California health officials on Sunday announced a warning and a recall on a batch of raw milk that tested positive for avian flu. Luckily, the tainted batch—produced and packaged by Raw Farm—does not seem to have caused any illnesses in humans yet.
However, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who claims to “only drink raw milk,” could soon head up the Department of Health and Human Services under Donald Trump’s incoming administration. And he’s promising to hobble the Food and Drug Administration.
“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” Kennedy said on Oct. 25. “This includes its aggressive suppression of … raw milk.”
Since March, the country has been experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 avian flu in U.S. dairy cows, with the USDA recording at least 650 cases in cattle across 15 states as of Tuesday. California is the largest milk producer in the country.
If avian flu comes to contaminate raw milk more broadly, a Kennedy-run HHS could quickly jeopardize public health.
