LYMEPOLICYWONK: Chicago Tribune article. Is it journalism? Call it what you will–
If you are a journalist, is it sufficient to talk with a number of people and then disregard half of what you hear? How about if you only disregard all of the science supporting one side of a scientific debate? If you replace the opposing side’s science with ad hominem attacks? Are journalists supposed to “choose sides” in a debate? If you do, is it journalism or an editorial? What about the obligation to tell a balanced story? One always hopes that journalists will take their responsibility to inform the public seriously and tell the complete story. These reporters did not.
In the attached paper, I outline the inaccuracies of the article and the attention. The attachment includes footnotes for those interested. This blog post leaves them out for an easier read. I have chosen to focus on the science and do not address the many ad hominem attacks in the article. Ad hominem attacks do not address the merits of an issue. They distract, rather than inform, the issues of a debate.
There’s little good evidence that ‘chronic Lyme disease‘ exists. There is ample evidence if you are willing to read it. There are 27 studies evidencing persistence in humans that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. This information was provided to the Tribune.
Yet doctors are treating it with drugs that put patients and the public at risk. The risks of using antibiotics are quite low. Risk/benefit determinations need to be made at the patient level. Patients whose quality of life is significantly impaired may prefer the risk of treatment over the risk of failing to treat an infection that has left them without a job or unable to function in other serious ways. Patients with chronic Lyme disease have a quality of life impairment equivalent to that of congestive heart failure. No one would suggest leaving patients with chronic heart failure untreated. The essence of evidence-based medicine is a combination of the best available evidence in conjunction with clinical judgment of the physician and the patient’s values and preferences.
But doctors around the country are telling patients with common medical problems such as back pain, poor concentration and fatigue that their ailments stem from a chronic form of Lyme disease that can evade standard treatment and wreak havoc for years. Many patients with chronic Lyme disease have central nervous system involvement. Before vaccine money came into play in Lyme disease this was widely recognized by the experts, including Dr. Steere who co-authored an article that described “the most common form of chronic central nervous system involvement [as] subacute encephalopathy.. . . [which was difficult to diagnose] because “the typical symptoms were non-specific.” The most common symptoms noted included memory loss, depression, sleep disturbances, spinal pain, fatigue and headache.
Three panels of experts from that organization, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and one panel from the American Academy of Neurology came to the same conclusion: The diagnosis is suspect, and treatment with antibiotics long-term is unsupported and risky. The IDSA had three panels. The first panel issued guidelines in 2000 and the second panel issued guidelines in 2006. Both panels were the subject of an antitrust investigation by the Connecticut Attorney General that found significant conflicts of interests, suppression of evidence, and exclusion of differing viewpoints. 7 of the 8 members of the third panel were IDSA members and those holding opposing viewpoints were again excluded. The Attorney General noted a glaring voting irregularity of this panel when it elected to sidestep a tough vote that split 50/50. Members of the American Academy of Neurology panel also served on the IDSA panel. As the Attorney General noted, it was not independent. Call it what you will, but it isn’t science, it’s politics. Truth in science is not determined by a majority vote of a panel that excludes differing viewpoints.
Even Dr. Allen Steere, the physician who discovered Lyme disease, agrees. Dr. Steere has held conflicting viewpoints (see above) that he has not reconciled.
The evidence against the effectiveness of long-term antibiotic therapy is especially strong — supported by four randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Evidence of Lyme treatment is extraordinarily limited, consisting of only four NIH controlled treatment trials with very limited samples (ranging from 37 patients to 78) and one non-NIH controlled trial. Compare this to mammogram trials for instance, where more than 600,000 women have participated. The results of controlled Lyme treatment trials are conflicting, three found clinically significant improvement, two did not. Numerous non-controlled trials have found improvement in treated patients. Evidence consists of controlled and uncontrolled trials, clinical expertise, and individual response to therapy. When evidence is limited or conflicting, treatment options should be provided.
Such use of antibiotics poses a potential danger to the public, as some of the drugs prescribed to chronic Lyme patients are society’s last-resort weapons against deadly bacteria. No one would suggest that we not treat a patient with tuberculosis with antibiotics. Infections require antibiotics to resolve.
The question is not one of evidence, but who is reading and interpreting the limited, conflicting and emerging evidence. Patients who are seriously ill want and need treatment options that restore their quality of life. They cannot wait for treatment trials that may not occur in their lifetimes. The IDSA has shown time and time again that the interests of patients with chronic Lyme disease are not even on their agenda. The two interests that are firmly represented in Lyme disease are those of the IDSA and those of insurers who follow the IDSA guidelines as a cost containment measure.
You can contact Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA at lbjohnson@lymedisease.org.
Click here to read the Tribune’s article.
Not to mention we use antibiotics to treat acne! Because zits and long-term chronic illness are different, you know, and apparently zits win.
Thank you for adding your voice as always!
I also posted a response on my blog (particularly to the follow up article posted on the Trib's site), since my comment has yet to be approved on their site. http://lemonandlyme.blogspot.com
Thank you, Lorraine, for providing more accurate information than what is in their poorly researched article – is your response getting published in the Chicago Tribune?
No one ever mentions in these articles that if you persecute all the doctors who treat a disease, it is logical you will end up with less desirable doctors treating it.
Who wants to treat a disease a disease where you could lose your license, not many.
The powers that be created the atmosphere that has molded Lymeland into what it is.
Not to say that there are no good Lyme doctors, there are a few saints. I am just saying the current atmosphere attracts bad elements.
Another thing about these articles is they always focus in on the one guy who had cancer instead of Lyme and ignore the thousands who say long term antibiotics helped them.
Thank you Lorraine for taking the time to dispute the Chicago Tribune's article. It shows support to everyone living with chronic lyme disease and sets a good example as there is a serious need for advocacy about this issue.
I appreciate your efforts to 'right this wrong'!
It never ceases to amaze me that this life altering disease can be so easily dismissed by so many. I, like Robin, hope that your response will be published in the Tribune.
