posted
I am posting below to defend the reputation of the writer Michael Carroll, whose excellent book "Lab 257" published in 2004 detailed the shocking breaches in biocontainment that prevailed before and after Lyme Disease broke out in the area immediately surrounding the lab.
Recently a long-time poster on this list alleged that Carroll's work was a fictional novel, and that he was so lacking in basic scientific knowledge about Lyme that he thought Bb was a virus.
Both assertions are completely untrue.
This is what Carroll wrote in his book:
"And in 1981 Wally burgdorfer, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, discovered a thin spiral BACTERIUM - in technical terms, a spirochete - immersed in the fluid of a deer tick." (Capitalisation mine).
Granted, Carroll may have spelt Burgdorfer's first name wrongly. That's not a very serious error. That error would not have harmed anyone . Not like allowing biocontainment in a maximum-security facility to run down to the point where there are holes in the roof.
It is true that Carroll is a lawyer, not a scientist. If you have ever watched a lawyer in a medical case, you may have seen that they are often very good at what they do.
A good lawyer is capable of getting his head around very complex information very rapidly, even on topics where he has no prior knowledge. This is their skill; they acquire it because they have to be able to do so ,every working day of their life.
Of course they will never understand science as a scientist would. But they do learn and absorb information very fast indeed. I was amazed to see how much a lawyer with no scientific or medical background was able to grasp in only four hours.
Michael Carroll did not spend four hours, but SEVEN YEARS researching this.
Certainly, there was a massive attempt by the US government to discredit him and his book through the media and it would not surprise me if there is material out there purporting to show that Carroll does not know the first thing about Lyme.
If you get hold of a copy of the book, you will see that the quote I have reproduced is accurate, and not any other.
The truth is, Michael Carroll spent seven long years interviewing innumerable scientists, reading innumerable documents, and also took tuition from a microbiologist, who also assisted by checking his manuscript for scientific accuracy before he published.
No one who has read, or even browsed, Lab 257, could possibly confuse it with a "fictional novel" - even if they disagree with Carroll's conclusion that the Lyme outbreak in New England was a result of an escape from Plum Island biowarfare lab.
The high rates of Lyme in Wisconsin and nearby states, and its appearance at the dawn of the US epidemic, does not in the least negate Carroll's argument, as this area is in the DIRECT path of a major tributary of the Great Atlantic flyway used by millions of migratory birds.
Additionally, there is more than one explanation for the outbreaks in Wisconsin, in the sixties and seventies, and their subsequent spread.
We know that birds are extremely efficient in transporting Lyme-infected TICKS.
In fact, this has been known for decades, not least because of the massive study by the Scandianavian researcher Olson which involved thousands of birds.
Some migrating birds may be efficient reservoirs too -ie they may be transporting Borrelia in their bodies and bloodstream.
What has all this to do with Wisconsin and Plum Island?
Well, eye-witnesses who worked at Plum Island informed Michael Carroll that the biowarfaremen allowed animals that had been infected with the most dangerous microbes on earth to be housed and fed in OPEN-AIR pens.
How colossally stupid was that???!!!
How on earth did they expect to contain lethal germs when they were conducting these experiments in the open air - with ticks, mice and other small mammals, and BIRDS, all around?
Eyewitnesses told Carroll how they saw birds swoop down into those open-air pens, and start pecking at the animals' feed. Then they would fly away, continuing on their migration.
First stop, the town of Lyme, Connecticut and the nearby islands and surrounding coastal areas.
Plum Island was hyper-infested with ticks. When Carroll first went there, he ended up covered in them.
What should we call the Biosafety level of this "open-air" approach that Plum Island biowar scientists chose to take?
(For the uninitiated: there are numbered levels of biosecurity used in different lab facilities according to the risk posed by the pathogen, its mode of transmission etc..In US, there are four levels, BSL (Biosafety) Levels 1 to 4.
Levels 3 and 4 are for the most dangerous microbes, transmissible by the airborne route.
