Yes, of course, the joke most people have heard is: “If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.” But, if you stick around for a bit, you will see that this time around, the duck, unfortunately, is at the mercy of the quack.
These are desperate times for us and the ducks. It was Mark Twain who said, “The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” Now I’m only guessing, but if Mark Twain was around these days, he might be saying, “The more I learn about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the more I like my duck.”
To be clear, I am not the best person to be writing this. It probably ought to be a doctor and/or a scientist among us with far better credentials. Someone able to explain better than I can what is really going on with the escalating attack on contemporary medicine, immunology, even the scientific method itself. Or, for that matter, someone better able to talk about our duck friends.
In the meantime, I will do my best. It turns out that in 2019, the Voice of America, now just one more target of the Trump administration, enlisted some ducks to help teach folks the English language:
As Anna Matteo at the Voice of America told us, there is much to be learned from our duck friends, much to admire:
Ducks love the water. You can often see them floating happily on the surface of lakes, creeks, rivers and ponds. Ducks swim effortlessly in all kinds of weather. Feathers protect them and other birds against the cold.
Ducks are great hunters. You can watch them diving down under the water for food, with their bottoms and webbed feet sticking up in the air. Ducks often live near water. This is where they mate and lay their eggs. So, you could say that ducks really know water. In nature, they are water experts.
This brings us to our first expression: to take to something like a duck to water. This means you are really good at something without even trying very hard. It is not a struggle for you at all. It is almost as if you were born to do it. And you really enjoy it …
When something is like water off a duck’s back, it is no big deal. Whatever has happened has had no lasting effect on the duck or anyone else. This expression comes from the fact that duck feathers are waterproof. They let water run off a duck’s body. The feathers are perfectly designed because the birds spend so much time in the water.
In English, we use this saying when talking about something that has happened to someone, but the person doesn’t seem to care. They are not bothered at all. Now, the opposite of that expression is to ruffle someone’s feathers. This means the person is really unhappy about something, just as ducks would be if you ruffled, or messed up, their waterproof feathers.
Then there is the Institute for Environmental Research and Education (IERE) offering these slightly more scientific findings:
Often seen gliding gracefully on ponds, waddling comically across parks, or even featured in children’s stories, these waterfowl are far more than just picturesque inhabitants of our waterways. They are integral components of the ecosystem, influencing everything from plant distribution to nutrient cycling … Ducks exert a significant influence on the ecological health of both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Their activities and habits contribute to biodiversity, nutrient distribution, and overall ecosystem stability.
Seed Dispersal: Many ducks consume aquatic plants, and the seeds often pass through their digestive systems unharmed. This allows them to disperse seeds to new locations, promoting plant diversity and aiding in the colonization of different areas.
Insect Control: Ducks are voracious insectivores. They consume vast quantities of insects, helping to control populations of potentially harmful or nuisance species. This is particularly important in agricultural settings where ducks can act as a natural form of pest control.
All hail the ducks. And I am hoping you now care a bit more about ducks than you might have just mere minutes ago—because what is happening to ducks and birds and chickens has far more significance than many realize. And, unfortunately, the folks in charge of dealing with this unfolding danger are the very people we are now forced to depend upon for own public health.
How about we go back in time just a little bit and acknowledge the extraordinary devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lets look back at the lessons some learned but far too many denied and are still lying about—mostly, refusing to acknowledge the incredible success of the COVID-19 vaccine in reducing death and preventing, for many, the need for hospitalization. As I have written before, we were dragged into the national attack on immunization when some anti-vaxxers appropriated our town’s name for their broadside: “The Great Barrington Declaration.”
They urged a strategy of “focused protection,” expressing “grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies … Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health.” They claimed:
We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza … The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk …
Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold. Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.
While there is no denying their assertion that it was the aged and infirm who were most at risk, they substantially underestimated the vulnerability of the rest of the population. The following chart from Global Statistics breaks down death by age group—revealing how the young and middle-aged alike succumbed—but also so very clearly reveals the success of medical intervention, the COVID-19 vaccine, and the active measures taken by citizens that reduced the death rate over time:
Merriam-Webster defines herd immunity this way:
a reduction in the risk of infection with a specific communicable disease (such as measles or influenza) that occurs when a significant proportion of the population has become immune to infection (as because of previous exposure or vaccination) so that susceptible individuals are much less likely to come in contact with infected individuals.
