Vaccines Great news! Moderna has vaccines against B.1.351 ready to for Phase 1 trials! They are going to do a test with three different arms, with two shots of the COVID Classic (as normal) and then a half dose of either: a vax against B.1.351 and only B.1.351, a vax that’s a mixture of the… Continue reading 2021-02-25 General
2021-02-24 General
Vaccines The AstraZeneca vaccine is more effective when there’s a three month delay between dose 1 and dose 2. Unfortunately, the effectiveness drops quite a bit after the fifth week, from 84% in the fifth week to 58% after the seventh. Moderna is doing a long-term study of its vaccines, but is having a problem… Continue reading 2021-02-24 General
2021-02-25 BC
Press Briefing of 23 Feb 2021 From today’s press briefing: +395 cases, +10 deaths, +3,409 first shots, +5,549 second shots. Currently 228 in hospital / 62 in ICU, 4489 active cases, 7931 under monitoring, 72781 deaths. On Monday 1 March 2021, the briefing will feature further details about the vaccination program. Things that Dr. Henry and… Continue reading 2021-02-25 BC
2021-02-24 BC
Daily Statistics From today’s press release: +456 cases, +2 deaths, +2,809 first doses, +3,712 second doses. Currently 237 in hospital / 64 in ICU, 4,668 active cases, 7,924 under monitoring, 72,219 recovered. Charts
2021-02-23 General
Variant of Concerns Californa There is a strain in California which appears to be more contagious, the B.1.427/B.1.429 strain, which has a single interesting mutation (L452R). It is not in a specific part of the spike protein called the Receptor-Binding Domain (RBD). According to the un-peer-reviewed information, the variant appears to be more contagious: people… Continue reading 2021-02-23 General
BC Press Briefings
Many of my posts will be about press briefings; here I will describe the briefings I am talking about. The Ministry of Health presents, via video, information about the COVID-19 pandemic in BC. They feature Adrian Dix, the Minister of Health for British Columbia, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, the Provincial Health Officer of British Columbia.… Continue reading BC Press Briefings
2021-02-23 BC
Press Briefing of 23 Feb 2021 From today’s press briefing: +559 cases, +1 death, +1,788 first doses, +3,839 second doses. Currently 238 in hospital / 69 in ICU, 4677 active cases, 7881 under monitoring, 71,753 recovered. There were zero deaths of long-term care home residents today, and I think that’s the first time in a… Continue reading 2021-02-23 BC
Vaccine effectiveness
Over the past two weeks, there have been quite a few studies which have shown that the vaccines work as expected. For example, see: The Economist — “the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduced the hospitalisation rate among inoculated Scots by 85% four weeks after their first dose; the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine lowered hospitalisations by 94%. (The variation between… Continue reading Vaccine effectiveness
2021-02-22 BC
Daily Statistics From today’s press release: Fri/Sat: +504 cases Sat/Sun: +475 cases Sun/Mon: +449 cases +8 deaths over the weekend, +7561 first doses, +18134 second doses. Currently 223 in hospital / 66 in ICU, 4,560 active cases, 7,768 under monitoring, 71,313 recovered. Charts