The Worst Part of the Cyclosporiasis Response
As the government began to figure out why people were getting sick, the messaging got only worse.
By Nicholas Florko, The Atlantic
If you’re confused about whether you can eat the shredded lettuce on your Doritos Locos tacos again, you’re not alone. I cover food safety for a living—and I love Taco Bell—and I’m not sure when I’ll be comfortable living más.
At the end of last week, the worst concerns about the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak seemed to be behind us. Parasite-laden lettuce should no longer be anywhere near a Taco Bell, because all of the iceberg that’s been linked to the outbreak has, according to the company that produced it, been recalled. And yet, somehow, the response has generated only more drama this week. Communication has been shaky from the start. As I’ve previously written, the CDC was slow to alert the public to the warning signs that a multistate outbreak was brewing, even as cases were rising dramatically in Michigan and other states. The messaging got only worse as the government began to figure out why people were getting sick.
