Covid makes you stupid, Millions of excess deaths, Death of wastewater monitoring, and more
Bonus learn what the word kakistocracy means!
Welcome to the latest issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter! Coming to you directly from the Kakistocracy of Ontario!
What’s a kakistocracy, you ask? It’s “a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.” That would be a perfect example of Doug Ford’s Ontario. He and his cronies are all of the above. Don’t get me started. In fact, I’m not going to get started, otherwise this introductory section would expand out to novel length.
What’s the latest travesty? What’s going on is that they have decided to shut down the Ontario wastewater surveillance program. Apparently what’s going to happen is that Ontario’s program will be wound down and the Federal government will expand their program into Ontario. The problem? Drastically fewer sampling sites and reduced access to data and information compared to the quite good Public Health Ontario site. There are lots more questions that we all need answered.
With one pandemic raging and another maybe staring us in the face? And there’s no shortage of examples on how useful wastewater monitoring is for predicting waves and spotting new variants. Can you say H5N1!
Not to mention that there’s been some amazing research in Ontario about wastewater surveillance that’s worth supporting, expanding and nurturing!
Are you from Ontario? Make some noise! Change some minds! Ford will flip flop if there’s enough of a fuss.
At the end of the issue today, there’s a bonus list of recent news stories about the Ontario wastewater situation as well as another wonderful musical interlude,
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As most have probably noticed, there is no paid subscription option for this newsletter. However, Substack does have an option where subscribers can pledge to subscribe “just in case” and a few kind subscribers have made that pledge. I very much appreciated the vote of confidence in what I’m doing here. What I’ve decided to do on a trial basis is to set up a “tip jar” on the Ko-fi platform. I’m not anticipating a huge surge of income from using Ko-fi but whatever revenue I do end up with, I plan to spend on supporting artists on Bandcamp. Sadly, who knows how long that will seem like a good idea.
Covid-19 will make you stupid by Nihil Prasad / Thaiger
Recent studies have unveiled a troubling connection between Covid-19 and cognitive decline, suggesting that even mild infections can lead to a measurable reduction in intelligence. This revelation, supported by extensive research from institutions around the world, has sparked concern among scientists and the general public alike. These study findings and the implications for individuals and society are worrisome and unsettling. …
As we continue to navigate the ongoing pandemic, it is imperative to prioritise research, public health measures, and support systems that address both the immediate and long-term impacts of Covid on cognitive health. Longitudinal studies tracking individuals over time and more in-depth investigations into the molecular mechanisms involved are essential to fully understand the extent of the virus’s impact on intelligence.
The findings of these studies serve as a wake-up call, emphasizing that Covid is not merely a respiratory illness but a multifaceted threat affecting various aspects of our health, including our cognitive abilities. Addressing these challenges requires a concerted effort from the scientific community, healthcare providers, policymakers, and the public to mitigate the long-term consequences and build a resilient future.
The evidence linking Covid to cognitive decline is compelling and concerning. The potential for a widespread reduction in intelligence due to the virus underscores the importance of continued research and proactive public health measures. As we strive to overcome the pandemic, understanding and addressing its impact on our cognitive health is crucial for ensuring the well-being and progress of individuals and society as a whole.
First 3 years of COVID-19 had 3M excess deaths in the West: study by Saba Aziz / Global News
The first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic had more than three million excess deaths in Western countries, a new study says, raising “serious concerns.”
The research published in the BMJ Public Health journal Monday showed that between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022, a total of 3,089,465 excess deaths were reported in 47 countries in the West, including Canada.
Excess mortality reflects data about the number of deaths that exceed what is expected or considered normal during a given period.
Excess death rates due to pandemic persisted in Western countries by Stephanie Soucheray / CIDRAP
In total, the number of excess deaths in the 47 countries was 3,098,456 from January 1, 2020, until December 31, 2022. In 2020, 1,033,122 excess deaths were recorded, and that number rose in 2021 to 1,256, 942 excess deaths despite containment measures and widespread use of vaccine in Western countries.
