I accidentally deleted this whole thread while trying to remedy a technical problem. A big apology to those who participated...if I knew how to get it back I would!
I'm reposting the original message minus the long URL which seems to have caused the problem.
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CDC's Dr. Barbara Johnson and Dr. Allen Steere Conspired to Bury Results Showing Unreliability of Lyme Testing
by Elena Cook 3 March 2014
Dr. Barbara Johnson, leading policy-maker on Lyme Disease at the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), and Dr. Allen Steere, an officer of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service whose views have dominated Lyme Disease medicine since he first "discovered" * the disease in the 1970's, conspired together in 2007 to bury experimental results which, in Steere's own words, might make some people "conclude that two-tier testing is not that reliable".
Those familiar with the controversies surrounding Lyme Disease will be aware that both Dr Johnson and Dr. Steere have for years maintained that Lyme Disease is over-diagnosed, easily-cured for the most part with short courses of antibiotics, and that serious chronic brain disease virtually never occurs in treated people.
Against this is a raft of evidence showing that the Borrelia spirochaetes which cause Lyme have been recovered from the tissues, including the brain, of chronically ill people, despite treatment.
The two-tier testing method imposed by CDC and other government-backed health agencies involves the ELISA test as first tier. This so-called "screening test" for antibodies is notoriously poor at detecting Lyme.
However, only those positive on the ELISA ever go on to receive the second tier antibody test, the Immunoblot or western blot. There are a great number of factors which could cause a patient to test negative using this regime, despite the presence of infection with Borrelia.
The extracts below derive from email correspondence released in response to a FOIA request by Kris Newby. ** All boldface and some additional spacing in the text is mine.
"From: Steere, Allen C., M.D. Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 1:01 PM To: Johnson, Barbara J. (CDC/CCID/NCZVED) Subject: Serology Manuscript
Dear Barbara,
It was good to see you and have the opportunity to talk at the recent Banbury conference....
I have attached two tables. One gives summary data about the results of the prospective serologic study based on our data (Table 1) and the other (Table 1a) gives the summary results of your data....
Although the biggest discrepancy is in IgM testing, the frequency of positive results in every category is less in your testing than in ours. I think that this is particularly problematic as it relates to the early disseminated infection (neurologic and cardiac disease) and late disseminated infection (arthritis) groups.
In your testing, the frequency of IgG positivity is on the low side in each of these groups. In contrast, in our prospective testing, these patients had positive results.
We have postulated that this may have resulted from some degrading of the sera with shipping and with time.
However, this is only one explanation that one would have to give in a manuscript. I am worried that some people would conclude that two-tier testing is not that reliable, which is not the message that we would want to give. Therefore, I would propose that we would go back to the plan in which we simply report the prospective study results from my laboratory.
Please let me know what you think.
Allen"
From: Johnson, Barbara J. (CDC/CCID/NCZVED) Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 6:06 PM To: Steere, Allen C., M.D. Subject: RE: Serology manuscript
Dear Allen,
It was good to see you, too, at Banbury!
After (re)reviewing the data from the prospective study, I agree with your assessment. The best evidence of the performance of two-tiered testing (and a C6 assay) are the data that were acquired in real time.
These data are the ones that are most relevant to clinicians. Since I am not able to dissect the effects of time, shipping, storage here, and our performance of the tests, we would confuse the field by showing these results side-by-side.
If we had a clean story to tell of differences between our labs, I would not hesitate to publish the results. But unfortunately, we do not.
Since Banbur
****text here was censored before release under FOIA****
I should be able to send a draft summary of our Banbury discussions fairly soon.
Warm regards, Barbara
Barbara J.B. Johnson Ph.D."
************************************************************ ************************************************************ **** Ms. Newby was kept waiting five years for the FOIA material, even though regulations state that it should be provided within a month. When it finally arrived, well over 1000 pages had been censored.
For more information on the FOIA documents, please see:
and insert words "Lyme" and "Foia" into their search box.
* Although Dr. Steere is often lauded as the "discoverer" of Lyme Disease, many familiar aspects of the disease had actually been known in Europe for a century or more.
What is not clear, however, is whether the Lyme Disease afflicting people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was as virulent as it is today. It is a historical fact that the Borrelia genus of bacteria was researched as a bioweapon since at least as far back as the Second World War era.
**Kris Newby, as many of you will know, is the executive producer of the landmark documentary "Under our Skin", which so poignantly highlighted the impact of the denial of chronic Lyme Disease on the lives of its many victims.
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-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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nefferdun
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 20157
posted
Dr. McDonalds presentation is very interesting. I don't know how these "scientists" are able to get away with what they have done, and I don't know why either.
-------------------- old joke: idiopathic means the patient is pathological and the the doctor is an idiot Posts: 4676 | From western Montana | Registered: Apr 2009
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quote:Originally posted by nefferdun: Dr. McDonalds presentation is very interesting. I don't know how these "scientists" are able to get away with what they have done, and I don't know why either.
