Good journalism on chronic Lyme pseudoscience

New York Magazine/The Cut: What Happens When Lyme Disease Becomes an Identity?
Boston Globe: Is ‘chronic Lyme disease’ real?
60 Minutes: A Prescription For Death? Did Alternative Treatment Lead To Patient’s Death?
New York Times: Stalking Dr. Steere Over Lyme Disease (paywall-free link, mirror)
New York Times: My Son Got Lyme Disease. He’s Totally Fine (paywall-free link)
New York Times Ethicist: What to Do About a Physician Who May Be a Quack (paywall-free link)
Bloomberg Businessweek: Dubious Alternative Lyme Treatments Are Killing Patients
Chicago Tribune: Chronic Lyme disease: A dubious diagnosis
Chicago Tribune: ‘Lyme-literate’ doctor in Illinois, Iowa faces fresh allegations
Chicago Tribune: Lyme doctor with troubled past offers controversial treatment
Metro: Woman underwent years of treatment for Lyme disease and needed a wheelchair – but her life was a lie
Mother Jones: Is Romney Using Lyme Disease to Win Swing State Votes?
Slate: Why Is Romney Campaigning on Medical Quackery?
Slate: Lyme-Illiterate: New York is about to change its medical misconduct law to protect quacks.
Slate: The New York Times Teaches the Controversy: Both sides are not equal when it comes to chronic Lyme disease.
Slate: Still in the Lyme Light: Politicians and Hollywood enter the debate over “chronic Lyme disease.’
Room for Debate at the New York Times: Antibiotics Are Not the Cure for ‘Chronic’ Lyme Symptoms
Washington Post: Dangerous unproven treatments for ‘chronic Lyme disease’ are on the rise (paywall-free link)
Washington Post: A GOP lawmaker thinks rise in Lyme disease is due to a secret tick experiment. A scientist squashes that idea. (paywall-free link)
British Medical Journal: Sixty seconds on . . . Lyme disease
Forbes: Lyme Inc.
Forbes: Alternative Lyme Disease Doctors Are Still Wrong
Health.com: “Chronic Lyme Disease” Isn’t a Real Diagnosis. So Why Are Doctors Prescribing Risky Treatment for It?
Health.com: Is Lyme Disease Curable?
Jezebel: How Celebrities Are Changing the Way We See Chronic Lyme
Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. woman says she was sickened by risky Lyme treatment
Houston Press: Here’s Why Authorities Want to Stop the Sale of Jim Humble’s Miracle Cure
The Daily Beast: Predator Doctors Take Advantage of Patients With ‘Chronic Lyme’ Scam
The Daily Beast: Real Housewife, Fake Disease
VICE News/MedPage Today: If You Think You Have Chronic Lyme Disease, Most Doctors Say You’re Wrong
VICE: The Doctor Can Heal You Now (Exposé of Marvin Rick Sponaugle)
Buzzfeed: Lawmakers Want The Pentagon To Investigate A Bizarre Conspiracy Theory That The Government Weaponized Ticks And Spread Lyme Disease
Undark: In France’s Battles Over Lyme Disease, Lessons in Science Communication
Skepchick: Lil Nas X Got Fooled by the “Chronic Lyme Disease” Scam
Ars Technica: Report reveals years of suffering, death from therapies for “chronic Lyme”
Steven Salzberg, PhD in Forbes: Long-Term Antibiotic Use For Lyme Disease Doesn’t Work, Study Finds
Microbe: Lyme Disease—the Public Dimension
Dr. Brad McKay: Why thousands of Aussies claim to have Lyme disease
ScienceNews: Five reasons to not totally panic about ticks and Lyme disease
Reading Eagle: ‘Chronic Lyme disease’ a troubling diagnosis
Healio: Confronting the misnomer of ‘chronic’ Lyme disease
Healio: Few Connecticut primary care physicians diagnose, treat chronic Lyme disease
The State: ‘We were suckered in,’ widow says of doctor
The Chronicle Herald: Experts warn of Internet ‘cures’ for Lyme disease
Cassandra Willyard: The Pseudoscience of Chronic Lyme
Emily Willingham: Pseudoscience Alert: Lyme-Induced Autism
The Outline: Dear Fuck-Up: I don’t think my friend’s chronic illness is real. Is this the end of our friendship?
Montreal Gazette: The chronic Lyme disease debate is not for the faint-hearted
Folio: 3 surprising facts about Lyme disease
Berkeley Wellness: Chronic Lyme Disease: What to know
Harvard Health Letter: Lyme disease: spurious cures
CTV/The Canadian Press: From urine therapy to vitamins: study warns of untested Lyme disease ‘cures’
CMAJ: Combatting Lyme disease myths and the “chronic Lyme industry”
New Haven Register: Confusion, myths live on about Lyme disease
New England Health Advisory: Chronic Lyme Disease: Belief Over Science
MedPage Today: Docs Organize to Promote Unproven Therapies They Believe In
Katie Paulson: Woman’s Death Connected to Internet Self-Diagnosis
AthenaInsight: The pediatrician’s new struggle over Lyme disease
Erin Stewart: Anti-vax, anti-science and the pitfalls of sharing a ‘rare’ condition with a celebrity
WebMD: Lyme Disease and Violence: No Link
CBC Radio: Ombudman’s response to a conspiracy theorist
CBC: Doctor who offers unapproved fecal transplants in B.C. says he’s a ‘maverick’
Univadis: RCP 2018 – ‘Parallel Universe’ has developed around Lyme disease
Beth Daley and colleagues writing for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting and Boston Globe, resulting in Daley winning a journalism award
- Can you trust Lyme Disease tests?
- Testing labs agree to pay $8.5 million to settle U.S. false billing claims
- Lyme disease FAQ
- Many tests to diagnose Lyme, but no proof they work
- Study finds cancer diagnoses delayed because of chronic Lyme misdiagnosis
- Drawing the lines in the Lyme disease battle
- Relative’s illness spurred examination of Lyme disease
- Video: Can you trust Lyme disease tests?
- Video: Extended Interview with Andrew Onderdonk
USA Today/Burlington Free Press: A single drop of blood: No research or FDA approval behind doctor’s testing methods
Microbe: Lyme Disease—the Public Dimension
Medscape: Judge Dismisses Lyme Disease Lawsuit Against IDSA, Doctors, but the Ordeal Has Left Its Scars
Medscape: Lyme Culture Test Causes Uproar
Nigel Hawkes: Sixty seconds on . . . Lyme disease
The Gateway: Canadians are seeking alternative medical treatment for Lyme disease in Mexico
Thom Barker: Thinking Critically – Ticked off by flawed Lyme disease bill

