The Serano Group

Government agencies created the Lyme disease mess.

In the 1980s, U.S. government agencies made bad choices for setting Lyme disease policy. Either the big four of the medical establishment—health insurers, MD trade groups, pharmaceuticals, and hospitals—pushed the agencies, or the agencies themselves directed the policies. The lines are so blurred, it is hard to tell the driving force.

After public health officials gave the “Lyme disease” label to a mischaracterized set of Borrelia infections in the late 1970s, they soon began a campaign of error management, often finding success by formalizing their missteps. Their biggest mistake was they thought they could turn Lyme borreliosis into an easy to treat, geographically limited disease. Then they said tests were better than any facts could justify. Next, they were convinced they could control Lyme disease with a vaccine

They were appallingly wrong each time. Citizens have complained loudly, but not always effectively. Thousands more are kept ignorant of their infections and lives are left in shambles. Health care dollars are squandered as government agencies try to save face and somehow turn all this into a money-maker for private interests producing test kits and vaccines.

The program has continued for thirty years. Fixing this mess requires a series of steps. First, we need a transparent history of what happened. Then, we can focus on the government agencies and the motivators perpetrating this medical and financial disaster. Following that, citizens can begin asking the questions about how their tax dollars are spent and demand changes.

To help in this process, The Serano Group works to tell the history of the problem and to encourage the best use our governmental and private resources. An important part of this program is to identify the techniques used in supporting misguided crusades. Individuals can then be alert to diversions and focus on making the best decisions for their own health, advocating appropriate societal choices.

The Lyme disease picture gets mixed up with what we call “science”. We would like to think that science illuminates and improves our world. Instead, science gets used as a tool for personal, institutional, and commercial gain. We are not anti-science; on the contrary, we fully support science that clarifies and educates rather than obscures.

The Serano Group intends to converge on the problem from two directions: from the big picture viewpoint and from the careful examination of detail. With infectious diseases, the close-up view is very close: often microscopic or molecular. A single case of person getting sick and getting well can be a most important detail.

But as with most things, solving borreliosis and associated disease problems involves dealing with the vast middle ground between big picture analysis and close-up detail. Problems originate and require fixing at the point of implementation: in governmental budget meetings, lobbying activities by trade groups, development of short-sighted policies by insurance companies, and big pharma’s quasi-education of medical professionals.

This strikes many of us as too complicated to deal with and maybe even too perverse to think about. The harsh reality is that people suffer horribly for years and die just so a tiny portion of the population can advance careers and fit in comfortably at their established institutions. Distorted views and misguided efforts perpetuate, becoming less noticeable as they become everyday activity. The easiest personal choice is to just pick a side. When one side has the language, titles, and endorsement of special expertise, most simply choose to defer to purported experts.

But just as blind trust in financial institutions, the executive branch of government, and corporate systems have failed us miserably for our economic and physical security, blind trust in the medical-government-corporate system has created and perpetrated the Lyme disease mess, causing unquantified harm. Hearing this is neither pleasant nor uplifting.

For personal well-being and to help the physical and economic health of our society, get informed, reflect, and demand change. The Serano Group hopes to help you with information and research. Learn more, think critically and do not accept opinion solely because the source claims to be expert. Don’t think that any of this is too hard for you to understand. Learn the methodology of misinformation and where it comes from.

It should not be coming from our government.