Yay! Something at the very end of this article (2025-01-17) on what the BC teen with bird flu went through says that she’s out of the hospital and back home. 🎉 Health Care System This report (2025-01-16) reports that an estimated 28,077 Canadians died while waiting for surgery or diagnostic tests between April 1, 2023… Continue reading 2025-01-18 BC
Category: BC
2025-01-10 BC
The province only gave numbers for flu A, flu B, RSV, and COVID-19 for the week ending 4 Jan 2025, but that’s enough to see that flu finally beat out RSV for the most prevalent respiratory disease. COVID-19 levels look still relatively low-ish, though the wastewater graph looks like they are going up slightly. Mitigation… Continue reading 2025-01-10 BC
2025-01-03 BC
RSV is significantly up, and is now slightly above last season’s peak. Flu is up significantly; COVID-19 is still low-ish but it has risen slightly. COVID-19 is only about a quarter of respiratory illnesses right now. Wastewater looks about as stable as it gets. For information about the Fraser teen who was hospitalized for bird… Continue reading 2025-01-03 BC
2024-12-20 BC
Note: The province will not give another update until 3 Jan 2025. There are about 20% more respiratory illnesses than were reported last week. However, they also increased last week’s figures, so this week is about the same as what they now say we had last week. 🙁 The COVID-19 numbers don’t get revised as… Continue reading 2024-12-20 BC
2024-12-13 BC
COVID-19 keeps going down! All the numbers (yes, including wastewater) are almost as low as they were 18 months ago. (COVID-19 is NOT “seasonal”!) RSV is up, and is still the most common respiratory infection. Flu is rising a bit more quickly than it had been, but it still is at a pretty low level.… Continue reading 2024-12-13 BC
2024-12-07 BC
The COVID levels — on all measures — keep going down for no obvious reason. I don’t care why, I think it’s awesome! I haven’t seen levels this low since summer 2023. Flu is creeping up, but RSV is this report period’s leader. Charts From the BC CDC Situation Report: Comparison vs. Other Influenza-Like-Illnesses, from… Continue reading 2024-12-07 BC
2024-11-29 BC
I now have a recommendation on when to get a flu shot: somewhere around Dec. 10. It takes about two weeks to get max protection, and getting a shot around Dec. 10 puts you at max protection around Christmas Eve. I think the peak will be in late January, so you will also have good… Continue reading 2024-11-29 BC
2024-11-22 BC
Influenza levels are still low, both in BC and in the US northwest. I still don’t think it’s the optimum time yet to get a flu shot. H5N1 Transmission For info on the BC human H5N1 case, see the General post. This article (2024-11-17) says that there are now 37 infected poultry flocks in BC.… Continue reading 2024-11-22 BC
2024-11-16 BC
All indicators say that the levels of COVID-19 are coming down noticeably at the moment. Regarding influenza vaccines, flu rates have ticked up slightly but are still really low. It feels to me like we are about two weeks behind last year’s flu season, so I think that means flu will probably peak in late… Continue reading 2024-11-16 BC
2024-11-08 BC
I still think it’s not the right time yet to get a flu shot. There’s not a lot of flu going around, and historically it peaks in late December. It *did* peak early (at the end of November) two years ago — but that was our first season post-mitigation measures and we’d already seen a… Continue reading 2024-11-08 BC