COVID-19 Vaccines ‼️🎉🐁🦷 Scientists have found an alternative method of giving mucousal vaccines: with dental floss! This paper (2025-07-22) found that flossing mice three times with floss covered with influenza virus, at two-week intervals, protected the mice from a lethal dose of influenza. All the mice who had been flossed survived, while all the unflossed… Continue reading 2025-08-03 General
Author: Ducky
2025-07-26 General
COVID-19 Long COVID ‼️‼️‼️🎉🎉🎉This article (2025-07-22) and this paper from Canada (2025-07-07) say that scientists have found a really easy blood test to diagnose ME/CFS! (They look for the protein SMPDL3B.) This is both great for testing purposes but also suggests a treatment! They haven’t looked for SMPDL3B in Long COVID patients yet, but I… Continue reading 2025-07-26 General
2025-07-19 General
COVID-19 Long COVID This paper from Germany (2025-07-12) found that 21% of masters’ athletes (median age in the high 50s) in their study had Long COVID. The prevalence did not differ by sex, athletic specialties, training load, or prior competition level. Long COVID can happen to healthy, fit people! Vaccines/Prevention 💊 This paper from Peru… Continue reading 2025-07-19 General
2025-07-12 General
Wastewater levels are all going down. Was that tiny little our summer wave? Did we already peak???? Long COVID ‼️😬 This preprint from Spain (2025-07-04) found that Long COVID prevalence was 3-10 times higher in individuals with three or more infections than in those with only one recorded infection. This paper from Denmark (2025-05-13) reports… Continue reading 2025-07-12 General
2025-07-04 BC
COVID-19 levels keep rising steadily, but more slowly than I had expected, given how NB.1.8.1 hammered Asia. This chart from the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 page shows that the rise in COVID positivity is much shallower this year (blue) than in previous years. Wastewater from Fraser and Richmond are actually coming down. Maybe. (Maybe it’s… Continue reading 2025-07-04 BC
2025-07-04 General
Long COVID This paper from USA (2025-06-18) reports that a Delta or pre-Delta infection was protective against further Long COVID, while an Omicron infection was not. People whose first infection was pre-Omicron had about half the chance of getting more than three persistent symptoms after their second infection than after their first. However, people who… Continue reading 2025-07-04 General
2025-06-27 General
🤦♀️🇺🇸 If this post feels unusually short, that’s, well, because it is. There has been a really striking lack of news appropriate for this blog this week. The English-language health news has been absolutely overwhelmed with stories of the fusterclucks going on in US health politics. Recommended Reading ⭐️💉 Some people note that kids these… Continue reading 2025-06-27 General
2025-06-20 General
🌊 This article from Singapore (2025-06-14) says that their wave is now peaking, about five or six weeks after their wave started in late April. That feels a bit fast to me — we usually see two months from the start to the peak here. I’m also a bit surprised that COVID-19 growth here has… Continue reading 2025-06-20 General
2025-06-06 General
There might not be a post next week because I will be travelling (with a mask on!). COVID-19 Long COVID This paper from USA (2025-05-15) reports that 3.89% of people over 65 in a ginormous cohort (3.5 million!) had Long COVID. People who had four vaccine doses had a 39% lower adjusted rate of Long… Continue reading 2025-06-06 General
2025-06-06 BC
A number of COVID-19 indicators show the levels going up: wastewater (especially in Fraser), % positivity, # of patients in hospital, and # of hospital admissions. I don’t feel comfortable saying “cases are low” any more. I would like to remind people that: Go get your COVID-19 vaccination! Charts From the BC Viral Respiratory Outcomes… Continue reading 2025-06-06 BC