Measles, misinformation, and what's actually in the MMR vaccine

Bobby's lies cost lives

Jake Scott, MD

More than 4,000 Americans have contracted measles since January 2025. Two children and one adult have died. Sixteen states have fallen below the vaccination threshold required to prevent sustained transmission. The United States is at risk of losing its measles elimination status, which it achieved in 2000.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a message for the communities at the center of these outbreaks: the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine contains "millions of particles that were created from aborted fetal tissue, millions of DNA fragments." It does not.

He is the nation's chief public health officer. He is making this claim during the worst measles outbreak in more than three decades. He is making it about the one vaccine that could stop that outbreak. And he is directing it at the religious communities—Mennonite, Orthodox, conservative Catholic—in which vaccination rates are lowest and where the current cases are concentrated.

Let’s explore what the manufacturing, regulatory, and scientific records actually show.

Where the vaccine comes from

Viruses can replicate only inside living cells. To make the rubella component of the MMR vaccine, manufacturers grow the live weakened virus in a human cell strain called WI-38. 

In 1962, a researcher named Leonard Hayflick isolated cells from lung tissue obtained from a single elective abortion performed in Sweden. Those cells were placed in laboratory cell cultures—controlled environments where cells are grown outside the body—where they have been propagating ever since. The cell strain used in Merck's MMR-II traces its lineage to that original culture. 

The chickenpox and hepatitis A vaccines use a similar strain, MRC-5, established in 1966 by J.P. Jacobs from lung cells obtained from an elective abortion performed in the United Kingdom.

Both of these facts come directly from the product pages of the American Type Culture Collection, the national repository that catalogs and sells biological materials to researchers—the same database cited by those making these claims.

These cell strains are not immortal. They replicate for roughly 50 passages, then reach the end of their replicative lifespan. Manufacturers maintain frozen seed stocks that can be thawed to start fresh cultures as needed. This finite nature is a safety feature: It distinguishes these strains from continuous cell lines, which replicate indefinitely and carry a theoretical cancer risk.

The cells used today are the laboratory descendants of those original strains, not material from any abortion. The original cells have not existed for sixty years. No new abortions are performed to manufacture these vaccines.

Once the virus finishes growing in these cell cultures, it is extracted and purified. What ends up in the final vaccine is the weakened virus, stabilizing ingredients, and trace amounts of residual protein and DNA left over from the production process. There are no intact human cells in the vaccine.

Clown

Republican platform for the midterm elections

Former Charlestown road safety activist Robin Foote, age 76, dies

Campaigned for accountability for chronic traffic violators

By Will Collette

Robin Foote, Providence Journal photo by Kathy Bourchers

The Jamestown Press reported former Quonnie resident and traffic safety activist Robin Foote died on March 27 due to complications following surgery.

Mr. Foote became a public figure unwillingly, spurred by the May 2010 unlawful death of his son Colin at the intersection of Route 1 and West Beach Road. He was killed by Laura Reale, a habitual dangerous driver, when she ran the red light and broadsided Colin, killing him on the spot.

Robin and his wife Maryann worked closely with then state Rep. Donna Walsh to win the 2011 passage of “Colin’s Law” that cracked down on habitual offenders like Reale.

Reale gamed the system at the time to avoid serious consequences for her repeated arrests for dangerous driving. Reale is also the niece of Charlestown’s longtime state Senator Dennis Algiere. He denied using his substantial political influence to prevent Reale from losing her license.

The Foote family also became major advocates for installing red-light cameras on Route 1, including the one that now covered the intersection where their son Colin died. They overcame the vehement resistance to the cameras from the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) followers. I believe Robin and Maryann helped sway public opinion enough to force the CCA-controlled Town Council to greenlight the cameras.

These issues may figure in this year’s Democratic primary on Wednesday, September 9. That primary will feature a challenge to our hard-working state Rep. Tina Spears by a MAGA DINO Leah Boisclair. Tina holds the House District 36 seat that was once held by Donna Walsh.

Boisclair is supported by the League of Rhode Island Businesses (LORIB), run by Republican MAGA and gun wingnut David Levesque. Boisclair is a lawyer whose practice is focused on defending clients charged with some of the most heinous crimes (e.g. sex crimes against children) but also including this self-promo on her website:

 

If Robin was still alive, I think I know where he would stand.

Stanford scientists discover “natural Ozempic” without side effects

A newly discovered peptide could rival Ozempic — but with fewer side effects and a more targeted approach to weight loss.

