The lone star tick, which is known for its aggressive nature and bites that can cause alpha-gal syndrome, or red meat allergy, as well as other dangerous viruses, is spreading across the United States beyond its usual habitat in the southeast, a study suggests, as climate change exacerbates rising temperatures and longer warm seasons across the country.
KEY FACTS
The tick species primarily resides in the southeastern U.S., but a study by scientists at the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Walter Reed suggests that in recent years it has been found in increasingly northern and western locations, as far west as Wyoming and as far north as Maine, and some scientists say that the growth of the lone star tick’s habitat could be due to longer seasons of warm temperature caused by climate change.
Bites from a lone star tick are the primary cause in the U.S. of alpha-gal syndrome, which causes an allergic reaction to a sugar known as alpha-gal found in beef, pork and lamb, among other mammalian meats and dairy products.
While lone star ticks are less likely to cause disease than the blacklegged tick, which is known for its ability to spread Lyme disease, they are more aggressive and more likely to bite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (See link for article)
A man suddenly has a cardiac arrest at home and the cause of his medical emergency is a mystery! Let’s solve the mystery together and learn about shock, septic shock, anaphylactic allergies and more! Scroll to about the 14 minute mark to finally hear he has Alpha Gal.
Virginia bill would make alpha-gal syndrome reportable to CDC
Triggered by a bite from the lone star tick, alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) can cause severe allergies to red meat, including beef, pork, and lamb. Currently, most states don’t keep track of AGS cases. A bill has been proposed in Virginia, directing its Board of Health to report those cases to the CDC. The following information was forwarded to us by Tick-Borne Conditions United.
Virginia Alpha-Gal Syndrome Advocacy
***Please do not call or email if you are not from Virginia!***
House Bill 93 would direct the VA Board of Health to add Alpha-gal Syndrome (AGS) to the list of diseases required to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control.
H.B. 93 was introduced by Delegate Otto Wachsmann who has suffered from alpha-gal himself. He is prepared to work hard to get his bill through the Virginia House of Delegates in time for “crossover” to the Senate by February 13 in order to have a chance to pass the General Assembly this year. But he needs all of our help to make this happen!
Please take a minute to reach out to your state delegate and ask them to support H.B. 93
You can call or email, but calls get significantly more attention than emails. This bill could be considered any day, so please take action today!
Introduce yourself! “Hello, this is Jane Smith from ___, Virginia.”
Tell them why you are calling/emailing: “I am calling today to ask you to support a bill that is very important to me/my family. House Bill 93 would add alpha-gal syndrome to the list of diseases required to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control. Alpha-gal syndrome is a serious tick-borne condition that causes an allergy to mammal meat and mammal products.”
Tell them why you care: “This bill is important to me because….. (give a very short accounting of your experience with alpha-gal and how hard it is to get good information and find doctors who know about it, food you can safely eat and medicine that is safe for you.) “
Tell them why they should care: “Virginia a hotspot for alpha-gal syndrome. While nobody knows the true extent, in some areas of the state, up to 3 percent of the population is suspected to suffer from the disease and could have potentially life-threatening allergic reactions. Many go undiagnosed! Adding the disease to the list of conditions required to be reported will help document the extent of this disease in VA and track its spread so that public health resources can be focused accordingly.
Complete the ask: “Can I count on Del. X’s support for H.B. 93 and is there any further information you need?”
Public health warnings about vector-borne diseases in the US are heating up. In a May editorial, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a plea for a vaccine against West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes and has no treatment. By midsummer, the CDC reported that as many as 450 000 people in the US may have a meat allergy from the bite of the lone star tick, while other CDC scientists warned that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the insecticides used in abatement efforts. Mosquitoes struck in August, when public health officials reported 11 cases of locally acquired dengue fever in Florida and Maryland’s first known case of locally acquired malaria in more than 40 years.
Meanwhile, the most common vector-borne disease in the US, Lyme disease, is on the rise.
