You had to know I couldn’t let this meme-filled national conversation about “diarrhea lettuce” pass by without a comment on this Substack. What in the health?! indeed.
(By the way, I’m Gen Z so this ^^ is the one that really had me falling out of my chair with laughter. I wish I knew who created it so I could give credit where it’s due. It’s already plastered all over the internet. You can get a t-shirt with this image on it already! If you know where it came from, please leave a comment and let me know.)
We shouldn’t laugh. Thousands of people have become terribly ill, more than 100 to the point of needing hospitalization. This kind of diarrhea isn’t just inconvenient, it can be life-threatening. And, well, there’s so much that feels terrible these days;
I think we can be forgiven for laughing about being forced to eat pizza instead of salad because pizza doesn’t put us as risk for diarrhea lettuce. I don’t know about you, but I’m Team Pizza for 2026 so far. Eating healthy is important, but so is comfort food.
By the time I got around to compiling my thoughts about how and why this diarrhea lettuce outbreak became possible, there were others who had done a brilliant job already writing about the complexities, so I decided there’s no need for me to re-invent the wheel.
My colleagues at Defend Public Health, Drs. Judy Stone and Tara Smith, have written great articles that help illustrate:
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How our big agribusiness structures and deplorable working conditions for migrant farm workers made this possible in the first place, and
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Why cuts to food safety monitoring programs, sentinel surveillance systems for Cyclospora (and other diseases), and CDC’s infrastructure for outbreak response since January 2025 made it so much harder to quickly identify the source of the outbreak and take the diarrhea lettuce out of service before so many got sick.
Please take a few moments to read Dr. Stone’s great article in Forbes:
It’s The Water, Not Produce, Likely Driving Cyclospora Outbreaks
And then read Dr. Smith’s related op-ed on MS NOW (from before we knew it was the Taylor Farms shredded lettuce):
Cyclospora cases are spreading. Why don’t we know more about it?
Thanks to these public health defenders, and everyone else advocating for continued food safety, worker safety, and data tracking and reporting systems, even when they’re unpopular to big corporations hoping to fly under the radar with their money-saving tactics (and the politicians who enjoy their donations).
Stay safe out there.