Wastewater In yesterday’s BC post, I mentioned that the wastewater data didn’t match last week’s. At yesterday’s press conference (see below, which I missed because I didn’t know it was happening, then it took a while to find good video footage of it), the province said they have re-tested all of their historical samples of… Continue reading 2023-04-07 BC small
2023-04-06 BC
Mitigation Measures This article reports that the province has lifted several mitigation measures: Dr. Henry did say that some mitigation measures might return in the fall. Yeah, good luck with putting that cat back in that bag. Somehow I missed it, but this article from 21 March 2023 says that the Vancouver City Council made… Continue reading 2023-04-06 BC
2023-04-06 General
Transmission It is pretty clear to me that COVID-19 spread is airborne — there has been lots of evidence in the literature for that — but I had not seen any evidence that it spread via surface contact (fomites). This paper from the UK makes a strong case for fomites being important. They tracked household… Continue reading 2023-04-06 General
2023-03-31 BC tiny
From Jeff’s spreadsheet, with data from MetroVan:
2023-03-30 BC
Statistics As of today, the BC CDC weekly report said that in the week ending on 23 March there were: +456 reported cases, +135 hospital admissions, +29 ICU admissions, +18 thirty-day all-cause deaths*. As of today, the weekly report said that the previous week (data through March 18) there were: +405 reported cases, +143 hospital admissions, +23… Continue reading 2023-03-30 BC
2023-03-30 General
Long COVID This paper from Switzerland says that there are fewer Long COVID symptoms after an Omicron infection than for previous variants. The number of symptoms on a survey given to people who tested postive were: Strain of infection # Symptoms COVID Classic 1.12 Alpha/Delta 0.67 Omicron 0.52 no infection 0.39 Interestingly, for Omicron infections,… Continue reading 2023-03-30 General
2023-03-25 BC tiny
Wastewater From Jeff’s spreadsheet, using Metro Van wastewater info: It sort of looks like they accidentally swapped the 18 March 2023 Iona sample with the Lion’s Gate sample.
2023-03-23 BC
Assholes This article says that a BC pharmacist got busted falsifying his own vax records, and has been punished (slightly). Economics This article says that the province is putting $479M into Translink to avoid a “death spiral” (where increasing fares and declining service lead to declining ridership, which leads to increasing fares and declining service,… Continue reading 2023-03-23 BC
2023-03-23 General
Transmission This report on seroprevalence in blood donors says that, by mid-January: This means that almost a quarter of Canadians had not had COVID-19 by mid-Jan 2023. Long COVID This article says that Long COVID isn’t as common as the press makes it out to be. This study says that COVID-19 causes lingering symptoms in… Continue reading 2023-03-23 General
2023-03-18 BC small
Secondary Effects This article reports that the pandemic has altered how people use electricity. The peak morning use has shifted later (probably because people who no longer have to travel to their workplace can get up earlier), they shower less, and the stream video way more. This article says that a lot of women didn’t… Continue reading 2023-03-18 BC small