The Secret History of Lyme Disease the US Government Doesn’t Want You to Know

July 21, 2026

The secret history of Lyme disease the US government doesn’t want you to know | Unreported

Jun 17, 2026 Unreported with Meagan Medick

Nearly half a million Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year, and ER tick bite visits are hitting the highest levels since 2017. So why does it feel like nobody is sounding the alarm? And why is Congress now ordering a federal watchdog to dig through decades of classified Cold War military records searching for answers?

In this episode of “Unreported,” Meagan Medick sits down with author Kris Newby, who wrote “Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons” and is a senior producer on the Oscar semi-finalist documentary “Under Our Skin.” Together, they examine documented evidence that the U.S. government experimented on ticks as potential Cold War bioweapons, the whistleblower testimony of the scientist who discovered Lyme disease and why a mystery organism he identified in the original ticks was quietly removed from his discovery paper.

They also dig into the Lone Star tick experiments that may have seeded the Northeast with nonnative species, the rise of meat allergies and why a new Lyme vaccine is already raising red flags. Plus: what the Cold War records investigation in Congress could uncover and who controls what gets released.

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Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks, Transmission

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