The Dangerous Conspiracy Theory Behind Mitt Romney’s Lyme Disease Mailers

[ProSense]

The Dangerous Conspiracy Theory Behind Mitt Romney’s Lyme Disease Mailers

By Judd Legum

The Romney campaign is sending out a flyer in Northern Virginia pledging to fight Lyme Disease, which is describes as a “massive epidemic threatening Virginia”:



The Washington Post notes that “According to the CDC there are less than 1,000 reported cases of Lyme disease in Virginia a year — in a state of eight million people.”

It’s fairly difficult to contract Lyme disease because “an infected tick must be attached to the skin for at least 36 hours to transmit Lyme bacteria.” For those who are effected, there is a straight-forward and effective treatments for the disease — a course of antibiotics for 2 to 4 weeks.

So what’s the point of this Romney mailer?

A highly influential social conservative in Virginia, Michael Farris, believes that people can contract “chronic Lyme disease” that must be treated with long-term antibiotics. The Center for Disease Control says there is no such thing as “chronic Lyme disease” and “long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease has been associated with serious complications.”

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/09/29/930901/the-dangerous-conspiracy-theory-behind-mitt-romneys-lyme-disease-mailers/

[get the red out]

1. Is this CT popular in Virginia?

How bizarre in a campaign for President, you would expect rMoney to be playing up the economy or jobs or some such, not some non-doctor's weird theory that his family has some kind of "chronic" Lime Disease that the CDC says doesn't exist.

[NutmegYankee]

31. There is a chronic condition, but antibiotics won't help.

Sometimes the Lyme bacteria do permanent damage to the nervous system, and these people never fully recover. They are still able to go on with their lives, but they are more like 90% for years. There is a lot of debate locally about whether antibiotics helps with this recovery, or why the damage happens in the first place. I know three people with lingering effects from Lyme disease.

You may laugh at the antibiotics treatments or the conspiracy inherit to Rmoney's flyer, but don't laugh at the victims of Lyme. They are real, and they suffer.

[freedom fighter jh]

42. I live in Northern Virginia and what you say sounds right to me.

I know a local family of 4 in which everyone has Lyme disease. Incredibly, they all got it separately.

The problem, I've been told by people who have it, is that it is often misdiagnosed. By the time people know it's Lyme disease, they've got permanent damage.

[pnwmom]

52. The CDC acknowledges that it exists; they just don't call it "chronic Lyme disease."

They call it Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.

[HuckleB]

2. So not only does Romney propose to spend more money on health care...

... but still serve tens of millions fewer people ...

He also buys into quackery?

[ehrnst]

3. I live in Northern VA, and this is the first I've heard about the 'epidemic'

And I get emails from my community association if a fox has been sighted in the neighborhood.

These geniuses don't believe in big government or science especially the EPA so how is that going to work?

[S_E_Fudd]

63. Same here...

The controversy over this is the first I have heard of this...

[bunnies]

4. "Romney and Ryan will do more to stop the spread of lyme disease"

No way this is real. No way.

[magical thyme]

5. Ok, now this is getting scary.

He's so desperate in his campaign that he's latching onto any rich nutcase that comes along and inventing nonexistent epidemics that he intends to fight with recycled 1980s business buzzwords?!?

Dog help us if this loser gets into the white house. Who would he turn to for advice and what the fuck would he do in the event of a real epidemic or other regional, national or international crisis?

[ProSense]

8. Weird Willard. n/t

[Paulie]

6. The Magistrate is correct

RMoney is a tick. See the mailers prove it! See, it all makes sense!

[Spazito]

7. LOL!

I love it! Ticks and Romney, a perfect fit as the Magistrate said.

[Cha]

9. So mitt Blows it Again.

Edit after I read some upthread posts: This time associating his name with ticks. Mitt and Ticks. Hmmm?.. Bloodsuckers..hmmm? Yep, no promblem.

[noel711]

10. So how is this Obama's fault...?

EVerything else in Republican fantasyland is Obama's fault..
that's how they get anyone to join in their pitiful band..
it's all Obama's fault...

