Washington DC - As a parasite that causes explosive diarrhea sweeps across the US, many believe that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is partly to blame for the severity of the outbreak.
According to The Huffington Post, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) once had a collaborative program called FoodNet that helped federal and state regulators track eight foodborne pathogens – including cyclospora, a parasite that has recently infected a growing number of Americans.
But that program was cut in July 2025 as Kennedy and President Donald Trump's administration led an aggressive campaign of attacking and defunding a number of programs and agencies they deemed "wasteful" or "fraudulent," many of which were related to health and science.
Prior to his role as head of HHS, Kennedy was a prominent anti-vaccine advocate and champion of alternative medicines.
Since joining the Trump administration, he has brought his views to Washington and made heavy changes to the agency in an effort to make these ideas mainstream and put them into practice.
The AFP reports that as of last Thursday, 31 states had reported cases of the illness, with dozens of hospitalizations but no deaths. The state of Michigan has been at the center, with officials reporting 1,562 cases as of Friday.
A Colorado resident who believes she contracted the illness recently told CBS News, "I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. I'm on day five now of going to the bathroom over 40 times a day, and nothing has been solid."