“Lyme disease is definitely increasing in the US as the environmental niche of the deer tick and deer populations expand,” John N. Aucott, MD, director of the Lyme Disease Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told JAMA in an interview. The incidence of Lyme disease in the US nearly doubled from 1991 to 2018, from 3.74 cases to 7.21 cases per 100 000 people, based on confirmed cases reported to the CDC. But the true numbers are believed to be much higher.
According to the nonprofit organization Fair Health, US private insurance claims with a Lyme disease diagnosis increased 357% in rural areas and 65% in urban areas from 2007 to 2021. Using insurance claims, the CDC estimates that as many as 476 000 people in the US are diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease each year.
“In the last 20 years, the numbers of Lyme disease have really exploded,” said Linden Hu, MD, director of the Lyme Disease Initiative at Tufts University School of Medicine. “We’ve seen people get Lyme disease just from stopping at a rest stop in Massachusetts. So the number of people at risk is greater than it was before.”
(See link for article)
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**Comment**
There is very little hope within this article.
Summary:
Climate change clap trap continues to be regurgitated and blamed for what we are experiencing, despite ticks being ecoadaptive and the last species to die on planet earth.
PTLDS is emphasized only due to the fact there is “no known treatment,” so vaccines can be pushed.
The article gives false hope by stating the NIH has announced $3.2 Million in funding to support research on PTLDS; however, what isn’t mentioned is this money will do NOTHING to help patients. It will simply line the pockets of biased, bought out researchers who will continue with the accepted, politically motivated narrative.
The falsely low number of 10-20% who continue with lingering symptoms is regurgitated when the number is upwards of 40-60%.
Hu managed to mention the fact that persistent infection after treatment is one hypothesis for PTLDS along with immune responses and autoantibodies.
And Aucott also managed to mention that due to his magnetic imaging studies which showed there is underlying biology to explain patients’ symptoms, it is not psychosomatic.
Of course nothing would be complete without a huge section on vaccines. (This is getting very old) It’s also a good time to reflect upon the conflict of interest disclosures:
The article made Lymerix seem like the answer to all of life’s ills when in fact it was yanked off the market for causing Lyme-like symptoms. To those who tout the narrative, Lymerix, like all other vaccines, is “safe and effective.”(This too is getting extremely old)
But, there’s a new vaccine to save humanity in the pipeline! Yay! This “antitick vaccine” encodes a cocktail of 19 proteins in tick saliva. What could possibly go wrong?!
Hu is developing lotinaner, used in the veterinary world, of which the FDA has given an alert about potential neurological adverse events, muscle tremors, ataxia, and seizures.
Aucott mentioned that the “classic” bullseye rash is a myth as only 20-30% have a bullseye pattern, and that many have no rash at all. So, sorry all you suckers that didn’t fit in the box, were told you had a spider bite, and sent home empty-handed to suffer in silence. Oops!
Aucott mentons testing problems: test results take 4-8 weeks before an antibody test is definitive, and following treatment – serology results will remain positive.
Wormser of course dissuades from prophylactic treatment unless a confirmed deer tick has been attached for 36 hours – the notion of which has been proven to be false. He’s more worried about staph than people getting Lyme/MSIDS and living a nightmare. Plus, there are other antimicrobials in the toolbox that can be used that wouldn’t promote resistance.
The article falsely blames climate change and the Lone Star tick when other ticks are involved, or even NO ticks at all. They have only discovered that tick saliva contains trace quantities of the sugar alpha-gal a known human irritant that many believe induces an allergic response.
But alpha-gal is also is used in the manufacture of foods, personal care products, medical devices and drugs — including vaccines. Source
The questions begging to be asked are: why are they putting this known human irritant in things that humans ingest?And why the sole emphasis on ticks when it’s in plenty of other things including vaccines, and is only believed to be caused by ticks?
