As of May 2016, a group of researchers led by evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey, PhD, conducted a genetic study that looked at blood samples taken from gay and bisexual men in 1978 and 1979 as part of a hepatitis B study and based on the results of the data concluded that Dugas is not the source of the virus in the U.S. "On the family tree of the virus, Dugas fell in the middle, not at the beginning.[1] “Beliefs about Patient Zero,” Worobey concludes, “are unsupported by scientific data."[10]

Worobey also looked at a blood sample from Canadian flight attendant Gaëtan Dugas, a.k.a. Patient Zero, the man blamed by journalists in the ’80s for spreading AIDS across America. On the family tree of the virus, Dugas fell in the middle, not at the beginning. “Beliefs about Patient Zero,” Worobey concludes, “are unsupported by scientific data.”