Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

AAP Michigan Director Clueless About Vaccine Risks

https://jameslyonsweiler.com/2018/03/06/dear-dr-holtrop-and-aap-i-dont-know-and-just-following-orders-is-not-an-acceptable-position-for-pediatricians-on-vaccine-contents-and-vaccine-risk/

Dear Dr. Holtrop and AAP: “I Don’t Know” and “Just Following Orders” Are Not Acceptable Positions for Pediatricians on Vaccine Contents and Vaccine Risk

by jameslyonsweiler

DR. TERESA HOLTROP, the Michigan Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recently testified in a case in Michigan in which a mom objects to vaccination based on two points:

  • (1) She is religious, and does not want to have products made cells derived from aborted fetuses injected into her daughter, and
  • (2) She is concerned that her daughter may be at increased risk of adverse events due to the very high penetrence of autoimmune disorders in her family.

Holtrop was brought to the case as a witness for the father, who claims he wants his daughter vaccinated. In reality, vaccination for him is a convenience issue added to this case over child support, of which he is failing to pay; the father never tried to have his daughter vaccinated until the child support debt began adding up.

By any analysis, Holtrop’s testimony was a disaster for the father’s position. Holtrop admitted that cells from aborted fetuses are used in vaccines (if there is any doubt in your mind, see this: Fetal-DNA-in-Vaccines-Utah-June-3-2017: https://lifebiomedguru.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/fetal-dna-in-vaccines-utah-june-3-2017.pdf and watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlqFQLLOTEU)

Holtrop also revealed that she does not have a sufficient amount of knowledge about vaccine risks and vaccine injury. She testified that she is not an expert on vaccine injury, and that she gets her information about vaccines from the CDC website.

Under US Federal Regulations, doctors must be able to communicate the benefits, and the risks of any medical procedure and then they must give their patients a choice after they have secured knowledge that they patient understands both the benefits and the risks.

Holtrop repeatedly stated that she “did not know” when counsel for the mother asked her questions related to vaccine risk.

The fact that the Director of one of our 50 states’ chapters of AAP does not know what she should know about vaccines is disturbing. The fact that Dr. Holtrop has been denying her patients informed consent for over 20 years is unacceptable.

What’s most amazing is that parents have entrusted AAP, by entrusting their own pediatricians. As a patient, you are entitled to have your child’s doctor calmly and professionally explain to you the known benefits – and risks – of each and every vaccine on the CDC schedule. Under US Regulations, you are entitled to be informed, each and every time, that every vaccine is experimental, that ongoing safety studies use adverse events and injuries that occur as a result of vaccination. You are entitled to know the rates of each and every type of adverse event that can occur. And you are entitled to refuse any medical procedure on behalf of your child if you deem the risk of adverse events unacceptable.

Some may claim that due to a clause in the 21st Century Cures Act that patients are not entitled to informed consent for vaccine safety studies; however, since the aim of the study in question is to determine the safety of the vaccine in question, the special clause in the 21st Century Cures Act cannot possibly apply because it can be invoked only in cases in which those running the trial have determined that the risk to the patient in minimal. The post-market surveillance studies are not covered by this clause because they either would not be occurring if the safety was truly known, or post-market surveillance studies are not really scientific studies. Pharma runs these studies, or pays for them, and so the fox in guarding the henhouse on vaccine safety. This is unacceptable.

For the Director of the AAP to cite The Nuremberg Defense demonstrates that the AAP has abdicated their responsibility to families in the US. Instead of pediatricians dismissing families from their practices so they can make their quotas and can receive $600 per child from Blue Cross/Blue Shield for every child who is up-to-date on the CDC schedule, US families should call out their pediatrician in editorials in newspapers and name the practices online in social media and warn other parents if the doctors fail to provide informed consent.

You can also inform the public at websites such as:

https://www.ratemds.com/

https://www.healthgrades.com

and other resources, listed here:  http://www.grouponehealthsource.com/blog/10-most-popular-physician-rating-and-review-sites

Sadly, parents expect hostility from any pediatrician who is challenged on their knowledge of vaccine risk. Some do not even know that thimerosal, which contains mercury, is in the flu shot. Or that they should hand the CDC’s Vaccine Information Sheets to parents PRIOR to vaccinating the child, and wait for them to read it, and then only vaccinate if the parent gives their consent.

Dr. Holtrop’s testimony provides ample evidence that pediatricians don’t know much about vaccine risk.

