This is a short posting because there wasn’t much news over the holidays. The province didn’t release any data this week, so there’s no BC-specific posting. (The province says they will release data next Thursday.) COVID-19 COVID-Related Excess Sickness and Death This paper from USA (2025-12-23) reports that people hospitalized for COVID-19 had a 2.11… Continue reading 2026-01-02 General
2025-12-26 General
Influenza Transmission 🤧 I just had influenza, so spent some time looking up information about incubation periods and contagiousness to figure out how to keep Spouse from getting sick. O. My. Word. There is so much information that is just plain wrong out there! Almost every web page I visited said that influenza was passed… Continue reading 2025-12-26 General
2025-12-24 BC
Note: against normal practice, I updated the wastewater chart and added a news article about a closed emergency room after I published this post — because of holiday strangenesses and my illness. It’s not likely to be a frequent occurrence. I thought I was going to give a belated look at last week’s data, but… Continue reading 2025-12-24 BC
2025-12-19 NO POST
I am Sick 🙁 Well, after more than five years, I am sick. II got symptoms on the evening of the 17th, and while ‘m clearly not going to die, I am not a happy camper. Being sick suuuuuuuucks. With What? With what? I suspect influenza. It is my understanding that there are three “knock… Continue reading 2025-12-19 NO POST
2025-12-12 BC
Flu levels have jumped a lot. Flu, RSV, and entero/rhinoviruses are all now more prevalent than COVID-19 in BC. COVID-19 Charts From the Viral Pathogen Characterization page: WHEEEE look at flu GO! In the most recent data (ending 6 Dec) as reported on 11 Dec 2025, among influenza-like illness (i.e respiratory diseases) cases that the… Continue reading 2025-12-12 BC
2025-12-12 General
COVID Long COVID 🚑 This paper from USA (2025-12-03) reports that veterans who were eventually diagnosed with Long COVID had a 34% higher risk of emergency department visits in the six months after their infection compared to those who tested positive for COVID-19 infections but who did not get Long COVID. 🩸 This paper from… Continue reading 2025-12-12 General
2025-12-05 BC
COVID-19 Wastewater Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet has pretty much always shown a higher COVID-19 concentration per litre than any of the other health authorities — by a large margin. This summer, for example, Fraser levels were four or five times higher than Vancouver and Richmond: I dug into the by-HA records. Fraser Health Authority might have… Continue reading 2025-12-05 BC
2025-12-05 General
Recommended Reading 🙌🧴🍞🦠🤢 This older article (2019-12-10) reports on a simple experiment that a schoolteacher did with her class: she took slices of bread and had kids handle them after various hand hygiene techniques. Tongs? The bread was immaculate. No handwashing? Covered with mold. Spoiler: hand sanitizer is not as good as washing with soap… Continue reading 2025-12-05 General
2025-11-28 BC
If you haven’t gotten your flu shot yet, now would be a good time. It looks to me like flu cases are about to shoot up. There are now more flu cases than COVID-19 cases. COVID-19 is clearly declining. COVID-19 Charts From the Viral Pathogen Characterization page: Last week’s numbers were adjusted up quite a… Continue reading 2025-11-28 BC
2025-11-28 General
COVID-19 COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🫀 This paper from Sweden (2025-11-18) reports that getting COVID-19 increases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. Compared to people who did not catch COVID-19, people who did get COVID-19 infections had: People who were hospitalized for COVID-19 had a 10.77 times risk of all-cause mortality compared to never-COVIDers (AKA… Continue reading 2025-11-28 General