This is an absolute slap in the face for the Lyme community!

Send your letters of disapproval to the email addresses below.

Note: The KaiserPapers.org site has been taken down but I copied and saved the following Shapiro quotes many years ago for future reference.  
Lyme Bumper Stickers (Public Service Announcement)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/123659578861

WAKE UP AMERICA!

---------- Original Message ----------
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: dwalker@utmb.edu, James.Berger@hhs.gov, tickbornedisease@hhs.gov, Las@silverleafconsulting.net, Sylvia.Trent-Adams@hhs.gov
Cc: (98 Undisclosed Recipients)
Date: June 4, 2019 at 9:07 AM
Subject: Shapiro named to the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group panel

June 4, 2019

University of Texas Medical Branch
301 University Boulevard,
Galveston, TX 77555-0419
Attn: David H. Walker, MD, Director, UTMB Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease

Dear Dr. Walker,

The addition of Shapiro to the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group pretty much confirms that this “Working Group” is a sham; a pacifier to give the impression that our public health officials have everything under control.

The Group has already submitted its 2018 Report to HHS Secretary and Congress so where is the action plan to find a cure for this antibiotic resistant/tolerant superbug?

2018 Report: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/tbdwg-report-to-congress-2018.pdf

Eugene D. Shapiro, MD is often heard spreading disinformation as an archived list of his quotes with inaccuracies can be found here: “Memorable and Not So Memorable Quotes by Lyme Disease Denialists” (KaiserPapers.org )

In the New England Journal of Medicine article, “Lyme Disease” Shapiro is quoted, “no documented cases of congenital Lyme” (See attachment of 28 studies reporting congenital Lyme)

Congenital Lyme: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xlju8w25phkypy0/Congenital%20Transmission%20of%20Lyme.pdf?dl=0

Shapiro Quotes:
 
"Lyme disease prevention requires only minimal precautions; even for people living in areas with the highest  concentration of positively identified cases":

-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, Yale Children's Health Letter, April 1995 

"Over time, the [Lyme] disease tends to burn itself out, even without treatment, in many people": 

-Eugene Shapiro, MD, quoted by Karen Freeman in The New York Times, October 24, 1996 

"Children with only non-specific symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, or arthralgia, are very unlikely to have Lyme disease. Serologic tests for Lyme disease should not be ordered for such patients because a positive test result is very likely to be a false-positive":

-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 131 

"Nearly 90% of children who develop Lyme disease have either single or multiple sites of erythema migrans":

-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, ibid., page 132 

 "As many as 40% of the patients with well-documented late stage Lyme disease will not have had a preceding lesion of erythema migrans . . . as the only clinical manifestation of early Lyme disease. . . . The existence of a flu-like illness without erythema migrans of early Lyme disease has been clearly established": 

-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, et al., "Early Lyme Disease: A Flu- like Illness Without Erythema Migrans," Pediatrics 91, 
(1993): 456-59 

"There is no evidence that congenital Lyme disease is a problem": 

-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, in ACP's Lyme Disease, page 132 
 
"The prognosis of children with Lyme disease, both early and late, is excellent, with no evidence of chronic symptoms or long- term sequelae":

-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, ibid., page 132 

"Because of the low risk of Lyme disease and the excellent prognosis of children who do develop Lyme disease,  prophylactic antimicrobial treatment is not recommended for children who are bitten by a deer tick":

-Eugene D.Shapiro, MD, ibid., page 

"In patients presenting with nonspecific symptoms, the positive predictive value of serologic testing for Lyme disease is low":

-Eugene D. Shapiro, MD, ACP's Lyme Disease, page 224 

 "There are a ton of people with non-specific symptoms and most of their positives are false positives [for the ELISA and Western Blot], so they think they have this diagnosis of Lyme": 

-Eugene Shapiro, MD, quoted by Stefanie Ramp in the Fairfield County Weekly, May 20, 1999 

"If all you know is that you found a deer tick on your child, the risk is 1 to 2 percent at most of having Lyme disease.  And then greater than 90 percent of those will show a rash at the site of the bite.":

-Eugene Shapiro, MD, in the April 1995 issue of Yale Children's Health Letter 
 
"Most ticks are not infected and even if a child has been bitten by an infected tick, 36 to 48 hours are needed before transmission of the bacteria takes place.":

-Eugene Shapiro, MD, ibid. 

"There are probably better ways to spend health-care dollars" than on a vaccine for Lyme disease"

-Eugene Shapiro, MD in the April 1995 issue of Yale Children's Health Letter 

"It [LYMErix vaccine] is fairly expensive, and I think that the biggest problem is not Lyme disease but anxiety about Lyme disease, and I'm not sure how effective the vaccine is against anxiety about Lyme disease....I don't think most people are at really high risk for Lyme disease, so the benefits don't necessarily qualify the costs.":

-Eugene Shapiro, MD, a professor of pediatrics at Yale, quoted by Stefanie Ramp in the Fairfield Co. Weekly on 
May 20, 1999 
 
"It's usually not Lyme disease unless it looks, smells, and tastes like Lyme disease": 

-Eugene Shapiro, MD, in the April 1995 issue of Yale Children's Health Letter 

If you only go to a Lyme literate doctor, you are likely to be diagnosed with Lyme disease, because that's what they do. If you go to Midas, you're going to get a muffler. 

So, you know, in an anecdotal sense, taking antibiotics and feeling better doesn't mean that the antibiotics are the reason that you felt better. It may have something to do with the belief that this doctor cares for me, I'm doing something to help myself, it's very complicated and we don't know all the answers...(Shapiro's rambling and inane commentary was rightfully terminated by the host of the program). 

-Maryland Public Television - Direct Connection - Lyme Disease - Under Our Skin Review - June 27, 2011 

Carl Tuttle

Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH