By Leah Douglas
(Reuters) -Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives oversight committee opened an investigation on Tuesday into health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handling of the federal response to bird flu, according to a letter sent to Kennedy and released by the committee.
Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, has said he does not support a bird flu vaccine for poultry. He has instead suggested that the virus should be allowed to spread among chickens to identify those with natural resistance.
Health experts have said the approach would not work and risks allowing the virus to mutate in ways that could make it transmissible among people, possibly triggering a pandemic.
“Allowing avian flu to ravage flocks across the country is dangerous and reckless,” said the letter sent by Gerald Connolly, the top Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the health subcommittee, and three other members of Congress.
The letter requests information on communication between Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as experts consulted by HHS on bird flu.
(Reporting by Leah DouglasEditing by Bill Berkrot)
Comments