When nearly 70 people are sickened by an outbreak of salmonella after eating at a fast food chain, you'd like to know the name of the chain, wouldn't you?

And you'd expect an organization supposedly dedicated to protecting public health to release the name, wouldn't you?

I mean, you certainly wouldn't expect them to choose protecting the chain restaurant over public health, would you?

And yet, that's exactly what happened after an outbreak that started in Texas (43 cases) and Oklahoma (16 cases) and spread to eight other states, leaving 68 people ill.

Even worse--the CDC didn't even report the outbreak until almost two months after it happened!

So...choosing not to report the name of a restaurant at the center of an outbreak of infection, and then taking two months to even acknowledge said outbreak...That's an interesting pair of choices for an organization with the words "Disease Control" right there in its name.

The CDC hasn't explained why the report took so long, or why it hasn't revealed the restaurant at the center of the outbreak. Could it be that they're more interested in protecting corporate interests than they are in protecting the health of the American people? Is the CDC just one more government entity in the pocket of Big Business? That pocket's getting pretty crowded...

I certainly can't think of another explanation--why else would they keep an outbreak under wraps for two months and keep the public in the dark about what chain got people sick?

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the CDC has pulled such a shady trick. In the summer of 2010, they released a report that 155 people had become sick in two multistate outbreaks of salmonella infections. The restaurant at the center of those outbreaks was called "Restaurant A" in the report. It wasn't until days later that the CDC revealed the outbreak was in fact linked to Taco Bell.

There's no good reason to keep information about such an outbreak under wraps. When it comes to public health, transparency and trust are essential. How can we believe the CDC has our best interests at heart when we can't even trust them to name a restaurant that sold food that made people sick?

Related articles of interest:

Retailers Defend Ammonia Treated Beef

You got your blueberry in my chocolate!

The USDA Says It’s OK to Sell You Tainted Meat

Counting Our Bacteria With Our Chickens

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