Re: [SpinLyme] IDSA, Multiple Sclerosis, Immune Suppression, Cysts, Culturing
McSweegan is INSANE
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Subject: Re: [SpinLyme] IDSA
Date: Apr 15, 2008 3:29 AM
Thank you.
There is considerable older data on spirochetes as a primary cause of
Multiple Sclerosis,
especially when you look at the older antibody data from 60+ years
ago, and now
that we know about these culture methods:
http://www.actionlyme.org/IDSA_JOHNSONCULTURING.htm
and the immune suppression associated with chronic infection:
http://www.actionlyme.org/BIOWEAPONEERS_CORIXA_YALE_TLRS.htm
Alan Barbour's other business partner (beside's Sweden's Sven
Bergstrom),
as you recall, re-discovered that 30 days of ceftriaxone does not
eradicate the
spirochetes from the brains of mice:
http://www.actionlyme.org/LYME_IS_A_PERMANENT_BRAIN_INFECTION.htm
and we can find out who, among the cabalists, has read David Nelson's
"reversion
to the intact spirochete form" report:
http://www.actionlyme.org/IDSA_CYST_VIABLE.htm
http://www.actionlyme.org/BOGUS_RUSSIAN_NYMC_ARTICLES.htm
It's kinda funny how the wave of medical bullshit has become an
unpopular endeavor,
yet these self-alleged researchers try to maintain their integrity:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/health/15conf.html?pagewanted=2&8dpc
"I resent the bloggers exposing my conflicts of interest and being
forced to
pass up the money."
ROTFLMAO.
Kathleen
-----Original Message-----
>From:
>Sent: Apr 14, 2008 8:20 PM
>To: Spin...@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [SpinLyme] IDSA "Lyme experts'" Lyme quotes
>
>This hasn't been updated or expanded for some years but it's still
shows how biased these IDSA Lyme people are and the misinformation
they spread...
>
>`Barbour
>
>"Lyme disease is rarely fatal: only a few deaths are attributable to the
disease in the entire world":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, in Lyme Disease, The Cause, The Cure, The Controversy, page
34
>
>
>
> "[Lyme disease] is curable and stigma-free":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, ibid., page 192
>
>
>
>"Lyme disease bacteria remain in the skin for two or more days until spreading
to the other parts of the body. Until the microorganisms spread, there
is no need
for an antibiotic that is distributed throughout the body":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, Lyme Disease, The Cause, The Cure, The Controversy, page
225
>
>
>"Like Lyme disease, CFS and fibromyalgia are diagnosed using strict criteria
that have been agreed upon by physicians and other experts. . . .
Diagnoses of CFS,
fibromyalgia and chronic Lyme disease undoubtedly are being made in
cases that do
not fully meet the strict criteria":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, Lyme Disease, The Cause, The Cure, The Controversy, pages
202-203
>
>
>
>"Many consider Lyme disease to be a nuisance that involves a trip to the
physician's office every year or two and a few weeks of antibiotics":
>-Alan G. Barbour, MD, Lyme Disease, The Cause, The Cure, The Controversy, page
243
>
>
>
>". . . a topical antibiotic to prevent Lyme disease after a tick bite is
desirable":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, Lyme Disease, The Cause, The Cure, The Controversy, page
244
>
>
>
>"An antibiotic ointment might prevent infection from other bacteria but
would likely have little effect on B. burgdorferi":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, ibid., page 222
>
>
>
>"For many people who become infected with Lyme disease spirochetes, this
immune response that limits the erythema rash is sufficient to cure
them of the
infection. The spirochetes have either been completely eliminated from
the body
or so limited in their spread that they no longer can cause harm":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, ibid., page 8
>
>
>
>"Eventually, antibodies, perhaps aided by lymphocytes, attach to spirochetes
in the blood and remove them from the circulation. However, by the
time that occurs,
some spirochetes have left the blood and entered distant organs. They
are able to
do this because they can attach themselves to the sides of blood
vessels and then
penetrate the cells that line veins and arteries. Once they reach the
other side
of the blood vessels, spirochetes can reside and move in the liquid
between cells":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, ibid., page 9
>
>
>
>A B. burgdorferi organism may spend some of its life inside cells. After all,
for these bacteria to leave the blood and go into tissues, they must
pass through
cells that line the blood vessels. . . . these intracellular
spirochetes can escape
the effects of the antibiotics that do not penetrate into cells well.