So... how does this fit in with their logic?
don't make no sense..
but nothing they do/say does..

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Maybe they are confusing West Nile Virus with Lyme Disease?

Where the former comes from a mosquito and has exploded this year into an epidemic in some states versus the latter, which comes from a tick?

But we know "science" is anathema to this crew since the flyer seems to say that whatever it is they are trying to talk about "begins from a small bug"!

[ohheckyeah]

12. LOL - this is a joke, right?

I live in Virginia and haven't heard one single word about a lyme disease epidemic.

[Glydewrite]

13. Sex, Lyme and video tape

Romney and Paul Ryan's lyme technique has proven effective. He can lie with the best of them.
Now how about that 47% comment on video? Legitimate rape? Gay marriage?

The Republicans are caught up in sex, lyme and video tape

[marble falls]

20. Great line, I wish I'd thought of it first.

[Puregonzo1188]

14. What does Mitt Romney hope to gain from this?

[NotThisTime]

15. What about the Lyme disease in Mass? Geez, his home state has a big problem with it...

Maybe that's why he thinks it's a big problem In VA I don't know....

[porphyrian]

16. It's true. Romney and Ryan plan to stop Lyme disease with tax cuts. n/t

[jsr]

26. Yes, tax cuts for those who need them most

for food and gas.

[porphyrian]

27. ...and the prevention of Lyme disease. n/t

[treestar]

39. We certainly don't want babies to get this disease

That would make them poor eating.

[porphyrian]

40. I hear Lyme disease does taste bad. n/t

[JoeyT]

17. Great, embolden the people pushing

continuous antibiotic use so we can make sure more people die horribly from resistant bacteria strains.

As if I needed another reason to despise Romney.

Maybe he should see if McCarthy will endorse him.

[colbertforpresident]

18. I Have Lyme Disease

and this above post is full of inaccuracies. Lyme is an epidemic. The CDC is a bullshit organization. There are more than 1000 people in Virginia with the disease. The CDC sets the guidelines extremely high to diagnose it because many of their members are also on the payroll of insurance companies or their Universities recieve money from the insurance industry. Many people are walking around undiagnosed. Many are told that they have fibromyalgia. It's also a lie that a tick has to be attached 36 hours in order to get the infection. People bitten by deer ticks often need more than 2-4 weeks of antibiotics due to the life cycle of the bacteria. These ticks also carry many co-infections that are as bad or worse than lyme and the doxy that docs give won't kill them. I have babesia and bartonella along with lyme. I was bitten in the 1980's and didn't get my diagnosis until 2007. I took antibiotics for 4 years. They didn't help. I've got many issues with Romney and this isn't one of them.
I have chronic lyme and the CDC can kiss my ass.

[colbertforpresident]

21. Resistance to antibiotics

The Lyme is resistant to antibiotics because it has three different forms, Spirochete, L form and cyst form. The antibiotics don't penetrate the cyst form. The bacteria also gets deep into the tissue and brain where antibiotics can't penetrate.
Another thing that we are not told is how inaccurate the testing is for lyme. The test is only 30% accurate. There is a 70% chance that the diagnosis will be wrong. You can get a false positive but not a false negative. The reason they keep using this test is money. Companies are making a big profit.

http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?a=2795&q=414284

[zazen]

55. western blot has very low false positives for CDC lyme criteria n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

67. There aren't many false positives, but there are a lot of false negatives. n/t

[FourScore]

72. I am sorry you have lyme. So do I.

Your story is just like mine. Got it in the 80's -- diagnosed in 2002. I also agree with you 100% about the CDC.

Thanks for the post.

[marble falls]

19. Farris sounds a lot like "Munchausen by Proxy" to me and presents a clear danger to his wife....

and children.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. Michael Farris, Chancellor, Patrick Henry College

The college for home-schooled fundamentalists. So he's not someone you can trust to speak the truth about science, let alone understand it.

