If I can quote Paul Keating here – “This is a beautiful set of numbers”

Great stuff, em. Sorry to hear about your fruitless trip, I hope there’s something good waiting for you…but it looks awesome so far!

Very glad that you and Dr J were able to pin the cause down so fast, and get J the help he needed. A great relief all round! I hope he is feeling better asap.

Thanks for correcting my error on Sofia’s role klhilde, appreciate it.

And you are spot-on, Gilead knew who to run with for marketing. Reading certain online forums…its all about Harvoni, with the Bangladeshi version seen as inferior. Let alone suggesting those suspect Chinese API’s….and honestly I thought the same way until I found this site and had a swift re-education lol

Great to hear you’ve been able to access your meds, Cole – with every bit of ease and lack of hassle that Mike has detailed. The process seems to be running like a top now…”sticking pins on a map” I love it heh

I’m unsure of what you mean here though, “my doctor and I are skeptical about the outcome – I’m not sick enough”? Your level of damage/fibrosis will make no difference, if anything the treatment should be easier…unless I’ve completely misunderstood you.

Great news on the Riba, Paul – glad to hear it.

Do the scales come with calibration weights to check the zero? Only asking as the only digital scales I own are pretty damn sensitive and tend to get very fluctuating readings if not “warmed up” for a few hours before use, and kept away from electronic fields (such as mobile phones etc) Spirit level to get absolute stability etc.

Then again, we are talking about medicinal gram weights here, not grains and all points in between. As you were guys, just thinking off the top of my head

This is why I sometimes hate the internet, you can’t see my eyes or hand gestures or hear my tone of voice while I speak.

I didn’t think you were deflecting from what the doc said, in fact I understood you were agreeing and reinforcing it. But the way you expressed it was interesting in that you used the word “necessitating”.

I was trying to point out that this use of antibiotics is only necessary because the “farmers” involved choose to overcrowd their livestock beyond the natural immune defences of the animals, they choose to employ insufficient staff to be able spot potential illness and then administer the antibiotics to only the sick animals.

If asked, these same “farmers” will say it is necessary for the health and welfare of the animals and to ensure affordable, disease free food for their customers. This is dishonest, they have options, what they choose is to maximise their profits at the expense of the potential future health of the human race.

In the same way, big Pharma claim it is necessary to charge high prices to cover high R&D costs required to introduce new and better drugs. This is also dishonest, again they have options, what they choose is to maximise their shareholders profits to whatever the (local) market will bear without regard to peoples health.

So we should not use their words, necessity, necessitating, necessary, in these circumstances as they imply inevitability. We should keep reminding them and everyone else that they choose these paths that they take and that their choices have consequences.

sorry….I’ll get off my soapbox now

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I absolutely agree with you on this, GAJ

(and not only on the lack of online nuance, can be very misleading/irritating at times for sure!)

What you have quoted here is absolutely spot-on…and I was thinking specifically of the US when I used the word “necessitating”. You are right this is exactly what a large percentage of their farmers have chosen to do, ignoring their livestock’s wellbeing in the pursuit of ever-larger profit margins. Helped also by the generous Govt subsidies which enable and encourage them to overcrowd (again, for “maximisation” of resources) with no thought of future impacts on the animals, human consumers of the over-medicated end product, or the environment.

In the same way, big Pharma claim it is necessary to charge high prices to cover high R&D costs required to introduce new and better drugs. This is also dishonest, again they have options, what they choose is to maximise their shareholders profits to whatever the (local) market will bear without regard to peoples health.

So we should not use their words, necessity, necessitating, necessary, in these circumstances as they imply inevitability. We should keep reminding them and everyone else that they choose these paths that they take and that their choices have consequences.

A very valid analogy, and well said GAJ.

Being of a rather naturally cynical bent, I probably should have used the word “necessity” in parentheses, as that was definitely the tone intended. Sorry for any misunderstanding on that front

No worries at all, GAJ. I wasn’t meaning to deflect anything from what the doc said – just wouldn’t like to see us go down the US-road of human antibiotic resistance due to farmed animals having to be fed antiobiotics where we have relatively little farmlot argriculture at present.