All indicators say that the levels of COVID-19 are coming down noticeably at the moment. Regarding influenza vaccines, flu rates have ticked up slightly but are still really low. It feels to me like we are about two weeks behind last year’s flu season, so I think that means flu will probably peak in late… Continue reading 2024-11-16 BC
2024-11-16 General
H5N1 Transmission This article (2024-11-12) reports that a teenager from BC in the Fraser Health Authority region is in critical care with the bird-version of H5N1 (clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype D1.1, i.e. not the cattle version). Nobody knows how the teen caught it — the teen had contact with other people, dogs, cats, and reptiles, but… Continue reading 2024-11-16 General
2024-11-08 BC
I still think it’s not the right time yet to get a flu shot. There’s not a lot of flu going around, and historically it peaks in late December. It *did* peak early (at the end of November) two years ago — but that was our first season post-mitigation measures and we’d already seen a… Continue reading 2024-11-08 BC
2024-11-08 General
The outlets where I usually get my news are filled this week with articles speculating on what the Trump win means for health care in the USA, crowding out pandemic news. So it’s a slow news week. COVID-19 Vaccines ⭐ This article (2024-11-04) helps to explain why we aren’t getting Novavax vaccine in Canada. In… Continue reading 2024-11-08 General
2024-11-03 BC
Other indicators are difficult to interpret, but wastewater COVID-19 levels are sharply, unmistakably down this week. Charts From the BC CDC Situation Report: From the Viral Pathogen Characterization page: In the week ending Oct. 26, among confirmed cases, there were Reminder: the graphs below don’t tell how many cases there were, but how many cases… Continue reading 2024-11-03 BC
2024-11-03 General
Vaccines ⭐ This preprint from USA (2024-10-12) is about an influenza vaccine study, but it relevant to both COVID-19 and bird flu so I’m putting it at the top. In this study, the researchers used what they call “prime and spike” strategy for influenza where “prime” is an intramuscular injection and “spike” is a nasal… Continue reading 2024-11-03 General
2024-10-26 BC
The hospitalizations per week and ICU admits per week charts look like they are going down, but I don’t believe them: the in-hospital chart looks like it is going up, and the hospitalizations per week and ICU admits per week pretty much always get adjusted upwards later. Meanwhile, the number of cases and the positivity… Continue reading 2024-10-26 BC
2024-10-26 General
COVID-19 Long COVID ⭐ This paper from Sweden (2024-10-16) reports that many Long COVID patients have cardiovascular problems. 41% had microvascular endothelial dysfunction — basically, messed up blood vessels. Another 20% had a poor reactive hyperemia index — IIUC, something that measures the ability of the cardiovascular system to self-regulate. In addition, the patients who… Continue reading 2024-10-26 General
2024-10-18 BC
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has unmistakenly gone up since August, and there is a small but very real rise in the number of COVID-19 cases that they have seen. Positivity, however, hasn’t really moved all that much (and wastewater is hard to interpret), so I don’t know what to tell you… Continue reading 2024-10-18 BC
2024-10-18 General
COVID-19 Pandemic Side Effects It’s not a surprise that a lot of cancer diagnoses didn’t get made in 2020 — everything was hectic. The strange thing that this paper from USA (2024-10-14) shows is that those missing cases never showed up again! 127,931 cancer cases are still missing and they aren’t sure why. Some of… Continue reading 2024-10-18 General