Whopper of the Week: RFK JR. Is Fear Mongering About RSV Origins

THIS WEEK'S WHOPPER:

RFK JR. FEAR-MONGERING ABOUT RSV ORIGINS
 

Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic and many other global pandemics that we have, have come from gain of function research. The RSV epidemic that we have is the biggest killer of kids in this country today came from these kinds of experiments.” – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., August 2, 2026
 

SUMMARY

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a virus that was first identified in the 1950s. It is seasonal and every year causes serious lower respiratory tract infections, mostly in infants and the elderly. 

During an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash in August 2026, Secretary of Health Kennedy discussed his conspiracy theory that research on viruses has been the cause of major disease outbreaks. He told Bash, “clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic and many other global pandemics that we have, have come from gain of function research. The RSV epidemic that we have that is the biggest killer of kids in this country today came from these kinds of experiments. The Lyme disease almost certainly came from this kind of research.” 

This is nonsense. Since his 2021 book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy has blamed researchers, who study how to prevent outbreaks or treat disease, for a number of natural epidemics. Defend Public Health has addressed Kennedy’s whoppers about Lyme, AIDS and COVID. There is no evidence that the RSV was released from a primate laboratory in the 1950s or that it caused a pandemic. It is also a whopper to call RSV the biggest killer of kids today. 
 

WHY ITS A WHOPPER

It is true that RSV was first isolated in a laboratory at Walter Reed Army Institute of Medical Research in a population of captive chimpanzees in 1955. A lab worker was also infected and was found to have antibodies to the virus, as did several other people on the base, suggesting possible human to human spread of the virus. But soon after, Robert Chanock and Bernard Roizman at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health recognized that the chimpanzee virus was identical to a virus they found in young children. Large populations of children were then tested and 20% were found to carry RSV antibodies, which indicated that RSV had been circulating in the pediatric population for a very long time already. 

Genetic studies have since shown that RSV has been circulating in humans for hundreds of years. Rather than originating in the chimpanzees, the animals at Walter Reed may well have been infected by a caretaker. There are other examples of primates getting infected by human pathogens. A 2024 study documented the presence of human metapneumovirus, in wild chimpanzees who had been exposed to humans. A study in Brazil found RSV in wild capuchin monkeys who were in contact with humans. Primates, like chimpanzees and capuchins, are susceptible to human viruses and are not the original carrier species.

RSV is a serious respiratory disease in infants, which results in 60,000-80,000 pediatric hospitalizations per year and 200-300 pediatric deaths, mostly in children under 2 years. It is not, as Kennedy claims, the biggest killer of children – with over 2,000 fatalities per year, firearms are the leading cause of childhood mortality in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading cause of death among infants are congenital malformations, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome, while for ages 1-4 cancer is the disease with the highest mortality in children. 

After years of research, the first RSV vaccine was approved in 2023. Currently in the United States, the RSV vaccine is recommended during pregnancy; for all individuals age 75 and older; and those 50-74 who have an increased risk of severe RSV infection. For infants whose mother did not receive the RSV vaccine, a dose of antibody is recommended when approaching the RSV season. These interventions have greatly collectively decreased RSV hospitalizations in infants and adults. 


WHY IT MATTERS

Kennedy has a long history of promoting the idea that many diseases are the result of “gain of function” research, which supposedly makes viruses more dangerous to humans, and “lab leaks” in which a pathogen is accidentally released into the population. The Trump administration’s official, but evidence-free, position is that SARS-CoV-2 was a lab-leak. Defend Public Health has already debunked Kennedy’s false claim that Lyme disease was a military weapon. Kennedy has even claimed that the 1918 influenza pandemic was due to vaccine research, which is impossible because the virus had not yet been discovered. He said the World Health Organization "fabricated the 2006 bird flu outbreak, which of course never happened, but the pharma industry made $20 billion on a vaccine that of course didn’t work and there was no pandemic." RSV is simply the latest virus Kennedy wants the public to believe was is the product of virological research. 

Kennedy’s false claims about the origins of viruses decrease trust in scientists and the scientific process. It also chips away at public confidence in vaccines. If viruses are purposefully altered, Kennedy insinuates, it is solely for the benefit of the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture vaccines. In Kennedy's conspiracy theories, pharmaceutical profit is the main motivation behind vaccine development, not human health. 

The Trump administration has also used "gain of function" fears to justify its cuts to research in infectious diseases and virology by playing up scary false stories of lab-origin pathogens and fear-mongering about risky gain-of-function research. But Trump and Kennedy policies to purge scientists, terminate international collaborations on infectious diseases, and move virology programs from the National Institutes of Health to the Department of Defense, are limiting the United State's ability to understand existing pathogens and and our ability to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Secretary Kennedy's fear-mongering about viral origins simply makes the country less prepared to face the next epidemic.
 

Contributors to this post are: Tara Smith, Ph.D., David Goldberg, M.D., Mary K. Canales, R.N, Ph.D., Benedicte Callan, Ph.D., Bruce Mirkin