Gary Wormser says...

“Right now, in the published literature, there is no evidence of persistence in humans, and if there were I would say, ‘So what?’" he told me recently.

Gary Wormser

NY Medical College, Valhalla, NY

Lead Author of 2006 IDSA Lyme Guidelines

Lyme Monsters

Doctors Who Repeatedly Attack

Sick Lyme Patients , Volunteer Patient Advocates,

Non-Profit Organizations

&

Expert Lyme Treating Doctors

CDC Motto

Beatings will continue until morale improves.

IDSA Motto

Have you flogged a Lyme patient today?

Brief Introduction To Some of the Monsters

(Many More Monster Profiles On The Menu On The Upper Left of Your Screen)

Lead author of the insurance-friendly, ineffective and discredited 2006 IDSA Lyme disease guidelines....

QUOTE- “Right now, in the published literature, there is no evidence of persistence in humans, and if there were I would say, ‘So what?’ ” he [Wormser] told me recently. " Source

QUOTE 7/29/16- “There is no such thing as ‘chronic Lyme,’” points out Gary Wormser, M.D., chief author of the IDSA guidelines.” Source

You have A.B.L.S.- (Anything But Lyme Syndrome)...

QUOTE 7/29/16- "So the symptoms reported by “chronic” Lyme patients must have some other cause—perhaps an autoimmune reaction or even a co-infection. “The majority of people I see who have been diagnosed with chronic Lyme have similar symptoms but don’t have any evidence of ever having had Lyme disease,” says Dr. Wormser." Source

QUOTE- "Dr. Wormser sums up by saying, “Working in the Lyme disease field has been an exciting and many-faceted experience. I feel privileged to have been able to contribute toward a better understanding of the infection.” Source- pg. 17

Paul Auwaerter- coauthor of the insurance-friendly, ineffective and discredited 2006 IDSA Lyme disease guidelines....

Paul was part of the 2005 Hopkins blood test study proving Lyme tests miss 75% of those with Lyme- then recommended them for use in the 2006 IDSA/CDC guidelines to indicate, only if positive, that someone has Lyme disease. Is he actually from THIS planet?

QUOTE- "Dr. Paul Auwaerter, a Johns Hopkins Hospital infectious disease specialist who volunteers on the IDSA's Lyme advisory panel, likens Lyme disease to other issues, such as the John F. Kennedy assassination and global warming, that lend themselves to conspiracy theories." Source

QUOTE By Auwaerter- (a positive Lyme test does not mean you have Lyme disease)- "Therefore, the presence of seropositivity does not guarantee that a given medical condition is due to B. burgdorferi infection."

QUOTE- "Here at Johns Hopkins, for example, our laboratory does not report Western blot bands with its Lyme disease testing results. The report is a simple yes or no; you have a positive result or a negative result, so there is less tendency for misinterpretation." [Paul Auwaerter, for Medscape Infectious Diseases Auwaerter was co-author on the Johns Hopkins blood test study- 2005- where it showed 75% of the people with Lyme were missed.]

Dattwyler is another proponent of the A.B.L.S. diagnosis (Anything But Lyme Syndrome). He does not know what you have, but he insists it can't be Lyme disease.

Dattwyler testifies for insurers against patients he also tries to control using his disgusting IDSA/CDC Lyme guidelines. He has been associated with the Hold The Mayo Clinic, Tufts New England Medical Center and Mass General Hospital- THREE of the worst places for Lyme patients to get help.

He is also (or has been) a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Vector-Borne Disease Group, the FDA Anti-infectives (antibiotics) Group, and the FDA Vaccine Group. He has reviewed and granted proposals for the NIH and is/was involved with the World Health Organization and their Lyme disease efforts.

He is/was a member of the CDC Serology Panel that looked at the best way to interpret Lyme tests and helped design the national standards for those tests.

QUOTE- "Lyme expert Dr. Raymond Dattwyler, of New York Medical College, said he wasn't surprised by the poll results. "Chronic Lyme disease is just not accepted by the vast majority of physicians," he told Reuters Health. "The majority of people who get the diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease have either depression, fibromyalgia or another chronic illness."

Also, a proponent of the infamous "just the aches and pains of daily living" diagnosis.

QUOTE- "If you look at the symptoms that they report to be associated with chronic Lyme," he added, "population studies have shown those are very common complaints among the general population." Source

QUOTE- "A few physicians advocate prolonged courses of antibiotics, claiming that Lyme disease is responsible for an array of vague subjective clinical concerns and a cause of chronic infection [2, 3]. One has to question why a reasonable physician would treat a patient this way and more importantly what has led to this confusion."

