jpd459/healthver_resplit huggingface dataset:
Question: has social distancing had an impact on slowing the spread of COVID-19?
Claim: It appears that the virus that causes COVID-19 can spread from people to animals in some situations.
Evidence: social distancing and have seen slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: social distancing is associated with a statistically-significant reduction in the doubling rate for all but three states.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: counties where the policies have been imposed have effectively increased social distancing and have seen slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Discussion: The combined social distancing measures implemented by the Greek authorities within the first few weeks after the first confirmed case of the virus reduced the COVID-19 growth rate.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Does Vitamin D impact COVID-19 prevention and treatment?
Claim: clinical trials are needed to determine if endogenously created vitamin D could be effective for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19
Evidence: Several studies demonstrated the role of vitamin D in reducing the risk of acute viral respiratory tract infections and pneumonia. These include direct inhibition with viral replication or with anti-inflammatory or immunomodulatory ways. In the meta-analysis, vitamin D supplementation has been shown as safe and effective against acute respiratory tract infections. Thus, people who are at higher risk of vitamin D deficiency during this global pandemic should consider taking vitamin D supplements to maintain the circulating 25(OH)D in the optimal levels (75-125nmol/L).
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: testing positive for COVID-19 was associated with increasing age(RR(age<50)=1.05,p<0.021;RR(age[]50)=1.02,p<0.064)), non-white race(RR=2.54,p<0.01) and being likely vitamin D deficient (deficient/treatment-not-increased:RR=1.77,p<0.02) as compared to likely vitamin D sufficient(not-deficient/treatment-not-decreased), with predicted COVID-19 rates in the vitamin D deficient group of 21.6%(95%CI[14.0%-29.2%] ) versus 12.2%(95%CI[8.9%-15.4%]) in the vitamin D sufficient group.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: A principal defence against uncontrolled inflammation, and against viral infection in general, is provided by T regulatory lymphocytes (Tregs). Treg levels have been reported to be low in many COVID-19 patients and can be increased by vitamin D supplementation. Low vitamin D levels have been associated with an increase in inflammatory cytokines and a significantly increased risk of pneumonia and viral upper respiratory tract infections. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increase in thrombotic episodes, which are frequently observed in COVID-19. Vitamin D deficiency has been found to occur more frequently in patients with obesity and diabetes. These conditions are reported to carry a higher mortality in COVID-19. If vitamin D does in fact reduce the severity of COVID-19 in regard to pneumonia/ARDS, inflammation, inflammatory cytokines and thrombosis, it is our opinion that supplements would offer a relatively easy option to decrease the impact of the pandemic.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: A significant negative correlation (p=0.033) has been observed between mean vitamin D levels and COVID-19 cases per one million population in European countries.
Verdict: Refutes
Question: are patients taking Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE) inhibitors at increased risk for COVID-19?
Claim: Drugs widely used to treat high blood pressure appear to make COVID-19 dangerously worse.
Evidence: Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers are not associated with severe COVID-19 infection in a multi-site UK acute hospital trust
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: The present study has found that the use of ACE inh/ARBs therapy might be associated with an increased in-hospital mortality in patients who were diagnosed with Covid-19 pneumonia.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Patients who take ACEIs and ARBS may be at increased risk of severe disease outcomes due to SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: among patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19, ACEI/ARB use was not associated with increased risk of hospital admission.
Verdict: Refutes
Question: are there any drugs that work for SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 in animals?
Claim: camostat mesylate cure coronavirus.
Evidence: Thus, our goal is to test the most active antivirals identified in adequate animal models infected with SARS-CoV-2, to add more information about possible in vivo efficacy. In turn, successful antivirals could be tested in clinical trials as treatments for infected patients, but also as pre-exposure prophylaxis to avoid novel infections until an effective and safe vaccine is developed.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: When used for prophylaxis or treatment neither the standard human malaria dose (6.5 mg/kg) nor a high dose (50 mg/kg) of HCQ had any beneficial effect on clinical disease or SARS-CoV-2 kinetics (replication/shedding) in the Syrian hamster disease model. Similarly, HCQ prophylaxis/treatment (6.5 mg/kg) did not significantly benefit clinical outcome nor reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication/shedding in the upper and lower respiratory tract in the rhesus macaque disease model. In conclusion, our preclinical animal studies do not support the use of HCQ in prophylaxis/treatment of COVID-19.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: There is no therapeutic FDA-approved drug against SARS-CoV-2 infection, although a combination of anti-viral drugs is directly being practiced in some countries. 
