Transcript: Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," July 26, 2026

The following is the transcript of an interview with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 26, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb. He sits on the boards of Pfizer and UnitedHealth. Dr. Gottlieb, it's good to have you back. We've got cyclospora outbreaks in nine states. It is now one of the nation's largest foodborne illness outbreaks. HHS Secretary Kennedy says it's under control. Do you think it is?

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB: I don't think it's under control yet, per se. I think that they've done a good job, FDA has, isolating this to central Mexico and some specific farms as well. It appears that a lot of these cases are emanating from farms in central Mexico, and there was probably some kind of event there. Remember, this particular parasite-the only known reservoir for it is human fecal matter, so probably sewage got onto those growing fields in central Mexico and contaminated those crops. Nobody's sure how yet. And so by isolating it to that region, a lot of restaurants, a lot of wholesalers, retailers have been able to cut off supplies from central Mexico, and I think that mitigates the risk. I don't think this is fully under control yet because we don't know for sure that that's the only growing region where this is coming from. But it does seem to be the case at this point. Some of the cases that are being reported right now probably are cases happening from other parts of the- the world and other parts of the country that are normal background cases that you see. There's probably increased reporting, but clearly the bulk of these cases appear to be coming from that central Mexican region. It's worth noting that Mexican authorities, public health authorities, deny that they're responsible for this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I saw you recommended people buy heads of lettuce, not pre-chopped bags, buy locally, not from the grocery store. Why aren't we hearing more from the current FDA commissioner on that kind of advice?

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB: Yeah, look, I think that there is some challenges with communications from the FDA. I think FDA has done a good job isolating this, and they were fast to do this. This is a hard pathogen to detect. There's no really good test for it, so you can't test for it in food. But there hasn't been as much communication from the agency as you might expect. There are things that consumers can do. You can buy a whole head of lettuce, like you said, and chop it up rather than buying bag lettuce. There's higher r