Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

Lyme Advocate Tuttle’s Response to Paul Auwaerter

https://www.change.org/p/1120418/u/22825670?utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_campaign=345148&sfmc_tk=GM

PETITION UPDATE

TBDWG May 15-16, 2018 – Written Public Comment

Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH
JUN 2, 2018 — Please see the following letter sent to the Tick Borne Disease Working Group regarding comments from Paul Auwaerter, president of the IDSA.

Anyone wishing to contact the Lyme Disease Working Group can send an email to:

tickbornedisease@hhs.gov

———- Original Message ———-
From: Carl Tuttle
To: tickbornedisease@hhs.gov
Cc:
Date: June 2, 2018 at 9:17 AM
Subject: TBDWG May 15-16, 2018 – Written Public Comment

TBDWG May 15-16, 2018 – Written Public Comment
https://www.hhs.gov/ash/advisory-committees/tickbornedisease/meetings/2018-05-15/written-public-comment/index.html

To the Tick Borne Disease Working Group,

I would like to call attention to Paul Auwaerter’s comment which is the second one listed from the link above.

Auwaerter is the current president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

1. Mr. Auwaerter’s statement:

“We have great sympathy for patients—and their loved ones—who suffer from both short- and long-term effects of Lyme disease or other conditions.”

FACTS:

Auwaerter is the lead author of the deplorable Lancet “Antiscience and ethical concerns” opinion piece written by the IDSA guideline authors. This article bashes the horribly sick Lyme patient population desperately seeking to restore their health and the courageous clinicians attempting to help these people:

Antiscience and ethical concerns associated with advocacy of Lyme disease
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(11)70034-2/abstract

Six of the seven authors of this Lancet article have been named in the Shrader & Associates racketeering lawsuit:

Through an elaborate racketeering scheme the disease has been downplayed because it became “too expensive to treat” as outlined in the SHRADER & ASSOCIATES, LLP court document.

You can read the court document here: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LymeDisease.pdf

2. Mr. Auwaerter’s statement:

Pathogenesis, Transmission, and Treatment

“IDSA acknowledges that some patients who are successfully treated for Lyme disease continue to suffer from persistent symptoms after treatment.”

FACTS:

We have no laboratory test to gauge treatment failure or success so this statement is just plain garbage upheld for thirty years by those supporting Wormser’s racketeering scheme.

Auwaerter then states in the same paragraph…..

“Currently available serology inherently is not able to distinguish active versus past infections.”

FACTS:

Serology is the ideal lab test for concealing persistent infection so direct detection methods must be avoided at all costs to maintain the thirty-year-old dogma.

3. Mr. Auwaerter’s statement:

“Conversely, there is not a pressing need for additional federally supported research on antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease.”

FACTS:

I would like to call attention to the attached pilot study recently identifying chronic Lyme disease in twelve patients from Canada.

Persistent Borrelia Infection in Patients with Ongoing Symptoms of Lyme Disease
http://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/6/2/33

All of these patients were culture positive for infection (genital secretions, skin and blood) 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.

Persistent Lyme disease has been intentionally/deceitfully suppressed for decades as described in the attached letter to past CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, MD:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xaul84dqmqgbre0/Brenda%20Fitzgerald%20MD%20Director%20CDC.docx?dl=0

The dishonest science and racketeering scheme here in the U.S. has denied chronic Lyme which stifled much needed research to find a curative approach. Now the rest of the world is suffering.

4. Mr. Auwaerter’s statement:

“Important strides have been made to support the development of new diagnostic testing procedures. The NIH and CDC initiated a Serum Reference repository in 2008 and, at the end of 2011, began making standardized Lyme disease cases with serum samples available to the scientific community on a broad basis for testing and comparison of new diagnostic tests.”

FACTS:

Dr. Sin Lee of Milford Molecular Diagnostics received those serum samples as described by Auwaerter and when Lee identified a case of chronic Lyme and published his findings all communication with the CDC came to an abrupt end.

Once again, for the record I will state: Serology is the ideal lab test for concealing persistent infection so direct detection methods must be avoided at all costs to maintain the thirty-year-old dogma.

It is no secret that the US Centers for Disease Control has aligned itself with the seven defendants identified in the racketeering lawsuit.
Dr. Lee has filed a $57.1 million dollar lawsuit in federal court against the CDC:

Case No. 18-686C
https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/22752033

We are dealing with a life-altering/life-threatening infection with faulty/misleading antibody tests, inadequate treatment, no medical training and absolutely no disease control; a public health disaster. And to make things worse, our blood supply is most likely riddled with Lyme disease.

Lyme disease belongs in the same health threat category as AIDS.

