Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons

By Kris Newby

Book Overview

A riveting thriller reminiscent of The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time--Lyme disease--and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons, and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today.

While on vacation on Martha's Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took ten doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year.

As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood, and its patients so mistreated. This quest led her to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe's discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War, and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong.

In a superb, meticulous work of narrative journalism, Bitten takes readers on a journey to investigate these claims, from biological weapons facilities to interviews with biosecurity experts and microbiologists doing cutting-edge research, all the while uncovering darker truths about Willy. It also leads her to uncomfortable questions about why Lyme can be so difficult to both diagnose and treat, and why the government is so reluctant to classify chronic Lyme as a disease.

A gripping, infectious page-turner, Bitten will shed a terrifying new light on an epidemic that is exacting an incalculable toll on us, upending much of what we believe we know about it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062896288
• ISBN13: 9780062896285
• Release Date: June 2020
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Easy to Read Mystery Book

I could not put this book down. It is super short and easy to read despite talking a lot about Biological subjects I know nothing about. There are emotional ups and downs and I really felt connected to all the characters, cheering her on as she tries to solve the Lyme mystery. I have pretty good ADHD and can't read very fast, so it's really impressive Kris Newby was able to get me to read this book without me getting distracting and giving up. I've started so many books and never finished them, but this was the first one I've finished in decades. I stick to non-fiction and controversial books usually diving into conspiracies and corruption, b/c those are way more interesting to me than some random fiction, and this book dives into all that but with good story telling. Overall, great book. If you or anyone you know has chronic sickness, this is a must-read. The author has done several interviews and podcasts too, so there are a lot of good resources for Lyme victims or anyone with a compromised immune system. You wont get any help from Big Pharma due to the patents and greed, so I always suggest alternative medicine. Spoiler Alert: She never officially solves the mystery, so the ending is disappointing. But we know Lyme is a combination of different parasites & the experts have testing patents, it's why patients have different symptoms and testing is incredibly difficult & expensive. We also know it was a bioweapon, we just dont know if it was a Russian or American weapon and how exactly Willy was involved. Still a great book on how we constantly shoot ourselves in the foot with medicine and technology.