Quotes 2010
23 September 2010
"From some cranky Lyme activists:"
"This is quickly becoming redundant. Lyme activists can bitch to each other all they want..."
"... private practice physicians from the ILADS* money club to participate in the meeting."
"Though it’s not likely that any ILADS member could be described as a speaker of “comparable scientific weight to counter the IDSA viewpoint.”
"..Ralph Stricker, former ILADS president, barred from receiving federal funds after falsifying research data. Fired from UCSF, he went to work for a clinic that did penis enlargements."
"Robert Bransfield, current ILADS president, and infectious disease-practicing psychiatrist recently sued by a patient for $250,000, and whose bizarre writings and opinions even manage to offend other LLMDs."
"Joseph G Jemsek, ILADS treasuer. “March 16, 2010. Joseph G. Jemsek, M.D., Applicant. Area of Practice: Internal Medicine (Charlotte, NC). Denial of Application for medical licensure. The [Maryland] Board found that the violations of unprofessional conduct in diagnosing and treating patients, failing to inform his patients adequately of the risks of his treatment and failing to conform to standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice, for which he was disciplined in North Carolina, are violations of grounds of the Maryland Medical Act and constitute reasons to deny his application for licensure.”
"Richard Horowitz, President of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Educational Foundation (ILADEF), and founding board member of ILADS, and recipient of a NYS Board for Professional Medical Conduct “Non-disciplinary Order of Conditions” for continuing to practice medicine."
"Joe Brruanscano, a director of ILADEF, but not currently practicing medicine, also had a run-in with the NYS Board in 2002: “The Review Board sustained the Hearing Committee's November 6, 2001 determination finding the physician guilty of negligence on more than one occasion and ordering excessive tests and/or treatment not warranted by the condition of the patient. The Review Board modified the Hearing Committee's penalty by extending the physician's term of probation from six months to two years.”
"ILADS faculty member Bernard Raxlen, another infectious disease-practicing “psychiatrist who markets himself as a specialist in treating Lyme disease, has offices in New York City and in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Connecticut Department of Health has disciplined him twice.”
"Nick Harris, ILADEF treasurer, and CEO of the Lyme specialty lab IGeneX. His lab has been the subject of several warnings previously mentioned here, here, and here."
“Comparable scientific weight”? Well, I could go on but you get the idea.
*In the late 1990s, Burrascano, Phillips, and other physicians organized the ILADS society to promote national and international awareness of chronic Lyme disease. ILADS states that chronic Lyme disease is being ignored by mainstream medicine. Physicians and patients who support ILADS have formed a network throughout the United States. This network includes physicians who practice in states where Lyme disease is not endemic (for example, Florida and Colorado). ILADS does not have a clear case definition of chronic Lyme disease or specific treatment recommendations, except that oral/intravenous antibiotic therapy may be needed for months to years."
22 September 2010
"This is part of an internet notice ... Anyway, they’re annoyed with the IOM because they were unable to “pack the court” with their supporters and quack doctors. No surprise really. The IOM is a serious place that draws in serious people to talk about serious things. They don’t really have the time for the kind of nonsense the activist community has been sending them. (See here, here, and here.) So here’s part of the notice:"
"Well, according to the agenda the only person designated to speak was Diane Blanchard from the TLC. The LDA and CALDA (a blonder, better tanned version of the LDA) are not on the agenda and were not asked (mercifully) to speak. Though I’m sure they would have butted in."
"The IOM has about 40 years of experience dealing with Congress. They know what they’re doing. And as previously noted, there will be a number of other activists and LLMDs at the meeting to voice other ideas and opinions."
"A whole lot of drama for nothing."
20 September 2010
Burrascano demonstrating the “Little Dutch Boy” technique of blocking further loss of grey matter.
I came across this bit of Burrascano wisdom the other day on someone’s blog. Thank God this quacker no longer has a license to practice medicine.
"It feels like we are getting closer... To total delusion?"
19 September 2010
"The current president of ILADS, NJ psychiatrist Robert Bransfield, had a brief letter to the editor in one of the Pennsylvania newspapers this morning. It doesn’t really matter what he said—it’s the usual ILADS propaganda about Lyme disease and how the IDSA-insurance-federal cabal is keeping so many hard-working Lyme Literate docs from reaching their full financial potential."
"But it reminded me of other nonsensical pieces Bransfield has written about autism and Lyme disease in the free-wheeling journal, Medical Hypotheses. Even wackier writings can be found in the old newsletters of the Lyme Alliance."
16 September 2010
The worst part about holding a public meeting on Lyme disease is the flood of junk people send in before the meeting begins. Case in point, Ken Liegner’s tediously long letter full of undocumented claims and aged references. In fact, the whole thing reads like a cut-and-paste of his remarks to the NYS Assembly Committee on Health on November 27, 2001. Anyway, if the good doctor (Lyme Literate doctor, that is) can stand to go through this once more then so can I.
"Well I know there’s a list of doctors who have been convicted in state and federal courts of various crimes. Others have been sued by their injured patients. Still others have been hauled before state licensing boards—not for treating chronic Lyme patients—but for being bad or dangerous doctors. In any case, how about some names and how exactly were they harassed? Come on, just a couple of poor LLMD victims."
"Anyway, some of the people named above will be at the Oct. IOM meeting so they can speak to the technical issues...and maybe even the paranoia."
"Maybe Liegner is worried about the Jim Crow South rising again, and antibiotics disappearing. Anyway, what does it have to do with Lyme and the IOM?"
"They have crafted fairly harmless language that still allows licensing boards to go after quacks (as recently noted in Ct.), and patients to sue doctors."
"The only shame or conspiracy here is the kind of “medicine” these LLMD quacks practice on their prey."
