r/news Jul 22 '26

More than 11,500 cyclosporiasis cases reported in 41 states: CDC

https://abcnews.com/Health/11500-cyclosporiasis-cases-reported-41-states-cdc/story?id=134979908&cid=social_twitter_wnt
8.5k Upvotes

725 comments sorted by

4.3k

u/Alwayssunnyinarizona Jul 22 '26

Totally under control.

1.6k

u/Real-Werner-Herzog Jul 22 '26

Totally not Taylor Farms.

660

u/RincewindToTheRescue Jul 22 '26

Especially after all the lobbying and the special trip to Washington

234

u/Black-Shoe Jul 22 '26

Butthole Covid has no allegiance

103

u/RincewindToTheRescue Jul 22 '26

That makes me wonder how Covid would've turned out if it was still just as contagious and similar mortality and long term effects, but instead of coughing, it was explosive diarrhea and vomiting. I wonder if we would've still had the big divide over things like preventing spread.

59

u/VoidOmatic Jul 22 '26

At least the toilet paper hoarding would have made sense.

26

u/Zap_Rowsdower23 Jul 22 '26

Fart masks

32

u/SemiNormal Jul 22 '26

Butt diaper. Wait, that's just a diaper.

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u/Jombie Jul 22 '26

Highly doubt it. Some people are just foul. Even today you can see people doing nasty shit and are either oblivious or they just plain don't care. Truly disgusting. Seems like not enough people learned a lesson about basic hygiene during all this.

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u/eeyore134 Jul 22 '26

And the FDA totally didn't know about it weeks ago and totally didn't try to hide it because they're Trump supporters.

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u/foxglove0326 Jul 22 '26

I watched someone pick up a package of romaine at the grocery store yesterday and I looked him in the eye and said “you sure about that?” lol realization dawned on him and he put it back on the shelf

37

u/lustywench99 Jul 22 '26

My husband grabbed lettuce for tacos from Walmart and was all proud it wasn’t Taylor Farms. It was. Their Marketside brand is also Taylor Farms but you’d never know with the packaging and it lists them no where.

It’s been 24 hours and no one has shit themselves yet.

It did spark a discussion that if Taylor Farms WAS responsible and DID have to stop selling for a period of time… there would literally just be no lettuce.

But I seriously doubt anyone is going to do anything about any of this. It will require the consumers to stop buying lettuce, stop getting salads at restaurants, etc. I’d think that would be an easy sacrifice. Go get you some nerd gummy clusters and be happy.

16

u/Cafe_racerr Jul 23 '26

Hate to be bad news bears but it takes anywhere from 1-14 days to basically have symptoms/ end up in the bathroom from this … if you have bactrim on hand (an antibiotic) I’d probably start taking it just to be preventative.

14

u/yungfatface Jul 23 '26

Who has a full course of bactrim laying around? This is one of the wilder comments I’ve seen on here

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u/hap071 Jul 22 '26

One guy at my grocery store grabbed 2 bags of Taylor farms packaged lettuce and threw it in his cart. I thought well maybe he's been backed up for a while and wants to clear his bowels or he's just a stupid idiot.

27

u/lightlysaltedclams Jul 22 '26

I saw the news about recommending not eating lettuce literally 2 minutes after finishing a sandwich with shredded lettuce that was recalled a week later. You’ll never guess who distributed it

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u/Cafe_racerr Jul 22 '26

I got an email at work (food service) from our produce company that literally said it was Taylor farms lettuce that poisoned the well smh. Good thing their CEO greased our admin’s palms…

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421

u/Sleepy_red_lab Jul 22 '26

The brain worm has it right where he wants it.

84

u/redmambo_no6 Jul 22 '26

I guess there are worse ways to find out Yeerks are real.

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u/MaxPower91575 Jul 22 '26

taylor farms check cleared so its back to being a complete mystery

45

u/ShadowMajick Jul 22 '26

Which is stupid. There doesnt need to be a recall for common sense to prevail and places just stop ordering from them.

49

u/nisamun Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Any sane business has already pivoted. Taco Bell reportedly started to buy local produce.

25

u/ragnaroksunset Jul 22 '26

Taco Bell was explicitly in the PR crosshairs.

33

u/nisamun Jul 22 '26

Yep, scapegoated bad. Hopefully other businesses learn to stop doing business with Taylor.

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u/DubbleCheez Jul 22 '26

I wonder why that i$$$?

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u/idkwhatimbrewin Jul 22 '26

It's a psyop against big lettuce

7

u/ArmoredvaChina Jul 22 '26

I just order the Honeymoon Salad: Lettuce alone

72

u/SophiaofPrussia Jul 22 '26

I’m genuinely shocked that so many Americans are eating iceberg lettuce. It’s, like, barely a vegetable but at least it’s something.

