Vaccines The Novavax vaccine — which had ~90% efficacy against B.1.1.7 — had only 60% efficacy against HIV-negative patients, most of whom had B.1.351. As a side effect, the study showed that having had COVID Classic didn’t give you any protection against B.1.351. Yikes. There is a report that, while rare, some delayed (5 days… Continue reading 2021-03-03 General
2021-03-02 General
Variants The New York Times has an article talking about the naming of variants. Basically, it’s hard to make strain names memorable while also avoiding place names, people’s names, and names of animals. 🙁 There are a few ways that scientists figure out how resistant a variant is to a vaccine. One is to look… Continue reading 2021-03-02 General
2021-03-02 BC
Local company in the news! I found out that AbCellera, a Vancouver company, was involved in making Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody COVID treatment! AbCellera makes a machine that can screen blood looking for useful antibodies. Press Briefing of 2021-03-02 Data NOTICE!! Dr. Henry said that they had some problems with their data systems and that… Continue reading 2021-03-02 BC
2021-03-01 General
Vaccines An article in the New York Times reports on studies which show that one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine gives good protection. An article in the Washington Post says that the Israeli vaccine rollout — which has now reached 50% of its citizens and almost 90 percent of people over 50 — shows that… Continue reading 2021-03-01 General
2021-03-01 BC
The big news was an immunization briefing, which I covered in a post of its own. AZ vaccine Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended against using the AstraZeneca vaccine in individuals aged 65 years and older, due to insufficient data. Weekend Statistics From today’s press release: Fri/Sat: +532 casesSat/Sun: +508 casesSun/Mon: +438 cases Over… Continue reading 2021-03-01 BC
2021-03-01 Immunization Briefing
The Health Ministry of BC had a briefing to give an update on the province’s immunization status and plan. Here’s the slide deck and the press release. The first plan‘s timeline was delayed a bit due to delays in supply, but things have generally gone according to plan. Note that some news broke at the… Continue reading 2021-03-01 Immunization Briefing
2021-02-28 BC
Religion Apparently, the variance that Dr. Henry gave the three churches who are suing to have services was not good enough for the churches, who did not drop the suit. The Orca has an interesting story about it.
2021-02-28 General
Long COVID There is a good thread by Dr. Iwasaki, a prominent virologist, suggesting possible mechanisms for Long-COVID and a clever vaccine trial which could help shed light on which mechanism it is. The possibilities she lists are: A persistent viral reservoir, i.e. the virus is hiding somewhere (like maybe the Central Nervous System) Inactive… Continue reading 2021-02-28 General
2021-02-27 General
Diagnostics A paper in Blood Advances describes some markers which a machine learning algorithm says indicate how likely a COVID-19 patient is to have a severe case. This is interesting for two reasons: It can tell who should get really aggressive treatment. Which elements of the blood are important can give clues to why COVID-19… Continue reading 2021-02-27 General
2021-02-27 BC
Religious Gatherings There are three churches which have been suing BC for not letting them gather to worship. Their basic argument is, “why is it okay to shop for balloons when it’s not okay to worship?” (Spoiler: because you don’t spend an hour shopping for balloons and you don’t sing or chant while you are… Continue reading 2021-02-27 BC