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**Comment**

I don’t post these articles to stir up anger.  I do it because I truly believe vaccines are part of a perfect storm causing or exasperating chronic illness – Lyme/MSIDS included.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/02/scottish-doctor-gives-insight-on-lyme-msids/ Dr. Lambert has treated a number of young women who fell ill after their HPV vaccination, which seems to have stimulated a latent Lyme infection to reactivate.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/24/gardasil-and-bartonella/ Asymptomatic girls after receiving Gardasil activated dormant Bartonella which was confirmed by testing.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/01/vaccines-could-contribute-to-disease-epidemics-due-to-retrovirus-contamination/  The manufacturing process involved in human and veterinary vaccines uses live animal and human cells to serve as master seed stock. The process was developed before the mechanisms of retroviruses were fully understood, which means that no one was aware of the risks at the time…..As new vaccines were developed in the 1970s, exposure to retroviruses intensified. These retroviruses have now been associated with many of the chronic illnesses modern humans are facing, from cancer and autism to Alzheimer’s and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is believed that as many as 20 million Americans could be infected with retroviruses, but not all of them will go on to develop a serious illness. They can be thought of as sleeping giants, who are only awakened when there is an immune deficiency. (Such as after the bite of an infected tick)

More on retroviruses: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/15/vaccines-and-retroviruses-a-whistleblower-reveals-what-the-government-is-hiding/ What did microbiologist Judy Mikovitz get for exposing retroviruses in vaccines? She got jailed without a search warrant and publicly demolished by those who can’t stand exposure to the truth.

Every single Lyme/MSIDS patient I know relapsed after getting a vaccine.

Lastly, please note that the reason this whole issue came up was due to a divorce scenario.  A father not paying child support lashes out by demanding vaccination for the first time in the child’s history.

This is an important reason I support the Parental Rights Amendment:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/20/why-we-need-the-parental-rights-amendment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/21/parental-rights-in-medical-settings/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/10/refusal-to-vaccinate-child-gets-mom-jail-time-a-deeper-analysis/  The narrative is also suggesting that the family court process, when vaccination status is concerned, is a stone solid justice machine based on ‘settled vaccine science.’ The reality is that the judge and the court are taking a known and dangerous medical risk with another person’s child that they have no right to take. Do courts have the right to order an unavoidably unsafe medical intervention like vaccination in custody cases?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, vaccines

Asian Tick Found in New Jersey Can Kill Cattle by Draining them of Blood

http://www.businessinsider.com/ticks-from-asia-that-self-clone-found-in-us-2018-2?r=DE&IR=T

These invasive ticks can appear in such numbers that they drain cattle of their blood — and they’ve now been found in the US for the first time

Kevin Loria
Mar. 8, 2018

The tick in question is known in East Asia and has become a problem in New Zealand and Australia. Is it now in New Jersey?  Zheng et al, Korean Journal of Parasitology, 2011:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279682/

  • New Jersey health officials got an unpleasant surprise when they found a sheep infested with hundreds of ticks from an East Asian species that can clone itself.
  • The ticks are from the Haemaphysalis longicornis species, an invasive pest that has been known to appear in such numbers that they’ve killed cattle by draining them of blood.
  • The researchers are hoping that any remaining larvae died during the winter. If not, the species could become a problem.

New Jersey residents know they need to look out for ticks. The state has one of the highest concentrations of Lyme disease in the country.

But one recent finding could lead Garden State residents to keep an even closer eye out for the bloodsuckers than normal.

Somehow, an east Asian tick that has the ability to essentially clone itself and is a noted invasive species in other parts of the world made its way to Hunterdon County.

And it wasn’t just an isolated tick. There were more than 1,000 found in the western area of New Jersey.

The story began in August 2017, when a resident showed up at the Hunterdon County Health Department with samples of the ticks that had started crawling on her arm while she’d been shearing a sheep.

Health department officials noticed that the resident’s clothes were covered with the creatures, all tiny larval specimens.

“I get this call from my assistant and he said, ‘We’ve got a resident here who showed up covered in ticks; she’s panicking; now we’re panicking and her pants are in our freezer,'” Tadhgh Rainey, the head of the health department and lead author on a report documenting the incident, told NPR.

“Intense infestations”

The sheep’s ear alone had samples from all life stages of the tick.  Rainey et al, Journal of Medical Entomology, 2018:  https://academic.oup.com/jme/advancearticle/doi/10.1093/jme/tjy006/4840594

The researchers were able to tell that the ticks belonged to the Haemaphysalis genus, but the specimens didn’t match any known Western Hemisphere species. After further analysis, they identified the culprit: Haemaphysalis longicornis, a tick native to East Asia. The species can be parthenogenetic, meaning the ticks can reproduce asexually, essentially cloning themselves (this study provides more details on the unique reproductive processes of these particular ticks:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304401712002191?via%3Dihub).