"Finally, below is an ancient list of trivia work by Liegner and a pathetic list of meetings he sat through intended, I suppose, to suggest he’s a real researcher or major player in the fields of public health and emerging infectious diseases."
15 September 2010
"The Lymewonk is whining again. Here’s today’s missive from the nut state:"
"Odd that L.J. the wonk doesn’t know much about the origins or requirements of the Psy.D. degree. Odder still that she would object to someone who has written about the association of psychiatric co-morbidity in chronic Lyme cohorts when the current president of ILADS is a psychiatrist with no training in infectious diseases or research."
"And speaking of the current ILADS president, here’s part of a letter he just fired off to the IOM about their ongoing study of Lyme disease. It’s really an amazing compilation of lies. Maybe it’s the result of treating so many people who think they have a chronic infection that can’t be eradicated except by walletectomy."
"This is something ILADS quacks regularly fail to do:"
"That is so far from true it would take the above statements a week just to walk to the point of being false. This nonsense has been noted before here, here, and here."
"Both the wonk and the shrink listed a number of so-called IDSA bad guys on the IOM committee, but they left off quite a few other people. For example, well-known LLMDs like Fallon and Donta who will be at the October IOM meeting. Others include Carl Brenner from the NRFTBD group and the Lyme activist Pam Weintraub; Robert Aronowitz, a professor of history and sociology of Science, and Diane Blanchard from the activist group Time for Lyme in Ct. Then there are various university-based scientists (and non-IDSA members) such as the entomologists Munderloh and Oliver, immunologists such as Janis Weis, and various veterinarians. The agenda and complete list of speakers is available online here. It’s a diverse group; it’s just not full of ILADS quacks."
09 September 2010
"Looks like another promotional ad for Lucy Barnes, the queen bee (or maybe tick) of Lyme disease nonsense in Maryland. The always Barnes-friendly editors of the Star Democrat are fairly reliable boosters of her nonsense... "
"From the hot, inky presses of the Eastern Shore:
Md. support group leader creates Lyme disease website
Posted: Wednesday, September 8, 2010"
"That’s an impressive sounding organization, but it seems to exist only in the mind of Lucy Barnes. It has no address, no staff, no phone number, no publications, no meetings, no nothing."
"Barnes has been misconstruing facts about Lyme disease for years. Visitors to the site are not likely to learn anything real about this common tick-borne infection, but they’ll learn a few things about Barnes."
"First, the site if full of her opinions about other people and other (reliable) sources of information. Most of it is insulting, inaccurate, and inappropriate to a site supposedly intended to provide public health information."
"Still, the deceit (or delusion) persists. In reality, Barnes is in charge of Barnes and her fictitious organization, and nothing else."
"Third, the site is a mess. It’s a long scroll of jumbled, disjointed propaganda that is utterly lacking in references or other verifiable sources, and assembled by someone with no training in medicine or research or public health."
"Despite the royal “we,” her best is anyone else’s worst."
"Once again, the Internet helps some ignorant fool to diagnose himself."
"But why believe a doctor when the Internet and its nutty denizens tell you otherwise?"
"What’s the Hindu word for ‘quack’?"
03 September 2010
"Below is part of an interesting news story out of Australia about a man who supposedly died from Lyme disease. Of course, that’s fairly hard to do in the northern hemisphere; it would be a miracle (ok, a negative miracle) to die of said infection Down Under."
27 August 2010
"...and at least one of its infamous LLMDs, Joe Burrascano. Here’s a letter from the not-so-good doctor posted online on Aug. 23:"
"Dr. B is one of the original “Lyme Literate” doctors who attracted hordes of foolish people to his NY office to be treated for Lyme disease in the 80’s and 90’s. He’s also the one who famously insisted to a congressional committee back in 1993 that there was a Lyme disease conspiracy aimed at people like him and his patients. Now without a medical license, he seems to spend much of his time wandering from one Lyme activist meetings to another..."
"That his typical audience is a small gathering of gullible and largely ignorant patients and parents and not professionals in infectious diseases and medical research speaks volumes. He’d be laughed out of any meeting of real scientists and I.D. specialists."
"Sounds like XMRV may become the next “chronic” Lyme disease. The sharks are starting to circle. There must be money in the water."
27 August 2010
"Yet, it probably won’t matter to Lyme activists whose communal beliefs are more important and powerful than the dull realities of epidemiology and microbiology."
Some of the typically foolish things people in LymeLand say and think about bartonellosis.
23 August 2010
"This weekend I wandered through the digital garbage dump of disinformation that is LymeNet—the forum web site for people who think all of their emotional, physical and personal problems are the result of a common bacterial infection, which somehow has the power to persist indefinitely, but not be detectable by any scientific methodology, causes every symptom know to modern medicine, yet leave its victims sufficiently well to share their stories of anguish with other online patients suffering equally from bacterial chronicity and government conspiracy. So, here’s a few gems from the chronic Lyme disease community"
"Persumably, she “found out” from her LLMD, who must either be GP horribly ignorant of infectious diseases or a con artist looking to turn one imaginary Lyme patient into five billable Lyme patients. I assume the LLMD concluded the husband acquired his case from his infected wife because in LymeLand tick-borne borreliosis also is a STI. In the real world, it is not."
"Wow, I’ve had a number of these symptoms at one time or another. A couple of them persist to this day as a result of injuries and aging. Of course, in LymeLand everything is due to B. burgdorferi so I guess I must have Lyme disease. Anyone know a good LLMD? Or is ‘good LLMD’ an oxymoron? Maybe I’m just experiencing #36. Or maybe I just need a good stiff drink to check for #38. So ends another tour of LymeLand with a feeling of #34 and #7 though I think the latter means I need a new desk chair."
