Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

Tick-borne Powassan Virus is Being Transmitted in Concentrated Clusters in New England, Yale Study Says

https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/tick-borne-powassan-virus-is-being-transmitted-in-concentrated-clusters-in-new-england-yale-study-says/

Tick-borne Powassan virus is being transmitted in concentrated clusters in New England, Yale study says

YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

April 11, 2023

By Jenny Blair, Yale School of Public Health

For New Englanders, tick-borne infections are a fact of life. Lyme disease, a bacterial infection carried by the deer tick, was first described in Connecticut in the 1970s and remains a major problem.

But deer ticks transmit other diseases to humans as well, including anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and an emerging virus called Powassan. Cases of Powassan virus have risen dramatically in recent years in the United States, mostly in the Northeast and Great Lakes region.

Most people infected with Powassan do not experience symptoms, but for some, it can result in brain swelling and even death. There are currently no vaccines or treatments for Powassan virus infection. Prevention is primarily dependent on education and control.

In a new study, researchers at the Yale School of Public Health provide insights into the transmission dynamics of the Powassan virus that could help focus public health efforts and limit infections. The study found that the virus appears to be highly localized in its spread, meaning that the virus is maintained in scattered local hotspots with very limited mixing between hotspot sites.

“It’s incredibly important to do surveillance to know what’s out there,” said Chantal Vogels, a research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) and a co-first author of the study.

By greatly expanding on what little genomic information scientists had before our study, Vogels said, “we were able to explore patterns of transmission and spread and unravel the ecology of the virus.”

Mapping viral spread

The team studied 279 samples of Powassan virus lineage 2 found in deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis, also called black-legged ticks) collected in Connecticut, New York, and Maine between 2008 and 2019.

By deciphering and comparing the virus’s complete genetic codes, or genomes, the researchers reconstructed the history of Powassan in the region. They estimated when branches of the virus’s “family tree” diverged and pieced together how the virus evolved and where it traveled via its hosts.

It’s incredibly important to do surveillance to know what’s out there.

Chantal Vogels, research scientist, Yale School of Public Health

Sometime between 1940 and 1975, a major branch of the lineage 2 virus appeared in the Northeast. This branch of the virus, which accounts for most Powassan cases in North America, first appeared in southern New York State and Connecticut. Then, several long-distance jumps occurred, likely when infected ticks caught rides on migrating birds or other vertebrate hosts. By 1991, it had reached Maine. During its initial decades in the region, Powassan became more populous in the wild, but this probably leveled off about 2005.

The virus now appears to be moving slowly or staying put, simmering in specific hotspots, and evolving independently in each one. For instance, the scientists could find no evidence that separate clades of the virus were mingling with each other across a 20-kilometer (or approximately 12.5 miles) stretch between two Connecticut sites. The scientists note, however, that they sampled only a limited number of locations, so it’s possible they missed hotspots.

Still, this new information could help health officials to target those hotspots, where Powassan is more likely to spill over into humans, for education and eradication efforts.

“If it’s anything like [the related] tick-borne encephalitis virus, [previous researchers have] estimated that these foci are typically about the size of a football field,” said Doug Brackney, a researcher in the Department of Entomology at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at YSPH.

A quiet menace

Researchers first identified the virus in 1958 in a five-year-old boy from Powassan, Ontario, who developed severe encephalitis and died. After that, about one case per year was diagnosed until 2006. Then cases began to climb, and since the late 2010s dozens of diagnoses have been made nearly every year.

Given that the virus’s numbers appear to have leveled off in the wild, this increase in human disease may have happened because more humans are encountering ticks, and/or because more health professionals are checking for Powassan in patients with suspicious symptoms.

Unlike Lyme disease, which takes hours to pass from an infected tick to a human, Powassan can be transmitted just 15 minutes after the tick latches on. More New England residents have likely been infected with Powassan than have shown symptoms.

“We typically only see the most severe cases of disease, and those are the people that end up in the hospital. But it’s probably just the tip of the iceberg,” Vogels said.

