Allies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are desperately trying to raise funding so a comedy movie about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic can be made.
Nicole Shanahan, who was vaccine skeptic Kennedy’s running mate during his 2024 presidential campaign, has been pitching to investors in hopes of getting The Rash made, a satirical comedy written by Thumbsucker and Up in the Air author Walter Kirn.
According to Politico, one of the characters in the movie is based on National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, a former Stanford University professor who rose to prominence by speaking out against COVID lockdowns. Bhattacharya, a vaccine critic and close ally of Kennedy, was named acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday.
The Rash tells the story of the response to a health issue that “captures the public mind with contagious fear and loathing,” and how “hilarity ensues” as a Stanford public health professor—seemingly a version of Bhattacharya—speaks out against the “mania” surrounding an outbreak of a contagious skin condition.
“There are two possible ways history will treat the COVID era. The establishment preference is for a story of a killer pathogen that leapt from the animal kingdom into humans to create a deadly pandemic that was fixed by an innovative vaccine,” the Brownstone Institute wrote in a pitch to potential funders.
“This is how regime historians—cowards who stood by and watched while people were treated like lab rats—want to tell the story. The real version of events is far more complicated. It is a story of dangerous scientific experiments mixed with misleading propaganda, mass psychosis, and outright lies.”
The Brownstone Institute, which once had Bhattacharya as a senior scholar, also said it believed the film would tell the story of “great heroes who stood up and said no.”
Shanahan, a Silicon Valley lawyer who was once married to billionaire Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is an executive producer on the project.
The Rash has been trying to get off the ground for several months. In September 2025, Kirn posted a black-and-white teaser trailer for the film on social media and dubiously suggested that George Clooney, star of the 2009 Oscar-nominated adaptation of his book Up in the Air, could appear in a cameo.
While sharing the Politico article on X, Kirn added: “The movie is called The Rash and I’m doing all I can to get it made because I put my heart and soul into it. And all the wit I could summon.”
The Brownstone Institute estimates that the film’s budget could be nearly $6 million.
Bhattacharya and Kirn are said to have spent several hours discussing the film, with the pair sharing similar views on the response to the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.
“Dr. Bhattacharya has spoken positively about the work Walter Kirn is doing, noting that the project reflects a strong commitment to free speech and open inquiry, and he welcomes thoughtful creative efforts that engage with these issues,” an NIH spokesperson told Politico.
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