After a single lone star tick bite, more than 450,000 Americans now have an allergy to beef meat. They also have an allergy to other meats like venison, rabbit, goat, lamb and pork products (bacon, ham, sausage). The name of that allergy is alpha-gal syndrome (AGS).

Sensitive patients with AGS are also allergic to Gelatin (from cows or pigs) that is in gummies, marshmallows and some desserts. They are also allergic to beef or pork broth, lard (pig fat), tallow (beef fat) and dairy products.

AGS Symptoms

Medical products are also on the allergy list that includes gelatin capsules, vaccines (some use gelatin stabilizers), heparin (derived from pig intestines), biological implants including heart valves from pigs or cows and some surgical materials derived from bovine sources.

On another front, AGS sufferers are allergic to products with hidden mammalian derivatives like cosmetics and lotions with lanolin derived from sheep wool fat. Most people with AGS can still eat chicken, turkey, fish, seafood, eggs and plant-based foods.

Unlike peanut allergies, AGS is unusual because it’s not a classic “immediate food allergy.” Reactions can be delayed for 3 to 6 hours after eating. The delay is highly variable between individuals and is dose-dependent -- small amounts may be tolerated by some AGS victims.

Common symptoms: hives or itchy rash, itching without a visible rash, swelling of the lips, face, tongue or throat and flushing (a redness of the skin).

Gastrointestinal symptoms: Some people initially experience the AGS allergy with digestive symptoms: abdominal pain or cramping, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, indigestion or heartburn. Those AGS patients may be misdiagnosed with having only gastrointestinal disorders because their symptoms are mainly digestive.

Cardiovascular symptoms: dizziness, lightheadedness, rapid heartbeat, drop in blood pressure and fainting.

Severe reactions: Some individuals experience anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction requiring immediate medical treatment.

What makes AGS so tricky to recognize? A person with an AGS allergy may eat a hamburger at 6pm and wake up at midnight with hives, stomach pain, or even anaphylaxis. Because the reaction is delayed, many people do not initially connect the symptoms to what they ate earlier.

Are you afraid of AGS now? I am.

Media Points Out Strange Oddities

On 20 May the Washington Times ran an article by Rowan Scarborough titled, “Medical professors promote tick bites.” The professors are the authors of a paper titled, “Beneficial Bloodsucking,” that was initially published in a mainstream journal called “Bioethics.” It then found its way to the prestigious National Institute of Health (NIH) and its National Library of Medicine webpage.

The authors, Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth, teach in the Department of Medical Ethics, Humanities and Law at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine. Mr. Hereth’s bio sketch refers to him as “they/ them/theirs.

In what the authors say is an academic “thought experiment” they write, “It is presently feasible to genetically edit the disease-carrying capacity of ticks. If this practice can be applied to ticks carrying AGS, then promoting the proliferation of tick-borne AGS is morally obligatory.” They add, “The bite of the lone star tick spreads alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a condition whose only effect is the creation of a severe but nonfatal red meat allergy. In short, when a tick sucks human blood and transmits AGS, it enhances the moral capacities of the person it bites; the AGS-transmitting tick is a moral bio-enhancer. The more they transmit AGS, the better they and the world will be.”

Simply put, they are promoting a life-threatening illness to defeat climate change and enhance the lives of mammals – except, of course, those animals who already have massive tick infestations.

Social Media Adds to Fear of AGS

Social media is flooded with horrifying footage of animals overwhelmed by tick swarms including deer and wild animals, while Ontario officials wave the crisis away as “climate change.” Meanwhile, more than 450,000 Americans are already suffering from AGS after tick bites, a condition with no cure that can trigger severe allergic reactions to mammalian meat that can include anaphylaxis.

More alarming, Russian biologists are warning about so-called “mutant ticks” that are not native to southern Russia. The ticks are reportedly resistant to conventional control methods like sprays and are behaving far more aggressively toward humans and animals. A tick usually waits in grass for someone to pass so they can get on their shoes or trousers. The internet is now showing a Russian tick chasing an individual’s boots.

As seen in a video on the Vigilant Fox, tick “bombs,” boxes full of ticks, are appearing on farms with cattle and other animals apparently dropped by aircraft.

