“Chronic #lyme” is not a real diagnosis but it is a harmful belief system that spreads through the internet and bad journalism. Victims typically are sold multiple fake diagnoses and empty their wallets in desperation. https://t.co/y5wn1rWmRD
Great thread on how identity can override critical thinking👇 #Lyme
A thread. Ten years ago, critical thinking peaked. The organised skepticism movement was successfully imported from USA to UK (mainly by me) and the UK media was getting pretty good at not giving platforms to quacks.
Europe has been curing #Lyme infections since at least 1951 but many fake Lyme activists are promoting an absurd conspiracy theory alleging that the US government spread the (curable, not easy to get) infection as a bioweapon in the 1970s 🙄
Fun fact: Europe has been curing Lyme infection since at least 1951. 👊 Yes, Lyme disease is curable, which is why "chronic Lyme" is not a thing. Also most people in chronic Lyme groups never had Lyme in the first place or any of the myriad "coinfections". https://t.co/KfIufTYWNT
Practitioners who market themselves as "integrative" and "functional" endanger public health in more ways than one
Due to the internet, the fake chronic Lyme diagnosis manifests where real #Lyme is rare or non-existent. Conspiracy theorists then claim a CDC cover up. A new private study shows this is absurd because prevalence in dogs is closely linked to CDC numbers. https://t.co/h8yxGi9G6A
Dr. Eugene Shapiro is the pediatric infectious disease expert who wrote an @AmerAcadPeds review on Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme conspiracy theorists have launched a petition to slime him while promoting a child abusing quack. https://t.co/HG4tGqhnMV
Chronic #Lyme groups rule their members with fear:
• Fear that they will transmit their fake infections to their spouse or child
• Fear that if they don't empty their wallets on quackery, then they will continue suffering or die
• Fear that nobody outside the groups will help
New paper warns about the danger of false diagnoses of Baggio-Yoshinari syndrome, the chronic #Lyme like social phenomenon from Brazil https://t.co/VGB5Zf2e6D
Fake Lyme patient: Hey did you know this obscure fact about #Lyme disease? Also here are 5 lies to accompany that fact.
Scientists: You're a fake Lyme patient....
Fake Lyme patient: But let's talk about Lyme disease.
Scientists: 🤦♀️ 🙄
Remember when members of the protean Chronic #Lyme Cult used to inject themselves with malaria? Social scientists should study the self-flagellation that is a necessary part of being a "Lyme Warrior" https://t.co/7yqiTSlYzM
So much for learning and detecting cognitive biases 🤷♀️
