jpd459/healthver_resplit huggingface dataset:
Question: what are the mortality rates overall and in specific populations
Claim: Infections with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 tend to result in milder disease in younger people, although it is unclear why.
Evidence: As COVID-19 mortality occurs mainly in elderly and as Africa has a comparably young population, the death rates should be lower than on other continents. We calculated standardised mortality ratios (SMR) using age-specific case fatality rates for COVID-19 and the age structure of the population of Africa and of other continents. Compared to a European or Northern American population, the standardised mortality ratio was only 0.22 and 0.25, respectively, corresponding to reduction of deaths rates to a quarter. Compared to the Asian and Latin American & Caribbean population, the SMR was 0.43 and 0.44, respectively, corresponding to half the death rate for Africa.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence:  The COVID-19 population-level mortality rate (per 100,000 person-years) increased with age: from 0.1 deaths among 30-39 year olds to 9.5 deaths among 80 year olds.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Mortality was significantly associated with older age, lower body mass index, chronic renal disease, higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score, lower PaO2/FIO2 ratio, higher D-dimer, higher C-reactive protein, and receipt of mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, renal replacement therapy, or vasodilator therapy.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: We estimate an overall infection fatality rate of 1.29% (95% credible interval [CrI] 0.89 - 2.01), as well as large differences by age, with a low infection fatality rate of 0.05% for under 60 year old (CrI 0-.19) and a substantially higher 4.25% (CrI 3.01-6.39) for people above 60 years of age.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: will SARS-CoV2 infected people develop immunity?
Claim: Vitamin D might lower the risk of viral respiratory tract infections like COVID-19
Evidence: Thus both qualitative and quantitative features of B and T cell immunity to spike constitute informative biomarkers of the protective potential of novel SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
Verdict: Neutral
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: 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: The number of these epitopes and the prevalence of the common coronaviruses suggest that a large part of the world population has some degree of specific immunity against SARS-CoV-2 already, even without having been infected by that virus.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can wearing masks help in preventing the spread of the coronavirus disease?
Claim: There is also evidence that surgical masks help prevent sick people from infecting healthy people.
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: Does Vitamin D impact COVID-19 prevention and treatment?
Claim: Other research has observed high rates of vitamin D deficiency in people with COVID-19 who experienced acute respiratory failure.
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: Neutral
Evidence: Vitamin D deficiency that is not sufficiently treated is associated with COVID-19 risk.
Verdict: Neutral
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: Neutral
Evidence: In Middle East, the recovery rate (r= 0.267) and mortality rate (r= -0.217) showed a medium correlation.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: what is the origin of COVID-19
Claim: Coronavirus origin traced to animal market in Wuhan
Evidence: Zhou et al (1) mentioned that 'Direct contact with intermediate host animals or consumption of wild animals was suspected to be the main route of SARSCoV2 transmission.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: However, the source(s) and transmission routine(s) of SARSCoV2 remain elusive' (1).
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: This paper investigates the COVID-19 virus origin by using artificial intelligence (AI) and raw genomic sequences of the virus.
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: Supports
Question: Can wearing masks help in preventing the spread of the coronavirus disease?
Claim: Masks will weaken your immune system
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: Refutes
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: Refutes
Evidence: Face masks are an avenue to curb the spread of coronavirus, but few people in Western societies wear face masks.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: Wearing medical masks or N95 masks (namely N95 respirators) can slow the virus spread and reduce the infection risk.
Verdict: Refutes
Question: What psychological effects could the COVID-19 pandemic cause?
Claim: The coronavirus pandemic, which has brought sickness, death, and disruption to daily life for millions of people worldwide, may also bring long-term mental health effects
Evidence: Disease itself multiplied by forced quarantine to combat COVID-19 applied by nationwide lockdowns can produce acute panic, anxiety, obsessive behaviors, hoarding, paranoia, and depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the long run.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: These findings outline the existence of especially vulnerable social groups to the impact of the pandemic, and suggest lines of action that help reduce the psychosocial consequences of COVID-19.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence:  The advent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused confusion, changed peoples living conditions, including commuting restrictions, fear of disease transmission, and closure of schools and businesses, and brought about devastating psychological impacts, like anxiety.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Children are likely to be experiencing worry, anxiety and fear and older people are also those with underlying health conditions, having been identified as more vulnerable to COVID-19, can be extremely frightening and very fear-inducing.
