Several medias and newspapers have reported on U.S. House ordering Pentagon to investigate whether ticks were experimented on as bioweapons during 1950 to 1975. Massive discussion follows, and the disease said to be “resolved by a short course of antibiotics” is questioned again.
What is Lyme disease? Why should the House order Pentagon to investigate on it? What don’t most people know? Find them out here.
About Lyme Disease
What is Lyme disease?
According to CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention), Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted through the bite of infected ticks. It was first revealed in the 1970s, when a mysterious ailment afflicted a group of people in Lyme, Connecticut, which was eventually solved by scientists.
Typical symptoms of Lyme disease include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans.
Erythema migrans
How to treat Lyme disease?
The infection may spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system if not treated, and it can be treated “successfully with a few weeks of antibiotics,” according to CDC.
How to prevent Lyme disease?
Since most Lyme disease is transmitted with ticks (there’s no evidence showing it can transmit from person to person), the best way to prevent the disease is to prevent being bitten by ticks. This includes applying pesticides, reducing tick habitat, and removing ticks promptly.
How widely is Lyme disease spread?
Approximately 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to CDC each year. The data is, however, 400,000 according to a Stanford University science writer, Kris Newby. Cases of Lyme disease are mainly reported in the Northeast of US.
Reported cases of Lyme disease in US, 2017 (from CDC)
Behind Lyme disease
Truth and lies
Kris Newby, a science journalist, a former Lyme sufferer, the author of the book about her years-long effort to get to the bottom of Lyme disease, has a different view from the “official” origin of Lyme.
“The chasm between what researchers say about Lyme disease and what the chronically ill patients say they are experiencing has remained an open wound for decades.” Newby says.
Newby and her husband got bitten by unseen ticks, which caused their horrible sickness later. Tens of medical experts had tried and failed in pinpointing the problem, one of them rejecting her positive Lyme test result as a “false” positive. The disease was not “resolved in a few weeks” but lasted for years filled with treatments and long recovery.
Newby was not alone. According to her investigation, few patients with Lyme or other tick-borne illnesses could receive proper diagnosis and treatment. And the disease can certainly not be treated by “a short course of antibiotics” as the government says.
In her book Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, Newby mentions the interview with Burgdorfer, a retired researcher (dead in 2014) who entered the US government’s Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana in 1951. The Lyme spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is named after him. The US government wanted to use military tools that could disable a huge population during the Cold War era, and Burgdorfer was involved in the bioweapon experiments on ticks.
Burgdorfer also mentioned that there were programs to drop “weaponized” ticks and other bugs from the air, during which uninfected bugs were released in residential areas in the US to trace how they spread.
The question is: were some weaponized ticks released to the residential areas accidentally (or deliberately)?
2.2 What Pentagon is ordered to investigate now
Chris Smith, a Republican congressman for New Jersey, tabled a vote which compels the Pentagon inspector general to investigate. The vote passed last week, and investigation on who ordered the program, whether there was an accidental release of diseased ticks, and whether the program has contributed to the increase of Lyme disease will be carried out.
