David H. Walker
Co-Chair of 2019 TBDWG
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
David Walker, currently appointed as co-chair of the federal Tick Borne Disease Working Group (2019), already has a bad reputation in the Lyme community.
The documentation below will make you question why he was chosen as the Co-Chair of the federal Tick Borne Disease Working Group, especially considering his long history with and connections to Edward McSweegan, the IDSA guidlines authors and their close-knit circle of biased intolerables.
IOM Meeting
October 11 & 12, 2010
David Walker was on the original planning committee for the IOM's Lyme Disease & Other Diseases: State of the Science. He also chaired a panel with Peter Krause (IDSA guideline author) and was on the Summation Panel.
This IOM group played dirty from the beginning and in a first of its kind move, most of the Lyme organizations, groups and patient advocates boycotted the meeting in protest.
Those selected to speak at the IOM meeting included David Walker and his co-authors and friends- Gary Wormser, Peter Krause, Steven Dumler, Janis Weis, Linda Bockenstedt, Paul Meade, John Aucott and Susan O'Connell. (IDSA guideline authors are in bold print. See IOM agenda and schedule below.)
SOURCE http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Activities/Disease/TickBorne.aspx
David Walker- An NIH "Grant Sponge"
Sucking Up The Dollars For Decades
David Walker- Regular NIH Rickettsia Related Grants
Total $34,574,832
David Walker- Additional NIH Grants
More than $102 million dollars
Out of 124 regular NIH grants to David Walker (not all inclusive)
33 grants were for studying rickettsia (spotted fever) antigens (1985- 2013) [YEAR AFTER YEAR SOAKING UP MILLIONS IN FUNDING AND STILL NO ACCURATE TESTS, VACCINES OR SUCCESSFUL TREATMENTS WERE DEVELOPED]
BTW- McStupid (Edward McSweegan, NIH) and Phillip Baker (Director of fake grass roots American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF), previously at NIH) both worked with vector borne related grants at NIH when David Walker was getting his boat load of tax-payer's money from NIH to study rickettsia organisms.
To Note- McStupid claims he was a "Program Officer" at his NIH job, from Sep 1991 - Dec 2013. He stated he was responsible to- "Manage a portfolio of infectious disease and epidemiology training grants." Source
DAVID WALKER
24 grants for studying rickettsia and other organisms (1993- 2018)
19 grants for Ehrlichia (1991- 2012)
15 grants for biowarfare (Rickettsia included in some)
10 grants for typhus, leptospirosis and/or viruses
20 grants misc.- develop plans, admin costs, training costs, etc.
At Least TWENTY of the NIH Grants
To David Walker Came From
A 2019 TBDWG Member
Samuel Perdue
[From TBDWG site- "Dr. Perdue is Chief of the Basic Sciences Section within the Bacteriology and Mycology Branch, NIAID, NIH. This section comprises program officials who oversee NIAID extramural research funding in Lyme disease, other bacterial zoonoses, hospital infections, antibacterial resistance, medical mycology and biodefense.
Dr. Perdue also serves as NIAID’s program officer for rickettsial and related diseases, where he has primary responsibility for the institute’s grants on Rickettsia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Bartonella and Coxiella species, among others." Source
See screen shot below and the 20 grants posted here.
Samuel Perdue's TBD Priorities
Aren't In Line With Most...
QUOTE- "Vaccines are certainly going to be at the top" of prevention priorities for tickborne diseases, says Samuel Perdue, chief of the Basic Sciences Section in NIAID's Bacteriology and Mycology Branch in Bethesda, Maryland, noting that the institute already funds some vaccine research."
PATENTS
1st David Walker grant in 1985 and most the recent grant in 2013 listed:
Patent- NIH #6806065- Rickettsia felis outer membrane protein.
His most recent grant lists 13 additional patents for rickettsia and other organisms. (See list below.)
