Madison Area Lyme Support Group

The following timeline for the deliberate mishandling of Lyme disease was forwarded to Attorney Katrina Rouse of the United States Antitrust Division, head of a Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion. Please forward your respectful request for an investigation into the collusion to deny chronic Lyme disease which has stifled research for better antimicrobials in treating this antibiotic resistant/tolerant superbug. Your email should describe how this denial has affected your ability to obtain treatment and affordable healthcare. What has been deceitfully established here in the US is being emulated across the globe.

Note to clinicians: Your experience on the front lines in treating chronic Lyme and witnessing the devastation first hand should be described in detail.

Let’s flood the inboxes of these two attorneys!

Contact info for Attorney Katrina Rouse and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter

Katrina Rouse: katrina.rouse@usdoj.gov

Jonathan Kanter: jonathan.kanter@usdoj.gov

Letter to Grace E. Marx, MD Medical Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

———- Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: “grace.marx@cuanschutz.edu” <grace.marx@cuanschutz.edu>, “gmarx@cdc.gov” <gmarx@cdc.gov>
Cc: “katrina.rouse@usdoj.gov” <katrina.rouse@usdoj.gov>, “jonathan.kanter@usdoj.gov” <jonathan.kanter@usdoj.gov>
Date: 10/25/2024 9:11 AM EDT
Subject: Tick-Borne Diseases and Associated Illnesses, Community Engagement Series: Mental Health and Neurological Effects

Tick-Borne Diseases and Associated Illnesses, Community Engagement Series: Mental Health and Neurological Effects
https://www.hhs.gov/oidp/initiatives/tick-borne-diseases-associated-illnesses-national-community-engagement-initiative/index.html3:00 pm – 3:20 pm   A Clinician Toolkit: Improving Care for Patients with Prolonged Symptoms and Concerns about Lyme Disease By Grace E. Marx, MD Medical Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dear Dr. Marx,

I listened to your presentation yesterday with great interest and I must congratulate you for your outstanding performance in suppressing all evidence of persistent infection; chronic Lyme disease.

We have studies proving persistent infection after antibiotic treatment for mice, dogs, ponies, monkeys, cows, iris biopsy, and ligamentous tissue but if you perform a simple Google search for the following statement, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that chronic Lyme exists” you will find the top search results are connected to “elements of academic medicine” involved in the denial of the late stage Lyme epidemic.

In 1991 the Lyme disease organism, Borrelia burgdorferi, was grown from the cerebrospinal fluid of Lyme patient Vicki Logan at the Centers for Disease Control in Fort Collins, Colorado despite prior treatment with intravenous antibiotics. The patient died when the insurer refused additional IV antibiotics. Here is a copy of Logan’s CDC positive culture report for your review.

(Vicky Logan’s Chronic Lyme Autopsy results Page #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

There are 700 peer-reviewed publications referencing persistent infection and in a 2018 study all patients were culture positive even after multiple years on antibiotics so there was no relief from current antimicrobials. Some of these patients had taken as many as eleven different types of antibiotics.

Thirty-four years ago Dr. Allen Steere identified chronic Lyme disease which should have set off a red flag prompting an immediate search for better antimicrobials but then did a 180° as he became principal investigator (PI) of the Phase 3 clinical trial for the first Lyme disease vaccine. So all the eggs were put into the vaccine basket while a campaign was orchestrated to discredit the sick and disabled patient population along with the courageous clinicians attempting to help these patients. Apparently, a chronic relapsing seronegative disease did not fit the business model of patent royalties, vaccine development and pharmaceutical profits.

Here is Dr. Steere’s 1990 publication summary for your review:

The New England Journal of Medicine 

Published November 22, 1990

Chronic neurologic manifestations of Lyme disease
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199011223232102

The chart below summarizes Lyme research funded by the NIH and only 2.5% has been allocated for treatment:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4fpjivy7stiztfs5ib6sz/NIH-Lyme-Research.png?rlkey=71yrfa6r7e6osq2he7qwsjj75&dl=0

For the record there are many infections requiring long-term antibiotics so why Klempner stopped his NIH funded antibiotic treatment trials for Lyme after 90 days makes absolutely no sense whatsoever:

From the following publication:

Benefit of intravenous antibiotic therapy in patients referred for treatment of neurologic Lyme disease
https://www.dovepress.com/benefit-of-intravenous-antibiotic-therapy-in-patients-referred-for-tre-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-IJGM

Infections requiring long-term antibiotics:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pserdbenw4n1vovv14z2a/Infections-requiring-long-term-antibiotics.jpg?rlkey=281zg7alxl4gqm2e2jipy9szj&dl=0

Lyme misdiagnosed/undiagnosed for months, years or decades is far more incapacitating than “acute” Lyme and 2-4 weeks of antibiotics does not scratch the surface of this well-established/immune suppressive infection. These are the patients who need help the most but have been excluded in research for decades. There are countless stories of patients seroconverting after the initial few doses of Doxycycline and now that a toxin has been identified that puts Lyme disease in an altogether different category of infection:

Toxins 
Published: 21 May 2024

Borrelia burgdorferi 0755, a Novel Cytotoxin with Unknown Function in Lyme Disease
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/16/6/233

So it would appear that one way to get a medical association (AMA) to go along with the suppression of evidence is to throw them a boatload of money… five million taxpayer dollars to be exact for a so-called IDSA biased “Clinician Toolkit”  (CDC grant number  NU50CK000597)

This controlling of the narrative has caused unimaginable pain and suffering all across America as insurance companies refuse to pay for long-term treatment, personal bankruptcies from out-of-pocket expenses to treat chronic infection, suicides from despair all while Valneva Received FDA Fast Track Designation for its Lyme Disease Vaccine.

Chronic Lyme must be recognized and finally addressed with 100% attention to effective antimicrobials for all stages of disease.

Question:

Is collusion to control the narrative through suppression of the truth, facts and scientific references a criminal offense?

Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH

Cc: Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, Attorney Katrina Rouse
Attorneys for the United States Antitrust Division

Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter Announces Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/assistant-attorney-general-jonathan-kanter-announces-task-force-health-care-monopolies-and

“Every year, Americans spend trillions of dollars on health care, money that is increasingly being gobbled up by a small number of payers, providers and dominant intermediaries that have consolidated their way to power in communities across the country,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Led by Katrina Rouse, the task force will identify and root out monopolies and collusive practices that increase costs, decrease quality and create single points of failure in the health care industry.”