Amanda
31st May 2019, 07:20 PM
I've suspected this for a long time. My sister had Lyme a few years ago and it was HORRIFIC. She's all better now, no thanks to doctors, but thanks to Borrelogen.
Anyway, I can't believe my congressman is actually trying to do something good:
https://www.app.com/story/news/local/communitychange/2019/05/30/lyme-disease-bitten-chris-smith/1212255001/
Lyme disease a bioweapon gone awry? Rep. Chris Smith pushes Trump to investigate
Jerry Carino (http://www.app.com/staff/15489/jerry-carino/), Asbury Park Press Published 7:31 a.m. ET May 30, 2019 | Updated 9:13 a.m. ET May 31, 2019
Raw: Rep. Chris Smith on why Lyme disease legislation fails in Congress Jerry Carino, @njhoopshaven
Smith addressed Lyme patients' concerns at a town meeting in Wall. Behind the scenes, he's hoping a new book will help get chronic Lyme recognized.
WALL - It was a sad sight, the mother of a 5-year-old with chronic Lyme disease practically begging for help because no doctor will treat her daughter.
“What can I do about this?” she asked U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, an air of desperation in her voice.
That was the tenor of Wednesday’s Congressional Town Meeting on Lyme and tick-borne diseases. More than 200 people, most of them impacted by Lyme or a related ailment, came to hear Smith and his panel discuss the latest in a long-running battle to get chronic Lyme recognized (https://www.app.com/story/news/health/2018/11/15/lyme-disease-congress/2010815002/) by the medical establishment. You can hear Smith talk about Lyme disease in the video at the top of this story.
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/05/30/PAPP/042cd789-0661-4789-80b5-b0993c479dc3-SMITHLYMEDISEASE0529A.jpg?width=180&height=240&fit=bounds&auto=webpBuy Photo
US Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) opens a panel discussion about Lyme disease research held at the Wall Township Municipal building Wednesday, May 29, 2019. (Photo: Thomas P. Costello)
“Massive numbers of people are getting seriously ill from ticks and the federal response to date has been woefully inadequate,” Smith said, later adding, “Never in my 39 years in Congress have I seen such pushback.”
Upward of 300,000 Lyme cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S. More than half are children, and New Jersey is one of the hot spots (https://www.app.com/story/news/health/2017/09/07/colts-neck-familys-uphill-fight-against-chronic-lyme-disease/636603001/). For many who are diagnosed promptly, the standard month-long course of antibiotics mitigates the illness. But detection is difficult, and for some the symptoms continue for months or years.
The influential Infectious Diseases Society of America has declined to recognize chronic Lyme in its clinical practice guidelines, so sufferers are left to find a “Lyme-friendly” doctor, which is not easy.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit my head against a wall about this,” Smith said, citing a litany of bills he sponsored that went nowhere because of what he calls “the flat-earth society” of insurance companies and their bedfellows in Congress (https://www.app.com/story/life/wellness/2016/05/31/rep-chris-smith-lyme-disease-culture-denial/84893764/).
Now Lyme advocates have a new weapon — an explosive book that alleges the epidemic spawned from an American biological warfare experiment gone awry — and Smith, a Republican whose districts stretches across parts of Monmouth, Ocean and Mercer counties, is appealing to President Donald Trump for action.
‘A shocking read’
The book is “Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons” by Stanford University-based science writer Kris Newby. A chronic Lyme sufferer herself, Newby documents how the U.S. military infected ticks with complex, hard-to-detect pathogens in the 1960s. The book’s linchpin is an interview with late scientist Willy Burgdorfer, who did the infecting and references an accidental release of weaponized ticks that might have ignited all of this.
The relationship between the experiments and the continued denial of chronic Lyme is something Smith would like to see explored further.
“If this (book) is true — and the documentation is very persuasive — we were doing bio-weapons work that was grossly immoral,” Smith said in an interview with the Asbury Park Press prior to Wednesday’s town meeting. “It’s a shocking read, and I hope it adds to our push. Looking at what happened might help us come up with how we deal with it now.”
