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Trump Taps Gerald Parker to Be New Head of Pandemic Office as Bird Flu Threat Grows
President Trump has selected Gerald Parker, a veterinarian and former top-ranking federal health official, to head the White House’s pandemic office, two U.S. officials tell CBS News. Congress created the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of one of the lessons learned from the outbreak, the office was intended to formalize the so-called czar roles that had led efforts across the federal government to prepare and respond to pandemic threats.
Parker was previously the associate dean for Global One Health at Texas A&M University. “One Health” refers to the study of how health threats in animals and the environment are closely linked to human health concerns, including how dangerous viruses and bacteria often emerge in animals before spreading to humans. Spokespeople for the university and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Is U.S. Prepared for Bird Flu’s Spread in Humans? One Expert Has Concerns
When it comes to the potential of H5N1 avian flu, otherwise known as bird flu, picking up mutations that might lead to human-to-human spread, that “train has already left the station,” warns one infectious disease expert. If and when bird flu — already widespread in cattle, cats and other mammals — gains the ability to transmit between people, the best Americans can hope for is to “control the speed of the train” with vaccines, masks and treatment, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. He’s a professor of medicine at the University of San Francisco.
Speaking with HealthDay, Chin-Hong stressed that both rapid surveillance and reporting on any new cases of H5N1 that arise are crucial. So the recent silencing of communications from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by the Trump administration is worrisome.
“It’s not that people won’t get the information eventually if it’s serious, it’s the rapidity of information that I’m worried about,” Chin-Hong said. He compared the recent CDC gag order to a dysfunctional smoke alarm. “You hope the fire isn’t going to come, but if it comes, there will be a delay before you feel it,” Chin-Hong said. “Time means lives when we’re talking about infectious diseases that really don’t know any borders.”
On the Front Lines Against Bird Flu, Egg Farmers Say They’re Losing the Battle
Greg Herbruck knew 6.5 million of his birds needed to die, and fast. But the CEO of Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch wasn’t sure how the family egg producer (one of the largest in the U.S., in business for over three generations) was going to get through it, financially or emotionally. One staffer broke down in Herbruck’s office in tears.
“The mental toll on our team of dealing with that many dead chickens is just, I mean, you can’t imagine it,” Herbruck said. “I didn’t sleep. Our team didn’t sleep.” The stress of watching tens of thousands of sick birds die of avian flu each day, while millions of others waited to be euthanized, kept everyone awake.
In April 2024, as his first hens tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus, Herbruck turned to the tried-and-true U.S. Department of Agriculture playbook, the “stamping-out” strategy that helped end the 2014-15 bird flu outbreak, which was the largest in the U.S. until now.
New York Shuts Down Live Poultry Markets After Bird Flu Detected
Live bird markets in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County will be shut down for a week after seven cases of avian flu in poultry were found at live bird markets in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, state officials said Friday.
The cases were discovered during routine inspections. All infected flocks will be depopulated, officials said. The state stressed the shutdowns are prudent steps.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul noted that avian flu does not pose a public health threat.
The order requires those markets to sell down all inventory, complete cleaning and disinfection procedures and remain closed for a period of five days after cleaning and disinfection.
It’s Like ‘Dead Birds Flying’: How Bird Flu Is Spreading in the Wild
A little over a year ago, Marcela Uhart was walking on the beach in Punta Delgada, Argentina. It was peak breeding session on this peninsula known for its rich marine wildlife. Usually, the salty breeze brought with it the sounds of baby elephant seals calling to their moms in high pitched yells.
“This time it was silent,” recalls Uhart. “The beaches were just loaded with carcasses. We saw basically every [elephant seal] pup dead. We estimate about 18,000 dead baby elephant seals.” Dead from bird flu.
And it wasn’t just elephant seals. There were terns — with their yellow beaks and black heads — stumbling about having seizures on the sand. The scene played out again and again in the weeks that followed, up and down the coastline. “It was like birds falling out of the sky, dead,” she says.
Hundreds of Dead Ducks Washed Ashore Near Chicago. Expert Says It Will Likely Happen Again
A massive group of dead waterfowl that washed up along the southern shores of Lake Michigan near Chicago and its northern suburbs is believed to be linked to the ongoing bird flu outbreak, wildfire officials said this week. The majority of the waterfowl were red-breasted mergansers, a diving duck also known as the sawbill.
Other duck species and Canada geese also were among the victims. The warmer weather and melting ice along Lake Michigan, which has opened up new areas of water, likely contributed to the large number washing up on shore, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Reports of the dead birds first surfaced over the weekend. Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a volunteer conservation group, began receiving reports Jan. 31 of large numbers of mergansers found along the lakefront. The bird organization told NBC 5 Chicago that around 200 to 300 infected mergansers were reported between Friday and Sunday.
CDC Abruptly Yanks Report Linking Cats to Bird Flu Spread
Under the new reign of the Trump administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is holding back important information on H5N1 bird flu. This week, the CDC appears to have published, and then quickly deleted, data in its resuscitated weekly report suggesting that H5N1 can spread between cats and people.
The CDC’s disappearing data originally appeared, albeit briefly, online in its regular Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report before being taken down, the New York Times reported on Thursday. According to a copy of the data reportedly obtained by the Times, it contained a table highlighting a case of human H5N1 that may have originated from the person’s cat.
The agency has offered no reasoning for why the report was removed or when the report will be republished. The CDC webpage now features a statement up top: “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” Gizmodo reached out to the CDC for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
