The study is the work of researchers at Nottingham University’s School of Medicine who focused on chemicals known as antigens. These are produced by cancer cells and trigger an immune response inside humans. In particular, they cause our bodies to make auto-antibodies that target and try to block those invading antigens. Researchers wanted to know if they could detect the presence of specific auto-antibodies in patients and show whether they had been triggered by antigens from tumour cells.

Despite the benign assessment of the medical establishment, Dr. Curry’s flawed reports were amplified by alarmist websites, prompted articles linking cellphones to brain cancer and served as evidence in lawsuits urging the removal of wireless classroom technology. In time, echoes of his reports fed Russian news sites noted for stoking misinformation about 5G technology. What began as a simple graph became a case study in how bad science can take root and flourish. "I still think there are health effects," Dr. Curry said in an interview. "The federal government needs to look at it more closely."

Public health investigators asked people what they’d eaten, and 79 percent said they’d had romaine — both at restaurants, and at home. So far, no one knows whether there’s a common link. E. coli naturally hangs out in animal intestines, and one of the grossest ways it spreads is through poop. Produce can become contaminated if poop-tainted water gets into the field where it’s grown, or if the produce comes into contact with contaminated surfaces during harvest, shipping, or at the store.

The hunt began Jan. 10, when Chinese scientists posted the genetic makeup of the virus on a public database. The next morning, researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center in Maryland went to work. Within hours, they had pinpointed the letters of the genetic code that could be used to make a vaccine. Historically, vaccines have been one of the greatest public health tools to prevent disease. But even as technology, genomics and global coordination have improved, allowing researchers to move at top speed, vaccine development remains an expensive and risky process.