Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that the current bird flu outbreak among cows in the United States may be related to nearly a decade of controversial gain-of-function experiments on viruses, citing the financial windfall public health agencies and the pharmaceutical industry stand to gain from mRNA vaccines against the virus.
“With so much money on the table, is it conceivable that someone might deliberately release a bioengineered bird flu? When this kind of gain-of-function research is going on, accidental or deliberate leaks are inevitable,” Kennedy wrote in an X article.
Public health officials have sounded the alarm about the bird flu outbreak among dairy cows beginning in late March. As of mid-June, there are 92 herds of cattle across 12 states infected with bird flu, and there have been three human infections from dairy cows.
The most recent confirmed case consisted of respiratory symptoms, prompting public health experts to be more concerned about the virus evolving to spread human-to-human.
Earlier this week, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield told reporters that he believed a bird flu pandemic among humans is “not a question if, it’s a question of when.”
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic and sharp critic of federal public health agencies, referenced Redfield’s comment, suggesting that the former CDC director may “know something we do not.”
Bird flu and gain-of-function research
Kennedy cited highly controversial gain-of-function research on avian flu viruses conducted in the 2010s that intentionally made strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus transmissible via respiratory droplets among ferrets.
These studies, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under Dr. Anthony Fauci, marked an important shift in the virus, making it transmissible among mammals and sparked the 2014 nationwide moratorium on gain-of-function research on avian flu, SARS, and MERS viruses.
The debates over bird flu gain-of-function research also helped to create the regulatory definition of “pathogens of pandemic potential” to describe viruses that could be catastrophic if used as a bioweapon or leaked in a lab accident.
Federal funding for the controversial research projects resumed in 2019.
Kennedy promised in his X post that his administration would shut down all U.S.-funded gain-of-function research projects on Day 1, saying that his administration “will end these lab-grown plagues for good.”
NIAID did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Last year, Kennedy told the Washington Examiner that he intended to reform the National Institutes of Health “overnight” if elected, saying it will be a priority within the first week of a Kennedy administration.
“I know I can order the NIH what to fund and what not to,” Kennedy previously told the Washington Examiner. “It’s not statutory. These are policy decisions that are made by individual bureaucrats who work for the president. They’re all in the executive branch.”
Congressional concern about bird flu
Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this week also expressed concern regarding the history of gain-of-function research on avian flu in a hearing on limiting the practice via tougher legislation.
Ranking member Rand Paul (R-KY), who is an outspoken critic of NIAID, said during the hearing that concern over gain-of-function research “isn’t a partisan thing,” noting that one of the witnesses called by the Republicans for the hearing, biosafety activist and Rutgers University professor Richard Ebright, has consistently voted Democratic.
When asked about gain-of-function research on avian flu, Ebright testified that the projects had “no — zero — civilian practical applications.”
“Research on potential pandemic pathogens is not used and does not contribute to the development of vaccines, and is not used for and does not contribute to the development of new drugs,” Ebright said.
None of the Republicans on the panel, nor the witnesses, suggested that the currently circulating bird flu was the direct result of a lab accident or gain-of-function research.
Financial windfall from vaccines
Kennedy’s post also highlighted how NIAID scientists gained $400 million directly from Moderna in a settlement in a dispute over patents for the vaccines and an additional $690 million on royalties.
“But of course that is chicken feed compared to what the government will spend on vaccines for SARS, or bird flu,” Kennedy said.
The firebrand vaccine skeptic also highlighted that Moderna, which is already in late-stage trials for its bird flu vaccine, has experienced a 40% rise in its stock price since the announcement of the bird flu outbreak in cows, following a significant dip post-COVID. Both Moderna and Pfizer are competing for their bird flu vaccines to be purchased by the federal government for the national stockpile.
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“The market knows that our government plans to use mRNA vaccines for emerging infections, regardless of whether the public wants them,” Kennedy said.
Moderna did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on Kennedy’s allegations.
