Newsela
Greta E, Krista H, Kallie B, Sarah G, and Ryder E
Claim
The claim is that babies are born with small heads because they are infected with the Zika virus.
Reasons
1. Exposure to toxic substances can cause microcephaly, which creates abnormally small heads in babies.
2. Mutations within the Zika virus are able to travel very easily now, which means that even more women are open to getting the virus and having children with smaller heads.
Evidence
1, It is states in the text, "Scott Weaver is an expert on mosquito-borne diseases and he believes that the Zika virus may have mutated in recent years, causing more people to obtain it. " This is stating how more people are open to getting the virus, which means more babies can be born with microcephaly because of the Zika virus.
2. The text states "Thousands of Brazilian babies born last year have abnormally small heads and potentially crippling brain damage. There is no known cure for the devastating conditions, which is known as microcephaly." This is showing how microcephaly has caused smaller heads in babies and some problems with a functioning brain.
Biased
The text is biased towards the fact that the Zika virus is affecting many people and it is becoming a huge problem. Throughout the text topics are brought up such as how bad the virus has gotten in the past years. Also, there are researchers stated in the passage that talk about background information of the illness.