A plague denied; essentially classifying this disease/plague as a low-risk and non-urgent health threat. Lyme disease is spreading across the globe through migratory birds with no continental boundaries while patient experience has been describing an illness destroying lives, ending careers, causing death and disability and leaving its victims in financial ruin.

Lyme must be escalated to HIGHEST ALERT and prioritized with a Manhattan Project to understand the pathogenesis of this disease to determine how it disables its victim.

Lyme Disease: Call for a “Manhattan Project” to Combat the Epidemic
Raphael B. Stricker, Lorraine Johnson
Published: January 02, 2014DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.100379
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003796

Question for Auwaerter:

What is the motivation behind the downplaying of a disease destroying countless lives nationwide?

My Personal Opinion:

Auwaerter and the authors of the Lancet “Antiscience” opinion piece are a disgrace to the medical/scientific profession.

Sincerely,

Carl Tuttle
Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH

Cc: The Honorable Chris Smith, United States House of Representatives
Daniel R. Dutko, HANSZEN LAPORTE
TBDWG May 15-16, 2018 – Written Public Comment
TBDWG, I am alarmed by the Vaccine and Therapeutics Subcommittee’s one sided report especially in regard to the ANTI-TICK Vaccine which in the opinion of many is a far better…
https://www.hhs.gov

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing

Monsanto & Bayer to Merge – Why You Should Care

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monsanto-bayer-merge_us_5afeef96e4b07309e0578b5e?

Monsanto And Bayer Are Set To Merge. Here’s Why You Should Care.

“Together they will influence markets all over the world on a scale we’ve never seen before.”
Arthur Neslen On Assignment For HuffPost
A protestor burns a leaflet during a demonstration in Bonn, Germany, against the merger between seed company Monsanto and pha

OLIVER BERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
A protestor burns a leaflet during a demonstration in Bonn, Germany, against the merger between seed company Monsanto and pharmaceutical company Bayer.

The U.S. Justice Department this month is expected to approve a merger of two huge corporations ― St. Louis-based seed company Monsanto and German crop-chemical conglomerate Bayer ― and the consequences could be enormous.

The $66 billion deal, already approved by the European Union, will create the world’s biggest pesticides and seeds monopoly. The hookup will confine 61 percent of global seeds and pesticides production in the hands of just three megacorporations ― the other two being newly merged DowDuPont, and ChemChina, which acquired pesticides and seed company Syngenta last year.

Is that a problem?

It depends who you ask. Monsanto and Bayer are pitching their consolidation as a way to develop the technology and innovation necessary to feed a world that in two decades is likely to be home to 10 billion people. For critics ― environmentalists and many farmers ― it’s a terrifying step toward a near-monopoly in agriculture, giving giant companies unprecedented access to farmer data, squeezing out small farmers, and potentially raising food prices for consumers.

Monsanto is already a bogeyman for environmentalists because of its genetically modified seeds ― which critics say promote monocultures, trapping farmers into a cycle of dependence as well as an increased reliance on chemicals ― along with its history of producing controversial chemicals such as Agent Orange and the weedkiller glyphosate.

Many conservationists fear the merger continues a trend of concentrating huge power over the global food supply in just a handful of corporate giants.

“We will witness in our lifetimes the total disappearance of biodiversity from our farms, the disappearance of small farmers, and the end of real food and our food freedom,” Vandana Shiva, the veteran seeds campaigner, has previously warned.

Vandana Shiva campaigns against "seed slavery" and promotes biodiversity.

GUSTAU NACARINO / REUTERS
Vandana Shiva campaigns against “seed slavery” and promotes biodiversity.

 

Evgeniy Kozarenko, CEO of the Dublin-based organic seed treatment company Nagritech, is worried. The U.S. and the European Union “just approved the creation of a monster,” he told HuffPost. “Together, these two companies will influence farmers’ opinions and markets all over the world on a scale we’ve never seen before. We do not have the budgets to market our organic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Other organic manufacturers also will not be able to compete.”

These fears are amplified by a growing concern that farming is on the cusp of a digital revolution that could allow the agribusiness to exert unprecedented control over farmers. Friends of the Earth Europe and several nongovernmental organizations have accused the EU of allowing a “Facebook of farming” to be created. Companies would be able to access farmers’ data to sell them seeds and pesticides.

“It’s not difficult to imagine a smartphone ad arriving within seconds of a farmer encountering weed or insect damage while he’s harvesting his crop,” the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation has said.

Monsanto itself has hinted that data is a key reason for seeking the merger with Bayer. “There is no new dirt,” Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant told Fortune. “We need to get much smarter societally about how we farm.”

