Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

‘Lyme Disease Ruined My Life – I Was Misdiagnosed With Hypochondria and Depression For Over 20 Years’

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/lyme-disease-symptoms-bella-hadid-justin-timberlake-

‘Lyme disease ruined my life – I was misdiagnosed with hypochondria and depression for over 20 years’

Frédéric Roscop, 49, contracted Lyme disease aged five years old but wasn’t diagnosed with it until his mid-thirties. He tells Charlotte Cripps about his lifelong battle with the disease, along with co-infections and associated mental health challenges, and how he found his way to a normal life

As a child, I was raised in the French countryside in the Dordogne. From around the age of five, I’d help local farmers by collecting eggs and herding cows in the fields. I was also naturally curious and adventurous and would go exploring in the bushes. I’d often end up covered in ticks and an old lady at the farm would put me in an iron bath and brush them off me. This is not the right way of removing them, which is to pull them out of the skin, as soon as possible, to prevent the transmission of disease. It should often befollowed by a course of antibiotics.

The next day, I’d be covered in bruising and red marks, which we now call a “bullmark”, or the “bulls-eye” rash, medically known as Erythema migrans, a hallmark symptom of Lyme disease. My mum was always horrified and took me to the doctor, who thought it was an allergic reaction to a bite and prescribed me an antihistamine. But due to a lack of awareness years ago, nobody ever mentioned Lyme disease.

Looking back, I suffered years of mild symptoms. I had a delayed puberty because my body was not functioning properly; weight gain due to factors known to be caused by Lyme disease, such as gastrointestinal issues and hormonal imbalances; and I craved sugar because my body was stressed.

As much as I was exhausted, I was also hyper – Lyme disease can cause symptoms that mimic or contribute to ADHD – and I was also hyper-sensitive. I couldn’t switch off. By the age of eight, I was already seeing a psychotherapist who recommended more exercise to exhaust me.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

A very dismissive article & video on Lyme disease appeared recently dissing celebrities who have the courage to share their battle with it.  Yet, because of these celebrities speaking out, more have become aware of Lyme/MSIDS.

You know it’s bad when you have to learn about a severe medical condition from a celebrity.  But, there it is…..  The truth is, it’s easier to get medical assisted death than treatment for chronic Lyme disease, which is what the man in this article had.

Whenever I see articles on how ‘things are getting better’ in Lymeland, I remember that probably every day someone just like the man in this article is being misdiagnosed and sent on a wild goose chase – maybe for years. 

No, my friends – it ain’t getting better.  Not by a long shot.  To date, the best chance a patient has is to bump into someone who will educate them about this, OR read an article about a celebrity who shares their story.

And this is where we’ve been for a long, long time.

For more:

The stories are endless and continue.  These stories touch people and like it or not, are for some the only way they will learn about this dreadful illness.  The medical and research establishments haven’t helped one iota.

I’ve always said, and I stand by it, the only way this needle is going to move is when enough people are infected with it.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks

Understanding Alpha-gal Syndrome and Its Growing Geographic Overlap With Lyme Disease

https://www.globallymealliance.org/blog/understanding-alpha-gal-syndrome-and-its-growing-geographic-overlap-with-lyme-disease?

Understanding Alpha-gal Syndrome and Its Growing Geographic Overlap with Lyme Disease

by Dr. Eleanor Saunders on January 15, 2026

<span id="hs_cos_wrapper_name" class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_text" style="" data-hs-cos-general-type="meta_field" data-hs-cos-type="text" >Understanding Alpha-gal Syndrome and Its Growing Geographic Overlap with Lyme Disease</span>
Learn about alpha-gal syndrome, a tickborne allergy to red meat, its causes, symptoms, testing, and relation to Lyme disease- as well as prevention tips and current research insights.

The Basics 

Alpha-gal syndrome is a more recently identified (c. 2009) tickborne disease. It differs from Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis in that it is not a tickborne infection – it is a tickborne allergy. Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy to red meat and other products containing alpha-gal, including dairy and gelatin for those with more sensitive allergy.