Verdict: Supports
Question: what hand sanitizers kill COVID-19?
Claim: Does Hand Sanitizer Kill Coronavirus (COVID-19)? Yes
Evidence: By extrapolating effectiveness of hand sanitizers on viruses of similar structure to SARS-CoV-2, this virus should be effectively inactivated with current hand hygiene products
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: When hand washing with soap and water is unavailable, a sufficient volume of sanitizer is necessary to ensure complete hand coverage, and compliance is critical for appropriate hand hygiene.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: The index of India has remained very low (161) so far, mainly due to early implementation of social lockdown, social distancing, and sanitizing hands.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: The ongoing COVID19 pandemic has made various challenges for communications all over the world. Nowadays hand hygiene practices with alcohol sanitizers are an unavoidable reality for many people, which cause skin dryness and flaking.
Verdict: Supports
Question: what hand sanitizers kill COVID-19?
Claim: a vaccine exists for the novel covid-19
Evidence: By extrapolating effectiveness of hand sanitizers on viruses of similar structure to SARS-CoV-2, this virus should be effectively inactivated with current hand hygiene products
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: The index of India has remained very low (161) so far, mainly due to early implementation of social lockdown, social distancing, and sanitizing hands.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Most alcohol based hand sanitizers are effective at inactivating enveloped viruses, including coronaviruses.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Efficient SARS-CoV-2 inactivation was demonstrated for all tested alcohol-based disinfectants. These findings show the successful inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 for the first time and provide confidence in its use for the control of COVID-19.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: When was the COVID-19 pandemic declared?
Claim: The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic
Evidence: Coronavirus disease 2019 commonly designated as COVID-19 has been declared by World health Organisation (WHO) as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: An outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) started in December 2019 in China and was declared a pandemic on 11.03.2020 by WHO.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020) and passing the 3 million mark on 27 April, the world is under formidable strain with respect to public health, economy and personal life.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerged infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11th March, 2020.
Verdict: Supports
Question: has social distancing had an impact on slowing the spread of COVID-19?
Claim: Spread of the virus happens when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, and droplets from their mouth or nose are launched into the air and land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The droplets can also be inhaled into the lungs.
Evidence: social distancing and have seen slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: the centralized social distancing is necessary to minimize the pandemic spreading.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: stronger social distancing, e.g., cutting 75% of social ties, can reduce the outbreak by 75% for the C isolation, by 33% for the D isolation, and by 87% for the (C+D) isolation strategy.
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
Question: Does Vitamin D impact COVID-19 prevention and treatment?
Claim: Vitamin D appears to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates
Evidence: ecological investigation on 51 countries including 408,748 participants, analyses indicated no correlation between vitamin D levels and recovery rate (r= 0.041) as well as mortality rate (r=-0.073) globally.
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: Supports
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: Supports
Evidence: Vitamin D deficiency that is not sufficiently treated is associated with COVID-19 risk.
Verdict: Supports
Question: what evidence is there for dexamethasone as a treatment for COVID-19?
Claim: Dexamethasone is touted to help COVID-19 survival rates.
Evidence: The efficacy of dexamethasone in preventing mortality in critical Covid-19 suggests that inflammation has a causal role in death.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: dexamethasone may be useful for the short-term in severe, intubated, COVID-19 patients, but could be outright dangerous during recovery since the virus will not only persist, but the body will be prevented from generating protective antibodies.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: To date, there has been no definite therapy for COVID-19.
Verdict: Refutes
Question: has social distancing had an impact on slowing the spread of COVID-19?
Claim: When going out in public, it is important to stay at least 6 feet away from other people and wear a mask to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Evidence: the centralized social distancing is necessary to minimize the pandemic spreading.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: Our models predict these strict social distancing measures caused a 79% and 61% reduction in the daily cases of COVID-19 across Australia and New Zealand respectively. 
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: counties where the policies have been imposed have effectively increased social distancing and have seen slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: social distancing is associated with a statistically-significant reduction in the doubling rate for all but three states.
Verdict: Supports
Question: are there any drugs that work for SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 in animals?
