Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Trump's CDC cuts fueled a Cyclospora perfect storm

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Trump's CDC cuts fueled a Cyclospora perfect storm · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: And apparent reversal by the FDA. Taylor Farms says the
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  Speaker 1: FDA apologized and is walking back its claim that it
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  Speaker 1: found traces of the parasite cyclosra on a sample of
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  Speaker 1: its lettuce. There been thousands of illnesses across the country,
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  Speaker 1: the outbreaks you've heard of them, of explosive diarrhea. A
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  Speaker 1: source TELCNN that funding cuts by the administration's created a
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  Speaker 1: perfect storm. CNA medical correspondent Meg Terrell is here with
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  Speaker 1: all the details here. So we thought we knew where
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  Speaker 1: this was from, but now not so much.
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  Speaker 2: Well, so the FDA announcement over the weekend and caused
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  Speaker 2: a little bit of confusion. And so essentially they had
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  Speaker 2: said that they had this positive test result of cyclospora
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  Speaker 2: and it was on a sample that actually hadn't been
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  Speaker 2: included in this recall, and so now they're saying that's
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  Speaker 2: a false positive. Taylor Farms is saying, the FDA apologized
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  Speaker 2: about that, but it doesn't actually change the fact that
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  Speaker 2: this recall still stands. The trace back still stands to
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  Speaker 2: the lettuce that people ate at Taco Bell and this
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  Speaker 2: broader recall, and so Taylor Farms has recalled this lettuce
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  Speaker 2: from Central Mexico this Iceberg Lettuce. But we also have
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  Speaker 2: new reporting this morning about what a lot of public
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  Speaker 2: health experts have complained is a slower than expected response
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  Speaker 2: from the CDC and the federal government broadly to this outbreak.
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  Speaker 2: And just to give you a timeline, the first illnesses
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  Speaker 2: started in mid May. It was July first that Michigan
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  Speaker 2: warned of an outbreak, and of course we know there
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  Speaker 2: are so many cases in that state. But then it
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  Speaker 2: was two weeks later that the CDC issued its health
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  Speaker 2: advisory and a lot of public health experts said, why
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  Speaker 2: did this take the CDC so long? Two weeks after Michigan,
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  Speaker 2: they said, it should have been much earlier, and so
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  Speaker 2: our reporting from our investigative team, my colleagu Brenda Goodman
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  Speaker 2: on the health team, they talked with the head of
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  Speaker 2: a former federal lab that was responsible for tracking outbreaks
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  Speaker 2: of parasitic illnesses. That staff at that lab had been
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  Speaker 2: cut from eleven to three last year. By the time
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  Speaker 2: that the director of this lab, doctor Joel Barrett, resigned
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  Speaker 2: in September, warning his superiors that the cuts to that
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  Speaker 2: lab could affect their ability to track outbreaks quickly in
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  Speaker 2: the future. They also were affected by cuts to USAID
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  Speaker 2: funding because they did a lot of work on parasitic illnesses.
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  Speaker 2: Malaria is a parasitic illness. There were a lot of
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  Speaker 2: sort of shared resources that affected this work. Cyclospore of
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  Speaker 2: course as a parasite. And of course there was twenty
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  Speaker 2: five percent reduction in CDC staffing last year. And so
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  Speaker 2: what we've heard from doctor Barrett as well as other
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  Speaker 2: sources is you're missing the expertise, the specific expertise in
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  Speaker 2: this area because you've seen those kinds of cuts. And
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  Speaker 2: also you're missing the sort of all hands on deckability
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  Speaker 2: for people to pitch in when you have just fewer
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  Speaker 2: people at the agency. Now, the White House disputes that
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  Speaker 2: there's been any delay here. They also note that the
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  Speaker 2: USAID funding was not for domestic response, it was for
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  Speaker 2: international response. They say the Trump Administration's top priorities ensuring
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  Speaker 2: the health and safety of the American people.
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  Speaker 1: So where do things stand, though, I think what I
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  Speaker 1: wants to know is this thing coming for me right
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  Speaker 1: Where is it still spreading?
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  Speaker 2: So we don't believe. So what we know right now
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  Speaker 2: is that there have been more than seven thousand cases
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  Speaker 2: that have been either confirmed or are under investigation, most
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  Speaker 2: of them concentrated here in this five state outbreak, in
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  Speaker 2: Michigan really having more than five thousand cases, but thirty
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  Speaker 2: four states have reported cases of psyclosporiasis. Some of those
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  Speaker 2: are under separate investigations. These are not necessarily all linked
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  Speaker 2: to one another. Of course, we mentioned that false positive,
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  Speaker 2: the FDA saying now that there are no confirmed positive
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  Speaker 2: sample results. That doesn't mean that this investigation, though, has
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  Speaker 2: changed in terms of what the recall effects. Taylor Farms,
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  Speaker 2: of course, saying that the FDA apologized about that now.
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  Speaker 2: Walmart has said over the weekend that it was recalling
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  Speaker 2: these potentially affected though they haven't tied them to any
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  Speaker 2: illnesses products Iceberg salad, shredded lettuce from the market Side brand,
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  Speaker 2: and it's important to note these used by dates up
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  Speaker 2: to August third, so folks should check if they've wont
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  Speaker 2: any Iceberg lettuce under this brand, check your fridges, make
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  Speaker 2: sure you don't use it, toss it out. This is
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  Speaker 2: what that market Side brand looks like. But more broadly,
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  Speaker 2: of course, this has really been tied to Taco Bell,
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  Speaker 2: which said it's recalled those products. They should not be
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  Speaker 2: in stores anymore. Jack in the box said it also
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  Speaker 2: had recalled some of those products made sure that they
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  Speaker 2: were replaced by a different supplier, as well as these
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  Speaker 2: other brands.
