disease, as far as I'm aware." Some commentators in the United States argued that Charlie's plight was the result of the UK having a state-run national health service and that the decision to withdraw Charlie's life support was driven by cost. The High Court judge described these comments as "nonsensical", adding that "it was one of the pitfalls of social media that the watching world felt it right to have opinions without knowing the facts of the case". The chairman of GOSH made a statement condemning "thousands of abusive messages", including death threats received by staff at the hospital and harassment of other families in the hospital over the preceding weeks. GOSH asked the Metropolitan Police Service to investigate the abuse. The parents issued a statement condemning harassment of GOSH staff and said they had also received abusive messages. GOSH released a statement criticising Hirano for offering testimony without having physically examined Charlie and without review of the medical records; they also said Hirano had disclosed that he had a financial interest in the treatment very late in the process. Hirano made a statement in response saying that he had relinquished his financial rights in the treatment. Experimental treatment A key issue in Charlie's case was access to experimental treatment. Requests for access to experimental treatment from patients or their family can sometimes occur when circumstances are dire. In the US the medical establishment handles these requests under "expanded access" or "compassionate use", which examines whether there is a reasonable chance of more benefit than harm for the patient; the extent of need; fairness; and the resources of everyone involved, including the people providing and administering the drug. US insurance companies generally do not pay for experimental treatment. In Charlie's case, the GOSH medical team initially decided to try the experimental treatment which would have been funded by the NHS, had it gone ahead. The question was whether it was in Charlie's best interests to receive nucleoside therapy – whether the benefits were likely to outweigh the harm. Because the therapy was unproven, and had never been tested on a patient with Charlie's condition, the GOSH medical team and the courts focused on whether it was plausible that there could be of any benefit. Hirano told the court that having seen 30 March EEG, the damage to Charlie's brain was more severe than he had thought. He said in his