Experts Concerned COVID-19 Pandemic Could Lead to Bad Tick Season

With more and more people heading outdoors as an escape from COVID-19 isolationism, experts are concerned about a possible collision course between coronavirus and tick-borne illnesses this summer.

A "perfect storm," Eva Sapi, a University of New Haven biology professor and group director for the Lyme Disease Research Group, told CNN. Noting the mild winter on the East Coast, Sapi says, "We do have a bad year for the ticks."

Hikers, campers and anyone else eager for an escape could "just explode into the outdoors. And there may not be the same thoughtful approach" to preventing exposure, Dr. Sorana Segal-Maurer, director of the Dr. James J. Rahal, Jr. Division of Infectious Diseases at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens health care system told CNN.

"I'm a little nervous that their guard may be down just a slight bit," she adds.

Dr. Segal-Maurer also told CNN that warning signs for tick-borne illnesses are "very similar to the severity that we've seen with Covid-19, which is that fever, the muscle aches, the headaches, the severe fatigue."  She believes a unique difference is that breathing problems are common in coronavirus patients, but not with those infected by tick diseases. Yet even that distinction is up for debate.

Sources: CNN and Lyme Disease Research Group