HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins have expressed interest in letting H5N1 outbreaks spread unchecked through U.S. poultry farms. Health experts warn it could lead to a new pandemic.
If the pressure is right, the virus should evolve to be less lethal. If the virus kills its host before infecting a new host, then that evolution is not advantageous. This is why low contact was a good tactic for COVID. Only the strains that were less lethal would continue and out complete the ones that kill people.
Unfortunately I doubt that he would mandate a good management of this. In a environment like barn chickens live in, the virus can transmit so regularly that the lethality is not a pressure for it.
If the pressure is right, the virus should evolve to be less lethal. If the virus kills its host before infecting a new host, then that evolution is not advantageous. This is why low contact was a good tactic for COVID. Only the strains that were less lethal would continue and out complete the ones that kill people.
Unfortunately I doubt that he would mandate a good management of this. In a environment like barn chickens live in, the virus can transmit so regularly that the lethality is not a pressure for it.