"Laboratory experts re-checked lettuce sample results from Taylor ‌Farms in an investigation into an outbreak of the Cyclospora parasite and concluded the finding should be considered a false positive. As ​of Sunday, there were no confirmed positive results." www.reuters.com/business/hea...

matthew always brings the receipts

I was in Geneva June 21-27; the heat was intolerable & 5 of our students got heat stroke It was an “exceptionally deadly week” The EuroMOMO mortality monitoring hub “gave an estimate of 14,260 for excess mortality from all causes in the week ending June 28” www.medpagetoday.com/publichealth...

This, from food safety attorney Bill Marler, is so much better than anything I've seen from the FDA.

Sale on iceberg lettuce runs through the end of the month.

The pain for Spain is mainly in the Brain.

A second person has died in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, city health officials said.

How about a jet-lagged live posting while I read? Trying to read this because I keep getting tagged in posts about it, but the first paragraph already contains synthetic text (a quote from Claude). I will skip that bit and persevere... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The anatomy of an AI-supported academic article is becoming more apparent. I desk reviewed ~70 manuscripts this week for our journal. Reckon 20ish had significant AI assistance. On top of hundreds of others recently I'm starting to see patterns. Are other editors are seeing the same or similar? 1/

Canadian plane dropping water on the Los Angeles forest fire. Neighbors helping neighbors. Thank you so much Canada, we are sorry our current leader is an idiot.

The Taylor Farms recall announcement listed 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight different brand codes. The recalled products were shipped as recently as Thursday and have “best by” dates as late as Aug. 3. apnews.com/article/cycl...

New Comment Beyond vaccines: closing the critical gap in diagnostics and therapeutics for outbreak response www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Idea: To stop wildfire smoke from Canada, build a wall the entire length of the US/Canada border and the height of the tropopause (let’s make it 15 km to be safe). Or we can stop burning fossil fuels.

It's not a forest management issue! Boreal forests are drying out because of climate change -- multiple studies have demonstrated this. If you're looking to blame someone, look at the top GHG emitters.

Every news story that makes it seem like Taco Bell is somehow to blame has written the story entirely wrong. Purchasing fresh greens at scale, it’s just a matter of time before you hit something like this. Voluntarily pulling product and such is the right move.

An investigation into an earlier cilantro-associated outbreak in NYC demonstrates the challenges in identifyiing the source of Cyclospora. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/19/n...

I contacted my NIH PO about the new rules requiring reporting foreign co-authorships on papers that acknowledge NIH support. Here's a summary of what I heard back: 1) NIH POs are confused about this too & fear a massive workload as a consequence 2) PIs should report co-authorships in their RPPR /t

"A paper that confirms what readers already expect adds little to collective knowledge. A paper that presents evidence unanticipated by an audience provokes surprise on a larger scale. The author’s task is to create a prediction gap between what informed readers predict and what the evidence shows."

The visa process for visiting artists has always been complicated and expensive. Under the current administration, it's gotten significantly worse.

Almost half of adults struggled to afford health care in 2025 www.roi-nj.com/2026/06/11/h...

Workforce Projections For Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, And Physician Associates | Health Affairs www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/...

"Universities should be open to conservative students and conservative student activism. Newspapers should not bar right-wingers. But they need to understand these people are not operating in good faith. They advocate ideas and philosophies that would destroy everything you value if they succeed."

We tried to use smoke on the evil. It backfired, so we’re building a wall.

short answer: no long answer: nooooooooooooo lol

Waiting for a delayed flight, so might as well dig a bit further into the ridiculousness that is @uofwa.uw.edu 's "Purple" app and the info presented about it >>

If an undergraduate program's graduates don't earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. But is a degree just about making more money?

In this post, I summarize why Trump's new restrictions on foreign students are harmful and unjust, relying in large part on excellent analyses by @davidjbier.bsky.social and @mclem.org: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

Also don't sleep on the fact that yesterday RFK Jr said “there are cyclospora outbreaks every summer,” as though case counts aren't up like 500%

I've still never gotten any reply from the administration to this question: what happens if someone gets sick? Not only Ebola. What if someone has a heart attack or gallbladder trouble? Are they taken to the local hospital? If so, how?

Another idiotic move from the Trump regime: Capping foreign student visas at 4 years is a massive mistake. Most PhD programs take 5 to 7 years to complete. This will force top global talent into constant bureaucratic extension loops, or drive them away entirely.

Bhattacharya tries to take credit for HIV advances while his policies undermine the field.

Yesterday the US Administration supercharged its explicit effort to bar international students from staying in the US after graduation. All Americans should know: 1/3 of *all* STEM PhDs working in the US are immigrants who graduated from US universities, then stayed. www.piie.com/index%2Ephp/...

"Given the lack of details provided by Taylor Farms, Consumer Reports advises consumers in those states to discard all iceberg lettuce out of an abundance of caution." www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...

Judge rules against use of obscure clause to cancel grants to states | AP News share.google/wD4VYtibEazn...

"The investigation has raised questions about whether there is more lettuce posing potential risk." www.usatoday.com/story/news/h...

"Federal health officials have stressed that other brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels could be tied to the outbreak." www.the-independent.com/bulletin/new...

CDC has updated their outbreak webpage in the past hour or so. it is much improved. thank you to the overwhelmed career public health workers who worked to get this out.

NEW: Taylor Farms said the lettuce associated with cyclospora & explosive diarrhea went to 27 states, but did not name the companies. It doesn't have to, said Sandra Eskin: “Without this essential information, a recall is not going to be effective.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/18/h...

Many faculty have been sounding the alarm about the problems generative AI poses for student learning. Strangely, some higher ed administrations seem have emerged as major AI boosters. Why? As I write in the latest @hedgehogreview.bsky.social it's a labor story: hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-f...

Cyclospora cases are spreading. Why don’t we know more about it? At least in part becuase it's complicated, explains @aetiology.bsky.social in @msnownews.bsky.social www.ms.now/opinion/cycl...

We should be avoiding all salads, including last night’s word salad.

I thought MAHA wanted to set public health back two hundred years, but I now see it’s more like two thousand.

I knew this! I thought it was bizarre as well. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Half of Canada’s wildfires are in remote areas with no road access. Not only is it impossible to get firefighters on the ground, there is also insufficient time to react.

Every time they make it harder for foreign students to study here, they're just jacking up the tuition costs for American students and robbing America of incredible new talent too.

Taylor Farms Expands Iceberg Lettuce Recall to 27 States Amid Cyclospora Outbreak www.nytimes.com/2026/07/18/h...

Whatever could be said about that claim when he made it in 1962, it soon became undeniable that government vaccine research, distribution, and mandates are objectively among the greatest achievements of civilization. Claiming otherwise is embarrassing, it's like saying you don't wash your hands.

A lot of attention has gone to Kennedy making cyclosporiasis optional for FoodNet reporting. But cuts to state and local health departments -- and the loss of CDC expertise -- are a much bigger deal. My latest: www.theguardian.com/society/2026...