Time Line

Created by McSweegan

http://mysite.verizon.net/emcsweegan/attack.pdf

When Lymees Attack

The brief summary below is drawn from memory and the Timeline document. There may have been other protests, threats and actions carried out by various Lyme disease activists and groups. These are some of the more memorable events.

1992 Activists demand case reports and abstracts from their “Lyme Literate” physicians be included in the program of the annual Lyme Borreliosis Conference. (Science magazine, June 5).

1993 “Lyme Conspiracy” theory presented at congressional hearing.

1994 Patient/activist protests at Yale Univ. Lyme disease forum.

1995 Activist rally in Trenton to protest the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners looking into the activities of “Lyme Literate” physicians. Letter writing campaign to the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners in support of “Lyme Literate” doctors.

1996 Activists posted bad reviews on Amazon.Com in order to reduce Dr. Alan Barbour’s book sales.

1997 Sixty activists protest at Yale University during annual Lyme Disease Symposium. Organized attacks on Dr. Alan Barbour for his NYT op-ed on Lyme disease: “In addition to letter writing, another way to ‘tell it where it counts’ is to contact Al

Barbour's bosses.”

Organized attacks on Dr. Steve Ostroff (CDC): “…when we write to Ostroff's boss…”

Letter-writing campaign to NIH officials about Dr. Edward McSweegan.

Onlines attacks on Dr. Lawrence Zemel (UConn): “Like so many others Dr. Zemel, your career as a Lyme Crook is nearing the end.”

News reports about Lyme activism. “People are afraid of this group [Lyme Disease Foundation], and I am too," said Durland Fish, a Yale University entomologist who does research on Lyme. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, however, several scientists said they mistrusted the group's generally

liberal views regarding intravenous antibiotics, given thefinancial backing the foundation has received from companies that sell those drugs." "[Dr. Alan] Barbour…quit as a medical adviser to the Lyme Disease Foundation's journal, saying a lot of its articles would have been rejectedby other scientific publications because they lacked standard research controls." "There are other accusations from scientists: that the Forschners organize noisy protests outside scientific conferences that they are bankrolled by companies that make or administer intravenous antibiotics, one treatment for chronic Lyme" (Wash Post, April 21).

"…the [LDF] conferences have taken on the flavor of religious revival meetings, with patient-participants clapping and booing at the lectures. The atmosphere stifles free scientific debate, said Dr. Alan Barbour, because speakers from the easy-to-treat school are vilified, while doctors from the chronic camp--known to

patients as ``Lyme-friendly'' or ``Lyme- literate''--are applauded" (Hartford Courant, July 3).

1998 Attacks on CDC’s Dr. Dave Dennis: “Besides us, who does David Dennis report to?? Who is his boss? We are paying him and we are not satisfied with his performance. I think we should all complain.” “Dr. Dennis works for us yet he, along with many other NIH and CDC employees, seem to ignore our very

existence.”

Another protest at Yale U. “Protest organizers indicate that Yale's academically spawned guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease are obsolete, biologically unfounded and ethically suspect. Conflict of interest is also suspected since Robert Schoen, MD (Chair of the symposium), as well as certain featured speakers, are paid up to $560/hour as insurance consultants and expert

witnesses. Schoen and Allen Steere, MD who has been credited with "discovering" Lyme over 20 years ago, have given court testimony against physicians who do notfollow their stringent guidelines.”

1999 Activists protest involvement of ALDF in March 1999 "Lyme Disease Prevention Month" in CT, NJ and PA.

Activists invade NIH campus to protest the “Astute Clinician” lecture given by Dr. Allen Steere. Activists gather outside the Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) in

Manhattan to protest investigation and sanctions against Perry Orens of Great Neck, NY.

Activists try more censorship: “McSweegan has written a very scientifically flawed article with few references about Lyme disease for the quackwatch site. I think we should write to the NIH about this article by a government employee.”

2000 Activists demonstrate against Allen Steere outside the Spirochete Biology Gordon Conference in Ventura, CA (“Wherever ‘they’" go, we will be there!”).

Activists gather in Gettysburg, PA for a "Ticked Off and Fed Up" (TOFU) rally.

Activists announce GAO investigation of federal Lyme disease programs accusing federal scientists and officials of “physician harassment,” “retaliation,” “conflicts of interest,” ”controlled science” and “CDC indifference.” (GAO later finds no scientific or financial fault with federal programs.)

Protesters show up at annual meeting of the Am. College of Rheumatology in Philadelphia to protest against Allen Steere.

Effort to file professional complaints against Dr. Leonard Sigal: “I am in the process of filing a complaint against him to the NJ Board of Medical Examiners.

…I have chosen to do this not as a means of revenge, but rather because this man has caused great harm to many Lyme sufferers not only in NJ but throughout this country.”

