It is starting to become an issue. See this article with stats from 2024:
Meat, dairy allergies from tick bites "skyrocketing" on Martha's Vineyard, expert says
There's a new medical issue on Martha's Vineyard, and it's impacting the way people eat. It's known as "alpha-gal syndrome," and is not a tick-borne illness, but rather an allergy in response to a tick bite.
"It's skyrocketing across the island," explained Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a biologist and tick researcher on Martha's Vineyard.
The allergy can come in response to a bite from a Lone Star tick, which are common in the south but have recently shown up in large numbers on the Vineyard - due to a combination of climate and an unusually large deer population, experts say.
"Alpha-gal syndrome has been so explosive on Martha's Vineyard that pretty much it comes up in every conversation that I have, ticks or alpha-gal syndrome, even without folks knowing what I do for work," explained Lea Hamner, an epidemiologist on the island.
Hamner provided WBZ with a graph that shows the increase in positive allergy testing on the island - from 32 in 2021 to more than 500 positive tests in 2024.
Cases of alpha gal have been rising across the U.S., but Martha’s Vineyard is getting hit especially hard. CNN's Meg Tirrell visited the summertime destination to find out why, and how the island is adapting.
In 2025, those who came in for testing for Alpha Gal, 742 were positive or 43.9% of those who were tested. (No stats yet for 2026).
No, he made that number up.
How would you know?
Common sense and I know a handful of people that live there. It's a problem, but it's not 50%. It's not even 10%.
It is starting to become an issue. See this article with stats from 2024:
Meat, dairy allergies from tick bites "skyrocketing" on Martha's Vineyard, expert says
There's a new medical issue on Martha's Vineyard, and it's impacting the way people eat. It's known as "alpha-gal syndrome," and is not a tick-borne illness, but rather an allergy in response to a tick bite.
"It's skyrocketing across the island," explained Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a biologist and tick researcher on Martha's Vineyard.
The allergy can come in response to a bite from a Lone Star tick, which are common in the south but have recently shown up in large numbers on the Vineyard - due to a combination of climate and an unusually large deer population, experts say.
"Alpha-gal syndrome has been so explosive on Martha's Vineyard that pretty much it comes up in every conversation that I have, ticks or alpha-gal syndrome, even without folks knowing what I do for work," explained Lea Hamner, an epidemiologist on the island.
Hamner provided WBZ with a graph that shows the increase in positive allergy testing on the island - from 32 in 2021 to more than 500 positive tests in 2024.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/tick-allergy-meat-dairy-marthas-vineyard/
And then there's this from yesterday :
Cases of alpha gal have been rising across the U.S., but Martha’s Vineyard is getting hit especially hard. CNN's Meg Tirrell visited the summertime destination to find out why, and how the island is adapting.
In 2025, those who came in for testing for Alpha Gal, 742 were positive or 43.9% of those who were tested. (No stats yet for 2026).
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/health/video/alpha-gal-tick-meat-allergy-digvid
So, 50% of those tested were positive, not 50% of the island.
More than 20k people live there, and this says around 1500 positive tests. That's not even 10%.
If 50% of people anywhere contracted anything serious it would be a nonstop news story around the clock and declared an emergency.