Folks, we have a problem. We have a problem with language. When I say “Long COVID”, you probably immediately think “brain fog and/or fatigue” (and maybe you’ll think of a persistent cough and/or loss of smell/taste). What you probably do not think of is a higher chance of severe illness/death from something that doesn’t look… Continue reading 2023-04-20 General
Category: Mitigation Measures
2023-04-06 General
Transmission It is pretty clear to me that COVID-19 spread is airborne — there has been lots of evidence in the literature for that — but I had not seen any evidence that it spread via surface contact (fomites). This paper from the UK makes a strong case for fomites being important. They tracked household… Continue reading 2023-04-06 General
2023-03-16 General
Many people mark 11 March 2020 as the day “shit got real” with COVID-19. That was the day that Tom Hanks announced that he’d gotten COVID-19 and the NBA shut down. To mark the anniversary, there were a ton of three-year retrospectives this week, and there apparently was a Canadian National Day of Observance (which… Continue reading 2023-03-16 General
2023-03-09 General
I feel like I haven’t done as much research this week, but I’m just flat too tired today to do more. I will probably make tomorrow’s “tiny” posting beefier. There’s also supposed to be a press conference tomorrow; I plan to watch that and report on it. Vaccines Per this Statement, NACI recommends that vulnerable… Continue reading 2023-03-09 General
2023-03-02 General
Health Care System This article says that federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos intervened in November with Canada’s drug price regulator to drop a policy reform process. 😠😬 Mitigation Measures This article (drawing from information in a number of papers) says that early targeted border closures were ineffective. (Basically, shutting down flights from South Africa and… Continue reading 2023-03-02 General
2023-02-02 General
Vaccines It’s here! This preprint from India has the first data for nasal vaccines in humans that we’ve seen. It compares of the same inactivated adenovirus delivered nasally (BBV154) and intramuscularly (Covaxin), both from Bharat Biotech: Levels of antibodies and good things range from about 1.5x to almost 2x higher when delivered nasally. There were… Continue reading 2023-02-02 General
2023-01-26 General
Vaccines People ask me which vaccine they should get. I tell them it’s really between the Pfizer BA.4/5 bivalent and the Novavax, that I don’t have enough information to distinguish between those two. This paper from Novavax with data from South Africa says that three doses of Novavax works about as well as — not… Continue reading 2023-01-26 General
2023-01-12 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that the US has put in a new rule that air travellers must be fully vaccinated before getting on a plane to the US. (Confirmed at this US CDC page.) This paper from Ontario (from August) found that parents, in addition to everything else they were dealing with, had a… Continue reading 2023-01-12 General
2022-12-29 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that $14.8 million in quarantine fines have been given in BC, MB, ON, and Atlantic Canada. The article hints that most of that money will not be collected, but doesn’t really explain why. This article says that 54% of Canadians would be okay with a mask mandate if cases rise.… Continue reading 2022-12-29 General
week ending 2022-12-15 General
I have added a page with what to do if you get COVID-19 here. (Tl;dr: stay away from your loved ones, stay entertained, irrigate your sinuses with saline, take Paxlovid if you are over 65 or clinically extremely vulnerable, make sure you have good quality air (low in particulates, warm, and between 40% and 60%… Continue reading week ending 2022-12-15 General