If you look at all the Major Players in Lyme Disease Denial, since the 1970's, the overwhelmng majority of them have a background in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) and/or biological warfare research.
Borrelia is a sensitive issue for the US military (and countries allied to it, such as mine). The Denial is related to this.
The military EIS core within CDC wield enormous power, not just in CDC itself, but in the whole of US public health and medicine generally. They have a network of EIS officers who are placed in all the strategic points in the healthcare system, and they can use it to exert a lot of control over what can and cannot be published in the medical press etc..
Until this aspect is understood by a majority of victims of this Denial, and brought to the attention of independent journalists, Congressmen etc, so that we can demand a public enquiry, I don't see anything changing for the better.
Certainly the Insurance industry and other financial conflicts of interest are important, but they are not the **fundamental** cause of all this - it's the military issue. That is why Richard Blumenthal's attempt to force the IDSA to reconsider their guidelines did not succeed.
Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
The first film of the video series which Andromeda13 has posted contains a description of the method which EIS Officer Dr Alan Barbour (now head of a massive biowarfare research centre at UCI Irvine) used to establish the "prototype" on which all our antibody testing is based.
He took Willy Burgdorfer's ticks and isolated Borrelia burgdorferi using a technique called cloning by limited dilution, which resulted in him isolating just ONE SINGLE CELL of Bb.
He then grew a culture which was a clone of this one single cell, guaranteeing that all the proteins would be representative of that one cell, and no other.
All antibody testing and even DNA-based techniques like PCR in use ultimately emanate from the information provided by that one cell, which became the Bb sensu stricto B31 strain. That strain, as Dr Macdonald points out in his video, never saw a human body - it was a Bb strain from a tick.
We know that strain variability and also antigenic variation within the body of the host are hallmarks of Lyme borrelia. So the information Alan Barbour gave the world was potentially highly misleading, and could be one of the reasons so many people with Borrelia infection are negative on the antibody tests.
Which brings us back to CDC's Barbara Johnson and Allen Steere, colluding to bury evidence that two-tier testing is not reliable.
Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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GretaM
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 40917
posted
May they for ever and eternally burn for what they have done.
Period.
I'm no religious nutter. But some things are truly sinful.
Ignoring and perpetuating suffering for millions in the name of "science" and "protection" is NOT and will NEVER be an adequate reason for this action.
Period.
Posts: 4358 | From British Columbia, Canada | Registered: Jun 2013
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posted
I think it's important to bear in mind this FOIA'd conversation when thinking about Dr Barbara Johnson's recent paper falsely accusing Dr. Sapi of contaminating her cultures in her paper re the new Advanced Laboratory culture test.
This is an excellent test which has detected the spirochaete in the blood of Lyme patients, including many with chronic disease and those who have already had long courses of antibiotic treatment.
It is proving beyond any doubt that the "easily-cured-in 2-weeks" mantra is utter nonsense. Of course Dr Barbara Johnson and her colleagues at CDC and its EIS core need the medical world to believe that Dr. Sapi's results were flawed. But should anyone take Dr. Barbara Johnson seriously anymore on anything, after reading this correspondence between her and Steere?
It's also worth bearing in mind that one of the main tenets of Johnson's arguments against Dr. Sapi was the latter's finding of strains which were genetically closest to B. garinii, according to analysis of a section of the pyrG gene. Barbara johnson maintained this was impossible and that garinii is absent from the US.
Yet AT THE SAME TIME, her name appears on a patent in which the "background information" states that the evidence suggests Borrelia garinii is likely present in North America.
How dishonest can you get?
Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
Just a quick note re the links to Dr Macdonald's videos posted by andromeda -
There is currently a campaign to reach 20,000 Youtube views for the first video of the series. (link below) We are already close to 19 000 so it's not much further to go!
The reason we're doing this is in response to an attempt by the Denialists to block a local public screening of it in the US. For details of the action alert, please go to the homepage of my wwebsite, and scroll down to the yellow box at the bottom. Thanks.
posted
I attempted to post the article re the collusion of Barbara Johnson and Steere in burying data to a Lyme forum on www.patient.co.uk . This is a massive website which is commercially run but officially endorsed by our Dept of Health. My post has been refused and no explanation is given.
If anyone is a member there (or cares to join), would they please consider trying to post it, perhaps minus the links (to rule out that it was refused for that reason.)
British patients have a right to know that their blood is tested using an unreliable two-tier method proven to miss most chronic Lyme patients.
Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
Just one footnote re the appeal to bump up views of Dr Macdonald's viseo to 20 000 -
if anyone has any friends of Dutch-speaking forums, please can you forward them the Dutch translation of the appeal (below). Cheers!