“I think it’s really important to be early with this work,” she added, “to prevent a situation where everyone has heard of this virus, and it creates a huge burden on public health.”

The study appears online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

***

The study’s four co-first authors are Vogels; Brackney; Alan P. Dupuis II of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany; and Rebecca M. Robich of the MaineHealth Institute for Research (MHIR).

The five co-senior authors are Robert P. Smith of MHIR; Philip M. Armstrong of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES); Alexander T. Ciota of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and SUNY Albany; Simon Dellicour of KU Leuven and Université Libre de Bruxelles, both in Belgium; and Nathan D. Grubaugh of the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University.

Other co-authors are Joseph R. Fauver of the Yale School of Public Health and the University of Nebraska Medical Center; Anderson F. Brito of the Yale School of Public Health and Instituto Todos pela Saúde, São Paulo, Brazil; Scott C. Williams and John F. Anderson, both of CAES; Charles B. Lubelczyk of MHIR; Rachel E. Lange and Laura D. Kramer, both of NYSDOH and SUNY Albany; Melissa A. Prusinski of NYSDOH; Jody L. Gangloff-Kaufmann and Laura B. Goodman, both of Cornell University; and Guy Baele of Belgium’s KU Leuven.

The research was funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Science, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH. Baele received funding from Internal Funds KU Leuven and the Research Foundation – Flanders. Dellicour received funding from the Research Foundation – Flanders, the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, and European Union Horizon 2020.

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**Comment**

Wisconsin is a hotspot for Powassan as well.  It also is not rare.  Again, this is an issue of it being “rarely reported.”  Big diff.

Coppe Lab, a CLIA certified lab, right here Waukesha has been studying Powassan for quite some time. Their pdf below states that numbers look low because only severe cases are reported. Despite this, there’s been a 375% increase in the last 5 years. 

They state the clinical picture of Powassan looks like many other tick-borne illnesses and is…

PROBABLY OVERLOOKED YET DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTES TO DISEASE LONG TERM.

About two-thirds are subclinical cases but around 30% of symptomatic adults contract a severe form called meningoencephalitis. One-third of those have incomplete recovery with neuropsychiatric symptoms that become chronic. The overall fatality rate is about 1% and severity of illness increases with the age of the patient.

For more:

Category:

research, Ticks, Transmission, Viruses

Tick Bites Begin to Spike in April, May: Here’s How to Keep Yourself, Your Pets Safe

https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/piedmont-triad/tick-bites-begin-to-spike-in-april-may-heres-how-to-keep-yourself-your-pets-safe/

Tick bites begin to spike in April, May: Here’s how to keep yourself, your pets safe

by: , 

Posted: 

(WGHP) — Warmer weather means there will be plenty of fun things to do outside but also tiny dangers to look out for.

Ticks can be found throughout North Carolina and carry serious diseases such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Now that April is here, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that bites will begin to spike and hit a peak in May.

But don’t worry. There are a variety of things you can do to keep yourself and your pets safe from these pesky bloodsuckers, starting with knowing what types of ticks live in North Carolina.

The four types of ticks to be aware of in North Carolina are:  (See link for article)

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SUMMARY:

  • Black legged tick, aka the deer tick (Lyme disease)
  • The lone star tick (STARI, ehrlichiosis, Alpha-gal allergy)
  • The American dog tick (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever)
  • The brown dog tick

Check out your own state’s resources for local ticks and the diseases they carry, but one word of caution: just because something hasn’t been reported, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or can happen. A tick, is a tick, is a tick and ALL are suspect as they bite and exchange bodily fluids with whomever and whatever they bite.  Ticks are constantly moving and being found in places they shouldn’t be, carrying things they shouldn’t have.

