State of the Cyclosporiasis Outbreak

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we return to the Cyclosporiasis outbreak, linked mostly to iceberg lettuce, and we'll add the newer Salmonella outbreak being tied to jalapenos. It's been about a month already since The New York Times ran a headline that said, New Yorkers get squeamish about salad lunches amid parasite outbreak, and people are still confused. Is it just iceberg lettuce? Is it just a Taco Bell? Is it also cilantro or basil or berries? We have learned that certain jalapenos sold at some major stores, not just at restaurants, are being recalled because of the Salmonella cases, and peppers have been linked to hundreds of cases at last report. And like the Cyclospora issue, the Salmonella one seems to trace back to company Taylor Farms, though they are passing the blame for the bad jalapenos to a grower that supplies them. So how does this all really work? Are any better laws or enforcement or inspections needed? And how can you know what's safe to eat right now? For answers, we're turning to Lena Sun, National Reporter, focusing on health for the Washington Post. She's also covering President Trump's new anti-vax executive orders regarding the childhood vaccine schedule and recommendations, and we'll touch on those too.
And the basically universal rejection of them by doctors' organizations, the American Academy of Pediatrics, if you haven't heard, calls the executive orders dangerous. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who you may know as an MD who voted to confirm RFK Jr. as Health Secretary, said, quote, this executive order is wrong. The president does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are safe. Vaccines do not cause autism, unquote, from Dr. Senator Bill Cassidy.
Lena, thanks for coming on to this. Welcome to WNYC.

**Lena Sun** (2:04)
Happy to be with you.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:06)
And listeners, first, who has a question about these outbreaks or what you can safely eat now, or what to do if you get the gastrointestinal yucks from either of them? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, call or text. And we will get to a few as we go on the Childhood Anti-Vax Executive Order, though we will say to you parents out there that nothing will change immediately. That's the first thing you need to know. Nothing will change immediately. But mostly, or at least first, this segment will be about the outbreaks. So 212-433-WNYC, with your questions about those, call or text 212-433-9692.
Lena, first tell us what exactly is being recalled with respect to jalapenos. It's not just the peppers themselves, right?

**Lena Sun** (3:02)
No.
In this case, the FDA has found that Taylor Farms has some prepared foods, sandwiches, dips, and like salsas, that were made with jalapenos that they, the FDA believes are linked to the Salmonella outbreak, traced to this one farm in Mexico, that was a supplier that supplied Taylor Farms. So Taylor Farms has recalled those products as well, and it's not, so that's separate from the lettuce outbreak.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:41)
Right. And you report that a large majority of the people reporting the Salmonella illness so far said they ate at Mexican style restaurants before they got sick, like Chipotle or Kadoba, you report. But you also have a list of major food store chains where some of these products are sold, like those dips that you're talking about with salsa, etc. But and some of the chains are the biggest, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Kroger, Hannaford, Stop and Shop, and the Salmonella cases linked to this one supplier have occurred in 27 states. So is this industry almost a monopoly or would that be overstating it?

**Lena Sun** (4:29)
I think what you see happening is that with a lot of the industries in the United States, they have consolidated. And Taylor Farms is one of the biggest suppliers of fresh produce in the country. And they supply to distributors and places where most of us have never heard of because we just shop at the store. And then those places send to hospitals, nursing homes, schools. So for this, for example, for the lettuce, it's also more than 20 states. And this is also more than 20 states. And there is a difference.
The salmonella outbreak is caused by a bacteria, and the lettuce outbreak is caused by a parasite. And there is a biological difference.
The bacteria is easier for us to do genetic fingerprinting and figuring out that if you ate something and I ate something, and we look at the samples, they could make a link. With the parasite, the cyclospora parasite, it is harder. You can't get as much of the genetic fingerprinting to do that disease detective work, which is why it's going to take them longer to figure out what the source of that outbreak is, even though most of that contaminated product, the lettuce product, is probably no longer out there.