Question

Harvard announced the source of the next pandemic.

Answer 1

I cannot open the link you provided, but based on the only source that I found on the internet, I think this might be true that the next pandemic could be caused by the meat supply in the U.S. 

The author Karen Weintraub claims that many diseases including HIV, Ebola, and COVID-19 are zoonotic diseases, that are caused by poor hygiene. She predicted the next pandemic will also be zoonotic disease, and the disease is more likely to be spread by pork instead of birds. Studies also show that the U.S. has a higher number than other countries, in which pork is more likely to be the cause of the flu. 

“While Americans often think "it couldn't happen here," regulations are so loose and interactions so frequent, researchers found, that a virus or another contagious bug could easily jump from animals to people in the U.S., sparking a deadly outbreak”. 

The workers are particularly vulnerable because of the lack of regulations to protect them. Linder and Winders also point out the lack of industry transparency, there are about 220 million wild animals imported to the U.S., but the details about the situation of the animals or the industries are hidden from the public view, which people are not able to monitoring or control the industries carefully. 

Furthermore, because there is only one available source I can find online, I look at the description of the author. The author is Karen Weintraub, who is a healthcare reporter for usatoday.com and has published reports related to health and science in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and ScientificAmerican.com. She is also a professor at MIT and is the co-author of her book called “Born in Cambridge”. Based on her biography, I believe this news report written by her is reliable. 

Deadly, COVID-style pandemic could easily start in US, report finds (usatoday.com)

Karen Weintraub | AcademyHealth

Comments

The link OP included does appear to be broken. Perhaps the Instagram post was deleted. You did a nice job finding the information regardless.

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Good explanation and despite the link not working, great job on providing other sources and letting readers being able to get this information.

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This was a great explanation and well researched! You did a good job on providing your sources as well as contextualizing the information.

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Great use of sources and great explanation and analysis of the source and making the answer credible.

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I appreciate the thoroughness of your answer, even though the initial link provided to you gave you no context. You provided your own information through two sources and did a great job of paraphrasing them into your own words while simultaneously using direct quotations.

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Good work on fact-checking something even though the link wasn't working. I find it interesting that you tracked down the author of your source in order to prove that it's reputable. To me, that makes for a strong fact-check.

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I believe Instagram removed the original post that states the claim. On another note, is it possible to fact-check predictions? I am curious how this could be factually accurate 100%.

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(Reply to zenyogi) Based on this fact-check, it is accurate because Harvard Law School and New York University did release this message about the next pandemic. However, I think overall predictions might not be 100% accurate because it is still a prediction. Although predictions are analyzed based on sciences and other aspects, the future might happen something different. So for this check, the claim is true. However, predictions are just warnings or reminders for people to be aware of.

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Amazing job researching this! The original instagram post was about how the next pandemic would come from lab grown meat. However, I think you brought a more insightful view on what would actually happen. I also really appreciated how you researched the author and provided her information. My only thing is that her findings on what could start the next pandemic are only prediction. So while you did fact successfully check the potential of meat causing harm and issues, we do not know if it will actually be the cause of the next pandemic.

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Your thought process is easy to follow, and you have understandable points. While you do have information to back up your claim do some more background checking on the author would be helpful for your claim.

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It's pretty difficult to trace the source of a claim when no sources are available, yet you did a fantastic job fact-checking with limited resources. Given that this is a health-related fact-check, it could be good to include a reference from the WHO or an experiment conducted at a hospital or research center.

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I like that you went around the fact you couldn't open the link and did your own research on the subject. With that being said, I highlight my concern when you say that this might be true. Did you find other links that would coincide with your claim that COVID-19 came from meat? Are they credible? I find it should be noted that there is no official government site that is in your claim. Perhaps that would better assist in your proofing of this.

Answer 2

I've read the previous answer and its comments. However, the link you provided did work for me. Perhaps they re-uploaded it. Likewise, I only found a few other sources than the Instagram reel. Including the provided link from usatoday.com, I came across a truthout.org article. This article procured the original report from animal.law.harvard.edu, which reports that the meat supply in the U.S. could arguably be the origination of the next global pandemic.

This is an exaggerated statement, saying that Harvard found THE source of the next pandemic. Merriam-Webster defines 'the' as "a function word before a noun denoting time to indicate reference to what is present or immeadiate or is under consideration." Currently, there have been no reports of a present or an in-question developing pandemic.

Furthermore, the animal law report from Harvard disseminated that certain strains of Influenza like H1N1, H1N2, H3N2, and H5N1, have gyrated in U.S. pig and poultry facilities in recent years. Nowhere do they state that there is a current pandemic, in which U.S. poultry is THE source, "however, there is no evidence of person-to-person spread inside the United States, though in some cases, the virus appears to have obtained qualities that make it more transmissible to mammals, reigniting fears that H5N1 could spark a human pandemic." If anything, this Harvard article is trying to ease the angst we all possess after the COVID-19 pandemic by locating possible sources of 'pandemic potential' diseases. Delivering readers the knowledge that U.S. poultry, among other things, carries a pathogen that can become transmissible and spread human-to-human.

Sources

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the

https://truthout.org/articles/harvard-report-us-meat-supply-could-start-the-next-global-pandemic/

https://animal.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/Animal-Markets-and-Zoonotic-Disease-in-the-United-States.pdf

Comments

This comment really went in-depth to the point you're cross-referencing the word 'the' for your answer. The research besides Merriam Webster was well done and it's great you directly referenced Harvard themselves in your response.

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Really good job on your fact check of this claim. You went into great detail on this issue, and used very reliable sources for this topic. The information you used was really detailed and added a lot to the fact check.