You might notice something very peculiar about this story. Here are the pieces: > What she accomplished next could easily be called miraculous [bullshit] > Bu

You might notice something very peculiar about this story. Here are the pieces: > What she accomplished next could easily be called miraculous [bullshit] > Buoyed by her newfound knowledge, Strathdee began reaching out to scientists who worked with phages: "I wrote cold emails to total strangers, begging them for help," she said at Life Itself. > she convinced phage scientists around the country to hunt and peck through molecular haystacks > One stranger who quickly answered was Texas A&M University biochemist Ryland Young. He's been working with phages for nearly 45 years. Young, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics who runs the lab at the university's Center for Phage Technology. "We just dropped everything. No exaggeration, people were literally working 24/7" ... [that's what happens when I need help, university departments drop what they're doing to assist] > Next, the US Food and Drug Administration had to greenlight this unproven cocktail of hope [in a week] > But the woman who answered the phone at the FDA said, " 'No problem.' ... " [like magic] > And then she tells me she has friends in the Navy [who doesn't] > Yet just three weeks later, Strathdee watched doctors intravenously inject the mixture into her husband's body > Legal staff at Texas A&M expressed concern about future lawsuits ... But Stephanie literally had speed dial numbers for the chancellor and all the people involved in human experimentation at UC San Diego. After she calls them, they basically called their counterparts at A&M, and suddenly they all began to work together [suddenly it happened, a miracle] Ready for it? > Strathdee was the associate dean of global health sciences at the University of California, San Diego It wasn't a miracle. It was extreme privilege. She had elite access and got extraordinarily special treatment and response at every step. The phage aspect is very interesting, I've been reading about phages on HN for over a decade probably (and in that time there has seemingly been relatively little progress in their usage in the West). The rest of the story is rather disgusting in how it's portrayed in the article vs what's actually going on (connections, status, privileged treatment). Oh but it was like a miracle - no, no it wasn't.