The idea of not giving antibiotics because of the fear of creating a super bug, in my opinion, is the same as saying Chemo should withheld from a cancer patient for fear of creating a super cancer.
Thank you for giving more complete facts. I live with Chronic Lyme and it is very, very real. I scares me that there are no farther treatments available to me because of these silly debates. It should be my choice. My insurance company pays so much to just treat my symptoms that it is crazy.
This is exactly the type of reportage one should expect from a food writer turned health and science writer (Trine Tsouderos) and a newspaper whose published editorial policy announces: The Tribune brings a Midwestern sensibility to public debate. It is suspicious of untested ideas.
Including Chronic Lyme Disease and Evolution?
Lorraine, thank you, thank you for pulling apart this atrocious Trib article. The Trib is also known in the autism community as a hostile paper, deliberately painting parents of kids with autism as crazy and the doctors who use biomedical approaches as charlatans. The autism community is fearful every time the Trib wants to do an autism story.
My guess is that the IDSA drove this story from start to finish and that the Trib needs readers so badly it is willing to parade editorial as journalism. Shameful.
Lorraine, I still don't totally understand the vaccine connection to the politics here. Do you mind replying in the comments about how that plays into diagnosis and treatment politics?
There are a number of additional factors to consider
1) As early as 1995, when this informed patient did a literature there was ample evidence to suspect persisting infection. The evidence has continued to mount since then with many many studies as mentioned above.
2) The core scientific principle of parsimony (O'cam's razor) gives weight to simple theories over complex one's. The simplest theory is that infection with Borelia Borgdorferi infection can sometimes be difficult to eradicate. This is in stark contrast to a complex theory of post infectious symptoms by complex and thereby unknown non-inectious processes that have not be elucidated by those who postulate them.
Parsimony is also know by the maxim: hear hoofbeats? Think horse not Zebras.
The "post infectious theorists" have a lot of work to do before there is enough evidence to choose their MUCH more complex theory. Until then the answer is pretty obviously horses (e.g. inability to kill off the infection.
3) Science continues to advance in the field of microbiology and every year there is better understanding of why some infections are harder to treat than others. For example, the acceptance of "cell wall deficient" organisms has grown enormously since the discovery of Lyme Disease and is now considered a likely cause for the proven phenomenon of persistent infection.
4) Some symptoms are clearly not the *direct* result of infection, but include auto-immune and other host factors. The existence of these processes is not disputed, but has no bearing on the matter of persistent infection.
5) It is impossible to prove the absence (eradication) of something. This, once again, puts a very high bar for the "post persistence" theory. Given numerous difficulties with Lyme tests, a handful of studies on treatment failures is essentially meaningful.
At best a study showing treatment failure merely proves a specific treatment, for a specific duration, did not work for a specific group of patients. Defining the group of patience is a huge factor in itself.
CONCLUSION:
As an intelligent individual, who is well informed, I DEMAND to be able to determine treatment together with my licensed physician of choice.
How do we know that infection is not a direct consequence for cancers? Such as AIDS patients have to deal with always.
As do many chronic illness'. We do not know what activates the cells to form cancers and as such infection should be the first clue–but lastly suspect.
Never before have we had to deal with the problems of GMO. Now we have a child born to Autism every 4 mins.
We sure don't know it all and the reason behind this idiocy is no funding for those reasons only money from drug companies who seek profit.
Instead of looking for the cause and treatments they had rather cite resistance in a world of known organisms that hide very well from the testing available.
It is a win win for them. Cite resistance/develop new vaccines for profit that don't work and make money.
The tide will change for the world. I just hope we are not too late.
Thank you for presenting some real facts in response to an insane article written by a someone who admits openly in their bio they have a background writing about cupcakes and celebrity love affairs. I can't take either "Medical" reporter from the Chicago Tribune seriously.
They are doing their best to preserve the IDSA insane media spin on Lyme disease which we all know is a crock of pond scum full of lies.
If the IDSA & CDC and our Military Labs that produce harmful bioweapons like Agent Orange, Tularemia, Lyme Disease and patented Mycoplasma would stop using the media for a smoke screen to their horrific activities and alliances not to mention financial ties the world would be a better place.
Are these reporters so cold hearted that they would go scream in someone's ear dealing with HIV or cancer that their diseases are not real?
Brooke, love your comment! And it's really sad and frustrating that zits DO win 🙁 Crazy!!
Nell
The malpractice of the Infectious Disease Society has gone a step further. The mere history of diagnosed Lyme Disease (under CDC rules) can prevent treatment of other infectious diseases.
I was referred from my doctor to the local hospital with meningitis on April 15, 2009. The emergency room physician followed the correct protocol, and included IV Vancomycin. The Infectious Disease Specialist call in for the consult prohibited any antibiotics to given to me.
This "Specialist" insisted that I be held, "For observation of the (untreated) progress of the patient's illness". Meningitis is deadly, treated, and, more so, untreated.
Instead, I went home. The "Progress" made me a paraplegic in two more days. I recovered by using my inventory of antibiotics I had maintained to deal with Lyme Disease relapses that have occurred over the years.
I cannot remain objective in this controversy – after being left to being crippled or die – to the utter, unmitigated, and shameless adherence to agenda, that drives the IDSA.
The IDSA is an absolute disgrace to Science and the practice of medicine.
My reprisal for the injury I endured has been limited. I did not, and never will, file a malpractice suit against a doctor. However, I did refused to make the insurance co-pay to that Infectious Disease Specialist's bill.
Perhaps, I might calm down sometime in the future, but not yet.
When I was healthy enough to work as a teacher, I had two co-workers who had both been on long term continuous antibiotics for chronic bladder infections. One had been on them for 3 years, the other just shy of 2 years. Why is this acceptable, but treatment for Lyme is not? And to add insult to injury, their insurance companies paid for their treatment without hassle.
Also, why is it ok to prescribe antidepressants like candy, even though there is no blood test or scan to prove there is depression? Antidepressants are just as harmful, if not more harmful, than antibiotics. I know of someone who wanted "Happy Pills" just because it seemed like a neat thing to have, walked into his doctors office and asked for them, and walked out 10 minutes later with a prescription. No tests, no nothing. Now, he really IS depressed ever since he's been on them, and he can't get off them because now he's dependent. They've ruined his life. Where are the journalists and doctors protecting people like him?
Oh, that's right. Antidepressants bring in too much money. No need to put a stop to that.
I am so tired of the hypocrisy and double standards in conventional western medicine. It's embarrassing that this is what our heathcare system has evolved in. We've not made progress at all because of greedy little men in little white coats.
Well me having Lyme, Rockey mountain spotted fever and babesiso, there is not one good thing I have to say about the cdc and IDSA, and soon not write more cause it wont be pretty.. They want us to die
Hi Lorraine,
Thank you, thank you. I so appreciate your response and standing up for us. I type with a PICC line in my arm, 3 kids to care for, wishing and hoping I can get well enough to return to my passion of trail running and hiking.
I have to pinch myself still, after almost 3 years since accurate diagnosis, that I am caught in this nightmare of a disease that is doubted, shunned and caught in such political turmoil – all the while that I am still so sick and fighting to recover.
Thanks for speaking out for those of us struggling in the pit of this illness.
Shame on the IDSA and our health care system.
As a 4-yr Lyme/Babesia sufferer, I take personally IDSA's attempt to disinform the public regarding long-term Lyme disease. Co-infections can make it very
tough to treat Lyme successfully. After years of trial-and-error with various combinations of meds, my DR has arrived at a regimen that is giving me my life back. I can function at nearly normal levels. This is a godsend! What is that worth in dollars?! To many insurers, it is NOT worth much. Consider this: If an Infectious Disease Specialist mis-diagnoses Lyme, then proceeds to merely treat symptoms, he will have a patient for life. Utterly unconscionable!
Dear God when will they get this right!! Thank you Lorraine for your determination & commitment to help those who are suffering….yes I had another relapse…Chronic Lyme DOES exist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Lorraine,
Just wanted to give my 2 cents and add some miscellaneous info regarding the appalling Chicago Tribune article:
American Council Science and Health's Health Facts and Fears website applauding the Chicago Tribune article:
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.2138/news_detail.asp
I find it strange that the ACSH could get 350 scientists to agree with the Trib article so quickly. I also find it interesting that they quit reporting who their corporate funders were in the 1990s and they have a history of being frontmen who fight for corporations that are rightfully being discredited.
Check out the scientists and notice what organizations they are affiliated with (eg: Kaiser Permanente) at Source Watch:
See: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ACSH_Scientific_advisors
Here is the link to Source Watch about the ACSH – which shows how questionable their impartiality is:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Council_on_Science_and_Health
Here is an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Council_on_Science_and_Health
As of July 2010, ACSH's "Medical/Executive Director" is Gilbert Ross, M.D. Just prior to joining the ACSH staff in 1998, Ross served more than a year in prison and had his medical license revoked over his role in a Medicare fraud scheme. His medical license was not reinstated until 2004.
Here is some good documentation on the ASCH past shenanigans as the front group for corporations:
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/ACSH-Koop.htm
Guidestar (reports on nonprofit organizations) http://www2.guidestar.org/Home.aspx
It has copies of the 990 forms this organization is required to file with the IRS. The ACSH received $1,358,014 in donations in 2009. Expenses in 2008 include $772,815 for current officers, directors, trustees, and key employees. Other salaries and wages not included in the previous expense were $366,395 + $100,000 employer pension plan contributions + $81,772 for other employee benefits. Hmm… that's a very top heavy number for wages in a nonprofit. Their research costs were only $9,100! I wish I had a subscription so I could get more info on them (can't afford one). I suspect this group is a paid mouthpiece for organizations that have an interest in dismissing the reality of chronic Lyme disease.
On another note, I find it interesting that there is a law firm that advertises suing doctors who treat lyme disease where negative Lyme disease articles are showcased. Why do they only go after people in the medical field? If these guys were legit, wouldn't they be interested in any harm done by pharmaceutical companies? See: http://www.wgblaw.com
Lastly at Forbes online, David Whelan linked to the Chicago Trib article with applause. Unfortunately for Dave, his opinion isn't worth much. He is trained in economics not any of the medical related sciences. He says his goal is to give tools so the public can become sophisticated patients. With his kind of help, who needs enemies? http://blogs.forbes.com/davidwhelan/2010/12/08/chronic-lyme-disease-exemplifies-whats-wrong-with-playing-doctor-on-the-web
The sad part about the Forbes article is that many uninformed people will believe Dave. I find it interesting that one of the links back to his article was the TIN Time Insurance News: http://timeinsurancenews.com/2010/1576/chronic-lyme-disease-exemplifies-whats-wrong-with-playing-doctor-on-the-web Why are none of us surprised that the insurance news would only link to news articles that dismiss the reality of Chronic Lyme Disease?
Too bad we don't see more news agencies showcase the story about Lyme Disease by San Diego’s channel 6 news about their weather reporter’s long fight with Lyme disease: Brooke Landau’s Fight Against Lyme Disease http://tinyurl.com/aakpbo
After 12 years on antibiotics I am recovering from a bad case of Scleroderma caused by Lyme.No ill effects from the prolonged use,Scleroderma has been in remission for 8 years but just discovered Lyme 18 months ago.
On the "post your comment" you ask for my website.It is my own orchid business and has nothing to do with this post??????.I am sending you info from our side of the border and I highly wish you to check out info done by Dr. Gart Nicholson in the U.S. He has delved into lyme extensively.I can't put in the article as it would go inOPEN and is way too long.If you want me to send it privately I can do so by regular e-mail
THE LINKING PATHOGEN IN NEURO-SYSTEMIC DISEASES: CHRONIC FATIGUE, ALZHEIMER'S, PARKINSON'S & MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
by: Scott, Donald W., M.Sc.
