Infectious Diseases Expert Bluntly Factchecks RFK Jr. After He Claims Lyme Disease Was Developed In A Lab

In separate appearances on CNN and Fox News on Sunday, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., divulged his plan to end all viral gain-of-function research around the world, beginning with a complete ban inside the United States.

Citing unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and misinformation about research that he has no personal experience or expertise with, Kennedy claimed:

"No good thing has ever come from gain-of-function research."

To justify another cut to legitimate scientific and medical research, Kennedy falsely claimed on Fox & Friends:

"Lyme disease almost certainly came from these experiments and is now devastating our country."

"[Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)] came from a laboratory, which is now the biggest killer of children in our country."

This last claim by Kennedy, about RSV, is far from true and easily disproven.

According to DHS's own Centers for Disease Control (CDC) statistics, the "biggest killer" of children in the United States, for several years running, has been guns. Accidents, including motor vehicles and drowning, are also leading causes of death for children as a whole.

Even among newborns and infants under 12 months, RSV isn't the "biggest killer." Premature birth and low birth weight, congenital malformations, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) are the leading causes of death. From ages 1 to 4, accidents, birth defects, and cancer far outpace RSV.

According to the CDC, RSV is the leading cause of hospitalizations, not deaths, of infants, aged 0 to 12 months. But as a highly treatable condition, the survival and full recovery rate is almost 95%. By age two, almost all children in the United States have been infected by RSV. About 300 children of all ages die from RSV annually, mostly from delayed or non-treatment.

Whether Kennedy just lied or, as is usually the case with his medical misinformation, lacks the training or knowledge to understand data or research is unclear. Kennedy then claimed the global COVID-19 pandemic was also "linked credibly to gain-of-function research."

You can see a clip of Kennedy's interview here:

In addition to the publicly available records from the CDC refuting Kennedy's claims, United Kingdom infectious disease expert Dr. Neil Stone also weighed in about Kennedy's made up story about a Lyme disease gain-of-function research connection.

Reposting Kennedy's Fox News clip on X, Dr. Stone noted:

"Lyme disease did not come from a lab"

"It's so ancient it's been found in 3,000 year old mummies"

"RFK Jr talking nonsense as usual"

Dr. Stone later added:

"First rule of propaganda"

"There is no conspiracy theory too stupid to be believable"

"People will believe anything"

"Literally ANYTHING"

Outside the MAGAsphere, RFK Jr.'s MAHA minions, and the conspiracy theory antivaxxer bubble, people found Kennedy's latest actions, based solely on his own false claims, as dangerous as his other missteps as HHS Secretary.

While a few equally ill-informed, self-proclaimed MAGA MAHA individuals claimed Kennedy was right and Dr. Stone was wrong because "Grok"...

...they were quickly corrected.

According to the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center and the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, European medical practitioners first documented the disease in the late 19th century. Lyme disease was only recognized as a unique disorder in the United States beginning in the 1960s and the bacteria that causes it—Borrelia burgdorferi—wasn’t officially classified until 1981.

Perhaps that's why Kennedy mistakenly believes Lyme disease, like autism and Tourette syndrome, are modern creations because he never heard of them as a child.

But the genetic presence of the bacteria that causes Lyme, just like everything else Kennedy discounts and dismisses, far predates official recognition.

According to Entomology Today, Professor George Poinar Jr., a palaeoentomologist and parasitologist, identified ticks preserved in amber estimated to be between 15 and 20 million years old with ancient bacteria trapped inside, making the origins of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease older than humans at a relatively young 300,000 years old and even older than all hominids at 6-7 million years old.

An autopsy performed on mummified, frozen 5,300-year-old human remains found the presence of Lyme disease.

As for RSV, it is a naturally occurring human RNA virus (human orthopneumovirus) that has been circulating widely in human populations for at minimum 70 years based on when it was first identified. The virus was first clinically isolated in 1956 from a child with a respiratory infection.

In all likelihood, RSV also has a much longer history.