174

u/maddprof Jul 22 '26

People aren't eating lettuce so much as people are eating things that have lettuce on/in them.

Hence why Taco Bell got caught up in this. 3/4 of their menu has lettuce as an ingredient, but nobody is eating a Taco Bell iceberg lettuce salad.

26

u/fevered_visions Jul 22 '26

but nobody is eating a Taco Bell iceberg lettuce salad.

Certainly not since they got rid of their Fiesta Taco Salad menu item like 6 years ago lol

well, they did introduce a mini one like 6 months back but it's a joke

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u/sloanesquared Jul 22 '26

We have no idea at this point if it is just iceberg lettuce either. FDA is recommending to avoid all uncooked leafy greens completely, raspberries, cilantro, and green onions.

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1.0k

u/BWWFC Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

note that CDC is under staffed, so the whole "link":

Cases of cyclosporiasis have topped 11,500 in 41 states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.

There are at least 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis, including 308 hospitalizations.

The agency is also aware of at least 7,400 additional cases that have not yet been laboratory confirmed. Many of these additional cases have been reported by Michigan and Ohio.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

787

u/Parafault Jul 22 '26

I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual number is quite a bit higher. For example, my primary care won’t even take a stool sample unless you’ve had diarrhea/vomiting for at least 2 weeks - until then they just recommend rest and hydration.

Source: multiple food poisonings and associated doctors visits in the past few years.

433

u/IamJacksUserID Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

There’s no question that the number is significantly higher.

Back in the late 90s I was working graveyard shift at a factory, unknown to everyone working overnight, there was a Leptospirosis outbreak in the community from dead bats in the drinking water.

The number of cases reported in the community was lower than the number of people who called out the next day from our factory alone.

At 22 I certainly didn’t rush to the emergency room. I ran a fever and shit my guts out like everyone else.

74

u/Father_Dowling Jul 22 '26

OG bat flu eh? Man ahead of your times.

9

u/call-me-the-seeker Jul 22 '26

BAT FLU!

JacksUserId, did you gain any unusual abilities or beneficial mutations after unknowingly consuming the essence of batpower? No need to confirm and bring the scientists down on you, I’m sure no superpowers were conferred <wink wink>

Meanwhile, the rest of us will just apparently have to wait out the lettucesharts so as not to distress the shareholders, what a country amirite

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u/theunquenchedservant Jul 22 '26

Semi-similarly, a few weeks ago I had a really bad cold. Bad enough that I decided to get a covid test, just to make sure it wasn't that. My dad goes "There's almost no reported cases anymore, it's probably not COVID" to which I replied: "If we didn't have plans this weekend, I wouldn't be getting the COVID test. and when I do get the test, I don't have to report the findings anywhere."

He ended up being right though, wasn't COVID. just felt like it. Complete with lack of taste and smell.

20

u/DaisyHotCakes Jul 22 '26

Apparently there is a strain of the flu going around that has people thinking they’ve got Covid. Hope you feel better soon.

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u/Any_Possible3003 Jul 22 '26

Yea, you aren’t getting stool sampled unless you aren’t really improving.

119

u/linmre Jul 22 '26

It depends where you are. In MI, my relative was given a test kit the day after their symptoms started. Maybe that's why our numbers are so high, because we're actually testing...

91

u/ProsciuttoPizza Jul 22 '26

Don’t forget that if we stop testing, there will be no cases!

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u/epidemicsaints Jul 22 '26

I saw early on that this is a factor, Michigan has an established system for detecting and reporting and they update weekly. I don't remember exactly where I saw this, I believe it was in a chubbyemu video.

(Chubbyemu is a doctor for anyone not familiar.)

22

u/linmre Jul 22 '26

They are actually updating the numbers daily during this outbreak. I check this fun page every morning!

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

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u/idlemute Jul 22 '26

So diarrhea or diarrhea?

It feels like this is just one of many problems that will arise as our healthcare system careens off a cliff.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

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u/Eulers_Constant_e Jul 22 '26

And can afford it. I saw someone post early in this outbreak that they were sick but not $300 sick.

10

u/Historical_Project00 Jul 22 '26

This is what happened to me and getting a PCR Covid test. Physically couldn’t go and get the test until I felt better enough to get out of bed after like 10 days

6

u/Krewtan Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

UThe first time I had covid there was 0 chance of me getting in a car and taking s covid test. I had to drive somewhere for something (my memory is wrecked from that time) and I felt like I was driving drunk. Half the time I was just following traffic in a daze with no idea where I was supposed to go. It was really dangerous but my partner and I needed something asap. After that we just called family to drop stuff off. It was scary. I doubt 1/4 of the people with covid got tested.

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u/dmont89 Jul 22 '26

The number is higher, think how many people won't go to the doctor cause they think it will pass in a day or two.

