“The RSV epidemic and Lyme disease came from gain-of-function research.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Claim dated 2 Aug 2026.
FactCheck.org rated thisBaseless
What FactCheck.org found
Lyme disease and RSV have long affected humans, and there's no evidence they came from a lab.
Their words, from the summary they publish with the rating.
In short
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made this claim around 2 August 2026. FactCheck.org (United States) looked into it and published its finding on 4 August 2026, 2 days later. Its rating was “Baseless”.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has 55 checked claims in this archive. Fact-checking organisations rated 27 of them false or fake, 27 misleading or mixed and 0 true.
Where the claim appeared
- transcripts.cnn.comhttps://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sotu/date/2026-08-02/segment/01
Links recorded by FactCheck.org. Some posts may have been deleted since.
This check was done by FactCheck.org, not by DoesItStand. We list it so you can find it. Their full evidence and reasoning are in their article.