Rachel Maddow slammed the Trump administration’s decision to pause communications from America’s health agencies amid concerns over growing bird flu cases in the U.S. on Thursday.
The MSNBC host opened a six-minute segment on the subject during “The Rachel Maddow Show” by breaking down multiple reports of increased testing on dairy cows for bird flu, farms being forced to kill infected ducks and chickens, and even cases of house cats dying after drinking from their human owners’ contaminated containers of raw milk.
Maddow then turned her attention to the Trump administration.
“The CDC just sent urgent guidance to American hospitals, advising hospitals that when people appear at the hospital with flu this flu season, people shouldn’t just be tested for normal flu. They need be tested for bird flu as well,” the news anchor explained. “I say the CDC just sent that urgent advice to American hospitals, but when I say they just sent it, what I mean specifically is they sent that advice last week while President Biden was still president, because now that President Trump is president, he has ordered that the CDC and all U.S. health agencies should no longer release any information to anyone on anything.”
“Is that popular?” Maddow bluntly asked after taking a long pause. “Is that a good idea? Is that perceived as a popular idea among the American people? Is that what you thought you were voting for?”
Watch the segment below:
Noting recent reports of egg prices suddenly increasing throughout the country, Maddow explained, “That’s not generic inflation. That’s specifically because of bird flu.” The MSNBC host added, “So when [Trump] says, ‘Oh, the last election was all about the price of eggs,’ I’m pretty sure this isn’t what he meant.”
Maddow then shifted to the news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, has reportedly encouraged Mark McAfee, a California-based raw milk producer, to apply for a position at the FDA. After barely taking a moment to let that sink in, Maddow noted, “This is a man whose company has been the subject of at least 11 different lawsuits stemming from contamination of his raw milk products.”
“The last administration was trying to get their arms around this emerging threat as recently as the end of last week, this new administration this week says, ‘First of all, let’s get the raw milk people here to Washington to advise the FDA,’ presumably on all the benefits of raw milk,” Maddow said, “‘And, in the meantime, stop releasing any information on this bird flu thing. Anything. Honestly, it sounds scary. Maybe if we don’t talk about it, maybe it will go away … And, by the way, pay no attention to the price of eggs.’”
You can watch the fiery full segment above.