Now, these folks have for years disparaged vaccinations and incorrectly and unscientifically linked immunizations to conditions like autism. Beyond the rhetoric, what they are really talking about is benign neglect—without the protection of vaccination, allowing a disease like COVID-19 and measles and influenza to make its way through a community, a city, a nation, a continent until enough people have come down with the disease to have developed antibodies to defeat it.
But here is how Global Statistics describes what they learned from the data they assembled:
The evolution of COVID-19 mortality patterns in the United States from 2020 through 2025 represents one of the most dramatic public health transformations in American history. Beginning with the devastating initial outbreak in early 2020, the nation witnessed unprecedented death tolls that overwhelmed healthcare systems and fundamentally altered societal functioning. The progression through subsequent years tells a remarkable story of scientific innovation, healthcare system adaptation, and public health response effectiveness that ultimately transformed a catastrophic pandemic into a manageable endemic respiratory disease.
The journey from peak pandemic mortality to current endemic levels demonstrates the profound impact of medical countermeasures, policy interventions, and population immunity development. Each year brought distinct challenges and breakthroughs, from the initial lockdown responses of 2020 to the vaccine deployment of 2021, the variant surges of 2022, the endemic transition of 2023-2024, and the stabilized management phase of 2025. This comprehensive analysis of COVID deaths by year in the United States illuminates how sustained public health efforts, scientific advances, and healthcare system improvements combined to achieve one of the most significant mortality reductions in modern American medical history.
What we witnessed was an ongoing, ever-changing battle between a lethal virus adept at evolving and a series of active interventions from an engaged public health system. Precisely the kind of science-based, apolitical healthcare approach the folks of the Great Barrington Declaration disparaged and worked against.
Now, some might say it smacks of exploitation to bring a gaggle of innocent ducks into the immunity conversation—but the ducks, geese, and, yes, the chickens, as well as we humans, are now victims of their devastating anti-vax assault on rational public health policy. They are instituting policy that is primarily based on politics, on belief, untethered to vigorous peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny.
Regrettably, the drafters of the Great Barrington Declaration have now moved into the halls of power. Under the auspices of their boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who when God was napping, managed to become our director of Health and Human Services—they have declared war on many of our most important and effective vaccines and made drastic cuts in the workforce at both the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. Yes, it seems they don’t really want to prevent and control disease. Relying on pure quackery, if you will.
Right before our very eyes, they are now committed to ransacking and destroying our public health system. And, as they do, they are also endangering our friends, the ducks:
As NBC TV in New York City reported:
Bird-to-human transmission remains rare, but an outbreak in animals can have a huge impact on market supply and demand. Remember those egg prices? The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced Thursday that it had five preliminary positive cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, in Suffolk County. More dead birds across Long Island await testing.
According to DEC, snow geese and two duck species have tested positive. Test results [come] from a half-dozen Canada Geese and other birds found in Huntington’s Hecksher Park. It’s not clear where the other tested birds came from.
Bird flu is endemic to wild birds, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation says there is no way to contain infection in those animals. Clinical signs may be similar to other diseases or injuries or nonspecific. Long Island dealt with a bird flu outbreak early last year. It forced the culling of 100,000 ducks at one farm. By the end of February, dozens of dead or symptomatic birds were found in East Patchogue. No human cases were reported.
While bird-to-human transmission has been rare, the avian flu can spread through direct contact with the saliva, secretions, or feces of an infected animal. Viral particles in the air can spread it; so can consuming raw food and milk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the overall public health risk remains low.
[Emphasis added.]
Yes, if they swim like ducks, look like ducks, and quack like ducks, they are ducks. But, unfortunately, in this case, very sick ducks. And, like their brothers and sisters down south in Florida, soon to be dead ducks:
So, not only do we have significant cases of bird flu up north in New York and down south in Florida, but a most serious epidemic is currently centered in the very heartland of America:
According to the Kansas Reflector:
Kansas is suffering from the worst outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the country, with nearly 414,000 birds affected, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. HPAI, an umbrella term for avian influenza that includes highly contagious strains such as H5 and H7, is considered a low public health risk, although it can pass to humans through birds and dairy products from infected cattle, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
‘H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with sporadic human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers,’ according to the CDC. As of Friday, there are four affected commercial flocks and six affected backyard flocks reported in Kansas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Avian influenza kills almost 100% of the birds it infects. The bulk of the infected birds, about 380,000, in Kansas were reported to be in a commercial operation in Pottawatomie County, USDA reports said. In a map highlighting outbreaks across the nation, Kansas is the only state showing the most severe reports during the past 30 days. It is followed by Indiana, with about 87,000 birds affected, including two commercial flocks and five backyard flocks. Kansas has not had a reported instance of avian bird flu in a human, according to CDC records. Since 2024, there have been 74 reported bird flu cases in humans and two deaths.
