The FDA and FMT regulation, part 2. (Jul 2024, HumanMicrobes.org) I met with the FDA. Here's what I shared with them, and their response. Blog 

A provocative tweet could bring some attention. "Hey Elon u will not need any Ketamine after fmt" or since
elon is in spectrum, he could have constipation regularly so "hey elon u will not constipation after fmt from super donor" etc. just an idea
 
Anyone who isn't liberally biased is going to associate FMT with "experimental dangerous medicine that doesn't work" if it gets associated with anyone liberal who pushed the covid vaccines.

One could go the other way though and say that anyone who seriously thinks the COVID vaccines are a prime example of "medicines that didn't work" is unlikely to be able to understand any evidence that FMT works. Whatever you believe about people's personal freedom to get or not get the vaccine (which is definitely a debate worth having, and has arguments on both sides), anyone who actually looked at the case numbers would have seen the drop after the vaccines were introduced. Yes, we eventually had Omicron that made the numbers soar again, but nobody could have foreseen and made a vaccine against that before it existed.
 
nobody could have foreseen and made a vaccine against that before it existed.

The covid vaccines cause heart damage and have been pulled from the recommended vaccine schedule. (Not all vaccines are bad). We're far past "both sides have valid points" on this specific subject.

Edit: please just reread my previous comment about bad faith actors.
 
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Ok, here's the plan:​


I don't think it's going to be useful to tweet at (& like) famous people unless you have hundreds of people participating. If you can find smaller targets that are more likely to pay attention to a tweet with a handful of likes, we can try it.

I plan to start recording video shorts of what I've been doing at the Capitol, and start recording while I confront Senators about FMT. If you have suggestions, especially things you would personally want to see me do/say, feel free to share them.

My basic idea is to say something like "This is Senator X from Y state. He knows about an existing treatment for chronic disease, but doesn't think his constituents care. Call his office if you do".

That's kind of boring though. I have some unique ideas for a few senators.

For one of my senators, I'm going to say "He said he doesn't know that there's anything he can do. That's not true, and I informed his staff about it. He didn't want to do anything or talk to me about it though".

For another senator, I'll say something like "They've been very kind to me and said they would help, but over 6 months they've made no progress".

We're also going to be contacting journalists and news outlets. If you know of any, or can find any, who've written similar stories and might be interested in writing about this, let me know.

thats why i thought draw public attention to fmt by some tweets or short reels 1st might work
There are social media videos with millions of views about being a donor with Human Microbes. It hasn't seemed to have any benefit other than getting people to apply.
 
The covid vaccines cause heart damage and have been pulled from the recommended vaccine schedule. (Not all vaccines are bad).
They have been pulled from the schedule quite clearly for political reasons, NOT because there are any new scientific findings negating the favorable benefit/risk ratio. I support anyone being able to choose to get or not get this vaccine, but I'm not going to buy into politicians' judgments on a medical issue--they're not the ones we can trust to interpret this.
 
they're not the ones we can trust to interpret this.

Again, this isn't relevant to this thread and I don't mean to sound rude, but the shots were ineffective and unsafe. Corporate media, corrupt govt, and big pharma were not trustworthy. That being said, I'm also very upset that nobody in the current administration isn't bringing up FMT at all. It doesn't seem like they care about cures. They're talking about diet a lot and exercise, which is good, but I want to see them even just mention FMT once. That doesn't seem too much to ask, so I'm very mad they haven't brought it up at all. I do love that we're all here debating and advocating for FMT though, and it's cool we can all come from different perspectives on different subjects all searching for truth that's lead us to FMT. Kinda gives me hope.

Here's an "asymmetric warfare" idea: someone who is more tech proficient than me could prompt AI to draw up news broadcasts about FMT curing various illnesses. There's enough case studies that it could site that are true. That would have a high likelihood of going viral if done right. Could even link the sources in the description. The presentation style would lend a tremendous amount of credibility for normies.
 
Engage people who have lots of followers like elon musk, burnie sander, kennedy etc on twitter and put the link in this forum and ask people to like and rt it, that will draw attention to the matter and make them respond which could fmt go viral on twitter
There's a nugget here worth exploring: If we picked a specific day and a specific time, we could maybe tweet at someone like RFK Jr, and ALL OF US (pre-coordinate the time) respond to the pro-FMT post, pumping it up.
I've been posting videos to Twitter and other social media for the past few weeks and no one is interacting with the tweets, and the videos are getting very few views. The accounts are linked at the top right of the page: https://www.humanmicrobes.org/
 
I just watched your video trying to get into the RFK hearing. I was wondering, why does the video make it look like you were up on some sort of pedestal? Did you try talking to some of the people in line? (I know some people might not have wanted to be on video talking with you--but maybe you did when you weren't recording)

Sorry to hear that you lost most of your night's sleep to try and get in but still couldn't. How many other people who wanted to get in couldn't get in? Could you have possibly strategized with them?
 
why does the video make it look like you were up on some sort of pedestal?
You already forgot that I'm 6'8"?

