AMHERST, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – A western Massachusetts tick testing company has found several ticks have tested positive for the Powassan virus, not long after a Connecticut woman in her 90s died of the tick-borne virus.
Scientists at Tick Report in Amherst are busy testing around 1,000 ticks a week, taking a close look under the microscope, and extracting DNA.
“June is going to be the worst month of the year for deer ticks, really the riskiest tick bite that you can get,” said Paul Killinger, education director at Tick Report.
(See link for news story)
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**Comment**
I just found a juvenile black legged tick on my towel, on my deck approx. 6 feet away from trees but separated by much and rocks.
One minute, no tick, and the next minute there it was.
I believe the tick blew from the nearby trees onto the deck, even though most researchers deny ticks dropping from trees, even though birds transport ticks everywhere, including trees where they may drop off.
This TV anchor got infected this way, and a Lyme advocate told me that ticks blow into their pool from nearby trees regularly.
For the last two years, Coppe Laboratories has dedicated a significant amount of time and resources to dispelling the myth that infection with Powassan virus, a virus transmitted by tick bite, is rare. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) reports only 100 cases of Powassan virus infection in the United States in the last 10 years. Indeed, that statistic gives the illusion that Powassan infection is rare. However, did you know that the only infections reported to CDC are those that are life-threatening, particularly cases causing severe inflammation of the brain like the case reported in LiveScience? Coppe has published three new papers in the last year that clearly show Powassan virus infection is not rare are at all, and until testing for this virus is included as part of tick-borne disease screening panels infections will continue to be underreported. Coppe’s Powassan Guide, which can be downloaded from the website, summarizes the findings from both tick and human Powassan prevalence studies, as well as defining the patient populations that would benefit most from Powassan testing.
In their article, “Characteristics of Lyme optic neuritis: a case report of Lyme associated bilateral optic neuritis and systematic review of the literature,” Lu et al. present a rare case of isolated bilateral optic neuritis in a Lyme disease patient. [1] (Optic neuritis is an inflammation of the eye’s optic nerve.)
The case features a 48-year-old female with multiple sclerosis (MS) who presented to her primary care physician with a fever and sore throat.
Three weeks later, she returned complaining of photophobia, eye pressure sensation, blurry vision, pain with eye movements and central scotoma on the morning prior to her visit. (A scotoma is a blurry or blind spot in your visual field while the surrounding areas appear normal.)
An “MRI along with fundus exam confirmed the diagnosis of bilateral optic neuritis,” the authors write.
Two months prior to her visit, the woman had removed a tick from her leg but did not report any rashes.
Testing for Lyme disease was positive by Western blot.
The woman was hospitalized and treated with intravenous methylprednisolone (1g/day for 3 days) due to the degree of swelling, along with ceftriaxone (2 g/day for 25 days) for Lyme disease.
The “patient returned for follow up 1 week post hospitalization, reported visual symptoms abated and she was back to her previous baseline,” the authors write.
“Clinicians working in the endemic areas should consider Lyme borreliosis in patients presents with bilateral optic nerve head swelling, and painless progressive visual loss.”
In reviewing the literature, Lu and colleagues found 11 patient cases of optic neuritis and Lyme disease.
“In this review, we collected cases that have demonstrated strong evidence of causal relationship of Lyme borreliosis and optic neuritis in attempt to characterize the nature and clinical presentations of optic neuritis involved in Lyme borreliosis…,” the authors write.
The most common symptoms related to optic neuritis included blurry vision (11 cases), headache (7 cases), scotoma (3 cases) and painful ocular movement (3 cases).
“Additionally, there were 4 reported neurological symptoms – paresthesia (3 cases) and ataxia (1 case); 3 reported arthralgia; and 3 reported nonspecifc symptoms – fatigue, weakness, and myalgia,” the authors write.
Only 2 of the 11 patients reported having an erythema migrans (Bull’s-eye) rash, while the majority did not recall having a tick bite.
Moderate vision loss was reported in 8 of the patients.
According to the authors, “The patients all responded well with combination of corticosteroid and antibiotic therapy, or antibiotic therapy alone.”
As the authors point out, typically optic neuritis presents with acute, painful, and unilateral visual loss. However, in these Lyme disease patients, it presented with “bilateral optic nerve head swellings, and painless, moderate (better than 20/200) and progressive visual loss.”
References:
Lu, Y., Zand, R. Characteristics of Lyme optic neuritis: a case report of Lyme associated bilateral optic neuritis and systematic review of the literature. BMC Neurol 22, 113 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-022-02627-z
The FDA vaccine advisory panel unanimously voted 21-0 to recommend Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines for infants and young children, stating the totality of the evidence available shows the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks of use. It helps when you get hundreds of thousands of dollars from Pfizer like committee member Arnold Monto.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) ignored pleas from experts, the vaccine injured and a congressmanrepresenting 17 other lawmakers to halt authorization until questions about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines for the nation’s youngest children could be properly addressed.
