said the investigation into the matter will help to verify the authenticity of the report and has called for calm among stakeholders as investigations continue in the matter. The Zambian Observer then unironically reported on that debunking of their own article. Aside from the rather incredible nature of the claim, and the fact that the Zambian Observer is a generally unreliable source, we note that that five days later the website used the very same purported photograph of nurse “Elizabeth Bwalya Mwewa” to accompany an article about a mistaken swap of a single pair of newborn babies at a different hospital in Zambia (Ndola Teaching Hospital) — yet that picture had previously appeared in the blog of Ma Sedaye, who is described as a Zimbabwean woman now living in Columbus, Ohio: Claim: A nurse employed in a Zambian hospital swapped nearly 5,000 babies at birth and gave them to the \"wrong\" parents.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “I think this bill, frankly, is shameful. It is callous,” Jones told reporters. “This bill uses rape victims and victims of incest at all ages, even minors, as political pawns.” The legislation signed by Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday would make performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases and contains no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Supporters hope to launch a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made the procedure legal. “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God,” Ivey said in a statement after signing the bill. Jones, the lone Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, said he thought the debate was focused on the “most extreme voices on both sides.” “I just don’t think that it is representative of what most people in Alabama think or what they want from the government,” he said. But the law’s sponsor, Rep. Terri Collins, said she believes a majority of Alabamians support it: 59% of state voters in November agreed to write anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, saying the state recognizes the rights of the “unborn.” “It’s to address the issue that Roe. v. Wade was decided on: Is that baby in the womb a person?” Collins said. The Alabama abortion ban is the most far-reaching measure as some conservative states push new abortion restrictions in the hopes of getting a case before the conservative Supreme Court majority. The abortion ban would go into effect in six months if it isn’t blocked by legal challenges, which Jones anticipates costing millions of dollars. “This bill is unconstitutional as it stands right now and, I believe, irresponsible,” he said. Abortion rights advocates have vowed swift legal action. “We haven’t lost a case in Alabama yet and we don’t plan to start now. We will see Governor Ivey in court,” said Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast. The legislation Alabama senators passed Tuesday would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by 10 to 99 years or life in prison for the provider. The only exception would be when the woman’s health is at serious risk. Women seeking or undergoing abortions wouldn’t be punished. “It just completely disregards women and the value of women and their voice. We have once again silenced women on a very personal issue,” said Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, a Birmingham Democrat. Kentucky , Mississippi , Ohio and Georgia recently approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. Missouri’s Republican-led Senate voted early Thursday to ban abortions at eight weeks, with no rape or incest exceptions. Louisiana lawmakers have been speeding toward passing a six-week ban. Dr. Yashica Robinson, who provides abortions in Huntsville, said her clinic fielded calls from frightened patients Wednesday. “This is a really sad day for women in Alabama and all across the nation,” she said. “It’s like we have just taken three steps backwards as far as women’s rights and being able to make decisions that are best for them and best for their families.” But Robinson said the bill is also having an energizing effect. With phone lines jammed, she said messages came streaming across their fax machine. “We had letters coming across the fax just asking what they can do to help and telling us they are sending us their love and support our way,” Robinson said. Claim: Alabama Sen. Doug Jones calls new abortion ban ‘shameful’.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Christa Jordan, a nurse at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, wanted to donate to her friend and patient, Dayshanae Hosman, who has a genetic condition called Alagille syndrome and went on dialysis in April, the Kansas City Star reported. “I just knew it was something I had to do,” Jordan said. “It wasn’t something I questioned that much.” Jordan was a transplant match for Hosman, but the University of Kansas Hospital had an even better one for her: 25-year-old Ky Kanaman from Baldwin City, Kansas. Kanaman was an “altruistic donor,” meaning he was willing to donate a kidney without knowing the potential recipient. The university hospital told Jordan she was also a better match for a person on the transplant list whom she didn’t know, Lauro Zuniga. Jordan agreed to give her kidney to Zuniga if Kanaman donated his to Hosman, starting the kidney donation chain. Zuniga’s mom, Carolina Perez, wasn’t a match for her son. But when Jordan agreed to give her kidney to Zuniga, Perez then found out she could give one of her kidneys to a stranger on the university hospital’s list, Matt Lewis. Donation chains are rare because they require extensive planning by hospitals, starting from when a donor wants to give to a person that they aren’t a good match with. The hospital then can find the donor a recipient that they match with but don’t know, sparking conversations to find donor-recipient matches that make the best fit. Six surgeries were conducted at the two hospitals on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30. The three donors and three recipients got together at Children’s Mercy on Wednesday, with many meeting for the first time. “I feel like I won the lottery,” said Lewis, of Savonburg, Kansas. ___ Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com Claim: Nurse’s kidney donation triggers bi-state transplant chain.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no discussion of costs. The article does refer to an editorial that accompanied the paper. The editorial observed that women would be spared “unnecessary surgery.”  Less surgery should result in lower costs for the patient. The potential benefits were included in the article. The “five-year ‘disease free’ survival rate was 83.9%…” for women who did not have the more aggressive surgery “…compared with 82.2% in those who did…”  Because full axillary lymph node dissection did not decrease mortality or decrease disease free survival, this may no longer be the standard recommendation. The article accurately reported that the study found no benefit for the more aggressive full axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) among the 900 women studied with T1 or T2 breast cancer. Because ALND poses risk of infection and lymphedema, more patients would be harmed by continuing the currently recommended treatment. While the article mentions the potential complications of ALND, it does not quantify the incidence of infection or of lymphedema after ALND. Women should be told how often this occurs. The article did not indicate that this study was a randomized trial. The article should have noted that the trial was stopped early, after five years, at the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee because 20 years of follow-up would have been needed to observe 500 deaths as originally planned. Because breast cancer is often diagnosed at an early stage, some doctors & patients prefer longer term follow-up than five years. The article also did not include limitations of the study as reported by the researchers. Possible limitations mentioned by the researchers were failure to achieve the originally planned accrual of 1900 patients and possible randomization imbalance favoring the group that had only the sentinel lymph node dissection. This is worth noting. There was no disease mongering. The article included quotes from an editorial accompanying the study and from an independent source at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. While the article did mention that the study was funded by the federal government, it would have been helpful for readers to know that it was funded by the National Cancer Institute. The less extensive sentinel lymph node dissection surgery is clearly compared with the currently recommended axillary lymph node surgery. The article points out that the more extensive surgery did not have a mortality or disease-free survival benefit. We’ll address the following concern under this criterion because we’re not sure where else to address it. Readers would have benefited from early clarity that all participants in the study still had a sentinel lymph node biopsy and that the research focused on whether removal of all lymph nodes was necessary if the sentinel nodes were cancerous. The article pointed out that if breast cancer has spread to any lymph nodes, doctors usually recommend removing all lymph nodes in the arm. The article reported that in a phone interview, Gary Lyman of the American Society of Clinical Oncology said the group may revise its recommendations for full lymph node removal based on the results of this study. Since many surgeons and oncologists base their advise to patients on these recommendations, patients may soon be offered this less extensive surgery option. . The novelty of the study results were supported by quotes from an editorial that accompanied the study. The editorial referred to the study as an “important contribution” and noted the study provided “strong evidence” that many women can safely forgo complete lymph node removal. A representative of the American Society of Clinical Oncology characterized the study as “practice-changing” and thought the findings will probably prompt ASCO to revise its recommendations for breast cancer patients with T1 or T2 tumors who have positive sentinel lymph nodes. The article includes information from a telephone interview with Gary Lyman of the American Society of Clinical Oncology which recommends surgery and treatment options for patients. And it includes comments from editorial authors. Claim: Breast-cancer study questions lymph node removal",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No mention of costs. This is a substantial oversight. Experts say the implant alone costs four to five times as much as a traditional hip implant—about $12,000 versus $2500 to $3000. The story provides no quantitative estimates of the benefits of hip resurfacing, nor any quantitative comparison with patients undergoing other treatments for hip arthritis. The news article points out that hip resurfacing isn’t for everyone, and mentions two groups in whom it might be inappropriate—those with poor bone quality and others with kidney problems. But the recent literature on hip resurfacing suggests there are other concerns as well. There is disagreement about whether the procedure impairs the blood supply to bone. [J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2006 Nov;88 Suppl 3:84-9.] Some reports find a higher-than-usual fracture rate in the thigh bone. [J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2006;88:1652-3] Some worry about the increase in metal ions generated by two metal devices rubbing against each other. One study showed that heat generated during the procedure was high enough to cause the death of thigh bone. [J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2007;89:16-20.] This would be a devastating complication for which there is currently no good solution. (One treatment is total hip replacement.) In another study, researchers found that alignment changes could put patients at greater risk of impingement, “leading to abnormal wear patterns and pain.” [J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2007;89:9-15.] Although it is true that other researchers have found few problems with the devices and reported great success, readers deserve to know where the uncertainties lie. Perhaps the greatest uncertainty has to do with how long the implants implants will hold up—a significant shortcoming in the evidence for a device designed to substitute for total joint replacements with relatively successful track records as long as 15 to 25 years. The article is built largely around the testimonials of orthopedic surgeons who view hip resurfacing as a favorable development. In the final sentence the story takes a stab at establishing the evidence for the treatment – citing the FDA – but it is too little too late. According to the news article, the FDA “cited studies showing the Birmingham Hip resurfacer lasted at least five years…” What sorts of studies did the FDA analyze? What about the rest of the outcomes that patients value—for example, improvements in pain and activity? Are there any randomized trials that compare similar patients who have undergone resurfacing with patients who have undergone total hip replacement? Is there follow-up beyond five years? Hip resurfacing is designed to treat a very real problem—pain and activity limitations caused by osteoarthritis in relatively young individuals. The news article cites three orthopedic surgeons, including one who is a spokesperson for the leading orthopedic medical society in the U.S. But the story provides no information about their potential conflicts of interest. Because many surgeons have consulting contracts and other agreements with device makers, this is important information. The story rightly explains that total hip replacement is the major alternative to hip resurfacing. Although it explains why resurfacing may be better than total hip replacement, it does not say much about the potential disadvantages of resurfacing—most prominently, its brief track record. This information is vital if readers are to compare the new idea with existing alternatives. Young, active readers might also want to know about nonsurgical alternatives for arthritic hips. These include strengthening, exercise, physical therapy, and pain medications. The article states that the first hip resurfacing system was approved by the FDA last spring and that competitors’ systems are in trials. It also notes that few orthopedic surgeons are trained in this procedure in the U.S. The AP news story does a nice job of explaining what hip resurfacing is and how it fits into the history of hip replacement procedures. Because the story relied on several different sources, it does not appear to have relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Hip resurfacing aimed at boomers",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Real computer viruses have been tied to email postcards in the past, but there weren’t any new threats or viruses identified by McAfee or Norton when the warning began circulating again in May 2017. Postcard virus warnings that have made the rounds on social media since the early 2000s. There are many different versions, but they all have a few similar traits: McAfee or Norton has just identified the postcard virus, it has been deemed as the most destructive ever, the virus destroys hard drives and can send itself to everyone in your email address book. It’s not clear where the postcard virus warning started, but it’s earliest versions date back to 2001. There have been a number of credible email postcard virus warning threats over the years. McAfee issued consumer virus alerts about a postcard phishing scam in 2005 and about a postcard virus worm in 2001. The postcard warning appears to be based on the 2001 threat alert, which explains that the “worm virus” could be spread via email and had been know to self-replicate and spread to other systems, just like in the postcard warnings: By July 2007, the virus warning had evolved. Now, instead of “a virtual card for you” appearing int he subject line, the term “postcard” was used instead. Some versions, like this one, actually used the phrase “Hallmark postcard” and included many of the old, and previously debunked, warnings: You should be alert during the next few days.. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,’ regardless of who sent it to you.. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. These Hallmark postcard versions of the rumor went viral again in 2010, and in 2017. However, there was no indication that there were any credible threats at the time — and the claim that McAfee and/or Norton had deemed the virus the most destructive ever are false. Aside from a a virus warning from 2001 that matched some, but not all, of the postcard virus warning’s particulars. That’s why we’re calling this one “mostly fiction.” It is important, however, to always be vigilant about viruses that are spread via email. Scanning attachments before they’re downloaded, avoiding emails from unfamiliar senders, and never providing personal information via email are just a few recommendations. Click here for more information about steps to enhance email security. Updated 5/4/17 Comments Claim:  Warnings that Mcafee or Norton has identified the most destructive computer virus ever disguised as a Hallmark postcard email with the subject line “A Card for You,” “Virtual Card for You,” “Postcard” or a “Postcard from Hallmark” have been circulating for years. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission held its first meeting on Wednesday. Medical marijuana use has been legal in Georgia since 2015, but the state legislature until this year had not allowed its production or sale. The commission is looking into ways to manufacture or import medical marijuana oil for Georgia’s nearly 14,000 registered patients. It is also tasked with setting testing and oversight standards and issuing licenses to sell the oil. Commission Chair Dr. Christopher Edwards said Georgia needs to implement its medical marijuana program, and he won’t tolerate impediments. Under the law, the medical marijuana cannot have more than 5 percent THC, the compound that creates a high. Claim: Georgia board starts work on medical marijuana rules .",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The article discussed that Medicare covers the treatment at $450 for a two-hour session. There wasn’t a discussion about whether other insurance programs covered the treatment. It would have been helpful to know how much the entire treatment plan for the profiled patient cost and whether it was covered by his insurance. The article was about one patient’s subjective account of pain relief. The only mention of evidence is by one of the doctors quoted, saying he did a literature search and found the evidence supporting this treatment to be “grim.” A quantitative assessment of that evidence would have been useful to include. Although the article mentioned overuse of the treatment, there wasn’t an explicit mention of the type of harms associated with using hyperbaric therapy. The article cautioned about the lack of evidence and rigorous medical studies supporting the use of hyperbaric chamber therapy outside of common uses (e.g., decompression sickness, burn healing). The article also mentioned how the results seen with the patient profiled are not commonly seen in patients with chronic late radiation effects. The article did not commit disease mongering. It highlights the story of a desperate patient in a balanced way. Besides the one reference to Kaiser Health News, all the sources had connections to the patient. The article mentioned physical therapy and pain medication as standard treatment for delayed radiation effects on muscles and joints. It did a good job describing how challenging it can be to manage. The article mentioned hyperbaric chambers are located in about 1,400 hospitals across the US. Given that Medicare also reimburses for hyperbaric therapy, access is probably relatively easy. The article described that this is not a novel procedure and that hyperbaric therapy has been around since the 1900s. It does not appear this story relied on a news release. Claim: Hyperbaric oxygen: The mysterious therapy that saved a cancer survivor from radiation side effects",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release does not mention costs. We would have liked some context. What kind of rehabilitation costs are associated with the severe lifelong swallowing side effects that are mitigated by the reduction in dose discussed in the study? The release did include some quantification of benefits, but we would have liked a bit more. Here is what was provided: “The study…showed that patients treated with reduced radiation had less difficulty swallowing solids (40 percent versus 89 percent of patients treated with standard doses of radiation) or impaired nutrition (10 percent versus 44 percent of patients treated with regular doses of radiation.” The release would have been improved with a discussion of how “less difficulty” and “impaired nutrition” were measured. The published paper makes it clear that the swallowing difficulties and nutritional impairment were self-reported using a questionaire of some kind. This also would have been useful information to include in the release. The release does not quantify whether there is any reduction in progression-free survival or “cure” rate with reduced radiation. The release also does not quantify what is meant by the words “reduced radiation.” Is it half of normal doses, or reduced frequency but the same dose? There may be potential harms in reducing a therapy aimed at a cure, but the release does not address this except in vague terms: “We found there are some patients have very high cure rates with reduced doses of radiation,” said Barbara Burtness, MD, Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology), Yale Cancer Center, Disease Research Team Leader for the Head and Neck Cancers Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital, and the chair of the ECOG-ACRIN head and neck committee. “Radiation dose reduction resulted in significantly improved swallowing and nutritional status,” she said. The release provides some information about the study and how it was conducted. And it does note that “patients who had a history of smoking less than 10 packs of cigarettes a year had a very high disease control compared with heavy smokers.” But it does not mention that this is a stage 2 study and that the number of patients (80) is very small as medical trials go. The published study notes that “This finding provides justification for further study of radiation deintensification but requires validation in a larger comparative trial.” That limitation should have been included in the release. There was no disease mongering. The release failed to mention any funding source or the presence or absence of a conflict for researchers. The published study notes that the research was supported by US Public Health Service grants, the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Health and Human Services. An author quoted in the release disclosed consulting and other financial relationships with seven pharmaceutical companies but no radiation device manufacturers. The release summarizes a study that compares low dose and high dose radiation, and notes that chemotherapy was also part of the treatment regimen for the patients. It states that all of the patient volunteers were candidates for surgery, which is another alternative or adjunct therapy for these types of cancers. The issue of availability of reduced dosages doesn’t apply here. The release makes no claim of novelty other than it is a “new clinical trial.” It might be assumed that low dose radiation is novel because it is not standard for these types of cancers but there is no way to know this from either the release or the published study. A brief online search revealed that a partnering institution issued a related news release on low dose radiation research in HPV-positive head and neck cancers in 2014. The release doesn’t rely on sensational language but the frequent use of the term “cure” seems misleading, especially when we aren’t provided specifics on the treatment outcomes. These cancers can certainly recur after treatment, so how did the researchers establish whether patients were cured or not? Claim: Reducing Radiation Successfully Treats HPV-Positive Oropharynx Cancers and Minimizes Side Effects",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although the story mentions what a big business there is in stents, it does not describe the costs of stenting to the individual or relative to any alternatives. Although the story does describe the clot risk as 2 or 3 percent, the story should have provided more information here, such as, what is the time frame? How often are they fatal? How does this number compare to alternative options? Furthermore, the story inappropriatedly suggests that the benefits of stenting include a reduction in heart attacks. The story does mention the possibility for stents to cause blood clots. The story does not describe the strength of the available evidence on the harms from stenting. By accurately describing the prevalence of stenting, the story avoids disease mongering. The story verges on treatment mongering by describing stents as a \"life-saving device\" and suggesting that they can preventing heart attacks. The story does quote two physicians, albeit with not a lot of depth. The story does not mention medications as an alternative treatment option. The story clearly states that stenting is a common procedure. The story clearly states that drug-eluting stents are not new. Because the story used two different expert sources, it is unlikely it relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Millions face risk from drug-coated stents",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Lu Zhihao, 4, kicks a ball at a basketball court in Foshan, Guangdong province March 28, 2011. REUTERS/Joe Tan “I want to be superman,” said the toddler, a typically cheeky kid, but one scaling in at over 60 kg (132.3 lb), around five times the weight of an average boy his age. With puffed cheeks puckering up his eyes and mouth, folds of flesh like a miniature Michelin man and heavily bowed legs, the one-meter (yard) tall toddler’s condition is suspected to be partly the result of a hormone imbalance given his height. His loud and frequent demands for food, however, are often met by his accommodating parents and a constant stream of visitors to their lively courtyard home. “Yum, yum, yum, yum. I like to eat fish,” he said, grinning with his mouth full at dinner time as he wolfed down several bowls of rice and steamed fish. With China’s coastal cities booming amid rampant urbanization and industrialization, a new, more affluent generation of middle class families have been raising more and more pampered children like Lu Zhihao, bringing a growing blight of obesity to Chinese society. “Little more than 20 years ago many people, even in China’s richest cities, were struggling to feed themselves; now they are struggling to lose weight,” wrote Paul French and Matthew Crabbe in their recent book “Fat China: How expanding waistlines are Changing a Nation.”   “The combination of rising incomes, greater longevity and the one-child policy meant that the “six pocket” phenomenon appeared with each child having richer parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles - all keen to spoil them.”   Some experts describe this as the “Little Emperor” syndrome, exacerbated by the country’s controversial one-child policy since the 1970s to control a swelling population expected to hit 1.65 billion in 2033. Hardly any high street in Chinese towns and cities now are without a McDonald’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken, and smoking rates are amongst the highest in the world as the country rapidly develops and its economy sky-rockets. “Obesity is a problem for the wealthy, newly emergent middle-class consumers,” wrote French and Crabbe. Zhihao’s mother Chen Huan admitted he throws tantrums when he’s denied food, as the toddler sulked on a sofa after he was refused a pack of biscuits after dinner. “He has difficulty moving up and down stairs. He needs help getting on the bus that takes him to the childcare center. It’s also difficult to bathe him because of the rolls of fat,” said Chen, who works as a factory worker in the Pearl River Delta. “Of course I worry about him. Basically his legs can’t support his weight ... His heart is also under pressure because of the heavy load,” said Zhihao’s father, Lu Yuncheng, who works on a fish farm. A 2008 Chinese National Task Force on Childhood Obesity found that almost one in five children under seven are overweight in China, and more than seven percent are obese. Claim: China toddler fights fat in land of little emperors.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: California voters added to what are considered the nation’s strongest gun control laws on Election Day by approving Proposition 63. The measure imposes background checks on ammunition sales; bans possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines; and forces owners to give up their weapons as soon as they can no longer legally possess them. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor in 2018, helped author the initiative and led the campaign for it. The measure had received nearly 63 percent approval as of mid-November, with some votes still uncounted. In a press conference the day after Prop 63 passed, Newsom made several claims about the effectiveness of California’s gun restrictions. \"We have significantly reduced the gun-murder rate because of our progressive gun policy,\" Newsom said, adding that California has seen a \"56 percent decline in the gun murder rate since we started to step up and step in and lead the nation in common sense gun safety laws, background checks, restricting large-capacity clips and the like.\" Gavin Newsom makes his claim about California's gun murder rate at about the 6:30 minute mark in the video above. We decided to focus on Newsom’s claim that California has seen a \"56 percent decline in the gun murder rate\" since it began imposing tough gun laws in the 1990s. Whether those gun laws are the driving force behind such a drop is a matter of mixed opinion. Gun rights groups say tougher criminal penalties, not gun laws, have led to the decline. PolitiFact does not fact-check predictions or opinions. A Glock 30SF .45 Auto semi-automatic pistol with a Glock 13-round extension magazine installed, and 13 rounds of hollow-point ammunition are seen in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Our research The gun murder rate measures the number of gun-related homicides per 100,000 residents in a geographical area. A separate measurement, the gun death rate, takes a broader look including homicides, suicides and accidental shooting deaths. Based on our research and contact with Newsom’s campaign spokesman, it appears the lieutenant governor mixed up the two rates and ended up understating the drop in California’s gun murder rate by more than 10 percentage points. The state’s gun death rate -- not the gun murder rate -- dropped 56 percent from 1993 to 2013, according to figures provided by Ari Freilich, an attorney at the San Francisco-based Law Center for Gun Violence Prevention. The attorney cited age-adjusted data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nonprofit law center advocates for gun control laws and is considered an authority on gun crime statistics. The law center’s figures do not include data from 2014, a year in which gun deaths and gun homicides continued to fall in California. Nor do they include statistics from 2015 and 2016, which are not yet available. Still, the 20-year span is the approximate period during which California imposed strict new gun laws, spurred by mass shootings years earlier on a Stockton schoolyard and inside a San Francisco law office. This meant the rate of deaths by any kind of shooting declined from 17.48 per 100,000 residents in 1993 to 7.68 per 100,000 residents. Larger drop in gun murder rate During this same period, California’s gun murder rate declined even faster: By 65 percent, according to a review of the CDC’s fatal injury reports by PolitiFact California. If 2014 is included, the rate dropped by 67 percent. Data from these reports have been cited by both gun control and gun rights groups to describe California’s decline in gun violence. They show gun murders fell from 9.60 per 100,000 residents in 1993 to 3.14 per 100,000 in 2014. In raw numbers, this means nearly 2,000 fewer people in California died in gun homicides in 2014 (when 1,233 were killed) compared with 1993 (when 3,183 were killed). Nationwide, the gun murder rate fell 45 percent during much of the same period. Between 1993 and 2000, it dropped from 7.0 homicides to 3.8 homicides per 100,000 people, according to a Pew Research analysis in 2015 of available federal data. Since then, Pew reported, the rate has remained relatively flat. Our ruling California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said California has seen a \"56 percent decline in the gun murder rate\" since it enacted strong gun control laws in the 1990s. Newsom appears to have mixed up the gun murder rate with the gun death rate. California’s gun murder rate dropped 67 percent between 1993 and 2014, according to a review of fatal injury report data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar, though somewhat smaller, drop in the gun murder rate took place nationwide during this period. Newsom’s overall point is correct: Gun deaths, including gun homicides, have dropped significantly in California since the state imposed the new laws. We are not fact-checking the cause of this drop. Gun rights and gun control groups have different opinions on this. What is clear is that gun homicides have declined significantly, and even faster than what Newsom stated. His claim needs this key clarification. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. Claim: California has seen a \"56 percent decline in the gun murder rate\" since the 1990s.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 5 June 2017, the Red State Watcher web site posted two articles featuring a video that appeared to show Londoners chanting U.S. President Donald Trump’s name in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in the city two days earlier, which left at least victims dead, as well as the three attackers. One article carried the headline “Wow! Londoners chant President Trump’s name instead of mayor,” and another was headlined “Sadiq Khan May Be In Trouble – Look What Londoners Are Doing!”   That story went on to claim: Londoners are fed up [with] Sadiq’s [sic] Khan’s soft stance on terrorism. As British citizens die, Kahn [sic] tells the public “not to be alarm.” [sic] This did not settle well with some citizens. Some Londoners took [to] the streets and instead of chanting Khan’s name, they chanted Donald Trump’s. Both stories included the following video: Sadiq Khan is an EMBARRASSMENT ? Londoners chant #Trump‘s name instead of hispic.twitter.com/flBWoTEKGN@realDonaldTrump #MAGA #LondonBridge — Boca Vista (@bocavista2016) June 5, 2017  The articles, the posting of the video, and the text that accompanied it – which labelled London Mayor Sadiq Khan an “embarrassment” – all came in the context of a high-profile dispute between Khan and Trump. The morning after the attack, Trump grossly misrepresented comments made by Khan, claiming that the London Mayor had told the people of the British capital there was “no reason to be alarmed” at the attack. In fact, Khan was referring specifically to increased police patrols on the streets of London, and reassuring its residents not to be unduly concerned by that escalation. A spokesperson for the London Mayor then issued a statement calling Trump’s tweet “ill-informed” and accusing him of deliberately taking Khan’s comments out of context. The following day, Trump doubled down on his attack, saying the mayor’s explanation of his remarks – which was accurate – was a “pathetic excuse.” Contrary to what the Red State Watcher articles implied, however, the video had nothing to do with that dispute, or with the June 2017 terrorist attack. In fact, Paul Golding, leader of the right-wing extremist group Britain First, shot the video in March 2017:   London today! “DONALD TRUMP WE LOVE YOU!” pic.twitter.com/AOryV4RtND — Paul Golding (@GoldingBF) March 18, 2017  The video shows a small group of far-right activists engaged in a counter-protest at a much larger anti-racism rally in London on 18 March, at which demonstrators carried signs saying “Stand up to Trump.” It’s possible some of those chanting in favor of the US President are from London – Paul Golding himself is from the British capital – but the video does not show a spontaneous assembly of non-aligned Londoners favoring Donald Trump over Sadiq Khan in their dispute, following a 3 June 2017 terrorist attack in the city. Claim: A video shows Londoners expressing support for the US President, following a June 2017 terrorist attack in the city",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Via Twitter, the president of the anti-abortion Texans for Life Coalition made this claim Dec. 6, 2011: \"Murder #1 cause of death for pg women,\" meaning pregnant women. \"Tragic.\" Kyleen Wright’s message pointed Twitter followers to a Houston Chronicle news article published that day about a Houston man charged with capital murder in the August 2010 stabbing death of a pregnant woman. Investigators had discovered records of calls and text messages between the man and the woman, the story says, indicating that he thought he was the unborn child's father and wanted her to have an abortion but that she had refused. We asked Wright to elaborate on murder being the primary cause of death for pregnant women. By email, she replied: \"This is a story that keeps popping up. ... It’s the top cause, it’s one of the top causes, and then there will be the occasional story denying it’s a top cause.\" Wright guided us to an Oct. 26, 2011, Reuters news article about a study concluding that about three of every 100,000 women who are pregnant or have a child less than 1 year old are murdered and two of every 100,000 kill themselves, with roughly half of the women who died violently having had some sort of conflict with current or former partners. That facet, the story says, prompted experts to call for more thorough screening and follow-up for domestic problems during pregnancy check-ups. In the November 2011, issue of the Obstetrics & Gynecology medical journal, the researchers summed up: \"Pregnancy-associated homicide and suicide each account for more deaths\" than obstetric complications \"including hemorrhage, obstetric embolism or preeclampsia and eclampsia.\" That’s not quite saying murder is the prime killer of pregnant women. Rather, the study suggests that homicide accounts for more deaths than specific individual complications of pregnancy. The study says the researchers determined that there were two suicides and 2.9 homicides among pregnant or postpartum mothers for every 100,000 live births from 2003 through 2007. Over the years, the study says, rates of death due to cardiac disease, infection and hemorrhage and other such medical causes have decreased but maternal mortality due to injury has remained constant. \"Homicide and suicide are two important and potentially preventable causes of maternal injury,\" the study says. In an interview, the study’s lead researcher, Christie Palladino, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Georgia Health Sciences University, pointed us to a 2010 study led by Cynthia Berg of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that from 1998 through 2005, the U.S. death rate of women from all pregnancy-related complications was 14.5 per 100,000 live births. The study was described in the December 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Palladino told us that her study’s figures on slain pregnant and postpartum women were drawn from the National Violent Death Reporting System, a federal database including all records of violent deaths in 16 participating states. She noted that compared to the 2.9 homicides of pregnant and postpartum women per 100,000 live births, other research has found that 1.81 pregnant and postpartum women per 100,0000 live births die from hemorrhage, with fewer pregnant women dying from other causes associated with pregnancy, including cardiovascular conditions, thrombotic pulmonary embolisms, hypertensive disorders, infections, cardiomyopathy and amniotic fluid embolisms. Then again, Palladino said, her team’s study did not look into all possible causes of death for pregnant women; car wrecks, for example, were not included. By email, Palladino said that \"while we can't say that homicide is THE #1 cause (of) pregnancy-associated mortality, our data when compared to other data on maternal mortality\" points to the fact that homicide and suicide are \"among the leading causes of pregnancy-associated deaths.\" Palladino also provided a federal study, published in 2005, concluding that the murder rate for pregnant and postpartum women was 1.7 per 100,000 live births. Murder risk factors for mothers, the federal study says, include being younger than 20, being African American and having late or no prenatal care. \"Homicide,\" the authors wrote in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, \"is a leading cause of pregnancy-associated injury deaths.\" But it’s not the leading cause, according to the 2005 study. The study drew on information covering 1991 through 1999 in the nation’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System, which was established in 1987 to collect data on all reported deaths that occurred during pregnancy or within a year of pregnancy. And of all the period’s 7,342 reported deaths of women (some of which occurred more than a year after the woman gave birth), 4,200 were due to medical complications during pregnancy or a year afterward. Nearly 880 of the deaths occurred due to motor vehicle accidents and 617 women were murdered, the study says, and unintentional injuries, suicides and other causes accounted for nearly 500 deaths. In this review, then, murder trailed vehicle accidents and medical complications as a cause of death. Additional perspective may be in order, the researchers indicated, in that the prevalence of homicides involving pregnant and postpartum women is \"similar to national statistics on homicide among all women of reproductive age (regardless of whether they are pregnant or not).\" In 1999, the study says, homicide was the third-leading cause of injury-related death for all U.S. women (pregnant or not pregnant) of reproductive age, 15 to 44 years of age, after deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents and suicide. For such women in 2008, the latest year of available data, homicide ranked behind motor vehicle accidents, poisonings, malignant tumors, suicides, poisonings and heart disease among causes of death, our check of a CDC database indicates. We’re ready to rule. The Palladino study, suggesting more pregnant and postpartum women die from murder than any single medical complication, gives Wright’s claim an element of truth. But murder trails medical complications combined as a cause of death and it’s also behind vehicle wrecks. Wright’s statement is . Claim: Kyleen Wright Says murder is the chief cause of death for pregnant women.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg found herself in the global spotlight in September 2019, climate-change deniers sought to discredit her with a series of false rumors and doctored photographs. Perhaps the most preposterous of these claims was that Thunberg was actually an Australian actress named Estella Renee who was delivering speeches on environmental issues not because she was concerned about the planet, but because she was a deep state crisis actor and paid to shill. While researching this article we found at least three variations of the “Greta Thunberg is an actress” claim. They are as follows: We’ll take a deeper look at each of these items individually. Greta Thunberg is actually Australian actress Estelle Renee? Several social media users have claimed that Thunberg is actually an Australian actress named Estelle Renee. Facebook user Jack A. Schulman, for instance, wrote: Aspiring Actress impersonates crying child climate activist at UN, impersonator is a sham. Screams “How dare you!” from acting class. Estella Renee is a very talented shakespearian actress from Australia. She can do Scandinavian accents. She can break down and cry. She can scream “How dare you!”. She deserves an Academy Award not a Nobel for impersonating Heidi looking Greta Thunberg, a fictional Character before the UN yesterday, a fake climate activist, a child actor age 15 and 1/2 screaming “How dare you!” straight out of ” Streetcar named Desire! “. Otherwise, she’s a sham and a fraud! Her publicist refused to respond to our calls, but NY customs identified her as Estrella Renee, here “to see the sights” at her entry from Australia. Her adult accompaniment signed her into her hotel room as Greta Thungren, but we confirmed she is Estelle Renee. We turned over her illegal false identity to DHS who has confirmed her dual identity, but is still investigating. They are not sure impersonation is a crime. Yet, what a fraud!! This claim is nonsensical. Thunberg didn’t appear out of thin air in September 2019 to deliver a speech to the United Nations. She’s been on the public radar since at least September 2018 when she started staging climate protests in Sweden. Thunberg has also been nominated for numerous awards (including the Nobel Peace Prize), has met with several world leaders, and took a highly publicized voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, we know the identity of Thunberg’s parents, Svante Thunberg and Malena Ernman, as well as her grandfather, Olof Thunberg, and her sister, Beata. In other words, Greta Thunberg is not a “fictional character.” Her journey to becoming a global environmental activist has been well documented. Greta Thunberg has an IMDB page. Is this is proof that her environmental activism is disingenuous? A slightly less far-fetched version of this claim holds that Thunberg is listed as an “actress” on her IMDB page. While this is true, many have shared this screenshot as if it was somehow damaging to Thunberg’s reputation as an environmental activist: Thunberg has one acting credit to her name. She lent her voice to a short film titled “Ave Paraíso” that was released in Spain in 2019. The remainder of her IMDB page simply lists appearances she’s made on television programs (such as “The Daily Show”) or in environmental documentaries where she is credited as herself. The fact that Thunberg has an IMDB page is often shared along with the insinuation that her environmental beliefs are not sincere. However, it should be noted that being an actor does not automatically disqualify someone from having an opinion, being an activist, or having a political career. Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, often lends his voice to environmental causes. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan were both actors before embarking on political careers. Even U.S. President Donald Trump is listed as an “actor” on his IMDB page:  The website Michael Smith News noted one additional detail about Thunberg’s IMDB page that seemingly hinted at the notion that she was a paid actress looking for new gigs. The website wrote that “you can talk to her agent if you’d like to book her for acting work” and then linked to an IMDB Pro link. However, it doesn’t appear that Michael Smith News has access to IMDB Pro. When we checked Greta’s listing on IMDB Pro, we found no listing for Thunberg’s alleged agent. Does the viral video of a young climate protester crying feature actress Estelle Renee? Thunberg wasn’t the only environmental activist to be accused of being an actor. The websites TeaParty.org, The Gateway Pundit, Joe for America, and the aforementioned Michael Smith News all published articles about how it was “all a hoax” and that the “little girl seen crying in viral video” at the Global Warming rally was really a child actress, “a prop for the left,” named Estelle Renee: The international left used innocent children last weekend to push their climate change extremism. Tens of thousands of children were let out of school so they could go protest against capitalism and global warming. As we reported on Monday — One terrified little girl in Australia couldn’t even talk to reporters about climate change without crying… …But that was not your typical emotional teen. The girl in the video is an Aussie child actress. These articles are referring to a viral video from May 2019 of a young protester who broke down in tears while talking to reporters about climate change. The video in question can be seen in the second of the following tweets: This young girl is so terrified about “climate change” she can’t even speak to a journalist about her fears without breaking down in tears. So sad. The Marxists have gotten their hands on our children and we have allowed it to happen.#ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/YN2xAjGvIj — Oh boy what a shot (@ohboywhatashot) September 20, 2019  The young protester in this video, whose real name is Estella Brasier, does have a profile on the talent website Star Now. However, these websites provided no evidence that this person was paid to appear at this protest or to “act” that they were concerned about the environment. And as we noted above, the fact that a person has acted or is an actor does not disqualify them from having personal beliefs. Brasier’s father spoke to Maarten Schenk of the debunking website LeadStories about this rumor: The events of that day are in the public domain and were on every TV station. The ideas and concerns expressed by Estella depicted in that video are entirely genuine, not paid for, she was not acting… …Estella was not expecting to be interviewed by the media that day: it could have been her, it could have been anyone else. She was just standing closest to the cameras. Claim: Teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg is actually an Australian actress named Estella Renee. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Keanu Reeves didn’t write an inspirational open letter about life and loss that went viral on social media sites. The open letter went viral after it appeared at Keanu Reeves Online, an unofficial Facebook fan page for the actor, on November 21, 2015. In the letter, Keanu Reeves (supposedly) writes about his early life, living with dyslexia and losing the woman that he loved: “Most people know me, but don’t know my story. At the age of 3, I watched my father leave. I attended four different high schools and struggled with dyslexia, making my education more challenging than it is for most. At the age of 23, my closest friend River Phoenix died of a drug overdose. In 1998, I met Jennifer Syme. We fell instantly in love and by 1999, Jennifer was pregnant with our daughter. Sadly, after eight months, our child was born stillborn. We were devastated by her death and it eventually ended our relationship. 18 months later, Jennifer died in a car accident. Since then I avoid serious relationships and having kids. My younger sister had lukemia. Today she is cured, and I donated 70% of my gains from the movie Matrix to Hospitals that treat leukemia. I am one of the only Hollywood stars without a Mansion. I don’t have any bodyguards and do not wear fancy clothes. And even though I’m worth $100 million, I still ride the subway and I love it! The inspirational open letter about Keanu Reeves’ life quickly went viral. That’s due in large part to the fact that many people think Keanu Reeves Online is the actor’s official Facebook page, but that’s not the case. The page clearly states that it’s in no way linked to Keanu Reeves: This is a Keanu Reeves Fan Page. We are not associated with the real Keanu Reeves in any way. We just quote what we read and spread positivity. Keanu Reeves Online posts a lot of pictures of Keanu Reeves and inspirational or positive messages about life. These messages often appear in quotation marks and don’t list an author, so it’s easy to assume that the passages were written or spoken by Keanu Reeves. In reality, Keanu Reeves has refused to talk about his personal life, so him writing an unprompted open letter about his biggest struggles would have been very unusual. A Keanu Reeves profile that appeared in the magazine Details in 2008 touches on the actor’s refusal to talk about his personal life: He remains stoic in his refusal to talk about his personal life. (There are reasons to remain stoic. In 1999 he lost a daughter with his girlfriend, actress Jennifer Syme; the baby was stillborn. Almost two years later Syme died in a car accident in Los Angeles. To ask him about these things would seem merely cruel.) Later in the day Keanu notices the query GIRLFRIEND? scribbled on a page of my legal pad. He answers, politely and preemptively, like this: “No.” “No you don’t have a girlfriend or no you don’t want to get into it?” “No,” he says. “All of its implications.” There have been a number of celebrity pranks similar to this one. It was falsely reported that Richard Gere gave food and $100 to every homeless person in New York, and that Jennifer Anniston donated food and clothes to a homeless single mom who she met on the street. These hoaxes could be simply designed to draw a response from celebrities, or to make celebrities “look bad” when they debunk rumors about their over-the-top kindness. So, the inspirational open letter that appeared at Keanu Reeves Online covers actual events from the actor’s life, but it wasn’t actually written by Keanu Reeves. At this point, the letter’s actual author isn’t known. Comments Claim:  Keanu Reeves supposedly wrote an inspiring open letter about life and loss that has gone viral online. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: So far in the current season that began in the fall and will last into spring, 90 people in the state have been hospitalized with the flu and 1,287 people have tested positive, health officials said. The number is likely an underrepresentation of the number of people who have been infected, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The best way to avoid the flu is to get vaccinated and take other precautions to stay healthy, officials said. “Influenza is unpredictable and, in some cases, deadly,” said Maine CDC director Dr. Nirav D. Shah. “The most effective way to prevent the spread of influenza is to get vaccinated, and it’s not too late to get a flu shot.” In addition to getting vaccinated, health officials suggest a number of other steps to avoid getting sick including washing your hands, covering a cough and staying home when sick. Claim: Influenza now in all Maine counties; considered widespread.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release notes the cost of CT scans as if the blood test costs nothing. In reality, the blood test could cost more than the CT scan (plenty of blood tests already do) and the comparison drawn is meaningless. The release should have noted whether the blood test could be done in a standard lab or would require specialized techniques, which would affect cost, and how the 3-4 hour minimum timeframe to process the blood work would realistically impact the workflow in emergency department settings. We applaud the release for at least acknowledging cost concerns. “…availability of a blood test for mTBI/concussion will likely reduce the CT scans performed on patients with concussion each year, potentially saving our health care system the cost of often unnecessary neuroimaging tests.” But there’s no cost data given to back up that assertion. The release refers to a multi-center prospective study of 1,947 blood samples, but does not tell us the citation for publication of that study. The blood sample tests were able to “predict the presence of intracranial lesions on a CT scan 97.5 percent of the time and those who did not have intracranial lesions on a CT scan 99.6 percent of the time. These findings indicate that the test can reliably predict the absence of intracranial lesions.” The release claims that the blood testing will rule out the need for a CT scan in “at least one-third of patients who are suspected of having mTBI.” This is the main purported benefit, along with reducing costs. The Brain Trauma Indicator was able to predict the presence of intracranial lesions on a CT scan 97.5% of the time and those who did not have intracranial lesions on a CT scan 99.6% of the time. These findings suggest that the test can reliably predict the absence of intracranial lesions and that health care professionals can incorporate this tool into the standard of care for patients to rule out the need for a CT scan in at least one-third of patients who are suspected of having mTBI. The release does not mention harms. In any screening test, there is always the harm of missing an injury that exists or finding a false positive that leads to unnecessary and sometime costly followup tests and treatments. The release does a good job describing the results of a multi-center prospective clinical study of 1,947 individual blood samples from adults with suspected mTBI/concussion and reviewed the product’s performance by comparing mTBI/concussion blood tests results with CT scan results. But it missed an opportunity to share the trial results in a transparent fashion. The “study” appears to draw on data that was already available from a clinical trial. That isn’t the same as conducting a randomized clinical trial on the blood test, and that’s not explained in the news release. There’s no mention of the name of the trial or where it had been published. A glowing quote from the FDA commissioner is no substitute for peer-reviewed trial results. There’s no explanation for how the FDA arrived at the assessment that the test could “rule out” CT scans in a third of suspected concussion cases, which is the main purported benefit of this test. There is no outward disease-mongering but the information about deaths from TBI seemed a bit over-the-top since the population targeted by this test have potential mild TBI which would be unlikely to kill. The release doesn’t name study funders. The release explains very well the typical ways that a brain injury is evaluated in an emergency department. It compares these blood tests with the existing standard, a CT scan. The release announces that the test is “approved” for use, so we assume it will be widely available. It also quotes an official who says the test “can be used both in the continental U.S. as well as foreign U.S. laboratories that service the American military.” The FDA states that the blood test is a first of its kind to be approved for marketing. We did not identify any unjustifiable language. The purpose of the test is somewhat mis-characterized, though, as a test for evaluating mild TBI, when in reality it is designed to diagnose intracranial lesions or structural brain damage. Claim: FDA authorizes marketing of first blood test to aid in the evaluation of concussion in adults",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In September 2019, a Reddit r/todayilearned post claimed that luxury watch manufacturer Rolex maintained such “meticulous” sales records that their data was used to solve an open homicide:TIL of The Rolex Murder. On July 28, 1996, a man’s body washed up on a trawler in the UK seas. There was no identification on the body except a 25-year-old Rolex Oyster on his wrist. As Rolex maintains such meticulous service records, they were able to ID the victim and ultimately the murderer. from todayilearnedReddit’s r/todayilearned (usually abbreviated “TIL“) is a subreddit for users to share interesting facts and stories, and the Rolex murder story was highly upvoted. On October 4 2019, the story was reposted in a visual format to Reddit’s image-hosting sister-site Imgur (titled “Timely findings”):Timely findingsA meme with the header “Diply FACTS!! !” featured an image of a blue-faced Rolex (“not the actual image”) and text at the bottom:On July 28, 1996, a man’s body washed up on a trawler in the UK seas. There was no identification on the body except a 25-year-old Rolex Oyster on his wrist. As Rolex maintains such meticulous service records, they were able to ID the victim and ultimately the murderer.The “Diply Facts” page shared the image to their Facebook page on October 3 2019. It likely sourced its claim from the popular Reddit post several days earlier, but didn’t mark its source on the meme.As is often the case with r/todayilearned posts, the original poster selected the option to link to an article rather than appending a text-based summary of the post. They shared an article from which the description of Rolex’s “meticulous records” was apparently sourced:On July 28, 1996, a man’s body was found in the net of the Brixham trawler Malkerry six miles off Teignmouth.Detectives found nothing on the body to indicate who the drowned man was. Their only clue was a 25-year-old Rolex Oyster watch which was still attached to his right wrist.Six weeks later, after researching Rolex’s meticulous service records, officers established that the victim was 51-year-old former soldier Ronald Platt.The serial number and service documents showed the timepiece had twice been taken by Mr Platt to a firm of Harrogate jewellers in the 1980s.In its original format on Reddit, the post’s title adequately and accurately summarized the initial details of the story. The body of Ronald Platt was located by a British trawler on July 28 1996, and UK police used the watch’s serial number as a means of identifying the victim. British news organizations reported that “fugitive Canadian businessman Albert Walker” was convicted of Walker’s murder in 1998, and described a complicated series of events which began when Walker fled his native Canada.According to the September 2017 article (which was updated in September 2019), Walker first influenced Platt and Platt’s partner to relocate to Canada. But Platt moved back to England in 1995, disrupting Walker’s efforts to remain undetected:Just weeks before the Canadian authorities began investigating the alleged theft of nearly $4 million Canadian from his financial services business, Walker had fled across the Atlantic to London with his 15-year-old daughter in December 1990 … [After stealing the identity of another man, Walker] he befriended mild-mannered TV repairman Ronald Platt and his 39-year-old girlfriend Elaine Boyes in Harrogate where the couple unknowingly played a part in extending Walker’s web of deceit and lies.Walker used them as a front for a bogus company operation, with accounts in Switzerland, to launder cash to further his stay in Britain.When [Platt and Boyes] had served their purpose, Walker paid for them to start a new life in Canada – a country Mr Platt loved after living there in his youth – and assumed his second false identity. But when a disillusioned and jobless Mr Platt returned to Britain in 1995 he became a threat to Walker’s security and freedom.Coverage of Walker’s murder trial in 1998 described how police used Rolex service records to identify Platt and led them to Walker:Mr Platt was only identified through a Rolex Oyster watch on his wrist which bore a reference number that allowed Devon police to trace its owner: the real Ronald Platt, and subsequently his family.“The irony is that the watch was one of his proudest possessions and never left his wrist,” said Mr Barton, who added: “The person who put him on the sea-bed left it with him.”Albert Walker is the subject of pages on both Wikipedia and Murderpedia, a Wiki for “true crime” buffs; Platt’s murder was the subject of other true-crime writing. Under the heading “Murder and conviction” on Walker’s Wikipedia page, the role of his Rolex watch in the investigation is described at length. Time elapsed between Platt’s death was described in a slightly different time frame, stating the body was found “two weeks” after the murder:Walker took Platt out on a fishing trip 20 July 1996 where he murdered him, weighed him down with an anchor, and dumped his body in the sea. Two weeks later the body was discovered in the English Channel by fisherman John Copik with a Rolex wristwatch being the only identifiable object on the body. Since the Rolex movement had a serial number and was engraved with special markings every time it was serviced, British police traced the service records from Rolex. Ronald Joseph Platt was identified as the owner of the watch and the victim of the murder. In addition British police were able to determine the date of death by examining the date on the watch calendar and since the Rolex movement had a reserve of two to three days of operation when inactive and it was fully waterproof, they were able to determine the time of death within a small margin of error. Walker was apprehended shortly thereafter.The role Rolex service records played in solving the 1996 murder was also mentioned on the brand’s Wikipedia page. A source cited for the claim on Walker’s page said that the murder occurred on July 20 1996, and Platt’s body was recovered eight days later, not two weeks:The fugitive Canadian [Walker], who was number 4 on Interpol’s wanted list and feared his cover would be blown, lured Platt to Devon in southwest England on the pretext of helping him sail his boat, the Lady Jane, to Essex. Once aboard, Walker knocked Platt unconscious, tied a 4.5-kg anchor to his belt and tossed him overboard. Eight days later, a commercial fisherman scooped up the body and the anchor in a net about 10 km offshore. Police initially thought the victim had committed suicide. But after establishing Platt’s identity through the Rolex watch on his wrist, and discovering that someone else was living under his name, Devon police launched a murder investigation.Although Rolex service records provided information critical to the investigation, additional forensic and forensic accounting work enabled UK police to solve Platt’s murder. Detective Superintendent Phil Sincock headed the investigation, and he described other case elements during 2019 media interviews:“There was one bit of luck in terms of the Essex policeman going to the wrong door, but other than that it was down to painstaking police work and some new ground-breaking scientific inquiries which was why they had me over to Canada talking about them,” [Sincock] said as another film about the story was released.“We seized a whole van load of documentation from Walker’s house and among it all was a two-inch square sales receipt which showed that he had purchased on a Barclaycard an anchor … We proved that his yacht was at sea at the material time. For the first time in any case, we took the yacht’s GPS navigation system back to its manufacturers and they were able to plot co-ordinates which gave us the time and date it had been switched off and proved it had been very near to where Mr Platt’s body had been found.“Tests on the Rolex watch established it would have taken 44 hours to wind down. The watch stopped on June 22, which meant that he had died on June 20. From the GPS we could put Walker’s boat in the area on June 20.“Inside the cabin were some cushions on which we found some head hairs. DNA tests proved that they were from the deceased man. And forensic tests found zinc traces from the anchor on Mr Platt’s belt and traces of leather on the anchor.”In 2005, Walker’s daughter — who he presented as his wife during his time in England — spoke to Canadian news organizations about her father’s transfer from the UK to Canada as well as her fears for her family’s safety. As of 2013, Walker was alive and incarcerated in British Columbia.As presented on Reddit and Imgur, claims about the Rolex murder investigation and the involvement of the brand’s “meticulous records” was broadly accurate. Walker’s arrest was initially reported as resulting from police reliance on Rolex service records. In actuality, however, additional Rolex-related data involving its “wind-down” function also played a part, as did then-novel use of global positioning satellites and DNA testing on hairs found at the crime scene. But according to initial reports, Platt’s identity was indeed established via his Rolex Oyster watch. Claim: Rolex sales records are so well-kept that they were used to solve an open homicide.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Pope Francis gave a papal honor to a pro-abortion activist Lilianne Ploumen. But the Vatican said it was given as a “diplomatic practice” and not as an endorsement of her views. BNR Newsradio, an all-news station in the Netherlands, posted a short video of Lilianne Ploumen posing with the Pontifical Medal on December 22, 2017. The video went largely unnoticed at the time. That changed, however, with a Media Research Center report that appeared on January 22. The story appeared under the headline “Pope Francis Awards Pro-Abortion Extremist Lilianne Ploumen with Pontifical Honor.” [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMWNXAch5eM[/embedyt] The video shows Ploumen posing with the Commander in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great medal. The recognition has two divisions, civil and military. It’s frequently given to heads of state who meet with the Pope. Ploumen serves as the minister of foreign trade and development in the Netherlands. She launched a pro-choice NGO called “She Decides” in 2017. The group aims to counter an executive order issued by President Trump that bars U.S. aid to organizations that discuss abortion as a family planning option with their clients. In an interview with the Catholic Herald on January 15,  Ploumen said, “I assume I have been granted the pontifical medal in the context of the Dutch state visit to the Vatican in June 2017. I was part of the delegation in my capacity at that time as minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands.” The Holy See Press Office confirmed that Ploumen had been given the honor as a “diplomatic practice” for heads of state in a statement to the National Catholic Register that same day: “The honor of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great received by Mrs. Lilianne Ploumen, former Minister of Development, in June 2017 during the visit of the Dutch Royals to the Holy Father, responds to the diplomatic practice of the exchange of honors between delegations on the occasion of official visits by Heads of State or Government in the Vatican. Therefore, it is not in the slightest a placet [an expression of assent] to the politics in favor of abortion and of birth control that Mrs Ploumen promotes.” So, wile it’s true that Lilliane Ploumen received a papal honor. But the Vatican maintains that it was given as a diplomatic practice, and wasn’t an endorsement of her views on abortion. Comments Claim:  Pope Francis bestowed the Pontifical Medal upon Lilianne Ploumen, a Dutch pro-abortion activist. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Health officials believe the bacteria originated with an international student and spread to at least seven others. The majority are MSU students or former students. About 700 people who may have interacted with them, such as roommates and significant others, have been contacted. And, of those, health officials identified another 30 individuals who have tested positive for TB, but didn’t have any symptoms. TB is caused by a bacterial infection and usually affects the lungs, though the bones, spine or other organs can also be infected. Claim: Tuberculosis outbreak associated with Mankato university.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the months leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that mail-in voting, a method of voting that became increasingly popular and necessary due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, would lead to widespread voter fraud. Trump made these claims despite the fact that the United States has been voting by mail since the Civil War in the 1860s; that Trump himself has cast mail-in ballots in several elections; and that relatively few criminal convictions related to absentee-ballot fraud are documented, especially when compared to the overall number of votes cast. On July 30, 2020, actress Mia Farrow brought attention to the latter point in a tweet claiming the U.S. had only 143 cases of absentee-ballot fraud over the last 20 years:  This claim is largely accurate. Farrow referred to a database of voter-fraud cases compiled by the the Heritage Foundation, an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., that appears to have notable influence on the Trump administration’s policies. This database catalogs various types of election fraud, such as altering vote counts, buying votes, and duplicate voting — adding up to a total of “1,290 proven instances of voter fraud” (in more than 30 years), according to the site’s own summary. Farrow’s tweet focused on just one category in the database: instances of “fraudulent use of absentee ballots.”  This database does not have separate categories for “mail-in” votes and “absentee” votes. Some have argued that these are two distinct methods of voting, but no practical difference exists between these two terms. It should also be noted that while some have turned voter fraud into a partisan issue, the Heritage Foundation’s database includes fraudulent attempts that would have benefited candidates from any party. Farrow’s claim that the U.S. had 143 criminal convictions for “fraudulent use of absentee ballots” over the last 20 years is generally accurate. However, when we perused the database, we only found 136 listings under this category during this time frame. The discrepancy is likely due to entries being added or deleted from this database since it was originally published. As of this writing, the Heritage Foundation lists 145 criminal convictions for absentee-ballot fraud dating back 32 years to 1988. While the White House has used this database to show that that absentee-ballot fraud has truly occurred, others have used the statistics to argue that this problem is not at all widespread. Ellen Weintraub, the commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), highlighted this statistic in a 66-tweet thread about Trump’s misleading claims on voter fraud:  While the Heritage Foundation has documented approximately 140 criminal convictions of absentee-ballot fraud over the last 20 years, calculating this as a percentage of the total number of ballots cast is difficult for a number of reasons. For starters, the Heritage Foundation’s list is not exhaustive. The foundation writes: This database is not an exhaustive or comprehensive list. It does not capture all cases and certainly does not capture reported instances that are not investigated or prosecuted. It is intended to demonstrate the vulnerabilities in the election system and the many ways in which fraud is committed. Although this database may not include every conviction for voter fraud, it does use a misleadingly large sample set in one way: The numbers are often used to argue about the prevalence of voter fraud in a presidential race, but the vast majority of examples in this category are not about presidential-election fraud but are related to local and state elections, such as races for school board officials and local city council positions. We looked over the database for listings related to the two main presidential candidates over the last 20 years (George W. Bush v. Al Gore in 2000; George W. Bush v. John Kerry in 2004; Barack Obama v. John McCain in 2008; Barack Obama v. Mitt Romney in 2012; and Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton in 2016), and we found only four listed criminal convictions related to absentee-ballot fraud. One instance involved a person voting for the Democratic candidate (Kerry in 2004), while the other three involved people voting for the Republican presidential candidate (Romney in 2012 and Trump twice in 2016). Here are the Heritage Foundation’s listings related to presidential elections (emphasis ours): Kimberly Prude, a campaign volunteer for the Kerry_Edwards campaign, was convicted of illegally casting an absentee ballot in the 2004 election. She was already a convicted felon for forgery charges in 2000. Her probation was revoked and she is now serving her sentence in prison. When her husband passed away, Verna Roehm decided to honor his last request–to vote for Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. Months after his death, Mrs. Roehm filled out and submitted an absentee ballot in her husband’s name. The illegal vote was caught after the election during an audit by election officials; when confronted about the irregularity, Mrs. Roehm admitted to casting the vote. Recognizing the unusual circumstances of the case, the judge convicted Roehm of a misdemeanor rather than a felony. She received no jail time. Terri Lynn Rote attempted to vote twice in the 2016 presidential election. Rote cited fears that the election was rigged to justify her attempt to cast two absentee votes for Donald Trump. Rote was arrested attempting to cast the second ballot. She pleaded guilty to a felony charge of election misconduct, and was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $750 fine. Audrey Cook, a Madison County election judge, sent in a ballot marked for Donald Trump in the 2016 election on behalf of her recently deceased husband. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted violation of the election code in exchange for dropping a felony perjury charge. As illustrated in the examples above, these listings also vary in severity. All of the aforementioned listings involve a single extra ballot, but the database does include more serious examples, such as persons who attempted to pass off fraudulent signatures. Given that this database is not exhaustive, includes examples involving single fraudulent ballots and multiple fraudulent ballots, and includes not just presidential elections but any local or state election, it’s practically impossible to calculate the percentage of votes represented by fraudulent ballots. Anyway you count it, however, the .0006% cited by Farrow overstates the commonality of voter fraud. First off, Farrow appears to have misplaced a decimal. Weintraub’s tweet states .00006% (not .0006%), which appears to have been culled from an article published in The Hill: Claim: The U.S. has had 143 criminal convictions for absentee-ballot fraud (or .0006% of the total vote) over the past 20 years. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not discussed. Since the drug of interest—MDMA—is banned in the US as a Schedule 1 substance, cost estimates may be unreliable. But that doesn’t make some mention of cost irrelevant here. And since the drug is given along with intensive therapy, that cost also could have been discussed. The story briefly describes the results of one clinical trial, which found that slightly more than half of the 107 participants reported major reductions in PTSD symptoms. But this isn’t enough to understand the benefits. The story explained this but could have emphasized it more: The drug is proposed for use as part of an intensive therapy program, with doses of it given just a few times and with professional supervision–and not daily or chronically, as many drugs for psychiatric conditions are administered. Harms do get acknowledged, albeit rather low in the story. The story identifies existing studies as “clinical trials” but offers little explanation of what that means. More emphasis on the nature and quality of evidence would be an important addition here. We don’t know if they are randomized or controlled, nor peer reviewed, nor what the limitations are, etc. Recent and ongoing military conflicts overseas have dramatically increased the numbers of PTSD sufferers returning to the U.S., and, one independent source notes, existing drug treatments fail two thirds of those patients. One interesting thing to note on measuring how common it is: For U.S. soldiers, those with PTSD in our military get disability payments for the rest of their lives. Rates of PTSD are much less frequent in ex-British soldiers who served in the same places, and they don’t have the generous compensation system we do. We rate this a just-passing “Satisfactory.” The story could have been more overt about the funding support of an organization dedicated to ending the US government’s ban on psychedelics. A careful read of the text will allow the reader to infer that the group—the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS—is funding the clinical trials on which an FDA assessment of MDMA’s efficacy will be based. But a more overt description of that causal chain would have been helpful, as MAPS has a clear agenda. Sources and their relationship (or lack thereof) to MAPS are clearly delineated, and the story does offer contrasting views on the safety of MDMA. But it will be hard for the reader to determine where the bulk of experts sits on this issue. Drugs such as Zoloft and Paxil are mentioned, along with more traditional talk therapy. All are deemed seriously flawed. This is sufficient, but more could have been said about cognitive and exposure treatments, too. The text is clear that the FDA has not yet approved the use of MDMA and that large-scale clinical trials must be conducted before a federal evaluation will take place. But the street version of the substance, called Ecstasy, is, of course, widespread. The story cautions that the street drug often contains harmful contaminants so should not be used in place of MDMA, but one wonders how hard it may be for someone desperate for a way to moderate PTSD symptoms to wait. Small clinical studies of the impact of MDMA on PTSD sufferers have been under way for a number of years, and journalists have been writing about that possible link along the way. The hook for this story is really the recent FDA classification of MDMA as a “breakthrough therapy,” which puts it on a faster track for review (and often a lower bar of evidence is required). This appears to be an intensively reported enterprise story that goes well beyond a MAPS news release. Claim: Ecstasy could be ‘breakthrough’ therapy for soldiers, others suffering from PTSD",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs are not mentioned. Our research indicates that 5 suppository treatments cost ~$119. A liquid formula that is taken as a few drop 3 times a day cost ~$46 for 100 mL. Costs are particularly important in unconventional therapies as they are largely out of pocket expenses. The story appropriately addresses the issue of benefits. Benefits are anecdotal and reported by parents. No credible, evidence-based benefits have been seen as noted in the story. This story correctly notes that chelation poses significant harms including depletion of essential minerals and death. The story is clear that there is very little evidence, if any, to support the use of chelators to treat autism spectrum disorder. As noted in the story, a review of scientific studies conducted by the Institute of Medicine has failed to show a link between between a vaccine containing a mercury based preservative, thimerosal, and autism spectrum disorder. The story also indicates that a controversial research study designed to test the potential use of chelation in children with autism spectrum disorder was canceled based upon the death of a child undergoing chelation and harmful effects on cognitive function seen with animal testing. This story highlights disease-mongering surrounding the unfounded and potentially dangerous use of chelators to treat or ‘cure’ autism spectrum disorder in children. The story provides information through interviews of several medical experts. All of the experts interviewed noted the lack of evidence and potential harms; however, their opinions are shared by the majority of the scientific community. The only approved drug, resperidone, could have been mentioned in the story. In addition, a variety of behavioral interventions are felt to be \"best practice\" for managing some of the manifestations of autism. This story correctly indicates that chelators are available in several forms including creams, capsules, suppositories and intravenous infusions of drugs. Chelation is thought to be used by thousands of parents on their children with autism spectrum disorder. The use of chelation to treat autism spectrum disorder is not new. Appropriately, the story does not try to imply that this is new, or that its use in autism is new. This story does not rely on a press release. Claim: Chelation based on faulty premise",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The first death came in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Jan. 9. It took 83 days for the first 50,000 deaths to be recorded and just eight more for the toll to climb to 100,000. It took another eight days to go from 100,000 to 150,000. The death toll is still far short of the so-called Spanish flu, which began in 1918 and is estimated to have killed more than 20 million people by the time it petered out in 1920. The novel coronavirus is believed to have emerged in a Wuhan market where wild animals were sold before quickly spreading around the world. Much remains to be determined about it, scientists say, including just how lethal it is. In many countries, official data includes only deaths reported in hospitals, not those in homes or nursing homes. The United States has recorded the most confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, with more than 680,000 detected infections. Spain is in second place with around 188,000 cases, followed by Italy. (Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7) Claim: Global coronavirus death toll hits 150,000: Reuters tally.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A total solar eclipse will be visible across swaths of North America on 21 August 2017, the first of its kind since 1974:  Was the eclipse calculated for the wrong year? One extremely bogus claim is that the date was miscalculated by one year because NASA failed to “carry the one”. NASA astrophysicist C. Alex Young says that is a popular hoax: I know people have checked their numbers more than once. I’ve heard that one — that’s a good one. Young, an associate director at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, will host a live online broadcast tracking the eclipse across the U.S. (We should note that watching the livestream on a laptop or desktop computer will not cause eye damage.) Around 10 million people, he said, reside along “path to totality,” with more traveling to areas where it will be visible. According to NASA: The path of totality is a relatively thin ribbon, around 70 miles wide, that will cross the U.S. from West to East. The first point of contact will be at Lincoln Beach, Oregon at 9:05 a.m. PDT. Totality begins there at 10:16 a.m. PDT. Over the next hour and a half, it will cross through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. The total eclipse will end near Charleston, South Carolina at 2:48 p.m. EDT. From there the lunar shadow leaves the United States at 4:09 EDT. Its longest duration will be near Carbondale, Illinois, where the sun will be completely covered for two minutes and 40 seconds. The number of people who will be able to witness the eclipse, Young said, has fueled the interest in this particular event, as well as the connectivity and access that will allow more to follow it: So many people have access to what’s happening but also, everyone in the United States — all of North America — are gonna experience at least a partial eclipse. So many people have access to this online but will get to experience this in some sort or another. There hasn’t been anything that broad-reaching ever in terms of astronomical events like this. It really is unprecedented. Are eclipses harmful to your health? Only if you look directly at the sun before or after totality without the appropriate protective glasses. An eclipse is nothing more or less than the moon passing between the sun and the earth, casting a large shadow over the earth as the moon blocks the sun’s light. This allows the solar corona, which is luminous electromagnetic radiation that is always present but normally too faint to see, to be briefly visible in the form of a ghostly (sometimes green) light. It does not bring any new radiation into the planet’s atmosphere, and thus cannot spoil or poison food, affect a developing fetus, or accurately foretell any impending disaster. And no, eclipses don’t send expectant mothers into labor. Are eclipse glasses worthless? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration partnered with the American Astronomical Society to release a list of vendors and retail chains who are selling glasses that meet the 12312-2 international safety standard. Young told us that welder glasses can also be used, so long as they meet the same standard. Both groups have also released guides for watching the eclipse with either a pinhole camera or through optical projection (which can be done by using binoculars or a telescope, though at risk of damaging each device). Using regular sunglasses, however, would be worthless for the occasion — and even potentially harmful, said the agencies: While you’re enjoying a “comfortable” view of the “dim” Sun, solar infrared radiation could be cooking your retinas. And you wouldn’t know till later, because your retinas don’t have pain receptors. Only after the eclipse, when you notice blind spots or other vision problems, would you realize you’d made a catastrophic mistake. The same is true of ordinary camera filters, old X-rays, mobile phone camera lenses, and smoked glass; viewing the eclipse through them will offer no protection to your eyes, although you can take photographs of the eclipse with a camera or a cell phone — with a proper filter attached. However, even if you ordered the proper glasses, it’s important to keep in mind that not all eclipse viewing glasses are equal. On 12 August 2017, less than two weeks before the eclipse, retail giant Amazon issued a recall for certain counterfeit viewing glasses. They offered full refunds, but left people scrambling for eye safety. The move created a secondary panic when legitimate and verified eclipse viewing glasses were caught up in the recall as well: “Safety is among our highest priorities. Out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively reached out to customers and provided refunds for eclipse glasses that may not comply with industry standards. We want customers to buy with confidence anytime they make a purchase on Amazon.com and eclipse glasses sold on Amazon.com are required to comply with the relevant ISO standard,” the company said in a statement. Amazon said customers who did not receive an email purchased glasses that were safe to use. The company did not reveal how many glasses were recalled or how much money was refunded. Anyone who is concerned about their eclipse glasses but did not receive an email about the recall can reach out to Amazon customer service. Viewers don’t need to have one black side and one reflective side in order to be effective, despite what you may have heard, but special solar filters are essential to look at the event directly (until full totality) without frying your eyes. In their absence, or in the absence of an appropriately darkened welding filter (Shade 12 or above) optical projection or a homemade pinhole camera is the safest choice. Do eclipse glasses expire? NASA said that anyone who bought one of the recommended sets of glasses can use them indefinitely as long as they are not damaged: If your eclipse glasses or viewers are compliant with the ISO 12312-2 safety standard, you may look at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed Sun through them for as long as you wish. Furthermore, if the filters aren’t scratched, punctured, or torn, you may reuse them indefinitely. Some glasses/viewers are printed with warnings stating that you shouldn’t look through them for more than 3 minutes at a time and that you should discard them if they are more than 3 years old. Such warnings are outdated and do not apply to eclipse viewers compliant with the ISO 12312-2 standard adopted in 2015. Can you watch the eclipse through your phone’s “selfie” mode? You can view the eclipse through your phone’s “selfie” mode so that you can watch it on your screen. That will spare your eyes, but be sure to make certain it won’t burn your phone’s photoreceptors; for example, Apple says iPhones and iPads are safe to point at the sun because the lens is so wide, meaning that the full force of the light the sun emits is relatively dim, but if you use a telephoto clip-on lens or something else to magnify the sun and its light, a filter is probably a good idea. Are pets in danger of eye damage if they are outside during the eclipse? While humans need to take precautions to guard their eyes, the consensus among experts is that pets are in no immediate danger. Author and veterinarian Dr. Jessica Vogelsang explained to us: It’s hard for me to criticize such a well-meaning warning, because there’s really no harm in following the advice to keep pets inside during the eclipse. It’s better to be too cautious than not cautious enough. But in the interest of offering a realistic risk assessment, the likelihood of a pet ruining their eyes the same way a human would during an eclipse is much lower- not because the damage would be any less were they to stare at the sun, but because from a behavior standpoint dogs and cats just don’t have any interest in doing so. We tend to extrapolate a lot of things from people to pets that just doesn’t bear out, and this is one of them. I’ve seen lots of warnings from the astronomy community and the human medical community about the theoretical dangers of pets and eclipses, but I’m not sure if any of them really know animal behavior all that well. It’s not like there’s a big outcry from the wildlife community to go chase down coyotes and hawks and bears and give them goggles either. While we in the veterinary community absolutely appreciate people being concerned about their pets’ well-being, this is a non-issue for us. Pet owners unsure of how their pet would react to the eclipse, she said, should keep them inside since “if nothing else they’ll avoid the chaos outside from all the partygoers.” Angela Speck, a co-chair of the AAS National Solar Eclipse Task Force, had the same advice for pet owners in a video NASA released on 21 June 2017: It’s no different than any other day. On a normal day, your pets don’t try to look at the sun and therefore don’t damage their eyes, so on this day they’re not gonna do it either. It is not a concern, letting them outside. All that’s happened is we’ve blocked out the sun, it’s not more dangerous. So I think that people who have pets want to think about that. I’m not going to worry about my cat. Young added, “The reality is that animals are smart enough not to look at the sun, even the partially eclipsed sun.” He did note, however, evidence that other animals such as whales and dolphins have observed eclipses once they begin, before avoiding the sun once they concluded. Will the eclipse cause earthquakes and damage infrastructure? Young refuted the notion that the eclipse would be responsible for any tremors or infrastructure damage, though he anticipated traffic increases for people coming or going from eclipse-centered gatherings, as well as a possible shortage of other necessities: I’ve been hearing reports that pretty much all the suppliers of porta potties have been completely tapped out and everything’s rented. I suspect there will a lot of people buying water and food so that’s gonna bring up the numbers quite a lot. There’s even a concern that it might become difficult to get gasoline. I don’t have any hard numbers, but it’s very possible that it could be an issue. For those outside the path of totality or who wish to spare their retinas, the eclipse can be viewed online at multiple web sites. Do revised maps show inexplicable deviations from the eclipse’s totality path? There have been no revisions to NASA’s map of where the solar eclipse can be viewed, nor are there any reported irregularities or strange deviations from the path of the shadow:  An interactive map can be viewed here. (As you can see, there are no strange jogs or veers.) Conspiracy theorists have also claimed that the eclipse would foreshadow the end of the world, or the appearance of Nibiru a fabricated “renegade planet” people have also said would destroy the Earth. Will NASA launch bacteria-filled balloons during the eclipse? Yes, kind of. More than fifty high-altitude balloons will be released across the United States for the Eclipse Ballooning Project, which is led by Montana State University’s Angela Des Jardins. The balloons will live-stream the event from high altitudes: Students will conduct high altitude balloon (HAB) flights from around 25 locations across the 8/21/2017 total eclipse path, from Oregon to South Carolina, sending live video and images from near space to the NASA website. While the cost of conducting HAB flights is low, there are  interesting challenges presented by this highly collaborative effort. These challenges are broad – technical, political, administrative – and present an amazing hands-on learning opportunity for the students who participate. Several potentially long lasting partnerships with other federal agencies and with industry will develop. Several partnerships, including with ATA Aerospace, which conducted the Red Bull Stratos flight, are already in progress. In addition to the primary camera payloads that students will build to provide footage of the moon’s shadow on Earth and the darkened sun, each team will fly a secondary payload of their choice. Links to information and pictures about each team’s secondary payload will be included online. In a second effort in collaboration with NOAA, dozens radiosonde balloons will be flown to gather important science data on eclipse stratospheric temperature and ozone fluctuations. Some of the balloons will carry metal tags coated with a type of bacteria called Paenibacillus xerothermodurans, which is an especially hardy life form found in the soil outside the Kennedy Space Center in 1973 and isolated in NASA clean rooms, so that their resilience in the upper layers of the atmosphere can be tested when the balloons return to the ground. Because of the specific conditions in the stratosphere that are affected by the eclipse — low temperatures, lower oxygen levels, and high levels of ultraviolet radiation — the experiment will potentially offer inside into how bacteria might behave on Mars. Students will track the balloons using GPS tags, then and mail the tags back to NASA once they find them. (Despite rumors and speculation, the bacteria is not harmful to humans or the environment.) Are people selling tickets to view the eclipse? Yes. In some areas, observatories and event planners are offering tickets to specific viewing areas and festivals, particularly along the “totality path”. However, the eclipse will be above most of North America, so there is no need to buy a ticket unless you feel like paying to share the experience with like-minded strangers. Even if you do, though, most of the events appear to have sold out fairly quickly. Will a group of coal industry people be protesting the eclipse? A group of people purporting to be associated with the coal industry have put out a press release on 11 August 2017, saying that they plan to hold a protest in the western Kentucky town of Hopkinsville (which has temporarily rebranded itself as Eclipseville, or the “point of greatest eclipse”) in order to bring attention to how important their industry is, and how it has been mistreated by the “fake news” media:  Kentuckians for Coal is an ad-hoc coalition of miners, union officials, family members and coal users created to defend the Kentucky coal industry against encroachment from renewable energy industries and from economic development initiatives aimed at lessening America’s dependence on coal. Kentuckians for Coal stands against the eclipse and those who worship it. The protest is scheduled for high noon on Monday, August 21, 2017, in front of the offices of the Kentucky New Era newspaper at 1618 E. 9th Street, Hopkinsville, just as the eclipse begins. The “totality”–the complete blocking of the Sun by the Moon–will start at 1:24:39 and will last 2 minutes and 40 seconds. The protesters chose the New Era office location because the newspaper and other fake-news media have been over-hyping the eclipse because of its potential to boost local economic development, while ignoring the importance of the coal industry. The story has been picked up by news organizations and blogs as legitimate, but we have found several reasons to be tremendously skeptical. For example, the press release appears to have been written with tongue lodged firmly in cheek: Hopkinsville, with a population of 33,000, has two other great claims to fame. One is as the birthplace of the world-renowned psychic Edgar Cayce. He made his home in Hopkinsville, and died there in 1945, after predicting the date of his own death. The other is the notoriously pagan annual celebration of extra-terrestrials, which commemorates a terrifying landing by space aliens in 1955, 62 years ago to the day, known as the Little Green Men Festival. When more than 250,000 people descend on the town for four days in August, including busloads of Amish from Pennsylvania and rumored Arab royalty, hucksters will peddle overpriced souvenirs as area hotels jack up their room rates by 400%; gas stations run out of gas; and cell phone service crashes due to demand. Traffic jams, a run on available food, an invasion of prostitutes, and rowdy crowds will test the patience of both local residents and the extra law enforcement brought in to maintain order. In addition, there is the serious threat to spectators’ eyesight if they look at the sun without special eclipse-viewing glasses. Secondly, there appears to be no Joseph Calvin (no matter his rank) living in Hopkinsville, and no one has responded to a voice mail message we left at the number supplied in the release. Finally, as of 2015, there are no more union coal miners working anywhere in the state of Kentucky. Do personal electronics such as cellphones present a danger due to “cosmic rays,” “gamma rays,” or “cosmic gamma rays”? Among rumors spreading on social media about the solar eclipse were ones that involved the putative danger posed by cell phones on the day of the event: I heard something about comic rays and about not being able to use our phones during 12:30 p.m to 3:30 a.m However, the claim circulated for years prior to the eclipse and still made “no scientific sense whatsoever.” Does an eclipse happen only during the full moon, new moon, or doesn’t it matter? According to NASA, eclipses can take place during a new moon, under certain circumstances: Claim: We check an assortment of claims about the 2017 total solar eclipse over North America.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Italy has reported the most deaths in the world related to the coronavirus and doctors in the country report a dire situation amid an overwhelmed medical system. But we found no public record of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte saying of the situation \"we have lost control\" and \"God rescue your people,\" contrary to the claim of a Facebook post. \"We have lost control, we have killed the epidemic physically and mentally. Can’t understand what more we can do, all solutions are exhausted on ground. Our only hope remains up in the Sky, God rescue your people,\" said a Facebook post from March 22. The post includes emojis of crying faces and Italian flags along with a picture of a man with tears rolling down his face, a microphone near his lips. The post implies the picture is of the Italian prime minister crying. It is not. The man in the picture is Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro. The image is from December 2019 and was taken at an event unrelated to the coronavirus. It shows Bolsonaro crying when he spoke about being stabbed in 2018 during his election campaign, according to a Brazilian website, poder360.com. In a March 17 Twitter thread, Conte said the country has faced a thousand difficulties in the past, including world wars and a fascist regime, but has endured them with heads held high. Alluding to the coronavirus pandemic, he said the country was facing a new test and would defeat the invisible enemy. His tweets reflect a different tone than the message of defeat we see in the Facebook quote. We searched for the quote attributed to Conte using Nexis news archives and online search engines but found no reporting or government statement indicating he said it. We rate this ! Claim: Facebook post Says Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said, “We have lost control, we have killed the epidemic physically and mentally. Can’t understand what more we can do, all solutions are exhausted on ground. Our only hope remains up in the Sky, God rescue your people.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis issued statements saying they will vote against Michael L. Dourson to serve as head of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. Environmentalists and Senate Democrats have vehemently opposed Dourson, a toxicologist with close ties to the chemical industry. That means only one more Republican “no” vote would likely be needed to torpedo his nomination. The White House and EPA did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening. Despite his lack of Senate confirmation, Dourson has already been working at the agency as a senior adviser to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. The Associated Press reported in September that Dourson has for years accepted payments for criticizing studies that raised concerns about the safety of his clients’ products, according to a review of financial records and his published work. Past corporate clients of Dourson and of a research group he ran include Dow Chemical Co., Koch Industries Inc. and Chevron Corp. His research has also been underwritten by industry trade and lobbying groups representing the makers of plastics, pesticides, processed foods and cigarettes. Burr and Tillis, both of whom are considered reliably pro-business conservatives, cited Dourson’s past work and worries among their home-state constituents about tainted drinking water in opposing his nomination. “Over the last several weeks, Senator Tillis has done his due diligence in reviewing Mr. Dourson’s body of work,” said statement said. “Senator Tillis still has serious concerns about his record and cannot support his nomination.” Marine veterans and their families blame decades-old contamination of wells at a North Carolina base with solvents and dry-cleaning chemicals for infant deaths and serious health problems that include cancer. More recently, concerns have been raised about undisclosed discharges of chemicals used to manufacture Teflon and GoreTex into the Cape Fear River, a source of municipal drinking water for Wilmington and other southeastern North Carolina communities. Dourson worked at the EPA for more than a decade, leaving in 1994 as the manager at a lab that assessed the health risks of exposure to chemicals. The following year, he founded Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment, a private toxicity evaluation nonprofit organization that tests chemicals and produces reports on which chemicals are hazardous in what quantities. Dourson’s views toward industry are consistent with others Trump has selected as top federal regulators. Among them is EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who in March overruled the findings of his agency’s own scientists to reverse an effort to ban chlorpyrifos, one of the nation’s most widely used pesticides. Court records show Dourson and his work have often been called on when his corporate clients are seeking to fend off lawsuits. DuPont was accused of polluting a West Virginia town with Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, a chemical that the company’s internal tests had long ago concluded were toxic. Corporate officials discussed hiring Dourson as part of a strategy to defend themselves. Dourson led a team that found in 2002 that PFOA levels up to 150 parts per billion were safe, a level higher than was found in testing of 188 private wells and springs. That was also well above the 1 part per billion Dupont’s own scientists had concluded could be considered safe years before. The EPA now says that only 70 parts per trillion of PFOA are acceptable — or only 0.05 percent of what Dourson’s team said was safe. DuPont and a former subsidiary, Chemours Co., later paid $761 million to settle 3,550 lawsuits stemming from its use of the chemical. Chemours is the company whose spills of a chemical called GenX, a replacement for PFOA, are now at issue in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River. “I will not be supporting the nomination of Michael Dourson,” said Burr, the state’s senior senator. “With his record and our state’s history of contamination at Camp Lejeune as well as the current GenX water issues in Wilmington, I am not confident he is the best choice for our country.” The stand was quickly praised by environmental advocacy groups that rarely find common ground with the two Tarheel Republicans. “No one who has spent decades arguing on behalf of the chemical industry for weaker safety standards should be charged with reviewing chemicals for the EPA,” said Scott Faber, a senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. “It would be like putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department.” ___ Follow Associated Press environmental reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck Claim: GOP senators from NC come out against Trump EPA nominee.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 12 January 2018, Erin Elizabeth of Health Nut News posted what was, in essence, a regurgitation of a factual article from the Santa Barbara Independent discussing how virulent this year’s flu season is shaping up to be: Eight Santa Barbara County residents have died from the flu in the past two weeks alone. By contrast, only three residents died throughout last year’s entire flu season, which typically runs from October to April. All eight people were ages 65 or older. […] “Our numbers are in line with statewide numbers, and they’re definitely cause for concern,” [public health official Charity Dean said]. Dean attributed this year’s impact to a strain of flu — H3N2 — that’s particularly resistant to vaccination. According to the Center for Disease Control, vaccines have been effective at knocking this strain out only 32 percent of the time. But studies from Australia — where the flu season runs about six months ahead of the United States and Europe — indicates the vaccine’s effectiveness could be even more limited than that, only ten percent. In keeping with her website’s primary modus operandi, Elizabeth uses these tragic deaths to push her own flawed political argument. Her article (bearing the headline “8 Die of ‘Flu’ in 2 Weeks in Santa Barbara. 7 Had Their Flu Shot”) appears to cast doubt on the very existence of influenza, speciously repurposing the story as evidence that people shouldn’t get the flu vaccine: This year’s strain of flu, H3N2, has been knocking people out — hard. But you don’t need a flu shot that’s only 10 percent effective and comes with a host of potential problems. Instead, you need to take care of your body (I’m not a doctor and not trying to tell you what to do) by getting sunlight or taking Vitamin D, drink plenty of water, manage your stress level, and eat plenty of whole foods. Half-hearted disclaimer aside, Elizabeth attempts to make or allude to two medically dubious points while offering her own vitamin D-based treatment plan: The Flu Vaccine Is Ineffective, So Why Bother? The effectiveness of the flu vaccine, as well as the strains it covers, varies year to year depending on — among other things — how well researchers are able to predict which strains will be the most virulent each season. That selection is made each year primarily by the World Health Organization Global Influenza Surveillance Network (WHO GISN) in collaboration with research centers all around the world. How well matched their work is to the strains that become problematic each flu season is a primary driver of the vaccine’s effectiveness. As referenced by Elizabeth, data from Australia had suggested that the 2017-2018 influenza season’s most virulent strain was H3N2. The season’s flu shot did include that strain, however, so a mismatch is not likely the issue; according to an increasing body of research, the issue may be with the strain itself. H3N2 is more difficult to vaccinate against because it can mutate more rapidly during the vaccine production process and as a result, produce antibodies that do not actually impart immunity against the form of H3N2 to which humans are susceptible. In a 4 January 2018 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, scientists have suggested that this year’s prevalence of H3N2 could be related to this fact. Despite the variable effectiveness of annual flu shots — which have never claimed to provide 100 percent certainty of immunity against various strains of the flu — doctors and scientists (even the ones writing about its ineffectiveness against H3N2) still strongly recommend getting the shot. Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, argued in an 11 January 2018 New York Times piece that even an ineffective vaccine year can provide tangible benefits, save lives, and reduce hospital visits and deaths: Let’s say that this year’s flu vaccine is even worse than we think. Maybe the absolute risk reduction will be as low as 1 percentage point, making the [number of people needed to treat to get a result, a metric known as N.T.T.] 100. That’s still not that bad. Even at an N.N.T. of 100, for every 100 people who get a flu shot, one fewer will get the flu. That’s a pretty low N.N.T. compared with many other treatments that health experts recommend every day. Further, a […] review published in 2016 showed that the N.N.T. in children 6 years old or younger to prevent one flu case was just six — an astonishing payoff in medical terms. It has even been shown to be effective in preventing death in children from flu-related causes.The negatives of a flu shot are almost nonexistent, and significant side effects are very rare. Even in an ineffective year, the benefits greatly outweigh the harms. The Flu Vaccine Will Make You More Susceptible to the Flu and Other Viruses Next Year The flu vaccine has been the subject of a number of either completely or mostly incorrect claims made about its safety, which we have previously reviewed in detail. Here Elizabeth adds to that list with a new claim, made in the form of a link to a YouTube video featuring anti-vaccine activist, Natural News contributor and former nephrologist Suzanne Humphries in which she claims that “plenty” of medical literature demonstrates that a flu shot increases your risk of getting the flu or other respiratory diseases in following years. This is a stretch. One small-scale study published in 2012 found an increased risk of “virologically-confirmed non-influenza infections,” arguing that “being protected against influenza, [flu shot] recipients may lack temporary non-specific immunity that protected against other respiratory viruses.” No other studies have replicated this result (though many have tried), and a number of larger-scale studies have, in fact, found no evidence that this is the case. Elizabeth’s effort to turn the tragic deaths of eight senior citizens from the flu into an argument against influenza inoculation rests only on the premise that there is a significant risk to getting the flu shot in the first place. She has provided no credible evidence to support that claim because no credible evidence exists. Instead, she uses the testimony of someone who once provided a biblical rationale for avoiding vaccines to make her argument. Claim: The death from influenza of eight mostly vaccinated people over 65 in California's Santa Barbara County during the 2017-2018 flu season proves that you shouldn’t get the flu shot.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Donald Trump, who led a years-long movement to prove President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and thus ineligible to be president, abandoned that position in a speech in Washington Sept. 16, 2016. \"Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy,\" Trump said. \"I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.\" At PolitiFact, our Flip-O-Meter judges whether someone has been consistent on an issue. The rating is not making a value judgment. Indeed, voters often like politicians who are flexible and have the ability to compromise or adapt their positions to the wishes of constituents. Still, accusations of shifting positions are so common in politics that it is valuable to have us provide an analysis of a shift and rate the amount of change. Trump previously took credit for Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate and pledged to donate $5 million to charity if Obama released his passport records. \"A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book, he said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital,\" Trump said in 2012. \"His grandmother in Kenya said, 'Oh no, he was born in Kenya and I was there and I witnessed the birth.' Now, she's on tape and I think that tape's going to be produced fairly soon ...The grandmother in Kenya is on record saying he was born in Kenya,\" Trump said, incorrectly, in 2011. Trump made an identical false claim in a 2011 Today show interview: \"His grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya and she was there and witnessed the birth, okay?\" In 2015, he dodged a question of where Obama was born in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. When Cooper asked directly if Trump believed Obama was born in the United States, Trump responded, \"I don't know.\" \"I really don't know. I mean, I don't know why he wouldn't release his records. But you know, honestly, I don't want to get in it,\" Trump said. \"I don’t talk about that anymore,\" Trump told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in December 2015. He said \"he didn’t want to answer the question.\" As recently as Sept. 15, 2016, Trump would not acknowledge Obama’s birthplace, declining to address the matter when asked by the Washington Post, according to the Associated Press. \"I’ll answer that question at the right time,\" Trump said. \"I just don’t want to answer it yet.\" He talked more about it on Sept. 16, 2016, switching his long-held position. Claim: On whether Barack Obama was born in the United States.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Facebook pages and groups are promoting misleading information about several states’ decisions to restrict access to a malaria drug that could be used to treat COVID-19. One post, published March 29 in a group called \"Keep America great Trump Pence 2020,\" claims that three Democratic governors have \"issued orders banning the prescription of hydroxychloroquine to patients with COVID-19.\" The post includes photos of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. \"For a drug deemed safe by doctors and has a history of safely treating malaria for the last 40-50 years,\" reads a caption on the post. \"So now ask yourself...who is the enemy.\" The photo collage also asserts that the governors are \"threatening the licenses of doctors and pharmacist(s).\" That’s similar to a claim made in a Facebook post published by Trending Politics, a conservative opinion website, on March 27. \"The Democrat Governor of Michigan along with other Democrat governors are THREATENING doctors who prescribe the promising drug Chloroquine to Coronavirus patients,\" reads text on an image of Whitmer. The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Collectively, they’ve been shared thousands of times. (Screenshot from Facebook) Since President Donald Trump said during a March 19 press briefing that chloroquine could potentially be used to treat COVID-19, several states have restricted access to the malaria drug to prevent stockpiling — including New York and Nevada. But neither of those orders bans the use of chloroquine outright, and Michigan has not taken formal action to restrict access to the drug. New York and Nevada have limited access to chloroquine since Trump’s March 19 press briefing. But neither of the actions comprise an outright ban on the drug. Take Nevada, for example. On March 24, Sisolak signed an emergency regulation that safeguards the supply of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which is sold under the brand name Plaquenil and as a generic. The order prohibits doctors in outpatient settings from prescribing and dispensing the drugs for COVID-19 treatment. It also limits prescriptions to 30-day supplies. \"While the two drugs serve necessary medical purposes, there is no conclusive evidence at this time among COVID-19 experts or Nevada’s own medical health advisory team that the drugs provide treatment for COVID-19 patients,\" Sisolak said during a press conference. \"The emergency regulation is aimed at preventing the hoarding of the drugs so those that actually need them can have access to them.\" As several news outlets have reported, physicians around the country have started to prescribe themselves chloroquine in order to hoard it for their families. That hoarding has led to drug shortages in some parts of the country, affecting patients who take chloroquine regularly to treat conditions like lupus and arthritis. Conservative organizations like Turning Point USA took Nevada’s order to mean Sisolak was banning any use of chloroquine for COVID-19 patients. But there is an exemption to the order. That’s similar to what the government has done in New York. On March 23, Cuomo signed an executive order restricting the prescription of chloroquine \"except when written as prescribed for an FDA-approved indication; or as part of a state approved clinical trial related to COVID-19 for a patient who has tested positive for COVID-19.\" The state has acquired more than 800,000 doses of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for clinical trials. And while the Food and Drug Administration has said there are no approved drugs to treat or prevent the coronavirus, the agency is investigating whether chloroquine \"can be used to treat patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 to potentially reduce the duration of symptoms.\" On March 28, the FDA signed an emergency authorization for the use of chloroquine to treat patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The day before that action, Cuomo amended his previous restrictions on the drug. The new rules allow health care providers to prescribe the drug for \"patients in inpatient settings and acute settings; for residents in a subacute part of a skilled nursing facility; or as part of an study approved by an Institutional Review Board.\" The change means that, similar to Nevada, doctors in New York can now prescribe chloroquine to COVID-19 patients in hospitals and emergency rooms, but not in outpatient settings. Bottom line: Neither Nevada nor New York currently bans the use of chloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. Michigan has taken no formal action to restrict access to chloroquine. Instead, it has asked prescribers to not stockpile the drug for friends and family. On March 24, the state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs sent a letter to \"licensed prescribers and dispensers\" about chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. It said that the department had received \"multiple allegations of Michigan physicians inappropriately prescribing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine to themselves, family, friends, and/or coworkers without a legitimate medical purpose.\" \"Prescribing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine without further proof of efficacy for treating COVID-19 or with the intent to stockpile the drug may create a shortage for patients with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or other ailments for which chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are proven treatments,\" the letter reads. \"Reports of this conduct will be evaluated and may be further investigated for administrative action.\" The letter did not outline any new regulatory action related to chloroquine. In a follow-up statement published March 27, the department said the purpose of the correspondence was \"to remind both prescribers and dispensers of their continued obligation to adhere to the standards of practice.\" No, chloroquine effectiveness only anecdotal On March 31, however, the state shifted course. It requested chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine from the Strategic National Stockpile based on the FDA emergency authorization for using the drug to treat severe cases of COVID-19. The Detroit News reported that several hospitals in the metro area are using chloroquine to treat hospitalized patients. In an op-ed, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey explained why the government included the \"administrative action\" wording in its original letter. \"We needed something to prevent chloroquine from becoming the next toilet paper,\" he told the Detroit News. \"I quickly requested of (Whitmer’s) staff that they put something out, and somehow in the translation it was prohibiting use of these drugs — and that wasn't the intent.\" A Facebook post claims the governors of Michigan, Nevada and New York have ordered banning the use of chloroquine for COVID-19 patients. Nevada and New York have restricted access to the malaria drug in an effort to limit stockpiling. Each state has exemptions for patients hospitalized with the coronavirus. Michigan has taken no additional regulatory action to restrict access to chloroquine; instead, it has asked prescribers to avoid giving the drug to potential stockpilers. The Facebook posts are inaccurate. We rate them . Claim: Facebook post Says the governors of Michigan, New York and Nevada “have issued orders banning the prescription of hydroxychloroquine to patients with COVID-19.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There’s no discussion of costs. It might be difficult to estimate the cost of a vaccine that hasn’t yet been tested in humans. However, the story could have pointed out that at least some researchers have begun to consider the financial impact of treatments that are in development to slow or delay Alzheimer’s. For example, British study released in March estimated that a hypothetical vaccine given to everyone over 50 that delayed the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years would yield a savings of about $9,000 in health, social care, and unpaid care costs over a person’s life. It estimated that the justified cost of such a vaccine, if it had to be given every two years, would be $1,175 per dose. However, those figures would drop to a lifetime savings of $2,200 and a justified cost of $293 per dose if the vaccine delayed onset of disease by just one year. The story gives no data to describe the differences in the buildup of amyloid in the brains of mice given the vaccine versus those not given it. A news release stated: “The latest study – consisting of four cohorts of between 15 and 24 mice each – shows the vaccine prompted a 40 percent reduction in beta-amyloid and up to a 50 percent reduction in tau, with no adverse immune response.” Also, the story doesn’t explain whether there’s any data behind these speculative comments about potential human benefits from a researcher: “If the onset of the disease could be delayed by even five years, that would be enormous for the patients and their families. … The number of dementia cases could drop by half.” The story states that the vaccine is “safe in mice” and alludes to the fact that it hasn’t been proven safe in humans. It also mentions “harmful side effects, such as brain inflammation” with a previous Alzheimer’s vaccine attempt. For that, we’ll give the story credit. But we think it could have better served readers by explicitly cautioning that safety in mice doesn’t translate to safety in humans. This is a significant weakness. The story did report that the study was in mice, but didn’t given much information beyond that about how the study was conducted. The vaccine was given to mice at risk for developing an amyloid deposit, while a similar control group didn’t get the vaccine. At 20 months, the amounts of amyloid buildup in the brains of the two groups were compared. It does not point out that many vaccines and drug therapies have been successful in mice and later were proven unsuccessful in people. The story also misses a key point: treatments that seek to limit build-up of harmful protein — which the story refers to as “promising” — have thus far not shown much benefit in humans. The story should have cautioned that it’s unclear a vaccine can actually prevent dementia, even if it safely limits protein growth. No disease-mongering here. The story has no independent sources. The authors asserted no conflicts in the published paper. The story says the vaccine is among “several promising treatments” aimed at reducing the buildup of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s. It could have also mentioned that another Alzheimer’s vaccine is undergoing clinical trials. It could have also mentioned current available medicines that have a very modest, short-term effect. Drugs called cholinesterase inhibitors have been approved by the FDA to lessen symptoms from Alzheimer’s, but none is curative. The story makes clear that the vaccine is not available and has not even begun clinical research in human patients. However, it would have been appropriate to give a sense of the time frame. Even if trials started in humans and the vaccine was shown to be safe and effective, it would be years before this became widely available. It’s clear that a vaccine would be a new approach to Alzheimer’s. This story barely goes beyond the contents of a UT Southwestern news release, which contains more guarded and accurate language than the story. Claim: Researcher: Alzheimer's vaccine could cut dementia in half, human trials may be next",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There’s no discussion of how much it costs to use midwives in Canada or who pays for their services. The release did note that all of the 57,872 women included in the study had received medical insurance premium assistance. In general, midwifery care is less costly than that provided by specialists in obstetrics and gynecology and general practitioners. The study looked at three specific pregnancy outcomes:  babies who were small for gestational age, had a low birth weight, or were delivered pre-term.The news release said low-income women who received prenatal care from a midwife had a 29% “lower odds” of a small-for-gestational age birth compared to women who received care from a general practitioner and a 41% “reduction in odds” compared with women who used an obstetrician. This was insufficient for two reasons. First, it didn’t provide absolute numbers that would give readers an idea of the size of the difference. According to the study, 7.09% of all births were small-for-gestational age births. Of those who used midwives, 4.83% had small-for-gestational age births, compared with 7.06% of women who used general practitioners and 8.59% of women who used obstetricians. Second, the news release did not give any figures about the study’s findings that women who used midwives were less likely to go into early labor or to have a low birth weight baby. Potential harms of midwifery care could include risks both for the health of the baby, as well as the health of the mother. Maternal health outcomes are not addressed in the study, and not mentioned in the release. The news release didn’t say anything about the limitations of observational data, which is what this study was based on. In an observational study, researchers can’t know if they’ve adjusted the data to account for all variables that might have led to differences in outcomes among the three groups. In this study, the authors reported having limited or no data on several factors that might have influenced outcomes: alcohol and substance abuse, mental health conditions, race and ethnicity, language, culture, and the quality of any collaboration between midwives and doctors. Moreover, the study’s author herself notes that “women who are educated and health-conscious typically access midwives early on in their pregnancies.”  Thus women who are better educated and more health conscious may have self-selected midwife care, leading to an apparent improvement in outcomes. With an observational study, unlike a randomized trial, it’s not possible to draw firm cause-and-effect conclusions. In this case, the authors said a causal relationship between midwife care and better outcomes will “need to be established by repeated observational studies with representative samples over time.” However, a researcher quoted in the news release jumped to a cause-and-effect conclusion, saying the findings “show that women who are more vulnerable benefit from the care of a midwife.” The news release does not engage in disease-mongering. The news release did not state how the study was funded, which was through scholarships. It also did not mention that the lead author disclosed in the published study that as of May, she had been providing consulting services to the Midwives Association of BC. The news release met our threshold here by saying midwives, general practitioners, and obstetricians “are all qualified to provide safe prenatal care for women during their pregnancy, labour and birth, but each offer a different style of care that matches different women’s preferences and needs.” This was a strong point. The news release noted that midwifery is “not available in all parts of the country.” It added: “Waitlists for midwives can be quite long, so women who are educated and health-conscious typically access midwives early on in their pregnancies,” said [lead author Daphne] McRae. “But more vulnerable women might not be as aware of the services available to them, so expanding midwifery to make it available for all women is important.” We like how the news release did not attempt to characterize this study as unique, but rather characterized it as “adding new evidence in support of midwives as a safe option for prenatal care, especially for women who have low socioeconomic status.”  The news release did not use unjustifiable language. Claim: Midwifery linked to lower odds of birth complications for low-income women",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The 2-1 ruling from a panel the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said the law signed in 2017 by former Republican Gov. John Kasich is likely unconstitutional but didn’t make such a declaration outright. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office said the state will seek reconsideration by the full 6th Circuit. The ruling is a disappointment for abortion opponents, who had promoted the law as an anti-discrimination measure. The Ohio law specifically outlawed abortions in cases where there was a positive test result or prenatal diagnosis indicating Down syndrome. Under that law, physicians convicted of performing an abortion under such circumstances could be charged with a fourth-degree felony, stripped of their medical license and held liable for legal damages. The pregnant woman faced no criminal liability under the law, but it still fell into a category of restriction that abortion-rights groups label “reason bans” because they attempt to get into the mind of the pregnant woman as she is deciding whether to continue or end a pregnancy. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Ohio Department of Health, the state medical board and county prosecutors over the law on behalf of Planned Parenthood and several abortion providers. “We hope today’s decision sends a clear message to anti-abortion politicians about our reproductive rights,” Jessie Hill, the attorney who argued the matter for the abortion providers, said in a statement. A federal judge placed the state law on temporary hold last year, saying federal law is clear that states can’t limit a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy before viability. The state appealed, leading to Friday’s decision. Ohio Right to Life, the state’s oldest and largest anti-abortion group, said it was saddened by the ruling. It “serves to show the moral contradictions and outright discrimination imposed by abortion jurisprudence that sorely need to be settled,” Stephanie Ranade Krider, the group’s vice president, said in a statement. The group had promoted the law as a protection to “lethal discrimination” against children with a rare and, the group argued, widely misunderstood condition. Down syndrome is a genetic abnormality that causes developmental delays and medical conditions such as heart defects and respiratory and hearing problems. According to the National Down Syndrome Society, about one in every 700 babies in the United States — or about 6,000 a year — is born with the condition, which results from a chromosomal irregularity. The rarity of the condition has prompted abortion rights groups to paint the Down syndrome bans as part of a thinly veiled effort to continue chipping away at a woman’s right to an abortion. Claim: Ruling leaves Ohio ban on Down syndrome abortions on hold.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is spending $270 million on these and 45 other research projects to determine the risks of e-cigarettes before millions more Americans become hooked on the devices. “They want data and they want it yesterday,” said Dr Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin of Yale University, who is leading four projects. “Yesterday,” however, is years away. Final results may not be available before 2018, researchers leading the FDA-funded projects told Reuters. That timetable, which has not been reported before, underscores how the slow pace of science is contributing to a regulatory vacuum, allowing e-cigarette makers to sell their products virtually unchallenged. To be sure, studies of e-cigarettes not funded by the FDA are also under way, and the agency can factor those results into any action it takes. But the FDA chose these 48 projects because they address questions central to future regulations. The e-cigarette industry, which Wells Fargo Securities estimates will make $2 billion in global sales this year, says the FDA must wait for the results of the research before it issues any regulations, or manufacturers risk being driven out of business by unproven fears about their products. “There shouldn’t be regulations akin to those for cigarettes without evidence of similar health impact, especially since the preliminary evidence is positive for the industry” when it comes to comparing the contents of e-cigarette vapor to tobacco smoke, said attorney Bryan Haynes. His Richmond, Virginia-based firm Troutman Sanders represents e-cigarette manufacturers. Backed by the world’s biggest tobacco companies, the industry is aggressively expanding its marketing across the country. More than 14 million U.S. adults and nearly 2 million teens and tweens have used e-cigarettes, and the rate of use among high-schoolers doubled from 2011 to 2012, the latest data available. The FDA “will always make regulatory decisions based on the best available science,” said an agency spokeswoman. “With regard to e-cigarettes, the agency does not believe it will take many years to create the regulatory framework” once the FDA has the basic authority to regulate the products, which could happen next year. The missing science includes basic questions such as what compounds are in the vapor produced by e-cigarettes. It also includes complicated ones like whether flavors such as butterscotch and bubble gum entice children to vape, how e-cigarette displays in online stores affect teenagers’ desire to buy vaping liquid, and, perhaps most crucial, whether e-cigarettes will reduce the number of smokers or produce millions of new nicotine addicts. The Yale team, for instance, will study whether menthol and flavors such as chocolate and cherry increase the appeal of e-cigarettes, especially to 16-to-18-year-old smokers or “dual users” who both smoke and vape. If that turns out to be the case, the FDA would have scientific support for regulating. “We’ll have the first results within two years” and complete ones in four to five, Krishnan-Sarin said. REAL-TIME EXPERIMENT      As an uncontrolled experiment in public health, the use of electronic cigarettes is rivaled only by conventional tobacco smoking, a habit adopted by half of American men and one-third of women during its peak in the 1960s. The first Surgeon General’s report on the health dangers of cigarettes was released in 1964, when more than 40 percent of American adults were already hooked. To date, more than 10 million Americans have died from illnesses tied to smoking tobacco. Research on e-cigarettes has moved more quickly, partly because scientists can draw on regular tobacco research to establish the biological effects of vaping. The cartridge-like devices were first introduced in the United States by start-up manufacturers in 2007. Now, the U.S. market is dominated by blu, a brand owned by Lorillard Inc.  Other leading tobacco companies are making a big push for a share of the growing market: R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American, began selling its Vuse e-cigarette nationwide last month and Altria’s NuMark subsidiary plans to do so with its MarkTen later this year. The FDA got authority to regulate tobacco products, both traditional and novel, with the 2009 Tobacco Control Act. In April, the FDA proposed banning e-cigarette sales to minors, angering public health advocates who want more far-reaching prohibitions on online sales, advertising and flavors. The FDA began funding e-cigarette research in 2012. An FDA-funded project at the University of Louisville in Kentucky illustrates why the pace of science is slow. Scientists there will look at three or four brands of e-cigarettes and analyze their volatile organic compounds, flavorings and particulate matter to see how they affect lung and other cells in lab mice, said lead researcher Dr Sanjay Srivastata. This spring, he began exposing the animals to e-cigarette vapor for up to six months, with full results expected in 2015. While those findings could help FDA quantify risks from vaping, results extending the conclusions to humans are as much as five years away. Another crucial question researchers are trying to answer is whether e-cigarettes will be used mostly by nicotine newbies, including adolescents; by ex-smokers craving a nicotine hit without the carcinogens of tobacco; or by smokers trying to quit. To get a handle on who is likely to use e-cigarettes, scientists at Georgia State University School of Public Health  will conduct online surveys of 6,000 people to assess whether they perceive e-cigarettes as less harmful than the traditional kind, why those who have switched from the latter to e-cigarettes did so, and what influences people’s perceptions of the product’s risk. “This is the kind of research that is going to be informing the FDA’s regulatory process,” said Michael Eriksen, dean of the School of Public Health and leader of three FDA-funded projects on tobacco. The FDA’s proposed e-cigarette rules would give it the power to regulate the ingredients in the vaping liquid, but are silent on the plumes of vapor produced when the liquid is heated. According to research at Virginia Commonwealth University, that may be a dangerous oversight: a form of e-cigarettes called tank systems can get so hot the vapor can contain the carcinogen formaldehyde and other toxic compounds. “We want to know what’s in the emissions, not just the ingredients,” said VCU toxicologist Robert Balster, who is helping to oversee four FDA-funded projects. To find out, VCU engineers are constructing mechanical vaping devices to measure how temperature, voltage, and other parameters affect the content of the plumes from e-cigarettes. They will next comb through Facebook and blog postings to see whether vapers like super-hot temperatures, for instance. Combining the results of the mechanical vaper and real-life habits should show what emissions people are exposed to. “If it turns out that people are tinkering with the electronics to increase the voltage of e-cigarettes, and FDA regulations limit the maximum voltage, that’s useful to know,” since it may justify a requirement that the devices be tinker-proof, said Balster. Full results are years away, he said, “but we’re mindful of getting information to FDA in a timely manner. They’re under a lot of pressure to get moving.” Claim: As millions vape, e-cigarette researchers count puffs, scour Facebook.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “The same patient had an underlying chronic respiratory disorder and a history of travel to South Africa and contact with some cohorts who travelled to high-risk countries prior to his admission,” Chilufya said at a news conference. Chilufya said the three new cases registered in the southern African country had all got the virus from people who had travelled abroad. Africa has now registered almost 6,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 200 deaths. The continent is already suffering a huge economic impact from lockdowns aiming to contain the virus and a sharp fall in global demand for commodities. African governments including Zambia had become heavily indebted in the decade before the virus struck and are seeking support from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and EU for wide-ranging debt relief. Zambia’s finance ministry said this week it was looking for advisors to make its $11.2 billion of external debt more sustainable. Claim: Zambia records first coronavirus death.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 11 November 2010, the Dead Serious News web site published an article positing that a female mortuary worker had become pregnant after engaging in a sex act with a deceased male: A 38 year old female mortuary worker is being held on $250,000 bond after becoming pregnant by one of her clients — a dead man. The alleged crime took place at the Mourning Glory Mortuary just outside of Lexington, Missouri. Police have charged Felicity Marmaduke with desecration of the dead and necrophilia. According to a statement made to police by Marmaduke, the alleged victim experienced a post mortem erection while being bathed. Being alone, Marmaduke straddled the dead man and proceeded have sex with him. Much to her surprise, the alleged victim came to orgasm after several minutes. A few weeks later, Marmaduke had a positive pregnancy test while receiving a routine medical exam. Upon telling her doctor the circumstances leading to the conception, the police were notified. Marmaduke was arrested without incident at her dilapidated trailer home a few blocks from the mortuary. Although the news media occasionally report real cases of workers or interlopers at mortuaries/cemeteries attempting to engage in sex with bodies of the deceased, this item about a female mortuary worker’s becoming pregnant through such an activity is not one of them. It was a spoof from the Dead Serious News site, whose “About” page notes that “Dead Serious News is a satirical website that is updated on an irregular basis. With the exception of the names of public figures, all names are fictional.” In October 2016, the World News Daily Report fake news site recycled this story for a similar article: A 26-year old morgue worker was arrested this morning after a DNA test revealed that her newborn child was the result of a necrophiliac intercourse with a man she was supposed to autopsy. Jennifer Burrows, an assistant pathologist with the Jackson County medical examiner services, is accused of having sex with dozens of corpses over the course of the last two years, a behavior which led the birth of a baby boy on January 7. Claim: A female mortuary worker was arrested after becoming pregnant by one of the corpses she was preparing for burial.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It is notable that the company that sells the ONCOblot test (which can be used for early detection of 26 different cancers) doesn’t discuss its price. Some clinics list their test cost at $850 or $1000. It is not known how often testing would need to be repeated, if it is found to be useful for people exposed to asbestos. The release states it’s “an exciting sign of progress in the cancer detection field” because researchers detected “two mesothelioma-specific ENOX2 protein transcript variants” in the blood serum of individuals exposed to asbestos “an average of 6.2 years” before they were clinically diagnosed. Unfortunately, that’s the only attempt at quantification found in the release. There’s no mention of accuracy or sensitivity of the test, how many people were tested, or how long the study lasted. It’s not enough to claim that the test is useful. The sponsors should provide some data on how it improves patient outcomes, not just sound an alarm in order to get individuals to take a test. The unfortunate reality is that patients diagnosed with stage 1 disease have a median survival of 21 months and those diagnosed at stage 4 have a median survival of 12 months. It remains to be seen if early detection provides any advantage and a large clinical trial will be needed to see if this is true. While the ONCOblot test itself involves just drawing a blood sample, the results of the test could produce life-threatening harms if it overdiagnoses people. In other words, a person told they have tested positive for these biomarkers for mesothelioma might start treatment too early or unnecessarily. Mesothelioma treatment is notably damaging. Let’s put the study into perspective: there were a total of 32 people enrolled (17 with known malignant mesothelioma and 15 without). Hardly a large enough sample size on which to make the claims made. Although as we noted previously, early detection does offer a small survival advantage, it comes at a cost. The American Cancer Society notes that chemotherapy for mesothelioma can cause hair loss, mouth sores, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, increased risk of infections, easier bruising or bleeding, fatigue and long-lasting nerve damage. Radiation treatment also can cause many of the same problems, as well as lung damage. Combining radiation and chemotherapy often makes side effects worse. It won’t be known whether starting treatment earlier offers any benefits to people at risk for mesothelioma, but it is certain that treating more people earlier would cause more treatment-related harm. The release fails to mention how many people were included in the study: just 17 cancer patients and 15 people who were exposed to asbestos, but had not been diagnosed with cancer. Although the release notes near the top that the study was “retrospective” (it looked back at stored blood samples taken from people exposed to asbestos, some who had been diagnosed with mesothelioma and some without known cancer), there is no mention of the long years of work needed before anyone will be able to say the test would be useful to people who have been exposed to asbestos. The journal article notes, “As with all biomarker studies, these observations require validation in a larger, independent cohort of patients and should include prospective as well as retrospective sampling.” The release should have noted that there is an important difference between finding that people who have cancer carry a certain biomarker and what people really want to know: that the biomarker can predict who will or won’t develop cancer, and even more importantly, whether starting treatment earlier makes any difference. The news release emphasizes that “Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive and almost uniformly fatal tumor caused primarily by exposure to asbestos.” However, it fails to note that not only is the disease rare (fewer than 3,000 cases per year in the United States, compared to more than 1.6 million cases and half a million deaths from all types of cancer), but most people exposed to asbestos never get mesothelioma. By implying that this test might be useful for anyone exposed to asbestos, the release sets the stage for a vast sales market of people, most of whom would never have to deal with mesothelioma, regardless of testing. The news release states that the study was done by MorNuCo, the company that developed the ONCOblot test. Another useful flag apparent to close readers is that the only person quoted in the release is not a researcher, but the company’s vice president of business development. The release doesn’t mention any alternatives to the sponsor’s test. Some physicians believe that repeat chest CT scans are useful but this has not been verified in a clinical trial. The other alternative is basic primary care and watchfulness. The news release notes that the ONCOblot test is FDA approved as a “Laboratory Developed Test.” It also includes a link to a company web site with more information on the test and how to get it. The study backs up the characterization in the release that the results represent progress. Aside from the concerns mentioned above about implying the test will benefit patients, it is reasonable to say this test could be useful to researchers planning clinical trials of early treatment of mesothelioma. There are only nine sentences in this release, yet there is room to boast of “exciting results,” “exciting sign of progress” and an “exciting new chapter” that the company is “elated to share.” While the study results may well be exciting to some researchers who are planning clinical trials of early treatments for rare mesothelioma cancers, there is nothing in this study that is truly “exciting” to people worried about their personal risk of developing mesothelioma. The release dangles false hope in front of people exposed to asbestos by pushing the popular myth that “early detection is widely considered the corner stone of an effective strategy to reduce cancer-related deaths”. As this online primer summarizes, the triple stumbling blocks of lead time bias, length bias and overdiagnosis stand between this study and any real understanding of whether the news may ever be exciting to people worried about the consequences of exposure to asbestos. Claim: The test that reveals cancer sooner",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Questioning why some small businesses around the country must close during the coronavirus pandemic, a recent Facebook post claims that several big companies have yet to see a single of their millions of employees catch COVID-19. \"Walmart- 1,500,000 employees, Amazon- 750,000 employees, Kroeger (sic)- 500,000 employees, Target- 350,000 employees, Cosco (sic)- 214,000 employees,\" the post says. \"3,314,000 total employees combined. All of these companies have not had any reported cases in the news. Yet, every employee in these companies encounters thousands of people a day. None of these companies have closed stores. However, all of a sudden, all the meat packing plants are closing and small businesses are still not allowed to open. None of this makes any sense at all.\" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) And it’s wrong. As early as at least February, employees at these companies were contracting COVID-19 and, in some cases, dying. Here’s just a sampling of the news stories documenting different cases. • In Worcester, Mass., one Walmart closed in April after 23 employees there tested positive for COVID-19. As of May 1, that number had nearly doubled; 41 employees have tested positive. • Two Walmart employees from a Chicago-area store died of COVID-19. • Employees at a New Jersey Amazon warehouse reported about 48 infections there. • A worker at an Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, Calif., died due to complications from COVID-19. • An Amazon employee in Seattle who left work feeling ill on Feb. 25 later tested positive for COVID-19. , • Four workers at four separate Kroger stores in Michigan died after they were infected with the disease. • In Louisville, Ky., 13 employees at 10 different Kroger stores tested positive. • A Target employee in Short Pump, Va., has tested positive. • COVID-19 infected more Target employees at stores in Georgia, North Dakota, North Carolina, and California. • BuzzFeed reported in late March that Costco employees had said that managers in at least eight stores had notified staff that a coworker had tested positive. • An employee at a Seattle-area Costco died after contracting COVID-19. COVID-19 cases involving employees at these companies have been well-documented in news reports. We rate this Facebook post . Claim: Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, Target and Costco “have not had any reported (coronavirus) cases in the news.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The UK newspaper The Telegraph reported on 20 October 2016 that the World Health Organization (WHO) had revised their definition of infertility to include single men and women: Single men and women without medical issues will be classed as “infertile” if they do not have children but want to become a parent, the World Health Organisation is to announce. In a move which dramatically changes the definition of infertility, WHO will declare that it should no longer be regarded as simply a medical condition. The authors of the new global standards said the revised definition gave every individual “the right to reproduce”. Under the new terms, heterosexual single men and women, and gay men and  women who want to have children would be given the same priority as couples seeking IVF because of medical fertility problems. The organization’s decision, the Telegraph stated, was “likely to place pressure” on the National Health Service to change their eligibility standards concerning in-vitro fertilization. However, even though the story was picked up by multiple news outlets, it did not include any material or comments from WHO. Instead, it quoted endocrinologist David Adamson, a leading reproductive health practitioner whose Huffington Post  contributor profile references him as a fertility expert for the WHO. According to the Telegraph, Adamson, listed as an author of the new WHO standards, said: The definition of infertility is now written in such a way that it includes the rights of all individuals to have a family, and that includes single men, single women, gay men, gay women. It puts a stake in the ground and says an individual’s got a right to reproduce whether or not they have a partner. It’s a big change. It fundamentally alters who should be included in this group and who should have access to healthcare. It sets an international legal standard. Countries are bound by it. We contacted Adamson to confirm the Telegraph‘s reporting, but did not respond. Meanwhile, WHO’s  website has not reflected any changes to their terminology concerning infertility, which does not mention single people at all: The organization denied the Telegraph‘s reporting in a statement sent to us on 29 October 2016:  In 2009, WHO joined with the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART) and other partners to develop a Glossary of definitions for infertility and fertility care. This Glossary included the clinical definition for infertility as “a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.” This is keeping with WHO definition of male and female infertility in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) WHO has not changed its use of this definition. It is important to note that this definition provides a clinical description of infertility. It does not make any recommendations about the provision of fertility care services. WHO is currently collaborating with its partners to update the Glossary and consideration is being given to revising the definition of infertility. Should there be a change in the definition of infertility, it will remain a clinical description of infertility as a disease of the reproductive system and will not make recommendations about the provision of fertility care services. WHO definitions are contained in ICD and that glossary is not an official WHO publication but rather a work that WHO staff contribute to. The organization also reiterated their definition of infertility via Twitter: @pved Our definition of #infertility remains the same https://t.co/fbkyxzWocd — WHO (@WHO) October 22, 2016 Claim: The World Health Organization has listed being single as a disability under their definition of infertility.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As the government inched toward a shutdown on April 8, 2011, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., gave a speech on the Senate floor to respond to Democratic charges that the major sticking point in the negotiations was a disagreement over Planned Parenthood. Many Republicans want to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood because the organization does abortions. The federal government currently provides Planned Parenthood with $363 million annually, but by law, that money cannot be spent on abortion. It is spent on other types of health care services, such as cancer screenings, breast exams, and tests and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Some opponents of abortion say that by sending any money to Planned Parenthood, taxpayers are still supporting abortions indirectly, since money is fungible. That’s why they’re pushing to eliminate all funding for the organization. Here’s a portion of what Kyl said on the floor:  \"Everybody goes to clinics, to hospitals, to doctors, and so on. Some people go to Planned Parenthood. But you don’t have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.\" We got many requests to fact-check his statement. Planned Parenthood says the statistics are dramatically different -- that 90 percent of its services are preventive in nature, compared with 3 percent that are abortion-related. Planned Parenthood calculates the numbers by services provided, rather than dollars spent. In a fact sheet last updated in March 2011, the group lists the following breakdown of its services:  Contraception (including reversible contraception, emergency contraception, vasectomies and tubal sterilizations): 4,009,549 services  Sexually transmitted infections testing and treatment: 3,955,916 services  Cancer screening and prevention: 1,830,811 services  Other women’s health services (including pregnancy tests and prenatal care): 1,178,369 services  Abortions: 332,278 procedures  Miscellaneous (including primary care and adoption referrals): 76,977  Total services: 11,383,900  By this tally, abortions accounted for just under 3 percent of the procedures Planned Parenthood provided in 2009, which is the most recent year for which the group is reporting statistics. And that would make Kyl’s statement way off. We should note a few caveats. First, we think many people would acknowledge a difference between providing an abortion and, say, handing out a pack of condoms or conducting a blood test. The former is a significant surgical procedure, whereas the latter are quick and inexpensive services. So Planned Parenthood’s use of \"services\" as its yardstick likely decreases abortion’s prominence compared to what other measurements would show. Using dollars spent or hours devoted to patient care would likely put abortion above 3 percent in the calculations. Second, it’s worth noting that Planned Parenthood self-reported these numbers, although the group says each affiliate’s numbers are independently audited. (There is no single, national audit.) So we have no choice but to accept their accuracy more or less on faith. Still, even with those caveats, we do think that Kyl has vastly overstated the share of abortions. We checked with Kyl’s office but did not hear back. However, a few hours after the speech, CNN anchor T.J. Holmes told viewers that the network had received a statement from Kyl’s office saying that the senator’s remark \"was not intended to be a factual statement but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions in taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions.\" The statistics from Planned Parenthood and the statement from Kyl's office make it clear that he erred by saying abortion counts for well over 90 percent of the group's services. We find his claim . Claim: Abortion services are \"well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story clearly states near the top that this treatment is “very expensive.” It reports that crizotinib treatment costs about $9,600 per month and that patients may continue to be treated until the cancer resumes spreading. There is also a reference to an assistance plan offered by Pfizer. The story also reports that tumors “shrank or stopped growing in just over half of patients for nearly two years on average.” From this information, careful readers could calculate that the drug cost (not including associated medical care and tests) would routinely approach a quarter of a million dollars per patient. It would have been helpful if the story had provided this calculation. The story also reports that the test needed to identify appropriate patients costs $250. Readers of this story are likely to get an exaggerated sense of the benefits of this drug. As noted above, the preliminary trials completed so far did not produce evidence of improved outcomes or survival, nor did those trials include any comparison of the new treatment with existing alternatives. The story reports that “tumors disappeared, shrank or stopped growing in just over half of patients for nearly two years on average.” The drug label indicates that tumors “disappeared” in only three patients out of 255. The story reports on two patients who gave glowing reports of their responses, but there were no quotes from more typical patients who had limited, if any, responses or who endured serious side effects. The story then includes a reference to the short survival of typical lung cancer patients, without included the necessary caveat about the unreliability of such historical comparisons. The one-sided reporting provides an unbalanced view of the drug’s potential benefits. The story should have been clearer that the main reason this drug received conditional approval is that there is a reasonable likelihood of benefit; and that we won’t know if that benefit is real until the ongoing trials are completed. The story quotes sources claiming “You’re going to be sparing individuals side effects” and it describes Xalkori as “a pill with relatively minor side effects compared to the hair loss and nausea that chemotherapy can cause”. The drug label and FDA news release are less dismissive of the problems experienced by patients in the preliminary trials so far. While few trial participants reported symptoms severe enough to cause serious harm, hospitalization or symptoms so bad they couldn’t carry on routine activities, most of the patients did report problems with vision and more than half reported nausea, diarrhea, vomiting or other gastrointestinal symptoms, including some that may have required treatment. Treatment was interrupted in 36 percent of the patients in one of the trials and 45 percent of the patients in the other trial. Five percent of patients had neutropenia, abnormally low white blood cell counts. (See http://labeling.pfizer.com/showlabeling.aspx?id=676) The FDA news release included a list of side effects and warned of potentially life-threatening reactions. “The most common side effects reported in patients receiving Xalkori included vision disorders, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, swelling (edema), and constipation. Vision disorders included visual impairment, flashes of light, blurred vision, floaters, double vision, sensitivity to light, and visual field defects. Xalkori use has also been associated with inflammation of the lung tissue (pneumonitis), which can be life-threatening. Patients with treatment-related pneumonitis should permanently stop treatment with Xalkori. The drug should not be used in pregnant women.” (See http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm269856.htm) The story should have summarized these side effects and warnings. It should have also noted that since the trials reported by Pfizer included only 255 patients, little is known about the potential risk of rare, but serious, side effects. If only this story had been as straightforward as the drug label that starkly declares, “There are no data available demonstrating improvement in patient reported outcomes or survival with XALKORI.” (See http://labeling.pfizer.com/showlabeling.aspx?id=676) Instead, the story offers a murky statement that, “Research to determine overall survival is ongoing.” Deep in the story, readers are told that this drug approval is unusual because standard trials to compare the new treatment to conventional care have not been completed. However, the story does not report that only 255 patients were included in the trials. Readers are left to figure out on their own that there was no blinding or randomization done in the completed trials. The FDA news release offers information about the tentative nature of the evidence and an explanation that the drug was approved before convincing evidence of benefit was available only because these patients don’t have good treatment alternatives. (See http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm269856.htm) The story should have included this important context. The top of the story notes that this drug is intended for use in a small subset of lung cancer patients. Deeper in the story, readers are told that roughly 4 percent of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer have tumors with the gene variant that may respond to this drug, and it quotes a Pfizer company source as saying that about 6,000 Americans a year develop cancer fitting this definition. It would have been helpful for this story to include some estimate of the number of lung cancer patients who may be candidates for testing to see if their tumors have the relevant gene. While the story notes the conflicts of some sources, it appears that all the experts quoted were participants in a conference call arranged by Pfizer. The story appears to imply that standard treatments don’t work for patients with tumors that have this specific gene variant. However, cancer treatment statistics indicate that these patients are just as likely as other patients to respond to first-line treatment. The new drug is intended to be used when those standard treatments aren’t enough. Then the tumor gene test is needed, because giving this new drug does not appear to do any good for the overwhelming majority of patients, it is to be used only in that subset of patients with tumors that might be susceptible. Also, the story should have been clearer about explaining that neither of the preliminary trials included any comparison to standard treatment. The story is clear that crizotinib recently received FDA approval for use “along with a companion diagnostic test for just a small subset of lung cancer patients.” However, while the story refers to ongoing research, the actual status of the drug is not explained. The FDA approval letter warns that, “If postmarketing trials fail to verify that clinical benefit is conferred by XALKORI (crizotinib) Capsules, 200 mg and 250 mg, or are not conducted with due diligence, we may, following a hearing in accordance with 21 CFR 314.530(b), withdraw or modify approval.” Readers should have been clearly told that this drug is still very much on trial. Based on this story, readers may believe that this drug is the first of its kind. However, the FDA news release says the gene test is the truly novel part of the combination approved and the release goes on to point out, “It is the second such targeted therapy approved by the FDA this year.” Nevertheless, the approach taken with this sort of gene test and specfic drug combination is new and very different from typical chemotherapy, which is the angle highlighted in the story. This story appears to rely entirely on a conference call arranged and managed by Pfizer, in essence an audio news release. Claim: Pfizer: New cancer pill gives hope, new strategy",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: With protective gear in short supply across the world, the northern region pledged to distribute at least 3 million masks to the public through supermarkets, pharmacists and tobacconists. Until they arrive, many people have been forced to make do with scarves or homemade substitutes. “We can’t find protective masks,” Milan resident Giulio Colombo said. “I haven’t found any so I made this by myself. Authorities say masks will be available in three days but they’ve been saying it for a month.”  Lombardy, the region around the financial capital Milan, is where the epidemic first emerged on Feb. 21 and it remains by far the worst affected area of Italy, with more than 50,000 cases and almost 9,000 deaths. Regional governor Attilio Fontana said on Sunday the masks, which will be less elaborate than the top grade medical masks used in hospitals, would begin to be distributed this week, a month after Italy imposed a strict lockdown on March 9. As the weeks have passed, increasing numbers of people have worn protective masks of various kinds, despite the difficulty of getting hold of medical masks and wildly varying prices charged by distributors. It is unclear whether improvising with a scarf is effective, but research has found face masks could help to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report by consumer association Altroconsumo said 43% of 122 pharmacists it sampled in eight different Italian cities did not have any masks available, with almost one in two pharmacies in Milan out of stock. The decision by Lombardy authorities to issue the masks order came after weeks in which the official advice has been that they are not necessary for most people in normal circumstances and that precious stocks should be reserved for health workers. However the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week recommended the use of cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus, especially in confined spaces, along with frequent hand-washing. Over the weekend, the head of the Civil Protection department, charged with coordinating Italy’s disaster reponse, said maintaining social distancing between people was the best protection and he would not be wearing a mask. Otherwise there has been little sign of public opposition to the new measures. “I think face masks protect us and other people,” Milan resident Alessandra Merletti said. “I think not wearing them is wrong, seeing people not wearing them bothers me, I think they are selfish.” Claim: Scramble for masks as Italian region orders coronavirus cover-up.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The budget embodies long-standing Republican ambitions “to make Medicare wither on the vine,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday. “After exploding the deficit with his GOP tax scam for the rich, President Trump is once again trying to ransack Medicare, Medicaid and the health care of seniors and families across America,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. “This budget says ‘promises kept,’” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “Balderdash.” The administration argues that the budget doesn’t cut Medicare benefits to seniors but makes better use of taxpayers’ dollars and helps reduce Medicare spending by lowering prescription drug costs. “On Medicare, we are actually putting it on a sounder footing,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told House lawmakers Tuesday at a budget hearing. As outlined in White House documents, the budget calls for $845 billion in total, or gross, spending reductions to Medicare over 10 years, mainly by cutting future payments to hospitals and other service providers. However, that eye-popping figure appears to involve some budgetary legerdemain. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found actual savings of $515 billion or $575 billion, depending on how those savings are calculated. Medicare now costs about $650 billion a year, and that’s expected to rise sharply as the baby boom generation goes into retirement. Administration officials say their proposals would keep spending increases more manageable. “He’s not cutting Medicare in this budget,” asserted acting White House budget director Russell Vought. “What we are doing is putting forward reforms that lower drug prices, (and) because Medicare pays a very large share of drug prices in this country, it has the impact of finding savings. “Medicare spending will go up every single year by healthy margins, and there are no structural changes for Medicare beneficiaries,” Vaught added. Medicare cuts have little public support and Trump’s package appears to have slim chances in a divided Congress. Senate Republicans didn’t even bring up the subject at their weekly news conference. The head of a major hospital association pushed back hard, saying in a blog that “arbitrary and blunt” Medicare cuts would have a “devastating” impact on care for seniors. “Hospitals are less and less able to cover the cost of care for Medicare patients; it is no time to gut Medicare,” said Chip Kahn of the Federation of American Hospitals. As a candidate early in the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump held himself out as a different kind of Republican. “Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid,” he said at a 2015 event in New Hampshire. “And we can’t do that. And it’s not fair to the people that have been paying in for years and now all of the sudden they want to ... cut.” But his plan to repeal and replace “Obamacare” involved major Medicaid cuts. It would have capped federal spending on the entire program and left millions of people uninsured. In the end it couldn’t pass a Republican-controlled Congress. The latest Trump budget essentially repeats his earlier proposal to do away with the Affordable Care Act and cap Medicaid spending. Questioned at the budget hearing by Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., Azar acknowledged that the administration cannot force Medicaid spending limits onto states, and Congress would have to approve such sweeping changes. The proposed Medicare package also would require lawmakers to sign off. It’s common for administrations of both political parties to call for cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals. Because the program is so big, even a single-digit reduction in percent terms can add up to hundreds of billions of dollars over time. Tricia Neuman of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation said the Medicare cuts in this year’s budget are larger than what Trump proposed last year. “Providers are likely to say that the proposed cuts are likely to harm patient care, especially if they think there is some possibility that Congress will adopt them,” said Neuman. “The truth is, it is difficult to predict what the impact would really be.” Among the budget’s targets are federal payments to reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care, fees for services provided in outpatient departments, and federal financing for graduate medical education. Exempt from cuts: private Medicare Advantage plans favored by Republicans. Republican strategist David Kochel, a 2016 adviser to Jeb Bush, said there was little evidence that Trump’s voters would abandon him over the Medicare proposal. “It’s not like he’s been held accountable for things he said on the campaign with his own base,” said Kochel, noting that Mexico is not paying for Trump’s border wall. Advocates for Medicare beneficiaries had a measured reaction. A statement from AARP reflected a mix of praise and concern. “We are heartened that President Trump’s budget continues to highlight the need to address prescription drug prices,” said the group. “But we’re also concerned about proposed cuts to programs important to seniors.” The Medicare Rights Center said “it is hard to envision a situation where these changes do not profoundly impact the lives of people who depend on the program.” Claim: Trump’s cuts to Medicare hospital payments trigger an outcry.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Congress is deciding whether to reform the nation’s farm subsidy system and, while it is at it, will probably cut the amount it dedicates to food stamps for the poor and low-income workers. Both programs are part of what’s known as the farm bill, the five-year authorization that sets the terms for government crop assistance and defines eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It turns out that some Congress members receive farm subsidies themselves, or get them through farms and corporations they and their relatives own. Whether they should or shouldn’t is not for us to say. Proponents and opponents of the subsidies, primarily direct payments made to farm owners, can be found in both political parties. But U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, finds it disconcerting that some of the lawmakers who gladly take the government’s subsidies want to cut SNAP, or subsidies to people who need help buying groceries. Discussing the 2013 farm bill, which recently passed in the Senate and is under debate in the House, Brown told reporters on a conference call on June 12, \"There's a lot of pressure in the House of Representatives to just emasculate the SNAP program. For whatever reason, some of these members of the House of Representatives get hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm subsidies. They think they earned that, and on the other hand, then they want to cut food stamps, and I think that's morally wrong.\" We cannot read the minds of subsidy recipients, so we will not judge whether Congress members -- who earn $174,000 federal salaries -- think they have earned the right to farm  subsidies. But Brown’s claim struck us as worth examining. Examples were easy to find. The Environmental Working Group, or EWG, an advocacy and research group, maintains a database of federal farm subsidies and has run lawmakers’ names to see what they or their families are getting. News organizations have used this database (and the public can, too), and some have noted where the recipients stand on food stamps, or SNAP. For instance: * Rep. Steve Fincher of Tennessee, \"who supports billions of dollars in cuts to the food stamp program,\" is \"one of the largest recipients of federal farm subsidies, according to new annual data released by a Washington environmental group.\" This was in the New York Times on May 22. Fincher, from Frog Jump, Tenn., and his wife \"collected nearly $3.5 million in subsidies from 1999 to 2012,\" reported the Times, using EWG data. In 2012 alone, the couple received about $70,000 in direct payments, which is \"money that is given to farmers and farmland owners, even if they do not grow crops,\" the Times wrote. During debate in May on whether to cut $20.5 billion from SNAP over the next 10 years, Fincher, a Republican, said, \"We have to remember there is not a big printing press in Washington that continually prints money over and over. This is other people’s money that Washington is appropriating and spending.\" * Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California and his wife, Jill, together own one third of DSL LaMalfa Family Partnership, which in 2012 alone got $188,570 in direct farm payments from the federal government, according to the EWG. That would put last year’s subsidies to LaMalfa and his wife at $62,857. But going back to 1995, the DSL LaMalfa Family Partnership has received  $5.13 million, which would put the share of Rep. LaMalfa and his wife at $1.7 million, EWG said. In May, LaMalfa won a House amendment that would require electronic fraud prevention measures and eliminate bonus pay for signing up new SNAP recipients. He said in a statement then, \"The success of the food stamp program should be measured by how many Americans become self-sufficient, not how many are added to the rolls.\" * Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana has received $196,268 in farm subsidies since 1997, according to the EWG. Stutzman, a Republican, recently proposed cutting SNAP by $30 billion over 10 years, deeper than the $20.5 billion now on the table, saying, \"Everyone in Washington talks about deficit reduction but we’ve introduced a real, responsible plan to save taxpayer dollars. Over the past decade, SNAP spending has doubled as this program outgrows its original mission of providing temporary assistance.\" The list goes on. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, both reviewing the same EWG data as other media, noted that 15 members of Congress got farm subsidies in 2012. (None were from Ohio.) Thirteen were Republicans and two were Democrats. The Democrats were in the Senate -- Michael Bennett of Colorado and Jon Tester of Montana, who says he is the Senate’s only \"working farmer.\" Both voted June 10 for the Senate version of the farm bill, which would cut SNAP by $4 billion, or about $16 billion less than the House GOP leaders want. Brown, too, voted for the bill after failing to get the SNAP cut restored. It’s fairly obvious where this leaves Brown’s claim that some House members accepted \"hundreds of thousands of dollars\" in farm subsidies but are eager to cut food stamps. But before ruling, we’ll note in fairness that some of the farm-subsidy recipients told the Wall Street Journal that the farm programs need reform, too. Fincher issued a statement saying, \"I voted immediately to remove direct payments,\" the Journal wrote. And, the Journal added, a spokesman for LaMalfa said the lawmaker has long opposed the farm-subsidy system and voted to end direct payments. In Stutzman’s case, the receipt of subsidies was a political issue in his 2010 election. But he maintained to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that the farm-support system is like a mandate, giving him no choice. The farmer \"has to take it,\" he told the Journal Gazette in 2010. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the program is voluntary. OK, so maybe he and the others didn’t like it one bit when they got farm subsidies. We’re not here to judge their motives. But we are here to judge Brown’s claim. It is . Claim: Some of these members of the House of Representatives get hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm subsidies\" but want to cut food stamps.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The cruise ship Diamond Princess, which with more than 400 cases has by far the largest cluster outside China, has become the biggest test so far of other countries’ ability to contain an outbreak that has killed 1,772 people in China and five elsewhere. A ground crew in anti-contamination suits met the chartered jet that touched down at Joint Base San Antonio in Texas, and passengers could be seen climbing down the stairs wearing face masks in the pre-dawn mist. Another flight landed at Travis Air Force Base in California hours earlier. All the passengers were taken into a two-week quarantine. Although U.S. officials had said passengers with coronavirus symptoms would not be repatriated, 14 passengers found at the last minute to have tested positive were permitted to board the planes. The U.S. State Department said the infected passengers were exposed to other passengers for about 40 minutes before they were isolated. Across mainland China, the total number of coronavirus cases rose by 2,051 to 70,635, according to the World Health Organization. That was slightly more new cases than were reported on Sunday, but hundreds fewer than reported on Saturday. Chinese authorities say the decrease is a sign that measures taken to halt the spread of the disease are having an effect. However, epidemiologists say it is probably still too early to say how well the outbreak is being contained within China and its central Hubei province, where the virus first appeared. Official figures of new cases have leveled off in the past, only to jump suddenly after changes in methodology. “The real issue is whether we are seeing efficient community transmission outside of China and at the present time we are not observing that,” Mike Ryan, head of World Health Organization’s emergencies program, said at a news conference in Geneva. Fewer than 700 cases have been reported in other countries and even within China the epidemic is affecting “a very tiny, tiny, tiny proportion of people,” Ryan said. China has responded to the COVID-19 virus by locking down Hubei’s provincial capital Wuhan, a megacity of 11 million people, and imposing restrictions in a number of other cities. But the ruling Communist Party is  under pressure to prevent the economy from crashing and to get people back to work. China’s central bank cut the interest rate on its medium-term lending on Monday, which is expected to pave the way for a reduction in the benchmark loan prime rate on Thursday. Beijing has also announced plans for cuts in taxes and fees. Even so, economists expect China’s economic growth to slow. Ratings agency Moody’s on Monday lowered its 2020 GDP growth forecast to 5.2%, making it likely China would miss a goal to double GDP over the decade to 2020. Around half of all known cases of the virus outside China have been found aboard the Diamond Princess, which was ordered to stay under quarantine at the port of Yokohama on Feb. 3. Several other countries have announced plans to follow the United States in bringing passengers home. Around half of the 3,700 passengers and crew are Japanese. Matthew Smith, an American passenger who remained on the ship after refusing to board the voluntary repatriation flights, tweeted that staying behind was the “best decision ever”. “US Gov’t said they would not put anyone on the planes who was symptomatic, and they ended up knowingly and intentionally putting on 14 people who actually have the virus,” he wrote. Authorities around the world were also trying to track down passengers from another cruise liner, the Westerdam, which was turned away from ports across Southeast Asia for two weeks before docking in Cambodia on Thursday. One American passenger who disembarked in Cambodia tested positive for the virus in Malaysia on Saturday. Carnival Corp, which operates both cruise liners, said it was cooperating with authorities in trying to trace other passengers from the Westerdam. None of the other 1,454 passengers and 802 crew had reported any symptoms, it said. Hundreds of passengers are still in Cambodia, either on the ship or in hotels. Holly Rauen, a passenger from Fort Myers, Florida, said she and others will be tested by Cambodian authorities. “We have no idea when we get to get home,” she said. After an extended Lunar New Year holiday, China needs to get back to work or will suffer severe economic consequences. There is a proposal to delay the opening of the annual session of parliament, due on Feb. 24. Some cities remain in lockdown, streets are deserted, employees are nervous, and travel bans and quarantine orders are in place around the country. Many factories have yet to re-open, disrupting supply chains in China and beyond. In Japan, where data showed on Monday that the economy had already shrunk last quarter at the fastest pace in almost six years, the impact of the virus is expected to show up in the current quarter, stoking fears of recession. Trade-dependent Singapore downgraded its 2020 economic growth forecast and has said recession is possible. It is set to unveil measures to cushion the blow on Tuesday. Organisers of the Tokyo Marathon have decided to limit the March 1 race to top-level athletes, banning 38,000 general participants, a person with knowledge of the issue told Reuters. Japan’s Imperial Household Agency said it would cancel Emperor Naruhito’s public birthday address on Feb. 23, his first since his coronation last year. The event regularly attracts tens of thousands of people to the inner grounds of the Imperial Palace in the heart of Tokyo. Claim: Hundreds of Americans flown home from cruise ship, 14 with coronavirus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In July 2020, as America’s total of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 3.3 million, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the advice of public health experts on how to safely reopen the country’s K-12 school system during the pandemic, and campaigned in full force for in-person classes to resume nationwide. The push by the Republican president included threats to withhold federal funding to school systems that did not agree with his approach (see the July 8, 2020, tweet here), unsubstantiated claims that state Democrats had political motivations to keep schools closed ahead of the November 2020 election, and several media appearances in which he and ally Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education, emphasized how opening K-12 classrooms would jump-start the country’s distressed economy. And during that parade of public events, critics of the country’s top education official and the president claimed that DeVos had nonchalantly stated the cost of young American’s lives should schools fully reopen during the pandemic. Facebook statuses and tweets went viral among educators, parents and activists, stating:  It’s unclear from where, exactly, the claim originated. And first, to measure its legitimacy, we did some back-of-the-napkin math. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the federal government prepared for 56.6 million K-12 students in fall 2019 (50.8 million in public schools and 5.8 million in private education). That means 11,320 — not 14,740 — is .02% of the country’s student population. Apart from the statement’s inaccuracy, our analysis of DeVos’ public appearances found no evidence to show she made the comment. We deemed several speeches at the White House, as well as televised interviews on CNN’s “State of the Union” and “Fox News Sunday” on July 12, 2020, as the likely sources of inspiration for the rumor, considering the timing and content of those events. In the first of those appearances, which took place on July 7, 2020, for instance, DeVos said: It’s clear our nation’s schools must fully reopen and fully operate this school year. Anything short of that robs students, not to mention taxpayers, of their futures — and their futures represent our nation’s future. So it’s not a question of ‘if’; it’s just a question of ‘how.’ The following day, after a meeting of the White House coronavirus task force, she made similar remarks, and praised several school systems for their quick transition to remote learning in the early weeks of the outbreak, including New York City’s Success Academy Charter Schools and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Simultaneously, she claimed, other local school districts were “doing next to nothing” to teach students during the unprecedented rules against in-classroom learning. Three days later, DeVos addressed CNN’s audience via an interview on why she believed schools should fully reopen in the fall, even though the country’s daily spike in COVID-19 cases was on the rise and did not show signs of a decline. There, DeVos mostly re-emphasized talking points she made during the White House briefings and downplayed the health risks to students should schools fully reopen, essentially affirming the underlying sentiment to critics’ claim about the projected death toll. DeVos stated, referring to “data” that she did not define: There’s nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is, is dangerous to them — in fact, it’s more a matter of their health and well-being that they be back in school. In both the CNN and Fox News interviews, DeVos pointed to research that suggests children are less likely to suffer severe symptoms due to COVID-19 compared to adults. Claim: In July 2020, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said \"only\" .02% of the country's K-12 school students — totaling 14,740 children and teens — are likely to die from COVID-19 when and if schools fully reopen.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On Sept. 2, 2010, the National Taxpayers Union -- a conservative advocacy group -- announced that it would be spending $4 million on an advertising campaign that targets higher energy taxes. Here's the narration of the TV ad: \"Our economy's hurting, but some senators want to weaken an industry creating jobs. America's energy industry supports 9 million jobs, but Congress may double-tax U.S. energy companies, helping foreign companies owned by China and Venezuela, even BP. New taxes will raise your gas prices, make us more dependent on foreign oil, and cost 600,000 American jobs. Tell Congress BP doesn't deserve a handout. No new American energy taxes.\" At first, we thought this was an ad decrying the Democratic cap-and-trade proposal, a legislative effort to cap greenhouse gases that Republicans have consistently criticized as a tax on ordinary energy consumers. But that's not what the ad is about. Instead, NTU says the ad is about two changes under consideration by the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress -- rules for \"dual capacity\" taxpayers, and the Section 199 deduction. The ad is correct that the modifications being considered would primarily affect oil and gas companies. Even by the byzantine standards of tax law, these rules are highly arcane. So bear with us as we try to explain how they work and investigate whether the ad portrays them fairly. Our aim is to gauge whether the ad is accurate when it says that making these changes would amount to a \"handout\" to companies like BP. Let's start with the \"dual capacity\" rule. This rule stems from a tax code provision that lets U.S. taxpayers receive credit for taxes paid on income derived overseas, so income is not taxed twice. Say you're a U.S. oil company. You go to a foreign country to extract oil. You pay a 20 percent tax to that country on what you extract. When your U.S. taxes are calculated, you'll get a dollar-for-dollar credit for the taxes paid overseas. Where it starts getting complicated is that some foreign countries charge oil extractors a single payment that includes both the tax and a payment for the right to drill in the first place. So, rather than paying 20 percent tax on what's extracted, the company will have to pay more, because the rights to drill are included in the same levy. (The dual nature of these payments is the origin of the term \"dual capacity.\") Whether the company considers this a tax or a royalty payment matters quite a bit for the U.S. company's tax bill because amounts considered to be foreign taxes provide dollar-for-dollar reductions in tax liability, whereas a royalty only permits a deduction, which is a significantly smaller tax benefit than dollar-for-dollar. So, the greater the amount that's considered a foreign tax, the larger the sum that can be deducted from U.S. taxes. Current U.S. tax law deals with this by trying to determine what part is the true tax (and thus eligible for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit) and what is being paid by the company for a specific economic benefit, such as the right to drill (which is only deductible as a business expense). This is a fairly easy process if the foreign country has a straightforward corporate tax structure. But it gets complicated if the country either taxes \"dual capacity\" taxpayers at a different rate than other corporate taxpayers or if it has no basic corporate tax rate at all. In such cases, U.S. companies have more flexibility to call the payments they've made \"taxes\" -- too much flexibility for some critics, who argue that it's an unnecessary loophole that drains the U.S. Treasury of taxes. That's why President Barack Obama, in his fiscal year 2011 budget, and some senators have proposed tightening the rules. We won't get into the guts of the proposed changes here, but the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official, non-partisan arbiter of tax policy changes, found that Obama's proposal would collect an additional $8.2 billion between 2010 and 2020. Oil and gas companies aren't the only sector that would be affected, but they are the main companies that will. Now for the second proposal -- eliminating oil and gas companies as beneficiaries of Section 199 of the tax code. Section 199 is a deduction for companies that produce goods or software or undertake construction projects in the U.S. Passed in 2004, it replaced a previous tax benefit extended specifically to U.S. exporters, struck down as an illegal trade subsidy by the World Trade Organization. Under section 199, U.S. oil and gas companies can take advantage of a lower tax rate. According to Treasury Department testimony in 2009, making oil and gas ineligible is projected to increase federal revenues by $13.2 billion from 2010 to 2019. We won't address the ad's claim that these proposals could result in the elimination of 600,000 jobs, higher gasoline prices or greater dependence on foreign oil, since such estimates are speculative and ultimately not provable. Instead, we'll focus on whether the ad is justified in calling such changes a \"handout\" to BP or other foreign companies. In the ad's defense, the changes would only affect U.S.-based companies, and by taking away a benefit from a U.S. firm, the government could, in a sense, be advantaging foreign-based firms. Pete Sepp, NTU's executive vice president, said that the two tax provisions were created to take the sting off the U.S. corporate tax code. Because many of the United States' competitors do not tax the foreign earnings of domestic firms -- but we do -- deductions and exemptions like the two in question here help U.S. competitiveness. \"Taking away one or both these provisions for oil companies -- provisions that exist for a wide variety of firms -- will, in our opinion, necessarily increase the overhead of oil and gas firms (based) here. That means higher costs for those firms -- costs which foreign-based competitors like BP don't have to shoulder.\" Still, \"handout\" is a pretty strong word to describe what's being proposed. In Webster's New World Dictionary, the relevant definition of \"handout\" is \"a gift of food, clothing, etc., as to a beggar.\" Allowing for some artistic license to exchange \"BP\" for \"beggar,\" we think the accuracy of \"handout\" depends on whether the government is affirmatively providing a direct benefit to BP. And it's not clear that the government would be doing this if it made these changes. If the government were to pass these two policy proposals, it would certainly be taking away a benefit granted to U.S.-based oil and gas companies. But would taking away the two benefits from U.S. companies be equivalent to giving a handout to BP? We're not so sure. Mitchell Kane, a professor at New York University Law School who specializes in international corporate taxation, said the use of the term \"handout\" in this context is \"highly misleading,\" noting that there would be no change at all to BP's tax liability. \"There could be competitive effects, but this is a highly speculative claim, and in any event is not what most people think of as a handout,\" Kane said. \"If your co-worker loses her job, and there is therefore less competition in the company for promotions and future raises, does this mean you have received a 'handout?'\" There's another reason to question whether BP's British owners are the only ones who would benefit if these provisions were to pass. In a globalized economy, some Americans would actually benefit, since foreign companies employ, do business with and pay quarterly dividends to lots of U.S. taxpayers. According to BP's website, it is the largest oil and gas producer and one of the largest gasoline retailers in the United States, as well as the largest non-U.S. company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. And U.S.-based subsidiaries of foreign companies, including BP's U.S. subsidiaries, qualify for Section 199 credits, which weakens the argument that BP would be a clear winner if these changes were made. It's certainly understandable that U.S. oil companies doing business overseas would be opposed to these proposals -- and perhaps feel picked on, since both changes specifically target their industry. Still, we think the term \"handout\" in this context is questionable -- even hypocritical, since the tax policy the oil companies want to keep in place could easily be described as involving longstanding \"handouts\" for them. Claim: Proposed tax changes are a \"handout\" to BP.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: North of the nearly empty marina, salt-loving bacteria thriving in the low water has turned the liquid pink. The massive lake, key to the state’s economy and identity, is skirting record-low levels after years of below-average precipitation and record heat. A few dozen lawmakers took a road trip Thursday to see the problems firsthand and learn how they can help — besides praying for more rain and snow this winter. The lake, about 75 miles long (120 kilometers) and 30 miles wide (50 kilometers), is America’s largest outside the Great Lakes. Water levels have always fluctuated, but they have been dropping steadily since 2011. “If this continues ... the ecosystem as a whole is under a pretty significant threat,” said Jason Curry, a spokesman for Utah’s Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. The state estimates that the Great Salt Lake’s ecosystem has a $1.32 billion economic effect. It is a home or major resting place for more than 250 species of birds. Salt and other minerals are mined from the lake and used for fertilizer, melting snow on roadways and other products. Its waters are credited with helping produce dry, powdery snow that attracts skiers worldwide to the nearby mountains. It’s generally three to five times saltier than the ocean, allowing swimmers to float easily. The lake is an unforgiving environment for most creatures, but a prime habitat for brine flies and brine shrimp — tiny, clear crustaceans once sold as “sea monkeys” in the back of comic books, whose eggs are harvested and sold worldwide as food for other shrimp, crab and fish. As lake levels drop and the water becomes saltier, even those creatures are threatened. “Brine shrimp are very resilient to salt but even they have a limit, and we’re reaching that limit,” said Don Leonard, CEO of the Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative, a group of companies that harvest and sell the eggs. The low water levels stress the shrimp in a way that produces fewer eggs, Leonard said. Last year, the cooperative had a below-average harvest and had to pay to dredge its harbor just to get its boats on the water. He declined to say how much it affected the industry but said dredging has become a yearly, expensive endeavor to dig out a deeper path for boats. Lawmakers on Thursday took a quick tour of a storage area at a factory that harvests the eggs and visited a plant that extracts minerals from the lake. Joe Havasi of Compass Minerals said the company had to extend its canals that pull brine from the water by about 2 miles because the shoreline has receded by 6 miles. He said the company is eager for a planned breach of a railroad causeway later this year that’s expected to allow some water from the southern half of the lake to flow north, where its operations are. Pouring rain caused lawmakers to scrap much of their tour, which will pick up Friday. Legislative staffer Ivan Djambov joked that it was the downpour they hoped for all summer. “It’s the wrong day for us, but we’re grateful it’s coming, right?” he said. Last year, legislators approved spending $1.5 million to dredge the lake, which will add an additional 6 to 8 feet (1.83 to 2.44 meters) and create a passable channel for boats. Officials said they hope to start that project early next year. Republican state Rep. Mike McKell said lawmakers also will be looking at whether Utah should step up efforts to remove an invasive weed that sucks up tens of thousands of acre-feet of water every year. Lynn de Freitas, executive director of the conservation group Friends of Great Salt Lake, said Utah needs to look at how major water pipeline projects may divert fresh water from rivers that normally flow into the lake. “It’s dire,” she said. “We all have a stewardship responsibility for the lake and should honestly and actively own up to that.” Claim: Beached boats, pink water as drought saps Great Salt Lake.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Warnings that tilapia is unsafe to eat have been circulating for years. There are warnings that tilapia is a “mutant” fish that doesn’t have skin or bones. There are warnings that tilapia don’t exist in the wild. There are warnings that eating tilapia is worse than eating bacon or hamburger. And there are warnings that tilapia causes cancer. None of them are true. There are various sources of these rumors. But they were all consolidated into a meme that first went viral in 2017 and resurfaced in April 2018. Without citing sources, the meme repeated old (and untrue) rumors that tilapia is unsafe to eat. Tilapia Are Mutants, Can’t Be Found in the Wild Tilapia are native to Africa and date at least back to the Egyptian period. In fact, tilapia are even featured in ancient Egyptian art, often portraying a symbol of rebirth. So, again, the idea that tilapia are mutants and can’t be found in the wild are baseless. These claims are probably based on the widespread introduction of tilapia into aquaculture in the 1980s. After that point, tilapia was widely farmed in cages and open bodies of water. That helped tilapia go from “unknown in the U.S. in the mid-1990s to the fifth most popular seafood we eat,” the Atlantic reports. The rise of tilapia coincided with the fall of Northeast cod fishery in the 1990s. So, while the tilapia sold in restaurants and grocery stores is most likely the result of aquaculture — claims that tilapia is a “mutant” fish don’t check out. Eating Tilapia Worse that Eating Bacon or Hamburger Claims that eating tilapia is worse that eating bacon or hamburger have persisted for years — but experts counter that there’s no truth to them. They can be traced back to a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The study warns that tilapia isn’t a good food for controlling inflammatory diseases like heart disease. It’s authors continued: “All other nutritional content aside, the inflammatory potential of hamburger and pork bacon is lower than the average serving of farmed tilapia.” Many websites seized on the claims. The popular diet franchise “Eat This, Not That!” warned that tilapia has a fraction of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids as salmon and other fish, and has “sky high” levels of unhealthy omega-6 fats. It’s conclusion? Tilapia is worse than bacon or hamburger. Scientists quickly pushed back. Dr. William Harris, a senior scientist and director of the metabolism and nutrition at the nonprofit Sanford Research Center, noted that “most health experts (including organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association) agree that omega-5 fatty acids are, in fact, heart healthy: Tilapia and catfish are examples of lower-fat fish that have fewer omega-3s than the oily fish listed above, but still provide more of these heart-healthy nutrients than hamburger, steak, chicken, pork or turkey. Actually, a 3 ounce serving of these fish provides over 100 mg of the long chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Considering that this is about the current daily intake of these fatty acids in the US, even these fish should be considered better choices than most other meat alternatives. Since they are also relatively low in total and saturated fats and high in protein, they clearly can be part of a healthy diet. Researchers at Harvard sounded a similar tune, debunking the idea that tilapia is worse than bacon or hamburger. Tilapia Contains Cancer-Causing Dioxin Dioxins are some of the most toxic substances on earth, and they have been linked to cancer. And it’s true that “more than 90 percent of human exposure” to dioxins comes from food. It’s stored in fat tissue and can accumulate throughout the food chain, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports. But tilapia don’t appear to be at a higher risk for containing dioxins than any other fish. In fact, because tilapia are often farmed and not caught in the wild, their dioxin levels could actually be lower than levels in other species of fish. So, again, claims that tilapia contain cancer-causing dioxin are mostly fiction. It’s possible, but there’s no elevated risk. Comments Claim:  A meme claiming that tilapia is a “mutant” fish that’s unsafe to eat combines a number of long-running warnings about the fish. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No mention of Qnexa’s cost. As the New York Times reported, “Through a regulatory loophole of sorts, many obesity doctors prescribe two separate drugs that, when taken together, are essentially the same medicine.” So, at least some estimate of the cost of those components could have been given. Or analysts could have helped project what expected Qnexa costs would be. Here’s the good part. The story focuses on the regulatory hurdle. We appreciate the sidebar that includes a link to FDA’s 200-page review documents. From those documents, the story notes that “many people lose 5% of their body weight” after using the drug. And there was reference to some data on lowering blood pressure. But here’s where we yearned for more/better info: Instead of riding the patient anecdote, the story could have provided some real data. The past proceedings of the Advisory Committee are readily available. The biggest issue with “diet pills” is that if you have not altered your lifestyle, you will gain the weight back again. As noted in our summary above, the story could have directly included – even at a high level – some of the data from the clinical trials so that readers could have an appreciation for the magnitude of the weight loss seen. The one line – “Qnexa does appear to help many people lose at 5 percent of their body weight” – just doesn’t tell the story. The story sidebar notes – from the FDA briefing documents: “The review noted continued concerns that Qnexa can increase the risk for several possible side effects, including increased heart rate, birth defects and thinking problems such as memory lapses and confusion.” It also included these caveats: “There’s been a long history with obesity drugs that we’ve had to take off the market. You recall the fen-phen episode where a significant number of people got heart-valve defects,” says Janet Woodcock, a top FDA official. Woodcock argues that the agency has to be extra-careful with weight-loss drugs, because chances are it won’t just be obese people taking them. “When you’re talking about a drug where it could go into literally tens of millions of Americans, there has to be attention to safety,” Woodcock says. What might look like a rare problem now could turn into another public health disaster, she says. The story could have helped readers grasp the weight of the evidence – by at least linking to the transcripts and the summary of the FDA Advisory Panel in 2010 which are readily available. There was no disease-mongering of overweight or obesity. Several independent sources were cited. One source quoted captured some of the dilemma regarding alternatives:  “”We go from Weight Watchers to bariatric surgery. And the fact that there isn’t … medical treatments for obesity, including pharmaceuticals, really is a challenge, considering how big the problem is in this country.” The whole story was about the FDA review of the drug and its meeting next week. As noted above, the New York Times reported, “Through a regulatory loophole of sorts, many obesity doctors prescribe two separate drugs that, when taken together, are essentially the same medicine.” This was an interesting perspective that the NPR post didn’t include. As the caption under the story’s photo explains, “The FDA hasn’t approved a new weight-loss drug since 1999.”  But the story didn’t explain, as a Bloomberg story did, that “Qnexa is one of three obesity drugs vying to be the first in 13 years on the market.”  We think that was an important angle to include. It also could have explained that Qnexa is a combination of two drugs that are well known to cause weight loss (phentermine, the phen in phen-fen and topiramate an antiseizure drug that has weight loss as a side effect). It’s clear that this story did not rely solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Weight-Loss Drugs Face High Hurdles At FDA",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A series of images showing a manual purportedly written by “Antifa,” or anti-fascist protestors, was published on various internet forums and websites in August 2017. The first page of the alleged “antifa manual” can be seen below, while the remaining 7 pages have been archived here:  “The Antifa Manual” gained traction on social media around the same time a purported flyer from the anti-fascist group which called for the murder of white children was being circulated. As both of these fraudulent documents shared many of the same telling characteristics, here is a rundown of ways to tell that the manual is fake: Although we’ve only come across one set of images purportedly showing this “antifa manual,” we’ve seen several different claims about where and how this document was found. Although most asserted that this document was found at Evergreen State College, others claimed that it was found at the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Others declared that the manual had been “leaked.” The earliest posting of this document that we could uncover was shared on the web site Imgur on 12 August 2017 by a user named “Jebediah88.” As the Anti-Defamation League explains on their web site, “88 is a white supremacist numerical code for “Heil Hitler.” As with the fake antifa flyer, these images purport to show a document that was created by a central or national antifa group and distributed to members in order to inform them about various policies, philosophies, or organizational rules. But there is no overarching antifa organization or leadership. Instead, there are a variety of antifa groups who are loosely organized, as historian Mark Bray wrote in the Washington Post: There are antifa groups around the world, but antifa is not itself an interconnected organization, any more than an ideology like socialism or a tactic like the picket line is a specific group. Antifa are autonomous anti-racist groups that monitor and track the activities of local neo-Nazis. They expose them to their neighbors and employers, they conduct public education campaigns, they support migrants and refugees and they pressure venues to cancel white power events. The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists. The actual text of “The Antifa Manual” contains several passages that contradict what we know about antifa groups. The cover page, for instance, states that this document should not be given to “cis white males, non-PoC, non-LGBTQ peoples.” Yet, cis white males (white men whose gender identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth), non-PoC (White people) and non-lgbtq (those who do not identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer) individuals are welcome members of antifa groups. Other passages read more like satire. For example, one paragraph describes “ANTIFA regulators” who will monitor the use of racial epithets. Other passages spout conspiracy theories, such as microchipping all individuals or building a “New World Order.” None of these ideas align with any messages that are actually espoused by antifa groups. Other portions mocked the group’s members (“Those who can’t work will be provided a stipend and unlimited supply of opiates, marijuana, meth and cocaine to occupy their free time”), insultingly described groups of people that antifa supposedly champion (“container ship after container ship will be converted to massive passenger cruise-liners and will ferry poverty-stricken brown people from around the world to the (former) United States and Western Europe”), or were racially insensitive or demeaning. Here are some of the more unbelievable passages:      The NYC Antifa group told us in an email that this “antifa manual” was fake. They also directed us to some general literature published by antifa-supporting outlets, such as the anarchist news web site It’s Going Down, for comparison. It’s Going Down published it’s own manual called “Forming An Antifa Group: A Manual,” which is starkly different from the fake antifa manual addressed above. For instance, the fake antifa manual labeled cisgender White men as the “greatest evil mankind has ever known.” The “Forming an Antifa Group” manual, on the other hand, focuses on tracking and opposing white supremacist groups. The fake antifa manual also outlines various political standpoints of the group. However, the genuine article noted that while antifa groups are aligned in their opposition to fascism, they do not necessarily agree on other political issues: Claim: Images show a genuine Antifa manual created and distributed by the anti-fascist group.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sorting out the various claims made about potential health issues associated with plastic water bottles is a difficult process, both because so many different claims about them are circulated and because the generic term “plastic bottle” can in fact refer to any one of several different types of bottles with distinctly different chemical properties. [Collected via e-mail, 2007] No water bottles in freezer. A dioxin chemical causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. [Collected via e-mail, 2004] Many are unaware of poisoning caused by re-using plastic bottles. Some of you may be in the habit of using and re-using your disposable mineral water bottles (eg. Evian, Aqua, Ice Mountain, Vita, etc), keeping them in your car or at work. Not a good idea. In a nutshell, the plastic (called polyethylene terephthalate or PET) used in these bottles contains a potentially carcinogenic element (something called diethylhydroxylamine or DEHA). The bottles are safe for one-time use only; if you must keep them longer, it should be or no more than a few days, a week max, and keep them away from heat as well. Repeated washing and rinsing can cause the plastic to break down and the carcinogens (cancer-causing chemical agents) can leach into the water that YOU are drinking. Better to invest in water bottles that are really meant for multiple uses. This is not something we should be scrimping on. Those of you with family — please advise them, especially for their children’s sake. [Collected via e-mail, 2007] Do Not Drink Water Bottles Left in the Car This information was given to me by my husband and I know all the ladies in my life should know and please forward it to all the ladies in your life. My husband has a friend whose mother recently got diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctor told her women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be careful and do not drink that water bottle that has been left in a car and pass this on to all the women in your life. [Collected via e-mail, 2009] On the Ellen show, Sheryl Crow said this is what caused her breast cancer. It has been identified as the most common cause of the high levels of dioxin in breast cancer tissue. Sheryl Crow’s oncologist told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The heat reacts with the chemicals in the plastic of the bottle which releases dioxin into the water. Dioxin is a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue. So please be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. Pass this on to all the women in your life. Don’t leave water in the car!! pic.twitter.com/o75cDhX11m — APRIIL🌷 (@aprilmartinez__) October 3, 2019   Water, soda, and juice are typically sold in bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET or PETE. These containers are intended to be disposable, single-use bottles, although many consumers wash them and re-use them to hold drinking water or other beverages. Some of the example items reproduced above claim that freezing or re-using PET bottles releases unsafe levels of carcinogens such as “dioxins” or the plastics additive DEHA (diethylhydroxylamine) into whatever liquids they may contain. However, according to the American Chemistry Council, such claims are inaccurate on two counts: DEHA is not used in the manufacture of PET bottles (nor is it created through the breakdown of such bottles), and DEHA is not classified as a human carcinogen: DEHA is neither regulated nor classified as a human carcinogen by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the National Toxicology Program or the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the leading authorities on carcinogenic substances. In 1991, on the basis of very limited data, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classified DEHA as a “possible human carcinogen.” However, in 1995, EPA again evaluated the science and concluded that ” … overall, the evidence is too limited to establish that DEHA is likely to cause cancer.” Further, DEHA is not inherent in PET as a raw material, byproduct or decomposition product. Moreover, DEHA has been cleared by FDA for food-contact applications and would not pose a health risk even if it were present. Finally, in June 2003, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research conducted a scientific study of migration in new and reused plastic water bottles from three countries. The Swiss study did not find DEHA at concentrations significantly above the background levels detected in distilled water, indicating DEHA was unlikely to have migrated from the bottles. The study concluded that the levels of DEHA were distinctly below the World Health Organization guidelines for safe drinking water. The American Cancer Society also debunked such claims, stating: In fact, DEHA is not inherent in the plastic used to make these bottles, and even if it was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says DEHA “cannot reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer, teratogenic effects, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, gene mutations, liver, kidney, reproductive, or developmental toxicity or other serious or irreversible chronic health effects.” Meanwhile, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), says diethylhexyl adipate “is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans.” As for the notion that freezing water in plastic bottles releases dioxin, the American Chemical Council asserted: There simply is no scientific basis to support the claim that PET bottles will release dioxin when frozen. Dioxins are a family of chemical compounds that are produced by combustion at extremely high temperatures. They can only be formed at temperatures well above 700 degrees Fahrenheit; they cannot be formed at room temperature or in freezing temperatures. Moreover, there is no reasonable scientific basis for expecting dioxins to be present in plastic food or beverage containers in the first place. Johns Hopkins researcher Dr. Rolf Halden also said of such claims that: Q: What do you make of this recent email warning that claims dioxins can be released by freezing water in plastic bottles? A: This is an urban legend. There are no dioxins in plastics. In addition, freezing actually works against the release of chemicals. Chemicals do not diffuse as readily in cold temperatures, which would limit chemical release if there were dioxins in plastic, and we don’t think there are. Dr. Halden did note that drinking water from plastic bottles that had been exposed to high temperatures could be problematic, though: There is another group of chemicals, called phthalates that are sometimes added to plastics to make them flexible and less brittle. Phthalates are environmental contaminants that can exhibit hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine disruptors in humans and animals. If you heat up plastics, you could increase the leaching of phthalates from the containers into water and food. Another common type of plastic bottle is made with bisphenol A, also known as BPA. These products are typically rigid plastic bottles intended for multiple re-use, such as baby bottles or water bottles carried by cyclists. Concerns about tests that may link BPA ingestion with cancer and reproductive damage in some animals and the possibility that BPA could leach out of plastic bottles and into the liquids they contain has led to bans on the use of BPA in plastic products intended for children (such as baby bottles), and has prompted some consumers to seek out non-BPA alternatives. Claim: Reusing, freezing, or warming plastic water bottles will cause them to break down into carcinogenic compounds or release dioxins.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Koobface is a real piece of malware that began circulating in late 2008 via messages sent through social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. However, since mid-2010 warnings about Koobface circulated online have mutated into a versions which are largely hoaxes:  Virus spreading like wildfire on FaceBook!! It is a trojan worm called “koob face”. It will steal your info, invade your system and shut it down! Do NOT open the link “Barack Obama Clinton Scandal”! If “SmartGirl15” adds you, don’t accept it; it is a virus. If somebody on your list adds her  then  you get the virus too!! Copy and paste to your wall. Koobface is not “spreading like wildfire” on Facebook (social networking increased their protection in the wake of such malware outbreaks, so Koobface largely stopped using them as a means of transmission),  there is no evidence that Koobface was ever widely spread via “Barack Obama Clinton Scandal” messages, and the warning about “SmartGirl15” was just another updating of another long-running Internet  hoax. Back in 2008, the Koobface e-mails arrived with subject lines such as “You look so amazing funny on our new video” and “You look just awesome in this new movie” and offered recipients links to video sites that appeared to contain movie clips. When users followed the links and attempted to play those videos, however, they got error messages informing them that they need to download a file to update their Adobe Flash Flash software, and that download (flash_player.exe) contained malicious Koobface code:  Facebook sent the following instructions to users whose accounts may have been compromised:  We have detected suspicious activity on your Facebook account and have reset your password as a security precaution. It is possible that malicious software was downloaded to your computer or that your password was stolen by a phishing website designed to look like Facebook. Please carefully follow the steps provided: Run Anti-Virus Software: If your computer has been infected with a virus or with malware, you will need to run anti-virus software to remove these harmful programs and keep your information secure. For Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/viruses/xp/av.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/default.mspx Claim: A trojan worm known as Koobface is \"spreading like wildfire\" via Facebook.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Two doses of belantamab mafodotin helped subdue the disease in adults who had received three prior treatments for multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, GSK said on Friday. The company intends to seek market approval and submit data from the trial to regulatory bodies this year. GSK sold its approved oncology drugs to Novartis in 2014, but has staged a comeback in cancer treatment with a deal to buy U.S. firm Tesaro for $5.1 billion last year and an agreement in February to pay up to 3.7 billion euros ($4.09 billion) to Germany’s Merck KGaA for the rights to a next-generation immunotherapy. “We are on track to file belantamab mafodotin later this year and continue to investigate how it could help even more patients with this disease,” GSK’s Chief Scientific Officer Hal Barron said. The drug targets a protein linked to multiple myeloma known as BCMA. “This is yet another positive signal that GSK’s R&D engine is being turned around and should be well received by the market,” said Liberum analyst Graham Doyle. In another recent win in oncology, GSK’s Zejula - formerly Tesaro’s lead compound - was shown to slow progression of ovarian cancer. GSK shares were up 1% at 0923 GMT versus a 0.4% gain in the STOXX Europe 600 Health Care index. Details of the belantamab mafodotin trial, which tracked how patients fared over time and did not feature a comparison group without the novel treatment, would be presented at an as yet undisclosed medical conference, the company added. The interim result gives further credence to a class of molecules known as antibody drug conjugates (ADC) that belantamab mafodotin belongs to. The concept further builds on the established method of using antibodies that block or bind to foreign substances in the body. ADC, in turn, are antibodies with a cell toxin as a molecular add-on. That allows chemotherapeutic agents, which are harmful to all human cells, to be brought to cancer cells at much higher doses than in conventional chemotherapy. AstraZeneca agreed in March agreed to pay up to $6.9 billion to work with Daiichi Sankyo on an ADC against breast cancer, in a challenge to another ADC called Kadcyla, made by Roche. Multiple myeloma is the second most common form of blood cancer. While it can be treated, there is no available cure, GSK said. The condition is expected to claim the lives of 13,000 people in the U.S. in 2019, according to the American Cancer Society. The BCMA protein that is characteristic of multiple myeloma is also being used as a target in cell therapies developed by Johnson & Johnson, bluebird bio Inc, Celgene Corp. Claim: GSK builds oncology pipeline as drug shown to help myeloma patients.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Radio host and Fox News personality Glenn Beck loves to tell a story with dramatic flair. And he’s latched onto one this holiday season that’s familiar to many Ohioans. It’s the story of Wilmington, a town of 13,000 people in Southwest Ohio that has lost about 8,600 jobs since DHL Express, it largest employer, pulled out in 2008. The job losses the small town has suffered since DHL’s departure have been the subject of presidential campaign stops, celebrity charity events and numerous media reports, including two from CBS’s vaunted 60 Minutes. In Beck’s version of the story, Wilmington is real life Bedford Falls, the fictitious town in the holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. Wilmington, Beck said on his Nov. 22 radio show, is ground zero of the recession, and its people – like those in Bedford Falls -- are pulling together to save the town through self reliance and prayer. What makes the Wilmington really special, he continued, is that Wilmington refuses government assistance, a key tenet of the political philosophy he espouses on his shows. \"It went from the No. 1 most up-and-coming city, and a city everybody wants to live in, to ground zero. And this town hasn’t taken any money from the government. They don’t want any money from the government,\" he said on the show. Beck then noted how Wilmington area churches are working together to provide food for the citizens and asking God -- not the state or federal government -- to fill its food pantries. To highlight his Wilmington story, Beck will hold a show titled \"America’s First Christmas\" at city’s Murphy Theatre on December 15. The proceeds will be donated to a charity in the city. \"I’m going there because I think this town needs to be highlighted,\" he said. \"I think this town is going to help the rest of the country, not the other way around.\" With such a large spotlight headed shining on the small town, Politifact Ohio decided to review Beck’s storyline that Wilmington shuns government assistance. We asked for Beck’s sources, but our e-mails to his producer went unanswered. So, we looked ourselves. We quickly found Beck’s story full of holes. Immediately after DHL announced the closing of its Wilmington air hub, elected officials at the city, state and federal levels began seeking help for DHL workers. The federal government awarded a $3.87 million national emergency grant to Ohio in November 2008 specifically to provide job training and other aid to DHL workers in Wilmington and the surrounding area. It was administered through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The area has since received a second national emergency grant worth $4.1 million. Wilmington and Clinton County benefited handsomely from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the stimulus bill, that was passed in February 2009. The tracking website for the stimulus program allows anybody, including Beck, to search by ZIP code to find the total money spent within the postal district. Using Wilmington’s zip code – 45177, which includes the surrounding county – the site shows that the area received $7,009,811 in stimulus money through September. The figure includes money that went to the Wilmington city schools, Clinton County Department of Jobs and Family Services and the Clinton County Community Action Group, a non-profit organization that aids the poor in in the region and provides free weatherization to residents. The city of Wilmington received a $79,231 stimulus grant to provide programs designed to prevent and control crime; a $167,392 grant for investment in rural public transit vehicles, and about $4 million to replace roads, curbs and sidewalks, typically replaced by residents. In addition, the Ohio Department of Development is extensively involved in the community. It has provided money to Clinton County Port Authority to help redevelop the Wilmington air park. It’s also offering Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services, a new company operating at the air park, more than $5.2 million in state assistance to grow its business there. Wilmington Mayor David Raizk, who cited several other sources of federal assistance flowing to the city, said he’s chasing any government help he can get. \"I’ve beat on more doors than I can count,\" he says. \"Not because we are looking for hand out - but we are looking for a hand up. My job is to get whatever assistance I can get for the citizens here and to help create jobs for them.\" So where does all this leave Beck’s premise that Wilmington is a place that shuns government help? Beck took enough literary license in his holiday tale to make Frank Capra blush. His statement isn’t just false. It’s also ridiculous enough to earn a Politifact rating of . Claim: This town (Wilmington, Ohio) hasn’t taken any money from the government. They don’t want any money from the government.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Trump administration reversed an Obama-era ruling on the health risks chlorpyrifos poses to humans. But the Trump administration attributes its decision to unclear science — not a $1 million payment from Dow Chemical. Chlorpyrifos is used as an insecticide to control termites, mosquitos, roundworms and other insects. The chemical functions as a nerve agent. It blocks enzymes that control messages between nerve cells, killing pests. First registered for use in the United States in 1965, EPA re-registered the chemical in 2006, the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) reports. Legal action initiated is the source of recent debate on chlorpyrifos. The Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) and Natural Resources Defense Council filed an administrative petition with the EPA in 2007. The groups petitioned EPA to revoke all food tolerances, and to cancel all registrations, of chlorpyrifos. After seven years without action, PANNA petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit in 2014 to compel EPA to issue a final response. EPA was ordered to issue a preliminary decision in 2015, and to take final action by March 31, 2017. The Trump administration denied the petition in March 2017 — a reversal from the Obama administration’s position. That led to speculation that Trump’s decision was motivated  by a $1 million payment from Dow Chemical. Action to Restrict Chlorpyrifos Under President Obama As a result of PANNA’s lawsuit, EPA reviewed human health risk assessments (HRRA) for chlorpyrifos in 2011 and 2014. The ladder HHRA review analyzed new information on chlorpyrifos that found human exposure to the chemical was not safe at levels allowed under current law. In response, EPA published notice of a proposed rule to revoke “all tolerances of chlorpyrifos” in 2015. And, in November 2016, EPA issued a final revised HRRA for chlorpyrifos. It concluded that humans are exposed to harmful levels of chlorpyrifos in food and drinking water under current standards. One study cited in the revised HRRA demonstrated that chlorpyrifos was present in 87 percent of umbilical cords tested. Other studies linked exposure to the chemical to lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease. The November 2016 HRRA for chlorpyrifos found “sufficient evidence that there are neurodevelopmental effects occurring at chlorpyrifos exposure levels below that required for” inhibiting brain enzymes. A final rule wasn’t published with the March 31, 2017 deadline looming, however. EPA Reverses Obama-era Policy Under President Trump EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced in March 2017 that PANNA’s petition to revoke all tolerances and registrations of chlorpyrifos had been denied. Despite the Obama administration’s conclusion that chlorpyrifos exposure led to neurodevelopment effects in children, the March 2017 EPA notice ruled that there wasn’t clear evidence to prove that. Given the so-called unclear science and firm March 31 deadline, EPA states, it had no choice but to deny the petition:  EPA has concluded that, despite several years of study, the science addressing neurodevelopmental effects remains unresolved and that further evaluation of the science during the remaining time for completion of registration review is warranted to achieve greater certainty as to whether the potential exists for adverse neurodevelopmental effects to occur from current human exposures to chlorpyrifos. EPA has therefore concluded that it will not complete the human health portion of the registration review or any associated tolerance revocation of chlorpyrifos without first attempting to come to a clearer scientific resolution on those issues. Congress had given EPA until 2022 to complete its registration review of chlorpyrifos, the order states. Because the Ninth Circuit made clear that no deadline extensions would be provided, EPA denied all remaining claims. PANNA appealed the EPA’s decision to the Ninth Circuit. In July, the panel denied the appeal. The court ruled that  PANNA must exhaust EPA’s administrative appeal process before taking the case to court. Fallout from Trump’s Order on Chlorpyrifos Controversy followed the Trump administration’s action on chlorpyrifos in March 2017. An August 2017 report by the New York Times drew EPA’s ire. EPA released a statement saying that the Times “doesn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story,” and EPA Spokesperson Amy Graham added: The New York Times ran a story under the headline “Trump’s Legacy: Damaged Brains” on October 28, 2017. And talk show host Chelsea Handler brought chlorpyrifos back into public debate in November 2017. She summarized her views in a tweet: Chlorpyrifos is a chemical from Dow Chemical Company. It came from the nazis and is a nerve agent that does irreversible brain damage. It was supposed to banned this year, but trump decided to let it be used on fruits and vegetables. Dow gave trump 1 million dollars. Handlers’ tweet was shared nearly 50,000 times within two days. Her comment appeared on a meme that was widely shared on social media and in discussion forums. This marked the first exposure to chlorpyrifos regulatory issues for many people. Comments Claim:  President Donald Trump allowed the use of chlorpyrifos in chemical pesticides because Dow Chemical paid him $1 million. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This is Part II of a three-part series on crime in Sweden. Read Part I:”Is Sweden the ‘Rape Capital’ of Europe?“ Recently, conspiracy and tabloid web sites have been filled with horror stories about refugees in Sweden, accusing them of everything from rape and murder to sheer bad manners. Writing for the British tabloid The Daily Mail on 3 March 2017, Katie Hopkins described the situation in breathless terms: The fears are real. The areas migrants inhabit have become sink suburbs, riddled with no-go zones, even for the police, where hand-grenade attacks are the accepted norm, women stay indoors, and the ambulances and fire engines need police escorts. God help any good people forced to live here … World leaders such as British politicians Nigel Farage and U.S. president Donald Trump have claimed that Sweden is now overrun with crime because the country took in about 193,000 asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016. However, most violence in Sweden can’t be linked to asylum seekers. Instead, economic stagnation in immigrant communities that formed decades ago has resulted in intergenerational poverty, which has in turn fueled the proliferation of street gangs. Data provided by Statistics Sweden show, for example, that unemployment is higher and education levels lower in Herrgården, which is thought of as the most dangerous part of Rosengård, a neighborhood in Malmö. The city of Malmö is often the subject of news reports about the supposed Swedish crime wave. Deputy Mayor Nils Karlsson told us that crime in these areas stems from Sweden’s failure to integrate previous generations of immigrants. Since the vast majority of the ethnically-Swedish population is college-educated, employers usually choose people with academic degrees over those without degrees, even for entry-level positions — in short, the same disparities that fuel crime all over the world: People with a background outside Europe have a much larger unemployment rate than people like me. In some areas of Malmö, the unemployment rate is 40 percent, while in other parts it’s about 1 percent. That is not a well-integrated society. If you’re growing up and your parents don’t have a job and don’t have much money, of course you’re not going to see that many alternatives for yourself. The key to stopping crime is getting people to work. The problem here is the level of education for the people coming here doesn’t match the job market anymore. Sweden’s governmental agency that conducts crime research, Brå, has not performed a study that takes into account the nationality of crime suspects since 2005, as the law currently prevents them from tracking the national origin of crime suspects and victims. In 2005, they found that people with non-Swedish backgrounds were 2.5 times more likely to be crime suspects, but Brå pointed to a Stockholm University finding that economic opportunity and social mobility play a decisive role in criminal activity: In the empirical analyses we follow all individuals who completed compulsory schooling during the period 1990 to 1993 in the Stockholm Metropolitan area (N=66,330), and we analyze how background factors related to the family of origin and neighborhood segregation during adolescence influence the gap in recorded crimes, which are measured in 2005. For males, we are generally able to explain between half and three-quarters of this gap in crime by parental socioeconomic resources and neighborhood segregation. For females, we can explain even more, sometimes the entire gap. Resources in the family of origin appear to be the strongest mediator. In addition, the residual differences are virtually unrelated to immigrants’ country of origin, indicating that ‘culture’ or other shared context-of-exit factors matter very little in generating the gap. (The term “context-of-exit” means the circumstances under which migrants left their home country). The experts we interviewed all noted that critics are conflating recently-arrived asylum seekers with other populations when they talk about “migrant crime.” Many of the persons committing crimes in areas such as Malmö or the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby are young people who were either born in Sweden to immigrant parents or were born outside the country but arrived in Sweden at a young age. Joakim Palmkvist, a long-time crime reporter for the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan, which is based in Malmö, explained that there is no massive new crime wave being perpetrated by newly-arrived refugees in Sweden’s suburbs — instead, crime today is an iteration of gang violence that has been going on in the country since the 1990s, starting with American exports such as the motorcycle gangs Hell’s Angels and Bandidos. Sitting in a small meeting area in Sydsvenskan‘s newsroom, Palmkvist explained that the motorcycle gangs were the “first wave” of gang organization in Sweden. They set the stage for the “second wave,” which to a large extent consisted of the children of people who fled the Balkan war. The current spate in violence in these areas is the result of a power vacuum in the organized crime community and the younger “third wave” — children of immigrants who have lived in Sweden most of their lives — who are now trying to establish themselves. What sets the so-called third wave apart from earlier waves is its chaotic nature, loose structure, and disconnection from wider society. The bar of what can spark a homicide is also lower than it has ever been; a wrong look or a leer at a girlfriend could lead to a shooting, Palmkvist said: The second wave, a couple have been killed off, trickled away, retired, some have gone to prison as well … The third wave is coming into that vacuum and they are fighting amongst each other to see who will be the main man. Crime researcher Johanna Olseryd pointed out that Brå’s annual crime survey showed that homicides aren’t increasing, but they are changing in nature: Less people are being victimized in the general population, but then we have a small group of people who are victimized repeatedly… Also when it comes to lethal violence, we haven’t seen an increase there but we have seen an increase in the proportion of cases that are perpetrated with guns. There’s been a change in the type of homicides that occur in Sweden — more guns and more homicides connected to a criminal milieu. We haven’t had an increase in total, but we can see the share of cases that have occurred with guns in these areas have increased. Police in Malmö are currently handling 14 homicides, a number that has overwhelmed local investigators, said Erik Jansåker, police chief for Malmö’s southern areas. One of the most rattling of the recent deaths was that of 16-year-old immigrant Ahmed Obaid, himself an immigrant. No one knows for certain why he was targeted in Rosengård while standing by a bus stop. A bouquet of yellow flowers still rested against a light pole at the bus stop on 16 March 2017, two months after his shooting. Officer Johannes Schultz, who patrols the neighborhood on foot, told us that Obaid’s shooting death sent a chill through the community: That changed the whole society in Rosengård. Even 17, 18 year-olds say they are afraid to go out when it’s dark now. Because he got shot and no one knows why. He was not a criminal. There have been less people out in the evenings than it was before that. But people tend to forget and it’s getting warmer, so it’s easier to be outside. Karlsson said that while the country’s crime is historically low he can understand the fear that the violence can engender, as when it does happen, it tends to be high profile: Despite us having taken in many immigrants during the 1990s when we had the Balkan crisis up to now, even with that immigration, the level of crimes have decreased. But Sweden is a small country and Malmö is a small city, and if someone gets shot many people will know that person. I can understand why people are scared. Yet, Karlsson, said, crime in Sweden has been alternately sensationalized and ignored. He told us that both liberals (who think of Sweden as a paradise) and conservatives (who say it is overrun with violence) have both gotten it wrong: Saying everything is great is not helping because you have to say there is a problem before you actually fix it. Sweden has been quite good at spreading the reputation about how perfect we are, which of course now backfires. But we used to have and still do have a low crime rate … since the early 1900s. Research from Brå backs him up — crime data show a general downward trend since 2005:  In this graph from Sweden’s crime study, the dark solid line represents citizens who said they were victims of crime. The dotted line represents people who said someone in their household had been the victim of property crime, while the light solid line represents people who said they were victims of crimes on their person, a broad legal term that can mean anything from homicide to trespassing. Brå explained that overall, crime figures are trending down: The proportion of people who say they have been victim of any crime during the year have declined over the past decade, from 26 percent in 2005 to 24 percent in 2015. Primarily, the proportion of households who are victims of property crimes decreased, from 13 percent in 2006 to 10 percent 2015. Claim: Recently-arrived asylum seekers are perpetrating the majority of crime in Sweden.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release provides no information about how much the vaccine is likely to cost. Cost is especially important in the developing world where it is most likely to be used and in large quantities. The news release explains that, among participants vaccinated immediately, no Ebola cases were identified 10 days or more after vaccination, compared to 23 cases among individuals assigned to the delayed vaccination group. The data also suggested that the vaccine reduced Ebola risks for unvaccinated individuals within the contact rings of those who were vaccinated, but the news release notes that the study was not designed to test this so-called “herd immunity” effect, so it will require further research to confirm that vaccinating some individuals reduces the likelihood of their contacts developing Ebola. The release could have explained more clearly that the virus has a 10 day incubation period during which the virus can develop in the patient and not be affected by the vaccine as the body won’t have time to develop immunity. But the fact that the two groups (vaccinated and delayed vaccination) had equal numbers during the 0 to 10 day period helps to confirm that the two groups were equal in their exposure to the virus and risk of developing Ebola. The news release also accurately quantifies the harms associated with this vaccine, noting that more than half of those vaccinated reported mild side effects, including short-term headaches, fatigue and muscle pain. The release also identified two serious negative reactions (a high fever and an allergic reaction) associated with the vaccination and a flu-like illness that might have been a result of the vaccine. This is a particularly strong point of the release in that many releases on drug/vaccine studies don’t quantify the adverse event rates very clearly or completely. The news release notes that the trials involved 5,837 people who received the vaccine and 6,004 who did not. The fact that no patients in the vaccination group developed Ebola suggests that the vaccine does indeed have some effect. The statistical significance in the two groups for all patients was p = 0.01, suggesting that the result was unlikely to have occurred by chance alone. On the other hand, the fact that the study was stopped early does raise the possibility that a longer lasting study would have found a smaller difference between the two groups as this is typically found in studies stopped early for effect. Ebola is certainly a serious disease, given the high fatality rates when outbreaks occur. The news release acknowledges this but does not use sensational language or otherwise overplay the risks Ebola poses. The news release identifies the funding sources for the study, which included WHO and a number of government agencies from Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, along with the international organizations the Wellcome Trust and Médecins Sans Frontières. The news release also identifies the organizations with which the study’s research team members were associated, although it does not give any indication of the extent to which research team members or their organizations receive additional funding from Merck, which obviously stands to gain the most if the vaccine proves effective and is recommended for use by the World Health Organization. The news release also briefly summarizes a study of a different Ebola vaccine candidate being developed by a Chinese organization. This study, also published in the same issue of The Lancet, was much smaller, involving only 500 participants, and suggested that the effectiveness of this vaccine declined during the first six months after the initial injection. To be even more thorough, the release might have acknowledged that still other vaccines are under development by GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and at least one other pharmaceutical company. The news release provides fairly detailed information about the next steps in the vaccine approval process, noting that Merck has committed to submitting the vaccine for regulatory approval by the end of 2017 and that the company has committed to making 300,000 doses available should an outbreak occur before approval is gained. It also notes that if an outbreak occurred before the vaccine is approved, it could be used, with informed consent of those vaccinated, through a “compassionate use” program. The news release notes that no other Ebola vaccine is currently available, briefly summarizes results of a trial of an alternative vaccine and notes that the study findings being described “add weight to early trial results” published previously on the same vaccine. The Lancet news release eschews sensational language in reference to either Ebola or the vaccine. However, the statement that there was a dramatic effect (0 deaths vs 23 deaths) suggests that this is a super vaccine and perhaps too good to be true. Claim: Final trial results confirm Ebola vaccine provides high protection against disease",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On the July 11, 2010, edition of NBC's Meet the Press, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie sought to contrast favorably economic performance under President George W. Bush to that under President Barack Obama. Gillespie -- a former top aide to Bush -- said \"the fact is, under the Bush tax cuts, we did have 52 months of ... uninterrupted job creation, longest in the history of the country, and revenues were at an all-time high in 2007. The problem wasn't lack of revenue. The problem still remains today too much federal spending, and this administration's not addressing that.\" We thought it would be worth checking two of Gillespie's claims. • Did Bush preside over 52 months of uninterrupted job creation? Close, but not quite. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added more jobs than it lost during 50 out of 52 months between September 2003 and December 2007. The economy lost jobs over two months during that stretch -- between June 2007 and July 2007 (20,000 jobs) and between July 2007 and August 2007 (71,000). That falls slightly short of being \"uninterrupted.\" Gillespie would have been correct if he'd said that jobs grew for 46 consecutive months. We might add that over the course of Bush's presidency -- a total of 96 months -- the economy created 1.08 million jobs. That may sound like a lot, but compared to every other post-World War II president prior to Obama, it's the lowest average annual percentage increase in jobs created. (See our calculations here.) That said, Obama's figures are worse than any of his postwar predecessors'. The economy has shed between 2.4 million and 3.1 million jobs during the 18 months he's been in office, depending on whether you start counting with the January 2009 figures or the February 2009 figures. • Were revenues at an all-time high in 2007? Strictly speaking, yes. According to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, total federal tax receipts hit $2.57 trillion in 2007, before declining in 2008 and 2009, when the current recession was under way. (Tax revenues almost always sink during a recession.) The 2007 level was the highest recorded since 1934, when statistics were first collected. So on that score, Gillespie's right. But using this particular statistic neglects a key factor -- the size of the economy as a whole. Though recessions and expansions produce volatility in tax collections, as do changes in tax policy, one would expect that a bigger economy would generally produce greater tax revenues than a smaller one. And indeed, in the 57 tax years between 1951 and 2007, tax collections grew 49 times on a year-to-year basis -- a consistent trend despite frequent changes in tax rates and periodic recessions. You can easily factor out the size of the U.S. economy if you divide revenue by gross domestic product, or GDP. The Tax Policy Center has also calculated these numbers. In 2007, tax revenues represented 18.5 percent of GDP. That's high by historical standards but hardly a record. It only ties for 16th place going back to 1934, and within the 14-year stretch between 1996 and 2009 it only rises to 7th place. So if Gillespie's point is that Bush's tax cuts led to record revenues, they did -- for 2007 at least -- but that was a record aided by a the largest, non-recession economy in American history. Ultimately, Gillespie two comments are generally accurate, but they would have benefited from some additional historical context. We realize that this is not always possible during a fast-paced television show, so on balance. Claim: Under President George W. Bush, the U.S. had \"52 months of ... uninterrupted job creation\" and \"revenues were at an all-time high in 2007.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The proposal would direct Medicare to bargain over as many as 250, but no fewer than 25, of the costliest drugs. Insulin is on the list. Drugmakers that refuse to negotiate could face steep penalties. Companies that raise prices beyond inflation would have to pay rebates to Medicare. The plan would limit copays for seniors covered by Medicare’s “Part D” prescription drug program to $2,000. Medicare-negotiated prices would be available to other buyers, such as employer health plans. It’s shaping up as a high-stakes gamble for all sides in Washington. Polls show that high drug prices have Americans worried, and regardless of party affiliation, they want Congress to act. As a candidate, President Donald Trump called for Medicare negotiations but later seemed to drop the idea. Pelosi, D-Calif., said her goal is a deal that Trump can sign onto and that could pass the GOP-controlled Senate. “We don’t want a political issue at the polls,” Pelosi said at a news conference. “We want a solution in Congress, and we want it now.” Weighing in on Twitter, Trump said, “Let’s get it done in a bipartisan way!” Unlike other Republicans, he refrained from criticizing Pelosi’s bill and said “it’s great” to see her out with a plan. But he said he preferred a bipartisan Senate bill being pushed by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley. In the Senate, Republican John Cornyn of Texas said Pelosi’s proposal “has absolutely no chance —zero, zip, nada” of passing. Some House Republicans quickly dismissed it as “socialism.” The 2003 law that created Medicare’s prescription drug benefit barred the program from negotiating prices, a restriction Democrats have long opposed. Most Republicans say they believe price negotiations are best left to private players such as insurance companies. The industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said Pelosi’s plan was “radical” and would usher in an era of government price-setting that would “blow up” the current system, stifling innovation. But health insurers called the plan “bold reform” and hospitals said it takes “significant strides toward reducing out-of-control drug prices.” Public Citizen, a consumer group on the political left, said the bill didn’t go far enough because it left intact drugmakers’ monopoly on new medicines. A leading House progressive, Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett, agreed that more is required. “This new bill was promoted as a way to sway President Trump and a reluctant Republican Senate,” said Doggett. “I await their embrace.” While the legislation leans left politically it also incorporates ideas from the Trump administration and from Republican and Democratic senators — a signal Pelosi wants a deal. Pelosi’s proposal would: — authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for up to 250 drugs with the greatest total cost to society. That includes pharmacy drugs under the Part D prescription benefit, and Part B medications dispensed in doctors’ offices, such as many cancer drugs. Medicare would negotiate for as many drugs as possible on a list refreshed annually, but no fewer than 25. The maximum price would be determined using a blend of international prices, similar to a more limited proposal from the administration. Drug companies that balk at making a deal would face penalties that start at 65% of sales for the drug at issue, and escalate if they hold out. — require drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare if they raise prices beyond the increase in inflation. That idea resembles the plan from Sens. Grassley and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Their proposal has cleared a key committee, with Trump’s support. But many Senate Republicans oppose inflation rebates, and it’s unclear what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., plans to do next. — limit what seniors pay out of pocket for their medications to $2,000 a year. Currently, Medicare’s pharmacy benefit has no cap on copays, and the advent of drugs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year has left some seniors saddled with bills that rival a mortgage payment. An out-of-pocket limit is part of the Grassley-Wyden bill and is backed by the administration. For now, criticism of the industry — from Trump and lawmakers of both parties — appears to be having an effect on prices. The Commerce Department’s inflation index for prescription drug prices has declined in seven of the past eight months, which is highly unusual. That index includes lower-cost generic drugs. For brand-name drugs, a recent Associated Press analysis shows prices are still going up on average, but at a slower pace. Costly brand-name drugs that translate to steep copays are the top concern for consumers. The AP analysis found that in the first seven months of 2019, drugmakers raised list prices for brand name medicines by a median, or midpoint, of 5%. That’s a slowdown. Prices were going up 9% or 10% over those months the prior four years. Still, there were 37 price increases for every decrease in the first seven months of 2019. ___ Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report. Claim: Pelosi offers Medicare negotiation plan to curb drug prices.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In February 2019, a #BlackHistoryMonth post on Facebook asserted that the Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA (also known as The Genius) is a scientist, has lectured at Harvard, and is educated in quantum physics:Above two photographs of GZA, text stated:People you didn’t know were scientists:GZA of Wutang Clan is educated in quantum physics & has given lectures at MIT & Harvard.The post was tagged “Day #6 #Ihadnoclue #sciencenerd and #blackhistory. No citations were provided about GZA’s science credentials, but the post was shared tens of thousands of times.In April 2012, Rolling Stone published an item titled “GZA Talks Lectures, Science and ‘Dark Matter,'” which began:Wu-Tang Clan rapper GZA has been known as the Genius since the early days of his career – but in recent months, the name has been particularly apt, as he has spent much of his free time chatting with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and giving lectures at Harvard and New York University. The emcee also recently completed work on Dark Matter, a new album inspired in part by his interest in quantum physics, which will hit stores later this year.In response to a question about GZA’s passion for dark matter, he said:I’ve been interested in [quantum physics] for years. I mean, if you think about it, if you go back to Legend of the Liquid Sword – I put that out in 2002. I had a song on there, a verse where I say:Why U-N-I-verse run like clock works forever?Words pulled together, sudden change in the weatherThe nature and the scale of events don’t make senseA story with no warnin’ you’re drawn in, environmentsGravity that’s gone mad, clouds of dust and debrisMoving at colossal speeds, they crush an emceeSince this rap region is heavily packed with starsInternal mirror in the telescope, noticed the CzarFrom far away, they blink as the lightnin’ strolledGreat distance of space between precise globesHowever, the interview stopped short of characterizing GZA as a scientist (implying formal education in the sciences) rather than a well-informed physics enthusiast and autodidact.The meme also suggested that GZA “gave lectures” at Harvard and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, implying that the artist taught classes on branches of science like physics. It’s true that GZA appeared at Harvard in November 2011 as a guest lecturer, but the lecture involved was outside classes and open to the public; further, its content was more about GZA’s work and interests (including, but not limited to, physics):…GZA is planning on hitting up Harvard University as a guest lecturer.The Genius will speak at a lecture hosted by the Harvard Black Men’s Forum in Science Center D on Thursday, December 1st at 5 p.m. The chat, open to the public, will focus on the Wu-Tang Clan and his creative process, and will be followed by a Q&A session.Rolling Stone concurrently reported:Wu-Tang Clan rapper GZA/The Genius is set to give a lecture about his music career and lyrical craft at Harvard’s Black Men’s Forum on December 1st [2011].The Harvard Crimson covered GZA’s visit in December 2011, reporting that the artist spoke primarily about life and hip hop:“This is the first time for me. I should be learning from you all,” GZA said. “I’m actually shaking right now, crazy,” he added with a laugh.As he took the stage, a lecture hall full of fans greeted him with shouts of the trademark Wu-Tang phrase, “Peace.”[…]GZA closed his lecture with some advice for those that had turned out.“Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning.”GZA similarly visited MIT in 2015 to discuss hip-hop and science. GZA’s appearance was part of an “ongoing speaker series featuring hip-hop artists”:The Boston Globe reports that Gary Grice, who goes by the stage name “GZA,” will speak with students at the Cambridge university about his latest album and how art and outer space collide. […]GZA isn’t new to the school’s campus. The original Wu-Tang member last visited MIT in 2012 to talk to students about chess, freestyle rapping and the music that influenced his life.The meme also said that GZA was “educated in quantum physics.” In May 2012, the Wall Street Journal described GZA as foregoing formal education and later developing an interest in quantum physics:On an early May afternoon in the offices of Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium, a model of Saturn caught the eye of a 45-year-old high-school dropout, and a lyric was born.“I thought, this is probably the longest spinning record in the world,” said GZA, the hip-hop artist and founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, referring to the ring system surrounding the planet. About a week later, the words crystallized and he offered them over a vegetarian lunch on the Upper West Side.“God put the needle on the disc of Saturn / The record he played revealed blueprints and patterns,” he rapped in his signature rhythmic baritone, offering a taste from his forthcoming album, “Dark Matter,” an exploration of the cosmos filtered through the mind of a rapper known among his peers as “the Genius.”Informed by meetings with top physicists and cosmologists at MIT and Cornell University, “Dark Matter” is intended to be the first in a series of albums that GZA—born Gary Grice in Brooklyn in 1966—will put out in the next few years, several of which are designed to get a wide audience hooked on science. […]For GZA, a major challenge is convincing skeptics for whom hip-hop and an academic subject like physics seem incompatible.“It’s gonna sound so boring to most people,” the rapper said. “There have been times when I’ve been told, ‘Oh, you’re doing an album about physics? I hope it’s not boring.’ They don’t get the idea. Because rappers are so one-dimensional, so narrow-minded, it comes off corny.”Still, he believes that “Dark Matter” will tap into the innate curiosity of listeners—even those with no outward interest in science.The article reiterated that GZA’s formal education ended early, but that he worked with scientists to develop an album about physics:Despite have left school in the 10th grade, GZA nurtured his affection for science as he developed his skills as a lyricist.“There were certain things that grabbed my interest, such as photosynthesis, such as us living off plants and plants living off us,” he said. “You look at everything in that light—so if I’m looking at ice cubes, I might start thinking about absolute zero, or Fahrenheit and Celsius. There’s so much that can make me think about science.”In November 2012, GZA joined forces with scientists to promote scientific literacy in New York City:They are an unlikely team of educational reformers.Christopher Emdin is a Columbia University professor who likes to declaim Newton’s laws in rhyme. GZA is a member of the Wu-Tang Clan who left school in 10th grade. When the two men met this summer, at a radio show hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium, they started talking about science and education — particularly, why science classrooms were failing to engage many African-American and Latino students, who together make up 70 percent of New York City’s student body. Only 4 percent of African-American seniors nationally were proficient in sciences, compared with 27 percent of whites, according to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress.GZA, 46, who was born Gary Grice, had just finished an extraordinary round of meetings with physicists at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, culling ideas for a coming solo album about the cosmos. Dr. Emdin, 34, an assistant professor of science education at Teachers College, was a lifelong hip-hop fan. They discovered a shared interest in merging their two worlds: GZA by bringing science into hip-hop; Dr. Emdin by bringing hip-hop into the science classroom.Next month, the two men, along with the popular hip-hop lyrics Web site Rap Genius, will announce a pilot project to use hip-hop to teach science in 10 New York City public schools. The pilot is small, but its architects’ goals are not modest. Dr. Emdin, who has written a book called “Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation,” hopes to change the way city teachers relate to minority students, drawing not just on hip-hop’s rhymes, but also on its social practices and values.The meme tells a partially accurate story about GZA’s passion for science, but leaves out a stronger underlying truth. The Wu-Tang rapper is indeed passionate about science, and while he hasn’t taught at Harvard or MIT, he did appear at several well-known universities (those among them) to speak about his life and interest in science. During that time, GZA worked with science advocates to develop initiatives drawing young hip-hop fans to promote scientific literacy, and has consistently expressed a deep interest in and love for science education. Claim: Wu-Tang's GZA is a scientist, educated in quantum physics, who has lectured at MIT and Harvard.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Golfrid Siregar, an activist with the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), was discovered by a pedicab driver lying unconscious on the side of a road in the city of Medan on Sumatra island last Thursday, police said. He was brought to hospital but died three days later, police said. Police initially said it appeared to be a traffic accident, but on Thursday Medan’s chief detective, Eko Hartanto, said three men, including the pedicab driver, had become suspects for stealing the victim’s belongings, state news agency Antara reported. “We have also done a reenactment of the crime scene to find what exactly caused his death,” the news agency cited Hartanto as saying. Walhi said in a statement this week that Siregar suffered injuries to his head that appeared to come from a blunt object but there were no wounds on other parts of his body. His bag, laptop, wallet and phone were missing, it said. In a joint news conference in Jakarta on Thursday, Amnesty International Indonesia researcher Papang Hidayat said there should be an independent investigation “because the victim had raised cases on environmental and human rights crimes against local people, whose network of perpetrators don’t only involve corporations but also the state apparatus”. Human rights lawyer Muhamad Isnur also questioned why Siregar’s motorbike had not be stolen if his death resulted from  a robbery. Police detective Hartanto and a North Sumatra police spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Siregar had been involved in various projects in recent years, including helping fishermen in a lawsuit against a sand miner and assisting residents in a fight against forest encroachment, said Walhi’s head of advocacy, Zenzi Suhadi. According to Suhadi, his latest and most high-profile case was representing Walhi in its legal challenge to stop the construction of a $1.5 billion China-funded hydro dam, which some experts had warned would destroy the habitat of orangutans. North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE), which owns the dam project, said by text message: “We are requesting all parties not to speculate and connect PT NSHE directly or indirectly to the death of Golfrid Siregar ... until the results of a police investigation come out”. Claim: Indonesia green group calls for probe into death of activist.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2020 we received multiple inquiries from readers about an alert that was shared widely on Facebook and Twitter, purporting to be an “emergency notification” from an unspecified “Ministry of Health” about an ongoing outbreak of a new coronavirus. Broadly speaking, the warning appeared in two forms. The most commonly shared was a text post that typically read as follows: *Urgent: Health Bulletin to the Public * *Ministry of health’s emergency notification to the public that the Coronavirus outbreak this time is very very serious & fatal. There’s no cure once you are infected. * *Its spreading from China to various countries* *Prevention method is to keep your throat moist, do not let your throat dry up. Thus do not hold your thirst because once your membrane in your throat is dried, the virus will invade into your body within 10 mins. * *Drink 50-80cc warm water, 30-50cc for kids, according to age. * *Everytime u feel your throat is dry, do not wait, keep water in hand. * *Do not drink plenty at one time as it doesn’t help, instead continue to keep throat moist. * *Till end of March 2020, do not go to crowded places, wear mask as needed especially in train or public transportation* *Avoid fried or spicy food and load up vitamin C.* *The symptoms/ description are* *1.repeated high fever* *2.prolonged coughing after fever* *3.Children are prone* *4.Adults usually feel uneasy,*headache and mainly respiratory related* *5: highly contagious*  The message was typically followed up with an exhortation to share its warnings, such as, “Please forward to help others.” One version of the viral alert even concluded by pleading with readers, “Please share if you care for human life.”  The second principal form in which the message appeared was as a photograph of a printed email, dated Jan. 28, 2020, and purporting to have been sent by “NWLLAB.” It contained many of the same key components — it purported to come from an unspecified “MOH” (Ministry of Health), and its main recommendation to the public was again to “keep your throat moist” by drinking water. It read as follows: Pls tell ur families, relatives and friends MOH Health Bulletin to the Public: The Upper Respiratory Infection affecting China at present is quite serious. The virus causing it is very potent and is resistant to existing antibiotics. (virus is not bacterial infection hence cannot be treated by antibiotics). The prevention method now is to keep your throat moist, do not let your throat dry up. Thus do not hold your thirst because once your membrane in your throat is dried, the virus will invade into your body within 10 mins. Drink 50-80cc warm water, 30-50cc for kids, according to age. Everytime [sic] you feel your throat is dry, do not wait, keep water in hand. Do not drink plenty at one time as it does not help; instead, continue to keep throat moist. Till end of March, do not go to crowded places, wear mask as needed especially in train or public transportation. Avoid fried or spicy food and load up vitamin C.  The symptoms/description are: 1. Repeated high fever. 2. Prolonged coughing after fever. 3. Children are more prone. 4. Adults usually feel uneasy, headache and mainly respiratory related illness. This illness is highly contagious. Let’s continue to pray and wait for further notice about the infection. Please share. Claim: A viral social media post in January 2020 represented an authentic, accurate \"health bulletin\" about the new coronavirus outbreak from an official public health authority.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted six one-page “decision tool” documents that use traffic signs and other graphics to tell organizations what they should consider before reopening. The tools are for schools, workplaces, camps, childcare centers, mass transit systems, and bars and restaurants. The CDC originally also authored a document for churches and other religious facilities, but that wasn’t posted Thursday. The agency declined to say why. Early versions of the documents included detailed information for churches wanting to restart in-person services, with suggestions including maintaining distance between parishioners and limiting the size of gatherings. The faith-related guidance was taken out after the White House raised concerns about the recommended restrictions, according to government emails obtained by The Associated Press and a person inside the agency who didn’t have permission to talk with reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity. On Thursday, a Trump administration official also speaking on condition of anonymity said there were concerns about the propriety of the government making specific dictates to places of worship. And Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, said “protections against religious discrimination aren’t suspended during an emergency. This means the federal government cannot single out religious conduct as somehow being more dangerous or worthy of scrutiny than comparable secular behavior.” President Donald Trump has championed religious freedom as a way to connect with conservative evangelical voters and has shown eagerness for in-person religious services to restart. He consulted interfaith leaders last month for suggestions on how to reopen and said on a recent Fox News town hall that “we have to get our people back to churches, and we’re going to start doing it soon.” The CDC drafted the reopening guidance more than a month ago and it was initially shelved by the administration, the AP  reported last week. The agency also had prepared even more extensive guidance — about 57 pages of it — that has not been posted. That longer document, which the AP obtained, would give different organizations specifics about how to reopen while still limiting spread of the virus, including by spacing workers or students 6 feet apart and closing break rooms and cafeterias to limit gatherings. Many of the suggestions already appear on federal websites but they haven’t been presented as reopening advice. Some health experts and politicians have been pushing for the CDC to release as much guidance as possible to help businesses and organizations decide how to proceed. “They want to be able to tell their own employees the guidance of the federal government,” Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University, said at a congressional hearing Wednesday. “They want to be able to tell their customers, ‘We’ve done everything that’s been asked of us.’”  The guidance relates to another document released by the Trump administration on April 17. That phased-in reopening plan broadly outlines how to move away from stay-at-home orders, school closures and other measures designed to stop the spread of the new coronavirus that has caused more than 1.3 million reported U.S. illnesses and more than 80,000 deaths. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, on Wednesday offered a resolution — blocked by Republicans — to encourage release of all the documents. “America needs and must have the candid guidance of our best scientists unfiltered, unedited, uncensored by president Trump or his political minions. The CDC report on reopening the country is an important piece of that guidance,” Schumer said. The decision tools have been undergoing review by different federal officials, and they’ve been edited from earlier versions. For example, an earlier draft of the one-page document on camps obtained by the AP asked organizers if their program would limit attendance to people who live nearby. If the answer was no, the camp was advised not to reopen. That local attendance limitation was dropped and was not in the version posted Thursday. And in that document and others, language has been dropped that asked if the organization is in a community that is still requiring significant disease mitigation. If the answer was yes, the organization was advised not to reopen. Many of the changes provide more wiggle room than what was in the initial versions. For example, in the document for people who run child care centers, the older version obtained by the AP stated that CDC recommended “checking for signs and symptoms of children and staff.” The new guidelines add “as feasible” to the end. Similar new language about feasibility appears in sections about promoting healthy hygiene such as hand washing and employees wearing cloth masks. ___ Dearen reported from Gainesville, Florida. AP reporters Mary Clare Jalonick, Zeke Miller and Elana Schor contributed to this report. Claim: Officials release edited coronavirus reopening guidance.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the latest push from Republicans to advance a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks and a requirement for doctors to treat infants born after an attempted abortion, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke in favor of the efforts from the Senate floor. In his remarks, Cruz urged his Democratic colleagues to support these kinds of \"common sense propositions,\" a departure from the party’s \"extreme\" position on abortion. Neither bill — versions of which GOP lawmakers have attempted to pass several times over multiple years — was approved. \"We’ve seen far too many Democrats embrace extreme positions on abortion: abortion up until the moment of birth and even, horrifically, after that,\" Cruz said, before highlighting a radio interview Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam gave in 2019 about a bill in the Virginia House of Delegates regulating third-trimester abortions. \"This bill was allowing a mother in labor, in the process of delivering a child, this bill would allow a doctor to kill that child instead of delivering that child in the midst of labor,\" Cruz said. \"The idea of killing a child while the mother is in labor instead of delivering the infant is horrifying beyond words.\" Cruz’s claim that Democrats support abortion up until birth and \"even, horrifically, after that,\" is inaccurate, as is his characterization of the Virginia proposal (which was unsuccessful). Trump claims This isn’t the first time a Republican leader has used an inaccurate description of the Virginia bill to advance legislation to require care for infants \"born alive\" after attempted abortions. When Senate Republicans attempted to pass a version of the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act in February 2019, President Donald Trump offered two inaccurate claims on this front. Speaking at a rally in El Paso, he said that Northam \"stated that he would even allow a newborn baby to come out into the world ... then talk to the mother and talk to the father and then execute the baby.\" We rated this claim . In a tweet sent days later, Trump said: \"The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth.\" We rated that claim . To be clear: killing an infant after birth is illegal, and people on both sides of the abortion debate agree that this act should be illegal. Under federal law, the definitions of a person, human being, child and individual all include infants \"born alive at any stage of development.\" Virginia legislation This characterization of Democrats as supporters of allowing abortions during and after a live birth surfaced in early 2019, when a subcommittee of the Virginia House of Delegates considered a bill aimed at loosening the state’s abortion laws. In Virginia, a woman can choose to obtain an abortion through the end of the second trimester of pregnancy, up to 28 weeks from her last menstrual period. After that point, abortions are legal if they happen in a hospital and three physicians certify that \"the continuation of the pregnancy is likely to result in the death of the woman or substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman.\" The law also requires physicians to make \"measures for life support for the product of such abortion\" available if there is \"any clearly visible evidence of viability\" after an attempted abortion. The bill Virginia lawmakers considered in 2019 proposed multiple changes to state laws addressing abortion, including the provision regulating the procedure in the third trimester. The proposal would have lowered the number of physicians required to authorize a third-trimester abortion from three to one and remove the \"substantial and irremediable\" threshold in the law. At the time of the debate, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that there were two confirmed third-trimester abortions performed in Virginia since 2000. Republican lawmakers questioned the bill’s sponsor on the scope of the proposal, asking whether the measure would allow a woman who is dilating to get a abortion. \"My bill would allow that,\" said Democratic lawmaker Kathy Tran. \"Yes.\" Her response sparked intense backlash from anti-abortion advocates and footage of her remark circulated quickly on social media. But days later, Tran said she misspoke: \"I should have said: ‘Clearly, no, because infanticide is not allowed in Virginia, and what would have happened in that moment would be a live birth.’\" A spokeswoman for Cruz pointed to the language of Tran’s bill and said it clearly allows abortion up until the moment of birth, but Tran’s bill only changed the requirements in place before a doctor can perform a third-trimester abortion. It did not change the law as it relates to when such an abortion could take place. As the law stands, abortion is legal in the third trimester only in cases where three physicians certify that the mother’s life is in danger. Virginia law prohibits \"partial birth infanticide,\" the killing of an infant who has \"been born alive, but who has not been completely extracted or expelled from its mother.\" Northam’s comments In a radio interview two days after the debate, Northam discussed the legislation and offered a confusing comment about third-trimester abortions: \"It’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s nonviable. So, in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.\" A number of anti-abortion advocates accused the Democratic governor of approving the killing of infants. Northam rejected this characterization of his remarks and a spokesperson said the comments were about options for care available to women with a nonviable pregnancy or in the case of a severe fetal abnormality. This can include issues like anencephaly, when an infant is born without parts of the brain and skull, and limb-body wall complex, when an infant's organs have developed outside of its body. In these cases, where there is \"little or no prospect\" of an infant surviving after birth, families might opt for perinatal palliative care, or comfort care — prioritizing comfort while allowing an infant to die naturally without exercising full resuscitation efforts. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists describes this care as existing on a spectrum of care, \"which includes pregnancy termination (abortion) and full neonatal resuscitation and treatment.\" Cruz’s spokeswoman pointed to this care as an example of a doctor completing an abortion by denying medical care. This type of care is rare — a study of deaths at children’s hospitals found that while neonates represented 41% of all deaths, perinatal palliative care was only utilized in 2% of cases — and does not meet the definition of abortion. Harvard Medical School defines abortion as \"the removal of pregnancy tissue, products of conception or the fetus and placenta (afterbirth) from the uterus.\" Our Ruling Cruz said Democrats support \"abortion up until the moment of birth and even, horrifically, after that.\" Cruz’s remark hinged on an inaccurate characterization of legislation considered in Virginia’s House of Delegates in 2019 and comments made by the state’s Democratic governor at the same time. State law in Virginia allows doctors to perform abortions up until the moment of birth, but only in cases when three physicians certify that a continued pregnancy is likely to result in the death of the woman. The author of the bill clarified earlier remarks to say it would not allow an abortion to be performed on a woman during a live birth. PolitiFact has rated multiple statements making similar claims about Democrats supporting the execution of children . Claim: Ted Cruz Says Democrats are embracing “abortion up until the moment of birth and even, horrifically, after that.