Given the state of affairs at Health and Human Services (HHS), this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone.
Cyclospora cayetanensis is a tiny parasite that causes an intestinal illness known as cyclosporiasis. It usually spreads when people eat contaminated food or drink contaminated water, and it commonly causes watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, and fatigue. The parasite is typically transmitted through the fecal-oral route, meaning contaminated feces get into food or water that someone then consumes.
Yuk!
Fortunately, CDC and other health sources say person-to-person spread is very unlikely. But unfortunately, the outbreak from earlier this May is still seemingly not under control: CDC says it is investigating multiple ongoing Cyclospora outbreaks, and one multistate outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell locations has continued to generate new illnesses through July 20, 2026. CDC also says the outbreak may be broader than the currently identified states and that the true number of sick people is likely higher than reported.
“I don’t think it’s under control yet, per se. I think that they’ve done a good job, FDA has, isolating this to central Mexico and some specific farms as well,” sais Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), during a recent appearance on “Face the Nation.”
He later added, “I don’t think this is fully under control yet because we don’t know for sure that that’s the only growing region where this is coming from. But it does seem to be the case at this point.”
Officials from the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and multiple states have linked iceberg lettuce from central Mexico to cyclospora outbreaks causing at least 1,947 cases in nine states. Those states are Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
CDC reports at least 1,645 confirmed domestic cyclosporiasis cases since May 1, with more than 5,100 total cases it is aware of nationwide.
In the Taco Bell-linked outbreak alone, CDC says there were at least 1,644 people infected across five states, with 94 hospitalizations and no deaths reported.
FDA traceback work identified a single supplier of shredded iceberg lettuce from Mexico, and Taco Bell said it would stop using lettuce from that supplier.
Was this preventable?
And yes, this was preventable. Because this doesn’t spread from person to person, it means better sanitation at the farm, better traceback, faster recalls, and stricter handling practices can stop – or at least severely minimize – many outbreaks before they spread widely.
CDC says the best prevention is avoiding food or water contaminated with feces, following safe food-handling practices, and not eating recalled produce. Regarding the former, washing produce helps but does not fully eliminate the parasite, and chemical sanitizers are not reliable against Cyclospora. So even though washing produce under running water, good hand hygiene, and avoiding recalled food are the most practical steps, there’s no guarantee Cyclospora won’t spread if contaminated produce is already in the supply chain.
Incidentally, HHS insiders say its secretary, RFK Jr., is disengaged and ‘checked out.’
According to The New York Times, staff reports that HHS Director Kennedy “is rarely seen” at the HHS headquarters. When he is present, they say he is typically working very short days and appears checked out on his phone during high-level meeting discussions while frontline personnel work around the clock responding to growing numbers of cases related to current outbreaks.
