NO SMALL THING: Could Pulitzer be in store for newspaper Lyme series?
The Poughkeepsie Journal’s Lyme series will be submitted for a Pulitzer Prize. Your comments could help.
In August 2012, New York state’s Poughkeepsie Journal began an on-going series of articles about Lyme disease called “No Small Thing,” by investigative journalist Mary Beth Pfeiffer. It is the most comprehensive treatment of the subject ever undertaken by a newspaper.
The reporter delved into such complex and controversial topics as how Lyme disease cases are officially counted (and NOT counted); how difficult it is for Lyme patients to get properly diagnosed and effectively treated; how some doctors who treat Lyme disease are being targeted by medical authorities; how and why testing for Lyme disease is so problematic; how and why medical guidelines regarding Lyme treatment are profoundly flawed; how tick-borne Babesiosis (which can accompany Lyme and complicate its treatment) endangers the nation’s blood supply.
In addition to a series of eight long, meticulously detailed articles, the Poughkeepsie Journal’s website also provides video excerpts of interviews, photos and graphic illustrations, and external links for more information. It is a remarkable body of work and a huge contribution to the understanding of Lyme disease. It should be required reading by health professionals, lawmakers and Lyme patients. And dare I say it? By the Pulitzer Prize Committee, which will take nominations this month. (To my readers in other countries: the Pulitzer Prize is a prestigious award for American newspaper journalists.)
The Poughkeepsie Journal will submit “No Small Thing” for Pulitzer consideration in the next few weeks. You can help matters by sending a brief note to the paper saying why you feel this series is so important and why you feel it deserves a Pulitzer. The Journal may include excerpts of your letters in its submission to the committee. Keep it short, email it to marybethpf@aol.com, and put “Pulitzer” in the subject line.
Do it now. Winning a Pulitzer Prize would considerably amplify the reach of this important Lyme series. That would be no small thing, indeed.
Click here to read the entire series.
TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for education and outreach. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.
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please choose mary beth pfiffer ‘no small thing’ fo a pulzer awardr
(Sorry; it is difficult for me to type today, due to Lyme symptoms)…
Meant to say, “…not many speak out to spread the word of this devastating illness. What an amazing gift she has given us! Please consider Mary Poughkeepsie for her remarkably candid, informative series on Lyme Disease in America.
Help fight the bite (or, as we say here in TX, “give Lyme the boot!!” ;)).
Thank you for listening and all your research and for giving “us”, those currently suffering, a voice!! Regardless of accolades, I give Mary a standing ovation for her trials!!! Good luck Mary!
Ever sincerely,
Jaime Lynne Miller
(Contracted Lyme from a tick bite the night my husband proposed…my 23rd birthday…took 3-4 years to find an educated physician…meanwhile my poor body was being ravaged inside… “But you look beautiful/great!!”, so many say to me….if only they knew the terrors awaiting inside of me…At 27, i lost my dr to the Tx Medical Board and had to travel to KS and FL for “holistic treatment”…im currently 29yrs old, and only now have finally found a great Lyme Literate MD “LLMD” who is finally placing me on a good regimen praying to fight this illness. Mary Poughkeepsie brings this voice to the Public in an excellently written series. I pray she “wins” – for everyone’s sake! 🙂 thank you for listening to me. – Jaime Miller, 29, Dallas Texas.
Please read these fantastic articles. Mary Beth covers everything from A-Z. Never before have there been such great, non-biased and informative articles written about Lyme. Think what this would mean to Lyme disease if these articles and Ms. Pfeiffer gained national recognition.
If you feel Ms. Pfeiffer deserves the Prize, write a short note to the email address provided in the article above. The deadline is January 25.
I highly recommend that Mary Beth Pfeiffer be nominated for the PULITZER PRIZE.
This woman has done a fantastic job! It is so very important to make people aware of Lyme. This is a complex disease and very misunderstood by so many, doctors included. I have walked the long hard road of misdiagnosis, undiagnosed and suffered dearly until I found a LLMD to treat me properly. I think the articles that have been written in the Poughkeepsie Journal has enlightened many who may have not otherwise come to know about the true health issues and medical care treatment issues that surround Lyme Disease. I highly recommend that Mary Beth Pfeiffer be nominated for the PULITZER PRIZE.
I nominate Mary Beth for a Pulitizer Prize and our heartfelt thank you for the extensive/intensive devotion you gave when writing the 8 series!
I was so impressed by how much you put it in there in LAY PERSON’S terminology so someone knowing nothing about chronic lyme disease/vector-borne diseases would understand when they clicked on the hyperlinks.
I highly recommend Dorothy Leland’s comments that your 8 part series be MANDATORY READING for all llmds, all lyme/co-infection patients, CONGRESS, and INSURANCE companies that deal with our claims.
