The Invisible System Keeping Us Healthy

After the Fact · Oct 9, 2026 · 16m

This past summer, at least 20,000 people throughout the United States became sick from cyclospora, a parasite linked to contaminated produce that can cause severe gastrointestinal illness. But how did public health officials go from hearing about a single case to sounding the alarm on a much larger outbreak? Lettuce explain.

In this episode, we speak to Margaret Arnesen, who works on Pew's public health data improvement project, to learn how officials use public health data to detect and respond to outbreaks. We also discuss how effective policies, such as improving electronic reporting and…