Investigative journalist Mary Beth Pfeiffer started crisscrossing the US this week, promoting her new book “Lyme: The First Epidemic of Climate Change.”

It’s an important book and an equally important opportunity for the Lyme community.

Her book is poised to make a huge difference in the national conversation on topics we care deeply about: how health officials are blowing it big time by ignoring the Lyme threat; how lives are being ruined because people can’t get properly tested or treated for the disease; how patients suffer because of insurance denials.

The more buzz that’s created about this book—both online and in-person—the more likely it is to be featured on national TV and radio news shows, as well as to garner attention via print and online outlets.

And that’s the kind of action that can help bring about substantial change. Topics that don’t get talked about on the public stage are too easily ignored by policy makers.

(I’m old enough to remember a time when nobody—I mean NOBODY—ever publicly talked or wrote about breast cancer. That’s changed significantly in recent decades, hasn’t it?)

Thirteen years ago, when I fell into the Lyme world, there was very little mention of Lyme disease in the news media, and virtually no books on the topic.

That situation has changed over the last decade. And Pfeiffer’s book could push things even farther in the direction we need.

And you, dear reader, can help make this happen.

It’s a fact of life that reader reviews on Amazon play a huge role in how popular a book becomes. I wrote about Pfeiffer’s book in this blog recently, and then re-posted it as a reader review on Amazon. I suggest that you write one, too.

Yours doesn’t have to be as long as mine. Even just a few sentences, speaking from your own point of view, will do the job nicely.

Here’s Amazon’s instructions on how to post a review:

Important: Before you can post a review, you must meet the eligibility requirements in the Community Guidelines. Submissions that do not follow our Community Guidelines will not be posted.

To submit a review:

1. Go to the product detail page for the item on Amazon.com.
2. Click Write a customer review in the Customer Reviews section.
3. Click Submit.

Click here to read the first chapter of the book. 

Click here to watch Pfeiffer’s recent presentation from MyLymeData2018.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org .