Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

Membership & Co-Chairs of Latest TBD Working Group Unveiled

https://www.lymedisease.org/tbdwg-aug26-meeting/

Membership and co-chairs of latest TBD Working Group unveiled

Aug. 26, 2021

The US Department of Health and Human Services today installed what is likely to be the last panel of the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group.

The co-chairs of the 2021-2022 panel are:

  • Holiday Goodreau, Executive Director of the LivLyme Foundation
  • Dr. Linden Hu, Professor of Microbiology and Medicine at Tufts University

The advisory body was created as part of the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016. The legislation called for three different panels charged with creating Reports to Congress in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

Each panel includes seven representatives from federal agencies and seven public members. In addition to Goodreau and Hu, the new panel’s public members include:

  • Jennifer Platt, PhD, of Tick-borne Conditions United
  • Elizabeth Maloney, MD, of the Partnership for Tick-borne Diseases Education
  • Monica Embers, PhD, of the Tulane National Primate Research Center
  • Kirby Stafford III, PhD, of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
  • Sunil K. Sood, MD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist.

Government representatives include:

  • Ben Beard, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Captain Rebecca Bunnell,  MPAS, PA-C, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
  • Dennis Dixon, PhD, National Institutes of Health
  • Robert J. Miller, PhD, US Department of Agriculture
  • CDR Todd Myers PhD, US Food and Drug Administration
  • Leith Jason States, MD, MPH, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
  • Gabriella Zollner (Romero), PhD, US Department of Defense

Today’s meeting was held online, due to concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Ten members of the public gave comments at the meeting by telephone. Click here for more information about the TBDWG.

Category:

Activism, Lyme

Let the Gaslighting & Stigmatization Stop Here

https://www.lymedisease.org/tbdwg-comment-lyme-leland/

TOUCHED BY LYME: Let the gaslighting and stigmatization stop here

The third panel of the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group held its first meeting today–online. I was one of 10 people selected to deliver verbal comments. There was a three-minute time limit. Here’s what I said:

A topic not addressed by the first two Working Group panels is the severe impact Lyme disease can have on mental health.

A study recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that people with Lyme disease have a 75% higher risk of dying by suicide than those without it.

Lyme patients also have a high rate of other psychiatric conditions, such as depression.

Lead author Dr. Brian Fallon, of Columbia University, points out that Lyme is not a simple illness. He states: “In addition to the risk of severe cardiac, rheumatologic, and neurologic problems, Lyme disease can cause severe mental health problems as well.”

MyLymeData bears this out

Furthermore, results from the MyLymeData patient registry tell us that

  • 29% of Lyme patients surveyed say they have had severe psychiatric symptoms
  • 30% report that they take antidepressants—compared to 13% of the general population
  • 32% say they are too disabled to work. This situation leads many to despair.

When patients seek help from their physicians for debilitating symptoms, far too often, their doctors dismiss their concerns out of hand.

Doctors essentially say, “I don’t believe you. Your symptoms aren’t real.”

Some call this gaslighting. It undermines the patient’s self-confidence, and makes them doubt their own experiences.

Without treatment options, suffering people are left adrift in a sea of hopelessness.

Stigma of Lyme disease

Patients say the stigma surrounding Lyme disease profoundly affects them.

74 percent say they have been treated disrespectfully by a healthcare provider.

67 percent say they have postponed or avoided medical treatment due to discrimination, disrespect or difficulty obtaining care.

US News and World Report recently asked Lorraine Johnson, the head of LymeDisease.org, to comment on Dr. Fallon’s study of Lyme disease and suicide.

She said in part:

“We know that there’s a psychiatric component to what is going on, but I think [a major driver of] the increased suicide rates among patients with Lyme disease is that they are disbelieved, they are stigmatized, and they are gaslighted by physicians, by insurers, often by society and, sometimes, unfortunately, by their families.”

I urge this panel to listen to patients. Let the gaslighting and stigmatization stop here. Together, let’s work to change the system that deprives people with Lyme disease of the medical care they need to get well. Thank you.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s Vice-president and Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Psychological Aspects

Lies, Damned Lies, & Vaccine Statistics

https://drrollergator.substack.com/p/damned-lies-and-vaccine-statistics

Lies, Damned Lies, and Vaccine Statistics

Hyper-vigilant vaccination advocates are pushing dangerous misinformation about vaccine efficacy
     

Excerpts from article:

In the last few weeks I have seen evidence of articles more widely shared to correct some of the early misconceptions The Lancet correspondence was concerned about. However a more insidious form of misunderstanding and misinformation lingers, and is pervasive.

Twitter avatar for @DrTomFriedenDr. Tom Frieden @DrTomFrieden

It’s actually pretty simple math. If you get Covid and you’ve been vaccinated, you’re about 100 times less likely to die.

