HHS Secretary Kennedy Takes Aim at Lyme Disease

By Adam Garrie, The MAHA Report

On Monday, with the goal to find new ways to fight tick-borne Lyme disease, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hosted a roundtable featuring some of the country’s top researchers, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, clinicians, and elected officials.

In opening remarks, Kennedy said previous health officials have ignored the dangers of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted to humans via deer ticks. Those ticks were, for him and his family, an unwanted presence, especially during the 35 years when he and his late wife raised their children near Bedford, NY. An outdoorsman his entire life, Kennedy said finding a solution to Lyme disease, a public health problem never given the urgency it deserves, has been an issue close to his heart.

According to the CDC, 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease every year.

“One of the reasons we wanted to host this meeting, as I made clear, is to announce to the world that the gaslighting of Lyme patients is over,” Kennedy said.

During the roundtable discussion, Kennedy announced he was renewing the LymeX Innovation Accelerator – a $10 million initiative to advance artificial intelligence tools “that support earlier and more accurate detection across stages of infection.” The LymeX will advance patient-centered innovation and next-generation diagnostics by incorporating the latest AI meditech.

“Lyme and COVID are the number six and seven, respectively, chronic diseases in this country after diabetes, obesity, cardiac disease,” Kennedy said. “So, the burden is enormous. And the economic costs have not been quantified anywhere, but as Dr. Oz said, there are all kinds of collateral costs. When people can’t work, when families are destroyed. And I’ve seen the pressure that it puts on families ….”

In an email to The MAHA Report, Amy Sapola, a clinical pharmacist (and a MAHA Report Contributor), wrote, “Lyme disease is not theoretical to me. I have witnessed close family friends and far too many patients whose lives were slowly unraveled by debilitating joint pain, inflammation, and neurological symptoms—only to be told it couldn’t be Lyme because the tests were negative or because clinicians were reluctant to treat beyond narrow guidelines. When you see that kind of suffering up close, you realize this is not simply a diagnostic gap, but a systemic failure.”

Continued Sapola, “I am deeply grateful to see HHS taking this issue seriously and listening to the patients and clinicians who have been calling for better tools, more rigorous research, and meaningful care for decades. This moment gives me real hope that we are finally moving toward more accurate diagnosis and more effective treatment.”

Dr. Oz joined Kennedy in committing to giving those afflicted with tick-borne Lyme disease the care they deserve.

Jim O’Neill, HHS Deputy Secretary and acting Director of the CDC, added, “All of us at HHS are working hard to fulfill all 120 commitments from [the MAHA Commission Strategy Report]. One of those directives calls on HHS to use artificial intelligence to reduce the economic burden of chronic disease, and this event shows that we’re not waiting until the New Year to act.”