Talk:Allen Steere

NPOV
Please help keep this article NPOV by using valid sources and citations and not citing anecdotal web pages. Defamation of Steere through vandalism and weasel words will be removed promptly. (Mcpucho 17:24, 28 May 2007 (UTC))

=Article is worshipful in tone; lacks balance and omits many crucial facts, thereby tarnishing Wiki's reputation for objectivity=

I agree with caliguy-- this article is bordering on a worshipful, vanity piece---

Dr. Steere has been the object of a great deal of public controversy since the Lyme epidemic has radiated out from its epicenter near Plum Island in the 1970s.

Steere's vaccine, Lymerix was withdrawn amid class action lawsuits and a flurry of damage reports, with many patients experiencing severe reactions to the synthetic OspA in the vaccine. Also, if Outer Suface Protein OspA is a good marker for Lyme, then why isn't OspA (band 31) included in the diganostic tests approved by Dr. Steere?

Doesn't band 31's omission artificially deflate the epidemic? This question has been a point of contention among scientists and should be covered here to provide balance. Also, it is a conflict of interest issue, especially in light of the many Lyme patents held by Yale.

The article fails to mention the many (some dating back to 1911) scientific papers and studies that have proven the persistence of infection and (long term neurological infection) that Steere refutes.

I have added a fact on Dr. Steere's membership in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a quasi military bioweapons unit, and I will add additional facts on the damages caused by Dr. Steere's Lymerix vaccine, as well as attorney general Blumenthal's investigation into the conflict of interest issues. thank you Freyfaxi 21:59, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Going to Make This Article NPOV
This article is quite derogatory to Mr. Steere. Phrases like "Steere and his cronies," "most troublingly," etc., violate Wikipedia's NPOV policy. Thus I shall make some changes to the article to restore it to the NPOV policy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.234.98.6 (talk) 03:45, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Investigation by Attorney General Blumental
I added in this balanced and factual account of the controversy over the IDSA panel in which Steere has played an important part. Someone has just removed the entire section leaving no mention of it. Why was this removed? If anyone wants to see what I put there for purposes of discussion here it Is:

"Steere's influence on medical opinion on Lyme disease has proven controversial. An anti-trust investigation initiated by Attorney General Blumenthal of Connecticut produced a report in 2008 that appeared highly critical of an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines panel, on which Steere had played a leading role. The judgement stated that "The IDSA blocked appointment of scientists and physicians with divergent views on chronic Lyme who sought to serve on the 2006 guidelines panel by informing them that the panel was fully staffed, even though it was later expanded". Amongst other opinions, the Commission stated that several committee members had undeclared and possibly unethical commercial interests which could have compromised their standards in writing the IDSA guidelines. Amongst other issues raised were the possibility that involvement in development of a Lyme vaccine (see below) had given panel members an incentive to strongly restrict the definition of Lyme disease to something which would be easy to define by the vaccine developers. However, IDSA members (including Steere) have in statements and press releases said that they interpret the Commission's findings as vindicating their own position on Lyme Disease and proving that they had in fact done nothing unethical."

The role of this page is to provide a factual account of a person's life including important events which pertain to that person. It is not to provide a hagiography of that person. If someone disagrees with the accuracy of the Blumenthal Report or my account of it, they should alter the section accordingly. Completely obliterating all mention of it, while convenient perhaps for those caught up in the controversy itself, is not appropriate for Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.6.33.142 (talk) 03:39, 1 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Well first you do not have a source, look at wp:blp. 2nd the stuff I read about the Blumenthal report is not saying any thing about Steere so that is against wp:syn . Third is the blumenthal report relavent on Allan Steere, I do not think so, these claims are made by a guy that gets awards from Chronic Lyme and the case did not get tried. Fourth your edits are taking out sourced stuff, like the death threats, and putting words in mouth of the writers they did not say. Pls try to use sources right and not go against blp. And pls do not call this a hagiography or say I am caught up in controversy, I do not know Alan Steere or Blumenthal, I am not in IDSA. RetroS1mone   talk  03:50, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Grovelling
What an amazing piece of grovelling the article is. This is the Wikipedia equivalent of a Fox News report. It's fair to give the guy his due, but what about all the coverage about the Blumenthal case? Press coverage may or may not mention him, but it is clearly a committee he played a key role in. It is at least as important an event in the public perception of his reputation and career as, for instance, declaration of Allen Steere Day. To simply leave it all out because Blumenthal did not confront Steere directly is exploiting a technicality in the interpretation of Wikipedia's rules, and is denying the public of the sort of information that Wikipedia is supposed to provide. What other well-known personality gets 'protection' from Wikipedia recording externally validated events, no matter how embarassing those may be for that person? —Preceding unsigned comment added by JonInSeoul (talk • contribs)
 * Um... if press coverage and reliable sources do not draw a specific connection, then we as editors should not manufacture one. Given that this is a biographical article, it's all the more important that we stick to what independent, reliable sources have to say without turning the article into a coatrack for an editorial agenda. MastCell Talk 20:20, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Vaccine
I deleted the last sentence on somebody saying 'there will probably never be another vaccine available'. This is not relevant to issue at hand, which is a report on the vaccine which Steere was actually developing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by JonInSeoul (talk • contribs)

Symptoms
The definition of doctors treating people with 'no symptoms' is a controversial area of course, even though it is stated as a bland and accepted fact in the article. How do we define 'no symptoms'? The patients seem to think they have them, their doctors seem to think they have them. The fairest way seems to state "(according to IDSA guidelines)", so everyone is clear what the definition of 'no symptoms' is. I have edited the article accordingly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by JonInSeoul (talk • contribs)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090715180802/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2001/06/17/magazine/17LYMEDISEASE.html to http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/17/magazine/17LYMEDISEASE.html

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External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080511215610/http://www.cdcfoundation.org/frontline/2001/new_york_gala_honors_epidemic_intelligence_service.aspx to http://www.cdcfoundation.org/frontline/2001/new_york_gala_honors_epidemic_intelligence_service.aspx
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