Diarrhea in Every Pot and a Gun in Every Mailbox

Key Points:

• The United States is currently facing a widespread outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection causing severe diarrhea, with around 7,000 cases reported across 34 states, particularly impacting Michigan.
• The outbreak has been exacerbated by significant budget and staffing cuts to public health agencies like the CDC, USDA, and FDA during both the Trump and Biden administrations, weakening the government's ability to monitor and respond effectively.
• Climate change is contributing to the spread of the parasite by creating warmer and wetter conditions that facilitate contamination of produce through irrigation water.
• Concurrently, the Trump administration is deregulating gun laws, including proposals to allow guns to be shipped through the mail without in-person background checks, raising concerns about increased gun violence and conflicts of interest involving Trump Jr.'s ties to a gun sales company.
• These crises highlight broader systemic issues of declining state capacity in the U.S., driven by decades of deregulation and privatization, undermining the government's ability to provide essential public health and safety protections.