PANDAS/PANS

Spectrum: How a controversial condition called PANDAS is gaining ground on autism

French/Français

Le blog de Suzanne Ruhlmann: Debatbiomed
Index from Science et pseudo-sciences: « Maladie de Lyme : et si le scandale était ailleurs ? » (Lyme disease: what if the scandal was elsewhere? )
JIM: La face cachée des “Lyme Doctors”, (The hidden side of the “Lyme Doctors”), 2017-07-08
Science et pseudo-sciences: Les « Lyme doctors » : un risque pour les patients (“Lyme doctors”: a risk for patients), 2017-12-13
Science et pseudo-sciences: La maladie de Lyme : entre psychose et fausses informations (Lyme disease: between psychosis and false information), 2017-06-27
Science et pseudo-sciences: Le point de vue d’un praticien (The point of view of a practitioner), 2017-10-17
Science et pseudo-sciences: Un médecin peut-il prescrire librement ce qu’il veut ? (Can a doctor freely prescribe what he wants?), 2024-01-04
Science et pseudo-sciences book reviews:
- L’affaire de la maladie de Lyme – Une enquête (The Lyme Disease Case – An Investigation), 2017-03-20
- Maladie de Lyme – Réalité ou imposture? (Review of Lyme Disease – Reality or Fake?), 2021-07-25
- La vérité sur la maladie de Lyme (Review of “The truth about Lyme disease” by Christian Perronne), 2017-10-16
- Le livre noir de l’autisme (The Black Book of Autism), 2021-04-18
- L’arbre du complotisme et la forêt de la désinformation (The tree of conspiracy and the forest of disinformation), 2020-12-02
Science et pseudo-sciences: Covid-19: l’Afis condamne les graves dérapages du Pr Perronne relayés par plusieurs grands médias (Covid-19: Afis condemns the serious slippages of Professor Perronne relayed by several major media), 2020-06-22
Science et pseudo-sciences: Maladie de Lyme La loi peut-elle dire la science à l’encontre du consensus scientifique et au mépris de l’intérêt des patients ? (Lyme disease: Can the law state science against scientific consensus and in disregard of the interests of patients?), 2019-10-08
Science et pseudo-sciences: Maladie de Lyme : quand il devient impossible d’informer (Lyme disease: when it becomes impossible to inform), 2019-07-11
Science et pseudo-sciences: Maladie de Lyme (prolongations, octobre 2016) (Lyme disease extensions, October 2016), 2019-04-22
Science et pseudo-sciences: Maladie de Lyme (prolongations, juillet 2018) (Lyme disease extensions, July 2018), 2019-02-17
Science et pseudo-sciences: Le vrai scandale de la maladie de Lyme (The real scandal of Lyme disease), 2017-10-30
Science et pseudo-sciences: Maladie de Lyme : L’Obs a retrouvé le coupable (Lyme disease: L’Obs found the culprit), 2016-10-18
La Presse: Docteur K (Amir Khadir), 2019-06-18
La Presse: Maladie de Lyme: gare à l’alchimie législative (Lyme disease: beware of legislative alchemy, featuring Maureen McShane), 2019-06-20
La Presse: Maladies transmises par les tiques | Mise en garde contre certains tests américains (Tick-borne diseases: Warning against certain American tests)
La Presse: Primum non nocere
Scientifique en chef du Québec/Agence Science-Presse: Séparer le fait de l’opinion: le cas de la maladie chronique de Lyme, 2019-06-28
Le Journal du Dimanche: La maladie de Lyme en sept questions
Le Journal du Dimanche: Maladie de Lyme, le complotisme appliqué aux acariens
Radio Canada: Un autre cas de pseudo-science (Another case of pseudo-science)
Voir aussi les articles sur Psiram.com
Rue89 Strasbourg: Suzanne Ruhlmann, lanceuse d’alerte alsacienne sur les faux traitements pour « guérir » l’autisme (Suzanne Ruhlmann, Alsatian whistleblower on false treatments to “cure” autism), 2022-02-14