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  Speaker 3: How big of a health concern is this right now?
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  Speaker 3: How are you categorizing this in your head?
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  Speaker 4: On a scale of one to ten, this is somewhere
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  Speaker 4: around three or a four. Now, this is the biggest
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  Speaker 4: cyclospora outbreak that the United States has ever experienced. It
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  Speaker 4: is a really unpleasant illness, to be explicit, it is
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  Speaker 4: explosive diarrhea that comes and goes for weeks on end.
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  Speaker 4: But it's not by and large, a super dangerous parasite
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  Speaker 4: for most people, excluding the elderly or the young, or
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  Speaker 4: the immunosuppressed. For most people, it is just unpleasant and
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  Speaker 4: it is easily treatable. There is a very common, inexpensive
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  Speaker 4: antibiotic that eliminates it once it's been diagnosed. What I
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  Speaker 4: do find concerning and why it's not a one or
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  Speaker 4: two in terms of my level of concern, is because
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  Speaker 4: of how big this outbreak has been and because of
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  Speaker 4: how long it took us to identify the source. That
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  Speaker 4: makes me worried, just as an the very early days
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  Speaker 4: of the hantavirus epidemic or a hantavirus outbreak. It makes
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  Speaker 4: me worried about the capacity of our nation's public health
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  Speaker 4: system and about how we would handle things if there
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  Speaker 4: were a super serious, super dangerous pathogen here in the
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  Speaker 4: United States.
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  Speaker 3: So let's get into that a little bit, because, look,
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  Speaker 3: this illness did hit a lot of people in a
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  Speaker 3: very short time across many states. How does something like
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  Speaker 3: that happen And where do you even begin to sort
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  Speaker 3: of peel back the path the contact trace in a
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  Speaker 3: sense of where this may have originated.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so cyclospora is a little bit complicated. There are
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  Speaker 4: lots of food borne illnesses. Most of them show up
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  Speaker 4: within one to two days of eating or drinking something
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  Speaker 4: that's contaminated. For cyclospora, it takes one or two weeks
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  Speaker 4: before you start getting symptoms. And then on top of that,
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  Speaker 4: we don't normally test for cyclospora in the doctor's office.
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  Speaker 4: If you come in with those stomach upset symptoms, the
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  Speaker 4: doctor has to actively think about it and actively order
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  Speaker 4: the test. So it makes it tougher for us to
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  Speaker 4: even start to see the signal that there is a
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  Speaker 4: cyclospora outbreak. And then finally that process, as you said,
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  Speaker 4: of figuring out where it came from. That requires what
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  Speaker 4: I call shoe leather epidemiology. It requires there being trained
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  Speaker 4: public health professionals who go and talk to the people
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  Speaker 4: who have the infection and try to figure out what
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  Speaker 4: it was that they ate, look for that signal of
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  Speaker 4: the common food or common drink between all the people
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  Speaker 4: with the infection, and then go back and do the
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  Speaker 4: testing of the site. Now, because so much defunding has
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  Speaker 4: happened at the CDC, at the FDA, and then with
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  Speaker 4: a trickle down effect for state and local health departments,
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  Speaker 4: that process was slower.
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  Speaker 1: This time.
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  Speaker 4: We have fewer trained experts out on the ground, we
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  Speaker 4: have less coordination between the different agencies, and we have
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  Speaker 4: less reliable national counts of disease then we would have
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  Speaker 4: had two years ago, or six years ago or a
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  Speaker 4: decade ago. So that's what has made this outbreak a
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  Speaker 4: little more complicated and again what gives me some concern
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  Speaker 4: about the future, and you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, in terms of what comes next. Obviously, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've gotten some clues as to the supplier. This came
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  Speaker 3: from some places where people may have had this lettuce.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it provides at least people some context, but
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  Speaker 3: then the next question becomes, well, when can I kind
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  Speaker 3: of go back to eating shredded lettuce in the way
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  Speaker 3: that I was before, the iceberg lettuce in the way
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  Speaker 3: that I was before. How soon can people feel safe
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  Speaker 3: about doing so? What is that timeframe? Typically?
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  Speaker 4: Like, yeah, so tailor firms, as you said, has recalled
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  Speaker 4: all of this lettuce. It's going to take a little
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  Speaker 4: while potentially for it to come off of the shelves.
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  Speaker 4: I would recommend to people that they avoid eating that
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  Speaker 4: bag shredded lettuce for a little bit longer, a few
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  Speaker 4: more days, another week, and then they can go back
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  Speaker 4: to eating it. In the meantime, other brands, locally grown lettuce,
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  Speaker 4: hydroponically grown lettuce all decreases your risk. I think for
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  Speaker 4: all of us, this serves as an important reminder that
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  Speaker 4: being healthy eating healthy food is about eating nutritious food
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  Speaker 4: for sure, about avoiding chemical additives, which is what a
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  Speaker 4: lot of the current federal government has been talking about.
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  Speaker 4: It's also about having access to food that is not
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  Speaker 4: contaminated with disease causing organisms, and that requires a significant
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  Speaker 4: system in place to make sure that we all stay safe.
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  Speaker 4: So for viewers, you can go back to eating let
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  Speaker 4: us be careful about where it comes from for right now,
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  Speaker 4: and then go off and enjoy and eat. Let us
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  Speaker 4: eat fruit. If you are one of those people in
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  Speaker 4: a high risk group, make sure that you're careful about
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  Speaker 4: washing your produce well