This year’s outbreak is similar to those during the last few years, said a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Agriculture. ‘December and January have been the months when we have seen the highest number of positive cases since this outbreak began in 2022,’ said Heather Lansdowne. ‘The winter of 2023-2024 was more active than this year, both in total cases and in number of birds affected. We are hoping this year follows the trajectory of those years and we begin to see a decline in cases moving forward.’ This year’s outbreak has spread primarily from migrating wild waterfowl, she said. The agency has encouraged poultry farmers and others to protect their birds from contact with migratory birds and their habitats.
[Emphasis added.]
I have learned over the last few years how diabolical and crafty viruses can be. COVID-19 is a perfect example, as it found us unprotected and attacked us with a vehemence. To this day, thanks to shock and unpreparedness and, of course, remarkable political ignorance and interference, we don’t really have an accurate accounting for the number of deaths or those who struggle with the lasting effects of long COVID. And that same combination of ignorance and distrust of the very basic requirements of rational scientific investigation and accountability has led the agencies charged with protecting us from disease to censor their researchers and remove from public review the most accurate statistics of the diseases we are up against.
After what we went through with COVID-19, you would think any sensible person—especially someone charged with protecting the public health—would want to be as prepared as possible to deal with any potential threats. Unfortunately, this lack of preparation and irresponsibility extends to the unprotected ducks and chickens and cows amongst us. And as Scientific American reminds us, it may not take much for the avian flu to adapt and threaten us:
Megha Satyanarayana explains in Scientific American:
Bird flu is infecting more people than we think. We need to stop it now before a new pandemic begins. Right after President Donald Trump took office, amid the flurry of executive orders and agency upheavals, the administration told the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention not to release any reports or communications until one of Trump’s people could take a look at them. Among the many reports not released that week was a study on how many veterinarians had gotten bird flu.
On the surface, this might seem like a small thing compared to the drama unfolding over tariffs, immigration, the firings of inspectors general and whatever new, egregious thing Elon Musk is doing without congressional approval. But this report matters. The H5N1 bird flu virus has been on the warpath since 2022, infecting chickens, cows, wild birds and now pigs, ducks, cats and several other animals.
This virus is versatile. This virus is mutating. And it is surely infecting more people than we think. Sure, the risk of a human epidemic is still considered low. (Sound familiar?) Widespread human-to-human disease hasn’t been proven. But viruses are masters of adaptation—a strain of bird flu that has made people really sick has now been found in cows. We are one fateful mutation away from yet another infectious disease that runs riot among people, and our country has just reelected a president who doesn’t just discount public health, but actively thwarts it. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who would run our biggest health care agency, has not publicly walked back his antivaccine sentiments. The doctors who would run the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health both decried common sense infection control during COVID. Our agricultural and food safety systems are riddled with loopholes that have allowed this virus to spread.
We’ve seen this movie before. Millions of people have died in the COVID pandemic that began under Trump’s watch. The Biden administration missed key opportunities to stop bird flu’s spread. As a nation, we still have not recovered from the physical, mental and social toll of COVID. What will happen if bird flu starts coursing through us?
As for versatility of viruses, Tanya Lewis has previously reported for Scientific American the possibility that bird flu might adapt and mix with seasonal influenza to pose a greater risk to humans:
Lewis reported:
Humans and pigs could both serve as mixing vessels for a bird flu–seasonal flu hybrid, posing a risk of wider spread. As the H5N1 avian influenza virus continues its rampage through U.S. dairy cow herds, it has also infected human farm workers. A different strain has also infected workers on poultry farms, most recently in Washington State. On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the virus had been detected in a pig for the first time at a farm in Oregon. Now, as the usual seasonal flu season approaches, some health experts wonder if it might give bird flu a dangerous boost.
