Is There A Connection Between Lyme Disease And Weaponised Ticks?

In yet another development, which has largely gone under the radar, we note that The House of Representatives has recently passed an amendment, to the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). offered by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) which seeks to direct the Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Defense (DoD) to investigate the possible involvement of DoD labs in the weaponisation of Lyme disease in ticks and other insects, in a period from 1950-1975.

It would appear that Smith’s inspiration to seek this amendment was the existence of a significant body of work which suggested that research had been undertaken at U.S. government facilities including Fort Detrick, Maryland and Plum Island, New York, into ticks and other insects to be used as potential bioweapons.

Allegations suggest that bioweapons specialists introduced pathogens into ticks to cause severe disability, disease and in certain cases even death, to those deemed to be potential enemies. We now find that cases of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases have been rapidly increasing in the United States, with an estimated 300,000 to 437,000 new cases diagnosed each year and 10-20% of all patients suffering from chronic Lyme disease. The obvious question which now springs to mind is, to what extent were these experiments responsible for the explosion of Lyme disease cases we are now witnessing today, via e.g. mutagenesis?

During a debate on his amendment, Smith said the investigation would explore the following areas:

• What were the parameters of the program?
• Who ordered it?
• Was there ever any accidental release anywhere or at any time of any diseased ticks?
• Were any ticks released by design?
• Did the program contribute to the disease burden?
• Can any of this information help current-day researchers find a way to mitigate these diseases?

Smith is the author of the pending bipartisan, bicameral TICK Act introduced earlier this year to create a national strategy to aggressively fight Lyme disease.  The TICK Act authorizes an additional $180 million to increase funding into Lyme research, prevention and treatment programs. The legislation is supported by more than 25 non-government organizations dedicated to combating Lyme disease.

It is also worth noting that literature cites the discoverer of the Lyme pathogen, Willy Burgdorfer, saying that the Lyme disease epidemic was a military experiment that went wrong. Burgdorfer worked as a bioweapons researcher for the US military and, according to him, was tasked with breeding fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects, and infecting them with pathogens that cause human diseases.

There are also allegations that there were programs to drop weaponised ticks and other bugs from the air and that uninfected bugs were released in residential areas in the US to ascertain how they would spread. What is perhaps of even more concern than Lyme disease itself is, to what extent has such experimentation been undertaken in other areas of disease, viruses and bacterial agents and is this kind of experimentation still being undertaken today?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/16/pentagon-review-weaponised-ticks-lyme-disease

https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=405995