Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr revealed his plan for tackling the spread of bird flu is to let the virus spread unchecked.
In an interview with Fox News Kennedy said his method would help farmers identify the birds that are immune to the virus and preserve them.
Farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds that are immune to it,” he said.
Kennedy’s department does not have jurisdiction over the federal response to the bird flu, but Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, whose department has regulatory powers over farms appears to endorse the idea.
“There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity,” Rollins said on Fox News in February.
However, experts say allowing the virus to run unchecked though the flock is a bad idea.
Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas, told The New York Times every infection is another opportunity for the virus to evolve into a more virulent strain.
The virus hasn’t been proven to spread between humans yet but, if it were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Dr. Hansen said.
“So now you’re setting yourself up for bad things to happen,” Dr. Hansen added. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”
Dr. David Swayne, a poultry veterinarian and former USDA employee, told the Times, Kennedy’s method would result in bird flu “infections caus[ing] very painful deaths in nearly 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys.”
It would be “inhumane, resulting in an unacceptable animal welfare crisis,” Swayne added.
Kennedy’s theory is grounded in a false theory that some chickens and turkeys are immune to the virus. Scientists say poultry doesn’t have the genes required to develop immunity to the virus.
Kennedy, a prominet anti-vaxxer, has warned against vaccinating poultry against the virus saying it could backfire.
