HL Mencken once said of Harry Truman that if there had been a sizable constituency of cannibals in the country when he was campaigning for president, he would have promised them a steady supply of missionaries fattened at public expense. Mitt Romney is trying to win in Virginia by promising to do more to stop Lyme disease. WTF?
The Romney campaign is sending out mailers in Virginia promising to “do more to fight the spread of Lyme disease,” which the flier calls a “massive epidemic” that threatens that state. In actuality, there are less than 1,000 cases of the disease per year among the 8 million residents of that state. So why would the Romney campaign be putting such a focus on this? Apparently, to pander to one of the leading figures of the Christian right, Michael Farris, the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association and Patrick Henry College. Think Progress explains:
A highly influential social conservative in Virginia, Michael Farris, believes that people can contract “chronic Lyme disease” that must be treated with long-term antibiotics. The Center for Disease Control says there is no such thing as “chronic Lyme disease” and “long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease has been associated with serious complications.” …
Farris, who has no medical training, was invited to speak with Romney on his campaign bus a couple of weeks ago. Farris said that he and Romney “talked about Lyme disease. It was cordial and encouraging.” …
The Romney flier advocates providing “local physicians with protection from lawsuits to ensure they can treat the disease with the aggressive antibiotics that are required.” Farris’ wife receives treatment from “Dr. Joseph Jemsek, who moved his practice to Washington, D.C.,after losing his medical license in North Carolina for treating patients with long-term antibiotics.”
In other words, Romney thinks it’s okay to overrule the Centers for Disease Control on a disease he knows nothing about to appease a wingnut who likewise knows nothing about the subject.
32 comments
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Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
October 3, 2012 at 10:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Pshaw, anyone can follow the advice of experts. It’s far more Presidential to go with gut feeling*.
*Or what passes for gut feeling in unfeeling androids like Romney.
StevoR
October 3, 2012 at 10:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If Mittens really *is* fighting Lyme disease then my bet is that the illness wins!
But I’ll give him a tick for doing that!
slc1
October 3, 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mike Ferris should put the lie to the canard that medical quackery is an overwhelming left wing notion, as promulgated by people like John Kwok. In addition to Ferris, there are a number of right wing folks like Dan Burton and Orrin Hatch on board the quackery bandwagon.
StevoR
October 3, 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant) :
Hey, as Republicans have famously said (well one of ‘em anyhow, forgot who now) someone’s got to stand up against those durn experts!
Randomfactor
October 3, 2012 at 10:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He’s blinded them with SYNERGY!
dingojack
October 3, 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mitten’s famous ‘War on Ticks’ (They must be bad; they ain’t crosses!)
Dingo
imrryr
October 3, 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
But what’s his plan to defeat the dreaded gum disease known as gingivitis?
Larry
October 3, 2012 at 10:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Gee, I don’t see what could possibly go wrong.
dingojack
October 3, 2012 at 10:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Next up – Mitten’s War on Halitosis.*
Dingo
—–
* Well right after he stops the tide coming in (you can’t explain that)
dingojack
October 3, 2012 at 10:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And he’ll send them durn placeboes back south of the border, where they belong!
Dingo
grendelsfather
October 3, 2012 at 10:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I am embarrassed to admit that it was my fellow Texan, Don McLeroy, who made that statement. He was chair of the Texas Board of Education at the time.
democommie
October 3, 2012 at 10:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed:
It’s not just VA. Why, Argilla Road, in Ipswich, MA–a wealthy, conservative bastion on the North Shore of MA used to be called “Lyme’s Disease Central” by the locals. This:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/03/us/ipswich-journal-fighting-lyme-disease-at-its-worst.html
is from the period when Lymes was just beginning to be understood and dealt with by the state epidemioligists in MA–at a time when Mittmoroni’s focus was on eliminating another dreaded scourge, the blue-collar and middle class leeches that preyed on the fortunes of the 1%.
I was there when the “annual deer hunt” program was going on. The “hunters” (snipers would be a more accurate label) were not looking for trophy animals. They were paid by the state to cull the herd of sick and infirm deer. There was a fair amount of outcry by the friends of the deer types but it seems to have worked fairly well. It’s interesting to me that Mitt doesn’t want to mention that the program undertaken by MA was a relative success in the early years of the epidemic of Lymes. Maybe that’s because he hadn’t yet started lying about being from MA on his tax returns as yet; or, maybe it’s because it happened when that notorious Grecocommie, Mike Dukakis was governor (1983-1991).
grendelsfather
October 3, 2012 at 10:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
oops. sorry for the embed; that was just supposed to be a link.