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Nebraska attorney general’s office argued in a court filing Tuesday that the Department of Correctional Services provides excellent access to health care and has invested millions in new facilities and employees in recent years. The filing came in response to inmates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which filed a lawsuit in 2017. The inmates are now asking a judge to grant them class-action status, which state officials oppose. Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Ryan Post says the prison system still has problems to overcome, but those challenges aren’t constitutional violations. Claim: Nebraska state officials say prison conditions have improved.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The second group of 10 Democratic presidential candidates made false and misleading claims about immigration, gun control legislation and the environment, and repeated familiar talking points on taxes, health care and poverty.Night two of the primary election debates, on June 27, was again hosted by NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.Former Vice President Joe Biden falsely claimed President Trump “immediately discontinued” an aid program to Central America, and implied that’s the cause of surging immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border.In fact, the Obama-era aid program was reduced only about 23 percent during Trump’s first two years, while illegal border crossings surged to more than triple the levels than before the Obama aid program commenced. Trump has already relented on a recent threat to cut off the aid entirely.Biden: I’m the guy that got a bipartisan agreement … to spend $740 million to deal with the [border] problem, and that was to go to the root cause of why people are leaving in the first place. It was working.We saw, as you know, a net decrease in the number of children who were coming. The crisis was abated. And along came this president, and he said — he immediately discontinued that.Biden was referring to the “U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America,” which began under Obama in fiscal year 2016 at a level of $750 million, according to a June 12 report by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress. (See Table 5, page 13. )Appropriations for the program had already decreased to just under $685 million by fiscal year 2017, which began Oct. 1, 2016, before Trump was elected and nearly four months before he took office.From there, appropriations fell further to an estimated $527.6 million in the current fiscal year, according to the CRS report. That’s a reduction of just under 23 percent.Trump’s budget request for fiscal 2020, which begins Oct. 1, calls for a further cut to $445 million — which would represent a cumulative reduction in annual appropriation levels of 35 percent since the last fiscal year that began under Obama.In March, however, Trump told reporters, “I’ve ended payments to Guatemala, to Honduras, and to El Salvador. No money goes there anymore.” He directed the State Department to withhold appropriated aid funds. But that was a response to — not a cause of — the renewed surge in immigration.At the time Trump spoke, March apprehensions of immigrants illegally attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border were surging to 92,840, more than triple the level of March 2015, prior to the aid program to which Biden referred. Far from being “abated,” the “crisis” of which Biden spoke had come back with a vengeance.Trump has since relented on his threat. On June 18 — after widespread criticism — his administration said it would go ahead with $432 million in projects and grants that had been previously approved — out of the $615 million in aid that Trump had ordered to be frozen. Two candidates, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Bernie Sanders, mentioned time frames in their discussions of climate change that could use some additional context. Hickenlooper, who studied to be a geologist, and is a two-term former governor of Colorado, said in response to a question about climate change, “I share the sense of urgency. I’m a scientist, so I recognize that we’re within 10 or 12 years of actually, you know, suffering irreversible damage.”Sanders later said, “The scientists tell us we are 12 years before there is irreparable damage to this planet.”The 12-year figure is frequently mentioned by the press and politicians, and is extrapolated from a 2018 special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found that global warming “is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.” The world has already warmed about 1 degree Celsius.The report also concluded that to stave off warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and avoid the many climate change effects — the world would have to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and be net-zero by 2050.In 2018, that statement was taken by many to mean there were only 12 years left to do something about climate change. But many scientists have since come forward to say that’s the wrong way of thinking about it.Myles Allen, an author of the IPCC report and the leader of the ECI Climate Research Programme at the University of Oxford, explained in a Conversation story he wrote in April that the IPCC’s timing is only a best estimate.“Please stop saying something globally bad is going to happen in 2030,” he wrote. “Bad stuff is already happening and every half a degree of warming matters, but the IPCC does not draw a ‘planetary boundary’ at 1.5°C beyond which lie climate dragons.”Kristie L. Ebi, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington in Seattle, told the AP, “This has been a persistent source of confusion,” adding, “The report never said we only have 12 years left.”And Kate Marvel, a NASA climate scientist, told Axios in January, “12 years isn’t a deadline, and climate change isn’t a cliff we fall off — it’s a slope we slide down.” She added, “We don’t have 12 years to prevent climate change — we have no time. It’s already here. And even under a business-as-usual scenario, the world isn’t going to end in exactly twelve years.”Sanders repeated the same misleading claim about the Republican tax law that he and other Democrats have recited since the law passed at the end of 2017.Sanders said during the debate, “83% of your tax benefits go to the 1%.”But that won’t be true until 2027, when most of the individual income tax changes will have expired.We’ve written about this claim before — when Sanders said it during a CNN town hall and when Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said it shortly after the law passed.Sen. Kamala Harris also partly echoed the claim during the debate, saying that she would repeal the “tax bill that benefits the top 1% and the biggest corporations in this country.”Most of the individual income tax provisions expire after 2025, which will shift most of the tax benefits to the top 1%. An analysis by the Tax Policy Center found that the top 1% of income earners would get 20.5% of the tax cut benefits in 2018. That percentage would go up to 25.3% in 2025 and then jump to 82.8% in 2027.Before the law was passed, Republicans said that they expected a future Congress to extend the individual income tax cuts, instead of allowing taxes for many to increase. They structured the law that way so they could pass their tax bill through budget reconciliation, a process requiring only a majority vote in the Senate, which meant that Republican lawmakers could not add more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. Also, they couldn’t have a bill that added to the deficit beyond that 10-year window.So, while it will be true that 83% of the tax cut benefits will go to the top 1% of income earners in 2027 if Congress doesn’t act before then, it is misleading to give that statistic without context.Pushing back against President Trump’s claims that the economy is doing great, Sen. Kamala Harris said, “Well yeah, people in America are working — they’re working two and three jobs.” The percentage of American workers who hold multiple jobs is virtually unchanged from when Trump took office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Harris: I’m meeting people who are working two and three jobs — you know this president walks around talking about and flouting his great economy right — my great economy, my great economy … You ask him how are you measuring the greatness of this economy of yours? And they point to the jobless numbers and the unemployment numbers. Well yeah people in America are working — they’re working two and three jobs.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 7,855,000 people who held multiple jobs in May, or 5 percent of all those who are employed. That percentage has remained virtually unchanged during Trump’s presidency — it was 4.9 percent in January 2017 when he took office. In fact, the percentage of the employed working multiple jobs has hovered around 5 percent since late 2009, and it’s lower than the roughly 6 percent of workers who held multiple jobs during the late 1990s.Looking deeper into the 7,855,000 who held multiple jobs in May, the majority — 4.4 million — were people with full-time jobs who had a secondary part-time job, according to a BLS news release (See Table A-18). Another nearly 2 million had two part-time jobs, and about 325,000 held two full-time jobs.We looked into a similar claim last July when then-congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrongly claimed that the low U.S. unemployment rate was “because everyone has two jobs.” The number of people holding more than one job has no bearing on the unemployment rate.In one of the most contentious moments of the debate, Harris confronted Biden on two race-related issues: Biden’s past opposition to school busing and his recent comments about working with “some civility” in the 1970s with two segregationist southern Democrats, Sens. James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia.Harris, who is black, accurately noted that Biden “worked with them to oppose busing,” and told the story of her own school integration experience as an elementary student. As we have written, Berkeley public schools in California began busing students to fully integrate the school district in 1968, and Harris began attending Thousands Oaks Elementary School in 1970.Biden, who was first elected to the Senate in 1972, accused Harris of “a mischaracterization of my position across the board.” In telling her personal story, Harris left out a key detail: It was the local school district’s decision to integrate its schools.The former vice president said he opposed busing “ordered by the Department of Education,” or what critics called “forced busing,” in the 1970s. “You would have been able to go to school the same exact way because it was a local decision made by your city council,” Biden said. In fact, Harris was attending an integrated school before Biden even joined the Senate.But Harris did not mischaracterize Biden’s comments about Eastland and Talmadge, so she did not mischaracterize his position “across the board.”Harris said “it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.” Biden responded by saying, “I did not praise racists.” Harris didn’t say he did. She said he talked about their reputations, and Biden did say that he was able to work with them in a civil way to get things done in the Senate, despite their political and personal differences.At a June 18 fundraiser in New York, Biden described Talmadge as “one of the meanest guys I ever knew,” and said Eastland referred to him as “son” instead of senator, which he took as a sign of disrespect.But, in comparison to the current political climate in Washington, Biden went on to say: “At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today, you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”Rep. Eric Swalwell, trying to distinguish himself from the other candidates on gun issues, said he was “the only person on stage who has voted and passed background checks.”That’s clearly false. Biden, for example, was in the Senate in 1993 and voted for the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which became law. It requires federally licensed firearms dealers to conduct background checks on most gun transfers to prospective buyers.Swalwell’s campaign explained that the California congressman meant he “was the only person on stage who has voted for and passed universal background checks.”That’s true, but still misleading.Swalwell did vote for the Bipartisan Background Checks Act that passed the Democratic-controlled House by a vote of 240-190 in February. The legislation, according to the Congressional Research Service, expands background check requirements by prohibiting a firearm transfer between unlicensed individuals “unless a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer, or importer first takes possession of the firearm to conduct a background check.”However, four other people on the debate stage — Sanders, Harris, Sen. Michael Bennet and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand — are all co-sponsors of the Background Check Expansion Act, which would “expand federal background checks to all gun sales,” according to lawmakers who reintroduced the bill in January. (Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, who were in the previous night’s debate, are also co-sponsors. )But because the Senate is currently controlled by Republicans, that bill has virtually no chance at passing in the chamber.After being asked about his concerns about “embracing socialism,” Hickenlooper misrepresented the Green New Deal, objecting to a provision in the legislation that doesn’t exist. “I admire the sense of urgency and how important it is to do climate change — I’m a scientist,” he said, “but we can’t promise every American a government job.”The Green New Deal, which we’ve written about before, is a nonbinding resolution that aims to tackle climate change while ensuring job security, health care and protecting vulnerable communities.The Green New Deal doesn’t promise every American a position in the government. Instead, it guarantees “a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States.”The resolution was introduced into both chambers of Congress in February, and is most closely associated with New York freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In March, the resolution did not advance in the Senate, after nearly all Democrats voted “present.”Sanders claimed that Trump tried to “throw 32 million people off their health care that they have,” a figure that includes people who would choose to no longer purchase insurance if Congress repealed the Affordable Care Act without replacing it. As we’ve written before, it’s misleading to say 32 million would all be thrown off.Trump supported a partial repeal-and-replace bill in the Republican-backed American Health Care Act, which wasn’t expected to have as big of an impact on the uninsured. But he also backed an immediate repeal of the ACA, with a replacement at a “later date.”In 2017 the Congressional Budget Office estimated the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017, a bill that would fit that description,  would increase the number of uninsured by 32 million people over 10 years. But not all of them would be thrown off their insurance. CBO said: “In the nongroup market, some people would choose not to have insurance partly because they choose to be covered by insurance under current law to avoid paying the penalty.”The ACA imposed a tax penalty, known as the mandate, on those without health insurance, but the Republican tax law repealed that penalty as of Jan. 1 of this year. It’s worth noting that in May 2018, the CBO revised downward its estimate of the impact of repealing the mandate.In his closing statement, Sanders said he suspects “people all over the country who are watching this debate are saying these are good people, they have great ideas, but how come nothing really changes?”He then posed several questions, including, “How come we have the highest rate of childhood poverty?”That’s an unchanging — and false — Sanders claim. We debunked it twice during his 2016 presidential run.A 2017 report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, did note that the United States is above average when it comes to the “relative child poverty” rate — which “shows the proportion of each nation’s children living in a household where disposable income is less than 60% of the national median.”But the report did not indicate the U.S. had the “highest” rate. The country ranked No. 7 out of 41 rich countries, behind Romania, Israel, Turkey and others.The U.S. Census Bureau pegged the 2017 poverty rate for those under age 18 at 17.5 percent (see Table 3), which is the lowest it’s been since 2006.The bureau also calculates the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for government programs that assist low-income families and are not considered in the official poverty measure. The SPM rate for children in 2017 was 15.6 percent.Update, July 3: We amended our story to note that Sen. Kamala Harris began attending Thousand Oaks Elementary School, a public school in Berkeley, California, in 1970, according to her campaign. We previously reported, based on information from her Senate office, that she began there in 1969.Meyer, Peter J. “U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America: Policy Issues for Congress.” Congressional Research Service. 12 Jun 2019.Brennan, Margaret and Grace Segers. “Trump directs State Department to cut off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.” CBS News. 30 Mar 2019.U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Southwest Border Migration FY 2019.” Undated website accessed 28 Jun 2019.Lee, Matthew. “US restores some aid to El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala.” The Associated Press. 18 Jun 2019.Smith, Allan and Doha Madani. “Biden doubles down on segregationist comments, says critics like Cory Booker ‘should apologize’ to him.” NBC News. 19 Jun 2019.Spencer, Saranac Hale. “Sen. Harris Didn’t ‘Lie’ About Integration.” FactCheck.org. 13 Jul 2018.U.S. Congress. “Joseph Robinette Jr.” Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress. Undated. Accessed 28 Jun 2019.Sokol, Jason. “How a Young Joe Biden Turned Liberals Against Integration.” Politico Magazine. 4 Aug 2015.Bobic, Igor. “Democrats Slam Joe Biden Over Comments Invoking Segregationist Senators.” HuffPost. 19 Jun 2019.Congressional Budget Office. Cost Estimate: H.R. 1628 Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017. 19 Jul 2017.Congressional Budget Office. Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2018 to 2028. May 2018.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Multiple Jobholders. Retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on 28 Jun 2019.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Multiple Jobholders as a Percent of Employed. Retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on 28 Jun 2019.Bureau of Labor Statistics. News release: The Employment Situation — May 2019. 7 Jun 2019.Berman, Corey and Farley, Robert. “Ocasio-Cortez Wrong on Cause of Low Unemployment.” FactCheck.org. 18 Jul 2018.UNICEF. “Innocenti Report Card 14 Children in the Developed World.” Jun 2017.U.S. Census Bureau. “Income and Poverty in the United States: 2017.” 12 Sep 2018.U.S. Census Bureau. “Historical Poverty Tables: People and Families – 1959 to 2017.” Accessed 28 Jun 2019.U.S. Census Bureau. “The Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2017.” 12 Sep 2018.U.S House. “H.Res.109, Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.” (as introduced 7 Feb 2019).Davis, Susan. “Senate Blocks Green New Deal, But Climate Change Emerges As Key 2020 Issue.” NPR. 26 Mar 2019.McDonald, Jessica. “The Facts on the ‘Green New Deal’.” FactCheck.org. 15 Feb 2019.Freedman, Andrew. “Climate scientists refute 12-year deadline to curb global warming.” Axios. 22 Jan 2019.Allen, Myles. “Why protesters should be wary of ‘12 years to climate breakdown’ rhetoric.” The Conversation. 18 Apr 2019.Woodward, Calvin et. al. “AP FACT CHECK: O’Rourke on climate, Trump on ‘no collusion’.” Associated Press. 16 Mar 2019.IPCC, 2018: Summary for Policymakers. Global warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Claim: President Donald Trump “immediately discontinued” an aid program to Central America. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic of March 2020 threatened to shut down businesses across America for an extended period of time, the U.S. government faced the difficult task of deciding which industries should be provided economic assistance to keep them afloat for the duration. Public sentiment in some quarters was strongly against government bailouts for businesses such as airlines and cruise companies, on the grounds that over the last several years many of the major operators had spent billions of dollars in profits buying up their own stock rather than paying down their debts. In USA Today, John M. Griffin and James M. Griffin wrote: Start with the airlines. Rather than using their profits from the past five years to pay off debts and save for a rainy day, the big four — American, United, Delta and Southwest — instead grew their combined liabilities to $166 billion, all while spending $39 billion on share repurchases. That number, which is only from the big four, is almost 80% of what they’re asking for now from U.S. taxpayers. Similarly, the three largest Cruise companies — Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean — have liabilities of $47.5 billion and engaged in share repurchases of $8 billion. Had these companies paid down liabilities instead of using stock repurchases to bid up their stock prices, they would have been far better prepared to weather this emergency. Of course, higher share prices made their stock options more valuable. This allowed top airlines executives to pay themselves $666 million in compensation over the five-year period. The top cruise executives managed to haul in $448 million. Now, taxpayers are unwillingly being called upon to bail out their profligate behavior. A widely circulated meme on social media offered another reason why cruise lines were supposedly unworthy of government bailouts — because although they might be headquartered in the U.S., their ships were foreign-flagged in order to put them out of reach of U.S. law:  That nearly every major cruise line registers their ships somewhere outside the U.S. is hardly a disputable point. As a 2011 news report noted, only a single major cruise ship at the time was U.S.-flagged: [O]nly one major cruise ship — NCL America’s Pride of America — is registered in the United States, according to data from CyberCruises.com. Most of the big boats fly Bahamian flags, but other popular registries include Panama, Bermuda, Italy, Malta and the Netherlands. In fact, according to Cruise Lines International Association, 90% of commercial vessels calling on U.S. ports fly foreign flags. The three cruise lines called out by name in the meme — Disney, Celebrity, and Carnival — do indeed engage in this practice. It’s not difficult to verify that Disney cruise ships are registered in the Bahamas, Celebrity ships in Malta, and Carnival ships in Panama. Of course, the cruise industry and their critics offer differing reasons for why cruise ships are flagged in countries other than the U.S., with the former asserting that: CLIA [Cruise Lines International Association] maintains there are reasons for such policies: “There are many factors that determine where a cruise ship — or for that matter, any maritime vessel — is flagged. Those determinations are made by individual cruise lines and other ship operators based on varying factors including the capabilities of the flag to deliver the services needed; representation and reputation of the flag in the international shipping community; the performance of the flag state, which dictates how a ship is prioritized by port states; the pool of seafarers able to meet the needs of the flag; and the flag’s fees/charges and taxes,” the association said by e-mail. This can be viewed as a robust free-market debate. Some maintain burdensome U.S. regulations have forced cruise operators to plant their flags elsewhere, while others say these corporations are seeking to attract American dollars while skirting American safety and consumer protection laws. On the other hand, an academic paper by Caitlin E. Burke of the University of Florida about “Legal Issues Relevant to Cruise Ships” made no bones of observing that reflagging of ships had long been used as a means of avoiding U.S. federal taxes, labor and safety laws, environmental laws, lawsuits, criminal investigations, and other regulations: Claim: Nearly all ships operated by U.S.-headquartered cruise lines are registered in foreign countries.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The singer Chris Brown’s violent physical abuse of his one-time girlfriend, fellow singer and pop star Rihanna, was one of the most high-profile episodes of domestic violence in recent years, and one which raised awareness about the nature and consequences of that crime throughout the world. That made it particularly shocking to many observers when the social networking app Snapchat hosted a mobile game commercial which made light of Rihanna’s abuse at the hands of Brown. The advertisement for the game Would You Rather? invited viewers to choose to “Slap Rihanna” or “Punch Chris Brown.” Is it just me, or is this ad that popped up on my Snapchat extremely tone deaf? Like what were they thinking with this? pic.twitter.com/7kP9RHcgNG — Royce Mann (@TheRoyceMann) March 12, 2018  According to National Public Radio, the company behind Snapchat apologized and removed the commercial from circulation by 12 March 2018, but screengrabs of it had already begun to spread. On 15 March, Rihanna herself criticized the app for hosting the commercial in an Instagram post that has since been deleted: …I’m just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess! I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb! You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV [domestic violence] victims and made a joke of it!!! This isn’t about my personal feelings, cause I don’t have much of them…but all the women, children and men that have been victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who haven’t made it out yet…you let us down! Shame on you. The star then appeared to encourage her 61 million Instagram followers to delete the Snapchat app, urging: “Throw the whole app-oligy away.” If she tells me to delete snapchat I’ll do it @rihanna pic.twitter.com/yUW1UOzNc2 — Nicollette Williams (@nicollettemw) March 15, 2018  Rihanna’s critical intervention appears to have been an event that sparked a selloff of shares in Snap, Inc. the company behind the app, prompting a whole ecosystem of viral social media posts and news articles in response. On 15 March 2018, the company’s share value dropped by 3.64 percent, the equivalent of roughly $754 million. While not unprecedented (it was only the 26th-biggest one-day percentage drop in value in the last year), this was a significant decline. Since March 2017, the average (median) one-day percentage loss in Snapchat’s market value has been -0.34 percent, so the devaluation seen on 15 March was substantial. On a day where there was no other major bad news for Snapchat, the evidence is very strong that Rihanna’s message to “throw away” the app (delivered instantly to 61 million people), as well as the ensuing media coverage, at the very least made a significant contribution to the nearly $800 million one-day loss. Claim: Rihanna's Instagram message to followers to throw away the Snapchat app caused the company's share value to fall by hundreds of millions of dollars in one day.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: For the world’s largest Christian population, the coronavirus pandemic has meant observing an Easter Sunday unlike any Americans have lived through before. “Today as we hear the Easter bells as a call to solidarity among all the members of our community in the face of the pandemic, we might respond to witness to the power of the Resurrection, the power of love that is stronger than death, and faith in a provident God who can always bring good out of evil,” Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley said in his homily on BostonCatholic.org. Governors and health authorities across the United States have broadly asked residents to avoid gathering in large numbers, leading to the closure of schools, businesses and churches. The COVID-19 respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus has claimed more than 21,300 lives across the United States and infected more than 525,000 people. Major U.S. religious institutions, including Roman Catholic dioceses and Protestant churches, have found alternatives to safely celebrate the holiest day on the Christian calendar. In Easley, South Carolina, the 2,200 members of the Rock Springs Baptist Church were among the many U.S. churchgoers who turned to technology and the airwaves for help. Reverend Jim Cawthon, 46, said he expected hundreds to spend Easter services in their cars in his megachurch’s parking lot, watching the proceedings on big outdoor screens and listening to its broadcast over local radio. More will likely watch online, which Cawthon said should be easier as the church recently upgraded its video and internet systems. “Just prior to this all going crazy, we were already set  up,” Cawthon said. “It’s all about the cross and celebrating Easter even in a pandemic.”  Some older adults in retirement communities celebrated Holy Week by playing music and video broadcasts of services. Some communities held contests, asking residents, for instance, to decorate golf carts for Easter and leave them parked outside for judging, instead of holding annual golf cart Easter parades. Curtis James, a youth pastor at the Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, dreamed up the idea of holding a safe Easter egg hunt for children with the online videogame Minecraft. Other churches have joined in as the plan garnered national attention. The Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has held a sunrise Easter service for almost 250 years, weathering even the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, as well as the two World Wars. But for the pandemic, the service was canceled. It was to be replaced by an online and locally broadcast service with just a preacher and few choir and band members providing music. A handful of churches have bucked social distancing rules aimed at slowing the disease’s spread and planned to go ahead with in-person services on Sunday, with some pastors predicting divine protection from the disease. Most Catholic dioceses across the United States shut down all such live services, however. Archbishop Jose Gomez of the Los Angeles diocese wrote to priests and parishioners across the nation online to hold steadfast. “Future generations will look back on this as the long Lent of 2020, a time when disease and death suddenly darkened the whole earth,” Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles diocese wrote to priests and parishioners across the nation online. “This Holy Week will be different. Our churches may be closed but Christ is not quarantined and his Gospel is not in chains.”  In Columbus, Georgia, the St. Anne Catholic Church found a unique way to fill up its pews for Easter Sunday. More than 650 members of the 1,500-strong congregation sent in “selfie” photos of themselves that the priests taped to the pews, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “Now we look out and see faces,” pastor Robert Schlageter told the newspaper. Claim: Coronavirus forces U.S. churches to offer Easter Sunday services unlike any before.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No mention of the cost of these Angiotensin II Receptor Blocker drugs. They are typically more expensive than other anti-hypertensive medications, but there is no mention of the cost of taking this medication daily for prevention of hypertension. Also, there is no comparison of ARB treatment with less costly anti-hypertensive medications such a diuretics, or a cost comparison with lifestyle modification. The story gives some basic quantification of the benefits of treatment, but no relative or absolute risk reduction was provided, though they are available in the journal article. Benefits were oversimplified. No mention of side effects of the drug. The most common side effects of ARBs are cough, elevated potassium levels, low blood pressure, dizziness, headache, drowsiness, diarrhea, abnormal taste sensation (metallic or salty taste), and rash. In this study, gastrointestinal problems, dizziness and headaches were more common in the treatment group, though in most cases, the difference was small. There were no mention of the question of long-term safety of being on these medications for years as prevention. There is mention of the study design, but no mention that it was double-blinded. There was still some modest protective benefit in the treatment group at 4 years (absolute reduction 9.8%), though the story said that “they matched the placebo group”. This story represents a classic case of disease mongering. The classification of “prehypertension” (systolic 130-139 mm Hg and 85-89 mm Hg diastolic) is still debatable by some medical experts, and whether prehypertension alone is a strong predictor of future heart disease is also debatable. Blood pressure increases as a natural part of aging, so whether prehypertension or mild hypertension should be viewed as a condition or disease and treated with costly medication needs further study. Hypertension is only one of several risk factors that contributes to heart disease. A prehypertensive or mildly hypertensive person with low risk factors and a healthy lifestyle may not benefit from pharmaceutical treatment as much as someone with greater risk of heart disease and unhealthy behaviors such as a poor diet, lack of exercise and smoking. There is no discussion of the controversies surrounding these issues. The story mentions that makers of the anti-hypertensive medication sponsored and help design the study. The lead author also serves as a consultant to the drug company and has other grant support from the makers of the drug, which was not disclosed. Nonetheless, we give this a satisfactory score. Advantages/disadvantages of lifestyle and medication not adequately covered. The story mentions lifestyle modifications, such as diet and exercise, as a “cornerstone of controlling blood pressure”, however, comparison is only anecdotal and no mention of studies on the effect of lifestyle modification for reducing prehypertensive or hypertensive blood pressure. The story mentions limiting salt and water. A reduced sodium diet may help manage hypertension, but reducing water will not help most people decrease blood pressure. Treatment of prehypertention to prevent hypertension is currently only being studied in clinical trials such as the one described in this article. The story describes a trial of anti-hypertensive therapy with candesartan, an Angiotensin II Receptor Blocker (ARB), to prevent hypertension in prehypertensive people. But it offers no information about whether this is a new drug. No evidence this is from a press release. There are sources cited other than study authors. Claim: Drug may delay high blood pressure in some",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Photographs of various fruits accompanied by long lists of chemicals crafted in the style of ingredients labels have been a fixture on the internet since at least 2013, when they were created by James Kennedy, a high school chemistry teacher in Melbourne, Australia. His take on the banana is especially popular: This graphic is an accurate representation of the chemical constituents of your average banana, information that can be verified with the USDA Agricultural Research Database, which compiles studies into the nutritional and chemical content of various food items. Part of what Kennedy was trying to convey with his illustration was that even completely natural foods, when described scientifically, can sound unnatural and potentially unhealthy, as reported in the New York Times:  As a high-school chemistry teacher, I made these posters for my students as a visual introduction to our organic chemistry course. I want to erode the fear that many people have of ‘chemicals’, and demonstrate that nature evolves compounds, mechanisms and structures far more complicated and unpredictable than anything we can produce in the lab. This poster series breaks down all the major ingredients in popular natural foods — using E-numbers and IUPAC names instead of common names where they exist. Anthocynanins, for example, which are said to give blueberries their “superfood” status, are also known as E163. If these ingredients are considered hierarchically, the banana sounds much more simple. Like all fruit, it contains water, sugars, starch, fiber, amino acids, fatty acids, minerals (i.e., ash), and chemicals that impart their coloring. Myriad names can be ascribed to the various different chemicals that fit these groups, and Kennedy used a variety of different nomenclatural methods to make that point. The most common grouping of chemicals in the banana are sugars, and in this case the sugars are predominantly glucose and fructose, with lesser amounts of sucrose and maltose. After starch, a polysaccharide chemical found in abundance in plants, the next listed set of chemicals is fiber, another common group of carbohydrate chemicals. Kennedy represented the fiber as a group of chemicals listed by their “E numbers”, which are codes assigned to substances permitted as food additives within the European Union. In reality, all of these chemicals are either cellulose (the most common chemical in plants) or various breakdown products of cellulose: After the fiber, Kennedy listed amino acids, a group of simple chemicals ubiquitous to life on this planet. All the chemicals listed are present in bananas, according to the USDA. Fatty acids, the next group of chemicals, are similarly ubiquitous in nature, and all of those chemicals listed above are also found in bananas. Likewise, ash is another way of referring to the mineral content of a food item, and in this case Kennedy used a variety of different chemical-naming conventions to obscure the fact that each of them is commonly known by other names: Similarly, the coloring agents — all of which are natural — might be better recognized by different names: The remaining chemicals may sound intimidating, but they too are natural. E1510 is another name for ethanol, which forms naturally as fruit ferments. The final “natural ripening agent,” ethylene gas, might sound downright nefarious but actually represents a neat intersection of plant and food science. In nature, the gas is a plant hormone associated with aging that triggers the ripening process. In the food industry, the gas is used on industrial scales to ripen a variety of fruits and vegetables all at once. Claim: A list of chemicals, written as if they were ingredients on a food label, accurately depicts the chemical composition of a banana. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In September and October 2019, we received multiple inquiries from readers about the veracity of reports that claimed U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren had said or argued to the effect that “taxpayers must fund sex reassignment surgery.” On Aug. 14, the right-leaning website OneNewsNow published an article with the headline, “Warren: Taxpayers Must Fund Sex Reassignment Surgery,” which reported that: “Democratic presidential primary candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) launched her fight via social media to have taxpayer dollars fund ‘gender-affirming healthcare’ so that transgender Americans can have ‘free’ sex-changing surgery. “‘Everyone should be able to access high-quality, affordable, gender-affirming health care, but the Trump administration is trying to roll back important protections for trans Americans,’ Warren tweeted Tuesday. ‘Help fight back by leaving a comment for HHS in protest. '” Everyone should be able to access high-quality, affordable, gender-affirming health care. But the Trump administration is trying to roll back important protections for trans Americans. Help fight back by leaving a comment for HHS in protest: https://t.co/pKDcOqbsc7 — Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 13, 2019   Warren’s tweet included a link to the website Protect Trans Health, a campaign run by the Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Transgender Equality. The purpose of that campaign was to solicit and convey criticism to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about its controversial move to repeal an Obama-era rule that prohibits healthcare and insurance providers from discriminating against trans individuals. So the source cited by OneNewsNow did not involve Warren saying, “Taxpayers must fund sex reassignment surgery.” The phrasing of the website’s headline may have given some readers the impression it was a direct quote, even though OneNewsNow did not actually use quotation marks. It might also have led some to believe Warren had proposed that all sex-reassignment surgeries must be taxpayer-funded, which is not the case. Nonetheless, an examination of the record, and confirmation from Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, make it clear that she does indeed support covering sex-reassignment surgery under taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid, as well as full legal access to the surgery, under private health insurance and Obamacare. We asked the Warren campaign whether she supports gender-reassignment surgery, and other transition-related services such as medication, being made available at low cost or no cost, under taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (for military service members and veterans), as well as through Obamacare and private health insurance policies. A campaign spokesperson was unequivocal in response: “Yes.”  The campaign also directed us to a September 2019 interview Warren conducted with “HIV Plus” magazine, in which she gave further details about her stance on the issue. The interview refers to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), so a brief explanation is warranted. Section 1557 incorporated existing anti-discrimination law into the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It prohibited healthcare or insurance providers that receive federal funding (include state-by-state Medicaid programs) from discriminating against patients on the basis of their sex, race, religion, national origin, and so on. In 2016, HHS under President Barack Obama implemented a new rule that expanded those protections from discrimination and, most notably, defined sex discrimination as including discrimination on the basis of a patient’s gender identity, as well as their having previously terminated a pregnancy, among other changes. Federally funded healthcare and insurance providers (including state Medicaid programs) could not deny services or treatment access to individuals on the basis of their gender identity, and could not categorically refuse to cover treatments related to gender transition, such as sex-reassignment surgery. In May 2019, HHS under President Donald Trump proposed another new rule that would largely reverse the Section 1557 expansions brought by the Obama administration, removing gender identity and pregnancy termination from the definition of sex discrimination. It would also add an explicit religious freedom exemption from the requirements of Section 1557. The department wrote in a press release: “In 2016, HHS issued a new rule that redefined discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ to include termination of pregnancy and gender identity which it defined as one’s internal sense of being ‘male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.’ In response to a subsequent lawsuit by several states and healthcare entities, on December 31, 2016, a federal court preliminarily enjoined the rule’s gender identity and termination of pregnancy provisions on a nationwide basis, finding them contrary to the applicable civil rights law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. “A second federal court agreed. Because the preliminary injunction continues to be in effect, HHS cannot, and has not since the date of the injunction, enforced the rule’s provisions the court said are likely unlawful. The proposed rule would revise the provisions subject to those injunctions to conform with the plain understanding recognized by the court.” With that context and background in mind, the following is the most relevant exchange from Warren’s September 2019 interview with “HIV Plus” magazine: Interviewer:…If elected, would you support a reinterpretation of Section 1557 of the ACA as covering transgender people and champion the passage of the Equality Act? How would you protect the rights, well-being, and lives of transgender people living in this country, while ensuring that they receive the healthcare and housing necessary to be virally suppressed?” Warren: Discrimination against transgender Americans is unconstitutional and we need to fight back. HHS’s proposed reinterpretation of Section 1557 rolls back critical nondiscrimination protections, allowing health insurance companies to refuse to cover and health care providers to deny health services to transgender people, particularly those with HIV/AIDS, and to those who have had or are seeking an abortion. It also removes requirements to make information language-accessible, which will harm transgender immigrants. As President, I will direct HHS to interpret Section 1557 under its 2016 guidance, to fully uphold civil rights and nondiscrimination protections. I will also direct the CDC to collect accurate data on the health of transgender people and am a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which bans discrimination against transgender individuals in health care and housing. Warren’s declaration that she would as president “direct HHS to interpret Section 1557 under its 2016 guidance” means she would enforce, once again, a set of rules that mean sex-reassignment surgery would be covered under federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, including state-by-state Medicaid programs. As such, it is accurate to claim that Warren does propose and has proposed that taxpayers should cover the cost of some sex-reassignment surgeries, as they do other treatments and services, under those programs. Warren was also one of 31 U.S. Senators who signed on to a June 2019 letter to Trump’s HHS, which opposed and criticized the proposed reversal of the 2016 anti-discrimination enhancements. Warren was joined in signing that latter by fellow presidential candidates and U.S. Senators Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker. Warren has therefore put on the record, several times in 2019, her support for sex-reassignment surgery being included among the treatments and services covered under taxpayer-funded programs, as well as under Obamacare and private health insurance policies. However, the OneNewsNetwork headline had a tendency to mislead some readers who may have interpreted its phrasing to mean that Warren had said, word-for-word, “taxpayers must fund sex reassignment surgery,” or that she had advocated taxpayers must fund any and all sex reassignment surgery, rather than simply adding one more procedure to the list of procedures taxpayers already fund under Medicaid and similar federal programs. Claim: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said or argued to the effect that \"taxpayers must fund sex reassignment surgery.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Failing test scores aren't the only problem that has caused the military to reject applicants, says former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Another problem is, well, more colorful: tattoos. While talking about his push to improve public education at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council event Dec. 1, Bush pointed to problems the military has finding qualified applicants. Bush mentioned a video in which a military official talked about the challenge: \"In the video beforehand, Gen. Dempsey talked about a 25 percent pass rate. Now that’s not just because of the test, that’s also because of obesity, and too many tattoos, to be honest with you, on visible body parts for people that are trying to get into the military. But the pass rate for a high-school-level test to join the military is about 35 percent, I think, or 40 percent at best. These are abysmal numbers.\" PolitiFact has previously fact-checked claims about whether obesity and physical fitness have kept applicants out of the military (both ). But we hadn’t explored the role of tattoos in filling the military ranks. We couldn’t resist taking a look. Tattoo policies Each branch of the service sets their own rules about tattoos, but it was the Army’s policy that has drawn the most ink recently from the media. In March 2014, the Army overhauled its appearance policy, which includes more than two pages of detailed rules about \"tattoo, branding and body mutilation.\" This led to a rush to get tatted so soldiers could be grandfathered in under the new rules. The Army has a detailed procedure for grandfathering that directs unit commanders to document each tattoo in an official memorandum. The Army’s policy states that tattoos, regardless of subject matter, are prohibited on certain areas of the body, including the wrists, hands and fingers, as well as the head, face, and neck, defined as \"anything above the t-shirt neck line to include on/inside the eyelids, mouth, and ears.\" \"Soldiers may have no more than four visible tattoos below the elbow (to the wrist bone) or below the knee,\" the policy says. So far under the new policy, 2,919 applicants could not process due to tattoos, said Brian Lepley, an Army recruiting spokesman. \"Those 2,919 are the ones whose tattoos were so egregious it was highly unlikely a waiver could get through, or the applicant chose not to try a waiver,\" he said. In the Army, 193 tattoo waivers for applicants have been granted, while one was rejected and four are pending. Lepley told us that tattoos are not the No. 1 disqualifier. Medical conditions, drug use, misconduct or some combination of those issues disqualify more applicants. News reports around the country indicate the tattoo policy is limiting applicants, though. \"Right now, with the new tattoo policy in effect, we currently turn away one in every five applicants that come through our door,\" U.S. Army Captain Joshua Jacquez told CNN in a report from El Paso. Maj. Gen. Allen W. Batschelet, head of Army recruiting at Fort Knox, told the Kansas City Star in August that the policy is, \"rather arbitrary, in some sense.\" However he said that \"you have to draw the line somewhere\" for the Army to present a professional image. As for waivers, Batschelet said, \"To be blunt, the higher quality of applicant you are, the more tolerance we'd probably have for seeking a waiver. If you came in to sign up today and were a neurosurgeon, I got to tell you I'd go a long way toward trying to get an exception if all you had was a disqualifying tattoo.\" The Air Force, Marines and Navy also have their own tattoo policies. All of them generally ban tattoos that are obscene, advocate discrimination or express offensive views. The Air Force policy has a seven-step measurement guide that contains math formulas in an attempt to prevent tattoos from covering more than 25 percent of an exposed body part. (Partial inches should be rounded up to the nearest inch, it says.) The Marines policy states that applicants with more than four tattoos must be administratively reviewed. The Navy’s policy is the least detailed -- only 277 words -- though like the other services, it bans head tattoos. Our ruling Bush said that among the reasons applicants are rejected by the military -- in addition to being obese or not passing the test -- is that some have \"too many tattoos\" on visible body parts. Since the Army updated its tattoo policy earlier this year, 2,919 applicants could not proceed due to tattoos. Other branches of the service also have restrictions on types and locations of tattoos that keep some applicants out of the military. Claim: Too many\" tattoos \"on visible body parts\" keep some applicants out of the military.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not provide any projections of what the drug might cost. But the story was able to estimate annual sales of the drug for Panacos Pharmaceuticals. If you can give the latter, you should be able to provide the former. If the story is even going to report on a drug that is three or more years away from FDA approval and still undergoing initial safety testing in humans, it should at least temper enthusiasm. The story did point out that the drug is at least three years away from being on the market and still being tested. And the story did end with a “proof of the pudding” comment from NIH’s Dr. Fauci. However what is missing is a comment that we do not know how much impact the drug would have on survival or quality of life, for example. And the story is laden with comments such as “generating excitement…researchers are excited…the therapy is exciting…so far it looks potent and it has a great safety profile” — all without any hard data provided. The story does not discuss the potential side effects of this new drug, nor does the story provide a caveat that the drug may not live up to its predicted effect in humans. The possibility of a negative interaction with other HIV drugs, or with drugs for co-existing medical conditions is also not mentioned. But this is one of the hazards of reporting on data that have not yet been peer-reviewed (Or have they? The story doesn’t make it clear.) The company and the investigators certainly know what side effects have been experienced so far. Having the company president say that the drug has “a great safety profile” is inadequate. Bevirimat is currently being tested in an initial clinical trial. No evidence is available on the safety or efficacy of this drug yet, despite the drug company president’s comments that bevirimat “. . .looks potent and has a great safety profile”. What is the evidence? The story provides appropriate prevalence and incidence data on Americans living with HIV. If anything, the story under-reports HIV prevalence worldwide. The story could have questioned: if the therapy is approved, would it be made available to the millions infected with HIV in developing countries? Researchers and physicians who work with HIV/AIDS therapies are cited to provide perspective on this potential new drug treatment. Sources who are paid consultants for Panacos Pharmaceuticals are appropriately noted. Some appropriate attempt at balance is provided by the concluding quote from Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. The story mentions that this drug would be taken in combination with current antiretroviral therapies. The story places this new drug in the context of a discussion of new drugs that interrupt the replication of HIV; however, bevirimat is still in the midst of clinical trials. The drug, bevirimat, is derived in part from the herb syzigium claviforum. This herb is currently used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat diarrhea and stop bleeding. Bevirimat is a manufactured drug, using certain components of this herb to potentially inhibit HIV replication. The story does mention that the drug is at least 3 years from market and still in early clinical trials. The story reports that bevirimat is a novel treatment and discusses how it may work to improve current treatment regimens. The story states this drug is made from an herb that’s been used for other indications, but is quite clear that the pharma product is novel. The story does not appear to rely on a press release as the only source of information. Claim: Chinese herb may yield drug for AIDS",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 4 May 2017, the America’s Last Line of Defense web site (and numerous related shill sites) published an article positing that former Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly, who had recently parted ways with Fox in the wake of accusations of sexual harassment, had been hospitalized in New York after being beaten by a group of cowardly “liberals” who accosted him at a bagel shop: Bill O’Reilly was reportedly at a bagel shop in New York City this morning when he was approached by two women and three men who said they were “disgusted” by his behavior towards women at Fox News. O’Reilly, who has never been afraid of anyone, turned and told the group to grow up and leave him alone. That’s when the “tolerant” liberals got violent. One of the men grabbed O’Reilly and dragged him out into the street, according to witnesses, where the other two men proceeded to kick him until he was unconscious and bleeding. The 5 perpetrators, who are still at large, ran off like the cowards they are. The police arrived within minutes and called for medical help. O’Reilly was taken to St. Vincent’s where he is in critical condition with 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung. Doctors also fear that he had a cardiac event and have him on a monitor. The doctors are hopeful. None of this was true: No legitimate news outlet reported that Bill O’Reilly was beaten or hospitalized, and he continues hosting his “No Spin” material via his new podcasting venture. Claim: Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was hospitalized in New York after being beaten by a group of \"liberals.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story did explain that “The cost of vitamin D supplements would be roughly comparable with (NSAIDS or birth control pills).”  It didn’t give a ballpark cost, but we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for nodding in the direction of addressing cost. The article states that pain was reduced in the experimental group by 41% (where the control group experienced no pain reductions), but 41% of what? And in reality, was this reduction significant enough that women were able to resume their normal level of activity? The article did not talk about any harms related to high doses of Vitamin D.  They did point out that the women in the study already had low levels of Vitamin D so it is unclear if receiving Vitamin D in lower doses would have been just as beneficial. The study ended follow up at two months and did not have information regarding possible long-term follow-up. They also pointed out that larger clinical trials were needed. The lead in to the story hinges on disease-mongering with its “bane of many women” description, but we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt. The story included interviews with other doctors not associated with the study and reported their viewpoints regarding the study findings. The article did talk about NSAIDs and birth control pills as other alternatives to help alleviate menstrual cramps. The story could have done a better job on this point. Although Vitamin D is available over the counter, it is available in the high dose used in the study only by prescription. Just to put this dose issue in context, when people are Vitamin D deficient, a typical replacement dose is 50,000 units weekly for 8 weeks (a total of 400,000 units). So the 300,000 one-time doses are not as outlandish as they seem when compared with a typical maintenance dose of 600-800 IU/day. The story actually didn’t make any claims about the novelty of this area of research. Vitamin D at this dosage and for this condition are novel approaches. The article does not appear to be based solely on a press release. Claim: Vitamin D3 Might Ease Menstrual Cramps",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Vaccine pricing is complicated and prices are unknown at this point in development (pre-clinical). The story could have addressed cost as a potential limitation even if price is unknown at this time. The story is very clear in giving data on the increased antibody levels among study participants getting either of the two vaccines, or the placebo. However, readers of stories about potential vaccines basically want to know if the vaccines will actually prevent the disease, and this trial was only able to show that the vaccines increased a person’s antibody response. The story does, to its credit, include a statement from one expert stating that it isn’t known what level of antibody response is needed to protect against the disease. The story includes potential harms from the vaccines: “The level of serious adverse events was higher in the placebo group than either vaccine group, and ‘most of the serious adverse events were attributed to malaria. '” The story appropriately states that this was the “first placebo-controlled study of two vaccines against the Ebola virus.” It is also clear in pointing to the study’s shortcomings, offering several different limitations, such as “Ebola cases in Liberia began to dwindle early in 2015, and the outbreak there was declared over on May 9 of that year. By the time this work was fully under way, it was too late to see if vaccines actually prevented Ebola sickness and death.” To the reporter’s credit, no disease mongering. The story included information from an unaffiliated expert, and it alerts readers that pharmaceutical companies developed the two vaccines. That’s good reporting and useful context. However, the story also says that the latest study was conducted by the “U.S. and Liberian governments and elsewhere,” while neglecting to mention that “elsewhere” includes GlaxoSmithKline and Merck (which employs several of the researchers). The story also doesn’t mention that several of the researchers have other economic ties to the companies. This one’s a close call, but there’s not quite enough information to clear our bar. We’ll give story a not applicable in this category since there currently is no proven successful treatment against Ebola. The availability of an Ebola vaccine would be reasonable to address. For example, it a new epidemic developed today, would one of these vaccines be used? This is an important clinical point that researchers might have been able to provide information about. Since hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola are so deadly, the possibility of new vaccines that might be successful against them is certainly novel enough for a story. In this case, it reports a strong antibody response against the virus suggesting a possible protection against an often-fatal disease. The story does a good job of putting the new studies in context. This story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Ebola Vaccines Show Promise in New Study",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General paints a picture of state and federal regulators telling those who live in and around the nation’s fourth-largest city — which was inundated with more than 50 inches of rainfall — that there were no public health risks even though it lacked a full range of data to make such a determination. And while the report says no instances were found of the EPA relaying inaccurate information during Harvey about air quality, it also determined that none of the air-quality sampling done by the federal agency — with a mobile laboratory and with a sensor-equipped plane — proved useful to assessing health risks. Federal officials also said officials from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is the state’s environmental regulator, declined repeated requests to discuss their decision-making during Harvey or to share data. “Despite several conversations to arrange for written answers to our initial list of questions, we never received a response from the TCEQ,” the report states. Responding to the findings, TCEQ Chairman Jon Niermann said the report reflected “numerous misunderstandings about the Hurricane Harvey response” in a letter sent to the inspector general Monday. He said the state had acted in good faith to set up meetings and that his agency regretted any miscommunication. In one example, the report says the EPA collected inadequate data after Harvey while screening for elevated air contamination using a mobile laboratory known as a trace atmospheric gas analyzer. “Although the EPA, the TCEQ and the city of Houston assessed that the data indicated there was no concern — and subsequently issued a press release communicating this assessment to the public — we found that the TAGA’s sampling time frame was too short to generate data that could accurately assess airborne toxin concentrations for making health-based assessments,” the report states. The report supports findings by The Associated Press and Houston Chronicle last year that revealed a far more widespread toxic impact than authorities publicly reported after the storm, which slammed into the Texas coast and then hovered over the Houston area for days. Roughly 500 chemical plants, 10 refineries and more than 6,670 miles (10,734 kilometers) of intertwined oil, gas and chemical pipelines line the nation’s largest energy corridor. Nearly half-a-billion gallons (1,893 million liters) of industrial wastewater mixed with storm water surged out of just one chemical plant — a facility in Baytown, east of Houston on the upper shores of Galveston Bay. Benzene, vinyl chloride, butadiene and other known human carcinogens were among the industrial toxic substances released into surrounding neighborhoods and waterways following Harvey’s torrential rains. Most toxic emissions after Harvey were due to tank failures at industrial plants and facilities shutting down and restarting, the report states. But once restarted, the “monitoring efforts did not always generate data considered suitable for making health-based assessments.” In response to what it considered an inadequate state and EPA response at the time, the Environmental Defense Fund paid for independent air-quality testing to measure post-hurricane pollution in east Houston, which has a heavy petrochemical industry footprint. People living in that part of town were complaining of nausea due to a spike in emissions and tank spills. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported that NASA scientists were ready to fly a plane over the hurricane zone to monitor pollution levels but were turned away by the EPA and TCEQ. Emails obtained by the newspaper showed that environmental officials expressed worry about confusion and overlap with their own analysis. The report released Monday comes at the end a year of high-profile explosions and fires at refineries up and down the Texas coast. The latest was a chemical fire in November at the TPC Group plant that led authorities to issue mandatory evacuation orders for more than 50,000 people. That was followed by a smaller voluntary evacuation order after officials detected elevated levels of butadiene, a chemical used to make synthetic rubber and other products. Local officials said the elevated levels did not pose a serious health risk. ___ Associated Press writer Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this report. ___ Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pauljweber Claim: EPA watchdog: Health monitoring after Harvey was lacking.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Such an outcome would leave West Virginia with a divided congressional delegation not just by party affiliation but by gender. That would be unprecedented in a state that’s elected just two women to Congress in its 155-year history. One of them, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, is the state’s only current female representative. Democrat Kendra Fershee defeated two others in the May primary and will face incumbent Republican David McKinley in the 1st District in November, while Democrat Talley Sergent will meet 2nd District GOP Rep. Alex Mooney. In the 3rd District, where GOP Rep. Evan Jenkins made a failed run for U.S. Senate, Republican Carol Miller will take on Democrat Richard Ojeda this fall. The national surge in female candidates, most of them Democrats, had been expected since the Women’s March demonstrations just after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. “I think women are motivated right now,” Fershee said. “I think women are a driving force behind our success, but I also think men are liking what we’re saying.” This year five women ran in the three U.S. House primary races in West Virginia, compared with none in 2016. “Historically, West Virginia’s congressional delegation has never been friendly toward women,” said Robert Rupp, a West Virginia Wesleyan College political history professor. “In a sense, West Virginia is playing catch-up. The only interesting news is that it took them this long.” Maude Kee was the first woman from West Virginia elected to Congress after the death of her husband, Rep. John Kee. She served in the U.S. House from 1951 to 1964 and was succeeded by her son, James. The only other congresswoman from the state was Capito, who was elected to the House in 2000 and served seven terms before being elected as a U.S. senator in 2014. In between Kee and Capito, female candidates infrequently sought a seat in Congress. From 1964 to 1998, no more than two women in any year ran for either the U.S. Senate or U.S. House races in West Virginia. Four times during that span there were no female candidates, and 10 other times there was one. Records for the 1974 primary were unavailable on the secretary of state’s website. Miller is the only one among the three current female candidates with experience in political office. She has served 12 years in the state House of Delegates and is the daughter of the late Ohio Congressman Samuel Devine. Miller declined an interview request. Her campaign said in a statement that she will lean on her experiences, including as a wife, mother and grandmother, “to bring West Virginia values to Washington DC.” Sergent, the state presidential campaign director for Hillary Clinton in 2016, said she was miffed at the Republican-controlled Congress for its work on the health care overhaul last year. But what drove her into candidate mode for the first time was the state’s opioid epidemic. West Virginia leads the nation by far in the rate of drug overdose deaths. Sergent said addiction is a personal issue. Her sister is an addict and Sergent’s mother has adopted her sister’s 11-year-old daughter. “I’m running for her and for kids all over this state and for grandparents and for people who are fighting this drug epidemic every single day,” Sergent said. “Congress is not helping us, and we need a friend and a fighter in Congress that will.” Like Sergent, Fershee also is a first-time candidate. A West Virginia University law professor and an associate dean of academic affairs, Fershee said she was turned off by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign as well as the voting record of McKinley, a four-term incumbent. The day after Trump’s election, Fershee made a post on social media asking other women to run for office, “and they all said, ‘We agree, you should run,’” Fershee said. “And I was like, ‘That’s not what I meant when I tagged you.’” One day while mowing her lawn, Fershee said, “it hit me that I could do this, actually.” Claim: West Virginia women have chance for sweep in US House races.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In late May, Italy began reporting its lowest number of new COVID-19 cases since February. This could be the outcome of a nationwide lockdown that lasted months, but one Facebook post is attributing it to a larger medical conspiracy. A Facebook post from May 26, 2020, claims that \"Italy has allegedly discovered covid is not a virus, but a bacterium. It clots the blood and reduces the oxygen saturation from dispersing throughout the body.\" It goes on to explain that the Italian Ministry of Health \"went against the World Health Organization's ‘law’ that no bodies receive autopsies,\" leading to its discovery of the bacterium. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Let’s break down the three main claims: \"Italy has allegedly discovered covid is not a virus, but a bacterium. \" This is wrong. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the virus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Bacteria and viruses can create similar symptoms and spread through human-to-human contact, but they are different biologically. Bacteria can replicate without a host cell, but viruses require some kind of host to replicate, explained Emily Bruce, a faculty scientist at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. Bacteria can replicate themselves because they have developed DNA and are considered a living organism, while viruses usually contain RNA. A late February study analyzing samples from nine new COVID-19 patients found that the disease possessed a \"single strand, positive-sense RNA genome,\" which is a characteristic of coronaviruses and not bacteria. Its genetic makeup was similar to two bat-derived severe acute respiratory syndromes. It was distantly related to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, which are both coronaviruses that have caused large outbreaks before. This established the cause of COVID-19 as a virus, as a bacterium would not genetically match with these other coronaviruses. Italy’s Ministry of Health still identifies the cause of COVID-19 as a coronavirus on its FAQ page. \"It clots the blood and reduces the oxygen saturation from dispersing throughout the body.\" There is some evidence of blood-clotting problems from COVID-19, but they’re most likely caused by lung complications. Studies from the Netherlands and France have found a connection between severe COVID-19 and blood clots. The French study found that 23 out of 100 patients with a severe case of COVID-19 had blood clots in their pulmonary artery, which carries blood from the heart to the lungs to be oxygenated. Richard Watanabe, professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine at, agreed that there is new evidence that COVID-19 can cause blood clots and other blood complications. This could be attributed to how \"people infected with COVID-19 develop pneumonia, which impedes breathing and oxygen saturation.\" Watanabe said that there needs to be more research on COVID-19 and clots and embolisms, especially with an increase in Kawasaki disease-like symptoms in young COVID-19 patients. This is inaccurate. There is no recorded announcement from the World Health Organization that autopsies should not be conducted on deceased COVID-19 patients. In fact, the organization released guidance this month on how to perform such an autopsy safely. The first English-language autopsy report on COVID-19 patients was done in Oklahoma, and the findings were published on April 10. Our ruling A social media post claimed that Italy found that COVID-19 is an easily treatable bacteria when it went against WHO’s guidelines and performed an \"illegal\" autopsy. COVID-19’s cause has been extensively studied and identified as a virus, and the WHO never discouraged autopsies of patients who died from COVID-19. We rate this . Claim: Italy “went against the WHO's ‘law’” against COVID-19 autopsies and “discovered covid is not a virus, but a bacterium” that “clots the blood and reduces the oxygen saturation.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In 2008, US children got 36 vaccines and the autism rate was 1 in 150. US children were recommended to get around 13 vaccines, which involved about 39 doses, in 2008. It was estimated that about 1 in 88 children has autism disorders. In 2013, US children got 46 vaccines and the autism rate was 1 in 88. US children were recommended to get around 13 vaccines, which involved about 53 doses, in 2013. In 2012, 1 in 69 were estimated to have autism disorders and in 2014, it was 1 in 59 (we found no figures for 2013). Increasing numbers of vaccines are associated with increasing rates of autism. Dozens of scientific studies have shown there is no link between autism or autism spectrum disorders and vaccines. Claim 1 of 4 Claim: Increasing numbers of vaccines are associated with increasing rates of autism.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate drew an attack the same day from Republican Nancy Mace, who is running for a congressional seat in South Carolina. Mace’s Aug. 11 tweet made a half dozen claims about Harris, a Democratic senator from California. One referred to the surviving bomber in the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon, who killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. Harris \"advocated for restoring voting rights for the Boston bomber,\" Mace claimed. During her own campaign for the presidential nomination, she said she is open to the idea, but she didn’t advocate for it. Mace, a state representative since 2018, describes herself as a single mom, businesswoman and former Waffle House waitress. The first woman to graduate from The Citadel military college in South Carolina, she is challenging first-term Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham in the Nov. 3 election. As of Aug. 7, the Cook Political Report rated the race a tossup. On July 31, a federal appeals court threw out the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who had been convicted for his role in the marathon bombing, leaving in place a life sentence. His lawyers argued that the mastermind of the attack was his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a gunfight with police a few days after the April 15, 2013 bombing. Harris worked as a prosecutor in Alameda County (Oakland) and in San Francisco, then was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003 and 2007. In 2010, she was elected California attorney general, then was re-elected in 2014. A series of CNN town halls on April 22, 2019, with candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination for president included sessions with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Harris. Sanders said that he believes all prisoners — including \"terrible people\" like the Boston Marathon bomber — should be allowed to vote. That prompted an exchange between Harris and host Don Lemon, who asked Harris what she thought of the idea. Harris: \"I agree that the right to vote is one of the very important components of citizenship and it is something that people should not be stripped of needlessly, which is why I have been long an advocate of making sure that the formerly incarcerated are not denied a right to vote, which is the case in so many states in our country, in some states permanently deprived of the right to vote. \"And these are policies that go back to Jim Crow. These are policies that go back to the heart of policies that have been about disenfranchisement, policies that continue until today, and we need to take it seriously.\" Lemon: \"But people who are convicted, in prison, like the Boston Marathon bomber, on death row, people who are convicted of sexual assault — they should be able to vote?\" Harris: \"I think we should have that conversation.\" On the campaign trail the next day, a reporter asked Harris to expand on her remarks about the Boston bomber, saying: \"What is your view on felons voting from prison?\" In comments that her then-press secretary highlighted on Twitter, Harris replied by saying she would make a decision after giving the issue more thought: \"Listen, it’s a complex issue, and I take it very seriously. Look, I’m running for president of the United States; I'm going to be very thoughtful and serious about the issues I weigh in on. And so I'm going to think about it, and I'm going to talk to experts, and I'm going to make a decision, and I'll let you know. I will tell you this: One, it's a complex issue, I'm fully aware of that. Two, we right now have got a lot of work to do with the people in our country who have served their time and have been prohibited from voting. \"Currently in our country there are 6 million people who have served their time and are still prohibited from voting, and that has been an area of focus for me for quite some time, and we have got to address that immediately. And so that is one of my first areas of focusing concern. \"But, do I think people who commit murder, or people who are terrorists, should be deprived of their rights? Yeah, I do. I'm a prosecutor, I believe there have to be serious consequences for the most extreme types of crimes.\" Mace claimed that Harris \"advocated for restoring voting rights for the Boston bomber.\" Harris has not said that she would advocate for giving the surviving Boston marathon bomber the right to vote, only that she is open to a conversation about it. She emphasized that people who had served their sentences and been released should be able to vote. Mace’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Claim: Nancy Mace Says Kamala Harris “advocated for restoring voting rights for the Boston bomber.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 6 January 2007, Knoxville, Tennessee, residents Christopher Newsom, Jr.,  23, and Channon Christian, 21, went out for a dinner date at a local restaurant, then headed to a friend’s house to watch a movie. They never came back. When the couple had failed to return by the following morning, their parents notified police. Christopher Newsom’s body was found near some railroad tracks in East Knoxville that afternoon, but Channon Christian remained missing. A trace run on Christian’s cell phone helped authorities locate her abandoned vehicle the next day, and fingerprints raised from an envelope inside the automobile led police to the residence of 25-year-old Lemaricus Devall “Slim” Davidson, where they discovered Christian’s body stashed inside a trash disposal bin and covered with sheets. An internet-circulated version of those events maintained they weren’t reported on by the national news media because the victims were white:  OK, so let’s create a level playing field here. I have not even heard of this on CBS, ABC, NBC or any of the cable news services, even FOX NEWS. OR in any of the Newsrags or other publications. Read this and weep. Bet you $20 you did not hear this on the national news. The animals pictured below car-jacked, then raped Christopher Newsom, cut off his penis, then set him on fire and fatally shot him several times while they forced his girlfriend, Channon Christian, to watch. An even more cruel fate awaited her! Channon Christian, was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breast and put chemicals in her mouth … and then murdered her. Where be the Revs Al and Jesse? Are they providing counsel and help to the families of the victims? Of course not – the victims were white Why hasn’t this received National coverage by the news media like the Duke “rape” case? Oh, that’s right – the victims were white Why hasn’t the NAACP, ACLU, New York Times etc, called for an investigation? Must be cause the victims were white Why hasn’t the FBI been called in to investigate this as a hate crime? Oh, that’s right – the victims were white. The details of the crime as later revealed by court testimony were horrific: Christopher Newsom was repeatedly sodomized with a foreign object; he was bound, gagged and blindfolded; he was dragged outside and shot in the back of his head, neck and back; and his body was set on fire. Channon Christian was tortured for several hours, beaten about the head, and raped; afterwards, bleach was poured over her body and down her throat, then she was covered with several plastic garbage bags, dumped in a disposal bin, and left to suffocate. (Some of the details presented in initial press accounts of the crime later proved to be inaccurate: The perpetrators did not cut off Christopher Newsom’s penis or Channon Christian’s breast,  they murdered Christian within a day of the kidnapping rather than holding her captive for several days, they poured cleaning solution into Christian’s mouth to eliminate DNA evidence rather than as a form of torture, and they did not shoot Christian or set her body on fire as they did with Newsom.) Five suspects  were arrested and charged with the murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian (and related crimes). LeMaricus Davidson, along with his brother,  Letalvis “Rome” Cobbins (24), and George Geovonni “Detroit” Thomas (27), were all indicted on a total of 46 counts each: 16 counts of felony murder, 2 counts of premeditated murder, 2 counts of especially aggravated robbery, 4 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape, and 2 counts of theft. Vanessa Coleman (18), was indicted on a total of 40 counts: 12 counts of felony murder, 1 count of premeditated murder, 1 count of especially aggravated robbery, 4 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape, and 2 counts of theft. Eric DeWayne “E” Boyd (34) was not indicted and faced federal charges only as an accessory after the fact. Boyd was convicted in federal court of being an accessory to the carjacking and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. On 25 August 2009, Letalvis “Rome” Cobbins was found guilty of multiple counts of first-degree and felony murder in the death of Christian but opted for lesser charges of facilitating murder in the slaying of Newsom. He was additionally convicted of multiple charges of rape and kidnapping and robbery and received a life sentence, as did George Thomas. Vanessa Coleman was sentenced to 53 years in prison. On October 2009, Lemaricus Davidson, convicted on kidnapping, rape and murder charges, was sentenced to death. In October 2011, the presiding judge at the original trial, Richard Baumgartner, was disbarred by the Tennessee Supreme Court after an investigation revealed he had illegally purchased prescription pain pills from a convicted felon under his supervision, and in December 2011 a special judge ruled that Baumgartner was impaired at the time of the first trial and granted new trials to Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, and Vanessa Coleman. In May 2012 the Tennessee Supreme Court vacated that ruling and allowed the original convictions to stand: further legal maneuvering eventually resulted in retrials for Thomas and Coleman but not for Cobbins and Davidson. In November 2012, Coleman was convicted a second time (on lesser charges than her initial convictions) and re-sentenced to 35 years in prison. In May 2013, George Thomas was convicted a second time on all counts and given consecutive life sentences with an additional 25 years. (Coleman was eligible for parole on 25 October 2014, but her parole was denied.) As for the question of why the murders weren’t prosecuted as a hate crime, the answer is that no evidence demonstrated the race of the victims was a motivation in their killing. Police, prosecutors, and the families of the victims all stated that they believed Newsom and Christian were not victims of a hate crime. It is true that the bulk of the initial news reportage about the Newsom/Christian murders was local (predominantly in Tennessee, where the crimes took place, and in neighboring Kentucky) while the case received little or no national coverage by major news outlets, a phenomenon some attributed to racial bias on the part of the national news media. Claim: An account accurately describes the rapes and murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian and the reporting thereof.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of costs in the release. At a minimum it could have mentioned the cost of the existing FDA-approved comparator drug. High in the release, the benefits of the drugs being studied and the placebo being compared are quantified clearly in both relative and absolute terms. Readers can see clearly that we are talking about quite a small group of people who saw benefits from either drug compared to the rather large group of women who were studied. Most of the data presented was absolute risk which was excellent. This shows the benefit as well as the fact that most patients didn’t have a fracture regardless of which treatment was given. The release says that there were no significant differences in harms seen between the drugs and the placebo without describing all the side effects. But it also mentions that hypercalcemia (elevated calcium level) was lower with the new agent compared to the existing comparator drug. While this was not explained in depth, we’ll give the release the benefit of the doubt for this brief mention of harms. The story does a nice, succinct job explaining how the study was constructed, how many people participated, and other important details. There is no disease mongering in the release. To its credit the release quotes two people not associated with the study from an accompanying editorial and explains that the study was funded by Radius Health. But it does not make it clear whether Radius Health is involved in making an osteoporosis drug. Instead, the release directs readers to the full study (which is behind a firewall and available only to journal subscribers) for information on financial disclosures. The disclosure shows that several of the researchers, notably Paul Miller, MD, the corresponding author noted in the release, is a member of the scientific advisory board for Radius Health and several other pharmaceutical companies, and received research grants from Radius Health and a dozen other pharmaceutical sponsors. We think this information was important enough to include in the release itself. The study itself was a comparison of two drugs and a placebo. The release explains that. The only thing that would have been better than this would have been an explanation of other ways the condition is treated. This treatment is often viewed as a second-line one because it involves the inconvenience of injections under the skin. For most individuals, there are simpler oral treatments that are effective and have a long track record. The treatments studied here are for those with higher risks, especially those who did not respond to or did not tolerate the existing therapy. The release does not make it clear whether the drugs being studied are on the market. The release does not make the novelty of the findings clear. In the second paragraph, the piece discusses how this medicine works and that the study is comparing a new medicine with one already available. But what isn’t stated is why we need a new medicine. Isn’t the existing one good enough? There is no unjustifiable language in the release. Claim: Injected Drug Reduces Risk of Fracture among Women with Osteoporosis",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On February 8 2019, a Facebook user shared the following meme, featuring images of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez above a purported quote from British wartime leader Winston Churchill:Underneath two identical images of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it featured a photograph of Churchill and a quote:CHURCHILL ON SOCIALISM:“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”The Equal Sharing Of MiseryAlthough the meme appeared to be a simple quote-based assertion, it actually involved implicit statements as well, presupposing that Ocasio-Cortez espoused “the equal sharing of misery” as well as suggesting that Churchill’s positions lay in stark contrast to the freshman congresswoman from New York.As it turned out, the quote has circulated before. A July 2015 page published by The Churchill Project at the conservative-leaning Hillsdale College commented on an iteration of the quote circulating at the time (“Social­ism is a phi­los­o­phy of fail­ure, the creed of igno­rance, and the gospel of envy, its inher­ent virtue is the equal shar­ing of misery”). They noted that the quote was cobbled together from two separate purported comments:It is more or less correct, but it’s a run-together, truncated version of two separate comments:“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347.AND“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” —House of Commons, 22 October 1945.As noted, the quotation appeared in Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 and 1948. But the larger context of the quote from a speech given by Churchill in May 1948 was British dependence on American aid in the post-war period. What Churchill actually said was:It may be necessary for us to seek and accept American aid in the plight into which we have fallen, but it should be the first aim of every Briton to free ourselves from that condition at the earliest moment, not only by hard work but by laying aside every impediment and above all by not allowing party doctrines and party fads to impede the national effort and rob the people of the fruits of their exertions and sacrifices.How Socialist ministers can go about bragging of their social programme and of the nationalisation of industry on Party grounds, how they can deride the system of free enterprise and capitalism which makes America so great and wealthy, and then at the same time eagerly seek the aid which has hitherto been so generously granted from across the Atlantic, is a position which baffles the limitations of [our] language to explain.We are oppressed by a deadly fallacy. Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. Unless we free our country while time remains from the perverse doctrines of Socialism, there can be no hope for recovery. This island cannot maintain its population as a great power. The most energetic and the nimblest ‘will emigrate, and we shall be left here with a board of safe officials brooding over a vast mass of worried, hungry and broken human beings. Our place in the world will be lost forever, and not only our individual self-respect but our national independence will be gone. These hard-won privileges have been dear to us in the past. But all this structure of obstinacy and unwisdom erected for Party and not national aims must be viewed in the light of the supreme and dominating fact of our present position. The Socialist Government in London has become dependent upon the generosity of the capitalist system of the United States.We are not earning our own living or paying our way, nor do the Government hold out any prospect of our doing so in the immediate future. It is this terrible fact which glares upon us all.I had hoped that the thousand million loan we borrowed from the United States in 1945 would be used to tide us over the transition from war to peace and that it would give us at least 4 years’ breathing-space to adjust our affairs after the exhaustions of the war. It was spent and largely squandered in 2 years and we are now dependent upon further American generosity and also eating up from hand to mouth the remaining overseas investments and assets accumulated under the capitalist system of former years.As my friend in the corner so naively said in the House of Commons the other day, “We are eating the Argentine Railways this year, what are we going to eat next year?The quotation was authentic, but still deeply divorced from the context in which Churchill was speaking, and more to the point, the context in which it was later placed — the specific policies espoused by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Churchill railed against growing dependency in Britain on the United States in the post-war period, a condition which hinged on differences between the two world superpowers in the wake of the second world war:In that same year, the American Secretary of State, George Marshall, proposed his European Recovery Programme to rebuild a war-shattered Europe. For Britain herself, the offer of the Marshall Aid dollars presented a last chance to modernise herself as an industrial power before her old trade rivals could recover from defeat and occupation. Instead, all the illusions and follies of post-war British policy now reached their climax in the wasting of Britain’s Marshall Aid. […]In fact, far from Marshall Aid boosting British investment, planned programmes were heavily cut after the debacle of a Sterling devaluation in 1949, caused by a balance-of-payments crisis. In what had been intended as the ‘decisive’ Marshall Aid years of 1949 and 1950, investment was only a little higher than in 1948 – barely ahead of inflation.The second portion of the amalgamated quote was also derived from a lengthier set of remarks given in the House of Commons in October 1945. Once again, Churchill was speaking in the larger context of a broader aim of retaining Britain’s position as a world superpower. In that earlier statement, Churchill was debating other Parliament members on the topic of drawing down troops and returning to civilian life. In initial remarks in the same session, he said:We have asked for this Debate upon demobilisation, because demobilisation is the foundation upon which, at this moment, everything else stands, and also, because tardy, inadequate demobilisation is the fountain-head of all our domestic difficulties. Whatever view may be taken of Socialism or free enterprise, surely it is common ground between us all, that we should get all the great wheels and the little wheels of life and industry in this country turning as soon as possible. For this we need the men. Without the men, and also the women, now held in the Services, there can be no speedy revival. The woeful shortage of consumer goods will continue. The Government will be afraid to allow people to spend their savings, for fear of undue rise in prices. Scarcity will be used as justification for controls, and controls will become the fatal means of prolonging scarcity. Get all the great wheels turning, and all the little cog wheels too. Let them rotate and revolve, spin and hum, and we shall have taken a long step forward towards our deliverance. In order to get them turning, we must bring the men home, and set the men free. […]Here I will make a digression. It seems most urgent, and, indeed, vital, that the Government should put forward their proposals, in outline at any rate, for the permanent scale at which all three of our Armed Services are to be maintained, let us say, in the next 10 years. Men and women in all the three Forces ought to know, now, the conditions under which they can continue in the Services, or can transfer from “hostilities only” to longer or full-time engagements. I am inclined to agree with a remark which I saw attributed to the Minister of Labour and National Service the other day, to the effect that there is not the same universal general desire to leave the Services now, which was encountered after the first great war.Churchill’s remarks were made once again in the context of Britain’s post-war economy, not on the subject of “socialism” or “capitalism” absent any context. He went on to assert “in a philosophic vein” that freeing citizens up to find “useful work” ought to be a priority:With considerable responsibility and after much heart searching, I am making a positive contribution to this Debate. It can be knocked about from all quarters, but I hope to see at any rate a foundation for thought and discussion on a matter in which we cannot afford to rest in a half paralysed deadlock. Supposing every man were given double pay for every day he was kept beyond his proper priority, that would be a small burden on the State compared with the enormous waste such as is going on now. Certainly a great effort should be made to solve this problem. If it makes possible a far larger rate of releases, the general rejoicing will sweep away many invidious reflections. […]I understand — perhaps I am wrongly informed — that it was thought necessary to hold their opposite numbers here at home, who are a much greater number, beyond their time. After all, the officers who are kept are kept because there is vital work for them to do while similar officers, whose release is retarded at home, are kept without useful work. There is a great difference between being kept to do something, and being kept to do nothing. As for the women, many of them want to stay, but surely those who have nothing to do, and are not wanted for any purpose under the sun, should be set free now.I earnestly hope that the Government will give unprejudiced attention to the suggestions I have ventured to make. They are put forward in no spirit of controversy but in the general interest. If we do not get this country going again pretty soon, if we do not get the great wheels turning, we may lose for ever our rightful place in the post-war economic world and we may involve our finances in dire and irretrievable confusion. It is no party matter, but one in which the House as a whole should make its opinion felt in a way that will override all hesitations and obstacles which are found in the path. In order to bring us all together, I will end this practical discourse in a philosophic vein. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is ​the equal sharing of miseries. In the present case, where an overwhelming majority of Service men and women would gain the blessings, can we not unite on the broad democratic principle of “the greatest good of the greatest number”?Recontextualizing Churchill’s positions on “socialism” in 2019 almost always occurred without mention of the statesman’s actual legacy. A quotation from Churchill from May 1908 illustrated dissonance between his anti-socialist rhetoric as contrasted with “liberalism”:Liberalism is not Socialism, and never will be. There is a great gulf fixed. It is not a gulf of method, it is a gulf of principle … Socialism seeks to pull down wealth; Liberalism seeks to raise up poverty. Socialism would destroy private interests; Liberalism would preserve private interests in the only way in which they can be safely and justly preserved, namely by reconciling them with public right. Socialism would kill enterprise; Liberalism would rescue enterprise from the trammels of privilege and preference … Socialism exalts the rule; Liberalism exalts the man. Socialism attacks capital; Liberalism attacks monopoly.The meme set up an inherent disagreement between Churchill and Ocasio-Cortez, the latter of whom champions such social safety net features as a public health care system. The process of administrating health care remained a cornerstone of debates related to “socialism” in 2019, which made the comparison curious given Churchill’s role as Prime Minister at the advent of England’s National Health Service:By the end of the Second World War, there was overwhelming support from all political parties for some sort of health service. The ordeal of war had had a levelling effect. The Beveridge Report, which proposed widespread reforms to the system of social welfare to address what William Beveridge identified as five “giant evils” in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease. Published in the midst of World War II, the report promised rewards for everyone’s sacrifices. It was overwhelmingly popular with the public.Finally, Sir Winston Churchill, speaking as prime minister in the spring of 1944, affirmed that it was the policy of the government to establish a national health service that would make accessible to all, irrespective of social class or means, adequate and modern social care. The high and rising cost of medical care was the key consideration. Healthcare shouldn’t be rationed by price.A 2009 political analysis of the NHS’s introduction credited three parties of the time with its establishment, noting that British conservatives of the era vociferously supported the initiative:The NHS owes its existence to the climate of wartime British politics, not least the vastly expanded access to basic healthcare which came with conscription, and the subsequent rise in expectations. As Paul Addison outlined over 30 years ago in his landmark The Road to 1945, the wartime coalition of 1940-5 fostered a remarkable degree of consensus. In social policy, this resulted in the seminal 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services, chaired by the Liberal economist William Beveridge – better known as the Beveridge Report. In this, Beveridge set out a comprehensive state plan of social care. Section 19 of the report is the first public mention of a “National Health Service.”The report was enormously influential, and what cannot be stressed enough is that in the subsequent 1945 general election, all three parties endorsed the Beveridge Report.Revealingly, all three parties had NHS proposals in their 1945 manifestoes. The Conservatives actually had the longest section in their manifesto, pledging:The health services of the country will be made available to all citizens. Everyone will contribute to the cost, and no one will be denied the attention, the treatment or the appliances he requires because he cannot afford them. We propose to create a comprehensive health service covering the whole range of medical treatment from the general practitioner to the specialist, and from the hospital to convalescence and rehabilitation. […]The point is that a Conservative post-war government under Churchill was fully signed up to introducing the NHS. A Liberal post-war government under Sinclair was fully signed up to introducing the NHS. The NHS was not Labour’s great achievement, it was an inescapable conclusion. And it was only the colossal Labour majority of 1945 which made it possible for Clement Attlee’s government to confidently embark on an NHS scheme that was deeply controversial among its own members.Another position of Ocasio-Cortez’s that had an analogue in positions held by Churchill during his career was taxation — the congresswoman has expressed support for a 70 percent tax on incomes over $10 million. In 1920, Churchill espoused an unpopular approach to a tax on “war-time increases in wealth” and taxation of “unearned” gains.The statement in the meme was correctly identified as an amalgam of Winston Churchill’s words in 2015, prior to the 2019 juxtaposition with the positions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Although the words were words said by Churchill during broader remarks in 1945 and 1948, they were presented far enough out of their context and the context of history as to be meaningless. Although Churchill regularly railed against “socialism” as he viewed in throughout his career, many of the positions and initiatives he espoused were quite similar to those of Ocasio-Cortez — most prominently, perhaps, in support for a national healthcare system. But the quoted remarks attributed to Churchill were almost exclusively about and regarding his commentary on the acceptance and use of United States aid in postwar Britain. Claim: Winston Churchill said \"Socialism is the philosophy of failure\" and the \"gospel of envy.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In July 2017, a video purportedly showing “a bolt of lightning striking a river” went viral on social media:   Meteorologist Dan Skoff lent credence to the claim when he reposted the video on Facebook, along with the following message: This is crazy! One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen with lightning. Almost doesn’t look real! If you aren’t terrified of lightning in a swimming pool, you will be now! This video, however, does not actually show a bolt of lightning striking a river. When the video is slowed down, it is easy to tell that the “lightning” strike doesn’t come from the sky, but from a wire on the hill. Here’s a screenshot showing the moment of impact (which can be glimpsed at the 7-second mark in the video above):  This video was uploaded to YouTube by Finnish water engineering company Rannikon Merityö in 2012, under the title “Porapaalutusta, osa 3: Räjäytys” (Drilling rig, part 3: Blasting). Although this clip was not accompanied by any additional information, the video was included on the company’s web site on a page about underwater mining and blasting: KÄÄNNY VEDENALAISESSA LOUHINTA JA RÄJÄYTYSTYÖSSÄ AINA ASIANTUNTIJAN PUOLEEN Rantojen ja vedenalaisen kallion louhinta- ja rakennustyö Turun saaristossa ja ympäristössä. Vedenalaisessa louhinnassa madalletaan kallionpinnan korkeutta järvessä, meressä tai muussa vesistössä. Ennen louhintatyön aloittamista tehdään louhinta- ja räjäytystöiden suunnitelma, jotta kaikki toteutuu turvallisesti. Vesistössä tapahtuva kallion louhinta on luvanvaraista toimintaa ja saattaa vaatia aluehallintoviraston (AVI) luvan. MIHIN VEDENALAINEN LOUHINTA SOVELTUU? Vedenalaista louhintaa käytetään rantojen ja vesistöjen kunnostukseen sekä merimerkkien perustamiseen. Lisäksi vesiväylien syventäminen, rakentaminen ja ylläpito tehdään louhinta- ja räjäytystöillä. Louhinta suoritetaan laittamalla porausreikiin vedenalaista erikoisräjähdettä, joka upotetaan kallioon porattuihin reikiin. Asiakkaita voi olla yksityiset asiakkaat, satamat, ja venesatamat. TAKE SUBMERGED MINING AND BLASTING WORK TO AN EXPERT Mining and construction of beaches and underwater rock in Turku archipelago and surroundings. Underwater quarrying lowers the rock surface level in the lake, ocean or other waters. Before the excavation work is started, a mining and blasting plan is planned to ensure that everything is safely accomplished. The rock mining in water is licensed and may require the permission of the regional government agency (AVI). WHERE IS UNDERWATER MINING SUITABLE? Underwater quarrying is used for the refurbishment of beaches and waterways and the creation of sea symbols. In addition, the deepening, construction and maintenance of waterways are carried out in mining and blasting operations. Extraction is carried out by inserting underwater special explosives into the drilling holes, which are immersed in drilled holes in the rock. Customers can be private customers, ports, and marinas. As several pieces of debris can be seen floating in the river shortly after the explosion, it seems most likely that Rannikon Merityö used a detonation cord to dislodge a stump or a tree from the river. Regardless of the exact reason for this explosion, it’s clear that this video shows the work of a dredging company, not a bolt of lightning. Meteorologist Skoff later updated his Facebook post to note that the video did not actually show a bolt of lightning striking a river: This is crazy! It’s not lightning, BUT instead a detonation cord! There is no flash from the clouds & the bolt just seems to come from the top of the hill. They probably had some explosives detonate under water. Still cool though. A similar explosion can be seen in the following video showing the removal of the City Mill Dam in the U.S. state of Georgia’s Chattahoochee River. An almost identical “lightning bolt” can be seen flashing across the water at the 1:30 mark: Claim: A video shows a bolt of lightning striking a river, sparking a large explosion.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The proposal, which drew swift opposition from the health care industry, comes amid a fierce debate in California as activists on the left push aggressively for a system that would provide government-funded insurance for everyone in the state. Across the country, rising health care costs have put the industry, lawmaker and employers and consumers at odds. The proposal in California would affect private health plans, including those offered by employers and purchased by individuals. A nine-member commission appointed by the governor and legislative leaders would set prices for everything from a physical exam to an allergy test to heart bypass surgery. No other state has such a requirement. “If we do not act now, I’m concerned that health care prices will become unsustainable,” Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a freshman Democrat from San Jose who wrote the legislation, said in a news conference in Sacramento. The measure faces an uphill battle in the Legislature, where lawmakers are generally cautious about making drastic changes to the health care system and are already juggling a wide range of ambitious proposals. The proposal is backed by influential unions including the Service Employees International Union, Unite Here and the Teamsters. The unions are frustrated that health care costs are gobbling an increasing share of employee compensation. “Every dollar that we spend on rising health care prices is a dollar that comes out of a worker’s pocket,” said Sara Flocks, policy coordinator for the California Labor Federation, a union coalition. “This is something that is eating up our wages and it is increasing income inequality. This is a fundamental question of fairness.” Health care providers say price controls would encourage doctors to move out of state or retire, making it harder for people to see a physician when they’re sick, and force hospitals to lay off staff or, in some cases, close their doors. The California Medical Association, which represents physicians, called the proposal “radical” and warned that it would reduce choices for consumers. “No state in America has ever attempted such an unproven policy of inflexible, government-managed price caps across every health care service,” Dr. Theodore Mazer, the CMA president, said in a statement. Under Kalra’s bill, prices would be tied to Medicare’s rate for a particular service or procedure, with that price as a floor. There would be a process for doctors or hospitals to argue that their unique circumstances warrant payments higher than the state’s standard rate. Paying hospitals 125 percent of Medicare’s rate would cut $18 billion in revenue and force them to trim nurses and other support staff, said Dietmar Grellman, senior vice president of the California Hospital Association. Private insurers make up for the low payments from government-funded health care, which doesn’t cover the full cost of care, he said. “That’s why their bill is such an empty promise,” Grellman said. “They take money out of the system with rate regulation, but then they don’t address the huge gaping hole that’s created by Medicare and Medicaid.” In recent decades health care spending has risen faster than inflation and wages while employers and health plans have shifted more of the costs onto consumers through higher premiums, deductibles and copays. Americans spend more per capita on health care than other developed countries. Meanwhile, a wave of consolidation by hospitals, physician groups and insurance companies has given industry players more power to demand higher rates. Claim: California bill would create health care price controls.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although the release’s lead emphasizes efforts to bring this blood test to market, there are no cost estimates in the text. A source affiliated with the company that licensed the test is quoted as valuing the maintenance of “affordable cost,” but we have no idea what that might mean. The release states that a modified version of the original test can identify individuals with cancer more than 93% of the time. It’s unclear what the 93% success rate means in this context. Is that the sensitivity? What is the false positive rate? Why these terms matter. The release needed to provide more information on the risks that arise with cancer screening tests–for example, of being told you have cancer when you do not; or the opposite, being told you’re cancer-free when you actually have cancer. There is also the risk of overdiagnosis — finding and treating non-growing or slow-growing cancer that doesn’t need to be treated. The release needed more about the limitations to this research. It appears the test has only been run on people where their cancer status is known, for example. A prospective trial needs to be conducted. Also, it’s not known whether earlier diagnosis will make any difference or cause more harm than good. Blood tests to detect cancer would provide a significant opportunity to find cancers at an early stage, when they can possibly (but not necessarily) be successfully treated. But, as we mentioned, the risk of overdiagnosis and overtreatment needs to be acknowledged. While it is not clear who is funding this latest study, the company, IMSTAR, which has licensed the test, identifies the University of Bradford as a “partner” on its website. Additionally, the PI quoted most extensively in the release appears to co-own a 2010 patent for a similar test. The news release did attempt to explain alternatives. More could have been said about this, but we found it sufficient for a satisfactory rating: Professor Anderson said: “This test is different from other universal cancer tests being developed, because it is not looking for a specific biomarker or mutation. This is a generic test for cancer in an individual, regardless of the underlying mechanism that’s causing their cancer.” The text offers only a general statement at its end indicating that work to develop the test will continue. Ideally the release would have explained that a prospective trial is still needed. The release establishes what makes this test unique. The text exercises appropriate caution, describing the blood test as a “potential” tool. Claim: 'Universal' blood test for earlier diagnosis of cancer moves closer to market",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In mid-February 2018, an inflammatory quote attributed to Tariq Ramadan, a prominent and controversial Islamic studies scholar recently arrested on rape charges in France, reappeared on social media:  The Swiss-born scholar has for years has been a controversial figure in part because of his lineage (he is the grandson of Hassan Al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement) and in part because of his views on the role of Islam in the Western world. We found no evidence that Ramadan ever made the statement attributed to him above. In 2004, the George W. Bush administration barred Ramadan from entering the U.S. over allegations he had donated to a charity that gives money to the Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization Hamas. The restriction on Ramadan’s entry was lifted in 2010. In February 2018, Ramadan made headlines for a completely different reason: he was arrested in France after two women came forward with rape allegations against him in late 2017, during what has become known as the #MeToo movement. It’s unclear whether the rape charges prompted the fake quote’s resurgence, but the latter has wended its way across the Internet by way of message boards and web sites with no links back to a source for it. The quote appears to have originated on the anti-Muslim site BareNakedIslam.com, where it appeared in a 2015 post alongside a video commentary by Marc Lebuis, the founder of a French-Canadian web site whose mission is to “explore and expose Islamist activities in our midst.” The quote is a mishmash of Ramadan’s words and Lebuis’s paraphrases. In the video, Lebuis said that “Tariq Ramadan is very controversial by the way. He called on — he specifically targeted Muslims not to use Sharia law, the term Sharia, but rather targeted Canada as being one of the easiest legal systems to penetrate in order to advance Sharia principles. And that was published in an Egyptian magazine in 2004.” LeBuis was referring to a 2004 interview with Ramadan in the Cario-based news magazine Egypt Today, in which Ramadan discussed the Islamic code of conduct enshrined in the law of some predominantly Muslim countries known as Sharia law. The idea of a sneaky takeover plot to implement Sharia law in Western countries such as Canada and the United States is popular among anti-Islamic conspiracy theorists, who have developed a veritable cottage industry around that fear. But Ramadan never said anything about “colonizing” the U.S. and Canada or using violent jihad to do so. Rather, he told Egypt Today that: The Muslims in Canada’s battle to set up shariah courts to settle domestic disputes is another example of lack of creativity. Within the normative law in Canada, they have huge latitude for Muslims to propose an Islamic contract. These courts are not necessary; all they do is stress the fact that Muslims have specific laws and for the time being this is not how we want to be perceived. We need to show that our way of thinking is universal, that we can live with the law and there is no contradiction. It’s more useful for Muslims to examine the legal framework they have in Canada, which is one of the most open in the world, and come up with something Islamic that at the same time fits the Canadian reality. The term shariah in itself is laden with negative connotations in the Western mind. There is no need to stress that. We can do more and better without creating this sort of fracture and misunderstanding. The very moment Muslims understand there are no contradictions between being Muslim and being European or American, they will enrich their societies. Although Lebuis interpreted Ramadan’s comments as pushing for a takeover of the Canadian legal system, the academic was in fact advocating for the opposite, saying that Canadian Muslims could use the existing court system rather than settling disputes in separate Sharia courts. But neither man’s comments were sensational enough for BareNakedIslam, which apparently made up a quote that fit their purposes. As the fake quote and stories about the allegations against Ramadan swept far-right sites such as GellerReport.com and “Creeping Sharia,” some observers have raised questions about what it means for Muslim women when misogyny and racism collide. Muslim women have been speaking out in their own version of the MeToo movement using the hashtag #MosqueMeToo, telling their stories of assault and abuse within the religious community. Author and activist Mona Eltahawy pointed out in a November 2017 op-ed that the eagerness of Islamophobes to paint Muslim men as predators puts Muslim women in a difficult position when they come forward with accusations of sexual assault. Ayesha Chaudhry, associate professor of Islamic studies and gender studies at the University of British Columbia, discussed that double bind in phone interview with us, saying “When people are violated and are victims of assault, they can’t be expected solve systemic inequality at the same time.” Chaudhry said the Ramadan case brought to mind a motif common in stories about crimes committed by Muslim men in the Western media, and noted that once the trial starts, various forms of rarely-discussed societal oppression will play out in public: [University of California, Los Angeles women’s studies professor] Sherene Razack makes the argument of this triangle we find ourselves caught in when we talk about Muslims. There’s the dangerous Muslim man, the imperiled woman and the civilizing European, and you just see this in the Tariq Ramadan case so clearly. Claim: Oxford professor of Islamic studies Tariq Ramadan said \"we are here to colonize the U.S. and Canada\" with Sharia law.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In late 2019, we received inquiries from readers about several online articles whose headline proclaimed that a judge had ruled “high school girls must shower with boys,” and that “girls have no right to privacy.” For example, on Nov. 9 the website The Cube News published an article with the headline “Judge Rules High School Girls MUST Shower With Boys, Says Girls Have No Right to Privacy.” The webpage had a deceptive structure that cause readers who clicked on it to be redirected to several other spammy pages. The post reported that: A federal court permitted a lawsuit to proceed against an Illinois school district that allows high school boys to use girls’ locker rooms, restrooms and showers in order to accommodate transgender students. But girls who don’t want to be seen naked by boys got bad news, College Fix reports. The judge ruled that they have no right to “visual bodily privacy” if the government says so. Dozens of families sued the Chicago-area Township High School District 211 three years ago due to its policy letting students as young as 14 choose to use the locker rooms of the opposite sex. “All the students must use the restroom with the knowledge that someone of the opposite sex is present or could walk in at any time,” their lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in a background document on the case. It makes the stakes clear: “If our government is powerful enough to command innocent school children to disrobe in the presence of opposite-sex classmates, then there will be little it will not be powerful enough to do.” In fact, the entire text of the piece was lifted from an April 2019 article on the right-leaning website The College Fix. Several other websites posted similar articles, also copied and pasted from The College Fix, throughout 2019. The article grossly oversimplified a complicated, multi-phase legal dispute involving students in a Chicago-area high school district, which went on for six years. In December 2013, a trans female student identified only as “Student A” filed a complaint (with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union) with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The student claimed that Township High School District 211, just outside Chicago, had violated federal sex-discrimination law by denying her access to girls’ locker rooms, and forcing her to change clothes by herself in a separate changing room. After a two-year investigation, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) concluded that the school had accommodated Student A’s transitioning gender identity in several other ways, allowing her to use girls’ bathrooms throughout the school, as well as consistently acknowledging and affirming her gender identity by using her preferred pronouns and her new legal name, formally registering her as a female student, and allowing her to participate in female athletics. However, the OCR found that the school had, for two years leading up to the complaint, repeatedly and consistently refused to allow Student A to use the girls’ locker rooms, and that this had indeed constituted impermissible sex discrimination on several grounds. In December 2015, the school district and the OCR signed an agreement that contained a number of terms, the most relevant of which was that, going forward, Student A would be allowed to use the girls’ locker rooms, and that the school would install “privacy curtains” in each locker room, in order to accommodate both her privacy interests and the privacy interests of other female students, as they changed clothes. In May 2016, a group of parents, students and incoming high school students in District 211 calling themselves “Students and Parents for Privacy” filed a lawsuit of their own. They claimed that the Department of Education had illegally exceeded its own authority by implementing a rule that redefined sex discrimination to encompass discrimination involving gender identity (as opposed to merely biological sex). The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, also alleged that District 211’s locker room agreement had caused several female students “embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, fear, apprehension, stress, degradation, and loss of dignity,” due to the experience or prospect of sharing locker rooms and bathrooms with Student A, and that those “damaging effects” had been so severe as to impinge upon the quality of their access to education, physical education and athletics. Thus, the group alleged a violation of Title IX (the same federal sex discrimination law invoked by Student A), which states:  “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The group also alleged that the locker room policy amounted to a violation of the students’ constitutional right to bodily privacy and that, because the policy risked or involved other girls involuntarily seeing Student A in a state of undress, or involuntarily revealing themselves to Student A, while they themselves were in a state of undress, the parents’ right to determine the manner of their children’s upbringing and exposure to individuals biologically assigned to the opposite sex, in intimate surroundings, had also been violated. The lawsuit also more specifically argued that, because the locker room policy at times required girls to undress in the physical presence of a biologically assigned male, and to be physically present while a biologically assigned male undressed, the girls had been denied the ability to practice modesty, and therefore a violation of their constitutionally protected right to religious expression (and their parents’ right to raise their children in accordance with their religious faith) had taken place. In June 2016, the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, a non-profit group that advocates for LGBTQ school students, was added to the lawsuit, along with Student A and two other trans students in District 211 (“Student B” and “Student C”) as “intervenors.” In June 2017, the “Students and Parents for Privacy” group dismissed the Departments of Education and Justice, meaning that the group was then only suing the school district as defendants, as well as the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance and Students A, B and C as intervenors. In February 2018, “Students and Parents for Privacy” and their spokesperson, Victoria Wilson, resubmitted an amended complaint, which contained updated details and dropped its allegations against the federal government, but otherwise made broadly the same requests and legal arguments as the original complaint. In April 2018, the school district filed a motion to dismiss the claims against it, essentially asking the district court to throw out the case. Almost a year later, in March 2019, Judge Jorge Alonso ruled partly in favor of the motion to dismiss, but also partly against it, as follows: It was to this March 2019 order that the The College Fix referred when it wrote: “A federal court permitted a lawsuit to proceed against an Illinois school district that allows high school boys to use girls’ locker rooms, restrooms and showers in order to accommodate transgender students. But girls who don’t want to be seen naked by boys got bad news: The judge ruled that they have no right to ‘visual bodily privacy’ if the government says so.” And it was on the basis of that analysis that The Cube News published the headline “Judge Rules High School Girls MUST Shower With Boys, Says Girls Have No Right to Privacy.” Alonso did not rule that the girls in question “have no right to privacy.” That section of his order listed and discussed the many relevant constitutional privacy protections that are available to any individual (including the plaintiffs in this case) and recognized in federal and U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence. What he did do (as virtually all federal court rulings on constitutional questions must do) is locate the limits of those privacy rights. Alonso also did not rule or say that “high school girls must shower with boys.” There are several significant flaws with that claim. Firstly, the locker room policy does not apply only to trans females and girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms. It applies equally to the right of trans males to use boys’ locker rooms, and indeed two of the three trans student intervenors in the case (Student B and Student C) are trans males. Secondly, the “boys” in question (both notional and actual) are biologically assigned as male but are trans females — living and identifying as girls, and formally registered by the school district as female students, officially participating in female athletics, and in the case of Student A, formally recognized as female on her passport. It is therefore flagrantly reductive, incomplete, and grossly misleading to describe a trans female student such as Student A as a “boy,” based only on her birth-assigned biological sex, and in the face of all other highly relevant factual considerations. Student A, in particular, had already begun hormone therapy and was therefore very much in the process of gender reassignment, in every sense, when the original controversy first arose. Thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, Alonso’s March 2019 order very clearly and explicitly did not come to a definitive overall conclusion about the gender-affirming locker room agreement reached between the Office for Civil Rights and District 211. Alonso allowed “Students and Parents for Privacy” to proceed with its lawsuit on the basis of the Title IX sex discrimination/harassment and religious-freedom claims. Claim: In 2019, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that girls in an Illinois school district \"must shower with boys\" and had no right to privacy.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Even if this new drug does ultimately prove effective for preventing heart attacks, we need to know what this benefit is going to cost us. Although it may be too early to provide an exact figure, the story could at least have mentioned what treatment with other cholesterol-targeting therapies costs. An error in this story may lead readers to believe the drug is more effective for saving lives than is actually the case. The story states that there were “16 deaths in the anacetrapib group, versus 21 in patients taking a placebo.” In fact, there were 11 deaths recorded in the anacetrapib group and 8 in the placebo group during the time patients were taking the medication. The statistic referred to in the story is for a combined outcome that included cardiovascular deaths, heart attacks, hospitalization for unstable angina, or stroke. The study also used relative risk descriptions to describe the benefits attributable to statin drugs, saying they lower risk by 25-30%. We think this characterization will lead readers to overestimate the effectiveness of these drugs. The absolute reduction in heart attack risk is about 1% for statin-treated patients, and 100 patients need to be treated for 3 years to achieve a benefit. Finally, the story focuses excessively on the “unprecedented” changes in cholesterol achieved with the drug. As discussed earlier in the review (see “Why This Matters”), these are surrogate markers that may not reflect any real benefit on the outcomes that matter to patients. And the story didn’t provide data on what participants’ cholesterol levels were before and after treatment, or what levels are considered healthy. We are only told about the percentage change, which is not very useful without this additional context. Although the potential for harms was mentioned, this story didn’t provide quite enough detail to satisfy this criterion. Citing a company representative, the story states that the new drug didn’t cause the lethal side effects associated with another experimental drug that works through similar mechanisms. While this is true and important to point out, the story should also have mentioned the potential for other effects that could potentially harm patients and would limit the use of the drug. Notably, the researchers had to discontinue treatment in 17.6% of patients receiving the drug because their bad cholesterol levels dropped to a level that might be harmful. In addition, more patients died in the drug treatment group compared with the placebo group, although the story erroneously states that the opposite was the case. (See the Benefits criterion for more discussion of this). This article starts things off with a grandiose and unsubstantiated claim — that “doctors” are predicting the new drug “may conquer heart disease.” Really? Which doctors said this? And why weren’t they quoted in the story? We couldn’t find anyone in the story who said anything close to this. Based on this story’s extremely liberal paraphrasing and selection of gushing quotes, readers might come away thinking that this drug is going to help everyone avoid heart disease. But the study involved a carefully selected group of patients who were already at high risk of a heart attack because they had already had a heart attack or had various other risk factors. It’s not at all clear that this drug is going to be beneficial for patients who are at lower risk of disease, even though many of these apparently low-risk patients still get heart attacks. This study’s purpose was to test whether the new drug was safe and had the desired effect on cholesterol. It could not tell us whether the drug helps prevent heart attacks or deaths. So while we appreciate that the story had some caveats to this effect — e.g. the drug “is still experimental and must be tested in a larger trial” and  “the study wasn’t designed to test its power to prevent heart attacks” — we think there was an imbalance of cheerleading quotes and positive speculation without a more vigorous attempt to discuss the limitations of this preliminary research. Although the story raises some red flags with its emphasis on surrogate markers and overgeneralizing who might would be a candidate for treatment, these are deficiencies that we address in other sections of the review. Otherwise, there was no evidence of overt disease-mongering. The story solicits comments from multiple expert sources. We wish, however, that perspectives had been obtained from experts without ties to the drug industry. This might have turned up someone willing to put a restraining hand on this story’s excessive enthusiasm. In addition, we think the story should have mentioned the study’s source of funding (Merck, the drug’s manufacturer) and the fact that several investigators have financial relationships with the company. The story did not mention other classes of drugs that raise HDL, such as niacin and fibrates. The story states clearly that the drug is experimental and is not yet available to the public. The story makes reference to the relevant research that preceded development of the drug and mentions an “older relative” (the experimental HDL-raising drug torcetrapib) that was not approved because of an increased risk of lethal adverse effects. Although we’ll award a satisfactory, we think the story could have gone into more detail as to what happened with this “older relative” and why it failed. Some data suggest that the drug failed because it raised blood pressure — something which the new drug apparently does not do. But some researchers believe the drug may have failed because raising HDL with a drug doesn’t confer the same benefits as having naturally high HDL. Discussion of this background would have been useful. This story does not appear to be based on a news release. Claim: New drug ‘may turn back the clock on heart disease’",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The California wildfires of October 2017 have prompted a series of articles falsely blaming immigrants and Muslims for starting them. On 19 October 2017, the “satirical” web site Freedom Junkshun published the completely fabricated claim that police in California had arrested Muhammad Islam, a 23-year-old Iranian immigrant. The California wildfires devastated the northern part of the state. Police initially arrested one suspect but released him after an investigation was conducted because the investigation led them to the actual person responsible for the fires: a 23-year-old man named Muhammad Islam. Islam was born in Tehran, Iran and came to the United States in 2015 on a student visa, which expired when he dropped out of Dartmouth in November 2016. None of these details are based in fact, and the Fox News report mentioned in the article also does not exist. The photograph used in the article actually shows Omar El-Abed, a 19-year-old Palestinian man accused of murdering a Jewish family in the West Bank in July 2017. Another article on Freedom Junkshun falsely claims that the fictional Muhammad Islam was seen burning the American flag at a protest in Berkeley, California. On 17 October 2017, the right-wing web site Breitbart falsely linked the arrest of Jesus Fabian Gonzalez in Sonoma County, California, with the wildfires. The article, which was republished by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s web site Infowars, falsely described Gonzalez as having been detained in connection with the wildfires, claiming he was “arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.” Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano directly refuted these claims in a press conference later that day. The relevant section of the video starts at 12.10: I want to talk about something, there’s a little rumor control issue. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man on Sunday [15 October] for arson, in Maxwell Park in Sonoma. There’s a story out there that he’s the arsonist for these fires – that is not the case. There is no indication he is related to these fires at all. …Our arson case involves someone who’s known to the deputies, he frequents Maxwell Park, he’s been known to sleep there, he was walking away from…a small fire, they stopped him. He had a fire extinguisher and a lighter with him. They asked him if he started the fire [in Maxwell Park], he said he started the fire to warm himself up, something to that effect. Giordano added that he wanted to “kill that speculation right now,” referring to reports that Gonzalez’s arrest was related to the wildfires. Remarkably, something of a war of words has broken out between the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over Gonzalez’s arrest. ICE says that Gonzalez is an undocumented immigrant. On 18 October, ICE issued a press release criticizing the sheriff’s office and claiming that it had lodged a “detainer” against Gonzalez (asked the county to detain him for up to 48 hours after his scheduled release date, in order to make a determination about a possible deportation). Once again, a non-cooperative jurisdiction has left their community vulnerable to dangerous individuals and preventable crimes. ICE lodged a detainer against Jesus Gonzalez with Sonoma County jail officials on October 16, following his arrest on felony charges for maliciously setting fire to a property. This is especially troubling in light of the massive wildfires already devastating the region. Over the past year, ICE has lodged detainers against Mr. Gonzalez after four separate arrests by Sonoma County on various felony and misdemeanor charges. ICE was never notified of Mr. Gonzalez’ various releases. Additionally, Mr. Gonzales has been returned to his home country of Mexico on two separate occasions. The residents of Sonoma County, and the state of California, deserve better than policies that expose them to avoidable dangers. Non-cooperation policies – now enshrined in California state law – ensure only one thing: criminals who would otherwise be deported will be released and left free to reoffend as they please. The following day, Sheriff Giordano hit back. In a message posted to Facebook, he said the detainer request was not signed by a judge and was unconstitutional, and said ICE’s press release had been “misleading” and caused fear during a major natural disaster. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release yesterday that was inaccurate, inflammatory, and damages the relationship we have with our community…ICE sent a detainer requesting the Sheriff’s Office hold Gonzalez for 48 hours past his scheduled release time. However, this detainer is not signed by a judge so the Sheriff’s Office cannot legally honor it. Multiple Federal court cases have determined these administrative detainers are unconstitutional. …Gonzalez has been in our jail approximately 8 times for minor misdemeanor offenses. We have notified ICE about his release in several of those arrests as they took place before our recent policy change. We will continue to notify ICE if it complies with law and our policy. But as I stated earlier, they can seek a warrant and we will hold him. ICE attacked the Sheriff’s Office in the midst of the largest natural disaster this county has ever experienced. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, many people have lost their homes and 23 people have died from this firestorm. ICE’s misleading statement stirs fear in some of our community members who are already exhausted and scared. Earlier in the month, the Got News web site published an unsubstantiated claim that senior law enforcement officials believed that Mexican drug cartels — seeking a strategic advantage over the nascent legal marijuana industry — were responsible for the wildfires, which had destroyed a significant portion of cannabis farmland. That deeply flawed article was seized upon by web sites such as Proud Patriots, which almost gleefully reported: President Donald Trump was absolutely right once again. His predictions seem to be true and the US people have one huge reason why should they join the legal battle against DRUGS in the USA and the providers of those drugs – the illegal immigrants and the narco cartels. This trend of blaming certain societal groups (in these examples, immigrants and Muslims) for disasters and tragedies — both natural and man-made — and seeking out evidence of their culpability, however spurious, is nothing new. Throughout Europe in the 14th Century, Jews were scapegoated and blamed for causing the Black Death. They faced widespread and intensified persecution and violence as a result. The televangelist Jerry Falwell blamed the 9/11 terrorist attacks on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians.” He later apologized. Claim: Illegal immigrants were arrested for starting the October 2017 California wildfires.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An anecdote about Donald Trump and his outsized U.S. flag and pole neatly encapsulated what so many people found either most appealing or most distasteful about the business magnate and 2016 Republican presidential candidate: to some he was the no-nonsense take-charge type who had the power and influence to thwart those who would insist on allowing the enforcement of petty rules or “political correctness” impede the progress of business and the course of “making America great again”; to others he was a wealthy blowhard who thought the rules didn’t apply to him and habitually bullied others into submission to feed his lust for self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment:  When Trump purchased and rebuilt Mar-A-Lago the Grand mansion and estate in Palm beach, Florida he got into a dispute with the city, who are well known for being strict on zoning regulations. Trump put up a 50 foot flag pole even though 30 foot is the maximum allowed. The city imposed a 1,000 dollar fine per day. While Trump and the city argued back and forth, finally when the fine had reached 120,000 dollars Trump proposed a solution. He would donate that amount to veterans organizations, would move the flag and pole to a different location in front of the mansion and would only use a 30 foot flag pole. The city agreed. So Trump brought in the company who does Golf course construction had them build a 20 foot high grassy hill and put a 30 foot flag pole on top of it. The basic facts are these: In 1985, Donald Trump paid $10 million for Mar-A-Lago, the name of the Marjorie Merriweather Post estate in Palm Beach, Florida. On 3 October 2006, Trump had an outsized American flag (variously described as being either 15×25 feet or 20×30 feet) installed on an 80-foot-high flagpole at Mar-a-Lago, in violation of local zoning regulations that established a maximum size of 4×6 feet for flags and a maximum height of 42 feet for flagpoles. Trump put up his regulation-violating flag and pole without obtaining either a building permit permit or a variance from local authorities, and the Palm Beach town council accordingly fined him $1,250 (or, in some accounts, $250) for every day the flag remained in place (apparently citing him only for the pole but not the flag itself). Trump in turn filed a $25 million lawsuit against Palm Beach, claiming that the town was selectively enforcing its rules (by not fining other properties that were flying flags in violation of town ordinances) and infringing his constitutional right to free speech. Six months later the two sides finally reached an agreement during “secret, court-ordered negotiations,” with the town agreeing to waive all fines against Trump for his code-busting flagpole and to “review its ordinances and codes dealing with flagpoles and flags during the next zoning season,” and Trump agreeing to drop his lawsuit, lower the height of his flagpole from 80 to 70 feet, obtain a permit for the pole and move it farther inland, and donate $100,000 “to charities dealing with Iraq War Veterans, [the] American Flag, or the local VA hospital.”    So, the anecdote reproduced above is true in its broad strokes, although all of the numbers it cites (dollar amounts and dimensions) are inaccurate, the issue was resolved via court-ordered mediation (not by Trump’s “proposing a solution”), and the money Trump agreed to donate to settle the matter went to organizations selected by both sides (although Trump had previously stated that if he won his 15×25 feet or $25 million lawsuit, the proceeds would go to military members returning from Iraq). However, the New York state attorney general later sued Trump for paying the fine through his nonprofit Donald J. Trump Foundation instead of from his personal finances:  The New York state attorney general sued U.S. President Donald Trump, three of his children and his foundation, saying he illegally used the nonprofit as a personal “checkbook” for his own benefit, including his 2016 presidential campaign. Another $100,000 went to another charity in 2007 to settle a legal dispute over a flagpole erected in violation of local ordinances at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and sometime residence in Palm Beach, Florida. We also haven’t been able to verify whether Trump connived to maintain (or even exceed) the height of the original pole by installing a 10-foot-shorter pole on a 20-foot-high hill — pictures of the estate show the flagpole rising from a mound, but the height of the mound is difficult to estimate from photographs:  Trump’s lawsuit maintained that he couldn’t bring his flag and pole into compliance with regulations because  “A smaller flag and pole on Mar-A-Lago’s property would be lost given its massive size, look silly instead of make a statement, and most importantly would fail to appropriately express the magnitude of Donald J. Trump’s and the Club’s members’ patriotism.” In his statements to the news media at the time he typically framed the issue as being one of his standing up to anti-American, anti-flag, anti-patriotic forces, while acknowledging that he hadn’t even bothered applying for a permit first (because he didn’t think he’d get one) and stating that he didn’t believe rules should apply to the American flag (and therefore to him in this instance):  “Well, I put up an American flag on the front of the Mar-a-Lago Club, which is a great house, probably the greatest house in America that I turned into a private club very successfully in Palm Beach, Florida. And the flag is very proudly waving, and the town wants me to take it down. Because they say I put it up without a permit and, frankly, had I gone to the town for a permit they wouldn’t have given it to me, probably. But more importantly, I say that you don’t need a permit to put up the American flag. I don’t think they know what their beef is. I’m not sure they really understand what their beef is. They don’t talk about the flag. They only talk about the flagpole because they’re afraid politically to mention the word flag and the American flag and take it down. And I’ll say it’s probably one of the most popular things I’ve ever done because we’ve had hundreds and hundreds of letters and thousands of requests for everything supporting the flag. Everybody wants it. Everybody wants it up. But the town wants me to take down the American flag, and I told them I’m not doing that. This is probably the wealthiest town — it is the wealthiest town in America, in the United States, and frankly it’s a town that wants me to take down a flag and they shouldn’t be asking for that. So it’s been a very, very problematic situation. I’ll be responding to them very shortly. And you know, I’m a big — I’m a very patriotic guy. I’m very proud of the country, and I don’t want to take down the American flag. And I don’t believe you need permits to put up the American flag.”  Long-time Palm Beach Post correspondent Frank Cerabino opined that the Palm Beach flag brouhaha had little or nothing to do with patriotism, but rather was part of a pattern of Trump’s using lawsuits to bend local authorities to his will — dredging up excuses to sue them for exorbitant amounts of money, then offering to drop the suits in exchange for agreements that provide him with significant business advantages:  Oh, he knew what he was doing. Trump, after all, had been fighting with the town poohbahs from the very moment he’d crashed into the complacent, clubby world of Palm Beach to buy Mar-a-Lago, which turned out to be one of those great deals he couldn’t afford. Trump knew from experience that Palm Beach was a stickler for adherence to its ordinances. He had once paid a $5,000 fine to the town for replacing a section of dead hedges with replacements that weren’t quite tall enough. But Trump had bigger changes in mind than merely out-flagging his neighbors. He was plainly inviting a lawsuit. The town council took the bait, citing the oversized pole and flag as violations of the town code, and fining Trump $250 a day for every day they remained on the estate. Tucked into his patriotic posturing was a completely unrelated legal matter that he made part of his multi-million lawsuit: a complaint about the town code that requires large commercial enterprises to be “town serving.” The town requires proof from local businesses that at least 50 percent of their business comes from town residents. So, for example, when Neiman Marcus opened on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, it was allowed to do so by promising that it would only advertise in the town’s newspaper, and not in publications that circulated to shoppers who don’t live on the island. For Trump, eliminating the “town serving” requirement would mean that he could offer more memberships to his Mar-a-Lago social club to people who had no connection to Palm Beach, making it easier for him to keep his club full. Softening up the town on the flag issue to pursue some other angle was a classic Trump move. Though he has yet to get this particular exemption waived, Palm Beach has learned from experience that Trump’s lawsuits are never settled, just dormant. One of his Palm Beach lawyers said recently that the “town serving” issue is still unresolved and ripe for more litigation. Trump [initially] couldn’t afford [to maintain] Mar-a-Lago as a single family home. His proposed solution was to chop his National Historic Landmark into something he called Mansions of Mar-a-Lago, a development that would put a public road through the middle of the estate, which would lead to the 10 mini-mansions he would build on the property, including one on the front lawn. The Palm Beach Town Council shot down all of Trump’s proposed changes to the property, even when he reduced his mini-mansion plans from 10 to seven. Instead, they encouraged him to find a buyer if he couldn’t afford to keep the estate intact. When the town’s government refused to bend to his demands, Trump sued. The lawsuit against the Town of Palm Beach, which would prove to be not his last, would eventually cause his neighbors to lawyer up against him. After his Mansions of Mar-a-Lago plan was rejected, Trump found another way to salvage his stake in Mar-a-Lago. He offered to drop his lawsuit if council members allowed him to convert his estate into a new private club on the island. The Mar-a-Lago Club. While Trump was playing defense against the town’s constant attempt to rein him in, he went on the attack against the county and its airport. Airlines routinely used a flight path in and out of Palm Beach International Airport in nearby West Palm Beach that brought the planes directly over Mar-a-Lago. This didn’t sit well with Trump, who argued that the noise and fumes were ruining his investment, and that the decent thing for the county to do was to move the airport farther west. Trump had been arguing this for years, to no avail, while calling the airport director Bruce Pelly, among other things, a “moron” and “the worst airport director in the country.” It turned out to be a useful gripe for Trump, one that he could turn into a new business opportunity, because just south of the airport was 214 acres of vacant scrub land owned by Palm Beach County, land he wanted. So Trump sued the county for $75 million over the airport noise, then negotiated to drop that lawsuit in exchange for the county giving him a 75-year lease on the nearby property for $438,000 a year. That land became the Trump International Golf Club, a $40 million, 18-hole, Jim Fazio-designed course that imported nearly 2 million cubic yards of dirt to transform the flat scrub land into hilly terrain with waterfalls, rock formations, and a clubhouse four stories above sea level. This wasn’t the only instance of flagpole bickering in Trump’s past. He also reached a (non-court) settlement with local government in 2014 after having raised Old Glory on a 70-foot flagpole at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, without obtaining a permit first:   Signaling a possible resolution to Donald Trump’s running flag feud, the California Coastal Commission said the mogul’s oversized Old Glory can stay — as long as Rancho Palos Verdes revises its municipal height rules. While not the victory city officials had hoped for, the decision allows for a way forward to legally allow the 70-foot-tall flagpole, which was hoisted without a permit nearly 10 years ago. Having gained the support of much of the coastal city — as well as two City Councils through the years — the flag now likely can get formal state approval provided the city amends its Local Coastal Program that currently limits structure heights to 26 feet. “I’m disappointed at the Trump Organization for putting up that flag without adhering to the rule of law,” said Coastal Commissioner Wendy Mitchell. Commission staff members had recommended that the flagpole be reduced in height to 26 feet and moved closer to the clubhouse on the 240-acre Trump National Golf Course property. Claim: Donald Trump violated Palm Beach ordinances by putting up an outsized U.S. flag and pole, then donating the money he was fined to veterans' organizations.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: One might think of the following image, which apparently captures a Ku Klux Klan member (presumably the victim of a trauma) being treated by an all-black emergency room staff, as the flipside of familiar accounts of blacks dying from treatable injuries during the Jim Crow era of segregation because they were refused treatment at “whites-only” hospitals. In this photograph, however, the black ER staff doesn’t turn the tables by refusing to treat a KKK member despite his membership in an organization dedicated to terrorizing them; instead, they diligently work at saving his life, the same as they would for any other patient:  Despite many viewers’ mistaking it for such, this photo was not a real historical image, nor was it a screen capture taken from an episode of the then-popular television hospital drama ER, (and the doctor shown in the center of the picture was not actor Eriq LaSalle, who portrayed surgeon Dr. Peter Benton in that TV series). The crease down the middle of the image gave it away as a picture scanned from a printed source, and indeed it was — this photograph was a staged one created for a series of advertisements in Large magazine’s “For people who think bigger than they are” ad campaign, which featured depictions of people acting nobly in the face of adverse circumstances: Claim: Photograph shows a KKK member being treated by an all-black emergency room staff.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Even though the device is still in its testing phase, not discussing what the ultimate cost could be does a disservice to readers. It is important when discussing medical diagnosis to relate the test sensitivity (the ability of a test to correctly identify those with the disease or the true positive rate), and the test specificity (the ability of the test to correctly identify those without the disease or the true negative rate). This news release only mentions the specificity of the test, even though the actual study it was summarizing reports that “the VIPS device was able to differentiate severe stroke from minor strokes with a sensitivity of 93% (95% CI 83 to 98), specificity of 92% (95% CI 75 to 99)… and differentiate severe stroke from all other subjects with a sensitivity of 93% (95% CI 83 to 98), specificity of 87% (95% CI 81 to 92), and an AUC of 0.95 (95% CI 0.89 to 0.96).” However, we should remember that diagnostic tests need to demonstrate that they offer a benefit beyond the current standard of care and that using them would improve patient outcomes. The current study doesn’t measure that and so it is hard to know if it will be helpful in treating patients. There are no harms mentioned in this news release. One big concern with both diagnostic and screening tests is the consequence of a false negative test result which could lead to a patient receiving the wrong, unnecessary or no treatment. The study compares this device to a standard clinical diagnosis. However, the gold standard in stroke care is a CT scan which determines if a patient is a candidate for clot busting drugs like tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which opens blocked vessels after a stroke, or endovascular therapy. The real comparison would be comparing this device to CT scans given that mobile CT scanners are increasingly being used in ambulances. The release doesn’t engage in disease-mongering. The release identifies the funding company, Cerebrotech Medical Systems, and notes that Cerebrotech “paid consultants to analyze the neuroimaging data independently.” The study compares this device to a clinical diagnosis by neurologists and the release states that the device showed “92 percent specificity” which we are told is above the “standard physical examination tools used by emergency personnel that display specificity scores between 40 and 89 percent.” But as noted above, the better comparison would be comparing this device to CT scans given that mobile CT scanners are increasingly being used in ambulances. We learn that this is very preliminary research and that the researchers will do another study to “determine if the VIPS device can use complex machine learning algorithms to teach itself how to discriminate between minor and severe stroke without the help of neurologists.” The device itself is new technology so it earns a Satisfactory for the novelty claim. However, the idea of pre-hospital diagnosis is not novel. Putting CT scanners in ambulances has been tried and seems to be (at least preliminarily) successful. This may be a low-cost alternative to that, but that still needs to be proven. There is no inappropriate language used here, but there is a simile that might be suspect: “This could potentially be something like a defibrillator,” said Turner. “You can find out if a patient is having a stroke, just like you can put a defibrillator on a patient to see if they’re having a heart attack.” That comparison is fairly flawed. Monitors diagnose arrhythmias. ECGs diagnose heart attacks. Defibrillators shock patients who are having an arrhythmia during their heart attack. Claim: Portable device detects severe stroke in seconds with 92 percent accuracy",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Jones’ daughter Myra Jones Romain said mother died Monday in Houston of natural causes. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, which Jones integrated in 1948, also announced her death in a post on its website Tuesday. In addition to being the first black student at UAMS, Jones also was the first black female resident at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston after receiving her medical degree from Arkansas in 1952. Jones was born on December 23, 1927 in Mayflower, Arkansas, to Robert and Mattie Jones, a sharecropper and a domestic worker. In a transcribed interview with the University of Houston Center for Public History, Jones said that after her older sister died in the 1930s from typhoid fever, Jones decided to pursue medicine. She enrolled in Knoxville College at 16 and graduated in 1948. After scoring exceptionally on aptitude tests, she was accepted to multiple medical schools. She chose University of Arkansas’ medical school, Romain said, because tuition was low and because it was close to her mother. The decision wasn’t out of a desire to integrate a previously all-white institution, her daughter said. “I was so proud. I was so proud that I was in medical school that absolutely nothing else mattered,” Jones said in the interview with the University of Houston. According to UAMS, the school’s board of trustees voted to increase the class size by one that year so no one could claim Jones had taken a spot from a white applicant. In 1950, she married Dr. James B. Jones, a psychology professor at a nearby university; they were together until his death in 1989. The couple had three children, Gary, Myra and Keith. Jones established medical practices in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Houston and completed her residency at Baylor, where she also later taught. In 1985, Jones was elected the first female president of the National Medical Association, a medical organization representing African American doctors and their patients. She was also a founding member of the Association of Black Cardiologists. In Arkansas, Jones was also a prominent activist as a member of the “Freedom Four,” encouraging people to join the civil rights movement. Romain said her parents encouraged and often paid for students’ tuition at Knoxville College, Jones’ alma mater and a historically black liberal arts college. In the 1990s, Jones sponsored and co-founded a clinic in Haiti. When her mother would travel to the island, Romain remembered, she’d bring pharmaceutical samples and other important drugs in large suitcases, sneaking them into the country past customs. In 1988, Jones lost one of her eyes after developing glaucoma. Romain said she continued working using a prosthetic, a solution that worked until she began losing her eyesight in her remaining eye. Romain said Jones practiced and taught medicine until she reluctantly retired in 2013, telling her daughter, “All I’ve ever wanted to do was practice medicine.” A funeral will be held Saturday morning at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Houston Claim: Edith Jones, who integrated southern medical schools, dies.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no mention in this short story about the potential costs of such a test, if it proved to be viable. Of course, it’s too early to say anything definitive about cost, and offering a specific number might mislead readers by implying that the test is anywhere near ready to be used. But we think the story could have offered some sense of the technology behind the test and whether it’s advanced/expensive or cheap/widely available. Other tests using saliva are in use today and could offer a general comparison point to suggest the costs of a new test. While the story outlines the potential benefits of such a test in general terms, it does not quantify the results of the study or tell readers how accurate the test was found to be. We think any story about diagnostic testing or screening should discuss the sensitivity and specificity of the test — numbers which tell us about how well the test finds people who actually have the disease and rules out people who don’t have it. Direct harms from a simple saliva test seem improbable at best, given its non-invasive nature. But the competing HealthDay story pointed out that even a saliva test could produce false positives that could cause real anxiety in patients, something that clearly could harm them. There is also the potential for false negative results, which would falsely reassure patients about their status. Even an accurate positive finding could cause harm, since it would inform people about their risk of a future condition without giving them the ability to do much about it. This story focuses on the findings of a very early study using a small number of participants. But the shortness of this offering — four paragraphs — isn’t sufficient to convey the preliminary nature of the research. A competing HealthDay story offers a lengthy paragraph outlining all the factors that might explain differences in the saliva makeup of the three groups and thereby negate the test’s use for determining Alzheimer’s. That story also emphasizes the tentative nature of the work numerous times. In cases like this, where the research is preliminary and the reporting is cursory, it’s worth questioning whether doing a story at all is worth it. The story doesn’t engage in disease mongering, but there’s really not enough context about the disease or its impact to justify a Satisfactory rating. We’ll call it Not Applicable. The story doesn’t offer independent sources and only paraphrases information from the graduate student/principal investigator. This story focuses solely on research suggesting that a simple saliva test might one day gauge the risk of developing the disease. It doesn’t discuss how Alzheimer’s is currently diagnosed or what risk factors might increase one’s likelihood of developing the disease. We give credit here for this acknowledgment: “The results aren’t conclusive enough yet for doctors to start using them to distinguish people who are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.” However, readers overall may get the impression that the test’s clinical usage is coming soon, when that’s not likely the case. We’d be much more comfortable if the story included more information accurately portraying the tentative nature of the findings, findings that might be actually caused by other factors not studied. The research discussed here is novel in a general sense, but the story doesn’t establish this to a satisfactory degree. A number of previous studies have looked at saliva markers of Alzheimer’s, and there are probably dozens of other blood tests, scans, and other approaches currently in development to address the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The story does not allude to this research. We didn’t see evidence that the story relied on this news release about the presentation. However, since it contains such limited information, it’s hard to determine how it was produced. We’ll rule it Not Applicable. Claim: Alzheimer’s May Show Up in Saliva",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The government this week imposed drastic curbs nationwide, shutting bars, restaurants and most shops, and banning non-essential travel in an effort to halt the worst outbreak of the disease outside China. The measures so far show no sign of slowing the number of deaths, which rose by 25% in a day to 1,266, the head of the Civil Protection Agency said on Friday. The total number of cases rose to 17,660 from 15,113 the day before, an increase of some 17%. Lombardy’s health chief Giulio Gallera said the government’s restrictions were not enough for the region which surrounds the financial capital Milan and accounts for three quarters of all the country’s fatalities. “We are asking for an exception to be made for Lombardy,” he told RAI 3 television, calling for the closure of factories, offices and public transport in the region. “If we can resist for at least eight days, maybe we will see things turn around.”  There was no indication of whether Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte would agree to further curbs in Italy’s business heartlands, with the government increasingly concerned about the long-term scars the virus will leave on the fragile economy. Some companies, such as car maker Fiat Chrysler, have decided to shut down part of their operations, while premium brakes maker Brembo announced on Friday it would temporarily stop work at all its four Italian plants. “Today we have two objectives: Taking care of the sick and preventing infections, and taking care of our economy,” Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday. He was speaking at an event to thank China for sending 31 tonnes of medical supplies, including masks and respirators, to Italy, as well as a team of doctors. “Italy is not alone,” Di Maio said. “China is getting back on its feet and soon we too will be back on our feet.”  Italy’s fatality rate, at 7% of all those who test positive from the highly contagious virus, is much higher than that of most other countries. Italian health authorities attribute this mainly to an elderly population, with the majority of victims more than 80 years old with underlying health problems. However, other explanations have also been suggested. Ilaria Capua, a virologist at Florida University, said this week that many patients may be dying due to separate infections from antibiotic-resistent bacteria in Italian hospitals. Another factor may be that Lombardy is having mounting problems treating the number of patients needing intensive care. The health ministry has said it can quickly increase intensive care units by 50% nationwide, but a ministry source told Reuters on Friday that this “may not be enough in regions like Lombardy if we cannot halt the contagion.”  Giuseppe Remuzzi, head of the Mario Negri pharmacological institute, told daily Corriere della Sera that people are increasingly “terrified” of going to hospital, and are not calling emergency services until they can barely breathe. Italy has been dismayed by the response of some of its closest European allies to the crisis, with EU states refusing earlier this month requests for help as they stockpiled face masks and other medical equipment for their own citizens. Austria and Slovenia have also drawn diplomatic displeasure by drastically limiting cross-border road traffic, leading to lengthy tailbacks and widespread confusion. Four buses carrying Ukrainian nationals trying to get home from Italy were turned back at the Slovenian frontier overnight. “We can’t continue our journey. We have children on board, we are tired and we can’t continue,” said an upset woman, who did not give her name. “If something happens, we want to die in our homes, in our country,” said a Ukrainian man next to her. In Rome, Pope Francis rebelled against a decision by his Roman Catholic Church to close all the 750 churches in the Italian capital - an unprecedented move in modern history. “Drastic measures are not always good,” the pope said on Friday in improvised remarks at the start of his morning Mass, streamed on the Internet. Within hours, the Church in Rome rowed back on the order and said all parish churches and those run by religious communities could remain open. Claim: Italy's coronavirus deaths surge as Lombardy seeks tougher curbs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In October 2016, an image appeared on social media accusing Indiana’s governor (and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate) Mike Pence of supporting “gay conversion” therapy, particularly the use of electric shocks as part of the practice:  The allegation dates back to 2000, when Pence was running for Congress. His campaign web site at the time touted his call to add a stipulation to the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, a 1990 law providing funding for HIV/AIDS treatment for patients living with the disease lacking either the income or the necessary insurance to pay for it on their own: Congress should support the reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act only after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus. Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior. Although he didn’t say so outright, the position has been widely interpreted as signaling Pence’s support for “gay conversion” therapy, which seeks to “cure” patients of being attracted to members of the same sex. According to the American Psychological Association, electric shocks were one of the techniques used to address homosexuality through “aversion therapy” prior to the group’s decision in 1973 to stop classifying it as a mental disorder. By the time Pence made his statement regarding the Ryan White CARE Act, that group and several others, including the American Psychiatric Association, had rejected the practice: Psychotherapeutic modalities to convert or “repair” homosexuality are based on developmental theories whose scientific validity is questionable. Furthermore, anecdotal reports of “cures” are counterbalanced by anecdotal claims of psychological harm. In the last four decades, “reparative” therapists have not produced any rigorous scientific research to substantiate their claims of cure. Until there is such research available, [the American Psychiatric Association] recommends that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to changeindividuals’ sexual orientation, keeping in mind the medical dictum to first, do no harm. The potential risks of reparative therapy are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient.Many patients who have undergone reparative therapy relate that they were inaccurately told that homosexuals are lonely, unhappy individuals who never achieve acceptance or satisfaction. The possibility that the person might achieve happiness and satisfying interpersonal relationships as a gay man or lesbian is not presented, nor are alternative approaches to dealing with the effects of societal stigmatization discussed. “Conversion therapy” has been banned by law in five states (California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont) as well as in Washington, D.C. We contacted Pence’s office seeking comment on his stance regarding the issue but did not receive a response. Republicans were hit with a similar accusation in July 2016, when their national platform included the phrase “We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.” When asked whether that statement represented support for “conversion therapy,” Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus replied that “It’s not in the platform.” Claim: Mike Pence supported \"gay conversion\" therapy, including the use of electroshock therapy.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2020, as a newly discovered flu virus known as the Wuhan coronavirus began sickening people across China and then spreading outside that country, health officials around the world began issuing advisories offering basic steps people could take to help reduce the risks of coronavirus infection. Many of the suggested protective steps were common sense health approaches best followed at all times, such as washing your hands with soap and water, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, avoiding close contact with persons exhibiting symptoms, and cooking animal-based food products thoroughly. One tip offered in a purported coronavirus advisory put together by the World Health Organization (WHO) raised some eyebrows, however: Claim: A coronavirus-related health advisory graphic issued by the World Health Organization warned against unprotected sex with farm animals.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although the story does report that this special treadmill costs $25,000, that information is not very helpful to readers who aren’t likely to be shopping to buy a unit. The story should have reported the typical cost of a therapy session and a typical number of sessions that patients require; as well as whether the cost of using this device is generally covered by health care insurance plans. The story quotes one user calling the device “miraculous.” A trainer says the device “lets people walk with a normal gait so they don’t develop bad habits that lead to other orthopedic problems,” but without offering any evidence that users of the device far any better than those who rely on other rehabilitation techniques. The thrust of the story is that this weight-supporting treadmill speeds recovery, but nowhere does the story actually say what special benefit users get from this device. How much faster do they recover compared to alternatives? Do they walk or run better than if they had used a different device or technique? Readers are fed glowing, but anecdotal, praise for the device, while these and other important questions are left unanswered. The story does not address potential harms, including the potential harm of diverting patients from rehabilitation programs that have a more extensive base of supporting evidence and experience. The premise of the story is that this weight-supporting treadmill helps people recover from injuries, surgery and other walking and running problems. Although the story reports that “it’s rooted in science,” the research touted by the company does not actually address the question of whether this device works any better than (or even as well as) alternative rehabilitation techniques. A few anecdotal reports are offered, but no trials comparing this device to exercising in a swimming pool or using other methods to reduce weight load or impact during recovery. The company includes a long list of clinical reports on its web site, but almost all of them merely measure the biomechanical forces on users, not whether the device offers any advantages in terms of healing or function. While people quoted in the story said they felt better during the sessions, there is nothing to indicate they derived lasting health benefits. Also, some of the summaries of the research offered by the device maker appear to overstate the results. For example, the company describes review articles that “validate the AlterG as a highly effective rehabilitative modality in a wide variety of clinical settings,” but the review article cited just includes a picture of the AlterG treadmill as one example of available rehabilitation devices. Swimming pool exercise is the first option highlighted in this article, which does not refer to the AlterG device in the text. References:  AlterG Clinical Research Update: http://www.alter-g.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/AlterG_Clincal-Research.Oct2010.pdf Rehabilitation review cited by AlterG: Wilk, Kevin E., Macrina, Leonard C., and Reinold, Michael M.; Rehabilitation Following Microfracture of the Knee. Cartilage 1(2): 96-107, 2010. http://car.sagepub.com/content/1/2/96.abstract  The story fails to tell readers about ties between the people quoted in the story and the company that sells the device. For example, trainer Valerie Gluth has coordinated her physical therapy company’s marketing with Alter-G. Elite distance runner Shannon Rowbury appears in Alter-G marketing materials and has received free use of the device. References: Joint news release from Alter-G and Valerie Gluth: http://www.corestrengthforlife.com/_assets/_pdf/MVPT_Alter-GpressRelease_Nov_19_2009.pdf Alter-G marketing brochure featuring Shannon Rowbury: http://www.alter-g.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/AlterG-Athletic-Conditioning-Treadmill1.pdf Shannon Rowbury blog post citing free access to Alter-G device: http://www.shannonrowbury.com/blog/2010/04/my-entry.html The story fails to tell readers about any of the alternative ways to partially support body weight during rehabilitation, such as exercising in a swimming pool or running on treadmills or other devices that use harnesses or other methods to partially support a person’s weight. The story notes that this weight-supporting treadmill is available at a limited number of rehabilitation and physical therapy centers. But the story did allow one true believer to end the piece saying, “I think they’re going to be everywhere…” There is nothing new about partial weight support during rehabilitation. This story fails to put this particular treadmill device in context with other methods of reducing weight load and impact, such as treadmills that use harnesses or other methods to carry some of a person’s weight. Not applicable, for the following reasons. There is no independent source, so it’s plausible that the story was spoonfed by a news release. But since we don’t have any direct evidence of a news release influencing the story, we can’t rule it unsatisfactory. Claim: Anti-Gravity Treadmill helps injured get moving again",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Almost 40 percent of children aged 10 and 11 in London are overweight or obese, according to research compiled for Britain’s parliament. “Child obesity in London is a ticking timebomb and I am determined to act. If we don’t take bold steps against it we are not doing right by our young people as well as placing a huge strain on our already pressurized health service,” Kahn said in a statement. The ban will target food retailers with products deemed high in fat, salt or sugar such as McDonald’s. McDonald's here has long been fighting perceptions that it encourages children to eat unhealthily. In 2011, it won a U.S. lawsuit allowing it to continue including toys in Happy Meals. Coca Cola and Pepsi here - as part of the American Beverage Association - faced scrutiny during the same year following a U.S. campaign to bring awareness to the potential health concerns associated with sugar sweetened drinks. Food and drink advertising contributed around 20 million pounds ($27 million) to Transport for London’s revenue during the 2016-17 financial year. A spokesperson from the mayor’s office said :”About two thirds of this comes from high fat, salt and sugar, food and drink.”  The National Centre for Social Research and Cancer Research UK found advertising of unhealthy foods – particularly when aimed at children – creates extra pressure on children and families when it comes to choosing what to eat and drink. “I want to reduce the influence and pressure that can be put on children and families to make unhealthy choices,” Kahn said. “I’m determined to do all I can to tackle this issue with the powers I have and help Londoners make healthy food choices for themselves and their children.”  The plans are a key part of the mayor’s draft London Food Strategy and echo initiatives that have been introduced in Amsterdam this year. Khan said: “The government needs to step up and join this fight against child obesity.” Claim: London bans junk food ads on public transport to fight child obesity.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no mention of costs which can be signficant. The story reported on what the company media briefing wanted to report:  less pain, stiffness, disability and decreased use of pain medications in the braced group. But the story didn’t say if there was a control group and how results compared. There was no discussion of potential harms that might be associated with the use of the devices reported on. Are there any short term or potentially longer term implications resulting from the use of a knee brace? First, it’s not best practice to use a company-hosted media briefing on a device the company makes as the sole source of information. Second, this was a small study. The resuls might not be generalizable to typical individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Perhaps most importantly, there was no information about the study design and whether there was a control group to which the participants were compared No overt disease mongering of knee arthritis. The story included quotes from three clinicians and one patient – of which at least three appeared at the media briefing. There was no disclosure of any financial conflicts of interest among the three clinicians. Maybe there was none, but given the setting – a company-hosted media briefing – this issue should have been discussed. The story mentioned knee replacement in the body of the piece and listed non-surgical approaches to the management of knee osteoarthritis at the end. But there was no meaningful comparison of outcomes. There was no discussion of how widespread is the use/availability of knee braces in general or of the studied knee brace specifically. The braces studied were appropriately not portrayed as a new treatment approach. Reporting from a company-hosted media briefing isn’t much different than relying solely on a news release. Claim: Knee Braces Ease Osteoarthritis Pain",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: FDA releases don’t typically assess cost, but seeing as this treatment is already on the market, it would not have been much of an effort to include that information in the news release. One might assume that the costs of treating these rare diseases are substantial but the release gives no indication on cost, or whether the drug might be covered by insurance. According to one trusted source on average retail drug prices, llaris prescriptions cannot be filled at a typical pharmacy. Instead, the medicine is administered and distributed at a hospital or clinic. This suggests the drug may be very expensive. All we learn about the benefits for patients is that the treatment “may help improve their quality of life.”  It would be hard to give less information about the benefits of the treatment. The statement that “approvals for the new indications were based on clinical studies, including safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetic data” is inadequate. The release includes a discussion of harms warranting a borderline satisfactory rating. But the side effects information is similar to that found on product labeling — it follows the regulatory requirements concerning product labels — but provides no data on harms from the trials behind the drug’s approval. It could have been more informative with a few more details. In addition, the information on harms appeared to be contradictory. One paragraph says common responses to the drug were minor reactions and susceptibility to colds; the next paragraph lists serious side effects. We would have welcomed the faintest of details of the clinical studies, and the “safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetic data” used to approve Ilaris for these new indications. This was a lost opportunity to inform. The release doesn’t engage in fear-mongering, but neither does it tell us how prevalent and disabling these diseases are. It would have been nice to get more information about the new indications, the numbers who suffer from them and the way they may be currently treated even if there are no approved drugs. There’s no mention of funding or conflict of interest, but these don’t (or shouldn’t) apply to regulatory approvals. It’s presumed that the studies will have been conducted by the company seeking approval. Even if there are no approved drugs for these indications, surely there is some sort of therapy that patients suffering from them are prescribed, even if it’s limited to palliative care. To leave out details on how patients with these rare disorders are currently treated does a disservice to the readers. Since the drug has already been approved for two other conditions, it’s safe to assume that the drug is already on the market and generally available. The release claims novelty with the following statement: “For the first time, patients with TRAPS and HIDS/MKD, two painful and life altering diseases, have access to a treatment that may help improve their quality of life,” according to an FDA official. But is novelty demonstrated? All we learn is there are “new” indications for the drug, two of which have no previously approved treatments. This is presented as a “take our word for it” kind of way which seems unacceptable. The release doesn’t engage in unjustifiable or sensational language. Claim: FDA approves expanded indications for Ilaris for three rare diseases",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The anti-abortion provisions slipped into Ohio’s budget have been ratified, but the Republican-controlled legislature is still considering other efforts to restrict abortions. House Bill 200, introduced by Rep. Ron Hood and supported by 34 of his Republican colleagues, would double the state’s 24-hour waiting period for abortions, compel doctors to tell patients that having an abortion will increase risk of breast cancer and require women seeking abortions to undergo what some doctors say are medically unnecessary ultrasounds. Democrats and abortion-rights advocates have publicly denounced the measure. The Ohio Democratic Party sent out a statement blasting Hood’s bill, saying House Republicans are \"legislating shame on Ohio’s women.\" \"They introduced a bill that would force women facing the most personal of health decisions to endure a transvaginal ultrasound,\" said a statement by Liz Brown, deputy executive director of the Ohio Democratic Party. PolitiFact Ohio determined that Hood set his pants on fire when he used the bill to link an increased risk of breast cancer to abortions, but we wanted to find out if the Ohio Democratic Party is also guilty of propagating medical misinformation. Hood’s bill would require doctors to perform ultrasounds on women who request an abortion and to give patients a verbal description of the ultrasound, including an audible heartbeat, if available. The legislation does not specify what type of ultrasound must be performed beyond saying an \"obstetric\" ultrasound. The legislation says a doctor must perform an ultrasound that \"portrays the entire body of the embryo or fetus\" under threat of a first-degree felony charge and a fine of up to $1 million. Hood calls the measure the \"Ultrasound Access Act.\" The legislation aims to \"give every Ohio mother the opportunity to see an ultrasound photo of her baby before making an abortion decision,\" Hood said. So, would this \"opportunity\" force women to undergo a transvaginal, or internal, ultrasound? That depends, experts say. The Ohio Democratic Party told PolitiFact that the group got its information on transvaginal ultrasounds from a handful of sources, including \"Prenatal Tests and Ultrasounds: The Facts\" written by two ultrasound experts from a New Jersey-based OB/GYN medical practice. It also provided a study published in the journal \"Seminars in Reproductive Medicine.\" The sources say that transvaginal ultrasounds are more accurate and are often used over external transabdominal ultrasounds during early pregnancy. \"Not surprisingly, transvaginal ultrasound has been shown to be better at visualizing early pregnancy than is transabdominal ultrasound,\" according to the study. Some doctors say a transvaginal procedure, under certain circumstances, may be the only method that would provide the necessary image. Dr. Anita Somani, a physician at Comprehensive Women's Care in Columbus, said earlier this month during a press conference held by Democrats to decry HB 200 that in some cases an external transabdominal ultrasound could reveal an embryo or fetus in its entirety. But, depending on the age of the embryo or fetus and the patient’s body type, a transvaginal ultrasound may be needed to comply with the legislation, Somani said. \"You may not see anything on a transabdominal ultrasound until a woman is further along in her pregnancy,\" Somani said, adding that a transabdominal ultrasound is not likely to produce an accurate image of a fetus or embryo during the first trimester. Like a judicious patient, PolitiFact wanted a second opinion. Dr. Daniel Grossman, a San Francisco-area physician and vice president of research for the sexual and reproductive rights group Ibis Reproductive Health, concurred with Somani’s assessment. In most cases, the only way to get a clear and detailed image of the embryo or fetus during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy is to perform an \"invasive, uncomfortable\" transvaginal ultrasound, Grossman said. \"It’s a medical procedure that is not always required to perform an abortion,\" Grossman said. \"Like any medical test or procedure, it should be performed at the physician’s discretion.\" And why not seek a third opinion, just for good measure? Dr. Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said a transvaginal ultrasound gives a very close-up picture of the ovaries and inside the uterus, whereas a transabdominal ultrasound gives a wider view. \"If it is very early in the pregnancy, to see if there is a living embryo, you would need a transvaginal ultrasound,\" Harrison said, adding that the internal procedure would be needed to accurately date a pregnancy in the first nine weeks. The statement by the Ohio Democratic Party implies that all women seeking abortions would be forced to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound. Women seeking abortions would have to undergo some form of ultrasound, and many women seeking early-term abortions could face the internal procedure. But the Ohio Democratic Party did not clarify the circumstances. We rate its claim . Claim: Ohio Democratic Party Says proposed anti-abortion legislation \"would force women facing the most personal of health decisions to endure a transvaginal ultrasound.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Keio University Hospital said one trainee doctor tested positive for the virus last week and that tests on another 98 found 17 more were also positive. The hospital confirmed that 40 trainees had attended the party after work, and 14 of those present had tested positive for the virus. “What happened was an unforgivable blunder on part of our trainee doctors,” hospital director Yuko Kitagawa said in a statement. “They sorely lacked the self-awareness necessary for being a doctor.”    Despite calls from Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike for people to stay home on weekends and refrain from evening gatherings, life in the Japanese capital has continued largely as usual during the coronavirus outbreak. People still go out to eat and gather with their children in parks, and although trains are less crowded than normal many still travel to work on them. The hospital told Reuters that the party took place on March 26, a day after Koike’s first call for restraint. Japan on Tuesday imposed a state of emergency on Tokyo and six other prefectures. The country has confirmed over 4,000 cases of the virus and more than 90 deaths. Claim: Tokyo hospital trainees test positive for coronavirus after party.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: India is likely to impose a nationwide ban on plastic bags, cups, small bottles, straws and some types of sachets next month as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to reduce use of pollution-causing, single-use plastic. But the plans have stoked fears among consumer firms, which, use plastic in packaging for everything from sodas and biscuits to ketchup and shampoo. “This has created an existential issue for multiple sectors,” said the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a lobby group, in a two-page draft note, seen by Reuters, which is likely to be finalised and sent to the government in the coming days. The CII will ask the government to consult industry executives and define what will be categorized as single-use plastics, while also pitching for some exemptions, according to the note. It says small-sized plastic bottles used for pharmaceutical or health products should be exempted as there is no alternate available. Sachets made from so-called multi-layered packaging should also not be banned, as that could disrupt supplies of key products such as biscuits, salt and milk, the CII draft says. A senior Indian government official said several industry representations were being reviewed, but the aim was to “get rid of the menace of plastic pollution” without causing disruption. In an Independence Day speech on Aug. 15, Modi urged people and government agencies to “take the first big step” on Oct. 2 towards freeing India of single-use plastic. India lacks a system for management of plastic waste, but environmentalists have hailed Modi’s move, saying it will help combat plastic waste that chokes rivers and drains. A ban on certain plastics from Oct. 2, however, will come just weeks ahead of big Hindu festivals for which business plans are laid out far in advance because they typically see a sharp rise in consumer purchases. Two industry sources said Amazon.com Inc, which uses plastics in its packaging, has been concerned that a possible ban could disrupt its operations ahead of festivities, and during its mega annual discount sale that starts Sept. 29. In recent weeks, executives from Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo and consumer goods seller Hindustan Unilever have been part of industry delegations that met government officials to express concerns and discuss alternate packaging solutions, according to a person with direct knowledge. Coca-Cola said in a statement that all its primary packaging does not consist of single-use plastic. Pepsi said its target was to make 100 percent of its packaging recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable by 2025. Hindustan Unilever did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon did not respond, but has previously said that it plans to replace single-use plastic in its packaging by June 2020. “The ban has ramifications for all sectors like food processing, dairy, garments, toys,” said Jayesh Rambhia of All India Plastic Manufacturers Association, which has 22,000 companies as members. “People, and companies, are pulling their hair today.” Claim: Spooked by Modi's plastics ban, India Inc seeks clarity, exemptions.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and more than two dozen health professionals launched a statewide campaign last week to help Georgia smokers kick the habit. The \"Nobody Quits Like Georgia\" campaign emphasized connecting smokers with the counseling and other support they need to quit successfully. \"Atlanta and state-level health care leaders are taking action because while the national smoking rate has fallen, more than 18 percent of adults in Georgia are still smoking,\" Reed’s office said in a press release on Nov. 17. The health hazards of cigarette smoking have been publicly recognized at least since the mid1960s, so could almost one in five Georgia adults still be lighting up? PolitiFact decided to check. First, a little background. Health advocates have been pushing to reduce the national smoking rate among adults 18 and over to 12 percent by 2020. About 20.6 percent of American adults were smoking in 2009, but the percentage has dropped every year since. In 2013, 19 percent of adults, nationally, and 18.8 percent in Georgia, were smoking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The CDC says smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body. More than 16 million Americans are estimated to be living with a smoking-related disease. These include cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to the CDC. The financial toll of smoking is tremendous -- more than $300 billion a year in the United States alone. This includes about $170 billion in direct medical care for adults and more than $156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke, the federal agency estimates. So what about the city’s statement about the habit in Georgia? We started our fact-check by contacting Reed press secretary Jenna Garland. She told us the American Lung Association, lead sponsor of the campaign, provided the statistic that appeared in the press release. Searches of CDC statistics last week also verified that 18.8 percent of Georgia adults were identified as smokers in 2013, Garland said. \"At the time of our press conference and release, this data was absolutely correct. And it is still the primary data presented by the CDC,\" she said. Garland is right -- for 2013. The picture is peachier for Georgia, however, based on newer data for 2014. That was available in a press release put out by the Georgia Department of Public Health on the same day that Reed’s office issued its statement. In 2014, Georgia’s adult smoking rate had fallen to 17.4 percent, down 1.4 percentage points from 2013 as measured on the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System.(BRFSS). Particularly significant, the rate of smoking fell to 16.4 percent in young adults, ages 18 to 24, state officials said. National data from BRFSS for 2014 has not made public. We examined data gathered in the last 10 years on smoking rates in Georgia and the nation. You’ll see that smoking rates have been heading downward both in the state and nation throughout most, but not all of the decade. This is based on data collected by states through the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and submitted by the CDC. Percentage of Adults 18 and over who smoke Year Georgia U.S. 2005 22.1 20.8 2006 19.9 20.5 2007 19.4 20 2008 19.5 19.7 2009 17.7 18.3 2010 17.6 17.9 2011 21.2 21.2 2012 20.4 19.6 2013 18.8 19 2014 17.4 Not available Source: Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) reports and Georgia Department of Public Health. --------------------- CDC spokeswoman Brittany Behm said that although the prevalence of smoking in Georgia has steadily declined in the past several years, the progress has not been as robust as it could have been. She said that’s largely because \"interventions we know work have not been fully implemented.\" She said these include higher tobacco product prices, comprehensive smoke-free laws, hard-hitting mass media campaigns, and full and sustained funding for comprehensive tobacco control programs. \"Statistically, Georgia ranks 24th among the states and DC—almost exactly at the median,\" Behm said. Jean O’Connor, director of chronic disease prevention for the Georgia Department of Public Health, said state officials believe they’ve made serious headway, particularly with the tobacco-free schools program that’s now in 105 of the state’s 181 school districts. Enabling 1.3 million students to spend their school day free from exposure to tobacco appears to be showing up in the numbers, O’Connor said. With the smoking rate falling to 16.4 percent in the 18-24 age group, \"that tells us kids are aging up and not using tobacco products,\" she said. \"If you can get to 25 without using, odds of being addicted are very very low.\" That’s reinforced in Georgia’s University System, one of the first in the nation to be smoke-free at its college and universities, O’Connor said. Our ruling A press release from Mayor Kasim Reed’s Office said: \"Atlanta and state-level health care leaders are taking action because while the national smoking rate has fallen, more than 18 percent of adults in Georgia are still smoking.\" The first part of the statement is misleading. Smoking rates have generally been falling nationally and in Georgia. The state’s rate was lower than the national rate in 2013. Reed’s office is correct that, in 2013, 18.8 percent of Georgia adults over 18 were smoking. But newer figures paint a peachier picture for the state. It doesn’t change the mayor’s overarching point that the state still has a way to go. We rate Reed’s statement . Claim: While the smoking rate nationally has fallen, more than 18 percent of Georgians still light up.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although researchers have not reached a consensus about the optimal dose or formulation, the story could have provided cost information for the various over-the-counter zinc products. In addition, this story could have been enhanced by a brief discussion of the general costs of treatment and the cost of lost work days, school absenteeism, and physician visits. The story indicates that when zinc is taken within the first 24 hours of developing cold symptoms, it cuts the duration of a cold by an average of 1 day. No data from the review were provided regarding other outcomes, such as severity of symptoms, reduced absences from school, and reduced antibiotic use. Also, the story should have noted that a preventive effect was found after 5 months of zinc use and people who experienced a therapeutic benefit took zinc for at least 5 days during their cold. The story pointed out that nasal zinc products, associated with loss of smell, were not evaluated in the Cochrane review and it quotes one of the authors of the study suggesting that the potential harms of zinc products are limited to a bad taste and some nausea. However, the full listing includes constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dry mouth and oral irritation. While the story did a nice job of explaining some of the limitations of the studies included in the systematic review, particularly the issue of not adequately blinding participants to their assigned treatment, it failed to mention a few important points. For example, trial participants were between the age of 1 and 65 years and were in good health; therefore, the results may not apply to the elderly or those who have underlying illnesses. Also, the story is somewhat misleading in how the data was evaluated. While the review included 15 studies with a combined 1,360 participants, it would have been useful to note that 13 trials (966 participants) analyzed the therapeutic benefit for zinc, while 2 trials (394 participants) evaluated its preventive effect. Furthermore, not all the trial results could be pooled due to the nonstandarized approach to reporting outcomes. The story should have also noted that the authors had a good deal of confidence in the conclusions drawn about the duration of sickness and severity of symptoms, but they were far less confident in the other outcomes, such as prevention, fewer school absences, and less antibiotic use. The story places equal credence in the ability of zinc to influence all of these outcomes. The story did not engage in disease-mongering. And while we recognize that the majority of readers are familiar with the common cold, we would have liked to have seen some information on the estimated number of cases of the common cold, days out of work or other estimates to put the story into perspective. The story includes commentary from the review’s lead author, as well as Dr. Prasad, “an early pioneer of research into zinc as an essential mineral.” Two of Dr. Prasad’s many articles were included in the Cochrane Review. Quotes from an independent expert would have been welcomed. While the review only includes trials comparing zinc to a placebo, the story could have briefly discussed the efficacy of other types of over-the-counter cold remedies. Furthermore, we would have liked to have seen some comment on the best ways to protect yourself and your family from getting a cold besides zinc products. A few words about hand hygiene and keeping your hands away from your eyes, mouth, and nose would have been helpful to readers. There is no question regarding the availability of products containing zinc; however, as the writer points out, the most effective formulation and dosage for reducing cold symptoms is currently unknown. Of note, the story specifically mentions that zinc lozenges from Coldcure.com were used in many of the trials evaluated in the Cochrane systematic review, but failed to note that they are no longer manufactured. The story makes it clear that the first trial evaluating the efficacy of zinc for treating symptoms of the common cold was published in 1984. This story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: For Cold Virus, Zinc May Edge Out Even Chicken Soup",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of the cost of metformin, which is available as a generic and is comparatively cheap. Nevertheless, since diabetes often requires a lifetime of drug use, costs of metformin versus other drugs would be useful to readers, especially in cases such as this when the drug under study is suspected of providing additional benefits or bringing negative side effects. We appreciate that the release attempts to quantify the reduction in risk associated with metformin use. However, there’s a problem with the release’s description of these results. The research paper points to a statistically significant reduction in lung cancer risk only among diabetic patients who have never smoked. But the release generalizes this finding to all “nonsmokers.” The release doesn’t delineate between people who have never smoked and those who did smoke but quit. The benefits appear to apply only to the group of never smokers. This is an important distinction. There is no mention in the release about potential harms that may arise with the administration of metformin. The drug is known to produce harmful side effects in more than 10 percent of people taking it, largely affecting the stomach or bowel such as vomiting, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. Our concerns about the treatment of evidence start with the headline: “Metformin may lower lung cancer risk in diabetic nonsmokers.” Since this is an observational study that cannot prove cause and effect — only associations — we think the use of an active verb here (“may lower risk”) is inappropriate. The release should have said that metformin is “linked with” or  “associated with” lower risk, but not that it “lowered” risk. We offer a primer on this issue for health writers here. The release does provide considerable data derived from the actual research paper, compared to many such releases, but then points to the lack of statistical significance for that data. Releases are intended to simplify and clarify research so that general readers can understand the importance of the findings. In this case, the release centers on a minor finding that applies to only a small subset of individuals in the study while mentioning the larger overall findings in passing. (The finding of “decreased risk” is based on just 80 people in the study who developed lung cancer despite never smoking.) That overall finding — that metformin generally has no effect on lung cancer risk — hardly qualifies as news. The decision to do a news release on this study at all is questionable. The release does not commit disease-mongering. The release clearly identifies the funding source for the research and also adequately discloses conflicts among the authors of the paper. The release investigates the possibility that metformin may decrease the risk of lung cancer in people who never smoked. This would have been an opportune place to add that not smoking — or quitting smoking, if you are a smoker — is probably the most important thing one can do to reduce the risk of lung cancer. The story does not directly address the availability of metformin. However, it’s apparent that the drug is available, since thousands of people in the study have been taking it for years. The release does reference earlier research that offered conflicting findings and supports the need for this larger study. The release is cautious in its choice and use of language in explaining the current research. It is troubling, however, that a small aspect of the research’s findings is the main emphasis of the release, while the research paper itself keeps that aspect in proper perspective. Claim: Metformin may lower lung cancer risk in diabetic nonsmokers",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2020, as conspiracy theories swirled about former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates’ alleged connections to the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, images supposedly showing an eerie quote ostensibly uttered by him circulated on social media. Text from a February 1997 issue of George magazine was presented in such a way that suggested Gates had said an “over-populated planet” would be “choked to extinction by a lung-attacking virus”:  Practically the only thing connecting Gates to the quote in this image is the neon green line drawn between them. The above-displayed images are both genuine and both come from the February 1997 issue of George, a magazine founded by John F. Kennedy, Jr. and published between 1995 and 2001. Although this issue does feature a lengthy interview with Gates, the quote featured here comes from an entirely different article. The February 1997 issue of George magazine included a “Survival Guide to the Future” that featured various commentators describing how the world was “now” and providing their thoughts on what the world would be like in 2020. The actual article, titled “A Nation’s Future Foretold,” was divided into themed sections such as transportation, education, environment, crime, warfare, and food. The quote shown in the viral image comes from the disease section of this article. Here’s a screenshot from a digital copy of the magazine, which more clearly shows the author of this text:  The end of the article comes after a page break, where you can read the pull-quote in context:  Gates did not write that an “over-populated planet” would be “choked to extinction by a lung-attacking virus.” This article was actually written by poet and science writer Arno Karlen. However, social media users did find an actual quote from Gates in this issue of George that they presented as equally controversial as the “lung-attacking virus” quote. A second image showing an excerpt from this issue appears to show Gates talking about “funding population control”: This, again, is a genuine image from the February 1997 issue of George magazine. And this time, it is a genuine quote from Gates. He made this comment shortly after he was asked about how he keeps his personal opinions separate from his business decisions:  While this quote is often shared as if it revealed some secret and nefarious plot from the former Microsoft CEO, the truth is a bit more mundane. This quote was widely circulated by those who adhere to the idea that Gates was using the COVID-19 pandemic to give himself an opportunity to microchip the population via vaccines. The above-displayed quote shows, according to proponents of this conspiracy theory, that Gates has long been planning to take control of the global population. We took a deeper look into the “ID2020” conspiracy theory here. However, the term “population control” isn’t as literal as it may seem in this context. This term was widely used in the 1970s and ’80s, but it fell out of fashion in the ’90s and was replaced by terms such as “reproductive health,” “family planning,” and “women’s empowerment.” In writing about the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, the Christian Science Monitor noted a major philosophical difference between that year’s conference and conferences from years past: If there is a major philosophical difference in the 1994 version of the once-a-decade international conference on population, it is the shift from “population control” to “women’s empowerment” — especially in areas of reproductive health, education, and economic opportunities, which planners of the UN conference see as closely linked to fertility rates. “Economic growth and improvement of quality of life have been fastest in those areas where women have higher status, and slowest where they face the greatest disadvantages,” states the draft “Programme of Action” now being debated in New York. Gates’ quote in this 1997 interview may have been a bit outdated, but it was not indicative of a nefarious plot to enslave humankind. Rather, Gates was noting his charitable work with global organizations that support reproductive health programs. Claim: Bill Gates is quoted in the February 1997 issue of George magazine as saying an \"over-populated planet\" would be \"choked to extinction by a lung-attacking virus.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 24 March 2017, David “Avocado” Wolfe, prolific pseudoscience media mogul, purveyor of life-extending USB-chargeable “longevity zappers”, and self-described “wealthiest hippie on Earth”, published a post that went viral on Facebook titled “3 Reasons Why You Should Stop Eating Peanut Butter Cups!” This post, though essentially a word-for-word rip-off of a 2015 post from a website named “Living Traditionally,” is still somehow classic Wolfe: a highly shareable story crafted at the expense of a beloved childhood candy through the willful misrepresentation of the science surrounding its ingredients. In this case, Wolfe (or whoever wrote the article) points to three chemicals which, as a matter of fact, are present in Reese’s Peanut Butter cups: Soy Lecithin Research has shown that as much as 93% of soy is genetically modified. Soy lecithin has been found to have detrimental effects on fertility and reproduction. It can cause behavioral and cerebral abnormalities. It has also been linked to breast cancer. PGPR PGPR is short for polyglycerol polyricinoleate. The manufacturer of this popular candy replaced cocoa butter with PGPR to lower the cost of production. PGPR comes from castor beans and it’s used to reduce the viscosity of chocolate. It has been connected to gastrointestinal problems and allergic reactions in children. TBHQ TBHQ stands for tertiary butylhdroquinone. It’s derived from petroleum and can be extremely toxic. Side effects of ingesting TBHQ include nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium and collapse. Research has shown that TBHQ can damage the lungs and umbilical cells in humans. It can also cause stomach cancer. Children who are exposed to this chemical may show anxiety, restlessness and intensified ADHD symptoms. Soy Lecithin Lecithin is a mixture of naturally organic compounds separated from their source by way of their shared chemical properties and added to a variety of foods to improve texture and aid in the mixing of ingredients. As defined by the United States Code of Federal Regulations: Commercial lecithin is a naturally occurring mixture of the phosphatides [derivatives of a specific chemical] of choline, ethanolamine, and inositol, with smaller amounts of other lipids. It is isolated as a gum following hydration of solvent-extracted soy, safflower, or corn oils. In terms of the soy-GMO link, this issue is somewhat moot because If GMO’s aren’t a person’s jam, then that individual probably wouldn’t be purchasing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups anyway, as the Hershey’s Company discloses the possibility of GMO ingredients, broadly, in this line of products. The remaining claims are either misleading or factually impoverished. To support the notion that soy lecithin has “detrimental effects on fertility and reproduction”, causes “behavioral and cerebral abnormalities” and has been “linked to breast cancer”, the author of the post links to a different post by “Dr. Axe”, a naturopathic doctor, chiropractor, and nutritionist. In this post, Axe briefly mentions a largely irrelevant 1985 study that looked at the effects of feeding pregnant laboratory rats and their offspring with an absurdly high soy lecithin diet. In that study, rats were given 10 grams of standardized of food per day with either 2 percent or 5 percent of the mass of that food replaced by soy lecithin. This study, which had a narrow and specific aim of investigating a proposed mechanism behind a number of neurologic conditions, found that: The results indicate that dietary soy lecithin preparation enrichment during development leads to behavioral and neurochemical abnormalities in the exposed offspring. However, the amount of lecithin used in this experiment are multiple orders of magnitude more than any human could reasonably expect to be exposed to, even on a daily basis. Using the rough estimate 1800 grams of food consumed per day by the average human, a 5 percent lecithin diet would represent 90 grams of soy lecithin per day, which is roughly 1000 times more soy lecithin than the FDA estimates Americans get in their daily diet through additives (96 milligrams per day). Using an over 30 year old study of pregnant and developing rats fed absurdly unrealistic doses of a chemical to say that peanut butter cups are dangerous is a reach, even by Wolfe standards. By FDA “Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS)” standards: There is no evidence in the available information on lecithin and lecithin bleached with hydrogen peroxide that demonstrates or suggests reasonable grounds to suspect a hazard to the public when they are used at levels that are now current or that might reasonably be expected in the future. The remaining claims regarding breast cancer, fertility, and reproduction are made by conflating soy protein and soy lecithin. Soy protein is chemically similarity to estrogen, a point that has been the subject of much scientific and internet debate about its potential adverse affects. While the mechanisms linking soy to any hormone-derived maladies have yet to be demonstrated, it is another moot point, as at most only trace amounts of soy protein, if any, remain in soy lecithin. PGPR Polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR), per Food and Industrial Bioproducts and Bioprocessing, is a common additive that is used: For improved texture and enhanced volume of bakery products, in salad dressings, and in chocolate to decrease the occurrence of fat bloom [a visual separation of fat from the rest of the chocolate]. While not hesitating to use its scary scientific name, the only allegation of note the Wolfe post makes is that PGPR has been “connected” to gastrointestinal problems and allergic reactions in children. Ignoring the fact that the same could be said about the ingredients in the natural version of peanut butter cups presented below Wolfe’s article, it is also a broad misrepresentation of PGPR’s risk, which is, at best, negligible. The most recent review of its safety, performed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and adopted on 3 March 2017, reaffirmed its safety: PGPR […] is not of concern with regard to genotoxicity or carcinogenicity. The single reproductive toxicity study with PGPR was limited and was not an appropriate study for deriving a health-based guidance value. Human studies with PGPR demonstrated that there is no indication of significant adverse effect. TBHQ TBHQ, used as an antioxidant preservative in many food items, is indeed a petroleum derivative (as are almost all carbon containing compounds not produced by living organisms), but that doesn’t mean it carries the same risks as ingesting raw petroleum sludge — it’s a specific, singular, isolated, and modified chemical. There have, in fact, been animal studies that report harmful effects after extremely large doses of TBHQ as well as other cases of extremely high or chronic exposure resulting in harm. As we wrote in a similar Wolfe debunker about the dangers of Pop Tarts, however, while the long-term health effects in humans exposed to high or chronic doses of TBQH (i.e. industrial or laboratory workers handing pure TBHQ occupationally) is not a settled issue, the long-term effects of humans exposed to it in doses legally allowed by USA and European regulatory agencies is settled. EFSA reevaluated its earlier (similar) conclusion regarding TBQH in 2004, finding that it is “not carcinogenic and that further genotoxicity studies are unnecessary.” The Wolfe post also claims that children exposed to TBHQ “may show anxiety, restlessness and intensified ADHD symptoms” despite the fact that no peer-reviewed studies link TBHQ specifically to ADHD, restlessness, or anxiety. This notion stems from the controversial ideas of Dr. Benjamin Feingold, who advocates the removal of myriad food additives, including TBHQ, as a cure for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and other behavioral issues. Despite his claims, however, no research specifically focused on TBHQ has documented any connection, and those diets he promotes generally treat a broad collection of additives as the same, despite clear chemical differences. Claim: Three additives in peanut butter cups, soy lecithin, PGPR, and TBHQ, are inherently dangerous and should be avoided.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 11 February 2018, the Neon Nettle web site published a vivid article under the headline “Mom Catches Pedophile Trying to Rape Child, Blows His Head Off with Shotgun,” which opened as follows: A notorious pedophile has been found dead by police after a mother blew his head off with a shotgun when he tried to rape her 12-year-old child. The furious mom found convicted child sex offender Michael Lindsey in her daughter’s bedroom and took matters into her own hands. The woman from Blakely, Georgia, became suspicious and went into her young daughter’s room to find Lindsey attempting to rape her daughter after breaking into their home. In broad strokes, this report conformed to an incident reported by local news media in which a Georgia woman fatally shot a burglar who had concealed himself within a closet in her home: A Blakely woman shot a convicted sex offender to death after he allegedly broke into her home. During a 9-1-1 call the victim reported she was assaulted after discovering 53-year old Michael Lindsey hiding in a closet of her home. The woman’s 12-year old daughter was also present. “Deputies arrived at the scene and insured the safety of the victims who had locked themselves inside a room because they weren’t sure if the intruder was still inside the home,” Early County Investigator Captain Will Caudill said. Officers also discovered 53-year old Michael Lindsey outside the home. He was taken to a Blakely hospital and pronounced dead. He’s believed to have stumbled from inside before collapsing. Prior to the shooting she fought off her attacker with a spoon, a police report states. However, Neon Nettle is a notorious fake news blog with a predilection for publishing sensationalized (if not completely fabricated) stories about pedophiles, and true to form, Neon Nettle added multiple false elements to this particular report to enhance its luridness. For example, as we confirmed with Early County Investigator Captain Will Caudill, the woman referenced in this report did not “blow [the intruder’s] off with a shotgun.” The weapon she used was a handgun, and the intruder, Michael Lindsey, had “no gunshot wounds above the torso of his body.” Furthermore, the mother did not find Lindsey “trying to rape her 12-year-old child.” Lindsey had concealed himself in a closet of the home for reasons that remain indeterminate, as Captain Caudill told us that investigators “did not factually determine the motive for the burglary.” Finally, although Lindsey was a sex offender, he would likely not be described by any responsible news account as a “notorious pedophile,” given that he had but a single related conviction on his record, and that was from nearly twenty years earlier (1999). Claim: A notorious pedophile was killed by a mother who blew his head off with a shotgun when he tried to rape her 12-year-old child.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: We wouldn’t expect a discussion of cost implications for a technique still in its formative years. But since the article states that “costs are reduced,” we have to address it. First of all, costs compared to what? Mammography? The other investigational techniques using RF or microwaves just mentioned? Let’s assume the comparator is mammography. It may be that, if and once there’s an available product, costs for each screening visit can be reduced. But the total costs depend on how effective it is. Without knowing how good it is at picking up breast cancer (sensitivity) and excluding signals that aren’t breast cancer (specificity), we don’t know its role. It might be too unreliable to replace mammography. Poor sensitivity leads to missing cancers, which cost life and money. Poor specificity leads to more unnecessary biopsies and treatments; if indeed people would screen themselves at home, poor specificity also means more unnecessary doctor visits. Also, will clinic and home uses be covered by insurance? As the independent sources says, we don’t know how the new device will be used. Until trials determine whether it will replace mammography, supplement it, or sink out of memory, we can’t know the total costs. To say vaguely that “costs are reduced” may not, therefore, be correct. They’re not quantified. Again, if it’s because the tool hasn’t been tested, we need to know that. No harms are discussed. If it’s too early to tell the rates of false positives, we need to know that. The article draws a picture of a tool with no potential downsides. The article does not evaluate the existence, no matter the quality, of evidence. If there is no clinical evidence yet, we need to know that. Omitting this discussion paints a picture of a tool that has the same level of proof supporting it as tools like mammography, which have been put through numerous rigorous trials and lived to tell the tale. The way the article puts it, there may have been research in patients, or there may just be a prototype on a workbench and non-clinical data. It’s not enough to say that a tool is novel, or faster, or provides real-time images, or can fit in a lunch box, or even (as the press release cheers) is a finalist for an engineering award. The tool may be promising, but only a sober evaluation of how well it works in human beings, checking its results, will tell us whether it will save more lives than we currently can or join the thousands of ideas that sounded good but didn’t pan out. The article alludes to prior research with RF and microwave technologies in detecting breast cancer. So what do we already know about this approach? Were the prior techniques effective but hampered by lack of speed and portability? While not a critique of the article, we’ll point out that, for this technique to be compared to mammography, it will likely need evidence that it improves survival. Part of the challenge in breast cancer screening is distinguishing between cancer and “pre-cancer” (or “cancer risk”). The word cancer actually refers to a large, strange zoo of different abnormalities. Some grow slower than others, some never causing problems within a patient’s lifetime. That means it can be hard to know the danger of an early finding from screening. Thus, in addition to knowing the benefits and harms, like the rate of false positives, we’ll need to see if this tool used on a schedule makes groups of people live longer. It may some counterintuitive, but the answer isn’t always a clear yes. This uncertainty was one of the embers in last year’s firestorm over the new mammography guidelines. The article cites statistics about mammography and breast cancer in younger women from the press release. They are within the range of key data in this field. (As an aside, the article says the stats are from the research team. We can’t say whether the writer of the press release actually compiled them.) Claim: New Portable Scanner for Breast Cancer",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This news release is about a pre-clinical study that looked at the effects of cerium oxide nanoparticles and curcumin in cell culture. It will be a while before this type of technology is studied in living patients. We rate this one Not Applicable. We caution news release writers that if it’s not too early to talk glowingly about the potential life-saving benefits of an intervention in a news release, it’s not too early to give some attention to the costs. However, this research is clearly far too preliminary to make such projections. The news release does not provide any data to support its claims. Instead, sweeping phrases are used to describe the benefits of curcumin-loaded nanoparticles: “This formulation included substantial cell death in neuroblastoma cells while producing no or only minor toxicity in healthy cells.” Moreover, “nano-therapeutic treatments showed a more pronounced effect” in cell lines of a high-risk form of neuroblastoma, the news release states. No other benefit data are given. We like to see news releases giving a quantitative estimate of the potential benefit using numbers, instead of using broad, ambiguous terms like “substantial,” “minor” and “more pronounced.” Therefore, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. No harms are mentioned in the news release. Some scientists are concerned that nanotechnology may have toxic effects on the body, especially the lungs. Depending on the nanotechnology, other organs may also be at a risk for damage. In particular, some nanoparticles may affect the endocrine system, leading to changes in hormone levels, sexual characteristics, reproduction and development. The news release talks only about the benefits of nanoscience research without any description of its potential harms. Consequently, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating. We wish the news release emphasized the fact that this research was in its early pre-clinical stages. This means it will take at least another 10 to 12 years before this technology is tested in humans, if it even makes it that far. Testing treatments in cell culture is usually the first step along the research pipeline. If these experiments are successful, researchers then try the technology in living organisms — like mice, rats and rabbits. It’s important to remember that cells in culture behave very differently than cells in a living organism. And what works in animal models often is not effective when tested in humans, perhaps due to differences in genetics, environmental conditions and physiology. In a physician commentary entitled “The Failing Animal Research Paradigm for Human Disease,” it quotes a former National Cancer Institute director as saying, “We have cured mice of cancer for decades—and it simply didn’t work in humans.” In this study, researchers worked with cell lines containing “a high-risk form of neuroblastoma.” We don’t even know what type of cell lines they were. Were they derived from humans? Or mice? Although the news release talks about future research plans in animal models, we feel it could have been more explicit in pointing out its pre-clinical phase higher up in the report, like in the headline or first sentence. As a result, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. There is no disease mongering in this news release. The news release discloses the study’s funding sources, which include the Nemours Foundation and the regional economic development initiative of the Florida High Tech Corridor. We were not able to find any potential conflicts of interests. We rate this one Satisfactory. The news release does not discuss any existing alternatives to treat neuroblastoma. Conventional therapy includes chemotherapy for those with advanced-stage neuroblastoma. Commonly used agents include cisplatin, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide and epipodophyllotoxins. For those with early-stage neuroblastoma, surgery is often an option. Some patients are also given adrenocortical hormone to treat their symptoms. We give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating here. The beginning of the news release makes it sound like this technology is available at your local hospital. Later in the report, however, the news release makes it clear that this study was conducted in cell lines in a laboratory. Researchers hope to expand this research to animal models and direct the curcumin nanoparticles to tumor sites, the news release adds. We feel this is enough for a Satisfactory rating. Although the news release makes it sound as if this research is completely novel, using curcumin-loaded nanoparticles to treat neuroblastoma is not exactly new. In fact, researchers from Nemours and UCF only confirmed (not found, as the news release claims) that nanoparticles can be used to deliver curcumin to tumor sites. In 2012, an international team of researchers looked at how curcumin-containing nanoparticles induced cell death in neuroblastoma cells in vitro. Another study from 2012 looked at the toxicity of curcumin-loaded nanoparticles. Since none of this was mentioned in the news release, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. The news release does not include include unjustifiable, sensational language. Claim: Nanoparticles loaded with component of common spice kill cancer cells",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: These were not “treatment” studies so discussing costs is not relevant. However, the way the story is written could make readers think they should start buying more wine and coffee, which isn’t what the findings showed. There is nothing in the news story that quantifies the benefits of the claim made–that drinking wine or coffee is “great for your microbiome.” This is a major problem with the story, as it’s making a claim not found anywhere in the findings. Because this story puts forth the idea that certain foods (especially coffee and wine) are good for microbial diversity–and that’s a health claim–there should be an acknowledgement that these foods also can carry harms. There was no mention of the size of the dose–how much coffee? How much wine? And people may take that lack of dosing to mean whatever they want, including having more than is beneficial and veers into unhealthy or dangerous. The research is purely observational in nature–as explained earlier, we cannot conclude that increased consumption of wine and coffee leads to greater microbiome diversity, nor if that is even important for overall health. In some ways, the story acknowledges this, by stating certain behaviors are “associated with” microbial diversity. But in other ways it reverts to cause/effect language. Example: “the scientists found that consuming fruits, vegetables and yogurt positively influenced microbial diversity in the gut. So did drinking tea, wine, coffee and buttermilk.” The story needed a clear disclaimer regarding the limits of this type of research. There is no disease-mongering. There do not appear to be any conflicts of interest. However, this story did not include independent sources. Given the context of the research, this is not relevant. Same comment as the “Compare Alternatives” section. The news story did establish the novelty of the research with this quote: “To our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically assess such a broad range of host and environmental factors in relation to gut microbiome and at such a large scale,” said Jingyuan Fu, a systems geneticist at the University of Groningen who worked with Zhernakova. Because it appears to have original statements from one of the researchers, the story does not appear to have relied solely on a news release. Claim: Wine and coffee lovers, drink up! It's great for your microbiome",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles found that a state does not have “the power to compel a health care provider to speak, in his or her own voice, the state’s ideological message in favor of carrying a pregnancy to term.”  The law “compels a health care provider to act as the state’s courier and to disseminate the state’s message discouraging abortion, in the provider’s own voice, in the middle of a medical procedure, and under circumstances where it would seem the message is the provider’s and not the state’s,” she added in her 42-page ruling. “This is not allowed under the First Amendment,” Eagles ruled. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, but lawmakers in more conservative states in recent years have enacted laws that seek to place restrictions on the procedure, especially on late-term abortions. The ultrasound requirement of the law had been blocked by Eagles a few months after it was passed due to concerns over what she described as the “non-medical message” doctors were required to deliver. The law required that an ultrasound image be presented and the sound of the fetal heartbeat be offered at least four hours before an abortion, though a woman is free to look away and ignore an explanation and medical description of what is on the screen. The decision was hailed as a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Federation of America which filed a lawsuit challenging the Women’s Right to Know Act. “Today’s ruling protects the rights of women and their doctors from the ideological agenda of extremist lawmakers,” said Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the ACLU of North Carolina. “This law represented an egregious government intrusion into individuals’ private medical decisions, and we are very pleased that it will not go into effect,” she said. Defenders of the law said it provided crucial information for women making a major and irrevocable decision. “North Carolina’s ultrasound requirement is no different than requiring speech for airlines and cigarette manufacturers for safety reasons,” said Barbara Holt, president of North Carolina Right to Life. “The required information must be given even if the person hearing, seeing or reading the information finds the information upsetting, unnecessary or repetitive.”  A Republican state legislator who advocated the law, House Majority Leader Paul Stam, was not immediately available to comment after normal business hours. North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue, a Democrat and the state’s first female governor, vetoed the measure in 2011 but the state Senate overrode the veto. In her veto message, Perdue called the legislation a “dangerous intrusion into the confidential relationship that exists between women and their doctors.”  When the law went into effect in October 2011, North Carolina joined 25 other states that require pre-abortion counseling that goes beyond basic medical “informed consent,” according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit sexual health research organization. It also became the tenth state to include the additional requirement of an ultrasound, which has drawn legal challenges in several states. North Carolina has some of the country’s toughest requirements for clinics performing abortions, including a requirement doctors be present when abortions are performed. It also bans publicly funded health insurance programs from paying for most abortions, and authorizes state health officials to design rules for increased safety standards for abortion clinics. In North Carolina, 17 percent of pregnancies end in induced abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The case is Gretchen S. Stuart, M.D. et al v. Ralph C. Loomis, M.D. et al: 1:11-CV-804. Claim: North Carolina ultrasound abortion law ruled illegal by judge.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: North Carolina’s top health official says there’s evidence that a statewide mask requirement is helping stabilize coronavirus cases in the state. In a press conference on July 28, Health Secretary Mandy Cohen said: \"Our actions to slow the spread of this virus are having an impact. Specifically, we see a direct correlation to the start of the statewide mask requirement at the end of June. Two to three weeks after implementing this requirement, we started to see the beginning of these more stable trends.\" Is it true that there’s a \"direct correlation\" between North Carolina’s mask requirement and COVID-19 stabilization? Data shows that the number of new reported COVID-19 cases is beginning to stabilize. Experts told PolitiFact the mask law and case count could be related, but that it’s hard to quantify the law’s impact. Gov. Roy Cooper announced the mask requirement on June 24 and it went into effect on June 26. Cohen said North Carolina’s case count started to level about three weeks later. Why is Cohen judging the rule’s effectiveness three weeks after its implementation, rather than immediately after its implementation? It can take up to 14 days between the time someone was infected and the time they start showing symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means someone could have contracted the virus before the mask mandate, but not shown symptoms or tested positive until after the mask requirement was in effect. So let’s look at North Carolina’s case counts. One way experts measure coronavirus trends is by calculating the 7-day rolling average for the number of new cases or deaths per day. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and WRAL both track this metric. The average number of new cases per day rose until about July 18, when DHHS reported 2,481 cases. The daily count started to drop after that date, and the rolling 7-day average has been less than 2,000 cases ever since. So Cohen is right that the number of new cases is stabilizing. Is that a direct result of the mandate? There’s evidence that widespread mask-wearing has helped reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, as we’ve previously reported. We spoke with experts at the University of North Carolina, Harvard University, the University of Nebraska and the University of Toronto. While they agreed that there may be a correlation, they say there’s not enough evidence yet to determine how much influence the mask rule had on the stabilization. Other factors -- such as social distancing or testing availability -- could also play a role. But reviewing that data typically takes months, said Ryan McNamara, a research associate in UNC’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. \"There's just a lot of variables at play that need to be accounted for,\" he said. There’s a popular saying in research: \"correlation does not mean causation.\" In this context, it means that the mask law may not have caused the dip in new COVID-19 cases, even though there are signs a cause-and-effect relationship could exist. \"That said, Dr. Cohen and her team are in possession of much more data than I am. I think her statement was carefully worded and has scientific merit.\" Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health and professor of epidemiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, agreed that it’s premature to directly credit the mask rule for the leveling-off of cases. But he believes Cohen’s claim is fair, given that \"other data that (shows) masks work and accounting for numerous caveats such as what else happened 2-3 weeks ago.\" Dr. Barry Bloom, a research professor of public health at Harvard University, said it’s \"difficult to disaggregate a single intervention from the other standard public health behaviors.\" However, Bloom said it’s possible that the mask requirement not only prompted more people to wear masks -- but to start taking other precautionary measures as well. \"I think it is safe to say they may have contributed to the more stable trends, assuming the trends are indeed stable for a couple of weeks,\" Bloom said. As of August 3, the state’s rolling 7-day average remained below 2,000 cases and was still declining. Cohen said there’s a \"direct correlation\" between North Carolina’s mask requirement and COVID-19 stabilization. Based on the data available in late July, experts said there does appear to be a correlation, but it’s too early to draw conclusions about it. Verifying the strength of the correlation can take months. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Claim: There’s a “direct correlation” between North Carolina’s mask requirement and COVID-19 stabilization.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: To finance its response to the coronavirus pandemic, will the United States borrow trillions of dollars from China? That’s the claim of Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, the first senator known to have been stricken by COVID-19. On May 4, the U.S. Treasury announced plans to borrow $3 trillion during the second quarter of 2020, largely to cover three packages approved by Congress and President Donald Trump that contain more than $2 trillion worth of stimulus in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The third and largest package included one-time $1,200 payments to many Americans, temporary $600-per-week bonuses on unemployment checks, and loans and grants to small businesses. Two days after the Treasury announcement, Paul was asked on Fox News' \"America's Newsroom\" whether there will be a fourth stimulus. \"To people who ask me, I remind them that we have no money. We have no rainy day account, we have no savings account,\" he said. \"The $3 trillion that we've already passed out is imaginary money. It's being borrowed basically from China. So the irony is we got the virus from China, and now we're going to be more dependent by borrowing more money from China.\" China, where the COVID-19 outbreak was first detected in December, is the second-largest foreign holder of U.S. debt. But experts told us there is no reason to believe it will be a large purchaser of the $3 trillion. To finance the government’s activities, the Treasury issues securities to various U.S. buyers (such as the Federal Reserve System, mutual funds, financial institutions and individual investors), to private investors overseas, and to the central banks of other countries, notably Japan and China. Because Congress suspended the \"debt ceiling\" for two years in 2019, the government can go into as much debt as it wishes, as long as there are takers for Treasury securities. The total federal debt eclipsed $25 trillion on May 4, two days before Paul made his statement. Of that $25 trillion, about $6 trillion is \"intragovernmental holdings\" — debt held by, for example, government trust funds, including the one that endows Social Security. The other $19 trillion is called public debt, which refers to all federal securities held by institutions and individuals outside the U.S. government, including individuals, corporations and foreign governments. China buys U.S. Treasury bonds in public auctions, the same way other nations and investment companies do. The latest Treasury Department figures, as of April 15, show that Japan, along with Japanese companies and investment groups, was the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, at $1.27 trillion. China was second, with $1.09 trillion. Asked for information to support Paul’s statement, a spokesman for the senator cited the amount of U.S. debt held by China and said foreign holdings account for about 39% of public debt. Asked to elaborate, he didn’t reply. Several experts told us that those figures do not support Paul’s claim and that there is no other evidence to back it, either. Most of the debt incurred so far to deal with the coronavirus has been purchased by the Federal Reserve, not foreign or domestic savers, said Joshua Gordon, senior policy adviser at the Concord Coalition, a group that advocates for fiscal responsibility. David Dollar, a senior fellow in the China Center at the Brookings Institution and a former U.S. Treasury emissary to China, told PolitiFact that China lacks funds and \"there is no reason to expect\" China’s holdings of U.S. debt to increase in 2020. \"In theory it could borrow dollars on the international market in order to buy Treasurys, but this does not make any sense, as it would pay more in interest on its borrowing than it earns on the Treasurys, which is basically zero these days,\" he said. China has been reducing its U.S. debt holdings in recent years as a result of having less foreign currency, said economist Derek Scissors, resident scholar specializing in China with the American Enterprise Institute. \"We won’t be borrowing from China this year because China doesn’t have the money to lend us,\" he said. \"There probably isn’t enough global liquidity for most of the money to come from overseas. The largest portion is likely to come from U.S. institutions, which have few diversification options given economic contraction, and thus ultimately from American savers. The Fed itself may become the prime buyer.\" Mark Cabana, head of U.S. rates strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told Newsweek the Fed is set to be the biggest source of Treasury demand this year \"and we think by a long shot.\" China and other emerging market governments are selling their Treasury holdings to create dollars they can use to buy their own currencies, which are weak, he said. Barry Bosworth, a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings, told PolitiFact \"there is no factual basis\" for Paul’s claim, \"since holdings of individual countries are only reported with a long lag. Most recently, new Treasury debt has been purchased by the Federal Reserve, and I expect that to continue.\" \"The Treasury issues securities in an open, very active market where investors, including other governments, are free to buy and sell as they wish,\" Bosworth added. \"We don’t know or care who are net purchasers. If investors are willing to buy U.S. securities at a time of chaos, it is good news.\" Paul said $3 trillion for federal coronavirus stimulus packages is \"being borrowed basically from China.\" Experts say that the Federal Reserve is likely to be a major source of funds for the $3 trillion and that China, with relatively little available funds, is expected to buy little if any of the debt. We rate Paul’s statement . Claim: $3 trillion for federal coronavirus stimulus packages is \"being borrowed basically from China.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Already healthcare workers who lacked the crucial protection had caught COVID-19 after treating patients infected with the highly contagious new coronavirus. That very day an emergency room doctor who earlier texted a friend that he felt unsafe without protective supplies or an N95 mask, died of the infection. It was the first such death reported in the U.S., according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. But the shipment arriving that night in late March wasn’t going to solve the problem. An Associated Press investigation has found those masks were counterfeits — as are millions of medical masks, gloves, gowns and other supplies being used in hospitals across the country, putting lives at risk. ___ EDITOR’S NOTE -- This story is part of an ongoing investigation by The Associated Press, the PBS series FRONTLINE and the Global Reporting Centre that examines the deadly consequences of the fragmented worldwide medical supply chain. ___ Before the pandemic, federal trade law enforcement agencies were focused on busting knockoffs such as luxury goods and computer software, mostly from China. As America fell sick, the mission shifted to medical supplies. To date, Operation Stolen Promise, spearheaded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, has netted 11 arrests and 519 seizures. And yet counterfeit goods continue to pour in — not just masks, but also mislabeled medicines, and fake COVID-19 tests and cures, according to the agency. “It’s just unprecedented,” said Steve Francis, HSI’s assistant director for global trade investigations. “These are really bad times for people who are out there trying to do the right thing and be helpful, and they end up being exploited.” The story of how one brand of counterfeits has infiltrated America’s supply chains illustrates how the lack of coordination amid massive shortages has plunged the country’s medical system into chaos. ___ EAR LOOPS  AP identified the counterfeit masks when reviewing film of the Los Angeles shipment. The telltale sign: these masks had ear loops, while authentic ones have bands that stretch across the back of the head, making for a tighter fit. The blue and yellow boxes being unloaded in a Southern California warehouse bore the name of the Chinese factory Shanghai Dasheng. The masks inside were stamped as if approved by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — signifying they had been certified by the U.S. government as safe for workers in health care settings. N95 masks filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by looser fitting surgical masks. But the day before they arrived, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a very specific warning: all Shanghai Dasheng N95 masks with ear loops were counterfeit. Ear loop masks are less expensive to manufacture because the straps are attached with glue to the face covering, while headbands on genuine N95s, also called respirators, must be stitched, stapled or soldered to establish a tighter seal over the nose and mouth. And even if the electrocharged fibers in the fabric are the same, masks with ear loops are not as effective because tiny airborne droplets carrying the virus can get sucked through the cracks. “Fluid follows the path of least resistance: If someone is breathing and the respirator doesn’t have a good fit, it will just go around,” said infectious disease expert Shawn Gibbs, the dean of Texas A&M University’s school of public health. AP tracked other shipments of Shanghai Dasheng ear loop N95 masks as they entered the vast U.S. medical system. Shipping labels and invoices, certified letters and interviews with more than a dozen buyers, distributors or middlemen pointed to the corporate headquarters and busy factory of Shanghai Dasheng Health Products Manufacture Company. The company did not respond to AP’s queries about its masks. And AP could not independently verify if they are making their own counterfeits, or, as the CDC said in a published warning, someone is using Shanghai Dasheng’s certification numbers “without their permission.” The CDC separately told AP it has been in talks with Shanghai Dasheng about authenticity issues. “Recently, NIOSH has received reports stating there is product being obtained directly from the Shanghai Dasheng factory, labeled as NIOSH-approved, with ear loops,” said agency spokeswoman Katie Shahan in an email to the AP. Shahan said Shanghai Dasheng’s N95s with ear loops are counterfeit. On their own website, Shanghai Dasheng warns: “WE DON’T HAVE ANY DISTRIBUTORS, DEALERS OR BRANCH FACTORIES. BEWARE OF COUNTERFEIT!” The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Tuesday that the country has provided a robust and high quality supply of medical items for global pandemic prevention and control. “So far, only a few of the exported products have encountered quality or standard problems,” said the ministry. Florida-based importer Mark Kwoka said he believes the Shanghai Dasheng masks with ear loops that he obtained came from their factory, based on information he received from his partners in China. “This is kind of getting out of control,” said Kwoka, who made a career in bridal gown design and manufacturing in China but turned to masks earlier this year. On a recent spring day, hawkers outside the guarded gates of the factory were offering to take orders for U.S.-approved, medical-grade N95s. It wasn’t clear whether the sellers were getting their products from inside. A security guard told a reporter that he believed the sellers were peddling counterfeits, but police at a nearby station weren’t able to confirm that. The security guard ordered the journalists to leave. Shanghai Dasheng is one of the largest manufacturers of authentic N95s in the world and one of only a handful in China certified to make NIOSH approved, U.S. medical-grade N95s. In normal times, Shanghai Dasheng was the gold standard for N95s, according to several brokers who work in China. But in the rush of this pandemic, several said cheaper masks are proliferating. Meanwhile, Shanghai Dasheng is holding itself up as a vital part of the pandemic response. Just days into a weeklong New Year celebration in January, company chairman Wu Shengrong called back employees and then joined cleaners, cooks and a skeleton crew of workers for long days and nights on assembly lines. Eleven days into the manufacturing blitz, Shengrong invited in a group of journalists and said his company had bumped daily mask production from 40,000 to 70,000, and aimed for 200,000 once back at full strength. “I am not a learned man,” Shengrong said at the time, “but as a Communist Party member and army veteran, I am a patriot and Dasheng is just a drop of water in China’s ocean of private enterprises.” ___ THE FRONT LINES One recipient of the Shanghai Dasheng ear loop masks was Direct Relief, an international humanitarian aid organization in Southern California. Like other buyers AP contacted, Direct Relief at first thought the factory inadvertently sent the wrong mask model and set aside the entire shipment. But after reading the CDC’s warnings, CEO Thomas Tighe said they had come to believe they were counterfeit and reported them to the federal government. “It’s a little scary that it had gone through what we understood was an aggressive customs investigation for export, and an aggressive customs import by the U.S. and still got through,” Tighe said. “It’s been a real lesson.” Direct Relief has since caught even more poorly constructed masks donated to their warehouse. Even for those looking out for fakes, it has been difficult to keep up with changing federal guidelines for medical-grade masks. Citing an acute shortage of N95 masks, government officials relaxed standards in March. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that other, unapproved medical masks with ear loops were appropriate for COVID-19 care. But government testing of newly arrived models found most were substandard, and on May 7 the agency banned mask imports from 65 Chinese factories. Shanghai Dasheng is among 14 that remain on the approved list. For more than four weeks, millions of masks now considered inadequate for medical protection entered the U.S. and are now in use. Meanwhile state and local governments, hospitals, private caregivers and well-wishers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the flawed masks. Before the pandemic, N95 masks sold for about 60 cents each. Today they’re priced as high as $6 apiece. “It’s terrible, just terrible,” said David Schildmeier, spokesman for the Massachusetts Nursing Association. He said Lawrence General Hospital, which had solicited mask donations online, handed out ear loop Shanghai Dasheng-labeled masks to as many as 40 nurses in a COVID-19 unit before someone noticed. In West Virginia, the state passed the masks to thousands of paramedics and firefighters, prison guards and hospital workers. State officials knew of the CDC warnings about Shanghai Dasheng’s ear loops, but dismissed concerns saying that, with a proper fit, they would be safe. In a letter to first responders, Jeff Sandy, the state’s secretary for Military Affairs and Public Safety, said he reviewed the packaging and the masks, checked with the vendor, the importer, the Chinese exporter and — through a lawyer — Shanghai Dasheng itself. He wrote he is certain the 50,000 N95 masks with ear loops that the state provided are “genuine products” that provide adequate protection. Some first responders disagree. “While trusting the equipment to protect them, our members may have unknowingly placed themselves in situations that put them at further risk,” said West Virginia State Firemen’s Association President Jerry Loudin. Some of the masks were purchased by charities or well-intentioned community members who held online fundraisers. One Southern California marketing consultant, frustrated with reports that frontline medical workers didn’t have N95 masks, had a client who makes custom, re-keyable locks in China. That client said he had sources who could get legitimate N95s, and so she launched a fundraiser, and within weeks delivered a shipment of the Shanghai Dasheng ear loop masks to caregivers. The consultant, Wendy Chou Le, said the nurses she gave them to near Los Angeles have been grateful and didn’t raise concerns. Tyler Alvare, a pediatric physician’s assistant in Alexandria, Virginia, had run his own fit tests on the masks when they arrived. But after talking to the AP and reviewing the federal warnings, he said he grabbed all the Shanghai Dasheng ear loop masks he had left and notified everyone he gave them to. He said the government should have taken responsibility for providing enough protective equipment as soon as the shortage of masks became apparent instead of having every medical provider figure it out themselves. “It’s really outside of our area of expertise,” he said. But even experts were caught off guard. Franco Sagliocca, Mount Sinai procurement director, was working 18-hour days, seven days a week, to keep enough safety supplies in the hospital system’s ERs and ICUS as COVID-19 overwhelmed New York. He was searching, ordering and hustling for N95s, and was planning to buy from Shanghai Dasheng. “Our sourcing lead said, ‘Wait a minute guys, this is something we don’t want,’” Sagliocca said. ___ Associated Press writers Erika Kinetz in Rieti, Italy, Anthony Izaguirre in Charleston, West Virginia, Dake Kang in Beijing, and AP researcher Si Chen in Shanghai contributed to this story. ___ Contact AP’s Global Investigative Team at Investigative@ap.org ___ Contact the reporters on Twitter at @mendozamartha and @JulietLinderman Claim: Counterfeit masks reaching frontline health workers in US.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: During ongoing protests against police brutality and a lunar eclipse on June 5 2020, numerous posts on Facebook asserted that the Washington Monument had been struck by lightning — many of those claims appearing alongside an image of the “Tower” tarot card.The MemeThe Washington Monument was hit by lightning the other night, on the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse. I’ve been thinking about the Tower card ever since!⚡ Tower Tarot Card comes to life! ⚡Accuracy of Washington Monument Images in Some Versions of the RumorTo clarify, not all the images shown of the Washington Monument were from June 2020. At least one circulating photograph appeared on the internet as early as 2013:Timing of the Lightning StrikeSocial media posts quoted above occasionally said the Washington Monument was struck by lightning during the “full lunar eclipse,” which took place on June 5 2020:Sharp-eyed skywatchers in parts of the world may be able to catch a slight lunar eclipse today (June 5 [2020]) as Earth embarks on a new “eclipse season,” although North American viewers will be out of luckToday’s eclipse will be what astronomers dub a “penumbral eclipse,” which occurs when the outer ring of Earth’s shadow just grazes the moon. (During a partial eclipse, the moon falls somewhat into Earth’s inner shadow; during a total lunar eclipse it falls entirely into that inner shadow. )But it will take a keen eye indeed to notice the penumbral darkening, which will just tint the lower edge of the moon at the midpoint of the eclipse.The eclipse will also be geographically limited, visible only over central and east Africa, Eastern Europe, western and central Asia, and parts of Indonesia and Australia. It will begin at 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT) and end at 5:04 p.m. EDT (2104 GMT), according to a NASA chart.Other posts placed the timing of the lightning strike on June 4 2020.The Tower CardIn most standard tarot card decks, the “Tower” card is one of 21 cards in the major arcana. The card itself is often seen as ominous or alarming, representing often painful upheaval and ushering in major change. Like all cards used in the tarot form of divination, the card has different meanings depending on whether it is drawn oriented normally (“upright”), or upside-down (“reversed”):UPRIGHT: Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakeningREVERSED: Personal transformation, fear of change, averting disasterThe card itself does depict an obelisk or tower like the Washington Monument, a lightning bolt, and frequently people falling from the top of the tower itself. One description of the card’s visual elements and its meanings says of when the card is drawn upright:When the Tower card appears in a Tarot reading, expect the unexpected – massive change, upheaval, destruction and chaos. It may be a divorce, death of a loved one, financial failure, health problems, natural disaster, job loss or any event that shakes you to your core, affecting you spiritually, mentally and physically. There’s no escaping it. Change is here to tear things up, create chaos and destroy everything in its path (but trust me, it’s for your Highest Good).Just when you think you’re safe and comfortable, a Tower moment hits and throws you for a loop. A lightning bolt of clarity and insight cuts through the lies and illusions you have been telling yourself, and now the truth comes to light. Your world may come crashing down before you, in ways you could never have imagined as you realise that you have been building your life on unstable foundations – false assumptions, mistruths, illusions, blatant lies, and so on. Everything you thought to be true has turned on its head. You are now questioning what is real and what is not; what you can rely upon and what you cannot trust. This can be very confusing and disorienting, especially when your core belief systems are challenged. But over time, you will come to see that your original beliefs were built on a false understanding, and your new belief systems are more representative of reality.Lightning Strikes the Washington MonumentIt was true lightning struck the Washington Monument after nightfall — on June 4 2020, not June 5:😱 WOAH! Look at this lightning caught on video by Sky9! 😱 https://t.co/sTN1eCtqfB pic.twitter.com/EptFQpR8ub— WUSA9 (@wusa9) June 5, 2020In the video above, the Monument’s obelisk was hit by one of several depicted lightning bolts. On June 5 2020, USA Today reported that there had been several lightning strikes on the night of June 4 2020, and two National Guard members were hospitalized after being injured in a separate strike:Two National Guardsmen deployed to Washington D.C. due to protests were injured in a lightning strike during severe storms Thursday night into early Friday [June 4 and 5 2020], hours after an initial bolt struck the Washington Monument.“We received a call around midnight informing us that two military personnel had been injured in a lightning strike,” D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department Public Information Officer Vito Maggiolo told USA TODAY. “We responded and the two individuals were transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.”Maggiolo said the guardsmen were injured in Lafayette Park, with close proximity to the White House, in a separate incident from the lightning bolt that struck the Washington Monument …. “Both were conscious and alert with no visible signs of burns,” Doug Buchanan, chief communications officer for the D.C. fire department, told the Washington Post. “It was clearly an indirect strike, presumably to a tree that was nearby.”The injuries to the National Guardsmen were described as not life-threatening. The article went on to explain that while the image and the timing appeared to be portentous, the crown of the Monument is a common site for lightning strikes:The Washington Monument, at 555 feet, is routinely struck by lightning on its aluminum crown, which has been melted down from multiple strikes per year.On June 5 2020, Popular Mechanics explained that the Monument has been hit as many as six times in the course of a single electrical storm:If lightning were to strike the marble monument directly, that could immediately melt the strike site, and scientists find colloquially named fossilized lightning from strikes that hit materials like sand. But the Washington Monument’s rod system works well, despite times when the obelisk has been hit as many as six times during a single storm. (They turn off the elevator that uses the lightning rod structure when there’s lightning. )What’s TrueIt is true that the Washington Monument was struck by lightning during an electrical storm on June 4 2020; subsequent posts inaccurately claimed the storm occurred on June 5 2020. It’s further true that images of the strike resembled the major arcana “Tower” card. Finally, it was not unheard of or even uncommon for lightning to strike the crown of the Washington Monument — on occasion repeatedly during the same storm. The top of the Monument was specifically designed to shield it from damage caused by electrical storms.Comments Claim: During a lunar eclipse on June 4 2020, lightning struck the Washington Monument in a fashion visually similar to the ominous \"Tower\" tarot card.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: Soaring temperatures have killed at least 57 people across Japan since late July, just a year before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Games, highlighting the possible health threat to athletes and fans that is one of the biggest challenges for Olympics planners. A 50-year-old construction worker who’d been laying cable outside Tokyo Big Sight, which is being renovated to serve as the media center for Tokyo 2020, was found unconscious on the ground on Thursday afternoon and taken to hospital, where his death was confirmed, Tokyo 2020 organizers said in a statement. “While at this stage the precise cause of his death remains unknown, local police confirmed it was not necessary to proceed with a criminal investigation,” organizers told Reuters in an email. Police quoted by national broadcaster NHK said conditions at the site suggested heatstroke may have been the cause, but police declined to confirm the report to Reuters. Temperatures in Tokyo hit 35.5 Celsius (96 Fahrenheit) on Thursday. Temperatures in Tokyo have clung above 31 degrees Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) since July 24, exactly a year before the Games are set to open, with the heat intensifying in August to average daily highs of 34.8 Celsius (94 Fahrenheit). At least 57 people died across Japan from the heat between July 29 to Aug. 4 and 18,347 were taken to hospital. Some 45 people have died in Tokyo alone since Aug. 1, NHK said, many of them elderly living on their own. Tokyo 2020 organizers said they are reiterated pleas to all those working on Games venues to take the right precautions. “Today we instructed all construction companies under contract to Tokyo 2020 to ensure they properly implement and manage all appropriate health and safety measures at their workplaces,” said Games bosses. “We will continue to ask them to ensure thorough safety in their operations to avoid any possible accidents.”  “At the construction sites, the contractors have set up rest rooms equipped with air-conditioning and provided water coolers, ice makers, salt candy and other items,” they added. “We will continue to instruct contractors to implement and manage all appropriate health and safety measures in order to prevent heatstroke at their workplaces.”  Tokyo Big Sight was operational on Friday for a comic book and anime convention, with thousands of fans braving the heat to queue and enter the venue. Many wore wet towels on their heads and carried electric fans as they queued uncovered. Reuters witnesses saw one person being escorted away in a wheelchair by medical personnel as they suffered in the heat. “The heat is much worse in comparison with previous years, so for example if a worker works for one hour, companies should implement mandatory 10-minute breaks,” said comic book fan Takeyuki Sakano. “People tend to work too hard and push themselves over the edge, so having higher ups (managers) mandate these breaks as rules is necessary.”  Most Olympics have been held during the northern hemisphere summer. However, when Tokyo hosted the Games previously, in 1964, they were shifted to October to avoid the heat. The Mexico 1968 Olympics were also held later. Such shifts are no longer possible, though, due to international broadcasting and sports schedules, including the U.S. American football season and European soccer. Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 were held in summer despite the climate of both cities. Olympics organizers plan to take steps to deal with the heat, including shaded rest areas, tents at security checkpoints, mist sprays and ice packs. The start times for the men’s and women’s marathons, on Aug. 9 and 2 respectively, have been moved to 6:00 a.m. as an additional precaution. Tokyo is hosting the Olympics for the second time, with the Games running from July 24 to Aug. 9. Claim: Olympics construction worker dies as Tokyo swelters, heatstroke suspected.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: As truck drivers across the country provide an essential service, delivering food and supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic, complaints have surfaced about some fast-food chains turning them away. In response to the epidemic, many restaurants are offering only drive-thru service. But Facebook posts, like these, chronicle story after story of truckers attempting to get meals at popular fast-food restaurants only to be turned away when they attempt to walk up and order at these drive-thru windows: \"***Glenshaw***This McDonalds is Refusing to serve truckers, because they can’t drive through the drive-thru. The manager was disrespectful. They are out supplying (sic) are stores with food for all of us. They are out all night and can’t eat or get a coffee?\" The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But in this case, there's more truth to the claim than not. Fast-food restaurants including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC and Taco Bell recently announced they were shutting down dining rooms amid the coronavirus outbreak and switching to a to-go model, emphasizing delivery and drive-thru orders. Social media posts say truckers can’t maneuver their rigs through drive-thru lanes, so their only option is to walk up to the windows. Trucking news website Transportation Nation reported that one trucking group reached out to McDonald’s on March 18 asking for changes to be made to allow truckers easier access to food. \"Truckers are having a difficult time finding food on the road due to various closures because of the national emergency,\" wrote James Lamb, president of the 15,000-member Small Business in Transportation Coalition. \"We are told they are being refused service when they walk up to your drive thru windows because they are not in sedans and their 80,000 lb. big rig trucks do not fit through your drive thru driveways.\" Lamb asked the company to make temporary accommodations for trucker customers. McDonald’s responded by creating a curbside ordering system. The fast-food chain pointed PolitiFact to a March 23 statement that addresses the issue: \"As the world continues to address the quickly changing landscape, we are in this together with you, our valued friends in the trucking and transportation industry. Thank you for everything you are doing to keep essential parts of our economy going. \"However, at some locations, only Drive-Thru and McDelivery are available. We realize that you can’t bring your rig through the Drive-Thru and for safety reasons, we cannot accept walk up orders at the Drive-Thru window.\" McDonald’s instructed truckers to use its mobile order and pay app and then walk to \"the designated Trucker curbside sign on the sidewalk outside our designated door.\" An employee will bring the order out when it’s ready. But it’s not just McDonald’s. Reports of similar incidents at Wendy’s and Burger King have also surfaced. We reached out to both, but only heard back from Wendy’s. A spokesperson sent a statement saying Wendy’s is \"particularly appreciative of the nation’s truck drivers who are a vital part of our supply chain.\" It continued: \"We are continuing to explore options to continue to make Wendy’s food available to as many of our loyal customers as possible during this difficult time, but of course we must continue to focus on safety and security at our restaurants as a top priority.\" Social media posts claim truck drivers are being turned away from fast-food restaurants with shuttered dining rooms since they can’t fit their rigs in drive-thru lanes. This is really happening. It’s worth noting that McDonald’s has responded with a curbside ordering app at some locations to help accommodate truckers. And Wendy’s says they are exploring options. These reports are accurate but need additional, updated information. We rate them . Claim: Facebook post Says truck drivers are being turned away from fast-food restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Their study, published online in the American Journal of Public Health, is the first to look at suicide trends by age and business cycles, and it found that working Americans — people aged 25 to 64 — are significantly more prone to suicide in tough economic times. Researchers looked at the impact of business cycles on U.S. suicide rates from 1928 through 2007. They found a general correlation among suicide rates and major shifts in the U.S. economy. For example, suicides famously spiked during the Great Depression, surging to a record high of 22 suicides per 100,000 people in 1932, up from 18 per 100,000 in 1928. But other slowdowns also saw an increase in suicides, including the end of the New Deal (1937-1938), the Oil Crisis (1973-1975), and the Double-Dip Recession (1980-1982.) And suicide rates tended to fall during periods of plenty, such as during World War Two and the decade-long expansion from 1991 to 2001, in which the economy flourished and there were low rates of unemployment. “Knowing suicides increased during economic recessions and fell during expansions underscores the need for additional suicide prevention measures when the economy weakens,” James Mercy, acting director of CDC’s Injury Center’s Division of Violence Prevention, said in a statement. “It is an important finding for policy makers and those working to prevent suicide.” Claim: Suicides rise and fall with economy: CDC report.",
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            "input": "Paragraph: It sounds like a way for illegal immigrants to get a foothold in the United States: Pregnant women from Mexico and other countries can come to the U.S. to deliver their babies. Voila! Under the 14th Amendment, the babies are instant citizens! That's become a popular talking point for critics of illegal immigration, who have dubbed the children \"anchor babies.\" The implication often is that the baby U.S. citizens act as an anchor that that helps parents and other relatives obtain citizenship and other benefits. Several Republican senators, including Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., John McCain, R-Ariz., Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have called for hearings on whether the 14th Amendment, which was adopted in 1868, needs to be rewritten to curb automatic \"birthright citizenship.\" The most prominent voice pushing that concept is Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who proposed amending the Constitution to make clear that babies born in the U.S. do not automatically receive American citizenship. In a July 28, 2010, interview on Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Graham said that \"there's another problem we have in this nation that I think is novel and needs to be fixed. If you come across the border illegally and you have a child in America, automatically, that child becomes an American citizen. Under the 14th Amendment, three court cases says there's a constitutional right to that. I would like to deal with the 12 million (illegal immigrants) firmly and fairly. You can't stay here on your own terms. You have to learn English. You have to pay fines. You have to get in the back of the line if you want to be a citizen. But I may introduce a constitutional amendment that changes the rules if you have a child here. Birthright citizenship, I think, is a mistake, that we should change our Constitution and say if you come here illegally and you have a child, that child's automatically not a citizen.\" Later in the interview, Van Susteren asked Graham, \"How realistic is it that you will introduce a constitutional amendment?\" Graham replied that he had to because \"people come here to have babies. They come here to drop a child. It's called 'drop and leave.' To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child, and that child's automatically an American citizen. That shouldn't be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons.\" In a later interview with Van Susteren on Aug. 3, Graham once again referred to a \"problem where thousands of people are coming across the Arizona-Texas border for the express purpose of having a child in an American hospital so that child will become an American citizen, and they broke the law to get there.\" We've dealt with one aspect of this issue before, when we checked a claim by Fox host Glenn Beck that \"we're the only country in the world\" that offers birthright citizenship. (We found that 33 others do.) This time, we were curious about Graham's statement that \"people come here to have babies. They come here to drop a child.\" He portrays it as such a big phenomenon that it warrants changing the U.S. Constitution. But is the problem as big as he suggests? Limited benefits It's important to note that having an \"anchor baby\" won't do much to help a Mexican mom become a U.S. citizen. Because citizen children cannot sponsor their parents for citizenship until they turn 21 -- and because if the parents were ever illegal, they would have to return home for 10 years before applying to come in -- having a baby to secure citizenship for its parents is an extremely long-term, and uncertain, process. However, having a citizen child can produce some short-term benefits, said Marc Rosenblum, a senior policy analyst for the Migration Policy Institute. Pregnant women and nursing mothers could be eligible for certain benefits under the Women-Infants-Children (WIC) program, which provides food and nutrition vouchers, and their children could enroll in Medicaid, although the undocumented parents could not. Having a child can also help an undocumented parent qualify for relief from deportation, but only 4,000 unauthorized immigrants can receive such status per year, and the alien has to have been in the U.S. for at least 10 years. That means very long odds, Rosenblum said. Most of the benefits of citizenship accrue over the much longer term. The child will be able to work here legally once he or she is old enough, said Roberto Suro, a communications and journalism professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in Hispanic issues, and when they're ready for college, they'll qualify for in-state tuition at most public colleges. \"It is a hell of a lot of deferred gratification at best,\" he said. Mixed evidence When we contacted Graham's staff, they could not provide any specific data on mothers who \"drop and leave.\" But they sent us several news accounts about the large number of undocumented immigrants who give birth to children in the United States. Graham is right on that point. According to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a think tank that has done extensive research on immigration policy, 3.8 million undocumented immigrants have at least one child who is a citizen. \"Most children of unauthorized immigrants -- 73 percent in 2008 -- are U.S. citizens by birth,\" the center says. That's up from 63 percent in 2003. These statistics suggest not only that the number is large, but is also growing. To offer a concrete example, we found a 2006 article from the Dallas Morning News about Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, a safety-net facility for poor residents. As many of 70 percent of the roughly 16,000 women giving birth annually at the hospital were immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally, according to one survey cited in the story. So there's ample evidence that many illegal immigrants give birth in the U.S. every year. But how many of them came to the U.S. with the motivation of giving birth and then leaving? In interviewing medical practitioners in states on the U.S. Mexico border, we found mixed evidence. James Dickson, the administrator and CEO of Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Ariz., located five miles from the Mexico border, told us that his hospital hasn't offered obstetrical services in a few years, but when it did, he did not see anything like what Graham is describing. \"We had some\" people who came to have a baby in the U.S., he said, but their goal was not citizenship. It was higher quality treatment or specific services that were unavailable in Mexico. Salli Gonzalez, a nurse-midwife in Seguin, Texas, who delivers about 30 babies a year, said that in the past two years, she'd seen only one person who would fit Graham's criteria. On the other hand, Lauren Weber, a midwife in San Diego, said that some patients from Mexico have confided to her that they've temporarily secured a U.S. address and a utility bill, which is typically enough to qualify them for birth-related care paid by California's version of Medicaid. \"There are a million hardworking Hispanic people in San Diego who came here to work and then happened to have a baby,\" she said. \"Then there are people who come over in order to have a baby.\" She estimated that in the clinic where she works part time, a third to a quarter of her patients have come over for the express purpose of having a baby, and the rest are staying in the U.S. for the longer term, whatever their legal status may be. Weber also noted that she's treated wealthier patients who get the proper visas and fly to the United States to have a child. They come from such countries as China, Pakistan and India. Less affluent Filipinos have also come on tourist visas, she said, and some affluent Mexicans come to give birth as well. This is a pattern cited in a series of recent news accounts. One article, by the Associated Press on June 28, 2009, details a \"birth package\" offered by the Tucson Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., to affluent Mexican women. \"This is not a new phenomena,\" the Mexican consul general in Tucson, Juan Manuel Calderon Jaimes, told the AP, saying he's seen the practice for almost 30 years. \"Many families of means in Sonora send their wives here to give birth because they have the resources to pay for the services.\" The article reported that \"expectant mothers can either schedule a Caesarean section or arrive a few weeks before their due dates to give birth at TMC. It is one of 13 packages aimed at Mexican families, some of which include a stay at a local resort and shopping excursion. Tucson Medical Center's maternity package costs $2,300 for a vaginal birth with a two-day stay and $4,600 for a Caesarean section and a four-day stay, assuming no complications.\" Another article, published in the Washington Post on July 18, 2010, featured a Shanghai-based firm that charges $14,750 for a three-month stay in a center in California. The package includes \"two months before the birth and a month after,\" according to the article. \"A room with cable TV and a wireless Internet connection, plus three meals, starts at $35 a day. The doctors and staff all speak Chinese. There are shopping and sightseeing trips. The mothers must pay their own airfare and are responsible for getting a U.S. visa, although (the firm) will help them fill out the application form.\" In such cases, it's hard to determine whether mothers-to-be are coming to the U.S. for higher-quality medical treatment or the benefits of citizenship. Data doesn't support Graham's claim  Immigration data and surveys don't provide much support for Graham's notion that many women are illegally crossing the border in large numbers to have children, then leaving. First, immigration from Mexico to the U.S. tends to go up and down in tandem with the health of the economy. According to another Pew Hispanic Center report, immigration from Mexico dropped by about one-third between 2000-2001 and 2002-2003, coinciding with the recession precipitated by the dot-com bust and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The numbers climbed back as the economy recovered, rising close to their pre-decline numbers by 2005-2006. Then, the numbers fell again, starting in 2006-2007 (a bit before the current recession began) and have continued to fall as the economy has sputtered. It should be noted that these are numbers for all immigrants coming from Mexico, legal and illegal combined. But Jeffrey S. Passel, a senior demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center, said that since illegal immigration historically accounts for 80 to 85 percent of all new immigration from Mexico, the trends for all immigrants tend to mirror those for illegal immigrants alone. \"All the data suggests that people come here to work -- especially Mexicans, and especially illegal Mexicans,\" said Suro. \"If people came here because they were looking for work, you would expect to see the flow fluctuate with employment opportunities -- and that’s what the data shows. If people came here to have babies, the flows would be pretty constant, and they are not.\" There's something else you don't see, Suro said. If having a baby was a significant driving factor in illegal immigration, you would expect to see a higher percentage of women of child-bearing age in the U.S. illegally compared to men of the same age. In fact, just the opposite is the case. Numbers from the Pew Hispanic Center show that in four separate age ranges between 20 and 40, undocumented men significantly outnumber undocumented women. Finally, there's direct testimony from actual immigrants. Princeton University sociologist Douglas Massey conducted in-depth interviews with 159 Latin American immigrants -- most of whom came to the U.S. illegally -- for a recent book he coauthored with Magaly Sanchez R., Brokered Boundaries:  Constructing Immigrant Identity in Anti-Immigrant Times. When they were asked about their motivations for coming to the U.S., \"no one ever mentioned having kids in the U.S.\" Massey said. \"I've been surveying Mexican immigrants to the U.S. for 30 years as part of the Mexican Migration Project. We don't ask people their reasons for migrating because most people cannot really articulate the reasons very well -- you get simple answers like, 'I came for the money,' but that doesn't tell you much because people can want money for all kinds of reasons. But we do ask about their migratory behavior, which we then link to social and economic conditions on both sides of the border. What our work shows is that migrants come in response to labor demand in the U.S. and are motivated by economic problems at home.\" Misleading comments  Undoubtedly, citizenship plays some role in the decisions by undocumented immigrants to come to the U.S. After all, they have made a decision to make their future in the United States rather than in their home country, and part of building a better life in the U.S. is having citizenship for their children. But on Fox, Graham termed the practice \"drop and leave,\" which suggests that illegal immigrants are coming here for the primary purpose of having babies with citizenship, then rushing home to wherever they came from. Graham's comments on this are misleading. While that does appear to be happening with affluent \"birth tourists,\" it's important to understand that those affluent \"birth tourists\" are not the ones illegally crossing the Rio Grande or the Sonoran desert. They are coming here with the proper legal papers and giving birth. Thus, whatever public policy challenges arise from \"birth tourism\" are separate and distinct from the public policy challenges of illegal immigration -- which is not at all the impression that Graham gave in his Fox appearance. Graham tacitly acknowledged this distinction in his follow-up appearance on Van Susteren's show on Aug. 3, 2010, saying, \"You have found and I've provided you information about groups that are marketing to Chinese, and Mideastern and European families a 90-day visa package, where you come to America as a tourist. You come to a resort. You have your child at a hospital within the resort. That child is an American citizen. You turn around and leave.\" But raising this example days later strikes us as an after-the-fact justification. So let's recap. It's true that many illegal immigrants are having children in the U.S. However, we are not convinced that \"drop and leave\" is a phenomenon. The data suggests that the motivator for illegal immigrants is the search for work and a better economic standing over the long term, not quickie citizenship for U.S.-born babies. Graham appears to be conflating two things -- a pattern of wealthy foreigners engaging in \"birth tourism\" using legal visas, and illegal immigration of poorer people from Mexico. In our view, failing to make the distinction exaggerates the alleged problem and uses inflammatory rhetoric to obscure legitimate policy questions. Claim: People come here to have babies. They come here to drop a child. It's called 'drop and leave.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: News outlets reported Tuesday that the female bird was discovered near a creek in in February. Similar deaths of eagles due to lead poisoning were reported in the same vicinity of Glacier National Park in 2012 and in Yellowstone National Park in December. Officials say eagles are scavengers as well as predators and sometimes feed on other animals that have been shot using lead ammunition. Park biologists sent the emaciated bird’s carcass to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, for evaluation after an initial assessment found no signs of gunshot wounds or other trauma. The eagle had signs of lead poisoning including a distended gallbladder filled with viscous, green bile. Claim: Bald eagle died of lead poisoning in Montana’s Glacier Park.",
