this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
91 points (100.0% liked)

news

24824 readers
438 users here now

Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:

We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.

Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:

The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.

  1. Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.

  2. Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.

  3. Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.

  4. Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.

  5. Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.

  6. Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.

  7. American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.

  8. Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.

  9. AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Taco Bell has temporarily removed lettuce, guacamole, and pico de gallo from many menu items as a parasite causing severe diarrhea spreads across multiple U.S. states.

The fast-food chain acted out of caution as health officials investigate cases of cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness linked to contaminated produce. The move affects popular items, including burritos, tacos, and bowls that typically feature fresh ingredients.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

certainly some people are more susceptible to what is likely norovirus here, but it's a completely different sensitivity for capacin/spicy food. capacin tolerance can be built over time, but norovirus is an gastro-ecological/immunological issue. gastro-ecology is fucking weird and the gut biome is poorly understood. eating is super gnarly from an immunological perspective: you're putting weird, complex stuff covered into foreign microbes into your body... a warm, wet place that is ideal for culturing microbes. the body makes it go through various layers of controlled, hostile environments to protect you and pull off materials for processing into fuel/nutrition, but generally keeps what you ingested compartmentalized from critical systems. noteable exceptions include alcohol and psychoactive drugs. and when something potentially dangerous--a quickly replicating virus--is detected, it triggers mechanisms to halt processes for harvesting energy and instead dump everything out of the nearest hole. in this way, the shits and puking is pretty good. it's a sign the system is working, even if the pilot is making some questionable choices. i've had acute food poisoning before and i felt a million times better after horking my guts out.

people are getting the shits at TB because a virus that lives in fecal material entered their mouth. norovirus is the most common fecal-oral disease. when a restaurant, residence, or whatever has frequent bouts of norovirus, it means the conditions there aren't sanitary. people are preparing food generally consumed raw without washing their hands after shitting or the water source there is contaminated with sewage. it can come into a food preparation place if the food processing facility upstream got feces on a surface that food came into contact with. it's a problem with the US food system where a single (understaffed, profit-maximizing) facility might process food for thousands or even tens of thousands of retail establishments, and one slicing blade not cleaned properly could touch millions of tomatoes or leaves of lettuce.

once somebody gets it, they can spread it to others through their shit or their barf, but if it's happening at a shitload of places... it's upstream. also, it can live on surfaces for quite a while.

increased susceptibility is usually genetic to receptors, but might be linked to diet (fatty foods, bile facilitated). it invariably results in gastroenteritis, but depending on the variant and your typical diet (high fiber vs high fat), the experienced symptoms could be way less.

so if you've been eating your vegetables/high fiber and stay hydrated, it could be less noticeable than someone who just eats deep friend spicy wings and pancake batter covered hotdogs between mugs of caffeinated starbucks milkshakes. the second person is going to have a fucking blow out that goes above and beyond their typical steatorrhea, because their body is already struggling to deconstruct all that nonsense and they were probably all backed up before the emergency evacuation order hit. either way, it's kind of good to get the shits if you're ingesting fecal-oral pathogens. if you don't, it's getting a chance to stay in your system longer and do some real damage.

also, really old people and young children get way more lit up by norovirus and are more likely to die. but generally, it runs its course in 24 hours and all most people need to do is stay hydrated because a lot of water is lost during an emergency evacuation.

[–] MeetMeAtTheMovies@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

This is not a norovirus outbreak and it is not specific to Taco Bell. Taco Bell is taking precautions because the supplier of the contaminated food hasn’t been identified. The diarrhea is being caused by a parasite, cyclospora cayetanensis, which causes cyclosporiasis. There’s currently an outbreak of it.

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Interesting. I do drink a lot of water. Mind you I never had taco bell and I dont live in the USA so maybe I just have never been really challenged.

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

ive travelled a bunch and lived overseas for a bit. my only bouts with acute food poisoning were both in the US at fucked up cheap restaurants.

God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers.

-US Department of Health

[–] miz@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

iirc rates of food poisoning in the USA are 3x the rate of other developed countries

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

USA! USA! USA!