Disease Prevention and Health Reseach

"since we're off topic, i see that the admin authorized leucovorin for autism." @bisco posted elsewhere but it's on topic here..

It has been studied for examples:

Treatment of Folate Metabolism Abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorder - PMC
The Soluble Folate Receptor in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Relation to Autism Severity and Leucovorin Treatment - PMC

FDA reviewed literature on that and relabeled it. No longer only for cancer chemotherapy.

Rain on that parade can be viewed in these examples:

Why Leucovorin is Not a “Breakthrough Treatment” For Autism - Emergent Divergence
What science says about leucovorin, the drug Trump touted for autism | CNN
https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-s-autism-initiative-embraces-little-tested-vitamin-treatment

And prescribing physicians will assess factors and make recommendations. As they always do.

Folic acid itself has been used in pregnancy against spina bifida (if my memory serves). It is also one of the inexpensive and 'harmless' vitamin supplements here, so I do indulge.

 

Good additional RNA info from @Trollbait. This is why people collecting RNA store it at -78 oC before analyses. There is a chemical you can add to RNA samples if one is collecting out beyond where such freezers are available. I don't remember it's its name but must block RNA hydrolysis.

Probably not a good thing to injest

 

Chikungunya virus disease is transferred to humans by Aedes mosquitoes

Chikungunya fact sheet


and with a current outbreak in China
Thousands fall ill as mosquito fever explodes across southern China | ScienceDaily

One current vaccine includes not-quite-dead-enough virus
Chikungunya Vaccines | Chikungunya Virus | CDC

And that (see related on polio) is a reason for concern.

Chikungunya causes manageable disease in most humans but can whack newborns or those exposed in utero (see also Zika virus in re).

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There are many viral diseases to attend to. Some with mosquito (and bat) linkages teach us habitat things. Others go straight through the air and access hosts by way of personal poor exposure management including respiratory masking.

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Viruses are always on the hunt for hosts. Humans are (let's say inadvertently) offering. We ought to make our offers less appealing and do better on vaccinations. We need this planet, and need to limit viral drag on the human enterprise.

 

"People with cancer who coincidentally received the mRNA (COVID) shots before starting drugs designed to unleash the immune system against tumors lived significantly longer than those who didn’t get vaccinated ..."

https://www.science.org/content/article/surprise-bonus-covid-19-vaccines-bolstering-cancer-treatment

These preliminary results suggest that mRNA vaccinations might deliver collateral benefits. Must be weighed against mRNA harms, if they exist.

US in short-term future may not be where that will happen. Happily there are alternatives.

 

Comments have been recently posted nearby about the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). There may be interest in exploring that here. Start:
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)
Which includes link for searching VAERS database.
There are now >2 million entries in VAERS database. While it is possible that some US medical professionals particularly those administering vaccines are unaware of VAERS, I could not conclude that it is poorly known among them.
There have been >190 publications in biomedical journals analyzing aspects of VAERS database:
My NCBI Collection 64297814 - PubMed
of which I provide links to these related to serious outcomes occurring after COVID vaccinations:
Reporting rates for VAERS death reports following COVID-19 vaccination, December 14, 2020-November 17, 2021 - PubMed
Outcomes at least 90 days since onset of myocarditis after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in adolescents and young adults in the USA: a follow-up surveillance study - PubMed
Safety Monitoring of an Additional Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine - United States, August 12-September 19, 2021 - PubMed
COVID-19 Vaccine Safety in Children Aged 5-11 Years - United States, November 3-December 19, 2021 - PubMed
Safety Monitoring of COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Doses Among Persons Aged 12-17 Years - United States, December 9, 2021-February 20, 2022 - PubMed

TL;DR Those five do not convince me that COVID vaccinations are linked to increases in serious outcomes. Certainly, anyone else can examine the pubmed database and report here what they learn.

It would be particularly interesting if any biomedical publications in biomedical journals provide evidence of COVID vaccinations linkage to increases in serious outcomes. Whether or not based on VAERS. With particular attention as to whether they have been withdrawn or retracted from journals.

