Mitigation Measures
This article says that the federal government is advising against international travel. (If you go to the travel advisory page, for every country, it says you shouldn’t go there.)
This article says that the Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland committed a whole bunch of money to fight COVID-19 .
Variants
There were a ton of words spilled about how OMG Omicron is growing SO FAST in this jurisdiction!!!! Too many for me to be able to choose. Just know it’s growing rapidly. Scary-fast. The doubling rate seems to be between two and four days, depending on the jurisdiction.
This study found that Omicron grows 70 times faster in the bronchial tubes than Delta, and way slower in the lungs. The authors speculate that higher amount in the bronchial tubes might be why it spreads faster; the lower amount in the lungs might be why Omicron is less severe.
This article, like many I’ve linked to, says that Omicron is more evasive that other variants, but it also says that Omicron can infect mice while others cannot.
It’s not just Pfizer that sucks against Omicron. This preprint says that two doses Moderna has 50x to 85x-ish less neutralizing antibodies against Omicron than against COVID Classic, and 5x to 6x-ish less sensitive against Omicron than to Beta. Like with Pfizer, a booster helps a lot.
This article has this pretty picture showing which countries are (likely to be) have good protection against Delta (on x-axis) and Omicron (on y-axis).
This article had this depressing picture:
Vaccines
Here’s a depressing picture about waning from this article:
Treatments
Today during the BC Ministry of Health press conference, Minister Dix mentioned that the government had procured Merck’s and Pfizer’s pill treatment for COVID-19, that they can’t use until waiting for Health Canada to approve them, which unspecified “they” expect to happen early next year. Dix gave me the impression that the drugs were already in-country, so could be rolled out fast.
Recommended Reading
This depressing article by a writer who underwent great hassle because of the sudden South Africa flight restrictions shows how, while science is great, meaningful, clear, consistent policies are really really important.
This Twitter thread explains why soap and water is better than anything else for killing COVID-19 on surfaces. (Do not drink soapy water! External use only!)