In December 2016, President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, which contained a laundry list of regulatory reforms and new funding. One of the most controversial sections wasn’t about cancer, Alzheimer’s, AIDS, or drug prices. It was about Lyme disease.

Lyme attacks the nervous system, and left untreated it can lead to paralysis, encephalitis, seizures, and death. It’s among the fastest growing diseases and can now be found in half of all American counties and on four continents. The response to the disease by the federal government has been a textbook failure of politics.