Here's your AB COVID # analysis for Thurs Jan 13th. 1/
Cases/d yest 6002 a 22.7% incr from last Tues's 4892. 7d ave (back tomorrow, @ByMatthewBlack taking a day off) Positivity 40.91% up from last wks 39.17%. 2/
Hospitalizations: inpts. Fri +61 to 581 (revised from 579 yest 570 Tues 558 Mon) Sat +14 to 595 (revised from 593 yest 585 Tues and 555 Mon). Sun +42 to 637 (revised from 633 yest 617 and Mon 563). Mon +43 to 680 (revised from 633 yest and 628 Tues) 3/
Tues +20 to 700 (revised from 666 yest) Yest +7 to 707 (subject to revision). 7d rise to Mon of 61.1% (yest 55.7% Tues 53.4% Mon 53%). 4/
ICU: Tues +4 to 84 (revised from 82 yest) Yest -4 to 79. one wk rise to yest of 39% (yest 48.1% Mon 37%) 5/
Paeds admits: 9. including 1 new baby in ICU. Total deaths: 8. 6/
Demographics: trends continue in ages. geographic data to return tomorrow. 7/
It's out! The @WHO's new wordsmithing report on airborne transmission. I'm going to do a little dissection on the good and the bad, who wins and who loses. 1/ cdn.who.int/media/docs/def…
the TLDR is: "through the air" is the old "droplet" and "airborne" transmission modalities combined. "inhalation" is the new "airborne". "direct deposition" is the new "droplet" 2/
The great: finally an acknowledgment that short-range airborne transmission is an integral component of all (not just COVID) airborne transmission. This is huge. It means that workers esp. HCWs need respirator masks (FFP2/3, N95) when interacting with concerning patients. 3/
Apparently many in the Canadian ID community on this platform are weighing in that paxlovid should no longer be recommended to high-risk (elderly, immunocompromised) outpatients with confirmed covid.
I think we should take a look at the evidence they've presented.
(a thread) 1/
So far there has been no evidence presented, none, except for the blogpost posted in the first tweet.
No peer reviewed science. At all.
And a reminder that there are still >500 inpts in Alberta with covid, and 10-20 patients dying each week (all likely high risk patients).
2/
Another reminder is I reviewed the paxlovid evidence in a thread a few weeks ago, in response to a paxlovid-minimizing news story by @LaurenPelley of @CBCNews.
You can check out the thread here: 3/
At least @ChrisVarcoe mentioned the climate crisis concerns this time.
"The oil and gas industry is the largest emitting sector in Canada. The Liberal government has introduced a series of policies as concerns around climate change mount" 2/
But this is sloppy and "news release" journalism:
"CAPP noted emissions from the conventional oil and gas sector fell by 24 per cent, while production grew by 21 per cent between 2012 and 2021."
How many ways does this article anger me?
Let me count the ways...
#debunktionjunktion
(although, honestly, fighting @calgaryherald on climate issues is rather pointless, in the past @ChrisVarcoe has often been better than this)
Thread calgaryherald.com/opinion/column…
1) I realize I'm like a broken record. But having an article, on a climate issue, without mentioning the word "climate" once, is not cool. Of course people don't want to do hard things, unless they know why they need to do it. (see search in upper left corner)
2) Zero interviews from anyone, aside from the federal government, as to why this cap is necessary. All industry or industry-adjacent voices.
People have been wondering why I have been posting on the COVID lableak theory recently.
It's increasingly clear that the WIV in Wuhan was the source of the pandemic, and that copious efforts to covering this fact up have come from the US, China, and elsewhere. 1/
It's also evident that a vocal group of virologists are trying to thwart any efforts to regulate Gain of Function viral research. Research which is incredibly dangerous to all of humanity, as the risks greatly outweigh any possible perceived benefits.
2/ journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jv…
Want to learn more? Read through the recent US Right to Know Freedom of Information releases.
3/usrtk.org/category/covid…
A very short thread summarizing the studies on Paxlovid in COVID.
Since it seems to be getting some very bad press these days.
And, in my mind, is widely underprescribed for those at high risk. 1/
Study 1: 89% RRR (6% ARR or NNT of 17) in bad outcomes (hospitalization/death). zero deaths in the active arm, vs. 13 in the control arm. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
study 2: *Omicron
50% relative risk reduction in hospitalization. 75% risk reduction in inhospital deaths.
(worked for vaxx people too)
Paxlovid associated with decreased hospitalization rate among adults with COVID-19 - United States, April-Sept 2022