Disease Prevention and Health Reseach

Aluminum in vaccines is a matter of concern for RFK Jr. Not so much for the Danes:

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00997

Article posted online for reading. Downloading requires registration for free account. Up to y'all if you want Annals of Internal Medicine to know your email address.

 

Vaccines from chicken eggs are old school.

 

A research team has developed a {…technical stuff…} that enables highly sensitive, portable detection of mosquito-borne viruses, using Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) as a model target.

Multisite test strip boosts mosquito-borne virus detection | EurekAlert!

 

2026 joins 2025 with US exceeding 2000 measles cases. Along with current media interest, we can seek fuller perspective.

Before vaccines, US measles cases ranged from 150 to 890 thousands per year:

Measles cases in the United States | Our World in Data

Causing about 10 thousand deaths per year (data not shown). Highest childhood vaccination rates (96%) were about in early 1980s, and that lowered cases to about 1500/yr. This is firm causality. With whatever motivations, Federal support for vaccination declined, vaccination rates declined, and cases increased to almost 28 thousands in 1990. Pendulum then swung back towards vaccination, got near (medical community desired) 95%, and annual cases fell to below 1000.

More recently (MMR) vaccination has faced opposition (without demonstrated evidence of harm), vaccination rates fell to 91% overall with some areas lower, and 2025 and 2026 cases became clickbait. Infection hotspots got invited to vaccinate, and this 'fire fighting' is effective.

Nearly no one dies from measles in US now. Excellent medical care wins. This remains a success story in global context, with apparently politically based opposition 'making hay' and clickbait doing similar in other ways.

Measles, while not being 'over' in US (and Euro), has become a thing for political/ideological argument. I would not agree that a list of such things needs to be added to.

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Meanwhile elsewhere measles has been imperfectly suppressed:

Measles vaccines save millions of lives each year | Our World in Data

With cases being hundreds or thousand times more than deaths, infection (and measles is very good at that) arrival into US will continue. So arguments will also continue.

 

If any readers here know not of Cyclospora, you are isolating very well from all media.

Explosive diarrhea is clickbait here. Cyclospora are protozoans (animals) that only reproduce in (bigger) animals' intestines, and are very good at persisting as spores in soil. Putting spores into soil requires big-animal poop. Transferring back to big animals requires plants grown in spore-containing soils, and those plants ingested by big animals without cooking to 70 oC. Yeah we now hear a lot about how to wash raw vegetables, but one is betting one's happiness (a week or two later) on removing all of the spores.

'A week or two later' is because these are not bacteria; with bad among those causing sickness within hours. Time required to show infection makes it hard to know what meal did the dirty.

With all that, Taylor Farms de Mexico has been tagged as a source. (Not only) Taco Bell (TM) buys their lettuce. Taco Bell (TM) now offers lettuce-free meals at steep discounts. They seem not inclined to cook all products to 70 oC, which would solve this problem. With almost all 48 CONUS states 'exploding', it is hard to suppose Taco Bell (TM) is the only source of Cyclospora.

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Y'all won't die from Cyclospora. Its unpleasantness cannot compare to dysentery, which actually kills people. Oh that, Big D, includes Shigella bacteria and Entamoeba parasites, with both having fecal-infection routes, meaning everyone in the chain should know how to wash their damn hands. And do it.

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(Nobody asked) I do enjoy eating raw plants for texture and taste, but pooping by my priors impinges.

 

A 'living in China" story nobody asked for. Bean sprouts (Vigna radiata: Fabaceae) are sold widely here, and good in stir frying. So, I bought a bag and ate some, and seller said (something like) 'hey no, idiot, those need to be cooked before eating".

Vigna mung beans are sprouted in water, wherein bacteria may develop and attach. They are to be cooked very briefly; ostensibly enough to kill surface bacteria but not hydrolyze vitamin C which seems to be Vigna mung bean sprouts' main 'claim' beyond providing texture and visual interest.

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Vitamin C is desired for benefits not well shown by careful studies. Better said, low intake is needed, but high-intake benefits are ???. Vitamin C is weak resisting cooking, so get your dose from uncooked fruits. Or pills, if they are not overpriced.

A different vitamin D is desired for benefits and not cooked off.

 

"wash with a different pH (i.e., vinegar) be more effective?" I have read that vinegar or surfactant (dish soap) additions are ineffective. But can also imagine situations where they could be. If one wants to be a diligent veggie washer, I suppose the most important thing is contact time. Start by giving them a bath, then rinse off shower. Nooks and crannies are problems, this is how cantaloupes sometimes join this list.

There are also special products for wash:
5 Best Fruit and Vegetable Washes - Aug. 2026 - BestReviews

One would want to read ingredient lists.

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"...cross contamination by the staff..." Oh ya. I have been 'tagged' this way by a chicken sandwich. At a domestic restaurant chain readers would not know But raw chicken (birds in general) are tricky because of their plumbing design.

 

"If the concern is pesticides or other chemicals on the veggies, then you want to use a baking soda solution"

I've read that also. Baking soda (NaHCO₃) buffers water pH towards 8.3, but I don't know why that would wash away undesired things.

Killing chemicals are applied to edible plants by surface sprays and are washable offable. Also applied to soils/roots, then inside plant cells, not washable offable, possibly decomposed by cooking, but some finally ingested.

Organic produce gets higher prices by promising none such. If they prove claims, they deserve a market niche.

 

"Sounds like most pesticides have an oily or waxy portion to their structure." Allow me to call that hydrophobic.

"An alkaline solution can help make them more water soluble." Sure, but as high as we can go in kitchens is sodium bicarbonate, which does have some internet support .

Not Drano (TM) please.

Adding surfactants to the wash is a mild way 'partition' hydrophobic molecules down the drain.



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In Chem labs with 'the kids' I asked how their fingers felt. Very slippery would imply exposure to some high pH (alkaline) thing, so walk (don't run) to a sink for washing. Make every effort to not touch your eyes. Eyes respond poorly contacting pH extremes high or low. Acids (low pH) stink/smell acrid and are thus not sneaky. Bases (high pH) are sneaky.