2026-01-02 General

This is a short posting because there wasn’t much news over the holidays. The province didn’t release any data this week, so there’s no BC-specific posting. (The province says they will release data next Thursday.)

COVID-19

COVID-Related Excess Sickness and Death

This paper from USA (2025-12-23) reports that people hospitalized for COVID-19 had a 2.11 times higher risk of various thyroid diseases than COVID-negative controls. People who had COVID-19 infections but were not hospitalized “only” had a 40% higher risk of thyroid diseases than healthy controls.

I mentioned before this paper from France (2025-12-04) that showed that vaccinated people were 25% less likely to die from anything than unvaccinated people over a four-year period. This thread (2025-12-20) dug into the paper a little more and showed that this extended even to accidental deaths: unvaccinated people were more likely to die from drownings, car crashes, falls, and other unintentional injuries.

The thread author pointed out that yeah, some accidental deaths you can’t do much about — if lightning strikes or a piano falls on you — but that in a lot of cases, good reflexes/quick thinking/physical strength can mean the difference between dead and not-dead. COVID-19 has been shown to mess with cognition and reflexes, and it looks like that can be deadly.

Note that the vaccinated were a bit more likely to commit suicide, which the thread author didn’t have an explanation for. I have an explanation: it is hella depressing to see that almost nobody has enough empathy to take simple prevention measures that would make the world a lot safer for vulnerable people.

Recommended Reading

💉 For vax nerds, Hilda Bastian’s monthly COVID-19 vaccines update is out!

Influenza

Transmission

🤧 Influenza is really high right now, and it doesn’t look like it has peaked. From the Government of Canada Respiratory Viruses Surveillance Report with data through 13 Dec (dark blue line for 2025-2026):

RSV

Transmission

🤧 RSV is climbing some, but it’s a lot lower right now than in previous years for this time of year. From the Government of Canada Respiratory Viruses Surveillance Report with data through 13 Dec:

RSV-Related Excess Deaths and Sickness

This paper from USA (2025-12-23) reports that people hospitalized with RSV have TEN TIMES the risk of dying (from any cause) than healthy controls in the 30 days after hospitalization. The risk dropped over time, but was still 2.3x times higher after a year.

Immunization

💉This paper with data from around the world (2025-12-22) reports that infants given nirsevimab as a prophylactic against RSV had

  • a 62% lower risk of all-cause hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs);
  • a 48% lower risk of LRTI-related ED visits;
  • a 76% lower risk of RSV-related ED visits.

💉This paper from France (2025-12-22) found that nirsevimab (antibodies given to infants) worked better than RSVpreF (a vaccine given to pregnant mothers). Compared to RSVpreF, nirsevimab had effectiveness of:

againstrelative effectiveness
hospitalization for RSV+26%
pediatric ICU admission+42%
ventilator+43%
oxygen therapy+44%

💉This paper from USA (2025-12-22) also reports that nirsevimab is more effective than RSVpreF compared. For babies under 6 months old, the effectiveness of treatments (compared to no-treatment) was:

againstRSVpreFnirsevimab
any medical attention for RSV64%N/A
RSV-related hospitalization70%81%

Nirsevimab effectiveness decreased over time but only a little: it was still 77% effective against hospitalization for RSV after 130 to 210 days.

Measles

Transmission

According to the Government of Canada Measles and Rubella Monitoring Report (updated 2025-12-30), in the week ending 20 December, the following jurisdictions had the following number of measles cases:

  • Canada: 24;
  • Manitoba: 16;
  • Quebec: 5;
  • BC: 3.