What it comes down to is Farris' doctor was struck off the Virginia medical register for proscribing antibiotics in a dangerous manner, and he wants revenge - so he wants to remove regulations designed to keep people safe.

[SamKnause]

23. Lyme disease

Republicans continue to ignore Science and facts.

Sad destructive group. : (

[SamKnause]

56. Facts

Your post makes absolutely no sense.

Republicans ignoring facts and Science is well documented.

Maybe you have not been paying attention.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Who cares what you think?

Seeing as all you've posted in DU3, before this thread, are:

Obama sucks

and the hidden:

The guy in the Whitehouse is an Asshole, too

and one apparent joke, though it doesn't show you're a Democrat in any way: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=25300

And since we see your DU2 post count was 115, and it's now 121 here, that really is all you've posted on DU. Here's one of the last things you posted on DU2, calling Obama a sellout: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=621309&mesg_id=621312

Crawl back into your hole, if your 6 posts here this year have all been pro-Republican. Bye.

[orpupilofnature57]

28. Sen. Al Franken made a case for National Health care

His assistant while writing the book ' Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot ' Died from Lyme disease because he had no insurance and let the disease go to long before seeking medical attention.

[NutmegYankee]

29. It's funny when you don't live in a HYPER EPIDEMIC region for Lyme Disease.

I live just miles from Lyme, CT where the disease was first identified. Lyme disease is awful, and many here in Connecticut get it several times over their lives. Just cutting the grass carries the risk. The ticks are the size of a size 10 text period. " . " It's fairly easy to miss that when showering and such.

[Overseas]

33. I don't think it is funny. But I think it is outrageous for the Coupon Care Candidates to assert

that they will really provide more assistance to sufferers of Lyme and other insect borne diseases than the Democrats would.

[NutmegYankee]

36. They are spreading fear, which is their message.

My concern is that people will write off Lyme disease as a problem because Rmoney decided to send out flyers on it.

[Overseas]

37. And that just highlights their cruelty even further.

Using people's health worries for purely partisan fodder.

[Crunchy Frog]

48. Agree with you on that.

My mom got Lyme one summer ago while working in our back yard. Her doctor failed to diagnose her, even though she was a textbook case. The two of us diagnosed it from internet research (confirmed by blood test).

She ended up going to what many here would call a "quack doctor" for more aggressive antibiotic treatment than her doctor was willing to prescribe. She didn't want to take any chances. A girl in our church got Lyme that same summer and had the conventional treatment. She relapsed almost instantly after finishing the short antibiotic course and was extremely sick for several months before finally getting cured by another "quack".

You're right, people shouldn't dismiss the seriousness of Lyme just because they despise Romney.

Anyway, people who are chronically ill due to Lyme are far too profitable to the medical industry for Romney to seriously want to do anything about it.

[Jennicut]

59. Yup. My father's family is from Lyme and I have had family members get it.

Having lived in CT all of my life, I was pretty used to worrying about Lyme disease. Be careful in the woods and check yourself later for ticks.

[naturallyselected]

30. I am of two minds about this

First, Lyme Disease is seriously under diagnosed, and it does seem to take a chronic form in some people, especially if it is not treated quickly with a short course of antibiotics. It's questionable whether long term antibiotics are of any use at all for these unfortunate folks.

But - the bigger question to me is why so many conservative religious fundamentalists, while actively denying factual phenomena like evolution and climate change, get so bent out of shape about certain environmental threats that affect far fewer people and blow these things way out of proportion.

Here in Maine, browntail moth caterpillars are a problem some summers. Their hairs cause a nasty rash, similar to poison ivy, and like poison ivy, some people are far more susceptible than others. I worked as a caretaker of a large estate a couple of summers, and they made my life hell. But when these caterpillars were first perceived as a threat about a decade ago, the religious fundamentalists went crazy - going door to door with petitions, trying to get the state to spray insecticide in the late fall to destroy the nests. They acted like this was a sign of the apocalypse; it was literally a religious crusade for them.

