LymeSci Blog
Lonnie Marcum
is a Physical Therapist, with a dual degree in health administration and physical therapy. She has a passion for helping people heal from illness and injury by treating the whole body. She became active in the Lyme community after her daughter was diagnosed with tick-borne diseases in 2013. She now devotes much time to learning about Lyme and related conditions, and sharing that knowledge via social media. In addition, she has served as a member of the HHS Tick-Borne Disease Working Group: Tick Biology, Ecology, Control Subcommittee. Her blog, LymeSci, seeks to help patients understand the science of tick-borne diseases and new developments in research.
LYMEPOLICYWONK: TO TELL THE TRUTH. . . Reports of Antibiotic Lyme Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.
Dr. David Resnik at the University of Wyoming is a plainspoken public health care policy ethicist. When he describes the obligation that governments and others…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: CALDA CALLS ON NIH TO STOP TICK FEEDING STUDY ON ETHICAL GROUNDS
CALDA has just sent a letter to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) asking them to pull the plug on an experiment…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Ringing out the old year: Stricker & Johnson Publications 2010
During 2010, Dr. Stricker and I published nine articles or letters on Lyme disease. Shortly after the New Year, another publication by us came…
TOUCHED BY LYME: Helpful book about everything to do with PICC lines now available free on the internet
(Book review) INFUSING FOR LYMIES: A step-by-step guide with money-saving tips for buying and infusing IV medications, maintaining a PICC line, minimizing the herx reaction,…
HARD SCIENCE ON LYME: Blood Transfusion Risk of Babesia Unacceptable
David Leiby, of the Red Cross, has declared the risk of blood transfusion for Babesia microti to be unacceptably high. Babesia microti is a…
TOUCHED BY LYME: Florida patients protest local reprinting of now-infamous Chicago Tribune article; “There’s been enough bashing of Lyme patients.”
A small band of Florida Lyme patients gathered outside the offices of the Orlando Sentinel newspaper Friday, to protest its reprinting of the Chicago Trib's…
TOUCHED BY LYME: Overcoming the "dork factor" when it comes to tick protection
Does anybody really tuck their pants in their socks?
LYMEPOLICYWONK: IDSA GUIDELINES LACK EVIDENCE—DON’T CALL IT EVIDENCE BASED IF IT’S JUST YOUR OPINION
A recent study evaluated over 4,200 IDSA guideline recommendations and concluded that more than half—really?—more than HALF? were based on no more than expert opinion…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Intellectual Conflicts of Interest–A New Way to Smell a Rat?
Here’s an interesting approach to conflicts of interests offered by one of the fathers of evidence based medicine, Dr. Gordon Guyatt. The topic was guideline…
HARD SCIENCE ON LYME: Straubinger’s New Study Shows How Lyme Bacteria survives
One of the hot topics in Lyme disease is whether the bacteria that causes Lyme disease persists. There are a lot of factors that…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: THE COST OF DENIAL—THE DOLLARS AND SENSE OF IT
The cost of an illness includes medical and non-medical costs. Insurers bear the burden of medical costs for covered care, while society bears the…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: A Question of Ethical Reporting–Chicago Tribune/Los Angeles Times.
Biased reporting harms the credibility of journalism, harms patients, and misleads the public. The recent Tribune piece, which is now being republished in other…