Walking our dog Arrow along the San Francisco Bay helps keep me sane in these crazy times. The East Bay shoreline is dotted with a series of former landfills that are now popular open spaces, a beautiful setting where people and their dogs roam free and play together, exuding joy and contentment.
One of our favorite places to walk Arrow is Point Isabel in Richmond, a big off-leash dog area between a lush tidal wetland and spectacular bay views, ringed by the Bay Trail and its stream of strollers and cyclists, with San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge looming in the distance.
In the winter and spring, our visits always include a stop to see Rocky, an adorable little burrowing owl that’s being wintering in Point Isabel for many years, always on the same shoreline boulders by the big tree on the far end of the park, an area fenced off from dogs and humans.
The regulars all knew Rocky, and my wife and I would delight in pointing him out to new visitors, who were always amazed at seeing this beautiful little owl up close. Rocky would sit on rocks just about 10 feet from the fence-line, blending into the rocks and watching us as we watched him.
But Rocky hadn’t been there in a couple months, and we were starting to worry. Then came the news we feared: Rocky was dead.
Rocky and the Next Pandemic: State wildlife officials found Rocky dying in early January and testing confirmed he had bird flu, which has caused a rash of bird deaths at Point Isabel, including a Great Blue Heron and several Black-crowned Night Herons, and around the country.
Last April, I wrote about the alarming spread of bird flu (aka Avian influenza or H5N1) as it was wiping out wild bird populations and domestic chicken stocks (which was one big reason for the high prices of eggs), moving into livestock, and threatening to jump into humans. It’s only gotten worse since then, and not just because it’s now claimed our beloved Rocky.
Bird flu outbreaks keep popping up around the country, including a big one in Indiana that killed over 1,500 sandhill cranes and one in Pennsylvania that devastated a bird sanctuary among other impacts. Bird flu has also been finding new pathways into American households, including a surge of infections among domestic cats, which this week prompted a recall of tainted cat food. Seventy human cases have been confirmed, mostly among US dairy and poultry workers, with one death reported.
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Yet President Trump and his hatchet man Elon Musk have been recklessly firing federal employees, including many who work to track and contain the spread of bird flu, and undermine basic scientific research and public health preparedness.
The US Department of Agriculture did just announce new measures to combat bird flu—which they admit will increase eggs prices by over 40% this year—and Trump just named a veterinarian to head the office of pandemic preparedness. So even Trump recognizes bird flu could become a very big deal.
But many experts say not enough is being done to contain the spread, which could easily explode into the next global pandemic, one we’re woefully underprepared for after Trump handled the COVID-19 pandemic so badly and politicized basic public health preventions. Already, the Department of Health and Human Services and its vaccine-skeptic head are blocking development of a bird flu vaccine, mainly out of spite toward President Biden for promoting its development.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy—the least medically qualified person to ever play that important role — doesn’t inspire confidence. Amid a massive measles outbreak in Texas that has already killed one child (an outbreak caused by low community vaccination rates) Kennedy still can’t bring himself to urge people to get vaccinated.
Rocky’s death is a sad reminder of the fragility of life—and the need for science, goodwill, and serious leadership in protecting this country and its inhabitants, and safeguarding our collective future.
Follow Steven T. Jones’ writing on his Substack newsletter Scribe’s End Times.
