2026年7月26日 / 美国东部时间上午9:32 / 哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）新闻
作者
大卫·波格 特约通讯员，《CBS星期日早间新闻》
大卫·波格曾六次因《CBS星期日早间新闻》的报道获得艾美奖，自2002年起担任该节目特约通讯员。他还主持CBS新闻播客《无名科学》，是《纽约时报》畅销书作家、五次TED演讲嘉宾，并主持过20部PBS的《新星》科学特辑。他曾连续13年为《纽约时报》撰写每周科技专栏，另有10年为《科学美国人》撰写每月专栏。
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一种微小的微生物让大量美国民众患病，而且病情十分严重。问问杰西卡·马拉德就知道了。“我当时浑身不适，胃痛得难以忍受，”她说。
这种寄生虫名为环孢子虫，它会引发（恕我直言）使人虚弱不堪的暴发性腹泻，症状可能持续数周。自5月以来，全美41个州已报告超过1.1万例此类痛苦病例。
“我至今仍感疲惫，”马拉德说，“真的，我浑身酸软无力。”
美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）认为，本季规模最大的本次疫情——目前已波及9个州——源头是受污染的墨西哥进口冰山生菜。这批生菜由大型分销商泰勒农场发往全美各地，为数千家杂货店和餐厅供货。
“我们从未见过这样的情况，”耶鲁大学公共卫生学院兼职教授苏珊·梅恩说道，她于2015年至2023年期间执掌FDA食品安全部门。“这场疫情规模大得惊人，创下了纪录。”
环孢子虫来自人类粪便。它是如何沾到生菜上的？“可能是因为卫生间设施不足、洗手设施不到位，”梅恩说，“不知何故水源被其他来源污染了——比如污水或其他污染源。”
近半数食源性疾病都源自果蔬，部分原因是我们通常不会在食用前对其进行烹煮。这类疫情还会给农户、供应商和餐厅带来毁灭性的经济损失。
因此，在2006年菠菜受污染事件后，FDA曾发出禁食菠菜的警告，全美几乎所有菠菜种植户都受到了影响。西海岸农业行业随即决定实施自律监管。
由此诞生了《绿叶蔬菜营销协议》（LGMA）——由种植户组成的联盟，同意采用比政府标准更为严格的食品安全规程。“他们自愿加入，但一旦加入就必须遵守我们的规则，”LGMA首席执行官蒂姆·约克说道。
杰克·维西是南加州第四代果蔬种植户，他表示：“我们别无选择。任何疫情爆发都会对我们的行业造成损害。”
维西的农场严格遵守LGMA的规则，包括对灌溉用水进行消毒；在水源地和喷洒端分别进行检测；要求佩戴发网和手套；对刀具进行消毒；每年至少接受三次州政府检查；以及使用条形码对农产品进行溯源，追踪至最初种植地块。
但即便采取了所有这些预防措施，疫情仍有可能发生。“疫情仍可能爆发，因为我们的作物是在户外种植的，”约克说，“有些细菌本就自然存在于环境中。它们就那样存在着。我们只能尽可能地管控生态系统。”
最终，所有关于食品安全的讨论都会绕回政府层面。苏珊·梅恩承认，食品安全预算数十年来一直资金不足。
但在特朗普总统的第二任期内，FDA的员工人数减少了约20%；美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）的员工减少了25%。CDC原本有11名科学家负责追踪食源性寄生虫，如今只剩3人。
“我们曾有一个国家咨询委员会，为FDA和美国农业部提供建议，指导如何防范食品中的微生物污染，”梅恩说，“这个咨询委员会被解散了。我们过去常与墨西哥同行召开会议，探讨如何携手提升食品安全水平，整个团队都被裁撤了。”
还有食源性疾病主动监测网络（FoodNet），这是FDA、CDC和美国农业部的联合项目，曾是一个早期预警监测系统，能够追踪8种特别致命的微生物。但如今，该网络仅能追踪其中2种——而环孢子虫并不在其中。
2011年，美国国会通过了一项食品安全法案，其中包含一项溯源规则。该规则要求所有食品相关企业必须为易受污染的原料保留详细的供应链记录，从田间地头一直追踪到商店货架。这项规则本应在今年生效。“我可以告诉你，从生菜溯源的经验来看，这项规则原本会发挥极大的作用，”梅恩说。
但该规则被推迟至2028年才会实施。
那么，如果明年再爆发环孢子虫疫情，我们仍然无法进行溯源吗？“没错，”梅恩回答道，“除非国会或其他方面在这期间采取干预措施。”
本周，美国卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪在接受记者采访时表示，针对本届政府食品安全项目的批评“毫无根据”。
“我们的监测项目没有任何削减，”肯尼迪说，“我们确实对FoodNet项目进行了调整，但那是为了减少重复监测。”
但梅恩反驳道：“不，这种说法并不准确。很明显，确实存在削减。”
那么就目前而言，她给消费者的建议是什么？“我会避免购买袋装沙拉，”梅恩说，“原因是只要有一点点污染，就能通过袋装沙拉大范围扩散。”
这位前食品安全部门负责人表示，今夏的疫情不仅仅是又一则头条新闻。“这是一次全国性的警钟，”梅恩说，“我们希望纳税人的钱能被用于保护公众健康，保障民众的健康。我希望人们能清晰地传递这一信息，因为我还没有遇到过任何两党人士希望看到不安全的食品摆上我们的餐桌。”
- CBS新闻民调：环孢子虫疫情促使许多人改变饮食习惯；对FDA的信心存在分歧且党派分化
更多相关信息：
- 苏珊·梅恩博士，耶鲁大学公共卫生学院流行病学兼职教授
- 加利福尼亚州《绿叶蔬菜营销协议》
- 维西公司，加利福尼亚州霍尔特维尔
本文由元宇宇制作。编辑：詹妮弗·福克。
How Trump admin cuts have compromised food safety
July 26, 2026 / 9:32 AM EDT / CBS News
By
David Pogue Correspondent, “CBS Sunday Morning”
David Pogue is a six-time Emmy winner for his stories on “CBS Sunday Morning,” where he’s been a correspondent since 2002. Pogue hosts the CBS News podcast “Unsung Science.” He’s also a New York Times bestselling author, a five-time TED speaker, and host of 20 NOVA science specials on PBS. For 13 years, he wrote a New York Times tech column every week – and for 10 years, a Scientific American column every month.
