Heath Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised a renewed focus on the “diagnostic efforts” for tick-borne Lyme disease, describing it on Dec. 15 as an “invisible” illness that he claims has been ignored by previous White House administrations.
Kennedy made the comments as he convened a roundtable of patients and medical providers.
Just one year ago before he was confirmed as the health secretary in February, Kennedy promoted a conspiracy theory that Lyme disease is a militarily engineered bioweapon. In 2024, Kennedy said on his podcast that it was “highly likely” that Lyme disease was developed in a military lab on Long Island, New York.
"And we cannot say 100% for sure, but we do know that they were experimenting with ticks there," he said.
He was asked about his comment about it being a "bioweapon" by Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado during his confirmation hearing in January.
