Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants you to stop worrying about the diarrhea. The Health and Human Services Secretary declared Tuesday that the massive, multi-state cyclospora outbreak is officially “under control.” According to him, the feds found the culprit and pulled the plug. Case closed. Except, of course, it isn’t. The Food and Drug Administration is still hunting for the actual smoking gun.
It is a classic bureaucratic mess. Just days ago, the FDA had to walk back a lab result. They previously claimed a sample of Taylor Farms lettuce tested positive for the nasty little parasite. Now? They call it a false positive. Oops.
Still, the damage is done. Taylor Farms de Mexico supplied the shredded iceberg lettuce to Taco Bell locations where people got sick. The company voluntarily recalled its central Mexican iceberg lettuce back on July 17. They insist retail salad kits are perfectly safe. Maybe they are. But try telling that to the 1,644 people who spent their summer clutching their stomachs.
The toll is ugly. Ninety-four people ended up in the hospital. The misery stretched across Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. Cyclospora is a nasty beast. It mimics a standard stomach bug but lingers for weeks, bringing severe cramps, fatigue, and endless nausea.
Naturally, the politics are as messy as the symptoms. Critics point to recent budget cuts to FoodNet, the government’s foodborne illness surveillance network. Did those cuts cripple the investigation? RFK Jr. says absolutely not. He dismissed the criticism as “invalid,” claiming the slashed programs were just redundant. He insists the states are still doing the heavy lifting. We will see.
