To the Editor:
Imagine, if you will, someone so sadistic and devoid of empathy that they would write a letter to the editor rejoicing in the fact that lone star ticks are infecting Vineyarders with alpha-gal, resulting in severe food allergies that could literally kill us (“PETA reflects on rise of alpha-gal,” Heather Moore, Sept. 3). Now imagine that same person claiming moral superiority because of her compassion for animals.
Apparently, the hypocrisy is lost on this individual, who has demonstrated not only her total ignorance of alpha-gal syndrome, but her abject inhumanity. Ms. Moore is gleeful that alpha-gal sufferers must now give up meat and be vegans. Let me clue you in.
Not only do we have an allergy to all mammal products and mammal-derived products, including dairy, but many of us also cannot eat vegan foods that contain carrageenan, a food additive derived from red algae that’s used as a flavor enhancer and thickener in many vegan options. Carrageenan also contains the alpha-gal epitope, and can cause mild to severe allergic reactions. Sorry to disappoint Ms. Moore, but we can still eat poultry and seafood.
I’ll give you a taste of my life with alpha-gal syndrome. Let me tell you about the fear I have every time I go to a friend’s house for dinner or to a restaurant, that somehow a knife that was used to cut carrots may have been used to slice up some cheese or some pepperoni. Let me explain to you my excruciating stomach pain, nausea, and intestinal reaction, trouble breathing, and debilitating exhaustion if I accidentally ingest something that was cross-contaminated with a mammalian product. Let me explain to you the blistering skin rash I got after using a hand cream that contained an unlisted mammalian product in its ingredients. Let me explain to you how I couldn’t find an antibiotic on the entire Island that didn’t contain gelatin, which is derived from a mammal, and had to wait more than 24 hours after my surgery to have one delivered from the mainland. Let me explain to you how sick I get just from breathing in fumes from a barbeque grill. And let me introduce you to the EpiPen that I now must always carry with me in case I go into anaphylaxis.
And let’s not forget the myriad of other diseases that lone star ticks carry – Rocky Mountain spotted fever (which I also contracted from my tick bite), tularemia, ehrlichiosis, and several other viral illnesses.
So please, Ms. Moore of PETA, keep gleefully celebrating the misfortune of others while sitting on your throne of moral superiority.
Carla Cooper
Edgartown
