I commend the Sentinel’s May 25 article on UCSC professor Marm Kilpatrick’s research on the rise and spread of Lyme disease.
Kilpatrick rightly noted that a human vaccine was once available against Lyme disease but was removed from the market in 2002 “after misinformation about the drug eroded public confidence.”
In fact, this situation is a powerful argument against the child anti-vaccination campaign being waged locally and nationally by a vocal few. I was vaccinated against Lyme, and I’ve never contracted the disease in 40 years of field research.
The sad truth now is that if you were a dog or a horse you’d be less likely to contract Lyme than humans are, because our pets can be vaccinated against Lyme. Unfortunately, humans cannot get the Lyme vaccine because the vocal few won in this case.
— Jeffrey Aldrich, Santa Cruz
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