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LiveScience
LiveScience
Ben Turner

RFK's proposal to let bird flu spread through poultry could set us up for a pandemic, experts warn

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifying before the House Appropriations Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on May 14, 2025 in Washington.

High-ranking federal officials have suggested that bird flu virus should be left to "rip" through poultry farms across the U.S. — but experts warn that this hands-off approach could hasten the beginning of a new pandemic

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, and Brooke Rollins, secretary of Agriculture, have floated the notion that instead of culling birds infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, farmers should let it spread through flocks. The idea is that by doing this, farmers can "identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it," Kennedy told Fox News on March 11.

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