Testing This article says that COVID-19 in wastewater is going up in many places across Canada. Mitigation Measures This article reports on an Italian study which found that better ventilation reduced COVID-19 cases dramatically in schools. Replacing classroom air 2.4 times an hour gave a 40 percent reduction in infections; 4 times an hour gave… Continue reading 2022-03-23 General
Category: General
2022-03-20/21 General
Vaccines This study found that countries which use the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) have a higher rate of COVID-19 than those which use the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), which uses a live attenuated virus. OPV is easier/cheaper to administer, but there is a (small) risk of getting polio from the vaccine. Yes, countries which use… Continue reading 2022-03-20/21 General
2022-03-17/18 General
Mitigation Measures Yep, they did it. On Wednesday I said that the government planned to drop the testing requirement to enter Canada. This article reports that it happened. This article says that as more restrictions are being lifted, a hospital in Montreal reports seeing an increase in “normal” child trauma: broken legs, scrapes, stomach flu,… Continue reading 2022-03-17/18 General
2022-03-15/16 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that the federal government is going to drop the COVID-19 test for travellers entering Canada, for both land and air crossings, for fully vaxxed travellers. Rumour has it that the requirement will be dropped on 1 April. Vaccines Remember J&J? The lame-ass one-shot vax that nobody wants? This article says… Continue reading 2022-03-15/16 General
2022-03-12/13/14 General
Long COVID This preprint says that people with Type O blood are 4.2x as likely to get Long COVID as non-O people. From this Twitter thread: Treatments This preprint looked at effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies against BA.1 and BA.2. It is striking to me how well a monoclonal antibody works against one of the strains… Continue reading 2022-03-12/13/14 General
2022-03-11 General
Note: I am going to reduce how often I post. I already don’t post on weekends; I plan to drop to Mondays and Fridays and maybe Wednesdays. Today was a light news day. I guess partly people are distracted with Ukraine, partly they are bored with COVID-19? Mitigation Measures This article reports that two federal… Continue reading 2022-03-11 General
2022-03-10 General
Mitigation Measures This paper reports on a big study in the US which compared school districts which had mask mandates with those that did not. For every 100 community-acquired cases, districts with universal mask mandates had 7.3 infections, while districts with optionally masks had 26.4. Don’t let anybody tell you that masks don’t work Testing… Continue reading 2022-03-10 General
2022-03-09 General
Vaccines This letter to the editor reports on the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against various things for various variants: against variant # doses VE hospitalization alpha 2 85% hospitalization delta 2 85% hospitalization delta 3 94% hospitalization omicron 2 65% hospitalization omicron 3 86% ventilation alpha 2 or 3 76% ventilation delta 2 or 3… Continue reading 2022-03-09 General
2022-03-08 General
Pathology Yesterday, I posted this preprint which talked about how pre- and post-COVID brain scans showed changes in the brain. Yesterday I saw a Twitter thread talking about that study. The author said that a loss of brain matter is normal when you lose your sense of smell, due to the circuits not being exercised.… Continue reading 2022-03-08 General
2022-03-05/06/07
Pathology This preprint from the UK which compared brain scans made during the Alpha wave to brain scans in the same people several years prior. They found that people who had had COVID infections had more degradation in their brains (on average) than those who had not. They excluded people who had been hospitalized from… Continue reading 2022-03-05/06/07