Mitigation Measures This article reports that border mitigation measures are being softened. Starting on 28 Feb: People can use a RAT instead of PCR test to get back into the country. (I don’t know how they verify the test date.) There will still be random PCR checks at the border, but if you have to… Continue reading 2022-02-15 General
Category: General
2022-02-12/13/14 General
Vaccines This preprint says that if you are unvaccinated and get Omicron, that protects you against Omicron, but your protection against anything else is pretty crappy. If you get Omicron after getting vaccinated, you get really really good protection against all known variants. Treatments Two articles have come out in the past week which say… Continue reading 2022-02-12/13/14 General
2022-02-11 General
Transmission Buried in this blog post was something I hadn’t ever known: the volume of air a person inhales/exhales per minute is around ten times larger during exercise than at rest. No wonder DrH closed the gyms. Treatments This article reports that the US FDA has approved a new monoclonal antibody — bebtelovimab — for… Continue reading 2022-02-11 General
2022-02-10 General
I didn’t sleep well last night, then took a long nap today, so this is all you get today, sorry. Vaccines This preprint reports on Phase 1 studies of Patria, the Mexican version of NDV-HXP-S. (If you’ve forgotten, NDV-HXP-S was developed at a med school in New York, uses the 6-proline stabilization, and uses really… Continue reading 2022-02-10 General
2022-02-09 General
Vaccines You know how the mRNA vaccines are f amazing? I want to take a moment to say that I think the next generation of vaccines are going to be even more effective. There have been a rash of papers recently which indicate that we humans still have tricks up our sleeves: Multiple targets: All… Continue reading 2022-02-09 General
2022-02-08 General
Pathology This case studies paper says that they saw four pediatric appendicitis cases with COVID-19. Now, four cases is not many, but it was almost a quarter of their appendicitis patients, while the rate overall was only 8%. They also note that it’s reasonable to expect that COVID-19 could infect the appendix, as it also… Continue reading 2022-02-08 General
2022-02-05/06/07 General
Long COVID This paper and this preprint says that people who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection are at greater risk from heart complications afterwards. The first study followed patients for the next year and found that patients had the following elevated risk of any heart issue in the following year compared to non-infected controls:… Continue reading 2022-02-05/06/07 General
2022-02-04 General
Vaccines This article reports that NACI now says that you should wait three months after getting COVID-19 before you get a booster. It’s not bad, it’s just that three months will give you better protection, they think. Note that they don’t actually have any data on the COVID-19 booster specifically, they are basing that advice… Continue reading 2022-02-04 General
2022-02-03 General
Variants This is really strange. This article says that in New York City and also in some places in California, they have been seeing strange variants in their wastewater surveillance for the past year — variants they haven’t seen in any people. It wasn’t clear, but I think there are three main lineages (classed as… Continue reading 2022-02-03 General
2022-02-02 General
Happy Twosday! Transmission This article reports on the results of the first human challenge trial (meaning: deliberate infection) of COVID Classic. You’re going WAIT WHAT? HOW COULD THAT POSSIBLY PASS ETHICS REVIEW? This happened in the UK (so different ethics boards), and they did work hard to minimize potential harm to the subjects (like making… Continue reading 2022-02-02 General