Dear Yankee
Wrong Target Edie Clark’s bucolic view of country life is certainly charming, but she should have been fretting more about the wandering black bovine eating poisonous pigweed or getting hit by a car rather than getting shot by a hunter [“Raging Bull,” September/October, p. 14]. Encouraging the stereotype of the bumbling and dangerous “Elmer Fudd”-type […]
By Yankee Magazine|Oct 12 2007|
Wrong Target
Edie Clark’s bucolic view of country life is certainly charming, but she should have been fretting more about the wandering black bovine eating poisonous pigweed or getting hit by a car rather than getting shot by a hunter [“Raging Bull,” September/October, p. 14]. Encouraging the stereotype of the bumbling and dangerous “Elmer Fudd”-type hunter is disingenuous and does nothing but frighten visitors to the region and encourage new residents to post their properties. Hunters are an integral part of the New England landscape and know the difference between a cow and a deer.
Brad Eden, Frankfort, ME
Journey Through Lyme
Our family of five all suffer from Lyme [“Trouble in Paradise,” July/August, p. 86], yet only my three children are receiving proper treatment (from Dr. Jones). For now we’re trying to get through day to day hoping the political/medical battle can figure out that the bottom line is that these people just want to get healthy! Isn’t that what medical science is all about?
Barbara Getchell, Hamilton, MA
As a physician who treats Lyme disease in children, I appreciate media attention to this public health problem. However, with the eventual loss of Dr. Jones, there will not be a void in physicians who treat pediatric Lyme disease in Connecticut. I know of several highly qualified, board-certified specialists in infectious disease and rheumatology, myself included, who will treat not only the acute infectious complications of the illness, but the noninfectious later symptoms as well. None of these physicians would abandon sick or symptomatic children, regardless of the cause.
Lawrence Zemel, M.D., University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT
Forever Wild
Some 30 years ago, my oldest daughter, then age 14, and I canoed the Allagash with three other families. It was quite an experience, for we saw moose and other animals along the way that we wouldn’t ordinarily see. We took our time to do the whole trip, all the way to the town of Allagash. Ten days after we started we emerged from the river. Your article [“Choppy Waters Ahead on the Allagash,” July/August, p. 22] mentions some people who think they own the wilderness area, who want to stop everyday people from using the waterway. I hope the state of Maine realizes that all people enjoy these river adventures, not just a select few who want to put a stop to this wonderful experience. It was one of the best trips that I’ve ever taken.
John F. Greene, Douglas, MA
Going Batty
I’d like to add a different perspective to “Sneak Attack” [July/August, p. 16]. In the summer of 1939 I attended a memorable performance of a play at the Clinton, Connecticut, summer theater. It featured an armor-clad Elissa Landi, a movie star of the time, as an Amazon. A bat was conspicuously cruising the hall, and when it nose-dived toward Ms. Landi, she triumphantly brandished her sword at it. The audience applauded!
Dorothy Sands Beers, Jamaica Plain, MA
Some bat bites can be too small to be noticed. Healthy bats out in nature are protected by law, but bats that have been near sleeping people need to be trapped and tested for rabies, not let go. Please see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site for more information (cdc.gov/rabies/bats.html).
Emily Beeler, D.V.M., Hermosa Beach, CA
Update: David Ball
“The Hands of David Ball” [September/October, p. 16] … are still catching balls for the Chicago Bears. After weeks of drills, scrimmages, and pre-season games, the Vermont native and former University of New Hampshire star receiver was one of seven players added to the Bears’ practice squad in September, after the organization pared its roster from 90 to the league-required 53.
After getting the news, Ball told reporters, “To be in this situation with a team that just made the Super Bowl … I’ll take it in any way, shape, or form … It’s only going to help me to go against this [defense] every day.” Stay tuned. — Eds.
Imagine the audacity of a individual who feels it is acceptable to write a letter to Yankee Magazine in order to drum up business for himself and his medical colleagues at the expense of a well known, beloved and successful pediatrician who they have collectively tried to ruin both professionally and financially. Combine that lunacy with the fact that some of these self-absorbed block heads who declare themselves willing and able to take on this trampled doctor’s patients are already connected to a governmental investigation into illegal practices for possible fraud, anti-trust, monopolization and exclusionary conduct related directly to what they claim they are ?highly qualified? to do.