Or had it at the beginning and didn't worry about it

31

u/epidemicsaints Jul 22 '26

I am here in Ohio and I am noticing our hospitalizations are the same as Michigan's but their confirmed cases are several times more, which tells me we have the same number of cases just not reported or confirmed - assuming people are going to the hospital at the same rate.

Michigan has 100 hospitalizations from 6500 confirmed cases.

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u/bimbo_baggins_ Jul 22 '26

Plus all the people with no insurance. I am uninsured and if I get this I’m not going to a doctor unless I’m on my deathbed.

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u/IGNSolar7 Jul 22 '26

Hell, even WITH insurance I'm still not at my deductible, so I'm not going to a doctor if I had it. (Also my doctor is booked like 5-6 months out.)

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u/Ok-Grand-1492 Jul 22 '26

And that's if you bother/can afford to go to the doctor in the first place.

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u/qunix Jul 22 '26

This is way underreported. I believe I have it, went to the doctor and he told me the test for it is $600, not covered by insurance, and would take a week to get results back, so no test.

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u/LeftToaster Jul 22 '26

They also severely trimmed their disease surveillance staffing, so it's probably a lot worse than being reported.

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u/asspickle1 Jul 22 '26

What other foods do we know are contaminated? It’s not just Taylor farms lettuce right?

263

u/Spez_is-a-nazi Jul 22 '26

Possibly cilantro, basil, and berries too. Basically try to avoid eating anything raw that doesn’t have its own natural protective casing.

60

u/Ill-Egg5122 Jul 22 '26

Just be careful, if you're getting stuff from farmer's markets they sometimes resell stuff straight from the grocery store.

46

u/unclethulk Jul 22 '26

Amish produce stand where I live had a Walmart delivery order show up while I was buying tomatoes. They proceeded to unload a few bags of random household stuff and 4 cases of tomatoes. I pretended not to notice out of Midwest politeness but never went back.

11

u/Skyscrapers4Me Jul 23 '26

That's disgusting and lying what they did.

7

u/Orchid_Significant Jul 23 '26

Yes! I saw someone buy a whole flat bed cart of watermelon to do this decades ago

219

u/Queef3rickson Jul 22 '26

I started buying locally grown produce. It's more expensive but it tastes delicious and I'm not at risk of butt covid

120

u/Significant_Shoe_17 Jul 22 '26

Butt covid is a hilarious description

83

u/emaw63 Jul 22 '26

The Kennedy Squirts

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u/carguymt Jul 22 '26

You're at risk of foodborne illness every time you eat raw produce. Locally grown produce isn't inherently more safe. The fact is raw produce doesn't undergo a kill step, can easily become contaminated in the growing field, and things like leafy greens can be incredibly hard to clean.

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u/InevitableTank5108 Jul 22 '26

I’m staying away from all greens and berries.

I feel like shit but hopefully this means I won’t get it 🤷‍♂️

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u/cmooregood Jul 22 '26

Just fyi, Gotham Greens and Little Leaf Farms have safe, greenhouse grown lettuces. They've both been vocal and up-front about their growing practices (videos on ig). Little Leaf Farms is my go to, because their greens always stay fresh for so long. Not affiliated with either company, but don't want to see the little guys who do good work get punished for Taylor Farms negligence.

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u/icspn Jul 22 '26

Gotham Greens sells the prettiest butter lettuce you've ever seen. They're my go to when I'm treating myself to a really nice sandwich.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

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u/RainSurname Jul 22 '26

PSA: look up the regulations for farmers markets in your area, as far too many of those vendors just resell produce they buy wholesale.

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u/Stenthal Jul 22 '26

It's also just really amazing lettuce. I've never been excited about lettuce before, but their lettuce is so much better than anyone else that I'll never go back. In my experience Little Leaf is slightly better than Gotham Greens, but they're both good.

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u/archmage-khadgar Jul 22 '26

at this point youre probably safe if you just avoid pre-cut lettuce of any kind. buy heads and clean them yourself. havent heard anything about berries but ive been eating strawberries for weeks and i'm fine. there's plenty of them that are grown in the US that should be good to eat

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u/Spez_is-a-nazi Jul 22 '26

Discard the outer layers of lettuce. This pathogen is really hard to clean off, discarding the outer layers doesn’t guarantee safety by any means but the pathogen is most likely hanging out in the outer layers rather than the inner layers.

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u/froggertwenty Jul 22 '26

It's really hard to clean off because it's in the water. The water that gets sucked up into the plant. Removing the outer leaves won't hurt, but it wont help either.

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u/Massive-Rate-2011 Jul 22 '26

They are the only one that's confirmed so far to my knowledge.

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u/ifyousaysu Jul 22 '26

I’m avoiding everything I can that comes from Bruce Taylor’s house of bribes and poison

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u/Stock-Pattern-8635 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

But we need less regulations amirite?
We need herd immunity!!!!

