The Lyme Trials is an investigation into the current state of Lyme disease, as told through characters whose lives are entangled with the disease’s complicated past. To understand how we got here, we will retrace forty years of disputed scientific studies and legal battles. This debate among scientists and doctors, which most people are unaware of, has shaped a global controversy.

IN 1975

a cluster of children in Lyme, Connecticut fell ill with arthritis-like symptoms. 

Many people in the community had been complaining of similar aches and pain, but it was the children who raised a red flag.  
Local pediatricians diagnosed them with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, but their mothers were not convinced.  They demanded that this mysterious illness be investigated further, as they believed their town was suffering from something else—something new. 

We owe the discovery of Lyme disease to mothers, whose unrelenting advocacy caught the attention of Dr. Allen Steere—a medical student finishing his last year of residency at the Yale School of Medicine.  He investigated further and found 39 children all suffering from similar, inexplicable symptoms - swollen knees, paralysis, skin rashes, headaches and severe chronic fatigue.

His research led him to believe the disease was being spread by the bite of a tick, a poppy seed sized insect that was hiding in the woods of suburban Connecticut.  Not long after, the bacteria Borrellia Burgderfori was discovered in both ticks and patients, and it was given the name we know today:  Lyme disease.  From here, the narratives—and science—begin to dramatically diverge.

During the earliest clinical trials, a number of patients claimed the prescribed antibiotic treatment did not resolve their symptoms. The researchers took a different stance, however, and decided that Lyme disease is undoubtedly cured after four weeks of antibiotic treatment.  Those who did not recover, must suffer from something else—as Chronic Lyme disease does not exist.

These researchers quickly became—and remain—members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), a private, for-profit organization who is responsible for creating Lyme disease guidelines.  Their guidelines are the sole reference for defining, diagnosing and treating Lyme disease across the country, as they have been adopted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

With an endorsement from the CDC, the IDSA guidelines have become universal.  They are referred to on every continent.

While the medical establishment insists Lyme disease is not a serious threat, other doctors and scientists have seen patients progress a realm which mimics life-threatening illnesses including:  MS, ALS, heart failure and even Alzheimer's.  The debate between these two camps has become so contentious, that Lyme disease has created a scientific and medical impasse.

As the masses unite through the digital realm, a universal story emerges: without proper treatment, Lyme disease can become chronic—leading to disability, and even death.  Since 1975, a growing community has warned that our current approach is leading the world toward a pandemic.  Initially dismissed as a cry from the fringe, this warning has grown into a global chatter.

Now, 40 years later, it seems that we are reaching a tipping point.