Ticks responsible for giving people a “meat allergy” are spreading further and wider because the planet is warming.
That’s the story, anyway.
The disease is called Alpha-Gal Syndrome, it is a condition where your body produces an immune response to galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, a carbohydrate found in mammalian meat.
It was first noted in the mid-2000s, when cancer patients began to display symptoms of anaphylaxis after being treated with the monoclonal antibody drug Cetuximab.
Then, in the early 2010s, researchers found a correlation between increased alpha-gal antibody reaction and repeated tick bites.
Since then, the prevalence of alpha-gal has been increasing year-on-year, with the CDC now estimating almost 500,000 people suffer from this “meat allergy” in the US alone.
Why are these numbers increasing?
Because of climate change, apparently. You see, the warmer weather is causing the tick population to increase, so more people are being bitten, so more people become allergic to meat.
It’s all very…neat, don’t you think?
Myths built upon convenient myths, each reinforcing the other. Just as people “should” be eating less meat to (allegedly) help fight climate change, a disease emerges that forces people to eat less meat…because of climate change.
The reality – if we can even call it that – is that alpha gal is a “confounding condition”, that’s what this Guardian article calls it anyway…
Hellbound and Down 