Lyme Disease and the Plum Island Weaponized-Tick Claims
Plum Island's proximity to early recognized Lyme clusters and the history of military insect research underpin claims of a concealed laboratory contribution. Proponents differ: some allege an engineered Lyme organism, others altered ticks, accelerated spread or another hidden agent. A congressional request for answers was not a finding of release. Historical wildlife samples and genomic research place Borrelia long before the modern laboratory and challenge a recent single-source explanation without dismissing the real infection.