Leonidas Platanias, MD
@LeonidasPlatan1
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Director of the Lurie Cancer Center @LurieCancer of Northwestern University. Medical oncologist and cancer researcher. Views & opinions here are my own.
Chicago, IL
Joined April 2019
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Going forward, no medical conferences should be done in states that deny health care for women.
The next
@ASH_hematology
meeting is in Louisiana and the next AACR meeting in Florida.
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It is one thing to be an anti-vaxer. Quite terrible.
But to be a trained doctor and become an anti-vaxer during a pandemic in order to get followers on twitter and make money from talks etc, is something else.
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@ASlavitt
Any CDC director who changes guidelines under pressure from politicians, no longer deserves to be leading this historic agency. The current CDC director has failed the country. He would obviously not resign, but should be the first to be replaced after November.
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The failure of the CDC to recommend needed mask mandates is shameful & puts at risk immunosuppressed patients. Instead, the CDC pretends there is no COVID problem.
At this point, the CDC has lost credibility and is as bad & political as the CDC of the previous administration.
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COVID infections induce natural immunity in an unsafe way. And cause deaths and long term disabilities.
Vaccines induce natural immunity in a safe way. Anyone vaccinated has natural immunity without the risks of a deadly infection.
It is that simple.
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History repeats itself. In the 80s and the early 90s the HIV denialists were fighting Fauci who as a young director of NIAID was trying to educate people about HIV and AIDS.
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The daily number of deaths from COVID (2411) remains higher than the daily death rates from heart disease (2380) and cancer (1670).
So, why would any agency or governor recommend removing the mask mandates? Instead of waiting a little longer. It makes no sense.
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The failure to enforce national vaccine and mask mandates in this country will be unforgivable by history.
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One of the biggest misinformation lies is that COVID vaccines are “experimental”.
They are probably the most extensively tested vaccines in human history by now.
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Beyond vaccines, banning all mRNA technology in the state of Idaho, also means essentially banning cancer research in the state of Idaho.
Not a good idea.
Today I introduced a bill to ban all messenger ribonucleic acid technology (mRNA) in the State of Idaho, and we passed the Freedom in Education Savings Account out of the Senate Education Committee to fund students and not systems, putting families in control over their ed $.
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Some basic facts:
1. Ivermectin does not work for COVID.
2. Hydroxychloroquine does not work for COVID.
3. mRNA vaccines work.
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@medschooladvice
For those of us who know the entire greek alphabet, I think this is the first I ve seen the letter omicron used. We are already far out.
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Training grants from the NCI or other NIH institutes should open to all trainees.
Never understood why trainees who are not US citizens or permanent residents, but have a legal visa for training, are not eligible. This needs to be fixed.
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@PeterHotez
No matter how many times you tell them, they will not believe you. They live in an alternate reality in which you make millions from pharma. Facts are irrelevant to them.
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@JReinerMD
Atlas is not qualified to advise on anything related to viruses or pandemics.. He is a retired neuroradiologist.
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Based on data from several recent studies showing that masks in school protect from COVID spread, one would expect some physicians on twitter who advocated against masks for kids to reverse their position.
And advocate for masks in schools. It is simple.
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@DrJenGunter
we also need mandatory masks with very heavy fines for people who dont wear them. Enough with this ignorance. It kills.
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So it is not just vaccines. Smoking is now allowed again in the offices of congress. It is a continuous effort by some to send the country backwards dozens of years.
Total science denial. From women's health, to vaccines, and now to lung cancer prevention.
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Omicron is not just a bad cold or a bad flu.
It is still COVID, a very serious disease that can be life threatening and lead to long haul COVID.
People should do everything possible to avoid it.
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@ChrisMurphyCT
The censorship and attacks on Dr. Fauci start feeling somehow reminiscent of the censorship of Dr. Li Wenlijang by the Chinese government at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. The truth cannot and should not be suppressed.
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The Supreme Court should not be practicing medicine.
Especially during a pandemic.
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When a TV personality openly asks his millions of viewers to harass people wearing masks, there is a major problem. He essentially incites violence against mask wearing people. In the middle of a deadly pandemic.
