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
2024-08-31 General
COVID-19 I’m going to put stars ⭐ next to papers that I think are particularly exciting. My Bad! I have, in the past, referred to the nucleocapsid as the “ball” part of the spiky ball that is a SARS-CoV-2 virion. I was wrong: the “ball” part is called the “envelope”. Inside the envelope is the… Continue reading 2024-08-31 General
2024-08-26 BC
Hospitals Recent hospital closures: Party! The Clean Air Festival is happening in Vancouver on 15 September at Slocan Park (and livestreamed). It’s outdoors and N95-class masks are required! First Nations This article (2024-08-21) reports that Indigenous life expectancy in B.C. fell from 73.3 years in 2017 to 67.2 years in 2021. It fell for 6.8… Continue reading 2024-08-26 BC