US health department reportedly funded research linked to Russian plague lab

The United States Department of Health and Human Services led by Robert F Kennedy Jr reportedly permitted more than 800,000 dollars in taxpayer money to go to a research project connected to a Siberian laboratory, according to the Daily Mail and Mediaite. The facility involved is the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, where a worker recently died. [1][2]

The death of a 28 year old employee at the Siberian anti-plague institute last week sparked international concern and has reportedly caused at least one additional death since then, the Daily Mail reported. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign participated in a partnership with Russia state-run Institute of Cytology and Genetics, which has previously worked with the facility. [1][6]

Kennedy serves as the 26th United States secretary of health and human services after taking office in 2025. He is an environmental lawyer and author, as well as the son of former attorney general Robert F Kennedy and nephew of former president John F Kennedy. [3]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, Russian officials quarantined dozens of individuals in the Irkutsk region following the worker death. United States President Donald Trump subsequently announced plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the situation, while the World Health Organisation rated the public health risk outside Russia as low. [6][7]