Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
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Question: The story does a good job of pointing out one advantage of the pill approach compared to delivery via colonoscopythe reduced cost. "There was a significant difference in cost. Though the procedures were done in a Canadian hospital, the FMTs delivered by colonoscopy cost nearly $500 USD more than the capsules, which cost about $300." This was a close call. Early on, it says the pill was 90% effective for treating recurrentClostridium difficile infections. Later on, the story explains that both were equally successful in treating the Clostridium difficile infections. It would take a bit of deduction to figure out that the 90% treatment rate applies to both the pills and colonoscopies. And the study puts this figure close to 96%. But we'll give the benefit of the doubt and rate it satisfactory. The story gets a satisfactory here for including the differences between the two methods of delivery: One source is quoted saying, "colonoscopies and the anesthesia required for the procedure can put a lot of stress on a person's bodyand can be complicated for the people most at risk for C. difficile infections." It could have gone a step further and reminded readers that a colonoscopy is an invasive procedure with the inherent risks of infection and perforation that obviously aren't there when taking a pill. The story did not mention the other adverse events described in the paper such as nausea and vomiting, though. The story comments on the size of the study and quotes a researcher about strengths (a randomized, controlled trial) and limitations (selection bias) of the study. Selection bias, in this case, means many people were excluded from the clinical trial if they had any number of issues (patients with severe or complicated cases were excluded, for example), potentially biasing the results. In a more real-world setting, the effectiveness rate may drop once it's tried on a wider range of people. No disease mongering here. The story does include comments from an independent source unaffiliated with the research. But, it doesn't specify that the source has received research money from a drug company that's developing microbiome drugs. Standard treatment for C. diff is antibiotics. This should have been mentioned. Unfortunately, the story doesn't spell out whether the pill form FMT is now, or soon will be, available to the public. The story does mention that numerous other clinical trials are using FMT as a possible treatment for various diseases but it is unclear whether the pill form is an option for physicians at this point. What's new here is that a pill form for delivery of a fecal transplant is being tested against a colonoscopy. The story established this. It does not appear to rely on a news release.

Answer: Fecal transplant via a pill? Newsweek's coverage points out possible selection bias of study participants

Question: The two on Thursday toured a Lowndes County neighborhood where residents say the sewage system regularly overflows into their yards and homes. They then held a town hall in Hayneville. Charlie Mae Holcombe, 70, of Hayneville, said heavy rains are always a sign of trouble. Holcombe described the problems she faced as Gore and Barber spoke with her in her driveway. She said the toilets in her house will begin to bubble as a sign the sewage system is about to backup, sometimes filling her yard including the area around a child's swing set and her house with raw sewage. "They have had to come and pump it out of my yard with the pump truck," Holcombe said. "It's backing up, even in my bathtub. The sewage has run over all in the house." Her home in Lowndes County is in an area that has been plagued by sewage problems and concerns about potential illness. "I have heard about it and seen pictures of it for a long time, but it was shocking to see it in person," Gore said of the conditions he saw. Alabama's Black Belt region gets its name for the dark rich soil that once gave rise to cotton plantations. But the type of soil makes it difficult for traditional septic tanks, in which wastewater filters through the ground, to function properly, said Alabama State Health Officer Scott Harris in an interview with The Associated Press. The region's intense poverty and inadequate municipal infrastructure contribute to the problem. "Sewage is typically handled at a local level... These counties haven't always been able to do that," Harris said. Catherine Coleman Flowers, an activist who has worked on rural environmental issues in the county for years, said wastewater sanitation problems are not limited to Alabama's Black Belt. "It's all over the country," Flowers said, adding that climate change, with heavy rains and rising water tables, will make it worse. Holcombe said she's not sure what it means, but when a red light flashes at a sewage treatment lagoon across the street, it is a reliable sign that her yard will flood. In addition to overwhelmed septic and sewage systems, some homes in the rural county are on "straight pipe" systems where sewage runs untreated from home to yard. Harris said a May survey of almost 200 Lowndes County households found that two to three percent of the households were on straight pipe systems. Holcombe's home sits not far from the state highway where voting rights marchers walked from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Barber noted the proximity to the key sites of the civil rights movement and said the environmental issues are about the continued fight for justice. The town hall, held at a community center in Hayneville, focused on a number of environmental issues. Birmingham resident Jimmy Smith described living near a Superfund site in Birmingham. Others described concerns about landfills, straight pipe sewage systems and coal ash disposal in the Black Belt. At the town hall, Gore criticized what he described as the continued resistance from power companies and politicians to switching to renewable forms of energy such as solar energy. "It's really a disgrace that this far Southern state with abundant sunshine is deprived of the advantages of the solar revolution being enjoyed all over the world," Gore said.

Answer: Environmental justice issues focus of town hall.

Question: The story does not provide the cost of varenciline (which must be taken twice daily), or cost comparison with existing treatments. The story frames the data appropriately. The story avoids the use of only relative risk that the company emphasizes in its press release. The drug was given priority status and fast-tracked for approval due to the "significant improvement" over existing therapies for smoking cessation, which weren't all that signficant. Nausea is the only harm discussed, though there is no mention of the rate or severity of nausea in the treatment and placebo groups, or if participants dropped out of the study due to this side effect. Other side effects of the medication included headaches, insomnia and stomach problems, which are also not mentioned in the story. The story only briefly mentions clinical evidence, and provides an incomplete discussion of the design of the Chantix trials. The numbers were from two fairly well-designed, randomized, double-blind trials (2000 participants), which the story fails to note. Abstinence rates were evaluated between varenicline (Chantix), bupropion (Zyban) and placebo groups at 12 weeks, then continuous abstinence for another 40 weeks. Incidence of nausea, the most common side effect, is not mentioned. There is acknowledgment in the story that the long-term success rate for smoking cessation may be due to a number of combined therapies, including non-drug behavioral treatment. The drug was given priority status and fast-tracked for approval due to the "significant improvement" over existing therapies for smoking cessation, which weren't all that signficant. There does not seem to be evidence of disease mongering. The story uses federal agency data to describe prevalence of smoking and numbers desiring to quit. The study was funded by Pfizer, which is noted in the story. The story mentions that the inventor of the drug is an employee of Pfizer, so his testimonial on its effectiveness may be somewhat biased. The story mentions other drug treatments such as nicotine replacement therapies and bupropion. There is some discussion of non-drug methods of smoking cessation (e.g. behavioral counseling ) with regards to long-term abstinence. The story mentions recent FDA approval of varenicline for smoking cessation, however, we don't know if it is available (presumably not as there is no price yet) or when it will become available. The story explains how this drug differs from nicotine replacement, and that it is different from bupropion. Varenicline binds to the nicotine receptor and only partially activates it so there is less stimulation than by nicotine itself. One of the downstream events from nicotine receptor binding is dopamine release in the parts of the brain wired for reward. There is no evidence that the story relied solely on a press release. The author cites, responsibly, multiple national experts who put the drug in perspective.

Answer:
FDA OKs Pfizer Anti-Smoking Pill