Holly Ahern gave the following remarks by telephone to the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group’s December 2 meeting.
B ased on the proceedings of this Tick-Borne Disease Working Group, and the release a few days ago of a new set of medical guidelines which are not really “new” at all, the need for an unbiased evaluation of all of the available science related to Lyme disease has never been more apparent.
The intent of the legislation which directed HHS to convene this body, as it was originally drafted and passed nearly unanimously by the House in 2016, was to empanel a group with diverse viewpoints to do a deep dive into the myriad issues surrounding Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment.
For reasons that are unclear, but undoubtedly related to the decades-long and contentious battle between Lyme disease patients and the NIH and CDC, the language that became law was changed to encompass all tick-borne diseases.
As specified by Dr. Anthony Fauci in an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2018, Lyme disease alone represents 82% of reported cases of tick-borne illness in the United States. Lyme disease should therefore encompass at least that much of the work done by this body…..Join or login below to continue reading.
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