by Tina J. Garcia

Oppress- (verb) To keep down by the cruel or unjust use of power or authority; to tyrannize, crush or trample down.

I feel oppressed. I also feel betrayed. I have lost my trust in government and those elected officials who sell their integrity for campaign contributions, and who knows what else. I no longer look to any government health agency, whether federal or state, for advice or information.

I rely upon my own ability to research my health problems and will continue to look to Lyme-treating physicians for truthful answers. For in my past search for diagnosis of, and treatment for Lyme and Erlichia infections, I did not find one doctor, besides my Lyme docs, who had a thought of their own or any inclination to conduct any research on my behalf. The best they could do was defer to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), a strong arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The best they could do was to parrot false and misleading information disseminated by these deceitful agencies. 

I wrote to the ADHS in 2005 requesting copies of all test results of Borrelia burgdorferi in ticks and animal vectors in the state of Arizona. The ADHS responded in writing stating that the test results were negative. I again asked them for copies of the test results or the summaries that former ADHS Chief of Infectious Diseases Dr. Victorio Vaz had informed me existed. I was told by Dr. Vaz that the test results were "discarded because they were negative." Craig Levy, ADHS Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases Program Manager, told me the test results had been shredded because ten years had passed. 

After nearly three years of searching, I finally found evidence that the Arizona Department of Health Services lied to me in writing by stating that the tick testing results were negative. In fact, I found published research co-authored by Craig Levy in which he established an Arizona county as endemic and Ixodes pacificus (western black-legged ticks) as testing positive for Borrelia burgdorferi by IFA. His research demonstrated a four percent (4%) infection rate in Ixodes pacificus ticks in the Hualapai Mountains south of Kingman, Arizona. 

These positive test results were published sixteen years ago in 1992. Even if IFA is considered preliminary evidence, the ADHS Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases Program Manager has failed to conduct additional confirmatory testing (according to his correspondence to me). Craig Levy never mentioned to me, either verbally or in writing, anything about his research in which he demonstrated the existence of Bb in ticks in Arizona.

The ADHS has been disseminating false information to physicians, residents of and visitors to Arizona that there is no Lyme disease in Arizona. This false information was responsible for delaying my treatment at least two years, according to my medical records from three Arizona physicians, who stated in my records that there is no Lyme disease in Arizona. I hold the Arizona Department of Health Services and its supervisor, the CDC, directly responsible for the disability I have incurred in my life due to chronic Lyme infection. I also hold the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) responsible due to the false information they disseminate to physicians, legislators and the media through their website, biased treatment guidelines, biased published research and press releases.

How can a community of debilitated patients stand up against such high-level public corruption? This is an extremely difficult task. The corruption and infiltration goes all the way to the top within the Lyme disease program at the National Institutes of Health. The Lyme Medical Cartel controls the decisions relating to Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment that are made at the NIH, CDC, IDSA, ADHS and through CDC directives to every state health department in this country. Three members of the Lyme Cartel hold directorship positions in biowarfare labs. It's time for every citizen in this country to read between the lines. Borrelia burgdorferi is a debilitating bioweapon that has been unleashed in this country, and nothing is being done about it. Why? Because the CDC has this bioweapon under its direct control.

How do we make sure that justice is served? I ponder these questions daily and live with constant frustration from being stepped on by the big boots worn by the NIH, CDC, IDSA and the ADHS. I'm thoroughly fed up with their orchestrated corruption. The reason I am so frustrated is that I have a very keen, or rather intense, sense of justice. I know it is important to fight for my rights and for the rights of others, and I will continue to take advantage of any and all legal means to do so, as long as I am able.
In my opinion, it is normal for a Lyme crime victim to exhibit healthy anger toward one's oppressors. Am I worried about appearing outraged or hysterical? Am I afraid of what people might say about me when I protest with a bullhorn? Do I care if some consider me a lone wolf or a loose cannon because I utilize my right to free speech according to the United States Republic's Constitution? Do you think my life with chronic Lyme infection is enjoyable? The answer to all of these questions is an emphatic "NO!"

