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As the diarrhea-causing cyclospora parasite continues to spread through the U.S., now having sickened an estimated 11,500 Americans in at least nine states since May, it is becoming increasingly clear that the situation has been massively worsened by the actions of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) over the past 18 months.

CNN reported last week that cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have created a “perfect storm” in which the outbreak could go from a minor inconvenience to a national public health crisis within a matter of weeks. DOGE cut eight of the 11 jobs at the CDC lab specializing in cyclospora. Meanwhile, the rapid dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which shared facilities and personnel with the State Department and CDC, also led to the loss of many of the experts and labs dealing with exotic diseases stateside, such as cyclospora. Take down USAID — an act that DOGE marketed as being about snuffing out supposedly bloated foreign aid programs — and there’s a guaranteed impact on the CDC and on the health of Americans stateside.

Add in additional cuts to a range of CDC offices, and the result is a disaster in the making.

Dan Jernigan, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told Truthout that the CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria lost much of its funding, as did the CDC’s office for neglected tropical diseases. While those offices didn’t directly fund cyclospora research, many of their scientists had specialty knowledge of parasites such as the one that causes cyclospora — and could be called on to share that knowledge during an outbreak.

DOGE cut eight of the 11 jobs at the CDC lab specializing in cyclospora.

DOGE cut eight of the 11 jobs at the CDC lab specializing in cyclospora.

The Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria has “taken a hit because of DOGE[’s] USAID cuts and the hiring freeze [for the CDC],” notes Jernigan. “Because of that, there were fewer people to respond to the cyclospora outbreak when it was first detected.”

Taken as a whole, the result of the assault on USAID and on the CDC is that under-resourced, under-staffed labs are struggling to test all the samples that need to be tested for cyclospora to stop the spread of the parasite and to work out its origins — for while the largest outbreak has been traced to iceberg lettuce from a facility in central Mexico run by produce giant Taylor Farms, multiple cyclospora investigations are also underway for other outbreaks........

© Truthout