I want to remind people again to get a flu shot this year. There’s a new substrain — H3N2 subclade K — which apparently is more contagious and nastier if you catch it. The flu shot isn’t hugely effective against infection but it has some effectiveness (especially for children!), and even if it doesn’t stop… Continue reading 2025-11-14 General
Category: Testing
2025-10-24 General
COVID-19 Vaccines 🎉 This isn’t about a vaccine exactly, but something that acts like a vaccine — i.e. it prevents you from getting sick. This paper from USA (2025-10-21) describes a small Phase 1 study in healthy adults of a plasmid DNA which, when injected, made the study participants’ cells make tixagevimab and cilgavimab —… Continue reading 2025-10-24 General
2025-09-27 General
COVID-19 It’s a bit hard to tell what is happening with COVID-19 in BC because of the lack of data, but COVID-19 in Canada overall is definitely going up. Long COVID 🫡 This paper from the USA (2025-09-16) looked at Long COVID in active duty service members and found: COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🫀💉… Continue reading 2025-09-27 General
2025-09-21 BC
Vaccines Who is going to be able to get a COVID-19 vaccination in BC? As I mentioned in the 2025-08-11 post, NACI says — if I understand correctly — that higher-risk people should get two doses per year and lower-risk people (basically health people under 65) may get one dose per year. However, I’m seeing… Continue reading 2025-09-21 BC
2025-09-21 General
Long COVID 🎉🎉🎉‼️ This case studies paper from USA (2025-02-09) reports that all nine of the study patients who got stellate ganglion blocks for three consecutive weeks improved significantly! I’m surprised that I missed it in February, and that there hasn’t been more excitement about it, as these are hugely encouraging results! 😢 This study… Continue reading 2025-09-21 General
2025-09-13 General
COVID-19 Vaccines 💰 This preprint (2025-09-04) estimates that the return on the investment in developing COVID-19 vaccines was between $59.8–$475 per dollar invested. COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness This paper from USA (2025-09-08) reports that children who had COVID-19 infections were more likely to have new-onset depression afterwards. Compared to children who did not have… Continue reading 2025-09-13 General
2025-08-31 General
COVID-19 Vaccines 😲💉 This preprint from USA (2025-08-27) reports that vaccine-only immunity with a KP.2 vaccine (as tested in blood) is better against LP.8.1, LF.7.1, NB.1.8.1, XFG, and BA.3.2 than hybrid immunity with the KP.2 vaccine! I find it a bit suspicious that they were able to find sixteen people who had gotten a KP.2… Continue reading 2025-08-31 General
2025-08-16 General
English-language health news this week has been swamped with political news from USA. It has not been fun to wade through articles on the CDC shooter, various politically-motivated firings of competent people, various notifications of programs being shut down, etc. COVID-19 Vaccines 💉 I WAS MISINFORMED! Last week, I said that you couldn’t get COVID-19… Continue reading 2025-08-16 General
2025-07-26 General
COVID-19 Long COVID ‼️‼️‼️🎉🎉🎉This article (2025-07-22) and this paper from Canada (2025-07-07) say that scientists have found a really easy blood test to diagnose ME/CFS! (They look for the protein SMPDL3B.) This is both great for testing purposes but also suggests a treatment! They haven’t looked for SMPDL3B in Long COVID patients yet, but I… Continue reading 2025-07-26 General
2025-07-12 General
Wastewater levels are all going down. Was that tiny little our summer wave? Did we already peak???? Long COVID ‼️😬 This preprint from Spain (2025-07-04) found that Long COVID prevalence was 3-10 times higher in individuals with three or more infections than in those with only one recorded infection. This paper from Denmark (2025-05-13) reports… Continue reading 2025-07-12 General