Is Lyme Disease the Result of a Biological Warfare Experiment Gone Wrong? Why Some Say the Government is Responsible for the Lyme Disease Epidemic
If you read the news a couple of days ago, you may have noticed some intriguing headlines. One read, “House of Representatives Orders Pentagon to Investigate Whether Ticks Were Once Used as Biological Weapons,”1 while another read, “Pentagon May Have Released Weaponized Ticks That Helped Spread of Lyme Disease: Investigation Ordered.”2
In the age of clickbait headlines and fake news, you may have thought that you should pass on such articles. After all, what does the government have to do with ticks other than funding research into tick-borne diseases?
Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases have been gaining more interest in recent years due to the explosion in tick populations, but it’s still rare to see news about ticks going viral. So, is this just another conspiracy theory? Is there any evidence that the U.S. government was involved in starting the Lyme disease epidemic?
Lyme Disease Makes the Headlines
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a defense spending bill for the Department of Defense (DoD). It’s typical for lawmakers to propose amendments to the NDAA at the time of reauthorization every term, and this year was no different.
This year, however, there was an unusual amendment offered by New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith. The amendment, passed by the House by a voice vote, would require the Inspector General of the DoD to conduct an investigation into whether the department experimented with ticks for use as biological weapons from 1950 to 1975.
The investigation would task the Investigator to explore questions such as:
- What were the parameters of the bioweapons program?
- Who ordered it?
- Was there ever any accidental release anywhere or at any time of any diseased ticks?
- Were any ticks released by design?
- Did the program contribute to the disease burden?
- Can any of this information help current-day researchers find a way to mitigate these diseases?
Smith said he was “inspired” by “a number of books and articles suggesting that significant research had been done at U.S. government facilities…to turn ticks and other insects into bioweapons.” One book he mentioned on the debate floor was Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby.
Newby, a science writer at Stanford University, was inspired to write the book after she and her husband suffered from Lyme disease that was misdiagnosed for a year. Frustrated by the politics of the current medical system and lack of answers, Newby set out to find the truth. What she found was so troubling that she called it an “American Chernobyl.”
The True Origin of Lyme Disease?
The mainstream story of Lyme disease is that in the 1970s, several children in and around Lyme, Connecticut became afflicted with a mysterious illness that caused a red, expanding bull’s eye rash and flu-like symptoms. Willy Burgdorfer, a Swiss American scientist, was the first to determine that the disease was caused by a corkscrew-shaped bacterium — a spirochete — of the genus Borrelia.3 The spirochete was later named Borrelia burgdorferi after its discoverer.
Like many other bacterial infections, the treatment is a short course (2-4 weeks) of antibiotics. Problem solved — or is it?
The reality is many people — about 20% of cases according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — experience lingering symptoms in what is known as chronic Lyme disease or post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD). A more recent analysis suggested that PTLD affects 36% to 63% of treated patients.4
Unfortunately, PTLD is poorly understood and treatment is controversial. Many physicians are unwilling to prescribe longer courses of antibiotics due to CDC guidelines despite findings from numerous studies indicating that the current treatment may not sufficiently eliminate B. burgdorferi or its debris. What is more troubling is that in lab tests, B. burgdorferi was shown to tolerate current Lyme antibiotics doxycycline, amoxicillin, and cefuroxime.5,6,7 Furthermore, B. burgdorferi can develop morphological variants, which could play a role in PTLD.8,9
When Newby and her husband started getting sick, they went through a succession of doctors who dismissed their suffering. One diagnosed them with “a psychosomatic couples thing.” The Newbys had to consult an internet chat room to find a Lyme-literate physician, who finally diagnosed them with Lyme disease and a co-infection called babesiosis.
In total, Newby writes that it took them “a year, ten doctors, and sixty thousand dollars in medical expenses” to get real answers. When she was well enough, Newby began researching the disease, which led to a documentary called “Under Our Skin.” She and the co-producer of the documentary, Andy Abrahams Wilson, struggled to get government Lyme experts from the CDC, NIH, Rocky Mountain Labs, etc. They all declined to be interviewed.
Finally, they met Willy Burgdorfer, the scientist who discovered B. burgdorferi.
“A Shameful Affair”
In their interviews, Burgdorfer confirmed that he had worked on tick-borne bioweapons research. Furthermore, he told Newby and Wilson that the U.S. government knows about PTLD and that the disease is particularly damaging to children’s neurological systems.
