Do you know one thing helping spread Lyme and other tick borne diseases though? Climate change. - ThreadSky

kendrawrites.com • 24 days ago

Do you know one thing helping spread Lyme and other tick borne diseases though? Climate change.

Just to be clear: Lyme was discovered by a CDC scientist investigating what was thought to be a cluster of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis cases in Lyme CT. It is not a bioweapon, but him saying it will ABSOLUTELY lead to people coming to me and other ID docs asking for testing/treatment 🙄🤦🏻‍♂️

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dague.net•24 days ago

Also, potential vaccine coming, which would be great if HHS kept infectious diseases as a top priority, and not run by an antivaxer

https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/what_you_need_to_know_about_a_promising_vaccine_candidate_that_may_stem_the_growing_risk_of_lyme_disease

kendrawrites.com•24 days ago

If we taught biology better people would understand that nature is metal and you don't need nefarious intent for wild shit to happen.

onemetricdylan.bsky.social•24 days ago

I actually think that’s part of why people love the lab-leak conspiracy. If it’s man-made, it has intent.

But the reality is that a fuck ton of wildlife diseases have infection potential for humans. These things happen

To some, it’s scarier to reconcile so much is outside our control

winstonyau.bsky.social•24 days ago

It’s why I think some of the prominent left folks rt’ing the lab leak theory is so stupid - like zoonotic spillovers are so much likelier than lab leak!! (Not to mention feeding into a new Cold War narrative, anti-Chinese racism etc)

poguemahon.bsky.social•24 days ago

A good time to mention @tcboyle.com’s “Blue Skies” is a heckuva ticks and climate change read (and hey I’m just happy to have my favorite author over here)

midcatecrisis.bsky.social•24 days ago

And boy do I get the feeling that doctors are going to be as unwilling to update their diagnostic algorithms to account for greater Lyme exposure opportunities as they have been to update them to account for long covid.

kendrawrites.com•24 days ago

IDK I live in the northeast and hike and camp so I've been tested a lot for lyme just in case (I've also never had a tick bite AFAIK but I'm a little intense about long pants and shirts and bug repellent)

plains.bsky.social•24 days ago

You’re just smart. Was wearing long sleeve shirts & pants & fleece jacket but the shirts weren’t tucked in. Did not test positive but was treated with 2 rounds of antibiotics & phys therapy bc could not move my neck. Recovered because of good medical care back then, 12 yrs ago

midcatecrisis.bsky.social•24 days ago

I'm in Canada and because of hard freezes it's been really rare and doctors generally don't order tests without a bullseye rash as far as I know. I have ME/CFS and have never been tested for Lyme despite being very very hike-y in the before times.

midcatecrisis.bsky.social•24 days ago

I'm worried that as we get fewer deep freezes and the range expands doctors here will keep treating it as extremely rare and yet very straightforward and easy to rule out with no evidence of tick bite. Could be wrong, though. Hope I am.

kendrawrites.com•24 days ago

Ahhhh the Canadian bit matters. Lyme was such a staple growing up in the northeast that I'm not even the one suggesting it.

mcirwin47.bsky.social•24 days ago

I grew up on the border with Quebec and as a kid in the 90s/early 2000s our dogs basically never came back with a tick after being in the woods. My friends’ dogs come back with a few ticks almost every time they go out now. It’s a constant topic of conversation.

kendrawrites.com•24 days ago

warmer temperatures. I'm so sorry.

beebrookshire.bsky.social•24 days ago

i literally had someone ask me a few months ago if Lyme was invented in a lab.

I was so surprised I laughed. I told them no obviously. But it really told me how many rumors like that are swirling.

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