19 August 2010
"Lorraine Johnson, the legal beagle of LymeLand, has posted some blog comments about peer review and censorship after discovering that a new journal has some members of the IDSA on its editorial board. I guess her assumption is that IDSA membership automatically implies some kind of censorship."
"On the other hand, LJ does seem to know something about censorship, having recently censored comments posted to one of her blog entries. Here’s the link to the discussion about LJ’s censorship practices."
07 August 2010
Posted by Relative Risk at 09:33 0 comments Links to this post
05 August 2010
"Note: For any wacky readers who think they may have a non-infectious condition called “chronic” Lyme disease..."
04 August 2010
The Calif. Lyme group’s Lorraine Johnson is again letting her training as a scumbag lawyer get the better of her judgment. Here’s her latest pronouncement, which for some inexplicable reason reminds her of the current IOM study on Lyme disease:
Well, that statement is nonsense.
Still lying, but now she’s made a tenuous connection to the undefined condition called “chronic” Lyme disease. As for a case definition for this grab-bag of symptoms and beliefs, well, as Phil Baker recently pointed out in FASEB Journal, that’s up to the activists and their quack doctors.
01 August 2010
"This nursing journal must be hard up for insightful commentary. Why else would they give Ginger Savely a stump from which to hawk her quackery?"
"Having been driven out of Texas for her practice of pumping “chronic” Lyme patients full of antibiotics, she’s moved to California to help former penis enlargement expert Ralph Stricker pump antibiotics into people complaining of “chronic” Lyme disease. Since then, they’ve both discovered an online community of psychiatric patients suffering from delusional parasitosis who have renamed their disorder, Morgellons disease. Naturally, a foundation has sprung up to organize these patients, reinforce their delusions, and take their money. Similarly, various quacks have appeared to treat them with expensive antibiotics, insisting that these patients have mysterious infections (probably related to Lyme disease, they claim) and not delusions or the self-inflected wounds of those delusions."
"So without any obvious training in psychiatry or infectious diseases Savely is merrily providing antibiotics to people in need of far more serious care. According to a website called Morgellons Watch she was charging $500 for treatment. Now in California with access to Stricker’s pool of “chronic” Lyme disease patients (said to number 1,800) she’s probably making a killing. And maybe she’ll eventually kill someone."
"Until then, she and Stricker are busy doing some bad research on Morgellons. Presumably to make themselves look like legit investigators and to provide the data (however cooked) to justify their practices."
29 July 2010
Well, I guess this is why Lyme Blogger Johnson has been (mercifully) silent of late. She’s been drafting letters for a couple of congressmen who don’t want to otherwise tie up their busy staffers with trivia.
I may be a little vague on my Dickens, but wasn’t the Artful Dodger a pickpocket and not a slippery lawyer like L. Johnson? Isn’t she “dodging” the issue of bias and conflicts with this tautological recital of lies? Here she is back in June complaining the membership of the recent IOM meeting on Lyme and other tick-borne diseases “is composed almost exclusively of IDSA members, in what seems like a saga of deniable accountability.”
Readers need only look at the IOM panel membership list to find her claims just aren’t so.
For all her effort (a 5-page, single-spaced letter), all she and her colleagues got back was a clear repudiation from NIH. The National Academy of Sciences—of which the IOM is a part—has been has been giving the government advice since Lincoln was president. Johnson and her Lymee agitators are not going to change that with another redundant accusation…even if it is on congressional stationary.
The letter ends with the usual degree of paranoia exhibited by Lyme activists.“It is important that information be made public, including the identity of all reviewers, and that transparency exist to the maximum extent possible throughout the process.” That is, of course, the standard practice with Academy reports.
The IOM applies the National Academies’ rigorous research process, aimed at providing objective and straightforward answers to difficult questions of national importance. Our consensus studies are conducted by committees carefully composed to ensure the requisite expertise and to avoid conflicts of interest.
The committee’s task is developed in collaboration with the study’s sponsor, which may be a government agency, a foundation, or an independent organization. However, once the statement of task and budget are finalized, the committee works independently to come to consensus on the questions raised. In fact, while committees may gather information from many sources in public meetings, they carry out their deliberations in private in order to avoid any external influence.
As a final check for quality and objectivity, all IOM reports undergo an independent external review by a second, independent group of experts whose comments are provided anonymously to the committee members.
And finally, the IOM states, “the names and affiliations of the report reviewers are made public when the report is released.”
Of course, it won’t be clear which reviewer made which comments during the review process. Trying to match reviewer names to comments should keep Johnson and her paranoid company busy for a few weeks.
17 July 2010
He’s wearing a blue Adidas tracksuit with his name embroidered on the back, and the type of black orthopedic sneakers you’d expect on a man his age
"C.R. Jones is burning through OPM (other people’s money) so fast he can’t afford to buy real clothes. Apparently he’s living out of tracksuits. Sure, they’re easy to slip on and fairly comfortable—that would explain all those shoppers in Kmart. But they’re hardly proper attire for a New England physician."
"What Jones needs is to augment his defense fund with a sartorial fund. Someone should get him a nice summer weight Brook Brothers tropical, and maybe a couple of sport coats from Joseph A. Banks. A couple of rep ties and some comfortable but stylish shoes from Bostonian or Rockport and he’s good to go….back to court where he can look at least as good as his expensive lawyers."
"And another tin cup solicitation:"
"Next, maybe his misguided supporters could take turns taking him to dinner."
16 July 2010
"A timely review of the state of the craziness in Lyme disease. Importantly, Baker provides a three-step solution (below) for ending the nutty accusations of activists and the equally nutty practices of their doctors."
