Mitigation Measures This paper looks at the strategy of eliminating vs. mitigating and concludes that eliminating is better. It says that the countries which went for elimination (Australia, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea) have done much better than the ones which went for mitigation. Um, notice anything about those countries? None of them… Continue reading 2021-06-22 General
Category: General
2021-06-21 General
Transmission This paper details a clever US study where they looked at COVID-19 cases in households which had recently had a birthday vs. households which had not recently had a birthday. They found 31% more COVID-19 case in households with birthdays than without, and the effect was much stronger in households with a child birthday… Continue reading 2021-06-21 General
2021-06-20 General
Variants I have been scaremongering about Delta, saying it is more transmissible, causes more severe cases, and is transmitted more in schools. I apparently need to back off a little bit. Delta is more transmissible, that’s uncontestable. This very interesting tweet thread says that the data does not support there being more transmission in schools.… Continue reading 2021-06-20 General
2021-06-19 General
Treatments This preprint might be important. It describes a novel treatment for COVID-19 (and possibly for all viruses). The active ingredient (SLR) activates a molecule called RIG-I, which in turn gooses the production of interleukin-1, which is a cytokine, part of the immune system associated with inflammation. Basically, SLR revs up the innate immune system… Continue reading 2021-06-19 General
2021-06-18 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that PM Trudeau is sticking to his guns: he wants 75% of Canadians partially / 20% fully vaxxed before re-opening the border, as Canada extended the border closure until July 21. Good on him. NB: My husband and I have lots of family in the US, so I am not… Continue reading 2021-06-18 General
2021-06-17 General
Vaccines The US just donated 1M Moderna doses to Canada. Canada received 330K Johnson & Johnson doses, but it’s going to sit on them right now because of concerns about contamination. Canada will also refuse any more J&J shipments. Today NACI advised Team AZ to get mRNA for the second dose. While I think this… Continue reading 2021-06-17 General
2021-06-16 General
Vaccines Oh, ouch! CureVac has really crappy preliminary Phase 3 results: 49%. CureVac is an mRNA vax, and they had made all kinds of partnerships with really big pharma companies to manufacture it. They were supposed to deliver 300M this year and 1B next year. That hurts. A survey says that about one in five… Continue reading 2021-06-16 General
2021-06-15 General
Vaccines A few days ago, I wrote about how the world was going to have more than enough vaccine for everybody by the end of the year, and listed all the vaccines which I thought would be approved in time to help people this year? Well, one that had not even been on my radar… Continue reading 2021-06-15 General
2021-06-14 General
Vaccines Novavax announced that they have finished their Phase 3 trials with a 90.4% efficacy rate (with two-thirds of the infections being the Alpha strain). Their reported rate of “mild” (i.e. “only” make you uncomfortable) side effects was lower than any of the other Canadian-approved vaxes. Novavax says they will seek FDA approval “in Q3”,… Continue reading 2021-06-14 General
2021-06-13 General
Supply Tl;dr: we have enough supply to vax the world before the end of 2021. I hear a lot of people being very concerned about the global supply, worried that it will be multiple years before we have enough doses to vax the world. I think there is a really good chance that we will… Continue reading 2021-06-13 General