Disease This preprint found that patients with COVID-19 made a bunch of antibodies which attacked their own innate immune system. Putting those antibodies into mice with a human ACE2 receptor made them more susceptible to COVID-19. Remember yesterday, how I talked at length about how live attenuated virus vaccines (LAVs) appear to rev up the… Continue reading 2021-05-19 General
Month: May 2021
2021-05-18 General
Vaccines I took a look at a paper about a South African trial of AstraZeneca — I think this is the final paper of the preprint I’d seen before — and it says that AZ is really crappy against B.1.351. I knew that, I preach that. HOWEVER, something I hadn’t noticed before is that there were no… Continue reading 2021-05-18 General
2021-05-18 BC
Testing Some North Shore school districts are going to use home gargle tests for schoolkids. You’ll still have to drop them off at a LifeLabs, so they aren’t quite rapid tests, but they are still relatively speedy. (Plus you don’t have to get the back of your sinuses assaulted.) Statistics +411 cases, +2 deaths, +38,538… Continue reading 2021-05-18 BC
2021-05-13/17 BC
NB: I hurt a tendon in my hand, so took a few days off from typing. It will probably take me a few days to catch up on all that has happened, and I will be less detailed. Vaccination Clinics Over the weekend, vaccine bookings have opened up to ALL yes all adults! This is… Continue reading 2021-05-13/17 BC
2021-05-13 General
Vaccines There are lots of papers which look at antibodies — because antibodies (made by B cells) are comparatively easy to measure. Over and over, I’ve seen papers saying that some specific vax does not generate as many antibodies against some specific variant than against COVID Classic. By contrast, this paper looks at T-cells in… Continue reading 2021-05-13 General
2021-05-13 BC
Testing A pilot project at UBC where they used rapid testing in the dorms found several clusters, and was deemed a success. Some are asking why we are not doing more rapid testing. Opinion: I worry because we have seen over and over again that people treat a negative rapid test as license to drop… Continue reading 2021-05-13 BC
2021-05-13/17 General
NB: I hurt a tendon in my hand, so took a few days off from typing. It will probably take me a few days to catch up on all that has happened. Treatments A big study in the UK found that giving people in hospital convalescent plasma (i.e. a source of antibodies) did absolutely no… Continue reading 2021-05-13/17 General
2021-05-12 BC
Vaccination Clinics BC has officially passed 50% of the eligible population vaccinated with at least one dose! Yay!! They are pausing giving AZ as first doses today, ostensibly to save the remaining doses for second doses. Later today, people under 30 will be able to book appointments. We are FLYING through the cohorts now! Someone… Continue reading 2021-05-12 BC
2021-05-12 General
Variants There is a somewhat worrying report from Qatar saying that the efficacy of only one dose of Pfizer is only 29.5% against infection from B.1.1.7 and 54% against hospitalization. If you only have one dose, maybe don’t go licking doorknobs just yet. However, this report, also out today, from the UK from December to… Continue reading 2021-05-12 General
2021-05-11 BC
Vaccine Clinics 36 year-olds are booking now!! We are going through birth years really fast now; yesterday’s record 60K shots in arms certainly helped! Sick leave The BC government has adopted a sick leave policy that mandates three days to people with COVID-19 while isolating and waiting for test results. Businesses will be partially reimbursed.… Continue reading 2021-05-11 BC