 

Oh staaaap. We want to know things as accurately as they have been presented. Medical professionals are in that demanding field for honorable reasons, but on the side I'm sure some are also financially driven (I usta teach premeds at a little college in New Hampshire). But it seems like a collapse of reality to suppose that Doctors are hiding Important Truths from US for $ gains.

 

Humility aside, looking into some aspect of scientific research and quickly summarizing a few salient points is 'what I do'. Decades of practice . To an extent it is portable across disciplines. It is my life's first problem.

If people in any disciplines simply accept that and suppose "well he has that covered", it's a 70%fail. My pedantic goal is to get readers/students/people interested enough to use their eyeballs and process the inputs

Humility returned, in places like this, contrary voices are a must. Someone must assert that I am short-sheeting the bed, in pay or in thrall of some special interest or influence. THAT creates buzz, and can move other readers to do the eyeball and processing stuff. Without that, I am simply increasing # of dully satisfied consumers.

It happens sometimes but not always in PriusChat. Weak happening is 'oooh look there is disagreement, bring on the popcorn' Big happenings are disagreement providing enticement for viewers to allocate some fraction of their brains to finding for themselves where more truth is.

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I hope this is enough said about why I cherish disputation here. But it not ...

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Yin and Yang is a pleasant metaphor about harmonious contrasts in balance. Blah-de-blah-blah. It favors inactivity by other parties who might ask: "is this thing really balanced?" 'Eastern' philosophy values balance and deference to fonts of wisdom. Well, that sucks.

'Western' philosophy values free expression of all viewpoints. That also sucks, UNLESS it also values that most (many? more than a few?) brains are capable of working things out for themselves. It only requires personal effort.

How to light that fuse is my life's second problem.

 

(y'all ought to stop liking my long posts)

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CDC announced on 2025 Oct 8 that they would examine safety of aluminum in vaccines. This will presumably consider studies previously published. No information about undertaking additional studies.

This one from 2022 “Association Between Aluminum Exposure From Vaccines Before Age 24 Months and Persistent Asthma at Age 24 to 59 Months” is linked on CDC website on vaccine safety. Those quite interested will read it. For those slightly interested here is an excerpt. “Considering the small effect size observed and the limitations described above, particularly related to unmeasured confounding, these findings do not constitute strong evidence for questioning the safety of aluminum in vaccines.”

Two other publications (not linked by CDC) deserve mention. “Concentrations, Number of Doses, and Formulations of Aluminium Adjuvants in Vaccines: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials” summarized results from 10 published randomized trials. Excerpt “The comparisons assessed higher vs. lower aluminium adjuvant concentrations;
higher vs. lower number of doses of aluminium adjuvant; and aluminium phosphate adjuvant vs. aluminium hydroxide adjuvant. For all three comparisons, meta-analyses showed no evidence of a difference on all-cause mortality, serious adverse events, and adverse events considered non-serious.” Examined trials examined few people, and appropriately called for larger studies. (2023)

This was published in 2025 July “Aluminum-Adsorbed Vaccines and Chronic Diseases in Childhood A Nationwide Cohort Study” on more than 1.2 million children in Denmark. (that is a large proportion of all children in Denmark). Excerpt “This nationwide cohort study did not find evidence supporting an increased risk for autoimmune, atopic or allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders associated with early childhood exposure to aluminum-adsorbed vaccines."

We shall see what information CDC examines on this and what conclusions they draw.

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(slightly related) I take antacid pills for occasional acid reflux. OTC brands here are based aluminum hydroxide; you get calcium carbonate in America. Each pill contains 70 milligrams of aluminum which is 10 to 20 times that in vaccines containing it. Even though absorption into bloodstream from oral pills is probably quite small, I would rather not ingest a lot of aluminum. So I bite pills in half, which seems adequate response to symptoms. Mentioned only because in reality world (this reality world at least), aluminum is not perceived as a sneaky toxin.

 

Don't cook tomatoes or other acidic food in aluminum pots.

 

Acidic beverages are available in Al cans, but those have a thin epoxy coating on the inside.

Colas may be the most acidic beverages. Unless kombucha has not faded out.