The Canadian allocations page has been updated, and it looks like Moderna is going to deliver 1,660,800 by the end of March, quite a bit shy of the 2M which they were supposed to deliver. (I suppose they could deliver 340K on March 29, 30, or 31, but I’m not holding my breath.) Based on… Continue reading 2021-03-07 BC
2021-03-06 General
Treatments Fluvoxamine — an old anti-depressant — is being tested as a treatment for COVID. VOCs Yet another paper says that our vaccines (in this case, Moderna and Novavax) work against B.1.1.7.
2021-03-05 General
VOCs They found a variant of the B.1.1.7 in Oregon which developed a the same mutation as one they have found in scary variants elsewhere, the E484K mutation. Yes, this is a variant of a variant. I would like it if we came up with a different naming scheme. There’s a leaked story (hint: perhaps… Continue reading 2021-03-05 General
2021-03-05 BC
Vaccine Clinics A friend of mine who is hospital-adjacent tells me that he got a message yesterday telling him that vax would be available today for people like my friend who work in the hospital but who are not health-care workers. (I presume this includes people like janitors, laundry staff, and the woman who runs… Continue reading 2021-03-05 BC
2021-03-04 General
Vaccines Canada is probably going to approve the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in the next few days. That will make four vaccines, five if you count the Serum Institute of India’s vaccine as different from AstraZeneca. There is an article in the Economist which says that the differences in reported vaccine efficacy is really… Continue reading 2021-03-04 General
2021-03-04 BC
VOCs There are more and more VOCs in BC. Today, they announced 42 more B.1.17 cases and 4 more B.1.351 cases. Four people in hospital have VOCs; two recent deaths were from VOCs. Dr. Henry advocates keeping calm, but I think this warrants some concern. Vaccine supply Next week, BC should be getting about 60K… Continue reading 2021-03-04 BC
2021-03-03 BC
Vaccine Supply Canada got its first shipment of 500,000 doses of the Serum Institute of India-branded AstraZeneca vaccine today, but it hasn’t made it to BC yet. Statistics Today: +542 cases, +7 deaths, +1 B.1.351, +17 B.1.1.7, +6,548 first doses, +79 second doses. Currently 246 in hospital / 64 in ICU, 4,654 active cases, 8,617… Continue reading 2021-03-03 BC
2021-03-03 General
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