Bird flu is not a pandemic, and Bill Gates didn’t say children are being targeted

Two farm workers in England tested positive for bird flu recently. But that does not signify a new pandemic is spreading.

A May 18 Facebook post claimed otherwise. "It's starting!" said the headline on a video in the post. "The NEXT pandemic is here and children are the target, says Bill Gates."

The post had more than 730,000 views as of May 24.

The video came from a May 17 episode of the "Redacted" podcast and was shared by several Facebook users. 

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

"Let’s get ready because the next pandemic is coming," said "Redacted" co-host Clayton Morris, opening the episode. He said that the World Health Organization said the COVID-19 pandemic is over, but we should brace for the next one.

"Right on cue," Morris said, "the U.K. government … announced it’s testing for a new avian flu outbreak." The video then played a clip of a Sky News report about two poultry workers in the United Kingdom testing positive for the avian flu.

"So the next pandemic might already be here, according to these clowns, and they’re telling us it’s going to be worse than before … and it’s going to specifically be targeting children," Morris said.

The U.K. government didn’t say the next pandemic may already be here in the form of the avian flu. 

A bird flu outbreak began spreading globally in 2020, affecting wild birds, commercial and backyard poultry, mammals, such as minks and sea lions, and, in rare cases, humans. 

Avian influenza is a respiratory disease in birds caused by influenza A viruses. The viruses are classified in two categories: low pathogenic avian influenza and highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses, the latter of which is extremely deadly to infected poultry. It has affected more than 58 million birds in the U.S. since January 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

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The U.K. Health Security Agency announced May 16 that two poultry farm workers in England taking part in an asymptomatic surveillance program for people who had come in contact with infected birds had tested positive for the bird flu. 

Neither worker experienced any symptoms and have since tested negative, the agency said. An agency spokesperson told PolitiFact on May 24 that no one else has tested positive since.

Susan Hopkins, the agency’s chief medical adviser, said in the May 16 press release that current evidence suggests the influenza viruses circulating globally in birds don’t spread easily to people. 

"Globally, there is no evidence of spread of this strain from person to person, but we know that viruses evolve all the time and we remain vigilant for any evidence of changing risk to the population," Hopkins said.

The risk of bird flu in humans is low, but the H5N1 strain has killed 458 people out of 874 cases in the past 20 years, the World Health Organization said. The CDC said in April 2022 that one person in Colorado who experienced fatigue tested positive for the bird flu but recovered. There have been no reported U.S. cases since.

We found no evidence that Gates said the next pandemic will target children, although he has consistently warned world leaders to prepare for future pandemics. In the video, Morris cited a simulation done in Belgium in October 2022 by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the WHO and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called "Catastrophic Contagion."

World leaders participated in a table-top exercise to respond to a new fictional virus that was deadlier than COVID-19 and disproportionately affected children. PolitiFact previously rated False a claim that originated on "Redacted" that said the simulation was preparation for a virus to be released in 2025.

As more so-called evidence that the next pandemic will target children, Morris cited a global childhood vaccination effort involving Chelsea Clinton, the World Health Organization and others. But that campaign, called "The Big Catch-up," aims to catch children up on routine childhood vaccinations skipped during the pandemic.

Morris also cited a July 19, 2022, article in Crain’s Chicago Business with the headline, "Children's hospitals prepare for the next pandemic." But that article described a network of children’s hospitals coordinating to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic to better prepare for future outbreaks. It did not mention the bird flu or suggest there is any imminent pandemic threat targeting children.

A video claimed that the next pandemic is already here, with a podcast co-host intimating that avian flu in the U.K. was the start of the next pandemic and suggesting that Bill Gates said it’s targeting children.

Two farm workers tested positive for the bird flu in England, but no health officials have suggested it represents the start of a new pandemic. And Gates did not say the next pandemic will target children.

We rate the claim False.