4 Months After Shitstain Cut Listeria Monitoring, At Least 6 Die, 25+ Hospitalized (From Precooked Pasta) [View all]

A listeria outbreak tied to prepared food products has caused at least six deaths and more than 25 hospitalizations. The outbreak is occurring roughly four months after the Trump administration halted a program that monitored the food supply for problems like listeria. The Listeria monocytogenes contamination has been linked to precooked pasta supplied by Nate’s Fine Foods Inc. to supermarket chains like Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and Sprouts, which then used the pasta in prepared foods. Consumption of contaminated food can cause listeriosis, an infection that can lead to vomiting, fever, headache, and diarrhea, and can be deadly for children, pregnant women, people over 65, and others with compromised immune systems.

Despite the danger a listeria outbreak can pose to the public, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July significantly scaled back the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, which monitors for foodborne illnesses. As of July 1, FoodNet stopped monitoring for listeria as well as campylobacter, Yersinia, cyclospora, shigella, or vibrio, according to NBC News. Only two pathogens continue to be monitored—salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli.

At the time, the CDC claimed in a memo that a lack of funding was the issue for the cutbacks. Rather than scale up funding for FoodNet, the Trump administration has since increased money for deportation operations and other priorities. When the cutbacks were uncovered, experts sounded the alarm. Elaine Scallan Walter, a professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, told The New York Times, “We’re really gutting one of the cornerstones of food safety.”

The CDC falls under the purview of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In September, a coalition of 22 food-safety groups called on Trump to fire Kennedy, citing his promotion of anti-science beliefs and policies throughout the agency.

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