Category: Pathology

week ending 2022-05-19 General

Testing This paper found that dogs could be trained to recognize COVID-19 patients by smelling skin swabs with an accuracy of over 90%. This report says that: The percentage of all Canadian blood donors who have been infected with COVID-19 was about 28.7%, with 44.3% among the 17-24-year-olds. 99.57% of Canadian donors had evidence of… Continue reading week ending 2022-05-19 General

week ending 2022-05-12 General

Long COVID This report from the UK found that double-vaxxed people were almost 50% less likely to get Long COVID after Omicron than after Delta, but triple-vaxxed people were slightly more likely to get Long COVID after Omicron than after Delta. A different UK governmental report found that 2.8% of the entire UK population self-reports… Continue reading week ending 2022-05-12 General

week ending 2022-05-05 General

Mitigation Measures This site has links to a boatload of studies on masking. 21 of 24 studies found masks to be effective; one was inconclusive and one found that masks were not effective. Ten of the studies date from Dec 2021 or more recently. Long COVID There were three studies I found last week which… Continue reading week ending 2022-05-05 General

week ending 2022-04-28 General

Vaccines This article says that Moderna has formally filed a request that the US FDA approve their vax for children between 6 months and 5 years, yay! Moderna says the two-dose regime is 51% effective against infection. That doesn’t sound like much, but it is compared to kids without vax (who don’t get sick as… Continue reading week ending 2022-04-28 General

Week ending 2022-04-14 General

Because the rest of the world has decided that COVID doesn’t exist any more, I am dropping down to one post per week. I am going to stop posting articles which are repetitive, especially ones of the form “Oh look! {Vaccines, boosters, treatments} still work against {Omicron, older variants}”; “Oh look! Vaccines wane in effectiveness!”;… Continue reading Week ending 2022-04-14 General

2022-03-31 and 2022-04-01 General

Mitigation Measures This article reports that, as advertised, the Government of Canada has dropped its requirement for a COVID test to enter the country for fully vaccinated travelers. Note that you do still need to fill out the ArriveCan app’s survey before you cross. Pathology Wow, this paper says that pregnancy increases your risk of… Continue reading 2022-03-31 and 2022-04-01 General

2022-03-24/25 General

Vaccines This article reports that the World Health Organization’s COVAX project declined to approve Medicago’s vax — not because their vax doesn’t work, but because Medicago is largely owned by Big Tobacco, and that’s verboten. This preprint says that a trivalent version of the NDV-HXP-S vax with a mix of Beta, Gamma, and Delta spikes… Continue reading 2022-03-24/25 General

2022-03-23 General

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