Meredith Hodnock

He was particularly focused on how Lyme disease impacted the immune system.

He noticed some cases where people with Lyme disease developed arthritis that was resistant to treatment with antibiotics.

And he thought the immune system might be involved.

It was pretty rare.

We're talking about a fraction of a fraction of a percent of people with Lyme disease.

And Dr. Steer wanted the FDA panel to know because he thought an even smaller subset of these rare patients with vulnerable immune systems might react differently to the vaccine.

even though the study showed that for thousands of patients, the vaccinated groups and placebo groups didn't have any significant difference in arthritis side effects.

So what did this mean for the vaccine and autoimmune arthritis?

The FDA panel wanted more clarity and asked for additional testing on long-term safety, but ultimately they concluded the vaccine was safe and effective.

Later that year, the vaccine, branded with the name Limericks, was approved by the FDA.

But the questions from the advisory panel meeting haunted the vaccine.

That's after the break.

There were two things that changed the course of vaccine medicine in the late 90s.

First, a British medical journal published a small, now very soundly debunked study connecting the MMR vaccine to childhood autism.

And then just a few months later, another childhood vaccine, this one against rotavirus, was taken off the market because it had a rare but dangerous side effect.

And so the public perception of bad vaccines took off.

This was the beginning of the modern anti-vax movement.

And the newly approved Lyme disease vaccine, Lymerix, was one of their first targets.

Scientists were still digging into how the immune system was connected to chronic Lyme symptoms like arthritis.

And so the FDA and the drug company wanted to keep close tabs on a vaccine that used the immune system to fight Lyme disease.