He then criticized researchers who receive the most NIH funding for Lyme disease. “The controversy in Lyme disease research is a shameful affair,” he said. “Money goes to people who have, for the past thirty years, produced the same thing: nothing.”
After going through much of Burgdorfer’s laboratory records, Newby discovered a reference to a pathogen he called the “Swiss Agent.” Burgdorfer and his colleagues found the microbe on a trip to Switzerland in 1978. The Swiss Agent, now called Rickettsia helvetica, is a bacterium that was initially thought to only affect animals, although it is now known that it can also cause illness in humans.
Burgdorfer returned to the U.S. with the Swiss Agent and started infecting U.S. ticks with it. It was around this time that a mysterious illness was affecting patients in and around Lyme, Connecticut. When Burgdorfer tested the patients’ blood, he reported that most of them showed “very strong reactions” to the Swiss Agent antigen, indicating that the patients had been infected with the Rickettsia bacteria.
But when further studies showed inconsistencies, Burgdorfer doubted that he had found the right pathogen that caused Lyme disease. About 18 months later (June 1982), he published an article in Science, pinning the disease on a new microbe called Borrelia burgdorferi. The Swiss Agent was never mentioned.
Unanswered Questions About Lyme Disease
Willy Burgdorfer passed away in 2014, and despite combing through existing records, Newby has questions that remain unanswered. Is the Swiss Agent what makes Lyme disease so virulent and persistent? Why was it never mentioned in Burgdorfer’s 100+ journal articles? And what happened to his laboratory records on the Swiss Agent? Is there anyone left who can offer clarity on these highly classified documents?
Symptoms of Lyme Disease
While we wait for answers, it’s important to raise awareness of Lyme disease and its symptoms. If you’ve ever been bitten by a tick, you’ve probably been told by a medical professional or another resource that you shouldn’t worry unless you observe the telltale sign of Lyme disease — an expanding rash (often called erythema migrans in medical terms). It can appear as a solid red blotch or as a bull’s eye, which is a central spot surrounded by clear skin that is in turn encircled by an expanding rash.
According to the American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF), it is estimated that the rash occurs in about 80% to 90% of all Lyme disease cases. Though this number is also controversial, with some saying that the rash is only present in about 30% of all cases.
Even if we go by the conservative estimate, that means that the rash is not observed in up to 20% of Lyme disease cases.
In such cases, physicians often have a much harder job of diagnosing a patient because Lyme disease is also known as the “great imitator.”10 It can mimic nearly every complex disease known, including those that are multisystemic. Lyme disease has often been misdiagnosed as:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Schizophrenia
- Multiple sclerosis
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Rheumatoid arthritis
This mimicry, in addition to the unreliable diagnostic tests currently available have a compound effect in increasing the difficulty of diagnosing Lyme disease.
Decades of research on the disease have resulted in hundreds of symptoms, including many that were once deemed “rare” or “unusual.” But all of the symptoms come from a similar process, argues Dr. Stephen Buhner in his book Healing Lyme. He writes, “The most important thing to understand about Lyme disease is that the bacteria have an affinity for collagenous tissues. This is at the root of every symptom they cause.”
For example, B. burgdorferi can attach to myelin sheaths that surround your nerve fibers and break them down. The demyelination, Buhner states, is the root cause of most of the neurological symptoms observed in Lyme disease patients.
“Every symptom someone gets comes from a similar process,” Buhner writes. This means that if the collagen structures of the body are protected, the symptom picture should disappear.
So what are some of the other symptoms of Lyme disease? According to the ALDF, Lyme disease occurs in three stages: localized early (acute) stage, early disseminated stage, and late stage. Patients can experience overlapping symptoms and they also may not go through all three.
Localized Early (Acute) Stage
The early stage of Lyme disease occurs within the first few hours to weeks after a tick bite. In addition to the rash, flu-like symptoms are often present, which include:
- Suddenly feeling “under the weather”
- Swollen lymph glands near tick bite
- Fever
- Chills
- Headache
- General muscle pain
- Fatigue
- Weakness
Naturally, this stage of Lyme disease is also the easiest to treat because the infection has not yet spread throughout the body.