Activists urged to write to Mass. Med. Board to complain about Allen Steere in the hopes of triggering a medical investigation. (The effort fails.)

Activists gathered outside the Hotel Pierre in NYC to disrupt annual ALDF conference and bother Allen Steere.

Activists picket in NYC after Joseph Burrascano is charged with medical misconduct by the NY OPMC. Activists call for investigation of the OPMC.

2001 Local NY activists travel to Albany to demand legislators “protect the right of Lyme patients to receive effective medical care.”

TOFU organizes Lyme disease rally in Gettysburg, PA.

Activists organize online protest against the NY OPMC for its investigations of five “Lyme Literate” doctors.

NYT Magazine reports stalking and death threats against Allen Steere (June 17).

2002 Activists demonstrate outside the Long Island office of State Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon because he “refuses to support any companion legislation in the Senate to the OPMC Reform Bill A11330....”

Activists gather outside the Grand Hyatt, NYC, to protest the 9th International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis.

2003 Activists return to Albany, NY to lobby state senators in support of two bills before the Assembly.

2004 Activists again return to Albany to lobby legislators to pass two bills related to Lyme disease.

2005 Gleeful online cheers at news of ALDF Director David Weld’s death.

“A 47-year-old woman accused of threatening an assistant attorney general may have harassment charges against her dropped if she stops barraging state officials with information about Lyme disease. Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford said Tuesday that Kathleen Dickson's criminal case will end if she discontinues a

massive e-mail and fax campaign detailing her complaints about the scientific community's approach to fighting Lyme disease.”

2006 Activists protest content of CDC Lyme website, a NIH Lyme website, and CDC warning about certain diagnostic tests for Lyme. (The content remains unchanged.)

Activists organize a Lyme Rights Rally at CT State Capitol.

Activists protest at NY Medical College to denounce updated Lyme disease treatment guidelines from the IDSA.

An online petition against the guidelines is set up, and “Lyme Literate” doctors demand retraction of IDSA Guidelines.

CT Attorney General and Lyme activist Richard Blumenthal launches antitrust investigation of IDSA. (Accused of “playing doctor,” Blumenthal later fails to indict or prosecute anyone, or overturn the IDSA guidelines.)

Activists organize Lyme Rights Rally at NYMC and issue threat to opponents: “We will not allow the IDSA…to take our disease away.” “Those who stand in our way must be moved aside using every trick in the rule book.” “The smart ones will

join out team now. The others will have to suffer the consequences….”

Wild online attacks on NYMC’s Dr. Gary Wormser: “…gary wormser is a mass murderer. he is a deeply disturbed, emotionally crippled high functioning psychopath. he doesn't even acknowledge postlyme syndrome. this letter, as well as

his article in eid authored with the criminal shapiro, is absolutely ridden with lies and exaggerations. why would he do this? because his disgusting plans for lyme disease backfired. in the back of his mind, and dattwylers, are fears of massive civil lawsuits and/or imprisonment for the atrocities they have aimed against the

american people.”

More online attacks on CDC’s Dave Dennis: “He coordinated a massive propaganda war aimed at U.S. borreliosis patients. Who authorized him to do this?”

Death threats against BU’s Dr. Mark Klempner, who organized treatment trials for Lyme: “At the link provided is a picture of Klempner that you can download and memorize just in case you see him on the street. He looks to be a small man so a .22

caliber should be adequate".

2007 Activists organize letter-writing campaign against Forbes magazine for “defaming” their doctors.

Activists call for protest in Atlantic City of over epidemiologists’ plans to revise the “National Surveillance Case Definition for Lyme disease.” Pickets gather outside Convention Center. (The proposed changes to the surveillance definition are passed.)

Activists use Internet to spread rumors that Lyme disease is a deliberate biological weapon engineered at CDC and NIH, and the CDC epi training program is a spy agency. “The number of Steere camp Lyme researchers with a background in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) and/or biowarfare research is too numerous to be pure co-incidence.”

Protest rally at the University of CT Health Center, Farmington CT. “We demand that UCONN show us the test that is being used to prove that the lyme spirochete has been eradicated. Many of us in the lyme community have been suffering for many years with active infection. It's time for Dr. [Henry] Feder and others to back up there claim of short term cure.”

Activists and quack doctors try to link Lme disease to autism.

Activists raise $3M to start their own ‘research center’ with Dr. Brian Fallon at Columbia U. Later, Fallon reports in the journal Neurology, “that the Lyme patients…showed no more cognitive improvement at the trial thanthose who received a placebo.” He is denounced by some of his earlier supporters: “I have seen and still see Lyme patients/activists attack and question Dr. Fallon, because the findings of his study are thought to be not corresponding with their believes.”

2008 Lyme Protest at the office of Congressman Frank Pallone (NJ-6) over HR 741 (Lyme bill).

Maryland activist tries to get Edward McSweegan’s infectious disease column dropped from the Annapolis newspaper.