Stanford Medicine

Scientists at Stanford Medicine have identified a naturally occurring molecule that appears to mimic some of the weight loss effects of semaglutide, the drug widely known as Ozempic. In animal studies, the molecule reduced appetite and body weight while avoiding several common side effects such as nausea, constipation, and muscle loss.

The molecule, called BRP, works through a different but related biological pathway and activates distinct groups of neurons in the brain. This suggests it may offer a more precise way to control appetite and metabolism.

"The receptors targeted by semaglutide are found in the brain but also in the gut, pancreas and other tissues," said assistant professor of pathology Katrin Svensson, PhD. "That's why Ozempic has widespread effects including slowing the movement of food through the digestive tract and lowering blood sugar levels. In contrast, BRP appears to act specifically in the hypothalamus, which controls appetite and metabolism."

Svensson, the senior author of the study published in Nature, has also co-founded a company that plans to begin human clinical trials in the near future. The study's lead author is senior research scientist Laetitia Coassolo, PhD.

How to feed your garden birds without spreading disease

Keep your backyard birds healthy

Richard Gregory, UCL

The outbreak of a mysterious and deadly disease in finches in British gardens in 2005 set alarms bells ringing for conservationists. A decade later, the extent of that disease in greenfinches and chaffinches was reported. And now, bird scientists are beginning to understand how feeding birds in our gardens might be linked to their health and survival.

Major new guidance on bird feeding released by the UK’s largest nature conservation charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), asks that we feed birds seasonally and safely.

Feeding birds in gardens is helpful, especially during winter when birds might be facing food shortages. But summer feeding should be paused because this is a time when natural food sources such as caterpillars, bugs and flies are much more abundant. In summer, the benefits of feeding the birds are less obvious. Limiting summer bird feeding also limits the spread of disease, which happens more prominently when birds gather in numbers to share food and water.

Scientists now know that the disease detected in finches in the 2000s is trichomonosis, caused by a microscopic parasite called Trichomonas gallinae. It typically infects the bird’s throat and has been known for many years to affect pigeons and doves, along with birds of prey. Birds can act as carriers or succumb to the disease. Quite how this parasite spilled over into finches is uncertain, but probably happened through the sharing of food or water.

Studies show that this parasite can persist in moist bird feed for up to five days and in water up to 30 hours, especially in milder conditions. July to October is the peak time for disease outbreaks in finches.

The disease causes lesions in the bird’s throat that interfere with its ability to swallow. This causes the bird to regurgitate food and water, and eventually die. It can spread between birds when they feed one another during courtship, when feeding chicks or through regurgitation at food or water sources in gardens. Poorly birds appear fluffed up and lethargic. Some may have messy or wet feathers around their beak and often shake their heads as they try to swallow. It’s a sad sight.

Trichomonsis has had devastating consequences in bird populations across the UK and into mainland Europe. Greenfinches and chaffinches have been hit hardest. Greenfinch numbers are down by 65% and chaffinch down by 36% since 1995. Bullfinches also catch this disease and die, and a range of other birds may contract the disease – some of which are already declining in numbers.

Stephen Miller's Strait of Hormuz

Trump's Bigot in Chief

Robert Reich

Trump’s chief bigot, Stephen Miller, said on Fox News that immigrants to the United States bring problems that extend through generations.

“Not only is the first generation unsuccessful,” Miller claimed. “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”

Bullshit. The children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of most immigrants are models of upward mobility in America.

In a recent paper, researchers found that immigrants today are no slower to move into the middle class than immigrants were a century ago. In fact, no matter when their parents came to the U.S. or what country they came from, children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than their U.S.-born peers.

Stephen Miller’s great-great-grandfather was born in a dirt-floor shack in the village of Antopol, a shtetl in what is now Belarus. He came to America in 1903 with $8 in his pocket and spoke no English. Three generations later, little Stephen was born in 1985 to American parents but somehow developed a visceral hatred for immigrants.

Miller and Trump have been dealing with immigrants the same way Pete Hegseth and Trump have been dealing with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz — inflicting pain on both them and the United States, in the hope their pain will be worse than the pain we endure.

Tax Day was supposed to be a big PR boon for Trump, in which he touts his “no taxes on tips” and other ersatz tax “cuts” for average working Americans (while hiding that his Big Ugly bill actually gave most of its benefits to the wealthy and big corporations, and paid for them by taking money from Medicaid and food stamps and other programs the working class and poor rely on).

But the war in Iran has made everything — even Stephen Miller’s war on immigrants — feel like the Strait of Hormuz.

