I think the broad outlines of why the old vaccine was pulled from the market due to lack of interest may have been posted already. It turns out that there is a new one coming though, perhaps hitting the market in 2025.
https://thewalrus.ca/lyme-disease-vaccine
How big a deal is Lyme for you?
I assume it's not a big deal outside North America, and maybe not in big sections of Canada and the US. Not sure. But in the Northeast and increasingly in California it is a major topic of concern among my friends. I'm not sure if people are more worried about Lyme or Covid, but increasingly, I think it's Lyme as people see a low incidence of Covid cases destroying the lives of healthy, young people, while we all know multiple people whose lives have been utterly upended by Lyme.
Personally, the Lyme vaccine is the second-most anticipated vaccine of the century for me.
I basically have three worries on my trail runs: mountain lions, rattlesnakes and Lyme. I'm not expecting lion and snake vaccines soon, so Lyme is the big one for me...
>How big a deal is Lyme for you?
A big deal, as well as the meat allergy from tick bites.
I asked to be a "chick magnet" but the gods misheard and made me a "tick magnet." I'm doing pretty well this year, only one or two with no latch-on bites. I also avoid tall grass & brush or postpone visiting those areas until late fall or winter when they're thinner.
>> meat allergy
This is could be big. I was listening to an interview with someone who models future threats ranging from nuclear war to pandemics and she had "tick borne diseases" including the alpha-gal allergy in her top 3 to watch currently.
Some huge percentage of people in the deep South (Alabama, Mississippi) show antibodies for the alpha-gal allergy and it is moving north.
Apparently....
- few people have an issue with just one exposure, but multiple exposures can really ramp things up
- intensity of the reaction correlates with meat consumption (people who have been eating a lot of meat around time of exposure become correspondingly more allergic).
- in bad cases, it's super bad - like people can go to the hospital because they take a capsule with a gelatin coating
So far, I'm not worried much about that one. At least according to CDC modeling, it's not West of the Rockies, but it looks like Lone Star tick has already reached southern VT, NH and ME. See the map here:
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/alpha-gal/resources/alpha-gal-syndrome-factsheet.html
On the other hand, their tracking of Lyme is strongly biased and way under-reported in California, according to the research team at UCSF that studies Lyme in California, so they could be way behind on tracking the Lone Star tick too (especially since it's a more recent emergence).
In short, to get considered a "confirmed" case of Lyme in the Northeast, you would simply need to show one or more symptoms. To get considered confirmed in California, you must have symptoms PLUS a corroborating lab result within 30 days. Even if you test positive after 30 days, your case would not be considered confirmed in CA, whereas in VT, in would be considered confirmed just because of a circular rash.
https://ndc.services.cdc.gov/conditions/lyme-disease/
So you end up with this map and chart that shows 82 cases in CA in 2019
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/datasurveillance/maps-recent.html
The UCSF professor further asserted that there are different strains of Lyme bacteria and the test is designed to detect the strain prevalent in the Northeast, so even with lab testing, there are still cases that show as negative. He said that in every single park in California they had surveyed, the tick that carries Lyme was present.
Anyway, all that to say that the map of spread of the Lone Star tick that carries the alpha-gal-allergy-inducing pathogen is probably well behind the actual spread.
PS - in terms of Lyme, they are showing most counties in your area as having the ticks, but not with the Lyme spirochete. But notice the odd county here and there where they do find it throughout the Mid-Atlantic.
https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/58/3/1219/6065626?login=false
I suspect that like CA, it's just that most cases go missing or unconfirmed because, again, the threshold for getting a case recognized in a low-Lyme area is fairly high.
In the summer, I occasionally coat the cuff & calf area of my work pants with a top-quality Permethrin spray. Shoe exteriors, too.
Sawyer Products SP657 Premium Permethrin Insect Repellent for Clothing, Gear & Tents
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ANQVYU
I should do it more.
We've found Sawyer's products to perform exceptionally well for us. Their mosquito repellent is the only one that really works for Louise. We've recently tested their Picaridin lotion and will be adding that to our war cabinet. I'm going to buy a jug of the stuff for tick season.
I think Permethrin washes and permethrin-infused clothes are going to start getting a lot more common as tick-borne diseases spread.
We have some, but it's not a first-line defense. For the most part, for hiking, our first-line defense is clothing that insects have trouble penetrating (e.g. nylon)
We use DEET or Picardin without without prejudice in most situations other than climbing. DEET has the ability to dissolve some synthetics, so we don't like it getting close to climbing soft goods.