            "output": "2"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The revival of the sitcom Roseanne in March 2018 sparked big ratings for ABC, generally positive reviews, and, of course, controversy. However, the initial episodes did not seem to drive the conversation online quite as much as a years-old series of images that suddenly reappeared featuring the show’s eponymous star, actor and comedian Roseanne Barr, dressed up as Hitler and pulling gingerbread cookies out of an oven:  These photographs are real. However, they are frequently shared without important accompanying context. The series of images were originally part of a 2009 article in a “Germany” issue of Heeb magazine, a satirical Jewish publication that ran between 2001 and 2010. (An infrequently updated version of the magazine still exists online.) In the article which originally accompanied these photographs, entitled “That Oven Feelin’,” author Oliver Noble wrote that Roseanne asked to dress up as Hitler for the spread, as she believes (or at least jokingly said that she believes) that she may be the reincarnation of the Führer himself: As I wait for Barr to arrive, I contemplate the pop culture folklore that surrounds her: the alleged multiple personality disorder, the roller coaster relationship with Tom Arnold—which culminated in a bitter divorce—the theory (her own) that she may in fact be the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, whom she has requested to be dressed as for her Heeb photo shoot. “Nervous” doesn’t begin to describe my feelings about meeting this 5’4” Jewish grandmother. With her hit sitcom off the air for more than a decade and the tabloid pages of her tumultuous life rotting in landfills, Barr currently spends her time working on a collection of essays on menopause, celebrity, pharmaceuticals and Jewish life in Mormon Utah (to be published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment) and disseminating her signature mix of insights and insults through her blog (Roseanneworld.com). She briefly kept an account with what she now calls “that shit heap” (Twitter) before deleting it, citing as her reason “the idiocy of people and how ill-informed they all seem.” Today, when she brusquely enters the photo studio, she seems none too happy about having been dragged from her self-imposed exile. […] As the “Domestic Goddess” dons the famous moustache, transforming into “Domestic Goddess Hitler,” I notice that she’s beginning to have fun. She nails the Fuehrer’s facial expressions with twisted glee, and as she takes the burnt gingerbread “Jew Cookies” out of the oven it occurs to me that Barr may be the last celebrity utterly incapable of giving a fuck—a quality theoretically easy to embody until it’s time to face the practical repercussions. “Franklin Ajae, Paul Mooney, Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory’s passings will tear my kishkas out,” Barr laments. “They gave everything they had to just tell the truth, and they couldn’t make a decent living because of the choice they made—not selling out to Hollywood.” The photoshoot stirred up considerable controversy at the time, and from pundits across the political spectrum. Segments on The View and The O’Reilly Factor criticized the comedian for the Hitler-themed photoshoot. Heeb, however, defended the pictures and noted that Holocaust jokes are frequently featured in Hollywood movies, explaining that as a satirical, Jewish publication its goal was to challenge preconceptions: Heeb is a satirical Jewish culture magazine that interrogates stereotypes and ideas (hopefully in creative ways) that many hold sacred in order to represent the complex and nuanced perspectives that many Jews have about their identities. When we depicted Sarah Silverman behind a hole in a sheet or Jonah Hill dressed as Moses holding two kegs as if they were tablets, we weren’t trying to be shocking–we were trying to communicate something truthful about contemporary Jewishness. Yes, that may sound impossibly high-fallutin, but it’s the truth and while we kind of don’t give a shit whether the magazine wreaks havoc on smug and sanctimonious visions of Jewish life, we do care when our intentions (or those of our collaborators) are distorted. Virtually every pitch we received leading up to the publishing of our Germany Issue circled back to the Nazis and the Holocaust and almost all of them were humorous in nature. Naturally, our editors couldn’t help but wonder whether something new was happening in the culture— whether the taboo against joking about the Holocaust and the Nazis exerted as much power as it used to. Certainly Jews have been joking about the Holocaust since the Holocaust (I believe it was the Warsaw Ghetto where the Jewish inhabitants referred to Hitler regularly as “Horowitz”), but these jokes have largely been uttered in private or underground. In recent years, they have been finding themselves in the most public of conversations. […] And what better way to capture this moment in popular culture than by having the original “domestic goddess” don the Fuhrer’s famous mustache? For better or worse, hasn’t the Holocaust itself been domesticated? Roseanne also addressed the issue during an episode of The Green Room with Paul Provenza. The conversation about those Hitler images begins about the eight minutes in. We’ve transcribed the relevant portion below:  Roseanne: It’s like a Jewish woman. And She’s dressed up like Hitler. And he’s in drag. Hitler. And he’s baking cookies. And he’s really proud of them. But he’s also looking off into the horizon because he has a dream. It was for Heeb magazine. It was their Germany issue. And who better a symbol of Germany than Hitler? Provenza: What did your detractors have to say? Roseanne: Oh my god. You don’t want to piss of Jews. Even if you’re a Jew, don’t piss off Jews. All Jews hate each other. Provenza: Jews went crazy over this. Understandably. Rozeanne: I don’t think understandably. It really pissed me off. Because they were like “you’re making fun of the people in the ovens,” but I’m not making fun of people in the ovens. Patrice O’Neal: You kind of are though. The only thing worse would have been if you made the cookies skinny. Roseanne: There’s another, deeper layer to it. You know just the everyday. Moving off this Holocaust. There’s been about fifty of them since then. That’s what I’m kind of trying to say. Is like, Jesus Christ it’s so fucking every day now, holocausts, it’s like baking cookies. Provenza: Were you not aware that that’s not what people would be thinking? Claim: Roseanne Barr posed as Hitler for an issue of satirical Jewish magazine 'Heeb.'",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Then Georgia officials working with Gov. Brian Kemp heard about the project. They asked James if he could crank up swab production even more — to 5,000 daily. “I said yes,” James recalled, “then I left the meeting and had a panic attack.” Now seven printers with names like Mighty Mouse and Sonic 1 and 2 hum constantly in a room on the third floor of Augusta University’s dental school. Volunteering dental residents, endodontists, orthodontists and oral surgeons rotate between two daily 12-hour shifts, even on weekends, to meet the demand. The production push is one way Georgia is scrambling to catch up on COVID-19 testing after the Republican governor lifted shelter-at-home orders for most people and allowed hair salons, gyms, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys to reopen and restaurants to resume dine-in service. The Trump administration’s plans  for emerging from lockdowns imposed to slow the virus have largely left individual states on their own when it comes to supplying themselves with test kits and finding workers and sites to administer those tests. Georgia lagged behind most U.S. states in testing even as Kemp moved aggressively to ease restrictions and restart the economy. Public health experts say expanded testing is critical to keeping watch for a resurgence of infections as states begin reopening. What’s lacking, both at the federal and state level, is a clear and coordinated long-term strategy, said Dr. Harry J. Heiman, a professor of public health at Georgia State University in Atlanta. “You don’t manage a pandemic by waiting for people to come to you and raise their hand and say, ‘I have an idea and I’m willing to help,’” Heiman said. The virus has killed more than 1,200 people in Georgia. Health officials have confirmed more than 29,300 infections statewide. Acknowledging his own “frustration” with the lack of testing in Georgia, Kemp rolled out plans on April 20 to use National Guard troops as well as clinicians and other staff from Augusta University’s medical schools to dramatically ramp up testing. The same day, the governor announced some shuttered businesses would soon reopen with restrictions. Although testing was initially limited to high-risk populations, such as the elderly and medical workers, Kemp is now encouraging anyone with flu-like symptoms to get tested for COVID-19, as well as grocery store, chicken plant and other essential workers who aren’t showing symptoms. “Our goal is to use every single test we’ve got every single day,” Kemp said Thursday. There have been signs of improvement. On April 20, the total number of people tested in Georgia was just over 84,300. By Monday, it had swelled to more than 183,000, according to the state Department of Public Health. Compared with other states, Georgia now ranks in the bottom 20 for per capita testing. It had previously been in the bottom 10. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, said Thursday that her agency’s goal is to have administered more than 200,000 total coronavirus tests by sometime this week. Kemp touted more than 20,000 new tests reported Thursday — the most Georgia had seen in a single day — and nearly 13,000 new tests Tuesday. But those figures don’t reflect sustained daily testing, which still fluctuates greatly. During the same week, Georgia reported fewer than 4,000 new tests on April 27 and Wednesday. “If they can do 13,000 a day, every day, then from purely a numbers perspective that’s a great place to be,” Heiman said. “Am I seeing a trend where it seems we’re getting where we need to be? My candid answer is no.” As part of Georgia’s recent expansion effort, the National Guard, already tasked with disinfecting nursing homes across Georgia, has deployed 10 teams capable of administering 1,500 tests daily to long-term care facilities and other coronavirus hotspots. About 30 Guard troops sent to Augusta University have turned a classroom into a call center where citizen-soldiers in fatigues and boots are manning phones to schedule testing appointments for people showing symptoms. Those patients are being referred by clinicians at the university who screen them using a cellphone app. Georgia now operates 49 drive-thru testing sites statewide. With nasals swabs used to collect samples for testing being 3D printed, cleaned and sterilized across campus, Dr. Phillip Coule said the greatest supply shortage now is the chemicals used to test the samples, called reagents. That’s something the university can’t produce, said Coule, the chief medical officer for the Augusta University Medical System. And it’s limiting how many tests his staff and the National Guard can arrange. “That’s the weak link right now,” Coule said. “I could double capacity if I had more reagent.” ___ Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed from Atlanta. ___ Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. Claim: Georgia deploys 3D printers, Guard units in testing scramble.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Chronic fatigue syndrome is one of medicine’s most vexing mysteries. Now doctors at the National Institutes of Health are using volunteers like Ault for a unique study that pushes their limits in search of what’s stealing all their energy. “I’ve tried to exercise my way out of this multiple times and I’ve put myself in deeper pits every time,” said Ault, 36, of Paducah, Kentucky, as he began a nearly two-week stint at the research-only hospital outside the nation’s capital. “Chronic fatigue is kind of like they took the stopper out of the energy reserve tank,” and no amount of sleep replenishes it, he said. Up to 2.5 million Americans are estimated to have what is known officially as ME/CFS -- it stands for “myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.” Its hallmark is profound fatigue, lasting more than six months, that’s made even worse by any type of exertion. Among other symptoms, patients also tend to have difficulty staying upright or cognitive trouble often described as a “brain fog.” Many go undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or dismissed by skeptical doctors. Decades after it was first recognized, scientists don’t know what causes it. There are no approved treatments, or even tests to help diagnosis -- and no way to predict who will recover and who will have a severe case that leaves them debilitated, even bed-bound, for years. “The ignorance about the condition just vastly dwarfs what we know about it,” said Dr. Walter Koroshetz, director of NIH’s National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which is leading the research. The NIH has more than doubled funding -- to more than $14 million -- for scientists around the country to unravel the biology of ME/CFS since 2015, when the influential Institute of Medicine decried “a paucity of research.”  Part of the trouble is that varied symptoms make it hard to compare patients. A patient advocacy group called Solve ME/CFS Initiative is preparing to open a registry where patients can send in medical information and blood and saliva samples to help scientists expand research. And illustrating the desperation for answers, nearly 500 patients have called seeking to enroll in NIH’s own study that is putting a few dozen under the microscope, with a barrage of sophisticated tests few hospitals can offer under one roof. Like many such patients, Ault’s disease struck following a run-of-the-mill infection in 2017. He’d been training for a half-marathon but after a little time off to recover, he tried to resume his runs and couldn’t. His diagnosis came after months of tests for other explanations. “His body had literally hijacked him and it wasn’t going to allow him to push through,” said Anne Ault, his wife. Ault, a father of three, was missing his kids’ sporting and school activities, even his nightly wrestle with his young son. He had to cut back his job, in the ministry, to half-days. When 16 hours of sleep a day made no difference, his wife, a pharmacist, hunted research opportunities. Ault fit the bill for the NIH study, which is focusing on people who came down with the disease after an infection, of any sort, within five years. That initial infection is long gone but maybe, the body’s normal reactions to illness went into a destructive tailspin. “You’re really capturing the disease at a specific point in time,” in its crucial early stages, said Sadie Whittaker, scientific director for the Solve ME/CFS Initiative. “No one has studied such a very specific population to such depth before.” There are some clues. Earlier studies have found brain inflammation in patients, and nervous system abnormalities that might explain why they feel worse upright than lying down. The immune system seems to be on chronic alert. Then there’s the energy drain. Just last month, Cornell University researchers reported that patients’ key immune cells don’t make energy properly. The NIH study is looking for more clues. It starts with a week-plus hospitalization for blood and genetic tests, brain scans, a spinal tap, sleep tests, a check of gut bacteria. Scientists pore over the results before deciding who to invite back for a longer and more rigorous visit. “Go as far as you can, work as hard as you can,” NIH physical therapist Bart Drinkard told Ault as he climbed onto the exercise bike. Cells, in particular little factories inside cells called mitochondria, use oxygen and nutrients to create energy. While Ault pedals, scientists can measure how his leg muscles use oxygen, and see if that’s different than in a healthy person. Afterward, doctors fit a special cap on Ault to track electrical activity in his brain, and then sent him to spend the night in an air-tight chamber. Pipes draw out the room’s air for analysis. How much oxygen is used and carbon dioxide is produced tells how much energy Ault is using, minute by minute. “We can calculate every molecule. It’s the cleanest air we have in the hospital,” said NIH’s Kong Chen, a metabolism specialist. “We’re figuring out how his body adjusts to an exercise load, or a stress load.” Researchers are clear: The study doesn’t offer any treatments, although the hope is to find targets to eventually develop some. But Ault says it did help to learn about the disease and tricks to conserve his energy and pace himself “so I can try to stay as healthy as possible without such bad consequences.” “It’s hard not knowing if I’m going to recover, if or when,” he said. Until research has an answer, he’ll “hope for the best but live for right now.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: Patients push limits for clues to chronic fatigue syndrome.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An early August 2019 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at Mississippi chicken plant made national news due to its size and the number of children left without parents or guardians in its wake; in its aftermath, rumors claimed that the business in question, Koch Foods, had been previously ordered to pay a large sum of money in a workplace lawsuit settlement.The screenshot above was shared to Facebook on August 8 2019, days after the raid. A status update read:“Ahhhhh ok, so the 600 immigrants arrested at work in Mississippi are the same folks who were awarded a huge settlement due to being physically and sexually assaulted while at work. They’re being locked up so that employers like Koch foods (owned by billionaire Republican Joe Glendys) can rely on the fear of raids to help them exploit migrant laborers already working in dangerous facilities without accountability for their other illicit labor conditions. Smh wowww”.The screenshot was originally shared to Instagram with the following commentary:So my good friend and attorney @hzaarour brought this to my attention just now, and I’m in utter disbelief—remember that chicken processing plant ICE raided and arrested 600+ workers? Well, that’s the same plant, and those are the same workers who were about to receive a large settlement stemming from an employment-related lawsuit.The posts include two claims: that ICE raided a Mississippi chicken plant called Koch Foods (no affiliation with or relation to the Koch brothers or Koch Industries) in August 2019, and that Koch Foods was ordered to pay nearly $4 million to its employees after they brought a suit alleging workplace abuses.On August 7 2019, ICE agents captured and detained 680 people in seven separate raids across six food processing plants in Mississippi:US immigration authorities have detained some 680 undocumented immigrants in what a federal prosecutor described as a record-setting operation.US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Mike Hurst told reporters the arrests took place at seven sites in six different cities in Mississippi on [August 7 2019]. The raids, he said, are “believed to be the largest single-state immigration enforcement operation in our nation’s history.”Officials declined to provide details about what sites had been targeted, citing what they said was an ongoing criminal investigation. CNN affiliates reported the raids at food-processing plants throughout the state.Headlines indicated ICE detained “undocumented immigrants,” but how the immigration status of the hundreds of detained individuals was divined so quickly was not made clear in any reporting. A local news organization, the Clarion Ledger, reported that “Latino workers were gathered into one room” by ICE agents. At least 300 of the 680 detained were released within a day.According to another report, the seven raided plants were owned by a total of four companies:In some instances, immigrants were released from detention and outfitted with ankle monitors while awaiting deportation proceedings. Authorities tracking their GPS coordinates were able to see they were coming and going from Mississippi food processing plants.On [August 7 2019], hundreds of immigration officials descended on seven Mississippi plants owned by four companies — Peco Foods, Koch Foods, PH Food and Pearl River Foods. They are suspected of “willfully and unlawfully employing” undocumented workers, recently unsealed search warrants say.An August 8 2019 Chicago Tribune article identified one of the four companies as Mississippi-based Koch Foods:Mississippi ICE raids hit Koch Foods, a large suburban Chicago-based poultry processor that mostly flies under the radarThe Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids [August 7 2019] on agricultural plants in Mississippi hit close to home in Chicago, with about a quarter of the arrested workers employed by Koch Foods, a large Park Ridge-based poultry processor whose billionaire owner, Joseph Grendys, mostly flies under the radar.As many as 200 of the 680 people allegedly living in the country illegally, who were detained by authorities, worked at the Koch plant in Morton, Miss., according to an initial estimate by ICE spokesman Bryan Cox.The raids represent the largest workplace immigration sting operation of the Trump administration, with more than 600 agents from ICE and Homeland Security Investigations executing multiple federal criminal search warrants at seven Mississippi agricultural facilities.That article went on to report on a 2018 settlement agreement involving Koch Foods, as well as another immigration raid — this one in 2007 — at one of the company’s plants. Hundreds of those apprehended in August 2019 were employees of Koch Foods.A second claim held that Koch Foods agreed to pay a $3.7 million settlement in 2018, which stemmed from a discrimination lawsuit. The article seen in the screenshot was published by human resources industry site HR Dive on August 13 2018. It reported:Dive Brief:HR Dive linked to an August 2018 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brief about Koch Foods and the settlement, which stated in part that Koch Foods was found to have engaged in retaliatory behavior against employees who reported workplace harassment and bias:Koch Foods Settles EEOC Harassment, National Origin And Race Bias Suit Poultry Supplier Pays $3.75 Million to Class of Hispanic WorkersBIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Koch Foods, one of the largest poultry suppliers in the world, will pay $3,750,000 and furnish other relief to settle a class employment discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. The EEOC charged the company with sexual harassment, national origin and race discrimination as well as retaliation against a class of Hispanic workers at Koch’s Morton, Miss., chicken processing plant.According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Koch subjected individual plaintiff/intervenors and classes of Hispanic employees and female employees to a hostile work environment and disparate treatment based on their race/national origin (Hispanic), sex (female), and further retaliated against those who engaged in protected activity.1 EEOC alleges that supervisors touched and/or made sexually suggestive comments to female Hispanic employees, hit Hispanic employees and charged many of them money for normal everyday work activities. Further, a class of Hispanic employees was subject to retaliation in the form of discharge and other adverse actions after complaining. […]The three-year consent decree entered today by Judge Daniel P. Jordan III provides for $3,750,000 in monetary relief for the victims. In addition, Koch Foods will take specified actions designed to prevent future discrimination, including implementing new policies and practices designed to prevent discrimination based on race, sex or national origin; providing anti-discrimination training to employees; creating a 24-hour hotline for reporting discrimination complaints in English and Spanish; and posting policies and anti-discrimination notices in its workplace in English and Spanish.Posts on social media claimed that many of the people ensnared in ICE raids in Mississippi were Koch Foods workers. Moreover, the rumors asserted that Hispanic employees of Koch Foods had been awarded $3.75 million in a 2018 settlement over workplace abuses. These claims are both true.Although other companies’ plants were raided by ICE that day, hundreds of the affected workers were employed by Koch Foods. It is also true that employees of Koch Foods sued the company over workplace abuses, and that the EEOC determined in their investigation at the time that some endured retaliation for their reporting of the abuses. Claim: Mississippi chicken plant Koch Foods, which was raided by ICE in August 2019, was the subject of a previous lawsuit brought by workers and was subsequently ordered to pay a settlement.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The claim that British prime minister “Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room at a dance” has been circulating on Internet-based trivia lists for as long as we can remember. Given that Churchill was one of the most important figures of the 20th century — a long-lived statesman of international prominence whose career spanned two world wars and beyond — this would seem like a fairly easy item to verify, but once again things were deceptively  less simple than they appeared at first blush. To research this type of item (an anecdote about a famous figure), we generally first turn to the most recent biography of that person we can find, which in this case was Roy Jenkins’ 900-page Churchill: A Biography (2001). The brief description of Churchill’s birth found there mentioned nothing more remarkable than that he was born two months prematurely (labor having been brought on when his mother took a fall)  in a “singularly bleak-looking bedroom” at Blenheim Palace:  He was born on 30 November 1874 and, mainly by accident, in Blenheim Palace, although in a singularly bleak-looking bedroom. The accident arose out of his being two months premature. He should have been born in January in the small but fashionable house in Charles Street, Mayfair, which his father had rented to receive him, or more purposefully perhaps to use as a base for the somewhat rackety metropolitan life of which Lord Randolph and his bride of only seven and a half months’ standing were equally fond. This house not being ready, they had taken autumn refuge in Blenheim, and, as Lord Randolph put it in a letter to his mother-in-law in Paris, ‘[Lady Randolph] had a fall on Tuesday walking with the shooters, and a rather imprudent and rough drive in a pony carriage brought on the pains on Saturday night. We tried to stop them, but it was no use.’ Neither the London obstetrician nor his Oxford auxiliary could arrive in time, although it was over twenty-four hours to the birth from the onset of labor pains, and the baby was born very early on the Monday morning with the assistance only of the Woodstock country doctor. Well, maybe the author had to leave some things out in order to keep an already sprawling biography from spanning more than one volume, and the item we were looking for was one of them. So we tried other Churchill biographies, but they scarcely noted the circumstances of his birth at all, saving their detailed narratives for later portions of his life:   Winston Churchill was born in 1874, half way through the Victorian Era. That November, his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, then less than seven months pregnant, had slipped and fallen while walking with a shooting party at Blenheim Palace. A few days later, while riding in a pony carriage over rough ground, labour began. She was rushed back to the Palace, where, in the early hours of November 30, he son was born. A volume entitled The Private Lives of Winston Churchill sounded promising, and there we found the suggestion that Churchill hadn’t been born prematurely at all and that the story about his mother’s taking a fall may have been concocted to cover a pre-marital dalliance:  The wedding took place in the British embassy in Paris on April 15, 1874, with all the signs of a somewhat hushed and rushed affair. There was none of the splendor that an international society wedding of such wealth and standing  would normally receive, no public ceremony, and little mention in the press. The Duke and Duchess [of Marlborough] were conspicuously absent. Was [the bride] already pregnant? Piety says no, but the evidence suggests she might have been. Why else the rush, the discreet ceremony, and the pointed absence of the Marlboroughs — followed by a notably uncomplicated birth seven months later, of the lusty baby who was christened Winston. At the time the premature birth was accounted for by Jennie’s falling while out shooting, followed by “a rather imprudent and rough drive in a pony carriage,” which apparently brought on the pains of labor. A small downstairs room at Blenheim was improvised for the confinement. It would have been in character for both participants not to have allowed mere chaperones or dull convention to impede passion — and it would certainly explain much of what happened later. Still nothing about a dance or a ladies’ room, though; only the unsatisfying notation that Winston’s birth was “notably uncomplicated.”   We pressed on. William Manchester’s The Last Lion also suggested Winston’s “premature” birth was a fiction promulgated to obscure a pre-wedding pregnancy, a ruse that supposedly fooled no one:  Another admission, which [the bride] preferred to keep from her husband’s family, was that she was bearing their grandchild. Indeed it is virtually certain that she had been pregnant for three months, and soon it would begin to show … Premature? The Times bought it. At the head of its birth notices it reported: “On the 30th Nov., at Blenheim Palace, the Lady Randolph Churchill, prematurely, of a son.” But no one believed it, not the patrician friends of the family, chuckling over the announcement, nor even the yeomen of Woodstock, who, the Oxford Times reported, rang “a merry peal on the church bells … in honour of the event.” Winston was full-term. It was generally believed that sometime the previous February, during the maddening negotiations over the marriage settlement, Jennie had eluded her mother, divested herself of the incredible layers of clothing then worn by young ladies, and received Randolph’s seed. Indeed, it was thought the duke and duchess had known Jennie was pregnant at the time of the wedding; that was why they had boycotted it. Sly allusions to the circumstances of his birth followed Winston all his life. He enjoyed them. He would reply: “Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it.” Of course, it is possible that his parents have been slandered. Periods of gestation do vary. He may have been premature. It would have been just like him. He never could wait his turn. But, more important for our purposes, Manchester also included an account of the birth itself, one which was clearly in the ballpark of what we were looking for:  That evening the annual St. Andrew’s Ball was held in the palace. To the astonishment of everyone, including her husband, [Jennie] appeared in a loose gown, holding a dance card. She was actually on the floor, pirouetting, when the pains started. Randolph wrote his mother-in-law [Clara]: “We tried to stop them, but it was no use.” It was, in fact, time to choose a birthplace. Her grandniece, Ann Leslie, afterward described Jennie’s search for one. Attended by servants and by Randolph’s aunt Clemetina, Lady Camden, she stumbled away from the party — which seems to have proceeded gaily without her — and lurched “past the endless suite of drawing-rooms, through the library, ‘the longest room in England,'” toward her bedroom. She didn’t make it. She fainted and was carried into a little room just off Blenheim’s great hall. Once it had belonged to the first duke’s chaplain; tonight it was the ladies’ cloakroom. Sprawing, she lay on velvet capes and feather boas, which were deftly drawn from beneath her when the ball ended and the merry guests departed. It was a long night, with servants hurrying in and out with poultices and towels. The pains, Randolph told Clara, “went on all Sunday.” He had telegraphed the London obstetrician Jennie had consulted, but, Sunday train schedules being what they were, the doctor couldn’t arrive until Monday. Thus, the historic role of delivering England’s greatest prime minister fell to Frederic Taylor, a Woodstock physician. “The country Dr. is … a clever man,” Randolph reported, “& the baby was safely born at 1:30 this morning after about 8 [sic] hrs labour. She suffered a good deal poor darling, but was v[er]y plucky & had no chloroform. The boy is wonderfully pretty so everybody says dark eyes and hair & v[er]y healthy considering its prematureness.”  That’s not quite enough for us to label this one as “true.”  Winston’s mother may have been attending a dance when she went into labor and delivered him in the palace where the dance was held, but he wasn’t actually born until more than 24 hours later, long after the dance had ended and all the guests had departed. And the room where the birth took place wasn’t a ladies’ bathroom at all but ordinary living quarters temporarily pressed into service as a place to store coats, as can be seen in photographs of Blenheim Palace. The confusion may stem from the fact that ‘cloakroom’ is sometimes employed as a euphemism for ‘lavatory’ in the UK, but in this case ‘cloakroom’ was clearly used in its literal sense. Claim: Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 24 June 2016, a shocking story suddenly appeared out of nowhere: Queen Rania, Jordan’s beautiful consort to King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, famous for her humanitarian work, was murdered by her husband in Rome. Why? Because of an affair she had, claimed the indifferently-punctuated article, with none other than the frontman to the band U2: According to many local observers the ominous news is considered widely as a harbinger of widening rifts within Jordan’s tormented social fabrics as the Arab nation of seven million is equally divided into native Jordanians and descendents of Palestinian refugees whom Queen Rania belonged.Unbeknownst to many Westerners, the King Abdullah of Jordan, a close ally of Obama administration, supports and harbors fanatic Saudi-backed ISIS terrorists and seeks to spread terrorism in the Middle-East region. While Queen Rania showed herself as a typical glamorous Queen, showing more agreeable and democratic façade to her husband’s despotic and repressive regime, but the rumors in Jordan whisper that there was a secret side to Rania’s life, that is least publicized. One thing facts could confirm though, Rania was living a life on the fast lane that is very much Hollywood, and Hollywood indeed, with all that come with that in stark contrast to restricted norms in her country. Dr. Oday al-Shana’a, a London-based former Jordanian court official and ex-friend believes that Bono, the famous Irish singer and so-called philanthropist seduced the innocent Queen. The story quickly spread through social media and aggregation sites, but there’s no truth to it. AWD News, the web site on which the story originated, doesn’t have more than a nodding acquaintance with facts, instead playing on nationalistic fantasy and conspiracy theory to create alarming (and thus clickable and shareable) stories. AWD News‘ story also included the following passage: “I am sorry to inform you that due to yet unexpected reasons, Her Majesty the Queen was found dead at her Excelsior Hotel room, 9:00 pm yesterday night . His Majesty expresses his sincere gratitude to the international  outpouring of grief and sorrow over the Queen ‘s death,” Moscow Times cited Mr. Tarawneh on Friday as saying, adding that before her death, the Queen did much to precipitate ending the long-troubled marriage by travelling to Rome to meet a family friend without King’s permission. No such quote was published in the Moscow Times, nor could we find it reproduced in any article that is not a copy of the AWD News story. Other extremely dubious headlines that have appeared on the site include the following: “European Union Unveils the Creation of ‘EU Army’ Hidden from British Voters Over the ‘Danger of Russia,'” “Saudi Arabia offers Mark Zuckerberg $250 billion to buy Facebook and arrest the pro-democracy activists, say reports,” and “Assassins Who Killed British MP Jo Cox and Targeted Donald Trump Tied to UK Military, CIA.” That last story alleges documents from the Kremlin’s Foreign Intelligence Service show that the man who murdered Jo Cox and a man who threatened Donald Trump could be traced back to the same mental hospital. (Needless to say, no such documents exist.) If Queen Rania had indeed been murdered by King Abdullah II in Rome, the news wouldn’t be leaked by a conspiracy-oriented web site out of Berlin. Also, if Queen Rania was indeed murdered on or before 24 June 2016, it’s news to her, as she’s still posting on social media: Happy birthday to Al Hussein! It has been a joy to watch you become the kind and dedicated man you are today. pic.twitter.com/l6S7eKGgfE Claim: Jordan's King Abdullah II murdered his wife, Queen Rania.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The big waves that followed an eruption on a volcanic island hit communities along the Sunda Strait on Saturday night. The eruption of Anak Krakatau, or “Child of Krakatoa,” is believed to have set off a large landslide on the volcano, apparently on its slope and underwater, displacing water that slammed into Java and Sumatra islands. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency asked people late Tuesday to stay at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) and up to 1 kilometer (less than a mile) from the coastline along the strait, which lies between the two islands. The agency was monitoring Anak Krakatau’s eruptions as stormy weather and high surf continued to plague the area, said agency head Dwikorita Karnawati. “All these conditions could potentially cause landslides at the cliffs of the crater into the sea, and we fear that that could trigger a tsunami,” Karnawati said at a news conference. She asked that communities remain vigilant and not to panic. The warning was reiterated by the country’s disaster agency on Wednesday. The tsunami struck without warning, taking people by surprise even in a country familiar with seismic disaster. No big earthquake shook the ground beforehand, and it hit at night on a holiday weekend while people were enjoying concerts and other beach and resort activities. It was a sharp contrast to the disaster that struck 14 years ago off the northwestern tip of Sumatra island. An enormous magnitude 9.1 earthquake rocked the area the morning after Christmas, creating gigantic waves that surged far inland and swallowed everything in their path. The wall of water killed some 230,000 people in a dozen countries, more than half in Indonesia’s Aceh province. The devastation was vast, and the disaster was among the worst in recent history. Saturday’s event, coupled with an earthquake and tsunami in September on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island that killed at least 2,100 people, triggered flashbacks for some who survived the 2004 tragedy. “When it happens, I always remember what we have been through,” said Qurnaty, 54, who lost her home and several family members to the 2004 waves in the hard-hit provincial capital of Banda Aceh. Qurnaty, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, prayed with surviving family members at a mass grave there on Wednesday’s anniversary. “Every time I see them (on TV), I feel really, really sad. All we can do from here is to pray for them,” she said. Though recovery was slow, some victims of the latest tsunami said they remember the resilience of the Acehnese people, which gives them hope that they too can rebuild their homes and their lives. “I am scared. I am traumatized by the tsunami that I only knew before from the news,” said Kusmiati, who also uses one name. “Now I know how horrifying a tsunami is.” Her face was still bruised and her legs swollen after she and her husband managed to survive being hit and dragged under by the waves after fleeing a beach villa in Carita, where they were working. Beaches were largely empty in the area, which is typically crammed with tourists, and police patrolled on motorbikes, warning people to stay away from the coast. Some residents defied the warning, returning to what was left of their homes to begin cleaning up as heavy rain fell and waves pounded the shore. “I am still afraid that the tsunami will return, so when dark comes, I stay at a temporary shelter on the hill,” said Rohayati, who worked to salvage what was left of her battered house, 300 meters (985 feet) from the sea. “I hope the government can provide a tsunami warning, like a siren, for people living in coastal areas so we can be alerted of a potential tsunami and have time to save ourselves.” The country’s system of tsunami detection buoys — deployed after the 2004 disaster — has not worked since 2012, with some units being stolen or vandalized. Karnawati, of the meteorology agency, said that because the tsunami was caused by volcanic activity, it would not have been picked up by the system’s seafloor sensors, which monitor movement from conventional earthquakes responsible for most of Indonesia’s tsunamis. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency, said Wednesday that the volcanic activity is believed to have triggered an underwater landslide and that a large chunk of Anak Krakatau’s southwest slope collapsed. This movement displaced a large volume of water, creating waves that raced toward the shore. Residents of Sumur village, which has been slow to receive aid due to roads being cut off, remained stunned by how quickly the tsunami hit. The beach, located just a few kilometers (miles) from the tourist island of Umang near Java’s western tip, is popular for snorkeling and other water activities. The tsunami decimated the area, ripping houses from their foundations and bulldozing concrete buildings. Scientists have said the waves were recorded in several places at about 1 meter (3.3 feet) high, but Sumur residents insisted they towered more than 3 meters (10 feet), possibly as high as 5 meters (16 feet), which Sutopo also confirmed in some areas. More than 21,000 people have been displaced from their homes and heavy equipment is urgently needed in the Sumur subdistrict near Ujung Kulon National Park to help get aid flowing and reach people who may be injured or trapped, said Nugroho. He said the death toll was 430, with more than 1,400 people injured and at least 159 missing. Anak Krakatau formed in the early 20th century near the site of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, which killed more than 30,000 people. It has been erupting since June and did so again 24 minutes before the tsunami, according to the geophysics agency. ___ Associated Press writers Margie Mason and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report. Claim: Indonesia says avoid coast near volcano, fearing new tsunami.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In October 2016, a since-deleted petition hosted on the web site DailyPetition.com (of which there are no archives) alleged that the Michael Kors brand abused dogs and skinned them alive in the manufacture of their products: An undercover investigation carried out by animal rights group PETA has revealed the terrible truth of the dog leather industry in China. Currently, there is a strong mechanism in place to keep this disgusting industry in full swing mode. Needless to imagine, this involves a lot of suffering for man’s best friend. PETA has also managed to provide valuable insight about how this industry actually functions: stray dogs are captured from the streets by professional dog snatchers. They are sold to unlicensed facilities were their life is taken in the most abrupt way: they are hit over and oven with bladed objects (bats or sticks), before the actual skinning process starts. Some of the dogs are still alive when this happens. Their lifeless bodies are piled up and left in the facility’s dumpster for days. According to the investigator present on the scene, the sight and smell was absolutely terrible and difficult to endure. According to PETA, such facilities can process and deposit as many as 200 dogs each day. The compound visited by PETA housed 300 dogs. All them of them were kept in terrible conditions: deprived from their freedom, they were placed in tiny, dirty and dark cages, frightened and all alone. They were left without food and water for days. Most of them, constantly agitated, were climbing on each other in a desperate attempt to escape. But neither of them would see the light of day again. The floor of this facility would be later filled with tons of liters of blood. Innocent dog blood. All in the name of fashion. Please note that the images come from just one plant, but there are hundreds of similar facilities all across China. After the skinning is complete and the dog skin is properly processed, it is later sold to fashion companies such as Michael Kors, which transform them into trendy leather jackets or posh handbags, sold to unsuspecting customers at unreasonably high prices. The well known American designer has been long profiting off the backs of innocent dogs in China. However, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) Twitter timeline lacked any content about products made from dog fur or Michael Kors, suggesting that the petition did not originate with that organization. A 25 October 2016 article published by an English-language version of a Chinese web site stated that the petition referenced a “DNA test” being needed to determine whether the animal products were indeed canine-derived, suggesting the claim had not been substantiated: U.S. animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claim that their undercover investigation into China’s dog leather industry revealed how some facilities process as many as 200 dog carcasses every day, and then sell the processed dog skin to fashion companies such as Michael Kors to make leather jackets and handbags — items labeled as lamb skin. The report pointed out that most animal skin looks similar, and it’s almost impossible to determine what animal a given piece of leather comes from without a DNA test, according to a petition launched by animal rights activist Jerald Marrero on Oct. 20. The petition calls for a halt on the alleged dog skinning, and has received 17,908 signatures. It has been shared on Facebook and Twitter more than 26,000 times. “As one of the leading brands in the fashion industry, it is extremely important for Michael Kors to stand up against the Chinese leather trade and stop using this cruel fabric in its collections immediately,” the petition said. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) criticized Michael Kors in 2010 for using fur in general (but not dog fur specifically): Project Runway‘s eighth season premieres tonight, and coincidentally I just heard about an opportunity to let judge Michael Kors know what we think of his designs — which include real fur. Kors tweeted that he will be answering questions from his fans in a Facebook video on August 4. Let’s take him up on his offer and flood him with questions, such as “Did you know that animals are skinned alive for their fur?” and “With all the luxurious faux furs that are available, why do you continue to kill animals?” or maybe “Would you submit to a brain scan to see if your empathy neurons are underdeveloped?” PETA’s 2010 comment made no mention of dogs, however, simply asserting that (unspecified) animals used in the manufacture of some Michael Kors products were “skinned alive for their fur.”  The provenance of the petition hosted on DailyPetition.com is unknown, and a Whois search indicates that DailyPetition was created in July 2016 and that its ownership information is private: Michael Kors sent us the following short statement about the dog fur rumors: We wanted to let you know that these accusations are 100% false. Below please find an official company statement on the matter: – “Michael Kors leather products are not made of dog skin. The accusations that have been published are false.” The brand repeatedly denied the rumors on Twitter as well: @Cooki3Wongster Michael Kors leather products are not made of dog skin. The accusations that have been published are false. — Michael Kors (@MichaelKors) October 25, 2016 Claim: Michael Kors uses fur from dogs that were skinned alive in manufacturing the brand's products.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: State prosecutors are scrambling to fend off fresh legal challenges to drunken-driving cases, with defense lawyers scoring some early victories under restrictive new evidence standards. The new rules -- which can make it harder to get police testimony and field sobriety tests admitted into court -- sprang from a legal-reform push in January 2011 by Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers. Republicans’ primary goal was to make it easier to block unreliable expert testimony and so-called junk science in negligence lawsuits against businesses. But the change applies to all types of civil and criminal actions, a move that led the state district attorney’s association to predict before passage that the new rules would \"significantly curtail our ability to prove our cases\" -- including in charges of operating while intoxicated. That aspect of the law got a sharper characterization when the Democratic Party of Wisconsin -- gearing up for a recall drive against Walker -- blasted the governor on a host of issues. Amid complaints about the budget bill, concealed carry legislation and changes related to sex-ed in schools, the party in a news release declared that a Walker administration move makes it so that \"drunk drivers who kill have an easier time of it.\" Amid the rhetoric is an interesting claim:  Does Act 2, the legal reform legislation, really mean an easier go for drunken drivers, either in criminal prosecutions or in personal injury suits against them? Asked to back up its claim, the Democrats cited three pieces of evidence: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers’ opposition to Act 2; the bill’s limits on court-ordered punitive damages in civil cases; and changes that make it harder for people to testify as experts. But Republicans decided to exempt drunken-driving crash victims from the punitive damage limits in civil cases. So that point is off the mark. The Mothers Against Drunk Drivers position is a moving target. The group opposed the bill initially, but then dropped its opposition after lawmakers added the punitive damage exemption -- and is now seeking a partial legislative fix in reaction to the new evidence rules. As for the evidence rules themselves, prosecutors say the issue is real and the change puts new pressures on them. We talked to numerous lawyers and researchers and they said the changes were significant, but welcome in concept. Almost all agreed the old standards allowed in too much. The new standards are used in federal courts, and by more than 30 states. Since the bill’s Feb. 1, 2011 start date, challenges to OWI evidence have played out in courtrooms and prosecutor’s offices under the new law. Both sides expect many more battles as the \"Daubert standard\" rules (from a Supreme Court case, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.) come into play in more cases. In our interviews with lawyers in several counties, we did not discover any OWI homicide trials affected by the new Daubert standard -- the focus of the Democrats’ claim. But those cases would be subject to the same advantages and disadvantages as other OWI cases. And there are some examples we can dig into there: In the very early stages here, we found that a loose cadre of defense attorneys are sharing tips on how to mount challenges that DAs told us cause worrisome delays. \"This will protract cases in the long run,\" said Gerol, who likes the Daubert standard overall. But what’s been the experience of prosecutors and defense lawyers in states that already have Daubert? Nationally, the reality doesn’t look one-sided, we found. Generally speaking prosecutors have found the new standards to be fairly neutral, just more work in defending the reliability of tests and witnesses, said Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association. On the defense side, national expert Michael Hawkins of Atlanta, said the tougher rules could produce an \"unintended benefit\" for some defendants, but only when evidence doesn’t pass legal muster. \"It doesn’t make it ‘easier’ on drunk drivers,\" said Hawkins, a National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ expert on drunken driving issues. \"It makes it so prosecutors have to do more work to assure judges and juries that the evidence they are using is accurate and reliable.\" Yes, prosecutors in Wisconsin are having a tougher go of it in first skirmishes here. But the rules apply to both sides. Defense attorneys acknowledge they will have have to introduce better and more reliable evidence under the new standards as well. In fact, Andrew Mishlove, a nationally certified OWI defense lawyer who is helping train judges and lawyers on the new standards, told us a half-dozen common defense strategies might wilt now under the tougher evidence rules. Among them: That testing equipment failed, or that radio frequency interference led to false readings of blood-alcohol level. Overall the new standard will \"prevent the defense from putting on bogus experts or questionable experts,\" said Donald Ramsell, an Illinois-based OWI lawyer who is nationally recognized. Ramsell noted something pertinent to the Democrats’  claim about \"drivers who kill.\" He and others said both sides will have a tougher time presenting testimony on estimates of a person’s intoxication level at the time of an incident -- when the test wasn’t taken until hours after the arrest. In fatal-crash homicide cases, the prosecution will be hurt more often in that scenario, Ramsell said, because often the drunken driver is often injured too, preventing a timely blood test. Looking ahead, what can we expect? On the prosecution side, the big concern is that arresting officers were formerly treated as experts who could draw conclusions about sobriety tests -- but now are being challenged, along with the tests, and police training methods. In cases that already have some evidence weaknesses -- for example, the defendant refused breath and blood tests, or the tests were delayed -- these challenges can be important, lawyers on both sides said. Under the new system, judges are the gatekeepers of what is reliable and relevant scientific testimony, in contrast to past practice of letting juries hear almost everything. Some judges have concerns about testimony that has been routinely allowed in the past -- such as the follow-the-finger vision test known as Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN). Those test are not allowed as evidence in some states. \"There are judges that feel like (the vision test) is voodoo because of a conception they have,\" said Emily Thompson, an assistant district attorney in Dane County who handles crash cases, including fatalities involving alcohol. Such concerns have led the Wisconsin chapter of MADD, the advocacy group, to call for the Legislature to revisit Act 2and exempt drunken-driving cases from the new evidence rules. \"This aspect is troubling and MADD hopes the Legislature remedies the oversight as we support prosecutors who often face a daunting task in making sure justice is served and criminal charges relating to drunk driving are fully prosecuted,\" MADD spokesman Frank Harris told us. Ultimately the state’s high courts will decide how the issue plays out. But most experts and lawyers are predicting neither side will gain clear advantage; others say wait and see. Some prosecutors see some advantages long-term. There’s agreement that fairness will increase. Said Marquette University law professor Daniel Blinka when asked if OWI defendants would have an easier time: \"I don’t see how that’s going to happen.\" Our conclusion  The Democratic Party of Wisconsin claimed that one of Walker’s actions was to make it \"so that drunk drivers who kill have an easier time of it.\" One of their talking points to back up the statement -- related to civil lawsuits -- doesn’t hold up given amendments made to the bill. Their other issue, regarding Act 2’s tougher standard for scientific testimony, clearly does affect drunken driving prosecutions. And the law already has benefited some drunken drivers, though not in every instance where scientific evidence was challenged. (We did not find a homicide case affected, but they would be subject to similarly varied effects as would regular OWI cases.) So we think there’s an element of truth in the Dems’ statement. Some defendants already have found an easier road. But the statement implies the net effect of the law is tipped pro-defense. In OWI cases, that is an unknown at this point. Both sides -- defense and prosecution -- are subject to the new standards. And even defense-side experts don’t buy the \"easier road\" argument. Finally, we think it’s misleading to suggest -- as the party’s statement did --  that the intent of the bill was to favor homicidal drunken drivers. It clearly wasn’t. We rate the party’s claim . Claim: A bill supported by Gov. Scott Walker makes it \"so that drunk drivers who kill have an easier time of it.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The boy then suffered a heart attack at home that night, resulting in brain damage that later led to his death. Details of the case were released Friday by the La Timone hospital in the southern French city of Marseille. The child spent six days in intensive care at the hospital after his heart attack in the evening of May 2. Earlier that afternoon, the boy had been taken to an emergency ward in another of the city’s hospitals. There, an experienced pediatrician examined the child and diagnosed symptoms “similar to scarlet fever,” said Doctor Fabrice Michel, who heads the pediatric intensive care unit at La Timone. Scarlet fever is generally mild, usually beginning with a temperature and a sore throat, and is easily treated with antibiotics. “The child didn’t have serious signs, justifying his return home,” Michel said. But the boy suffered a heart attack a few hours later and was rushed to intensive care at La Timone. There, blood tests indicated the boy had been infected with COVID-19 in the previous weeks, although he didn’t have its symptoms and was no longer positive for the virus when admitted to hospital. Instead, some of the boy’s symptoms resembled those of Kawasaki disease, a rare blood vessel disorder, Michel said. About 125 children in France have developed Kawasaki-like symptoms during the coronavirus outbreak, arousing suspicions of a link. The death at La Timone was the first fatality in France linked to the syndrome. The boy died on May 8. “What is certain is that this illness is thankfully very rare,” Michel said. Doctors outside of France have also reported small but noticeable upticks of cases, but very few fatalities, involving children with inflammations that required intensive care and other symptoms. Symptoms seen in affected children in France have included persistent high fevers, intense fatigue, rashes and stomach pains, Michel said. Only some of the children tested positive for COVID-19, so scientists are unsure whether the symptoms are caused by the new coronavirus or by something else. The World Health Organization said Friday that it is studying the condition, which it described as having “some features similar to Kawasaki’s disease and toxic shock syndrome.” ___ AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. Claim: Boy, 9, is 1st French death from likely COVID-linked illness.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: When Sen. Tom Coburn said that under President Obama, \"all the health care in this country is eventually going to be run by the government,\" it was like a golden oldie PolitiFact has heard many times before. During the campaign, we heard the same tune from vice presidential candidate  Sarah Palin  , who said Obama was calling for a \"government-run plan\";  Mitt Romney  , who said Obama \"wants the government to take over health care\"; and  Rudy Giuliani  , who called Hillary Clinton's similar plan \"socialized medicine.\" (We rated their statements  Barely True  ,  Barely True  and    .) Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, made his remarks while criticizing Obama on a different matter. Obama is moving to rescind Bush administration rules that protected medical workers from performing procedures such as abortion that conflicted with their religious or moral beliefs. Coburn, who is against abortion, said rescinding the order would be only a first step for the Obama administration. \"Remember, under the Obama plan . . . all the health care in this country is eventually going to be run by the government,\" Coburn said in an interview on Fox News on March 4, 2009. \"So it's part of an incremental creep towards eliminating any objection, both as us as taxpayers and then individual physicians in terms of not complying with a government-run bureaucracy,\" he added. Coburn and Obama can fairly disagree about conscience protections for health care workers who oppose abortions. But he's wrong that Obama's plan offers government-run health care. In fact, Obama's plan leaves in place the private health care system, but seeks to expand it to the uninsured. It increases eligibility for the poor and children to enroll in initiatives like Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and creates pools for individuals to buy their own cheaper insurance. It also outlines strategies to rein in costs for everyone, such as electronic medical records and preventive care. \"I think most of us would agree that if we want to cover all Americans, we can't make the mistake of trying to fix what isn't broken,\" Obama said at a health care conference he hosted on March 5. \"So if somebody has insurance they like, they should be able to keep that insurance. If they have a doctor that they like, they should be able to keep their doctor. They should just pay less for the care that they receive.\" Would Obama's plan result in closer regulation of the health care system? Very likely so. It includes provisions that require health insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and disclose more information about how they treat patients. Obama's plan also calls for evidence-based health care standards, so that government can stop paying (through programs like Medicare) for treatments that don't get good results. But the plan is very different from some European-style health systems where the government owns health clinics and employs doctors. We asked Coburn's office about his remarks. \"What matters is not just President Obama’s intent, or what his plan states, but the likely effect and consequences of his plan,\" said spokesman John Hart. \"Under Obama’s approach, the only plans left standing will be those controlled by the government.\" That may be Sen. Coburn's opinion on what could happen, but it's definitely not part of Obama's plan. And Coburn was very specific in saying that \"under the Obama plan, all the health care in this country is eventually going to be run by the government.\" That gives the incorrect impression that Obama is promoting a government-run health care system. He's not. We rate Coburn's statement . Claim: Under the Obama plan . . . all the health care in this country is eventually going to be run by the government.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The government shutdown has cranked up the volume on the blame game of who is causing the most misery for whom. The latest move comes from the right, where accusations began to fly that President Barack Obama was willing to put missing children’s lives at risk to score political points. From what we found, the claim started in the Twitterverse with tweets late on Friday night, Oct. 4, 2013. \"Did u see how the amber alert system was shut down & they even produced a screen to declare it!?\" said one. Amber Alert is the system that draws the public into the hunt for an abducted child. The Right Scoop carried the message to a wider audience. At around 5 p.m. Sunday, it posted that the U.S. Justice Department Web page for the Amber Alert program was down. \"I’m sure you care about your lost child but Obama doesn’t – at least not while he’s trying to ‘win’ the government shutdown,\" the blog post said. The Drudge Report put that item on its homepage with the headline, \"Amber Alert website shut down, Michelle’s ‘Let’s Move’ stays up.\" By the next morning, the Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott had an article titled, \"Obama shutters Amber Alerts as government shutdown enters second week.\" \"Somebody, somewhere in the Obama White House or the Obama Justice Department decided to shut down the Amber Alerts, despite the system's long and stellar record of helping locate missing children,\" Tapscott wrote. Two congressmen, Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn, and Steve Stockman, R-Texas, added their own tweets into the mix, echoing the theme that Obama was playing politics with kids. By mid-morning Monday, the government Web page was back up, but chastising tweets continued. We decided to check out exactly what had been shut down, and by whom. Federal action If you went to the federal Amber Alert Web page on Sunday, you would have found this message \"Due to the lapse in Federal funding, this Office of Justice Program website is unavailable.\" That is what triggered the blog postings, tweets and articles. A Justice Department spokesperson explained to the Huffington Post, \"All the sites that had to go offline were put behind a firewall so that they couldn't be hacked while the IT people were on furlough.\" The spokesman said a furloughed worker was brought back Monday to put the site back online. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gave the reason for that move at his press briefing later that day. \"To eliminate any confusion among the public about the status of the program. A furloughed Justice Department employee was called in to work in order to restore the informational site,\" Carney said. \"But again, it’s informational. The system itself was never interrupted.\" We contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a private nonprofit that assists local and state authorities in this work. According to their data, over this weekend, at the same time the tweets and blog posts were building, the Amber Alert was activated twice: in Texas on Oct. 4 and in Florida on Oct. 5. At the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, spokesperson Gretl Plessinger said the news stories about the federal website had prompted some people to call out of concern. Plessinger reassured the public that Florida's program \"is operating as it always has.\" We also got in touch with Gene Thaxton of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, who coordinates the Amber Alert system for that state. Thaxton was emphatic that the program never closed. \"Oklahoma has its own Amber Alert program, and it is not affected by the government shutdown,\" he said. \"The federal Web page is informational. It doesn’t affect the operations of the program.\" To be clear, the Amber Alert system is not run by Washington. States set up their own programs and use guidelines and standards that are shared nationwide. The program is a network of these state-run operations. At the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, spokesman Bob Hoever told us that the federal Web page plays no role in actually finding children. Hoever said local or state law enforcement officials trigger an Amber Alert when authorities have details like the name of the child, a photo of the child, the kind of car involved, a plate number, or a photo of the suspect. \"Those are the things that have led to a rescue in the past,\" he said. State authorities then notify the media and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The center spreads the word through the Web and over cell phones, sending automatic text messages to everyone with a smart phone in the area where officials think the child might be. \"We had a case in Minnesota where a teenager read the text on her phone, and there across the street was the car,\" Hoever said. \"She told her dad, and he called the police, and they rescued the child.\" Hoever said as far as he knows, from the initial investigation to the public reports of a possible sighting, the federal website has never been involved. \"If people knew how this worked, we wouldn’t be dealing with this confusion,\" he said. Our ruling People on Twitter, bloggers and others said the Obama administration shut down the Amber Alert system. Actually, each state has its own alert system, and national coordination takes place through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a private nonprofit, untouched by the federal stalemate. The system has continued to operate through the federal shutdown, sending out alerts in Texas and Florida. The one sliver of truth that triggered this claim is that a federal webpage promoting the program was closed, but that did not affect the program itself. It is a mistake to confuse that web page with the Amber Alert system. Claim: The Obama administration shut down the Amber Alert program because of the government shutdown.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Spain has the world’s second-highest death toll after Italy at 10,003 but Thursday’s one-day toll was the highest for any country since the start of the epidemic. The number of registered coronavirus cases rose about 8% from Wednesday to 110,238, the ministry said. The total deaths rose by just over 10%, about the same rate as the previous day. The daily rate of new infections has been slowing since March 25, when reported cases rose by just over 20%. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Health Minister Salvador Illa told parliament. “A glimpse of hope: the curve has stabilized. We have reached ... the peak of the curve and we have started the slowdown phase.”  Click tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in a separate browser for GRAPHIC tracking the spread of coronavirus. Spain has been in lockdown since March 14, and as of this week only employees in essential sectors are permitted to travel to and from work. Data showed on Thursday that Spain has shed an unprecedented 900,000 jobs since the restriction started, with temporary layoffs affecting at least 620,000 other jobs. Around 80,000 workers are off sick with coronavirus, while 170,000 more are on sick leave, isolated after coming into contact with an infected person. Nursing homes, whose elderly residents are highly vulnerable to the disease, have been particularly hard hit. Clad in white protective gear, funeral service workers could be seen taking out coffins from a nursing home in Leganes on the outskirts of Madrid, where 50 residents had died since the start of the epidemic according to EFE news agency, and putting them in a van, Reuters footage showed. Later, ambulances picked up various uninfected residents to take them to other homes. Two-thirds of 150 residents tested in the Vitalia home on Wednesday had coronavirus, EFE said. Vitalia administration was not immediately available for comment. The head of government for the region around Madrid told Cadena Ser radio that a total of around 3,000 people had died in nursing homes in March, around three times the normal monthly toll. The administration says it cannot be sure how many were caused by coronavirus as it lacks testing. In Catalonia, the second worst-hit region after Madrid, the government reversed its initial reluctance and asked the national military to send medical teams to help tackle the coronavirus. Senior health official Alba Verges said the region’s intensive care capacity was “at the limit”. Catalonia’s push for independence from Madrid has caused political turmoil. Claim: Spain's coronavirus deaths rise above 10,000, yet there is 'glimpse of hope'.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release does not discuss the cost of this complex intervention or the cost of genetic testing for Alzheimer’s. The costs for adhering to this protocol would quickly add up, but the descriptions are so vague that it’s impossible to make informed projections. It cites “diet, brain stimulation, exercise, pharmaceuticals, optimization of sleep, specific pharmaceuticals and vitamins,and multiple additional steps that affect brain chemistry.” The research consists of 10 case studies in which all subjects showed some degree of improvement. But the news release gives information about only three patients — out of 10 in the study — who had the most dramatic improvements.It relates those patients’ self-reported advances in functionality and gives measurements in memory improvement for two patients. It does not warn that self-reported improvements are likely to be biased by the patient’s expectation of benefit from the program. It does not describe the specific interventions used for each patient. The news release doesn’t tell us the total number of patients that were enrolled in this protocol. Were only the 10 that showed improvement included in the case study? What about the rest? The release appears to cherry pick some data regarding risks and uses relative risks only, no absolute numbers. For example, you cannot tell from this release what your chances are of getting Alzheimer’s if you have one or two APOE genes. Claims found in the release such as “Follow up testing showed some of the patients going from abnormal to normal” are both grandiose and unsubstantiated, but they could raise patient and caregivers’ hopes that they or a loved one could reverse their Alzheimer’s symptoms. The news release does not mention any potential risks of any aspect of the protocol. Since we do not really know what the protocol consists of we have no way of assessing potential risk. Neither the news release nor the study explain how the patients were selected, or whether there were any drop-outs. It would be useful to know whether participants had a previously demonstrated ability to adhere to treatment protocols or family support that would help them stick to the intensive MEND regimen. The news release does not mention that at least one patient dropped out temporarily, raising a concern that the program, which is complex and requires many lifestyle changes, may be difficult for some patients to follow. The news release also doesn’t point out that it’s unknown how long observed improvements will be maintained. The program as a whole has yet to be proven effective and safe in a broad population. The news release acknowledges this fact with a quote from Bredesen: “Even though we see the far-reaching implications of this success, we also realize that this is a very small study that needs to be replicated in larger numbers at various sites.” It would be difficult to perform a rigorous clinical trial on this protocol since it’s reportedly tailored to each patient and involves 36 potential interventions. Clinical trials usually test only one treatment at a time, preferably comparing it to a placebo. The news release points out the vast and growing number of Alzheimer’s cases. But it edges toward disease-mongering when it quotes a researcher suggesting the protocol can “transform the perception and reality of Alzheimer’s disease from a death sentence to a preventable reversible condition.” It also recommends genetic testing for everyone, which clearly is not appropriate or warranted. The release states, “Now we’re recommending that people find out their genetic status as early as possible so they can go on prevention.” The news release notes that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided some funding, but it does not list all of the study’s funding sources. Those include the Accelerate Fund, an early-stage investment fund based in Canada. The researcher also apparently stands to benefit from sales of a book set to be released in May 2017 through a mainstream book publisher. The news release gives the briefest nod to an alternative, stating that the protocol to reverse memory loss “follows the abject failure” of single-drug therapies for Alzheimer’s. In reality, many interventions, not only drugs, have been tried and none have been found to work. Some of the MEND interventions, such as dietary changes and exercise, may be readily available. But the intensiveness that this approach requires would make it hard for most people to access financially and logistically. Perhaps the book about the program, when it publishes, will make this clear, but the news release does not. The news release claims that the research “is the first to objectively show that memory loss in patients can be reversed, and improvement sustained” using the complex protocol. We rate this unsatisfactory since the release implies throughout that the protocol can reverse memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients when that is not indicated by the limited evidence. There are several instances of unjustifiable language in the news release, given the fact that this was an uncontrolled 10-person study. Some examples: “The magnitude of improvement in these ten patients is unprecedented” “Transform the perception and reality of Alzheimer’s disease from a death sentence to a preventable reversible condition” “Now we’re recommending that people find out their genetic status as early as possible so they can go on prevention.” Claim: Pre and Post Testing Show Reversal of Memory Loss From Alzheimer’s Disease in Ten Patients",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting a measure by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky that would have repealed most of former President Obama’s health care law, with a two-year delay but no replacement. Congress passed nearly identical legislation in 2015 and sent it to Obama, who unsurprisingly vetoed it. Yet this time, with Republican President Donald Trump in the White House itching to sign the bill, the measure failed on the Senate floor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that repealing “Obamacare” without replacing it would cost more than 30 million Americans their insurance coverage, and that was a key factor in driving away more Republican senators than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could afford to lose in the closely divided Senate. The result frustrated other GOP senators, some of whom expressed disbelief that their colleagues would flip-flop on legislation they had voted for only two years ago and long promised to voters. Of the current Republican senators, only moderate Susan Collins of Maine opposed the 2015 repeal bill. “Make no mistake: Today’s vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal,” said Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. “We still have a long, long way to go — both in health policy and in honesty.” Yet the outcome was hardly a shock in a Senate that’s already shown that unity is elusive when it comes to dealing with Obamacare. The real-world implications of repeal have proven sobering to GOP senators answering to voters who’ve come to rely on expanded insurance coverage under the law. It’s not over yet. But what the party’s senators might end up agreeing on instead is far from clear. They are plunging ahead with debate toward their unknown goal, pressured by an impatient president. By week’s end Republicans hope to reach agreement among themselves, and eventually with the House, on some kind of repeal and replacement for the Obama law they have reviled for so long. “We have to keep working hard,” said McConnell, R-Ky. “We’re determined to do everything we can to succeed. We know our constituents are counting on us.” One possibility taking shape in talks among senators was a “skinny repeal” that would abolish just a few of the key elements of Obama’s law including its mandates that everyone purchase insurance and its taxes that all GOP senators can agree to oppose. But in a sign of the general confusion, some said the tactic was aimed chiefly at moving the process forward into the purview of a committee of Senate-House bargainers while others expressed the hope that the House would swallow a “skinny bill” whole, freeing Congress to move on to other issues. Either way, after weeks spent on the issue including false starts and near-death experiences that have eaten up months of Trump’s presidency, the realization was dawning on senators that they may be unable to pass anything more complex for now than a lowest-common-denominator bill. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to start somewhere. This is a start,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. The day’s proceedings began with prodding from Trump, who’s proven impatient and inconsistent throughout the health care debate and yet can claim some credit for resuscitating Senate talks after McConnell essentially declared them dead last week. The president singled out Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who’d voted the day before against opening long-awaited debate on the legislation, and also opposed a wide-ranging McConnell amendment Tuesday that offered a replacement for Obamacare and went down to defeat. “Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!” Trump wrote. “I don’t really follow Twitter that much,” Murkowski remarked to reporters later with a shrug. Murkowski was also among the seven GOP senators who voted “no” Wednesday on the repeal-only bill. The others were Collins, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Dean Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. In a statement defending his vote, Portman wrote: “We need a rescue plan for Ohio families who are suffering under the status quo, not one that makes the health care system worse for Ohio families.” Senators were working their way through 20 hours of debate. At week’s end, a “vote-a-rama” of rapid-fire voting on a mountain of amendments was expected before moving to final passage — of something. Internal GOP differences remain over how broadly to repeal the law, how to reimburse states that would suffer from the bill’s Medicaid cuts and whether to let insurers sell cut-rate, bare-bones coverage that falls short of the requirements. While pressure and deal-making helped win over vacillating Republicans to begin debate, they remained fragmented over what to do next. Several pointedly left open the possibility of opposing the final bill if it didn’t suit their states. “It seems the Republican majority is no clearer on what the end game is, because there’s no good way out of this,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. ___ Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed. Claim: GOP senators blink on a big chance to repeal ‘Obamacare’.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The vaccine, Ervebo, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, a month after Europe gave its nod to the vaccine, a move that has been hailed by the World Health Organization. “We have made a commitment to making the vaccine available to GAVI-eligible countries at the lowest possible access price,” Merck spokesman Skip Irvine said. “We have made that commitment but we have not yet established the price for the vaccine.”  Stockpile of 500,00 doses of Ebola vaccine is being established for emergency use in outbreaks of the deadly fever by the GAVI global vaccine alliance, Reuters reported earlier this month. The stockpiling will start with Merck’s Ervebo vaccine. GAVI, a public-private partnership backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO, the World Bank and UNICEF, arranges bulk buys to reduce vaccine costs for poor countries. “We are partnering with both GAVI and WHO to put that stockpile in place as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement, adding that the stockpile of vaccines will be governed and executed by the owner of the stockpile and not by Merck. The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever and spreads from person to person through direct contact with body fluids. It kills around half of those it infects. There have been more than 3,000 cases of Ebola, including 2,199 deaths, in the outbreak that was declared in August 2018. The WHO declared it an international emergency in July 2019. The company said it was working closely with the U.S. government, WHO, UNICEF, and GAVI to prepare against the disease. Johnson and Johnson’s (JNJ.N) two-dose vaccine is currently being reviewed by the European regulator. The company is in discussion with the FDA for U.S. approval. Merck shares rose as much as up 2.8% to record high of $92.55 on Friday. Claim: U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi's Twitter account deleted a tweet showing her encouraging tourism to Chinatown weeks after President Donald Trump closed the U.S. border to China.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This is one of those beliefs that is so widespread that a survey of             florists found that most of them believed it to be true. That’s             because it has been the conventional understanding about poinsettias             for many years. The consensus of government agencies, health centers, veterinary             groups, and plant and             flower organizations that we’ve surveyed, however, is that poinsettias are not             toxic and do not pose a health threat to children or pets. The belief in poinsettia poison appears to extend back to 1919 when             the two-year-old child of a U.S. Army officer died. It was             believed that the death was caused by the child ingesting poinsettia             leaves. The American Society of Florists has looked into the             matter extensively and says there was never any proof that             poinsettia leaves were responsible for the child’s death and the             report was later determined to be hearsay. The America Society of Florists joined with researchers at Ohio             State University to test various parts of the poinsettia plant on             rats. Their conclusion was that there was no toxicity or any             other side effects even when the rats were given large             doses. POISENDEX is the source of poison information for the majority of poison             control centers. It says that a 50-pound child would have to             eat more than a pound-and-a-quarter of poinsettia leaves to exceed             the doses used in the Ohio State research, which would be 500 to 600             leaves. The American Society of Florists says no other consumer plant has             been tested for toxicity more than the poinsettia. The ASPCA Animal Poison Center in Urbana, Illinois says it regards             poinsettias as having such low toxicity risk that it doesn’t even             recommend decontaminating animals that may have ingested them. The center says that there can sometimes be gastrointestinal             distress from having ingested something alien to the digestive             system. The American Veterinary             Medicine Association of America (AVMA), doesn’t include poinsettias             on its list of plants that are a threat to animals. Because of the belief that poinsettias are toxic, there are numerous             visits to hospitals each year by concerned parents or pet owners whose children             or pet have ingested or in some other way been exposed to             poinsettias. A study released in 2000 by Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and             Carnegie Mellon University found that out of nearly 23,000             poinsettia exposures reported to poison control centers nationwide,             there was essentially no toxicity of significance of any kind. Comments Claim:  It’s common around Christmas time for people to warn one another             about the alleged toxicity of poinsettias.    ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “Since Ebola was declared, business has decreased by almost half. It’s really, really bad,” the 47-year-old said, hanging his head. Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak declared in May has 38 confirmed cases, including 14 deaths. The discovery of a handful of Ebola cases among Mbandaka’s more than 1 million residents also has hurt the economy, especially among traders of meat from wild animals. The virus, which spreads through bodily fluids of those infected, has been known to jump from animals such as monkeys and bats to humans. In the West Africa outbreak four years ago that killed more than 11,000 people, it was widely suspected that the epidemic began when a 2-year-old boy in Guinea was infected by a bat. Usually the wild animals are highly sought-after as popular sources of protein along with beef and pork, and cargo ships carrying the smoked meat arrive daily in the city, the trade hub for Congo’s northwestern Equateur province. Meanwhile, bush meat markets still see locals bartering for the animals, both dead and alive. Prospective buyers pause at tables piled with monkey meat, picking up blackened chunks one by one for a closer look. “Meat is very important for people here. It’s one of the biggest industries in Mbandaka,” said Matondo, a leader in the city’s bush meat association. Dr. Pierre Rollin, an Ebola expert with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said if the meat is cooked, smoked or dried it kills the virus. The people at greatest risk are hunters and butchers who process the meat, he said. The World Health Organization has advised against trade and travel restrictions because of the current outbreak, which is mostly in remote areas. Boats with bush meat continue to depart for the capital, Kinshasa, 600 kilometers (323 miles) downstream and for villages tucked deep in the rainforest up and down the river. Disease experts warned, however, that precautions are still necessary as monkeys and bats are sold live throughout the region. Traders said demand has dwindled because of Ebola, with sales for many dropping from about 100 animals a day to about 20. “Kinshasa and Brazzaville told us to stop sending monkeys and bats,” said another trader in Mbandaka, Willy Taban, who said his business has been cut in half in recent weeks. He was referring to buyers in the capital of the nearby Republic of Congo, which is across the river from Kinshasa. Congo’s health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, said there are no plans to ban sales of bush meat in the province since bush meat is not the primary way the Ebola virus spreads. Instead, the government is focusing on good hygiene practices such as hand-washing, he said. Health officials are also tracking down anyone who had close contact with anyone infected by the virus, offering an experimental vaccine and promoting safe burials and other practices. Such health efforts can be challenging in communities where many people consider Ebola to be witchcraft. Others are skeptical that the disease exists, even though this is the Central African country’s ninth outbreak. One Mbandaka trader, Gamo Louambo, said he’s still shipping 100 wild animals to Kinshasa daily and said he won’t stop eating them as they’re his main source of food. “I don’t see Ebola. It isn’t here,” he said. In West Africa, where there had never been an outbreak before 2014, getting people to accept that Ebola was a real disease was key, said WHO’s Jonathan Polonsky. For those in Kinshasa, “Ebola is very far away,” said Defede Mbale, immigration chief at the capital’s port of Maluku. Pointing to a poster of safe Ebola practices on his desk, he said the government has provided extra resources to patrol the river and take people’s temperatures as they arrive by boats, checking for fevers. He doesn’t doubt the deadly virus exists, but Mbale said there’s only so much that he’s willing to change. “We have our customs and they won’t change because of Ebola,” he said. “We’ll eat all foods.” ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Claim: Congo’s Ebola outbreak poses challenges for bush meat.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Neither of the stories we reviewed discussed costs. We found a range of prices online, including one big box pharmacy patch for roughly $2.70 a day. Both stories quantified the benefits of nicotine patches by using percentages and not fully explaining what those percentages meant. (Note:  we couldn’t find the percentages quoted in the journal article itself but they did appear in an American Academy of Neurology news release and in a a Vanderbilt news release.) This story gave a little more detail about the study design, which would allow readers to better understand what was being measured. Key line:  “The nicotine may simply be improving symptoms and not helping with the actual disease.” We thought the story was a little light on potential harms. The story mentions that patches have been shown to be safe for long-term use, but it also ends on a cautious note from an epidemiologist who says that nicotine is addictive. Even the Vanderbilt news release was far more complete about harms observed: “minor side effects like nausea and dizziness, similar to what a person would experience when smoking a cigarette for the first time, Newhouse said. Those on the nicotine patch also experienced mild weight loss, not surprising since nicotine is an appetite suppressant. There were also no withdrawal symptoms reported when the study participants stopped using the nicotine patch.” We would have liked to have seen this story at least note what the TIME story noted, which is that there is some research that links nicotine to cancer. This story does an adequate job in explaining the study design and explaining exactly how nicotine might be working to improve memory. We wish it had included one element from the TIME story and expanded on it:  “when clinical experts rated overall change in the patients, they did not see a significant difference between the two groups.” That’s an important finding and, possibly, could have led to a different lead and headline for both stories. The story does not engage in disease mongering, but we wish it had done a better job distinguishing between the technical term of mild cognitive impairment and forgetfulness. We require two things for a story to get a satisfactory score on this criterion. Both TIME and MSNBC got only one of those elements – oddly each reporting a different one but not the other. The story makes use of two independent sources. It did miss, though, the conflict of interest issues that TIME found, reporting that some of the authors on the study have received drug company funding and funding from tobacco makers. It also noted that the nicotine patches themselves were provided by Pfizer. The story does not talk about any alternatives to nicotine patches, which is troubling. It says that “there are no medications approved to treat those symptoms.” But there are known techniques for improving memory that could have been given at least a passing mention. We’ll rule this Not Applicable. The story should have made it clear the types of patches that were studied and the dosing. Most readers probably know that nicotine patches are widely available, but the types and doses vary. With just one line, the story at least established that there has been other research in the field of nicotine and memory:  “But there has been some research suggesting that nicotine might actually offer some protection to the cells being damaged by Alzheimer’s.” That’s more than what the TIME story provided. Because it had independent sources, it’s clear that the story didn’t rely solely on a news release – although, as noted, the 46 percent improvement and 26 percent decline statistics appear to come from an American Academy of Neurology news release or a Vanderbilt news release. We could not find those stats in the study itself. Claim: Nicotine patch may help improve memory, study finds",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Four zoos, 37 veterinarians, and state and federal wildlife officials participated in the 2018 study, the Minot Daily News reported. “They all submitted ticks, which was a huge help,” said Laura Cronquist, NDDOH division of disease control. “We had more coverage throughout the state in 2018, which was real nice.” The state was divided into eight regions for the tick surveillance survey that started in 2017. Pools of up to 20 ticks from each region were inspected for the existence of several diseases. The most common tick in North Dakota is the American dog tick, which is a close relative of the Rocky Mountain wood tick. Both are known for carrying the dreaded Rocky Mountain spotted fever virus which, if left untreated, can be deadly. American dog ticks and Rocky Mountain wood ticks made up 176 pools, with 106 testing positive for disease carrying pathogens. Deer ticks, which are known carriers of Lyme disease, were found in 22 of the 25 counties surveyed. Rancher John Heiser, of Grassy Butte, contributed nearly half of all the 13,640 ticks that were collected and sent to the state laboratory for disease testing. ___ Information from: Minot Daily News, http://www.minotdailynews.com Claim: Survey finds many ticks carry disease in North Dakota.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Taxpayers may have been shocked to learn from House Republicans that President Barack Obama wants to pay for health care by charging them to turn on a light. \"The administration raises revenue for nationalized health care through a series of new taxes, including a light switch tax that would cost every American household $3,128 a year,\" the House Republican Conference said in a Web post and press release titled \"Questions on the Budget for President Obama,\" distributed March 24. \"What effect will this have on Americans struggling to pay their mortgages?\" it asked. This alleged \"light switch tax\" is a reference to Obama's proposal to tax power companies for carbon dioxide emissions, and allow companies to trade emissions credits among themselves. That's called a cap-and-trade program, and Republicans say the companies would just pass the tax on to electricity consumers. So any revenue raised by a cap-and-trade program amounts to a \"light switch tax\" on consumers, the House Republicans alleged. To back up the claim, their staff pointed us to an  M.I.T. report  that says a similar a cap-and-trade proposal (the administration has not yet detailed their own version) would raise $366 billion per year. If you divide that by the 117 million households in the United States, you find it would cost each household $3,128, they said. But is it that simple? Can you just assume consumers would be out $366 billion since that's how much the program would raise from fuel companies? No. \"It's just wrong,\" said John Reilly, an energy, environmental and agricultural economist at M.I.T. and one of the authors of the report. \"It's wrong in so many ways it's hard to begin.\" Not only is it wrong, but he told the House Republicans it was wrong when they asked him. \"Someone from the House Republicans had called me (March 20) and asked about this,\" Reilly said. \"I had explained why the estimate they had was probably incorrect and what they should do to correct it, but I think this wrong number was already floating around by that time.\" It continues to float. That's just not how economists calculate the cost of a tax proposal, Reilly said. The tax might push the price of carbon-based fuels up a bit, but other results of a cap-and-trade program, such as increased conservation and more competition from other fuel sources, would put downward pressure on prices. Moreover, consumers would get some of the tax back from the government in some form. The report did include an estimate of the net cost to individuals, called the \"welfare\" cost. It would be $30.89 per person in 2015, or $79 per family if you use the same average household size the Republicans used of 2.56 people. The cost would grow over time as the program ramps up, but the average annual cost over time in today's dollars — that is, the \"average annual net present value cost\" — is still just $85 per person, Reilly said. That would be $215.05 per household. A far cry from $3,128. And that isn't the only inaccuracy in the claim. The Republican press release said the cap-and-trade program would pay for \"nationalized health care.\" But Obama's  health care proposal  is not for \"nationalized health care.\" It does call for a \"National Health Insurance Exchange\" with private insurance options plus a new public plan based on the one currently available to members of Congress — but consumers could still keep their private insurance if they want, as Obama emphasized during his presidential campaign. Even if it were true that Obama wants to nationalize health care, he does not envision paying for health care reform with the cap-and-trade program as the Republicans alleged. Rather, his $634 billion health care reserve fund is to come from efficiencies in Medicare and Medicaid and decreased deductions for some charitable contributions by upper-income taxpayers, according to Obama's proposed budget. The House Republicans partially corrected this portion of the claim, changing their Web site and sending out an updated press release that says the cap-and-trade program would pay for \"increased spending\" rather than health care. But it still calls cap-and-trade a \"light switch tax\" and claims the whole cost would come from consumers. If the Republicans had simply misstated the results of the MIT study, the Truth-O-Meter would have been content giving this one a False. But for them to keep repeating the claim after the author of the study told them it was wrong means we have to set the meter ablaze. . Update, May 6, 2009 Two days after we published this item, Reilly sent a letter to Rep. John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, complaining that his study \"has been misrepresented in recent press releases distributed by the National Republican Congressional Committee. The press release claims our report estimates an average cost per family of a carbon cap and trade program that would meet targets now being discussed in Congress to be over $3,000, but that is nearly 10 times the correct estimate, which is approximately $340.\" (The $340 is a cost per family of four, comparable to the $215 we used as the cost per household of 2.56 people.) Reilly said it was \"simplistic and misleading\" to interpret the statistics the way the Republicans did because the administration's cap and trade proposal has \"been designed to offset the energy cost impacts on middle and lower income households.\" A day later Boehner responded with a statement that insisted $3,128 was accurate. \"In reality, it would be a tax of up to $3,100 per family on every American family that drives a car, buys products manufactured in the United States, or flips on a light switch,\" Boehner said in the statement. On April 22, the conservative  Weekly Standard  came to the defense of the Republicans and published  an article  that said Reilly had erred in calculating the cost. It said that Reilly had since corrected the figure from the original $340 to $800. The article by John McCormack, an editorial assistant at the publication, said that even with the corrected figure, Reilly was \"still low-balling the cost of cap and trade by using some fuzzy logic. In reality, cap and trade could cost the average household more than $3,900 per year.\" The  Weekly Standard  noted that Obama plans to use some of the cap-and-trade revenues to fund his \"making work pay\" tax credit of $400 per individual and $800 per family per year but then did not reflect that plan in the ultimate cost to households. It said there was no proof that Reilly is correct to assume that \"the $3,128 will be 'returned' to each household.\" The article also said that our PolitiFact item was incorrect because we relied on Reilly's numbers. Several PolitiFact readers who apparently believe that Reilly's corrected figure means the Republicans are now accurate, wrote to us and urged us to publish a correction. So we have revisited the numbers to provide this update. First, we should emphasize that our original item was simple and straightforward. The Republicans said their claim was based on the MIT study. But Reilly, the author of that study, said the Republicans were misrepresenting his work. And not only that, he said he'd told them they were misrepresenting his work  before  they made the claim, and they made the claim anyway. That struck us as an egregious falsehood. And it's important to recognize that our  rating was on the overall statement that, \"The administration raises revenue for nationalized health care through a series of new taxes, including a light switch tax that would cost every American household $3,128 a year.\" The first part of that statement about nationalized health care is completely false. The Obama administration is not proposing nationalized health care, a phrase we believe is meant to invoke fears of socialized medicine. Yet Republicans have repeatedly made that inaccurate claim. So that part of the claim was and remains ridiculously false. Now, in light of Reilly's revised number and Boehner's refusal to change what he says, let's reconsider the second part of the claim, that the Obama administration is proposing \"a light switch tax that would cost every American household $3,128 a year.\" First, calling it a light switch tax remains incorrect. That implies that it is a federal tax levied on consumers when in fact it is an extrapolation of the per-family burden of a new federal charge that would be levied on energy companies. To say it \"would cost every American household $3,128 a year\" suggests tremendous precision. But we have found virtually no precision about anything to do with the cap and trade proposals because they are still very much just in the talking stages. Indeed, the House Democratic version is known as the \"discussion draft\" and, although there are some broad concepts, key details about how the program would work, its ultimate cost and how Americans would be reimbursed for higher energy costs are still far from final. But, given Reilly's corrected number, is it now accurate to say it will cost every household $3,128 a year? No, it's not. As we said in our original item, Reilly's analysis has produced two different ways to measure the cost of a cap and trade system. One way is the total estimate of federal revenues from a cap and trade auction, which indeed works out to $3,128 per family in the United States. That's the amount of money the energy companies would have to pay the federal government, and presumably the companies would pass those costs to consumers through higher prices. The issue then becomes whether or not the Obama administration intends to offset that cost to families. Republicans take the position, which was echoed by the  Weekly Standard,  that the Obama administration has no such plans. Reilly says the administration does. Who's right? Of course, we can't really know what the administration intends to do, but the available record makes it pretty clear that the White House has made plans to return to families the money the cap and trade program might cost them in energy bills. Some of it -- $400 per year for individuals, $800 for families -- would go directly back to families through the \"making work pay\" tax credit totalling $65 billion per year, according to  the Obama budget proposal  . An additional $15 billion per year would benefit them indirectly through research and development on clean energy technologies. And the budget specifies that \"all additional net proceeds will be used to further compensate the public.\" That backs up Reilly's claim that the $3,128 is effectively returned to people. The second way to look at the cost of cap and trade is through the impact the proposal would have on the overall economy -- the extent to which the new system would constrain the economy and slow its growth. That's the source of Reilly's $340 number, which he has corrected to $800. That number is still far short of the very precise $3,128 the Republicans have been using. And Republican leaders continue to toss around the $3,100 number, often with no caveats or qualifiers -- or mention of the $800. We called Reilly to get his reaction to the article in the  Weekly Standard  and the Republicans' latest claim  . He said the  Weekly Standard  editorial assistant who wrote the story \"just completely twisted the whole thing.\" He said his correction to the $800 figure didn't substantially improve the accuracy of what the Republicans are contending. Their claim \"is a misrepresentation. They are basing (the $3,128) on our study and that is an incorrect use of our study. It's false.\" Here at PolitiFact, we're sure there will be plenty of other claims in the next few months that will allow us to further examine the cost of a cap and trade proposal. This claim has centered on Reilly's two-year-old study, but other studies have been done more recently and will soon be in the political mix. But for now, this claim remains a serious distortion in many ways. It is a ridiculous falsehood to say the money is being used \"for nationalized health care.\" It is inaccurate to call it a \"light switch tax.\" And it is incorrect to cite a precise \"tax\" of $3,128 -- with no caveats or qualifiers -- when the Obama administration has specified how the money would be returned to people. Given Reilly's comments that they are using his numbers improperly, we see nothing to change our conclusion. So our original ruling stands: . - Bill Adair, PolitiFact Editor Claim: The administration raises revenue for nationalized health care through a series of new taxes, including a light switch tax that would cost every American household $3,128 a year.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The poisoning occurred in Laguna and Quezon, two provinces south of Manila, and all had consumed lambanog, a drink popular in provinces and consumed widely during holidays and celebrations. Many were admitted to hospitals on the urging of mayor Vener Munoz in Rizal, Laguna, where the deaths occurred between Thursday and Sunday. Two people who had been in critical condition were improving, he told local radio. The coconut wine that was consumed had been made in his town, he added. Blood tests and samples of leftover lambanog would be collected and analyzed on Monday, the Department of Health said. “All had a sad history of lambanog ingestion,” the department said, referring to those poisoned. “Some bought for leisure drinking and birthday party, while others were donated by local officials during their Christmas party.”  Unregulated production and sales of lambanog are common in the Philippines, and it is often made illegally with dangerous additives. The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has previously warned about the dangerous and prohibited use of methanol as an additive in home brews. A year ago, the FDA and police were deployed to locate and confiscate unregistered lambanog that was being openly sold to the public, and threatened to prosecute sellers. Twenty-one people died after consuming lambanog last year, media reported. Claim: Donald Trump owned stock in Thermo-Fisher Scientific at a time when his presidential administration was advocating for a COVID-19 test that uses Thermo-Fisher equipment.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since she began communal living on Vashon Island more than 20 years ago, the registered nurse has advocated for getting kids their shots against a loud contingent of anti-vaccine parents in the close-knit community of about 11,000 accessible only by ferry, a serene 20-minute ride from Seattle. And it may now be working, thanks to a “perfect storm” of changes being felt on the island, Day said. The Vashon Island School District has seen a significant increase in fully immunized children. The number of kindergartners who received the required set of state-mandated vaccines jumped by 31% in the past six years, from 56% to nearly 74% in the 2017-18 school year, according to the King County Public Health Department. Amid the nation’s highest number of measles cases in 25 years, pro-vaccine advocates are cheering the apparent shift that challenges Vashon’s reputation as a hotbed of highly educated, anti-establishment parents who choose not to vaccinate their children from preventable and potentially devastating diseases. “We’ve been the poster children for the anti-vaccine or vaccine-hesitancy movement for so long,” Day said. She attributes the rising numbers to increasingly visible pro-vaccine information, expanded access to shots and media coverage of measles outbreaks in the Pacific Northwest and New York this year. The island town with deep roots in organic farming has long drawn those who want to escape urban sprawl and others wary of putting chemicals in their bodies, whether in their food or medical care. Kids run barefoot through untamed forests and families still raise fruits and vegetables without pesticides to share in meals in communal houses. It also has its share of city commuters, tourists and million-dollar vacation homes with sweeping views of Mount Rainier, as well as locals pushing the science that vaccines are safe. While the gains are notable, the Vashon school district still has one of the lowest vaccine rates in the U.S. It is far below the 95 percent target that a majority of U.S. schools hover around and is needed for herd immunity, which protects those who haven’t been vaccinated for medical reasons or because they are too young. The majority of Vashon parents say yes to some vaccines, particularly the tetanus shot for their kids who play outside on the forested island. But many still buck the formal schedule of shots recommended by health officials. They may select some but not all and space them out over a longer period of time. Nicky Wilks, who grew up on Vashon and has three young children, said the changing attitude has led some pro-vaccine parents to exclude from gatherings kids who may not have their shots, while teenagers openly mock those who aren’t vaccinated. “That’s the worst-case scenario, when we are creating physical barriers in our community,” Wilks said. He said he isn’t against all vaccines but doesn’t agree that dozens of shots starting at birth are necessary despite health officials’ insistence. Wilks declined to say if his family is fully immunized. Gator Lanphear says he’s “very judgmental” about parents who don’t vaccinate. He said he not only immunizes his twin 6-year-old daughters but instills in them the importance of getting their shots as a heroic act. “They understand that what they did benefits humankind. Yeah, they got their ice cream for it, but they’re also eradicating polio,” Lanphear said. The number of philosophical exemptions in Vashon has decreased dramatically, but there are still 11.6 percent of students whose families elect not to vaccinate. That’s five times higher than the national median rate. Still, Vashon’s progress can’t be discounted because it’s unusual for immunization to increase so steeply in a few short years when there is deep-rooted anti-vaccine sentiment in the community, said William John Moss, an epidemiology professor at Johns Hopkins University. “That’s an important increase, but they still have a ways to go,” Moss said. “That’s a vaccination rate lower than in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.” Day, the school nurse, has worked closely with the new Neighborcare Health clinics, the single largest medical provider on the island. Together, they aggressively remind families when they’re due for vaccines and counsel them on their concerns, whether rooted in scientific evidence or not. “The message is really getting through. I feel like the tide is really turning on the island,” Day said. A two-year-old health center at the high school has been especially successful. It’s partly funded by a county grant that helps cover free shots and services for low-income or uninsured students. About half of the school system’s 1,615 students are registered patients and an additional 43 children who are in private school or homeschooled also use the clinic. Manager Stephanie Keller said the center has received a spike in calls from concerned parents amid a measles outbreak in Washington state that’s affected at least 78 people, including seven reported near Vashon. As of May 17, 880 people have contracted measles in 24 states this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The outbreak prompted Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to declare a state of emergency and sign a law that eliminates personal or philosophical exemptions for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine that’s needed before attending a day care center or school. Parents, however, can still claim a medical or religious exemption. Some critics say the Vashon school system’s data isn’t representative of the population because the island is home to many families who live off the grid. Vaccine advocates argue it’s an important benchmark because numbers from a previous islandwide survey aligned with public school data. And there are other signs, too. The top service provided at the student-based health center is vaccinations, Keller said. “That surprised us,” Keller said. “You think of Vashon as being this hippie place where nobody vaccinates.” ___ Follow Sally Ho on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SallyHo . Claim: ‘Hippie’ island off Seattle sees shift in low vaccine rate.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The disclosure late Thursday comes after the produce industry said it was stepping up safety measures following a series of outbreaks , including one last year that sickened more than 200 people and killed five. It’s not clear why romaine keeps sickening people, but experts note the difficulty of eliminating risk posed by raw vegetables grown in open fields. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said 23 people were sickened between July 12 and Sept. 8. No deaths were reported. As with previous outbreaks, the agency said it was unable to determine how the romaine became contaminated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said by Sept. 19 leafy greens were suspected for the cluster of E. coli illnesses, and that romaine was determined as the likely source Oct. 2. The FDA, which overseas produce safety, said its data indicated the tainted produce was no longer on shelves by the time romaine was identified as the likely culprit. It said the situation didn’t warrant immediate public communication. The spring 2018 outbreak that sickened more than 200 people was traced to Yuma, Arizona, one of two regions that grow most the country’s romaine. A massive cattle feedlot in the area was identified as a potential contamination source. Months later, just before Thanksgiving, the FDA warned people to avoid romaine because of another E. coli outbreak. That was traced to central California, the other key region where romaine is grown. Produce groups in the two states have said growers tightened safety measures. The FDA is partnering with scientists to study how romaine may have become tainted. Separately, the CDC said Friday it’s investigating a multistate outbreak of salmonella infections linked to ground beef that are more severe than expected. Eight of 10 infected people were hospitalized, including one death. It said it has not identified a single, common supplier, and it reminded people to cook ground beef thoroughly. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: Health officials disclose another romaine outbreak, now over.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Even when condensed to two paragraphs, you can see the potential land mines Rick Scott, a Republican running for governor, might face over his former hospital chain, Columbia/HCA.Paragraph 1. Scott grew Columbia/HCA into the nation's biggest hospital system. It then became the center of a multi-state federal investigation in 1997 that centered around whether Columbia/HCA defrauded Medicare and Medicaid. Scott resigned under pressure in 1997 as the scope of the investigation grew.Paragraph 2. Columbia/HCA eventually settled the fraud cases, paying a record-setting $1.7 billion in fines. The company pleaded guilty to at least 14 corporate felonies. Four people also were indicted; two were convicted, but those convictions were overturned on appeal. Scott himself was not indicted or questioned in the case.Largest fine ever. $1.7 billion. Resigned under pressure.A third-party group, the Alliance for America’s Future, has crafted a 30-second ad attacking Scott's record at Columbia/HCA. And there's a baiting Twitter account, ScottFraudFiles, being pushed by supporters of Bill McCollum, Scott's Republican primary rival.The attacks are being countered by Scott, who has deep pockets and already has spent millions of dollars on television advertisements.Scott launched a website, www.truthaboutrickscott.com, to refute claims about his time leading Columbia/HCA. He also is up with a new television ad called \"Truth,\" where Scott challenges McCollum on the Columbia/HCA story. Looking directly into the camera, here's what Scott says: Bill McCollum’s been in politics for 30 years. You’d think he’d want to talk about his record. Instead he’s just attacking me. That’s what career politicians do.I’m going to do something the politicians never will, give you the unvarnished truth.The McCollum crowd says the hospital company I started was fined by the government for Medicare fraud.Unfortunately, that’s true.I wasn’t ever charged or even questioned by the authorities, but that’s not what matters. What matters is that the company made mistakes. And as CEO I take responsibility and I learned from it.Now here’s the part McCollum leaves out:Two-thirds of the top-rated hospitals in Florida were our hospitals.Our hospitals earned the highest quality rating, 4 times the national average.We had the best care at the lowest prices for our patients.If you want a career politician, go with McCollum…But if you want someone who learns, leads, and demands accountability … I’m Rick Scott, let’s get to work. Since this is a Florida campaign, we decided to check Scott's claim that two-thirds of the top-rated hospitals in Florida were owned by Columbia/HCA. (First, a note. We love seeing fact-check journalism and noticed that Michael Putney of WPLG in Miami dissected the Alliance for America’s Future ad and, to a lesser extent, Scott's rebuttal that we're analyzing here. We think you should check out his report. It starts about 35 seconds in. )Scott's campaign said the claim about Columbia/HCA's Florida hospitals comes from a December 1995 article in a health care trade publication, Modern Healthcare.The article references a 1994 study of America's hospital system. The study, performed by Health Care Investment Analysts and William Mercer, rates hospitals in terms of cost efficiency and patient outcomes -- measuring mortality rates, length of stays for patients, the number of employees needed to treat a patient, occupancy rates and financial performance.HCIA and and William Mercer then create a list of the nation's Top 100 hospitals. The list is subdivided by the type of hospital -- rural, urban, teaching hospital, etc. \"Of the 17 hospitals from Florida in the top 100, 12 are in one category: nonteaching hospitals of more than 250 beds. All are Columbia hospitals,\" the Modern Healthcare article says.The article mentions that one of the 12 was purchased by Columbia/HCA after the study was performed, so really it's 11 out of 17. That's 65 percent, or right around what Scott mentioned in his ad.We checked subsequent years of the study and found similar results.In 1995, the same study rated 13 Florida hospitals among the Top 100. Nine of those hospitals were Columbia/HCA properties, or 69 percent.Twelve of 17 Top 100 Florida hospitals (70.5 percent) were run by Columbia/HCA in 1996, according to the same study.That's all right in line with what Scott said, but it fails to account for those big land mines we mentioned earlier.If the study measures financial performance, for instance, did Columbia/HCA hospitals rank artificially because it defrauded Medicare and Medicaid?We turned to one of the authors of the study, Jean Chenoweth, to find out. Chenoweth now works for Thomson Reuters, which continues to publish the annual hospital survey.We asked: Had you and the study group known about Columbia/HCA's Medicare fraud investigation -- would that have affected the rankings?She said: \"We can’t give a definitive answer to a hypothetical question. Our policy calls for us to rescind any 100 Top Hospital Award found to have been given on the basis of inaccurate data. Columbia/HCA settled its case, so we have no proof or admission that specific data that led to a specific hospital receiving a 100 Top Hospital Award was inaccurate. That makes this difficult to answer definitively. \"Chenoweth's answer muddies things a bit in our minds.Because the corporate fraud charges were settled, there never was a public airing of the specific allegations. And because there was never a public airing of the specific allegations -- and a finding of guilt -- the study authors were unable to see if the figures they measured were deemed fraudulent. It's also important to note that the study was focused on the outcomes of individual hospitals while the federal investigation centered around dozens of Columbia/HCA properties.Where does this leave us?In his ad \"Truth,\" Scott certainly cites the Top 100 hospital report correctly when he says that two-thirds of the Florida hospitals to make the list were owned by Columbia/HCA. But he glosses over the fact that those rankings could at least be questioned because fraud-laden data may have been used in the analysis to make the rating.The author of the study doesn't know if the data was accurate or cooked, because the fraud case never went to trial.We found no evidence to say the rankings are bogus, but we think the claim could use a little additional information. To us, that correlates to a rating of . Claim: Two-thirds of the top-rated hospitals in Florida were our hospitals.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Bill and Melinda Gates’ polio vaccination efforts in India have not paralyzed 47,500 children. The eRumor surfaced in 2013 when the website Nsnbc International published a  report that claimed Bill and Melinda Gates hired Bollywood actors to encourage Indians to take an oral polo vaccine in a campaign that went horribly wrong: “Polio is a terrible disease that kills many and paralyzes others. Fifty years ago it was widespread around the world. When you talk to people who remember polio in the United States, they’ll tell you about the fear and panic during an outbreak and describe grim hospital wards full of children in iron lungs that maintained their breathing. At its peak in the United States in 1952, polio paralyzed or killed more than 24,000 people. “But in 2011 alone, the Bill and Melinda Gates’ polio vaccine campaign in India caused 47,500 cases of paralysis and death.” The report goes on to claim that the CDC had “dropped the oral polio vaccine from its vaccine schedule in the U.S. because it was causing polio,” which is true. The oral polio vaccine (OPV) has not been used in the U.S. since 2000. The CDC  said the risk of paralysis, which effects one out of every 2.4 million children, was too high: “To eliminate the risk of VAPP, as of January 1, 2000, OPV was no longer recommended for routine immunization in the United States. However, OPV continues to be used in the countries where polio is endemic or the risk of importation and transmission is high. OPV is recommended for global polio eradication activities in polio-endemic countries due to its advantages over IPV in providing intestinal immunity and providing secondary spread of the vaccine to unprotected contacts.” The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation  said that it contributes technical and financial recourses to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to support things like targeted vaccination campaigns, community mobilization and stronger routine immunization efforts: “A cornerstone of the GPEI polio eradication strategy is the goal of reaching all children in the first year of life in the highest-risk countries with multiple doses of OPV, through both national and local vaccination campaigns. Efforts include door-to-door immunization in areas where poliovirus is known or suspected to be circulating, as well as in areas at risk of re-importation, with limited access to healthcare, high population density and mobility, poor sanitation, and low routine immunization coverage… “OPV, the polio vaccine used in most of the developing world, is safe, effective, easy to administer, and inexpensive. But OPV consists of live, weakened viruses, which in very rare cases — 1 in every 2.7 million first doses of the vaccine — can cause paralysis. In settings with very low OPV coverage, OPV vaccine viruses can also mutate and begin to circulate in the population, just like wild polioviruses.” But the eRumor’s central claim — that Bill and Melinda Gates’ polio efforts caused “47,500 cases of paralysis death” — is false. It’s based on an  editorial in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. The editorial said 47,500 new cases of non-polio AFP reported in India in 2011 was “directly proportional” to doses of OPV administered there. The statistic was used to argue the larger point that donor funded “disease-specific” projects should be dropped in favor of community-oriented primary health care programs. But research doesn’t support the editorial’s claims. Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science and the World Health Organization launched a  study on the rise of AFP cases in India, and found that a number of factors contributed to it. First, the definition of AFP had been broadened so that weakness and paralysis that result from non-polio viruses now fall under the AFP definition, which led to many more cases being reported. A second factor is that with polio nearly eradicated in India, screenings for non-polio viruses that cause AFP have spiked dramatically, which means that more cases have been identified. According to the study: “This large increase in non-polio AFP cases, which represent AFP cases caused by agents other than poliovirus, probably reflects the excellent implementation of the expanded definition of AFP and highly sensitive surveillance and detection methods used by NPSP in India from 2005 onwards, in contrast to the other polio-endemic countries, i.e., Pakistan, Nigeria, and Afghanistan, where the expanded AFP surveillance is not in place. The large increase in the non-polio AFP rate from 1.45 and 1.97 per 100,000 children during 1998–2003 to 16.20 in 2011 further reflects the excellent operational performance of the expanded AFP surveillance in India.”  Comments Claim:   A polio vaccination campaign headed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in India led to 47,500 cases of paralysis. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An image graphic supposedly documenting the various misdeeds of the “Pelosi Crime Family” — including perjury, securities fraud, and simply being rich — was circulated on social media in January 2019. We’ve examined each of the accusations leveled within against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, her husband, her father, her brother, and her son individually and found them to be largely  overstated, misrepresented, or based on unreliable information:   Was Nancy Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., a constant companion of Benjamin “Benny Tratta” Magliano? Status: UNPROVEN The facts: This claim is a verbatim reproduction of the introductory paragraph of a June 2015 blog post published on the Typepad blog “Bitterqueen” by Phillip Crawford, Jr., the author of the 2015 book The Mafia and the Gay, which was reportedly based on FBI files obtained pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Crawford wrote that Peter Galiano, a boxer who was caught up in a draft-dodging scheme in the 1940s, told federal agents in 1947 that D’Alesandro was a “constant companion” of the Boston mobster. When the FBI examined these associations in 1961, however, before D’Alesandro received a presidential appointment to the Federal Renegotiation Board, Galiano said that his statements were based on rumor and hearsay and that he couldn’t recall where he had come across that information:  1947: Peter C. Galiano, Baltimore, Maryland, advised that Thomas D’Alesandro was a constant companion of John Cataneo, Benjamin Magliano, also known as Benny Trotta, and [redacted], who were described as “local big-time gamblers.” Mr. Galiano stated that these individuals had worked hard for Thomas D’Alesandro’s re-election to Congress and in his campaign at that time to become Mayor of Baltimore. Peter C. Galiano, Baltimore, Maryland, advised during the current investigation that his previous statements were based only on rumor and hearsay. He stated that he could not recall who gave him this information or whether or not there was any truth to the allegations. He further explained that he was never well acquainted with any of the men he had mentioned and had no personal knowledge of their affairs. Galiano wasn’t the only person to accuse D’Alesandro of having ties to the Boston mob, but those allegations were never officially corroborated and they never resulted in any charges being brought against D’Alesandro. In fact, D’Alesandro was appointed to the Federal Renegotiation Board by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 despite an FBI investigation into those alleged associations. Does Nancy Pelosi own Goat Hill Pizza, a restaurant suspected of harboring trafficking? Status: FALSE The Facts: Nancy Pelosi does not own a pizza parlor, and Goat Hill Pizza is not suspected of harboring child trafficking by any law enforcement agencies. This claim first started circulating in 2016 as part of a larger nonsensical and repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate,” in which online trolls asserted that innocuous words such as “pizza” and “cheese” were actually code words referring to child sex trafficking. Although this conspiracy theory was largely focused on the Washington, D.C,. pizza parlor “Comet Ping Pong,” Pelosi was also accused of running her own pedophilia ring back in San Francisco out of Goat Hill Pizza. Why? Because a single document from 2004 listed “Philip@GoatHill.com” as the email address for Nancy Pelosi. While conspiracy theorists may contend that this tidbit of information is somehow proof that a high-profile politician was running a pedophilia ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor, a much more plausible (and far less sensational) explanation is evident: it was a filing error. Philip DeAndrade co-founded Goat Hill Pizza in the 1970s, but by 1987 he was working on Nancy Pelosi’s staff. It’s likely that DeAndrade accidentally put his own email address, instead of Pelosi’s, into a form. Regardless, one spurious appearance of an email address can in no way be construed as proof that Pelosi owns a pizza parlor. Furthermore, the only persons who have suspected this pizza parlor of facilitating child trafficking are online conspiracy theorists and not genuine law enforcement agencies. Did Nancy Pelosi hold a secret fundraiser for Islamist and Hamas-linked groups? Status: MIXTURE The Facts: Despite the wording suggesting that Pelosi hosted a “secret fundraiser” to for Islamist- and Hamas-linked groups, this claim refers to a fundraiser held for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The “Islamist and Hamas-linked groups” portion of the claim is largely based on the fact that Nihad Awad, the co-founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), attended the fundraiser. A number of other Muslim groups were also reportedly in attendance at the fundraiser, along with Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress. The Daily Caller was among the first to draw attention to Awad’s attendance at this fundraiser:  Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi headlined a high-dollar fundraiser in May that was attended by U.S.-based Islamist groups and individuals linked by the U.S. government to the Hamas jihad group and to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood movement. The donors at the undisclosed May 16 event included Nihad Awad, the co-founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations, according to data provided by the nonpartisan Investigative Project on Terrorism. The CAIR group was named an unindicted conspirator in a 2007 trial of a Hamas money-smuggling group. While it’s true that CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator during the 2007 case of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), an Islamic charity eventually convicted of funding Islamic militant groups, CAIR was not charged with any criminal activity in connection with that case. Furthermore, CAIR was one of nearly 250 organizations who were given the “unindicted co-conspirator” label during the HLF case:  CAIR is an aggressive Muslim civil liberties organization, modeled on the Anti Defamation League, that has made it a target for criticism. It was indeed named as an “unindicted co-conspirator or joint venturer” in the Holy Land Foundation case — an Islamic charity that in 2008 was convicted of funding Islamic militant groups. But CAIR was not alone in that designation; nearly 250 other organizations and individuals were also named. The federal government said the organizations were included on the list in order to produce evidence at the trial, but the district court and a federal appeals court later ruled that it had been a mistake to make the list public. The New York Times also reported that “unindicted co-conspirators” on this list were not charged with any crimes:  Technically, the prosecution can introduce statements made by any individual or organization named as an unindicted co-conspirator without such statements being dismissed as hearsay. Those on the list have not been charged with anything, but they are concerned that the label of unindicted co-conspirator will forever taint them, particularly if the Holy Land group is convicted, and that they will have no legal recourse. CAIR, of course, also denied having links to any terrorist organizations. So Pelosi and other Democrats held a Democratic fundraiser in 2012 that was attended by a number of leaders from various Muslim groups. While some critics may label groups such as CAIR as “Hamas-linked,” that label is disputed. Was Nancy Pelosi’s son, Paul Pelosi, Jr., charged with securities fraud? Status: MOSTLY FALSE The Facts: In July 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced they were bringing fraud charges against four individuals involved with the company Natural Blue Resources Inc. Although Paul Pelosi, Jr. did work for that company, he was not one of the individuals charged with securities fraud by the SEC, who didn’t even mention Pelosi Jr.’s name when they first announced the charges:  The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against four individuals and a microcap company for concealing from investors that two lawbreakers ran the company. According to the SEC’s orders instituting administrative proceedings, the mission of Natural Blue Resources Inc. was to create, acquire, or otherwise invest in environmentally-friendly companies, including an initiative to locate, purify, and sell water recovered from underground aquifers in New Mexico and other areas with depleting water resources. What investors didn’t know was that two individuals with prior law violations — James E. Cohen and Joseph Corazzi — secretly controlled the operational and management decisions of Natural Blue while calling themselves outside “consultants.” This arrangement enabled them to be de facto officers of Natural Blue and personally profit from the company without disclosing their past brushes with the law to investors. Cohen, who lives in Windermere, Fla., was previously incarcerated for financial fraud. Corazzi, who resides in Albuquerque, N.M., was previously charged with violating federal securities laws and permanently barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company … The other two individuals charged in the case are Toney Anaya and Erik Perry, who were former chief executive officers at Natural Blue. The SEC’s orders find that they misled investors by failing to disclose that Cohen and Corazzi were running the company in spite of their criminal or disciplinary histories. Subsequent SEC filings listed Paul Pelosi, Jr. as President and Board member of Natural Blue from 24 August 2009 to 10 January 2010. So Nancy Pelosi’s son was involved with a company that was charged with securities fraud years later, he was never personally charged with a crime. Was Nancy Pelosi’s brother, Franklin D. Roosevelt D’Alesandro, charged with lying during a rape trial? Status: MIXTURE The Facts: Nancy Pelosi’s brother, Franklin D. Roosevelt D’Alesandro, was charged with perjury during a rape trial in the 1950s. However, he was eventually acquitted of those charges. In 1953, D’Alesandro and 13 other youths went on trial in Baltimore for “moral charges” involving two young girls, aged 11 and 14. D’Alesandro, who was 20 at the time and was charged with statutory rape, testified that he had never seen the victims before. Although he was eventually acquitted of the rape charges (he was the only defendant to be acquitted during the trials), he was later charged with perjury. The Denton Journal reported at the time that “The perjury charge resulted from that trial. The state contended D’Alesandro lied in denying he had ever seen the girls before, or had been in a car with three other youths who testified at their trials he was with them.” Just as with the rape charges, however, D’Alesandro was eventually acquitted of the perjury charges:  A jury of four women and eight men deliberated 6 hour and 16 minutes here last night before acquitting Franklin Roosevelt D’Alesandro, 21-year-old son of Baltimore’s mayor, of a perjury charge. The “not guilty” verdict, delivered in a loud voice by Mrs. Stella B. Hughes, jury foreman, to a tension-taught crowd in Wicomico County Circuit Court, ended a 5-day trial. Young D’Alesandro, calm and poised throughout the long hours of testimony and argument and seemingly endless wait on the verdict, was jubilant when he heard the decision. After receiving a kiss on the hand from his fiancee and hugs and kisses from his crying mother, D’Alesandro planted a kiss on the cheek of Joseph Sherbow, former Baltimore Circuit Court judge, who headed the defense staff. It was Sherbow who successfully defended young D’Alesandro on a statutory rape charge in Baltimore last November when he was the only one of 16 defendents to be acquitted in a series of morals trials resulting from sex charges brought by two young girl cousins .. “In order to acquit this defendant,” Asst. State’s Atty. J Harold Grady said. “You must be convinced these eight witness who appeared before you entered into a conspiracy and made up their story out of whole cloth.” The defense countered that the only evidence of contraindications came from a “parade of trash.” Chief witness for the defense Mary Ann Jankowski, 20-year-old petite blonde fiancee of the defendant. She testified that at the time of the alleged sex offenses last July, young D’Alessandro spent every evening with her and her parents. Although it’s possible that D’Alessandro’s political power had something to do with his acquittal (whether directly or indirectly), the fact of the matter is that he was found not guilty of any crimes. Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul has a net worth of over $200 million? Status: UNPROVEN The Facts: Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul is indeed a successful businessman and investor, but the claim that he has a net worth of $202 million (which has nothing to do with criminal activity) appears to be based on a misreading of a 2015 article published by the National Review. The conservative publication reported at the time that Pelosi (not specifically her husband) listed assets worth between $43.4 million and $202 million on her 2014 financial disclosure forms: Though financial-disclosure forms list only ranges of assets and liabilities, Pelosi listed between $42.4 million and $199.5 million in assets in 2013, which was enough for Bloomberg Business to deem her the richest member of House leadership from either party. By 2014, she and her husband, investment banker Paul Pelosi, were doing even better: She reported between $43.4 million and $202 million in assets. The “Pelosi Crime Family” meme refers to the highest possible figure within a very broad range and incorrectly refers to this number as Pelosi’s net worth. However, the figure actually states the estimated value of Pelosi’s assets and doesn’t offset it with other financial aspects such as debt:  [T]he financial disclosures don’t just show substantial assets — the Pelosis have gone into lots of debt, too. Pelosi and her husband are currently paying mortgages on seven properties, totaling between approximately $9.8 million and $46.5 million in 2014, likely accruing big tax savings in the process. The couple also opened home-equity lines of credit on four of these properties, adding between approximately $1.7 million and $6.5 million to their liabilities. Claim: A meme accurately describes 'The Nancy Pelosi Crime Family.'",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The death toll from AES, a fever that affects the central nervous system, has risen from 97 reported last Monday and medical and government officials are facing mounting criticism for struggling to contain the crisis in the town of nearly 350,000 people. AES, known as ‘brain fever’ is caused by any one of a number of viruses. Symptoms include high fever, vomiting and, in severe cases, seizures, paralysis and coma. Infants and elderly people are particularly vulnerable. “I received my last update in the afternoon and according to the latest report that I have, 129 children have died so far,” Shailesh Prasad Singh, the top state medical official in Muzaffarpur told Reuters by phone. The town lies about 80 km (50 miles) from Patna, the state capital. The precise causes of AES are not known, though a majority of medical professionals say it is linked to a ferocious heat-wave. Some studies have blamed toxins in lychees, a fruit grown in abundance in orchards around Muzaffarpur. But many families told Reuters last week that their children had not eaten them in recent weeks. Singh said a team of experts, including doctors, paramedics and other government officials were working “round the clock” to contain the spread of AES, which killed more than 350 children in a previous outbreak in Bihar in 2014. Doctors from other parts of the country had been dispatched to Muzaffarpur to help staff at the Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital which had to evict a group of sick inmates from a ward to accommodate the surge in AES patients. Most of the children who died were being treated at the hospital. Nearly half of all children in Muzaffarpur are underweight, and a similar number are stunted, making them vulnerable to AES, which grips the town almost every year when summer temperatures surge. As the death toll mounts, both the Bihar and the federal governments have come under criticism for their inability to save children, and doctors and government officials have faced angry protests. On Sunday, the Bihar government suspended a doctor in Muzaffarpur for dereliction of duties, news agency ANI, a Reuters affiliate, said. India’s Federal Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan, who is himself a doctor, said last week that health officials have finalised plans for construction of a 100-bed pediatric intensive care unit in Muzaffarpur, but gave no timeframe for when it would be built. Claim: Death toll from acute encephalitis in east Indian town rises to 129 children.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: According to a 29 December 2017 story in the New York Times, Silicon Valley is going all-in on “off-the-grid” water — marketed as an untainted, healthier alternative to bottled or tap water. There’s a growing movement to drink what some people are calling “raw water,” and some companies are capitalizing by selling untreated spring water at a considerable markup at health food stores on the West Coast. Raw water proponents either buy this water or find their own natural spring water for drinking. The health risks inherent to either form of untreated water — cholera, E. coli, hepatitis, and giardia, just to name a few — have been well covered. Without sterilization procedures, there is no guarantee the water does not contain pathogens, either from the water source or introduced during the collection and bottling process. But what about the argument that, despite these health risks, there is some inherent benefit to drinking unpurified water? When intelligible, the rationalizations boil down (not literally, of course) to a collection of health aphorisms with no demonstrable relationship to untreated spring water. As a case study, we will focus on the raw water purveyor Live Water, whose arguments echo those of similar companies. Live Water, a company that has undergone a variety of name changes since its founding as “Fountain of Truth Spring Water” in 2015, is run by a man who changed his own name to Mukhande Singh from Christopher Sanborn after getting into the raw water business. According to Singh, the primary benefit imparted by his water, which he told the Times “stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery,” is beneficial bacteria that would have otherwise been removed during the sterilization process. His company’s web site reads: Living spring water is the key to unlocking a perfect micro-biome balance. The probiotics listed [in this analysis of our water] are exclusive to our unsterilized water. […] They are imperative for optimal physical and mental health. Without these probiotics we’re not able to fully assimilate all the nutrients in our food. Some beneficial bacteria are also ​proven​ to have abilities to transform harmful bacteria. Here is a published medical report supporting evidence that raw spring water has vast healing abilities. The density of scientific errors contained in this statement is considerable. Below, we will pick apart the primary misrepresentations contained within, along with the report that Singh links to: The “Perfect Micro-biome Balance” Singh first alludes to established and well-accepted science on the myriad links between gut microbiome and overall human health, falsely suggesting that because his water contains bacteria (apparently any old bacteria), it too will impart benefits. In fact, there are very specific criteria for what makes a bacterial strain viable as a dietary probiotic. Aside from not causing harm to a human, legitimate probiotics have to be able to survive the environmental conditions of the stomach and to consume material present in the stomach, among many other requirements. Even within commonly used probiotic strains like Lactobacillus, the number of species within that single classification which can actually work as a probiotic is low. A 2008 study isolated 567 lactobacilli strains from healthy human fecal samples and screened them for their probiotic potential. Only 36 of those nearly 600 strains made the cut. In other words, without knowing what bacteria specifically are present in a “raw water” sample, claims of its probiotic nature are baseless. The Bacteria in Raw Water “Are Imperative for Optimal Physical and Mental Health” Laudably, Singh provides the results of chemical and biological safety testing performed on his water, which includes a readout of the viable strains of bacteria cultured from a sample. Unfortunately, the strains identified (hailed as “recently discovered probiotics”) are are by no means exclusive to his product nor are they “imperative for optimal physical and mental health.”  The bacterial flora of Live Water belong to two somewhat obscure but closely related genera: Pseudomonas and Acidovorax. Found in soil, they are not known to impart any human health benefits, and are not listed in any studies as potential candidates for human probiotics. One major reason is that they do not consume the carbohydrates that might be found in the human intestinal tract. Instead, they consume dangerous organics such as solvents and dyes. Pseudomonas oleovorans, the most common bacterial strain in Live Water, is known primarily for its ability to degrade the triarylmethane dye malachite green. Pseudomonas putida, also found in Live Water, can be helpful as an environmental tool because it can break down the harmful solvent toluene. There is no evidence to support the claim that these play a role in “assimilating nutrients,” because — among many other reasons — toluene and triarylmethane are not nutrients. Given that most viable probiotics are harvested from human sources and not from pristine aquifers, it is unlikely that other springs used as raw water sources would provide useful probiotics. Some Bacteria “Are Also ​Proven​ to Have Abilities to Transform Harmful Bacteria” Singh alleges that certain “beneficial bacteria” can “transform harmful bacteria” into something benign. As evidence, he links to the Wikipedia page for “Phage therapy” which uses viruses called bacteriophages (not “beneficial bacteria”) to kill harmful bacteria. While some work suggests a potential role for some specific bacteriophages to affect some specific infectious bacteria, its inclusion on the Live Water website is an absolute non-sequitur because Singh provides no evidence that any bacteriophage is in his product. Bottom line: It’s not 100% clear what Singh is talking about here, but he appears to have confused bacteria with bacteriophage — an unforced error, given the wholescale irrelevance of phage therapy to his raw spring water. “A Published Medical Report Proving Raw Spring Water Has Vast Healing Abilities” Finally, Singh links to a single scientific study as evidence to support his claim that raw water has “vast healing abilities.” The linked study speculated that a single mineral spring’s ability to heal skin wounds (topically, not by drinking it) might possibly be aided by the bacteria present. (None of the bacteria in that spring was identified in Live Water). In other words, the one (preliminary) scientific study Singh actually cites is about the healing properties of soaking in a specific spring in Italy, not about drinking spring water. It is, like many other statements made on Live Water’s website, irrelevant to the issue at hand. Claim: Drinking untreated spring water, marketed as \"raw water,\" provides health benefits because they are \"probiotic.",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It’s impractical to test every potential patient, but unless the authorities can find a way to see how widespread infection is, their best answer is lockdown. Italy started out testing widely, then narrowed the focus so that now, the authorities don’t have to process hundreds of thousands of tests. But there’s a trade-off: They can’t see what’s coming and are trying to curb the movements of the country’s entire population of 60 million people to contain the disease. Even Pope Francis, who has a cold and delivered his Sunday blessing over the internet from inside the Vatican, said he felt “caged in the library.”  Thousands of miles away in South Korea, authorities have a different response to a similar-sized outbreak. They are testing hundreds of thousands of people for infections and tracking potential carriers like detectives, using cell phone and satellite technology. Both countries saw their first cases of the disease called COVID-19 in late January. South Korea has since reported 67 deaths out of nearly 8,000 confirmed cases, after testing more than 222,000 people. In contrast, Italy has had 1,016 deaths and identified more than 15,000 cases after carrying out more than 73,000 tests on an unspecified number of people. Epidemiologists say it is not possible to compare the numbers directly. But some say the dramatically different outcomes point to an important insight: Aggressive and sustained testing is a powerful tool for fighting the virus. Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, said extensive testing can give countries a better picture of the extent of an outbreak. When testing in a country is limited, he said, the authorities have to take bolder actions to limit movement of people. “I’m uncomfortable with enforced lockdown-type movement restrictions,” he said. “China did that, but China is able to do that. China has a population that will comply with that.”  The democracies of Italy and South Korea are useful case studies for countries such as America, which have had problems setting up testing systems and are weeks behind on the infection curve. So far, in Japan and the United States particularly, the full scale of the problem is not yet visible. Germany has not experienced significant testing constraints, but Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her people on Wednesday that since 60% to 70% of the populace is likely to be infected, the only option is containment. South Korea, which has a slightly smaller population than Italy at about 50 million people, has around 29,000 people in self-quarantine. It has imposed lockdowns on some facilities and at least one apartment complex hit hardest by outbreaks. But so far no entire regions have been cut off. Seoul says it is building on lessons learned from an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015 and working to make as much information available as possible to the public. It has embarked on a massive testing program, including people who have very mild illness, or perhaps don’t even have symptoms, but who may be able to infect others. This includes enforcing a law that grants the government wide authority to access data: CCTV footage, GPS tracking data from phones and cars, credit card transactions, immigration entry information, and other personal details of people confirmed to have an infectious disease. The authorities can then make some of this public, so anyone who may have been exposed can get themselves - or their friends and family members - tested. In addition to helping work out who to test, South Korea’s data-driven system helps hospitals manage their pipeline of cases. People found positive are placed in self-quarantine and monitored remotely through a smartphone app, or checked regularly in telephone calls, until a hospital bed becomes available. When a bed is available, an ambulance picks the person up and takes the patient to a hospital with air-sealed isolation rooms. All of this, including hospitalization, is free of charge. South Korea’s response is not perfect. While more than 209,000 people have tested negative there, results are still pending on about 18,000 others - an information gap that means there are likely more cases in the pipeline. The rate of newly confirmed cases has dropped since a peak in mid-February, but the system’s greatest test may still be ahead as authorities try to track and contain new clusters. South Korea does not have enough protective masks - it has started rationing them - and it is trying to hire more trained staff to process tests and map cases. And the approach comes at the cost of some privacy. South Korea’s system is an intrusive mandatory measure that depends on people surrendering what, for many in Europe and America, would be a fundamental right of privacy. Unlike China and the island-state of Singapore, which have used similar methods, South Korea is a large democracy with a population that is quick to protest policies it does not like. “Disclosing information about patients always comes with privacy infringement issues,” said Choi Jaewook, a preventive medicine professor at Korea University and a senior official at the Korean Medical Association. Disclosures “should be strictly limited” to patients’ movements, and “it shouldn’t be about their age, their sex, or their employers.”   Traditional responses such as locking down affected areas and isolating patients can be only modestly effective, and may cause problems in open societies, says South Korea’s Deputy Minister for Health and Welfare Kim Gang-lip. In South Korea’s experience, he told reporters on Monday, lockdowns mean people participate less in tracing contacts they may have had. “Such an approach,” he said, “is close-minded, coercive, and inflexible.”  Italy and South Korea are more than 5,000 miles apart, but there are several similarities when it comes to coronavirus. Both countries’ main outbreaks were initially clustered in smaller cities or towns, rather than in a major metropolis - which meant the disease quickly threatened local health services. And both involved doctors who decided to ignore testing guidelines. Italy’s epidemic kicked off last month. A local man with flu symptoms was diagnosed after he had told medical staff he had not been to China and discharged himself, said Massimo Lombardo, head of local hospital services in Lodi. The diagnosis was only made after the 38-year-old, whose name has only been given as Mattia, returned to the hospital. Testing guidelines at the time said it was not necessary to test people who had no link to China or other affected areas. But an anaesthetist pushed the protocols and decided to go ahead and test for COVID-19 anyway, Lombardo said. Now, some experts in Italy believe Mattia may have been infected through Germany, rather than China. Decisions about testing hinge partly on what can be done with people who test positive, at a time when the healthcare system is already under stress. In Italy at first, regional authorities tested widely and counted all positive results in the published total, even if people did not have symptoms. Then, a few days after the patient known as Mattia was found to have COVID-19, Italy changed tack, only testing and announcing cases of people with symptoms. The authorities said this was the most effective use of resources: The risk of contagion seemed lower from patients with no symptoms, and limited tests help produce reliable results more quickly. The approach carried risks: People with no symptoms still can be infected and spread the virus. On the other hand, the more you test the more you find, so testing in large numbers can put hospital systems under strain, said Massimo Antonelli, director of intensive care at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS in Rome. Testing involves elaborate medical processes and follow-up. “The problem is actively searching for cases,” he said. “It means simply the numbers are big.”   Italy has a generally efficient health system, according to international studies. Its universal healthcare receives funding below the European Union average but is comparable with South Korea’s, at 8.9% of GDP against 7.3% in South Korea, according to the World Health Organization. Now, that system has been knocked off balance. Staff are being brought into accident and emergency departments, holidays have been canceled and doctors say they are delaying non-urgent operations to free up intensive care beds. Pier Luigi Viale, head of the infectious disease unit at Sant’ Orsola-Malpighi hospital in Bologna, is working around the clock - in three jobs. His hospital is handling multiple coronavirus cases. His doctors are shuttling to other hospitals and clinics in the area to lend their expertise and help out with cases. In addition, his doctors also have to deal with patients with other contagious diseases who are struggling to survive. “If it drags on for weeks or months we’ll need more reinforcements,” he told Reuters. Last week, the mayor of Castiglione d’Adda, a town of about 5,000 people in Lombardy’s “red zone” which was the first to be locked down, made an urgent online appeal for help. He said his small town had had to close its hospital and was left with one doctor to treat more than 100 coronavirus patients. Three of the town’s four doctors were sick or in self quarantine. “Doctors and nurses are at the limit,” said a nurse from the hospital where Mattia was taken in. “If you have to manage people under artificial respiration you have to be watching them constantly, you can’t look after the new cases that come in.”     Studies so far suggest that every positive case of coronavirus can infect two other people, so local authorities in Lombardy have warned that the region’s hospitals face a serious crisis if the spread continues - not just for COVID-19 patients but also for others whose treatment has been delayed or disrupted. As the crisis spreads into Italy’s less prosperous south, the problems will be magnified. Intensive care facilities face the most intense pressure. They require specialist staff and expensive equipment and are not set up for mass epidemics. In total, Italy has around 5,000 intensive care beds. In the winter months, some of these are already occupied by patients with respiratory problems. Lombardy and Veneto have just over 1,800 intensive care beds between public and private systems, only some of which can be set aside for COVID-19 patients. The government has asked regional authorities to increase the number of intensive care places by 50% and to double the number of beds for respiratory and contagious diseases, while reorganizing staff rosters to ensure adequate staffing. Some 5,000 respirators have been acquired for intensive care stations, the first of which are due to arrive on Friday, deputy Economy Minister Laura Castelli said. The region has already asked nursing institutes to allow students to bring forward their graduation to get more nurses into the system early. Pools of intensive care specialists and anaesthetists are to be set up, including staff from outside the worst affected regions. To add to the burden, hospitals in Italy depend on medical personnel to try to trace the contacts that people who test positive have had with others. One doctor in Bologna, who asked not to be named, said he had spent a 12-hour day tracing people who had been in contact with just one positive patient, to ensure those who next need testing are found. “You can do that if the number of cases remains two to three,” the doctor said. “But if they grow, something has to give. The system will implode if we continue to test everyone actively and then have to do all this.”  In South Korea as in Italy, an early case of COVID-19 was identified when a medical officer followed their intuition, rather than the official guidelines, on testing. The country’s first case was a 35-year-old Chinese woman who tested positive on Jan. 20. But the largest outbreak was detected after the 31st patient, a 61-year-old woman from South Korea’s southeastern city of Daegu, was diagnosed on Feb. 18. Like the patient named Mattia in Italy, the woman had no known links to Wuhan, the Chinese province where the disease was first identified. And as in Italy, the doctors’ decision to recommend a test went against guidelines at the time to test people who had been to China or been in contact with a confirmed case, said Korea Medical Association’s Choi Jaewook. “Patient 31,” as she became known, was a member of a secretive church which Deputy Minister for Health and Welfare Kim Gang-lip said has since linked to 61% of cases. Infections spread beyond the congregation after the funeral of a relative of the church’s founder was held at a nearby hospital, and there were several other smaller clusters around the country. Once the church cluster was identified, South Korea opened around 50 drive-through testing facilities around the country. In empty parking lots, medical staff in protective clothing lean into cars to check their passengers for fever or breathing difficulties, and if needed, collect samples. The process usually takes about 10 minutes, and people usually receive the results in a text reminding them to wash their hands regularly and wear face masks. A total of 117 institutions in South Korea have equipment to conduct the tests, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The numbers fluctuate daily, but an average of 12,000 is possible, and maximum capacity is 20,000 tests a day. The government pays for tests of people with symptoms, if referred by a doctor. Otherwise, people who want to be tested can pay up to 170,000 won ($140), said an official at a company called Seegene Inc, which supplies 80% of the country’s kits and says it can test 96 samples at once. There are also 130 quarantine officers like Kim Jeong-hwan, who focus on minute details to track potential patients. The 28-year-old public health doctor spends his whole working days remotely checking up on people who have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Kim, who is doing military service, is one of a small army of quarantine officers who track the movements of any potential carriers of the disease by phone, app or the signals sent by cell phones or the black boxes in automobiles. Their goal: To trace all the contacts people may have had, so they too can be tested. “I haven’t seen anyone telling bad lies,” Kim said. “But lots of people generally don’t remember exactly what they did.”   Underlining their determination, quarantine officers told Reuters they located five cases after a worker in a small town caught the virus and went to work in a “coin karaoke,” a bar where a machine lets people sing a few songs for a dollar. At first, the woman, who was showing symptoms, did not tell the officers where she worked, local officials told Reuters. But they put the puzzle together after questioning her acquaintances and obtaining GPS locations on her mobile device. “Now, quarantine officers have maximum power and authority,” said Kim Jun-geun, an official at Changnyeong County who collects information from quarantine officers. South Korea’s government also uses location data to customize mass messages sent to cellphones, notifying every resident when and where a nearby case is confirmed. Lee Hee-young, a preventative medicine expert who is also running the coronavirus response team in South Korea’s Gyeonggi province, said South Korea has gone some of the way after MERS to increase its infrastructure to respond to infectious diseases. But she said only 30% of the changes the country needs have happened. For instance, she said, maintaining a trained workforce and up-to-date infrastructure at smaller hospitals isn’t easy. “Until we fix this,” Lee said, “explosions like this can keep blowing up anywhere.” Claim: Special Report: Italy and South Korea virus outbreaks reveal disparity in deaths and tactics.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: E-cigarettes and vaping have been the focus of a number of social media rumors. In early 2018, one such rumor appeared that using a JUUL brand e-cigarette had caused lung cancer in four students: Vaping and juuling CAN cause cancer. Talk to kids. Did I mention we should talk to kids?https://t.co/dFIpTwVNeW pic.twitter.com/99MkGL0p83 — Deborah Gilboa, MD (@AskDocG) March 5, 2018  honestly I didn’t even know juuling was a thing until it stopped being a thing bc all these kids have lung cancer now yikes :/ — mckenna 🌈✨🦄 (@swiftlydinah) February 14, 2018  Although plenty of news reports warned parents that JUULing was the newest dangerous teen trend, we have been unable to find any that reported diagnoses or death from cancer associated with use of e-cigarettes. This rumor appeared to originate with viral screenshots from an Instagram post of indeterminate origin: the juul wave is ~over~ pic.twitter.com/FcP4pMqNNw — matea cannavino (@mateacannavino) February 7, 2018  According to the screenshots, four students in total have received terminal or otherwise dire diagnoses attributed specifically to their use of JUUL products. Aside from the mention of two universities (USC and LSU), the only available detail was that a 19-year-old man purportedly was “diagnosed with lung cancer” and his “lungs [were] completely black.” This rumor comes with no supporting evidence, incidental or otherwise. Dr. Kien Vuu, professor of medicine at UCLA-David Geffen School of Medicine, addressed the plausibility of specific claims that at least four people had developed lung cancer by JUULing for a relatively short period of their lives: It is unlikely that ‘Juuling’ has a short term carcinogenic effect which would cause cancer so early in these young people. It usually takes a lag time from an exposure of a carcinogen before cancer ensues. Research into the long-term effects of e-cigarette use is ongoing, but David Levy, a professor of oncology at Georgetown Lombardi, said of data published in mid-2017: Our findings are consistent with randomized trials and those observational studies that measure frequency of e-cigarette use. These results support the use of e-cigarettes — especially, consistent use — as an effective smoking cessation aid. Since e-cigarettes are generally estimated to have a small proportion of the mortality risks of cigarettes, this represents an important life-saving intervention that doctors can recommend when other forms of treatment fail. Levy referenced a study (“E-cigarette use and associated changes in population smoking cessation: evidence from US current population surveys”) published by BMJ on 26 July 2017. Laws about minimum age for tobacco purchases vary between states. However, JUUL’s self-imposed age restriction is 21, regardless of any state laws: Beginning August 23, 2017, the minimum age to purchase JUUL products on JUULvapor.com will be 21 years or older. For some existing customers, this may mean changes to your account or delivery experience. Warranties will continue to be honored for JUUL devices purchased at retail or online for customers who are of legal age in their state. JUUL posted a statement addressing the rumor: The claim circulating on social media that individuals’ friends “have been diagnosed with cancer as a direct result of the JUUL” is unsubstantiated and reckless. For all our customers, partners and employees that are on our important mission with us to improve public health, know that we will protect the company and our customers and take legal action as appropriate. At JUUL Labs, we care deeply about our customers. Many people in the company and their friends use JUUL as well, so we include ourselves as our customers. We are a mission driven company seeking to eliminate cigarettes by providing a true alternative for adult smokers. JUUL incorporates important technological advances and best practices which include the following; First, JUUL is temperature regulated to minimize the emissions of combustion-related degradation products. Second, we do not add chemicals of concern on key FDA lists such as formaldehyde as ingredients. (Note that nicotine, while on these lists, is included in our product to facilitate switching for adult smokers.) Third, independent third party laboratories have conducted validated analytical tests on the aerosol contents of JUUL and we are excited to present these results within the SRNT scientific forum at the end of this month. Claim: JUULing, or use of a JUUL e-cigarette, has caused cancer in four students.",
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        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The article does not mention, even generally, what removing a clot using these devices might cost. In a broader way, we would have welcomed discussion of how much treating strokes costs the entire health system and how risks versus benefits of different strategies may have large effects throughout the health system. For example, if this new intervention prevents disability for more patients, might it save the system those costs? This story is not about a single research study, so it is perhaps understandable that it remains general in its comments about benefits. But we found only statement from an expert that addresses the issue: “All of these studies showed that the device can safely and effectively stop a stroke by removing blood clots.” While stopping a stroke is clearly a benefit, that sentence does not tell us by what percentage of people randomly chosen to receive the new procedure have a better long-term outcome in terms of quality of life, or die less often of later complications, or any other measurable difference. The outcome assessed in the studies, “functional independence after stroke,” is easy to understand. And the benefits were significant: 53-71% of treated patients were functionally independent following the stroke, compared to 29-40% of untreated patients. The article meets the standard by including this sentence: “The major risk of using the device is that it could tear an artery and cause bleeding in the brain, particularly since it will be used on people who have already received very potent blood thinners, Kandzari said.” It also notes, “clinical trials have shown that the risk of brain bleeding for people who received tPA and then went through mechanical clot removal is no greater than for people who just receive the blood thinner.” Some caution about the fact that we don’t know if that risk will be as low when the procedure is rolled out more widely (as opposed to being used in a highly controlled study environment) would have been welcome. This story is about a set of guidelines and not about a single research study. The guidelines are themselves based on six different randomized trials described elsewhere as of high-quality. Guidelines like these are very carefully considered by a committee. The quote from the story is: “The outcomes were uniformly positive in all of the trials,” he said. “It’s really, really good evidence.” The story also notes that the guidelines have been endorsed by other medical societies. In addition, there is discussion of limitations insofar as the story addresses how narrowly one must filter patients in order for them to fit these new guidelines. We think the discussion of evidence is sufficient to convey the quality of the research, but we wouldn’t have minded some additional detail. For example, the related news release issued for the guidelines says: “The evidence backing this new recommendation received the highest rating based on the scientific evidence reviewed, and suggests the benefits substantially outweigh the potential risks in these patients.” and further: “Evidence-based guidelines are based on clinical trials, which tell you that if you have a patient with the same characteristics of those in the trials, on average they will do much better with the treatment than if you treat them another way,” Powers said. There was no disease mongering in this story. The story quotes two experts, one of whom chaired the committee that wrote the guidelines (Powers) and the other (Kandazari) who was apparently independent of the guideline-writing process. The solicitation of an outside expert opinion is commendable, but the story should have notified readers that Dr. Kandazari is a paid consultant for companies, such as Medtronic and Boston Scientific, that make the devices that are used in these procedures. See this Wall Street Journal report and the disclosures on this online CME program. The alternative to endovascular clot retrieval is no procedure, and is made clear in the article. It’s clear from the story that these procedures can only be performed by highly-trained interventionists at specialized stroke treatment centers. The story emphasizes the importance of getting patients to these centers quickly. That’s sufficient for a Satisfactory rating, but it would have been nice to know how many of these stroke centers there are throughout the country. And do most residents in the US live close enough to get to one within the magic short window? We believe the story establishes that the procedure has been under study for some time and that the guidelines issued are new. The story quotes the author of the guidelines, and one other expert who is not an author. It does not rely solely on the news release. Claim: Heart Association's Stroke Guidelines Support Clot-Removing Device If clot-busting drugs don't work, device can be used to pull the blockage out through the artery",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An exchange between White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and a reporter for Al-Jazeera led to allegations that the reporter muttered an epithet.Right-wing social media users accused reporter Kimberly Halkett of calling McEnany a “lying bitch” after a press briefing on July 21 2020. A clip of the end of the exchange between the two posted by the “@Breaking911” Twitter account was shared more than 2,500 times on the platform:WATCH: Reporter appears to call White House @PressSec Kayleigh McEnany a “lying bitch.” pic.twitter.com/BLCISlaAbp— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 21, 2020Halkett herself wrote on Twitter that she told McEnany, “OK, you don’t want to engage.” As fellow reporter Andrew Feinberg noted, the official White House transcript of the briefing corroborates Halkett’s claim:If you’re still accusing ⁦@KimberlyHalkett⁩ of using an obscenity during today’s briefing with @PressSec, even the White House official stenographers say you’re wrong. pic.twitter.com/9T3EPDdBnR— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 21, 2020The exchange and its abrupt end stemmed from a question Halkett posed regarding United States President Donald Trump’s “concerns” about mail-in voting; Trump had recently claimed once again, falsely, that mail-in voting would lead to “the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History.” (As NBC News reported, Facebook added a label to the post urging users to “get official voting info,” without debunking the claim. )Halkett asked:So he’s obviously concerned about the integrity of the U.S. election and certainly internal sabotage. But why are we not hearing from the President about fears about external sabotage?For example, coming out of the UK today, there is a Parliamentary Committee report that says that Russia influenced the Scottish referendum; there are questions about Brexit. But we’ve really not heard the President put the Kremlin on notice with respect to the U.S. election. Will we hear from him today on that?“The President today has put the world on notice that our election systems must be secure,” McEnany responded, according to the transcript. “This is — under this President, in 2018, he articulated the first full cyber strategy for the United States since 2003. In 2019, he extended the National Emergency Declaration on Foreign Election Interference.”As Halkett continued to try to ask McEnany specifically about election interference on the part of Russia, McEnany instead cited a Wall Street Journal editorial claiming that mail-in voting had produced an “absolute catastrophe” in New York City. (A day prior to the editorial’s publication, more than 280 of the newspaper’s editors and reporters signed a letter criticizing the opinion section for a “lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence.”)“What they found is 19 percent of ballots have been rejected in Queens, 28 percent rejected in Brooklyn,” McEnany said. “There are questions about mail — mass mail-out [sic] voting.”“I’m asking about foreign interference,” Halkett replied.“And I know you don’t want to hear them, which is why you talk over me,” McEnany said. “But I encourage you to read the op-ed.”After that point, the audio becomes unclear as both women talk simultaneously, but the transcript reads:Q: Okay, let me just redirect on the China vaccine research. Russia has interfered —MS. MCENANY: Yes, you’ve gotten two questions, which is more than some of your colleagues.Yes.Q: Okay, you don’t want to engage.In May 2020, the Tampa Bay Times reported that despite claiming that there were “real concerns about mail-in voting,” McEnany herself has voted by mail in Florida, listed as her state of residence, eleven times in the past ten years. To date she has not told the newspaper whether she would support changing the state law to “to restrict voting by mail to those unable to vote in person.”The flap between Halkett and McEnany came just hours after a confirmed account of profanity against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As The Hill reported, Republican Rep. Ted Yoho cursed at Ocasio-Cortez after approaching her in the Capitol:In a brief but heated exchange, which was overheard by a reporter, Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez she was “disgusting” for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment are driving a spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.“You are out of your freaking mind,” Yoho told her.Ocasio-Cortez shot back, telling Yoho he was being “rude.”The two then parted ways. Ocasio-Cortez headed into the building, while Yoho, joined by Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), began descending toward the House office buildings. A few steps down, Yoho offered a parting thought to no one in particular.“Fucking bitch,” he said.Ocasio-Cortez later confirmed the encounter, adding: “That kind of confrontation hasn’t ever happened to me — ever. I’ve never had that kind of abrupt, disgusting kind of disrespect levied at me.”Comments Claim: Al Jazeera reporter Kimberly Halkett called White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany a \"lying bitch\" during a press briefing.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 15 February 2016, the entertainment web site Empire News published an article claiming that New York state had legalized heroin: The state of New York made history this week, following on the heels of the wave of marijuana legalizations across the country. Recreational use of heroin will become fully legal in the state by the end of this year. […] “By legalizing, monitoring, and taxing heroin, we will not only cut down on inmates and care costs, but also open up a whole new job market,” Cuomo explained. “It’s a good situation all around, especially for taxpayers.” This story is a piece of fiction from Empire News, a fake news web site that clearly labels its content as “satire” in its disclaimer: Empire News is intended for entertainment purposes only. Our website and social media content uses only fictional names, except in cases of public figure and celebrity parody or satirization. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental. While Empire News is open about its satirical content, the article was later republished by web sites such as We Are Change, Health Facts Concern, and Top Health Records, which do not clearly identify themselves as purveyors of fake news. In addition to multiple web sites sharing the fake news story, some readers may have been confused by recent stories about Ithaca mayor Svante Myrick’s controversial plan to allow heroin users to use the drug legally (but under medical supervision): An upstate New York mayor’s proposal to consider allowing heroin users to shoot up under medical supervision has divided drug policy experts, with some hailing it as an innovative, science-based approach and others rejecting it as radical and a slippery slope to legalization. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick formally announced the idea Wednesday as one of several proposals to address a wave of opioid addiction. The Democratic mayor also wants to create a new office of drug policy, help at-risk teens learn work skills and adopt a strategy implemented in Seattle that has police sending low-level drug offenders to treatment instead of jail. Claim: New York state has legalized heroin.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It’s true that those who believe a family member is risk to themselves or someone else will be able to petition the court for an “extreme risk protection order” that temporarily strips them of gun rights — but main parts of the so-called Oregon gun confiscation bill have been misrepresented. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 719 into law on August 16, 2017, and the law took effect on August 23. The bill, which is modeled after similar measures in Washington and California, enables ” a family or household member” to petition the court for an extreme risk protection order that can revoke a person’s right to own guns and ammunition for up to a year. The petitioner has to provide evidence that an individual attempted suicide within the last 180 days, or that they had been convicted on offenses like domestic abuse, drunken driving, stalking, and animal abuse, among others. The bill outlines conditions that have to be met for a judge to issue an extreme risk protection order : The court shall issue an extreme risk protection order if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence, based on the petition and supporting documentation and after considering a statement by the respondent, if provided, that the respondent presents a risk in the near future, including an imminent risk, of suicide or of causing physical injury to another person. The court may not include in the findings any mental health diagnosis or any connection between the risk presented by the respondent and mental illness. Once an order is issued and notice is served, the respondent has 30 days to appeal the decision. If an appeal is filed, a hearing has to be scheduled within 21 days for the respondent to make a case. If there’s no appeal, or if the appeal is denied, the order is enforced, and law enforcers have the authority to search and seize weapons and ammunition. Gun rights groups reported on the bill extensively, some calling it the Oregon gun confiscation bill. While many of these reports accurately summarized Senate Bill 719, others misrepresented key parts of it. One site, Silence is Consent, published a report that was shared nearly 150,000 times on social media within days. The report claimed that bill violated 14th Amendment due process rights, a claim that’s false: It’s also a direct violation of the 14th amendment, which gives United States citizens the right to a formal hearing before their property is seized: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Comments Claim:  Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed a bill into law in August 2017 that allows authorities to confiscate guns from certain individuals without prior notice or hearing. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While the release says that the test strips would be inexpensive, there is no indication of what exactly that means. Also, the assumed necessity of multiple strips for different diseases means a wide variety of test strips would be necessary. There is no indication of how the strips might compare in cost to common laboratory diagnostic tests. We know that this research is preliminary and that it might be difficult to give an accurate figure. But if it’s not too early to claim these tests “can confirm presence of infections, some cancers, even before patients feel symptoms,” then it’s not too early to give some sense of what the test might cost. The release indicates that it would be good to diagnose these diseases quickly and cheaply, but there are no hard numbers on how accurate the test strips are or how beneficial it is to diagnose a cold early. While the spread of disease might be a consideration, that is not mentioned in the release. The release doesn’t tell readers how sensitive the paper diagnostics are, or whether their sensitivity and accuracy vary from illness to illness or from medium to medium. For example, does sensitivity vary depending on whether they are analyzing blood or urine? As with all diagnostic tests, there is the risk of false or missed diagnosis that this news release doesn’t address. One can envision a scenario where cheaper, easier-to-use diagnostic tests lead to more frequent testing in situations where tests wouldn’t have been used before. The increased volume of testing could lead to more false-positive results with resulting unnecessary anxiety and treatment. There is no mention of any metrics in this news release. No indication of how well the DNA or RNA amplify or how accurately this occurs. There is no indication of false positive or negative results either. In general, the science behind this development is left out of the news release. The release does not engage in disease mongering. The news release lists all the funding sources for the project. All of the authors are McMasters University faculty or staff. The only corporate funder is Pro-Lab Diagnostics. It is unclear if any of the authors have conflicts of interest with this funding source. There is no mention of which alternative or conventional diagnostic tests the paper strips might replace. The news release makes it clear that this technology is not currently available, but says it “could be commercialized quickly.” That seems a bit optimistic to us, but we’ll give the benefit of the doubt here. In assessing the novelty of the test we took into account that paper diagnostic tools are not a new concept. Organizations such as Diagnostics For All have been working in this field since at least 2007, and paper diagnostic tools have also garnered significant news coverage. For example, MIT Technology Review listed paper diagnostics one of their 10 “breakthrough technologies” in 2009. The field is sufficiently active that there have been at least three different review papers over the past couple of years on research into paper diagnostics: here, here and here. Without some context regarding the field, it’s unclear what is novel about these new research findings or how they advance paper diagnostics. We’ll give the release a pass for this criteria even though the release talks about a new diagnostic test that “can change the medical landscape.” However, we already addressed the question of novelty and won’t ding the sponsor twice for making this claim. Claim: Researchers Develop Simple Paper Test That Quickly Diagnoses Illnesses by Changing Colour",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 17 October 2014, a natural news blog posted an article (which had initially been published over a year earlier by a different alternative health news site) reporting that a “Johns Hopkins scientist … issued a blistering report on influenza vaccines in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).” The article, timed to the start of flu season, spread rapidly on social media sites and sparked renewed interest in the subject of flu vaccines. The article referenced a 16 May 2013 feature by Peter Doshi that was published in the British Medical Journal. However, the importance of that BMJ feature was greatly exaggerated by the natural news sites that used it as the basis for their own articles. Despite BMJ’s authoritative reputation in the medical world, items published by that journal as “features” are not medical studies but rather pieces run under a “News & Views” heading. Readers unfamiliar with the BMJ can easily confuse claims made in feature articles for peer-reviewed research findings. Moreover, Johns Hopkins University had nothing to do with the so-called “blistering report” about flu vaccinations touted in natural news articles Peter Doshi is neither a virologist nor a epidemiologist, but rather an anthropologist who completed a fellowship in comparative effectiveness research at Johns Hopkins. He conducted no research into influenza or vaccines at Johns Hopkins, nor does he speak for the university on that subject. In Peter Doshi’s British Medical Journal feature, he that argued the potential risks of aggressive vaccination against the flu have not been highlighted sufficiently, and that the benefits of the flu shot are overestimated: Today around 135 million doses of influenza vaccine annually enter the US market, with vaccinations administered in drug stores, supermarkets — even some drive-throughs. This enormous growth has not been fueled by popular demand but instead by a public health campaign that delivers a straightforward, who-in-their-right-mind-could-possibly-disagree message: influenza is a serious disease, we are all at risk of complications from influenza, the flu shot is virtually risk free, and vaccination saves lives. Through this lens, the lack of influenza vaccine availability for all 315 million US citizens seems to border on the unethical. Yet across the country, mandatory influenza vaccination policies have cropped up, particularly in healthcare facilities, precisely because not everyone wants the vaccination, and compulsion appears the only way to achieve high vaccination rates. Closer examination of influenza vaccine policies shows that although proponents employ the rhetoric of science, the studies underlying the policy are often of low quality, and do not substantiate officials’ claims. The vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated. Doshi strongly suggested, without ever actually saying so, that the flu vaccine may not be beneficial at all. But he never came close to proving that point — instead, he continually harped about the notion that the effectiveness of the vaccine (and studies thereof) didn’t apply equally to everyone (an obvious point) and repeatedly picked nits about whether the precise percentages reported in published studies on the vaccine are accurate. As Forbes noted of his claims:  Doshi’s argument against the flu vaccine boils down to this: the vaccine is much less than 100% effective, and it doesn’t work for everyone. This is undeniably true, and the research community makes no secret of it. Meanwhile, though, the annual flu vaccine is usually effective: a recent study showed, for example, that it reduced children’s risk of ending up in a pediatric intensive care unit by 74%. So get your flu shot (or snort) now, before flu season hits, because it takes a couple of weeks for your body to develop immunity. By getting immunized, you’ll not only increase your chances of getting through the winter flu-free, but (because you won’t spread the flu to others) you might also save someone whose immune system would be overwhelmed by influenza. The natural news blog post referencing Doshi’s 2013 BMJ feature also quoted Dr. Russell Blaylock: For most people, says Dr. Blaylock, flu vaccines don’t prevent the flu but actually increase the odds of getting it. The mercury contained in vaccines is such a strong immune depressant that a flu shot suppresses immunity for several weeks. “This makes people highly susceptible to catching the flu,” he says. “They may even think the vaccine gave them the flu, but that’s not true — it depressed their immune system and then they caught the flu.” Blaylock, a former neurosurgeon, has a history of issuing dubious, conspiracy-based warnings about a number of suspected dangers in both science-based medicine and the environment at large, including aspartame, chemtrails, cookware, and dental amalgams. A 2009 profile in a Canadian newspaper quoted Blaylock on his belief that the Affordable Healthcare Act (or Obamacare) was in actuality a depopulation effort: “Knowing they cannot easily pass a euthanasia law or just have them rounded up and exterminated, they (the proponents of socialized medicine) use the medical care system to speed them along to their deaths.” Totalitarianism is coming and, “as the economy worsens, which they can engineer with their Federal Reserve friends, people will be more accepting of such things as euthanasia on the elderly and terminally ill, the insane, the feeble-minded and the chronically ill.” Vaccines are also one of Blaylock’s many targets. He insinuates that the H1N1 virus may be the product of some pharmaceutical research project gone awry, or that it may even be a man-made virus purposely released by someone with the “Illuminati Depopulation Agenda.” Blaylock appears regularly on right-wing radio programs such as the Alex Jones Show, where the popular topics are climate-change fraud and the supposed erosion of civil liberties under Obama. The claims made by Doshi and echoed by Blaylock hinge on a flawed, two-pronged premise: flu vaccines are a large moneymaker for pharmaceutical companies, and the vaccines aren’t really beneficial because the flu isn’t that bad and healthy people don’t die from it. First, the flu shot is not nearly as profitable to pharmaceutical companies as many imagine, generating less than one percent of global pharmaceutical company revenues. By contrast, an actual flu epidemic would likely generate far larger profits for those companies: Worldwide sales of flu vaccines in 2013 was around $3.1 billion, according to estimates of a healthcare market research firm. But let’s put this in context of the worldwide sales of all pharmaceutical products in 2013 — nearly $1 trillion. In other words, various flu vaccines make up less than 0.3% of worldwide sales of Big Pharma, so from a strategic point of view, it’s not that interesting. Just for context, cholesterol lowering drugs, like statins, sold more than $33 billion two years ago. If I were a Big Pharma executive, I’d be telling my R&D and Marketing divisions to invest in new statins, because the potential return on investment could be 10X higher. Vaccines in general have a lower net profit than other pharmaceuticals. There are many reasons for the lower profit for vaccines, but it’s mostly due to shipping and spoilage loss. For flu vaccines, it’s actually much worse. Flu vaccines are only useful for one flu season, so anything unsold at the end of the flu season is destroyed. Thus, if you look at flu vaccine as a profit center for Big Pharma, there really are better strategic and tactical choices for pharmaceutical companies. Moreover, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), tens of thousands of people (many otherwise healthy) die each year of the flu. The agency reported in 2013 that 90 percent of juvenile patients who died of the flu in that season had not been vaccinated: Pediatric deaths are defined as flu-associated deaths that occur in people younger than 18 years. An early look at this season’s reports indicates that about 90 percent occurred in children who had not received a flu vaccination this season. This review also indicated that 60 percent of deaths occurred in children who were at high risk of developing serious flu-related complications, but 40 percent of these children had no recognized chronic health problems. The proportions of pediatric deaths occurring in children who were unvaccinated and those who had high-risk conditions are consistent with what has been seen in previous seasons. Finally, much of the objection to flu vaccine marketing makes mention of the varying strains of influenza that circulate each year. A 2013 study indicated the flu shot can “provide cross protection against non-matching circulating strains” even if they are not exactly matched. Claim: A Johns Hopkins scientist issued a \"blistering report\" on flu vaccine dangers in the British Medical Journal.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Astorian reports Carole Purtle claims she was subjected to sexual harassment from a co-worker and that her complaints were ignored by her supervisor. She also claims she was retaliated against, and ultimately fired, after making the reports to the state about Medicaid. Mental health agency spokesman Michael Shipley said while Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare cannot comment on any pending matters, the agency believes all employees should be treated fairly, and they remain committed to providing a positive environment. Purtle was an adult foster home licenser in the agency’s intellectual and developmental disabilities program. Purtle first took her claims to the state Bureau of Labor and Industries. The state dismissed her complaint in June for insufficient evidence. ___ Information from: The Daily Astorian, http://www.dailyastorian.com Claim: Lawsuit filed against county mental health agency.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: State chapters of the powerful American Medical Association and other groups representing healthcare providers have been pressing governors for legal cover for decisions made in crisis-stricken emergency rooms. More than half a dozen emergency room doctors and nurses told Reuters they are concerned about liability as they anticipate rationing care or performing unfamiliar jobs due to staff and equipment shortages caused by the outbreak. Governors in New York, New Jersey and Michigan have responded with orders that raised the standard for injuries or deaths while working in support of the state’s response to COVID-19 from negligence to gross negligence, or an egregious deviation from standard care. Physicians, who have long blamed malpractice lawsuits for driving up healthcare costs, hope other states will follow. “There are too many variables here. We are going to be second-guessed,” said Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston. “We need better protection, if only to guard against unreasonable claims.”     On Monday, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, introduced legislation that would protect U.S. doctors who practice outside their area of specialty or who use a modified medical device. Doctors would also be protected for providing treatment outside standard healthcare facilities. Plaintiffs firms that specialize in malpractice are keeping an eye on how healthcare providers are responding to the crisis. The Doan Law Firm, which has offices nationwide, said on its website that some providers are adopting “untested treatment plans or use hastily-designed and manufactured patient care equipment” that could “lead to medical malpractice.”  Jimmy Doan, the firm’s founder, did not respond to a request for comment. President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the outbreak could kill up to 240,000 in the United States and said that the impact would intensify in coming weeks, potentially overwhelming hospitals. Doctors and nurses said they worried about the lack of equipment and obligations to resuscitate patients without the ventilators needed to do it. In an example of how healthcare professionals could be exposed to malpractice lawsuits, several doctors said the increasing demand for hospital beds meant they weren’t able to be as cautious as they normally might be with non-coronavirus patients. Doctors routinely order extensive testing and overnight observation for patients with mild heart conditions or strokes, even if their symptoms have disappeared once they get to the hospital, for example. Now, they are sending these individuals home to make room for COVID-19 patients. Malpractice lawsuits can be very costly. A Baltimore jury last year awarded $229 million for brain damage suffered by a girl born at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, for example. Insurance premiums can top $100,000 a year for some specialists in states without caps on damages. An image was posted on Twitter last week of a malpractice law firm’s website which featured a blog post titled “What you should know about medical negligence during the COVID-19 crisis.”  “It truly disgusts me to see what badness comes out during a crisis like this,” wrote Eugene Yang, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington who tweeted the post, which drew dozens of comments, many from healthcare professionals, sharing his rage. The website of the law firm, Mannarino & Brasfield, has been taken offline and a recorded message on the firm’s answering system said the post was published by an outside contractor. The firm’s phone message apologized and said the post did not reflect the firm’s values. Joe Belluck, a New York lawyer who brings medical malpractice cases, said he’s concerned the coronavirus crisis could be used to enact a wish list of changes sought by doctors, hospitals and the medical industry to curb unrelated lawsuits. “I just hope these things are done in a way that is tailored to the crisis taking place,” he said. Lawyers who represent patients said the law already protects medical professionals. To make their case, patients must show a medical provider negligently deviated from the reasonable standard of care for the particular circumstances. An emergency room doctor operating in the peak chaos of the coronavirus outbreak wouldn’t be judged against the standard of care provided in a physician’s private office, they said. “The question I would ask is, why aren’t the ordinary liability rules already sufficient to address the issues?” said Chip Becker of the Kline & Specter law firm in Philadelphia. Kimberly Chernoby, an emergency room doctor in Indiana who works with BWH’s Faust on brief19.com, a website that reviews COVID-19 research and policy, said she’s not reassured. “We’re in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Who knows what’s reasonable?” she said. Claim: U.S. doctors on coronavirus frontline seek protection from malpractice suits.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Immediately lifting the ban as requested by the vaping industry “would contravene the public interest,” Suffolk Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins wrote in his decision. But he said unless the state goes through the proper procedure for the adoption of an emergency regulation, which requires a public hearing, the ban will end next Monday. “Input from affected industries and members of the public is a potent safeguard against executive abuse of discretion,” Wilkins wrote. The Republican governor last month announced a statewide ban on the sale of vaping products in response to lung illnesses and deaths attributed to the use of e-cigarette products. “We always said that we knew the courts were probably going to be part of this process,” Baker said in response to Monday’s decision. “But for us the public health issues associated with this outweighed the negative consequences, which are real, and we understand that associated with the ban in the first place.” A spokeswoman for the governor says the administration will work with the state attorney general’s office on the next steps. After the governor enacted the ban, several vape shops as well as an industry group challenged it in court, saying it was destroying their business. Baker’s ban “reflects executive overreach, which violates state constitutional separation-of-powers principles” and is “arbitrary and capricious,” the plaintiffs said. Tony Abboud, the executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, said in a statement he was pleased the judge recognized that the organization is likely to prevail in court. “We regret, however, the court’s decision to allow this improper ban to stay in place for a week while the state considers other regulatory alternatives,” he said. Massachusetts public health officials say there have been 29 confirmed or probable vaping-related lung illnesses and one death in the state. Nationwide, the number of vaping-related lung injury cases has surpassed 1,400, and with 33 deaths, according to the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Claim: Massachusetts’ ban on vaping product sales allowed to stand.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: At the camp for displaced people they live in, they and other families keep warm and cook by burning the garbage that surrounds them. One by one over the years, each of the children got chest infections and other maladies from the pollution and never made it to age seven, he told The Associated Press. The 60-year-old has nine surviving children. “We didn’t have enough money for the doctor and medicine ... I can barely feed my children,” said Yousuf, who works as a porter in a vegetable market earning barely a dollar a day. Like many Afghans he uses only one name. Afghanistan’s pollution may be even deadlier than its war, now 18 years long. There are no official statistics on how many Afghans die of pollution-related illnesses, but the research group State of Global Air said more than 26,000 deaths could be attributed to it in 2017. In contrast, 3,483 civilians were killed that year in the Afghan war, according to the United Nations. Kabul, a city of some 6 million, has become one of the most polluted cities in the world — ranking in the top of the list among other polluted capitals such as India’s New Delhi or China’s Beijing. Decades of war have wrecked the city’s infrastructure and caused waves of displaced people. On most days, a pall of smog and smoke lies over the city. Old vehicles pump toxins into the air, as do electrical generators using poor quality fuel. Coal, garbage, plastic and rubber are burned by poor people at home, as well as at the many brick kilns, public baths and bakeries. Many apartment buildings have no proper sanitation system, and garbage is piled on roadsides and sidewalks. The large majority of victims are poisoned by the air in their own homes, as families burn whatever they can to keep warm in Kabul’s winters, with frequent sub-zero temperatures and snow. Children and elderly are particularly vulnerable. At least 19,400 of the 2017 deaths were attributable to household pollution, which also contributed to a loss of two years and two months of life expectancy at birth, according to the State of Global Air survey. Yousuf’s camp, home to more than a hundred families, has no proper water or sanitation system and is surrounded by garbage dumps. His and other families’ children search through the garbage for paper, cloth, sticks or plastic, anything that can be burned for fuel. “We are so poor, and we have lots of problems, we don’t have enough money for medicine, wood or coal for heating, so this is our life, my children collect garbage from dump yards and we use it for cooking and heating to keep the kids warm,” he added. Decades of war have worsened the damage to Afghanistan’s environment and have made it a huge challenge to address them. Environmental issues are far down the list of priorities for a government struggling with basic security issues, rampant corruption and a plunging economy. Three or four decades ago, “it was a wish for people to come to Kabul and breath this air,” said Ezatullah Sediqi, deputy director for the National Environmental Protection Agency. But in the wars since, “we lost all our urban infrastructure for water, electricity, public transportation, green areas, all these things,” he said. Kabul’s environmental department has launched a new program to control old vehicles, one significant source of pollution. “Fighting pollution is an important as fighting terrorism,” said Mohammad Kazim Humayoun, the department’s director. Authorities warn that this winter is expected to be colder than usual and fear that will only increase the use of pollution-creating fuels to keep warm. The Kabul municipality has also called on residents to stop burning garbage for heat and instead use fuel. “If everyone follows the instructions laid out by Kabul Municipality, the pollution could be controlled,” the municipality’s spokeswoman, Nargis Mohmand, said. But if not, “then we might live with this untreatable wound for years to come.” But fuel is either too expensive or not available for many in Kabul. Electrical heaters are too pricey for most, and power outages are frequent. Doctors at Kabul’s Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital say they’ve seen the numbers of patients with pollution-related illnesses increase, though they could not give exact figures. In the winter, hundreds of children a day sometimes come in, suffering from respiratory illnesses, according to hospital officials. Dr. Saifullah Abassin, a specialist trainer at the hospital, said his ward has a capacity of 10 patients but often has three times that number. The government has launched an environmental awareness campaign. Ads on TV, programs at schools and universities and sermons at mosques talk about pollution’s harm to society and tell listeners about steps to reduce it. But there are steps the state needs to take, like encouraging the planting of trees and creating green spaces, as well as implementing a city master plan to stop unplanned development around the capital, often a source of pollution because of their lack of services. Sediqi, of the NEPA, said that ever since the first post-Taliban government was created in 2001, there was no planning on urban infrastructure, which left individuals to build on their own. “Unfortunately, that led to unplanned development,” he said. “So now we have numerous urban problems and challenges and organizational challenges, which is causing the environmental pollution.” Claim: Afghan capital’s air pollution may be even deadlier than war.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 6 May 2016, the web site Straight Stoned published an article reporting that anti-abortion groups decided that masturbation was murder, because of the waste of sperm cells involved: The pro-life movement in the United States has long advocated their stance that human life begins at conception and that the human fetus is a person and therefore has a right to live. However, a new argument has taken flight over the last month that is taking the abortion debate to the next level. The variety in opinion on the issue of abortion is reflected in the diverse views of religious groups, but now pro-lifers are declaring “ejaculation is murder” and they want strict laws against the practice. “Life begins BEFORE conception. This is why the Catholics do not believe in birth control,” said Rachel Stratt, pro-life activist. “God made men’s semen for a purpose, and you can just “waste” that purpose by gratifying yourself whenever you want to. Every time you do, you are literally killing thousands of babies! Ejaculation is murder and every sperm cell is a life!” Stratt and her group of protesters are calling for a law that will make ejaculating for self gratification illegal in every state across the country. “Millions upon millions of innocent lives are wasted every day while men have lustful thoughts or watch those sick p*rnos on P*rnHub. We have got to put a stop to this as a human race. Save the sperm, save the children!” The image attached to the story featured a group of women protesting, one of whom was holding a sign that read “Ejaculation is Murder.” However, the image dated to 2014, and the original was subjected to some fairly obvious manipulation: Unlike many fake news sites, Straight Stoned included a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer heavily insinuating its content was not meant to be taken seriously: Your #1 Source For So Called “News” Claim: Anti-abortion groups are claiming every sperm cell is \"a life.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The approval was widely expected after the European Medicines Agency endorsed the drug in November. European health regulators typically follow EMA recommendations within a couple of months. Tecfidera will be the third oral MS drug available in Europe. However, if its impressive early performance in the United States is any indication, the Biogen drug is likely to surpass sales of Novartis’ Gilenya and Aubagio from Sanofi. Tecfidera has consistently shattered Wall Street sales forecasts and is well on the way to racking up more than $1 billion in sales in its first year on the market. Biogen reported Tecfidera sales of $398 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, only the medicine’s third full quarter since winning U.S. approval. It is also approved for sale in Canada and Australia. The introduction in Europe will start in the coming weeks, although its full roll-out will take place over the course of this year and next as Biogen must negotiate reimbursement for the treatment on a country by country basis. First up will be Germany, “where you can get pricing reimbursement rather quickly,” Tony Kingsley, Biogen’s head of global commercial operations, said in a telephone interview. “We’re ready to go,” said Kingsley, adding that Biogen’s Germany sales force for the new drug has been in place for months. Tecfidera’s prospects in Europe had been in doubt at one stage because of uncertainty about protection against generic copies. This issue was resolved in November when Biogen won 10 years of regulatory exclusivity. There are an estimated 400,000 people in Europe with multiple sclerosis. Biogen declined to comment on what type of market share Tecfidera was likely to seize in Europe. “We’re very encouraged by our U.S. experience,” Kingsley said. Robert W Baird analyst Christopher Raymond forecast 2014 Tecfidera sales outside the United States of $291 million. Looking further ahead, analysts on average forecast annual worldwide sales of the drug reaching some $6 billion by 2019, with more than a third of that coming from Europe and other non-U.S. markets, according to consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Pharma. Claim: Biogen multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera wins European approval.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The large punitive damages award is likely to be reduced due to U.S. Supreme Court rulings that limit the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages to 9:1. The jury awarded a total of $2 billion in punitive damages and $55 million in compensatory damages. It was the third consecutive U.S. jury verdict against the company in litigation over the chemical, which Bayer acquired as part of its $63 billion purchase of Monsanto last year. Both other jury verdicts also came in California, one in state court and one in federal court. The jury in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland on Monday said the company was liable for plaintiffs Alva and Alberta Pilliod’s contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a spokeswoman for the couple said. It awarded $18 million in compensatory and $1 billion in punitive damages to Alva Pilliod, and $37 million in compensatory and $1 billion in punitive damages to his wife, Alberta Pilliod. The jury found Roundup had been defectively designed, that the company failed to warn of the herbicide’s cancer risk and that the company acted negligently. The German chemicals giant faces more than 13,400 U.S. lawsuits over the herbicide’s alleged cancer risk. The next jury trial in the glyphosate litigation is scheduled for August in Missouri state court, the first time a jury outside of California will hear a Roundup case. The trial will take place in St. Louis County, where Monsanto’s former headquarters are located. Bayer in a statement on Monday said it was disappointed with the verdict and will appeal. A spokesman called the jury’s decision “excessive and unjustifiable.”   The company said both Alva and Alberta Pilliod had long histories of illnesses known to be substantial risk factors for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “The contrast between today’s verdict and (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s) conclusion that there are ‘no risks to public health from the current registered uses of glyphosate’ could not be more stark,” Bayer said. Bayer says that decades of studies by the company and independent scientists have shown glyphosate and Roundup to be safe for human use. Bayer also points to several regulators around the world that found that glyphosate was not carcinogenic to humans. Brent Wisner, a lawyer for the Pilliods, at a news conference following the verdict said Bayer had to take responsibility for its product. “Monsanto keeps denying that it causes cancer and these two fine people here are casualties of that deception,” Wisner said, standing next to the California couple, who are in their 70s. Alberta Pilliod called on Bayer to add a warning label to Roundup, saying she and her husband would not have used the product had it alerted them to a cancer risk. “We’ve been fighting cancer for more than nine years now and we can’t do any of the things we wanted to do. We really resent Monsanto for that,” Pilliod said. The prior two jury verdicts against Bayer in U.S. Roundup trials triggered steep declines in Bayer shares. A San Francisco state court jury in August 2018 awarded $289 million to a California groundskeeper, finding Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weed killers caused his cancer. That award was later reduced to $78 million and is on appeal. In March, a federal jury in San Francisco awarded $80 million to another California man after finding Roundup caused his cancer. The company also said it would appeal that decision. Adam Zimmerman, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, on Monday said it was too early to speculate about a potential settlement of the litigation by Bayer. “The legal questions on appeal in the previous two cases will ultimately inform how this litigation proceeds,” Zimmerman said. It also remains to be seen how juries in other part of the country react to the evidence in upcoming trials, he said. Shareholders have rebuked the company’s top management over its handling of the Monsanto acquisition and the litigation it inherited, which has wiped around 30 billion euros ($33.68 billion) from Bayer’s market value since the first jury verdict. The Pilliods allege the regular use of Roundup on their property between 1975 and 2011 caused them to develop cancers of the lymph system. They filed their lawsuit in 2017 after being diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and 2015, respectively. Both of them are currently in remission, but their trial had been expedited due to the risk of a relapse and potentially short life expectancy. Plaintiffs in the litigation allege that Monsanto had known about the herbicide’s cancer risk for decades, but failed to warn consumers and instead attempted to influence scientists and regulators to receive favorable assessments of its products. Bayer denies those allegations. Lawsuits are largely based on a 2015 conclusion by the World Health Organization’s cancer arm, which classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”  A 2017 Reuters investigatihere found that the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer had dismissed and edited out \"non-carcinogenic\" findings that were at odds with its final conclusion that the chemical probably causes cancer. The U.S. EPA, the European Chemicals Agency and other regulators have found that glyphosate is not likely carcinogenic to humans. Claim: Blogger Says the Vatican reports that Pope Francis tested negative for the coronavirus before a second test came back positive.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no mention of costs in this piece. Even though it calls out the drug avelumab (marketed as Bavencio) by name, the release does not talk about what a typical regimen of that drug or any other would be. Bloomberg reports that avelumab will be priced at $13,000 a month, or $156,000 for a year of treatment. The release alludes to a study in the Lancet Oncology but it does not provide any of the measurable benefits found in that study, namely that out of 88 patients who received at least one dose of the drug avelumab, 28 achieved an “objective response” within an average of about 10 months. That means that less than a third of the patients who took the drug saw something positive happen as a result. The release might make you think that, in fact, the majority of patients who take the drug see their tumors shrink. But even when a 90% reduction in tumor mass occurred (as was the case of the patient profiled), it would not automatically translate into longer survival for all patients. The release states that almost a third of patients in the trial “with no hope at all of surviving” benefited from the drug. What does no hope at all mean? Were all of the patients in the trial at stage 4 of the disease? The release doesn’t tell us. The same study named in the release shows that multiple patients had side effects from the drugs. These are not mentioned in the release. The side effects occurred in two patients who developed lymphopenia (abnormally low white blood cells), one who had an increase in blood creatine phosphokinase which could indicate muscle inflammation or damage, and other disorders. There were also “serious treatment-related adverse events” in five patients, including enterocolitis [inflammation of the small intestine and the colon], infusion-related reaction, aminotransferases [enzymes related to the liver] increased, chondrocalcinosis [calcium deposits in cartilage], synovitis [joint inflammation], and interstitial nephritis [inflammation of the kidneys]. We think that patient stories should be used judiciously and balanced with a full representation of the evidence. In this case, the story of one patient is used as a stand-in for all patient experiences in the absence of any measurements of benefits or risks. We don’t think that it is a fair representation of the two-thirds of patients who may see no benefit from the drug, including the fraction who may actually have a serious adverse reaction. While the news release notes that this is the first treatment approved by the FDA for MCC, it does not highlight that this is only a phase II study so there’s no direct evidence that the new treatment is better than the existing treatments. Beyond linking to a Lancet Oncology article, the release doesn’t tell us anything about the study upon which the approval was based. At minimum we’d like news releases to tell us how many patients were enrolled in the study and for how long. According to the published study, 88 patients were enrolled in the trial and received at least one dose of avelumab over the course of the 14-month trial period. Most patients were followed up at 10.4 months. Among the 88 patients, 28 (31.8%) had an “objective response,” 8 had an “incomplete response” and 20 had “partial responses” by the end of the study. We aren’t provided with data on the average survival for the disease following treatment, but that may be because the 10+-month follow up was of insufficient duration to meaningfully assess the new drug. As mentioned under harms, there were numerous serious side effects. Presenting absolute risks and mortality data would have provided important context to the study. There is no overt disease mongering in the release. It provides some context on MCC and how often it occurs in relation to melanoma, the most common form of skin cancer. However, the comment that MCC is “35 times less common than melanoma, but on average, it is about three times more likely to be deadly,” is difficult to interpret. The release appropriately explains that the clinical trial in question was for a drug made by Merck and that the lead scientist in the clinical trial receives ongoing funding from other companies. (We should note, too, that one of the reviewers on this news release, Bill Heisel, works at the University of Washington where some of the researchers on the clinical trial work as faculty.) The release makes no mentions of, or comparisons to, other therapies. Standard therapies include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The release makes it clear that this is the first therapy approved by the FDA for this particular type of cancer once it has spread. The release focuses on the fact that “Avelumab is the first FDA-approved treatment for metastatic MCC and the first disease that the drug has ever been approved to treat.” Immunotherapy is an emerging area of research, and the release appropriately explains why this particular approval is important. The release doesn’t use sensational or unjustified language. Claim: Immunotherapy Drug Becomes First Therapy Approved by FDA for Rare Skin Cancer",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release provides no cost information on the drug and the additional testing and additional radiographic work that would be part of this treatment. The release lacks information on key outcomes such as months of disease-free survival or death rates. This is the closest we get to any quantification of benefits: “We showed that a subset of men whose tumours had mutations in their DNA repair machinery responded particularly well to treatment with olaparib.” No harms are mentioned. Summaries of studies need qualifiers. The trial was a controlled clinical trial (not observational) in that the researchers selected the subjects and decided what to treat them with. But it wasn’t randomized or blinded which made it ripe for potential biases. The subset of men in this study were dying of prostate cancer. There was no disease mongering about their condition. We recognize that it can be challenging to sort out and explain complex partnerships in a brief news release but it is better to point out that potential conflicts exist. Although the release mentions a pharmaceutical backer of the study (AstraZeneca) and lists other funders, the vast majority of investigators had multiple, complex ties to pharmaceutical makers including some who have patents and other commercial interests in the success of these treatments. These are mostly highly financially conflicted researchers whose conflicts are never mentioned in the news release, even though we know that such financial entanglement will mean that any news release will put the best possible face on the outcome of their research. This criteria doesn’t apply since all the gene-specified patients were given the same treatment. The release implies that the study enrolled patients whose alternative treatments had failed, but it doesn’t say what those treatments were. We’ll rate this Not Applicable. The story nods to the availability of the drug used in the study in the UK when it says it “was licensed last year for women with ovarian cancer and inherited BRCA mutations, but so far has not been approved for use on the NHS by NICE or the Cancer Drugs Fund.” However, we aren’t left with any idea if the gene testing carried out here is widely available. That’s a critical point that should have been addressed. The release states that this is the “First trial to show benefit of ‘precision medicine’ in prostate cancer.” We suspect that this kind of prostate cancer mutation-specific targeting is novel for prostate cancer. It isn’t in the field of oncology in general, however. There is some unjustified language here that is inappropriate including the phrases: “pioneering drug,” “a milestone in cancer treatment,” ” a significant step forward” and “cutting-edge genomic sequencing, and “highly effective at treating men with DNA repair defects.” Let’s recall that the drug hasn’t been shown to help anyone live longer. Claim: Landmark clinical trial shows gene-targeted drug can treat prostate cancer",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a transcript dated February 24 2020, radio personality Rush Limbaugh claimed that novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is no more dangerous than “the common cold,” adding that he believed that concern over the new strain of disease was simply part of an effort to make United States President Donald Trump look bad:RUSH: Folks, this coronavirus thing, I want to try to put this in perspective for you. It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump. Now, I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus. (interruption) You think I’m wrong about this? You think I’m missing it by saying that’s … (interruption) Yeah, I’m dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.The Drive-By Media hype of this thing as a pandemic, as the Andromeda strain, as, “Oh, my God, if you get it, you’re dead.” Do you know what the — I think the survival rate is 98%. Ninety-eight percent of people get the coronavirus survive. It’s a respiratory system virus. It probably is a [Chinese] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized. All superpower nations weaponize bioweapons.According to Limbaugh, perception of novel coronavirus — COVID-19 — and its dangers did not stem from epidemiological data. Rather, he posited on his syndicated radio show, the death of 34-year-old doctor Li Wenliang (who both discovered and succumbed to the strain) was the cause of global concern over the virus’ risk.In that excerpt, Limbaugh appeared to contradict himself, claiming that Li Wenliang “didn’t know what he was dealing with,” thus leading to his death:It originated in China in a little — well, not a little town. It’s a town that is 11 million people, Wuhan, China. One of the reasons they’re able to hype this is that the doctor what warned everybody about it came down with it and died. So if a doctor got it, “Oh, my God, Rush! A doctor got it? You can’t possibly be right if a doctor can’t protect himself.” He didn’t know what he was dealing with. He discovered it back in December [2019]. I’m telling you, the [Chinese] are trying to weaponize this thing.After alleging without any evidence that the novel strain of coronavirus was being weaponized by China, Limbaugh went on to assert that the reason for what he characterized as falsified or exaggerated worldwide concern was simply to “bring down Trump”:But the way [COVID-19 is] being used … I believe the way it’s being weaponized is by virtue of the media, and I think that it is an effort to bring down Trump, and one of the ways it’s being used to do this is to scare the investors, to scare people in business. It’s to scare people into not buying Treasury bills at auctions. It’s to scare people into leaving, cashing out of the stock market — and sure enough, as the show began today, the stock market — the Dow Jones Industrial Average — was down about 900 points, supposedly because of the latest news about the spread of the coronavirus.Limbaugh’s secondary claim — that stories about the novel coronavirus were overhyped or exaggerated to politically harm Trump — did not really hold water in the global context of a virus identified first in China. World health officials attended to concerns about and research into COVID-19, and focus on the strain was in no way exclusive or limited to the United States.His primary claim was more solid as well as more verifiable. Limbaugh specifically said “the coronavirus is the common cold,” from which we ought to be able to reasonably deduce Limbaugh intended to suggest COVID-19 posed a risk equivalent to that of the common cold, which seemed incongruent with his own example of the youthful Dr. Li’s death from the strain.Regarding “the common cold,” no one virus is typically responsible for the cluster of respiratory infections going by that name. Rhinoviruses in general are the most common culprit in colds, and symptoms tend to be restricted to fatigue, a stuffy nose, a sore throat, headache, coughing, sneezing, congestion, and low-grade fever. Rarely complications can result, such as ear infection, opportunistic infection (such as strep throat), and pneumonia.According to The Conversation’s “Can you die from a common cold?”, rhinoviruses cause “about half of all colds, but other viruses can cause one or more of the symptoms of a cold, including adenovirus, influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus and parainfluenza virus.” In most cases, colds are mild and inconvenient, but not always:The common cold is normally a mild illness that resolves without treatment in a few days. And because of its mild nature, most cases are self-diagnosed. However, infection with rhinovirus or one of the other viruses responsible for common cold symptoms can be serious in some people. Complications from a cold can cause serious illnesses and, yes, even death – particularly in people who have a weak immune system.A primary point of note in comparing known coronavirus strains and the cluster of viruses known as the common cold involves mortality rate. A 2011 article published in the medical journal BMJ Clinical Evidence indicated that colds cause “no mortality or serious morbidity”:Common colds are usually short lived, lasting a few days, with a few lingering symptoms lasting longer, especially cough. Symptoms peak within 1 to 3 days and generally clear by 1 week, although cough often persists. Although they cause no mortality or serious morbidity, common colds are responsible for considerable discomfort, lost work, and medical costs.For clarity on the difference, we turned to a January 2020 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, better known as JAMA. That article’s headline was in fact “Coronavirus Infections — More Than Just the Common Cold.”Noting that coronaviruses are “large, enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses” which are “endemic globally and account for 10% to 30% of upper respiratory tract infections in adults,” the article began by stating that the viruses were often underestimated. However, citing previous coronavirus outbreaks (such as those called SARS and MERS respectively), the JAMA article reported that both led to “alarming morbidity and mortality” in those infected:Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have long been considered inconsequential pathogens, causing the “common cold” in otherwise healthy people. However, in the 21st century, 2 highly pathogenic HCoVs—severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)—emerged from animal reservoirs to cause global epidemics with alarming morbidity and mortality. In December 2019, yet another pathogenic HCoV, 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), was recognized in Wuhan, China, and has caused serious illness and death. The ultimate scope and effect of this outbreak is unclear at present as the situation is rapidly evolving.As of the article’s January 2020 publication, authors described an uncertain scope for COVID-19, in a situation which was then “rapidly evolving.” Authors further stated that nearly two decades after the first outbreak of SARS in 2002, “factors associated with transmission of SARS-CoV … remain poorly understood.”In 2012, a second novel strain of coronavirus known as MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) was identified in Saudi Arabia. Authors contrasted SARS’ rapid spread (“contained and eliminated in relatively short order”) with MERS having “smoldered,” spreading slowly. Nevertheless, of nearly 2,500 known MERS infections, 858 people died:MERS-CoV has not yet sustained community spread; instead, it has caused explosive nosocomial [hospital-based] transmission events, in some cases linked to a single superspreader, which are devastating for health care systems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of November 2019, MERS-CoV has caused a total of 2494 cases and 858 deaths, the majority in Saudi Arabia.Based on those specific figures, MERS appeared to have a mortality rate of about 34.4 percent. The authors said  it appeared that the fatality rate of 2019-nCoV was lower than that of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV; “however,” they added, “the ultimate scope and effects of the outbreak remain to be seen.”Throughout the article, authors demonstrate differences between coronaviruses (such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19) and respiratory infections (among which is the “common cold.”) While respiratory infections can develop into pneumonia, an infection observed alongside coronaviruses, MERS patients in particular often present with “prominent gastrointestinal symptoms and often acute kidney failure”; SARS patients frequently presented with “fever, cough, dyspnea, and occasionally watery diarrhea.”The article concluded by emphasizing nascent public health information about COVID-19, calling for immediate action and timely countermeasures to prevent a larger outbreak of the strain:While the trajectory of this outbreak is impossible to predict, effective response requires prompt action from the standpoint of classic public health strategies to the timely development and implementation of effective countermeasures. The emergence of yet another outbreak of human disease caused by a pathogen from a viral family formerly thought to be relatively benign underscores the perpetual challenge of emerging infectious diseases and the importance of sustained preparedness.Both SARS and MERS had years of epidemiology behind them; COVID-19 was not identified until December 2019. As of February 2020, the strain had been known for roughly three months. A February 12 2020 Vox piece explained why COVID-19’s mortality rate had been elusive:The mortality rate, known to epidemiologists as the “case fatality risk,” is vital for assessing the possible impact of an outbreak. Unfortunately, most of what has been reported about the mortality rate of the novel coronavirus is wrong.Many media reports simply compare the total reported number of deaths with the overall reported number of cases. This is, intuitively, the fraction of people who die from the disease. But early in an outbreak, this type of simple calculation is often misleading.The first cases identified in an outbreak are typically people who are quite ill, which is how their disease comes to the attention of health authorities in the first place. For this reason, early mortality rates estimated from only those early patients who require medical care will be high.Later in the outbreak, as physicians and epidemiologists get better at identifying cases, the opposite problem emerges. As the outbreak grows, more people are diagnosed each day than were diagnosed a week ago, meaning that most people are still in the midst of their illness. Mortality estimates that include those people who do not have an outcome yet will undercount the mortality rate.Vox provided an example of how tenuous the estimated mortality rate for the novel coronavirus was:For example, many outlets are reporting that the mortality rate of COVID-19 is around 2 percent, because 1,017 of 42,708 cases in China have died. But of those 42,708, about half were diagnosed just in the last seven days and are likely still experiencing symptoms, so their outcome is not yet known.As of late February 2020, COVID-19 was often described as having a three percent mortality rate. But a study’s press release issued by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) and published in JAMA provided updated figures on February 24 2020, suggesting a 2.3 percent rate of mortality based on limited data collected after December 2019 by researchers in China:Researchers from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention today describe the clinical findings on more than 72,000 COVID-19 cases reported in mainland China, which reveal a case-fatality rate (CFR) of 2.3% and suggest most cases are mild, but the disease hits the elderly the hardest. The study, published in JAMA, is the largest patient-based study on the novel coronavirus, which was first connected to seafood market in Wuhan, China, in December, and has since traversed the globe.Another area where Limbaugh’s common cold comparison looked inaccurate was the case-fatality rate (CFR) in critical cases, which was 49 percent:The overall case-fatality rate (CFR) was 2.3% (1023 deaths among 44 672 confirmed cases). No deaths occurred in the group aged 9 years and younger, but cases in those aged 70 to 79 years had an 8.0% CFR and cases in those aged 80 years and older had a 14.8% CFR. No deaths were reported among mild and severe cases. The CFR was 49.0% among critical cases. CFR was elevated among those with preexisting comorbid conditions—10.5% for cardiovascular disease, 7.3% for diabetes, 6.3% for chronic respiratory disease, 6.0% for hypertension, and 5.6% for cancer. Among the 44 672 cases, a total of 1716 were health workers (3.8%), 1080 of whom were in Wuhan (63%). Overall, 14.8% of confirmed cases among health workers were classified as severe or critical and 5 deaths were observed.Researchers added again that a complete picture was not available based on limited data and disparate CFRs. Study authors advised interpreting early numbers with caution, emphasizing that further research was required:As of the end of February 18, 2020, China has reported 72 528 confirmed cases (98.9% of the global total) and 1870 deaths (99.8% of the global total). This translates to a current crude CFR of 2.6%. However, the total number of COVID-19 cases is likely higher due to inherent difficulties in identifying and counting mild and asymptomatic cases. Furthermore, the still-insufficient testing capacity for COVID-19 in China means that many suspected and clinically diagnosed cases are not yet counted in the denominator. This uncertainty in the CFR may be reflected by the important difference between the CFR in Hubei (2.9%) compared with outside Hubei (0.4%). Nevertheless, all CFRs still need to be interpreted with caution and more research is required.Limbaugh claimed that a novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) was “the common cold,” and outbreaks were being exaggerated for political purposes. Common colds are typically caused by rhinoviruses, not coronaviruses. Information about COVID-19 remained preliminary, with researchers constantly emphasizing the need for additional information before drawing conclusions about factors such as case-fatality rate, or CFR. Common colds have no known rate of mortality (although in rare cases death can occur), and coronaviruses can have double-digit rates of fatality. The most recent estimate for COVID-19’s mortality rate was 2.3 percent, a number that could change and was described in published research as “crude” — but the severity of the novel strain of coronavirus was inarguably stronger than that of the common cold. Claim: Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is no more dangerous than the common cold, and it's being blown out of proportion to make the President of the United States look bad.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An estimated 88,000 people die in the United States each year from drinking too much alcohol, but only one out of six adults overall and one in four binge drinkers have discussed their drinking habits with their doctors, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That practice needs to change, CDC Director Thomas Frieden said. “It should be a part of routine patient care,” Frieden said. “In the same way we screen patients for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, we should be screening for excess alcohol use.”  The study’s findings were based on 166,000 interviews in 44 states and the District of Columbia in 2011. The percentage of patients who had ever discussed their drinking with a health care provider ranged from a low of 8.7 percent in Kansas to 25.5 percent in Washington, D.C.  Doctors are often too busy to screen patients for alcohol abuse and may view treatment options as ineffective, the CDC said. But asking patients about their alcohol use and then offering advice on how to reduce it, or referring the most serious cases for specialized treatment, can be effective in many cases, Frieden said. “Counseling for five, 10, 15 minutes can result in a substantial reduction in problem drinking,” he said. Drinking too much can increase chances of heart disease, liver damage, breast cancer and other health problems, the CDC said. The CDC defines binge drinking as five or more drinks in a few hours for men and four or more for women. Adult men should average no more than two drinks a day and women no more than one daily, the health agency said. The federal Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires new insurance plans to cover alcohol screening with no patient co-pay, Frieden said. Claim: Most U.S. doctors fail to discuss alcohol with patients: study.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not mention the cost of bioidenticals, which are typically about $50/month, similar to the cost of conventional HRT. On the website of a company mentioned, BodyLogicMD, costs are estimated at $200-400 for an initial visit, $125 to $250  for a follow-up visit (recommended every 3 months) and $30-$100 a month for the hormones themselves, this is not a good benchmark for costs of bioidentical hormone treatment. The BodyLogicMD site touts specific physicians in 6 states who provide an exam, testing, and prescription, but any physician can provide a prescription for bioidentical hormones at a routine office visit. The story provides no quantitative data about the safety or efficacy of bioidentical hormones. Positive testimonials from a physician employee of a bioidentical supplier, a celebrity and women who have experienced fewer menopausal symptoms are not a substitute for quantitative evidence. The comment that a unique \"natural\" hormone product can be tailored to a woman's chemistry is not proven. The story provides appropriate caveats that the bioidentical hormones are not carefully regulated by the FDA and they may pose the same health risks to some women as synthetic HRT (i.e. increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease). The story mentions that until  definitive data exist, we do not know if these hormones are safe. The story provides no evidence that bioidentical hormones are more effective or less risky than synthetic hormone replacement medications. There is poor balance – not even an expert to counter the claims of the proponents, let alone other evidence. (For example, the North American Menopause Society's official published position is that bioidentical hormones should not be assumed to be any safer than conventional HRT.) The story appropriately stresses that menopause is a natural part of aging and not a disease which necessitates medical intervention. Unless symptoms are very bothersome, many women do not need to take hormone therapy replacement (HRT) to ease symptoms common in menopause, such as hot flashes, cold sweats and vaginal dryness and discomfort. Susan Love is the only unbiased expert commenting on safety. There are two other highly biased experts speaking in favor of bioidentical hormones. The reporter's comments provide important counterweight. But the balance of the piece is thrown off by the inclusion of two  quotes from a representative of BodyLogicMD, a distributor of bioidentical hormone therapy. And the story never mentions that the company is, indeed, a distributor of bioidentical hormone therapy. The story does mention that traditional hormone therapy should be evaluated on a case by case basis. Short-term use is not risky for every woman if the benefits of reduced symptoms outweigh increased risks of breast cancer and heart disease. What is not mentioned are less risky lifestyle changes and evidence-based, non-hormonal pharmaceutical options for dealing with menopausal symtoms. In randomized controlled trials, certain anti-depressant and anti-seizure medications have been shown to reduce hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause in some women. (See a review of a previous story on this topic.) Specifically, the story does not talk about the least invasive  treatments for managing symptoms of menopause such as exercise, vaginal creams, and wearing loose, cool clothing to prevent discomfort from hot flashes and cold sweats. The story does not mention where bioindentical hormones are available. However, the story mentions that 3,000 pharmacies in the U.S. fill orders for custom-made hormonal compounds. The story mentions these hormones are not well-regulated and we are not told if you need a prescription. The story presents bioidentical hormones as a newer option to relieve bothersome symptoms of menopause. The story accurately reports that the active ingredients of these \"newer\" hormones are the same ones used in synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT). We can't judge if the story relied solely or largely on a news release. Several sources were quoted, although two of the quotes came from a representative of a company promoting these products. Claim: New hormone therapy sparks debate",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Department of the Interior hopes to conduct a lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by the end of the year but environmental groups say they will challenge those plans in federal court and the court of public opinion. “We will not tolerate the administration’s brazen attempt to paper over the impacts of this disastrous proposal, and we will see them in court,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife. They claim an environmental review was rushed, incomplete and preordained and that it presents only a fraction of the long-term damage that will occur if drilling rigs are allowed into what’s now a wilderness area. “Speculative threats of legal action cannot cloud the reasoning contained in our analysis, which was developed with information provided by numerous stakeholders, including tribal elders, wildlife biologists, anthropologists and elected officials, in addition to data-sharing with the Canada government’s Environment Yukon and dialogue with the International Porcupine Caribou Board, as well as almost 2 million public comments submitted during the process,” Bureau of Land Management spokesman Derrick Henry said in an email to The Associated Press. “This analysis is a big step in carrying out the clear mandate we received from Congress to develop and implement a leasing program for the Coastal Plain,” Henry wrote, adding that any future actions would require separate environmental analysis. The refuge in the northeast corner of Alaska was created in 1960 and expanded by Congress in 1980 to nearly the size of South Carolina. About 12,500 square miles (32,375 sq. kilometers) are formally designated as wilderness. However, Congress ordered that 2,300 square miles (5,957 sq. kilometers) of refuge coastal plain be studied for natural resources. The coastal plain is the area between the Arctic Ocean and mountains of the Brooks Range. During winter, pregnant polar bears use it for dens. In spring, it’s the preferred nursery for the Porcupine Caribou Herd. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the plain holds 10.4 billion barrels of oil. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has called the coastal plain North America’s greatest prospect for conventional petroleum production. Drilling is supported by virtually everyone elected in recent years to statewide office in Alaska because it would create jobs, put oil in the trans-Alaska pipeline and put cash in the coffers of state government. Congress did not take a direct vote on opening the refuge. Instead, a provision for lease sales was included in President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017. The law amended the tax code, reduced tax rates for businesses and individuals and aimed to make up for the loss of that revenue with new money generated by sources that include lease sales in the Arctic wildlands. Henry said that act requires a lease sale by 2021. The Bureau of Land Management spent a year on an environment review and by February was holding public hearings in Alaska on the document. The environmental review listed a “no-sale” alternative but the agency did not consider it, said Joe Balash, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the time. “A no-action alternative would fly in the face of what Congress told us to do,” Balash said at the Anchorage hearing. Environmental groups that fended off oil rigs in the Arctic Refuge for four decades were mortified. More than 30 subsequently formed a coalition for its protection, the Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign. The group on Oct. 15 took out a half-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal telling potential bidders that they will face legal challenges and damage to their reputations if they bid on the refuge. “It’s not something we are just going to accept because it was snuck into a tax bill,” said director Desiree Sorenson-Groves. “There should have been fair and open debate and there wasn’t,” she said. “If oil companies and folks want to bid on this, they need to do it with their eyes wide open.” Environmental attorneys say the environmental review is flawed. “Until we see the record of decision, we can’t say anything about potential lawsuits or the specific grounds for them, but I can tell you that the final EIS (environmental impact statement) is so deficient in how it looks at impacts to the coastal plain, and so dismissive of the legal requirements for protecting these sacred lands, that there could be many, many grounds for a lawsuit,” said Brook Brisson, an attorney for Trustees of Alaska. More than 80% of the coastal plain serves as critical denning habitat for threatened polar bears, said attorney Kristen Monsell of the Center for Biological Diversity, adding the BLM significantly underestimates effects of seismic testing and other exploration activity. Polar bear primary habitat is sea ice, which has been significantly reduced by climate change. Polar bear preferred denning habitat is on shore. To protect polar bear dens, the review relies on den detection studies conducted in advance of oilfield activity, Monsell said. “Even under ideal conditions, den detection surveys are effective only 50% of the time,” she said. “This means that the agency arbitrarily dismissed the risks from seismic, including the likelihood that denning polar bears will be run over and killed by seismic vehicles.” The review fails to take a hard look at greenhouse gas pollution on polar bears, she said, both emissions from oilfield operations and emissions produced by oil extracted from the refuge. “It does not acknowledge how the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of opening the refuge to drilling will affect the likelihood of sea ice loss destabilizing the established polar bear recovery thresholds,” she said. Changing the law that requires lease sales is the ultimate goal, said Sorenson-Groves. The short-term goal is to let oil companies, financial institutions and insurance companies that there will be consequences if they are involved with bidding on refuge leases. “Do you want to be the oil company that helped put polar bears on the endangered species list?” she asked. “These are serious questions that you have to grapple with. They’re not going to get a pass.” Claim: Critics gear up for response to lease sale in Arctic refuge.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In May 2020, a video emerged and circulated widely on social media that supposedly shows a person revealing the shocking discovery that the word “COV-19” was inscribed on a piece of 5G equipment: But the piece of equipment featured in this video did not come from a 5G tower. This is actually a circuit board from an old set-top television box. The word “COV-19” is also inauthentic. The above-displayed video deals with a widespread (and repeatedly debunked) conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 coronavirus disease was being spread by 5G cellular towers. This is not true. This conspiracy theory is a blend of two other false notions about mobile technology and the COVID-19 global pandemic. First, some people have been expressing concern over the impact of mobile technology on human health for years. These concerns are largely overblown, however, as research from such entities as the World Health Organization has shown that “no adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies.” Second, a number of conspiracy theories concerning the origins of COVID-19 have been floated since the beginning of the pandemic, including the far-fetched idea that the disease was a “bio-weapon.” This, again, is not true. At some point, conspiracy theorists started to tap into general fears about mobile technology in order to spread unfounded rumors about the spread of COVID-19. The man in this video claims he is not an adherent of these conspiracy theories, but mentions that he also can’t explain why “COV-19” was written on a piece of 5G equipment. He states: “I don’t really know any product by any company that produces circuitry like this that has the brand name COV-19, but that’s what it says on the fucking circuit board. I’m not a fucking conspiracy theorist, but obviously I’ve read all that stuff online about coronavirus and COVID-19, but why the fuck are they putting circuitry like that in towers like that?” But this piece of equipment was not taken from a 5G tower, and the word “COV-19” was likely added to this circuit board in an attempt to falsify “evidence” for this conspiracy theory. While this video never provides a truly clear glimpse of this piece of equipment, we were able to glean some details by taking screenshots from the video. At one point, for instance, the name of the company that actually manufactured this device (Hannstar) can be seen: Claim: A video shows a piece of 5G equipment with \"COV-19\" inscribed on it. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: We like this story’s approach. The story could have easily stated that it’s just too early to know – end of story. Instead, it stated: The story gave very specific details on what happened to trial subjects’ cell counts – and over what span of time. Of course it’s too soon to know if those lab results will translate into differences in the peoples’ lives. But a MedPage Today story carried a more significant statement from a member of the conference program committee:  “We do not know yet from the experiments whether there is any antiviral activity.” Good job in saying: “The only side effect was two days of flulike symptoms. It will take longer to determine safety” Lots of details on what the evidence showed. Many caveats included. There could have been some more, though. A MedPageToday story stated “all six patients involved in the study had well-controlled HIV, so it was impossible to see if there would be a therapeutic effect.” That same story also noted that another presentation at the same meeting gave results of a similar process in mouse research – but the protective effect wore off over time. This AP story could have included that same information to be more complete. The story also could have included a reminder that the research was published only as a short abstract and presented at a scientific conference – and that it had not undergone the kind of rigorous peer review that a journal article would be expected to undergo. No disease mongering here. Several independent sources were quoted. Within the realm of other gene therapy attempts, the story explained, “This is the first time researchers have permanently deleted a human gene and infused the altered cells back into patients. Other gene therapy attempts tried to add a gene or muffle the activity of one, and have not worked against HIV” The story  made it clear that this was a very preliminary report. The story explained this was the first test of the new approach and that a report on a second, federally-funded study was due in another day. It’s clear that the story did not rely on a news release. Claim: Gene therapy raises hope for a future AIDS cure",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: With an IQ of more than 200, she graduated from Wichita East High School’s IB program with enough college credits to enter college as a sophomore, earned top honors in her medical class, completed a residency at one of the United States’ top plastic surgery programs and became a hand and reconstruction surgeon in Houston. But her genius-level mind and her personal demand for perfection turned on her when it came to her own body. On May 5, 2018, she succumbed to the pain caused by the eating disorder anorexia nervosa and the accompanying depression and anxiety she had been diagnosed with at age 12, the Wichita Eagle reported. Her father, Paul Harrison, a Wichita trauma surgeon who retired from a 40-year practice this year, is sharing Bridget’s story to raise awareness about eating disorders and is going even further — nearly 1,000 miles on a bike trip from Wichita to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada — to raise funds for research for the National Eating Disorders Association. Harrison, his older brother Kelly and their childhood friend Rick Stephens are setting out for an anticipated 11-day trip at 8 a.m. on May 10 from the Wichita State Woodman Alumni Center in Wichita. The three are all WSU alums. National surveys estimate about 20 million women and 10 million men in America will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives, according to the NEDA. The cause can’t be pinpointed, but consensus is that a range of biological, psychological and sociocultural factors contribute, the NEDA says. Eating disorders are serious mental and physical illnesses and include not only the more familiar anorexia or bulimia disorders but others such as pica, in which non-food substances are eaten. According to the NEDA, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental health concern. Many deaths are by suicide, said Bridget’s longtime therapist, Beth Hartman McGilley, a certified clinical eating disorders specialist. Bridget had been openly talking about ending her life for about seven years, said Harrison. After years of severely restricting her diet and over-exercising her underweight body with a rigid routine — common behaviors for anorexics, Bridget was experiencing more physical pain along with the mental pain of her disorder. She was recovering from hip surgery at the time of her death. “When she would talk about wanting to die, I would tell her, ‘You don’t realize how much that would hurt your family,’ and she would say, ‘You don’t realize how much I hurt,’” Harrison recalled, emphasizing the I. Bridget wasn’t always in pain. Born Oct. 6, 1983, she was the youngest of Paul and Carolyn Harrison’s three children, all daughters driven to excel. Oldest daughter Alicia is an orthopedic surgeon and Megan has a career with ExxonMobile. Carolyn is a nurse-educator, specializing in advanced directives. “She was the sweetest, happiest, little girl,” Harrison said, of Bridget. “She had a quirky sense of humor.” For some individuals with eating disorders, a traumatic incident can cause the disease’s onset, said McGilley, whose own former struggle with the condition was triggered at age 16 when her mother died by suicide. For Bridget, the onset was something seemingly less harsh. It was the suggestion by a fellow player on her basketball team that they go on a diet. The girls were about 12, a time when young girls can be vulnerable about their body image and the changes that happen to their body. “The other girl bailed on the diet, but Bridget had to see it through to the nth degree. And from then on it was our life focus. We never stopped worrying,” said Harrison. “Every meal we’d hope she’d eat, but she didn’t. The holidays were confrontational. Her sisters didn’t understand why she wouldn’t eat.” Anxiety was a huge part of her affliction, Harrison said, which is a common accompanying condition. “She would get so anxious about not getting a perfect score, but when she did, it was like it was no biggie, like anyone could do that, and wouldn’t take praise for it. She always had to be the best.” “Perfectionist drive is a hallmark of people with eating disorders, especially among those with anorexia,” McGilley said. In many ways, Bridget was bold, successful and generous, Harrison said, citing one case in which Bridget organized a fundraiser for a patient’s family to enjoy the holidays. Her obituary listed volunteering at free clinics and working as a translator. She loved traveling and had visited places all over the world, often solo: Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, Prague, Istanbul, Russia and many trips to Spain. She was a fluent Spanish speaker who loved having Spanish music playing in her operating room. After the Wichita to Winnipeg bike trip, Harrison and the rest of his immediate family will travel to Spain to spread Bridget’s ashes. She was very focused on caring for patients, Harrison noted. A private person who would withdraw from communicating with her family during times of depression, it’s as if she gave every ounce of her being to treating patients. “She loved caring for others but couldn’t help herself,” Harrison said. On May 4, Bridget called Harrison to tell him the pain in her hip from her surgery wasn’t getting better. He reminded her she would have an appointment with her doctor in a few days and he might have a solution. “She said, ‘Dad, you don’t understand. It’s never going to get any better. I just wanted to hear your voice,’” Harrison recalled, tearfully. “She was telling me she was going to die. It was the last time I talked to her.” An eating disorder is complex and so is the treatment and insurance coverage for it. At least three times in her life, Bridget was hospitalized or in treatment centers for her eating disorder and accompanying anxiety and depression. McGilley met her during her first such hospitalization, at what was then known as Charter Hospital in Wichita, when Bridget was still in middle school. Bridget also received group and outpatient therapy from McGilley. Because Kansas doesn’t have an eating disorders residential treatment center, Bridget was treated in out-of-state centers. Residential treatment, which can last from three months to a year, is the most effective form of treatment, McGilley said, but it’s often not covered by insurance. Bridget rarely stayed that long, saying she needed to get back to her studies or residency. While the Harrisons had resources to self-pay for Bridget’s residential treatment stays, other families often end up “stepping down” from a residential center, McGilley said. Generally, insurance will cover shorter treatment options such an inpatient hospitalization to stabilize a patient and outpatient therapy, she said, but there can be insurance denials. According to the NEDA website, common denials of insurance include the patient having a chronic condition and not progressing in treatment. In addition to raising awareness, the bike trip Harrison, his brother and his friend will embark on will give them some time to reflect on Bridget and maybe process the heartache. It’s a long, challenging ride, but it’s incomparable to the challenge and pain Bridget endured, they said. Several years ago, Stephens realized biking long distances is a good way to process the difficulties of life. He’s one of the few survivors of the 1970 plane crash in Colorado that caused the deaths of 31 people; most were WSU football players, administrators and survivors. He’s done several long-distance rides in memory or in honor of individuals. In 2016, Paul Harrison and Stephens rode to Winnipeg on a fundraising trip for Alzheimer’s research after Harrison’s father was diagnosed with the disease. “It is very difficult, almost impossible, to make sense of this affliction and the ways it impacted Bridget’s life,” said Harrison in a release about the upcoming ride. “From a very young age, she suffered from it in ways that broke our hearts and hers, I have to hope that future research and additional treatment options will help.” Called Bridget’s WREATH (Wichita to Winnipeg Ride for Eating Disorder Awareness), the trip has a goal of raising $100,000. The effort had raised nearly $20,000 by early May. If you or someone you know has an eating disorder, you can find more information, take a confidential screening and find resources about eating disorders at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org. ___ Information from: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, http://www.kansas.com Claim: Wichita man to bike 1,000 miles to honor daughter’s death.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Not applicable. There are no established ways to increase brown fat. The story suggests that certain heart hormones, if they behave the same way in humans as they do in mice, may hold “the key to an effective weight loss treatment.” We think this is a premature and misleading statement. Even if these hormones do activate brown fat in humans (something yet to be determined), there’s no guarantee this will translate into weight loss or that the weight loss that is produced will be safe or beneficial (see more under the “harms” criterion). We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here because the story does mention the possibility of unintended harms from brown fat-activating treatments. However, we thought it was worth noting — as the authors of the study did in their paper — that the hormones that activated brown fat in this study are elevated during heart failure and cancer-related wasting. Thus, any weight loss they produce may be accompanied by important adverse effects. Although we’re tempted to award a grudging satisfactory based on the caveats introduced late in the text, we think the story didn’t quite measure up. The studies discussed involved mice and 6 human volunteers. In other words, they represent very preliminary steps toward understanding how brown fat works and how we might be able to manipulate it. We are years away from any drug that might capitalize on this research. The story should have been clearer about this and included its cautions higher up in the text. There was no disease mongering in this story. The story quotes an independent clinician, who offers useful context. We are not aware of any conflicts that should have been identified. The story does not discuss evidence-based strategies for weight loss, such as behavioral weight loss programs. It could also have mentioned other new research which shows, at least in mice, that exercise helps turn white fat brown. Not applicable; there’s no product or treatment that can increase brown fat. The story quotes Dr. David Katz regarding the clinical importance of this research. It could also have cited his blog post on the topic, which discusses other recent studies on brown fat and notes that brown fat’s role in regulating body temperature is long established. This line of research is not as new as recent media reports suggest. Since it includes an independent perspective, we can be sure the story was not based entirely on a press release. Claim: Heart Hormone Linked to Calorie-Burning Brown Fat",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 14 June 2016, unreliable web site Gateway Pundit published an article suggesting that London Mayor Sadiq Khan — who is Muslim — “banned” provocative advertisements because they offended Islam: What a complete shock! London’s new Muslim mayor plans to ban sexy women in advertisements in London’s public transport system. Allahu Akbar! The Gateway Pundit referenced earlier reporting from Daily Caller: Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, announced Monday that “body shaming” advertisements will no longer be allowed in London’s public transport … Recently, advertisements featuring bikini-clad models in the British city of Birmingham were spray painted over. Birmingham has a high Muslim population. On 13 June 2016, Khan tweeted: No one’s confidence or body image should be undermined by ads on our transport system. I’ve strengthened @TfL policy https://t.co/AJ7qYDQW0T — Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) June 13, 2016 On 13 June 2016, the Evening Standard published an article with further information about Khan’s policy. According to the piece, only a small fraction of advertisements in London would be affected by the policy change: Adverts which put Londoners under pressure over body image are to be banned from the Tube and bus network. Sadiq Khan announced that Transport for London would no longer run ads which could cause body confidence issues, particularly among young people. The Mayor, a father of two teenage daughters, warned the ads could “demean” women and encourage them to conform to unrealistic or unhealthy body shapes. TfL’s new advertising policy, which does not include all images of people in their underwear or swimming gear, is only expected to affect a handful of the 12,000 adverts a year which run across the network, including at bus shelters and on-street sites. Khan was quoted on the reasons he opted to enact the new policy: As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. It is high time it came to an end … Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the Tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies and I want to send a clear message to the advertising industry about this. As for the mayor’s motivations, the outlet reported that public outcry (not Khan’s religion) was a major cause for the action: It means controversial adverts like Protein World’s “Are you beach body ready?” poster, which provoked a huge backlash when it appeared last year, would no longer be allowed. The weight-loss ad, which featured a bikini-clad model, sparked a protest in Hyde Park as well as a petition on Change.org with more than 70,000 signatures, although it was not banned by the Advertising Standards Authority … The change comes a result of passenger feedback, rather than public consultation, but City Hall denied it was nannying Londoners. As the Evening Standard reported, the change came in part as a result of massive public outcry over one specific ad. A Change.org petition gathered more than 70,000 signatures, and its grievances were unrelated to Islam: Protein World is directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior to the unrealistic* body image of the bronzed model, in order to sell their product. *for the majority of people to ‘achieve’: everyone has an individual body shape Perhaps not everyone’s priority is having a ‘beach body’ (by the way, what is that? ), and making somebody feel guilty for not prioritising it by questioning their personal choices is a step too far. A body’s function is far more intricate and important than looking ‘beach ready’, so in fact it is Protein World who have confused their priorities, if anyone. The question I would like to pose to whoever gave this advert the go-ahead would be: what is ‘Beach Body Ready’? And who would not be? Khan didn’t specify how standards for advertisements on public transit would be strengthened, but no credible reporting indicated that all “sexy” or revealing advertisements would be banned across London. The ban will solely affect “body shaming” content, not bikinis or scantily-clad women. Claim: London's Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan banned images of \"sexy\" women because they're offensive to Islam.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a Dallas-area call on behalf of a jailed niece, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Texas law enforcement agencies consistently rank him fairest of them all. In his Aug. 3, 2013, call to the Allen Police Department, a recording of which was later released in response to a request from NBC 5, KXAS-TV, Dewhurst inquired into what he needed to do to hasten the release of Ellen Bevers, described in the station’s news report as a schoolteacher detained for allegedly shoplifting at a grocery store. His call did not yield special treatment; Bevers was released after posting bond the next day, according to an Aug. 22, 2013, Austin American-Statesman news story. But critics including Dewhurst challengers in the 2014 Republican primary charged him with trying to throw his weight around. Readers zeroed in on a curious Dewhurst claim. \"Sergeant, you don't know me,\" Dewhurst is heard saying on the police call, \"but I am every year the No.1 pick of all of the law enforcement agencies within Texas.\" First and foremost? Agencies do not rank officeholders, we found, though law officer associations make candidate endorsements as do other advocacy groups with an interest in what happens in government. By email, Dewhurst spokesman Travis Considine pointed out that Dewhurst was endorsed by several officer groups in his 2006 re-election race and in his 2012 U.S. Senate race. Also, Considine noted, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas deemed Dewhurst its Texas Crime Fighter of the Year in 2003, his first year in what many consider the state’s most powerful post. A Nov. 24, 2003, association press release credits Dewhurst with steering reforms in drunken-driving laws and helping on other measures. CLEAT spokesman Charlie Wilkison is quoted describing Dewhurst as a \"real friend\" to the state’s law enforcement community. By telephone, Wilkison, poised to become the group’s executive director, told us that in 2012 the association gave Dewhurst a lifetime achievement award thanks to his consistent support over the years. Especially notable, Wilkison said, Dewhurst has repeatedly volunteered to keynote a biennial Texas Capitol ceremony honoring fallen officers at which he comforts survivors including children, one by one. Wilkison said he believes that in the call to the police department, Dewhurst meant to say he was No. 1 with law enforcement groups, instead making a common semantic mistake by saying \"agencies.\" Like representatives of other law enforcement advocacy groups that have supported Dewhurst in elections, Wilkison agreed that agencies do not rank officeholders; the agencies are supposed to be politically disinterested. Kevin Lawrence, executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association, another influential group, said by phone that it has enjoyed a great relationship with Dewhurst. \"Law enforcement agencies have no business endorsing candidates,\" Lawrence said, and while associations or unions make candidate endorsements, they do not pick one officeholder over another--assigning ranks, that is--unless the officeholders face each other on the ballot. \"Associations don’t sit around saying who is our favorite politician,\" Lawrence said. Gary Chandler, a Department of Public Safety sergeant and president of the DPS Officers Association, later said by phone: \"We don’t rank the government officials or public officials,\" instead focusing on trooper salaries and benefits. Then again, Chandler said: \"As government works, the lieutenant governor of Texas is a very powerful person. We have worked with David Dewhurst the last three\" legislative \"sessions at least.\" He said that personally, Dewhurst \"has been my No. 1 guy,\" though every legislator \"is important to us when it comes to accomplishing our goals… I wouldn’t mind calling them all No. 1 at some point.\" Lacking any sign of agencies ranking officeholders, we turned back to Considine, who said the cited endorsements demonstrate Dewhurst's appeal to law enforcement organizations. Our ruling Dewhurst said  that \"every year, I'm the No.1 pick of all the law enforcement agencies in Texas.\" This declaration falters in substantive ways. Law enforcement agencies do not rank elected officials against one another in any way. Nor do law enforcement advocacy groups, though Dewhurst has drawn multiple re-election endorsements. Then again, such endorsements do not occur every year. The election for lieutenant governor occurs every four years. We rate this claim as . -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  – The statement is not accurate. Claim: I am every year the No.1 pick of all of the law enforcement agencies within Texas.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Another day, another viral claim about the effectiveness (or not) of face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. A popular Facebook post that had been copied and pasted numerous times in June repeated spurious but familiar claims about masks, this time selectively citing U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) recommendations:  In July 2020, a similar post — this time attributed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — made almost identical claims about N95 masks, surgical masks, and cloth masks. This photo circulated online:   The lengthy posts focused on three different types of protective masks: N95 masks, surgical masks, and cloth masks. We tackle assertions about each one below. According to the posts your unfiltered, potentially infectious breath could harm others if you are breathing through an N95 respirator. N95 masks: are designed for CONTAMINATED environments. That means when you exhale through N95 the design is that you are exhaling into contamination. The exhale from N95 masks are vented to breath straight out without filtration. They don’t filter the air on the way out. They don’t need to. Conclusion: if you’re in Stewart’s and the guy with Covid has N95 mask his covid breath is unfiltered being exhaled into Stewart’s (because it was designed for already contaminated environments, it’s not filtering your air on the way out) This is mostly true, except it only applies to N95 respirators with valves. Such masks were designed for construction/factory workers or miners, to keep out dust and other particles, but not to prevent infectious particles from leaving the mask. When the wearer inhales, the one-way valve closes so pathogens can’t get through, but when the user exhales, the valve opens. In May, the San Francisco Department of Public Health tweeted that N95 masks with valves in the front weren’t safe and “may actually propel your germs further.” Hospitals largely use N95 masks without valves for this reason, and in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations. OSHA’s guidelines on N95s primarily focus on how they are meant “to prevent workers from inhaling small particles, including airborne transmissible or aerosolized infectious agents,” and should be required in workplaces where respirators are needed. The Facebook post argues that wearing a surgical mask makes you a “walking virus dispenser,” as follows: Surgical Mask: these masks were designed and approved for STERILE environments. The amount of particles and contaminants in the outside and indoor environments where people are CLOGG these masks very Very quickly. The moisture from your breath combined with the clogged mask will render it “useless” IF you come in contact with Covid and your mask traps it You become a walking virus dispenser. Everytime you put your mask on you are breathing the germs from EVERYWHERE you went. They should be changed or thrown out every “20-30 minutes in a non sterile environment” OSHA guidelines seem to contradict some of these claims, arguing that surgical masks protect workers “against [potentially infectious] splashes and sprays,” and also “contain” the wearer’s respiratory droplets to protect others. OSHA says these masks should be placed on sick individuals to prevent transmission via droplets. Surgical masks do, however, offer ineffective protection from transmission via airborne particles due to their loose fit. While the post argues that such masks should be thrown out every 20-30 minutes, OSHA simply recommends that they “should be properly disposed of after use.” The Facebook post’s and letter’s claims about cloth masks are mostly false and have been debunked by Snopes before. The author claims: Cloth masks: today three people pointed to their masks as the walked by me entering Lowe’s. They said “ya gotta wear your mask BRO” I said very clearly “those masks don’t work bro, in fact they MAKE you sicker” the “pshh’d” me. By now hopefully you all know CLOTH masks do not filter anything … ALL of them offer NO FILTERING whatsoever. As you exhale you are ridding your lungs of contaminants and carbon dioxide. Cloth masks trap this carbon dioxide the best. It actually risks health. The moisture caught in these masks can become mildew ridden over night. Dry coughing, enhanced allergies, sore throat are all symptoms of a micro-mold in your mask. OSHA guidelines already state that cloth masks are ineffective filters against airborne particles. They are worn to protect other people from risk of infection via respiratory droplets. People wearing them are in little to no danger of breathing in unhealthy amounts of carbon dioxide. The posts point out the danger of dirty masks, which is why both OSHA and CDC recommend washing cloth masks after use. Claim: A Facebook post is correct in saying N95 masks, surgical masks, and cloth masks can be dangerous and/or ineffective in protecting against the spread of COVID-19 based on CDC and U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Rhode Island Democrat worked with three of his colleagues, Sens. Cory Gardner, Tammy Baldwin and Jerry Moran, to introduce a bill to designate 9-8-8 as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It would include the Veterans Crisis Line. Reed says the current hotline is 10 digits and that’s a barrier. Reed says a shorter number will help get people into care, but it’s just a first step and the federal government must “put up real resources.” Rhode Island residents who dial the current hotline, (800) 273-TALK, are connected to BH Link. Reed says the East Providence behavioral health facility received more than 5,000 mental health and substance use crisis calls in the past year. Claim: US Sen. Reed wants to shorten the suicide prevention hotline.