Lyme disease was not spread through bioweapons.

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Animals,Climate Change,Public Health

People contract Lyme disease through tick bites. But was the disease spread by the government, as former Fox News anchor

This undated photo from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a blacklegged tick, which is also known as a deer tick and carries Lyme disease. Research has shown that the Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, has existed for at least 60,000 years, long before the United States’ biological weapons program began in 1942.

Carlson’s post shows clips of him interviewing author Kris Newby on his online show,"Tucker Carlson Uncensored." The Instagram post’s caption has a link to Carlson’s website, where there’s a longer video of the interview. "So, you have a cluster of these three previously rare diseases right across the water from the U.S. government’s biological weapons testing facility, is that what you’re saying?" Carlson said in the clip.

The bacterium that causes Lyme disease is at least 60,000 years old and existed long before the U.S. bioweapons program. Scientists have observed suspected cases of Lyme disease in several locations well before the first identified case of the disease in the 1970s, including in a 5,000-year-old mummy near the Austria-Italy border.

Email interview, Maria Diuk-Wasser, professor, Columbia University’s department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, May 10, 2024

 

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