I've been reading that this kind of tick contains Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever which is 30% fatal and can cause all kinds of permanent damage. However, the disease can be cured by doxycycline. But the CDC recommends that people should not take doxycycline as a prophylactic when they've been bitten by ticks. This doesn't make any sense to me, since it's known that the antibiotic kills the bacteria easily. I should assume that the CDC just doesn't have my best interests at heart when they make these kinds of recommendations, right? I mean, maybe for the population at large or the healthcare system, it's not a good idea to give everyone doxycycline when they've been bitten by a tick. Because then they could run out of the stuff, or create antibiotic resistance, or whatever. They probably figure it's worth it to just let people become sick and then treat them afterwards so they only have a 5% chance of death. But I do not trust the CDC at all, and in fact I'll take delight in doing the opposite of what they said. So I think I'm going to tap into my reserve of bird doxycycline that I have been storing for just such an emergency.