My question- Would Larry Zemel (University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT) and his hand-picked cronies be more suited to be poster boys for the arrogant, the pompous or the narcissistic community?
One thing for certain- They shouldn?t be allowed to treat ?sick or symptomatic children? with acute infections or the aftermath that follows. That is the last thing the Lyme disease community needs right now.
Dr. Zemel is correct, as far as he goes. There may not be a shortage of doctors treating “noninfectious” later symptoms of Lyme disease. However there WILL be a shortage of doctors treating the INFECTIOUS later symptoms of Lyme disease.
Numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies document the resistance of Lyme disease to treatment and persistence of the Lyme spirochete in spite of much more aggressive treatments than Dr. Zemel is happy prescribing. Post-treatment symptoms are the norm because most cases are not treated adequately.
Dr. Zemel relies on the guidelines of the Infectious Disease Society of America. These guidelines are currently being revised under strict conditions laid down by the Attorney General of Connecticut because the guidelines panel was corrupted by commercial conflicts of interest.
Please visit http://www.lymedisease.org for frequent updates on the revision process and order the summer issue of the Lyme Times to read about it.
Phyllis Mervine, Pres.
California Lyme Disease Assn.
I always wondered why rheumatologists take care of “fibromyalgia” patients. Fibromyalgia is suspected to be none other than undiagnosed, untreated or poorly treated late stage Lyme.
Lyme has been found to have many coinfections which include mycoplasmas and fibromyalgia has also been found to have 3 types of mycoplasmas–fermantans, pneumoniae, genitalium–3 of which Eva Sapi, of the University of New Haven has found in Lyme.
What do these rheumatologists do? They give you a psych exam, and then tell you you have ‘atypical rheumatoid arthritis’ and fibromyalgia (and send you to a neurologist who does the same) because they do not want to admit it is Lyme.
The Western Blot is frequently negative because they use a GERMAN strain, not an American strain. There are 300 strains of Barrelia Burgdorferi– 100 of which are in America, yet they use a German strain. It only tests for that one strain, and does not test for any of the other co-infections that come along for the ride with Lyme
In addition, many late Lyme sufferers don’t have enough antibodies to be detected on the Western Blot. If you get a test done on Polymer Chain Reaction (PCR) and get a positive result, the CDC will not add your Lyme to their statistics (Although they accept a positive PCR on cattle who have mycoplasmas and treat them with antibiotics. Oddly, only when it pertains to animals do they admit it is hard to treat. They also admit –when it’s cattle– that if the antibiotic is not strong enough, it is only bacteriostatic (stays the same, does not kill them) It is, in effect is only a temporary birth control for the little buggers, then they begin to multiply again as soon as the antibiotic is stopped.
They attempted to have a vaccination for Lyme–Lymex– and used Osp A in the vaccine because it was so specific to Lyme. Osp A and Osp B are both specific to late stage Lyme, but they have removed them from the test, yet conveniently state late Lyme does nto exist. Removing the dinosaur footprints does not get rid of the dinosaur!
Despite their stating they removed Lymex from the shelves because of lack of demand, the truth is, it was GIVING people Lyme symptoms.
They’ve even tried, the worst of all sins, to get rid of colloidal silver, even lying about it, even trying to get it off the markets. But the fact is, it already has a patent, and it was used for infections WAY before chemical antibiotics were invented, and doesn’t create superbugs or kill your gall bladder. The blue man story was a man abusing it by drinking too much of his own homemade ionic batch. True colloidal silver is not ionic.
The US has patents on mycoplasmas: US PATENT NO. 5,242,820 is one of them.
US Law, the Ferres doctrine, gives them the right to experiment on the military:
http://www.mvrd.org/index.cfm
The government also has the legal right to experiment on “human subjects” aka citizens:
The US CODE Title 50 chapter 32