QUOTE- "Third, further complicating the interpretation of these studies is that many of the clinical manifestations used to define failure are common complaints in the general population. Such complaints as fatigue, stiff neck, arthralgia, myalgia, palpitations, abdominal pain, sleep disturbance, poor concentration, irritability, depression, back pain, headache, dizziness, and other nonspecific symptoms are reported fairly commonly in otherwise healthy members of the general population [8, 9]. None of the studies took the common occurrence of these concerns into consideration in their definition of treatment failure."

QUOTE- "Diagnosing Lyme disease simply on the basis of the presence of subjective complaints is unjustifiable." Source

Shapiro

Shapiro Quotes...

QUOTE- "There is substantial evidence that there is no such entity as chronic Lyme disease. Indeed, there is not even a case definition for chronic Lyme disease. There are many websites that contain misinformation about Lyme disease that only enhance the already inflated and inaccurate fears about the consequences of Lyme disease of many parents and patients." Source

QUOTE- "Misinformation about chronic Lyme disease on the Internet and in popular media has led to publicity and anxiety about Lyme disease that is out of proportion to the actual morbidity that it causes." Source

QUOTE- "The long-term prognosis for individuals who are treated appropriately with antimicrobials for Lyme disease, regardless of the stage of the illness, is excellent. The most common reason for a lack of response to appropriate antimicrobial therapy is misdiagnosis (ie, the patient actually does not have Lyme disease)." Source

QUOTE- “People complaining of chronic Lyme are very common,” said Shapiro. “Actual late (stage) Lyme disease is so rare that general practitioners are lucky to see one patient. ~ Every patient that’s been seen with chronic Lyme disease in my practice never had it.” Source

QUOTE- "Lyme disease is NOT hard to diagnose." Source

QUOTE- "There is no diagnosis for chronic Lyme disease." Source

QUOTE- “Dr. Jones by the way once diagnosed a teenage(r) who attacked a cat with an ax, diagnosed this as chronic Lyme disease over the telephone. I kid you not. I was involved with the court case.” Source

QUOTE- “I used to have late neurological Lyme on this slide, but I took it off because I've never seen a child with late neurological Lyme.” Source

QUOTE- “So, if you have a clinical situation, where a patient has vague symptoms, not likely to be Lyme disease. Antibody for Bb is negative, not likely to be Lyme disease. Antibody for Bb positive, diagnosis: Not Lyme disease.” Source

QUOTE- ""California. This is ridiculous. This is the desert here. But if some nut reports a case of Lyme disease, it gets included." Source

QUOTE- On parents who insist that their children have Lyme disease: "… some of this is Munchausen's by Proxy." Source

QUOTE- "ALL of the studies have shown that the antibiotics are of no benefit." Source

QUOTE- “Some of these Lyme disease support groups really put a lot of pressure on us. And the NIH is really under pressure by lawmakers to do something to study this problem. … Most of these patients had already been treated for an average of something ridiculous, like 4 months [antibiotics].” Source

QUOTE- “So clearly, these patients were sick. They had problems. It's just that antibiotic deficiency was not one of them. [laughter].” Source

ZEMEL

Regarding Dr. Charles R. Jones (CT) Hearing February 2010- from one of Dr. Jones Letters To The Lyme Community- Dr. Jones wrote- "A second set of charges also was brought against me. These involved three different cases, which were “conjoined” into one proceeding. Once again, none of the patients involved had sustained any harm from treatment, and my attorneys succeeded in having the first of these cases dismissed entirely. They also succeeded in having Dr. Zemel’s testimony as an expert witness completely dismissed by the CMEB as biased; this will limit his ability to testify in this capacity in other proceedings against LLMD’s as well." Source

QUOTE- [Letter from Zemel to CT DOH asking them to investigate a Lyme treating doctor.] “Have one of your staff investigators pose as a patient, complete with vague symptoms and negative Lyme results but insisting that she have Lyme disease. I would be happy to rehearse that investigator.... Examine records of patients treated over the past few years for Lyme disease to see if they truly fulfill established criteria [IDSA] for Lyme disease.”

Final paragraph: “Good luck with your investigation. I would be happy to assist in any way possible.” Zemel, L. Department of Public Health Hearing Office Letter, Donna Brewer. Hartford, CT, Sept. 14, 1993. Source

QUOTE- “Dr. Jones is being charged with improperly diagnosing and treating Lyme disease after having treated and cured two children whose health was of great concern to their mother for years,” said Jones’ attorney, Elliot Pollack. “Instead of being sanctioned, he should be complimented....

QUOTE- “This decision sends a message to a very small cadre of physicians who do not conform to standards of care for diagnosing and treating Lyme disease,” said Dr. Lawrence Zemel, chief of rheumatology at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford and professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine." Source

Too Many Awful Zemel Quotes & Nasty Deeds To List Them All- More Here.

