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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>…</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'> </span><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>It is very sad that we live in a time and milieu where physicians and pharmaceutical industry, biomedical research establishment and popular and special press, are not to be trusted, and where the responsibility for testing and advancing new therapies lies with individual enthusiasts. Really sad. But is it hopeless? </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> Ilia</span><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>That is one way to look at it, but I have an alternate take for you</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>…</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>This is the first case I know of where the efficacy of a medication has been decided within a week based on the internet community. In general we have entered a new age. Now if anyone posts that yakkity yak cures bla bla, then a million bla bla sufferers will find a bottle of yakkity yak and devour it immediately, risk be damned. There is no waiting years for controlled clinical trials for cures to these terrible human conditions. Years from now is too late; yesterday is not soon enough. I can imagine bexarotene will undergo clinical study, and three years from now they will announce it doesn’t do anything, but it will be irrelevant as hell, for we already know.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There is a bright side to all this. The internet-enabled proletariat is a dangerous but powerful weapon against disease: the results come back quickly with enormous numbers of test subjects. If anything does show up that does work, the word spreads quickly, along with the risks, from firsthand reports by volunteer test subjects. Then the clinical trials can bring up the rear, eventually telling us what we already know. Lives will be lost, we know that too. But lives are lost now, waiting for cures.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>