Because the rest of the world has decided that COVID doesn’t exist any more, I am dropping down to one post per week. I am going to stop posting articles which are repetitive, especially ones of the form “Oh look! {Vaccines, boosters, treatments} still work against {Omicron, older variants}”; “Oh look! Vaccines wane in effectiveness!”;… Continue reading Week ending 2022-04-14 General
Author: Ducky
2022-04-05/06 BC
The province announced that they are going to switch to only reporting numbers once a week, and implied that it would be Thursdays. They also implied that the data would be a week old at this point. In conjunction with this, I think I am going to switch to once-per-week reporting, probably on Thursdays. Today… Continue reading 2022-04-05/06 BC
2022-04-05/06 General
Vaccines Still don’t think you need a booster? Check out this graph from this awesome slide deck (referencing this paper) for people vaxxed with Pfizer: (I really doubt that it actually goes negative. I bet what that really shows is that the control group has some protection via infections, potentially recent infections.) Don’t get the… Continue reading 2022-04-05/06 General
2022-04-02/03/04 BC
Transmission This article reports that 9 of 11 cruise ships which were supposed to go to Victoria have already cancelled, probably because of COVID-19 cases. Government This article reports that Premier Horgan has COVID-19. Testing This article has things slightly garbled, I think. It says that it’s no longer required to report the results of… Continue reading 2022-04-02/03/04 BC
2022-04-02/03/04 General
There wasn’t much good general news today. There were some technical papers, but most were either overly technical or said things we already knew (boosters work! Omicron is vax-resistant!). The non-technical materials were mostly OMG BA.2 IS COMING/HERE WHY DOES EVERYBODY ACT LIKE IT IS NO BIG DEAL?!?!?!?! Long COVID This preprint says that using… Continue reading 2022-04-02/03/04 General
2202-03-31 and 2202-04-01 BC
Mitigation Measures This press release says that the province will give almost $17M in grants to BC arts organizations. Statistics Wed/Thu: +291 cases, +6 deaths, +279 first doses, +816 second doses, +1,899 other doses. 291 in hospital / 43 in ICU. Thu/Fri: +357 cases, +4 deaths, +591 first doses, +1,384 second doses, +2,252 third doses..… Continue reading 2202-03-31 and 2202-04-01 BC
2022-03-31 and 2022-04-01 General
Mitigation Measures This article reports that, as advertised, the Government of Canada has dropped its requirement for a COVID test to enter the country for fully vaccinated travelers. Note that you do still need to fill out the ArriveCan app’s survey before you cross. Pathology Wow, this paper says that pregnancy increases your risk of… Continue reading 2022-03-31 and 2022-04-01 General
2022-03-29/30 BC
Mitigation Measures This press release from the Ministry of Health says that they are ending the quarantine supports for farm workers. They said that 97% of the farmworkers who enter are fully vaccinated. Statistics +313 cases, +1 death, +230 first doses, +716 second doses, +1,965 other doses. 273 in hospital / 46 in ICU. +291… Continue reading 2022-03-29/30 BC
2022-03-29/30 General
Vaccines This preprint took a very careful look at Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, and Novavax in test tubes. It measured a bunch of different components of the immune system in multiple ways. In general, the mRNAs waned the most and one shot J&J the least, but J&J started from a low enough place that even after… Continue reading 2022-03-29/30 General
2022-03-26/27/28 BC
Mitigation Measures While the mask mandate in schools was dropped today, and the mask mandate for adults was dropped a while ago, this article reminds the reader that after you travel outside the country, anyone under 12 needs to still wear masks in indoor public areas. (It’s a federal regulation, and you have to do… Continue reading 2022-03-26/27/28 BC