Fauci even admits there are ZERO studies in children showing boosters reduce hospitalization or death. Senator Rand Paul, a medical doctor, explains that the only studies show people produce antibodies after the injections, but that many researchers question whether this shows efficacy or not.
Paul also pushed for information on how the NIH has continuously refused to release information on their royalties. “The NIH continues to refuse to voluntarily divulge the names of scientists who receive royalties and from which companies. Over the period of time from 2010 to 2016, 27,000 royalty payments were paid to 1800 NIH employees. We know that not because you told us but because we forced you to tell us through the Freedom of Information Act. Over $193 million was given to these 1800 employees.Can you tell me that you have not received a royalty from any entity that you ever oversaw the distribution of money in research grants?”
BTW: fully “vaxxed” and double boosted Dr. Anthony Fauci got COVID anyway, similarly to millions of others – continuing to show the futility of the injections. Please see this important article on how the CDC is withholding data and skewing “vaccine” effectiveness to prevent “vaccine” hesitancy and how you can not trust any numbers or data from this corrupt organization.
This important video on the Dr. Jane Ruby show, interviews Canadian Physician and molecular biologist, Dr. Daniel Nagase, who clearly explains how the bioweapon shots from ALL of the companies are poisoning human DNA for generations.
And go here for the latest VAERS data showing these shots are connected to more adverse reactions & deaths than any other vaccine in the history of VAERS.
What VRBPAC Got Wrong: Who Will Hold FDA and VRBPAC Accountable for Failing America?
VRBPAC Members Saw All the Same Information You Will See Here, But Voted Unanimously Anyway to Recommend Approval of a Worse Then Futile Vaccine for Toddlers and Babies
Here’s a few things VRBPAC members saw and voted to recommend approval anyway:
They Proceeded for Recommendation of Approval Based on a Guess that Three Doses Will Correct Negative Efficacy.Pfizer has a serious problem: their two dose data reflected the reality I’ve been reporting about (and predicted) since the Israeli and Barnstable County data came out: the confidence interval for their estimate of the number cases prevented by three doses of their vaccine points, if anything, to negative efficacy (-369.1 to 99.6). The confidence interval crosses zero. The problem is not just that the result is based on a ridiculously small number of data points. See Point 2.
The problem also is that this result confirms (validates) the result of the two-dose vaccine. Their measure of vaccine efficacy was only 14.5% seven days after the second dose the confidence intervals crossed zero, so they were not statistically significant.
They relied on proxy outcome measures (neutralizing antibodies). Neutralizing antibodies sound good, but they are the wrong antibodies (the Wuhan-1 virus is extinct). Look at the antibody response to Omicron (Pfizer):
I predict the entire vaccination program is going to drive COVID-19 numbers up across the board routinely and on a regular, ongoing basis due to antibody dependent enhancement, as predict by Dr. Fantini’s analysis.
Given these three points alone, FDA might just as well be staring at a blank sheet of paper and rubberstamp the approval.Look at the confidence interest after Dose 2 and Dose 3.
No one raised the issue of Failure to Meet FDA’s required 50% efficacy. Moderna and Pfizer’s own endpoint data fall short of the 50% mark. Pfizer decreased their dose and this seems to have decreased the reported adverse events. But we’ll get to the real problem with adverse events shortly.
Their numbers are ridiculously small. Pfizer showed an estimate of of 80.3% vaccine efficacy is based on – get this – 7 cases in the placebo group and 3 in the vaccine group. Notice the emblazoned 80% – as if that data point has any basis in reality.
They are ignoring the risk of altered neurodevelopment. The Moderna vaccine especially had high numbers of high fevers (>104°). Many studies exist that show that high fever following vaccination is associated with autism, especially if the kids are given acetominophen. Please see: https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/three-years-later-after-ipak-alerted
Moderna presented antibody data against the reference strain (Wuhan-1). But We don’t only care about how good a vaccine is at generating antibodies. Moderna knows this. VRBPAC knows this. Now you know this, too.
9. Inconsistent case definition. Moderna only ran PCR tests if patients in the vaccinated group had two symptoms. In other words, they made up their own clinical designation of “COVID-19”. Under CDC’s case definition (which is also not correct), Moderna’s data show that in kids 2 to 5, “vaccine efficacy” was 36.8% but under Moderna’s new definition, 46.4%. Moderna also used antigen tests, making any measure of efficacy incomparable to other studies.
