Testing begins for first possible Lyme vaccine in 20 years


The following is an excerpt from the Associated Press (AP).

Researchers are seeking thousands of volunteers in the U.S. and Europe to test the first potential vaccine against Lyme disease in 20 years — in hopes of better fighting the tick-borne threat.

Lyme is a growing problem, with cases rising and warming weather helping ticks expand their habitat.

While a vaccine for dogs has long been available, the only Lyme vaccine for humans was pulled off the U.S. market in 2002 from lack of demand, leaving people to rely on bug spray and tick checks.

Now Pfizer and French biotech Valneva are aiming to avoid previous pitfalls in developing a new vaccine to protect both adults and kids as young as 5 from the most common Lyme strains on two continents.

Exactly how often Lyme disease strikes isn’t clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites insurance records suggesting 476,000 people are treated for Lyme in the U.S. each year. Pfizer’s Anderson put Europe’s yearly infections at about 130,000.

Black-legged ticks, also called deer ticks, carry Lyme-causing bacteria. The infection initially causes fatigue, fever and joint pain. Often — but not always — the first sign is a red, round bull’s-eye rash.

Most vaccines against other diseases work after people are exposed to a germ. The Lyme vaccine offers a different strategy — working a step earlier to block a tick bite from transmitting the infection, said Dr. Gary Wormser, a Lyme expert at New York Medical College who isn’t involved with the new research.

This new candidate is different from a previous Lyme vaccine that GlaxoSmithKline pulled off the market in 2002 amid controversy and low sales.

With about 75% effectiveness, that old Lyme shot got a lukewarm endorsement from vaccine experts, wasn’t tested in children and drew unsubstantiated reports of joint-related side effects.

The Pfizer study will span two tick seasons to get answers — but it’s not the only research into new ways to prevent Lyme.

University of Massachusetts scientists are working on a vaccine alternative, shots of pre-made Lyme-fighting antibodies.

And Yale University researchers are in early stages of designing a vaccine that recognizes a tick’s saliva — which in animal testing sparked a skin reaction that made it harder for ticks to hang on and feed.

Read more here.

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2 thoughts on “Testing begins for first possible Lyme vaccine in 20 years”

  1. I’ve read that Lyme Disease (I am currently treating it naturally & my niece had it for over a decade after she contracted it as a toddler) is a bioweapon created in a biolab (aka Veterinary Research Facility) on Plum Island off of Rhode Island in the 80’s. It CAN be contracted through fleas, spiders, mosquitoes and other insects as well as ticks though few will tell you that. It’s so enormously difficult to treat bc it is a bioweapon – our human bodies are not equipped to process this concoction. Common sense tells us this is a planned problem – I never saw a tick growing up and knew NO ONE who had a tick bite and I was in the woods all the time! Now, I’ve had at least 20 tick bites and they’re everywhere – even though I don’t even go into the woods anymore! I would STEER CLEAR of ANOTHER questionable SHOT designed to prevent a BIOWEAPON…

    *Check out Cass Ingram’s book on Lyme.

    1. Who in their right mind would want ANY vaccine after what we have learned about origins of covid, pharma’s secret deals (w FDA), funding by Gates, and collusion with WHO? At this point I’ll take my chances with Vit C!

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