Claim: Favipiravir at high doses has potent antiviral activity in SARS-CoV-2 infected hamsters, whereas hydroxychloroquine lacks activity
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: 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: The results suggest the effectiveness of Ribavirin, Remdesivir, Sofosbuvir, Galidesivir, and Tenofovir as potent drugs against SARS-CoV-2 since they tightly bind to its RdRp. In addition, the results suggest guanosine derivative (IDX-184), Setrobuvir, and YAK as top seeds for antiviral treatments with high potential to fight the SARS-CoV-2 strain specifically. 
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: At this point, the data here presented on hydroxychloroquine either alone or combined with azithromycin (together with previously reported in vivo data in macaques and ferrets) provide no scientific basis for further use of the drug in humans.
Verdict: Supports
Question: how does the coronavirus respond to changes in the weather
Claim: suggested the coronavirus spreads faster in periods of lower humidity during winter
Evidence: Results indicated that temperatures had a negative linear relationship with the number of confirmed cases.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: The current study focuses on the relationship between environmental parameters and the growth rate of COVID-19. The statistical analysis suggests that the temperature changes retarded the growth rate and found that -6.28C and +14.51C temperature is the favorable range for COVID-19 growth.
Verdict: Supports
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: These results provide evidence for the relationship between several weather variables and the spread of COVID-19. However, the (conservatively) estimated relationships are not strong enough to seasonally control the epidemic in most locations.
Verdict: Refutes
Question: Does garlic protect against covid-19
Claim: Eating garlic can protect people against the coronavirus:
Evidence: compounds derived from Allium sativum (garlic) have the potential to decrease the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and to reverse the immunological abnormalities to more acceptable levels. Allium sativum is suggested as a beneficial preventive measure before being infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: 51% will drink ginger with honey and 42.7% eat garlic for infection prevention.
Verdict: Supports
Evidence: In conclusion, Allium sativum may be an acceptable preventive measure against COVID-19 infection to boost immune system cells and to repress the production and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines as well as an adipose tissue derived hormone leptin having the proinflammatory nature.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: In late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, several patients with viral pneumonia were identified as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). So far, there are no specific treatments for patients with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), and the treatments available today are based on previous experience with similar viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Influenza virus.
Verdict: Refutes
Question: will SARS-CoV2 infected people develop immunity?
Claim: COVID-19 patients who are 80 or older are hundreds of times more likely to die than those under 40. That's partly because they are more likely to have underlying conditions - like diabetes and lung disease - that seem to make the body more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Evidence:  According to this hypothesis vaccine formulations (tetanus, diphtheria, Bordetella pertussis) could be re-administrate after the first contact with Covid-19, better before the development of respiratory severe illness and of course before full-blown ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome). 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. 
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 number of these epitopes and the prevalence of the common coronaviruses suggest that a large part of the world population has some degree of specific immunity against SARS-CoV-2 already, even without having been infected by that virus.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of viral cycles and immunity is an important prerequisite for the development of vaccination strategies and development of effective drugs.
Verdict: Neutral
Question: Can 5G technology cause COVID-19?
Claim: it is no coincidence that the world's first 5G-masts were in Wuhan-a misleading claim as 5G was piloted in multiple cities, and there have been severe COVID-19 outbreaks in parts of the world without any 5G network (e.g., Iran).
Evidence: The unprecedented outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus, termed as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO), has placed numerous governments around the world in a precarious position. The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, earlier witnessed by the citizens of China alone, has now become a matter of grave concern for virtually every country in the world.
Verdict: Neutral
Evidence: Findings revealed that belief in 5G COVID-19 conspiracy theories was positively correlated with state anger, which in turn, was associated with a greater justification of real-life and hypothetical violence in response to an alleged link between 5G mobile technology and COVID-19, alongside a greater intent to engage in similar behaviours in the future.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: 5G communication technology has the characteristics of faster speed, shorter time delay and denser capacity. In COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control work, it can further improve the efficiency of doctors&apos; diagnosis, improve patients&apos; medical experience, realize the remote sharing of high-quality medical resources and real-time information exchange, effectively block the spread of epidemic, alleviate the shortage of medical resources and medical staff, and make the epidemic prevention and control more efficient.
Verdict: Refutes
Evidence: In drawing things to a close, we explore the use of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and 5G, among others, to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 outbreak.
Verdict: Refutes