COVID-19 COVID-Related Excess Death and Sickness 🤰 This paper from USA (2025-01-01) reports babies who were exposed to COVID-19 while in the womb had neurological developmental issues compared to babies who were not exposed. Compared to controls, exposed children: 🤰 This paper from China (2025-12-23) reports that eggs for IVF which are taken while the… Continue reading 2026-01-09 General
Category: RSV
2026-01-02 General
This is a short posting because there wasn’t much news over the holidays. The province didn’t release any data this week, so there’s no BC-specific posting. (The province says they will release data next Thursday.) COVID-19 COVID-Related Excess Sickness and Death This paper from USA (2025-12-23) reports that people hospitalized for COVID-19 had a 2.11… Continue reading 2026-01-02 General
2025-12-12 General
COVID Long COVID 🚑 This paper from USA (2025-12-03) reports that veterans who were eventually diagnosed with Long COVID had a 34% higher risk of emergency department visits in the six months after their infection compared to those who tested positive for COVID-19 infections but who did not get Long COVID. 🩸 This paper from… Continue reading 2025-12-12 General
2025-12-05 General
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
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