I kind of skimmed the end of the article, but what happened with the fibers that were analyzed in the lab and wouldn't melt? The one that went _through_ glass also sounded interesting.
No answer. The payload of the article turned out to be the journalist's rumination on his existential anxieties, followed by a few loose ends tied into a makeshift bow and a shoutout for his forthcoming book. Most disappointing.
I don't believe in Morgellon's syndrome (or rather, I don't believe most of the explanations that are offered for it), but I feel a lot of sympathy towards people who are struggling with it, as I have an occasional recurring OCD itch that is annoying both as a physical itch and a psychosomatic one. I manage to stop scratching, the skin gradually heals, everything is fine, and then some months or years later some casual micro-abrasion sets it off again, the same way an exposed piece of velcro seems to actively pick up lint.
Those reports (fiber that wouldn't melt, fiber going through glass) were second-hand reports from the sufferers themselves. They claimed that these things happened. The only actual lab report found that the fibers were normal household things of the variety you'd expect: cotton, human hair, rat hair, etc.