10. Risk of Hospitalization Cited Out of Context.
One committee member compared the risk of a child dying from Covid to a person being struck by lighting (see my calculations here):
They showed the Omicron hospitalization rate “surge”:
Yet it’s much lower than that for influenza, per CDC:
2015-2016 Hospitalization Rate (Per 100,000 cases) from Influenza (Source: CDC)
11. They May Have Broken the Rules of Engagement for Open Meetings
Any reasonable person would expect that public open meetings held by organizations such as VRBPAC would know and follow administrative rules for open meetings. How is it then that VPBPAC members only managed to ask questions and voice their opinions on how necessary (or not) COVID-19 vaccination in children might be AFTER the votes were made to approve the vaccine for children under 5?
Dr. Meryl Nass was denied an opportunity to speak in the public comment period, yet the same pro-vaccine mother was able to speak two days in a row. Thus, the public may have been denied the opportunity to contribute their comments. This is being looked at by lawyers; if it true the FDA broke the rules of open meetings, then any ethical judge would rule that this vote to recommend is null and void ab initio.
Up to one in seven people worldwide may have had Lyme disease, according to new estimates.
For decades, researchers have been clueless as to exactly how widespread the tick-borne illness was.
The new findings could open up avenues to tackle the bacterial infection, which can cause sufferers symptoms such as headaches, muscle and joint pain and fatigue that can last for years.
Singer Justin Bieber and model Bella Hadid are just two celebrities who have spoken out about their plight with Lyme.
Academics from China examined blood sample data from studies involving 150,000 people.
Results showed 14.5 per cent had antibodies indicating Lyme disease.
(See link for article)
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**SUMMARY**
Chinese researchers utilized previous studies that relied upon antibody blood test results. It is commonly known to everyone that these tests are completely unreliable and miss a preponderance of cases, therefore all numbers are a complete stab in the dark. Further, a third of the studies only used one type of test to confirm a diagnosis.
Blood testing can not confirm whether a person is currently infected or has been previously.
The authors state some of the studies used were conducted in endemic regions and may over-estimate cases, but please remember they used faulty testing rendering ALL numbers essentially meaningless.
They recommend a global “standard” testing method to confirm cases, which in my opinion, if done would only doom even more patients to a lifetime of suffering. Current CDC 2-tiered testing already misses anywhere from 70-86% or more of cases. Due to CDCconflicts of interest in owning patents on testing, vaccines, and more, mainstream doctors and organizations vilify CLIA-certified labs which are more sensitive because they compete with CDC testing.
Pushing a “global”, centralizedapproach to medicine is not the answer. Lyme/MSIDS has been in a juggernaut for over 40 years due to a literal Cabalcontrolling the research, and conflict-riddled public health ‘authorities’ only doling out research money to those who tout the accepted narrative. So, no, we do not want a global testing”standard” or any medical monopoly.
Patients and the doctors who dare treat them need MORE choices not less.
High Density of MS Patients in Wisconsin — But Why?
— Health records show prevalence may be three times the norm in some areas
by Judy George, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today June 7, 2022
Large numbers of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients appear to be clustered in southeastern Wisconsin, and researchers are trying to find out why.
Healthcare records showed densities of MS patients as high as 1,000 cases per 100,000 persons in some Wisconsin zip codes, about three times the norm of 353 per 100,000 population in the Midwest, reported Ahmed Obeidat, MD, PhD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, in a platform session at the 2022 annual meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers.
“The numbers were eye-opening,” Obeidat told MedPageToday.
Some clusters of MS patients lived in areas near aluminum manufacturers, he observed.
“I noticed a large number of patients who came to see me in the clinic from areas that are at a distance from my practice location,” Obeidat said. “Frequently I saw people coming from the same town or the same zip code, so I asked the question: is there a clustering of MS cases in Wisconsin?”
“When I looked at the areas where these patients came from, I noticed aluminum manufacturing plants,” he continued. “I reviewed the literature and found previous reports of large amounts of aluminum in brain tissue of people living with MS and other neurodegenerative disorders.”
“If anything, we are underestimating the overall numbers, because we have access only to the cases we follow at our health system,” Obeidat noted.
(See link for article)
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SUMMARY:
People in Wisconsin are also affected by vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunlight.
https://multiplesclerosis.net/clinical/differences-ms-lyme-diseaseThis article highlights that testing for Lyme will reveal the answer; however, testing for Lyme is abysmaland everyone and their dog knows this. Since Lyme is a bacterial infection and MS is not it would seem prudent to try antimicrobials on patients to observe their response. Also, educated Lyme literate doctors sometimes use an antimicrobial “challenge” test before Lyme testing as many patients do not make enough antibodies to test positive until the pathogen is disabled/killed and floating around in the blood stream to be detected. Unfortunately both of these ideas are shunned by mainstream medicine, to the peril of thousands of patients.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 