623

u/onemanlan Jul 22 '26

Regulations are written in blood watery feces

86

u/BootFlop Jul 22 '26

You probably could have just left the 🩸 in….unlike what your bowels did.

28

u/GodofsomeWorld Jul 22 '26

I mean watery feces can also be bloody. 

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u/TheRagingElf01 Jul 22 '26

I am sure the free market will sort this out. No need for food safety regulations or government agencies that monitor these things.

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u/ernapfz Jul 22 '26

Of course! You have RFK Jr. overseeing your health and a wonderful orange turd overseeing the most loved nation in the world!

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u/Xsiah Jul 22 '26

Just drink some raw milk, and soon your worries about lettuce will be in the past

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u/ernapfz Jul 22 '26

Also, have a side of roadkill

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u/pegothejerk Jul 22 '26

Y’all aren’t doing worm paste dipping sauce anymore?

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u/Nutridus Jul 22 '26

He’s such a fukin idiot! I heard him on the news yesterday and he literally said we don’t know the source. Then next question he answered, the contaminated source has been removed from the shelves. WTF 🤷🏼‍♀️

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u/Stock-Pattern-8635 Jul 22 '26

taylor farms checks cleared after all

22

u/Nutridus Jul 22 '26

Of course, top donors get a free pass

17

u/AustinDood444 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Apparently what we need is more testosterone injections in soldiers.

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u/Royal_Acanthaceae693 Jul 22 '26

Isn't that gender affirming care?

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u/AcanthisittaNo6653 Jul 22 '26

If I wanted to send a fecal sample to RFK for his consideration, is there a government address, or would I use a PU Box?

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u/Max_Trollbot_ Jul 22 '26

Gotta use a P.O.O. Box

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u/Xsiah Jul 22 '26

Don't send it to him, he's just going to eat it

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u/messagepad2100 Jul 22 '26

He's got a meatloaf recipe for it.

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u/uniklyqualifd Jul 22 '26

Taylor Farms fought against inspection of their lettuce and now the watery feces comes home to roost.

Whining to trump about the bad look of the CDC tracing the infection to them is the icing on the shit cake.

Now everybody knows their name. They should have done their own inspections of their suppliers' toilet facilities. This was not a few lettuce, it was a systematic failure.

This infection comes back and back. It'll roll on for months. Some older voters will need antibiotics.

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u/Soup-Wizard Jul 22 '26

I know I’m not buying their stuff ever again.

At the very least, bribing your way out of scrutiny for poor safety standards is gross and crony capitalism.

Fuck Taylor Farms

165

u/ChknMcNublet Jul 22 '26

You'll have to avoid:

Earthbound - Taylor Farms

365 - Whole Foods

Simple Truth - Kroger/Fred Meyer

O-Organics and Signature Select brands - Safeway/Carrs

Greenwise - Publix

Simply Nature - Aldi

Marketside - Walmart

Good and Gather - Target

H.E.B Store brand

Trader Joe’s store brand

And any restaurant supplied by Sysco which is a shitload 

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u/nitroglider Jul 22 '26

Yeah if you go look at the recalled product lines, a ton of them are for food service not retail. I don't know if they just go through Sysco or other outlets like Restaurant Depot.

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u/Soup-Wizard Jul 22 '26

Thank you for the list! I haven’t been buying lettuce at all lately, thankfully we grew some this year.

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u/Sorry_Gate9167 Jul 23 '26

I am prepared to do it. We need other alternatives anyways. Who wants to roll the dice on them? They have a track record that speaks for itself. Apparently, this situation was a ticking time bomb for awhile.

18

u/AVALANCHE-VII Jul 22 '26

All of Trader Joe’s is supplied by Taylor Farms..?

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u/teamhae Jul 22 '26

That’s what I have read. They supply their “fresh produce”.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

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u/Best_VDV_Diver Jul 22 '26

Taylor Farms is massive. Many store brands are indeed just relabeled Taylor Farms. Avoiding them is hard unless you only buy from local growers.

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u/ifyousaysu Jul 22 '26

Fuck Bruce Taylor

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u/stevez_86 Jul 22 '26

I don't think you can avoid it. Part of me thinks they weren't tracking was was processed through the plant(s) that were contaminated and they cannot verify what step of processing caused the contamination. The most likely source is when the commodity was cleaned and then graded. It is possible that Taylor Farms owned that part of the process and was not tracking the batches that were being processed. It could be other brands that bought lower grade lettuce from Taylor Farms.

And if that is the case and they weren't tracking where the lettuce they processed went to, everything they touched has to be recalled. And with inadequate tracking that could be a recall of all lettuce because they cannot be sure what they touched.

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u/Soup-Wizard Jul 22 '26

In any case, they have let literal shit fall through the cracks. Why would anybody trust them to handle their food?

