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• Post #4480782

  @elana@babka.social Oh, it's coming, it's coming! It's just really slow. I have been writing a blog on COVID for six years, summarizing research papers and news articles about COVID (with a filter on what is interesting for residents of British Columbia). There have been a LOT of papers about vaccines that work really really well in mice: are durable and/or broadly protective and/or stop onward transmission.... but then usually I don't hear any more. The pace of vaccine devel...

• Post #4051761

  This study found that people who sat a lot while watching TV had greater changes in areas of the brain associated with dementia than people who sat a lot at work, especially in men: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260722/Frequent-TV-watching-links-to-higher-white-matter-lesion-volume.aspx The article speculates that TV is more passive. I wonder if it's simpler than that: people who watch more TV are exposed to more ads urging them to engage in unhealthy behaviour.

• Post #3898969

  Me, I think it's even easier: people close their windows when it gets too hot or too cold, and poor ventilation increases your chances of getting sick.

• Post #3898233

  Is there anybody who is getting articles of impeachment ready for Trump -- with a list of all the laws he has broken (with citations and precedents) in a nice timeline?

• Post #3898079

  This study gives more evidence that the Epstein-Barr Virus is -- if not *causal*, definitely *implicated* in Multiple Sclerosis: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adz6566 EBV is a MF. It causes or is implicated in mononucleosis, several cancers, MS, lupus, and maybe Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. I won't benefit personally, but I can't WAIT for them to make an EBV vaccine.

• Post #3850086

  RE: https://journa.host/@samlitzinger/116927585198360919 Obviously the liner faded because of vandals using really big knives.

• Post #3754543

  This week's Pandemics In BC blog post: General: https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2026/07/11/2026-07-10-general/ BC: no BC-specific post this week, see the General post #covid19bc #covid19 #covid #measles #rsv #influenza

• Post #3751985

  I have copied it, and I will add to it -- but it's not my primary focus and I won't do as good a job at it. My copy is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14TjIlYNwT_2oyHbjSr4hX9IpYHNbPF-eixp8DtkIHv0/edit?usp=sharing Thank you for all your work on it!

• Post #3619560

  It seems like there are a number of laws and norms in the USA which have no enforcement teeth in them, in part because of judicial "standing". If the Trump doesn't make his tax returns public, regular citizens don't have standing to ask for them. If Trump destroys taxpayer-owned buildings (like the East Wing), regular citizens don't have standing to stop him. If Trump won't release food aid sitting in warehouses, who has standing to compel him? Thus there seems to b...

• Post #3572581

  This week's Pandemics in BC blog post: General: https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2026/07/03/2026-07-03-general/ BC: https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2026/07/03/2026-07-03-bc/ #covid19bc #covid19 #covid #measles

• Post #3500259

  Vancouver people: do you like the gardens under the Burrard Street Bridge? They are being threatened by construction. https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-destruction-of-burrard-bridge-gardens The gardens there are *entirely* run and financed by (very friendly) volunteers. Please sign and share with Vancouver people!

• Post #3495769

  I missed this when it came out, but the US FDA approved inhaled insulin for children with diabetes: https://www.ajmc.com/view/fda-approves-inhaled-insulin-for-children-adolescents-with-diabetes This seem like absolute wonderful news.

• Post #3435419

  Metro Vancouver is on Stage 3 water restrictions. Partly this is because one of the three big water tunnels is currently undergoing maintenance, but mostly it's because we have no snow. Yay climate change. :-( From https://metrovancouver.org/services/water/reservoir-levels-water-use :

• Post #2360291

  @samohTmaS@mastodon.social @cpkimber@scicomm.xyz Thanks!!

• Post #1933128

  This week's Pandemics in BC blog posts: General: https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2026/05/01/2026-05-01-general/ BC: https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2026/05/01/2026-05-01-bc/ #covid19bc #covid19 #covid #measles #rsv

• Post #1412910

  This week's Pandemics in BC blog posts: General: https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2026/04/18/2026-04-18-general/ BC: https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2026/04/18/2026-04-18-bc/ #covid19bc #covid19 #covid #measles #h5n1

• Post #1128486

  I have been working on this for quite a while, and am finally done! This page has a list of all the different "off-target" benefits of various vaccines -- where they made a vax against X and it also turned out to have some benefit against Y. https://covidbc.webfoot.com/off-target-vaccine-benefits/ (It's long, and a lot of it is just summarizing study after study after study after study. If you just want to see what vaccines have what off-target benefits, you can j...

• Post #1012172

  Deaths in USA for 25-44 year-olds went up by A LOT in 2020 and haven't come all the way back down. COVID-19 deaths were part of it, but there were even more drug overdoses. There were significantly more traffic accidents and homicides, and all kinds of diseases were a bit higher.

• Post #1012171

  I just noticed that Moderna is looking for participants with MS for an Epstein-Barr vaccine study: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06735248 They are looking to see if the EBV vaccine will delay/slow MS progression. There are locations in seven US states (all east of the Mississippi), one in Queensland Australia, and eight in the UK.

• Post #479970

  There have been two research groups which have found nasal treatments which prevent many (all?) respiratory diseases at the expense of increased (low-level) inflammation. I keep thinking that this is such an amazingly useful discovery that it really ought to be fast-tracked as hard as Operation Warp speed fast-tracked vaccines. The USA clearly isn't going to do it though; maybe some other rich country could pick it up? I also fantasize about everybody in the world taking a dose which...

• Post #205133

  @Lkdc@dmv.community Yeah, that would be good to know. I don't know, and I suspect that nobody does at the moment. 😠 I also wish more people knew how beneficial vaccines were for things they weren't supposed to be good for (AKA "off-target" benefits). I am working on a page that collects all the off-target benefits, but I'm not quite done yet.

• Post #197636

  Cool! Dolphins and orcas hunt together: https://science.ubc.ca/news/2025-12/orcas-and-dolphins-seen-hunting-together-first-time It reminds me of badgers and coyotes hunting together: https://www.treehugger.com/coyote-and-badger-hunt-together-4868739