Schumer seeks $273.5 million for tick research after Suffolk cases rise

Chuck Schumer is asking for $273.5 million in the 2027 federal budget to expand research on ticks and tickborne disease after a rare Bourbon virus diagnosis in Suffolk County sharpened concerns across Long Island. The senator’s request would add about $90 million over the previous allocation, and he tied it to a county where Lyme disease remains a daily public-health problem.

Suffolk recorded 3,152 Lyme disease cases in 2024, the most of any county in New York, a figure Schumer used to argue that the region’s tick burden is no longer just a seasonal nuisance. The ask landed with extra force because of the Bourbon virus case linked to Michael Larkin of Shirley, whose illness followed tick bites in May 2021 and was definitively confirmed only in May 2026 after specialized testing at the state’s Wadsworth Center.

That diagnosis matters because Bourbon virus is rare, believed to spread through the bite of an infected tick, and there is no vaccine or medicine to prevent or treat it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says symptoms can include fever, fatigue, rash, headache, body aches, nausea and vomiting, and that cases have been found in the Midwest, East Coast and Southern United States. In Suffolk, where residents already hear constant warnings about Lyme disease and other vector-borne illnesses, the appearance of a rarer virus underscored how much more is circulating than many people realize.

The timing also highlights a gap between local exposure and the research infrastructure needed to respond. New York State said in April that Wadsworth Center is helping with laboratory testing for a range of viruses as CDC testing scales back for some pathogens, a reminder that state labs have become more important as federal capacity shifts. Schumer’s proposal would direct more money toward basic research, surveillance, diagnostics and prevention, the kind of work that county health departments and local hospitals cannot fully shoulder on their own.

Long Island’s own scientific community has already been focused on the issue. Stony Brook Medicine held a tick-borne diseases symposium on May 27 that brought together researchers, clinicians and educators from Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, with attention to illnesses common on Long Island, including alpha-gal syndrome. The Stony Brook Southampton Hospital reference handbook notes that the lone star tick can transmit Bourbon virus and is active from early spring through late fall, which keeps the risk alive well past the first warm weekends of the season.

For Suffolk families, that means the practical response is not to wait for a headline-sized outbreak. It means checking for ticks after yardwork, landscaping, hiking and time in brush, and taking any fever, rash or unexplained fatigue after a bite seriously enough to seek medical care quickly.