Unusually aggressive lone star ticks, common in the south-east, are spreading to areas previously too cold for them
Don’t worry. The meat industry will find a cure fast
No crap. Republicans will be requiring vaccinations
My ex ran a very successful barbecue joint in Seattle and Arkansas. She got this and ended up shuttering her business.
Good. Running a meat restaurant is a monstrous act. No kind person would operate a corpse parlour stuffed with the carcasses of slaves, for people to consume in exchange for money. The disease is forcing her to be a better person.
comparing slaves to animals is gross
Well let’s ask Jewish holocaust survivor, Isaac Bashevis Singer, what he thinks.
What do they know-all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world - about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.
He says people who eat meat are Nazis. I think I trust the opinion of this Jewish holocaust survivor on this matter. He makes a pretty good point. Everyone who eats meat is a Nazi, from the animals’ point of view. And I agree with the animals.
this smacks of a genetic fallacy
but regardless, the Holocaust was wrong, in part, precisely because it did treat humans like animals. this is not an indictment of how we treat animals.
and no animal knows what a Nazi is.
Yes, and that’s the problem with slavery of humans, too. It treats humans the way humanity treats animals. And nobody should be made to endure that kind of suffering.
What makes animals unworthy of decency? Intelligence? Strength? Divine birthright of species? All distinctions drawn between human and animal which aim to excuse slavery are fascist in nature. Singer is right. The only excuses we have for eating meat are the same excuses the Nazis used for the holocaust. Humanity has not grown since 1945. They have not abandoned slavery, nor fascism. As Singer says, every meat eater is a Nazi.
Even the little Hitler Youths in schools being fed meatloaf. What society does to children to indoctrinate them into slave-eating is disgusting. Put blood on their hands, so that without an iron will, they will never be able to accept the truth of what they have done, lest they be overcome with guilt for their crimes. It reminds me of the indoctrination rituals used by criminal gangs, where you have to commit a crime to be accepted. It’s no wonder all these adult Nazis can’t accept that slavery is wrong.
comparing slaves, or Holocaust victims, to animals is gross and you should stop doing that
I’m afraid that no matter what you say, Isaac Bashevis Singer has already said the following:
“In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they’re the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought.”
“As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behaviour towards creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.”
“As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.”
He has said that the cruelty he experienced at the hands of the Nazis is the same cruelty meat-eaters inflict upon animals. Do you not think he has that right, to interpret his own experiences? Would you descend from heaven to tell him the meaning of the violence he suffered, because you know it better than he? He doesn’t think it’s gross, he thinks it’s true, and I trust him better than you, unless you tell me right now you were in a German concentration camp in 1945.
Go away.
I live in Arkansas and got my first lone star tick this year, thankfully I noticed right as it was biting me. 7 ticks in one month, mostly deer. Insane.
Shit, I live in Seattle and love Arkansas barbecue
She used to be at the West Seattle farmer’s market all the time. Girls Gone BBQ.
And now, girl’s gone.
Meat allergy? Unpleasant but ironically good for the environment.
After reading the article I hope they seek out and bite Donald Trump. Wouldn’t that be hilarious if this caused him a meat allergy?
McDonalds would have to admit that there’s actually no real fish in a filet o fish.
Unfortunately for this, the Alpha-gal allergy is only in response to mammalian proteins. Fish and birds are fine. Unless the filet o fish is secretly cat.
He would starve from hamberder deficiency
He’d live way longer if he stopped eating McDonald’s
Only if statins have been invented. 40 years ago he’d have been cooked, but now the cholesterol riddled assholes live for-fucking-ever
Not only the environment, the overall Americans health too. Each year, 700 000 Americans are dying from heart diseases.
heart diseases
There’s more than one? Is this like Second Breakfast?
It would be way easier to be a cardiologist if there were only one.
Of course not, next thing you’ll say is that there’s more than one type of cancer!
But I’m made of meat!
Yeah, Lyme Disease can potentially cause that. It’s weird they’re saying “meat allergy” and not lyme disease, but lyme is pretty bad and can cause lifelong complications (post-treatment lyme disease syndrome)
The lone star tick actually usually does not carry Lyme, you are thinking of deer ticks. This is an entirely different condition that is caused by an allergic reaction to the lone star ticks saliva which your body confuses with carbohydrates found in most mammalian meats leading to a long term meat allergy.
Maybe its Mother Nature way of making us stop consuming beef and all become vegan? I mean nature finds a way. The cattle industry is a huge contributor to climate change, so maybe this is a good thing.
Of course if this was to affect everyone, you see how quickly the government would fund a cure. Interesting novel idea…going give that a think.