And, Carrter, what the hay? All that grant money and only FIVE studies published in that entire 15 years? And they were published along with some familiar, shady, conflicted co-authors & friends with a specific agenda! (Shapiro, Nelson, Mead, CDC & Stafford)

BIG changes need to be made, as well as restitution!

And We Got To Ask...

Wasn't that MILLIONS enough money for

Connecticut Lyme Disease Prevention?

Ben Beard

QUOTE- "We are also grateful for the opportunity to expand the public dialogue around these important issues through informed discussion with leaders like Dr. Beard."

Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Nat Cap Lyme & Ben Beard

Georgia Lyme Disease Association & Ben Beard

QUOTE- "Dr. Ben Beard of the CDC met with directors of CALDA on March 10 as part of an effort to reach out to Lyme patient groups across the nation."

LymeDisease.org & Ben Beard

QUOTE- "Dr. Ben Beard from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention who came all the way from Ft. Collins Colorado to share in our celebration today."

LDA & Ben Beard

Christine Nelson's So-Called "Study"

Attacks on Lyme Patients & Their Doctors

CDC Ignores Ethics, Attacks "Chronic Lyme"- A look at some of the background of how Christine Nelson came to receive information on a handful of people who had “adverse effects” from what she claims was chronic Lyme treatment and how she found her co-authors for this "study".

QUOTE- "Neither the CDC or the National Institutes of Health recommends using the diagnosis “chronic Lyme disease,” for several reasons, Nelson said. The diagnosis is often based on clinical judgment, with no objective evidence of Lyme disease, such as standard laboratory testing for Lyme bacteria or even a history of possible tick exposure in an area with endemic Lyme disease." Source

They Know It's So, But They Need to Act Like

They Don't Believe In Chronic Lyme Disease

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) and the American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF) say sick Lyme disease patients should not be treated with more than a minimal amount of "cost-effective" antibiotics. They say there is no such thing as "chronic Lyme disease" in spite of years of scientific and clinical evidence proving otherwise.

Some members and their supporters say recurring Lyme symptoms experienced by patients after minimal treatment are simply the "aches and pains of daily living" and want you to call it Post-Treatment Lyme Syndrome, rather than chronic Lyme disease.

They say not treating a relapsing, recurring and potentially disabling bacterial infection with antibiotics in the presence of continuing symptoms or when symptoms return is a safe and more successful approach for the patients.

Chronically ill Lyme patients, volunteer patient advocates,

Lyme organizations and Lyme treating doctors do not agree!

In fact, the Connecticut Attorney General (Richard Blumenthal) concluded his lengthy investigation into the Infectious Diseases Society of America Lyme disease guideline panel development process (2008), stating:

"The IDSA's 2006 Lyme disease guideline panel undercut its credibility by allowing individuals with financial interests -- in drug companies, Lyme disease diagnostic tests, patents and consulting arrangements with insurance companies -- to exclude divergent medical evidence and opinion."

The IDSA's own hand-picked panel (2010) reviewed their 2006 Lyme Disease Guidelines as part of a settlement agreement with the Attorney General. The Panel, with IDSA members and its past-president as members, recommended more than twenty changes be implemented. They stated the IDSA Lyme disease guideline authors overstated their position or did not provide adequate documentation for many of their conclusions.

The Panel recommended changes be made in the following areas:

Prevention

Early Lyme Disease

Early Neurologic Lyme

Cardiac Manifestations of Lyme Disease

Borrelial Lymphocytoma

Late Lyme Arthritis

Late Neurologic Lyme

Acrodermatitis Chronica Atropicans

Post Lyme Syndromes

HGA

Babesiosis

NO CHANGES WERE MADE!

THE IDSA REFUSED!

Update- The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported the IDSA Lyme Disease Guideline development process was an example of the way NOT to develop guidelines.

Update- The 2006 IDSA Lyme Disease Guidelines expired. They are scheduled to be removed from the National Clearing House website at the end of 2011.

Update- The IDSA guidelines were not removed as scheduled. The Department of Health and Human Services (Federal Government) is allowing them to remain on the National Guidelines Clearinghouse website, going against their own policies.

Update- Protests, rallies and activism by thousands have not convinced the Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) or the IDSA to remove their outdated, unsuccessful and substandard guidelines from use. Insurers continue to use the defunct IDSA guidelines as a basis to deny coverage.

Update- Even with Congress and State legislators intervention efforts, the CDC refuses to add links to other Lyme treatment guidelines to their website, or remove the defunct IDSA guidelines from their site, which denies doctors and patients a choice, the ability to be treated and supports the insurers.

Update- The IDSA guidelines were finally removed from the National Guideline Clearinghouse (2016). They remained on the site for 10 years, which was 5 years past the "expiration date". Imagine forcing a cancer patient and cancer doctors to use outdated, corrupted, substandard medical treatment guidelines.

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