@isaiah4913 @NicHulscher Here's a clip of PCR inventor Kary Mullis criticizing Fauci: His 1997 comments on PCR not being a diagnostic tool (HIV context, not COVID): (key part ~49 min in). He died in 2019 before the pandemic.

Dr. Kary Mullis (PCR inventor) died in 2019. His key comments on PCR limits as a diagnostic tool (and criticism of Fauci) come from 1990s HIV/AIDS talks. Full 1997 Santa Monica discussion: Relevant clip on PCR/Fauci: Nobel Prize interview on his work:

Delhi Police say, "23-year-old man died after he suddenly collapsed during a race while appearing for the ongoing Physical Endurance and Measurement Test (PEMT) at Delhi Police Academy (DPA), Wazirabad, police said on Monday. Information was received at Sonia Vihar Police Station at around 11:11 AM from JPC Hospital regarding a person who had been brought to the emergency department by a PCR van from DPA, Wazirabad, and was declared brought dead by doctors. The deceased was identified as Saurabh Kumar (23), son of Lachhi Singh, a resident of Neta Nagar, Village Salamatpur, Anup Shehar. Police said Kumar had appeared for the ongoing PEMT at DPA, Wazirabad. During the race, he suddenly collapsed on the ground/track. He was provided initial medical assistance and subsequently shifted to JPC Hospital by PCR staff, where doctors declared him brought dead. The body has been sent to GTB Hospital for post-mortem examination. Necessary proceedings under Section 194 of the BNSS have been initiated by PS Sonia Vihar. Further proceedings and investigation are underway."

CHILLING: Josh Shapiro sold a measles de*th. The Lancaster coroner said the baby d*ed of a ruptured spleen. And there's something MUCH darker going on here... Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor stood up this week and announced two “measles-associated” de*ths in Lancaster County, the first in 35 years, and used them to blast RFK Jr. Health Secretary Debra Bogen said she had “thoroughly reviewed the case investigation” and could “confirm that there were two recent measles-associated deaths.” Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni did NOT back that script. The child on his table was a newborn boy who d*ed Aug. 14 at a birthing center. Forensic pathologist Dr. Wayne Ross listed a lacerated spleen and massive blood loss. Diamantoni said the spleen showed “no swelling or enlargement whatsoever.” He told WHP, “At the time of the autopsy, we did obtain some tissue from the newborn and sent it for PCR testing that did confirm the presence of measles. But measles was not the cause of de*th.” A PCR hit is not the same thing as a cause of de*th. Enter Kary Mullis, who invented the test: “If you do it well, you can find almost anything in anybody. It lets you take a minuscule amount of anything and make it measurable.” Some officials in Lancaster are now asking whether the state ran the same high-cycle play they ran in COVID. That part is still speculation. What is not speculation is the autopsy. The baby was hours old. Routine measles shots start at 12 months. He never had a shot to skip. Diamantoni has said his office still has zero measles de*ths on the books and that he does not have the file on the second case the state is counting. Shapiro on Friday refused to answer and called the questions “conspiracy theories.” #Pennsylvania# #Lancaster#

A randomized phase III rectal cancer trial out of China just reported some great results for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer (and confirms our modern TNT practice). TNTCRT randomized 458 patients with high-risk LARC to conventional long-course CRT → surgery → adjuvant chemotherapy versus CAPOX before, during, and after long-course radiation. Yep. Doublet chemo, all the way through. 3-year DFS: 74.8% vs 66.0% HR 0.67 MFS: 77.7% vs 67.6% HR 0.66 pCR: 26.4% vs 9.8% Big numbers, much win. But the criticism is the comparator. The control arm is not how we treat high-risk rectal cancer in the US. We already know TNT is better than CRT → surgery → adjuvant chemotherapy based on OPRA's modern benchmark. With CRT followed by consolidation FOLFOX/CAPOX, 3-year DFS was 76%, essentially the same as the 74.8% seen here. But OPRA also comes with the added benefit of TME-free survival of 54%. I think what is still impressive is the scale and speed of this trial. The Chinese trial infrastructure is fully operational and anyone in drug development should take note. @TheGutOncLab @OncoAlert

How often does a company stop an actively enrolling global phase III trial and open an entirely new registration study? Well, it happened last week. Agenus is moving from BATTMAN to ROBBIN (which certainly has some ethical implications for starting/stopping a study I won't comment on). BATTMAN was testing BOT/BAL against best supportive care in refractory MSS metastatic colorectal cancer. An important question, but a best supportive care control was never likely to gain traction in the United States. ROBBIN moves BOT/BAL where it may have its best chance to work: previously untreated, high-risk stage II/III MSS colon cancer, before surgery and while the primary tumor remains intact. The rationale borrows from FOxTROT and builds on early neoadjuvant immunotherapy work from MSK and others like @pashtoonkasi . The early BOT/BAL data are compelling: • Pathologic response in approximately 60–70% • Major pathologic response in ~35–40% • pCR in ~30% Those are extraordinary numbers for MSS colon cancer and outperform the chemotherapy experience from FOxTROT. ROBBIN will randomize 850 patients to short-course neoadjuvant BOT/BAL followed by standard care versus standard care alone, with event-free survival as the primary endpoint. Will the pathologic responses translate into fewer recurrences? I think there is a real chance they will. The tradeoff will be toxicity. Grade 3 colitis/diarrhea occurred in 13% in one of the early cohorts, although there were no grade 4 events and almost no impact on surgical timing. So yes, you can still smell the colitis. But it may be worth it. @TheGutOncLab @Onco_Nexus @oncodaily @OncoAlert