For its May 19 report, the Journal used 3,000 pages of internal government emails and to show how the nation’s premier public health agencies – the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health – aligned with one side in the Lyme disease debate while cutting out the other. Acting under the guise of science, government and outside scientists kept opposing Lyme views at bay through long-standing personal connections, the promise of publications in prestigious journals and the reward of federal grants. Other stories revealed paradigm shifts in Lyme care — as doctors rejected controversial guidelines — and used government documents and databases to count the toll of sickness and, sometimes, death from Lyme disease. Part 12 challenged a New England Journal of Medicine article on chronic Lyme disease; please see graphic.
