Bird Flu and Communications Freeze

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share a rising concern for public health.

My State of Ohio is the second largest egg-producing State in our Nation. Nationwide, over 14 million egg-laying birds have been killed since December of last year due to the growing bird flu outbreak. That is why the cost of eggs is skyrocketing, and this is why we must get this outbreak under control as human infection rates rise.

On January 6, the first American died from this infection. With each new human infection, the virus learns how to mutate and infect more people.

When studying this tragic death, the CDC found the virus had started to mutate, which means split, in two different ways. For the record, we know from just one human infection, the number of infections jumped to 66 human infections last year.

History instructs us that it is only a matter of time until doctors see sustained human-to-human transmission increasing. Despite this reality, the new administration ordered all divisions of our Department of Health and Human Services to halt their external communications. Bad idea. If the FDA wanted to warn Americans about a recalled item, they can't do so. The CDC needs to report what is happening around the country so that the bird flu doesn't continue to kill not just flocks but Americans.

As the bird flu continues to kill flocks and now cattle, impact grocery costs, infect our loved ones, and mutate, it is vital Americans have more access to information, not less.

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