Blog: Hard Science on Lyme

The FDA gave its blessing to Lyme tests that miss as many as half the cases or more. The CDC thinks this should be good enough for patients. But patients insist on tests with better sensitivity from specialty labs in spite of having to pay out of pocket. Why is the government trying to prevent them from using all the tools in the arsenal when failure to diagnose has profound, life-altering consequences?

Michael Kruse says he thinks people “should be looking at all of the evidence, not just the few studies that agree with an opinion that moves us emotionally.” Then he bases his argument on evidence that agrees with an opinion that moves him emotionally.

It took four years of warnings from advocacy groups, physicians, and scientists (including the lead investigator), pleas and protests to the FDA, hundreds of adverse events and a class action lawsuit to get rid of the first ill-conceived Lyme vaccine. Will we have to get rid of the new one, too?

A new article has resurrected the old myth about disease transmission being impossible before a certain time after the tick bites. In the New Haven (CT) Register this week, Dr. David Katz writes: “Ticks need to be embedded for 24 hours or more to transmit Lyme.” This is an improvement on the usual 36-48-hour minimum we usually see, but it is still misleading. See the science and judge for yourself.

The first sign of Lyme disease may be a non-specific ‘flu-like illness with fever, headache, stiff neck and muscle aches and pains several weeks or even months after the nymphal tick season in your area.

During his interview with NPR’s Terry Gross on Fresh Air, journalist Michael Specter got a key piece of information WRONG: that a tick must be attached for at least 36 hours before it can transmit infection.

In his interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, journalist Michael Specter says that patients are desperate and that “chronic Lyme” is “more comforting” for them to grab onto than a vague, incurable diagnosis of post-treatment Lyme disease, the preferred IDSA terminology – and a concept that is “recognized,” he points out. He thinks he is being sympathetic and doesn’t seem to realize how condescending and very offensive this sounds to Lyme patients.

The organized medical community doesn’t believe in chronic Lyme disease, said Michael Specter in a recent interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, and he appears to buy into this myth, too. We do know that some people don’t get better after treatment, he said, but the term “chronic Lyme” is vague, Besides, it’s hard to say you have the disease if there’s no evidence of the disease, he said.

When journalist Michel Specter was interviewed by NPR’s Terry Gross on Fresh Air, he got a few things right, but he also repeated some of the inaccurate information he presented in his recent New Yorker article. That information came from the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) propaganda mill.