"This is absurd, especially when such claims are made by “Lyme-literate physicians” who profit immensely from the prolonged treatment of chronic Lyme disease."
"Instead of casting doubts on the reputation of distinguished scientists and the organizations to which they belong, those who disagree would be well advised to do the following if they wish to gain acceptance from the scientific and medical community for their unproven views:"
10 July 2010
"Ahh, the poor members of the IOM’s study group for Lyme disease. They’re about to be hit with the results of another survey written by Lyme activist/patients for Lyme activist/patients. Here’s the intro: This survey is sent by the National Capital Lyme and Tick-borne Disease Association to gather information for a new paper, “The Human Dimension of Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Diseases: A Patient’s Perspective.” The paper is for the Institute of Medicine’s scientific workshop entitled, Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Diseases: The State of the Science."
"No doubt there are many things physically and emotionally wrong with the poor souls who inhabit these online support groups, but a common, antibiotic-responsive bacterial infection is not one of them."
"Maybe the final activist write-up for the IOM will clarify things. Or not."
"... most of the chronic Lyme complainants seem to be white, middle-aged women. And that’s a bit odd—white, middle-aged women being the main victims of a chronic infection that causes myriad symptoms that can only be held in check by an endless supply of antibiotics and the constant care and attention of an understanding “Lyme literate” doctor."
02 July 2010
So why the interest in Flagyl among the Lymees? Quackery and incompetence, of course. That is, quackery and incompetence among the so-called “Lyme Literate” docs who prey on—I mean treat—these unfortunate people.
The above statements are clinical and scientific gibberish, and reading them I was again left wondering whether these Lyme Literate quacks actually believe what they’re saying or just conning their gullible and ignorant patients with a lot of techno-babble? I’d actually have some respect for them if it was the latter case since I think it’s often easier to understand deliberate crimes and cons than it is to understand delusions or incompetence.
Patients with imaginary infections being treated by quacks and crooks using inappropriate drugs and methods of treatment. What a world is Lymeland.
26 June 2010
"A few days ago, I got a phone call from a detective with the local FBI terrorism task force. According to the detective, a Lyme activist had reported me as a potential terrorist threat. Why me? Maybe someone didn’t like what I wrote. Who knows. In the 1950’s, you could get rid of a nosy neighbor or a pushy boss by denouncing them as communists and traitors to Hoover’s FBI. Today, you can accuse someone of being a terrorist.
The detective had done some research on Lyme disease and activists and so had a good sense of what was really going on with these accusations. After a few jokes, we hung up, both perhaps thinking that maybe accusers should be as carefully examined as the accused."
22 June 2010
"The IOM listening tour is really getting an earful. And probably a headache. Below are the often repeated charges of Kris Newby, self-described writer, producer, and expert on Lyme disease. I wonder how she’d like it if a bunch of I.D. docs and scientists showed up one day and started telling her how to make a documentary film or write a script. No doubt she’d be outraged at the assumptions of amateurs."
"The bleeding edge? If there’s any bleeding going on it’s probably from the many walletectomies performed by the LLMDs Newby thinks so highly of. So ends a painful three minutes of unwanted advice."
17 June 2010
"One of the comments collected from the IOM’s recent emoting sessions with Lyme patient/activists was this:
Lyme Times Associate Editor Pam Cocks, the mother of two adult children with Lyme, points out that all of the controlled trials cited by the IDSA guidelines involved a mere 221 patients."
15 June 2010
"Well, like all ads, this one is full of crap. ... It’s the same rehashed, cut-and-paste whining as the earlier polemics by these two obsessive-compulsive propagandists."
"...Lyme patient wannabes and the quacks who prey on them."
"I think that comes to four lies in one sentence written by a lawyer and a liar."
"And while we’re on the subject, when did Stricker—barred from receiving federal research funds because he falsified research data and subsequently fired from his university—become an expert on medical ethics?"
12 June 2010
"What at first sounds like interesting research and a promising follow-on to the work of Hassett et al. on psychological co-morbidity in Lyme disease patientsturns out to be a junk science project funded by:
the Turn the Corner Foundation,
the California Lyme Disease Association,
and IGeneX, Inc.
Worse, the so-called Lyme experts are fellow ILADS clowns Daniel Cameron and Raphael Stricker, and CALDA advisor, Christine Green." ... "Unless Stanford is taking indirect costs for Koopman’s Lyme study, they should cut her lose and tell her this project is her private business and not to be associated with the university. I think they might do that anyway if they knew about Stricker’s past problems with falsifying data, past FDA warningsabout non-standard Lyme tests, and past federal efforts to close down Igenex. Maybe it’s time to write to Stanford before this nonsense hurts someone."
09 June 2010
"One of the problems with whining lawyers is they are blind to their own faults and the faults of their clients (in this case, Lyme activists and LLMDs). Perhaps this is self-induced hyperopia because a mere glance at Lyme groups, their doctors, and the various labs and treatment clinics that support them all will show a tangle of very real professional and financial conflicts, the likes of which would embarrass the most jaded congressman or Washington lobbyist."
"One more for the road: Johnson writes that the membership of the recent IOM meeting on Lyme and other tick-borne diseases “is composed almost exclusively of IDSA members, in what seems like a saga of deniable accountability.” Well, you could believe that (while trying to figure out what ‘deniable accountability’ is) or just look at the membership list right here. There’s one guy."
27 May 2010
"Cameron is the immediate past president of that online gang of private practitioners who dabble in quackery and wackery. Quackery being the medical use of worthless potions and procedures, and wackery being the belief in and dissemination of wacky ideas."
20 May 2010
"Well, the dynamic duo is back."
