3 ms·

I agree. It wasn't a particularly well-written piece. The thesis? "Let's get serious!" Ok. How?

tomxor 7y ago
I agree too, even though I would like to see more focus on lyme... I wish they gave more convincing evidence of it being a serious yet comparably neglected disease - they compared to zika and west nile but still don't give a good picture of where it sits on the world stage of infectious diseases.
eigenloss 7y ago
For one thing, more funding would help. >In 2017, mosquito-borne West Nile virus, which currently infects about 2,000 people annually in the U.S. received $42 million in support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Lyme disease, with 20 times the number of reported cases, got half as much, a figure that has changed little in a decade. Doubling allocations for Lyme research and prevention to $50 million doesn't seem like an unreasonable or overcomplicated request. Congress allocated over a billion dollars for Zika [1] - a disease that something like 10 Americans ever had. How does it make sense that a disease actively affecting 400,000 Americans each year is allocated effectively $0 by the same Congress? [1] https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/28/senate-approves-zika-funding/ https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/28/senate-approves-zika-fun...
- ajhurliman 7y ago
  Would more funding for attempting to link vaccinations to autism help?
  - eigenloss 7y ago
    No, and that's completely orthogonal to what I suggested! Congrats on breaking the HN guidelines... again.
    - ajhurliman 7y ago
      No, the two are analogous. The point is that more funding doesn't result in proving a point. You can spend all the money you want on this condition which doesn't exist, but more money won't suddenly turn this hallucination into reality. Also: Disagreeing with you does not constitute breaking guidelines.
      - eigenloss 7y ago
        You think Lyme borreliosis in its entirety is a hallucination? I guess you wouldn't mind if I dumped a bunch of Lyme-carrying ticks in your home, then.

I agree too, even though I would like to see more focus on lyme... I wish they gave more convincing evidence of it being a serious yet comparably neglected disease - they compared to zika and west nile but still don't give a good picture of where it sits on the world stage of infectious diseases.

eigenloss 7y ago

For one thing, more funding would help. >In 2017, mosquito-borne West Nile virus, which currently infects about 2,000 people annually in the U.S. received $42 million in support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Lyme disease, with 20 times the number of reported cases, got half as much, a figure that has changed little in a decade. Doubling allocations for Lyme research and prevention to $50 million doesn't seem like an unreasonable or overcomplicated request. Congress allocated over a billion dollars for Zika [1] - a disease that something like 10 Americans ever had. How does it make sense that a disease actively affecting 400,000 Americans each year is allocated effectively $0 by the same Congress? [1] https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/28/senate-approves-zika-funding/ https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/28/senate-approves-zika-fun...

ajhurliman 7y ago
Would more funding for attempting to link vaccinations to autism help?
- eigenloss 7y ago
  No, and that's completely orthogonal to what I suggested! Congrats on breaking the HN guidelines... again.
  - ajhurliman 7y ago
    No, the two are analogous. The point is that more funding doesn't result in proving a point. You can spend all the money you want on this condition which doesn't exist, but more money won't suddenly turn this hallucination into reality. Also: Disagreeing with you does not constitute breaking guidelines.
    - eigenloss 7y ago
      You think Lyme borreliosis in its entirety is a hallucination? I guess you wouldn't mind if I dumped a bunch of Lyme-carrying ticks in your home, then.