1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,840 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. Ticks are vectors for all sorts 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: of unpleasant germs, notably lined sas, which is the sixth 4 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,279 Speaker 1: most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, according 5 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 1: to these Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Decades after 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:26,400 Speaker 1: it was first identified, it's still often misdiagnosed. Symptoms include 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:30,200 Speaker 1: an expanding body, rash, joint pains, fatigue, chills, and fever. 8 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:33,560 Speaker 1: But could the spread of line disease be attributable to 9 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: a classified, decades old bioweapons program as some people claim, 10 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:41,560 Speaker 1: or are ticks just as good for spreading misinformation as 11 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: they are for germs. The ticks as weapons issue made 12 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 1: headlines back in July nineteen thanks to the U. S. 13 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 1: House of Representatives Chris Smith, who introduced legislation directing the 14 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: Department of Defense to review claims that the Pentagon researched 15 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: tick based bioweapons in the mid twentieth century. The amendment 16 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:01,960 Speaker 1: past told the House he was inspired to do this 17 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: by quote a number of books and articles suggesting that 18 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: significant research had been done at U. S government facilities, 19 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 1: including Fort Dietrich, Maryland, and Plumb Island, New York, to 20 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:15,800 Speaker 1: turn ticks and other insects into bio weapons. Smith explained 21 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: during a debate on the House floor quote with lime 22 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,560 Speaker 1: disease and other tipboorn diseases exploding in the United States, 23 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: with an estimated three hundred thousand to four hundred thirty 24 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand new cases diagnosed each year and ten 25 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:30,480 Speaker 1: to twenty of all patients suffering from chronic lime disease, 26 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 1: Americans have a right to know whether any of this 27 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,720 Speaker 1: is true and have these experiments caused lime disease and 28 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: other tickborn diseases to mutate and to spread. Congressman Smith's 29 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: legislative actions were also inspired partly by the book Bitten, 30 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: The Secret History of Lime Disease and Biological Weapons, written 31 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,400 Speaker 1: by Chris Nuby, a Stanford University science writer who also 32 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: served as a senior producer on a lime disease documentary 33 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: titled Under Our Skin. In the book, Nuby points out 34 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: that in nine three, the Biological Warfare Laboratories at Fort 35 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: Dietrich created a program investigating ways to spread anti personnel 36 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:10,920 Speaker 1: agents via arthropods, that is, insects, crustaceans and arachnids, with 37 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: the idea that slow acting agents wouldn't immediately incapacitated soldiers, 38 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: but rather make the area dangerous for a long period 39 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: of time. We spoke with newbi via email. She said, 40 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: the premise of my book is that weaponized ticks full 41 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,760 Speaker 1: of who knows what, were accidentally released in the region 42 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: of Long Island Sound. While she notes that she was 43 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:36,200 Speaker 1: unable to prove definitively line bacteria was used as a bioweapon, quote, 44 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 1: there are plenty of shocking discoveries and scientific leads to 45 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 1: lift the veil on the mysteries surrounding tick diseases and 46 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:46,440 Speaker 1: the government's response to them. Her book says that scientist 47 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 1: Willie Bergdorfer, who is credited with discovering the specific bacterium 48 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,240 Speaker 1: that causes line disease, was directly involved in a number 49 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 1: of bioweapons programs, but she stopped short of saying that 50 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: his research was necessarily related to a lime disease weapon 51 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 1: was accidentally released into the wild. Given America's ugly history 52 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: regarding unethical research, it's fair to ask whether lyme disease 53 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:12,919 Speaker 1: was inadvertently or advertently introduced into the general population. After all, 54 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: the government conducted hundreds of germ warfare tests and unethical 55 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,959 Speaker 1: experiments on civilians in the mid twentieth century, and other 56 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,399 Speaker 1: examples of similar biological warfare do exist. During World War Two, 57 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:29,120 Speaker 1: Japan notoriously used plague infested insects to spread disease, particularly 58 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,320 Speaker 1: in China. Some twenty thousand Chinese people died from this 59 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:35,680 Speaker 1: type of etymological warfare, which was carried out primarily by 60 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: the infamous Unit seven thirty one, But most experts say 61 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: there's nothing to investigate regarding ticks in the US today. 62 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: Philip J. Baker, executive director at the American Lime Disease Foundation, 63 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:51,680 Speaker 1: wrote a lengthy document debunking claims regarding lime disease bioweapons research. 64 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 1: In it, he established that both lime and the tics 65 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:57,600 Speaker 1: that spread it were prevalent in the Northeast thousands of 66 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 1: years before Europeans colonized the continent. Baker told us via email, 67 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: I think it would be a complete waste of the 68 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 1: taxpayer's money for Congress to waste its time investigating science fiction. 