"I understand why Stricker busies himself with these inflammatory letters to the editor. It’s a cheap way to puff up ones resume, it allows a person to cite himself in future letters, and often the letters can be mistaken (or misrepresented) as original research articles instead of what they are: argumentative griping about other peoples’ original research."
16 May 2010
"Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) must have a lousy staff. He’s hosting a forum on Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections for his constituents this week."
"There are 3 argumentative review articles written with fellow Lyme quacks, according to PubMed. And as for “expert testimony,” I’m sure it’s the same nonsense he first delivered to a congressional committee in 1993.."
"Hopefully, this poor “invitee” won’t be able to make it. She’ll find herself in some strange company and hearing a lot of things that run counter to reality.Pat Smith, President, national Lyme Disease Association (LDA)"
"Finally, Pat’s theme song must be Willie Nelson’s “On the Road” because she’s always somewhere—spreading the gossip of chronic Lyme from state to state, meeting to meeting, and politician to politician. I guess the LDA has an unlimited travel budget for its president. I wonder if the LDA has an independent auditor?"
15 May 2010
These activists, like poor Wiley, don’t seem to realize they’ve walked off a cliff. They’re still scheming even as they hurtle toward the ground.
14 May 2010
"From the White Coat Underground, PalMD kicks some Stricker and Savely ass over Morgellons and just plain bad, bad science."
"Raphael Stricker is a disgraced hematologist who after losing his career to data manipulation took up the chronic Lyme disease banner. He is part of ILADS, which has been demanding that actual experts shut up and get out of the way so they can continue their evidence-free treatment of supposed chronic Lyme disease. Savely has written earlier crappy articles about morgellons. She is a nurse practitioner who "treats" people with "chronic Lyme disease" and morgellons."
"This article is so remarkably bad it's almost like they were trying to parody science. Please...don't try any harder."
05 May 2010
"... do we cheer for the scum-bag personal injury lawyers or for the deluded patients? I had to go with the scum-bag lawyers—after all, it’s not the fault of the lawyers. They’re just acting out their nature like a shark or a mamba or some other dangerous predator. You don’t blame someone for being left-handed or a lion for trying to bite you. Anyway, the lawyers pocketed the settlement money (almost $1M) and their deluded clients got nothing from the suit."
"On Feb. 26, 2002, Lymerix was withdrawn from the market due to poor sales. No doubt, the relentless accusations and propaganda aimed at it by Lyme activists added to those marketing problems."
03 May 2010
Some post-review ranting by ILADS psychiatrist Robert Bransfield, who, in my opinion, needs a sedative and some training in infectious diseases.
"This is a thoroughly beaten dead horse. As far back as 1998, Bransfield was whining..."
"Bransfield’s problem—among many—is that 1) he’s not a scientist, and 2) he’s not an infectious disease expert. He’s a psychiatrist. Which begs the question: what’s a psychiatrist doing practicing infectious diseases? How would he like it if members of the IDSA started practicing psychiatry? Probably some of them would do a better job."
"More tautologic nonsense." "Again, more nonsense from a psychiatrist wanting to practice infectious diseases. ... Doctors (and quacks) are in control….right up to the point where they kill, injure or rob someone."
01 May 2010
"But the online blather from Lyme activists and LLMDs is written in such a way as to claim the that even the prestigious Johns Hopkins University found the current serologic tests to be absurdly inaccurate. So the above claims from activists and quacks are lies. Either that or they simply did not understand the Hopkins paper.
So stop repeating this kind of nonsense unless you qualify any subsequent online tautologies with one of the following:
1. P.S. I’m a liar
2. P.S. I didn’t understand any of the data or conclusions from the paper.
3. P.S. I’m just mindlessly reposting what I read."
03 April 2010
"...an online business selling junk to other chronic Lyme “victims.”"
"Lymees are always victims, never patients."
Now if I can only find one with a red circle and lash through a Lyme protestor/victim.
02 April 2010
"That mythical Lyme disease agitator called Tincup ... 80-year-old Dr. “Everything is Lyme disease” Jones. Of course, Tincup’s call to arms was written on April Fools Day so who knows if it’s a joke or just the work of a fool. Or both. In any case, here’s her lead-in:"
"She sounds a lot like the equally agitated, white, blue-collar, unemployed people who show up at tea party rallies to foam at the mouth..."
"The same thing with Tincup and her self-absorbed colleagues."
27 April 2010
[A line from the movie, “Dances with Wolves”.]
"Just when I was beginning to wonder why Stricker (and his lawyer sidekick) haven’t fired off another letter to the editor...he does."
24 April 2010
"Here’s a Maryland woman who runs a fictitious Lyme organization writing a press release to herself about the IDSA guidelines review. ... And here's the California Lyme group (which is a real group) writing about the IDSA guidelines review."
22 April 2010
California’s (Lyme)Wonk wigs out (again). Lorraine “I’m a lawyer” Johnson is still trying to wash away evidence-based medicine with scalding verbiage.
"I doubt Dick Blumenthal has much more time for this nonsense; he’s busy losing a Senate race in Ct. Still, the idea of calling, faxing or emailing him is tempting. Frankly, I’d like to tell him—as Jon Stewart often tells Fox Noise—to go fuck himself. Though I suspect all I’d get for my trouble would be a long, citation-filled deposition stating why he cannot comply legally, morally, or anatomically."
22 April 2010
"It's all over but the screaming….and a weasely comment from Blum The Senator Wannabe." "Here's Blum's weasely comment:"
22 April 2010
"I can't wait to see if Blumenthal and his band of out-of-state co-conspirators have managed to overthrow evidence-based medicine and peer-reviewed science. If so, popes, fundamentalists and Republicans may want to take note.
