2026-08-15 General

COVID-19

Long COVID

🧠 This paper from UK (2026-07-21) reports that (surprise surprise!) Long COVID reduces the performance of working memory. Increasing age and number of COVID-19 infections also correlated with worse scores.

This paper from USA (2026-08-03) reports that, in addition to Long COVID being sucky by itself, Long COVID also increases the risk of many other conditions:

  • +133% higher risk of COPD;
  • +118% higher risk of asthma;
  • +115% higher risk of chronic kidney disease.

After Bonferroni correction, the risks were:

  • +308% higher risk of COPD;
  • +512% higher risk of asthma;
  • +205% higher risk of chronic kidney disease.

BC Wastewater

Jeff reports that the extra wastewater monitoring they were doing during the World Cup has ended. It looks like levels are rising.

💩💧 From Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet, with data through 2026-07-22:

Influenza

Treatments

💊 This study from USA (2026-08-10) reports that treatment with oseltamivir (Tamiflu) helped children who were hospitalized with influenza:

  • 26% reduced risk of ICU admission when oseltamivir was given at least two days after admission;
  • 45% reduced risk of ICU admission when oseltamivir was given within two days of admission;
  • on average, 9.4 hours less time in the hospital.

Vaccines

💉 This paper from USA (2026-08-04) reports that the vaccine effectiveness of the influenza vaccine for the 2024-2025 season (i.e. a year ago) was:

AgainstChildrenAdults
hospitalization51%43%
ED/urgent care54%49%

Measles

Transmission

According to the Government of Canada Measles and Rubella Monitoring Report (updated 2026-08-10), in the week ending 1 August 2026, the following jurisdictions had the following number of new measles cases:

  • Canada: 5;
  • BC: 4;
  • Ontario: 1.