The Bird-Flu Tipping Point

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s been five years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. But there may be another potential pandemic on the horizon: bird flu. Against the backdrop of growing anti-vaccination sentiment, exhaustion from COVID, and a new administration, The Atlantic’s Katie Wu explains that the U.S. is perhaps less prepared to deal with a widespread outbreak than it was when COVID hit—and bird flu, if it spreads to humans, could be worse. Read more from Wu’s reporting at The Atlantic here and here. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:32.7	Last year, on the day before Easter, America's most egg-centric holiday, Greg Herbrook lost 70 hens.
0:45.7	Now, to lose several chickens on a large-scale farm, not that big a deal, just part of the process, which Greg knows, because he's the CEO of the largest egg producer in Michigan
0:55.9	and the 10th largest in the country. His family's been in the business for more than three
1:00.9	generations. So Greg knows his chickens. I love talking about my hens. Yeah. Greg has known chickens
1:08.2	his entire life. When I was in college, we had 200,000 hens at that time, and I used to tell my buddies,
1:15.9	I said, I know 200,000 chicks, but I only got one phone number.
1:22.2	But losing 70 hens in one day, that was unusual.
1:28.6	And then the next day, that number went up.
1:31.4	The next day, that barn was over 700.
1:34.7	And the day after that?
1:36.3	And that next day, that barn had 10,000 dead.
1:42.0	By Thursday, another one of our farms about five miles away went positive.
1:47.7	And then the following week, our third site in Ionia County was confirmed positive. And so within
1:54.2	right around a week, our three large farms in Michigan were all positive.
2:01.2	How many birds did you lose since that Easter Day weekend?
2:06.0	Just in about seven, eight days, six and a half million.
	...

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