Early Disseminated Stage
The early disseminated stage of Lyme disease occurs several weeks after the tick bite. The spirochetes have begun to spread throughout the body, which results in:
- Increased severity of flu-like symptoms of the early stage
- Multiple rashes not at the bite site
- Vision changes
- Severe fatigue
- Fever of 100°F to 102°F
- Pain, weakness, or numbness in limbs
- Facial paralysis
- Multiple enlarged lymph glands
- Abnormal pulse
- Sore throat
- Stiff, aching neck
- Short-term memory loss
Even with many of these symptoms, it is possible to test negative for Lyme disease on the standard tests, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the Western Blot. Both tests measure the level of antibodies to B. burgdorferi, but it can take up to six weeks for the body to produce them at a detectable level. This means that even if you are infected and have all or many of the symptoms listed above, it can be “too early” for you to test positive for Lyme disease.
Late Stage
If left untreated, the symptoms of Lyme disease progress in severity and can become debilitating in many people. At this stage, B. burgdorferi has spread throughout the body, causing symptoms in multiple systems. The symptoms of late-stage Lyme disease include:
- Severe headaches
- Arthritis
- Dizziness, vertigo
- Bilateral hearing loss over time
- Cognitive dysfunction
- Seizures
- Sleep disorders (no sleep, always sleep)
- Multiple ischemic strokes
- Respiratory distress syndrome
- Elevated liver enzymes
- Atrioventricular block
- Loss of sense of taste
- Various nephritic syndromes
- Recurrent, spontaneous episodes of loss of consciousness
As previously mentioned, there are hundreds of symptoms that can be attributed to Lyme disease. It’s also possible that just one of these is the only presenting symptom in a Lyme disease patient.
Could the Theory of Weaponized Ticks be True?
The theory of tick weaponization alleges that scientists in U.S. bioweapons programs infected ticks with pathogens during the Cold War and that the arthropods either escaped or were released. Government bioweapons programs aren’t new, and there are records of open-air tests conducted in the 1950s through the 1970s by the U.S. government. In one instance, the U.S. Army released a fungus called Aspergillus fumigatus at the Norfolk Naval Supply Center to see if the mostly African American workforce was more susceptible to infection.1112
At one point during the cold war, the U.S. and the Soviet Union reportedly had enough germ weapons to “kill everyone on earth.”13 And Newby writes in her book that she believes Willy Burgdorfer was one of the scientists tasked with breeding infected ticks that can be used as biological weapons.
While it’s true that Willy Burgdorfer worked with ticks and tick-borne bacteria, it’s important to note that there are major scientific inaccuracies with Newby’s claims. Specifically, her claims appear to be tainted to some degree by confirmation bias. Newby implies that B. burgdorferi was inserted into ticks by humans for the purpose of weaponizing them. However, this ignores the fact that the bacteria’s genome was detected in the mummified remains of a Tyrolean Iceman named Őtzi, who is estimated to be 5,300 years old.14 Suggesting that these microbes have long infected humans. There is also evidence that the bacteria was present in preserved ticks dating back to the 18th century.15
It’s clear that B. burgdorferi existed in North America long before the bioweapons programs. In fact, a 2017 report from Yale School of Public Health states that B. burgdorferi “is ancient in North America, [and has been] circulating silently in forests for at least 60,000 years…the ongoing Lyme disease epidemic was not sparked by a recent introduction of the bacterium or an evolutionary change.”16
Still, this does not rule out the possibility that something could have been done to increase the virulence of B. burgdorferi. Yes, Borrelia spirochetes have likely existed for ages. But B. burgdorferi’s ability to hide from the immune system is likely of a recent origin. Also, knowing that many ticks carry more than one pathogen, it’s entirely possible that other bacteria, such as rickettsia, could complicate the diagnosis of and increase the resilience of Lyme disease.
Although I encourage a healthy level of skepticism regarding this theory, Newby’s book and Congressman Smith’s amendment could help raise interest in efforts to find an effective treatment for chronic Lyme disease and stop this epidemic. For far too long, doctors and patients have been trapped by our government’s minimal effort to deal with the crisis, and it’s time to put a stop to it.
If you’ve been bitten by a tick and are experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, I highly recommend consulting a functional medicine practitioner or a Lyme disease specialist to get an accurate diagnosis and begin treatment if necessary.
