Focus – Opinions and Features

by Arlene Brailey For eight years, my son has been fighting a war against Lyme disease, with me alongside him. I have endured countless sleepless nights, anxious that I am pushing too hard, but more troubled I have not done enough; fearful of backlash from respected colleagues... Read More »

Carl Tuttle, a long-time Lyme activist from New Hampshire, gave the following remarks by telephone to the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group on Sept. 15. This comment is directed to Dr. Eugene Shapiro. Dr. Shapiro, I sent you an email on September 2, with a list of references... Read More »

Erin Walker delivered the following remarks by telephone to the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group on Sept. 15, 2020. My name is Erin Walker and I am the wife of PGA Tour winner Jimmy Walker. I am also on the Board of Directors the Global Lyme Alliance. After five months of... Read More »

The following was submitted as a written public comment to the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group. By Monica White I am writing today as an advocate, as well as a patient, wife and mother of two children with persistent Lyme disease and multiple co-infections. I served as a... Read More »

Powassan virus, a tick-borne illness, can cause serious neurological problems that are sometimes fatal. It’s transmitted to humans by Ixodes ticks—the same ones that can carry Lyme disease. But much is unknown about Powassan, something that researchers want to change. Dr.... Read More »

Lyme advocate Savannah Marcum has compiled the following video tribute to Dr. Neil Spector, with  background music by Dana Parish. (Parish wrote the song based on one of Spector’s poems. It was played at his memorial service in July.) In Loving Memory of Neil Spector: June... Read More »

by Anna Penenberg Lyme disease can devastate families and spin your whole world upside down. I know that is the case for my family. Before the illness, our life was full and joyous. As a single mother of two teenage daughters, I would strive to make our home a haven for... Read More »

By Rhisa Parera I was born in Brooklyn in 1990, to a Puerto Rican mom and an Irish and Spanish dad. I was raised in Staten Island. In 2007, my senior year of high school, I started getting GI issues that lasted for about a year. In 2009, after a few weeks in Puerto Rico, I came... Read More »

By Jessica Egan Our 11-year-old daughter Lucy had three tick-borne diseases starting in 2018: Lyme disease, babesiosis, and mycoplasma pneumonia. We don’t know when or where she was bitten by the tick, but we have an educated guess. What we know for sure is that it took months to... Read More »