If you are in Wisconsin, go to:  https://wisconsin-ticks.russell.wisc.edu/

The website points out the following and I’ve added more:

  • Black legged tick (Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis) – for some reason they forgot Powassan or Deer tick virus, Borreia miyamotoi, Bartonella, Babesia, Mycoplasma, Tularemia, Ehrlichia muris eauclairenis, hemocytic rickettsia-like organisms, tick paralysis from fully engorged female
  • lone star tick or seed tick (Ehlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia ewingii, Alpha-gal allergy – they have found Lyme in it but no reported cases.  They also suspect rickettsia) for some reason they forgot STARI, tularemia, Anaplasma, Rickettsia amblyommatis, tick paralysis)
  • American dog tick or wood tick (RMSF, tularemia – they have found Lyme in it but no reported cases) for some reason they forgot Anaplasma and tick paralysis.
  • brown dog tick (RMSF) can also transmit Ehrlichia canis, Babesia canis vogeli, Babesia gibsoni-like to dogs which makes them suspect for humans as well.  Source

Source:  Ticks, associated tick-borne pathogens copy

For more:

Category:

Activism, Prevention, Ticks, Transmission

Chernobyl, SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein, & Ionizing Radiation

**Please keep this in mind and know that unless we all speak up, mRNA gene therapy is coming to the food supply this month. **

https://wmcresearch.substack.com/p/chernobyl-and-the-sars-cov-2-spike

Chernobyl and the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein

The Parallel Effects of Ionizing Radiation and a Viral Protein on Mutagenesis and Evolution

Walter M Chesnut
4/5/23

I am greatly alarmed as a study of feral dogs living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone were found to be rapidly mutating/evolving. The reason for the alarm is the WHY! Once again, we find that the Spike Protein of SARS-CoV-2 is MIMICKING IONIZING RADIATION – and in ways that directly cause mutations/evolution.

We found that 52 of the genes had associated Gene Ontology (GO) terms for the molecular functions of gene products that are of interest based on a putative response to the exposures from the Chernobyl disaster. These candidate genes were of particular interest because they are involved in functions such as DNA repair and cell cycle checkpoint progression, immune response, and calcium ion binding.

(See link for article and graphs)

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SUMMARY:

Chesnut states that viruses drive evolution and questions if this is being done with manufactured intent.

And all of this could now easily be put into the entire populace through the food supply. 

It’s one thing to willingly consent to an experimental, fast-tracked gene therapy injection.  It’s another thing entirely to put into the food supply without consent or knowledge.  

100 Million animals have already been injected with mRNA technology, and hardly anyone knows about it.  They’ve also injected it into vegetables.

And 27 year old Bokito the gorilla just died of heart failure.  Coincidence?  I doubt it since they’ve been injecting zoo animals with the gene therapy injections as well.

For more:

Category:

Activism, research, Transmission, vaccines, Viruses

mRNA Gene Therapy Coming to the Food Supply THIS MONTH & China Loads Milk with mRNA Exosomes & Successfully Immunize Mice

**UPDATE**

In this video, Dr. Peter McCullough states that messenger RNA has been shown to be transmissible through the GI tract, yet The Cattlemen’s Association has come out with a statement stating they oppose transparency legislation HB 1169 which merely requires labeling disclosures and doesn’t prohibit use of the mRNA platform.  They also state there’s no mRNA in beef; however, the USDA’s website shows active projects using mRNA for the bovine respiratory syncytial virus which means before we know it mRNA could be in the food supply.

hhs://rumble.com/v2g0ros-eat-your-vaccines-mrna-gene-therapy-is-coming-to-the-food-supply-this-month.html  Video Here (Approx. 12 Min)

Eat Your Vaccines: mRNA Gene Therapy Is Coming to the Food Supply THIS MONTH

They’ve given up on a needle in every arm. Now they’re coming for what you eat.

The NIH has been working on integrating “vaccines” into food since 2002.  Edible “vaccines”, like “climate change” is all the rage in government funded research now – particularly mRNA technology which has been proven to be a dismal failure with the COVID gene-therapy injections that are linked with more adverse reactions and death than any other vaccine in the history of VAERS.

According to Attorney Tom Renz, lobbyists for cattleman and pork associations in several states have CONFIRMED they WILL be using mRNA “vaccines” in pigs and cows THIS MONTH.

