In this episode Sarah talks with Canadian researcher Dr.Leona Gilbert, originally from Thunder Bay, and currently living in Finland. Dr. Gilbert tells us about an interaction with a patient that led her to focus on testing for Lyme disease. She points to research showing that patients who suffer from long term effects of Lyme disease often test positive for multiple microbes.
Tickplex is a diagnostic kit that tests for six different forms of borrelia, ten other forms of microbes as well as antibodies which correlate to three different disease stages – all in one test! Dr. Gilbert explains the benefit to this method (also known as polymicrobial theory) over testing for one microbe with one antibody at a time. She points out that many long time sufferers of Lyme disease and co-infections are unable to build an adequate immune response to these microbes, but with treatment their immune system starts to respond and is then able to create antibodies. Research is also showing that outcomes are much better for those patients who are diagnosed early, tested for multiple microbes and then treated. She also talks about how multiplex testing is identifying patients who are “shining up” due to a hyperactive immune system.
“We need to let the science drive us and let the needs of the patient also influence where we’re going with the science as well.”
Dr. Leona Gilbert
Dr. Gilbert explains that polymicrobial theory, although accepted in other disease models, will take time to be accepted in relation to Lyme disease and points out the importance of creating individual treatment protocols based on multiple microbe testing as well. She strongly believes that both the science and the needs of the patient should drive researchers and points out that her group collaborates with patient groups, advocacy groups, scientific groups, as well as national and international organizations.
Dr. Gilbert explains for us the difference between co-infections and opportunistic infections and touches on the role of decreased immune function and opportunistic infections in Lyme patients.
Did you know that Lyme bacteria can persist even after treatment? Dr. Gilbert outlines research done not only in the lab, but also in animals and in humans that proves that persister forms of Borrelia exist despite antibiotic treatments. She discusses some of the theories behind how borrelia is able to evade treatment, including within biofilms, by transforming into round body forms and by moving into certain places in the body. Dr. Gilbert talks about other research that’s happening to better understand these persister forms. She explains how we can access the Tickplex test from overseas.
“People that have been sick for a very long time, even five to ten years, that they actually can’t even build up an immune response to actually resolve these microbes.”
For the first time, Garg et al. show a 85% probability for multiple infections including not only tick-borne pathogens but also opportunistic microbes such as EBV and other viruses.
Additionally, 83% of all TBD diagnostic tests performed by the commercial laboratories in the USA accounted for only LD. Globally, the commercial laboratories’ ability to diagnose LD has increased by merely 4%(weighted mean for ELISA sensitivity 62.3%)in the last 20 years. This study provides evidence regarding polymicrobial infections in patients suffering from different stages of TBDs. Literature analyses and results from this study followed Hill’s criteria indicating a causal association between TBD patients and polymicrobial infections. Also, the study outcomes indicate that patients may not adhere to traditional IgM and IgG responses.
This is groundbreaking information that doesn’t get any recognition.
To diagnose Lyme disease, a patient’s blood is tested for antibodies that develop as part of the immune response. This can lead to cases being missed or inadequately treated. An ideal test would directly detect the Lyme disease bacteria, Borrelia, to provide better clinical guidance. In this study, we aimed to improve the methods currently used to find Borrelia in human blood, and identified two opportunities for optimization. We demonstrate that the container most commonly used to collect blood (EDTA) decreases Borrelia’s ability to grow, and we identify a superior alternative (citrate). Additionally, using experimentally infected blood, we show that Borrelia is highly concentrated in the platelet fraction, making it an ideal candidate for direct detection. These results lay the foundation for diagnostic test development, which could improve patient outcomes in Lyme disease.
Abstract
Serological diagnosis of Lyme disease suffers from considerable limitations. Yet, the technique cannot currently be replaced by direct detection methods, such as bacterial culture or molecular analysis, due to their inadequate sensitivity. The low bacterial burden in vasculature and lack of consensus around blood-based isolation of the causative pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, are central to this challenge. We therefore addressed methodological optimization of Borrelia recovery from blood, first by analyzing existing protocols, and then by using experimentally infected human blood to identify the processing conditions and fractions that increase Borrelia yield. In this proof-of-concept study, we now report two opportunities to improve recovery and detection of Borrelia from clinical samples. To enhance pathogen viability and cultivability during whole blood collection,
citrate anticoagulant is superior to more commonly used EDTA.
