Possible questions for Steere at the Gordon Conference on 19 Jan 2000 or anywhere else he may be confronted
if you get the chance to ask questions.

QUESTIONS FOR ALLEN STEERE, M.D.
1. Chronically ill Lyme disease patients consistently report response to antibiotic treatment but are routinely denied antibiotic treatment based on your "standard of care." Why?

2. Why do you routinely dismiss as anecdotal the large body of  scientific data that points to persistence of infection?

3. You have indicated that if a patient diagnosed with Lyme disease does not respond to treatment that the initial diagnosis was most likely incorrect. In the current climate of bacterial resistance how can you confidently make that conclusion?

4. Since you testified against Dr. Joseph Natole, who did not follow your conservative guidelines for diagnosing and treating Lyme, do you feel the severe sanctions, which included a $50,000 fine and suspension of his license were warranted?

5. Do you think you did Dr. Joe Natole's former patients, 400 of them, a favor in testifying against their doctor?

6. What do you believe are the ramifications of your court testimony on other doctors' practices whose philosophies disagree with your approaches in handling Lyme disease?

7. How do you think other doctors' practices and licenses should be handled if they do not follow your "overdiagnosis and overtreatment" school of thought? Should they also be investigated and sanctioned?

8. Should doctors be allowed to diagnose and treat Lyme disease without fear of loss of license if they do not agree with your diagnosis and treatment philosophies?  Is it a good thing that they are reported to
Boards of Medical Examiners (as is happening) if they so practice?

9. Should Departments of Health participate in discovering which doctors are "overtreating" and "overdiagnosing' Lyme disease?

10. Do you have any concerns about the safety of the Lymerix Lyme
vaccine? Do you feel it may induce Lyme arthritis?

11. Have you ever expressed any concerns about the vaccine causing Lyme arthritis in patients as study subjects, to NIH, CDC, FDA, your Internal Review Board at Tufts, or Smith Kline Beetcham?

12. Why do you think the people continue to have protests against you and your Lyme disease treatment philosophies including the Seattle protest, the two at Yale and the recent NIH protest?

13. Do you, in any possible way, think that chronic Lyme disease could be caused by persisting infection?

14. How, in the absence of any definitive testing, can you be so sure that Post Lyme Syndrome is not persisting infection?

15. Other than your perceived "placebo effect", how can you explain patients getting better with antibiotic treatment that is longer than your current views of 4 to 6 weeks? Is it likely this could point to
persisting infection?

16. If your philosophies of diagnosis and treatment were shown to be essentially unsupported by patients, clinicians and research, how do you feel this would effect your stance as an "astute clinician"?

17. Your comments please on the current investigations and sanctions against 17 doctors on the East coast who treat in ways that are contrary to yours? Specifically, address the Dr. Burrascano and Dr. Orens cases.

Others:

A couple thoughts re: questions for Steere: from Lynn:

     I would ask the question of whether he or any of his relatives, or any other physicians he publishes with                                   (and if so, who are they?) hold FINANCIAL INTERESTS IN IMUGEN !!

This has been a rumor swirling around Steere for years. It would be highly illegal for him to hold a financial interest
in a lab where he referred patients for testing. There are federal laws barring this. Physicians are routinely prosecuted fby the Justice Department for this type of conduct.

I would also ask the question of whether, to his knowledge, is IMUGEN developing any COMMERCIAL INTERESTS in countries of the former Soviet Republic. Steere is reportedly doing studies over there. Why?? Is Imugen
involved in this or any other privately held companies ?

Does he hold any FINANCIAL INTERESTS in BROOK BIOTECHNOLOGIES??
(Dattwyler and Luft's company in Stony Brook)

Also, is he on the Board of Directors of any of these companies (Brook,  Imugne)??

BTW, Imugen does really crappy Western Blots. They use none of the CDC recommended strains.

HOW DO THEY GET AWAY WITH THAT ???

Another puzzling about Steere's work: Dr. Steere, how come your work never
references JARISCH-HERXHEIMER'S REACTIONS in patients as possible
confirmatory evidence for Lyme ??

How come your work doesn't reference
Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions AT ALL !!?? Seems like, in so many ways,
your work does not parallel the BIOLOGICAL REALITIES OF THE DISEASE. J-H
reactions are an important clue to PERSISTENT INFECTION.

Dr. Steere, why don't you use ANTIBIOTIC CHALLENGE TESTS in your
patients. It is well known in the field of Lyme disease and also syphilis that
patients who are seronegative may seroconvert after a short course of antibiotics.

Why does your work or that of your colleagues never reference this fact, and
why do you not use antibiotic challenge tests to pursue the diagnosis ??

Some would say that the clinical manifestations of Lyme disease rival
the protean manifestations of syphilis.

How is it that a rheumatologist is qualified to spearhead research on a disease that involves organ systems
           and human pathology that he has virtually no training in?                                                     

       Aren't you practicing outside your speciality?

Aren't you trying to stuff this disease into a
rheumatological model and it simply won't fit?

In your paper on the "Overdiagnosis" of Lyme disease (JAMA), is it
possible that those who you characterized as having "chronic fatigue syndrome" or
other diagnoses (categories which were predominately FEMALE) simply
represent GENDER DIFFERENCES in the presentation of chronic Lyme disease ? and
that you failed to take this into consideration ???

Is there a question of gender bias in this study ?

Would you have been so quick to call the findings
psychiatric if the group who tested negative on Imugen's test but who
reported symptoms c/w Lyme were predominately MALE?

In your study on the "Overdiagnosis" of Lyme, you said everyone who tested
positive on Imugen's test had true Lyme. Now, isn't that a bit of baloney ??

There were NO FALSE POSITIVES or FALSE NEGATIVES ??? Bizarre.

Some people have said that it looks like you made up the data to make it seem that Imugen
produces perfect results. Doesn't that paper smack of SCIENTIFIC FRAUD