Other regions of the world have had serious problems with this tick, which is capable of “intense infestations,” according to the study. Sometimes the insects have even killed animals by draining them of blood, a phenomenon known as exsanguination.

Isolated individual ticks of this species have been captured at border quarantine stations in the past, but this is the first known full-blown infestation in the US.

The infested “patient” in New Jersey was a 12-year-old Icelandic sheep.

Several department officials headed over to assess the animal, and as soon as they entered the paddock, ticks started to cover their pants.

The sheep itself had hundreds, in all three life stages — larva, nymph, and adult. The bugs covered its ears and face and had burrowed through its thick coat.

In one sample batch, the researchers only found one male, making it likely that this collection was a self-cloning one. The paddock was filled with larvae.

Several permethrin washes later, the sheep was found to be parasite free. After several visits, the paddock was eventually found to be tick-free on November 15 and 16. But the temperature had already dropped below freezing by then, and no one knows whether that killed the ticks or whether they just retreated into the soil, awaiting spring.

Questions and concerns

Are researchers going to need to add another tick to the list of species to look out for?

The big mystery is how the ticks got there. The sheep itself “had no history of travel outside the country,” the report authors noted. It hadn’t even traveled locally for a few years, and no other domestic animals live on the property.

There are, however, signs that deer and rabbits pass through the area. These ticks are known to infect similar animals, a fact that unfortunately opens the possibility that the pests could be lingering on other nearby creatures —and could start to spread.

“Ultimately there is great concern about the potential for an H. longicornis infestation in NJ, and this is being actively investigated, although the issue will likely not be settled before the spring of 2018, when any surviving ticks would exit diapause and begin host seeking,” the report’s authors wrote.

If these ticks are capable of surviving a Mid-Atlantic winter, that would be an unfortunate scenario. Not only are the pests capable of appearing in such numbers that they can literally drain animals of their blood, they can also bite people and carry disease.

In rural China, a bite from one of these ticks can spread an emerging hemorrhagic fever that can be deadly. These ticks are also known to carry diseases like Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Borrelia, and a form of spotted fever, according to the study. Some researchers have suggested that the tick can transmit Lyme disease, too.

So while we don’t know for sure that they’d spread local diseases here, they appear (like many other ticks) to be capable of carrying a host of different pathogens. And as we’ve seen with the spread of ticks that carry Lyme disease, red meat allergy, and other illnesses, we have a hard time getting rid of ticks.

“[W]e advocate continued vigilance because even if this species is not already established in the United States, suitable hosts and habitats are common and widespread here,” the report’s authors wrote.

____________

For More:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/01/asian-ticks-mysteriously-turn-up-in-new-jersey/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/11/24/new-tick-discovered/

They’ve now found ticks bite each other potentially spreading pathogens to each other:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/07/tick-bites-tick-hyperparasitism/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/11/range-expansion-of-tick-disease-vectors-in-north-america-implications-for-spread-of-tick-borne-disease/

Forget Dracula.  We have ticks….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Ticks, Transmission

Range Expansion of Tick Disease Vectors in North America: Implications for Spread of Tick-Borne Disease

http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/3/478/htm

Range Expansion of Tick Disease Vectors in North America: Implications for Spread of Tick-Borne Disease

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(3), 478; doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030478

Daniel E. Sonenshine 1,2
Published: 9 March 2018

Abstract : Ticks are the major vectors of most disease-causing agents to humans, companion animals and wildlife. Moreover, ticks transmit a greater variety of pathogenic agents than any other blood-feeding arthropod. Ticks have been expanding their geographic ranges in recent decades largely due to climate change. Furthermore, tick populations in many areas of their past and even newly established localities have increased in abundance. These dynamic changes present new and increasing severe public health threats to humans, livestock and companion animals in areas where they were previously unknown or were considered to be of minor importance. Here in this review, the geographic status of four representative tick species are discussed in relation to these public health concerns, namely, the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, the Gulf Coast Tick, Amblyomma maculatum and the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis. Both biotic and abiotic factors that may influence future range expansion and successful colony formation in new habitats are discussed.
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**Comment**

The introduction to this paper points out ticks cause 95% of the vector-borne diseases reported annually in the U.S., and out of 900 species, about 25 are causing the damage.

Interestingly, the author states vector ticks have a well-defined geographic range due mostly to environmental factors; however, this “rule” of thumb” continues to be broken day after day.  Plainly stated, ticks that shouldn’t be in certain areas now are.  This of course means animals and people are going to be infected.  

