Quote Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser View Post
before this thread I was not aware of any of your previous dealing with it, if I was a member when this happened... i missed it completely, sorry. I was also completely unaware there are people who are in denial of it. As I stated above, I have seen it first hand (or IBD like symptoms, it wasn't actually diagnosed) so it strikes me just as odd to hear that, as it must of struck you at the time. I can see where your frustration would come from, taking a lashing for telling the truth. There does seem to be a few who are put on a God Pedestal and what they say is law, regardless of the facts.

Knowing all this now, I can completely understand. You have to admit though, for those of us out of the loop it was pretty damn confusing.
People still deny it and others refuse to believe that there is a possibility that a certain percentage of boas may be infected but remain asymptomatic indefinitely. On one of the forums, there was a gang of moderators who threatened me with infractions. On another (a Canadian one), the site admin blocked all of my posts for review until I emailed him scans of the various tests and vet reports that were done. Then he thanked me and banned me.

When interviewed, IBD researchers are pretty open with their scorn at the lack of support from the boa community.

There was a subset of people who openly recognized IBD existed but told me that the information I was passing along regarding that it could manifest itself as a series of subclinical issues or not manifest at all was scare mongering. Even when I shared e-mails between the staff at UCD and Dr. Jacobson they still openly argued with me.

So while some people are amazed that there is a sub-sect of deniers out there, I maintain that they are still in some form of denial. The very fact that IBD research is so poorly funded points to that.

The cynical part of me wonders how long this breakthrough would have taken if the Academy of Sciences hadn't had an outbreak....................