David Walker's Grants
(Patents Are Appreciated By The Federal Government)
EXAMPLE- Parent Project Number: 2U54AI057156-06 Sub-Project ID: 6297
Contact PI / Project Leader: WALKER, DAVID H
Title: ADMINISTRATIVE CORE
Awardee Organization: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
The Western Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (WRCE) is located in DHHS Region VI, including Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Dr. David H. Walker is the PI and director for the WRCE.
In the assessment of the national RCE Program, several individual Center measurements were provided. They revealed that the WRCE ranked first in the number of organisms studied, total number of projects, number of Pis, additional non- RCE funding stemming from WRCE research, and number of patent applications as compared to the other individual Centers [1]. Our publication rate is also the one of the highest of the Centers.
Source- https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=7676462&map=y
Partial List of Patents
David Walker
Patent Number Patent Title Patent Owner Primary Agency
7803363
Attenuated Francisella bacteria
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO
8426188
Attenuated recombinant alphaviruses incapable of replicating in mosquitoes and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
8343506
Chimeric chikungunya virus and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
8748591
Chimeric sindbis-western equine encephalitis virus and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
9267947
Compositions and methods for preventing or treating Burkholderia infection
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
9248176
Controlled release vaccines and methods for treating Brucella diseases and disorders
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
8889743
Inhibition of filovirus entry into cells and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
8883729
Nanolipoprotein particles and related compositions, methods and systems
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
8252574
Pseudoinfectious flavivirus and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
9144605
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
8084248
Reverse genetic system for rift valley fever virus and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
8030447
Substrate peptide sequences for plague plasminogen activator and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
8394620
Two-component genome flavivirus and uses thereof
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
Source
Edward McSweegen Article
Another Biased, One-Sided Panel
23 September 2010
From some cranky Lyme activists:
Congress asked for a state-of-the-science evaluation of Lyme disease. What the Institute of Medicine is offering, however, is a one-sided, biased presentation of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's point of view. Because the IOM refuses to allow speakers of comparable scientific weight to counter the IDSA viewpoint, three major Lyme patient groups have withdrawn their participation.
This is quickly becoming redundant. Lyme activists can bitch to each other all they want, but they have to explain to everyone else how a workshop that includes Lyme activists (e.g. Carl Brenner, Pam Weintraub), “Lyme Literate” docs (e.g., Brian Fallon, Sam Donta), and non-IDSA scientists (e.g., Janis Weis, Howard Ginsberg, Dave Walker) can be “a one-sided biased presentation.” ...
Source- https://sites.google.com/site/edwardmcsweegan/iom-member/iom-quotes
Thirteen David Walker Publications With Coauthors From IDSA Lyme Guidelines & CDC
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
Barbour (guidelines), Dumler (Hopkins & guidelines), Dennis (CDC & guildeines) and McSweegan (IDSA Mouthpiece).
Emerging bacterial zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Ecological and epidemiological factors.
Walker DH, Barbour AG, Oliver JH, Lane RS, Dumler JS, Dennis DT, Persing DH, Azad AF, McSweegan E.
JAMA. 1996 Feb 14;275(6):463-9. Review.
PMID: 8627968
~~
The role of CD8 T lymphocytes in rickettsial infections.
Walker DH, Dumler JS.
Semin Immunopathol. 2015 May;37(3):289-99. doi: 10.1007/s00281-015-0480-x. Epub 2015 Apr 1. Review.
PMID: 25823954
~~
Emerging and re-emerging tick-transmitted rickettsial and ehrlichial infections.
Walker DH, Paddock CD, Dumler JS.
Med Clin North Am. 2008 Nov;92(6):1345-61, x. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2008.06.002. Review.
PMID: 19061755
~~
Rocky Mountain spotted fever--changing ecology and persisting virulence.
Dumler JS, Walker DH.
N Engl J Med. 2005 Aug 11;353(6):551-3. No abstract available.
