Therapeutic drugs should be “intensively” tested on US poultry flocks infected with bird flu, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, arguing that the medications could help identify treatments for human cases.
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity broadcast on Tuesday night, Kennedy said he opposed mass vaccination and culling as a strategy for controlling the H5N1 avian influenza strain. Instead, he advocated for measures to protect flocks from infection by wild birds, isolating infected fowl, and allowing the highly pathogenic virus to spread through poultry to identify birds with natural immunity.
Although critics have long characterized him as a vaccine skeptic, Kennedy encouraged people to get vaccinated in a growing multi-state measles outbreak, saying the shots will be offered free to anyone who wants one. However, he also emphasized the importance of freedom of choice over immunizations, claiming that vaccines cause deaths every year as well as blindness and brain swelling – symptoms caused by measles itself.