July 27th 2021

3,351 Retweets

Tom is no ordinary doctor. He is the former Director of the Center for Disease Control under President Barack Obama. He is also propagating dangerous misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines. It will cause people to misunderstand the real world results which can cause more people to die, and exacerbate the pandemic.

Dr. Tom is wrong. About as wrong you can get. The real world data has shown that the death rate among the vaccinated, if infected with COVID, can be 3 to 5.7 times higher1 than the death rate of the unvaccinated.

The former Director of the CDC is making what I call an Acceptable Catastrophic Error. This is the kind of error one is allowed to make when they are perceived to have the correct opinion.  Arguments and statistics used towards the goal of getting every single person vaccinated for COVID are given far less scrutiny and are accepted as true more readily, than any arguments or statistics that might be perceived as counterproductive towards that goal.

When the former Director of the CDC, or anyone else for that matter, says someone who is infected with COVID is 100 times less likely to die if they have been vaccinated, it does not matter how far off that number is. It will be readily forgiven no matter how inaccurate. It is the goal of universal vaccination, not truth, that appears to be most important.

There are a lot of acceptable catastrophic errors.

(See link for article)

_____________________

**UPDATE, Sept. 8, 2021**

One of Bill Gates’ favorite books is, “How to Lie With Statistics.”

A guide to playing number games, which is exactly what is occurring in the world of COVID madness.

**Comment**

Very astutely written article.  This man thoroughly goes through the math and proves much of what we are being told is fatally flawed and dangerously misused.

Important quote:

When “former Director of the CDC” Dr. Tom and others use the non-infection efficacy numbers to discuss the vaccines, they are, intentionally or not, misleading the public. It is something that should end immediately.

With the exception of infection rates, the efficacy numbers convey no useful information to citizens about their risks once they have been vaccinated. Instead, it may cause the vaccinated to place themselves and others at greater risk if they operate on this misinformation.

When you are finally counting things and dividing things counted which matter, such as how many infected people went on to die in each group, no remnant of the 90% numbers remain. In the graph above6, there is no information available to suggest the death rate per infection is any different in the vaccinated group compared to the unvaccinated group. You can see why by revisiting the number infected and the number who died in each group

When looking at infection/case fatality rate in 45-64 year olds, the number actually lean towards a higher death rate among the “vaccinated.”

The author then goes on to warn that if you blame death after “vaccination” on the vaccine, you would be committing “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fallacy, which simply means just because B happened after A does not mean B was caused by A.  Pro-mass-vaccination advocates quickly point out this reasoning flaw to those blaming vaccines; however, the same error is committed daily by the pro-mass-vaccination crowd without any pressure to check their reasoning.

The author also states that data has not supported any observations that the “vaccine” gave people with break-through infections less severe cases.  This false idea has been repeated often.

The author states that not only is the death rate among the vaccinated and infected higher but it’s also higher for death and hospitalization than the unvaccinated and infected.  Israeli data shows these results ‘plain as day.’

For more:

In a July 1, 2021, commentary in The Lancet Microbe,3 Piero Olliaro, Els Torreele and Michel Vaillant also argue for the use of absolute risk reduction when discussing vaccine efficacy with the public. They too went through the calculations, coming up with the following:

  • Pfizer/BioNTech — Relative risk reduction: 95%. Absolute risk reduction: 0.84%
  • Moderna — Relative risk reduction: 94%. Absolute risk reduction: 1.2%
  • Gamaleya (Sputnic V) — Relative risk reduction: 91%. Absolute risk reduction: 0.93%
  • Johnson & Johnson — Relative risk reduction: 67%. Absolute risk reduction: 1.2%
  • AstraZeneca/Oxford — Relative risk reduction: 67%. Absolute risk reduction: 1.3%
These injections are abysmal at protecting you AND they do not provide immunity.  Dr. Bhakdi also refuses the narrative that they reduce severity of symptoms as was pointed out in the article.

Bhakdi states:

“They showed absolutely zero [benefit in the clinical trials],” he says. “This is the ridiculousness. People don’t understand that they’re being fooled and have been fooled all along.

Category:

Activism, research, vaccines, Viruses

1.6M Moderna Doses Withdrawn in Japan Over Contamination – Two Dead

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/COVID-vaccines/1.6m-Moderna-doses-withdrawn-in-Japan-over-contamination

Company confirms reports of particulate matter in vials, but finds ‘no safety issues’

The Moderna vaccine against COVID-19 was cleared in May for emergency use in Japan.   © Reuters

YUMIKO URASAKI and YUKO NOMURA, Nikkei staff writers

TOKYO/ NEW YORK — About 1.6 million doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine have been taken out of use in Japan because of contamination reported in some vials, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said early Thursday.

