RFK Jr. warns against vaccinating birds amid avian flu: You turn those flocks into mutation factories

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr.

is advising against vaccinating poultry as American farmers struggle to contain a devastating bird flu outbreak that has caused egg prices to skyrocket. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Kennedy explained that his main concern with inoculating chickens is that if the vaccine does not completely prevent infection it could help spawn new variants of bird flu that may be more likely to infect humans. “All of my agencies advise against vaccination of birds, because if you vaccinate with a leaky vaccine, in other words a vaccine that does not provide sterilizing immunity, that does not absolutely protect against the disease, you turn those flocks into mutation factories,” the HHS secretary said in the interview, which aired Tuesday. “It’s much more likely to jump to animals if you do that,” Kennedy argued, noting that the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration “have all said we should not be vaccinating.”“It’s dangerous for human beings to vaccinate the birds.”Kennedy’s warning comes after Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced last month that the US Department of Agriculture would spend $100 million on vaccine research to combat the bird flu as part of a $1 billion strategy to curb the disease’s impacts.  “The Biden administration did little to address the repeated outbreaks and high egg prices that followed.By contrast, the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously,” Rollins said last month.

“American farmers need relief, and American consumers need affordable food.To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way.”When poultry flocks become infected with bird flu, the birds are typically culled by farmers to prevent the disease from spreading.The practice has caused egg shortages and rising prices. The average c...