They take a real environmental situation, like chronic Lyme Disease, and it becomes the focus of coordinated campaigns, even to the level of becoming part of a presidential contest, while they laugh off evolution and climate change. Very hard to understand.

[Overseas]

34. Good question.

[GreenPartyVoter]

32. My kids have caught Lyme 3 times between them. Only saw the tick once. Catching it within 2 weeks

helped because a regular 3 week course of antibiotics knocked it out.

However, while the CDC says there is no such thing as chronic Lyme, there are some doctors out there who think differently and that we may see a change in the CDC's thinking.

[pnwmom]

53. That article misstates the CDC's opinion. If you read the actual

CDC statement, they just call it another name: Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.

[pinto]

35. CDC Lyme Disease info -

http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/

[jonesgirl]

38. If its so massive and dangerous, why are the folks pictured smiling about it?? Romney must have

investments in it.

[lonestarnot]

41. Bazing.

[madrchsod]

43. his campaign staff is just plain weird and very dangerous

creating a panic that`s somehow related to obama and mittens will somehow save them from this imaginary "chronic lyme disease"

[Botany]

44. a family member has lyme disease and a lot of the people who work @ the

..... same location where he is at (Anacostia, VA) have it too. Yes and Ryan does have a way
to fight the spread of the disease.



the ad is chocked full of lies.

[Crunchy Frog]

47. Seriously controlling the deer population would be a start.

But that wouldn't go over well with the hunting lobby.

[Crunchy Frog]

46. Well, I happen to agree with the mailer and disagree with the CDC on this subject.

I have no idea how this would pertain to Mitt Romney though, or what he possibly could or would do to deal with the problem of Lyme disease.

[pnwmom]

51. The article misstates the CDC opinion. The CDC does not dispute the existence

of chronic Lyme disease symptoms. It just calls it by a different name:

Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.

[Crunchy Frog]

62. I've researched the issue extensively, and I disagree with both the CDC

and the IDSA, and find myself more in agreement with ILADS. And no, their "Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome" is not just a different word for the same thing.

[pnwmom]

64. The CDC article at the link says they are different terms for the same thing:

"Although often called 'chronic Lyme disease,' this condition is properly known as "Post-treatment Lyme disease Syndrome" (PTLDS)."

[Crunchy Frog]

65. The CDC doesn't present complete information.

There is a medical debate about the nature of Lyme disease and the CDC takes one side and doesn't wish to acknowledge the other. To summarize it quickly, "PTLDS" is considered to be a syndrome that one has after having been successfully treated for Lyme and having had the bacterial infection eradicated from one's body. Chronic Lyme disease is considered to be caused by an active infection by the Lyme bacteria that is still in the body following treatment with antibiotics that the CDC and the IDSA consider should have been adaquate to eradicate the infection. The disagreement is about whether or not there is, in fact, still an active infection.

If you have any genuine interest in the issue, I would recommend reading Pamela Weintraub's book Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic

[pnwmom]

68. Thanks, Crunchy Frog.

I tend to think you're on the right side here . . . there is still an active infection in many of those who continue to have symptoms after treatment.

[Coexist]

71. I know Coartem is used off label (its antimalarial) for Lyme disease

fwiw

[Crunchy Frog]

73. I believe it's actually used for Babesia,

one of the coinfections commonly found with Lyme. It's similar to malaria and responds to many of the same medications.

[BarackTheVote]

49. I dated a girl with lyme disease for about 18 months

She never found the tick or saw a bulls-eye rash and went undiagnosed for about four years. At one point before she was diagnosed, she developed pneumonia and was given a megadose of antibiotics, developed c diff, so now she's not really a candidate for even the normal treatment for Lyme. She's only 24 and most days she was completely bed-ridden; on a good day (I'm talking maybe once a month), she could walk maybe a quarter mile before running out of energy... most of the times we went out, she needed a walker to get around. On really bad days, she had muscle pain so severe that she would be curled up in the fetal position for hours, sobbing in pain from the slightest touch. I live in central Illinois, and there are several parks here that are known hot-spots. She took me to her Lyme support group pretty regularly; I met about a dozen people who had been diagnosed with Lyme, several of whom (including my girlfriend) had gone chronic.

