Letter to Editor Chicago Tribune–Chronic Lyme Dubious Diagnosis
Here is the letter I sent to the Editor a shortened version of my original to remain within the maximum allowed. Will it be shared with the public? Will they even acknowledge it? Who knows?
The Chicago Tribune in Chronic Lyme: Dubious Diagnosis, once known for its integrity and its thorough investigative reporting, disappointed and infuriated many including myself. It is hard to remain calm and dignified especially when you know of many that have lost their livelihood and lives as they know it.
I feel the Tribune was trying to portray those that have this “pseudo-disease” like a bunch of lunatics. Speaking from experience and recovered: would you be able to control your feelings when your life has changed drastically? Would you be able to remain calm when you are so ill that you can’t walk; would you be comfortable when your friends used to call you “the walking encyclopedia” and then you cannot even iterate a full and complete thought; when you were known for great speeches and all you can do is stutter; when you were known for perfect audits and now you are lucky if you remember to add two and two; when you were afraid to eat in public because your hands shook so much that you couldn’t even get the spoon to your mouth or hiding your arms deep in your pockets so that people wouldn’t notice the uncontrollable shaking–this is what I had experienced.
I felt their anger, desperation and loss of hope in the “comments”–I was lucky it happened quickly; within the six weeks of the initial treatment of 10 days, I was completely disabled and bedridden–the standard “rubber stamp” “one size fits all” treatment as outlined by the CDC guidelines which the IDSA says is sufficient was used. Took me two years to recover, I lost my job—stole my life as I knew it.
The public deserves real journalism–“the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues, and trends to a broad audience” and not showing one side of the issue. I commend Lorraine Johnson, LymePolicyWonk: “there are 27 studies evidencing persistence in humans that have been published in peer-reviewed journals…provided to the Tribune,” which you failed to mention. ILADS states: “Four National Institutes of Health (NIH) trials documented the severity of chronic Lyme…”
I’m not surprised your readership has been declining, as I will quote in the New York Times, October 2010, in At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture. “They threw out what Tribune had stood for, quality journalism and real brand integrity and in just a year.”
Longer Version: Letter to Editor Chicago Tribune
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Other responses to article:
Journalism or Sensationalism? Compilation of a few Lyme advocates http://bit.ly/hL4ala
BioMeds response: Chronic Lyme: Real Disease or Medical Myth? http://www.lymebook.com/chronic-lyme-disease-science
Chicago Tribune called me back today, by Tiffany Gonzalez on Friday, December 10, 2010, http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/note.php?note_id=471261814365&id=724140942
Response to Chicago Tribune’s Misinformation Attempts, “fails to educate herself in the actual science or history of what she writes about” http://bit.ly/egAQdq
Honoring Those Great Doctors – LLMD’s http://bit.ly/e76AuO
Rebuttals: