COVID-19 Long COVID One strange thing about human DNA is that there is DNA for viruses (called human endogenous retroviruses, HERV) embedded in our genome, presumably left over from ancient viral infections. Usually they stay there, but every once in a while they get loose. This paper from Spain (2024-07-31) reports that the levels of… Continue reading 2024-10-05 General
2024-09-30 General
Public Service Announcement: Get your flu shot! This pre-pandemic paper from Canada (2018-01-18) reports that the risk of heart attack goes up by about TEN TIMES in the week after an influenza B infection compared to the year before and year after. (Influenza B is much less common than influenza A, fortunately.) Other respiratory diseases… Continue reading 2024-09-30 General
2024-09-26 BC
Statistics Provincial weekly data releases have resumed effective today. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the statistics are different and not as transparent: the raw numbers are no longer published, just graphs (usually per million people). (This provincial report says the BC population is ~5.6M, by the way.) They have also removed… Continue reading 2024-09-26 BC
2024-09-25 General/BC
About scheduling: I seem to take longer and longer to get this done. Unless anybody says something about it, that’s not likely to change. COVID-19 Long COVID This paper from USA (2024-08-09) reports that 71% of pediatric Long COVID patients have problems with orthostatic intolerance, which basically means they have trouble with maintaining blood pressure… Continue reading 2024-09-25 General/BC
2024-09-15 BC
Socializing Today (15 Sept) there will be a Clean Air Festival in Vancouver at Slocan Park, between 1:00pm and 6:30pm! Music, workshops, demos, in addition to safe socializing and networking. High-quality mask (N95-type) required; Rapid Test beforehand greatly appreciated. Health Care This article (2024-09-10) says that Vancouver Public Health failed to get Freedom of Information… Continue reading 2024-09-15 BC
2024-09-15 General
Defies Heading Classification This paper from China (2024-09-04) reports that animals farmed for fur carry a TON of nasty viruses. They looked at 461 fur animals that they found dead (412 from fur and/or livestock farms and 49 from wild settings) from all over China, and found seven coronaviruses, three types of influenza, Japanese encephalitis… Continue reading 2024-09-15 General
2024-09-07 BC
Cases are rising in the short term but kind of flat over a longer period. Positivity is creeping upwards, and the number in hospital is rising slowly. Wastewater is going up slowly in Fraser Health, flattish everywhere else. Anecdotally, lots of people “have a cold” right now. (It’s not “a cold”, it’s COVID-19, as I… Continue reading 2024-09-07 BC
2024-09-07 General
COVID-19 Long COVID This paper (2024-09-05) reports that baricitinib and anakinra — relatively commonly used immunomodulatory drugs — can effectively treat lung fibrosis in mice (which can cause the Long COVID symptom of shortness of breath). This paper from USA (2024-08-26) reports that even mild COVID-19 infections can cause increased levels of autoantibodies, and Long… Continue reading 2024-09-07 General
It’s not a Summer Cold, it’s COVID
2024-09-02 If you think you have “a cold” right now, it’s almost certainly COVID-19 and not a cold. Nothing Else is Circulating (Much) There’s very little circulation of any upper respiratory diseases except COVID-19 right now. The BC Pathogen characterization page stopped reporting in April because the trend was going so low, but you can… Continue reading It’s not a Summer Cold, it’s COVID
2024-08-31 BC
Hospitals This article (2024-08-29) reports that Mission Memorial Hospital was going to turn away serious patients away beginning at 8 p.m. on Thursday, August 29 until Friday, August 30 at 8 a.m. This article (2024-08-28) reports that in order to do the switch from paper-based to fully-electronic records at Royal Columbian Hospital, they are going… Continue reading 2024-08-31 BC