The U.S. government shutdown is, according to NPR, pushing the nation’s food safety system to its limits.
There is normally a team of eight people overseeing Pulsenet, the critical foodborne illness tracking database. Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Frieden said post-shutdown, there’s only one. Some research and reference labs have gone from a staff of 80 to 2, and staff at the 20 quarantine stations dotted along the country’s borders and ports has been reduced by 85 percent.
The CDC is currently monitoring about 30 clusters of foodborne illnesses around the country, which is typical at any given time. About half the CDC staffers involved in surveillance and outbreak response have also been furloughed.