Washington D.C. – During his phony political stunt on health care fraud this week, Trump health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. brushed off mounting criticism over the Trump cuts that are hampering the federal response to the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands and hospitalized over 300. “We do have the outbreak under control,” Kennedy declared.
The very next day, the Trump FDA announced it is “investigating yet another outbreak of the diarrhea-causing cyclospora parasite, with 72 cases tied to an unknown source.”
During the latest record-breaking health crisis (the second this month, joining measles), it seems the only thing the Trump administration has been on top of was keeping the name of Taylor Farms out of the initial agency updates about the outbreak. Per Bloomberg’s reporting, after Taylor Farms “directly spoke to the White House”, an ensuing “back-and-forth” with the White House and the FDA, CDC “ultimately kept the public in the dark an additional 60 hours.” It just so happens the tainted-lettuce-linked company previously donated a cool $1 million to a Donald Trump-aligned PAC and millions more to other right-wing groups.
“If history is any judge, when the Trump administration declares a crisis ‘under control’, it’s time to brace for the worst yet to come,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care. “In typical Trump fashion, the White House’s priority appears to be protecting profits of a major Republican donor, not public health. There’s been no apology for the short-sighted Trump cuts that left the administration caught off guard and slow to respond to this outbreak – instead just RFK Jr. patting himself on the back for a job not done and getting worse.”
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