Alpha-gal syndrome’s best recognized cause is tick bites, and it has been described on 6 continents, with the culprit tick species varying across the globe. Lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) bites are the primary cause of alpha-gal syndrome in the United States. Recently, rare cases linked to blacklegged and western blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis and I. pacificus) have been reported in Maine, Washington state, and the upper Midwest, well outside of the lone star tick range (Thompson et al. 2023). Despite this early evidence that blacklegged ticks and western blacklegged ticks can cause alpha-gal syndrome, they are thought to be an uncommon cause given how few cases have been recognized in high-incidence Lyme regions, particularly of the northeastern United States.

The Timeline: tick bite to food allergy

It is not intuitive to connect how a tick bite can cause food allergy.

To begin with, a typical timeline of the development of allergy is as follows: a tick of a culprit species bites a human. (It is not yet known why some bites do and others do not cause alpha-gal syndrome.) Sometimes the tick bite that preceded new allergy is described as leaving an erythematous, inflamed, and itchy “bite site” lasting weeks. Many tick bites go unnoticed.

Weeks to months after the tick bite, a person who previously ate meat without incident has a meal containing red meat, such as a steak. However, they do not react right away. The allergic symptoms – which can include a combination of hives, facial and throat swelling, wheezing and difficulty breathing, vomiting and other gastrointestinal distress, and anaphylaxis – occur 2-6 hours after eating red meat.

The “classic” story of an initial reaction is someone who eats red meat for dinner, and then wakes up itching in the middle of the night, looks in the mirror, and is surprised to see hives and sometimes facial swelling. There are also less classic clinical presentations, such as people with isolated gastrointestinal distress who eat red meat frequently and may have a hard time connecting the two. Vegetarians and vegans who consume or are exposed to mammalian products may also manifest symptoms of alpha-gal syndrome. Tragically, the first case report of a death from alpha-gal syndrome has been recorded (Platts-Mills 2025).

The alpha-gal molecule and delayed reaction

Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy to alpha-gal, which is a carbohydrate molecule. (Most food allergies are to proteins.) Human ancestors lost the ability synthesize alpha-gal tens of millions of years ago, but most mammals other than humans – including those that humans eat – do produce alpha-gal. Therefore, “red meat” – or meat from cows, pigs, sheep, deer, and other game – contains alpha-gal. (Fish and birds do not produce alpha-gal.) The alpha-gal carbohydrate in meat is attached to both fats and proteins. The fatty form, glycolipids, take time to be metabolized and enter the bloodstream. That’s why allergic symptoms often appear 2–6 hours after eating, rather than immediately.

In addition to mammals, ticks also have alpha-gal in their saliva, without ever biting a mammal. Why? One compelling explanation is molecular mimicry. Ticks have many ways of trying to disguise their bite to avoid being detected, so expressing alpha-gal may be one additional way to look like their hosts (deer, mice, and other mammals whose cells express alpha-gal). Of tick species in the United States, lone star ticks, blacklegged ticks, brown dog ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) and the invasive Asian longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) have been shown to have alpha-gal in their saliva.

Testing for alpha-gal syndrome

Only if you have allergic symptoms, or unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms, should you be tested for alpha-gal syndrome. The test for alpha-gal syndrome is a serum test for alpha-gal IgE. IgE is a type of antibody that the immune system produces in response to allergens. A positive does not necessarily mean you have the allergy. Instead, it shows that your body has made IgE antibodies against alpha-gal, a state called being “sensitized” to an allergen, in allergy terminology.

A high percentage of adult populations screened for alpha-gal IgE in areas with lone star ticks are sensitized to alpha-gal, in the realm of 20-30% and even higher in heavily tick-exposed populations such as forestry and outdoor workers. However, most sensitized individuals in groups that have been screened are “sensitized only” and do not report allergy symptoms.

Alpha-gal syndrome and Lyme disease

There is no established connection between alpha-gal syndrome and Lyme disease in the United States. That’s partly because lone star ticks are the primary cause of alpha-gal syndrome whereas blacklegged ticks transmit the Lyme bacteria. It is important to note that western Europe is different: there, a single tick species—Ixodes ricinus—can both trigger alpha-gal syndrome and transmit Lyme bacteria. Even there, however, being bitten by one of these ticks doesn’t mean a person will develop both conditions. A Swedish study (Tjernberg et al. 2017) found no link between Lyme disease history and having alpha-gal antibodies.