That was 14% more deaths than expected.
COVID vaccines saved millions of lives – linking them to excess deaths is a mistake by Paul Hunter / The Conversation
If the vaccine is not the cause of the excess deaths, what was?
The major cause of the excess deaths reported in the first two years of the BMJ Public Health study was deaths from COVID. But by 2022, excess deaths exceeded COVID deaths in many countries.
Possible explanations for these excess deaths include longer-term effects of earlier COVID infections, the return of infections such as influenza that had been suppressed during the COVID control measures, adverse effects of lockdowns on physical and mental health, and delays in the diagnosis of life-threatening infections as health services struggled to cope with the pandemic and its aftermath.
We do need to look very carefully at how the pandemic was managed. There is still considerable debate about the effectiveness of different behavioural control measures, such as self-isolation and lockdowns. Even when such interventions were effective at reducing transmission of COVID, what were the harms and were the gains worth the harms? Nevertheless, we can be confident that the excess deaths seen in recent years were not a consequence of the vaccination campaign.
We’re worse at pandemics now than ever by Cate Swannell / Medical Republic
The way hospitals care coping … or not coping … with rising numbers is finally starting to cut through into the mainstream media.
“Victoria’s ambulance crews were pushed into serious code-orange situations 20 times in May due to the rising rates of respiratory illness, as the number of covid patients in hospitals doubled in a month,” Nine newspapers reported on Saturday.
“There are 361 covid patients in hospital, more than double the 170 patients who were hospitalised with the virus at the same time last month. Twenty-one of those patients are in intensive care, with eight on ventilators.”
That sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it?
Hospitals in Victoria have been told they can mandate mask-wearing “if they wish”. Most won’t though.
Here’s what really worries me. It’s not covid, not even the latest variant, FLiRT. (There’s a name designed to be taken seriously, amirite?).
It’s H5N1. Bird flu.
From Long COVID Odds to Lost IQ Points: Ongoing Threats You Don’t Know About by Lynn Parramore / Institute for New Economic Thinking
We’re done with the pandemic, right? Well, heads up: it’s still here, and it’s quietly causing havoc in ways you likely aren’t even aware of. Getting COVID repeatedly – including asymptomatic infections you never knew you had — can damage your health for years to come and dramatically increase your chances of Long COVID. Low vaccination rates, waning immunity, and ditching precautions have left us wide open to a host of serious problems that are entirely avoidable.
Did you know that COVID is nothing like the flu, and yearly vaccines can’t keep up with its rapid mutations? Or that even mild infections have been shown to cause a drop in IQ points? How about the fact that 90% of Long COVID cases come from mild or asymptomatic infections? Or that repeat infections can make you susceptible to heart attacks, strokes, and diseases like measles, Polio, or Diabetes? Did you know that, at the current rate of infections, most Americans may end up with some form of Long COVID?
Probably not, because nobody’s telling you.
Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, which pioneered the synthetic biology industry and mRNA vaccine technology, is the founder of Medio Labs, a major COVID diagnostic testing company. Alvelda has closely monitored COVID developments and points out that while we’ve grown complacent, it’s not solely our doing. He criticizes the failure of governments and health agencies like the CDC and the WHO to warn about Long COVID and reinfection, as well as their neglect of effective mitigation strategies and tracking systems. Disturbingly, he discusses negligence, and even deception, about what they knew, when they knew it, and how they protected themselves without informing the public. It all adds up to a grave injustice, he says, warning of what he calls the potential for a “lost generation” — our health needlessly risked. Amazingly, it’s all avoidable.
The link between poor housing conditions and COVID-19 infection by Jorrit de Jong / Harvard Kennedy School
Researchers from the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University and the MGH Institute of Health Professions studied the connections between poor housing conditions and COVID-19 infection and severity during the first year of the pandemic. They combined city housing data with healthcare data for residents of Chelsea, Massachusetts—a densely populated city with high levels of substandard housing.
