Mitigation Measures This article says that the US will allow fully-vaccinated Canadians to enter, starting sometime in November. “Fully-vaccinated” has not been clearly defined yet. Vaccines Novavax has published data from their Phase 3 trials in the USA and Mexico in this preprint. I wanted to be snarky and say that maybe this means that… Continue reading 2010-10-09/10/11/12 General
Category: General
2021-10-08 General
Risk Factors This preprint says that having a bad mutation on the (X-linked) TLR7 gene is very very bad for your COVID-19 prospects. The authors think this accounts for about 1.8% of severe COVID-19 in male patients under 60. But here’s some good news on genes: this preprint says that a change in one nucleotide… Continue reading 2021-10-08 General
2021-10-07 General
Long COVID This study from the UK found: there were subtle differences in T cells which correlated strongly (but not perfectly) with having Long COVID; giving histamine receptor antagonists made 72% of them better (!!!); something which the histamine receptor antagonists never helped was dysautonomia, which suggests that there is some different mechanism causing that.… Continue reading 2021-10-07 General
2021-10-06 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that the Government of Canada has come out with new vaccine mandates. All federal employees — including those who work from home or in a different country — have until 29 October to get vaccinated. Everyone over 12 must be vaccinated to take a plane or train inside Canada. Transmission… Continue reading 2021-10-06 General
2021-10-02/03/04/05/06 General
It is going to take me time to catch up, be patient. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to understand how various non-coronavirus vaccines could provide some protection against COVID-19. I failed yesterday, but I will keep working on it (and posting other news). Vaccines This preprint says that people over 50 (i.e.… Continue reading 2021-10-02/03/04/05/06 General
2021-10-01 General
Vaccines Today, during a BC Ministry of Health press conference about something else, Dr. Henry got a question about when little kids’ vaccinations (ages 5-11). Dr. Henry said that Pfizer had submitted (or was about to submit?) data for the study, which had a new formulation: 1/3 of the adult active ingredient (10 mg vs.… Continue reading 2021-10-01 General
2021-09-30 General
Pathology This preprint made a model which predicts positive PCR tests based on seven symptoms: loss or change of sense of smell, loss or change of sense of taste, fever, new persistent cough, chills, appetite loss, and muscle aches. This can possibly replace tests in places where tests either are not available or when someone… Continue reading 2021-09-30 General
2021-09-29 General
Testing/Diagnostics In this study, they put a wristwatch-like thing on the wrists of people who willingly allowed themselves to be infected with either rhinovirus, flu, or placebo. The wristwatch thingie was able to predict illness about a day before symptoms showed up. This could be really useful for diagnosing other respiratory infections (like ahem COVID-19).… Continue reading 2021-09-29 General
2021-09-28 General
Treatments It’s been observed often that obesity raises the risk of COVID-19. This preprint looked into it more closely, and found that the anti-obesity drug orlistat blocks COVID-19 in mice. Mitigation Measures This report from England looked how behaviour correlated with risk of getting COVID-19. People who reported that never wore masks were slightly over… Continue reading 2021-09-28 General
2021-09-25/26/27 General
Pathology A paper last week said that the risk of heart inflammation in young men was one in a thousand. As this article reports, they were waaaaaay off in their count of the total number of vaccinations in Ontario; the correct figure turns out to be one in 1 in 25,000. I can’t for the… Continue reading 2021-09-25/26/27 General