Climate Change Is Causing a Dangerous Uptick in Cases of Lyme Disease

Pacific Standard ^ | April 16, 2018 | by Gabriela Serrato Marks

[goldstategop]

I thought liberals loved all kind of buggers?

What’s their beef against ticks? Coprophagy?

[crz]

I have had it. Three of the crew I worked with had it.

You dont have to “RIDE” on the back of a deer to get it.

[WayneS]

I own a house and 4 acres in Central Virginia, adjacent to a 65+ acre tract of timber. I often come home from work to find an entire herd of white tail deer in my yard.

[mewzilla]

Ah hah! That deer tick that got me on Halloween a few years back, or Tick or Treat as I now call it, climate change made the little bugger do it!

Who knew!

[4yearlurker]

I live in SW Pennsylvania and as I type this the snow is flying by my window. The robins are looking very confused.

[WayneS]

Deer-ticks spend a fair portion of their life-cycle on or under the ground, and on trees/plants. When adult females seek a host for feeding and then mating purposes, their most numerous and likely targets are deer, but they are not exclusive in their choice - any large mammal will do. The males also seek large mammal hosts, but they do not bite, they just wait around for the females.

One does not need to “ride on the back of a deer” in order to become the ersatz host of a deer tick.

You are quite fortunate to have never been bitten by a tick. Some people appear to be “immune” to them. I have a friend who is also not bothered by ticks. We tease him that he is so bitter that even the ticks can’t stand to be around him.

[Trillian]

I thought it was causing a dangerous uptick in government funding.

[Pollard]

2016

2013

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/maps.html

In 1998, they used a different version of the map but it ain't much different data-wise. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4807a2.htm

[Buckeye McFrog]

It’s April 17 and snowing in Pittsburgh.
I’m sure the ticks are enjoying that.

[kiryandil]

The ticks are on their way, son.

[Labyrinthos]

I live in “ground zero” for Lyme disease, and I can attest that Lyme disease is very bad stuff. I have seen it ruin lives and families because of the physical and mental toll that it can take. But blaming “climate change” is based upon the false premise that the reported incidence of Lyme disease, as recorded by the CDC from 1990 to 2016, walks lock step with temperature increases during that time period. This is fundamentally wrong because real, recorded, actual, temperatures have not increased during that time period. Most significantly, there are too many other variables that could account for the increase in the reported incidents of Lyme disease, including the following:

1. Public awareness of the disease, which has resulted in an increase in diagnosis and treatment.

2. Larger populations of deer and other host animals due to a declining number of hunters, hunting access, demographic changes, and PETA protestors, in the areas most affected by Lyme disease.

3. Greater number of people spending time outdoors in areas with a high incidence of Lyme disease.

4. Diagnostic improvements.

5. Genetic mutations to the bacterium that causes Lyme disease that makes the bacteria more resistant to treatment.

6. People and their pets moving out of high tax states where Lyme disease is most prominent to states where Lyme disease has been relatively rare.

[Mastador1]

You mean climate change like from winter when ticks are inactive to summer when ticks are very active?

[Bellflower]

Oh dear, I broke my toenail. It’s negative so you can be perfectly sure it must be because of that mean, old climate change.

[Bellflower]

I think that it was elk farms that transported ticks around the Country. I hiked in an area that once was an elk farm. The ticks were awful, crawling up our shoes, even off from a mowed path.