Mitigation Measures This paper looks at the strategy of eliminating vs. mitigating and concludes that eliminating is better. It says that the countries which went for elimination (Australia, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea) have done much better than the ones which went for mitigation. Um, notice anything about those countries? None of them… Continue reading 2021-06-22 General
Author: Ducky
2021-06-22 BC
Vaccine Clinics There are some drop-in clinics in VCH for first doses (second doses if you are over 70). Transmission The Surrey School district did not send any exposure notices home with kids yesterday, for the first time this school year. Yay! A study shows that BC teachers have exactly the same seropositivity rate as… Continue reading 2021-06-22 BC
2021-06-21 General
Transmission This paper details a clever US study where they looked at COVID-19 cases in households which had recently had a birthday vs. households which had not recently had a birthday. They found 31% more COVID-19 case in households with birthdays than without, and the effect was much stronger in households with a child birthday… Continue reading 2021-06-21 General
2021-06-21 BC
Variants Huh. I hadn’t paid attention to the Variants of Concern report in a while, and it turns out that the percentage of cases which are Delta is actually falling in BC. Not just the raw case count, but the proportion. I didn’t think that was supposed to happen! Gamma is rising, but Gamma isn’t… Continue reading 2021-06-21 BC
2021-06-20 General
Variants I have been scaremongering about Delta, saying it is more transmissible, causes more severe cases, and is transmitted more in schools. I apparently need to back off a little bit. Delta is more transmissible, that’s uncontestable. This very interesting tweet thread says that the data does not support there being more transmission in schools.… Continue reading 2021-06-20 General
2021-06-19/20 BC
Vaccination Clinics There are pop-up vax clinics in the Interior for first doses. A vax-a-thon in Surrey over the weekend gave 7000 shots! This is an interesting article about vaccine hesitancy in Richmond. While the vax rate is now on par with the rest of the province, it was significantly lower for a while. The… Continue reading 2021-06-19/20 BC
2021-06-19 General
Treatments This preprint might be important. It describes a novel treatment for COVID-19 (and possibly for all viruses). The active ingredient (SLR) activates a molecule called RIG-I, which in turn gooses the production of interleukin-1, which is a cytokine, part of the immune system associated with inflammation. Basically, SLR revs up the innate immune system… Continue reading 2021-06-19 General
2021-06-18 BC
Vaccination Clinics I got my second shot today (wooohoo!) at the Convention Centre, escorted by my beloved spouse. This is what I observed: There were about three greeters at the door to the outside of Canada Place. One asked me if anyone in my bubble had been sick, but I think that was the only… Continue reading 2021-06-18 BC
2021-06-18 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that PM Trudeau is sticking to his guns: he wants 75% of Canadians partially / 20% fully vaxxed before re-opening the border, as Canada extended the border closure until July 21. Good on him. NB: My husband and I have lots of family in the US, so I am not… Continue reading 2021-06-18 General
2021-06-17 General
Vaccines The US just donated 1M Moderna doses to Canada. Canada received 330K Johnson & Johnson doses, but it’s going to sit on them right now because of concerns about contamination. Canada will also refuse any more J&J shipments. Today NACI advised Team AZ to get mRNA for the second dose. While I think this… Continue reading 2021-06-17 General