Recommended Reading 🙌🧴🍞🦠🤢 This older article (2019-12-10) reports on a simple experiment that a schoolteacher did with her class: she took slices of bread and had kids handle them after various hand hygiene techniques. Tongs? The bread was immaculate. No handwashing? Covered with mold. Spoiler: hand sanitizer is not as good as washing with soap… Continue reading 2025-12-05 General
Category: COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness
2025-11-28 General
COVID-19 COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🫀 This paper from Sweden (2025-11-18) reports that getting COVID-19 increases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. Compared to people who did not catch COVID-19, people who did get COVID-19 infections had: People who were hospitalized for COVID-19 had a 10.77 times risk of all-cause mortality compared to never-COVIDers (AKA… Continue reading 2025-11-28 General
2025-11-14 General
I want to remind people again to get a flu shot this year. There’s a new substrain — H3N2 subclade K — which apparently is more contagious and nastier if you catch it. The flu shot isn’t hugely effective against infection but it has some effectiveness (especially for children!), and even if it doesn’t stop… Continue reading 2025-11-14 General
2025-11-07 General
COVID-19 Long COVID 💉 This paper from USA (2025-11-01) reports that vaccination cuts the risk of Long COVID in adolescents by 36%. This paper from Alberta (2025-11-07) (and this press release on the paper) reports on differences between men with Long COVID and women with Long COVID. The study notes that testosterone normally helps keep… Continue reading 2025-11-07 General
2025-10-31 General
COVID-19 Long COVID 🎉 This paper from USA (2025-10-21) reports that 74.3% of Long COVID patients in a Phase 1 study of rapamycin showed significant improvements in fatigue, post-exertional malaise, and orthostatic intolerance. COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🫄 This article about this paper from USA (2025-10-30) reports that babies who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2… Continue reading 2025-10-31 General
2025-10-24 General
COVID-19 Vaccines 🎉 This isn’t about a vaccine exactly, but something that acts like a vaccine — i.e. it prevents you from getting sick. This paper from USA (2025-10-21) describes a small Phase 1 study in healthy adults of a plasmid DNA which, when injected, made the study participants’ cells make tixagevimab and cilgavimab —… Continue reading 2025-10-24 General
2025-10-18 General
COVID-19 Really really long COVID 🍆 This paper (2025-10-11) says that COVID-19 won’t just f you up, it’ll f your children up if you are male. They infected male mice with COVID-19 and then looked at their offspring. All of their children were exhibited more anxious behaviours than children of uninfected daddy mice. (Fortunately, the… Continue reading 2025-10-18 General
2025-10-06 General
NB: I am travelling, so this is going to be shorter than normal. I have stopped talking about some things because I decided to focus (mostly) on things that are more actionable. For two examples: papers about vaccine trials or biomarkers for Long COVID. For both, it takes a looooooong time for the papers to… Continue reading 2025-10-06 General
2025-09-27 General
COVID-19 It’s a bit hard to tell what is happening with COVID-19 in BC because of the lack of data, but COVID-19 in Canada overall is definitely going up. Long COVID 🫡 This paper from the USA (2025-09-16) looked at Long COVID in active duty service members and found: COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🫀💉… Continue reading 2025-09-27 General
2025-09-13 General
COVID-19 Vaccines 💰 This preprint (2025-09-04) estimates that the return on the investment in developing COVID-19 vaccines was between $59.8–$475 per dollar invested. COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness This paper from USA (2025-09-08) reports that children who had COVID-19 infections were more likely to have new-onset depression afterwards. Compared to children who did not have… Continue reading 2025-09-13 General