Mitigation Measures
This article says that the federal government is going to drop the COVID-19 test for travellers entering Canada, for both land and air crossings, for fully vaxxed travellers. Rumour has it that the requirement will be dropped on 1 April.
Vaccines
Remember J&J? The lame-ass one-shot vax that nobody wants? This article says that J&J is actually the most effective against infection in the US right now! From a CDC web page:
Now, it is possible that more people with J&J got breakthrough infections, like during Delta, and that’s giving them more protection later. And its protection against death is not as good:
Still, it’s interesting. It sort of looks like its protection is more durable than the mRNA shots. (Also note that this data only goes through 22 Jan 2022.)
A small study in Israeli people over 60 found that a fourth dose reduced infection by ~2x and serious illness by ~4x.
Variants
Folks, the pandemic isn’t over. In many places in Europe, cases are rising again, and it looks like it’s from BA.2 — which is even more contagious than Omicron (BA.1), which is waaaay more contagious than Delta, which is more contagious than Delta, which is more contagious than COVID Classic. (I read one tweet which said that BA.2 is now about as contagious as measles.) From this Twitter thread, which references this article:
Long COVID
This paper found that getting COVID-19 increased your risk of getting Type-2 diabetes in the following year by 28%.
Buried in this article are opinions that most people with Long COVID do improve, although slowly and that Omicron doesn’t seem to be any more benign.
This preprint says that a high percentage of Long COVID patients had air trapping — the inability to fully exhale — as a result of small airways disease, which is basically when the bronchial tubes pass less air, perhaps because of gunk lining them or scarring.
Pathology
This article says that COVID-19 can cause croup — swelling of the trachea — in small children, and Omicron seems to do so more often than other variants.
Recommended Reading
This article suggests that we shouldn’t just have surveillance for the virus, but also to monitor how good our communities’ immunity is at any point in time.