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: We show that a high (5106 pfu) and medium (5104 pfu) dose of SARS-CoV-2 induces consistent upper respiratory tract (URT) viral RNA shedding in both groups of six challenged animals, whilst a low dose (5102 pfu) resulted in only one of six displaying signs of URT viral RNA replication.  
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can coronaviruses spread from people to animals?
Claim: Officials believe that the virus was present in meat sold at the said market.
Evidence: In 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) caused one of the most devastating epidemics known to the developed world.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: This virus is supposed to be spread by human to human transmission.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: A novel coronavirus emerged in human populations and spread rapidly to cause the global coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: what kinds of complications related to COVID-19 are associated with diabetes
Claim: Higher risk if you have type 1 diabetes. Compared to people without diabetes, people with type 1 diabetes are approximately 3.5 times as likely to die in hospital with COVID-19, while people with type 2 are approximately twice as likely.
Evidence: Type 2 diabetic patients were more susceptible to COVID-19 than overall population, which might be associated with hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: the association between DM and COVID-19-induced severe complications is still unclear
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Our data support the notion that diabetes should be considered as a risk factor for a rapid progression and bad prognosis of COVID-19.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: COVID-19 patients with diabetes were more likely to develop severe or critical disease conditions with more complications, and had higher incidence rates of antibiotic therapy, non-invasive and invasive mechanical ventilation, and death
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can children get COVID-19?
Claim: COVID-19 and kids: What can happen when children get the coronavirus. A rare but sometimes deadly syndrome poses extra risk for COVID's youngest victims.
Evidence: Children accounted for a small fraction of COVID19 cases and mostly had social contacts with peers or parents, rather than older people at risk of severe disease.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: COVID-19 infection may be associated with severe disease in childhood presenting to a specialist hospital, but does not appear significantly different in severity to other causes of similar clinical presentations. In children presenting with pre-existing COVID-19 vulnerable medical conditions at a specialist centre, there does not appear to be significantly increased risk of either contracting COVID-19 or severe complications, apart from those undergoing chemotherapy, who are over-represented.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: At present, though the limited data on the effects of COVID 19 in pediatric patients, children seem to count for a little proportion of SARS-COV 2 infection, and present with less severe disease and effects However infants and toddlers are at risk of developing critical course. 
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Data on viral loads were scarce, but indicated that children may have lower levels than adults, partly because they often have fewer symptoms, and this should decrease the transmission risk.
Verdict: Supports
Question: Can animals spread COVID-19?
Claim: Ferrets can catch the coronavirus and might give it to other ferrets. But poultry and pigs don't appear to be at risk.
Evidence: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is now a pandemic threat. This virus is supposed to be spread by human to human transmission.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: Humans showing clinical symptoms of respiratory infections have been undergoing for COVID-19 diagnostic test but many infected people and few pets confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 remained asymptomatic. 
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Although a few pets presented many clinical signs indicative for a coronavirus infection, no animal tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR and no antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detectable in their blood using an immunoprecipitation assay.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: There is currently no indication that feline- or canine-to-human transmission can occur, though there is rising evidence of the reverse.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can vinegar help in preventing COVID-19?
Claim: Can apple cider vinegar prevent the coronavirus? Nothing can really prevent the corona virus (COVid-19) all that authorities can do is slow it down which is why such tough measures are being enforced in some countries.
Evidence: In Unani medicine, during an epidemic, apart from isolation and quarantine, three measures are of utmost importance, (i) purification of surroundings using certain herbal drugs as fumigants or sprays, (ii) health promotion and immune-modulation, and (iii) use of health-protecting drugs and symptom-specific drugs. Drugs such as loban (Styrax benzoides W. G. Craib), sandroos (Hymenaea verrucosa Gaertn.) za'fran (Crocus sativus L.), vinegar etc. are prescribed in various forms.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Numerous clinical trials have been launched to identify effective treatments for COVID-19. Initial data from a placebo-controlled study suggest faster time to recovery in patients on remdesivir; it is now being evaluated in additional controlled studies.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Scientific researches on these drugs reveal the presence of a number of pharmacologically active substances, which may provide a new insight into the management of infections and epidemics.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Considering its potential benefits and high availability, acetic acid disinfection appears to be a promising adjunctive therapy in cases of non-severe COVID-19 and deserves further investigation.
Verdict: Supports
Question: will SARS-CoV2 infected people develop immunity?