Donald Scott is a retired high school teacher and university professor who is currently president of the Common Cause Medical Research Foundation and adjunct professor of the Institute of Molecular Medicine. He has extensively researched neurosystemic degenerative diseases over the past five years and has authored many documents on the relationship between degenerative diseases and a pathogenic mycoplasma called Mycoplasma fermentans. His research is based upon solid government evidence. Donald Scott is a veteran of WWII and was awarded the North Atlantic Star, the Burma Star with Clasp, the 1939-1945 Volunteer Service Medal and the Victory Medal.
I – THE MYCOPLASMA
A COMMON PATHOGENIC MYCOPLASMA There are 200 species of mycoplasmas. Most are innocuous and do no harm; only four or five are pathogenic. The Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus strain) probably comes from the nucleus of the brucellosis bacteria. This disease agent is not a bacteria, and not a virus; it is a mutated form of the brucellosis bacteria, mutated with a visna virus, from which the mycoplasma, is extracted. Dr. Maurice Hilleman, chief virologist for the pharmaceutical company of Merck, Sharp and Dohme, stated that this disease agent is now carried by everybody in North America and possibly most people throughout the world. The mycoplasma used to be very innocuous. Only one person out of 500,000 would get multiple sclerosis; one out of 300,000 would develop Alzheimer's; one out of 1,000,000 would develop Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Before the early 1980's, nobody ever died of AIDS because it didn't exist. The mycoplasma is also the disease agent in AIDS, and I have all the documentation to prove it.
BIOWARFARE RESEARCH Between 1942 and the present time, biological warfare research has resulted in a more deadly and infectious form of the mycoplasma. They extracted this mycoplasma from the brucellosis bacteria, weaponized it and actually reduced the disease to a crystalline form. According to Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo, one of America's top, top researchers, this disease agent, the mycoplasma, causes among other things, AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's. The mycoplasma enters into the individual cells of the body depending upon your genetic predisposition. You may develop neurological diseases if the pathogen destroys certain cells in your brain, or you may develop Crohn's colitis if the pathogen invades and destroys cells in the lower bowel. Once it gets into the cell, it can lie there doing nothing sometimes for 10, 20 or 30 years, but if a trauma occurs like an accident, or a vaccination that doesn't take, the mycoplasma can become triggered. Because it is only the DNA particle of the bacteria, it doesn't have any organelles to process its own nutrients, so it grows by uptaking preformed sterols from its host cell, literally kills the cell, and the cell ruptures and what is left gets dumped into the blood stream.
DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE My conclusions are entirely based upon official documents: 80% are United States or Canadian official government documents, and 20% are articles from peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Canadian Medical Association Journal. The journal articles and government documents complement each other. We also have a document from Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo which names the mycoplasma as a cause of cancer. Dr. Charles Engel who is with the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, stated at an NIH meeting on February 7, 2000, "I am now of the view that the probable cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia is the mycoplasma".
II – CREATION OF THE MYCOPLASMA
MYCOPLASMA PATENT Many doctors don't know about this mycoplasma because it was developed by the U.S. military in biological warfare experimentation, and it was not made public. This pathogenic mycoplasma disease agent was patented by the United States military by Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo, who was the top researcher for the military biological warfare research facility. I have the documented patent from the U.S. patent office.
A LABORATORY-CREATED PATHOGEN BY THE U.S. MILITARY Researchers in the United States, Canada and Britain were doing biowarfare research with the brucellosis bacteria as well as with a number of other disease agents. From its inception, the biowarfare program was characterized by continuing in-depth review and participation by the most eminent scientists, medical consultants, industrial experts and government officials, and it was top secret. The U.S. Public Health Service also closely followed the progress of biological warfare research and development from the very start of the program, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States were working with the military in weaponizing these diseases. These are diseases which have existed for thousands of years, but they have been weaponized which means they were made more contagious and more effective. And they are spreading. A program developed by the CIA and NIH to develop a deadly lethal pathogen for which humanity had no natural immunity (AIDS) was disguised as a war on cancer and was part of MKNAOMI (ref. Special Virus Cancer Program: Progress Report 8, prepared by National Cancer Institute, Viral Oncology, Etiology Area, July, 1971 and submitted to NIH Annual Report in May, 1971 and updated July, 1971).
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM Many members of the Senate and House of Represent-atives do not know what has been going on. For example, the US Senate Committee on Government Reform had searched the archives in Washington and other places for the document titled The Special Virus Cancer Program: Progress Report No.8 mentioned above and couldn't find it. Somehow they heard I had it, called me and asked me to mail it to them. Imagine. A retired school teacher being called by the United States Senate and asked for one of their secret documents! The United States Senate through their government reform committee is trying to stop this type of government research.
BIOLOGICAL WARFARE RESEARCH AGREEMENT All the countries at war were experimenting with biological weapons. In 1942, the governments of the United States, Canada and Great Britain entered into a secret agreement to create two types of biological weapons (one that would kill and one that was disabling) for use in the war against Germany and Japan, who were also developing biological weapons. They primarily focused on brucellosis, and they began to weaponize the brucellosis bacteria.