Arc de Trump

 

Here's the Trump administration's not so subtle hint you're on your own in the next natural disaster

How Trump plans to pay for his military adventures

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American Lung Association gives South County an "F" for ozone air pollution

Who would have thought our rural paradise would suffer from air pollution?

By Will Collette 

The American Lung Association, that's who. For the past several years, I've been running pollution alerts from the state Health Department that warned that ground ozone pollution - mostly generated by cars - posed a danger to the health of the young, old and people with breathing problems such as COPD. 

It seemed to me that air quality got worse in Washington County year after year. According to Lung Association data, that's actually been happening. 

I blame the influx of summer people whose summer sojourns to Charlestown triple our population from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

As the chart to the left shows, more than 100,000 are at risk. 

According to American Lung Association Advocacy Director Daniel Fitzgerald, “This air pollution is causing kids to have asthma attacks, contributing to chronic health conditions, and making people who work outdoors sick...To compound the issue further, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rollbacks of critical healthy air rules are impacting our residents."

See the full report results at Lung.org/sota.

More progress toward a potential universal flu shot

Intranasal EV vaccine protected mice from H5N1, H7N9

by Georgia State University

edited by Alexander Pol

A novel vaccine platform has been developed to induce broad, protective immunity against numerous influenza virus infections, showing promise as an effective mucosal vaccine strategy, according to a study published by researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.

The study published in the journal ACS Nano used cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a vaccine platform to display various human and avian influenza hemagglutinins (HAs) in an upside-down manner on the EV surfaces. The inverted HA tends to present the conserved HA stalk to the immune system to induce cross-protective influenza immunity while hiding the highly variable HA head to avoid strain-specific immunity.

The investigators used mice to evaluate cellular and mucosal immune responses induced by the multiple HA EV vaccines. HA is a major influenza surface glycoprotein. EVs are natural nanoparticles that facilitate cell-to-cell communications.

The researchers found that EV-based inverted HA vaccines hold great promise for developing universal influenza vaccines that target a mucosal route.

Developing innovative vaccine platforms and delivery strategies to induce protective immunity against diverse influenza virus strains in the respiratory tract is crucial for preventing influenza infection and transmission in potential epidemics and pandemics.

New federal figures reveal 1 in 3 US households struggle to pay energy bills

The reality is likely even worse

Diana Hernández, Columbia University

Americans’ concerns about being able to afford electricity and home heating fuel are elevated since the beginning of the Iran war. But newly released nationwide data shows that even before the war began, these concerns were widespread, long-standing and getting worse faster than the data can reflect.

The new information is from preliminary reports based on the Residential Energy Consumption Survey, a representative survey of U.S. households conducted every four to five years by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. These early results show that energy insecurity, a hidden hardship defined as the inability to adequately meet household energy needs, affects millions of American households and is worsening quickly.

As a scholar who has spent years sitting in hundreds of homes around the country, hearing firsthand accounts about energy insecurity, I turn to this survey data to quantify the suffering I have witnessed up close.

The latest tranche of data was collected in 2024 and released in March 2026, but full results won’t be available for some time. The preceding survey was taken in 2020, but results weren’t finalized until August 2025.

Though that data is incomplete and slow to emerge, the picture is unambiguous: Even households once confident they could afford energy costs are at risk of falling behind on bills, making hard trade-offs to keep the lights on and living in homes they can’t afford to properly heat and cool.

Climate change and the cost of your homeowner's insurance

How wildfires and storms drove insurance losses in 2025

Multiple Authors, Carbon Brief

Extreme weather events around the world, such as wildfires and storms, were the major driver behind $107bn in insured losses in 2025, according to industry data. 

The Los Angeles wildfires alone caused record-high $40bn in insured losses from fires, says a new report from reinsurance company Swiss Re. 

The report notes that, while overall insured losses in 2025 were lower than previous years, this was due to a “[luck] rather than a reduction in risk”, partly due to no major hurricanes hitting the US.

Insured losses refer to damages that are compensated for by insurance companies. 

Despite lower losses in 2025 than the trend over recent years, they are still rising by an average of 5-7% each year since 1996, accounting for inflation, says Swiss Re. 

The report itself does not explicitly discuss the role of human-caused climate change in the events driving these losses. 

But the extensive ways in which climate change exacerbates and drives extreme weather are well established in scientific literature.

Other reports and media coverage also show how some parts of the world hit by frequent and intense extreme weather now face the possibility of becoming “uninsurable” due to unaffordable premiums or insurers pulling out of the market. 

One small problem: no books

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