Having your say on Lyme

On July 11, the U.S. House of Representatives stealthily passed a floor amendment [“Pentagon pressed for answers . . . on tickborne diseases common in Rapp,” Rappahannock News, July 18] via voice vote offered by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) to the 2020 defense authorization bill . . . [on] “whether the Department of Defense experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975.”

It has long been thought by many citizens in the U.S. that the oftentimes crippling Lyme Disease spirochete bacterium escaped from Plum Island, N.Y. — a U.S. Government site for biological research sited adjacent to and a stone’s throw away from Long Island and the town of Lyme, Conn . . . .

As reported first by the Rappahannock News in 2007, Lyme Disease went grossly underreported for years by the CDC, leaving doctors both without knowledge of the severity of the disease and the existence of the Lyme epidemic. This left many patients undiagnosed and stricken with the tragic chronic disease coined Late Lyme. After print of that article by this newspaper, Lyme incidence reported by the CDC the following year shot straight upwards, stunning many in the medical community.

If Rappahannock County citizens would like to have a say in this debate, they are advised to call their congressman and senators immediately and ask that the House amendment pertaining to Lyme Disease is included in the final DOD authorization bill. Megan S. Smith

Washington