Robert F. Kennedy Jr has insisted his health department is not funding the Siberian Plague Lab that has seen one scientist die.

The National Institutes of Health, which Kennedy oversees, granted $800,000 to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2025 and 2026.

The university was conducting a partnership with Russia’s Institute of Cytology and Genetics, which has also worked with the Siberian facility where a lab worker died of the plague.

The funding has come into question after it was revealed by White Coat Waste.

The project itself was not linked to the plague; rather, social behaviour of foxes that had been raised in a Siberian facility.

On October 2, lab worker Darya Shipilova died after becoming ill with suspected pneumonic plague.

She had been employed at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia, which has since come under fire for the alleged leak of the disease.

The 28-year-old scientist was taken to the hospital in Shelekhov, where she passed away.

Russia’s health watchdog has insisted that testing of her body discovered no ‘micro-organisms’ in her that were linked to her work, while the Kremlin dismissed allegations about the disease or anti-plague measures.

In since deleted posts, local officials claimed the scientist died of a plague infection.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov labelled the reports as ‘false information.’

Independent news outlet People of Baikal reported that Shipilova broke a test tube, though inspections found none of the pathogens clinicians are working with in her body.

Telegram outlet Baza said Shipilova fell ill returning from Buryatia, where an outbreak erupted among squirrels, but local officials deny this.

What we know for sure is that parts of Shelekhov Hospital, where Shipilova was treated for two days, were quarantined.

Nearly 200 people who came into contact with Shipilova have been placed under medical observation, according to Russia’s REN TV. None have shown signs of illness.

A HHS Spokesperson said: ‘White Coat Waste’s characterisation of this research is misleading and creates a false impression about how American taxpayer dollars are being spent. HHS is not funding a Russian plague laboratory.

‘NIH funds research conducted at a US based laboratory in Chicago examining genomic and protein mechanisms associated with behaviour to advance our understanding of psychiatric diseases.

‘NIH funding is directed exclusively to the US laboratory and does not support the Russian laboratory. HHS takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard taxpayer dollars, protect research security, and ensure rigorous oversight of federally funded research.’

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