Level 2 is for germs that may still be dangerous, fatal even, but are more easily contained with standard precautions and PPE (personal protective equipment) .There is no need for special high-tech pressurised airflow systems.
Level 1 is for harmless germs, like the yeast that make your bread rise.
So what should we call the open-air pens at Plum Island? Biosafety level ZERO??!!
Very recently, Dr. Elena Gomez-Diaz of Spain has published about the seabirds which distribute neurotropic (brain-homing) strains like Borrelia garinii ALL OVER THE WORLD.
That one, cavalier, criminally stupid action of housing experimentally-infected animals in the OPEN AIR would have been enough to enable birds to spread Lyme around the WORLD, never mind just Wisconsin.
But there wasn't just ONE criminally stupid action. There were many.
Lab 257 documents holes in the roofs and other defects at the maximum biocontainment labs at Plum Island(!)
What good is the most high-tech, advanced pressurised airflow system in the world, if maintenance is allowed to be so slack that the lab has holes in the roof?
Under such circumstances, leaks of dangerous pathogens would not be "coincidence", but inevitability.
And open-air animal pens and holes in the roof were not all...
Plum Island couriers, arriving too late at the ferry dock, left their packages, containing the most dangerous pathogens on earth, leaning against the office door(!)
If I order a delivery from my local supermarket, I worry if I am held up and can't make it home in time for my delivery.
I worry that the delivery man will leave it leaning against my door. Then my groceries might get ruined by the rain. I also worry that an animal like a dog or a fox will get into the packaging, or that someone will steal my stuff.
Plum Island management, it seems, worry about NOTHING.
I worry more about my flaming packet of frozen broccoli than the Plum Island biowar scientists did, about the most dangerous pathogens on earth!!
Did they worry that the wind and rain would batter the packages and open them?
Did they worry that an animal might break them open?
Did they worry that a terrorist or an agent of a foreign government hostile to the US might walk off with it?
Apparently not.
Plum Island biowarfare scientists must have thought they were invincible.
And what of the couriers who, having missed the ferry, did not lean the packages against the door, but took them home instead, placing them in their kitchen fridge?
We can picture the scenario:
"Mum, Where's my ham sandwich? I'm late for school?"
"In the fridge, darling. Just above the Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, behind the Plague, right next to the Smallpox."
It would be comical, if it were not so damned tragic.
They also told lies to Congress about the flow of bioweapon traffic overland.
Remember, the reason Plum Island was chosen in the first place was because the pathogens were deemed too dangerous to risk transporting over the continental United States.
An offshore island seemed safer.
Clever people realised that a simple roadside spill or car-jacking could prove disastrous. they lobbied Congress, and Congress brought the ban into law.
But then, in 1958, the Plum Island scientists stepped in and tricked Congress into relaxing the legislation.
They told Congress that a few vials might need to be shipped overland "once or twice a year".
All documented in Carroll's book and undoubtedly, in the congressional records.
So what happened? They did not transport a few vials once or twice a year. As Carroll points out, they transported "huge crates" over "congested Long Island roads multiple times **each day**." (Carroll's italics.)
Let's not forget the men who worked the incinerator, where infected animal carcasses were to be cremated.
They pulled animal parts out of the fire and ate them. Yes, really!!!
Did they think they were at a barbecue?
Where was management?
So many incredible infringements of biosecurity (all corroborated in Carroll's book by eye-witness accounts, and/or documentation) .
Elena
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posted
Thanks for the well thought out post Elena. I didn't realize anyone thought the book was fiction.
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Phoiph
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-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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Rumigirl
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posted
Thank you, Elena, for your tireless work. I just referenced your work and Lab 257 in another post. People with Lyme grossly underestimate what the "enemy" is all about. It's a far darker and more insidious story than anyone would like.
And BTW, ever since I was tiny, my family always vacationed in Montauk---just 1 1/2 miles from Plum Island. The last town in Long Island. It was beautiful!
