The best thing any Lymee can develop is a serious case of acne. THAT will get treated effectively, quickly, efficiently, successfully and your skin will look great AND you might also make some progress with your Lyme & co. I'm being kind of sarcastic...
The IDSA also encourages long-term IV tx for Urinary tract infections.
evianangel--
I posted on healingwell about
that Vice article you're referencing when it came out. I'd reference that thread but can't find it quickly with the search function. I was so mad because I like VICE, which is supposed to be one of the cutting-edge media outlets. I was also one of the commenters taking on the IDSA shill... ;)
One of the other commenters, David Michael Conner, also writes for Huffington Post and has posted a couple of great Lyme articles. He and I were conversing after that article was published and he shared with me that he was actually in the process of working with one of the editors on a Lyme truth story when about
10 days prior to this article's publication, the editors stopped returning phone calls. And then this article popped up. The next day, I saw a news story about
a shakeup at the executive levels of VICE. So, my guess is it got bought out and a new sheriff came into town and stopped David's article cold. We each wrote letters to the editor but received no response.
Anyone who thinks most of mass media isn't controlled by a few people hasn't been paying attention for the last 15-20 yrs.
In response, David wrote a fantastic article that was published in HuffPo:
www.huffingtonpost.com/david-michael-conner/lyme-wars-journalists-are_b_10093494.html? Many people are unaware that back when the CDC and IDSA and NIC decided to "wage a sociopolitical war" on Lymees. I read from a credible source that it was discovered awhile back that NIC employees were being paid to surf the web after hours and challenge Lyme truths by posting inflammatory comments on articles like that. I'm still looking for a citation for that claim but from everything else I read, it seems more than likely.
But there are also Lymees - like us - who have been poorly serviced by their lyme specialists, treatments have failed them and they are also challenging Lyme truth - because of their own frustrations with both sides of the "war".
Granted, they'll give just about
anyone access to the internet so you are going to have crazy people come to the party. In the 60s people protested. In the year 2016, people hide behind their computer screens and anonymously hate, spew, lie and cheat. LOL
Anyway,
Communication between CDC, NIC and IDSA Lyme leadership revealed in the FOIA documents the Under Our Skin producer obtained, proved this "war" was not theory:
A number of improprieties were revealed in the CDC and NIH emails released in the FOIA request, including evidence that Ad Hoc International Lyme Disease Group members disproportionately funneled grant money to their "own", used their government titles and positions to try to remove ILADS studies and guidelines from existence and to block patient-backed LD legislation.
But quite notable of course, was the documented "war on Lymees":
Statements by NIH’s Edward McSweegan (an NIH employee who was demoted for harassing and stalking LD advocates) declares war on Lyme patients and joins the Ad Hoc Group.
An NIH employee used his government credentials to orchestrate a
‘‘disinformation war’’ through anonymous tips, blogs and press leaks, against physicians and researchers who seek to publish scientific findings that contradict those of the IDSA guidelines authors.
"Perhaps explaining those figures, the emails themselves reflect shared values between the scientist group and government officials. NIH's Edward McSweegan, an infectious diseases administrator, calls the struggle
"a war...a disinformation war. ...It's time to start shooting back," he writes in February 2007."
"In an October 2007 email, Durland Fish, a Yale researcher and guidelines author, writes,
"This battle cannot be won on a scientific front. We need to mount a socio-political offensive; but we are out-numbered and out-gunned.""
In this group of documents culled from the FOIA request, is this gem from Phillip Baker, the former NIH Lyme program officer who wrote to a CDC colleague, “I will certainly miss all of you people—the scientists, but not the
“Lyme loonies,” a term he told the Poughkeepsie Journal,
“might be too kind a description.” This sums up in two words what physicians and scientists who challenge official policies on LD are up against.
March 2008—CDC’s Barbara Johnson works with NIH’s Edward McSweegan and IDSA Lyme guidelines authors to lobby against a LD patient protection bill.
Subject: Maryland; Lyme Public Awareness Bill (HB 836).
- “Anyone have any contacts in the Maryland Dept. of Health who would be interested in knowing about
this Maryland bill and the efforts of activists to kill it?— Ed”
- “Ed, This is the contact information for the State epidemiologist. Paul, is this current? If not, please send us both a link to the list of all the State epis.—Barbara’’
Horowitz shared a great quote during one of his presentations - that science doesn't convince people of fact, but personal experience does. And hey - with the unmitigated proliferation of Lyme & co, more and more people are experiencing the darkest truths of lyme every day. I think this, more than anything, is what will fuel progress.
-p