A biochemist has claimed to have found evidence that the modern Lyme outbreak in the US could have been the result of CIA bioweapon experiments.
Dr Robert Malone, who helped lay the groundwork for mRNA vaccine technology, made the explosive allegations this week after analyzing declassified government documents, historical records from Cold War biological weapons programs and scientific research on tick-borne diseases.
Malone highlighted experiments in the 1960s that allegedly released more than 282,000 radioactive ticks in Virginia and open-air tick research at Plum Island, a federal laboratory located near the Connecticut community where Lyme disease was first identified.
The experiments were designed to track how disease-carrying ticks spread through the environment, with scientists marking the parasites using radioactive Carbon-14 so their movements could be detected with Geiger counters, a portable, gas-filled instrument.
Malone's report argued the research was part of a much larger Cold War biological weapons program known as Project 112, which involved dozens of secret tests aimed at studying how insects could be used to spread pathogens.
The program, authorized by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1962, oversaw 134 planned tests and included facilities capable of breeding millions of infected insects each week.
According to the report, the same region where these experiments took place later experienced an unprecedented surge in tick-borne illnesses.
Malone's claims follow calls from US officials to investigate whether federal agencies experimented with pathogen-laden ticks as tools of war.
In the US, between 30,000 and 40,000 cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed annually and reported to the CDC. The illness is spread by infected ticks biting mammals.
In December 2025, an amendment by New Jersey Representative Chris Smith called for a review of military, NIH and USDA projects from 1945 to 1972 involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales, bacteria linked to tick-borne diseases.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has also suggested Lyme disease may have originated from a failed US bioweapons program in the 1970s tied to research at Plum Island.
Plum Island is an 840-acre island off the northeastern coast of Long Island, New York, and home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a government lab used since the 1950s to study infectious animal diseases.
However, the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly said Lyme disease was never studied at the facility.
Malone's report also claims key research into a second tick-borne pathogen may have been suppressed.
He alleged the government sidelined research on a pathogen known as the 'Swiss Agent,' which was detected in Lyme patients in Europe during the 1970s.
Malone, an expert in biology who earned multiple degrees at the University of California, also accused the government of suppressing research on a second disease called the 'Swiss Agent' found in Lyme patients in Europe in the 1970s.
Unpublished papers from Willy Burgdorfer, the scientist who discovered the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, suggested the pathogen complicated treatment because it triggered persistent symptoms that did not respond to standard antibiotics.
Documents obtained by journalist and author Kris Newby revealed the Pentagon's plan to use Biological Weapons (BW) and Chemical Weapons (CW) on communist-controlled Cuba.
Documents obtained by journalist and author Kris Newby suggested that the plans for Operation Mongoose were eventually called off because of weather conditions.
Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, reportedly affects 30,000 to 40,000 people annually according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the agency estimates the true number of infections may be as high as 476,000 annually.
Along with a telltale rash around the bite, symptoms often include fever, fatigue, and muscle aches, but severe and untreated cases can also lead to fatal complications like heart problems, neurological issues, and brain inflammation.
Malone's claims focused on his analysis of the archived records as well as alleged confessions by Burgdorfer himself, which appeared in journalist Kris Newby's book 'Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons.'
Malone argued that infecting ticks with multiple pathogens, including the so-called Swiss Agent, may have complicated diagnosis and treatment for patients exposed to tick bites.
Swiss Agent, known by scientists as Rickettsia helvetica, is related to another tick-borne bacterium called Rocky Mountain spotted fever. It can cause mild to moderate flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, and fatigue.
Malone concluded that there was a 45 percent likelihood that the secret tick experiments and the omission of the 'Swiss Agent' discovery from Burgdorfer's original 1982 Lyme discovery paper contributed to the disease reaching epidemic levels in the US.
'Burgdorfer's notes indicate he was "told to omit the presence of at least one potential bioweapon" during the Lyme investigation,' Malone wrote in an article on his Substack.
'Swiss Agent suppression for 40+ years demonstrates systematic institutional willingness to conceal public health information.'
The Daily Mail has reached out to the CIA for comment regarding the declassified reports and claims of accidental exposures in the US.
In Cuba, under CIA-led Operation Mongoose, operatives reportedly dropped boxes of infected ticks from aircraft onto sugarcane workers to sabotage the economy, though the operation was said to have been quickly canceled due to risks like shifting winds.
The purpose of these operations was to create insect-based bioweapons during the Cold War, aiming to incapacitate communist adversaries by spreading illnesses such as anthrax or dengue without engaging in an actual war.
These events allegedly took place mainly from the 1950s to the 1970s, with Operation Mongoose specifically occurring in 1962, and domestic tick releases happening between 1966 and 1969.
The 282,800 ticks let loose in Virginia during these years were irradiated with the non-harmful isotope Carbon-14, which allowed scientists to track how far they could spread as local birds carried the insects during their migrations.
Some events have been verified through declassified documents found in the CIA and National Archives, confirming the existence of bioweapons programs like Project 112 and Mongoose's sabotage plans.
However, the claims that infected ticks were dropped over Cuba rely largely on anonymous testimony and have never been independently verified.