21 April 2010
"Part of an angry LymeNut posting (is there any other kind).." " Finally, someone on LymeNut gets one thing right."
21 April 2010
"What are some activists, private practice quacks and a couple of students going to say about the latest research on Lyme disease? Well….nothing. I’m not sure why the UNH regularly embarrasses itself by holding these gaggles."
"So what is activist Pat Smith going to add that’s accurate and relevant to what is already well established? Worse, what could the elderly Dr. Jones—Connecticut’s seemingly permanent resident of the medical licensing board—have to say? Maybe he’s collecting more donations for his legal fees."
"...they sound absolutely silly."
"Then there’s the mysterious Hungarian, Judith Miklossy—who may or may not be from the University of Lausanne…she seems to have left in 2007—blaming Alzheimer’s on Lyme disease."
"The host of this intellectual catastrophe is Eva Sapi, (another Hungarian? Does anyone else miss the Berlin Wall?) former “Lyme victim” and former tumor biologist, who once got excited about finding mycoplasma in ticks (I’d get excited if you didn’t find mycoplasma someplace), and is now off on borrelial cysts and biofilms."
"A pretty grim gathering when you consider real information from real doctors and scientists can be had at the 12th international conference in Solvenia, the last Banbury Conference in New York, and the steady work of federal grantees presented at ASM, ICAAC, and ICEID."
"Rounding out this mockery of science is Burrascano, patron saint of chronic Lyme disease patients..."
08 April 2010
Could this be classified as vector-borne erectile dysfunction? Is there a pill for it?
07 April 2010
I found this fascinating piece of medical crap in a publication called Public Health Alert. It’s a newsletter put out by some women who think they have chronic Lyme disease. PHA is full of nonsense written (badly) by various Lyme disease quacks and charlatans. Judging from the advertisements for useless alternative medicine treatments and Lyme diagnostics, I’m guessing this online rag is sustained by such companies because it allows them to reach more gullible customers.
So here’s the brilliant LLMD, James Schaller on:
"I can’t believe this clown has a license to practice medicine." "What the fuck!?"
"I continue to wonder if English is Schaller’s native language."
"Did this guy really graduate from an accredited medical school?"
"He must hear it hourly from his patients and their not so easily duped friends and relatives."
"Well, if the choice is Schaller or self-medication, I’d have to go with self-medication, followed by a witchdoctor, followed by any other LLMD, followed by whoever is on Oprah this week."
"Maybe I’ll believe this if some of Schaller’s patients take a baseball bat to him."
"About the Author: Dr. Schaller…is one of the most prolific LLMD's in the world. Well, he’s certain one of the most prolific purveyors of grammatical incorrect and incoherent nonsense."
25 March 2010
"Surprise, surprise. Another letter from Dr. Jones asking for money. Here's some of the letter: ... I think someone on LymeNet Europe suggested Jones had already spent about $700,000 (of other people’s money?) on his defense. That’s a lot of money for an 80-year-old guy to recover via a monitored medical practice."
23 March 2010
i.v. infusion: Safe? Maybe. Necessary? Who knows?
Well, Stricker’s paper on i.v. treatments for Lyme disease isn’t much more enlightening than the earlier abstract. ... "Was this really ethical? Lining up a bunch of people (with significant neuropsychiatric symptoms) to see if procedure X is not therapeutic but merely safe? Sounds like something you’d do with guinea pigs."
22 March 2010
"If I'm reading this legalese correctly, it doesn't sound like things went to well for the Lyme patient wannabe. I wonder who the New York expert neurologist could have been?"
21 March 2010
"Oh my, next week in Texas the Morgellonites are meeting to discuss their mysterious fibers (does bellybutton lint count?), scabs and other symptoms. How creepy would it be to sit in a hotel room surround by people with self-inflicted scabs and sores as they compare plastic bags full of fibers they’ve pull off of themselves.Delusional parasitosis in mass.
So the deluded will be gathering to be fleeced and lectured to by the following Morgellons experts, some of whom are, oddly enough, also “chronic” Lyme disease experts, or perhaps just as nutty as the patients attending this thing. Here’s the cast of characters to date."
"Ginger Savely, DNP .. "Medically managed’? Not cured? I’m not surprised. If you don’t know what the patient has and you don’t know what you’re doing, the chances of a positive outcome are greatly diminished. So Savely got herself run out of Texas for her practice and now works with the clown below in S.F."
"Raphael B. Stricker, M.D.... Enough has been said about this opportunistic quack."
18 March 2010
17 March 2010
"So Stricker finally got around to publishing this defense of LLMD practices: pump the patient full of antibiotics until the wallet is empty."
"Lorraine Johnson—a lawyer for the California Lyme advocates group—is now listed as an author. What role could she possibly have played in an alleged clinical trial for chronic Lyme disease? Is she just padding her resume in case she ever goes looking for a job?
"Another author is V.R. Savely, a nurse who was run out of Texas for her treatment of Lyme patients and the Internet version of delusional parasitosis, called Morgellons, and who now works for—wait for it--Stricker. Another author is from QMedRx, the “Lyme literate” home infusion company. Presumably, they paid for this study, which only adds to the overall suspicion about the merits and the purpose of this piece of clinical sleight-of-hand."
"So at the moment, we have a trial of unknown quality allegedly showing the benefits (or at least safety) of long-term antibiotics for “chronic Lyme disease” conducted by: people who believe in the routine use of long-term antibiotics for a syndrome called “chronic Lyme disease;” who belong to an organization (ILADS) whose sole purpose to promote such treatments; whose incomes are dependent on such patients and such treatments; and a company whose income is partly dependent on selling such treatments to Lyme patients and LLMDs; all led by a guy who “falsified data” and “selectively suppressed data that did not support his hypothesis, and reported consistently positive data whereas only one of four experiments had produced positive results.” "....the Lyme activist community would be screaming bloody“conflicts of interest” and speed-dialing Blumenthal, the Lyme-obsessed A.G. in Connecticut. But…strangely…they are not. Why is that?"
