2026-08-29 General

COVID-19

Pathology

🤰😬 This paper from USA (2026-08-12) reports that pregnancy-related death — for both mothers and babies — is higher if the mother catches COVID-19 while pregnant, that the risk varied with variant, and that it was much higher (especially for the mothers) than for mothers who don’t catch COVID-19. Compared to women who did not catch COVID-19 while pregnant, women who did had these risks:

VariantMaternal death riskFetal death risk
COVID Classic13.11 times1.53 times
Alpha13.03 times*
Delta29.47 times3.37 times
Early Omicron 3.55 times*

If you are pregnant, please get vaccinated for COVID-19!!!

Long COVID

🎉🛌 This paper from Italy (2026-08-26) reports that long haulers with fatigue who were given a commercial probiotic (VSL#3) had reduced levels of fatigue compared to people taking placebos.

🫀🫁🧠😬 In this study from Singapore (2026-08-26), they did detailed autopsies on people who had recovered from mild COVID-19 very early in the pandemic (so they hadn’t been vaccinated, and they hadn’t had multiple infections) and then died more than six months afterwards from unrelated causes. They looked for infected tissue and what the epigenetics of those tissues, i.e. what the genes in lung, heart, and brain tissue were doing. (NB: “epigenetics” is what I think of as “user programmable genetics” — the body can change how much of a protein a gene in your DNA makes.)

They found evidence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antigens in tissues in the lung, heart, and brain. The lung and heart genes were coding for more (“upregulating”) inflammation proteins. The brain genes weren’t coding for inflammation, but they were coding for reduced (“downregulating”) immune functions and higher levels of the protein KRAS, which in the past has been found to make blood vessels leakier.

THIS WAS FROM MILD CASES OF COVID-19!

Vaccines

💉 AGAIN This paper from USA (2026-08-17) gives yet more evidence that COVID-19 infections are much more dangerous than COVID-19 vaccines.

Compared to people who had no documented COVID-19 infection, people who had a documented COVID-19 infection were:

  • 4.91 times as likely to get myocarditis;
  • 1.93 times as likely to get pericarditis;
  • 1.33 times as likely to die (from any cause).

Vaccination reduced risks, though you should remember: a lot of COVID-19 vaccinations’ protection wears off after six months, and 40% of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic. Even with those caveats, compared to the unvaccinated, vaccinated people had:

  • 85% lower myocarditis risk;
  • 79% lower pericarditis risk;
  • 72% lower all-cause mortality risk.

BC Wastewater

💩💧 Wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2 look kind of flattish.

From Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet, with data through 2026-08-16:

Shingles

Vaccines

💉AGAIN This paper from USA (2026-08-26) reports that the Shingrix vaccine provides even more off-target benefits than Zostavax (the older shingles vaccine, which is no longer approved in Canada) does. Compared to Zostavax, over 7 years, people who got Shingrix had:

  • 9% lower cardiovascular burden;
  • 10% decrease in ischemic heart disease;
  • 12% decrease in heart failure;
  • 12% decrease in ischemic stroke in men (but not women!);
  • 7% decrease in artrial fibrillation.

Those numbers might look small, but

  • so many people have cardiovascular events that even a small change matters;
  • this is on top of the benefits that Zostavax gave.

Reminder: I give a (long!) list of all the benefits of vaccines against things besides what they were “supposed to” be against on my Off-Target Vaccine Benefits page.

Bundibugyo

Treatments

🎉🎉🎉 This case study paper from DR Congo (2026-08-24) reports that five family members of someone with Bundibugyo were given the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and never got sick.

This case study paper, also from DR Congo (2026-08-24) reports that somebody with Bundibugyo who was treated in Germany with MBP134 and remdesivir recovered pretty quickly (comparatively).

Influenza

Pathology

🎉 This paper using USA data (2026-08-21) reports that the number of influenza deaths per person has dropped in half in 25 years (ending 2023).

Treatments

🎉💊 This paper from Taiwan (2026-08-17) reports that children who were given antivirals for influenza within 48 hours of symptom onset had 81-85% lower risk of hospitalization than kids who did not.

Measles

Transmission

According to the Government of Canada Measles and Rubella Monitoring Report (updated 2026-08-24), in the week ending 15 August 2026, the following jurisdictions had the following number of new measles cases:

  • Canada: 1;
  • Manitoba: 1.