HOWEVER, we ALWAYS got ticks on us, lots of them. And I began having strange symptoms of really serious "bursitis" at age 8, so I couldn't walk or even crawl.
And on an on it went, vacationing there right up through the '90's, more and more tick bites (not understanding the danger), and escalating symptoms. Until I was incapacitated and diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and a raft of "autoimmune" disorders.
There was a small army base right there, too (on the mainland). And now I can't get rid of the blasted TBD's.
And my mother always vacationed on Fire Island---right near by. Looking back, I think she had it, but we'll never know.
I used to love Montauk and the vicinity. And I used to be Miss Nature Girl. No more. I can't afford it anymore.
Of course, it has gone far, far beyond Montauk and Long Island now. But it is still ground zero if you ask me. The deer used to swim back and forth from the mainland to the island. Still do, I'm sure.
I hear Trump wants to buy the island to develop----whew! That would be some mighty expensive and dangerous property!
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Recently [a] forum member ... referred to studies on museum ticks which she said proved that the Lyme epidemic in US had nothing to do with biowarfare.
The museum tick study by Persing et al found some ticks containing Bb DNA which had been preserved in the 1940s.
Let's ignore for the moment, the fact that the study was conducted by famous Yale-based Denialists, or the biowarfare scientist Spielman. Suppose we take it at face value.
As Michael Carroll himself pointed out, the 1940s was a hardly an irrelevant time - it was a time of frenetic bioweapons development by all major powers in the Second World War.
What was the location of the Borrelia-infected ticks found in that study?
Montauk, Long Island, US - close neighbour of Plum Island.
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lpkayak
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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posted
Oh boy. The pieces fall together. We camped on montalk every year til i was 7
I knew montalk was long island and close to plum island...but never knew i was so close and so exposed
I had subtle sx when young...learning disabilities, allergies but when working with horses later in life in hudson valley ny...west of lyme ct...is when i became disabled from lyme
I do believe that many ppl are infected and affected by Bb infection...but they dont even know it because it is the only way they have ever felt
It lowers our abilities phyically, cognitively and emotionally
It lowers our chance of being successful in life
We may be genius and never knowbecause of chronic infection so early
What a way to destroy a civilization
-------------------- Lyme? Its complicated. Educate yourself. Posts: 13712 | From new england | Registered: Feb 2004
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Phoiph
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posted
I was infected on Block Island, also a "stone's throw" from Plum Island...
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TNT
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posted
Originally posted by lpkayak:
"I do believe that many ppl are infected and affected by Bb infection...but they dont even know it because it is the only way they have ever felt
It lowers our abilities phyically, cognitively and emotionally
It lowers our chance of being successful in life
We may be genius and never knowbecause of chronic infection so early
What a way to destroy a civilization"
-------------------------------- Very well said, lpkayak! I have one child in particular that is probably genius but lyme is taking its toll.
She could hum the tune of "Jesus loves me" and go up the steps and down a slide by the time she was 11 months old! She is now older, and very gifted in various ways.
It's too bad we have to be up against such a monster as lyme!(and coinfections)!! And, unfortunately, it is perpetuated from generation to generation unless successful treatment can be gotten.
The really sad thing is, like you said, that people never realize something is wrong because this is the way they have always been, or felt (like me).
The powers that be are willing to throw so much potential down the drain all because of various personal interests.
Very sad.... and un-human!
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Catgirl
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posted
quote:Originally posted by lpkayak: I do believe that many ppl are infected and affected by Bb infection...but they dont even know it because it is the only way they have ever felt
It lowers our abilities phyically, cognitively and emotionally
It lowers our chance of being successful in life
We may be genius and never knowbecause of chronic infection so early
What a way to destroy a civilization
Ditto, and so well said!
To top it off with a vaccine that actually gave people lyme was just icing on the cake. Then they pulled the vaccine and the major bands that actually identified people had lyme from the western blot, just so the stupid maker of the vaccine could cover their a---s with lawsuits.
