Washington D.C. – An outbreak of an ‘explosive diarrhea’-inducing illness called cyclosporiasis has “sickened thousands of people across at least 31 states”, and adding insult to injury: “delayed federal health tracking and limited testing are making it harder to trace the source.” The source remains a mystery.
David Freedman, MD, a professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama, told Axios: “Right now it’s individual state health departments that are having to speak up because the CDC is really not following it on a day-to-day basis.”
As HuffPost noted, the Trump administration stopped surveilling the cyclospora parasite at the federal level in July 2025 when Health Secretary RFK Jr. shut down a key CDC program called FoodNet that helped federal and state regulators track eight foodborne pathogens. The move was part of Trump’s “government efficiency” charade that “also brought back a flesh-eating parasite that favors cattle, accidentally fired scientists managing the bird flu outbreak, accidentally fired the FDA’s medical device reviewers, and pulled research funding to protect pregnant women from domestic violence.”
“The Trump administration has put Americans in another shitty situation after laying waste to our public health infrastructure and gutting emergency preparedness,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care. “Because RFK Jr.’s CDC turned a blind eye to dangerous foodborne pathogens, this outbreak spread quickly and states are now scrambling to do their own detective work on what’s causing it. The catastrophic cuts Trump and RFK Jr. made to disease surveillance and research keep coming back to haunt us, yet they want to cut even deeper to make up for their tax breaks for billionaires.”
SOME THE MANY WAYS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS LEFT NATION LESS PREPARED TO DEAL WITH THE NEXT HEALTH CRISIS:
- Protect Our Care: Ill-Prepared, Less Safe: Trump Gutted USAID and Exited WHO, Now Administration Behind The Curve On Ebola Global Health Emergency
- Protect Our Care: Hantavirus Outbreak Puts In Focus Trump-RFK Jr.’s Reckless Attacks on Health Crisis Preparedness
- Protect Our Care: No Permanent FDA, CDC Heads or Surgeon General Is Unprecedented and Untenable
- ABC News: In axing mRNA contract, Trump delivers another blow to US biosecurity, former officials say
- Futurism: The CDC Fired All Its Cruise Ship Inspectors Before the Hantavirus Outbreak
- Politico: Trump administration firings hit key office handling bird flu response
- Think Global Health: White House Empties Office for U.S. Pandemic Policy: The Gaps Left Behind
- AP: Trump administration’s deep cuts to public health leave system reeling
- ProPublica: Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts
- NYT: C.D.C. Pauses Testing for Rabies and Pox Viruses
- NYT: A Federal Lab That Tracked Rising S.T.I.s Has Been Shuttered
- NBC News: The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses/
- People: CDC’s Full-Time Cruise Ship Inspectors Were Laid Off One Year Ago amid Record Outbreaks: Report
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