Tick-borne diseases are increasing in Connecticut, but research funding might be slashed.
In March, the Trump Administration tried to cut funding for research grants distributed through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Courts temporarily blocked this decision, but funding is still being withheld for the time being.
According to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, this decision is holding up $770 million for research in the state of Connecticut, a portion of which is for tick-borne diseases. This research is tied to 6,600 jobs in the state.
Nationwide, $77 billion is on hold that would have gone to research into tick-borne illnesses, and there are 94 projects related to tick borne diseases that have been suspended or impeded, he said.
“Tick-borne diseases have long been a scourge in Connecticut and they are spreading now,” Blumenthal said. “We need action against them and that is why I am so dismayed and angry that this administration is cutting research grants through the NIH for Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.”
The number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease has increased dramatically over the last few years. The Connecticut Department of Public Health’s (DPH) most recent data, which is from 2023, reported 3,239 diagnosed cases of Lyme disease in Connecticut. There were only 2,022 diagnosed cases in 2022. In 2021 and 2020—both lockdown years—there were only a couple hundred cases of Lyme disease, and in 2019, there were 849 confirmed cases and 460 probable cases.
“Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases are going to become a much more serious problem than they are now, mainly because we don’t have enough methods to effectively control the tick population, which is expanding,” said Durland Fish, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. “It’s not only expanding, but it’s picking up new pathogens that affect people as it expands.”
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station has identified seven invasive species of ticks in Connecticut, and three invasive species are spreading rapidly in the state, according to Dr. Goudarz Molaei, who oversees the Tick Testing Laboratory. Each species carries its own diseases, including ones that have never been encountered in the state before, Molaei said.
“We’ve been fighting this for nearly 50 years and the situation is getting worse, and we need much more research funds to combat this epidemic,” Fish said.
Most of his work over the last 30 years has been funded by a combination of grants through NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state appropriations, he said.
“Without that kind of funding, I wouldn’t have discovered anything. And now this money is in jeopardy at many, many academic institutions,” Fish said.
Fish claims that Trump is making false accusations of widespread fraud and corruption, but is withholding funding for research to attack academic freedom in universities. He referenced the 60 investigations that the Department of Education (DOE) is conducting. However, these investigations are about antisemitism, not fraud. Yale is among the list of schools being investigated.
Two Jewish students at Yale submitted a complaint to the DOE alleging, among many things, that they were blocked from campus events for looking Jewish and repeatedly harassed by other students, without administrative intervention. A 2024 report from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce found that students set up a large encampment in the center of campus and “formed human chains and blocked Jewish students from entering.”
“The question of waste, fraud abuse is nonexistent,” Blumenthal said. “There is no excuse for blocking these research grants that are vital to progress against tick-borne diseases.”
The Agricultural Experiment Station has a Tick Management Handbook, which gives people advice on how to manage ticks. This includes guidance on how to minimize the risk of contracting tick-borne diseases. Some of their recommendations include: wearing light-colored clothing and tucking pants into socks when walking in the woods; treating clothing with DEET or permethrin-based mosquito and tick repellants; and carefully inspecting children after they play outside.
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Blumenthal is mad about a lot of stuff which is understandable considering the people chose Trump as their democratically elected President and not his Party favorite, the loser by a landslide. So I guess he’s mostly mad at America, the people, not the policy. Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do if elected. The people had a choice. They chose him. He will stay the course.
Is this article about ticks and tick-borne illnesses? Lyme Disease is serious, this statement is not: “The question of waste, fraud abuse is nonexistent,” Blumenthal said. Is Blumenthal’s claim a fact, or is the stuff about ticks, and tick-borne illnesses, facts?
Who or what am I supposed to believe in this article and why?
I often wonder if the NIH knows more about tick borne illness than they are telling the people of Connecticut. Plum Island is near our shore and is used for secret animal research and has been for years. Blumenthal is crying about the NIH losing unnecessary funding? Perhaps that should have happened a long time ago.
The Lyme Tick has been around for decades….you’d think with the millions they’ve gotten something would have been found out by now. It’s not just a Ct problem it’s Nation wide. Someone is making money off of that federal money. How about they breed and release Guinea hens (which are a game bird in Europe) they eat hundreds of ticks and bugs. Organic too. We use to do controlled burns and we didn’t have a tick problem. Gave fire depts practice? So many options that don’t require the millions our politicians love to have in their pockets!
Spot on, thank you.