It should come at no surprise whatsoever that the media is suddenly pushing a fear narrative over a meat allergy.
Two years ago during Covid lockdowns, I wrote about climate control freaks, facetiously anticipating a future headline: “Bad CO2 Day, Lockdowns Enforced.” A joke that would never happen, right? Well . . .
Last month President Biden was asked on the Weather Channel if he was ready to declare a national climate emergency and responded, “We’ve already done that.”
Asked again if he declared a climate emergency, he said, “Practically speaking, yes.” There is no official emergency, but the president certainly thinks we need one.
The fawning press gave him a break—he didn’t really mean that, did he? But the notion of a national emergency today isn’t farfetched.
The United Nations website blares: “What you need to know about the Climate Emergency.” The European Parliament has declared one. So have hundreds of jurisdictions in at least 39 countries, including the U.K., Canada, Japan, and Bangladesh.
Climate-activist teenager Greta Thunberg gave away the game in 2019 when she said, “I want you to panic,” and, “I want you to act as if you would in a crisis.” Emergencies are an excuse to do whatever you want.
U.S. presidents can declare national emergencies, as spelled out in the 1976 National Emergencies Act, but they must be explicit:
“When the President declares a national emergency, no powers or authorities made available by statute for use in the event of an emergency shall be exercised unless and until the President specifies the provisions of law under which he proposes that he or other officers will act.”
I’ve searched far and wide for such provisions and can’t find them.
No matter, we’re living as if we’re already under emergency conditions. As of Aug. 1, the Biden administration has halted the sale of lightbulbs with less than 45 lumens of brightness per watt.
In September 2022, the California Independent System Operator—which runs the state’s power grid, attached to sporadic renewables—declared an “energy emergency alert,” urging residents to ration power from 4 to 9 p.m.
In March, the European Union mandated energy consumption be cut by 11.7 percent by 2030. Brits are urged to turn their heat off at night for “emissions savings.”
The Swiss considered jail time if your thermostat is set above 66 degrees in the winter.
This nonsense could never happen in the U.S., could it? Well, in 2016, New York University professor Matthew Liao suggested, “Possibly we can use human engineering to make the case that we’re intolerant to certain kinds of meat.”
He even suggested deploying a “Lone Star tick where, if it bites you, you will become allergic to meat.”
Add to the mix the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, which has an “ambitious target in 2030” of no meat, no dairy, no private vehicles, and only “three new clothing items per person per year.” Plus one short flight every three years.
Who are these kooks? “A global network of nearly 100 mayors” including 14 in America: Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Washington and Seattle. Michael Bloomberg is the president of the board. Better stock up on socks while you can.
When you declare an emergency, anything goes. The Biden administration pushes electronic vehicles, and this summer we had a glut of them—inventories were 92 days, double what is typical.
As of midyear, Ford had 116 days of unsold Mustang Mach-Es.
Maybe because saner Americans are becoming preppers and loading up on good old gasoline-fired cars before California’s Advanced Clean Cars II Regulations, which other states follow, outlaws them in 2035. Vroom, vroom.
Emergency-preparedness edicts abound: Gas stove bans. No plastic bottles for sale at San Francisco Airport. A new proposal from New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection would effectively ban coal- and wood-fired pizza ovens.
A city official reports that fewer than 100 restaurants would have to install prohibitively expensive emissions controls, so it must be a real emergency if New York is tracking down these last few ounces of ‘carbon’.
Climate lockdowns still sound like crazy-town, but the urge to curtail individual freedom is visible in countless government, media, and think-tank blueprints for a controlled future.
Saner minds should prevail—the Climate Emergency Act of 2021 evidently died in committee—but we need constant diligence to stand guard against the climate-excuse assaults on our liberties.
To show how adolescent this has become, last year Swiss Environmental Minister Simonetta Sommaruga suggested that residents “shower together” to save energy. OK, now we’re getting somewhere.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 