RFK Jr. says cyclosporiasis outbreak is ‘under control’ as Mexico casts doubt on link to Taylor Farms facility

Health newsRFK Jr. says cyclosporiasis outbreak is ‘under control’ as Mexico casts doubt on link to Taylor Farms facilityMexico said its own investigation hasn’t found evidence linking the outbreak to the Taylor Farms facility in central Mexico.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00U.S. health officials have linked the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms in central Mexico.Kilito Chan / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 21, 2026, 5:58 PM EDTBy Aria BendixHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the cyclosporiasis outbreak was “under control” even as health authorities continue to search for answers about why thousands of people in the U.S. have gotten sick. Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The Food and Drug Administration has linked the outbreak, which mainly causes severe diarrhea, to shredded iceberg lettuce from a Taylor Farms facility in central Mexico. But Mexico’s health secretary, David Kershenobich, said Tuesday at a news conference that the country’s own investigation had not found evidence that the outbreak originated there.The parasite in question, cyclospora, is notoriously difficult to trace — scientists must use highly sensitive tests to detect it in food. People can also get sick weeks after having eaten contaminated products, so by the time health officials become aware of an outbreak, all of a product worth testing may have been eaten or discarded. Scientists rely heavily on information about who developed symptoms and what they ate to trace an outbreak to its source. A positive test result is not necessarily needed to determine the culprit.“We have done extensive forensics, epidemiological forensics, and we’ve identified the source of the outbreak,” Kennedy said Tuesday. FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas was less definitive in his description of the outbreak, telling Fox News on Tuesday that the data “strongly supports” Taylor Farms...