There have been at least 39 human H5N1 cases in the U.S. this year. Fifteen were in California, 10 were in Colorado, nine were in Washington State, two were in Michigan, one was in Texas, and one was in Missouri … Known cases have mostly been mild, characterized by minor eye infections and respiratory symptoms …
The steady uptick in cases—in both farm animals and humans—has some experts worried about the risk of a wider outbreak of this potentially pandemic-causing virus. Influenza viruses have several features that make them well suited for this: for one, they constantly mutate in a process known as genetic drift, which is why you need a new flu shot every year. If there are enough mutations of the right kind, the virus undergoes a quantum leap known as genetic shift, which can make it capable of unleashing a pandemic.
[Emphasis added.]
So what is the highest public health administrator in the United States doing about this? The Kaiser Family Foundation’s (KFF) bulletin adds to Scientific American’s reporting about how Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s CDC has hidden the spread of bird flu from the public:
The Trump administration has intervened in the release of important studies on the bird flu, as an outbreak escalates across the United States. One of the studies would reveal whether veterinarians who treat cattle have been unknowingly infected by the bird flu virus. Another report documents cases in which people carrying the virus might have infected their pet cats.
The studies were slated to appear in the official journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The distinguished journal has been published without interruption since 1952. Its scientific reports have been swept up in an ‘immediate pause’ on communications by federal health agencies ordered by Dorothy Fink, the acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Fink’s memo covers ‘any document intended for publication,’ she wrote, ‘until it has been reviewed and approved by a presidential appointee.’ It was sent on President Donald Trump’s first full day in office …
‘MMWR is the voice of science’ said Tom Frieden, a former CDC director and the CEO of the nonprofit organization Resolve to Save Lives. ‘This idea that science cannot continue until there’s a political lens over it is unprecedented,’ said Anne Schuchat, a former principal deputy director at the CDC. ‘I hope it’s going to be very short-lived, but if it’s not short-lived, it’s censorship.’ …
“News of the interruption hit suddenly last week, just as Fred Gingrich, executive director of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, a group for veterinarians specializing in cattle medicine, was preparing to hold a webinar with members. He planned to disclose the results of a study he helped lead, slated for publication in the MMWR later that week. Back in September, about 150 members had answered questions and donated blood for the study. Researchers at the CDC analyzed the samples for antibodies against the bird flu virus, to learn whether the veterinarians had been unknowingly infected earlier last year.
Although it would be too late to treat prior cases, the study promised to help scientists understand how the virus spreads from cows to people, what symptoms it causes, and how to prevent infection. ‘Our members were very excited to hear the results,’ Gingrich said.
Like farmworkers, livestock veterinarians are at risk of bird flu infections. The study results could help protect them. And having fewer infections would lessen the chance of the H5N1 bird flu virus evolving within a person to spread efficiently between people — the gateway to a bird flu pandemic.
It is difficult to comprehend, but the administration’s decision to cut off the flow of critical information cannot help but make us less prepared to deal with the pandemics that might be headed our way. KFF points to one of those casualties, an important report from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services:
Seems like the ducks and chickens and cows will have to make room for the cats. But suppression is not enough for them. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that he knows better than most immunologists, knows more than most medical researchers and most doctors. And in his infinite wisdom, Kennedy has decided to cancel a series of critical studies of possible future viral threats and end research into how best to prepare for potential pandemics.
The New York Times reports:
The Trump administration has canceled funding for dozens of studies seeking new vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 and other pathogens that may cause future pandemics. The government’s rationale is that the Covid pandemic has ended, which ‘provides cause to terminate Covid-related grant funds,’ according to an internal N.I.H. document viewed by The New York Times.
But the research was not just about Covid. Nine of the terminated awards funded centers conducting research on antiviral drugs to combat so-called priority pathogens that could give rise to entirely new pandemics. ‘This includes the antiviral projects designed to cover a wide range of families that could cause outbreaks or pandemics,’ said one senior N.I.H. official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
The vaccine research also was not focused on Covid, but rather on other coronaviruses that one day might jump from animals to humans. Describing all the research as Covid-related is ‘a complete inaccuracy and simply a way to defund infectious disease research,’ the official said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has said that the N.I.H. is too focused on infectious diseases, the official noted. The funding halts were first reported by Science and Nature. The cancellations stunned scientists who had depended on the government’s support.