Danish/Dansk

TV2: “Fraud or Lyme Disease”
Videnskab.dk: Danskere snydes af dårlige borrelia-test i udlandet (Danes are cheated by poor borrelia tests abroad)

Dutch/Nederlands

Zembla: Undercover in de Duitse Lyme-kliniek (Undercover in the German Lyme Clinic)
Dutch News: This season I will suffer from…electrosensitivity
NRC: Leven met lyme – of is het een andere ziekte? (Living with lyme – or is it another disease?)
Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij
- Lyme Zelfhulpgroep verhuurt vreemde apparaten (Lyme Self-Help Group rents strange devices), 2019-12-02
- Lymepatiënten houden kwakzalvers in leven met fundraising (Lyme patients keep quacks alive with fundraising), 2018-01-02
- Rechters makkelijke prooi voor Lymekwakzalvers (Judges easy prey for Lyme quacks), 2017-11-27
- Lyme-‘held’ Geert Kingma gebruikt onbetrouwbare test (Lyme ‘hero’ Geert Kingma uses unreliable test), 2017-05-12
- Wageningen-hoogleraar Huub Savelkoul opnieuw in de fout (Wageningen professor Huub Savelkoul at fault again), 2016-05-11
- Zembla: Duitse Lyme-testen deugen niet (Zembla: German Lyme tests are wrong), 2017-10-20
Articles and Video at De Monitor
- Lyme: een doolhof online (Lyme: a maze online)
- Held van Lyme-patiënten Geert Kingma prijst onbetrouwbare test aan (Hero of Lyme patients Geert Kingma praises unreliable test)
- De Lyme-lobby: uiterst invloedrijk, nooit tevreden (The Lyme lobby: extremely influential, never satisfied)
- Duits lab belooft 100 procent betrouwbare test op ziekte van Lyme (German lab promises 100 percent reliable test for Lyme disease)
- Lyme disease (25 minute video)

Spain/España

El confidencial: La falsa enfermedad de Lyme: no, Justin, una garrapata no tiene la culpa de tus mareos

Italy/Italia

OggiScienzia: Bismuto contro il morbo di Lyme (Bismuth against Lyme disease)

Radio and Podcasts

WXXI News (NPR affiliate): Connections: Discussing the spread of – and controversy surrounding – Lyme disease
Science Vs: Lyme Disease: How Scary Is It? (transcript with citations)
This Podcast Will Kill You: Lyme Disease: I’d like to check you for ticks
Dr. Nikki Stamp and Pixie Turner: (Un)Well 05: Bee Stings: The Bees Knees?
Unbiased Science: In the Lyme Light: Beyond The Tick Bite (Part 1 | Part 2)

Books

Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine: Chapter on Chronic Lyme by Dr. Paul Offit (Wikipedia, WorldCat, Google Books, Amazon)
Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis: Chapter on Chronic Lyme by Dr. Lisa Sanders (Wikipedia, WorldCat, Google Books, Amazon)
Snowball in a Blizzard: A Physician’s Notes on Uncertainty in Medicine by Dr. Steven Hatch (WorldCat, Google Books, Amazon)
Lyme Disease: An Evidence-Based Approach, 1st edition, edited by Dr. John Jay Halperin (WorldCat, Google Books, Amazon)
- Free download: Chapter 17: Lyme disease: The Great Controversy
- Free download: Chapter 4: Laboratory Diagnostic Testing for Borrelia burgdorferi Infection
Lyme Disease: An Evidence-Based Approach, 2nd edition, edited by Dr. John Jay Halperin (WorldCat, Google Books, Amazon)