The nation is outraged to learn that, after a meeting with Trump officials and a donation of a million dollars, the FDA reversed its positive test result for cyclospora and apologized to Taylor Farms. Given the Trump administration’s track record, most people are apt to jump to the conclusion that Taylor Farms bribed Trump a million dollars to have its positive test result expunged.
However, this outrage broke out only AFTER the cyclospora scare was traced to Taylor Farms. There appears to be a pattern of corruption here. The Trump administration either abolishes the agencies responsible for regulating the products, or else a specific company bribes Trump to allow them to produce dangerous goods. Then, once an outbreak of a disease occurs, only then is there outrage.
Another example of this is the screwworm infestation that has infected herds of American cattle. Trump cut back the agency that monitors the screwworm fly, so that the parasite was able to spread undetected. Only later was its damage noticed and the public was outraged.
Screwworm: left unmonitored, it entered the US and started killing cattle.
And how about medicines? Would you feel comfortable taking a medicine that has not been tested or checked? Or one from a company whose CEO has contributed a million dollars to Trump? I think not.
There are dozens of similar examples, but the media always report them in isolation, although there is a pattern to these examples of corruption.
My question, then, is: how many hundreds or thousands of other products has Trump allowed to go un-inspected, and how many other toxins or damaging parasites or bacteria has Trump allowed to spread throughout the United States? It is only after an outbreak of some deadly disease that the damage can be traced either to Trump’s cuts to regulation, or to outright bribes to falsify data. By then, it may be too late, as thousands of people (or cattle or other living creatures) have been infected.
The American public is so narrowly focused on Taylor Farms, that they have lost track of the thousands of other dangerous products that Trump has allowed to circulate.
I live outside the States. I will not be buying any American products any time soon. I cannot be sure they are safe.