From Pamela Weintraub
To the Editor:
I would like to respond to the review of CURE UNKNOWN: INSIDE THE
LYME EPIDEMIC, by Marjorie Tietjen, which twisted my words, misstated my views, and (except for two direct quotes) inaccurately portrayed the information in the book. What you ran was not a review in the usual sense of the word
but rather, a platform for the conspiracy-driven agenda of your reviewer. I could go through the "review" line by line but it isn't worth it, instead, I'll just make a few points:
* CURE UNKNOWN is a work of journalism. That means that its assertions must be backed by documented, primary source evidence, not wild conjecture and unsubstantiated claims. It also means that while I put
the facts out there, I do not act as judge and jury. Instead, I leave it up to the reader to draw a conclusion. An agenda-driven diatribe would not be journalism.
* Nowhere in CURE UNKNOWN do I state, as the review insists, that Lyme disease has been mischaracterized by mainstream science or the
government out of ignorance. Instead, as a work of journalism, CURE UNKNOWN carefully reconstructs a 33-year course of events that includes ego, hubris, turf battles, bad science, biased science, moneyed interests, and corporate and personal greed. I do not recall citing "ignorance" as the culprit anywhere.
* Regarding the reviewer’s beef that I do not focus on conspiracy as the main driver of patient woes, let me say this: The Lyme scene is awash in such theories. Your review suggests that some amalgam of government
and big pharma (or their stand-ins) have created the Lyme organism, which they now conspire to spread so that sick patients can pay ceaselessly for drugs. A credentialed journalist cannot say this kind of thing without incontrovertible, primary source evidence. (If the reviewer has such, you should publish it in PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT.) There are others in the Lyme world that purport some activist leaders are literal government plants, de facto cylons created to destabilize the
patient movement. Yet others charge that Lyme is part of a Jewish conspiracy --created by Jews (along with the 911 bombings) to take over the world. It goes on and on. Pushing such theories without evidence serves only to rob patients of the credibility they badly need to get funding for a cure and to advocate for their rights.
I am disappointed in PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT for filtering CURE UNKNOWN
through the prism of the reviewer’s Lyme conspiracy swill instead of reading it straight and taking it on its own terms.
Pamela Weintraub,
Senior Editor
Discover Magazine
Author, Cure Unknown, Inside the Lyme Epidemic
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Pam,
You are absolutely correct. I apologize that the article was listed as a “review” as opposed to an opinion piece. I look forward to reading the book myself! Please accept my public apology for wrongly classifying the article as a review and not as an opinion piece. I appreciate all your work and research on behalf of the Lyme community.
Dawn Irons
