Is a New Pandemic Forthcoming — or Already Happening — in 2025?
Animal agriculture is yet again responsible for countless deaths.
Published May 1 2025, 2:37 p.m. ET
The costs associated with pandemic prevention and mitigation strategies are staggering, but value of human and animal lives are priceless. The horrifically cruel realities of the dairy industry, as well as the farmed chicken industry, means both are breeding grounds for diseases that can — and already have — kill humans and animals alike.
An unbelievable half-decade since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may be experiencing a new pandemic, directly because of the farmed animal industry.
How dangerous is the avian flu for humans and animals alike? Have the deaths caused by avian flu risen to the point where it merits the label of a pandemic?
We explore the answers to these questions, and more, below.
Avian flu is the new pandemic in 2025.
According to the Daily Mail, the H5N1 strain of the avian flu has ravaged through dairy farms throughout the U.S. In just over a year, since March 2024, about 1,000 dairy cow herds have fallen victim to the avian flu outbreak, also resulting in more than 70 reported human infections and a confirmed death. Of course, some infections and deaths may go unreported.
"Since 2022, more than 168 million poultry in the US has been lost or culled due to the bird flu outbreak in America," per the source.
A bird flu vaccine has been in the works, but with the avian flu continuing to pose a life-threatening risk to farmed animals and the humans who work directly with these animals, the potential for a pandemic continues to grow.
Even worse, per the Daily Mail, "The Biden Administration awarded Moderna a $590 million contract to develop a vaccine for H5N1 bird flu vaccine but there were reports earlier this year that the new administration could pull that funding."
The nomenclature dictating what is a pandemic, what is an epidemic, and whether the spread of avian flu meets the criteria for the label of a pandemic can be confusing, to be sure.
According to Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the label of a pandemic is utilized when exponential growth of a disease occurs, spanning a wide area, including multiple countries. We know that the bird flu has reached humans in the U.S., but what about those living in other countries?
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's page with data on global cases of people infected by strains of the bird flu, since Jan. 1 alone, five countries — the U.S., United Kingdom, Cambodia, India, and Mexico — have reported human cases of bird flu. The period from 2020 through 2024 saw even more countries with confirmed human cases, attesting to the global nature of a potential pandemic.
It appears we have surpassed the merits for the global aspect of a pandemic. Exponential, daily growth of reported human cases of bird flu, however, does not appear to be the case. In this strictly definitional sense, we are not in the throes of our second pandemic in half a decade — yet.
On the CDC's H5 Bird Flu: Current Situation page, there are no reported cases of person-to-person transmission. "The current public health risk is Low," per the website.
It is imperative to note that the CDC is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). You may recall that recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid off 10,000 HHS employees in conjunction with another 10,000 voluntary departures from agencies within the department.