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2020, as the death toll in the United States from the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic topped 30,000, an image gained traction on social media that supposedly showed a screenshot of an old tweet from now-U.S. President Donald Trump. In the tweet, Trump appeared to criticize President Barack Obama’s handling of a 2009 pandemic and stated that he would “never let thousands of Americans die from a pandemic while in office”:    The tweet read: Obama’s handling of this whole pandemic has been terrible! As President, ALL responsibility becomes yours during a crisis like this, whether or not you’re entirely to blame. John McCain, and for that matter myself, would never let thousands of Americans die from a pandemic while in office. This is not a genuine tweet from Trump in November 2009, some seven years before he became president. The tweet does not appear on Trump’s timeline, nor is it included in the Trump Twitter Archive or Fact Base’s archive of deleted tweets. In fact, we weren’t able to find any record of this message prior to April 2020, indicating that this is a modern creation with a falsified date. Furthermore, the text of this tweet contains nearly 300 characters. But at the time it was supposedly sent, back in November 2009, Twitter had a limit of 140 characters per tweet. While the above-displayed tweet is fake, Trump has made similar comments on Twitter. In November 2013, he tweeted that leaders were always responsible no matter what happens: Claim: U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted in November 2009 that \"Obama's handling of this whole pandemic has been terrible!\" and that he \"would never let thousands of Americans die from a pandemic while in office.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In October and November 2019, we received multiple inquiries from readers about various claims that White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham had, on two separate occasions, been charged with or convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) in Arizona. On Oct. 24, the Facebook page American News X posted a widely shared meme that contained a quotation attributed to U.S. President Donald Trump (“I only hire the best people”) and two pictures that appeared to be police booking mugshots of Grisham, one with the caption “DUI, 2013” and the other with the caption “DUI, 2015”:    The left-leaning, anti-Trump Facebook page Occupy Democrats published another meme on the same day, including the same mugshot photographs, which the page described as Grisham’s “DUI mugshots.” Social media users also re-shared an older post by the website PoliticalFlare.com, which claimed Grisham had “two recent DUIs.” On Nov. 12, MSNBC host Chris Hayes responded to a tweet by Trump related to purported arrests of certain immigrants, writing: “The [White House] press secretary [Grisham] has two DUIs.” The WH press secretary has two DUI’s https://t.co/mHC19xzRxO — Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 13, 2019   Grisham has indeed been arrested and charged with DUI in Arizona on two separate occasions — in January 2013 and December 2015. In the 2013 case, she pleaded guilty to a different charge, so the charge of DUI was dropped and she was not convicted of it in that instance. However, police records obtained by Snopes clearly show that she recorded a blood-alcohol content (BAC) level above the legal limit of .08 percent. A police incident report also indicates that she repeatedly lied to officers about having consumed alcohol on that occasion. In the 2015 case, Grisham pleaded guilty to DUI, a Class 1 misdemeanor offense. She paid a series of fines and, according to news reports, completed a treatment program. Around 11:30 p.m. on the night of Jan. 9, 2013, Grisham was pulled over by police near the intersection of Gilbert Road and Elliot Road in Gilbert, Arizona, about 20 miles east of Phoenix. According to the incident report obtained by Snopes, the arresting officer, Christopher Robinson, stopped Grisham for driving her 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor SUV at 35 mph in a 25 mph zone. A man accompanied her in the car. After stopping Grisham, Robinson reported that “she showed signs and symptoms of alcohol impairment,” adding, “Her eyes were bloodshot and watery and I detected the odor of intoxicating beverage coming from the vehicle interior.” Robinson checked Grisham’s license and discovered that it had been suspended due to her alleged failure to appear on a traffic citation in Mesa, Arizona, in August 2012. She denied any knowledge of the citation or suspension, and Robinson asked her to exit the vehicle. In his report, he wrote: “I then detected the odor of intoxicating beverage coming directly from her breath. I informed her of such and she again denied consuming any alcohol, exclaiming that I could not smell alcohol on her breath. She then blew directly in my face and I detected the odor of intoxicating beverage to be even stronger …” Robinson conducted a horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test (a sight test), and found Grisham was exhibiting signs of intoxication, namely nystagmus (involuntary eye movements) and swaying on her feet. At 11:45 p.m., he arrested her on suspicion of DUI and driving with a suspended license. In his report, Robinson noted that Grisham repeatedly denied having consumed any alcohol. In one instance, she recorded a BAC of .099 percent on a breath test (above the legal limit of .08 percent). When Robinson showed her the result on the breathalyzer, Grisham reportedly once again denied drinking that evening. At the Gilbert police station, Grisham provided blood samples that were later tested by a forensic scientist at Mesa Police Department. The samples revealed a BAC of 0.105 grams of ethyl alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood (.105 percent) — even further above the legal limit of .08 than the preliminary breath test performed during the traffic stop. Those results can be viewed here. We asked Grisham whether, in the face of that forensic evidence, she still denied having consumed alcohol that evening, and if she no longer denied that, why she had repeatedly told the arresting officer that she had not been drinking when, demonstrably, she had. We did not receive a response. According to Gilbert Municipal Court records, Grisham ultimately reached a plea agreement, pleading guilty to a charge of reckless driving, with the charges of DUI and driving with a suspended license being dropped. She received two years’ probation (which she completed in 2016) and had to pay $943 in fines. Gilbert Police Department provided Snopes the mugshot from the 2013 case, which can be viewed here. In December 2015, Grisham was again pulled over, this time by Phoenix police. The details of that incident are not entirely clear. Snopes has requested a copy of the arrest report, and we will update this article once we receive it. What is certain is that Grisham was charged with a lighted lamps violation, DUI, and DUI with a BAC over .08 percent. She again reached a plea agreement, but this time, she pleaded guilty to DUI, with the other two charges being dismissed, according to Scottsdale Municipal Court records. Grisham was forced to pay hundreds of dollars in fines, and in June 2019 she told The New York Times she had undergone what she described as a “safety class.” Grisham has been arrested twice on suspicion of DUI. On the first occasion, in 2013, she reached a plea agreement, which meant that charge of DUI was dropped, and she was not convicted of DUI. However, police records obtained by Snopes show that forensic examination of a blood sample she provided revealed a BAC of .105 percent, above the legal limit of .08 percent. On the the second occasion, in 2015, Grisham pleaded guilty to and was convicted of DUI. Because she was convicted in one case, but not in the other (notwithstanding the forensic evidence that she was driving while over the legal limit), we are issuing a “Mixture” rating on the claim that Grisham “has two DUIs.” Claim: Stephanie Grisham got DUIs in 2013 and 2015. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Kayla Mueller did not support terrorist groups, and the idea that her   death “deserves no tears” is an incendiary claim that was designed to   provoke a strong reaction. A family spokesperson      said the Islamic State took Kayla Mueller captive outside a   Spanish Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, in August of   2013. The White House      confirmed on February 10, 2015, that Mueller was killed while   being held captive by the Islamic State, but the circumstances of her   death are unknown. Mueller had worked with humanitarian organizations in   India, Israel and the Palestine territories before she went to Turkey to   aid Syrian refugees, according to the statement. Shortly after Kayla Mueller’s death, false claims that she had supported   Palestinian terrorist groups began to appear in forwarded emails like   this one:    \t  \t“The myth that this ISIS hostage was a wonderful altruistic young   \twoman is a lie. She was an anti-Israel activist and human shield for   \tPalestinian Terror Groups. Kayla Mueller was a member of the   \tInternational Solidarity Movement (ISM) who spent at least two years   \tworking with that terrorist support group.”     The International Solidarity Movement said that   Kayla Mueller did volunteer with the group for two months in 2010. However, the email’s characterization of the ISM as      terrorist group is false. According to the ISM’s website:    \t  \t“The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led   \tmovement committed to resisting the long-entrenched and systematic   \toppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using   \tnon-violent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded in August   \t2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular   \tresistance by being immediately alongside Palestinians in olive   \tgroves, on school runs, at demonstrations, within villages being   \tattacked, by houses being demolished or where Palestinians are   \tsubject to consistent harassment or attacks from soldiers and   \tsettlers as well as numerous other situations. “Currently, ISM supports weekly Palestinian-led, non-violent   \tdemonstrations against land confiscation in several villages,   \tincluding Nabi Saleh, Kufr Qaddum, Ni’lin and Bil’in. Previously,   \tISM supported demonstrations in the villages of Budrus and Biddu,   \twhere peaceful community marches have succeeded in altering the   \tAnnexation Wall’s path.”      ISM      said that Mueller participated in a handful of nonviolent   protests and accompanied children to school during her two-month stint   with the group in 2010. Her involvement was kept under wraps during her   captivity out of fear that it could jeopardize her safety. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Kayla Mueller’s   death is further proof that the chain email’s claims are false. Netanyahu      said, “On behalf of the people of Israel, I wish to send   condolences to President Obama, the American people and the family of   Kayla Mueller. We stand with you.”      After her two-month stint with the ISM in 2010, Mueller volunteered with   numerous      humanitarian organizations, including an HIV/AIDS clinic in   Arizona. Her work with Support   to Life and the Danish   Refugee Council brought her to the border of Turkey and Syria   to help refugees in December of 2013. The chain email’s claim that Kayla Mueller “deserves no tears” because   she spent two months volunteering with a nonviolent Palestinian group is   baseless. Comments Claim:        Kayla Mueller, the 26-year-old woman who died while being held hostage   by the Islamic State terrorist group, “deserves no tears” because she   supported terrorist groups.       ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The country’s agriculture ministry said the H5N8 strain of bird flu had been detected on six poultry farms and that there had been 13 cases in migratory birds since the first outbreak earlier this month. No human infection has been reported, while the ministry is looking into four additional reports from poultry farms and more than 50 other suspected cases in migratory birds, it said in a statement on Monday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy has had four bird flu outbreaks in the past 10 years, without any cases of human infection reported. South Korea will slaughter over 1.4 million farm birds, including 644,000 that have already been killed, according to the ministry. That would be under 1 percent of the country’s total 160 million poultry population. The first case of H5N8 bird flu was found on January17 at a duck farm in the southwestern province of North Jeolla, about 300 km (186 miles) from Seoul. The government is stepping up disinfection measures for migratory bird at 37 sites across the country as it suspects they are the source of the latest outbreak. It will also control the movement of some livestock workers in affected areas ahead of the Luna New Year holidays from Thursday through Sunday when many Koreans travel to family gatherings. Claim: South Korea expands poultry cull on bird flu fears.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The vaccine, Ervebo, is approved for individuals aged 18 years and older and has already been used under emergency guidelines to try to protect against the spread of a deadly Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo. The shot is also being reviewed by U.S. health regulators and a decision is expected in the first quarter of next year. The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever and spreads from person to person through direct contact with body fluids. It kills around half of those it infects. Since the middle of last year, the Congo Ebola outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people, making it the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history, after the 2013-16 epidemic in West Africa that killed more than 11,300. “The EU is supporting international efforts to combat Ebola on all fronts, from vaccine development to delivering humanitarian aid on the ground,” EU Ebola Coordinator Christos Stylianides said in a statement dated Nov. 10. Merck has said its priority was to get regulatory approval of its Ervebo manufacturing site in Germany so that licensed supply of the vaccine “can be used to support global public health preparedness”. Claim: 300,000 pounds of rat meat sold as chicken wings across America.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Editors’ note: This fact-check contains graphic content and content related to sexual assault. Bloomberg campaign adviser Tim O’Brien ripped Democratic frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders in a CNN interview ahead of the South Carolina primary, accusing the Vermont senator of saying \"loopy stuff\" about orgasms and cervical cancer, children’s nudity and women’s rape fantasies. Yes, you read that right. Not your typical morning on CNN. \"Bernie has all of this loopy stuff in his background, saying things like women get cancer from having too many orgasms, or toddlers should run around naked and touch each others' genitals to insulate themselves from porn,\" O’Brien told CNN \"New Day\" anchor Alisyn Camerota. \"Why has this stuff not been more surfaced?\" O’Brien said. \"He's written about women's rape fantasies. That hasn’t been surfaced. That’s the loony side of Bernie.\" JUST NOW: @MikeBloomberg Senior Adviser @TimOBrien goes there on @BernieSanders.Orgasms. Rape fantasies. Children running naked. All there. @NewDaypic.twitter.com/EUckLVYNR0 O’Brien’s claim caught our attention and generated a number of headlines, so we decided to check it out. Galia Slayen, a spokesperson for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s campaign, said O’Brien \"misspoke\" with regard to the claim about cancer and orgasms. \"He meant that Sanders believes it was a lack of orgasms that leads to cancer,\" she said. Now that that’s cleared up, here’s what we found: The Bloomberg adviser was drawing from essays Sanders contributed to a left-leaning alternative newspaper about 50 years ago. Not everything O’Brien said needs a correction. Bloomberg’s campaign cited 2015 articles in the New York Times and Mother Jones that examined Sanders’ writings for the Vermont Freeman in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to the New York Times, Sanders wrote roughly a dozen pieces when he was in his late 20s and early 30s, before his political career took off. The writings became a source of controversy for Sanders during his presidential campaign in 2016. We fact-checked a claim related to his essay on women’s fantasies of rape. At the time, Sanders campaign spokesman told CNN the 1972 essay was a \"dumb attempt at dark satire in an alternative publication\" that \"in no way reflects his views or record on women.\" Sanders downplayed the writings as \"bad fiction\" and told late-night host Seth Meyers that he \"learned my lesson.\" He said the \"poorly written\" article mentioning rape was meant to confront \"gender stereotypes of the period,\" according to the New York Times. (The Sanders campaign pointed us to his remarks during the 2016 campaign when we asked about his writings.) Below, we’ll compare what Sanders wrote with O’Brien’s descriptions on CNN. O’Brien’s description: \"Women get cancer from having too many orgasms.\" Sanders’ 1969 article: Sanders’ point in an essay titled \"Cancer, Disease and Society\" was that lack of sex — rather than too much sex — could lead to poor health or, specifically, cancer. \"In another article in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine ... it is stated that ‘sexual adjustment seemed to be very poor in those with cancer of the cervix (who) were found to have a lower incidence of orgasm during sexual intercourse,’\" Sanders wrote, quoting a 1954 study. \"The manner in which you bring up your daughter with regard to sexual attitudes may very well determine whether or not she will develop breast cancer, among other things,\" he wrote. Throughout the essay, Sanders quoted freely from various studies and from a book by Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Reich, who believed in connections not only between sexual energy and good health but also between sexual repression and fascism. For the record, the American Cancer Society has said \"there’s no reason to believe that emotions can cause cancer or help it grow.\" O’Brien’s description: \"Toddlers should run around naked and touch each others' genitals to insulate themselves from porn.\" Sanders’ 1969 article: \"In Vermont, at a state beach, a mother is reprimanded by Authority for allowing her 6-month-old daughter to go about without her diapers on. Now, if children go around naked, they are liable to see each others sexual organs, and maybe even touch them. Terrible thing! If we (raise) children up like this it will probably ruin the whole pornography business, not to mention the large segment of the general economy which makes its money by playing on peoples sexual frustrations.\" Sanders writings often criticized cultural oppression, according to Mother Jones. In one piece, Sanders wrote that a function of schools was to \"set up in children patterns of docility and conformity.\" In the essay in question, which was titled \"The Revolution is Life Versus Death,\" Sanders wrote about the monotony of life, his frustrations with the status quo, and a nonviolent revolution that he believed was on the horizon in the United States. \"The revolution comes when two strangers smile at each other, when a father refuses to send his child to school because schools destroy children, when a commune is started and people begin to trust each other, when a young man refuses to go to war, and when a girl pushes aside all that her mother has ‘taught’ her and accepts her boyfriend’s love,\" he said. O’Brien’s description: \"He's written about women's rape fantasies.\" Sanders’ 1972 article: \"A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees. A woman tied up. A woman abused. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by three men simultaneously … Do you know why the newspapers with the articles like ‘Girl, 12, raped by 14 men’ sell so well? To what in us are they appealing?’’ The column, \"Man and Woman,\" was about changing gender stereotypes and roles. Later in the essay, Sanders suggested men and women should reconsider how they relate to each other. O’Brien said Sanders has said \"things like women get cancer from having too many orgasms, or toddlers should run around naked and touch each others' genitals to insulate themselves from porn … He's written about women's rape fantasies.\" O’Brien got the first detail backwards. Nearly five decades ago, Sanders wrote about the possibility that women could get cancer from having too few orgasms, not too many. Sanders also wrote about a revolutionary order in which toddlers would not be chastised for public nudity, noting that such a world could have negative consequences for the porn industry. Finally, Sanders wrote about women’s rape fantasies in an essay on gender stereotypes. We rate O'Brien's statement . Claim: Tim O'Brien Says Bernie Sanders has said “things like women get cancer from having too many orgasms, or toddlers should run around naked and touch each others' genitals to insulate themselves from porn … He's written about women's rape fantasies.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2016, a rumor started circulating that a German carpenter had invented a new male contraception product which would give men the ability to control their sperm flow by flicking a switch: A German carpenter says his invention will switch men to a new contraception alternative. Clemens Bimek says he discovered how to insert a valve that can allow men to turn the flow of sperm on and off — all by flipping a switch located under the skin of the scrotum, according to German magazine Spiegel. “Many of the doctors I consulted didn’t take me seriously,” Bimek said. “But there were some who encouraged me to go on tinkering and helped me with their expertise.” While it’s true that Clemens Bimek invented a “sperm switch,” it’s unclear how well this product works, how well it will be received, and when it will be available to the public. According to the Bimek SLV web site, the first clinical trials will be conducted later this year:  The SLV has not yet been officially approved. As with all medical devices, the SLV first has to undergo extensive clinical trials in which volunteers are tested to determine its effects and safety, before it can be modified and released to the market. In addition, there are technical checks and the manufacturing certification, packaging, sterilisation and further matters are required in order to obtain a CE mark. Only then will the SLV be ready and released on the market. The Bimek SLV is a small valve that is fitted to the spermatic duct. The valve can then be closed or opened to regulate release of sperm cells. According to the web site, the procedure would only take about a half hour:  Bimek SLV is a small valve fitted to the spermatic duct that can regulate the release of sperm cells. When the valve is closed the SLV’s principle function is to obstruct the release of sperm cells during ejaculation. The result of this function is that the seminal fluid released is sterile. With the SLV you are able to regulate when you can procreate. After the valve is inserted, and after the waiting period, you will only be fertile when the valve is opened again. While the SLV could conceivably pass clinical trials with flying colors and quickly get approved by the FDA, some experts are skeptical about the device. Wolfgang Bühmann, spokesman for the Professional Association of German Urologists, told the Telegraph that he had his doubts about the sperm switch. For one, Bühmann said that implanting a valve could scar the vas deferens, which would render the switch useless since sperm could still flow through even in the closed position. Bühmann also said that he feared that the valve could be become clogged if it was left in the “closed” position for too long: “My assessment is that implanting the valve could cause scarring where it meets the vas deferens.” While it’s true that a “sperm switch” has been invented, this form of male contraception has not been tested or approved by the FDA. As of January 2016, Clemens Bimek is the only man who has undergone the procedure. Claim: A new male contraception product allows a man to control the flow of sperm by flicking a switch.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The number of new cases was the lowest since March 13 but the daily tally of deaths remains stubbornly high. It has hovered between 525 and 636 for the last 11 days, except for a steep drop to 431 on Easter Sunday, which was immediately reversed the following day. The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 rose to 21,645 the Civil Protection Agency said, the second highest in the world after that of the United States. The number of officially confirmed cases climbed to 165,155, the third highest global tally behind those of the United States and Spain. There were 3,079 people in intensive care on Wednesday against 3,186 on Tuesday — a 12th consecutive daily decline. Of those originally infected, 38,092 were declared recovered against 37,130 a day earlier. Claim: Italy's coronavirus death toll climbs by 578, new cases continue to slow.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In February 2016, a meme about the lack of business acumen and experience exhibited by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, began circulating online:  The criticisms offered in meme were a mixture of true, false, irrelevant, and misleading statements. To wit: Never owned a business Right off, this meme begins with a rather nebulous criticism. Although having owned a business is an experience many voters would like to see on the résumé of a potential chief executive, a literal application of that term isn’t of much relevance. Technically, a person who once operated a roadside lemonade stand has “owned a business,” while a person who has spent his career serving as the CEO of a public multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation has not — even though everyone would agree the latter has vastly more business experience than the former. And certainly a number of highly-regarded U.S. presidents in the modern era (e.g., Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan) never owned their own businesses. Moreover, one might validly say that Sanders started and operated his own business (whether he “owned” it is somewhat arguable, as it was a non-profit), the American People’s Historical Society, which was created in 1978 to produce educational film strips about the history of Vermont. The University of Vermont has archived several of the brochures produced by the American People’s Historical Society, one of which includes a statement from Sanders outlining the purpose of his film strips: Director Bernard Sanders explained, “It is our belief that state and regional history has too long been neglected by the audio-visual industry, and we are happy to begin the process of rectifying that situation. We believe that students have the right to learn about the state and region in which they are living.” While the financials of the American People’s Historical Society are not available, Sanders wrote in his memoir Outsider in the House that the business was reasonably successful and “a lot of fun.” A friend of Sanders’ told Politico that the film strip business “wasn’t just a way to make money … He made filmstrips about people he admired and believed in. He just thought kids should know the truth of how things really were.” Never invented anything Once again, this is a rather nebulous criticism. The concept of “inventing” something could range from simply thinking up a novel idea (but doing nothing more about it), to creating and building a device for personal use (but not marketing it), to actually obtaining a patent for a new product. Bernie Sanders is certainly no inventor and holds no patents, but it’s hard to see how that fact is of any relevance, as the same is true of nearly every U.S. president. Thomas Jefferson might legitimately be considered an inventor for having conceptualized various devices (including a macaroni machine, a swivel chair, a spherical sundial, a moldboard plow, and a cipher wheel), although he held no patents because he believed them to be a form of monopoly. Abraham Lincoln was the only U.S. president who ever held a patent, having been issued Patent #6,469 for “A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals” on 22 May 1849. Beyond that, “inventing” has historically had nothing to do with the qualifications or success of candidates for the White House. Never had a 9 to 5 job This criticism is too vaguely worded to allow for much cogent analysis. What does holding a “9 to 5 job” mean? That one literally works from 9 AM to 5 PM (and not some other period of the day)? That one holds full-time employment? That one is paid on an hourly basis? That one toils at what is commonly referred to as a “blue collar” job? That one works for someone else rather than being self-employed? If we assume the most seemingly relevant application of the term — that it refers to holding steady, full-time employment — then one might fairly say it applies to Bernie Sanders. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Chicago in 1964, Sanders primarily worked a series of odd jobs while attempting to get his political career off the ground, and a Politico article observed that he “didn’t collect his first steady paycheck until he was an elected official pushing 40 years old.” However, that same article did list a variety of jobs Sanders held (even if they weren’t steady or didn’t provide a livable wage) before he finally reached public office upon being elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, at age 39 — working as an aide at a psychiatric hospital, as a Head Start preschool teacher, as a carpenter, and as a freelance writer for local publications: Sanders rented a small brick duplex at 295 1/2 Maple Street that was filled with not much furniture and not much food in the fridge but stacks of checked-out library books and scribbled-on legal pads. “Pretty sparse,” Gene Bergman, an old friend, said about the apartment. “Stark and dark,” said Darcy Troville, a fellow Liberty Unionite who lived around the corner and shared with Sanders homemade jellies and jams. “The electricity was turned off a lot,” Barnett said. “I remember him running an extension cord down to the basement. He couldn’t pay his bills.” He worked some as a carpenter, although “he was a shitty carpenter,” [Liberty Union party member John] Bloch told me. “His carpentry,” [Liberty Union member Danny] Morrisseau said, “was not going to support him, and didn’t.” He worked as a freelance writer, putting intermittent pieces in the low-budget Vermont Freeman, a Burlington alternative weekly called the Vanguard Press and a glossy, state-supported magazine called Vermont Life. His writing wasn’t a living. The Vanguard paid as little as the rest. “It would’ve been not more than 50 bucks,” said Greg Guma, a former editor. Vermont Life? “Our rate was 10 cents a word,” said Brian Vachon, a former editor. “He was always poor,” Sandy Baird, another old friend, told me in Burlington. “Virtually unemployed,” said Nelson, the political science professor at the University of Vermont. “Just one step above hand to mouth,” said Terry Bouricius, who was involved with Liberty Union, served at times as a de facto campaign manager for Sanders and at one point crashed for a couple months on his couch. Liberty Union “people found it difficult to support themselves while engaging in full-time political work,” Michael Parenti, one of those people, wrote in the Massachusetts Review in the summer of 1975. “Some held jobs that allowed free time for campaign activities, while others lived off unemployment insurance.” “His work was to be a politician,” Guma said. “He put everything into what he was doing.” We would also note by that by the standard used here, holding elective office (as Sanders has done for most of the last 35 years as a mayor, a U.S. representative, and a U.S. senator) is as much a “9 to 5” job as any other. Never proposed a bill that has passed This statement is not literally true, as during his tenure in Congress Sanders has sponsored three bills that were enacted, two of which were rather slight matters involving the naming of USPS facilities, and one of which was the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2013 (which provided “for an increase in the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans”). Although that might seem like slight achievement for someone who has spent 25 years as both a U.S. representative and a U.S. senator, we would note that only a scant handful of bills submitted in Congress (about 4 to 6 percent) are ever brought to a vote, and even fewer (about 2 to 4 percent) end up being enacted. We would also note that sponsoring original legislation is but one small part of Congress members’ duties: they also co-sponsor legislation submitted by colleagues (which Sanders has done for more than 200 successful bills), muster support (or opposition) among colleagues and the public for proposed legislation, review and vote on proposed bills, serve on various committees (Sanders holds six Senate committee appointments), meet with constituents, participate in oversight and investigation of governmental affairs, etc., as detailed in “The Many Roles of a Member of Congress”: First and foremost, the Member is a decision-maker. Members are faced with hundreds of decisions in both recorded and unrecorded votes on matters major and minor. Many decisions must be made quickly. Each decision, whether spontaneous or studied, balances the conflicting perspectives received from private citizens, public officials, party leaders. Decisions are often second-guessed by constituents, campaign opponents, colleagues, lobbyists, and media critics. Meetings are continual, in committee rooms, in private offices, in corridors, and in gatherings on the floor. Daily, sacks of mail are delivered. Faxes flow in a steady stream. Electronic mail jams congressional computers. Correspondence must be written and press releases issued. Highly visible issues are debated on the House or Senate floor, fully televised, and the absence or presence of a Member is duly noted. Scandals require investigation. Programs require oversight. Requests for information, both basic and complex, are received daily. Journalists seek comment. Constituents seek assistance obtaining federal grants, government jobs, and help in overcoming bureaucratic obstacles. Over time, these daily tasks and the always-changing expectations of the electorate have come together to establish a multi-faceted job. Lived off welfare before elected to public office As noted above, various acquaintances who knew Sanders in the years before he achieved public office have reported that he was “always poor,” and he likely received public assistance at some point during that time, although what form of (and how much) assistance he received is difficult to determine at this remove. A contemporaneous newspaper account from the Bennington Banner reported that in 1974, when Sanders ran for the U.S. Senate on the Liberty Union Party ticket, he was collecting unemployment benefits: Sanders, 32, cares little what ‘image’ he conveys — and that’s part of his image of being a bit rumpled and unshorn. He’s on unemployment compensation right now, having worked for the Bread & Law Task Force, as a free-lance writer, and as a carpenter in the Burlington area. But the thing he likes best, and excels at, is ‘talking the issues,’ and he doesn’t mind repeating himself sometimes.” 74 year old — personal net worth of $300,000 As 247 Wall St. reported, determining the precise net worth of candidates is difficult for a number of reasons: [R]eporting exact values is not required. Instead, candidates may disclose their assets and income in a range. Further, candidates do not necessarily report all their assets. For instance, candidates do not need to disclose their personal real estate and property values. Jeb Bush opted to omit assets generated by several holding companies, for example. In addition, while some candidates choose to include their spouses in their disclosures, some do not. Carly Fiorina’s net worth of $59 million, for example, includes that of her husband, Frank. Hillary Clinton’s reported net worth, on the other hand, does not include assets jointly owned by her and former president Bill Clinton, who is worth by some estimates more than $50 million. 247 Wall St. attempted to determine each presidential candidate’s net worth in an article published on 24 August 2015. They estimated that Sanders was one of the “poorest presidential candidates” running for office in 2016, with a likely net worth somewhere around $330,000:  Bernie Sanders > Net worth: $194,026-$741,030 In 2013, Bernie Sanders had an average estimated net worth of $330,507, well below other prospective presidential nominees and among the lowest compared with other members of Congress. This meme’s characterization of Sanders as a “loser” on this basis evinces a rather skewed perspective, however. Although many people view financial rewards as a tangible measure of one’s success, it is far from the only factor by which accomplishment can be measured. (In fact, highly-regarded President Harry S. Truman had virtually no net worth even after leaving the White House in 1953 and afterwards was largely dependent upon Congress’ finally establishing a pension for former presidents.) Bernie Sanders might equally be considered a “winner” for persevering at his goal of achieving a political career long after others might have given up, and for succeeding at that effort despite prolonged financial hardship. Unlike many others, Sanders might also be lauded for maintaining a rather plain life and not having enriched himself in public service (especially since candidates at the other end of the financial spectrum are frequently criticized for being “out of touch with the common man”). As 247 Wall St. wrote of Sanders: The Vermont senator, who is the longest-serving independent in U.S. history, is a self-identified socialist. He is seeking the Democratic nomination and is the most popular Democratic candidate after Hillary Clinton. In keeping with Sanders’ stated intention of starting a grassroots movement, more than 90% of his campaign contributions have come from individual donors. Sanders’ campaign speeches have drawn record numbers of attendants. Most recently, 19,000 people watched Sanders speak at an NBA arena in Portland, Oregon, the largest political event compared with all other candidates so far this election season. Claim: A meme accurately describes the arc of Bernie Sanders' (financial) life.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The university announced in a news release Wednesday that it received the grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The proposed center would study ways to improve programs focused on the emotional and psychological needs of rural students. Researchers and staff at the center would create online data and training systems to support the needs of rural school students. Wendy Reinke of the College of Education has worked for four years with a team of researchers to develop a survey identifying behavioral and emotional problems in rural schools. The goal is to use the survey in at least 110 schools in Missouri, Virginia and Montana within five years. Claim: Missouri to create center for rural students’ mental health.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Not applicable. The story didn’t discuss the costs of multivitamins, but this is common knowledge. The story mentioned that the study \"provided strong evidence that taking just one multivitamin a day did not cause harm. \", which could be considered a benefit of treatment. The harms of treatment, i.e. increased risk of advanced prostate cancer and fatal prostate cancer were mentioned. However, the source article for this story included estimates of the frequency with which these normally occur, so the story could have included this information and provided a more informative picture. The story provided evidence of increased risk only in relative terms, not absolute. See our primer on this issue. Without knowing how common advanced or fatal prostate cancer are, it is not possible to understand what 32% and 50% increases represent. This story did not engage in disease mongering. The only source quoted in this story was the senior author of the paper reported on. It would have been helpful to have an independent source comment on the results presented. The treatment options discussed are taking one multivitamin a day (which was not found to increase advanced prostate cancer risk) and  taking more than one multivitamin a day, which was found to be correlated with increased risk. The story didn’t provide information about other options for decreasing prostate cancer risk, or other factors that increase prostate cancer risk. Not applicable. The story didn’t discuss availability of multivitamins but this is common knowledge. The story does not mention whether the observation that excessive vitamin consumption is associated with increased prostate cancer risk was new or not. We can’t be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a news release. Only one source is quoted. Claim: Hold off on those extra vitamins",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: English far-right activist Tommy Robinson was given a 13-month prison sentence on 25 May 2018, following a Facebook Live video he broadcast from outside a trial of several men accused of a range of child sexual abuse offenses. The sentence prompted a wave of outrage and protests (mostly, but not entirely, among various factions of the far right) and claims that Robinson’s rights to free speech were being violated in the interests of political correctness; Robinson stated in the video that many of the defendants were Muslim. On 28 May 2018, the “alternative medicine” and conspiracy theory site NaturalNews.com claimed that Robinson had been silenced without due process in order to “protect Muslim pedophiles” because “the UK government is run by criminal pedophiles who rely on Muslim pedo networks to provide a steady supply of nine and ten-year-old little girls and boys.” Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones described the episode as “historic” and his Infowars web site called the arrest of Robinson “the beginning of the end for free speech in Europe.” These claims are based on a wild misunderstanding of a very basic principle in the legal system of England and Wales, and of other parts of the U.K. Far from being a “historic” violation of due process, Robinson was jailed because a court judged he had breached the terms of an existing suspended sentence for contempt of court by violating a set of reporting restrictions often placed on the news media and others in the United Kingdom in order to protect the due process rights of defendants and prevent the collapse of trials, something that could jeopardize the conviction of potentially guilty and dangerous individuals. The “media blackout” on the child sexual abuse trial referred to by NaturalNews.com was not designed to “protect Muslim pedophiles,” but rather to protect the integrity of the child sexual abuse trial itself, prevent a costly re-trial, and avoid witnesses having to go through the trauma of testifying in court again. Reporting restrictions such as those imposed in the child sexual abuse case in question are temporary, meaning that the news media can reveal previously-censored details after the trial has concluded. So Robinson was not jailed for engaging in journalism, or for merely reporting on alleged criminality. He was jailed for violating a court order, breaching the terms of an existing suspended sentence, and potentially risking the collapse of an ongoing trial. Background In May 2017, Robinson — the founder of the far-right, conspiracy-mongering English Defence League, and whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — was arrested for contempt of court after filming inside Canterbury Crown Court in the south-eastern English county of Kent. As reported by Kent Online at the time, Robinson pleaded guilty to contempt and apologized. He had confronted some of the defendants inside the court building as they left while filming footage which he later uploaded online. Robinson accused police of helping the defendants “escape.” In sentencing him on 26 May 2017, Judge Heather Norton said: This is not about free speech… not about the freedom of the Press, nor about legitimate journalism, and not about political correctness. It is about justice and ensuring that a trial can be carried out justly and fairly..it’s about being innocent until proven guilty. It is about preserving the integrity of the jury to continue without people being intimidated..or being affected by irresponsible and inaccurate “reporting”, if that’s what it was. …You made it abundantly clear that your mission was to film the defendants, who you referred to by their religion, as ‘Muslim child rapists’ and ‘Muslim paedophiles’. …I take a very dim view of your conduct, which was in the face of repeated warnings…There are notices all over the court building making it clear that filming or taking a photograph was an offence and may be a contempt of court. You were told very clearly by the security staff at this court that you were to stop filming. Robinson was given a three-month prison sentence, but it was suspended for 18 months on the condition that he did not commit any more criminal offenses. The Facebook Live video A year later, on 25 May 2018, Robinson showed up outside Leeds Crown Court in the northern English county of Yorkshire and began broadcasting a Facebook Live video. In the video, Robinson confronted men whom he presented as defendants in an ongoing child sexual abuse case, made it clear it was his aim to identify them and show their faces on camera, named several men and listed the purported charges against them, and in one instance encouraged the “mainstream media” to harass a man he had earlier shown on camera, as he arrived in court. According to the Hull Daily Mail, some of the charges Robinson associated with named defendants were inaccurate. That type of factual error — broadcast to a potentially huge audience  — could have serious consequences in a criminal trial. During the course of the 75-minute video, Robinson openly declared “there is a reporting restriction on this case,” acknowledged that he was already on a suspended sentence for contempt of court and said “I have to be super-careful.” The closing moments of the video showed police arresting Robinson outside the court for breach of the peace, a public order offense. Later that day, Judge Geoffrey Marson of Leeds Crown Court gave Robinson a 13-month prison sentence for contempt of court and violating his existing suspended sentence, ruling that the content of his Facebook Live video had the potential to prejudice and collapse the ongoing trial. Robinson had pleaded guilty. According to LeedsLive, Marson watched the Facebook video in court before telling Robinson:  No one could possibly conclude that it [the video] would be anything other than highly prejudicial to the defendants in the trial. I respect everyone’s right to free speech. That’s one of the most important rights that we have. With those rights come responsibilities. The responsibility to exercise that freedom of speech within the law. I am not sure you appreciate the potential consequence of what you have done. …You have to understand we are not preventing publication. We are postponing publication to ensure that the trial is fair. The Hull Daily Mail quoted Marson as giving concrete examples of the harm that Robinson’s video had the potential to cause: If the jurors in my present trial get to know of this video I will no doubt be faced with an application to discharge the jury. If I have to do that it will mean a re-trial, costing hundreds and hundreds and thousands of pounds. A re-trial would also mean witnesses in the case would have to face the ordeal of giving evidence again before a jury. Marson placed reporting restrictions on Robinson’s arrest and sentencing, but those restrictions were lifted after a successful application by LeedsLive on 29 May. In a textbook example of how reporting restrictions postpone but do not prohibit acts of journalism, local and national news media honored Marson’s order over the weekend and refrained from reporting on Robinson’s sentencing until the order was lifted. The reporting restrictions in the child sexual abuse case remain in place. Strict rules The UK news media faces strict rules on what they can and cannot publish about an ongoing trial. Some of these are in place by default, while others require a court order and are at the discretion of judges. For example, the complainant, or victim, in a sexual assault case cannot be named, unless they waive their automatic right to anonymity, but it might require a court order for the media to be restrained from publishing the identity of — for example — a minor or a vulnerable witness. Guidelines in place in the UK state that a judge can postpone, but not prohibit, the publication of otherwise “fair and accurate reports.” The overarching principle in place is to avoid the publication of anything which “creates a substantial risk of serious prejudice to the administration of justice” if it is published during a trial. Claim: Tommy Robinson was jailed in order to silence his reporting on a sex abuse trial in England, and to \"protect Muslim pedophiles.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “He’s a genuinely happy kid,” Kolen says of her son, a bright boy who loves nature and paleontology and has never been defined by his diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism marked by social awkwardness and narrow interests that make personal relationships challenging. Matthew’s diagnosis will soon be dropped in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic reference book, to be subsumed into the broader category of autism spectrum disorder. Although autism can range from highly functioning individuals like Matthew to those with severe speech and intellectual disabilities, in general individuals struggle with difficulties in communication, behavior and social interaction. Dropping the Asperger’s diagnosis in the new DSM, due out this spring, has caused consternation for some families. “One of the biggest concerns is that some who are higher functioning will no longer meet the more stringent criteria and will therefore have difficulty getting services,” says Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson, an autism researcher at the University of California Los Angeles. An analysis by Dr. Fred Volkmar of the Yale School of Medicine released earlier this year suggested as many as 45 percent of those currently diagnosed with autism or a related disorder would no longer qualify under the new definition. Laugeson said Volkmar’s analysis was based on a review of older medical records that might not have captured all of the symptoms that would qualify a person for an autism diagnosis under the new standard. The jury is still out in terms of how the change will play out in routine practice, she said: “We really need to see it in action.”  To ease fears that some individuals will no longer be eligible for services and insurance coverage, the APA task force recommends that people already diagnosed with an autism-related disorder, such as Asperger’s, would be grandfathered in. Kolen, who has never been caught up in labels, says she is not concerned about the change. Although Matthew was officially diagnosed with Asperger’s in second grade, his preschool teachers were the first to point out his differences. By age 4, he began applied behavior analysis or ABA therapy, a specialized type of therapy used to treat autism. “That really put us on a good path,” Kolen says, adding that at that age, “no one was willing to put a label on him, but they would treat what they saw.”  In addition to Asperger’s, Matthew is now being treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD and has recently developed some issues with anxiety - conditions that commonly accompany autism spectrum disorders. Like many on the autism spectrum, Matthew finds it difficult to make eye contact. “I can’t stare into someone’s eyes,” he says. “It just hurts.”  On Wednesdays, Matthew attends a social group with other young people on the autism spectrum, where they work on improving their social skills. While they all have the same or similar difficulties, they can recognize social awkwardness in others. Kolen says her son still struggles with the give and take of conversation. “It’s very difficult for him to allow the other person to speak. He’s still tends to dominate.”  But Matthew is bright, and she believes with enough practice, he will learn how to respond appropriately to social cues, even if he’s “a little rough around the edges.”  “My goal is to make sure that in the end, he has a place to work, earning a living and supporting himself in what he loves to do,” says Kolen. Claim: What's in a name? Losing Asperger's label not such a big change.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An Internet claim that Missouri employers will gain the right to fire people who use birth control when a state bill becomes law is incorrect. \"Missouri Votes to Let Employers Fire People Who Use Birth Control,\" reads a headline from Feministing. \"A new Missouri bill would target abortion providers and sanction employment and housing discrimination against people who use birth control or have an abortion,\" writes Sejal Singh, Feministing columnist, in the article. A St. Louis ordinance passed in February prohibits discrimination because of reproductive health care decisions. But Missouri Senate Bill 5, or SB 5, which was signed by the governor in July, will overturn that local ordinance when it takes effect in October. Since SB 5 was signed, we’ve seen claims that the bill would allow for employers to fire workers for using birth control. But we found no evidence that that’s true. Singh told PolitiFact Missouri she based her commentary on the analysis of news articles. Allure, Refinery29, and Newsweek were just a few among media sources that reported the bill would allow for employees to fire people for using birth control. Newsweek came out with an updated article stating that it, among other publications, had erroneously reported on the bill. Many of these news organizations referenced NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, which ran an ad online and on the radio that read, \"Do you think your boss should be able to fire you for using birth control?\" This ad only ran for one week, but its interpretation of the bill was influential to many of those articles. According to Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, it was the rhetoric of Republicans and not the actual language that led to this interpretation. \"It still remains to be seen if SB 5 will pre-empt the St. Louis ordinance,\" Dreith said in an email interview. The bill, signed by the governor in late July, touches on a lot of provisions, such as tissue report modifications, local abortion policies, employee disclosure policies and abortion facility inspections. Under the political subdivision authority part of the bill, it allows property owners to refuse to rent or sell to a person who plans to use the facility as an abortion clinic that isn’t for the sole purpose of saving the mother’s life. Within the same guidelines, it also doesn’t require healthcare providers or employers to provide coverage \"that includes benefits that are not otherwise required by state law.\" Employers in Missouri are already allowed to deny contraceptive coverage in their employee’s health insurance plans. Daniel Wilhelm, with Republican Rep. Andrew Koenig’s office, said the bill does not reference birth control or contraceptives, except under circumstances where employers can refuse health care if they don’t want to pay for birth control. Elizabeth Sepper, a professor of law at Washington University, said in an email that no matter what Missouri does, federal law bars an employer with 15 or more employees from discriminating against employees based on their reproductive choices, such as taking contraception. Even with the passing of the bill, Sepper said St. Louis’ city ordinance still prevents employers from firing employees who use birth control, and SB 5 doesn’t affect that protection. A columnist for Feministing claimed that SB 5 will allow employers to fire their workers for using birth control. While the bill will impose higher level of restrictions on abortion providers and allow real estate agents to refuse to sell or rent them land, the bill does not say employers can fire workers for using contraceptives. Claim: Missouri Votes to Let Employers Fire People Who Use Birth Control.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This sounds like a lengthy and involved procedure that would require expensive technical expertise during surgery. The device itself has to be very expensive. Because there are lower-tech surgical alternatives and non-surgical alternatives, insurance companies may be slow to cover this sort of procedure. Given that, it would have been nice to see a ballpark figure for how much this costs. The story doesn’t spend a lot of time with the numbers, but it does a pretty good job capturing the potential benefits. The fourth sentence talks about the potential harms, a rarity for any health story. In fact, the whole second paragraph should be part of a template for most health writing. \"Findings from the clinical trials show that the telescope does improve vision for the majority of patients. Still, there are some concerns about corneal damage, since the telescope is relatively large inside the eye. And the population who might benefit from the new device is somewhat limited. The treatment doesn’t work for those who have had cataract surgery. And for those who catch the disease early on, there may be better options.\" One of our reviewers just printed that out and taped it to his computer screen. The story does a good job of explaining the evidence in absolute numbers and in percentages. So, if you think that it sounds impressive that 75% of the patients had major improvements in their vision, you can check that against the fact that 10 out of 219 patients had corneal problems after the surgery. It would have been good to explain how vision improvement was measured. Was it through objective vision tests or through a Q&A with patients or both? The story starts out by saying the procedure \"could help millions of older adults who are nearly blinded by macular degeneration.\" This isn’t quite disease mongering, and, if we look at the disease globally, that’s potentially true. In the U.S. alone, according to the American Health Assistance Foundation, about 1.75 million Americans age 40 who suffer from acute macular degeneration. But the story then makes it clear that not all of them would be candidates for this procedure. Given that \"millions\" are used in the lead, it would have been smart to follow up with a more realistic number of how many might actually benefit. The bottom third of the story relies heavily, perhaps too much so, on Dr. George Williams, a retinal surgeon given the vague title of \"associated with the American Academy of Ophthalmology.\" Those quibbles aside, Williams provides some great insight and counterbalancing information. It also explains that the other expert in the story, Dr. Kathryn A. Colby, was one of the principal investigators in the story. Again, this could be a model for other stories. It places the new surgery in the context of existing surgeries and compares it to drug treatments, even explaining how those treatments and surgeries are performed, all in just a few sentences. Every story should have a section like this: \"Cataract surgery removes the natural lens and, in most cases, replaces it with an artificial lens, which means there is no foundation for the telescope. And for patients who are in the early stages of macular degeneration, Williams says that medications approved just six years ago are effective and a lot less invasive than the telescope. The drugs are injected directly into the eye on a monthly basis. And with this treatment, doctors are able to prevent severe visual loss in over 90 percent of patients. In nearly half of all patients, visual improvement is significant.\" The only thing that would have made this better is if the reporter had asked at least one more source besides Williams for comments and context. The story makes it clear that this is an experimental study and says that the FDA plans to monitor the side effects for five years. We’re not quite sure why this story was coming out now given that the FDA approved this device at the beginning of the month. (Read about it.) How widely available is it? Never made crystal clear. The story puts the procedure into the right context. It could be more clear about whether there are similar devices out there that improve vision. (There are.) This story does not rely on a news release. Claim: Tiny Eye Telescope Brings Back A World Of Sight",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of the costs of mammography. While making an attempt to quantify benefits, the author frames the information in confusing language that appears to indicate cause and effect:  “women who underwent screening reduced the risk of dying from breast cancer by 49 percent.”  Mammography is screening, not treatment, and does not prevent or cure breast cancer. Citing the conflicting evidence about the benefits of breast cancer screening would improve the quality of the article. For instance, in two large, randomized clinical trials that looked at the benefits of screening mammography for survival, the Malmo and Canadian trials, the women who chose mammography screening had the same breast cancer mortality or death rate as the women who did not. The article refers briefly to “overtreatment” but fails to explain this or other potential harms. This article underplayed the limitations of the original study. Crucial details are absent in this article, such as the way in which the women were “invited” into the study (a term used in the original abstract,) how it was determined the women died of breast cancer,  what type of cancer was diagnosed, whether or not there was appropriate treatment,  and the effects of lead-time bias,where patients do not live longer but know about their cancer longer. The story should have emphasized that this was a case-control study and should have explained limitations inherent in such a design, making the story’s causality comments inappropriate. A statistical reference to the number of women who are diagnosed and die from breast cancer would be useful, but there is no direct evidence of disease-mongering. Although there is no specific indication of whether or not there is a conflict of interest ,the article is considered satisfactory because it names the source of the study and provides one independent source, Dr. Stephanie Burnik. There is no discussion of alternatives to “routine mammograms” although the article does mention the debate as to the best schedule and age to begin. The clear alternative is not to be screened. Not applicable. The study was in the Netherlands, which has a national screening program. Screening mammography is not a new approach to detecting breast cancer. This article clearly states it is based on a publication in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention Dec. 6,2011. Claim: Mammograms Cut Risk of Breast Cancer Death by Half, Study Finds",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In early March 2018, a clickbait web site called PixelPolitics.com (which also bears another title on the page itself, “Any Politics”) was among several sites spreading a story about Joy Behar purportedly losing her job on current-events television talk show The View: ABC to Fire Joy Behar from ‘The View’ [In February 2018], Joy Behar bashed Vice President Mike Pence and his Christian faith on her talk show “The View.” Now, it has come back to bite her in a huge way. Behar responded by saying that Pence’s talking to Jesus is not a sign of faith, but a sign of “mental illness.” “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct, hearing voices,” Behar said. While the headline contained the claim that the network was “firing” Behar, its final lines contradicted that claim, instead encouraging readers to share the link if they agreed the host ought to lose her job: Since the comments were made, ABC has not punished Behar in any way, and she has continued to spew her nonsense. Last week, Behar claimed that attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) “have a penchant for Nazis.” SHARE this story if you think ABC should FIRE Joy Behar! Claim: ABC fired Joy Behar from her job co-hosting \"The View\" after she made comments about Vice President Mike Pence's religious beliefs.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Madagascar faces its largest measles outbreak in history, with cases soaring well beyond 115,000, but resistance to vaccinating children is not the driving force behind the rise. Measles cases are rising in the United States and elsewhere, in part because of misinformation that makes some parents balk at receiving a vaccine. New York City is trying to halt an outbreak by ordering mandatory vaccinations in one Brooklyn neighborhood. In Madagascar, many parents want to protect their children but face immense challenges, including the lack of resources. Only 58% of people on Madagascar’s main island have been vaccinated against measles, a major factor in the outbreak’s spread. With measles one of the most infectious diseases, immunization rates need to be 90% to 95% or higher to prevent outbreaks. On a recent day, the Iarintsena health center’s waiting room was full, with mothers sitting on the floor and others waiting outside in the overwhelming heat. Two volunteer nurses and a midwife tried to meet the demand. Nifaliana Razaijafisoa had walked 15 kilometers (9 miles) with her 6-month-old baby in her arms. “He has a fever,” she said. “I think it’s measles because there are these little pimples that have appeared on his face.” The nurse quickly confirmed it. “I’m so scared for him because in the village everyone says it kills babies,” Razaijafisoa said. The outbreak has killed mostly children under 15 since it began in September, according to the World Health Organization. “The epidemic unfortunately continues to expand in size,” though at a slower pace than a month ago, said Dr. Dossou Vincent Sodjinou, a WHO epidemiologist in Madagascar. By mid-March, 117,075 cases had been reported by the health ministry, affecting all regions of the country. Some cases of resistance to vaccinations exist because of the influence of religion or of traditional health practitioners but they are isolated ones, he said. This outbreak is complicated by the fact that nearly 50% of children in Madagascar are malnourished. “Malnutrition is the bed of measles, ” Sodjinou said. Razaijafisoa’s baby weighs just 5 kilograms (11 pounds). “This is the case for almost all children with measles who have come here,” said Lantonirina Rasolofoniaina, a volunteer at the health center. Simply reaching a clinic for help can be a challenge. Many people in Madagascar cannot afford to see a doctor or buy medicine, and health centers often are understaffed or have poorly qualified workers. As a result, information about health issues can be unreliable. Some parents are not aware that vaccines are free, at least in public health centers. Four of Erika Hantriniaina’s five children have had measles. She had wrongly believed that people could not be vaccinated after nine months of age. “It’s my 6-year-old daughter who had measles first. She had a lot of fever,” she said. “I called the doctor but it was Friday. He had already gone to town. I went to see another doctor who told me that my daughter had an allergy. ... This misdiagnosis was almost fatal.” The girl had diarrhea and vomiting and couldn’t eat, Hantriniaina said, adding that she narrowly survived. Measles, a highly infectious disease spread by coughing, sneezing, close contact or infected surfaces, has no specific treatment. The symptoms are treated instead. “Vitamin A is given to children to increase their immunity. We try to reduce the fever. If there is a cough, we give antibiotics,” said Dr. Boniface Maronko, sent by WHO to Madagascar to supervise efforts to contain the outbreak. If the disease is not treated early enough, complications appear including diarrhea, bronchitis, pneumonia and convulsions. Madagascar’s health ministry has sent free medication to regions most affected by the outbreak. Maronko reminded heads of health centers in the Ambalavao region not to make parents pay, saying he had seen some doctors asking for money. He told The Associated Press that he feared the medicines wouldn’t be enough. The country’s capital, Antananarivo, a city of 1.3 million, has not been spared. Lalatiana Ravonjisoa, a vegetable vendor in a poor district, grieves for her 5-month-old baby. “I had five children. They all had measles. For the last, I did not go to see the doctor because I did not have money,” she said. “I gave my baby the leftover medications from his big brother to bring down the fever.” For a few days she did not worry: “I felt like he was healed.” But one morning she noticed he had trouble breathing. Later she found his feet were cold. “Look at my baby,” she told her mother. “She hugged him for a long time and she did not say anything. Then she asked me to be strong. He was gone.” Ravonjisoa said she blames herself, “but I did not imagine for one moment that he was going to die.” At the hospital, a doctor confirmed that her baby died of measles-related respiratory complications. Late last month, WHO started a third mass vaccination campaign in Madagascar with the overall goal of reaching 7.2 million children aged 6 months to 9 years. “But immunization is not the only strategy for the response to this epidemic. We still need resources for care, monitoring and social mobilization,” said Sodjinou, the WHO epidemiologist. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Claim: Measles outbreak kills more than 1,200 in Madagascar.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Facebook post shared in July 2019 claimed that the over-the-counter allergy drug Benadryl could be used to treat a rattlesnake bite. Since its original posting, the status has received more than 12,000 shares: Benadryl might save a life: For anyone in Rattlesnake country: I have learned something new that I thought was important enough that I wanted to pass on. A man was bitten by a rattlesnake a few days ago. He was getting ready to bale and turned over a windrow to check the moisture and the snake was in it. It wrapped around his arm and bit him on the underside of the wrist. Luckily it was not a severe bite, the fang marks were clear, but not deep enough to draw blood. He came straight to the house and we got ice on it and had him to the hospital within an hour. I called ahead so the emergency room was ready for him. By the time he got there his arm was starting to swell to the shoulder and his throat was getting tight. The first thing the emergency room did was give him Benadryl. Apparently antivenom must be received within 4 hours of the snakebite, but the immediate threat is swelling and death of tissue, which was treated with the Benadryl. But there is no truth to this claim, according to an international group of doctors, paramedics, and scientists collectively known as the Snakebite Foundation. Claim: The common allergy drug Benadryl can be used to treat rattlesnake bites. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The cost of this device isn’t discussed, despite plans to put it on the market. The release noted that the standard way of diagnosing brain injuries are through CT scans. These tests run more than $1,000 a pop, at least in the U.S. The release might have noted how much this test would cost in comparison. Further, if the outcomes of the test are not improved US insurance companies are unlikely to pay for it. The news release states that the device “will not only relieve emergency departments, free patients from often long waits, but also save on costly medical examinations.” A physician was quoted stating that the test was designed “to determine whether the athlete can return to the field or if his condition requires hospitalization.” But it did not give sufficient data to demonstrate all of those claims. The accuracy of the test is not described by the release nor is it clear if the test improves care in any way. Also, important long term outcomes (disability, difficulty concentrating, etc.) were not part of the study so any claims made on these outcomes would be inappropriate. The news release did state that measuring the level of one protein, H-FABP, “makes it possible to confirm that there is no risk of trauma in one third of patients,” based on a study of patients who had already been admitted to a hospital after undergoing a shock to the head. It stated: “The rest of the patients will have to undergo a CT scan to confirm the diagnosis.” The release also stated — prematurely — that the company is “currently preparing an even more effective TBIcheck, which will allow 50% of patients to be sent home,” based on the levels of two proteins. The news release did not mention harms, such as missing an injury due to a false negative or having a false positive result that leads to unnecessary and potentially expensive follow-up tests and treatments. With 100% sensitivity there will be no false negatives, but that is a suspect result. It’s not clear what actions are (or are not taken) as a result of this test so it is hard to assess potential harms. There was no data on the accuracy of this test. How often does it falsely give a negative result? And how often are people referred for further testing or evaluation when they don’t have an injury? The news release didn’t say. More importantly, it doesn’t appear that this test has been studied in a randomized clinical trial, so there’s no evidence that patients who use it would have better outcomes or reduced costs compared with patients who are treated using current practices. That wasn’t explained in the news release. The published study provides the sensitivity and specificity of the test but these results are only hinted at in the news release. The news release doesn’t engage in disease-mongering; potential concussions are very common. It also provides useful context on the frequency of suspected traumatic brain injury in the UK. The news release stated that the test sponsor, the University of Geneva, holds a patent on the test which was developed by two of the study’s authors who founded the company that will sell the test. The news release stated that the “only reliable diagnosis is the CT Scan, which is only available in some hospitals and, in addition to being expensive, exposes patients to radiations.” This is misleading. In fact, diagnosing a concussion is complicated. Patients are usually assessed by a doctor using the Glasgow Coma Scale—a series of physical tests for determining the level of consciousness. A CT scan can also be used in order to detect severe brain injury such as bleeding and swelling. However, patients suspected of having a concussion don’t always show signs of brain damage when scanned. The news release stated that the device will be marketed starting in 2019 by a company called ABCDx. However, it would have been helpful to readers to point out whether or not the device must receive regulatory approvals or any details about the types of patients for whom it is recommended. At least one other blood test to evaluate concussions has been given the green light to be marketed in the U.S., and that’s not mentioned. HealthNewsReview.org reviewed a news release and a CNN story about that device. The headline — “A brain injury diagnosed with a single drop of blood” — was among several examples of language in this news release that exaggerated the benefits of this test. Another was that patients will have “No more doubts!” about whether they might have a concussion. It is not clear that this test will improve outcomes in any way. Claim: A brain injury diagnosed with a single drop of blood",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Carolyn Tuft, whose 15-year-old daughter died in the Trolley Square mall shooting in Salt Lake City, has been unable to work, resulting in the loss of her home and business, she told The Associated Press. She’s stricken when she thinks about other survivors dealing with similar problems after mass shootings, including recent slayings in Texas, Ohio and California. “It makes me terribly sad and sick to my stomach and angry, and I just feel very sad for those people,” said Tuft. Mary Anne Thompson, local chapter leader of Moms Demand Action, an organization pushing for stronger gun laws, has seen the effects on her friend. Tuft used to be a cyclist, hiker and runner. “Carolyn has trouble getting up in the morning and getting dressed,” she told Salt Lake City television station KUTV, which first reported the story. “For many like my friend Carolyn, it’s a life sentence of pain.” Little research has been done on the effects of lead poisoning from ammunition, said Gabriel Filippelli, a science professor at Indiana University. Doctors haven’t told Tuft how much longer she may survive, but she says she is struggling. Once lead enters the body, it can travel through the bloodstream and affect vital organs like the kidneys, brain and heart, causing a litany of serious health issues. It can include kidney disease, depression, heart disease and suicidal thoughts, Filippelli said. “There are literally now thousands of people who are victims of mass shootings or survivors of gunshot wounds ... we need to work harder to study these impacts,” he said. Retained lead bullets or fragments can cause elevated lead levels in the blood and make people with higher amounts of lead feel sick, said Michael J. Kosnett, a medical toxicologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. But even those who don’t feel symptoms because levels are lower could be at risk of long-term health effects, he said. Tuft was shot multiple times when a gunman opened fire at Trolley Square mall, where she and her daughter Kirsten Hinckley were shopping for Valentine’s Day cards in February 2007. Both were shot multiple times. Hinckley did not survive. The shooter killed five people including Hinckley and injured four others before he was gunned down by police. Tuft does not favor total gun bans, she said. But she does support a ban on assault weapons, stronger background checks and proposed “red flag” laws. “It’s not OK for someone to come in and take your life away like that. Not just your actual life, but your whole livelihood and everything you hoped and dreamed for,” she said. __ Associated Press writer Morgan Smith contributed to this story. ___ Information from: KUTV-TV, http://www.kutv.com/ Claim: 2007 mass shooting survivor copes with 300 pellets of lead.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: China has been beset by a series of product safety scandals over the past few years. At least six children died in 2008 after drinking milk contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine, and there have also been reports of children dying or becoming seriously ill from faulty encephalitis, hepatitis B and rabies vaccines. State news agency Xinhua said that of the seven deaths from the hepatitis B vaccine in the latest case, four were in the southern province of Guangdong. The other cases were in the provinces of Hunan and Sichuan. The official China Daily said that all hospitals using the vaccine, made by Shenzhen-based BioKangtai, had been ordered to take it off their shelves while the Health Ministry investigates the company’s products and the deaths. The company said in a statement last week, carried by state media, said that it rigorously followed safety rules but that they were testing the batches suspected of causing the deaths. The topic has been widely discussed on China’s popular Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo, with many people worried about the safety of China’s vaccines and calling on the government to make more information public. “Why was this allowed onto the market? The government needs to come clean about this,” wrote one Weibo user. Many Chinese people are suspicious that the government tries to cover up bad news about health problems, despite assurances of transparency. In 2003, the government initially tried to cover-up the outbreak of the SARS virus. Claim: China investigates after vaccine suspected in seven deaths.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not mention what the cost might be for the new birth control gel. It’s a useful bit of information in the birth control market with products ranging from a couple dollars for a condom and hundreds of dollars for an IUD. Reporters can ask for estimates or cost-comparisons even for products that are not yet approved or on the market. The story briefly describes a study in 1,400 young women, from which researchers calculated that the gel had an 86% efficacy rate — a common measure of birth control efficacy. However, it could have explained that better: In the contraceptive research world, this generally means that the failure rate is 14 pregnancies per 100 women in a year. But researchers only studied the gel for seven menstrual cycles. The story compares this pregnancy rate to a couple of of other forms of birth control, which is good, but it’s worth pointing out that those failure rates have far more evidence behind them. The efficacy rate for this new product is based on just one industry study. Also, the story makes a vague reference that the gel may kill “certain viral and bacterial pathogens that can cause sexually transmitted diseases.” Only at the end of the story do we find out that researchers have no data yet for this claim. We’ll give this a just-passing satisfactory score because side effects were briefly mentioned: “no serious side effects were observed in the study.” Still we’d like to see mention of less serious side effects, especially for a birth control intervention, because they’re often a significant factor in women’s choices. The story gives some study details, regarding the subjects. However, we don’t know the study’s duration, which could affect side effects and efficacy. No mention is made of how the product is used or how compliant study subjects were, which are two key factors for any birth control method. Also, the study details were provided by the company, not by an independently run study, although the story notes this. The fact that the study hasn’t been published and peer reviewed is also not mentioned. There’s no disease mongering in the story. With a new birth control product, we’d like to see comments from independent physicians or researchers that are experts in the field–and we think this is something investors would value seeing, too. However, this story quotes the CEO of the product’s maker, as well as two business analysts. The story mentions other birth control products, such as male condoms and birth control pills. However, the story sharply misleads readers by claiming that the positive results with the gel brings: “the first hormone-free contraceptive close to approval.” That’s simply wrong. Current hormone-free products include male condoms, copper IUDs, diaphragms, and cervical caps. The story makes clear that this a product under development, not yet approved or marketed. The story describes how the new product differs from male condoms — “woman-controlled” — and how it differs from oral pills — “non-hormonal.” But this isn’t novel, as we describe in alternatives. Although testing is still underway, as the story notes, what’s interesting is that the gel may have some effectiveness against some sexually transmitted diseases, which would make it different from most other forms of female-based contraceptives. We think the story should have provided more information/evidence about this claim, though. The story appears to go beyond the company news release. Claim: Evofem's birth control gel meets main study goal; shares rise",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On April 4 2019, the following warning appeared (archived here), containing the claim that marijuana smokers can detect fentanyl contamination by smell:In addition to its primary claim (that fentanyl-laced weed smells like popcorn), the post contained some secondary tacit claims: primarily that marijuana can be contaminated with fentanyl and that smoking it could be lethal.No commentary accompanied the claim to support it. An assertion in the comments matched what we encountered looking for any documented instances of fentanyl-contaminated marijuana: We were unable to locate any such incidents.In March 2018, BuzzFeed reported:[The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)]’s press office, in turn, referred to “anecdotal reports” of fentanyl in weed from police departments, specifically a 2015 Vancouver police report claiming “fentanyl-laced marijuana” was killing drug users. The following year, however, Vancouver police officers told local newscasters that they hadn’t actually seen this.… The mistaken police reports might have come from weed that tested positive for fentanyl on ultrasensitive test strips that can detect the drug at concentrations as low as one-billionth of a gram. Weed handled by dealers and people who might use all sorts of drugs will likely have trace amounts of fentanyl, similar to the way that studies have found US currency widely contaminated by cocaine. “The positive samples are from levels of contamination that are not clinically meaningful,” Ciccarone said. “They are not felt by the person.”The other evidence of cross contamination comes from toxicology tests on people who died of an overdose. That isn’t a sign of drug dealers purposefully adding fentanyl to marijuana, but rather that many drug users take all kinds of drugs.“The smoking gun,” [epidemiologist Dan] Ciccarone said, would be a positive test of a marijuana sample that contained micrograms to milligrams of fentanyl. (As little as two milligrams can be a lethal dose of fentanyl, according to the DEA.) No such record appears in the scientific literature.A search of NIDA’s archives did not return any results for incidents of fentanyl-laced marijuana. Broader searches for incidents in which marijuana was tainted with fentanyl led back to reiterations that no such contamination had ever been verified, along with reports that explicitly described reported incidents as “rumored.” In one instance, Narcan was administered to a student solely because of a rumor about fentanyl-laced marijuana:The incident is still under investigation. It is unclear what, if anything else was in the oil-based THC and it has been sent to a laboratory for testing[. ]Information about the purported olfactory properties of fentanyl largely claimed it has no discernible odor or taste, or, alternately, that it has a faint “powdery” scent. The latter claim was anecdotal, as was a description in a February 2017 article mentioning “popcorn” — the possible source of this particular rumor:Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin says fentanyl is a “tidal wave” hitting Ontario and the opioid is a “game changer” because it’s more deadly than crack cocaine, meth or OxyContin.In 2015, local police had 12 seizures of fentanyl. In 2016, it climbed to 69, with an additional 15 drug seizures sent to the Centre for Forensic Sciences in Toronto to determine the substances was, or contained, deadly fentanyl.Most of the seizures were in powder form, says Det. Ian Young. On the street, it’s known as china white or popcorn heroin because when fentanyl is smoked it smells like burnt popcorn, says Young, who recently spoke at a conference on opioids.That article was about fentanyl alone, not marijuana-laced fentanyl, and it was based on an anecdote from one police detective in Canada who said that fentanyl itself, not laced marijuana, smelled like popcorn when smoked. But the larger share of information about fentanyl indicated that it is primarily odorless and tasteless.Although cross-contamination of fentanyl has been reported in cocaine, the manner in which it occurred did not logically carry over to supply chains of illegal marijuana (which is not powder based):“Nobody wants to kill off their customer. Nobody’s trying to put fentanyl in their shit to get their coke customers [to switch] over to heroin when their business is coke,” [Tino Fuentes, a harm reduction and overdose reversal specialist] says, especially since there’s a chance that combination could kill them. The more likely culprit, he continues, is accidental cross-contamination.It goes like this: Dealers rush the cleanup, sloppily wiping down the area with a rag, which means traces of fentanyl remain. Then they begin to cut and package another product — in this case, cocaine — on the same table, with the same tools.A popular Facebook status update claims that fentanyl-laced weed smells like popcorn, which assumed that marijuana is necessarily laced with fentanyl at all. Multiple 2018 news articles reported that no one had unearthed a single case of fentanyl-laced marijuana, and we were unable to find any subsequent incidents of said contamination. Additionally, nearly all information about fentanyl’s scent indicated it was odorless or faintly powder-scented, not that it smells “like popcorn.” The inherent risk in such information being spread as “better safe than sorry” was lulling recreational drug users into a dangerously false sense of security with respect to detecting contamination from drugs such as fentanyl. Claim: Marijuana laced with fentanyl is a problem, and you can detect it if \"weed smells like popcorn.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In an article published in German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said finding a solution for a rapid distribution of vaccines, when they are available, is difficult but also urgent. At least 20 vaccines against COVID-19 are under development, many of which are subsidised by individual governments or charities, he told FAZ. “Ideally, once their efficacy has been proven, such vaccines should be distributed as quickly and fairly as possible, and at a reasonable cost,” he said, according to a press release. Purchasing such patent rights would give global pharmaceutical companies incentives for further research and development and ensure that European taxpayers’ money was  “spent sensibly, he said. The suggestion was recently floated by Elias Mossialos, a professor of health policy at the London School of Economics, who has been appointed Greece’s representative in international talks on tackling the coronavirus. The cost for patent rights could be distributed among EU countries, Mossialos told Reuters, adding this would be a one-off solution used only in extreme cases such as a pandemic and that it would not affect the sustainability of the medical technology industry. Securing the patent rights for such tests and vaccines at an EU level would enable their production at many locations and allow for their wide distribution, Mossialos has said. With more than 130,000 COVID-19 cases, Europe has become the epicentre of the pandemic, which has claimed thousands of lives around the world, with Italy and Spain hit the most. Claim: Greece suggests EU buy patent rights for vaccines and coronavirus tests: FAZ.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An Arizona man is dead and his wife was hospitalized after the couple ingested a fish-tank solvent with chloroquine phosphate, the same active ingredient found in anti-malarial drugs that President Donald Trump has hailed as a possible treatment for the novel coronavirus. The woman told NBC News that the couple thought the drug compound Trump mentioned in a televised press conference was the same as the fish-tank cleaner they had in their home pantry. The two are not the same. Chloroquine, also known as chloroquine phosphate, is used in anti-malarial drugs available in the U.S. by prescription only, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A variant, hydroxychloroquine, is an arthritis medicine that can also prevent malaria. The husband and wife were not alone in their confusion. A number of headlines describing the fatal mishap, including from mainstream news outlets, did not make it clear that the couple ingested fish-tank cleaner, rather than the drug form of chloroquine. One headline published before the Arizona couple’s accident missed the distinction entirely. \"Fish tank additive may treat coronavirus,\" said a March 20 headline from Valley News Live, a local news network serving TV stations in North Dakota. That headline is wrong. Fish-tank cleaners containing chloroquine phosphate are not the same as the prescription drugs used for malaria. Nor are they suitable for human consumption. Moreover, as anti-viral drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have shown the ability to combat some diseases, but they have not yet been proven to disrupt COVID-19. No, chloroquine effectiveness only anecdotal Valley News Live did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. Officials from Banner Health, the Phoenix hospital system that treated the husband and wife, warned in a March 23 statement against self-medicating and said the couple’s case was a cautionary tale. The man who died was in his 60s, as is his wife, the statement said. The woman later told NBC News that the solvent made her and her husband feel \"dizzy and hot.\" She said she started vomiting and her husband developed respiratory problems. NBC: Did you see the President's press conference? Where did you hear about--Patient: Yeah. Yeah, we saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually.NBC: And then did you did you seek out Chloroquine?Patient: I had it in the house because I used to have koi fish. https://t.co/C8EiTQQ3r1 pic.twitter.com/QgmElANCEG She said that she had seen Trump talk in a press conference about the promise of chloroquine as a possible coronavirus cure, and that she had the fish-tank cleaner stored away. \"We saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually,\" she said. \"I had it in the house because I used to have koi fish.\" \"I just saw it sitting on the back shelf and said, ‘Hey, isn’t that that stuff they’re talking about on TV?’\" she said. She and her husband mixed about one teaspoon each with soda and drank the concoction as a preventative measure, she said. Trump has touted chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as potential coronavirus treatments, and he tweeted that hydroxychloroquine, combined with an antibiotic called azithromycin, could \"be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.\" HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)..... But Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said there had only been anecdotal evidence that the drugs could knock down COVID-19. The drugs are currently being studied and tested in clinical trials, according to the CDC. According to the New York Times, prices for the fish-tank additive have skyrocketed on eBay as the coronavirus has continued to spread through the U.S. and around the world. Drugs containing chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are not yet proven to prevent, treat or cure patients of the coronavirus, as we’ve noted. A recent French study of 20 COVID-19 patients indicated that the prescription-drug version of chloroquine might help treat the disease. And the CDC notes that a study in China found that patients treated with chloroquine \"had clinical and virologic benefit versus a comparison group.\" More study is still needed. \"There are no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs specifically for the treatment of patients with COVID-19,\" the CDC says on its website. But the fish-tank cleaner is a definite no-no. In a statement, the FDA said Americans should be wary of products that claim to prevent, treat, diagnose or cure COVID-19. \"Products marketed for veterinary use or ‘for research only,’ or otherwise not for human consumption have not been evaluated for safety and should never be used,\" the FDA said. \"The FDA is aware that chloroquine is marketed as an unapproved drug to treat external parasites in aquarium fish, but these products have not been evaluated by FDA to determine if they are safe, effective, properly manufactured, and adequately labeled.\" \"Don’t take any form of chloroquine unless it has been prescribed for you and obtained from legitimate sources,\" the agency said. A Valley News Live headline said, \"Fish tank additive may treat coronavirus.\" Chloroquine, a compound commonly found in fish-tank cleaners, also forms the basis of a prescription drug used for malaria. There are studies underway to conclude whether that drug, and a variant called hydroxychloroquine, could combat the coronavirus. But the fish-tank cleaner is not the same as the prescription drug, and it shouldn’t be substituted as such. A man in Arizona recently died from ingesting it. Claim: “Fish tank additive may treat coronavirus.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Members of the state’s congressional delegation say the Newport County Community Mental Health Center will use the money to meet the needs of 24,500 residents over the next two years. The delegation asked the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for the funding. Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed says the grant will help the center continue to serve people with serious mental illness in Rhode Island. Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse called the center a “lifeline” for many people, and Democratic U.S. Rep. David Cicilline says it’s providing quality, affordable mental health services. The delegation says Rhode Island has the highest rate of mental illness among adults, 24 percent. Claim: Mental health center in Newport gets $2M to expand services.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The case stems from Medtronic’s decision to ask a judge to rule that some of its pacemakers do not infringe on technology patented by Mirowski and licensed to Boston Scientific as well as Guidant Corp, part of Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories. A court in Delaware ruled for Medtronic, saying that even though Medtronic requested the ruling, or declaratory judgment, it was up to Mirowski to prove infringement. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit disagreed, saying it was up to Medtronic to prove its case. The Supreme Court reversed that decision, arguing that the patent holder, in this case Mirowski, ordinarily must prove infringement and that this case was no different. “We hold that, when a licensee seeks a declaratory judgment against a patentee (patent holder) to establish that there is no infringement, the burden of proving infringement remains with the patentee,” the Supreme Court said in a decision written by Justice Stephen Breyer. The two patents in the case have to do with cardiac resynchronization therapy, a pacemaker that detects when the heart beats out of sync and then emits tiny shocks of electricity to correct its rhythm. It is used to treat congestive heart failure. Medtronic licensed the patents in question, but in 2007, Mirowski Family Ventures claimed Medtronic was developing new products that would also justify royalty payments. Medtronic filed suit, seeking a ruling that it did not need to pay. Wednesday’s decision means that the case will return to lower courts for further proceedings, including a fight over infringement, said Arthur Neustadt, senior partner at Oblon Spivak LLP, who argued for Mirowski at the Supreme Court. “The burden of proof issue wasn’t one of the more significant issues,” he said. “Now it goes back to Federal Circuit for other issues to be considered.”  The case is Medtronic v Boston Scientific Corp, Guidant Corp, and Mirowski Family Ventures, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-1128 Claim: U.S. Supreme Court tosses out Medtronic pacemaker patent loss.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: (Editor’s Note: Sen. Isakson’s statement was made in the context of a discussion about two commercial nuclear power plants -- Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi and the Votgle facility, a plant near Augusta that’s slated for expansion. Isakson was specifically addressing safety issues at commercial nuclear power generators.) The fallout from Japan’s nuclear disaster has arrived in Georgia as a small cloud of worry. The construction of the nation’s first new nuclear reactors in decades is slated for just south of Augusta at the Vogtle power plant. When a deadly earthquake and tsunami triggered what is likely a partial meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a few residents near the Georgia site began to ask questions. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson was quick to offer reassurances that Vogtle would be safe. \"There has never been a death caused by a reactor in the United States, even when Three Mile Island failed in the 1970s,\" Isakson said in a YouTube.com video posted by his office. Three Mile Island? That 1979 nuclear accident sank the U.S. into a three-decade freeze on the building of nuclear power plants. No one died? Nuclear power companies have a lot at stake at Vogtle. They hope its new reactors will herald an industry renaissance. Now that Fukushima Daiichi is in crisis, the future for nuclear power is uncertain. Members of Congress, such as independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, have urged regulators to be cautious as they proceed with the construction of more nuclear plants in the U.S.  We called up Isakson’s office and asked for more evidence. A spokeswoman pointed us to 2010 testimony by Greg Jaczko, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, at a Senate committee hearing. When a senator asked Jaczko whether a fatality had ever occurred \"as a result of an accident at a commercial nuclear reactor in the United States,\" Jaczko replied with this:  \"There has not as a result of plant operation, not at a commercial power plant. There have been other nuclear facilities where there have been fatalities, but not in a nuclear power plant.\" We interviewed experts on Three Mile Island, epidemiology and the history of nuclear power. They agreed that no one died during the immediate crisis surrounding the Three Mile Island accident or in other commercial U.S. plants as a result of plant operation. In addition, they agreed that the scientific consensus is that in the decades following Three Mile Island, no deaths have been tied to illnesses resulting from radiation exposure. \"The statement of the politician [Isakson] is correct -- as far as we know,\" said Sam Walker, who retired last year as historian for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is the author of a book on Three Mile Island. The prevailing view is that despite early, anecdotal reports of deaths and disease, Three Mile Island’s impact on overall cancer deaths is minimal. Worker radiation exposure was higher than normal but not extreme, and experts think people living near the plant were exposed to low doses. This does not mean, however, that the disaster has not caused deaths or won’t in the future. It can take more than a decade for radiation exposure to manifest itself as cancer, and it’s difficult to pinpoint whether radiation exposure, a smoking habit or other factors caused a particular person’s illness. The latest research suggests Three Mile Island may have some deadly long-term effects. University of Pittsburgh professor Evelyn Talbott has been leading a major, decades-long effort to track the effects of Three Mile Island radiation in more than 32,000 people who lived in the area surrounding the plant. Talbott’s team noted no increase in overall cancer deaths 20 years afterward, but research they recently submitted for publication shows that adult men who they think received the highest doses of radiation from the accident are at greater risk for leukemia than others who were exposed, the scientist said. Women with similar amounts of radiation exposure showed a higher risk of breast cancer. \"So presumably there may have been excess deaths. We just don't know who specifically, as the cases were within a group of people exposed to more radiation but also had other factors which may have predisposed them,\" Talbott told PolitiFact Georgia. Members of an impassioned minority think the impact may have been more severe. A study by scientists at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, found a link between Three Mile Island and increased incidents of cancer overall. Critics think there are too few peer-reviewed studies published in medical journals on the disaster’s health effects. Joseph Mangano, the head of the Radiation and Public Health Project, thinks the dangers of radiation exposure in general are underplayed. He noted that only a handful of studies have been published on patterns of several types of cancer. \"I think the health research field has completely dropped the ball,\" Mangano told PolitiFact Georgia. In conclusion:  Isakson’s statement that \"there has never been a death caused by a reactor in the United States, even when Three Mile Island failed in the 1970s,\" reflects a prevailing view. According to the latest research, that does not mean there has never been a death because of Three Mile Island’s long-term effects. It’s also worth noting that some scientists back a minority view that the accident increased overall cancer deaths. That said, Isakson specified in his claim that there has never been a death \"caused by a reactor\" in the U.S. This language is not clear, but it does indicate his claim is limited to plant operations, not the long-term aftermath of a nuclear accident. His backup information suggests this as well. We rate Isakson’s statement . Claim: There has never been a death caused by a [commercial nuclear] reactor in the United States, even when Three Mile Island failed in the 1970s.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not addressed. That’s a significant oversight given that treatment with Opdivo can reach well into the tens of thousands of dollars–or more. The story clearly defines the benefit (survival without recurrence of the cancer) and offers clear numbers: “After a year of treatment, 71 percent of patients in the Opdivo group were alive without any recurrence of the disease, compared with 61 percent of those treated with Yervoy. And at 18 months, the rate was 66 percent for Opdivo and 53 percent for Yervoy, the findings showed.” One detail we think would have been good to add–“recurrence-free survival” doesn’t tell you how many patients are actually living longer specifically because of the treatment. It’s just telling you how much time elapses before recurrence. The story notes that the most common side effects were fatigue and diarrhea. But the story also offers information about how common any adverse side effects were — for both Opdivo and Yervoy. That’s valuable information. What’s more, the story notes that Opdivo was less likely to cause adverse side effects than Yervoy, and that those side effects were less severe. Again, that’s useful context. The story states how many patients were in the study and that it was conducted across 130 medical centers in 25 countries. The story does not note that the study was a randomized, double-blind, phase-3 trial — which would have made the story stronger. No disease mongering here. The story tells readers in the second paragraph that the study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb, which markets Opdivo. We like that the story places that information front and center. In addition, the story incorporates input from two independent sources. The story clearly compares the use of Opdivo to the use of Yervoy, and cites an independent source as noting that Opdivo “is superior to conventional chemotherapy for advanced metastatic disease.” The story explains: “Both Opdivo and Yervoy are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat advanced (metastatic) melanoma. In some patients, the drugs are used in combination.” The story notes in its opening paragraph that this research “suggests that Opdivo — a drug that works with the immune system to fight melanoma — is more effective than the current standard of care for patients who’ve had surgery to remove advanced tumors.” The story goes beyond the news release associated with the research. Claim: Immune-Focused Drug May Be New Weapon Against Advanced Melanoma",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 7 July 2017, the web site HuntingForUSA.com reported that rapper Lil’ Wayne announced that he had only one month left to live after receiving an advanced cancer diagnosis. The hoax story also included an explanation for Wayne’s condition: Tattoos and tattoos, his body is covered with maximum tattoos and that became the reason of cancer infection. 80% body covered with tattoos. He smokes and drinks like hell. But, so many tattoos always confused the scanners to track cancer cells. It was stage 4 of cancer when the infection was confirmed. In reality, Wayne (born Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr.) has not announced any issues concerning his health, much less his impending demise. But HuntingForUSA.com’s story was actually an extended regurgitation of a fake story that reportedly dates back to at least August 2015. The story has since been reproduced verbatim on several websites, many of which appear to be based outside of the U.S. Another version of the story recounted the “diagnosis,” but added this coda: Claim: Lil' Wayne announced that he was diagnosed with skin cancer and has one month to live.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 10 March 2016, a nondescript WordPress blog post reporting that “autism was now disclosed and acknowledged as an adverse event reported for use of DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and acellular Pertussis) vaccine” was published by an anonymous blogger. The item primarily consisted of a sensationalist title (which suggested a new development in 2016), along with the following text and image: There’s widespread and growing lack of confidence in the safety of vaccines … Know anyone who still believes that vaccines can’t cause autism? Take a look at the DTaP vaccine insert: Predictably, it wasn’t long before the blog post began popping up in anti-vaccine circles on social media under headlines such as “FDA announces vaccines cause autism” and “Now it’s official: FDA announced that vaccines are causing autism!”  Readers didn’t need to scan past the misleading titles to catch the thrust of the claims: The headlines insinuated that autism had recently been added to the list of known adverse affects asssociated with the DTaP, quietly confirming what science-based medical information had supposedly denied for so long. It was true that the photograph appended to that article matched the insert available for Tripedia, Diphtheria and Tetanus Toxoids and Acellular Pertussis Vaccine Adsorbed (DTaP) as shown on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s web site [PDF]: Also true was the fact that visible selective emphasis highlighted information favorable to anti-vaxxers while failing to include crucial context (namely that the listed effect was a post-approval, unverified user-reported one that does not “establish a causal relationship to components of Tripedia vaccine”): We contacted UC Hastings law professor and immunization law expert Dorit Rubenstein Reiss about the claim, who directed us to a related passage in the Tripedia insert. While the blog highlighted Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) alongside autism as reported adverse effects, directly beneath the referenced passage was information that the rate of SIDS was lower among vaccinated infants than among unvaccinated ones: In the German case-control study and US open-label safety study in which 14,971 infants received Tripedia vaccine, 13 deaths in Tripedia vaccine recipients were reported. Causes of deaths included seven SIDS, and one of each of the following: enteritis, Leigh Syndrome, adrenogenital syndrome, cardiac arrest, motor vehicle accident, and accidental drowning. All of these events occurred more than two weeks post immunization. The rate of SIDS observed in the German case-control study was 0.4/1,000 vaccinated infants. The rate of SIDS observed in the US open-label safety study was 0.8/1,000 vaccinated infants and the reported rate of SIDS in the US from 1985-1991 was 1.5/1,000 live births. By chance alone, some cases of SIDS can be expected to follow receipt of whole-cell pertussis DTP35 or DTaP vaccines. Another aspect of the vaccine excerpt reproduced above was that automobile accidents and drownings were included among the causes of reported deaths that occurred after vaccination, which underscores that the nature of such statistics is an inclusive one encompassing adverse events which clearly have no causal relationship with vaccine. Reiss also pointed us to the FDA’s guidance on adverse event-related drug labeling [PDF], which states: The ADVERSE REACTIONS section must list adverse reactions identified from domestic and foreign spontaneous reports. This listing must be separate from the listing of adverse reactions identified in clinical trials and must also be preceded by information necessary to interpret the adverse reactions. To help practitioners interpret the significance of data obtained from postmarketing spontaneous reports, the following statement, or an appropriate modification, should precede these data: Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 8 The following adverse reactions have been identified during postapproval use of drug X. Because these reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure. When we asked Reiss whether adverse event labeling included all documented reports whether or not they were linked to the drug in question, she confirmed that “the insert lists events reported even if causation evidence is sketchy. It actually says so.” Those who read down to the bottom of the eleven-page Tripedia/DTaP insert might have noticed another relevant portion: The insert information was labeled current “as of December 2005,” which first would mean its sudden “discovery” by an anonymous blogger over a decade later was of questionable (if not negligible) import. But the age of the documentation was important for a second reason: the prominent medical journal The Lancet didn’t formally retract a controversial 1998 research paper which falsely advanced the belief that vaccines were linked to autism until February 2010. While that retraction was significant and definitive, twelve years passed between the paper’s publication and The Lancet‘s disavowal of it: A prominent British medical journal retracted a 1998 research paper that set off a sharp decline in vaccinations in Britain after the paper’s lead author suggested that vaccines could cause autism. The retraction by The Lancet is part of a reassessment that has lasted for years of the scientific methods and financial conflicts of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who contended that his research showed that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine may be unsafe. Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the retraction of Dr. Wakefield’s study “significant.” “It builds on the overwhelming body of research by the world’s leading scientists that concludes there is no link between M.M.R. vaccine and autism,” Mr. Skinner wrote. A British medical panel concluded that Dr. Wakefield had been dishonest, violated basic research ethics rules and showed a “callous disregard” for the suffering of children involved in his research. Dr. Wakefield’s paper reported on his examinations of 12 children with chronic intestinal disorders who had a history of normal development followed by severe mental regressions. But an investigation by a British journalist found financial and scientific conflicts that Dr. Wakefield did not reveal in his paper. For instance, part of the costs of Dr. Wakefield’s research were paid by lawyers for parents seeking to sue vaccine makers for damages. Dr. Wakefield was also found to have patented in 1997 a measles vaccine that would succeed if the combined vaccine were withdrawn or discredited. A 2 February 2010 article published in the British Medical Journal explained how the process of gathering accurate information to counter Wakefield’s claims took years: An academic journal is not a collection of blank pages on to which authors inscribe important scientific facts as they discover them. Rather, science is made and shaped as authors consider the declared areas of interest, impact factors, and instructions for authors of candidate journals for their work and as the papers they submit clear the successive hurdles of eligibility screening, selection of peer reviewers, responding to reviewers’ comments, statistical approval, technical editing, and distribution of press releases. A graph showing first a precipitous fall in immunisation rates in the United Kingdom and then a corresponding rise in the incidence of measles was later reproduced in the broadsheets (and in at least one GCSE biology syllabus) as an iconic symbol of bad science. That article also alluded to the immediate and lasting effects of the initial publication of Wakefield’s now-discredited research: Once the article appeared with the Lancet kitemark — cautious accompanying editorial notwithstanding — the arguments were considered by many to be proved, and the ghastly social drama of the demon vaccine took on a life of its own. An April 2011 article in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry summarized in a timeline the havoc wreaked by Wakefield’s 1998 paper, noting that a “journalistic investigation, rather than academic vigilance” led to the long-awaited retraction: In 1998, Andrew Wakefield and 12 of his colleagues published a case series in the Lancet, which suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine may predispose to behavioral regression and pervasive developmental disorder in children. Despite the small sample size (n=12), the uncontrolled design, and the speculative nature of the conclusions, the paper received wide publicity, and MMR vaccination rates began to drop because parents were concerned about the risk of autism after vaccination. Almost immediately afterward, epidemiological studies were conducted and published, refuting the posited link between MMR vaccination and autism. The logic that the MMR vaccine may trigger autism was also questioned because a temporal link between the two is almost predestined: both events, by design (MMR vaccine) or definition (autism), occur in early childhood. The next episode in the saga was a short retraction of the interpretation of the original data by 10 of the 12 co-authors of the paper. According to the retraction, “no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient”. This was accompanied by an admission by the Lancet that Wakefield et al. had failed to disclose financial interests (e.g., Wakefield had been funded by lawyers who had been engaged by parents in lawsuits against vaccine-producing companies). However, the Lancet exonerated Wakefield and his colleagues from charges of ethical violations and scientific misconduct. The Lancet completely retracted the Wakefield et al. paper in February 2010, admitting that several elements in the paper were incorrect, contrary to the findings of the earlier investigation. Wakefield et al. were held guilty of ethical violations (they had conducted invasive investigations on the children without obtaining the necessary ethical clearances) and scientific misrepresentation (they reported that their sampling was consecutive when, in fact, it was selective). This retraction was published as a small, anonymous paragraph in the journal, on behalf of the editors. The final episode in the saga is the revelation that Wakefield et al. were guilty of deliberate fraud (they picked and chose data that suited their case; they falsified facts). The British Medical Journal has published a series of articles on the exposure of the fraud, which appears to have taken place for financial gain. It is a matter of concern that the exposé was a result of journalistic investigation, rather than academic vigilance followed by the institution of corrective measures. Readers may be interested to learn that the journalist on the Wakefield case, Brian Deer, had earlier reported on the false implication of thiomersal (in vaccines) in the etiology of autism. However, Deer had not played an investigative role in that report. So while it was true autism was listed among the reported adverse events in the Tripedia/DTaP vaccine’s insert, that same insert explained that all adverse events were listed, regardless of evidence of causation. Furthermore, the insert was current as of 2005, and was therefore hardly a novel finding in 2016. Five years after the Tripedia insert was printed, The Lancet formally retracted the 1998 paper to which fears about vaccines and autism were largely attributed, but by that point, the advancement of that idea had already left a palpable mark on public health in both the United States and in the UK. Claim: Autism has now been included among the known side effects of the  DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and acellular Pertussis) vaccine.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Story says it costs $3-5 a bottle The story makes clear that there is no evidence to prove benefits. Nice job on this. Excerpt: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report in April 1995 that linked homebrewed kombucha with the illness of two women who were hospitalized with severe acidosis. One woman died of cardiac arrest and the other was revived after her heart stopped. The story is quite clear on this:  there is no evidence. Excerpt: “To date, there hasn’t been a single human trial reported in a major medical journal,” he said. “This doesn’t mean that kombucha tea can’t possibly have health benefits, it just means that at this time, there’s no direct evidence that it provides the benefits it’s reported to have.” No disease mongering in the story. Good input from expert sources providing necessary skepticism. Story provides appropriate perspective: The widespread availability and growing popularity of this product is clear. Again, good context. Excerpt: This was clearly an enterprise story. Claim: Trendy fizzy drink is mushrooming",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In March 2019, images of a plant dubbed a “penis flytrap” — a play on words that evokes the comparatively less phallic Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) — went viral. These posts all described the plant as belonging to the Nepenthes genus:  Though the provenance of the image shown above is uncertain, we have no reason to doubt this is an authentic photograph of a plant that belonging to the Nepenthes genus. We emailed Clinton Morse, the living plant collections manager at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, to ask about the photograph, and he told us: It is certainly a Nepenthes species and certainly looks like an authentic image. … All Nepenthes have a similar passive pitfall trap that develops with a closed trap, and as the trap matures the ‘lid’ opens up. The pitchers in the attached image are just starting to open thus giving them a rather penile appearance. I’ve never heard of them being called “penis fly trap,” but it is a rather accurate descriptive name. Indeed, once the pit trap is fully matured and the lid is opened, the plant becomes a bit less penile-looking. The open trap fills with water and is designed to attract insects who then fall into the water, where the plant scavenges the nutrients in the decaying bodies, as described in a 1999 review of the genus’ carnivorous behavior: Plants of this genus utilize a passive method of attraction and entrapment to capture and digest their insect quarry. The lip of the pitcher, a ridged double edged collar called the peristome, is characterized by the presence of nectaries that attract insects to the pitcher opening. A lining of several layers of epicuticular wax on the upper region of the pitcher causes the insects to lose their footing while foraging and to slip down the steep walls of the pitcher into its base where they are trapped in a fluid. Claim: An image of a plant with phallic-looking structures is a genuine botanical specimen.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Last month, all Marines Corps’ special ops units began carrying freeze-dried plasma into the field. The plasma helps clot blood and can prevent badly wounded troops from bleeding to death on the battlefield. It saved Army Cpl. Josh Hargis’ life. He lost parts of both legs in 2013 when he stepped on a land mine during a midnight raid in Afghanistan. The medic in his Ranger unit used the freeze-dried plasma to keep him alive on the battlefield for more than 90 minutes until he could be evacuated by helicopter. The medic, Sgt. Bryan Anderson, said having plasma ready made the difference in helping stanch internal bleeding after the blast shattered Hargis’ pelvis. “Wherever blood is oozing out, it’s helping to clot that blood up,” Anderson said. “It blows my mind that Josh was able to stay alive and I think about that night every day of my life.” Their raid on a Taliban leader’s compound killed four Americans and even more friendly troops by suicide bombers and land mines. Anderson’s life-saving labor continued despite seven explosions within 10 yards (9 meters), leading to a Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest military honor for heroism. The plasma Anderson used was stored in a thick glass bottle and kept in a kit with IV lines and distilled water. The medic has to pour the water into the bottle, swirl it around and inject it. Before his injury, Hargis used to think the freeze-dried equipment took up too much room in the medic’s bag. “It really seemed like something that was a little unrealistic to carry out in the field, but it ended up working out,” said Hargis, who lives in Peyton, Colorado, with his wife and kids. A photo of Hargis’ commanding officer giving him a Purple Heart went viral online. Plasma is a straw-colored liquid that contains proteins that make the blood clot. Unlike current plasma supplies that have to be slowly thawed from frozen storage, the dehydrated and powdered freeze-dried version needs no refrigeration and can be used within minutes after swirling it in water. Over the past five years, the military’s special ops units in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have received about 1,000 kits of the freeze-dried plasma, including 430 this year. While specific numbers on usage are scarce, the U.S. Special Operations Command said it had been used at least 24 times by Green Berets and other special operations teams in the past five years. Of those treatments, 15 patients survived long enough to be transferred to a hospital. U.S. forces used freeze-dried plasma in World War II, but quit after it was linked to hepatitis outbreaks. In the years since, the safety testing of it improved and for years militaries including the French, Germans, Norwegians and Israelis have used it. Army Special Operations medics saw it in use and said they wanted it too. The U.S. military currently gets its supply from the French, whose plasma is made from volunteer donors. It has a shelf life of about two years. The U.S. is using the French product as a stopgap while Teleflex Inc. partners with the Army to win Food and Drug Administration approval by 2020. The slow pace led some in Congress to propose giving the Pentagon the ability to circumvent the FDA and allow emergency approval of new medical devices or drugs to treat troops, while other lawmakers propose speeding up FDA approvals for military medical products. Teleflex is shooting to buy its donated plasma from blood banks and produce enough for the armed services and civilian emergency rooms in what is projected to be $100 million-a-year market. The granulated plasma could help in civilian emergencies, said Dr. Jeremy Cannon, a former trauma surgery chief at San Antonio Military Medical Center. Whether it’s an accident victim arriving at a rural Texas hospital without a blood bank or a mass casualty event such as the Las Vegas shooting massacre, powdered plasma could be crucial, said Cannon, who now teaches surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s hospital. “This is the ideal situation for FDP use — first responders and in emergency departments swamped with bleeding patients — especially when the supply of conventional plasma becomes depleted,” Cannon said. ___ Follow Emery P. Dalesio on Twitter at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/emery%20dalesio . ___ This story has been corrected to show that all Marine Corps special operations units began carrying plasma into field in October. Claim: US troops get freeze-dried plasma for battlefield bloodshed.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Pueblo Chieftain reports the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment suspended the operation of Johnson Home in Pueblo on Aug. 6. The agency is moving toward revoking the license for the 19-bed home. The state alleges 14 deficiencies including failing to meet the needs of two residents suffering from severe mental illness. One resident started fires and the other assaulted other residents. Colorado officials say as a result, the facility’s operators failed to provide a safe and sanitary environment for all 19 residents. A message left at the facility Saturday wasn’t immediately returned. ___ Information from: The Pueblo Chieftain, http://www.chieftain.com Claim: Colorado assisted living facility license suspended.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Endorsing his former vice president, Joe Biden, to win the White House, former President Barack Obama sought to contrast the 2020 platforms of Democrats and Republicans on a critical plank: their stance on the Affordable Care Act. It’s a difference, he argued, that has assumed newfound urgency. \"The Republicans occupying the White House and running the Senate … have shown themselves willing to cut millions off their health insurance and eliminate preexisting condition protections for millions more, even in the middle of this public health crisis,\" Obama said. Obama was referring to a couple of GOP policies, the former president’s senior adviser Eric Schultz told KHN. The first: a pending Supreme Court case, Texas v. Azar, in which the Trump administration has argued the 2010 health law should be struck down. Schultz also highlighted the White House’s refusal to provide a special open enrollment period for the ACA health exchanges in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve previously checked claims about President Donald Trump’s stance on the law’s preexisting condition protections — arguably its most popular component ― and his position on the Texas v. Azar lawsuit. But COVID-19 adds new relevance, because of both the virus’s devastating health implications and bludgeoning impact on the American economy. Indeed, the Trump administration’s handling of the virus crisis is shaping up to be a defining issue in the run-up to November. Meanwhile, Biden made the health care law a signature component of his presidential platform and has been a vocal critic of the administration’s pandemic response. With that in mind, we decided to take another look. Obama is correct: The Republican Party has opposed the ACA for years. In 2016, then-candidate Trump campaigned on its repeal. Since then, the White House and congressional Republicans have pursued an agenda that would dismantle the law’s preexisting condition protections. Republicans haven’t united behind an alternative plan, either. First: the lawsuit. Texas v. Azar stems from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That measure took the teeth out of the health law’s individual mandate, which required that all Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty. The tax law, pushed by Republicans and signed by Trump, set that penalty to $0. A collection of Republican states’ attorneys general now argue that, without the penalty, the rest of the health law doesn’t work and should be struck down. Killing the ACA would eliminate the stipulation that insurance plans cannot charge people more if they have a preexisting condition, get rid of the subsidies it provides for people to buy insurance on the exchanges and gut the Medicaid expansion that, in six years, directly extended coverage to more than 13 million people. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, although it won’t rule until after the November election. The Trump administration, while technically in the position that would defend the law in court, has declined to support it — a move legal experts say is almost unprecedented. In fact, the administration has even sided with the states arguing that it should be struck down. Neither the White House nor Senate Republicans have put forth a replacement bill that would maintain the ACA’s protections in the event the high court rules against the law. We asked the White House if the administration had changed its stance in the wake of the pandemic. Trump’s staff redirected us to the Justice Department, the federal government’s legal arm. The department did not respond to emailed requests for comment. As recently as the end of March, though, Trump told reporters he still wanted the law \"terminated.\" Senate Democrats have pushed the administration to change its position on the lawsuit. But Republicans, who hold the Senate majority, have been silent, a position that hasn’t changed even since COVID-19 effectively shut down large swaths of the country. In some ways, the Republican stance isn’t important, argued Thomas Miller, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank. It’s hard to imagine the Supreme Court voting to get rid of the health law, especially in the midst of COVID-19, he said. Still, that doesn’t change the facts of what Trump is arguing. And the lawsuit is also only one part of the equation. Another, is healthcare.gov. Americans who have lost their jobs ― and, often, the insurance that came with it — are eligible to buy insurance on the federal exchange, since job loss is a \"qualifying life event\" that gets you special access. Those who otherwise lack coverage would normally have to wait until the regular open enrollment period, which takes place at the end of the year. But the threat of COVID-19 has changed the risk for many of these potential shoppers. In response, 11 states have independently reopened their state-run health exchanges for a special sign-up period. But the administration has declined to take such steps for the national marketplace. \"If you have been uninsured and picked up your newspaper, or turned on your news and realized your health was in much greater risk than you had anticipated, and would like to rush and get health insurance in case you end up on a ventilator ― you’re out of luck,\" said Linda Blumberg, a health policy fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization. Even before coronavirus, the institute estimated that 32 million Americans were uninsured. About 20 million of them could benefit from a special enrollment period, Blumberg said. Without insurance, coronavirus treatment poses not just a health risk, but also a financial one. The Trump administration has said it will pay hospitals directly, out of a pool of $100 billion, to cover the cost of treating uninsured people with COVD-19. After treating patients, hospitals would get paid at the Medicare rate. But the administration’s policy extends only to covering COVID-19 treatment. Uninsured people with underlying chronic conditions don’t have a way to pay for health care, noted Robert Berenson, another Urban Institute fellow. If left untreated, those chronic ailments make COVID-19 far more dangerous than it would be for someone able to get preventive treatment earlier on. President Trump’s stance raises another question, experts noted. Without the ACA, what kind of impact would COVID-19 have? Even with the heath law intact, many Americans won’t be able to find affordable health insurance. That particularly applies to people who can’t afford the premiums on the individual marketplace, don’t qualify for federal subsidies or live in one of the 14 states that didn’t opt into the ACA’s Medicaid expansion provision. And the ACA is nowhere near sufficient on its own, Miller noted. Having insurance is part of the picture, but it doesn’t guarantee access to testing or that a hospital will be able to treat you. \"On the margins, it does help a little bit to have insurance coverage, but the problem is so much larger than that,\" Miller argued. Still, without the health law, the virus’s impact would be \"catastrophic,\" said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Striking the individual marketplace and Medicaid expansion would leave almost another 20 million people uninsured — \"at risk for not only illness from COVID-19, but also massive medical bills,\" said Larry Levitt, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) Without the ACA, COVID-19 could be considered a preexisting condition. Insurance companies could charge more to cover people who have previously contracted the virus (assuming, of course, those people can get tested and recorded as having had COVID-19). Plus, emerging evidence suggests severe cases of COVID-19 may leave lingering health consequences, that even after recovery would require ongoing medical care, Levitt said. \"The ACA’s consumer protections ensure that persons with COVID-19 can obtain insurance without fear of being turned away or charged exorbitant premiums because of their preexisting condition,\" Oberlander said. The health law also imposed strict regulations over what insurance must cover. Without those regulations, plans could ― and likely would — revert to skimpier coverage, Blumberg said. That, she said, means plans that perhaps don’t cover ventilators or branded medicines, or that cap how many days of hospital care they’ll cover, or that require people to pay much more out-of-pocket. \"Insurers, given the legal ability to do it, would limit their legal liability and protect themselves from high claims,\" she said. \"They did it before and will do it again.\" Obama accused the Trump administration and Senate Republicans of being \"willing to cut millions off their health insurance and eliminate preexisting condition protections for millions more, even in the middle of this public health crisis.\" Evidence indicates that this is an apt characterization. None have put forth a plan that would maintain coverage or consumer protections ― policies that benefit millions of Americans — if the Supreme Court rules against the ACA. And as Obama asserts, striking down the law without an equivalent replacement could be devastating, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Claim: Republicans “have shown themselves willing to cut millions off their health insurance and eliminate preexisting condition protections for millions more, even in the middle of this public health crisis.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Q: Was the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade made because Jane Roe said she was raped? A: No. “Jane Roe” falsely claimed she was gang raped, but that accusation was not a factor in the court ruling. A viral video is circulating online framed by text that says: “Did you know Roe v. Wade was passed only because Roe lied about being raped?” That’s not true.Rape played no part in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the case that made access to abortion legal across the country. Rather, the court ruled, in a 7-2 opinion, that women had a constitutional right to abortion under the 14th Amendment’s right to privacy.In fact, the court’s decision didn’t mention the circumstances that led to the plaintiff’s pregnancy at all. It just said: “Roe alleged that she was unmarried and pregnant; that she wished to terminate her pregnancy by an abortion ‘performed by a competent, licensed physician, under safe, clinical conditions’; that she was unable to get a ‘legal’ abortion in Texas because her life did not appear to be threatened by the continuation of her pregnancy; and that she could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction in order to secure a legal abortion under safe conditions.”The woman who brought the case in 1970 under the pseudonym Jane Roe was Norma McCorvey, who had been living in Dallas County, Texas. It is true that in seeking an abortion in Texas she had initially claimed to have been gang raped and then, in a 1987 interview, McCorvey said that she had lied about the rape.“I found out I was pregnant through what I thought was love,” McCorvey said during the interview with journalist Carl Rowan in a documentary series called “Searching For Justice: Three American Stories.” McCorvey had hoped that by claiming she was raped, she’d be able to get around the Texas ban on abortion, which included an exception if the mother’s life were in danger, according to an interview with Rowan by the New York Times in 1987.But McCorvey never ended up getting an abortion. Her baby was born before the Supreme Court’s decision came down, and she gave up the child for adoption, according to testimony she gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005.One of the lawyers who represented McCorvey at the Supreme Court, Sarah Weddington, said in a statement shortly before the 1987 documentary aired that during the case she never “touched the issue of rape and only emphasized the question of whether the Constitution gives to the state or leaves to a woman the questions of what she can or must do with her body.”So, while it’s true that McCorvey had first claimed to have been raped and later recanted, it is not true that the claim had any bearing on the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on the social media network.Robichaud, Paul. Video — “Did you know that Roe vs Wade only was passed because Roe lied about being raped?” Facebook.com. 9 Oct 2018.Roe v. Wade. No. 70-18. Supreme Court of the U.S. 22 Jan 1973.Rowan, Carl. “Searching For Justice: Three American Stories.” Gannett. 1987.Noble, Kenneth. “Key Abortion Plaintiff Now Denies She Was Raped.” The New York Times. 9 Sept 1987.McCorvey, Norma. “TESTIMONY OF NORMA MCCORVEY, THE FORMER ROE OF ROE v. WADE, BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.” Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 23 Jun 2005. Claim: Roe v. Wade was passed only because Roe lied about being raped.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The cost of breast surgery in the US varies widely depending on the type, hospital and region, and so we acknowledge that it would have been difficult to provide solid numbers here. Nevertheless, we feel that cost remains relevant for this piece. This study basically argues that surgery plus other aggressive non-surgical treatment vs. non-surgical treatment alone may lead to longer survival. Since this isn’t proven, one could reasonably ask about the costs of these two approaches. This may be analogous to the prior use of autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in women with metastatic breast cancer. The high cost of this treatment led to fights with insurers over coverage and finally to a randomized trial that showed no benefit. We don’t do autologous BMT anymore. Could a similar scenario play out here? The question seems worth asking and addressing. The Washington Post story quantifies the potential benefits of surgery, detailing that women who underwent breast surgery had better survival rates than those that didn’t (median of 28 months versus 19 months). Despite the better outcomes, the article adds the number of surgeries dropped from 67.8 percent in 1998 to 25.1 percent in 2011, which it describes as an “intriguing question” about that approach. Furthermore, the story is quick to point out early in the story that surgery may not be the right option for all women and “may be better for some women than it was in 1995.” We applaud the fact that the benefits are reported in absolute terms and in a more cautionary manner, which is why we give it a Satisfactory rating here. Breast surgery can lead to complications, such as bleeding and infection, like any major surgery. Patients usually choose between breast-sparing surgery (surgery that takes out the cancer and leaves most of the breast) and a mastectomy (surgery that removes the whole breast). According to cancer.gov, mastectomies can affect a woman’s psychological well-being due to a change in body image and the loss of normal breast functions. Furthermore, women undergoing total mastectomies lose nipple sensation, which may impede sexual arousal. Other breast surgeries could lead to sudden drops in estrogen production, which could induce early menopause in premenopausal women. Since harms are not addressed, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. The evaluation of evidence was excellent in this Washington Post story, as it pointed out the limitations to the study and described other studies that had not reported the same results. For example, the story explains the limitations of retrospective data, which look back on patients’ treatments. Since the motivations behind therapy decisions are unknown, the conclusions could be rendered unreliable for clinical decision-making, the article says. Another limitation was the over-representation of Africa-American women in the study. It also details two prospective studies that found no survival difference among women with stage 4 breast cancer. One limitation that was overlooked, however, was that usually younger women underwent surgery, which may have also confounded the results. And according to the original research report, age (younger than 45 years) was an independent predictor of prolonged survival. The story also describes and quantifies the research, mentioning the study looked at 21,372 women with stage 4 breast cancer from 1988 to 2011. Lastly, we applaud the story’s use of cautionary language. The report doesn’t jump to premature conclusions or make recommendations based on this one JAMA Surgery study, One of the sources says, “It’s premature to suggest… that removing the breast will help them live longer in the face of stage 4 disease.” The article does not engage in disease mongering, although it could have been helpful to learn more about the prevalence of breast cancer in the US. The Washington Post report interviews two independent sources – the chief surgical oncologist at the University of Michigan and the medical director of a breast cancer center – and their comments bring a much needed critical perspective to the piece. No conflicts of interests are reported, both in the original research article and in the Washington Post story. The article hints at “more sophisticated treatments and better imaging techniques” that have developed over time, but it doesn’t explicit state what those are. We would have liked to have seen a sentence or two describing some existing breast cancer treatments, in the case the patient chooses not to opt for surgery. However, since the story mentions radiation as a possible therapy, we give it a Satisfactory rating here. The availability of risk-reducing  breast surgery is not in question, since it is not a new intervention. The article makes it clear that surgery is not a new intervention to treat breast cancer, stating that women and their clinicians have opted for surgery since at least 1988. The story doesn’t seem to be based on news releases we found online. The Washington Post article shows evidence of original reporting – shown by the comments from the two independent sources and two study authors – and also cites the JAMA Surgery paper. Claim: Women with Stage 4 breast cancer survive longer if they have surgery, study shows",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story says these treatments could cost “anywhere from $8,000 to $18,000 a year.” The story didn’t provide any sense of the scope of potential benefits seen in the trials so far. The story says only that “one injection appears to be effective for up to three months with almost no noticeable side effects.” Is this to suggest that everyone in the trials is getting relief for up to three months from one injection? It’s not clear. Initially the story says patients “report limited side effects that consist mostly of pain at the injection site. Unlike the current preventive medications, there is no nausea, no fuzzy thinking, no nerve pain, no weight loss or gain.” But it also notes a lack of long-term safety data and “potential long-term effects on blood pressure or other cardiovascular function” as well as potential effects on fertility or placental function. In the end, the reporter reflects on her own migraines and her own choices: “I think about my two young children and my risk tolerance. Perhaps in ten years I’ll feel differently. For now, however, I pick up the phone and cancel my clinical trial appointment.” We also like this cautionary sentence: “Right now, the longest patients have been on one of these new therapies is one to two years.” The story doesn’t give much data on the evidence backing these new treatments, except to say that the longest patients have been on them is “one to two years.” What type of trials have been conducted? How many patients were involved, and how severe or frequent were their headaches? How did the treatments stack up against placebos? Those are just some of the questions that would have been useful to explore. (And if the drug companies aren’t making this information public, that should be clear, too.) No disease mongering here. The story reports federal data that about 10 percent of men and 20 percent of women in the U.S. reported having a migraine in the last three months, and as many as 2 percent of Americans have at least 15 migraine days every month. “The toll such pain can take on health, morale, and productivity is substantial,” it says. Two physicians who don’t appear to have interests in promoting these treatments are quoted. The story gives plenty of details: A number of people prescribed medications for depression, high blood pressure and epilepsy discovered migraine relief, too. Now, many of those drugs, including propranolol and topiramate, have been tested and approved for migraine. But no one drug works for everyone, and side effects can prove intolerable or downright unpleasant. The writer also describes her own quest for relief: Since that day more than 17 years ago, I have tried six preventive prescription medications. Not one helped. I alternated among four different, neurologist-recommended supplements, all to no avail. I received bi-monthly injections of magnesium and participated in one of the first clinical trials of Botox. And while Botox seemed to decrease my migraines by one or two per month, it wasn’t enough to bother fighting about it with a new insurance company. I exercised regularly. I experimented with an elimination diet that left me eating nothing but broccoli and white rice, but still the migraines came. I averaged about 15 to 20 each month. The story makes it clear these injections aren’t available yet: Two manufacturers, Amgen (in collaboration with Novartis) and Teva Pharmaceuticals, have completed clinical trials and expect to hear from the FDA by June whether the therapies have been approved. Two more companies, Eli Lilly and Alder Biopharmaceuticals, plan to file for FDA approval later this year. It also cautions that their high cost means insurance companies might “require patients to have tried just about everything else first.” The lead states “there isn’t a drug on the market today that prevents (migraines) by targeting the underlying cause.” This story doesn’t rely on a news release. Claim: Gone With A Shot? Hopeful New Signs Of Relief For Migraine Sufferers",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Event organizers say their selection of Dubai as host reflects a vote of confidence that this oil-rich Emirati sheikhdom can be a global hub for innovation. They also expressed hope that bringing together tomorrow’s scientists and engineers will help develop technologies to solve the world’s most pressing issues, particularly those related to the environment. Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST Global Challenge, said the Middle East represents a part of the world where “the adults have not learned how to play nice with each other” and it was up to young people to fix humanity’s self-inflicted wounds. “We are in an accelerating race toward catastrophe, whether it’s global warning, melting of the (polar ice) caps, bird flu, terrorism — you name it, we’re worried about it. The solution to most of the world’s grand challenges depends on better technologies than we have today,” he said. “This globe of ours is on life support, so the thought is we get every kid in every country to focus on learning how to use technology, but focus on using it as a tool and not a weapon,” he explained. The unofficial “Robotics Olympics” seeks to encourage young people to pursue subjects known as STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Teams of four to five students, aged 14-18, each received a kit of rods, wheels, wires and other raw materials with which to assemble their roving robots. Their task: Collect orange balls of various sizes from a playing field, which represented human-created pollutants in the ocean. Some devised robots for scooping, while others snatched up and fired the balls through the air into the receptacles. The teams then formed “alliances,” each with up of four nations, to battle their way to the final round. Overall, 1,500 students took part. A team captained by Belarus, and including Syrian refugees, eventually won the gold medal, edging out a team captained by Israel in a dramatic final match. But organizers stressed a message of unity, not conflict. “The kids get it. To them this isn’t a competition; this is a ‘coop-etition.’ This is a celebration of technology,” said Kamen. Previous events tackled challenges related to clean water access and sustainable energy. Robotics is a natural fit for Dubai, a city that’s already testing driverless cars and taxis. It’s become a magnet for international entrepreneurs, with an entire zone called “Internet City” that’s packed with high-tech startups. Next October, Dubai will host the Expo 2020, welcoming technological breakthroughs from around the world. “If we are to become the city of the future, we need to have the right talent from around the world,” said Omar Al-Olama, the 29-year-old Emirati Minister of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first such minister. “Artificial intelligence is based on data. Data is what drives all these new technologies. We have the holy grail of data. We have 200 nationalities represented in this country.” FedEx recently announced Dubai would become the first city outside the U.S. to test Roxo, an autonomous delivery device that can travel on sidewalks and even unpaved surfaces. Roxo made its debut international appearance at this week’s robotics contest, drawing the interest of the tech-savvy teens hailing from places as diverse as Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. They mingled in Dubai’s Festival City, exchanging experiences and forming friendships while talking shop about their gadgets. “We didn’t do so well in the matches because we had a lot of trouble with the control hub, but it doesn’t matter, we had a lot of fun,” said Stefan Sijbesma, 17, from the Netherlands. “For me, robotics is really important because it really helped me choose what I want to study and what I want to do with my life.” The three-day tournament had a festival-like atmosphere to it, with announcers and commentators analyzing the action in sports-broadcast style and fans waving flags and banners supporting their teams. The pavilion floor was filled with facts about the millions of tons of pollutants threatening the world’s oceans, and featured slogans such as “united by land, connected by oceans” and “together we turn the tide on pollution.” As the nail-biting results were being announced, the Israelis huddled with their Ugandan teammates before embracing the winning team in a feel-good ending. “I can’t believe it, it’s a miracle,” said Yamen Najjar, manager of Team Hope, which represents the Syrian refugees and was part of the winning alliance. “It was a very difficult competition for us, we faced a lot of problems, but we didn’t lose hope.” Outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who’d made the original announcement that Dubai would host the event earlier this year in a surprise visit to the World Government Summit, was on hand. Perry said he’s followed the robotics tournaments since 2002 when, as governor of Texas, he attended one of the regional competitions in Houston and was “blown away” by the passions and abilities of the young contestants. But he said he found their camaraderie even more impressive. “It is stunning what these young people are doing,” Perry said. “Where the adults may have failed in the standpoint of international diplomacy, these young people may accomplish, and if that’s the case maybe that is the most important thing that comes out of this.” ____ Follow Aron Heller at www.twitter.com/aronhellerap Claim: Dubai displays tech reputation with global robotics contest.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Articles claiming that Pepsi “just admitted” its brand of bottled water, Aquafina, was “plain old tap water” have been circulating on social media for several years. In 2015, for instance, the website True Activist published the following passage:  In a shocking reveal, the Pepsi corporation admitted that its Aquafina bottled water is not purified water or spring water, but simply plain old tap water. The company will now be forced to change the labeling of the brand to reflect that it is just tap water. Several other websites have published similar articles. In September 2019, more than four years after the True Activist article was published, the Yucatan Times wrote that Pepsi had “just admitted that the water they are using is just tap water.” While these articles are based on a genuine news report, they are also outdated and exaggerated. These articles are referring to a 2007 decision by PepsiCo Inc. to amend the label on bottles of Aquafina to clarify that the water came from a “public water source.” Reuters reported at the time: PepsiCo Inc. will spell out that its Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water, a concession to the growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry. According to Corporate Accountability International, a U.S. watchdog group, the world’s No. 2 beverage company will include the words “Public Water Source” on Aquafina labels. “If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it’s a reasonable thing to do,” said Michelle Naughton, a Pepsi-Cola North America spokeswoman. While the water used in Aquafina products comes from public water sources, that does not mean it is “just tap water.” Before this tap water is bottled, it goes through various filtration and purification processes. In other words, Aquafina isn’t simply turning on the faucet and filling up bottles. The Aquafina website provides a little insight into how its water is purified: Aquafina originates from public water sources and is then purified through a rigorous purification process. This purification process includes reverse osmosis and other filtering and purification methods. It removes things like chlorides, salts and other substances that can affect a water’s taste. Every bottle of Aquafina is produced at one of our water purification centers. That’s how you know you’re getting pure water and perfect taste consistently every time you open an Aquafina. Anytime, anywhere. It should also be noted that it isn’t uncommon for bottled-water companies to use public water sources. Dasani, for instance, the bottled water produced by the Coca-Cola Company, also uses public water sources: To create DASANI® water, we start with the local water supply, which is then filtered for purity using a state-of-the-art process called reverse osmosis. Afterwards, we add a special blend of minerals for that pure, crisp, fresh taste. A 2015 article from Mother Jones reported that 45% of bottled water in the United States originates with the municipal water supply. The other 55% comes from spring water: The details of where and how bottling companies get their water are often quite murky, but generally speaking, bottled water falls into two categories. The first is “spring water,” or groundwater that’s collected, according to the EPA, “at the point where water flows naturally to the earth’s surface or from a borehole that taps into the underground source.” About 55 percent of bottled water in the United States is spring water, including Crystal Geyser and Arrowhead. The other 45 percent comes from the municipal water supply, meaning that companies, including Aquafina and Dasani, simply treat tap water — the same stuff that comes out of your faucet at home — and bottle it up. (Weird, right?) To sum up: The water used in many bottled-water products, including Aquafina, comes from a public water source. This water then undergoes various filtration and purification processes before it is bottled and sold. Claim: Pepsi admitted that Aquafina is just tap water. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story mentions the cost of the device. The story provides some quantification of benefits of the device but leaves many questions unanswered. The story states that 80% of the patients experienced at least a 50% improvement in symptoms with the device. Compared to how many with conventional treatment? What does an \"improvement\" mean? In what symptoms? How was improvement measured? The story mentions re-operation due to infection and pain, mechanical failures and discomfort as harms of the implanted device. The story refers to a review that found 4 randomized, controlled trials of the device. The story could have provided more detail about the strength of these studies and pointed out the limitations on the current evidence, such as the small sample sizes, limited follow up time and the fact that many of the studies were industry sponsored. The story does not engage in disease mongering. The story quotes multiple experts. The story points out that one of the experts is a researcher on a Medtronic-sponsored trial of the device but does not mention any conflicts for the other experts, leaving the reader questioning the validity of some of their statements. The story mentions exercises, biofeedback and medications as alternatives to the device, and is careful to point out that these should be considered first-line treatment options before the device is considered. The story could have done more to describe the pros and cons of the alternatives. Clearly the device is available, but it is not clear how widely and how many practitioners are trained in implanting the device. The story accurately represents the novelty of the device. Because the story quoted many experts, the reader can assume the story did not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. Claim: An implant that hits a nerve",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no mention of costs—an important omission, considering that there was no difference in outcome between the individualized treatment approach and a more standard educational format. The article explains that preschoolers showed about a 30% improvement in learning and problem behaviors regardless of which behavioral intervention they received. However, it does not provide an estimate of the absolute improvement. The article does not mention potential harms of behavioral treatment, though it does mention one harm associated with drug therapy. Taking parenting classes and learning skills to manage children with ADHD takes time. Do these interventions detract from the rest of the family or from other duties at home or work? Can behavioral therapy go wrong—and if it can, how might it harm a vulnerable preschooler? The news story appears to describe a randomized, controlled trial comparing parent-education classes alone to parent education plus individualized behavioral therapy directed by a clinician in both the home and classroom. “Surprisingly, both groups fared equally well,” according to the article. It does not mention potential biases. For example, might these families be self-selected with pre-existing notions about the effectiveness of behavioral therapy? The article also does not say whether researchers assessing the children were blinded to the intervention each child received. More description of the study’s methods and limitations would be helpful. The news story says ADHD may afflict a small portion of preschoolers (1% to 4%). But the wide net cast by the story’s diagnostic criteria could ensnare some innocent victims—“extreme symptoms when compared to youngsters of the same age,” including kids who don’t listen, who “drive their families crazy,” and who are injury-prone. Fortunately, a child psychiatrist cautions readers not to “jump on the bandwagon too quickly in making early diagnoses.” The short article cites four sources–two coauthors and two academics, one of whom cautions readers not to “jump on the bandwagon too quickly in making early diagnoses.” The story makes a brief mention of medications for ADHD, the mainstay treatment among school-age children. However, it fails to note that behavioral therapies have proven to be less effective than medications in this older group of youngsters. A sentence that placed the current study in the context of other research that has looked at behavioral therapy for children with ADHD would also be helpful. It is difficult to determine where parents would find the kind of customized behavioral therapy described in this article. More typically, psychologists or social workers working with school-age children provide community- or school-based educational programs that bring together teachers and parents over the course of 8 to 12 weeks. (Pediatrics 2001;108:1033-44) The article accurately suggests that the use of individualized, multifaceted behavioral therapies in preschoolers is relatively new. No obvious use of text from the Lehigh University press release. Claim: Easy Nondrug Help Aids ADHD Kids",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The cost of the prescription hearing aid used in the study is noted ($1,910), as is the cost range of five different PSAPs tested (ranging from $30 to $350). This release didn’t dive into the PSAP versus hearing aid benefit numbers and this was a missed opportunity. According to the full study, hearing aids alone improved speech recognition by 12 percent. Meanwhile, the three most expensive PSAPs (all more than $300) improved speech recognition by at least 10 percent. It would also have been helpful to point out that the least expensive PSAP ($30) actually worsened speech recognition by 11 percent. The news release should have mentioned the potential harms of these devices compared to hearing aids so people have the full picture when considering their potential. One problem is that less expensive PSAPs don’t selectively amplify speech, which could conceivably worsen hearing loss by blasting too loud and broad a range of sound. Readers are given the number of people who participated (42), along with a cautionary note that this low number is a limitation. That’s to the good. However, it would have been more helpful to characterize why that’s a limitation — i.e. such a small sample size is not likely to represent the tens of millions of people who struggle with hearing loss. It would also have been good to mention that these tests were done in a simulated, highly controlled setting, and in which a professional was around to help people wear PSAPs. In the real world, people may not correctly set up or wear a PSAP which could lower the cheaper device’s ability to improve speech understanding. We didn’t see anything alarming or overblown. The release asks the reader to see the study for “author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support,” which is better than nothing, yet doesn’t make it easy for readers to draw conclusions about any potential bias. The entire release is about an alternative comparison, which is refreshing. On the other hand, it is hard to compare alternatives in highly controlled settings. Real life is a lot different. Availability of both hearing aids (“through a licensed professional”) and PSAPs (“over-the-counter”) is clearly established. The novelty seems so obvious in hindsight, but it is clear: How do PSAPs really stack up against hearing aids? The answer is surprising and worthy of a release, even though the sample size was small and the methodology lacked some real-world challenges (e.g. putting on a PSAP correctly and properly adjusting it). We didn’t detect any words that hyped the results. Claim: Certain OTC, Less Expensive Hearing Aids Provide Benefit Similar to Conventional Hearing Aid",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This claim was mostly true in 2011, but it has been resolved. In 2011, the FDA carried out a study on the effect an animal drug called   Roxarson, or  3-Nitro, had on chicken meat. The FDA allowed poultry   producers to use the drug to prevent parasitic diseases in chickens, to   promote weight gain, and to improve the color of chicken meat. The FDA studied 100 boiler chickens to determine whether the use of   3-Nitro led to elevated levels of arsenic in chicken meat. According to   the  study, higher levels of inorganic arsenic were found in the   livers of chickens treated with 3-Nitro than in chickens that were not   treated:  Roxarsone and its metabolites were present in liver tissues from   \tchicks fed roxarsone-medicated feed. The incurred levels of   \tinorganic arsenic species were highly variable in treated chicks   \tbut appeared to be significantly greater than that in the untreated   \tcontrol birds. Withdrawal of the medicated feed led to a   \ttime-dependent decrease in various arsenic species, many of which   \twere unidentified. Whether or not these unknowns could pose any   \ttoxicological risk will be dependent upon their subsequent   \tidentification and testing. The FDA first approved 3-Nitro for human consumption in 1944. Bernadette   Dunham, the director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine,  explained the purpose of the FDA’s review of the drug, and   the results of the study:  Over the past seven to eight years, published scientific reports   \tindicated that organic arsenic can transform into inorganic arsenic   \tin the environment. These reports caused FDA to question whether   \tthe organic arsenic that was present in animal drugs such as   \tRoxarsone would also transform into inorganic arsenic when used in   \tanimals. We would like to stress that the levels of inorganic arsenic found   \tin chicken livers are very low and represent a very low health risk   \tto people who eat chicken. We would also like to stress that   \tconsumers can continue to eat chicken as 3-Nitro is suspended from   \tthe market. Furthermore, FDA does not believe there is a need to   \trecall chicken already in commerce. FDA’s findings demonstrate a   \tvery low but avoidable public exposure to inorganic arsenic, a   \tcarcinogen. Then, in June of 2011, Pfizer  announced that it had voluntarily suspended the sale of   3-Nitro because of the FDA’s findings, which resolved the issue. However, the eRumor resurfaced as breaking news in early 2015. An   outdated  report claimed that the FDA had “just” admitted that 70% of   chicken meat sold in the U.S. contained arsenic:  So a few days ago when I turned on the tube and saw the news   \theadlines stating that the FDA has finally confirmed that chicken   \tmeat sold in the USA contains arsenic, my head, and stomach, nearly   \thit the roof. This cancer-causing toxic chemical, that in high doses   \tcould kill you, is actually being added to chicken feed on   \tpurpose, giving store-bought chicken the illusion of healthy   \tcoloring and plump appearance. Shockingly, this is the case with   \tmore than 70 percent of all U.S. chickens! That is just awful! But while the eRumor’s claims about 3-Nitro are outdated, there are more   arsenic-based animal drugs that are approved for human consumption, the   FDA says:  3-Nitro (Roxarsone) was the first arsenic-based product approved for   \tuse in animal feed and is currently the most commonly   \tused arsenic-based animal drug. Other arsenic-based drugs that are   \tapproved for use in food-producing animals (poultry and swine)   \tinclude nitarsone, arsanilic acid, and carbarsone. Current data   \tindicate that only the 3-Nitro and nitarsone products are being   \tmarketed. These drugs all have forms of organic arsenic–the form of   \tarsenic that is less toxic and not carcinogenic–as their active   \tingredient. Comments Claim:     The FDA has admitted that most chicken meat sold in the U.S. contains   cancer-causing arsenic.     ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 5 May 2018, the University of Würzburg in Germany held an event with the theme of “Future Societys” [sic] that featured Mirjam Heine, a medical student who gave what would become a controversial presentation on the subject of “Why our perception of pedophilia has to change.” In her talk, Heine told the story of a 19-year-old Jonas, a Munich law student who is sexually attracted to girls aged six to 12 years old. “But since he’s aware of the consequences for the children, he has never given in to his sexual drive.” She cited the tenth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD 10) for the description of pedophilia as the “sexual preference for preadolescent children” and pointed to unspecified research that differentiates between child sexual abusers and pedophiles. Heine’s most controversial comments rocketed across the Internet when websites ran reports of them under headlines such as “TEDx Speaker: Pedophilia Is an Unchangeable Orientation,” which led some viewers to believe Heine had condoned “an illegal and harmful practice.”  Although Heine did make a comment about pedophilia’s being an “unchangeable sexual orientation,” it was offered in a fuller context which we’ve transcribed here: Let me very clear here. Abusing children is wrong without any doubt. But a pedophile who doesn’t abuse children has done nothing wrong. I want to quickly summarize where we are at the moment. According to current research, pedophilia is an unchangeable sexual orientation, just like for example heterosexuality. No one chooses to be a pedophile. No one can cease being one. The difference between pedophilia and other sexual orientations is that living out this sexual orientation will end in a disaster. Pedophilia is not defined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a sexual orientation: it is classified as a disorder in the fifth and most current revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5). Discussions that attempt to equate pedophilia with sexual orientation have been contentious, primarily because of the false belief that members of the LGBT community are predisposed to child molestation. Those who argue against civil rights for the LGBT community often cast those rights as a slippery slope to legalizing child sexual abuse or bestiality. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) did not deny the controversial talk took place, but they noted in a 20 June 2018 statement that TEDx talks are “are organized independently from the main annual TED conference” and that the video had been removed at Heine’s request because “she had serious concerns about her own safety in its wake” and Heine cited “research in ways that are open to serious misinterpretation”: In the TEDx talk, a speaker described pedophilia as a condition some people are born with, and suggested that if we recognize it as such, we can do more to prevent those people from acting on their instincts. TEDx events are organized independently from the main annual TED conference, with some 3,500 events held every year in more than 100 countries. Our nonprofit TED organization does not control TEDx events’ content. This talk and its removal was recently brought to our attention. After reviewing the talk, we believe it cites research in ways that are open to serious misinterpretation. This led some viewers to interpret the talk as an argument in favor of an illegal and harmful practice. Furthermore, after contacting the organizer to understand why it had been taken down, we learned that the speaker herself requested it be removed from the internet because she had serious concerns about her own safety in its wake. Our policy is and always has been to remove speakers’ talks when they request we do so. That is why we support this TEDx organizer’s decision to respect this speaker’s wishes and keep the talk offline. Claim: A TEDx speaker gave a talk that referred to pedophilia as an 'unchangeable sexual orientation.'",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In March 2020, when “social distancing” was the norm for dealing with the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, social media users began sharing — and questioning — photographs said to show boxes marked on an open air Las Vegas parking lot to indicate where homeless persons could sleep while maintaining proper social distance from each other:  Many viewers considered such pictures unbelievable (or heartless), especially given the large amount of vacant hotel rooms available in the city due to the cessation of nearly all tourist activities during the pandemic:  These photographs were real, however. On March 28, the City of Las Vegas and Clark County issued a joint news release in which they announced the creation of a temporary homeless shelter in the parking lot of the Cashman Center multi-use facility. That announcement was prompted by the temporary closure of an existing area homeless shelter after a homeless man who had used their services tested positive for the coronavirus: Due to the closure of Catholic Charities, the city of Las Vegas, Clark County and area homeless providers are setting up a temporary shelter for the homeless on the upper parking lot of the Cashman Center. The location will begin tonight and run until April 3. It is anticipated that the Catholic Charities homeless shelter in the Corridor of Hope will reopen in the meantime. This past week the Southern Nevada Health District announced that a homeless man tested positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19). As a result, the shelter run by Catholic Charities closed temporarily. This meant about 500 individuals would have no overnight shelter. The county and city worked together to expand the Homeless Courtyard to accommodate the homeless along Foremaster Lane, and will do an additional expansion onto the Cashman site to allow for greater social distancing. The temporary shelter at Cashman will operate from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. It will be for homeless individuals who are able to walk to the site from the Courtyard. Those with fragile health or mobility problems will still be accommodated at the Courtyard. “This is an excellent example of the city, county and homeless providers coming together to help slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Ward 5 City Councilman Cedric Crear, who represents the area. “I want to thank the staff and volunteers who are making this happen during difficult times.” The city is reserving the building spaces at Cashman Center for potential hospital overflow should the community require it. Claim: Photographs show a homeless shelter with painted social-distancing boxes in a Las Vegas parking lot.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The statement Saturday says Tanzania’s government “despite several requests” is refusing to share the results of its investigations into a number of patients with Ebola-like symptoms and is refusing to ship patient samples to an outside WHO partner lab. Tanzania’s government, which has said it has no Ebola cases, could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday. The cases would be the first-ever Ebola infections confirmed in the East African country. The United Nations health agency says it was made aware on Sept. 10 of the death in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, of a patient suspected to have Ebola. A day later, it received unofficial reports that an Ebola test had come back positive. On Thursday, it received unofficial reports that a contact of the patient, who had traveled widely in the country, was sick and hospitalized. A rapid response is crucial in containing Ebola, which can be fatal in up to 90% of cases and is most often spread by close contact with bodily fluids of people exhibiting symptoms or with contaminated objects. The WHO statement said the lack of information from Tanzania made it difficult to assess potential risks. The Ebola outbreak based in neighboring Congo has infected over 3,000 people and killed nearly 2,000 of them. A few cases have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda as well, and other neighboring countries have been preparing for the outbreak’s possible spread. This is not the first time health officials have raised serious questions about the suspected Tanzania cases. On Monday, the U.S. health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, told reporters in Uganda that he and others were “very concerned about the lack of transparency” in Tanzania. Critics have shown increasing alarm as Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s government has restricted access to key information and cracked down on perceived dissent. Lawmakers recently approved an amendment to a statistics law to make it a crime to distribute information not sanctioned by the government or which contradicts the government. The World Bank was among those expressing concern at that amendment. ___ Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda contributed. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Claim: UN agency: Tanzania not sharing details on Ebola-like cases.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The image that showed up the PolitiFact Georgia inbox had already pinged wildly around social media. The top part showed the Pope waving from the back seat of the small four-door Fiat 500L. Below it was a photo of a driver purported to be College Park megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar, tooling in a shiny silver roadster with an EU license plate. The reader wondered, could that actually be the lead pastor of World Changers Church International behind those sunglasses, zipping along somewhere in Europe? We wondered too, and decided to do some digging. Breaking down the rides That the top part of the meme was accurate was clear from news coverage, and the social media response, during Pope Francis’ recent visit to the United States. The Pope made news for what he said but also for his use of the Italian-made subcompact car. News reports said Vatican police, not the Holy See, selected the car, which has a starting list price of $19,935. But they did so on Francis’ specific request of modesty and simplicity for his ride. Determining who was behind the wheel in the roadster proved more of a challenge. Dollar is a recognizable face who has made his own headlines, most recently from a fundraising video to help his ministry buy a $65 million Gulfstream G650 luxury jet. Though the church removed the video after a backlash, the church’s board of directors later said it still intended to replace Dollar’s jet with the Holy Grail of luxury jets. \"We plan to acquire a Gulfstream G650 because it is the best, and it is a reflection of the level of excellence at which this organization chooses to operate,\" the directors said in a prepared statement. So, the idea of Dollar photographed in a sports car didn’t seem all that outlandish. But with the shades covering much of the driver’s face, it was hard to tell just who was behind the wheel. Focusing on the car, though, brought the navigator into much clearer view. We sent the image to Jim Donnelly and Tom Comerro, the senior editor and editorial assistant, respectively at Hemmings Motor News. The official word from the bible for car collectors: the silver roadster is a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, Stirling Moss edition. Only 75 of the vehicles were produced, with a starting list price in 2009 of 750,000 Euros, or north of $1 million for a supercharged ride that could reach 217 miles per hour with no windshield. Searching for who has access to that ride led us to a similar picture, of a different angle and a driver with the sunglasses off. That’s not a reverend driving the $1 million car. The driver is rapper Kanye West, whose nickname Yeezus is a clear play on the name for the son of God, arriving at a gala in Cannes, France. (You can see a more clear photo of Kanye as the driver here). Modesty and prosperity Simply put, the image itself is flat-out wrong. And what about the context of those 1,000 words the picture is trying to say? Much has been made of the \"simplicity\" sought by Pope Francis ever since he took a vow of poverty as a Jesuit priest. He took the subway as a cardinal in Argentina and news reports say he humbles himself in either a Ford Focus or a 1984 Renault when getting around the Vatican. Dollar, meanwhile, is well-known for preaching the \"prosperity gospel,\" which says that God wants all believers to do well in all aspects of their lives, including finances. Dollar listed two Rolls Royces – one paid for by his congregation and another by members of his ministerial association of those pastors he has trained – in a 2007 congressional inquiry into the tax-exempt status of a handful of such megachurches. World Changers spokesman Vic Bolton said Dollar no longer uses those $250,000 automobiles and instead drivers a regular Mercedes Benz S-Class sedan (which new lists for $96,000) that’s about 8-10 years old (in the $65,000 range). \"It’s a nice car, but it’s no Aston Martin,\" Bolton said. \"I don’t think he drives a Mercedes to send a message. He drives a nice car because that’s what he wants. True prosperity is having options.\" The same could be said about Pope Francis. The Catholic Church, too, is mum about its wealth. But a 2014 report found hundreds of millions of Euros tucked away, off the official church balance sheet. And the Vatican bank manages $7.3 billion in assets and keeps $20 million in gold reserves in the U.S. Federal Reserve. That is enough to buy and sell more than a few of those fancy roadsters. So the real difference – beyond the scale of wealth – is between the ideologies of those Christian faiths, said Kate Bowler, a professor of American Christianity at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina. The Catholic Church is heavily collective, with a focus on the church’s responsibility as a group. In the prosperity gospel, responsibility falls entirely to the right-believing individual. Often, the proof of that belief shows up in flashy cars or extravagant churches, such as the 8,500-seat World Changers dome that has become a landmark in College Park. But Bowler said the faith encourages family connections and community connections as truly prosperous, as well as focusing on sharing the gospel so that others may find that success. \"It doesn’t really matter if it’s not true,\" Bowler said of the meme, \"because it does capture the essence of a faith that requires proof of wealth to be true.\" That means Kanye West being confused for Creflo Dollar adds to, not diminishes, his message, she added. \"I don’t think Creflo would mind at all,\" she said. \"He’s a victor and that language of triumph and the wealthy car demonstrates to believers that God is with them.\" Our ruling A viral image making its way around social media purports to show Pope Francis getting around town in a small compact sedan, while Georgia’s megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar zips along in a stylish two-seater sports car. The roadster driver is actually rapper Kanye West, making the image clearly false. Even the context – trying to draw distinction between a supposedly humble servant of God with an apparently audacious one – ignores that both the Pope and Dollar have ready access to lavish luxuries. Claim: Pope Francis uses a modest compact car to get around, while Creflo Dollar drives an expensive sports car.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While it could be argued that the work on this combination laser-ultrasound device is at too early a stage to demand a comparison to the cost of existing laser devices, a quote in the release claims, “we’re hopeful that the procedure will be available widely in the near future,” which implies the developers must have some sense of how much their device might cost when they achieve their stated goal of commercialization. The release contains only vague claims about the technique being “extremely beneficial” and “safer, more controllable.” In fact, the researchers did not test either safety or clinical effectiveness in the experiment highlighted in the release, so it is premature to make claims of benefits. The release refers to “safety concerns” of existing laser devices, including eye damage, but there are no details about the level of risk presented by this new device. Oddly, the abstract of the conference presentation and the upcoming journal article in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine that were mentioned in the release both highlighted concerns about discoloring or burning skin, something not mentioned at all in the release. Note: The conference abstract was behind a paywall which requires a journal subscription. A draft of the accepted journal article was provided upon request, but we urge those who send out news releases to automatically include primary source material. The release says the researchers tested their device on “porcine skin tissue samples” and claims they saw promising initial results. However, the only result reported in the conference abstract and draft journal article is an increase in the amount of light that went through the pig skin in the lab, which the authors said “implies” reduced back-scatter or absorption in the skin. No results were reported about eye damage risk or skin heating, discoloration or burning. There was no mention in the conference abstract or journal article of any test tattoos or other skin marks on the pig skin, so there is no data presented about the actual ability of the device to remove the “birthmarks, port-wine stains, tattoos” headlining the release. The release doesn’t engage in disease mongering. It includes some context about how the new technology works. It seems clear from the release that this device is intended to be used on the same sort of patients who currently receive laser treatments to remove tattoos or other skin markings. We applaud the inclusion of a link to a patent application, which both highlights a potential benefit to the researchers and provides a great deal more detail about the device itself. The application states that the patent has been assigned to the University of Missouri, but it is reasonable to assume that commercialization of this device would benefit the careers of the researchers. The release says the research was funded by a University of Missouri program called FastTrack, which is intended to support the development and commercialization of technologies. Although the release does include claims that this experimental device is better than existing dermatological lasers, there are no details about how, or how much, better it might be. What’s more, the release fails to mention other methods, including applying glycerol or mechanical vibration to improve laser light transmission through skin. The draft journal article cites other research into using ultrasound, but this somewhat similar technique was not mentioned in the news release. The confusing mishmash of references to “open-air transmission” and sonoillumination is not useful to readers who don’t dig into the conference or patent application materials. Although the release is clear that the device is not yet available, there is no support for the claim that the device, which has yet to be tested on tattoos or other skin markings, “will be available widely in the near future,” especially since clinical trials have yet to be performed. The release mentions that lasers have been used to treat skin conditions for decades. However, it fails to note that other researchers have been looking into using ultrasound to improve laser light transmission for a number of years. Judging the release on this criterion is made harder by the muddled references to two distinct attributes of the device. The second paragraph of the release refers to reducing open-air transmission of laser light, and thus the risk of eye damage. But that statement is immediately followed by a quote about “sonoillumination.” This distinct component of the device uses ultrasound in an attempt to help the laser light pass through skin without heating it as much as conventional lasers, but that feature is explained only in the conference abstract and draft journal article. This burn risk, and how ultrasound might reduce it, is not mentioned in the release, which makes it very difficult for readers to understand just what is new about this device. The release is peppered with claims and quotes that are not supported by evidence. The headline claims that removal of birthmarks, port-wine stains and tattoos could be “revolutionized,” but the experiment did not include any testing of effectiveness on such skin markings. Claims of improved safety are also not supported by any data. Again, the experiment mentioned in the release, which was presented at a recent conference, reported results only on the optical transmission properties of pig skin samples; nothing about safety or clinical effectiveness. Claim: Laser-Based Dermatological Procedures Could Be Revolutionized with New Techniqu",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., among supporters of a proposal requiring women seeking an abortion to first get a sonogram, made a dramatic statement in the floor debate before senators advanced the measure to the House. \"There are literally millions of abortions going on each year in our own state,\" the Brownsville Democrat said Feb. 17, adding that he would \"like to see the definition of abortion really be looked at. A miscarriage is considered an abortion, and I don’t think it should be considered an abortion because that’s a natural thing that unfortunately happens.\" After we sought more information from Lucio’s office, Lucio spoke again in the debate, saying: \"A while ago I was speaking with numbers, I misspoke with my numbers.\" For other articles, we’ve confirmed that there have been about 50 million abortions nationally since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling and that 80,000 abortions took place Texas in 2008. As we started to check Lucio’s other floor statement — that a miscarriage is considered an abortion — Lucio told us in an e-mail statement that friends who lost a baby and underwent a procedure to remove the fetus from the womb told him their insurance company considered the  procedure an abortion. He said he didn’t intend to suggest that a miscarriage in itself should be considered an abortion. \"I have strong beliefs about life,\" Lucio said. \"In an effort to articulate my beliefs... I misspoke.\" We sought independent guidance on whether a miscarriage is considered an abortion. Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, told us miscarriages are sometimes referred to as \"spontaneous abortions,\" though she said that the agency doesn’t include them in its annual abortion counts. No law requires the agency to track miscarriages, Williams said. \"Unfortunately miscarriages are very common and often happen before a woman even knows she’s pregnant making complete and accurate data collection very difficult,\" she said. She cited the legal definition of abortion in Texas. According to the Texas Health and Safety Code, an abortion is \"an act or procedure performed after pregnancy has been medically verified and with the intent to cause the termination of a pregnancy other than for the purpose of either the birth of a live fetus or removing a dead fetus.\" According to the Guttmacher Institute, which studies and advocates on issues related to reproductive health, 66 percent of 6.4 million pregnancies in 2008 resulted in live births and 19 percent ended in abortions. In Texas, 70 percent of 579,700 pregnancies were live births and 15 percent ended in abortions. An estimated 15 percent of pregnancies result in miscarriages, according to the institute. Rebecca Wind, an institute spokeswoman, told us that while \"spontaneous abortion\" is the medical term for an abortion, miscarriages aren’t included in abortion statistics and there is no national effort to track miscarriages. \"In many cases, women who have miscarriages may not know they have had them,\" Wind said, because one can happen early in a pregnancy. Next, we contacted the Texas Medical Association, which represents 45,000 physicians and medical students. Spokeswoman Pam Udall confirmed that doctors usually call a miscarriage a spontaneous abortion because \"the body itself is aborting the pregnancy,\" she said. \"It is a natural consequence that affects up to one in four pregnancies.\" Udall pointed us to a 2002 pamphlet written by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which says \"the loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks is called early pregnancy loss. Often the loss is a miscarriage (sometimes called spontaneous abortion by doctors).\" Where does that leave us? There’s truth in Lucio’s statement: In medical terms, a miscarriage is also termed a spontaneous abortion. Where the senator got off track was in conflating those natural occurrences with elective abortions — medical procedures that terminate a pregnancy. We rate his statement as . Claim: A miscarriage is considered an abortion.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The use of cannabis and other drugs is already legal in Uruguay, one of Latin America’s safest countries and a trailblazer on liberal lawmaking, but the sale and cultivation of drugs is not. President Jose Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla fighter, says the proposed law will help undermine smuggling gangs and fight petty crime in a region hit by drugs-related violence. Critics say it risks luring more Uruguayans to harder drugs. “The idea is to grant licenses for production, distribution, storage and for retail. We haven’t said whether that will be done by the private or public sector, the government will decide that,” said Sebastian Sabini, a ruling party lawmaker who heads a congressional committee on drugs and addiction. The bill, which the government hopes will become law early next year, says the state will be responsible for managing and regulating the marijuana trade from cultivation to distribution. Mujica’s allies control both houses of Congress so the bill is expected to pass despite resistance from opposition legislators. It would give Uruguay some of the world’s most permissive legislation on drugs. Households will be allowed to have up to six plants, or as much as 480 grams (about 17 ounces) of marijuana, the bill presented for discussion by the congressional committee showed. Cannabis consumers would be allowed to buy a maximum 40 grams each month under the bill, which also sets out regulations for smoking clubs with up to 15 members, 90 plants and annual production of up to 7.2 kilograms (15.8 pounds). A National Cannabis Institute would be created to control the drug’s production and distribution, impose sanctions on rule-breakers and design educational policies to warn about the risks of marijuana consumption. Some opponents have warned that Uruguay risks riling governments battling drug-related violence in the region, such as Colombia and Mexico, as well as the United States. President Barack Obama said earlier this year that legalizing drugs would not do away with violent cartels and “could be just as corrupting, if not more corrupting than the status quo.” Claim: New law would let Uruguayans grow marijuana at home, in clubs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “Now I’m a professional livestreamer,” she said with a smile in a video last week. “What else can I do?” Diagnosed with leukemia four months ago, the 27-year-old native of the northern Chinese city of Harbin is helping give a human face to the struggle for more affordable cancer drugs in China. That cause has been bolstered by the popularity of a recent film, “Dying to Survive,” which follows the darkly comedic capers of a Chinese businessman-turned-drug smuggler who saves lives by illegally importing a leukemia drug from India, where it costs several times less than in China. Inspired by a true story, the movie has made more than $400 million since its release in early July, winning praise from moviegoers and critics and prompting government action. State news agency Xinhua reported last week that several provinces have lowered drug prices by up to 10 percent since the end of June. Most of the drugs targeted for price reductions are imported, like the Swiss-developed Gleevec medication in “Dying to Survive.” Beijing previously announced in May that cancer drugs would be exempt from import tariffs. Chinese labs are said to be designing equally effective drugs for a fraction of the price, Xinhua said. “Imported drugs are just too expensive,” said Du Yanan of the Beijing-based Heart to Heart foundation. Du runs a program that matches each yuan ($0.14) that leukemia patients spend on a form of Gleevec that costs 10,000 yuan ($1,474) for a single box of pills. Commenting on the discussions sparked by the film, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vowed to accelerate the process of making cancer medication more affordable. “At the moment when there is a single cancer patient at home, the whole family must pour out all its resources,” the premier acknowledged. Some have criticized “Dying to Survive” for vilifying the foreign pharmaceutical company behind the expensive drugs while absolving Chinese authorities of responsibility. But such a portrayal may be necessary to accomplish the unusual feat of at once being critical and assuaging censors, said prominent social commentator Shi Shusi. “Dying to Survive” was able to “walk the thin tightrope of the regulators’ tolerance” because it addressed serious issues in an indirect, at times slapstick form, Shi said. “Capitalists have held our moral values for ransom in modern Chinese society,” Shi said. “But this movie shows the desire of Chinese audiences for high-quality art.” For Su, the leukemia patient in Harbin, the movie spelled out her experience with cancer when one character intoned, “There is only one disease in this world — the disease of being poor.” On her livestreams, Su sometimes wears a surgical mask. Often, her broadcasts are interrupted by a nurse or doctor who has come to check her blood levels. She thought at first that she was just stricken with the common cold. One night, she was walking home from a noodle restaurant when she suddenly felt dizzy. By the time she reached her apartment just a few blocks away, she was so weak that her cousin had to carry her to their sixth-floor unit. Then came the diagnosis, which her parents had at first attempted to hide. They were an “average family,” Su said, with a stable income from her father’s salary as a public servant. But it was not enough to cover her treatment for the next five years — the length of time her doctor estimated it would take for the cancer to be removed from her system — even when they had already sold their house and spent nearly 400,000 yuan ($58,979) in the last four months. So Su downloaded Inke, a popular Chinese livestreaming app, and started making videos about life with leukemia. After six weeks, she had nearly 800 fans — enough to make up to 400 yuan ($60) at a time from the virtual gifts her viewers sent her. The meager earnings were not yet enough to make a real dent in her medical bills, Su said, but livestreaming boosted her confidence and staved off the loneliness of being stuck in a hospital room. “I am sick, but I’m happy,” Su often tells her viewers. “I know I can be cured.” Claim: Chinese leukemia patient livestreams to pay for treatment.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The bacteria is an unusual strain that has sickened 156 people in 10 states , hospitalizing 20 of them. Ground beef had been described as the likely source. However, officials say they’re still testing to see whether the recalled beef is related to the outbreak. A recall notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service says K2D Foods is recalling about 56.7 tons (51.4 metric tons) of meat. K2D does business as Colorado Premium Foods of Carrollton, Georgia. The meat is in 48-pound boxes labeled “ground beef puck” for institutional use. Calls to the company’s headquarters in Greeley, Colorado, weren’t immediately returned. Claim: Recall: Nearly 57 tons of ground beef for possible E coli.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A TV ad attacking Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp stretches some facts to paint the incumbent North Dakota senator as a “rubber stamp” for the “Washington liberal agenda.”The ad says Heitkamp supported “amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants, including domestic violence perpetrators and child abusers.” The bipartisan immigration bill Heitkamp supported would have toughened green card requirements, barring those convicted of domestic or child abuse who served a year or more in jail or who had two or more convictions for those offenses. She did oppose a proposed amendment that included a provision that would have gone even further, blocking those with only one misdemeanor conviction for domestic or child abuse.According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill Heitkamp supported, the so-called Gang of Eight immigration bill, would have resulted in 8 million getting on a path to citizenship, not 11 million as the ad claimed.The phrase “amnesty” is also misleading. The bill — which was also supported by North Dakota’s Republican senator, John Hoeven — would have provided an earned path to citizenship, not automatic and immediate citizenship, as amnesty implies.The ad makes the broader claim that Heitkamp “rubber-stamps the Washington liberal agenda.” But, according to the statistical website FiveThirtyEight, which is owned by ABC News, Heitkamp voted along with Trump’s agenda 55 percent of the time, the second highest percentage among Senate Democrats.The ad comes from the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC that was established by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The group seeks to expand the Republican majority in the Senate. Heitkamp faces a challenge to her seat from Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer. The Senate Leadership Fund ad claims that Heitkamp “rubber-stamped her approval of amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants, including domestic violence perpetrators and child abusers.” (Another ad from the affiliated One Nation makes a similar claim against incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, saying he “voted to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, including criminals, drunk drivers, domestic violence and worse.”)This claim involves two votes related to a Senate immigration bill in 2013. Heitkamp supported S. 744, the so-called Gang of Eight immigration bill that was cosponsored by four Democrats and four Republicans. The bill would have provided an earned path to citizenship for certain immigrants in the country illegally and would have added a number of border security measures.During the floor debate, Sen. John Cornyn proposed an amendment to the bill that set “triggers” — including a 90 percent border apprehension rate and full operational control of the border — that would have to be met before eligible immigrants could pursue a path to citizenship. Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the amendment a “poison pill” designed to kill the compromise bill. Heitkamp was among those who voted successfully to kill the amendment.A week later, the Gang of Eight bill passed the Senate 68-32, and Heitkamp was among those who voted for it, along with Donnelly and Hoeven. It was never brought up for a vote in the House.The backing for the ad’s claim that she supported “amnesty” including for “domestic violence perpetrators and child abusers” is Heitkamp’s vote against the Cornyn amendment and her vote for the Gang of Eight bill.That’s because the Cornyn amendment also included provisions that would have added some misdemeanor offenses to the felonies that would prevent an immigrant from being eligible to pursue citizenship. Among them were domestic violence and child abuse or neglect.The Gang of Eight bill that passed, and that Heitkamp voted for, also toughened the law with regard to domestic violence and child abuse, though it didn’t go as far as the Cornyn amendment. The bill made inadmissible anyone who had served at least one year in jail or who had been convicted twice for either of those crimes.S. 744: Any alien who has been convicted of a crime of domestic violence, a crime of stalking, or a crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment, provided the alien served at least 1 year imprisonment for the crime, or provided the alien was convicted of offenses constituting more than 1 such crime, not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct, is inadmissible.“Under current law you’re inadmissible (i.e. ineligible for a green card or even admission to the United States) if you committed a crime involving moral turpitude, a drug crime, or have multiple criminal convictions for which the aggregate sentence was 5 or more years. Domestic violence and child abuse don’t necessarily fall under any of those categories,” Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told us via email.“Under Cornyn’s amendment applicants would be ineligible if they were convicted once of domestic violence or child abuse, even if it only qualified as a misdemeanor in the convicting jurisdiction,” Pierce said. “744 [the Gang of Eight bill] would have had more criminal inadmissibilities than we have currently, but not to the extent that Cornyn’s amendment proposed.”It’s fair to say that some immigrants convicted of domestic violence or child abuse would have been eligible for a path to citizenship under the Gang of Eight bill who would not have been eligible if Cornyn’s amendment had passed. But that provision did not come up for a stand-alone vote; it was just one small piece of a larger amendment that Heitkamp and other supporters of the Gang of Eight bill believed was designed to kill the bill.“As a former Attorney General, Heidi has always been tough on border security – that’s why she joined three lead Republicans in the Gang of Eight to vote against this poison pill amendment that they knew would have sunk a bipartisan bill that already addressed the amendment’s underlying goals,” Sean Higgins, a spokesman for the Heitkamp campaign, told us via email.Although several media outlets reported at the time the bill was introduced that it would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants then in the country illegally, the Congressional Budget Office later explained that not all of them would gain legal status.As we wrote back in 2013, the nonpartisan CBO said in a June 2013 report that there were “about 11.5 million unauthorized residents living in the United States at the end of 2011.” But not all of them would have become legal under the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. The CBO said “approximately 8 million of the unauthorized residents already in the country would obtain legal status” under the bill.So the ad overestimates the number of people who would have gained legal status under the bill by 3 million.It also misleadingly says they would have been granted “amnesty.” Those seeking citizenship under the bill would have been required to pay fines and back taxes, prove gainful employment, complete criminal background checks, learn English and civics, and go to the back of the line behind legal immigrants who had already applied for citizenship.As we have written, such an earned path to citizenship does not meet the strict definition of amnesty, which implies that immigrants currently in the U.S. illegally would be granted immediate, permanent residency without any of the requirements listed above.It’s also a curious charge given that the ad faults Heitkamp for opposing the Cornyn amendment, which also would have ultimately allowed a similar path to citizenship for most of those who would have been eligible under the final Gang of Eight bill.Also notable is that Heitkamp was one of only three Democrats who earlier this year voted in support of the Broader Options for Americans Act proposed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, a bill that sought to incorporate President Donald Trump’s framework for an immigration bill. In addition to providing $25 billion for border security and new limits on legal immigration, the bill would have provided a path to citizenship for 1.8 million so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and meet other requirements. Most of them would have been among those eligible for a path to citizenship under the Gang of Eight bill, and so are part of the millions the ad says would have been granted “amnesty.” The bill failed in the Senate.The ad says that “Heidi even supported sanctuary cities like San Francisco that harbor illegal immigrant criminals.”Heitkamp did vote against bills that would have cut off some federal funding, including law enforcement assistance, to cities deemed to be sanctuary cities — including these four bills, none of which passed after votes mostly along party lines.With its mention of “cities like San Francisco that harbor illegal immigrant criminals,” the ad appears to be referencing Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed in San Francisco by a Mexican national with a felony criminal record who had been deported several times. (The man, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, was later acquitted of murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, as well as assault with a deadly weapon, though he was guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. )The case ignited a national debate over sanctuary cities and was frequently referenced by Trump on the campaign trail. The case also spurred legislation in Congress, dubbed Kate’s Law, which sought to ramp up penalties for immigrants who return to the United States after having been previously deported. The bill failed, with votes largely along party lines. But Heitkamp was one of three Democrats who voted for it.After noting some of Heitkamp’s votes on immigration, the Iran nuclear deal and sanctuary cities, the ad concludes, “Heidi Heitkamp: She rubber stamps the Washington liberal agenda.” But that isn’t borne out by a full review of Heitkamp’s voting record.According to a FiveThirtyEight.com analysis last updated Aug. 27, Heitkamp has voted in sync with Trump’s position 55.3 percent of the time. That’s the second highest percentage for a Democrat, behind only Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, though it’s lower than the percentage for any Republican.A GovTrack analysis found Heitkamp votes well to the right of most Democrats on its ideology chart, and its 2017 report card ranked Heitkamp the fourth most conservative Democrat in the Senate.A Roll Call analysis released in March concluded, “Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, which Trump carried by 36 points, voted the president’s way two-thirds of the time and went against the partisan grain 30 percent of the time.” Claim: “Heidi Heitkamp: She rubber stamps the Washington liberal agenda.” ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Royal Swedish Academy of Science said their work has led to the development of medications, biofuels and a reduced environmental impact from some industrial processes. Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena was awarded half of the 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize, while the other half was shared by George Smith of the University of Missouri and Gregory Winter of the MRC molecular biology lab in Cambridge, England. Arnold is only the fifth woman to win a chemistry Nobel since the prizes began in 1901. The winners “have taken control of evolution and used it for purposes that bring the greatest benefit to humankind,” the Nobel committee said. In nature, evolution proceeds slowly as random genetic mutations generate variety in organisms and proteins, and those versions that work best in their environment persist for future generations. The research honored Wednesday mimicked that process by inducing mutations in proteins and selecting those that best met the goals of the research. Smith, 77, and Winter, 67, worked with viruses called phages that infect bacteria. Smith showed in 1985 that inserting DNA into these viruses would make them display proteins linked to that DNA on their surfaces. It was a way to find an unknown gene for a known protein. Winter adapted the approach to create useful antibodies, proteins that target and grab onto disease-related targets. Winter introduced mutations to make antibodies progressively better at binding to their targets. In 1994, for example, he developed antibodies that grab onto cancer cells. The first pharmaceutical based on Winter’s work, AbbVie’s adalimumab, was approved for sale in 2002. It’s used to treat immune-system disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases, the academy said. Sold as Humira in the U.S. and under other brand names elsewhere, it brought AbbVie $18.4 billion in revenue last year, in part because of its price: about $5,000 a month without insurance coverage in the U.S. Other antibodies produced by this approach fight cancer, neutralize the anthrax toxin and slow down lupus, the Swedish academy said. Dr. Wayne Marasco of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said the lab technique developed by Smith and Winter was “revolutionary  ... and it’s used today, every day.” Arnold, 62, was seeking ways to make improved enzymes, which are proteins that encourage chemical reactions to occur. In 1993, she showed the power of “directed evolution” for doing that. First she created random mutations in DNA that lets cells produce an enzyme. Then she slipped these mutated genes into bacteria, which pumped out thousands of different variants of the enzyme. One variant did a particularly good job at a certain task, so she made a new round of mutations in this variant. That produced another variant that worked better. When she made mutant versions of that variant, she got an even better version. It contained a combination of 10 mutations that nobody could have predicted would work so well, the Swedish academy said. Techniques for directed evolution have improved since then and Arnold has been at the leading edge, the academy said. Her tailored enzymes have become important for making medications and other valuable substances like renewable fuels. “Her work is incredible,” Matt Hartings, an associate chemistry professor at American University, told The Associated Press. Arnold, reached by telephone at an airport in Dallas, told the AP: “I predict that we will see many more Nobel chemistry prizes for women.” She learned she had won when she was “unceremoniously woken up” at 4 a.m. in her Texas hotel room. “The phone rang, and I was certain it was one of my kids or some emergency, but it wasn’t. First I was stunned, like somebody hit me over the head with something and then I started to wake up,” she said. Arnold flew back to California for a news conference at Caltech, which she called a “jewel of an institution” where she was always “pushed to do her best and do things other people couldn’t do.” In a short speech, she gave credit to her “inspiring” research team. “The Nobel Prize goes to me but it’s really a team of brilliant people who love what they do,” she said. Smith also credited others for the work that led to his breakthrough, telling a news conference at the University of Missouri that he was simply a part of a “huge web” of science. “Very few research breakthroughs are novel. Virtually all of them build on what went on before. It’s happenstance. That was certainly the case with my work,” he told the AP. Of the pre-dawn phone call from Stockholm informing him of his win, Smith said: “It’s a standard joke that someone with a Swedish accent calls and says ‘You won!’ But there was so much static on the line, I knew it wasn’t any of my friends.” Winter said an encounter with a cancer patient early in his career made him realize the importance of his work. The woman was receiving his then-experimental antibody treatment. Even though Winter didn’t know whether it would work, the patient was grateful for whatever extra time the treatment would give her to spend with her husband. Winter says he realized afterward there was a “moral imperative” to ensure “what was produced could be used for public benefit.” In other Nobel prizes this year, the medicine prize went Monday to James Allison of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University, who developed an approach for unleashing the immune system on cancers,  helping doctors fight many advanced-stage cancer tumors. Scientists from the United States, Canada and France shared the physics prize Tuesday for revolutionizing the use of lasers in research. Arthur Ashkin became the oldest Nobel Prize laureate at 96, while Donna Strickland of the University of Waterloo in Canada became only the third woman to win a physics Nobel. Strickland had worked with the third winner, Frenchman Gerard Mourou of the Ecole Polytechnique and the University of Michigan. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is to be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be revealed on Monday. No Nobel literature prize will be awarded this year due to a sex abuse scandal at the Swedish Academy, which choses the winner. The academy plans to announce both the 2018 and the 2019 winner next year — although the head of the Nobel Foundation has said the body must fix its tarnished reputation first. The man at the center of the Swedish Academy scandal, Jean-Claude Arnault, was sentenced Monday to two years in prison for rape. ___ Heintz reported from Moscow, and Ritter and Chester from New York. Associated Press writers David Keyton in Stockholm, Danica Kirka in London, Linda Johnson in Trenton, N.J. and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, contributed to this report. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage as the 2018 Nobel Prizes are awarded at https://apnews.com/tag/NobelPrizes . Claim: Chemistry Nobel for using evolution to create new proteins.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The genetic mutations have been seen from birds and infected people, but because flu viruses change constantly, experts aren’t exactly sure how significant the differences may be. The H7N9 strain of bird flu showed up in China in 2013 and has mainly sickened people in close touch with chickens or other infected people. In a press briefing Wednesday, the U.N. health agency said in about 7 percent of recent cases, scientists have identified genetic changes suggesting the viruses are resistant to Tamiflu, the recommended treatment for the illness. The drug is being stockpiled worldwide in case there is a flu pandemic, possibly triggered by a mutated bird flu virus. Wenqing Zhang, head of WHO’s flu department, said the rate is similar to what has been picked up in previous years. “Constant change is the nature of all influenza viruses,” she said. Zhang said the mutations in the H7N9 virus have made it more deadly to birds, but she said it’s unclear what that might mean for humans. “The question is, does this change in the virus’ lethality make it any more lethal for humans? The jury is still out on that,” said Wendy Barclay, a professor at Imperial College London. Although bird flu cases in China have surged this year — and spilled over to Hong Kong and Taiwan — Barclay said there was no suggestion the virus is spreading more easily, particularly among people. Since October, 460 people in China have been infected, WHO said. That’s more than one-third of the 1,250 infections reported since 2013. Some scientists worry that China isn’t sharing enough information. Earlier this year, the country suddenly announced about 100 cases, a lag that could compromise efforts to track any changes in the virus’ spread. “We always need more and better information faster,” said Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, adding that the continuing bird flu worries underline the world’s vulnerability to the next flu pandemic. Claim: UN sees bird flu changes but calls risk of people spread low.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Oddly, the release includes a quote from the study’s leader about how “the cost savings of such an approach could … be significant” — yet treatment cost estimates are completely absent in the release. Cost deserved more than the nod given in this release. The release mentions the treatment will be a “Gleevec-like” drug so it’s notable that the costs may also be “Gleevec-like” to start. A 2016 Washington Post article noted that the wholesale cost of Gleevec had risen from $26,400 to $120,000 annually over the 15 years it has been on the market. Even with insurance, a patient might have paid $500-$800 month out-of-pocket for the drug, the Washington Post found. The introduction of generics after the patent on Gleevec expires this year will bring the cost down dramatically. In the chronic phase of the disease, where remission isn’t likely, the average cost for brand-name imatinib per year is $79,000 a year, or $92,000 by a more recent estimate. A large group of physicians wrote in a 2013 cost analysis study in the journal Blood: “We believe the unsustainable drug prices in CML and cancer may be causing harm to patients.” Fortunately, a generic drug should cost $46,000 a year as Gleevec loses patent exclusivity in 2016, according to a recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. But that’s just imatinib. Although the release mentions an Epizyme-made Ezh2 inhibitor drug in an unrelated Phase 1 clinical trial, it doesn’t name it. The release makes clear that its discovery of a potential weak point in a frustrating form of leukemia has the potential to push CML patients into remission. But it doesn’t quantify those results in any way. Even more importantly, the release drags its feet when disclosing that the research was performed in animal subjects. It remains to be seen if the treatment would have similar benefits for people. And that result could be many years down the road. Side effects are mentioned for imatinib, but never detailed. And this is a major oversight that would have benefited the crux of the release (i.e. a need for alternatives to imatinib-like drugs). One 2010 study assessed a flotilla of side effects, including muscle cramps, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, abdominal pain, joint pain, and more in greater than 10% of patients who take it for CML. But it also notes a rare few can be “sinister” in less than 1% of patients: heart damage, kidney failure, muscle degeneration, secondary cancers, and even cerebellar edema, which can cause fainting, seizures, and even put someone into a coma. The side-effects of Ezh2 inhibitors also aren’t noted since it seems the most promising one is still in clinical trials. Since the new drug hasn’t been tested in humans there is really no way to gauge side effects but all cancer drugs have them, often very serious ones as noted above. We’re told that when gene-editing techniques turned off Ezh2 in mice with CML, it prevented their leukemia cells from progressing, “halting the disease at its source.” But it’s one thing to go from a genetically engineered mouse to a human patient, let alone targeting that person’s disease with a fairly experimental drug. There are so many studies in mice that don’t pan out in humans. This release appears to be putting the cart before the horse. We don’t see anything that would scare a reader. We’re told the pharmaceutical company Epizyme opened a phase 1 clinical trial at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s hospital. We’re also told an NIH grant and Hyundai Hope on Wheels is funding the study. The release also notes one of the authors on the study is an employee of Novartis Pharmaceuticals — which owns the (soon-to-expire) patent for Gleevec, also called Glivec. Aside from the current standard of care — imatinib-like drugs — the release only vaguely references “second- and third-line targeted therapies” that “can often return the disease to remission,” yet doesn’t name them. The release notes imatinib-like drugs are the standard of care for CML patients, implying a diagnosis would grant access to the drugs by prescription. Though it doesn’t name the potential Ezh2 inhibitor drug, the release does note it’s part of a Phase 1 trial, as well as other clinical trials — implying it’s not readily available. A lack of absolute clarity here isn’t helpful to readers, but there’s enough to mark this satisfactory. A statement that clarified that it would likely be years before testing in humans would be complete would have been appropriate here. The release does a decent job of teeing up the connection between the leukemia cells that drive CML and a biological pathway that an existing drug might be able to target. The repeated use of the term “cure” — including in the headline — when only preliminary animal data is being presented — is unjustifiable. Claim: Discovery offers prospect of shorter treatment and cure for chronic myelogenous leukemia",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy is hosting the annual program with the Michigan Pharmacists Association from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Officials say getting rid of expired or otherwise unneeded drugs in a responsible way can help prevent abuse and accidental poisonings. It also protects the environment, particularly water resources. Controlled substances, narcotics and over-the-counter medications can be taken to the collection tent at the Capitol. People in other areas can check an online map for collection locations near them. Claim: Michigan Capitol hosts collection of unwanted medications.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2008, Japan passed the “Metabo Law” in an effort to curb obesity in that country. While the law does require men and women between the ages of 45 and 74 to have their waistlines examined once a year and potentially seek medical treatment if their measurements fall outside established ranges, it did not establish obesity as a criminal offense. The Metabo Law was named after metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions, including high blood pressure and excess body fat, that can increase the risk of serious medical ailments:  Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Having just one of these conditions doesn’t mean you have metabolic syndrome. However, any of these conditions increase your risk of serious disease. If more than one of these conditions occur in combination, your risk is even greater. If you have metabolic syndrome or any of the components of metabolic syndrome, aggressive lifestyle changes can delay or even prevent the development of serious health problems. The New York Times reported in 2008 the Metabo Law affects men with waistlines larger than 35.4 inches and women with waistlines larger than 31.5 inches. People exceeding these governmental limits, which are identical to the measurements established by the International Diabetes Federation in 2006, may be required to go to counseling sessions or converse with a health expert about dietary options. Unlike individuals, however, companies and local governments can be assessed financial penalties if the citizens in their charge do not meet government standards:  To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10 percentover the next four years and 25 percent over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check. The ministry also says that curbing widening waistlines will rein in a rapidly aging society’s ballooning health care costs, one of the most serious and politically delicate problems facing Japan today. Opponents of the Metabo Law maintain the weight guidelines are too strict. Japan is one of the least obese developed nations in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Yoichi Ogushi, professor at Tokai University’s School of Medicine, has argued the law will not have much of an effect on the health of Japan’s citizens:  “I don’t think the campaign will have any positive effect. Now if you did this in the United States, there would be benefits, since there are many Americans who weigh more than 100 kilograms [220 pounds]. But the Japanese are so slender that they can’t afford to lose weight.” Claim: A law in Japan makes it illegal for citizens of that country to be fat.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Experts said several factors may be combining to drive the declines, including shifting attitudes about motherhood and changing immigration patterns. The provisional report, based on a review of more than 99 percent of the birth certificates filed nationwide, counted 3.853 million births last year. That’s the lowest tally since 1987. Births have been declining since 2014, but 2017 saw the greatest year-to-year drop — about 92,000 less than the previous year. That was surprising, because baby booms often parallel economic booms, and last year was a period of low unemployment and a growing economy. But other factors are likely at play, experts said. One may be shifting attitudes about motherhood among millennials, who are in their prime child-bearing years right now. They may be more inclined to put off child-bearing or have fewer children, researchers said. Another may be changes in the immigrant population, who generate nearly a quarter of the babies born in the U.S. each year. For example, Asians are making up a larger proportion of immigrants, and they have typically had fewer children than other immigrant groups. Also, use of IUDs and other long-acting forms of contraception has been increasing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report also found: —The rate of births to women ages 15 to 44, known as the general fertility rate, sank to a record low of about 60 per 1,000. —Women in their early 40s were the only group with higher birth rates in 2017, up 2 percent from the year before. The rate has been rising since the early 1980s. —The cesarean section rate rose by a tiny amount after having decreased four years. Studies have shown C-sections are more common in first-time births involving older moms. —Rates of preterm and low birth weight babies rose for the third straight year, possibly for the same reason. —Birth rates for teens continued to nosedive, as they have since the early 1990s. In 2017, they dropped 7 percent from the year before. —Rates for women in their 20s continued to fall and hit record lows. They fell 4 percent. —Perhaps most surprising, birth rates for women in their 30s fell slightly, dipping 2 percent for women ages 30 to 34 and 1 percent for women 35 to 39. Birth rates for women in their 30s had been rising steadily to the highest levels in at least half a century, and women in their early 30s recently became the age group that has the most babies. That decline caused some experts’ eyebrows to shoot up, but they also noted the dip was very small. “It’s difficult to say yet whether it marks a fundamental change or it’s just a blip,” said Hans-Peter Kohler, a University of Pennsylvania demographer who studies birth trends. Another notable finding: The current generation is getting further away from having enough children to replace itself. The U.S. once was among a handful of developed countries with a fertility rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace it. The rate in the U.S. now stands less than the standard benchmark for replacement. It’s still above countries such as Spain, Greece, Japan and Italy, but the gap appears to be closing. A decade ago, the estimated rate was 2.1 kids per U.S. woman. In 2017, it fell below 1.8, hitting its lowest level since 1978. “That’s a pretty remarkable decline,” said Dr. John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health and pediatrics. ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: US births hit a 30-year low, despite good economy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although the story does not discuss costs, the price of aspirin is low and well-known. Yet it would be helpful for stories about population-wide recommendations to address total costs, even if the price for individuals seems low. Broader use of aspirin would also inevitably lead to an increase in the costs of treating bleeding ulcers and other adverse events and they should be acknowledged, even if there might be offsetting reductions in other treatment expenses. Like many other reports, this story relied exclusively on relative risk reduction. Overall the study noted a 3% incidence of cancer in participants who did not receive aspirin and a 2.3% incidence for those who took aspirin. Yes, that is a 23% reduction overall but a 0.7% absolute reduction. Put another way, if indeed aspirin is preventive, you would need to treat 150 people to prevent one occurence of cancer. That benefit needs to be put into context because aspirin is not without its side effects. Nevertheless, we are rating this as satisfactory despite the use of relative risk based, because it did not trumpet the relative risk reductions and emphasized the uncertainties and limitations of the study results. In contrast to some other stories we reviewed, from the lead sentence through the body of the story, it is clear that aspirin increases the risk of bleeding ulcers and other bleeding problems. The story includes a description of the key features of the study, noting that the researchers re-analyzed data from several experiments that compared the heart disease outcomes of people randomly assigned to take aspirin daily to those who were given placebo pills, and that the researchers then added in data from death records in order to asses long-term cancer death rates. The story highlights concerns about relying on data gathered to look at one health threat (heart disease) in order to draw conclusions about a completely different health threat (cancer). It is difficult to mention cancer and not fall victim to disease mongering. Few other disease provide a similar emotional response. The story highlights questions about who might receive some cancer-reduction benefit, noting that the data used for this study included very few women and that since the underlying trials were designed to look for heart disease effects and not cancer, there may be things about the participants that would affect the results, but weren’t recorded during the original trials. These caveats help make clear that there are still uncertainties about who exactly might benefit. The story includes comments from several independent sources and cites current guidelines that do not recommend trying to use aspirin to reduce cancer risk. The story also specifically notes that while the researchers did not get outside funding for this study, several of the authors have been paid consultants to pharmaceutical companies. The story not only highlights comments from those who say it is too early to recommend aspirin as a way to reduce cancer risk, it includes a comment recommending keeping a healthy body weight and not smoking in order to prevent cancer. The availability of aspirin is well-known. Indeed it is so common as to be often perceived as innocuous. Since readers may take aspirin without consulting a health care professional, stories about aspirin should clearly distinguish between those uses that a well-supported by evidence and those that require further evaluation. The story points out that certain people already take low-dose aspirin because of heart disease concerns. The context and cautions included in this story are a welcomed departure from some other stories we reviewed. The story notes that this study adds to previous research that has looked at the potential cancer-related effects of aspirin. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Aspirin may cut cancer deaths, but caution urged",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no mention of cost for the device itself or for the implantation surgery. The news release says manufacture is rapid, but gives no indication as to the actual time it takes, nor are the device’s component materials mentioned, so no estimation of materials costs can be made. The cost for 3D printed knee replacements are undoubtedly higher than traditional replacements. The news release states that a personalized knee joint would fit better and therefore provide better results. However, there is no data supporting how much better the device fits, how closely existing knee replacement devices do fit, nor is there any mention of how patients lives improved after receiving the implants. Did they have less pain? Increased mobility? Some measurement is needed here. The news release does not mention any potential harms from knee replacement surgery in general or for the 3-D printed knee replacement specifically. There are risks associated with new medical devices and the risks increase when the device has not been tested. The release doesn’t include any evidence. There are testimonials from two surgeons who implanted the two devices and a statement by Jean Robichaud, president of Bodycad, who said “These recent procedures reinforce a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the benefit of personalized restorations.” But no reference is provided for that evidence. There is no disease mongering. A percentage of the aging population and some athletes will require knee replacement surgery. While no funding sources are mentioned, it is obvious from the news release that Bodycad is the funding source of their device. There is also an obvious conflict of interest because the company wants to sell their product and the company controls the U.S. patent. But this is expected from a news release from a company touting its own product. At least one of the surgeons quoted in the release has received funding from manufacturers of joint replacement devices. Dr. Brain Hamlin received $$87,737 from Smith & Nephew in 2016 and $8,127 from Depuy Orthopaedics, also in 2016, according to Open Payments, a federal transparency program. These conflicts should have been included in the release. While the news release does compare the 3-D printed device to conventional devices suggesting that personalized devices are better, there are no data showing that this is the case. The whole point of the news release is to say that Bodycad can make personalized knee replacements and it has implanted two of them and it worked. By mentioning that the devices were cleared for use in the U.S. and Europe the company makes it clear they are available. It’s unknown, though, how many surgeons have been trained in the use of the devices. The news release doesn’t establish novelty. In fact, it implies that other companies are making personalized knee replacement devices, but that theirs is better. The news release states, “The efficient, rapid, and highly automated process is the only one of its kind in the world that is impeccably integrated between software and modern manufacturing such as 3D printing.” Companies have been developing customized joint replacement devices for about 25 years. Last year, a company called ConforMIS released results from its prospective study of 62 patients that received either its customized knee replacement product or a conventional device. The release’s use of the word “revolutionary” is unjustified because 1) customized knee replacement devices are not unique to this company and 2) the release provided no evidence of its benefits. Claim: Bodycad Announces First Use of Its Unicompartmental Knee System in Patients",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In March 2015, rumors appeared on social media that dog treat brand Canine Carry Outs (commonly misspelled as “Canine Carryouts”) contains anti-freeze under the “hidden” ingredient name of propylene glycol and is therefore dangerous to feed to dogs. Similar rumors had circulated online about Canine Carry Outs before the claim migrated to Facebook in 2015 (as well as earlier Facebook version did not circulate as widely):  The Canine Carry Outs warning closely resembled a similar rumor about Purina’s Beneful brand pet food, which circulated in early 2015 as well. Although Beneful wasn’t mentioned in the Facebook warning shown above, it’s possible that the rumor also stemmed from earlier alerts that mentioned other brands of dog foods in conjunction with propylene glycol. It’s not accurate to suggest that propylene glycol is a “hidden” ingredient in pet treats, is the same thing as “anti-freeze,” and is inherently dangerous to dogs in any amount. As the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) explains, propylene glycol is a common food additive that is classified as “generally recognized as safe” when consumed within recommended limits:  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified propylene glycol as an additive that is “generally recognized as safe” for use in food. It is used to absorb extra water and maintain moisture in certain medicines, cosmetics, or food products. It is a solvent for food colors and flavors, and in the paint and plastics industries. Propylene glycol is also used to create artificial smoke or fog used in fire-fighting training and in theatrical productions. Other names for propylene glycol are 1,2-dihydroxypropane, 1,2-propanediol, methyl glycol, and trimethyl glycol. Although propylene glycol is not approved for use in cat food, it is classed as generally recognized as safe for dogs in addition to humans and is not “anti-freeze,” as Purina noted in response to questions about its use in pet food:  Propylene glycol is quite different from ethylene glycol, the anti-freeze used in automobiles. Propylene glycol is approved as a food additive in human food and in feed for animals, except cats, in the U.S. and Canada. Ethylene glycol — not propylene glycol — is the active compound in most automobile radiator anti-freeze solutions, and is toxic to animals and humans when ingested. Propylene glycol has a different molecular structure, giving it different properties and allowing it to be used safely in animal feed, except for cats, as well as in human foods, such as cake mixes, salad dressings, soft drinks, popcorn, food coloring, fat-free ice cream and sour cream. Propylene glycol can be used as a non-toxic anti-freeze, just as salt can be used as an “anti-freeze.” The differences in the molecular make-up of propylene glycol and ethylene glycol have significantly different impacts on health and safety for humans and pets. Propylene glycol is approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A similar rumor was spread in 2016 by Dr. Chloe Charlton, a veterinarian in Little Rock, Arkansas, who claimed that one of her canine patients had been “poisoned” by Canine Carry Outs, that “a report to the FDA has come back conclusive,” and that the FDA had “recommended removal of these treats”:  When the Petful website attempted to question Dr. Charlton regarding the many questionable aspects of her claims, she declined to be interviewed. In fact, contrary to what Dr. Charlton asserted, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has never issued any warning or recall/withdrawal notice about Canine Carry Outs brand dog treats. Claim: Canine Carry Outs dog treats contain anti-freeze and are therefore dangerous to dogs.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Chile, an eager adapter of free-market principles in Latin America, has long been a favorite of economic conservatives. Recently, a decision by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- the club of rich nations -- to invite Chile to become a member has become, for many on the right, symbolic of how adhering to free-market principles can vault former Third World countries into economic affluence. In a video blog post dated Jan. 15, 2010, conservative TV and radio host Glenn Beck championed Chile as a nation no longer \"struggling with poverty,\" having overcome a reputation for corruption and bureaucracy through such policies as freer labor markets and lower taxes. In addition to citing the OECD invitation, Beck pointed to its high standing in recent international ratings of \"economic freedom.\" \"They ranked 71st of 72 in 1975 in a study of economic freedom in the world,\" Beck said in his video blog post. \"Now, in that same study, they rank third. The U.S. is ranked 17th.\" We wondered whether Chile is really that far ahead of the U.S. in \"economic freedom,\" so we looked at the data. We located an editorial in Investor's Business Daily -- a leading voice for free-market capitalism -- that appears to be the source of Beck's statistic. The editorial, published Dec. 4, 2009, was later picked up by a smattering of conservative bloggers on its way to Beck's desk. The editorial said in part, \"In the Cato Institute's 1975 Economic Freedom of the World Report, [Chile] ranked a wretched 71 out of 72 countries evaluated. Today it's a different country altogether. Embracing markets has made it one of the most open economies in the world, ranking third on Cato's index, just behind Hong Kong and Singapore.\" Later on, the editorial added that the United States \"ranks just 17th on Cato's 2009 Index of Economic Freedom.\" However, if you look at the 2009 Economic Freedom of the World study by Cato -- a libertarian think tank in Washington -- the numbers were actually different. Hong Kong and Singapore did indeed rank 1 and 2, respectively, but then came New Zealand and Switzerland before Chile at No. 5. In the No. 6 spot, behind by a fraction of a point, was the United States. So while it's true that, by Cato's reckoning, Chile ranked ahead of the United States, it was less of a blowout than Beck or IBD indicated. We also looked at the two prior years' Cato studies to make sure that Beck wasn't simply off by a year. That wasn't the case. In the 2008 study, Chile ranked No. 6 with the United States at 8, in a two-way tie with Australia and once again behind by a fraction of a point. And in the 2007 study, the United States actually ranked higher than Chile. The United States was tied for fifth while Chile was tied for 11th. One of the co-authors of Cato's 2009 study -- Joshua Hall, a Beloit College economist -- also confirmed to PolitiFact that the United States has never ranked as low as 17th in all the years that study has been conducted. Another co-author, James Gwartney, a Florida State University economist, confirmed that Beck was correct in saying that Chile ranked 71st out of 72 countries in 1975. In the meantime, we also looked at whether Beck (or IBD) had mistaken the Cato study for a different report. As it happens, there are at least three other studies that attempt to rank the nations of the world based on \"economic freedom\" or a similar yardstick. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, publishes an annual Index of Economic Freedom. In 2009, the United States ranked sixth in its study while Chile ranked 11th. The World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based international organization, publishes an annual Global Competitiveness Index. Its 2009-10 ratings peg the United States at No. 2 and Chile at 30. Finally, the World Bank publishes an annual \"Doing Business\" ranking that seeks to measure which countries have a regulatory environment \"conducive to the operation of business.\" In this tally, the United States finished fourth overall with Chile 49th. Given these ratings, it would seem unlikley that Beck or IBD could have accidentally been referring to any of these studies. However, we would be remiss if we failed to add that, despite the apparent flub on reporting the rankings, Beck's overall assessment of Chile's recent economic history is largely accurate. We spoke with three experts on Latin American economics and politics who work with centrist-to-liberal think tanks -- Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Andres Martinez of the New America Foundation and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz of the Brookings Institution -- and they agreed that there is a broad ideological consensus on Beck's two key points: Namely, Chile has improved its economic position in recent years and that free-market policies can take some of the credit. \"If trends continue, Chile will soon be considered one of those rare countries that has graduated out of the developing world, according to plenty of living-standard indices,\" Andres Martinez said. \"The country is also the poster child for those who believe globalization and free trade can lift living standards, as Chile's economic course has long been anchored in its free-trade agreement with the U.S. and its dynamic export sector. It also stands out among South American countries in that its governing socialists have pragmatically been the ones embracing this pro-business, market-oriented economy.\" So while there is some truth to Beck's underlying point that Chile has improved its economic freedom, he's wrong to portray Chile as ranking far ahead of the United States. By several measures, the United States ranks significantly higher than Chile; in one, Chile is slightly ahead. So we find his claim Barely True. Editor's note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to . Claim: Chile ranks third internationally in economic freedom, while the U.S. ranks 17th.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The department said Friday that the new cases bring the number of such illnesses among Connecticut residents reported since August to 34, though the specific cause of the injuries is not yet known. Twenty-six patients reported vaping with THC, the high-inducing ingredient in marijuana, 90 days before becoming sick. Of those cases, 17 were in Fairfield, nine in New Haven, three in New London and two in Hartford, and one in Litchfield, Tolland and Windham counties. One person in Connecticut has died. The CDC said Thursday 33 people have died of lung injuries associated with vaping products in 24 states. Claim: Connecticut reports more vaping-related lung illnesses.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The study of 418 people with type 2 diabetes in 69 sites  across Europe and Australia also found that Lantus was  associated with a lower risk of potentially dangerous low blood  sugar level. The researchers reported their findings in the journal  Lancet. “We conclude that (Lantus) provides a simple and effective  option that is more satisfactory to patients than is (Humalog)  for early initiation of insulin therapy,” Reinhard Bretzel of  Justus-Liebig-Universitat in Germany and colleagues wrote. Diabetes is a condition in which a person’s blood glucose  levels are too high. Too much glucose in the blood can damage  the eyes, kidneys and nerves, and lead to heart disease, stroke  and limb amputations. Type 2 diabetes is the form closely linked to obesity. Insulin treatments aim to limit glucose, or blood sugar,  level without causing it to fall so low that it could cause  hypoglycaemia — a condition marked by tremors and nausea that  in extreme cases can kill. During the 44-week trial researchers randomly assigned  volunteers to receive one of the types of injections. Lantus  reduced blood sugar levels to 7 percent from 8.7 percent while  the average Humalog decrease was to 6.8 percent from 8.7  percent, the study found. Doctors target concentrations of less than 7 percent to  reduce the risk of blindness, kidney problems and gangrene, the  researchers added. Rates of hypoglycaemia were also lower for people using  Lantus, amounting to 5.2 patients per year compared to 24  patients per year with Humalog, the researchers said. An additional benefit, the Sanofi-funded study showed, was  that Lantus patients were more satisfied with their treatment,  likely because of the convenience of fewer daily injections,  the researchers said. “Study participants taking (Lantus) reported greater  overall treatment satisfaction, with specific improvements in  convenience of treatments,” the researchers wrote. Claim: Sanofi's Lantus insulin favored over rival: study.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be tapped by a major party in the United States to run for vice president. But since Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden named her as his running mate, questions — and misinformation — about her heritage have populated social media platforms. One Facebook post that’s gained traction is what’s described as an image of Harris’ birth certificate and the claim that her parents listed her as \"Caucasian\" on it. \"Sen K Harris listed as Caucasian on her birth certificate … by her parents …\" the post says. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We reached out to the Biden campaign about the Facebook post but did not immediately hear back. We don’t know if the image of the birth certificate is authentic. But either way, the document in the image doesn’t list a race for Harris and it doesn’t describe her as Caucasian. It’s not unusual for a birth certificate not to list a child’s race, though the race of the child’s parents has been used to determine the race of the child \"for statistical purposes,\" according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The document identifies Harris’ mother as Shyamala Gopalan. In the field that says \"Color or Race of Mother,\" Caucasian is typed below. Gopalan was born in what is now called Chennai, India, and moved to California after college to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley. Under \"Color or Race of Father,\" it says \"Jamaican.\" Harris’ father, Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica and also migrated to the United States to attend Berkeley. We’ve previously debunked a photo that questioned Harris’ race and wrongly claimed the people in the image were her parents. This claim merits a similar rating. . Claim: A photo shows Kamala Harris is “listed as Caucasian on her birth certificate.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The French drugmaker, whose pipeline has disappointed investors in recent years, poached new chief executive Paul Hudson from Swiss pharma group Novartis in September to revitalize the company. Its move to ditch diabetes research - announced alongside cost savings targets - marks a major turning point for a firm whose products dominated the insulin market for nearly two decades, before it was hit by patent losses and a drop in sales. “We recognize it is getting more difficult to get breakthrough innovation and that we have to be efficient and move our resources to areas of opportunity, as tough a choice as that is,” Hudson told reporters. The firm is bulking up elsewhere, as in the lucrative field of cancer drugs. It announced a deal to buy U.S. biotechnology firm Synthorx for about $2.5 billion earlier on Monday. Sanofi, which is due to further detail strategic plans to investors on Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said it was targeting new cost savings of 2 billion euros ($2.20 billion) by 2022, by tightening spending and shaking up its supply chain. It also aims for a core operating margin of 30% by then, up from 25.8% last year. The group emphasized the potential for its eczema treatment Dupixent, recently approved in other therapeutic areas such as asthma, with an aim to expand sales to more than 10 billion euros. Revenue for the drug, developed with U.S. partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, was up 268% in 2018, reaching 788 million euros. Sanofi, currently organized around five global business units, said it would rejig these around three pillars: specialty care, which includes oncology and rare diseases, as well as vaccines and general medicines. Its consumer healthcare unit - known for over-the-counter products such as paracetamol Doliprane, erectile dysfunction drug Cialis and influenza treatment Tamiflu - will be considered as a standalone business, Sanofi said. It would have its own operational dynamic, the firm added, though it did not clarify what this meant in the longer term. Sources told Reuters last month that Sanofi was considering a joint venture or an outright sale among options for the division. “Our objective for the consumer healthcare business is to unlock value and entrepreneurial energy by growing faster than the market over mid-term,” Hudson said. Claim: Sanofi ends research in diabetes, narrows units to spur profit.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “They look at me and ask, ‘Why don’t you just do it?’ I tell them, ‘I’m not legally allowed to do it,’” Jones said. He and other optometrists hope to change that after successfully lobbying Arkansas’ Legislature to change the law to expand the procedures they can perform. It prompted an unexpectedly expensive and heated lobbying fight in the Statehouse, with ophthalmologists arguing the law will put patients at risk. The change is now on hold and could go before voters next year. It’s an unusually high-profile example of a fight that’s being waged in other medical fields, as policymakers try to find ways to expand access to care and cut costs. “This is, to me, a marker of a whole new era where we’re going to see a lot more of this stuff,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, a professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The Arkansas law would allow optometrists to perform several procedures that currently only ophthalmologists can, including injections around the eye, removing lesions from the eyelids and certain laser eye surgeries. Much of the debate has focused on whether optometrists have the necessary training. Optometrists complete a four-year program on eye care after graduating from college and are licensed by the state Board of Optometry. Ophthalmologists are physicians licensed by the state Medical Board who have graduated from medical school, completed a yearlong hospital internship and at least three years of residency. “There is no minimally invasive surgical procedure of the eye,” said Dr. Laurie Barber, an ophthalmologist in Little Rock and the chairwoman of Safe Surgery Arkansas. Her group, which is trying to repeal the law, says the procedures should be performed by medical doctors who have surgical experience. Supporters of the law change say optometrists are already trained to perform the procedures and that forcing them to send their patients elsewhere poses a hardship in a mostly rural state where ophthalmologists aren’t easy to find. Jones, for example, estimates that about one in five of his patients walk or bike to his clinic in Osceola. He also has a clinic in neighboring Blytheville. “When you’re sitting right there and you can have a procedure taken care of, you should be able to,” said Dr. Barbara Horn, president of the American Optometric Association. Carolyn Lay, who has been seeing Barber for 20 years, said she would rather see an ophthalmologist for the procedures detailed in the state law. “I don’t think they should ever be equal until both parties have to do the same amount of school,” Lay said. Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma have laws similar to the one approved by the Arkansas Legislature. Similar legislation expanding what optometrists can do has been proposed in several other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The debate over expanding “scope of practice” for some medical fields isn’t new, especially in states where lawmakers are trying to find ways to expand access to patients in rural areas. Hundreds of such bills come up in state legislatures every year, including efforts in several states to allow nurse practitioners to see patients without partnering with a doctor. Those efforts have faced similar pushback from doctors’ groups who warn that it would put patients at risk. Efforts to loosen restrictions on nurse anesthetists and advanced practice registered nurses failed in the Arkansas Legislature this year. A lobbyist for the Arkansas Ophthalmological Society spent more than $111,000 on the group’s unsuccessful effort to the defeat the optometry expansion in the Legislature, according to figures compiled by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Safe Surgery Arkansas has spent more than $150,000 gathering signatures to put a referendum on the law on the November 2020 ballot. State officials are now verifying whether the group gathered enough valid signatures after it submitted petitions on Tuesday. Supporters of the optometry law signaled they’ll challenge the petitions, arguing that many of the signatures submitted are invalid because canvassers hadn’t filed necessary paperwork with the state. Safe Surgery has said it’s confident it’s complied with the law. “It’s important that the state as a whole be able to vote on this issue,” Alex Gray, an attorney for Safe Surgery Arkansas, said. ___ Follow Andrew DeMillo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo Claim: Eye surgery law sparks unusually public dispute in Arkansas.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In August 2013, Discovery Channel kicked off its popular annual “Shark Week” programming with an episode entitled Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives (and followed it up in August 2014 with Megalodon: The New Evidence). That installment featured the efforts of a group of “researchers” to document the possibility that the prehistoric megalodon species of shark (the largest predatory marine creature in Earth’s history, measuring from about 46–59 ft. in length) has not been extinct for more than a million years, as current scientific belief holds:   The episode featured vivid segments such researchers recounting their attempts to tag a megalodon from a submerged shark cage, and supposed video footage of a South African charter vessel that capsized after something (presumably a shark of monstrous size) rammed and/or bit it. Of course, the faux “researchers” in this episode (“marine biologist” Colin Drake isn’t a real person but rather a fictional role played by actor Darron Meyer) never did find hard evidence of a living megalodon; they merely claimed to have tagged something that escaped by supposedly diving deeper than any known shark, but they didn’t get a good look at it. And if something chomped and capsized a vessel off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, on 5 April 2013, killing several people, the South African press apparently didn’t find that event noteworthy enough to report on at all. The megalodon species of shark did exist, and it’s not absolutely impossible that an undocumented species of huge shark lives in the oceans’ depths (after all, it was only fairly recently that scientists documented the existence of the giant squid). But no such discovery or substantive evidence about living megalodons was at hand in the 2013 “Shark Week” premiere, and as Christie Wilcox wrote in a Discover blog entry, the possibility that some megalodons might still be around isn’t even a subject of genuine inquiry or controversy among legitimate scientists:  “This documentary was the first time I’ve ever even heard it suggested that Megalodon may still exist,” said  Daniel Holstein, a post doc with the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “There’s about as much scientific controversy about the possibility of Megalodons lurking in today’s oceans as there is about mermaids. None.” David Kerstetter, an assistant professor at the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center in Dania Beach, Florida, whose current work includes reducing shark bycatch in fisheries, had a similar response. “There is no discussion among fisheries professionals whether Megalodon is extinct,” he said. “If even one credible scientist had doubts about this, the Discovery Channel wouldn’t have had to use actors.” “As a researcher focused on mako sharks, I often discuss Megalodon with my colleagues,” explained Dovi Kacev, a PhD candidate at San Diego State University studying the population genetics of shortfin mako and common thresher sharks. “We sometimes discuss what it would be like if Megalodon still existed — what it would prey upon, where it would live,” he said. But as to its current existence? “Never do any of my colleagues or I ever plausibly argue that Megalodon is still extant.”  Just as in the case of the faked Mermaids: The Body Found documentary (which aired on Animal Planet, part of the Discovery Channel family), Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives included a briefly-displayed disclaimer declaring the program’s use of “dramatized” events and characters to make up for a lack of hard science and credible evidence:  None of the institutions or agencies that appear in the film are affiliated with it in any way, nor have approved its contents. Though certain events and characters in this film have been dramatized, sightings of “Submarine” continue to this day. Megalodon was a real shark. Legends of giant sharks persist all over the world. There is still debate about what they might be. “Submarine,” the legendary (but non-existent) 35-foot monster shark reappeared in the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” feature Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine in 2014, with yet more claims of its deliberately attacking a ship off the coast of South Africa. That episode also featured a disclaimer noting that the “Submarine” material is largely fictionalized drama based on hearsay and rumor, and there’s no actual physical evidence documenting that such a creature exists and has attacked ships:  Submarine is a legendary shark first sighted off the coast of South Africa in 1970. Eyewitness accounts say it is over 35 feet long. Its existence is highly controversial. Events have been dramatized, but many believe Submarine exists to this day. As Bob Strauss commented in his article “Megalodon — The Monster Shark Lives! (Not)“:  What can you say about a TV documentary in which the suspiciously good-looking lead protagonist — “marine biologist” Collin Drake — comes up empty in a Google search? Or, for that matter, his equally attractive “marine biologist” pal Madelyn Joubert, who joins him halfway through the show, and whom a cursory web search easily demonstrates not to exist? And, not to belabor the point, a TV show that starts with suspiciously staged-looking video footage of a charter boat capsizing off the coast of South Africa, and no references can be found about this accident (in which three passengers were supposedly killed) from reliable online news sources? I don’t know much about charter boats, but I do know that people whose ship is in the process of sinking do not take the trouble to center their subjects on frame. I’m shocked that a major TV channel with a supposedly educational purview can get away with this drivel, in which “Collin Drake” (whoever he is in real life) pursues his theory that that charter boat was rammed by a living Megalodon. We’re taken through various pieces of “evidence” — sonar sightings, Nazi-era photographs, whale carcasses washed up on the beach — but if Discovery is brazen enough to manufacture its “talking heads” out of whole cloth, what is the point of assessing the reliability of these details? Or, as Christie Wilcox concluded:  No whale with a giant bite taken out of it has ever washed up here in Hawaii. No fishing vessel went mysteriously missing off of South Africa in April. No one has ever found unfossilized Megalodon teeth. Collin Drake? Doesn’t exist. The evidence was faked, the stories fabricated, and the scientists portrayed on it were actors. The idea that Megalodon could still be roaming the ocean is a complete and total myth. Here’s what I don’t get, Discovery: Megalodons were real, incredible, fascinating sharks. There’s a ton of actual science about them that is well worth a two hour special. We’ve discovered their nursery grounds off the coast of Panama, for example. Their bite is thought to be the strongest of all time — strong enough to smash an automobile — beating out even the most monstrous dinosaurs. The real science of these animals should have been more than enough to inspire Discovery Channel viewers. But it’s as if you don’t care anymore about presenting the truth or reality. You chose, instead, to mislead your viewers with 120 minutes of bullshit. And the sad part is, you are so well trusted by your audience that you actually convinced them: according to your poll, upwards of 70% of your viewing public fell for the ruse and now believes that Megalodon isn’t extinct. Claim: A megalodon capsized a South African charter vessel in April 2013.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story included cost estimates for both treatments. The story notes there was no difference in the diagnostic value of the two approaches but does note a difference in time and costs. The story provides a somewhat confusing and overly complicated picture of the risks of the CT scans without putting the risks into context with the standard diagnostic procedures. While there is a detailed listing of radiation exposure to the CT scan, no information is provided on the burden of the standard testing. Noting the radiation exposure in millisieverts without comparative information does little to inform the reader of the relative risks of the two approaches studied. The link between radiation exposure and the risk of developing cancer is perhaps beyond the scope of the story. A simple citation (for example – http://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/RadiationEmittingProductsandProcedures/MedicalImaging/MedicalX-Rays/ucm115329.htm ) would have helped the readers better understand the size of the risk. While the story states that a more definitive study is underway, it does not comment on the limitations on drawing conclusions from study results that have only been presented at a conference and have not been subjected to peer review. Claim: Study: CT scans rule out heart attacks faster",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In August 2011 a warning began circulating online, decrying an insect known as the White Hickory Tussock Moth Caterpillar, which is native in Canada from Nova Scotia to Ontario and in the U.S. from the northeast to the south central part of the country:   Little white and black caterpillars all over are POISONOUS. they are apparently new to the area….. doctors say there has been numerous kids having reactions to them. the rash spreads fast. the caterpillars have long white hairs that embed in skin and send poison through out the body. DO NOT TOUCH and DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS TOUCH!!! they look cute and fuzzy and THEY ARE NOT! Please repost to everyone you know with little kids!! This caterpillar appears between June and September and munches its way through the leaves of deciduous trees (it prefers nut-bearing trees, but will settle for willow, ash, aspen, apple, oak, and even raspberry plants and corn stalks). While it does make rather a feast of the leaves it dines on, it does not tend to cause lasting damage to the trees themselves. The caterpillar excretes a type of chemical defense upon contact (which is more properly termed ‘allergenic’ than ‘poisonous’). Most people who handle these creatures will experience a burning, nettle-type, itchy rash of mild to moderate severity, but washing the affected area with soap and water, then applying ammonia or calamine lotion and icing the area should set things to rights. However, some people are hypersensitive to the poison and have allergic reactions to it — in addition to the itchy rash, those persons are likely to experience more severe symptoms such as swelling and nausea and should seek expert medical advice as soon as possible:  The hairs on the caterpillar are long and bristle-like and spread out in tufts down the sides. Two long, sharp, black pencil-like hairs protrude near the front and rear of the creature, and these hairs are connected to poison glands, which excrete venom on contact. Contact with the venom does not generally cause too much of a problem. A nettle or poison ivy-type rash often occurs, which can range from mild with slight reddening of the skin, to burning, swelling and pain, none of which should keep you away from your gardening duties for too long. Hypersensitive individuals may, of course, experience more severe symptoms that could include swelling and nausea. Washing the infected area with soap and water, taking antihistamines, or using ammonia, calamine lotion, or an ice pack can help to alleviate most minor symptoms fairly quickly. People who do experience more severe reactions, however, should seek expert medical advice as soon as possible. Claim: Black and white caterpillars can cause severe allergic reactions in some people who touch them.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Two separate teams of doctors reported successes in using gene therapy to treat Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA. LCA damages light receptors in the retina. It usually begins affecting sight in early childhood and causes total blindness by the time a patient is 30. There is no treatment. Both teams used a common cold virus to deliver a normal version of one damaged gene that causes the disease, called RPE65, directly into the eyes of patients. Although both trials were only testing for safety, patients reported they could see a little better afterwards, the researchers told a meeting of eye specialists in Florida and also reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Katherine High of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and colleagues said all three of their volunteers had improved vision after the treatments. Dr. Robin Ali of University College London and colleagues said one of their three volunteers got better. Because the patients were adults, already had severe sight loss and received only low doses of treatment, researchers had not expected to see a benefit at all. “This result is important for the entire field of gene therapy,” said High, a former president of the American Society of Gene Therapy. One volunteer in Ali’s trial, Steven Howarth, said he had  significant improvement in night vision, allowing him to navigate a simulation of a night-time street. “Now, my sight when it’s getting dark or it’s badly lit is definitely better. It’s a small change — but it makes a big difference to me,” Howarth said in a statement. “The fact we see any evidence of improvement under these circumstances gives great hopes for the effectiveness of the treatment,” Ali  said in a telephone interview. In High’s trial, three patients aged 19, 26 and 26, all reported better vision. “Patients’ vision improved from detecting hand movements to reading lines on an eye chart,” said Dr. Albert Maguire of Children’s Hospital. In each case, only one eye was treated, so the other eye could be used as a “control” to tell whether vision improved. Ali and his team are working on the research with Targeted Genetics Corp (TGEN.O), which made the genetically engineered virus. The Children’s Hospital and University of Pennsylvania team developed their own virus, called a vector, to carry the corrective gene. The next stage of testing will involve treating children, whose eyes have deteriorated less and who have a better chance of improving, Ali said. “We are pretty convinced that once we can do this with younger children we will be able to arrest the damage,” said Targeted Genetics Chief Executive Stewart Parker. One important thing both teams were looking for was proof the virus did not leave the eye. “It stays in there. It doesn’t go anywhere else,” Parker said. Both safety and efficacy have held back the field of gene therapy. One experiment cured two French boys with a rare immune disorder but gave them leukemia in 2002, and an Arizona teenager died in a 1999 gene therapy experiment. Claim: Gene therapy improves sight in near-blind patients.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “More health care is happening at home,” said Susannah Fox, associate director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life project and the study’s lead author. “As more people are able to be saved by medical advances, their lives are being extended, but they’re also being sent home medically fragile. It’s caregivers who are the first line of defense.”  Researchers, which found that the number of caregivers increased 10 percent between 2010 and 2013, surveyed 3,014 adults nationwide and found that most caregivers were between 30 and 64 years old. Fox also said the slow U.S. economy could explain why family members are becoming more responsible for care. With fewer or depleted savings, many people are less able to hire professional help, she said. About half of the United States population has at least one chronic condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults ages 65 and older, 75 percent of whom have chronic conditions, are expected to make up 19 percent of the population by 2030, compared with 12 percent in 2000. “As a chronic illness progresses, family members step in to help out,” said Denise Brown, founder of the support site caregiving.com. “There’s a better understanding of the progression of the disease than the practitioner because they live with it.”  Fox said many caregivers become “voracious information consumers” who regularly tap into online resources to help them care for family or to cope with stress. “They want to turn up the volume on every resource of healthcare,” she said. Nearly half of adults surveyed in an earlier Pew Research Study said they expect to care for an elderly parent or relative at some point. Fox said the number of caregivers will likely continue increasing. Claim: Two-fifths of U.S. adults care for sick, elderly relatives.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 22 March 2016 a Facebook user published the above-reproduced status update, claiming that Pantene hair products caused a potentially dangerous reaction on the hair of a client who was getting foil highlights. According to the poster, a hair salon client complained that the foils in her hair (under which bleach had been applied) felt hot. The colorist maintained that upon examining the situation, he was shocked to discover that the foils were indeed hot to the touch and that when he opened them “smoke [came] billowing out” of the sealed foil. The stylist stated that after he asked all the typical question about product interactions, his client admitted that she used Pantene shampoo and conditioner on her hair. Oddly enough, the colorist then recalled two separate instances in which clients experienced adverse reactions to unspecified services, both of which shared a culprit: Pantene hair products. We contacted a colorist with two decades of experience in hair color about this claim, and she reported she had not encountered of such reaction with Pantene products during her years of experience doing highlight foils despite Pantene products’ popularity her clients. Several other salon representatives with whom we spoke from a number of high-volume New York City salons stated they’d never seen nor heard of such a thing occurring either. A large number of clients across the U.S. likely use Pantene products daily and and highligh their hair, but social media are not awash in foil fire stories from harried hair salon-goers. We also contacted Pantene to ask about the claim. A customer care representative with whom we spoke said that Pantene’s products were safe to use in combination with any typical salon service and reported she was unable to locate any reports of “smoking” foils despite the enduring popularity of hair highlighting. The representative stated that all Pantene products were thoroughly tested for reactions such ads the one described in the Facebook post, and none of that their testing had suggested any likelihood of a such an outcome. The representative did state that had the described incident occurred, it was possible something else used in the salon could have contributed to the reaction. The original poster referenced “plastic and silicones” as a culprit in the purported incident. Pantene lists all their product ingredients on their web site, and nothing in the ingredients list of one of their shampoos (Pantene Daily Moisture Renewal) was atypical or unusual: Water, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycol Distearate, Sodium Citrate, Cocamide Mea, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Dimethicone, Fragrance, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Polyquaternium-76, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium Edta, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Panthenol, Panthenyl Ethyl Ether, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone. In fact, the drugstore product had many ingredients in common with the pricier, salon-favorite Bumble and Bumble Seaweed Shampoos: Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sorbitol, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sea Salt, Ascophyllum Nodosum (Seaweed) Extract, Macrocystis Pyrifera (Sea Kelp) Extract, Spirulina Maxima Extract, Hydrolyzed Algae Extract, Ascorbic Acid, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Polyquaternium-7, Glycerin, Tetrasodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Bisulfite, Edta, Phenoxyethanol, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Chlorphenesin, Sodium Benzoate, Caramel, Yellow 5 (CI 19140), Green 3 (CI 42053), Limonene, Fragrance. Of particular note is the fact that both products (one sold in salons, the other in Walmart stores) contain the popular silicon-based polymer Dimethicone. The ingredient similarities extend to conditioners, as Pantene Daily Moisture Renewal version bears the following list of components: Water, Stearyl Alcohol, Bis-Aminopropyl Dimethicone, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Cetyl Alcohol, Fragrance, Benzyl Alcohol, Disodium Edta, Panthenol, Panthenyl Ethyl Ether, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone. Compared with Bumble and Bumble’s Super Rich Conditioner, the formulations have many common ingredients: Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Cetyl Alcohol, PPG-2 Myristyl Ether Propionate, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Stearalkonium Chloride, Glyceryl Stearate, Glyceryl Distearate, Dimethicone, Caprylyl Glycol, Stearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Yellow 5 (CI 19140), Yellow 6 (CI 15985), Linalool, Limonene, Hexyl Cinnamal, Fragrance. Of additional interest was the fact that the poster claimed Pantene contains “plastic(s)” among its ingredients. A chemophobic 2009 Salon item fingered one purportedly common “plastic” in shampoo as PEG-7M, but that substance is actually a common emulsifier present in the salon (not drug store) product referenced above. Sold on its own, the product is labeled as an “all-purpose oil-in-water emulsifier.” As it turns out, the “plastic in Pantene” rumor wasn’t a new one in 2016. A 2008 post on the beauty science blog Beauty Brains examined then-swirling rumors around panthenol (a moisturizer and humectant) and panthenyl (used for moisturizing properties). In April 2008, the cosmetic chemists behind that blog fielded a similar question about plastic in Pantene products: well im doing a science fair project on this and pantene and this site is very helpful and im just saying never attempt using pantene cause this is what will happen Supposedly it coats your hair with plastic or wax to make your hair seem silky and smooth. It also makes your scalp itchy and it makes your hair fall out. If you know anything about reading ingredients. You know that the first 5-10 are the main ingredients and have the most impact on your hair. Well, panthenol and panthenyl are in the first 5-10. Which both of these ingredients are pure wax. That’s why if you use Pantene when u touch your hair your not really touching your hair. Your touching the half to in inch of waxy coating you have developed on you’re hair.well just saying hopefully this is helpful info and im 100% sure its correct cause i asked professionals and im only 13 The blog responded by suggesting that the plastic claim was started by stylists seeking to discourage clients from using less-expensive drugstore products. The blog also urged readers to obtain information about product formulations from additional sources, not just people trying to sell them things: Thanks for checking in with the Beauty Brains about your science project. Lefty and Righty have answered questions about Pantene before and they say that the idea that it coats your hair with plastic is a myth started by stylists to keep you from buying salon products. (BTW, Pantene contains silicone, not plastic.) And the notion that when you touch your hair you’re really feeling Pantene is bogus. I don’t know as much about formulation chemistry as Lefty but even I know that there’s NO WAY you’re leaving half inch to an inch of product on your hair. That would be a TON of gunk left behind! No conditioner leaves that much stuff on your hair … if you really want to be “100% sure” you shouldn’t only talk to professional stylists. And you shouldn’t “only” listen to the Beauty Brains either. Do your own research on the web, read Paula Begoun’s Cosmetic Cop website, contact Pantene and ask them what they say about their products, check with the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. But whatever you do, open your mind and THINK for yourself. It’s hard to be 100% sure of anything. (Note that the Facebook post quoted at the head of this article concluded by stating “There is a difference between cheap and salon quality. Do not let anyone lie to you and try to say anything more …” The original question fielded by Beauty Brains in July 2006 involved a reader who asked whether it was true Pantene “coats your hair with plastic or wax to make it seem smooth, soft, and shiny, instead of really moisturizing your hair.” Their response explained how that myth got started and why it was easy to debunk: While most stylists are very talented at cutting and styling hair, they’re not very talented at interpreting cosmetic formulations. The truth is, Pantene’s shampoo and conditioner formulas are believed to be among the best in the industry by those of us in the cosmetic science side of the business. It makes sense if you think about it. P&G, makers of Pantene, have a HUGE research budget. Certainly larger than any salon company. That means they can afford to dedicate resources to developing and testing the best formulas possible. We’ve seen Pantene formulas beat the pants of salon products in blind consumer testing. (The products are hidden or blinded, not the consumers) So why do stylists say that Pantene coats the hair with plastic, or make it fall out? Because that’s what they’re told by the sales representatives for the salon companies. And the truth is, it’s just not true! Compare the ingredient lists for Pantene conditioner and any salon brand you can find. Even though the names vary you’ll see three basic types of ingredients: fatty alcohols (like cetyl and stearyl alcohol); conditioning ingredients (like stearamidopropylamine and quaternium-18) and silicones (like dimethicone and cyclomethicone.) There’s nary a plastic to be found in Pantene. And no, it doesn’t make your hair fall out either. Claim: Pantene shampoo and conditioner leave a build-up on hair that causes it to heat up and \"smoke\" when combined with highlight foils.