Activists from Friends of the Earth Europe stage a "marriage made in hell" protest against the Monsanto-Bayer merger outside

ERIC VIDAL / REUTERS
Activists from Friends of the Earth Europe stage a “marriage made in hell” protest against the Monsanto-Bayer merger outside the European Commission in Paris.

 

In the U.S., groups representing farmers and conservation organizations wrote to the Justice Department predicting negative impacts on competition, farmers and consumers. They argued that the combination of seed and digital businesses would allow huge corporations to “create proprietary platforms that are closed to competition.”

Monsanto officials are cagey about the need for new laws. “The worry would be if regulation drives paranoia,” one company official said. “If the debate ended in a situation where farmers were scared about sharing their data, it would undermine a huge opportunity for, ultimately, more sustainable farming practices.”

Opportunities remain, though, for price discrimination and the use of data platforms to sell seeds, pesticides and fertilizers ― all of which, for now, is unregulated.

The Missouri Farm Bureau Federation says it’s in ongoing negotiations with agroindustry representatives about who owns data collected by digital apps such as Climate Fieldview.

“Two major concerns we have are: How is this going to affect the prices of products, and how is it going to affect the availability of products,” Spencer Tuma, the federation’s legislative affairs director, told HuffPost. She added that the group was worried about potential impacts on farmers, ranchers and ultimately consumers in the form of higher food prices.

“We think there is a responsibility for Congress to review some of the existing statutes governing whether those sorts of mergers have the ability to go through,” Tuma said.

Congress has the power to revise or rewrite existing merger laws. In July, 19 senators set out their concerns about the merger to the Justice Department’s antitrust division, so congressional action cannot be ruled out.

Carroll, though, was sanguine. “Bayer’s acquisition by Monsanto has undergone a lengthy and robust regulatory review process by the relevant competition authorities,” he said.

U.S. environmentalists are demanding that Monsanto sell Climate Fieldview as a condition of the deal. That leaves the fate of the world’s agricultural data ― who owns it, and how it is used ― undecided.


HuffPost’s “This New World” series is funded by Partners for a New Economy and the Kendeda Fund. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundations. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, diet and nutrition

Where Ticks Are & What They Carry – Lyme Science Conversation With Dr. Cameron

Next Lyme Disease Science Conversation (formerly Lyme Hangout)

HOST: Dr. Daniel Cameron

DATE: Tuesday, June 5, 2018

TIME: 8 PM EST

Topic: Where are the ticks and what are the diseases they carry? Ticks are on the move.

Cost: Free, sign up for a email reminder:

http://danielcameronmd.com/lyme-disease-science-conversations-registration/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Ticks, Transmission

Clinicians in Foreign Countries Should Consider LD With Symptomatic Travellers

http://danielcameronmd.com/clinicians-in-foreign-countries-should-consider-lyme-disease-with-symptomatic-travellers/

CLINICIANS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES SHOULD CONSIDER LYME DISEASE WITH SYMPTOMATIC TRAVELLERS

A report published in Infection and Drug Resistance reviews the case of a 44-year-old woman who visited a neurological outpatient clinic in Japan complaining of fatigue and partial mouth paralysis. (She was unable to open her mouth.) The symptoms had persisted for 2 months.

by Daniel J. Cameron, MD, MPH

The patient had been living in New York for the past 10 years and only recently returned to Japan to visit family. “The neurologist initially suspected mild tetanus with lockjaw caused by Clostridium tetani infection, which is relatively common in our area,” writes Seki from the division of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital in Japan. [1]

However, “She could open her mouth about 1.5 cm, but her left side of the mouth sagged unilaterally, and she could hardly close her left eye,” writes Seki. So, infectious disease physicians diagnosed her with facial paralysis rather than lockjaw.

When questioned further, the woman recalled being bitten by a tick while camping in Pennsylvania 3 months earlier. She described having “skin changes [flat red rash] with slight itching and pain on her right limb about 1 week after camping,” explains Seki. The rash persisted for 1 to 2 weeks.

She also had a slight fever of 37.2°C (99°F). A fever of unknown origin (FUO) typically includes infectious, rheumatologic and cancer causes. “Lyme disease is not generally considered a common cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO) in Japan,” writes Seki, “although it is very common in North America and Europe.”

The woman was tested and found to be positive for Lyme disease. After 2 weeks of oral minocycline, her symptoms of fatigue, mouth sagging, and a slight inability in opening the eye disappeared.

The patient was treated successfully with antibiotics despite the doctors’ reservations about the legitimacy of chronic Lyme disease. “She had a relatively mild, chronic status,” writes Seki, “suggested of the chronic type of Lyme diseases, which is a poorly defined term that describes the attribution of various atypical syndromes to protracted B.burgdorferi infection.”