Anyway, I can't believe my congressman is actually trying to do something good:
https://www.app.com/story/news/local/communitychange/2019/05/30/lyme-disease-bitten-chris-smith/1212255001/
Lyme disease a bioweapon gone awry? Rep. Chris Smith pushes Trump to investigate
Jerry Carino (http://www.app.com/staff/15489/jerry-carino/), Asbury Park Press Published 7:31 a.m. ET May 30, 2019 | Updated 9:13 a.m. ET May 31, 2019
Raw: Rep. Chris Smith on why Lyme disease legislation fails in Congress Jerry Carino, @njhoopshaven
Smith addressed Lyme patients' concerns at a town meeting in Wall. Behind the scenes, he's hoping a new book will help get chronic Lyme recognized.
WALL - It was a sad sight, the mother of a 5-year-old with chronic Lyme disease practically begging for help because no doctor will treat her daughter.
“What can I do about this?” she asked U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, an air of desperation in her voice.
That was the tenor of Wednesday’s Congressional Town Meeting on Lyme and tick-borne diseases. More than 200 people, most of them impacted by Lyme or a related ailment, came to hear Smith and his panel discuss the latest in a long-running battle to get chronic Lyme recognized (https://www.app.com/story/news/health/2018/11/15/lyme-disease-congress/2010815002/) by the medical establishment. You can hear Smith talk about Lyme disease in the video at the top of this story.
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/05/30/PAPP/042cd789-0661-4789-80b5-b0993c479dc3-SMITHLYMEDISEASE0529A.jpg?width=180&height=240&fit=bounds&auto=webpBuy Photo
US Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) opens a panel discussion about Lyme disease research held at the Wall Township Municipal building Wednesday, May 29, 2019. (Photo: Thomas P. Costello)
“Massive numbers of people are getting seriously ill from ticks and the federal response to date has been woefully inadequate,” Smith said, later adding, “Never in my 39 years in Congress have I seen such pushback.”
Upward of 300,000 Lyme cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S. More than half are children, and New Jersey is one of the hot spots (https://www.app.com/story/news/health/2017/09/07/colts-neck-familys-uphill-fight-against-chronic-lyme-disease/636603001/). For many who are diagnosed promptly, the standard month-long course of antibiotics mitigates the illness. But detection is difficult, and for some the symptoms continue for months or years.
The influential Infectious Diseases Society of America has declined to recognize chronic Lyme in its clinical practice guidelines, so sufferers are left to find a “Lyme-friendly” doctor, which is not easy.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit my head against a wall about this,” Smith said, citing a litany of bills he sponsored that went nowhere because of what he calls “the flat-earth society” of insurance companies and their bedfellows in Congress (https://www.app.com/story/life/wellness/2016/05/31/rep-chris-smith-lyme-disease-culture-denial/84893764/).
Now Lyme advocates have a new weapon — an explosive book that alleges the epidemic spawned from an American biological warfare experiment gone awry — and Smith, a Republican whose districts stretches across parts of Monmouth, Ocean and Mercer counties, is appealing to President Donald Trump for action.
‘A shocking read’
The book is “Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons” by Stanford University-based science writer Kris Newby. A chronic Lyme sufferer herself, Newby documents how the U.S. military infected ticks with complex, hard-to-detect pathogens in the 1960s. The book’s linchpin is an interview with late scientist Willy Burgdorfer, who did the infecting and references an accidental release of weaponized ticks that might have ignited all of this.
The relationship between the experiments and the continued denial of chronic Lyme is something Smith would like to see explored further.
“If this (book) is true — and the documentation is very persuasive — we were doing bio-weapons work that was grossly immoral,” Smith said in an interview with the Asbury Park Press prior to Wednesday’s town meeting. “It’s a shocking read, and I hope it adds to our push. Looking at what happened might help us come up with how we deal with it now.”