Frankly, from my personal experience, I don't think the CDC knows what they're talking about when it comes to Lyme, and there's a lot of pressure from insurance companies who don't want to provide for people with chronic Lyme. I'd recommend the documentary "Under Our Skin." This is a HUGE problem, mostly due to the fact that according to the CDC, it's "hard to get, easy to treat"--yeah, tell that to the people at this Lyme support group--so there's a sense in main-stream medicine that it's cured, but in reality, there's MUCH more research that needs to be done.

All that said: FUCK ROMNEY. People with chronic Lyme need insurance, and a lot of them can't hold down a steady job that offers insurance, and they have a preexisting condition, so good luck getting any coverage without the Affordable Health Care Act.

[pnwmom]

54. I agree with you that the CDC pretends to know a lot more about this

than they really do. I know a sufferer, too, and it's extremely frustrating dealing with the medical establishment on this.

[libodem]

50. I have a couple of friends who were both diagnosed

With MS around 2000. One has been treated with Interferon and the other with rounds of tetracycline. The second one was diagnosed with untreated Lyme Disease. She had contracted it, and had overcome the initial sickness, then it lay undetected, in her nervous system, eating up the mylin sheath for 20 years.
One morning she woke up and her legs wouldn't walk her to the bathroom. Almost the same symptom as the first friend.
There is a link to some forms of MS.

[reformist2]

57. Micro-targeting + Too much number crunching + Too much money = This.

So embarrassing. This is a perfect illustration of how desperate the Romney campaign must be... They know they can't win without a (formerly) Republican state like Virginia, and now it's obvious they're fishing around in vain for some issue that will flip the state in their favor.

In any case, this a city council issue, maybe a state-level issue, not one for the presidential race.

[Jennicut]

58. We have had a lot of people get Lyme disease in Connecticut.

It actually where it got it's name because of where the first cases were found, in Lyme, Connecticut. My Grandmother got it and actually lived in Lyme. Lots of woods there. As a teenager I was told to always wear pants in the woods and check yourself for ticks because of Lyme disease. My Grandma had antibiotics and then got better. We were told by her doctor that it can be chronic but that antibiotics would not help with that.

[Vinca]

60. The CDC must have another name for what some would call chronic Lyme because

people who aren't treated early can have all kinds of complications and the treatment is not always effective.

[nxylas]

61. The summary misses the most important paragraph

The Romney flier advocates providing “local physicians with protection from lawsuits to ensure they can treat the disease with the aggressive antibiotics that are required.” Farris’ wife receives treatment from “Dr. Joseph Jemsek, who moved his practice to Washington, D.C., after losing his medical license in North Carolina for treating patients with long-term antibiotics.”

And there's the rub. Ask any Republican about how to make healthcare affordable, and protecting doctors from malpractice suits is always top of their list. In most cases, it is their list.

[Crunchy Frog]

66. In the case of Lyme disease it's a somewhat more complex and nuanced issue

Last edited Mon Oct 1, 2012, 02:20 PM - Edit history (1)

than that of simple "malpractice reform", as there has been a phenomenon of doctors specializing in Lyme treatment who veer from the official and controversial protocols of the CDC and IDSA being the subject of witch hunts. Several state legislatures have actually passed legislation to protect doctor's right to treat Lyme disease according to their best judgement of patient needs.

This is a different issue than simply protecting doctors from the consequences of malpractice, and I would hate to see it become a partisan political football, as Lyme can afflict people of all political persuasions.

[BarackTheVote]

69. +1!

[zazen]

74. thanks--I have Lyme too, and the invalidation is awful n/t

[99th_Monkey]

70. Classic case in point: Team Romney's desperation is showing up everywhere.

every time Romney or Ryan opens their mouth, they get it wrong. Every fucking time.

At least they are consistent about something.