DaveL
October 3, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In this case, that feeling in his gut may include Clostridium Difficile-induced diarrhea.
yoav
October 3, 2012 at 11:03 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Maybe it’s just my little, librul, reality bound brain but I’m a little confused. I keep hearing from wingnuts that the reason we don’t need the FDA or any regulation on what treatment can be used is that you would be sue your doctor if you end up dead because the treatment was either ineffective or harmful and therefore the magic of the FreeMarket™ will weed these treatments out and only the safe and effective ones will prevail.
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
October 3, 2012 at 11:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@yoav, #15:
the magic of the FreeMarket™ will weed these treatments out and only the
safe and effectiveprofitable ones will prevailWhy does anyone think otherwise?
lofgren
October 3, 2012 at 11:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Be honest:
Given a choice between doctors peddling scientifically unsupported treatments for illusory diseases, and a bunch of sick people, was there ever in any doubt in your mind that Romney would side with the group with more money?
dingojack
October 3, 2012 at 11:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
DaveL – Damn! I was hoping for C. botulinum or C. tetani (or at the very least Salmonella).
Can we follow it up with a good dose of Helicobacter pylori? I’m sure Mitten’s has got a money-buddy whose recommends cupping or bleeding.
Dingo
Larry
October 3, 2012 at 11:32 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Next up: Romney supports treating ailments caused by the four humors being out of balance with applications of leeches to promote blood-letting.
Gregory in Seattle
October 3, 2012 at 11:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Using public resources to stop disease? Isn’t that socialized medicine?
dingojack
October 3, 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Gregory – Nah. See if you are evvvvuuuuullll and get sick (which means you deserve it) then all you’ve gotta do is scrape together a couple of thou and go see a quack. After a couple of hundred of treatments (at a thou a pop), if you ain’t dead you’re ‘cured’ (ie someone else’s problem).
All without any cost to the those hardworking (middle-class) taxpayers.
And, best of all, there’s plenty of money left over for tax breaks for the ‘One Percent Welfare Queens’ like Rmoney!
Win-Win!
Dingo
StevoR
October 3, 2012 at 12:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@11. grendelsfather : Cheers for that.
That’s the one was thinking of.
tassilo
October 3, 2012 at 12:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Romney will send every suspected case to the emergency room, once a socialist bastion, now Romney’s beloved example of our fine health care system.
baal
October 3, 2012 at 12:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“to pander to one of the leading figures of the Christian right, Michael Farris”
This actually makes me feel a little better.
I can understand why a politician would pander (and in romney’s case, badly and everywhere including darker facemake up for talking to a latino audience <–no i'm not making that up). I couldn't figure out why he'd bother to make promises about Lyme Disease. It's a techincal issue for the health community to worry about and parents / hunters to watch out for tics in the wood. Not like there is a need to highlight that one disease in light of all the other diseases and disorders (hello, air pollution spikes correlating exactly with deaths from asthma, stroke and heart attacks?).
Randomfactor
October 3, 2012 at 12:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
1. The treatment will induce many more infections with C. Diff.
2. Making a larger market for fecal transplants.
3. Romney corners the market on the supply. PROFIT!
democommie
October 3, 2012 at 12:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“hunters to watch out for tics in the wood.”
Oh noes! The bambis with teh tourettes.
dingojack
October 3, 2012 at 12:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Demo – ‘fecal transplants’? I thought that would be more up santorum’s – uh – street.
Dingo
Abby Normal
October 3, 2012 at 1:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
War on Ticks eh? Those little bugs are tough to kill. Time to militarize the CDC! After all, what could be a more appropriate for killing insects than SWAT training?
warrene
October 3, 2012 at 1:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think Mitt just redefined pathetic and pandering in one fell swoop. Well done.
Uncle Glenny
October 3, 2012 at 2:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ warrene
Just wait until he decides he should legalize quack treatments for autism and maybe some other things. They can be expensive meaning the medical practitioners providing them should have some bucks, not to mention networks of grateful patients to whom he would be savior.
zippythepinhead
October 3, 2012 at 3:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is so typical of the right wing and their anti-parasite fascism.
Chris from Europe
October 3, 2012 at 3:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Don’t look at the comments to the TP article. All the nuts come out to defend their beliefs in chronic Lyme disease.
I find it astounding that a Presidential candidate promises to protect doctors committing malpractice from consequences.