I was sick with Lyme Disease from about age 6 until age 67. I was treated with multiple antibiotics for more than a year before it retreated. I knew lots of people with Lyme then. That Lyme vaccine was a total scam. Yes, it was taken off the market because no one trusted it and wouldn’t get it. Especially when they heard about people getting Lyme from it. And the IDSA cannot be trusted. That statement of theirs has lies in it. For one, they say fears about their vaccine were unfounded. Huge lie.
And they were in total denial about Lyme being a long-term, debilitating illness. The Lyme community was pretty much at war with them. They denied that Lyme was everywhere. I guess they didn’t believe that ticks could ignore state lines and cross them and spread into new areas, which they did at one time or another. Ticks that carried Lyme were definitely in Texas in the 1950’s, that’s where I got it. They said there was no Lyme in the area I live in, yet we had a local Lyme group, almost everyone had gotten it here. And they went after doctors who treated it with long-term antibiotics. My doctor was one of a very few who would diagnose and treat Lyme Disease. And she got in trouble for treating it with long-term antibiotics and IgG infusions. Her infusion center was shut down. Doctors who treated it the way she did got reported to the state medical board. I don’t know if she can treat it any more. Yet IDSA were the “experts” who doctors listened to for info about Lyme and what to do about it. Treat for 2 weeks and if someone says they are still sick, it’s psychological. Don’t get me going about the IDSA.
The Western Blot which is used to diagnose Lyme was at some point altered so it never showed positive, even if someone was literally dying from Lyme. They took some of the blots that clearly indicated Lyme out of the test. And they increased the number of blots that had to show positive for a diagnosis, so hardly anyone would ever show positive. I never did. I had to get tested from an independent lab to show a positive response.
There is no way I would ever see an infectious disease doctor for anything. I have to see a clinical immunologist because I have Primary Immunodeficiency, and he also does not trust infectious disease doctors and would not send a patient to one.
Speaking of Primary Immunodeficiency, my immunologist says many of his patients have Lyme Disease, Epstein-Barr Virus, and enlarged lymph nodes. He said there is a genetic link but they haven’t found it yet. This was several years ago. I recently read that they have found a genetic link to EBV. It appears that having a totally intact immune system provides protection against things like chronic Lyme and EBV becoming chronic illnesses. My family were all were bitten by ticks when we were kids and played in the forest, and I was the only one who got Lyme and stayed sick with it for decades. And as for EBV, I got that when I was 20 and was sick for about 25 years. Now, I have to take valacyclovir or lysine daily to keep it at a low level.