CRYSTALLINE BRUCELLOSIS In a genuine U.S. Senate Study unclassified on February 24, 1977, the title page of this government record reports that George Merck, of the pharmaceutical company, Merck, Sharp and Dohme (which now makes cures for diseases they at one time created), in 1946, reported to the Secretary of War in the United States that his researchers had produced in isolation for the first time, a crystalline bacterial toxin extracted from brucellosis bacteria. The bacterial toxin could be removed in crystalline form and delivered by other vectors (in nature they are delivered within the bacteria). But the factor that is working in the brucellosis is the mycoplasma. Brucellosis is a disease agent that doesn't kill people; it disables them. But they found that if they had mycoplasma at a certain strength, actually ten to the tenth power, it would develop into AIDS, and the person would die from it within a reasonable period of time because it could bypass our natural human defenses. If it was 108, the person would manifest with chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. If it was 107, they would present as wasting; they wouldn't die, and they wouldn't be disabled, but they would not be that interested in life, they would waste away (ref. Dr. Donald MacArthur of the Pentagon appearing before a Congressional Committee, June 9, 1969, Department of Defense Appropriations, p.114, 129). Most of us have never heard of brucellosis because it largely disappeared when they began pasteurizing milk, which was the carrier. One salt shaker of this pure disease in a crystalline form could sicken the entire population of Canada. It is absolutely deadly, not in terms of killing the body, but in terms of disabling the body. The advantage of this crystalline disease agent is that it does not show up in blood and tissue tests because the bacteria has disappeared and only the pure disease agent remains. So the doctor thinks that it's all in your head.
CRYSTALLINE BRUCELLOSIS AND MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS About three years ago in Rochester, New York, a gentleman gave me a document and told me, "I was in the U.S. Army, and I was trained in bacteriological warfare. We were handling a bomb filled with brucellosis, only it wasn't brucellosis; it was a brucellosis toxin in crystalline form. We were spraying it on the Chinese and North Koreans." He showed me his certificate listing his training in chemical, biological, and radiological warfare. Then he showed me 16 pages of documents given to him by the U.S. military when he was discharged from the service. It linked brucellosis with multiple sclerosis and stated: "Veterans with multiple sclerosis, a kind of creeping paralysis developing to a degree of 10% or more disability within two years after separation from active service may be presumed to be service-connected for disability compensation. Compensation is payable to eligible veterans whose disabilities are due to service." In other words, "If you become ill with multiple sclerosis, it is because you were handling this brucellosis and we will give you a pension. Don't go raising any fuss about it." The government of the United States, in this official document revealed evidence of the cause of multiple sclerosis, but they didn't make it known to the public, or to your doctor. In a 1958 report, Drs. Kyger and Haden suggest "…the possibility that multiple sclerosis might be a central nervous system manifestation of chronic brucellosis". Testing approximately 113 MS patients, they found that almost 95% also tested positive for brucellosis. We have a document from a medical journal which concludes that one out of 500 people who had brucellosis would develop what they called neurobrucellosis, in other words, brucellosis in the brain which settles in the lateral ventricles where the disease multiple sclerosis is basically located.
CONTAMINATION OF CAMP DETRICK LAB WORKERS A report from the New England Journal of Medicine, 1948, Vol.236, p.741 called "Acute Brucellosis Among Laboratory Workers" shows us how actively dangerous this agent is. The laboratory workers were from Camp Detrick, Frederick, Maryland where they were developing biological weapons. Even though these laboratory workers had been vaccinated, wore rubberized suits and masks, and worked through holes in the compartment, many of them came down with this awful disease because it is so absolutely and terrifyingly infectious. The article was written by Lt. Calderone Howell, Marine Corps, Captain Edward Miller, Marine Corps, Lt. Emily Kelly, United States Naval Reserve and Captain Henry Bookman. They were all military personnel engaged in making the disease agent brucellosis into a more effective biological weapon.
III – COVERT TESTING OF THE MYCOPLASMA
TESTING BRUCELLOSIS UPON AN UNSUSPECTING PUBLIC Documented evidence proves that the biological weapons they were developing were tested on the public in various communities without their knowledge or consent. The government knew that crystalline brucellosis would cause disease in humans. Now they needed to determine how it spread, and the best way to disperse it. They tested dispersal methods for Brucella suis and Brucella melitensis at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, June and September 1952. Probably, 100% of us now are infected with Brucella suis and Brucella melitensis. (ref. p.135, table 4 of Special Virus Cancer Program: Progress Report 8) . Another government document recommended the genesis of open air vulnerability tests, and covert research and development programs to be conducted by the army and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency. At that time, the government of Canada was asked by the government of the United States to cooperate in testing weaponized brucellosis, and Canada cooperated fully with the government of the United States. They wanted to determine (i) if mosquitoes will carry the disease and (ii) if the air will carry it. A government report stated that "…open air testing of infectious biological agents is considered essential to an ultimate understanding of biological warfare potentialities because of the many unknown factors affecting the degradation of micro-organisms in the atmosphere".
TESTING BRUCELLOSES VIA MOSQUITO VECTOR IN PUNTA GORDA A report from The New England Journal of Medicine, August 22, 1957, p.362 reveals that one of the first outbreaks of chronic fatigue syndrome was in Punta Gorda, Florida, back in 1957. It was a strange coincidence that a week before these people came down with chronic fatigue syndrome, there was a huge influx of mosquitoes. The National Institutes of Health claimed that the mosquitoes came from a forest fire 30 miles away. When the forest fire broke out, the mosquitoes all said, "Well, let's go over to Punta Gorda – there will be a bunch of people over there, we can have a picnic, and then we will go home". The truth is that those mosquitoes were infected in Canada by Dr. J.B. Reed at Queen's University. They were bred in Belleville, Ontario, and taken down and released in Punta Gorda. Within a week, the first five cases ever of chronic fatigue syndrome were reported to the local clinic in Punta Gorda, and it continued until finally 450 people were ill with the disease.
TESTING BRUCELLOSIS VIA MOSQUITO VECTOR IN ONTARIO The government of Canada established the Dominion Parasite Laboratory in Belleville, Ontario, and raised 100 million mosquitoes a month which were shipped to Queen's University and certain other facilities to be infected with this disease agent. The mosquitoes were then let loose in certain communities in the middle of the night so they could determine how many people would become ill with chronic fatigue syndrome, or fibromyalgia, which was the first disease to show. One of the communities they tested it on was the St. Lawrence Seaway valley all the way from Kingston to Cornwall in 1984. They let out absolutely hundreds of millions of infected mosquitoes. Over 700 people in the next four or five weeks developed myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome.
