In a stunning display of bureaucratic incompetence, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) admitted that it fired “several” employees critical to the federal government’s response to the deadly H5N1 avian flu outbreak.
The blunder is just the latest in a series of catastrophic missteps by President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a controversial initiative spearheaded by South African billionaire immigrant Elon Musk to “streamline” federal agencies.
Rising prices leave Trump with egg on his face, but the USDA is now scrambling to rehire the terminated employees as the bird flu wreaks havoc on the agriculture sector, sending egg prices skyrocketing to record highs.
Eggs in the United States cost anywhere from $7 to $14 a dozen depending on where you live at the same time as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed 68 human cases of the bird flu virus across 11 states, with one death reported in Louisiana.
The virus arrived in the United States in 2024 and has led to the deaths of millions of poultry, thousands of wild birds, and hundreds of dairy cows.
The outbreak has already led to the culling of over 138 million birds since February 2022, and experts warn that the situation could rapidly worsen if the USDA’s response remains hamstrung by Musk’s chaotic DOGE overhaul.
The ‘accidental’ firings are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to slash federal jobs and “optimize” government operations under Musk’s DOGE initiative.
However, critics argue that the program has been a disaster from the start, with inexperienced DOGE staffers—many linked to Musk’s companies—making sweeping cuts without understanding the critical functions they’re dismantling.
“This is what happens when you let a teenage tech bro with no government experience ‘disrupt’ federal agencies,” said New Jersey Democrat Lisa McCormick, who noted that this isn’t the first time Trump made cuts have undermined public health efforts.
“This is déjà vu all over again,” said McCormick, who asserted that deadly pathogens, nuclear proliferation, and other existential threats are being ignored by both parties in Washington as a candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary election. “The Trump administration gutted the CDC in China right before COVID hit, and now they’re doing the same thing with the bird flu response. It’s like they never learn.”
“During Trump’s first term, the CDC’s Beijing office was gutted, with staff reduced by more than two-thirds” said McCormick. “That decision left the U.S. ill-prepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I fear the latest cuts could have similarly dire consequences.”
“Understand USDA is now fast tracking to rehire front line employees working on bird flu outbreaks,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who took to social media to lambast the administration. “Nice job, Musk! You and your friends will still get your tax breaks, but higher egg prices for everyone else.”
The USDA’s statement on the firings was a masterclass in understatement: “Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters.”
The agency added that it is prioritizing the response to the avian flu outbreak, but the damage may already be done.
Egg Prices Soar as USDA Fumbles
The timing of the firings couldn’t be worse.
The H5N1 outbreak has devastated poultry flocks across the country, leading to egg shortages and skyrocketing prices.
According to the USDA, nearly 23 million birds were affected by the virus in January alone, and the situation shows no signs of abating. Consumers are feeling the pinch, with egg prices hitting record highs and restaurants struggling to keep breakfast menus affordable.
“This is a disaster for farmers, consumers, and public health,” said McCormick. “The USDA’s response to this outbreak was already inadequate, and now they’ve fired the very people who were trying to fix it. It’s mind-boggling.”
The Trump administration plans to make vaccination a central part of its strategy to control bird flu, even as farm industry groups are divided on whether that’s the best approach.
Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said that “it’s not as simple as a solution in a syringe. You’re talking about vaccinating hundreds of millions of birds, and it’s still an injection-based vaccine, and you need to vaccinate every one very quickly, in a very organized manner, because as soon as you start using vaccine, you’re going to start pressuring further reassortment [of the virus], and then you still have to think about, how is this going to impact international trade?”
Poulsen said vaccinating chickens may decrease mortality and reduce the amount of virus in the environment, it doesn’t stop infection or depopulation.
According to Bryant University’s Professor Kirsten Hokeness, Ph.D., the bird flu’s transmission pattern should tell us exactly how concerned we should be about the current outbreak.
“The problem with birds is that they fly and can transport the disease, which is why it’s spreading pretty quickly,” Hokeness says. “Right now, the virus is high in animals; the more humans interact with these animals, the more shots the virus has to figure out how to infect the cells, mutate, and spread to the next person.”
Hokeness notes that flu season is in full swing, human influenza is at an all-time high, and flu vaccination rates are considerably low. While the CDC aims for a 70 percent flu vaccination rate, that number is hovering around 44 percent.
Because the H5N1 bird flu and H1N1 and H3N2 versions of the human flu that are currently circulating are of the same strain, Hokeness says, if someone were to get double infected, the two viruses could converge — giving bird flu the ability to spread person-to-person and could make for another pandemic.
Sen. Rick Scott chose to ignore the existence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), and instead blamed then-President Joe Biden for the price of eggs and turkey.
The average cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs was $4.95 in January, up from $3.65 when Trump was elected in November, according to data from the BLS, retrieved from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ FRED site.
Scott is the Florida Republican who proposed letting Social Security, Medicare, and all other government programs ‘sunset’ or expire after five years unless the gridlocked Congress could come up with a compromise.
Musk’s DOGE: A Recipe for Chaos
The DOGE initiative, which Musk has touted as a way to make government “better, stronger, faster, and more efficient,” has instead become a symbol of dysfunction.
Last week, the Energy Department was forced to pause layoffs after it became clear that the cuts could jeopardize nuclear defense programs.
Now, the USDA is facing similar backlash for its botched firings.
Federal workers have described the DOGE-led cuts as chaotic and poorly planned, with little regard for the critical roles being eliminated.
“They need to be more cautious,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the House Agriculture Committee. “There’s an old saying, ‘Measure twice, cut once.’ Well, they are measuring once and having to cut twice. Some of this stuff they’re going to have to return back. I just wish they’d make a better decision up front.”
The USDA’s mishap comes as the agriculture industry is deeply divided over how to address the outbreak. While some groups support vaccination as a key strategy, others worry that vaccinating poultry could harm international trade, as many countries refuse to import products from nations that vaccinate against avian flu.
“It’s not as simple as a solution in a syringe,” said Poulsen. “You’re talking about vaccinating hundreds of millions of birds, and you still have to think about how this will impact international trade.”
Meanwhile, the public remains at risk. While the CDC maintains that the risk to humans is low, the virus has already jumped to other animals, including dairy cows and pet cats, raising concerns about further mutations that could make it more transmissible to humans.
As the USDA scrambles to rehire its fired employees, lawmakers and experts are calling for accountability.
“This isn’t just about egg prices or poultry farms,” said McCormick. “This is about public health and food security. The Trump administration needs to stop playing games with people’s lives.”
For now, the USDA insists it is “prioritizing the response to highly pathogenic avian influenza.” But with Musk’s DOGE team continuing to wield its axe across federal agencies, many fear this is just the beginning of a much larger crisis.
One thing is clear: when it comes to governing, maybe it’s time to leave the “disruption” to Silicon Valley and let the professionals handle the rest.