Since mid-2025, a multistate outbreak of Cyclospora cayetanensis — a parasite that causes what CDC materials describe as watery, often explosive diarrhea, along with cramping, bloating, and fatigue — has been spreading across the United States.

CDC's broader domestic cyclosporiasis surveillance count, as of late July, is 1,645 lab-confirmed cases across 34 states, with 141 to 145 hospitalizations and no deaths reported, plus more than 5,100 additional reports still under review — a general count, not specific to the Taylor Farms/Taco Bell cluster below. Separately, CDC has also reported a distinct national count — 4,173 lab-confirmed cases plus more than 7,400 unconfirmed — that appears to include outbreaks unrelated to that cluster too; CDC has said state-level data may blend probable and confirmed cases. Other reporting, citing state health departments, puts totals above 7,000, with Michigan alone reportedly accounting for more than 7,000 cases. The exact relationship between these three figures hasn't been fully explained; this piece reports what's been said rather than picking one number.

The cluster CDC and FDA have actually traced to a source is a separate, smaller figure: initially reported across 5 states with roughly 1,644 cases, tied to Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce supplied to Taco Bell. On July 19-20, the FDA retracted the one lab sample that had tested positive, after it turned out to be a false positive from an amplification error — but the agency said the retraction did not change what it called "the overwhelming epidemiological data" supporting Taylor Farms' voluntary recall. Michigan's own health department said the same week that "no specific type of produce, grower, or supplier has been identified as the source."

Kennedy responded to a reporter's question about the outbreak on July 21, during an HHS press briefing that was primarily about healthcare fraud, saying the outbreak was under control and the source had been identified. His claim to have "identified the source" rests on that same epidemiological basis the FDA cited, not on a confirmed lab sample — the one lab sample that did test positive is the one that was retracted. Mexico's health secretary, David Kershenobich, separately said his country's own investigation found no evidence the outbreak originated there.

By July 24 — three days after Kennedy's statement — CDC had expanded the traced cluster to nine states and 1,947 cases, up from the roughly 1,644 initially reported, with at least 98 hospitalizations. No specific product source has been confirmed since.

The surveillance that wasn't there

A control-room graphic comparing selected outbreaks and active foodborne investigations (Cyclospora, measles, foodborne pathogens) against HHS workforce and surveillance cuts during the same period, with the caption: same period, timing documented, causation not established Selected outbreaks and active investigations during the same period as HHS's surveillance and workforce cuts. Figures sourced directly to FDA and CDC, dated. Timing documented; causation not established.

Before any of this, in mid-2025, CDC's FoodNet surveillance system — which tracks foodborne pathogens across ten states — stopped mandatory tracking of Cyclospora, cutting its list of mandatorily tracked pathogens from eight to two, citing funding cuts.

Whether that scale-back affected the response to this specific outbreak is not an official finding. "Have the funding cuts... impacted the current activities? I think they have," says Barbara Kowalcyk, director of George Washington University's Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security.

Other food-safety experts push back on how directly relevant that specific cut is. FoodNet's purpose is trend monitoring, not outbreak detection, says Craig Hedberg, a University of Minnesota food-safety epidemiologist: "It was never intended to detect and investigate outbreaks... relying on it to detect outbreaks would leave most of the country unprotected." None of the states hit hardest by this outbreak, including Michigan, are among FoodNet's 10 participating states.

Hedberg points to a more direct explanation for why CDC's national count runs so far behind what states themselves are reporting: reporting lag, not the FoodNet cut specifically. "There's often a lag in reporting from the state to the CDC, which can complicate investigations," he says. "As we've seen with this outbreak of Cyclospora, in many instances those increases will be recognized at a state level before the data gets compiled nationally to allow our federal officials to have a clear picture of what's going on."