[Ixodes ricinus is commonly known as the castor bean tick or the sheep tick]

Considerations for Lyme-endemic regions of the United States

It is important to recognize that the lone star tick range is expanding, particularly northward and eastward, and prominently along the northeastern coastline. Lone star ticks are now well-established in eastern Long Island, where there are also blacklegged ticks and Lyme disease. Lone star ticks are also increasingly found on Martha’s Vineyard. They are considered an aggressive human-biting tick. Deer are an important host for lone star ticks, whereas white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) are not.  EPA-registered insect repellents such as DEET and picaridin for skin and clothing and permethrin for clothing and gear remain important for lone star tick bite prevention, as for blacklegged and other tick bites. An important distinction from Lyme disease is that alpha-gal syndrome can likely be caused by a tick attached for as little as a few hours. The metric of removing a tick within 24 hours, while good advice for Lyme disease, should therefore not be considered protective for alpha-gal syndrome.

Tick bite avoidance

Not only is avoiding tick bites important to avoid developing alpha-gal syndrome, but it remains important for those who have the allergy. Over time (years), some patients with alpha-gal syndrome who avoid tick bites have declining alpha-gal IgE levels that correspond to a remission of their allergy and the ability to reintroduce red meat into their diets. Reintroducing red meat is a very individualized decision to be made with a knowledgeable healthcare provider and incorporating safety considerations. If a patient returns to eating red meat, new tick bites could cause allergic symptoms to return.

Current unknowns and research questions

Much of what is currently understood about alpha-gal syndrome, outlined above, comes from excellent, collaborative research. Yet important questions remain:

  • What percentage of people bitten by lone star ticks develop alpha-gal syndrome?
  • What percentage of people sensitized to alpha-gal go on to develop alpha-gal syndrome?
  • What genetic and immunologic factors determine whether someone sensitized to alpha-gal develops alpha-gal syndrome?
  • Why are some ticks (i.e., lone star ticks) more effective in sensitizing to alpha-gal and causing alpha-gal syndrome than others (i.e., blacklegged ticks)?
  • What compounds in tick saliva along with alpha-gal provoke the human immune system to produce allergic antibodies (IgE)?
  • What aside from ticks (and possibly chiggers, and Ascaris roundworms) can sensitize a person to alpha-gal? (Stoltz et al. 2019, Murangi et al. 2022)

There has been differing evidence about whether the molecule alpha-gal is produced by the tick itself or is synthesized by bacteria that are part of the tick microbiome. In either case, scientists have asked whether bacteria living in ticks could affect the amount of alpha-gal produced in tick saliva (Kumar et al. 2022, Cabezas-Cruz et al. 2018).

New treatments and future directions

For patients suffering from alpha-gal syndrome, the mainstay of management is avoiding red meat and—for some—dairy and other ingredients containing alpha-gal. For those patients sensitive even to minor exposures to alpha-gal, there also now exists a medication called omalizumab that has been effective in decreasing symptoms. It is an anti-IgE monoclonal antibody, and so works not only for alpha-gal syndrome but for IgE-mediated food allergy more broadly. Omalizumab may also be appropriate for those with unavoidable occupational exposures, such as those working in kitchens with skin and fume exposures to meat, and those who birth animals or dress deer and may be exposed to large amounts of body fluids containing alpha-gal (Nuñez-Orjales et al. 2017).

For patients who crave red meat but are allergic, GalSafe® pork is made from a genetically modified pig that doesn’t express alpha-gal, and so can be consumed by patients with alpha-gal syndrome. The technology of gene-editing mammals could also lead to medical products like gelatin and heparin (a blood thinner) being made without alpha-gal. Although reactions to these products are rare, concerns about alpha-gal have complicated medical care for some patients.

Tick control strategies

New strategies to control lone star tick populations are needed, both environmental controls and interventions under study such as a universal tick vaccine. Alpha-gal syndrome has reanimated some of these goals, both through the threat of people no longer being able to eat meat and dairy; through a growing understanding of how ticks interface with the human immune system; and through geography, which unites a growing swath of the United States population in a campaign against ticks and tickborne disease.

Short and sweet

A simple way to explain alpha-gal syndrome to others is double delay, double avoidance. There is a delay of weeks to months from tick bite to the first allergic reaction, and there is a delay of hours from eating red meat to when allergic symptoms appear. The treatment for alpha-gal syndrome is to avoid red meat and avoid further tick bites.