It’s certainly the strongest argument for gaia hypothesis in decades
Oh I think that a solid theory. Maybe why we are busy killing ourselves off. Maybe Gaia knows us humans are the major problem with all the shit going on and wired us to kill ourselves off.
We’re wired to kill ourselves off. She’s just sick of us fucking up the environment with industrial farming methods.
Add in birdflu and man we could see a new era of man kind all being vegetarian. Btw I was working on a novel that contains birdflu and found a way to incorporate this into it.
There are many levels between not eating beef and going full vegan.
It wouldnt be pushing people to veganism, considering there are plenty of animal products you could consume even if youre allergic to meat.
Also there are a lot more types of meat than beef. I eat meat often and hardly ever eat any beef
Also there are a lot more types of meat than beef.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome
The alpha-gal molecule is found in all mammals except catarrhines (apes and Old World monkeys), the taxonomic branch that includes humans.
Sounds like you could still eat fish, human and chiken meat as usual.
That why nature gave us birdflu. So take chicken off the menu as well. That just leaves apes and ourselves.
It’s like nature is telling us to switch to a seafood and the rich only diet.
Bring on the lizard meat
You jest, but I can assure you that alligator is delicious.
Not, entirely correct. Alpha-gal syndrome is not a meat allergy. Gelatin, Glycerin and Magnesium stearate all contain high levels of it and are found in products as diverse as makeup, candy, shampoo, vape juice, energy drinks and toothpaste. High levels of alpha-gal are found in Milk and Milk products. All mammalian meat, organ meat, lipids and derived products. You check labels for the rest of your life if you have this and you’ll probably still come into contact with it out in the wild. You get Fish, Eggs and poultry. That’s only guaranteed if you buy the meat on its own, free from seasoning and cross-contamination. You don’t eat in a restaurant anymore, unless it’s sushi.
My wife has had to follow a low FODMAP and gluten free diet for the last 6ish years. It’s miserable and I wouldn’t wish such a vast allergy as this on anyone. I know there are plenty of haughty taughty vegans in this thread making jest, but these kinds of allergies fucking suck and I guarantee vegans consume shit that has these compounds without even realizing, since like you said, it exists in far more than just basic meat-based foods.
As an act of revenge on the ticks, we will switch to insect protein.
lyme is caused by deer ticks and its a bacterial spirochetes, theres actually a whole cult against chronic lyme which is a pseudoscientific belief thats incurable.
They don’t refer to it as Lyme because it’s a different issue. It just happens to also be spread by ticks. Lyme disease and Alpha-gal Syndrome are different things but are sometimes comorbities since both are commonly spread by ticks.
If you bothered to read the article, you’d have known this was Alpa-gal Syndrome, not Lyme.
Yeah we just need to proliferate wild guinea hens and other tick predators to knock their populations down. I’d rather the entire eastern US look like Kauai (random feral poultry) than have ticks take over.
Opossum are native, eat ticks and do not carry rabies. They are heros!
Maybe… but there were so many examples of disastrous consequences for introducing a non native species to control a pest (biological pest control), like thr cane toad in Australia, or ferrets in New Zealand, etc…
“When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death”
So when is the government going to deliver my local squadron of tick-squashing gorillas?
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“Many people who get it are over 50, so the first symptom some of them have is a heart attack.”
This tick just keeps on giving.
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Most insufferably stupid take possible.
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eating meat is probably amoral
Eating meat is not unethical, making animals suffer is. Humans are natural omnivores. Is it unethical to exist?
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We don’t need meat to survive but eating meat (in moderation) makes it much easier to ensure you get all nutrients you need. Especially when you have children, it’s very dangerous to attempt a vegan diet. Also, killing animals is part of nature and happens all the time. What’s not natural, and what’s unethical, is making their lives miserable before that happens.
And speaking of ethics, you just said two comments above that we should spread this disease worldwide, and were fine with people dying from it just for following the diet they’ve had all their lives. Not very consistent in my view.
hardly anyone kills animals at all, except pests or by accident
From what I understand (besides all the other effects of this it apparently causes), the end result for someone affected, if they were an omnivore that ate beef/pork/lamb would just switch to eating all seafood/poultry?
So, besides the extremely problematic ethics of spreading an extremely harmful condition worldwide, I think the net effect would be that a different set of animals would be getting killed, not that people would suddenly be eating more ethically…
This year has been insane. I have pulled a dozen off my wife, myself and my child, and probably another dozen off my dog. Luckily none latched on so far.
Our vegan super soldiers are unaffected.
As a vegan, I endorse those ticks!
