On July 17, the Washington Post reported on the House of Representatives’ recent request for an investigation into allegations that Lyme disease may have been weaponized. New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith cited the recent book, BITTEN, when he proposed the amendment to Defense Department funding. In the Post’s article, reporter Morgan Krakow quotes a scientist as saying “there’s just no credible evidence,” pointing to weaponizing ticks or Willy Burgdorfer’s involvement with such a project.

BITTEN’s author, Kris Newby sent the following response to the Post. It is republished here with her permission.

I’m the author of BITTEN, an engineer by training, a Stanford science writer by profession, and a lover of getting the facts right.

My first real job was as a Washington Post papergirl during the unfolding of the Watergate scandal. Every morning around 5 a.m., before I stuffed newspapers into the wire baskets of my royal-blue-fat-tire Schwinn bike, I was thrilled to be the first in my neighborhood to read the latest revelations from the Watergate reporters, Woodward and Bernstein.

They were my heroes, role models who in some small way led me to this point in life, when I was able to reveal a major finding, the weaponization of ticks during the Cold War.

In my book, I present ample evidence that accidents associated with this massive bioweapons program may have contributed to the mysterious epidemic of tick-borne diseases that was first noticed around Long Island Sound in the late 1960s.