Mitigation Measures This article says that the Government of Canada has come out with new vaccine mandates. All federal employees — including those who work from home or in a different country — have until 29 October to get vaccinated. Everyone over 12 must be vaccinated to take a plane or train inside Canada. Transmission… Continue reading 2021-10-06 General
Category: Transmission
2021-09-29 General
Testing/Diagnostics In this study, they put a wristwatch-like thing on the wrists of people who willingly allowed themselves to be infected with either rhinovirus, flu, or placebo. The wristwatch thingie was able to predict illness about a day before symptoms showed up. This could be really useful for diagnosing other respiratory infections (like ahem COVID-19).… Continue reading 2021-09-29 General
2021-09-22 General
Vaccines In this study, the authors made pseudoviruses — things which have SARS-CoV-2 spikes on them but which can’t infect people, and “mutated” the spikes. They were able to find a mutant spike that were almost completely resistant to antibodies from either people who had had COVID-19 and had not been vaccinated or who had… Continue reading 2021-09-22 General
2021-09-15 General
Vaccines I mentioned a study from England yesterday which looked at waning immunity. This tweet thread looks more closely, and there’s good stuff in the report that I missed. First, here’s the original study. Yes, it looks you’ve got a significant loss in effectiveness against infection if you look at the over-sixteens, but if you… Continue reading 2021-09-15 General
2021-09-14 General
Vaccines This article has a graph of AZ and Pfizer’s effectiveness over time for old folks. It’s not pretty (but remember that they used a short dose interval, and Canada mostly used a long interval). Even for younger people, it’s not great news: This preprint says that people who have a spare tire around their… Continue reading 2021-09-14 General
2021-09-11/12/13 General
Transmission This report says that seroprevalence of COVID-19 antibodies from infection in Canadian blood donors went up to 4.5%, up from 4.0% in May. (How can they tell the difference? Vaccines only make antibodies to the spike protein, so if there are antibodies to some other part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, then it was acquired… Continue reading 2021-09-11/12/13 General
2021-09-04/05/06/07 General
Testing/Transmission This preprint says that getting a swab stuffed waaaay up your nose for a COVID-19 test makes about 20% of people cough or sneeze, which generates aerosols (which are dangerous). Men cough or sneeze significantly more than women do. (Maybe women are more conscientious about holding it in?) Pro tip, y’all: if you need… Continue reading 2021-09-04/05/06/07 General
2021-08-28/29/30 General
Vaccines This Research Letter says that six to ten weeks after the second dose, antibody levels were higher in people who got Moderna doses than Pfizer doses. People who also had gotten sick with COVID-19 had higher antibody levels than those who had not. Younger people had more antibodies than older people. This preprint says… Continue reading 2021-08-28/29/30 General
2021-08-27 General
Variants This preprint says that Delta is twice as likely to put you into the hospital than Alpha is. Transmission This article says that the US has identified the first cases of COVID-19 in deer. That’s kind of odd, because this article from July 2021 says that the USDA found antibodies in deer. Maybe it’s… Continue reading 2021-08-27 General
2021-08-23 General
Vaccines This Twitter thread is an excellent discussion of how to understand the “do vaccines wane” discussion. Please go read it. The US FDA today gave full approval to Pfizer, as opposed to the Emergency Use Authorization that it had given. This is important because there were entities which were not legally able to require… Continue reading 2021-08-23 General