Food fiasco reveals deep harm

In January, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. jump-started a new campaign to encourage Americans to eat proteins, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables.

"Eat Real Food," he called the effort.

But just six months later, Americans are finding it difficult to know what "real food" they can trust, especially in the wake of the stunning spread of a parasitic infection known as cyclosporiasis.

The disease, caused by a parasite called cyclospora, has spread across 41 states, impacting people ages 2 to 95. As of Friday, there have been more than 4,100 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis, and an additional 7,400 suspected but unconfirmed cases. On top of that, the Food and Drug Administration said this week it was looking into a new outbreak of the disease, with a potentially separate, unidentified source.

And the true number of those infected from this disease spread is likely far greater, since many of those who fall ill never end up seeing a doctor or going to the hospital.

INFORMATION VACUUM

The main outbreak began in late June, but spread exponentially in the last few weeks. Yet federal public health officials, including Kennedy, have said remarkably little. The lack of clarity and consistent communication led to a vacuum of information, and panic ensued. Soon, many Americans were choosing to avoid eating any greens or berries of any kind as they attempted to evade the painful and unpleasant side effects of the foodborne disease.

On July 16, officials said the FDA investigation had identified a supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico used by Taco Bell. Shortly thereafter, Taylor Farms instituted a vague recall of its iceberg and shredded lettuce from central Mexico, with few details on how anyone would know whether they had purchased the products or not.

Behind the scenes, however, Taylor Farms was evading responsibility, even as cyclosporiasis spread, according to published reports. Confusion set in when Taylor Farms said on social media that findings that the lettuce contained cyclospora were a "false positive." The situation worsened further when the FDA issued a clarifying statement saying the recall remained in place because evidence still connected Taylor Farms to the outbreak.

By Tuesday, Kennedy was attempting to reassure a worried nation, saying the outbreak was "under control," even as the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which has accounted for thousands of cases, claimed on the same day that "no specific type of produce, grower or supplier" was definitively the source of the parasitic spread. Meanwhile, North Carolina officials said this week that some cases may be tied to cilantro or parsley, even as no definitive source has been identified there, either.

Such mixed and muddled messaging illustrates the very real impact of the steady destruction of the nation's public health infrastructure, along with the lack of leadership and expertise, that has occurred over the last year and a half. It has heightened the already-simmering uncertainty and concern over a little-known parasitic illness and sowed doubt among even those who usually trust the science. It is exactly the opposite of what Americans need in a public health crisis.

And in this particular situation, it also raises significant questions as to whether politics was playing a role. Records indicate that Taylor Farms last year donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports President Donald Trump. And just before the initial recall announcement, Taylor Farms executives met with White House and FDA officials.

DISTURBING QUESTIONS

All of that casts the subsequent actions and remarks of both the company and its regulators in a troubling light, and makes it hard to believe anything anyone says. And it raises disturbing questions: Was the Trump administration trying to protect the industry, and Taylor Farms in particular, instead of protecting the public? Was the company deliberately trying to avoid providing the public with the trusted, evidence-based answers they deserved?

The erosion of our public health standards, and our ability to uphold them, began long before these outbreaks. The current spread of cyclosporiasis comes a year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the monitoring standards for cyclospora and several other parasites, making key tracking and active surveillance efforts optional, rather than mandatory. Even before that, the Trump administration had severely slashed the number of food inspectors and other key positions at the FDA, reducing the agency's ability to conduct food inspections both here and abroad.

Without the staff to conduct proper oversight, and with regular reporting on cyclospora's trends no longer required, it's no wonder that it became more difficult to recognize early on that the current outbreaks were even happening, and then to pinpoint when and where they began, and how they have unfolded.

As we've learned all too well in recent years, clear communication and science-based leadership are key when any public health crisis arises. We're missing both of those components. Without them, a lack of trust festers and spreads. It's up to Kennedy and his ever-shifting agency leadership at both the CDC and the FDA to get a handle on the outbreaks — and restore public trust.

Until then, despite anything the HHS secretary says, neither the nation's trust in public health, nor its public health itself, is "under control."