<em>E. coli</em> Outbreaks Are Ravaging America. The Trump Administration Doesn't Give a Damn.

Just last Friday, we noted how, under the leadership of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with the assistance of the departed Elon Musk, the Department of Health and Human Services had pretty much abandoned health while declining to serve many humans. Specifically, we mentioned that the department pretty much had abandoned the job of informing the general public about ongoing infectious disease outbreaks.

From NPR, we learned that was the case with listeria and various strains of hepatitis. Over the weekend, the Washington Post went long on another, deadlier, one, with which HHS again decided not to bother the public at large.

The E. coli bacteria that ravaged [nine-year-old Colton George]’s kidneys was a genetic match to the strain that killed one person and sickened nearly 90 people in 15 states last fall. Federal health agencies investigated the cases and linked them to a farm that grew romaine lettuce.

But most people have never heard about this outbreak, which a Feb. 11 internal Food and Drug Administration memo linked to a single lettuce processor and ranch as the source of the contamination. In what many experts said was a break with common practice, officials never issued public communications after the investigation or identified the grower who produced the lettuce.

E. coli is a bacteriological bomb. In the years 1992 and 1993, an outbreak killed four people and infected more than 500 more. The outbreak was traced to hamburgers served at Jack in the Box restaurants. The company projected between $20 and $30 million of losses over the course of those two years. This administration, of course, doesn’t give a damn.

The investigation into the illnesses began near the end of the Biden administration but work on the lettuce outbreak wasn’t completed until Feb. 11. At that time, the decision was made by the Trump administration not to release the names of the grower and processor because the FDA said no product remained on the market.

The administration also has withdrawn a proposed regulation to reduce the presence of salmonella in raw poultry, according to an April USDA alert. It was projected to save more than $13 million annually by preventing more than 3,000 illnesses, according to the proposal.

The administration is disbanding a Justice Department unit that pursues civil and criminal actions against companies that sell contaminated food and is reassigning its attorneys. Some work will be assumed by other divisions, according to a publicly posted memo from the head of the department’s criminal division and a white paper by the law firm Gibson Dunn.

Then, there is the now-standard bailout argument—let the states do it. How do the states pay for it? Not our problem, says the national government, which is occupied at the moment refitting surplus Qatari jumbo jets.

Federal regulators also want states to conduct more inspections, according to two former FDA officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. But some Democratic lawmakers say states lack the resources to take over most food safety inspection. “Handing that duty to state and local agencies is really troubling,” said Rep. Shontel M. Brown (D-Ohio). “They don’t have the resources, and it creates a potentially unsafe situation that puts families in Ohio and America at risk.”

This administration doesn’t do anything, in any context, that doesn’t put America at risk, somehow.