One of my friends got hit with this. They will have a violent allergic reaction even if they eat fries cooked in beef fat.
What kind of maniac cooks fries in beef fat?
That sounds like a recipe for cardiac arrest.
McDonald’s does, assuming they haven’t changed that recently.
McDonalds’s hasn’t done this in over 30 years. Unless you think 30 years is recent?
McDonald’s stopped using beef tallow for fries in 1990. I suppose that might be relatively recent if you are an elf.
That confirms the maniac assessment. Look at this guy:
The alt right health grifter sphere is currently obsessed with the evils of “seed oils.” Tallow is supposed to be magically better for you.
A couple of steps away from the raw milk drinkers and the “rebel canners.”
That’s actually extremely common. Belgian fries (the original French fries) are originally cooked in beef fat. But nowadays it’s often a beef/plant based fat mix instead. It’s actually quite hard to find vegan fries in Belgium.
Steak n’ Shake
Meat production is a major contributor to climate change. This is almost as if nature is acting in self defense.
“to areas previously too cold”, huh… i wonder what happened…
The planet keeps {Chinese hoax}'ing.
My wife would be fucked unless this take out some preexisting allergies she has (quinoa, buckwheat, hazelnuts, peanuts, eggs and many legumes including soybeans although she doesn’t react to soy lecithin)
I think you can still eat chicken if you have that
Yeah afaik it’s only red meat
I have a soy allergy too and don’t react to lecithin. My understanding is that by the time the soy is processed into lecithin, the “thing” you’re allergic to is pretty much non-existent and that’s why you don’t react to it.
This isn’t the case for all people who are allergic to soy. This is not medical advice.
Would a meat allergy cause me to be allergic to myself? /s
No, but it means you won’t be able to eat the rich.
No, no, you will. It doesn’t apply to human meat.
How often do you resort to autocannibalism?
Every time I bite my nails
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How long before these ticks kill us?
They don’t directly kill people; they make people allergic to mammal meat, so that they can’t eat that any more.
I was low-keying a TF2 reference, I’m deeply sorry
Blood-sucking ticks that trigger a bizarre allergy to meat in the people they bite are exploding in number and spreading across the US, to the extent that they could cover the entire eastern half of the country and infect millions of people, experts have warned
“We’ve seen an explosive increase in these ticks, which is a concern. I imagine alpha-gal will soon include the entire range of the tick, which could become the entire eastern half of the US as there’s not much to stop them. It seems like an oddity now but we could end up with millions of people with an allergy to meat.”
Alpha-gal is a confounding condition because it doesn’t cause an immediate allergic reaction, unlike a peanut allergy, with symptoms often appearing several hours after consuming meat. The syndrome is not caused by a pathogen but spurs an allergy to a sugar molecule found in mammals and an array of other things, from toothpaste to medical equipment. Researchers think the condition can wane over time but is also worsened by further tick bites.
Dairy, another mammalian product, is also off limits. “I’ve learned what I can eat now, but I was so sad when I realized I couldn’t have pizza again, I remember crying in front of a frozen pizza in the supermarket aisle,” she said.
Lone star ticks are aggressive and can speedily follow a human target if they detect them. “They will hunt you, they are like a cross between a lentil and a velociraptor,” said Sharon Pitcairn Forsyth, a conservationist who lives in the Washington DC area.
A particular horror is the prospect of brushing up against vegetation containing a massed ball of juvenile lone star ticks, know as a “tick bomb”, that can deliver thousands of tick bites. “They are so tiny you can’t see them but you have to take it seriously or you’ll never get them off you,” said Forsyth, who now carries around a lint roller to remove such clusters.
Symptoms can also be alarmingly varied – Forsyth said she rarely eats out now because of concerns of contamination in the food and even that alpha-gal could be carried to her airborne, via the steam of cooked meat.
“Some people are scared to leave the house, it’s hard to avoid,” she said. “Many people who get it are over 50, so the first symptom some of them have is a heart attack.”
The spread of alpha-gal comes amid a barrage of disease threats from different ticks that are fanning out across a rapidly warming US. Powassan virus, which can kill people via an inflammation of the brain, is still rare but is growing, as is Babesia, a parasite that causes severe illnesses. Lyme disease, long a feature of the US north-east, is also burgeoning.
“There’s a tremendous urgency to confront this with new therapies but the problem is we are going backwards in terms of funding and support in the US. There have been cuts to the CDC and NIH (National Institutes of Health) which means there is decreasing support. It’s a major concern.”
Where can you end up, after getting bit by a tick?
i remember crying in front of a frozen pizza in the supermarket aisle
Ticks are evil
