Washington DC - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) has once again let his anti-vax flag fly, this time claiming that vaccinating poultry against bird flu would transform flocks into "mutation factories."

In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday, RFK Jr. shared fears that the bird flu vaccine would create new variants of bird flu that are more likely to spread to humans.

"All of my agencies advise against vaccination of birds... because if you vaccinate with a leaky vaccine... that does not absolutely protect against the disease," RFK Jr. said.

"You turn those flocks into mutation factories," he warned.

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"It's much more likely to jump to animals if you do that... It’s dangerous for human beings to vaccinate the birds."

RFK Jr. claimed that the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have all recommended against the bird flu vaccine.

While the CDC does not recommend vaccination against bird flu for humans, the issue of vaccinating poultry stock is a little more complicated.

The vaccine that's currently in use for bird flu works similarly to the Covid-19 jab in that it significantly reduces symptoms and mortality rates, but does not stop the virus from spreading between birds.

There are fears that vaccinating large quantities of birds could "mask infection by increasing the time taken to detect and respond to detection of the virus."

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This is why farmers are often left with the only option being to cull huge numbers of poultry to stop transmission.

These mass cullings – which number in the hundreds of millions – have played a role in increasing egg and poultry prices across the US.

However, RFK Jr.'s comments implied that vaccinating poultry could cause the bird flu virus to mutate and spread to humans. There is no evidence to suggest that this is true.

Instead, bird flu mutations develop because of how fast the virus spreads through the poultry population, changing and adapting from bird to bird.

Rather than worrying about vaccines, people concerned about bird flu should take some basic safety precautions such as only consuming pasteurized dairy products, and only eating eggs and poultry that have been fully cooked.