The cut sits inside a larger one. Kennedy's HHS — not USDA, which Secretary Brooke Rollins runs separately — cut roughly 3,500 to 3,900 FDA staff and 2,400 to 2,500 CDC staff in 2025, part of a reorganization the administration announced would cut the department from about 82,000 employees to 62,000; HHS's most recently reported headcount is closer to 75,000, short of that announced target. Separately, and not as Kennedy's action, USDA cut its own staff by nearly 20,000 in the same period under Rollins.

FDA's Human Foods Program lost 89 staff in February 2025. Its deputy commissioner, Jim Jones, resigned in protest, writing in his resignation letter that continuing in the role would be "fruitless."

One consequence, documented independently by ProPublica: FDA's foreign food-facility inspections nearly halved by March 2025 and ran about 30 percent below the two-year average by that July — putting the agency on track for its fewest foreign inspections since 2011, excluding the pandemic years. The reporting traces this to staff losses inside the FDA divisions that coordinate inspector travel and budgets.

The vaccine schedule, blocked

Kennedy's HHS also fired all 17 sitting members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee in June 2025, then used the reconstituted panel to cut the recommended childhood vaccine schedule from as many as 18 diseases to 11, effective January 2026.

A federal judge found in March 2026 that the changes likely violate federal law and blocked them while litigation continues. The government has appealed; no ruling has come since. As of the most recent reporting, the original schedule remains in effect and Kennedy's revised version remains stayed by court order.

What he says

Kennedy's own words on the schedule change, from HHS's January 2026 announcement: "We are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health."

HHS's own fact sheet argues the prior U.S. schedule was an outlier among 20 peer nations without correspondingly better outcomes, and cites a decline in public trust in vaccines from 72 percent to 40 percent between 2020 and 2024.

On the outbreak, Kennedy has pushed back directly on criticism over the cuts and the pace of the response: "Those criticisms are invalid... We did cuts in the FoodNet program, but they were for redundant surveillance, and all the states will tell you that we're still doing forensics."

Kennedy has also, separately and repeatedly, denied being anti-vaccine. Asked directly in an April 2026 House hearing, he said: "I'm not anti-vax. I'm pro science... What I've said is vaccines should be adequately safety tested so we know both about the risk and the benefits."

Kennedy has publicly dismissed a study that undercuts a separate claim of his — that acetaminophen use in pregnancy is linked to autism. The study, following 1.5 million children in Denmark, found no such link. "The study is a garbage study," Kennedy told Rep. Virginia Foxx at the same April 2026 House hearing. "It should be retracted."

What this piece is not saying

This piece isn't saying Kennedy lied about the outbreak, or that he knew the source claim was false when he made it. We don't know what he knew. We're reporting the order events happened in: his statement, and what his own agency and a foreign government said before and after it.

It isn't saying a court found his vaccine policy illegal. The ruling is a preliminary injunction finding the changes likely unlawful, under appeal, not a final judgment.

It isn't saying the FoodNet cut caused this outbreak. That link is a named expert's assessment, not an official finding.

It isn't saying USDA's cuts, or the disbanded food-safety advisory committees under Secretary Rollins, are Kennedy's doing. Those belong to a different department.

And it isn't saying Kennedy has claimed vaccines cause autism. On the record, repeatedly, he says the opposite.

What can I do?

Read Judge Murphy's order and track the 1st Circuit appeal yourself. It's a public federal case, and "likely unlawful, pending appeal" is a specific, checkable status — not a settled question in either direction.

Watch CDC's own outbreak page for updates to the case count. CDC has offered a partial explanation for why its own numbers vary — a cluster-specific count versus a broader national count, and state data that may blend probable and confirmed cases — but hasn't fully reconciled them; track which figure is being cited and against which CDC framing.

If you want oversight, the House Energy and Commerce and Senate HELP committees have direct authority over HHS. A specific, answerable question: what is CDC's plan for restoring mandatory tracking of the pathogens FoodNet dropped in 2025 — not "is Kennedy doing a good job."

The Receipts