The Irving businesses seem to include a number of industrial concerns, including oil refineries, forestry and factories. If environmental contamination is a possible factor in this disease (and here’s an article suggesting that’s a top candidate) then one of those businesses could very well be a source. (And even if it isn’t the cause of this disease cluster, who knows what results might pop out of a thorough environmental analysis.)

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/atlantic/2021/3/26/1_5363850.h...

If they have reason to believe that, eg, the timing of the appearance of this cluster lines up with (to pull a hypothetical out of the air) industrial waste dumping in the Acadian peninsula water supply, attempting to muddy the water over whether this is a cluster with a shared cause or a bunch of fluke one-offs is certainly in their interests.