Burrowing Ticks
By: Maya Goodspeed
According to Mychael Gallagher, there are brand new ticks that burrow under your skin and live within you undetected. This news has caught the attention of many people and they are spreading the word like wildfire. Who is Gallagher and why should we trust him? Although those are basic questions to ask, surprisingly not many people in society considered asking them before pressing the button to share it with others. According to Gallagher, we believe fake news much too often, which is where this issue comes into place.
If you know anything about ticks it probably is about how many diseases they can transmit. Typically we are more concerned with giving our pets medicine to help them avoid these diseases, when they play outside. When Gallagher posted this photo, concerns were made because people feared they may be in danger of this scary new tick. Ticks are extremely small and can be the size of a poppy seed, which makes them very hard to detect. When people learned that these almost microscopic organisms can burrow under their skin and circulate inside of a human being, many people shared the post to warn their friends and family. People were very worried and quick to trust the word of a random stranger, who has no credentials in the area of expertise. So what other fake news do we believe and trust?
Quote from Mychael Gallagher:
“This is 100% false. It’s an experiment I did with my daughters. We wanted to see how fake news travels without anyone questioning it… I wasn’t trying to scare anyone, nor did I think it would get more than 100 shares. I purposely used photos that looked fake. Like the St George watermark picture, but people still shared away without asking me any questions.”
For those who are still worried, the truth is ticks do burrow, but they do not crawl under your skin. Ticks have hooks on their mouth in order to latch onto their host and have a blood meal. As seen in the picture, they dig into our flesh using their mouth hooks and can stay on us if undetected for days or until they are fully fed. They then fall off wherever they may be such as a bed or near your dog. They do not live within the layers of the hosts skin. They simply drink their meal and take off.
Gallagher admitted to his fake news post and proved to his daughters that fake news travels fast. In todays society many people live in fear and are quick to believe anything they see online. This shows us that we need to be aware of what we are posting, sharing, and believing because of how dangerously quick fake news travels.
Works Cited:
Palma, Bethania. “FACT CHECK: Is There a New, Rare Tick That Burrows Under Your Skin Undetected?” Snopes.com, 24 May 2017, www.snopes.com/fact-check/new-tick-burrows/.
Macchia, Author Dave. “Ticks Cannot Burrow Under Your Skin and Move Around Undetected.” Tick Control in Central Mass | Lyme Disease Central Mass, 24 July 2020, lymediseasecentralmass.com/ticks-cannot-burrow-and-move-under-your-skin-undetected/.
