Lyme sufferers devastated by federal government’s action plan
Richmond Hill Liberal, February 22, 2017
When Shari Allen first went public with her battle with Lyme disease, she was very sick, but she had hope.
In 2015, the disease had upended her life, left her unable to work, her savings depleted, suffering from constant headaches and joint pain, but the Thornhill woman still believed this disease could be beaten.
Two years later, she has lost more years of her life, lost her memory, friendships and relationships, lost her ability to walk without a cane and she has lost hope, too.
Rebecca Gilman, spokesperson for Health Canada and PHAC said that “Input from stakeholders was considered in the development of the draft framework.” It might have been considered but was obviously rejected when the document was written. The document completely ignored the content of last May’s conference at which there was clear divergent opinion. There was no collaboration with the most important stakeholders, the patients and their experts in its production. Ms. Gilman says the Agency will adapt our approach to Lyme disease as new evidence is discovered. The IDSA has managed to reject all outside evidence until now and insist that any science has to be based on large scale human trials which only governments can fund. Governments are reluctant to do this as the AMMI/IDSA along with PHAC continue with the fiction that they have answered all the questions and there are no more to be asked.