Claim: Coronaviruses cause respiratory illnesses, so the lungs are usually affected first. Early symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
Evidence: Based on animal experiments, already acquired data on other coronavirus types and plausibility assumptions, it can be assumed that seroconverted patients have an immunity of limited duration and only a very low risk of reinfection.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: In this study, we collected blood from COVID-19 patients who have recently become virus-free and therefore were discharged, and analyzed their SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody and T cell responses. We observed SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral and cellular immunity in the patients. Both were detected in newly discharged patients, suggesting both participate in immune-mediated protection to viral infection.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: The CD4 + memory exploiting could help immune system to recall immunity of already know antigens against coronaviruses, avoiding or limiting "lung crash" until virus specific immunity develops and making it faster and prolonged. Finally, this administration could be helpful not only in already infected patients, but also before infection. In fact, people could have an immune system more ready when the contact with the Covid-19 will occur.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: we discovered evidence that SARS-CoV-2, along with related coronaviruses, used mutations to evade attack from the human immune system. Overall, we present an immunological resource for SARS-CoV-2 that could promote both therapeutic development and mechanistic research.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can wearing masks help in preventing the spread of the coronavirus disease?
Claim: Some models show that if people wear masks, death rates from COVID-19 stay very low.
Evidence: Face masks are an avenue to curb the spread of coronavirus, but few people in Western societies wear face masks.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Wearing medical masks or N95 masks (namely N95 respirators) can slow the virus spread and reduce the infection risk.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: This study 1) illustrates transmission routes of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); 2) addresses controversies surrounding the mask from perspectives of attitude, effectiveness, and necessity of wearing the mask with evidence that the use of mask would effectively interrupt the transmission of infectious diseases in both hospital settings and community settings; and 3) provides suggestion that the public should wear the mask during COVID-19 pandemic according to local context.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Evidence that face masks provide effective protection against respiratory infections in the community is scarce. However, face masks are widely used by health workers as part of droplet precautions when caring for patients with respiratory infections. It would therefore be reasonable to suggest that consistent widespread use of face masks in the community could prevent further spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Verdict: Supports
Question: Can wearing masks help in preventing the spread of the coronavirus disease?
Claim: The researchers also ranked face mask material from most to least effective in their testing.
Evidence: Wearing medical masks or N95 masks (namely N95 respirators) can slow the virus spread and reduce the infection risk.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Face masks are an avenue to curb the spread of coronavirus, but few people in Western societies wear face masks.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: This study 1) illustrates transmission routes of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); 2) addresses controversies surrounding the mask from perspectives of attitude, effectiveness, and necessity of wearing the mask with evidence that the use of mask would effectively interrupt the transmission of infectious diseases in both hospital settings and community settings; and 3) provides suggestion that the public should wear the mask during COVID-19 pandemic according to local context.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Evidence that face masks provide effective protection against respiratory infections in the community is scarce. However, face masks are widely used by health workers as part of droplet precautions when caring for patients with respiratory infections. It would therefore be reasonable to suggest that consistent widespread use of face masks in the community could prevent further spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Verdict: Supports
Question: Can vinegar help in preventing COVID-19?
Claim: Vinegar can kill microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses and treat yeast infections.
Evidence: As discussed in this review, till effective vaccines and treatments emerge, it is important to understand the scientific rationale of pandemic-mitigation strategies such as wearing facemasks and social distancing, and implement them.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Numerous clinical trials have been launched to identify effective treatments for COVID-19. Initial data from a placebo-controlled study suggest faster time to recovery in patients on remdesivir; it is now being evaluated in additional controlled studies.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Considering its potential benefits and high availability, acetic acid disinfection appears to be a promising adjunctive therapy in cases of non-severe COVID-19 and deserves further investigation.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: In Unani medicine, during an epidemic, apart from isolation and quarantine, three measures are of utmost importance, (i) purification of surroundings using certain herbal drugs as fumigants or sprays, (ii) health promotion and immune-modulation, and (iii) use of health-protecting drugs and symptom-specific drugs. Drugs such as loban (Styrax benzoides W. G. Craib), sandroos (Hymenaea verrucosa Gaertn.) za'fran (Crocus sativus L.), vinegar etc. are prescribed in various forms.
Verdict: Supports
Question: what is known about people that have COVID-19 without any symptoms?
Claim: If the person is asymptomatic but was tested after having close contact with someone with SARS-CoV-2 infection or as part of a response to an outbreak (e.g., facility has a resident with nursing-home onset COVID-19 or a HCP with COVID-19), then they should also be considered to have SARS-CoV-2 infection and managed as described above.
