Health News:

• Minnesota announced a cluster of cases in MN and WI of shiga-toxin producing E. coli and Salmonella linked to sprouts from Everything Sprouts (also sold under the Calco brand) to restaurants and grocery stores. (AP)
  
  
• Meanwhile, FDA upgraded its recall of frozen berries (sold to Publix stores in 8 states) to the highest risk warning. (Washington Post)
  
  
• COVID cases are continuing to increase in the West and picking up in the Northeast. (Brown Pandemic Center)
  
  
• Cyclospora is continuing to slow, though the total cases have surpassed 15,000. (CDC)
  
  
• But the FDA said Thursday that the contaminated iceberg lettuce may have been sent to 7 more states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. These include CA, DE, ND, RI, SD, VT, and WA on top of the 31 states already confirmed. (Washington Post)
  
  
• The Salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeños has grown to 431 cases across 32 states. (FDA)
  
  
• Each measles case costs about $60,000 for healthcare and public health response. That puts us at over $150 million this year with 2,500+ cases. (CIDRAP)
  
  
• Congo’s Ebola outbreak has reached 5,000 cases, and continues to outpace response efforts. (NPR)
  
  
• Australia is seeing a significant uptick in H5N1 avian flu cases in wild birds, including a suspected case in the famous little penguin colony on Kangaroo Island. (Guardian)
  
  
• For 2027, employers face their biggest health-insurance increases in at least two decades. (WSJ)
  
  
• Some good news: Merck and Moderna say their mRNA cancer vaccine helps extend the time before melanoma returns. The data are not yet released. (NBC)

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Best Question:

Should I get the new mRNA flu vaccine, or the traditional one this fall? 

There’s a new flu shot on the market this fall, and it’s exciting to those of us in the vaccine world, because initial studies show that it’s actually significantly (27%) more effective than the standard vaccine at preventing flu symptoms entirely. That’s super exciting, since our usual flu vaccines aren’t very good at actually preventing someone from getting the flu (though they are very useful for reducing the risk of hospitalization and death). 

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But deciding whether you should get the Moderna mRNA vaccine this fall also depends on your tolerance for short-term side effects. If you hate getting your COVID shots because you feel terrible for a day or two, you might prefer to stick to the standard flu shot. The mRNA flu shot causes more arm pain, fatigue, and headaches for one or two days than the standard shot. 

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It may be a moot point, since flu vaccine availability is still up in the air for this fall because the CDC advisory committee (ACIP) that usually recommends them and makes sure they’re covered by insurance is blocked from meeting due to a court order. We still believe that you’ll be able to get fall vaccines covered with insurance, but whether this newest Moderna mRNA shot is actually available near you is just a guess at this point. 

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Whether you choose to get the newer shot or not, it’s still exciting stuff. Because this vaccine uses mRNA technology (like the COVID shots), it can be updated much more quickly, and needs far less lead time in the spring to produce a shot that more closely matches whatever flu strain is circulating that year. That’s great news if we have a late-season uptick in a new strain, or if there’s a serious mutation 

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Sources: YLE, NY Times, Nature

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Best Listen:

Have a half hour on your way home from work? Listen in to the NY Times discussing how human feces made its way into our food chain.

The Cyclospora Mystery: How Human Waste Got on So Much Lettuce - The New York Times

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