Emily Hilliard, the HHS deputy press secretary, told The New York Times that Kennedy was merely trying to say that “culling puts people at the highest risk of exposure” due to the close contact it requires, which is why the secretary and National Institutes for Health “want to limit culling activities.”

Amid a worsening avian flu crisis, staffers have not been hired for the federal agency in charge of pandemic response.

Since January 2022, there have been more than 1,600 outbreaks reported on farms and backyard flocks, occurring in every state.