“Stay safe while enjoying Rock Creek Park! Swimming and wading are not allowed due to high bacteria levels. Stay out of the water to protect streambanks, plants and animals and keep you and your family (including pets!) safe from illness. Rock Creek has high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens that make swimming, wading, and other contact with the water a hazard to human (and pet) health. Please protect yourself and your pooches by staying on trails and out of the creek. All District waterways are subject to a swim ban – this means wading, too!” says the National Park Service’s page on DC’s Rock Creek Park, not specifically mentioning the source of the bacteria.
It’s raw sewage leaking out of the city’s system, according to the Washingtonian, who included that detail under of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s tweet showing the top US public health official swimming in the waters. Maybe ivermectin works for cholera. Or maybe not and we’ll need a new HHS secretary.