Tag: cyclospora

New CDC Director promises to protect vaccines and support the agency’s “exhausted” scientists

Volume 408 Issue 10557
29 August 2026
WORLD REPORT  Erica Schwartz has sought to reassure staff working at the embattled agency. Washington Correspondent Susan Jaffe reports.
A week after Erica Schwartz took the helm at the beleaguered US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Aug 12, she convened an all-staff meeting. Schwartz fielded questions from staff and pledged to advocate for the agency, which has been gutted through the loss of thousands of workers and steep funding cuts. She assured staff that she would not hesitate to disagree with her boss, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, who has presided over the reorganisation.
…Schwartz told CDC staff that she has met several times with Kennedy since being appointed. She felt comfortable working with him and “will continue to speak truth to power”, according to a recording of the hour-long session provided to The Lancet. “I will make sure that my disagreements are known”, she said, but “probably in private, not in front of the media”. [Continued here.]  
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Cyclospora in the USA: why is it so hard to stop?

Volume 407, Issue 10553
01 August 2026
WORLD REPORT  The epidemiological challenges of the parasite have been compounded by recent cutbacks at US health agencies. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington DC. 

“Make America Healthy Again” is more than a slogan for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has pledged to make Americans’ food supply safe and improve their nutrition. However, the recordbreaking outbreaks of cyclosporiasis across the USA are proving how difficult it is to keep those promises, especially after the agencies responsible for protecting health have been depleted by staff reductions and funding cuts. [Continued here.]

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