2021-11-09 General

Vaccines This article reports that Health Canada approved the Pfizer booster for everyone over 18 today. This study gives the Phase 3 results for the pediatric Pfizer shots, showing a vaccine effectiveness of 90.7%. Recommended Reading This article is about the theory of risk compensation — which they say is bogus and harmful. You won’t… Continue reading 2021-11-09 General

2021-11-09 BC

Press Briefing The press briefing today was really dull. About the only piece of news was that BC is going to get a small amount of J&J (from Europe, not that trash that came from Baltimore), and they are going to offer it first to health care workers who have not gotten vaccinated and who… Continue reading 2021-11-09 BC

2021-11-08 BC

Statistics Fri/Sat: +553 casesSat/Sun: +462 casesSun/Mon: +423 cases Over weekend, average of around +6 deaths, 1,489 first doses, +7,604 second doses, +5,954 other doses. Currently 407 in hospital / 121 in ICU, 4,282 active cases, 202,898 recovered. first doses second doses of adults 90.7% 86.6% of over-12s 90.3% 86.0% of all BCers 82.1% 78.4% Charts

2021-11-06/7/8 General

Disease As I mentioned back in May 2020, they discovered a new coronavirus in Malaysia in samples from 2017 and 2018 which appears to have jumped directly from dogs to humans. They found this coronavirus because someone decided to go looking for unknown coronaviruses, and whaddayaknow, there one is! There wasn’t a big fuss because… Continue reading 2021-11-06/7/8 General

2021-11-05 BC

Mitigation Measures This article says that BC has decided to close down mink farming in the province permanently because of the health risks. Transmission This article says that 40 people from the Clearbrook Mennonite Brethren Church in Abbotsford (a pro-vax church) have gotten COVID-19; 11 have been hospitalized. The church voluntarily closed in-person services. Statistics… Continue reading 2021-11-05 BC

2021-11-05 General

Treatment Fantastic news! Pfizer has a pill which, if you take it in the first three days after symptoms appear, cuts hospitalization by NINETY F PERCENT!!! If taken within the first five days, it’s ~85% effective. The pill, called Paxlovid, is a protease inhibitor, which ought to be easy to make and have low side… Continue reading 2021-11-05 General

2021-11-04 BC

Karma This article says that Mak Parhar, a literal flat-earther and COVID-denier has died. While the official cause of death has not been determined blah blah, he had recently complained of symptoms which sure looked similar to COVID-19 symptoms. Press Briefing Today there was a briefing on modelling (slides, video). Briefly, because I am bored… Continue reading 2021-11-04 BC

2021-11-04 General

Genetics This preprint talks about using virus-like particles to study viruses. It looks enough like SARS-CoV-2 that it can get into cells, but then it can’t replicate. Essentially, it’s shooting blanks. This study identified a specific gene variant (which comes from Neanderthals!) which gives a 2x risk of respiratory failure. About 60% of people of… Continue reading 2021-11-04 General

2021-11-03 BC

Pathology This article reports that there were a record-breaking 55 double-lung transplants in 2020, nine of them because of lung damage from COVID-19. So far this year, there have been 52. Statistics +430 cases, +5 deaths, +7,789 first doses, +3,188 second doses, +4,646 other doses.  Currently X* in hospital / 137 in ICU, 4,373 active… Continue reading 2021-11-03 BC

2021-11-03 General

Deaths/Demographics In addition to just “numbers of deaths”, you can also estimate “years of life lost” to describe how bad an epidemic is. For example, HIV had a huuuuge number of years of life lost because the people who died from it were unusually young. This article looked at years of life lost to COVID-19… Continue reading 2021-11-03 General