That is a great point. Public health, across t

That is a great point.

Public health, across the country, is experiencing a crisis point IMO- at the local, state and federal levels. Local public health agencies look to the state for guidance and coordination (e.g., in organizing protective gear, testing, etc.)— and political cover/CYA— (e.g., when making unpopular decisions like restricting businesses or requiring masks). State public health agencies, in turn, look to the feds for many of the same reasons.

Leave it to say that all didn't work well in many parts of the country during this pandemic. A result is that a number of the 'good guys' in public health (especially at the local level) are being sued, have lost jobs, been threatened, etc. (Interesting article a while back on the breakdown of this in Colorado during the pandemic: https://www.cpr.org/2020/07/28/colorado-and-i...ronavirus/. I recently early retired from the public health system and have worked at the state and federal levels. I found some of this article on point and some way off base- so much so that I had a few back and forth emails with the author.)

In a few years- am hoping to read the spellbinding thriller about how leron made it to the top and saved millions- uncovering any and all mischief (with juicy references to many characters on investor message boards).

Also looking forward to reading the one about the goings on at the FDA during the 2020 pandemic- again, uncovering any and all mischief. This is just a guess (based on many years of working in the public sector and being a never-ending, aggravating optimist) but I would suspect that FDA is like every agency I ever came in contact with and is a two headed being; one head made up of folks keeping the current administration happy and the other made up of worker bee subject matter experts in their field.

Have seen times when either of the ‘heads’ of the being greatly influenced the other- for better or worse. It is not out of the realm of my possible that the worker bee FDA folks (after plasma and the pillow guy are mentioned in the same sentence as their beloved agency) are fed up and are influencing the other head. No more crap, no more tarnishing their life’s work, we will go back to the science to stop this pandemic.

Maybe being too optimistic but I have seen LOTS of human dynamics in government. I can envision a group of FDA folks demanding that the bar be raised for everybody- not in spite of the fact they recognize leron’s potential but because of it. Perhaps that is the way they feel they can maneuver this to approval.

So- trying not to see it as a terrible thing if we find out Tuesday that the trial must be continued. (Will be much closer to needing to figure out which fast food night shift job app to complete but . . . ) I have faith in all of it for now- FDA worker bees, NP (I actually really like that he gets a little frustrated and shows he is human), knowing the realities of how looonnnnnng it takes to enroll in a clinical trial, and one day having the chance to get a glass of Respert’s good wine (although - hint- I prefer liquor) and to glimpse CDiddy when he is in one of his rare, quickly fading frustrated moods.