Mitigation Measures This press release from the Ministry of Health says that they are ending the quarantine supports for farm workers. They said that 97% of the farmworkers who enter are fully vaccinated. Statistics +313 cases, +1 death, +230 first doses, +716 second doses, +1,965 other doses. 273 in hospital / 46 in ICU. +291… Continue reading 2022-03-29/30 BC
Month: March 2022
2022-03-29/30 General
Vaccines This preprint took a very careful look at Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, and Novavax in test tubes. It measured a bunch of different components of the immune system in multiple ways. In general, the mRNAs waned the most and one shot J&J the least, but J&J started from a low enough place that even after… Continue reading 2022-03-29/30 General
2022-03-26/27/28 BC
Mitigation Measures While the mask mandate in schools was dropped today, and the mask mandate for adults was dropped a while ago, this article reminds the reader that after you travel outside the country, anyone under 12 needs to still wear masks in indoor public areas. (It’s a federal regulation, and you have to do… Continue reading 2022-03-26/27/28 BC
2022-03-26/27/28 General
Long COVID I have been seeing anecdotal reports for some time on Twitter that Paxlovid helped Long COVID, but nothing that seemed concrete enough to post here. Well, I can now point to this case study from a few weeks ago which says that Paxlovid completely got rid of Long COVID symptoms in one woman.… Continue reading 2022-03-26/27/28 General
2022-03-24/25 General
Vaccines This article reports that the World Health Organization’s COVAX project declined to approve Medicago’s vax — not because their vax doesn’t work, but because Medicago is largely owned by Big Tobacco, and that’s verboten. This preprint says that a trivalent version of the NDV-HXP-S vax with a mix of Beta, Gamma, and Delta spikes… Continue reading 2022-03-24/25 General
2022-03-24/25 BC
Mitigation Measures This article reports that a pharmacy had its PharmaCare billing rights suspended while they are investigating fake vaccination records allegedly entered there. Statistics Wed/Thu: +271 cases, +6 deaths, +521 first doses, +1,801 second doses, +2,351 other doses. 255 in hospital / 52 in ICU. +218 cases, +2 deaths, +289 first doses, +1,485 second… Continue reading 2022-03-24/25 BC
2022-03-23 General
Testing This article says that COVID-19 in wastewater is going up in many places across Canada. Mitigation Measures This article reports on an Italian study which found that better ventilation reduced COVID-19 cases dramatically in schools. Replacing classroom air 2.4 times an hour gave a 40 percent reduction in infections; 4 times an hour gave… Continue reading 2022-03-23 General
2022-03-22/23 BC
Testing The province announced today that everyone over 18 can pick up RATs at pharmacies. Mitigation Measures This article says that BC is undercounting long term care home outbreaks by just not calling them outbreaks. This article says that the province has spent $27M at private health clinics to draw down the backlog of surgical… Continue reading 2022-03-22/23 BC
2022-03-20/21 BC
Testing The province declared that people over 30 can now pick up one free rapid test kit (5 tests) at pharmacies. (You can get another kit in four weeks.) Statistics Fri/Sat: +200 casesSat/Sun: +170 casesSun/Mon: +136 cases Over the weekend, ~+2 deaths/day, roughly +278 first doses, +2,506 second doses, +2,724 other doses. Currently 271 in… Continue reading 2022-03-20/21 BC
2022-03-20/21 General
Vaccines This study found that countries which use the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) have a higher rate of COVID-19 than those which use the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), which uses a live attenuated virus. OPV is easier/cheaper to administer, but there is a (small) risk of getting polio from the vaccine. Yes, countries which use… Continue reading 2022-03-20/21 General