Recommended Reading 🙌🧴🍞🦠🤢 This older article (2019-12-10) reports on a simple experiment that a schoolteacher did with her class: she took slices of bread and had kids handle them after various hand hygiene techniques. Tongs? The bread was immaculate. No handwashing? Covered with mold. Spoiler: hand sanitizer is not as good as washing with soap… Continue reading 2025-12-05 General
Category: RSV
2025-11-28 General
COVID-19 COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🫀 This paper from Sweden (2025-11-18) reports that getting COVID-19 increases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. Compared to people who did not catch COVID-19, people who did get COVID-19 infections had: People who were hospitalized for COVID-19 had a 10.77 times risk of all-cause mortality compared to never-COVIDers (AKA… Continue reading 2025-11-28 General
2025-11-21 BC
Hospitals This article (2025-11-19) reports that the ICU at West Coast General Hospital in Alberni was going to close temporarily on 2025-11-20 until they can hire/transfer enough specialized staff. (Patients who need the ICU would be stabilized and then transferred to other hospitals.) The BC health minister said that this showed that there is a… Continue reading 2025-11-21 BC
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
2025-11-07 General
COVID-19 Long COVID 💉 This paper from USA (2025-11-01) reports that vaccination cuts the risk of Long COVID in adolescents by 36%. This paper from Alberta (2025-11-07) (and this press release on the paper) reports on differences between men with Long COVID and women with Long COVID. The study notes that testosterone normally helps keep… Continue reading 2025-11-07 General
2025-09-27 General
COVID-19 It’s a bit hard to tell what is happening with COVID-19 in BC because of the lack of data, but COVID-19 in Canada overall is definitely going up. Long COVID 🫡 This paper from the USA (2025-09-16) looked at Long COVID in active duty service members and found: COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🫀💉… Continue reading 2025-09-27 General
2025-06-27 General
🤦♀️🇺🇸 If this post feels unusually short, that’s, well, because it is. There has been a really striking lack of news appropriate for this blog this week. The English-language health news has been absolutely overwhelmed with stories of the fusterclucks going on in US health politics. Recommended Reading ⭐️💉 Some people note that kids these… Continue reading 2025-06-27 General