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Comment by bin0 | Hacker News Reader

You're largley right, and it infuriates people who actually got it that it isn't taken seriously because of people like these. To be clear, I think they are crazy, not sick. With that said, spme cases are legitimate. The distinguishing factor is this utter bunk about "chronic" lyme disease. You can absolutely get it and have a serious problem, but once it's gone, it's gone (so long as it was treated thoroughly and you didn't stop antibiotics as soon as symptoms stop, but this is true of most or all bacterial illnesses).

Sadly, I think many of these "famous people" (which, funnily enough, I hadn't heard of) are simply attention-seeking d-list personalities.

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>You can absolutely get it and have a serious problem, but once it's gone, it's gone

I've seen firsthand that this is not entirely true. My dad ended up hospitalized for a serious Lyme infection. He had Bell's Paulsy on the right side of his face. A thorough course of antibiotics saved his life. A decade later he still has issues moving the right side of his face, and his right eye tears up every time he chews.

The damage Lyme does to the body can be permanent. That doesn't mean long courses of antibiotics years later will do anything to help...but it's important not to lump the people who have long term complications in with the tinfoil hat wearing nutjobs who never had symptoms of a bad bacterial infection in the first place.

Yes, I know people who have such issues and have the greatest sympathy for them. Permanent joint damage, heart issues, etc. However, the distinguishing factor is usually that people with serious lingering complications don't run around claiming they're still infected. I wasn't intending to lump your father nor those I know in with the crazies, just trying to make a point that the crazies make the people with real problems look bad.

This is a sort of group version of the boy who cried wolf - if enough people run around fussing about something which isn't, those for whom it is won't be taken seriously.

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