Despite the widespread reliance on serum and plasma as analytes, we found that the platelet fraction of blood concentrates Borrelia, providing an enriched resource for direct pathogen detection by microscopy, laboratory culture, Western blot, and PCR. The potential for platelets to serve as a reservoir for Borrelia and its diagnostic targets may transform direct clinical detection of this pathogen. View Full-Text
Around 2003 the WHO encouraged research into microscopy as a direct test for the Borrelia spirochete, the pathogen causing Lyme disease. When a promising new and simple technique was discovered in 2013, it was however violently attacked. Not on the science itself, which is the normal procedure in science, but personally. Now retired professor microbiology Morten Laane was fired after he gave a lecture at a scientific conference in 2014. Moreover, his laboratory was closed down, the website of the scientific journal was hacked and the article disappeared. An exclusive interview (in link).
Within this link you will learn of a current lawsuit over this issue by Sin Hang Lee, alleging that employees of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unilaterally terminated a contractual agreement under which the CDC agreed to evaluate a “no false-positive” DNA based Lyme disease test, a currently available test that vastly improves the speed and accuracy of Lyme disease diagnosis for sufferers, and one that is capable of diagnosing all tick-borne borrelial infections.
The CDC’s stranglehold over Lyme testing is also evident with COVID-19 testing.
I question whether an accurate test for COVID-19 is even possible. It appears it has NOT been singularly isolated and purified and without this important foundation, an accurate test AND vaccine will never be possible:
There has been a lot of noise about false positive COVID19 tests in the news. So, I thought I would try to explain what it all means. Or do my best anyway.
There are two measures in most medical screening tests which are usually defined as the ‘sensitivity’ and the ‘specificity’ of a test. In my opinion, these two words are far too close together in sound, so they are very easy to mix up in your brain.
I find it easier to think of the accuracy of test results in this way.
False negatives
False positives
A false negative is a result which informs someone that they do not have a disease, when in fact they do.
A false positive is a result which informs someone they do have a disease, when they don’t. (See article for a great explanation of testing)
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**Comment**
The full article gets into the nitty-gritty of testing. Great educational resource – highly recommend.
Important points:
one of the primers in the COVID-19 PCR assay – an 18-base primer for a region of the RdRP gene – has exact sequence homology with a region on human chromosome 8. This is likely to cause a lot of false positives.
politicians and Health Officials are basing their numbers of cases entirely on the results of these tests, which are not fit for this purpose.
they are then using these figures to terrorise the population, and to justify decisions to impose local lockdowns, and increase nonsensical general restrictions which are having a massive impact on people’s lives and their health, and also on the economy, particularly hitting small businesses hard.
BTW: the Lyme/MSIDS patients have the opposite problem that’s happening with COVID-19.
For decades Lyme/MSIDS patients have been given false negativeswhen they are infected.
They are sent home with a false sense of security due to a negative result, but find their life spirals downward until they can not deny it any longer and are forced to seek help outside mainstream medicine which has its head completely buried in the sand regarding tick-borne illness.
Adding insult to injury, Open the Books via a FOIA request exposed that for the past two years Dr. Fauci has received $15 MILLION in taxpayer-funded security detail despite having returned to private citizenship. This contract could be extended, and it is unknown if it has already been extended.
Anthony Fauci: 40 Years of Lies From AZT to Remdesivir
October 27, 2020
As the planet’s “Virus Tsar” since 1984, he has spread misinformation and ignored critical questions. The consequences could hardly be more fatal.
By Torsten Engelbrecht & Konstantin Demeter
Last week, US president Donald Trump committed a kind of blasphemy by attacking Anthony Fauci, his pandemic consultant and practically the spokesperson for the White House regarding COVID-19, saying that:
People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots. He’s been here for 500 years. Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we’d have 500,000 deaths.“
A remarkable statement of historical dimension, since Trump is the first American head of state to cast doubt on Fauci, who has acted as the virus tsar for no less than six presidencies: Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama and Trump. (See link for article)
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**Comment**
You probably recognize the name of Torsten Engelbrecht as I’ve posted numerous times on how his “must read” book, “Virus Mania: How the Medical Industry Continually Invents Epidemics, Making Billion-Dollar Profits at Our Expense,” prepared me for what we are going through today. Engelbrecht has been onto the virus scam for a long, long time. Explanation of book here: https://www.torstenengelbrecht.com/en/virus-mania/ Highly recommended reading.
The article might seem unduly rough, but you must understand COVID-19 is not Anthony Fauci’s first rodeo.The singular big cahoona at NIAID for 7 presidencies,Fauci is the gatekeeper to research funding and has more power than one man should ever be given.
Fauci’s funding of AIDS drug trials in orphans which included forced feedings through nasal and gastric tubes which caused organ failure, deformities, brain damage, and killed 200 children. Fauci demanded adherence at all costs, even the children’s’ well being. No testing was used to even confirm if the children had HIV. When parents withdrew consent, the child was removed and placed in a foster home that would comply.
Fauci’s funding of beagle puppy experimentation which severed their vocal cords so they couldn’t bark, covered their heads in mesh boxes, and allowed flies to eat their faces off.
Fauci’s funding of experiments implanting aborted fetal scalps onto lab rats and hamsters.
Fauci’s funding of $2 Million to force feed puppies with experimental allergy drugs.
Fauci has a long habit of silencing and ignoring critical questions.
In order to understand the abundance of lies one has to understand that PCR tests are scientifically meaningless in detecting so-called SARS-CoV-2 infections, that according to orthodox researchers COVID-19 is not excessively dangerous, and those referred to as COVID-19 victims probably did not die of it, but of non-viral factors and serious underlying diseases.
Due to “unsettled political waters” at the end of the 70’s, the NIH and CDC, “increasingly needed a major epidemic to justify its existence,”according to Red Cross office Paul Cumming. The HIV/AIDS theory was just the ticket.
According to Kary Mullis, the inventor of the PCR, “All the old virus hunters from the National Cancer Institute put new signs on their doors and become AIDS researchers.” All of a sudden everyone was fully employed, including Robert Gallo who just happened to need a new career at the time.
AIDS research started with big lies, specifically Gallo’s announcement that “the probable cause of AIDS has been found.”
After he filed a patent application for an antibody test, Gallo’s papers were printed, so nobody was able to review his work for a time, which is a severe breach of professional scientific etiquette.
Review later showed Gallo’s studies did NOT prove the virus thesis.
Kary Mullis is quoted as stating Montagnier, Gallo, nor anyone else has published papers describing experiments which leads to the conclusion that HIV probably causes AIDS. Mullis personally asked Montagnier for a reference proving HIV causes AIDS but he couldn’t name one.
When Engelbrecht asked Fauci and NIAID several times for such a study, he was told, “Dr. Fauci respectfully declines to respond to the questions that you emailed.”
This failure to respond to scientific questions is typical of misconduct cases and “runs like a golden thread through Fauci’s 36-year history as director of the NIAID.” Please see original article for specific examples – and there are many.
The approval of AZT, the 1st authorized AIDS medication, is a perfect example, as many labeled the study it was all based upon a “fraud,” “a gigantic botch-up,” and “seriously flawed.” Even a FDA toxicologist analyst stated there was insufficientdata to support approval of AZT. Please refer to the original article for the study’s many flaws. Stopped after four months, the study was financed by AZT manufacturer Wellcome, which is now GlaxoSmith Kline. (All of this is quite reminiscent of what is currently happening with Remdesivir which recently obtained EUA approval for COVID-19 despite lack of results)
Fauci only appears in the media when critical questions are not asked. On the rare occasion when he was asked why AZT was the only drug available he stated numerous lies: “that it was safe”, “that there have been scientifically controlled trials”, and that “it’s effective”.AZT is a highly toxic drug, the FDA trials were not scientifically controlled, and about the only thing AZT is effective for is destroying bone marrow. Even the creator of AZT “dumped it on the junk pile, didn’t keep the notebooks, and didn’t even think it was worth patenting.”
Despite Fauci’s promise of an AIDS vaccine35 years ago – which has been given over a trillion US dollars so far, and an annual budget of around 35 billion dollars, it hasn’t happened yet.
Fauci predicted the so called “bird flu” would cause 2-7 million deaths. WHO estimated by May 2006 it had killed only 100 people.He stated serious adverse events for the fast-tracked swine flu vaccine was “very, very, very rare,” yet cases of narcolepsy came pouring in.
Fauci has pushed for preexposure prophylaxis of ART for HIV preventionin those that are HIV negative, i.e. givinghighly toxic drugs to completely healthy people. Engelbrecht sent Fauci a list of important question about this but was told again, “Dr. Fauci respectfully declines to respond to the questions that you emailed.”
Regarding the anti-viral Remdesivir which recently obtained EUA status for COVID-19, the Alliance for Human Research and Protection (AHRF) brings up the fact Fauci has a vested interest the drug as he sponsored the clinical trial – which has not even been peer-reviewed. To date, he still has not made public his financial relations with Gilead the manufacturer. Instead of using science, he made the promotional announcement sitting on a couch in the White House, without allowing for review of the data. At the time he also failed to disclose to the public that the primary outcomes of the study were changed, which the AHRF considers “dubious and suspicious”, of which the mainstream media ignored, but should raise serious red flags. He then shrugged off a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center peer-reviewed, publishedChinese study that was stopped due to serious adverse events.