In doing so we are all left with a ridiculous western blot test that is useless. And now they want to force it on people as THE identifying test for lyme disease, and no other. The ramifications of this are huge.
Run to ACTIVISM and sign to stop this while you still can. You don't want this test standardized, or your insurance just may deny everything down the road. This is how it starts. They get their foot in the door and deny everything later. Sound familiar?
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Catgirl
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
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posted
By the way, Lab 257 was spot on.
-------------------- --Keep an open mind about everything. Also, remember to visit ACTIVISM (we can change things together). Posts: 5418 | From earth | Registered: Mar 2011
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Abxnomore
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posted
Other good reads by Donald W. Scott, William L. C. Scott are:
The Brucellosis Triangle
The Extremely Unfortunate Skull Valley Incident
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poppy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
I have never believed the evil nazi Dr. Traub story that some keep bringing up in connection with Plum Island. And although relapsing fever was part of the biowarfare program, lyme was not.
But a case could be made for accidental and careless pathogen handling and lab safety lapses along with a bug that was already in the vicinity could add up to trouble.
Where the story diverges into fantasyland on some lyme forums is that this was intended as a way to reduce the population of the world. This is given as the reason why we can't get diagnosed and treated adequately. It is rubbish and they should stop doing this as it makes us look like nuts.
When biowarfare or disease research labs have escaped pathogens, the usual reaction is to lie about it. This is criminal incompetence not some great plot.
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posted
I believe that people have the right to discuss Lab 257 and the biowarfare issues, and to learn about them. I do not want those who want to censor this topic to feel they can easily shut down all discussion of these topics simply by being abusive to others, knowing the thread will then be deleted.
Poppy, I agree with you that there is no evidence that Borrelia was deliberately spread by the US army on its own territory in order to depopulate it.
I find that absurd and I believe some of those stories (and even more bizarre ones involving giant lizards etc) are being deliberately circulated in order to make those of us who want to expose the biowar coverup look ridiculous.
Some of these stories are also being spread by extreme right-wing political groups to further their agenda.
In my opinion, everything we say on this issue should be very factual and we should be able to supply evidence from credible sources to back it up.
Where I disagree with you, Poppy, is re Traub. We don't know for sure whether Lyme spread from Plum Island as a result of Erich Traub's activities. What we DO know for sure is the following:
1. The US collaborated with Nazi and Japanese biowarfare scientists after the Second World War, protecting them from prosecution for war crimes and in some cases, bringing them to the US under Operation Paperclip.
This is fact documented by historians.
2. Erich Traub was invited to **take charge** of scientific work at Plum Island and many of the leading biowarfare and infectious disease researchers of the day lobbied for him to be allowed to return to US after WW2 (he was in the US prior to WW2) -This is all available in declassified documents.
3. An extremely high-ranking prosecutor, John Loftus (who was responsible for exposing the Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim) reported that US intelligence agents confided in him that a Nazi scientist did **open-air** tick trials on an offshore island (during the time when Plum Island was the most likely candidate).
4. We do know that migrating birds are capable of spreading Lyme-infected ticks worldwide.
5. We do know that the ww2 Axis scientists worked with Relapsing Fever Borrelia, as did Fort Detrick after the war.
5. We do know that Plum Island had a tick colony with both soft and hard ticks (some of their work with them is in the public domain).
6. We do know that the line between relapsing fever Borrelia and Lyme Borrelia is somewhat blurred. That is why Dr MacDonald and others are calling for a name change from Lyme Disease to Borreliosis, or Borreliosis Complex Disease. Miyamotoi is an example of a relapsing fever-type Borrelia which causes all the same picture as Lyme.
7. If you read the clinical descriptions of relapsing fever, and compare them to what has been found in fatal cases of Borreliosis with Borrelia **burgdorferi** published in the peer-reviewed literature, you find there is almost no difference.
The only difference between fatal relapsing fever and fatal Lyme is the classic recurring high temperature may be absent in Lyme(sometimes it is present).
posted
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