RFK's proposal to let bird flu spread through poultry

Overview of the Proposal

• Proposal: allow H5N1 bird flu to spread through poultry flocks, let susceptible birds die, and keep/breed survivors to create more “resilient” populations.
• Framed by some as “eugenics for chickens” or just crude animal husbandry; others stress it ignores basic virology and poultry industry realities.

Scientific and Practical Critiques

• Major concern: large, infected flocks provide an ideal environment for rapid viral evolution, increasing odds of:
  • More transmissible or persistent strains.
  • Cross-species jumps, including to humans and possibly human-to-human spread.
• Commenters note this could select for stronger viruses, not just stronger birds.
• A key flaw raised: commercial meat and egg birds come from centralized breeding lines and do not themselves reproduce; “survivor birds” in production flocks wouldn’t meaningfully pass on genes.
• Article-cited claim that H5N1 mortality in domestic chickens can approach 100% undercuts the idea that many would recover and keep laying.
• Comparison is made to flu vaccines needing yearly updates because viruses evolve faster than host species.

Expertise, Regulatory Capture, and Governance

• Debate over whether deference to “experts” is better than empowering conspiracy-driven non-experts:
  • Some worry about regulatory capture, pharma–FDA “revolving doors,” and past drug/vaccine controversies.
  • Others argue captured-but-competent institutions are still far safer than ideologically driven amateurs.
• Broader thread on what “independent expertise” could realistically mean, and whether critics of the system are proposing credible alternatives.

Political and Administrative Concerns

• Many see the appointment to a top health post as an extreme case of putting an ideologue with false confidence in charge of complex systems.
• Discussion of a broader pattern: appointing leaders hostile to their own agencies, valuing loyalty and obedience over competence (likened to autocratic tendencies).
• Fears this administration will erode scientific capacity, degrade trust in vaccines via shoddy reports, and reduce life expectancy, while voters become numb to constant crises.

Animal Welfare, Markets, and Alternatives

• Animal-rights commenters see mass die-offs and price spikes as potentially accelerating shifts away from eggs and meat, but others question whether killing “billions of birds” is ethically acceptable even for that goal.
• Economic points:
  • If flocks die from disease instead of culling, they’re still dead; supply shrinks either way.
  • Likely outcome is far higher egg prices, black markets, and greater reliance on imports with worse welfare standards.
• Some prefer real eggs over processed plant-based substitutes but want better treatment of animals; current cruelty is tied to cost pressures.
• Debate over whether better animal welfare must always mean much higher prices, or whether that’s a cultural/economic choice.

RFK-Related Media and Propaganda

• One commenter critiques the physical production quality and dense footnoting of an anti-Fauci book as a red flag; others respond that such books function more as identity tokens and grift vehicles than as texts meant to be seriously read.
• Concern that repeated exposure to misleading materials—reports with fabricated or misrepresented citations—erodes public reasoning and supports a “post-truth” environment.