RFK Jr. Urges Healthier Diet, Politico Says Cyclospora Outbreak Hinders Effort

A new report from Politico (Lean Left bias) suggested an outbreak of cyclospora is "prompting people to reconsider their fresh food choices" as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for Americans to eat more "real food."

Politico Report: Politico said the "record outbreak" has hindered the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) efforts and "sickened thousands of Americans." Politico included several quotes from critics of HHS. Marion Nestle, an NYU professor who, according to Politico, "has supported parts of the MAHA agenda," said, "It's pretty hard to tell people to eat real food if that food is contaminated with pathogens." Sandra Eskin, former Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety during the Biden administration who now leads the activist organization Stop Foodborne Illness, said, "If we have outbreaks like this one and then a few months later, it's another one, that totally undermines the message." Politico's original headline, "​​RFK Jr.'s 'Eat Real Food' agenda gets snarled in cyclospora outbreak," was later changed to, "Fear of lettuce is making RFK Jr.'s food messaging harder for consumers to swallow."

HHS Response: In an X post, HHS senior adviser Calley Means noted that the Stop Foodborne Illness alliance includes many of the biggest food companies in the US and said, "You actually can't make this up. These companies are funding a fake 'food borne illness advocacy' group to give quotes to media attacking RFK's 'real food' pitch and argue ultraprocessed food is safer." He added, "There are cyclospora outbreaks every year. This is the first year there is a media frenzy." The Daily Caller (Right bias) highlighted this in an article. When asked for comment on cyclospora by Politico for its original report, Means said, "I don't have a comment on cyclospora. I don't want to get into it."

For Context: Cyclospora is a single-celled parasite that causes an intestinal illness called cyclosporiasis that can cause various stomach-related ailments such as diarrhea or fatigue. On July 21, Kennedy acknowledged the outbreak and said, "We do have the outbreak under control. We've identified the source of the outbreak. We and the companies that are involved have implemented a recall." Last week, the CDC said one current outbreak is linked to 15 states and iceberg lettuce in particular. In total so far, the CDC has received reports of 10,468 lab-confirmed cases, and tips regarding 12,255 additional cases. The previous high was in 2019 when the CDC reported 2,408 lab-confirmed cases.

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