In this gripping interview, award-winning science writer Kris Newby—author of Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons and senior producer of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Under Our Skin—joins the Tick Boot Camp Podcast to break down the explosive research behind one of the most controversial questions in infectious disease: Could Lyme disease have originated from a Cold War biological weapons program?

Newby shares the personal nightmare that began with a family vacation to Martha’s Vineyard, a tick bite that led to misdiagnosis by 10 doctors, years of disability, and a desperate search for answers. That search led her to the discoverer of the Lyme microbe, Willy Burgdorfer, whose private admissions, lab notebooks, and classified connections ignited a five-year investigation into covert military experiments, missing pathogens, and a disease that behaves like an engineered infection.

This episode is essential listening for anyone seeking clarity on Lyme disease origins, diagnostic failures, chronic illness, bioweapons history, and what patients must know to protect themselves now.

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Key Topics Discussed

Kris Newby’s Background

• Raised in a military family; two engineering degrees; tech career at Bell Labs, Convergent Technologies, Apple, and Silicon Valley startups

• Successful science/tech writer at Stanford Medical School

• Life trajectory changed by one tick bite on Martha’s Vineyard

• Months of debilitating illness leading to bankruptcy-level medical costs and dismissal by mainstream doctors

The Medical Odyssey

• 10 doctors, 12 months, $60,000 before receiving an accurate diagnosis

• Positive Lyme tests ignored; Western blot results withheld

• Vaccine-era politics, IDSA guidelines, and insurance pressures preventing proper treatment

• How ILADS clinicians use multi-drug protocols, detoxification, and co-infection testing to treat complex mixed infections

• Her and her husband’s long recovery path, neurological symptoms, relapse cycles, and the role of IV antibiotics

Bitten: The Investigation

• The secretive interview with Willy Burgdorfer—his anger, guilt, and cryptic “I didn’t tell you everything”

• Confirmation that Burgdorfer developed bug-borne biological weapons for the U.S. military

• Groundbreaking evidence that Lyme’s original outbreak involved multiple pathogens, possibly including a rickettsial agent (“Swiss Agent USA”) buried from public knowledge

• Discrepancies between what the public was told vs. what lab notebooks and internal communications reveal

• How Cold War programs weaponized ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes for “stealth” incapacitating warfare

• Open-air biological tests in the U.S. and Cuba, and missing pathogens from military freezers

• Why chronic Lyme may persist: false negatives, ignored co-infections, engineered stealth microbes, and political suppression

The Fallout

• Why the epidemic exploded around Long Island Sound in the late 1960s

• How early containment failed due to scientific suppression

• Why CDC surveillance has underestimated true case counts for decades

• The cost of a half-century cover-up on U.S. public health

Patient Empowerment & Prevention

• What to do immediately after a tick bite

• How to choose a truly experienced Lyme-literate clinician

• Why early, aggressive treatment is critical

• The essential role of detox, gut support, and lifestyle stabilization

• Her call to action for researchers, policymakers, and the medical system

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About Kris Newby

Kris Newby is an award-winning science writer and senior producer of the Lyme documentary UNDER OUR SKIN, which premiered at Tribeca and became a 2010 Oscar semifinalist. Her book BITTEN won multiple international awards in investigative reporting and narrative nonfiction. Newby has written for Stanford Medical School, Apple, and leading science magazines, and she holds engineering degrees from the University of Utah and Stanford University.

Selected Awards

• 2024: CASE Gold Award, AAMC Gold Award & Best-of-Show (Stanford Medicine Magazine)

• 2021: Nellie Bly Award, 1st Place, Investigative Journalism — BITTEN

• 2020: International Book Award, Narrative Nonfiction (Gold) — BITTEN

• 2020: Nautilus Book Award, Investigative Reporting (Silver) — BITTEN

• Multiple writing awards from AAMC, CASE, Longreads, and Stanford Medicine Magazine

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Why You Need to Hear This Episode

This interview dismantles the mythology around Lyme disease, explains why diagnostic tests fail millions, exposes critical gaps in public health policy, and outlines what patients must do to avoid chronic illness.

It’s also a rare, candid look into the life of the woman whose research shook the medical establishment—and why the U.S. still hasn’t answered the most important question of all:

What exactly is in those ticks?