It’s a common ritual of summer: with the warm weather comes more outdoor activities, and more encounters with disease-spreading pathogens. A summer favorite? In the U.S., the Lyme disease-carrying blacklegged tick. And with a new batch of celebrities reporting infections this summer—model Bella Hadid, singer Shania Twain, and actress Riley Keough—it’s worth taking stock of what we know about how prevalent Lyme disease really is, and the best way to protect ourselves from the tiny ticks that spread it. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In 1988, the U.S.