The Non-Denial Denial on Cyclospora
I sent a more specific second round of questions, each anchored to the public record. HHS denied claims I never made, answered none of the specifics, and posted the rest on X.
This is an update to “You Can Wash Your Lettuce and Still Eat the Parasite” posted on July 9, 2026.
A July 13th update
On July 11th, I sent HHS a second request for comment, and it was written to be harder to dodge: five questions, each anchored to a specific public record so that a non-answer would be conspicuous. I asked CDC to commit to a defined update cadence and to state its reporting lag; pressed FDA on the GAO finding that it has missed its congressionally mandated inspection targets since 2018; asked why, with mandatory-recall power since 2011, the FDA left the Raw Farm recall voluntary; asked what actually changed to narrow FoodNet from 8 reportable pathogens to 2 when the budget request didn’t move; and asked how much genomic-sequencing capacity states lost when the Advanced Molecular Detection money was rescinded, and how much slower multi-state matches run now.
In their third reply, HHS made two concrete denials that didn’t address my specific questions. “FDA investigators were not impacted by staffing changes or RIFs” is about a job category, investigators, that my question wasn’t flagging. The documented April 2025 cut hit the FERN lab quality-control team, a quality-assurance officer, an analytical chemist, and two microbiologists. Saying investigators were spared neither confirms nor denies that. And “cyclospora tracking never stopped” answers a claim I didn’t make: my point was about the lab check that validates detection and the absence of any testing requirement, not that case-counting halted. Case tracking and lab quality control are different things.
They still didn’t answer my specific questions: no staffing count, no sample results, no yes-or-no on capacity versus 2024, nothing on whether the FERN proficiency-testing program is running, and no named food.
Under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy, FDA is currently investigating Cyclospora outbreaks using established epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback tools in close coordination with CDC and state and local partners. Protecting the nation’s food supply is a core FDA responsibility, and the agency has the expertise, personnel, and resources necessary to detect, investigate, and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks and take regulatory action when warranted. Additionally, FDA investigators were not impacted by staffing changes or RIFs.
To be clear, cyclospora tracking never stopped. CDC is actively working with 3,000 health departments to gather data.Emily G. Hilliard
Press Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
What I asked, what they said, and what’s still missing
