Treatments HOORAY!!! As this article reports, Health Canada approved Paxlovid (an oral treatment for COVID-19 which cuts hospitalizations by almost 90%) today! Not only that, there are already about 30K doses in-country! Supplies are going to be limited for a while. Until then, Health Canada recommends prioritizing severely immune-compromised patients, people over 80 who don’t… Continue reading 2022-01-15/16/17 General
Author: Ducky
2022-01-14 BC
Press Briefing Today’s presser was more interesting than some recent ones (video, slides). DrH presented some good evidence that cases are dropping. She said she thought we peaked last weekend. Something I thought was interesting about this figure was they called out how VCH’s peak and London’s peaks were not pointy, saying it was because… Continue reading 2022-01-14 BC
2022-01-14 General
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
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