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December 16, 2025<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n RFK, Jr.\u2013Backed Lyme Disease Conspiracy Theory May Be Probed under New Bill<\/p>\n President Donald Trump is expected to sign a defense bill this week that orders an investigation into whether the U.S. military bioengineered Lyme disease<\/p>\n By Claire Cameron edited by Andrea Thompson<\/span><\/p>\n Oleg Marchak via Getty Images<\/p>\n U.S. president Donald Trump is expected to sign a defense bill this week that orders a government watchdog to probe a conspiracy theory\u2014promoted by the country\u2019s secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. \u2014that the U.S. military bioengineered Lyme disease.<\/p>\n Bacteria, usually Borrelia burgdorferi, carried by black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks, causes Lyme disease. The bacteria originate in rodents\u2014ticks bite the animals and become carriers, and then the arachnids bite humans, sometimes passing the bacteria on. Ticks typically need to be attached to someone for a day or longer to actually spread the bacteria to their host, however.<\/p>\n Despite this established pathway for the disease, Kennedy has promoted the conspiracy theory that Lyme was bioengineered; on a 2024 podcast, he mused that the condition \u201cis highly likely to have been a military weapon.\u201d And at a roundtable on Monday, Kennedy appeared alongside Republican Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, who authored the defense bill directive to investigate a possible connection between the military and Lyme.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n If the bill passes into law as currently written, the Government Accountability Office will be ordered to investigate a link, E&E News\u2019 Climatewire reported. \u201cGAO will be fully empowered to leave no stone unturned, and now it\u2019ll have a congressional mandate to get to the bottom of it because they were weaponizing ticks,\u201d Smith said at the Monday roundtable.<\/p>\n Lyme disease cases have skyrocketed in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with estimated diagnoses now numbering around nearly half a million people each year. Experts believe climate change, more accurate reporting and land use are likely pushing the numbers up.<\/p>\n The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 16, 2025 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm RFK, Jr.\u2013Backed Lyme Disease Conspiracy Theory May Be Probed under New Bill President Donald Trump is expected to sign a defense bill this week that orders an investigation into whether the U.S. military bioengineered Lyme disease By Claire Cameron edited by Andrea Thompson Oleg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[142,2588,4391,20818,6793,9826,789,4095],"class_list":{"0":"post-37790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-bill","9":"tag-conspiracy","10":"tag-disease","11":"tag-jr-backed","12":"tag-lyme","13":"tag-probed","14":"tag-rfk","15":"tag-theory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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