Long COVID This paper from USA (2025-06-18) reports that a Delta or pre-Delta infection was protective against further Long COVID, while an Omicron infection was not. People whose first infection was pre-Omicron had about half the chance of getting more than three persistent symptoms after their second infection than after their first. However, people who… Continue reading 2025-07-04 General
Category: General
2025-06-27 General
🤦♀️🇺🇸 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
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
2025-06-01 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
2025-05-10 General
COVID-19 Long COVID 👃 This paper from Belgium (2025-05-03) reports that people with COVID-related olfactory disorders had a 17% higher risk of depression and a 22% higher risk of anxiety than asymptomatic people. The severity of the depression or anxiety correlated with the severity of the olfactory disorder and nasal symptoms, and was worse in… Continue reading 2025-05-10 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