COVID-19 Long COVID This conference presentation (which I think is from China) (2026-05-03) reports that SIM01, a mix of pre- and probiotics, significantly helped Long COVID patients compared to placebo. SIM01 reduced fatigue, insomnia, memory loss, and shortness of breath. (Unfortunately, there’s very little details or information, so this is only slightly more convincing than… Continue reading 2026-05-08 General
Category: H5N1
2026-04-18 General
Multiple Pathogens Hospitals This article (2026-04-16) about this report (2026-04-16) says that the number of hospitalizations for vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases for Canadians more than doubled between 2019 and 2024, from 66 per 100,000 to 142 per 100,000. (BC had 125 vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases per 100,000 in 2024.) There were almost 60,000 vaccine-preventable respiratory hospitalizations in… Continue reading 2026-04-18 General
2026-01-30 General
COVID-19 COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness This paper from Greece (2026-01-19) reports that children who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection had worse global longitudinal strain (GLS) — a measure of how much the left ventricle of the heart can contract. Kids who had more severe infections had worse GLS. This paper from Japan (2026-01-21) reports… Continue reading 2026-01-30 General
2025-12-26 General
Influenza Transmission 🤧 I just had influenza, so spent some time looking up information about incubation periods and contagiousness to figure out how to keep Spouse from getting sick. O. My. Word. There is so much information that is just plain wrong out there! Almost every web page I visited said that influenza was passed… Continue reading 2025-12-26 General
2025-11-21 General
There’s been a lot of news this week, but most of the articles it’s been politicians-in-other-countries-doing-stupid-things. It hasn’t just been the USA, either: UK, Scotland, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, and I forget who else all made appearances. That hasn’t left much mindshare for articles about the science and/or Canada. 🙁 COVID-19 Long COVID This paper… Continue reading 2025-11-21 General
2025-11-14 General
I want to remind people again to get a flu shot this year. There’s a new substrain — H3N2 subclade K — which apparently is more contagious and nastier if you catch it. The flu shot isn’t hugely effective against infection but it has some effectiveness (especially for children!), and even if it doesn’t stop… Continue reading 2025-11-14 General
2025-10-11 General
COVID-19 I want to mention that I have seen multiple couples — some that I know personally and some on teh socials — express shock that one half of the couple could test positive while being symptom-free or almost symptom-free while the other got their posterior kicked by COVID-19. Yes, folks, asymptomatic COVID-19 infections are… Continue reading 2025-10-11 General
2025-10-06 General
NB: I am travelling, so this is going to be shorter than normal. I have stopped talking about some things because I decided to focus (mostly) on things that are more actionable. For two examples: papers about vaccine trials or biomarkers for Long COVID. For both, it takes a looooooong time for the papers to… Continue reading 2025-10-06 General
2025-08-11 oops 13 General
(Addendum 2025-08-15: I actually published this on 2025-08-11, not on 2025-08-13, but it’s too late now to change the URL. Oops, sorry.) COVID-19 Vaccines 💉I might need to fly across the continent to support a relative who is going to get major surgery, so I tried to schedule a vax appointment in the US. No… Continue reading 2025-08-11 oops 13 General
2025-07-26 General
COVID-19 Long COVID ‼️‼️‼️🎉🎉🎉This article (2025-07-22) and this paper from Canada (2025-07-07) say that scientists have found a really easy blood test to diagnose ME/CFS! (They look for the protein SMPDL3B.) This is both great for testing purposes but also suggests a treatment! They haven’t looked for SMPDL3B in Long COVID patients yet, but I… Continue reading 2025-07-26 General