Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agency sent nearly $800,000 in federal money to a research project tied to the same Russian institute system connected to a deadly plague scare in Siberia.
Quick Take
- The National Institutes of Health awarded $779,689 to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign across 2025 and 2026 for work done with Russia’s state-run Institute of Cytology and Genetics.
- The grant was split into two payments: $389,943 in July 2025 and $389,746 in September 2026.
- The funding came to light through a watchdog investigation as Russia dealt with a plague-related death at a separate but related research facility in Siberia.
- President Trump told reporters he does not believe the lab worker’s death was caused by a bioweapon.
A Federal Grant Lands in the Middle of a Russian Plague Scare
The National Institutes of Health, which falls under Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services, approved $779,689 for a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign project. The work involved a partnership with Russia’s state-run Institute of Cytology and Genetics. Records show the money arrived in two chunks, one in the summer of 2025 and another more than a year later, in September 2026.
The timing drew attention because the funding surfaced right as a different Russian facility, the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, made headlines for a worker’s death. That institute has studied plague and other dangerous diseases since the 1930s and has also done biological security research meant to prevent bioterrorism. The overlap between the funded project and Russia’s plague-research network gave the story its edge.
Who Died, and What Russia Has Said So Far
A 28-year-old lab technician identified as Darya Shipilova died after apparent plague exposure at the Irkutsk facility. Russian officials reported she contracted pneumonia from an unknown cause before local state television confirmed her death. The World Health Organization pressed Russia for more details, saying the limited information released so far made it hard to judge how much risk the case actually posed to the public.
President Trump addressed the death directly when reporters asked if it stemmed from a bioweapon. He said simply, “we don’t think so,” and added that the United States would help Russia respond to the situation. His comment offered the clearest official American read on the incident, cutting against louder speculation elsewhere about what caused the worker’s exposure.
Criticism Lands on Kennedy’s Oversight of Health Funding
The grant news reignited questions about Kennedy’s fitness to run the nation’s health agency, a debate that followed his confirmation from the start. On “The View,” co-host Ana Navarro said the episode shows why qualified leadership matters, arguing she won’t excuse Republican senators who confirmed Kennedy despite what she called clear warning signs about his readiness for the job.
The criticism fits a pattern that has followed Kennedy since before he took office. He has previously made public comments defending claims about American-funded biolabs overseas, remarks that drew pushback from fact-checkers and foreign policy officials who said his framing distorted the actual purpose of that research. Critics argue his latest funding decision fits the same pattern of poor judgment on sensitive biosecurity matters.
Why Foreign Lab Partnerships Draw This Kind of Scrutiny
Research tied to dangerous pathogens and foreign institutions tends to trigger alarm bells regardless of the actual science involved, especially when those institutions sit inside countries like Russia with a documented history of state-run bioweapons work. The Soviet Union’s Biopreparat program once engineered plague bacteria for military use, a legacy that still shapes how Americans view any research tie to Russian infectious-disease institutes.
That history does not mean every grant crossing into this space is improper. But it does mean that a sitting Health and Human Services secretary approving nearly $800,000 toward a project touching that same institutional network deserves real transparency about what the research measured, why Illinois needed a Russian partner, and what safeguards existed. Americans footing the bill have every right to expect clear answers, not vague reassurance.
🚨BREAKING: RFK is funding an NIH grant with a Siberian plague lab collaborator.
– A new White Coat Waste (WCW) investigation exposes $779,689 in new NIH funding under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for an animal experimentation collaboration with a Russian lab that has…
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) October 8, 2026
Congress and watchdog groups will likely keep pushing for a full accounting of the grant’s purpose and oversight. Until Kennedy’s department releases more detail on what the funded research actually produced, the story will remain a flashpoint for critics questioning his judgment on biosecurity funding decisions tied to Russia.
Sources:
mediaite.com, gizmodo.com, apnews.com