But to be honest, this “rule of thumb” has been broken repeatedly in the past but because researchers and the CDC stated only certain ticks are in certain locations, people were dismissed and they limped away undiagnosed and untreated and went on to develop severe illness.

Here’s an example:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/06/remembering-dr-masters-the-rebel-for-lyme-patients-who-took-on-the-cdc-single-handedly/  In short, there’s a lot of unbelievable things that went on to deny Lyme was in the South.

Recently, Asian ticks popped up in New Jersey – a tick, by the way, that clones itself:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/01/asian-ticks-mysteriously-turn-up-in-new-jersey/  Now that’s not supposed to happen…..but happen it did.

Another recent development is the discovery that ticks bite ticks:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/07/tick-bites-tick-hyperparasitism/  The take home here is that ticks could theoretically pass pathogens on to each other as well as the fact,

“Male ticks that were infected with a pathogen or parasite—(such as Lyme disease spirochetes or Babesia protozoans—previously during their life cycle, by feeding on an infected host, could transmit these pathogens to female ticks during hyperparasitism. Female ticks could then transfer these pathogens or parasites to their progeny by transovarial transmission,” Durden says. “Although we don’t know yet if pathogen or parasite transmission occurs between I. angustus ticks by these mechanisms, if it does occur, this could have epidemiological significance by amplifying the number of infected ticks.”

And lastly, is the fact the CDC/IDSA/NIH STILL hasn’t acknowledged the implication of coinfections to the Lyme/MSIDS picture.  People go in, get their 21 days of doxycyline, and very well could be coinfected with things doxy will not kill – Babesia for instance.

They also still deny the possibility of many of these pathogens being sexually and congenitally transmitted:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/06/lyme-in-the-southern-hemisphere-sexual-transmission/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/26/transplacental-transmission-fetal-damage-with-lyme-disease/

And there are potentially other means of transmission as well…..

All together, these factors add up and build a mountain.  Meanwhile patients are at the bottom of the mountain with a fork to climb it.

And climate change has absolutely NOTHING to do with it:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/14/canadian-tick-expert-climate-change-is-not-behind-lyme-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/08/global-warming-numbers-fudged/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/25/brave-new-worlds-the-expanding-universe-of-lyme-disease/

 

Category:

Activism, research, Ticks

Latest Public Tick IPM Working Group Poster

Public Tick IPM Working Group Poster (DRAFT)

This current poster shows the tick life cycle, the fact the black legged tick & the Brown dog tick are expanding into new areas and are transmitting at least 17 tick born illnesses on their way, how to safely remove a tick, and the working group’s priorities.

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks

Changes in the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group

https://www.lymedisease.org/tbd-working-group-changes/

TBD Working Group member resigns; changes to subcommittees also

Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner has resigned her position as a member of the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group. The Department of Health and Human Services announced that news, as well as several subcommittee changes on its website. Here’s what was posted:

Working Group Member Resigns (posted March 8, 2018)

A member of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group, Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner, resigned on March 6, 2018. Ms. Vanderhoof-Forschner also served as one of two co-chairs on the Access to Care Services and Support to Patients Subcommittee. Three non-federal subcommittee members were nominated by the other members to take on this leadership role. Early next week, subcommittee members will vote on their preference to replace Ms. Vanderhoof-Forschner. The results of the vote will be considered along with other information by the Chair and the Vice-Chair of the Working Group. A replacement for Ms. Vanderhoof-Forschner to serve on the Working Group will be appointed by Secretary Azar.

Update on Subcommittee Membership (posted March 2, 2018)

The Department of Health and Human Services announces changes to the composition of three of the six subcommittees of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (Working Group). The changes were made in response to three members who did not accept the invitations they received to be a part of a subcommittee. New members were selected from the list of existing nominees by the Co-Chairs of the affected subcommittees. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Working Group provided input and approved the final changes.

  • Robert Bransfield, MD, a private practice physician and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers-RWJ Medical School, has replaced Susan Green, JD, on the Access to Care and Support to Patients subcommittee. After careful consideration, Ms. Green withdrew her name.
  • David Roth, JD, has accepted a Co-Chair position on the Testing and Diagnostics Subcommittee, of which he is an existing member. Vanilla Singh, MD, was not able to accept the invitation to serve as Co-Chair because of additional duties she has been asked to perform in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Dr. Singh remains a federal member of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group.
  • Holly Ahern, MS, Associate Professor of Microbiology at SUNY Adirondack, has accepted a position on the Testing and Diagnostics Subcommittee.
  • David Walker, MD, who was selected for the Vaccine and Therapeutics subcommittee, withdrew his name for personal reasons. The subcommittee will proceed with the existing members

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme