how the CDC narrowed the criteria

This will explain how Steere narrowed the criteria to virtually guarantee a neg test result.  very interesting

http://www (dot) lymecryme (dot) com/Dearborn_1994.pdf

[JackieCalifornia]

I read all 14 pages ... lots of data there, but seems a bit thrown together with the conclusion already in mind ... not that the conclusion is wrong, but the presentation of the material is not in my reading 'disinterested' as a scientist would expect to see it.

[ewford]

Well Jackie, it explains it in the same manner as Cure Unknown, maybe a little more explanatory.  What would you prefer, a document that is so scientific that none of us could understand it or one that a layman can understand?

[JackieCalifornia]

It always makes me suspicious when contempt is deployed to make a point in a scientific/medical take-down.  Yes, I engage in my fair share of IDSA-bashing here, but when an article purporting to demolish a complex scientific/medical situation does so with the tone of that article, it causes me to wonder how much of the critique is emotion and how much is science.

The article also linked together a bunch of things that I am not qualified to say is right or wrong, but the arguments would be more effective if they were more reasoned and less hyperbolic.  That can still be written in a fashion that non-professionals can understand.

I don't believe the IDSA are evil, just wrong.