I'm a bit confused here... I thought a vaccine that protected you from Lyme disease already existed? I grew up in Latvia, and it was pretty common to get that jab. You have to get boosters every 5 years or so (which I haven't really done since I moved away) but they're supposed to protect you from the encephalitis ticks? Sorry if the terminology is wrong here.
I was surprised to know that they didn't bother with that in the UK. Then I got even more surprised when I learned that there's actually a lot of ticks in Scotland. I don't understand why this isn't spoken about more. Back at school they taught you at primary school what to do if ou het bitten, how to take it out, where to bring it for tests etc.
Tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease are different things. You are right that there is a vaccine against the first one, while Lyme vaccine has an interesting history[1].
There used to be a human vaccine for Lyme, but it was pulled from market about 20 years ago. Interestingly, this Lyme vaccine was one of the first victims of the modern anti-vax movement.
Such an interesting header and such a disappointing content!
I grew up in Latvia and, trust me, the levels of corruption in Latvia are astonishing and are only limited by a relatively small budget. Yet, people are generally quite slim, and the biggest politicians are mostly sleek, tall and quite good looking.
This study needs a LOT more insight. It basically says that there is correlation with the exception of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and sometimes Ukraine. Well, that's basically all the Western/European post-USSR space, which is a lot, so it diminishes the entire thesis.
Also, countries like Tajikistan were affected by starvation after the WW2 a lot more than the Baltic States, which this study doesn't mention. Several years ago Ukraine were commemorating people who have been through Holodomor, which was also a period of severe starvation in Ukrainian SSR imposed by the collectivism after the WW2, and I remember seeing this guy receiving a medal for it... The guy was morbidly obese. So, in my opinion, it would be useful to look into the correlation of financial struggle in the USSR era and the modern attitude towards food and things that were not easily obtainable back in the USSR.
I was surprised to know that they didn't bother with that in the UK. Then I got even more surprised when I learned that there's actually a lot of ticks in Scotland. I don't understand why this isn't spoken about more. Back at school they taught you at primary school what to do if ou het bitten, how to take it out, where to bring it for tests etc.