COVID-19 Long COVID This paper from Italy (2024-07-15) reports that children with Long COVID have elevated levels of P-selectin compared to controls. P-selectin is a protein in cells which call other players in the immune system to help counter an infection. This preprint from USA (2024-07-25) reports that they can tell Irritable Bowel Syndrome from… Continue reading 2024-07-30 General
Category: COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness
2024-07-19 General
COVID-19 This is going to be really short because I am travelling today. Long COVID This paper using Quebecois electronic records data (2022-10-21) found that patients who got dehydrated during hospitalization were more likely to get physical Long COVID. They were no more likely to get mental Long COVID, though. This paper from USA (2024-07-17)… Continue reading 2024-07-19 General
2024-07-07 General
Long COVID This paper from USA (2024-07-03) reports that they find SARS-CoV-2 hangs out in the bodies of people who had COVID-19. They’ve got a technique where they do PET scans with a tracer that can show where in the body T cells are active. They see a lot of activation in Long COVID patients… Continue reading 2024-07-07 General
2024-06-29 General/BC
I only had two pieces of BC-specific news, so I folded them in to the General post. COVID-19 Pathology IMPORTANT! This paper from USA (2024-06-21) reports using that cannabis raises your risk of severe COVID! The study found that people who used cannabis had a 28% higher risk hospitalization and 78% higher risk of ICU… Continue reading 2024-06-29 General/BC
2024-06-19 General
Unsolicited Product Recommendation I realized that I forgot to gush about the Readimasks fully in the last General post. They are a little expensive. HOWEVER, they gave a great seal (though see below) and were EXTREMELY comfortable. I do not have dangerously sensitive skin — I don’t go into anaphylactic shock when I touch latex… Continue reading 2024-06-19 General
2024-06-15 General
COVID-19 The blog has been on hiatus for three weeks and I am feeling overwhelmed. I hope to put out several General postings this week to chip away at the backlog. Personal Story The reason for the hiatus was that I went on vacation to the East Coast of the US for three weeks. This… Continue reading 2024-06-15 General
2024-05-17 General
COVID Long COVID This article from Poland (2024-05-08) reports on a conference presentation which found that people with Long COVID have much lower immunoglobulin gamma antibodies against the nucleocapsid. They theorize that could mean the virus (or viral components) could hang around longer in the body. This paper from Italy (2024-05-07) found that children with… Continue reading 2024-05-17 General
2024-04-26 General
This article reports that BC’s Ministry of Health will switch to monthly COVID reports after the May 2 update. I will obviously cut back on BC posts in the summer; I haven’t decided how much I will cut back on the General posts. H5N1 H5N1 is starting to hit the news, and I will post… Continue reading 2024-04-26 General
2024-03-29 General
Treatments This article from USA (2024-03-25) says that the FDA has approved Pemgarda, a monocolonal antibody, for use as a pre-exposure preventative for immunocompromised people. It will be used sort of like a vaccine. (Evusheld used to be effective for that, but SARS-CoV-2 mutated enough that Evusheld stopped being effective.) This is big news for… Continue reading 2024-03-29 General
2024-03-08 General
Long COVID This paper from UK (2024-03-01) found that the blood of people who just had a COVID-19 infection was measurably different between those that developed/did not develop Long COVID later. Specifically, the ones who later developed Long COVID showed lower levels of blood iron and more inflammation. It’s not that they weren’t eating enough… Continue reading 2024-03-08 General