Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb pushed back Sunday against the Trump administration's assertion that the cyclospora outbreak is contained, stating the agency still lacks a complete picture of the contamination's reach.
Appearing on CBS News's Face the Nation, Gottlieb told host Margaret Brennan that while the FDA has made progress tracing the parasite to central Mexico and specific farms, the outbreak is not fully under control. “I don’t think it’s under control yet, per se,” he said. “I think that they’ve done a good job, FDA has, isolating this to central Mexico and some specific farms as well.”
The former commissioner added that uncertainty remains about whether the affected growing region is the only source. “I don’t think this is fully under control yet because we don’t know for sure that that’s the only growing region where this is coming from,” he said. “But it does seem to be the case at this point.”
Federal and state health officials have traced the outbreak to iceberg lettuce from central Mexico supplied by Taylor Farms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed at least 1,947 cases across nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Nearly 100 people have been hospitalized, though no deaths have been reported. Symptoms include watery diarrhea, appetite loss, weight loss, cramping, and bloating.
The FDA based its determination on epidemiological evidence, including patient interviews, as no produce samples have tested positive for cyclospora as of Friday. Taylor Farms stated it removed all potentially contaminated product from the market and issued a broader recall of iceberg lettuce from the region after federal officials raised concerns.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this week declared the outbreak “under control,” citing extensive epidemiological forensics that identified the source. However, his optimism has been undercut by communication failures within the administration, as Gottlieb noted the FDA has faced “challenges with communications” during the crisis. Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas has led the agency since Marty Makary stepped down in May.
Gottlieb praised the FDA's investigative speed but criticized its public outreach. “I think FDA has done a good job isolating this, and they were fast to do this,” he told Brennan. “This is a hard pathogen to detect. There’s no really good test for it, so you can’t test for it in food. But there hasn’t been as much communication from the agency as you might expect.”
The cyclospora outbreak is the latest food safety crisis for the Trump administration, which has also faced scrutiny over USDA Secretary Rollins's defense of food safety amid multiple crises. The outbreak's spread across nine states has prompted calls for greater transparency from federal health agencies, with some former FDA officials demanding a formal probe into the response.
