`Quiet Epidemic’ is more than a movie about Lyme Disease

Trust in the Supreme Court continues to slip around the country

By Ken Tingley

Eight months ago you were introduced to a couple of bright local kids who had their lives derailed by Lyme Disease.

The paths of Lindsey Keys, a Salem valedictorian, and Winslow Crane-Murdoch, a Tamarac grad, intersected at their doctor’s office. They also were a couple of aspiring filmmakers. That led to a collaboration on the Lyme Disease documentary “The Quiet Epidemic.”

The movie was named the best documentary at the Adirondack Film Festival last October and has been showing at film festivals around the country. It was one of 144 films eligible for Academy Award consideration among feature documentaries this year, but failed to make the short list of 15. But its mission continues to be more important than any award.

When the lights came up Sunday at the Wood Theater and the questions came from the crowd of more than 200, there was a sense of urgency from many of the people suffering from Lyme Disease who were looking for help. There was desperation in their voices.

The two filmmakers were there with Dr. Richard Horowitz, Dr. Kenneth Liegner, journalist Mary Beth Pfeiffer - all are in the film - and SUNY Adirondack microbiologist Holly Ahern.

This was not a star-struck crowd.

These were people looking for help and answers.

If there is one thing to be learned from the movie and Sunday’s panel discussion it’s the treatment and diagnosis of Lyme Disease continues to be controversial and the mainstream medical community has been slow to change its approach to treating the disease and acknowledging “chronic Lyme Disease” is a reality.

Keys shared a story about a recent screening at the New York University school of medicine.

“The doctors there just couldn’t believe it,” Keys said. “They said none of this was talked about in medical school. They were angry.”

The two doctors have treated patients outside the mainstream guidelines and say they are getting good results. Unfortunately, their treatments are often not covered by insurance.

I wanted to know if the medical community at Hudson Headwaters and Glens Falls Hospital had screened the movie. Ahern said she hoped Sunday’s event would lead to that.

Pfeiffer, a long-time award-winning investigative journalist with the Poughkeepsie Journal, has written a book on Lyme Disease - “Lyme: The first epidemic of climate change” - and continues to report on long Covid and Lyme Disease.

“Using safe antibiotics has been vilified,” Pfeiffer said. “That’s the state of medicine today. We have to get out of that. The CDC based its recommendations two or three years ago on a paper that was based on just six cases. Six cases!”

There was plenty of good news to come out of the panel discussion.

Both doctors say that they are getting good results with their treatments while Ahern believes an accurate test of Lyme will be a reality within two years. There is less certainty about a vaccine.

“You need to advocate for yourself,” Ahern offered as advice to those who have contracted Lyme and not recovered.

The problem continues to be more than a science problem.

“Rise of corporate practice medicine is dooming us,” Liegner said. “If doctors don’t go out of the box…. We need reform.”

As the film wound down Sunday, the two filmmakers were in the lobby of the Wood Theater along with Ahern. Pfeiffer soon joined them.

Keys and Crane-Murdoch both said the movie has become their job for the past year.

When I interviewed them last September, the pair were coming full circle. The first work on the movie was done at the home of Keys’ mother in Queensbury and showing the finished film at the Adirondack Film Festival brought their journey full circle.

“It never felt like a choice,” Crane-Murdoch said about the Lyme Disease project eight months ago.

“It was hunting me down,” Keys said.

In some ways, the movie has become bigger than them, the mission more important as Lyme Disease continues to thrive and spread across the northern regions of the world.

“Coming to a place where I’m functional is a wonderful miracle,” Crane-Murdoch said during the panel discussion. “It was a way for us to search for our own health and advocate for the health of others.”

Ahern went further:  “We want to take this to Congress.”

This is what making a difference looks like.

It is an important film for anyone dealing with Lyme Disease and a cautionary tale for anyone who spends any time outside.

If you missed “The Quiet Epidemic” Sunday, you can rent it on Amazon Prime or Apple TV for $4.99. The DVD is also for sale on Amazon for $17.99.

Keys mentioned they have had requests to translate the movie into 15 languages. You can donate to that cause as well. All the information is on the movie’s website:

The movie is done but the mission continues. There are a lot of people looking for answers.

Lacking trust

Trust in the U.S, Supreme Court is at an all-time low with just 18 percent of Americans saying they had a “Great deal” of trust in the court.

The survey was conducted jointly by the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center.

In 2021, 26 percent of Americans had a “great deal” of confidence in the court.

Recent reporting about unreported gifts received by Supreme Court surely will not help that confidence in the future.