When an antibiotic
of that class is stopped, so the argument goes, the live bacteria
inside the cells
could reseed the rest of the body":
>-Alan Barbour, ibid., pages 125-126
>
>
>
>"The fact that the N.I.H. plans to spend about $4 million on this study
[the long-term use of antibiotics to treat Lyme disease] means less
money for more
useful projects":
>-Alan Barbour, MD, in The New York Times OP-ED of July 5, 1997
>
>
>
>"Lyme disease is primarily a disorder of suburban, educated middle- and
upper-class people. Lyme disease can be as disabling as syphilis, but
there usually
is not a stigma to having Borrelia burgdorferi infection."
>
>-Alan Barbour, MD. Journal of the American Medical Association, January 21,
1998
>
>
>
>"Currently, there are many sources of information about Lyme disease, much
of which is in disagreement with the experts' advice. These sources
include
the Internet, books on Lyme disease written by laypersons, and
pamphlets, newsletters,
and call-in help lines of patient advocacy groups."
>
>-Alan Barbour, MD. Journal of the American Medical Association, January 21,
1998
>
>
>
>
>
>Dattwyler
>
>
>"Negative serologic tests mean negative, and positive tests have up to
a 50 to 1 chance of being false, and having a positive test does not
mean you're
not cured":
>-Raymond Dattwyler, MD, in 1993 WLIW TV interview
>
>
>
>Fish
>
>"Without the Lyme disease vaccine, we're back to ground zero in terms
of how
>we're going to combat the Lyme disease epidemic," says Fish, conference
>program co-chair.Companies "may not want to take on (development of) a
vaccine for a disease that is treatable and has a relatively low
incidence."
>
>Durland Fish, in USA Today quoted by Anita Manning, August 21, 2002
>
>
>
>Gluckman
>
>Dr. Stephen Gluckman, director of clinical services in the University of Pennsylvania
Hospital's infectious disease division, says the tests for Lyme are
"wonderfully
good." He believes the real problem is the doctors who are too willing
to diagnose
Lyme disease. "There are two types of Lyme doctors - and I'm not
saying
this in a negative way - there are doctors who are scientific, like
me, and there
are a lot of self-proclaimed Lyme doctors. We speak two different
languages, we
have nothing in common."
>
>Steven Gluckman, MD, Philadelphia City Paper quoted by Stephanie Ramp, July
8, 1999
>
>Nadelman
>
>"The erythema migrans rash, which occurs within a mean of 7 to 10 days
after a tick bite, is present in 90% or more of patients with
objective evidence
of Lyme disease":
>-Nadelman and Wormser, MDs, ibid., page 69
>
>
>" . . . transmission of B. burgdorferi by I. Scapularis (hard ticks) probably
takes days. In experimental animal systems (21) and humans (5), I.
Scapularis rarely
transmitted infection before 48 hours of attachment":
>-Robert B. Nadelman, MD, and Gary P. Wormser, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease,
page 51
>
>
>
>"However, most patients with late-stage Lyme disease are believed to have
had antecedent erythema migrans (EM), a readily identified lesion, at
the site of
the bite (14,35-38). Among more than 1,000 participants followed in
prospective
studies at our center (unpublished data) and elsewhere (10-13), none
has been reported
to have developed late or latent infection (latent infection is
defined as asymptomatic
seroconversion, the clinical significance of which is unknown)":
>-Robert B. Nadelman, MD, and Gary P. Wormser, MD, ibid., page 53
>
>
>
>"In a person from an area not endemic for Lyme disease, Lyme disease is
an unlikely cause of an expanding erythematous rash":
>-Robert B. Nadelman, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 206
>
>
>
>"The timing and distribution of this patient's rash (occurring after
antibiotic therapy) suggest a photosensitive reaction to
antibiotics":
>-Robert B. Nadelman, MD, ibid., page 208
>
>
>
>Ostroff
>
>"Lyme is a yuppie disease that only rich suburbanites get":
>-Dr. Steven Ostroff, Associate Director in the Infectious Diseases Division
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during interview by
Illinois legislators
in June 1997
>
>
>Rahn
>
>"In the pre-antibiotic era of Lyme disease, they all [acute neurologic
abnormalities of Lyme disease] were shown to remit spontaneously with
complete recovery
being the rule":
>-Daniel W. Rahn, MD, in the American College of Physicians' Lyme Disease,
page 39
>
>
>
>"[Lyme] disease onset is heralded by appearance of a characteristic skin
lesion, erythema migrans, at the site of a tick bite":
>-Daniel W. Rahn, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 45
>
>
>
>"Most patients with Lyme carditis experience complete recovery, even without
antibiotic therapy":
>-Janine Evans, MD, co-author with Daniel W. Rahn, MD, of ACP's Lyme Disease,
page 86
>
>
>
>"No long-term cardiac sequelae have been attributed to cardiac involvement
in Lyme disease":
>-Daniel W. Rahn, MD, ibid., page 40
>
>
>
>"Patients with Lyme carditis can present quite dramatically. They usually
require hospitalization and careful cardiac monitoring for potential
serious complications":
>-Janine Evans, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology,
Yale School of Medicine, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 221
>
>
>
>"When the pre-test probability [of Lyme disease] starts high, the post-test
remains high when the test result is positive--and again, the
treatment decision
remains unchanged. . . . If the pre-test probability is high, but the
test result
is negative, the post-test probability may be substantially lower. In
both cases,
the use of serologioc testing can shift the treatment decision. . . .
Patient expectations
may also influence a physician's decision to perform a diagnostic test
or to
institute empiric therapy. . . . On the practice-enabling side, a
final component
of the American College of Physicians Disease Management Program
includes patient
education tools":
>-Anthony D. So, MD, MPA (Senior Advisor to the Administrator, Agency for Health
Care, Policy, and Research. U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, Washington,
D.C., and Daniel W. Rahn, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 193
>
>
>
>Schoen
>
>"When I contradict a previous diagnosis of Lyme disease by another doctor,
it is in order to reassure the patient":
>-Robert T. Schoen, MD, Yale School of Medicine, quoted in a Letter to The Editor,
New Haven Register, June 3, 1997
>
>
>"Your [Douglas Dodge's] history and exam do not suggest that you had
Lyme disease per se but your positive Lyme titers suggest that you
were exposed
to the Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi. To be on the safe side we
generally
recommend a three-week course of Doxycycline as you are getting for
asymptomatic
patients with positive Lyme titers; although we don't know for sure
that even
this amount of therapy is necessary":
>-Anne R. Bass, MD, of Robert T. Schoen, MD's office, in letter dated August
2, 1991
>
>
>
>
>
>"The patient's [Christine Dodge's] history does not suggest Lyme
disease but suggests more a viral illness of undetermined type. . . .
I have sent
an ELISA and Western blot from my office particularly at the patient's
husband's
urging although I anticipate that these will be negative. Even if they
turn out
to be positive I do not think that the patient's recent illness was
due to Lyme
disease, and in any case she has received a two- week course of
Doxycycline":
>-Anne R. Bass, MD, in letter dated August 2, 1991
>
>
>"The result of Christine's Lyme titers from Yale came back. The ELISA
was positive with an IgM of 200 and an IgG of 100, positive being
greater than 100.
A Western blot was done and showed a band at 41KD for both IgM and
IgG. What all
this suggests is that Christine has been exposed to Lyme disease at
some time in
the past. But once again, the clinical history that she has and the
laboratory changes
that she had when she was in the hospital over the summer do not
suggest particularly
acute Lyme disease but looked rather more like a viral hepatitis, even
if we couldn't
identify which virus. In any case, Christine has gotten the two-week
course of Doxycycline
which should be adequate treatment given her positive test":
>-Anne R. Bass, MD, in letter dated August 31, 1991
>
>
>
>"In Lyme disease recipients, Western Blot analysis is indicated to distinguish
disease from seroconversion caused by vaccination":
>-Robert T. Schoen, MD, ACP's Lyme Disease, page 239
>
>
>
>Shapiro
>
>
>"Lyme disease prevention requires only minimal precautions; even for people
living in areas with the highest concentration of positively
identified cases":
>-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, Yale Children's Health Letter, April 1995
>
>
>
>"Over time, the [Lyme] disease tends to burn itself out, even without treatment,
in many people":
>-Eugene Shapiro, MD, quoted by Karen Freeman in The New York Times, October
24, 1996
>
>
>
>"Children with only non-specific symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, or
arthralgia, are very unlikely to have Lyme disease. Serologic tests
for Lyme disease
should not be ordered for such patients because a positive test result
is very likely
to be a false-positive":
>-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 131
>
>
>
>"Nearly 90% of children who develop Lyme disease have either single or
multiple sites of erythema migrans":
>-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, ibid., page 132
>
>
>
>"As many as 40% of the patients with well-documented late stage Lyme disease
will not have had a preceding lesion of erythema migrans . . . as the
only clinical
manifestation of early Lyme disease. . . . The existence of a flu-like
illness without
erythema migrans of early Lyme disease has been clearly established":
>-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, et al., "Early Lyme Disease: A Flu- like Illness
Without Erythema Migrans," Pediatrics 91, (1993): 456-59
>
>
>
>"There is no evidence that congenital Lyme disease is a problem":
>-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 132
>
>
>
>"The prognosis of children with Lyme disease, both early and late, is excellent,
with no evidence of chronic symptoms or long- term sequelae":
>-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, ibid., page 132
>
>
>
>"Because of the low risk of Lyme disease and the excellent prognosis of
children who do develop Lyme disease, prophylactic antimicrobial
treatment is not
recommended for children who are bitten by a deer tick":
>-Eugene D.Shapiro, MD, ibid., page
>
>
>
>"In patients presenting with nonspecific symptoms, the positive predictive
value of serologic testing for Lyme disease is low":
>-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, ACP's Lyme Disease, page 224
>
>
>"There are a ton of people with non-specific symptoms and most of their
positives are false positives [for the ELISA and Western Blot], so
they think they
have this diagnosis of Lyme":
>-Eugene Shapiro, MD, quoted by Stefanie Ramp in the Fairfield County Weekly,
May 20, 1999
>
>
>
>"If all you know is that you found a deer tick on your child, the risk
is 1 to 2 percent at most of having Lyme disease. And then greater
than 90 percent
of those will show a rash at the site of the bite":
>-Eugene Shapiro, MD, in the April 1995 issue of Yale Children's Health Letter
>
>
>
>"Most ticks are not infected and even if a child has been bitten by an
infected tick, 36 to 48 hours are needed before transmission of the
bacteria takes
place":
>-Eugene Shapiro, MD, ibid.
>
>
>
>"There are probably better ways to spend health-care dollars" than
on a vaccine for Lyme disease:
>-Eugene Shapiro, MD in the April 1995 issue of Yale Children's Health Letter
>
>
>
>"It [LYMErix vaccine] is fairly expensive, and I think that the biggest
problem is not Lyme disease but anxiety about Lyme disease, and I'm
not sure
how effective the vaccine is against anxiety about Lyme disease. . . .
I don't
think most people are at really high risk for Lyme disease, so the
benefits don't
necessarily qualify the costs":
>-Eugene Shapiro, MD, a professor of pediatrics at Yale, quoted by Stefanie Ramp
in the Fairfield Co. Weekly on May 20, 1999
>
>
>
>"It's usually not Lyme disease unless it looks, smells, and tastes
like Lyme disease":
>-Eugene Shapiro, MD, in the April 1995 issue of Yale Children's Health Letter
>
>
>
>Sigal
>
>"There is no risk involved in taking the vaccine. It's not as though
we're taking the organism and mucking around with it, and giving you
some of
it. We're giving you pure protein. It's impossible to get Lyme disease
from
this vaccine":
>-Leonard H. Sigal, MD, principal investigator of the "whole nine yards
study" of a Lyme disease vaccine, quoted in the Vineyard Gazette, July
24,
1999
>
>
>"The cognitive dysfunction that occurs with depression, fibromyalgia, anxiety,
or primary sleep disorder can mimic the cognitive dysfunction of late
Lyme disease"
>-Leonard H. Sigal, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 141
>
>
>
>"With the statistical methods used in ELISA, one is essentially assured
that a positive test result will be obtained ultimately if the test is
done often
enough, and such a result would be a false-positive":
>-Leonard H. Sigal, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 174
>
>
>
>"Many patients have found a place in their personas for 'chronic Lyme
disease,' and this may be the most permanently damaging aspect of Lyme
disease":
>-Leonard H. Sigal, MD, ACP's Lyme Disease, page 149
>
>
>
>"It could be the fibromyalgia, but you cannot assume it is Lyme disease.
Or it could be Lyme disease, but you should not assume it is the
fibromyalgia":
>-Leonard H. Sigal, MD, in American Journal of Medicine, vol. 98, suppl. 4A
>
>
>
>"Tertiary neuroborreliosis can be differentiated from the early disseminated
neurological disease by the fact that it is later, very frequently in
association
with inflammatory joint disease, but quite frequently it will be on
its own, and
sometimes it will be the very first manifestation of Lyme disease":
>-Leonard H. Sigal, MD, Chief, Division of Rheumatology, Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School, New Brunswick, N.J., in his paper read at Yale's 6th
Annual
Lyme Disease Symposium, June 16, 1993
>
>
>
>"Lyme disease, although a problem, is not nearly as big a problem as most
people think." The bigger epidemic," Dr. Sigal said, "is Lyme
anxiety."
And, he said, "even if you get the disease, it is easily treatable and
it is
curable."
>
>- Leonard H. Sigal, MD, Quoted by Gina Kolata in New York Times, June 13, 2001
>
>
>
>Steere
>
>
>"Standard antibiotic treatment [of Lyme disease] probably fails less often
than one might think. Most apparent treatment failures actually
reflect misdiagnosis":
>-Allen C. Steere in Hospital Practice, April 1993
>
>
>
>"Of the patients [788] who did not have Lyme disease, 45% had had positive
serological test results for Lyme disease in other laboratories, but
all were seronegative
in our laboratory (17)":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, as quoted by Polly Murray in The Widening Circle, page
238
>
>
>
>"Almost two decades after Steere, now a professor at Tufts University School
of Medicine, identified the first cases of Lyme disease, he finds that
'because
of misdiagnosis, the spread of this disease may be more apparent than
real.'
What might have looked like an epidemic of a new, highly dangerous
disease, instead
seems to have been blown out of proportion to the real danger":
>-Yale Children's Health Letter, April 1995
>
>
>
>"Eventually, both intermittent and chronic Lyme arthritis resolve, even
in untreated patients":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, in the New England Journal of Medicine, January 27, 1994
>
>
>
>"In all too many cases what's being called psychiatric disease due
to Lyme disease is not and other forms of treatment than prolonged
antibiotic therapy
would be more effective for these people. . . . Lyme disease can give
rise to a
subtle neuropsychiatric picture in which subtle memory deficit is the
most common
manifestation:"
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, in the The Boston Globe, August 9, 1999
>
>
>
>"Misdiagnosis not only leads to underreporting of new cases, but also may
lead at times to overdiagnosis, since Lyme disease has almost become a
euphemism
for chronic cases of pain and fatigue syndromes":
>-Steere et al., "The Overdiagnosis of Lyme Disease," JAMA 269 (1993):
#1812-1816
>
>
>
>"A common problem in diagnosis [of Lyme disease] is mistaking fibromyalgia
or chronic fatigue syndrome for Lyme disease (Box 6.2). This problem
is compounded
by the fact that a small percentage of patients develop fibromyalgia
in association
with or soon after erythema migrans or Lyme arthritis, suggesting that
B. burgdorferi
is one of the stressful events that may trigger this chronic pain
syndrome":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 114
>
>
>
>"We remain skeptical that antibiotic therapy helps":
>-Allen C. Steere, et al., Annals of Internal Medicine 86 (1997): 685
>
>
>
>"To sum up the therapy of Lyme arthritis (Lyme disease), it appears that
at this point only symptomatic treatment is feasible":
>-Steere et al., Hospital Practice 143 (April 1978)
>
>
>
>On the neurological abnormalities of Lyme disease, Dr. Steere and his colleagues
reported that they "have noted no benefit from antibiotic treatment":
>-Reik, L., Steere, A.C. et al., Medicine 58, 281 (1979)
>
>
>
>"When Steere assured me that the disease was self-limiting, I stopped using
antibiotics":
>-Dr. Edgar Grunwaldt of Shelter Island, N.Y., quoted by Berton Roueche in The
New Yorker, September 12, 1988
>
>
>
>"The fibromyalgia syndrome, even if triggered by infection with B. burgdorferi,
seems not to respond to antibiotic therapy (48). There is no evidence
that prolonged
antibiotic therapy for many months or years is of benefit in the
treatment of either
Lyme arthritis or fibromyalgia . . . (49)":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 119
>
>
>
>"Multijoint swelling accompanied by tendinitis [also tendonitis] and bursitis
would be an unusual presentation of Lyme disease. Alternative
diagnoses should be
pursued, including systemic lupus erythematosus, seronegative
arthropathies, and
crystal-induced arthritis (gout or pseudogout)":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, ACP's Lyme Disease, page 218
>
>
>
>"Within days or weeks after inoculation, the Lyme spirochete may spread
in the patient's blood or lymph to many sites. . . . The spirochete
has been
recovered several times from blood during this stage, and it has also
been seen
in small numbers in specimens of myocardium, retina, muscle, bone,
synovium, spleen,
liver, meninges, and brain":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, New England Journal of Medicine, August 1989
>
>
>
>"A lot of what has been described as Lyme disease, and attributed to Lyme
disease, would not stand up to the scrutiny of peer review":
>-Allen C. Steere, The Boston Globe, August 9, 1999
>
>
>
>"There is more fiction to Lyme disease than fact, and only experts like
myself know how to tell the two apart":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, at the 1998 Dutchess County meeting
>
>
>
>"[I'll talk] only about Lyme arthritis, not all features of Lyme disease--which
is too big a topic. . . . [Let me] just be a rheumatologist":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, San Francisco, April 1999, interview with Jean Hubbard
of Lyme Times, April-June 1999 edition
>
>
>
>"The symptoms [of Lyme disease] are slowly progressive, I think, with the
spirochete still present. But syphilis is treatable with antibiotics,
and so is
Lyme disease . . . and central nervous system symptoms in Lyme
disease, like CNS
symptoms seen in syphilis, can occur after a long latent period":.