Kindly translated from English by K. Smith:
Beste vrienden,
Onlangs probeerden Lyme-ontkenners beeldmateriaal van de eerste van een reeks interviews met Dr.Alan Macdonald te bekritiseren.
Het publiek tonen van het beeldmateriaal, dat plaats zou vinden in de bibliotheek in Massachusetts in oktober van 2013, werd bijna afgelast door iemand, die claimde een senior dokter te zijn. Deze dokter dreigde er te voor zorgen dat de financiering voor de bibliotheek zou worden gestopt, indien de publieke vertoning van het beeldmateriaal zou worden getoond.
Gelukkig is dit lafhartige plan mislukt en kon de vertoning doorgaan.
Laten wij de lyme-ontkenners lekker zien wat wij denken van hun pogingen om de waarheid rondom de ziekte van lyme te bekritiseren. Ga naar de volgende URL waar je de video zelf kan zien en deze kan aanraden aan minimaal 2 vrienden, vragend om deze door te zenden met de dezelfde raad om het door te zenden aan 2 vrienden. Ten tijde van dit schrijven is de video al 11.600 keer bekeken. Laten wij dit omhoog brengen naar 20.000!
De volledige set video’s op DVD kunnen gekocht worden ter financiering van de liefdadigheidsinstelling “The Arthroplasty Patient Foundation” (details aan het einde van de film), en verdere onderwijs video’s geproduceerd door Dr.Macdonald kunnen gevonden worden door onder Youtube te zoeken op de woorden “Dr Alan Macdonald” en “Lyme”.
quote:Originally posted by Eight Legs Bad: Just a quick note re the links to Dr Macdonald's videos posted by andromeda -
There is currently a campaign to reach 20,000 Youtube views for the first video of the series. (link below) We are already close to 19 000 so it's not much further to go!
The reason we're doing this is in response to an attempt by the Denialists to block a local public screening of it in the US. For details of the action alert, please go to the homepage of my wwebsite, and scroll down to the yellow box at the bottom. Thanks.
posted
Just to let you know, we have now reached and exceeded our target of 20 000 - there are 20, 208 views of Dr M's video. Thanks to all who helped make this a success!!! Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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Lymedin2010
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 34322
posted
The new HITLER's of the technological/healthcare error!
Responsible for the death & suffering of MILLIONS!!
Posts: 2087 | From NY | Registered: Oct 2011
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Just a heads-up that the video, as of right now, has reached 20,211 views.
And, Wow, that was a very informative video. It just goes to show how archaic and dysfunctional the Lyme testing is in the US.
Thank you for posting the video.
TheWino
-------------------- Wrinkles only go where the smiles have been --J. Buffett
All of my replies should not be taken as medical advice as they are my opinions only and I am not a physician. Posts: 55 | From Florida | Registered: Oct 2012
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D Bergy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9984
posted
So what is to be gained by these EIS people influencing the published information? Just what is the goal here. I don't see a motive .
Dan
Posts: 2919 | From Minnesota | Registered: Aug 2006
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Razzle
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 30398
posted
It's all about the money... If there's an inexpensive cure for all these autoimmune diseases, then the drug co's don't make as much money...
The monoclonal antibody drugs used to treat autoimmune diseases today are hugely profitable to drug co's.
Not to mention, all the diabetes meds, heart disease meds, etc. etc. etc.
Just follow the money, and you'll have your answer...
-------------------- -Razzle Lyme IgM IGeneX Pos. 18+++, 23-25+, 30++, 31+, 34++, 39 IND, 83-93 IND; IgG IGeneX Neg. 30+, 39 IND; Mayo/CDC Pos. IgM 23+, 39+; IgG Mayo/CDC Neg. band 41+; Bart. (clinical dx; Fry Labs neg. for all coinfections), sx >30 yrs. Posts: 4166 | From WA | Registered: Feb 2011
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posted
The core of the EIS (Epidemic Intelligence Service) operates to further the goals and priorities of the US Dept of Defense **within** the public health organisations. Those goals can sometimes conflict with the goals of public health.
In the case of Lyme, this has been disastrous.
This is the main problem (though lobbying and influence by those with a financial stake in the Denial, such as insurance corporations is obviously an important factor too.)
Borrelia has been studied as a biological weapon since at least the WW2 period. I have more information re this on my website eg here:
Most of the major players in Denialism (Steere, Barbour, Klempner, Baker, McSweegan, Dennis etc) have been EIS officers and/or biowarfare scientists.
Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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D Bergy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9984
posted
If it is a bio weapon then it does not make sense to infect and then not treat your own population. At least from a military standpoint. I am sure it was developed for use against an enemy, and now is spread world wide.
I understand the insurers not wanting a life long treatment, but if anything the pharma companies would be for it, and I don't see why the military would care one way or another. Following the money only makes sense to some players, not all of them.
Dan
Posts: 2919 | From Minnesota | Registered: Aug 2006
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