Meredith Hodnock

By this point, scientists had learned a little more about the interplay between the immune system and the rare, treatment-resistant Lyme arthritis that had originally sparked confusion back in 1998.

They found that these patients were more genetically vulnerable to getting arthritis with or without getting Lyme disease, and that the Lyme disease antibodies weren't necessarily causing an autoimmune reaction.

I mean, scientists still don't fully understand all of the complexity of Lyme disease and the immune system, especially for people with chronic Lyme.

So while there were no absolute definitive answers, this research made the hypothetical connection between autoimmune arthritis and the vaccine even more tenuous.

Once again, the FDA found that Limericks was safe and effective, a recommended tool against a significant disease that was spreading fast.

But sales of the vaccine took a nosedive.

And by 2002, the Lyme vaccine just wasn't good business.

The drug company, now GlaxoSmithKline, after a merger, said that they were expecting so few sales that it just wasn't worth manufacturing the vaccine anymore.

They settled the lawsuits without admitting any wrongdoing and covered legal fees without paying any other damages.

It was like Limerick's had never happened.

Vijay was shocked.

What did we lose when we lost this vaccine in 2002?

Limericks wasn't a perfect vaccine, but now there are a lot of unanswered questions because of how it ended.

Questions that could have only been answered with follow-up studies and closely monitoring millions of people taking the vaccine.

And in a lot of ways, we're living in the shadow of Limericks.

This was a big win for the nascent anti-vax movement.

They had the power to face down a giant pharmaceutical company and get a vaccine pulled by going around the official government systems.

And now they are a big influence within those very same government systems.

For years, Limericks has been seen as a cautionary tale of science communication gone wrong.

How mixed messages can confuse people and lose the trust of communities that this science was supposed to help.