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Loren Grush, Popular Science August 18, 2014The Lone Star tick. Mike Abley will always remember the last hamburger he ever ate. It was more than 20 years ago, and he recalls the meat being particularly juicy and delicious. But a few hours after dinner, Abley started itching like mad. He burst into hives, his tongue swelled, and he eventually passed out, prompting his wife to call 911. At the hospital, doctors determined he had gone into anaphylactic shock—a potentially deadly allergic reaction. Fortunately, Abley pulled through, and he later met with an allergist to determine what had caused the terrifying...

You may just be one tick bite away from never being able to eat a ham sandwich again. The lone star tick is making its way into Massachusetts from the southeastern part of the United States. People will find them on Nantucket and the coast. The tick's bite can cause some people to develop an unexpected food allergy. "The reason we are seeing more coastal areas is because there is a substantial difference when it comes to temperature in coastal regions than inlands," explained Dr. Goudarz Molaei, Chief Scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. "In some municipalities it has...

He became an involuntary vegan. A New Jersey man is now allergic to red meat after getting bitten by an invasive species of tick — which has left him unable to consume steak, pork or even dairy products without suffering a serious reaction. “It just flipped everything — turned my life upside down completely,” Craig Smith, 62, told NJ.com of his unwilling conversion to vegetarianism. “You get so frustrated. Food becomes an enemy to you.” The Cream Ridge retiree specifically suffers from Alpha-gal syndrome, a potentially life-threatening allergy that triggers an immune reaction to a sugar molecule (carbohydrate galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose) found...

Hundreds of thousands of Americans may be infected with a tick-born illness that causes an allergy to meat without knowing it, according to the Centers for Disease Control Prevention. Alpha-Gal syndrome, or AGS, is caused by the bite of a lone star tick, which can be identified by a white dot on its back. The saliva of the tick will cause those who have been infected to have a reaction to red meat, including pork and lamb. They may also have reactions to gelatin or dairy products. This illness can also infect all mammals, not just humans. Symptoms of the...

An Oklahoma man has died after acquiring the Heartland virus, making him the second person in the U.S. to die after coming down with the illness, state health officials said Tuesday. The state Department of Health released few details but said the man was from Delaware County in northeast Oklahoma, was over the age of 65 and died recently from complications of the virus, which is found in the lone star tick and is likely spread through tick bites. The virus was first identified in 2009, in Missouri. …

In the rarefied halls of Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Professor Parker Crutchfield teaches medical ethics. One might expect such a role to instill reverence for human dignity, bodily autonomy, and the Hippocratic admonition to first do no harm. Instead, Crutchfield has authored arguments for covertly drugging the population to improve its “morality” and, more recently, for actively spreading a tick-borne disease to make people allergic to red meat. This is not satire. In the journal Bioethics, Crutchfield and co-author Blake Hereth published “Beneficial Bloodsucking,” which posits that if eating meat is morally wrong, then humanity...

https://thenewamerican.com/?p=441321 You may recall an article by a couple of bioethics professors that appeared a few months back in a science journal and caused more than a minor kerfuffle for proposing that it might be beneficial to the planet to spread lone star ticks around. Why? Because these ticks spread what is called the alpha-gal syndrome (AGS). It takes its name from galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, a sugar present in the meat of most mammals. The immune systems of tick-bite victims can develop allergic antibodies to the meat-sugar and can then have a severe allergic reaction when they eat red meat (beef, pork,...

A 47-year-old airline pilot from New Jersey is the first person known to have died from alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy caused by a tick bite. Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine publicly reported the cause of death Wednesday after months of investigation. Their findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. The man’s death had previously been seen as a mystery, since medical examinations showed no evidence of a heart attack or other life-threatening issues. According to the researchers, the man started feeling sick four hours after consuming a hamburger...

A death in New Jersey is now being called the first-ever linked to a meat allergy caused by a tick bite. Doctors say a 47-year-old man who passed away in the summer of last year had a severe reaction to a steak after spending a day in the outdoors. He became severely ill but recovered, so he thought nothing of it. Then, two weeks later, he died after eating a hamburger, according to officials. The allergy is known as "Alpha-gal syndrome." The allergy is caused by the bite of the Lone Star tick. According to University of Virginia Health, people...

A bizarre, life-threatening tick-borne illness has made hundreds residents of Martha’s Vineyard allergic to red meat and dairy — turning many of them into forced vegans and “social pariahs” at the height of BBQ season on the ritzy island. Skyrocketing cases of alpha-gal syndrome — a disease spread by bites from the Lone Star Tick— have ripped through the scenic summer hotspot with a total of 523 reported last year, according to the Times of London. “I woke up at 2 a.m. with major stomach cramps and thought I had food poisoning,” said Andrew Keenan, a 58-year-old former chef, who...

