This summer has seen a national surge in tick-related emergency room visits, with the Northeast experiencing the highest numbers. The New York State Department of Health has all of Long Island and the Hudson Valley in the highest risk category. The epidemic is so bad that Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is opening a dedicated Regional Tick-Borne Disease Center. An on-site team of infectious disease specialists is seeing enough cases to just focus on tick bites.

One common tick-borne illness, Lyme disease, which has plagued the region for many years, has a useful vaccine — but only for dogs. It is simply a scandal that several Lyme disease vaccines are approved for dogs yet none are for people. While Robert Kennedy Jr., the head of Health and Human Services, is a well-known vaccine critic

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