Long ago, in friendlier times, this blog ran a series of Modern Myths featuring Crusoe. The plan was for a lot more but life got serious. Rummaging through files I came across some drafts. This one was dated 2010 but the original might have been written a year or more before. It was clearly the way things were going then.
Beta Centauri was unquestionably a long way from Massachusetts. Somewhat to her surprise Crusoe found breathing no problem, and the temperature seemed just about right. The scenery as they’d come in was not unlike that of a temperate zone on earth.
Walking around, she had begun to wonder if there were clinics when she spotted the entrance to what was unquestionably a medical facility. Going in, she found a procedure in progress. It seemed sophisticated – no anaesthesia. Wounds from battle or other encounters seemed to heal under the touch of a vibrating instrument passed slowly over them. In other cases apparently normal limbs turned out to be quite artificial, and repairing them was entirely bloodless. This was a new frontier.
But it was quite another building that drew her attention. Where only those in obvious need of care for something like a severed limb went to what she would have called a clinic, everyone came to this other building at some point. Here the staff administered a supply of some substance. The same for everyone. Crusoe took some. She noticed no effect.
What was it? She didn’t want to ask as who knew what would happen if the Centaurians realised she didn’t need what it seemed they did. It was only in one of the taverns in town, after a few drinks, that she was able to get someone to tell her what went on in the building without raising suspicions.
Some decades earlier, faced they were told with a major epidemic the entire population of the Economy was vaccinated. This was done compulsorily. The Corporation was the only body who held supplies of the right vaccine. While treatment may have saved them from something, there was a side effect. Not spotted at first – at least this was how the Centaurians viewed it. The vaccine knocked out a gene and all children borne after that were short of a protein – alpha-nucleositol, without which life was impossible.
Fortunately very few children died, as when the problem declared itself in the first few children, the Corporation rushed out supplies of alpha-nucleositol and supplied it to everyone. Provided they took it, everything was okay. It came free of charge but with an requirement for annual screening. If the screening revealed that the subject held aberrant views on the organisation of the Economy or the merits of the Corporation, the person’s supply was terminated.
Everyone including bioethicists and others with no links to the Economy or the Corporation justified this on the basis that the Economy couldn’t be expected to support the continued existence of those disagreed with its principles.
The rebellion began when Princess Leia escaped with a supply of the gene for alpha-nucleositol, and headed for a planet on the outer limits of galaxy, whose inhabitants it was now rumoured could live without being dependent on the Corporation.
This piece was previously built into: The Data Access Wars
Crusoe features in many posts including Medystopia
Watch where you Wave that Wand
Crusoe – but life got serious…
Shipwreck of the Singular
15: Crusoe we say was rescued
Almost ready for lift-off! Meet the crew aboard SpaceX’s first all-civilian orbital mission
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/almost-ready-for-lift-off-meet-the-crew-aboard-spacex-s-first-all-civilian-orbital-mission/ar-AAOqbzz?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
The billionaire, who is described as an accomplished jet pilot, said: “I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit.
“I also think if we are going to live in that world, we better conquer childhood cancer along the way,” Mr Isaacman added.
Branson, Bezos, Musk: The billionaire space race but what’s in it for us?
Solving the big problems of life is safer in their hands than in the hands we are dealt on planet earth –
Shipwreck of the Singular
Where she said hushed
Were the adults
Being Done-For, The ‘Milky’ Way…
Alan Cassels
@AKECassels
We have to be very cautious with surrogate endpoints. We wrote about this
@Drug_Evidence @JeanneLenzer1
https://www.ti.ubc.ca/2015/02/03/the-limitations-and-potential-hazards-of-using-surrogate-markers/
Should regulatory authorities approve drugs based on surrogate endpoints?
https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2059
Doctors are also willing to prescribe based on similar beliefs. Yet a 2016 poll—led by Aaron Kesselheim, a professor at Harvard and one of the FDA advisers who resigned in protest over the approval of aducanumab—reported that only 41 of 687 (6%) US physicians correctly answered the following question:
For a drug to get FDA approval it has to have: a) a statistically significant result; b) a clinically important result; c) both results; d) neither of the results.
The correct answer is d.23
TranspariMED@TranspariMED Retweeted
Jeanne Lenzer
@JeanneLenzer1
In BMJ today: Most drugs approved by FDA have never been tested to be either safe or effective. That comes as news not only to the public – but to most doctors Read to the end for
https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/374/bmj.n2059.full.pdf
the incredible kicker
All of them snollygosters…
@OnlyEnnui
Replying to @JeanneLenzer1@drjohnmand 4 others
There’s a fun novel about dodgy drug trials:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Malcharist-Paul-John-Scott/dp/1989963005/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
A different kind of trip on planet earth being rolled out in Europe Scandinavia and ultimately across the globe.
September 16, 2021
Awakn Life Sciences to Acquire Leading Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy Clinic in Norway
Launches Nordics Regional Expansion
Dr. Lowan Stewart, One of Europe’s Preeminent Ketamine Physicians, Appointed as Awakn’s Regional Director for the Nordics
TORONTO, September ##, 2021 – Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (“Awakn” or the “Company”)), (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) a biotechnology company developing and delivering psychedelic medicine to treat addiction, is pleased to announce that it has signed a binding share exchange agreement to acquire a 100% interest in Axonklinikken AS (“Axon”), a leading ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic in Norway. As part of the transaction Axon will be renamed ‘Awakn Oslo AS’, and Axon’s majority shareholder Dr. Lowan Stewart will be appointed as Regional Director for the Nordics and Managing Director Awakn Oslo AS.
The acquisition will enable Awakn to accelerate its clinic roll out program, as Awakn will now parallel path its regional expansion plans in both the Nordics (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland) and U.K. & Ireland, territories with a combined 100m population and US$5trn GDP.
Awakn Oslo AS will serve as a regional hub from which Awakn plans to expand across the Nordics and is in addition to the two other clinics Awakn plans to have operational this fiscal year (Bristol and London locations), all of which Awakn expects to begin generating revenue in the near-term.
“This is a key element of our goal for Awakn to become the leading authority in the development and delivery of psychedelic therapeutics to treat addiction,” said Anthony Tennyson, Awakn’s CEO. “Our approach of development and delivery enables Awakn to earn revenue while we also develop a deep IP portfolio with strong commercial potential. This acquisition will enable Awakn to accelerate the first element of our three-pronged revenue generation strategy: clinics in the UK and Europe, licencing partnership beyond the UK and Europe, and therapeutics commercialisation.”