2025-12-05 General

Recommended Reading ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿงด๐Ÿž๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿคข 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

2025-11-21 General

There’s been a lot of news this week, but most of the articles it’s been politicians-in-other-countries-doing-stupid-things. It hasn’t just been the USA, either: UK, Scotland, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, and I forget who else all made appearances. That hasn’t left much mindshare for articles about the science and/or Canada. ๐Ÿ™ COVID-19 Long COVID This paper… Continue reading 2025-11-21 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 ๐Ÿ’‰ 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 ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 ๐Ÿซ„ 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

2025-10-18 General

COVID-19 Really really long COVID ๐Ÿ† 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

2025-10-11 General

COVID-19 I want to mention that I have seen multiple couples — some that I know personally and some on teh socials — express shock that one half of the couple could test positive while being symptom-free or almost symptom-free while the other got their posterior kicked by COVID-19. Yes, folks, asymptomatic COVID-19 infections are… Continue reading 2025-10-11 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 ๐Ÿซก 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 ๐Ÿซ€๐Ÿ’‰… Continue reading 2025-09-27 General

2025-09-21 General

Long COVID ๐ŸŽ‰๐ŸŽ‰๐ŸŽ‰โ€ผ๏ธ This case studies paper from USA (2025-02-09) reports that all nine of the study patients who got stellate ganglion blocks for three consecutive weeks improved significantly! I’m surprised that I missed it in February, and that there hasn’t been more excitement about it, as these are hugely encouraging results! ๐Ÿ˜ข This study… Continue reading 2025-09-21 General