PMID: 16093463
~~
Fatal spotted fever rickettsiosis, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Galvâo MA, Dumler JS, Mafra CL, Calic SB, Chamone CB, Cesarino Filho G, Olano JP, Walker DH.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2003 Nov;9(11):1402-5.
PMID: 14718082
~~
Carpenter CF, Gandhi TK, Kong LK, Corey GR, Chen SM, Walker DH, Dumler JS, Breitschwerdt E, Hegarty B, Sexton DJ.
J Infect Dis. 1999 Sep;180(3):900-3.
~~
Dual infection with Ehrlichia chaffeensis and a spotted fever group rickettsia: a case report.
Sexton DJ, Corey GR, Carpenter C, Kong LQ, Gandhi T, Breitschwerdt E, Hegarty B, Chen SM, Feng HM, Yu XJ, Olano J, Walker DH, Dumler SJ.
Emerg Infect Dis. 1998 Apr-Jun;4(2):311-6.
PMID: 9621205
~~
Emerging and reemerging rickettsial diseases.
Walker DH, Dumler JS.
N Engl J Med. 1994 Dec 15;331(24):1651-2. No abstract available.
PMID: 7969347
~~
Diagnostic tests for Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other rickettsial diseases.
Dumler JS, Walker DH.
Dermatol Clin. 1994 Jan;12(1):25-36. Review.
PMID: 8143383
~~
Sexton DJ, Muniz M, Corey GR, Breitschwerdt EB, Hegarty BC, Dumler S, Walker DH, Pecanha PM, Dietze R.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1993 Aug;49(2):222-6.
PMID: 8357085
~~
Rocky Mountain spotted fever complicated by gangrene: report of six cases and review.
Kirkland KB, Marcom PK, Sexton DJ, Dumler JS, Walker DH.
Clin Infect Dis. 1993 May;16(5):629-34. Review.
PMID: 8507753
~~
Human ehrlichiosis: hematopathology and immunohistologic detection of Ehrlichia chaffeensis.
Dumler JS, Dawson JE, Walker DH.
Hum Pathol. 1993 Apr;24(4):391-6.
PMID: 8491479
~~
Clinical and laboratory features of murine typhus in south Texas, 1980 through 1987.
Dumler JS, Taylor JP, Walker DH.
JAMA. 1991 Sep 11;266(10):1365-70.
PMID: 1880866
Conflicts of Interest
David Walker doesn't seem very fond of listing his conflicts of interest for his publications. With over a dozen patents and ties to the IDSA authors you'd think that would be something important to share.
Rickettsia australis Activates Inflammasome in Human and Murine Macrophages
2016- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157231
WHERE'S THE BEEF?
David Walker, in spite of all that money, was unable to develop a reliable test, improved treatment method or a rickettsia vaccine. BUT, he knew back in 1996 that it wasn't possible- over twenty years ago- so why continue letting him ride on the grant gravy train? His connection with Samuel Perdue (also on the TBDWG 2019) makes them both suspect.
QUOTE- "Vaccines against spotted fever and typhus group rickettsiae have been developed empirically by propagation of rickettsiae in ticks, lice, embryonated hen eggs, and cell culture. Vaccines containing killed organisms have provided incomplete protection.
A live attenuated vaccine against epidemic typhus has proved successful, but is accompanied by a substantial incidence of side effects, including a mild form of typhus fever in some persons."
QUOTE- "Scrub typhus can be treated with doxycycline, tetracycline, or chloramphenicol. Chigger repellents may prevent exposure. Prophylaxis with weekly doses of doxycycline during and for 6 weeks after exposure protects against scrub typhus. Attempts to develop a safe, effective vaccine have failed."
Medical Microbiology. 4th edition. 1996.
Chapter 38 Rickettsiae. David H. Walker.
Galveston (TX): University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston; 1996.
Using Federal Grants- Millions of Dollars
Then Publishing Their Study Results
In Journals Where He (David Walker) Is An Editor
And if he isn't an editor, his IDSA/CDC
Guideline authors and buddies are.