What is Bird Flu?
- “Bird Flu” is the colloquial term for Avian Influenza A (H5N1) which is a viral infection that primarily infects birds but has been known to spread in some mammals, including cows, cats, and humans. H5N1 is known to be highly contagious between birds, and 2024 saw the first highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 spreading amongst U.S. cattle, as well as dozens of infections of humans.
How bad is it?
- For birds, catastrophic. In just the last quarter of 2024, 20 million egg-laying chickens died from bird flu—a record number. In total, more than 160 million birds in the U.S. (including commercial, wild, and backyard flocks) have been infected by the virus, and more than 100 million have died since the outbreak began in 2022.
- Economic Consequence:
- U.S. egg prices have hit a record high and are likely to continue to climb.
- Public Health Consequence:
- Rapid spread amongst birds has allowed the virus to adapt to cattle, cats, humans and other mammals. While there has not been documented human-to-human spread of the virus, continued infection amongst animal populations (including the spread of H5N1 between cows), and increasing human infections, continuously increases the opportunity for (and the likelihood that) the virus will adapt to human spread. In January, the first American died of the H5N1 outbreak, and “samples taken from the individual suggest that the virus mutated within the patient after infection—meaning it had begun to adapt to infect humans better—raising new questions about H5N1’s pandemic potential.”
Who is most vulnerable?
- People who work closely with infected animals, or animals experiencing significant spread, including poultry, dairy cattle, or wild birds.
What’s the solution?
- Proactive efforts to expand disease surveillance infrastructure, improve agricultural industry working conditions, and support the development of clinical therapeutics are necessary to curb ongoing spread and prevent a larger crisis. Additionally, given the multiple intersecting circumstances fueling the crisis, significant investments in vaccine research, robust testing regimes, field-specific experts, and other emergency response personnel will be required to actually address, let alone bring under control, the emergency.
What’s going on right now?
- As of May 30, 2025, there have been at least 70 confirmed bird flu cases in humans across thirteen U.S. states. One person has so far died from bird flu in January 2025 in Louisiana. Meanwhile, millions of birds across every U.S. state and over 1000 dairy herds across 17 states have been impacted by the infection.
As of May 30, 2025, confirmed bird flu cases in humans (by state) are as follows:
| State: | CA | WA | CO | NV | WY | OR | TX | LA | MO | IA | WI | MI | OH |
| Cases: | 38 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
The latest CDC estimates of confirmed bird flu cases in animal populations are as follows:
| Animal: | Wild Birds | Poultry | Dairy Herds |
| Cases: | 13,037 (as of 5/22/25) | 173,107,698 (as of 5/28/25) | 1072 (as of 5/27/25) |
Has the Trump Administration responded?
The Trump Administration’s response has been disorganized, counterproductive, and incoherent:
- Workforce Disruptions: The administration has scrambled to rehire some of the bird flu response workers it initially laid off as part of DOGE’s chaotic firings at the USDA. Plans to fire disease surveillance experts at the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service were, apparently, also reversed, but the consequences for these experts’ frame of mind and continuity of work likely persist.
- Research Disruptions: The Trump administration’s health agency communication embargo has disrupted the publication of critical research on bird flu transmission between humans and cats.
- Vaccine Disruptions: Despite reporting that the administration is “seriously considering” vaccines in its bird flu response, RFK Jr.’s HHS may potentially end a Biden-era contract with Moderna for vaccine production to address the crisis. The agency offered little rationale for its decision besides claims of “failed oversight” from the Biden administration.
- HHS Secretary RFK Jr. opposes poultry vaccination over concerns that doing so could accelerate disease spread to humans by “turning those birds into mutant factories.”
- RFK Jr.’s preferred approach of “letting [disease] run through the flock so that we can identify the birds and preserve the birds that are immune to it,” however, is just as likely to promote dangerous virus mutations.
Action Tracker
- February 26 – The USDA announces a $1 billion plan to support poultry farmers impacted by bird flu. Dairy farmers, however, are left out of these new relief efforts
- May 1 – HHS announces a $500 million investment in vaccine research targeting pathogens that could trigger pandemics. Yet scientists interviewed by STAT News remain skeptical of the initiative:
- “‘I was confused by the messaging, because it is a 70-year-old technology,’ said one scientist who works in vaccine development, noting this was the method used by Jonas Salk to create the world’s first polio vaccine in the early 1950s. Another scientist familiar with the scope of research that is being done to try to develop a so-called universal flu vaccine to protect against a range of dangerous strains — like H5N1 bird flu — was blunt. ‘There is incredible work going on. This is not it.'”
- May 28 – HHS follows through on threats made earlier in the year by cancelling it’s contract with Moderna to produce flu subtype vaccines.