More than 300 Michiganders are sick with a parasitic intestinal infection that the state normally sees about 50 times a year—and not one major outlet covering the outbreak has asked the obvious question about how open borders and unvetted agricultural supply chains are fueling the spread.

Michigan's cyclosporiasis outbreak is what health officials themselves call "large and growing," according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Wayne County alone is tracking 27 potential cases, ClickOnDetroit reported. The parasite, Cyclospora cayetanensis, spreads through food or water contaminated with feces. It does not transmit person to person—meaning something in the supply chain is carrying it to American dinner tables.

ABC News noted that the CDC has logged 145 additional cases across 17 states as of mid-June, with at least 20 hospitalizations. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at UCSF, told ABC that the U.S. used to see cases "acquired outside of the U.S, or from imported vegetables and fruits"—but added, "now we're starting to have more domestic cases as well." That admission is where the story should start, not end. If the parasite historically arrived on imported produce, and domestic cases are rising, what changed in our border enforcement, our agricultural inspection regime, and our food supply chain? Nobody in the press is asking.

The CDC says outbreaks have been linked to imported raspberries, basil, snow peas, mesclun lettuce, and cilantro. ClickOnDetroit reported that U.S. outbreaks have "most often been linked to contaminated fresh produce"—but stopped there, offering readers hand-washing tips instead of investigating the source. The investigation into the outbreak's origin remains "ongoing," according to state health officials, which is bureaucratic for "we don't know yet and aren't in a hurry to tell you."

Meanwhile, the New York Post was busy covering a separate Legionnaires' disease cluster on Manhattan's Upper East Side—two cases, no deaths—while a sixfold spike in a parasitic gut infection across the Midwest gets the same sterile treatment: wash your vegetables, see your doctor, move along.

Dr. Zoe Weiss of Tufts Medical Center told ABC that the parasite requires "days to weeks of sporulation in the environment" before becoming infectious—meaning contaminated produce has to sit in unsanitary conditions for extended periods. That's a supply chain problem, not a hand-washing problem.

The press covers these outbreaks like weather reports—something that just happens, nobody's responsible, and the only recourse is personal hygiene. But when a parasite that thrives in feces-contaminated food surges sixfold in one state and spreads to 17 others, the systematic refusal to interrogate border controls, import inspections, and agricultural labor standards isn't neutrality. It's a choice to protect the narrative at the expense of public health.

The source of this outbreak is still unidentified. The question the press won't ask is whether that failure of identification is itself the product of a system designed not to find answers that might demand policy changes Washington doesn't want to make.