There is a lot of respiratory illness going around, but right now, it looks like only about 6% of it is COVID-19! The last time there were so few people in hospital with COVID-19 was August 2023, and there haven’t been as few weekly confirmed cases since before testing was severely curtailed during the big… Continue reading 2025-01-31 BC
Month: January 2025
2025-01-31 General
It is still a little harder finding good articles / papers than a few weeks ago. In addition to all the chaff from Trump in the health sites I monitor, there are now a ton of news articles saying, “Today is the five year anniversary of the first COVID case appearing in <jurisdiction>, what have… Continue reading 2025-01-31 General
2025-01-25 BC
Everything COVID looks low-ish. Not gone, not low on an absolute scale, but definitely low on a relative scale. For example, while the lowest number in hospital with COVID-19 that we’ve seen since Omicron hit was ~65 (in the summer of 2023), right now we’re at about 80. Is this something special to BC, or… Continue reading 2025-01-25 BC
2025-01-25 General
Health news was harder to find this week. A lot of my sources were overrun with articles about what trouble the new US president is fomenting, leaving little room for articles about COVID, mpox, or H5N1. ☹️ You might have noticed that I sometimes mark snippets with “AGAIN”. Why do I bother showing studies that… Continue reading 2025-01-25 General
2025-01-18 BC
Yay! Something at the very end of this article (2025-01-17) on what the BC teen with bird flu went through says that she’s out of the hospital and back home. 🎉 Health Care System This report (2025-01-16) reports that an estimated 28,077 Canadians died while waiting for surgery or diagnostic tests between April 1, 2023… Continue reading 2025-01-18 BC
2025-01-18 General
COVID-19 Long COVID 🎉 This paper from Hungary (2025-01-09) reports that people who got remdesivir while they were hospitalized with COVID-19 recovered from Long COVID symptoms faster than those who did not get remdesivir. 🎉🎊🥳 If you missed it last week, this paper reports that nasal chlorpheniramine (a first-generation H1 antagonist antihistamine) works really well… Continue reading 2025-01-18 General
2025-01-10 BC
The province only gave numbers for flu A, flu B, RSV, and COVID-19 for the week ending 4 Jan 2025, but that’s enough to see that flu finally beat out RSV for the most prevalent respiratory disease. COVID-19 levels look still relatively low-ish, though the wastewater graph looks like they are going up slightly. Mitigation… Continue reading 2025-01-10 BC
2025-01-10 General
I want to talk for a moment about human metapneumonia virus (HMPV). It is NOT some strange new virus which is killing people in China — again. HMPV has been circulating for at least sixty years, I have almost certainly had it, you have probably had it. BC has been tracking it for years: I… Continue reading 2025-01-10 General
2025-01-03 General
❗❗❗RECALL!!! There was a housecat in Oregon which died after eating Northwest Naturals Feline Turkey Recipe raw & frozen pet food which was infected with bird flu. THIS PET FOOD IS ALSO SOLD IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. DO NOT FEED YOUR CAT THIS FOOD. (Yes, there has been a recall.) COVID-19 This paper from Germany (2024-12-23)… Continue reading 2025-01-03 General
2025-01-03 BC
RSV is significantly up, and is now slightly above last season’s peak. Flu is up significantly; COVID-19 is still low-ish but it has risen slightly. COVID-19 is only about a quarter of respiratory illnesses right now. Wastewater looks about as stable as it gets. For information about the Fraser teen who was hospitalized for bird… Continue reading 2025-01-03 BC