GOD BLESS YOU MARY BETH; you have left your mark on our huge community making the public aware of what we GO THRU; and it is NOT PRETTY!
Because of your personal involvement, you went the extra miles to have a complete story so the UNINFORMED public could now be INFORMED!
Bettyg, Iowa activist
43 yrs. chronic lyme patient
35 yrs. MISDIAGNOSED by 40-50 drs. UNACCEPTABLE
I forgot to mention that I had corresponding regularly wih Kimberly Collins, featured in 1 of your series.
I’d never seen her photo but it was there in live video coverage showing her walking awkwardly due to her diseases.
Thanks for connecting us so I can picture her next email i hear from Kim 😉
bettyg, iowa activist
This is truly a devastating disease. I was diagnosed in 1989 and suffer daily with lyme. Our whole lyme community values such unbiased informative publications. Thank You.
J.McGrath
Please nominate these articles for a Pulitizer Prize. I have a friend who has Lyme disease and she has found the information contained in the articles to be extremely helpful. She learned so much more than she would ever have known about her disease had she not had these articles to read.
Wonderful body of work.
I’ve been battling this “no small thing” since 2006.
This writer/series is an excellent representation of the reality of Lyme & Company. Thank you!
This disease needs a million more Mary Beth’s to help educate the public about the effects the disease has on your body and mind. I hope you win the Pulitzer prize
Please consider “No Small Thing” for a Pulitzer Prize. It is heartbreaking to see my daughter and grand-daughter suffer with this misunderstood, undiagnosed, and ignored disease. Mary Beth Pfeiffer’s article can educate both the medical and insurance fields, as well as offer hope to the thousands afflicted by Lyme. You are not alone. Thank You to Ms Pfeiffer for presenting such an ethical article.
I have been battling the effects of Chronic Lyme Disease for nearly 15 years. Please consider Mary Poughkeepsie for the Pulitzer Prize! Her incredible series is one of the best I have read.
Thank you for wonderful investigative journalism work on Lyme Disease. It is a complex disease that affects many people. Many people are struggling with it unaware of what they have due to the limited information available to physicians and other health care providers. My son is 22 and has had Lyme Disease for 2 1/2 years. It was undiagnosed for almost a year, which allowed it to gain quite a foothold in his body and affect so many of his systems. Fortunately, he had a health care provider that was open to treating it, even with a limited understanding of it. His doctor was willing to treat it based on the myriad of symptoms with which my son presented, although the ELISA test was negative. My family is so thankful for those that are investigating and researching this disease, as that is the only way progress will be made in treatment of it. Wonderful work by Mary Beth Pfeiffer!
Elizabeth T
I must be doing something wrong. Couldn’t read the whole series. The Poughkeepsie Journal wants me to suscribe in order to read them all. What I did read was fantastic and I greatly appreciate the attention to this critical issue and very thorough coverage.
Having Having lived the journey of Lyme Disease, I highly recommend Mary Beth Pfiffer’s series “No Small Thing” to anyone going through this path of life destruction especially because of the controversy surrounding and the lack of support – both financial and personal – for patients. I also suggest that others read and understand what Lyme sufferers are going through and perhaps help get the word out so the government will recognize the Chronic Lyme Disease diagnosis.
Thanks for the article on Lyme Disease.
I would like to nominate Mary Beth Pfeiffer for a Pulitzer prize for her outstanding journalism on Chronic Lyme disease. She has had the courage to share valuable information with the public on this poorly understood and complex illness. Unfortunately, most mainstream doctors are not aware of the flaws in our current ‘golden standard’ of testing for Lyme disease and the irreversible damage that can be done by neglecting to treat a ‘false negative’ patient promptly. Dr. Kenneth Liegner describes this well:
“In the fullness of time, the mainstream handling of Chronic Lyme disease will be viewed as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of medicine because elements of academic medicine, elements of government and virtually the entire insurance industry have colluded to deny a disease.”
Bravo to Mary Beth Pfeiffer for having the courage to bring forth this much needed information to the public.
Marybeth Pfeifer is most deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. She has taken on a controversial and strongly ignored pandemic facing the world today. Too many are dying and too many are bankrupting themselves to deal with it.
I am a resident of Poughkeepsie, NY, and very proud that Mary Beth Pfeiffer published her series on Lyme Disease in our local paper. This cutting edge journalism deserves the Pulitzer Prize!
Thank you so very much and God Bless you!!!
My Family has suffered so so much with Lyme. Testing and guidelines most change.
Mary Beth Pfeiffer should be rewarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Please vote for Mary Beth, she really knows what she’s talking about, she covers Lyme disease very well and we need more people like her to help the Lyme disease community. It’s unfortunate that having Lyme disease has caused such a rift in the medical community, I don’t understand what the problem is though? I never dreamed I would end up with a disease such as this and the nightmares of having it, never cease. I am recovering though but I still fight a battle with it because I wasn’t diagnosed in time.
Thank you for writing this piece!!! This illness affects so many industries: tourism, real estate, health insurance, big pharma, education and so on. This is the reason so many have a reason to keep the Lyme epidemic swept under the rug. Way to bring light to such a devastating, far-reaching environmental health issue. You are deserving of an award. My entire family suffers from Lyme Disease and various co-infections in central PA.
I really support Mary Beth for her dedicated journalism to reach out to others on a topic such as Lyme disease. We finally have someone on our side helping others understand the importance and compassion and taking a much needed stand. I am a 17 year survivor of Lyme disease, Rocky Mt. Spotted Fever and Brucellosis. What I went through in those first 4 years being undiagnosed and then finally diagnosed is quite incredible and unbelievable that I am still alive today. It takes special people that go out of their way and achieve such a goal and then finally reach it, Mary Beth is one of those rare people who deserve this most prestigious award. She sought through information and found answers to questions and embarked on this journey to uncover the suffering that all of us Lyme victims share. All of us are on a journey, it is your life and because of Mary Beth and her dedication to others, we finally have Hope, a better Pathway to follow and Understanding. Blessings to you Mary Beth..
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=289614987816932&set=a.288414634603634.59988.288414334603664&type=1
Absolutely, “No Small Thing”! Thank you to Mary Beth, for your excellence in true investigative journalism, something sorely lacking in most media, nowadays, and also to the Poughkeepsie Journal. This epidemic affects everyone. Generations have been sickened, already. A Pulitzer is definitely in order for Mary Beth Pfeiffer! I was told “in your head” for over 20 years, by doctor after doctor, until 2007, when I finally found the doctor who diagnosed me and saved my life. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme Disease (and probably more – denied care at this time, and denied disability, but alive today, because ONE doctor cared.) It gives me hope to see this journalist cares.
My request to the e-mail address,above:
Please consider Mary Beth Pfeiifer for inclusion into this year’s Pulitzer awards. Her articles cover an area that many Lyme sufferers have seen minimized,denigrated,and denied,(and that’s if they are even covered in the print media- shame on you other guys!,you know who you are—). Rather than have “talking heads” speaking from “on high”, she covers the disease eloquently from the patient’s viewpoint,and certainly from the Dr.’s that are “in the trenches”,who are also putting up with flak from insurance companies,and their colleagues,in an effort to get their patients well….. Congratulations to Mary Beth, the “Journal”, and the Gannett organization…
Joseph
“No Small Thing” is well written, informative and accurate. It is a catastrophe that Lyme disease has been completely ignored and buried by our medical community from top to bottom (CDC, Dr’s, Insurance Co’s, Medical Schools, etc) while millions of citizens are suffering daily, are dying, and falling into financial ruin. My husband has been very ill for years and visited one specialist after another. One said, “I am so baffled. When you figure this out, please come back and tell me.” There is no one to help except for specialists who are alternative Dr’s. An alternative specialist has temporarily relieved his excruciating pain but it has been costly! Insurance will not, of course, cover any expenses. All of our life’s hard work and savings are completely gone! And a chronic lyme patient never knows what’s next. This disease is nationwide! And many people are also misdiagnosed because this disease is not on the radar. Do you know it can be passed through the fetus? It is well known there are certain areas of states and even specific neighborhoods where there is a high amount of sick people. Lyme disease desperately needs to be brought to the forefront!!! We know too many people with this disease. They are extremely sick, in financial ruin, highly discouraged, and begging for help. Many are as young as in their 20’s; some born with it. We highly recommend her article for a Pulitzer Prize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s time to get Lyme disease out of the closet and give it the attention it deserves! She’ll be a hero!
Finally, an article to make people stop and notice that this epidemic in our world really does exist! People need to stop ignoring reality of something wrong and use our intelligence to fix it! Thank you Mary Beth.
Ms. Pfeiffer is a very, very sharp minded lady. I spoke to her on the phone. I was really impressed with how quickly she absorbed the scientific information about this crime. She is very, very sharp this girl. We all need to be grateful she entered our hell on earth.
Two thumbs up for Pulitzer.
Many family members & entire communities are coming down this in front of my own eyes. I cannot believe how many & it is sickening.
More needs to be done about this & information needs to get down the pipeline quicker. As far as I can tell it is business as usual where I am at, people just don’t understand the ease at which you can get bit & don’t realize the grand nature of the disease progression when it hits.
Thank you for the public awareness & it will soon be known as the next AIDS, but on a much more larger scale & the criminals involved will be the Medical Hitlers of our time!!!!!!!!