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@ASlavitt
This is a disastrous policy. The FDA director, Dr. Stephen Hahn, has been fighting it but he was ignored. He should consider resigning for this. He is obviously not allowed to do his job right.
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There is nothing more out of touch with reality than advocating for big randomized clinical trials, on whether masks work, in the middle of a pandemic.
Despite massive existing evidence that masks work.
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@PeterHotez
Of course,
@elonmusk
has facilitated in major way that predatory anti vaccine movement, most likely because he thinks that supporting ant-vax agendas makes him look maverick and “cool”.
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The COVID pandemic has delivered a major blow to US medicine.
The science denial of anti-vaxx/anti-mask movements has not allowed the US to get out of the pandemic.
Pseudo-science arguments by some opportunist & contrarian "intellectuals" has given credibility to anti-vaxxers.
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The interpretation of the NEJM on colonoscopy is crystal clear.
1. For people who get colonoscopy the chance for colon cancer and mortality for colon cancer decreases dramatically. As expected.
2. For people who don’t get colonoscopy, this does not happen.
It is that simple.
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@EricTopol
@OurWorldInData
It is called masks. People need to keep wearing masks. For a while after numbers are down.
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@EricTopol
@Laurie_Garrett
Now is exactly the time to re-institute mask mandates in the US. Before it starts spreading here again. But unfortunately politics have made difficult to have a cohesive public health policy.
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It feels very reassuring when you are at an airport in europe and they check both vaccine status+ booster + negative COVID test in order to enter the plane. And they check carefully.
Why on earth isn’t that the case in the US? Why do politics dictate public health decisions?
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“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.”
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
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"If you think research is expensive, try disease"
Mary Lasker (11/30/00 – 2/21/94)
Philanthropist, catalyst for the National Cancer Act that led to the creation of the NCI in 1971.
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@gtconway3d
One of the most unintelligent comments on twitter ever. Hard to understand how someone like
@Jim_Jordan
was ever elected in congress.
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There is an absolute need for universal indoor mask mandates everywhere in the country.
It is essential in order to stop the delta wave.
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This may be the first pandemic in history where misinformation had such extreme consequences.
Literally, there are hundreds of thousands of people who have died because they were afraid to get a safe vaccine.
And it is clear that no one will be held accountable for this.
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Based on the emergence of delta, there is no question that vaccinated people should wear masks when around people of unknown vaccination status (UVS). Especially when UVS people dont wear masks.
What is the
@CDCDirector
waiting for to issue that simple guidance?
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“Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all”
Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC)
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@PaulaReidCBS
I think chances are very good that you will be negative as you were wearing a mask and these 2 are asymptomatic, so hopefully they will have lower viral load. But I think it is time that all journalists stop going to this place. They're reckless and they dont care about anyone.
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Despite omicron, despite delta, despite 790K COVID fatalities, despite cases going up again, several states refuse mask mandates.
Because of politics and the political ambitions or extreme views of their governors.
People in the future reading this history will be stunned.
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One of the giants of oncology-Jose Baselga- just died. I knew Jose since we were interns in NYC in the 80s. He was as brilliant then as he was later in his career at Harvard and MSK. His work transformed the field of breast cancer & saved the lives of tens of thousands of women.
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Very excited to announce that Lucy Godley from U of C will be joining the
@LurieCancer
as the 1st Director of the newly created Silver Institute for Blood Cancers & Clinical Director of Cancer Genetics. Lucy is a superb physician scientist & we look forward to working with her.
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At the Hippocratic Foundation event with Chair Eleni Bousis, and the Greek Opposition leader
@skasselakis
and Tyler MacBeth who came to Chicago to participate to the HCRF event.
@LurieCancer
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We may be witnessing medical history in Chicago. Lollapalooza21 may be remembered as the day that caused a massive delta/COVID outbreak. Comparable to the Philadelphia Liberty Loans Parade during the flu pandemic in 1918 that caused a massive outbreak with terrible consequences.
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@tmprowell
Agree. And what is even more offensive, is seeing some doctors who treat or have treated in their careers immunocompromised patients and should know better, defending the lift of the mandate, like it is no big deal.
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@DrLeanaWen
@CNN
I used to read carefully your recommendations and opinion. There is nothing more irresponsible you could have tweeted than this.
I am sure I dont need to explain why what you suggested makes no sense at all. It is that obvious.
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Every day that goes by without a national universal mask mandate is a mistake.
The exponential growth of the delta wave makes it an emergency at this point.
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The best city in the country is now 185 years old. Still very young for cities.
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Below see an open letter just sent by
@AACI_Cancer
on behalf of the Directors of the major 97 Cancer Centers in the country, asking President Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act for the COVID-19 emergency. Please retweet/distribute. Urgent!
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The argument that "everyone will get COVID" is ridiculous and not based on facts.
It did not happen in other pandemics and it will not happen now.
Do your best to avoid getting infected until this wave passes.
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@DrLeanaWen
@PostOpinions
Philadelphias’ mask mandate is just fine. If anything is premature and dangerous is your willingness to ignore the risks.
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@arghavan_salles
This sounds reminiscent of my days as a medical resident in NYC during the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the late 80s, when people were dying from pneumocystis pneumonia. A major difference is that COVID is very infectious and much more dangerous for health care workers.
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Northwestern Memorial Hospital/
@LurieCancer
is ranked
#1
in Chicago and
#6
in the country for cancer care in the
@usnews
, released today.
This reflects our deep commitment to translate scientific discovery to the highest level of care for our patients.
#BestHospitals
#USNWR
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This is absolutely true. Science denialists, antivaxers, and other medical opportunists, have created a phony health freedom propaganda that negatively impacts prevention for cervical cancer and other cancers that the HPV vaccines help prevent.
Australia is now on a path to eliminate cervical cancer over the next decade or so.
But in the U.S. we instead condemn a generation of girls and women to cervical cancer. For what? Phony health freedom propaganda and rotten politically-driven antivaccine activism
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COVID is back & spreading massively. Whether some want to hear it or not.
Wear a mask (KN95 or N95) when inside in public places. You can never go wrong doing that.
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Great virtual meeting of the cancer center directors with Dr. Anthony Fauci a little while ago, updating us on COVID-19. Here with
@NeliMUlrich
and
@DrBenNeel
. Dr. Fauci is such a great scientist and leader. Very grateful for all his efforts!
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Let’s remember all fathers who were lost to cancer and the impact it had on their families. And let’s do our best so that this number gets smaller every year. Until the day that cancer will be defeated as a disease.
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@BMeiselas
You forgot where Tampa is? Second worst governor in the country (after south dakota) when it comes to COVID.
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We are honored to be one of the two first cancer centers in the country to receive a special Merit extension by the NCI. Thank you to our doctors, nurses, scientists, & staff that make the
@LurieCancer
an exceptional place in the fight against cancer.
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@JoJoFromJerz
@RonFilipkowski
Walking distance from where I live. The last place I would expect an active shooter.
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@davidminpdx
@mehdirhasan
This is pure insanity. It makes the medieval times look reasonable.
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Smart people wear masks before the next spike happens.
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@Politidope
He is right on. He is 100% accurate on the testing and it is refreshing to see how honest he is.
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We need new leadership to stop COVID nationally. That's painfully obvious.
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@CDCDirector
I am sorry, but this is not the safest approach. It is only done because there are not enough tests. The administration should invoke the DPA to get more tests. This is the US and test availability should not be an issue.
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Only vaccinated people should be allowed to fly.
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@PeterHotez
Essentially every single word of his in that video clip is wrong. And shows complete lack of basic understanding of the facts.
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Hopefully, this will be a year with major medical breakthroughs against cancer that will make this disease less relevant.
And a year with less cancer disparities, making such major breakthroughs available to everyone.
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Governors who do not institute mask mandates in their states under the current circumstances clearly don’t care about public health or are extremely ignorant.
In either case they are completely unqualified to run their states.
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Hard to believe that the
@CDCgov
totally refuses to acknowledge reality. And its leadership
@CDCDirector
acts like the captain of the Titanic.