The evidence shows that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded research into genetically modifying a cattle tick species, specifically the Asian blue tick that is a major livestock pest. The project was carried out by the biotechnology company Oxitec and received a grant of $1.3 million in 2021 to explore whether Oxitec’s “self-limiting” genetic technology could be adapted from mosquitoes to cattle ticks.

Suspecting Gates and his foundation of nefarious schemes is the order of the day – especially when considering his past and present plans and programs.

The WEF has also bragged on its site about “human engineering” that referred to AGS. How would the WEF achieve that engineering? By tick bites?

The Right Man for the Job

RFK Jr. responded to a question about AGS during a speech and said, “Last week I went to New Hampshire to address this explosion of alpha-gal, and we take it very seriously. One of the epicenters is Martha’s Vineyard where 50% of the adult population is now affected,” adding, “We’ve also launched a major effort on tick control through a number of different strategies that address deer populations… these ticks breed on deer. And we’re looking at strategies for eliminating their breeding capacity.”

At last! The right man for the task of stopping lone star ticks is on the job! Unless President Trump removes him from his job as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources as is now being rumored on Capitol Hill.

Maybe Help Is on the Way

On 29 May, Focal Points posted a Substack article by Nicolas Hulscher titled: “Study Reports 96% Remission Rate of Alpha-Gal Syndrome with Novel Desensitization Technique.” The Focal Points article is based on a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Medical Acupuncture. In the study, researchers evaluated 137 patients with AGS treated by a specialized form of auricular acupuncture called Soliman Auricular Allergy Treatment (SAAT).

The acupuncture results were very striking among volunteer patients. That is, among those of the 121 of the 126 patients who were followed up. 96% of those patients reported total remission of AGS symptoms after treatment. Many who had previously been unable to tolerate beef, pork or other mammalian meat and byproducts were reportedly able, after the medical acupuncture treatment, to reintroduce them into their diet without any allergic reactions.

Nevertheless, if I were reviewing the Focal Points article for re-publication, I would certainly give it credit for identifying a potentially important treatment, but I would not consider it to be sufficient evidence that SAAT acupuncture reliably cures AGS.

Major Weaknesses of the Study

1. No control group. A control group could have formed if 100 AGS patients received the SAAT treatment and another 100 hundred patients received fake acupuncture, a placebo or no treatment. Without a control group, it is not possible to know how much improvement was actually caused by the acupuncture treatment.
2. No blinding. Every patient knew they were receiving the actual SAAT treatment. That matters because symptoms and perceptions can change when people strongly expect improvement.
3. Patients self-reported remission. That is the study’s greatest vulnerability. It relied primarily on patient reports. The authors themselves noted that many patients reintroduced meat without laboratory confirmation.
4. AGS is already unusual. Again, alpha-gal syndrome is not like a peanut allergy. People often experience variable reactions to AGS like delayed reactions and periods of improvement that become worse after new tick bites. That variability can also make treatment effects difficult to interpret.

A Clue from the AGS Patient Community

Publicly available reports show discussions between AGS patients. Those reports are mixed. Some patients claim dramatic improvement and remission after SAAT treatment. Others report no benefit. Still others say symptoms returned later. One patient noted that the acupuncture providers themselves described SAAT as inducing “remission” rather than curing the allergy because alpha-gal antibodies may still be present. Of course, anecdotes are not scientific evidence either—but they do suggest a more complicated picture.

My guess is that if a rigorous randomized trial was performed, one of three things would happen:

1. The effect largely disappears (many alternative therapies end up that way).
2. The effect remains but is much smaller than 96%.
3. The effect remains surprisingly large, in which case allergists would become very interested

So, before you rush out to your favorite acupuncturist to cure your AGS allergy, wait until the SAAT procedure is absolutely proven by use of a control group.

Chet Nagle——Bio and Archives

Chet Nagle is an experienced analyst and commentator on international commerce, geopolitics, national security matters, the Middle East, and strategic communications. He has been on radio, has appeared in documentary films and has been a guest on television news programs. His columns have appeared in the Daily Caller, The Hill, Roll Call, and many other publications. He is a contributing editor for ANDmagazine.com and the European Security & Defense magazine.