Opinion: It’s Time to End the Denial About Bird Flu

It’s Time to End the Denial About Bird Flu Crystal Heath and Gene Baur explore the dire consequences of underestimating bird flu. Crystal Heath and Gene Baur TIME

Since the beginning of the bird flu outbreak nearly three years ago, state and federal departments of agriculture have had one goal in mind: Maintain consumer confidence—as tens of millions of birds are culled and taxpayers bear the cost of industry bailouts. Every new media report of an infected dairy herd, poultry flock, or farm worker comes with the ubiquitous industry-approved mantra, “Don’t worry, the meat and the milk are safe.”

But this messaging deflects from the production methods that have enabled the virus to spread in ways yet to be fully understood. Case in point: on November 19, a California child with no known contact with an infected animal tested positive for avian influenza and, just seven days before that, a previously healthy teenager in British Columbia was hospitalized in critical condition with the virus. Investigators are still unsure how the patients acquired it. And with highly pathogenic avian influenza now infecting pigs, we are one step closer to the next pandemic. 

We need to come to terms with the reality that our public health is threatened by an ever-evolving virus that has already infected dozens of people, with 7% of farm workers showing evidence of infection. Our economy is also at risk: 3.5% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product is tied to the dairy industry’s precarious production method. 

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