The CDC Makes an Unintendedly Gross Splash on Social Media

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a major and unintended splash on social media when it warned against going swimming with diarrhea this summer. The post came with a hilariously nauseating visual.

“Don’t leave your mark at the pool this summer!” the CDC posted on Twitter ahead of the Independence Day weekend. “It only takes one person with diarrhea to contaminate the entire pool,” the agency added, along with a gif of a girl going down a slide while leaving an unmistakable brown streak in her wake.

In another post, it wrote: “Diarrhea and swimming don’t mix! Follow CDC’s Steps for Healthy Swimming to help protect yourself and those you care about from illness at the pool.”

The message includes a cartoon image of a girl submerged in a toilet bowl while wearing swimming goggles and a snorkel.

“If you wouldn’t do this …,” the adjoining caption reads, “… then why would you do THIS?”

The question refers to an image of a boy doing the poops in a pool. Social media hilarity ensued.

“Imagine spending thousands on an art education, to one day be asked by the federal government to create an animated gif of smeared poo. That’s wild,” a Tweeter responded.