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Robert F Kennedy Jr is wrong about the H5N1 bird flu

Not that any of us are surprised, but HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr downplayed concerns about the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in the USA. Of course, this has raised alarms among public health and infectious disease scientists.

I don’t have to exaggerate to state that Kennedy knows nothing about infectious diseases, given his recent claims about measles. Kennedy seems to have an instant bias against any real science, especially concerning public health. And, he’s wrong about the H5N1 bird flu.

So what did Kennedy say about bird flu? He was essentially dismissive of the potential threat of the disease while dismissing why scientists are apprehensive about the disease.

This post will examine what Kennedy said about the H5N1 bird flu and why it’s scientifically nonsense.

woman lying on bed while using tissue bird flu kennedy

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

An H5N1 primer

Avian influenza, or what everyone is now calling “bird flu,” is a type A influenza subtype designated as A(H5N1). The designation is based on antigens common to this influenza subtype.

Avian influenza viruses are classified into subtypes, which are named according to subtle variations in the structure of two key proteins on the virus surface — hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). The hemagglutinin protein is what allows the virus to attach to the cell surface of the host, and then infect the cells. In general, H1 and H3 are best able to attach to human cells, while H5 is best at attaching to bird cells. However, H5 could mutate to a form that makes it better at attaching to human cells, and that would lead to human-to-human transmission of the disease.

Another avian influenza is designated as A(H5N9), but the current bird flu outbreak appears to be the H5N1 subtype. Thus, H5N9 and H5N1 have the same hemagglutinin protein, but a different neuraminidase protein.

As the name implies, these viruses usually affect birds but can occasionally pass from birds to humans, cattle, pigs, and other animals. The H5N1 subtype arose in Asia a few years ago and has spread worldwide. It is highly pathogenic (meaning it can cause disease in humans) and has passed to humans several times.

Infected birds shed the virus through their saliva, mucous, and feces. Human infections with bird flu viruses can happen when the virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose, or mouth, or is inhaled. This can happen when the virus is in the air (in droplets or possibly dust) and a person breathes it in, or possibly when a person touches something that has the virus on it and then touches their mouth, eyes, or nose. Human infections with bird flu viruses have occurred most often after unprotected contact with infected birds or surfaces contaminated with bird flu viruses. However, some infections have been identified where direct contact with infected birds or their environment was unknown.

There are numerous cases where bird flu has been transmitted between humans, but most infections of humans are from constant contact with infected birds. Human infection with avian influenza A virus poses pandemic potential, so CDC and other public health agencies investigate every case to assess whether human-to-human transmission might have occurred. Detailed public health investigations can help determine whether person-to-person spread of an avian influenza A virus occurred.

The signs and symptoms of bird flu infections in humans can range from nothing to severe. The infections are similar to other flu infections including fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, and shortness of breath.

According to data collected by the WHO, there have been 954 documented cases between 2003 and 2024. Of those, 464 were fatal, leading to a fatality rate of about 49 percent among the documented cases.

Kennedy and H5N1 bird flu comments

Kennedy said that the H5N1 genotype B3.13, the one currently circulating in US dairy cattle and most poultry, “is not dangerous to humans.” Why? He claims it only causes conjunctivitis and mild flu symptoms.

As I have written previously, the problem isn’t that these cases are dangerous, it’s that the virus could undergo reassortment — when two viruses infect an individual at the same time, the viruses can trade genetic material. If the asymptomatic bird flu cases are a larger problem than we thought, then the bird flu virus might be jumping between species and may become a public health concern.

Currently, scientists don’t have enough information to determine whether the B3.13 or D1.1 (the other circulating genotype) is or will be a danger to humans.

According to James Lawler, MD, MPH, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security in Omaha,

we don’t know nearly enough about B3.13, or D1.1 for that matter, to make definitive statements about danger in humans.

Lawler also stated that the current B3.13 genotype of H5N1,

…exhibits similar characteristics to other historical H5N1 viruses over the years and has already put some people in the hospital. It is clearly a dangerous virus.

The biggest fear for public health scientists is that if the virus mutates through reassortment to become easily passed from individual to individual, it could start a catastrophic pandemic. Even if the fatality rate is relatively low, it could be devastating. The 1918 H1N1 pandemic had a fatality rate of around 2%, yet it killed over 50 million people worldwide.

Unsurprisingly, Kennedy claims that he has been advised against vaccinating poultry because it could lead to mutations that could make it more likely that H5N1 will jump to other animals, including humans.

Kennedy claimed on Fox News, “The vaccine could actually promote antigenic shift, which means you’re turning those birds into mutant factories.”

The problem with Kennedy’s logic is that massive numbers of poultry and cattle (along with wild birds) are infected with the virus, so it has plenty of opportunity to mutate. Mass vaccination of poultry and cattle stocks will reduce the number of infections which should lead to a reduction in the rate of mutations.

Of course, there’s an economic issue with vaccinating poultry and cattle — many people will refuse to buy vaccinated food. People will be hunting for gluten-free, free-range, organic, vaccine-free chickens for dinner.

Kennedy suggested that we should give our domestic poultry antiviral medication to fight the bird flu. Unfortunately, this is bad advice. H5N1 could mutate to become resistant to these antivirals, which means that the medications won’t be useful to treat humans. The antiviral-resistant H5N1 would then circulate through poultry (and cattle) flocks meaning it will continue reassorting, ready to jump to humans.

Summary

Like with his comments about measles, Robert F Kennedy Jr is clueless about H5N1 bird flu. To be fair, H5N1 has not caused much harm to humans, but the possibility that it will is what keeps infectious disease and public health scientists awake at night.

Kennedy thinks it’s not dangerous and his proposed actions, like giving birds antivirals, are not based on good science.

Of course, nothing Kennedy has done so far is based on good science.

Michael Simpson

Lifetime lover of science, especially biomedical research. Spent years in academics, business development, research, and traveling the world shilling for Big Pharma. I love sports, mostly college basketball and football, hockey, and baseball. I enjoy great food and intelligent conversation. And a delicious morning coffee!