Umm. who a gave a shit??
13 of the people who became sick in the U.S. were hospitalized.
At least 13 people did! Though it is a pointless article without any more information or at the very least linking to the CDC’s far more detailed information page with a map of outbreak areas and this piece of highly relevant information:
CDC is advising that consumers do not eat any romaine lettuce because no common grower, supplier, distributor, or brand of romaine lettuce has been identified.
Is this a resumption of the same outbreak from last winter? IIRC, that outbreak was declared over because romaine production shifted to CA from AZ as spring progressed. If we’re back to winter romaine fields again and new cases are being reported again, that’s potentially a huge deal. But none of that context is in this article
You realize that a quite common source of the E. Coli are migrant workers all but forced to defecate in the fields during the harvest…
The Jungle for a new age. You’d think that if simple human decency wasn’t sufficient to mandate paid sick leave for everyone and sanitary latrines for agricultural workers, the desire not to spend a holiday weekend puking your guts out might.
Sadly our collective desire to kick others when they’re down outweighs even cold-bloded self-interest.
edit: I believe that e coli contamination is so wide-spread on cattle ranches now that wild animals often spread it from feedlots to vegetable farms. The Salinas spinach outbreak in 2006 (?) was ultimately blamed on wild pigs. Farmworkers still deserve bathrooms though.
Informative article
Did the CDC Really Just Ban … Romaine Lettuce?
For laughs about a serious matter
Lettuce review the memes prompted by the CDC’s dire romaine warning