‘The idea that we don’t need further research to learn how to treat health problems caused by coronaviruses and prevent future pandemics because ‘Covid-19 is over is absurd,’ said Pamela Bjorkman, a structural biologist at Caltech who had been studying new vaccines. The goal of the projects was to have vaccines and drugs ready if a new pandemic hit, rather than spending precious months developing them from scratch. ‘In the last pandemic, we really were caught with our pants down,’ said Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at Rockefeller University who was collaborating with Dr. Bjorkman. ‘And if we don’t learn that lesson and prepare better for the next pandemic, we are unlikely to do better than we did last time.’
[Emphasis added.]
You can add complete incompetence and immorality to the mix:
Stephanie Pappas wrote for Scientific American:
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has repeatedly suggested that farmers should let bird flu spread through flocks. Experts explain why that’s a dangerous idea. With H5N1 avian influenza spreading in poultry flocks, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is pushing a new plan: let the virus rip.
Kennedy recently told Fox News that by letting the highly pathogenic bird flu spread through flocks, farmers could ‘identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it.’
But poultry experts say that, in addition to causing an unimaginable poultry death toll, this plan wouldn’t work.’ No, not for this disease,’ says Rocio Crespo, a poultry veterinarian at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. ‘This is crazy.’
Farmers must currently cull infected flocks to contain the disease before it spreads. They’re financially compensated for the culled birds by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The policy is supported by science because highly pathogenic avian influenza is so deadly on its own, killing 90 to 100 percent of chickens in three or four days, says Matt Koci, an immunologist and virologist at North Carolina State University’s poultry science department.
The New York Times weighed in:
Mr. Kennedy does not have jurisdiction over farms. But Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, also has voiced support for the notion. ‘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,’ Ms. Rollins told Fox News last month. Yet veterinary scientists said letting the virus sweep through poultry flocks unchecked would be inhumane and dangerous, and have enormous economic consequences.
‘That’s a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,’ said Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas. Since January 2022, there have been more than 1,600 outbreaks reported on farms and backyard flocks, occurring in every state. More than 166 million birds have been affected.
Every infection is another opportunity for the virus, called H5N1, to evolve into a more virulent form. Geneticists have been tracking its mutations closely; so far, the virus has not developed the ability to spread among people. But if H5N1 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. Large numbers of infected birds are likely to transmit massive amounts of the virus, putting farm workers and other animals at great risk. ‘So now you’re setting yourself up for bad things to happen,’ Dr. Hansen said. ‘It’s a recipe for disaster.’ …
Infected birds can develop severe respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, tremors and twisting of their necks, and produce misshapen or fragile eggs. Many die gasping for breath. (Some birds die suddenly without showing any symptoms at all.)
The speed with which infected birds collapse has been cited as one reason that officials believe eggs to be safe for consumption. Most sick birds die before they can lay an egg, or are so visibly diseased that it is easy to filter them out.
Poultry farmers call the authorities as soon as they spot the signs of illness or death. If the tests turn up positive for bird flu, they are reimbursed for killing the rest of the flock before the virus spreads any farther.
The Times addressed the ramifications of the Kennedy strategy:
If farmers were instead to let the virus make its way across the farm, ‘these infections would cause very painful deaths in nearly 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys,’ said Dr. David Swayne, a poultry veterinarian who worked at the U.S.D.A. for nearly 30 years. The result would be ‘inhumane, resulting in an unacceptable animal welfare crisis,’ he added.
The strategy ‘means longer quarantine, more downtime, more lost revenue and increased expenses,’ said a U.S.D.A. scientist who was not authorized to speak to the media. Mr. Kennedy has suggested that a subset of poultry might be naturally immune to bird flu. But chickens and turkeys lack the genes needed to resist the virus, experts said.
‘The way we raise birds now, there’s not a lot of genetic variability,’ Dr. Hansen said. ‘They’re all the same bird, basically.’
Public health regulations would forbid the very few birds that might survive an infection from being sold. In any event, those birds might only be protected against the current version of H5N1, not others that emerge as the virus continues to evolve.
‘The biology and the immunology doesn’t work that way,’ said Dr. Keith Poulsen, the director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Letting the virus spread unchecked would also likely lead to trade embargoes against poultry from the United States, he added: ‘There’s a huge economic loss immediately.’
