Clinical presentation of individuals with a history of Lyme disease and COVID-19.

A 45-year-old white woman with a partial college education was working as a groundskeeper. She had a history of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, irritable bowel syndrome, and viral meningitis. She had been ill for 37 years. There was not a history of a deer tick bite or erythema migrans. Her IgG western blot Lyme disease test was positive for 5 of 10 bands. She had been treated with doxycycline for 30 days. She also has been treated with herbal medication, vitamin B-1, cat’s claw, saunas, steam rooms, an anti-Inflammatory diet, gluten-free diet, and Stevia. Nevertheless, she reported being chronically ill from her tick-borne illnesses.

She is not sure if she had COVID-19. She had a “weird cold and viral meningitis” confirmed by a lumbar puncture followed by a kidney infection.

Her GSQ-30 score of 30 was higher than individuals with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) but less than individuals with depression and Post Treatment Lyme disease Syndrome (PTLDS).1 The most significant symptoms on her GSQ-30 measure were feeling fatigued or having low energy, needing more sleep than usual, not feeling rested on wakening, feeling worse after normal physical activity, and trouble falling or staying asleep.

She reports being hesitant to take the vaccine but is likely to take it. She raised several concerns:

• I have not had a clear understanding of my risks with both Lyme and an autoimmune disease in taking this or any vaccine.
• But I do understand that contracting Covid-19 is likely much, much worse.
• Getting clear data on any of it, in layman’s terms, has been difficult to come by. My main concern has been losing time from work.
• I’m hoping to get my body in a better state before tackling the potential consequence of another vaccine.
• But I know COVID would be much worse. Just rolling the dice for now, I guess.