Now it’s time to hear from you. What are your thoughts on the tick weaponization theory? Have you or a loved one been affected by Lyme disease? If so, were you able to find an effective treatment? How was your life affected by the diagnosis? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
References:
- https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/lyme-disease-amendment-investigation/index.html
- https://www.newsweek.com/pentagon-weaponized-ticks-lyme-disease-investigation-1449737
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7043737
- https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0116767
- https://aac.asm.org/content/59/10/6288
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26038747
- https://aac.asm.org/content/59/8/4616
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19843691
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25806811
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3292999
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/09/army-conducted-239-secret-open-air-germ-warfare-tests/b17e5ee7-3006-4152-acf3-0ad163e17a22/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6933885fac54
- https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/25/opinion/the-worry-germ-warfare-the-target-us.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/world/us-germ-warfare-research-pushes-treaty-limits.html
- https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1701
- https://www.bmj.com/content/311/7018/1478
- https://publichealth.yale.edu/article.aspx?id=15651
26 Comments
My son was bite by a tick in an RV campground at Arnold Air Force Base. The campground was infested with ticks and we realized too late. The tick infestation just seem too neglectful to have been a casual overlook. My son now suffers with chronic fatigue, depression, impaired immune system and unexplained cutaneous lesions that look like stretch marks.
Stria or stretch marks may be from bartonella – I suggest having him tested.
I was infected by a tick in 1984. I wasn’t able to get out of bed. My husband finally told me get up and get dressed.I kept going to doctors, but they told me I was fine, just depressed. I went to multiple doctors over the last 39 years until I went to Dr. Karyn Shanks. She tested me and the test was negative. She treated me anyway with multiple antibiotics and I didn’t get well. I need a good LLMD to help me. I am getting older and need to finally get well.
The idea that Lyme is an escaped bioweapon is terrifying but not new. The book Lab 257 was first published in 2005. Even Jesse Ventura made a case for the conspiracy theory. Speaking of theories, I have one of my own: I can’t help but think that a clumsy attempt to make borrelia more virulent might be the only reason Lyme got noticed in the first place. I’ll explain: in the origin story that is more familiar to me, it was an unusual outbreak of pediatric joint swelling in Lyme, Connecticut (near the docks used by the ferries that were going to Plum Island, a known bioweapons research facility) that eventually led to the discovery of the disease that bears its name. That’s actually a pretty unusual way for Lyme to present; it seems like the behavior of an unusually virulent strain. The insidious version of the disease that we are more familiar with is considered stealth in large part because it can mimic so many other diseases. This behavior is probably more like the ‘unmodified’ version that has been around for eons. But if Lyme hadn’t been discovered in the late 70s, we’d surely know less about it today.
Wondering about ticks in Southern Africa and Dominican Republic where I rescued animals I have found many ticks on myself and kids. Presently doing Andy Cutler chelation for amalgams and heavy metals. I am certain myself and kids have lymes with healthy organic diet chelation Hulda Clark anti parasite would these keep lymes at bay. Would like other recommendations for alternative treatment
I have been suffering from chronic Lyme disease for over 20 years. I suspect, but cannot be certain, that I was infected in Italy, since my symptoms are severely neurological, to the point that I am in a wheelchair. Finding a doctor that is competent to treat Lyme has been a frustrating task. The tests I have taken show that I also suffer from bartonella & babesia.
Like so many other Lyme sufferers, I have given up on the medical profession. I take tons of supplements, & try to have an acceptable standard of living.
I have had lyme for years and have tried everything under the sun to get better but NOTHING works. I do believe the ticks were weaponized. Whether it was intentional or not I don’t know and I guess it doesn’t matter to those of us who suffer daily and for the rest of our lives. The government will never admit it and if they did nothing would come of it. We need help but we are left to suffer but that’s government for you.
Investigate Plum Island and the Nazi that has been in charge there for some time. This “scientist” worked on tick bio weapons when in Germany. Knowing this, I think it would show great stupidity to not see that Lime’s disease came from this area.
More importantly, someone needs to investigate this German “nazi”s amazing longevity.
Dr. Jill,
Thanks for having the courage to even post this.
No, it’s not crazy.
Most people will be shocked to know that the microwave in the kitchen was a by product of a weapons program.
While it may never be proven as to who and how, or even which illnesses may be to blame, black projects absolutely weaponize insects and much more.
I’m impressed you even researched this as many doctors wouldn’t dare.
I am a Lyme patient from central Illinois. I was told by many doctors for years that Lyme didn’t exist here. I was bitten in 2003.
