Engineered Ticks That Give You A Meat Allergy — Bioethicists Say It’s “Morally Obligatory”

In a paper titled “Beneficial Bloodsucking,” two Western Michigan University bioethicists argue that deliberately spreading alpha-gal syndrome — a red-meat allergy triggered by a lone star tick bite — could be “morally obligatory” because it would push people to stop eating red meat. They propose using CRISPR to engineer ticks that reliably transmit the allergy.

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher of the McCullough Foundation argues this is not an isolated thought experiment. He points to an NYU ethicist he says floated the same idea, the Gates Foundation’s funding of genetically modified ticks, farmer reports of unmarked aircraft dropping boxes, and the US Army’s documented release of hundreds of thousands of lab ticks in the 1960s. He calls for the FBI to examine the deliberate spread of engineered ticks as potential bioterrorism.

Dr. Kelly Victory (filling in for Dr. Drew) reacts to the paper as “pure evil,” explains how alpha-gal sensitization and anaphylaxis actually work, connects the pattern to the theory that Lyme disease originated near the Plum Island research lab, and closes with a physician’s step-by-step guide to safely removing and saving a tick if you are bitten.