2021-03-02 General

Variants The New York Times has an article talking about the naming of variants. Basically, it’s hard to make strain names memorable while also avoiding place names, people’s names, and names of animals. 🙁 There are a few ways that scientists figure out how resistant a variant is to a vaccine. One is to look… Continue reading 2021-03-02 General

2021-03-02 BC

Local company in the news! I found out that AbCellera, a Vancouver company, was involved in making Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody COVID treatment! AbCellera makes a machine that can screen blood looking for useful antibodies. Press Briefing of 2021-03-02 Data NOTICE!! Dr. Henry said that they had some problems with their data systems and that… Continue reading 2021-03-02 BC

2021-03-01 General

Vaccines An article in the New York Times reports on studies which show that one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine gives good protection. An article in the Washington Post says that the Israeli vaccine rollout — which has now reached 50% of its citizens and almost 90 percent of people over 50 — shows that… Continue reading 2021-03-01 General

2021-03-01 BC

The big news was an immunization briefing, which I covered in a post of its own. AZ vaccine Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended against using the AstraZeneca vaccine in individuals aged 65 years and older, due to insufficient data. Weekend Statistics From today’s press release: Fri/Sat: +532 casesSat/Sun: +508 casesSun/Mon: +438 cases Over… Continue reading 2021-03-01 BC

2021-02-28 BC

Religion Apparently, the variance that Dr. Henry gave the three churches who are suing to have services was not good enough for the churches, who did not drop the suit. The Orca has an interesting story about it.

2021-02-28 General

Long COVID There is a good thread by Dr. Iwasaki, a prominent virologist, suggesting possible mechanisms for Long-COVID and a clever vaccine trial which could help shed light on which mechanism it is. The possibilities she lists are: A persistent viral reservoir, i.e. the virus is hiding somewhere (like maybe the Central Nervous System) Inactive… Continue reading 2021-02-28 General

2021-02-27 General

Diagnostics A paper in Blood Advances describes some markers which a machine learning algorithm says indicate how likely a COVID-19 patient is to have a severe case. This is interesting for two reasons: It can tell who should get really aggressive treatment. Which elements of the blood are important can give clues to why COVID-19… Continue reading 2021-02-27 General

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2021-02-27 BC

Religious Gatherings There are three churches which have been suing BC for not letting them gather to worship. Their basic argument is, “why is it okay to shop for balloons when it’s not okay to worship?” (Spoiler: because you don’t spend an hour shopping for balloons and you don’t sing or chant while you are… Continue reading 2021-02-27 BC

BC Vaccination Staffing Needs

I wondered: How many people will BC need to hire for their mass vaccination program? tl;dr: I came up with 734. From the BC Immunization Plan, the mass vaccination clinics (Phase 3 and Phase 4) will vaccinate five-year age cohorts at 172 community sites. From the 22 January 2021 presentation on the plan (see p.12),… Continue reading BC Vaccination Staffing Needs

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