From Lyme Action Network (advocacy group based in New York):

The Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) is planning its House of Delegates Annual Meeting March 22 – 25.

As part of this meeting, New York State’s Commissioner of Health, Dr. Howard Zucker, will be conducting Medical Grand Rounds on Tick-borne Diseases on March 22 from 3:00 – 4:30. (Grand Rounds is an informational/educational session.)

MSSNY is notable for its persistent exclusion of the treatment guidelines authored by the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society or any representatives of the ILADS viewpoint in its presentation. Although MSSNY is a private organization, many of its presentations are underwritten by the taxpayers.

Drs. Richard Horowitz and Ronald Stram have sent a letter to Commissioner Zucker requesting a meeting to discuss the integration of the ILADS viewpoint into the NYS DOH’s policies and guidance pertaining to Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.

The Lyme Action Network urges Commissioner Zucker to include the ILADS treatment guidelines in his March 22 presentation. The guidelines are posted on the National Guideline Clearinghouse (a division of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services) and are up-to-date, based upon current and unbiased research, and surpass the required GRADE standards for medical guideline development.

With a Lyme pandemic raging, we call upon the Commissioner to reject political bias and bring all high-quality resources to the table and to the ongoing discussions about tick-borne diseases.

We ask all New York advocacy organizations and their followers to contact their New York state senators and assemblymembers in the call to Dr. Zucker to include the ILADS treatment guidelines in his Grand Rounds presentation, and to invite the participation of our New York state doctors who are experts in this field who practice in accordance with these highest quality guidelines, in the development of New York State policy going forward.