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was among the first in a weeklong parade of speakers to issue scathing critiques of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response. Cuomo’s criticisms drew a quick reply in a tweet from Michael R. Caputo, an assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. \"Does the #DemConvention know @NYGovCuomo forced nursing homes across NY to take in COVID positive patients and planted the seeds of infection that killed thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers?\" he wrote. It was an easy jab: Cuomo has been dogged by criticism for months over his March advisory directing nursing homes in the state to accept patients who had or were suspected of having COVID-19. As long as they were medically stable, the notice said, it was appropriate to move patients in. Further, nursing homes were prohibited from requiring that medically stable prospective residents be tested for the virus before they arrived. Between March 25 and May 8, approximately 6,326 COVID-positive patients were admitted to nursing homes, according to a state health department report. While experts say this policy was flawed, is it fair to say that the governor’s directive \"forced\" nursing homes to take patients who were sick with COVID-19? And to what extent did that strategy sow the seeds of disease and death? When we examined the evidence, we found it was less clear cut than the statement makes it seem. The policy likely had an effect, but epidemiologists identified additional factors that fed the problem. What’s more the policy did not \"force\" nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients. Nursing homes interpreted it this way. We checked with HHS to find the basis for Caputo’s comment but got no response. As the virus tore through nursing homes, killing dozens at some of them, Cuomo came under withering censure. His administration’s policy, implemented with an eye toward freeing up hospital beds for an onslaught of COVID patients, seemed to disregard the risks to frail and elderly nursing home residents who were especially vulnerable to the disease. According to the COVID Tracking Project, 6,624 people have died of COVID-19 in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in New York, accounting for 26% of the state’s 25,275 COVID deaths. Some say the true number of deaths is much higher because, unlike many states, New York does not count the deaths of former nursing home residents who are transferred to hospitals and die there as nursing home deaths. Cuomo’s explanation for the policy — that he was simply following guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — didn’t cut it. In May, the governor amended the March order, prohibiting hospitals from discharging patients to nursing homes unless they tested negative for COVID-19. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when New York was the epicenter and more than a thousand people were being hospitalized daily, there was genuine fear that hospitals would not be able to accommodate the influx of desperately ill patients. Moving people out of the hospitals and into nursing homes was one strategy to help hospitals meet these needs. According to the CDC guidance cited in the earlier PolitiFact story, there were two factors to consider when deciding whether to discharge a patient with COVID-19 to a long-term care facility: whether the patient was medically ready, and whether the facility could implement the recommended infection control procedures to safely care for a patient recovering from the virus. A document from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said nursing homes should accept only patients they were able to care for. Long-standing state guidance is based on the same condition. Still, nursing homes didn’t believe turning away patients with COVID-19 was an option. \"On its face it looked like a requirement,\" said Christopher Laxton, executive director of the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, which represents medical professionals in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. \"The nursing homes we spoke to felt it was a mandate, and a number of them felt they had no choice but to take COVID patients.\" While the overarching guidance not to take patients in unless they could be safely cared for may have been clear, nursing homes’ experience was often different, said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long-Term Care Community Coalition, an advocacy group for elderly and disabled people. \"There was little reason for nursing homes to think they should only take in patients if they have the ability to do so safely because those rules are not generally enforced on a regular basis.\" Bottom line: State and federal rules didn’t force nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, but many of them believed they had no other choice. How much of the blame for the deaths of thousands of people in nursing homes from COVID-19 can be attributed to Cuomo’s March advisory? That is the 6,000-person question. In a July analysis of COVID-19 nursing home deaths, the state concluded that the deadly virus was introduced by nursing home staff members rather than sick patients. It noted that peak nursing home resident mortality from COVID-19 on April 8 preceded the peak influx of COVID patients on April 14. In addition, it found that nearly 1 in 4 nursing home workers — 37,500 people — were infected with the virus between March and early June. Based on these and other factors, the report concluded that the state admissions policy could not have been a driver of nursing home infections or fatalities. Epidemiologists and nursing home advocates beg to differ. \"To say that introducing patients [to nursing homes] who had COVID did not cause problems is ridiculous,\" said Laxton. Calling the study’s approach \"pretty flawed,\" Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at City University of New York School of Public Health, said he didn’t agree with the report’s conclusion that the policy had nothing to do with deaths. Others had the same view. \"I didn’t think they showed data to say [the policy] is not a ‘driver,’\" said Rupak Shivakoti, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. But Gary Holmes, assistant commissioner at the New York State Department of Health, had a different take. Critics of the report, he said, must be deliberately ignoring the rising death tolls in nursing homes in hot spots across the country. \"Public health officials in those states are experiencing (and acknowledging) what NY’s report indicated weeks ago: these facilities are microcosms of the community and transmission is occurring unknowingly by asymptomatic spread among staff members,\" Holmes said, in an email. While public health experts quibbled with the report’s self-serving claim that the governor’s policy wasn’t a factor in COVID-19 nursing home deaths, they nevertheless agreed with the report’s broader conclusion that nursing home staffers as well as visitors, before they were banned, were likely the main drivers of COVID-19 infection and death in nursing homes. \"Based on the timeline of the policy and deaths in the city, it is very unlikely that policy contributed to thousands of deaths,\" said Shivakoti. Infection control is a long-standing problem at nursing homes, Nash said, and the COVID deaths were a basic failure of infection control. That said, \"it’s unclear how many of the deaths the policy might have caused.\" Also unclear: how many of the dead were grandmothers and grandfathers. In a tweet, the HHS assistant secretary for public affairs said that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo \"forced\" nursing homes across the state to admit COVID-positive patients and that this policy fueled the spread of COVID-19 that led to thousands of deaths in the nursing home population. Although nursing homes felt pressure to accept COVID-positive patients, they were not actually forced to do so. State regulations require nursing homes to accept patients only if they can care for them, and they could have refused them on those grounds. In addition, it’s unclear the extent to which the governor’s policy was responsible for nursing home COVID-19 deaths. Infection control is a longstanding problem in nursing homes that predates the pandemic and a report showed peak numbers of nursing home deaths came prior to the peak influx of patients as a result of Cuomo’s advisory. While the introduction of COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes no doubt had an effect on infection spread, Caputo’s statement suggests it was solely responsible. That’s not what the evidence shows. Claim: “Does the #DemConvention know @NYGovCuomo forced nursing homes across NY to take in COVID positive patients and planted the seeds of infection that killed thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers?”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release doesn’t discuss costs of the mice chow used in the study but we’ll still rate this Not Applicable since our emphasis is on human interventions. People wanting to embark on a semi-fasting program could do so without purchasing any products. The benefits are given very sketchy treatment. For example, the release says, “Four months later the mice in the fasting group weighed less than those in the control group who continued to eat the same volume of food.” The release never tells us how many mice were in the study nor how much less they weighed than the control group at the end of the trial. The release also provides what it calls molecular detail about benefits to the experimental fasting mice vs. the control mice. But again, the quantities and context are not there. “Through an analysis into the underlying biology involved, the researchers found that such intermittent fasting tempers an immune reaction in fat cells. There are changes in certain gene pathways involved in the immune system and the body’s reaction to inflammation. A type of white blood cell known to play a role in fighting inflammation is triggered. Known as anti-inflammatory macrophages, these cells stimulate the fat cells to burn stored fats or lipids by generating heat. This happens during periods of intermittent fasting because there is an increase in vascular growth factor (VEGF) that help form blood vessels and activate anti-inflammatory macrophage.” What are the changes? How were they measured? We don’t see any numbers in this description to help the reader evaluate the credibility of the data. The release does not mention any potential harms that could exist for intermittent fasting. While the published study discussed the study limitations and the “practicality” of doing similar experiments with humans, the news release doesn’t acknowledge any limitations or explain to readers that animal studies are rarely replicated in humans and that much more study was called for by the authors to examine if “(1) beneficial effects of IF last after stopping the fasting (i.e., if there is a rebound effect); (2) whether there is any potential harm of IF; and (3) whether IF benefits apply to all generations (i.e., an age-dependent issue) and disease conditions.” There was no disease mongering. The research was funded by a variety of grants which were listed in the sidebar of the EurekAlert! site, but not in the news release text. The authors declared in the journal article that they had no conflicts of interest. While the release is written as if it could help inform human obesity treatment or prevention, there is no discussion of how obesity is treated or prevented now and the many alternatives available. These include changes in exercise and diet patterns and bariatric surgery. Fasting is widely available. The release does not make a claim of novelty. In the journal article, the authors write that others have established the ability of intermittent fasting to promote weight loss. They do say that they have identified a mechanism that might explain why weight loss occurs in fasting mice which could be considered novel. We think the headline is stretching things by stating “On and off fasting helps fight obesity.” The average reader likely assumes the obesity referred to is in humans and not mice. The release doesn’t clarify that the study was only in mice until the fourth sentence. “Up to sixteen weeks of intermittent fasting without otherwise having to count calories helps fight obesity and other metabolic disorders. Such fasting already shows benefits after only six weeks. This is according to a study by Kyoung-Han Kim and Yun Hye Kim in the journal Cell Research which is published by Springer Nature. Intermittent fasting in mice helped to kick-start the animals’ metabolism and to burn fat by generating body heat. The research team was led by Hoon-Ki Sung of The Hospital for Sick Children in Ontario, Canada.” Claim: On-and-off fasting helps fight obesity",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: We also would have liked to have seen some comment on the costs of biologic drugs in the treatment of psoriasis. These drugs can cost $1,500-2,000/month. We think that any discussion about a new drug should include some comment about costs Adequate explanation of what the study showed for potential benefits. Better than the competing WebMD story, this story quantified the serious infections and explained the two cancer cases seen in the briakinumab group. It also explained that an earlier trial of the drug showed “some unexplained major adverse cardiac events.”  This was a more complete explanation than what WebMD provided. Adequate job explaining the study. The ending – with quote from the National Psoriasis Foundation spokesman – was apt:  “For people living with psoriasis…the message from this study is that ‘dramatic progress has been made from where we were just five years ago.’ ” We like that;  it was measured and responsible and didn’t go beyond the limits of what this study means. No disease mongering of psoriasis here. The story did state that Abbott Labs had funded the study and it did get an independent comment from the National Psoriasis Foundation. But we judge this to be unsatisfactory because the story did not disclose what is clearly disclosed in the journal article – that the principal investigator: It also didn’t disclose what the journal article disclosed, that Abbott personnel helped write the manuscript and helped with the statistical analyses. The Statement of Principles of the Association of Health Care Journalists includes these clauses:  As with the “novelty” criterion above, on this point, WebMD’s version of the story was better because it at least reminded readers that “a similar drug, Stelara…was approved by the FDA in 2009.” Neither story wrapped this research into the broader context of other approaches to psoriasis – including non-drug therapies. The experimental nature of briakinumab was made clear in the story. On this point, WebMD’s version of the story was better because it at least reminded readers that “a similar drug, Stelara…was approved by the FDA in 2009.” It’s clear that the story did not rely solely on a news release. Claim: Experimental Psoriasis Drug Bests Older Treatment",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: By Friday afternoon, two days after Los Angeles County ordered the precautions, about 325 of those affected had been cleared to return after proving their immunity to the disease, through either medical records or tests, health officials said. The action at the University of University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles — which together have more than 65,000 students — reflected the seriousness with which public health officials are taking the nation’s outbreak. “Measles actually kills people, so we have to take that really seriously,” said Dr. Armand Dorian, chief medical officer at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital. Those under the quarantine were instructed to stay at home and avoid contact with others. They also were barred from traveling by public transportation, including planes, trains, buses or taxis. If they must travel for an emergency, they were told to notify public health officials first. “This is a legally binding order,” the county’s public health director, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, told reporters. Anyone who violates it could be prosecuted, she said, but added that it appears everyone is cooperating so far. She didn’t describe what penalties those who don’t could face. The number of measles cases in the U.S. has climbed to nearly 700 this year, including five in Los Angeles County and 38 altogether in California. The surge is blamed largely on parents not getting their children vaccinated because of misinformation about the supposed dangers. Still, several students at Cal State-LA were shocked that their campus could be hit by a measles outbreak. “When they were like measles, I was like, ‘What? Where did that come from,’” said Sergio Dula, a communications major. Eden Guerra, a kinesiology major, was surprised classes weren’t canceled, noting, “This is like serious, like it’s life, you know.” Cal State-LA reported 875 students, staff, faculty and visitors were placed under quarantine after possibly being exposed to measles earlier this month. About 250 had been cleared by Friday after proving they are immune to the disease. At UCLA, 129 students and faculty were quarantined. All but 46 had been cleared by Friday. Cal State-LA is primarily a commuter school, while many UCLA students live on campus. Some UCLA students were provided a quarantine area to stay in, university officials said, though they gave no details. Only one person remained there Friday. Those covered by the quarantine were singled out based on their possible exposure to either an infected UCLA student who had attended classes in two buildings on three days earlier this month, or a person with measles who visited a Cal State-LA library on April 11, officials said. Those possibly exposed at Cal State-LA were located by tracking the records of people working in the library and those who logged on to its computers during the four hours the infected student was there. Given the amount of time a person can remain contagious, officials said the quarantine would end at UCLA on Tuesday and at Cal State-LA on Thursday. Around the country, lawmakers in California, New York, Washington state and Oregon have responded to the outbreak by moving to crack down on exemptions to vaccinating children. On Friday, President Donald Trump urged everyone to get vaccinated. Most of the cases are centered in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York — one in Brooklyn, the other in suburban Rockland County. In Rockland County, officials declared a state of emergency and at one point tried to bar unvaccinated children from schools and other public places, but a judge overturned the order. Authorities ordered mandatory vaccinations earlier their month in the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods and threatened fines of $1,000. City officials said earlier this week that 12 people had been issued summonses. Measles usually causes fever, runny nose and an all-over rash but in a small number of cases can lead to deadly complications such as pneumonia and swelling of the brain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for everyone over a year old, except for people who had the disease as children. Those who have had measles are immune. Health officials at a news conference repeatedly urged people who haven’t been exposed to measles to get vaccinated, saying the vaccine is safe and effective. “Ninety percent of people who are not immunized or haven’t had measles before, when they’re exposed to measles are likely to get measles,” Ferrer said. ___ Associated Press Writers Krysta Fauria and John Antczak contributed to this report. Claim: Over 1,000 quarantined in measles scare at LA universities.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although the report stopped short of explicitly advocating going meat free, it called for big changes to farming and eating habits to limit the impact of population growth and changing consumption patterns on stretched land and water resources. Plant-based foods and sustainable animal-sourced food could free up several million square kilometers of land by 2050 and cut 0.7-8.0 gigatonnes a year of carbon dioxide equivalent, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. “There are certain kinds of diets that have a lower carbon footprint and put less pressure on land,” Jim Skea, professor at London’s Imperial College, said on Thursday. The IPCC met this week in Geneva, Switzerland to finalize its report which should help to guide governments meeting this year in Chile on ways to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement. “The IPCC does not recommend people’s diets ... Dietary choices are very often shaped or influenced by local production practices and cultural habits,” Skea, who is one of the report’s authors, told reporters in Geneva. Land can be both a source and sink of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, and better land management can help to tackle climate change, the IPCC said. But it is not the only solution and cutting emissions from all sectors is essential to quickly curtail global warming. “The window for making these changes is closing fast. If there is further delay in reducing emissions, we will miss the opportunity to successfully manage the climate change transition in the land sector,” it said. Since the pre-industrial era, land surface air temperature has risen by 1.53 degrees Celsius, twice as much as the global average temperature (0.87C), causing more heatwaves, droughts and heavy rain, as well as land degradation and desertification. Human use directly affects more than 70% of the global, ice-free land surface and agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater use, the IPCC added in the report. Agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for 23% of total net man-made greenhouse gas emissions during 2007-2016. When pre- and post-production activity in the food system are included, that rises to up to 37%. Last year the IPCC’s first special report warned that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), rather than the 2C target agreed under the Paris accord, required rapid change across society. The IPCC warned of more disruption to global food chains as extreme weather becomes more frequent due to climate change and said environmental costs should be factored into food. It projects a median increase of 7.6% in cereal prices by 2050, meaning higher food prices and an increased risk of hunger. While an estimated 821 million people are undernourished, changing consumption habits have already contributed to about 2 billion adults being overweight or obese. Per capita supply of vegetable oils and meat has more than doubled based on data since 1961 but 25-30% of total food produced is still lost or wasted. Yields of crops such as maize and wheat have declined in some regions, while those of maize, wheat and sugar beets have increased in others in recent decades. While forests can soak up heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere, desertification and deforestation can amplify warming due to the loss of vegetation cover and soil erosion. Measures to cut emissions, such as the production of biofuels, biochar - made from biomass - as well as planting trees, will also increase demand for land conversion. Reducing deforestation and forest degradation could result in a reduction of 0.4-5.8 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent, the report said. The Amazon, about 60% of which lies in Brazil, is sometimes called the “lungs of the world” due to the amount of CO2 it can absorb but it was not directly mentioned in the IPCC’s summary for policymakers. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has supported opening up protected areas of the world’s largest tropical rainforest to facilitate agriculture and mining since taking office in January. The report text is prepared by over 100 scientists but has to be approved by governments. In those discussions, Brazil and India were very active to protect their national agro-industrial interests, a source familiar with the talks said. Claim: U.N. flags need to cut meat to curb land use impact on global warming.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Patrick Connor, executive director of residential programs and services, tells The Herald-Times (http://bit.ly/2e50z9S ) students identified the problem when they began moving into Teter Quadrangle in August. The mold originally was thought to be in only one of the Teter buildings, but the university’s director of environmental health and safety, Dan Derheimer, says it has been found in all of them, with Teter Wissler being the most contaminated. Students living in rooms where mold was visible were moved to lounges during the cleanup. Only one student was still living in a lounge as of Thursday. All of the approximately 650 units are being cleaned as a precautionary measure. The cleanup is estimated to cost $84,000. ___ Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com Claim: Indiana University cleaning mold inside residence quadrangle.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Scientists on Thursday described the results of a comprehensive study of this behavior - unique in the animal kingdom - that is exhibited by these primates native to Madagascar. Male ring-tailed lemurs increase their attractiveness to females by secreting from glands on their wrists a fruity and floral aroma smelling similar to a pear, the researchers said. The behavior dubbed “stink flirting” involves a male rubbing a fragrant clear liquid that oozes from those glands against his long fluffy tail and then waving the tail at females. The researchers pinpointed three compounds responsible for the scent. “It turns out that the key odorants were not really stinky,” said University of Tokyo biochemistry professor Kazushige Touhara, who led the study published in the journal Current Biology. “We can say that the identified odors are strong candidates for sex pheromones,” Touhara said, referring to chemical substances released by an animal that affects the behavior of other members of its species. Until now, no pheromones have been identified in any primates, a group that also includes monkeys, apes and people,  Touhara said. “Although there are many circumstances in which humans utilize olfactory cues for communication, there is no authentic pheromone that has been chemically identified,” Touhara said. “I believe there is no classic sex pheromone in humans that elicits attractive behavior to the opposite sex. But there are probably crucial odors that affect each other’s emotions - for example, a baby’s head smell that parents sniff and feel happy, and a woman’s axillary (underarm) odors that affect the emotions of males.”  Olfactory communication is important for ring-tailed lemurs, which possess well-developed scent glands on their wrists and shoulders that they use to mark territory and designate social rank in addition to romance. Among primates, lemurs are part of a separate evolutionary lineage with a keener sense of smell than the group that spans monkeys, apes and humans. The researchers found a close relationship between the male hormone testosterone and the lemur odor compounds. They also found that the male scent worked its magic only during the breeding season when females were sexually receptive, as measured by the amount of time spent sniffing the scent during lab experiments. Outside of the breeding season, the researchers found, the male gland secretions smelled different - more bitter and leathery. The females, the researchers found, showed scant interest in that. Claim: 'Stink flirting' is a thing - just ask a ring-tailed lemur.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although print references to this gang initiation scare date to 1993, anecdotal information places it as far back as the early 1980s when a reader in Montana heard the Hell’s Angels bike gang in California was said to be initiating inductees in this fashion. By 1984 the story had spread to Eugene, Oregon and had by then changed into a tale of Black and hispanic street gangs in Los Angeles targeting white people. “Flash your headlights and have a prospective gang member kill you as part of his initiation” legends have been with us for more than thirty years, something that should be kept in mind as hysteria builds during new outbreaks of this panic: [Collected via e-mail, November 2010] please dont flash your headlights at any car with no headlights on! Police officers is working with the DARE program and has issued this warning! if you are driving after dark and see a on-coming car with no headlights on, “do not flash your headlights at them” this is a common “Bloods” gang member “initiation game”. the new gang member, under initiation, drives along with no headlights on and the 1st car to flash their headlights at them is now his “target.” he is now required to turn around and chase that car, then shoot and kill individual in the vehicle in order to complete his initiation requirements. police departments across the nation are being warned. the gang’s intent is to have “bloods” nationwide, drive around on Friday and Saturday nights with their headlights off. in order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the 1st auto that does a “courtesy” flash. please forward to all loved ones! [Collected via e-mail, 2005] Gang Initiation Weekend. ( Please Read Very Important!!!) Police officers working with the DARE program has issued this warning: If you are driving after dark and see an on-coming car with no headlights on, DO NOT FLASH YOUR LIGHTS AT THEM! This is a common Bloods gang member “initiation game” that goes like this: The new gang member under initiation drives along with no headlights, and the first car to flash their headlights at him is now his “target”. He is now required to turn around and chase that car, then shoot and kill every individual in the vehicle in order to complete his initiation requirements. Police Depts. across the nation are being warned that September 23rd and 24th is the “Blood” initiation weekend. Their intent is to have all the new bloods nationwide drive around on Friday and Saturday nights with their headlights off. In order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the first auto that does a courtesy flash to warn them that their lights are off. Make sure you share this information with all your friends and family who are drivers. [Collected via e-mail, 2005] Please pass this on! Important police warning Very scary, now moving west…. started in… Manitoba, now in Saskatchewan and moving west. Police Warning – For Your Information: This is very scary and came directly from our Driver Training People who got the warning from Manitoba. Pass this to anyone you can. One of the officers who works with the dare program has passed along the following warning and asked that it be shared with all drivers. This is an extremely serious matter. If you are driving after dark and you see a car without its head-lights on do not flash your lights, do not blow your horn or make any signals to the driver of the other car. There is a new common gang initiation ‘game’ going on the streets. The new member being initiated drives along without his headlights on until someone notices and flashes their headlights or makes some sort of other action to signal him. The gang member is now required to chase the car and shoot at or into the car in order to complete his initiation requirements. Make sure you share this information with your family, friends, and anyone else you can reach. If you have any questions or information, please call your local police department. Please take this seriously. This is not a joke. Please pass this on to everyone you know on e-mail and in person. It could save someone’s life. [Collected via e-mail, 2004] I have received the following serious information via a contact at the London Ambulance Service which has units closely associated with South London police squads which are involved in fighting Gang Crimes. Some ‘street gangs’ in London (particularly South London at present, but it is sure to spread) have initiation tasks which new gang members have to carry out to be admitted to the ‘gang’. The latest craze is to drive around, deliberately with no lights on their cars. The first person who ‘flashes’ them, points at them or sounds their horn at them, has to be followed by that new gang member in their car, who then has to fire a shot into that vehicle !!! with no regard as to who is inside. The LAS official instruction is that if they see a vehicle with no lights on, they are NOT to ‘flash’ it etc. and the advice to friends and family is that you should ignore any vehicles you see without lights. I would ask that you pass this info on to family, friends and colleagues as it may save a life! [Collected via e-mail, 1998] Read & Heed! A police officer working with the DARE program has issued this warning: If you are driving after dark and see an on-coming car with no headlights on, DO NOT FLASH YOUR LIGHTS AT THEM! This is a common gang member “initiation game” that goes like this: The new gang member under initiation drives along with no headlights, and the first car to flash their headlights at him is now his “target”. He is now required to turn around and chase that car, and shoot at or into the car in order to complete his initiation requirements. Make sure you share this information with all the drivers in your family! Although print references to this gang initiation scare date to 1993, anecdotal information places it as far back as the early 1980s when a reader in Montana heard the Hell’s Angels bike gang in California was said to be initiating inductees in this fashion. By 1984 the story had spread to Eugene, Oregon and had by then changed into a tale of Black and hispanic street gangs in Los Angeles targeting white people. “Flash your headlights and have a prospective gang member kill you as part of his initiation” legends have been with us for more than twenty years, something that should be kept in mind as hysteria builds during new outbreaks of this panic. In August 1993, a major outbreak of this scare swept the United States as the legend spread quickly with the help of fax machines and e-mail forwards. The early fears were further intensified when a new round of faxes went out a few weeks later, these announcing a “Blood initiation weekend” of September 25 and 26 of that year: Police Depts across the nation are being warned that this is the “blood” initiation weekend. Their intent is to have all the new bloods nationwide drive around on Saturday and Sunday nights with their headlights off. In order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the first auto that does a courtesy flash to warn them that their lights are off. “Blood initiation weekend” came and went without incident. Meanwhile, fake memos continued to circulate, each issuing a dire warning about this new gang initiation rite. The alerts looked credible — they were printed on what was purported to be Sacramento (California) or Illinois State Police letterhead. The police department in Lynn (Massachusetts) also got into the act when a prankster induced it to issue a warning. All three of those law enforcement agencies fielded thousands of calls about the alerts they had supposedly authored. The false rumor struck especially hard in Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, New York State, California, and Texas. From the end of 1993 until February 1994, it went into remission. Then a Massillon woman revived it with a one-page handwritten flier that said police were warning women to be aware because a gang was coming from Detroit to recruit members. Initiation would be to kill a woman at Belden Village Mall. In one night, she sent faxes to several dozen businesses. Police arrested Ann Sibila the next day and charged her with inducing panic. It’s possible the 1993 outbreak of this hoax was helped along by memories of a real life incident in 1992. Kelly Freed, a school secretary from Stockton, California, was shot to death after the driver of the car she was riding in gestured to a carload of kids who had forgotten to turn their headlights on. According to Stockton Police Lt. Ted Montes, the gesture was mistaken as a sign of disrespect. Montes said the kids were not gang-bangers and the incident had nothing to do with ritual. The two youths responsible for Freed’s death were convicted of murder. The rumor lay dormant until October 1998 when it again whipped around the Internet and through fax machines. The warnings this time were said to have originated with a DARE police officer in Houston, Texas. Once again, it was the same old story: no gang initiations, no killings, just a hoax on the loose. A hoax which quickly spread to all parts of the U.S.A. Scares of this ilk easily pick up additional believability based on who does the forwarding. The 1998 version was given an extra little boost in San Diego when Housing Commission staffers there forwarded the warning to other city departments, including the Mayor’s office and City Council. Though the “warning” was quickly debunked and short-circuited at City Hall, this didn’t happen before those forwards — now issuing from a local government agency and thus much more likely to be believed — spread far and wide. In common with versions in circulation in other parts of the country, the San Diego warning was said to have originated with the Sheriff’s Department. (In most every community this warning reaches, the “Sheriff’s Department” mentioned in the memo is always presumed to be the local one.) Debunking in San Diego was simple; someone at City Hall contacted the actual Sheriff’s Department for confirmation. “We certainly did not send it out,” said Lt. Ronald Van Raaphorst. Sometimes the actual warning does come from a real Sheriff’s Department. In the fall of 1998, the Nassau Sheriff’s Office in Florida forwarded the warning to the Fire Department, who subsequently sent it to every department in the city. In this case, the mistake originated with the Sheriff’s Office; it hadn’t bothered to check out a fax before forwarding it to others: Still, Ann Johnson, who supervises Nassau County dispatchers, said she thought the memo was serious enough to distribute. One of her part-time dispatchers brought it to her office and told her he had confirmed it with Jacksonville police, she said. So her office sent it to various agencies in the county. The 1998 prize for most authoritative vectoring of this canard goes to Art Eggleton, Canada’s Minister of Defence. On 20 November 1998, his office dispatched an “!!URGENT! !” security warning for all Ontario Members of Parliament. Later that same day, his office followed up the warning with an update advising recipients the original story was false. In 2004 the hoax jumped to Britain and through some form of garbling came to be associated with the London Ambulance Service. In widely-circulated e-mailed alerts, it was claimed gangs in London were initiating new members into their ranks via having them prove their mettle by shooting at whichever motorist blinked his headlights at them. Further, many of the e-mails asserted the warning has been “received and authenticated by the Metropolitan Police Intelligence Unit.” The London Ambulance Service posted this denial on their web site: HOAX E-MAIL An e-mail purported to have been issued by the London Ambulance Service on the subject of the police and gang crimes has been widely circulated in recent days. This originated from outside the Service and was forwarded by a member of staff to friends in good faith. Please be assured, however, that we have checked with the Metropolitan Police Service and the information contained within it is not genuine, so the message can be safely deleted. In 2004 a police officer in Thunder Bay, Ontario, forwarded the “lights out” warning to a colleague. That note subsequently escaped into the wild, leaving many with the impression that the Ontario Provincial Police had issued an official warning about gang members flashing their headlights at intended victims. The officer has since left a message on his voice mail indicating the alert bearing his name and signature block is an urban legend and that there have been “no known cases having occurred in Ontario or in Canada.” Moreover, according to that recording, his e-mail to a colleague was “never intended as a public advisory from the O.P.P.,” with callers advised to “Please disregard the message in its entirety.” That same e-mail bore the name and signature of a second officer, one in Ottawa. His voice mail recording also contains a denial of the alert, telling callers the warning is “completely false and inaccurate, and should not be passed on.” In 2005 an employee of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police passed to others a copy of the warning received in personal e-mail. The addition of this person’s signature block to the e-mail gave the specious heads-up the appearance of credibility, convincing many it really was an official warning from the RCMP. The confusion prompted the RCMP to post a denial on their web site: The following e-mail hoax has been circulating in Canada with an RCMP signature. One of our Saskatchewan employees sent this e-mail on to others in good faith without realizing it was untrue. The information contained in the e-mail is FALSE and the RCMP regrets any unnecessary alarm this may have caused the public. In September 2005 the unfounded warning about new members gaining acceptance into gangs via this method came to life once again, with warnings about the upcoming “Blood initiation weekend” springing up in communities across the nation. But of course what had people going in 2005 was but a reworking of previous baseless scares: Police Depts across the nation are being warned that September 23rd and 24th is the “blood” initiation weekend. Their intent is to have all the new bloods nation wide drive around on Friday and Saturday nights with their headlights off. In order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the first auto that does a courtesy flash to warn them that their lights are off. [Collected via e-mail, 1993] Police Depts across the nation are being warned that this is the “blood” initiation weekend. Their intent is to have all the new bloods nationwide drive around on Saturday and Sunday nights with their headlights off. In order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the first auto that does a courtesy flash to warn them that their lights are off. In late October 2005, the hoax hammered Mexico, with at least three different state agencies in that country issuing press releases about a Guatemalan gang named “Los Sangre” (The Blood). Supposedly, the Guatemalan office of Interpol alerted Mexico’s Federal Agency of Investigation, who in turn notified local authorities in Michoacan to this gang’s presence in Mexico and its plans to initiate new recruits during the two weekends prior to Halloween by having gang hopefuls drive about in darkened cars, then chase down and kill ordinary citizens who flashed headlights at them. These official alerts were quickly spread through the media to the general population, causing a great deal of anxiety. We were unable to locate any mentions of a Guatemalan gang or drug cartel going by the name “Los Sangre,” which would likely not be the case for a group of thugs that had a high enough profile for Interpol to know about it. By contrast, references to real Guatemalan gangs, such as Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 (aka MS-18), are rife. In November 2010 the “lights out!” warning came to be passed along as a cell phone text message. Throughout the history of the “lights out!” scare there have been occasional incidents involving flashing headlights that appear to fit the pattern of the legend but are merely incidental to it: spontaneous outbursts of road rage triggered by flashing headlights, criminals who used headlights as a way of luring prospective victims into stopping and getting out of their cars, (non-gang-related) imitative shootings, and false reports of crimes resembling the legend. Notable among the last category was a 22-year-old Wisconsin man who in October 2007 claimed he had been jumped and beaten by three men after he stopped his car on the shoulder of U.S. 41 because the automobile behind his was repeatedly flashing its headlights at him. A few weeks later, the purported victim was arrested on charges of filing a false police report after investigators found a witness who said the claimant had actually been beaten elsewhere under different circumstances. Sightings:   This legend is key to the plot of the 1998 film Urban Legend. Claim: Prospective new gang members are being initiated by killing the drivers of cars who flash their headlights at them.",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As rumors quickly spread about purported myriad threats of a novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19, a chain letter-style post purportedly containing medical advice about both the symptoms and treatments for the disease was spread heavily on Facebook despite relying (as these types of posts almost inevitably do) on third-hand, uncited “advice.”The post, which has been shared more than 291,000 times on the platform since being published on February 27 2020, is presented as an “important announcement”:Last evening dining out with friends, one of their uncles, who’s graduated with a master’s degree and who worked in Shenzhen Hospital (Guangdong Province, China) sent him the following notes on Coronavirus for guidance:The post then offers a list full of claims:We spoke to Dr. Christopher Labos, a cardiologist and associate with the office for science and society at McGill University in Canada who co-hosts a podcast about medical disinformation and misinformation; he was able to identify four outright falsehoods listed in the “guidance” for treating the virus. We separated the list based on the accuracy of its litany of claims to make it easier to read, with Labos’ comments listed under each item.What’s FalseLikewise, there is no evidence that item 10 (“can’t emphasise enough – drink plenty of water!”) is a proven deterrent or treatment to the visor, even if increasing water intake is generally considered a positive for one’s health, at least to a certain extent.What’s TrueBoth the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other health experts have advised people to frequently wash their hands with soap and water or use a hand sanitizer, but it is unclear how long the virus can “live on your hands.”What’s UnknownThe symptoms associated with COVID-19 can vary; for instance, the CDC reported that in some cases involving children in China, patients listed a runny nose as a symptom alongside coughing and running a fever. The section of the post detailing an alleged timeline for the virus’ progression (listed in the meme as “THE SYMPTOMS”) is also unclear. Some patients did not report any symptoms prior to being diagnosed with the virus.According to the CDC, “it may be possible” that a person can contract the virus by touching an affected surface with their mouth, nose, or eyes, it is believed that it primarily spreads through human contact.We attempted to contact other public health institutions for more information, such as the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. seeking comment — but a school spokesperson there told us that they were only granting such requests to “top-tier” news outlets. Claim: Coronavirus strain COVID-19 can be treated by drinking warm water, among several other claims made online.",
            "output": "1"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An attorney for area landowners challenging the recommended permit for the Davis Refinery countered that information from developer Meridian Energy Group has been vague and contradictory. The water permit is one of several hurdles that Meridian must overcome as it seeks to build the refinery just 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the state’s top tourist attraction. Administrative Law Judge Tim Dawson later will issue a recommendation to State Engineer Garland Erbele, whose final decision could be appealed to state court. The disagreement over the water permit centers around a related dispute over how big the refinery will actually be. Meridian in May 2016 applied for a permit to draw about 645 acre-feet of water per year from the underground Dakota Aquifer for a refinery that would process up to 55,000 barrels of oil per day Large volumes of water are commonly measured by the acre-foot in the U.S. One acre-foot is enough water to cover 1 acre (4,047 sq. meters) of land 1 foot (0.3 meter) deep and equals about 326,000 gallons (271,455 imperial gallons). The company later reduced the planned oil capacity to 49,500 barrels, just shy of a 50,000-barrel threshold in state law that requires a site permit from the state Public Service Commission. Meridian has denied trying to skirt state law, and state regulators last month concluded that they had no jurisdiction to intervene. Environmental groups that oppose the refinery are challenging that in state court. Given the reduction in the project capacity, the state engineer’s office has recommended that the company be issued a water permit with a corresponding reduction, to about 586 acre-feet annually. Landowner attorney JJ England has argued that the change to the company’s request is illegal and that the application should have been rejected. Area landowners have raised other concerns, including how they might be affected, how much of the water will be wasted during treatment and how wastewater from the refinery will be handled. Meridian has not applied for a wastewater discharge permit from the state Health Department, according to Water Quality Division Director Karl Rockeman. Wednesday’s hearing centered on whether Meridian will use all of the water for which it has applied for a “beneficial” use. England stressed that Meridian’s plans for treating and using the water are vague and at times have conflicting information. “The state engineer has not established Meridian’s intent to the requisite legal standard, and a number of significant questions remain,” he told Dawson. Water Appropriations Division Director Jon Patch and Hydrologist Manager Kimberly Fischer testified that information Meridian has supplied is enough to warrant a conditional water permit that will be fine-tuned after refinery operations begin and its precise water needs are determined. “If we would approve (the permit), and they ultimately aren’t using that amount of water, we would perfect the permit for the amount that they are using and have shown the need for,” Patch said. Meridian began site work in July , a month after receiving an air quality permit from the state Health Department that deemed the refinery a minor source of pollution. Environmental groups are fighting the permit in state court . A hearing is scheduled Dec. 12 in Dickinson. The groups worry about pollution in the 30,000-acre (12,000-hectare) park that draws more than 700,000 visitors annually. Meridian maintains the refinery will be the “the cleanest refinery on the planet.” ___ Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake Claim: Sides spar over water permit for refinery near national park.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Saudi Arabia has so far deported 2,870 Ethiopian migrants to Addis Ababa since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.N. migration agency said. Ethiopian authorities confirmed that large-scale deportations were taking place. An internal U.N. memo seen by Reuters said Saudi Arabia was expected to deport some 200,000 Ethiopian migrants in total. Other Gulf Arab states, Kenya and other neighbouring countries are also expected to repatriate Ethiopian migrants, it said. “Large-scale migratory movements which are not planned make the transmission of the virus much more likely to continue. We are therefore calling for the temporary suspension of large-scale deportations,” Catherine Sozi, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia, told Reuters. The Saudi media ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but many migrant workers worldwide have been left unemployed due to economic lockdowns imposed by governments in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. Saudi Arabia, which has around 30 million people, has so far reported 4,934 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, with 65 deaths. Ethiopia, with a population of 105 million, has so far reported only 74 coronavirus cases and just two deaths. Health Minister Lia Tadesse told Reuters that some of the deported migrants had tested positive for coronavirus but she did not have exact numbers. All migrants will be tested for coronavirus and will be quarantined for 14 days in schools and universities which have been closed and converted to serve that purpose, said Zewdu Assefa from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute. “They have been deported in a very congested way, with 300 to 500 squeezed onto single flights, and the number of people who will be returned keeps growing,” he said. The U.S. State Department said in its annual report on human trafficking last year that some 100,000 Ethiopians travel illegally to Saudi Arabia every year, lured by promises of work and a better life. An estimated 200,000 Ethiopians live in the kingdom, it said. A humanitarian aid organisation which asked to remain anonymous said it had raised concerns that the frequency of the flights and the large numbers of deportees involved could overwhelm Ethiopia’s quarantine system. “These migrants are very vulnerable. They have undertaken an extremely dangerous journey and many arrive in Ethiopia with high medical and mental health needs,” the aid group said. Claim: U.N. says Saudi deportations of Ethiopian migrants risks spreading coronavirus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Bishop John Folda of the Catholic Diocese of Fargo got hepatitis from contaminated food while in Italy last month for a conference of newly ordained bishops, Aliceyn Magelky, spokeswoman for the diocese, said on Friday. Folda served Communion during Mass at three churches in Fargo and one church in Jamestown between September 27 and October 7, according to the North Dakota Department of Health. The Mass in Jamestown was at a convention of priests. “He feels terrible about it,” Magelky said. “He did not know when coming back that he had contracted the virus or he would have refrained from participating in Mass much sooner.”  Magelky said Folda is feeling better and has not been infectious since October 16, but is still not on a full work schedule. Priests who attended Folda’s Mass in Jamestown were notified directly of the bishop’s illness, she said. Hepatitis A can cause infection of the liver and is found in the feces of infected people, according to the health department. It is most often spread when people with the disease fail to wash their hands thoroughly and then touch other people. “The risk of people getting hepatitis A in this situation is low, but the department of health felt it was important for people to know about the possible exposure,” Molly Howell, immunization program manager for the agency said in a news release. The department encouraged people who received Communion from Folda to check with their doctors if they notice symptoms such as fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal discomfort, dark urine, pale stools or jaundice. Claim: U.S. bishop may have exposed Catholics to hepatitis during Communion.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: For people sick with the coronavirus, he said Sunday, “It can help them but it’s not going to hurt them.” In fact, it may or may not help some people, and it may or may not hurt them. His straight-ahead advocacy of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, is the latest and one of the most consequential examples of Trump and public-health authorities not being on the same page in the pandemic. His statement came during a weekend when he also misrepresented the facts behind his firing of the intelligence community’s inspector general whose handling of a whistleblower complaint led to impeachment proceedings. Over the previous days, he’d spread a number of distortions on the pandemic. A look at his recent remarks: MALARIA DRUG TRUMP, on the government’s decision to stockpile millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine drug to make it available for patients with COVID-19: “What do you have to lose? I’ll say it again: What do you have to lose? Take it. I really think they should take it. But it’s their choice and it’s their doctor’s choice, or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine — try it, if you’d like.” — news briefing Saturday. TRUMP: “They say taking it before the fact is good. ... I’m not acting as a doctor. I’m saying do what you want. ... It can help them but it’s not going to hurt them.” — briefing Sunday night. THE FACTS: He’s making unverified claims about a drug that can have serious side effects and may not work. The drug has not been approved as a treatment for COVID-19 and Trump’s own health experts say more studies are needed to know whether it’s safe and effective to use. The president has been talking up hydroxychloroquine, a drug long used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, after very small preliminary studies suggested it might help prevent coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. Doctors can already prescribe the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing. Research studies are now beginning to test if the drugs truly help COVID-19 patients, and the Food and Drug Administration has allowed the drugs into the national stockpile as an option for doctors to consider for patients who cannot get into one of the studies. But the drug has major potential side effects, especially for the heart, and large studies are underway to see if it is safe and effective for treating coronavirus. The FDA says people should not take it without a prescription and emphasizes that the malaria drugs being explored “are not FDA-approved for treatment of COVID-19.” On Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Americans shouldn’t consider hydroxychloroquine a “knockout drug.” “We still need to do the definitive studies to determine whether any intervention, not just this one, is truly safe and effective,” he said on Fox News. The American Medical Association, the American Pharmacists Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in a joint statement previously cautioned against “prophylactically prescribing medications currently identified as potential treatments for COVID-19.” That means prescribing a medicine for the purpose of warding off a disease or preventing its spread. ___ SPANISH FLU TRUMP: “The problem is when something like this comes along, which you don’t expect. Look, 1917, it’s a long time ago, perhaps 100 million people died. It’s a long time ago, so people don’t think it’s going to happen.” — briefing Sunday night. THE FACTS: He got the year wrong for the Spanish flu and appeared to overstate deaths from it. The pandemic spread from early 1918 to late 1920. It killed an estimated 50 million or more worldwide, with about 675,000 of the deaths in the U.S., says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ___ IMPEACHMENT TRUMP, on firing Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general: “I thought he did a terrible job. Absolutely terrible. He took a whistleblower report, which turned out to be a fake report — it was fake. It was totally wrong.” — news briefing Saturday. THE FACTS: No, the whistleblower’s accusations have not been shown to be wrong. Key details have been corroborated. For example, the White House account of Trump’s July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukraine’s new president showed that the whistleblower had accurately summarized the conversation, as relayed by unidentified U.S. officials, in the complaint Atkinson sent to the acting director of national intelligence. Witnesses who heard the call testified to the accuracy of that account. ___ TRUMP, suggesting that Atkinson had claimed that the whistleblower complaint regarding Ukraine should be discounted because of political bias: “He even said it was politically biased. He actually said that.” — news briefing Saturday. THE FACTS: He actually did not say that. Atkinson did not state that the complaint was “politically biased” or suggest that it should not be regarded seriously. To the contrary, Atkinson wrote in a letter to Joseph Maguire, then the acting director of national intelligence, that any potential bias on the whistleblower’s part did not take away from his overall conclusion that the complaint was “credible.” He noted that an initial review by his inspector general’s office had found support for key allegations in the complaint, including that Trump had put pressure on Ukraine’s leader to take action favorable to his re-election campaign. ___ THE VIRUS THREAT TRUMP, on a warning that had just been delivered by Dr. Deborah Birx of the coronavirus task force that more Americans need to heed distancing steps ordered by many states and recommended by Washington: “She wasn’t referring to our country, she was referring to one state.” — briefing Thursday. THE FACTS: No, she was talking about more Americans overall needing to keep away from each other. More specifically, Birx said the outbreak would not be spreading by now in areas with low infection rates if everyone were following the guidelines. Instead, officials are now seeing cases of people who were infected after the guidelines took effect. “This should not be happening any longer in new places if people are doing the social distancing, washing their hands, not getting together in large groups more than 10,” she said at the briefing where Trump then tried to tamp down her warning out of his concern about the “headlines tomorrow.” Birx said: “We see Spain, we see Italy, we see France, we see Germany. When we see others beginning to bend their curves, we can bend ours. But it means everybody has to take that same responsibility as Americans.” Bending the curve means flattening out the rate of increase in cases. She added: “Yes. There are states that are dead flat. But, you know, every — what changes the curve is a new Detroit, a new Chicago, a new New Orleans, a new Colorado.” ___ TRUMP: “Four weeks ago, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world. The greatest in the world — greatest in the history of the world.” — briefing Thursday. THE FACTS: Not true. The economy was healthy back then but not the best in U.S. history, much less world history. Economic gains largely followed along the lines of an expansion that started more than a decade ago under President Barack Obama. And while posting great job and stock market numbers, Trump never managed to achieve the rates of economic growth he promised in the 2016 campaign. The U.S. economy was not the world’s best in history when this started. ___ TRUMP, going back to that period four weeks ago: “And then, one day, I get a call from Deborah, who’s fantastic, and from Dr. Fauci. And he said and she said, ’We have a problem. I said, ’What’s the problem?’ And they said, ‘We may have to close it up.’ I said, ‘Close what up?’ They said, ‘Close up the country.’ And I said, ‘What’s that all about?’” — briefing Thursday. THE FACTS: You’d think that Trump was just learning about the outbreak from Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health in the phone call. That’s not the case. Trump knew the U.S. had “a problem” well before that timeline of roughly early March. By then the U.S. had restricted travel from abroad, experienced its first coronavirus infections and was told to expect the outbreak to spread in the country. The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency Jan. 30. ___ VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: “I don’t believe the president has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus.” — CNN interview Wednesday. MITCH McCONNELL, Senate majority leader: The coronavirus crisis “came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything, every day was all about impeachment.” — interview Tuesday with radio host Hugh Hewitt. THE FACTS: While Pence claims Trump always treated the virus threat seriously, McConnell suggests Trump may not have because he was distracted by impeachment. Neither claim is credible. Trump says he would not have done anything faster on the virus, absent impeachment. And he actually belittled the coronavirus threat repeatedly from January to mid-March, maintaining his position even after the Senate acquitted him Feb. 5 in his impeachment trial. He dismissed the threat as a small number of U.S. cases that were under “control” and would fall to zero by April. On Feb. 10, he asserted “we’re in great shape ... we have 12 cases” and told Fox Business it will be fine because “in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that’s a beautiful date to look forward to.”  “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,” he said Feb. 26. A day later he said: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear,” “It’s got the world aflutter, but it’ll work out,” Trump told the National Association of Counties on March 3. Along the way, he said Democrats who were calling on him to do more were perpetuating a hoax. On March 9, he tweeted the 546 cases and 22 deaths experienced by then in the U.S. were no reason to take drastic steps: “Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.” Trump now acknowledges the U.S. could see 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the pandemic even if current distancing guidelines are maintained. When asked Tuesday if impeachment proceedings had distracted him from the U.S. coronavirus response, he said, “I don’t think I would have acted any differently or I don’t think I would have acted any faster.” ___ SOCIAL MEDIA TRUMP: “I have, you know, hundreds of millions of people. Number one on Facebook. Did you know I was number one on Facebook? I mean, I just found out I’m number one on Facebook. I thought that was very nice for whatever it means.” — news briefing Wednesday. THE FACTS: It doesn’t mean anything because it’s not true. He’s nowhere close to No. 1. Trump has 29 million followers on Facebook, far below former President Barack Obama, who has 54 million. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese soccer player, has 126 million. ___ TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS TRUMP: “I stopped some very, very infected, very, very sick people, thousands coming in from China long earlier than anybody thought, including the experts. Nobody thought we should do it except me. And I stopped everybody. We stopped it cold.” — interview March 30 with “Fox & Friends.” PENCE: “The president suspended all travel from China in January.” — interview Wednesday with CNN. THE FACTS: Trump didn’t “stop cold” all the people infected with coronavirus from entering the U.S. with a ban of all travel from China. There were gaps in containment and initial delays in testing, leading to the U.S. rising to No. 1 globally in the number of people infected by COVID-19. Nor did Trump decide on his own to impose travel restrictions on China — he followed a consensus recommendation by his public-health advisers. His order in late January temporarily barred entry by foreign nationals who had traveled in China within the previous 14 days, with exceptions for the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Americans returning from China were allowed back for two more weeks. They were given enhanced screenings. But screenings can miss people who are carrying the virus but showing no symptoms. ___ MORTALITY TRUMP: “So we have more cases than anybody, but we’re doing really well, and we also have a very low — relative to other countries — very low mortality rate. And there are reasons for that.” — interview March 30 with “Fox & Friends.” TRUMP: “We’ve been doing more test — tests than any other country anywhere in the world. It’s one of the reasons that we have more cases than other countries, because we’ve been testing. It’s also one of the reasons that we’re just about the lowest in terms of mortality rate.” — news briefing on March 29. THE FACTS: His suggestion that the U.S. response is better than other countries’ because its mortality rate is “just about the lowest” is unsupported and misleading. It’s too early to know the real death rate from COVID-19 in any country. Look at a count kept by Johns Hopkins University, and you can divide the number of reported cases by the number of recorded deaths. But that math provides a completely unreliable measurement of death rates, and the Johns Hopkins tally is not intended to be that. First, the count changes every day as new infections and deaths are recorded. More important, every country is testing differently. Knowing the real denominator, the true number of people who become infected, is key to determining what portion of them die. Some countries, the U.S. among them, have had trouble making enough tests available. When there’s a shortage of tests, the sickest get tested first. And even with a good supply of tests, someone who’s otherwise healthy and has mild symptoms may not be tested and thus go uncounted. The result is a hodgepodge of numbers that get sorted out as the crisis diminishes. Indeed, initial death rates were thought to be as high as 4% in parts of China. But a report published Monday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases calculated that 1.38% actually is the best estimate of deaths among confirmed cases across China and that accounting for unconfirmed cases could drop that rate below 1%. Early on Fauci estimated that the death rate in the U.S. might hit around 1%, which would be 10 times higher than mortality from a typical flu season. ___ Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Lauran Neergaard and Matthew Perrone in Washington, Alan Suderman in Richmond, Va., and Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. ___ EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures. ___  Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd  Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck___ Claim: FACT CHECK: Trump pitches drug not approved for coronavirus.",
            "output": "2"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Q: Did the Obama administration legalize “bump stocks” for semiautomatic rifles? A: No federal law explicitly addresses “bump stocks.” The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled 10 times between 2008 and 2017 that certain models could not be prohibited under existing gun laws.I just read on AOL that Trump announced (via tweet of course) the Obama administration legalized the sale of bump stocks. True or false? Naturally, he now takes credit for outlawing them. Please set the record straight.A “bump stock” is a plastic or metal device that can be attached to the rear of a semiautomatic rifle to make it shoot almost as fast as a fully automatic weapon. The stock uses recoil to make the weapon bump back and forth between the shooter’s shoulder and trigger finger, causing the firearm to fire rapidly.The devices became part of the gun debate in October after 64-year-old Stephen Paddock used AR-style rifles affixed with bump stocks to shoot people attending an outdoor concert in Las Vegas. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds more were injured.Then, in February, after another deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school, President Donald Trump directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into “banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machineguns.” The Department of Justice announced on March 23 that it was proposing a rule to that effect.That same day on Twitter, Trump faulted former President Barack Obama for the devices, saying it was a “bad idea” that his administration had “legalized” bump stocks. Since then, a number of FactCheck.org readers have emailed us, inquiring whether the gun accessories were allowed during Obama’s presidency.Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2018The president’s tweet may have left some with the false impression that bump stocks had been illegal and the Obama administration made some change in the law. That’s not the case. Instead, whether bump stocks are legal depends on how exactly different models function. At issue is whether the devices meet the definition of “machinegun” under federal firearm laws, which have prohibited, with some exceptions, the transfer and possession of a “machinegun” since 1986.Federal law defines a machine gun as a weapon that “shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” The definition says it also includes “the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.”In December, the Department of Justice announced it would launch a regulatory process “to determine whether bump stocks are prohibited.”It’s true that, under Obama, the ATF — an agency within the Justice Department — ruled that it could not prevent the use of certain models of bump stocks.In June 2010, for example, the bureau responded to a request to evaluate a product sold by Slide Fire Solutions, a Texas company that makes the devices. In a letter, John Spencer, then the ATF’s Firearms Technology Branch chief, wrote that the device examined had no “functioning mechanical parts or springs” that made it perform like an automatic weapon.“In order to use the installed device, the shooter must apply constant forward pressure with the non-shooting hand and constant rearward pressure with the shooting hand,” Spencer said. “Accordingly, we find that the ‘bump-stock’ is a firearm part and is not regulated as a firearm under Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act.”The ATF, under Trump, also made a similar determination in April 2017, about a different model of bump stock.In that letter, Michael Curtis, the head of ATF’s Firearms Technology Industry Services Branch, wrote: “The FTISB examination of the submitted device indicates that if as a shot is fired — and a sufficient amount of pressure is applied to the handguard/gripping surface with the shooter’s support hand — the AR-type rifle assembly will come forward until the trigger re-contacts the shooter’s stationary firing-hand trigger finger: Re-contacting allows the firing of a subsequent shot. In this manner, the shooter pulls the receiver assembly forward to fire each shot, each succeeding shot firing with a single trigger function.”“Since your device does not initiate an automatic firing cycle by a single function of the trigger,” Curtis said, “FTISB finds that it is NOT a machinegun under the [National Firearms Act], or the amended [Gun Control Act].”In fact, in a notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register in December, the ATF said “since 2008,” which predates Obama’s time in office, “ATF has issued a total of 10 private letters in which it classified various bump stock devices to be unregulated parts or accessories, and not machineguns or machinegun conversion devices as defined” in federal gun laws.The letters were sent to individuals and manufacturers who voluntarily submitted devices for classification. Because the letters are private, the ATF does not make them readily available to the public without the recipient’s consent.Slide Fire posted its June 2010 letter from the ATF on its website. The letter the ATF sent in 2017 under Trump was obtained from the Justice Department by the Giffords Law Center and Democracy Forward, which, according to BuzzFeed, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The recipient’s name was redacted.We asked the ATF for the dates the letters were sent, and we were referred to the agency’s March 29 rulemaking proposal that only mentions a range of 2008 to 2017. Still, that suggests that at least one of the letters was sent during the George W. Bush administration. That’s in addition to the letter we know was issued under Trump’s administration.Some bump stocks have been deemed illegal, though.In an April 2013 letter to Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Richard Marianos, then ATF assistant director for public and governmental affairs, wrote: “Those bump-fire stocks which were found to convert a weapon to shoot automatically were classified as machineguns and regulated accordingly, most notably, the Akins Accelerator.”Marianos said the Akins Accelerator, an attachment patented by former U.S. Marine Bill Akins in 2000, “incorporated a mechanism to automatically reset and activate the fire-control components of a firearm” after a single pull of the trigger. That meets the definition of a machine gun. The ATF ruling was made in 2006, and was later upheld by a federal appeals court.On the other hand, Marianos said devices like the Slide Fire stock, which “requires continuous multiple inputs by the user for each successive shot,” could not be classified as a restricted firearm. “Therefore, ATF does not have the authority to restrict their lawful possession, use, or transfer,” he said.The ATF under Trump now disputes that interpretation and wants to classify all bump stocks as federally banned weapons.Its proposed rule seeks to clarify that a machine gun includes “bump-stock-type devices, i.e, devices that allow a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.” The agency says it has reviewed the “relevant statutory language” and determined that bump stocks do turn semiautomatic firearms into automatic ones.It argues: “When a shooter who has affixed a bump-stock-type device to a semiautomatic firearm pulls the trigger, that movement initiates a firing sequence that produces more than one shot. And that firing sequence is ‘automatic’ because the device harnesses the firearm’s recoil energy in a continuous back-and-forth cycle that allows the shooter to attain continuous firing after a single pull of the trigger, so long as the trigger finger remains stationary on the device’s ledge (as designed). Accordingly, these devices are included under the definition of machinegun and, therefore, come within the purview of the [National Firearms Act].”The proposed rule would require those who possess, sell or make bump stocks to destroy them, surrender them or permanently render them inoperable.Trump, though, got ahead of himself during a speech in Ohio on March 30 when he claimed that his administration “got rid of the bump stocks,” but “nobody reported it.” In fact, some bump stocks are still legal. A final rule cannot be issued until after the public comment period ends June 27.Even then, gun rights groups and advocates have said any final rule could be challenged in court. They argue that the ATF is changing the definition of a machine gun, which they say can only be done by Congress.Sen. Dianne Feinstein agrees with that assessment. She, along with fellow Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, introduced a bill in October that would ban bump stocks and similar devices. It has received a committee hearing, but not a vote.“If ATF tries to ban these devices after admitting repeatedly that it lacks the authority to do so, that process could be tied up in court for years, and that would mean bump stocks would continue to be sold,” Feinstein said in a statement in February.“Legislation is the only answer,” she said.Buchanan, Larry, et al. “What Is a Bump Stock and How Does It Work?” New York Times. 20 Feb 2018.“ATF: Las Vegas shooter had 12 guns modified to mimic automatics – live updates.” CBS News. 3 Oct 2017.White House. “Presidential Memorandum on the Application of the Definition of Machinegun to ‘Bump Fire’ Stocks and Other Similar Devices.” 20 Feb 2018.Rose, Veronica, and Reilly, Meghan. “Summary of State and Federal Machine Gun Laws.” Office of Legislative Research, Connecticut General Assembly. 12 Jan 2009.U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. National Firearms Act. Atf.gov. 1 Dec 2016.U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Letter to Slide Fire. 7 Jun 2010.U.S. Department of Justice. “Attorney General Sessions Announces Regulation Effectively Banning Bump Stocks.” Press release. 23 March 2018.U.S. Department of Justice. “Justice Department and ATF Begin Regulatory Process to Determine Whether Bump Stocks Are Prohibited.” Press release. 5 Dec 2017.U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Letter about bump stock device. 6 Apr 2017.Holden, Dominic. “Documents Show The Trump Administration Approved Bump Stocks Before It Opposed Them.” BuzzFeed. 22 Mar 2018.U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “Application of the Definition of Machinegun to ‘Bump Fire’ Stocks and Other Similar Devices.” Federal Register. 26 Dec 2017.U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “Bump-Stock-Type Devices.” Federal Register. 29 Mar 2018.U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Letter to Rep. Ed Perlmutter. 16 Apr 2013.Ax, Joseph. “Inventor of ‘bump stock’ spent years fighting for device, and lost.” Reuters. 6 Oct 2017.Krouse, William. “Gun Control: ‘Bump-Fire’ Stocks.” Congressional Research Service. 10 Oct 2017.White House. “Remarks by President Trump on the Infrastructure Initiative.” Transcript. 30 Mar 2018.Wheeler, Lydia. “Trump sets up legal fight over bump stocks.” The Hill. 27 Mar 2018.Feinstein, Dianne. “Feinstein on Bump Stocks: Legislation is the Only Answer.” Press release. 20 Feb 2018.Blumenthal, Richard. “Blumenthal and Murphy Introduce Bill to Close Automatic Weapon Loophole.” Press release. 4 Oct 2017.S.1916 – Automatic Gunfire Prevention Act. Congress.gov. As introduced 4 Oct 2017. Claim: Obama Administration legalized bump stocks.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The country's economic woes were a somber topic at the presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 7, 2008, with both candidates explaining their thoughts on the root of the crisis. \"I wrote to Secretary Paulson, I wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and told them this is something we have to deal with, and nobody did anything about it.\" It's undisputed that Obama wrote the two officials a letter on March 22, 2007. \"There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures,\" Obama wrote. \"Because regulators are partly responsible for creating the environment that is leading to rising rates of home foreclosure in the subprime mortgage market, I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge.\" (  Read the full text here  .) But Obama brought up this letter in the context of explaining the current economic crisis. There's nothing to suggest in the letter that Obama had early insights into the events that would unfold in 2008. His letter is concerned with people losing their homes, not a systemic threat to the economic system. (See our story and other statements on potential causes of the economic crisis here.) We also checked news clips to look at Bernanke and Paulson's public statements around the time after Obama sent his letter. • On March 28, 2007, Bernanke testified before Congress, saying,   \"Although the turmoil in the       subprime   mortgage market has created financial problems for many individuals and families, the implications of these developments for the housing market as a whole are less clear.\" • On May 15, 2007, Bernanke gave a speech in which he discouraged new regulation of derivatives, which played a role in the credit crisis of 2008. \" We should always keep in view the enormous economic benefits that flow from a healthy and innovative financial sector,\" Bernanke said. • On May 17, 2007, Bernanke said the Federal Reserve was considering taking steps to rein in subprime lending, but would be cautious not to overregulate. \"We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system,\" Bernanke said. • On June 20, 2007, Paulson said, \"We have had a major housing correction in this country. ... I do believe we are at or near the bottom.\" So it sounds like Obama's letter didn't make much of a splash. Certainly Bernanke and Paulson were not sounding alarm bells. We asked two economists, one with a right-leaning group and one with a left-leaning group, if a warning issued in 2007 could have made a difference to the problems of October 2008. Both of them said it was too late by then, because the questionable loans and securities had been issued by that point. \"The horse was already out of the barn,\" said Dean Baker,   an economist and co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. \"Everyone with a brain who was paying attention knew that there were big problems associated with outstanding subprime risk,\" said Charles Calomiris, a professor at Columbia Business School and a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. But, he added,  \"There was little that the Fed could have done after March 2007 to prevent the crisis from happening.\" So Obama is right that he wrote the letter. Saying Bernanke and Paulson didn't do anything about it sounds harsh, but it is a rough approximation of what happened. But Obama's letter was largely confined to the problems of low-income homeowners who were losing their homes. It was not an early warning on the economic collapse of '08. Claim: I wrote to Secretary Paulson, I wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke [in March 2007], and told them this is something we have to deal with, and nobody did anything about it.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In early May 2018, Illinois-area newspaper The Pantagraph posed an interesting question in a headline: If Illinois legalizes marijuana, what happens to pot-sniffing dogs? In broad strokes, the article discussed the potential financial hardship that could be wrought against police departments in that state should it approve the legalization of cannabis — a question that may be on the ballot in November. Those claims rely primarily on the testimony of Macon County Sheriff Howard Buffett, who told the paper: “The biggest thing for law enforcement is, you’re going to have to replace all of your dogs,” said Macon County Sheriff Howard Buffett, whose private foundation paid $2.2 million in 2016 to support K-9 units in 33 counties across Illinois. “So to me, it’s a giant step forward for drug dealers, and it’s a giant step backwards for law enforcements and the residents of the community.” Howard Buffett is the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has been active in the Illinois law enforcement and philanthropy communities for years, and is an opponent of marijuana legalization. Buffett was selected by retiring Macon County Sheriff Thomas Schneider to serve the remainder of his term after that sheriff retired in part due to health concerns, and he was sworn into office on 15 September 2017. The most controversial comments in the article came from Chad Larner, the director of of the K-9 Training Academy in Macon County (a beneficiary of Buffett’s), who said that retraining the animals would be abusive, and thus many retired drug dogs would have to be euthanized if marijuana legalization were passed: Chad Larner, training director of the K-9 Training Academy in Macon County, dismissed the idea of retraining dogs, saying it would amount to “extreme abuse” to change their mindset. K-9s are rewarded for successfully alerting to the presence of narcotics, and they continue to train regularly with their handlers for a suggested minimum of 16 hours a month. […] Because many K-9s are trained not to be social so their work won’t be affected, Larner said a number of dogs would likely have to be euthanized. We spoke with representatives of two major police forces in jurisdictions that have experienced the legalization of marijuana — the Denver Police Department and the Seattle Police Department — and both vigorously disputed the argument presented by Buffett and Lerner. On the claim that these animals are “trained not to be social” and therefore unable to be cared for after their service, a spokesperson for the Denver PD told us via e-mail that their dogs are not trained against being social: We actually want them to be people friendly, it puts people at ease around the dogs and this leads to more effective deployments. We have had instances where our handlers are a little too friendly with the dogs while they are at home, and this can impact effectiveness. The reason is, that the dog should see going to work as being their play time. To them, finding drugs is the same as playing fetch, if they play too much at home, they slack off at work. The notion that these dogs would have to be euthanized because they would not be social enough to find a home in retirement was equally confounding to the Seattle PD, in part because the dogs (in both Seattle and Denver and elsewhere) live full time with their handlers, and continue to do so after their retirement. Seattle PD spokesman Sean Whitcomb spoke to us by phone, telling us, “That’s nonsense. The dogs that we would retire would stay with the handler.” The idea that the dogs would require active retraining, or would need to be relieved of service if the law changed, is also disputed by both departments. The Denver PD told us they still retain dogs that had been trained prior to legalization: We can only speak to what we do at the Denver Police Department. We do not euthanize our dogs, we would never do that. When [Marijuana, MJ] was first legalized we continued to have our dogs trained on 4 odors: MJ, cocaine, Meth, and heroin. Once a dog is trained on an odor, it is very difficult to train them off of it. We continued to utilize these dogs because we still have a booming black market for MJ. We did begin training with larger amounts of marijuana (10 or more pounds). As these dogs have been retired (they usually stay with their police handlers and become their family pets) we purchased new dogs, a couple of these dogs have not been trained on MJ. So right now we have some dogs on MJ and some dogs off of MJ. This works for us depending on the type of investigation we are conducting. Whitcomb, who described the arguments presented by the Macon County Sheriff as “absurd,” told us — similarly — that the Seattle PD does not “retrain” their dogs either, and that they remain part of their force: When we transitioned from illegal marijuana to legal marijuana some years ago, we didn’t turn over or transition our canine dogs. What we did was discontinue the use of marijuana as a training aid. […] We continued to train our narcotics detection dogs with things like heroin, meth, cocaine. […] That’s what they live for. They got a reward when they successfully find what they’re trained to find, what they’re trained to do, and so when you stop rewarding for hunting marijuana it ceases over time to be a skill. One factual complication, to which Buffett alluded, is that a dog previously trained to sniff marijuana (along with other major drugs) may complicate legal efforts to prosecute people individuals caught carrying legal weed in addition to illegal drugs. The argument is that (legal) marijuana may be what a dog is indicating to the police, who would then use that information to justify a search leading to arrest of an individual for possession of another drug. This argument is especially relevant to California, which recently legalized recreational marijuana through Proposition 64: Prop. 64, which made it legal for individuals to use marijuana and grow it for personal use, specifically states that legal amounts of marijuana and cannabis products don’t create the basis for a search, detention or arrest: A dog that alerts on marijuana could taint an otherwise lawful search that turns up illegal guns or other contraband. “There’s a strong argument that if one of these four-odor dogs smells something, it violates the statute,” [Lauren Mendelsohn, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in cannabis law] said. “It will be interesting to see how it plays out in court.” Claim: The legalization of marijuana will force police departments to euthanize their drug sniffing dogs.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Count President Donald Trump as hydroxychloroquine’s No. 1 fan. At a press conference, Trump told reporters he’s putting his health where his mouth is. \"Couple of weeks ago I started taking it,\" he said May 18. \"Because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories. And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you right. I’m not going to get hurt by it.\" To be clear, the Food and Drug Administration cautions that hydroxychloroquine can hurt people. It increases the risk of an irregular heartbeat, which can lead to cardiac arrest. Trump didn’t mention that. He did, however, dismiss the research that cast doubt on whether the drug does any good against COVID-19. \"If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape,\" Trump said at a May 19 press event. \"They were very old. Almost dead. It was a Trump enemy statement.\" Later that day, Trump clarified that he was talking about a study of Veterans Administration patients. Trump spoke as if there were only one negative study. There have been three: the one on VA patients and two larger ones. They all reached the same conclusion that outcomes with hydroxychloroquine were the same as without it. The earliest work on hydroxychloroquine was small studies, sometimes with as few as 30 patients, and for each study that showed promise, another study found no benefit. The mixed results spurred more research. The analysis Trump criticized came in late April, when researchers at the universities of South Carolina and Virginia released their paper on 368 VA patients with COVID-19. They looked at who got hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin or both, and they tracked who ended up on a ventilator or died. The paper was released without peer review. They found that hydroxychloroquine, with or without the other drug, had no effect on whether someone had to be put on a ventilator. Worse, hydroxychloroquine increased the chances of dying. The authors cautioned that all of the patients involved in the study, regardless of outcome, were men over 65. And they also factored in a range of underlying conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure and other health risks. Those issues were found in roughly equal numbers across all groups of patients. Ultimately, about 75% of the patients getting hydroxychloroquine lived. The survival rate was close to 90% for those who didn’t get it. In early May, two studies emerged based on patients treated in the nation’s biggest COVID-19 hotspot, New York City. Both investigations were much larger than the study of VA patients. The study that appeared May 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at the medical records of 1,376 people who tested positive for COVID-19 and were admitted to the hospital. Their results echoed the first study on hydroxychloroquine. \"There was no association between administration of the drug and a lower chance of dying or winding up on a respirator,\" said co-author Neil Schluger, the head of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Now, it’s fair to say that the patients who got the drug were, as a group, a bit worse off than those who didn’t. In particular, their blood oxygen levels were lower when they were first admitted. Schluger said that didn’t matter. \"The difference in oxygen levels between the two groups we compared were fairly small and not clinically important,\" Schluger said. These patients were not close to death, Schluger said. \"Overall, about 83% of the patients in our cohort survived, and that survival had no association with hydroxychloroquine administration,\" he said. On May 11, the JAMA Network of the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study of 1,438 randomly selected COVID-19 patients treated at 25 New York area hospitals. That group of researchers tracked whether they died in the hospital. They, too, found no connection between outcomes and use of hydroxychloroquine. They also found no impact from the use of another drug, azithromycin. About 75% of patients getting hydroxychloroquine survived, compared with about 87% who were not given the drug. Like the other study, this one found that patients who got the drug were in worse health at admission than those who didn’t. They might have lower oxygen levels, or some other condition such as diabetes or obesity. But by examining patients’ full medical records, both teams were able to use stronger analytic tools to filter out the impact of differences in underlying health. Once that was done, they could make apples-to-apples comparisons of the effect of hydroxychloroquine on people who got the drug and those who didn’t. The authors of all studies acknowledged that working with patient records after the fact isn’t the final answer, and they called for more research. We reached out to the White House and did not hear back. Trump spoke about \"the one survey,\" a study of VA patients and hydroxychloroquine, and said it was \"bad\" because \"they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape. They were very old. Almost dead.\" There have been three studies, not just one. None of them found that the drug reduced the death toll. As a group, the patients getting the drug were not on the verge of death. Across three studies, about 75% to 80% of the patients receiving the drug survived. To say they were in very bad shape is also off the mark. Health issues were found in members of both the treatment and non-treatment groups. That allowed researchers to tease out the impact, and make informed comparisons that took these health differences into account. Claim: “If you look at the one (hydroxychloroquine) survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape. They were very old. Almost dead.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Leading Democratic committee chairmen said the Congressional Budget Office has indicated that Pelosi’s bill would save the government $500 billion over 10 years, which they pledged to use for new Medicare benefits and other health care priorities such as the National Institutes of Health and the opioid crisis. “These significant investments are made possible as a result of our promise to finally empower the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for the American people,” Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Bobby Scott, D-Va., said in a joint statement. While the bill is expected to pass the Democratic-controlled House, it has no chance in the Republican-run Senate. Most Republicans oppose authorizing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, arguing the job is better done by private insurers who deliver the program’s prescription benefit. President Donald Trump, as a candidate, called for giving Medicare negotiating clout, but since taking office he has backed off. The White House now strongly opposes Pelosi’s bill, arguing it will keep up to one-third of new drugs from coming to market over a decade, an estimate far higher than the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has calculated. The legislation from Pelosi, D-Calif., would authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for the costliest drugs, including insulin, using lower prices paid in other economically advanced countries as the reference point. The budget office says that could result in price cuts of 40% to 55% for pharmacy drugs subject to negotiations. The bill would allow private insurance plans to also get Medicare’s price. As a hammer to force companies to negotiate, Pelosi would impose steep sales taxes on the medications at issue. Overall, budget analysts estimated the legislation would cut industry revenues by $500 billion to $1 trillion over 10 years. Updated estimates from the budget office are expected before the bill goes to the House floor next Wednesday or Thursday. Trump is backing a competing bill in the Senate, bipartisan legislation that would require drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare if they hike prices above inflation. Pelosi’s bill also includes inflation rebates. Both the House and Senate bills would cap what Medicare recipients must pay annually in out-of-pocket costs for their prescriptions. A White House report released this week said Pelosi’s bill “will harm American patients in ways that far outweigh any benefits” by making it harder for pharmaceutical companies to develop breakthrough drugs and bring them to market. In the middle of an impeachment, chances of a deal between Pelosi, Trump and congressional lawmakers of both parties appear slim. Though Medicare is very popular among seniors, it has always had gaps in coverage. Dental, vision and hearing are seen as the biggest. Many seniors pay out-of-pocket for hearing aids, dentures and eyeglasses. Others rely on limited benefits offered through private Medicare Advantage plans. Separately, a government report out Thursday found that prices for prescription drugs bought at the pharmacy edged down by 1% last year, the first such drop since the 1970s. Claim: Pelosi sets Medicare showdown on drug costs and new benefits.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release makes no mention of the cost for an additional genetic test. The news release states there is a benefit to having a genetic test in addition to the standard Gleason score and PSA tests. However, as discussed under the “Evidence” section, there is no data giving us any idea of the differences in accuracy or improved outcomes if patients undergo genetic testing. The main potential harm from the test is risk misclassification (which could happen when the gene tests are applied in a larger, unselected population) resulting in either under- or over-treatment of prostate cancer. This is not addressed in the news release. The release includes an overview of the evidence from the cited research study but doesn’t provide details on how adding a genetic test helps oncologists target treatment and improve outcomes. The study, which carefully selected a small group of patients, looked only at biochemical recurrence–which is only a weak surrogate for prostate cancer mortality. The news release fails to indicate whether the new gene tests are significantly more accurate than current clinical/pathological markers and does not indicate that biochemical progression does not necessarily herald clinical progression or mortality. The statistics provided about prostate cancer are close to what the American Cancer Society and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have published on their websites. However, the headline for the release — “Are you at risk?” — seems to be blatantly exploiting the results of a preliminary research study to create worry. In addition, men with a family history of prostate cancer should do more than consult Dr. Samadi for a baseline PSA test as suggested by the news release — they should engage in shared decision-making with their provider about their options. This release isn’t hiding any conflicts since it is openly sponsored and released by the prostate cancer specialist named. However, it almost appears as though the author hijacked a recent study about prostate cancer genetics in order to sell the physician’s services to concerned patients. Details about the study itself are minimal. The release states that genetic testing is more accurate in predicting prostate cancer progression than either the PSA or Gleason score, but doesn’t tell us how much more or accurate or how outcomes may be improved other than a vague statement about targeting and individualized treatment. We can’t be sure if the testing protocol discussed in the release is available or not. One might reasonably assume that genetic cancer screening for the five identified genetic types of prostate cancer is available at the specialist’s hospital. However, the release isn’t clear on this point. The findings reported in the study seem to be newsworthy, and we’ll give credit for indicating that “new research has revealed” and “this discovery” as establishing novelty. There’s also a nod to previous research about prostate cancer genetics. The news release makes several leaps intended to drive readers to think there’s something notable being offered, but there’s little hard evidence provided to back up the claims. One example: “If five types of the disease exist, how does this change popular medical opinion on prostate cancer screening? This may mean that each type of the disease needs its own approach to screening, diagnosis, treatment and even recurrence,” noted Dr. Samadi. This is misleading, since the test has no effect on screening and cannot be used to diagnose cancer (you still need a biopsy); it might lead to different treatment and surveillance strategies. Claim: Are You At Risk? 5 Different Types of Prostate Cancer Found",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does states that the cost of the drug is about $2000 a month. However, the story should have provided more context by comparing this cost to the cost of other treatments for AMD. The story provides estimates of benefit for the drug group only. The story should have given the estimates of benefit for both the drug group and the control group. The story does mention side effects, such as inflammation, infection, and detached retina. Although the story mentions two studies, this is not enough information on the strength of the available evidence. Specifically, there have been no studies comparing the effectiveness of Lucentis compared to Avastin, another drug that is commonly used off-label to treat AMD. By accurately describing the prevalence and seriousness of AMD, the story avoids disease mongering. However, the story could have been more clear about the difference between the “wet” and “dry” forms of the disease. The story only quotes one expert. The story should have quoted other researchers or clinicians who could provide more context. The story does not mention any of the existing treatments, such as Avastin or laser therapy, although it does list preventive strategies, such as smoking cessation and treatment of hypertension. The story clearly states that Lucentis was recently approved by the FDA. The story should have been more clear that the approval was for neovascular, or “wet”, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and not the more common “dry” form of AMD. The story clearly states that Lucentis is a new drug. The story should have mentioned that a very similar drug, Avastin, has been used in the same manner for a few years. There is no way to know if the story relies on a press release as the sole source of information. Claim: New hope for macular degeneration",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, who’s also a doctor, is aiming his scalpel at a lesser-known provision of last year’s health care overhaul. The Marietta Republican recommends swift removal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was created to rein in growing Medicare costs. Gingrey, an obstetrician-gynecologist, wants the board repealed. He said at a recent news conference it’s worse than tossing Granny off Stone Mountain. \"Democrats like to picture us as pushing Grandmother over the cliff or throwing someone under the bus. In either one of those scenarios, at least the senior has a chance to survive,\" Gingrey said June 22. \"But under this IPAB we described that the Democrats put in Obamacare, where a bunch of bureaucrats decide whether you get care, such as continuing on dialysis or cancer chemotherapy, I guarantee you, when you withdraw that, the patient is going to die,\" said Gingrey. \"It’s rationing.\" What a bleak prognosis. Under the IPAB, does \"a bunch of bureaucrats\" really \"decide whether you get care\"? PolitiFact Georgia asked a Gingrey spokeswoman for proof, but she did not provide any. We turned to four health care policy experts with differing opinions on the IPAB. They all told us that Gingrey was wrong. But before we explain their reasoning, here’s more about the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Lawmakers created the board in response to criticism that Congress has been unable to make the politically risky and technically complex decisions needed to slow the growth of costs for Medicare, the federal program that provides health care for seniors. Under the health care reform bill, if Medicare spending growth is projected to exceed certain targets, the IPAB must come up with plans to slow the increase. If Congress does not act on the recommendation within a set time frame, it is automatically implemented. Both sides of the aisle have their problems with the board. Some worry it will be too hard for Congress to overrule IPAB recommendations, or that the board will stifle innovation. In recent months, Republicans such as Gingrey and even Democrats have signed on to repeal the board. This brings us back to Gingrey’s claim that under the IPAB, \"a bunch of bureaucrats decide whether you get care, such as continuing on dialysis or cancer chemotherapy.\" Gingrey is \"not even close to correct,\" said Michael Tanner, a scholar with the libertarian Cato Institute. He opposes the IPAB. \"It [IPAB] has nothing to do with individual care at all. It’s not making decisions on individuals,\" Tanner said. Experts agree that the IPAB has no say in whether a specific person receives dialysis, chemotherapy or any other such treatment. The board does not intercede in individual patient cases. It makes broad policy decisions that affect Medicare’s overall cost. Furthermore, the IPAB is barred from making policy recommendations that would block patients from receiving needed care, experts told PolitiFact Georgia. \"The legislation explicitly forbids the board from rationing care,\" said Stuart Guterman, a health policy expert with the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan group which works to improve health care access, quality and efficiency. Guterman said he thinks the IPAB can help with health care savings. Our analysis of the bill only found language designed to avoid the result Gingrey foretells. For instance, the IPAB may not submit \"any recommendation to ration health care,\" Section 3403 states. The same section also bars raising premiums for Medicare beneficiaries, as well as increasing deductibles, coinsurance or co-payments. The IPAB cannot change who is eligible for Medicare, restrict benefits or make recommendations that would raise revenue, either. The IPAB can reduce how much the government pays health care providers for services, reduce payments to hospitals with very high rates of readmissions, or recommend innovations that cut wasteful spending. Some may argue that because the IPAB can reduce the money a doctor receives for giving chemotherapy to a Medicare patient, this could lead to an indirect form of rationing. If Medicare reimbursements for chemotherapy drop too low, doctors might stop treating Medicare patients, or avoid recommending chemotherapy. But this is not the scenario that Gingrey describes. Gingrey makes no mention of indirect or long-term consequences. He says that with the IPAB, \"a bunch of bureaucrats decide whether you get care, such as continuing on dialysis or cancer chemotherapy. I guarantee you, when you withdraw that, the patient is going to die.\" In other words, Gingrey says that bureaucrats will have the power to deny you treatment. And because of the bureaucrats, you could die. This claim is incorrect. The IPAB does not have anything close to the power that Gingrey suggests. It cannot raise costs to Medicare recipients, much less kill them off by denying lifesaving care. The claim is also outrageous. A policy board is not deadlier than pushing Grandma off a cliff. We diagnose Dr. Gingrey with a not-quite-fatal case of . Claim: Under last year’s health care reform, \"a bunch of bureaucrats decide whether you get care, such as continuing on dialysis or cancer chemotherapy.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The day after a man with a semiautomatic rifle killed 49 people and wounded 53 others at a gay nightclub, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton renewed her call for a federal ban on assault weapons. On the same day, June 13, 2016, Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson responded to an interviewer’s question about the Orlando incident by stating: \"Assault rifles already are banned.\" So, are they prohibited in the United States, or not? It depends on what assault means. But Johnson, who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is off-target in suggesting there is a blanket ban on assault rifles. Johnson’s claim Johnson was interviewed by Charlie Sykes, a conservative talk show host on WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee, who asked: \"Should we be more concerned with the possible violation of Omar Mateen's Second Amendment rights, as opposed to the constitutional rights of the 50 people who are now dead?\" Mateen, who was shot dead in the club by police after the rampage, had been armed with a Sig Sauer MCX semiautomatic rifle and a 9mm handgun. (Orlando police officials initially said Mateen used an \"AR-15-type assault rifle.\" Both an AR-15 and the Sig MCX can fire the same type of ammunition at roughly the same speeds, are aesthetically similar and equally lethal, according to the Washington Post. The manufacturer describes the Sig MCX as \"the first true mission-adaptable weapon system.\") Johnson answered Sykes’ question by saying: \"That's that delicate balance, Charlie. And that's what we need to have an honest and legitimate conversation about, as opposed to leaping to conclusions. \"To say things like we've got to ban assault rifles. Well, assault rifles already are banned. OK? So, we need to actually have an honest discussion about these issues and understand that this is very difficult, very complex.\" One thing to understand up front is the difference between automatic and semiautomatic weapons. Automatic weapons -- banned Automatic weapons -- sometimes known as fully automatic, or machine guns -- fire continuously when the trigger is held down. Two federal laws have essentially banned them in the United States. One law in 1935 all but banned automatic weapons like the Tommy gun. And another in 1986 prohibited fully automatic weapons, except for pre-existing weapons that were grandfathered in. Semiautomatic weapons -- not banned Semiautomatic weapons, like the rifle Mateen carried, reload automatically but fire only once each time the trigger is depressed. They are not banned by federal law. From 1994 to 2004, there was a federal law that banned the sale of certain types of new semiautomatic weapons, including some types of AR-15 rifles. A limit on high-capacity magazines also was set. The law, which was adopted to last for 10 years, was not renewed by Congress when it expired. The takeaway Johnson takes the position that only automatic weapons qualify as assault weapons. It’s worth noting that in at least one other interview the same day — with conservative Green Bay radio talk show host Jerry Bader — he spelled that out, saying \"an assault weapon is a fully automatic.\" His office made the same argument to us, citing technical military definitions. However, that’s not a generally accepted line of separation. The federal law that became defunct in 2004 was called the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and at the time the Department of Justice defined some semiautomatic guns as assault weapons. A number of state laws still have that wording on their books. And law enforcement agencies consider certain semiautomatic weapons, including the one used by Mateen, as assault weapons — or at minimum, assault-style weapons. Indeed, the weapons used in the mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., Aurora, Colo. and Newtown, Conn. -- all of which were semiautomatic -- were all described by police as assault rifles. Our rating In the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, in which the killer used a semiautomatic rifle was used, Johnson stated: \"Assault rifles already are banned.\" Some, including Johnson, contend that only weapons that are automatic — firing continuously when the trigger is held down are assault weapons — are assault weapons. Those are essentially prohibited by federal laws. But that definition is narrow, and Johnson’s claim gives a misleading impression of a comprehensive ban. Lawmakers, law enforcement officials and others widely refer to many semiautomatic weapons like the rifle used in Orlando and other mass shootings — which reload automatically but fire only once each time the trigger is depressed — as assault weapons. Those are not banned by federal law. For a statement that has an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, our rating is . Claim: Assault rifles already are banned.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: We first encountered this story in April 2004 when it began to land in the snopes.com inbox. It has since come to us labeled “News from Egypt,” “Miracle in Egypt,” and “Murder Miracle in Egypt!” The story, as appealing as it may be, appears to have nothing to it. Despite the tale’s claim that “The country is outraged over the incident, and the man will be executed,” we found no news reports from Egypt about a man’s murdering his wife and burying her along with his two still-alive daughters, let alone about the two little girls’ being nurtured below ground by Jesus for 15 days before being rescued from their premature graves: Example:  [Collected via e-mail, May 2004] NEWS FROM EGYPT A Muslim man in Egypt killed his wife and then buried her with their infant baby and 8-year old daughter. The girls were buried alive! He then reported to the police that an uncle killed the kids. 15 days later, another family member died. When they went to bury him, they found the little girls under the sand — ALIVE !! The country is outraged over the incident, and the man will be executed. The older girl was asked how she had survived. “A man wearing shiny white clothes, with bleeding wounds in his hands, came every day to feed us. He woke up my mom so she could nurse my sister,” she said. She was interviewed on Egyptian national TV, by a veiled Muslim woman news anchor. She said on public TV, “This was none other than Jesus, because nobody else does things like this!” Muslims believe Isa (Jesus) would do this, but the wounds mean He really was crucified, and it’s clear also that He is alive! But, it’s also clear that the child could not make up a story like this, and there is no way these children could have survived without a true miracle. Muslim leaders are going to have a hard time to figure out what to do with this, and the popularity of the Passion movie doesn’t help! With Egypt at the center of the media and education in the Middle East, you can be sure this story will spread. Christ is still turning the world upside down! Please let this story be shared here too. The Lord says, “I will bless the person who puts his trust in me.” (Jeremiah 17:7) As to where the story came from, while a number of the forwards identify as the writer of the e-mail a woman whose husband is a Christian pastor who runs a Muslim outreach program in the U.S. (and therefore as the one both providing and vouching for the story), some of the earliest versions that bear her name led off with this now-elided paragraph: I don’t want to wait until our next newsletter to get this story out to you. It begins as a tragedy but ends as an incredible miracle. Victor received this by email a few days ago (5/20/04), and talked with family in Egypt to confirm the details that were given there on the news. A careful reading of that preface provides the information that the putative author did not pen the written account now so often attributed to her — the piece was instead something her husband received from an unnamed source. As for confirming details with family in Egypt, we can only guess what got asked and how it was answered. Claim: Muslim girls buried alive by their father are fed and comforted by Jesus until rescuers come for them.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Billionaire Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson donates millions of dollars to Republican causes. A fired former employee of Adelson’s filed a lawsuit which alleges that Adelson personally approved of prostitution at properties his company owns in Macau, a former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong that now is part of China. Adelson vigorously denies those allegations. What does any of that have to do with Rep. Jim Renacci? Even though Federal Election Commission records show that Adelson hasn’t ever donated to Renacci, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee tried to use the casino owner’s legal woes against the Medina County congressman with a provocatively titled press release: \"Congressman Renacci’s Re-election Funded by Chinese Prostitution Money?\" \"Foreign Chinese prostitution money is allegedly behind the groups funding Congressman Jim Renacci’s Republican majority,\" the DCCC claimed in a news release on July 2, 2012. \"What will Congressman Jim Renacci do when his Chinese prostitution money comes from billionaire Sheldon Adelson?\" it continued, urging Renacci to \"reject the support of these groups funded by money from a Chinese prostitution strategy.\" As a result of redistricting, Renacci, a Republican from Wadsworth, Ohio, is pitted against Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat. That makes him a target for the DCCC. The DCCC release noted that Adelson and his wife gave $5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC, which is backed by House Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders. FEC records indicate that Super PAC hasn’t spent anything so far. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, also gave more than $60,000 to the Republican counterpart of the DCCC, the National Republican Congressional Committee, during the past election cycle. The NRCC regularly sends out news releases that attack Sutton, Renacci’s November election rival who is from Copley Township near Akron. When we asked Renacci campaign spokesman James Slepian about the DCCC’s claim that the congressman’s re-election might somehow be funded by Chinese prostitution money, Slepian replied that there is \"no money from Chinese prostitutes, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy in our campaign coffers.\" \"The DCCC's Chinese prostitution fantasy demonstrates that they are now fully immersed in the gutter and will literally say anything to avoid talking about Betty Sutton's lockstep support for the failed Obama economic agenda,\" Slepian said. \"This campaign needs to be about the economy and voting records, not fairy tales about Chinese hookers.\" The allegations that Adelson signed off on prostitution at his properties in Macau were raised last month during a lawsuit filed by former Sands executive Steven Jacobs, who was fired from overseeing those properties in July 2010. Associated Press reported that Jacobs’ lawsuit accuses Adelson of breach of contract and pushing him into illegal activity. A court filing from Jacobs says he tried to rid the casino floor of \"loan sharks and prostitution\" while he worked there, which upset senior executives who informed him that \"the prior prostitution strategy had been personally approved by Adelson.\" A spokesman for the Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands, issued a statement that said Adelson has always \"maintained a strong policy against prostitution on our properties and any accusation to the contrary represents a blatant and reprehensible personal attack on Mr. Adelson’s character.\" In a July 9 interview with Forbes magazine,  Adelson said there’s not a \"shred of evidence\" to back his former employee’s charges, and \"says the fact that he and his wife (a physician who specializes in treating addiction) have given millions of dollars to set up clinics around the world to treat people with drug addictions (many of them prostitutes) makes the … claims even more preposterous.\" Adelson also told the publication that promoting prostitution could cost him his gaming licenses in Las Vegas, Singapore and Macau. Do unproven charges by a disgruntled former Adelson employee coupled with Adelson’s generosity to GOP groups that are likely to back Renacci justify the DCCC’s claim that \"foreign Chinese prostitution money is allegedly behind the groups funding Congressman Jim Renacci’s Republican majority?\" We don’t think so. The root of the allegation stems from a fired employee’s claim that Adelson allowed prostitution to be present in a casino in Macau. Based on that, the DCCC claims that Adelson, one of the wealthiest people in America, made political contributions with cash from prostitution revenues. And then the claim invokes Renacci’s name as part of the Republican majority that this tainted money is supposedly supporting. Renacci hasn’t accepted money from Adelson and doesn’t control contributions to the GOP groups that support him. The claim that Adelson’s donations to these other groups amount to \"Chinese prostitution money\" is dubious enough that inserting the word \"allegedly\" can’t save it. On the Truth-O-Meter, the DCCC statement rates . Claim: Foreign Chinese prostitution money is allegedly behind the groups funding Congressman Jim Renacci’s Republican majority.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Abdel Rehim Saeid, 35, applies the ancient Pharaonic technique, known as the “fiery towel” by starting with a standard massage, using oil and camomile, to stimulate blood circulation and alleviate some of the pain in affected areas. Then comes the heat. Saeid places several layers of towels and other isolating materials on the client’s back. Then a towel soaked in alcohol is placed on top and set on fire. It burns for roughly a minute before the flames are put out with a wet towel. “It is ...called a fiery massage,” Saeid said, that works by sucking moisture out of the body. “I communicate with the human body, coming into close contact with the body of the human in front of me,” he said. Saeid said he cannot use the technique with people suffering from high blood pressure, kidney failure or haemophilia. He said he trained under an expert in the fiery towel technique in Morocco, and had earned several massage certifications from institutions in Egypt. Mohammed al-Shaer, a client in his 30s, said his pain had improved “100%” after the fiery treatment. “Before, I could not stand to pray. I couldn’t stretch my back when I got out of a car,” he said. “Now, after the second session, my body is getting better and my movement is better. I used to be very lazy but this is no longer the case.” Claim: Henry Winkler Dead at 77 – A Huge Trump Supporter and Lifelong Gun Lover.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In April 2018, a set of images purportedly showing a hand with eight fingers and no thumbs started to go viral:  Although these images were met with a heavy dose of skepticism, we found several reasons to believe that these photographs are genuine. At the very least, they do depict a real syndrome. Many Internet users may have encountered these images on Imgur, where they were posted with a humorous title, or various Facebook pages, where they were shared with some misinformation about “mirror hand syndrome.” These unreliable posts may have made some viewers especially doubtful about its authenticity. However, while we cannot say with authorities that these exact photographs are real, they do show a real condition: Ulnar dimelia, a rare congenital anomaly of the upper limb characterized by “duplication of the ulna, absence of the radius and polydactyly”: Ulnar dimelia, called also the mirror-hand, is classified to the 3rd group of congenital hand malformation, according to the classification proposed by Swanson [Swanson 1976] and adopted by the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) and the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH). There have been several documented cases. Dr. Rupesh Namdev of Bilaspur, India documented a similar condition in a seven-year-old girl in 2012. This child also had eight fingers on one hand:  Plain radiograph of wrist joint shows polydactyly with duplication of ulna, duplication of ulnar side of carpal bones, metacarpals and phalanges, absence of radius and absence of thumb. Eight triphalangeal digits are seen. The middle phalanx of medial index finger is hypoplastic. Similar cases can be found elsewhere on Radiopaedia.org and the National Center for Biotechnology Information:  The condition can be mitigated with surgery. Claim: A set of images show a congenital anomaly that resulted in an a hand with eight fingers.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is currently no vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 that has infected millions of people around the world. But some posts on Facebook point out that a canine coronavirus vaccine has been around for years, and question why it hasn’t been made for humans. One post shares a photo displaying a vial of the vaccine, with text along the top that says, \"Now this was 2001 tell me why 19 years later they say there is no vaccine share before they take it down again.\" The post’s caption reads: \"Canine vaccine for dogs and not humans? And since 2001.....STAY WOKE PEOPLE!!\" Other versions that have been debunked went even further and questioned why the dog vaccine isn’t being used in humans. A couple of key problems here: The vaccine is for dogs, not humans. It’s not for COVID-19. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 at the center of the current pandemic was discovered in 2019. It had not been previously identified in humans. No vaccine for it could have been developed before that. The vaccine in the photo is real, but it’s for canine coronavirus disease, known also as CCoV. Merck Animal Health makes the vaccine and now includes a note on its webpage explaining that canine coronaviruses \"are not the same virus as SARS-CoV-2 that is responsible for causing the COVID-19 infection.\" According to VCA Animal Hospitals, which operates nearly 800 animal hospitals in the U.S., the canine coronavirus comes from the Coronaviridae family and is a \"highly infectious intestinal infection in dogs, especially puppies.\" \"There are many types of coronavirus, each affecting different animal species, including humans. Canine coronavirus (CCoV) is not the same virus as SARS-CoV-2,\" which causes COVID-19, the company says. \"CCoV does not affect people. CCoV causes gastrointestinal problems in dogs, as opposed to respiratory disease.\" A vaccine is available for dogs with canine coronavirus, which causes gastrointestinal issues. It is not for prevention of COVID-19 in humans; there is no vaccine for that. We rate this . Claim: The existence of a canine coronavirus vaccine casts doubt on statements that there isn’t one for humans.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Stacey Abrams has often come up as a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The Georgia Democrat nearly won the 2018 governor’s race. In an interview with Mother Jones, Abrams said if she were in the governor’s mansion today, she would have handled the COVID-19 crisis totally differently. \"I wouldn’t have led Georgia to be one of the last states to shut down, and we certainly wouldn’t have been one of the first to reopen,\" Abrams said in a May 7 interview. \"Since the reopening of the state, we’ve seen our COVID rate skyrocket by 40%.\" Abrams’ statistic is wrong. Abrams spokesman Seth Bringman said she relied on a post that briefly appeared on Forbes.com. The post was withdrawn. Virus testing in Georgia, drawn from the Covid Testing Project data, shows there was a smaller increase in the number of new cases in the period after Gov. Brian Kemp relaxed restrictions than in a similar period before the change. Under Kemp, Georgia was one of the first states to reopen businesses. Between April 24 and April 27, restaurants, gyms, beauty parlors and a number of other kinds of businesses began to welcome customers, so long as they followed rules to keep patrons separated and took other measures to prevent infection. In the 12 days before April 24, when Kemp began easing restrictions, Georgia had a total of 9,695 confirmed coronavirus cases. In the 12 days after (which coincides with Abrams’ interview), Georgia reported about 1,100 fewer confirmed cases, 8,549. Overall, comparing the two time periods, cases in Georgia decreased 12% after the reopening. They didn’t increase 40%. Bringman said no one has firm numbers in Georgia. \"The state is not producing accurate data, thus there is no way to know how many Georgians who have suffered,\" he said. The state has had problems, particularly in tracking deaths at long-term care facilities. But without good data, Abrams also wouldn’t have any basis to say cases rose 40%. When she spoke, it was way too early to know if relaxing the rules on business had caused the disease to spread. It takes anywhere from three to 14 days for an infection to take hold. And after that, more days before a person feels ill enough to see a doctor, get tested and get test results back. Boston University epidemiologist Eleanor Murray emphasized that the impact of reopening business life in Georgia won’t be clear for some time. \"There could be up to a month or more delay between when a case is reported and when the infection was transmitted,\" Murray said. \"This makes it very difficult to say whether cases are from before or after opening, especially in the first few weeks.\" Abrams said that after Georgia’s governor reopened certain business activities, the COVID-19 rate rose 40%. In reality, the period after reopening had 12% fewer cases. Even if the policy shift did cause infections to rise, it wouldn’t appear until several weeks later. Abrams spoke before that effect would show up in the data. Claim: “Since the reopening of (Georgia), we’ve seen our COVID rate skyrocket by 40%.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In October 2016 Republican candidate Donald Trump came under fire after the release of a decade-old tape capturing him making lewd comments, followed by multiple women coming forward to claim that Trump had groped them. Shortly afterwards, an image containing allegations about incidents of Trump’s having sexually abused women circulated via social media:   The first claim held that in 1989 Donald Trump’s first ex-wife, Ivana, swore under oath in a deposition that he had violently raped her and that somehow that information wasn’t brought to light during the comprehensive mudslinging that engulfed the extremely heated 2016 election. But a simple online search shows quite clearly that numerous articles published from the summer of 2015 onwards made frequent reference to Ivana Trump’s purported statement:   The allegation largely stemmed from a 1993 book about Trump titled Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump by Harry Hurt III, as detailed by the New Yorker:  The part of the book that caused the most controversy concerns Trump’s divorce from his first wife, Ivana. Hurt obtained a copy of her sworn divorce deposition, from 1990, in which she stated that, the previous year, her husband had raped her in a fit of rage. In Hurt’s account, Trump was furious that a “scalp reduction” operation he’d undergone to eliminate a bald spot had been unexpectedly painful. Ivana had recommended the plastic surgeon. In retaliation, Hurt wrote, Trump yanked out a handful of his wife’s hair, and then forced himself on her sexually. Afterward, according to the book, she spent the night locked in a bedroom, crying; in the morning, Trump asked her, “with menacing casualness, ‘Does it hurt?’” Trump has denied both the rape allegation and the suggestion that he had a scalp-reduction procedure. Hurt said that the incident, which is detailed in Ivana’s deposition, was confirmed by two of her friends. Hurt held on to his copy of Ivana’s sealed deposition for years. “It was sworn testimony,” he said. But eventually, when he was cleaning house during his own divorce, he said, “I threw it all out.” He went on, “The larger tragedy is that Trump might be elected President of the United States. I never imagined in my wildest nightmares that it would come to this.” Before Hurt’s book came out, Trump’s lawyers pressured the publisher, W. W. Norton, to paste a clarifying statement from Ivana into the flyleaf of every copy. In it, she confirmed that she had said in a deposition that her husband had “raped” her, but added that she did not want those words to be interpreted in “a literal or criminal sense.” She also said, “As a woman, I felt violated.” Hurt said that he considers the note a non-denial denial, and believes that Ivana agreed to amend her words in order to secure the divorce settlement, in which she reportedly received fourteen million dollars in cash. When the rape story resurfaced [in 2015], Ivana issued a statement saying that it was “without merit.” “She and Donald have raised three kids together. They’re picking their bedrooms in the White House,” Hurt said. “But she’s not saying it’s untrue, or that she didn’t swear to it under oath.”   As described, the book was appended with a statement from Ivana Trump disavowing that she intended to use the word “rape” in its commonly understood manner (i.e., forcible sex without consent):  During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me. I wish to say that on one occasion during 1989, Mr Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness which he normally exhibited toward me, was absent. I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense. Any contrary conclusion would be an incorrect and most unfortunate interpretation of my statement which I do not want to be interpreted in a speculative fashion and I do not want the press or media to misconstrue any of the facts set forth above. All I wish is for this matter to be put to rest. Ivana’s statement, according to a “Notice to the Reader” in the book, “does not contradict or invalidate any information contained in this book.” The second allegation in the image was less well known and likely new to many social media users, holding that Trump Model Management (New York City modeling agency) was “caught trafficking young girls and hiding them in basements” — something that likely would have been quite newsworthy, given that human trafficking is an extremely serious crime. This claim originated with a 30 August 2016 Mother Jones article that notably had nothing to do with any allegations that Donald Trump or his modeling agency had engaged in human trafficking. Instead, the Mother Jones article presented a case that Trump’s anti-immigration position was hypocritical due to Trump Model Management’s purported illegal employment of non-American models. Many of the article’s details involved uncompensated work, a grayer legal area and a circumstance not uncommon among hopefuls trying to get a break in the highly competitive field of modeling. The article included comment from Canadian former model Rachel Blais and two unnamed women who claimed they worked for Trump Model Management around the mid-2000s and experienced illegal and/or unethical business practices. Although the details of the article were not flattering to Trump or his agency if accurate, asserting that the article accused Trump or his agents of “trafficking young women and hiding them in basements” is a gross exaggeration. The word “basement” appeared a single time in the article and was not mentioned as a place young female models were held against their will but simply as an example of cramped and pricey “model’s quarters” (of a type not exclusive to Trump’s modeling agency). The image reproduced above elided the article’s description of the unpleasant living arrangements as an unfortunate but not uncommon aspect of the industry that is too often foisted upon aspiring models by agencies: [Along with one named woman, t]wo other former Trump models — who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, and who we are giving the pseudonyms Anna and Kate — said the agency never obtained work visas on their behalf, even as they performed modeling assignments in the United States … Each of the three former Trump models said she arrived in New York with dreams of making it big in one of the world’s most competitive fashion markets. But without work visas, they lived in constant fear of getting caught … According to three immigration lawyers consulted by Mother Jones, even unpaid employment is against the law for foreign nationals who do not have a work visa. “If the US company is benefiting from that person, that’s work,” explained Anastasia Tonello, global head of the US immigration team at Laura Devine Attorneys in New York. These rules for immigrants are in place to “protect them from being exploited,” she said. “That US company shouldn’t be making money off you.” Two of the former Trump models said Trump’s agency encouraged them to deceive customs officials about why they were visiting the United States and told them to lie on customs forms about where they intended to live. Anna said she received a specific instruction from a Trump agency representative: “If they ask you any questions, you’re just here for meetings.” Fashion industry sources say that skirting immigration law in the manner that the three former Trump models described was once commonplace in the modeling world … Kate, who worked for Trump Model Management in 2004, marveled at how her former boss has recently branded himself as an anti-illegal-immigration crusader on the campaign trail. “He doesn’t want to let anyone into the US anymore,” she said. “Meanwhile, behind everyone’s back, he’s bringing in all of these girls from all over the world and they’re working illegally.” Models’ apartments, as they’re known in the industry, are dormitory-style quarters where agencies pack their talent into bunks, in some cases charging the models sky-high rent and pocketing a profit. According to the three former models, Trump Model Management housed its models in a two-floor, three-bedroom apartment in the East Village, near Tompkins Square Park. Mother Jones is withholding the address of the building, which is known in the neighborhood for its model tenants, to protect the privacy of the current residents. When Blais lived in the apartment, she recalled, a Trump agency representative who served as a chaperone had a bedroom to herself on the ground floor of the building. A narrow flight of stairs led down to the basement, where the models lived in two small bedrooms that were crammed with bunk beds — two in one room, three in the other. An additional mattress was located in a common area near the stairs. At times, the apartment could be occupied by 11 or more people. The third and final claim in the meme was perhaps the most widely-reported of all the three things that no one was supposedly talking about. It pertained to a twice-filed civil (not criminal) lawsuit against Donald Trump brought by a woman using the alias “Katie Johnson” who claimed that Trump “sexually and physically” abused her at parties hosted by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein when she was 13 years old and then threatened her to ensure her silence:  I traveled by bus to New York City in June 1994 in the hope of starting a modeling career. I went to several modeling agencies but was told that I needed to put together a modeling portfolio before I would be considered. I then went to the Port Authority in New York City to start to make my way back home. There I met a woman who introduced herself to me as Tiffany. She told me about the parties and said that, if I would join her at the parties, I would be introduced to people who could get me into the modeling profession. Tiffany also told me I would be paid for attending. The parties were held at a New York City residence that was being used by Defendant Jeffrey Epstein. Each of the parties had other minor females and a number of guests of Mr. Epstein, including Defendant Donald Trump at four of the parties I attended. I understood that both Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein knew I was 13 years old. Defendant Trump had sexual contact with me at four different parties in the summer of 1994. On the fourth and fnial sexual encounter with Defendant Trump, Defendant Trump tied me to a bed, exposed himself to me, and then proceeded to forcibly rape me. During the course of this savage sexual attack, I loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but he did not. Defendant Trump responded to my pleas by violently striking me in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted, Immediately following this rape, Defendant Trump threatened me that, were I ever to reveal any of the details of Defendant Trump’s sexual and physical abuse of me, my family and I wold be physically harmed if not killed. As our article on the lawsuit notes, “Katie Johnson” has not been identified or interviewed, and she has not provided any information or evidence outside of her court filing. Donald Trump hasn’t been afforded any opportunity to confront his accuser or the evidence against him in court, and the case may never get that far. Claim: Donald Trump raped his former wife and a young woman, and his modeling agency was found to be trafficking young girls.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Government work was suspended and schools were closed in a number of towns and cities, including Manila, because of health risks from the ash. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed, affecting tens of thousands of passengers. The restiveness of the Taal volcano and several new fissures in the ground nearby likely mean magma is rising and may lead to further eruptive activity, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The volcano was spurting fountains of red-hot lava 800 meters (half a mile) into the sky, and the massive column of ash and volcanic debris at times lit up with streaks of lightning. The alert level since the eruption began Sunday has been 4, indicating a hazardous eruption is possible in hours to days. Level 5, the highest, means such an eruption is underway. More than 350 volcanic earthquakes have been recorded near Taal since Sunday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York. The Philippine institute said about 50 volcanic earthquakes were detected over eight hours Tuesday, indicating rising magma. It also warned that heavy and prolonged ash fall was possible in nearby villages. “The speed in the rise of magma is important (in determining) when the volcano will have a strong eruption and if it will slow down and freeze,” said Renato Solidum, who heads the institute. “As of now, we don’t see activities slowing down and the earthquakes still continue.” More than 38,000 people have been relocated so far to over 200 evacuation centers, Dujarric said. He said U.N. teams are visiting centers and supporting authorities, who have asked for help getting face masks. The picturesque volcano in the middle of a lake in Batangas province south of Manila rumbled to life Sunday in a powerful explosion that blasted a 15-kilometer (9-mile) column of ash, steam and rock into the sky. Clouds of volcanic ash blowing over Manila, 65 kilometers (40 miles) to the north, closed the country’s main airport Sunday and part of Monday until the ash fall eased. More than 500 international and domestic flights were canceled or delayed due to the overnight airport closure, affecting about 80,000 passengers, airport manager Ed Monreal told The Associated Press. “Hopefully the wind direction does not change. As long as the ash fall does not reach us, then we can be back to normalcy,” Monreal said. The disaster-response agency counted more than 40,000 evacuees in Batangas and nearby Cavite provinces who took shelter in nearly 200 evacuation centers. Officials expected the number to swell. Solidum warned residents from returning to high-risk villages based on perceptions that the eruption was easing. He warned of pyroclastic flows, super-heated material from the volcano that can travel at great speed and incinerate anything in their path. Solidum said it would take time for Taal’s restiveness to ease and the lives of affected villagers to return to normal but added it’s difficult to predict the volcano’s behavior with certainty. “We have to make sure that people understand and, of course, government, that this is not an activity that will just be a short while,” Solidum told a news conference. President Rodrigo Duterte visited hard-hit Batangas, which has been declared a calamity zone for faster disbursement of emergency funds. Accompanied by top disaster-response officials and Cabinet members, he promised the national government would help with the cleanup and reconstruction of the devastated province once the eruption ends. The government disaster-response agency has not provided details of damage but journalists saw dozens of houses ruined by heavy ash and frequent quakes in two Batangas areas. At least six people have been taken to a hospital in Tagaytay city in Cavite due to respiratory ailments caused by the ash, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said. The eruption has not directly caused deaths or major damage. The death of a driver in a crash on an ash-covered road was linked to slippery conditions. The small island where the 1,020-foot (311-meter) volcano lies has long been designated a “permanent danger zone,” though fishing villages have long existed there. Those villages were all evacuated, though volcanology officials have called for a total evacuation of endangered communities within a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) radius of Taal. Taal’s last disastrous eruption, in 1965, killed hundreds of people. It is the second-most restive of about two dozen active volcanoes in the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where much of the world’s seismic activity occurs. A long-dormant volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew its top north of Manila in 1991 in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people. ___ Gomez reported from Manila. Associated Press journalists Celine Rosario and Kiko Rosario in Manila, Aaron Favila in Tagaytay and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. Claim: Philippine volcano trembles more, spews lava half-mile high.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since this is a study of older adults–who are often on fixed incomes–an estimate of cost would have made the story stronger. But because walnuts aren’t notably expensive compared to other nuts, we’ll give this a pass. There is no quantification in this story. The story says that the walnut eaters had reductions in bad cholesterol, but not how much. Is it even clinically significant? The story also says that neither group showed weight gain or changes in other cardiovascular markers, but nothing concrete is presented. A mention of good gut effects of walnuts is totally without any supporting information. About the only information actually given is that walnuts can be a fattening food and that portion control is necessary. The only harm mentioned is that walnuts can cause weight gain because they are high in calories. Because walnuts are a common food, there are no real expected harms except for those who are allergic to them. The story did not contain adequate details to help readers discern if this was a high-quality study or not. For example, how did they insure people actually ate the walnuts? One big red flag: These were findings presented at a conference–they haven’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Whenever that’s the case, journalists should be extra cautious, as it means other experts haven’t had a chance to review the work. There is no disease mongering here. Weight gain with age is fairly common and maintaining cardiovascular health is important. Close call on this one, but we’re going with Satisfactory, since the story did identify that the walnut research was funded by the California Walnut Commission, and an independent nutrition expert was quoted–although she didn’t talk about the study. Ideally, an outside source could have provided commentary on the research, providing insight into the quality of the evidence. There was no comparison of alternatives, either other nuts or foods or pharmaceuticals. This was a missed opportunity: If the article had explicitly stated the amount LDL was lowered in the intervention vs the control group, it might have compared other known interventions (statins, etc) that would achieve a similar effect. Walnuts are widely available everywhere, so this is not applicable. There have been many studies done on nuts and their effects on cardiovascular health, but these past studies were not referenced. How does this study specifically add to the body of research? There’s an implied reference that this might be the first time cholesterol-lowering benefits were tested in older adults, but it’s not clear. There is a news release that was obviously used in this story, but there was also an outside source, which is just enough to rate as Satisfactory. Claim: The homeliest nut just got better",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The quarantine marked one of the most sweeping efforts by authorities to contain the nation’s measles outbreak, where cases have reached a 25-year high. People at California State University, Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles were cleared after providing proof of immunity. At the Cal State campus, 435 students and employees were cleared by Monday afternoon, with 221 still under quarantine. Officials said they may have been exposed to an infected student who visited a school library. At UCLA, 27 people remained quarantined. People at that campus were in classes attended by an infected student. Claim: Nearly 2/3 quarantined by LA universities are cleared.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As part of Congress’ budget debates, Rep. Tim Ryan cautioned against major cuts while the economy is weak, and said he especially opposed cutting funds for Head Start. Head Start is a national program that tries to bolster school readiness through educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families. While interviewing Ryan on Fox News, Greta Van Sustern criticized Head Start because of the academic performance of 8th graders in the Washington, D.C., school system. Ryan defended the program, claiming that \"for every dollar we invest in Head Start, we get $5 to $7 back into our economy.\" That kind of return got our attention, so we decided to follow the statistical threads to see if Ryan’s claim is backed by whole cloth or solid evidence. We started with Ryan’s staff. They cited a paper from 2007 by scholars Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago and Deborah A. Phillips of Georgetown University, which also alludes to other studies. The researchers conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the program and concluded that that Head Start’s return to taxpayers is greater than their investment in the program. They based their conclusion on studies that compared the performance over decades of siblings who enrolled in Head Start, and siblings that did not, for example. Among their findings: While Head Start doesn’t create jobs itself, children exposed to Head Start are more able to compete for better jobs than those without that exposure, they concluded. The Ludwig-Phillips paper also cited a study of Perry Preschool, an early care and education program in Michigan similar to Head Start, charting the progress of 3- and 4-year-olds through two years, and also examined their success rate through age 40. The researchers did issue a few caveats. Studying program participants over several decades allowed them to follow outcomes into adolescence and adulthood to assess longterm impacts, but they acknowledge that some of the data available to study children from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was limited. Also, Head Start has changed over time, making it a challenge to apply the data to children in the program now. Forecasting outcomes from kids in Head Start now involves use of \"a number of untestable assumptions,\" they said. Nonetheless, they concluded that with the average cost of Head Start at $9,000 per child, the early education and social intervention programs \"are likely sufficient to generate benefits in excess of costs in both the short- and long-term.\" A letter sent to Congress in March 2011, signed by more than 300 researchers from around the country, also supported the notion that Head Start is cost effective. It cited a $7 to $9 return for every dollar invested in the programs based on the findings of 12 different studies and reports. They estimated that the program’s required medical screenings, vaccinations and emphasis reduced annual Medicaid expenses by $232 per family. And commentary about the scholarly tract by Ludwig and Phillips in a 2007 edition of Social Policy Report suggests that Head Start might have low-balled its own effectiveness. Commentary by W. Steven Barnett of Rutgers University on the Ludwig-Phillips paper cites studies of three different programs similar to Head Start, one of which found a 2.5 to 1 return ($2.50 for each $1), one that estimated a 10.1 to 1 return, and one that noted a 16.1 to 1 return. Each study examined a different public early care and education program and based its findings on myriad categories including earnings by people who went through the programs in early childhood. So how does Ryan’s statement fare on the Truth-O-Meter? The statement is accurate. Numerous studies support the notion that Head Start is cost beneficial. Ryan’s numbers land right in the middle of the cost-benefit estimates. While some are as high as $16.10 for each dollar spent, there are some as low as $2.50. That the researchers caution that forecasting outcomes from kids in Head Start now is difficult is an additional piece of information. While there’s decades of data, programs have also changed over time. Claim: For every dollar we invest in Head Start, we get $5 to $7 back into our economy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Demand for plant-based foods is growing fast as consumers worried about the environmental impact of meat production and keen to avoid a meat-heavy diet on health grounds look for alternative protein sources. JUST’s products including JUST Egg, a scrambled egg imitation made from mung beans, are available in the United States, Canada, China and Singapore, with sales evenly split between retailers including Walmart (WMT.N), Safeway and Whole Foods (AMZN.O), and restaurants such as Tim Hortons (QSR.TO). Chief Executive Josh Tetrick said cutting the costs of JUST Egg was key to broader acceptance. It is “really important for us to become one of the lowest cost proteins on the planet,” he said. “Today, our cost is 22 cents per serving. Our goal is to get to 12 cents next year and then ultimately below five.”  The cheapest supermarket eggs from non-caged hens cost around 16 cents each. Tetrick told Reuters that after launching in Europe a next logical step is achieving profitability, in advance of a possible listing to raise money. He has already raised about $250 million from investors around the world, including Mitsui, Temasek, China Construction Bank, Founders Fund, the Benioff family and the Heineken family. Tetrick, whose company employs about 120 people, sees his JUST Egg in European outlets in the next few months. “We will be launching in some locations, retailers and restaurants in Europe,” he said on the sidelines of an event in Zurich last week. Investors are taking notice of the growth in plant-based foods. U.S. startup Beyond Meat’s (BYND.O) stock has nearly tripled since it went public in May even though it is yet to turn a profit. Tetrick said his San Francisco-based company had hired longtime food industry executive Dave Wagstaff, with experience at global giants like McCain and free-range egg brand Happy Egg, to head its European team. “Our partners in Europe today include (Italian egg company) Eurovo, they’re doing the manufacturing and distribution, as well as German poultry group PHW and (online food delivery platform) Delivery Hero (DHER.DE).”  Tetrick said he was confident the company could get a slice of the $260 billion global egg market “if we get it right”. “We figured out the technology, but now we have to execute.”  Tetrick said the company was expecting low- to mid-double- digit million dollar revenues this year and should multiply sales by around seven next year. “Our most important financial objective is operating profitability,” he said. “We’ll get there some time in the next year.” Claim: Plant-based egg maker gains from non-animal food buzz but lower costs key.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee supports the federal government cutting off more than $500 million to Planned Parenthood, calling the organization \"an industry of abortion\" in a recent Fox Business Channel interview. His interviewer, Fox Business reporter Sandra Smith, did not disagree — and she offered numbers to back up her point. \"Almost 95 percent of all their pregnancy services were abortions,\" Smith said as she guest-hosted Mornings with Maria on July 28, 2015. We wanted to know if the percentage of abortions was really that high. We reached out to Smith for comment but did not hear back. 'Pregnancy services' Viewers may miss that Smith’s statement refers only to \"pregnancy services.\" By choosing those words, she is likely referencing a fact sheet by the Susan B. Anthony List, a political action committee that opposes abortion and supports anti-abortion candidates. The Susan B. Anthony List’s numbers derive from Planned Parenthood’s 2013-14 annual report. The first caveat to know is that Planned Parenthood does not have a category for \"pregnancy services.\" That’s a category the Susan B. Anthony List created, and the background reasoning has been the same as similarly misleading claims over the years. On the fact sheet, \"pregnancy services\" are broken down into three categories: abortions, prenatal care and adoption referrals. Susan B. Anthony List spokeswoman Mallory Quigley said these are the three ways a woman can respond to a pregnancy. With that in mind, here’s the section from Planned Parenthood’s annual report that contains those categories. To arrive at the Susan B. Anthony List figure, you have to tease out specific elements from the chart: prenatal services (18,684), adoption referrals (1,880) and abortions (327,653). Abortions account for 94 percent of the sum of these subcategories. For several reasons, that’s a misleading way to analyze the data. Referrals for prenatal care not in equation Not all of Planned Parenthood approximately 700 clinics offer prenatal services because prenatal care is not Planned Parenthood's focus. As a result, many pregnant women are referred to outside obstetricians or other health providers for prenatal care. How many? It's impossible to know. Planned Parenthood does not record how many pregnant patients are referred to outside health care providers, said Elizabeth Clark, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman. If referrals were included, the 95 percent figure would likely change, though we can't say by how much — and neither can Smith nor the Susan B. Anthony List. The rest of the story Planned Parenthood does not specifically track of the number of pregnant women who come into clinics for other reasons. And many of Planned Parenthood's services are not related to prenatal care, abortion or adoption. Testing and treatment for sexually transmitted disease and infection, both for men and women, accounts for the largest share of services provided by Planned Parenthood at more than 4.47 million. Contraception, which includes birth control, emergency contraception kits, and sterilization and vasectomy procedures, accounts for more than 3.58 million services. Different types of cancer screening and prevention, including breast exams, account for 935,573 services. As show on the chart above, there were also more than 1.1 million pregnancy tests, 47,2000 urinary tract infection treatments, or 65,500 \"family practice services.\" Over the course of 2013-14, Planned Parenthood performed more than 10.5 million services. Sometimes patients are double-counted because they receive multiple services. Put another way. Planned Parenthood clinics saw 2.7 million individual patients that year. Of all services, abortions account for 3 percent of services performed, said Erica Sackin, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman, pointing to page 18 of the report. But looking at the share of abortions per patient (and assuming one procedure per patient), the figure rises to 12 percent. Some critics have taken issue with Planned Parenthood’s measurement of \"services.\" Performing an abortion is more involved than administering pregnancy tests or giving someone a contraception kit, for example. The share of abortions might be different if cost or hours of services were used. (However, that information is not in the 2013-14 annual report.) Our ruling Smith said, \"Almost 95 percent of all (Planned Parenthood's) pregnancy services were abortions.\" An anti-abortion group puts the figure at 94 percent using a cherry-picked method that ignores the majority of Planned Parenthood's services, which aim to prevent pregnancies. The group describes \"pregnancy services\" as counting what Planned Parenthood does for women once they are already pregnant. But Planned Parenthood does not fully track this number, making the claim a leap of logic based on insufficient information. What's most noticeably missing among the number of Planned Parenthood services used by pregnant women are the number of pregnancy referrals. Planned Parenthood says it doesn't keep records of how many pregnant women are referred to outside healthcare providers. Without that information, we don't know an accurate percentage of \"pregnancy services\" that were abortions. Neither, however, does Smith. UPDATE: After this fact-check published, an official with Planned Parenthood contacted us and said that she was not authorized to speak on the record. A spokeswoman who is authorized to speak on the record, Elizabeth Clark, then provided us the same information. We've updated this fact-check to include her comments. Claim: Almost 95 percent of all (Planned Parenthood) pregnancy services were abortions.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On April 26, 2020, Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and a staunch ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, purportedly tweeted to criticize the Obama administration for supposedly having given “$3.7 million to the Wuhab lab in China” in 2017 — the site where the COVID-19 coronavirus originated, according to unfounded rumor, or “was created,” according to conspiracy theory. Some critics were quick to point out that former President Barack Obama was only president for less than three weeks in 2017, as Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on Jan. 20, 2017, so Giuliani was effectively criticizing Trump himself:  The above screenshot did reproduce a real tweet from Giuliani. And given that U.S. government funding is typically proposed, approved, budgeted, and appropriated long before it is actually disbursed, Giuliani’s reference to the year 2017 wasn’t necessarily as much of a gaffe as it might have superficially appeared. The former mayor still managed to get plenty wrong in a single tweet, however. As we noted in a previous article here on Snopes.com, the referenced $3.7 million comprised a series of multiple grants for coronavirus research issued by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases over the course of several years to different entities, of which the Wuhan Institute of Virology was just one: Between 2014 and 2019, the EcoHealth Alliance was awarded a series of grants totaling approximately $3.7 million by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (a division of the National Institutes of Health) to study the “risk of future coronavirus (CoV) emergence from wildlife using in-depth field investigations across the human-wildlife interface in China.” Only a portion of this money has been used to fund research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, however, and approximately $700,000 of this grant money was awarded under the Trump administration. Under award number NIAID R01AI110964, NIH also funded studies produced by institutions in the United States, Australia, and Singapore, and the work involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology was an international collaboration with the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance. While these funds were originally appropriated by the NIH in 2014 during the Obama administration, the most recent payment, in 2019, was authorized by the Trump administration. Claim: Rudy Giuliani correctly tweeted that a research lab in Wuhan, China, got a $3.7 million grant from the U.S. in 2017 despite a ban on such funding.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also reported 97 more hospitalized cases from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories, as of Dec. 17. The number of people hospitalized now stands at 2,506. The deaths have been confirmed in 27 states and the District of Columbia, and the CDC said more deaths are under investigation. U.S. officials in November reported the discovery of Vitamin E acetate — believed to be used as a cutting agent in illicit vaping products containing marijuana components — in all lung samples from 29 patients. CDC has called Vitamin E acetate as a “chemical of concern” and recommended the substance not be added to e-cigarette, or vaping products, while the investigation is ongoing. Claim: U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 54, hospitalizations to 2,506.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The headline says “Prozac Failed Anorexic Women in Study,” so the story is not advocating fluoxetine as a treatment for anorexia. So, while the average cost of the drug is not mentioned, it is also not crucial in a story with this angle. The story provides absolute numbers of patients who completed the study and maintained their weight. The story also notes that the difference between the treatment group and the placebo group was not statistically significant and that there was no apparent benefit from this treatment. The story does not mention that these patients were recruited from eating disorders treatment centers and had anorexia for several years (average 4 years). This was also a small study, with less than half of the patients completing treatment, so the results may not be generalizable, especially for patients at earlier and less acute stages of anorexia. The story mentions that one teenage study participant attempted suicide. Adolescent suicide has been linked to certain anti-depressant medications, including fluoxetine. No other harms or side effects of the drug are mentioned. Even though the source journal article did not list negative side effects of fluoxetine, that doesn’t remove the obligation to discuss these as part of a complete and balanced story. The story partially describes the study design, but it does not mention that it was a double-blind, randomized study. The story presents some quantitative information on how many women completed the year-long study and how many maintained their weight during that time. The story does not mention that of the 49 assigned to fluoxetine, only 7 achieved a full recovery from anorexia. The story mentions that the difference between the people who took fluoxetine and those who took the placebo was not statistically significant. There is no evidence of disease mongering. The story provide prevalence statistics from The National Eating Disorders Association. The story provides several sources of information from researchers and clinicians not affiliated with the study. The story also noted that the lead author receives funding from Eli Lily, maker of fluoxetine, and that this company provided medication for the study. The story mentions behavioral treatment for anorexia and mentions that the study participants received psychotherapy (in the form of cognitive behavioral therapy) and medication. The story says, “Prozac is one of the antidepressants often used to treat anorexia.” Fluoxetine is approved by the FDA for the treatment of bulimia, but not anorexia. Use in clinical settings is off-label and typically for co-existing depression or obsessive compulsive disorder, for which fluoxetine is approved. Fluoxetine has been effective in treating symptoms of bulimia nervosa, but not anorexia. The story mentions that Prozac (fluoxetine) is used to treat anorexia, but this is an off-label use, which is not mentioned. This is an important fact. The medication is more commonly prescribed to treat depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, often co-existing mental illnesses in patients with anorexia. This story reported the effect of fluoxetine specifically on symptoms of anorexia. There is no evidence that this story relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Prozac Failed Anorexic Women in Study",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Like other groups criticizing health care reform, the conservative Club for Growth is using the August recess to try to stop the congressional effort to create a government-run health insurance option. Part of the Club's strategy will include a $1.2 million ad campaign aimed at Democrats who may be wavering about the plan. In the ad, a man weeps over someone lying in a hospital bed while the announcer says, \"$22,750. In England, government health officials decided that's how much six months of life is worth. Under their socialized system if a medical treatment costs more, you're out of luck. That's wrong for America.\" That footage is interspersed with shots of the Capitol building and the whole thing is set to some very ominous music. You can watch it  here. The carefully worded ad doesn't directly say that the government is planning to put a price on our lives, but the implication is clear: The reform plan will lead to callous decisions that would allow people to die if they face a costly treatment. So that's what we're going to check — whether the reform plan would impose those kind of caps on treatment. At its heart, the Club for Growth's ad criticizes a medical approach known as comparative effectiveness research, which aims to find the most effective treatments for the lowest cost. Such research became a flashpoint during the stimulus debate, when the Conservatives for Patients Rights portrayed the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, a new board created by the stimulus bill to find the best health treatments, as being modeled after the British system. In fact, the board is very different from the British system, where government entities run the health care system and the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence — NICE for short — determines whether particular treatments are covered or not. The stimulus emphasized that the board is not meant to \"mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer\" and that none of the board's reports or recommendations \"shall be construed as mandates or clinical guidelines for payment, coverage, or treatment.\" So we gave the Conservatives for Patients Rights claim a  Barely True  . Once again, some Republicans have started linking the general premise of comparative effectiveness and what NICE does in Britain to describe how a government-run plan in the United States would discriminate against people who are older or very sick. Here's one such comment:     \"I don't know for sure, but I've heard several senators say that Ted Kennedy with a brain tumor, being 77 years old as opposed to being 37 years old, if he were in England, would not be treated for his disease, because end of life — when you get to be 77, your life is considered less valuable under those systems,\" said Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, in a news conference with reporters. NICE is an element in the Club for Growth ad as well. The ad refers to a December 2008 article in the  New York Times  that followed the case of Bruce Hardy, a British man who was denied a $54,000 drug by British health authorities. The article said the drug could have delayed his cancer progression for six months. Under NICE policies, the government would only pay about 15,000 pounds — or $22,750 — to save six months of Hardy's life. (NICE's limits are well known and have been widely discussed in the medical community.) The agency generally considers treatments cost-effective if they are less than $34,000 a year, according to an article in the  New England Journal of Medicine. But sometimes the agency will accept treatments that cost far more than that. So the Club for Growth's claim that NICE has a price limit of $22,750 for six months of life is roughly accurate, said Michael Cannon, a health policy expert with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that is often in step with the Club for Growth. But \"does the (Obama health care) legislation say it's going to do what Britain is doing? The answer to that is no,\" said Cannon. Nevertheless, Cannon doesn't believe that the ad is too far off, pointing to a proposal by the White House that would create an independent group of health experts that would look for inefficiencies in Medicare coverage. \"With the government assuming an even larger majority in health spending, it becomes very hard to argue that they won't have to ration... [Club for Growth] is implying that this is where it would lead and that's valid.\" But at this point, that proposal is not included in either the House or the Senate bill, so we believe it's quite a stretch for the Club for Growth to suggest it would be part of the health reform plan. Dr. Sean Tunis, a former top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid under the Bush administration and current director of the Center for Medical Technology Policy, says the ad is misleading. \"We have a public plan now, and that's Medicare,\" Tunis said. \"And Medicare doesn't put a price on life. ... That seems like a fallacious connection to me.\" The only initiative from the Obama administration along those lines is the increase in funding for comparative effectiveness research through the stimulus. That data would be used to help doctors and patients make better drug and procedure decisions, not dictate treatment, he said. So, back to the Club for Growth ad. Although our experts agree that it gets the NICE statistic correct about the British practice, the ad's main point about cost limits is incorrect. There is no such practice in the comparative effectiveness program, nor is it part of the current health reform proposals pending in Congress. The House and Senate bills under consideration would not require the government to decide how much a person's life is worth. As a result, we give the Club for Growth a . Claim: The health care reform plan would set limits similar to the \"socialized\" system in Britain, where people are allowed to die if their treatment would cost more than $22,000.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 21 April 2016, the web site Empire Herald published an article reporting that a 61-year-old (“caucasian”) man from North Carolina had killed himself upon learning that a portrait of 19th century African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman was to replace that of Andrew Jackson on the front of the U.S. $20 bill, writing in his suicide note that he hoped Donald Trump would be elected to “make America white again”: Gary-Jo Henderson, 61, of Charlotte was known by friends and family as a hardcore American currency collector. His wife, Martha Henderson is a collector of Civil War memorabilia. Both traveled acrossed the country to buy and auction off their historical collections. According to reports, Mrs. Henderson arrived at their residence at approximately 6:15 P.M. when she discovered her husband, unresponsive in his home office. Mrs. Henderson immediately called 911 while attempting to resuscitate her husband. According to Mrs. Henderson, “After I found my husband slumped over in his chair, I ran over to him to see if he was okay. When he did not respond to me, I checked to see if he was sleeping and that is when I saw that he was not breathing. I called 911 and I tried to give him CPR until the ambulance arrived. After a few attempts, I notice an empty bottle of Percocets on his desk. I then saw a note near the bottle which read’Make American White Again’. When I opened the letter, that is when I found out he committed suicide. … Reportedly, part of the letter read, ‘It’s a shame that one of our founding fathers is being replaced by a N**GER. I never thought I would live to see a spade in the White House and now one of them will be on the money we spend each day. I’m tired of seeing N**GERS taking over our great nation. I refuse to live in a world overrun by Blacks. I hope Trump wins so we can make America White Again!” This story was just another clickbait fabricated report from the Empire Herald fake news site, and as is often the case, the Empire Herald simply appropriated an extant, unrelated crime scene photograph and attached it to their fictional story. In this instance, the image dated to January 2014 and involved a man who was shot by a deputy whom he had attempted to run over in a stolen car. Claim: A man killed himself over the Treasury's decision to add an African-American abolitionist's portrait to the $20 bill.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story includes the cost of pomegranate pills. The story included critical analysis of claims of benefit, including the overview quote:  “There’s no definitive clinical trial demonstrating a beneficial effect of pomegranate fruit, juice or pills in people.” There are potential harms of the supplement including drug interactions with several common medications including antidepressants as listed in Medlineplus. A description of these potential harms can be found at:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/392.html#Safety So there are not only questions about benefits, there are very real harms to consider as well. Excellent point-by-point evaluation of the evidence for claims made about purported benefits for the heart and for the prostate. No disease-mongering here. Good sourcing with independent experts and identification of company funding for one researcher. The ending quote delivers an appropriate contextual wrapup:  “If they’re part of an overall healthy diet, I don’t object,” (Dr. John Gordon Harold, cardiologist says), but I’m not sure the ends justify the means.” The story could have reminded readers that there is evidence for how to reduce risk of heart disease, such as smoking cessation and exercise. Also, there are a variety of therapies for erectile dysfunction. The availability of pomegranate-containing fruit and pills is clear in the story. Not applicable. No claims of novelty were made. Independent reporting throughout. Claim: Extracting the facts about pomegranate pills",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs for hormone therapy are readily available but they are not broached in this release. Although the news release summarizes the pattern of results—that recently postmenopausal women who received estrogen via a skin patch were found to have “lower” amyloid depositions in their brains relative to those who took estrogen by mouth or who were in the placebo group—that pattern is not explained in any numerical or statistical way. Is it a strong association? A weak one? We have no idea from the release. According to the published report, the benefits were statistically significant but the sample size was too small to be meaningful. Just 21 of the enrolled women received the patch, 30 received a placebo and 17 received estrogen orally. Early in the text, the writer notes that one large, older study—the Women’s Health Initiative at NIH—has found an association between use of estrogen and an increased risk of dementia among women 65 or older. The study highlighted here, in contrast, focuses on women five to 36 months past menopause, individuals predominantly in their 50s. The potential long-term effects of estrogen use by these younger women is not mentioned in the release. Estrogen carries a well-known small increase in risk for breast cancer and blood clots, which could have been briefly acknowledged. In addition, the National Library of Medicine states that estradiol, the form of estrogen used in transdermal patches, “increases the risk that you will develop endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus [womb]). The longer you use estradiol, the greater the risk that you will develop endometrial cancer.” Other minor side effects include head ache, breast pain and nausea, among others. The release offers some specifics about the study design, but it doesn’t highlight the randomized, blinded nature of the study. That said, it describes the study framework: “Of the 68 women, 21 received estrogen via a skin patch, 17 received estrogen orally and 30 received a placebo. Amyloid deposition was lower in women who received the patch, compared to the placebo, and the effect was most apparent in women with the APOE e4 genotype. The oral treatment was not associated with lower amyloid deposition.” The release includes a comment from the lead study author regarding the need to confirm the findings by replicating the study with larger samples. But even that comment neglects the larger question of whether reducing amyloid has any effect at all on Alzheimer’s symptoms or risk. The overall implication that there’s a causal relationship, strongly inferred in the headline, earns this a not satisfactory rating. The release doesn’t exaggerate a condition. It states that declines in estrogen associated with menopause “may” be associated with an increased risk of dementia. Unfortunately, that doesn’t give readers a feel for the robustness of the relationship, or for the evidence supporting it. Funders are identified, and the single scientist in the release is clearly identified as the study’s lead author. The release offers no other approaches available to postmenopausal women for reducing Alzheimer’s disease risk and that’s appropriate in this case. It would be an over-reach to try and name the many other Alzheimer’s disease prevention options being studied. In addition, the findings address an intermediate endpoint, i.e. amyloid deposition as a disease marker, not the disease itself. It’s common knowledge that numerous estrogen supplements —  including those delivered via patch — are readily available. The lead author makes a priority claim in the release, which seems to be justified. Words employed by both the text and the researchers, the latter via quotes, are straightforward. Claim: Estrogen Patch in Newly Postmenopausal Women May Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Fakhrurrozi, 53, who uses one name, started the initiative along with three volunteers last month after Indonesia recorded its first COVID-19 cases in his neighborhood of Depok, to the south of capital, Jakarta.”I feel responsible to go into the community to provide education about the disease,” said the doctor, who spends several hours after his morning clinic driving around three times a week.His mission appears to be taking on added impetus after the world’s fourth-most populous country announced on Friday its biggest one-day surge in coronavirus cases, up 153 to 1,046. Indonesia has also recorded the highest number of deaths in Southeast Asia at 87.”From the existing data and numbers, the trend is similar all over Indonesia, increases every day,” Fakhrurrozi said at his clinic, where nurses use raincoats and masks as make-shift protective gear. “Therefore, it is important that the people are aware and obey the rules of not leaving their houses, maintaining social distancing and take care of cleanliness.”  Indonesian President Joko Widodo has so far resisted ordering a complete lockdown in the country of more than 260 million people, but some provincial governments have urged people to stay home for at least two weeks.Jakarta, where many residents of Depok work, has been under a state of emergency since March 23 with bars, cinemas and other entertainment centers ordered to close .”There are still many residents who don’t know about coronavirus,” said volunteer Askar Kustiwa, explaining why he had decided to help the doctor with his mission. Claim: Indonesia doctor hits the streets to curb coronavirus.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Although the vaccine only protects about one-third of children who are immunized, those who get the shots are likely to have less severe cases of malaria. The parasitic disease kills about 435,000 people every year, the majority of them children under 5 in Africa. “It’s an imperfect vaccine but it still has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives,” said Alister Craig, dean of biological sciences at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who is not linked to WHO or vaccine. Craig said immunizing the most vulnerable children during peak malaria seasons could spare many thousands from falling ill or even dying. The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2015. A previous trial showed the vaccine was about 30% effective in children who got four doses, but that protection waned over time. Reported side effects include pain, fever and convulsions. Pedro Alonso, director of WHO’s malaria program, said similar vaccination programs would begin in the coming weeks in Kenya and Ghana, with the aim of reaching about 360,000 children per year across the three countries. Alonso called the vaccination rollout a “historical moment,” noting that it was significantly more difficult to design a vaccine against a parasite as opposed to a bacterium or virus. He acknowledged the vaccine was flawed but said the world could not afford to wait for a better option. “We don’t know how long it will take to develop the next-generation vaccine,” he said. “It may be many, many years away.” In the meantime, he said, the stalled progress against malaria demanded new tools now. Resistance is growing to medicines that treat the disease, while mosquitoes are becoming more resistant to insecticides. In addition, funding for malaria efforts has plateaued in recent years. It took GSK and partners more than 30 years to develop the vaccine, at a cost of around $1 billion. GSK is donating up to 10 million vaccine doses in the current vaccination initiatives. A company spokesman said GSK is working with partners to secure funding for potentially broader vaccination programs. Some experts warned the vaccination programs should not divert limited public health funds from inexpensive and proven tools to curb malaria such as bed nets and insecticides. “This is a bold thing to do, but it’s not a silver bullet,” said Thomas Churcher, a malaria expert at Imperial College London. “As long as using the vaccine doesn’t interfere with other efforts, like the urgent need for new insecticides, it is a good thing to do.” Craig said one of health officials’ biggest challenges could be convincing parents to bring their children for repeated doses of a vaccine that only protects about a third of children for a limited amount of time. More commonly used vaccines, like those for polio and measles, work more than 90 percent of the time. “This malaria vaccine is going to save many lives, even if it is not as good as we would like,” Craig said. “But I hope this will kick-start other research efforts so that the story doesn’t end here.” Claim: Malawi becomes 1st nation to immunize kids against malaria.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An image making the rounds on social media draws a supposedly eerie connection between the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, and the fictional virus that triggers the dangerous mutations at the center of the plot for \"Resident Evil,\" a Japanese video-game series. The image says that the fictional lab responsible for the virus in the \"Resident Evil\" franchise has the same logo as a real-life lab in Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected. The problem with that claim: The Chinese lab with that logo is actually based in Shanghai, a roughly nine-hour drive from Wuhan. \"In ‘Resident Evil’ the Umbrella Corporation releases a virus that infects the people of Raccoon City,\" the image, posted to Facebook as early as Jan. 27, says. \"A biological research lab with the exact same logo as the Umbrella Corporation can be found in the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated. Corona is an anagram for Racoon.\" A screenshot of a Facebook post about the coronavirus and a fictional lab from the \"Resident Evil\" video game. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Without getting too far into the details of \"Resident Evil,\" it’s clear that the post is inaccurate, as other fact-checkers have noted. In fact, the post gives itself away. Beneath the logo for the biological research lab identified in the image is the company’s real name, Shang Hai Ruilan Bao Hu San Biotech Limited. The company does have a blue-and-white logo that closely resembles the red-and-white logo from the fictional lab in \"Resident Evil.\" But according to the company’s website, the lab is based in Shanghai, which is more than 500 miles by car away from Wuhan, per Google Maps. What’s more, there’s no evidence that the novel 2019 coronavirus was created in a lab. We’ve debunked a number of claims — like the Facebook post in question — that suggested the new virus was artificially made in Wuhan or elsewhere. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new coronavirus is a \"beta coronavirus\" similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. All three viruses are believed to have their origins in bats. We rate this post . Claim: “In ‘Resident Evil’ the Umbrella Corporation releases a virus that infects the people of Raccoon City. A biological research lab with the exact same logo as the Umbrella Corporation can be found in the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Public health’s focus on HIV/AIDS typically tilts toward men. That’s because men who have sex with men still face the greatest risk of getting the disease and represent most new cases. But out of the spotlight, how are women faring? \"HIV/AIDS among women is skyrocketing in Austin,\" Austin City Council Member Ora Houston told council colleagues Sept. 8, 2015, \"and we need to do some specific targeting for that.\" Houston, who represents District 1, sought an additional  $150,000 in spending in the 2015-16 budget year for the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department’s HIV/AIDS initiatives. Houston’s ask was made in the context of bolstering efforts aimed at improving the quality of life of African-Americans in Austin, an initiative the city launched several years ago. The proposal didn’t win council approval, although the department drew a 16-percent surge in its overall budget. Also, it turns out, Houston wasn’t right about HIV and AIDS among Austin women \"skyrocketing.\" Yet for decades and across the nation, African-Americans have been the racial group hardest hit--with black women the most disproportionately affected. It’s a wide gap that similarly persists in Travis County. Houston says she misspoke Houston, asked how she reached her \"skyrocketing\" declaration, told us by phone she misspoke. \"The larger issue is what do we do to save the women in my community infected with HIV/AIDS,\" she said. Some background: In Travis County, fewer than one in 10 residents is black, but more than one in five of the 4,401 residents living with HIV at the end of 2014 was black, according to health department data. Also that year, nearly 711 in every 100,000 black females living in the county, or 318 individuals, had the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. That was double the number of Hispanic females (156) and nearly triple the number of white females (109) living with HIV. From another vantage point, the rate of black females living with HIV in Travis County was over 17 times higher than the rate for white females and nearly nine times higher than the rate for Hispanic females. There were still many more men, of all races, with HIV. The rate of black males living in the county with HIV was 1,589.4 per 100,000 in 2014, reflecting 670 individuals. The rates were 634.9 for white males (1,743 people) and 617.8 for Hispanic males (1,235 individuals). Put another way, the rate of black males living with HIV/AIDS in Travis County was 2.5 times higher than the rate for white or Hispanic males. A national pattern The disparity in rates of African American women getting infected with HIV or diagnosed with AIDS, which has deepened since the epidemic began, is rooted in a variety of factors, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. A key factor is poverty, which is more widespread in the African-American community and can result in less access to care and, often, a failure to know one’s HIV status. Also, the office says, because African-Americans tend to have sex with partners of the same race, and because the disease is higher in that population, their risk of getting HIV is greater. \"Stigma, fear, discrimination, homophobia and negative perceptions about HIV testing can also place too many African-American women at higher risk,\" the Office on Women’s Health says. \"Many at risk for infection fear stigma more than infection. They may choose instead to hide their high-risk behavior rather than get counseling and testing.\" No skyrocket among Travis County women In Travis County, annual diagnoses of HIV and AIDS for women mostly declined from 2005 through 2014, health department figures show. Most recently, 4 in 100,000 female residents in the county were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2014 compared to an average 6.1 incidence rate from 2005 through 2013. The AIDS incidence rate for all women in the county was 1.9 per 100,000 women in 2014 compared to an average 4.3 rate from 2005 through 2013. Women of all races represented a small number of Travis County residents diagnosed with HIV in 2014: just 23 of the 244 cases. Also in 2014, 98 Travis County residents, including 11 females, were diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. We did not learn how many black females fell into these categories. Health department staff epidemiologist Jeff Taylor advised us by phone that because very few women are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS each year, the department doesn't publicly release raw numbers based on by race and ethnicity. \"Some of those numbers may be one, two, three or four, and people get concerned about confidentiality,\" Taylor said. We were, however, able to compare rates among racial and ethnic groups for a decade. Each year, from 2005 through 2014, the rates of HIV and AIDS among African-American males and females in Travis County was higher than the rates among Hispanics and whites. The far higher rates in black females, when compared to Hispanic and white females, are \"startling,\" Shannon Jones III, director of the city/county health department, said at a recent conference on health disparities. Then again, the data show a 27 percent drop in new HIV diagnoses for black females between 2013 and 2014, though there was an increase in AIDS diagnoses; the incidence of 16 black females per 100,000 black women was up from 12.3 in 2013. Between 2013 and 2014, HIV rates also fell for white females but ticked up among Hispanic females from 3.2 per 100,000 in 2013 to 3.7 per 100,000 in 2014. New diagnoses of HIV are the best barometer of how the disease is trending in a community, Taylor said. Between 2005 and 2014, the rate of new HIV infections for black females in the county ranged from a high of 42.9 per 100,000 black women in 2006 to a low of 19.4 in 2011. Our ruling Houston said HIV/AIDS among women is skyrocketing in Austin. That’s not so. While black women have persistently been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at higher rates than other women, HIV/AIDS incidence rates for Travis County women declined for most of the past decade. The statement is not accurate. Claim: HIV/AIDS among women is skyrocketing in Austin.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The research findings from Washington State’s King County, which includes the city of Seattle, add to a growing body of data on how such disclosures, meant to curb the U.S. obesity epidemic, may influence dining habits. The study was based on surveys of more than 3,000 King County residents who frequent chain restaurant. It began eight months before the county required restaurants to post calorie information at the beginning of 2009, and continued for two years after that. Women, higher-income individuals and diners who ate at fast-food chains said they were the most likely to use the information. White, higher-income and obese customers were more likely to see the calorie information. Researchers did not ask how diners put calorie information to use. “It was a confirmation that if you post calorie information, more people are going to see it and more people are going to use it,” said Roxana Chen, lead author and social research scientist for public health for Seattle and King County. The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and published online by the American Journal of Public Health. Chen said the latest study builds on related RWJF-funded research published in 2013. In that study, researchers examined receipts from more than 7,300 King County restaurant customers and found that patrons, particularly women, who saw the calorie counts purchased fewer calories than those who did not. King County was the second U.S. jurisdiction, after New York City, to implement a calorie counts under a menu-labeling law. Claim: Calorie counts on menus used by women, wealthier diners in Seattle area.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A news release says the money will go to UAB’s Center for AIDS Research. It comes as a renewed grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The statement says the center will use the grant to help fight the AIDS epidemic both in Alabama and the Southeast. Researchers will look at social, behavioral and medical factors that contribute to HIV exposure and transmission. UAB’s office is one of 19 Centers for AIDS Research established nationwide by the National Institutes of Health. The UAB center is in his 31st year of research. Claim: AIDS center at UAB getting grant for HIV research.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the development of this type of fabric dates back to 2005, when it was patented by Jeffry Skiba and Lawrence Schneider. There’s reason to be skeptical of any Internet post claiming something kills the coronavirus. Facebook in particular can be a deluge of home remedies that range from unproven to downright dangerous. So you’d be forgiven for raising your eyebrows if you came across a May 21, 2020, Indianapolis Monthly article shared widely on Facebook saying researchers have found a \"fabric that kills coronaviruses.\" But this claim has science behind it — preliminary though it may be. Researchers discovered low-level electric fields can render the coronavirus unable to infect a host after just a minute of exposure to the field. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook). Here’s what we know so far about this product. Though the application to the novel coronavirus is new, the technology isn’t. The concept — called electroceutical fabric — was developed more than a decade ago, patented in 2005 by Jeffry Skiba and Lawrence Schneider. Itis  approved by the FDA as a wound dressing and sold by Vomaris under the name Procellera. Chandan Sen, now the director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at the Indiana University School of Medicine, conducted a study in 2017 demonstrating the fabric's effectiveness as an antimicrobial wound dressing. And now he is applying the technology to combat COVID-19, with encouraging early results. When the coronavirus pandemic began, Sen thought about ways his research could help, he said in a YouTube video released through Indiana University. \"We tried to put some time into understanding the physical make of this virus, and are there perhaps some weak points we could target,\" Sen said. Sen detailed the potential application to COVID-19 on May 14, 2020, in a preliminary study released online at the preprint server ChemRxiv. The site publishes early versions of studies ahead of formal peer review and publication. Coronaviruses in general rely on electrostatic interactions to assemble themselves into an infective form and attach to a host. The electroceutical fabric consists of polyester printed with a series of metal dots — alternating silver and zinc — printed on the fabric in a geometric pattern. There is no wire or external battery, but these metals when exposed to moisture create microcell batteries that generate an electrical charge. \"We thought then our dressing (could be) capable of disrupting those electrostatic forces, and we started testing it and the results have seemed very promising,\" Sen said in the video. \"You’re using a very weak electric field which is not harmful to humans … but is capable of dismantling bacterial infections, we are currently working on fungal infection, and now we see it can also incapacitate, if you will, viruses.\" Vomaris has applied through the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization program to use the fabric for COVID-19 face masks. The Indianapolis Star reported May 26, 2020, the company is hoping to use the fabric to develop two products: A washable mask with a disposable electroceutical fabric layer can be inserted, and another mask designed for one-time use. The company hopes to have the products on the market by the fall flu season. \"Use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential to safeguard healthcare providers against COVID-19,\" Sen’s study says. \"However, use of these PPE itself poses significant threat as doffing of contaminated PPE carrying viable viral particles is likely to infect the person and potentially spread infection.\" An article spread widely on Facebook says researchers have discovered a \"fabric that kills coronaviruses\" This particular application has not yet been peer-reviewed or approved by the FDA, but initial research shows electroceutical fabric is indeed able to neutralize the virus after a minute of contact with the electrical field generated by the fabric. The company that already manufacturers this product for use as a wound dressing hopes to have it ready for release later this year in antiviral face masks. So the signs are good, but given these findings are preliminary and haven’t yet been subject to peer review. Claim: Facebook post Says researchers found a “fabric that kills coronaviruses”",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In one of the administration’s hardest-fought battles to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations, two federal agencies submitted a final rule on gas mileage and greenhouse gas emissions on Tuesday. But they would not give details until the rule is reviewed and formally published by the Office of Management and Budget. Still, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in a statement that it believes the rule, written jointly with the Environmental Protection Agency, will improve gas mileage and reduce emissions from the U.S. fleet of new vehicles. The statement also said the rule would make new vehicles more affordable for Americans, thereby putting more new vehicles on the road that are safer than the ones they replaced. “When finalized, this rule will be a win for all Americans,” the statement said. Last year, the administration’s proposed freeze touched off a huge legal fight with California, which has authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own greenhouse gas emissions, and by extension, gas mileage standards. Trump revoked California’s authority, and the state challenged the decision in court. Later, the auto industry split on the matter with four companies, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen and Honda, siding with California. Most other automakers went with Trump. When the Trump administration released its proposed “Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule” in August of 2018, it was panned by environmental groups who said the calculations were flawed. Even the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, mainly appointed by Trump, questioned the rationale in a draft report late last year. “There are significant weaknesses in the scientific analysis of the proposed rule,” the board wrote. The administration’s preferred option to Obama-era fuel efficiency standards was a freeze at 2020 levels, which it contended would save 12,700 lives from car crashes during the life of new vehicles through model year 2029. The logic was that relaxed fuel mileage standards would cut the cost of vehicles, making them more affordable and increasing sales. Since new vehicles are safer, lives would be saved. In 2018, EPA staffers privately challenged the rationale for the freeze, saying the proposal would actually increase U.S. highway deaths. In an email, senior EPA staffers told the White House that it would slightly increase highway deaths, by 17 annually. Claim: Trump administration signals compromise on gas mileage rules.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Another rumor about the efficacy of wearing masks during the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic made the rounds in June 2020, a topic we have debunked numerous times at Snopes. A “60 Minutes” interview from early March 2020 with Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the leading members of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, was being regurgitated on social media. In the segment,  Fauci said there was no reason people in the U.S. needed to wear a mask. The problem? That clip is old, and Fauci was simply echoing what many others argued at that time, including the U.S. Surgeon General, the World Health Organization (WHO), and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since then, Fauci’s views and that of most organizations have changed, as more information became available about the disease. Claim: The United States' top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said people in the U.S. do not need to wear masks to protect against COVID-19.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not particularly relevant in this case. No adequate explanation was given of the measurement of how “pain was reduced” and no quantification was given of the degree of reduction nor of how many of the 143 study participants experienced what degree of pain relief. Not applicable;  we don’t know what harm could come from attempts at music therapy The story was taken directly from a news release, spewing exactly what was said in the news release and no more. There was no critical analysis. There was no independent perspective evaluating the finding. The story was unclear about whether pain or anxiety was the dominant issue. The story also did not explain that shocking volunteers is not the same as studying patients with a clinical pain condition. Not applicable. Readers weren’t told anything about what kind of pain – from what conditions – the study participants were experiencing. Point of clarification: It’s not clear that these participants were suffering from any kind of pain other than the shocks provided by the investigators. They’re described as “volunteers.” The story lists a news release as its source and it’s clear this was its only source. Feels like holiday-week filler material. No comparison was made with any other known method of pain relief. Then again, as already stated, we don’t know anything about the pain these study participants had, so the entire story is void of vital information. We’re going to rule this unsatisfactory because we’re not told what kind of music was used (couldn’t that be an important variable? ), nor for how long study participants were exposed, nor the setting (home? research setting?) – nothing that could address the potential availability of this approach. Music therapy has been studied for decades across a range of conditions. The story didn’t even acknowledge any past research in any other field. The story admits that an American Pain Society news release was its sole source. Claim: Music May Help Ease Pain for Anxious People",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “Testing at our central laboratory has stopped, after coronavirus test kits completely ran out,” Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said. The ministry is run by the enclave’s Islamist rulers, Hamas. The impoverished coastal strip has for years been under a blockade led by neighbouring Israel, which it says is needed to stop weapons and money reaching its enemy Hamas. Gaza has reported 13 cases of coronavirus infection, all of whom are at quarantine facilities. But officials have voiced concern that a shortage of critical equipment and medical supplies could set off a rapid spread amongst the enclave’s two million people. In a news briefing, Qidra said dozens of samples were awaiting testing, and that hundreds of people would likely have to remain in quarantine facilities as a result. He appealed to international organisations to provide Gaza with testing kits as well as 100 ventilators and 140 beds for intensive care units. Hamas has closed schools, mosques and wedding halls and banned large street gatherings to halt the contagion’s spread, but has not moved to impose a lockdown on Gaza’s 2 million residents, saying it was not yet necessary. Israel, which tightly controls movement in and out of Gaza, last week linked any coronavirus aid it might offer Palestinians there to progress in its attempt to recover two Israeli soldiers lost during the 2014 war in the enclave. Also last week, Norway, which chairs a major donor group to the Palestinians, pleaded for more funding for Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to help stave off a humanitarian disaster. One death and 250 cases have been reported amongst Palestinians in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and where the Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule. Claim: Gaza runs out of coronavirus tests, Palestinian health officials say.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story didn’t mention costs, which is somewhat understandable given the early phase of research. But the competing USA Today story, while noting that drug pricing hasn’t been set, at least noted that many new cancer therapies \"cost $5,000 to $7,000 a month.\" This story should have done something like that as well. The story does a good job of quantifying the benefits. It explained that 81% of patients had a partial response, meaning some shrinkage of the tumor, and gives the absolute number of people this represents. It also explains that the drug is effective in only the 50% of advanced melanoma patients with a specific genetic mutation. Although it cautions that a \"sizable proportion\" of patients developed resistance to the drug, we wish it had been a bit more precise in its characterization of this problem. There was no discussion of harms in this story — somewhat shocking when you consider that safety assessment is the primary objective of phase I research. The suggestion that this drug may substantially increase the risk of another, less invasive type of skin cancer, certainly warrants some attention. The accompanying editorial in the NEJM commented: \"Overall, PLX4032 had moderate toxicity, with rash of grade 2 or 3, fatigue, and arthralgia being the major dose-limiting toxic effects. Somewhat unexpectedly, cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas developed in a significant percentage of patients.\" This story gave a lucid account of the research and communicated some of its key limitations. It noted that the dramatic results of this small study of very sick patients may not be generalizable to the broader population of individuals with melanoma. It also pointed out uncertainty regarding how long the drug will remain effective. No disease-mongering here. The story quotes a dermatologist with no links to the research. Not coincidentally, she is the only person in any of the three stories we reviewed about this study to point out the lack of conclusive data on survival. The story also notes that the trial was funded by drug maker Roche. The story notes that only about 15% of patients respond to the standard treatments for metastatic melanoma — chemotherapy and interleukin-2. But it veers into questionable territory when it allows an expert to claim that \"the best defense against melanoma is to get your skin examined regularly by a professional who knows what to look for.\" In fact, recent guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force conclude that there is insufficient evidence to tell if regular screening helps prevent deaths from skin cancer. A thorough discussion of this issue would have included an opposing comment about the uncertainty of the evidence. The story specifies that the new drug is \"experimental\" and in phase 1 clinical research. Readers can conclude from this that the drug is not widely available. The story describes the research that led to the development of the new drug. By all accounts the drug does represent a novel and exciting approach to the treatment of metastatic melanoma. We feel pretty confident that this story didn’t rely on a news release. Claim: In Early Trial, Targeted Therapy Fights Advanced Melanoma",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The technique is experimental; still it would have been helpful to offer some comparison between this technique and standard treatments. This story accurately and prominently reports that the treatment was considered successful for 82 out of 107 eyes treated. However, the story also includes enthusiast raves, including terming the results a “stunning success” and quoting an independent researcher who says the treatment is “a roaring success.\" The story does not mention the risk of infection from the procedure, the possibility of damage to the healthy eye used as a source of stem cells, or other potential harms from the procedure. This story notes that the trial involved just several dozen patients; however, it does not point out that there was no control group, that is, the patients who underwent the experimental procedure were not directly compared to similar patients who received either no treatment or an alternative therapy. Also, the story does not explain that this sort of trial, in which the researchers were obviously aware of which eyes had been treated, is less resistant to biased interpretation of the results than trials in which evaluators do not know which patients had received the experimental intervention. Although it is difficult to design a trial of this sort that uses a placebo or sham control, in part because it may be unethical to subject participants to a surgical procedure that isn’t actually intended to offer some benefit, the trial could have included independent evaluators who examined the eyes of people who had the procedure as well as others who had not been treated, without knowing which was which. The story could have done a better job reporting on the limitations of the findings. The story clearly points out that this blindness treatment is specifically applicable only to people with chemical burns to the surfaces of their eyes… and only in patients with enough healthy tissue to provide a source of stem cells to grow in culture and then graft onto the damaged area. Although the story includes two independent sources and notes that the trial was partially funded by the Italian government, it fails to point out that some of the study authors serve on the boards or consult with companies (Holostem Terapie Avanzate S.r.l and J-Tec L.t.d.) in the business of developing and marketing treatments using stem cells. These disclosures were included in the documents on the New England Journal of Medicine web site and should have been communicated to readers. The story does mention artificial corneas and cornea transplants from cadavers. However, it presents the alternatives as having inherent disadvantages without also noting that the treatment options have not been directly compared. And while this trial involved some participants who showed improvement with the new technique after not being helped by alternative procedures, the story should have indicated the success rate of alternative treatments for similar burns. This story makes clear that the technique is experimental and does not offer any predictions about when similar techniques might be widely available. But it would have been useful to indicate what hurdles stand between this step and regular clinical use. The statement that the stem cell transplants “offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas” encourages readers to believe that this experimental technique may be available soon. The story notes that this is a “relatively new use,” but readers may get the impression that this trial is the very first attempt to graft corneal stem cells. As the original journal article on the trial notes, the technique has been studied by others, though the authors wrote that this trial involved more participants and had longer follow-up. The story does not appear to be based largely on a news release. Claim: Stem cells reverse blindness caused by burns",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The intervention proposed is at least a half-hour of exercise 4-5 times per week. With the exception of a recommended 1 or 2 sessions involving weights or exercise machines (which would involve some cost) this intervention would require minimal financial investment. We’ll rate this Not Applicable. The headline of the news release claims ‘Proper exercise can reverse damage from heart aging,’ but the study documents two outcomes: an ‘18% improvement’ in maximal oxygen uptake, and a ‘25% improvement’ in the elasticity of the left ventricle (the chamber primarily responsible for pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body). “Reversal” implies a return to a previous state of function, but this study merely documents improvement in two cardiovascular outcomes that are commonly seen with regular aerobic exercise. It’s not clear if this change does in fact represent a “reversal.” In addition, “damage from heart aging” is a confusing phrase. Poor oxygen uptake and a loss of heart elasticity are as much a consequence of sedentary lifestyle as they are a result of an aging heart. This is why a headline implying that exercise actually reverses aging in the heart is misleading. Finally, the first paragraph of the release claims that exercise can help prevent the risk of future heart failure, even though the study itself makes it clear this outcome is speculative. At the very least, the release should have cautioned that a much larger and longer study would be needed to document any impact on heart failure outcomes. The news release does an excellent job of outlining the exercise regime employed in the study. However, it does not mention that the study specifically recruited subjects between the ages of 45 – 64 who were sedentary. Given that one of the exercise sessions recommended in the study focuses on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) — and such training does come with potential risks for deconditioned individuals — it might have been advisable to mention that supervision for HIIT training should be strongly considered. There are three noteworthy limitations to this small, unblinded study that were not mentioned. First, and probably foremost, is that this study selectively chose volunteers who were willing to participate in the fairly intense exercise regimen. This significantly limits its applicability to the public at large. This was not mentioned in the news release. Secondly, this study could not draw conclusions regarding the impact of exercise on developing heart failure in the future. The news release erroneously implied it could. Third, the article clearly contends that the interventions provide a clinical benefit (“reverse damage to sedentary, aging hearts and help prevent risk of future heart failure”) while the study itself only documents improvements in what are essentially lab values: improvement in oxygen intake during exercise and improved left ventricular compliance (ie. elasticity). Whenever possible, news releases should make it clear how such values may or may not translate to outcomes that make a difference in people’s lives — such as living longer or better. This news release uses the term “heart aging” without explanation. It’s not clear what it means and it sounds vaguely worrisome, but we don’t think it rises to the level of disease mongering. The news release mentions the funding sources for the study (NIH and American Heart Association). There are no conflicts of interest listed in the news release or study. It’s not clear if there are any viable alternatives to exercise for the outcomes addressed in this study. The subjects selected for this study — if they, indeed, have less flexible left ventricles — are potentially comparable to patients with what is called ‘heart failure with a preserved ejection fraction (or, HFpEF; with ejection fracture being a way to measure the efficiency of the heart as a pump). The paper mentions the medication, spironolactone, as ‘the only treatment strategy recommended (class II recommendation) to counteract the debilitating effects of HFpEF.” The news release could have mentioned this alternative, but we won’t dock points for not doing so. We’ll rate it not applicable. The intervention in question here is aerobic exercise. Widely available. The news release mentions early research by cardiologists from the same institution documenting stiff left ventricles in middle-aged people who don’t exercise. It’s mentioned that this study is unique in asking the question: can exercise restore heart elasticity in previously sedentary, middle-aged people? We’ll rate this satisfactory. But really, this is just one of innumerable studies that show exercise is beneficial. It might be measuring the benefit in a novel way but, in the end, it is just suggesting that exercise is good. This is key problem posed by this news release: Implying that there is damage in an aging heart that can be reversed, without justifying the use of the word ‘reverse.’ Also, the phrase ‘heart aging’ does not come from the study, is not commonly used by either cardiologists or general practitioners, and is potentially misleading for readers. Claim: Proper exercise can reverse damage from heart aging",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Gallup Independent reports  Lubica “Luby” Grenko, who will turn 106 years old in August, has been fighting the coronavirus since being diagnosed April 29 at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Gallup, New Mexico. The Gallup-born Grenko was born when World War I began, then she survived the 1918 flu before enduring the Great Depression and World War II. The flu took the lives of her mother, Marijeta Kauzlaric, 28, and younger sister, Annie Kauzlaric, 1 month old. Grenko’s granddaughter Misty Tolson says her grandmother remembers her mother going into the hospital and never coming out. Tolson says she doesn’t think her grandma understands the current virus because she told one of the aides who walked in with protective gear on, “What the heck do you have on?” Claim: New Mexico woman, 105, who beat 1918 flu, has COVID-19.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On Feb. 5, 2020, the website AB-TC (aka City News) published an article that claimed Chinese officials were seeking approval from the Supreme People’s Court to start the mass killing of 20,000 people infected with the new coronavirus in an attempt to contain the disease:  China seek for court’s approval to kill the over 20,000 coronavirus patients to avoid further spread of the virus The highest level of court in Chhina [sic], Supreme People’s Court, is expected to give an approval on Friday for the mass killing of coronavirus patients in China as sure means of controlling the spread of the deadly virus. The State tells the court that China is on the verge of losing its health workers to Coronavirus as at least 20 health workers contract the virus daily. This is not a genuine news report. While the AB-TC website does not carry any disclaimers labeling its content as fiction, we found a number of red flags concerning the legitimacy of this outlet’s reporting. For starters, this website is full of junk news stories. For instance, a July 2010 article (still featured on the homepage) carries the headline, “BREAKING: New York Giants coach Pat Shurmur has died.” But Shurmur didn’t die in 2010. In fact, he is still alive as of this writing and was hired as the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos in January 2020. The website has also published hoax articles about “cannibal restaurants” (debunked here), death hoaxes about celebrity couples (debunked here), doctored tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump, and a junk news article that falsely claimed Prince Andrew had committed suicide. This website has also previously spread misinformation about the coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease. The government of Singapore released a statement on Jan. 30, 2020, to refute claims published in an AB-TC report: Corrections and clarifications regarding falsehoods published by AB-TC City News’ website On 30 Jan 2020, a website called ‘City News’ published an article titled “BREAKING NEWS: Singapore records six more coronavirus case, total of 16 now” (https://ab-tc.com/singapore-coronavirus-cases/) claiming that five Singaporeans have contracted the Wuhan coronavirus without going to China. As of 9pm on 30 Jan 2020, there is no local transmission of the Wuhan virus in Singapore. All confirmed cases in Singapore to date are Chinese nationals who travelled from Wuhan. None of the AB-TC articles we examined was accompanied by a person’s byline. Rather, they were all written by so-called “local correspondents.” Claim: Chinese officials are seeking approval to start the mass killing of 20,000 people in order to stop the spread of new coronavirus. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Country music singer Joe Diffie died on March 29 from complications related to COVID-19, according to news reports from Rolling Stone, among others. But a widely shared Facebook post claims, without evidence, that he died from something else. \"I have a friend who is a friend of Joe Diffie,\" the April 13 post says. \"They labeled his death as a COVID-19 death and it wasn’t! So the family asked why it was listed as the COD and the nurse told them they’ve been labeling as many as they can with the virus because that’s how they’re getting funding. So there ya go! Now we know that the numbers are  because many who have passed didn’t die from the virus, but another cause. That’s how they’re getting the $$$$ and that is the truth.\" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) On March 27, Joe Diffie posted a statement on his verified Facebook page that said: \"I am under the care of medical professionals and currently receiving treatment after testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). My family and I are asking for privacy at this time. We want to remind the public and all my fans to be vigilant, cautious and careful during this pandemic.\" On that same Facebook page, on March 29, a photo of Diffie was posted with the dates 1958-2020. \"GRAMMY-winning country music legend Joe Diffie passed away today, Sunday, March 29 from complications of coronavirus (COVID-19),\" the post said. \"His family requests privacy at this time.\" Some social media posts have claimed that Diffie died of lung cancer. On Instagram, Diffie’s wife unequivocally disputed that. \"My husband @officialjoediffie did NOT HAVE LUNG CANCER,\" she wrote. \"His father passed, same name, November 2018 to stave IV lung cancer. STOP STARTING FAKE NEWS. I’ve seen multiple posts and it’s upsetting to all of us.\" In addition, we’ve looked into claims that hospitals get paid more for patients who are suffering from COVID-19. While it’s standard for Medicare to pay hospitals more for patients who go on ventilators — and Medicare is paying an additional 20% for the treatment of COVID-19 victims as part of a federal stimulus deal — evidence indicates that COVID-19 cases are being undercounted, not inflated so that hospitals can cash in. We rate this Facebook post . Claim: Joe Diffie’s death was labeled “as a COVID-19 death and it wasn’t!”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Here is a look into the corporate mind that is very interesting, educational, historical, completely true, and hysterical all at the same time:     The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used. Why did “they” use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots first formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse’s ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Thus, we have the answer to the original question. Now the twist to the story . . . There’s an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses’ behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be  shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through  that  tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses’ behinds. So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a Horse’s Ass! The above-quoted item about the gauge of modern American railroads’ having been slavishly copied from the measurements of ancient Roman war chariots is a concept first expressed at least well over a century ago, as exemplified by this nugget from a 1905 issue of Popular Mechanics:  Many persons no doubt have stood and looked down a railroad track and wondered how such an out of the way measurement as 4 ft. 8-1/2 in. came to be adopted as our standard railway gauge. It would seem that the responsibility for the choice of this measurement rests with George Stephenson, of locomotive fame. While inspecting some portions of the Roman wall through which chariots used to be driven, he discovered that deep ruts had been worn in the stone. Upon measuring the distance between them he found it to be in the neighborhood of 4 ft. 8-1/2 in., and not doubting that the Romans had adopted this gauge only after much experience, he determined to use it as a standard in the construction of his railroads. From that time on this measurement has been the standard gauge in England and the United States. This item is one that, although wrong in many of its details, isn’t completely false in an overall sense and is perhaps more fairly labeled as “Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons.”  Marveling that the width of modern roadways is similar to the width of ancient roadways is sort of like getting excited over a notion along the lines of “modern clothes sizes are based upon standards developed by medieval tailors.”  Well, duh. Despite obvious differences in style, clothing in the Middle Ages served the same purpose as clothing today  (i.e., to cover, protect, and ornament the human body), and modern human beings are very close in size to medieval human beings (we are, on average, a little bit taller and heavier than we were several centuries ago, but not so much), so we naturally expect ancient and modern clothing to be similar in size. So, rather than going into excruciating detail about the history of transportation, we’ll simply note that roads are built to accommodate whatever uses them, and that for many centuries prior to the advent of railroads, what traveled on roads were mostly wheeled conveyances, pulled by beasts of burden (primarily horses), carrying passengers and goods. Physical conditions dictated some of the dimensions of those conveyances (such as the width of their axles) and largely ensured that they would fall within a fairly narrow range of variation: Horse-drawn vehicles, whether they were chariots or carts or carriages, all served similar functions, so practical considerations (e.g., the speed at which horses could travel, the amount of weight horses could pull, the number and arrangement of horses that could be controlled by a single driver) required that they be relatively similar in size as well. That may suffice as an explanation covering the specific combination of horse-drawn vehicles and roads, but what about vehicles that traveled on rails instead of roads (such as trolleys), or that weren’t pulled by horses (such as trains)? Why should they be similar in size to their predecessors? Although we humans can be remarkably inventive, we are also often resistant to change and can be persistently stubborn (or perhaps practical) in trying to apply old solutions to new conditions. When confronted with a new idea such as a “rail,” why go to the expense and effort of designing a new vehicle to use on it rather than simply adapting ones already in abundant use on roadways? Wouldn’t it make sense to put the same type of conveyance pulled by regular horses on the ground behind an “iron horse” running along a rail? That is indeed what was tried in the early days of American railroads, as captured in the following illustration:  (The caption reads: “This locomotive in New York State, like its other early counterparts, pulled passenger cars based on old-fashioned carriages. The technology evolved quickly in the 1840s, however, and the United States played an important role in that evolution.”) Similar thinking occurred in Britain. Historian James Crow, writing about Housesteads, the 3rd century Roman fort built along Hadrian’s Wall, notes that:  The wheel rut and gate stop in the north passage are well preserved, and a number of reused stone blocks formed part of the latest surface to survive. The gauge between the ruts is very similar to that adopted by George Stephenson for the Stockton to Darlington railway in 1837, and a ‘Wall myth’ developed that he took this gauge from the newly excavated east gate. There is a common link, but it is more prosaic, and the ‘coincidence’ is explained by the fact that the dimension common to both was that of a cart axle pulled by two horses in harness (about 1.4m or 4ft 8in). This determined both the Roman gauge and Stephenson’s, which derived from the horsedrawn wagon ways of South Northumberland and County Durham coalfields.2  It is rather inaccurate to claim that “US railroads were built by English expatriates,” but it is fair to say that since the English started to develop railroads slightly ahead of the Americans, some U.S. railroads used equipment purchased from English manufacturers, thus necessitating that the rails on which that equipment ran be the same size in both countries:  England, the innovator in railroad technology, enjoyed an early head start over America. When New Jersey sponsored a bold rail and canal connection between New York and Philadelphia in 1831, they ordered a custom-built locomotive from the English company — the John Bull. The railroad became an immediate success, carrying over 100,000 passengers in 1834.1  And once the Americans caught up, they began selling railroad technology back to England, further establishing a similarity of equipment (and hence track size) between the two countries:  American companies emulated and improved upon the English designs. By 1841, ten American railroad shops had sprung into existence and they produced 375 of the 500 engines in the United States. Those shops soon began changing the English designs, making the engines more powerful and the rails cheaper, better suited to the rough conditions in the United States. The American shops even exported their engines, including to Britain.1  Nonetheless, claims about a direct line descent between ancient Roman chariot tracks and the standard U.S. railway gauge jump the tracks when confronted with the fact that despite some commonality of equipment, well into the 19th century the U.S. still did not have one “standard” railroad gauge. At the time of the Civil War, even though nearly all of the Confederacy’s railroad equipment had come from the North or from Britain (of the 470 locomotives built in the U.S. in 1860, for example, only 19 were manufactured in the South), 113 different railroad companies in the Confederacy operated on three different gauges of track. This lack of standardization was, as historian James McPherson pointed out, one of the many reasons the Union was able to finally vanquish the Confederacy militarily:  The Confederate government was never able to coax the fragmented, run-down, multi-gauged network of southern railroads into the same degree of efficiency exhibited by northern roads. This contrast illustrated another dimension of Union logistical superiority that helped the North eventually to prevail.3  The eventual standardization of railroad gauge in the U.S. was due far less to a slavish devotion to a gauge inherited from England than to the simple fact that the North won the Civil War and, in the process, rebuilt much of the Southern railway system to match its own:  [I]n the occupied South the government went into the railroad business on a large scale. In February 1862 [Secretary of War] Stanton established the U.S. Military Rail Roads and appointed Daniel McCallum superintendent. A former Erie Railroad executive and an efficient administrator, McCallum eventually presided over more than 2,000 miles of lines acquired, built, and maintained by the U.S.M.R.R. in conquered portions of the South.3  In other words, there was nothing inevitable about a railroad gauge supposedly traceable to the size of wheel ruts in Imperial Rome. Had the Civil War taken a different course, the eventual standard railroad gauge used throughout North America might well have been different than the current one. As for the Space Shuttle addendum to this piece, when Thiokol was building the solid rocket boosters (SRB) for the space shuttle, they had to keep shipping considerations in mind, but they didn’t have to alter their design because any particular tunnel that lay between their plant and the Florida launch site wasn’t large enough. Railroads don’t run through tunnels only “slightly wider than the railroad track” unless every one of their engines and all their rolling stock are also only “slightly wider than the railroad track,” and unless all tunnels encompass only a single set of tracks. Data from the U.S. Army’s Rail Transport in a Theater of Operations document, for example, makes it fairly clear that one would be hard-pressed to find railroad equipment anywhere only “slightly wider” than 4 feet, 8.5 inches. Over and above our love of odd facts, this tale about railroad gauges succeeds because of the imagery of its play on words: space shuttle technology was designed not by a horse’s ass (figuratively, some overpaid government know-it-all) but because of a horse’s ass (literally, the width of that particular portion of equine anatomy). People find this notion amusing, feeding the story’s popularity as charmed readers continue to pass it along to others in a cascade of forwards. “Very interesting, educational, historical, completely true, and hysterical”? One out of five, maybe. Claim: The U.S. standard railroad gauge derives directly from the width of Imperial Roman war chariots. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: (Published Sept. 11, 2008) John McCain released an ad this week making the accusation that Barack Obama supports sex education for five-year-olds. Here's what the ad says: \"  Education Week  says Obama 'hasn't made a significant mark on education,' that he's 'elusive' on accountability, a 'staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly.' \"Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners. \"Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.\" Here, we'll check the claim that Obama wants five-year-olds to learn about sex. We've checked what  Education Week  said in a separate item and found it  Barely True  . The origins of this claim go back to Obama's days as a state senator in the Illinois General Assembly. In 2003, the Assembly considered a bill to expand sex education directives from grades 6 through 12 to grades K through 12. The legislation required the curriculum to be medically accurate and include information on the prevention of HIV and contraceptives. It also said abstinence must be taught and that students \"shall be encouraged to base their actions on reasoning, self-discipline, sense of responsibility, self-control, and ethical considerations, such as respect for oneself and others.\" Most pertinent to the kindergarten allegation, the legislation states that \"course material and instruction shall be age and developmentally appropriate.\" Carol Ronen, the now-retired state senator who sponsored the bill, said its main intent was to make sure that teenagers got information that was \"medically accurate,\" a requirement that wasn't then part of the school code. A secondary effect was to expand age-appropriate sex education down to lower grades, to allow things like teaching school children to avoid sex predators, Ronen said. \"Barack never had anything to do with it,\" she said. \"This is a lot of hoopla.\" Obama voted for the legislation in committee on a party-line vote. He was not a sponsor nor a co-sponsor, and the legislation never made it to a full Senate vote. So calling it one of his accomplishments is wrong, since it never became law and it wasn't his bill anyway. This isn't the first time Obama has faced the \"sex ed for kindergartners\" charge. When Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, his opponent Alan Keyes used it. \"Nobody's suggesting that kindergartners are going to be getting information about sex in the way that we think about it,\" Obama said at a campaign event in 2004. \"If they ask a teacher 'where do babies come from,' that providing information that the fact is that it's not a stork is probably not an unhealthy thing. Although again, that's going to be determined on a case-by-case basis by local communities and local school boards.\" Obama said that he did not support telling youngsters about explicit information about sex. The bill specifically mentions that instructional material must be age appropriate. It specifically mentions teaching children how to \"say no to unwanted sexual advances\" and \"nonconsensual physical sexual contact.\" The legislation was not sponsored by Obama and it didn't pass, so calling it one of his \"accomplishments\" is absurd. We rate this claim ! Claim: Obama's one education accomplishment was \"legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The news release declares the cost of treatment will be cut “by approximately 25%” without indicating a starting cost for treatment without the implant. But the release does go in to some detail on how cost savings were estimated: During the three-year span of the study, the marker facilitated many physicians to shift from traditional external beam radiation to the shorter course hypo-fractionated radiation therapy, which results in a cost savings. The patient outcomes remain similar, however. Although there were numerous potentially useful benefits stated, there was no attempt in the news release to quantify them. Rather, the claims made were quite general: “less radiation,” “better overall cosmetic outcome,” “marker allowed physicians to be more confident in their targeting.” The release would have benefited from quantified measures of at least some of the benefits listed. There was no indication of harms in the news release. However, the original article did note side effects that arose in two patients. It would have been good to note them in the release. The published study also acknowledged that skin changes and dermal lymphedema (swelling) were a concern among patients but were not specifically tracked. Again, a mention of that in the release would have been helpful to patients. The news release gave a brief overview of the three-year case series that was published. The study focused on 108 patients with early-stage breast cancer, with the surgical device implanted during reconstructive lumpectomy. The size of the study is considered reasonable for this type of device. It is not clear how long these patients were followed, but for the purposes of this study (to determine usefulness for radiation therapy) long-term follow up is not needed. However, the release earns a Not Satisfactory for neglecting to point out the limitations of a case series with no control group. Without a control group, what basis is there to conclude that there were benefits such as a “better overall cosmetic outcome?” What were they comparing it with? The release doesn’t say. The release didn’t engage in disease mongering. The news is provided by Focal Therapeutics, maker of the implant. There is no mention in the news release of any potential conflict of interest, but the published study noted one of the authors had a financial arrangement with Focal. This is a novel device and there aren’t any similar devices it can be compared with. We aren’t told where the device is available or whether it’s covered under most insurance plans. It was noted that the implant has received clearance by the FDA. The release states that the implant is the first and only device of its kind, and there do not appear to be any similar products on the market. It should be noted that the surgical clips placed by the surgeon at the time of lumpectomy are helpful but do not always accurately reflect the area most at risk for recurrence, especially when oncoplastic surgical techniques are used. The release doesn’t employ unjustifiable language. Claim: Two New Studies Document Improvement in Breast Cancer Treatment with Use of BioZorb Implant",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009, we've been inundated with e-mails about a purported link between President Barack Obama's administration and Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist suspected of the shootings. Here are a few lines from one of the many versions of the e-mail we received:     \"It’s been a pretty incredible week and I don’t mean in a good way. But today we have been given a glimpse into the New World Order and it’s pretty scary,\" the e-mail begins. After complaining that Obama is pursuing a Muslim agenda, the e-mail says, \"Did you know that Major Hassan was an ADVISOR to the Obama Administration? No? Neither did I until my wife found information on line and followed the evidence to the source documents!\" Our friends over at National Public Radio  already checked out  a version of this claim. The rumor, NPR concluded, started with Jerome Corsi, a writer for World Net Daily and author of  The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality  . The e-mails we were sent linked to the Corsi story as well. \"Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday's massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security advisory role in President Barack Obama's transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document,\" Corsi wrote. (We've checked  three Corsi claims  before and rated two False and one .) The story links to a document published by the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., titled \"Thinking Anew—Security Priorities for the Next Administration.\" It is the proceedings from a series of meetings of the organization's Presidential Task Force. On page 29 of the paper, Hasan is listed as a participant; he was one of more than 300 officials, reporters and Capitol Hill aides who signed up for the conference. In a statement, the think tank confirmed that the Hasan listed as a participant is the same Hasan accused of the Fort Hood shootings. But the statement also makes an important point: Hasan registered for the event on his own. He was not invited, and he attended only as an audience member in his capacity as a psychiatry fellow at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine. \"All of these events were open to the public,\" the statement reads. \"At no time has Nidal Hasan been affiliated with [the Homeland Security Policy Institute] or The George Washington University.\" So, Hasan chose to attend a conference relevant to his field, much like a doctor would attend a conference about diabetes, for example. But here's the more important point: The task force has nothing to do with the White House, according to Sharon Cardash, associate director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute. \"HSPI's Presidential Transition Task Force is not and was not affiliated at all with the White House,\" she wrote us in an e-mail. \"The Task Force was created prior to the election; and was not formed at the request of any administration.\" Indeed, HSPI established the transition task force in April 2008, before Obama was in office, let alone the Democratic presidential nominee. In a city where policy papers are published nearly every day, the work done by the group no more advised the Obama administration than any of the other papers that came out before or after GWU's. Corsi actually makes this point farther down in his story, which contradicts his headline: \"While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.\" And in an editor's note to the story, Corsi writes that, \"Hasan is being reported as a participant in the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute's Presidential Transition Task Force, not as a member, noting the group was a university think-tank, not part of the Obama administration official transition team.\" But it appears that disclaimer came later, and that it failed to stop the avalanche of e-mails spreading the inaccurate report. Hasan attended a meeting on a subject relevant to his profession, that much is clear. But beyond that, there's nothing to back up the chain e-mail's accusation that he somehow was \"an ADVISOR\" to the Obama administration or that GWU's task force was involved in the new White House. In fact, the group's work began long before Obama took office and is in no way affiliated with the White House. Another chain e-mail, another ! Claim: Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of the Fort Hood shootings, \"was an ADVISOR to the Obama Administration.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Two years later, the doctors report the boy is doing so well that he doesn’t need any medication, is back in school and even playing soccer. “We were forced to do something dramatic because this kid was dying,” said Dr. Michele De Luca of the University of Modena in Italy, who got a call for help from the German doctors treating the boy. The boy, then 7, was hospitalized in June 2015 with blisters on his limbs, back and elsewhere. He quickly lost about 60 percent of the outer layer of his skin and was put into an induced coma to spare him further suffering. Doctors at Children’s Hospital at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, tried skin grafts from his father and donor skin, but all failed. “He was in severe pain and asking a lot of questions,” the boy’s father said in a video provided by the hospital “Why do I suffer from this disease? Why do I have to live this life? All children can run around and play, why am I not allowed to play soccer? I couldn’t answer these questions.” The boy’s parents asked about experimental treatments, and De Luca and his colleagues were contacted. They had previously used gene therapy to produce a small piece of skin in a similar case. They told the family that the boy’s precarious state meant that he might not survive the complicated surgeries needed to save him. “It was a tough decision for us, but we wanted to try for (our son),” the boy’s father said. The family asked that their names not be used to protect the boy’s privacy. The boy had a rare, incurable skin disease called junctional epidermolysis bullosa, caused by genetic mutations. People with the disease lack critical proteins that attach the outer layer of the skin to the inner layer, resulting in fragile skin with almost constant blisters and open sores. To fix that, the doctors took a small piece of the boy’s skin from an area that was OK. In the lab, they added a normal version of his bad gene to his skin cells. They grew sheets of the boy’s skin, in much the same way skin grafts are grown for burn victims. In total, they grew close to a square meter of skin (9 square feet.) The lab-grown skin was then transplanted onto the boy in three operations, ultimately covering 80 percent of his body. Ten days later, the new skin was already beginning to grow, De Luca said. After eight months, the doctors said that nearly all of the boy’s skin had been generated by the modified stem cells. So far, no problems have been detected. De Luca said the boy will be monitored closely for skin cancer and other potential issues. “This kid is back to his normal life again,” one of the German doctors, Dr. Tobias Rothoeft, said Wednesday. “That’s what we dreamed of doing and it was possible.” Details of the case were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. “This takes us a huge step forward,” said Dr. Peter Marinkovich of Stanford University School of Medicine, who has done related work. He said it was impressive that De Luca and colleagues were able to make such large amounts of viable skin after correcting the genetic defect. But he noted the approach might not help in more serious cases, which often have tricky complications, like skin blistering in the lungs. Marinkovich said many patients don’t survive beyond age 2 and that using the treatment for babies could be even riskier. Dr. Holm Schneider warned that some severely ill patients might have an extreme reaction to skin transplants with an added gene. “The immune system might recognize this new gene as something foreign to be attacked and destroyed,” said Schneider, of the University Hospital Erlangen in Germany. Still, he said the approach was worth trying in dying patients. The boy and his family later visited De Luca and the other Italian doctors involved in his treatment. “The parents are very grateful and say their life has completely changed,” De Luca said, recalling how the boy spontaneously began taking off his clothes. “The boy was so happy with his new skin that he wanted to show off.” ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: Boy with rare disease gets brand new skin with gene therapy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Nike’s announcement of a commercial deal with free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick prompted intense debate and controversy in the fall of 2018, given that Kaepernick is one of the leaders of the national anthem demonstrations conducted by National Football League players who seek to protest against racial injustice and police brutality. Nike’s association with what is widely perceived as a progressive movement prompted renewed scrutiny of the sportswear giant’s ethical track record, including allegations about the low pay and poor working conditions of Nike factory workers in Asia. In September 2018, as mid-term Congressional elections drew closer, attention turned to the political donations made by Nike and its employees after the publication of a report by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which operates the OpenSecrets.org web site: Nike has been making headlines recently for its controversial advertisement with Colin Kaepernick which many perceive to be promoting a socially conscious message with progressive values. When it comes to political spending, however, Nike and its employees have spent more than three times as much supporting Republicans compared to Democrats in this election cycle. That report formed the basis of subsequent articles by Yahoo! Sports and The Root, the latter of which carried the headline “Nike donates millions to Republicans while making billions from Kaepernick endorsement.” Who is ‘Nike’? Taken as a whole, Nike’s political action committee (Nike Inc. Federal PAC), as well as individuals listed as employees of Nike, contributed $547,107 in campaign donations during the 2017-18 election cycle, up through 31 August 2018. Of that total, 78 percent ($424,600) went to Republicans and 22 percent ($122,449) went to Democrats. On this basis, the Center for Responsive Politics wrote that “Nike gave 78 percent of political contributions to Republicans this cycle.” If you take “Nike” to constitute Nike Incorporated, the company itself, then this isn’t accurate. Those donations came not from the company, but rather from its political action committee and individuals listed as employees, the latter of whom — like employees of any company — are constitutionally entitled to make whatever political donations they wish. However, this is not a mere error on the part of the Center for Responsive Politics, but rather part of their broader policy on how to categorize campaign contributions associated with particular industries and businesses. In an explanation of their methodology, the Center for Responsive Politics stated that “The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organizations’ PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families.” The Center for Responsive Politics explains this broad categorization in another section of their web site: Since corporations and other organizations are prohibited from making political contributions from their treasuries, one must look at the contributions from people associated with the institution to gauge its political persuasion and how it might be trying to exert influence in Washington … We know that not every contribution is made with the donor’s economic or professional interests in mind, nor do we assert that every donor considers their employer’s interests when they make a contribution. But our research over more than 20 years shows enough of a correlation between individuals’ contributions and their employers’ political interests that we feel comfortable with our methodology. We have also observed that the donors who give more than $200, and especially those who contribute at the maximum levels, are more commonly top executives in their companies, not lower-level employees. So, the Center for Responsive Politics has a note elsewhere on their web site which makes it clear that when they say “Nike gave 78 percent of political contributions to Republicans this cycle,” they actually mean, in effect: “Nike’s political action committee and company employees gave 78 percent of political contributions to Republicans this cycle.” And the group has explained its reasons for this categorization. However, the nature of this re-definition, and the nuances involved in it, were not as clearly outlined in some news articles as they were by the Center for Responsive Politics itself. The role of Phil Knight Furthermore, the inclusion of contributions by Phil Knight, the billionaire co-founder of Nike and a prolific Republican donor, significantly skewed the partisan breakdown of campaign donations by individuals who listed their employer as Nike. According to Federal Election Commission records, during the 2017-18 federal election cycle Knight contributed exclusively to Republican campaign committees and candidates, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan (before his decision not to seek re-election), Oregon Congressman Greg Walden, and Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Cory Gardner of Colorado. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, contributions made by Knight and his wife Penelope made up almost half the total donations from Nike employees and the Nike PAC. It is arguable that Knight and his wife’s donations should not be included at all, on the grounds that Knight is not a Nike employee. In a statement, a company spokesperson confirmed to us that Knight had retired as a Nike employee in 2006, adding: “Contributions from the Nike PAC are entirely separate from personal contributions made by individuals, including Mr. Knight.” Knight is listed as an employee of Nike in Federal Election Commission records, but he no longer has an active role in the company, serving instead as a non-voting Chairman Emeritus of Nike’s Board of Directors. It’s not clear why Knight still listed Nike as his employer in 2017 and 2018. Nike, Inc. Federal PAC As for the company’s political action committee (as opposed to Nike’s employees), its contributions were much more evenly split between the two main parties. In a statement, a Nike spokesperson told us: Using the data posted by Open Secrets, the Nike PAC has contributed $88,700 during the 2018 political cycle to Democrats and $79,400 to Republicans. This is consistent with our history as a non-partisan company that engages on a range of issues including tax, trade, sustainability and digital developments. According to our own analysis of Federal Election Commission data (as of 26 September 2018), the Nike Inc. Federal PAC had donated $79,500 to the campaign committees of Democratic candidates and $64,000 to the campaign committees of Republicans, a ratio similar to that claimed by Nike itself. However, when we add the donations made by Nike’s PAC to other political action committees as well as to campaign committees, the ratio flips, with Nike’s PAC donating $104,000 to Republican PACs and candidates and $96,500 to Democratic PACs and candidates. Either way, the partisan split in federal campaign donations by Nike’s PAC has been fairly close to 50/50 during the 2018 election cycle. Conclusion It’s true that during the 2018 federal election cycle, donors who listed Nike as their employer did contribute vastly more to Republican candidates than to Democrats. However, that does not mean that Nike, as a company, made these contributions. Furthermore, these figures are significantly skewed by the inclusion of donations made by the company’s co-founder Phil Knight, who is no longer an employee of Nike. Finally, Nike’s political action committee, as opposed to the company’s individual employees, spent roughly the same on Democratic and Republican candidates, up to August 2018. Claim: Nike donated three times more to Republicans than Democrats during the 2018 federal election cycle, up to August 2018.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “The Gallery” is similar to more than 100 other lawful state-licensed marijuana retail shops and hundreds of medical dispensaries in Washington state, with one exception: It is operating in defiance of local law. Its opening on Sunday set up a potential showdown with authorities in Pierce County, about an hour outside Seattle, which has effectively banned recreational pot shops in unincorporated areas so long as the drug remains illegal under federal law, even as medical pot businesses flourish virtually unregulated. “We didn’t do this to pick a fight with the county,” said co-owner Tedd Wetherbee, 47, in between chatting up customers in his shop in Parkland, in unincorporated Pierce County. “But at the same time we are state-licensed legitimate businessmen that want to do what the county seems to let other people do without any license.”  Since Washington state legalized recreational marijuana in a landmark 2012 vote that ushered in licensed retail pot shops in July, scores of municipalities have passed laws curbing their operations, from constricted zoning to outright bans. That has frustrated would-be pot entrepreneurs, such as Wetherbee, who are keen to capitalize on what they call a glut of recreational-use marijuana products with few stores licensed to sell it. Fifty-four percent of Pierce County voters backed marijuana legalization. “This act of theater will either embolden a bunch of other people to do it, or it will create really great PR for him,” said Dominic Corva, executive director at the Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy. Wetherbee has argued in lawsuits that local pot-business bans that scuttled his retail plans in two other towns violate state law, and says it makes little sense to ban tightly regulated retail establishments while allowing medicinal shops to operate unchecked. State lawmakers are weighing proposals to license medical-use stores to, among other things, ensure their products are safe, a move entrepreneurs say would help level the regulatory playing field. Amid that uncertain landscape, Pierce County authorities say they have visited The Gallery for several inspections and advised Wetherbee he lacked proper permitting. Pierce County, which had objected to Wetherbee’s application for a state retail pot license but failed to block it, could issue noncompliance and cease-and-desist orders as early as Thursday that could cost up to $1,000 in daily fines if ignored. Washington state’s top lawyer has said the recreational marijuana law does not prevent local governments from banning pot businesses. But state regulators who grant the licenses do not consider local laws in their review process. “We have issued other state licenses in places where there are bans and moratoriums, though he is the only retailer that I have heard of, but there may be others,” said Liquor Control Board spokesman Brian Smith. There was no sign of controversy on Tuesday in Wetherbee’s shop, where pot products are displayed beside sculptures and abstract art. Its nondescript entrance contrasts sharply with the bold signage of a gun shop next door. A cut-out of former President Bill Clinton invites shoppers to “please feel free to inhale.” A security guard checks that patrons are at least 21 years old. Sealed bags of cannabis strains sell for about $14 to $24 per gram. Among the patrons was a construction worker who uses marijuana to “kick back” and a 29-year-old former U.S. Army medic battling insomnia and anxiety since returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. “I was going to a store down in the city (Tacoma), but this is a lot closer to my house,” said the former soldier, who gave his name only as Josh. “I like the environment a lot better too, the gallery feel.” Claim: Washington state cannabis retailer opens in defiance of county ban.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story mentions that some patients have flown to Europe and spent their life savings on the procedure, and an expert calls the procedure “costly to patients.” So we can probably assume that the procedure is unlikely to be covered by major insurers or Medicare (who would cover those with chronic disability), and that the costs will run into the tens of thousands of dollars or more. This is important information for the typical patient who isn’t wealthy enough to carry this kind of cost burden. The story could have been more explicit about all of this and provided more specifics about the financial aspects of the procedure. However, we think the main point to convey here is that the surgery is expensive and patients will have to pay their own way. The story does this — though barely — so we’ll award a satisfactory. We should start here by recognizing this story’s unusual choice of patient to profile in the opening paragraphs. The convention with a “miracle” treatment like this is to lead with a patient who experienced a dramatic benefit which is often unrepresentative of typical results. In this case, though, the story primes us to expect something miraculous and then delivers the mundane truth: “it didn’t work.” We wish more stories focused on patients who represent the complicated reality of health care instead of pumping up best case scenarios. With that being said, we feel the story should have done more to describe the range of outcomes that have been reported with this procedure as well as the need for better studies. For example, it didn’t take our reviewers long to identify preliminary case series data  that could have been cited. Though uncontrolled studies like this one are prone to bias that can lead to inflated estimates of benefits, we think these published results — if carefully and responsibly explained — could have helped readers better understand the excitement surrounding the treatment. Alternately, the story could have sought out the perspective of doctors who have performed the procedure to get their take. As it stands, the coverage is dominated by the perspectives of a single unsuccessfully treated patient and a skeptical researcher, so it’s difficult for readers to grasp why there has been such a heated public debate about the surgery. The story mentions life-threatening blood clots are a risk of the procedure, and notes that people have died from the surgery. It also quotes an expert who calls the procedure “unsafe.” It would have been nice to have some statistics on adverse effects to help readers weigh these risks for themselves, but it may be too early in the game to expect this kind of systematic data. At this point in the development of an experimental treatment, the priority for a story like this is to make sure potential harms are given adequate emphasis — something this story accomplished handily. This story cites conflicting studies about whether vein blockages play any role in MS, and it allows one researcher to confidently proclaim that these problems are “not the cause of MS.” However, the story never discusses any actual data or tells us how this researcher arrived at his conclusions. The story does note that differences in technical training between investigative groups may explain the discrepancies observed in different studies, but what about the other criteria upon which scientific evidence is supposed to be judged — i.e. the type of study (observational or intervention), number of patients, blinding, use of control groups, size of the effects observed, etc.? These factors should have been addressed more explicitly to establish the basis for competing points of view. A second and arguably more important question is whether treating vein blockages actually improves symptoms in patients with MS. Again, the story sets a skeptical tone but doesn’t justify it with a discussion of evidence (or lack of evidence). Although there was no overt disease-mongering, the story focuses exclusively on the story of a patient who had an aggressive case of the disease. MS can manifest itself in a variety of different ways, and his experience is not representative of patients with mild and slowly progressing MS.  Also, not everyone with MS has the vascular abnormalities discussed in this story, and so would presumably not benefit from this procedure. Finally, the story should have explained that MS is a condition characterized by flare-ups that often get better by themselves, so it’s hard to tell if “miraculous” recoveries are attributable to the surgery or are just the natural course of the disease for these patients. A bit more context on these issues would have been helpful, but we don’t think the story deserved to be flagged for not including it. The story quotes two experts who are involved in studies of vein abnormalities and potential links to MS, and their perspectives are a valuable addition to the story. However, both of these researchers (Dr. Robert Fox and Dr. Robert Zivadinov) have reported relationships with companies that make drugs to treat MS. To avoid the appearance of any conflict, the story should have alerted readers to these relationships. The study focuses exclusively on this novel surgical procedure. It should have at least mentioned that there are FDA-approved drug treatments for MS. The article implies that there aren’t yet a lot of doctors performing this procedure, but it isn’t clear. Early in the story we learn of a patient who recently had the procedure performed in New York, but later on the story says that Canadians and Americans are going to Europe to have the surgery. Are there not enough doctors in North America who are trained to perform this procedure? Or are there regulatory, legal, or financial issues that are preventing patients in North America from getting it done here? The story should have told us. The story tells us that the idea behind the procedure was first proposed in 2008, making the concept quite novel. It noted that despite the catchy name, the “liberation procedure” is actually very similar to balloon angioplasty performed regularly on coronary arteries. The story is clearly not based on a news release. Claim: Doctor Challenges Cause Of MS And Treatment",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In March 2019, our inbox started to fill with queries from readers who had heard that U. S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was an “actress” who was playing the role of congresswoman in order to further the agenda of a political group. These questions were based on a popular video entitled “The Brains Behind AOC Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” by YouTube user “Mr. Reagan.” The video, which can be viewed at the end of this article, hits on a number of issues in its 23 minutes, but the essential argument is that Ocasio-Cortez was “cast” by the group Justice Democrats into the “role” of congresswoman, and that she is merely a figurehead (or “puppet congresswoman”) pushing the group’s agenda. Here’s the opening statement from Mr. Reagan: Mr. Reagan: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is not really the congresswoman of new york’s 14th congressional district. She is essentially an actress. She’s merely playing the part of a New York Congresswoman. I know this sounds crazy. But bare with me. In 2017, a group called the Justice Democrats held auditions for potential congressional candidates that would run on their platform for various congressional seats throughout the country. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ brother Gabriel submitted her for the role. Now I’ve auditioned for many acting roles in my day. I’ve also cast many of my own projects. I know how this works. If you find somebody with star power, even if they don’t 100% fit the part, you go with it. Obviously AOC has star power. Just look at her. She’s a superstar. The most famous person in congress, maybe ever. Their casting was perfect. Now I didn’t have to go digging for evidence for this, because they freely admit it. They brag about it. Cut to Alexandra Rojas. Executive Director Justice Democrats, saying: Back in 2016, we put out a call for nominations. We got over 10,000 nominations, out of those 10,000 nominations we found Alexandria. Cut to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying: My brother told me that he had sent my nominations in the summer but I was like literally working out of a restaurant and I was like there’s no way. Back to Mr. Reagan: A casting call. They had a casting call. They cast Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in the role of congresswoman. And they did this so they could promote their own agenda. Mr. Reagan repeatedly used words such as “role,” “audition,” “casting call” and labeled Ocasio-Cortez “essentially an actress” in this video in an apparent attempt to paint the congresswoman with the same conspiratorial brush used to promote “crisis actor” and “paid protester” conspiracy theories. Ironically, the only actor in this scenario is Chris Kohls, who plays the character of Mr. Reagan. Kohls told us in an email that “the use of the word ‘actress’ was illustrative.” He continued: “I did not mean to suggest that this was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s actual profession or an official role. I thought this was clear.” While Kohls admits that the congresswoman was not an actress in the literal sense, he said that he still believes she “audition(ed) for the role of congress woman as a response to an open casting call by Justice Democrats.” Kohls elaborated on this point via email:  AOC did, however, audition for the role of congress woman as a response to an open casting call by Justice Democrats. I have never heard of an organization holding auditions, open to the public, for congressional seats. Perhaps I am naive about that. I have never heard of this, and the response to my video suggests that most Americans find it inappropriate as well. The “Brains Behind AOC” video correctly states that Ocasio-Cortez was recruited by the Justice Democrats to run for office. However, this fact is presented in the video as if it were an unprecedented act of political malfeasance. In reality, it is quite common for Political Action Committees (PACs) to recruit candidates for office. The Justice Democrats made no attempt to hide this effort and openly discuss their recruitment process on their website and in videos published to their public YouTube page: PACs, which have been around since the 1940s, are organizations that raise money to help run campaigns for or against political candidates. While these groups may throw their support behind existing candidates who they believe will further their cause, they also recruit like-minded candidates and help them get elected to office. We conducted a brief search for other PACs that publish recruitment material and found numerous of organizations that actively seek candidates for political positions, such as  Brand New Congress, Run for Something, Emily’s List, BRAT-PAC, The National Federation for Republican Women, Winning for Women, American Possibilities, Elevate-Pac, The Collective Pac, and Principled Pac. In the case of the Justice Democrats, their main platform ideas are Medicare for All, protecting the environment, and racial justice. Mr. Reagan would have viewers believe that Ocasio-Cortez had no interest in politics before she was “cast” by the Justice Democrats, and that she was only taking up these causes because she was a “puppet congresswoman.” But that isn’t the case. Before Ocasio-Cortez ran for office, she volunteered for Bernie Sanders‘ 2016 campaign (a candidate who supports the same issues as the Justice Democrats). She was also involved in the Standing Rock protests and talked about issues such as civil rights, social change, and income equality before receiving support from the Justice Democrats. The fact that she shares these beliefs is not proof that Justice Democrats are “controlling” her. It’s merely evidence that AOC and the Justice Democrats were a good fit. While Mr. Reagan argues in “The Brains Behind AOC” that Ocasio-Cortez is a “puppet congresswoman” controlled by the Justice Democrats, Kohls told us, again, that this was pure speculation: My assertion is that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is presenting ideas to congress and to the public as of they are her own, but that they are not her own. They are the idea of the Justice Democrats and that this group, in particular Saikat Chakrabarti, are drafting everything for her. When I say “everything” I mean her official proposals to congress, her answers to questions by the media, her tweets and her unofficial propositions to the public. I also believe that she is directed on how to vote, but this is pure speculation. Mr. Reagan argues in “Brains Behind AOC” that Ocasio-Cortez “does not make her own policy decisions… decides which way she votes on legislation” but that “she defers completely to her team.” In addition to admitting in his email that these claims are based purely on speculation, this argument also appears to be based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how politicians operate. While the public may be more familiar with the names and faces of senators and representatives, lawmakers have teams of people behind them that help guide them through interviews, debates, public messaging, and other political responsibilities. In short, it is not uncommon for a lawmaker to prepare for an interview or speech with the help of her staff. Saikat Chakrabarti, the congresswoman’s chief of staff, pushed back on the “Brains Behind AOC” video and said that Ocasio-Cortez does more than most lawmakers when it comes to her own messaging: The right-wing actually cannot believe that a working class latina like @AOC is smart, talented, and capable. They are creating entire conspiracy theories to try to disprove her intelligence. So here’s some @AOC facts to show y’all just how good she is. 1) @AOC runs her own Twitter/IG. This is VERY rare in Congress. Most politicians have staff come up with what to say/figure out how to frame things. But @AOC’s knowledge of issues is so deep that she does the communicating/framing herself. 2) @AOC writes all her own speeches. Though, TBH, most of her 🔥 speeches are off the dome. Just watch Coates interview her. She can talk in depth on policy issues for hours (unlike most politicians) because she REALLY knows what she’s talking about. 3) Unlike most MoCs [members of Congress], @AOC sits through full committee hearings and will often improvise on questions based on what she’s observing. Nobody prepped her to “play a game” in the HR1 hearing, and her entire staff watched it live with jaws dropped. 4) @AOC is one of the smartest & hardest working people I’ve ever known. Right wingers not comprehending this is peak racism/sexism — and also fear. If @AOC can do this, what’s to stop other talented working-class women of color from vying for power? Must keep ’em up at night. For those unfamiliar with political action committees or political advisers, “The Brains Behind AOC” may appear to be a well-produced video featuring a convincing narrative of how a political group “cast” a “star” into the role of congresswoman in order to further their agenda. However, the arguments made in this video are pure speculation and seem to largely be based on a misunderstanding of how PACs operate. It’s actually rather common for PACs, such as Justice Democrats, to seek out candidates, such as Ocasio-Cortez, who share their core beliefs, and even more commonplace for politicians to seek out the advice of their staff. You can watch the “Brains Behind AOC” video in full below: Claim: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an actress playing a congresswoman to push the agenda of Justice Democrats. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As Italy grappled with the spread of COVID-19,  American Facebook users took that as their opportunity to insult a national health service. “Italy has decided NOT to treat their elderly for this virus !!!! That, my friends, is Socialized Healthcare!!! !”one such user wrote on March 14 2020:The post produced the usual amount of “funny” responses:But in reality, the post is a distortion of the effect of the disease on Italy, which reported 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths as of March 15, 2020, a 25 percent increase in fatalities over the day before. According to Reuters, a quarter of the country’s population is age 65 and older, the highest percentage in Europe.The post was an apparent response to guidelines issued by the Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) predicting an increase in patients requiring intensive care “of such magnitude as to cause an enormous imbalance between the real clinical needs of the population and the actual availability of intensive resources.”The group also acknowledges that the pandemic presents extraordinary circumstances forcing providers closer to practicing “catastrophe medicine,” where the regular criteria of first-come first-served for patients may not apply and therefore, providers should try to prioritize patients with the “greatest life expectancy.” According to SIAARTI:It may be necessary to place an age limit on entry into intensive care. It is not a question of making choices merely of value, but to reserve resources that could be very scarce to those who are primarily more likely to survival and secondarily to those who can have more years of life saved, with a view to maximizing of benefits for most people.But what Hand’s post also failed to consider was that similar choices were also being discussed in capitalist countries, such as the United States, where — as the Washington Post reported — 3,244 infections and 62 deaths had been confirmed as of March 15 2020.According to the newspaper, pandemic strategy plans in several states, many of them written in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak of 2002 and Hurricane Katrina a year later, address the question of rationing care:Hospital officials and doctors interviewed in several states emphasized that rationing is a last resort, and they have begun to experiment with other ways to increase capacity.Initially, they said, patients probably would be transferred from more crowded, urban facilities such as Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia, which routinely operate at 80 to 90 percent capacity, to community or rural hospitals that may have more intensive care beds.If the number of victims surges beyond that capacity, they say, they may try novel approaches such as having two patients on one ventilator. Tubing for ventilators, which is usually thrown out, could be sanitized and reused. Other types of hospital equipment, such as those used for sleep apnea, could be repurposed as makeshift ventilators. Only if those strategies fail and the sick continue to exceed capacity would rationing protocols be put into place.However, approaches vary by state and even by hospital.“Most plans include a list of serious conditions that would exclude someone from getting a ventilator if rationing were in effect, and many conditions are more common in the elderly, such as severe cardiac issues, kidney failure and metastatic cancer,” the report said.Despite this, the misleading post and countless others just like it were shared thousands of times on Facebook as of March 16 2020. Claim: Italy will stop caring for elderly patients who are infected with novel coronavirus strain COVID-19.",
