This is not more convincing because the human body produces erythritol endogenously so high erythritol blood levels may be another effect of the health problems that cause heart attacks and strokes, rather than the cause. To prove causation they would have to track each subjects consumption of erythritol rather than their blood levels.
A plausible mechanism of action is no where near good enough. Molecular biology is crazy complicated and lots of things that sound plausible don't work (and maybe do the opposite). I'll take "it works, but we don't know why" over "this is why we think it might work" every time.
There are actually a number of drugs where they specifically state the actual mechanism of action is unknown, but they do know from proper and continued clinical trials that the drug does indeed work. A lot of pain killers are in that category.
Here is a list of 68 drugs that are known to work, but apparently we don't know how or why:
Anyone that has ever taken a class in molecular biology or biophysics knows that it's ridiculously complex. Many drugs that look promising in vivo or in animals fail to perform in humans. Empirical evidence is what counts. Even targeted enzyme inhibitors are made by a shotgun approach. Synthesize 1000s of candidates and try them all to see which ones work best in vivo and then try those in animals and then try those winners in humans.
But, but, but this guy I ran into at the park would not shut up about it so it must work. Plus I just like to take neurotoxins. Why would I want to take some fancy new tech mRNA vaccine that would allow me to travel internationally when I can just take some of my dog's heartguard?
Dismissing it just because it’s the active ingredient in heartguard is IMO a bit misguided; after all it is a known antiviral compound and there’s a plausible mechanism of action.
It’s more to the point and less inflammatory to focus on the mounting evidence that it’s just not an effective COVID-19 therapeutic.
Derek Lowe wrote an informative post discussing the lackluster nature of the current body of evidence after the big Egyptian study was retracted for fraudulent data the other week.
Now this is some cynicism I can get behind. People like to tell other people what to do. Politicians are people so...it's almost like they don't care about their fellow citizens and just want to be in control.
How about they just make the tax laws so simple no one needs a "service" to figure out how much tax to pay? I know, that's crazy talk. Politicians wouldn't be able to carve out loopholes for their big donors and our entire system of government would fail.
A lot of companies and peoples jobs in government rely on complicated rules and processes.
They will fight hard anyone that tries to clean up the swamp.
Fair Tax is a way to mostly eliminate the IRS, and most of the tax prep industry. Everyone even gets a monthly check.
Not a chance anything like it will ever be passed.
You’re spot on. Without complexity, the loopholes would be easier to see, and easier to use. Then less revenue. And with less revenue, what would Biden be able to spend? Social programs, military, and surveillance would suffer. We can t have that, now can we?
Its actually easy to dispose of, just neutralize with calcium carbonate (forms safe insoluble calcium fluoride) and dispose of down the drain or in the trash. Just don't get it in on your skin in the process. There are other options to neutralize as well.
