I called Senator Alexander’s office this week and spoke with Carolyn Gorman of the HELP Committee. (202-224-5375) I told her that we are requesting a position statement for the calling campaign into Senator Alexander’s office requesting a congressional investigation into the mishandling of Lyme disease. I await a response and will post it as a petition update. If you haven’t called Senator Alexander now would be a good time. Please follow the instructions here: https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/14781210 In the meantime please see the letter below sent to Senator Bernie Sanders’ office. Senator Bernie Sanders sits on the HELP Committee as does Senator Lamar Alexander. bernard_sanders@sanders.senate.gov appears to be a working email so consider sending an email of your own. ________________________________________ From: "Carl Tuttle" To: "michaeleen crowell" Cc: "david weinstein" , "caryn compton" , "Michael Briggs" , "Jacob Gillison" Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 3:04:20 PM Subject: Extremely important campaign issue Jan 13, 2016 U.S. Senate 332 Dirksen Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Attn: Michaeleen Crowell, Chief of Staff Dear Michaeleen, We have an unrecognized epidemic here in New England spreading across the nation misclassified as a simple nuisance disease. Our children end up in wheelchairs and patients are horribly disabled as a result of undiagnosed/undertreated Lyme disease while our medical community practices willful ignorance misguided by the CDC’s propaganda machine. I understand Vermont now has the highest number of Lyme disease cases in the country. Wheelchair-Bound Girl Calls Blessing By Pope Francis ‘Most Precious Moment Of My Life’ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/09/24/pope-francis-blesses-girl-in-wheelchair/ NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — “A 12-year-old girl who has been confined to a wheelchair since being diagnosed with Lyme disease said meeting Pope Francis as he arrived in New York Thursday was “the most precious moment of my life.” Quote from Senator Richard Blumenthal: "Today for me culminates more than a decade of work and probably a decade more, because I've seen firsthand the devastating, absolutely unacceptable damage done by Lyme disease to individual human beings, Connecticut children and residents whose lives have been changed forever as a result of Lyme disease” Source: http://ctmirror.org/2011/07/18/blumenthal-takes-lyme-disease-fight-senate/ _____________________ I am the Change.org petition organizer calling for a congressional investigation into the mishandling of Lyme disease and I am standing up for the sick and disabled. The petition has collected nearly 32,000 signatures from every state across the nation and forty-one other countries. https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf We truly believe that Lyme is the 21st Century plague as migratory birds are carrying Borrelia infected ticks worldwide. Assessing the Contribution of Songbirds to the Movement of Ticks and Borrelia burgdorferi in the Midwestern United States During Fall Migration http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10393-014-0982-3 Studies abound on how north Ixodes scapularis ticks are transported by birds. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26739029 Impact of Spring Bird Migration on the Range Expansion of Ixodes scapularis Tick Population. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26688012 Global ecology and epidemiology of Borrelia garinii spirochetes http://www.infectionecologyandepidemiology.net/index.php/iee/article/view/9545 Conclusion: These data suggest that migratory birds may play a larger role in the dispersal of B. burgdorferi than previously realized ______________________________________________ VERY IMPORTANT: When you have a moment please see the following petition update: (and read the references!) Phillip Baker and the 21st Century Plague https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/14500086 We have been dealing with an antibiotic resistant/tolerant superbug deceitfully concealed by the CDC, IDSA and American Lyme Disease Foundation as scientific evidence has proven antibiotic resistance time and time again. http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2015/06/researchers-discovery-may-explain-difficulty-in-treating-lyme-disease/ Suppressed evidence: Peer Reviewed Evidence of Persistence of Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and Tick-Borne Diseases after the mandated IDSA treatment guideline. http://www.ilads.org/ilads_news/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/EvidenceofPersistence-V2.pdf The petition calling for a congressional investigation into the mishandling of Lyme disease has collected signatures/comments from Lyme patients (or people who know disabled Lyme patients) in forty-two countries. We don’t believe Senator Bernie Sanders would choose to turn a blind eye to this travesty as so many continue to do. The following is a list of countries with Lyme patients signing the petition: (signature and comment file available upon request) 1. Australia 2. Austria 3. Belgium 4. Belize 5. Bermuda 6. Brazil 7. Bulgaria 8. Canada 9. Denmark 10. Estonia 11. France 12. Germany 13. Greece 14. Hungary 15. India 16. Indonesia 17. Ireland 18. Israel 19. Italy 20. Jamaica 21. Lebanon 22. Lithuania 23. Luxembourg 24. Macao 25. Malaysia 26. Mexico 27. Montenegro 28. Netherlands 29. New Zealand 30. Norway 31. Philippines 32. Poland 33. Romania 34. Slovakia 35. South Africa 36. South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 37. Spain 38. Sweden 39. Thailand 40. United Arab Emirates 41. United Kingdom 42. United States Sincerely, Carl Tuttle Hudson, NH 03051 (603) XXX-XXXX Petition: Calling for a Congressional investigation of the CDC, IDSA and ALDF (31,800 signatures growing worldwide) Letter to the Editor, The Lancet Infectious Diseases Published May 2012 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(12)70054-3/fulltext Response to the BMJ article: Seven alternatives to evidence based medicine published April 1, 2014 http://www.bmj.com/content/319/7225/1618/rr/692597 The Tuttle family was featured on New Hampshire Chronicle’s “Living with Lyme” with the program archived on their site in six small segments for viewing on the computer Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 http://www.wmur.com/new-hampshire-chronicle/Living-With-Lyme-Disease-Part-1-of-6/-/13383450/13200964/-/hmcs7b/-/index.html