Especially when it comes to news about COVID-19 and even more especially news about the vaccines against SARS-Co-V-2. So, many of the headlines that followed a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine about the Pfizer vaccine’s effects on the viral stain from South Africa called (B.1.351) focused on the fact […]
According to Dr. Bonnie Henry, 15 people tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a 50-person trivia party somewhere in the Fraser Valley over the Family Day weekend. Only2 possible explanations. Either these people thought that being a whiz at trivia means that you are automatically very low-risk (via a trivia shield) for getting infected even […]
At least until we have enough vaccine supply to offer everyone 2 doses, the best way to use our limited supply of vaccine is to give as many first shots to as many at-risk people as we can. Why? Because the data from nearly everywhere is indicating that a 2nd shot doesn’t increase immunity by […]
The Globe and Mail reports that Procurement Minister (a very odd portfolio name, I suggest, in part because the Procurement Minister has not procured very much as yet) Anita Anand says “Canada’s steady drop in international COVID-19 vaccination rankings will start to reverse as the country gets a significant increase in vaccine deliveries in the coming months.” […]
A study from Imperial College London has determined that COVID infections have fallen by two-thirds in a month in England. That’s very good news and it points out in a real-world way that using social restrictions (masks, social distancing, lockdowns) and rapid, widespread vaccinations are working to significantly cut down infections. The off-setting disappointing news, […]
When it comes to determining how many cases in Canada of COVID-19 can be linked to airplane travel, especially to international travel, it might interest you to know that we really have very little idea, as this excellent report outlines. That’s because we don’t test nearly enough. And we are way too polite, the usual […]
A small Israeli study (26 people) has concluded that medical marijuana might be a good way to control blood pressure. And they only tested this approach in older people, which was defined, as YIKES! post-70, which in Israel, is apparently the demographic group that is using medical marijuana more quickly than any other group. Well, […]
According to several reports and one major study, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can cause lymph nodes to swell, especially those in the armpit on the side where the shot was given. And any armpit lymph node swelling will immediately cause concern in most women because that may be a sign of breast cancer […]
Although adults with pre-diabetes are forever being warned that it their condition progresses they will surely develop frank diabetes (along with a much higher risk of all the complications associated with that condition), that fear may not be justified, according to a recent study from Johns Hopkins University. In this real-world study of 3500 adults […]
A very small study from the UK of only 139 patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms (and not yet published) concluded that those who added in a commonly-prescribed steroid for asthma, namely budesonide (Pulmicort), ended up with a significantly lower risk of requiring hospitalization than those who stuck to their usual asthma drug regimen. It’s likely […]