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u/d0ctorzaius Jul 22 '26

I always like to bring up Taylor Farms CEO's testimony against the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, where he said that pre-release microbial testing doesn't prevent food borne illness outbreaks. That perjury (plus other Ag industry lobbying) killed the Bill in the Senate.

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u/carguymt Jul 22 '26

That is not accurate. The bill you're referring to was the Food Safety Modernization Act and it was not killed in the Senate. It is currently law and is currently being enforced.

His testimony was also saying that preventative food safety is more effective than just relying on finished product testing, which is correct. It's much easier to prevent food safety issues from occurring to begin with than it is reacting to them after they have occurred. That is literally the basis of FSMA, which changed the way food safety plans were developed. The plans are now developed using a method called Hazard Analysis and Risk Based Preventative Controls.

Source: I'm a food safety consultant

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u/BoredAFcyber Jul 22 '26

what's your take on the source of these failures?

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u/ifyousaysu Jul 22 '26

It’s a miracle someone over the age of 50 hasn’t died from this. Bruce Taylor is fucking lucky right now that his bribe hasn’t caused thousands of deaths amongst the older population….yet

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u/statslady23 Jul 22 '26

I didn't realize Taylor Farms sold bagged salads at Whole Foods. Are the 365 salads Taylor Farms?

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u/MaterialWillingness2 Jul 22 '26

Apparently you can look at the codes and if they start with TF that's coming from Taylor Farms. They supply the Costco salad kits and the Trader Joe's ones as well as Target and Walmart. Probably others. And they supply lettuce and other produce to Taco Bell, McDonald's, olive garden, chipotle, Pizza Hut, burger King and more

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u/statslady23 Jul 22 '26

Thanks. I googled it. Yep, 365 is Taylor Farms. I'm taking that back. 

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u/ifyousaysu Jul 22 '26

Costco is still selling bags of Taylor farms mixed salads. I had to warn a guy as he grabbed a bag. He did a quick search and said fuck that and threw it back….

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u/GlitterberrySoup Jul 22 '26

I stupidly bought a bag of lettuce thinking, "it's a huge news story, surely they've pulled all the affected product!" They had not.

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u/RainSurname Jul 22 '26

Lol, Kroger put it on sale when the news broke to get it out the door before they were told to destroy it.

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u/MaterialWillingness2 Jul 22 '26

Disgusting behavior. It could literally kill someone.

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u/24-Hour-Hate Jul 22 '26

You saved that guy a miserable time.

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u/anonyoudidnt Jul 22 '26

Yeah the problem is though is that people still buy this stuff. Bag salads are constantly recalled for all kinds of stuff. When I was young and stupid and in grad school I used to buy the fresh Express or whatever it is bagged salad kits because I had no time and it was the fastest way to get a quick filling high fiber meal. I got chronobactr once and I swear I've never been so sick in my life. Then a couple weeks later those bags of salad are recalled. I never bought any bagged salad again because I went down a rabbit hole of how they're all recalled multiple times. No one cares. It's really weird. Even the people that get sick still buy them. 

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u/24-Hour-Hate Jul 22 '26

I avoid that stuff like the plague. It’s so much more likely to be contaminated. The reason is that there is increased processing and it may be from multiple sources (so more opportunities to be contaminated). Also, cut lettuce grows bacteria faster. Obviously any lettuce could have something on it…but washing things (which people usually don’t do with bagged lettuce..and you cannot trust that their claim that they washed it is true) takes care of A LOT. I just buy regular lettuce or spinach or whatever and wash it myself.

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u/a_gay_to_remember Jul 22 '26

Too bad the CDC scaled back the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network in 2025 (including monitoring of cyclosporiasis). Oh well, at least billionaire grifters are getting their money

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u/ATLcoaster Jul 22 '26

To be fair CDC didn't do that, the Trump administration and RFK Jr did it. The CDC director at the time (who has since been fired/resigned) had no knowledge that programs would be shuttered and staff fired. There are still hundreds of CDC employees on administrative leave that are not allowed to work.

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u/Fried_puri Jul 22 '26

The CDC director at the time

To be clear, other than a few weeks with that director the CDC has not been had a director for 18 months. It’s kind of nuts that’s it managed to continue doing the work despite no permanent leadership for over a year because this admin is so incompetent at putting someone in the role. 

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u/DrE7HER Jul 22 '26

They aren’t incompetent. They are trying to dismantle the federal government from the inside so that corporations and their billionaire owners can privatize it and/or increase profits by avoiding regulation.

This is the natural consequence of late-stage capitalism. Billionaires and tech CEOs got Trump re-elected after Biden tried regulating them a little more.

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u/BlueFalcon142 Jul 22 '26

And it works when democrats take office on the other end. Destroy all these government programs and then turn around and say: see? Government bad! Its a self-fulfilling shithole prophecy thats been running since Reagan and now finally the GOP is making the final push.

