The current Cyclospora outbreak exposes the consequences of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda for food safety, zoonotic diseases, life-protecting vaccinations, childhood chronic disease, obesity, and other public health challenges in the United States — an agenda that appears inescapable for the duration of the Trump administration
The 26th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been referred to as the “health czar” and/or “vaccine czar,” having been endorsed by President Donald J. Trump, nominated to this Cabinet position on Nov. 14, 2024 and subsequently confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 52-48 vote, and sworn into office on Feb. 13, 2024 — day that many reputable public health experts might privately say, “shall live in infamy.”
Why? Because RFK Jr.’s vaccine policies have undermined public trust while steering U.S. health policy in a direction that many public health experts believe will have lasting consequences for years to come.
“Adding insult to injury,” the Secretary has dangerously restructured primary public health agencies, e.g., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), not to mention the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) which protects public health by ensuring safety, wholesomeness and proper labeling of meat, poultry and many egg products in commercial supplies.
On a daily basis, the focus of thinking by most ordinary citizens is on their food safety supply but during public health outbreak crises, this rapidly shifts to contagious disease control.
Bad News for Consumers
Whereas the frontline inspection workforce of USDA-FSIS has not faced formal layoffs, there have reportedly been widespread departures following deferred resignation programs and budget cuts that were managed alongside the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Hundreds of FSIS employees and over 1,300 at the related USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) walked off via buyouts and resignation offers. Due to operational turbulence and uncertainty following the termination of collective bargaining agreements, thousands of meat, poultry, and egg safety inspection personnel were affected nationwide.
According to FSIS, their relocation (and reorganization) of headquarters functions outside of Washington, DC, to regional hubs like Athens, Georgia and Urbandale, Iowa, will likely prompt more voluntary departures among reassigned staff.
Bad News for Contagious Disease Control-Outbreaks (e.g., Cyclosporiasis and Others)
Most public health experts consider unreasonable reductions in force at CDC, i.e., epidemiologists, and at FDA, i.e., food safety personnel, responsible for the current, gigantic Cyclospora outbreak in the United States.
Most food safety experts blame these recent rollbacks as the primary reason this outbreak has been so widespread and difficult to control.
Three HHS rollbacks crippling Cyclospora outbreak response:
1. Cyclospora removed from FoodNet surveillance
This essential Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) was scaled back by HHS and CDC on July 1, 2025. Mandatory active reporting of six out of eight historically monitored pathogens (disease-causing agents) was stopped by CDC. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and former CDC personnel argued that these structural changes severely damaged active public health monitoring but, RFK Jr. insisted that this removed “redundant surveillance.” Thus, Cyclospora cayetanensis was completely eliminated from FoodNet surveillance. This mandatory multi-state tracking mechanism had been in continuous operation since 1997. FoodNet, a multi-agency sentinel network including CDC, FDA, USDA and ten state Health departments, was built specifically to detect active outbreak trends before they spiral into massive epidemics.
2. USAID disbanding caused accidental defunding of CDC Parasite Division
This complete closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) eliminated between $30 and $40 million in CDC funding. The move was intended to arrest overseas spending but historically these funds sustained the shared laboratory infrastructure, diagnostic tools, and expert scientists that the CDC relied upon to identify parasitic illnesses at home. Now most are gone.
3. CDC Cyclospora laboratory team severely defunded
Prior to the Cyclospora outbreak, administration budget cuts, hiring freezes and reduction in national foodborne illness surveillance requirements were instituted nationwide. The core federal laboratory team responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks was cut from 11 personnel to three. This staff reduction led the lab’s head, Dr. Joel Barratt, to resign in protest. CDC’s FoodNet tracking system reduced mandatory pathogen monitoring from eight down to just two (Salmonella and E. coli bacteria). Proactive surveillance for Cyclospora and five other pathogens became strictly optional.
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In addition to these disturbing actions, the federal government canceled about $12 billion in COVID-era public health grants being used by states to bolster disease surveillance. This resulted in local health departments being forced to implement sudden furloughs and massive layoffs. Michigan lost 23 state infectious disease workers, an entire regional laboratory, and 123 county health staff. This overwhelmed local teams, making them completely drop older Cyclospora cases to focus entirely on the newest ones.
Furthermore, the FDA’s Outbreak communications personnel were laid off and downsized by DOGE. This shed the food-safety infrastructure of its public outreach and communications expertise. Many consider this structural removal the primary reason it took weeks for public warnings to reach consumers, distributors, and grocery chains about the alleged contaminated Taylor Farms lettuce. Other reasons were probably a combination of delayed biological testing, supply chain obfuscation, corporate pushback, and regulatory policy changes.
In response to the spiraling outbreak, bipartisan U.S. lawmakers have introduced the Foodborne Illness Rapid Response Act. This legislation aims to freeze staffing cuts at the CDC’s foodborne illness divisions for at least one year following any major outbreak, mandate the restoration of full Cyclospora tracking, and force federal regulators to share data seamlessly with state and local inspectors. Hopefully, it is not too little, too late.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com