IV – OTHER SECRET GOVERNMENT TESTING
MAD COW DISEASE IN THE FORE INDIAN TRIBE At the infamous Japanese Camp 731 in Manchuria, they contaminated prisoners of war with certain disease agents. They also established a research camp in New Guinea in 1942, and experimented upon the Fore Indian tribe, and inoculated them with a minced-up version of the brains of diseased sheep containing the visna virus which causes mad cow disease (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which is known to you as mad cow disease, but which was known to the Fore Indian tribe as kuru). About five or six years later, after the Japanese had been driven out, the poor people of the Fore tribe developed what they called kuru which was their word for wasting, and they began to shake, lose their appetites, and die. The autopsies revealed that their brains had literally turned to mush. They had contracted mad cow disease from the Japanese experiments. When World War II ended, the Japanese General Doctor who was in charge of biological warfare experimentations in Japan, Dr. Ishii Shiro, was captured. They gave him the choice of a job with the United States army or execution as a war criminal. Not surprisingly, Dr. Ishii Shiro chose to work with the United States military to demonstrate how they had created mad cow disease in the Fore Indian tribe. In 1957, when the disease was beginning to blossom in full among these Fore Indian people, Dr. Carleton Gajdusek of the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. headed down to New Guinea to to determine how the minced-up brains of the visna-infected sheep affected these people. He spent a couple of years in New Guinea studying the Fore tribe, wrote an extensive report on it, and won the Nobel Prize for "discovering" kuru disease (also known as mad cow or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in the Fore Indian tribe in New Guinea.
TESTING CARCINOGENS IN RUSSIA In 1953, the Americans developed a carcinogenic chemical which they wanted to test, but they didn't want to test it in the United States so they flew over Russia, accidentally wandered off course, and sprayed this stuff. Many people started getting cancer. And the U.S. had some jokes about this. One American researcher, Dr. Maurice Hilleman of Merck, Sharp and Dohme, joked, "We are going to win the next Olympics because all the Russians are going to turn up with 40-pound tumours." They thought it was a big joke.
TESTING CARCINOGENS IN WINNIPEG Next they said, "How about testing it in Canada?" In 1953, the U.S. asked the government of Canada if they could test this carcinogenic chemical over the city of Winnipeg. It was a big city with 500,000 people, miles from anywhere. They sprayed the chemical in a 1,000% attenuated form, which they said would be so watered down that nobody would get very sick. However, if people came to clinics with a sniffle, a sore throat, or ringing in their ears, the researchers would be able to determine what percentage would have developed cancer if it had been full strength. When we located evidence that the Americans had tested this carcinogenic chemical over the city of Winnipeg in 1953, and informed the government that we had this evidence, they denied it. However, finally, on May 15, 1997, a story out of the Canadian Press in Washington, D.C. by Robert Russo, published in the Toronto Star, stated that the Pentagon of the United States admitted that in 1953 they had obtained permission from the government of Canada to fly over the city of Winnipeg and spray this crap out, and it sifted down on kids going to school, housewives hanging out their laundry, and people going to work. US Army planes and trucks released the chemical 36 times between July and August 1953. The chemical used was zinc cadmium sulfide, a carcinogen. They got their statistics, which indicated that if it had been full strength, approximately a third of the population of Winnipeg would have developed cancers over the next five years. The Pentagon called a press conference to admit what they had done. One professor, Dr. Hugh Fudenberg, MD, who was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize wrote a magazine article which stated that the Pentagon has come clean on this because two researchers up in Sudbury, Ontario, Don Scott and his son Bill Scott had been revealing this to the public. The US Army actually conducted a whole series of simulated germ warfare tests in Winnipeg. The Pentagon lied about the tests to the mayor, saying that they were testing a chemical fog over the city, which would protect Winnipeg in the event of a nuclear attack. A report commissioned by US Congress, chaired by Dr. Rogene Henderson, lists 32 American towns and cities used as test sites as well.
V – BRUCELLOSIS MYCOPLASMA AND DISEASE
AIDS The AIDS pathogen was created out of a brucellosis bacteria mutated with a visna virus; then the toxin was removed as a DNA particle called a mycoplasma. They used the same mycoplasma to develop disabling diseases like MS, Crohn's colitis, Lyme disease etc. In a United States congressional document of a meeting held June 9, 1969, the Pentagon delivered a report to Congress about biological weapons (described on page 129 of the document). The Pentagon stated, "We are continuing to develop disabling weapons." Dr. MacArthur, who was in charge of the research said, "We are developing a new lethal weapon, a synthetic biological agent that does not naturally exist, and for which no natural immunity could have been acquired." Think about it. If you have a deficiency of acquired immunity, you have an acquired immunity deficiency. Plain as that. AIDS. In laboratories throughout the United States and a certain number in Canada, including the University of Alberta, the U.S. government provided the leadership for the development of the AIDS virus for the purpose of population control. After they had it perfected, they sent medical teams from the Centers for Disease Control to Africa and other mid-eastern countries where they thought the population was becoming too large. They gave them all a free vaccination for smallpox. Five years after receiving this smallpox vaccination, 60% of them were suffering from AIDS. They tried to blame it on a monkey, which is nonsense. There was a report in the newspapers a while back about a professor at the University of Arkansas who claimed that while studying the tissues of a dead chimpanzee, she found the HIV virus. The chimpanzee that she had tested was born in the United States 23 years earlier. It had lived its entire life in a U.S. military laboratory where it was used as an experimental animal for the development of these diseases. When it died, its body was shipped to a storage place where it was deep-frozen and stored in case they wanted to analyze it later. Then they decided that they didn't have enough space for it, so they said, "Anybody want this dead chimpanzee?" and this researcher from Arkansas said, "Yes. Send it down to the University of Arkansas. We are happy to get anything that we can get." They shipped it down and she found the HIV virus in it. That virus was acquired by that chimpanzee in the laboratories where it was tested.
