Are We Closer to a Bird Flu Pandemic?

Canceling funding for a bird flu vaccine is just the latest in a long list of cuts that are making it harder to respond to bird flu outbreaks.

We don’t hear much about bird flu anymore, which might make you think that our risk of a bird flu pandemic has dropped.

Unfortunately, that we are not hearing as much about bird flu anymore is one of the reasons we are probably even more at risk!

While there likely has been some drop in cases, most experts almost think that surveillance for bird flu cases has also dropped off.

And that will be a problem once cases start to pick up again.

Are We Closer to a Bird Flu Pandemic?

There is other troubling news too.

Maybe the most worrisome is the fact that Secretary RFK Jr and Dr Mehmet Oz, our CMS Administrator, are pushing to import 400 birds from an ostrich farm in Canada!

Birds on a farm with confirmed cases of bird flu and which have been in quarantine and due to be culled to stop the spread of the disease to other farms.

“Universal Ostrich, a farm in Edgewood, BC, was ordered to kill all its birds after authorities received an anonymous tip in December 2024 that some were dying. Samples collected from two birds found they tested positive for H5N1, a strain of bird flu.”

RFK Jr offers to save Canadian ostriches with suspected bird flu and move them to US

A farm that failed to get an exemption to stop the cull.

“Although the Applicant’s principals had attempted to fence off a nearby pond, they explained that the wild ducks continued to access the ostrich feed dishes by flying in.”

Universal Ostrich Farms Inc. v. Canada (Food Inspection Agency)

A farm that continued to have wild ducks in their ostrich enclosures that could reintroduce the bird flu virus to the flock, if the birds weren’t still shedding virus themselves.

Do all of these folks who are fighting to save this ostrich flock know what usually happens to these birds? Most are raised for meat and sold to be cooked as ostrich steak, ostrich burgers, and ostrich jerky, etc.

Will this be a shift in US policy on culling infected flocks?

If flocks with sick birds are allowed to live, many people are concerned that even more birds will get sick.

And what happens if the bird flu virus continues to mutate and gains the ability to spread from person to person?

“The Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Cambodia would like to inform the public that there is 1 case of bird flu in an 11-year-old boy who was confirmed positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus by the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia on May 27, 2025, residing in Srey Sampoung village, My Kraing commune, Samrong Tong district, Kampong Speu province. Despite the care and rescue efforts of the medical team, the child died on May 27, 2025 due to the cause of death on arrival at the hospital in a very serious condition, including fever, cough, shortness of breath and severe difficulty breathing. Investigations revealed that chickens and ducks near the patient’s house had been sick and dying for a week before the child started feeling sick.”

Cambodia Reports 4th Fatal H5N1 Case Of 2025

There were plans for a new bird flu vaccine, but funding for that was just canceled by Trump and Secretary RFK Jr’s HHS.

The CDC’s Health Alert Network hasn’t published an alert in months. Would we even be told if they found an increase in bird flu cases?

Add on all the other moves that ‘we’ have made since Trump became President, and it is easy to see why people are concerned.

References

The U.S. hasn’t seen a human bird flu case in 3 months. Experts are wondering why https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-u-s-hasnt-seen-a-human-bird-flu-case-in-3-months-experts-are-wondering-why

RFK Jr offers to save Canadian ostriches with suspected bird flu and move them to US https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/28/rfk-jr-oz-canadian-ostriches-avian-flu

Universal Ostrich Farms Inc. v. Canada (Food Inspection Agency) https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/528164/index.do#_Toc198034610

Canada: Ostrich farm ‘devastated’ after federal judge rules cull of nearly 400 birds can proceed https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2025/05/14/canada-ostrich-farm-devastated-after-federal-judge-rules-cull-of-nearly-400-birds-can-proceed/

Cambodia Reports 4th Fatal H5N1 Case Of 2025 https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2025/05/cambodia-reports-4th-fatal-h5n1-case-of.html

CDC’s Health Alert Network https://www.cdc.gov/han/php/about/index.html

Silencing the CDC https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/silencing-the-cdc