            "output": "1"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The U.S. House passed a measure to help mitigate the economic toll of the coronavirus by providing financial assistance to people affected by the pandemic. The legislation passed overwhelmingly (363-40 on March 14) and provides billions of dollars so Americans can get free tests and, in some cases, receive two weeks of paid leave. As debate about the bill began, we noticed claims going around that said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got \"caught\" trying to sneak abortion funding into the package. This is . There’s no evidence that Pelosi was sneaking any funding toward abortion services in the bill. Knowing the facts has never been more important. Please consider donating to PolitiFact today. A March 12 story by anti-abortion website \"Life News\" makes the claim. Its headline says: \"Speaker Nancy Pelosi Caught Trying to Include Abortion Funding in Bill to Combat Coronavirus.\" We saw many other examples of the same basic headline. The story was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It cites a report by the Daily Caller, which also makes the claim and cites multiple unnamed \"senior White House officials.\" It says: \"Speaking to the Daily Caller, those officials alleged that while negotiating the stimulus with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Pelosi tried to lobby for ‘several’ provisions that stalled bipartisan commitment to the effort. One was a mandate for up to $1 billion to reimburse laboratory claims, which White House officials say would set a precedent of health spending without protections outlined in the Hyde Amendment.\" When we reached out to Pelosi’s staff, they declined comment. The Hyde Amendment, which was enacted in 1997, is a budgetary rider that prohibits the federal government from covering the costs of abortions except in very rare cases. The issue was that the bill’s original draft didn’t explicitly include Hyde Amendment language that would make sure that reimbursement of laboratory claims couldn’t apply to abortion services. The concern raised in the Daily Caller story was that the lack of language would create a loophole that abortion service providers could try to use in the future to get reimbursed with federal funds. That’s certainly more hypothetical than the matter-of-fact headline, \"Speaker Nancy Pelosi Caught Trying to Include Abortion Funding in Bill to Combat Coronavirus.\" House Democrats submitted a \"manager’s amendment\" on March 12 that says reimbursement funds could only be used for COVID-19 related costs. \"Claims reimbursed under this section would be limited to those for uninsured individuals not eligible for other COVID-19 testing and services assistance included in the bill,\" a summary of the amendment says. A website claims Pelosi was \"caught trying to include abortion funding\" in the bill. This is inaccurate. A section in the bill seeks to reimburse insurers for COVID-19 related laboratory claims. Concerns were raised that the bill’s language could inadvertently open up federal funds for abortion services, but it’s unclear exactly how. No draft of the legislation had funding for abortion in it. Claim: Blogger Says Nancy Pelosi was “caught trying to include abortion funding in bill to combat coronavirus.”",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Recent radio and TV ads claim California’s K-12 public schools face dire cuts if voters fail to approve Proposition 55, a measure on November’s ballot that would extend an income tax hike on wealthy residents. The ads by the Yes on 55 campaign paint a dark picture. They cite past spending cuts that led to thousands of teacher layoffs, eliminated art and music programs and increased class sizes a few years ago. California, the ads claim, doesn’t have to repeat history. \"Prop 55 prevents $4 billion in new cuts to our schools simply by maintaining the current tax rates on the wealthiest Californians,\" says the Yes campaign’s \"Can’t Go Back\" TV ad. The claim about \"$4 billion in new cuts to our schools\" is made at the 0:17 minute mark in this video. We wondered whether the choice is that stark: Does California really face $4 billion in new school cuts if Prop 55 fails? Our research Before diving in, here’s some background on the temporary tax increase Prop 55 asks voters to extend. In 2012, California voters approved Prop 30, which was promoted as a temporary solution. That measure raised income tax rates on high-income residents and sales tax rates through 2018 to pay for schools. Supporters at the time described it as a way to stave off additional deep education cuts from the state’s financial crisis and Great Recession. Prop 55 asks voters to continue that higher income tax rate for 12 additional years, through 2030, but not the sales tax increase. It would apply to earnings more than $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for couples. If the measure fails, the higher income tax rate would phase out in 2018. Less money for schools? There’s no doubt the failure of Prop 55 would result in less money for public schools. The California Legislative Analyst’s Office projects Prop 55 would raise between $2 billion and $4.5 billion annually for K-12 schools and community colleges, depending on the economy. But even if Prop 55 fails, school funding would continue to increase through 2019-2020, according to Department of Finance figures. That’s in part because revenue from Prop 30 continues through the 2018-2019 fiscal year. It doesn’t run out right away. By 2019-2020, however, school costs would outpace total revenue by $4 billion, based on the end of Prop 30 and expected inflation, according to the state Department of Finance and an interview with Ana Matosantos, the department’s former director. Matosantos supports Prop 55 and spoke in favor of it at a recent public forum. \"Costs will rise faster than funding,\" Matosantos said in the interview. \"The big issue is inflation.\" Competing outlooks There could be even greater pressure on school funding under one financial outlook, Matosantos said. That's because the state projects a separate $4 billion operating shortfall for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. That deficit is cited in the state Department of Finance’s multi-year budget outlook, and would account for the rising costs of everything from prisons to debt payments to health care, she said. Source: California Department of Finance, General Fund Multi-Year Forecast, June 2016 There’s no specific law that would require the state to cut school spending to close these shortfalls. It could take money from other services. But more than likely, Matosantos said, schools would experience cuts. Not everyone sees a bleak financial forecast. The Legislative Analyst’s Office expects California will have a nearly $2 billion operating surplus in 2019-2020, the same year the state Department of Finance forecasts a $4 billion operating shortfall. Source: Legislative Analyst’s Office, Multiyear State Budget Outlook, May 2016 The Yes on 55 campaign \"is using the figures that are convenient to them,\" said David Wolfe, legislative director for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Wolfe spoke against Prop 55 at a recent forum. Steve Boilard, a Sacramento State University political analyst, expressed skepticism earlier this year over some Yes on 55 statements, including the campaign’s earlier claim in May that the measure’s failure could lead to $5 billion in cuts to schools. \"Looking at the numbers, I can see how they come up with dollar amounts that they do,\" Boilard, who spent years crunching budget numbers for the state’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, said in a Capital Public Radio article, at the time. \"But I think it’s framed in a way that seems much more dire than it should otherwise be interpreted.\" A Sacramento Bee fact check recently rated the Yes on 55 claim as \"iffy.\" It found \"the ad’s warning of $4 billion in cuts if the measure does not pass relies on an optimistic assumption of how much money the tax will raise, as well as an overly simplistic characterization of school funding estimates. Our ruling The Yes on 55 campaign claimed in recent ads that \"Prop 55 prevents $4 billion in new cuts to our schools.\" There would certainly be less money for schools if the tax extension fails. But the advertisements say nothing about the fact that Prop 30 was a temporary measure, and that its revenue was not promised forever. Nor do they mention that school budgets will continue to go up for several years until the Prop 30 revenue runs out after 2018. Supporters of 55 point to an estimated $4 billion school funding deficit by the 2019-2020 fiscal year, if the measure fails. They also cite a separate $4 billion operating shortfall for all its services by the same year. Another respected financial outlook, however, projects a $2 billion operating surplus for California that same year. That estimate paints a very different picture. If the ads had said Prop 55’s failure could lead to eventual school funding hardships, years from now, they would have been more accurate. But they leave the impression that the measure’s failure will lead to deep school cuts much sooner. And that’s not the case. We rate the Yes on 55 claim . – The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Claim: California’s Prop 55 \"prevents $4 billion in new cuts to our schools.",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On November 4 2019, former United States Labor Secretary Robert Reich tweeted that Jeff Bezos was building a mansion in Washington, DC — while at the same time, part-time Whole Foods workers lost their health benefits:Jeff Bezos' D.C. mansion will have:— 2 elevators— 25 bathrooms— 1,006 light fixtures— A full movie theaterAmazon's Whole Foods cut health benefits for part-time workers less than 2 months ago.Tax the rich.— Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 4, 2019The tweet made a popular appearance on Reddit’s r/worldpolitics, in a thread titled “Tax The Rich! !”:Tax The Rich!! from worldpoliticsAccording to Reich’s tweet, Bezos’ mansion in Washington, DC would feature 25 bathrooms, two separate elevators, a movie theater, and more than a thousand light fixtures (1,006, to be precise.) Reich added that “Amazon’s Whole Foods” had also recently discontinued health benefits for part-time workers.Reich describes Whole Foods as “Amazon’s.”  In June 2017, Amazon acquired the Whole Foods chain of supermarkets for $13.7 billion. Amazon, of which Bezos is founder and CEO, became the parent company of Whole Foods in August 2017.An August 24 2017 statement issued by Amazon about the acquisition only mentions “employees” in a subsection at the bottom . In that mention, Amazon noted the possibility of difficulty “maintaining relationships with employees, customers, and suppliers”:Cautionary Statement Regarding Amazon Forward-Looking StatementsThis [press release] contains forward-looking statements. We use words such as anticipates, believes, expects, future, intends, and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected or forecast in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include the following: factors that could affect the timing of the consummation of Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market; Amazon may be unable to achieve the anticipated benefits of the transaction; revenues following the transaction may be lower than expected; operating costs, customer loss, and business disruption (including, without limitation, difficulties in maintaining relationships with employees, customers, and suppliers) may be greater than expected; Amazon may assume unexpected risks and liabilities; initiatives with Whole Foods Market may distract Amazon’s management from other operations; and the other factors discussed in “Risk Factors” in Amazon’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 and in Amazon’s other filings with the SEC, which are available at http://www.sec.gov. Amazon assumes no obligation to update the information in this communication, except as otherwise required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.Prior to Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2017, the chain reported declining revenues and planned store closings. As of January 2019, Amazon was reported to be looking at former Sears and KMart stores as possible new Whole Foods locations.On September 12 2019, Amazon confirmed that it was rescinding healthcare benefits for its part-time employees as of January 1 2020, in order to “better meet the needs of our business and create a more equitable and efficient scheduling model.” That translates to part-time employees needing to work ten more hours a week than before in order to qualify for its healthcare plan:Amazon-owned Whole Foods will be withdrawing medical benefits for hundreds of its part-time workers starting Jan. 1, 2020, the company said Thursday.In the past, employees needed to work at least 20 hours a week to buy into the health-care plan. Now they will need to work at least 30 hours. Less than 2% of its workforce, or 1,900 employees, will no longer be eligible for medical coverage, under the new policy, the company said. […]“In order to better meet the needs of our business and create a more equitable and efficient scheduling model, we are moving to a single-tier part-time structure,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “We are providing Team Members with resources to find alternative healthcare coverage options, or to explore full-time, healthcare-eligible positions starting at 30 hours per week. All Whole Foods Market Team Members continue to receive employment benefits including a 20% in-store discount.”In addition to information to help affected employees “explore full-time” open positions, a spokesperson said the company would provide them “with resources to find alternative healthcare coverage options,” presumably government subsidized health insurance through a public exchange.Although healthcare benefits were withdrawn, the company added:All Whole Foods Market Team Members continue to receive employment benefits including a 20% in-store discount.At the time the news was reported, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International President Marc Perrone said Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods involved efforts to “devalue and degrade grocery jobs” at the chain. Perrone lamented the need for workers to take more than one job in order to provide for their families:Amazon’s plan to cut health care for these part-time employees is one of Jeff Bezos’ most brazen attacks on the quality of jobs at Whole Foods and the communities they support. Too many workers today are already working two to three jobs just to get the hours and benefits they need, and these cuts by Jeff Bezos just made it harder for them … Grocery jobs should be good jobs, and one job should be enough to provide for yourself and your family.It is true that as founder and chief executive officer of Amazon, Bezos’ company acquired Whole Foods as a subsidiary. It is further true that Whole Foods confirmed that it would stop offering healthcare benefits to some part-time workers as of January 1 2020.As for Bezos’ Washington, DC mansion and its “2 elevators, 25 bathrooms, 1,006 light fixtures ” and a “full movie theater,” Washingtonian reported in an April 2019 item titled “Here Are the Floor Plans for Jeff Bezos’ $23 Million DC Home”:Jeff Bezos has been quietly jetting into Washington over the past few years, becoming quite the hobnobber around town … Soon, Washingtonians may see even more of him. In 2016, the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner paid $23 million in cash for the former Textile Museum in Kalorama (yes, his neighbors are the Obamas and Kushner-Trumps). At 27,000 square feet, the mansion was already the biggest home in Washington before he began a $12 million renovation and expansion last year … Overseen by the Barnes Vanze architecture firm, the reno project covers 191 doors (many either custom mahogany or bronze), 25 bathrooms, 11 bedrooms, five living rooms/lounges, five staircases, three kitchens, two libraries/studies, two workout rooms, two elevators—and a huge ballroom.Washingtonian included details that likely didn’t fit into a single tweet:According to the documents, the Pope’s four stories will serve primarily as the family’s residence, with all the essentials for a tech-titan billionaire. The lower level (pictured below) has the main living quarters. Note the big whiskey cellar with plentiful drying racks (upper left) and the walk-in wine room (center). There’s also a large lounge complete with a bar, a family kitchen, and an elevator.On the same day as Reich’s tweet, Washingtonian published an update to their coverage, in which the movie theater is mentioned:… updated plans included “substantial” work on the foundations of both buildings [of the mansion], including underpinning the walls and resetting the basement slab for the entire Pope House—a likely necessity, [consulting expert Bill] Mulholland surmised, if one is to transform a century-old cellar to accommodate such minor tweaks as an entertainment kitchen, full-scale lounge and whiskey and wine cellars. (The Wood’s slab was reset in the northwest corner, directly below a “Media Room” that calls for tiered seating, implying a movie theater. )As noted, architectural plans for Bezos’ DC mansion were obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, not disclosed by Bezos or his representatives:So when is move-in day? Bezos isn’t saying. (A spokesperson for Amazon declined to comment, as well as architect Ankie Barnes, who cited a “wish to respect our clients’ privacy”) By all accounts, though, he is anxious to make landfall. One person described how they understood the timeline for installations over the summer. “Jeff wanted that done immediately—I mean immediately. Like, ‘Fast, fast fast!’” they said.In June 2019, Business Insider reported that Bezos was expected to close a deal which included three adjacent Manhattan properties, at an estimated cost of $80 million. A February 2018 article from a separate outlet noted Bezos also owned homes in Washington State, Texas, and California (with two apparent residences in Beverly Hills. )In sum, Reich’s tweet held:In August 2017 Bezos’ Amazon.com acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, and as of January 2019 sought to expand the chain to new locations. In April 2019, Washingtonian acquired blueprints and planning information for Bezos’ mansion in Washington DC. In early September 2019, a spokesperson for Amazon/Whole Foods acknowledge the company was ceasing to provide healthcare benefits to part-time employees of Whole Foods. And on November 4 2019, Washingtonian revisited the coverage of Bezos’ mansion and its construction to note that in addition to the 25 bathrooms and two elevators, plans indicated a likely movie theater with tiered seating. Reich packed a tremendous amount of detail into a short tweet, all of it essentially accurate. Claim: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was building another mansion with elevators and 25 bathrooms at the same time part-time Whole Foods employees lost health benefits.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed in the United States, dueling opinions were politicized and bluntly split between opinions based on hard science versus economics. This ended up leading to the recirculation of a purported tweet from Elon Musk about any of his putative future opinions “against science”:Well well well, how the turn tables from agedlikemilkThe ScreenshotA post submitted to r/agedlikemilk (a subreddit about statements that have quickly soured), a user shared a Twitter screenshot of Musk sharing the following quote:“If one day, my words are against science, choose science.” Mustafa Kemal AtatürkAt the top of the screenshot, a more recent tweet of Musk’s appeared, tweeted on the same day the above post was submitted to Reddit:FREE AMERICA NOW— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020COVID-19: Science versus “the Economy”Beginning around March 20 2020, the increasing spread of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 led to a patchwork of orders across states — typically described as “stay at home,” “shelter in place,” “quarantine,” or “lockdown” measures.The measures themselves emerged against the backdrop of early controversy over whether such measures would “wreck the economy” as well as initial assertions that handling of the burgeoning pandemic ought not be economically “worse” than preventing infections and excess death:WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020The above tweet incidentally appeared less than 48 hours after “lockdown” measures began.Moreover, medical science — specifically, epidemiology — was the impetus for global stay-at-home directives in a March 16 2020 report from Imperial College London. Researchers in that effort ran several projections to determine which the least damaging course of action would be moving forward during the COVID-19 pandemic:Imperial College London’s COVID-19 Report, ExplainedOn our page linked above, we described the overall conclusions of that research — namely a predicted unbearable outcome even if a “mitigation” strategy was adopted in the United States.Researchers predicted more than a million deaths in the United States alone even under the “mitigation” model with many public health restrictions, and they also emphasized that they believed the stricter “suppression” model was the only viable approach. Projections were based in part on the long duration between the start of the coronavirus pandemic and the development of a vaccine, which would take at least eighteen months.By April 15 2020, “anti-lockdown protests” began non-spontaneously occurring across the United States:Viral ‘Ohio State House COVID-19 Protest’ ImageAnti-lockdown protesters displayed behavior and signs that were not only anti-science, but anti-Semitic and arguably unethical as well:‘The Real Plague’ Anti-Semitic Sign Spotted at Ohio Anti-Lockdown COVID-19 Pandemic ProtestCOVID-19 ‘Sacrifice the Weak’ Reopen Tennessee Protest SignAlso, anti-grammar:Misspelled ‘We the Peaple, Re-Open Pennslvania’ SignA primary unifying motive for the protests was fiscal in nature, with protesters arguing to “re-open” the economy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.COVID-19 DenialismPredictably, people favoring the purported health of the economy over safety measures espoused a number of scientifically-unsupported or inaccurate ideas about COVID-19 safety measures to further their position, such as erroneous claims that quarantine was not appropriate for asymptomatic or apparently healthy people:‘Quarantine is When You Restrict the Movement of SICK People’ Facebook MemeAny purportedly credible position in favor of ending the measures would quickly go viral, such as the unsupported claims of two California doctors:Medical Community Refutes Bakersfield Doctors’ Attempts to Minimize COVID-19Another untrue but popular circulating claim held no scientific proof existed that social distancing worked:Is There ‘No Scientific Proof’ That Social Distancing Prevents the Spread of Coronavirus?Science Weighs InIn the ever-changing discourse, parallels drawn between “COVID deniers” and climate change denial were common:Many of these [extant anti-science] groups, including Koch network-funded entities such as Americans for Prosperity and State Policy Network members have also attacked stay-at-home orders and orchestrated ‘Liberate’ movement protests nationwide … notorious climate deniers around the world are even claiming that the novel coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, or that it’s an evil plot by “globalist elites” like Bill Gates and George Soros to alternately force vaccines or a “world population cull.”On April 24 2020, the Cornell Alliance for Science explained how existing astroturfed networks were rapidly and effectively mobilized against COVID-19 suppression. That source also explained that the measures — while vocal and visible — stood in stark contrast to what medical science had to say about early conclusion of social distancing:With a new poll affirming that 72 percent of Americans still strongly support stay-at-home measures, the “open it up” rallies and traffic gridlock actions represent a distinct minority view. But they’ve gained outsized influence due to funding, legal assistance and organizational efforts provided by conservative interests, including gun advocates, and more are planned for the coming week.The protestors have typically demanded that states reopen businesses and lift their restrictions on social distancing, though experts warn that rapid re-openings could have fatal consequences.“The math is unfortunately pretty simple. It’s not a matter of whether infections will increase but by how much,” Jeffrey Shaman, a leading epidemiologist at Columbia University, told The Washington Post. […]The groups have relied heavily on social media to promote their cause and mobilize participants, prompting Facebook to declare it would remove posts by any groups advocating illegal behavior. Protestors, some of whom have shown up for the rallies heavily armed, have frequently flouted state rules around social distancing and wearing masks.With most Americans expressing reluctance to quickly reopen their states, it’s unclear whether the rallies will ever reach a critical mass. But some, like sociologist Robert J. Brulle, fear the rallies, both orchestrated and organic, will have more unsettling impacts … if that [anti-science] sentiment takes hold, it could make it difficult to advance vaccination campaigns and climate mitigation efforts, as well as to address the COVID-19 pandemic.On April 30 2020, Alliance for Science reported that the World Health Organization was warning of a “misinformation ‘infodemic,’ [via] anti-science groups around the world [who] are doubling down on a dizzying array of competing conspiracy theories about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and quoted a then-recent article in the journal Nature about the effects of statements and movements undermining science and the importance of amplifying credible sources:“In a world where anti-vaccination advocates and climate-change denialists persist, talking sense might seem hopeless, especially when social-media algorithms and deliberate bad actors amplify pseudoscience messages,” University of Alberta health law and policy researcher Timothy Caulfield wrote in Nature. “There is no easy answer to solving this, but science-informed messages are not easily found. We need more researchers making an effort.”On April 27 2020, Wired explained why the purposeful coordination of resources to force through a minority view and provide the appearance of broader popularity seemed so familiar. The “novel” element of the novel coronavirus created a massive vulnerability as science raced to mitigate the human toll, and special interests weaponized a portion of a panicked populace:The uncertainty around Covid-19 pretty much actively encourages conspiracy-minded thinking. According to Pew Research Center, three in 10 Americans believe Covid-19 was cooked up in a lab. Most people who believe in one conspiracy theory believe in several, so, on the right, they have coalesced around a kind of anti-science, anti-government, pro-gun, pro-nationalism worldview that sees itself as perennially under threat.“It’s the same kind of dynamic that applies to things like climate change. It’s the same ideological playbook,” says Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. “That’s why they’re happening so quickly.” The protests, the demonstrators, the supportive Fox News commentators, it was all a prebaked sure bet. [Mark Naison, a professor of history at Fordham University who has studied social protest movements] calls them “a poor man’s Trump rally” and opines that the president’s all-caps support of them on Twitter may be as simple as him missing that positive attention, especially in an election year.It is vitally important not to be falsely equivalent here: Most Americans will never shrug off social-distancing guidelines and take to the streets. The protests are unpopular, even among (non-MAGA-hatted) conservatives … [A rash of COVID-19 protests] are just a modern permutation of an identity crisis with roots very deep in America’s individualist history. Finding a coherent narrative in such a layered situation is a puzzle—one that ultimately has very little to do with Covid-19 or quarantines.To be clear, there was really no call in medical or epidemiological circles to prematurely end lockdown — the only “experts” making such claims were typically economists or political operatives. Which brings us to…Elon MuskAs the protests wore on, Musk took to Twitter a great deal to voice his opinion on COVID-19 suppression measures. And while science was squarely in favor of measures to stop the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, Musk didn’t seem to agree (even retweeting video of the widely-debunked Bakersfield doctors):Interesting … https://t.co/z8sqqPt48q— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2020Docs make good points https://t.co/WeXuZpMghY— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2020Give people their freedom back! https://t.co/iG8OYGaVZ0— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020Bravo Texas! https://t.co/cVkDewRqGv— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020$TSLA CEO @elonmusk blasts shelter in place orders: “To say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic, this is not freedom, give people back their god damn freedom.”— Phil LeBeau (@Lebeaucarnews) April 29, 20202017 Elon Musk versus 2020 Elon MuskAbove is just a smattering of Musk’s many tweets expressing opinions around COVID-19 and applauding states prematurely lifting lockdown measures. As for the screenshot shared to r/agedlikemilk, it was authentic. It was a quote, but nevertheless, Musk tweeted it:\"If one day, my words are against science, choose science. \"Mustafa Kemal Atatürk— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2017TL;DRAfter Elon Musk appeared to side against science in COVID-19 discourse, screenshots of his purported tweet stating “If one day, my words are against science, choose science” circulated. It is true that Musk’s April 2020 tweets were “against science,” and further true that he published the original tweet.Comments Claim: Elon Musk once tweeted: \"If one day, my words are against science, choose science.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story doesn’t talk about the cost of this device. Deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson’s disease costs $35,000 to $50,000, according to the National Parkinson Foundation. This study wasn’t designed to prove a benefit, although the story could have explained that more clearly. We’re rating this Not Satisfactory because it confuses readers with a headline stating the device “might help slow Alzheimer’s,” while the story itself focuses on the clinical outcomes of the three patients in the study, citing “signals” that the device slowed two patients’ decline, for example. The fact that two of the three patients declined at slower rate compared to 96 patients in a database doesn’t say anything about whether the device is really effective. Even so, there’s no specific data on how those patients’ outcomes differed and what was measured. The story doesn’t completely drop the ball, stating side effects “included hot flashes, heart palpitations and burning sensations in the skin, which were reversed by adjusting the DBS settings.” But any story on an implantable medical device should caution readers about the risks of surgery to both install and remove it and mention that medical devices are not required to undergo rigorous safety tests before they are allowed on the market. The lead’s assertion that the device “may be safe” neglects the inherent risks of implantable devices. The story left out another known risk of deep brain stimulation: depression. All three subjects were treated with antidepressant medication. Although, as the study authors note, the DBS may not have caused the depression–it is common in dementia, and treating it can improve people’s cognitive and functional abilities. Such as described for patient “LaVonne.” It’s questionable whether this study should have been brought to the attention of consumer news readers as the quality of the evidence showing it works—much less is safe–is too preliminary. This concept was tested on just three people, far too few for anyone to have any idea if it will work. Had the story been framed differently–without the overly hopeful headline and intro paragraph–and instead explored the science behind DBS and the challenges of studying it in Alzheimer’s patients, it might have rated Satisfactory on this criterion. We did appreciate the fairly prominent placement of a caveat that “it’s far too early to know whether it has value for people with Alzheimer’s” and the caution further down that a trial comparing it with a placebo device is needed. But, the story includes an anecdote of a patient who “regained” her cooking skills and improved her ability to perform other tasks while on the study without explaining that it’s unclear whether the DBS had an impact on the progression of her disease. It also could have been the medication she was on, for example. The story states: “More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s — a number that could rise to 16 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.” The story includes a useful comment from Keith Fargo, who directs scientific programs and outreach for the Alzheimer’s Association, that it’s “much too early” for for patients or caregivers to seek out this device. The story mentions that “medications for Alzheimer’s target brain chemicals involved in memory.” We like the prominent placement of the caveat that “it’s far too early to know whether it has value for people with Alzheimer’s” and it’s “not something patients can ask their neurologist for.” It also mentions DBS “would not be for everyone” including people who are frail or have other serious medical conditions. The story lets us know that this therapy is used in Parkinson’s patients, and that this small pilot study is exploring its potential for Alzheimer’s disease. It says the study highlights that “Alzheimer’s disease is more than just amnesia” and “problems with abilities like judgment and planning can actually be more challenging.” The story draws from sources other than a Ohio State Wexner Medical Center news release. Claim: Brain 'Pacemaker' Might Help Slow Alzheimer’s",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On March 6, 2020, Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, posted a tweet asserting that 174 Democrats had voted against a “bipartisan act to stop convicted terrorists & sexual predators from becoming TSA Agents”:  That tweet was misleading in several ways, however. First of all, the bill in question was not a “bipartisan act to stop convicted terrorists and sexual predators from becoming TSA Agents.” The bill — H.R. 1140, known as the “Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act of 2020” — was a Democratic-led effort to grant employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) the same protections as other federal employees: In Fiscal Year 2017 alone, TSA spent approximately $16 million to hire and train nearly 2,000 TSOs [Transportation Security Officers] who left within six months of being hired. Several factors contribute to TSA’s morale and attrition problems. TSOs are among the lowest paid employees in the Federal government and receive minimal, infrequent pay increases. TSOs’ job responsibilities have grown increasingly demanding, requiring extensive training on advanced security technologies and long hours in crowded, stressful environments. In addition, TSA employees are not granted many of the basic workplace protections afforded most other Federal workers under the Title 5 personnel system. For example, TSA employees have limited options for filing workplace grievances and cannot appeal disciplinary actions to an outside third-party such as the Merit Systems Protection Board. Further, TSOs are limited in their ability to negotiate protections because it is not one of the limited issue areas for which TSA permits collective bargaining. The “Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act of 2020” seeks to ensure that all TSA employees have access to the fair and transparent personnel system established under Title 5 of the U.S. Code. Under that Federal personnel system, TSOs and other employees would receive higher salaries as well as regular salary increases in future years. Employees would also receive access to MSPB processes and collective bargaining rights as are available to most other Federal workers. H.R. 1140 was not “bipartisan,” nor did it have anything to do with stopping “convicted terrorists and sexual predators from becoming TSA Agents.” The latter aspect became part of the debate on the bill along with claims that changes wrought by H.R. 1140 could potentially affect TSA’s ability to discipline employees involved in security violations: Committee Republicans are concerned that moving TSA employees under title 5 would undermine the agency’s ability to perform its national security mission. According to information obtained from TSA, H.R. 1140 would hinder TSA’s ability to address serious instances of misconduct among the workforce. Under current law, the agency may exercise one-step removal for serious offenses such as intentional security breaches, theft, failure of drug and alcohol tests while on duty, or arrests for certain criminal offenses. Under H.R. 1140, an employee who knowingly allows guns or explosives through a security checkpoint would no longer be immediately fired. H.R. 1140 would expand collective bargaining rights for TSA employees. As a result, security policies needed to protect the traveling public would be negotiable topics in union bargaining. Under current law, TSA can impose new security requirements, such as enhanced passenger screening when intelligence indicates credible threats. Under this bill, how those new security requirements are implemented could be subject to negotiation with the union. At the last minute, Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Arizona, made a motion to recommit with instructions (a mechanism used to amend a bill just before it is voted upon by the full House of Representatives) in order to add an amendment to H.R. 1140 related to the TSA’s hiring of persons convicted of certain forms of crime: The House proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Lesko motion to recommit with instructions. The instructions contained in the motion seek to require the bill to be reported back to the House with an amendment adding at the end of section 4 the rule of construction which states the Secretary shall ensure that the Transportation Security Administration continues to prevent the hiring of individuals who have been convicted of a sex crime, and offense involving a minor, a crime of violence, or terrorism. The motion carried, and the version of the bill subsequently voted upon by the House accordingly included the following sentence: “During the transition period and after the conversion date, the Secretary [of Homeland Security] shall ensure that the Transportation Security Administration continues to prevent the hiring of individuals who have been convicted of a sex crime, an offense involving a minor, a crime of violence, or terrorism.” This amendment did not create any new or additional protections against the TSA’s hiring of “convicted terrorists and sexual predators” as agents. (Existing TSA regulations already disqualify persons convicted of terrorism, rape, aggravated sexual abuse, and various violent crimes, among other offenses.) As the text of the amendment states, it calls upon the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that the TSA continues to prevent the hiring of [such] individuals, and as Lesko acknowledged, the amendment “preserves the authority the TSA currently has” and “simply ensures that current safeguards remain in place.” . @TSA should not be hiring sexual predators or terrorists to work at our nation's airports. Thankfully, the House passed my amendment yesterday to prevent these criminals from joining the federal payrolls. Yet, 175 Democrats voted against this commonsense measure. pic.twitter.com/7TkFnul6CB — Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) March 6, 2020  The vote that Kirk cited was not a vote on the bill itself, but rather a roll call vote on Lesko’s motion to recommit with instructions (i.e., 174 Democrats were voting against the motion and thereby seeking to prevent additional amendments to the bill). Democratic critics contended during House debate that Lesko’s amendment was an unnecessary “red herring,” as the “TSA conducts rigorous background checks and will continue to do so”:  Rep. Lesko:  [A] bad actor TSA screener told a passenger to reveal her full breasts and lift her pants and underwear. The victim in the case stated that she complied with the TSO’s instructions out of fear. Fortunately, this offender was immediately fired by the TSA. However, under this bill, H.R.1140, if it passed, this predator could be on the federal payroll for months or even years … My amendment is simple. It would enhance aviation security and protect the flying public by preventing the TSA from hiring any candidate with a history of sexual misconduct, offenses involving minors, or terrorism. Val Demings:  Let me be clear, there is nothing in this bill that will allow the TSA to hire individuals who have been convicted of sex crimes or offenses against a minor, a crime of violence, or terrorism. Let me be clear, the example that [Rep. Lesko] cited, there is nothing that would have precluded this person from being hired in the first place. The behavior took place after the person was hired. This is a red herring. We decided not to offer this amendment because it simply isn’t necessary. TSA conducts rigorous background checks and will continue to do so. Claim: 174 Democrats voted against a \"bipartisan act to stop convicted terrorists and sexual predators from becoming TSA Agents.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Rio state Health Secretary Luiz Antonio Teixeira Junior said on Tuesday that there have been no recent urban cases of the disease and that the risk of contagion in touristic parts of Rio is “nearly zero.” “Visit our beaches, but avoid forests, bushes and waterfalls. That is where the mosquitoes that transmit the disease live,” Teixeira Junior said in a press conference. Brazil is vaccinating more than 20 million people against yellow fever in a massive campaign to control a budding outbreak, and the secretary said Rio state alone has vaccinated more than 8 million. The World Health Organization also suggests that visitors to Rio get vaccinated. As of Tuesday, Brazil’s Health Ministry has confirmed 213 cases across the country and 81 deaths in the current outbreak. That’s fewer than the 468 cases and 147 deaths that had been confirmed during the same period in the last outbreak, which was unusually large. Alfredo Lopes, the head of Rio’s hotel association, said tourism agencies have expressed concern about the outbreak. “There are many doubts because of yellow fever, but few cancelations for now. We don’t know how many people would come, but later chose not to,” Lopes said. Rio state Tourism Secretary Nilo Felix said the disease won’t have a meaningful impact during the high season for tourists. He expects 1.5 million visitors in the city in the next couple of weeks, about the same figure of 2017. James Story, the U.S. consul general in Rio, said he hasn’t heard of American concerns about yellow fever directly and believes the outbreak will not affect tourism in the coming weeks. “Carnival is an international festival with people from all over. I am sure this time will be no different,” he said. Claim: Rio urges Carnival visitors to stick to urban areas.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The claim that Donald Trump was never accused of being a racist before running for president is false. That rumor surfaced in the form of a meme on social media in mid-May, shortly after Donald Trump had all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination. The meme got traction after former MLB pitcher Kurt Schilling re-tweeted it on May 16th:  But Donald Trump and his father, Fred Trump, were accused engaging in racially biased housing policies in 1973. The Department of Justice sued the Trump Management Corporation (Donald was its president at the time) for an “antiblack bias” in its housing policies that allegedly violated the Fair Housing Act, the New York Times reported in 1973:  Donald Trump also faced accusations of racism after he took out a full-page ad in the New York Daily News that called for the death penalty for the “Central Park 5,” a group of black teenagers accused of raping and beating a jogger, in 1989, the New Yorker reports: And, in early May, 1989, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in the Daily News to say what he thought he knew about the case. Trump was on the front page of the papers often enough that season; the Post’s “SPLIT!” headline marking the end of his marriage would help fill the tabloid space between the teen-agers’ arrest and their conviction, as did “MARLA BOASTS TO HER PALS ABOUT DONALD: ‘BEST SEX I’VE EVER HAD,’ ” which quoted his then-mistress and second wife; soon, there was also coverage of his baroque business failures. Perhaps he thought it gave him gravitas, that spring, to weigh in on the character of the teen-agers in the park: “How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!” And his headline suggested what ought to be done with them: BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE! The Central Park 5 were falsely convicted and served time in prison before the jogger’s real attacker came forward and the teens were cleared of the charges and released in 2002. Trump was also accused of “making racial slurs against black people” in the 1991 book “Trumped!” that was written by a former Trump casino executive named John O’Donnell, the Inquisitor reports: The book’s description of remarks by Trump about black people could be significant if proven accurate because Steven P. Perskie, the casino commission chairman, has ordered proceedings to ban a high-roller from the gambling halls for making similar remarks. O’Donnell described a dinner conversation with Trump in which, he writes, they discussed Trump Plaza’s financial executive, who was black. He quoted Trump as saying he never liked the man and believed he was not doing a good job. Trump’s conversation is recounted: “And isn’t it funny. I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. . . . I think the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” O’Donnell writes that he advised Trump against publicly espousing such views. Allegations that Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino had removed black dealers from tables at the request of gamblers later landed Trump;s business in court, UPI reports: TRENTON, N.J. — The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino has lost a bid to overturn a $200,000 penalty imposed because managers catered to the presumed prejudices of a high roller by removing a black dealer from his table. A New Jersey appeals court upheld a ruling by the Casino Control Commission. The court also ruled that the penalty, one of the highest ever from the Division of Gaming Enforcement, was not disproprotionate to the offense. So, claims that Donald Trump was never accused of racism before running for president are false. Comments Claim:  A meme that claims Donald Trump has been in the public eye for 30 years and was never accused of racism before running for president has gone viral on social media. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The seventh “WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic” said blocking the industry’s interference was critical to cutting the harm from tobacco use. “The tobacco industry has a long history of systemic, aggressive, sustained and well-resourced opposition to tobacco control measures,” the report said. “While some strategies are public and others more covert... all have the goal of weakening tobacco control.”  The report said tobacco giant Philip Morris International was trying to position itself as a responsible public health partner via its “Unsmoke” campaign, which encourages people to “change to a better alternative”. The WHO said the campaign aimed to ensure tobacco remained socially acceptable, while confusing consumers with terms such as “smoke-free products”, which may refer to products with toxic emissions and unknown short-term and long-term health effects. Philip Morris spokesman Ryan Sparrow said the WHO’s message made it harder to provide safer options for people who cannot quit smoking. “There is no question that the best choice for smokers is to quit cigarettes and nicotine altogether. The reality is many people do not. We cannot turn our backs on them,” he said. “Organisations like the World Health Organization need to stop talking at smokers and start listening.”  The WHO report said the industry hoped to win respectability through manipulative messages such as claiming their products were part of a “harm reduction” strategy, even though cigarettes still account for 97% of the global tobacco market. Vinayak Prasad, programme manager of WHO’s tobacco control unit, said development of new products was solely intended to expand the markets of tobacco firms. “There is no difference between cigarettes and heated tobacco products except that in terms of exposure: the exposure is less and the smoke is not visible,” he said. Electronic cigarettes, containing nicotine but not tobacco, were promoted as a way to quit smoking. But there was no evidence to justify the claim, and evidence from the United States showed they had increased the prevalence of young people smoking, he said. “So it’s also a gateway for young people,” Prasad said. “The answer is it needs to be regulated. WHO has clear guidelines – to get electronic cigarettes regulated. And if you are banning it, fine, but if you aren’t banning it don’t let it (go) free in the market, because the young people are taking it up.” Claim: WHO says e-cigarettes, 'smoke-free' products do not help reduce cancer.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Three days before Christmas of 2004, Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel was on a routine patrol during his second tour of duty in Iraq when a suicide bomber blew up near his truck. The blast took off a portion of his left arm and three fingers from his other hand, fractured his jaw, left him blind in one eye, shattered his skull, and melted most of the skin off his head. Sgt. Ziegel was in a coma for months afterwards and spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, where he underwent more than 50 operations including the fitting of a plastic cap for his skull and the surgical reconstruction of his face with holes for his missing ears and nose. The London Times described the transformation of Sgt. Ziegel’s experience into what seemed to be a modern day fairy tale:  The fairy tale goes like this: they are high-school sweethearts from a small town, Metamora, Illinois, in the American Midwest. He graduates from high school, becomes a US marine and is sent to Iraq. When he returns, they get engaged. He proposes before he leaves for his second tour. She is 18; he is 21. She can’t wait for him to come home. The tour is cut short. A suicide bomber blows up near his truck and he suffers horrific, life-changing injuries. A day later he is in San Antonio, Texas, at the Brooke Army Medical Center. She leaves her home town for the first time to fly there with his mother so they can be by his side. She is there for him. His injuries are severe. He will have numerous operations and she will stand by him throughout. It will be a year and a half before they all go home. In the meantime, she will move in with his mother. The homecoming is a triumph. He is a hero and she is his heroine. Their commitment to each other is inspiring and rock-solid. They get married. She is now 21 and he is 24. The wedding takes place on October 7, 2006, and that date is declared a state holiday. Renee and Tyler Ziegel Day. Their romance is covered by The Sunday Times Magazine. They plan to have a family. Love conquers all. During the period between Ty’s convalescence and his marriage to Renée Kline, photographer Nina Berman, on assignment for People magazine, visited him three separate times and recorded a series of photographs chronicling his recovery, homecoming and wedding day. One of those photographs was an iconic image shown which in 2006 won in the portraiture category of the World Press Photo contest, the most prestigious international award for photojournalism — yet it was questioned by some social media users when they encountered it with no explanatory context:  I wanted to know if there’s any way to tell if this photo is accurate? It’s circulating Facebook right now with a caption of “This man served our country. Like for respect”. But, the girl in the photo, why does she look so unamused? Shouldn’t she be smiling? And her face looks very pixelated. I would love to know more on the backstory if possible. The photograph was described as follows by Lindsay Beyerstein for a 2007 Salon article:  A young couple stands side by side facing the camera. There are all the usual accouterments: the frosted, school-photo backdrop, the red bouquet precisely matched to the red trim on the bride’s white gown. The groom wears a decorated dress uniform. It could be any couple in any town — except that the groom’s features have literally been melted off. He has no nose, no chin, no ears and no hair. His head appears to attach directly to his shoulders, and his face is so badly burned that it’s a struggle to decipher his expression. The bride’s expression is equally opaque. Some people think she looks stunned. Others describe her expression as anxious, or even fearful. Her mouth turns down slightly at the edges, but her wide brown eyes gaze straight ahead and something about the set of her jaw suggests resolve. Some viewers strenuously deny that there’s anything unusual about the young woman’s countenance at all. In that article, Nina Berman also described the circumstances under which the photograph was taken:  It was their wedding day. Before they went to the high school where they were married, they went to a commercial portrait studio. I normally don’t find those commercial studio pictures very interesting. They seem fake. People just put on a happy face. But then I thought, this is a different wedding picture, isn’t it? So I kind of stepped back. I thought, it’s the same as having someone with their body blasted off in a high school yearbook. Rituals like this, young people getting married, if this doesn’t say that this war is having an impact, I don’t know what does. It just cries out to people — hey, this war is real. There’s a very palpable reality to this war in certain communities. It’s right there, not in the cities or on the coasts. Most people in the media and the cultural elite don’t know anyone in the military. My whole goal is to say, hey, this war is not some kind of abstract thing. Unfortunately, difficulties in the marriage proved too much for the couple to overcome, and Ty and Renée were divorced in January 2008:  The fairy tale, as we know it, was not meant to be. They were too young to be married. Too young to process the possibility that what led them into a lifelong commitment was a desire for certainty in an uncertain world. There is no mystery, no implosion, no tragic conclusion. There were factors that added up. Factors that at the time they could not have foreseen. That a marriage would not offset the consequences of Ty’s injuries. That it would not compensate for the loss and the grief felt by a young woman losing her father. Everyone suspected it was too soon — that maybe it wasn’t right. But nobody spoke out. Others, strangers, projected onto them what they needed to believe. They were larger than life. When we heard their story, we put ourselves in their shoes, imagining what we would do in the same situation. Renee personified the courage and strength we hoped we would have. But she was 18 years old. And neither is prone to introspection. They weren’t people who asked why. Between the two of them, they had so much life experience, but the emotional narrative of their lives never caught up. What made us think it would? Why did we have such high hopes for them in the first place? Nobody really ever knew Ty and Renee. Not even Ty and Renee. But this is not the end. They emerged from the marriage with warmth and affection for each other — not anger and recrimination. She was there when he needed her most; she showed up and stood by him. That is more than many people will ever have in a marriage. It is something they will always share. Ty Ziegel passed away in December 2012:  A Metamora Iraq War veteran, who became a symbol of survival after a car bomb explosion, has died. Family members say 30-year-old Ty Ziegel died after falling on ice. Angela Cochran, Ziegel’s girlfriend, said he has been an inspiration in the three months since they began dating. “You can ask him anything about his scars, his time in Iraq, how everything happened; he’s like an open book,” said Cochran. “He was willing to share stories. That’s what makes him so inspiring. He’s not trying to hide.” Claim: A photograph shows the wedding of a U.S. Marine disfigured by combat wounds.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Superintendent Eddie Johnson didn’t mention having anything to drink when he spoke to reporters Thursday night, and the department spokesman said officers who responded to a 911 call reporting a man asleep in a car at a stop sign didn’t observe any signs of impairment. Mayor Lori Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday that she agreed with Eddie Johnson’s decision to request an internal affairs investigation of the Thursday incident to assure the public he’s not trying to hide anything about his actions. “It was the right thing to call for an investigation...,” Lightfoot told the paper. “We’ll see how that plays itself out.” After the newspaper’s report, department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that, “While we have no indication of impropriety at this time, this question can only be answered by the internal affairs investigation.” Guglielmi had said Thursday that “there were no charges of intoxication, no information of intoxication as far as I know.” Johnson told reporters Thursday evening that he was driving home at about 12:30 that morning, after having let his driver go home to his family, when he felt lightheaded. He said he pulled over and fell asleep. The responding officers found Johnson slumped over but allowed him to drive home and did not administer a breathalyzer test or a field sobriety test. Johnson said officers do such tests only when a motorist appears impaired or officers smell alcohol or cannabis. He said the medical episode was the result of not following doctor’s orders. “When he adjusted my medication, I took the old medication for high blood pressure, but I failed to put the new medication in,” he said. During a news conference with then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel in early 2017, Johnson had to be helped to a seat after he wobbled and appeared to be about ready to fall to the ground. Johnson was diagnosed decades ago with a kidney condition, which two years ago led to a transplant — with his son as the donor. Earlier this year he was hospitalized for a blood clot. In her comments, Lightfoot said that Johnson told her about how he had just changed medication, and said she has “no reason to doubt” his account of what happened. “We know he’s had some medical issues,” she told the Sun-Times. “He’s on the other side of a kidney (transplant) operation, which is obviously very, very serious. There have been some issues with high blood pressure, and so forth.” She also said that she knows from dealing with her parents that certain medications have side effects. “So I take him at his word.” She also did not condemn Johnson for having some drinks with dinner. “He’s a grown man,” she said. “He had a couple of drinks with dinner.” Johnson has been trying to restore public confidence in the department shattered by the 2015 release of the now infamous dashcam video of the fatal 2014 police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald, both of which happened before he became superintendent. He said he wanted to take steps that would assure the public that his account was accurate. The investigation into Johnson will be handled by the public integrity unit within the department’s internal affairs division, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Friday. That unit is comprised of officers who are detailed to the FBI and work out of the FBI’s Chicago office. “If they have any sense that there was any impropriety, they would refer the case to outside investigative agencies,” Guglielmi added. Claim: Chicago’s mayor says top cop drinking before incident in car.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The sale of anti-rabies treatment Rabipur and Encepur, used  for the prevention of tick-borne encephalitis, to the Denmark-based biotechnology firm includes an upfront payment of 301 million euros and milestone payments of up to 495 million euros. Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley has been pushing for a leaner structure since she took over in 2017 by spinning off or selling units to focus on reinvigorating GSK’s pharmaceuticals business. It staged a comeback into cancer treatments with a $5.1 billion buyout of U.S. drugmaker Tesaro in December last year. “This agreement with Bavarian Nordic will enable us to commit greater resources to our key growth assets and to our R&D pipeline,” Roger Connor, president of Global Vaccines at GSK said. GSK, which is preparing to separate its consumer-facing products and drugs businesses, acquired the vaccines from Novartis in 2015 as part of a broad asset-swap here in which GSK sold its oncology business to the Swiss drugmaker. The drugmaker reported revenue of 5.89 billion pounds ($7.61 billion) from its vaccines segment in 2018. London-listed GSK said that both vaccines will continue to be manufactured at its Marburg site in Germany until full production is transferred to Bavarian Nordic within five years. Claim: GSK to sell two vaccines in $1.1 billion deal to focus on newer treatments.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 25 August 2016, multiple Fox News-linked accounts published tweets and articles about a school “training course” that led many social media users to believe was a class offered at the State University of New York at Binghamton (commonly known as Binghamton University) called “Stop White People.” Columnist Todd Starnes penned a column about the controversy, describing a “workshop” offered as “an official part of the residential assistant training program”: Nothing screams tolerance and diversity like a university workshop designed to target white people. The State University of New York in Binghamton has a bit of explaining to do after they held a workshop titled, “#StopWhitePeople2K16.” The workshop was an official part of the residential assistant training program at the taxpayer-funded university. The Binghamton Review, the university’s conservative newspaper, exposed this nonsense and they deserve a round of applause for their efforts. Starnes referenced a 24 August 2016 item published by student newspaper the Binghamton Review  that included additional detail about the teacup tempest, but the latter was far clearer about the minute scope and origin of the printed material (depicted above) that prompted the rumors: On Friday, August 12, an optional conference for Binghamton University Residential Assistants entitled “#StopWhitePeople2K16” was held in an effort to “take the next step in understanding diversity, privilege, and the society we function within.” Naturally, that title garnered a significant amount of attention in a very short period of time, and before long, the University delivered an official response to concerns from those who believed the title was racist. Brian Rose, Binghamton University’s Vice President of Student Affairs, wrote in his response to the controversy that the program was not “anti-white,” and instead was simply a “discussion” that “explored reverse racism, the relationship of communities of color with police, whiteness, crime and segregation in an open conversation format.” Rose also wrote that the titular hashtag “is commonly used ironically,” and “as the senior student affairs officer on campus,” he is “supportive of the students’ efforts to facilitate dialogue around a challenging set of topics.” Rose indeed issued an undated statement about an optional 12 August 2016 event for resident advisors (RAs) at Binghamton, during which three RAs hosted the presentation described in the printed material. Rose noted that the presentation in question centered on race relations and referenced a popular existing Twitter hashtag that was not created by Binghamton RAs: A program facilitated by three student resident advisors (RA’s) as part of an educational program for RA staff training has prompted public and internal comment and inquiry. The program title “#StopWhitePeople2K16” was drawn from a familiar hashtag in use on Twitter, and was not invented by the program facilitators. It is my understanding that the hashtag is commonly used ironically. The optional program was developed by the students themselves, supported by a young professional staff person. Its purpose, as conceived, was to facilitate a discussion among the RA’s that would improve their ability to handle conflicts among residents around issues of diversity. Upon learning of the concerns expressed over the session’s title by some off-campus groups and individuals, the university’s student-affairs office reviewed the session and the program content more closely to obtain an accurate understanding. We verified that the actual program content was not “anti-white”. The inclusion of the program in the educational session was not driven by any university administration initiative to advocate any specific viewpoint on diversity. About 40-50 RA’s chose to attend the session which ran concurrently with some other sessions. Topically the discussion in the program was far-ranging, student driven and explored reverse racism, the relationship of communities of color with police, whiteness, crime and segregation in an open conversation format. Post session feedback predominantly described the session as a respectful and productive conversation. Professional staff followed up directly with a few participants who had a mixed reaction to the program in support of those participants. What we strive to do from an administrative level is cultivate an environment where our students listen to one another, learn from one another and do so in a manner that doesn’t cause unnecessary harm. I have no indication that this particular program was inconsistent with the respectful environment we hope to support and sustain. Nevertheless, rumors quickly spread on social media indicating that Binghamton was offering a full course in their curriculum called “Stop White People,” and a number of web sites and online users reacted to that misinterpretation. We contacted the university’s media relations department and a representative with whom we spoke reiterated that the RA-only presentation was student-led and student-managed, adding that Binghamton at no time has offered a “Stop White People” class as part of any school curriculum. Claim: SUNY Binghamton is offering a \"Stop White People\" course.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A popular tweet alleges that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested President Donald Trump \"probably\" knows more about medicine and viruses than the NIH and the CDC. The tweet, which has been deleted, is circulating on other social media platforms and reads: \"CAPITOL HILL: @LindseyGrahamSC says @realDonaldTrump \"probably knows more about medicine and specifically viruses than any of the so-called scientists at the NIH and CDC. If anyone is going to eradicate this plague it'll be the president.\" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) This is not a genuine quote by Graham. No credible news reports have published the statement, and we couldn’t find it on any of the senator’ s social media pages. Graham released a statement on Feb. 26 praising Trump’s response to the current coronavirus outbreak, but he doesn’t suggest in that statement that he believes Trump knows more about the virus than medical professionals. We reached out to Graham’s office for comment but did not hear back in time of publication. The person who tweeted the made-up quote, Dan Lyons, describes himself on his Twitter account as an \"inventor of fake news.\" But this context is lost on people who viewed the tweet on other platforms and those who didn’t visit his profile. ! Claim: Quotes Sen. Lindsey Graham as saying President Trump “probably knows more about medicine and specifically viruses than any of the so-called scientists at the NIH and CDC.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Rumors about canned food contaminated with HIV in Thailand were debunked years ago, but they went viral again on social media as 2016 came to a close. It’s not clear where, exactly, rumors about canned foods contaminated with HIV came from, but they spread quickly across social media. A post that was widely circulated on Twitter warned: Radio 1 FM announced that Thai govt confirmed: Emergency notification: Do NOT eat canned food especially those canned fruits manufactured in Thailand. There were 200 over HIV carriers instructed by their leader to contaminate the products of the canned food factory with their blood. The information was confirmed by the government this morning. In order not to let the people get infected after eating, many types of canned food such as loggan, lychee, rambutan and mango putting had been removed from the shelves of supermarkets. Please send GC to people you care. Prevention is better than cure! Please don’t take canned food from Thailand. We couldn’t find any credible reports of canned food contaminated with HIV. In fact, we found a press release issued by the Royal Thai Embassy in October 2014 that specifically debunked the warning: Related to the recent spread of rumours circulated via text messages alerting recipients that canned food, particularly canned fruits, manufactured in Thailand were contaminated with HIV virus. The Embassy wishes to inform that the circulated message is a hoax with no credible evidences to support such accusation. Related Thai agencies, including the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Food and Drug Administration of Thailand, had announced that Thai canned products have been thoroughly inspected and are certified according to international standards (GMP and HACCP) before the products could be shipped out. In fact, the heat treatment during the processing method will eliminate all harmful microbes and other viruses that may existed. Moreover, HIV virus needs a human host cell to live and it does not live long outside the human body. Therefore, it is not possible that canned products are contaminated with HIV as claimed. In a separate statement, Mr. Roy Sparringa, head of Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) also said that ‘the message is not true, have long been circulated, and misleading’ and confirmed that BPOM has never found the said contamination. The message may aims to discredit the Thai food exporter and Thai canned fruits industry. Similar messages were also circulated in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia in 2013. Warnings about food contaminated with HIV aren’t necessarily new, either. We previously investigated false reports that blood oranges from Libya had been injected with HIV infected blood and that bananas purchased at Walmart stores had been tainted with HIV infected blood. These warnings appear to prey on people’s fear of contracting HIV. However, it would be nearly impossible to contract HIV from blood injected into a fruit because the virus depends on a human host for survival, the non-profit group Aid for AIDs reports: “HIV is a very fragile virus outside of the body. The HIV virus needs the human body as its host. The life span of HIV outside of the body has not been determined. However, we know that HIV needs its host cell (a human), the body temperature, and the chemistry of the blood to survive. Out of the body, HIV is out of its environment. As the blood dries, the HIV will die. In areas like a syringe or on a razor in a medicine cabinet, HIV would probably live longer because of less airflow and it’s a more moist temperature controlled area. “Just remember, outside of the body HIV can’t survive. In minutes it will die and be harmless, but Universal Precautions should always be used.” All of these warnings about HIV-infected blood in foods are baseless and should be ignored. Comments Claim:  Government officials in Thailand have warned that an unidentified militant group contaminated canned foods with HIV. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Think twice about buying Girl Scout cookies, a national group urges, because participating girls are taught to admire \"pro-abortion women.\" A reader told us she fielded a Feb. 4, 2014, email blast with that message signed by Judie Brown, president of the Virginia-based American Life League. One of the blast’s claims: The Girl Scouts of the USA \"curriculum now promotes Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, Betty Friedan, founder of NARAL Prochoice, and other pro-abortion women as icons for our children to emulate.\" According to a biographical sketch posted online by Harvard University, Sanger was a nurse and lecturer who opened the country’s first birth-control clinic and later founded the American Birth Control League (which was renamed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942). Friedan, according to another Harvard web page, famously authored \"The Feminine Mystique,\" published in 1963, which \"fueled the controversy over women's proper place in society and had a dramatic impact on women in the United States and abroad. Friedan quickly became the leading advocate for change in the status of women.\" In 1966, Friedan helped found the National Organization for Women (NOW), a civil rights organization for women, serving as its first president, according to the web page, and later was vice president of the National Association to Repeal Abortion Laws and also on a Girl Scouts USA board. By telephone and email, Paul Rondeau, the league’s executive director, credited a former Girl Scouts troop leader, Christy Volanski, with the research behind the claim. The league calls itself the largest grass-roots Catholic pro-life organization in the nation. Let’s take the Girl Scouts’ \"promotion\" of Sanger and Friedan one by one. Margaret Sanger Rondeau told us that after the group sent its email blast, Volanski made it clear that the Girl Scouts’ \"promotion\" of Sanger was not directly in the scouts’ curriculum; instead, that occurred via social media. Volanski, of Spring, Texas, guided us to the Pinterest page for Girl Scout Cadettes, meaning scouts in grades six through eight, includes a link to a May 17, 2013, entry on\"The Eloquent Woman\" blog created by Denise Graveline, a public speaking coach and communications consultant based in Washington, D.C. The blog entry lists 13 speeches on human rights by women including Sojourner Truth, Clara Barton, Margaret Chase Smith, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Gaga, Betty Friedan and Sally Field. The Sanger entry says: \"Women's rights to birth control were Margaret Sanger's campaign in the 1920s, and for her efforts to speak out on this issue, she was arrested and ignored and fought. Her focus was the children born ‘unwelcome, unwanted, unprepared for, unknown,’ a stirring bit of alliteration.\" That entry links to another web page describing and excerpting a speech by Sanger in 1925 on the results of overpopulation and a lack of birth-control options. A web link leads to the full March 30, 1925, speech, posted on an Iowa State University website, in which Sanger argued for women to be free from \"enforced, enslaved maternity. There can be no hope for the future of civilization, no certainty of racial salvation,\" she said, \"until every woman can decide for herself whether she will or will not become a mother, and when and how many children she cares to bring into the world.\" We saw no mention of abortion on the Sanger web pages. Betty Friedan Friedan appears in the Girl Scouts’ curriculum, Volanski told us, as one of the exemplary women described in bottom-of-the-page blurbs in \"Your Voice, Your World, The Power of Advocacy,\" a 2008 guide for older scouts interested in learning about how to make a case for change. The guide, which we obtained from Austin-based Girl Scouts of Central Texas, has more than 50 of the \"Voices for Good\" blurbs, each one about specific women and their actions/achievements in the years from 1792 through 2007. Two blurbs mention Friedan, neither one touching on abortion or her involvement in starting the abortion rights action league. In 1963, the guide says, Friedan published \"The Feminine Mystique,\" \"attacking the belief that homemaking and childbearing are the only ways for women to find satisfaction in their lives. She postulates that a system requiring women to find their identity solely as wives and mothers stunts them. The book galvanizes the women’s movement.\" In 1966, the guide says, Friedan and Pauli Murray, the first black woman Episcopal priest, wrote the mission statement for the National Organization for Women, with a declared purpose of women gaining full participation in American society in \"true equal partnership with men.\" Today, the guide says, the group’s priorities include an end to violence against women. Other women described in the blurbs include prominent figures in the Democratic Party, which has championed abortion rights. The women include Texan Barbara Jordan, the first woman to keynote the Democrats’ national convention; Geraldine Ferrraro, the 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee; Hillary Clinton, singled out for seeking health care reform in 1993; and Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress. Other women blurbed in the guide include Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court; Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979; civil rights icon Rosa Parks; Eleanor Roosevelt; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a union organizer who helped launch the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920; and Dolores Huerta, co-founder in 1962 of what became the United Farm Workers and an organizer for women’s equality and other causes. We spotted no mentions of abortion or birth control in the 103-page guide. By phone, we asked Volanski if the women touted in the guide represent a mix of Americans. \"They do have a couple of conservative ladies in there,\" Volanski said, mentioning Mother Teresa. \"I’d say it’s wide-ranging,\" she said, yet more of the chosen women are \"left-leaning,\" making the mix unbalanced, she said. Girls Scouts respond On a \"What We Stand For\" web page, the Girl Scouts of the USA says: \"The Girl Scout organization does not take a position on abortion or birth control. We believe this is a private matter for girls and their families.\" By phone, Kelly Parisi, spokeswoman for the New York-based Girl Scouts, said the scouts’ curriculum does not depict Sanger, Friedan and other women as pro-abortion icons. Parisi noted that the entry on the Pinterest page created for scout Cadettes points to a web page listing speeches by 13 women; that is, it doesn’t promote Sanger alone. Also, Parisi said, the Friedan blurbs in the scouts’ guide state only that she wrote her book and helped found NOW, Parisi said, not delving into her position on abortion access. \"You cannot talk about women’s history in this country without mentioning Betty Friedan,\" Parisi said. Asked about Volanski’s suggestion that the mix of listed advocates is unbalanced, Parisi replied: \"We’re not trying to be balanced because we’re not trying to promote a political agenda. We don’t vet these women based on their political beliefs.\" \"We are a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization,\" Parisi said. Rondeau, by email, said our sampling of the blurbs in the guide (which we’d shared with him) demonstrates its pro-abortion slant in that all but two of the women whose blurbs we noted had shown such a lean, while only Mother Teresa clearly believed otherwise. \"The pattern seems quite clear,\" Rondeau wrote. Our ruling The league said Girl Scouts USA’s curriculum \"promotes Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, Betty Friedan, founder of NARAL Prochoice, and other pro-abortion women as icons for our children to emulate.\" A Girl Scouts’ Pinterest page--not the scouts’ curriculum--leads to a blog post highlighting speeches by 13 women, including one by Sanger. The scouts' advocacy guide, part of the organization’s curriculum, features two blurbs on Friedan and also thumbnails other women who have advocated abortion rights. However, none of the guide's 50-some biographical blurbs mentions any woman's activism per abortion as a reason for singling her out. Abortion is not mentioned elsewhere in the guide, either. We find no factual reason to conclude that the scouts are teaching girls in this vein. We rate this claim as . Claim: Girl Scouts USA’s curriculum \"promotes Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, Betty Friedan, founder of NARAL Prochoice, and other pro-abortion women as icons for our children to emulate.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Between March 2013 and March 2014, more than 50 complaints about e-cigarettes were filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to data obtained through a public records request. That is on par with the combined number reported over the previous five years. The health problems were not necessarily caused by e-cigarettes. And it is not clear that the rate of adverse events has increased. In 2011, about 21 percent of adult smokers had used e-cigarettes, according to federal data, more than double the rate in 2010. Still, David Ashley, director of the office of science at the FDA’s tobacco division, said the uptick is significant, especially in light of a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing an increase in the number of e-cigarette-related calls to poison control centers. “Both together does suggest there are more instances going on,” he said. The FDA is poised to regulate e-cigarettes and other “vaping” devices for the first time, potentially reshaping an industry that generates roughly $2 billion a year in the United States. Some industry analysts see e-vapor consumption outpacing that of traditional cigarettes, now an $85 billion industry, within a decade. E-cigarettes are battery-powered cartridges filled with a nicotine liquid that, when heated, creates an inhalable mist. Little is known about the long-term health effects of the products, which were developed in China and moved into the U.S. market in 2007. “Some evidence suggests that e-cigarette use may facilitate smoking cessation, but definitive data are lacking,” Dr. Priscilla Callahan-Lyon of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products wrote in a recent medical journal article. Contradictory findings from preliminary studies have become ammunition in the lobbying campaign around the devices, which allow users to inhale nicotine without the damaging tar produced by conventional cigarettes. Public health officials have said the devices may encourage  nonsmokers, particularly young people, to try conventional cigarettes. E-cigarette advocates have argued that they provide a safer alternative for smokers. The FDA has sponsored research to try to answer safety questions, and it is examining its database of adverse events for any trends that might raise concerns. The complaints from the public filed with the FDA cited trouble breathing, headache, cough, dizziness, sore throat, nose bleeds, chest pain or other cardiovascular problems, and allergic reactions such as itchiness and swelling of the lips. One person told the FDA that while eating dinner at a restaurant a customer at the next table was smoking an e-cigarette. “The vapor cloud was big enough to come over my table and the e-cig smoker was ‘huffing’ it voraciously,” the person, whose name was redacted, wrote. “I got dizzy, my eyes began to water and I ended up taking my food to go because of the intense heartbeat I began to develop.”  One woman wrote that her husband began smoking e-cigarettes liberally in his car and home after being told they were safe and that the vapor was “just like water.”  “My 4-year-old has had a raspy voice since he started but I really didn’t think anything of it till last night my husband was just puffing away on that thing for hours and I woke up wheezing and unable to breathe.”  Miguel Martin, president of Logic Technology, one of the biggest U.S. e-cigarette makers along with Lorillard Inc and privately held NJOY, said the spike in adverse event reports reinforces the importance of regulation, especially in areas governing manufacturing practices and labeling, where standards can vary dramatically. “Clearly, because of the business opportunities, you have companies in an unregulated environment that are importing without checks and balances,” he said, adding that while Logic pays attention to quality control, “some other companies just are not having the same diligence or focus.”  Most e-cigarettes are made in China and sold under more than 300 brands in the United States, some through retail stores, others online. The quality of the products is inconsistent, however, making it difficult to tease out the cause of any health problems. One smoker began using e-cigarettes following dental surgery after the dentist said quitting smoking would speed the healing process, according to a report filed last October with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that was forwarded to the  “It blew up in my mouth while inhaling, burning my stitches and gum, lip and fingers,” the report said. Others complained of over-heating devices. “The electric cigarette gets hot when you use it and alters the taste buds,” wrote one consumer. “I just recently realized what was turning my taste buds black.”  It is not possible to draw general conclusions from individual case reports, but there is a growing recognition that the inconsistent quality of the devices, aside from any risk inherent in the inhalation of nicotine vapor, poses potential safety risks. In a bid to address quality concerns, some e-cigarette makers are beginning to make them, either partially or wholly, in the United States. Reynolds American Inc, which began selling its Vuse e-cigarettes in Colorado last July and expects to expand nationwide this summer, makes its products in Kansas and North Carolina, though it still imports its batteries from China. The reason, Richard Smith, a Reynolds spokesman said, is that inconsistent quality is turning off potential customers. “There has been a high level of trial among adult consumers but a low level of adoption,” he said. While the cost may be higher than sourcing ready-made products from China, the pay-off, Reynolds is betting, will be customer loyalty. If a quality problem arises during the manufacturing process, Smith said, “we can identify and fix it.” Claim: Reports of e-cigarette injury jump amid rising popularity, U.S. data show.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Johnson was due to speak to manufacturers on Monday and the government had already asked engineers to find ways to quickly produce more ventilators in Britain which the government would buy, the prime minister’s office said. Germany and Italy have scrambled to get more ventilators and manufacturers warned on Friday that hospitals everywhere faced a lack of vital equipment needed to treat coronavirus patients. The government was also negotiating with private healthcare providers about paying for thousands of beds in private hospitals, to be brought into use if coronavirus spreads rapidly in Britain. “The public are right to be proud of the NHS, but the scale of the challenge we face means we can’t do this alone,” the head of Britain’s National Health Service, Simon Stevens, said in a statement issued by Downing Street. All hospitals would be given instructions on Monday to help them to prepare, he said. Britain has so far had fewer confirmed cases of coronavirus than other countries in Europe such as Italy, Spain and France but the death toll almost doubled to 21 on Saturday. A British government source said the government would ban mass gatherings from next week in an attempt to curb the coronavirus outbreak, an escalation of its crisis plan that critics have said was too relaxed. Claim: UK pushes for more ventilators, hospital beds as coronavirus cases mount.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The FDA evaluates drugs without considering costs, which is why they are not discussed in this news release. We rate this one Not Applicable. However, it looks like Siliq will end up being an expensive drug. Its main competitors could be Novartis’ Cosentyx and Eli Lilly’s Taltz — both of which cost thousands of dollars for a dose. A half dose of Cosentyx sells for over $8,300, while a half dose of Taltz costs over $13,600. Each drug then follows a different dosage pattern. If companies can talk about a drug’s benefits, then it’s not too early to discuss what it may cost. We hope the FDA could one day also comment on the projected cost of a drug and its cost-effectiveness. The news release does not give any numbers to describe the magnitude of benefit shown in the three clinical trials. All we know is that “more patients treated with Siliq compared to placebo had skin that was clear or almost clear.” But how many more patients and by how much? And how was this exactly assessed? The news release vaguely mentions a scoring system that looked at the “extent, nature and severity of psoriatic changes of the skin” without elaborating any further. In a 2016 FDA briefing document online, there is some data related to the drug’s effectiveness, but the number of analyzed subjects falls short of the total 4,373 trial participants cited in the news release. Without any numbers describing the benefit, we have no idea how effective Siliq really is, which is why we give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating here. We could have rated this release unsatisfactory on this criterion, since no numbers are given about the extent of the problems found in the trials. But we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt because of the extent of discussion on potential harms – despite the absence of numbers. The release mentions that completed suicides occurred in patients treated with Siliq during clinical trials, which is why the drug’s label will include a boxed warning. Although the release states cause and effect hasn’t been established, some patients — especially those with a history of depression — seemed to show an increased risk for suicidal ideation and behavior. The release uses language that may confuse readers about harms. In one place it says “A causal association between treatment with Siliq and increased risk of suicidal ideation and behavior has not been established” and in the next sentence claims that “Because of the observed risk of suicidal ideation and behavior, the labeling for Siliq includes a Black Boxed warning….” Patients may also experience more infections, or allergic/autoimmune conditions, as Siliq targets the immune system. Other side effects associated with the drug include joint pain, headache, fatigue, diarrhea, throat pain, nausea, muscle pain, injection site reactions, influenza, low blood cell count and fungal infections, the news release adds. Although we would have liked to have seen some numbers indicating how often these side effects occurred, and clarity about whether or not they were observed, we believe the news release does an adequate job addressing harms, as a significant chunk is devoted to this issue. This is why we give it a Satisfactory rating here. There is too little discussion on the trials to assess the quality of evidence in the news release. We only know that there were “three randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials with a total of 4,373 study participants with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.” We don’t know who these participants were, how they were selected, how they were assessed for benefits and side effects, and long they were followed up. We wish the FDA would point us to any published studies that were referenced in the approval process. According to the 2016 FDA briefing document online (page 71, fourth paragraph), clinical trials were abruptly stopped by the then drug manufacturer Amgen in May 2015, which meant participants did not take the drug past late June 2015. Studies resumed after AstraZeneca subsequently took over the drug’s development. The reason for it being stopped was due to the four completed suicides that took place during the clinical trial. In addition, the FDA describes 11 individual suicide behavior and ideation events, and three deaths from unknown cause from October 8, 2010 through February 3, 2014. These participants were found to be on an active drug product and not on placebo (2016 FDA briefing document, page 18). Curiously, the FDA briefing document mentions that five clinical trials took place altogether. Three compared Siliq to placebo, while the remaining two looked at Siliq compared to Ustekinumab (sold under the brand name Stelara). Since many of these details were omitted, we give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating here. There is no disease mongering in this news release. It provides some good, concise context on the skin condition and its symptoms. The news release does not disclose funding sources for the clinical trials. A 2016 FDA briefing document online (page 6, second paragraph) implies that the drug company funded the clinical trials to support its application for FDA approval. Since none of this is mentioned, we give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating. Since Siliq is recommended as a last resort drug of sorts, the news release hints there are other alternatives available. These include other topical treatments like anti-inflammatory drugs, light therapy and oral/injected medications, such as immunosuppressants. Although we would have liked more elaboration on other treatment options, we feel the news release did just enough for a Satisfactory rating here. Since Siliq is a new psoriasis drug that just received FDA approval, it is clear that it is now coming onto the market. The news release states the drug will only be available through a restricted program called the Siliq Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy. The release then lists the requirements of the program, which include patient counseling, signing of a patient-prescriber agreement form and pharmacy certification. We feel this is good enough for a Satisfactory rating here. The news release makes it clear that this is a drug for patients who have not responded to other established methods of therapy. A FDA director comments that Siliq provides psoriasis patients with “another treatment option.” We feel this is good enough for a Satisfactory rating. The news release does not include unjustifiable, sensational language. Claim: FDA approves new psoriasis drug",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Memes peddling false political claims often work best when they sprinkle a pinch of fact into their misinformation stew. That appears to be the strategy employed in memes making use of U.S. congressman Matt Gaetz’s mug shot from a 2008 DUI arrest:  The fact blended into these memes’ fictions is that a mug shot stemming from Gaetz’s arrest for driving under the influence is real, as has been acknowledged by the congressman himself and was reported by the Tampa Bay Times in 2014: It was the night before Halloween in 2008 when Gaetz, then 26, drove back from the Swamp, a nightclub on Okaloosa Island. He drove a 2001 BMW SUV registered to his state senator dad. Near midnight, Okaloosa County Deputy Chris Anglin clocked Gaetz going 48 in a 35 mph zone. Anglin later reported that Gaetz fumbled for his license and registration, his eyes were watery and bloodshot, and he swayed and staggered when he got out of the car. Smelling alcohol, Anglin asked Gaetz if he had been drinking. Gaetz replied no. Minutes later, he admitted he had consumed two beers. Twice, Anglin conducted an eye test. Twice, Gaetz’s eyes didn’t follow the prompt. Gaetz, who had recently begun practicing law, declined any field sobriety tests. He was arrested and refused the breath test. A controversy ensued when charges against Gaetz, whose father was a member of the Florida State Senate at the time, were dropped and his license was reinstated. This occurred despite a Florida law requiring a year-long suspension for refusing to take a breathalyzer test. According to the Tampa Bay Times, “A field officer for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles declared there was no evidence that Gaetz refused a breath test. Yet the refusal was clearly documented in [the arresting officer’s] affidavit and arrest report.” The arresting officer, Okaloosa County Deputy Chris Anglin, resigned a month after the Gaetz arrest under pressure from his superiors, who cited disciplinary issues. The question of whether Gaetz’s father’s political connections played an improper role in these outcomes has dogged Gaetz for years. Gaetz, for his part, has dismissed such allegations as “tabloid journalism.” In terms of what is accessible via public records, the 2008 arrest is Gaetz’s only recorded DUI. Despite that, several memes and articles make the claim that Gaetz has had at least seven DUI arrests. The earliest iteration of this claim appears to stem from an August 29, 2016, post written by conspiracy theorist Wayne Madsen, who stated: “Matt Gaetz, currently a member of the Florida House of Representatives, portrays himself to the Bible-thumping voters of the Panhandle as a God-fearing conservative. However, even a partial glance at Gaetz’s record reveals at least seven arrests for drunk driving and a reputed alternate gay life style. Gaetz’s politically powerful father Don ensured that none of the arrests led to prosecutions.” Madsen provided no hint as to the location or nature of these purported records. We reached out to Madsen via his website to ask if he could provide any documentary evidence for these claims but did not receive a response. A criminal record produced by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, whom we queried on July 3, 2019, showed only one DUI arrest, but such a report would not include offenses from other states:  Public records searches performed by Snopes in other jurisdictions did not turn up any additional DUI arrests. Another bit of a fact sprinkled into this claim is that Gaetz does have a prolific record of traffic violations. A 2014 investigation conducted by northern Florida newspaper TCPalm tracked the driving records of hundreds of Florida state politicians. Matt Gaetz, with 16 speeding tickets between 1999 and 2014, was among the most frequently cited lawmakers. Mentions of a “suspicious” death of Gaetz’s roommate during his four years at Florida State University between 1999 and 2003, like the claims of seven DUIs, did not exist online prior to Madsen’s August 2016 piece, in which he stated: What would be Panhandle politics without a dead body? Gaetz’s roommate at Florida State University was reportedly found dead under suspicious circumstances while they were undergraduate students. … Sources close to the investigation of the death, however, told [Wayne Madsen Reports] that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated the death as a possible homicide but the agency was later politically-pressured to rule it a suicide. Madsen being the only source for this claim merits suspicion on its own: He has a history of making wholly baseless claims without evidence. A prominent proponent of the claim that former President Obama is not a U.S. citizen, he has, for example, falsely claimed that Barack Obama had “homosexual trysts” with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Senate majority leader Bill Frist (among others), and Madsen is the author of a self-published book asserting that Obama’s rise to the White House was engineered by the CIA. Not only is the suspicious “roommate death” claim flawed, but further doubt is cast on its veracity by the fact that we have been unable to identify any contemporaneous press accounts of suspicious deaths of a Florida State University student who could possibly have been a Gaetz roommate between 1999 and 2003. Though an administrator at Florida State University confirmed to us that roughly 30 students with expected graduations between 1999 and 2003 passed away during that time period, we found nothing publicly suggesting a Gaetz link to any case that received press coverage. As such, we consider the claim without merit. While the mug shot and 2008 DUI arrest are true, additional elements of this brand of Matt Gaetz meme appears to be sourced solely from the imagination of a conspiracy theorist. Claim: A meme showing a mug shot of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz suggests that the congressman has had “seven DUIs” and is responsible for the “suspicious” death of his college roommate. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An Associated Press analysis published in late September 2018 warned that prescription drug prices in the United States were still rising precipitously despite President Trump’s vow to reduce them. During the first seven months of the year, the report said, prescription drug prices saw 96 increases for every cut. The human cost of runaway prescription drugs prices was dramatically illustrated in a meme shared on the Occupy Democrats Facebook page on 18 September:  This is Alex Smith. He died this year at age 26 because he couldn’t afford insulin in America. He made $35,000 a year as a restaurant manager, and couldn’t afford his $450 a month health insurance with a $7,600 out-of-pocket deductible. The insulin he needed for diabetes was $1,300 a month. When he turned 26 and was kicked off his mom’s insurance, he started rationing his life-saving insulin. He died a month later. The text is mostly accurate, although it has Smith’s given name wrong (it was Alec, not Alex), and he died in 2017, not “this year” as claimed in the 2018 meme. According to local news reports, Alec Raeshawn Smith’s lifeless body was found in his apartment on 27 June 2017, 27 days after his coverage under his mother’s health insurance policy had lapsed due to his age. The cause of death was diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication of diabetes that occurs when the body produces excess blood acids (called ketones) because it lacks enough insulin. In a piece contributed to Truthout.org in February 2018, Smith’s mother, Nicole Smith-Holt, wrote that even though Alec had a full-time job, it did not come with employer-provided health coverage: For Alec, this meant that his insulin and supplies cost almost $1,300 a month. He and I together researched for months in advance about his health insurance options. They weren’t good. The best plan we found would cost him $450 a month for the premium with a whopping $7,600 deductible. That deductible meant he would be paying out-of-pocket for his medicine for many months anyway, so he decided to go without the plan until he could find a different job with benefits. The prohibitive cost drove Smith to ration his insulin use to try to make his supply stretch to the next payday. “I have since learned that this is not uncommon,” Smith-Holt wrote, and is indicative of a worsening health care crisis: Globally, half of the people who need insulin can’t reliably get access to it. With 6 million people in the US insulin-dependent, and nearly 40 percent of Americans uninsured or facing high deductibles that leave their medicine costs uncovered, the crisis is occurring right here, too. Endocrinologists here in the US report that as many as one in five of their patients are not able to afford their insulin. For many persons with diabetes, that means they land in the emergency room with diabetic ketoacidosis. For others, like Alec, they never get there. Just 27 days after his coverage under my insurance ended, I received the call no parent ever wants to get. The American Diabetes Association released a report in March 2018 estimating that the total costs of diagnosed diabetes in the United States had risen 26 percent in the previous five years: People with diagnosed diabetes incur average medical expenditures of $16,752 per year, of which about $9,601 is attributed to diabetes. People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, have medical expenditures approximately 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes…. People with diabetes who do not have health insurance have 60% fewer physician office visits and are prescribed 52% fewer medications than people with insurance coverage — but they also have 168% more emergency department visits than people who have insurance. Claim: A 26-year-old man named Alex Smith of Minneapolis died because he had aged out of his mother's health insurance and couldn't afford insulin.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The World Health Organization on Tuesday updated its treatment guidelines for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, which together infect more than 200 million people every year. It’s the first such WHO update since 2003, partly due to low past budgets and priority levels, and growing scientific data. Medical officer Teodora Wi called gonorrhea a “very smart bug” that repeatedly adapts to new antibiotics. It can infect the genitals, rectum, and throat. Chlamydia can cause ailments like burning sensations while urinating. WHO says mother-to-child transmission of syphilis resulted in over 200,000 early fetal deaths, stillbirths or neo-natal deaths in 2012. Claim: UN health revises advice for 3 infections transmitted by sex.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This story does not discuss the cost of daily aspirin intake. Because the cost to individuals is low and well-known, we won’t insist on this point. Nevertheless, were a recommendation made for everyone to begin taking aspirin daily starting at age 45 the national price tag would be substantial. Readers would also benefit from an acknowledgement that such a recommendation would lead to higher spending on treatment of bleeding ulcers and other adverse events that would offset some of the potential cancer-related savings. The story does not adequately quantify the potential benefits. For one, the story relies to heavily on the relative differences between the aspirin group and the placebo group. As the study itself notes, for some of the cancers studied, the number of deaths in both groups was quite small – 16 versus 14, 10 versus 19, 15 versus 19. This story and the other stories reviewed should have made this clear. What’s more while the story highlights the total number of participants included in the data analysis (25,570) it doesn’t tell readers that only 674 of them died of cancer. And then for the longer-term follow-up there was a total of 1634 cancer deaths among 12,659 participants. Overall, the study that 3 percent of the patients in the control (placebo) group died of cancer during the original trials, compared to 2.3 percent of the patients who were assigned to recieve aspirin. Yes, that is a 23 percent reduction overall, but a 0.7 percent absolute reduction. Put another way, if indeed aspirin is preventive, you would need to treat 150 people to prevent one death from cancer during that time period. The way this story is written creates an inflated impression of the potential cancer prevention benefits of aspirin seen in this study. The story did say, “But even as some experts hailed the new study as a breakthrough, others urged caution, warning people not to start a regimen of aspirin without first consulting a doctor about the potential risks, including gastrointestinal bleeding and bleeding in the brain (hemorrhagic strokes).” It could have put a number to these harms, as the NPR Shots story did. This story includes praise for the study because it is based on randomized controlled trials, rather than observational studies. But it never tell readers that the randomized controlled trials investigated aspirin’s effects on heart disease, not cancer. The authors of this study took the patient data from several old trials and then used sophisticated statistical methods to combine the data. They also used death records to allow for a longer follow-up than was included in the original trials. The methods used for this study do have some notable advantages over previous, mostly observational, studies of aspirin and cancer; but they also have important limitations. Readers of this story would likely believe that all of the data used for this study was collected with cancer in mind. It was not. Readers should have been cautioned about the potential pitfalls and limit re-purposing scientific data. The story does not engage in disease-mongering. The story does quote some outside experts and includes this important comment: ““Many people may wonder if they should start taking daily aspirin, but it would be premature to recommend people starting taking aspirin specifically to prevent cancer,” said Eric J. Jacobs, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society.” We think that, on balance, comments like that were overshadowed by the comments from the study’s author. ““This is important as a proof of principle that a single simple compound like aspirin can reduce the risk of cancer substantially,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Peter M. Rothwell, professor of neurology at the University of Oxford. “There’s been a lot of work over the years showing that certain compounds can increase the risk of cancer, but it’s not been shown before that we can reduce the risk with something as simple as aspirin.”” Nevertheless, it meets the basic requirement on this criterion. However, it should have noted that while there was no outside funding for this study, some of the authors have ahd consulting relationships with pharmaceutical companies. This story does not present alternative ways of reducing cancer risk. Some other news reports specifically noted that avoiding smoking and obesity are both known to reduce cancer risk. The story makes it clear that “Many Americans take aspirin to lower their risk of heart disease” but not necessarily for a cancer benefit. The story establishes the novelty of using aspirin as a cancer prevention measure. This story does not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Aspirin Helps in Reducing Cancer Deaths, a Study Finds",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott says his opponent Alex Sink wants to cut Medicare benefits for the country's seniors. Sink says Scott is making that up. Enter PolitiFact Florida. The back-and-forth started on Sept. 1, 2010, when Scott issued a press statement commenting on the decision of Bud Chiles to drop his independent candidacy for governor and endorse Sink. \"This (election) will be a contest which presents a clear choice between a conservative outsider with business experience and a specific plan to create 700,000 jobs, and another liberal Obamacrat who wants to raise taxes, cut Medicare, and supports Obama's failed stimulus,\" Scott said. Sink responded to the Medicare line the next morning. \"I don't even know where he got that from,\" Sink said in Tallahassee. \"Of course I don't want to cut Medicare.\" Does Sink want to cut Medicare? The Scott campaign pointed PolitiFact Florida to President Barack Obama's major health care legislation as evidence to back up their allegation. According to Scott-think, the linkage works like this: Sink supported the federal health care bill, and the health care bill cuts Medicare. Therefore Sink supports Medicare cuts. On the first part, Sink issued a tepid endorsement of the health care bill on March 22, 2010. \"Though it is certainly not perfect, these long-overdue reforms are better than Washington continuing to do nothing to improve America's health care system,\" Sink said in part. You can read the rest of it here. The issue, in our minds, really boils down to the health care bill and how it affects Medicare. Medicare and the 2010 health care bill  Medicare serves as the health insurance program for 39 million seniors and another eight million people under 65 receiving Social Security. Medicare makes up 12 percent of the federal budget. Naturally, Medicare reforms were part of the 2010 health care legislation. \"Some (reforms) increase Medicare spending to improve benefits and coverage,\" said Tricia Neuman, vice president and director of the Medicare Policy Project at the Kaiser Family Foundation. \"Other provisions reduce the growth in Medicare spending to help the program operate more efficiently and help fund coverage expansions to the uninsured in the underlying health reform legislation. Other provisions are designed to improve the delivery of care and quality of care.\" Neuman walked through the changes in an easily digestible tutorial on the Kaiser Family Foundation's website. It's the best non-ideological explanation we've seen. The 2010 law includes a $250 rebate for prescription drugs purchased through Medicare Part D. Currently, after an initial benefit period, enrollees are required to pay 100 percent of their prescription drug costs until they reach a level of catastrophic coverage. The rebate is meant to begin to close in a hole in prescription drug coverage for beneficiaries. By 2020, Medicare will pay 75 percent of the total cost of generic prescription drug coverage in the gap. The health reform bill also reduces the growth in Medicare spending by more than $500 billion over 10 years, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Nearly $220 billion in savings comes from reducing annual increases in payments health care providers would otherwise receive from Medicare. Other savings include $36 billion for increases in premiums for higher-income beneficiaries and $12 billion for administrative changes. A new national board will be tasked to identify $15.5 billion in savings, but the board -- the Independent Payment Advisory Board -- is prohibited from proposing anything that would ration care or reduce or modify benefits. And then there's another $136 billion in projected savings that would come from changes to the Medicare Advantage program. About 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. There are two basic ways most people get Medicare coverage. They enroll in traditional Medicare and a prescription drug plan through the government and maybe buy a supplemental policy to cover most out-of-pocket costs. Or they enroll in Medicare Advantage programs (they include drug plans), which are run by private insurers. They typically have more generous benefits such as dental and vision coverage. Some plans even pay the patient’s monthly Medicare premium, which can amount to about $100. A June 2009 MedPAC analysis said that the Advantage programs costs taxpayers on average of 14 percent more than the traditional Medicare plan. President Obama has said repeatedly that the Medicare Advantage plan wastes public money that could be put to better use. \"We do think that systems like Medicare are very inefficient right now, but it has nothing to do at the moment with issues of benefits,\" Obama said in Aug. 11, 2009, speech in New Hampshire. \"The inefficiencies all come from things like paying $177 billion to insurance companies in subsidies for something called Medicare Advantage that is not competitively bid, so insurance companies basically get $177 billion of taxpayer money to provide services that Medicare already provides. And it's no better -- it doesn't result in better health care for seniors. It is a giveaway of $177 billion.\" The health care law that President Obama signed in March phases out extra payments for Medicare Advantage programs and institutes other rules for the program. Generally speaking, the extra payments phase out over the next three to six years. In a few cases, plans will be able to keep current funding if they qualify for special bonuses  \"How these payment changes will affect beneficiaries remains to be seen -- but is expected to vary across the country,\" Neuman said. \"The Congressional Budget Office projects the law will result in fewer enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans, and fewer extra benefits for Medicare Advantage enrollees, on average. It is also possible that the number of plans available to beneficiaries will decline -- which may or may not be a concern. On average, Medicare beneficiaries have 30 plans available to them in 2010.\" PolitiFact has waded into this ground before whether the adjustments to the Medicare Advantage option constitute a cut. Most experts we talked to had the same answer: yes and no. On one hand, they might not be considered cuts because nowhere in the bill are benefits actually eliminated, experts said. And other parts of the bill expand coverage for seniors and ultimately make some components of Medicare less expensive for patients. Still, changes could be in store for Medicare Advantage participants. The basic benefits that mirror regular Medicare will stay the same, but the extra benefits that people receive under Advantage would likely be reduced, experts said. \"The core benefits of Medicare won't change,\" said Marc Steinberg, deputy director of health policy for Families USA, an advocate for health care consumers. \"Most (Medicare Advantage) plans are solid and resemble traditional Medicare.\" However, some insurance plans have entered the program \"to make a quick buck. They may have to reconsider their budget, which could mean some patients will see changes in the services provided above and beyond traditional Medicare.\" Stuart Guterman, assistant vice president for the Commonwealth Fund’s program on payment system reform, had a similar view. \"People enrolled in (Medicare Advantage) get services that people in traditional care do not get under Medicare,\" he said. \"Insurance companies can afford to cover these services because taxpayer money is subsidizing them. Plans will most likely not offer those extra services, but in no case will (patients) get less Medicare benefits than people in the rest of the program.\" That's a key distinction when analyzing Scott's comments. Any cuts, if you can call them cuts, in the federal health care bill will happen to extra benefits for Medicare Advantage participants, experts say. Not the traditional Medicare program and the traditional Medicare benefits. Our ruling We must note that Medicare is a federal program, not a state one, so Sink wouldn't be able to cut benefits -- even if she wanted to -- if she's elected in November. Scott's basis for claiming that Sink supports cuts is that she supported the 2010 federal health care legislation that implemented a number of changes to the Medicare program. There are potential cuts coming to the extra benefits received by Medicare Advantage enrollees. But the law does not alter basic Medicare benefits, and actually increases some prescription drug benefits. Because she was not a member of Congress, Sink did not cast a vote for or against the new health law. Additionally, her endorsement was tepid: She said it was better than nothing and \"far from perfect.\" On Medicare, she praised the part of the bill that spends more money on prescription drugs for seniors, and didn't say anything about the cuts for Medicare Advantage. In short, we don't think there's a credible case to be made that Sink supported that part of the bill. The distance between Sink and cuts to Medicare is just too great. We rate Scott's statement . Claim: Alex Sink wants to \"cut Medicare.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: 11/13/03: Ryan is out of the coma and continuing to make progress. He is being cared for at home, can speak, respond to other around him, and is showing lots of evidence that “Ryan” is fully there. He has made amazing progress but still has some distance to go and hurdles to overcome toward full recovery.. Much of the world has been kept up-to-date on Ryan’s progress through several appearances by Pat Boone and other family members on CNN’s Larry King show. Ryan is 25 years old and on 6/19/01was sun-tanning with friends on the roof of the condo in Southern California where he lives. There is a skylight on the roof and nobody knows exactly how, because his friends were walking ahead of him, but Ryan accidentally fell through the skylight to a cement floor more than 3 stories below. He struck some stairway guardrails on the way down, which helped break his fall, but he hit the floor with such an impact that paramedics who arrived on the scene thought he was beyond hope. In the intensive care unit at UCLA Medical Center, there were other moments when hope seemed to be beyond reach, but Ryan has miraculously survived minute-by-minute from collapsed lungs, kidney failure, heart stoppage, having his spleen removed, and brain surgery. His skull was crushed in the fall but, amazingly, there were no other broken bones. Comments Claim:  A prayer alert about Ryan Corbin, the grandson of singer Pat Boone. Ryan is described as being in a coma in Southern California with brain injury from a fall of three stories. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On May 3 2020, Twitter user Bess Kalb tweeted that her father, an intensive care unit doctor, claimed that COVID-19 damaged blood and vascular systems of victims like “sticking your finger in an electric socket”:My dad is an ICU doctor treating COVID-19 patients. In the past WEEK he has set more “I’ve never seen a heart rate/RBC count/etc. like this” records than in his decades-long career. What this virus does to the body is like “sticking your finger in an electric socket.” Stay home.— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) May 3, 2020Kalb followed with a thread, repeating the things she claimed her father described:“He had a patient who needed 8 blood transfusions in a morning even though he wasn’t bleeding. The coronavirus was just eating his red blood cells faster than his bone marrow could make them. It’s fucking mystifying and brutal.“EIGHT. Eight blood transfusions.“If you are lucky enough to make it off a ventilator (the equivalent exertion required for that is running a marathon without training), you will likely get put on dialysis and a feeding tube next. It’s a nightmare. It’s hell. It’s what you’re risking on your beach day.“Young, healthy people are dying from a COVID-19 effect called a ‘cytokine storm.’ Basically, you make it off a ventilator (maybe! ), you get your appetite back a little, you think you’re turning a corner, and then your immune system rips through your lung tissue and you drown.“The other common way young people are falling off the face of the earth from this are the random strokes it causes. Talking one minute, stroking out the next, and then the nurses have to go through the cell phone to find ‘Dad’ because ‘Mom’ usually insists on coming.“There have been a few ‘Papa Bear’s or ‘Daddy-O’s in the cell phones who have tried to come in to hold the bodies.“Send this thread to any idiot fucker who posts an Instagram at the beach or a crowded park. Tell them my dad says see you later.“Also have an advanced directive because a lot of fiancés and parents are being put in UNCOMFORTABLE situations deciding. Truly, before you head to the crowded beach or nail salon or bowling alley, decide if you’re a chest compressions guy or feeding tube vegetable queen.“Healthcare workers: Share your stories (without identifiable details obviously) from the front lines. People are GALAVANTING out and about. Explain to them what they’re facing. Or worse, what they’re doing to a loved one.”Even if the individual claims made by Kalb were verifiable, privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) would prohibit doing so. Having said that, elements of her claims were verifiable, such as:Another element of Kalb’s Twitter thread was neither fact-checkable nor particularly in dispute — two or three of the tweets pertained to the number of young people both dying of COVID-19 and pre-deceasing both of their living parents. An axiomatic belief across cultures is that children ought never die before their parents, and Kalb described a number of parents suffering the loss of a child before the death of either parent.Among responses to Kalb’s tweet were counter-assertions that if the claims were true, they would most certainly be prominent news:Then why isn’t this making national headlines?— Wyatt (@wk3003wk) May 3, 2020COVID-19 CoagulopathyKalb’s first and most widely-shared tweet paraphrased her father’s assertion SARS-CoV-2 was like “sticking your finger in an electric socket” in terms of hematological damage. Although we are unable to say precisely what Kalb’s father may have been describing, high-voltage electrical shocks are known to damage blood cells and vascular systems.An April 22 2020 Washington Post article (via MSN.com), “A mysterious blood-clotting complication is killing coronavirus patients,” reported that doctors observed complications similar to those Kalb referenced in her Twitter thread — a novel finding about a novel virus:One doctor replied that one of his patients had a strange blood problem. Despite being put on anticoagulants, the patient was still developing clots. A second said she’d seen something similar. And a third. Soon, every person on the text chat had reported the same thing.“That’s when we knew we had a huge problem,” said [Craig] Coopersmith, a critical-care surgeon. As he checked with his counterparts at other medical centers, he became increasingly alarmed: “It was in as many as 20, 30 or 40 percent of their patients.”One month ago when the country went into lockdown [in March 2020] to prepare for the first wave of coronavirus cases, many doctors felt confident they knew what they were dealing with. Based on early reports, covid-19 appeared to be a standard variety respiratory virus, albeit a contagious and lethal one with no vaccine and no treatment. They’ve since seen how covid-19 attacks not only the lungs, but also the kidneys, heart, intestines, liver and brain.Increasingly, doctors also are reporting bizarre, unsettling cases that don’t seem to follow any of the textbooks they’ve trained on. They describe patients with startlingly low oxygen levels — so low that they would normally be unconscious or near death — talking and swiping on their phones. Asymptomatic pregnant women suddenly in cardiac arrest. Patients who by all conventional measures seem to have mild disease deteriorating within minutes and dying at home.With no clear patterns in terms of age or chronic conditions, some scientists hypothesize that at least some of these abnormalities may be explained by severe changes in patients’ blood.Immediately thereafter, the article reported that “concern is so acute some doctor groups have raised the controversial possibility of giving preventive blood thinners to everyone with covid-19 — even those well enough to endure their illness at home,” and referenced COVID-19 autopsies indicating that victims’ lungs “fill with hundreds of microclots,” which can subsequently “break off and travel to the brain or heart, causing a stroke or heart attack.”Doctors consulted for the piece repeatedly described effects unlike anything observed in common conditions, which often added their stuggles to understand the mechanism by which these complications were able to occur.In their comments, doctors voiced their discomfort with the complications. While they felt confident anticipating or reacting to clotting abnormalities in diseases like cancer and in trauma cases, the COVID-19 clotting complications remained a mystery:Lewis Kaplan, a University of Pennsylvania physician and head of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, said every year doctors treat people with clotting complications, from those with cancer to victims of severe trauma, “and they don’t clot like this.”“The problem we are having is that while we understand that there is a clot, we don’t yet understand why there is a clot,” Kaplan said. “We don’t know. And therefore, we are scared.”Providing several examples of blood-related complications which were alarming, unexpected, and without clear cause in patients, with equipment, and during autopsies, Coopersmith acknowledged “a universal understanding that [COVID-19] was different.” Doctors at the time had “no consensus” on the cause of the clotting abnormalities, but were able to uncover evidence in early case reports from China and Italy:Although there was no consensus on the biology of why this was happening and what could be done about it, many came to believe the clots might be responsible for a significant share of U.S. deaths from covid-19 — possibly explaining why so many people are dying at home. In hindsight, there were hints blood problems had been an issue in China and Italy as well, but it was more of a footnote in studies and on information-sharing calls that had focused on the disease’s destruction of the lungs.Harlan Krumholz, a cardiac specialist at the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center, explained that because this particular coronavirus is novel, it meant that doctors were ill-equipped to understand such complications as they arose:“There’s lots of speculation … That’s one of the frustrating things about this virus. We’re in a lot of darkness still.”The American Society of Hematology (specialists in blood diseases and disorders) maintained a page, “COVID-19 and Coagulopathy: Frequently Asked Questions,” which described complications of COVID-19 involving blood. The page referenced a sub-condition described as “COVID-19-associated coagulopathy (CAC)”; “coagulopathy” is disordered blood clotting.An April 15 2020 review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology noted that “Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a viral respiratory illness caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), may predispose patients to thrombotic disease, both in the venous and arterial circulations, due to excessive inflammation, platelet activation, endothelial dysfunction, and stasis.”‘Random Strokes’In one of Kalb’s tweets, she said that another way that young people “are falling off the face of the earth from this are the random strokes [COVID-19] causes”; an April 28 2020 New England Journal of Medicine case report was titled “Large-Vessel Stroke as a Presenting Feature of Covid-19 in the Young.” It described at least five cases of large-vessel stroke in patients under the age of 50 in New York City facilities during a two-week period from late March through April 7 2020:We report five cases of large-vessel stroke in patients younger than 50 years of age who presented to our health system in New York City. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was diagnosed in all five patients. […]Over a 2-week period from March 23 to April 7, 2020, a total of five patients (including the aforementioned patient) who were younger than 50 years of age presented with new-onset symptoms of large-vessel ischemic stroke. All five patients tested positive for Covid-19. By comparison, every 2 weeks over the previous 12 months, our service has treated, on average, 0.73 patients younger than 50 years of age with large-vessel stroke … Coagulopathy and vascular endothelial dysfunction have been proposed as complications of Covid-19[. ]On April 29 2020, NPR quoted Coopersmith, and reported:“The dialysis machines almost never clot,” Coopersmith says “And we were finding that the machines were clotting two or three or four times a day.”Even so, blood thinners are able to reduce clotting in most patients with COVID-19. And if a dangerous clot does form, it can often be dissolved with a clot-busting drug.But drugs that prevent clots or break them up can also cause uncontrolled bleeding, so patients on them have to be watched closely, Coopersmith says.“We have literally five different teams in the hospital specifically and only looking at blood clotting, just because of COVID,” he says. […]And some hints about how COVID-19 affects clotting are coming from lab tests of patients, says Dr. Tiffany Osborn, a professor of surgery and emergency medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.“We are seeing lab values that are off the wall,” she says.An April 28 2020 Popular Science article emphasized once again the novel nature of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, and the challenges faced by doctors in anticipating and responding to unexpected complications like clotting disorders and strokes:[Doctors] do have some ideas. They think that the virus may bind to receptors on endothelial cells, which are found on the inside of blood vessels, like veins and arteries. It’s possible that the virus’s presence there triggers an immune reaction to the foreign substance which results in clotting, Mocco says—and it’s those clots which, if they travel to the brain, can cause stroke. In other organs, they can cause damage by preventing blood from flowing normally. Doctors are seeing an uptick in these conditions, too, in young COVID-19 patients who without the infection would rarely develop them.It’s important to underline that researchers are not certain about any of this yet. “Whether COVID-19 can cause a stroke is a question mark,” says Renyu Liu, a critical care professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Some medical centers, though, are taking no chances and have started using blood thinners as an early part of their COVID-19 treatment, says Mocco. Others are doing lab work exploring the usefulness of medicines used to break up blood clots. Again, he says, the research is in early stages.COVID-19’s ‘Cytokine Storm’Kalb specifically described a “cytokine storm” in her tweets, the sort of complication one might expect to be “national news,” if accurate.It has been. An article published on April 27 2020 in The Lancet (“COVID-19 cytokine storm: the interplay between inflammation and coagulation”) reported:The pathophysiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-induced ARDS has similarities to that of severe community-acquired pneumonia caused by other viruses or bacteria. The overproduction of early response proinflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor [TNF], IL-6, and IL-1β) results in what has been described as a cytokine storm, leading to an increased risk of vascular hyperpermeability, multiorgan failure, and eventually death when the high cytokine concentrations are unabated over time. Therefore, therapeutic strategies under investigation are targeting the overactive cytokine response with anticytokine therapies or immunomodulators, but this must be balanced with maintaining an adequate inflammatory response for pathogen clearance.Activation of coagulation pathways during the immune response to infection results in overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines leading to multiorgan injury. Although the main function of thrombin is to promote clot formation by activating platelets and by converting fibrinogen to fibrin, thrombin also exerts multiple cellular effects and can further augment inflammation via proteinase-activated receptors (PARs), principally PAR-1. Thrombin generation is tightly controlled by negative feedback loops and physiological anticoagulants, such as antithrombin III, tissue factor pathway inhibitor, and the protein C system. During inflammation, all three of these control mechanisms can be impaired, with reduced anticoagulant concentrations due to reduced production and increasing consumption. This defective procoagulant–anticoagulant balance predisposes to the development of microthrombosis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and multiorgan failure—evidenced in severe COVID-19 pneumonia with raised d-dimer concentrations being a poor prognostic feature and disseminated intravascular coagulation common in non-survivors.An April 2020 pre-print in The Journal of Infectious Disease, “The pathogenesis and treatment of the ‘Cytokine Storm’ in COVID-19,” defined the term in its abstract:Cytokine storm is an excessive immune response to external stimuli. The pathogenesis of the cytokine storm is complex. The disease progresses rapidly, and the mortality is high. Certain evidence shows that, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, the severe deterioration of some patients has been closely related to the cytokine storm in their bodies. This article reviews the occurrence mechanism and treatment strategies of the COVID-19 virus-induced inflammatory storm in attempt to provide valuable medication guidance for clinical treatment.A May 1 2020 Health.com piece indicated that doctors were hamstrung by a lack of existing data on the illness and cytokine response:There isn’t much data available on how many patients recover from cytokine storms, especially ones caused by the novel coronavirus, though Dr. Fichtenbaum says the fatality rate is higher for patients who experience this heightened inflammatory response.COVID-19 Victims Die Alone, and They’re Buried AloneIn one of her later tweets, Kalb said victims of COVID-19 “die alone from COVID,” and “will be buried alone.”A commonly-reported side effect of the coronavirus pandemic was the lonely deaths of those killed by the novel virus — a “frightening reality” causing further distress to hospital staff.Similarly, the banning or discontinuation of funerals during the pandemic has been a feature of it both within and outside the United States. Footage of mass burials in New York City showed the internment of dozens of COVID-19 victims without a single witness:Is New York City Planning ‘Temporary Mass Graves’ in Central Park?Then Why Isn’t This Making National Headlines?Various elements of Kalb’s tweets appeared in reporting by the Washington Post, NPR, Popular Science, and Health.com — those just being articles we included in our references. Additional citations appeared in major medical journals such as The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine, among many others. Although COVID-19 as a topic dominated headlines, related coagulopathy and “random strokes” were a major portion of medical reporting — as was the “dying alone” and being “buried alone” aspect.Are the Tweets Accurate?Kalb’s first tweet said that COVID-19’s effects on a patient’s blood were like “sticking your finger in an electric socket”; she went on to describe clotting disorders, strokes, and other cardiovascular features of COVID-19.Those complications have been widely covered by news outlets and medical journals, many of which emphasized the virus was affecting patients (and the young) in unexpected and frightening ways. Her claims about blood disorders, clotting, and strokes were supported by this reporting, as are claims that COVID-19 victims often died in isolation.Comments Claim: COVID-19 doctors are reporting inexplicable blood-clotting and hematological complications in otherwise young and healthy patients.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The 6-2 vote Tuesday by the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners came after a contentious hours-long meeting. County officials say the health department needs the currently leased space for immunizations and other services. Planned Parenthood has 90 days to leave. Planned Parenthood’s clinic provides general health services, physician referrals, birth control, pregnancy testing, emergency contraceptives and HIV/STD testing. The clinic doesn’t perform abortions, but some argued abortion was a key issue in the debate since Planned Parenthood offers abortion services elsewhere. Jim Norton, a vice president of development for Planned Parenthood, said: “We should be talking about expanding health care services to the community, not shrinking them.” Claim: County board votes to evict Planned Parenthood health clinic.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While this story focused on what researchers believed is a new form of vertigo, they did mention that it could be treated by an unnamed medication. The story should have named the medication, and the cost. The story fails to provide clear information on benefits. It does effectively quantify the number of patients in the study thought to have this new form of vertigo — 35 — and also cited how many patients with it who appeared to benefit from the unnamed medication — one-third of 20. It’s worth noting that those suspected of having this new form of vertigo comprise only 10 percent of those recruited in the study, and only two percent of the total recruited were successfully treated by the unnamed medication. The story focuses on the diagnosis of a suspected new form of vertigo so possible false diagnoses are a possible harm. And, the unnamed medication likely carries side effects. The story provides little about the quality of the evidence behind this diagnosis, and the treatment for it. For starters, it would have been helpful to have more information about how this “study” was conducted–was it randomized and controlled? What were the limitations? There is no pathophysiological or biological basis for the disease and only the vaguest of information about the disease as being defined simply by an abnormal test. The story should have provided some counter-balance to this viewpoint — is it really a new diagnosis? The story provides only one source — a member of the research team — and no independent sources. It doesn’t disclose who funded the study, either. The story describes a proposed new diagnosis so suggesting alternatives doesn’t apply. The mechanism for diagnosis of this supposed new form of vertigo is explained by both the news story and the original paper. It requires some sort of audio-visual equipment to record eye movements, and there was discussion of a non-named medication providing relief. There is not enough information to fully inform the reader about the availability of getting screened for this type of vertigo, nor how to treat it. The diagnosis of a new form of a medical condition, if confirmed by later research, seems novel enough to justify news coverage. This story seems to rely heavily on information from a news release. It lifts a quote directly from an American Academy of Neurology news release–without attribution–and appears to have borrowed several descriptions with only limited rewriting. For example, this quote that appears in the story: “These conditions can be difficult to diagnose and quite debilitating for people, so it’s exciting to be able to discover this new diagnosis of a condition that may respond to treatment,” said Dr. Ji-Soo Kim, a researcher at Seoul National University in South Korea. Also appears in the news release. Claim: Newly Identified Form of Vertigo Responds to Treatment",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The treatment is daily capsules of peanut powder that gradually help children build up a tolerance. The outside panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted overwhelmingly in favor of the treatment from Aimmune Therapeutics. The nonbinding vote amounts to an endorsement for approval. The FDA is expected to make its final decision by January. The panelists said the medication was an important option for parents and children dealing with peanut allergies. However, several also said they had concerns because the pill has to be taken continuously to maintain its effect. An estimated 1.6 million children and teenagers in the U.S. would be eligible for the medication, to be sold as Palforzia, which is intended for ages 4 to 17. Peanut allergy is the most common food allergy in the country and the standard treatment involves strictly monitoring what children eat. That approach doesn’t always work and accidental exposure is common, sending 1 in 4 children with peanut allergies to the emergency room every year. Parents at Friday’s meeting urged approval of the drug, describing the anxiety of watching their children’s diet and daily routine, even avoiding public places and transportation because of possible peanut residues. “These are constant and real fears with extreme consequences,” said Cathy Heald of Dallas, whose 12-year-old son Charlie took part in a study of the treatment. Heald said her son’s improved tolerance allowed him to travel overseas by himself for the first time. “The peace of mind this treatment brings is invaluable” said Hill, whose trip to the meeting was paid by Aimmune. After one year, about 66% of study participants who took the pills could tolerate the equivalent of three to four peanuts, compared to just 4% of patients who received a dummy treatment. At the beginning of the study, most participants could not tolerate even a minuscule amount of peanuts. But the benefits of the treatment came with risks. More than 9% of patients taking the pills reported severe allergic reactions, more than twice the number in the placebo group. And 11% of patients dropped out of the company’s study due to side effects. “The effectiveness of the treatment has, in fact, not been demonstrated,” said Dr. John Kelso, of Scripps Clinic in San Diego, who voted against the treatment. The California-based company has previously said it expects the first six months of treatment to cost $5,000 to $10,000 and $300 to $400 a month after that. The company declined to elaborate on price earlier this week. Aimmune is pursuing other treatments for common food allergies, including eggs. The company does not yet have any products on the market. ___ Follow Matthew Perrone on Twitter: @AP_FDAwriter ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: Health experts back treatment for kids with peanut allergy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got into a tussle over their differing foreign policy visions at the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire. Sanders criticized Clinton for being too hawkish in the Middle East. \"I think -- and I say this with due respect -- that I worry too much that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be,\" he said Dec. 19. \"Yes, we could get rid of (former Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein, but that destabilized the entire region. Yes, we could get rid of (former Libyan dictator Muammar) Gaddafi, a terrible dictator, but that created a vacuum for ISIS. Yes, we could get rid of (Syrian dictator Bashar) Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS. So I think, yeah, regime change is easy, getting rid of dictators is easy. But before you do that, you've got to think about what happens the day after.\" Clinton shot back, \"With all due respect, senator, you voted for regime change with respect to Libya. You joined the Senate in voting to get rid of Gaddafi, and you asked that there be a Security Council validation of that with a resolution.\" We wondered if Clinton was right -- that Sanders previously wanted the Libyan leader gone, even though he now views Gaddafi’s ousting as a cautionary tale. The vote The U.S. military spent about $2 billion and several months backing the Libyan uprising against Gaddafi, who had held power for decades. The uprising -- part of the Arab Spring -- toppled Gaddafi in August 2011, and rebel forces killed him the following October. Congress never voted to authorize U.S. military action in Libya, so what is Clinton talking about? On March 1, 2011, the Senate approved a resolution \"strongly condemning the gross and systematic violations of human rights in Libya.\" The Senate approved the resolution by unanimous consent, so senators never actually voted on it. But Sanders showed his support by joining in as one of 10 cosponsors. The resolution called for peaceful regime change, saying Gaddafi should \"desist from further violence, recognize the Libyan people’s demand for democratic change, resign his position and permit a peaceful transition to democracy.\" A Senate resolution carries very little weight. It has no legal teeth and is more like a statement expressing the general \"sense of Congress,\" said Joshua Huder, senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University. \"In effect, all this resolution does is say, ‘Gaddafi is a bad person and should stop,’ \" Huder said, noting that this document cannot be interpreted as expression of congressional intent to take specific action to oust Gaddafi. Sanders’ campaign said Clinton was misrepresenting his record because the Senate resolution was nonbinding and not a show of support for U.S. military action. In a March 28, 2011, interview, Sanders described his position toward regime change in Libya. He wanted Gaddafi gone, but not at all costs. \"Look, everybody understands Gaddafi is a thug and murderer,\" Sanders said to Fox News. \"We want to see him go, but I think in the midst of two wars (in Iraq and Afghanistan), I'm not quite sure we need a third war, and I hope the president tells us that our troops will be leaving there, that our military action in Libya will be ending very, very shortly.\" Clinton also said Sanders’ vote signaled support for United Nations action to get rid of Gaddafi. The Senate resolution asked \"the United Nations Security Council to take such further action as may be necessary to protect civilians in Libya from attack, including the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan territory.\" The two related U.N. resolutions -- 1970 and 1973 -- called for drastic measures to pressure Gaddafi to stop his alleged human rights abuses, including establishing a no-fly zone and imposing an asset freeze on members of the regime. Neither resolution explicitly call for regime change, though. But Clinton as secretary of state and leaders from other countries did use the two U.N. resolutions as a platform to take actions that they hoped would pressure Gaddafi to step down and allow a transition to democracy. \"While our military mission is focused on saving lives, we must continue to pursue the broader goal of a Libya that belongs not to a dictator, but to the Libyan people,\" Clinton said at the International Conference on Libya March 29, 2011. Our ruling Clinton said Sanders \"voted for regime change with respect to Libya.\" The reality is a bit more complicated than the sound bite. Sanders supported a non-binding Senate resolution that called on Gaddafi to resign his post in a peaceful, democratic transition of power. While the Senate passed the resolution by unanimous consent -- meaning no one actually voted on it -- Sanders was one of 10 cosponsors. At the time, Sanders told the media he wanted Gaddafi out of power, but it might not be worth it if it required sustained U.S. military involvement. We rate Clinton's statement . Claim: Hillary Clinton Says Bernie Sanders \"voted for regime change with respect to Libya.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In September 2017, the Facebook page The Crisis Actor falsely reported that a woman photographed at the scene of a bomb attack in London days earlier was, in fact, an American actor who was taking part in a hoax. Their post accompanied a photograph of a woman incorrectly identified as an “actress” named Nora Kirkpatrick, who portrayed Esther Bruegger in the NBC television series The Office and plays accordion with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros:   The Crisis Actor’s Facebook post, which has since been deleted, also included a series of other claims and rhetorical questions intended to suggest that the 15 September 2017 bomb attack on a London Underground train at Parsons Green was a hoax. We will individually address each of these claims, which we have found to all be either false, misleading, or irrelevant. The woman whose image was widely used in coverage of the bomb attack is not the American actor Nora Kirkpatrick. This becomes quite clear when  her appearance is compared to that of Kirkpatrick‘s. Indeed, in response to our queries the Crisis Actor accepted that the two pictured women are not the same person. A Facebook post issued by Kirkpatrick on 15 September 2017  suggested she was in Los Angeles at the time of the attack, not in London. The other claims made in the now-deleted Crisis Actor post included the following: 1. One of the “PC’s” was wearing jeans. In response to our request for evidence documenting this statement, the Crisis Actor directed us to a PA Images photograph taken on the day of the attack, which seemingly shows a PC (i.e., police constable) clad in jeans. However, there are several non-suspect explanations for why a police officer might be wearing jeans at a given moment, and in this case the photograph shows four police officers at work near the site of the bomb attack who apparently were simply wearing plain clothes at that moment. In any case, it stretches credulity to propose that an extremely complicated “false flag” operation orchestrated by sophisticated forces such as the Metropolitan Police and U.K. intelligence services were caught out because a participant slipped up and forgot to wear the right trousers. 2. The police car registration number LX13 AOS shown in the incident is a hire car from a film props company. The reg is up for tax next year. The police do not tax their vehicles. This statement is demonstrably false. We found one photograph of a vehicle that may have borne this license plate (i.e., registration) number: A police van seen on the right-hand side of a PA Images photograph taken near Parsons Green on the day of the attack appears to bear the license plate LX13 AOS. However, this van (a Vauxhall Vivaro) has been part of the British Transport Police fleet since at least as far back as May 2014, according to the British Transport Police;s response to a Freedom of Information request. In response to our questions, the Crisis Actor admitted that the police van “seems to be a bogus lead” and accepted that it “appears” to be an authentic police vehicle rather than a rented prop. 3. The lady pictured with her “burnt” ear in a bandage … was pictured using her phone next to the same ear. It’s not clear from the photograph how badly the woman in question was hurt, nor exactly what part of her head might have been injured. If she was photographed using a cellphone, it’s not possible to draw any conclusions about what that means: she might have placed the phone next to an uninjured ear, or her ear may not have sustained damage so severe that using it with a cellphone was necessarily difficult or painful (especially in the context of an emergency during which contacting loved ones would likely have been a priority). The Crisis Actor directed us to a photograph that appeared on the Metro news web site, but that image was too blurry to definitively identify whether the woman captured on a cell phone in the background of that photograph was the same woman pictured the photograph used in the Crisis Actor’s Facebook post. 4. The “gas” ignited inside the whole length of a train carriage with the doors closed. But why no smoke, no heat damage to the carriage, papers unburnt on the floor, no windows blown out, no deafened “victims”. This aspect of the Parsons Green attack is one most commonly cited as evidence the incident was a staged hoax. The failure of the bomb to cause extensive damage to the interior of the train carriage, the survival of the plastic bag and bucket that contained the bomb, the absence of plumes of smoke in the aftermath of the bomb, and the widespread lack of visible scorching on victims — elements familiar from the scenes of many homemade bomb attacks in confined spaces — are genuinely puzzling at first glance. We consulted explosives expert Dr. Sidney Alford about this aspect, who proposed some possible explanations for the absence of damage often observed in homemade bombs. Primarily, Alford said, the evidence he had seen in news reports about the Parsons Green attack appeared consistent with a TATP (triacetone triperoxide) device that simply did not detonate properly. We have highlighted observations made by Dr. Alford which are particularly relevant to the points made by Parsons Green conspiracy theorists: Traditional military explosives such as are (or were) used in artillery shells and aircraft bombs usually contained substances, such as TNT and ammonium picrate, which were not oxygen balanced; that is, the carbon to oxygen balance is very high and their detonation is characterized by the production of a lot of carbon, whence the copious black smoke (and usually a fire-ball) produced. This is not a characteristic of all explosives however and TATP does not decompose to a similar extent: indeed, it produces very little if any smoke. Neither does it produce a significant flash. Unlike TNT, which it is very difficult to cause to explode by hammering on a metal surface, and which burns quietly, TATP is notoriously sensitive to friction and percussion, most of which cause it to detonate. There are several factors which can cause TATP to be less susceptible to detonation of which the amateur is frequently unaware. In the present case I expect that the person who prepared the bomb had little previous experience either of its preparation or of its use. It is quite probable that no detonation occurred and such explosion as did occur was only deflagration – that is, rapid burning. The little damage done to the overall package and its contents show unambiguously that no large and violent explosion occurred. No shock-wave and no volume of gaseous products sufficient to break windows were generated. Clearly many passengers received quite a shock and heard something of a bang. However, I have not seen any reports of damaged ear drums or fragment injuries. The big question as far as I was concerned was the nature of the apparently remaining contents of the bottom of the bag. It is possible that that was a much larger quantity of TATP than the part which obviously decomposed with some violence. It is equally possible that only a modest amount TATP was present and that that was intended to initiate a larger amount of another explosive beneath it. In other words, the TATP was a mere booster. My own observations of one or two newspaper photographs of the passengers who were obviously injured and “burnt” in fact suggested that they may have consisted of chemical “burns” rather than wounds attributable to exposure to very high temperatures. Indeed, the injuries to the legs of a boy being carried by two uniformed helpers appeared to me (on the rather poor photograph) to resemble the injuries caused by concentrated hydrogen peroxide solution. If this interpretation is correct then the bang which passengers reported was merely the means of ignition of the TATP, the visible white substance was unreacted TATP, and the main charge remained uninitiated in the bottom part of the bag. Little if any blast damage occurred and few if any serious fragment projection injuries were caused. I see no reason why the event should be described as a hoax. Had the type of bomb I suspect detonated then the windows would, indeed, have broken, the carriage burst open and many passengers dismembered. Claim: The actor Nora Kirkpatrick \"played\" a victim as part of a fake terrorist bomb attack at Parsons Green in London.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of costs. The exact number of sessions necessary, the duration of treatment and the repeat treatments through time are not discussed, either. But, an idea of cost is important–this treatment is unlikely to be covered by insurance, and readers given hope by this story will want to know how much it may cost. While Robison refers to improvements in his life, there is no discussion of how long the effects last, what changes occurred and how they actually benefited Robison. And, while personal anecdotes are powerful, they don’t provide evidence that can be used to assess the likelihood of benefit or harm in general. A discussion of the research in this area should have been included. The story does describe harms that affected the man highlighted in this piece. While that’s important for understanding his story, the descriptions provided do not help the reader determine how common these harms may be nor the severity of the negative aspects identified. Studies of TMS for the treatment of other disorders–for example, depression–could have been cited to establish common risks and side effects. There is no evidence provided except for anecdotes. If there isn’t any substantial research on this topic, the story could have said so. At the very least, the story could’ve described the larger results of the study that Robison took part in. There is no disease mongering. There are no well proven, effective treatments for autism spectrum disorder. Given that this is primarily an interview with a book author, we’ll rate this N/A. However, a source who is independent of the book author (the only other person quoted is one of the research doctors), could have provided important perspectives on the treatment being discussed anecdotally. There is no discussion of alternatives–either of alternative treatments the patient received, or of general options for people with autism. It is clear that transcranial magnetic stimulation is available because it is used to treat depression. It is also clear from the story that TMS’s use for treating autism is still not routine or even necessarily recommended. Though TMS isn’t new, its use for autism should still be considered novel. As the story states “TMS is not yet recommended as an autism treatment.” This story was obviously written from an interview of the author and his doctor. It did not rely on a news release. Claim: Tracking the risks and rewards of transcranial magnetic stimulation",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Davidoff, a Microsoft Corp employee, has been told to work from home to slow the spread of the virus. He thinks his daughter, and other children in Lake Washington School District (LWSD) should do the same after 11 people died in the state from COVID-19. “LWSD is doing everything they can to get me sick,” said Davidoff, 59, among over 20,000 people to sign an online petition demanding school closures. But in a controversy like ones playing out in New York and Los Angeles, the Seattle school district is staying open. “School closures can be disruptive and costly for families,” LWSD said in a statement, recommending schools not shut unless there were COVID-19 exposure risks. The dilemma over whether to close schools has rolled into the United States as U.S. coronavirus cases top 200. The outbreak has had an unprecedented impact on schools worldwide, the education of over 290 million students affected in 13 countries, according to the United Nations. Closures have long been a U.S. response to influenza, a dangerous and highly contagious disease for students. But health authorities are rethinking their approach for coronavirus, shown to have limited effects on children. “Do we really want to close schools or do we want to keep schools open so faculty can continue to come in and serve children?” said Jeffrey Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County. Not all of Seattle’s schools are staying open. Northshore School District closed on Thursday, citing possible exposure of staff to COVID-19 and a student absentee rate of 20 percent. It said children’s education would continue online. Davidoff said other districts should follow suit. “Kids will have mild exposure but they will be spreading it to vulnerable parents,” said the Redmond software engineer. Having a large portion of the more than 56 million school children in the United States stay home for weeks or even months could have unwelcome societal and economic impacts. Schools offer much more than education, providing meals to over 30 million students, according to the Food Research & Action Center. They give free child care to working families, with around a quarter of the U.S. workforce having no paid sick leave if forced to stay home with kids. School closures could have a paradoxical effect on coronavirus spread. If children are carrying the infection but not showing symptoms, they could be an invisible reservoir for community spread, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Duchin said sending students home to grandparents or older caregivers could expose them to the virus. And students sent home often gather together at places like malls, risking community spread. “If kids are not getting infected and they’re not getting sick, then the last thing you want to do is shut down a school,” said Osterholm, citing data that only 2.1 percent of China coronavirus cases were among those 19 or younger. Closure proponent Satya Ananthu expected children to spread COVID-19 to their families if schools did not shut. “Having kids in school will make them carriers of the virus to older people,” said Ananthu, a tech worker who started an online petition for a shutdown in Everett, Washington. Parents like Alicia Aguirre, in Los Angeles are taking matters into their own hands, keeping children home. “I am going to go by the week and the numbers,” said Aguirre, 27. Others such as Jamilah Mabruk, 36, are conflicted. She lives 10 minutes from the Kirkland area of Seattle where nearly all the state’s deaths have been reported among nursing home residents. Her 15-year-old daughter is opposed to missing school, conscious of grades, but suffers from asthma and could be vulnerable. “My anxiety is out the roof. I am very concerned because every day there is something new ... a new death,” said Mabruk, who sends her daughter off with a pack of Clorox travel wipes. (GRAPHIC: Tracking the novel coronavirus  - here) Claim: 'Do we really want to close schools?' U.S. authorities resist coronavirus closures.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release notes, near the bottom, that low-dose aspirin is inexpensive. That’s enough to earn it a satisfactory rating here since low-dose aspirin is indeed inexpensive. Costs for a bottle of 300 tablets currently range from $3.47 to $12.49 according to an online search. The release shares relative risk reduction numbers only, not the actual numbers of people who reduced their risk of breast cancer by taking aspirin. The release notes that the research team “saw an overall 16 percent lower risk of breast cancer in women who reported using low-dose aspirin at least three times per week. Such regular use of low-dose aspirin reduced the risk by 20 percent of estrogen or progesterone receptor positive, HER2 negative breast cancer, which is the most common breast cancer subtype.” That’s fine. The problem is that, as noted above, this was an observational study, not a clinical study designed to determine whether a specific intervention (i.e., aspirin use) was responsible for reducing cancer risk. The release doesn’t address potential harms at all — and regular use of low-dose aspirin isn’t for everyone. As the Mayo Clinic notes, people with some medical conditions are at greater risk of complications associated with daily aspirin therapy. It’s well known that daily aspirin use can cause serious gastrointestinal bleeding in some people, which is why experts recommend a careful risk-benefit calculation even where benefits are more conclusively established — as in the prevention of heart disease. It’s irresponsible not to mention those risks in the context of a speculative benefit such as breast cancer prevention. Observational studies, like this one, can only identify correlations. In this case, the researchers found that women who took low doses of aspirin on a regular basis were less likely to get breast cancer. However, these studies can’t prove a causal relationship — i.e., that the action (taking aspirin) caused the result (reduced risk of breast cancer). The release does not make that clear, which is important. The release also doesn’t address whether other factors — such as age, weight, lifestyle choices, etc. — may have contributed to the difference in breast cancer rates. The release notes that all of this information was collected, but doesn’t explain how (or whether) it was used by the research team. Another important omission in the release was that more than 4,000 women who had developed breast cancer before the 10-year follow-up were excluded from the study. This should have been mentioned as a limitation. We wonder how these women who were excluded differed in their low-dose aspirin intake from those who developed breast cancer later on. No disease mongering here. The release mentions that HER2 negative is the most common type of breast cancer. The release clearly identifies the sources of funding. It does not address conflicts of interest, but there do not appear to be any relevant conflicts of interest. Still, the release would have been stronger if it had stated that explicitly. There are a host of things that women can do to reduce their risk of breast cancer. However, none of these things are mutually exclusive. One can be physically active and limit alcohol intake, for example. None of these other ways to reduce breast cancer risk are mentioned. The release explicitly states that low-dose aspirin is “readily available” and that’s widely known to be the case. The release claimed novelty head on, noting that the study “is the first to suggest that the reduction in risk occurs for low-dose aspirin” and “This study differed from other studies that have looked at aspirin and cancer risk because it focused on the dose levels of the aspirin women had taken and tracked the frequency of the use of low-dose aspirin as opposed to regular aspirin. It was also able to look in detail at subtypes of breast cancer.” That may be a bit of hair-splitting. Aspirin (perhaps at different dosages) has been studied as a potential preventative in breast cancer previously. The American Cancer Society noted on its website in 2015 that “None of these studies are randomized trials, the most reliable type of study, where people are randomly assigned to take either aspirin or a placebo pill.” The release doesn’t rely on overtly sensational terms like “breakthrough” or “cure.” We’ve already commented on the inappropriate causal language such as found in the headline which states “regular use of aspirin can lower risk of breast cancer for women” and in the first sentence which claims the study “found that the use of low-dose aspirin (81mg) reduces the risk of breast cancer in women who are part of the California’s Teacher’s Study.” The study found a correlation between those two things, but that’s all. Claim: City of Hope researchers find regular use of aspirin can lower risk of breast cancer for women",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday that New Mexico Oncology and Hematology Consultants Ltd. filed the lawsuit in 2012 after a long relationship ended between Presbyterian Healthcare Services and the company. Judge Martha Vazquez has ruled last month that there is no evidence Presbyterian engaged in anti-competitive conduct. Officials say the lawsuit alleges that Presbyterian retaliated against the doctors after it built an oncology clinic in Albuquerque by pressing patients to change doctors and seek care elsewhere among other actions designed to hurt business at the New Mexico Cancer Center. Presbyterian officials have denied the allegations against them. Officials say Presbyterian has the largest health care delivery system in the state and insures hundreds of thousands of state residents. Officials say the New Mexico Cancer Center has established several statewide satellite offices and is run by former American Medical Association Barbara McAneny. Claim: Judge dismisses lawsuit against New Mexico health provider.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In July 2020, several social media users started posting about “Operation Lockstep,” a document allegedly released by The Rockefeller Foundation that showed how global elites had planned to manufacture the COVID-19 pandemic for the last 10 years in order to implement a police state:  Like most conspiracy theories, “Operation Lockstep” is based on a small grain of truth: In 2010, the Rockefeller Foundation funded a scenario-planning exercise that envisioned how hypothetical future events could impact the development of technology. This document, however, does not provide any sort of “operation manual” for how to manufacture a global pandemic. Rather, it envisions how the world would be impacted in four different scenarios (including a global pandemic). When we look at this rumor a little closer, it becomes clear that what is being called “Operation Lockstep” has very few similarities to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that much of the fear about this document was manufactured by purveyors of misinformation. What Is “Operation Lockstep: From the Rockefeller Playbook”? It Doesn’t Exist. For starters, the above-displayed image entitled “Operation Lockstep: From the Rockefeller Playbook” is presented as if it shows a screenshot from a document published by The Rockefeller Foundation. However, there is no document called “Operation Lockstep,” and this image did not come from a “Rockefeller Playbook.” Those spreading this rumor have linked “Operation Lockstep” to a report entitled “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development” that was published by The Rockefeller Foundation in 2010. The “Scenarios for the Future of Technology” document envisions four scenario narratives, only one of which, dubbed “Lock Step,” deals with a global pandemic. The text in the above-displayed image, “1st Phase: Common cold/flu. Mild symptoms at most. Media endorsement of mass paranoia and fear. Flawed testing system utilized, which picks up any genetic material in the body and triggers a positive result. Inflation of Covid case numbers, through changing of death certificates, double-counting, and classifying all deaths including other disease and natural causes as COVID19. Lockdown will condition us to life under Draconian laws, prevent protests and identify public resistance,” etc., does not appear anywhere in this document. In fact, nowhere in the “Lock Step” section of “Scenarios for the Future of Technology” is the word “COVID” even mentioned. Does the Quote “Under the Guise of a Pandemic, We Will Create a Prison State” Come from the Rockefeller Foundation? No. Rumors about “Operation Lockstep” are often shared on social media along with the quote: “Under the guise of a pandemic, we will create a prison state.” Again, this quote does not appear anywhere in the actual document from the Rockefeller Foundation. This quote appears to come from the Wordpress blog envirowatchrangitikei’s faulty interpretation of the “Scenarios for the Future of Technology” document. While the Rockefeller Foundation did envision a world where governments implemented stricter rules to combat the pandemic (including the mandatory requirement to wear face masks), they did not warn about a “prison state.” More importantly, however, the genuine report from The Rockefeller Foundation did not envision a future in which world leaders manufactured a pandemic to implement a prison state. A section of this document envisions how global leaders would react to a real pandemic, not how they would create a fake one. What Are the Similarities Between “Operation Lockstep” and COVID-19? Few and Far Between. While the “Lock Step” section of the actual document does deal with a global pandemic, the similarities between The Rockefeller Foundation’s envisioned scenario and the current COVID-19 crisis are few and far between. For instance, the hypothetical pandemic envisioned by foundation started in 2012, originated in wild geese, and killed 8 million people in the first 7 months. Comparatively speaking, the COVID-19 pandemic began at the end of 2019, is widely believed to have originated with bats, and, according to John Hopkins University, has killed just over 600,000 people within an approximate 7 month time-span. The “Lock Step” scenario also envisioned that the majority of deaths during this hypothetical global pandemic would take places like Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America. As of this writing, the most deaths from COVID-19 — about 140,000 — have taken place in the United States. A video report from news outlet WUSA9 on the differences and similarities between this rumor and the actual document from The Rockefeller Foundation can be viewed here. Why Did the Rockefeller Foundation Produce “The Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development” Report? To Better Prepare for the Future. Claim: The COVID-19 pandemic was planned by the Rockefeller Foundation in \"Operation Lockstep.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Statistics are a common feature of online political debate, and statistical comparisons can often be a powerful rhetorical tool, especially if they are striking or unexpected — thereby forming the basis of eye-catching and “shareable” social media memes. At the end of 2018, one such meme sought to force readers to reevaluate their perception of various risks and harms in American society, arguing that when it comes to sheer fatalities, terrorism and the consequences of illegal immigration pale in comparison to a lack of affordable healthcare. The left-leaning “Teanderthal Party” Facebook page posted a meme which contained the claim that “More Americans die every year from lack of affordable healthcare than from terrorist attacks and illegal immigration combined”:  Terrorist attacks are relatively very rare events in the United States and in recent years have resulted in a relatively very small number of fatalities. No single, universally-accepted definition of a terrorist attack exists, but the term’s distinguishing characteristic is that, roughly speaking, it describes an attack driven by some cause (e.g., political, religious, environmental) rather than a criminal motive or personal grievance. Furthermore, except in cases of assassination, the victims of terrorist acts are typically not known or individually targeted in advance. They are either arbitrary (for example the passengers of a commercial jet converted into a weapon by Al-Qaeda operatives and used to destroy the World Trade Center) or part of a group which is symbolically targeted (for example, worshippers at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, where a neo-Nazi assailant shot dead six people on the basis of their perceived religious faith, in 2012). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines terrorist acts as falling into two categories: International terrorism: Perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored) — for example, the December 2, 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, CA, that killed 14 people and wounded 22 which involved a married couple who radicalized for some time prior to the attack and were inspired by multiple extremist ideologies and foreign terrorist organizations. Domestic terrorism: Perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with primarily U.S.-based movements that espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. — for example, the June 8, 2014 Las Vegas shooting, during which two police officers inside a restaurant were killed in an ambush-style attack, which was committed by a married couple who held anti-government views and who intended to use the shooting to start a revolution. A couple of unofficial but robust sources of data on deaths from terrorist attacks in the United States have been active in recent years. The first is the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), which is linked to the Department of Homeland Security and led by the University of Maryland. ; According to START figures, between 1995 and 2017 show 3,516 deaths associated with 694 terrorist attacks of all varieties (international and domestic), yielding a mean (average) of 153 deaths per year. However, around 3,000 of those fatalities were associated with a single set of events: the Al-Qaeda attacks of 11 September 2001. In order to find out what the typical number of deaths per year was during this period, we must calculate the median, a type of average that strips away the impact of outliers such as 9/11. The median (or typical) annual number of terrorism-related deaths in the United States between 1995 and 2017 was four — a number that makes sense when one considers that in 10 of the 23 years in question the number of deaths was fewer than three. If we focus in on the five most recent years (2013-2017), we find a clear increase in the number of terrorism-related deaths, with 266 in total and an annual average of 53. The median (typical) number of deaths per year was 54 during this period. The second source is a major report published in 2016 by the conservative-leaning think thank the Cato Institute. Their “Terrorism and Immigration Risk Analysis” collated data from nine different sources but focused exclusively on terrorist acts perpetrated by foreign-born assailants in the United States. According to the report, between 1975 and 2015 a total of 2,983 deaths occurred that were related to terrorist attacks perpetrated by non-U.S. born attackers. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of these resulted from the September 11th attacks. These numbers work out to an average of 73 deaths related to foreign-perpetrated terrorism, but it’s important to note that in 30 out of the 41 years in question not a single such death occurred, and the median (typical) annual number of deaths relating to foreign terrorism was actually zero. It’s not made explicit, but the meme’s mention of illegal immigration is almost certainly a reference to homicides committed by undocumented immigrants within the United States, something that is often talked up as a threat by those in favor of stricter immigration enforcement and border security, not least of all President Donald Trump. Several studies have shown that undocumented immigrants actually commit crime in general at a lower rate than native-born Americans. We examined that research in greater depth previously. When it comes to the number of homicides attributed to undocumented immigrants, the numbers are less clear, but we do have some indicative data. In 2011, the Government Accountability Office, an objective and non-partisan federal auditing and research agency, published a study on arrests and incarceration among immigrants in the United States. The study concluded that between 1955 and 2010, a total of 25,064 arrests took place of undocumented immigrants on homicide charges. We don’t know what proportion of those arrests advanced to prosecutions, and from there to convictions, but even the highest possible conversion rate of 100 percent would mean there an average of 448 undocumented immigrants per year were convicted of homicides in the United States between 1955 and 2010. Of course, the actual number is likely to be significantly lower than that, since only some arrests will lead to prosecutions, and only some prosecutions will lead to convictions. In 2018, the Cato Institute published a report on the rates of arrest and conviction among immigrants in Texas on charges of homicide, sex crimes, and other serious offenses. The report concluded that, in general, legal and undocumented immigrants committed crime at lower rates than native-born Americans. In particular, the report found that undocumented immigrants accounted for 5.9 percent of homicide convictions in Texas in 2015, despite making up 6.4 percent of the state’s population. Legal immigrants accounted for just 3.8 percent of homicide convictions, despite making up 10.6 percent of the state’s population. By contrast, native-born Americans accounted for 90.3 percent of homicide convictions in 2015, despite making up 83 percent of the Texas population. The rate of homicide conviction among undocumented immigrants in Texas in 2015 was 2.6 convictions for every 100,000 immigrants. If one were to extrapolate from that rate on to the national level, it would work out as 286 homicide convictions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, in 2015, based on an estimated undocumented immigrant population of 11 million. Even if, for some reason, the rate of homicide conviction were remarkably low in Texas — one third the national rate, for the sake of argument — that would still equate to fewer than 1,000 homicide convictions (858) of undocumented migrants in the United States in 2015. If the rate of undocumented-immigrant homicide convictions is the same nationwide as it is in Texas, and if we accept START’s annual average of 153 deaths caused by terrorism per year (even though the average in the last five years has been significantly lower at 53), this gives us a combined total of 439 deaths per year caused by terrorism and undocumented-immigrant homicide. If one allows for the possibility that the rate of undocumented immigrant homicide conviction might be (for the sake of argument) three times higher nationwide than it is in Texas, this yields a combined total of 1,011 deaths per year. The question now is, does that number outstrip the number of deaths caused by a lack of affordable healthcare each year? Recent debates about healthcare in general, and former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in particular, have often featured claims about the number of avoidable deaths caused by a lack of affordable healthcare. The estimates have varied. A 2009 study in the American Journal of Public Health reckoned that 44,789 deaths in the United States in 2005 were associated with a lack of health insurance. In 2016, the left-leaning web site ThinkProgress calculated that the repeal of Obamacare could cause as many as 36,000 deaths per year, based on an estimate that almost 30 million people would lose their health insurance under such a scenario, and after applying the conclusions of a 2014 study from the Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that the introduction of affordable health insurance in Massachusetts in 2007 prevented one death for every 830 individuals who became insured under the program. Using the same 2014 study as their basis, President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers estimated in December 2016 that the provisions of the Affordable Care Act were saving around 24,000 lives per year. Others have pointed out the flaws in such estimates, not least the difficulty in precisely attributing a lack of health insurance as the primary direct cause of a particular individual’s death. In particular, a 2009 study in the journal Health Services Research concluded that: “Adjusted for demographic, health status, and health behavior characteristics, the risk of subsequent mortality is no different for uninsured respondents than for those covered by employer‐sponsored group insurance …” In other words, the study found that lack of health insurance did not cause any otherwise avoidable premature deaths. However, another study that challenged the methodology of earlier estimates and found them to be excessively high still arrived at the conclusion that those who could not afford private health insurance were 3.7 percent more likely to suffer an avoidable death than those who had private health insurance, a ratio that would equate to a significant number of avoidable deaths per year on a national level. It does seem unlikely that the unavailability of affordable healthcare to many U.S. residents accounts for fewer than 1,000 deaths each year — the very high estimate we arrived at as the combined number of deaths attributable to acts of terrorism and homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants. It is also undoubtable that terrorist acts and homicides committed by undocumented immigrants account for a relatively very small portion of all violent deaths in the United States, and certainly a smaller share than might appear to be the case, based on the intense media and political scrutiny they attract. However, it’s unlikely that any research model could arrive at a definitive estimate of the number of people who die premature and avoidable deaths each year as a result of their inability to access health insurance. This is partly due to the inherent complexities and ambiguities involved in that question. Furthermore, we must take into account the absence of uniformly-accepted estimates on the number of fatalities caused by the lack of affordable healthcare, and the existence of at least one peer-reviewed study which concluded that lacking insurance did not cause any substantive difference in the number of deaths. For those reasons, we give a mixed verdict to the claim in the meme, that “More Americans die every year from lack of affordable healthcare than from terrorist attacks and illegal immigration combined.” Claim: Lack of affordable healthcare accounts for a greater number of deaths per year than do terrorist attacks and illegal immigration combined.",
            "output": "1"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Donald Trump called the Affordable Care Act a \"disaster\" that he wants to repeal and that Hillary Clinton would make health care even worse. \"She wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster,\" Trump said during the presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis Oct. 9. \"Somewhat similar to Canada. And if you ever noticed the Canadians -- when they need a big operation when something happens, they come into the United States in many cases because their system is so slow, it's catastrophic in certain ways. But, she wants to go to single payer which means the government basically rules everything.\" Does Clinton want to move the United States to a single-payer system for health care? Clinton’s health care plan Converting Obamacare to a single-payer program would make it, like Medicare, a federal health insurance program run by the federal government. Under a single-payer system, the government provides health care for everyone. Currently, Obamacare promotes policies supplied by private insurance companies. Some Democrats — including, at one time, Barack Obama — pushed for a single-payer system. But there wasn’t enough support for that, and ultimately Congress approved a plan that allows different insurance plans offered in \"marketplaces\" by individual states and the federal government. During the vice presidential debate, Trump’s running mate Gov. Mike Pence made a similar claim that Clinton and and Tim Kaine \"want to expand (Obamacare) into a single-payer program.\" For our fact-check of Pence, Trump spokesman Dan Kowalski pointed us to the health care page on Clinton's website. It indicates \"that she supports a 'public option' for Obamacare,\" Kowalski said. \"A 'public option' is a single-payer-like option for health care delivery.\" Here is exactly what she said on her campaign website about a public option: \"Defend and expand the Affordable Care Act, which covers 20 million people. Hillary will stand up to Republican-led attacks on this landmark law—and build on its success to bring the promise of affordable health care to more people and make a \"public option\" possible. She will also support letting people over 55 years old buy into Medicare.\" So Clinton does want a public option, but she is calling for adding the public option to the existing options. Clinton has consistently said, including during the Oct. 9 debate, that she wants to protect Obamacare from being repealed by the Republicans. She has called for expanding it to include tax credits, eliminating the out-of-network hospital charges many plans levy, and reducing prescription drug costs by removing the ban that prevents the federal government from negotiating drug prices and allowing Americans to important their drugs from countries with cheaper prices. We previously asked the Trump campaign if they had seen any statements from Clinton or Kaine indicating that converting Obamacare into a single-payer system was their eventual goal. Kowalski responded that \"Hillary has committed fully to the public option,\" and as evidence he directed us to comments Clinton made in 1994 when she was first lady. At the time, she predicted that if Congress didn't pass health care reform soon, \"I believe, and I may be totally off base on this, but I believe that by the year 2000 we will have a single-payer system. I don’t think it’s — I don’t even think it’s a close call politically.\" Later in her answer Clinton says there are three ways to get universal health coverage, only one of which is a single-payer system. The other two: an employer mandate or an individual mandate, which is how Obamacare works. WikiLeaks speech excerpt about single-payer A few days after the vice presidential debate, WikiLeaks published emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. A Jan. 25 email from Clinton campaign research director Tony Carrk to Podesta contained excerpts of Clinton’s paid speeches to Wall Street banks. (For months Clinton has faced calls to release the speeches but hasn’t done so.) One excerpt related to single-payer systems was from remarks she gave to \"ECGR Grand Rapids\" on June 17, 2013. She gave a speech to the Economic Club of Grand Rapids in Michigan that day. \"If you look at countries that are comparable, like Switzerland or Germany, for example, they have mixed systems. They don't have just a single-payer system, but they have very clear controls over budgeting and accountability. If you look at the single-payer systems, like Scandinavia, Canada, and elsewhere, they can get costs down because, you know, although their care, according to statistics, overall is as good or better on primary care, in particular, they do impose things like waiting times, you know. It takes longer to get like a hip replacement than it might take here.\" We can’t fully evaluate Clinton’s speech because WikiLeaks published only excerpts. (We asked the Clinton campaign for a fully copy but did not get a response to that request.) However, Clinton praised single-payer because she says it keeps costs down, but she also said that it imposes wait times. And she also praised systems like Switzerland for having clear budget controls and said they don’t have single payer. Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin sent us a brief fact-check in Politico that was headlined: \"No, Clinton has not been after single payer for years.\" One final note: Trump has been all over the map on single-payer health care if we trace his comments back to his first race for president in 2000. \"The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than America. … We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing,\" Trump wrote in his 2000 book The America We Deserve. Other times in the past couple of years he has praised it, but he has also said he doesn’t support it. His campaign plan on his website emphasizes \"free market principles.\" Our ruling Trump says Clinton \"wants to go to a single-payer plan\" for health care. She has consistently said she would fight efforts to repeal Obamacare and would try to improve it. She said she wants a public option to be \"possible\" but she has not  called for moving to a system of only single payer. Clinton has not called for a single-payer plan. At times, she has praised the health care systems of other countries that have a single-payer plan, but she has not advocated that plan for the United States. Claim: Donald Trump Says Hillary Clinton \"wants to go to a single-payer plan\" for health care",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Forms of a “carjacking” alert have been kicking around the Internet since at least February 2004, even though what they describe might more accurately be described as a form of automobile theft rather than a form of carjacking (which involves threatening or attacking the driver of a vehicle to force him out of his car):  Imagine: You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. Then you lock all your doors, start the engine and shift into REVERSE. Habit! You look into the rear-view window to back out of your parking space and you notice a piece of paper, some sort of advertisement stuck to your rear window. So, you shift into PARK, unlock your doors and jump out of your vehicle to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view … when you reach the back of your car, that is when the car-jackers jump out of nowhere … jump into your car and take off — your engine was running, your purse is in the car, and they practically mow you down as they speed off in your car. BE AWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME  Just drive away and remove the paper that is stuck to your window later … and be thankful that you read this email and that you forwarded it to your friends. Please beware that my daughter was coming out of the West York Wal-Mart tonight and as she was walking to her car she noticed that a couple of guys were watching her, she got into her car and locked her doors. As she was leaving she saw what appeared to be a 100.00 dollar bill on her windshield, she was smart enough not to get out of her car at the time because she remember a email that I sent her not that long ago about people putting something on the windshield and when the person gets out to retrieve it they are car jacked. Here’s a pic of the fake money….be careful. Ever since the earliest warnings of this putative form of crime hit the Internet, we have been following news reports for any documented instances of an actual car theft (either perpetrated or merely attempted) that followed the script outlined in the widely-spread e-mailed caution, but we have yet to turn up evidence of so much as one. Were this “lure motorists from their vehicles by leaving flyers on their rear windows, then drive off with their cars” method as commonly in play as suggested in the example above, that surely would not have been the case. Nothing rules out there having been a few thefts carried out in the manner described that we have yet to hear about. But even if that proved to be the case, there is clearly no crime wave, no ever-present danger to motorists everywhere, no flyer-armed menace lurking in the nation’s parking lots. Our law enforcement contacts have also noted that although the process described above could be used by carjackers, they were unfamiliar with any cases of cars being taken in this manner, and the scheme outlined ran contrary to their experience of how carjackers operate. Specifically, they said that carjackings are generally crimes of opportunity, committed by persons in need of quick cash or youngsters either out for a thrill or participating in some rite of passage (such as a gang initiation). Carjackers tend to hang around places where motorists have to stop or exit their vehicles (e.g., intersections, gas stations, car washes, ATMs, freeway on- and off-ramps) and then force the drivers out of their automobiles (or simply take off with the temporarily unoccupied cars). Running around parking lots sticking flyers on windshields and then hanging around to wait for drivers to return to their vehicles involves planning and exposure atypical of most carjackers; they’re more likely to approach occupied vehicles (particularly luxury cars with high resale value) and force the drivers out (by threatening them with weapons and/or physically pulling them out of their seats). They acknowledged, however, that as improvements in car alarms, locking devices, and other anti-theft systems have made it harder to steal unoccupied vehicles, car thieves (i.e., those who boost vehicles on a regular basis, without the use of violence or weaponry) may be resorting to alternative methods such as the one described above. However, attracting attention by plastering parked cars with flyers or fake money, hanging around waiting for the drivers of those vehicles to return to their autos, and hoping that those motorists don’t remove what was left on their windshields or windows before entering their cars (rather than afterwards) isn’t a terribly efficient scheme for grand theft auto. This alert has gained a measure of credibility thanks to it having been forwarded by members of the law enforcement community. Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Terry Granell received the warning via the usual method (a friend e-mailed it to him), thought it something he should pass along to his daughters, and so unthinkingly volleyed it to them from his work account, which automatically appended his official signature block to the mailing. Taking their dad’s e-mail for an official announcement from the Illinois State Police about a mode of crime that agency was dealing with, the alarmed girls passed along the heads up about leaflet-armed carjackers to their friends, who in turn loosed it upon a wider audience. As it sped from one inbox to the next, the alert was presumed authentic because it carried the contact information for a real police officer. Yet appearances to the contrary, Sgt. Granell’s e-mail wasn’t an official statement made on behalf of the Illinois State Police about a form of crime it had noted and wanted the public to guard itself against, it was merely the passing along of a dubious e-mail by a private citizen who just happened to be a police officer. Later versions of this e-mail identified Sgt. Granell as being a member of the Louisiana State Patrol or Louisiana State Police. One of the many versions in circulation commenced:  Detective Bledsoe, of the Florissant, MO Sheriff’s office confirms that this is happening in St. Louis County, Missouri and could be happening near you, so be careful and take note. Leutenant Tony Bartholome of the Missouiri Highway Patrol urges everyone to keep this email circulating — the more people who are aware of this MO, the better. Description of new carjacking scheme:  The Florissant (Missouri) Police Department posted a denial of this claim on their web site:  ERRONEOUS E-MAIL CAUSES ALARM IN CITY OF FLORISSANT Chief William Karabas of the Florissant Police Department wants to make the public aware of an erroneous e-mail circulating in reference to auto thefts, specifically ‘car jacking’ incidents in the City of Florissant. “I want to put an end to this rumor. The City of Florissant has not had any incidents of this nature!”, said Chief Karabas. In fact, the e-mail makes reference to many false claims. Chief Karabas stated, “Some of the points include, referring to the Florissant Police Department as a Sheriffs Department, which we are not, we DO NOT have a Detective Bledsoe, there is NO State Trooper named Bartholome, there is NO Missouri Neighborhood Watch Association, there is NO such address (1456 Washington Ave) in Florissant and the telephone number given on the e-mail is NOT IN SERVICE!”  Again, there is NO validity to this e-mail. It is FALSE. We ask that people be informed and get the correct information. One way to check e-mails for validity is to call your police department or go on-line to check â? ?Urban Legendsâ?? at www.snopes.com  Detective Bledsoe of the infamous warning notoriety is an actual police officer, but he serves with the Montgomery County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office, not the Florissant Police Department. (Montgomery County is just north of Houston.) He came to have this Internet can tied to his tail after receiving the “carjackers using flyers to lure victims from their vehicles” warning in his e-mail in February 2005 and sending it to some friends as an example of what possibly could happen, not realizing that his official signature block would be automatically appended to his forward. He has no personal knowledge of carjackings being carried out by this method, he has not been party to any such investigations, nor was his e-mail meant as an official alert on behalf of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. Since February 2005, Det. Bledsoe has fielded more than 300 phone calls about the warning many presume he authored, with inquiries coming in from all over the country. There is a Lt. Tony Bartolome, but he’s with the Florida Highway Patrol, not Missouri’s. His involvement with the e-mail began in 2004. As Lt. Bartolome stated on the FHP web site: “I got that information four and half years ago from the San Diego police. I passed it on to a couple of friends. I wish I’d never sent it.”  San Diego police Sergeant Jim Shorr said he’s seen the message on the Internet, but to his knowledge San Diego hasn’t had any cases like it. “It was attributed to us,” he said. “But I don’t know where it came from.”  New Zealand experienced a resurgence of the rumor in 2009 when a version in circulation that included the name of a police employee and the NZ Police logo made the rounds. The New Zealand Police said that the rumor “is an urban myth”:  Police are urging people who receive an email about tactics used in supposed ‘carjackings’ to delete it rather than forwarding it to friends and family, as it is an urban myth. The email has been around for some time and appears to be experiencing another circulation surge at the moment. It gained momentum earlier this year as it contains the name of a Police employee and the NZ Police logo — lending it credibility. The email was passed on, albeit with the best of intentions, by the employee, gaining the staff member’s details and Police logo in the process. The email warns recipients to be on the lookout for a piece of paper stuck to the rear window of their vehicle, seen only as they back out of parking spaces. The scenario suggests people then get out of their vehicle to remove the piece of paper, leaving keys in the ignition, the engine running and their bags/purses and other valuables in the car. When the vehicle owner gets out of their car, waiting ‘offenders’ then take the car and its contents. Police say it is easy for people to be taken in by such stories, evidenced by the fact a Police employee saw fit to forward the email on. Police say it’s simply not good practice to exit a vehicle with keys in the ignition, the engine running and valuables inside. In December 2009 the e-mail was attributed to Mark Scheck, an officer with the RCMP in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. While the officer is real, his connection with the e-mail was not, as an article in the Wetaskiwin Times confirmed. Claim: Parking lot carjackers are placing flyers or $100 bills on the windows of automobiles, then taking the cars when drivers step out of their vehicles to remove them.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The WHO is now warning that the battle against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, where it already kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, could be set back by 20 years as countries focus energy and resources on containing the coronavirus. The WHO said new projections indicate that in a worst-case scenario, 769,000 people could die of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa this year as campaigns to combat it are interrupted. That’s more than double the deaths in the last detailed count two years ago, when more than 360,000 people died, and would be the worst figures for the region since 2000. “We must not turn back the clock,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said Thursday. While health experts express fears that the coronavirus pandemic could erode the global fight against many diseases,  sub-Saharan Africa is by far the worst affected by malaria. It had 93% of the world’s cases and 94% of deaths in 2018, the WHO said. The deaths were mainly children under the age of 5. There have already been “severe disruptions” to anti-malaria campaigns and access to anti-malaria medication in Africa, WHO said. The warning came ahead of World Malaria Day on Saturday. Malaria remains one of the leading killers in low-income countries. “I urge all countries to not lose focus on their gains made in health as they adapt to tackle this new threat,” Moeti said. “We saw with the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa that we lost more people to malaria, for instance, than we lost to the Ebola outbreak. Let us not repeat that with COVID-19.” Africa has reported more than 27,000 cases of COVID-19 and nearly 1,300 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The continent is at a point in the outbreak that more than one health expert has referred to as the calm before the storm. “This means that countries across the region have a critical window of opportunity to minimize disruptions in malaria prevention and treatment and save lives,” WHO said in a statement aimed at highlighting the threat malaria still poses. Malaria isn’t the only concern. Immunization campaigns to protect children against measles, polio and yellow fever are also affected, and not just in Africa. Earlier this month, the Measles and Rubella Initiative said more than 24 countries including South Sudan, Mexico and Bangladesh had suspended immunizations, and that figure could rise to 37. More than 117 million children may miss out on receiving possibly life-saving vaccines for measles, which has seen a resurgence in recent years. Perhaps the most alarming suspension of an immunization program has occurred in Congo, where more than 6,000 people have died in the world’s largest current measles outbreak. The outbreak has lasted over a year, an immensely frustrating development for health officials given that a vaccine was developed more than 50 years ago. Claim: Fight against malaria could be set back 20 years, WHO warns.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It carries a powerful double meaning for Robin Lehner, who before the season disclosed his struggles with mental illness and is now a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender. He was a huge reason the Islanders returned to the playoffs after a two-year absence. “It’s been a fun year,” Lehner said. “I feel like I’m playing good. ... Obviously I made some changes. Yeah, it’s clicking.” It’s finally clicking in every possible way for Lehner, who has figured out how to manage a bipolar disorder and thrive on and off the ice. The 27-year-old Swede set a career high with 25 victories, posted a 2.13 goals-against average and .930 save percentage and, in tandem with Thomas Greiss, helped New York go from worst to first in the league in goals allowed. Lehner stopped 130 of the 136 shots he faced in a first-round sweep of the 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to get the Islanders into the second round against Carolina. He didn’t do it all himself, but teammates are quick to say Lehner shouldered the burden to solve his problems. “Robin’s handled a lot of this with his support staff and his family and people that are closest to him, and he’s done a wonderful job with that,” captain Anders Lee said. “The biggest thing is just being there for him, letting him know that we have his back and if he needs to reach out to any of us, just being an outlet.” Lehner first detailed his demons and diagnosis of bipolar 1 with manic phases in an essay published by The Athletic in September. He documented his suicidal thoughts, the game that forced him to seek help from the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse & Behavioral Help program and his path back to the ice. Islanders winger Matt Martin recalls meeting Lehner last summer. Lehner was fresh out of a stint in alcohol rehab and had just landed a contract. “He was kind of on his way back,” Martin recalled. “He had a clear head, but he still had a long way to go from a fitness standpoint and he worked hard every day. He was here all summer getting better.” It had been a rocky road. After he was revealed as a Vezina finalist, Lehner said eight or nine teams were interested in him as a free agent last summer before that list shrunk to two after he and his agent were transparent about his coming out of rehab; one meeting “didn’t go well at all.” Conversations with new Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello changed Lehner’s life. Lamoriello signed Lehner to a $1.5 million, one-year contract that is known in hockey circles as a “prove-it” deal. Lehner has outperformed it by leaps and bounds and the organization has helped him. “It’s not like I’ve been a special case that I need someone holding my hands,” Lehner said. “They’ve been incredibly supportive and open-minded and nonjudgmental and all that stuff.” Lehner said plenty of people deserve credit for his spectacular season, from Lamoriello and new coach Barry Trotz to goaltending guru Mitch Korn and goalie coach Piero Greco. But those around the league believe Lehner also deserves a lot of credit for the courage to tell his story. “We are extraordinarily proud of him both in terms of what he’s been able to accomplish for himself and his family personally,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “I do believe that players and the league based on the profile we have can be role models, can let people who are not processional athletes but who adore the games and professional athletes understand that everybody can have problems and everybody can have issues, it doesn’t matter what your walk of life is and that there is hope and that you can address these things.” Attitudes in hockey have changed since Corey Hirsch tended goal in the NHL and dealt with his own mental health issues, largely in hiding. He, too, has disclosed details publicly to help others learn and understand. “You’re seen as mentally weak. ... I know what I went through and I know the strength you have to have to get to practice every day,” Hirsch said this week. “The excuse that we don’t want someone who has mental illness because I can’t win a Stanley Cup with them or have a successful team, Robin Lehner just blew that out of the water.” Lehner did so after the Islanders made him part of their plan at goaltender after struggling at that position last season. They’ve since watched him turn into a leading piece of a playoff run for a franchise starved for postseason success over the past quarter century. “Robin has got his life in order,” Trotz said. “When your life is in order, your career is in order. It’s amazing how it sort of goes hand in hand. If it’s not in order, I guarantee you it will fall apart. He’s done a really great job. Really proud of him for getting all that stuff in order and he’s been rewarded with a real great year.” The Islanders by extension have been rewarded for their belief in Lehner, who has been in an ongoing battle while having a career year. “I know if I go into depression, if I go into mania, I know now and my wife knows, ‘OK, maybe I need to fix something, tweak something,’ and I’ve had to do that throughout this whole season,” Lehner said. “I’ve had bad days. I’m always going to have them. It’s like everyone else on their team, they’re going to have bad days. It might get a little worse, but I know how to handle it now and it’s nothing to be scared of.” Lehner revealed his struggles as a way to educate the public and try to influence others who are dealing with similar things. That, more than anything else, is what impresses teammates about how Lehner has handled his journey. “He just really wants to help other people now because he’s been obviously in a dark place and he wants to help other people out of that dark place because he’s an example of kind of that sort of success story,” Martin said. “I’m sure it’s not easy for him. I’m sure he still has his demons, I guess, on a day to day basis, but he’s done a great job and we’re all here for him.” ___ Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno ___ More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Claim: Isles’ Lehner thrives after confronting mental health issues.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As part of its efforts to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, this month the EU’s executive arm started dispatching the masks to health care workers. After a first batch of 1.5 million masks was shipped to 17 of the 27 member states and Britain, Poland ’s health minister Lukasz Szumowski said the 600,000 items Polish authorities received did not have European certificates and failed to comply with the medical standards required for their distribution. “We have decided to suspend future deliveries of these masks,” Commission health spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker said. “We will then see what action needs to be taken if there is indeed a quality problem with these masks.” According to De Keersmaecker, another member state, the Netherlands, has identified similar problems so far. The whole stock of masks was purchased from a Chinese provider via a EU fund. It was set to be distributed in weekly installments over six weeks. De Keersmaecker insisted that the Commission scrupulously followed all control measures when it bought the masks, and verified they were usable. “If necessary we will of course take any necessary legal action,” De Keersmaecker said. He added that the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, has alerted all the countries which have already received masks about the potential problems and asked them to provide feedback on their quality. “It is of utmost importance that personal protective equipment sent out by the Commission is of very high quality,” De Keersmaecker said. “That’s fundamental because that equipment is used by citizens and by professionals in the health sector.”  ___ Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed. ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Claim: EU suspends delivery of 10 million masks over quality issues.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Most research finds no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene, a practice generations of American mothers have passed on to their daughters. Most major health groups have declared talc harmless. Johnson & Johnson, whose baby powder dominates the market, says it’s perfectly safe. Yet some 2,000 women have sued, and lawyers are reviewing thousands of other potential cases, most generated by ads touting the two big verdicts. Meanwhile, jury selection in the next trial began Monday. A look at the issue: WHAT IS TALC? Talc is a mineral that is mined from deposits around the world, including the U.S. The softest of minerals, it’s crushed into a white powder. It’s been widely used in cosmetics and other personal care products to absorb moisture since at least 1894, when Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder was launched. But it’s mainly used in a variety of other products, including paint and plastics. DOES IT CAUSE OVARIAN CANCER? Like many questions in science, there’s no definitive answer. Finding the cause of cancer is difficult. It would be unethical to do the best kind of study, asking a group of women to use talcum powder on their genitals and wait to see if it causes cancer, while comparing them to a group who didn’t use it. While ovarian cancer is often fatal, it’s relatively rare. It accounts for only about 22,000 of the 1.7 million new cases of cancer expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year. Factors that are known to increase a women’s risk of ovarian cancer include age, obesity, use of estrogen therapy after menopause, not having any children, certain genetic mutations and personal or family history of breast or ovarian cancer. WHAT RESEARCH CAN BE DONE Two other kinds of research are possible. Neither of them, though, can conclusively prove something causes cancer. One looks back in time, after an illness has occurred. It compares two groups of people, one with the illness, one without, and asks about past exposures that might be factors. But people have trouble remembering details years later. The second approach follows a large group of people. It assesses their health at the start and follows them for years, recording any illnesses while tracking possible influences such as diet and use of medication, alcohol or other substances. Scientists generally find these “prospective” studies most reliable. WHAT RESEARCH SHOWS The biggest prospective studies have found no link between talcum powder applied to the genitals and ovarian cancer. But about two dozen smaller, look-back studies over three decades have mostly found a modest connection — a 20 percent to 40 percent increased risk among talc users. However, that doesn’t mean talc causes cancer. Several factors make that unlikely and there’s no proof talc, which doesn’t interact with chemicals or cells, can travel up the reproductive tract, enter the ovaries and then trigger cancer. One large study published in June that followed 51,000 sisters of breast cancer patients found genital talc users had a reduced risk of ovarian cancer, 27 percent lower than in nonusers. An analysis of two huge, long-running U.S. studies, the Women’s Health Initiative and the Nurses’ Health Study, showed no increased risk of ovarian cancer in talc users. WHAT EXPERTS SAY If there were a true link, Dr. Hal C. Lawrence III says large studies that tracked women’s health for years would have verified results of the smaller look-back ones. “Lord knows, with the amount of powder that’s been applied to babies’ bottoms, we would’ve seen something” if talc caused cancer, said Lawrence, vice president of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The National Cancer Institute’s Dr. Nicolas Wentzensen says the federal agency’s position is that there’s not a clear connection. “It is very hard to establish causal relationships,” he said, adding, “A lot of ovarian cancers occur in women who have never used talc, and many women have used talc and not gotten ovarian cancer.” Research director Elizabeth Ward of the American Cancer Society says it is unusual to have so much discrepancy between studies. “The risk for any individual woman, if there is one, is probably very small,” Ward said. WHAT LAWYERS AND COURTS SAY Like the studies, courts have produced mixed results. In the first trial two years ago, a South Dakota jury found Johnson & Johnson liable for one woman’s ovarian cancer but didn’t award any damages. This year, state court juries in St. Louis awarded plaintiffs $72 million and $55 million — verdicts the company is appealing. But U.S. District Judge Nelson Johnson in Atlantic City threw out the first two of the 400 lawsuits in his court. He reviewed the research and testimony from two doctors who are the plaintiffs’ key expert witnesses and concluded the two aren’t reliable, noting they had previously written that there was no proof talc causes ovarian cancer. Other courts approved them as experts, noted the plaintiffs’ attorney, Ted Meadows of Montgomery, Alabama. J&J attorney John Beisner says the health care giant plans to fight every lawsuit, rather than settle, “for the fundamental reason that the science on which they’re based is totally lacking.” Most of the pending cases are in Missouri, California and New Jersey, where J&J is based. In the case that began Monday in St. Louis, lawyers for Deborah Giannecchini of Modesto, California, say she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012 after years of talcum use. Her lawsuit accuses the company of “negligent conduct” in making and marketing its talc. ___ Follow Linda A. Johnson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lindaj_onpharma. Claim: Research finds talc doesn’t cause cancer; juries disagree.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Connecticut Democrat says the senators asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Friday to “take long overdue steps” to advance policies to prevent more adolescents from becoming addicted to electronic cigarettes and help youth quit vaping. The signatories, all Democrats, include Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy. The CDC said Thursday that 18 deaths linked to vaping have been confirmed in 15 states, and 80% of patients in lung injury cases associated with vaping products are younger than 35 years old. The senators say there’s a growing “e-cigarette epidemic.” Claim: US senators ask federal government to address youth vaping.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Republicans like to say the government is spending like a drunken sailor. Democrats say the government needs to keep spending, albeit strategically, to jolt job creation. It’s all relative to political persuasion and the economic theories that partisans follow. But congressman John Boehner, a southwestern Ohio Republican who just became speaker of the House of Representatives, provides a perspective that Americans outside of Washington  might not think about. \"Our spending has caught up with us, and our debt soon will eclipse the entire size of our national economy,\" Boehner said in his inaugural remarks upon accepting the speaker’s gavel. \"Hard work and tough decisions will be required of the 112th Congress.\" There are certain assumptions built into this claim about the extent of the government’s debt, although they are widely held and agreed to by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and President Barack Obama’s commission on reducing the deficit and debt. But before going there, we thought we’d look at Boehner’s statement in its most simplistic interpretation. The United States government’s total debt on the day Boehner took over as speaker was $14 trillion, according to the Treasury Department’s interactive \"Debt to the Penny\" website. The size of the United States economy, measured by the gross domestic product, or the value of all goods and services, was $14.745 trillion in the third quarter of 2010, the most recent quarter for which data is available. This number comes from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis databases. Using only these numbers, it would appear that the eclipse is about to start. But since GDP estimates are not as current as the debt numbers, we wanted to see how big the debt was at the  end of the third quarter of 2010. Going back to Treasury’s calculator, we got a debt figure of $13.668 trillion by putting the date at Oct. 31, 2010. Boehner said \"soon,\" so he was correct: $13.6 trillion in debt against a $14.7 trillion economy signals the onset of an eclipse. Economists and analysts who are reading this by now are shouting, \"Wait!\" We understand. Some government debt is considered way more troubling than other, and many analysts say that only part of it should be used when measuring its size against the total economy. A mercifully short primer: Federal debt has two major components, namely, debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings. Public debt is money the government owes to the public, including foreigners who buy government T bills and retirees who want safe government bonds. The government sells them these bills and bonds and uses the money to operate. But like a loan, the money must be paid back in real cash. Intragovernmental holdings involve such things as Social Security Trust Fund IOU’s and other transfers between divisions of the government. These borrowings must be repaid, too, but they don’t put an immediate crimp on the government, and they often are handled by shuffling paper back and forth between departments, despite the future perils that may hold (the piper must be paid eventually, and all that). In other words, the public debt will require real money to repay the lenders, and that has a faster ripple effect in the private sector. So we go back to that Treasury calculator to see how much money this might involve. It shows that the public debt on the day that Boehner took control of the House was nearly $9.4 trillion. It was $9.069 trillion as of the end of last October, when the GDP was $14.745 trillion, or nearly 62 percent of the GDP. That’s a high debt-to-GDP ratio by historic standards, although it was much higher at the end of World War II, when the debt did in fact exceed the nation’s GDP. But what worries Boehner and many others is the projection that the public debt could reach World War II proportions again. If current practices aren’t changed, debt will reach 90 percent of GDP in 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office, whose figures were cited by President Barack Obama’s national Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in December. Brian Riedl, a research fellow at the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation, told us the public debt could reach 100 percent of GDP by then, \"and if you add in state and local debt, it could be as early as 2016, 2017 or 2018.\" And if this trend were to continue? Unless Congress made some big changes, \"the federal debt would balloon to 185 percent of GDP by 2035,\" said the CBO. The president’s commission used the same warning. Would this automatically be catastrophic? That depends on the government’s choices. For a parallel, consider the mortgage on a house, which often exceeds the owner’s income by 200 percent or 300 percent. The problem is that if there are other debts and the car breaks down and Junior suddenly needs braces, the homeowner is likely to have a problem that limits his financial and lifestyle options. For the government, this would likely drive up interest rates as the government competed with the private sector to borrow money, and crimp economic growth. It could result in tax hikes, spending cuts and stingier government entitlements, analysts say.. It needs to be noted that these projections are based on the most dire projections that use a set of what-ifs, and rosier estimates show up, in fact, in current budget documents. But the what-ifs come from realistic expectations about the way Washington operates. For example, the CBO noted that Congress passed tax cuts a decade ago and projected they would only last a decade. Yet Congress just renewed them. Similarly, Congress keeps passing temporary, one-year payment hikes for Medicare doctors who otherwise would see steep cuts -- and might stop caring for seniors. While well-intentioned, this keeps the long-term costs from looking too bad when projecting future budgets, despite the fact that renewal is a near certainty every single year. The CBO doesn’t say this is nefarious; it just says that continuation of these kinds of practices has consequences. So what of Boehner’s claim that the debt will \"soon\" eclipse the size of the economy? We are not endorsing or rejecting Boehner’s proposed solutions or his analysis of the policies that led to the problem. Democrats blame the war in Iraq and the tax cuts of former President George W. Bush, while Republicans blame spending by Democrats and President Barack Obama’s White House. Some economists suggest that with sensible policy changes and an economy that eventually turns robust, these fears will never come to pass. But when the nonpartisan CBO and the Democratic president’s fiscal commission agree with the Republican leader on the scope of the problem, both citing the prospect public debt at 185 percent of GDP, the Truth-O-Meter must concur that his prediction is reasonable. Claim: Our spending has caught up with us, and our debt soon will eclipse the entire size of our national economy.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The total number of cases, combining hospital and nursing home statistics, increased by 5,171 over the last 24 hours to 98,010, meaning France will likely become the fifth country, after Italy, Spain, the United States and Germany, to cross the 100,000 threshold on Tuesday. “The pandemic hasn’t stopped expanding. The figures prove it,” Health Minister Olivier Veran said, adding that the government had decided to mass screen nursing homes which account for about 27% of the total death toll. “We must keep up our efforts as citizens by staying at home,” Veran added. Some health officials had suggested on Sunday that French people appeared to comply less strictly to the national lockdown than in other countries. France started including data from nursing homes last Thursday, which partially explains why the official number of deaths has more than doubled since Wednesday. The health ministry data showed that 605 people died from COVID-19 in hospitals in the last 24 hours - a new daily record - taking hospital fatalities to 6,494. The figure represented a 10% increase, up from 6% on Sunday and 9% on Saturday. Nursing homes deaths also rose 10% to 2,417, bringing the total to 8,911, an increase of 10% on Sunday’s tally. A total of 7,072 serious coronavirus cases were being treated in intensive care units, Veran added, a rise of just 1.3% from Sunday, giving the French health system small but much-needed relief. Claim: France's coronavirus death rate accelerates, cases near 100,000.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Naples Daily News reports that a $150,000 grant from the Fish & Wildlife Foundation will fund scientists researching a troubling neuromuscular disorder afflicting the state’s panthers and bobcats. Every “Conserve Wildlife Florida” tag featuring a Florida black bear delivers $25 to the nonprofit foundation, which supports Florida’s rare species and other nongame wildlife. Wildlife biologists will use the grant to collect and analyze images from trail cameras in the cats’ habitat as well as perform diagnostic tests on the animals. The illness has remained a puzzle. Affected big felines have damaged myelin, an insulating sheath that protects nerve cells. The disorder causes it to break down, which also occurs in some human neurodegenerative such as multiple sclerosis. “We termed the condition feline leukomyelopathy based on the microscopic changes seen in the brain and spine. We continue to learn more about it but have not yet determined a cause, as well as what can be done to prevent further panthers from acquiring the disease,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission veterinarian Mark Cunningham told the paper last year. Claim: $150K grant will help unravel mysterious panther illness.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No mention of the cost of acupuncture, which is relevant, especially since acupuncture is not always covered by insurance The story only reported benefits in percentages in each group that \"responded to therapy,\" but later the story provided the actual numbers of women assigned to the three study groups – so it’s possible for readers to do the math. Nonetheless, why make them do the math? Why not just give the absolute numbers of how many in each group responded? Claim: Acupuncture shows promise for depression in pregnancy",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Antibiotics should be used to fight Covid-19. Antibiotics are not recommended in patients with Covid-19. Covid-19 is caused by a virus and antibiotics are used to prevent or treat bacterial infections. Antivirals should be used to fight Covid-19. Antiviral drugs can be used to treat viral infections, but no specific antiviral drug has been conclusively shown to be effective against Covid-19 so far. Anti-inflammatories should be used to fight Covid-19. Anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen may be useful in treating Covid-19 symptoms at home. Anticoagulants should be used to fight Covid-19. There is evidence supporting the use of anticoagulants in some Covid-19 patients. Claim 1 of 5 Claim: Anticoagulants should be used to fight Covid-19.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Costs of the intervention are not disclosed. A casual reading of the news article may lead one to believe that over-the-counter fish oil was used in the treatment arm of the study. However, our own careful reading of the original study reveals that GlaxoSmithKline (Research Triangle Park, NC) provided both the fish oil and placebo pills. (The study was solely funded by the National Institutes of Health.) A curious reader might ask what is the cost discrepancy between the fish oil by GlaxoSmithKline and a standard over-the-counter fish oil product, too. The story includes the most salient quantitative evidence of the study: This is sufficient for a Satisfactory rating. However, more context would have made the story stronger: That researchers don’t know what “6% less scarring” means in terms of actually reducing a repeat heart attack, death or another cardiac event. And from the original study, we learn that compared to standard post-heart attack medical therapies, the benefits of fish oil were not significant: “after adjusting for standard post-MI (heart attack) medical therapies, there was only a nonstatistically significant trend for the treatment effect of O-3FA (omega-3 fatty acids) on noninfarct myocardial fibrosis (abnormal scarring of the heart muscle).” Harms should have been included. As made clear in a New York Times story, Dr. James Stein of the preventive cardiology department at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics explained that “fish oil can be hazardous when combined with aspirin or other blood thinners.” This seems particularly pertinent here as post heart-attack patients are often recommended to take aspirin. The article provides an accurate description of the study design, including the sample size and type of design. There is, however, a lack of discussion around study limitations. And the limitations were significant enough that we feel they should have been included in any news coverage. For example, readers should be strongly reminded that the study was measuring surrogate markers, and not direct events like repeat heart attacks. And importantly, the study notes that “a substantial proportion of patients could not return for the post-treatment follow-up visit” and that “no specific recommendations were given with regard to dietary omega-3 fatty acid intake.” There is no disease-mongering. Only the lead investigator, Dr. Raymond Kwong, was interviewed. No alternatives to fish oil were discussed. Most people understand that fish oil is available over the counter, so we’ll rate this Satisfactory–though just marginally, because the fish oil prescribed to people in the treatment arm of the study was not standard over-the-counter fish oil pills; see our discussion on this in the “Discuss costs” section above. The article demonstrates a good understanding that the novelty of the study lies in examining the protective benefits of fish oil right after a heart attack. That is, the study is novel in its patient population. A further discussion of using MRI to assess heart conditions would’ve further highlighted the novelty of the study. The article does not appear to be based on a news release. Claim: Fish Oil Has Benefits After a Heart Attack: Study",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Of some 47,000 people who registered eligible injuries,  about 44,000 submitted some or all of the documents that could  qualify them for an interim payment in the program to resolve  state and federal heart attack and stroke claims filed in the  United States, Merck said. Merck withdrew arthritis pill Vioxx from the market in  September 2004 after research found it doubled heart attack and  stroke risk in patients who took it for at least 18 months. More than 20 million people in the United States had used the  drug, and the company was hit with tens of thousands of  personal-injury lawsuits. A November settlement agreement with people alleging injury  from the drug calls for the company to meet an 85 percent  threshold for receiving enrollment documents in various claims  categories. Meeting the threshold obligates Merck to pay $4.85 billion  in installments into a resolution fund. About 5,500 eligible heart attack and stroke claimants  alleging death have initiated enrollment, and more than 26,500  eligible heart attack and stroke claimants alleging more than  12 months of use have initiated enrollment, Merck said. In  addition, the eligibility of another 5,000 claimants who have  sought to enroll has to be determined. The company said it expects to meet all enrollment  thresholds. Merck recorded a fourth-quarter 2007 pretax charge of $4.85  billion to cover the cost of the agreement. Shares of Merck were off 7 cents at $44.23 in morning  trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Claim: Merck says thousands file for Vioxx payments.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A surge of parasitic sea lice is disrupting salmon farms around the world. The tiny lice attach themselves to salmon and feed on them, killing or rendering them unsuitable for dinner tables. Meanwhile, wholesale prices of salmon are way up, as high as 50 percent last year. That means higher consumer prices for everything from salmon fillets and steaks to more expensive lox on bagels. The lice are actually tiny crustaceans that have infested salmon farms in the U.S., Canada, Scotland, Norway and Chile, major suppliers of the high-protein, heart-healthy fish. Scientists and fish farmers are working on new ways to control the pests, which Fish Farmer Magazine stated last year costs the global aquaculture industry about $1 billion annually. So far it has been an uphill struggle that is a threat to a way of life in countries where salmon farming is a part of the culture. “Our work has to be quicker than the evolution of the lice,” said Jake Elliott, vice president of Cooke Aquaculture in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick. Experts say defeating the lice will take a suite of new and established technology, including older management tools such as pesticides and newer strategies such as breeding for genetic resistance. The innovative solutions in use or development include bathing the salmon in warm water to remove lice and zapping the lice with underwater lasers. Farmers worldwide consider sea lice the biggest threat to their industry and say the persistent problem is making the fish more expensive to consumers. Farmed salmon was worth nearly $12 billion in 2015, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The only hope is to develop new methods to control the spread of lice, which are present in the wild, but thrive in the tightly packed ocean pens for fish farming, said Shawn Robinson, a scientist with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. “There are not enough tools right now to allow the farmer to really effectively deal with it,” Robinson said. The lice can grow to about the size of a pea and lay thousands of eggs in their brief lifetime. The chance of a louse making its way to a diner’s plate is very small because salmon are checked for lice before being sent to market. But even if one did, eating it wouldn’t pose a health threat. Atlantic salmon have held their own with sea lice in the wild for centuries, and fish farmers managed them in aquaculture environments for many years. Then, farmers in Canada identified the lice as a problem around 1994, said Jonathan Carr, executive director of research and environment with the Atlantic Salmon Federation. Feeding fish a pesticide with the active ingredient of emamectin benzoate became the tool of choice to control lice, Carr said. But around 2009, the lice appeared to become resistant to the pesticide, and they have spread globally since. The industry’s key mistake was reacting when the lice evolved to survive pesticide, Carr said, rather than “getting ahead in the game.” “The efficacy went away and pressure developed to create new treatments,” said Kris Nicholls, chief operating officer at Cooke, a major player in world salmon farming. The worldwide supply of salmon fell almost 10 percent last year, with Norway, the largest producer in the world, especially hard hit. In Norway, there are hundreds of times more salmon in aquaculture than in the wild. And the fish potentially can escape their pens with lice attached and introduce them to wild fish. Norwegian farmers are looking to use new closed-in pens that resemble giant eggs instead of typical mesh pens. Scottish farmers have deployed a device known as a Thermolicer to warm the water and detach the lice from fish. And farmers in North America and Europe are experimenting with using species of “cleaner fish” to coexist with the salmon and eat the lice. Research about farming salmon along with mussels, which researchers have found will eat larval sea lice, is underway. Underwater drones inhabit the other end of the technological spectrum, zapping lice with lasers to kill them. That technology was developed in Norway and has been used there and in Scotland. Cooke keeps a brood stock of fish in the hopes of breeding them for desirable traits such as disease resistance. And the company uses a pair of boats capable of pumping 10,000 fish at a time into a hydrogen peroxide bath, which kills most of the lice, although it also can stress and kill some fish. On the shores of Beaver Harbour, New Brunswick, Cooke engineer Joel Halse stood recently aboard a $4 million vessel containing a series of tubes that send 300 salmon a minute on a winding journey while dousing them with warm water to remove lice. Halse, who likened it to a “waterslide park” for fish, said the fish farming industry has no choice but to try such innovations. “The cost to the salmon farming industry from sea lice is huge,” he said. “And having tools to control the population would be huge.” Claim: Literally lousy: Parasite plagues world salmon industry.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It’s become Gov. Rick Scott’s favorite talking point in the escalating debate over raising rates at Citizens Property Insurance: The state-run insurer has a whopping $500 billion in risk exposure, and a paltry $6 billion in surplus, or cash-on-hand. In interviews, at Cabinet meetings and even in a pop-quiz-styled survey to the Florida Council of 100, Scott repeatedly uses these two numbers to illustrate the financial health of Citizens. \"I’m not sure how much smaller Citizens can get. But here’s the position Citizens is in now,\" Scott said during a May trip to the Florida Keys. \"They have over $500 billion worth of risk, with less than $10 billion worth of surplus. So that’s a lot of risk, and I think one of the most important things homeowners want is if there ever is a disaster that their insurance company is going to be able to pay the bill.\" In a survey given to the Florida Council of 100 last month, Scott got more specific, stating that the state-run insurer had $504.8 billion in total risk exposure and only $6.1 billion in cash surplus. It’s a jarring numerical juxtaposition used to show that Citizens is severely undercapitalized and, if a major hurricane hits, would spur untold financial calamity for the state. Fearing so-called \"hurricane taxes,\" Scott asked the Citizens board of governors to find ways to drastically reduce the company’s size and exposure late last year. (Citizens currently has issued about 1.4 million policies.) The board came up with more than 30 proposals, most of which would lead to increased rates or reduced coverage for policyholders. To justify those painful rate hikes, proponents point to the weak financial position of Citizens, often comparing its cash on hand to its maximum exposure. A growing chorus of critics say Scott and insurance industry insiders are using exaggerated, apocalyptic language to incite fear and justify large increases on insurance premiums. The numbers are extreme, to say the least. After six years without a single hurricane hitting Florida, could Citizens’ finances really be that frightful? We did a little digging and found that Scott’s statements about Citizens’ financial assets and liabilities, while technically true, omit major components of the financial structure of Citizens. First, on the side of Citizens’ \"surplus.\" The state-run insurer does, indeed, have nearly $6 billion in cash reserves, money it has been able to build up during the last six hurricane-free years. But that cash— the most Citizens has ever had--is only part of the pot the insurer uses to pay hurricane claims. Few, if any, property insurers rely solely on cash surplus to pay claims in the wake of catastrophe. Citizens, like every other licensed property insurer in Florida, has backup insurance from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. It also has private reinsurance worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Finally, Citizens has the ability to sell bonds to pay the cover claims that exceed its surplus and reinsurance coverage. Altogether, Citizens has about $19.5 billion in claims-paying ability, more than three times the amount cited by the governor. Most of that could be paid out before any assessments, or \"hurricane taxes\" would be required from non-Citizens policyholders. The other half of Scott’s statement mentions that Citizens has $500 billion in total exposure to risk. This is also true, but it has little to do with whether Citizens \"is going to be able to pay the bill\" after a storm. What would it take for Florida to actually have to pay out $500 billion in claims? A superstorm 25 times as ferocious as Hurricane Andrew would have to hit South Florida, and zigzag its way through Florida’s peninsula, hitting all 67 counties and damaging or destroying every home and business with a Citizens policy. A series of back-to-back, Andrew-sized storms up and down the state could also do the trick. In the absence of such an apocalyptic occurrence, a more realistic estimate of maximum losses would be the 1-in-100-year storm, the so-called \"Big One,\" that would cause more damage than Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Estimates indicate that kind of storm -- which only has a 1-percent chance of occurring in a given year -- would cost Citizens a maximum of $21 billion. This number, while large and financially troublesome for Citizens, is nowhere near the $500 billion often repeated by the governor. Scott spokesman Lane Wright said regardless of which numbers are presented, the fact that Citizens remains in a precarious financial position is central. \"No matter how you slice it, in the worst case storm, the one-in-100-year storm, Citizens still falls short of being able to pay its claims,\" Wright said, adding that Florida could also get hit with several back-to-back storms. \"That’s a fact.\" That’s true -- but those aren’t the words Scott has been using. He’s opted for the gasp-inducing $6-billion-versus-$500-billion language. Our ruling Scott has said repeatedly that Citizens has more than $500 billion worth of risk, but about $6 billion in cash surplus. But the $500-billion number vastly overstates what Citizens might have to pay in even the most vicious storm season imaginable. And the $6-billion figure undercounts Citizens’ ability to pay claims. So those numbers are not the appropriate figures to use when determining whether the insurer \"is going to be able to pay the bill\" after a storm. More appropriate numbers would compare Citizens’ total claims-paying ability (about $19.5 billion) to the damage caused by a once-in-a-century kind of hurricane (about $21 billion). Scott’s statement ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Claim: Citizens Property Insurance has \"over $500 billion worth of risk, with less than $10 billion worth of surplus.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Much of the discussion about the Clinton family foundation has focused on who donated to it and what they may have expected in return from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But critics of the Clintons have opened up another line of attack on what is formally known as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, charging that it doesn’t actually spend very much on charitable works. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh aired this line of argument on April 23, 2015, citing a report in the Federalist, a conservative publication. Here’s a portion of what Limbaugh said: \"The Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation -- 99 percent pass-through. The Clinton Family Foundation pass-through is 15 percent. The Federalist reports only 15 percent of the money donated to the Clinton Family Foundation went to actual charitable causes. The bulk of the money donated to the Clinton Family Foundation went to travel, salaries, and benefits. Sixty percent of all the money raised went to other expenses. In other words, folks, 85 percent of every dollar donated to the Clinton Foundation ended up either with the Clintons or with their staff to pay for travel, salaries, and benefits. Fifteen cents of every dollar actually went to some charitable beneficiary.\" As this claim was circulating, the Clinton Foundation pushed back. The foundation tweeted, \"More than 88% of our expenditures go directly to our life-changing work.\" The difference between 15 percent and 88 percent is wide, so we decided to check Limbaugh’s claim. A representative with Limbaugh’s radio network didn’t answer an email inquiry. An unusual approach for a foundation When most people in the charitable world think of foundations, they think of organizations that give away a lot of money in the form of grants to others who go out and do good works. The Clinton foundation works differently -- it keeps its money in house and hires staff to carry out its own humanitarian programs. This set-up means the Clinton foundation’s finances get complicated in ways other foundations do not. Partly because of that, one of the leading independent groups that track charities -- Charity Navigator -- has been flummoxed about how to analyze that foundation and has stopped rating it, at least for now. Charity Navigator says it has \"determined that this charity's atypical business model cannot be accurately captured in our current rating methodology. Our removal of The Clinton Foundation from our site is neither a condemnation nor an endorsement of this charity. We reserve the right to reinstate a rating for The Clinton Foundation as soon as we identify a rating methodology that appropriately captures its business model.\" What is counted in the foundation’s financials? The Federalist article that Limbaugh cited dug into the Clinton foundation’s tax forms known as 990s, which nonprofits have to file annually with the Internal Revenue Service. Here’s an excerpt from the Federalist article: \"When anyone contributes to the Clinton Foundation, it actually goes toward fat salaries, administrative bloat, and lavish travel. Between 2009 and 2012, the Clinton Foundation raised over $500 million dollars according to a review of IRS documents by The Federalist (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008). A measly 15 percent of that, or $75 million, went towards programmatic grants. More than $25 million went to fund travel expenses. Nearly $110 million went toward employee salaries and benefits. And a whopping $290 million during that period — nearly 60 percent of all money raised — was classified merely as ‘other expenses.’ \" The Clinton foundation, on the other hand, gets to its 88 percent going to \"life-changing work\" by combining the finances of the Clinton Foundation and an affiliated organization, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, that before 2010 had been part of the Clinton Foundation proper. The Clinton Health Access Initiative works with governments and private groups to lower the costs of treatment for HIV/AIDS in the developing world. The Clinton Health Access Initiative was split off from the foundation because \"they got so big they needed their own organization to do it,\" said Craig Minassian, a spokesman for the foundation, in an interview with PolitiFact. But in putting together its annual report for 2013, the Clinton Foundation folded together both groups before calculating the numbers. Some question the logic for doing it this way. \"Clinton allies are deliberately conflating the activities and finances of multiple independent nonprofit organizations and hoping you'll view everything together as ‘The Clinton Foundation,’ \" Sean Davis, who wrote the Federalist story, told PunditFactc. \"That's just not the case, though.\" The correct number for the Clinton Foundation alone -- which owned the account the tweet was sent from -- was just over 80 percent in 2013, not 88 percent. The Clinton Foundation’s unusual model As we noted earlier, many foundations carry out charitable works by giving money to other organizations that, in turn, do the ground-level charity work, whereas the Clinton foundation’s charitable works are mostly done by people on the foundation’s payroll. \"We are an implementing organization rather than a grantmaking organization,\" said the foundation’s Minassian. That’s why the Clinton Foundation’s 990s show a relatively small amount of money categorized as \"grants\" -- only about 10 percent of all expenses in 2013. The foundation says its own employees are doing its charitable work. The annual report -- which, remember, includes both the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative -- says that 7 percent of expenditures were spent on \"management and expenses\" and 4.5 percent for \"fundraising.\" (The numbers on the 990s for the two entities are in the same ballpark.) Add those two percentages together and you get almost 12 percent; subtract that from 100 percent and you get the magic 88 percent figure the foundation cited. An independent academic CPA who specializes in nonprofit foundation finances said Limbaugh’s error was in assuming that all spending beyond grants amounted to wasteful overhead. \"When Mr. Limbaugh says most of the spending is on salaries, travel, and other, that is not particularly informative,\" said Linda Parsons, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Alabama's Culverhouse College of Commerce. \"Travel and salaries for those who are directly carrying out the mission of the organization are much different than salaries and travel for executives who are networking in order to raise funds or for those who manage the organization. The response from the Clinton foundation that they carry out their missions directly, rather than outsource it to another organization or series of organizations, makes sense given that the Clinton Foundation reports travel, salaries, depreciation and conferences directly.\" Of course, Parsons’ interpretation depends on trusting the Clinton foundation’s characterization of its expenditures. As with any institution that files tax forms, the Clinton foundation has to characterize on its own what counts as \"management\" and what counts as spending on front-line charity work. The Federalist article says the foundation’s tweet exaggerates when it says money spent \"directly\" on \"life-changing work,\" when in fact the group, by its own calculations, \"spent nearly $8.5 million – 10 percent of all 2013 expenditures – on travel. Do plane tickets and hotel accommodations directly change lives? Nearly $4.8 million – 5.6 percent of all expenditures – was spent on office supplies. Are ink cartridges and staplers ‘life-changing’ commodities?\" In response to a PolitiFact request, the Clinton Foundation said the expenditures for its programs are \"inclusive of salaries for staff, large-scale conferences (which is how the foundation convenes partners to take action such as the Clinton Global Initiative and the Health Matters conference), training for farmers and other beneficiaries, as well as direct program expenses like purchasing seeds and fertilizer for our agricultural programs and medical equipment for our public health work.\" Reasonable people can disagree about how to categorize expenses, said Janet S. Greenlee, emeritus professor of accounting at the University of Dayton business school. \"There is no approved, required, or suggested method for allocating costs between program and nonprogram spending, so two charities that have the same financial events may have totally different financials,\" Greenlee said. \"Limbaugh is saying everything that’s not direct service must be a waste of money, while the foundation is probably estimating that most of its other costs are actually direct service and so are accounted as such. The ‘truth,’ if there is such a thing, is somewhere in between.\" The foundation sent PolitiFact a rough geographic breakdown for program spending in 2012 and 2013. It cited expenditures split between 66.2 percent for the United States, 18.1 percent for South America, 5.6 percent for Southeast Asia, 4.9 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa, 3.6 percent for Central America and the Caribbean, 1.2 percent for West and Central Africa and 0.4 percent for Mexico. That’s more than we had expected to see in domestic spending -- we’re checking with the foundation on why that was so high, and will report their explanation if we receive one -- but even if the foundation devoted as little as one-third of its expenses to programs outside the U.S., then Limbaugh’s 15 percent estimate would be too low. To offer some context, spending 88 percent of expenses on charitable programs, as the Clinton foundation says it does, would actually be pretty good by industry standards. Parsons said the average reported across all organizations in the National Center for Charitable Statistics is 81 percent -- equal to the Clinton Foundation’s rate on its own -- and the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance suggests a minimum of 65 percent. \"The foundation exceeds that,\" Parsons said. Our ruling Limbaugh said \"85 percent of every dollar donated to the Clinton Foundation ended up either with the Clintons or with their staff to pay for travel, salaries, and benefits. Fifteen cents of every dollar actually went to some charitable beneficiary.\" There’s a grain of truth here -- roughly 85 percent of the foundation’s spending was for items other than charitable grants to other organizations, and a large chunk of this 85 percent did go to Clinton Foundation staff for travel, salaries and benefits. However, the foundation says it does most of its charitable work in-house, and it’s not credible to think that the foundation spent zero dollars beyond grants on any charitable work, which is what it would take for Limbaugh to be correct. The claim contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Claim: Eighty-five percent of every dollar donated to the Clinton Foundation ended up either with the Clintons or with their staff to pay for travel, salaries, and benefits. Fifteen cents of every dollar actually went to some charitable beneficiary.",