References:

Cabezas-Cruz A, Espinosa PJ, Alberdi P, Šimo L, Valdés JJ, Mateos-Hernández L, Contreras M, Rayo MV, de la Fuente J. Tick galactosyltransferases are involved in α-Gal synthesis and play a role during Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection and Ixodes Ixodes scapularis tick vector development. Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 21;8(1):14224.

Kumar D, Sharma SR, Adegoke A, Kennedy A, Tuten HC, Li AY, Karim S. Recently Evolved Francisella-Like Endosymbiont Outcompetes an Ancient and Evolutionarily Associated Coxiella-Like Endosymbiont in the Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum) Linked to the Alpha-Gal Syndrome. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Apr 12;12:787209.

Maldonado-Ruiz LP, Reif KE, Ghosh A, Foré S, Johnson RL, Park Y. High levels of alpha-gal with large variation in the salivary glands of lone star ticks fed on human blood. Sci Rep. 2023 Dec 4;13(1):21409. 

Murangi T, Prakash P, Moreira BP, Basera W, Botha M, Cunningham S, Facey-Thomas H, Halajian A, Joshi L, Ramjith J, Falcone FH, Horsnell W, Levin ME. Ascaris lumbricoides and ticks associated with sensitization to galactose α1,3-galactose and elicitation of the alpha-gal syndrome. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2022 Feb;149(2):698-707.e3.

Nuñez-Orjales R, Martin-Lazaro J, Lopez-Freire S, Galan-Nieto A, Lombardero-Vega M, Carballada-Gonzalez F. Bovine Amniotic Fluid: A New and Occupational Source of Galactose-α-1,3-Galactose. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2017;27(5):313-314.

Platts-Mills TAE, Workman LJ, Richards NE, Wilson JM, McFeely EM. Implications of a fatal anaphylactic reaction occurring 4 hours after eating beef in a young man with IgE antibodies to galactose-α-1,3-galactose. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology In Practice. 2025 Nov.

Stoltz LP, Cristiano LM, Dowling APG, Wilson JM, Platts-Mills TAE, Traister RS. Could chiggers be contributing to the prevalence of galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose sensitization and mammalian meat allergy? J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2019 Feb;7(2):664-666. 

Thompson JM, Carpenter A, Kersh GJ, Wachs T, Commins SP, Salzer JS. Geographic Distribution of Suspected Alpha-gal Syndrome Cases – United States, January 2017-December 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023 Jul 28;72(30):815-820. 

Tjernberg I, Hamsten C, Apostolovic D, van Hage M. IgE reactivity to α-Gal in relation to Lyme borreliosis. PLoS One. 2017 Sep 27;12(9):e0185723. 

Guest Writer

Dr. Eleanor Saunders

Guest Writer

Opinions expressed by contributors are their own. Dr. Eleanor Saunders is an Infectious Diseases physician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Saunders received her MD & MPH from the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, completed residency in Internal Medicine at Bellevue Hospital/NYU Langone Health, and completed fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at UNC. Dr. Saunders works on the epidemiology of alpha-gal syndrome with Dr. Scott Commins, one of the foremost experts on AGS.

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For more:

Category:

Alpha Gal Meat Allergy, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment

Do You Still Need to Worry About Ticks in the Winter? (YES)

https://www.southernliving.com/are-ticks-dormant-in-winter

Do You Still Need To Worry About Ticks In The Winter?

Here’s what to know about these parasites.
By Arricca Elin SanSone
Published on February 1, 2026
A close-up shows a tick moving across light-colored pants,
Credit: Getty Images

You typically don’t encounter as many insects while you’re outdoors in winter as you do the rest of the year. But that doesn’t mean everything  that bites is hunkered down until spring. “Many tick species will have adults active during the winter months,” says Sonja L, Swiger, PhD, professor, medical entomologist and extension specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife. “Since ticks are blood feeders, they do quite well throughout the winter months because they are on a host.”

Of course, ticks don’t just bite; they also carry diseases that make people and pets sick. “The most commonly encountered tickborne pathogen in the Southeast is Rocky Mountain spotted fever,” says Swiger. But Lyme disease is also a threat, though it’s not transmitted at the same rate as it is in places such as the Northeast. Other diseases that ticks can pass to people and pets include ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis.

