Is there any truth to the claim that Lyme Disease was developed as a bioweapon?

Important Points to Consider

Ticks are notorious for carrying harmful germs, including Lyme disease, which is the sixth-most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite being identified decades ago, it remains frequently misdiagnosed. Symptoms can include a growing rash on the body, joint pain, fatigue, chills, and fever. Some speculate whether the spread of Lyme disease could be linked to a classified, long-standing bioweapons program, or if ticks themselves are as effective at spreading misinformation as they are at spreading germs.

The topic of ticks as potential biological weapons resurfaced in July 2019, when U.S. Representative Chris Smith from New Jersey introduced a bill urging the Department of Defense to investigate allegations that the Pentagon conducted research on tick-based bioweapons in the mid-20th century. (The amendment passed.) Smith was motivated by several books and articles that suggested significant research was done at U.S. government sites like Fort Detrick in Maryland and Plum Island in New York to develop ticks and other insects as biological agents.

With Lyme disease and other tick-related diseases on the rise in the U.S. — with 300,000 to 437,000 new diagnoses each year and 10-20% of patients suffering from chronic Lyme disease — Americans deserve to know if these claims are true," said Smith during a floor debate in the House. "Could these experiments have caused Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases to mutate and spread more widely?"

Congressman Smith’s legislative push was partly inspired by the book "Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons," written by Kris Newby, a Stanford University science writer who also worked as a senior producer on the Lyme disease documentary "Under Our Skin."

In her book, Newby highlights that in 1953, the Biological Warfare Laboratories at Fort Detrick initiated a program to explore the use of arthropods (insects, crustaceans, and arachnids) as carriers for anti-personnel agents. The goal was to deploy slow-acting agents that would not incapacitate soldiers immediately but would make the environment hazardous for an extended period.

"The central idea of my book is that weaponized ticks, potentially carrying 'who knows what,' were accidentally released in the Long Island Sound region," Newby explains via email. While she acknowledges she could not definitively prove that Lyme bacteria were used as a bioweapon, she believes there are numerous startling findings and scientific clues that reveal hidden truths about tick-borne diseases and the government’s response. Her book suggests that scientist Willy Burgdorfer, credited with discovering the pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi that causes Lyme disease, was involved in several bioweapons projects. However, she refrains from claiming that his research was linked to the accidental release of a Lyme disease weapon into the environment.

The Case Against Lyme Disease as a Bioweapon

Considering America’s troubling history with unethical research, it is reasonable to question whether Lyme disease was unintentionally — or even deliberately — spread among the public. After all, the government conducted numerous germ warfare experiments and unethical studies on civilians in the mid-20th century.

However, the majority of experts assert that there's no need for further investigation. Philip J. Baker, the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, produced a comprehensive document debunking claims regarding Lyme disease being tied to bioweapons research. In this document, he demonstrated that both Lyme disease and the ticks that carry it had been present in the Northeast long before European settlers arrived on the continent, thousands of years ago.

"I believe it would be a total waste of taxpayer money for Congress to spend time looking into science fiction," says Baker in an email. His article emphasizes that pathogens considered for use in bioweapons are typically ones that cause rapid death or severe illness after release, which is not the case with the Lyme disease pathogen.

Furthermore, the notion that the government sought to weaponize Lyme-carrying ticks during the '50s and '60s doesn’t align with the timeline of the disease itself. Sam Telford, an expert in infectious disease and global health at Tufts University, pointed out in an article published in The Conversation that Lyme disease wasn’t even identified until 1981. It was then that Willy Burgdorfer identified spiral-shaped bacteria called spirochetes, which were later named the cause of Lyme disease.

"The real decisive evidence against the theory that Lyme disease in the U.S. was accidentally released from military bioweapons research is the fact that the first confirmed case of Lyme disease in the U.S. wasn't in Old Lyme, Connecticut, in the early 1970s," Telford wrote. "In 1969, a doctor in Spooner, Wisconsin, identified a case in a patient who had never left the area. Furthermore, Lyme disease was also reported in 1978 in northern California. How could a release have happened in three distinct locations? It couldn’t,"

According to Telford, the main factors driving the increase in Lyme disease are growing deer populations (which spread Lyme-carrying ticks), reforestation (especially in the northeastern U.S., where most Lyme cases are reported), and suburban expansion into forests (which brings humans into closer contact with ticks and wildlife carrying them), not a secret bioweapons program.

Weaponizing Ticks

While it is theoretically possible for an organization to weaponize ticks, it certainly isn't an easy task.

"Weaponizing virtually any biological agent requires a high level of expertise," says Kerry Clark, a professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the University of North Florida in an email. "The amount of expertise needed depends on the particular agent, its entire ecology and epidemiology, including properties like infectivity, pathogenicity, virulence, and, in this case, its ability to survive in and be transmitted by ticks."

Clark notes that ticks aren't the most ideal candidates for biological weapon delivery. They don’t usually do well in urban areas (where large populations reside), and since they feed slowly, people may notice them and remove them before they have a chance to transmit the disease.

"To weaponize ticks, one would need to raise and infect large quantities of them, and then find a way to expose a significant number of people to them in a short period of time. Dropping infected ticks from an airplane or drone doesn’t seem like an effective way to incapacitate a population with a bioweapon," he says. Additionally, "While Lyme borreliosis can cause severe illness in some cases, it does not incapacitate victims quickly or efficiently. Unless the agent is significantly altered from its natural form, it wouldn’t cause high mortality and might take months to lead to serious illness."

"Finally, it seems we are facing an epidemic of illnesses resembling Lyme disease in our country. I believe a significant portion of these illnesses stem from infections, with many potentially originating from tick bites. However, due to the broad range of symptoms and the difficulty of confirming an exact diagnosis through objective laboratory tests, I would caution that not all illnesses that resemble Lyme disease can be definitively attributed to Borrelia burgdorferi."

Clark suggests these illnesses may be caused by other tick-borne pathogens, or by infectious agents encountered through various means beyond tick bites.

The real takeaway, perhaps, is that despite the ongoing debate about a possible government cover-up or conspiracy, the critical issue is the fact that patients are still suffering, and the disease continues to spread. What we truly need, according to Clark, is "a significant increase in funding to explore the true origins of these illnesses and to develop more effective diagnostic tools and treatments."