CBS报道称FDA人员削减使环孢子虫生菜疫情应对复杂化
要点速览
- •CBS News报道称，FDA认为来自墨西哥的受污染冰山生菜导致了本季规模最大的环孢子虫疫情，影响九个州。
- •此次疫情已造成至少11,000例环孢子虫病病例，这是一种与受污染食物或水有关的肠道疾病。
- •报道称，FDA人员已减少约20 percent，而CDC人员已削减约25 percent。
- •FoodNet目前追踪的危险微生物从八种降至两种，环孢子虫不在当前追踪清单中。
- •Robert F. Kennedy Jr.表示监测项目并未被削减，而FDA前官员Susan Mayne表示削减显然已经发生。
总统Donald Trump对Food and Drug Administration的管理因一系列问题受到审视，包括大规模裁员，以及他向右翼播客Joe Rogan承诺将某些迷幻药合法化。近期一篇CBS News报道称，一场与生菜有关的重大环孢子虫疫情已造成至少11,000例爆发性腹泻病例，凸显出外界对该机构食品安全运作的更广泛担忧。
环孢子虫是一种微小寄生虫，可引发环孢子虫病，这是一种通常与受污染食物或水有关的肠道疾病。联邦食品安全调查通常依赖FDA、CDC、USDA以及州级机构之间的协调，以识别受污染产品、追踪供应链，并向消费者或企业发出警示。
“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,” CBS News的David Pogue周日报道称。“That lettuce was shipped nationwide by Taylor Farms, a huge distributor that supplies thousands of groceries and restaurants.”
Susan Mayne是Yale School of Public Health的兼职教授，曾在2015年至2023年领导FDA食品安全部门。她告诉CBS News，此次疫情规模不同寻常。
“We've never seen anything like this. This is just an astonishingly large outbreak, record-setting outbreak,” Mayne说。
她表示，污染可能源于卫生设施或用水安全方面的失误。“It could be inadequate bathroom facilities, inadequate hand-washing facilities. Somehow that water is getting contaminated from some other source – sewage, some other source,” Mayne说。
据CBS News报道，Trump已将FDA人员削减约20 percent，并将Centers for Disease Control and Prevention的人员削减约25 percent。报道称，CDC目前只有三名科学家负责追踪食品寄生虫，而此前有11名科学家从事这项工作。
Mayne还指出，咨询机制和跨境食品安全协调机制已经流失。“We had a national advisory committee, a committee that advised FDA and USDA on how to prevent microbial contamination in food,”她说。“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.”
这些协调渠道对新鲜农产品尤其重要，因为此类产品在抵达餐馆和杂货店之前，往往会经过复杂的地区和国际供应链。当疫情涉及生菜等易腐产品时，溯源延误可能使调查人员更难在产品被食用或丢弃前确定污染发生地点。
CBS News还报道称，FoodNet是FDA、CDC和U.S. Department of Agriculture的联合项目，过去曾作为早期预警监测系统，追踪八种特别危险的微生物。“But now, it tracks only two – and cyclospora is not one of them,”报道说。
报道称，因此，如果环孢子虫在2027年袭击美国，FDA在行政部门或国会采取行动之前，仍将无法追踪其来源。
卫生与公众服务部部长Robert F. Kennedy Jr.在一份声明中对监测削减的说法提出异议。“We've had no cuts in our surveillance program,” Kennedy说。“We did cuts in the FoodNet program, but they were for redundant surveillance.”
Mayne在接受CBS News评论时否定了这一解释。“No, it's not accurate. I mean, clearly there have been cuts,”她说。