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Men undergoing psychiatric treatment sit while waiting to get food at the courtyard of Sarhad Psychiatric Hospital in Peshawar May 12, 2010. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood “He had just told me how it is good to dream and we will achieve our dreams,” said Ramzan, who began sleeping with a gun under his pillow, fearful he too will be killed in Pakistan’s relentless violence. “This man came and asked Noman if he could get a lift on his motorcycle to the police station. When they got there the man blew himself up. Noman and nine other people were killed.”   In the conflict between Taliban insurgents and Pakistan’s army, thousands have been killed in bombings of everything from military and police facilities to crowded street markets; even a volleyball match was attacked. Countless others have been wounded. But the psychological toll often goes unnoticed, even though underfunded and understaffed hospitals are treating a sharply rising number of people who can’t cope with bloodshed. “This is alarming us,” said psychologist Najam Younes. Some people are too depressed to function. Others are gripped by anxiety attacks, paranoia and post traumatic stress disorder. Flashbacks are common. It doesn’t take much to destabilize minds. Even headlines of smaller attacks that flash across news channels are enough to send people to psychiatrists seeking pills to calm them or help them sleep at night. Luckily for Pakistanis, the stigma attached to mental illness has eased, making it easier for them to seek psychiatric care, psychologists say. But the problem is that people caught up in the violence — mostly living in the epicenter of the conflict in the northwest — have no access to psychological care facilities. So they must take long, expensive journeys to cities like Peshawar for treatment. Those who can afford it often don’t get the attention they need because there are too few doctors, who are often overworked and cannot provide therapy, only medicine. Peshawar’s Sarhad Psychiatric Hospital, located on the same complex of a prison where militants awaiting trial and other hard core criminals are held, is one example. It is the only proper mental health facility in the northwest. In the hospital courtyard, patients dulled by medicine sit on a cement floor in rows, quietly staring at each other. Some look lost. Others are suspicious. “Long live Pakistan”, is scribbled on a wall behind them beside a drawing of a flower. In a grim, tiny kitchen nearby, a cook slops stew into a huge pot beside steel bowls. Senior consultant Muhammad Tariq sometimes treats 100 patients a day. He is also the region’s main forensic psychologist, so he must spend time in court. Scant funding at the state hospital means he has no computer to manage files. “There is only so much I can do,” he said. Tariq says 10-15 new patients suffering mentally from the violence arrive every day. Many have lost their homes and livelihood. Still, those are not the worst cases. Handling people rattled by bloodshed who already have mental illnesses is far more challenging. They are the most vulnerable. Muhammad Ikhtiar was lucky enough to have an Islamic charity pay for his schizophrenic son’s medicines. Fighting distressed his son Muhammad’s fragile mind. “Sometimes he is scared of the Taliban and the army. Other times he is convinced he is the commander of the Taliban and the army,” said Ikhtiar, a serious, elderly man with a white beard. Ikhtiar’s problems don’t end there. Taliban militants would often hide in his maize fields, so government forces made him cut down the crop, he said. Now he has to find ways of making a living while caring for his son. Doctors say the patients need family support. But because of the fighting, it’s too dangerous for them to head home. Muhammad Iqbal, a sturdy man wearing a traditional flat wool chitrali hat, suffers from bipolar disorder. His moods often swing from depression to elation. Doctors hope stabilizers will make him realize it’s too risky to return to his four children in North Waziristan, which is infested with al Qaeda and Taliban militants. “Right now he has no idea what is happening,” said the hospital’s Tariq. “He thinks he will return to a peaceful village with a nice forest.” Claim: Pakistan psychologists issue conflict health warning.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Springtime in New Hampshire means motorcyclists are itching to hit the state’s scenic, winding roads. But if they trusted a widely distributed news article last year, they might think they need to install a device that limits their motorcycle to 75 mph – per a federal government regulation – before they can ride. Since the Granite State has the second-highest motorcycle ownership rate nationwide – one bike for every 17 people – a mechanical requirement imposed by the federal Department of Transportation would hit the state especially hard. An estimated $35 price tag for the speed governors would cost New Hampshire’s motorcycle riders more than $2.5 million to bring all 73,000 bikes registered statewide into compliance. It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to bring the 8 million-plus motorcycles across the United States into compliance, based on the article published by Associated Media Coverage. Despite the alarm, there was never any such rule proposed, much less mandated. The apparent news story with the headline \"\"New regulation requires motorcycle owners to install 75 MPH governor by January 2017,\" wasn’t true. There was no requirement to install speed governors, and the article’s lone quoted source, James Littleton, a purported representative of the DOT, doesn’t appear to exist. Nevertheless, it reached nearly 10,000 people – perhaps more though social media – within a matter of days, according to a cached version of the article, which was subsequently removed. Maybe those readers – 5,500 of whom clicked the like button on the Associated Media Coverage website – should have slowed down. In addition to removing the article, the website Associated Media Coverage appears to have rebranded itself. Its old URL now redirects to a page called The Seattle Tribune. It also adopted a marginally less-confident tagline: its old motto \"News You Can Trust\" is now simply \"Informing the Nation.\" The Seattle Tribune describes itself as \"a news and entertainment satire web publication … Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.\" It has no association to the 126-year-old newspaper, The Seattle Times. PolitiFact New Hampshire decided to examine this claim as part of the inaugural International Fact-Checking Day, April 2, 2017. Organizers at Poynter.org describe the day as \"not a single event but a rallying cry for more facts - and fact-checking - in politics, journalism, and everyday life.\" The motorcycle claim – and its apparent intent to irritate motorcyclists – is the type of story that made up this fake news outlet’s bread and butter. The hoax-debunking website Snopes, which found the claim to be false, made this comment about the \"fake news\" Associated Media Coverage article: \"The sensational claim was one of several hoaxes recently promulgated by the Associated Media Coverage fake news site, the most popular of which pertained to purported laws that would affect specific subsets of the population (such as motorcyclists or e-cigarette users),\" Snopes wrote. If its goal was to rile up one of those subsets – and thereby drive clicks to the website – it worked on at least one motorcycling forum, DungBeetleBikers.com. A user called Prickle posted the verbatim article two days after it first appeared July 31, 2016. An Australian user called Roo promptly responded to the made-up spokesman’s reasoning that the speed limits would promote safety: \"Per capita exposure to road trauma on a motorcycle is always going to be much higher than say that of cage drivers,\" Roo wrote, referring to non-biker motorists as \"cage drivers\" and continuing indignantly, \"So, cages are exempt? That makes sense, dunnit?\" It turns out speed limiters, or governors, are a real thing. You can buy them online for cars, motorcycles and ATVs, but the cost is usually a few hundred dollars, not the \"subsidized cost\" of $35 as the article states. The article goes on to make a couple of other assertions that are easily disproved. The first tries to peg the number of annual motorcycle fatalities: \"... each year approximately 8,265 motorcycle fatalities occur throughout the United States.\" Actually, 4,693 motorcyclists died in the U.S. last year, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System.The peak years for motorcycle fatalities in 1980 and 2008 never topped 5,112. The second assertion is that 73 percent of motorcycle fatalities \"are the result of motorcyclists driving at unsafe speeds.\" Wrong again. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that only 33 percent of all motorcycle riders involved in fatal crashes were speeding, according to an analysis by the Insurance Information Institute. In both cases, the figures cited in the article are nearly double the numbers put forth by authorities. When Snopes assessed this claim last August, it noted that Associated Media Coverage, unlike the Seattle Tribune, didn’t identify itself as \"fake news\" or a satirical website. \"While many fake news sites include disclaimer notices informing readers that their content is not credible, Associated Media Coverage does not. As such, many of the less ostentatious claims (such as the 75 MPH motorcycle speed governor one) spread on social media amid a targeted audience,\" Snopes wrote. Bottom line: The only thing bikers need to worry about if they go over 75 mph is a speeding ticket. Our ruling The website Associated Media Coverage claimed the federal Department of Transportation was forcing motorcycle owners to install speed governors on their motorcycles that would limit their max speeds to 75 mph. That assertion was never true and was sourced to a made-up federal government official. Supporting statistics that the phony spokesman cited also exaggerated the number of motorcycle fatalities each year and the propensity for speeding among people killed in those crashes. The website did not identify itself as a purveyor of fake news, and some motorcyclists took the bait. We rate the claim ! Claim: New regulation requires motorcycle owners to install 75 MPH governor by January 2017",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release does mention that the cost of materials to conduct the test is “around $20” which is considerably less than the cost of CT scan imaging which is now being used. It is unclear, however, how much patients would be actually charged. The release should’ve been clearer about the actual cost to patients. The release provides a good narrative of the potential benefits of the breath test (lower cost, reduces exposure to repeat CT scans) but does not provide any quantification. The release notes that “The researchers found a significant decrease in overall carbonyl VOC levels following surgery; in fact, three of the four carbonyl VOCs normalized after surgery, matching levels of the control group.”  We aren’t told what a “significant decrease” means or what a “normalized” level would be. The release would have been more complete if it had given us some idea of the test’s ability to accurately detect or rule out lung cancer recurrence. The release points out that the test could potentially reduce harms by reducing a patient’s repeat exposure to radiation from CT scans. However, the harms of the test itself — i.e. false positive screens that cause substantial anxiety and necessitate additional testing — are not addressed. As noted above under “Why This Matters,” the concern is that using this test to guide surveillance testing (whether to order the CT) could be a problem if the test is not actually very accurate when used in that role — false positive and particularly false negative results could lead to harms. We have no data (certainly not from the study in question) that could address these concerns. All we know from the release is that VOC levels dropped after surgery and were comparable to levels in controls. The study provided no data on how well this test would perform for cancer surveillance — which would require prospectively evaluating the breath test against the standard CT tests to determine its predictive values. The news release might have more appropriately stated that the breath test is being evaluated as a tool to monitor for disease recurrence — not being used as a tool. There’s no disease-mongering here. The release earns a satisfactory here for providing both funding sources and pointing out that three of the seven researchers have ties to a medical equipment company which deals with breath analysis. The information, however, lies at the end of the story in a portion commonly referred to as “boilerplate” information, which readers often ignore. Incorporating such info into the body of the release better serves readers. This release effectively points out that current practice uses periodic CT scans as the method of monitoring the potential recurrence of lung cancer in patients. It states that the breath analysis might be a substitute for the more expensive imaging procedure. Early on the release states, “Now the test is being used to monitor for disease recurrence.” That sentence might confuse some readers into thinking the test is already in use. You have to read to the end to learn from a researcher’s quote that “Our next step is getting approval from the FDA.” So that’s a signal to readers that the test is not yet available, and may not be for some time. In addition, the comment about FDA approval doesn’t give us any sense of the hurdles/obstacles that remain before the test would be validated for clinical use. The release doesn’t make a strong claim of novelty — and that’s appropriate. A quick online search found that besides this research from the University of Louisville in Kentucky, at least two other institutions are developing breath tests for lung cancer detection: Georgia Institute of Technology and the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University  and the University of Leicester. The release said “A subset of four VOCs—called carbonyl compounds because of their carbon base—have been discovered in the exhaled breath of lung cancer patients.” Discoveries sound novel. But this study, more than a decade old, describes the use of VOCs for lung cancer detection. While the release doesn’t claim to be “first,” it might have mentioned related work that has been done in this field of research. The release doesn’t use any unjustifiable or sensational language. Claim: Lung Cancer Breath ‘Signature’ Presents Promise for Earlier Diagnosis",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not mention any cost information for Exelon (rivastigmine). The story does not quantify any benefits. What’s more, the story doesn’t give any idea what the benefits might be or what improvemements might be expected. See comments in “Evidence” section. The story reports the panel believes the drug to be “safe” but does not describe any side effects or harms of rivastigmine. These may include nausea/upset stomach, vomitting, loss of appetite, and headaches. The story does not describe any evidence for therapeutic claims that the drug works for treating Parkinson’s Disease. Additionally, it appears the FDA panel recommended approval of this drug for Parkinson’s based solely on studies from the manufacturer. Another issue is that while this drug might provide some improvement in dementia symptoms among some people with some forms of Alzheimer’s, those improvements may be small and not all people will show improvement. It’s not known whether long-term outcomes, such as nursing home admission, is improved with the drug. It’s not clear that this drug would have the same effects in a different population (those with Parkinson’s), and if so, whether those effects would be meaningful. There are no obvious elements of disease mongering. The story provides simple, straight-forward descriptions of both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, although more information might have been useful. The story does not provide any independent input about the therapeutic claims of rivastigmine for treating dementia in people with Parkinson’s. The story does not mention other treatment options, such as memantine. The story fails to mention a projected date for or the next steps in obtaining FDA approval. While the FDA usually follows the advice of the advisory panel, which in this case recommended the drug’s approval for treatment of dementia associated with Parkinson’s Disease, the FDA does not have to follow the panel’s recommendation. There is no discussion of when the FDA might approve the drug for this indication. The story tells readers that the drug is currently on the market for treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. In other words, the story adequately reports the drug is not new, but is being considered for a new purpose. There is no obvious evidence the story relies on a press release. Claim: FDA Panel Backs Novartis Drug For Treating Parkinson’s Dementia",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a study published last week in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts declared that flounder in Boston’s once notoriously polluted harbor are now tumor-free. It’s turnaround from the late 1980s, when more than three-quarters of the species in Boston Harbor were found to have signs of liver disease, including cancerous tumors. But Michael Moore, the Woods Hole biologist who authored the study published in the academic journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, said his team hasn’t found a tumor on a flounder since 2004. “The fish aren’t getting liver tumors anymore,” he said. Moore has been monitoring harbor flounder since 1986, when the poor health of the once-bountiful, bottom-feeding fish became emblematic of the harbor’s broader environmental challenges. The health of the flounder that generations of Bostonians had fished helped spur a series of lawsuits. A landmark federal court decision in 1985 compelled Massachusetts to properly treat sewage dumped into the harbor, resulting in billions of dollars in public works projects. Chief among them was the completion of a new sewage treatment plant on the harbor in the 1990s and the opening of a massive underground tunnel directing discharge from the sewage plant nearly 10 miles out of the harbor into Massachusetts Bay in 2000. The results have been dramatic, with porpoises, seals, humpback whales and other marine animals that had been rarely if ever seen in the harbor now regularly popping up, says Tony LaCasse, the spokesman for the New England Aquarium that overlooks Boston Harbor. “The people of Massachusetts spent billions of dollars to reclaim their harbor, and it worked,” he said. The turnaround of the harbor — once considered the country’s dirtiest — can also be seen in the improved water quality in the rivers that feed into it and the high marks its beaches have received for cleanliness in recent years, according to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, the drinking water and sewage agency created in the wake of the 1985 decision. “The empirical data is irrefutable,” Frederick Laskey, the authority’s executive director, said. “The clean-up of Boston Harbor is the greatest environmental achievement of this generation.” Claim: Tumor-free flounder: Study underscores Boston Harbor rebirth.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: District Judge Jennifer Lint said in her ruling Tuesday that people’s health is threatened by the deadly outbreak of a lung illness tied to some vaping products and that flavored electronic cigarettes are making it easy for kids to become addicted to nicotine. “Preventing further harm to the public health is more important than preventing economic harm to vapor product businesses,” Lint wrote. With the ruling, Montana will join other states, including New York and Massachusetts, that have banned flavored e-cigarettes at the same time health officials are investigating vaping-related lung illnesses in the U.S. As of last week, there were 2,400 confirmed and probable cases of lung illnesses and 52 deaths nationwide have been attributed to vaping. The 120-day ban took effect Wednesday afternoon, said Department of Public Health and Human Services spokesman Jon Ebelt. The restrictions include the sale of all flavored e-cigarette products, including flavored nicotine, THC and CBD e-cigarette products, both in store and online. The rules do not require businesses to destroy their inventory. Officials said the ban would give the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention time to identify the cause of the illnesses. Federal health officials are examining vitamin E acetate, an additive used as a thickening agent. When inhaled, it may interfere with normal lung functioning. There have been seven vaping-related lung illnesses, including one death, in Montana, according to Ebelt. Business owners argued that there was no connection between flavored vaping liquids and the rise of the lung injuries, which they said appear to be caused by black-market products. They also argued that they don’t sell to minors and that their products are used by people trying to quit or looking for a safer alternative to tobacco. But the judge sided with state health officials, who said the rise of youth vaping and the unexplained increase in lung illnesses are two emergencies that left them no choice. Lint repeatedly said in her order that flavored vaping products provide an easy “on-ramp” to hook kids on nicotine, threatening the progress made in reducing tobacco use. “This has always been about protecting our most vulnerable, and we are pleased that the court chose to stand with Montanans and their health by allowing the emergency rules to go forward,” Public Health and Human Services Director Sheila Hogan said in a statement. Ron and Deanna Marshall, owners of one of the businesses that sued, Freedom Vapes, did not immediately return a message left at their Hamilton store. Before the ruling, Freedom Vapes advertised a “Happy (Resistance) Hour” for Wednesday afternoon. The shop had planned to offer half-off prices for flavored nicotine liquid “until a judge makes a ruling.” That Facebook post was later deleted and replaced with one that said, “We will be making an announcement soon on the flavored juice ban.” Claim: Montana joins other states with vaping product bans .",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The school announced Monday that the Boone County health department is working with university health officials to determine whether other students and staff need testing. Privacy laws prohibit the release of any information about the student. The ill student left campus voluntarily. Only students with active infections can spread the disease to other through close contact. So far this year, six cases of active tuberculosis have been reported in Missouri. Claim: Missouri student on Columbia campus has active tuberculosis.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A total of 54 scientists have lost their jobs as a result of an ongoing federal investigation into whether they properly disclosed financial ties they had to foreign countries, primarily China. But a Facebook post that cites the terminations is a little loose with the facts. And it misleadingly links Anthony Fauci, one of the leading federal experts fighting the coronavirus pandemic, to the National Institutes of Health’s investigation. Here’s what the June 15 post said: \"Trump administration just FIRED 54 scientists & cut off 77 grants at Fauci's NIH for not disclosing their ties to Communist China!\" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The National Institutes of Health, or NIH, is the largest single public funder of biomedical research in the world, and 156 of its funded researchers have received Nobel Prizes for their work, according to the Congressional Research Service. NIH is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, a Cabinet-level agency led by Secretary Alex Azar, an appointee of President Donald Trump. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of NIH. The director of the NIH is Francis Collins. In 2018, NIH announced it had concerns about protecting the integrity of U.S. biomedical research, \"including the failure by some researchers at NIH-funded institutions to disclose substantial contributions of resources from other organizations, including foreign governments, which threatens to distort decisions about the appropriate use of NIH funds.\" The agency said it would work with other government agencies, NIH-funded academic institutions and others to investigate any failures by researchers to report substantial contributions. In a June 12 report, NIH said 54 scientists have resigned or been fired. There were also 77 scientists who have been removed from the NIH system, meaning they are no longer eligible for NIH grants. An NIH spokeswoman told PolitiFact that all the scientists worked at NIH-funded institutions, such as universities. They were not employed as NIH scientists. She said NIH is not releasing specific information on the scientists involved. In 93% of the cases, the hidden funding came from a Chinese institution. The journal Science, which first reported on the update, said NIH has been in the forefront of federal efforts to identify and block behavior that many U.S. government officials say poses a significant threat to the country’s economic well-being and to national security. Prominent Harvard case One prominent case of this type is that of Charles Lieber, the former chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department. He was indicted June 9 on charges of making false statements to federal authorities regarding his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Program. He has pleaded not guilty. Here’s a summary from the U.S. Justice Department: Lieber’s research at the Lieber Research Group has been funded by more than $15 million in research grants from the NIH and the Defense Department. The grants required the disclosure of all sources of research support, potential financial conflicts of interest and all foreign collaboration. It is alleged that, unbeknownst to Harvard University, he became a \"strategic scientist\" at Wuhan University of Technology in China and a contractual participant in the Thousand Talents Plan. Under the terms of Lieber’s three-year Thousand Talents contract, Wuhan University of Technology allegedly paid Lieber a salary of up to $50,000 per month, living expenses of up to 1 million Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 at the time) and awarded him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT. In November 2018, NIH inquired of Harvard whether Lieber had failed to disclose his then-suspected relationship with WUT and China’s Thousand Talents Plan. Lieber allegedly caused Harvard to falsely tell NIH that Lieber \"had no formal association with WUT\" after 2012, that \"WUT continued to falsely exaggerate\" his involvement with WUT in subsequent years, and that Lieber \"is not and has never been a participant in\" China’s Thousand Talents Plan. A Facebook post claimed: \"Trump administration just FIRED 54 scientists & cut off 77 grants at Fauci's NIH for not disclosing their ties to Communist China!\" There are 54 scientists who were either fired or resigned as a result of an NIH investigation into scientists failing to disclose financial ties to other countries, with the vast majority of cases involving China. There were also 77 scientists, not grants, who are no longer eligible for NIH grants; it’s not that grant money to them was cut off. It’s also wrong to say NIH is Fauci’s agency; Fauci leads one division of NIH. For a statement that is partially accurate, our rating is . Claim: “Trump administration just FIRED 54 scientists & cut off 77 grants at Fauci's NIH for not disclosing their ties to Communist China!”",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: When the House Judiciary Committee was considering legislation to tax and regulate marijuana, Kathleen Sullivan, Warren’s substance abuse coordinator, stepped forward to warn the committee about the dangers of marijuana use. \"We do know that the proportion of Rhode Islanders entering substance abuse treatment primarily due to marijuana use has reached its highest point in 20 years,\" she told the committee during the April 29 hearing. When we contacted her for details, she emailed statistics collected from the states by the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. Her data on admissions for substance abuse treatment, primarily for marijuana, ranged from 1993 through 2011, a year shy of the 20 years she spoke of. According to those statistics, the rate of admissions in 1993 was 96 per 100,000 Rhode Islanders age 12 and older. In 2011, the rate was 166 admissions. But this wasn’t the highest that the rate has ever been over the past two decades. It peaked at 218 in 2009 and then declined in the next two years. The number of admissions, unadjusted for population, peaked that year as well, and then dropped. When we looked at the number of admissions that the federal agency reported online for 2012 and 2013, we found that the decline has continued, showing a drop each year since 2009. In her email, Sullivan qualified her statement saying: \"I was referring to the overall trend in marijuana admissions.\" So we took another look at the data and examined the trend in admission rates, even though she didn’t make this distinction in her testimony. The trend from beginning to end for admissions per 100,000 teens and adults has been up over the past two decades. But if you look at the trend line since 1999, there has been no statistically significant increase. We also contacted the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration directly and officials there told us there are limitations to the data that make Sullivan's position problematic. One major problem is that an individual can be counted more than once each year depending on how many times he or she has been admitted for treatment, explained Kelley Smith, a statistician with the administration's Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Smith said the data, known as the Treatment Episode Data Set or TEDS, do not support the assertion that the number of Rhode Islanders entering substance abuse treatment has reached its highest point in 20 years. \"Not according to TEDS,\" Smith said in an email. \"According to TEDS, the percentages have remained relatively stable.\" Our ruling Kathleen Sullivan said the proportion of Rhode Islanders entering substance abuse treatment, primarily for marijuana, has reached its highest point in 20 years. Her documentation shows a peak in 2009, but then admissions decline through 2011. More recent data show the decline has continued. Further, our trend analysis shows no increase since 1999. And a federal statistician at the agency that compiled the data said admission rates have been \"relatively stable\" over the past 20 years. We rate her statement . Claim: The proportion of Rhode Islanders entering substance abuse treatment primarily due to marijuana use has reached its highest point in 20 years.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In 2017, the conspiracy-peddling Neon Nettle junk news website published an article headlined “Harvard Study Proves Unvaccinated Children Pose No Risk.” The referenced “study” was, in fact, not a study but rather an “open letter” penned by a woman named Tetyana Obukhanych and published on the anti-vaccine website Thinking Moms’ Revolution — a site that promotes a $2,000.00 “ion detox” machine as a treatment for autism. Obukhanych’s letter, first published in 2015, continues to be shared and re-shared online despite its numerous shortcomings. We will discuss Obukhanych’s academic background toward the end of this post, as such details matter less than the content of the misleading or false claims made in her open letter, which we will address one-by-one. Broadly, Obukhanych argues that laws requiring mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren are misguided because most vaccines included in such laws (in her estimation) do not prevent the transmission of disease, and therefore an unvaccinated child would pose no added risk to a vaccinated child in a school setting: It is often stated that those who choose not to vaccinate their children for reasons of conscience endanger the rest of the public, and this is the rationale behind most of the legislation to end vaccine exemptions currently being considered by federal and state legislators country-wide. I have outlined … the recommended vaccines that cannot prevent transmission of disease either because they are not designed to prevent the transmission of infection … or because they are for non-communicable diseases. People who have not received [these vaccines] pose no higher threat to the general public than those who have, implying that discrimination against non-immunized children in a public school setting may not be warranted. Obukhanych’s repeated refrain is that accepting (or, more to the point, rejecting) these vaccines “cannot alter the safety of public spaces,” such as schools, because they afford only personal protection. The result is a viral story that provides a highly shareable but flawed justification to parents for use against other parents who accuse them of endangering their children by not vaccinating them. In most cases, Obukhanych’s reasoning is problematic and her conclusions unsupported by science. Tetanus, as stated in Obukhanych’s post, is a non-communicable disease. Vaccination against tetanus, which is caused by the release of a toxin produced by C. tetani bacteria, does not prevent the spread of those bacteria; it merely affords one’s body the ability to destroy the toxin they produce. That fact does mean a child without a tetanus vaccination poses no additional risk to others. It is worth mentioning, however, that 2 in 10 people who develop tetanus die from the disease, and that the tetanus vaccine (which is generally included in a three-vaccine combination) is uncontroversially safe for use in nearly all populations. Obukhanych attempts to make a similar argument against Hepatitis B vaccination, arguing that since it is a blood-borne disease, it is unlikely to be spread amongst children: Hepatitis B is a blood-borne virus. It does not spread in a community setting, especially among children who are unlikely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as needle sharing or sex. Vaccinating children for hepatitis B cannot significantly alter the safety of public spaces. Obukhanych confidently asserts that Hepatitis B does not “spread in a community setting,” but while non-sexual and non-needle based transmissions are rare, they are not impossible, as the disease can be transferred from mother to infant or via cuts. Although the risk of a school-aged child’s contracting the disease is lower than an adult’s, the risk to the former of being chronically infected from the disease is significantly higher. Approximately 90% of infants and 25%–50% of children aged one to five years who are exposed to hepatitis B become chronically infected. For adults, around 95% recover completely from exposure to the same disease. On a population level, the hepatitis vaccine has been clearly successful in reducing the disease burden worldwide, thanks to high vaccination rates globally. While the impact of one child may seem negligible on a broad level, not vaccinating for hepatitis B very much impacts the “safety of public spaces.” Obukhanych’s argument against the Hib vaccine, which imparts immunity against Haemophilus influenzae type B bacteria (a common cause of meningitis, pneumonia, and epiglottitis, but, despite the name, is unrelated to influenza), attempts to make it sound as of the vaccine actively endangers the safety of public spaces. Her argument does so by ignoring entirely the fact that the Hib vaccine has been highly successful at reducing influenzae type B infections and focuses instead on the unproven assertion that several isolated influenzae type A or other “untypeable” strain outbreaks that have occurred since its introduction as a recommended vaccine were caused by vaccination. To make that case, Obukhanych cites a 2011 paper regarding the increasing incidence of H. influenzae type A diseases in adults in Utah. That paper was one of several which have documented increases in influenzae type-a (or other “untypeable”) infections in localized communities. That paper does not, however, make the argument that this increase (or other similar outbreaks) has a direct causal relationship with influenzae type b vaccinations (although that paper and others have speculated about it). The study explicitly stated that the cause remained unclear: “Several studies in addition to ours suggest an increase in invasive disease caused by to non-type b H. influenzae among adults. The reasons for this change are unclear, and might reflect changes in the organisms, changes in the number of persons at high risk, or perhaps waning of cross-immunity induced by exposure to Hib.” More recent research has still not provided complete answers to that question, but non-type-B outbreaks primarily affect older adult populations and have limited relevance to a schoolyard scenario. What is clear is that vaccination against type-B influenzae has greatly affected “the safety of public spaces.” Before the introduction of the Hib vaccine, about 20,000 children in the United States under 5 years old contracted Hib disease each year, and about 3%–6% of them died. Since the use of the Hib vaccine began, the number of cases of invasive Hib disease has decreased by more than 99%. Obukhanych’s argument against the diphtheria vaccine is that it is only good for personal protection. She makes this argument by correctly stating that diphtheria is caused by a strain of bacteria (Corynebacterium diphtheria) and by correctly stating that vaccination does not prevent transmission of those bacteria. This is an impressive bad-faith argument. Her argument conveniently leaves out the fact that the most dangerous infections associated with the disease are not caused by the bacteria themselves, but through the colonization of them by a virus (a bacteriophage called ß-corynebacteriophage) which induces the bacteria to produce a dangerous toxin. The diphtheria vaccine imparts immunity by preventing the bacteriophage from colonizing C. diphtheria, and this action does two things that directly “alter the safety of public spaces” in a positive way. First, one result of diphtheria vaccinations is that any C. diphtheria transmitted from one vaccinated human to another are not anywhere near as dangerous as the same bacteria transmitted by an unvaccinated person, since those bacteria not likely to be infected and therefore not likely to be producing the dangerous diphtheria toxoid. Uncolonized C. diphtheria can cause mild illnesses, but nothing close to as severe as true diphtheria. Second, uninfected C. diphtheria bacteria are less likely to be spread between individuals in the first place, meaning the vaccine quite literally reduces the chances that the disease will be transferred between individuals. In the 1900s in the United States, 76 people per every 100,000 died from diphtheria. Since the diphtheria vaccine’s introduction, fatalities from diphtheria have become nearly non-existent in the United States and other developed countries. Obukhanych’s argument against the acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine is similar to her attempted argument against diphtheria, which is that the vaccine does not prevent transmission of the disease, commonly known as whooping cough and caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis: An experiment with deliberate pertussis infection in primates revealed that the aP vaccine is not capable of preventing colonization and transmission of B. pertussis. The FDA has issued a warning regarding this crucial finding. That study was big news, as it provided a possible answer to the question of rising cases of whooping cough documented in the United States and other places around the world. The study provided evidence that the acellular pertussis vaccine, which replaced a “whole cell” version of the vaccine in many countries in the 1990s, does not prevent asymptomatic transmission of B. pertussis — cases in which the bacteria, but not the symptoms created by their infection, are transferred unknowingly between humans. Although the vaccine prevents the dangerous coughing that can sometimes prove fatal, Obukhanych is correct in stating that it may not prevent the bacteria’s transmission. However, Obukhanych’s characterization of the study as being evidence of harm for which the FDA had to issue a warning is misleading. The authors of that study made it explicitly clear that maintaining a high level of vaccination currently was of utmost importance because of the result: “It is important to note that our data in combination with human data show that vaccination with aP provides excellent protection from severe pertussis. Therefore, any short-term plan for addressing the resurgence of pertussis should include continued efforts to enhance aP immunization.” Responding to similar findings published in 2015, epidemiologist Benjamin M. Althouse told the New York Times that “until we get that vaccine, it is more important than ever to be vaccinated, and we need to keep the vaccination levels high.” Obukhanych’s argument against the polio vaccine is probably the most bad faith of them all. Her broad claim is that the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) does not prevent the spread of wild polio (the form of the disease that was in circulation worldwide before vaccination) and instead only works in countries such as the United States where polio eradication is complete. First, such a claim is patently false on its face. The inactivated polio vaccine is, for example, singularly responsible for the eradication of polio in most of the Scandinavian countries, which suggests that it has quite successfully blocked transmission of the disease. Her statement that “wild poliovirus eradication is attributed to the use of a different vaccine, OPV or oral poliovirus vaccine,” is broadly true for the United States, but not for the world as a whole. Second, Obukhanych misrepresents a study’s results to suggest that it provides evidence the IPV vaccine does not protect against the wild poliovirus. She does this to make the clever-sounding argument that a vaccinated child might pose a risk to unvaccinated children, but she does so by ignoring everything but a single sentence found in a single diagram in a lengthy New England Journal of Medicine study that sought to address the vaccine’s effectiveness against wild polioviruses. In her post, she references a footnote to a table showing the viral load of the feces of a control group of infants and a group treated with IPV after they were inoculated with OPV. Her interpretation of the figure is that “high counts of live virus were recovered from the stool of children in all groups, [making] it clear that IPV cannot be relied upon for the control of polioviruses.” In fact, the study’s authors viewed those results as evidence of IPVs success against wild poliovirus strains, which (not to put too fine a point on it) is the opposite of the argument she claims the paper is making (emphasis ours): In our study, the prevalence of excretion after receiving trivalent OPV was high (more than 90% for any poliovirus) and was similar among all three groups, including the control group, but viral titers were lower in both IPV groups, suggesting an effect of IPV vaccination on replication of polioviruses. These data from stool titers are consistent with a body of literature suggesting that previous vaccination with IPV can reduce the prevalence, duration, and titers of poliovirus in the stool. The World Health Organization’s view tracks that study’s view of IPV as well, stating that it “has been used successfully to eradicate polio in a few countries, notably in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, [and that in the] numerous countries that have been introduced to IPV over the last decade no evidence of continued circulation of poliovirus strains has been observed, indicating that IPV may successfully inhibit community transmission of poliovirus.” Obukhanych bills herself as a recovering “mainstream” academic who has seen the error of her field’s ways. She claims a PhD in Epidemiology from The Rockefeller University in New York and states on her Patreon page that she “held postdoctoral research training appointments in prominent immunology laboratories affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine.” Her publication record supports the notion that she held positions at, or worked with, these institutions, though she has few publications to her name. Despite not being a physician, she is a “Founding Director” of Physicians for Informed Consent (an organization described in multiple science-based medical blogs as a “radical anti-vaccine” group), and she has produced a self-published e-book titled Vaccine Illusion: How Vaccination Compromises Our Natural Immunity and What We Can Do To Regain Our Health. She also sells access to her teleconferenced lectures for $20.00 a month. Claim: A Harvard study proved that “unvaccinated children pose no risk” to other kids.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A $10 million lawsuit that was reportedly filed against Uber by a man accused of shooting eight people while working as a driver for the company in Kalamazoo, Michigan, has turned out to be a hoax, according to law enforcement officials. The handwritten, rambling letter was purported to be from Jason Dalton, who is awaiting trial on charges of killing six people on 20 February 2016 (between picking up fares as an Uber driver). Dalton, 45 — who faces 16 charges related to the shootings, including six counts of murder and two of attempted murder — told police that a “devil” in the Uber app took over his body, and that his memories of the shootings are spotty. The hoax lawsuit, which was mailed to U.S. District Court in Detroit and filed Tuesday, claims that Dalton had worked for Uber for years, although the company has said he was only approved in late January, less than a month before his shooting spree: This company is a hostile workplace environment. I am tired of being treated like a 2nd class citizen by Uber. Uber discriminates against my mental health. I’m currently in prison because of Uber…. I seek $10 million dollars in punitive damages and emotional distress. The letter also alleges that the company would call him late at night and tell him that if he didn’t go to work, he was fired. (Uber doesn’t set schedules for its drivers.) “He said he has no idea what it is,” Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas told local news outlets. “He said he didn’t send it, didn’t authorize it, doesn’t know who did.” In a previous e-mail statement, Matyas wrote: To let you know, the Dalton lawsuit was a hoax. I was suspicious last night when I saw the envelope the lawsuit came in was postmarked Philadelphia. We investigated and Dalton did not send it, did not authorize it and does not know who sent it. Further it was not his handwriting and it is not a jail envelope. Claim: Jason Brian Dalton, who as accused of killing six people during a shooting spree in February 2016, is suing Uber for $10 million in damages.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: An assertion from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that vaccinations are about freedom and should be left to parental choice spawned a raft of reaction from the pundit and political world. One claim we heard a lot is Paul should know better. After all, he is an eye surgeon. In an interview on CNBC on Feb. 2, 2015, Paul hailed vaccines as a medical triumph but said he sees the controversy of whether it should be mandatory as an \"issue of freedom.\" Further, he said he heard of many \"tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.\" Dr. Celine Gounder, a physician who frequently appears on news channels to analyze health news, addressed his comments on CNN Newsroom the following day. \"Frankly, Rand Paul as an ophthalmologist should be out there saying measles is one of the most common causes of child blindness worldwide,\" Gounder said. \"And as an eye doctor, he should be advocating for measles vaccination for that reason.\" Gounder’s claim, as it relates to Paul’s life as an eye surgeon, got our attention. And it’s correct. Gounder’s point is backed up by sources such as the World Health Organization and a host of academic studies and review papers that she sent us. ‘Worldwide’ is key Conjunctivitis, or pink eye, is a common side effect of a measles infection. \"Whoever you are, wherever you are,\" people with measles can’t stand bright sunlight, said Dr. James Cherry, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of California, Los Angeles. But for children in poor countries, eye damage from measles can be much worse. Blindness by measles in children is not common across North America and Europe, areas with high vaccination rates and access. The leading causes of blindness in those continents are lesions of the optic nerve, according to the WHO. In low-income countries, where access to vaccines that prevent measles is limited and malnutrition is prevalent, corneal scarring from measles and a deficiency of vitamin A are the major causes. In the United States, based on the most recent CDC data from more than 20 years ago, the leading complication (and complications from measles of any sort in the U.S. are not common) was diarrhea followed by middle ear inflammation and pneumonia. \"In the U.S., children could potentially develop eye problems during an episode of measles if they are malnourished,\" said Dr. Richard Semba, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine ophthalmology professor. \"This would probably be rare.\" Vitamin A is important for eyes to function as they should, as well as for the body’s immune system and growth. If your teacher or mom didn’t tell you, the vitamin is found in eggs, whole milk, butter and liver, as well as leafy green vegetables and red, orange and yellow fruits. Measles is most common in countries of sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia and south Asia, together home to 85 percent of all blind children. In these places, measles is endemic, according to a 2004 review paper by Semba. That paper found measles blindness accounted for anywhere from 15,000 to 60,000 cases of child blindness per year. Here's how Semba explained blindness happening from contracting the highly contagious measles virus: The cornea, the front transparent layer of the eye, requires vitamin A to work. The retina, which is the back layer of the eye that receives visual images (like the film in a camera), requires vitamin A in order to allow us to see at night. A measles infection can reduce the levels of vitamin A that the body needs for normal health. As a result, during a measles episode, a child can develop ulcers in the cornea during a measles episode that makes it hard to see at night. The end result is \"a devastating loss of vision and blindness,\" Semba said. Dryness in corneas can result in night blindness, corneal ulceration, scarring and resulting blindness, studies show. Countries with vaccination programs for measles have reduced the problem of widespread eye disease, according to WHO. The organization also recommends that children in developing countries who contract measles receive two doses of vitamin A supplements a day apart. \"Vitamin A supplements have been shown to reduce the number of deaths from measles by 50 percent,\" WHO says. Paul’s spokesman sent us a link to a New York Times reporter’s account of watching Paul get his Hepatitis A booster shot Feb. 3, 2015, but did not answer our questions. Our ruling Gounder suggested Paul should be singing a different tune about vaccinations, one that mentions, \"Measles is one of the most common causes of child blindness worldwide.\" She was careful to say worldwide. In developed countries, measles does not typically lead to blindness. But in low-income countries, it is certainly one of the leading drivers of blindness in children, experts agree. Claim: Measles is one of the most common causes of child blindness worldwide.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. citizens Eric Betzig and William Moerner and Germany’s Stefan Hell won the prize for using fluorescence to take microscopes to a new level, making it possible to study things like the creation of synapses between brain cells in real time. “Due to their achievements the optical microscope can now peer into the nanoworld,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said as it awarded the 8 million crown ($1.1 million) prize. Scientists, who have been looking down microscopes since the 17th century, had long thought there was a limit to what could be seen. In 1873, Ernst Abbe stipulated that resolution could never be better than 0.2 micrometers, or around 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair. But the three Nobel winners bypassed this limit by tagging objects with fluorescent markers and scanning them to build up a far more detailed images. Today, such “nanoscopy” is used widely to visualize the internal molecular machinery of cells. “This is very, very important to understanding how the cell works and understanding what goes wrong if the cell is diseased,” Hell told a news conference by telephone after learning of the award. Modern nanoscale microscopes can follow protein interactions involved in diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancer, or watch the transcription and translation of DNA to make proteins, or track the development of fertilized eggs as they divide and become embryos. The previous limit meant optical microscopes could see objects about the size of the smallest bacteria, but not the detailed workings of individual components inside cells. Light is a common theme of both this award and the Nobel Prize for Physics, which was given on Tuesday for advances in low-energy light-emitting diodes. “It’s no exaggeration to say that super-resolution fluorescence microscopy has revolutionized imaging, so this year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry is very well deserved,” said Stefanie Reichelt, head of light microscopy at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge. Other techniques, such as electron microscopes, can provide greater resolution but require preparatory measures that kill cells, making them of no use for observing living processes. “If you want to see living things, you must use something which does not destroy the sample, by using normal light,” Anders Hagfeldt, a member of the Swedish academy and professor of physical chemistry at Uppsala University told Reuters. “It was said it could not be done, basically. Now, with these three laureates here, it is possible.”  Hell, who is director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany, said he was “totally surprised” by the prize, while Betzig said he was stunned. “I have been walking around a daze for the last hour, on a nice day in Munich, fearful that my life has changed,” he told Reuters by phone from the southern German city, where he was scheduled to give a lecture on Wednesday. Moerner, who is attending a conference in Recife, Brazil, told Reuters TV: “I knew there was a chance but really had no idea... it’s something that makes your heart race.”   Betzig works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, United States, while Moerner is professor at Stanford University. Chemistry was the third of this year’s Nobel prizes. The prize is named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will. The chemistry prize has often lived in the shadow of physics and its star scientists such as Albert Einstein, though it was the field that was arguably closest to the heart of Nobel’s own work in developing explosives. As winners of the chemistry prize, the laureates enter an exclusive club of researchers such as nuclear pioneer Ernest Rutherford and Linus Pauling, the only person to win two Nobels on his own — for chemistry in 1954 and peace in 1962. Claim: Nobel Prize for seeing how life works at molecular level.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Bryant Fritz, who teaches middle school science at Next Generation School in Champaign, was preparing to fish Saturday when he found a black and white puppy submerged in rising water and trapped inside of a dog crate in Kaufman Lake. Fritz told The News-Gazette on Sunday that he waded into waist-high, freezing water in the Champaign lake before reaching the cage. “It was pretty clear the dog had been in the cold water for several hours. I immediately pulled her out of the water and dragged the crate to the shore,” he said. He then realized the dog had other medical issues. “When I got her up to the shore, there was blood all over the place,” Fritz said. “She was missing a bunch of fur on the back side, and the bottom of her paws were missing skin. She probably weighed 15 to 20 pounds; she was definitely a puppy. She was shaking so bad. Her eyes were shut. She was so miserable.” He took the dog to his truck, turned up the heat as high as he could and headed to the University of Illinois Veterinary Hospital, where he had called ahead to staff to let them know he was coming. On the way, he stopped at his house to wrap the puppy in a blanket “to get her as warm as possible.” University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine spokeswoman Chris Beuoy noted the puppy has been responding favorably to treatment for hypothermia. The hospital’s staff also cleaned the wounds and put her on antibiotics and pain medicine. “We weren’t sure if the dog would need additional care for her wounds, but she received more treatment for her wounds on Sunday,” Beuoy said. After Champaign County Animal Control takes custody of the pooch, Fritz hopes that he will be allowed to adopt her and give her a loving home. “As I filled out the paperwork when I brought her to the hospital, I realized I wanted this dog to be a part of my life,” the teacher said. ___ Information from: The News-Gazette, http://www.news-gazette.com Claim: Teacher saves caged puppy from drowning in Illinois lake.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cancer treatments are very (some would same ridiculously) expensive and the two treatments highlighted in this release are no exception. To put it into perspective, we calculate the monthly cost of nivolumab to be in the vicinity of $12,600 (not including administration fees) and of everolimus at $11,500 month. calculation nivolumab = 3mg/kg x 70kg = 210mg @$30/mg=$6,300 x 2 = $12,600 everolimus = $11,500 for 30 tablets The primary outcome measure for the study was median survival. The news release notes, “In the randomized phase III clinical trial, patients whose disease progressed on antiangiogenic therapies were treated with either nivolumab or everolimus. Median overall survival was 5.4 months longer with nivolumab (25 months) compared with everolimus (19.6 months).” We are also told, “More than 12 months later, 31% and 27% of patients treated with nivolumab and everolimus, respectively, continued to show a response.” If one is discerning, it becomes clear that this new treatment buys a patient about 5 months of survival time. That’s certainly valuable time, but it’s debatable whether that amounts to the kind of benefit patients associate with the term “breakthrough.” The release says only that there were “fewer treatment-related adverse events, including fatigue and nausea, and improved quality of life with nivolumab.” But that’s not really a satisfactory accounting of the harms of treatment. As the article in the NEJM notes, “Treatment related adverse events of any grade occurred in 319 of the 406 patients (79%) treated with nivolumab and in 349 of the 397 (88%) treated with everolimus.” The release should have given readers more insight into what these harms are and how often they occur. The release provides a good deal of information on the study design, number of subjects treated in each arm and provides additional comments on secondary outcome measures. The release appropriately notes the number of cases of RCC diagnosed worldwide and the frequency on metastatic disease on presentation. We would have preferred it if the prevalence of the disease had been described as a rate (per 100,000), so we could appreciate how rare it is. The news release fails to note that the study was funded by the manufacturer of nivolumab (Bristol Myers Squibb) and that Dr. Sharma is a consultant to the company. This is important context. Although not named specifically, other therapies are mentioned: ” A number of targeted therapies have been approved in recent years for the treatment of advanced RCC, with five antiangiogenic and two mTOR inhibitors (including everolimus; these drugs block a protein that regulates cell growth, proliferation, survival, etc. ), showing benefits in pivotal phase III trials” To be sure, this is not really a true comparison of options, just a listing. But since the main alternative is the treatment used in the trial, this may be a moot point. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt on the rating. The release makes it clear that “Nivolumab, marketed as Opdivo, is currently used to treat metastatic melanoma and advanced non-small cell lung cancer.”  However it is silent on the availability of everolimus (Afinitor). The release also did not mention insurance coverage for these treatments. The release establishes novelty in the lead sentence: “For the first time, an immune checkpoint inhibitor has been proven to increase survival among patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a patient population for whom treatment options are currently limited.” It also establishes that the drug “is currently used to treat metastatic melanoma and advanced non-small cell lung cancer.” The language of the release is somewhat hyperbolic given the small magnitude of the benefit. Examples: “breakthrough” … “this is a new way forward” … “this study sets a new benchmark for therapeutic strategies for advanced RCC patients” … “portends paradigm change.” However, the term “breakthrough” is technically consistent with the FDA designation of nivolumab as a “Breakthrough Therapy.” We’ve been critical of that designation because we think it skews patient expectations and may set them up for disappointment. But we’ll give the benefit of the doubt on the rating. We remind readers, as the release does, that the “Breakthrough Therapy designation is intended to expedite the development and review of medicines with early signals of clinical benefit in serious diseases to help ensure patients have access to new therapies as soon as possible.” Claim: Breakthrough study demonstrates survival advantage with immune checkpoint inhibitor for advanced kidney cancer patients",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 21 March 2017, a viral post from a web site called Goodfullness.com (titled “If You See One of These Slugs Inside Your House, Dial 911 Immediately!”), argued that the invasion of the New Guinea Flatworm in Florida poses a acute risk to human health that necessitates calling 911. While this post (and many others like it) frames their invasion as a new event, it is not. This non-native species, also called Platydemus manokwari, was first spotted in August 2012 and confirmed by a team of researchers in 2015 in a scientific report that made significant news at the time: In the USA, the accidental introduction of P. manokwari through human agency to Florida is probably recent, with our first specimens found in August 2012. The species is apparently now well established, with several different locations found in 2014 in Miami Dade County. While viral posts implied that the discovery of a New Guinea Flatworm in one’s home necessitates a police response, authorities suggest otherwise. We reached out to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to ask if their department recommended reporting sightings of the New Guinea Flatworm to 911. They told us, via e-mail, that it is not necessary: The FWC is aware that New Guinea flatworms have spread to many parts of Florida, and people do not need to report sightings. Indeed, the primary danger of the New Guinea Flatworm is to the ecosystem rather than to human health. The pest has an infamous track record of damaging the ecosystems to which they have been introduced, as discussed in a 2014 study on their occurrence in France: Examined from an environmental perspective, P. manokwari has demonstrably had a serious negative impact on the biodiversity of native snail populations in the Pacific region […] and wherever it is deliberately or accidentally introduced it will continue to pose a threat not only to native molluscs, but possibly to other slow-moving soil invertebrates […] It may also indirectly have a negative impact on vertebrate species dependent upon these soil invertebrates. From a human health standpoint, the Goodfullness.com post makes a number of assertions about the risks P. manokwari presents to humans and other, larger creatures: These worms have the ability to consume rats and mice and when they dine on these animals, they pass on lungworm infections. From there, the infections are then transmitted to humans who are exposed to any air particles that have been contaminated by the rodent droppings. According to Florida International University professor of biology Timothy Collins, who actively studies their occurrence in Florida, the New Guinea Flatworm does not prey on rats, and typically eats “snails, earthworms, [and] slow-moving arthropods”. The New Guinea Flatworm is, however, a possible carrier of a parasite that passes through the feces of rats — the rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis). This parasite generally causes mild symptoms that generally resolve without treatment, but is capable of a more serious infection called eosinophilic meningitis, according to the CDC: Some infected people don’t have any symptoms — or have only mild symptoms that don’t last very long. Sometimes the infection causes a rare type of meningitis (eosinophilic meningitis). The symptoms can include headache, stiff neck, tingling or painful feelings in the skin, low-grade fever, nausea, and vomiting. The rat lungworm, as it turns out, utilizes a complex life cycle which requires three hosts, one of which can be a flatworm or snail, as described in a 2012 review of the parasite: When rats eat infected slugs or snails, they ingest third stage larvae which eventually grow to sexual maturity and reproduce in the heart. Single-celled eggs hatch in the lung, and first stage larvae migrate up the bronchial tree, are swallowed, and 6–8 weeks after infection are excreted with feces. Slugs or snails then eat rat feces and acquire the first stage larvae. Slugs and snails are obligatory intermediate hosts which support parasite development from the first to the third larval stage. If one’s food were to accidentally come in contact with the mucus of an infected flatworm, or if one were to directly consume the animal itself, you could potentially contract a rat lungworm infection, Collins told us via email: Angiostrongylus cantonensis, or rat lungworm, is carried by many animals, including Platydemus. For example, it has been reported in the Giant African Land Snail in Florida. There are published medical cases of people becoming infected with Angiostrongylus after eating lettuce over which snails infected with Angiostrongylyus have crawled. He tempered this analysis, however, with the caveat that there have yet to be any confirmed cases of the New Guinea Flatworm carrying the rat ringworm in Florida, and provided us with this simple advice: The average person can avoid risk by not handling the flatworms, or if they do, by not putting their hands near their eyes or nose before cleaning them carefully. In addition to the health risk, Platydemus have been reported by some brave soul to taste terrible, so eating them is a bad idea all around. This advice is in line with the CDC’s position as well: Don’t eat raw or undercooked snails or slugs, frogs or shrimp/prawns. If you handle snails or slugs, wear gloves and wash your hands. Always remember to thoroughly wash fresh produce. When travelling in areas where the parasite is common, avoid eating uncooked vegetables. This invasive creature is a big problem for local ecosystems, and it is an issue that Collins and other scientists are actively researching. However, while there are indirect potential risks to humans from the New Guinea Flatworm in Florida, these risks in no way necessitate calling 911. Claim: A recent invasion of New Guinea Flatworms in Florida poses a significant risk to human health and a sighting of this non-native animal should be reported to authorities by calling 911.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: So you might have heard that U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta got himself into some trouble last week when he talked about rape. Gingrey, now in his sixth term in the House, said fellow Republican Todd Akin of Missouri was \"partly right\" when Akin said last year that a woman’s body has a way of shutting down if she’s raped to prevent pregnancy. PolitiFact Georgia wanted to see whether there was any accuracy to Gingrey’s remarks. \"[I]n a situation of rape, a legitimate rape, a woman’s body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur,\" Gingrey said during a question-and-answer segment at a meeting Thursday of the Smyrna Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. \"[Akin’s] partly right on that.\" Gingrey, an obstetrician/gynecologist who said he’s delivered more than 5,200 babies, explained some more. \"And I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right, wasn’t he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman’s body shutting anything down because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart.\" Akin later apologized for his remarks and said rape can lead to pregnancy. His initial comments were largely cited as the reason Akin lost his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who feared Akin’s comments would hurt him with women voters, gave Akin a verbal stiff arm. Gingrey said Akin’s remarks weren’t helpful. Gingrey’s effort to clarify what Akin said, first reported in The Marietta Daily Journal in its Friday editions, made the rounds within hours on several national political websites. The Democratic Party leader in Gingrey’s district has already announced plans to challenge the incumbent next year. On Monday, Gingrey’s Twitter site, deluged with criticism of Gingrey’s remarks, had been removed. Gingrey sent The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a statement Friday. \"I do not defend, nor do I stand by, the remarks made by Rep. Akin. … In my attempt to provide context as to what I presumed they meant, my position was misconstrued,\" Gingrey said. Gingrey’s office did not respond to our messages for further comment. Some doctors and organizations said there is no accuracy to the Georgia congressman’s claims. \"While chronic severe stress and anxiety may impact fertility sometimes, the fact is that a woman cannot prevent ovulation or conception with their emotions, especially in an acute traumatic situation like rape,\" said Barbara Croft, a board-certified OB/GYN based in Atlanta who has been in practice for 30 years. Croft called Gingrey’s comments patronizing, condescending and unscientific. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a Washington, D.C.-based organization with about 56,000 members, including Croft, echoed her comments. \"While chronic stress, for example from extreme exposure to famine or war, may decrease a woman’s ability to conceive, there is no scientific evidence that adrenaline, experienced in an acute stress situation, has an impact on ovulation,\" the group told us via email. Gingrey is a fellow with the organization, which is defined as a board-certified OB/GYN whose professional activity is devoted to the practice of obstetrics and/or gynecology. For decades, some politicians and newsmakers -- mostly social conservatives -- have said women who are raped are less likely to become pregnant. Their definition of a legitimate rape is a woman who is sexually assaulted. The Washington Post reported that National Right to Life President John Wilke wrote an essay in 1999 that the \"physical trauma\" of rape has a way of preventing pregnancy. The newspaper’s website has a link to the essay. The link contains an analysis of Akin’s remarks by the Rev. Robert Fleischmann, the national director of Christian Life Resources. \"Statistically speaking, it appears something happens in a rape, either with the victim or with the perpetrator, that reduces the incidence of pregnancy,\" Fleischmann wrote in August. \"Fertility specialists continually debate the role of emotions, unresolved conflicts and trauma play in female infertility.\" There is some discussion on websites such as FertilityFactor.com that severe stress, eating disorders, excess exercise or extreme weight loss can interfere with regular menstruation. Some studies widely reported by news outlets conclude that the rate of rape-related pregnancy is higher than the rate of pregnancy from consensual sex. The likelihood of a rape-related pregnancy is usually in the 5 percent range, the studies show. Most of these studies, though, were done in the 1980s or 1990s. The Chicago Tribune, citing a Mayo Clinic publication about infertility, reported in August that mental stress can temporarily alter an area of the brain that controls the hormones that regulate a woman’s menstrual cycle. The Tribune article reported that it is a chronic kind of situation that occurs over months or years, not the acute trauma of a rape. Our conclusion:  Gingrey said it’s \"partly right\" that a woman's body has a way of shutting down so that a pregnancy doesn't occur if she's raped. There is some information that suggests that some conditions, particularly stress, can reduce fertility. But our research found it is not typically the stress of a rape. There’s scant scientific evidence to support Gingrey’s argument. Claim: U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin was \"partly right\" that a woman's body has a way of shutting down so that a pregnancy doesn't occur if she's raped.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release does mention costs twice, by saying that treating these cancers surgically is more costly, and that the use of the cream “can reduce the resources needed to treat these carcinomas.”  But it doesn’t mention that the fluoroucil cream is fairly expensive. According to GoodRx, one 40g tube of 5% fluorouracil cream ranges from $73 to $136 a different pharmacy retailers. The cost may be considerably reduced by insurance plans, but the release does not address that either. Also of note, according to results in the published study, at least 11 patients must be treated with the cream in order to possibly prevent one additional cancer, leading to a drug cost of over $14,000 to prevent that one cancer. That may exceed the cost of surgery. The release clearly states:  “After the first year, 20 of the 464 veterans in the control group developed a squamous cell carcinoma that required surgery, but only five of the 468 veterans who got 5-FU did, a statistically significant 75 percent reduction in the risk, according to the study. For the subsequent three years, there was no longer a significant difference between the two groups in the number of patients who required surgical treatment for an SCC. There were six outcomes measured and only the difference in squamous cell carcinomas at one year was statistically significant while the other five were not. This suggests that the one statistically significant difference could have been caused by chance alone or that there truly is a difference but only in this one period of time. The release describes harms in the following paragraph: The cream does have common side effects including reddened, more sensitive and often crusty skin, effects that resolve when the application of the cream stops, Weinstock acknowledged. After the study’s first six months, 21 percent of the 5-FU group rated the side effects as “severe,” and 40 percent rated them as “moderate.” The release explains that half of the participants in the study received the 5 fluorouacil cream and the other half received a cream lacking that ingredient. It mentions the total number of patients in the trial (932) and notes that it was a multi-center trial that spanned several years. It gave real numbers of resulting cancers that led to the claimed 75 percent reduction and pointed out that while the cream was effective for squamous cell carcinomas, it had no statistically significant effect on the incidence of basal cell carcinomas. No indication of disease mongering here. However, the release missed an important opportunity to inform readers about the nature of these typically slow-growing cancers which rarely spread. There’s no context provided on what these cancers are or the burden they put on patients or the health care system. The release points out that the study was funded by the Veterans Administration but omits the fact that several members of the research team received support from pharmaceutical firms. However, there’s no indication that those connections played any role in the conclusions from the trial. The study mentions that surgery is the normal response to these skin cancers and that Mohs surgery is the procedure of choice in many cases. It also points out that “current means for preventing new carcinomas in high-risk patients — sunscreen or oral medications” — are available. The release notes that the cream, available as a generic, has been used to treat other conditions. That suggests the cream is widely available. The release quotes the study author claiming this was “the first study of its type. I’m hopeful there will be other studies that show other sorts of regimens that last longer and do a better job over time as science progresses. This is an important first step.” It also notes that further research is planned. The release does not rely on unjustifiable language. Claim: In clinical trial, cream reduces squamous cell carcinoma risk",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Times are especially tough for new veterans, a state official said in a Dec. 5 news article in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Ericka Walmsley, a Texas Veterans Commission employment representative, is quoted saying: \"When their term is up and they get out, there’s almost nothing for them now.\" One of three homeless men in the United States is a veteran, the newspaper quotes Walmsley saying. One in three? We asked Walmsley for background on that figure; she pointed us to a Web page kept by HelpUSA, a group that says its mission is to provide housing and the supportive services necessary for the homeless and people in need to become and remain self-reliant. The page has this statement: \"While the causes are many, the singular reality is staggering: 1 out of every 3 homeless men you see on the street is a veteran.\" At the commission’s Austin headquarters, spokesman Duncan McGhee pointed us to a chapter in a report posted online by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development stating: \"Among homeless men, 33 percent report being veterans, and a very high proportion (98 percent) of homeless veterans are men.\" Case closed? We weren’t sure, considering the posted chapter doesn’t indicate when or how that ratio was reached and the data appeared to have been collected in 1996. While seeking elaboration on the statistic from HUD, we ran the reported ratio by Neil Donovan, executive director of the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless, which describes itself as a national network of groups and individuals committed to ending homelessness. Donovan said the latest research indicates the share of homeless men who are veterans is not 1 in 3. HUD has completed an Annual Homeless Assessment Report since 2005; its latest rendition, issued in June 2010, says veterans accounted for 11 percent of the nation’s 1.2 million sheltered homeless adults in 2009 — or about 132,000 people — down from 13 percent in 2007. That percentage is derived from data collected on adults who used an emergency shelter or transitional housing program from October 2008 through September 2009. The report says too that a check of homeless, in shelters and not, on one night in January 2009 suggests that 13 percent were veterans, compared to 15 percent the three previous years. \"Many veterans confront the same issues that lead others into homelessness, such (as) lack of affordable housing and inadequate income and savings,\" the report says. \"But they also have barriers that can be particularly acute among service-men and -women returning from active duty, such as the lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse. These issues can make it difficult for veterans to find and maintain gainful employment, which in turn can make it difficult to pay for housing.\" Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts \"have not yet become homeless in great numbers,\" the report says, \"perhaps because it takes some years for the mental disabilities associated with war to become acute.\" A forthcoming companion report focused on homeless veterans will provide a baseline understanding of homelessness among veterans, the report says. Separately, an online search led us to a Dec. 7 speech by Eric Shinseki, the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs, in which Shinseki estimates the number of homeless veterans at 107,000 — down, he said, from 131,000 two years earlier and 250,000 a decade ago. In his posted remarks, Shinseki says that when he became secretary in January 2009, he taught himself to say, \"Veterans lead the nation in homelessness, depression, substance abuse, and suicides. And they rank right up there in joblessness as well. It was a punch in the gut for me, and I repeated that line until it sunk in. I didn’t want to become inured to its impact by letting it become part of the day-to-day background noise.\" Next, we heard from Brian Sullivan, a HUD public affairs officer, who said the 1-in-3 ratio is outdated; it comes from a 1999 report drawing on 1996 data that depended on a count of homeless men identified as veterans in 76 different communities, Sullivan said via e-mail. \"By today's data collection and reporting standards, it's not considered terribly relevant,\" his e-mail said. In an interview, Sullivan said the 1999 study was based on a one-day snapshot of the homeless and a smaller sample size than more recent HUD assessments. The latest HUD tally draws on data from more than 3,000 communities, tabulating the homeless on a single day and also counting those using emergency shelters or transitional housing programs during the year. Sullivan suggested we check for updated counts with Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania professor who helped lead the latest HUD assessment. Culhane replied by e-mail that he’s comfortable with the 13 percent figure. \"I cannot vouch for the (1-in-3) estimate and am not sure it was ever correct,\" Culhane wrote. When we queried Mary Cunningham, a researcher who specializes in homeless issues for the Washington-based Urban Institute, she said the 1-in-3 figure is outdated but added that all \"of these numbers should be treated as rough estimates. In general, it’s important to remember that there are far too many homeless who are veterans.\" McGhee of the Texas commission pointed us to a March 2010 report by Project CHALENG, a federal effort to enhance the continuum of care for homeless veterans. The report says that homeless veterans are under-counted, but there also are fewer veterans, period. \"In 1990, there were 27.5 million veterans, a total that has decreased to 23 million today. Similarly, there has been a substantial reduction in the number of poor veterans, decreasing from 3 million in 1990 to 1.8 million in 2000. Since most homeless veterans are poor, it is believed that there has been a corresponding drop in the number of homeless veterans as well... it does appear that a significant, long-term reduction in the numbers of homeless veterans has occurred,\" the report says. We also reached Lawrence Cann of HelpUSA, whose Web page was the Texas commission employee’s source for the 1-in-3 figure. \"Given that many veterans do not report themselves as veterans or even seek services or shelters, we have not revised our 1-in-3 number,\" Cann’s e-mail says, though in response to our inquiry he said the group would add Web links to other sources for homeless counts. When we looked at the HelpUSA site again, the 1-in-3 reference had been changed to 1-in-4. McGhee stood by the 1-in-3 ratio. To shore up his position with more recent data, he led us to the 2010 strategic plan adopted by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which advises President Barack Obama and Congress on that issue. The plan terms the 107,000 count of homeless veterans nationwide (cited by Shinseki) \"a reasonable figure.\" Using U.S. Census Bureau statistics to extrapolate the percentage of males among veterans (93 percent), McGhee comes up with a figure of 99,720 homeless male veterans — slightly more than one-third of the total number of adult homeless people calculated from the January 2009 one-night survey. Bottom line: Experts outside Texas agree the claim that one-third of homeless men are veterans is based on obsolete data, though some cautioned that it’s hard to pinpoint how many homeless men are veterans and one sorting of the data appears to justify the claim. We rate the statement Barely True. Claim: Texas Veterans Commission Says one out of three U.S. homeless men is a veteran.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In August 2019, we received inquiries from readers about multiple claims that U.S. President Donald Trump had, in one day, called himself the “second coming of God,” the “King of Israel,” or “the chosen one.” On Aug. 21, the left-leaning Facebook page Occupy Democrats posted a meme that featured a quotation attributed to Trump: “I’m the King of Israel. I’m the chosen one” along with an unattributed quotation that read: “The Anti-christ will pretend that he is the son of God.” (That quotation is not Biblical in origin, and appears to have originated in a famous medieval text about the antichrist, written by the French Benedictine monk Adso of Montier-en-der.) The same Facebook page posted a second meme on similar themes, writing: Today, Trump: Promoted the idea that he is “King of Israel.” Retweeted that he’s “the second coming of God.” Then said he’s “the chosen one.”   And in a third post on the same subject, Occupy Democrats published a meme that read: “Trump says he’s ‘the second coming’ and ‘the chosen one.’ I say we throw him in the sea to see if he can walk on it.” Other mostly left-leaning sources posted similar claims on Twitter, garnering a high volume of retweets. One of them wrote: “When the president of the United States starts declaring that he is: – ‘The King of Israel’ – ‘The Chosen One’ – ‘The Second coming of God’ It means he is out of his goddamn mind & it’s time for the 25th amendment now.” When the president of the United States starts declaring that he is: — “The King of Israel” — “The Chosen One” — “The Second coming of God” It means he is out of his goddamn mind & it’s time for the #25thAmendmentNow. — Ryan Knight 🗽 (@ProudResister) August 21, 2019   The @BarristerSecret account tweeted that Trump had “unironically [declared] himself ‘the second coming of God,'” and the controversial surgeon and left-leaning activist Dr. Eugene Gu claimed the president had “[praised] himself as ‘the King of Israel’ and ‘the second coming of God. '”  Vanity Fair also published an article with the headline “Trump Declares Himself ‘King of Israel,’ ‘the Second Coming of God. '” The reality was much more complicated, and the claims and reports mentioned above largely misrepresented what Trump actually said or wrote by removing them from their proper context or issuing inaccurate descriptions of them. ‘The chosen one’ While speaking with reporters about the ongoing U.S. trade war with China, Trump did briefly say “I am the chosen one,” but it’s quite possible, even likely, that he was merely speaking tongue-in-cheek or for rhetorical effect. His remarks came on Aug. 21, while he was speaking with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. In response to a question about recent talk of an impending economic recession, linked to the U.S.-China trade war, Trump held forth on what he presented as sharp economic practices by China, a common topic of discussion for the president. He said: “One thing I have to do is economically take on China because China has been ripping us off for many years. President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama and others should have done this long before me. My life would be much easier — although I enjoy doing it — but my life would be much easier if I just said ‘let China continue to rip off the United States.’ It would be much easier, but I can’t do that … “… Somebody said ‘It’s Trump’s trade war’ — this isn’t my trade war, this is a trade war that should have taken place a long time ago, by a lot of other presidents … Somebody had to do it. [Turning to the sky] I am the chosen one. Somebody had to do it, so I’m taking on China. I’m taking on China on trade, and you know what? We’re winning …” President Trump: “I am the chosen one.” Full video here: https://t.co/BEh8qCGe79 pic.twitter.com/6pbll1a0NT — CSPAN (@cspan) August 21, 2019   The concept of a “chosen one” — an individual predestined by prophecy to perform the role of a savior or messiah for a particular people — has roots in various cultures and religious traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. However, it has evolved beyond those parameters to gain much looser and more secular connotations. It is a common trope in fiction and literature, especially science fiction and fantasy (think of Harry Potter), and is also frequently invoked, sometimes with tongue in cheek, in the context of sports. For example, the basketball player LeBron James famously had “Chosen 1” tattooed on his back, after Sports Illustrated published a cover story about him, describing the then-phenomenally promising high school junior as “the chosen one.” In theory, Trump could have been seriously declaring a sincere belief that he is destined by prophecy to be the savior of the American people, or indeed the world, when he said as an aside “I am the chosen one,” during a discussion with reporters about U.S.-China economic relations. However, it seems much more likely to us, especially in light of his somewhat theatrical glance to the skies, that he was either using the phrase as a figure of speech born out of his apparently rather certain belief in his own talents, or that he was simply speaking with tongue firmly in cheek, or a little bit of both. If the U.S. president refers to himself as “the chosen one” again, and with less ambiguous, more clearly messianic connotations, we will update this article accordingly. ‘The King of Israel’ and ‘the second coming of God’ Trump never declared or called or described himself as “the King of Israel” or “the second coming of God.” Further, he did not even quote someone who personally professed that belief, and the person he did quote was not even claiming that others held that belief. As such, many sources, including those mentioned above, grossly misrepresented the pronouncements made in this episode. However, in a decision that concerned many observers, the president did directly quote the conspiracy theorist and radio host Wayne Allyn Root as saying that “The Jewish people in Israel love [Trump] like he’s the King of Israel” and “like he is the second coming of God.” Trump did this in a series of tweets, also on Aug. 21, which he prefaced by writing “Thank you Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words”:  …. like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God … But American Jews don’t know him or like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that’s OK, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s good for ….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019   Trump almost entirely accurately quoted remarks Root made on his “Newsmax” TV show on Aug. 20. In response to a caller who lamented the purported irrationality and blind loyalty of Democrat voters, Root held forth on the traditional support for the Democrat party among Jewish voters in the U.S., in contrast with what he presented as widespread support for Trump among Jews in Israel. He said: “… 75 percent of all Jews vote Democrat and they don’t like Trump. And this is the greatest president for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America. Trump’s the best president for Israel in the history of the world. And the Jewish people love him like he is the king of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God. And in America, American Jews don’t like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying any more, it makes no sense.” The remarks in question can be watched here (beginning at 36:45). Root was echoing similar statements Trump himself made earlier that day. Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president addressed the controversy over Israel’s reversed decision to bar U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from entering the country. Trump proclaimed: “Where has the Democratic party gone? Where have they gone where they’re defending these two people [Tlaib and Omar] over the state of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Root’s original remarks came in the form of a simile, meaning it should have been clear by definition that he was not claiming that Trump actually is the King of Israel or the second coming of Christ, nor even that Jewish people in Israel believe he is those things. Rather, in order to emphasize what he perceives as the U.S. president’s popularity among Israeli Jews, Root was indulging in rhetorical license, using the device of a simile, by saying Israeli Jews loved Trump as if he were the King of Israel or the second coming of Christ. (It is a matter for a separate discussion that the second component of Root’s simile was woefully theologically illiterate. An important distinction between Christianity and Judaism is that Judaism traditionally rejects the notion of Christ as a messiah, thereby rendering the concept of a second coming inapplicable, and this part of Root’s simile nonsensical by definition.) Root later emphasized the fact that he was engaging in simile, rather than claiming Trump was, in fact, the king of Israel or the second coming of Christ, or even that Israeli Jews regard him as such. During a discussion with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Root’s “Newsmax” TV show, Root said: “… They [liberal opponents] took everything I said out of context … Did I really say, on national TV, on my ‘Newsmax’ show last night, that Donald Trump is the second coming of Christ, and he’s the king of the Jews? No. I said in Israel they treat him like he’s the second coming of Christ and the King of the Jews. And it’s a New York expression, you know, it’s like you and I could have been having an expression [sic] and I’d say, ‘Are you kidding me? In Israel they treat him like he’s the King of the Jews.’ Does that really mean that I believe he’s the King of the Jews? … Obviously, I didn’t say that.”    We know that certain Christians in the United States and beyond have professed a fringe belief in Trump as a Christ-like or messianic figure. It’s even possible, theoretically, that Trump himself might harbor similar suspicions of his own destiny. But the series of statements he made on Aug. 21, 2019, did not constitute evidence of any such belief on his part. The president did say “I am the chosen one,” but he made the remark as an aside, combining it with a theatrical glance towards the heavens, while making a broader point about his engaging in a supposedly overdue trade war with China. The context, along with Trump’s penchant for flippant and tongue-in-cheek asides, makes it highly unlikely he was choosing that moment to earnestly articulate some sincere belief in his own messianic destiny. In a series of tweets, Trump quoted a controversial conspiracy theorist, Root, who had lavished praise upon the president, professing that Jewish people in Israel so admired Trump that it was as though he was the “King of Israel” or “the second coming of God.” But Root (as he later confirmed) was using exaggerated language as part of a simile. He was not making the factual claim that Israeli Jews literally believe that Trump is the King of Israel, or the second coming of Christ (the latter of which claims would make no sense for theological reasons, anyway.) So the widely promulgated claim that Trump, simply by quoting Root’s remarks, was in effect declaring himself to be the King of Israel or the second coming of Christ, was inaccurate by a considerable distance. Trump did not even quote someone who professed that belief, and the person he did quote was not even claiming that others held that belief. Claim: On Aug. 21, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump articulated a belief that he is \"the chosen one,\" the \"King of Israel,\" or the \"second coming of God.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a video that news media said had been uploaded to her Facebook page on Sunday, Valentina Maureira said from her hospital bed: “I am asking to speak urgently to the president because I am tired of living with this sickness and she can authorize the injection to put me to sleep forever.”  Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition that affects the lungs and other organs. Maureira’s brother had died of the disease, her father, Freddy Maureira, told local Radio Bio Bio. “She has already had five operations ... which have caused her a lot of suffering and pain,” he said. “It was promised that things would get better, but for her it was worse.”   The video had surprised him, he added. A spokeswoman from the Universidad Catolica clinic in Santiago confirmed that Valentina Maureira was a patient at the hospital and said she was stable, with no immediately life-threatening conditions. Government spokesman Alvaro Elizalde said on Thursday that the health ministry was in contact with the family to ensure Maureira was receiving the psychological and medical treatment she needed, but ruled out euthanasia as an option. “We have to be completely clear, the current norm, the current law in Chile does not allow the government to agree to a request of this nature,” he said. In Chile, as in many countries, euthanasia is against the law. The Catholic Church retains a strong influence on society, and the country is one of a handful to ban abortion under any circumstances. Center-left Bachelet, who is a year into her second term, has introduced reforms, including a bill being debated in Congress that would relax the abortion law. These have angered conservatives. Bachelet’s agenda has not mentioned euthanasia. Claim: Chilean girl with cystic fibrosis tells president: Let me die.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does mention that the scans are expensive – $1000 to $3500 and are not necessarily covered by insurance. The story could have provided costs of the traditional neurologic exam for comparison. The story does not attempt to quantify the benefits of PET scanning. The story states, “several studies suggest it can effectively provide an early warning”, but does not give any quantification for the magnitude of effects observed in these studies. Most importantly, the story does not mention that even if Alzheimer’s is detected early, there is not much that can be done for it. Aricept has only minor affects on the progression of the disease. Although the story hints at false alarms from the use of PET scans, this is insufficient information on the harms of scanning. What would a “false alarm” entail? What does it do to a person who receives this news? The story does not adequately describe the strengths of the available evidence. It says “Neurologists say PET is an excellent tool for distinguishing between Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia.” But it then notes that “experts disagree over whether PET is useful for determining whether people with mild memory problems are suffering from early Alzheimer’s. Several studies suggest it can effectively provide an early warning. The catch is that there is insufficient research to determine exactly how accurate it is.” The story could have explained why there is such uncertainty; what is the nature of the studies that have been done? By accurately describing the prevalence of Alzheimer’s, the story avoids disease mongering. The story does quote two directors of major Alzheimer’s research centers. The story could have quoted other clinicians or researchers who may have provided some additional perspective. Although the story mentions neurologic exams, this is insufficient information on the alternatives. What are the advantages and disadvantages of PET scanning compared to existing approaches? How will the scanning fit in with current practice? These questions are not answered in the story. The story does not comment on the availability of PET scanners. The story does not comment on the novelty of PET scanning. How long have they been used for this purpose? We can’t be sure if the story relied on a press release. However, given that sources from several institutions were interviewed, it appears that independent reporting took place. Claim: Using PET Scans to Discover Early Signs of Alzheimer’s",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Worldwide sales figure was mentioned, but no information on the cost of supplements was mentioned. Absolute benefit was presented. The story mentioned that the study found no serious side effects in six months. It also gave the caveat that the study did not address the issue of longer-term safety. This article reported on the results of a randomized clinical trial; details on its publication were included as well as potential conflicts of interest of the study’s authors. Other information sources were also mentioned in the piece. No obvious disease-mongering. Yet, although an estimate of prevalence was given, natural history of knee OA was not mentioned. Quoted one study author, the author of a companion editorial in the journal, as well as a rheumatologist not connected with the study. The story mentioned results from the use of Celebrex, a prescription NSAID medication, which was also included as part of the study. But the presentation of alternatives to the use of supplements was incomplete. Nonetheless, we give a satisfactory score. Mention made of loose regulation of supplements; use of the supplements is presented as common. The use of glucosamine and/or chondroitin for relief of knee osteoarthritis(OA) pain is not new and no suggestion of it being a novel approach was made. There is no evidence that the story relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Study: Supplements do little to ease arthritis",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Beginning on 9 November 2018, English-language news outlets began running stories about Indonesian teenagers using sanitary pads to get “high” or “drunk.” “Indonesian Teens are Getting ‘Drunk’ Off Boiled Bloody Menstrual Pads,” read the headline to a story by Vice News that was later picked up by mega-viral outlets such as the Daily Mail and Mirror UK. The ‘teens do stupid things to get high’ genre of reporting, one of the most overused and obvious clickbait tropes in the digital world, is generally based on a low number of incidents being ginned up into an “alarming new trend” to create hysteria for traffic-driven revenue. While this report ostensibly fits into that genre, the reality is that it is something a bit darker. This story involves a voyeuristic look at child poverty in the poorest parts of Indonesia and repackages it for viral clicks and ad revenue, offered by sensationalist outlets such as the Daily Mail: Indonesian teenagers are using menstrual pads to get high by boiling the sanitary product and then drinking the water, local officials have warned. Both new and used sanitary pads are said to be obtained by young Indonesians looking for a cheap and legal way to get high. The chemicals in the sanitary pads give those who drink the resulting concoction a feeling of ‘flying’ and hallucinations, according to the Indonesian National Drug Agency (BNN). Several local newspapers, including the Jakarta Post, Jawa Pos and Pos Belitung, have reported about the worrying trend in recent weeks. The Daily Mail was correct in stating that “several local newspapers” in Indonesia had run stories in recent weeks about children boiling sanitary pads to get “drunk” or “high.” But each of those stories generally referenced the same people: Indra Dwi Purnomo, a Psychology Lecturer at the Catholic University of Soegijapranata (Unika) who specializes in drug abuse and addiction and works with poor children living on the streets; Sitty Hikmawatty, a commissioner for drugs and health with the Indonesian Committee on Child Protection; a spokesperson from the BNN (Indonesia’s national anti-narcotics agency), and the 2016 account of a pseudonymous 14-year-old boy who described the pad boiling process to the Indonesian newspaper Pos Belitung, translated below: Pos Belitung managed to find a user [of boiled sanitary pads who is a 14-year-old they called “Kujay”]. The teenager, who was still in junior high school, admitted that he knew that sanitary napkins could be intoxicating after being told by his friend in Tanjungpandan, Belitung. [He] explained how to mix the sanitary napkin [concoction]. The first step is, of course, buying goods. The average type of sanitary napkin used is [a brand with] wings. Then, after the wrapper is opened, the sanitary napkin is put into a pan filled with water and boiled for about an hour, [and] the cooking water is [allowed to cool]. Bandages are squeezed into the same container (pan), then [it’s] ready to drink. “It’s bitter” Kujay said. “If used [for one person], one to five sheets [is needed] to [get] drunk,” Kujay is reported to have told Pos Belitung in a follow-up report the next day. Kujay’s two-year-old account was referenced several times in the 2018 round of reporting. Vice News also cited the account of Sitty Hikmawatty, the commissioner for drugs and health with the Indonesian Committee on Child Protection, who said this practice was “already a few years old.” We spoke with Hikamawatty via Facebook Messenger to determine out how widespread this phenomenon was. Hikamawatty told us that she and others had stumbled across cases like this while monitoring the behavior of what she described as street children, and that the practice is generally found in “slums” and “mining areas.” When we asked how often she had come across this sort of behavior, she told us “not too often,” adding that she and her colleagues began collaborating with a social worker to take the children into protection and rehabilitation programs. Indra Dwi Purnomo, the psychology lecturer, had worked on these cases in collaboration with the BNN as well, and he told the Indonesian news outlet Java Pos that the average culprit came from a poor family, was under stress, and included children who wanted to “feel happy” but did not have any money and so engaged in experimentation. The more salacious aspect of this claim, that children are boiling soiled and bloody menstrual pads to get high, is harder to get a handle on. The claim appears to have been most confidently asserted by the Head of the National Narcotics Agency in Central Java Province, AKBP Suprinarto, who told Java Pos that “used sanitary napkins are soaked. The boiled water is drunk.” Purnomo, the psychology lecturer, told the Indonesian news outlet Detik that in past cases kids had used soiled pads for this purpose but seemed to indicate that might no longer be the case. The only on-the-record, first-hand account of using sanitary pads for the purposes of inebriation that we are aware of is that of 14-year-old “Kujay” in 2016, who described the first step in the process as “buying” the pads. This would indicate that he made use of unsoiled pads. We have reached out to the psychology department for which Purnomo works and to BNN to get an interview, but we have not received a response from either yet. We asked Sitty Hikmawatty from the Indonesian Committee on Child Protection what chemicals the children were after when they boiled sanitary pads, and she told us that it was the adsorbent gel. The exact ingredients used in sanitary pads are generally (and controversially) considered proprietary, so we can’t know with certainty which chemicals these children are exposing themselves to by drinking their boiled remains, but testing performed by the advocacy group Women’s Voices for the Earth has detected low concentrations of toxic chemicals with potential neurologic side effects in some brands, as reported by CNN in 2015: When the group tested P&G’s Always pads, it found the sanitary napkins emitted chemicals, like styrene, chloroethane and chloroform. The World Health Organization classifies styrene as a carcinogen. And the EPA says short-term exposure to high concentrations of chloromethane can have neurological effects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says high levels of exposure to chloroethane can result in lack of muscle coordination and unconsciousness. However, all the levels are acceptable under federal regulations. In a statement, Women’s Voices for the Earth said, “While the levels of the toxic chemicals emitted by Always pads were relatively low, their presence warrants health concerns for women.” Presumably, however, such guidelines were not written to address the possibility that some people might boil these pads to concentrate and drink these chemicals. Testing undertaken by Indonesian Consumers Foundation in 2015 suggested that the majority of sanitary pads in Indonesia contained chlorine, the presence of which would be illegal in both Indonesia and the United States, and which when consumed or inhaled could also potentially cause some health problems, including blurred vision. In short, ingesting a slurry of unknown chemicals that may poison you could conceivably produce neurological side effects, but the exact mechanism is not entirely clear. The phenomenon of Indonesian children (reportedly) using sanitary pads to get inebriated is a reflection of poverty in the poorest parts of Indonesia and is not, as has been repeated ad infinitum in the social media and clickbait echo chamber, a “trend.” It seems clear that some children have tried this, though all indications point to the practice’s being fairly rare. It is unclear, however, whether soiled pads have been used in the boiling process, as stated in many headlines, but the desired effect allegedly comes from the chemicals used in the manufacturing process of the pads, so the use of soiled pads would merely be an even more extreme reflection of poverty. All in all, the claim of a “new trend” among Indonesian teens getting “drunk” off of boiled bloody menstrual pads is a mixture of grim factual realities, exaggerations, speculations, and falsehoods. Claim: Boiling menstrual pads and drinking the water to get “high” or “drunk” is an alarming new trend amongst Indonesian teens. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release mentions cost-effectiveness several times but does not give any indication of what the price of therapy with Entresto would be, nor the comparative cost between Entresto and other medications. Nor does it quantify what it means when it says the drug is “cost-effective.” The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, ICER, warned in a draft report that the drug’s current price was too high and that widespread use could overwhelm the health system. The drug cost was estimated at about $4,600 per year for a typical patient. According to the report: “At the list price of $4,560 per year, Entresto does not save money over the long term but its added costs are well-aligned with the degree of benefit it brings to patients, meaning that Entresto can be judged “cost-effective” in the long-term according to commonly accepted cost-effectiveness thresholds.” “However, ICER’s analysis predicts that nearly 2 million patients could be prescribed Entresto over the first five years, creating a total budget impact so high that excessive cost burdens would be placed on the overall health care system. In order to keep health care cost growth in line with growth in the national economy, ICER’s value-based price benchmark for Entresto is $3,779 annually, a 17% discount off the list price. Private insurers and Medicaid programs are frequently able to achieve discounts at this level.” The published study did address cost in terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). It would have been helpful for the release to add at least some costs which would add context. The release makes several statements about benefits to an entire population, not necessarily the benefits to an individual patient. The release provides a useful number-needed-to-treat explanation. “For every 1,000 patients treated with Entresto vs. enalapril, potentially 59.7 HF hospital admissions could be averted per each year alive in the model.3 In addition, Entresto increased life expectancy at an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio consistent with other high-value widely accepted cardiovascular interventions such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cholesterol-lowering statins before they became generic.3″ One weakness in describing the benefits was the omission in the release (but not in the published study) of actual figures or percentages to back up the cost-effectiveness claim. The release includes extensive information on harms, including this summary of side effects: “Entresto may cause serious side effects including serious allergic reactions causing swelling of the face, lips, tongue, and throat (angioedema) that may cause trouble breathing and death.” The release provides some detail on the statistical model used and the analysis findings. Data was drawn from a previous trial to model health outcomes and cost-effectiveness of the drug over a 30-year period. The release would have been stronger with a discussion of possible limitations of the analysis. Patients out in the real world tend to be older, sicker, and have other differences compared with those who participate in clinical trials, so it’s not clear that the benefits seen in the trial can be extrapolated to the broader population. In the study itself, the researchers mention several issues that could throw their findings off, but the release doesn’t address them. There is no disease mongering. The news release is coming from the manufacturer of the drug, Entresto, so the conflict of interest is clear. However, we would have liked it better if the release had identified, as the study did, that the principal author of the study receives grant support from Novartis, and several other authors are employees of Novartis. Entresto was compared to enalapril and found to be associated with — on average —  a year longer of survival as well as reduced hospital admissions. It’s noted that the drug is FDA approved. The release states that this analysis is not the first, but is novel because it quantifies “possible” impact in reducing death. “This analysis, based on an application of the results of PARADIGM-HF to published heart failure statistics, is the first to quantify the possible impact of Entresto’s potential benefit in reducing death.1″ There was no unjustifiable language. Claim: Timely use of Novartis' Entresto could prevent or postpone over 28,000 US deaths per year among HFrEF patients, according to an expert analysis in JAMA Cardiology",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It gets the stamp of approval from retired flight director Gene Kranz, a man for whom failure — or even a minor oversight — is never an option. Seated at the console where he ruled over Apollo 11, Apollo 13 and so many other astronaut missions, Kranz pointed out that a phone was missing behind him. And he said the air vents used to be black from all the smoke, not sparkly clean like they are now. Those couple of details aside, Kranz could close, then open his eyes, and transport himself back to July 20, 1969, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s momentous moon landing. “When I sit down here and I’m in the chair at the console ... I hear these words, ‘Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,’” Kranz said during a sneak preview at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. With all the empty seats, the room reminds him of a shift change when flight controllers would hit the restroom. “It’s just nice to see the thing come alive again,” said Kranz, who titled his autobiography, “Failure is Not an Option.” Friday’s grand opening — just three weeks shy of the 50th anniversary of humanity’s first otherworldly footsteps — culminates years of work and millions in donations. It opens to the public Monday. Meticulously recreated down to the tan carpeting, gray-green wallpaper, white ceiling panels, woven-cushioned seats, amber glass ashtrays and retro coffee cups, Project Apollo’s Mission Operations Control Room never looked — or smelled — so good. The goal was “to capture the look and feel of July of ’69,” said NASA’s restoration project manager Jim Thornton. “The place is designated a National Historic Landmark,” he said. “It’s not for the brick and mortar of the building, it’s for the amazing feats that happened inside of the building.” Johnson’s historic preservation officer, Sandra Tetley, strove for accuracy. Her quest began in 2013, after the room had fallen into neglect. It was last used for space shuttle flights in the 1990s, then abandoned and opened to tourists. The restoration effort finally got traction in 2017. The room was closed, and construction began. More than $5 million was raised, most of it donations. The city of Webster across the street kicked in $3.5 million. Tetley and her team interviewed flight controllers and directors now in their 70s and 80s. They pored through old pictures and brought in specialists in paint, wallpaper, carpeting, electricity and upholstery. Original swatches of carpet and wallpaper and an original ceiling tile turned up. Intent on authenticity, they scoured eBay and vintage shops for ashtrays and cups and turned to 3D-laser printing to recreate lids for the back-of-the-seat ashtrays in the glassed-in visitors’ section overlooking the control room. Old binders for reams of paper were collected. Seat cushions were handwoven. Ceiling tiles were hand stamped. Carpeting was custom ordered with special tufting and extra yarn, then cut into 28-inch squares. The restoration team wanted a lived-in look for the carpet and chose a shade reflecting years of nicotine discoloring. And yes, Kranz got his missing rotary-dial wall phone. “I fought for everything,” Tetley said. “But we’re getting everything we want to make it just completely historically accurate.” The green consoles were trucked to the Cosmosphere museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, for months of rehab. Cigarette butts were dug out of the consoles, along with gum wrappers and papers. Modern LED lights and flat screens were installed to bring the consoles alive with images and flashing buttons; big screens up front will show key footage from the Apollo 11 mission. “We’re using technology to make it look old, basically,” Tetley explained. LEDs also replaced the original overhead fluorescent lights that had faded the mission medallions on the walls. With the International Space Station’s Mission Control running 24/7 one floor down and work for future moonshots going on all around, Thornton said it was challenging to create a museum. But the painstaking work paid off. Some Apollo flight controllers were so moved at seeing the restored room that they teared up. “Then we know that we’ve done it right,” Tetley said. There’s one artifact, though, that doesn’t fit July 1969. Following their 1970 aborted moon-landing mission, Apollo 13′s Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert presented a mirror from their spacecraft to Kranz and the rest of the control team. Ever since, the mirror had hung on a plaque above the room’s water fountain “to ‘reflect the image’ of the people in Mission Control who got us back!” Removed during the restoration, it’s now back in its original spot. Kranz, 85, still looms large in the hot seat, where he oversaw the Eagle’s landing. “It was just absolutely our day, our time, our place,” he said. The flight controllers meet every year to celebrate the day, although their numbers are dwindling. They’re proud to have helped resuscitate their Mission Control: “Part of our legacy we’re going to leave for the next generation.” ___ Follow AP’s full coverage of the Apollo 11 anniversary at: https://apnews.com/Apollo11moonlanding ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: Restored Mission Control comes alive 50 years after Apollo.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Accusing your opponent of being soft on crime is pretty standard campaign fare, but Kentucky Democrat Jack Conway -- a candidate for U.S. Senate -- takes things one step further in a campaign video, using a two-year-old quote from Republican opponent Rand Paul to suggest Paul wants to decriminalize everything from drug dealing and burglary to prostitution. The ad begins with a clip of the Paul quote in question: \"The things that are non-violent shouldn't be against the law.\" It then cuts to an image of Bernie Madoff with the question, \"Should Wall Street Fraudster Bernie Madoff not be in jail?\" A uniformed law enforcement officer then asks, \"What about meth and drug dealers?\" Cut to another officer...\"theft, burglary...promoting prostitution...\"  And then back to Paul saying, \"The things that are non-violent shouldn't be against the law.\" Another version of the Conway ad follows the same theme. \"Thinks non-violent crime should be against the law? That's crazy,\" one uniformed officer says. \"It should be a crime if you sells drugs to a minor,\" says another cop. Then others...\"...Wall Street fraud. Mortgage fraud...burglary...someone that's promoting prostitution...theft.\" The implication is clear: Paul wants to legalize all non-violent crime, including drug dealing, theft, burglary and prostitution. On the campaign trail, Paul has repeatedly denounced the ad, and his campaign promptly put out a press release boasting that a number of county sheriffs had publicly declared their support for his campaign. \"I think it's a dishonest ad, would be the first thing I'd say,\" Paul said in a Sept. 16, 2010, interview on Fox41 in Kentucky. \"What we were discussing a couple years ago on KET was whether or not things like motorcycle helmets and the lottery should be illegal because they’re immoral or because they're unsafe. And my point was that there are certain things adults can make decisions on. \"What that ad does is, he totally distorts it and wants to say I want to allow minors to use drugs, it is an absolute hood.\" Paul went even further in a Fox News interview on Sept. 19, 2010, calling the ad \"a lie.\" Paul again explained that he was a pundit panelist on a program called Kentucky Tonight on Nov. 24, 2008, and that the context of the discussion was not crime at all, but rather was \"about helmet laws for adults and whether adults should have the right to either gamble or buy lottery tickets. And the comparison between lottery tickets and gambling. And it really had nothing to do with drugs or drugs for minors, or all these things, prostitution...\"  \"So,\" the interviewer interjected, \"you think those things should be illegal, Dr. Paul?\" \"Yes,\" Paul said. \"And I'm not proposing any changes in the drug laws or laws against prostitution.\" We listened to the entirety of the Kentucky Tonight program on the night in question, and Paul is correct that the focus was on whether the state ought to place higher taxes on things like cigarettes or alcohol. Paul made it clear he didn't think that was the government's place. \"Do we want our tax commissioner to be the moral commissioner of sin?\" Paul said on the program. \"Where does it stop?\" Paul said, throwing out the example of whether the government ought to put an extra $1 tax on a McDonald's quarter pounder to help curb obesity. \"It really isn't our job to tell people whether they should smoke or not,\" Paul said. \"It's not our job to tell people whether they should eat too much or not. We're a free society where individuals can decide what they want to decide.\" In the course of the discussion, Paul talked about whether the government should regulate whether someone should be able to ride a bike or motorcycle without a helmet. And what about gambling? he asked, noting that, \"It's OK to gamble on the lottery, just not slot machines.\" \"I'm against legislating morality,\" Paul said. \"I mean, I'm for crimes and having laws against things that are violent crimes. But things that are non-violent shouldn't be against the law.\" So there's the fuller context. John Collins, a spokesman for the Conway campaign, said Paul's words speak for themselves. \"Rand Paul believes drugs aren't a pressing issue and that non-violent crimes, such as prostitution and selling drugs, shouldn’t be against the law,\" Collins said. \"If Paul thinks that’s misleading, then he should not have said it. Simply put, you could hold a meeting of all the people who agree with Rand Paul’s soft on crime beliefs in a phone booth.\" We asked Collins for evidence to support the claim that Paul believes selling drugs, for example, shouldn't be against the law. He pointed us to a series of quotes in which Paul espouses the opinion that issues of crime are better addressed at the state and local, rather than federal, government level. So, for example, he has said that issues like whether to legalize medical marijuana ought to be decided by states, and that the funding for drug enforcement ought to come from state and local governments. Those may be controversial positions, but they are a far cry from Paul saying he believes that drug dealing and burglary ought not to be against the law. We asked Collins if he could point us toward any other quotes from Paul that suggest he doesn't think drug dealing, burglary and prostitution, for example, should not be against the law. He referred us only to Paul's two-year-old quote, \"The things that are non-violent shouldn't be against the law.\" Certainly Paul could have chosen his words more carefully. But this strikes us as more of a political \"gotcha\" than a legitimate issue. The quote comes in the context of Paul discussing the propriety of government involvement in issues such as cigarette or alcohol taxes, gambling and wearing a motorcycle helmet. Paul said what he said. But for the Conway campaign to splice that with comments from law enforcement officials listing non-violent crime such as dealing drugs to kids, promoting prostitution, theft, burglary and financial crime suggests Paul wants to decriminalize those acts. We couldn't find a single instance where Paul has said he specifically wanted to legalize any of those activities. Conversely, Paul has repeatedly and unequivocally said he does not want to make those things legal, and that he has no plans to change the current laws with regard to them. We think a reasonable person can see what's going on here. We rate this ad . Claim: Jack Conway Says Rand Paul thinks drug-dealing, theft, burglary and prostitution should be decriminalized.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Democratic lawmaker who disapproves of President Donald Trump recently suggested the 25th Amendment to the Constitution could provide a solution. \"POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger,\" Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., tweeted on Aug. 15. \"Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.\" POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger. Time to invoke the 25th Amendment. But not all Democrats see the 25th amendment as an appropriate way of responding to Trump. Asked whether he thinks it should be used against Trump, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the amendment does not apply to present circumstances. \"I think what the authors of the (25th) Amendment principally had in mind was some kind of physical incapacitation or serious mental illness or a breakdown, an inability to function in office,\" Schiff said Aug. 20 on CNN’s State of the Union. \"I think we're still far from concluding that that's the case, even though we find, many of us, his conduct anathema and there to be a serious problem here.\" For this fact-check, we wanted to know if Schiff’s reading of the amendment’s origins is right. We’re not going to weigh in on whether Trump’s actions or mental state fit the criteria for presidential disability. The 25th Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1967, sought to resolve several thorny issues of presidential and vice presidential power. It creates a succession plan for when these top two positions go vacant. It also allows the president to declare himself unable to fulfill his duties and transfer power to the vice president. However, we’re mostly interested in the 25th Amendment’s fourth and final section, which allows someone other than the president to make a finding of presidential disability. Section four authorizes the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or another body as determined by lawmakers, to declare a president \"unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.\" Doing so would then elevate the vice president to the position of acting president. The president can restore his powers by declaring that no inability exists. However, the same body that initially transferred power to the vice president can respond by essentially doubling down on their declaration that the president is unable to discharge his duties. Then, if Congress, by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, agrees that the president is unable to serve, the vice president continues to act as president. Such a move could permanently strip a president of his powers — hence, why some legal analysts refer to section four as the \"involuntary removal mechanism.\" The push for Congress to formalize a blueprint for handling presidential disability gained traction after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963 (though lawmakers had first considered it much earlier in American history). \"The assassination of President Kennedy ... produced a flurry of additional proposals dealing with the subject,\" John D. Feerick wrote in a 1995 article in the Wake Forest Law Review. \"These proposals were influenced by the sense at that time that, if Kennedy had lived, the country would have had to deal with the problem of presidential inability in a most tragic setting.\" As congressional hearings unfolded, little controversy surrounded the amendment’s first three sections, according to Feerick. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the real debate centered on when someone other than the president could declare him or her to be incapacitated. The amendment’s principal author, Sen. Birch Bayh, D.-Ind., embraced an understanding that presidential inability would encompass both physical and mental inability, said Joel Goldstein, a law professor at St. Louis University, who’s closely studied the congressional record. The formulation he adopted was put forth by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., who said presidential inability \"involves physical or mental inability to make or communicate his decision regarding his capacity and physical or mental inability to exercise the powers and duties of his office.\" Another important architect of the amendment, Rep. Richard Poff, R-Va., held a similar view, according to Goldstein. Poff said section four not only applied when the president, due to accident or illness, was unconscious or otherwise unable to make or communicate a decision, but also when \"the President, by reason of mental debility, is unable or unwilling to make any rational decision, including particularly the decision to stand aside.\" On July 6, 1965, Congress formally proposed the 25th Amendment, and the necessary 38 states ratified it Feb. 10, 1967. Legal experts told us the drafters used intentionally vague and open-ended language (i.e., a president who is \"unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.\") because they recognized they couldn't predict every scenario in which a president could be deemed disabled. But despite the definition’s fuzziness, Goldstein said \"the record makes clear that section four was not intended as a means of removing the president simply because he or she makes an unpopular decision.\" So did Schiff’s claim that the authors intended to cover physical incapacitation, serious mental illness and a general an inability to function, hit the mark? \"I think he’s right, as far as a one-sentence summary could have it,\" said Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University. \"They made the process and the terms flexible, but that was what they were mainly thinking of.\" Schiff said, \"I think what the authors of the (25th) Amendment principally had in mind was some kind of physical incapacitation or serious mental illness or a breakdown, an inability to function in office.\" The framers used deliberately broad language to allow for flexibility. But the record clearly shows they intended section four of the 25th Amendment to apply when a president is \"unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office\" due to either physical or mental inability, and not principally as a strategy for ousting an unpopular president. We rate Schiff’s statement . Claim: I think what the authors of the (25th) Amendment principally had in mind was some kind of physical incapacitation or serious mental illness or a breakdown, an inability to function in office.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Nearly 3 million people are struggling with flooding, the worst in two years, according to the disaster management and relief ministry. As water levels began to recede, authorities expressed concern about outbreaks of infectious diseases in the country of more than 160 million. “With the receding flood waters across the country, there is a possibility of outbreaks of water-borne diseases,” Shah Kamal, secretary of the disaster management and relief ministry, told Reuters by phone from Sirajganj, a flood-hit district 130 km (81 miles) from the capital Dhaka. “That’s why we are setting up water treatment plants in the flood-affected areas on a priority basis,” he said. At least 22 patients with symptoms of diarrhoea and some other ailments were admitted to hospital in the northern Bogra district, said surgeon Gowsul Azam. Raqibul Alam, spokesman of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in Bangladesh, said about 700 volunteers, including 100 staff, were engaged in relief operations in the northern and northwestern parts of Bangladesh. The Red Cross is providing food, drinking water and other aid, including 4,500 taka ($54) per family to help flood victims, Alam said. Kamal said the government had earmarked 45.80 million taka ($543,684) to help people rebuild houses. Two officials from the agriculture department said early estimates suggested farmers had lost agricultural produce worth more than $40 million. “The losses will be substantially higher when we get a full list from different flood-affected areas,” said one official. About 9 km of embankments, 172 km of roads and nearly 250 bridges and culverts had been damaged by the floods, according to a preliminary assessment by the disaster management and relief ministry. In neighboring Nepal, torrential rain caused landslides that swept away five houses on Tuesday, killing eight people in Gulmi district in the west, police said. Four others were missing and two were injured, police official Dipak Basnet said. Authorities said the latest deaths take to 100 the number of people killed in rains in the past two weeks in the Himalayan nation. Thirty others are missing across Nepal. Claim: More than 60 killed, hundreds of thousands displaced by flooding in Bangladesh.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In the aftermath of a deadly mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in October 2017, conspiracy theorists latched on to an entirely unrelated tragedy in upstate New York, falsely claiming a link between a murder-suicide perpetrated in Fairport, New York, and the actions of the Las Vegas shooter: A key witness in the Las Vegas shooting massacre has killed himself and his disabled daughter in a horrific murder-suicide shortly after the FBI raided his home. John Beilman was wanted for questioning by federal agents in connection with a communications device discovered in suspected shooter Stephen Paddock’s hotel room. Articles explicating this conspiracy theory contained many details and factual claims that were not supported by any real evidence, and even cited evidence that, in reality, comprehensively disproved any “link” between the deaths of John Beilman and his daughter and the Las Vegas shooting massacre. Here is what we know to be true: On 4 October 2017, police in the town of Fairport, New York (about 10 miles from Rochester) confirmed that 60-year-old John Beilman had shot and killed his 27-year-old daughter Nicole before shooting and killing himself. Beilman left a note for his wife, but the motive behind the shooting is not known. Police confirmed that Nicole Beilman was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can severely impair an individuals ability to speak, walk, eat and breathe. Two days later, the Rochester newspaper Democrat and Chronicle, citing anonymous sources, reported that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had searched the Beilman home on 3 October 2017, the day before the shooting. That article does not provide any specifics as to the reason for the purported search. Claims that Beilman’s actions have anything to do with the Las Vegas massacre rest on the following “evidence”: This claim is inaccurate, and was known to be inaccurate at the time both articles were written. On 6 October 2017, NBC News reported that investigators, after earlier being puzzled by the presence of the phone charger, “have now been able to match all of the cell phone chargers found in the room with multiple cell phones that Paddock had with him.” Without providing any evidence, both articles claim that S.V.R. (Russian intelligence) sources had identified the device as charging a “CP502520 3.0V 600mAh Li-MnO2 Non-rechargeable Thin Cell Battery.” Setting aside the fact that there is no evidence to support this claim, we know it to be impossible. The battery specified is non-rechargeable — there is no charger that is compatible with it, so the charger found in the Las Vegas shooter’s hotel room cannot be associated with it. The entire conspiracy theory falls down around this point alone, but let’s briefly address some of its other components. Even if the charger could work with the type of battery specified (it cannot) we know that this battery is used “in both professional & consumer applications,” according to its manufacturer, Ultralife Corporation. There is nothing particularly notable about its use, or the use of the (imaginary) charger associated with it. Some of the common applications listed include: smart security cards, bank theft tracking systems, and medical devices. None of these are exclusive to U.S. special forces or the CIA. This appears to be accurate. Beilman’s public LinkedIn profile lists him as an employee of Ultralife from 2007 to 2012 and mentions that he performed “electromechanical assembly” of lithium ion batteries, chargers, and other devices. Whereas conspiracy theorists posited that Beilman “worked on various top-secret communications systems for the US military,” there is no evidence to support this claim. Given that police have paired the charger found in Stephen Paddock’s hotel room with one of his phones, and the battery at the center of this conspiracy theory cannot be charged anyway, John Beilman’s work history is, of course, irrelevant. There was no evidence to support these claims. It appears that the creators of this theory started with the fact of John Beilman and his daughter’s death, and worked backwards, via his professional history, in an effort to find some way of connecting him with the Las Vegas shooting. There is no valid connection, and the evidence offered actually refutes the entire theory. In fact, this tale was yet another fabrication that originated with the conspiracy-mongering WhatDoesItMean fake news site, which RationalWiki describes as follows: “Sorcha Faal” is the alleged author of an ongoing series of “reports” published at WhatDoesItMean.com, whose work is of such quality that even other conspiracy nutters don’t think much of it. There is a high chance that “Sorcha Faal” is actually David Booth, the owner/operator of the website, or someone collaborating with him. The primary audience of Sorcha Faal’s reports and the only ones who take them seriously are usually other conspiracy theorists. Each report resembles a news story in its style, but usually includes a sensational headline barely related to reality (e.g. “American Rebel Forces Attack Gas Pipelines, Explode Trains As US Civil War Nears”[8]) and quotes authoritative high-level Russian sources (such as the Russian Federal Security Service in the same article) to support its most outrageous claims. Except for the stuff attributed to unverifiable sources, the reports don’t contain much original material. They are usually based on various news items from the mainstream media and/or whatever the clogosphere is currently hyperventilating about, with each item shoehorned into the conspiracy narrative the report is trying to establish. Cited sources range from the mainstream media and Wikipedia to Infowars and Richard Hoagland. The author also has the habit of adding unnecessary links to the websites of the various Russian institutions they mention. Nonetheless, the WhatDoesItMean.com fabrication gained enough currency online that the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle felt a need to debunk it as well: If you get your local news from the Democrat and Chronicle or television news stations in town, there’s a lot you haven’t heard about the Fairport man who killed himself and his daughter. Namely that the man, John Beilman, was a “key witness” in the Las Vegas mass shooting and was “wanted by federal agents” in connection to the massacre. It isn’t true, but it’s been widely circulated online via social media courtesy of bogus news websites and their readers, most of whom are unschooled in news literacy and unable to parse fact from fiction. The Beilman-Las Vegas connection appears to have originated on a website called WhatDoesItMean.com in a report dated Oct. 7 under the bizarre byline of “Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers.” Faal is a suspected pseudonym of the website’s owner. Shoddy and fictitious sourcing, half-truths and bewildering leaps of logic are trademarks of her reporting. None of this has stopped her story from being circulated by websites known to publish schlock and sensational disinformation for the purpose of profiting through clickbait. Two such sites are Neon Nettle and USSA News, which bills itself as “The Tea Party’s Front Page.” From there, the story has been spread like wildfire on social media by unsophisticated news illiterates whose reality is so muddied they can’t tell truth from fiction anymore. It’s sad and dangerous and undermining our institutions. Is it coincidence that Beilman committed the murder-suicide within hours of the FBI search of his home? We don’t know for sure, but probably not. It’s very likely that the search motivated Beilman to act. What federal agents were looking for at Beilman’s house hasn’t been reported because the search warrant affidavit, which was signed by a judge authorizing the search, is under seal. The 1 October mass shooting in Las Vegas has prompted a slew of conspiracy theories and hoaxes, many focused on the involvement of “second shooter.” During a press briefing on the day after the massacre, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo directly rejected such theories: Claim: The deaths of John Beilman and his daughter were linked to the Las Vegas mass shooting via a device found in Stephen Paddock's hotel room.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no discussion of costs, but most people know what coffee and tea costs. Because the story noted the limitations of an observational study like this, and because it quantified the statistical associations from the study, we give it a satisfactory score on this criterion. There was no discussion of the potential harms of drinking large quantities of coffee and tea. There are always tradeoffs. This is worth at least a line. The story did mention that the information presented was extracted from a review of the published studies; it went on to explain that a clinical trial would be needed to determine whether the impact of these beverages on diabetes was real. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. In contrast with the WebMD story, it provided a source when it stated, \"Type 2 diabetes, which is often tied to obesity, affects about 8 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.\" No independent sources were quoted in the story. We especially feel that this was warranted given the inclusion of the researcher’s bold claims of potential impact  of the findings. While the last line of the story mentioned exercise and diet, there was no context for readers to evaluate how coffee and tea consumption compared to these strategies for reducing the chance of developing type II diabetes. The availabilty of coffee and tea is not in question. The story began by explaining that this was a follow-up to a previous literature review of the impact of coffee and tea consumption on type II diabetes. There is no evidence that the story relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: More evidence coffee, tea could prevent diabetes",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A video purportedly showing a man demonstrating the abilities of his new invisibility cloak went viral in December 2017. Most English speaking internet users encountered this footage after it was shared on Facebook by “Shotded,” where it gained more than 22 million views within two days of its initial posting. However, this video originally gained traction when it was posted to the Chinese social media site Weibo on 4 December 2017 by 陈士渠 (Chen Shiqu), an internet user who claimed to be the Deputy Director of Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security:   [Translation Via Google Translate] Quantum cloak is composed of quantum stealth material made into clothing, which reflects the light waves around the wearer, allowing people wearing such clothes to achieve an “invisible” effect. This technology can be employed by the military for soldiers to use as “stealth military uniforms” and avoid detection by night-vision goggles. But if criminals use stealth clothing, what are police supposed to do!? The convincing video and the seemingly authoritative source led many to believe that this was an authentic invisibility cloak. Although Chen Shiqu does appear to truly be the Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau in China, this video does not appear on the official government web site (nor its Facebook page) and our search for a “quantum cloak” and “quantum steal material” yielded no results on the CIB web site. In short, the Criminal Investigation Bureau in China did not officially endorse this footage. Furthermore, Chen Shiqu did not create this footage. YouTube user 瞭望亞太  (Looking Asia Pacific) posted this video on 3 December 2017, a day before the supposed Deputy Director of China’s Criminal Investigation Bureau’s post. And although they claimed that this material was “Made in China,” this YouTuber didn’t provide any information about where or when this video was taken or who developed this groundbreaking material:   【国产量子隐身衣】量子隐身衣是通过量子隐形材料制作成衣服，透过反射穿衣者身边的光波，可以使得穿着这种衣服的人达到“隐形”的效果。此技术更可用于军事上，让士兵像穿上“隐形军衣”，还可以避过夜视镜。 【Made in China Quantum Invisibility Clinics】 Quantum stealth clothing is composed of quantum invisible materials made into clothing, which through the reflection of the light waves around the wearer can make people wearing such clothes achieve an “invisibility” effect. This technology can be employed by the military for soldiers to use as “stealth military uniforms” and avoid detection by night-vision goggles. Despite these audacious claims, the actual footage contains several clues that this invisibility cloak is nothing more than the result of video editing. At the 38-second mark, for instance, the presenter accidentally touches a plant with his leg. This creates two visuals that conflict with how we’d expect a real invisibility cloak to work. First, we see the plant “double” as the real plant (which was knocked by the man’s leg) moves and the digital plant remains in place:    A few moments later this plant can be seen shaking. But as the invisibility cloak covers it up, it instantaneously becomes motionless again. The motion of the plant resumes once it is no longer hidden behind the invisibility cloak:   This indicates that this invisibility cloak is actually some sort of green screen. The filmmaker shot footage of the background and then projected that image onto the green sheet in order to make it appear as if the man disappeared behind an invisibility cloak. When the man touches the plant, however, the background footage and the invisibility footage no longer match up, which causes the odd visuals seen above. Zhu Zhen Song, a producer for the Star Orange Quantum video production company, came to a similar conclusion. Song explained to the Shanghai Observer that this video was likely made with a blue or green cloth and a computer software program such as After Effect: 星橙量子视频制作公司的监制竺桢淞看完这段视频后向记者表示，这应该是用蓝色或绿色塑料布来拍摄，再通过后期抠像技术编辑而成的，有不少视频后期合成软件可以做出这样的效果，比如我们熟知的After Effect，以及Nuke和Fusion等软件。 竺桢淞解释了这段视频的大概制作原理。第一遍，先拍摄无人纯背景。第二遍，人物拿着蓝布再拍一遍。然后，用软件把蓝布部分抠除，把两次的视频合成，就出来了“隐形衣”这种效果。类似技术在电影上已经普遍使用，如各类科幻电影。 Star Orange Quantum video production company producer Zhu Zhen Song, after watching this video, told reporters that it was likely shot with blue or green plastic cloth, and then edited using one of many video effects software platforms, such as the well-known After Effect or Nuke and Fusion software. Zhu Zhen Song explained the principle behind this type of video production. The figure is shot against a solid blue background while holding a blue cloth. Then, software is used to replace the blue areas with other footage, creating an “invisible clothing” effect. Similar technologies are commonly used in movies, such as various science fiction films. Another indication that this video was digitally edited can be spotted just after the one-minute mark when the man’s fingers disappear despite being in front of the green screen:  Dozens of similar amateur videos can be found on YouTube. Although the following footage may not be as convincing as the viral invisibility cloak video, they both use similar editing techniques: Claim: A video shows a man demonstrating an invisibility cloak.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On the May 12, 2011, edition of the Fox News Channel's’ O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly and conservative commentator Laura Ingraham discussed a speech on health care given earlier that day by possible Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Romney’s speech was designed to draw distinctions between the Massachusetts health care plan passed when he was governor and the national health care law signed in 2010. In a separate item, we analyzed whether Romney was justified in calling the national law a \"government takeover.\" Here, we’ll look at a comment Ingraham made regarding in-state public opinion about the Massachusetts plan. \"Look, I like Mitt Romney,\" Ingraham said. \"I think he's a really smart guy, and I think he would be a good president. ... On this, I don't get it, though, Bill. I mean, costs have gone up. It's wildly unpopular.\" We wondered whether the Massachusetts system was in fact \"wildly unpopular\" with Bay State residents. We found two polls that shed light on this question to one degree or another. One was conducted in early April 2011 by Suffolk University of 500 Massachusetts residents. In response to the question, \"Do you think health care in Massachusetts is working?\" the poll found that 38 percent said yes, 49 percent said no, and 13 percent were undecided. This would seem to provide a measure of support for Ingraham’s claim. However, the question was phrased more broadly than Ingraham’s claim because it referred to \"health care in Masschusetts,\" which could include factors well beyond the state health plan, such as their own personal experiences with the specific doctors, hospitals and pharmacists they use. And even if the results were a direct commentary on support for the Massachusetts system, a split of 38 percent in favor and 49 percent against doesn’t indicate the state health care law is \"wildly unpopular,\" as Ingraham said. Unpopular, perhaps, but not necessarily \"wildly\" so. A more appropriate yardstick for measuring the plan’s popularity is a survey taken by the Harvard School of Public Health with the Boston Globe in mid September 2009. Here are two questions that most directly address Ingraham’s claim. Both were asked of the 467 respondents who told the pollsters that they were aware of the law:  Given what you know about it, in general, do you support or oppose the Massachusetts Universal Health Insurance Law? Support: 59 percent Oppose: 28 percent Don’t Know: 13 percent  Do you think the Massachusetts Health Insurance Reform Law should be repealed, continued as the law currently stands, or continued but with some changes made? Repealed: 11 percent Continued as the law currently stands: 22 percent Continued but with some changes made: 57 percent Don’t know: 10 percent  The first question found residents support the law by more than a two-to-one margin. The second demonstrated that residents were not entirely satisfied with all of the law’s provisions, but it did show that support for outright repeal was low -- only 11 percent. A major caveat to the Harvard poll is that it was taken a year and a half ago, and sentiment may have changed since then. (Support for the law did drop by about 10 points compared to a 2008 Harvard poll.) Still, the Harvard data, despite being older, directly addresses Ingraham’s claim and indicates she was wrong. \"The statement about the plan being ‘wildly unpopular’ is unfounded given available polling data,\" said Robert Blendon, the Harvard researcher who helped do the poll. As for the newer poll, David Paleologos, who directed the poll in question, said the question has value, while acknowledging that it is broader in focus. \"It’s a snapshot of how people feel currently about Massachusetts health care,\" he said. \"I think that’s all we can garner from the question. … Unless questions are identically worded, a lot of the comparison is left open to one’s opinion.\" On the advice of experts, we decided not to consider a recent customer satisfaction survey commissioned by the government agency that runs the state health insurance exchange created under the law. That study found that 84 percent of participants in the Commonwealth Care program rated it 4 or 5 on a five-point satisfaction scale, while only 4 percent said they were dissatisfied. Some news accounts mistakenly reported that this was a poll of all Massachusetts residents, but it wasn't, so we don't believe that it's a valid yardstick for assessing Ingraham's comment. We should note that an estimated 400,000 Massachusetts residents -- or only about 6 percent of people living in the state -- have secured health coverage as a direct result of the law, according to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts. That has enabled 98.1 percent of Massachusetts residents to secure insurance -- the highest rate of any state. But that also means that the impact of the law has been indirect for more than 9 of 10 Massachusetts residents. Residents need to include a certificate of insurance when they file their taxes. More important, but less tangibly, they may find their insurance costs or their taxes going up due to how the law has reshaped the insurance market. And there is evidence that the increase in number of insured residents in the state has put pressure on primary care physicians, potentially leading to longer waits for service. Still, one Massachusetts political analyst, Tufts University political scientist Jeffrey Berry, said he didn’t detect a groundswell of opposition to the law among residents. \"Massachusetts voters, like voters everywhere, are unhappy with rising health care costs,\" Berry said. \"They see that in their insurance premiums -- every paycheck and every year, the rates go up. The reform for the uninsured passed during the Romney administration is, itself, largely invisible. People know it's there but don't know how it's working (or, unless they're on it, don't know how it works). There's very little press coverage of the program. In Massachusetts there is simply no controversy about the plan at this point. Most telling is that there is no real organized opposition to it and no effort in the state legislature to revise it.\" Berry concludes that Ingraham’s \"wildly unpopular\" claim is \"wildly exaggerated.\" Additional data from the Harvard poll supports Berry’s sense that it’s actually apathy -- rather than opposition -- that’s shaping views of the Massachusetts plan. The pollsters asked, \"Generally speaking, do you think this health insurance law is helping, hurting, or not having much of an impact on the quality of your health care, the cost of your health care and your ability to pay medical bills if you were to get sick.\" Here are the results:  • On quality, 23 percent said the law was \"helping,\" 14 percent said \"hurting,\" and 55 percent said it was \"not having much of an impact.\" • On cost, 19 percent said it was helping, 24 percent said it was hurting and 47 percent said it wasn’t having much impact. • And on people’s ability to pay their medical bills, 24 percent said it was helping, 14 percent said it was hurting and 53 percent said it wasn’t making much difference. In other words, for each of these three issues, either a majority or a plurality of respondents said the law wasn’t having a significant impact. So where does this leave us? The Harvard data contradicts Ingraham’s argument, showing a fair amount of support for the law in general alongside feelings that it’s not doing much for them personally. The Suffolk poll is more recent, but the question asked is too broad to speak directly to Ingraham’s claim. And we couldn't find any other support for Ingraham's claim. Claim: The Massachusetts health care plan is \"wildly unpopular\" among state residents.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A man holds a cigarette in Tokyo August 3, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer Researchers, whose findings appeared in the American Journal of Medicine, said that there are still plenty of questions, including exactly how effective alternative therapies might be and how they measure up against conventional methods to quit smoking. But the alternatives should still stand as options for smokers determined to break the habit, said researchers led by Mehdi Tahiri of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In general, smokers who want to quit should first try the standard approaches, which include nicotine-replacement therapy, medications and behavioral counseling, Tahiri said. “But some people are not interested in medication,” he said, adding that in many cases the standard therapies had not worked. “Then I think we should definitely recommend (acupuncture and hypnosis) as choices.”   Researchers found that some studies showed that smokers subjected to acupuncture were more than three times as likely to be tobacco-free six months to a year later. Similarly, across four trials of hypnosis, smokers had a higher success rate with the therapy compared to people who had minimal help. But there were some caveats, researchers said. The success rate was not consistent in all the tests conducted, although the broad trends pointed to the benefits of alternate treatment. A 2008 study that ran a few sessions of laser acupuncture on 258 smokers found that 55 percent who’d received the treatment quit the habit in six months, compared with four percent who were not given the treatment. But a 2007 study from Taiwan that looked at needle acupuncture around the ear, the area typically targeted for smoking cessation, reported a lower success rate. Only nine percent of those who were given acupuncture had quit after six months compared with six percent who stopped smoking without the treatment. The situation was similar across the hypnosis trials. Two studies showed a significant impact : 20 to 45 percent of hypnosis patients were smoke-free six months to a year later. The other two trials showed smaller effects. Nonetheless, Tahiri said, there was a “trend” toward a benefit across all of the studies of acupuncture and hypnosis. There are still definitely questions, he added, about how many sessions of acupuncture or hypnosis might be necessary, or which specific techniques are best. Other research reviews, though, have concluded that the jury is still out on alternative therapies for quitting smoking. SOURCE: bit.ly/Khhv63 Claim: Want to quit smoking ? Try acupuncture or hypnosis.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Augmented reality game Pokémon Go was an instant hit after it was released in summer 2016. The fad led to rumor after rumor, including the potential for a Hogwarts-themed version of the game dubbed “Harry Potter Go.” What began as speculative memes and petitions developed into solid rumors that Niantic immediately decided to build upon its success by releasing a Harry Potter variant. Before long, the buzz transcended social media to reach news media, with reports that Harry Potter Go was set for a 2017 release. Some articles simply speculated, but outlets like Hello Giggles and NME reported in July 2016 that “Harry Potter Go” was definitely, well, a go: The creators of Pokémon Go are developing a Harry Potter version of the game. Niantic have announced that they will be making Harry Potter Go following the success of their Pokémon game. Since over 15 million users worldwide have downloaded Pokémon Go, fans of the J.K. Rowling books and films have been petitioning Warner Bros to create a Harry Potter game. Hello Giggles reports that Niantic’s senior developer Marcus Figueroa said the company had decided to create the game as “the demand for this title was absolutely insane, so we figured we’d give it a shot.” The story seems to have first appeared on JTXHNews, which referenced an apparently nonexistent interview with gaming outlet IGN: Niantic’s senior developer Marcus Figueroa announced the new project in an interview with IGN We have acquired the rights for the app. The demand for this title was absolutely insane, so we figured we’d give it a shot. If we’re lucky we might see a launch by early 2017, but it’s hard to tell this early in the project. When pressed for details, Figueroa had this to say We want to do something with schools of witchcraft and wizardry, similar to pokestops in Pokemon GO. As wells a quest system, and possibly large scale completely interactive events, but no promises. That’s all I can say. JTHXNews appears visually identical to hoax purveyors that spread viral fabrications claiming that celebrities are moving to (or experiencing flat tires in) small towns across Canada and the United States. On the same day NME reported that Harry Potter Go was in development, Gizmodo pointed out that no record of a “Marcus Figeroa” at Niantic exists, and no such announcement appeared anywhere other than a fake news outlet. Niantic made no such announcement in July or August 2016, and did not indicate that any plans for “Harry Potter Go” were in even the earliest planning stages. However, that doesn’t rule out a Harry Potter Go game eventually appearing, as Pokémon Go was first conceived as an April Fool’s Day hoax in 2014. On 8 November 2017, the “hoax” became reality when Niantic announced that it would be releasing a Pokémon Go-type augmented reality game for Harry Potter enthusiasts. The game will be called “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite”: We’re incredibly excited to announce this next step in the evolution of AR mobile entertainment. With Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, players that have been dreaming of becoming real life Wizards will finally get the chance to experience J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. Players will learn spells, explore their real world neighborhoods and cities to discover & fight legendary beasts and team up with others to take down powerful enemies. We’re thrilled to partner with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and WB Games San Francisco’s development team to bring this magical and beloved series to life in a brand new way. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will leverage the full stack of the Niantic Platform while also providing an opportunity to pioneer all new technology and gameplay mechanics. Claim: Pokémon Go developer Niantic is working on a Harry Potter version of the hugely popular augmented-reality game.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost is not a major issue in this story. The story states that the caloric restriction group saw a 20 percent average improvement in memory performance. The report also describes the size of the group tested and the duration of the study. It would have been useful to know how memory was tested in order to appreciate what a 20 percent improvement means in practical terms. 20% of what? 20% that makes what kind of difference in daily functioning? Maddeningly, the story does not report how many calories the restriction group ate on a given day. The story mentions that some earlier studies found that caloric restriction was linked to memory decline. But it fails to mention one very important practical warning relevant to the study populations: That older patients are at increased risk for malnutrition, and should not restrict their caloric intake without medical superivision. Further, it’s not known whether caloric restriction is safe for slightly overweight or normal weight adults regardless of age. The article properly describes the basic limitations of the evidence: that the study is small and the results less than conclusive. But the report fails to mention two important caveats: That caloric intake was based on participants’ self-reports, a notoriously undependable way to determine diet compliance. That the data don’t rule out whether the improved memory may be linked to weight loss rather than caloric restriction. Finally, there’s one intriguing potential explanation that might have been explored: whether the cognitive improvements might be related to performing a new mental task daily for three months: Counting calories and logging food intake. On balance, the story receives an unsatisfactory rating under this criterion. The story does not exaggerate the severity or incidence of memory loss in older adults. The reporter interviewed one of the study researchers, a lead researcher in a related study and one independent expert. Other tactics have been shown to boost older adults’ memories, including aerobic exercise and some social and behavioral activities. But in this story, which focuses on a key finding about dietary restriction, it is not necessary to mention these options. The availability of caloric restriction is not in question. The story does a good job of briefly sketching out the history of caloric restriction testing in animals and people, making clear that caloric restriction is not novel. The story turned to several sources and did not appear to rely solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Another Potential Benefit of Cutting Calories: Better Memory",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The WHO said its Emergency Committee would reconvene behind closed doors on Thursday to decide whether the rapid spread of the new virus from China now constitutes a global emergency. “In the last few days the progress of the virus especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva, naming Germany, Vietnam and Japan. “Although the numbers outside China are still relatively small, they hold the potential for a much larger outbreak.”  There have been 6,065 cases of the flu-like virus in 15 countries worldwide - all but around 70 in China - according to the latest WHO figures. All the deaths so far have been in China, where the National Health Commission said there had been 132 fatalities as of end-Tuesday. Another death was reported in Sichuan province on Wednesday. The situation remained “grim and complex”, said Chinese President Xi Jinping, who on Tuesday had vowed to defeat the “devil” virus. U.S. President Donald Trump said he had spoken to Xi and his administration was working closely with China on containing the outbreak. Some major airlines suspended flights to China, and a senior economist predicted a major impact on growth. The WHO’s panel of 16 independent experts twice last week declined to declare an international emergency, but will re-evaluate the situation on Thursday. “We are at an important juncture in this event. We believe these chains of transmission can still be interrupted,” said Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme. Ryan also praised China’s response, saying: “They are taking extraordinary measures in the face of what is an extraordinary challenge.”  In many Chinese cities, streets were largely deserted. Tourist attractions were closed, while Starbucks coffee shops required people to have their temperatures taken and to wear masks. “It’s my first time here in Asia, I feel very unlucky,” said Brazilian tourist Amanda Lee, 23, cutting short a trip. “I couldn’t even see the places I wanted, like the Great Wall.”  Almost all the deaths so far have been in the central province of Hubei, home to about 60 million people and now under virtual lockdown. The virus emerged last month in a live wild animal market in the provincial capital Wuhan. “I was extremely worried that I was stuck there,” said Takeo Aoyama, who arrived in Tokyo on a chartered plane carrying 206 Japanese out of Wuhan as some governments began evacuating their citizens. The United States flew about 210 Americans out of Wuhan, to be screened several times on arrival in California. France said a first flight of French nationals would leave on Wednesday night and Britain said it would put 200 citizens on a charter plane on Thursday. Canada was also organising evacuations. The virus is weighing heavily on the world’s second-biggest economy, with companies cutting corporate travel to China and tourists cancelling trips. Various airlines are cutting flights, from British Airways and Lufthansa to Tanzania’s national carrier that postponed maiden flights. A government economist said the crisis could cut China’s first quarter growth by one point to 5% or lower as the crisis hits sectors from mining to luxury goods. Hong Kong stocks took a beating on the first day of trading after the Lunar New Year break. Casino and financial stocks led the Hang Seng index 2.5% lower to a seven-month trough. “In our view, the worst is yet to come,” securities firm Nomura said, warning of a severe, near-term blow to China’s economy. But in a potentially major step towards finding a vaccine, scientists in Australia said they had developed a lab-grown version of the virus, the first recreated outside China. The researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity said they would share the sample, grown from an infected patient, with the WHO and global laboratories in the hope of hastening immunisation and detection. The number of cases of the new virus in China now exceeds the 5,327 that were infected with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which also originated in China and killed about 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003. While some experts believe the new strain, known as “2019-nCoV”, is not as deadly as SARS, alarm has grown over its rapid spread and many unknown attributes. “There have been more cases in China, but so far with a lower death rate than the SARS outbreak,” said Michael Head, a health researcher at Britain’s University of Southampton. Like other respiratory infections, the new virus is spread by droplets from coughs and sneezes, with an incubation time between one and 14 days. Claim: WHO to reconsider declaring global emergency as China virus evacuations begin.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Maraschino cherries have long been familiar to Americans as those bright red, sweet cherries typically used to adorn cocktails, ice cream sundaes, and other drinks and confections. On 9 February 2015, a blog post titled “Maraschino cherries classified as decorations, not food; contain toxic, banned dye” stated that an atypical progression of regulatory classification in the U.S. led to the unusual circumstance of maraschino cherries being deemed purely decorative (rather than food) items and regulated as if they were not meant for human consumption, allowing them to continue to be manufactured with a dye that has since been banned for use in consumable products:  FD&C Red #4, also known as Scarlet GN, was banned as a food additive in 1960. Today it is banned in Europe; in the United States it is allowed only in externally applied drugs and cosmetics. It is not allowed in products that are applied near the eye. Despite this, Red #4 is added to Maraschino cherries. This has been happening because the US government considers the cherries decorations, not food. In the 1920’s, during the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, companies began soaking the cherries in a brine solution rather than alcohol. Chemicals and coloring, including Red #4, were added until 1960, when it was banned because it was not considered “suitable and safe” by the newly empowered FDA. In 1965, it was again allowed to be added to the cherries because they were re-classified as decorations. Keep in mind that not all Maraschino cherries are made with Red #4. Some contain Red #40 which contains benzidene, a human and animal cancer causing agent. It is broadly true the federal standards defining maraschino cherries shifted in the post-Prohibition era. In 1912 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) specifically defined “maraschino cherries” as “marasca cherries preserved in maraschino” (a form of liqueur) and required similar products made with other types of cherries and/or liqueurs be labeled as “imitation maraschino cherries.”  By 1940, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had revised that definition to pertain to any red-dyed cherries “impregnated with sugar and flavored with oil of bitter almonds”:  Food Inspection Decision 141, issued in 1912 under the Food and Drugs Act of 1906, stated that “maraschino cherries” should be applied only to marasca cherries preserved in maraschino. This decision further described maraschino as a liqueur or cordial prepared by process of fermentation and distillation from the marasca cherry, a small variety of the European wild cherry indigenous to the Dalmatian Mountains. Products prepared from cherries of the Royal Anne type, artificially colored and flavored and put up in flavored sugar sirup might be labeled “Imitation Maraschino Cherries” or, if there was no reference to “Maraschino,” might be labeled to show that they are preserved cherries, artificially colored and flavored. Later, evidence submitted at the hearing held in April 1939 for the purpose of establishing a standard of identity for canned cherries and evidence submitted by a committee representing a trade association showed that the term “Maraschino Cherries” had come to mean to the consumer cherries which have been dyed red, impregnated with sugar and flavored with oil of bitter almonds or a similar flavor. As a result, TC-194, March 15, 1940, was issued in which it was stated that the Food and Drug Administration had reached the conclusion that “Maraschino Cherries” is the common or usual name of cherries prepared in this manner. Although it might seem intuitive this change was necessitated because the Prohibition-era ban on alcohol sales made the original form of maraschino cherries an illegal product, manufacturers were “using all sorts of things other than alcohol” to make maraschino cherries long before Prohibition was enacted in 1920 (which is why the USDA had taken the step of defining exactly what they were back in 1912), and the FDA didn’t redefine them as a non-alcoholic product until 1940, seven years after the end of Prohibition. It is also true after the FDA initially banned the use of Red No. 4. as a color additive in food, they allowed its continued use in maraschino cherries beginning in the mid-1960s. However, the FDA banned that coloring again in 1976 (along with Red No. 2, which was also commonly used as a coloring for maraschino cherries), and Red No. 4. may now be used only in “externally applied drugs and cosmetics.”  There is no exception allowing its use in maraschino cherries. The FDA requires the ingredients labels on containers of maraschino cherries must include “a declaration of the presence of the artificial coloring”:  Labels for “Maraschino Cherries” must bear a listing of ingredients, including those in the packing medium, in descending order of predominance in accord with section 403(i)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and a declaration of the presence of the artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, and any chemical preservative as required by section 403(k) of the Act. As can be seen from those labels, nearly all maraschino cherries sold in the U.S. are now manufactured with Red No. 40 (also known as Allura red), a coloring additive that is FDA-approved for use in “food, drugs and cosmetics:  Red No. 40 is approved as a food colorant in both the U.S. and the European Union (EU), although a few EU member nations (Denmark, Belgium, France, and Switzerland) have banned its use. Some confusion may stem from the fact that natural Red No. 4 (also known as carmine or cochineal) is still widely used in the U.S. as a coloring additive in food products (potentially including maraschino cherries), but the original Red No. 4 and natural Red No. 4 are chemically two very different substances. The latter is FDA-approved “for use in human food” (and, somewhat controversially, is made from the crushed carcasses of a particular South and Central American insect). So just which red food dyes are unquestionably safe? As Joan Callahan summed up the issue in 50 Health Scares that Fizzled:  At present, we regret to report that no available red food coloring seems entirely safe by any universally accepted criteria. Some of these dyes are potential carcinogens, if consumed at unrealistically huge doses. Others are made from squashed insects that not only sound icky, but may cause hyperactivity or allergic reactions in children. Some religions forbid consumption of anything that contains insects; others frown on the sacrifice of living animals as food. Are the products bad, or is the state of knowledge bad? One argument in favor of the latter is the fact that different countries allow the use of different red dyes. In other words, everybody seems to be interpreting the same data differently. Claim: Maraschino cherries are produced using a toxic dye that has been banned for human consumption.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: South Dakota’s push to fight methamphetamine addiction won instant attention when it launched on November 18 2019 — but perhaps not for the reason Gov. Kristi Noem and state officials intended.According to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper, the state spent $449,000 on an advertising campaign promoting a treatment and education program around the state with the tagline “Meth. We’re On It.”The slogan, which resembles the term used for someone actually under the influence of the drug, is a truncated version of a remark Noem makes in a public service announcement running as part of the campaign.“South Dakota’s meth crisis is growing at an alarming rate,” she says in the PSA. “It impacts every community in our state and it threatens the success of the next generation. This is our problem and together, we need to get on it.”The ad concludes with an image of the state with the slogan in black text inside:The initiative will also include more than $1 million in funding for meth addiction treatment services as well as more than $730,000 for school programs aimed to prevent addiction among students.While the tagline made for easy laughs on social media, the effects of the drug on the state is no joke. In August 2019, state Corrections Secretary Mike Leidholt told lawmakers that 83 percent of court admissions in the state involved offenses involving controlled substances. Additionally, 28 percent of male prisoners and 64 percent of female prisoners for drug-related offenses were involved with methamphetamines in some capacity, compared to 14 percent of male and 24 percent of female prisoners nationally. Claim: South Dakota launched a campaign against methamphetamine addiction with the tagline \"Meth. We're On It.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: You needn’t be an expert in psychology to pinpoint January as one of the least enjoyable months of the year: the excitement of the holidays has concluded while related bills begin rolling in, the coming of a new year is for many people a reminder of passing time that prompts sad reflections about missed opportunities and accomplishments, no extended breaks from school or work are in the offing, and in many parts of the northern hemisphere the weather is unpleasant if not downright dangerous. It’s often cold and drab out, with summer a distant memory nearly half a year away. But is any date on the calendar in January statistically the most depressing day of the year? Social media users have frequently posted about “Blue Monday,” a term assigned to any number of specific days in January (typically the third monday of the month). Rumors abound that a particular date (typically a Monday) has been deemed by scientists or researchers to be the most depressing of the entire year, with a number of factors influencing the calculation of this bummer of a date. Going by popular lore, you might believe we scarcely can control our level of contentment on that day given all the mathematical reasons for us to be well and truly miserable. The concept of a “Blue Monday” took root in 2005. In that year, a press release detailed a purported formula that calculated factors including weather, debt, time elapsed since Christmas, and unsuccessful New Year’s resolutions. When those factors were combined and the “sadness” algorithm applied to them, 24 January 2005 was identified as the single most depressing of the year. Almost immediately the claim was regarded by many as a shaky one because the cited factors were clearly vague and nearly impossible to quantify, and because of the dubious impetus behind the “formula.” The calculations were attributed to a Dr. Cliff Arnall of the University of Cardiff in Wales, who explained:  “Following the initial thrill of New Year’s celebrations and changing over a new leaf, reality starts to sink in,” Arnall said. “The realization coincides with the dark clouds rolling in and the obligation to pay off Christmas credit card bills.” The formula was devised to help a travel company “analyze when people book holidays and holiday trends,” said Alex Kennedy, spokesperson for Porter Novelli, a London-based PR agency. It seems that people are most likely to buy a ticket to paradise when they feel like hell. “People feel bleak when they have nothing planned, but once they book a holiday they have a goal, they work toward having time off and a relaxing period,” Kennedy said. If that sounded a bit like a paid placement by a public relations firm working on behalf of a travel company to increase vacation sales, it’s because the “research” was exactly that. By 2006, Blue Monday’s roots in public relations had been fully exposed via others working in scientific fields who’d been offered the same financial opportunity as Arnall (who was a part-time tutor for night students at the time):  In fact it’s not surprising that these equations are so stupid, because they come from the PR companies almost fully-formed and ready to have your name attached to them. I know that because I have received an avalanche of insider stories — Watergate it isn’t — including one from an academic in psychology who was offered money by Porter Novelli PR agency to put his name to the very same Sky Travel equation story that Arnall sold his to. In amongst their aggressive pitch they described how the story would go. “Blue Monday — January Blues Day is Officially Announced: The 26th of January is the most depressing day in the calendar for the majority of Brits as measured by a simple mathematical formula developed on behalf of Sky Travel. “By taking into account various factors such as avg temperature (C), days since last pay (P), days until next bank holiday (B), avg hours of daylight (D) and number of nights in during mth (N), we create a formula such as C(P+B) N+D. This formula allows us to work out the day with the highest ‘depression factor’ which you can then use as a focus for making things better, booking your holiday etc …” This is almost exactly as it was when Arnall revealed his important work to the world. Arnall later followed up with a corresponding “happiest day of the year” formula, sponsored by the Wall’s ice cream company. In the intervening years, journalists and mental health professionals have taken Arnall to task for minimizing the issue of clinical depression. He later commented on his involvement with PR-as-science, amusingly objecting to other people’s fabricating information to promote a claim:  Despite criticism of his decision to accept money from PR firms, he insisted he had no regrets; in the past five years, he has earned a total £1,650 for identifying the two dates. “There was one comment that I had bought a really big house out of the proceeds,” he said. “People just make this stuff up.” He added: “I was originally asked to come up with what I thought was the best day to book a summer holiday but when I started thinking about the motives for booking a holiday, reflecting on what thousands had told me during stress management or happiness workshops, there were these factors that pointed to the third Monday in January as being particularly depressing … but it is not particularly helpful to put that out there and say ‘there you are’ … it is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy that it is the most depressing day.”  While the initial Blue Monday PR campaign has long since concluded, the belief any one day in January is particularly or significantly the most depressing took on a life of its own. Not surprisingly, the claim has been repeatedly recycled by other companies seeking to promote goods or services in the post-holiday  winter period. And as social media became increasingly influential, the rumor evolved from a formula based on circumstances to an analysis of words used in tweets:  Blue Monday was originally identified in 2005 by academic Cliff Arnall, who thought it fell on the last full week of January. He calculated the date using a variety of factors including weather conditions, debt levels, failed New Year’s resolutions and the number of days that had elapsed since the end of the Christmas holidays. But over the past three years, researchers analysed more than 2 million tweets posted by Britons in January looking for negative language and phrases indicating a drop in mood. They found that today, there will be nearly five times the average number of tweets relating to guilt, as people abandon their promises to pursue a healthier lifestyle. In 2014, the Blue Monday story was reincarnated and harnessed by “researchers” linked with (among other interests) an alcohol company, law firms, and a bottled water brand. Claim: Scientists have determined a date in January is statistically the most depressing day of the year.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In January 2017, a truck carrying a load of red Skittles spilled thousands of the sweet candies on the side of a Wisconsin road. While the sight stirred up some interest on the internet, social media users were flummoxed when they discovered the intended destination of the candy: a cattle farm. The Skittles were confirmed to have fallen off the back of a truck. The truck was a flatbed pickup and the Skittles were in a large box. Due to it raining at the time, the box got wet and gave way allowing the Skittles to spill out on the roadway. It is reported that the Skittles were intended to be feed for cattle as they did not make the cut for packaging at the company. In the end these Skittles are actually for the Birds! While many were shocked to learn that farmers had intended to feed the Skittles to cows, this practice has been going on for several years. In 2012, CNN reported that several farmers had started feeding their cattle candy due to a corn shortage: Feeding candy to cows has become a more popular practice in tandem with the rising price of corn, which has doubled since 2009, fueled by government-subsidized demand for ethanol and this year’s drought.Thrifty and resourceful farmers are tapping into the obscure market for cast-off food ingredients. Cut-rate byproducts of dubious value for human consumption seem to make fine fodder for cows. While corn goes for about $315 a ton, ice-cream sprinkles can be had for as little as $160 a ton. “As the price of corn has climbed, farmers either sold off their pigs and cattle, or they found alternative feeds,” said Mike Yoder, a dairy farmer in Middlebury, Ind. He feeds his 400 cows bits of candy, hot chocolate mix, crumbled cookies, breakfast cereal, trail mix, dried cranberries, orange peelings and ice cream sprinkles, which are blended into more traditional forms of feed, like hay. The farmer said that he goes over the feed menu every couple of weeks with a livestock nutritionist who advised him to cap the candy at 3% of a cow’s diet. He said that the sugar in ice cream sprinkles seems to increase milk production by three pounds per cow per day. John Waller, a professor of animal nutrition at the University of Tennessee, told Live Science that farmers have been using candy to pad out cow feed for years: “I think it’s a viable [diet],” Waller said. “It keeps fat material from going out in the landfill, and it’s a good way to get nutrients in these cattle. The alternative would be to put [the candy] in a landfill somewhere.” According to Waller, padding out cow feed with waste candy is nothing new. He says he first heard of Tennessee cattle raisers using candy years back, and that throughout the country, whether it’s orange rinds in Florida or almond hulls in California, beef producers are serving the hard-to-get-rid-of byproducts of local food industry to their herds. “Ruminant animals are very good at utilizing a wide variety of feedstuffs, because the microbes in the rumen can digest things that other animals can’t utilize,” he said. While it’s true that farmers feed candy to their cattle, cows are not being fed troughs filled with nothing but Skittles. The candies are mixed in with other materials to create animal feed: Claim: Farmers feed their cattle candy, such as Skittles.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Viral rumors about a California gun law taking effect on January 1, 2016, are both truth and fiction. It’s true that a California gun law that goes into effect in January will allow police to seize guns from their owners for up to 21 days if a court agrees that a gun owner is a threat to themselves or others. But reports that President Obama is behind the effort are untrue. Reports that guns could be taken without notice are also untrue, contrary to reports by Breitbart and other outlets. And the new gun violence restraining order bill (Assembly Bill 1014) has commonly been confused with California’s Armed & Prohibited Persons System (APPS), which has been on the books since 2001. First, let’s take a look at the gun violence retraining order bill that takes effect on January 1, 2016. Under the bill, a court would be able to issue a “temporary emergency gun violence restraining order” if a law enforcement official asserts that there’s reasonable cause to believe a person poses an “immediate and present danger” to themselves or others. As written, the law would require that written notice of the order be served to the gun owner: The bill would require a law enforcement officer to serve the order on the restrained person, if the restrained person can reasonably be located, file a copy of the order with the court, and have the order entered into the computer database system for protective and restraining orders maintained by the Department of Justice. The bill would require the presiding judge of the superior court of each county to designate at least one judge, commissioner, or referee who is required to be reasonably available to issue temporary emergency gun violence restraining orders when the court is not in session. This bill would additionally authorize a court to issue an ex parte gun violence restraining order prohibiting the subject of the petition from having in his or her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving, or attempting to purchase or receive, a firearm or ammunition when it is shown that there is a substantial likelihood that the subject of the petition poses a significant danger of harm to himself, herself, or another in the near future by having in his or her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm and that the order is necessary to prevent personal injury to himself, herself, or another, as specified. The bill would require the ex parte order to expire no later than 21 days after the date on the order and would require the court to hold a hearing within 21 days of issuing the ex parte gun violence restraining order to determine if a gun violence restraining order that is in effect for one year should be issued. The bill would require a law enforcement officer or a person at least 18 years of age who is not a party to the action to personally serve the restrained person the ex parte order, if the restrained person can reasonably be located. If a gun owner refused to surrender his weapons and ammunition voluntarily, law enforcement officials would execute a search warrant to confiscate the weapons. Then, if the gun owner were to break the temporary restraining order, he would be subject to a misdemeanor and a weapons and ammunition ban of up to five years. The law was passed in 2014 in response to gunman Elliot Rodger’s mass shooting in Santa Barbara that left six dead and 14 wounded. In the days leading up to the rampage, Rodger’s parents had contacted law enforcement a number of times to conduct well being and mental health checks of their son after he posted disturbing videos on YouTube, according to a sheriff’s department report. Officers didn’t find that Rodger met the criteria for involuntary mental health confinement, and released him. The stated goal of the emergency gun violence retraining order law is to give police and family members an opportunity to temporarily separate people like Rodger from their weapons when they pose an imminent threat. Some right-wing media outlets have portrayed the law as an attempt by President Obama to start confiscating weapons, or an opportunity for police to take weapons “without notice.” Both are untrue. The California Legislature, not the federal government or President Obama passed the law. And police are required to give notice of emergency gun violence temporary restraining orders so that weapons and ammunition can (hopefully) be voluntarily surrounded. Also, ahead of the new gun law, old reports about California’s Amerced and Prohibited Persons System (APPS) have floated to the surface. That’s led to some confusion about the scope of law taking effect on January 1. APPS cross references databases of individuals who have legally purchased handguns and registered assault weapons since 1996 with those who are prohibited from owning weapons. The state prohibits felons, the mentally ill and some convicted of domestic violence from owning guns. The purpose of APPS is to identify those who illegally own or possess guns under the law so they can be confiscated. So, as is often the case with claims about gun laws and gun ownership, this rumor is a combination of truth and fiction. Comments Claim:  A new gun law taking effect in California on January 1, 2016, will allow police to seize guns without prior notice. ",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In an opinion piece in the July 15, 2013, Washington Post, state Sen. Wendy Davis gave reasons \"why I stood up for Texas women\" in a filibuster against abortion restrictions that drew national attention. Among them: \"Each year, about 25,000 American women ... become pregnant through rape or incest,\" wrote the Fort Worth Democrat. A Democratic effort to exclude victims of rape and incest from the Texas restrictions eventually proved futile, as did Davis’ filibuster; the measure was signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry on July 18, 2013. We remained curious about Davis’ rape-or-incest statistic. Davis spokesman Rick Svatora told us via email that the number came from a media fact sheet posted online by NARAL Pro Choice America, an abortion rights advocacy group formerly called the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. The fact sheet says, \"Each year, approximately 25,000 women in the United States become pregnant as a result of rape.\" There are no incest pregnancy statistics on the sheet, and we found none in other sources. Dean Kilpatrick, director of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina, told us by phone that although rape and incest often are mentioned together in abortion laws, there is little research on incest, a difficult area to study for reasons that include underreporting. By email, Svatora provided two articles on rape-related pregnancy: A 1996 Medical University of South Carolina analysis of the federally-funded 1990-92 National Women’s Study of 3,031 women over 18. (Kilpatrick worked on both the study and the analysis.) The analysis concluded that among rape victims aged 12 to 45, 5 percent of rapes resulted in pregnancies, and, using the study’s figure of 683,000 \"forcible rapes\" in 1990, estimated that \"there may be 32,101 rape-related pregnancies annually among American women older than 18 years.\" A 2000 article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, using the 1996 analysis’ estimated rate of 5 percent pregnancies from rape, assumed a 50 percent drop in rapes since 1992 to reach an estimate of 25,000 pregnancies from rape in 1998. The NARAL Pro Choice America fact sheet attributes its 25,000 figure to the 2000 article, and a spokeswoman for the group, Samantha Gordon, said via email that is its most recent estimate. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don’t keep data on pregnancy due to rape, nor does the U.S. Department of Justice, spokeswomen told us via email, while spokesman Greg Phillips at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said the 32,000 figure is \"the best estimate we have now.\" Kilpatrick said reasons why the 1996 analysis he worked on is still cited include the National Women’s Study’s large population sample and the fact that more recent research has tended to support its 5 percent rate. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, a Washington, D.C.-based charity, reached a much lower figure by doing the same calculation with an estimate from the Justice Department’s 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey. On its website, the network takes the survey’s annual average of 64,080 rapes committed in 2004 and 2005 and applies the 5 percent pregnancy rate to reach an estimate of 3,204 pregnancies a year from rape. That’s ten times less than the 1996 estimate of 32,000. The biggest reason for that difference: According to federal statistics, rapes -- like other violent crimes -- declined significantly in the U.S. during those years. Crime experts have said the decline shown by federal data that began in the 1990s was part of a long-term pattern. They cited falling crack cocaine use, a strong economy and other societal factors, with some citing tougher police strategies. A March 2013 federal Bureau of Justice Statistics report, \"Female Victims of Sexual Violence, 1994-2010,\" compiled statistics from the National Crime Victimization Survey showing that average annual completed rapes dropped 65 percent from 402,000 in 1995 to 143,300 in 2010. Using the method the 1996 and 2000 researchers did -- multiplying the rape counts by the 5 percent pregnancy rate -- we calculated that there could have been 20,100 pregnancies from rape in 1995 and many fewer, 7,165, in 2010. On the other hand, Kilpatrick disagreed with the results of the federal survey, which he said misses most rape cases in large part because its questions are framed in the context of crime and can leave doubt about exactly what’s being asked. An Interviewee, he said, might respond \"no\" to the question \"Have you ever been raped?\" but answer yes when asked if she had ever experienced specific behaviors such as a man forcing his penis into her vagina. He and his colleagues estimated higher numbers of rapes in the 1990-92 survey and in a 2007 follow-up, estimating in both studies that only about 17 percent of rapes were reported. In fact, their data showed a 61 percent increase from 1990 to 2006, from 683,000 to 1.1 million rapes. Kilpatrick noted that a 2010 CDC report found a similar total -- 1.3 million women raped in the previous 12 months. His work indicated the percentage of women raped has not changed significantly since the 1990s, he said, while the U.S. population increased. Applying the 5 percent pregnancy rate to a rounded estimate of 1 million rapes yields his 50,000 figure. We also checked FBI-collected crime statistics, mindful that they include only rapes reported to local law enforcement agencies. In 2011, according to the FBI’s most recent finalized rape statistics, 83,425 forcible rapes were reported to law enforcement. Multiplying that by the 5 percent rate suggests 4,171 pregnancies resulting from reported rapes that year. If that FBI figure represented about 20 percent of rapes committed, in line with Kilpatrick’s research, the total would be 417,125 rapes. Applying the 5 percent pregnancy rate suggests about 20,900 pregnancies could have resulted from rape in 2011. To sum up, we found or calculated these estimates cited from 2010 through 2012, all taking into account unreported plus reported, all based on an assumption of 5 percent chance of pregnancy: 3,200 -- From national anti-sexual-violence organization. 7,165 -- Our calculation with federal data for 2010 released in 2013. 20,900 -- Our calculation with FBI reported-rape data for 2011, adjusting for assumption that only 20 percent of rapes were reported. 32,000 -- Based on 1990 study but still in use by the obstetricians and gynecologists’ group. 50,000 -- Kilpatrick’s estimate based on 2007 and 2010 research showing approximately 1 million rapes. By phone, Svatora noted that Davis’ number fell within that range. Our ruling Davis said, \"Each year, about 25,000 American women ... become pregnant through rape or incest.\" She offered no backup for the incest part of the statement, and we found none. Estimates of rape-related pregnancies per year vary from 3,200 to 50,000. Davis’ number, despite dating from 1998, fits inside that range, but there is too much disagreement for us -- or Davis -- to pin any one statistic as the definitive number of rape-related pregnancies per year. We rate her statement as . Claim: Wendy Davis Says that each year, about 25,000 American women become pregnant through rape or incest.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story included no discussion of costs. How much would these methods cost? The story got the “gist” correct that surgery’s benefit increases with increasing risk. One of the saving graces of the piece was this independent perspective: “It is also unclear how optimal medical management [lifestyle changes in addition to anti-platelet medication and statins] would affect overall stroke and cardiovascular risk, and stroke-free survival,” he said. The story reported that 10 individuals in the study of 435 had TIAs. While transient ischemic attacks is one outcome of interest, the study presented the number of study participants that had strokes, and died of either stroke or cardiovascular death. The story reported the likelihood that individuals with one or another of the problems visualized with ultrasound would have a stroke – but did not report the absolute increase in stroke that was actually observed. This information is essential for understanding the magnitude of benefit possible. And although the story included quotes from clinicians indicating that the risk of stroke is higher with carotid endarterectomy, there should have been some number provided to enable readers to understand the risks associated with the intervention that might result from having undergone the tests. The story explained that the study followed 435 individuals who are known to have carotid stenosis and then followed them to see how well the two ultrasound measurements predicted those that would go on to have a stroke. The story could have done a more complete job of explaining early on in the piece that the people studied were all 70 years of age or older, and all had known carotid stenosis. The results of this study are not generalizable to others who do not have this condition meaning that the tests should not be used for identifying those individuals with carotid plaques. No overt disease mongering. Quotes from two individuals who were not involved in the study reported on were included in this story. Sorting throught the quotes from experts, it would seem that the combination of ultrasound tests could be used to better predict those individuals at lower risk who would be best off managed with medical therapy; and to better predict which individuals stand to benefit the most from surgery because their risk was higher. The story is based on what was found with “two ultrasound methods.”  But it never clarified whether there was something extraordinary about these methods and, if so, how well known are they? How widespread? How available? It is really not clear from this story whether the 2 ultrasound techniques are new, are currently in use for other applications, are both in use for visualizing carotids but are not usually used in combination as in the study. Is this something new or not? This story did not appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Ultrasound of Neck Arteries May Help Gauge Stroke Risk",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Meryl Streep gave director Roman Polanski a standing ovation after he won Academy Award for Best director for “The Pianist” in 2003. Meryl Streep’s standing ovation of Roman Polanski was dredged up after she delivered a speech at the Golden Globes that took aim at Donald Trump (without naming him directly):  At tonight's #GoldenGlobes we honor Hollywood legend Meryl Streep with the prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. pic.twitter.com/dxpeCDNXY6 — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 9, 2017  Twitchy, a “social media curation site,” posted an article about Meryl Streep’s standing ovation of Roman Polanski, who fled to Poland to avoid child sexual assault charges in 1978, and surmised, “there’s a reason conservatives hate Hollywood.” The post includes a clip of Harrison Ford announcing Roman Polanski, who was not present at the awards ceremony, as the winner of the Academy Award for Best Director. Then, at the 1:10 mark, Streep and other A-list celebrities give Polanski a standing ovation, as can be seen in this screen grab:  ‘”I’m sure he’s a nice man and I know he has a family and I think he deserves closure and to be allowed to put this behind him. He said he did it, he pled guilty, he went to jail. I don’t know what people want from him.” In 2009, after Roman Polanski was arrested amid another failed extradition attempt, Streep told an Italian reporter, “I’m very sorry he’s in jail.” That quote has also been circulated in the wake of Streep’s comments about Trump to argue that she’s hypocritical. Claim:  Meryl Streep, who was critical of President-elect Donald Trump in a Golden Globes speech, once gave accused pedophile Roman Polanski a standing ovation at the Oscars. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Maintaining visual capabilities does not come cheaply in the United States, given the need for diagnostic visits, eyewear that can run into the hundreds of dollars, and expensive medical procedures to manage a litany of age-related problems, such as cataracts and macular degeneration. Although the story mentions these options, their related costs are missing in action. The story describes a relationship between vision and cognition, but we never get a feel for how strong that link might be. Although the debits of traditional eye exams are minor, more substantive “fixes” of vision problems mentioned in the story (such as cataract surgery) do bring with them possible risks. While the story does provide some details about the study, such as the number of individuals (more than 2,500) and the length (8 years), its brief description of the study design leaves some key details unexplored. This was a cross-lagged analysis in which a measure of eyesight at time 1 was associated with a cognitive test at time 2. That kind of analysis can make a stab at establishing cause-and-effect if it also examines the opposite relationship (cognitive test at time 1 to visual test at time 2) and finds it to be nonexistent. The analysis actually did this and determined that the visual-to-cognitive test was a stronger relationship than its opposite. But while that fuller explanation would have made the story more complete, it would still omit an important caution: The correlations running in both directions are quite modest. Thus, there is evidence in this study that vision could be a factor in cognitive health, but it seems to play only a minor role. And its impact, if any, would still need to be tested in a clinical trial to be proven conclusively. Both cognitive decline and vision loss accompany aging. Neither is necessarily lethal, but seeking to learn if they are related would be beneficial. An invited commentary that accompanied the report of this research in the Journal of the American Medical Association Ophthalmology describes a number of studies exploring this relationship in recent years, The study was funded by the National Eye Institute and the Jane Kroger Fund. It would have been beneficial to include the funding sources in the story. However, omitting the name of a government or non-profit funder does not merit a Not Satisfactory rating. The story mentions several approaches to maintaining eyesight. Mentioning other possible approaches to preventing cognitive decline (diet, exercise, etc.) would’ve been a bonus. The story implies that the vision treatments mentioned (“a new eyeglass prescription or surgery to remove cataracts”) are available in the marketplace, which is accurate. Although the commentary in the JAMA Ophthalmology issue where the research appears makes the point that this study’s effort to introduce causality into the vision/cognition relationship is a “new dimension,” that novel element is not made clear in the story. It’s clear there was some original reporting done, and the story didn’t rely excessively on any news release. Claim: Maintaining healthy vision may help keep brain in shape, too",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release makes no mention of costs although omega-3 fatty acid supplements are readily available across the market. A quick web search shows that a month’s supply of Lovaza, the omega-3 fatty acid used in this study, will cost about $280 per month, or $3.360 a year, a hefty price for most Americans. The headline states,”Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Lower Breast Cancer Risk in Postmenopausal Obese Women,” and the opening paragraph follows with basically the same statement. But nowhere in the release does it explain how much this supplement may lower a woman’s risk. It says that breast cancer density is a biomarker for breast cancer risk and that obese women taking the supplement had a reduction in tissue density after two years but no details to back up the claim. In stories and releases focusing on cancer risk, the public wants, and rightly deserves, real numbers so that they can make informed decisions. This release only offers a vague prediction of risk reduction. Lastly, the release states that the omega-3s “may lower” the cancer risk, but readers could just as easily conclude that it “may not” without more information. This release fails to mention harms at any point and, while a widely consumed, readily available supplement like omega-3 fatty acids isn’t likely to cause major problems, it is not free from side effects that are worth mentioning. The research paper itself points to more than a half-dozen participants in the study who withdrew because of adverse effects including hot flushes, leg cramps and nausea. Readers rightly deserve to know possible negative impacts found in research studies. The published research states that in the original study design, researchers didn’t find a difference in changes in breast density in any of the treatment arms. In the overall cohort of healthy postmenopausal women, the administration of n-3FA (a combination of 1,860 mg of EPA and 1,500 mg of DHA daily) alone or in combination with the antiestrogen raloxifene did not reduce breast density, a well-established biomarker of breast cancer risk. However, you’d never even know this from reading the news release, which presents the findings of a small subgroup as if they were the main results of the study. The significant result they found was only in women with a BMI greater than 29 (“using an adjusted statistical model, we show a significant negative correlation between plasma DHA breast density only in women with BMI > 29.”) This is an important distinction since the original study was not powered based on distribution of BMI. If 20 percent of the sample was obese (BMI over 29) that would be about 10 subjects per arm of the study that were obese.The release falls short in at least two other simple descriptions of the research. First, it mentions that “the study included 266 healthy postmenopausal women” while the research paper clearly points out that only 214 women completed the clinical trial — something not addressed in the news release. Also, in its description of how the research was done, the release mentions that women were divided into four groups while in fact, they were separated into five groups. The release fails to mention two differing doses among the women receiving the drug Raloxifene. There is one more concern regarding the release’s presentation of the study results. The researchers note in the manuscript that other trials have found that Raloxifene does not have an effect on breast density although it could have an effect on breast cancer risk. The release doesn’t engage in disease-mongering. The release does identify the funding sources for this research as well as the suppliers of the drugs used in this study so possible conflicts of interest are adequately addressed. The release makes no mention of any other approaches to reducing the potential risk of developing breast cancer although some preventative actions are readily known and could have been included. These include limiting alcohol, not smoking, controlling weight, breast-feeding and exercising. Since the focus of the research was on reducing risk by reducing breast density the most obvious alternative to taking omega-3 supplements is losing weight through diet. The release notes that the omega-3 fatty acid supplement used in this study, Lovaza, is FDA approved and requires a prescription from a physician. The release makes no evident claim of novelty. We’ll give it a pass for reinforcing in at least two places that the research builds on previous research and the understanding that highly dense breasts are associated with greater risk for breast cancer. The release does not use any explicitly unjustifiable language. We do have concerns that the release suggests, particularly in the headline, that there’s a method that “may” reduce breast cancer risk but then fails to provide reasonably expected data to back up the claim. Claim: Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Lower Breast Cancer Risk in Postmenopausal Obese Women",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A Chattanooga police news release says Michael Deshun Roberson was committed Wednesday to the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute at the request of prosecutors. The Hamilton County judge ruled he can’t be released without a hearing and court permission. Roberson was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the September 2017 attack on his ex-girlfriend, with whom he shares a son. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that Roberson was found not guilty by reason of insanity in July and was kept in custody pending psychological reviews. Claim: Man who gouged out ex’s eyes committed to mental facility.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The award went to MIT’s Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, and Harvard’s Michael Kremer. The 46-year-old Duflo is the youngest person ever to win the prize and only the second woman, after Elinor Ostrom in 2009. The three winners, who have worked together, revolutionized developmental economics by pioneering field experiments that generate practical insights into how poor people respond to education, health care and other programs meant to lift them out of poverty. “Without spending some time understanding the intricacies of the lives of the poor and why they make the choices they make ... it is impossible to design the right approach,” Duflo told a news conference held by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded the prize. Their work in rural Kenya and in India, for instance, found that providing more textbooks, school meals and teachers didn’t do much to help students learn more. Making the schoolwork more relevant to students, working closely with the neediest students and holding teachers accountable — by putting them on short-term contracts, for example — were more effective in countries where teachers often don’t bother showing up for work. The winners’ recommended program of remedial tutoring is now benefiting 5 million Indian children, the academy said. Kremer and others found that providing free health care makes a big difference: Only 18% of parents gave their children de-worming pills for parasitic infections when they had to pay for them, even though the heavily subsidized price was less than $1. But 75% gave their kids the pills when they were free. The World Health Organization now recommends that the medicine be distributed for free in areas with high rates of parasitic worm infections. Banerjee, Duflo and others found that mobile vaccination clinics in India dramatically increased the immunization rates compared to traditional health centers that often went unstaffed. The immunization rate rose further if parents received a bag of lentils as a bonus for vaccinating their children. Banerjee and Duflo, who are married, also found that microcredit programs, which provide small loans to encourage poor people to start businesses, did little to help the poor in the Indian city of Hyderabad; studies in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Morocco, Mexico and Mongolia, produced similar results. Despite enormous progress, global poverty remains a huge challenge, the academy noted. More than 700 million people live in extreme poverty. Five million children die before age 5, often from diseases that can be prevented or cured easily and inexpensively. Half the world’s children leave school without basic literacy and mathematical skills. Still, Kremer sounded a note of hope. “It can often seem like the problems of global poverty are intractable, but over the course of my lifetime and career, the fraction of the world’s people living in poverty has dropped dramatically,” he said in a news release from Harvard. “Over the years, we have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work, and why. Governments and nonprofit organizations have become much more effective in addressing, and there is much wider recognition of how researchers and policymakers can work together in the fight against poverty.” Duflo and Banerjee told a news conference at MIT they weren’t sure how to react when the Nobel committee woke them with the news of their win. Duflo said that when the phone rang, she answered and was told it was an important call from Sweden. She said her response was: “Well, since you’ve now woken me up, go ahead.” Banerjee said the Nobel committee asked about getting one of them on a conference call, but “they said they wanted a woman, and I didn’t qualify” — so he went back to bed. Kremer, who is in London, said he thought a message over Skype from a friend in Sweden asking to speak urgently was a scam. It was only then that it dawned on him what had happened. “I’m stunned,” he said. Colleagues applauded the three winners. “Well deserved!” tweeted French economist Thomas Piketty, author of a bestselling book on inequality. “Fantastic decision! !” Max Roser, a University of Oxford researcher who founded the Our World in Data project, wrote on Twitter. “Even after two centuries of progress against global poverty I think it is clearly one of the very biggest problems in the world today.” Duflo said receiving the Nobel was “incredibly humbling” while noting that the profession is not always welcoming for women. “Showing that it is possible for a woman to succeed and be recognized for success I hope is going to inspire many, many other women to continue working and many other men to give them the respect that they deserve,” she said. On a practical matter, Duflo told reporters that she and Banerjee, who have two young children, are like any other married couple trying to juggle kids and work. Their children “believe they are the center of the universe, and they don’t accept kitchen table conversation” about weighty matters like economics, she said. That means the couple sneak in shop talk while they’re cooking meals or walking to work. Banerjee’s mother, Nirmala Banerjee, also an economist, told news channel NDTV in India that the prize was unexpected. “He has been trying to get economics away from the theoretical part, but using theory to understand the world as it is,” she said from her home in Kolkata. “The way it works, the way poverty is, the way people handle poverty.” Banerjee frequently returns to India to contribute to the work of the Poverty Action Lab, an international research center he and Duflo co-founded in 2003. “This is huge for us,” Shobhini Mukerji, the South Asia branch’s executive director, told The Associated Press from New Delhi. “India is where the seeds were sown for their research.” Banerjee this year advised India’s opposition party ahead of national elections in May about offering financial aid to the poor. He has also criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government about alleged political interference in statistical data and over a program to take cash out of the economy. Modi congratulated Banerjee in a post on Twitter. Only a few other married couples have won a Nobel — notably Marie and Pierre Curie, who took half of the physics prize in 1903. Officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the award wasn’t created by the prize founder but by the Swedish central bank in 1968, with the first winner selected a year later. With the glory comes a 9 million-kronor ($918,000) cash award, a gold medal and a diploma. Last week, six Nobel prizes were given, in medicine, physics and chemistry plus two literature awards and the Peace Prize. All but the winner of the Peace Prize receive their awards on Dec. 10 — the anniversary of Nobel’s 1896 death — in Stockholm. The winner of the Peace Prize receives the award in Oslo, Norway. ___ Wiseman reported from Washington and LeBlanc from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; Emily Schmall in New Delhi; Cara Anna in Johannesburg and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report. ___ Read more stories on the 2019 Nobel Prizes by The Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/NobelPrizes Claim: 3 economists who study poverty win Nobel Prize.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story reports that Vascepa costs about $2,400 per year. However, that price is much lower than indicated by online searches (here and here) that show prices around $3,400 per year at the 4 gram per day dose used in this study. The story repeats the relative risk reduction of major cardiovascular events of 25% that the company provided. But it doesn’t grapple with the vital question: 25% of what? The true size of the benefit depends on the baseline risk of these participants, which is unknown and probably won’t be known until the results are presented at a conference in November. (Read our primer on absolute risk for more information on why this is important.) The story does note that the company is withholding details about the study results for now, but readers should have been clearly alerted to the fact that without knowing how many events occurred or what they were, it is impossible to judge the importance of the results. The study outcome was a combination of cardiovascular disease death, heart attack, stroke, coronary revascularization procedures and hospitalization for unstable angina. The story would have been better if it had alerted readers that based on the sketchy information released by the company, it is impossible to say whether there was an important reduction in deaths, heart attacks or strokes. It could be that much or even all of the reduction was in the number of times patients were hospitalized for chest pain. (Read our primer Why you should be careful with composite outcomes in clinical trials for more information on why this is important.) Although the story says the company reported a “side effect profile consistent with the drug’s currently approval label”, it did not tell readers what that means. The most important adverse event reported in other studies of Vascepa is joint pain, affecting up to about one in 25 patients. The story does not mention warnings about possible allergic reactions in people allergic to seafood or interactions with anti-clotting drugs, which many heart patients take. It is difficult to rate the story on this criterion. The story reports key features of the REDUCE-IT trial, noting that it included 8,179 patients, compared Vascepa treatment to placebo, and followed patients for a median duration of almost five years. However, since the company is withholding key details of the trial, including critical information about the absolute numbers of cardiovascular events, adverse events and any limitations of the study, it is impossible to judge the quality of the evidence. The story does quote sources who say they are waiting to see detailed data before reaching a firm judgment about the results, but it doesn’t clarify what’s missing. And these faint notes of caution are buried under a mountain of premature praise about the study’s importance and significance. The headline notes that this trial included only people with cardiovascular disease. The story reports that the patients were taking statins to reduce their cholesterol, but they still had high triglyceride levels or diabetes (which increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes). The story includes comments from experts who were not involved in this trial and it identified others as being researchers for this trial or working for Amarin. However, when the first quote calls this drug “absolutely the most significant study in the field of cardiovascular risk reduction since the statins were introduced”, it is not enough to identify the source as “a Vascepa study investigator” when that researcher, Matthew Budoff, received over $120,000 in 2017 from Amarin, including payments of more than $4000 per appearance for speaking and teaching engagements on behalf of the company. [Note: The text has been corrected to indicate that the quoted source’s name is Matthew Budoff, not Martin Budoff as it initially appeared.] The story reports that another fish oil derivative, Lovaza, did not demonstrate benefits in trial results released in August. It also mentions another similar drug, Epanova, that is currently being studied. The story compares the results of the trial of Vascepa to those from much costlier cholesterol drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors, but it’s hard to know whether the comparison is useful given the unknowns about the what sort and how many cardiovascular events occurred in patients taking Vascepa. The story reports that Vascepa is available by prescription to treat high triglyceride levels. The story reports that this is the first trial to show a reduction in major cardiovascular events among patients taking this type of fish oil derivative. The story relies on a news release from the company that produces Vascepa. Although some cautionary comments and quotes are included, this story is not really about the results of a trial of Vascepa (which the company has yet to fully release), but only about a news release and company statements that make claims about trial results. This case illustrates how it is impossible to do a good job reporting on a drug trial when the sponsors do not release critical details of the trial. Claim: Amarin fish oil capsule shows dramatic benefit for cardiovascular patients, potentially upending market",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: One of the best ways to show voters the impact of tax cuts is to break them down in a way people can appreciate. Take Gov. Rick Scott's budget roll-out the week of Feb. 7, 2011. Scott says his spending plan includes $4.1 billion in tax and fee relief over two years. That sounds good, but it means little to someone unfamiliar with the inner workings of the state budget. So Scott's budget team decided to boil that figure down to show the impact on Florida households. In a graphic showing the proposed tax relief for 2011-2013, Scott's budget gurus added this simple-to-digest sound bite: \"Total Savings Per Household, $540 Over Two Years.\" The figure got repeated by various media outlets. So we wondered, is it right? No doubt about it, Scott's budget proposal includes a variety of tax and fee reductions. Among them:  • Reduce the corporate income tax from 5.5 percent to 3 percent in 2011-2012 and from 3 percent to 2.5 percent in 2012-2013. The rate cut will save those who pay the tax $459 million this year and a little more than $1 billion in 2012-2013. • Reduce the required local effort, a property tax to fund schools, saving taxpayers around $600 million in 2011-2012. The tax cut would carry forward in 2012-2013. • Reduce the property tax collected by state water management districts 25 percent for two years, saving taxpayers $180 million annually. • Reduce unemployment compensation taxes by shortening how long Floridians can collect benefits and making it more difficult for them to be eligible. Scott's office says that will save $630.8 million over two years. • Roll back 2009 Legislature-approved fee increases for driver licenses, vehicle registrations and other motor vehicle fees. Scott says the rollback would save drivers $492 million over two years. • Repeal or alter other small taxes on ammonia, pesticides, fertilizer, solvents, dry cleaning, tires and lead acid batteries, among other things. The changes would save $77 million over two years, Scott's office says. Taken together, Scott's says the savings for taxpayers is $4.1 billion over two years. (For the record, we question that overall figure because most cuts in the second year of Scott's budget aren't additional cuts; they are just the same cuts rolled over.) But what's critical in determining a per-household savings is remembering just who will get the tax breaks. And, who won't. Two of the three biggest tax cuts -- the reduction of the corporate income tax and the changes to the unemployment compensation tax -- apply only to corporations. So unless your household is like Rick Scott's and you own a corporation, you'll see no direct savings under Scott's plans. Supporters of the cuts argue that the benefits could trickle down to average Floridians through additional jobs or cheaper prices for goods and services. But there's no guarantee either will happen. The cuts to the corporate income tax and the unemployment compensation tax make up $2.1 billion of Scott's overall $4.1 billion impact. In comments to the Senate Budget Committee on Feb. 9, 2011, Scott budget chief Jerry McDaniel said Scott's top tax priority was to remove taxes that he says inhibit job creation. McDaniel said Scott particularly wanted to reduce and eventually eliminate the state's corporate income tax. We asked McDaniel after the  Feb. 9 meeting if he knew whether the per-household figure accounted for the corporate tax cuts. McDaniel said he did not know and suggested we e-mail the governor's press office seeking clarification. We did, but did not hear back. So we did the math ourselves. According to the U.S. Census, Florida had 6,337,929 households in 2000 (the last year that precise data is available). However, the state's Demographic Estimating Conference meets annually to project the number of Florida households, among other things. At their most recent meeting on Oct. 25, 2010, the group estimated that as of Jan. 1, 2011, Florida would have roughly 7.5 million households. The group's estimates are based on the active number of residential electric customers and residential building permits. Using the most recent household estimate, it's easy to see the error in Scott's tax cut math. Not counting the cuts to the corporate income tax and the unemployment compensation tax, the average household would see in the neighborhood of $267 in tax savings over two years, not $540. ($2 billion / 7.5 million = $267 per household). That's an annual savings of around $134, or less than half of what Scott suggested. The $540-per-household figure Scott used to sell his budget plan is intended to appeal to voters who would relish a hefty tax cut, even over two years. But he failed to factor in that more than half of those tax cuts would apply only to employers, not regular Floridians. In calculating the savings, it appears clear that Scott and his office simply divided the entire tax cut as projected by Scott -- $4.1 billion -- by the entire number of Florida households -- 7.5 million -- to reach their average savings of $540. That's easy math. But it's deceptive. We rate this claim Barely True. Claim: Rick Scott Says his tax and fee cuts will save households \"$540 over two years.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Clark County ranked first in the nation for syphilis rates per capita in 2017, the Las Vegas Sun reported . The number of reported cases of syphilis in the county is steadily increasing, with nine cases having been reported in 2016, 20 cases reported in 2017 and 24 reported in 2018, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that can be cured with antibiotics if identified early on. “It’s a disease that impacts human nature, and left untreated, it can cause a lot of problems for your health and for babies,” said Marlo Tonge, a communicable diseases manager at the Southern Nevada Health District. The infection can lead to complications in the long-term, including meningitis, dementia, blindness and hepatitis, University Medical Center Dr. Alireza Farabi said. Health department officials say millions of international tourists flock to Las Vegas each year, spreading disease of all kinds and leading to the particularly high rate in Clark County. The region also has a high incidence of illegal, unregulated prostitution and a large homeless and indigent population, who are at a much higher risk of contracting STDs. Other at-risk populations include individuals in their 20s and members of the LGBT community, particularly transgender people and men who have sex with men, said Vince Collins, director of operations at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada. “As a community, we need to decide that this is a really important thing for everybody to get behind so we can come off that list,” Collins said. ___ Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com Claim: Clark County ranks first in nation in syphilis rates.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story does not touch on costs. Mixed bag here. The story does some of this, giving readers a “quantifier” example about how many of 10,000 women might forgo heart attacks due to taking estrogen, based on the study’s findings. But sadly, they don’t give a similar quantifier for the perhaps exaggerated headline: “Estrogen lowers breast cancer risk.”  The same type of absolute risk calculation shows that the margin of benefit, if it exists, would be small: 8 fewer cases per 10,000 women per year. There may be a statistically significant difference, but it is small. Because of this omission, we judge this one unsatisfactory. Kudos to the The Times for parsing risk carefully. Among these: estrogen alone carries different risks than estrogen-with-progestin, estrogen-alone for older women is much riskier than for younger women and risks for women who still have a uterus (unlike those who have had a hysterectomy) are also different. Last, but still important, the form of estrogen used in the study is not typically used now, so conclusions about benefits cannot be assumed to follow to the current form (estradiol.) Good job by the Times at digging below the surface and explaining nuance to readers. The critics, who published an editorial in the same JAMA issue point out that the WHI finding of decreased breast cancer risk with estrogen runs counter to results of many other studies showing an increased risk. The story does a good job of discussing a variety of risks without exaggerating any of them. If anything, they may exaggerate the benefits in the headline. The story benefits from direct interviews with sources holding different perspectives. The story delivered important information on how not all hormone replacement therapy is the same. For example: “A major caveat in interpreting the new estrogen data is that the study used conjugated equine estrogens, which are estrogen compounds derived from the urine of pregnant mares and marketed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals under the brand Premarin. The brand has fallen out of favor with many women who are choosing treatments that contain estradiol, which is chemically similar to a woman’s natural estrogen. It is not known whether the benefits of estrogen shown in the Women’s Health Initiative would be replicated using a different type of estrogen.” and ” Dr. Chlebowski previously led research that showed cancer risks associated with combination hormone therapy, but he says the new data on estrogen alone show that in certain women, estrogen use to relieve menopausal symptoms is a “good choice.” “When you look at the debate, people are saying hormones are good or not good — it’s been all or nothing. This calls attention to the fact that there are differences,” said Dr. Chlebowski. “I hope that separation will become clearer now.” “When you look at the debate, people are saying hormones are good or not good — it’s been all or nothing. This calls attention to the fact that there are differences,” said Dr. Chlebowski. “I hope that separation will become clearer now.”  Estrogen is widely available and story does not need to talk about that. The story doesn’t make any inappropriate claims about estrogen, and it does appropriately try to frame the novelty of the research – “a finding that challenges the conventional wisdom about the risks of some hormones used in menopause.” The story includes independent reporting, so it’s clear it didn’t rely on a news release. Claim: Estrogen Lowers Breast Cancer and Heart Attack Risk in Some",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The ban on incoming flights came into effect on Saturday morning and was originally set to run until the end of Monday, according to a previous order by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand. The new order, which extended the ban for 12 more days until the end of April 18, came after the country reported 51 new coronavirus cases and three more deaths on Monday, raising the numbers to 2,220 cases and 26 fatalities. The number of new cases was the lowest daily rise since March 20. Monday also marked two weeks - the estimated incubation period for the new coronavirus - since Bangkok shut down shopping malls to limit the spread of the virus. The majority of infected patients are in Bangkok, which is under an indefinite curfew. Thailand has declared a state of emergency until the end of the month. Claim: Thailand extends ban on incoming passenger flights.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release and the study both suggest that treating periodontal disease might be a “required approach” to reducing prostate inflammation and possibly prostate cancer.” So the release probably should have said something about the social and financial costs of untreated gum disease and prostatitis, and the costs of providing dental care to what is likely a substantial percentage of the population. It’s likely that if further studies do in fact demonstrate the value of dental treatment that money might be saved in terms of downstream treatment of prostatitis, prostate cancer, and dental disability. Dental care is not cheap in the United States, and insurance coverage, even where it exists, usually pays for only a fraction of the care. Also, not mentioned anywhere is that PSA testing as a routine cancer screen is not recommended anymore. Unnecessary testing is costly. The journal article that’s the basis for the release provided quantitative data about the percentage of reduction of gum disease and PSA levels, as well as reports of reduced symptoms. The release, however, sticks to generalities, noting “reduced symptoms,” quoting the principal investigator about “improved” symptoms of prostatitis in those treated for gum diseases, and noting “significant improvement” for those with the “highest level” of inflammation. The release includes no quantification. In addition, the release mentions that PSA levels dropped in 21 of the 27 men who received periodontal treatment, but this is a misleading claim. A closer look at the study data shows that the reductions in PSA levels were not statistically significant. And in the participants who had low levels of inflammation at baseline, the mean PSA level actually went up. The release clearly assumes readers will understand there is potential harm from untreated gum or prostate disease and that is probably reasonable. It might have described the risks and limitations of repeated PSA screening and biopsies (which can lead to false-positive results and unecessary treatment), but we don’t think that was an essential part of this analysis. Nonsurgical treatment of periodontal disease has a low potential for harm, something the release could have mentioned. The release does point out the risk to heart patients and pregnant women of untreated periodontal disease. As noted above, the study report is quite self-critical with respect to the limitations of its findings, which include the small size of the study and the lack of a control group, among other things. But we’d note that the study’s title — “Periodontal Treatment Improves Prostate Symptoms and Lowers Serum PSA in Men with High PSA and Chronic Periodontitisis” — does not reflect that uncertainty, so the study author themselves should certainly share some responsibility for the fact that their findings have been miscommunicated. We’d add that not knowing how gingivitis was treated (no information about this is included in either the study or release) hinders any assessment of the findings. The treatments presumably included such things as root planing, tooth scaling, flossing and the use of mouth rinses. But if the treatment involved antibiotics, for example, this could have affected prostatitis symptoms and PSA levels. The release includes none of this context. The release actually offers no incidence or prevalence data at all, and as a consequence, makes no overstatements about either gum disease or inflammatory disorders that are linked to it. The release doesn’t discuss funding, but the paper says that the study was sponsored by the authors’ departments at the university. There’s really no harm in leaving this information out, so we’ll rule this Satisfactory. How is prostatitis currently treated? How do the results reported here compare with those treatments? The release doesn’t say. The release suggests that dental care should probably be a routine part of efforts to control prostate disease, but doesn’t address the issue of financial barriers to such care, particularly for the uninsured. But we’re inclined to overlook this because of the nature of the study: it’s a pilot; it was designed to add to evidence for a relationship between gum and prostate disease via an inflammatory process; and the dental care involved is widely available and commonly provided to those who have regular dental care. The release does a good job of noting that this is not the first time a link has been suggested between gum and prostate disease and refers to previous studies by the research group. The study that’s the basis for this news release clearly states that no cause and effect relationship can be inferred from this very limited data. And yet the news release leads with a statement that “Treating gum disease reduced symptoms of prostate inflammation.” That’s simply not justifiable. Claim: Treating gum disease reduces prostate symptoms, CWRU researchers find",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: After a nearly four-hour drive, which Captain spent in a foam-padded kiddie pool, she had arrived at her new spot: Broward County’s yet-to-open Carpenter House Marine Environmental Education Center. For a turtle that was only supposed to be at Mote for three to six months, Captain made quite the impression on employees and volunteers. At her Wednesday transport, interns Hayley Richardson and Liz Thrun posed the turtle with signs they had made reading, “Booty-licious, we love you Captain!” Richardson also cut out rainbow-colored letters spelling the turtle’s name and placed them by her tank. “She’s a good education ambassador and she never fussed going from one environment to another,” said Mote rehabilitation and medical care coordinator Lynne Byrd, who worked extensively with the turtle. “All the docents and interns and volunteers fell in love with her.” Captain arrived at Mote in March 2014 after a cycle of aquarium care and release. She was initially found stranded on a Florida beach after a boat injury, then was sent to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, where she was eventually deemed releasable into the wild. But only a month later, she was found stranded again. At that point, she was taken to Mote, where it was hoped she would still eventually be released, Byrd said. The boat injury caused buoyancy issues, despite weights that Mote added to the back of her shell. She also had an unexpected habit: eating sand and pebbles from the bottom of her tank, which complicated her floating and diving. In 2015, Mote concluded that Captain could not be released into the wild, leaving the decision to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the agency responsible for finding a permanent home for non-releasable sea turtles. A few months ago, the aquarium learned that the sea turtle had what animal lovers call a “forever home” where Captain would be the first - and possibly only - resident. The Carpenter House is a historic home repurposed as a marine education center through a collaboration between the Broward County Parks Department and Nova Southeastern University. The house’s full-size swimming pool was remodeled into a space for Captain. The FWC has “been involved with the design and permitting of the pool and everything else to ensure it’s everything a sea turtle needs ... and probably a little bit more,” said the facility’s director, Derek Burkholder. Captain’s debris-eating days are over. “We don’t have any sand and pebbles or anything in there, so it’s just a flat, clean bottom,” Burkholder said. The Carpenter House is to open March 3. Not everything will be unfamiliar: Captain will be reunited with the Carpenter House’s caretaker, Amy Hupp, who previously worked with the turtle at the Georgia center. “We’ve been working on this opening for a while,” said Cyndy Baker, public communications manager at Broward County Parks and Recreation. “This is an educational opportunity for people who are around here and visiting - it’s very exciting.” ___ Information from: Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, http://www.heraldtribune.com Claim: Beloved Mote Marine sea turtle gets new Broward County home.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Gordon Quan, the Democratic nominee for Harris County judge, sent an e-mail blast last month noting he’d recently undergone cardiac bypass surgery. \"Like many, I had no signs of heart disease,\" his June 30 e-mail continues. \"Fortunately, my wife had insisted that I have a complete examination in March which detected growing blockage in my arteries. It is estimated by some cardiologists that 70 percent of all males over 50 have some form of heart disease. Unfortunately, we have lost many too soon due to untreated heart disease.\" Seven in 10 men older than 50 have heart disease? We—OK, I—urgently desired back-up. Quan told us he saw the statistic while looking through information posted online by the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, which says it performs scientific research on the effects of diet and lifestyle choices on health and disease. The California-based institute was founded by Dean Ornish, a physician who has long studied the effects of lifestyle changes on health. We didn't find a similar statement on the institute's site and didn't hear back from its online contact. Separately, we reached the Houston-based Texas Heart Institute, whose spokesman forwarded the American Heart Association's 2010 update of national heart disease and stroke statistics. It has a chart indicating nearly 40 percent of men and women aged 40 to 59 have some kind of cardiovascular disease, while 74 percent of men and 73 percent of women aged 60 to 79 fit into that un-wellness field. All told, the update says, 81.1 million Americans (or one in three residents) have one or more types of cardiovascular disease, 38.1 million of them being 60 or older. But what about -- ahem -- men between 50 and 60? Frank Michel, the institute’s director of public affairs, agreed the chart didn’t speak directly to them. \"The prevalence of cardiovascular disease in one form or another is somewhere in between 40 percent and 70 percent for males aged 50 and over and it rises above 70 percent by the time they reach age 60,\" Michel said in an e-mail. In Austin, we sought perspective from Glen Huschka, director of communications for the South Central Affiliate of the American Heart Association. Huschka initially noted that cardiovascular disease refers to a \"broad range of conditions including coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and high blood pressure,\" which he said seems to fit with Quan's statement. Huschka said in an e-mail that if the candidate had said men over 50 are \"at risk of developing\" heart disease, that would be a slam dunk. Huschka’s point: More than 71 percent of men over age 20 are considered overweight or obese, a major risk factor. Huschka floated our question to Melanie Turner, associate science and medicine adviser with the American Heart Association’s Dallas-based National Center. She shared information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey taken by the National Center for Health Statistics from 2003 through 2006. According to the survey, the prevalence of heart disease among U.S. men 50 and older was about 19 percent — if one limits the definition of coronary heart disease to people with heart attacks, angina and heart failure. Under a broader definition that includes stroke and hypertension, 61 percent of males 50 and older were diagnosed as having heart-related difficulties. Huschka told us in an e-mail that such estimates wouldn't include men with undiagnosed heart disease, meaning the prevalence of heart disease among males 50 and older is probably higher. That sounds believable. All told, however, the statistics don't confirm Quan's statement that 70 percent of men over 50 have a form of heart disease, though we found numbers that were close. County judge, July 16, 2010 Claim: Some cardiologists estimate \"70 percent of all males over 50 have some form of heart disease.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles listened for three hours Thursday to arguments on whether a former radiology professor’s anti-trust lawsuit should be expanded to cover thousands of doctors, nurses and other employees at Duke University in Durham. Eagles said she would issue her decision later on whether to make the case a class-action to include a larger group. Eagles said she was inclined to expand Dr. Danielle Seaman’s litigation to include about 2,000 Duke medical faculty but exclude nurses and other medical workers, whose pay lawyers had argued varied depending on how much doctors earned. The judge also agreed Thursday to drop the University of North Carolina from the lawsuit. The Chapel Hill public university’s hospital, medical school and administrators agreed in a settlement to provide documents Seaman’s lawyers could use in the ongoing case against Duke, a private school about 10 miles away. Seaman’s lawyers made the deal in part because, as a public institution, UNC could invoke constitutional limits on federal lawsuits against states. UNC won’t pay any money in the settlement and promised not to participate in any unlawful restraints on competition. Eagles said Seaman’s lawyers had emails and other documents showing administrators at the two schools may have conspired to hold down salaries for highly paid medical experts. “They did a pretty bad job of not putting this in writing,” Eagles said. Both UNC and Duke deny the existence of the no-hire agreement that Seaman claims was reached by top administrators to prevent lateral transfers, but which didn’t cover promotions. Doctors did move from teaching into private practice, demonstrating that an alleged agreement between the two medical behemoths didn’t control the local labor market, Duke attorney Derek Ludwin told the judge. “Plaintiffs have given you no reason to think all or many of these class members were not part of a free market for employment,” he said. Seaman’s lawyer, Dean Harvey, said evidence showed the heads of the two medical schools discussed the agreement not to poach each other’s medical professors at two meetings in 2004, but the agreement may have dated to the 1990s. A statistical analysis estimated the conspiracy shaved about 8 percent off the earnings of Duke physicians, said Harvey, whose San Francisco law firm got $415 million from Google Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Apple Inc., in 2015 after accusing them of agreeing not to hire each other’s best workers. The case springs from Seaman’s thwarted effort to move from her position at Duke to a similar job at UNC. “I agree that you would be a great fit for our cardiothoracic imaging division. Unfortunately, I just received confirmation today from the Dean’s office that lateral moves of faculty between Duke and UNC are not permitted. There is reasoning for this ‘guideline’ which was agreed upon between the deans of UNC and Duke a few years back. I hope you understand,” UNC cardiothoracic imaging chief Dr. Paul Molina wrote in a 2015 email. Disappointed, Seaman wrote that “there are only two academic centers in this area where I could work, and I am already at one of them.” Molina then said the agreement was hatched to reduce competition and costs after a previous effort by Duke to recruit UNC faculty. “Dear Danielle, ... In answer to your question, the ‘guideline’ was generated in response to an attempted recruitment by Duke a couple of years ago of the entire UNC bone marrow transplant team; UNC had to generate a large retention package to keep the team intact,” his email said. ___ Follow Emery P. Dalesio at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/emery. Claim: Judge weighs whether NC schools conspired to depress wages.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Newt Gingrich, on the campaign trail before the Florida GOP primary, called out the Barack Obama administration for engaging in a \"war against religion.\" Federal officials' interpretation of the 2010 health care law violates religious freedom, he said. \"Their decision last week that they would impose on every Catholic institution, every Jewish institution, every Protestant institution the Obamacare standard of what you have to buy as insurance is a direct violation of freedom of religion, an example of the dictatorial attitude of this administration,\" he told voters in Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 30, 2012. What decision was he talking about? One about birth control. His campaign pointed us to criticism from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of a Jan. 20 decision that \"ordered almost every employer and insurer in the country to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, in their health plans,\" according to the group. The bishops said \"almost every employer and insurer.\" We wondered, was Gingrich right that the Obama administration \"would impose on every Catholic institution, every Jewish institution, every Protestant institution the Obamacare standard of what you have to buy as insurance\"? 'The Obamacare standard'  The rule Gingrich was talking about, announced by Health and Human Services Department Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, addressed which preventive services must be covered by insurers without a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible paid by the recipient of medical care. We should mention: There's not a clear \"Obamacare standard of what you have to buy as insurance.\" The law provides for co-pay-free preventive care, which is what Sebelius clarified Jan. 20. And for individual and small-group plans, the law requires that policies cover \"essential health benefits.\" They must include services in 10 categories, but the details have been left to the states. The idea of co-pay-free preventive care stems from studies that show that even moderate co-pays kept women from getting care, such as mammograms or pap smears, according to HHS. The nongovernmental Institute of Medicine recommended that preventive services include \"all FDA-approved forms of contraception.\" So that's what HHS decided to include in its final rule about preventive services. Most health insurance plans will have to cover them without a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible. For most new and renewed health plans, that requirement kicks in Aug. 1, 2012. Religious exemptions  Notice we said that \"most\" health insurance plans will have to offer co-pay-free preventive care. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said \"almost every employer and insurer.\" Gingrich said, \"every Catholic institution, every Jewish institution, every Protestant institution.\" But the rule provides an exemption for \"certain non-profit religious employers\" that meet a four-part test -- essentially churches and synagogues, but also some primary and secondary religious schools. It's that definition of \"religious employer\" that has prompted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, with the support of groups such as the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, to fight the rule. That's because it wouldn't cover religious organizations that don't primarily employ or serve people of the same religion — ruling out many universities, hospitals and charitable groups. That would require, say, a Catholic hospital to offer insurance coverage to its employees that included FDA-approved contraceptive drugs — which includes some drugs that Catholics consider abortion-inducing. Plan B and Ella prevent fertilization of an egg, prompting the FDA to categorize them as contraceptives rather than abortion-inducing drugs, but Catholics argue that Ella can be used like the abortifacient RU-486, which isn't considered a contraceptive by the FDA. The government is giving such nonprofit religious groups an extra year to implement the preventive care requirements. But it won't exempt them. The decision already faces legal challenges from Belmont Abbey College and Colorado Christian University. Still, if you consider a Catholic church to be a \"Catholic institution,\" or a synagogue to be a \"Jewish institution,\" Gingrich isn't correct that the recent federal rule on contraceptives applies. Those nonprofit religious employers could choose whether or not they covered contraceptive services. Our ruling Gingrich said that \"the Obama administration ... would impose on every Catholic institution, every Jewish institution, every Protestant institution the Obamacare standard of what you have to buy as insurance.\" He makes a broad statement in reference to a rule dealing specifically with co-pays for preventive care -- making it sound as though there's a blanket \"Obamacare standard\" for all insurance policies. The reality allows for states to set benchmarks for private individual and small-group plans. Meanwhile, he ignores an exemption in the federal rule for nonprofit religious employers such as churches and synagogues. That exemption has been condemned by Catholic bishops as too narrow and has been challenged in court. Claim: The Obama administration ... would impose on every Catholic institution, every Jewish institution, every Protestant institution the Obamacare standard of what you have to buy as insurance.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The experimental drug does not yet have a cost. The news release does not state that Keytruda costs about $12,500 a month (it is given intravenously every three weeks) or $150,000 a year. It would have been relevant to discuss–since this new drug would be in addition to this very expensive treatment. The news release describes the responses the patients in the study had to the treatment. But the benefits of this response are overstated in the following paragraph, which describes the results as “suggest[ing] that the combination of pembrolizumab and SD-101 could provide an alternative treatment for people with melanoma whose tumors have not responded or would be unlikely to respond to other therapies.” The study was not designed to look at this and did not show this. It was a trial to test for safety and safest dosages. What were the safety results? Readers don’t find out. This was a dose-escalation study that was conducted to determine the safest dose. This means the focus was symptoms and side effects. And the news release states that. Yet, none of the symptoms or side effects patients in the study experienced are described in the news release. This is a major deficiency of this release. The news release describes the research as “early,” and provides clues to the size of the trial and what researchers were measuring. But this release needs to be clearer that any assessment of benefit may be entirely due to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and it’s speculative to say this experimental combo shows promise at “beating advanced melanoma.” Nothing in this release supports this. There is no disease mongering. Some statistics on how many people are diagnosed with metastatic melanoma every year would have been useful to include. This information is included in the release. The news release describes a phase Ib study using a combination of Keytruda an experimental agent. The presumed alternative is Keytruda alone, and that’s made relatively clear in the release. However, this was not a head-to-head trial of the two. The news release makes clear that this is an experimental therapy that is not yet available. The release could have been improved by noting that Keytruda was approved by the FDA for use in metastatic melanoma in 2015. The news release explains that injecting the drug into the metastatic sites to change the microenvironment is a new type of approach to improving response to Keytruda, though it could have provided more context. Within the cancer research community, there is a lot of interest in the tumor microenvironment. As the National Cancer Institute explains, the microenvironment consists of the normal cells, molecules, and blood vessels found around the primary tumor and metastatic sites. This environment affects how the cancer cells grow and spread, so scientists think if they can change the environment they might be able to change how the tumor responds to cancer treatments. In this study, the researchers attempted to do that by injecting the experimental drug directly into the metastatic sites. The headline “shows promise for beating advanced melanoma” is more wishful thinking than based on what the study was designed to do–and found. There is also no way of knowing if the “new treatment is more effective,” as the subheadline states. This was not a randomized trial. And there is absolutely no evidence that “it could help some people with advanced melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, live longer.” Claim: Combination approach shows promise for beating advanced melanoma",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Using genomic sequencing techniques, researchers at Britain’s Wellcome Sanger Institute and France’s Institut Pasteur also said they should now be better able to estimate the risk of future cholera outbreaks in regions like Yemen, giving health authorities more time to intervene. “Knowing how cholera moves globally gives us the opportunity to better prepare for future outbreaks,” said Nick Thomson, a professor at Sanger and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who co-led the work. Nearly four years of war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iranian-aligned Houthi group have crippled healthcare and sanitation systems in Yemen, where some 1.2 million suspected cholera cases have been reported since 2017, with 2,515 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in October that the outbreak is accelerating again with roughly 10,000 suspected cases now reported per week, double the average rate for the first eight months of 2018. To explore the origins of the outbreak, Sanger and Pasteur team sequenced the genomes of cholera bacteria samples collected in Yemen and nearby areas. They included samples from a Yemeni refugee center on the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border and 74 other cholera samples from South Asia, the Middle East and eastern and central Africa. The team, whose findings were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, then compared these sequences to a global collection of more than 1,000 cholera samples and found that the strain causing the Yemen epidemic is related to one first seen in 2012 in South Asia that has spread globally. However, the Yemeni strain did not arrive directly from South Asia, the scientists found, but was circulating and causing outbreaks in eastern Africa in 2013-14, prior to appearing in Yemen in 2016. “Genomics enabled us to discover that the strain of cholera behind the devastating and ongoing epidemic in Yemen is likely linked to the migration of people from eastern Africa into Yemen,” said Thomson. He added, however, that from the samples available, the team was not able to pinpoint exactly which countries in eastern Africa the strain had come from. Claim: In Yemen, world's worst cholera outbreak traced to eastern Africa.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Splenda is the trademarked brand name of a sucralose-based artificial sweetener which is several hundred times sweeter than ordinary table sugar (sucrose). According to legend, the discovery of sucralose was (like that of another artificial sweetener, aspartame) something of an accident that occurred by happenstance during the course of unrelated research:  The oddest manner in which a new sweetener came to light was when, one day in 1976, a foreign research student at King’s College in London misheard the instructions of his supervisor, Professor L. Hough. Hough was searching for possible synthetic industrial applications of sucrose, the common sugar of cane and beet, and several derivatives had been produced in the laboratory. One of these was a trichlorosucrose (sucrose into which three atoms of chlorine had been introduced). Hough asked Shashikant Phadnis to ‘test’ the substance, but, his ear being imperfectly attuned to the language, Phadnis instead tasted it. Sucralose, as it became known, is one of the sweetest of all substances and can replace sucrose at less than one-thousandth of the concentration. After gaining approval by regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Canada (and other countries) in the 1990s, sucralose-based Splenda overtook aspartame-based Equal and NutraSweet and saccharin-based Sweet’N Low as the leading brand in the U.S. artificial sweetener market. The advantages of sucralose over regular sugar are many: it is so sweet that it can be used in much smaller quantities than sugar, it contains no calories, it has no harmful effect on teeth, it can be safely consumed by diabetics, and it is heat-stable and therefore suitable for use in baked goods. In the years since then, sucralose has (like aspartame before it) become the target of false claims that it is “unnatural” and therefore unsafe:  Before you reach for a packet of Splenda (sucralose), think twice. Don’t be fooled by its slogan “Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar.” Sucralose was approved for use in foods as a sweetener in 1998. Before approving sucralose, the FDA claimed to have reviewed 110 human and animal studies, but it turns out that only 2 out of those studies were actually on humans. “It is a chlorinated artificial sweetener in line with aspartame and saccharin, and with detrimental health effects to match,” explains Dr. Joseph Mercola. Let’s look as some of the potential health risks associated to Splenda. Reported symptoms: Seizures, Dizziness, Migraines, Allergic reactions, Weight gain and increases in blood sugar, Blurred vision, Gastrointestinal issues. The reason it is so important to know about the effects of sucralose is because it is the number one selling artificial sweetener in America today. Most of the controversy surrounding Splenda is the way it is advertised. “The sugar industry is currently suing McNeil Nutritionals for implying that Splenda is a natural form of sugar with no calories,” Mercola adds. What is sucralose really? The truth is that sucralose does start off as sugar, but it is what happens after that is the problem. In the factory, three chlorine molecules are added to the sugar molecule to make sucralose. This alters the chemical structure of the sugar, making it a molecule that does not exist in nature. Because it doesn’t exist in nature, the body does not metabolize or digest this molecule. If our bodies were able to metabolize it, then sucralose would no longer have zero calories. Such rumors, as UC Davis professor Carolyn de la Peña noted in her history of artificial sweeteners, have been fomented in part by the sweetener industry itself despite the established safety of those products:  The modern sweetener industry has thrived by regularly providing consumers with a new option and actively vilifying those that came before it as unnatural and very likely unsafe. The result of this approach, for consumers, is confusion. Obscured are the commonalities between these sweeteners that are, in the end, far more significant than the differences. All are chemicals. None has a closer connection to nature, in either origins or processing, than any other. And all are safe, if used in moderation. Were that not the case, certainly industry-driven scientists would have discovered their competitors’ weaknesses and publicized them to consumers well before Internet activists and independent filmmakers. As is typical in Internet-circulated food health warnings like the example reproduced above (which was largely cribbed from a seventeen-year-old article originally published on the questionable mercola.com web site), all of the information it presents is inaccurate, misleading, and/or outdated. The notion that sucralose has not been subjected to a reasonable and sufficient amount of safety testing is, in particular, woefully inaccurate. Sucralose has, across the span of many years, been subjected to extensive batteries of short-term and long-term studies in both animals and humans (more than a hundred of which were reviewed during the FDA approval process for sucralose), and none of them has demonstrated any significant risk to humans associated with the consumption of sucralose in normal amounts. A human tolerance study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology in 2000, for example, found “no indication that adverse effects on human health would occur from frequent or long-term exposure to sucralose at the maximum anticipated levels of intake”:  Two tolerance studies were conducted in healthy human adult volunteers. The first study was an ascending dose study conducted in eight subjects, in which sucralose was administered at doses of 1, 2.5, 5 and 10mg/kg at 48-hour intervals and followed by daily dosing at 2mg/kg for 3 days and 5mg/kg for 4 days. In the second study, subjects consumed either sucralose (n=77) or fructose (50g/day) (n=31) twice daily in single blind fashion. Sucralose dosage levels were 125mg/day for weeks 1-3, 250mg/day during weeks 4-7, and 500mg/day during weeks 8-12. No adverse experiences or clinically detectable effects were attributable to sucralose in either study. Similarly, haematology, serum biochemistry, urinalysis and EKG tracings were unaffected by sucralose administration. In the 13-week study, serial slit lamp ophthalmologic examination performed in a random subset of the study groups revealed no changes. Fasting and 2-hour post-dosing blood sucralose concentrations obtained daily during week 12 of the study revealed no rising trend for blood sucralose. Sucralose was well tolerated by human volunteers in single doses up to 10mg/kg/day and repeated doses increasing to 5mg/kg/day for 13 weeks. Based on these studies and the extensive animal safety database, there is no indication that adverse effects on human health would occur from frequent or long-term exposure to sucralose at the maximum anticipated levels of intake. The chapter on sucralose in the textbook Artificial Sweeteners also surveys the extensive body of safety testing that has been performed on sucralose, including those involving long-term exposure and doses far in excess of recommended amounts:  Sucralose is one of the most tested food ingredients available today. It has been found safe for its intended use by health and food safety experts from around the world. Sucralose is permitted for use in more than 100 countries. It is used in thousands of food and beverage products worldwide and is safe for use over an entire lifetime. More than 100 scientific studies conducted to describe the safety of sucralose represent a methodical, intentional, and broad-range research program, as required by prominent health and food safety authorities. [R]esearch studies conducted in describing the safety of a new food ingredient must be rigorous and comprehensive. The studies conducted to assess the safety of sucralose investigated possible effects with short-term exposures and long-term, essentially lifetime, exposures, from conception to advanced adulthood. Many of the sucralose research studies utilized very high daily doses of sucralose, doses far greater that what could be expected to be consumed, to understand margins for safe use. Use of such high daily doses was particularly employed in the core sucralose research studies, in accordance with international standards for studies designed to determine potential risk. The most frequently cited study supposedly documenting the harmful effects of sucralose was one (conducted with rats, not humans, and funded by the Sugar Association) published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health in 2008 that reportedly found Splenda might “contribute to obesity, destroy ‘good’ intestinal bacteria and prevent prescription drugs from being absorbed.”  However, even that study was refuted by one published the following year in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology which reported that an Expert Panel had found that the previous study was “deficient in several critical areas” and that its conclusions “are not consistent with published literature and not supported by the data presented”:  A recent study in rats investigated the retail sweetener product, Granulated SPLENDA No Calorie Sweetener (Splenda). The investigators reported that Splenda increased body weight, decreased beneficial intestinal bacteria, and increased the expression of certain cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes and the transporter protein, P-glycoprotein (P-gp), the latter of which was considered evidence that Splenda or sucralose might interfere with the absorption of nutrients and drugs. The investigators indicated that the reported changes were attributable to the sucralose present in the product tested. An Expert Panel conducted a rigorous evaluation of this study. In arriving at its conclusions, the Expert Panel considered the design and conduct of the study, its outcomes and the outcomes reported in other data available publicly. The Expert Panel found that the study was deficient in several critical areas and that its results cannot be interpreted as evidence that either Splenda, or sucralose, produced adverse effects in male rats, including effects on gastrointestinal microflora, body weight, CYP450 and P-gp activity, and nutrient and drug absorption. The study conclusions are not consistent with published literature and not supported by the data presented. The reference to sucralose’s being “a molecule that does not exist in nature,” one that “the body does not metabolize or digest” is both inaccurate and relatively meaningless. The fact that the human body does not metabolize sucralose for energy is a positive: it’s what makes sucralose non-caloric and therefore ideal as an artificial sweetener. Most sucralose is unabsorbed and therefore passes harmlessly through the body; a relatively small amount (~15%) of consumed sucralose is absorbed but is excreted via urination with no harmful effects:  In the body, sucralose is not able to be digested for energy. Further, sucralose is relatively poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). The GIT is replete with enzymes that facilitate rapid uptake of monosaccharides; however, there is no digestion of sucralose at the level of the GIT (or elsewhere in the body). Thus, these enzymes have no impact on sucralose absorption, and specific studies show no active uptake of sucralose. About 85% of consumed sucralose is unabsorbed from the GIT and excreted unchanged in stool. A small amount (approximately 15%) of consumed sucralose is absorbed via passive diffusion across the GIT lumen. Consistent with sucralose being a highly water soluble, small and relatively inert substance, absorbed sucralose is distributed to essentially all tissues and readily excreted in urine. There is no active transport into milk, transplacentally, or across the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system. Sucralose is not used as a source of energy. It is not dechlorinated, and there is no evidence of degradation to any smaller chlorinated compounds. Sucralose does not bind to proteins in the body, consistent with its relatively non-reactive nature. Most absorbed sucralose, and all unabsorbed sucralose, is excreted unchanged within 24 hours. As is also typical with Internet-circulated food health warnings, the accompanying laundry list of “reported symptoms” should be taken with many grains of salt. Self-reported adverse events are simply anecdotal raw data; there is no certainty that the reported events were actually due to the product consumed, much less that they demonstrate a causal relationship between the product and the reported events (especially after consumers are influenced by reading anti-sucralose reports that list what symptoms they’re “supposed” to be experiencing). Such determinations cannot be made until reports have been investigated, evaluated, and analyzed, and no studies have confirmed that the symptoms listed are a common reaction to sucralose. As Dr. Joe Schwarz observed in his work on food myths and misconceptions:  As with any substance, there can be no absolute guarantee about the safety of sucralose for everyone. Any food or additive, be it peanuts or apples, aspartame or sucralose, can cause a problem for some people. But reactions to sucralose are rare indeed. There is one thing this piece did get right, although it’s both outdated and irrelevant to the issue of the safety of sucralose: the manufacturer of Splenda was indeed sued (nearly fourteen years ago) by a competitor over their slogan “made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar,” which falsely implied to consumers that Splenda “in some way actually was sugar, but with the calories stripped out”:  In November 2004, Merisant, manufacturer of the table-top, aspartame-based sweetener Equal, sued McNeil Nutritionals, a division of Johnson and Johnson and the manufacturer of Splenda, for false and misleading advertising in Splenda’s “made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar” campaign. Merisant invoked the Lanham Act, which prohibits false or misleading advertisements to American consumers, to stop McNeil from making several claims in television and print advertisements that suggested that Splenda was like sugar, only with the calories removed. After three years of fighting in the courts, Johnson and Johnson settled, just before the jury was to return what appeared to be a ruling awarding damages in favor of the plaintiff. Sucralose, the chemical in the brand-named product Splenda, does, in fact, originate with the sucrose (sugar) molecule. It then undergoes a process of molecule replacement, however, that renders it qualitatively different. After the lawsuit was settled, Splenda debuted a new slogan: “Just What’s Good — it’s made from sugar. It tastes like sugar. But it’s not sugar.” On 11 March 2016, numerous news outlets reported that an Italian study (published in January 2016) purportedly documented a link between Splenda and cancer in mice. The International Food Information Council (IFIC), a non-profit group aimed at providing science-based evidence with respect to food safety, addressed the publication of the study in an article that criticized the study’s methodology and dissonant findings:  As Trevor Butterworth expertly articulated during the last unsupported sucralose scare from these researchers: The problem hanging over the Splenda finding is that which hangs over the Ramazzini Institute in general: Quality control. No matter what substance the Institute tests for cancer, the results always seem to be positive, whereas other laboratories testing the same substances repeatedly fail to come up with the same findings. […] All of this has made the Ramazzini Institute something of a joke in European and American science. But, of course, there’s nothing to laugh about when you use a charity conference on childhood cancer to promote an international cancer panic. The FDA and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have both come out on the Ramazzini Institute?s previous work, saying that their conclusions aren’t supported by the data. Dr. Magnuson summed it up perfectly: “There are many other problems with this study that we could discuss, such as diet formulation, doses used, lack of dose response, and so on — but the critical point is that it has been well documented that the results from studies by this laboratory are not valid — especially when it comes to lymphoma and leukemia.”  IFIC concluded that the “safety and effectiveness of sucralose (and other low-calorie sweeteners in foods) is incredibly well supported,” and added that “you shouldn’t hesitate to swap them into your diet” in efforts to reduce caloric intake. On 11 March 2016, Splenda issues a statement via their Facebook page referencing the IFIC article and asserting the Italian study’s conclusion was an outlier among dozens to the contrary:  Researchers have conducted more than 100 scientific studies on the safety of sucralose over the past 20 years, and they’ve all declared sucralose safe to enjoy. Sometimes, however, poorly conducted and unscientific studies make bold headlines and stir up safety fears. This [IFIC] article sets the record straight[.] Claim: The artificial sweetener Splenda was inadequately tested and is unsafe for human consumption.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Health workers have been better prepared than ever for this latest epidemic of the hemorrhagic fever, which causes severe vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding, and kills more than half those it infects. New technologies like a trial vaccine, experimental treatments and futuristic cube-shaped mobile units for treating patients have helped curb the spread of the virus. But public mistrust and rampant insecurity in the parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where Ebola has struck have hampered the response, complicating the fight against it. Five Ebola centers have been attacked since last month, sometimes by armed assailants. The violence led French medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to suspend its activities at the epicenter of the outbreak last month. As a result, it is now the second-deadliest in history, behind the 2013-16 one in West Africa that is believed to have killed more than 11,000 people. “The total is now 1,009 cases,” the ministry said in a statement, but it added: “the response, led by the Health Ministry in collaboration with its partners, has limited the geographical spread.”  Last Wednesday, authorities confirmed a case of Ebola in Bunia, another city of close to 1 million people. Claim: Congo Ebola epidemic exceeds 1,000 cases: health ministry.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: One of the primary issues that the U.S. federal and state governments were wrestling with during the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic in May 2020 was the trade-off of keeping social distancing and business closure restrictions in place to protect lives, versus the trade-off of ongoing (and possibly permanent) economic harm to individuals, businesses, and the country as a whole. On May 5, 2020, while U.S. President Donald Trump was in Phoenix, Arizona, to tour a medical face mask manufacturing facility there, he was interviewed by David Muir of ABC News about the subject of reopening the U.S.:   Shortly after the interview aired, a meme began to circulate on social media holding that when Trump had been asked during that interview what he’d say to people who lost family members to COVID-19, he replied, “I would say this didn’t hurt anyone as much as it hurt me”:  Although this meme is vaguely reflective of something Trump said during that interview, it grossly misrepresents both what he literally said and what he meant. Claim: When U.S. President Donald Trump was asked what he'd say to people who lost family members to COVID-19, he replied, \"I would say this didn't hurt anyone as much as it hurt me.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Here’s a scary story. A mother in Mexico thinks that her 2-year-old has a cold and puts Vicks VapoRub on his chest and under his nose. She lies down next to him and when she wakes, she finds the child dead. The tale began moving through the Web in November. Smag31.com, a website that targets young mothers, carried it on Nov. 25 with the headline, \"Mom applies a remedy to her baby, moments later he dies.\" But so far as anyone can tell, the story is untrue. Vicks VapoRub has been tied to breathing problems in infants and toddlers, but not to any deaths. The post was flagged by Facebook users as part of the social media giant’s crackdown on fake news. Bruce Rubin, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University, has followed questions about Vicks VapoRub for a decade. In 2009, he published a peer-reviewed article based on a case he had encountered a few years before. The parents of an 18-month-old had put Vicks under the child’s nose and the child immediately stopped breathing. They quickly turned the child upside down, slapped it on the back and it coughed up a plug of mucus. Its breathing returned to normal. But Rubin told us that in the 10 years since that case, he’s seen no report of any deaths. On the other hand, episodes of breathing distress while rare, are not unheard of. \"I understand that there have been about 30 such reports, all with Vicks under the nose of very small children,\" Rubin said. \"Procter and Gamble (the maker of Vicks) specifically states never to use this directly under the nose at any age, and never use at all in children under the age of 2.\" To underscore, that is what the label says. Never under the nose. Never with kids under 2. A 2012 study looked at what happens when menthol, one of Vicks’ active ingredients, is inhaled. It found that the body responds by making more mucus, but again, the authors cited no example of a child actually dying. Jennifer Lowry, head of toxicology at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ environmental health council, said, \"I have never heard, nor could I find a report of, a patient dying from inhaling Vicks VapoRub.\" Lowry said as a pediatric medical toxicologist, she has concerns about any product that contains camphor, as Vicks does. But her main worry is that parents will do exactly the wrong thing and have kids eat it. That’s very dangerous. Procter and Gamble spokeswoman Velvet Gogol Bennett said the company has never had a family report a fatality due to inhaling Vicks VapoRub. \"We have had no local health authority notification, no hospital notification, nor any doctor or any official news organization anywhere in the world has brought this case to our attention,\" Bennett said. \"Despite all of our efforts to investigate this social media posting, there is no verifiable information in terms of city and name of the person concerned.\" The blog post about the alleged death said, \"The medical report stated the child died due to inflammation in the respiratory track, produced by the camphor contained in the famous ointment.\" If such a medical report exists, no researcher we contacted seems to have ever seen it. We reached out to the author behind the blog and did not hear back. The myth-busting website Snopes also looked into this and found it lacked substance. A Canadian study looked at cases of children eating Vicks or similar products. Those situations sent children to the emergency room, but were not fatal. The one exception was in 1983 involving a child with pneumonia whose parents had given him a home remedy that contained camphor and alcohol. Rubin said if people follow instructions, Vicks is fine: \"If you are an adult with a stuffy head cold, putting Vicks on your chest and drinking some hot tea with honey (and perhaps rum) is as good a medicine as it gets. Just keep the Vicks (and the rum) away from the under-2 crowd.\" Our ruling A blog post said that Vicks VapoRub caused a child’s death in Mexico. While the product has been tied to breathing problems in infants and toddlers, there is no evidence that it has been fatal. Claim: Blogger Says Vicks VapoRub caused a child’s death.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: President Donald Trump bragged that his March 13, 2020, statements about coronavirus had record-breaking influence on the stock market. Wearing a baseball hat with \"USA\" emblazoned on the front, Trump told reporters gathered at the White House a day later on March 14, 2020: \"I was honored to see that the stock market — you were mostly there with us — set a record in a short period of time, over a 45-minute period that we had the press conference yesterday in the Rose Garden. That was a record; all-time record. I think we should do one of them every day, perhaps. How about five times a day? We’ll do one five times a day. But that was something to watch and — I had no idea. We walked back, I said, ‘So, how did that work out?’ They said, ‘Sir, you just set a new record in the history of the stock market.’ So, that was pretty good.\" The market did make a record surge on March 13, 2020, and the surge accelerated during Trump’s news conference that afternoon. But that record came a day after the steepest decline ever. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the most popular measure of the stock market, gained 1,985 points on Friday, March 13. That was its biggest point gain ever, with the \"late-day surge\" coming \"while Trump was speaking,\" the Associated Press reported. The business and financial news network CNBC and other news organizations reported the same. In his remarks, Trump declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, announced greater availability of testing in the coming days and announced the purchase of oil for the strategic petroleum reserve — steps that may have helped lift the Dow. His Rose Garden news conference started at 3:30 p.m. EDT and lasted an hour and 11 minutes, including remarks given by members of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force. At the start of the speech, the Dow was at 21,747.52. By the market’s close at 4 p.m., while Trump’s news conference was continuing, it was at 23,175.92, for a gain of 1,428 points over the course of the speech. That gain itself was larger than the previous record for the largest point gain in a day — 1,293.96 points on March 2, 2020. \"Stocks rallied, shooting sharply upward in the last half-hour of trading as investors appeared to gain confidence that the Trump administration has a plan to combat the outbreak from both a health care and economic perspective,\" AP reported. But that upward acceleration followed a record decline, as news organizations also reported. As Barron’s put it: \"The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 10% on Thursday, marking its biggest one-day percentage (and point) drop since the Black Monday stock market crash in 1987.\" The rally \"only recovered most of the losses suffered a day earlier,\" MarketWatch reported, adding that the Dow is \"in a bear market.\" It’s also worth noting that those gains were fleeting. The increases of March 13 were wiped out by the next trading day, Monday, March 16, when the Dow dropped like a rock and opened 2,240 points down at 20,935.70 and then fell another 248 points by the market’s close. Such sharp rises and declines are common during times of stress in the economy. \"One good day was really more of a dead-cat bounce, as the market fell still further after that,\" Tulane University business professor Peter Ricchiuti told PolitiFact. \"Also, the stock market is not the economy. It’s a measure of projected corporate profits. Very different things.\" Kathleen Day, lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and author of a book on financial crises, said in an interview: \"The big picture here is the stock market is gyrating. It’s unstable because of the virus itself and because of the lack of leadership (from Trump). The market wouldn’t have gone up so much if it hadn’t gone down so much.\" The White House didn’t respond to our requests for information. Trump didn’t specify what type of record was set, but a point gain is one  legitimate measure. At the same time, large point gains and declines are natural when the Dow is at a high number. The index was marching toward 30,000 just a few weeks earlier. Stock watchers pay more attention to percentage changes on a given day or over time as a sign of the market’s strength. On that score, the gain for the day of Trump’s news conference was the largest percentage increase since October 2008. Trump said that \"over a 45-minute period that we had the press conference\" on the coronavirus on March 13, 2020, the stock market set \"an all-time record.\" The Dow Jones Industrial Average registered its largest-ever point gain on March 13, with gains accelerating during Trump’s news conference. But that occurred one day after the Dow’s biggest point decline ever, and the gains were wiped out the next trading day. Trump’s statement is partially accurate, but leaves out important details. We rate this . Claim: Donald Trump Says that “over a 45-minute period that we had the press conference” on the coronavirus on March 13, 2020, the stock market set \"an all-time record.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In late August 2019, a screenshot from a local news broadcast shared alongside the text “THC will be removed from substance charts for drug test screenings starting August 30th” went viral:  THC is the primary active component of cannabis. As this photo spread across the internet, its context appeared to have been lost. Some users shared the image thinking it applied only to certain states. Others took it to mean that this was a nationwide legal change. Most commenters appeared to have assumed the claim referred to all potential users of cannabis. In reality, the claim that THC will be removed from drug-test screenings starting Aug. 30 (2019) applied only to people who are residents of Oklahoma and who have valid medical-marijuana licenses (note the Oklahoma City-based KOCO 5 television station logo appearing in the above screenshot). The law in question — Senate Bill 2612 — was introduced in the Oklahoma legislature on Feb. 4, and was signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt on March 14. A lengthy compromise bill about the future of medical marijuana in that state, the law does stipulate that “no employer may refuse to hire, discipline, discharge or otherwise penalize an applicant or employee solely on the basis of a positive test for marijuana components or metabolites” unless: According to The Oklahoman, the law actually took effect on Aug. 29, 2019. Because the law applies only to a very narrow subset of the American population despite being shared across the country without these caveats. Claim: THC will be removed from drug-test screenings “starting on August 30th.”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday that Gov. Gary Herbert says the federal classification of cannabis as a schedule 1 drug interferes with research into its potential medicinal uses and prevents regular pharmacies from dispensing it. The classification puts marijuana in the same category as heroin and LSD. The Republican says the federal government “oughta be ashamed” for the “lack of action and attention” to the issue. Utah voters passed a ballot initiative in 2018 to create a medical cannabis program and state legislators followed by instituting their own marijuana law. Herbert says the state’s medical marijuana program faces policies that hinder doctors and federal banking restrictions forcing marijuana vendors to operate as cash-only businesses. ___ Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com Claim: Utah governor criticizes federal marijuana reform inaction.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There are no graveyards for ridiculous, oft-debunked chain emails. A lengthy, widespread email keeps resurfacing with dire warnings about Obamacare as determined by Judge David Kithil of Marble Falls, Texas. \"Please for the sake of many good people, please... pass this on,\" the email begs. \"We all need to be informed.\" Unfortunately, the email is riddled with errors, starting with the fact that is referring to an initial 2009 health care proposal that never became law. Still, because it has the subject line \"Obama Care Outrage,\" we thought people might confuse it with the health care law on the books. In that context, and given all the talk about potential immigration reform, one line jumped out: \"The bill will provide insurance to all non-U.S. residents, even if they are here illegally,\" the email states. Make no mistake, this line is wrong in the context of the 2009 law (! wrong, in fact), and wrong in the context of the health care bill President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010. Let us explain. The Affordable Care Act contains an individual mandate that requires individuals to purchase health insurance. It allows U.S. citizens and legal residents to purchase insurance on health insurance exchanges, often receiving tax credits. But none of it applies to people who are here illegally. They don’t have to follow the mandate because they shouldn’t be here. They remain ineligible for regular Medicaid coverage, just as they are ineligible for food stamps. They cannot obtain coverage through state-based health insurance exchanges (thus, they are also ineligible for tax credits to offset the cost of getting that coverage). Now, certain low-income illegal immigrants are eligible for emergency Medicaid coverage, including childbirth and surgery. And federal law requires hospitals not to turn away individuals for emergency treatment, even if they are uninsured (or undocumented), according to the National Immigration Law Center. But those policies predate the Affordable Care Act. \"They don’t get health insurance, which is coverage, which is different than a hospital getting reimbursed for Medicaid,\" said Laura Goodhue, executive director of Florida Chain, a consumer health advocacy group. The Affordable Care Act does provide some benefits for certain legal non-U.S. citizens. We repeat: Legal. Immigrants who are in the country legally are subject to the mandate and are eligible to shop on the exchanges. Thanks to the Supreme Court and Florida legislators, certain poor, legal noncitizens have it a little easier in Florida than the state's most impoverished citizens. The law includes a special rule (page 108) allowing them to get tax credits to purchase health insurance on an exchange if they (a) do not qualify for Medicaid because they have not been here for the required five years and (b) earn at or below the poverty line. Meanwhile, about 1 million of Florida’s poorest citizens will continue not to have affordable access to health insurance. They are not eligible to receive tax credits for the exchanges, and Florida leaders did not expand Medicaid coverage to include them during the 2013 legislative session. Goodhue calls it a \"black hole\" of coverage. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer had noticed a similar scenario playing out in Arizona if its leaders did not expand Medicaid, saying, \"For poor Arizonans below 100 percent of the federal poverty level, only legal immigrants, but not citizens, would be eligible for subsidies.\" Our ruling The chain email says that Obamacare provides insurance \"to all non-U.S. residents, even if they are here illegally.\" It’s actually citing a 2009 proposal that didn’t pass, but that doesn’t really matter. The email’s wrong either way. The Affordable Care Act does nothing to provide health insurance to anyone living in the United States illegally. It does offer some assistance to legal non-U.S. citizens, which by the way is different than a non-U.S. resident as the email claims. (A non-U.S. resident could be living in Mexico, France or even Mars). We rate this claim ! Claim: Obamacare \"will provide insurance to all non-U.S. residents, even if they are here illegally.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The frustration soared when President George Weah recently indicated there was no need for his government to set up a war crimes court in the West African nation where the conflicts killed a quarter-million people. “Why now?” he repeated in an address to the United Nations annual gathering of world leaders last month. The impatience with that attitude boiled over last month when hundreds of people stormed Liberia’s legislature with a petition asking the government for more mental health support. They said they represented some half-million people who have received mental health services over the years via a charity, the U.S.-based Carter Center. Such private aid is not enough to assure that every Liberian receives assistance, they said. “Mental health care continues to be seriously sidelined,” said Bill Ballah, a spokesman for the group. “Each of us needs good mental health to ... pursue our life goals and meet our responsibilities as responsible citizens.” Critics say Liberia’s president is not interested in creating a war crimes court because his political support base includes some elements who committed atrocities. Weah has rejected that accusation and his supporters dismiss it as untrue. In addition to those suffering from trauma caused by the civil wars from 1989 to 2003, thousands of Liberians are trying to recover from the world’s deadliest Ebola outbreak that killed more than 4,000 people in the country from 2014-2016. More than 20% of Liberia’s post-war population has mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder, the World Health Organization said in 2016. But the country has just a couple of psychiatrists for a population of nearly 5 million. Until the arrival of a Nigerian psychiatrist three years ago, Dr. Benjamin Harris had been the only psychiatrist in Liberia for decades. About 70% of students Harris interviewed near the end of the civil wars said they had seen people killed or tortured. About 60% said they had lost confidence in human beings and society. “This can have a severe consequence on one’s mental function,” he told The Associated Press. The need for mental health care in Liberia is so great and complicated that no government has been able to tackle the issue, and none has taken the initiative, Harris said. Government authorities acknowledge the mental health problem is enormous but blame the country’s inability to raise enough revenue to address such issues. The chairman of the senate committee on health and a former health minister, Dr. Peter Coleman, said the funding allotted to the health sector in the annual budget is negligible because there are competing priorities. “When it comes to mental health right now, it’s collaborations with agencies such as the Carter Center that is helping us to at least do the rudimentary things in mental health,” he said. Dr. David Henderson, chairman of the psychiatry department at Boston University’s medical school, said mental health could be tackled more rigorously in places like Liberia if global health funding paid more attention to psychiatry. If those resources were provided, “we can really build capacity very quickly.” He cited the success story of Ethiopia, which went from just three psychiatrists to about 100 over 15 years. For now Liberia has just one overcrowded and underfunded mental health hospital, an annex of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in the capital, Monrovia. Patients are charged the equivalent of $10 for 21 days of treatment, a cost many cannot afford. Meanwhile the Catherine Mills Rehabilitation Center, a facility set up in pre-war Liberia as a home for people with mental illness, was ransacked and looted during the civil war and has never reopened. Officials have tried in vain to persuade people now living amid its ruins to leave. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Claim: Post-war Liberians are demanding better mental health care.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In a speech on the House floor on Feb. 3, 2009, Republican Rep. Mike Pence sounded off about what's in the stimulus bill before Congress. \"In legislation before the Senate this week, $20 million for the removal of small to medium-sized fish passage barriers or $25 million to rehabilitate off-roading trails for ATVs is not going to put this economy back on track,\" Pence said. \"And, it was exactly that kind of wasteful government spending that resulted in unanimous Republican opposition last week.\" We wanted to check to see if the bill includes the money Pence mentioned. Some of our previous reports have shown that opponents of the bill have not been  completely   truthful  about what's in the bill. In this case, Pence is right. The Senate report on the bill, as of this writing, includes $20 million \"for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish passage barriers,\" which means  clearing barriers  in rivers and streams to allow fish migration. It's part of an overall $190 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for habitat restoration projects that \"accomplish ecological goals and provide employment opportunities in the local communities.\" The report also says the projects can be modified to \"achieve the goals of maximum job creation and most effective use of resources.\" Similarly, the $25 million for recreation maintenance, \"especially for rehabilitation of off-road vehicle routes,\" is part of an overall $135 million for the Bureau of Land Management, which includes funding for trail maintenance, remediation for environmental and public safety hazards on public lands, and habitat restoration. This passage also allows for modification for \"the goals of maximum job creation and most effective use of resources.\" A Democratic spokesman defended the funding when we asked about Pence's criticism. \"Preserving our national parks and preserving our wildlife don't seem to be unreasonable goals,\" said Rob Blumenthal, a Democratic spokesman for the Senate Committee on Appropriations. \"These are ready-to-go jobs that will employ American workers.\" The Fish and Wildlife Service said the work to remove fish barriers is \"shovel ready\" and includes projects like building bypasses around large dams and demolishing obsolete mill runs that date back to colonial times. \"There's going to be a lot of work for local contractors,\" said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Chris Tollefson. \"We're talking about restoring native fish runs all over the country.\" We'll let others decide if the projects are worthy or not. We should point out that almost any job the government pays someone to do is technically stimulating the economy by creating income and reducing unemployment, if only by the smallest amount. Also, the two projects combined account for not even 1 percent of the bill — more like .005 percent. Nevertheless, $45 million for most people is serious money. When he made his remarks, Pence had his facts straight on what was in the legislation — $20 million for fish-barrier removal and $25 million for off-road trails. Claim: The stimulus bill contains \"$20 million for the removal of small to medium-sized fish passage barriers\" and \"$25 million to rehabilitate off-roading trails for ATVs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: With the blockbuster success of the film American Sniper, the legacy of   former NAVY SEAL Chris Kyle has taken on mythic proportions. As is often   the case when this happens, some events of Kyle’s life have been   embellished and exaggerated in the re-telling of old stories and   accounts. Chris Kyle is the most decorated and revered sniper in American military history and had more than 150 confirmed   kills during his time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kyle’s heroism and service give reason to celebrate his life, however, the public and   media often seek even more from legendary figures like Kyle. The truth   often blurs in the telling and retelling of legendary figures’ stories,   and Kyle is no different. Here’s a look at how some of the most common claims about Kyle got   started, and whether or not they’re true:  Claims about the historical accuracy of American Sniper  Claims about the accuracy of American Sniper are off base. Clint   Eastwood, the film’s director, said it portrays one soldier’s   perspective of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — not an objective,   historically accurate account. The Star  reports:  “Still, in making American Sniper, which he took over after Steven Spielberg bowed out due to budget restrictions, Eastwood felt he had to properly represent Kyle’s version of events. ‘This picture was interesting, because I’m seeing it from the point of a person who was sort of an American hero, as far as his ability to be this ultra-sniper. And his family and his beliefs were very strong about defending the country and defending the guys who are defending the country, as a sort of an oversight warrior. It was an important story, but you have to embrace his philosophy if you’re going to tell a story about him,’ Clint Eastwood said.”  Chris Kyle Killed Looters During Hurricane Katrina  The claim that Chris Kyle killed 30 looters in New Orleans from a perch   on top of the Superdome in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is false. The rumor started after Chris Kyle reportedly told the  story to a private group of Navy SEALS after a moderated   discussion with SOFREP, a website that covers special-operations   forces. The New Yorker  reports:  “(After the discussion), a larger group went out for dinner, closed the hotel bar, and hung out in Kyle’s suite, drinking until late. The SEALs began telling stories, and Kyle offered a shocking one. In the days after Hurricane Katrina, he said, the law-and-order situation was dire. He and another sniper travelled to New Orleans, set up on top of the Superdome, and proceeded to shoot dozens of armed residents who were contributing to the chaos. Three people shared with me varied recollections of that evening: the first said that Kyle claimed to have shot thirty men on his own; according to the second, the story was that Kyle and the other sniper had shot thirty men between them; the third said that she couldn’t recall specific details. A spokesperson for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) told the   New Yorker that “no West Coast SEALs deployed to Katrina.” One of Chris   Kyle’s superiors said he’d never heard the story, and he added that it   “defies the imagination” to believe that dozens of people were shot with   high-velocity rifles and then disappeared. Chris Kyle Killed Two Carjackers in Texas  The claim that Chris Kyle killed two carjackers in Texas is false. The  account first appeared in D Magazine in April of 2013:  “Two guys approached him with pistols and demanded his money and the keys to his truck. With his hands in the air, he sized up which man seemed most confident with his gun. He told the robbers that he just needed to reach back into the truck to get the keys. He turned around and reached under his winter coat instead, into his waistband. With his right hand, he grabbed his Colt 1911. He fired two shots under his left armpit, hitting the first man twice in the chest. Then he turned slightly and fired two more times, hitting the second man twice in the chest. Both men fell dead. Kyle leaned on his truck and waited for the police. When they arrived, they detained him while they ran his driver’s license. But instead of his name, address, and date of birth, what came up was a phone number at the Department of Defense. At the other end of the line was someone who explained that the police were in the presence of one of the most skilled fighters in U.S. military history. When they reviewed the surveillance footage, the officers found the incident had happened just as Kyle had described it. They were very understanding, and they didn’t want to drag a just-home, highly decorated veteran into a messy legal situation.”  D Magazine worked with Chris Kyle on the story, but the writer doesn’t   say that Kyle told him the story. In fact, the writer doesn’t say where   the account came from. A later  article in the New Yorker said Kyle told the story to friends   who later retold it to reporters. Either way, the incident likely didn’t   happen, the New Yorker reports:  “There is cause to be skeptical. The counties of Erath, Somervell, and Johnson cover the stretch of highway where the incident supposedly happened. Tommy Bryant, the sheriff of Erath County, told me that he could ‘guar-an-damn-tee it didn’t happen here.’ Greg Doyle, the sheriff of Somervell County, said that he had ‘never heard” the story, which he found “kinda shocking,’ and added, ‘It did not occur here.’ Bob Alford, the sheriff of Johnson County, told a local reporter, ‘If something like that happened here I would have heard of it, and I’m sure you all at the newspaper would have heard of it.’  “These denials do not automatically disprove the story, of course. And it’s true that certain operatives, from certain government offices and agencies, drive government-registered vehicles whose license plates prompt civilian authorities to contact a call center in the event of an accident or a traffic stop. But a SEAL with extensive experience in special-mission units told me that the notion of such a provision being in place for a former SEAL driving a private vehicle was ‘bull.’”  Chris Kyle Knocked Out Jesse Venture  This claim is false, and it landed Chris Kyle’s estate in federal court. In his memoir, Kyle told a story about punching an unnamed celebrity   called “Scruff Face” because the celebrity allegedly said that the SEALs   “deserved to lose a few” during the war. The Washington Post reports:  “Kyle did not identify Ventura by name in the book, but said that he swung at the individual after he ‘started running his mouth about the war and everything and anything he could connect to it.’ That included President George W. Bush and deployed SEALs, who ‘were doing the wrong thing, killing men and women and children and murdering,’ the man said, according to Kyle’s book. Ventura said the whole episode was fabricated. Kyle later said in media interviews while promoting his book that ‘Scruff Face’ was Ventura, who served in the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams during the Vietnam War era.”  Ventura said the incident didn’t happen and sued Chris Kyle and his   estate for defamation. At trial, Ventura’s lawyers successfully argued   that the made-up fight had drummed up publicity and interest in Kyle’s   book, which led to more book sales. Ventura’s lawyers pointed to a   picture of Ventura at the event in question that showed no black eye or   bruises, which contradicted Kyle’s account of the alleged fight. Witnesses also testified. A jury in Minnesota sided with Ventura and   awarded him $1.8 million in July of 2014, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Most of the proceeds from the “American Sniper” book were not donated to   veterans  It’s true that the vast majority of royalties generated by the sale of   Chris Kyle’s memoirs were not donated to the families of marines in   2013. After Chris Kyle was killed in early 2013, HarperCollins, the publisher   of his book, released a  statement that said Kyle had “dedicated his life in recent   years to supporting veterans and donated the proceeds of American Sniper   to the families of his fallen friends.”  But Chris Kyle’s widow, Taya, testified in court in July of 2014 that   although the couple didn’t intend to profit from the book, they had. The   Kyles planned to donate much of the book’s $3 million in royalties to   veterans and their families, Taya Kyle said, but they couldn’t because   of gift tax laws that prevented them from giving more than $13,000 to   each family in 2013. The National Review  estimates that $52,000 (or about 2% of American Snipers’ 2013   royalties) had gone to the families of fallen veterans. Claim:   Former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the author of “American Sniper,” shot   looters in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, shot two carjackers in   Texas, and punched Jesse Ventura in the face.     ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The department revealed it had contemplated using the drug in a court filing last month, which has not been previously reported. In the end, it decided against adopting the drug for executions. Attorney General William Barr announced in July his department instead would use pentobarbital, a barbiturate, when it resumes federal executions later this year, ending a de facto moratorium on the punishment put in place by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. But the special consideration given to the possibilities of fentanyl, even as federal agents were focused on seizing illegal imports of the synthetic opioid, show how much has changed since the federal government last carried out an execution nearly 20 years ago. Many pharmaceutical companies have since put tight controls on their distribution channels to stop their drugs being used in executions. As old supply chains vanished, many states, and the federal government in turn, have been forced to tinker with their lethal recipes. They have experimented with different drugs, in some cases leading to grisly “botched” executions in which the condemned prisoners have visibly suffered prolonged, excruciating deaths, viewed by some as a breach of the constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual” punishments. In 2017, Nebraska and Nevada announced they would use fentanyl, which is 100 times more powerful than morphine, in new multi-drug execution protocols. By 2018, the U.S. Justice Department was also examining the “use of fentanyl as part of a lethal injection protocol,” according to a three-page internal memorandum from March 2018 by the director of the department’s Bureau of Prisons. The Justice Department revealed the memo’s existence in an August court filing after a federal judge ordered it to produce a complete “administrative record” showing how it arrived at the new pentobarbital execution protocol announced in July. The full contents of the memo are not public. It is not known why the department decided to examine fentanyl, what supply channels were considered or why it ultimately rejected fentanyl as a protocol. The government’s court filing shows the only other named drug examined as the subject of a department memo was pentobarbital, the drug it now says it wants to use in December and January to kill five of the 61 prisoners awaiting execution on federal death row. Wyn Hornbuckle, a department spokesman, declined to share a copy of the memo or to answer questions about the government’s execution protocol. Mark Inch, who was the Bureau of Prisons’ director at the time, acknowledged in a brief telephone interview writing the memo. Inch, who abruptly resigned a couple months after writing the memo, declined to answer questions, in part because he said it would be in conflict with his current role running Florida’s Department of Corrections. Doctors can prescribe fentanyl for treating severe pain. In recent years, illegal fentanyl has become a common additive in bootleg pain pills and other street drugs, contributing to the tens of thousands of opioid overdose deaths in the country each year. Even tiny quantities can slow or stop a person’s breathing. Earlier this year, an Ohio lawmaker proposed using some of the illegal fentanyl seized from drug traffickers to execute condemned inmates. Death penalty researchers say that just because a drug is deadly does not mean it is always appropriate as an execution drug. “I don’t think it’d be a surprise that the government would be looking at alternative methods of carrying out lethal injection, and fentanyl has been in the news,” Robert Dunham, the director of the Washington-based non-profit group the Death Penalty Information Center, said in an interview. “But there is just something fundamentally wrong about using a drug implicated in illegal activities as your method of executing prisoners.”   In August 2018, Carey Dean Moore became the first person in the United States to be executed using a protocol that included fentanyl. Nebraska prison officials injected him with fentanyl and three other drugs. Moore took 23 minutes to die. Witnesses said that before succumbing, Moore breathed heavily and coughed and that his face turned red, then purple. Claim: Viral posts claim that climate change is a \"made-up catastrophe.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Despite touting the benefits of CPAP, the news release made no mention of the costs of CPAP home machines. These machines aren’t cheap–a quick internet search shows that they can run anywhere from $500 to over $1,000, not including other necessary equipment such as face masks and cleaning supplies. While the National Sleep Foundation says that most insurance policies cover CPAP machines, it is likely that someone buying a machine will still have to pay a hefty out-of-pocket sum. This could prove to be an obstacle to many seeking treatment, especially people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The news release was vague about how much patients benefited, and didn’t provide any numbers from the study itself to put the findings in context. While the release said that “results show that there were significant and clinically meaningful improvements,” for patients using CPAP, the reader has no idea what that ultimately means. It would have been helpful if the news release provided some numerical indicators that demonstrated exactly how much the intervention helped. While CPAP therapy is relatively safe, there are still common side effects that were not mentioned in the news release. According to the National Sleep Foundation, most CPAP users will experience some mild side effects including congestion, runny nose, or stomach bloating. Though the harms are only mildly irritating, it would have been helpful if they were included in the release. The release mentioned that there were over 2,000 people in the study, that it was conducted over a period of four years, and that scores on two different questionnaires were used to measure benefits. The study itself mentioned some additional limitations, including the fact that it was a retrospective study and there was no control arm. These limitations should have been included in the news release as well. No disease mongering in this news release. The news release did include a section at the bottom describing the funding sources for the study. However, it neglected to note that the first author has ties to two industry companies (Phillips Respironics and ResMed), both of which make money on the sale and upkeep of CPAP machines and supplies. This is an important financial conflict of interest to include. While CPAP is a widely used and effective treatment for sleep apnea, it is not the only solution. Other treatments include dental appliances, surgery, and nerve stimulation. The news release did not make any mentions of these alternate treatments. The news release made no mention of the availability of CPAP machines, even though they are easy to find. As mentioned above, however, their cost can often be prohibitive. It would have been helpful if the news release discussed low-cost options, especially since they mentioned that the intervention seemed to have less effect for lower socio-economic subgroups. This is the main problem with the news release: how is the fact that PAP helps sleep apnea news? CPAP machines were first used in the early 1970s, and since then there has been a large body of evidence that PAP is helpful for sleep apnea patients. In the study discussion, the authors include one sentence that attempts to establish the novelty of their research: “Our study differs from the existing clinical studies because it includes a robustly large number of patients and utilizes both sleep-related and global QoL instruments.” They seem to be saying that their study is novel on two accounts: the large sample size, and the fact that they use two different questionnaires as measurements. But is this enough to warrant a news release on a treatment that has already been studied extensively? Including this information would have helped readers to draw their own conclusions on this question. No unjustifiable or sensational language here. Claim: Study shows therapy improves quality of life in people who have sleep apnea.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story says that the supplements can be bought “for a few dollars,” which is more than the WebMD story noted. Even better, though, this story talked about the costs in work days missed and lost productivity from the common cold. The story provided fewer numbers than the WebMD story, and we wish it had presented some of the evidence in absolute terms. The story seems to want it both ways. While the story opening does provide the reader with some understanding of the uncertainty of the review results, the quotes from one of the study authors appear to provide an endorsement that is well beyond that in the study conclusions. For example, the story notes, “The bottom line: After seven days of treatment, those taking the supplements had less than half the chance of still being sick.” What is left unsaid is that the authors of the paper rated the evidence for that conclusion as low and “Further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate.” Far from the declarative statement in the story. The story didn’t quantify the potential harms, but did discuss the side effects. This story says, “Singh said the side effects of zinc lozenges, which can be bought for a few dollars in any drug store in the U.S., come down to bad taste and some cases of nausea.” The full listing in the article includes constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dry mouth and oral irritation. Because the story downplayed the side effects in a story that is essentially encouraging long-term zinc use. The story did a better job than the WebMD story on the same topic of walking readers through the review. It says, for example, high up, “The new review is based on 13 trials with 966 participants who either took zinc or a dummy treatment at the beginning of their symptoms. Another two trials found that zinc helped stave off colds, but the quality of that research was low.The bottom line: After seven days of treatment, those taking the supplements had less than half the chance of still being sick.” The story also says, “Exactly how well zinc works is a matter of future research, and the one day estimate may well change, the researchers note. They add it is currently unclear what dose and particular formulation of the supplement will be most helpful.” The published article is 58 pages long, so it is not surprising that a story can’t do it all in reporting on the results. For example, the story suggests that 13 trials were included in the review. That is true but not all of the trials were included in the each analysis due to different reporting methods. People who took zinc preparations are said to have had symptoms that lasted about a day shorter than those who took a placebo, which is based on six of the trials. The paper notes a mean reduction of about one day. That is a subtle but big difference. The story also notes that people taking zinc products had less severe symptoms, which was based on five of the trials and not 13. A bit more attention to the detail would have provided readers with a better understanding of the review methods. Nonethless, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt, as the overall tone of the story drove home the uncertainties:  “may take the edge off the common cold…but not a whole lot.” … “I think one can give it a try,” said the researcher who led the new work. “But giving zinc over a long period of time for prevention should be be done very carefully.”  All appropriate caveats. No disease-mongering. We appreciated that this story gave information about the financial and clinical impact of the common cold. Our posted criterion doesn’t allow us to give a satisfactory grade to a story that relies on just one source, even a source as smart as Dr. Meenu Singh, the author of this study. The story didn’t compare zinc to alternatives, which is a shame. People take many different drugs, supplements and home remedies to fight colds. We wish that even a few words had been given to the evidence for those treatments as well. We would have liked to have seen some comment on the best ways to protect yourself and your family from getting a cold besides zinc products. A few words about hand hygiene and keeping your hands away from your eyes, mouth and nose would have been helpful to the readers This story, unlike the WebMD story, made it clear exactly what the review looked at and where those supplements could be found. “Singh said the side effects of zinc lozenges, which can be bought for a few dollars in any drug store in the U.S., come down to bad taste and some cases of nausea. The researchers did not study nasal zinc remedies, however.In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Matrixx Initiatives to stop selling its widely used supplement Zicam after more than 130 users reportedly lost their sense of smell.” The story talked about how this review fits into the growing amount of research around zinc. The story didn’t rely solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Zinc will help your cold, at least a little",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story doesn’t mention the cost of metformin, which is relatively cheap as a generic, thus adding to the potential appeal of this approach. This should have been mentioned. Unsatisfactory because all risk reduction figures were in relative terms, not absolute. Read our primer on this. Why not tell us 40-50% fewer tumors THAN WHAT? 72% fewer tumors – compared TO WHAT? There was no discussion of harms. We don’t know what harms there might be in mice on metformin, but we shouldn’t have to wonder! After all, we weren’t the ones writing about \"strong\" benefits of metformin in mice! The story was really weak on this, only mentioning how \"strong\" the findings were. Meantime, in comparison, the HealthDay story advanced into a discussion of possible mechanisms of action, the fact that the mice studied had been genetically engineered to be susceptible to lung tumors, and the fact that a second study was reported in a very small number of humans. Big picture:  this story didn’t put \"mouse research\" in the headline or in the first sentence and then failed to discuss human research that DID exist in this specific area. By comparison the HealthDay story ended with the quote, \"what’s proven in humans is totally another level.\" No overt disease mongering of disease and death from use of tobacco products. A hesitant satisfactory on this one only because it quoted a comment from an expert \"who wrote a review on metformin research in the same journal.\" There was no evidence of any interview having been conducted, though. No meaningful comparison with other lung cancer prevention approaches and not even with parallel human research in this field – as the HealthDay story did in at least mentioning a small human study of metformin in colorectal cancer patients. The story says metformin \"is already widely used in people.\" The story did mention some other past research on metformin and cancer risk. Not applicable because we can’t be sure of the extent to which the story may have been influenced by a news release. There’s no evidence of any independent interviewing, since quotes seem to come from published statements or from journal review comments. Claim: Diabetes drug may keep lung cancer at bay",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The 80-year-old is among the last private medical workers in communist Cuba, which prides itself on its free, universal state health care and which has barred the creation of new private medical practices since 1963 — the year Barca graduated in his specialty after four years of study. Barca is busy from morning until night treating patients frustrated with the inefficiency of the state system. “The service is of higher quality,” Barca said. “If you get a patient and you don’t treat them well ... you don’t get them back.” Some Cubans believe that allowing more private practices would improve services and help ease the state’s burden, allowing it to concentrate on more complicated surgeries and treatments that require sophisticated technology. A growing number of Cubans in recent years have begun to complain about the quality of free medical services, which many say has been affected by doctors leaving on international health missions or moving to countries such as the U.S. in search of higher salaries and a better quality of life. Martha Garcia, a 72-year-old retiree, has been visiting Barca for her foot problems for more than a decade. “I could go to the Policlinico, but I don’t get the help I need when I’ve gone because they say they don’t have the necessary equipment,” she said of a free health clinic in Havana. She envisions private practices for optometrists, physiotherapists and others. “This would allow the state to take charge of more complex things,” she said. Cuba continued to allow private medical practices for the first few years after the 1959 revolution. But as the country veered toward socialism and the health system was nationalized, about half of Cuba’s doctors poured out of the country, leaving only about 5,000. The revolutionary government poured resources into health care, and there are now 70,000 doctors — many of whom serve on medical missions in other countries, which have become a significant source of income for the government. Only a handful of private practitioners remain because no new ones have been allowed in more than half a century. President Raul Castro has allowed the legal privatization of businesses ranging from cafeterias to masonries to hair salons, but professionals including doctors and engineers, lawyers and architects have not been given the same opportunity. For now, there are no signs state authorities will expand that liberalization to the medical field, considered strategic by the government. Officials have tried to raise awareness among Cubans about the value of its medical services, though. Posters at clinics across the island tell patients of the costs the government is paying: a consultation is $1, an X-ray nearly $4, an MRI $32 and a gallbladder surgery $36 — costs dramatically lower than in most nations due in part to the low salaries for medical workers, but still significant to Cubans, who on average make the equivalent of about $20 to $30 a month. Still, a few Cubans prefer paying for private treatment. Among them is Mayra Hernandez, a 55-year-old hotel worker who said getting treated by Barca is worth paying for the bus trip to his office and the fee he charges. “He’s the best podiatrist in Havana and all of Cuba,” she said, adding that she visited public clinics but was unable to get the treatment she needed. She said she’d been 10th in line at one when “the specialist came out and said, ‘I have five scalpels and that’s it.’” Barca said he will continue to welcome patients into his crowded office as his health permits. He works four seven-hour days a week. “I like my profession,” he said as he sat in his small office with worn seats and aging furniture that seemed frozen in time since the 1950s. “Everyone who had a private practice was allowed to work until they retired or died. I’ll be here until I die.” Claim: Some Cubans choose dose of private medicine despite price.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It isn't often that U.S. campaigns venture into Latin American retirement policy, but the knock-down, drag-out battle for a Nevada Senate seat has done just that. It came up in an ad run by the Patriot Majority PAC, an obscure Washington-based group that appears to be spending big money on campaign advertising this year, primarily against Sharron Angle, the Republican who's challenging Senate Majority Harry Reid, D-Nev. The ad seizes on a comment made by Angle about Social Security privatization during an Aug. 12, 2010, interview with KLAS-TV. Here's the narration:  \"How does Sharron Angle plan to phase out Social Security? (Video of Angle saying, \"Chile has done this.\") Chile? The country once led by Augusto Pinochet, the military dictator and human rights violator? Chile's privatization scheme has resulted in hidden fees, fewer benefits and millions of people with no coverage. (Angle: \"Chile has done this.\") Privatize? Phase out? Pinochet? (Angle: \"Chile has done this.\") Another day, and another bad idea from Sharron Angle. What's next?\" We were somewhat caught off guard by the ad sponsor's effort to use Angle's pension-policy positions to link her to a \"military dictator and human rights violator,\" complete with footage of goose-stepping Chilean soldiers on parade. But that connection, tenuous though it may be, didn't strike us as checkable in our conventional sense. Instead, we'll focus on whether the ad fairly describes the nuts and bolts of Chilean retirement security. Is the ad justified in saying that \"Chile's privatization scheme has resulted in hidden fees, fewer benefits and millions of people with no coverage\"? For many years, the Chilean system has been an inspiration to free-market advocates in the U.S. and elsewhere, so it's not surprising that Angle would have cited it. Here's some background on the system. Chile created its first Social Security-style programs in the 1920s, a decade or so before the United States did. But the government under Pinochet made a big change in 1981, transitioning all new workers -- as well as beneficiaries of the old, defined-benefit system who were willing to make the switch -- to a pension plan based on individual accounts run by private-sector investment managers. By now, almost all Chileans are enrolled in the post-1981 system. The program details have changed somewhat over the years, most recently due to a major round of changes in 2008. But the general outline has remained the same. Ten percent of workers' income is automatically deducted to fund their retirement, disability and survivor insurance, plus an additional charge for administrative costs. Employees can choose from among several government-approved private pension management companies, each of which offers five varieties of funds with varying degrees of risk. The funds and their approaches have been reviewed by a government regulator. Total assets in the system by the end of 2009 reached $107 billion in U.S dollars, or about 65 percent of Chile’s gross domestic product. Because the Chilean system has been a trendsetter, it has been studied extensively. Independent analyses suggest that over the long term, the level of support for retirees under Chile's system has been close or better than that in similar countries. But the Chilean system has also faced its share of criticism. Some of that criticism echoes what the ad says. Here's a closer look at the three issues raised in the ad. • Hidden fees. High fees have been a longstanding concern about the Chilean system. Due to lack of competition among private-sector money managers that participate in the system, these management companies' profits have been much larger than profit margins in other sectors of Chile’s financial services industry, wrote U.S. Social Security Administration researcher Barbara E. Kritzer in one paper. Over a full career contributing to the system, workers pay around 15 percent for administration, according to the International Organization of Pension Supervisors. This is in the middle of six Latin American countries and below five Eastern European countries with a Chilean-style individual accounts system. Several experts said that a series of government reforms in 2008 helped lower fees. In our reporting, we found that even supporters of the system acknowledged that fees have been a problem. But are they \"hidden,\" as the ad says? None of the handful of experts we spoke to said so. In fact, fees are more obvious to contributors in Chile than in other countries because they are levied on top of the mandatory contribution to private pensions. So while the ad is on track in its criticism of fees, it is wrong to say they are hidden. • Fewer benefits. Most studies have shown a long-term rate of return in the Chilean system of roughly 10 percent, which is high by international standards. But even if those rates of return are optimistic going forward -- whether because they were boosted by a period of unusually strong returns or because of insufficient participation by Chilean workers in the plan -- experts we spoke to agreed that for Chileans, the current system is preferable to the pre-1981 system. In fact, Pinochet's system remained in place after the transition to democracy and was retained by the socialist administration of Michelle Bachelet. (Bachelet lost power in March 2010.) Mauricio Soto of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has written that the old pension system was \"in crisis\" prior to 1981 -- paying more in benefits than it was receiving in contributions, with a projected actuarial imbalance greater than the country's gross domestic product. In addition, the patchwork system was \"poorly administered and inefficient\" and led to discrepancies in which \"white-collar workers could comfortably retire in their 40s, while blue-collar workers had to wait until their 60s to qualify for minimum retirement benefits.\" There's no question that the current investor-based pension system carries risks, being subject to markets that can go up or down. But Chile's old system simply wasn't sustainable. \"It was unfunded and essentially a fantasy,\" said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow with the libertarian Cato Institute, a longtime champion of the Chilean system. So to suggest, as the ad does, that switching to a private system in 1981 resulted in \"fewer benefits\" is at best misleading. • Millions of people with no coverage. This charge is true -- but misleading for a couple reasons. Though the proportion of Chileans participating in the system has varied over time, the percentage has hovered around two-thirds, a rate similar to under the pre-1981 system. This is clearly less than the nearly universal coverage provided by the U.S. Social Security system. But Chile is also not nearly as rich as the U.S.  Several experts we spoke to agreed that the coverage gaps have at least as much to do with the nature of the Chilean economy as with the design of the country's retirement system. Soto notes that low-income Chileans working in the underground economy account for about 30 percent of the workforce. These workers are typically not covered by the pension system unless they have previously worked in a legitimate business. Meanwhile, participation by the self-employed was for many years voluntary (and very low), though mandatory participation is being phased in by the 2008 reforms. Even among workers in traditional jobs, participation rates have usually topped out around 80 percent, with the percentage taking part at any given time even lower, since workers do not always keep up their contributions due to unemployment or a failure to comply with the law. This is a serious issue. As Kritzer notes, \"only a small portion\" of workers with less-than-perfect participation histories \"would have enough contributions to qualify for the guaranteed minimum benefit at retirement.\" The 2008 reform addressed coverage concerns by introducing a universal pension paid to all Chileans over the age of 65 regardless of their contribution history. In addition, workers with small pensions from their individual accounts will have them topped up by the government. While we think it's fair for the ad to note that the Chilean system has holes, it's important to note that the pre-1981 system had holes too -- and that the nature of the Chilean economy plays at least as big a role in causing this problem as the retirement system itself. So where does this leave us? The ad demonizes the Chilean system in ways that we think are exaggerated. Fees are a problem, but they are not hidden. Rather than offering smaller benefits, the system has provided strong returns and is almost certainly sounder today than prior to 1981. And the coverage gaps that exist now are not unique to the privatized system and have a lot to do with specific factors at play in Chile. The ad does have a point that the Chilean system, at least if it's implemented without major differences, would likely be seen by most Americans as inferior to Social Security. The size of the coverage gaps in Chile's system, while understandable given Chile's economic situation, would be unacceptable to many, if not most, Americans. But this reasonable point is undercut by the ad's overheated rhetoric (\"human rights violator\"), imagery (the goose-stepping soldiers) and exaggerations about the substance of the Chilean plan. Claim: The Chilean \"privatization scheme\" that Sharron Angle supports \"has resulted in hidden fees, fewer benefits, and millions of people with no coverage.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A grim statistic is circulating this World Malaria Day. USAID’s Tina Dooley-Jones, deputy mission director in Kenya, marked the occasion in Nairobi saying that \"globally, malaria kills a child every two minutes.\" Dooley-Jones is far from the only one with that message. It plays large among malaria advocacy groups like Nothing But Nets. So it was curious to see a post in January on Medium from the head of the President’s Malaria Initiative, rear admiral Tim Ziemer, with the statement that \"in Africa, a child dies every minute because of the disease.\" The initiative is one of the government’s largest global health efforts. It began under President George W. Bush and has been carried forward by President Barack Obama. Malaria’s toll among African children is a touchstone for many health activists, but the numbers can vary. Our colleagues at Africa Check spotted a range of statements. One organization claimed a child died every 30 seconds, another said once every two minutes, and in between was Ziemer’s figure. In this fact-check, we affirm that the correct number is closer to once every two minutes. USAID spokesman Ryan Essman told us that until fairly recently, his agency would talk about a death every one to two minutes, but now uses the two-minute time frame. \"Admiral Ziemer has been working with malaria for a decade,\" Essman said. \"He had it when he was child. Usually he uses the right number, but he might have slipped in the previous one.\" As a humanitarian matter, the exact death toll makes little difference. This table from the Kaiser Family Foundation, using World Health Organization data, clearly shows that Africa bears the greatest burden of malaria. WHO Region Number of countries with ongoing transmission Estimated cases (1,000s) Percentage Estimated deaths (in 1,000s) Percentage Global total 96 214,000 100% 438 100% Africa 44 188,000 88% 395 90% Americas 21 660 <1% 0.5 <1% Eastern Mediterranean 8 3,900 2% 6.8 2% Europe 3 0 0% 0 0% South-East Asia 10 20,000 9% 32 7% Western Pacific 10 1,500 <1% 3.2 <1%  Africa wrestles with 90 percent of all deaths by the disease worldwide, and almost as large a percentage of active cases. Malaria is particularly lethal for pregnant women and their babies. The federal government estimates that it kills about 10,000 expectant mothers each year in Sub-Saharan Africa. Another 200,000 children will die prematurely from complications due to their mothers having bouts of malaria during pregnancy. Malaria’s death toll Our colleagues at Africa Check turned to the World Health Organization data for 2015. With huge gaps in the health care systems in many African nations, all experts agree that a precise count of malaria death is impossible. The WHO provides a range of estimates. Number of malaria deaths in children under 5 in Africa Middle estimate 292,000 Lowest estimate 212,000 Highest estimate 384,000  From that, the middle estimate shows one child dies every 1 minute 48 seconds, or close to once every two minutes. Middle estimate 1 min 48 sec Lowest estimate 2 min 28 sec Highest estimate 1 min 22 sec  The U.S. government spent about $860 million this fiscal year to fight malaria. The money went for a drug that can help pregnant women and their children, but many dollars also went to insecticide-treated nets and indoor spraying to prevent people from catching the disease in the first place. Obama seeks to raise the total by about another $70 million in the last budget of his administration. There is a strong global push to eradicate malaria, and gains have been made. In the past decade and a half, the rate of new cases has fallen by about a third in Sub-Saharan Africa. Going forward, many hurdles remain. Mosquitoes can become resistant to the most common insecticides, weak health care systems in many countries make it difficult to sustain antimalaria programs, and counterfeit drugs can be as fatal as the disease itself. Our ruling Ziemer wrote that malaria kills a child in Africa each minute. His staff at USAID said that figure is off. A better estimate is that a child dies every 1 minute 48 seconds. But even that figure comes with a measure of uncertainty. The actual death rate could be higher or lower. By any estimate, malaria remains a serious threat to children in Africa. Claim: In Africa, a child dies every minute because of (malaria).",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The cost of diagnostic testing and the return on that investment in both clinical and financial terms should be routinely included in any story. Like many others, this story fails in this regard. Simply describing the cost of the diagnostic test does not provide the reader with an appreciation of the true cost of the testing. The number of people you need to scan to find one with an early stage lung cancer is 304. There are 33 million Americans who smoke daily. At $300 to $1,000 per scan, scanning everyone would cost $9.9 to $33 Billion annually. Any discussion on cost should also include comments on the false positive rate. In this case, 25% to 60% of subjects had a lesion that needed further workup. The financial costs of these false results should have been noted The story presented some of the raw, absolute numbers, although we wished it had gone further. It says, “As of last month, 354 people who got CTs had died of lung cancer, compared to 442 who got ordinary X-rays. This worked out to a 20.3 percent lower risk of dying for the spiral CT group and the researchers stopped the study.” What it should have added was that, assuming 50 percent of all participants were put in each group, that would mean 1.32% died in the CT scan group and 1.65% died in the X-ray group. That’s an absolute difference of 0.33%, not quite as exciting as a 20% reduction in deaths. Also, the number of people needed to treat to save one life (or NNT) is 304. That may be a justifiable number for added investment in spiral CT scans, but it should be part of the discussion. Nonethless, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. The story misses the mark completely in its handling of the potential harms of the test. It does provide the important caveat that “Critics of the scans fear that smokers may not be motivated to quit if they believe screening can save their lives if they do get cancer.”  It fails to note the relatively high false positive rate (25% to 60%) and the implications on unnecessary additional testing. This is especially disappointing because the NCI press release provided the information. The story did a better job than some of the other coverage in evaluating the quality of the evidence, but it left readers confused by bringing up an older, potentially tainted study and not carefully comparing the two studies. It says, “In 2006, Dr. Claudia Henschke of New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center caused a stir when she published a study saying that 80 percent of lung-cancer deaths could be prevented through widespread use of spiral CT. Her ideas were controversial to start with and widely discredited when other researchers found her work had been paid for by a tobacco company.” But then it makes no attempt to talk about whether this new study is an improvement on Henschke’s work or what makes this study different. The press release from the National Cancer Institute provided those who bothered to read it with all of the important points of the study, both positive and negative. This story failed to take advantage of the information provided. The space dedicated to the 2006 study by Dr. Henschke could have better been used to more completely describe the study results and their implications. The story avoided disease mongering and provided some great context. It says, for example, “the single best way to prevent lung cancer deaths is to never start smoking, and if already smoking, to quit permanently.” It also says, “About 10 percent of smokers develop lung cancer, but smoking causes other cancers as well as heart disease and stroke.” The study raises many questions that will likely be debated for years by the experts. The failure to provide a single independent voice to the discussion is curious to say the least. The study compared spiral CT scanning to chest X-rays and did mention smoking cessation. This story did a better job than others in actually spelling out how commonly used these spiral CT scans are, noting that “Almost all advanced CT scanners can perform a spiral CT, and about 60 percent of U.S. hospitals have such a machine. Makers include General Electric Co’s GE Healthcare Siemens AG, Toshiba Corp, Hitachi and Philips.” The story does note previous work in the early detection of lung cancer using spiral CT scanning. The story did rely a little too heavily on press releases. For example, one quote from the study’s leader, Dr. Denise Aberle, is from this release. And her other quote and a quote from Dr. Christine Berg, are from this release. Only the Berg quote is attributed to “a statement.”  To lift quotes from news releases without attribution is not good practice. Claim: “Spiral” CT scans reduce smoker deaths: study",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 30 March 2016, web site The Free Thought Project published an article reporting that the state of Mississippi had passed a bill granting churches the power to act as “soldiers of God,” with congregants gaining the ability to legally kill other citizens while taking part in religious services: As if police officers kidnapping, beating, and killing innocent people in America with impunity wasn’t enough, the state of Mississippi just passed a Bill that will grant churches equal protection from acts of violence. Mississippi House Bill 786, the “Mississippi Church Protection Act” legalizes killing people while acting as a participant of a church or place of worship — seriously. This Bill legally recognizes actual “soldiers of Christ” and grants them the power to kill. By passing this bill, the state of Mississippi effectively recognizes churches as their own sovereign entities — mini-states that are tax-free and immune from their acts of violence carried out in their official duties. “[T]his legislation would put ‘soldiers of God’ above the law, allowing them to act as judge, jury, and executioner,” said Larry T. Decker, Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America. An article published on the same date by the Addicting Info web site provided a slightly less alarmist report: Mississippi Republicans are taking a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to preventing potential church violence with a bill that amounts to legalizing religious “security” squads tasked with killing perceived threats. The state’s Republican-led senate passed the so-called “Mississippi Church Protection Act” which would militarize the state’s churches while also walking back gun regulations and stripping away oversight . The bill would allow churches to create security programs and designate and train members to carry concealed weapons. It would provide criminal and legal protections to those serving as church security. The bill also would allow concealed carry in a holster without a permit in Mississippi, expanding a measure passed last year that allowed concealed carry without a permit in a purse, satchel or briefcase, and another recent law that allows open carry in public … Mississippi church goers will now get to assign church members as “security” which can carry concealed weapons without permits and are protected from legal liability if their actions result in death based on a designation of “justifiable homicide” — the same legal standing that we afford police officers on duty. Both sites linked to the Mississippi legislature’s House Bill 786, which does not include any wording referencing “soldiers of Christ” or “soldiers of God” anywhere in its text:  AN ACT TO CREATE THE “MISSISSIPPI CHURCH PROTECTION ACT”; TO AMEND SECTION 45-9-101, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING SECTION; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 97-37-7, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, FOR PURPOSES OF AMENDMENT; TO AMEND SECTION 97-37-9, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE LIST OF DEFENSES FOR A PERSON INDICTED OR CHARGED FOR A VIOLATION OF THE PROVISION OF LAW REGULATING THE USE OF FIREARMS; TO AMEND SECTION 97-3-15, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT KILLING A PERSON WHILE ACTING AS A PARTICIPANT OF A CHURCH OR PLACE OF WORSHIP SECURITY TEAM IS JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. While The Free Thought Project maintained that the bill “legally recognizes actual ‘soldiers of Christ’ and grants them the power to kill” and that “the state of Mississippi effectively recognizes churches as their own sovereign entities,” the actual text of the bill creates a legally codified way of assembling security details (with the participation of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety) who may possess concealed weapons in places (such as churches) that were previously off-limits to concealed carry:  The Mississippi concealed firearms law has been amended to allow licensed gun owners who have “additional” training to carry concealed firearms in certain locations previously prohibited by law. These locations include courthouses, polling places, government meetings, any school, college or professional athletic event, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, any elementary or secondary school facility, any junior college, community college, college or university facility, inside the passenger terminal of any airport, and in any church or other place of worship. It’s possible that some readers misinterpreted the bill’s phrase “to provide that killing a person while acting as a participant of a church or place of worship security team” to mean “participant of a church” or “participant of a security team,” but the bill references only trained security team members acting under the direction of church officials. Such persons would be shielded from civil liability stemming from the performance of their duties: The governing body of any church or place of worship may establish a security program by which designated members are authorized to carry firearms for the protection of the congregation of such church or place of worship, including resisting any unlawful attempt to kill a member(s) or attendee(s) of such church or place of worship, or to commit any felony upon any such member or attendee in the church or place of worship or in the immediate premises thereof. Any church or place of worship that establishes a security program that meets the requirements of subsection (2) of this section and any participant of such security program shall be immune from civil liability for any action taken by a member of such security program, if such action occurs during the course and scope of the member’s performance of their official duties as a member of the security program for the church or place of worship. In order to be eligible for the immunity provided in this section, such program shall at a minimum:  (i) require each participant of the program to have a firearms permit issued under Section 45-9-101; and (ii) require each participant to complete an instructional course in the safe handling and use of firearms as described in Section 97-37-7. The Charleston church shooting in June 2015 appeared to be at least part of the impetus behind the introduction of the bill, as that specific incident was cited by a Mississippi lawmaker: Rep. Andy Gipson of Braxton says he authored the bill in response to a church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. He says the bill gives small churches and other houses of worship an extra option for security. While it is true the bill allows for armed security personnel to be present at church services, it isn’t aimed at allowing ordinary churchgoers to kill at will, nor does it specifically designate persons as “soldiers of God” or “soldiers of Christ” and grant them absolute legal immunity from prosecution for killing anyone during church services. Under the provisions of the bill, any person seeking legal protection from criminal prosecution for involvement in a fatal shooting committed during church services would still be subject to arrest and trial with the hope that a jury would agree his actions were justifiable. Claim: Mississippi has passed a bill granting churchgoers the right to shoot and kill citizens at will.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Call it New England Politics 101. When you're running for office in Red Sox Nation, you don't take a Red Sox player's name in vain. Especially not the one who shed blood as he helped end that soul-crushing 86-year drought. But that's exactly what independent gubernatorial candidate Lincoln Chafee did in speaking about former Red Sox ace Curt Schilling in an interview on WPRO's The John DePetro show Tuesday. \"I just remember his own teammates didn't like him,\" Chafee said of Schilling. \"They thought he was a bit of a salesman. I remember one of his teammates said he painted his sock, the bloody sock, that he painted it. Kevin Millar I think said that. I don't know if I trust Curt Schilling.\" He was talking about the larger issue of Schilling's role in a controversial state economic development deal that will give Schilling's video game company, 38 Studios, a $75-million loan guarantee if he moves it to Rhode Island from Massachusetts. Chafee criticized the Schilling agreement for encumbering more than half of a new state loan guarantee program and risking it \"on one company that's never had a penny of revenue yet.\" But what many will remember is that Chafee criticized the guy who got the Sox a win when they needed it most: Game 6 of the 2004 playoff series against the Yankees. Not to mention he maligned the sock that has since been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Put it up there with failed Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley, who famously referred to Schilling as a Yankee fan and poked fun at her opponent, Scott Brown, for standing outside Fenway Park shaking hands. Diehard fans never forgave her. And Scott Brown is now Senator Brown. The Chafee camp was quick to retract the talk radio comment, sending The Providence Journal this statement by late morning: \"Senator Chafee regrets that what he intended as an off-hand reference to published reports about the bloody sock has deflected attention from the crux of this issue.\" He went on to say: \"Senator Chafee respects Curt Schilling's achievements as a professional athlete and his support of charitable causes. At the end of the day, however, his first concern is to protect the interest of Rhode Island taxpayers, on whose shoulders the burden of a 75 million dollar loan default would ultimately fall.\" We here at PolitiFact don't typically check one-time shots from the hip, so we considered ignoring this flap. But by Tuesday afternoon, as the Chafee gaffe made national news and readers urged us to jump on it, we decided to take at look at the rumor that's been swirling for years. It appears by all credible accounts that Chafee is, in fact, wrong. The story begins with an ankle injury Schilling suffered in a playoff series against the Angels. Team doctors temporarily fixed a ruptured and dislocated tendon in his right ankle to keep it from moving, allowing him to pitch in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees. Here's what The Providence Journal story about that October 2004 game said:  \"Schilling, who apparently was bleeding through his sock, was pitching through discomfort. TV cameras caught him wincing as he followed the flight of Miguel Cairo's two-out double to left-center in the third inning, the first Yankee hit of the game.\" Ah yes, it's coming back now, chills and all. You know the ending. Schilling kept pitching, helping  to vault the Sox past the Yankees to capture the American League title and then win the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Fast forward three years. The rumor that the blood on the sock was in fact red paint seems to have been started in 2007 by Baltimore Orioles TV announcer Gary Thorne, who said on air that Boston's then-backup catcher Doug Mirabelli told him it was a hoax. (That's Mirabelli, not Kevin Millar, as Chafee cited). Thorne later apologized, saying that Mirabelli told him in a later conversation that he was just joking. After much buzz on blogs and television, the report ended there. It's been brought up again from time to time, but never with much traction. We emailed Schilling Tuesday to get his reaction to the accusation, but we never heard back. For now, all indications are that the blood was real and that Chafee is wrong, a fact that he admits and apologizes for. In a follow-up phone call Tuesday night, a Chafee campaign spokesman said it best: \"Some candidates shoot themselves in the foot. We shot ourselves in the sock.\" The Truth-O-Meter gives Chafee a , and scores him a big error in the public relations department. Claim: I remember one of [Curt Schilling's] teammates said he painted his sock, the bloody sock.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The broadcast reports a price of $15,000 to $20,000–and properly points out that this figure is speculative because the device is so early in testing. The reporter should be commended for drawing this information out of a reluctant source. The piece does not describe the findings of the early U.S. research (or other research overseas) in sufficient detail. It’s not known who was in the trial, how many patients were tested, how many benefited, how many were unable or unwilling to continue the therapy, etc. Some of this information was available in a San Franciso Chronicle article published on April 15, 2008. More information was available from a company press release announcing results from overseas research data. The report focuses on presumed efficacy but minimizes safety issues and risks. The piece repeatedly states that the treatment has few side effects. This may apply to the surgery itself, especially as compared with gastric bypass surgery. Yet there are several possible risks of the treatment itself that are not discussed, including the possibility that a side effect of blocking the vagus nerve will be discovered. It is also possible that the intermittent blocking of the nerve signals will become ineffective over time. The segment is based on some early results of clinical trails of the VBLOC procedure. It does not provide sufficient detail to help viewers understand the type and rigor of the trial or even how many people have been involved so far. While the segments says the procedure has shown \"impressive\" results in Australia, it does not indicate what evidence the claim is based on. Morbid obesity is a deadly condition. The piece does nothing to exaggerate its dangers. In fact, if anything it understates them. The segment included an interview with one patient in the clinical trial who has shown modest results and one physician who is an investigator in the trials. The segment should have included comments from at least one independent researcher or clinician familiar with treatments for morbid obesity, who could put this procedure in better context. The segment should have noted that the trials are being funded by the device maker. The segment compares VBLOC to gastric bypass surgery. While this is a proper comparison, the segment should have also compared it to gastric banding, drug treatments and diet and exercise. Information about efficacy, safety and costs of these treatments is widely available and would have made the piece much stronger. The segment states that the VBLOC treatment for obesity is in clinical trials and not available in the U.S. The segment correctly says the treatment is being tested in the U.S. and in some other countries. It also explains that the mechanism–the suppression of hunger by blocking the vagus nerve–is a novel approach to weight loss treatment. We can’t be sure if the story relied largely on a news release, but we do know the only physician interviewed is one who is an investigator in the trials (funded by the device maker) and thereby has a vested interest. In fact, this is one case where the story might have been stronger if it had included some of the information about results of the clinical trials that appeared in a company press release. Claim: Scarless weight-loss surgery: pacemaker for your hunger",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Also known as rebounding, it delivers a low-impact, calorie-burning workout that swaps the tedium of a treadmill or step class for a feeling of child-like euphoria. At Chelsea Piers Connecticut, an adult fitness class twins trampolining with rock climbing. “I wanted to do something fun. Everybody likes to climb as kids, everybody loves the bounce of the trampoline,” said Byron Knox, a director and instructor at the Stamford-based facility. No stranger to odd fitness combinations, Knox, who also coaches football and gymnastics, said the hybrid class works well. “The trampoline is predominantly leg-based, although we do core exercises on it. The rock climbing is predominantly upper body, although you do use your legs,” he said. Knox compared it to working a leg press followed by using upper body equipment, but said it is more entertaining. “Most people wouldn’t think of trampoline as a workout but it takes a lot of energy,” he said. “It could be equal (in cardiovascular intensity) to jumping rope. And part of the beauty is that the exerciser is in control.”  The more flexible can jump and split-jump higher, but Knox said just about anybody can participate, and trampolining also enhances balance and spatial awareness. At Chelsea Piers Connecticut the “tramp” precedes the rock wall. “That part takes a bit more coaxing,” Knox admits, although everyone is harnessed and spotted. At JumpLife studio in New York City, some 25 mini-trampolines connect with low lights and top 100 songs to draw out the inner dancer. “JumpDance is our signature class,” said founder and CEO Montserrat Markou, of the 45-minute non-stop cardio workout, which she said can burn up to 600 calories. She said the class doubles as a venue for bachelorette parties and girls’ nights out. “The low lights make people less self-conscious,” Markou said. Another class, called JumpGym, ditches the dance club vibe and incorporates weights and push-ups into the trampoline workout. “JumpGym attracts more men,” said Markou, whose mini-trampolines are equipped with a handlebar that can be grabbed should balance fail. “People can work out who couldn’t work out before,” said Markou, who hopes to draw in seniors and children. Rebounding classes at Crunch fitness centers pair mini-trampolines with sculpt, Pilates and interval classes. Group fitness manager Carol Johnson likens the bouncing motion to getting a massage. “It’s a bit more gentle on the body, more rehabilitative,” said Johnson, who’s been rebounding for about 10 years. Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, said trampolining is a joint-friendly way to add the cardiovascular component to a group fitness workout. The intensity, she said, can vary from a brisk walk to a run. She said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has used trampolines to build bone density in astronauts. Matthews cautions that while the impact is low, the surface of a trampoline is still unstable and cautioned that people who have lower-extremity instability must be aware of this. She said people also combine it with other activities. “Some do it while watching TV,” she added. Claim: Trampolines add bounce to group fitness classes.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Cost plays an important role in this story, as the drug (should it come to market) would be expensive and there is considerable uncertainty about whether insurance would pay for it. Most of the “benefit” information in this story is provided by the mother of the three boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, who reflects in detail on a level of activity among her sons that she feels demonstrates the drug’s effectiveness. The reporter reflects briefly on clinical trial results that offered “some slight positive results,” but we never learn what those are. The text briefly mentions side effects associated with the drug, increases in blood pressure and cholesterol levels, an assertion contested by the drug’s manufacturer, PTC Therapeutics. However, it would have been more helpful to quantify and more clearly describe these side effects, and tap independent experts for their viewpoints. We found the NCHR’s testimony about the risks of combining this drug with other drugs these kids commonly take to be important, for example. On the one hand, the story does a good job of making the point that clinical trial results are murky, leading the National Center for Health Research to recommend that the FDA vote “no” on approving the drug. But on the other, the text makes no effort to help readers understand the nature of the evidence on which such a decision would be based. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a killer. Quite a few sources were interviewed for the story. And, all sources are clearly identified, including the CEO of the company that is apparently funding the clinical trials. However, we do think the story would have been stronger had it tapped the viewpoints of an expert in muscular dystrophy who has no vested interested in the drug receiving approval. There is no known cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The story does devote some space to another drug, Exondys 51, which has been approved by the FDA, but the text is clear that the type of DMD that afflicts the three boys is not responsive to that drug. A main point of narrative tension in the story is the family’s wait to see if the FDA will approve the drug. So it is clear that the drug is not yet available. The story makes it clear that this drug is unique, in that it aims to override the specific genetic mutations causing this type of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The story clearly does not rely on a news release. Claim: MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY: HEARTBROKEN FAMILY AWAITS FDA DECISION ON EXPERIMENTAL DRUG",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: President Donald Trump and some of his supporters have frequently talked up the alleged threat posed by undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border of the United States. Arguing in support of his long-promised border wall, President Trump, for example, has claimed that “Sixty-three thousand Americans since 9/11 have been killed by illegal aliens,” a claim we have previously found to be false. In reality, repeated studies have shown that undocumented immigrants in the United States actually commit crime, including violent crime, at a lower rate than citizens of the United States. This clash between the “violent illegals” rhetoric of right-leaning supporters of President Trump’s proposed border wall and the empirical reality has given rise to a series of statistical counter-claims, especially popular among left-leaning opponents of Trump on social media. For example, we have previously examined the veracity of a viral meme that claimed lack of access to affordable health care was responsible for a greater number of deaths than terrorism and homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants combined. In January 2019, several weeks into the federal government shutdown prompted by a dispute between President Trump and Congressional Democrats over funding the proposed border wall, another eye-catching statistical comparison gained popularity on social media: “Lettuce killed more Americans [in 2018] than undocumented immigrants.”  Last year lettuce killed more Americans than undocumented immigrants so it’s a good thing we’re halting food inspections over a wall that won’t work. — Ally Maynard (@missmayn) January 10, 2019   Despite the grammatical ambiguity in these claims, it’s clear the assertion being made was that in 2018, a greater number of deaths resulted from the consumption of tainted lettuce than from homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two multi-state outbreaks of the E.coli bacterium occurred in 2018 involving lettuce. The first outbreak ended in June and led to five deaths as well as hospitalization of 96 people, 27 of whom developed a kind of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS can be life-threatening, but according to the World Health Organization, only 3 to 5 percent of people who develop HUS die during the course of the disease, although that rate is higher among young children and the elderly. The second outbreak began in October and appeared to have ended by December, leading to 62 cases of infection, 25 hospitalizations (including two cases of HUS), but no deaths. So in total, the CDC documented a total of five deaths from consuming tainted lettuce in 2018. No official nationwide tally of the number of homicides committed by undocumented immigrants is kept, so those figures are less clear. However, we do have some useful data which we have previously examined in greater detail. In 2018, the Cato Institute published a report that used official Texas Department of Public Safety data and found that in 2015, undocumented immigrants were convicted of 46 homicides in the state of Texas, a rate of 2.6 convictions per 100,000 undocumented immigrants (a lower homicide conviction rate than among U.S. citizens in Texas). The author of the report stipulated that, “The conviction and arrest rates for the entire period of January 1, 2011, through November 15, 2017, are nearly identical to those of 2015, so the choice of year makes little difference.” Assuming that there was no sudden and drastic change in the figures between 2011-2017 and 2018, the findings for 2015 are a reasonable proxy for homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants in 2018. Further, we know that an estimated 10.7 million undocumented immigrants lived in the United States in 2016. If the rate of homicide conviction seen in Texas was the same as the nationwide rate, this would work out to be around 278 homicide convictions of undocumented immigrants throughout the United States in 2016, and a similar number in 2018. (The estimated undocumented immigrant population of the U.S. has been declining in recent years, from 12.2 million in 2007 to 10.7 million in 2016, or roughly .16 annually. If that trend continued and the number fell to around 10.4 in 2018, that would still equate to an estimated 273 homicide convictions that year.) It’s true that these figures relate to homicide convictions, and not, strictly speaking, homicides. However, for every murder that took place in 2016 but didn’t culminate in a conviction until 2018, it’s reasonable to assume that there was another murder that took place in 2018 but won’t culminate in a conviction until 2020. In other words, the number of homicide convictions in any given year will not be significantly different from the number of prosecutable homicides in that same year. Whatever the exact number of homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants in 2018 was (and there is a reasonable statistical basis to estimate it was around 270), it is safe to say that it was a vastly higher figure than the mere five deaths the CDC recorded as being caused by lettuce tainted with E.coli. If one takes a step back from the criminal justice system for a moment, one can view the “lettuce-vs.-undocumented-immigrants” comparison in another light. Between 2014 and 2016, the number of homicides recorded by the CDC increased each year from 15,872 to 19,362, so it may be reasonable to estimate around 20,000 homicides took place in 2018. In order for the number of homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants to be lower than the number of lettuce-related deaths (five), it would require that undocumented immigrants commit only 0.02 percent of homicides, despite making up more than 3 percent of the total U.S. population. That is, undocumented immigrants would need to have accounted for a share of homicides that was 165 times lower than their proportion of the U.S. population. We know from the Texas data that undocumented immigrants do account for a lower share of homicide convictions (5.9 percent) than their share of the population (6.4 percent) — but not 165 times lower. Despite the absence of official nationwide data on homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants, we have more than enough robust data to conclude that the claim lettuce killed more people in the United States in 2018 than undocumented immigrants did is false. Claim: Consuming tainted lettuce caused more deaths in 2018 than homicides perpetrated by undocumented immigrants. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Medtronic said the devices are coated with its Carmeda  BioActive surface, which includes heparin used to help prevent  blood clots among patients undergoing bypass procedures. The company said it has not received reports of any  contamination-related physical harm linked to its Carmeda  products, but it was recalling them as a precaution. The coating is used on blood oxygenators, reservoirs, pumps  and other disposable products that are used during the bypass  surgery, the company said. A company spokesman said the products have relatively small  sales, and that a separate Medtronic line of disposable  bypass-surgery products covered with a different biosurface  called Trillium would remain on the market because they  incorporate far smaller amounts of heparin. Medtronic said the recall was in response to an April 8  recommendation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that  medical devices employing heparin be checked with  newly-developed tests to make sure the heparin is not tainted  with potentially harmful contaminants. The FDA issued its recommendation after reports of serious  injury and death in patients who had received injectable  heparin products containing high levels of a contaminant called  oversulfated chondroitin sulfate. The agency has collected reports that tainted heparin was  used by at least 81 U.S. patients who died soon afterward. They  had classic allergic reactions, with plunging blood pressure,  swelling of the larynx and other severe symptoms. Their cases forced manufacturer Baxter International to  recall the commonly used blood-thinner and caused a diplomatic  squabble between officials in the United States and China,  where much of the world’s supply of heparin is made. The chondroitin contaminant, derived from animal cartilage,  has a structure very similar to that of heparin. Heparin is  obtained from pig intestines. It thus cannot be identified with  the tests normally used to inspect batches of heparin. Claim: Medtronic recalls heparin-coated bypass equipment.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The website reveals that the materials for this diet plan cost almost $50, including shipping. This price should have been included in the release. The news release says that the diet is based on common food items, implying the food cost wouldn”t be substantially more expensive than the dieter’s regular diet. However, this impression cannot be checked without reviewing the plan materials. The release merely says “it works.” The release notes that the author lost 70 pounds 12 years ago, although it appears that his personal weight loss was the result of applying techniques discussed in an earlier book, not the specific methods pitched in this release. And, while Lou Piniella is trotted out of the bullpen to impress with his name, no data about his results are provided in the news release. It is important to note that while the release claims that “The Baseball Diet” will produce results within nine weeks, in order to improve health a diet plan must help people maintain lower weight indefinitely. There is no discussion of potential harms. The release asserts that, “”The more simple and realistic a diet is, the more likely that you will form new habits.”” But there is no evidence provided to support this statement or that this diet plan actually helps buyers “form new habits.” OK, they got one batter out here — one Satisfactory rating. Weight loss is indeed recommended for most Americans, and as the release states, it is indeed difficult, with most diet plans failing to deliver long term benefits. While readers can reasonably assume that the author of the materials will be paid a share of the sales proceeds, the release should have specifically disclosed whether the celebrity quoted in the release (Lou Pinella) was paid for his endorsement. There is no specific comparison to other weight loss programs or other approaches that might be beneficial for weight loss. It”s clear that “The Baseball Diet” materials are for sale now. A link to the product web site is included. The release makes vague statements meant to distinguish this program from other weight loss approaches, saying it is generally simpler and more fun. However, nothing is presented that shows this approach is novel. Easy, fun, competitive (? ), will help anyone look good and feel great – all without data or any supporting information other than two anecdotes, at least one of which is heavily conflicted. Claim: The Baseball Diet Is Proving To Be A Heavy Favorite For Shedding Pounds In 2015",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The article didn’t discuss any differences in the financial cost of the two approaches. Nor did it discuss whether insurers are likely to curtail coverage based on the new findings. The story presented a brief quantification of the overall survival rate but would have been improved by using numbers of breast cancer patients who might be affected. The story presented a clear statement regarding the lack of long-term evidence. However, it did not clearly quantify the potential harms of sentinel node biopsy and axillary lymph node dissection and compare them. How often do complications occur? The story was specific about study population and the current and possible future effects on clinical practice. However, it didn’t address the fact that recruitment was stopped early because it would have taken 20 years to get the 500 deaths required to fully power the analyses, given that overall survival was so much higher than expected. The researchers were quite clear in their published manuscript about the possible limitations in their study. There was no evidence of disease-mongering in this story. The story identifies its journal source, and includes interviews with several independent clinical sources, as well as a statement from the Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society. It did explain the NCI funding for the trial. The article briefly mentions standard-of-care treatment and how that might be affected by this study. The article appropriately defines to whom these findings would apply and briefly indicates not all physicians would be likely to adopt the findings immediately. The article uses helpful quotes from breast cancer experts to establish the significant effect of this new information on clinical practice. The story does not rely solely on a news release. Claim: Early breast cancers may need less lymph node surgery",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Stories about people beating COVID-19 through “traditional” remedies continue to spread online in spite of warnings from health officials.For example, a post from news site NewsOne features what it claims is a “viral video.” In reality, the three-minute clip embedded in the story had now amassed more than a few thousand views since being uploaded to YouTube on April 3 2020.The video, promoting what it calls an “African method” which purportedly helps people avoid contracting the virus, shows a young man under a blanket at first, before emerging and revealing that he was sitting over a large cooking pot with steam emanating from it.“I was in there like shaking, but I feel good,” he says before someone off-camera urges him to “tell them” how it supposedly works:Essentially, since the coronavirus is a virus-type thing, Viruses can’t survive in heat. That’s why viruses outbreaks tend to die out in the summer. So, what this essentially does is it takes all the powers of fruits, all the power of veggies, you put it in a heated environment and then you create a makeshift sauna and it creates that same type environment so the virus can break down and eventually, you yourself will grow the antibodies necessary in order for you to fight said virus.The scene in the living room then fades to a close-up of a woman telling viewers she did not film it, but “saw it trending [and] wanted to talk about it,” and also touting herbal-based remedies.The World Health Organization has already refuted the claim that the virus is vulnerable to heat, saying:From the evidence so far, the COVID-19 virus can be transmitted in ALL AREAS, including areas with hot and humid weather. Regardless of climate, adopt protective measures if you live in, or travel to an area reporting COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.Health officials have also debunked the claim that the type of “treatment” seen in the video is effective in dealing with the virus. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health said in a statement:The media has reported that some people are seeking “alternative” remedies to prevent infection with COVID-19 or to treat the virus. Some of these purported remedies include herbal therapies and teas. There is no scientific evidence that any of these alternative remedies can prevent or cure the illness caused by COVID-19. In fact, some of them may not be safe to consume.According to the WHO regional office for Africa, at least 8,419 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed across 45 countries on the continent as of April 10 2020, with 410 deaths linked to the disease.NewsOne does cite a separate an analysis by Reuters debunking the claim that “steam therapy” is effective against COVID-19. (In fact, not only can it confer a false sense of safety that is in and of itself dangerous during a pandemic, the treatment — which uses scalding steam — actually carries a risk of injury.) But the blog also claims that “there is a case to be made for holistic-style treatments to ward off and treat the coronavirus, but they have neither been proven effective on a widespread scale nor approved by the FDA.”Reports concerning the recovery of Raeburn Fairweather, a respiratory therapist at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, also made note of his use of “traditional Caribbean home remedies made with turmeric, garlic and ginger” without explaining how that helped him deal with the disease, which he contracted in the course of his work. Fairweather has subsequently been cleared to return to work, and the center has highlighted the New York Post’s story on him.We contacted the center to ask if it had begun recommending these traditional remedies for patients diagnosed with the virus. We have not yet heard back. Claim: Using the \"African method\" of sitting over a steaming cooking pot can help you avoid contracting COVID-19.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Police gave no details on the connection between him and 26-year-old Miller, who died a year ago in his Los Angeles home of an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol and fentanyl, a powerful opioid that’s contributed to a deadly epidemic in the U.S. and claimed other musicians, like Prince. Ryan Reavis, 36, was charged this week with possessing marijuana and prescription drugs as well as weapons offenses and fraud but has not been directly accused of causing Miller’s death. Neither has Cameron James Pettit, 28, who was charged this month with selling drugs to Miller shortly before his death. Authorities in Arizona and federal agents served a search warrant Monday at Reavis’ home in Lake Havasu City, where they said they seized prescription pills, marijuana, a doctor’s prescription pad, a pistol and two shotguns, large amounts of ammunition and a homemade firearm suppressor similar to a silencer. Reavis was being held on $50,000 bail, and police did not know if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. Pettit, who was charged in federal court on Sept. 4, has not yet entered a plea, and his attorney has declined comment. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 10. Miller’s rhymes included frank discussion of his depression and drug use, earning him fans among some of the biggest names in hip-hop. A Pittsburgh native whose real name was Malcolm James Myers McCormick, Miller was also in a two-year relationship with singer Ariana Grande that ended earlier in 2018. After his death, she posted an affectionate video of him on her Instagram page and released a song, “Thank U Next,” that lovingly mentioned him. Miller is among the musicians whose deaths have been linked in recent years to a national wave of opioid abuse. Prince died in 2016 when he took counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl that looked like a generic version of the painkiller Vicodin. Matthew Roberts, guitarist for the band 3 Doors Down, also died of an overdose in 2016 and had fentanyl and hydrocodone in his system. ___ This story has been corrected to show the name of the city is Lake Havasu City, not Havasu City. ___ Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton . Claim: Second man arrested in probe of Mac Miller’s overdose death.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Former Vice President Joe Biden has drawn mockery and criticism — primarily from conservatives — for verbal missteps throughout his presidential campaign. One recent Facebook post pulled out two statistical claims in particular, connected to gun violence and COVID-19. The July 13, 2020, post said with a laughing emoji: \"America has around 300 million people. Joe Biden said 150 MILLION were lost to gun violence AND we just lost ANOTHER 120 million to covid-19. So I’m reaching out to my friends to see if ANY of you are still alive\" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook). This is obviously a joke, but it raises a question about Biden’s comments. Did he really claim both of those statistics at some point? Yes, Biden made these claims on two separate occasions, though for one he corrected himself immediately. Biden made the claim regarding the U.S. COVID-19 death toll on June 25, 2020, at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. He was talking about health care coverage with families. An ABC News Facebook Live video shows an attendee at the event mentioned the stress she felt over finances in addition to stress from hospital treatments, and how it all lowered her already low mental health at that time. Biden answered he intended to invest in mental health. \"That’s why we have a major multibillion dollar investment in mental health,\" Biden said. \"What people drastically underestimate is the impact on the mental health of people who now, everything is complicated. People don’t have a job. People don’t have anywhere to go. They don’t know what they’re going to do.\" He went on to say \"Now we have over 120 million dead from COVID, I mean, 120,000 dead from COVID,\" according to audio obtained by Snopes.com. Biden made the gun violence claim in the final Democratic primary debate on Feb. 25, 2020, in South Carolina, where he said that 150 million Americans died since 2007 due to gun violence. \"In addition to that, I passed the Brady Bill with waiting periods. I led that fight. But my friend on my right,\" Biden said, gesturing to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, \"and others have in fact also gave in to the gun manufacturers absolute immunity. Imagine if I stood here and said we give immunity to drug companies. We give immunity to tobacco companies. That has caused carnage on our streets; 150 million people have been killed since 2007 when Bernie voted to exempt gun manufacturers from liability. More than all the wars, including Vietnam, from that point on.\" So, the Facebook post is correct in that he made these claims, though it omits the date range Biden used and doesn’t give Biden credit for immediately correcting the COVID data error. In both cases, Biden or his staff acknowledged he intended to say thousands, not millions. As Biden noted a moment after referencing millions of COVID deaths the current death toll remains in the thousands. As of June 25, 2020 when he made this statement, the death toll was more than 119,000, according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center dashboard. On the gun violence claim, a member of Biden’s campaign said Biden meant to say 150,000 people. Biden has previously referenced that stat correctly. Data from the CDC shows from 2007 to 2018 there were 148,182 firearm homicides. A Facebook post said Biden said 120 million Americans died from COVID-19 and that 150 million Americans died from gun violence since 2007. Both of those numbers are drastically wrong. Biden meant to say \"thousands\" in both cases, not \"millions.\" The post is correct that Biden did make these claims, but after misstating the COVID stat he immediately corrected himself. Claim: Facebook post says Joe Biden has said 150 million Americans died from guns and another 120 million from COVID-19",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner is attacking GOP opponent George LeMieux by invoking two names likely to displease conservative primary voters. Barack Obama and Charlie Crist. In an Internet ad released June 10, 2011, Hasner tries to link LeMieux to Crist -- the former governor who left the GOP while trying to win a Senate seat in 2010. Marco Rubio, a former House speaker who served as a state legislator from 2000 to 2008 and is now a national Republican star, won that seat. The ad shows a photo of Crist and then states:  Defended President Obama's Stimulus As \"Helpful to Florida\" Fought For Taxpayer Funded Bailout Of Big Sugar  Architect Of Obama-Style Cap And Trade Plan For Florida  Falsely Attacked Marco Rubio  Even Compared Marco Rubio To Barack Obama  Charlie Crist -- Right? Wrong. As the word \"wrong\" appears, the camera zooms out on the picture of Crist. There is LeMieux, whispering in Crist's ear. The ad finishes -- \"Get to know the Real George LeMieux.\" The goal of the message is clear enough: Paint a portrait of LeMieux -- Crist's former chief of staff who was later appointed by Crist to serve in the U.S. Senate -- as an Obama-loving Crist buddy who criticized Florida's GOP superstar, Rubio. But is it accurate? For this Truth-O-Meter item we will examine the claim Hasner made that LeMieux \"even compared Marco Rubio to Barack Obama.\" In a related Truth-O-Meter item, we're checking another claim that LeMieux \"falsely attacked Marco Rubio.\" Hasner's ad cited a Nov. 17, 2009, St. Petersburg Times article as the source for LeMieux comparing Rubio to Obama. Back then, LeMieux was supporting Crist over Rubio. And back then, Crist was still running as a Republican. LeMieux critiqued Rubio in an item posted to the Times' online blog, The Buzz. From The Buzz: \"Being governor means you have to make choices. And you have to make decisions,\" LeMieux said, heading into a GOP lunch at the U.S. Capitol. \"It's very easy to be a critic and the speaker now is not in office. He wasn't there when the state was facing the challenges of the huge recession and the stimulus. He didn't have to vote on that. All of the folks that were in his administration voted for the stimulus money. And I suspect if he were there, he could vote for it. This is just like President Obama being able to be against the war in Iraq because he didn't have to vote on it. There's a lot of parallels to draw between Speaker Rubio and President Obama in the way they are running their race and in their ability to throw bombs without ever having to lead because they are out of office.\" LeMieux was arguing that it was easy for Rubio, who left the Legislature in 2008, to criticize Crist for taking stimulus money when Rubio was no longer in the Legislature -- just like it was easy for Obama to oppose going to war against Iraq because he wasn't in the U.S. Senate or White House then. (Obama was in the Illinois Legislature when Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in 2003.) LeMieux isn't comparing Rubio and Obama on a stance or an issue here (like they both supported cap-and-trade, or something like that). He is making a general point that it's easy for candidates to later oppose something they didn't have to vote on. None of that is made clear in the ad. But that's not the only problem when considering this claim. \"George endorsed Marco the day after Charlie left the Republican Party and aggressively campaigned for Marco in the General Election,\" LeMieux campaign manager Brian Seitchik e-mailed us June 13. LeMieux hosted a fundraiser for Rubio, campaigned with him and introduced him at events, Seitchik wrote. (Note: Crist left the GOP on April 29. The next day LeMieux issued this statement: \"I am saddened that my friend, Governor Crist, has decided to leave the Republican Party. Our friendship runs deep, but my commitment to the principles of the Republican Party runs deeper. I cannot walk down the path he has chosen. ... I will support our Republican nominee and will continue to do everything I can both in Florida and across the country to increase the number of Republicans in the United States Senate.\" A formal endorsement of Rubio didn't come until July, however, according to The Hill which cited the conservative blog, The Shark Tank.) There are other examples of LeMieux supporting Rubio. On July 12, 2010, The Buzz reported that LeMieux's PAC gave $2,400 to Rubio's campaign. The conservative blog the Shark Tank reported on the same day that LeMieux endorsed Rubio -- see a video of LeMieux here calling Rubio a \"good conservative candidate.\" And LeMieux campaigned for Rubio at a few Central Florida stops -- including The Villages retirement community -- the Palm Beach Post reported Oct 7. At one of events, LeMieux called Rubio '\"the brightest star of our generation in politics — and not just in Florida, nationwide,'\" the Post wrote. Lastly, we have to point out that simply comparing Rubio, a Republican, to Obama, a Democrat, doesn't have to be a bad thing. The New Republic, for instance, called Rubio the \"Republican Obama\" in a February 2010 article. And a national conservative figure, Richard Land, was quoted in 2010 talking up a Rubio run for president in 2012, noting that Rubio would have \"more experience than Obama had\" when Obama ran for president. (PolitiFact Florida rated that claim Barely True.) On the whole, this claim is puzzling. Let's again look at the text of the ad, which starts by linking LeMieux to three issues -- the federal stimulus package, Big Sugar and cap and trade. Then the ad abruptly switches to general statements about Rubio saying that LeMieux falsely attacked Rubio and \"compared Rubio to Barack Obama.\" LeMieux didn't compare Rubio and Obama on an issue such as those listed at the start of the ad -- he said they both used a familiar campaign tactic, throwing \"bombs\" about something they didn't have to vote on themselves. The ad provides no explanation for how he compared the two politicians and neglects to note that LeMieux supported Rubio's campaign once Crist left the GOP. We rate this statement Barely True. Claim: Adam Hasner Says George LeMieux \"even compared Marco Rubio to Barack Obama.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Westfield High School Principal Derrick Nelson died in April after lapsing into a coma during the procedure at Hackensack University Medical Center, which Sheronda Braker named in her suit. Nelson, who was 44 and had a 5-year-old daughter with Braker, didn’t know the French teenager to whom he planned to donate the bone marrow. They were connected through Be the Match, a worldwide bone marrow registry network. Due to privacy obligations, it isn’t known if the teen received any bone marrow from Nelson. In an emailed statement, a spokeswoman for Hackensack Meridian Health said Nelson “leaves a remarkable legacy as an educator and veteran. We are unable to say more at this time due to the litigation process; however, we have been in communication with the family through their legal representation.” Nelson also served as an officer in the Army Reserve for more than 20 years and had recently re-enlisted. He was supposed to marry Braker on June 29. On Monday, Braker said his tuxedo remains in a box in her house. “Derrick was an amazing human being; very generous, loving, giving of himself,” Braker said. “He was the type of person that just wanted to make a difference.” Before the procedure in February, Nelson told the school’s newspaper that he had several health issues that complicated his planned donation. His sleep apnea prevented doctors from using general anesthesia, and they instead were to harvest stem cells intravenously. However, at his final physical exam on Jan. 21, Nelson was asked if he had sickle cell anemia, a blood disorder. “I said well I don’t have sickle cell, but I have the sickle cell trait,” Nelson told the newspaper. He said the doctors told him that meant they couldn’t harvest the stem cells. They ultimately decided to do the bone marrow surgery under a local anesthetic, he said. The lawsuit alleges the hospital was negligent because staff continued to administer anesthesia while Nelson’s oxygen level decreased and failed to supply him with additional oxygen. Bone marrow donation is considered a low risk procedure. About 2.4% of donors experience a serious complication due to anesthesia or damage to bone, nerve, or muscle in their hip region, according to the National Marrow Donor Program’s website. “Dr. Nelson lived and died as a hero, and now his family has filed this lawsuit in an effort to seek justice,” David Mazie, an attorney representing the family, said Monday. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Nelson’s daughter is 5 years old, not 6. Claim: Fiancee sues over principal’s death in bone marrow procedure.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Weed, pot, ganja, sticky icky, cannabis. Call it what you want, some statewide advocates want it called legal. It was more than a month before 4/20 (Weed) Day, but supporters for legalizing marijuana were out in Atlanta recently making their case to rewrite the state’s marijuana laws.Georgia has spent billions of tax dollars enforcing \"draconian\" and ineffective prohibition laws against marijuana, the supporters said during Cannabis Awareness Day at the state Capitol. \"In Georgia, more than 35,000 arrests occur for marijuana offenses each year. Eighty-five percent of those arrests are for possession, accounting for 55 percent of all drug arrests,\" James Bell, the director of Georgia C.A.R.E. (Campaign for Access, Reform and Education), said in a news release. \"Today, March 14, about 100 people will be arrested for possession of marijuana in Georgia.\" PolitiFact Georgia wanted to know whether that many people are actually being arrested each day. For decades marijuana has been one of the most popular drugs in the nation, even for the most famous among us. Former President Bill Clinton admitted to smoking -- although not inhaling -- it while in college. And President Barack Obama supposedly ran around his high school with the Choom Gang of marijuana-smoking buddies. In November, voters in Colorado and Washington state approved legislation legalizing marijuana for recreational use. The drug is already legal for medical use in 18 states. But marijuana remains illegal under federal laws, although Obama has said federal law enforcers have \"bigger fish to fry\" than chasing down marijuana users. Georgia prosecutes marijuana offenses under its Controlled Substances Act, and it has various fines and punishments for growing, buying, selling and possessing the drug. (Georgia also passed its own medical marijuana law in 1980, but the law has never been implemented.) Bell said his numbers are derived from estimates of FBI arrest data for the state of Georgia. Doing the math on his claim, 85 percent of the 35,000 annual arrests would equal 29,750 arrests for marijuana possession. Dividing that number by 365 days, equals about 81.5 possession arrests each day. \"We’re fed up with the whole war on drugs,\" he said. His group wanted state lawmakers to consider revising the marijuana laws as part of criminal justice reform, but none of them sponsored any legislation. We reviewed FBI crime data and found that marijuana accounted for 52.1 percent of all arrests for drug abuse violations nationwide in 2010. And 45.8 percent of those marijuana arrests were for possession. That marijuana arrests figure dropped a bit to 49.5 percent in 2011, with 43.3 percent of those marijuana arrests being for possession. Marijuana policy researcher Jon Gettman forwarded to PolitiFact data he compiled from FBI data on the same subject. According  to that data, Georgia’s marijuana arrests were:   Year        All marijuana arrests        Marijuana possession arrests  2008            30,289                    26,978 2009            33,200                    28,892 2010            31,506                    28,091  Gettman, a criminal justice professor at Shenandoah University, has also been a past president and national director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. But calculating arrests is a tricky undertaking, Robert Friedmann, a criminology professor at Georgia State University, reminds us. Arrest numbers are nebulous, he said, depending on the way they are counted: Are multiple arrests for a single person counted individually? Do the numbers include local, state and federal activities? Do all jurisdictions report arrests? An explanation of arrest data on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program states that the report counts one arrest for each separate instance in which a person is arrested, cited or summoned for an offense. Because a person can be arrested multiple times, the FBI report doesn’t reflect the number of people who have been arrested, but the number of times people are arrested. So what’s the skinny? Marijuana legalization advocate James Bell said about 100 Georgians are arrested each day on charges of marijuana possession. Bell’s claim is based on FBI crime report arrest data. Using that data from the years 2008 through 2010, an average of about 28,000 possession arrests were recorded in Georgia each year. Dividing the average annual possession arrests by 365 days results in about 76.7 marijuana possession arrests each day. Bell uses that arrest data to estimate the number of people arrested for the violation. But the FBI clearly states this type of estimation that Bell claims is not reflected in their numbers. Individuals can be arrested multiple times for the same infraction, so the FBI’s arrest data indicate the number of arrests -- not the number of people arrested -- for any particular infraction. Based on this explanation, Bell’s claim seems to be up in smoke. We rated Bell’s claim . Claim: Every day, \"about 100 people will be arrested for possession of marijuana in Georgia.",
            "output": "0"
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        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Dozens of child advocates, public policy experts and doctors gathered to brainstorm ideas for first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to wipe out childhood obesity in a generation. An interagency task force reviewing U.S. programs and policies on child nutrition and physical activity is due to report to President Barack Obama within the next month. The summit participants were asked to come up with three to five recommendations for the task force to consider taking to the president. Healthier foods in corporate cafeterias and linking public transportation to grocery store access were among the early suggestions. But the audience especially appeared to appreciate a California doctor’s call for a drive to integrate short bursts of physical activity into the regular workplace and school routine. “We have great meetings with lots of healthy refreshments now, compared to 20 years ago when we would only have unhealthy refreshments, or 30 years ago when people would have been smoking in this room,” said Dr. Toni Yancey of University of California Los Angeles. “Now we need to not coop people up for hours on end without physical activity,” Yancey continued as laughter erupted from colleagues in the windowless auditorium. The experts’ advice and guidance would help the task force develop measurable benchmarks for fighting childhood obesity, Michelle Obama said at the start of the session. The United States spends $150 billion a year to treat obesity-related conditions. The costs are projected to almost double over the next decade and will account for a fifth of overall healthcare spending, White House budget director Peter Orszag said. Besides direct healthcare costs and lost productivity, Orszag said the magnitude of obesity-associated health risk may not be fully appreciated. “Having a body mass index in the obesity range is equivalent to aging 20 years in terms of the chronic conditions that you face,” Orszag said. “So, 40 may be the new 30, but if you’re obese, unfortunately, 40’s the new 60.” Claim: Routine \"recess\" a hit at White House obesity summit.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: US-Patent 8835624 is for the H1N1 virus. The patent with this number was for a strand of DNA that binds to the H1N1 virus, not the virus itself. US patent number 20120251502 is for Ebola. This application number was for a strain of the Ebola virus but the application has now been abandoned. The virus was not created by those who filed the patent. US patent number CA2741523 is for swine flu. This is the application number for a patent for the Ebola virus made to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. This patent has not been granted, and doesn’t mean the Ebola virus was created by someone. 0070031450 A1 is a US patent for BSE (mad cow disease). There is a patent application number one digit away from this that mentions BSE, but is not a patent for BSE itself. ATTC VR-84 is a patent for Zika virus that comes from the Rockefeller Foundation. This is the name of a certain strain of Zika virus, which was first isolated in the 1940s in a lab funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. This strain was not patented. US patents 7897744 and 8506968 are for SARS. The first number is the US patent number for the SARS virus. The patent application was made by the CDC, but after the outbreak in 2002. The second number is a patent for a SARS vaccine which has now expired. US patent 10130701 is for coronavirus. This number is not a patent for the new Wuhan virus, Covid-19. It’s a patent for a weakened version of a virus in the same family as Covid-19, a family which includes the common cold and SARS. Claim 1 of 8 Claim: ATTC VR-84 is a patent for Zika virus that comes from the Rockefeller Foundation.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Planned Parenthood is not involved in women’s health issues, said Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush. At a town hall in Englewood, Colo., Aug. 25, an audience member asked Bush about his record on women’s health, as well as what he would do for women’s health, particularly for veterans, as president. \"When I was governor, we expanded those programs through community-based organizations, and that’s something I think the federal government needs to continue to do,\" Bush said. \"I, for one, don’t think Planned Parenthood ought to get a penny, though. And that’s the difference because they’re not actually doing women’s health issues. They're involved in something way different than that.\" Bush, who cut off state funding for Planned Parenthood as governor, then pivoted to talk about veterans affairs. Bush’s claim that the organization is not involved in women’s health caught our attention. Setting aside the issue of abortion, Planned Parenthood offers many other medical services -- most of which seem obviously related to women’s health. We reached out to Bush’s campaign, and it directed us to a tweet that Bush posted, after Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton criticized his Aug. 25 remarks. Bush’s tweet said, \"PP (Planned Parenthood) treatment of unborn has been horrifying. Let's support quality women's health programs instead.\" The National Library of Medicine defines \"women’s health\" as \"the branch of medicine that focuses on the treatment and diagnosis of diseases and conditions that affect a woman's physical and emotional well-being.\" While \"women’s health\" encompasses all health issues as they pertain to women, reproductive health in particular is Planned Parenthood’s primary focus. The organization offers contraception, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, prenatal services and cancer screenings, including breast exams. (No, Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms, but it conducts breast exams and refers women to other clinics for mammograms.) In total, Planned Parenthood saw 2.7 million individual patients in 2013, and it provided nearly 11 million services, according to its most recent annual report. About 12 percent of patients received an abortion, (assuming one procedure per abortion patient), so the remaining 88 percent of patients received other health services. Here’s the section of the report breaking down services provided in 2013:  Our friends at the Washington Post's Fact Checker also looked at Bush's claim and gave it four pinocchios, their lowest rating. Our ruling Bush said, Planned Parenthood is \"not actually doing women’s health issues.\" It’s hard to reconcile Bush’s statement with the fact that -- setting abortion procedures aside -- Planned Parenthood offered more than 10 million services in 2013. Those services included contraception, breast exams, pregnancy tests, pap tests and STI testing and treatment. Bush is opposed to abortion, but it doesn’t make sense to say that Planned Parenthood isn’t addressing women’s health issues. We rate Bush’s claim . Claim: Planned Parenthood is \"not actually doing women’s health issues.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: As the pundits look ahead to 2015, they know that time is running out for the United States to reach a permanent deal with Iran over its nuclear program. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — along with Germany, have until mid March to come to terms on a deal with the Islamic republic. If all goes the way the United States hopes, a signed agreement will keep Iran out of the nuclear weapons club. For now, the two sides are operating under an interim agreement, which rolls back Iran’s stock of enriched uranium and freezes the country’s capability to produce nuclear materials that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. In exchange, Iran can sell its oil more freely and gain access to millions of dollars in frozen assets. On Fox News Sunday Dec. 28, 2014, Stephen Hayes of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine spoke skeptically about what lies ahead. Hayes believes a final deal is likely, but he doubts the Obama administration will drive a hard bargain. \"They want the deal for the sake of having the deal,\" Hayes said. \"We basically caught -- we've caught Iran cheating on the interim deal and rather than saying, ‘Look, we're done, you've proven that you're not an effective partner, that we can't trust you,’ they say, ‘We'll give you more time because we're going to get to a deal.’ \" We decided to check whether Iran was caught cheating on the interim agreement. Hayes told us he had two violations in mind. The one most tightly tied to Iran’s nuclear program had to do with Iran’s work with a new model of centrifuge. Centrifuges are key to enriching uranium and enriched uranium is key to making a bomb. The other violation had to do with Iran selling more oil than it is allowed. In our research, we found a third possible violation involving Iran buying parts for its heavy water reactor in Arak. What we discovered is that while Iran isn’t squeaky clean, no point is definitively in violation of the interim agreement. Importantly, the International Atomic Energy Agency has reported no violations with the Joint Plan of Action. We’ll deal with each potential violation in turn. Work with a new model of centrifuge One of the pillars of the interim agreement, the Joint Plan of Action, was to freeze Iran’s centrifuge facilities. It could keep the tens of thousands of centrifuges it has and could repair any that were broken, but it couldn’t expand its capacity. As part of the agreement, Iran could continue some limited research and development work. A problem emerged in November when the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that in the \"R&D area,\" Iran \"has been intermittently feeding natural UF6 (uranium fluoride) into the IR-5 centrifuge.\" Agency inspectors said that no enriched uranium emerged because the Iranians recombined everything back together at the end of the run. This set off red flags because, until then, the Iranians had not fed uranium fluoride into that particular centrifuge. \"Iran was caught red-handed engaged in centrifuge activities,\" Hayes said. \"When confronted by the State Department, Iran stopped feeding the IR-5.\" Hayes relied on an assessment from the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based group that aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. In November, the institute initially said, \"The feeding of the IR-5 centrifuge is an apparent violation of that commitment to freeze centrifuge R&D activities.\" Hayes told us that he took an \"apparent violation\" to be the equivalent of cheating. But David Albright, the institute’s president, said that after a closer look, it wasn’t that cut and dried. \"It’s hard to say definitively one way or the other on the question of a clear violation,\" Albright told PunditFact. Albright and his group’s latest assessment is that the Joint Plan of Action didn’t specifically allow the Iranians to feed the uranium into the IR-5 centrifuge. But it’s not clear if that constitutes a violation. Albright said that an administration official told him that the action was \"inconsistent with the United States’ understanding of the Joint Plan of Action.\" That could be a diplomatic way of saying there had been a violation, or it might mean that the original agreement was unclear, a lawyer told Albright. What is clear: The Americans asked Iran to stop, and Iran did. Adam Mount, a nuclear security fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said as far as anyone can tell, the interim agreement has achieved what it set out to do. \"There is no publicly available evidence that Iran has violated the terms of the Joint Plan of Action,\" Mount said. \"Progress on the Iranian nuclear program is frozen and in some of the most important areas, it has been rolled back.\" Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a group that hopes to see a final nuclear agreement with Iran, said it would have been better if Iran hadn’t fed the uranium into the IR-5 centrifuge. \"Was it useful or helpful?\" Kimball asked. \"No. Was it specifically prohibited by the Joint Plan of Action? Also no. There is a big difference between the Iranians have been caught cheating, and a dispute about the one centrifuge.\" In sum, the weight of the evidence says that it would have been better if Iran had not fired up that IR-5 centrifuge, but doing so didn’t rise to the level of violating the interim agreement. Iran sold too much oil Hayes’ second contention is that Iran sold more oil than allowed as part of the interim agreement. \"Iran violated the terms of the Joint Plan of Action by exporting more crude than the agreement allowed, specifically to China, India, Japan and South Korea,\" Hayes told us. For evidence, Hayes pointed us to a Reuters article that reported that in the first nine months of 2014, sales to those countries had risen nearly 20 percent from the year before, to about 1.14 million barrels per day. But again, things aren’t so cut and dried. The Joint Plan of Action says that the five Security Council countries and Germany would stop trying to reduce the amount of oil that Iran could sell. It also says that countries can continue to buy \"their current average amounts of crude oil.\" There are no specific caps, however, and no clear explanation of what would constitute a violation. We spoke to Mark Dubowitz, who is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a group that monitors enforcement of sanctions against Iran. Dubowitz said he believes both Iran and the countries that bought its oil skirted the deal. But ultimately, Dubowitz said we can’t know for sure whether Iran’s oil sales violate the terms of the agreement because we lack access to a critical piece. Behind the public summary of the Joint Plan of Action is a much more detailed implementation agreement. Only people with a certain level of security clearance can see it. \"We don’t know what that says,\" Dubowitz said. \"Iran’s sales might be a violation. Or they might not.\" Also, several of the countries that are buying Iran’s oil, such as India, Japan and South Korea, didn’t sign the interim agreement and thus wouldn’t be bound by it. And lastly, while the United States has set limits on the amount of oil Iran can sell, those are not written into the Joint Plan of Action. Buying parts for a heavy water reactor Some analysts we reached thought Hayes might have been thinking of another potential problem with Iran. According to some reports, it has continued to buy parts that could be used in its heavy water reactor, which is another means to produce fuel for a nuclear bomb. However, even if those reports are accurate, the activity falls outside the interim agreement. Matthew Kroenig is a professor of international relations at Georgetown University. Kroenig would not call these purchases a violation of the Joint Plan of Action. On the other hand, Kroenig said that shouldn’t make anyone feel any better. \"It is in violation of U.N. sanctions prohibiting Iranian procurement of sensitive nuclear technology,\" Kroenig said. \"It also might reveal something about how sincere Iran is about shutting down or converting the reactor as part of a final deal.\" Our ruling Hayes said Iran had been caught cheating on the interim deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear program, called the Joint Plan of Action. First, the International Atomic Energy Agency has reported no violations with the Joint Plan of Action. That said, there are some actions by Iran that certainly cut near the boundaries of the terms of the agreement. Iran has worked with a new kind of centrifuge that, while perhaps not a formal violation, does seem to contradict the United States’ understanding of the deal, an expert told us. When confronted on the matter, Iran stopped its work. Also, there is some question about the amount of oil Iran is exporting. But an expert said we just don’t have enough information to determine whether that constitutes a violation of the agreement or not. Hayes said we caught Iran cheating. You can say some allege that, and you can say there’s some evidence that might suggest that. But we found no hand in the cookie jar. Consider helping fund PolitiFact's Kickstarter to live fact-check the 2015 State of the Union and GOP response. Claim: We've caught Iran cheating on the interim (nuclear) deal.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There was no information about the cost of treatment, though, again, knowledge about this product, including its cost, is widespread. The story stated that “people who took a low dose of aspirin every day for several years reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 13 percent.”  However the study itself reported that use of low-dose aspirin did not result in a significant reduction in Alzheimer’s disease. Thus the story did not accurately report on these results and compounded this with its concluding statement. The story only listed stomach bleeding and ulcers as side effects of aspirin. The story also failed to include information about often it occurs. However as this is a story about prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, it should have mentioned that the bleeding risks associated with aspirin use increase with age. The evidence presented in this story was confusing. Although the most recent research was a randomized clincial trial, the writer chose to disregard these results in favor of epidemiologic study which found that HIGH doses of aspirin were associated with a statistically lower prevelance of Alzheimer’s disease. This study found no significant association with low dose aspirin; further, the conclusion reads as follows:  “Aspirin might protect against Alzheimer’s disease, but controlled trials are warranted.”  So it is presumptuous for the journalist to conclude “Regular aspirin use may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s.” There was no overt disease mongering in this story. This story did not appear to contain material obtained from individuals with expertise in this area. No one was quoted. There was no discussion of any other approaches under investigation for prevention or delay of Alzheimer’s disease. Although the story did not explicitly state that low-dose aspirin is a readily available, over-the-counter product, this information is common knowledge. The story accurately explained that studies examining whether aspirin can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease have been conducted over a period of time. This story appears to have drawn on the results from different research studies and does not appear to rely exclusively on a press release. Claim: The Claim: Aspirin Can Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The ruling party’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported on Friday the recent launch of the “Treatment Tourism Exchange Corporation”, aimed at capitalizing on the “rising demand for tourism, including medical care, in line with an international trend”. The new state entity will operate health clinics near hot springs, whose mineral waters, it said, can help treat neuralgia, arthritis, and heart and skin ailments. Private tourism is one of the few remaining areas of business not blocked by sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs. As many as 350,000 Chinese tourists have visited North Korea this year, potentially netting the authorities up to $175 million, according to some analysts. Last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a hot spring resort nearing completion in the central alpine town of Yangdok, one of major construction projects at the heart of his drive to build a “self-reliant” economy. Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, described the medical tourism campaign as propaganda designed at showing progress, while adding that it could appeal to some Chinese tourists. “North Korea primarily offers natural tourist attractions and appears to believe they can be a money maker if combined with elements of oriental medicine, which many Chinese people like,” he said. A recent report by a government-affiliated health institute in neighboring South Korea said North Korea was struggling to provide basic health care. “The reality is that primary-care providers — local clinics and doctors — are so short of basic equipment and supplies that they barely provide what may be called medical consultation,” it concluded in the report on the state of the health sector in the North. “The situation is not much better for secondary-care providers including state hospitals in cities and counties,” it said. Claim: North Korea to launch medical tourism, targeting visitors from China.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 27 February 2017, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested that there is a link between legalized marijuana and violence, and that his conversations with Nebraska Attorney General Douglas Peterson — a long-time legalization opponent — helped bring this issue to his attention. As reported by Huffington Post: “I don’t think America is going to be a better place when people of all ages, and particularly young people, are smoking pot,” Sessions said to reporters Monday at the Department of Justice. “I believe it’s an unhealthy practice, and current levels of THC in marijuana are very high compared to what they were a few years ago, and we’re seeing real violence around that.” Sessions said he had a meeting on Monday with the attorney general of Nebraska, who is very concerned about marijuana flowing in from Colorado, which legalized weed in 2012. “Experts are telling me there’s more violence around marijuana than one would think and there’s big money involved,” he said. […] “You can’t sue somebody for drug debt; the only way to get your money is through strong-arm tactics, and violence tends to follow that,” Sessions said. These comments offer two claims that require investigation. First is the specific information that Sessions attributes to Nebraska attorney general Peterson regarding “more violence around marijuana than one would think” as a result of legalization in neighboring Colorado. The second is that there exists a broad association between marijuana legalization and violent crime. Both claims lack credible data to support these assertions. Peterson has already attempted unsuccessfully (along with then Oklahoma Attorney General and now EPA commissioner Scott Pruitt) to seek permission from the United States Supreme Court to sue the state of Colorado over alleged increases to crime. It is likely that the matters highlighted by this case are what Sessions is referencing. On 18 December 2014, Oklahoma and Nebraska filed a motion for permission from the Supreme Court to sue the state of Colorado over damages they alleged to have suffered after their legalization of recreational marijuana, as reported by SCOTUSBlog.com at the time: Two of Colorado’s neighboring states, arguing that the legalization of marijuana for Coloradans is causing crime problems across state borders, asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow them to file a lawsuit directly before the Justices. If the suit goes forward, Nebraska and Oklahoma’s filing said, the Court should rule that the commercial part of the Colorado scheme is unconstitutional and could no longer be enforced. Under the Constitution, states with legal complaints against other states have a right to sue them in the Supreme Court without first going through a lower court, but they need the Justices’ permission to do so. Nebraska and Oklahoma chose that route, their filing said, because no other court can protect neighboring states from the impact of Colorado’s marijuana marketing law and rules. This filing alleges a number of damages suffered by the two neighboring states, which are best summarized in the written congressional testimony provided by Nebraska Attorney General Peterson to the United States Senate Caucus On International Narcotics Control on 5 April 2016, after his state’s attempt to sue Colorado was halted by the Supreme Court: The diversion of marijuana into my state has been fierce. I have learned from consulting with law enforcement officials in Nebraska’s largest urban areas that significant amounts of Colorado marijuana have been diverted into our state. As lower quality marijuana has been displaced by high-potency products from Colorado, the street price has spiked. This, in turn, has contributed to an increase in drug trade-related violence, which law enforcement ascribes to higher prices and increased currency flows. […] In addition to marijuana being shipped out of Colorado by mail and commercial carrier, Nebraska residents involved in the drug trade are increasingly traveling to Colorado, making large purchases, and returning to arbitrage the higher prices available on the black market at home. Of the above claims, the only statement backed up by corroborating evidence (as opposed to the more general “consultation with law enforcement officials”) in either this document or any of the prior court filings is that marijuana from Colorado is entering Nebraska in higher numbers since legalization. No publicly available empirical evidence has been introduced to demonstrate that this Colorado marijuana has led to any increase in drug-trade related violence in Nebraska. In terms of violent crime in general, Peterson’s testimony did introduce one document, written by the federal drug enforcement task force known as the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, which reported on the law enforcement ramifications of recreational marijuana legalization within Colorado. Peterson used this document to imply (but not demonstrate) such issues could carry over (or already have) into Nebraska: I have attached the executive summary of the September 2015 report by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program on the impact of Colorado’s marijuana legalization. The data contained in this report – gleaned from a broad and diverse array of federal, state, and local agencies – paints a grim picture of the results of Colorado’s scheme […] Though this document does raise concerns about about a variety of issues, including unexpected challenges to law enforcement,  drugged driving, increased potency of marijuana, and marijuana related hospital visits within Colorado (though these data come with caveats as well), the entirety of data related to the relationship between violent crime and legalization in that edition of the report, as well as the most recent report, is contained below: From 2014 to 2015 [in all of Colorado]: Property crime increased 6.2 percent Violent crime increased 6.7 percent All crime increased 6.2 percent   From 2014 to 2015 [In Denver]: Crimes against persons increased 7.5 percent Crimes against property increased 6 percent Crimes against society increased 15.6 percent All other offenses decreased 5.7 percent All Denver crimes increased 4.1 percent   From 2013 to 2014 [In Denver]: Crimes against persons increased 15.1 percent Crimes against property decreased 3 percent Crimes against society increased 23 percent All other offenses increased 41 percent While the statistics are not in dispute, the numbers offer no avenue to test causation — they are merely observations of year-to-year changes in crime rates. In the latest edition of this report, the task force makes this point explicitly (and in all caps) in a disclaimer: NOTE: SOME OF THE DATA REPORTED IN THIS SECTION IS BECAUSE THERE HAVE BEEN SO MANY INQUIRIES ON THE PARTICULAR SUBJECT, SUCH AS CRIME AND SUICIDES. THIS IS NOT TO INFER THAT THE DATA IS DUE TO THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA. In terms of published evidence, this report from Colorado is all that Nebraska (or Oklahoma) has officially cited in defense of the claim that marijuana legalization will lead (or has led) to an increase in violent crime in their state(s). Even if proper data existed, the adoption of recreational marijuana in Colorado is likely too recent to provide enough data to demonstrate anything statistically significant. That means that the best data the public can rely on in terms of an association between liberalization of marijuana laws and violent crime comes from states which have legalized medical marijuana and have a significant marketplace for medical dispensaries. The most thorough investigation of that relationship is a 26 March 2014 study published in the journal PLOS One. That study investigated changes to crime rates in states before and after policies legalizing medical marijuana, concluding: Results did not indicate a crime exacerbating effect of MML on any of the Part I offenses. Alternatively, state MML may be correlated with a reduction in homicide and assault rates, net of other covariates. […] These findings run counter to arguments suggesting the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes poses a danger to public health in terms of exposure to violent crime and property crimes. In fact, this same study tested the very premise Sessions proposed in his statements to reporters (that the high amounts of money involved in the marijuana industry will attract further violent or property crime): Interestingly, robbery and burglary rates were unaffected by medicinal marijuana legislation, which runs counter to the claim that dispensaries and grow houses lead to an increase in victimization due to the opportunity structures linked to the amount of drugs and cash that are present. This large-scale study echoes the findings of more preliminary or limited research, as well. Results from an investigation between medical marijuana legislation and violent crime was presented at the 2015 Fall Research Conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. This study utilized state-level crime reports from 1994 to 2012 to test for an association between medical marijuana legalization and different forms of violent and nonviolent crime. They reported: Preliminary results suggest MMLs lead to a significant decrease in arrest rates for violent crimes among both juveniles and adults. Initial estimates also point to a reduction in arrest rates for property crime, which is likely driven by a decrease in burglary and theft arrests among juveniles. Adults living in states with MMLs experience a significant decline in drug abuse violation arrests. Potential mechanisms to explain the decline in arrest rates include increased security at dispensaries and homes, the decreased level of alcohol consumption that accompanies the implementation of MMLs, and the role of law enforcement. Another study, published on 13 January 2016 in the Journal of Drug Issues, compiled data from 11 states in the Western United States to “test hypotheses about potential effects on rates of violent and property crime”. These researchers concluded: There is no evidence of negative spillover effects from medical marijuana laws (MMLs) on violent or property crime. Instead, we find significant drops in rates of violent crime associated with state MMLs. Ultimately, the inherent weakness in the arguments attempting to make connections between marijuana legalization and violent crime is even betrayed by Peterson’s own congressional testimony, where he implores congress to “envision” the trouble that could potentially come: With law enforcement in Colorado now confronting a “wave of illicit marijuana cultivation” on public lands, it is not difficult to envision linkages between a relaxed overall enforcement environment within Colorado and emboldened drug gangs increasing their production activities on public lands. Historically, “envisioning” terrible things coming from marijuana (without demonstrating the reality of those things) has been a big part of campaigns against ending federal marijuana prohibition. Harry Anslinger, the first Commissioner of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the driving force behind marijuana prohibition in the 1930s, wrote a July 1937 editorial for The American Magazine that echoed similar speculative fears: How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured… Claim: There is a demonstrable link between marijuana legalization and an increase in violent crime.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 15 December 2016, multiple web sites reported that a new Russian reality show called Game 2: Winter would allow rape and murder while contestants were participating in Siberia:  Readers who spotted the article floating around on social media often missed a less visible, slightly contradictory sub-heading that said:  Contestants sign waiver acknowledging they may not survive nine-month Siberian wilderness challenge, and if crimes are committed, [contestants] will be arrested[.] The article described the waiver, but reiterated that all crimes committed in the course of the show were prosecutable: “Each contestant gives consent that they could be maimed, even killed,” reads an advert. “2000 cameras, 900 hectares and 30 lives. Everything is allowed. Fighting, alcohol, murder, rape, smoking, anything.” Contestants will each sign a waiver acknowledging that they might be raped or killed but the rules also state that police are free to arrest anyone who commits a crime on the show. “You must understand that the police will come and take you away,” the rules state. “We are on the territory of Russia, and obey the laws of the Russian Federation.” Deadline provided further details about the show, which was purportedly in production as of December 2016: Envisioned as an online series to begin on July 1 next year and run through April 1, 2018 it will be screened 24/7 around the world. It’s the brainchild of entrepreneur Yevgeny Pyatkovsky who created and is financing the show. Per reports, he is investing 1B rubles ($16.2M) in the series which will air in English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. The official ad for the show says “Each contestant gives consent that they could be maimed, even killed. 2000 cameras, 900 hectares and 30 lives.” The rules say “Everything is allowed. Fighting, alcohol, murder, rape, smoking, anything.” In an interview last month, Pyatkovsky said all potential contestants sign waivers, acknowledging that they could be raped or killed. As of November 18, he said there were already 32 people who had signed up, including one American. A few days later, the list of applicants had reached 60. The Siberian Times‘s coverage of the planned Russian reality show cited a 1 July 2017 start date for pre-filming activity, and was the likely source of inaccurate rumors: The contest called ‘Game2: Winter’ is the brainchild of Novosibirsk entrepreneur Yevgeny Pyatkovsky, who said: ‘We will refuse any claim of participants even if they were to be killed or raped. ‘We will have nothing to do with this. This will be spelt out in a document to be signed by the participant before the start of the show.’ He said: ‘There have been no reality TV projects before that stay on air 24/7. ‘Probably all of you have watched the Lost TV series, but surviving in a tropical climate is quite different from trying to stay alive in the Siberian taiga – boreal forest – at minus 40 degrees Celsius. Claim: A forthcoming Russian reality show called \"Game2: Winter\" will permit contestants to commit crimes, including rape and murder.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The story says that a month’s supply of ginger supplements typically runs about $10 – $30. What does a decrease in inflammation level of 28% mean? No context is given for the scope of this effect. Barely satisfactory. The story only says that previous animal research showed ginger “isn’t potentially toxic to the stomach like aspirin.” What about in people? The story states that the National Library of Medicine that ginger is “likely safe…although some people may develop side effects. Yes, there were caveats, such as: But our grade is unsatisfactory because the validity of the research isn’t questioned. How valid were the inflammation level measurements taken in the study? What does a 28% decline in inflammation level mean? 28% of what? From what to what? What percentage is significant? We don’t even know whether these levels of inflammation (recall that the volunteers were healthy) are linked in any way to colon cancer development. There is no evidence given that the kind of inflammation measured in study participants’ intestines is at all related to colon cancer. Yet the headline reads: “Ginger Supplements Might Ease Inflammation Linked to Colon Cancer” Is all stomach inflammation so linked? Readers may think that inflammation itself is worrisome, when in fact inflammatory markers are always present to varying degrees. One independent source was quoted. No context was given about any other research in the field of the inflammation – colon cancer link. Is this the only research in the field? The relevant comparison may be the relative reduction in colorectal cancer risk (or inflammatory markers) with aspirin, the most common anti-inflammatory product most people are exposed to. The story says ginger is found in supplements and in many foods. The availability of ginger supplements is implied elsewhere in the story. The story at least gives this context: “Previous research in animals has suggested that ginger can reduce inflammation but isn’t potentially toxic to the stomach like aspirin, Zick noted. And scientists have linked chronic inflammation in the gut to colon cancer, suggesting that easing this inflammation could reduce the risk of the disease.” There’s no evidence that the story relied solely on a news release. Claim: Ginger Supplements Might Ease Inflammation Linked to Colon Cancer",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In Mozambique the number of dead has risen to 446 while there are 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi for a three-nation total of 761. All numbers for deaths are still preliminary, warned Mozambique’s Environment Minister Celso Correia. As flood waters recede and more bodies are discovered, the final death toll in Mozambique alone could be above the early estimate of 1,000 made by the country’s president a few days after the cyclone hit, said aid workers. Nearly 110,000 people are now in camps more than a week after Cyclone Idai hit, said Correia, the government’s emergency coordinator. As efforts to rescue people trapped by the floods wind down, aid workers across the vast region are bracing for the spread of disease. “We’ll have cholera for sure,” Correia said at a press briefing, saying a center to respond to cholera has been set up in Beira though no cases have yet been confirmed. Beira is working to return basic services, he said. Electricity has been restored to water pumping and treatment stations by the government water agency, so Beira and the nearby city of Dondo are getting clean water, he said. Electricity has been restored to part of Beira and the port and railway line have re-opened, he said. Repairs and bypasses are being built to the main road, EN6, which links Beira to the rest of Mozambique and the road should open Monday, said Correia. The restored road connection will allow larger deliveries of food, medicines and other essential supplies to be to be brought to Beira and to flooded areas like Nhamatanda, west of the city. “People are already going,” the environment minister said of the newly accessible road. Malaria is another looming health problem that the minister said was “unavoidable” because large expanses of standing water encourage the spread of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Asked about his country’s current corruption scandal and whether the diversion of money has hurt the rescue efforts, Correia bristled, saying the government’s focus now is on saving lives. “We are doing everything to fight corruption,” he said. “It’s systematic, up to the top,” he said of the anti-graft drive. Two large field hospitals and water purification systems were on the way, joining a wide-ranging effort that includes drones to scout out areas in need across the landscape of central Mozambique, said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, deputy director of the U.N. Humanitarian operation. The scale of the devastation is “extraordinary” not only because of the cyclone and flooding but because the land had already had been saturated by earlier rains, he said. A huge number of aid assets are now in Mozambique, Stampa said: “No government in the world can respond alone in these circumstances.” Claim: Cyclone death toll above 750; fighting disease new challenge.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: With conservative Marco Rubio nipping at his heels in the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is trying to pump up his conservative credentials. In a new radio advertisement for his campaign, he says, \"Here in Florida, I’ve slashed government by 10 percent. That’s $7 billion.\" It’s a statement Crist has also made on the campaign trail, and at a Hillsborough County Republican Party fundraiser earlier this month. It’s true that Florida’s budget has dropped by 10 percent, or about $7 billion, since Crist was elected governor in November 2006. The budget passed by the Legislature and approved by then-Gov. Jeb Bush in May 2006 came in at $73.9 billion. This year’s spending plan tops out at $66.5 billion. But can Crist, as his radio ad claims, really take credit for the cuts? In 2007, Crist did veto $459 million from the state budget, setting a state record with his veto pen. But the Florida Constitution requires that state lawmakers prepare a balanced budget, which is built around revenue generated by sales taxes, corporate taxes, other taxes and fees, and federal appropriations. And since 2007, that revenue has declined significantly as the nationwide recession has taken hold. State budget documents show that in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, $31.7 billion was available in the general revenue fund. This year, the fund had only $21.9 billion. (In fiscal year 2007, the fund had $28 billion, and in 2008, it had $24.3 billion.) With revenue down and a constitutional requirement for a balanced budget, Crist had to either cut spending or raise taxes. \"This is not a concerted effort on the part of our governor and Legislature to cut the budget,\" said Dominic M. Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch. \"It is because of the worst economy Florida has had since the Great Depression.\" Crist has defended the budget-cut claim by saying that in other states, taxes were increased to cover shortfalls. While Crist didn’t push for tax increases to make up the entire shortfall, he did approve fee and tax increases this year — on everything from fishing licenses to initial vehicle registrations to cigarettes — that total $2.2 billion. So while it is true that state government has shrunk by 10 percent since Crist’s election, it had little to do with him, and a lot to do with the shrinking economy. For those reasons, we give Crist’s statement a Barely True. Claim: Here in Florida, I’ve slashed government by 10 percent. That's $7 billion.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: With Rhode Island facing a budget crisis, officials are desperate to find ways to generate more revenue or save money. During a Dec. 17, 2010, budget summit, Robert G. Flanders Jr., chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, said bringing down the state's high school dropout rate could be the key because a well-educated work force would attract new business. In addition, he said, there could be a direct monetary benefit to government as well. \"The biggest thing I think we can do at the state level to promote savings is to do a better job of keeping kids in school and not having them turn out to be dropouts because the dropout problem -- it's not unique to Rhode Island of course -- but every dropout costs us $72,000 for the life of that person, whereas any person who has a college degree is generating hundreds of thousands of dollars for the state,\" he said. \"The most expensive tuition we pay is the tuition to send kids to the training school or the ACI [Adult Correction Institutions], and those are disproportionately populated with people who have no education or who have dropped out and have no skills to get jobs.\" Does each dropout really cost the state $72,000 over a lifetime? We're always curious where the numbers like these come from, so we decided to go to the source. Flanders' office directed us to an April 2009 report from Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies prepared for the Board of Governors for Higher Education, The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island. To find out how much high school dropouts cost the state, the authors used data gathered for the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey to make several estimates. One was their average earnings from age 18 to 64 in 2007 dollars. That number turns out to be $827,438. Then they estimated how much a typical dropout pays during that period in federal, state and local taxes, including property and sales taxes. Finally, they subtracted how much the typical dropout is expected to receive in unemployment compensation, disability, food stamps, Medicaid, workers' compensation and other social welfare programs, or how much would be spent to keep them in prison, using national incarceration statistics. It turns out that, by their reckoning, an average high school dropout costs society $440,214 from age 18 to 64. That's offset by the $367,867 he or she pays in taxes. Thus, a dropout's lifetime cost is $72,347, which is where Flanders' $72,000 number comes from. Looked at another way, the money you save by converting one dropout to one high school graduate is even higher. According to the methods used in the study, graduates have a lifetime income of $1,206,250, pay $532,922 in taxes, and consume $216,217 in services. Instead of being a $72,347 drain to the government, they add $316,705 to state, local, city and town coffers. So the average net benefit to the tax rolls of preventing one dropout is $389,052 over a lifetime. In theory. One problem with Flanders' comment is that he was talking about the impact of dropouts on the state, while the study looked at all taxes -- state, federal and local. State taxes make up about one quarter of a person's tax burden, according to estimates from The Tax Foundation, a respected business-backed tax policy group. Suddenly the $389,052 in tax benefit accrued by preventing one dropout and helping them graduate drops to about $100,000 over a lifetime. That's $2,100 per year. Meanwhile, we found other sources of information that made us wonder about the estimates. If you do the math, you discover that, according to the study, dropouts and high school graduates pay 44 percent of their lifetime earnings in taxes. But The Tax Foundation, which gives an annual estimate of how much Americans pay in taxes, reports that state, federal and local taxes amount to 27 percent of income, a much smaller ratio. Also, in 2005, Cecilia Rouse, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, made her own estimate of the lifetime difference in income between dropouts and high school graduates. She pegged it at $260,000, much smaller than estimate of $378,812 found in the study cited by Flanders. In her study, Rouse noted that the dollar amount varies significantly depending on how the economy behaves. The lifetime estimate could be as low as $121,000 or as high as $294,000. Rouse, who now works at the White House as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, said such estimates include all sorts of assumptions that can quickly turn out to be outdated. \"There's a lot of variation in this,\" she said. \"These numbers are, at best, illustrative and are meant to make a point, and I don't encourage anybody to . . . say, 'That's the number.'\" Christy Huebner Caridi, director of the Marist College Bureau of Economic Research in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., expressed concern that the Harrington study \"didn't pick up indirect costs such as the need for increased police and private security because there's an increased criminal element\" with more dropouts. \"There are many factors they couldn't take into consideration in a study like this,\" she said. We asked Paul Harrington, the chief author of the study cited by Flanders, who is now at Drexel University in Philadelphia, about some of the discrepancies. He said one reason for the variation is that other reports exclude people who have no earnings; even though they have no income, they do end up paying some types of taxes such as sales tax. \"Because there are many more zero earners among dropouts, this will bring down their average per capita lifetime earnings estimates proportionately more than it will lower their average lifetime tax burden, given that they do pay some taxes,\" he warned. \"Our findings are consistent with other reports once we exclude zero earners from the analysis.\" He also noted, correctly, that the Rouse study looked at employee payroll taxes, state income and federal income taxes, not sales and other types of taxes. So that's another reason why the analysis would come up with different numbers. \"I think we're using some of the best data out there for research purposes,\" he said. \"I think these are probably pretty solid numbers.\" There's no disagreement that dropping out of high school is harmful, both for the individual and society. Dropouts tend to make less money, get in trouble with the law more often, require more social services and end up with more health problems. But the $72,000 figure strikes us as another example of experts making assumptions and doing calculations that produce numbers that sound precise, yet may only be rough approximations of the truth. In the end, while experts may calculate the cost of dropouts in different ways, they all agree that turning would-be dropouts into high school graduates is beneficial to the economy. But Flanders cited the $72,000 figure with a degree of certainty that is undeserved. And he did not make it clear that the figure includes lost tax revenue to the federal government, not just the state. As a result, the Truth-O-Meter grades his assertion as . Claim: Every dropout costs us $72,000 for the life of that person.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Q: Are Muslim nurses excused from washing their hands before medical procedures in Britain? A: No. That is an old misrepresentation that has been circulating online since 2010. A false story that started in Britain eight years ago has immigrated to America.In 2010, the website for the far-right British National Party claimed that the country’s National Health Service had changed its hygiene rules to allow Muslim nurses to skip washing their hands before seeing patients. It wasn’t true, but the claim had an appeal that allowed it to re-emerge several times over the years — including in 2013, 2014 and 2016. In March, it showed up on a website called hardcoreUSAnews.com.That recent version concludes: “So it’s true. Sharia law is actually hazardous to your health. Wonder if it would be possible to get a Surgeon General’s warning slapped on every Koran sold in the U.S.?”That story was posted on Facebook page called World Against Terrorism, which has more than 35,000 followers. Some Facebook users flagged the story as potentially false. It is.The original claim from the British National Party was posted shortly after the United Kingdom’s Department of Health updated its recommendations on uniforms for health care workers in March 2010.The original story said, in part: “female Muslim staff will now be exempt from the rule that all personnel be scrubbed and bare below the elbow.” That is a complete misrepresentation of what the amended recommendations from the department actually advised.After convening a group of Islamic scholars, chaplains, health policy makers, and infection prevention experts, the department recommended that uniforms can include long sleeves when the worker is not directly caring for patients and workers can use disposable forearm covers when they are also using gloves. The covers, with elastic at the elbow and wrist, are to be treated the same as gloves. In all instances, the guidance states, “Strict procedures for washing hands and wrists must still be observed.”That clear requirement for hand washing is made at least twice in the document.Still, hardcoreUSAnews.com wrote in its recent story: “Muslim nurses in the UK have now been granted the option of participating in medical operations without washing their hands.”That’s just not accurate.Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk false stories flagged by readers on the social media network.“Islamic Colonisation of Britain Continues: NHS Relaxes Hygiene Measure to Accommodate Muslim Staff but Bans Crucifix.” BNP.org.uk. 11 Apr 2010.“U.K Hospitals: Muslim Surgical Nurses, Actually All Muslim Nurses, No Longer Required To Wash Their Hands….” theconservativetreehouse.com. 29 Apr 2013.“Muslim Nurses Refuse To Wash Hands Before Operations, Say It ‘Compromises Religious Beliefs.” jewsnews.co.il. 20 Oct 2014.“Muslim Nurses refuse to wash hands in UK Hospitals according to Sharia Law.” terrornewsnetwork.com. 9 May 2016.“MUSLIM NURSES REFUSE TO WASH HANDS BEFORE OPERATIONS, THE REASON WHY IS INSANE.” hardcoreUSAnews.com. 12 Mar 2018.Department of Health. “Uniforms and workwear: Guidance on uniform and workwear policies for NHS employers.” NationalArchives.gov.uk. Mar 2010. Claim: Muslim nurses now have the \"option of participating in medical operations without washing their hands.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The latest poster child for gridlock in Washington is congress’ inability to pass a Zika funding bill. Florida has home-grown cases and has started aerial spraying. Meanwhile, a $1.1 billion aid package sits on ice. House Speaker Paul Ryan put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Democrats. In an USA Today op-ed, Ryan said his side compromised plenty to move the bill forward. The Senate passed a bill that called for $1.1 billion, all in \"new\" money, that is, not pulled from existing funds. The House wanted much less. When the two sides got together to resolve the differences, the House came up to the $1.1 billion mark and paid for it with a mix of new and existing money. \"Unfortunately, when this plan went to the Senate for a vote, Democrats derailed it,\" Ryan wrote. \"This was despite months of calling for action, and even voting in favor of that exact funding level just weeks prior. They blocked our plan not once, but twice — a blatant ploy in an election year. Because of their actions, this funding is in limbo.\" Ryan has the sequence of events right, but he leaves out one part. When House and Senate negotiators got together in their conference committee, Republicans added a clause to block any money going to an affiliate of Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico. On the Senate floor in June, Florida Democrat Bill Nelson argued that this would limit access \"to birth control services needed to help curb the spread of the virus and prevent terrible birth defects.\" He said the House measure was not \"a serious solution.\" Without Democratic support, the bill never made it to a straight up or down vote. We previously fact-checked Nelson’s claim that the Planned Parenthood ban would limit access to care. Here’s a map of the clinics that would get money under the bill. While this shows a few areas without a clinic, it turns out the Planned Parenthood affiliate doesn’t fill any of those gaps. A public health researcher told us that Planned Parenthood reaches younger and poorer women, but on balance. There would be some reduction in access, but not based on where women live. In theory, they could find care elsewhere in their community. So where does that leave us with Ryan’s claim? He is correct that Senate Democrats agreed to a $1.1 billion plan. But the bill they approved did not have the Planned Parenthood funding ban. To that extent, the bill they rejected was a different bill. Those differences were anti-abortion measures inserted by House Republicans. There were other changes, but the Planned Parenthood element was the one mentioned most often. Our ruling Ryan said Democrats blocked the Zika funding bill after agreeing on the dollar amount. That part is accurate, but the main reason Democrats gave for their action was the Republican addition of language that barred a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Puerto Rico from receiving government funds. Democrats could have chosen to accept that provision and passed the bill. On the other hand, Republicans could have chosen not to add it during the conference committee. It took two to tango. Claim: After initially agreeing with Republicans on an amount for Zika funding, \"Democrats derailed it.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The “Mexico City Policy”, also known as the “global gag rule”, also led to more pregnancies and lower contraceptive use among women in African countries reliant on U.S. foreign aid, the study in the Lancet Global Health journal showed. The policy prevents U.S. federal funding from being used overseas to support any organization that performs or provides counseling on abortion. Successive U.S. administrations have flip-flopped between rescinding and reinstating it along partisan lines since it was created by the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan in 1984. “Our findings suggest how a U.S. policy that aims to restrict federal funding for abortion services can lead, unintentionally, to more – and probably riskier – abortions in poor countries,” said Nina Brooks, a researcher at Stanford University who co-led the work. The researchers urged the United States, as the world’s biggest donor of development assistance, to recognize the health of mothers as “a global priority”, and warned that the Mexico City Policy’s knock-on effects could add to maternal death rates. The study looked at induced abortion, contraception use and pregnancy rates between 1995 and 2014. It used data from 26 sub-Saharan African countries over two U.S. policy transitions - from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, then from Bush to Barack Obama - and compared rates in countries exposed to a greater or lesser extent to the policy due to reliance on aid. The researchers used what they called a “difference-in-difference” method to identify any changes - in other words they analyzed whether the difference between rates or abortion, pregnancy and contraceptive use in high-exposure countries versus low-exposure countries were significantly greater when the policy was in place than when it was not. Results showed a significant 40% increase in abortion rates in exposed countries when the policy was active, as well as a 13.5% relative drop in the use of modern contraceptives, and a 12% rise in rates of pregnancy. Stanford University’s Eran Bendavid, who co-led the study, said its findings had probably captured only a partial view of the policy’s harm to maternal health, since knock-on effects of risky abortions were not measured. “Because abortions are an important cause of maternal mortality, the increase in abortion uptake might also increase maternal deaths — and possibly disproportionately given that abortions under the policy could be less safe,” he said. Claim: U.S. 'gag rule' linked to 40% jump in abortions in parts of Africa.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Members of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club are known for asking tough, pointed and sometimes over-the-top questions of the politicians who speak at their regular luncheon meeting. The May 13, 2011, event -- which was broadcast on WEDU's \"Florida This Week\" program -- was no exception. We'll cut to the chase. A questioner asked first-term state Rep. Jeff Brandes, a Republican representing District 52 in Pinellas County, if he was a fraud. \"When you ran for office, if I recall correctly, you said, 'Now when I get elected, I'm gonna really take that Legislature to the woodshed,' \" a man named Thomas Dunn said to Brandes. \"But when you got elected, somehow you lost your backbone and you became a lackey if not a lapdog for the speaker. So my question is, when you ran for office, were you a fraud?\" Brandes, who ran a campaign commercial vowing to take Tallahassee \"to the woodshed,\" sat back in his chair and chuckled. \"That's an interesting question,\" he started in response. \"If you'll go back and watch that commercial, and read it line by line, what you'll see what I said is, for those that want to increase taxes or increase government regulation, we're going to take them to the woodshed. That was the exact line. I know and understand everybody wants me to take everybody to the woodshed, and sometimes it's probably appropriate.\" He continued: \"The reality is, I think I stood up on a number of issues against the speaker and against the governor. I've gotten a phone call from the Governor's Office saying why don't you think welfare recipients should be drug-tested. I believe it's a violation of people's privacy to do that. And I stood up and did that (voted against that). So I think you'll find I have a lot of votes where I was the voice in the Legislature against something. Sometimes I was the only 'no' vote on the entire board. That takes a little bit of courage. So to say I have no courage, no backbone, is, I think, a little disingenuous.\" Brandes repeatedly used the woodshed imagery during the campaign because he used to be in the lumber business -- his family once owned Cox Lumber. He said in the television ad that \"high taxes and over-regulation have got to stop so jobs can return. If Tallahassee gets in the way, we're taking them to the woodshed.\" And at his election night victory party after defeating incumbent state Rep. Bill Heller, he signed blocks of wood. Some Democrats, and apparently Dunn, took the line to mean that Brandes would take Tallahassee to the woodshed on every issue. While that may be a stretch, Brandes did defend his record as being an independent voice in the Legislature in his response. So we decided to check his record from the 2011 legislative session. Turns out, there are examples where Brandes bucked the Republican leadership, and even the entire Florida House of Representatives. Brandes was the lone person in the Legislature to vote against HB 949, a bill that added some licensing requirements for pest control businesses. The bill passed the House 116-1 and the Senate 38-0. Brandes' legislative aide, Nick Hansen, said Brandes voted against the bill because it included additional regulations. Brandes also was the lone \"no\" vote on SB 650, which allows a mobile home park homeowners association a chance to buy its park outright if the owner is considering changing its land use. The bill passed the House 114-1 and the Senate 39-0. And he opposed the majority of Republicans on several other issues:  HB 88: Brandes was one of two Republicans to oppose a bill that put restrictions on the amount of severance pay public employees can receive. The bill passed both chambers. SB 330: Brandes was one of four members of the Legislature and the only Republican to vote against a bill that makes it an election code violation for candidates to falsely say they served in the U.S. military. (Brandes is a former officer in the U.S. Army Reserves who served in the most recent Iraq war.) The bill passed both chambers. HB 661: Brandes was one of four Republicans to oppose a bill that would cap damages in wrongful death cases at nursing homes at $250,000. The bill passed the House but failed in the Senate. An amendment to HB 733: Brandes was the only Republican to join Democrats in supporting an amendment that would have lengthened an August sales tax holiday. (Two other Republicans initially voted with Brandes, but later changed their vote.) The bill did not pass. And as he said at Tiger Bay, Brandes was one of two House Republicans to vote against HB 353, which requires cash welfare recipients to first pass a drug test. Brandes spoke on the House floor that the measure violated people's privacy rights. The bill passed both chambers. Now, Brandes didn't always buck his own party. In fact, he was in lockstep on most of its highest priorities. He voted for GOP bills that prohibit public employees unions from collecting dues through automatic payroll deductions (which ultimately failed), restrict or limit abortions (passed), loosen the state's growth management laws (passed), change election law (passed), and to ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment creating two Supreme Courts (failed). He also voted for the budget. But in this fact-check, we're judging his words. Brandes said: \"I think you'll find I have a lot of votes where I was the voice in the Legislature against something. Sometimes I was the only 'no' vote on the entire board.\" Measuring \"a lot\" can be subjective, but Brandes is right that on two occasions he was the only \"no\" vote in the Legislature. In other cases, he bucked his party and stood with Democrats. We don't know if that adds up to taking them to the woodshed or not. But we do know it makes his statement . Claim: Sometimes I was the only 'no' vote on the entire board.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: It discusses the drug’s costs, which are expected to be substantial. Given the relatively small population that the drug might be of benefit to, price considerations are important. The story briefly notes both aspects. We liked the early caveat that VX-770 is designed for use in only 4% of people with CF, or 1200 Americans. It summarizes the alternative treatments for CF. It would’ve been interesting to note what other therapies subjects in this study received. Claim: Trial Shows Cystic Fibrosis Drug Helped Ease Breathing",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: This story doesn’t mention the costs of the fish oil supplements it appears to support. However, the cost of such supplements is reasonable and the period in which they’re recommended is short — the last trimester of pregnancy — making cost a lesser concern than in some cases. The story explains the benefit this way:  “At age 6, children whose mothers took fish oil supplements while pregnant had a 395 grams higher total mass, 281 grams higher lean mass and 10 grams higher bone mineral content than children whose mothers who took olive oil during pregnancy, the findings showed.” This is sufficient, but the story could have provided some context on whether these numbers are clinically meaningful. Is 395 grams (less than a pound) a big deal? What about 10 grams more bone mineral content? Is that change big enough to reduce fractures, for example? The story didn’t discuss any risks of taking fish oil. But these include belching, bad breath, heartburn, nausea, loose stools, rash, and nosebleeds. For pregnant women who have to be vigilant about even seemingly harmless side effects (nausea can be a serious symptom in the third trimester, for example), these details are important. The story points out that this study used both an experimental and control group to test their hypothesis about fish oil supplements, and mentioned the large number of participants who took part — 736 pregnant women. It also included some of the study’s limitations and explained that growth wasn’t the primary measurement researchers were following, it was actually development of asthma. No disease mongering here. The story provides comments from independent sources unaffiliated with the research. We did not detect any conflicts of interest that should have been disclosed. Since there is little existing research in this area, the inclusion of another alternative would be difficult. Fish oil supplements are readily available. The story made very brief mention of other research in this area. Past trials of fish oil supplements during pregnancy or breast feeding, using different designs, doses, and follow up periods, have shown mixed results. The story would have been strengthened by some context, including findings of other studies and what is known of a possible mechanism for an effect of fish oil on growth of offspring. The story doesn’t appear to rely on a news release. Claim: Fish Oil Pills During Pregnancy Might Mean Stronger, Healthier Kids",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: What the vapors delivered instead was a jolt of synthetic marijuana, and with it an intense high of hallucinations and even seizures. More than 50 people around Salt Lake City had been poisoned by the time the outbreak ended early last year, most by a vape called Yolo! — the acronym for “you only live once.” In recent months, hundreds of vape users have developed mysterious lung illnesses, and more than 30 have died. Yolo was different. Users knew immediately something was wrong. Who was responsible for Yolo? Public health officials and criminal investigators couldn’t figure that out. Just as it seemed to appear from nowhere, Yolo faded away with little trace. As part of an investigation into the illegal spiking of CBD vapes that are not supposed to have any psychoactive effect at all, The Associated Press sought to understand the story behind Yolo. The trail led to a Southern California beach town and an entrepreneur whose vaping habit prompted a career change that took her from Hollywood parties to federal court in Manhattan. When Janell Thompson moved from Utah to the San Diego area in 2010, the roommate she found online also vaped. Thompson had a background in financial services and the two decided to turn their shared interest into a business, founding an e-cigarette company called Hookahzz. There were early successes. Thompson and her partner handed out Hookahzz products at an Emmy Awards pre-party, and their CBD vapes were included in Oscar nominee gift bags in 2014. In a video shot at a trade show, an industry insider described the two women as “the divas of CBD.” Indeed, Hookahzz was among the first companies to sell vapes that delivered CBD, as the cannabis extract cannabidiol is known. Now a popular ingredient in products from skin creams to gummy bears, cannabidiol was at that time little known and illegal in some states. The partners started other brands that offered CBD capsules and edibles, as well as products for pets. Part of Thompson’s pitch was that CBD helped treat her dog’s tumors. By autumn 2017, Thompson and her partner formed another company, Mathco Health Corporation. Within a few months, Yolo spiked with synthetic marijuana — commonly known as K2 or spice — began appearing on store shelves around Salt Lake City. Synthetic marijuana is manmade and can be manufactured for a fraction of the price of CBD, which is typically extracted from industrial hemp that must be farmed. Samples tested at Utah labs showed Yolo contained a synthetic marijuana blamed for at least 11 deaths in Europe — and no CBD at all. Authorities believed that some people sought out Yolo because they wanted to get high, while others unwittingly ingested a dangerous drug. What authorities didn’t understand was its source. Investigators with Utah’s State Bureau of Investigation visited vape stores that sold Yolo, but nobody would talk. The packaging provided no contact information. By May 2018, the case was cold. But it was not dead. That summer, a former Mathco bookkeeper who was preparing to file a workplace retaliation complaint began collecting evidence of what she viewed as bad business practices. During her research, Tatianna Gustafson saw online pictures showing that Yolo was the main culprit in the Utah poisonings, according to the complaint she filed against Mathco with California’s Department of Industrial Relations. Gustafson wrote that while at Mathco she was concerned about how Yolo was produced, that it was excluded from Mathco’s promotional material and that the “labels had no ingredients or contact listing.” Justin Davis, another former Mathco employee, told AP that “the profit margins were larger” for Yolo than other products. Gustafson’s complaint asserted that Mathco or JK Wholesale, another of the companies that Thompson and her partner incorporated, mixed and distributed Yolo. Financial records in the complaint show Thompson’s initials as the main salesperson for Yolo transactions, including with a company in Utah. The records also show Yolo was sold in at least six other states, including to an address in South Carolina where a college student said he vaped a cartridge that sent him into a coma. The former bookkeeper also tipped the Utah Poison Control Center about who she believed was behind Yolo, according to her complaint. Barbara Crouch, the poison center’s executive director, recalled getting a tip in late 2018 and passing it along to the State Bureau of Investigation. SBI agent Christopher Elsholz talked to the tipster, who told him she believed the company she had worked for distributed Yolo. Elsholz said the company was in California and therefore out of his jurisdiction, so he passed the tip to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA offered to help but took no law enforcement action, spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger said. Spiked CBD is a low priority for an agency dealing with bigger problems such as the opioid epidemic, which has killed tens of thousands of people. In the end, it wasn’t the synthetic marijuana compound in Yolo from Utah that caught up with Thompson. It was another kind of synthetic added to different brands. By the time of the Utah poisonings, vapes labeled as Black Magic and Black Diamond had sickened more than 40 people in North Carolina, including high school students and military service members. Investigators were able to connect Thompson to that outbreak in part based on a guilty plea from the distributor of the spiked vapes, who said a woman that authorities identified as Thompson supplied the liquid that went into them. Prosecutors also linked her to dealers charged in New York, where she pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to distribute synthetic marijuana and a money laundering charge. The only brand federal prosecutors cited was Yolo. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman called Thompson a “drug trafficker” who used JK Wholesale to distribute “massive quantities” of synthetic marijuana as far back as 2014. She faces up to 40 years in prison. Reached by phone the week before she pleaded guilty, Thompson declined to discuss Yolo and then hung up. In a subsequent text message, Thompson said not to call her and referred questions to her lawyer, who did not respond to requests for comment. While Yolo was Thompson’s project and she was the exclusive salesperson, her business partner and former roommate was involved in its production, according to the workplace retaliation complaint. Thompson’s business partner and former roommate, Katarina Maloney, distanced herself from Thompson and Yolo during an August interview at Mathco’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California. Maloney has not been charged in the federal investigation. “To tell you the truth, that was my business partner,” Maloney said of Yolo. She said Thompson was no longer her partner and she didn’t want to discuss it. In a follow-up email, Maloney asserted the Yolo in Utah “was not purchased from us,” without elaborating. “Mathco Health Corporation or any of its subsidiary companies do not engage in the manufacture or sale of illegal products,” she wrote. “When products leave our facility, they are 100% compliant with all laws.” Maloney also said all products are lab tested. She did not respond to requests for Yolo lab results. ___ This version corrects the name of the agency that received the tip, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, not U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Claim: Clusters of illness linked to CBD vapes share 2nd connection.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In one study, presented on Tuesday at 2011 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, researchers at the Cleveland Department of Public Health saw big improvements in rates of HIV testing when they added reminders to patients’ electronic health records about the need for routine testing. In another, officials in the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health used disease mapping technology to identify HIV-infected patients not getting adequate treatment — increasing the risk of transmission. Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease and Prevention, which sponsored the conference, said the studies, and others like it, will help as the agency implements the National HIV/AIDS Strategy introduced by the White House last summer. That plan aims to focus resources where HIV is most heavily concentrated — among gay and bisexual men of all races, blacks and Hispanics. Currently, about 1.2 million people in the United States are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and about one out of five people who are infected do not know it. And rates are much higher among high-risk individuals, according to data from a CDC study of 21 cities presented at the meeting by CDC’s Dr. Alexandra Oster. Oster’s team found that HIV continues to severely impact three groups at high risk of infection — men who have sex with men, injection drug users and poor heterosexuals. The study, which included data on nearly 30,000 individuals, found 19 percent of men who have sex with men were infected with HIV, 9 percent of injection drug users were infected, and 2 percent of heterosexuals in low-socioeconomic groups were infected. That compares with infection rates of just 0.47 percent in the overall U.S. population. Among those who were infected, nearly half did not know they were HIV positive. To help remind doctors of the need for testing, Dr. Ann Avery of the Cleveland Department of Public Health studied the impact of adding reminders to the electronic medical record system used at MetroHealth, a Cleveland-based hospital system that provides care to patients regardless of insurance status. When they started the study, only 4 percent of patients aged 13 to 64 were screened for HIV from 2008 to 2009. To increase routine HIV testing, last July MetroHealth added an HIV testing prompt to the electronic medical records system reminding doctors to screen all patients aged 13 to 64 if they had not been previously tested. Within six months of the changes, HIV testing in the hospital’s outpatient clinics rose dramatically, increasing by nearly two-thirds. The effort was especially effective at increasing testing among men, with first-time testing rising from 2.9 percent of those tested to 6.1 percent. Separately, a team led by Dr. Jennifer Sayles, director of Office of AIDS Programs and Policy for Los Angeles County used disease mapping software to track HIV infection and treatment rates among the county’s more than 10 million residents. Sayles studied treatment coverage among more than 12,000 HIV-infected individuals whose care was paid for through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which provides HIV-related services to those who do cannot afford their care. Overall, 90 percent of patients reported getting antiretroviral drugs to keep the virus under control. But a cross-check of postal codes showed significant variation in treatment by neighborhood. Where patients lived also played a role in how well their infection was controlled. In general, blacks, people under 24, recent substance abusers, recent prisoners and the poor were more likely to have poorly controlled disease. Sayles said the study will be used to help target resources to those who need it most. Claim: HIV in America: Studies zero in on trouble spots.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office says 64-year-old Jillian White was found unconscious and unresponsive in her cell Sunday and deputies weren’t able to revive her. Sheriff Joe DiSalvo told The Aspen Times Tuesday that she used an extension cord used by a previous inmate to plug in an oxgenator that shouldn’t have been left there. White had a history of theft and drunken driving allegations. She was arrested in August for allegedly stealing from neighbors and was recently found incompetent to stand trial. Prosecutors say that her lawyer told the court Friday that she had found a private mental health facility for White to be sent to instead of the state hospital and requested that she be transferred there. ___ Information from: The Aspen Times, http://www.aspentimes.com/ Claim: Inmate awaiting mental health treatment dies in Aspen jail.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Sanofi announced the plan hours before one of its executives was set to testify before a congressional committee on the rising prices of insulin. Executives from the other leading insulin producers - Eli Lilly & Co and Novo Nordisk A/S - will also testify. The cost of insulin for treating type 1 diabetes in the United States has nearly doubled over a five-year period, leading some patients to put their own health at risk by rationing the medication. Under its plan, Sanofi said people with diabetes in the United States can buy up to 10 boxes of insulin pens or vials with a valid prescription for $99 per month, beginning in June. The price of other manufacturers’ leading insulin products is $178 to $300 per vial and $235 to $563 per pack of pens, according to Sanofi. The move is an expansion of Sanofi’s “Insulin Valyou Savings Program” launched last year and represents a significant savings for patients already enrolled who had been paying $99 for each vial of insulin and $149 for each pack of insulin pens. “When you hear us say in our testimony in the hearing tomorrow that it is heartbreaking and no one should have to go without insulin, we mean it,” Michelle Carnahan, Head of North America primary care at Sanofi, said in an interview on Tuesday. Sanofi is not the first company to cut insulin prices in response to intensifying criticism from patients and politicians. Last month, Eli Lilly announced plans to sell a half price, authorized generic version of its popular Humalog insulin injection. The list price for Lilly’s authorized generic, to be sold only in the United States, will be $137.35 per vial. Patients with high out-of-pocket insulin costs can participate in the Sanofi program regardless of their income level, Sanofi said. Under current regulations, it can not offer the plan to patients insured under the government’s Medicare or  Medicaid programs or similar federal and state health programs. In terms of profitability, Sanofi said it believes the pricing program is sustainable for the long term. The company’s diabetes business brought in about 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in U.S. sales last year. Since Sanofi launched its “Insulins Valyou Savings Program” last April around 12,000 patients have utilized the program, saving about $10 million, the company said. Claim: Sanofi to cut U.S. insulin costs for some patients to $99 per month.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Potential costs not addressed. However, this is not a commercially available test or even available in most research labs so costs are very difficult to predict. But a story like this also could have touched on the whole issue of the downstream costs associated with testing everyone who forgets someone’s name or where they put their car keys – could be enormous – and the costs of providing what are now relatively ineffective current drug treaments. The story was really not clear about the benefits to be gained by early identification of pending Alzheimer’s disease. Although one expert was quoted as saying that he was a \"proponent of knowing what is ahead\" and the value in doing so while people can still \"speak for themselves\", it is not clear from this story what one would do with advance knowledge that one was going to develop Alzheimer’s disease.Not everyone is a proponent of knowing what is ahead, especially given uncertainty about effective treatment. Although the story did acknowledge that there are very few medical treatments for patients once they are diagnosed with Alzheimers’s, it failed to address the burden of such knowledge for the patient and the patient’s family. There could be insurance ramifications, there should likely be a consulting component to go hand in hand with the test, and there is the possibility of false positive results. The story did not do an adequate job of addressing the potential harms of this test. Mixed views on this criterion. The story did a good job in: However, the story doesn’t give much discussion about the specific limitations of this study. For example, this case-control type of patient selection almost always overestimates test accuracy. So it’s likely to perform worse in real world populations. The story also didn’t comment on the fact that the publication in the journal Nature Medicine was actually a letter – which is curious and almost demands comment. Although methods are published, why was it not published as an original article about original research? As a letter, was it peer-reviewed? The same as original articles? What’s missing is just as important as what was included, and for that reason. Although the story used some dramatic wording, it balanced the drama with hard, objective data on annual mortality rates due to Alzheimers and gave overall prevalence. The story included quotes from two individuals with expertise in the field but no direct connection with the publication discussed or the company which has been established to market the test. The story made reference to several other tests which are currently being explored for use in detecting Alzheimer’s disease. While it did mention MRI, the story did not mention current approaches to diagnosis (i.e. eliminating other possible diagnoses). Although the story used words like \"proves\" and \"promising\", it also included estimates for the time needed for further testing that made it clear that this was not something that was currently available. This was a story reporting on the development of a method for identifying individuals who will go on to devlop Alzheimer’s disease. It was accurate in the portrayal of the novelty of the approach. Does not appear to rely exclusively on a press release. Claim: Stanford team finds blood test to help identify Alzheimer’s disease",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: No dollar signs here. However, not including a mastectomy (anywhere from $15,000 to $55,000 or more), tissue-expander breast surgeries typically cost about $40,000 per breast. But if there are any complications, those costs can skyrocket due to additional surgeries and other medical costs. The benefits are described — “diminished post-operative pain, quicker recovery time, improved mobility, and an excellent aesthetic outcome” — but not quantified, neither alone nor in comparison to other options. How much is pain reduced by this procedure? How much faster is the recovery time? How much better can women get around? What constitutes “excellent” when it comes to the look of a reconstructed breast? We aren’t told. Even if the release had quantified the results or made a comparison to other techniques, this is a report of one procedure in one patient. It is not possible to make general statements about the benefits of a procedure when only one procedure has been performed. As a 2013 New York Times Well blog post highlights, about one-in-four nipple-sparing surgeries (promoted by this release) lead to dead tissue “in the areola or in nearby skin” — and additional surgeries to remove that dead tissue. The risks or necessity of mastectomy and reconstructive breast surgery aren’t mentioned, either. Mastectomies (as compared to lumpectomies or avoiding surgery altogether) may not lead to better outcomes for many women. Also, implants can leak, cause infections, and lead to other complications. We’re also not told how radiation and chemotherapy — two extremely common treatments in conjunction with breast cancer surgeries — affect results. The one saving grace of this release is its last word, which makes a case for approaching each woman’s diagnosis and treatment on an individual basis. Throughout the release, we get an earful about cause-and-effect relationship: If you do get tissue expander before, then you’ll heal faster, suffer less, and look better. But all we get is a vague mention to “ongoing research.” What and where are these studies? At the very least, how are outcomes measured? Who is this procedure appropriate or inappropriate for? The lack of key details that support the release’s claims is a major oversight. This is a procedure not commonly performed, and more study is needed to identify best candidates for the procedure as well as to evaluate the complications and long term results. Descriptions of pain and long recovery periods are found in this release. But that seems essential to the nature of this procedure, which aims to reduce these and other problems. The Valley Breast Center is listed at the end of the release. But due to the overwhelmingly positive comments from the patient who received the procedure, it would have helped to make clear whether or not she was compensated in any form by the hospital system. Options for reconstructive breast surgeries are as numerous as they are nuanced, depending on the needs of the patient. However, none of them — one-stage implant surgeries, muscle flap surgeries, etc. — get even a passing mention. In the context of this procedure, it would have been helpful to clear up the alternatives, including the more-common procedure of getting an implant beneath the chest muscle (where it’s less likely to cause complications). It should always be stressed that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to breast cancer reconstruction. Factors taken into account include the patient’s constitution, other medical problems, location of the cancer in the breast, type of cancer, need for preoperative or postoperative chemotherapy, need for radiation therapy, and patient preferences for cosmetic outcome. In addition, extensive discussion needs to be held regarding the potential complications of each reconstructive approach. We’re told The Valley Hospital performed this surgery, and — by implication of going through the effort of issuing a news release — we have to assume the hospital plans to perform this surgery again for patients who qualify. However, that isn’t made clear. This is definitely not a new technique. However it needs to be stressed that there are very good reasons why it is not commonly performed, and this release does not discuss any of them. The novelty is essentially lost in this release — the most we’re told is that this is a “variation of a standard technique.” Almost all tissue-expanding breast surgeries place a balloon-like sac beneath chest muscles and on top of the ribs, where they’re better held in place (and less likely to protrude through surgical cuts). The procedure described here places the implant on top of the chest muscles — right below the skin. Breast surgeons typically avoid this because the breast skin alone might not be able to support a saline-filled sac after an aggressive surgery, even if filed gradually over weeks. And as much as this release tries to make the procedure seem new, it’s not; it just appears to be new within this particular corner of New Jersey. Hyped terms like “innovative” and phrases such as “has the potential to be a ‘game-changer'” are found throughout this release — and there’s almost nothing to back them up. Claim: New Breast Reconstruction Technique Provides Better Outcomes, Less Discomfort for Women Recovering From Breast Cancer",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Since the middle of the last century, revolving doors have been a quietly ubiquitous feature of modern cities around the world. But do they have their origins in one man’s neurotic attitude toward holding doors open for women? The most often-cited example of this legend is a 2013 article in Slate by Roman Mars, of the design podcast 99% Invisible. The story goes like this: Theophilus Van Kannel hated chivalry. There was nothing he despised more than trying to walk in or out of a building, and locking horns with other men in a game of “oh you first, I insist.” But most of all, Theophilus Van Kannel hated opening doors for women. He set about inventing his way out of social phobia. In the accompanying podcast episode, Mars warned: “Keep in mind that with all these origin stories, when they sound a little too much like stories, they’re probably not completely true.”  David McCall, writing in the Australian Design Review four years later, also traced the invention to Van Kannel’s purported misogyny: The story goes that he invented the revolving door because he simply hated holding doors open for people, especially women. It has also been reported that Kannel [sic] was a man without a family. These two facts may not be unrelated. The earliest version of the story that we could find was a 2008 post by Jaime Morrison on the art and design blog The Nonist, which went into considerable detail about the origins of Van Kannel’s aversion to chivalry, tracing it back to a public spanking from his mother and attributing his invention to his wife’s insistence that he hold open doors for her at all times. It seems that when Van Kennel [sic] was a boy, still in the care of his mother but just on the cusp of cultural manhood, he found the lingering rules of chivalry rather bothersome. In particular he refused to accept that he was expected to open the door for women and allow them to cross the threshold before him. A silly sort of quirk to our minds, certainly, but it was taken seriously enough by his mother that after numerous warnings and threats she eventually felt compelled to take action. Van Kennel [sic] family histories have it that at some point in his twelfth year she administered a savage bare-bottomed spanking, during a salon in the family’s drawing room, in full and explicit view of 37 local mothers and daughters. …Had this been the only episode the world may have never had a revolving door to shuffle through. As it so happens, however, Theophilus Van Kennel [sic] married a woman who, though beautiful and slyly clever, had an odd and stubborn quirk of her own. Young Abigail Van Kennel, it seems, refused to pass from one room of their apartments to another without the assistance of Theophilus. That blog post contains the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer that “…All untruths are, I assure you, my own. I’ll leave it to you to sort out which is which”; and cites just one source, an essay by the MIT professor James Buzard — which makes no mention of Van Kannel’s now-legendary misogyny. Indeed, despite extensive archival research, we did not find any evidence to back up the persistent rumor that Theophilus Van Kannel invented and refined the revolving door because of a neurotic aversion to holding doors open for women and others. In fact, we found several pieces of evidence which severely undermine the credibility of this claim. In July 1882, an H. Bockhacker received a patent in Berlin for a “Thür ohne Luftzug” (“draftless door”) whose design is essentially that of a revolving door. Six years later, on 7 August 1888, Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received Patent #387,571 for his “Storm Door Structure.” In his patent application, Van Kannel wrote: It will be evident that a storm door structure of the character described possesses numerous advantages over a hinged-door structure of the usual character, for, as the door fits snugly in the casing, it is perfectly noiseless in its operation and effectually prevents the entrance of wind, snow, rain, or dust either when it is closed or when persons are passing through it. Moreover, the door cannot be blown open by the wind, as the pressure is equal on both sides of the center of motion. Van Kannel subsequently patented several refinements and improvements to the revolving door, founded the Van Kannel Revolving Door Company, and died in New York City on Christmas Eve, 1919, at the age of 78. He was born in a log cabin in Coshocton County, Ohio, on 21 October 1841, to Swiss immigrant parents. Throughout his life, he was a prolific inventor. A 1988 publication of his autobiography and journal, housed in the Library of Congress, lists 49 patents, but the book’s editor writes that Van Kannel might have actually put his name to “about 75” of them. Over the years, Theophilus invented a cherry stoner, cider mill, water hydrant, shipping tag, gas machine check-valve, a sewing machine, an “apparatus for scalding vegetable or fruit,” and many more. He was also the inventor and owner of the Witching Waves ride at a Coney Island amusement park. He married Amanda Clayton, of Chester, Illinois and in November 1867 the couple had a daughter named Lulu. This refutes David McCall’s suggestion that Van Kannel’s alleged misogyny was due to the fact that he did not have a family. He did. The fact that Van Kannel’s wife was named Amanda also severely undermines The Nonist’s colorful stories about his wife “Abigail,” who “refused to pass from one room of their apartments to another.” In fact, Theophilus Van Kannel’s two-volume, almost 500-page autobiography and journal does not contain any evidence of any neurosis relating to women, nor any social phobias of any kind. What it does reveal is a multi-talented young man, somewhat sober and straight-laced, who struggled for many years with debt and an artificial leg, but enjoyed a fairly healthy social life, combined with a consistent dedication to his work. He wrote frequently to his mother, regularly visited his sister and her family, and spoke lovingly about his female relatives. (His journal entry on 30 January 1864 reads: “Letter from my sister requesting me to write an obituary for her husband. Sent $5 to mother.”) Another entry suggests Van Kannel understood and honored the Victorian norms of chivalry, without any reservations. 28 September 1861 (aged 19): …I received permission to buy some window blinds for the schoolhouse. While in the post office a very old lady came in to send off a letter, but she had no money to pay for the stamp. She asked the postmaster, Mr Bowman, to credit her, but he refused. I then bought ten cents’ worth of stamps and sent her letter. She was a stranger to me… As he grew into his 20s, Van Kannel’s journal shows him courting young women in Cincinnati, Ohio, all the while following the rules of chivalry and decorum. 26 February 1863 (aged 21): We all went to the church again this evening to practice our parts for the exhibition, and all showed great improvement. For the first time I mustered up enough courage to ask a young lady for her company home, and she very readily accepted. Nothing in his journal suggests the kind of “social phobia” or misogyny involved in the many stories told about him 150 years later. He attended church every Sunday, taught children, attended school with men and women, was an active member of debating societies, met friends for dinner and drinks (although he disliked drunkenness), and occasionally escorted young women home or to the theater. His interests and inventions were eclectic. By 1867 he was already developing a type of door spring, and so it’s not at all surprising that he would turn his mind to the innovation that eventually became the revolving door. Swinging doors let in drafts, making it difficult to control the temperature of a building, especially one with heavy footfall like a bank or train station. It is in keeping with the pattern of Van Kannel’s professional life that he would have identified this problem, and attempted to solve it using his gift for engineering. His invention of the revolving door does not require a psychological motivation. Nor were we able to find one, despite reading hundreds of pages of archival material and the journal of Theophilus Van Kannel himself. We looked at several news and feature articles about Van Kannel, some dating to the early 20th century. Not one mentioned Van Kannel’s now-mythical misogyny or aversion to chivalry — until The Nonist post, the veracity of which is extremely questionable. We contacted the 99% Invisible podcast, but we did not receive a reply by publication time. In October 2018, we received an email from Jaime Morrison, creator of the Nonist blog and author of the 2008 article about Theophilus Van Kannel and the invention of the revolving door. Morrison told us that he had written about Van Kannel’s now-legendary misogyny as no more than a joke which he was disappointed to find had been taken seriously by others: Claim: Theophilus Van Kannel, who developed the revolving door, did so because of an aversion to holding open doors for women and other acts of chivalry.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: U.S. President Donald Trump and the federal government have been widely criticized for what detractors described as their slow response to the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic. As of this writing, the U.S. is still facing shortages of critical medical supplies such as masks and personal protective equipment (PPE). On March 31, 2020, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that the government might have been too distracted by impeachment proceedings to focus on the impending pandemic. McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the outbreak “came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.”  Shortly after McConnell made these remarks, a number of op-eds were published refuting this claim. Trump even responded, saying, “I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached.” On social media, people started sharing a list that supposedly showed all the times Trump had golfed or held rallies after being warned about an impending pandemic, arguing that if Trump had time for leisure activities and political rallies during his impeachment, then he had time to deal with disaster response:   The timeline in this tweet is generally correct. Trump was officially impeached on Dec. 19, 2019. It’s not clear exactly when Trump was first alerted about the possibility of a pandemic. The Washington Post reported that U.S. Intelligence officials were warning the president about the potential scale of the coronavirus outbreak as early as January. While we don’t know a specific date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its first alert for U.S. clinicians to be “on the look-out for patients with respiratory symptoms and a history of travel to Wuhan, China” on Jan. 8, 2020. About a month after that on Feb. 5, Trump’s impeachment trial ended when the Senate voted not to convict. Before, during, and after the impeachment trial — and after the CDC issued its first warnings — Trump held political rallies and attended several golf outings. As stated in the above-displayed tweet, Trump visited a golf course on Jan. 18 and 19, Feb. 1 and 15, and March 7 and 8. All of these golf outings took place at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Trump also hosted rallies on Jan. 9 (Ohio), 14 (Wisconsin), 28 (New Jersey) 30 (Iowa), and on Feb. 10 (New Hampshire), 19 (Arizona), 20 (Colorado), 21 (Nevada), and 28 (South Carolina). At his rally in South Carolina on Feb. 28, Trump spoke to the audience about the new coronavirus, accusing Democrats of “politicizing” the virus and claiming the U.S. was “totally prepared.” Fox News reported: Speaking at the North Charleston Coliseum for more than an hour, Trump dismissed the complaints from Democrats about his handling of the virus as “their new hoax” and insisted “we are totally prepared.” He also mocked the party for its chaotic efforts to count the votes earlier this month in Iowa’s caucuses. “Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” Trump said, adding: “They can’t even count their votes.” Speaking at length about the virus, Trump said it “starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries around the world, doesn’t spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions” of his administration. But still, Trump argued, the Democrats are claiming that “it’s Donald Trump’s fault.” Claim: U.S. President Donald Trump golfed several times and held a number of rallies after learning about the threat of the coronavirus. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There is no discussion of the costs of hip replacement, even though it is a common procedure and its costs are widely discussed. For example, a Blue Cross Blue Shield report noted an average cost of about $30,000, but with wide variations, ranging between “$11,327 in Birmingham, Alabama, and $73,987 in Boston.” The basic premise of the story is that “same-day” hip replacement offers important advantages to patients, but the only benefit specifically noted in the story is that people who opt for this procedure are less likely to spend a night in the hospital. Even then, there are only vague references and quotes from the surgeon on how many patients really go home the same day. Indeed, the one patient named in the story did not go home the same day. The story does note that studies following hip replacement patients for at least six months find no important differences in how they fare depending on which sort of procedure they had. Still, the overall thrust of the story is that “same-day” is superior, without critically evaluating the differences between going home that day or the next. We will give the story a Satisfactory rating on this criterion because it includes comments from a surgeon who warns about the risk of serious complications during the first night after surgery. However, the most prominent voice in the story is a surgeon who dismisses those concerns by saying, “if the pain is controlled and the patient is healthy and medically completely stable there is no reason for them to be in the hospital. It really doesn’t make sense.” We’re not given any information or data that proves this “doesn’t make sense,” though. We also think potential harms that could have been included are falling at home due to dizziness, or otherwise not being adequately prepared for managing under major surgery. The story does mention one study that found no difference in longer term outcomes of two types of hip replacement procedures. However, it fails to note that there are few good studies comparing outcomes of different types of hip replacement procedures and that the choice may rest largely on the personal experiences and preferences of individual surgeons, rather than robust scientific evidence. The story does not exaggerate the extent of hip problems or the relevance of replacement surgery to people with chronic hip pain. This does appear to target younger, healthier people, and surgery for them comes with special considerations–a hip replacement has a 20 to 25 year life span, less when put into a more physically active person. So, younger people may face a second procedure at an older age. When deciding on the timing of the first procedure, this should be considered since second surgeries are more involved and higher risk. This story does include a surgeon who is skeptical of the benefits of “same-day” hip replacements. However, as noted above, the surgeon advocating the “same-day” procedure is featured far more prominently, likely creating an imbalance in reader perceptions. But the main reason for marking down the story on this criterion is that it fails to tell readers that NYU Langone has a marketing campaign tied to “same-day” hip surgery. The result is that the story supports the promotional efforts of the hospital and its surgeons without alerting readers to the commercial aspects of the matter. The hospital tweeted an image of an earlier story on “same-day” hip replacement, indicating the marketing department understands the value of friendly coverage. HealthNewsReview.org also reviewed that Wall Street Journal story. As noted above, the story exaggerates the differences between hip replacements billed as “same-day” and those that give patients more conservative timelines. The story offers examples of hospitals currently offering “same-day” hip replacements. If anything the story understates the availability of the procedure. However, the story could have been more clear about who this procedure is most available to, since this won’t be the right option for some people. For example, if they don’t have help at home, or if they live far from the hospital. The story implies “same-day” hip replacement is new. While the practice is becoming more common, it is part of a long-term gradual trend toward shorter hospital stays, rather than a sudden break with past practice. In fact, reports on the technique note that over a decade ago some hip replacement patients were discharged the same day. The impression that NYU Langone Medical Center has a new type of procedure appears to be more marketing spin than medical fact. The story includes original interviews and other reporting. Claim: Same-day hip replacements get patients back on their feet",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “Life became unbearable. From the time I got up in the morning until when I went to bed at night, I struggled through every breath of air,” De Freitas, now 74, told Reuters by phone from his home in Toronto. After two years, De Freitas was offered a lung, with one significant downside: The donor had hepatitis C.  In October 2017, he became the first patient enrolled in a just published study conducted at Toronto General Hospital testing a technique that aimed to flush out and inactivate the hepatitis C virus from donor lungs before a transplant. The research comes amid a spike in available organs linked to the opioid overdose crisis, meaning many are contaminated by hepatitis C as the virus is commonly spread by sharing needles. Since it can easily infect an organ recipient, those organs are usually discarded despite the urgent need. Data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which matches donors with recipients, shows that 97 percent of people  waiting for a lung in the United States last year were unwilling to accept an organ from a donor who tested positive for hepatitis C.  While hepatitis C causes serious liver disease, the virus can be present in the blood in other organs. Researchers are testing different approaches to salvage infected organs. A study published in April showed that giving patients antiviral therapy just hours after transplant surgery can successfully attack the virus before it gains a foothold in the recipient. Eliminating the virus prior to transplant would simplify the procedure for patients, said UNOS Chief Medical Officer David Klassen. It could also significantly cut down on wasted donor organs. The technique used in Toronto, known as ex vivo lung perfusion, keeps organs “alive” outside the body by pumping them with a bloodless oxygenated liquid. They used ultraviolet C light to irradiate the solution, aiming to deactivate the hepatitis C virus and make it non-infectious. Perfusion allows doctors to evaluate and potentially rehabilitate organs for transplant, and buys them more time than  storage in ice boxes, which can cause tissue damage. Toronto researchers used a solution from Sweden’s Xvivo Perfusion AB with the hospital’s own ex vivo lung perfusion system, a bubble-like machine made from off-the-shelf components and an intensive care ventilator. The study of 22 patients, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine on Wednesday, had mixed results. Adding light therapy significantly decreased the amount of virus, but all but two of the patients contracted hepatitis C, which is now curable. Infected patients, including De Freitas, were treated with a 12-week course of antiviral drugs that rendered the virus undetectable in all of them. Two of those patients relapsed but were retreated and cured. One patient in the study died due to complications from lung transplantation. “All of the patients were in a very sick condition,” said Marcelo Cypel, surgical director at University Health Network in Toronto and co-author of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine study. “Perhaps some of them wouldn’t have made it to the transplant in time if they were not offered these type of organs.”  The researchers are planning another study combining perfusion with a photodynamic therapy, a type of light they believe could be more effective against the virus than ultraviolet because it can penetrate the organ as well as the solution. For a graphic on U.S. organ donors by mechanism of death:  here  In the United States alone, almost 113,000 people are on organ transplant lists, including more than 1,400 awaiting a new lung. Hundreds die each year while on the list or after becoming too sick to endure a transplant. A tragic public health crisis has led to an unexpected opportunity. With the jump in deaths from opioids such as heroin and fentanyl, overdose victims now account for 13% of U.S. organ donations, up from less than 4% a decade ago, according to UNOS. Many of those organs are going to waste. For example, last year less than 4% of hepatitis C positive donors in the United States had lungs used for transplantation, the study’s authors said in the paper. Other researchers are working with perfusion technology to improve the function of donated lungs, hearts and livers. Scientists at the University of Oxford were able to improve the quality of 16 donated livers with signs of a fatty liver disease. They treated donated organs outside the body with drugs and captured fat that was washed out of the liver through a filter on a transportable perfusion device developed by Britain-based OrganOx, according to a study presented last year. OrganOx has European Union clearance to use its device on livers and hopes to gain U.S. approval by the end of 2020. Perfusion device use currently is limited by cost, which can stretch to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and by lack of expertise and training. De Freitas, though, is grateful the Toronto researchers are testing perfusion to salvage organs. “Every day I get up and I thank the Lord, I thank the doctors because I am not supposed to be here,” he said. “I am supposed to be on the other side.”      (This story adds dropped words to name of medical journal) Claim: New transplant research aims to salvage infected donated organs.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A study published on Friday involving two species from South Africa, Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus, showed they boasted better hearing than either chimps or people in a frequency range that may have facilitated vocal communication in a savanna habitat. Both species featured a mixture of ape-like and human-like anatomical traits and inhabited grassland ecosystems with widely spaced trees and shrubs, as opposed to the forests of earlier members of human lineage. In both species, maximum hearing sensitivity was shifted toward slightly higher frequencies compared to chimpanzees, and both had better hearing than chimps or humans in the range from about 1.0-3.0 kilohertz, paleoanthropologist Rolf Quam of Binghamton University in New York said. Sounds in that range include vowels and some consonants, Quam said. “It turns out that this auditory pattern may have been particularly favorable for living on the savanna. In more open environments, sound waves don’t travel as far as in the rainforest canopy, so short-range communication is favored on the savanna,” Quam said. The human lineage split from chimps roughly 5 to 7 million years ago, Quam said, and our ancestors’ hearing abilities began to adapt to lifestyle changes. To assess the two species’ hearing abilities, the researchers studied fossils including tiny middle-ear bones called the ossicles (the malleus, incus and stapes) and created virtual computer reconstructions of the ear’s internal anatomy. Our species, Homo sapiens, which arose about 200,000 years ago, is distinct from most other primates in having better hearing across a wider range of frequencies, generally from 1.0 to 6.0 kilohertz. This range encompasses many sounds emitted during spoken language. “I want to be clear that we are not arguing that these early humans had language, which implies a symbolic content,” Quam said. “Certainly they could communicate vocally. All primates do. But human language emerged during our evolutionary history at some time after the existence of these early humans.”  Paleontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga of Spain’s Universidad Complutense de Madrid said their hearing abilities indicate their voices “would sound strange, half chimp-like, half human, to us. Or in other terms, not completely human.”  The research appears in the journal Science Advances, Claim: I'm all ears: fossils reveal human ancestors' hearing abilities.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: For probably as long as Democrats anticipated Hillary Clinton announcing for president, Republicans anticipated attacking her. On April 12, 2015, the day Clinton’s run became official, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus disparaged her on CBS' \"Face the Nation.\" The former chairman of the Wisconsin GOP appeared on the program after U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who declared for president several days before Clinton did. Paul told host Bob Schieffer that Clinton will have a problem with women voters because \"she has taken money from countries that abuse the rights of women,\" and he referred to Saudi Arabia. Schieffer later noted that Saudi Arabia had given money to Clinton’s foundation, and then while interviewing Priebus, said Clinton couldn’t use that money personally. Schieffer added: \"But it also occurs to me, a lot of your candidates and the Democrats as well, are going to be taking campaign contributions that we are never going to know where they come from -- but now you can give these unbelievable amounts of money without any accounting of where the money comes from.\" Priebus replied with a claim about kings and cash: \"But the difference is, all those other entities -- Super PACs, parties, individual candidates -- they can't take money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen, and that's what Hillary Clinton did. And so she's going to have to account for this money.\" Priebus' statement goes beyond foreign government contributions to the Clinton Foundation, leaving the impression Clinton herself may have benefitted from money donated by the four countries -- including Yemen, which is the home of one of al-Qaida’s most active branches, and where the United States has conducted airstrikes since 2009. Let's sort it all out. Clinton Foundation Not only Republicans are raising questions about whether the Clinton Foundation is taking millions of dollars a year from governments and other donors that want political influence. The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Politico and CBS News have run stories about the questions, with a Journal analysis noting that the number of governments contributing to the foundation in 2014 appeared to have doubled from the previous year. Responding to Priebus’ claim, the foundation emailed us a statement saying: \"Like other global charities, the Clinton Foundation receives support from individuals, organizations and governments from all over the world because the foundation's programs improve the lives of millions of people around the globe.\" The charity, originally named the William J. Clinton Foundation, was launched in 2001 by former President Bill Clinton. Its aim is to partner with government and non-government organizations to tackle issues such as AIDS and poverty. The foundation has received millions of dollars from foreign governments, as PolitiFact National found in February 2015 when it rated that claim by a conservative group as True. When Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, under President Barack Obama, the foundation agreed to disclose its donors at the request of the White House. When she left the Cabinet post, in February 2013, the foundation became the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, with Hillary Clinton taking an active role in fundraising. Clinton resigned from the foundation’s board just before announcing her candidacy. And a few days later, the foundation announced it would modify its policies while she is a candidate for president, limiting which governments can give directly to the foundation. An important note: Candidates for office are prohibited by law from accepting campaign contributions from foreign governments, but foundations have no such restriction. Here’s what we know about the four countries cited by Priebus: Saudi Arabia The kingdom gave between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation between the time the foundation was created through 2014, and some portion of the funds was contributed in 2014, according to the foundation’s searchable database. (The database only reports ranges of the total amounts given and does not provide a breakdown by year, except that it notes which donors made a contribution in 2014.) According to a February 2015 news article by the Washington Post, Saudi Arabia was among some foreign governments that had been supporting the foundation before Clinton was appointed secretary of state, did not give while she was in office and then resumed giving. Saudi Arabia has long been regarded by the United States as a friend and a \"strong partner in regional security and counterterrorism efforts,\" according to the State Department. Oman The Sultanate of Oman gave the foundation between $1 million and $5 million through 2014, including contributions given in 2014, according to the foundation database. The U.S. and Oman have been parties to a military cooperation agreement since 1980. Oman \"plays an important role in helping the United States realize its regional stability goals\" in the Middle East, the State Department says. Morocco Four days before Clinton announced her run, Politico reported that the foundation was accepting at least $1 million from a Moroccan government-owned company to hold a high-profile conference in May 2015 in Marrakech with the king of Morocco. The article noted that in 2011, Clinton’s State Department had accused the Moroccan government of \"arbitrary arrests and corruption in all branches of government,\" but that when she announced the conference in September 2014, she praised Morocco as \"a vital hub for economic and cultural exchange.\" The U.S. regards Morocco as a \"strong partner in counterterrorism efforts,\" according to the State Department. Yemen Neither the Post nor the Politico articles, which were cited to us by Priebus’ office, reported any donations to the foundation from Yemen. And a spokesman for the foundation told us the country has never been a donor. Yemen borders Saudi Arabia and Oman, but unlike those countries and Morocco, is not a monarchy. American drones have been conducting strikes in Yemen since 2009. On April 14, 2015, the al-Qaida terrorist group announced that one of its top spokesmen for its branch in Yemen had been killed the previous day by an American drone strike. Our rating Priebus said Clinton took \"money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen.\" The monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Oman have contributed to the Clinton Foundation, but Yemen, which does not have a king, has not. And although Priebus’ claim was made during a discussion of the foundation as well as contributions to political candidates, his phrasing could have left the impression that Clinton herself, rather than the foundation, received the money. For a statement that is partially accurate, our rating is . To comment on this article, go to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's web page. Claim: Reince Priebus Says Hillary Clinton took \"money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The original AP story told readers the cost of devices, approximately $6,000, and monthly supplies, approximately $250. The St. Paul Pioneer Press, in its shortened version of the AP story, left this information out. So our grade is for the Pioneer Press effort, not the original AP story. This article fairly communicates the risks and benefits of insulin pump use among adolescents. It does not overstate the main benefit of allowing young people to live more normal lives by eliminating the need for multiple daily insulin injections. The overall focus of the original research and this article was on the potential harms of insulin pump use by adolescents and the need to address safety concerns. Potential causes of adverse events related to patient use and education and device malfunction were appropriately described. This article could have been improved by including the importance of parental oversight in preventing adverse events, particularly since three of the five deaths occurred at times when there was no parental supervision. This article includes the key findings and conclusions reported in the Pediatrics study. Some of the study methodology, e.g. the 10-year time period of the investigation, was provided. But there is no mention that this was a retrospective study and what limitations such a study may have. The story mentions 13 deaths and > 1,500 injuries over 10 years, but fails to give the denominator of subjects involved. In addition, the research study also examined the use of analgesia pump use in adolescents which was not covered in the story. Why not? This article accurately summarizes the prevalence of adverse events related to insulin pump usage in adolescents and presents this information without sensationalism. The brief amount of background information on Type 1 diabetes was useful for context. The original AP story included the perspective of an independent expert, the American Diabetes Association’s president for medicine and science. It also included input from the editor of a patient newsletter. But the Pioneer Press deleted these perspectives. Instead, the St. Paul story included a quote from the manufacturer of the top-selling insulin pump. Why? Because it’s a local Twin Cities company? Multiple daily insulin injections, the standard most widely used treatment option for Type I diabetes, is appropriately referenced. The story establishes availability in its lead sentence when it clearly states that insulin pumps are used by tens of thousands of teenagers worldwide. This article accurately indicates that insulin pumps have been available and used for many years. There is no evidence that the AP story relied solely or largely on a news release. Claim: Problems spur FDA caution on insulin pump",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The good news: Kelly largely bounced back after returning home, say scientists who released final results from NASA’s “twins study,” a never-before opportunity to track the biological consequences of spaceflight in genetic doubles. It marks “the dawn of human genomics in space,” said Dr. Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins University. He led one of 10 teams of researchers that scrutinized the twins’ health down to the molecular level before, during and after Kelly’s 340-day stay at the International Space Station. More importantly, the study “represents more than one small step for mankind” by pointing out potential risks of longer-duration spaceflight that need study in more astronauts, said Markus Lobrich of Germany’s Darmstadt University and Penny Jeggo of the University of Sussex, who weren’t involved in the work. The findings were published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, on some notable space anniversaries — when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space in 1961, and the first launch of the space shuttle in 1981. KEY FINDINGS NASA already knew some of the toll of space travel, such as bone loss that requires exercise to counter. This time, NASA-funded scientists looked for a gamut of physiologic and genomic changes that Scott Kelly experienced in space, comparing them to his DNA double on the ground, former astronaut Mark Kelly. Some results had been reported in February. Possibly the weirdest finding had to do with something called telomeres, the protective ends of chromosomes. Those tips gradually shorten as we get older, and are thought to be linked to age-related diseases including some cancers. But in space, Scott Kelly’s telomeres got longer. “We were surprised,” said Colorado State University telomere expert Susan Bailey. She can’t explain it although it doesn’t mean Kelly got younger. Back on Earth, his telomeres mostly returned to preflight average although he did have more short telomeres than before. Next, Kelly’s DNA wasn’t mutated in space but the activity of many of his genes — how they switch on and off — did change, especially in the last half of the voyage, which ended in March 2016. Immune system genes especially were affected, putting it “almost on high alert as a way to try and understand this new environment,” said study co-author Christopher Mason, a Weill Cornell Medicine geneticist in New York. Again, most gene expression returned to normal back home, but some of the immune-related genes were hyperactive six months later. “We learned that the human body is pretty resilient and we can survive and to some extent maybe even thrive on these long-duration flights,” Mark Kelly said. Other findings: —Some changes in the structure of Kelly’s eye and thickening of his retina suggested that, like about 40% of astronauts, he experienced symptoms of “spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome.” It may be caused by fluids shifting in the absence of gravity. —He experienced some chromosomal instability that might reflect radiation exposure in space. —A flu shot given in space worked as well as one on Earth. —Kelly aced cognitive tests in space but slowed down after his return, maybe as more things competed for his attention. WHAT THE KELLYS SAY “It was a real privilege to be part of this study,” said Scott Kelly, who spent the year in space along with Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko. Kelly retired from NASA soon after his return. He said it probably took him six months once back on Earth before he felt 100% again, but acknowledged his wife said it seemed more like eight months. What was particularly hard, he said, was getting used to not having a schedule dictating his life in five-minute increments every single day, like there was in space. During a teleconference he joked with his twin, “I got all the glory and you got a lot of work.” “I got people coming to my house, right, for tubes of blood,” responded Mark Kelly. “But it’s great we saw and we learned that the human body is pretty resilient and we can survive and to some extent maybe even thrive on these long-duration flights,” he added. As for trips to Mars, Mark Kelly said: “I hope it’s sooner rather than later, and hopefully, our participation in this study will help us get closer to making a mission like that a success.” ULTRA LONG-DISTANCE TESTING Researchers needed months’ worth of blood, urine and fecal samples, along with cognitive and physical tests and ultrasound scans. That meant getting creative: Some blood samples required analysis so rapidly that Kelly would time collection so the blood could travel on Russian Soyuz capsules carrying other astronauts back to Earth. That wouldn’t be an option on a three-year trip to Mars. One of the study’s technological advances: Portable DNA-sequencing equipment that will let astronauts run some of their own genomic analyses on future missions, said Weill Cornell’s Mason. WHAT’S NEXT? Studying one pair of twins can’t prove risks of spaceflight, researchers cautioned. And longer missions, to the moon or Mars, will mean greater stress and radiation exposure. Colorado State’s Bailey plans to study 10 additional astronauts on yearlong missions, using the twin findings as a road map. More one-year missions are planned by NASA, officials said, but no details were given Thursday. “We need to get outside of low-Earth orbit and we need for the astronauts to spend longer periods of time to really evaluate some of these health effects,” she said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: NASA twins study explores space, the final genetic frontier.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While we’re given the size of the market, we don’t get the costs of the drug itself. It’s a biologic treatment and it ain’t cheap. Even if this story is targeted at a business audience, patient costs are extremely relevant. The study presented lots of numbers and defined the scales. We appreciated the Crohn’s Disease Activity Index (CDAI) thresholds for clinical response and remission, the subjects’ baseline CDAI scores, and the explanation of what a 100-point drop feels like to patients. Bravo for including these points and for mentioning that the study met its ‘primary goal.’ Great facts for readers to consider that are often left out of news coverage. Claim: Crohn’s patients respond to J&J’s Stelara in study.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The committee made its decision Wednesday after hearing testimony that included concerns from several physicians about using marijuana for those conditions. They said the drug offers momentary relief from anxiety but can lead to panic attacks or worsening anxiety for some patients. The physicians also noted concerns about marijuana’s effects on children’s developing brains. The full board could make a final decision at its September or October meetings, but it’s not clear whether it would vote against a recommendation from the committee. The board voted earlier this year against adding opioid use disorder, depression and insomnia as qualifying conditions, Claim: Ohio committee rejects medical marijuana for anxiety, autism.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The number of mental health nurses has fallen from 46,155 to 39,358 [since 2009]. This is the difference in the number of mental health and learning disabilities nurses between two different months which isn’t the best way to compare the figures. Comparing the figures in September 2009 and 2017 shows the drop has been larger. The number of doctors in specialist psychiatry training fell from 3,187 in 2009 to 2,588 in the first quarter of this year. This 20% drop was between September 2009 and March 2018, which isn’t a fair comparison. Comparing September 2009 and 2017 there was a 15% decrease. Claim 1 of 3 Claim: The number of doctors in specialist psychiatry training fell from 3,187 in 2009 to 2,588 in the first quarter of this year.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: “Will be meeting with representatives of the Vaping industry, together with medical professionals and individual state representatives, to come up with an acceptable solution to the Vaping and E-cigarette dilemma. Children’s health & safety, together with jobs, will be a focus!” he wrote on Twitter. Trump did not give a time for the meeting or offer any other details. He said on Friday that his administration would come out with “an important position” on vaping this week. On Thursday, the CDC reported there have been 2,051 confirmed and probable U.S. lung injury cases and 39 deaths associated with use of e-cigarettes, or vaping products. Nearly 85 percent of lung injury patients in the nationwide outbreak have reported using products containing THC, the component of marijuana that gets people high. In the CDC analysis, THC was detected in 23 of 28 patient samples of lung cells, including from three patients who said they did not use THC products. Nicotine was detected in 16 of 26 patient samples. U.S. public health officials have recommended that people avoid using e-cigarettes that contain THC or any products that come from illicit sources. The Trump administration in September said the Food and Drug Administration was working on a “guidance document” that would lead to a ban of all e-cigarette flavors, aside from tobacco flavoring. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters that once the guidance was finalized, enforcement actions would begin to remove the products from store shelves. In his remarks on Friday, Trump indicated that a flavor ban was still under consideration, but that other actions were as well, including raising the age limit for e-cigarette purchases. Asked if Juul Labs Inc, which dominates the U.S. e-cigarette market, would participate in the discussions, a Juul spokesperson said the company was not lobbying on the issue. “We are continuing to refrain from lobbying the administration on its draft flavor guidance while we take significant actions to combat underage use and convert adult smokers,” the spokesperson said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s tweet. Claim: Grocery store chain H-E-B's \"hurricane emergency supplies\" included a limit of two on brisket, due to projected storms in Texas.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: There are a lot of foods you can eat to increase your dietary intake of fiber, and the story lists apples, pears, raspberries, artichokes, green peas, broccoli, split peas, lentils, beans, whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread, brown rice, bran flakes, and oatmeal. We’ll rate the story Not Applicable since most people are aware of the cost of the foods mentioned. However, we wish the story had discussed the fact that many of these healthy sources of dietary fiber are either unaffordable or unavailable to many young women, particularly those from low-income backgrounds who live in food deserts. As we noted with the NPR story, we recognize that this is a story about breast cancer risk, not about food availability. However, if a story focuses on the importance of a healthy diet, there should ideally be at least a brief acknowledgment that many people do not have access to the foods that make up a healthy diet. We recognize that it would be challenging for any journalist covering this story to report on the absolute risks seen in the study. The study does not report absolute risks, although it is possible to calculate them based on the data provided. One could look at the number of cases in each quintile of dietary fiber (found in Table 2) and divide that by the number of people in each quintile (which is found in Table 1). There are several steps involved, but for the example of early adulthood dietary fiber and breast cancer risk in this cohort, you could do the following calculation: – 613 cases in quintile 1 / 18,364 women in quintile 1 = 3.3% later developed breast cancer (pre or post menopause) .– 567 cases in quintile 5/ 18,167 women in quintile 5 = 3.1% later developed breast cancer (pre or post menopause). – The difference is 0.2 percentage point, which is quite a small absolute risk reduction. When absolute risk numbers aren’t reported in a study, we think journalists should press their sources to provide these numbers so that they can be disseminated to the public. The issue of absolute risk reduction is key to helping readers understand the impact of changing dietary behaviors. We think it’s important enough to rate any story Not Satisfactory when these numbers aren’t provided. We’re not aware of any harms from incorporating additional fiber into one’s diet by eating more fruits and vegetables. We’ll rate this Not Applicable. The story offers a brief description of the study, and notes that it is an observational study rather than a clinical study. It also gets high marks for highlighting the fact that the study required women to “recall details about their adolescent diet when they were in their 30s and 40s.” (Though, worth noting, that sentence should say “…in their 30s, 40s and 50s.”) No disease mongering here. The story incorporates input from multiple independent sources who provide valuable perspective on the research. We particularly liked this line from Dr. Deanna Attai. (Full disclosure: Dr. Attai is also a reviewer for HealthNewsReview.org.) “The sexy headline is eat this and you’ll have a lower risk of breast cancer, but I’d shift the focus to, eat more fiber because it’s better for you and you’ll be a healthier person and you’re less likely to be obese and have chronic inflammation and other things that will reduce your risk for heart disease and cancer along the way,” And while the story does not address conflicts of interest, there do not appear to be any conflicts of interest to report. The story does note that increasing dietary fiber consumption “is just one mechanism by which we can reduce risk,” but it doesn’t mention any of the other mechanisms. Exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, getting sufficient sleep and limiting alcohol consumption can also help reduce breast cancer risk. There are no new products or services at issue in this story, and we addressed access to healthy foods under “Cost,” so we’ll rate this not applicable. This study is not the first to examine the possible link between dietary fiber and breast cancer risk. For example, a 2012 paper in the Annals of Oncology looked at 16 earlier studies on dietary fiber and breast cancer risk. There is no discussion of this earlier work, or how the new paper builds on or diverges from the previous research. The story definitely incorporated original reporting. Claim: Teen eating habits may help cut breast cancer risk",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Violence against women resulted in more deaths than all the wars and conflicts of the past century combined, according to actress Emma Watson. As part of her work as an United Nations Women Goodwill ambassador, Watson recently launched a feminist book club, Our Shared Self, and spoke with feminist icon Gloria Steinem in London. Beyond revelations about Watson’s similarity to Hermione, her new hairdo and her research into female sexual pleasure, the Harry Potter star also shared a statistic that \"blindsided\" her from the book, Sex & World Peace. (\"The two things we want, right?\" quipped Steinem.) \"There are now 101.3 men to every 100 women on the planet. So women are no longer half of humanity,\" Watson said on Feb. 24. \"I’m quoting the book here but it says, ‘More lives are lost from violence against women, sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, suicide, egregious maternal mortality, and other sex-linked causes than were lost during all of the wars and civil strife of 20th century.’ \" \"So from this perspective,\" she continued, \"The greatest security dilemma then is systematic, social devaluation of female life. I’d never come across a statistic like this. I had not understood that we were literally affecting the balance of the population of the world.\" That’s a startling statistic, and we wondered if it was grounded in fact. Looking at the available data, Watson has a point that the devaluation of female life leads to a staggering amount of lost lives. However, it’s not clear that those lost lives are higher than the number of war and conflict deaths in the 20th century. The numbers are comparable, but some estimates find the number of war deaths as slightly higher. The comparison We didn’t hear back from Watson or UN Women, but we did speak with Sex & World Peace’s author, Valerie Hudson, who’s a professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University. Hudson walked us through how she crunched the numbers and shared a chart from her 2009 study comparing the deaths due to conflict and deaths due to sex-selective causes:  Hudson told us she tallied up the death tolls of 53 wars, conflicts and authoritarian regimes for a total of 152.75 million lives. She then compared that number to the number of \"missing women.\" This concept, developed by Nobel-winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen in 1990s, uses abnormal male-to-female ratios to determine how many women would be alive in a specific year or time period if they weren’t aborted, neglected or victims of inequality. For example, in 2005, the sex ratio in India was 107.5 males per 100 females. The normal sex ratio for a stable population is about 98 to 100.3 males per 100 females. (Women tend to live longer under equal circumstances.) This means that there was a 6.7 percent to 9 percent shortfall in India’s female population, equal to roughly 36 million to 49 million missing women. Hudson used the UN Population Fund’s estimate of 163 million missing women in Asia in 2005 — 10 million more than lives lost to 20th century conflicts. But these figures aren’t the only estimates out there. Conflict deaths Let’s state off the bat that there are many difficulties with tallying up both how many women should exist but don’t, as well as how many lives were lost in all of the last century’s civil strife and wars. Any estimate of missing women only works on the assumption that the skewed sex ratio is a result of discrimination. Similarly, while the specific number of casualties in World War I or under Khmer Rouge are reported, estimates for deaths in little-known conflicts like the one between Islamic separatists in the Philippines and the government are murky or nonexistent. That being said, the estimates we found besides Hudson’s do not show female deaths eclipsing the conflict death of the 20th century. Nonetheless, the numbers for sex-linked deaths are still considerable. Hudson’s number for conflict deaths (153 million) is a bit low. Most other tallies pin the total death toll somewhere around 200 million: Source Death toll Rummel, 2011 At least 169.2 million* White, 2010 203 million Brzezinski, 2010 170 million Leitenberg, 2006 225.5 to 237.5 million Bassiouni, 1996 203 million Average 201.9 million (*We did not include Rummel’s 169.2 million estimate in calculating the average, because the figure refers only to democides, or government-inflicted deaths, and does not include war casualties or famines associated with regime mismanagement.) Hudson’s missing women figure, meanwhile, appears to be an outlier when compared to other estimates: Source Number of missing women Year Bongaarts and Guilmoto, 2015 150 million worldwide 2035 Bongaarts and Guilmoto, 2015 126 million worldwide 2010 UN Population Fund, 2012 117 million worldwide 2010 Anderson and Ray, 2010 86 million in China, India and sub-Saharan Africa 2000s UN Population Fund, 2005 (Hudson’s source) 163 million worldwide in Asia 2005 Hesketh and Zhu, 2006 67 million to 92 million in 8 Asian countries 2001 Klasen and Wink, 2003 102 million to 113 million worldwide 1990s Klasen and Wink, 2001 65 million to 107 million worldwide 1990s The war on women Experts we spoke with expressed the toll of gendercide with more tempered, and more accurate, comparisons than Hudson’s and Watson’s. \"The number of missing females is undoubtedly of a larger order than recent demographic catastrophes such as World War II, the Chinese Famine, the HIV-aids epidemics, etc.,\" said Christophe Guilmoto, a demographer and author of several UN reports on the issue. \"There are more missing women today than died in the two World Wars of the 20th century,\" said Stephan Klasen, a professor of development economics at the University of Göttingen. While none of the missing women estimates top the 20th century’s conflict death toll, they’re a \"stock measure,\" which quantifies the impact of gender inequality in survival for generations that are currently alive, according to Klasen. \"(A missing women estimate) does not count those women and girls who died from discrimination decades ago and would have, by now, died from other causes,\" Klasen said. If you tallied up all the missing women of the 20th century, \"the number would be well over 200 million,\" said Siwan Anderson, a University of British Columbia professor who specializes in development and gender economics. Since the 1970s, the number of missing women has risen and is expected to peak in 2035. There are no signs that skewed sex ratios have normalized even as we’ve normalized violence against women, Hudson told us. \"We silo it off as ‘stuff that happens between men and women’ and do not count it as ‘stuff that happens to human beings,\" she said. \"What an incredible level of impunity for a crime committed against a human being, just because that human being has two X chromosomes.\" Our ruling Watson said, \"More lives are lost from violence against women, sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, suicide, egregious maternal mortality, and other sex-linked causes than were lost during all of the wars and civil strife of 20th century.\" The claim comes from the book Sex and World Peace by Valerie Hudson, who was citing a UN figure of 163 million missing women in 2005. That’s 10 million more than her estimate of lives lost in all of last century’s strife, 153 million. But this is using a high estimate for the first measure and a low estimate for the second. The number of sex-related deaths, which varies from year to year, typically falls within 100 million to 130 million range. The number of deaths due to war, according to most other estimates, is about 200 million. Both numbers are disturbingly high, but it’s not clear that one is definitively higher than the other. Claim: More lives are lost from violence against women, sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, suicide, egregious maternal mortality, and other sex-linked causes than were lost during all of the wars and civil strife of the 20th century.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: While boiling water can be used to disinfect medical equipment during a pandemic, using boiling water and seasoning to clear your nose is not proven to protect you from COVID-19. One post on Facebook claimed that if you \"boil some orange peels wit cayenne pepper in it\" and \"stand over the pot breathe in the steam so all that mucus can release from yo nasal\" you can get rid of all the mucus because that is \"where THE VIRUS LIVES.\" The spelling errors may have tipped you off that this isn’t sound advice. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We've also seen plenty posts suggesting that boiling orange peels or lemon peels with sea salt and inhaling that steam is a treatment. The World Health Organization has a page on false COVID-19 \"cures,\" which lists lemon and turmeric as unproven cures for COVID-19. In that same vein, there is no evidence that oranges, another citrus, or cayenne, another spice, can cure COVID-19. Mucus is actually the body’s first defense against virus microbes that could enter airways, and blowing it out may not be the best way to protect yourself against COVID-19. A study published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe found that the \"mucus layer... can prevent pathogen invasion and subsequent infection.\" Currently, there is no specific treatment for people with COVID-19. Cough medicine, pain relievers, rest and fluids are all recommended because they alleviate the typical symptoms of COVID-19: cough, shortness of breath and fever. So clearing out your sinuses will definitely not make you less likely to catch COVID-19 or cure you if you are sick, and there’s no evidence that orange peels, lemon peels or cayenne contain any healing properties, either. We rate this . Claim: “Boil some orange peels wit cayenne pepper in it stand over the pot breathe in the steam so all that mucus can release from yo nasal… MUCUS is the problem its where THE VIRUS LIVES!!!”",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The article fails to mention the cost of treatment or whether it is covered by Medicare or other insurers. There is no quantification of benefits. The story reports ony the anecdotal experience on one patient with one surgeon. The article mentions a single disadvantage of the operation—that patients can’t lift heavy objects. But any patient undergoing joint replacement faces potential complications such as infection. In one recent study, 52% of patients had a complication after wrist replacement and 44% reported pain one to five years after surgery. (J Hand Surg [Am]. 2003;28:570-6). There is also the possibility of undergoing a second operation for fusion if the implant fails—a risk that persists with newer implant designs as well as old ones. The article does not cite a source for the projected 10- to 15-year life of the device. There is no discussion of evidence, a major lapse. Readers should know that there is scant high-quality literature on wrist replacement. Some experts consider the procedure experimental. The story’s “evidence” is comprised mostly of testimonials of one patient who underwent the operation and one doctor who performs about 10 of the operations every year. There are no obvious elements of disease mongering. It is clear that wrist replacement surgery is a treatment of \"last resort.\" The story relies on one patient and one “expert,” a surgeon who performs wrist replacements. It provides no information on potential conflicts of interest and no conflicting points of view. Input from experts outside of this institution would provide balance and potentially clarify the risks and benefits of this procedure. The article outlines some alternatives to wrist replacement surgery (e.g. medications, physical therapy, and fusion)—and briefly sketches their advantages and disadvantages. There are other surgical treatments for wrist arthritis as well, though the evidence to support them is also sparse. The article explains that wrist replacement has been available for decades. But why is the procedure “seldom used”? Is the device FDA-approved? Is the operation widely available in the U.S., offered in the local community hospital, or mostly consigned to large or academic medical centers? The article does not say. The story points out that wrist replacement surgery has been around for decades. The story’s single source of medical information—a surgeon–suggests that newer versions of the implants enable surgeons to retain more of the patient’s native bone. Two weeks before this story was published, the Texas Medical Center issued a press release about wrist replacement surgery, covering much of the same information in the Houston Chronicle article. The Medical Center is named in the second sentence of the article, and the story’s expert source is the same surgeon that is quoted in the press release. The story fulfills every public relations department’s dream, and does not stray far from the hospital’s and surgeon’s story line. But we can't be sure if the story relied solely or largely on the press release. Claim: Wrist replacement surgery is a last resort for those who wish to save hand’s range of motion",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The release does not address cost at all. While guselkumab is not yet on the market, HealthNewsReview.org has long argued that if it is worth discussing a drug’s treatment potential, it’s worth discussing what that treatment might cost — even if it is only in general terms. Certainly, readers of this release would be interested to know that the comparison drug, adalimumab (brand name Humira), costs almost $50,000/year. Considering the similarities between adalimumab and guselkumab, the release should have warned that if this experimental drug is approved, it might well also command a hefty price. The release is fairly clear in this regard, reporting that 81 percent of patients taking a 200-milligram dose of guselkumab reported “minimal” or no psoriasis symptoms after 40 weeks of treatment, compared to 49 percent of patients taking adalimumab. The release doesn’t note that patients taking 200-mg doses of guselkumab did only slightly better than patients taking a 100-mg dose, and that the 100-mg dose fared slightly better at various points during the first 40 weeks of treatment. But that’s a level of detail that perhaps we can’t expect. The release would have been better if it specifically noted that further study will be needed in order to find out if the observed benefits last longer than a year. The release also could have noted that the patients in this study were overwhelmingly white (91%) and male (71%), so it remains to be seen if a more diverse patient population would get similar benefits. The release does not discuss harms at all, which is problematic. The authors of the paper noted the difficulty in identifying true rates of adverse events in the study given the discrepancy in the number of subjects in each treatment group. There was a 6:1 ratio of guselkumab subjects compared to adalimumab in the post placebo phase of the trial. While the true incidence of harm is unclear at the moment, some comment is necessary even in a press release. For example, according to the paper, 20 percent of patients who received guselkumab experienced “adverse events of infection” during the first 16 weeks of the trial, as compared to 14 percent among patients receiving a placebo and 12 percent of patients who received adalimumab. A higher rate of infection is certainly worth mentioning. Heck, even a comparable rate of infection is worth mentioning. Overall, patients who received guselkumab had lower rates of all “adverse events” compared to adalimumab over the first 16 weeks of treatment (50 percent versus 56 percent), and over weeks 16 through 52 of the study (49 percent versus 61 percent). But the rates of adverse events were still noteworthy, and the release should have addressed them. This was a close one. The release does do a fairly good job of describing the overall study, but it fails to mention some important limitations. It explains that it was a multi-center study of 293 adults, it describes the symptoms of the adults, and it describes the study design: some study participants got guselkumab, some got adalimumab, and some got a placebo. It also explains how the study evaluated the effectiveness of the drugs. However, the release does not mention that the number of participants who received guselkumab was relatively small at each dosage level. The press release notes, “…293 adult patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis (defined as covering 10 percent or more of the body) were randomly assigned to receive varying doses of one of the two drugs or a placebo over 52 weeks.”  This suggests that the three cohorts (placebo, guselkumab and adulimumab) were equal in size. Clearly this is not the case. So, when the story notes, “At week 40, for example, 81 percent of patients taking a 200-mg dose of guselkumab had a score of 0 or 1, compared to 49 percent of patients taking adalimumab,” it should have noted that this is in a sample of 42 and 43 subjects respectively. The release should have noted that the results for specific doses of drugs are based on just a few dozen patients. The release should have highlighted a limitation that is noted in the journal article: “Furthermore, some elements of the study design limited the ability to assess uncommon adverse events or adverse events that might have developed during long-term treatment.” And as we already noted, the study is based on a skewed patient population (91% white, 71% male), so it can’t be said that all sorts of psoriasis patients could expect similar results. Psoriasis is a serious health condition, but this release takes it a bit too far. For example, in the fourth paragraph, the release states that psoriasis “also increases a patient’s risk for depression, heart disease and diabetes, among other conditions.” It would have been more accurate to say that it has been associated with, or is linked to, these other conditions. While psoriasis is correlated with an increased risk of multiple adverse health outcomes, it is not known to be the cause of any of them. In most, if not all, cases we know very little about the relationship between psoriasis and those health outcomes. The release also quotes the study’s lead author as saying that “the concept that psoriasis is ‘just something you live with’ is no longer appropriate.” But that source is also cited as saying that about half of all patients with psoriasis do not get any treatment. Whether that is by choice, or because the patients don’t have access to treatments or can’t afford the newer, very expensive drugs, it’s clear that many patients with psoriasis do live with the condition. Those dealing with psoriasis already know the value of treatment, they don’t need their condition written about in a way that may stir additional concern. Although the release clearly notes that the study was funded by the company that manufactures guselkumab, and that the study’s lead author is a former paid consultant for the company, it fails to tell readers that the company was actively involved in the study. The journal article points out that Janssen Research and Development collected and analyzed the data. What’s more, “All the authors collaborated on writing the manuscript, with the assistance of professional medical writers employed by Janssen, and made the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.” That intimate level of involvement should have been made clear in the release. The release discusses only two potential treatments: the drugs guselkumab and adalimumab. There are many additional options. Other medications include methotrexate, cyclosporine, and retinoids, among others. There are also a number of topical treatments and several forms of light therapy. The release would have been stronger if it had explained why guselkumab (or adalimumab, for that matter) are important treatment options or when physicians may incorporate medications like these into their treatment plans. The release makes clear that the study was a phase II clinical trial, and that a phase III trial is ongoing. In other words, the drug will not be available in the very near future. Ideally, the release would remind journalists – and the public – what a Phase II trial means and what it doesn’t mean. The release explains that guselkumab is novel because of its mode of action (i.e., how it works), compared to other, similar drugs. Specifically, the drug blocks a protein that’s implicated in psoriasis. It would have been nice if the release had included another sentence or two on how blocking that protein disrupts psoriasis (or its symptoms). The release uses fairly cautious language throughout, as exemplified in the headline, which says only that guselkumab is “more effective” than adalimumab. However, readers have to be sophisticated enough to know that a phase II trial is merely an intermediate step in the clinical trial process. The release should have noted in the headline and lead paragraphs that further work is needed in order to reach firm conclusions about the effectiveness and potential side effects of this experimental treatment. Claim: New psoriasis drug is more effective than current treatment",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: After decades of criticism from Native American activists and allies over the offensiveness of the Washington NFL franchise’s “Redskins” name, the team on July 13, 2020, said it would drop the controversial title — as well as its Indian head logo — when leaders select a new brand in the future. The announcement, which the team made via a press release featuring the Redskins name and logo, sparked a new wave of curiosity among social media users over how, exactly, the team’s trademark came to be. Numerous Snopes readers contacted us to determine the legitimacy of the below-displayed meme, which opponents to the name change were circulating online as part of their argument for why the change was not necessary. The viral post alleged that Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, a former leader of the Blackfeet Nation, designed the team’s logo in the early ’70s using inspiration from a photograph of the early 20th-century Blackfeet Nation leader, Chief Two Guns White Calf. This is mostly accurate, aside from the claim that Wetzel had helped create the image. No evidence proves that he made any of the art choices regarding colors, lines, or other specifics of the design. To reach that conclusion, we began by confirming through verifiable evidence that Wetzel, indeed, was a real person and had served in a leadership position for the tribe in northwest Montana. An analysis of archived newspapers uncovered several news stories featuring Wetzel, including one in the Great Falls Tribune on July 9, 1969, in which he was described as the former chairman of the Blackfeet Tribal Council and president of the National Congress of American Indians. (NCAI), which represents tribes across the U.S. A directory for that organization said Wetzel served as president between 1960 and 1964.Next, we considered an obituary in Montana’s Billings Gazette that said Wetzel died at age 88 on November 8, 2003. That profile filled in for us the lesser known details about his life: He was born near Cut Bank Creek on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, grew up a “star athlete in nearly all sports,” attended the University of Montana, and, at one point, considered a career in professional boxing. The obituary stated: Other special interests and items which highlighted his life were being a drummer for a jazz band, dancing with movie actress Donna Reed and being the Medicine Man in the movie, “Grey Eagle,” which was filmed in the Helena area. Blackie was also very proud of being the force behind the Indian Chief logo of the Washington Redskins pro football team. Blackie and his Washington Redskins’ cap were inseparable. The obituary went on to detail Wetzel’s time in the Army, work to increase housing and employment opportunities for Native Americans, and leadership via the Blackfeet Tribal Council. In that role, the obituary stated, “Chief White Calf gave him a right of passage of the chieftainship of the Blackfeet Nation and named him ‘Siks-a-num,’ ‘Blackfeet man or man of the Blackfeet people. '” He was survived by eight children and dozens of grandchildren. That means, based on evidence so far, it was true to state that Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, a former leader of the Blackfeet Nation, was a “force behind” the Indian head logo for the football team. The exact details of his involvement, however, were unclear. Next, we moved onto review a 2002 news story by The Washington Post in which Wetzel was interviewed about the moniker and logo. The newspaper reported that, after the football team abandoned early references to Native Americans in its brand and launched a new “R” image in the early 60s, Wetzel shared photos of Native American leaders with the team’s top executives, and successfully persuaded them to use them as inspiration for a new design on players’ helmets. While it’s unclear what photos, exactly, Wetzel had used to make his case for the brand overhaul, Montana’s Great Falls Tribune said the gallery included a picture of White Calf. According to the Post, the franchise created the new helmets with Wetzel’s help within weeks, and players debuted them in 1972. Nothing in the news coverage indicates that Wetzel had drafted the details of the logo himself but rather that he provided inspiration for it. Wetzel said in the 2002 interview: It made us all so proud to have an Indian on a big-time team … It’s only a small group of radicals who oppose those names. Indians are proud of Indians. That means the language in the alleged quote from Wetzel in the above-displayed meme is correct; however, its punctuation ( or lack of ellipses between the first two sentences to note that he had said something more in the interview but the reporter chose not to include it) is misleading. The meme makes it seem like Wetzel had made the statement fluidly without pausing or connecting thoughts about his reaction to the logo and who he believed opposed it. Claim: Walter \"Blackie\" Wetzel, a former leader of the Blackfeet Nation, designed the Indian head logo for the Washington D.C. \"Redskins\" NFL team.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, who has been leading the inquiry at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, wants to know where that oil came from. The answer will help explain whether these cells play a key role in the vaping-related outbreak that has killed seven people and sickened 530 so far. It may also reveal whether some of these cases have been occurring all along, undetected. “We’re looking to partner with any lab that can assist in the identification of what those lipids (fats) are,” Meaney-Delman said in a telephone interview. A group of researchers who have been studying the long-term effects of vaping told Reuters they have taken up the challenge. They have begun to re-examine lung cell samples they have collected in recent years for evidence of these oil-filled immune cells in people who vaped but didn’t get sick. One possibility: The deposits are residue from inhaling vaping oils, such as those containing the marijuana ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or vitamin E acetate. Both are considered possible contributors to the current illnesses. Some researchers suspect the oils are formed inside the lungs as part of the body’s natural response to chemicals found in many commercial vaping devices. One theory is that vaping these chemicals may impair the immune system, and make people who vape more vulnerable to respiratory distress, they say. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation earlier this month has fueled the latter theory. It found that mice exposed to aerosols of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin - common solvents used in conventional nicotine vaping devices - developed these same fat-clogged immune cells even though they were never exposed to vaping oils. These mice also had impaired immune systems compared to mice exposed to room air. The study set off alarm bells for Thomas Eissenberg, co-director of the Center for Tobacco Products at Virginia Commonwealth University. For years, doctors have reported isolated cases of pneumonia-like illnesses in people who vaped. In many cases, patients also had these fat-filled immune cells - called lipid-laden macrophages. Now, these same abnormalities have been found in mice, and in at least some of the people who have fallen ill recently. “For me, the implication is there may be some underlying level of disease, like what we’re seeing in this cluster, that’s been going on all along,” Eissenberg said in a phone interview. Early last week, Eissenberg joined some 25 vaping experts on a hastily arranged conference call. At least three researchers who have already collected lung cell samples from otherwise healthy vapers told Reuters they would see whether these people also had fat-laden pockets within their immune cells. Other researchers, like Eissenberg, are seeking funding to collect new samples of their own. They want to help determine whether these abnormalities have been present for years, and whether they have made vapers generally more vulnerable to severe disease, possibly triggered by some new vaping substance. The group’s members say they have been in regular contact with officials at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health on how they can best help with the multistate investigation. They include Robert Tarran, a physiologist and vaping expert at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and Dr. Peter Shields, a lung cancer specialist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who has one of the country’s largest sets of lung samples from vapers, smokers and never-smokers. “It could be that we’ll see something in the general, normal population of people who are using e-cigarettes,” Shields said. Investigators at the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have pointed to THC vaping oils or vitamin E, a substance used in some THC products, as a possible cause of these illnesses. But they have not ruled out anything yet, including conventional nicotine liquids. CDC pathologists are examining hundreds of lung cell samples gathered from patients in the outbreak. Meanwhile, forensic chemists at the FDA are testing more than 150 products to determine whether there is a common ingredient that may help explain the illnesses. “We need to parlay what we’re seeing in product samples with what we’re seeing in lung tissue,” Meaney-Delman said. Dr. Laura Crotty Alexander, a lung specialist at the University of California at San Diego, has been studying vaping’s effect on health since 2013. Two years ago, she treated a patient with the same set of symptoms that are now being described across the country, and is now checking her lung cell samples to look for clues. “It’s possible that everybody who is vaping is at risk,” she said. Claim: The UK is performing 240,000 Covid-19 tests a day.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The buck may stop at the president, but does the blunt stop at Congress? For the second time in recent weeks, President Barack Obama was asked to publicly weigh in on the debate over decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. During an interview aired Jan. 31, 2014, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Obama whether he would consider changing marijuana’s status as a Schedule I narcotic, a distinction that bans the substance from sale or use for medicinal or recreational purposes. \"Well, first of all,\" Obama contended, \"what is and isn't a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress.\" \"I think it's the (Drug Enforcement Administration) that decides,\" Tapper offered. \"It's not something by ourselves that we start changing,\" Obama replied. \"No, there are laws undergirding those determinations.\" The back and forth was emblematic of the confusion surrounding the federal government's position on cannabis, particularly in Washington and Colorado, where new state laws legalizing marijuana technically run afoul of federal bans. But in this particular case, who is right, Tapper or Obama? Congress, the White House and controlled substances As usual, Obama has chosen his words carefully. He says that determining the classification of marijuana is \"a job for Congress,\" not \"the job of Congress.\" That could mean Obama philosophically believes that Congress should ultimately decide the fate of marijuana, even if his administration has some control over it. And to be clear, it does. But it’s complicated and not without roadblocks. First, a quick history lesson. Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act in 1970, and it was signed by President Richard Nixon later that year. The law set up guidelines to regulate and enforce the usage, production, sale and importation of various drugs and substances. In the law, Congress created five schedules to classify drugs and narcotics by medical use and potential to incite substance abuse. At one end of the scale is Schedule V drugs, which include substances like cough medicines with small amounts of the narcotic codeine. On the other end of the spectrum are Schedule I substances. These drugs have no accepted medical use and \"are considered the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence,\" according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Distribution, manufacturing or possession of a Schedule I substance is a federal offense. When Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act, lawmakers singled out several dozen drugs that fall under this category. Among opiates, like heroin, and amphetamines, Congress included marijuana. Congress could amend the law to reschedule marijuana or exempt the substance altogether, as it did for alcohol and tobacco products. But there is another way to lawfully reclassify marijuana and it does involve the executive branch. According to the Controlled Substance Act, the attorney general, through the Drug Enforcement Administration, has the power to change the classification of a substance or remove it entirely, but only if the drug meets certain criteria. First, the attorney general reviews eight factors to determine what schedule to assign a substance, according to the law. The drug's actual or relative potential for abuse Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the drug Its history and current pattern of abuse The scope, duration, and significance of abuse What, if any, risk there is to the public health The drug's psychic or physiological dependence liability Whether the drug is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled under the Controlled Substances Act. If the DEA feels a substance should be reclassified, the agency can request a scientific and medical evaluation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to determine if there are safe medical uses for the drug in question. Anyone from a drug company to a local government or even an individual citizen can also petition for review of a drug. Whatever conclusion HHS determines \"shall be binding on the attorney general as to such scientific and medical matters,\" according to the law. That means the DEA cannot change the classification of a drug unless HHS says there are medical uses and it’s safe for consumption. The Food and Drug Administration, the agency under Health and Human Services that handles these reviews, has continually reaffirmed that \"the scientific evidence to date is not sufficient for the marijuana plant to gain FDA approval.\" While research continues, the FDA said because marijuana can be addictive and clinical testing on the benefits of marijuana are not conclusive, it won’t give the DEA the go-ahead to reclassify the drug. In 2001 and 2011 the DEA, citing FDA research, turned down petitions to reclassify marijuana, and in 2006, the FDA upheld that \"smoked marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States.\" Guidelines updated as recently as 2012 reflected that opinion. Many scientists have debated the merits of the FDA’s ruling, but in an email to PolitiFact, the White House reiterated that the agency’s findings serve as the basis for any action from the Justice Department. So basically, there is a mechanism for the executive branch to change the schedules. But it’s an arduous process and not something Obama can change by decree. And while the FDA is an executive agency that includes presidential appointees, the FDA’s recommendations are supposed be based on science, not politics. But Obama has found other ways to get around the FDA’s unwillingness to concede the medical benefits of marijuana to appease states that have gone a different direction. Schedule I substances cannot legally be used for medical purposes; however, 20 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. In 2009, the Obama administration told federal law enforcement agencies to stop targeting medical marijuana dispensaries, signaling a change from the approach of President George W. Bush. Similarly, last year the Department of Justice said it would not target new laws in Colorado and Washington legalizing recreational marijuana. So even though marijuana remains a Schedule 1 substance, the current administration, through various memorandums, has not always treated it as one under the law. Our ruling Obama said \"what is and isn't a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress.\" While Obama may feel that way philosophically, there is a process by which the executive branch can reclassify marijuana to allow for its medical use or completely remove it from the list of controlled substances. It’s not an easy process, but it’s there. And Obama’s Justice Department has often given tacit approval, or at least turned a blind eye, when states have taken steps to ignore the federal government’s classification. Claim: What is and isn't a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress.",
            "output": "1"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Because the release is presented as if the study were conducted in humans, we would expect to see some explanation of what the vaccine might cost. A better news release might have commented on the potential costs (and time) required for testing a new vaccine and bringing it to market. The release mentions the antigen being studied, BD584, “was able to reduce chlamydial shedding – a symptom of C. trachomatis – by 95 per cent.” Without any context for how many people (or mice in this case) were studied, we have no way of knowing what that means. There is no mention of harms in the release. Did any of the mice die or develop sterility or pelvic inflammatory disease? This is the biggest omission in the release and truly surprising for a university. The study itself discusses in detail how the work was conducted in mice. And yet the release says nothing of the sort and, in fact, is set up in such a way that the strong impression is given that this study was conducted in humans. For example, the release says up high, “Researchers at the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster have developed the first widely protective vaccine against chlamydia. This is quickly followed by the first quote in the release, which says: “Vaccine development efforts in the past three decades have been unproductive and there is no vaccine approved for use in humans,” said Bulir, who just finished his PhD in medical sciences at McMaster. Until one read the actual study they’d have assumed that this was a human vaccine trial. All of this makes the comments about the potential benefits for human trachoma infections even more absurd. There is no disease mongering in the story. The release notes that the Canadian Institutes for Health Research funded the study. There is no other pharmacological treatment for preventing the chlamydia infection currently available. However, it might have been noted that most public health experts recommend condoms for preventing this and other sexually transmitted diseases. The release makes no mention of the fact that this vaccine is very far away from a clinical application, assuming it would even pass human trials. Instead, it talks about how easy the vaccine would be to administer and how people wouldn’t even need a lot of training to administer it. (We imagine that administering nasal doses to mice would require some training.) There’s no shortage of claims of novelty in the release, including in the headline. Although the release is misleading about the study cohort, it is a novel study given the absence of any available chlamdyia vaccines. We would say that the entire release is unjustifiable given the lack of a mention of the true nature of the study. We also wonder if the investigators were given the opportunity to review the release before it went out. Claim: Researchers produce first widely protective vaccine against chlamydia",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: On 1 November 2018, the Trump administration’s senior adviser on drug pricing reform, Daniel Best, was found “unresponsive” near the garage door exit of a Washington, D.C., apartment building. He was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders. A statement released the same day by Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Alex Azar mourned Best as a “friend and colleague” but addressed neither the circumstances nor the cause of his death. No other details were released to the public. Two weeks later, on 15 November, the office of Washington, D.C.’s chief medical examiner announced that Best had died of “multiple blunt force injuries.” His death was ruled a suicide. No other information was provided. Internet conspiracy theorists questioned that ruling. Noting the pharmaceutical industry’s objections to the very task Best was hired to accomplish (i.e., lowering prescription drug costs), not to mention President Trump’s announcement days before Best’s death of a plan to reduce Medicare drug prices and the fact that Best died of blunt force injuries, the theorists took to social media to float the idea that Best was the victim of foul play and not suicide: BREAKING: Death of Trump HHS official, Daniel Best, tasked with getting lower drug prices from pharmaceutical companies is ruled a suicide, even though he died from “multiple blunt force injuries.” Nothing to see here folks. pic.twitter.com/qiWNH0epeQ — Mike Tokes (@MikeTokes) November 17, 2018  Another ‘suicide’ the Media is ignoring. RIP Daniel Best. #ma4t pic.twitter.com/Gt1wojG3eM — Mike Allen (@AMike4761) November 17, 2018  Far-right conspiracist websites followed suit. An 18 November article on Neon Nettle suggested that the the public was being asked to believe that Best had beaten himself to death: The Chief Medical Examiner’s verdict raised questions among the health community, with many people refusing to believe Best killed himself by repeatedly hitting himself with a blunt object until he died. Erin Elizabeth of HNN [Health Nut News] described the ruling of Best’s death as “confusing,” saying: “How does one kill themselves by hitting themselves with a blunt object? Repeatedly?” Another conspiracy-mongering website, Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, posed the same sarcastic question: So did he lie down under a garage door and let it hit him “multiple times” or did he beat himself to death with a baseball bat? How does that work? Add to the very few actual articles on his death — this man was described as one of Trump’s “senior” HHS officials working with Alex Azar. Things that make you go hmmmm. There’s a fallacious assumption underlying this notion, however: namely, that blunt force injuries can only be sustained in the course of a physical attack by an assailant (or oneself). But that isn’t how forensic pathologists define “blunt force injury.” According to Prahlow and Byard’s Atlas of Forensic Pathology, a blunt force injury is any “resulting from impact with a blunt object, i.e., one that does not possess any sharp edges”: Examples of blunt objects include hammers, baseball bats, fists, the interior surfaces of vehicles, roads, trees, floors, walls, furniture, and even fluid objects such as bodies of water (if the speed of impact is sufficiently high). Medical University of South Carolina pathology professor Nicholas I. Batalis observes in “Forensic Autopsy of Blunt Force Trauma” (Medscape, 2016) that blunt force injuries can be caused in myriad ways that have nothing to with assault and battery (emphasis added): Deaths resulting from blunt force trauma are some of the most common cases encountered by the practicing forensic pathologist. Whereas other forms of traumatic death (e.g., gunshot wounds, sharp force injuries) occur under a relatively limited number of circumstances, deaths resulting from blunt force trauma occur in a variety of scenarios. For instance, almost all transportation fatalities — including those involving motor vehicle collisions, pedestrians being struck by vehicles, airplane crashes, and boating incidents — result from blunt force trauma. Other deaths resulting from blunt force trauma involve jumping or falling from heights, blast injuries, and being struck by a firm object, such as a fist, crowbar, bat, or ball. Bite wounds and chop injuries may be considered variants of blunt force trauma, sharp force trauma, or a class of injuries unto themselves. Blunt force trauma is routinely involved in cases classified as accidents, as well as in cases of suicide and homicide. Finally, we put the known facts of the case to Thomas Sporn, M.D., Chief of the Section of Pulmonary and Thoracic Pathology at Duke University Medical Center, and asked him if a ruling of suicide makes sense. He responded via e-mail to say: Jumping off a building and striking the (blunt) pavement would result in blunt force injuries, as would, say, darting into traffic, and of course most aviation and motor vehicle fatalities are from blunt force injuries. So it’s definitely possible to sustain self-inflicted blunt force injuries, depending on the circumstances. Claim: A medical examiner's conclusion that Health and Human Services drug pricing adviser Daniel Best died of multiple blunt force injuries contradicts the official ruling that he committed suicide.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A federal judge has not ordered that Vince Foster’s remains to help determine if Bill and Clinton were behind his death. Conspiracy theories the Bill and Hillary Clinton had Arkansas attorney and deputy White House counsel Vince Foster murdered in 1993 because he knew explosive information that would jeopardize the political careers of the Clintons and other world leaders. In 1994, Foster’s death was officially ruled a suicide by special counsel Robert Fiske Jr., the Washington Post reported at the time: Special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. concluded that Foster’s death in Fort Marcy Park last July was a suicide. The Fiske investigation involved four lawyers, five physicians, seven FBI agents, approximately 125 witnesses; also DNA tests, microscopes and lasers. All that effort resolved many of the lingering mysteries surrounding Foster’s death. But the largest mystery remained: Why did the stings of Washington life, endured by so many, prove fatal for Vincent W. Foster Jr.? Fiske’s report tells the story of a man stretched until he broke. As simple – and as mysterious – as that. In the months since Foster’s body was found resting on a slope beside a Civil War cannon, the airwaves and printing presses have been filled with theories of conspiracy and intrigue. Rumors about his death shook the stock market and dogged the president. Foster came to be seen by many as the key to a vault of dark secrets about some of the most powerful people in the world. Vince Foster, a childhood friend of President Clinton, reportedly suffered from depression and anxiety in his role as deputy White House counsel before his death in 1993. Friske’s report concluded that Foster “blamed himself’ for scrutiny the Clinton transition team faced, including accusations of elitism, corner cutting and incompetent screening. The report said that Foster considered retiring from the position in January 1993 but could not bare to face the embarrassment of returning to Arkansas a “failure.” The FBI vault contains extensive documentation on the investigation into Vince Foster’s suicide. The bureau even appears to address specific questions that have fueled conspiracy theories, like the position of Foster’s body, the location of the gun in his hand, the lack of reports of gunfire, just to name a few. Those details have only seemed to fuel conspiracy theories that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster over the years — culminating in the most recent one that a federal judge has ordered the exhumation of Foster’s body to re-examine his cause and manner of death. That report first appeared at The Last Line of Defense, a website that clearly states “all articles should be considered satirical,” and that it cites facts that “don’t necessarily exist.” The Vince Foster exhumation report, which appeared under the headline. “BREAKING: Trey Gowdy Just Had A Federal Judge Issue An Order To Exhume A Body,” definitely meets that criteria: For the first time in history, a US Congressman has asked that a body be exhumed in connection with an investigation by a House intelligence committee. Judge Harmon Watson agreed to issue the order for a work crew in Fairfax, Virginia to exhume the body of Vince Foster for autopsy. The order came just minutes after evidence turned up in the case of a murdered reporter who had an “if anything ever happens to me” letter delivered to his publication that implicated Hillary Clinton in a 23-year-old crime, which put it right around the time of Foster’s supposed “suicide.” Foster’s body has already been removed from the ground and is currently being transferred to the Naval Hospital in Norfolk to undergo an autopsy to look for a very specific cause of death. That information is being kept a closely guarded secret for now by Gowdy and the other federal prosecutors, since only the killer would know. The false report that Vince Foster’s body has been exhumed was quickly shared on social media more than 20,000 times. Many who read and shared the report didn’t realize that it came from a “satire” website that does not publish factual stories. There are no new developments into Vince Foster’s death — but that likely won’t stop new conspiracy theories. Claim:  A federal judge has approved GOP Congressman Trey Gowdy’s request to exhume the body of Vince Foster to determine if Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in his death 23 years ago. ",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: In February 2019, an image supposedly showing an eagle catching a drone was widely circulated on Facebook along with the caption “The Picture of the Century. Nature defeats Technology”:  This photograph received hundreds of thousands of shares on Facebook, but many viewers weren’t exactly sure what this photograph depicted. Was the image created with digital editing software? Did this really capture an eagle attacking the equipment of an amateur drone photographer? This is in fact a genuine photograph of an eagle catching a drone. It was taken by photographer Koen Van Weel in March 2016 and documents a trained eagle from the “Guard from Above” company wrapping its talons around a drone during a police exercise in the Netherlands. The image is available via Getty Images. where it is presented with the caption “An eagle of the Guard from Above company, grasps a drone during a police exercise in Katwijk, on March 7, 2016. The bird of prey can get drones from the air by catching them with his legs.” A 2016 video report from BBC News showed these eagles, and other birds of prey, in action with drones:   With reports of near-misses with aircraft, invasions of privacy and security breaches, drones are not always welcome flyers. And as the number of drones in the sky increases, the authorities need to be sure there is a way to bring them down without any danger to those on the ground. BBC Click’s Lara Lewington looks at the technology being used to bring troublesome drones down to earth including one very low-tech solution being tried by police in the Netherlands — an eagle that goes after the unmanned vehicles as if they were its prey. While eagles and other birds of prey are certainly capable of taking down a drone, some groups have argued that these animals are being put in danger when tasked with that activity. Here’s an excerpt from a National Geographic article arguing against the use of bald eagles to deter drones:  The biggest problem is the very obvious danger to the eagles. As demonstrated by the Mythbusters crew, who are among the preeminent scientific experimenters of our time, drone blades, especially carbon fiber ones, can cause serious damage to an animal. If an eagle were to misjudge its attack, or if the drone operator were to take evasive or defense maneuvers, a bird could be struck by the blades and seriously injured or killed … Even if birds are well trained and are unexpectedly effective at avoiding rotors, how many eagles are we willing to risk if something goes wrong? Seriously, bald eagles have been through enough. Bald eagles were taken off the Endangered Species List less than ten years ago, which is about 15 minutes in evolutionary time. Humans nearly wiped them out through a combination of pesticides (primarily DDT), habitat destruction, and illegal shooting. In 1963, bald eagles hit a population low in the United States of just 487 pairs. Since then they’ve battled back and are just now repopulating old territories and establishing a stable population Guards from Above wrote on their website that “animal welfare is very important” and noted that they are currently studying the possible impact on the birds’ claws: Claim: A photograph shows an eagle catching a drone. ",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The heart of Gerald Ford’s 1-year-old French bulldog Neo stopped beating following the attack on Christmas Eve. In a rare occurrence, veterinarians at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine were able to revive Neo. Research suggests that animals whose hearts have given out live full, healthy lives only 5% percent of the time. The team of veterinarians who worked on Neo said he will be among them, although he did need a leg to be amputated. “Typically when an animal passes and comes back, they have to be on a mechanical ventilator, a breathing machine,” Dr. Bobbi Conner, a University of Florida professor and vet specializing in emergency medicine  told The Gainesville Sun. Ford had let Neo outside on Christmas Eve to do his business on his 12-acre property in White Springs, Florida, a rural area between Jacksonville and Tallahassee. Ford said he found it odd when Neo didn’t come back, but he left the front door to his home open a crack so Neo could let himself in. In the middle of the night, Ford said he heard a thud on the front porch and opened the door to see Neo covered in bite marks and losing blood. Ford said he wasn’t sure what animal attacked Neo. “I’ll never forget the look on his face,” Ford said. “It was like he was saying, ’Help me.” The veterinarians told Ford Neo would adapt to having three legs, and Ford said he has no doubts. “He’s going to be fine,” Ford said. “I’m the one that’s a wreck.” Claim: Christmas miracle for Florida dog whose heart stopped.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: A statement from Dolphinaris Arizona in Scottsdale says 22-year-old Kai died Thursday after his condition began deteriorating and he had difficulty swimming, eating and breathing. Kai’s death marks the fourth death at the facility since it opened in October 2016, and it comes just a month after Khloe, an 11-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, died after a chronic illness. Dolphinaris General Manager Christian Schaeffer said Kai had shown signs of declining health two weeks ago and was treated. Schaeffer says the facility “will be taking proactive measures” to ensure its dolphins’ “well-being and high quality of life.” Dolphinaris has hired an external pathologist to conduct a necropsy (animal autopsy) to determine the cause of Kai’s death. Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman of the animal rights group PETA urged Dolphiniaris to close the attraction and send the remaining dolphins to seaside sanctuaries “where they would never again be forced to haul tourists on their backs in the sweltering Arizona desert.” PETA plans a protest outside Dolphinaris Arizona at 11 a.m. Saturday. Claim: Another dolphin dies at Arizona aquatic facility.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus defended the 2016 Republican Party platform ahead of its convention in a July 17 interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd. While the platform isn’t yet in its final form, many observers have said the document so far lands to the right on social issues. Todd asked Priebus about the platform’s position on same-sex marriage. He referenced one draft that says \"the data, the facts lead to an inescapable conclusion that every child deserves a married mom and dad\" — based on claims that children raised in a traditional household are healthier and less likely to engage in crime and substance abuse. \"It’s implying somehow that children of same-sex couples are more likely to be addicts, to engage in crime,\" Todd said. \"Do you mean to have it imply that?\" Priebus replied that it’s possible for children of same-sex parents and single parents to have successful lives, but the best scenario is for children to grow up in a traditional opposite-sex household. \"The best scenario for kids is a loving mom and dad,\" Priebus said. \"However, it doesn't mean at all that single parents or same-sex parents, that any parent in America can't love a child, can't raise a child, and that child can't be successful and loved. It doesn't mean that. It just means what the facts say.\" Do \"the facts say\" that \"the best scenario for kids is a loving mom and dad\" as opposed to same-sex parents? We’ve rated two similar claims  in the past, and not much has changed since we last looked into it in 2014. If anything, the scholarly consensus that children can fare just as well in same-sex households has strengthened. \"The consensus is overwhelming that those children do very well in those (same-sex parent) families, and there’s no harm or bad consequence that occurs because of those parents not being opposite sex,\" said Ellen Perrin, a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine who has researched this question. What the research shows Researchers at Columbia Law School reviewed scholarly works about the well-being of children living with gay or lesbian parents spanning the past three decades. The researchers found 78 relevant articles, and of those, 74 concluded that children of same-sex parents fare no worse than children of opposite-sex parents. Six of these articles were published in the last three years. The studies examine topics such as adolescent well-being, child physical and emotional health, family functioning and the effect of homophobic stigmatization. \"Taken together, this research forms an overwhelming scholarly consensus, based on over three decades of peer-reviewed research, that having a gay or lesbian parent does not harm children,\" the Columbia researchers wrote. That leaves four articles that argue children face more risks with opposite-sex parents than they do with same-sex parents. However, the Columbia researchers say these studies are problematic because only a minority of the child subjects grew up with same-sex parents. Most subjects of these four studies grew up with opposite-sex parents but one of the parents eventually came out as gay or lesbian, often causing family breakup or turmoil. Some of this research conflates family composition and structure with family stability and history, said Gary Gates, an expert in LGBT demography at the University of California Los Angeles. Social science research suggests marriage — and not necessarily the gender makeup of that marriage — is associated with stability. \"In other words, studies that compare children in long-term intact families with same-sex couple parents show that they generally do as well as kids in long-term intact families with different-sex parents,\" Gates said. Gates co-authored an overview of contemporary research about LGBT parents. The report found that LGBT parents and their children are doing \"quite well,\" but research into the subject face problems like getting a large and diverse sample size. And there is little research into subcategories, like sibling dynamics among children with same-sex parent families or domestic violence. Perrin added that there is much more research into lesbian female parents than there is into gay male parents, but that imbalance is starting to even out, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of gay marriage and more male gay couples are having children. In any case, evidence supporting Priebus’s claim is limited and problematic. \"There’s no scholarly data that suggests this is a problem,\" Perrin said. We did not hear back from Priebus. Our ruling Priebus said, \"What the facts say\" is ... \"the best scenario for kids is a loving mom and dad,\"  as opposed to having same-sex parents. The limited pieces of research that appear to support Priebus’ claim have been called into question. And overall, scholarly research shows that what matters to children is the quality and stability of the parenting, rather than the parents’ particular sex, gender or sexual orientation. Claim: What the facts say\" is ... \"the best scenario for kids is a loving mom and dad.",
            "output": "0"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: The panel voted 10 to 0, with one abstention, against approval, saying data from a single clinical trial was not strong enough to justify approval, especially since some data from the trial was missing. Xarelto is already used to treat and prevent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms and to reduce the risk of stroke and blood clots in patients with an irregular heart beat that is not caused by heart problems. Claim: FDA advisory panel rejects J&J drug for acute coronary syndrome.",
            "output": "2"
        },
        {
            "input": "Paragraph: He Jiankui’s outsized aspirations began to take shape in 2016, the year after another team of Chinese researchers sparked global debate with the revelation that they had altered the DNA of human embryos in the lab. He soon set his mind on pushing the boundaries of medical ethics even further. The China-born, U.S.-trained scientist once confided to his former Stanford University adviser his interest in gene-edited babies. He told The Associated Press last month that he had been working on the experiment for more than two years — a period in which, by his own account, he concealed information from some medical staff involved in the research, as well as apparently from his own bosses. He took advantage of the loosely worded and irregularly enforced regulations and generous funding available today in China, in some cases skirting even local protocols and possibly laws. “The enormous ambition in China, the desire to be the first, collides with the desire to create and enforce standards,” said Jing-Bao Nie, an expert on Chinese bioethics at the University of Otago in New Zealand. On the eve of an international gene-editing summit in Hong Kong this week, the 34-year-old scientist stunned the world by claiming he had used the powerful CRISPR gene-editing tool to alter the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month. His claim could not be independently confirmed, and it has not been published in a journal, but it drew swift outrage from both researchers and regulators. Mainstream scientists in China and globally said the experiment should never have been tried. “They chose to short-circuit the entire process. They went rogue,” said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene-editing expert. On Monday, China’s National Health Commission ordered local officials in Guangdong province — which includes He’s laboratory in Shenzhen — to investigate his actions. It was not clear if he could face criminal charges. His career trajectory did not follow the expected script. He did not publish most of his earlier research on modifying mice and monkey DNA, as most scientists would have done. And the way he advanced his latest study included questionable decisions on secrecy and medical ethics. “If you’re going to do something this controversial and this early, and you want to be the leader of this movement, you want to do it in an exemplary way,” said Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. He, who says his parents were farmers, was born in 1984 in southern China. At the time, the country was just beginning to emerge from the isolation of the Mao era, and the average annual income was only $300. Telephones were rare. Many villages were not yet connected by paved roads. Initially, He followed a common path for scientists of his generation. After graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China, he moved to the United States for graduate studies. There he earned a Ph.D. in biophysics from Rice University in 2010, then spent a year as a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford. His Stanford adviser, Stephen Quake, described him as “super bright” and “at the cutting edge of trying to apply new technologies to biology.” In 2012, He returned to China to take up a post at Southern University of Science and Technology — an institution that opened only a year earlier and is partly funded by the government of Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city known for its technology companies. “He was really interested in the notion of human genome editing,” and what situation would be appropriate, said Quake, recalling one of He’s visits. Quake gave feedback, but did not oversee the study. He’s research was funded in part by a program to recruit China-born scientists working abroad to set up labs in their home country. The work could not have been legally conducted in the U.S. or in most of Europe. Last month, He told the AP that he believed gene editing of human embryos resulting in live births was legal in China because the country has no law specifically forbidding it. China has banned human cloning for reproduction. In 2003, the Ministry of Health issued a guideline to in-vitro clinics barring “clinical experiments” that “violate ethical or moral principles.” The young scientist saw this ambiguity as an opportunity. Sometimes researchers — Chinese or foreign — who can’t secure funding or permission for unconventional projects in the U.S. or Europe find financial support and openings in China. Ren Xiaoping, a surgeon who aims to perform the first human head transplant, worked for many years in U.S. hospitals but returned to China because a medical institute in his hometown of Shenyang agreed to support his research. Guoping Feng, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, works with a research facility in Guangdong province where his associates genetically engineer monkeys with brain disorders to study the development of autism-like symptoms. China has fewer restrictions on the use of lab animals. In 2016, He reached out to an AIDS advocacy group in Beijing to help him recruit potential study participants — couples trying to have children where the man was HIV positive. There are already well-tested ways to guard against transmission of the AIDS virus in IVF. Instead, He’s goal was to rewrite DNA before birth to make children less likely to contract HIV after they’re born. Other scientists have tested similar gene-editing techniques on cells in a lab dish to prevent inherited diseases, but not leading to live births. For his CRISPR work, He did not seek prior approval from federal regulators. He listed his study in an online registry of Chinese clinical trials on Nov. 8 — long after it began. His lab skirted norms that many of his Chinese peers uphold. For example, the lab did not inform all the medical staff directly assisting the expectant couples that the study involved gene editing. They believed they were assisting in standard IVF attempts, with an additional step of mapping the genomes, not manipulating the embryo, according to one of the embryologists involved in the research, Qin Jinzhou. Patient consent forms referred to the study imprecisely as an “AIDS vaccine development” program. He also sought consultation from an ethics committee outside the hospitals involved in the research. Lin Zhitong, founder of the Shenzhen Harmonicare Women & Children’s Hospital, told the AP in October that his hospital’s ethics committee advised He, but had no other involvement. Withholding information from medical staff about gene editing was acceptable because some fertility doctors may not agree to help HIV positive couples, said Lin, who also said he has not worked as a doctor or scientist, but comes from a family of hospital property developers. Deceiving or working around any study participants is not standard practice in China, “and it violates the broad spirit of informed consent,” said Nie, the bioethics expert. “In some cases, ethics committees are just rubber stamps.” After He’s claim, Harmonicare released a statement condemning human gene-editing and announced an investigation into any ties with He’s lab. The Shenzhen scientist released some findings in YouTube videos. He announced his feat in English, not Chinese. “He wanted to attract attention in the international community. Now he got what he really wanted,” Nie said. He’s own university was kept in the dark. Southern University of Science and Technology said in a statement that it was not informed about He’s work, and that it “seriously violated academic ethics and standards.” He’s research team included his former Rice adviser, physics professor Michael Deem, who sits on the scientific advisory boards of He’s two genetics companies. Rice said it has launched an investigation into Deem’s involvement. In an interview last month at his Shenzhen lab, He said gene-edited babies were inevitable. He wanted to be first. “There will be someone, somewhere, who is doing this,” he said. “If it’s not me, it’s someone else.” ___ Follow Christina Larson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larsonchristina . ___ AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Hong Kong, researcher Fu Ting and video journalist Emily Wang in Beijing contributed to this report. ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Claim: Gene-editing Chinese scientist kept much of his work secret.",
            "output": "2"
        }
    ]
}