Local Industry This article says that AbCellera — which made Bamlanivimab and Bebtelovimab, two of the anti-COVID monoclonal antibodies — is doubling the size of its planned expansion in Vancouver, thanks in part to federal and provincial subsidies. This article says that BC Ferries says that it is working hard to hire more crew (including… Continue reading 2023-05-30 BC
2023-05-30 General
Long COVID This paper from Germany has some good news: it says that mild to moderate COVID infections in unvaccinated people does not lead to cognitive deficits several months after recovery than in controls. The caveat is that the study had only 223 people in each arm of the study, so it might not have… Continue reading 2023-05-30 General
2023-05-21 BC small
Hospitals This article reports that Burnaby Hospital had a third COVID outbreak in three weeks. It mentioned that they are doing “enhanced cleaning” — but are they wearing masks again? Are they filtering the air? Statistics I refreshed the Situation Report, expecting to see nothing, but instead saw: Data presented are up to the end… Continue reading 2023-05-21 BC small
2023-05-21 General small
Vaccines This preprint from India found that a nasally-administered adenovirus-vectored vaccine gave mice good protection against BQ.1.1 and XBB.1.5. This preprint from China found that in mice, one Omicron booster after two COVID Classic vaccinations wasn’t as effective as one would like due to imprinting on COVID Classic (aka “original antigenic sin”). The good news… Continue reading 2023-05-21 General small
2023-05-04 BC
Statistics Wait, what??? There’s a note on the respiratory diseases page saying, “The final update of the respiratory season was on May 4. Respiratory updates will resume in the fall. COVID-19 reporting will continue through the summer.” I thought they were going to move updates to once per month, not stop them completely. ARG! And… Continue reading 2023-05-04 BC
2023-05-04 General
I had an ugly thought. Maybe it makes a certain sense from the majority’s standpoint, to remove all restrictions because it would level the playing field. If COVID-19 does cause lasting damage, e.g. in increasing the risk of death or disability, then the people who have never had COVID-19 have an advantage over the people… Continue reading 2023-05-04 General
2023-04-20 General
Folks, we have a problem. We have a problem with language. When I say “Long COVID”, you probably immediately think “brain fog and/or fatigue” (and maybe you’ll think of a persistent cough and/or loss of smell/taste). What you probably do not think of is a higher chance of severe illness/death from something that doesn’t look… Continue reading 2023-04-20 General
2023-04-20 BC
The province is reducing how often it releases data. They next data release will be on 4 May 2023. Statistics As of today, the BC CDC weekly report said that in the week ending on 15 April there were: +519 reported cases, +152 hospital admissions, +27 ICU admissions, +19 thirty-day all-cause deaths*. As of today, the weekly… Continue reading 2023-04-20 BC
2023-04-17 BC small
Transmission This article quotes someone from the federally-funded Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network (i.e. they probably know what they are talking about) who says that 2% of people in BC are contagious with COVID-19 right now. But maybe the CVRRN is too pessimistic? Well, this twitter thread (by someone who has traditionally been more pessimistic… Continue reading 2023-04-17 BC small
2023-04-07 BC small
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