>"As close to as" does not mean truthful. No it doesn't. However; >This is as close to a truthful claim as I've seen from a health authority! Means you think it's 100% truthful. You set a binary condition (truthful versus not truthful) and qualified the truthfulness of the given claim. You're trying to be a pedant but you're really, really, really bad at it. Had you indicated you were being sarcastic, joking, or the reply was not serious in some other way then you would have a leg to stand on. As is you don't.