JRE #2461 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. · Aired Feb 27, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
Anthony Fauci funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that created COVID-19.
The finding
What the evidence shows
NIH/NIAID funded EcoHealth Alliance, which subgranted to WIV for bat coronavirus research. The NIH confirmed in Oct 2021 that WIV did conduct limited experiments that could be characterized as gain-of-function under the broadest definitions. However, intelligence agencies have not reached consensus on COVID's origin, and the specific research funded has not been linked to SARS-CoV-2. Conflating NIH funding with deliberate creation of the pandemic significantly overstates what is actually known.
Read the supporting source · www.nih.gov ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that Anthony Fauci funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that created COVID-19?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. NIH/NIAID funded EcoHealth Alliance, which subgranted to WIV for bat coronavirus research. The NIH confirmed in Oct 2021 that WIV did conduct limited experiments that could be characterized as gain-of-function under the broadest definitions. It was said on JRE #2461 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., aired Feb 27, 2026, at 1:15:00. We haven't independently confirmed who said it. The supporting source is nih.gov, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
- Attribution
- Not independently confirmed in this record
- Editorial context review
- Not recorded; generated finding
- Coverage
- One selected claim from the episode
Revisions to this check
No dated revision is recorded here. Older checks may predate this log.
Challenge this finding or add context →Keep the evidence coming.
Follow new checks in your RSS reader, or catch up with the weekly briefing on the site.
Email signup is currently unavailable.
Prefer to catch up here? Read the weekly briefing.