Several vaccination centers have reported that vaccine vials contained foreign matter, according to an announcement from the ministry, which added it will seek to minimize the impact of the withdrawal on the country’s inoculation program.

The ministry said later in the day that the substance that had been mixed in may have been metal.

“It’s a substance that reacts to magnets,” a ministry official said. “It could be metal.”  

(See link for article)

__________________

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/2-dead-japan-after-receiving-moderna-jabs-contaminated-batches

2 Dead In Japan After Receiving Moderna Jabs From Contaminated Batches

BY TYLER DURDEN
AUG 28, 2021

Just last week, data from a leaked Canadian study revealed that the Moderna jab led to harmful side effects like myocarditis and pericarditis (harmful swelling of the heart) almost 2.5x as often as the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

The news alarmed millions of Americans who received the Moderna jab, and also rattled Moderna’s stock price, putting a damper on what had been a market-leading bull run.

Since then, critics of the jab have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now, it looks like the time has finally arrived: Two people died after receiving Moderna vaccine shots that were among lots later suspended following the discovery of contaminants, Japan’s health ministry said on Saturday.  (See link for article)

_____________________

**Comment**

Nothing to see here.  It’s all good.  Just some metal in vials we are injecting into people, and a couple people die within days of getting it – but there’s no “evidence” it was due to the “vaccines.”

For more:

  • https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2021/07/07/what-is-in-the-pcr-tests/  Spanish doctors have found that the main ingredient in tested Pfizer shots is graphene oxide, which causes hypercoagulation, blood clotting, and inflammation.  It gives those exposed a metallic taste and eventually loss of taste and smell. Being a super-conductor, it also explains the magnetic phenomenon.  Dr. José Luis Sevillano proposes a preventive treatment with zinc, glutathione, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC). These antioxidants have been found to help the body detoxify graphene oxide.  
OF NOTE:  THE FDA IS TRYING TO BAN NAC.  COINCIDENCE?

Category:

Activism, vaccines, Viruses

IDSA Guidelines Ignore Psychiatric Consequences of Lyme Disease

https://www.lymedisease.org/bransfield-psychiatric-lyme-disease/

Focus – Opinions and Features

LymeDisease.org
27 AUG 2021

Bransfield: IDSA guidelines ignore psychiatric consequences of Lyme disease

Dr. Robert Bransfield delivered the following public comment at the recent meeting of the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group.

I’m a psychiatrist from New Jersey, who has treated thousands of Lyme disease patients over the past thirty years. I have also performed research. Three issues I would like to raise:

*A recent study unequivocally proves Lyme disease causes mental illnesses.

*This Working Group needs to be more attentive to the psychiatric symptom from TBD.

*The IDSA guidelines fail to recognize this causal association.

I recommend the following

The Working Group needs to gather and share information on psychiatric symptoms caused by Lyme/TBD.

Since the IDSA guidelines fail to recognize this causal association, they are outdated and the committee needs to recommend that all federal references and links to their guidelines must be removed.

To expand:

A recent article using the 7 million patients in the Danish nationwide database was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the number one psychiatric journal in the world. It proved the causal association between Lyme and any mental disorder, affective disorders, suicide attempts and death by suicide.

There are 400 other peer-reviewed journal articles proving the causal association between tick-borne diseases and psychiatric symptoms and 73 with dementia. Mental illness is the major cause of disability and death from tick-borne disease.

Psychiatric findings from TBD can include

  • developmental disorders
  • autism spectrum disorders
  • affective disorder
  • depression
  • anxiety disorders
  • addiction
  • opioid addiction
  • cognitive impairments
  • dementia
  • suicidality
  • violence
  • other impairments
This has caused chronic disability and deaths from suicides, drug overdoses, auto accidents and homicides.

This working group needs input from psychiatrists who understand tick-borne diseases and psychoimmunology. Addressing the causal association between tick-borne diseases and psychiatric symptoms and sharing this information with legislators and the public is critical.

When the psychiatric morbidity, mortality and disability are adequately considered, it greatly shifts risk/benefit clinical decision making involving diagnosis and treatment.

The American Psychiatric Association guidelines recognize this association, but the IDSA guidelines fail to consider the psychiatric consequences of Lyme disease. Therefore, these guidelines are outdated, unscientific, and hazardous.

The Working Group needs to recommend that all federal government links and references to these guidelines be removed.

Robert Bransfield, MD, DLFAPA, a past president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, is an internationally recognized expert in how Lyme disease affects mental health.

Dr. Bransfield’s list of 473 peer-reviewed articles that support the evidence of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases causing neuropsychiatric illness: List of citations

____________________

**Comment**

Dr. Bransfield is a true pioneer when it comes to psychiatric manifestations of Lyme/MSIDS.  He has fought long and hard on this arena.  He’s a rock star in my book.

For more:

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Psychological Aspects, research