It is being suggested that these ticks led to the spread of Lyme disease in America in the 1960s…
The US House of Representatives has called for an investigation into whether the spread of Lyme disease was caused by a Pentagon experiment to weaponise ticks, back in the ’60s.
On Tuesday, the House approved an amendment proposed by a Republican congressman from New Jersey, Chris Smith, to conduct a review of whether the US “experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975”.
According to The Guardian, the review will assess the scope of the experiment and “whether any ticks or insects used in such experiments were released outside of any laboratory by accident or experiment design”.
Smith says that the investigation should answer the following questions:
- 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?
- Could any of this information help current-day researchers find a way to mitigate these diseases?
The amendment was inspired by a number of books and articles that suggest the US government facilities could have turned ticks and other insects into “bioweapons”.
Sounds fairly terrifying if you ask us.
The books that are being referenced by Smith have been heavily dismissed in the past however, with many downplaying their validity entirely.
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