The DisInformation Chronicle Substack by Paul D. Thacker February 28, 2023

BOOK EXCERPT: “Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons” A riveting thriller reminiscent of “The Hot Zone,” this book dives into the mystery of Lyme disease—raising terrifying questions about government research and a tick-borne disease epidemic.

In 1968 there was a sudden outbreak of three unusual tick-borne diseases that sickened people living around Long Island Sound, an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean off the shores of New York and Connecticut. One of these diseases was Lyme arthritis, first documented near the township of Lyme, Connecticut. The other two were Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a bacterial disease, and babesiosis, a disease caused by a malaria-like parasite.

The investigations into these outbreaks were fragmented among multiple state health departments, universities, and government labs. It’s not clear if any officials were looking at the big picture, asking why these strange diseases had appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the same place and at the same time.

Thirteen years later, in 1981, a Swiss American tick expert named Willy Burgdorfer was the first to identify the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that caused the condition that we now call Lyme disease. The discovery made headlines around the world and earned Burgdorfer a place in the medical history books. As researchers the world over rushed back to their laboratories to learn as much as they could about this new organism, the two other disease outbreaks were all but forgotten.¹⁾