Despite waning headlines, bird flu is still a threat. Here’s how you can help farmworkers.

Editor’s note: This piece is our first in a series on the impacts of H5N1 on humans — especially Latine farmworkers. If you have professional expertise or hands-on knowledge about any aspect of H5N1 to share with our reporter, please email her at info@lygianavarro.com.

In the arc of the bird flu in the U.S., 2024 to early 2025 was an explosive time. The virus H5N1 hit millions of livestock animals across the country. Dozens of humans were infected — and one person in Louisiana died. 

But then, last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it was ending its emergency response to the virus — since no human cases had been reported since February 24 of this year, shortly after Trump’s second inauguration. 

The flurry of 70 human infections over the course of 11 months, followed by an abrupt halt, makes scientists wonder how many people may have had H5N1 since February without the public being informed.

Trump’s administration had already ordered the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report to cease publication even before human cases supposedly stopped — while numerous H5N1 research papers were set to run in the journal. The journal resumed publication in early February after a brief pause, the first since its inception in the 1950s.

“It is difficult to fully understand the current situation without consistent and timely data on testing and reporting, especially when there have been no recent reported cases,” said infectious diseases expert and physician Krutika Kuppalli.

And the Trump administration has done more to leave experts concerned about the U.S.’s bird flu response, suggesting the administration is not appropriately responding to this dangerous virus. 

An absence of reported cases does not mean no human spread. And even as some research offers potential reasons for a lapse in infections, other studies find that the risk of severe illness has not abated, and experts say H5N1 is still a real danger to humans.

Last year, in states with more rigorous testing — like California — case rates were much higher. “I suspect it’s the same thing in other states,” said Kuppalli. “We just don’t know about it because it is unclear how much testing is happening. If you don’t test for it, you’re not going to know that it’s there.”

Because less severe symptoms can range from conjunctivitis, or pink eye, to flu-like symptoms, farmworkers may be infected without knowing it — and without knowing that they’re at risk of severe illness or death. Plus, even “mild” initial symptoms can lead to chronic disease.

And those farmworkers are not receiving the resources they need to protect themselves, according to workers who spoke to The Sick Times. Some said they hadn’t even heard of the existence of H5N1 — more than a year after the first human case was reported in the country. That means no personal protective equipment (PPE) to mitigate their risk, nor access to testing when they have symptoms associated with an H5N1 infection.

And many of those workers are immigrants who fear seeking healthcare in the current political reality of massive ICE raids, random detentions, and secret deportations.

While the U.S. maintains stockpiles of an H5N1 vaccine that is protective against an earlier strain, the federal government — under both Biden and Trump — has repeatedly chosen not to vaccinate farmworkers, allowing for continued spread of the virus and risk of death. And in May of this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services terminated the outgoing Biden administration’s $590 million contract with Moderna to develop vaccines for flu viruses with pandemic potential.

Bird flu continues to evolve

While H5N1 is often discussed as an emergent threat, it actually first hit U.S. livestock in the 1920s. A large poultry outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 resulted in zoonotic spillover to 18 people, six of whom died, raising the alarm about the virus’s risk to humans. 

Sporadic human H5N1 infections — as well as larger waves of cases — have cropped up ever since. According to the World Health Organization, between 2003 and July 1, 2025, bird flu killed 48% of humans with confirmed infections. Cambodia has been a hot spot so far in 2025, with 15 documented cases and seven deaths.

Since the current U.S. outbreak started in 2024, the CDC has reported 70 human cases and one death. So far, there hasn’t been clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Public safety announcements from state and federal public health agencies say the general public is at “low” risk of bird flu infection, while farmworkers and others in close proximity to birds and cows are at high risk.

There’s no concrete explanation for the drop in cases this year. Some scientists have speculated that it’s due to a bird flu seasonal lull — although in spring and summer 2024 there were plenty of infections reported. Alternatively, previous flu infections with seasonal flu (influenza A) might confer antibodies that might protect against H5N1, according to a recent study in ferrets. 

Even if currently circulating strains are less likely to cause severe symptoms, virologists remain concerned that, as infections continue, the H5N1 virus will genetically change and become capable of spreading between humans. The recent outbreaks in cows, as well as infections in other animals like cats, raise “the probability of mutation or reassortment events that could support human-to-human transmission,” Kuppalli said. 

Human cases may also be going undetected because the people most at risk are vulnerable poultry and dairy farmworkers, many of whom are Latine immigrants. In the current anti-immigrant environment of ICE raids and mass deportations, Latine immigrant farmworkers are even more powerless and afraid to seek healthcare.

If farmworkers don’t know about H5N1 and aren’t being tested for the virus when they’re ill, then scientists can’t fully track the virus’s mutations. In fact, CDC research in late 2024 found that human infections are more prevalent than those officially counted: 7% of dairy workers who’d been exposed to infected cows showed evidence of recent H5N1 infection. Study authors called for testing and monitoring for all workers exposed in dairies with H5N1 circulating, even those with only mild symptoms, such as pink eye.

How you can help farmworkers

• First, educate yourself and your community about how bird flu spreads. Many of the same tools we’ve used to protect ourselves from COVID-19 also work against H5N1. Additionally, keep your cats indoors and don’t consume raw milk products. And be sure to keep many high-quality masks on hand (with a minimum N95 filtration per the CDC), and do a fit test.
   
• You can also monitor wastewater H5N1 surveillance data to see when infections may be increasing in your area. But keep in mind that these data are not a perfect indicator of human cases, as animals also contribute waste to public sewer systems.
   
• Donate money to mask blocs, some of which provide N95s and other PPE to farmworkers around the country.
   
• Donate funds to community health clinics in rural agricultural areas, which serve as safety nets for farmworkers.
   
• If you speak Spanish or other languages farmworkers may speak in your community, offer your language and translation abilities to your local mask bloc to do outreach to farmworkers or translate written information.
   
• If you live in a community with farmworkers, print out H5N1 info sheets from the CDC (available in Spanish, English, and other languages), and ask to post them in public locations like libraries, health facilities, schools, immigrant-run grocers, dollar stores, and anywhere else where community members might gather. Include information about accessing H5N1 testing — call your local county public health department for more guidance on this.
   
• Seek out ethical food providers, and inquire about whether their workers have access to paid sick time, PPE, information about H5N1, and testing.
   
• Find and support non-governmental organizations working for immigrant and workers’ rights.
   
• U.S. readers, ask your elected officials at the state and federal level to take action on H5N1 — especially if you have a representative on the House Committee on Agriculture or senator on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

This series on the impact of H5N1 on farmworkers is supported by the National Press Club Journalism Institute’s Public Health Reporting Fellowship, funded by the Common Health Coalition.

If you have professional expertise or hands-on knowledge about any aspect of H5N1 to share with our reporter, please email her at info@lygianavarro.com.

Lygia Navarro is an award-winning disabled journalist working in narrative audio and print. She has reported from across Latin America, North America and Europe, and is an editor with palabra, the multimedia outlet of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

All articles by The Sick Times are available for other outlets to republish free of charge. We request that you credit us and link back to our website.