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, ibid.
>
>
>
>"I suppose Lyme disease is one of the few diseases that some people want
to have because it's defined. I think it's very difficult to have
something
that is not well understood":
>-Allen C. Steere, The New York Times, May 4, 1999
>
>
>
>"Eventually, both intermittent and chronic Lyme arthritis resolve, even
in untreated patients":
>-Allen C. Steere, MD, New England Journal of Medicine, January 27, 1994
>
>
>
>He read a part of the letter that said that the patient had undergone an M.R.I.
for her dizziness but that the results came back negative. If a
spirochete had damaged
her brain, he said, the tests would show lesions. "Let me read you
another
part," he said, "so that you understand: 'What do I do to be well
again? My life has been turned upside down by "Lyme." I . . . haven't
been able to work in 5 years. I've been divorced and have claimed
bankruptcy
due to mounting medical bills. Currently I am also trying to take care
of my mother
who lives with me and is suffering from pancreatic cancer, on top of
all this I
feel terrible."' Steere put down the letter and stared at me for a
long
moment. "What I suspect is that she doesn't have Lyme disease but
some
kind of psychiatric illness," he said.
>
>Stalking Dr. Steere Over Lyme Disease, New York Times, June 17, 2001
>
>
>
>
>
>Things had gotten so bad that by the time I tried to reach Steere in February,
he had gone into seclusion, refusing to give interviews and, according
to a friend,
traveling to speaking engagements under an alias. When I called the
public-relations
firm that he had recently hired, the spokeswoman told me that he was
afraid for
his life. ..Steere's lab and private office were in their own section
of the
hospital, tightly guarded by bolts and alarms. When I rang the bell at
his lab,
a woman looked at me through a glass pane and then buzzed me in...
Hovering nervously
about the room, he told me that every time someone had done an
article, the media
had botched the facts and that he had simply given up trying to
illuminate them.
.."We are now in the political phase of the disease, and I am not a
very public
person." Despite his obvious discomfort, he invited me to sit in on
several
consultations the next morning. But then, in the midst of those
rounds, he again
grew wary and led me into a different office and shut the door. He
said that he
wanted to talk to me, to help me better understand the illness, but
that he was
afraid of the public reaction to his words: "Doctors can't say what
they
think anymore. If you quote me as saying these things, I'm as good as
dead."
>
>Stalking Dr. Steere Over Lyme Disease, New York Times, June 17, 2001
>
>
>Weld
>
>
>"A negative test [for Lyme disease] is about 99% correct":
>-David Weld, Executive Director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation (which
should not be confused with The Lyme Disease Foundation in Hartford)
in The Healthy
Traveler, November 1997
>
>
>
>"Many of the researchers from whom we derive new information, including
Dr. Steere, are also practicing physicians with years of experience in
diagnosing
and treating Lyme disease. The suggestion that clinicians, who depend
on medical
journals for information, do not share the conclusions of Dr. Steere
and other like-minded
researchers is, at best, misguided. . . . The views of these
researchers are, in
fact, widely respected and adopted by their practicing colleagues":
>-Reply by David L. Weld, executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation
in Somers, N.Y., to an article in The New York Times of May 4, 1999
>
>
>
>"Lyme is a socially acceptable disease. You can talk about it at any cocktail
party":
>-David Weld, head of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, in USA TODAY
>
>
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