Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) use of its “Biothreat Radar Detection System” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week.
But no such system appears to exist, NOTUS reported.
“The CDC also now operates in 63 countries, monitoring biothreats before they reach our shores,” Kennedy wrote. “Its Biothreat Radar Detection System—an advanced early-detection tool—can spot pathogens like H5N1 or MERS early enough to prevent catastrophe.”
The CDC’s 2026 fiscal budget says the Biothreat Radar Program—a biosurveillance system that would incorporate artificial intelligence to detect new pathogens—“incorporates progress made in advanced molecular detection to rapidly identify emerging threats.”
While the program is included in both the CDC and HHS’ 2026 budget proposals, Congress has not approved a budget for next year, and NOTUS notes there is no evidence that the program is receiving funding.
An anonymous CDC employee told NOTUS that while some members of the agency’s biosurveillance programs were aware of a biothreat radar proposal, they were not aware of any work being done on the program.
In an email on Aug. 28 to CDC employees—four days before the op-ed—Kennedy announced the upcoming launch of the program.
“We will soon launch the Biothreat Radar Detection System to detect threats like H5N1 and MERS before they spread, strengthening our defenses against future pandemics,” he wrote, according to NOTUS.
Reached for reply, HHS did not answer directly whether any part of the program was operational, instead describing what the program will do.
“The Biothreat Radar Detection System is a project designed to combine new technological capability with automated result interpretation by artificial intelligence systems,” an HHS official told the Daily Beast. “Early systems for this exist and will serve as the base for an expanded effort, but the digitalized data will be subjected to higher-order processing to enhance sensitivity and automatic warning on a large national public health scale.”
Amid calls for Kennedy to resign—from both HHS employees and even members of his own family—and his dismal performance during testimony on Capitol Hill Thursday, questions surrounding the Biothreat Radar Detection System add to a growing list of controversies.
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