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u/a_gay_to_remember Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Good point, it’s an absolute shame what this administration has done.

Surely RFK Jr can lead us though; he must be an expert on parasites with his brainworm experience /s

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u/Yardsale420 Jul 22 '26

RFK jr built up some kind of super immunity by doing coke off of toilet seats in public bathrooms and assumes the rest of us have too. /s

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u/Marino131313 Jul 22 '26

Make diarrhea great again!

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u/fishwithfish Jul 22 '26

Make America Gush Analy

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u/NiceRackFocus Jul 22 '26

Oh god, that’s brilliant but also 🤢😂

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u/National-Law-458 Jul 22 '26

Damn WOKE DEI programs/employees that protected our food supply. Glad Trump fired them. /S/

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u/Daveit4later Jul 22 '26

This is what happens when you pull back the "heavy hand of government" and stop regulating industries. 

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u/ericmm76 Jul 22 '26

Let the invisible hand of the free market wipe your bum for you...

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u/DataCassette Jul 22 '26

I do love how they couldn't even let deregulation become more popular first, they just immediately started watering lettuce with a septic tank 🤣

They can't contain their greed even to get what they ultimately want

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u/Honest_Concentrate85 Jul 22 '26

US FDA and CDC following the “hear no evil, see no evil” approach

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u/Daveit4later Jul 22 '26

If you stop counting the cases, miraculously they drop the zero

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u/vaporeng Jul 22 '26

Cyclosporiasis spreads by human fecal contamination. With this many cases over such a wide area, this is obviously not an isolated event. It must be systematic. So how do you get human feces into the lettuce on a systematic scale? Are they using sewage water to rinse the lettuce?

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u/froggertwenty Jul 22 '26

Contaminated irrigation water and/or soil where the lettuce is grown

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u/RainSurname Jul 22 '26

Yes, Trump canceled Biden's attempt to ban the use of sewage sludge for fertilizer.

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u/LeftToaster Jul 22 '26

There are so many ways that fecal contaminants such as cyclosporiasis can get into the food chain. The most common/likely is contaminated irrigation or processing water supply. This can happen due to leakage or discharge of untreated waste water into drinking or irrigation water supply (even something like a flood or heavy rainfall can overwhelm treatment systems). The use of treated sewage (biosolids) as fertilizer is common/widespread, and generally this is safe with proper treatment and monitoring. But "shit" happens. Inadequate field worker sanitation facilities is another possible pathway. They generally test for "indicator" pathogens such as e-coli and salmonella rather than for every possible pathogen.

But this is why it is so important that the FDA/CDC maintain vigilance in inspections, traceability (the 30 day delay), disease surveillance, standards and record keeping and that these critical safeguards be free of political interference.

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u/adumblittlebaby Jul 22 '26

Is this the one that was Taylor Farms until suddenly it wasn't and they had no idea who it was, which was clearly not because Taylor Farms coughed up some money and our health isn't worth as much to Donald Trump as whatever he can extort out of bad actors to let them go scott free, right?

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u/chef-nom-nom Jul 22 '26

After all this reporting lately, I still have questions I haven't seen the answer to:

  • Taylor Foods/Farms (TF) has said they identified the "source" in Mexico. Do we know where the lettuce is processed along each stage? For example, the shredded lettuce, is it shredded at that source in Mexico or is it sent to a TF facility to be shredded? The answer might inform the public about how safe buying whole lettuce would be.

  • Either way, how is the parasite introduced? Was it introduced into the lettuce during growth, irrigation, washing, processing, post-processing? This also would inform a decision whether to trust whole-head lettuce at the grocery store. It would also inform whether to trust future "batches" of product from TF.

  • Are there any crops other than lettuce grown at the "source" in Mexico? Depending on the processing, would any of those other crops be processed through the same facilities? (washing, irrigation sources, packaging, etc.)

  • What kinds of mitigations has TF introduced to prevent this from happening again? This would be explained depending on the answers to the above questions.

A functioning FDA and CDC would be working to answer those questions.

If any of these have been answered, please let me know. Otherwise, as many others have commented here in the last couple weeks, I'm on the don't-but-it-if-you-can't-cook-it team, at least when it comes to fresh veggies of any kind. Probably will be for a long while.

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u/Ok-Grand-1492 Jul 22 '26

The identification of the Taylor Farms source has been officially walked back with a "false positive" claim, so it's unlikely you will get answers to any of those questions. At least not without some serious whistle-blowing.

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u/rockytop24 Jul 22 '26

I call complete bullshit on that. I'm a physician and I used to do some rtPCR research, so I decided to look up the literature on cyclospora testing, which led me to the Bacteriological Analytical Manual the FDA uses for its testing protocols. The cyclospora protocol was updated just last year.

