In the Press...
Asbury Park Press article on Smith Lyme disease amendment'Is Lyme disease a military accident? New probe inspired by late Wall woman'By Jerry Carino After nearly a decade of trying, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., has gotten the green light for a federal investigation into whether the military weaponized ticks with Lyme disease as part of a Cold War experiment gone awry — furthering the spread and intensity of the illness, which has hit New Jerseyans particularly hard. Smith’s Lyme disease amendment, attached to the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 that was signed into law by President Donald Trump Dec. 18, directs the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to produce a report on the matter. The amendment flew under the media radar, but longtime Wall resident Rich Smith took notice. It’s another chapter in the legacy of his late wife, Pat Smith, who was one of the nation’s leading advocates for Lyme disease patients — in particular those who suffered from chronic or long-term Lyme. Pat Smith died in 2024 at age 78. “I think she would think it’s way past due and a very positive step in tracing the history of Lyme — one more step in the process of beating back this disease,” Rich Smith told the Asbury Park Press. “She’s smiling from above,” Chris Smith said. “She’s the pioneer.”
The challenge for Lyme patients In the 1980s, Lyme disease afflicted two of Pat and Rich Smith’s daughters, one of whom missed four years of school. Pat founded the nonprofit Lyme Disease Association and traveled the country to raise awareness. “She’s the one who got me into Lyme,” Chris Smith said. “She came to a town meeting in Wall in 1992 and said, ‘What are you doing about Lyme disease?’ I said ‘Nothing.’ We had lunch, and I’ve been working on it ever since.” Lyme disease affects nearly 500,000 people a year in the U.S., and New Jersey has the second-most diagnosed cases after Pennsylvania, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For many who are diagnosed promptly, the standard month-long course of antibiotics mitigates the illness. But detection is difficult and, for thousands of folks, the symptoms can continue for months or years. For these long-term sufferers, there has been little in the way of established treatment.
Pat Smith’s partnership with Chris Smith on the issue led to several laws funding Lyme research, and Pat Smith became part of a 14-person congressional working group on changes to federal Lyme disease policy. One thing that eluded them was probing the belief that Lyme’s explosion in the latter decades of the 20th century had military origins. Two prior amendments to that effect by Chris Smith passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate in 2017 and 2019. The theory gained steam in 2019 with the publishing of the book “Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons” by Stanford University-based science writer and chronic Lyme sufferer Kris Newby. “With this new GAO report, we will have both a public report and where necessary, one that is confidential and that hopefully will allow unfettered access to the files about what we (the U.S. Department of Defense) were doing,” Chris Smith said. “If it’s not an issue, the investigation will prove that and we’ll turn the page.” 'Quite a testament' Specifically, Chris Smith’s amendment compels the Comptroller General of the United States to review research conducted by the military, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies between the period of Jan. 1, 1945 and Dec. 31, 1972, regarding experiments involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales — two forms of tick-borne bacteria. The idea behind the investigation, Chris Smith said, is that “an enhanced understanding of how Lyme came to be will only assist in finding a cure for this debilitating disease.” Rich Smith said the amendment’s passage is “quite a testament” to his wife’s legacy. “I’m very heartened by this,” he said. “This woman devoted every spare second, everything she had, to make sure other parents didn’t go through this with their children.” |
