68 sick farmers, including one who died, may be the “sentinel chickens” for the next pandemic, but Trump administration says, “What, me worry?”
WASHINGTON D.C.––Playing “chicken” with the rising risk of an H5N1 avian influenza pandemic spreading beyond six dozen farm workers to the general public, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., hours after confirmation as the Donald Trump administration Secretary of Health & Human Services, dismantled the Epidemic Health Intelligence Service.
The 2017-2021 Donald Trump administration began with similar “budget cutting” measures, contributing mightily to the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak that has now killed more than 1.2 million Americans, mostly during the first six months as the outbreak caught the U.S. unawares and unprepared.
Fired half the Epidemic Intelligence Service
Reported New Republic associate writer Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, “Hours after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged that the Department of Health & Human Services would not undergo a staff purge, it did.
“The Trump administration laid off half of its Epidemic Intelligence Service, otherwise known as the ‘Disease Detectives.’”
NBC News reporter Lewis Kamb put the number of laid off personnel at 1,260, almost all of them “probationary” staff within their first two years of civil service employment.
Frontline investigation of disease outbreaks is typically the first assignment of Centers for Disease Control & Prevention [CDC] staff before they move up the promotional ladder into leadership positions.
(Wikipedia photo)
“The country is less safe”
Anne Schuchat, a former rear admiral and assistant surgeon general in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, who served as principal deputy director of the CDC before her retirement in May 2021, bluntly told CBS News, “The country is less safe.
“These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats, from anthrax to Zika virus,” Schuchat said.
The Epidemic Intelligence Service was crippled two days after the Oklahoma independent nonprofit news service Nondoc.com disclosed the separate and unrelated arrests of two Texas men on cockfighting-related charges, after 10 fighting gamecocks and cockfighting paraphernalia were found in their possession.
Gamefowl movements spread disease
The two cases, although those gamecocks are not believed to have been infected, demonstrate the potential for gamefowl movements spreading disease.
The first of the two suspects, J.C. Lewis Jr., 60, of Elbert, Texas, was nabbed for speeding by National Park Service rangers on January 18, 2025 in Murray County.
Charged in Murray County District Court with possessing and training birds for fighting, Lewis was jailed in lieu of posting $10,000 bond.
The second suspect, Khai Hong Nguyen, 51, of Grand Prairie, Texas, was stopped in Atoka County for driving with an inoperable passenger headlight.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Busted in Atoka County
“Nguyen, who had active warrants in Texas for cockfighting and money laundering, was charged in Atoka County District Court with possessing or training birds for fighting,” Nondoc.com said. “He posted a $15,000 bond, and a preliminary hearing conference is scheduled for March 15, 2025.”
Atoka County under former sheriff Tony Head was notorious for non-enforcement of the Oklahoma law against cockfighting. Head, however, was voted out of office in July 2024.
(See Who told the Atoka County cockfighters the cops were coming? and Pro-cockfighting sheriff loses election, anti-cockfighting sheriff loses coin flip.)
Atoka County member of the Oklahoma state legislature Justin Humphrey nonetheless is continuing a long campaign to decriminalize cockfighting, having recently introduced state house bills 1313 and 1326, the former to reduce the Oklahoma penalty for cockfighting from a felony to a misdemeanor, and the latter to allow fights between gamefowl and robots.
“Every weekend there’s a cockfight”
“Every weekend, Saturday and Sunday, there’s a cockfight going on some place,” explained Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma state director for Animal Wellness Action, to Nondoc.com. “And there are a lot of cockfighting pits in southern Oklahoma,” many of which draw cockfighters and gamefowl from surrounding states, with each transport increasing the risk of disease transmission.
H5N1 and other high pathogenic avian influenzas typically arrive with wild migratory waterfowl along the Pacific, Rocky Mountains, Midwest, and Atlantic flyways.
Gamecocks, usually kept outdoors tethered to hutches within sight of each other to whet their fighting instincts, have astronomically more risk of contracting H5N1 and other avian influenzas from wild birds than commercially raised poultry, who are almost exclusively kept inside relatively bio-secure barns.
H5N1 outbreaks in five Lower Michigan counties
“More than 300 dead wild birds have been discovered in five Lower Michigan counties, and the virus is ‘widespread’ in wild flocks, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced on February 11, 2025,” reported Lucas Smolcic Larson for Michigan Live.
“Preliminary testing indicates the avian flu is to blame for the die-offs, and samples are being sent to a national lab for confirmation,” Larson continued.
Acting to reduce risk of H5N1 spreading either among domestic flocks or to the public, New York governor Kathy Hochul on February 7, 2025 “temporarily closed all live bird markets in New York City and Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties through February 14, 2025 after inspectors discovered seven cases of bird flu in poultry,” reported Carma Hassan for CNN.
About 80 live markets were affected by the closure.
“Detected on surveillance”
New York State Health Commissioner James McDonald, M.D., told Hassan that “The state health department is using all the tools at its disposal to monitor for avian influenza in human beings, and we’re prepared for widespread testing should the need arise.
“These cases in the live bird markets were detected on surveillance,” McDonald emphasized. In other words, we went looking for the problem, and this is what you do in public health. We work together, and we look for problems. We’re being vigilant about this because we really don’t want to have people infected in New York state. It’s about protecting people.”
Voters For Animal Rights
But it is about protecting animals, too.
Noted the New York City-based organization Voters for Animal Rights in an email to members, “Just days after Governor Hochul temporarily shut down live animal markets due to bird flu outbreaks, more than a dozen ducks and wild birds at Wildlife Conservation Society zoos, including the Bronx Zoo and Queens Zoo, tragically died from H5N1.
“These zoos, which confine thousands of animals—including big cats highly susceptible to this deadly strain of avian influenza—are now ground zero for the preventable spread of this devastating virus,” Voters for Animal Rights reminded.
“While closing live animal markets in NYC temporarily is a step in the right direction, it is nowhere near enough. For the sake of public health and the wellbeing of animals, these markets must be shut down permanently,” Voters for Animal Rights concluded.
Nevada suspends cage-free law
Meanwhile back in ranching and gambling country, the Nevada state legislature and governor Joe Lombardo seized upon the soaring price of eggs, resulting from culling 159 million hens since 2022 due to H5N1, as pretext for suspending the state law requiring that eggs sold within Nevada must come from cage-free flocks.
Observed the Associated Press reporting team of Josh Funk, Sejal Govindarao, and Ty Oneil, “By relaxing the rule, Nevada might get access to additional eggs, but the supply of all eggs remains tight. It is not clear that dropping cage-free laws will have a significant effect on egg prices.
“University of Arkansas agricultural economist Jada Thompson said opening up Nevada to all kinds of eggs ‘could ease egg prices in Nevada very slightly,’ but that it might make prices worse elsewhere because supplies are so tight.
HSUS reportedly endorses the suspension, then changes name
“But Nevada is going to give it a try,” said Funk, Govindarao, and Oneil, “even if California, Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Michigan,” all with similar laws on their books, “don’t seem to be considering it,” for an obvious reason: producing eggs requires hens, and if the hen population is drastically decreased, rebuilding the flocks will take time, no matter how the hens are housed.
The gist of the matter is simply that Joe Lombardo and the Nevada legislature––with the reported endorsement of the Humane Society of the U.S.––just did a big favor for non-compliant factory egg farmers.
But the Humane Society of the U.S. may not be recognized among the culprits, having changed names a few days later to become Humane World For Animals.
(See What is former Humane Society of the U.S. trying to hide with name change?)
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