Re: Phyllis: Activists Say YIKES We need to KILL the MD BILL! LOL

why is it that docs with their own infusion clinics are looked upon
with suspicion?

I agree with your comments about doctors rejecting patient information.
I do feel, however, that intelligent patients can be a part of advocacy
groups which work to inform doctors outside of patient visits in the
clinic where rejection is the most likely reaction.

I feel that the number one sin that most doctors commit is failing to
listen to patients. This involves failure in history taking as well as
failure to take into consideration patient views on disease. I may be
an unusual case but more than once I have had a doctor tell me that I
know more about the disease in question (not lyme) than did they. If
you can reach this point by being intelligent and rational (and
efficient with time) and citing scientific and medical journals, you
may be able to sway a physician. I recommend writing a letter, which
saves everyone time and effort and gives the doctor the opportunity to
digest information without being placed in an embarrassing situation
where they have to admit a lack of understanding directly in front of a
patient during a clinic visit.
Of course I have an advantage which many people do not which is
direct access to most major medical and scientific journals and an
ability to discuss some scientific subjects with a physician at least
on their level if not above.

As far as steere goes, I can only comment on his pervasive
influence in medical journal articles and then his writings in medical
textbooks, his employment of PR firms, and his involvement with the
ALDF which all testify to his pernicious obstinate and aggressive
seeking behavior to ensure that medical professionals are exposed only
to his side of the story.

Steere has been directly involved in (1) ALDF (2) dearborn conference
and IDSA lyme panel (3) he wrote the horrible 1993 paper which he
continues to cite to this day (4) he oversaw laboratory testing, whose
results look very suspicious, for the klempner project (these two
papers, which he repeatedly refers to and treats as gospel, are the
mainstays of the steerite repression)
(5) lymerix vaccine development, worked like a dog for smithkline
(6) has stated numerous times in media interviews his belief that most
post lyme patients are hysterical,hypochondriac, etc.

however I must agree that there has been a major failure in the lyme
advocacy community to effectively transmit information. My guess is
that most everyday doctors have never heard of the numerous papers
which establish persistent infection as a cause for post lyme. Steere
and others very rarely mention these papers and I have never seen a
mention of some of the more provocative such as the staubinger study in
dogs, or even sven bergstrom's paper on migrating birds reactivating.

.