In addition, if you think a cold or snowy winter will knock down ticks, that’s just wishful thinking. Harsh weather doesn’t really impact the tick population as a whole. “Ticks have been around for millions of years and are very good at what they do. They know how to survive,” says Eric Benson, PhD, professor emeritus and extension entomologist with  Clemson University. “During winter, many species of ticks go into diapause, a state when they reduce their metabolism to conserve energy to survive.”

 Here’s what else you should know about ticks in winter:  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Great reminder to stay vigilant.

The article points out what this website has been publishing for years: ticks are marvelously ecoadaptive and will simply hide under leaf litter or snow when weather becomes harsh. This also proves that the climate and/or ‘climate change‘ has nothing to do with tick survival and disease propagation.  They are simply built to survive.  About the only thing they can’t handle is fire!

The article then lists ways to prevent tick bites.  Go here for a multi-pronged approach.  Pet owners have nearly two times the risk of finding ticks, so multiple areas need to be addressed.

For more:

More on the ‘climate change’ agenda:

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Climate, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, Prevention, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ticks

Yet Another Mainstream Media Hit Piece Minimizing Lyme Disease

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7048962

Why do so many celebrities have Lyme disease?

January 17, 2026

Celebrity claims are fueling confusion about the risks of Lyme disease. For The National, CBC’s senior health reporter Christine Birak investigates what’s really behind the boom in high-profile cases and uncovers a big-money industry profiting off chronic illness. [Correction: A previous version of this video included images of American dog ticks. It’s been updated to include images of blacklegged ticks.]

(See link for article & video)

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**Comment**

Trust me when I say that there is far more than images of ticks that require correcting!  Senior health reporter Christine Birak has a lot to answer for in this extremely biased and faulty piece.  The controversy regarding tick-borne illness is most probably older than the journalist herself, yet she doesn’t spend even one minute on it.

While we are told that the story uncovers a ‘big-money industry profiting off chronic illness,’ such as Lyme disease, no such thing occurs.  The truly big money is controlled by Big Pharma and the Government with patent royalties, and research grants, but is never mentioned. See: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/conflictreport.pdf

The journalist only interviews people who deny chronic, persistent infection. Never once does a Lyme literate doctor from ILADS get to present the controversy in detail, with global research demonstrating persistent infection, time and time again.

The story paints a picture that sick celebrities are taken at face value, are never questioned, and are simply poor, sorry sods who are simply wrong and not to be taken seriously.  Imagine for a moment if this same tactic was used with sick celebrities who have cancer…..

The story is nine grueling, factually inaccurate minutes I’ve taken the time to correct below:

SUMMARY

  1. Pulling a tick off before 24 guarantees nothing. Pathogens can be in the salivary glands which means transmission can and does happen rapidly.  They should have interviewed independent Canadian tick researcher John Scott.  He immediately would have set them straight on all things tick related.
  2. Early antibiotic treatment has to be early enough, long enough, and smart enough, but again, does not a guarantee a person will not develop a chronic infection requiring years of complex, expensive, and savvy treatment, not to mention the fact untold numbers are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed – making their cases even tougher because they weren’t caught early.  This large subgroup is simply kicked to the curb.
  3. There are other pathogens complicating the picture besides multiple strains of borrelia that cause disease and are transmitted by ticks.  They each require different treatments but aren’t even mentioned in this piece.
  4. The ‘experts’ that say there are ‘no risk areas’ are full of beans. To date, ticks are marching into places they’ve never been before, yet because of Andrew Spielman‘s antiquated and faulty maps of where ticks supposedly are and are not, untold numbers are being denied diagnoses and treatment.  See: the-counfounding-debate-over-lyme-in-the-south-speilmans-maps.  The fact ticks travel globally on birds,  reptiles, and mammals, as well as the fact our government spread ticks via airplane hasn’t helped either.
  5. ‘Early Lyme’ being ‘straight forward’ to diagnose is laughable.  This website has recorded story after story of those who were misdiagnosed and sent home only worsen into chronic Lyme. Doctors are still telling people with an EM rash that it’s just a spider bite, and sending them packing. In my experience, most patients have to figure it all out themselves. Lyme/MSIDS has been called a ‘do it yourself plague.’
  6. The reporter states that in 2024, Canada had 5,700 reported cases of Lyme. In the U.S. even the corrupt CDC admits that the number of Lyme disease cases is likely much higher than reported, due to under-reporting and changes in surveillance methods. In 2024 in the U.S., reported cases of Lyme disease rose from an average of about 37,000 from 2017–2019 to 62,000 in 2022. That’s an increase of nearly 70%. In order to report a case, you must meet the strict and arbitrary CDC reporting criteria using a test that is only 50% sensitive in the early phase of disease. Further, each state has their own voluntary reporting standards and ‘low incidence’ states are held to a stricter standard by having to show not only positive lab evidence, but clinical info which puts a heavy burden on local health officials. Lack of awareness and under-diagnosis is still a known long-standing issue for many states including California. You can’t count something that hasn’t been reported and you can’t report something you aren’t educated about. Due to these issues, the CDC includes insurance claim data to estimate cases. In 2021, there were 24,611 cases reported but the CDC estimated the actual number to be 476,000.  In the past, the CDC has said that Lyme disease cases are underreported by a factor of 10, which if used for 2024 – would total 620,000 annual cases.  Source Hopefully, it’s clear to see all of this is very unclear!
  7. Chronic Lyme is recognized by science, but you have to depart from IDSA ‘approved’ science, look at the global science, and realize Lyme/MSIDS will never fit neatly into a large randomized controlled trial (RCT). RCTs were designed for standardized drug testing, not complex, multi-systemic conditions such as Lyme/MSIDS.  This is something ‘mainstream’ medicine refuses to acknowledge, and the media blindly follows. Lyme science has been rigged from the get-go and continues to entirely omit the sickest patients due to how they create the study design for research.
  8. The doctor who spoke in the news story, Dr. Paul Auwaerter of Johns Hopkins has a long, known history of denying chronic Lyme. He only presents one side of a very disputed coin. To only choose to represent one side and over emphasizing that there’s a ‘whole industry created for chronic Lyme that’s taking advantage of people’ is not only unethical from a journalistic perspective, it ignores people like me, my husband, and virtually every single patient I work with who very well might be dead without this life-saving treatment.  Unconscionable.  
  9. All independent testing is presented as quackery – a long used trick of the establishment to monopolize testing. Cabalists spout ‘unvalidated’ test, as if there’s a true gold standard.  Make no mistake, currently ALL testing for tick-borne disease is abysmal – and everyone knows it until biased pieces like this are presented and they revert back to regurgitating and not thinking.
  10. Since the report is made by CBC News in Canada, they should have at least interviewed Vett Lloyd, a biology professor at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, who says most Lyme cases are missed with the standard test. She co-authored a study  with Dr. Ralph Hawkins, a clinical associate professor at the University of Calgary, using data from New Brunswick where they found the two-tiered tests miss 90 per cent of real Lyme infections. In Ontario, she says about 80 per cent of cases are missed.
  11. Current testing relies upon measuring antibodies that take 4-6 weeks to develop, can not distinguish between active infection from prior exposure or measure response to treatment.  The window for accurate testing is so small that only a handful of those infected are getting positives.  Trust me, there’s few false negatives. As Dr. McDonald aptly states:

    “If false results are to be feared, it is the false negative result which holds the greatest peril for the patient.” –Alan McDonald, Pathologist

