A s I watched the webcast of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group’s May 10 meeting, I was generally heartened by what I saw. Subcommittees on different subject areas presented their reports. It seemed to embody what the Working Group was supposed to be — stakeholders with a variety of viewpoints examining all relevant information on Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
Lyme Disease Vaccine Safety Ignored
Alas, my assessment of things changed drastically when it came time for the Lyme disease Vaccine and Therapeutics Subcommittee’s report. As presented at the meeting, it appears that this subcommittee paid no attention whatsoever to the Lyme community’s valid concerns about past safety problems with the LYMErix vaccine, nor to our fears that such problems would be repeated with any new Lyme disease vaccines that are now in the pipeline.
Questioned about this by Working Group member Patricia Smith, the presenter was very dismissive. He said something along the lines of, “There’s no reason to rehash the past. Let’s just move forward with the vaccine.”
Conversations about vaccines and related issues continued during the meetings on May 15–16, 2018. Again, certain speakers seemed stubbornly oblivious to why this is such a hot-button topic in the Lyme community……… Join or login below to continue reading.
You must be a LymeDisease.org member to access this content.
If you are already a member, log in below. Otherwise, become a member today to access the full content of this article and the full library of Lyme Times articles.
* Physician Directory Memberships do not have access to the Lyme Times.