In one interview with Fox News, Mr. Kennedy also suggested that the virus ‘doesn’t appear to hurt wild birds — they have some kind of immunity.’ In fact, while ducks and shorebirds may not show symptoms, H5N1 has killed raptors, waterfowl, sand hill cranes and snow geese, among many other species.
[Emphasis added.]
In an article titled “RFK Jr.’s Faulty Advice On Bird Flu,” Factcheck also weighed in: “
We’ve in fact said to [the U.S. Department of Agriculture] that they 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,’ Kennedy said of bird flu in an interview with medical correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel. The conversation aired March 4 on Fox Nation. ‘Most of our scientists are against the culling operation,’ Kennedy said in an interview with Sean Hannity, which aired on Fox News March 11. Kennedy advocated testing therapeutics in flocks and again suggested looking for birds with ‘a genetic inclination for immunity.’ …
‘Why do we want to give the virus a leg up? Why do we want to give it an advantage and let it do its worst without being checked?’ Ian Brown, group leader of avian virology at the Pirbright Institute in the U.K., asked us. ‘That doesn’t feel terribly logical.’
‘Letting bird flu run through poultry flocks is ‘not advisable and this will cause serious harm to poultry and put other animals at risk, but also humans who will have to manage the culling/clean-up, which poses a huge biosecurity risk,’ Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told us in an email.
Meanwhile, Kennedy left out important context about the risk of bird flu. And he misleadingly claimed that vaccinating poultry would turn birds into ‘mutation factories,’ when researchers say that vaccinating birds could be one possible way of mitigating agricultural harm and reducing risks to people.
So here we are, and the casualties amongst ducks and geese and chickens continue to mount. All it takes is a clear and critical look at what is happening around the country and Robert F. Kennedy’s utter lack of experience with genetics, immunology, and virology is stunningly apparent. He is making things worse, not better. In fact, just the other day, we learned of an incredibly large outbreak of bird flu in Colorado, infecting more than a million chickens:
CBS News reports:
State officials have confirmed an avian flu outbreak in Northern Colorado. Agriculture officials said the outbreak occurred in a commercial egg-laying facility in Weld County. The facility houses more than a million chickens.
The state said the new cases are a reminder that the virus is actively circulating in the state. In total, more than 11 million chickens are affected. Last week, the Governor’s Office of Colorado issued a disaster declaration for the outbreak.
Colorado Public Radio adds some perspective:
Avian flu has been present in the state since 2022 and has been blamed nationally as a driver of high egg prices. It has no cure and has up to a 100 percent mortality rate in domestic poultry flocks.
‘The first thing that they see is a lot of birds getting sick and a lot of birds dying very quickly,’ Colorado State Veterinarian Maggie Baldwin told CPR News. “It is a really, really unfortunate disease … there’s nothing that we can do to cure those animals.
Baldwin said all of the birds in the infected Weld County flock will be euthanized.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture set up a response center on-site at the farm, which it has not publicly named, to kill and dispose of the chickens. This is the first time since July 2024 that avian flu has been detected in a commercial flock in Colorado. However, four backyard flocks in Morgan, Logan and Larimer counties have tested positive in the past two months.
The virus can spread easily and often does so through migratory birds, which can interact with domestic poultry and infect them. ‘We have seen a lot of reports over the last several months of a lot of different species of wild birds that have been detected positive here in Colorado,’ said Baldwin.’
And yes, we are all vulnerable:
Sadly, none of this is surprising. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and those allies in the anti-vax movement he has empowered have failed from the beginning to fully appreciate the extraordinary threat we faced, and still face, from COVID-19. They have fired many of our brightest researchers and demanded political loyalty at the expense of objective science. We will never know how many people died and/or suffered needlessly during the pandemic. And their ineffectiveness continues to haunt those millions amongst us who suffer from Long COVID.
Unfortunately, when it comes to public health, there is an excruciating cost to quackery. And sadly, these days, there are too many farmers counting their dead. Even more sadly, as these quacks continue to disparage vaccination and as they make it more and more difficult for parents to vaccinate their children, we will see more Americans getting seriously sick, even dying from diseases we know we can prevent.
The message is clear: If they quack like quacks, they are quacks.