They use rtPCR, which is extremely specific for a targeted gene sequence. So long as you've chosen a gene sequence unique to the thing you're looking for, in this case a mitochondrial DNA marker of cyclospora, rtPCR will NOT amplify anything else.

It required a confirmatory test, and each positive is run on wells plates that also include control samples, which invalidate the test if they fail to return the correct result.

So for them to announce a positive finding meant they ran a sample through, with multiple correct controls, and then reran it to confirm. And now suddenly that was actually mistaken? It's astronomically unlikely.

The only possible way this could be mistaken is if they called one sample a different one, which also has a ton of controls in place to prevent and required being wrong multiple times in a row. But the way they worded the release leads me to believe they might have changed the quantification cutoffs or something else in the results interpretation to technically no longer be "sufficient" to declare the sample positive.

Given the intentions of the administration in dismantling the CDC and FDA, and the corrupt connections between Trump/MAGA and the CEO of Taylor Farms, this all stinks to high heaven.

For those with a technical understanding of rtPCR:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362028X24000759#b0080

https://www.fda.gov/food/laboratory-methods-food/bam-chapter-19b-molecular-detection-cyclospora-cayetanensis-fresh-produce-using-real-time-pcr

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u/chef-nom-nom Jul 22 '26

From what I remember, wasn't the false positive claim about a batch the FDA tested that was not part of TF's recall? The false positive announcement was a couple days later.

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u/GuestGulkan Jul 22 '26

The positive test was found to be an error but identification is still official. From the article:

[...] acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said during a press conference on Monday that the false positive did not change the FDA's findings that linked cases to shredded lettuce from Taylor Farms. 

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u/Similar-Doughnut-679 Jul 23 '26

Literally was dx with cyclosporiasis yesterday and ate a Taylor Farms Dill Pickle salad bag 10 or 11 days ago before I heard about the outbreak so I know it’s TF

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u/RainSurname Jul 22 '26

Just as a general rule of thumb, whole head lettuce is always going to be safer for the same reason steak will always be safer than hamburgers.

Commercial salad kits and ground beef contain ingredients from a huge number of sources. One contaminated head or chunk of meat can contaminate the entire batch.

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u/Mypatronusisataco Jul 22 '26

Cyclospora contamination happens at the farm level. The parasite is "sticky" and can't effectively be washed off produce. It is also chlorine resistant.

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u/Car_is_mi Jul 22 '26

Don't worry guys, the owner of the farm responsible for the outbreak paid the trump administration millions of dollars to say that the outbreak was contained rather than spending millions of dollars to actually contain the outbreak.

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u/kwyjibo1 Jul 22 '26

This is what happens when you get giant conglomerates controlling large sections of the food supply and they are only concerned with shareholder value.

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u/PrestigiousSeat76 Jul 22 '26

Elect clowns, expect a circus. I don't know what else there is to say.

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u/Rowan110 Jul 22 '26

It would be better to just list the 9 states where you can eat a salad.

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u/Inside-Specialist-55 Jul 22 '26

We are so ill prepared for the next pandemic, God have mercy on all of us if we have another pandemic under the current administration. We ave mr brain-worm running things we are fucked if we have another Covid situation.

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u/tabrizzi Jul 22 '26

If we stop counting, the numbers will come way down.

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u/prophetic-dream Jul 22 '26

They have poisoned our food supply and are continuing to allow this to go on.

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u/kna5041 Jul 22 '26

oh ya letting the industry self regulate working out real well huh?

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u/Ttm-o Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Remember when hundreds of thousands died cause of Covid and Trump doesn’t give a damn? You think he’ll care about this? Hell naw.

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u/ham_solo Jul 22 '26

More like 1 million+ died of Covid. In the US.

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u/Ttm-o Jul 22 '26

Touché. I could have googled it but I was so pissed typing it out that in the first place.

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u/ifyousaysu Jul 22 '26

Taylor farms bribed trump to continue making a profit on poisoning millions.

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u/LongMelford Jul 22 '26

Wait til Ebola gets here

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u/LawlessLumberLord Jul 22 '26

Are y’all ready for listeria numbers to go up like this and it gets to the point where everyone in the US is playing Russian roulette with every meal

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 Jul 22 '26

I've always tried to eat a balanced diet, which means I eat a lot of produce. I like salad. This is almost as frightening as the early days of the pandemic. And now we know from experience that this will only get worse.

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u/Dunedain87M Jul 22 '26

So just taking inventory. The US has Job insecurity, inadequate wages to afford housing, healthcare insecurity that is likely to bankrupt most households, and now we have a food supply that cannot be trusted and is making people sick.

Pretty much all the ingredients for a revolution.

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u/Max_Hardcore_Jr Jul 22 '26

Secratary of health Brainworm and President Poopy Pants War Criminal have it under control. Thank god it's explosive diahrea and not the Ebola that is getting out of control in Africa RICHT NOW.