Given that there are sporadic and transported cases of Lyme disease in mainland Japan, the authors recommend that clinicians consider Lyme disease in their differential diagnosis when a patient presents with a fever of unknown origin (FUO).

“Thus, Japanese ID [infectious disease] physicians should consider this disease as one of the possible causes of FUO and carefully ask patients about their living conditions and past histories,” notes Seki, particularly when presenting with a combination of FUO and facial palsy.

 

References:

  1. Seki M, Watanabe Y, Kawabata H. A case of Lyme disease in a Japanese woman. Infect Drug Resist. 2018;11:625-628.

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Treatment

Tick App: WI Tick Chats & Testing

https://thetickapp.org/

ABOUT THE STUDY

The Tick App is a free app for your smartphone conceived to allow the participation of people living in high-risk areas for Lyme disease in our tick exposure behavioral study.

Who are we? 

This study is conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, members of the CDC Regional Centers for Excellence in Vector-Borne diseases. Funding for this study is provided by the Centers for Disease Control.

NEVBD logo
MWVBD logo

 

What is the study about?

In two words, Lyme disease. Lyme disease can be transmitted to humans after a tick bite. This study is designed to help us understand more about how  people’s practices and activities impact their exposure to ticks. This research is being done because Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease (infections transmitted by the bite of infected arthropod species, such as mosquitoes, ticks, sandflies, etc) in the United States. The information provided will help us design integrated control strategies to prevent diseases transmitted by ticks.

Why is my participation important and how is the app useful to me?

If you live in a high-risk area, sharing your experience and perspective with us will help us learn about the risk factors for tick borne disease and design better methods that prevent tick bites and tick-borne disease. We really appreciate your input!

We are also including information that will help you identify the different tick species, ways to prevent tick exposure and other information that will help you understand more about ticks and the diseases they transmit.

How can you help us?

Once you download the app and register for an account, you will be asked to take one enrollment survey that will help us capture your baseline risk of exposure to ticks.

You will then receive a weekly to monthly message to start your tick diary during the high risk months (May to September). The tick diary, or activity report, should take less than a minute to complete. It asks if you or a household member encountered a tick and what you did that day. When you start the tick diary, you will receive a daily reminder until you complete 15 reports.

Also, you can help us by reporting any tick through a quick form built in the app.

If I don’t want to use the app, how can I participate?

You can sign-up in our website and the surveys will be sent to your email. The informational material can also be found in this website

WISCONSIN

Anybody over 18 years old is welcome to join the Tick App project! This year the in-person part of the study is also available in Wisconsin. We will be focused on Eau Claire, Madison, Baraboo and Minoqua areas.

Tick Chat: We like to learn about your thoughts about ticks, tick-borne disease and what our research can do about it. We will be hosting conversations about ticks and the Tick App project in:

  • Eau Claire – May 22nd, interested? Register here.
  • Madison – May TBD
  • Mirror Lake – May 25th or 30th, interested? Register here.
  • Near Minoqua – End of June

The conversations are about one hour and limited to 10-15 people. Therefore we request you to sign up and we will confirm with you.

Backyard tick collections: Residential sampling, i.e. collecting ticks in back yards, will be done in:

  • Eau Claire – June 3rd until June 10th
    • In and near Putnam Park
    • In and near Centennial Park
    • In and near Lowe’s Creek County Park

If you live near these parks and would like to enroll in the Tick App and have your backyard sampled for ticks, please contact us via email (tickapp @ wisc.edu) or flag us down during our visit to your neighborhood.

TICK TESTING SERVICES

Several universities, public health agencies, commercial companies and other entities offer tick identification and pathogen testing of your tick.

Different tick species transmit different pathogens, so it helps to know which species bit you. You can send the image of your tick or tick to us, but we are not testing them. Even if a tick is tested for pathogens and none were detected, that does not mean that there is zero chance of you developing a disease. There is the chance that other ticks might have been attached to you and gone unnoticed (they are very small!).

Submit a picture:

  • In the Tick App you can submit your Tick report and picture through a pop up website. We hope to have this option integrated in the app in 2019 (or sooner)!
  • From Wisconsin? Click here to submit the story and pictures to the Wisconsin Medical Entomology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin – Madison part of the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-borne Disease.
  • From anywhere? www.tickspotters.org
  • From anywhere? Try your extension contact of insect diagnostician.

The actual tick for identification and testing:

Know of any other places where ticks can be submitted for identification or testing, let us know (tickapp@wisc.edu).

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission