RE-RELEASE: Plum Island

**Discussion begins at 9:30**

Plum Island is a 3 mile by 1 mile island isolated off the coast of New York.  It is home to a lab run by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Agriculture.  The lab claims to be dedicated to the study of disease in animal livestock.  They claim that in compliance with Nixon’s 1969 order, there is no offensive bioweapons research taking place there.  Instead, they argue, the goal is to focus on protecting the US against the introduction of animal diseases.  Their principal focus, they allege, is to prevent foot and mouth disease, which has not occurred in the US since 1929.  The island can only be accessed by military ferry which is escorted by armed guards, and personnel are not permitted to have pets or spend time around animals due to the inherent risk of disease spread.  While the government maintains that there is no bioweapons research happening there, evidence exists that discredits their claims.  In fact, one of the primary goals of the lab when it was first developed by Nazi scientist Erich Traub, was to research the use of ticks as bioweapons.  Since that time, people have argued that the lab is responsible for the development and spread of tickborne illnesses, including Lyme Disease and the African Swine Flu Outbreak in Cuba.  Is the government performing innocent studies to limit the spread of animal transmitted infections?  Or are they performing harmful biologic research under the guise of benign animal studies?

Transcript

We're back.

Welcome back, guys.

This is our reporting live from Egypt.

Live from Egypt.

Live from the Egyptian stage.

Colleen did a little shopping before this trip, and I've got it.

I'm just like looking at her and like her style, her vibes.

Yeah, it's all online shopping.

Yeah.

But like these were like 20 bucks again.

New green glass.

I buy direct.

I buy direct.

You should sponsor us.

Go to online and you type your prescription in and then you get a thousand glasses for like 20 bucks.

Sponsor us.

I direct.

I buy direct.

I buy direct.

We like them more than Zenni and Warby Parker.

I like Warby Parker a lot.

Warby Parker is a little bit more.

Yeah.

I'm a Zenni girl, but I'm a Costco girl.

It's my contacts come from Costco.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, I used to hate wearing sunglasses because it would mess with my depth perception even more.

And now with prescription sunglasses, I'm like, oh, because I couldn't see.

It's crazy every time.

I can't wait to hear when we get back from Egypt and you go to the eye doctor, because every time you go to the eye doctor, I feel like it's like, I'm like, my vision's fine.

And then you do your and you're like, wait, this is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

I mean, I've already like I'm looking at Megan's face and I'm like, I can't even see the lines on her face.

So like, what would be the lines?

No, I mean, like the lines of your face, not not on to be clear.

I have no wrinkles.

No, I put these glasses on.

I put them on and I looked at Jordan.

I was like, Jordan, I can see your hair.

Like I could see your strands of hair.

Yeah, I realize I wasn't seeing them.

I remember putting glasses on for the first time, being like, oh my gosh, trees have actual leaves.

And it's not that I can't see it, it's just everything looks like it's vibrating.

I was just thinking about, Kait told me one time, she reminded me that like two years ago, when we went to Santa Barbara to visit our friend, that Jareth.

Yeah, Jareth.

Hey, Chair Bear.

I didn't have contacts or like they fell out or something.

Yeah, they fell out of your eyes.

And she said that I just took our friend's contacts, put them in.

Yeah, no, it was a it was a daily.

Oh, my God.

But oh, no, Steph had them in her, Steph had them in her, her purse.

But it was like everything that we needed.

We kept saying like me, Steph and Megan, like flew out to California together.

And everything that we needed, we kept like having between the three of us.

And we kept saying like, we're such travel partners, like we need to travel together all the time.

I must have looked at her like she must have had the prescription on it.

I must be like, that's close enough.

But I can't believe that they bit on my eye and that they aren't they all the same shape.

No, they like measure your eye.

And then like I'm going to stigmatism, right?

That the mold of it.

I don't know.

But you just popped it in.

You were like, oh, I could see.

Yeah.

That's so funny.

Anyway.

So hopefully I don't lose my contacts on this trip, but she's got her glasses.

So it's all good backup glasses and prescription sunnies.

Yeah, that's right.

So, yeah.

So this week, I'm going to pick the episode to re-release.

And the episode I picked was Plum Island.

And I think the reason I really enjoy this is that I just remember sitting on my couch researching it.

And in general, you know, we were going to do this conspiracy theory podcast.

And I was like, I don't believe any of these conspiracy.

You know, Megan actually pitched the idea because me and Colleen kept saying, we're going to start a podcast.

And Megan said, it's just going to be you two giggling and saying, I believe that.

And that is what happens.

And Megan was like, you need someone to like, to be the one that like you don't believe, that doesn't believe when you're trying to convince them.

And Megan was like, I will be that person.

Yeah, I think if we looked at each episode, I think 80% I've believed them.

Well, I did believe.

Yeah.

I say that as the year has progressed, I find myself believing more, believing.

Yeah.

And I'm more susceptible to believing new ones.

Like, like if you like my manager was telling me she had a theory about like avocado, like avocados.

I was like, I believe that.

But I didn't know what any year I didn't need any other any other theory.

It was something about like there's like a never ending avocado tree or like there's not enough avocado trees to produce the amount of avocados.

It had something to do with the reproduction of avocados.

But I was like, I don't even need to hear the details.

I believe that.

It was even for me.

I was like, yeah, I get that straight up easily.

But I remember before we started the podcast, like fighting with these girls about the moon landing.

Oh, that's what started it all.

Yeah.

And I was like, how you could not guys just believe these crazy theories?

And then I was researching Plum Island.

I was like blowing them up like guys.

She believes that I believe this is crazy.

You were in it.

But then I think that's the problem.

Then you find something like they're about the ultra.

You like find.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They do anything.

Yeah.

So that's why I enjoyed this.

And then I enjoyed recording because we recorded at Kate's house and Joey was coloring under the table.

He was like just coloring on my foot while we were talking about Plum Island.

Yeah.

So fond recording memories.

Oh, that's when I got the hand tattoos.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that episode.

Plum Island is good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So here we go, guys.

Plum Island.

Enjoy.

And we'll see you next week.

See you next week.

Yeah.

Just a reminder, guys, don't forget to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages at 3SchemeQueens, that's the number three, SchemeQueens, all one word.

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Let's start with our shout out.

We've got a shout out for Sarah.

Hey, Sarah.

Sarah says, thanks for making cleaning my bathrooms less painful.

Oh, anytime.

Also, I found out that there's a conspiracy theory around the band, the Scorpions.

Have you heard about it?

Not, I have not, but you know what?

We're doing a pop culture section soon.

I didn't even know who the Scorpions were, but then I Googled them, and they have this song, Wind of Change, which I think if you hear it, you probably have heard it before.

So I did recognize it when I listened to it, and I guess it was the hype song for the end of the Cold War, and the conspiracy theories that the CIA wrote it as propaganda.

I will say that the more I'm researching for our JFK episode, and I think also going into a little bit about what we talk about today and Montauk, I would not put anything past the CIA.

Yeah.

So I can 100% believe the CIA wrote a song to propagandize.

They talk about working for them.

Right.

So I can believe it.

We may have to cover that for you, Sarah.

Sarah also wants to join us if we ever go investigate in Montauk.

So telling you right now, Sarah, you are for sure going to join us if we ever go to Montauk.

There's this really nice resort that I'd like to say in Montauk.

I was thinking about all the places you want to eat.

Aren't we going to Asheville to the spa?

Now we're going to Montauk for a resort.

Well, hold on.

We're going to live a lot of years together, Megan.

Yeah.

So they can happen.

I don't know.

Okay.

We're going to be 70 in a spa when I finish grad school.

Joey's pushing us in our walkers.

Colleen, I'll give you 20 bucks if you push me down these stairs.

Give me my bottle of aspirin.

Well, we'd be like, whenever I used to go visit my grandma, she always had a box of Francia in the garage.

She used to have these like women's meetings, like finance meetings once a month where like these women would get together and like talk about money because she was kind of like an unexpected single mother of three and had to step up.

But so my mom was like, she was like, she was like drinking all the time.

She just like had this box of Francia that she would like pull out once a month.

But in my mind, I just I'm like, I associate the Francia in the garage with my grandma.

Shout out, Gagu.

So yeah, maybe, maybe Joey will be like filling up our cups with our Francia.

Hopefully, we'll be affording something better than Francia.

But slapping the bag, slapping them 70.

So is it time for our drink check?

What are we, what are we drinking guys?

Speaking of vino, for the first time ever on the pod.

Oh, is this your first wine on the pod?

I'm drinking wine for the first time.

She's having kind of a spritzer.

Yeah, it's like I said earlier, I'm an ice fanatic.

So it's about six cubes of ice and about two fingers of wine.

Colleen really leans into the suburban housewife of the 90s with the ice and the wine.

Yeah.

It's not frozen grapes.

I feel like frozen grapes would have been smarter, but.

What's you drinking over there, Kait?

Well, I'm drinking an Oregon plant protein chocolate shake with 20 grams of plant protein.

I can't even look at you right now.

You're just like such an itty.

Well, I have a dairy allergy, Megan, and the vegan protein options are-

We all know about the dairy allergy.

Yeah, very limited, Megan.

Yeah, they're limited.

OK.

You know, don't discriminate.

Anyway, my New Year's intention, if you will, was to increase my protein intake because women, as we get older, we need more protein in our bodies to maintain our muscles and our bones.

And so I am, you know, preparing for, you know, my 70s.

Sounds kind of sad.

I'm drinking some lime seltzer, which polar brand?

Costco?

Costco.

Costco.

I just started Modern Family because I haven't watched it all the way through.

And the third episode is Mitchell going to Costco for the first time.

And he's like making fun of Costco.

He's like, oh, these, like, pick stores, why would anybody?

And he like walks in and he's like, oh, the paper shredder that I've wanted.

And it's just like them buying everything at Costco.

And I was like, I relate to this.

Relatable.

So it's like even now people like, like you're often like, it's all Costco.

And I'm like the meme, but sometimes you, you have a friend who's not a Costco person.

Look at you like, I'm sorry.

You're buying your clothes at Costco.

I'm like, yeah.

I'm sorry.

You're a member at Sam's Club.

I actually believe I have, I think these are Costco leggings.

Yeah, they're cute actually.

Thank you.

I don't think I have any Costco on, but normally I do.

I love their pants.

No.

All right.

But yeah, I'm drinking a lime seltzer.

Oh.

Polar, like you said.

And speaking of limes.

Ooh.

Do you guys know where Lyme Disease came from?

I did not know why we were talking about Lyme.

Speaking of limes.

Lyme Disease?

Like, the tick disease?

Yeah.

So we're really going to talk, I think, more about Plum Island and the wild things happening there to include but not limited to the creation and spread of Lyme Disease as we know it.

Okay.

All right.

I'm on board.

I'm on board.

My uncle had it.

Plum Island is a three mile by one mile island isolated off the coast of New York.

It is home to a lab run by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Agriculture.

The lab claims to be dedicated to the study of disease and animal livestock.

They claim that in compliance with Nixon's 1969 order, there is no offensive bioweapons research taking place there.

Instead, they argue, the goal is to focus on protecting the US against the introduction of animal diseases.

Their principal focus, they allege, is to prevent foot and mouth disease, which has not occurred in the US since 1929.

Foot and mouth?

I've never heard of foot and mouth.

Or like hoof and mouth.

That would be confused with hand foot and mouth.

No, this is a separate.

This is separate.

The island can only be accessed by military ferry, which is escorted by armed guards and personnel are not permitted to have pets or spend time around animals due to the inherent risk of disease spread.

While the government maintains that there is no bioweapons research happening there, evidence exists that discredits their claims.

In fact, one of the primary goals of the lab when it was first developed by Nazi scientist, Eric Traub, not always with Nazis, was to research the use of ticks as bioweapons.

Since that time, people have argued that the lab is responsible for development and spread of tick-borne illnesses, including Lyme disease and the African swine flu outbreak in Cuba.

Is the government performing innocent studies to limit the spread of animal transmitted infections?

Or are they performing harmful biologic research under the guise of benign animal studies?

What you guys think?

Immediately yes.

Yeah.

Immediately believe it.

It's sounding a little familiar, is it not?

Yeah, immediately yes, immediately.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I know, and I believe, and I'm gonna-

Biological warfare is a real thing.

Yeah.

All right.

Plum Island, off the coast of Long Island, New York, was purchased by the United States government in the 1950s.

Originally, it was purchased by the government during the Spanish-American War for the construction of Fort Terry, which was then deactivated after World War II.

In 1952, it was reactivated for animal disease research by the US.

Army.

This is mind-blowing.

Do you guys know about Operation Paperclip?

No.

So apparently, as part of Operation Paperclip, 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians were given asylum in the United States between 1945 and 1959.

You know who this sounds like, Colleen?

Bucky?

Yeah.

Hydra?

Hydra, if you will.

Any Marvel fans out there?

It always goes back to Marvel.

Interesting.

I don't know what you're talking about.

So one of these scientists, I mean, I guess I knew like, right, we had, we know Einstein, we talked about Einstein coming over here.

Right.

But like, I didn't know that we just were like, Nazis, come join us.

Because you have brains, we were just going to ignore the fact that you were a Nazi and let you come over here.

Yeah.

So one of those-

Surprise.

I mean, I guess I'm not, but this is not publicized, right?

So one of these Nazis was Eric Traub.

I don't speak German, so apologies for that pronunciation.

Traub.

He had a secret lab in the Baltic and was investigating ways to poison Soviet cattle.

So he had conducted experiments using tics and insects, and he came up with this concept of like, why don't we inject these tics with diseases and then release them as bioweapons?

So he's doing this during the war.

War ends, we say, come on over.

You know what, we're going to give you this island with a research lab and just like let you have control of it and do your thing.

Yeah, sounds like a great idea.

Let's give this Nazi a multimillion dollar lab with unfettered access to trans-invisible diseases.

And his own private island.

Yeah, wild.

So as far as the public is aware, the purpose of choosing this location is because there was a law banning the study of foot and mouth disease on the mainland.

So again, we know about hand, foot, and mouth disease.

Foot and mouth disease has not existed in our parents' lifetime, maybe not their parents' lifetime.

Like smallpox?

Yeah, but I've got a vaccine.

I've been injected against that.

Of course you have.

I'm good to go.

By the government, do you think they injected a tracker-jacker?

Gosh, we can't be sarcastic on here because it's like the Nazi gold.

So foot and mouth disease is an extremely contagious virus that can be passed between hoofed animals, so sometimes they call it hoof and mouth disease, and from person to hoofed animals.

However, foot and mouth disease was eradicated in 1929.

So tell me, guys, why in 1952 did they decide they needed to invest millions of dollars into studying the disease?

Wait, I have a question.

I want to know more about this disease.

How was it eradicated in 1929?

Like, well, it just doesn't exist on ARC.

It does exist elsewhere.

Oh.

Just doesn't exist in the United States.

Oh, new fear.

You get it.

New fear.

I'm about to spiral.

It's not been around for a hundred years, Kait.

So don't spiral.

So apparently there were outbreaks in Canada and Mexico.

And they're like, well, that's why we were studying it.

Cause there were outbreaks, but those didn't happen until later in the 1950s.

Liars.

Yeah.

So they're just, again, they were like, we need to...

I wonder why they happened later in the 1950s, Megan.

I think it was like the CIA.

In 2012, I will say, let's give them some credit, two researchers in the facility did actually develop the first foot and mouth vaccine, which did not require live virus.

Cause the whole reason it has to be out there is like, we don't want it to get transmitted, right?

And so if you, they had a vaccine, but if it required a live virus, like that's no good.

You could still spread it.

So it was kind of a big deal that they were able to produce this like inactivated vaccine.

So that was, that's kind of a big deal, I guess, cause then you can actually like safely develop and manufacture it.

But still I'm just like, why was there so much stress on this virus that hadn't even like really impacted us?

Okay, so back to the history of Plum Island.

So this Nazi scientist becomes the like godfather of Plum Island.

And again, they allege that they were only ever working on disease defense.

Then in 1993 Newsday, which is the daily Long Island newspaper, it releases documents proving that there was biologic warfare experiments happening during the Cold War.

And the you, I mean, does this sound so familiar though also?

I actually knew this all.

No, it's like all the things like didn't have, it's kind of like MK Ultra, right?

Didn't happen, didn't happen.

Just kidding, it sort of happened.

I just, I like, I just saw this meme that was like, didn't happen, didn't happen 50 years go by.

Okay, well, it did happen.

Right, now we're gonna like declassify this, but no one's gonna care anymore, right?

Yeah, okay, so they claim like 1969, Nixon said no offensive biologic warfare.

They're like, yep, we've abided to that.

We find out in 1993, that's not true, but they swear that was all in the past, that was during the Cold War.

We haven't done that since the 90s.

They actually let these Russian scientists come and inspect the facility because they wanna like prove to them.

I don't know, what do you think of that?

I feel like, couldn't you just like clean up your...

Yeah, people come and inspect my work every two years.

And you know what we do?

Just clean up.

We know when they're coming, we make it look nice.

Yeah.

And we're trained for like months on like things.

All the things that we usually do, we're not gonna do them because the inspectors are coming.

Right.

Yeah.

So then in 2002, it became known as the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security.

What?

We're doing some defensive like infection research, but interesting Department of Homeland Security and Science and Technology Office of National Laboratories.

In 2008, the first Montauk monster washed ashore.

So we talked about this.

We actually posted a picture on our website and on Instagram.

You guys remember the Montauk monster?

The Debbie Dyes.

Could be a raccoon, could be a monster, could be a chupacabra.

Is that how you say it?

Chupacabra?

And so this kind of prompted theories like was there experimentation happening?

Were they cross breeding?

I actually don't.

When I looked at the Montauk monster, I think I agree there's probably a raccoon that was like bloated in the ocean.

So I don't know if I believe that there's like cross breeding research happening, but that's the theory.

In 2010, there were reports of a security guard discovering the corpse of a human like a monster with quote, really long webbed fingers and holes in his skull, indicating he had potentially undergone neurosurgery.

But then there's like not a lot of other information.

So it sounds to me like maybe somebody with like Marfan syndrome washed ashore.

Because then there's one article where it's like, no, I mean, they just say it's a man with long fingers and that's it.

At one point, it's like a white man.

And then in a different article, it's like a black man.

I'm like, it's probably just like a decomposed man coming from New York or something, washed ashore.

But there's no photos of that.

I think respectfully so.

We can only see the photos of the animals.

And then another interesting fact.

So Afia Siddiqui was an MIT-trained neuroscientist working for Al Qaeda, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2009.

In her handbag were handwritten notes referring to mass casualty attacks with multiple US targets.

And you know what was on that list?

What?

Plum Island.

So like this could have, I mean, what does she know that is happening on Plum Island that would make it a worthwhile target for a terrorist attack?

Yeah.

In 1978, there was an accidental release of foot and mouth disease into some of the cattle in the holding pens outside the laboratory facility.

So again, I'm not claiming that anything was intentional, but can you, I mean, it sounds like someone's maybe mishandling some lab specimen.

Have we heard that before?

Sure have.

But they did eradicate the 200 cattle to prevent any spread.

There's also some theories that it might not have been foot and mouth disease, but a different biologic weapon.

I don't find any proof of that, but that's what's online.

In 2004, there were two unintentional releases of foot and mouth disease, but the government claims that it was all contained within Plum Island.

Bush, the Bush administration as a Nate, is the one who came out and was like, hey, we got to fess up.

We had some leaks, but everything's been contained.

We're all good.

George.

Ms.

George W.

So we know they weren't always great with avoiding mishaps, you know?

So we do know that Trubb was experimenting with using ticks to spread disease as a possible bio weapon.

And there have now been some partially declassified records indicating a number of research studies looking at the disbursement of ticks and fleas as possible vectors for infection.

Oh my god.

Well, isn't, do they get this idea from the bubonic plague?

You know, like where the fleas bit the mice?

Fleas bit the rats, and then the fleas bit the humans, right?

Yeah.

The rat was infected, bit the rat, then came and bit the human.

Gotcha.

That's how.

I wonder if this was a thought.

Maybe.

Because it was so hard to track down, like how the bubonic plague was being spread.

Yeah.

So here are some of the tests that we do know took place, okay?

1954, Operation Big Itch.

Oh my god.

Great name, huh?

I cannot.

A series of tests in Utah were performed to see if fleas could be used as a vector for biologic warfare.

They built these like quote bombs where they would put 100 to 200,000 fleas.

They would have guinea pigs on the ground.

And then their goal was like, if we drop this bomb full of fleas, will they infect the guinea pigs?

I don't like it.

Operation Dropkick in 1956 in Savannah.

These poor guinea pigs.

Presidents consented to participating allegedly, and they released uninfected female mosquitoes.

And then they just like tracked the reports of mosquito bites.

Did the same thing a couple of years later in Florida.

Florida, where they released a million mosquitoes.

Oh my god.

Purposely want to participate.

Do we think Zika?

So like, well, these weren't infected.

So.

Because where did Zika come from?

Yeah.

I mean, these weren't infected.

They were just bugs, but they were like, they were just like mosquitoes.

But they were like, can we track how we could spread them?

1956, Operation May Day, we have uninfected yellow fever mosquitoes released in Savannah to track their dispersal.

Oh my gosh.

Operation Big Buzz, 1955, 330,000 uninfected mosquitoes in Georgia, again, tracking the spread.

And they were like, oh, look, they made it 2,000 feet away.

Like they were able to track all that.

And the scariest one, I think, which is kind of taking us back to, we talked a little bit on Chemtrails about the boat in San Francisco.

So they did a similar study, Operation Magic Sword, in 1965, and they released mosquitoes off a boat and found that they were able to travel 3.5 miles with the assistance of ocean winds.

And so they're like, wait, we could do like, we could get in a boat, take these mosquitoes across an ocean to someone we were fighting a war with, and then release these infected mosquitoes and use that as warfare.

Oh, my gosh.

And I'm never going to trust a mosquito bite.

I know that's exactly how I feel.

Like, I feel like I'm going to see a swarm of mosquitoes and be like the government like this.

Yeah.

Forget birds, Colleen.

I don't trust the bugs.

Yeah, there's a lot more bugs than there are birds.

And there are a lot more like you microscopic, like you can't see them.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

How many times do you get home and you're like scratching a bite you didn't know you had?

Yeah.

Yeah.

A September 1945 memo to the Secretary of War detailed a number of accomplishments regarding bioweapons.

The United States had mass produced a number of pathogens, including bacillus anthracis, anthrax, anthrax, had developed cluster bombs to spread the pathogens and had constructed facilities for the large scale production of pathogens to target crops and people.

They allege that much of this took place in Fort Detrick, Ireland.

Crops, crop fields, crops, I'm sorry, crops.

And where's cancer from?

As a reminder, we did talk about in like the Montauk and Chemtrails episode that Nixon had done this ban in 1969, and we weren't allowed to research biologic weapons.

However, in 1975, so six years later, the US.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report, the CIA had maintained a stockpile of biologic agents and toxins in violation of Nixon's orders.

Of course.

So we know they were up to no good.

Right.

Oh my God.

Just like, you know, the CIA was told to stop Project MKUltra.

MKUltra.

Oh my God.

So two examples of tick-borne illnesses that were spread from Plum Island.

So the first one is Lyme disease.

And this really is, there's a lot of back and forth online about whether or not Lyme disease was created by our government and really like in and worked on in Plum Island and perhaps actually released.

And I 100% believe it was.

And I'm going to prove it to you.

So I believe it already as a as a reminder, Lyme disease is a vector borne illness caused by the bacteria Borrelia.

And it is usually transmitted to humans via ticks.

So 70 to 80 percent of people who get Lyme disease from this bacteria will develop erythema migrans, which is that like bullseye rash within a week.

And then usually that progresses.

You'll get fever, headaches, tiredness, joint stiffness, palpitations, potentially memory issues.

So Borrelia, the bacteria we know has been around for thousands of years.

Like they found it present on like fossilized remains.

But no one had ever had like Lyme disease illness, like we know it to be until the 70s.

No one was ever getting sick from Lyme disease.

Like you would maybe be exposed to this bacteria.

It was present, not infecting you.

So what you're saying is it needed a vector to infect us.

Or maybe needed a little-

Scientific and full manipulation.

Yeah.

So the first diagnosis of Lyme disease was not until 1975 in Lyme, Connecticut.

What an outbreak occurred.

Do you guys see the map I posted on the shared drive?

Scroll down.

Okay.

So look at that.

Look at where Lyme, Connecticut is and look where Plum Island is.

Oh, my God.

That's so close.

Right.

So it's like 10 miles or something, but it's this island in the water and then directly north of it, 10 miles north, right on the coast is Lyme, Connecticut.

So if you had a boat and you left your island, you left Plum Island in this boat and sailed across straight north, you would hit Lyme, Connecticut.

You know what is also on Long Island?

What?

Montauk.

Oh, that's why they're thinking the Plum Island, the Montauk Monster originated from Plum Island and washed ashore.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I just want to say that I did relook at that demidog.

Its face looks very strange.

Like I don't know if it looks like a dog or a raccoon.

It's got like peeled back and it has like maybe more beaver.

No.

I think it's just definitely a bloated partially decomposed something, but-

Do they have mountain lions up there?

I don't know because it's really confusing because when you read about Plum Island, they talk about how like any wildlife is shot on site because they want to prevent the spread of these diseases.

But then they talk about how now I'm going to tell you later how they're relocating Plum Island and-

The whole island?

Well, we'll get into it.

But they're talking about how perhaps they'll use the island when they relocate the laboratories.

I'm sorry.

I know you're asking me that.

We're not going to shift that piece of land.

Like the whole island.

But when they move this research station, which they are in the process of doing, it sounds like.

They're like, well, maybe we can make this like a wildlife sanctuary.

So I'm really confused.

Is there a whole bunch of wild animals on this island or are they shooting them all on site?

I don't know.

Very confusing.

I don't like this.

They should not be doing this to the animals.

I don't trust it at all.

Even the little bugs.

I don't like the bugs, but.

So again, when you look at this map, which Colleen will post for you guys, if you have a boat, you go straight north, you're going to hit Lyme, Connecticut.

So it definitely makes sense that perhaps like Trubb was developing the Lyme disease as we know it with this bacteria, injecting it into ticks.

And then I'm not saying it was intentional, but maybe some of these ticks got out, you know?

Sound familiar?

Yep.

So allegedly the government was like, no, we were just performing gain of function studies in the fifties with Borrelia bacteria.

Sounds like something that's happened in our recent future.

I mean, I probably-

That's very recent.

Is it present?

Present?

In the last few years?

Yeah.

Sounds very familiar.

I wouldn't have even known the term gain of function before 2020, you know?

Yep.

William Bergdorfer was an NIH scientist for whom the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, again, that's Borrelia, is named because these bacterias all have complicated names.

So it's Borrelia burgdorfi.

Oh.

So in 2013, he was recorded saying that Lyme was not a naturally occurring germ that was spread by natural causes.

Because right now people are like, well, if we didn't create Lyme disease, why suddenly do we have so much Lyme disease?

Right.

And the government has claimed like, you know, we've had an increase in deer population, we have global warming, which is causing, you know, animals to move further north.

But this guy, William Bergdorfer, who the bacteria is named for, he was on video in 2013 saying it was created a military lab for the purpose of harming humans and animals.

And somehow it got out.

Oh my God.

He's dead now.

Of course he's dead.

So we can't question him.

How did he die?

Well, full disclosure, I know you're going to ask.

So I did look it up because it sounds very suspicious.

He had Parkinson's.

Parkinson's or something that looks like Parkinson's.

Or did he happen to have Parkinson's?

But also that's not what killed him, you know?

I don't know.

Interesting.

That's very interesting.

The Yale School of Public Health claims that the epidemic is caused by ecologic changes that have allowed deers, tics and bacterium to invade.

We now have much stricter hunting restrictions and fewer predators.

So we're not taking out all these deers like we used to.

Right.

And again, climate change is maybe allowing these animals to survive the cold winters, move further north.

And a lot of the wildlife that couldn't survive up north in New England have been able to move 28 miles further north as a result of global warming.

That's going to keep happening.

I don't know how long that was.

So they're saying that's why New England has so much Lyme disease.

You're like, do they?

No, I know.

No, you just said it.

She said it.

Rocky Mountain fever.

That's different.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's different.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever?

Isn't that from ticks?

Yeah, that's another tick-borne.

That's one actually that I wanted to research.

And then there was not any evidence about it.

I was like, oh, this came from the government.

But then when I started reading about it, I was like, wait, there's so much on Lyme disease.

I thought there was just so much Lyme up there just because of how the woods was.

Yeah, the deer.

But there were no Lyme before 1975.

That's crazy.

Yeah, but global warming, Megan.

That makes me question everything right now.

Yeah, question global warming.

Yeah.

Well, not...

Yeah.

I don't question global warming.

I know global warming is a thing, but it just...

What won't they use?

No, but I do think I 100 percent believe in global warming, and I think we need to make some adjustments, but I do think it's also like...

It's kind of like when you got Blackboard customer service, and it was like supply chain issues, right?

Now it's like global warming, like everything is just because of global warming.

Right.

I just think...

Yeah, no, I think, like you said, global warming is real.

I think we believe in global warming, but is it the cause of all these things?

Like, I think it's real, but I also think it's politicized off.

In the 1980s, preserved insect and animal samples found on Shelter Island and Long Island contained bacteria, traced back to the timing of Trobs tick research.

So kind of confirming that obviously they were injecting bacteria into these fleas, ticks, mosquitoes.

And again, I'm not alleging that they like intentionally released them, but it does seem like there was some research happening that was not contained.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, so I guess they make this budget over a year in advance, included an investigation into the DOD's possible weaponization of ticks and other insects with Lyme disease.

Representative Chris Smith from Jersey, I guess he introduces amendment that said, in the spirit of transparency and accountability, my amendment directs the Government Accountability Office to probe whether the Department of Defense ever weaponized ticks with Lyme disease or any other dangerous pathogen.

There was a Senator from Maine who spoke out in support.

It's very confusing to me because it seems like this budget didn't pass, but there was an act that did pass that was like looking at this, like we need to investigate.

Right.

And when I'm like, well, it's been a couple of years, what's been going on?

And when I look into it, all you see online is like the research that's been done from this funding into diagnosis and treatment, not a lot on like, where did it originate from?

I mean, that makes sense.

I mean, I try and stop it now, but yeah.

Right.

It's like, I know we don't want to talk about 2020.

But it is like when people start saying like, oh, like it was made in the lab or whatever.

I'm like, it doesn't matter.

It's still here.

Like we still need to treat people who have COVID now.

You know, like that was like my stance on it.

Like, why are we fighting about where it came from?

I think the priority is not like where did it come from?

But I do think that is, you do have to figure that out, right?

Because you have to be like, okay, so if something was mishandled in a lab, how can we make sure that's not going to happen again?

Like epidemiological investigation.

Some systems changes.

Right.

Yeah.

But again, I think this is a thing that government just declassifies something 50 years later and no one cares anymore.

Because while everyone cared 50 years ago, we've got so many other things to worry about.

Right.

Because people have political agendas, they have to push, you know?

So that's what I've got on Lyme disease.

You guys with me on thinking that?

Oh, they are 100 percent made in.

Yeah.

Also to be so arrogant that you think that you can control these tiny little bugs.

They're not like cattle where you can tag them and you know where they are.

Or even inject them with a little tracker.

These are fleas that you can't see.

Of course, they're going to get out.

That's pretty much what they were trying to do with all these mosquitos tests.

We're like, oh, just report to us if you get a mosquito bite.

I would love to know how many people from the lab got Lyme disease.

You just like prophylax everyone with doxy in the lab.

That was the first alleged infection to come out of this lab in Plum Island.

Then we have the African swine fever.

So this is a highly contagious and usually lethal virus that only infects pigs.

It causes hemorrhagic fevers with death within one week of contraction.

It's transmitted between ticks and pigs, cannot be transmitted to humans like swine flu can.

That's why this is called the African swine flu fever.

Thanks again.

Again.

Terrifying.

Yeah.

This sounds so scary.

Yeah.

So the idea is that this infects pigs, but it will ruin your entire flock of pigs.

No, but it could impact a whole country's access to food, right?

Okay.

A drove of pigs.

Is that what we call them?

Oh my God.

It's a drift or drove.

A group of young pigs is called a litter.

A group of hogs is called a passel or a team.

A group of swan is called a sounder.

I do have to say this.

Have you guys ever heard of pigs giving birth and eating their babies?

It is a regular thing.

Well, what did you guys tell me?

What was the deal with it?

So cats will eat you right away, dogs will eat you later.

Dogs will wait.

Yeah, dogs will wait.

The cats will like, you won't even be cold and the cats chow down.

And you know what?

Benny can't eat me.

He's allowed.

I would rather him live.

You know, if I'm already dead and he's starved.

I don't want Tanner to eat me.

Yeah, I don't want Murphy to eat me.

I don't think Murphy would.

I don't think Tanner would eat me either.

And him, you know, Tanner would be like, yeah, he'd just be losing his mind.

No, when people would know something's wrong because Tanner would yap and yap and yap and yap.

Oh, and then somebody would like what?

I mean, they would.

Yeah, they would.

I feel like he would yap to like sound the alarm and then somebody would come find you.

You think Murphy would just like curl up with you?

Yeah.

Murphy's not telling anybody.

He would like to have the feet first, at least.

So back to the African swine fever, okay.

So in 1971, there was an African swine fever outbreak in Cuba, leading to the forced slaughter of over 500,000 pigs to prevent a nationwide epidemic.

This was the first and only time the virus had hit the Western Hemisphere.

No humans were injured, but Cuba was unable to produce pork for many months.

And we know that like the Cubans love their pork.

Yeah, they love their pork.

What did they do with all the dead pigs?

Just burn them?

Burn them?

I don't know.

That's a good question.

So this was interesting because up to this point, Cuba was known for pretty strict regulations regarding food handling.

And interestingly, the outbreak originated at the exact same time from two separate locations in Cuba.

So a plant, I think so.

Definitely sounds like it.

So then in 1977, this US intelligence source comes forward and he goes, Yeah, I was given the virus in a sealed unmarked container at Fort Gulick near the Panama Canal and instructed to hand it over to anti-Castro terrorists.

What?

Six weeks later, the outbreak occurred.

Newsday, which we talked about earlier, they kind of like broke the story on Plum Island.

Yeah.

That's the Long Island newspaper.

It published a story with multiple witnesses describing how it was transported.

And they were able to kind of like track all these different people who transported it from place to place.

That's crazy.

So they went from Plum Island to Fort Detrick to Fort Gulick before traveling to Cuba with a stop at this deserted American territory of Nevasa Island, which is somewhere between Jamaica and Haiti.

So six days later, shocker, the CIA releases an official denial.

But the paper didn't even release like a retraction because they had so much evidence and like so many sources.

They're like, we're standing by the story and everyone, it's one of these, it's like JFK, that we all know that we're not getting the real story, but the government just is going to die on that hill.

So it is what it is.

Who was it that told me, once you become president, you are privy to what happened to JFK?

Oh, I have no idea.

Wait, who told me that?

Not me.

Oh, no, but JFK is coming, guys.

I've gone down that rabbit hole.

I can't wait.

So again, the first outbreak ever in the Western Hemisphere.

Do you know the only place where we are known to have this virus?

The only place in the Western Hemisphere where the African swine fever virus was available was on Plum Island.

No, no, no.

We know this infection is in Plum Island.

All of a sudden, we're having issues with Cuba.

Cuba has an outbreak, not from one location, but from two separate locations.

Plum Island has it.

Well, Plum Island had access to it.

Oh, my gosh.

So it sounds to me like the Americans did it.

Yeah.

So those were the two big infections I was able to track as probably being from Plum Island.

Kind of an update on this situation.

So last year, they opened a $1.25 billion lab in Kansas.

I can't really see when I go online what is happening as far as the transition, like where we are in that transition.

But the ultimate goal was to transfer all of that research that was happening on Plum Island to this Kansas City lab.

It's like in Manhattan, Kansas.

I have a lot of concerns about that.

First of all, Kansas is the middle of the country.

I guess also you alleged that you're like only studying animal infections, like aren't there a lot of cattle and animals?

There's so much of our meat.

In five years, when an outbreak comes out of the middle of America, we'll be sitting here recording our next episode, proving it.

Kansas is like directly west of Kansas City.

Manhattan, Kansas.

I think it's a university.

Kansas State.

Kansas State.

So I think it's on the Kansas State campus.

That's not making me uncomfortable or anything.

What?

As far as, again, there's a lot of chatter about what they're going to do with this Plum Island.

And one of the things like a nature preserve, which again, really confuses me because haven't you been like offing all these animals that you've been seeing?

That makes me worried that food sources.

Yeah.

And Plum Island is designated a level three laboratory.

And that means that officially they can only study infections that can be transmitted like animal to animal.

They can't study any infections that go like animal to human.

Allegedly.

But when they move to Kansas, which again, they may have already moved to Kansas, or at least in the process of moving to Kansas, it's going to be designated a level four laboratory, meaning they can study animal diseases that are transmitted to humans.

So like you've already, well, we know they're already doing this with Lyme disease and stuff, right?

Right.

But you've already proven, you've already had outbreaks of hoof and mouth or foot and mouth disease, right?

We've already had these mosquitos disappear that have infections.

And now we're like, let's just like move to the middle of the country and up the ante and like study some more dangerous infections.

You know where Manhattan, Kansas is supposed to?

The Denver Airport.

Oh, it's all related.

Do you think the tunnels connect?

They probably, they probably did.

They probably were like, let's make sure that everyone can escape when there's an outbreak taking out the state of Kansas.

Exactly.

Anyone who's an Illuminati or Freemason or in the New World Order will just like go down into the tunnels and flee to Denver Airport.

Anyway, that's what I have.

So are you guys going to sleep well tonight?

What are you thinking?

I'm never going to trust a bug ever again.

Oh, it's seven hours away.

It just looks close on a map.

Well, that was like also in the Denver episode when I was like, I can believe the tunnels and you were like, it's over a hundred miles.

I was like, okay, well, maybe not.

But when you do look at the map, it looks really close.

Yeah.

This just, again, I think we already know that the government does some of these things and they cover them up and it's crazy.

Yeah.

I mean, I 100 percent believe Plum Island is up to no good.

And I think that not that they were intentionally trying to, well, obviously, they were intentionally trying to attack Cuba, but not that they were intentionally trying to attack their own people.

But I think things happen when you're dealing with mosquitoes and fleas.

Right.

Infected with.

I don't understand why they have to do it in Kansas.

I mean, can't they go to like the middle of the ocean on a boat?

I'm sure they start.

I mean, that's kind of where they were, was like on this island and that was the premise.

But it was pretty close to land.

Close enough to hit Lyme, Connecticut.

That's why I'm like, can't they go to like some of these territories?

But also, why are you doubling down on like, we're only doing defensive research and we're only doing these like benign studies?

Like, it's so benign, but you had to be on an island to do it.

Like what?

I mean, it's propaganda.

They're just telling us what we want to hear.

America could never do anything bad or wrong.

We're always in defense.

Well, this just goes, I feel like the things I'm learning on this podcast about the CIA.

Blowing my mind.

Yeah.

Blowing my mind.

A couple of years ago, if someone was like, Kait would always be like, CIA can do anything.

And I was like, shh.

And now I'm like, the CIA has done everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm telling you.

All right.

So what's our what are our polls going to be, Kait?

Do we prove it to you?

Lime disease.

The polls are.

Lime disease was made on Plum Island and accidentally like got out.

Yes, we believe that.

Two, lime disease occurs only because of global warming and all the animals migrating up north.

Three, Plum Island is only doing gain of function research.

Don't trust it.

Well, thanks for joining us.

And that's an interesting one, Meg.

Yeah, thanks.

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