Re: In Praise of Lyme Activists

GregGerber_at_hotmail.com
Date: 12/29/04 

Date: 29 Dec 2004 11:14:00 -0800

Weisman, I understand your position regarding advocacy and support your
right to voice all your concerns and also think a critique is helpful,
but I do not want to provide transcripts of people's statements for
your commentary. I am sure you can do that very well on your own just
by going to their websites. You and I differ here in our view of some
individuals and events; maybe one day we will meet and discuss all this
in person, and I am sure it would be a fun discussion with a lot of
strenuous debate. But I cannot play internet straightman to your
detailed dismantling of people I like and respect, whose hard work I
have seen up close. I am sure you will do very well without transcripts
provided by me --and that your commentary, if handled evenly (and you
neeed to watch it there) will help to keep everyone on their toes.

You are right --I used clone and strain interchangeably when I should
have explained. I am referring to Osp C clones. Those strains that are
strictly clonal often do not disseminate beyond the rash but those that
undergo genetic exchange and thus (for the OspC gene) are not clonal do
disseminate. I hope this provides the clarity you asked for. If not,
let me know. The point is that most of those considered "treatment
successes" in studies of early Lyme disease never had the disseminating
variety, based on current work. This means that by percentage, true
disseminating early Lyme disease must be subject to far more treatment
failure with the standard treatment than the studies suggest. Let me
know if I am still being unclear. Gregory Gerber