In an attempt to alert the public and provide transparency, Missouri Representative Holly Jones has introduced House Bill 1169 which does the following:

  • requires labeling & disclosure of any product that has any gene therapy qualities
  • requires companies to disclose if there is any way it is transferred or shed to another
  • requires informed consent as well as any information on adverse events

Attorney Renz explains how this straightforward two page bill simply asks for transparency and is designed to be universally supported (bipartisan), but has become the most contentious bill in the history of Missouri.

Big Pharma went to Big Ag and told them they need to oppose this bill.

Renz points out that if this bill passes in Missouri, it then it will be the law in every other state as well, which is why this is so important.

He also points out that due to people not getting the COVID gene therapy injections, there is a control group, and the evidence is clear: COVID injections are causing untold damage.  

Naomi Wolf and Renz discuss other topics as well, most of which are included in these articles:

So, whether you’re in Missouri, Iowa, the United Kingdom, or Australia, you need to help push HB 1169 across the finish line.

Because if the bill passes “those disclosures and the ability to get that information apply globally.” So, share this bill on social media, call your local legislators — ask your representatives why a bill similar to HB 1169 is not being discussed in your neck of the woods.

Many are unaware that they have already been injecting over 300 mammalian species of zoo animals, cattle, vegetables, and more with the mRNA gene therapy injections.

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https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/chinese-load-cows-milk-with-mrna

Chinese Load Cow’s Milk with mRNA Exosomes–Successfully Immunize Mice

COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Assault Possible Through Food Supply

Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH™

The nation’s food supply can be manipulated by public health agencies to influence population outcomes. A great is example is fortification of cereal grains with folic acid — the synthetic form of folate — which successfully reduced the incidence of neural tube defects (e.g. spina bifida). Now an oral route of administration is being considered specifically for COVID-19 vaccination using mRNA in cow’s milk.

Zhang and colleagues have demonstrated that a shortened mRNA code of 675 base pairs could be loaded into phospholipid packets called exosomes derived from milk and then using that same milk, be fed to mice. The mice gastrointestinal tract absorbed the exosomes and the mRNA must have made it into the blood stream and lymphatic tissue because antibodies were produced in fed mice against SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein (receptor binding domain).  (See link for article)

_______________

SUMMARY:

  • From a purely scientific point, this is a “stunning success”
  • It presents ethical concerns
  • The COVID mRNA injections have generated untold injuries, disabilities, and death
  • 25% of Americans have remained “unvaccinated” with the COVID shots and would have objections to mRNA in the food supply
  • Children could be easily targeted getting mRNA through milk at school lunches and other unsupervised meals
  • For those who are “vaxxed” for COVID, having synthetic mRNA in milk would load the body even more with a substance proven resistant to ribonucleases and may reside permanently in the body
  • mRNA technology has just entered a much darker phase of development and the Chinese have just taken the first of what will be many more dangerous steps for the world

Category:

Activism, Transmission, vaccines

Serum From White-Tailed Deer Kills Lyme in Test Tube

https://www.umass.edu/news/article/white-tailed-deer-blood-kills-bacteria-causes-lyme-disease

WHITE-TAILED DEER BLOOD KILLS BACTERIA THAT CAUSES LYME DISEASE

NEWVEC research at UMass Amherst may lead to strategies to reduce the incidence of tick-borne illness

As tick season kicks in across the country, the executive director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst-based New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases (NEWVEC) and his team have completed research that offers a promising lead in the fight against Lyme disease.

The study, published recently in the journal Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases, demonstrates that the blood of the white-tailed deer kills the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that causes Lyme disease, a potentially debilitating illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year some 476,000 people are diagnosed with and treated for Lyme, the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S.

“Deer are vitally important to the survival of deer ticks, but they are not involved with transmitting the Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi,” explains senior author Stephen Rich, professor of microbiology. “We’ve known for some time that ticks taken from white-tailed deer are not infected, and we speculated that something about the deer prevented those ticks from becoming infected. But until publication of our paper, no one had done the experiment to show that deer blood – specifically the serum component of white-tailed deer blood – kills Lyme.”