Did you try talking to some of the people in line?
I did in the past, and it was not useful. I was too tired this time. In the past, no one cared. They were there for their own purpose and didn't care why anyone else was there, even if on the surface it seemed like we were there for similar reasons.

How many other people who wanted to get in couldn't get in? Could you have possibly strategized with them?
Hundreds. There is no possible strategy. The police move everyone to another floor completely.
 
You already forgot that I'm 6'8"?
I knew you were tall... but I'm still surprised those other people looked so far away. It appeared as though your head was 50% higher off the ground than theirs were. It was probably just the weirdness of a phone camera though.

I did in the past, and it was not useful. I was too tired this time. In the past, no one cared. They were there for their own purpose and didn't care why anyone else was there, even if on the surface it seemed like we were there for similar reasons.

That makes sense, at least for the more business-oriented people. I guess there aren't that many people who are essentially protestors attending these things--in my experience activists are quite willing to talk about activism with other activists.

Hundreds. There is no possible strategy. The police move everyone to another floor completely.
I didn't mean to strategize about a way to sneak into this particular hearing undetected after you'd already been turned away. I meant more long-term/global strategizing about other ways to get politicians' attention if you kept being unable to get into hearings.

At least the fact that there were hundreds must have made you feel a bit less alone, rather than making you feel like you were being unfairly singled out in a negative way.
 
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There are protestors, but they seem focused on their specific issue (RFK's "anti-vax" tendencies, anti-vax). A person would have to walk down the huge line, talking to every person, while having someone keep their spot in line. I have not been able to do that. Feel free to attend the next hearing and try it.

I talked to some https://maydaymovementusa.org/ protestors for example. They may be happy to talk about their specific cause, but you're on your own for yours, even after I explained (with lots of written support) how they relate. Medea Benjamin from Code Pink is another example.
 
How is the protest going? It seems you haven't posted any updates in a while, are you OK?

By the way it seems as though the petition is stalling out. When I signed, it was at ~2670 signatures. Up until then, the signatures had been growing exponentially, with each week bringing between a 5x and a 10x increase over the previous week. That was almost two weeks ago--so by now it should be over 50,000 if that rate had continued. However, it's gone up by fewer than 100 signatures since then. At least one of those was someone who I forwarded the petition to, I saw his name there. I assume Michael has been sharing it with everyone who comes up to him in DC--so it seems we may have reached the limits of the people in the US whom we can reasonably contact who might be interested.
 
Scott Alexander is someone I think it would be worth reaching out to. His substack (Astral Codex Ten, formerly Slate Star Codex) is read by many smart, wealthy, and well-connected people in Silicon Valley. There is also the whole "effective altruism" philanthropic crowd he is associated with who I think would be interested in the concept of gut biome extinction. To give you an idea of this group's psychology, they tend to be interested in unusual risk scenarios that are boring to average people, such as taking AI extinction risk extremely seriously and funding countermeasures (since well before the existence of LLMs). He also offers ACX grants, which could benefit this project greatly. Read more about those here. Many of them are very similar to this project. Unlike Bryan Johnson, who I posted about in another thread, Scott is definitely an honest and trustworthy person. As a psychiatrist interested in cutting edge treatments, he also has complaints about the FDA.

Scott sometimes posts guest essays on his substack. Do you have a centralized essay or skeleton of an essay on gut microbiome extinction and the FDA's suffocating of this project that you might consider submitting to him? I realize your abilities are quite limited, so I am willing to help with writing this. I style myself an OK writer, but I have only studied your writings, the wiki, and this forum for a few days at this point. I am acquainted with the basics (antibiotic destruction, extinction of host-native strains, microbiome inheritance via mothers, etc), but would want fact-checking, citations, content that needs to be included, calls-to-actions, etc. Furthermore, my own mental acuity is flaky at the moment (which is why I am interested in this) and I work full-time, so I might be a bit slow and time-constrained. But I'd like to help

One way funding can help is taking advantage of more lax jurisdictions. I.e., ship the product to another country without asinine government regulations, use it there, fly back. It's much more expensive, but if funds are flowing in, perhaps it could be "subsidized" by sympathetic (financial) donors, allowing media companies to write stories about it showcasing the abusiveness of the FDA
 
Someone posted on the Effective Altruism forums about it, and directly contacted a group of athletes involved with EA. Nothing came of it.

I've commented on the EA and LessWrong websites about it, and have had some really poor responses that made me averse to those websites.

Eliezer Yudkowsky badly & obviously needs FMT himself, and I've emailed him about it. He didn't respond.

I agree with the AI aspect, and I mentioned it in this blog: https://www.humanmicrobes.org/blog/stool-donors-one-in-a-million-ai-funding-potential

He also offers ACX grants
Thanks. Unfortunately, the amount of money they're offering is not adequate:

Most grants will probably be between $5,000 and $50,000, with a rare few up to $100,000. Depending on how much external donor interest there is, we will probably give between 10 and 50 grants.

Do you have a centralized essay or skeleton of an essay on gut microbiome extinction and the FDA's suffocating of this project that you might consider submitting to him?
I have various writings on those topics. If you email me about it, I could point to specific links that we could combine, or send him the links first to ask his opinion.

I.e., ship the product to another country
That may be possible, but I'd need the advice of a lawyer, and I spent a lot of time looking for one with little success. The FDA restricts exporting unapproved drugs, which is what they're saying FMT is.
 
Grouping my reply to the other thread here since it's a similar topic
Yes, I agree.

I think I emailed a doctor he was working with, but I didn't find a contact for him specifically. I also replied to a related tweet he posted.

Feel free to write to him. For a "call to action" I generally share this summary of the situation: https://forum.humanmicrobiome.info/threads/the-fda-and-fmt-regulation-part-2-jul-2024-humanmicrobes-org-i-met-wit.520/#post-1370

And since he's into anti-aging, I'd link to the relevant wiki page on that: https://humanmicrobiome.info/aging/

I don't think it's a bad idea for him to get involved. I have some things I'm working on, and if they go well, I'll contact him afterwards.

I'll draft an email over the next couple of days and forward you a copy to review before I send it.

Someone posted on the Effective Altruism forums about it, and directly contacted a group of athletes involved with EA. Nothing came of it.

I've commented on the EA and LessWrong websites about it, and have had some really poor responses that made me averse to those websites.

Eliezer Yudkowsky badly & obviously needs FMT himself, and I've emailed him about it. He didn't respond.

I agree with the AI aspect, and I mentioned it in this blog: https://www.humanmicrobes.org/blog/stool-donors-one-in-a-million-ai-funding-potential


Thanks. Unfortunately, the amount of money they're offering is not adequate:




I have various writings on those topics. If you email me about it, I could point to specific links that we could combine, or send him the links first to ask his opinion.


That may be possible, but I'd need the advice of a lawyer, and I spent a lot of time looking for one with little success. The FDA restricts exporting unapproved drugs, which is what they're saying FMT is.
That's unfortunate. Once I finish the first email I'll see if I can build off of it into something useful here as well, assuming my condition doesn't worsen.
 
One way funding can help is taking advantage of more lax jurisdictions. I.e., ship the product to another country without asinine government regulations, use it there, fly back. It's much more expensive, but if funds are flowing in, perhaps it could be "subsidized" by sympathetic (financial) donors, allowing media companies to write stories about it showcasing the abusiveness of the FDA
This is unlikely to make a difference, as it's not the self-administration of the transplants that is outlawed (the FMT doesn't have jurisdiction over such a thing, except possibly if doctors are assisting, and even then, it's likely medical boards that have most of the power) but rather the sale. So US-based sellers will face restrictions no matter where they sell to, but also non-US-based sellers can face issues with customs if they send to the USA.

One would need to have a seller based off US soil selling to recipients who are also abroad when receiving the product--that's the only way to avoid FDA jurisdiction. There already are several businesses and/or clinics doing this, from the Center for Digestive Diseases in Sydney (probably the highest caliber of them all), to decent outfits like Gezonde Darmflora in the Netherlands, down to places like Taymount that I haven't heard much good reports about. I'm not sure if Michael were to team up with one of these (if he--and they--would even consent to such an arrangement, which seems rather unlikely) what limitations his role would need to be in order to not be a "US person selling FMT".

It seems Michael has already made a reply to this effect but it bears repeating.
 
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