RFK Jr. wants Lyme disease diagnostic efforts to improve
Could RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel upend the hepatitis B vaccine?
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine advisory panel will debate and possibly delay a key immunization that protects babies from hepatitis B.
Heath Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised a renewed focus on the “diagnostic efforts” for tick-borne Lyme disease, describing it on Dec. 15 as an “invisible” illness that he claims has been ignored by previous White House administrations.
Kennedy made the comments as he convened a roundtable of patients and medical providers.
Just one year ago before he was confirmed as the health secretary in February, Kennedy promoted a conspiracy theory that Lyme disease is a militarily engineered bioweapon. In 2024, Kennedy said on his podcast that it was “highly likely” that Lyme disease was developed in a military lab on Long Island, New York.
“And we cannot say 100% for sure, but we do know that they were experimenting with ticks there,” he said.
He was asked about his comment about it being a “bioweapon” by Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado during his confirmation hearing in January.
“I probably did say that,” Kennedy responded.
His conspiracy theories claiming vaccines cause autism, linking antidepressants to school shootings and even suggesting WiFi causes cancer have alarmed healthcare professionals and Democratic lawmakers.
On Monday during the roundtable, Kennedy asserted – without proof – that officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had claimed Lyme disease “did not exist.”
The Center for Diseases Control and Prevention for years has published a web page devoted to Lyme disease, detailing symptoms and treatment. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded numerous projects for research into the disease, including five in 2023. The research is geared toward better understanding post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.
While the CDC doesn’t say that Lyme disease doesn’t exist, it “discourages the use of the term ‘Chronic Lyme disease’ because it implies that prolonged symptoms are caused by an ongoing bacterial infection.” which is not the case.
Instead, the CDC uses the term “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome” in patients who experience “lingering symptoms,” a practice which has been controversial.
“Lyme disease is an example of a chronic disease that has long been dismissed with patients receiving inadequate care,” he said, adding that he wanted to announce to the world “that the gaslighting of Lyme patients is over.”
Kennedy said one of his sons suffered facial paralysis for almost a year because of Lyme disease.
“You can imagine the heartache that that caused a parent,” he said. “It is an invisible illness. For many years, this agency had a deliberate policy to refuse to engage with the Lyme community, and there were top officials in this agency who were saying that Lyme disease did not exist.”
Kennedy asserted that patients’ concerns were dismissed, with several of the patients being sent to psychiatrists.
“You can’t imagine a worse combination,” he said. “These are people who genuinely are ill and are directed to find a psychiatric problem that is, that explains their symptoms.”
Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and spreads to humans through deer tick bites. It occurs most commonly in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, and upper Midwest regions, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Common symptoms include fever, headache and a skin rash. Left untreated, Lyme disease can lead to facial paralysis, irregular heartbeat and arthritis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases of Lyme disease can be successfully treated with a few weeks of antibiotics.
“I lived for 35 years in Bedford, New York, which is within the epicenter of Lyme disease,” said Kennedy. “Every member of my family has had Lyme disease.”
One of the providers who attended the roundtable said she was working on a rapid test for tick-borne diseases that could be completed in 20 minutes. She said she hopes it could be available to buy at a Walgreens.
Maine Senator Susan Collins, whose state has one of highest numbers of people diagnosed with Lyme disease, was among those who attended the roundtable.
“Early and accurate diagnosis can reduce costs and improve prognosis,” she said. “The problem, however, is that there are still few effective diagnostics on the market.”
Collins added that LymeX (Lyme Innovation Accelerator), a public-private partnership forged in 2020 between HHS and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation focusing on better diagnostics, has been crucial.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of National Institutes of Health, said that the agency wasconducting an “ongoing clinical study using neuro imaging and blood markers after treatment to assess mechanisms of neurological symptoms associated with Lyme.”
He said a Lyme disease framework would be launched in early 2026.
“The idea that Lyme is an intractable condition, that patients are just making things up. Those days are long gone,” said Bhattacharya. “We’re absolutely committed to making sure we do the, the gold standard signs to address your condition.”
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
link
