🤦♀️🇺🇸 If this post feels unusually short, that’s, well, because it is. There has been a really striking lack of news appropriate for this blog this week. The English-language health news has been absolutely overwhelmed with stories of the fusterclucks going on in US health politics. Recommended Reading ⭐️💉 Some people note that kids these… Continue reading 2025-06-27 General
Category: COVID-19
2025-06-20 General
🌊 This article from Singapore (2025-06-14) says that their wave is now peaking, about five or six weeks after their wave started in late April. That feels a bit fast to me — we usually see two months from the start to the peak here. I’m also a bit surprised that COVID-19 growth here has… Continue reading 2025-06-20 General
2025-06-06 General
There might not be a post next week because I will be travelling (with a mask on!). COVID-19 Long COVID This paper from USA (2025-05-15) reports that 3.89% of people over 65 in a ginormous cohort (3.5 million!) had Long COVID. People who had four vaccine doses had a 39% lower adjusted rate of Long… Continue reading 2025-06-06 General
2025-06-06 BC
A number of COVID-19 indicators show the levels going up: wastewater (especially in Fraser), % positivity, # of patients in hospital, and # of hospital admissions. I don’t feel comfortable saying “cases are low” any more. I would like to remind people that: Go get your COVID-19 vaccination! Charts From the BC Viral Respiratory Outcomes… Continue reading 2025-06-06 BC
2025-06-01 General
COVID-19 Variants 🦠🧬 NB.1.8.1 is still causing a lot of cases in Asia and Australia. It has acquired two nicknames: “NimBus” (from the two letters in its designation) and “Razor Blade Throat” because it apparently feels like you’ve been swallowing razor blades. Long COVID 🩸‼️ This preprint using UK participants (2025-05-26) has a potential explanation… Continue reading 2025-06-01 General
2025-05-24 General
COVID-19 Variants Other people are starting to notice all the cases in Asia. This article from USA (2025-05-23) says that CDC has discovered a bunch of cases of NB.1.8.1 — the variant which is causing havoc in Asia — in wastewater arriving in planes from abroad. I know, I know, the US is not Canada,… Continue reading 2025-05-24 General
2025-05-18 General
COVID-19 COVID cases are still low in BC, but rising slightly. As a heads up, Taiwan (2025-05-13), Singapore (2025-05-13), Hong Kong (2025-05-15) Vietnam (2025-05-14), Thailand (2025-05-10) and Iran (2025-05-12) are noting an increase in cases. Long COVID 🎉🎉🎉 This paper from Italy (2025-04-27) reports that people with Long COVID have more abnormalities (microhemorrhages, dilations, and… Continue reading 2025-05-18 General
2025-05-03 General
COVID-19 Vaccines 💉😡🇺🇸 This article (2025-04-25) reports that the Trump administration has issued stop work orders for GeoVax and Castlevax, joining Vaxart (which got a stop work order in February). Both GeoVax and CastleVax say they expect funding to disappear but that they are going to keep working on it anyway. 💉🇺🇸 RFK Jr giveth… Continue reading 2025-05-03 General
2025-04-27 General
COVID-19 Transmission In the 2024-04-04 BC post, I said that I had figured out why the COVID-19 levels were so low right now: because influenza inhibits COVID-19! Aha! Well, that’s bullshit. I don’t have good data going back a long time for flu in BC, but this chart of flu, COVID-19, and RSV levels from… Continue reading 2025-04-27 General
2025-04-18 General
Omni-Testing 😮🩸‼️🎉 This paper (2025-02-21) reports on a method of sequencing the genomes of T-cells and B-cells from a patient’s blood sample which allows them to diagnose with great accuracy what pathogens the patient has been exposed to. Apparently B cells and T cells don’t have the genome of the rest of the body, but… Continue reading 2025-04-18 General