Hours after savoring that perfectly grilled steak on a beautiful summer evening, your body turns traitor, declaring war on the very meal you just enjoyed. You begin to feel excruciating itchiness, pain or even swelling that can escalate to the point of requiring emergency care. The culprit isn’t food poisoning – it’s the fallout from a tick bite you may have gotten months earlier and didn’t even notice. This delayed allergic reaction is called alpha-gal syndrome. While it’s commonly called the “red meat allergy,” that nickname is misleading, because alpha-gal syndrome can cause strong reactions to many products, beyond just...

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson (D) stated Monday that the state government aims to “partner” with the anti-ICE groups illegally tracking and hounding federal law enforcement agents. The governor expressed support for the anti-ICE insurgency in his state just one day before the FBI launched an investigation into the Signal chat groups organizing the the anti-ICE insurgency in Minnesota. Ferguson held a press conference alongside Washington’s Attorney General Nick Brown (D.) to condemn ICE after two agitators in Minnesota were fatally shot by federal agents. Brown was widely criticized last month after he warned independent journalists to stop investigating alleged fraudulent...

A tell-all describes how the war in Gaza loomed over the 2024 campaign and strained Biden’s reelection bidJosh Shapiro’s Judaism was not a factor in Kamala Harris passing him over as a running mate, according to a 2024 election tell-all, contradicting a narrative Republicans eagerly peddled. If anything, Harris rejected Shapiro because they had too much in common — both were former attorneys general who hoped to be president. That and poor chemistry knocked Shapiro out of the running, according to How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by political reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and...

There have been countless examples of liberalism being a mental disorder.Here is another one:Two researchers from Western Michigan University have written a paper titled “Beneficial Bloodsucking,” which was published by the journal Bioethics this past July. (No, it isn’t about vampires.)The paper argues that intentionally spreading alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat, could be not only morally defensible, but perhaps even necessary, in order to reduce animal suffering and combat climate change.Here are the authors, Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth, in their own words:Because promoting tickborne AGS prevents something bad from happening, doesn’t violate anyone’s rights,...

ABSTRACT The bite of the lone star tick spreads alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a condition whose only effect is the creation of a severe but nonfatal red meat allergy. Public health departments warn against lone star ticks and AGS, and scientists are working to develop an inoculation to AGS. Herein, we argue that if eating meat is morally impermissible, then efforts to prevent the spread of tickborne AGS are also morally impermissible. After explaining the symptoms of AGS and how they are transmitted via ticks, we argue that tickborne AGS is a moral bioenhancer if and when it motivates people to...

A coalition of 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Friday for firing thousands of probationary federal workers without providing advance notice. Led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the plaintiffs argue the mass terminations violate federal law, which they argue mandates at least 60 days’ notice before large-scale layoffs. The lawsuit centers on various Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directives instructing agencies to review the employment of thousands of probationary employees “based on agency judgement regarding mission needs.” “These large-scale, indiscriminate firings are not only subjecting the Plaintiff states and communities across the country...

Isn't accepting bribes a crime? I always thought it was.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said the U.S. Supreme Court should be moved to the Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters, after some conservative justices suggested being open to arguments in favor of presidential immunity from prosecution for former President Trump. “They’re politicians who are not even subject to popular election, unlike me,” Raskin said during his Thursday appearance on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut.” “They should move the Supreme Court over to the RNC headquarters because they’re acting like a bunch of partisan operatives.” Raskin’s assessment comes as D. John Sauer, the attorney representing Trump in Thursday’s arguments regarding the former president’s immunity,...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 27, 2024 Drummond demands answers from Biden Administration on migrant child trafficking OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 27, 2024) -- Attorney General Gentner Drummond has sent a letter demanding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and FBI address a recent HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that found unaccompanied migrant children in the custody of the federal government are being released into unsafe situations, including into human trafficking. “It is inexcusable that the Biden Administration is failing to provide proper oversight and protection for tens of thousands of...

Seventeen attorneys general have filed an amicus brief supporting Florida’s healthcare regulation that denies Medicaid coverage for gender transitioning procedures. They’re supporting Florida’s motion for summary judgment in the lawsuit August Dekker v. Jason Weida in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Florida Tallahassee Division. In the case, transgender plaintiffs are suing Weida, the secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is leading the coalition, which also includes the attorneys general of Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. The...