17 March 2010
"[Isn't that what just happened in the Minn. Legislature?? Still, if the state medical board has any gonads left they can still go after bad doctors like the Ct. board recently did with the infamous LLMD Charles Ray Jones."
11 March 2010
"CALDA's Lorraine Johnson is beating her dead horse again. Ten times. Apparently, hoping it will rise from the dead. Let’s see how it’s going."
"Wow. Sounds like a breakdown of some kind. “Misdiagnosed” with depression? I don’t think so. And who is crazy enough to be taking 54 different kinds of drugs. I know she {Lorraine Johnson} lives in California, but that’s an absurd number of pills even by La-La Land standards. ... Palm reader? Crystals? Igenex? Too bad she didn’t say what antibiotics she took or for how long. Apparently then, she’s done with them and is “largely restored” to health? I wonder."
02 March 2010
"Boy, that LymeNut discussion board gets a little bit wackier every day. Its managers must be following the lead of Iranian mullahs and Chinese Politburo members in defining how to control the media... LymeNut members... Quack therapies and quack doctors are relentlessly defended against common sense and common decency."
"The Lyme Movement has fragmented into competitive, antagonistic groups with competing messages and methods. Hey, I’m not complaining. Personally, I think it’s great that these nutty people can’t take two steps forward without pushing and shoving like kindergarteners, and trying to trip up each other. It’s an interesting picture to present to reporters and politicians."
"...much of the misinformation is from Miss Barnes; that mysterious Maryland activist..." "It appears that Lucy Barnes/Tincup/Afterthebite..." "So her “Grey Eminence” is once again the source of discourse among the Lymees." "... Lucy Barnes/Tincup/Afterthebite."
"What are they going to do after having been bit (again) by Maryland’s mysterious madam of mayhem?"
"... bogyman Barnes" "... If not, then she’s just a lone nut talking about her own wants and beliefs."
"Until the Lymees can answer that question they should stay out of the state houses."
01 March 2010
22 February 2010
"... ILADS will want to post them again for purposes of propaganda.."
"So the FBI has given up trying to solve an actual mystery. Now doubt they’re eager to get back to their usual work: wire-tapping Democrats, snooping through private email traffic, sneak-and-peeks of former wives’ and current girlfriends’ residences, and adding the names of people they don’t like to the terrorist watchlists."
17 February 2010
16 February 2010
"Boy, this Lorraine character is a real wackjob. She can’t seem to get anything straight. She may be the Sarah Palin of LymeLand. Here’s the latest from her blog of Lyme disease wonkery….."
"Lorraine seems to be upset..." "This blog diatribe..."
"Secondly, the panel was selected by the IDSA and thatsleazeball lawyer in Ct. now trying to become a sleazeball senator."
15 February 2010
"Maybe they're conspiring with the PHS and the dreaded HHS intelligence service (the EIS) to stop Lymenuts from supporting poor picked-on Dr. Jones. Probably using some kind of nanotechnology to seed clouds over the Hartford area."
13 February 2010
He’s back. He’s begging for more dollars on behalf of his lawyers. So begins another chapter in the endless saga of an elderly Connecticut physician determined to find Lyme disease wherever he looks.
Below is part of his pauper’s letter to his foolish fans and supporters. (Though, apparently, there are a few people who have wised up. See the note below.) Assuming this process ends in the near future, Jones may then be close to 82-years-old. Who brings their kids to someone who was in medical school when penicillin was still considered a wonder drug?
10 February 2010
"According to Blum and the LymeNuts..." ".. Blum and the LymeNuts .."
09 February 2010
"PRWeb being the Internet-based press release service that ensures every village idiot will have a voice louder than is warranted by his or her message or mental acuity. So what are the village idiots of LymeLand bitching about today? Seems to be the same thing as yesterday. Here, for example is the West Coast’s voice of Lyme obsession talking about the IDSA."
"Lorraine Johnson, Executive Director of the California Lyme Disease Association." "First, Lorraine, you’re an idiot." ... "Second, Lorraine, you’re an idiot."
"Blum’s “fine work” is actually his personal obsession being stoked (or is it stroked?) with public dollars. If he wants to do something for the public he should tell us how much public money he’s spent to date in defense of quackery and in pursuit of the adulation of his out-of-state, sycophantic fans."
"Pat Smith must be a Fox News consultant. But again, these idiots are missing the point (intentionally, I assume)..."
"...LymeLand’s village idiots..."
07 February 2010
"The Lyme activists are constantly howling about the “restrictive” and “compulsive” IDSA treatment guidelines for Lyme disease..."
"...practices of their quack physicians. And Blumenthal, who would be left holding an empty bag in front of the news cameras."
05 February 2010
"That is, the deliberate and persistent propagation of knowingly false information in order to confuse and frighten people. These are little more than “for profit lies” repeated and propagated by activists in need of warm bodies and doctors in need of cash-carrying patients."
05 February 2010
"I’m sure the IDSA will roll right over after getting a letter from a so-so psychiatrist** complaining to infectious diseases experts that they don’t know anything about infectious diseases.... In his letter, Psych Bransfield..."
05 February 2010
"...online discussion about the recent whining of A.G. Blumenthal, the Lyme obsessed pol from Connecticut, and the self-styled wonkette and frequent pamphleteer, Lorraine Johnson can be found at LymeNet Europe."