My life consists of daily pain, fatigue and now hoarseness and uncontrollable coughing and choking. What will tomorrow bring? If you are a patient suffering from any type of chronic infection, you understand what I mean. Each week brings a new debilitating symptom. Just when I think I'm pulling out of the quicksand, I sink to even greater depths. I am fighting for my very life. That's why I am sitting in front of my computer, pounding away at the keyboard, expressing my frustration and anger at a group of drug and vaccine lords who have robbed me of my health and joy with my husband and family.

Yes, I could choose to ignore the Lyme War. I could just watch television or read a novel. However, it is my choice to speak my mind. And speaking one's mind, asking questions and filming such encounters on camera in the United States in 2008 is proving to be a dangerous endeavor; for many who are speaking the truth against various cartels, are being arrested and their films are being confiscated by the authorities. 

I admire greatly the efforts of advocates who have coordinated protests against the Lyme Cartel, whose members are the drug and vaccine lords who are oppressing us. For many years, the Lyme patient community has held peaceful protests, testified at hearings and watched while inquisitions of their treating Lyme physicians were carried out by authoritative inquisitors who conduct witch hunts and mock trials on behalf of the Lyme Medical Cartel.

Are Lyme patients alone in this struggle? No we are not. There are chronic fatigue illness patients, myalgic encephalitis patients, autistic patients, Gulf War illness patients and Morgellons patients. Our numbers are great and I encourage all of us to recognize that, although our illnesses vary, we are all being oppressed by a Medical Cartel that controls the parameters of our infectious diseases the same way they controlled the parameters of the Tuskegee Study of Syphilis for 40 long years! We must unite, as sick as we are, and join forces to fight this orchestrated corruption that is sentencing all of us to LIFE IN PRISON FOR THE CHRONICALLY ILL!!

I extend gratitude to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and his Assistant Attorneys General for their perseverance in the antitrust investigation they conducted into the monopolistic ventures of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and their Lyme disease treatment guideline committee members. Many individuals provided valuable input and I gratefully acknowledge their contributions as well. The AG's investigation confirmed conflicts of interest that involve associations with pharmaceutical companies, consulting arrangements with insurance companies and interests in Lyme disease diagnostic tests and other patents. Such conduct is unacceptable and it is my opinion that any physician who chooses to utilize biased treatment guidelines authored by such a corrupt organization should be avoided like the plague.

Since the Agreement was signed between the Connecticut Attorney General and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Lyme disease patients and their physicians continue to bear the brunt of harsh criticism from IDSA President Donald Poretz and NIH Lyme Program Manager/American Lyme Disease Foundation Executive Director Phil Baker. (The American Lyme Disease Foundation is made up of members of the Lyme Medical Cartel.) I have no doubt that the IDSA has every intention of skewing the review panel again. Unfortunately, the IDSA has authority to choose the chairman of the panel and choose the panel members. The same IDSA committee who failed to abide by their own conflicts of interest policy with their previous guideline committee will participate in overseeing the new review. Doesn't that explain their overly confident and arrogant press releases?

For many years, Americans have looked at third world countries with disdain for the manner in which their governments have abused their people. We no longer need to look overseas to witness such atrocities, for as Lyme patients and Lyme-treating physicians we are experiencing oppressive tyranny right here in the United States. 
I am infected with a debilitating biowarfare weapon and a coordinated effort exists to deny treatment that helps me. The United States government paid for the research at Plum Island years ago that led to the initial outbreak and it is paying for continued research of this bioweapon in biowarfare labs across the country. These Lyme disease biowarfare research programs are directed by members of the Lyme Medical Cartel. We the People need to wake up! I am conivnced we have been hijacked and are part of a bioweapons experiment modeled after the Tuskegee Study!