A tick biting a person with the bullseye rash indicative of Lyme disease. Credit: Getty Images
Some people infected with Lyme get a tell-tale target rash around their tick bite. Credit: Getty Images

The results of the study may one day lead to new strategies and approaches for Lyme disease prevention and treatment, says lead author Patrick Pearson, a Ph.D. student in NEWVEC, whose upcoming doctoral examination focuses in part on this research.

“In these experiments we determined that white-tailed deer serum kills the Lyme bacterium. The next important question will be to understand exactly how deer blood kills Lyme bacteria,” Pearson says.

The research is one project of NEWVEC, which was funded by the CDC last year with a $10 million award to prevent and reduce tick- and mosquito-borne diseases in New England. NEWVEC aims to bring together academic communities, public health practitioners, residents and visitors across the Northeast, where Lyme infections are concentrated.

The Lyme disease bacterium is passed to juvenile blacklegged (Ixodes scapularis) deer ticks from mice the arthropods feed on. The infected ticks then pass the bacterium on to humans when they feed on people.

“We are the accidental host,” Rich says. “The ticks that bite us are actually looking for a deer because that’s where they breed. Without the deer, you don’t have ticks. But if you had only deer, you wouldn’t have any Lyme.”

To carry out their experiment, the researchers obtained blood serum from a semi-captive white-tailed deer herd at Auburn University in Alabama. The deer were believed to have no exposure to ticks and the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

The researchers then grew the Lyme disease germ in test tubes and added the deer serum. “And lo and behold, it killed the bacteria,” Rich says. “Whatever it is in the deer that’s killing the germ is part of the innate immune system, a part of the immune system that precedes antibodies.”

Pearson adds, “The Lyme bacterium has proteins on its surface that protect it from the human innate immune system. Deer blood is somehow different such that Lyme bacteria are apparently unable to protect themselves from the innate immune system of white-tailed deer.”

The next research step is to determine the precise mechanisms in deer blood that kill the bacteria.

“We’d like to determine if it’s something we can induce in humans,” Rich says. “Or maybe we could use this somehow to our advantage to reduce the incidence of Lyme disease in the wild.”

_______________

**Comment**

Go here for more on tick prevention.

While the age-old repellents permethrin, Deet, and Picaridin are all mentioned in the article, a few new things are in the pipeline:

  • GearJump Technologies received DoD funding to design a controlled-release device utilizing synthetic pyrethroids (not to be put on skin) transfluthrin and metofluthrin that can attach to the boot of soldiers has shown affected ticks became slower moving, less mobile and appeared to be in a “drunken-like state.”
  • Nootkatone, derived from Alaska yellow cedar trees and citrus fruit, had statistically significant knockdown effects when compared to water-only controls.  It also displayed significant residual tick-killing activity after weathering naturally in the landscape for 2 weeks prior to tick application/testing.
    • While this article states products could be available by 2022, they are obviously not forthcoming. This NY Times article explains it’s considered safe and is used in food and perfume, but the EPA registration only applies only to Nootkatone – not forthcoming products which will each need to be tested and registered.
    • The CDC has licensed patents to its partners Evolva and Allylix. The substance is available to be used to develop new insect repellents and insecticides.  And this is exactly what is wrong with the CDC.  I heard about Nootkatone years and years ago and it’s languished on the sidelines like so many things due to CDC patents/influence.
    • The chemical repels mosquitoes, ticks, bedbugs, fleas and may be effective against lice, sandflies, midges, and other pests. An ISU insect toxicologist found it to be an “impressive repellent but a weak insecticide.” It can kill insects but takes a vast amount of product making it impractical.  Nootkatone repels ticks better than synthetics and is their equal at repelling mosquitoes.  Unlike other natural products, it does not lose its potency after an hour but lasts as long as synthetics.

Knowing that Lyme/MSIDS is a modern-day plague, it’s disheartening that good, safe, affordable products are not being developed more quickly.  This shouldn’t shock anyone; however, as it’s become perfectly clear that public health is not about public health but patents, secret royalties, collusion, fraud, and control.

Many other animals are involved and utilized by ticks besides mice:

Category:

Lyme, Prevention, research, Transmission