Dems on the House oversight committee opened an investigation yesterday into health secretary Bob Kennedy's handling of the federal response to bird flu, according to a letter sent to Kennedy and released by the committee. Via Yahoo News:
Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, has said that he does not support a bird flu vaccine for poultry. He has instead suggested that the virus should be allowed to spread among chickens to identify those with natural resistance.
Health experts have said that the approach would not work and risks allowing the virus to mutate in ways that could make it transmissible among people, possibly triggering a pandemic.
Bird flu has killed nearly 170 million chickens, turkeys and other birds since the current outbreak began in 2022. The virus has increasingly spread to humans and other mammals since 2024.
"Allowing avian flu to ravage flocks across the country is dangerous and reckless," said the letter sent by Gerald Connolly, the top Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the health subcommittee, and three other members of Congress.
Staff involved in the bird flu response at CVM were fired on Tuesday as part of mass layoffs at HHS.
