Two people died in Michigan from cyclospora. The Michigan Health Department made sure to tell everyone both had underlying health conditions. They wanted you to know this was not a fair fight.
Cyclospora is a parasite you get from eating contaminated produce. Lettuce. Berries. Basil. The stuff your wife buys at Whole Foods because she read an article about inflammation. You eat a salad to feel virtuous and a microscopic organism colonizes your intestines for six weeks. This is nature's way of telling you to order the burger.
The outbreak killed two people and the state's first move was to clarify they were already sick. Both had underlying health conditions. Translation: don't panic, these people were already halfway out the door. The parasite just rang the doorbell.
This is how public health messaging works now. We announce deaths but immediately reassure the healthy that they're still special. You're fine. You're young. You do CrossFit. The parasite is not coming for you. The parasite only wants the weak ones. Sleep tight.
Retail traders saw the headline and immediately started googling cyclospora stocks. Is there a play here? Can we short salad? Some guy in New Jersey just put his entire Robinhood account into a pharmaceutical company that makes antiparasitic drugs. The company doesn't treat cyclospora. He didn't check. He just liked that the stock was down 40% this year and the chart looked like it wanted to go up.
Two people are dead and the state's main concern was making sure you knew they had it coming.
Photo by Sergey Konstantinov on Unsplash
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