"All of this whining, angst, and conniving public antics... Someone needs a little therapy here, and maybe some adult supervision within the halls of the A.G.'s offices."
04 February 2010
"And that’s what Blumenthal seems to be arguing about in a Feb. 1, 2010 letter to the IDSA. Just before the review committee gets ready to release their report on the IDSA treatment guidelines, Blum jumps in to question the review process, which he helped set up. I guess he’s worried about the outcome and he’s hoping to undermine it (again) by questioning the process by which it was achieved (again)."
"Lyme activist and occasional lawyer, Lorraine Johnson, has already posted Blum’s letter online, urging agitation among the denizens of LymeLand. According to Johnson, "The four-page Attorney General letter was released in response to a Freedom of Information Request made on behalf of patient groups for information regarding the IDSA’s compliance with the Settlement Agreement." If that’s true, it must have been the fastest request-and-release in the history of the FOIA. 24 hours?! I'm guessing Blum's office passed them a copy, hoping they would post it and start making calls and accusations."
"What I do care about is Blum continuing to harass the IDSA and attempting to undermine science."
"Having lost a potential ally on the committee (Duray), Blum and the activists seem to have only one card left to play: questioning the process and accusing members of inappropriate actions."
03 February 2010
"...Lyme disease propaganda film (paid for, according to the credits, by quacks and kooks)..."
"I guess the cartoon category was full. Whatever the reason, this celluloid conspiracy theory is going to have to continue premiering in the country's public libraries and church basements looking for an audience of believers."
"By the way, check out the LymeNet Europe postabout who voted for this awful bit of disease porn."
26 January 2010
"Too bad Blumenthal--a hack lawyer and a hack politician--was not able to apply this level of common sense and sophistication to his recent dealings with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)."
"...Having waited 20 years for one of CT’s senators to die (physically or politically), thepathologically cautious Blumenthal is out campaigning for a senate seat."
"Maybe now CT residents will get a chance to ask him how much state money he spent on his recent investigation of Lyme disease treatment guidelines, and how much Senate time he plans to devote to his very odd obsession with Lyme disease. There are other problems in the country beside entomophobia
and hypochondria among middle-age white women."
24 January 2010
"It’s been a busy week in LymeLand. There must have been some kind of nuthouse furlough recently because three Lymee wackjobs have just dumped a load of nonsense into the Internet, which in all fairness is basically what the 90% Internet is—a digital landfill for the mentally ill, the conspiracy-minded, the juvenile, and the criminal."
"First, former mental patient, Elena Cook..."
"Second, Tincup, a Maryland-based Lyme activist who seems to be the director of afictitious group called the Lyme Disease Education and Support Diseases of Maryland, has posted online a document called, “Maryland Lyme disease Fact Sheet 2009.”
"Rather than pick it apart here, I sent a copy to the state health department with the suggestion that they pick it apart and provide correct facts and references in anticipation of some foolish resident reading Tincup’s missive and then calling the Department with questions or concerns."
"So much for her opinion. The site is a mishmash of scientific terms and the delusions of a former Connecticut mental patient and convict, Kathleen Dickson. She’s a regular online ranter ... I can’t imagine anyone paying attention to such a creature. Except maybe Tincup."
22 January 2010
"Well, Lorraine Johnson has changed her blog photo but not her tune. Still playing fast and loose with the facts. Here’s her latest screech about antibiotic addiction among Lymees:"
"Wow. That last sentence shows an amazing lack of knowledge and insight."
"And then there’s the IDSA’s excellent report, “Bad Bugs, No Drugs”:"
19 January 2010
"I wonder where these foolish people got this idea about the IDSA. Wacky Lyme activists and their money-grubbing LLMDS perhaps??"
16 January 2010
"...for LLMDs and other quacks .."
12 January 2010
"Another burst of noise from the Lyme Movement's propagandists. Same lies, same false "facts." Don't they get tired of listening to themselves?"
"Wow. Two lies in one sentence." "...the guidelines don't mislead or result in poor patient care, though I suspect the unnamed "group of leading Lyme disease specialists" is the ILADS crowd who know the guidelines threaten their very lucrative private practices."
"It's silly. It's paranoia and delusion." "Another pack of lies. Blumenthal claimed there were financial conflicts of interest, but he never told the public what these alleged conflicts were or how they might have impacted the updating of some clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease."
"Grassley may have other motives; people in Washington usually do."
"This is just another lie. IDSA is not going to let someone form a panel in their name and then publish the results of that panel's deliberations in the name of IDSA. Oh, and Gary, congrats on that award. You're in good company on that page of 2007 awardees."
"Again, there's that outraged notion that the opinions of untrained, non-professional fanatics are equal to demonstrable, repeatable evidence generated by professionals."
"the Lymees like to bitch.." "the Lymenut "victims" .." "Again, more lies and nonsense,..."
"Here’s to hoping that Senator Grassley and CT Attorney General Blumenthal (who is now running for the Senate) will put some legislative teeth into making “non-profit” medical societies like the [IDSA, LDA, CALDA, ILADS] more accountable for patient welfare and less beholden to vaccine and drug manufacturers [e.g. Igenex, QMedRx]."
07 January 2010
06 January 2010
"So Blum's finally going to run for something. Well, he's been waiting years for Dodd or Lieberman to die or retire or both. Now the way is clear...at least until business men, the insurance lobby, the IDSA, and lots of other pissed off Connecticut residents start spending money to crush him."
"...he got his ass kicked"
"...and he's a crook--having spent state funds to pursue hispersonal Lyme disease obsession against the IDSA. How's a guy with this kind of baggage going to run anywhere but back to his office and under his desk?"