Speaking of conspiracy theories and lab leaks, RFK Jr's admission that he probably said Lyme disease could be a lab leak caught my attention.
But he did clarify he had only heard of the idea, hadn't read the books, and hadn't looked into it himself. Basically "I heard someone say it. It might be true, it might not. I don't know."
I found
this article (Archive) talking about one of the books he was probably talking about.
Now, the author herself says the evidence for Lyme disease itself is circumstantial, but that there was a lab near where the outbreak started and some other supporting evidence of the idea. I haven't read the book either though so I don't know how credible the idea is.
To be clear, they aren't saying Lyme disease is artificial. Rather there was gain of function testing to make it deadlier and harder to treat, from my understanding. So they took an existing disease (which we know as we have 5000 year old remains where it's present) and messed with it to make it worse. Allegedly.
If RFK Jr gets into HHS what's the likelihood he'll look into this and release a report?
Given 500k new cases of Lyme per year and many chronic cases as a result would they even be willing to release the information given the possibility of a shitstorm?
I have family members who developed long term issues from diagnosed Lyme disease. I doubt they'd be happy if the government came out with some "Yeah so about that...." type of shit.
I'm not confident it's even true. Haven't read the book like I said. But I'm disturbingly not seeing it as impossible either.