RFK Jr. Pledges Research Into Epidemic of Tick-Borne Red Meat Allergies

As I covered for PJ Media in May, large swathes of the country, many well beyond the historical normal range for the Lone Star tick, have been experiencing astronomically increased rates of a tick-borne red meat allergy called alpha-gal syndrome, which can be extremely debilitating and, in cases of anaphylaxis, potentially deadly.

At an unrelated recent political event, HHS Secretary Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. fielded a question on the issue and relayed his intent to investigate various treatments and potential cures for the syndrome as well as strategies to mitigate the ticks’ breeding capacity:

Last week, I went to New Hampshire… to address this explosion of alpha-gal, and we take it very seriously. One of the epicenters is Martha’s Vineyard, where 50% of the adult population is now affected. It is really a devastating disease. You can’t eat red meat for the rest of your life. We are looking at medications that can serve as both prophylactics and also potentially cures for it. We’re funding those studies now, and we’re working with the companies that are making those. We’ve also launched a major effort on tick control through a number of different strategies that address deer populations… Three ticks that are causing these, most of the tick-borne diseases, all breed on deer. And we’re looking at strategies for eliminating their breeding capacity.

Secretary Kennedy tells me HHS is addressing the “explosion of Alpha Gal,” a tick-borne disease that leaves people with a life-long allergy to red meat.

Efforts include searching for a cure and reducing tick populations.

In the quoted tweet, you’ll see NYU “bioethics” professor… https://t.co/D1lLclY4bt pic.twitter.com/fWXxqmXqmL
— Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) June 8, 2026

Some have speculated that, rather than an organic surge, the alpha-gal syndrome epidemic could potentially be linked to covert bioweapons programs, such as ones documented to have been proposed during the Cold War era, which were eventually, ostensibly, terminated by President Nixon.

Via Principia Scientific (emphasis added):

During the Cold War, the United States maintained an active biological warfare program from 1943 until President Richard Nixon ordered its termination in 1969.
Centered at Fort Detrick in Maryland, the program explored various delivery systems for pathogens, including insects such as fleas, mosquitoes, and ticks. One notable experiment, Operation Big Itch in 1954, involved releasing approximately 670,000 fleas from cluster munitions to test their viability as disease vectors.
Researchers also studied ticks extensively, with some work reportedly conducted at Plum Island, where large colonies of both soft and hard ticks were maintained. Wildlife, including deer and birds, moved freely between the island and the Connecticut mainland, creating potential pathways for pathogens to reach local populations.
The program gained additional momentum during the Kennedy administration. In response to Cuba’s alignment with the Soviet Union, the United States launched Operation Mongoose, a covert campaign aimed at undermining Fidel Castro’s regime. Some proposals reportedly examined the use of disease-carrying insects to target Cuban agricultural workers, particularly in sugarcane and tobacco fields, in an effort to disrupt the island’s economy.
While the full extent of these plans remains debated, declassified documents confirm that Project 112, authorized in 1962, expanded biological weapons testing and included research on mass insect production.
Between 1966 and 1969, the U.S. military released 282,800 ticks labeled with radioactive carbon-14 along bird migration routes in Virginia. The goal was to study how ticks—and the diseases they might carry—could spread across wide areas. Notably, lone star ticks, previously not found north of the Mason-Dixon line, soon established populations on Long Island.

No hard evidence has linked the tick-borne alpha-gal increase to a bioweapons program; however, prominent scientists in recent years have publicly advocated for such measures as a means to reduce red meat consumption.

Via Bioethics (emphasis added):

Among the best and most widely accepted arguments in applied ethics are those concluding that eating meat is morally wrong. Their premises, logic, and conclusions differ. However, broadly, they end in one of two claims: (a) that eating meat is wrong, or (b) that eating factory farmed meat is wrong…
Our main conclusion is that we should promote a particular tickborne syndrome: alpha‐gal syndrome (AGS). AGS is caused by the allergen alpha‐gal, which in humans causes an allergic reaction to eating mammalian meat and mammalian organs. People who have the allergy may have a variety of symptoms, including hives, gastrointestinal upset (e.g., vomiting and diarrhea), or anaphylaxis in severe cases. Often, these symptoms present 2–6 h after ingestion of mammalian meat. However, there is little reason to believe that there are additional harms associated with the allergy, aside from the allergic reaction itself. Although AGS is typically associated with the lone star tick (LST), other ticks also transmit AGS…
In short, when a tick sucks human blood and transmits AGS, it enhances the moral capacities of the person it bites; the AGS‐transmitting tick is a moral bioenhancer. The more they transmit AGS, the better they and the world will be. We aim to establish the main claim that we should promote the proliferation of AGS by promoting the ticks that transmit it. To be clear, we do not argue that, today, we are morally obligated to promote the spread of tickborne AGS, because presently it is not possible to do so. But it is feasible to genetically edit the disease‐carrying capacity of ticks. If we are right, then today we have the obligation to research and develop the capacity to proliferate tickborne AGS and, tomorrow, carry out that proliferation.