Bitten

The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons

By: Kris Newby

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 5 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

A riveting thriller reminiscent of The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time - Lyme disease - and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today.

While on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took 10 doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year.

As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood and its patients so mistreated. This quest led her to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe’s discoverer, who revealed he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong.

In a superb, meticulous work of narrative journalism, Bitten takes listeners on a journey to investigate these claims, from biological weapons facilities to interviews with biosecurity experts and microbiologists doing cutting-edge research, all the while uncovering darker truths about Willy. It also leads her to uncomfortable questions about why Lyme can be so difficult to both diagnose and treat and why the government is so reluctant to classify chronic Lyme as a disease.

A gripping, infectious pause-resister, Bitten will shed a terrifying new light on an epidemic that is exacting an incalculable toll on us, upending much of what we believe we know about it.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Kris Newby (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

awesome. important info. everyone needs to read

loved it. important info. everyone needs to know. breakthrough stuff. shocking but well researched. glad I listened

Thought Provoking

Entertaining and informative.While some of it seems difficult to believe, it still contains a lot of useful information on lyme disease. The facts wrapped in a conspiracy were also far easier to digest then your average medical text. Though it still provides little to no information on how the bacteria behave within the body, information which would tell us why our bodies react to it the way they do. Critical information for anyone looking to help cure the disease. Still it was captivating until the very end.

good read

very interesting! a lot I didnt know before. having suffered from lymes, I found this book intriguing.

Shocking and Horrifying Evidence....

...that the US government engineered Lyme Disease. This book details a tremendous amount of research including interviews with and confessions by Dr. William Burgdorfer, the discoverer of Lyme Disease, about his involvement in developing Bioweapons for the US government during the Cold War. I highly recommend this book. I couldn't put it down. I will never look at a tick the same way again.

As for the narration, it's good, but there were times where I felt that the voice seemed robotic and almost computer generated, but definitely don't let this deter you -- you'll soon forget due to the riveting nature of the content.

Gripping and disturbing.

A must listen for anyone who goes outside or knows anyone with lime disease. Basically, anyone in America it Europe.

Excellent, Factual, and Brilliantly done!

Excellent, Factual, and Brilliantly done! I, being a Lyme disease patient, was immersed in the medical facts and where science has taken us to. Grateful for this book and how it’s helped me understand more than ever before.

Must read!

Well documented account of the genesis of a disease that has harmed millions. Shines a light on the dangers of bio weapons research and offers a plausible explanation for the possible causes of the current public health crisis often referred to as “the pandemic”.

I’m 100% glad I read it!

Lyme is a serious illness so I went to the VA to get checked , Negative!

Interesting and Scary - but with caveats.

This is an interesting and scary story that reminds me of DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, only instead of hopping between a serial killer and the Columbia Exposition, this hops between the authors struggles with chronic Lyme symptoms and a scientists mysterious bio-weapon research after WWII. The only problem is, as non-fiction, I think the story makes a bold case that the current Lyme symptoms might be brought on by poor experimental control with live tick-releases. I suspect that the average casual listener will find this very compelling but key questions about the premise are not addressed. For example, do ticks make good disease distribution vectors? Don't confuse the availability heuristic with high efficacy. And it seems to be implying that the Lyme disease outbreaks were first observed after these experiments - but that's not true either. My concern isn't that the material in the book is *wrong* so much as that in an effort to make it an interesting story, the author has inadvertently made a misleading story.

Accurate, solid, informative

I listened to the entire book in one day. Lyme is a lifetime burden for too many people to pretend like it doesn’t exist. Let’s get it out in the open and deal with it’s many complexities. Instead of prosecuting the whistleblowers, the scientists complicit in the coverup should be prosecuted.