Is Lyme Disease a Bio Weapon?
Living in CT for most of my life and always being a “nature girl”, spending hours outside in the woods I am very familiar with carrying ticks or getting bitten by ticks… unfortunately. Having known the different types like the back of my hand, I’ve grown to know almost every species and life cycle. I am very fortunate to have never contracted Lyme Disease to my knowledge but not everyone is so fortunate.
The CDC describes Lyme disease or the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi as, “ the most common vector-borne disease in the United States… Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Lyme disease is diagnosed based on symptoms, physical findings (e.g., rash), and the possibility of exposure to infected ticks. Laboratory testing is helpful if used correctly and performed with validated methods. Most cases of Lyme disease can be treated successfully with a few weeks of antibiotics” (CDC.org).
The infamous bulls-eye that you can see when you’ve been infected by a tick carrying Lyme is one of the ways to tell if you’ve been exposed. However, this is not always looked for, and doctors struggle to locate this on individuals with darker skin tones, as it appears differently. This is an issue when doctors are trying to diagnose a condition and give but unfortunately can lead to more gaslighting and no diagnosis or instead a misdiagnosis.
To understand how Lyme first came to be is a question I haven’t studied much before until recent findings, as the disease itself is very painful and can be deadly…and would be a horrifying weapon if made in a lab and released to the public. The sole structure of how ticks evolve and spread is almost evidence enough, but there’s more to it than that.
According to Kris Newby, author of Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, "The premise of my book is that weaponized ticks full of 'who knows what' were accidentally released in the region of Long Island Sound," says Newby by email. While she notes that she was unable to prove definitively Lyme bacteria was used as a bioweapon, "there are plenty of shocking discoveries and scientific leads to lift the veil on the mysteries surrounding tick diseases and the government's response to them." Her book says that scientist Willy Burgdorfer (who is credited with discovering the pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi that causes Lyme disease) was directly involved in a number of bioweapons programs” (howstuffworks.com).
I do believe Lyme was man-made along with some other illnesses that are still infecting people today. The research is there, and it’s worth a look. If you take away anything from this article, let it be question the things around you, and their origins. The answers you find may indeed surprise you.
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There are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding Lyme Disease. My personal favorite is that a lot of prominent figures and celebrities will claim to have chronic, uncurable Lyme Disease despite there being no real evidence that it manifests with the same symptoms (the CDC says it's not even a real diagnosis) and is incredibly rare- but the symptoms just so happen to line up with that of long-term cocaine abuse. I don't believe that Lyme is necessarily a bioweapon, but I do think that the prevalence of it has lead to strains that are resistant to medication and antibiotics that are in a sense man-made because we tend to overprescribe for it.