CHRONIC FATIGUE Chronic fatigue syndrome is more accurately called myalgic encephalomyelitis, not chronic fatigue syndrome. That nomenclature was given by the National Institutes of Health in the United States because they wanted to downgrade and belittle the disease. An MRI of the brain of a teenage girl who had chronic fatigue syndrome displayed a great many scars or punctate lesions in the left frontal lobe area where portions of the brain had literally dissolved and had been replaced by scar tissue. This caused cognitive impairment, memory impairment, etc. And what was the cause of the scars? The mycoplasma. So there is very concrete physical evidence of these tragic diseases even though doctors continue to say they don't know where it comes from or what they can do about it
APPEALS TO CANADA PENSION Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalo-myelitis and fibromyalgia who apply to the Canada Pension Plan will be turned down because they cannot prove that they are ill. Over the past year I have conducted several appeals to Canada Pension and Workers Compensation on behalf of people who have been turned down. I provided documented evidence of these illnesses, and they were all granted their pensions on the basis of the evidence that I provided. In March of last year, for example, I appealed to the Workers' Compensation on behalf of a lady with fibromyalgia who had been denied her pension back in 1993. The vice-chairman of the board came up to Sudbury to hear the appeal, and I showed him a number of documents which proved that this lady was physically ill with fibromyalgia. It was a disease which caused physical damage, and the disease agent was a mycoplasma. The guy listened for three hours and then he said to me, "Mr. Scott, how is it I have never heard of any of this before? I said, "We brought a top authority in this area into Sudbury to speak on this subject and not a single solitary doctor came to that presentation."
VI – TESTING FOR THE PRESENCE OF MYCOPLASMA IN YOUR BODY
THE POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION TEST Information is not generally available about this agent, because first of all, the mycoplasma is such an infinitely small disease agent. A hundred years ago certain medical theoreticians conceived that there must be something smaller than the bacteria and the virus, which are the most common living forms of disease agents. This pathogenic organism is so infinitely small that normal blood and tissue tests will not reveal the source of the disease. Your doctor may diagnose you with Alzheimer's and he will say, "Golly, we don't know where Alzheimer's comes from. All we know is that your brain begins to deteriorate, cells rupture, the myelin sheath around the nerves dissolves, and so on." Or if you have chronic fatigue syndrome, the doctor will not be able to find any cause for your illness with ordinary blood and tissue tests. This mycoplasma couldn't be detected until about 30 years ago when they developed the polymerase chain reaction test in which they examine a sample of your blood, remove damaged particles, and subject that damaged particle to a polymerase chain reaction. This causes the DNA in the particle to break down. Then they place it in a nutrient which causes the DNA to grow back into its original form. If they get enough of it they can recognize what it is, and determine whether brucellosis or another kind of agent is behind that particular mycoplasma.
THE BLOOD TEST If anybody in your family has myalgic encephalomyelitis, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, or Alzheimer's, you can send a blood test to Dr. Les Simpson in New Zealand. If you are ill with these diseases, your red blood cells will not be normal donut-shaped blood cells capable of being compressed and squeezed through the capillaries, but will swell up like cherry-filled donuts, which cannot be compressed. The blood cells become enlarged and distended because the only way the mycoplasma can exist is by uptaking preformed sterols from the host cell. One of the best sources of preformed sterols is cholesterol, and cholesterol is what gives your blood cells flexibility. If the cholesterol is taken out by the mycoplasma, the red blood cell swells up, doesn't go through and the person begins to feel all the aches and pains, and all the damage it causes to the brain, the heart, the stomach, the feet and the whole body because blood and oxygen is cut off. And that is why people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome have such a terrible time. When the blood is cut off from the brain, punctate lesions appear, because those parts of the brain die. It will get into portions of the heart muscle, especially the left ventricle, and those cells will die. Certain people have cells in the lateral ventricles of the brain that have a genetic predisposition to admit the mycoplasma, and it causes the lateral ventricles to deteriorate and die and this leads to multiple sclerosis which will progress until they are totally disabled and frequently die prematurely. It will get into the lower bowel and parts of the lower bowel will die and cause colitis. All of these diseases are caused by the degenerating properties of the mycoplasma.
About two months ago a gentleman in Sudbury phoned me and told me he had fibromyalgia. He applied for Canada Pension and was turned down because his doctor said it was all in his head and there was no external evidence. I gave him the proper form and a vial, and he sent his blood to Dr. Les Simpson of New Zealand to be tested. He did this with his family doctor's approval, and the results from Dr. Simpson showed that only 4% of his red blood cells were functioning normally and carrying the appropriate amount of oxygen to his poor body, whereas 83% were distended, enlarged and hardened, and wouldn't go through the capillaries without an awful lot of pressure and trouble. This is the physical evidence of the damage that is done.
THE ECG TEST You can also ask your doctor to give you a 24-hour Holter ECG. You know, of course, that an electrocardiogram is a measure of your heart beat, which shows what is going on in the right ventricle, the left ventricle, and so on. Tests show that 100% of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia have an irregular heart beat. At various periods of time, during the 24 hours, the heart, instead of working happily away, going "bump-BUMP, bump-BUMP", every now and again, it will go "buhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuh". The T-wave (the waves are called P, Q, R, S, and the last one is T) is normally a peak, and then the wave levels off and starts with the P-wave again. In chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia patients, the T-wave flattens off, or actually inverts. That means the blood in the left ventricle is not being squeezed up through the aorta and around through the body. My client did this test, and lo and behold, the test results stated: "The shape of T and S-T suggest left ventricle strain pattern, although voltage and so on is normal". The doctor had no clue as to why the T-wave was not working properly. I analyzed the report of the patient who had been turned down by Canada Pension and sent it back to them. They wrote back and said, "It looks like we may have made a mistake. We are going to give you a hearing and you can explain this to us in more detail." So it is not all in your imagination. There is actual physical damage to the heart. The left ventricle muscles do show scarring. That is why many people are diagnosed with a heart condition when they first develop fibromyalgia, but it's only one of several problems because the mycoplasma can do all kinds of damage.