Evidence: Young healthy recruits often showed a mild course of COVID-19 with rapid symptom decline but were persistent SARS-CoV-2 carriers. This illustrates how asymptomatic patients may be responsible for covert viral transmission.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: The evidence confirms COVID-19 transmission from people who were asymptomatic at the time.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: The median communicable period, defined as the interval from the first day of positive nucleic acid tests to the first day of continuous negative tests, was 9.5 days (up to 21 days among the 24 asymptomatic cases). Through epidemiological investigation, we observed a typical asymptomatic transmission to the cohabiting family members
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: APs with COVID-19 still have certain period of viral shedding, which suggests the possibility of transmission during their asymptomatic period.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: how does the coronavirus respond to changes in the weather
Claim: The high temperature and low relative humidity lead to high evaporation rates of saliva-contaminated droplets, thus significantly reducing the coronavirus viability
Evidence: Results indicated that temperatures had a negative linear relationship with the number of confirmed cases.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: Being a novel pandemic coronavirus version, it might be ongoing during summer conditions associated with higher air temperatures, low relative humidity and precipitation levels.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: temperature is the most influential parameter that reduces the growth at the rate of 13-17 cases/day with a 1C rise in temperature.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: We show that the delay between exposure and detection of infection complicates the estimation of weather impact on COVID-19 transmission, potentially explaining significant variability in results to-date
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can smoking help in preventing COVID-19?
Claim: Tobacco kills more than 8 million people globally every year. More than 7 million of these deaths are from direct tobacco use and around 1.2 million are due to non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Evidence: Cannabis smoking is linked with poor respiratory health, immunosuppression and multiple contaminants. Potential synergism between the two epidemics would represent a major public health convergence. Cigarettes were implicated with disease severity in Wuhan, China.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: These findings indicate that these comorbidities are not only associated with severity of disease but also predispose for getting Covid-19.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: what is the origin of COVID-19
Claim: The CORONAVIRUS did not emerge in Wuhan
Evidence: A novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2) that initially originated from Wuhan, China, in December 2019 has already caused a pandemic.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: The COVID19, which appeared to originate in China in December 2019, has spread worldwide pandemically.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: The results obtained from various AI-enabled experiments using clustering algorithms demonstrate that all examined COVID-19 virus genomes belong to a cluster that also contains bat and pangolin coronavirus genomes.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Although to date it is considered that Covid19 originates from bats (96.2% overall genome sequence identity) (1), the type of intermediate animals that caused the transmission to humans remains unknown (2-4).
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can acetaminophen (Tylenol) treat the coronavirus disease?
Claim: Can acetaminophen (Tylenol) treat the coronavirus disease? No
Evidence: Antiviral drugs like lopinavir/ritonavir, favipiravir and remdesivir are also being explored. Cytokine storm and secondary HLH might require heightened immunosuppressive regimens.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: The safety of NSAIDs, corticosteroids and renin-angiotensin inhibitors in COVID-19 is challenged. NSAIDs may interfere with the defense process against viral infection and are best avoided. 
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that emerged in 2019 and is causing the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no current standard of care.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Development of a vaccine may be the only effective long-term protection against this disease.
Verdict: Supports
Question: Do antibodies make you immune to COVID-19?
Claim: the symptoms of COVID-19 are no worse than a cold
Evidence: The researchers found: 1) individuals with mild and severe disease produced neutralizing IgG to SARS-CoV-2 10 days after disease onset; 2) SARS-CoV-2 persisted longer in those with severe disease; and 3) there was cross-reactivity between antibodies to SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, but only antibodies from patients with COVID-19 neutralized SARS-CoV-2. These observations provide important information on the serological response to SARS-CoV-2 of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 that can inform the use of convalescent plasma therapy.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: We determined and compared the humoral immune response in severe, hospitalized and mild, non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence:  SARS-CoV-2 antibody deficiency in the setting of a tissue viral burden suggests that using an antibody as a therapeutic agent would augment the antiviral immune response.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: While severe COVID-19 patients develop a strong antibody response, mild SARS-CoV-2 infections induce a modest antibody response. Long term monitoring will show whether these responses predict protection against future infections.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can smoking help in preventing COVID-19?
Claim: scientists do not recommend that people should begin smoking simply to attempt to avoid a severe case of COVID-19. Smoking is still a leading cause of preventable death across the globe.
Evidence: Cannabis smoking is linked with poor respiratory health, immunosuppression and multiple contaminants. Potential synergism between the two epidemics would represent a major public health convergence. Cigarettes were implicated with disease severity in Wuhan, China.
Verdict: Supports