69 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: His article notes that pathogens considered for bioweapons are usually 70 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: ones that caused death or serious illness. In a short 71 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,839 Speaker 1: period of time after release that does not describe the 72 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,760 Speaker 1: lime disease pathogen. Also, the idea that the government tried 73 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: to weaponize ticks with lime in the nineteen fifties and 74 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: sixties doesn't fit the disease timeline, and an article published 75 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: in The Conversation, Sam Telford, a professor of infectious disease 76 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: and global health at Tufts University, pointed out that lime 77 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:41,240 Speaker 1: wasn't even discovered into that's when Willie Bergdorfer finally pinpointed 78 00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: spiral shaped bacteria called spiro keets, which were ultimately named 79 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: as the cause of lime. Telford wrote the real mail 80 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: in the Coffin for the idea that lime disease in 81 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:54,880 Speaker 1: the US was somehow accidentally released from military bioweapons research 82 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: is to be found in the fact that the first 83 00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: American case of lime disease turns out not to have 84 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 1: been for old lime Connecticut in the early nineteen seventies. 85 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty nine, a physician identified a case in Spooner, 86 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:09,040 Speaker 1: Wisconsin and a patient who had never traveled out of 87 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 1: that area, and lime disease was found infecting people in 88 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight in northern California. How could an accidental 89 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:21,080 Speaker 1: release take place over three distant locations, it couldn't. Telford 90 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: said that growing dear populations which spread deer ticks carrying lime, reforestation, 91 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,960 Speaker 1: particularly in the northeastern United States where most cases of 92 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,520 Speaker 1: lime are reported, and suburbs encroaching on those forests, which 93 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,279 Speaker 1: brings humans into close contact with ticks and tick invested wildlife, 94 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: are the primary reasons that lime is becoming more prevalent. 95 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 1: Not a top secret bioweapons program, however, provided an organization 96 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 1: wanted to weaponize ticks, it's certainly possible, but it's not easy. 97 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,120 Speaker 1: We also spoke via email with Carry Clark, a professor 98 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:56,679 Speaker 1: of epidemiology and environmental health at the University of North Florida. 99 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:00,679 Speaker 1: He said weaponizing almost any type of bio logical agent 100 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: takes a great deal of expertise. How much expertise depends 101 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 1: on the specific agent, It's entire ecology and epidemiology, including 102 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: pathogenic properties, infectivity, pathogenicity, virulence, and in this case, its 103 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 1: ability to survive in and be transmitted by ticks. Clark 104 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:21,280 Speaker 1: adds that ticks aren't an ideal choice as a biological 105 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:25,560 Speaker 1: weapons delivery system. Ticks don't typically thrive in urban environments 106 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,599 Speaker 1: where people are concentrated and they are slow feeders, so 107 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: someone might notice and remove them before they can do 108 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:35,039 Speaker 1: their job. Clark explained one would also have to rear 109 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,040 Speaker 1: and infect a large number of ticks and then somehow 110 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 1: deliver them to a group of humans in a way 111 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:43,240 Speaker 1: that large numbers of people are exposed and actually bitten 112 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: in a short period of time. Dropping infected ticks from 113 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:49,200 Speaker 1: an airplane or drone doesn't sound like an efficient way 114 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: to incapacity to population with a bioweapon. He noted that 115 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: lime disease isn't quick or efficient at incapacitating people, that 116 00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:59,840 Speaker 1: it wouldn't be likely to cause a large number of deaths, 117 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 1: and that it might take months to cause even serious illness. 118 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 1: Clark further explained that even though there's an epidemic of 119 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,520 Speaker 1: lime like illnesses in the United States and that many 120 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: may result from tick bites, infections from tick bites aren't 121 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 1: necessarily lyme disease. They could be caused by other tickborn 122 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: pathogens or by infectious agents encountered in our environment in 123 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: other ways besides tick bites. Perhaps the takeaway is that 124 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:27,640 Speaker 1: given the seriousness of tick borne illnesses, the existence or 125 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:30,880 Speaker 1: non existence of a murky government conspiracy and cover up 126 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:33,680 Speaker 1: doesn't really matter as much as the fact that patients 127 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 1: are still sick and the disease is still spreading. What 128 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: we really need, says Clark, is to invest significant additional 129 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: funding to investigate the true causes of these illnesses and 130 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: to develop better diagnostics and treatments. Today's episode was written 131 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler clang. A brain 132 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I Heart Radios Has Stuff Works. 133 00:07:57,640 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other topics, visit 134 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:02,120 Speaker 1: our home in it how stuffworks dot com and for 135 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: more podcast from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 136 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.