  12.  Cabalists admit early diagnosis and treatment is best as the infection worsens with time, so how does a test that takes over a month to work help at all?
  13. A gold standard culture method test did exist but was disappeared due to the CDC testing monopoly.  There’s been a long and concerted effort to suppress direct detection tests.  In 2025, a study showed two investigational diagnostics outperform current tests for early detection yet nothing changes.
  14. The same doctor would rather regurgitate the long-held Cabalist phrase of ‘medically unexplained symptoms,’ (MUS) as the cause of why people are unwell than dare to even consider tick-borne infections and learn from ILADS.
  15. The journalist continues following the Cabalist MO when she makes sure to politely empathize that there are sick people who feel dismissed by the system, but that ‘private testing’ comes with significant risk – and then cites a paper done with the same faulty study design by none other than Dr. Paul Auwaerter, the same doctor who denies chronic Lyme and uses the MUS diagnosis so freely.  Seeing a trend yet?
  16. Treatment for early Lyme disease is not so ‘simple,’ due to the fact that many continue with symptoms – proving it’s obviously not working! Not to mention treatment failures have been seen in nearly every antibiotic study ever done. 
  17. It is not rare to have chronic Lyme when you consider the fact researchers only count those who are diagnosed and treated early into this group. When you add in those diagnosed and treated late, a whopping 40-60% go on to suffer long-term symptoms.
  18. The piece uses the infamous Cabalist term ‘Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome’ (PTLDS) which is horribly inaccurate, and faulty to the core. Then, while stating it’s ‘incurable,’ the report bashes alternative treatments and gives the ancient yet faulty 2001 Klempner study as ‘proof’ long term antibiotics don’t work and carry significant risks. In other words, just accept your sad, sorry lot, stay sick, and die already.
  19. The piece finishes with stating the media needs to be more critical of extremely ill celebrities who claim they have Lyme disease – as if being sick isn’t hard enough! Imagine if this was posited for cancer patients!  Can you even imagine?  Yet, it’s perfectly fine to dismiss Lyme/MSIDS patients.
  20. Another issue completely bypassed by this piece is that due to the controversy, doctors are too afraid to diagnose and treat patients, giving yet another reason for massive underreporting. For decades doctors have had to close their practices or have been sanctioned and have had to pay hefty fines.  My own doctor went through this gauntlet, paying 50K to protect his practice.  This is why LLMD’s do not accept insurance.  It’s quite often the insurance companies turning them in.  All of this plays a part in this Shakespearian like tragedy and should be fairly represented.

It’s high time the media wakes up and smells the coffee.  There was once a time when journalists endeavored to be unbiased, present the various sides of a story, and let the reader/viewer come to their own conclusions.  Sadly, those days appear to be long gone.  My journalism profs are rolling over in their graves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment

How Ticks Became Bioweapons

https://spectator.com/article/how-ticks-became-bioweapons/

How ticks became bioweapons

By Kris Newby

1/19/26

On December 18 last year, Donald Trump signed into law an order to “review and report on biological weapons experiments on and in relation to ticks [and] tick-borne diseases.” The investigation is long overdue but even so, the facts it uncovers will come as a shock to many. A growing body of evidence shows that during the Cold War ticks were tinkered with and used as delivery mechanisms for biological warfare agents. And these weaponized ticks may have been released both intentionally and unintentionally on an unsuspecting public by the US military.

Ticks and the diseases they transmit (such as Lyme) pose a growing threat to Americans, the military and to agriculture. Record numbers of tick bites have been reported in New York (in 2024), Maine (in 2024), and Wisconsin (in 2023). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates approximately 500,000 new cases of Lyme disease annually. About one-third of patients do not respond to recommended treatment protocols.

Bioweapons specialists infected ticks with pathogens to cause disabilityand death to potential enemies

If these microbes have been genetically altered, we need to know. If the military harmed civilians through irresponsible experiments, the government has an obligation to acknowledge and remedy those harms. And if the original outbreak near Lyme, Connecticut, in the 1970s resulted from a hostile foreign act, future biosecurity protections must be strengthened. Knowing the root cause of an epidemic is vital in developing treatment strategies, containing the outbreaks and preventing future ones. And then there’s the issue of what else ticks may be carrying. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Sadly, Newby propitiates the ‘climate change’ myth regarding tick and disease proliferation.  This is a key point as there are only so many research dollars which are highly sought after.  By perpetuating a myth, we purposely limit those funds even further by funding research that has already been proven false.

The article does, however, go through the chronology of tick research as well as the fact researchers dropped these infected ticks on unsuspecting populations (Operation Mongoose, etc.)

Important excerpt:

….documents obtained by the CIA during the Cold War showed that the Soviets were conducting bioweapons-related experiments on ticks, including exploring ways to get ticks to reproduce more rapidly, selectively crossbreeding tick species so they could carry disease agents that caused tick-borne encephalitis and dropping infected ticks from aircraft and balloons. Intelligence reports on “entomological warfare” stoked fear and paranoia in the Pentagon, and the Cold War bug-borne weapons race began.

For more:

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks