COVID-19
Long COVID
This conference presentation (which I think is from China) (2026-05-03) reports that SIM01, a mix of pre- and probiotics, significantly helped Long COVID patients compared to placebo. SIM01 reduced fatigue, insomnia, memory loss, and shortness of breath. (Unfortunately, there’s very little details or information, so this is only slightly more convincing than hearsay.)
🎉 This paper with data from USA (2026-04-19) reports that the rate of new Long COVID acquisitions appears to be dropping. From the (USA) National Health Interview Survey, the prevalence of people who have ever had Long COVID and the people who currently have long COVID was:
| year | ever-had | currently-have |
| 2022 | 7.0% | 3.4% |
| 2023 | 8.4% | 3.6% |
| 2024 | 8.3% | 3.3% |
I expect that the drop in ever-had from 2023 to 2024 is just statistical noise, since it’s not possible to change your history. Still, if these numbers are close to correct, that means that there were approximately no new Long COVID cases from 2023 to 2024, and that’s pretty amazing. It actually makes me wonder about the result: if it’s really true, why haven’t I heard about it before?
Please note that the National Health Survey has a very broad definition of Long COVID. It is possible that the people who recovered were the ones who had loss of smell/taste, muscle pains, or other things which — while uncomfortable — don’t trash your life the same way that crushing fatigue and post-exertional malaise do. The survey didn’t distinguish, alas.
Pathology
😬 This paper from USA (2026-05-06) reports that people hospitalized with COVID-19 — even ones who weren’t the sickest of the bunch — were more likely to die from a clot if their blood had high levels of SARS-CoV-2 viruses. They found that the level of a specific protein on the the inside lining of blood vessels was higher when the level of SARS-CoV-2 was higher; they think that (basically, paraphrasing) SARS-CoV-2 knocks pieces of the lining off, and those form clots (which sometimes kill people).
Vaccines
💉 This paper from Canada (2026-05-07) reports that people who got the LP.8.2 vaccine in the 2025/2026 season (i.e the one we are at the tail end of) sought medical attention for COVID-19 at about half the rate of unvaccinated people, even for those whose infection variant didn’t match the LP.8.2. (NB: There wasn’t much BA.3.2 in the 2025/2026 season.)
Influenza
Vaccines
💉 This paper from USA (2026-05-06) reports that Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine was about 27% more effective than the a standard flu shot (i.e. not one of the high-dose ones) in adults 50 years old and older. There were more and harsher side effects, but not dangerously so.
💉 This paper from USA (2026-05-04) reports that the two flu vaccines adults over 65 — IIV4-HD, a high-dose quadrivalent inactivated vaccine (Fluzone by Sanofi) and IIV3-Adj, an adjuvanted trivalent inactivated subunit vaccine (Fluad by Seqirus) — are equally effective. So don’t worry about which one to get, take what they’ve got.
H5N1
Transmission
😬 This paper from USA (2026-05-05) reports that cows exhale detectable H5N1 in aerosols, and they were able to culture infectious H5N1 from almost 20% of the samples with detectable H5N1. (The other samples might have only virus fragments or they just weren’t good at culturing the virus.)
Cows have four teats, and they found that the H5N1 did not always spread to milk from the first-infected teat. Furthermore, they found that even though the milking machines were put on the cows in the same orientation, the pattern of which teat was infected was not consistent among cows. This means that it is unlikely that all of the spread comes from milking machines.
They also found H5N1 in bulk milk tanks before any cows were noticeably sick, and H5N1 antibodies in milk from cows that were asymptomatic.
RSV
Vaccines
💉 This paper with data from USA (2026-04-07) reports that pregnant women with an RSV vaccination were 82.1% less likely to get an RSV infection for at least 12 months than to mothers who were not vaccinated.
This paper from Chile (2026-04-10) reports that babies who got nirsevimab had 84.3% fewer hospitalizations for lower respiratory tract infections than non-immunized babies.
This paper from USA (2026-04-08) reports that in the first year of RSV immunization for babies, there wasn’t much of a drop in RSV infections in babies. However, in the second year, babies under 7 months old had a 43% lower risk of hospitalization for RSV than babies older than 8 months.
Shingles
Vaccines
💉 This paper from USA (2026-04-28) reports that Shingrix provides significant protection against various kinds of dementia. Compared to people who did not get Shingrix vaccinations, people who did had these lower risks in the given followup time periods:
| against | 3 years or less | more than 3 years |
| any dementia | -33% | -26% |
| Alzheimer’s | -28% | -17% |
| Vascular dementia | -33% | -34% |
Hantavirus
Recommended Reading
🐀 This blog post (2026-05-07) talks about why scientists aren’t that worried about hantavirus turning into a pandemic. Yes, it is possible that it could turn into a pandemic, but it’s not likely.
Measles
Transmission
According to the Government of Canada Measles and Rubella Monitoring Report (updated 2026-04-27), in the week ending 25 April 2025, the following jurisdictions had the following number of new measles cases:
- Canada: 37;
- Manitoba: 23;
- Alberta: 9;
- BC: 2.