Daas: Thank you for posting Rav Padwa’s teshuva. I don’t have time to analyze it point by point, but I was not impressed. He even goes beyond what you said, assuming as a davar pashut that worms are orlah without any source.
“heard his opinion from his talmidim at the time the NYC bugs-in-water “crises” erupted”
OK. if you heard it from a reliable source then I accept that he said it. But I still think it is an extreme chumra, and I would not be machmir more then Rav Vaye.
“I think even the thinnest human hair is visible, as well as a fine (or even superfine) merino wool fiber”
This is an assumption.
Have a good summer, we’ll miss you.