Press Briefing There was a press briefing today that I missed because my lazy ass was still in bed. From Twitter, apparently the high points were: They are dropping the age part of the booster eligibility priority queue (mostly) and are going to go strictly on time-based, with everybody at 6 months since their second… Continue reading 2021-12-31 BC
Month: December 2021
2021-12-31 General
It was a slow news day. Everything was more of the same: Omicron is milder, with half as many hospitalizations per case; cases are doubling every 2-4 days depending on the jurisdiction, hospitals are straining in many jurisdictions, health care workers are losing their minds. Recommended Reading This article talks how, frustrated with the slow… Continue reading 2021-12-31 General
2021-12-30 BC
Mitigation Measures This article says that American anti-vaxxer and media personality Joe Rogan cancelled a show in BC, presumably because Canada won’t let him onstage without a vaccine. (Go Canada!) Statistics Today: +4,383 cases, +1 death, +3,475 first doses, +1,750 second doses, +25,646 other doses. The positivity rate was 28.6% (although note that they are… Continue reading 2021-12-30 BC
2021-12-30 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that people can now apply for the federal Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit of up to $300/week, retroactive to 19 Dec. Variants This report from Ontario Public Health says that, after adjusting for vaccination status, the risk of severe illness from Omicron is 54% that from Delta. This preprint (from August)… Continue reading 2021-12-30 General
2021-12-29 General
Variants There continue to be studies in test tubes and lab rodents which all show pretty convincingly that Omicron does not infect the lungs as well as previous versions. This preprint says that T cells from vaccination still have 70-80% of their protection against Omicron (which is probably why breakthrough cases are mild). Transmission This… Continue reading 2021-12-29 General
2021-12-29 BC
Press Briefing Stuff they said that I’m not sure I’ve mentioned before: Omicron’s incubation period — the time from infection to infectious — is about three days, vs. six for previous variants. By the time you get symptoms and get tested, it’s too late. With two doses of vax, you are much more likely to… Continue reading 2021-12-29 BC
2021-12-27/28 BC
Testing This article says that any self-reported positives on rapid antigen tests which get submitted via the province’s survey (which I posted a few days ago) do not get reported in the province’s daily numbers. (I guess that’s because if they did, malicious actors would artificially inflate the numbers?) There is a user-driven site where… Continue reading 2021-12-27/28 BC
2021-12-25/26/27/28 General
Variants There has been difficulty figuring out how badly Omicron is going to hit the hospital system first because it is a lagging indicator, second because Omicron affects vaccinated and unvaccinated people so differently, and third because of poor-quality data around the holidays. Still, there are hints that, as this tweet from New York says,… Continue reading 2021-12-25/26/27/28 General
2021-12-24 BC
NB: I have a tendency to say “we” when I am talking about BC public health. I am not employed by pub health (or actually anyone at the moment). I say “we” as a British Columbian invested in the system. It is OUR health care system. Press Briefing Testing Case counts continue to soar. Yesterday… Continue reading 2021-12-24 BC
2021-12-24 General
This is short because Happy Christmas Eve! Testing This paper from October says that there is 1.7x variation in PCR test results over the course of a day, with 2pm being the time when an infected person will have the highest viral load. This article says that it’s not legal for you to redistribute rapid… Continue reading 2021-12-24 General