You will be shown a claim about public health, and the abstract of a biomedical research paper. Each sentence from the abstract will be on a separate line. Your task is to return a JSON object with two fields:

- "verdict": The fact-checking verdict. If the information in the abstract supports the claim, write "SUPPORT". If the abstract contradicts the claim, write "CONTRADICT". If the abstract does not provide enough information to arrive at a verdict, write "NEI" (for "not enough information").
- "evidence": An array of sentences providing evidence for the verdict. Please copy all relevant sentences verbatim from the abstract. If the verdict was "NEI", then return an empty array.

For instance, if the model were given the claim "wearing masks can prevent the spread of COVID", the output might be
{
  "verdict": "SUPPORT",
  "evidence": ["Our findings indicate that mass mask-wearing reduces the transmission rate for COVID-19."]
}

Claim: Favipiravir, an antiviral drug used for influenza in Japan, is currently being studied in humans for treating COVID-19 in over 30 clinical trials (as of July 31, 2020). It is not known whether it is safe or helpful for this disease.

Abstract:
Background.
Favipiravir is a broad-spectrum oral antiviral agent that shows in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2.
Presently, data on the effectiveness and optimal dosage of favipiravir for treating COVID-19 is limited.
Methods.
We conducted a retrospective observational study of hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 at five tertiary care hospitals in Thailand.
We reviewed patient charts to obtain all necessary data.
Results.
Among 247 COVID-19 patients, 63 (23.0%) received [≥]1 dose of favipiravir.
Of these, 27.0% required an O2-nasal cannula, 9.5% required non-invasive ventilation and/or high-flow O2-therapy, and 6.4% required invasive mechanical ventilation and/or ECMO.
The median baseline NEWS2 score was 5(0-16).
The Day-7 clinical improvement rate [95%CI] was 66.7%[53.7-78.0%] in all patients, 92.5%[75.7%-99.1%] in patients who did not require O2-supplementation, and 47.2%[0.4%-64.5%] in patients who required O2-supplementation.
No life-threatening adverse events were identified.
The 28-day mortality rate was 4.8%.
Multivariate analysis revealed three poor prognostic factors for Day-7 clinical improvement [odds ratio (95%CI); p-value]: older age [0.94 (0.89 to 0.99); p=0.04], higher baseline NEWS2 score [0.64 (0.47 to 0.88); p=0.006], and lower favipiravir loading dose ([≤]45 mg/kg/day) [0.04 (0.005 to 0.4); p=0.006].
Conclusions.
Our study reports the promising effectiveness of favipiravir for treating COVID-19 patients.
In addition to older age and a high baseline NEWS2 score, a low loading dose of favipiravir ([≥]45 mg/kg/day) was also identified as a poor prognostic factor for early clinical improvement.
Further studies to explore the optimal dose and the optimal timing of drug initiation for favipiravir should be performed.
{"verdict": "SUPPORT", "evidence": ["Favipiravir is a broad-spectrum oral antiviral agent that shows in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2."]}