2026-10-16 General

COVID-19

COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness

😬🧠 This paper from Taiwan (2026-09-14) reports that among people with type 2 diabetes, people who had a documented COVID-19 case had a way higher risk of dementia:

  • +61% higher risk of vascular dementia;
  • +41% higher risk of Alzheimer’s;
  • +66% higher risk of mild cognitive impairment;
  • +56% higher risk of all cause mortality;
  • +33% higher risk of  ischemic stroke;
  • +51% higher risk of any dementia.

Long COVID

😢💉 One of the theories for why people with Long COVID don’t recover is that SARS-CoV-2 virus persists in the body. That theory suggests that a long course of monoclonal antibodies — to kill off any remaining SARS-CoV-2 — ought to decrease Long COVID symptoms. Alas, this paper from USA (2026-09-30) reports that an infusion of monoclonal antibodies didn’t help. (Maybe multiple infusions would help?)

👃🫁 This paper from UK (2026-10-15) reports that people who had been hospitalized for COVID-19, people who then developed Long COVID had different oral and lung microbiomes than people who did not have Long COVID. Furthermore, different, distinct changes in the microbiome with different symptom clusters (pulmonary, neurocognitive, and gastrointestinal). (NB: They don’t know if the patients started out with different microbiomes — and that’s what made them get Long COVID — or if the microbiome changed after they got COVID-19.)

Pathology

🧬 This paper from South Africa (2026-10-01) reports that children who had severe COVID-19 had a number of different genes than children who did not.

ME/CFS

Pathology

🎉 This paper from Sweden (2025-12-29) reports that 82% of the ME/CFS patients in their study had undetectable levels of vasopressin (a normal hormone in humans) in their blood plasma. This is great news: vasopressin could be a great marker for ME/CFS and a big clue for where to look for treatments.

H5N1

Transmission

🐦‍⬛🐄🧍‍♂️ This press release (2026-10-15) reports that somebody who was exposed to dairy cows in Yakima County, Washington, has tested positive for H5N1. The release says that the person was not hospitalized, and is recovering at home.

Measles

Transmission

🎉 According to the Government of Canada Measles and Rubella Monitoring Report (updated 2026-10-16), in the week ending 3 October 2026, there were zero measles cases in Canada!