NOTE: This event has passed

The Ninth International Conference On Lyme Borreliosis and other Tick-Borne Diseases will be held at the Grand Hyatt in New York City from August 18-22nd and OUR GOOD LD Doctors HAVE BEEN SHUT OUT from presenting.

For those of you who are not familiar with this issue, those physicians who have been on the front lines treating Chronic Lyme Disease patients, have been EXCLUDED from presenting at this conference including poster sessions!!

We MUST take this opportunity to bring media attention to the attempts of Wormser, Klempner et al. to deny the existence of the chronic Lyme disease epidemic.

Although the conference is in NYC, this is an issue for all Lyme disease patients throughout the world!!

For this protest we will have the assistance of a public relations professional in generating publicity for us. This increased likelihood of media coverage makes it imperative that we show up in numbers to get our message out to the public.

We know how difficult it is for patients who are so ill to have to keep protesting, but we must continue this fight to save our lives, the lives of our families and the lives of those who will become ill in the future.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 20th at 11 am.

WHERE: Outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel, 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, NYC.

WHY: To protest the bias shown by the conference organizers in excluding presentations by the physicians who have the most important information: the experience of patients being treated for Chronic Lyme Disease.

BRING: Yourself, friends and family. Picket signs without wooden sticks - we will send some suggested slogans soon. Water, (We will have some there for you as well, but it would probably be easer to have your own bottle) If you have a wheelchair that you use only sometimes, please bring it. If you don't need it someone else will use it. You might want to bring an umbrella if you are sun sensitive. BRING SUNSCREEN!!

WEAR: One advantage of having a public relations  person advising us is that we now have advice on how to dress for television. Avoid white shirts, stripes that are too small, plaids that are large. If anyone wears hose, bring another pair, because the PR guy says that runs in nylons show up big time on TV. The things you learn!  

Please be prompt. Allow time for Directional Challenges.

The expectation is that we will be on the noon news show live and then replayed in the late afternoon and evening.

This is a ****unique**** opportunity to get our messsage out to both the media and medical professionals throughout the WORLD.

We CAN win this fight if we keep on keeping on.

We Will Not Go Away!
Jeannine, Eva, Ellen

=====

PRESS INFORMATION

"Lyme Disease Victims to Picket International Lyme Conference"

"ILADS Presents the Clinical Side of Lyme Disease"

=====

MISC. INFORMATION

Conference Agenda (Expired link)

=====

SUGGESTIONS FOR SIGNS

Hi folks,
People have asked for suggestions about signs to bring to the August 20th protest of the Ninth International Lyme Disease Conference. The focus of most of the signs should be on the specific issue of the protest. This is that the conference organizers have excluded presentations by those clinicians who treat chronic Lyme disease patients and that the conference is, therefore, highly biased. The public relations advisor suggests some signs with only a couple of words, so that they are easily read on TV. Some suggestions are:

---Unfair
---Patients Ignored
---Bias
---Hear Both Sides
---Don't Silence Patients
---Don't Silence Clinicians
---Tell the Whole Truth

Signs about Lyme disease in general are also welcome, e.g., Lyme Disables, Lyme Can Kill, One Bite Lasts a Lifetime. Many of you might have signs about Lyme from previous protests that would be appropriate here.

I think we need to avoid signs that are attacking. The conference attendees and and many of the presenters at the conference are not the bad guys here. Our quarrel is only with the organizing committee headed by Gary Wormser and including "all the usual suspect" that have been writing that chronic Lyme is not much of a problem. We are actually trying to appeal to many of the scientists attending the conference, so we don't want to attack the conference. We are only arguing that the conference organizers kept out legitimate presentations that conflicted with their own biases.

Hope to see you outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan at 11am on August 20th.
Ellen

More Suggestions At:
Lymenet Flash Board (Link expired)

=====

TRANSPORTATION

Westchester, NY:
Linda will be co-ordinating transportation to try to make it easier. Her email is Lamb12345@cs.com

Massachusetts and Connecticut:
Kay will be trying to coordinate a bus that will make the trip in one day and can stop along RTE 128 / 95, (in Mass) Mass Pike, RTE. 84 in Mass. & Conn., RTE. 91 and 95 in Conn.
$5 seats available, contact Kay ASAP. b10g7@attbi.com

North Jersey:
Email Cynde at levans@warwick.net before August 16th. Stops in W. Milford, Butler and Wayne.

Metropolitan Area Trains:
MetroNorth: NY-- Dutchess, Putnam, Westchester, Bronx, New York (Manhattan), Rockland, and Orange. CT-- New Haven and Fairfield.
Long Island RR
http://www.njtransit.com- NJ Transit
Tickets for long distance attendees:
For Amtrak information, see www.amtrak.com or call 1-800- USARAIL. Greyhound bus info is available at www.greyhound.com. Inexpensive flights to NY available through Jet Blue, see www.jetblue.com , 1-800-JETBLUE, but does not cover all regions. For other regions, see www.southwest.com and www.priceline.com to make bids. From the midwest, see www.airtran.com For ground transportation to and from the NY airports, and passenger security tips, see http://www.panynj.gov/aviation.html. The 3 NY airports are JFK, LGA (LaGuardia), and EWR (Newark). Southwest flies into Islip (Long Island).

Hotel Directories: