tl;dr: People who had irrational fears of vaccines claimed harms from the Lyme vaccine that probably were not caused by the vaccine. Sales dropped so much that vaccine manufacturers became reluctant to market the vaccine to humans.
Similar irrational fears prompted the development of the "acellular" version of the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine, which is less effective than the previously used version of the vaccine. Pertussis is a serious illness, and now that many people refuse to use the vaccine, and even the people who use it can only get a type of vaccine that is less effective than the first vaccine,[1] the whole population is needlessly at risk for pertussis outbreaks.
Similar irrational fears prompted the development of the "acellular" version of the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine, which is less effective than the previously used version of the vaccine. Pertussis is a serious illness, and now that many people refuse to use the vaccine, and even the people who use it can only get a type of vaccine that is less effective than the first vaccine,[1] the whole population is needlessly at risk for pertussis outbreaks.
[1] http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/05/...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22423127