People in my line of work are frequently in tick country. We all know people who've had Lyme disease. It can indeed be tricky to detect, because its symptoms resemble those of other illnesses - especially if the tick bite itself has healed over. And it can sometimes last a while.
I've heard of doctors who sometimes question Lyme disease diagnoses, but not public health officials, and certainly no one at the CDC.
(True but irrelevant anecdote - I came back from Thailand in 2014 with a tick. It was removed at a local clinic, and the doctor gave me a list of diseases carried by Southeast Asian ticks and their symptoms, just in case. The region of Thailand I'd visited wasn't known for the worst of them. She also prescribed something that would prevent some of them.
A couple of days after that, I fell ill. Every symptom I had was consistent with seasonal flu. Nevertheless, I decided I must have tick-borne Japanese encephalitis and should get my affairs in order. I had none of the symptoms specific to JE, but the be-afraid-of-everything part of my midbrain concluded that's what I had. Later that day, a test confirmed flu - but I continued to worry, even though I had no reason to.
But the best part? When I picked up the prescription, the label said, "Indications: for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I half-expected the pharmacist to rub my head and say, "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?"
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