I finally found a LLMD in MO. After 13 years and many rounds of antibiotics I was able to live a fairly normal life thanks to him and the help of Dr. Carnahan. I am now experiencing symptoms again after 3 years with no drugs. Neuropathy, chest pain, eye inflammation and digestive issues. I have been to so many traditional doctors the past year. The testing done has all been negative. I am at a loss. Could I still be battling this horrible disease?
Hi Sandy
if you want to know for sure, you may want to try doing a complete lyme and co-infection panel from a lab like IgeneX
warmly
Dr Jill
Such an interesting story really. Veterinarians who worked on Plum Island back in those days admit they were studying ticks in one area of the facility, which I assume they will admit to ….my Father worked closely with others there, but it was being done defensively, as at the time, the concern was another Country using Yersenia or similar and spreading the infected ticks. Weaponized fleas with plague had already occurred during WW II when Japan spread the infected fleas over China. Later in the 1960s, there was talk of looking at a weaponized tick pathogen for a short period, we weren’t necessarily friendly with Japan at the time. Possibly, studying one species that is weaponized like a Swiss Agent, could easily lead to gene transfer thru plasmids to another organism which had been unknowingly present in the ticks at the time….Borrelia species were not ID’d at the time of the first biowarfare tick studies. And they had enough ticks in the study area for numerous pathogens to be in close proximity, or so I was told growing up. Possibly then part of the cell wall fragments of Borrelia species then became more toxic….like a biotoxin illness :)….but this occurred accidentally thru gene transfer. Did another agent have a plasmid that carried the information to encode lipopolysaccharide toxins onto cells walls….most toxic agents have this. Most of us have heard about “Montauk Knee” which started in the mid 1960’s, not before. This was before the idiopathic juvenile rheumatoid cases in Connecticut. In Montauk, there was a near epidemic of cases of some people who had painful and swollen knee along with fatigue, that sometimes responded to Penicillin. This also occurred in Sag Harbor as I believe Dr Burrascano eventually treated some of these patients. Dr B what you think ? Both Sag Harbor and Montauk were in adjacent communities to Plum Island, and across Long Island Sound from Lyme Connecticut And the prevailing sea breezes during the summer months were from the Southerly quadrant….perhaps eventually allowing bird wildlife to carry them across the Sound. So, at least from what i was told growing up, it wasn’t an intentional weaponizing of Borrelia. Perhaps it was accidental ? We may never know as I am not sure the government really knows.
I was bitten by some ticks in Florida in May 2011, about 2 weeks later had fatigue and a fever. I contacted my Dr. and was put on antibiotics and was tested which was negative. I did take the whole course of antibiotics, I never had a rash, but ever since then when I am in the sun a lot (I live in Colorado and love all the outdoor activities) I am likely to have some fatigue and run a fever for a day or two later. I have found that taking Humic acid everyday can really prevent this or decease my symptoms a lot. I will also take oregano oil if I think I need something extra. I am an RN, and learned about doing that on a Autoimmune summit a few years back. I have been tested several times since and have never tested positive. I was tested for some of the other likely co-infections and the test came back equivocal. I have never heard of anyone else get these same symptoms from ticks.
Google Tick Born Relapsing Fever. Oregano oil is a very good antibiotic/antiviral but you’ll still “flare” when stressed by activity (physical or mental). There are LOTS of diseases carried by these little “sewers” so it might not be just one bug but it sure sounds like you have this syndrome. 🙁 https://www.cdc.gov/relapsing-fever/index.html
Good review, but I think “Bitten” does bring out a lot of hidden stuff that went on at DoD. I think
it’s clear that at the time Otzi the Iceman had borrelia, the fact that he was walking on foot through the
Alps tells you that the old version of Lyme disease wasn’t nearly as debilitating as the modern
version. And he was killed by an arrow in the back, not an illness. I’ve read enough about how
diseases mutate to be pretty skeptical of the idea that all of a sudden borrelia burgdorferi just
happened to become more virulent in an area very close geographically to Plum Island — no
causal factor, just a coincidence. Adding all the bizarre coinfections such as a bug from Siberia
and Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever in Long Island … well, it adds up to biowarfare IMO.
I have had lyme for around 24 years almost died from it as I was diagnosed with RA and did all the RA drugs and started getting jaw infections and could barely walk and my hands and and knees would swell up to softball size, my feet hurt to walk on them especially in AM. Fortunately I found a good lyme doctor as well as a naturopath who have helped me. Its taken me 11 years to get back to where I am now which I feel I am getting close to being 100% better but not quite there yet. I have had all the coinfections as well as EBV which was holding my immune system down.