There is a massive wave of COVID. Milder disease, but still there. The job of the CDC is to warn & help protect the vulnerable.
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It was great meeting
@PeterHotez
in person today after he gave amazing
@NU_IntMed
grand rounds
@NUFeinbergMed
. Here presenting him with a
@LurieCancer
shirt!
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@atrupar
Here is reality:
Texas Doctor: I got 10 calls yesterday for young people who will die if they don’t get ICU support, but I only have three beds left.
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With my daughter
@MartinaLeone
at Discovery Ball of the
@AmericanCancer
Society here in Chicago!
@LurieCancer
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@ASlavitt
The director of the CDC has lost all credibility and should had resigned long time ago.
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@mawilner
@DrBenNeel
@CDCDirector
Like it was not predictable? She could have asked anyone before removing the mask mandates in May. It was the wrong decision from moment zero.
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46 billion dollars in the hands of a real philanthropist could help change dramatically the cancer research field and save lives.
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@MeetThePress
@AdrianaHeguy
That’s very good advice by Dr. Fauci. But the same advice also applies to people in their household and the relatives who see them regularly. They can bring the virus to them, so they need to follow the same precautions. This should be made clear in all communications like that.
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@MiaFarrow
Let's be clear. The attacks on Fauci are not just attacks on a single person, who is a top US medical researcher and leader today. They are attacks on science and all scientists. It is an attempt to discredit science altogether.
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Ribbon cutting ceremony at the opening of the first Spanish Language Breast Cancer clinic in the country! Here in Chicago
@LurieCancer
&
@NorthwesternMed
. Under the leadership of Dr. Claudia Tellez!
@NUFeinbergMed
@NorthwesternU
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Why does
@Twitter
allow this insane misinformation?
Reported tweet. Some people believe these bizarre things and dont get vaccinated. Should ban permanently this anti-vaxxer.
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@JeromeAdamsMD
Because Fauci did not do this. Think the implications of what she was saying and people believing this politician based on her. How much damage that statement alone has done.
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@JReinerMD
And did they let him out, or did he sign against medical advice? It would be totally unacceptable for his doctors to allow this, unless he signed out against medical advice.
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Two billionaires competing to be 1st in space -just for fun- by spending hundreds of millions. Money that could be used for medical research, vaccines for thousands still dying from COVID worldwide & many other things to save lives.
The moral apathy is stunning.
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Reducing cancer mortality by 50% over 25 years is a good goal. But a modest goal.
Cancer patients & their families cannot wait that long. We should do better and can do better with the right investment & a fresh look at the cancer research funding system.
We should aim higher.
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@EricTopol
This report will go in the annals of medical history as some sort of a joke. Dr. Conley has lost any and all credibility. He forgot that he is a doctor.
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To put in perspective how young a city like Chicago is at 185, New York City is almost 400 years old, while Athens, Greece, is 3400 years old.
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Most people who refuse to wear masks do not understand that by doing so they may be responsible for the deaths of others, including family and friends.
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There is no medical, scientific, or other rational reason for which the CDC would recommend decreased testing in the middle of a deadly pandemic that is out of control nationally.
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"The practice of medicine is a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head".
William Osler (1849-1919)
One of the four founding Professors of Johns Hopkins and the creator of the first residency training program for physicians
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Today is JS Bach's birthday in 1685. Remarkably, his work was totally ignored when alive. His Brandenburg concertos were badly rejected in a job application. It is the modern equivalent of having a paper rejected by Nature, but later winning a Nobel Prize.
Greatest of Bach?
Goldberg Variations
186
Well-Tempered Clavier
143
St Matthew Passion
352
Brandenburg Concertos
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President-elect Biden is a strong advocate for cancer research. Here
@LurieCancer
we are proud & honored that our STAR program for Cancer Survivors received the first FIERCE Award from the Biden Cancer Initiative in 2018. The fight against cancer has now a strong ally in the WH.
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Hard to know how things were in previous pandemics. But this may be the pandemic with the most irrational & bizarre behavior by some key national & local leaders in the history of the US.
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