Read Full Bio
A tiny microbe has been making a lot of Americans sick. Really sick. Just ask Jessica Mallard. “I wasn’t feeling well. The pain in my stomach was, like, unbearable,” she said.
The parasite is called cyclospora, It gives you (and I’m sorry to have to say this) debilitating, explosive diarrhea that can last for weeks. Since May, more than 11,000 cases of this miserable illness have been reported in 41 states.
“I’m still fatigued,” said Mallard. “Like, I’m really, really weak.”
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite, cyclospora. CDC
The FDA believes that the biggest outbreak this season, the one affecting nine states so far, came to us aboard contaminated iceberg lettuce from Mexico. That lettuce was shipped nationwide by Taylor Farms, a huge distributor that supplies thousands of groceries and restaurants.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Susan Mayne, an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Public Health, who ran the food-safety department of the Food and Drug Administration from 2015 to 2023. “This is just an astonishingly large outbreak, record-setting outbreak.”
Cyclospora comes from human feces. How could that get on the lettuce? “It could be inadequate bathroom facilities, inadequate hand-washing facilities,” said Mayne. “Somehow that water is getting contaminated from some other source – sewage, some other source.”
Almost half of all food-borne illnesses comes from fruits and vegetables, in part because we usually don’t cook them before eating. These outbreaks are also financially devastating – to farmers, suppliers, and restaurants.
And so, after a 2006 spinach contamination, when the FDA warned against eating spinach, nearly every grower of spinach in the country was affected. The West Coast farming industry resolved to self-regulate.
And so, the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) was born – a coalition of farmers who have agreed to adopt food-safety protocols more stringent than the government’s. “They join voluntarily, but once they join, they must follow our rules,” said LGMA’s CEO Tim York.
Jack Vessey, a fourth-generation produce farmer in southern California, said, “We have to do it. Any kind of outbreak is detrimental to our industry.”
Vessey’s operation abides by the LGMA rules, which require sanitizing the irrigation water; testing it at the source and at the spraying end; hair nets and gloves; knife disinfectant; state inspections at least three times a year; and barcodes for tracing produce back to their original fields.
Farms participating in the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement operate under food-safety rules that are more stringent than the government’s. CBS News
But despite all of these precautions, outbreaks can still happen. “Outbreaks may occur because we are growing product outdoors,” said York. “Some bacteria just occur naturally within an environment. They just exist. And so, we control as much of the ecosystem as we can.”
Eventually, every discussion of food safety rolls around to the government. Susan Mayne acknowledged that food safety budgets have been under-resourced for decades.
But during President Trump’s second term, the FDA has lost about 20 percent of its staff; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is down 25%. The CDC used to have 11 scientists tracking food parasites; now it’s three.
“We had a national advisory committee, a committee that advised FDA and USDA on how to prevent microbial contamination in food,” said Mayne. “That advisory committee was disbanded. We used to convene meetings with our Mexican counterparts on how we can work together to improve food safety. That entire team was let go.”
- New disease threats follow Trump administration’s health program cuts
And then there’s FoodNet, a joint venture of the FDA, the CDC, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that provided an early-warning surveillance program that used to track eight particularly nasty microbes. But now, it tracks only two – and cyclospora is not one of them.
For three decades, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), a collaboration among the CDC, FDA, USDA, and 10 state health departments, conducted surveillance for eight pathogens (including cyclospora). Since July 1, 2025, reporting on pathogens other than salmonella and e-coli has been made optional. CBS News
In 2011, Congress passed a food-safety bill that included a Traceability Rule. It said that any food-related company must keep detailed supply-chain records for vulnerable ingredients, all the way from the fields to the store. It was supposed to take effect this year. “I can tell you, having seen lettuce tracebacks, that would’ve been incredibly helpful,” said Mayne.
But the rule has been delayed until 2028.
So, if there is a cyclospora outbreak next year, we still won’t be able to trace it? “That’s correct,” replied Mayne. “Unless Congress or somebody else intervenes in the interim.”
This past week, Health and Human Services director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters that criticisms of the administration’s food safety programs were “invalid.”
“We’ve had no cuts in our surveillance program,” Kennedy said. “We did cuts in the FoodNet program, but they were for redundant surveillance.”
But Mayne says, “No, it’s not accurate. I mean, clearly there have been cuts.”
So, for now, what would be her advice for consumers? “I would avoid the bagged salads,” Mayne said. “And the reason is that a little bit of contamination can be spread more broadly through bagged salads.”
The former head of food safety says that this summer’s outbreaks are more than just another headline. “This is a national wake-up call,” Mayne said. “We want our dollars to be spent protecting public health, and protecting health. And so, I hope people will make that message clear, ’cause I haven’t talked to a single person from either party that wants to see unsafe food on our tables.”
- CBS News Poll: Cyclospora outbreak has many changing eating habits; mixed and partisan confidence in FDA
For more info:
- Susan Mayne, Ph.D., professor adjunct of epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health
- California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement
- Vessey & Co., Holtville, Calif.
Story produced by Wonbo Woo. Editor: Jennifer Falk.