A former food safety commissioner in President Donald Trump’s first administration has demanded an independent review of the federal government’s disturbing response to an outbreak of cyclosporiasis that has sickened thousands of people.
“It’s starting to approach a catastrophic level in terms of how mismanaged it’s been on multiple fronts,” Frank Yiannas, who was also a deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration during President Joe Biden’s administration, told Politico.
He blasted the lack of “strong federal leadership” in the current crisis, and mounting consumer confusion amid mixed messages from officials.
Cyclosporiasis is a parasitic illness that causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms, including watery diarrhea, severe stomach cramps, and extreme fatigue. It is often linked to poor sanitation.
The FDA revealed earlier this month that it had traced the rapidly spreading outbreak of cyclosporiasis to contaminated Taylor Farms lettuce that had ended up in some Taco Bell outlets.
Taylor Farms initiated a voluntary recall of its lettuce, but then insisted that the FDA later “apologized” to the company after it claimed the contamination had been linked to a single “false positive” test result.
The FDA denied apologizing to Taylor Farms, and officials insisted that its lettuce was still strongly suspected in the spread of cyclosporiasis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 4,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., and is investigating an additional 7,400 across at least nine states.
Taylor Farms donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supported Donald Trump, in March 2025. Company officials also reportedly visited the White House during the clash with the FDA, raising concern among consumers that the federal government’s information couldn’t be trusted.
Yiannas said the FDA must be transparent about its process, and explain to skeptical consumers how its investigation appeared to be derailed by a single false positive result, which he called “extremely rare.”
“They went too fast and they made a mistake,” he speculated. “They should share more about how and why it happened, and what they’ll do to prevent it in the future.”
The cyclosporiasis outbreak is the latest crisis for a federal health department headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump appointee who is not known for his support of traditional medicine.
Georgia senator and rising Democratic star Jon Ossoff has angrily blamed Kennedy’s beliefs and funding cuts for leaving Americans vulnerable to cyclosporiasis and other illnesses.
“Your foolish and self-indulgent demolition of critical public health programs puts Americans at risk,” Ossoff said in a blistering letter to Kennedy.
Kennedy has also railed against the measles vaccine. So many Americans now refuse to vaccinate their children against the potentially deadly disease that the number of reported measles cases this year hit a 35-year record high of 2,300.
Some parents are now also increasingly opting not to have their newborns injected with Vitamin K after birth to prevent bleeding, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.