BLOOD VOLUME TEST You can also ask your doctor for a blood volume test. Every human being requires a certain amount of blood per pound of body weight, and it has been observed that people with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis and others do not have the normal blood volume their body needs to function properly. Doctors aren't normally aware of this. This test measures the amount of blood in the human body by taking out five cc, putting a tracer in it, and then putting it back in the body. One hour later take out five cc again and look for the tracer. The thicker the blood and the lower the blood volume, the more tracer you will find. The analysis of one of my clients stated: "This patient was referred for red cell mass study. The red cell volume is 16.9 ml per kg of body weight. The normal range is 25 to 35 ml. per kg." This guy has 36% less blood in his body than the body needs to function". And the doctor hadn't even known the test existed. If you lost 36% of your blood in an accident, do you think your doctor would tell you that you are all right, just take up line dancing and you will get over it? They would rush you to the nearest hospital and start infusing you with blood transfusions. These tragic people with these awful diseases are functioning with anywhere from 7 to 50% less blood than their bodies need to function.
UNDOING THE DAMAGE The body undoes the damage itself. The scarring in the brain of people with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia will be repaired. There is cellular repair going on all the time. But the mycoplasma has moved on to the next cell. In the early stages of a disease, doxycycline may reverse the disease. It is one of the tetracycline antibiotics, but it is not bactericidal; it is bacteriostatic. It stops the growth of the mycoplasma, and if it is stopped long enough, then the immune system takes over. (Nicholson, G.L., Doxycycline treatment and Desert Storm, JAMA, 1995, 273: 618-619),
GULF WAR RESEARCH Professor Garth Nicholson, Ph.D., of the Institute for Molecular Medicine is one of the top experts on mycoplasma. He has been given an $8 million grant to study 450 Gulf War veterans, because Gulf War illness is caused by the mycoplasma. Dr. Les Simpson has done most of the research in detecting the disease by the polymerase chain reaction blood test. You may contact Dr. Nicholson at 15162 Triton Lane, Huntington Beach, Ca, 92649-1401, tel 714-903-2900.
In summary, there is a disease agent that is called a mycoplasma. All of these neurodegenerative systemic diseases are caused by a particle of a bacterial DNA, a mycoplasma, that enters into the cells of living organisms and takes the cells apart, sterol by sterol, leaving scar tissue, and causing all the range of symptoms that you see in people with these diseases. The military and the National Institutes of Health and the government are all dedicated to keeping this mycoplasma as covert as they possibly can.
For more information and references, please refer to The Brucellosis Triangle and The Extremely Unfortunate Skull Valley Incident by Don Scott and William Scott, both available at Consumer Health Organization.
Other recommended reading is Osler's Web by Hillary Johnson and Emerging Viruses: Aids and Ebola by Leonard Horowitz. Don Scott also produces The Journal of Degenerative Diseases.
You may contact Donald Scott at: 190 Mountain St., Ste. 405, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada P3B 4G2. 705-670-0180.
Note: Dr. David Webster at Sudbury General Hospital, a wonderful person, with whom I have had conversations about these awful diseases can tell your doctor about the Blood Volume test.
Article Information
Volume 23 Issue 6
June,2000
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Recommended Books
The Brucellosis Triangle
SCOTT, Donald, MD, & William
The Extremely Unfortunate Skull Valley Incident
SCOTT, Donald, MD, & William
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INSULT ON TOP OF INJURY
I have been dealing with the complications of chronic central nervous system Lyme disease since 1994.
The reporters who authored this Tribune article should be ashamed of themselves for their apparent lack of objectivity. Journalistic standards, be damned, I suppose.
How I know, for a fact, that they got it wrong is that I have, and continue to live, the nightmare that is chronic Lyme disease.
The Tribune 'journalists' are welcome to come review my medical records starting in 1994 with a textbook Lyme rash (untreated – it was mistaken for a spider bite), then years of suffering with myriad positive Lyme tests, up to the present, featuring horrendous symptoms such as leukocytoclastic vasculitis, secondary to the lyme infection.
Doesn't it defy reasonable logic for there to be so many people telling virtually the same story?
Please, in the future, try harder to be objective and get your facts straight so you may be more inclined to publishing findings rather than opinions.
It really can make a difference in people's lives.
Thank you, Lorraine, and everyone at CALDA for staying on top of these seemingly endless insults disguised as journalism.
Brian Carroll – BCLyme@aol.com
Connecticut
If the NIH has little evidence about testing done on long range antibiotics regarding chronic Lyme disease, then perhaps they need to acknowledge it's existence and perform accurate and comprehensive testing. We cannot leave one outdated standard as the standard of purpose, as things change daily. It is strange that in Cancer treatment, we accept the new treatments as they come up, and do not put cancer patients in boxes, treating for what is needed without a timeline. Is there a joke going on about Lyme disease? If there is visually seen evidence of co-infections and Lyme, then why can we not accept the inevitable. TB in it's rare forms can be treated for five or more years within a hospital and are considered highly infectious. Yet, we assume that Lyme disease just disintegrates from our bodies, the longer it has been present. Face the facts……….Lyme disease is real and multiplies if not treated early.It microbacterial matter infevts organs, the central nervous system and brain. Are people making this up? I think not…..get real you people in the traditional medical group, chronic lyme exists, and if it were one of your kids who suddenly had developed lyme disease symptoms 6 to 12 months after possibly being bitten, then you would be the first ones to join the left group in a effort to heal your child.Face Reality about Chronic Lyme….it IS real.
WHERE A POINT BY POINT REFUTATION LIKE THIS REALLY BELONGS is not ONLY in this website, but also in a letter or phone call to the offending papers. Most of us who read this website agree. WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS EDUCATE THE PUBLIC, AS WELL AS GET RETRACTIONS!