WASHINGTON — Last week, a group of Democrats on an oversight committee in the US House of Representatives initiated an investigation into the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak.

Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi, Gerald Connolly, Emily Randall, Lateefah Simon and Wesley Ball sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking how the agency would address avian flu, which included associated costs and coordination with other federal agencies.

The group pointed out a previous statement Kennedy made regarding the “possibility of letting [avian flu] run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it.”

“Allowing avian flu to ravage flocks across the country is dangerous and reckless, and is an approach unsupported by scientists, public health officials and veterinarians,” the members wrote in the letter. “This ‘strategy’ also coincides with the emergence of a new strain of a highly pathogenic bird flu known as H7N9, which surfaced at a poultry farm in Mississippi earlier this month and led to the deaths of 46,000 birds.”

Democrats also raised some concerns about Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’s position regarding immunities for the bird flu outbreak. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced a $1 billion HPAI plan in February, which included vaccine and therapeutic solutions among other factors in its approach.

The letter requested documents and communications between various federal agencies on the HPAI response, including the HHS, USDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Health.

A full list of requested information is available here.

House members asked for a response by April 18. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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