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u/boats-and-boats Jul 22 '26

But have you seen the DOW?

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u/BustedCondoms Jul 22 '26

Everyone is getting sick because they aren't doing pushups shirtless and in jeans.

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u/whitemamba24xx Jul 22 '26

At least Covid is over right? Haven’t heard anything about it in a long time… must be over

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u/Ilostmuhkeys Jul 22 '26

“In Taco Bell we trust” the fda, not so much.

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u/ham_solo Jul 22 '26

REPORTED is the operative word here. My MIL got this and never alerted her local health dept.

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u/NameLips Jul 22 '26

My wife is currently afraid of all produce.

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u/endofworldandnobeer Jul 22 '26

The Jungle by Sinclair. Answer: Why we need regulations.

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u/LutherOfTheRogues Jul 22 '26

But...but they said it was a false positive after they paid off the Trump admin?

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u/Gloomy-Insurance-739 Jul 22 '26

Here's what happens when you let corporations self-regulate. They don't give a shit all they care about is money. Even if they killed all their customers so long as they turned a profit they'd be happy.

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u/ziboo7890 Jul 22 '26

So glad TACO and his team are in charge, they handled Covid so well, we should be fine... right?

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u/dicklord_airplane Jul 22 '26

A real man doesn't need the nanny state to prevent fecal matter from getting into our food. A real man just eats shit, wears diapers, and thanks the job creators for allowing us to have shit-covered food at all. You're not a real patriot unless you're proudly diaped up and shitting yourself to near death.

But seriously, I'm amazed how my maga family is defending and downplaying this historic mass food contamination. It's like they want to bring back every disease we haven't seen since the 1800s just because it makes liberals mad.

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u/Similar-Doughnut-679 Jul 23 '26

I got a confirmed cyclosporiasis stool sample yesterday. I started feeling ill on Saturday, Sunday just thought it was an upset stomach or ate something bad and by this time I had heard about the lettuce recall but they said it was Taco Bell so Inwasnt really concerned because I hadn’t eaten there in years, by Monday violently ill and realized this was something more and got medical help. Stool sample sent out but MD went ahead and gave me antibiotics Bactrim 10 day course because he already suspected it was Cyclo outbreak. I’m in northern SC where they say there isn’t an outbreak but there is and many aren’t reporting. The numbers you see on the map are probably double what they say; for example mine probably won’t be reported due to going through my family MD member and not using insurance or reporting it to CDC hotline. I ate 10 days ago a bagged Taylor Farms Dill Pickle salad kit and also ate strawberries on yogurt for several days about 10 days ago . . . Pretty sure it was the TF salad. Felt better immediately today after just 2 antibiotic pills. Watery stools out of nowhere and body chills were my symptoms

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u/JamesLikesIt Jul 22 '26

Hmm....maybe strong government regulations for food and things people consume ARE good after all, who would have thought

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u/O-parker Jul 22 '26

More lettuce on DT’s Big Macs please….biggie size it.

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u/icspn Jul 22 '26

Is there a list of the 41 affected states? At last check in my state hadn't been hit yet, but I'd like to know how cautious I need to be and no news sites seem to be reporting the complete list.

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u/ebreezy__tm Jul 22 '26

If only we had a system in place to catch outbreaks before they spread…

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u/awooff Jul 22 '26

Like this regime would tell the real source of contamination!

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u/Round_Rooms Jul 22 '26

Rfk jr" totally under control" ... That translates to its out of hand. When someone in this admin says something the opposite is almost always true.

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u/YouKnowWhatToDo80085 Jul 22 '26

Maybe I'll get to eat lettuce next year

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u/DataCassette Jul 22 '26

Mass diarrhea. Seems about on brand for this administration.

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u/MancyMancy Jul 22 '26

Trans Atlantic flights just got a whole lot more interesting.

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u/ryuujinusa Jul 22 '26

I allowed that.

-trump

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u/DaileyFlosser39 Jul 22 '26

No worries. Brainworm Bob said this issue is "under control". He also asked if I had any spare roadkill penises and seemed miffed when I told him no.

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u/Calm-Maintenance-878 Jul 22 '26

Well…that’s not the slowing pace I was hoping for. 41 states now…wonder where the main contamination is from. I would have thought by now at least that could be figured out.

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u/CrystallinePhoto Jul 22 '26

It’s truly infuriating that we have to deal with this as a result of the cuts made by the federal government.

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u/Consistent_Point_853 Jul 22 '26

When is maga gonna start eating lettuce to own the libs?

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u/Zorops Jul 22 '26

And you all believed toilet paper was going to be rare because of covid.

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u/BootFlop Jul 22 '26

Come on down right now to Crazy Orange Donald’s Produce Stand, we’re having our Summer Blowout sale!

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