Anti-Vaxxers Recommend Bathing In Borax, Other ‘Detox’ To ‘Undo’ Covid-19 Vaccines

Forbes/November 13, 2021

By Bruce Y. Lee

Bathing with borax is not the same as bathing with Borat. There shouldn’t be a reason to do either, though, after you’ve gotten the Covid-19 vaccine. Unless, of course, you happen to be Borat.

Yet, an osteopathic doctor, Carrie Madej, DO, recently claimed in a TikTok video that you should take a bath after vaccination to “detoxx the vaxx.” And she wasn’t recommending a standard bubble bath. Instead, this bath included baking soda and epsom salts to remove the “radiation,” Bentonite clay to pull out the “poison,” and, yes, one cup of borax to “take nanotechnologies out of you.”

Radiation? Poison? Nanotechnologies? Holy, ingredients, Batman, who ever said that any of those things are in Covid-19 vaccines? Well, certainly not the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any peer-reviewed publications in reputable scientific journals. You can’t just pick random items and substances and claim that they are in the vaccines. Why not throw in lawn chains, peanut butter, microwave oven parts, and Ugg boots as well?

The following tweet thread from NBC reporter Ben Collins included the TikTok video of Madej’s claims on TikTok as well as a big box of borax:

On TikTok, anti-vaxxers have rallied around influencer Carrie Madej, who claims she can “detoxx the vaxx.”

Her solution? A bath with baking soda for “radiation” and epsom salt for “poisons.”

Then, she says, add Borax to clean out “nanotechnologies.”

Note that big box of borax on the tweet was just a picture and not real. Neither is the suggestion that bathing would somehow “undo” the effects of the Covid-19 vaccine, as Madej claimed. Getting vaccinated is not like soiling yourself. A bath may make you feel good especially while playing the Enya song Only Time. However, it is not going to clear away all of the vaccine’s effects.

Once the contents of the Covid-19 vaccines are injected into your body, they are inside your body and don’t stay on your skin. As I have described previously for Forbes, the vaccines are supposed to get your cells to produce spike proteins. Spike proteins are what make the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) look like spiky massage balls or those maces used in BDSM, not that you should know anything about that. The presence of the spike proteins then shows your immune system what to build defenses against. No amount of bathing is going to pull the lipid-encased mRNA from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the adenoviruses from the Johnson &Johnson vaccine, or the resulting spike proteins more quickly from your body. Instead, they will naturally degrade and leave your body soon after they’ve done their thing.

Plus, why would you even want to “undo” the Covid-19 vaccine’s effects? It can offer protection against being infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus and against more severe Covid-19 outcomes. Well, Madej seems to be posing this bath as some kind of purported “morning after” or a Plan B pill. Her advice may be directed towards folks who have already gotten vaccinated but for some reason may still be worrying about the effects of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Who could this be? Well, with more and more businesses, schools, and other locations requiring Covid-19 vaccination, many of the folks finally getting vaccinated now may have done so begrudgingly. And this growing segment could be a new target for bogus “cleansing” information and treatments.

Now, in general, bathing isn’t a bad thing. People around you may not say, “hey, you’ve really got to stop all this bathing stuff,” unless you are doing it at work or at the dinner table. And bathing in baking soda, epsom salts, or bentonite clay are not necessarily terrible things to do, especially if you are a large cake with arms or a giant muffin. Don’t swallow or eat such substances, though. For example, doctors will rarely say, “hey, eat some clay,” because things like bentonite clay can block your intestines.

Also, be wary of the unsupported claims out there about what bathing in these substances can do. They aren’t miracle cures for many medical conditions. Nonetheless, there is some evidence that bathing in these substances may help soothe some skin conditions, relax your muscles, and loosen stiff joints.

Borax is a different story. Otherwise known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, this combo of boron, sodium, and oxygen typically serves as a household cleaner or a laundry detergent booster. Unless you are a kitchen counter or a pair of dirty gym shorts, bathing in a household cleaner or a laundry detergent is not a good idea.

Varying amount of borax may be present in slime putty for kids and certain types of toothpastes, mouthwashes, cosmetics, ceramic glazes, and herbicides. However, as you can imagine, these forms of borax are not necessarily interchangeable. Your significant other may be a bit upset after the fact if you were to say, “oh, by the way, instead of cosmetics, I got you some herbicide or ceramic glaze.” So anytime you use anything with borax in it, check the label and make sure that you follow the instructions.

It’s a good idea to limit your exposure to borax as well. Borax can irritate your skin and be harmful if inhaled, leading to nose, throat, or lung damage, or swallowed, leading to nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Too much exposure to borax can result in damage to your reproductive organs, shock, or liver failure. This is why the FDA doesn’t allow borax in any food products in the U.S. If the answer to your question “what’s for dinner” includes the word “borax” in any way, step away from the dinner table. Avoid any dishes named “spaghetti with borax sauce” or “borax cream pie.”

Apparently, as Collins reported for NBC News, Madej hasn’t been the only one suggesting such “detoxx after vaxx” approaches. And bathing hasn’t been the only method pushed. Others have suggested things like cupping, making small incisions in your skin, and injecting yourself with other things. Where is the scientific evidence that any of these can do anything to “undo” your Covid-19 vaccination? Sorry, if you got the Covid-19 vaccine, you are going to just have to deal with good protection against Covid-19 that it can offer you.

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