I was diagnosed with moderate-severe RA in 2014 with my left knee the size of a grapefruit. I already had Hashimotos for many years, and with all my lab markers very high, I did not give this diagnosis a second thought. My Lyme tests at the time were negative. Now, after all these years, a functional medicine doctor’s extensive lab work revealed that I have significantly high antibodies for Anaplasmosis and Rocky Mt. Spotted Fever. We were always an active family, and many of our outdoor adventures took place in the hot spots for ticks here in the Northeast. Right now my RA is controlled with the biologic Orencia and my AIP diet. I began minocycline about six weeks ago. Gosh I would love to wean off the biologic someday. Any advice?
yes, many seronegative (or positive) RA patients have underlying tick borne infections. Treating the root cause may lead to remission
I grew up in Lyme Connecticut in the ’70s. My brother, sister and I, all have Lyme Disease! And no medical help for it for 40+ years! HELP?!! I am so sick and tired ALL the time, and Doctors treat me like I’m just crazy and “seeking pain drugs! I just want relief, I want my health and my life back!. Is there a specific Protocol you suggest/use?!!
Hi Diane
You would need to work with a Lyme literate doctor for dosing, this is NOT something to be taken without very careful physician supervision
warmly
Dr Jill
I’ve not read Bitten but I have read Lab 257. I do believe that a strain of Lyme disease was concocted and that is why so many are so very ill with this disease now. It’s infuriating that I and my family have a disease that was cause by bioweapons program infected ticks! I was diagnosed 6 years ago along with my 2 daughters and 3 grands. Have done treatment with an LLMD in MO who prescribed a years worth of antibiotics. I got a little better for a little while but the abx sure has caused more issues than they helped. Then I did an herbal protocol with an LLMD in MN which helped but I was still very sick. I & the rest of my family are now treating with homeopathy (Des Bio) and after a year am finally seeing improvements. I actually have days where I feel completely normal except for a weak leg caused by Lyme. (Diagnosed with MS at one time).
Growing up on the east end of Long Island in the 1950’s, the only ticks we found were the Brown Dog Tick. We would run through rye fields and journey through the woods almost on a daily basis, no ticks on us kids and only occasionally on the dog. If you wanted to see a deer you would have to go to the Pine Barrens/Grumman. Time brought development and deer to the east end. It was odd but not unusual to see deer swimming across the Peconic Bay or even the Long Island Sound. I have no doubt that deer, other mammals, birds, insects, arachnids etc., left Plum Island, undetected, carrying a disease. I have no doubt that bioweapons research was done there. Aside from Plum Island and Grumman, Long Island is also home to Brookhaven National Labs (connect the dots) btw I have not seen or found a Brown dog tick since the 70’s.
Mild winters make for larger tick populations that found deer to be the perfect host and travel companion. I had two friends die from complications due to Lyme. Both were never properly diagnosed or treated until it was too late. Lyme’s caused facial palsy in another friend. Even though I protected myself and property with bug spray, I was like a K-Mart blue light special, ticks would find me. I have tested positive and been treated for Lyme, ehrlichiosis and babesiosis. I did not get the Lyme vaccine available in the late 1990’s but did allow my child to get it. The worst side effect was supposed to be arthritis, which was also a symptom. For me, the damage was already done. Our dog received the vaccination and also gets a monthly flea and tick treatment. It’s very difficult, if not impossible to find and remove ticks from pets who play and spend a good amount of time outdoors.
Even if the investigation proves to be true, nothing will come of it. Our government has no shame, no common sense and continue to create problems where none exist. Research the unethical human experimentation in the U.S. as well as the Guatemala inoculation experiments. Chemical, biological, electrical/digital warfare and more will continue and mistakes will be made. As citizens we will fund it through our taxes and pay for it with our health and lives.
On a brighter side, the medical community and the insurance companies are realizing that it is less expensive to try and treat Lyme, then to ignore it.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! This is incredibly well written and insightful.
Thank you for this article and your others. Good to remember that many insects and arachnids also spread Lyme and co-infections. A good reminder of the importance of human relationships with helpful animals such as guinea hens to balance the ecosystems we have control over. Our metabolic (mitochondrial) health determines our ability to protect and heal ourselves, may we find the best ways to do this for ourselves while we navigate our environment remembering we are a part of it and it is not to fear (cell danger response). Best wishes.
thank you, Sarah!