Variants This report says that Omicron is much much more likely than Delta to cause a sore throat, but much much less likely to cause loss of smell. Transmission This article reports on a study which says that 10% of people are still infectious for at least ten days. Genetics This article reports that scientists… Continue reading 2022-01-14 General
Author: Ducky
2022-01-13 BC
Mitigation Measures This article says that UBC is delaying in-person classes until 7 Feb. This press release from the province says that businesses can now apply for grants of $1K-10K if they had to close on 22 Dec 2021. Vaccines This article says that pregnant people can now get a booster at 8 weeks. You… Continue reading 2022-01-13 BC
2022-01-13 General
Variants Everybody knows by now that Omicron appears to be more mild, but how much of that is because lots of people have partial immunity? This preprint looked at South African Omicron infections and found that when you controlled for vaccination status, Omicron is about 25% as severe. Vaccines This article says that inactivated virus… Continue reading 2022-01-13 General
2022-01-12 BC
Transmission This article says that two schools had to close due to too many staff illnesses. This Twitter thread shows that SARS-CoV-2 in Metro Van wastewater looks like it is going down! Assholes This article says that anti-vaxxers have been paying vulnerable people to get vaccinated under other people’s names. This article says that RCMP… Continue reading 2022-01-12 BC
2022-01-12 General
Transmission Yesterday in the BC blog post, I gave a bunch of evidence for Omicron being a very “pointy” wave, fast up and fast down. Wastewater evidence from the eastern USA is also pointing to fast-up/fast-down. From this tweet, the wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in Boston: And from this tweet, the surveillance in New Haven, CT:… Continue reading 2022-01-12 General
2022-01-11 General
Variants This preprint says that Omicron is less virulent than Delta: ~50% less likely to get admitted to hospital from the emergency room; ~75% less likely to go to the ICU; ~70% shorter hospital stay. Note that something I’m seeing is people not seeing a shorter hospital stay in the UK, e.g. in this tweet.… Continue reading 2022-01-11 General
2022-01-11 BC
Transmission In today’s BC Ministry of Health press conference, Dr. Henry said that she thought that cases were going to start to come down soon. A reporter challenged her on that, given that we only have data from South Africa, which has very different demographics. Dr.H said that the data from the UK is also… Continue reading 2022-01-11 BC
2022-01-08/09/10 BC
Staff Shortages This article says that almost half of the ambulances in the Lower Mainland have been idle recently from lack of staff. Statistics Fri/Sat: +2,573 cases Sat/Sun: +2,287 cases Sun/Mon: +2,106 cases 7 deaths over the weekend; approximately +4,199 first doses, +937 second doses, +36,154 other doses per day. Currently 431 in hospital /… Continue reading 2022-01-08/09/10 BC
2022-01-08/09/10 General
Pathology There has been a lot of discussion of Omicron being more mild, and there being a “decoupling” of case rate and hospitalization/death rate, but it was hard to tell because hospitalizations and deaths lagged. It also varies by the demographics of the local population and how much prior (partial) immunity the population has. One… Continue reading 2022-01-08/09/10 General
2022-01-07 BC
Statistics +3,144 cases, +9 deaths, +3,694 first doses, +1,719 second doses, +46,549 other doses. Test positivity is 22.3%. Currently 349 in hospital / 93 in ICU, 33,184 active cases, 240,198 recovered. first doses second doses third doses of adults 92.5% 89.8% 25.2% of over-12s 92.1% 89.4% 23.5% of over-5s 88.5% 83.1% * of all BCers… Continue reading 2022-01-07 BC