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: In a report released Wednesday, the experts said annual cases of Legionnaires’ jumped more than fivefold from 2000 to 2017, and that as many as 70,000 Americans get the disease every year. Legionnaires’ is caused by bacteria that can thrive in buildings with large water systems. About 20 outbreaks are reported each year, including recent ones at an Atlanta hotel and a hospital near Chicago. But there is no single set of widely accepted guidelines for preventing infections. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report pushes for requirements like minimum temperature levels for hot-water heaters, and registration and monitoring of cooling towers.

SOLUTION: Experts call for steps to stem increases in Legionnaires’.

PROBLEM: The decision by Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman in Norman, Oklahoma, came in the first case to go to trial out of 2,700 nationally by states, counties and cities seeking to hold drug companies responsible for the deadly epidemic. Balkman reduced the amount he had awarded in August by $107 million after agreeing with New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J that he had made a math error. J&J said it will appeal, and that the award and finding of liability were “neither supported by the facts nor the law.”  A spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said that office is reviewing the decision and will formally respond within the next few days. Opioids were involved in almost 400,000 overdose deaths from 1999 to 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Following a non-jury trial, Balkman ruled in August that Oklahoma had proven that J&J engaged in misleading marketing about the benefits of painkillers, and that their addictive risks caused a public nuisance in the form of the opioid crisis. Hunter had sought to have J&J pay $17 billion to help fund addiction treatment and other services to repair damage from the opioid epidemic over the next 30 years. Balkman, however, awarded only enough money for one year of programs, saying Oklahoma failed to support its claims regarding the need to abate the epidemic in future years. Following the August ruling, Oklahoma asked Balkman for permission to return to his courtroom annually to prove those costs, but Balkman on Friday maintained his prior ruling. J&J, meanwhile, argued that it deserved a $355 million credit, reflecting pre-trial settlements by the drugmakers Purdue Pharma LP and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.  Balkman concluded on Friday that state law did not allow such credits. Last month, J&J and four other companies proposed a $48 billion settlement framework to resolve all of the opioid cases they face, with J&J paying $4 billion. Lawyers for the local governments have opposed the proposal. If approved, the settlement would let J&J resolve some of the thousands of product liability lawsuits it faces. The company also faces litigation over whether its baby powder causes cancer, a claim it denies.

SOLUTION: Oklahoma judge reduces Johnson & Johnson opioid payout to $465 million.

PROBLEM: “Practically all our purchases of equipment in China are not being confirmed,” Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said at a news conference. An attempt to buy 15,000 ventilators in China failed and Brazil was making a new bid, he said, but the outcome is uncertain in the intense competition for medical supplies in the global pandemic. Last week, Mandetta referred to being outbid for Chinese supplies and on Tuesday he noted “difficulties” in guaranteeing purchases. In one positive sign for Brazil’s supply crunch, a private company said it managed to buy 40 tonnes of masks and test kits from China, with the shipment arriving by cargo plane in Brasilia on Wednesday. The purchase of 6 million masks and other protective equipment worth 160 million reais ($30 million) was undertaken by pharmaceutical and hospital equipment company Nutriex, based in Goiania, 220 km (138 miles) east of Brasilia. The firm plans to donate part of the order to medical institutions. Health authorities began to sound the alarm this week over supply shortages as hospitals faced growing numbers of patients with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. Confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in the country soared to 15,927 on Wednesday, with the death toll rising by 133 in just 24 hours to 800, the ministry said. Rio de Janeiro reported the first deaths from coronavirus in the city’s hillside slums, called favelas, alarming authorities who fear rapid contagion in these crowded communities that have limited access to medical care and often lack running water for hygiene. Two of the six deaths occurred in Rocinha, one of the largest slums in South America. The virus has spread to 10 of Rio’s favelas, potentially affecting 2 million people, the mayor’s office said. Mandetta reported the first case of coronavirus among the  Yanomami people on the country’s largest reservation for indigenous tribes and said the government plans to build a field hospital for tribes that are vulnerable to contagion. “We are extremely concerned about the indigenous communities,” Mandetta said. Anthropologists and health experts warn that the epidemic could have a devastating impact on Brazil’s 850,000 indigenous people whose lifestyle in tribal villages rules out social distancing. President Jair Bolsonaro said in an address to the nation that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was saving lives of coronavirus patients and should be used in the initial stages of COVID-19. Due to the absence of scientific evidence on its effectiveness and safety, Brazil’s health authorities limit its use to seriously ill patients who are in hospital. Mandetta said Brazil has hired local unlisted medical equipment maker Magnamed to make 6,000 ventilators in 90 days. Pulp and paper companies Suzano SA and Klabin SA, planemaker Embraer SA, information technology provider Positivo Tecnologia SA and automaker Fiat Chrysler have also offered to help build ventilators, he said.

SOLUTION:
Brazil turns to local industry to build ventilators as China orders fall through.