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... U.S. president Donald Trump is expected to sign a defense bill this week that orders a government watchdog to probe a conspiracy theory -- promoted by the country's secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.-- that the U.S. military bioengineered Lyme disease.

Bacteria, usually Borrelia burgdorferi, carried by black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks, causes Lyme disease. The bacteria originate in rodent -- ticks bite the animals and become carriers, and then the arachnids bite humans, sometimes passing the bacteria on. Ticks typically need to be attached to someone for a day or longer to actually spread the bacteria to their host, however.

Despite this established pathway for the disease, Kennedy has promoted the conspiracy theory that Lyme was bioengineered; on a 2024 podcast, he mused that the condition "is highly likely to have been a military weapon."

And at a roundtable on Monday, Kennedy appeared alongside Republican Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, who authored the defense bill directive to investigate a possible connection between the military and Lyme. ...