Rising Democratic star Jon Ossoff has eviscerated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his funding cuts, saying the health secretary left Americans vulnerable to the fast-spreading “explosive diarrhea” parasite.
In a scathing letter, the Georgia senator, 39, accused Kennedy, 72, of a “foolish and self-indulgent demolition” of the CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, which had tracked the diarrhea-causing Cyclospora parasite until its surveillance was reduced from eight to just two pathogens in July 2025.
“And now a cyclosporiasis outbreak sweeps the nation,” Ossoff told Kennedy. “Your foolish and self-indulgent demolition of critical public health programs puts Americans at risk.”
While the U.S. typically sees about 250 cases of cyclosporiasis a year, more than 7,000 confirmed and suspected cases have been reported nationwide since May 1, according to Today. The parasite can cause watery, explosive diarrhea, as well as nausea, cramps, bloating, and low-grade fever.
The disease has caused no reported deaths but resulted in the hospitalization of almost 100 people.
“Americans are suffering from severe diarrhea and painful complications,” Ossoff wrote in his Thursday letter, accusing the Trump administration of “actively undermining food safety.”
“Across the country, parents feel increasingly uncertain about how, and whether they can, shop safely for their families. This is unacceptable,” he added.
Ossoff demanded to know whether the pathogen surveillance network had been restored and why Cyclospora was removed from tracking in the first place. He also inquired about the status of investigations determining the source and scope of the outbreak, demanding that Kennedy answer his questions within 72 hours.
More than four days later, Kennedy has yet to respond to Ossoff’s letter, the Daily Beast has learned.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Kennedy, an anti-vax conspiracy theorist, moved quickly to slash federal health funding after President Donald Trump made him the nation’s top health official with help from congressional Republicans last year.
When the CDC quietly scaled back its pathogen surveillance last July, food safety experts warned that the move could leave the country less prepared to detect outbreaks.
“A lot of the work that I and many, many, many, many other people have put into improving food safety over the past 20 or 30 years is just going away,” Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University, told NBC News at the time.
Federal health officials’ search for the source of the parasite took an embarrassing turn this weekend, when the Food and Drug Administration initially said Saturday that cyclosporiasis cases had been traced back to a bad batch of iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, which supplies food to Taco Bell, only to reverse its position on Sunday.
The FDA announced that it had reviewed the initial analysis and found it was a false positive, though the agency’s officials said Monday that they remain focused on lettuce from Taylor Farms.
