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: U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, announced grants totaling $17.1 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These grants aim to help the state reduce overdose deaths through prevention, treatment and recovery efforts, and help the health department better track overdose deaths so authorities have access to data faster. The number of accidental drug overdose deaths in Rhode Island has continued to decline. According to health officials, there were 314 overdose deaths in 2018, compared with 324 in 2017 and 336 in 2016. Reed says Rhode Island is making progress and the grants will bolster its efforts.

SOLUTION: Rhode Island gets $17M to fight opioid addiction, overdoses.

PROBLEM: The total number of infections climbed to 41,495. “In the past 24 hours we had 117 new deaths and 3,186 new confirmed cases of people infected with the coronavirus,” Kianush Jahanpur told state TV, calling on Iranians to stay at home. Iran has had an intercity travel ban since Thursday and the government has extended the closure of universities and schools and the suspension of all cultural, religious and sports events. “If necessary, we might impose tougher measures as our priority is the nation’s safety and health,” said Iran’s first Vice President, Eshaq Jahangiri, according to state TV. Iran last week warned of a surge of cases as many Iranians ignored calls to avoid traveling for Persian New Year holidays that started on March 20. To stem the spread of the virus in crowded jails, Iran’s judiciary on Sunday extended furloughs for 100,000 prisoners. On March 17, Iran said it had freed about 85,000 people from jail temporarily, including political prisoners. Iranian media on Monday, citing the governor of Iran’s Fars province, Enayatollah Rahimi, reported that prisoners at one prison “broke cameras and caused other damage in two sections of the prison where violent criminals are kept”. The state news agency IRNA said similar riots had erupted in other prisons since March 20. Families have called for the release of all prisoners.

SOLUTION: Iran plans tougher restrictions as coronavirus toll rises.

PROBLEM: The story describes the cost of the drug-coated stents compared to the older version, the bare metal stents. The story does report the risk of clotting with the drug-coated stents, however the comparison of coated and bare metal stents is the key piece of information that is missing in this story. This information should also be presented in absolute rather than relative terms. The story adequately describes the risk of clotting with drug-coated stents and of bleeding with Plavix. The story does a good job of describing the strength of the available evidence, particularly the limitations of using hospital registries as a source of data. By accurately describing the prevalence of restenosis, or narrowing of the artery after stenting, the story avoids disease mongering. The story quotes multiple experts who have differing perspectives on how the new information changes clinical practice. The story does mention alternatives such as bare metal stents, bypass surgery and medications. The story clearly states that drug-coated stents are common. The story clearly states that the drug-coated stents are new but have been widely used since they were introduced. Because the story quotes multiple independent sources the reader can assume that the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information.

SOLUTION:
FDA Probes Safety of Popular Heart Stent