Health security

The Lyme Wars: Meet The Players

Whether you know it or not, there has been a fierce battle — called “The Lyme Wars” by everyone from The New Yorker to NPR to Dutch scientific researchers — for at least a decade. Lyme disease arguably is politicized as much as AIDS was when it emerged in the 1980s, and the warriors for the most part fall on one of two sides.

First, a disclaimer: Given that many news stories like this one present the there-is-no-chronic-Lyme opinion authoritatively, without discussing counterarguments and without stating any inherent financial or other conflicts of interest, I will state up front that as someone who has lived with long-term, progressive damage to my health from Lyme disease, my bias is that chronic Lyme disease exists. It exists in my reality and in my body, and it has responded mostly favorably to various treatments that not all patients can access or afford.