www.montereycountynow.com JULY 23-29, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 Like other parasites, the protozoa Cyclospora cayetanensis has a mission to find a host, replicate then find new hosts. Cyclospora’s host is the human. Infection results in the nasty disease that can lead to days on the toilet and generally feeling like dirt. But one thing we have learned in the past week, while thousands of Americans are sick, is that we know remarkably little about cyclospora. It is seasonal, with summer spikes. Cooking kills it, making raw fruits and vegetables prime suspects. It appears to need some amount of time outside its host to become infectious. But it only grows inside a human, making it impossible for scientists to culture it and experiment on loads of it, part of the difficulty in advancing research. “There’s an awful lot we don’t know,” Jennifer McEntire, a microbiologist and founder of the firm Food Safety Strategy, LLC, based in the Washington, D.C. area, said on July 20. McEntire spoke on a video call hosted by California’s Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, an industry coalition that developed food safety protocols in the wake of the 2006 e. Coli outbreak in spinach that sickened 204 people and killed three. Somewhere in the supply chain, something failed and thousands of Americans are now sick with cyclosporiasis, with the Michigan Department of Public Health reporting 6,571 confirmed cases as of July 21, including 102 hospitalizations. “This is not one person who didn’t wash their hands. This is something much bigger,” according to McEntire. How big remains unknown, weeks into a widespread outbreak. Instead of clarity, there’s finger-pointing and confusion. Health officials interview patients trying to find common threads of what they ate; in this case, Taco Bell. Then comes tracing Taco Bell’s ingredients. On July 17, Salinas-based Taylor Farms announced that “based on information provided yesterday by the FDA, Taylor Farms de Mexico is voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico.” Two days later, on Sunday, July 19, Taylor Farms posted a new statement: “Today, FDA apologized to us,” the company wrote. (The Weekly has been unable to verify whether that actually happened, and has been unable to reach anyone at Taylor or the FDA for an interview.) “FDA informed Taylor Fresh Foods that one of its iceberg lettuce products from central Mexico tested positive for cyclospora. Today, we were informed that FDA made a mistake, and this was a false positive.” If a microbiologist like McEntire is needed to interpret these messages, the communicators at FDA and Taylor Farms are all failing. Cyclospora is notoriously hard to test for and false positives are common, McEntire notes. Meanwhile, in the information vacuum, people connect dots between facts. Yes, the company last year gave $1 million to the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. and another $1 million to the right-wing Congressional Leadership Fund. Cue the conspiracy theories all over the internet—was FDA capitulating to a perceived Trump ally? Unlikely. Besides the thousands of sick Americans, the true tragedy here is eroding trust in science. Since the first cyclospora outbreak in the 1990s, relatively little is known. One of the few institutions doing research, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is facing cuts—a USDA lab where three parasitologists are studying improved testing is scheduled to close down, McEntire says. (Her own company lists just two “diamond level” contributors that have given $1 million or more—Western Growers Association and Taylor Farms.) Taylor Farms does not benefit from thousands of sick Americans who are scared to eat salad, and none of us benefit from weak science. Too bad Taylor has thrown its political weight behind an agenda invested in gutting institutions that can safeguard its products and, more importantly, our health. Meanwhile, nobody is talking to consumers directly about what’s safe. McEntire says unless you are in Michigan, it’s probably business as usual: Eat your salad. She also worries that as patients recover, interest will wane. “Consumers should be pressing their elected officials to make sure attention continues to be paid to this,” she says, “and it doesn’t just fade as something else takes over.” Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Reading the Lettuce Leaves Bad information leads to conspiracy theories around cyclospora outbreak. By Sara Rubin LOOK AWAY…With high-definition, camera-quality vision, Squid sees everything: the plankton, the drifters and swimmers. But something else recently caught Squid’s eye: a Facebook post by Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church. Squid learned he too, has excellent vision, but perhaps it is more of a curse than a blessing. “Many of you are probably as irritated as I am with the unsightly white poles with the orange tops that have popped up on North County roads,” Church wrote on July 13. The poles mark fiber-optic lines that are part of the state’s Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative, a $3.25 billion project launched in 2021 that aims to build a 10,000-mile, open-access public network acting as a digital highway, helping internet service providers connect underserved regions. Church said his office has been fielding many complaints about the poles, which he described as “distinctly non-rural.” (No word on whether constituents also complain about lack of reliable internet.) There are 151 miles of these lines being installed throughout Monterey County, leading Church to ask Public Works officials if the markers could be changed or removed. Although counties and cities have little influence, Church says he’ll keep pushing to limit the poles. Squid expects to see more complaints about them get posted on social media once everyone gets online. PARADISE LOST…That Carmelites feel overwhelmed by tourists is nothing new, but a recent poll Squid came across shows that there are locations that are a lot crankier. Out of 150 towns listed in a seasonal tourism study, “Pressure in Paradise,” commissioned by AMFM, a mental health treatment company, Carmel doesn’t crack the top 10, coming in at #18. Charleston, South Carolina is #1, followed by Destin, Florida and Hanalei, Hawaii. Carmel places ahead of South Lake Tahoe (#29) and Solvang (#59), the only three California cities on the entire list. More than 6 in 10 residents overall said “they feel crowded out of their own town at least sometimes during peak season, while 46 percent said they have felt burned out by living somewhere other people visit for vacation,” according to the study. Researchers found that traffic congestion was the biggest tourism-related pressure. Driving badly or ignoring local road rules was one of the most annoying visitor behaviors, followed by leaving trash behind and visitors acting as if the town is only for them. (Squid gets it—when the sardines swim through in big schools, Squid just blends in.) Squid searched for solutions offered by the study, but found none. The clue might be in the company that commissioned the study, with over a dozen mental health treatment centers in California—there’s always therapy. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. The true tragedy here is eroding trust in science. 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