Long COVID This preprint from USA (2023-11-08) discussed a small study with 16 Long COVID patients who had small fiber neuropathy verified by skin biopsies. Eight of the patients got intravenous immunoglobulin and saw big improvements. This paper from Pakistan (20231122) found that people who were fully vaccinated were 62% less likely to get Long… Continue reading 2023-12-01 General
Category: Testing
2023-11-17 General
Long COVID This paper from Austria found that Epstein-Barr Virus antibody or DNA levels did not seem to be any different in Long COVID patients than controls (people who had had COVID-19 infections but did not get Long COVID). They also did not find markers of inflammation from viral infections in the Long COVID patients.… Continue reading 2023-11-17 General
2023-11-03 General
I read a paper which referred to “short COVID” to the acute, initial illness — y’know, the thing that lasts a week or two — and I think I might start using that term! Long COVID I haven’t talked about Long COVID biomarkers much because most biomarkers are relatively obscure proteins that you and I… Continue reading 2023-11-03 General
2023-10-20 General
Other News These aren’t COVID-19 pieces, but I think they are important. I had thought that RSV vaccinations weren’t available in Canada yet because NACI and the province had not figured out the parameters, but they are! My flu shot vaccinator said that they have RSV on hand. It costs a bunch (almost $300), but… Continue reading 2023-10-20 General
2023-09-15 General
This week, there have been a TON of articles with “What you need to know” in the headline. “What you need to know about the fall vaccines”, “What you need to know about BA.2.86”, “What you need to know about COVID this fall”, “What you need to know about COVID rapid tests heading into the… Continue reading 2023-09-15 General
2023-08-16 General
Okay, I’m done with the things I was super busy with, but I’m still catching up. I’m hoping to pump out several posts in the next week or two. Unexpected Side-effects This paper reports that fertility in the US went up after the first year of the pandemic, the first time births per capita went… Continue reading 2023-08-16 General
2023-05-04 General
I had an ugly thought. Maybe it makes a certain sense from the majority’s standpoint, to remove all restrictions because it would level the playing field. If COVID-19 does cause lasting damage, e.g. in increasing the risk of death or disability, then the people who have never had COVID-19 have an advantage over the people… Continue reading 2023-05-04 General
2023-04-06 General
Transmission It is pretty clear to me that COVID-19 spread is airborne — there has been lots of evidence in the literature for that — but I had not seen any evidence that it spread via surface contact (fomites). This paper from the UK makes a strong case for fomites being important. They tracked household… Continue reading 2023-04-06 General
2023-03-02 General
Health Care System This article says that federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos intervened in November with Canada’s drug price regulator to drop a policy reform process. 😠😬 Mitigation Measures This article (drawing from information in a number of papers) says that early targeted border closures were ineffective. (Basically, shutting down flights from South Africa and… Continue reading 2023-03-02 General
2023-02-23 General
Funding This article says that Canada is giving $30M to the World Health Organization, mostly to support vaccine delivery in hard-to-reach areas. This sounds like a lot, but the next article I read says that BC is giving the same amount — $30M — in one-time grants to arts events struggling to recover from COVID-19.… Continue reading 2023-02-23 General