Remdesivir has caused serious kidney problems and the WHO “Solidarity” trial showed it did not produce any measurable benefit in mortality, the need for ventilators, or the length of hospital stay, but Fauci is silent on these findings. In a bizarre twist, Gilead came out with a statement that conclusive findings can not be drawn from the trial because hadn’t been peer-reviewed or published yet, despite the WHO stating that the large, international study was designed to generate the robust data needed to show which treatment are most effective. Gilead failed to mention that the study used to promote Remdesivir was not peer-reviewed or published before it was given EUA status. When it was finally published it was in the New England Journal of Medicine, the same journal as the fraudulent pivotal trial of AZT. The study only stated that there was a shorter recovery time. Engelbrecht states this has no validity because of the flawed data and the fact participants did not receive a true placebo. FYI: we are talking about BIG money here. According to this, the mediocre drug has already brought in $873 million:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/health/covid-remdesivir-gilead
Fauci maligns anything that competes with his lucrative products. In the case of COVID, this includes HCQ which had numerous studies stacked against it from the beginning, from giving patients high killer doses to poorly done studies which were eventually retracted. Engelbrecht states that the Virology Journal study lacks validity because the science behind SARS-CoV-1 & 2 is totally unfounded and was a cell culture study, not a patient trial.
Fauci is all about Big Pharma – not life-style factors. Robert F. Kennedy points out that while HCQ costs a measly 30 cents, it completes with Moderna’s vaccine which Fauci’s agency owns half the patent and has invested $500 million in taxpayer money. He is aligned with numerous powerful industries and sits on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Council, which in turn invests millions directly into Fauci’s NIAID. But Fauci maintains he is apolitical and neutral.
A deadly new virus is discovered…there’s no treatment or cure…it’s highly contagious…everyone is a potential victim…the world is at risk from asymptomatic super spreaders…new clusters of cases reported daily…Everyone must get tested even though the tests are unreliable…positive antibody tests are called “infections” and “cases” even when the patient has no symptoms…every politician gets involved…media hysteria in high gear…activists demand salvation from government and Big Pharma…Billions of dollars are authorized for fast track drug and vaccine research…simple, effective remedies are rejected while expensive, dangerous ones are pushed……presumptive diagnoses…exaggerated death statistics…falsified death certificates…
Sound familiar?
It’s been done many times by Tony Fauci.
This is the first and only film to put Fauci where he belongs: squarely in the middle of the AIDS fraud story.
Based on the in-depth scientific and historical report, “Fauci’s COVID-19 Treachery with Chilling Ties to the Chinese Military” on Breggin.com in the Coronavirus Resource Center. https://breggin.com/coronavirus-resou… The video and the scientific report that will change how you think about COVID-19.
A report by Dr. Peter Breggin reveals Dr. Anthony Fauci’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and globalists who have profited from the pandemic measures promoted by him as the leader of the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force
Fauci has been the major force behind research activities that enabled the Chinese Communist Party to manufacture lethal SARS coronaviruses, which in turn led to the release — whether accidental or not — of SARS-CoV-2 from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
In collaboration with the CCP and the World Health Organization, Fauci initially suppressed the truth about the origins and dangers of the pandemic, thereby enabling the spread of the virus from China to the rest of the world
Fauci has supported and praised Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a member of a Marxist-Leninist Ethiopian political party with a corrupt past and terrorist ties who has also been accused of covering up cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia
Fauci recently published a paper in which he dismisses the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 was created in and released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, arguing instead for natural mutation. He also uses the pandemic to justify the “green new deal” and the globalist movement known as “the Great Reset”
Health and medical information grounded in science
September 2020 was the least deadly month in Swedish history, in terms of number of deaths per 100,000 population. Ever. And I don’t mean the least deadly September, I mean the least deadly month. Ever. To me, this is pretty clear evidence of two things. First, that covid is not a very deadly disease. And second, that Sweden has herd immunity.
When I posted this information on my twitter feed, the response from proponents of further lockdown was that the reason September was such an un-deadly month, was because everyone has already died earlier in the pandemic. To me, that seems like a pretty self-defeating argument. Why?
Because 6,000 people have died of covid in Sweden, a country with a population of 10,000,000 people. 6,000 people is 0.06% of the population. If it is enough for that tiny a fraction of a population to die of a pandemic for the pandemic to peter out so completely that a country can have its least deadly month ever, then the pandemic was never that deadly to begin with. (See link for article)
It was feared by many to be the perfect winter storm, a nightmare situation that would push our health service over the edge: the ‘twin-demic’ of flu, which kills about 10,000 Britons every year, and a second deadly wave of Covid-19.
Such was the concern that the Government rolled out the biggest flu vaccination programme in British history.
Thirty million people – 20 per cent more than normal, and now including all over-50s – are eligible for this year’s jab.
Take up of the vaccine is already the highest it has ever been in the over-65s and young children, according to the latest reports.
There’s just one curious problem: flu, it seems, has all but vanished.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 