TASK DEFINITION: Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
PROBLEM: They said a device that stimulates the vagus nerve in the neck while simultaneously playing different sounds for several weeks helped eliminate the condition in a group of rats. A trial of the treatment in humans is set to start in Europe this year, said Dr. Navzer Engineer of MicroTransponder, a medical device company affiliated with The University of Texas at Dallas, whose study appears in the journal Nature. Tinnitus is sometimes brought on by hearing loss. It occurs as cells in the inner ear are damaged, often from a loud noise. Current drugs help mask tinnitus, but the condition is incurable. Engineer’s team thinks tinnitus may be caused when too many brain cells become tuned to a specific tone in the brain. So his team set out to train the brain to ignore the nerve signals that cause the ringing sound. To do this, they paired a device that sends electrical impulses to the vagus nerve in the neck with different sounds. Stimulating this nerve releases chemicals such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine that trigger changes in the brain. The University of Texas at Dallas team tested this approach in a series of experiments with rats, using an indirect but accepted method of testing hearing in animals. In one, they stimulated the vagus nerve while playing different sounds 300 times a day for 20 days to a group of eight rats with a form of tinnitus. The tones were close to the frequency of the ringing sound, and the hope was to trick some of the nerve cells into listening to the new tones rather than the ringing tone. When the team checked the nerve responses to different tones, the tinnitus had disappeared in rats exposed to the tones and nerve stimulation, but it persisted in a group of control animals. “Unlike previous treatments, we’re not masking the tinnitus. We are eliminating the source of the tinnitus,” Michael Kilgard of the University of Texas-Dallas, who worked on the study, said in a statement. MicroTransponder is developing a wireless medical device to stimulate the vagus nerve and hopes to test it in people later this year. Cyberonics Inc already sells vagus nerve stimulation devices for people with epilepsy and depression. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health, funded a large part of the research.

SOLUTION: Device treatment may silence ringing in the ears.

PROBLEM: A photograph of beachgoers ignoring social distancing guidelines concerning the COVID-19 pandemic prompted local officials to close their gathering place to the public.The photo, attributed to Clay Archer of Jacksonville Beach, was shared thousands of times on Twitter after being posted there by Travis Akers, a spokesperson for Democratic Party congressional candidate Donna Deegan, on March 28 2020.“You can see exactly where Duval County ends and St. John’s County begins,” Akers wrote. “All beaches in Duval are closed, while St. John’s only blocked parking at the beach. Gov. [Ron] DeSantis needs to order a state-wide closure of all Florida beaches.”The photograph showed a cluster of people on the St. John’s side of the county line on a beach, while the beach was empty on the Duval County side:This picture is from 3pm today.You can see exactly where Duval County ends and St. John’s County begins.All beaches in Duval are closed, while St. John’s only blocked parking at the beach.Gov. DeSantis needs to order a state-wide closure of all Florida beaches. pic.twitter.com/JfKzCGCPLq— Travis Akers (@travisakers) March 28, 2020We contacted the St. John’s County board of commissioners seeking comment about the photograph. But scores of residents were spotted going to beaches in the area, to the point that local officials ordered that they be closed to the public as of March 29 2020.“We have taken as many measures as possible up to this point to preserve our residents’ ability to access their beach,” county administrator Hunter S. Conrad said in a statement:Unfortunately, those visiting the beach continue to ignore CDC guidelines regarding crowd size and personal distancing. In order to maintain public safety and respect the State of Florida’s Executive Order, we had no choice but to close the coastline to public access today.A day after the beaches were closed in St. John’s County, Florida’s governor announced an executive order mandating that residents in four southeast Florida counties — Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach — remain at home until “the middle of May.” According to the Miami Herald, the four counties account for a combined 59 percent of all COVID-19 diagnoses in the state. DeSantis has also ordered that travelers into the state from Louisiana and New York undergo fourteen-day quarantines.DeSantis — a supporter of United States President Donald Trump — has benefited from a comparatively swift federal response to the spread of the disease. As the Washington Post reported:The state submitted a request on March 11 for 430,000 surgical masks, 180,000 N95 respirators, 82,000 face shields and 238,000 gloves, among other supplies — and received a shipment with everything three days later, according to figures from the state’s Division of Emergency Management. It received an identical shipment on March 23, according to the division, and is awaiting a third.By comparison, Trump has insinuated that healthcare workers facing massive equipment shortage in New York City were stealing protective masks. And California’s governor Gavin Newsom said on March 28, 2020 that 170 ventilators that the state received from the Trump administration had to be repaired because they “were not working” when they arrived. Both Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are Democrats.

SOLUTION: Florida residents kept congregating at local beaches in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PROBLEM: "The story lists the costs for screening – ""urine and blood tests that cost less than $25."" The story mentions some interventions for people with declining kidney function, but these are not quantified. We are also not told if screening and subsequent monitoring and pharmacological interventions save lives, or how many people would need to be screened in order to makes such programs or practices cost effective. The story focuses on the benefits of detecting disease. They could have talked about the potential harms of mass screening (i.e. the need to draw blood or the possibility of false positives). While the story is not focused on blood pressure management, per se, we are told that ACE (angiotensin II receptor blockers) inhibitors are ""good for the heart"", but the story does not mention potential side effects of these medications. The story does an adequate job of explaining the evidence. The story does not engage in disease mongering but some of the language used is questionable. The story says chronic kidney disease (CKD)  patients are ""terrified"" of having to go on dialysis, but no CKD patients are actually interviewed. The story does give an explanation of how kidney function works and how it can become impaired by heart disease, but to say the kidneys ""disintegrate"" with CKD is not accurate. The story only provides one perspective, that of the study author whose work is highlighted in the story. Interviews with primary care doctors and nephrologists, and possibly patients would be useful for balance and for discussion of the pros and cons of mass screening. The story provides treatment options (medication) for managing early-stage chronic kidney disease and options for people who are making the decision for renal replacement if chronic kidney disease progresses to end-stage kidney disease (dialysis and transplant). It’s fairly clear from the story that the screening tests for kidney disease that are discussed are generally already available, although perhaps not used as much as some think they should be. The story does not talk about the lack of any national guidelines for screening. That might have helped emphasize the novelty of developing a population-based screening approach. Early screening may help doctors and patients stave off some of the effects of cardiovascular disease with medications to reduce blood pressure. Information in this story does not appear to be taken from a press release."

SOLUTION:
Kidney, Heart Disease Spur Each Other