The researchers found that:
Living in substandard housing was linked to higher COVID-19 infection risk, even after adjusting for factors like age, income, and race.
This increased risk was only observed during lockdown and early reopening; after stay-at-home restrictions lifted there was no difference in COVID-19 risk between residents of substandard versus adequate housing.
Substandard housing was not linked to greater risk of severe COVID-19 disease.
Leaders can leverage city housing data for pandemic response and longer-term solutions.
They conclude, “The results demonstrate the value of combining cross-sector datasets to yield new insights and solutions. Existing city data can be leveraged to identify and prioritize 1) high-risk areas for future pandemic response activities, and 2) for longer-term solutions that address social determinants of health through safe and affordable housing.”
Pandemic eroding child, maternal health gains by Geoffrey P. Johnston / The Kingston Whig Standard
Even though COVID-19 continues to sicken, disable and kill people in every corner of the world while impeding the attainment of some of the health-related human development benchmarks adopted by the United Nations in 2015, delegates from around the globe have convened in Geneva, Switzerland, to continue the hard work of preparing for the next pandemic. …
The data contained in “World health statistics 2024” clearly shows that the pandemic has made the attainment of some of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 unlikely. “Among the 53 health-related indicators included in this report, 32 have numeric SDG or global targets. None of these have yet been achieved, and none are on track under current trends,” the report states.
Anyone who is concerned about the health of mothers and children should pay attention to the bracing data presented in the report. The SDGs contain a number of indicators pertaining to children and maternity.
The WHO report notes that the health of mothers and children was a top priority of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which preceded the SDGs. “Maternal and child mortality reductions were among the Millennium Development Goals, steering the global efforts through to the year 2015,” the report reads. “They remain among the global targets in the SDG period, which runs from 2015 to 2030.”
Study: Truthful yet misleading Facebook posts drove COVID vaccine reluctance much more than outright lies did by Mary Van Beusekom / CIDRAP
Today in Science, a study shows that unflagged, factual but misleading Facebook posts reduced the intent to receive the COVID-19 vaccine 46 times more than did false posts flagged by fact-checkers as misinformation, which the authors say points to the need to consider the reach and impact of content rather than just its veracity.
The researchers, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), surveyed thousands of participants about the influence of the headlines from 130 vaccine-related news stories on their intent to vaccinate. They also asked a separate group of people to rate the headlines on attributes such as plausibility and political bent.
Then the team extrapolated the survey results to predict the influence of 13,206 vaccine-related Facebook links in the first 3 months of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout (January to March 2021) on the vaccination intentions of the platform's roughly 233 million US users.
"We posit that two conditions must be met for content to have widespread impact on people's behavior: People must see it, and, when seen, it must affect their behavior," the researchers wrote. "That is, we define 'impact' as the combination of exposure and persuasive influence."
N95 Masks Nearly Perfect at Blocking COVID, UMD Study Shows by Fid Thompson / Maryland Today
Any common face mask provides significant protection against the virus that causes COVID-19, but N95 masks are most effective at slashing the amount emitted by infected people, according to a University of Maryland-led study released Wednesday.
So-called “duckbill” N95 masks scored highest in the study, which measured the exhaled breath of participants who were tested both masked and unmasked to measure comparative outputs of SARS-CoV-2. The inexpensive masks, which have two head straps and a horizontal seam, captured 98% of exhaled virus, according to the study published in eBioMedicine.
The researchers also found that—in what might come as a surprise to many—cloth masks outperformed the specific brand of KN95 mask that was tested. Surgical masks brought up the rear in performance out of the four types, but even they blocked 70% of the virus, the tests showed. (To reflect the general public's use of masks, study volunteers were not fit-tested for their masks or trained how to properly wear them.)
“The research shows that any mask is much better than no mask, and an N95 is significantly better than the other options. That’s the No. 1 message,” says the study’s senior author, Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health and a global expert on how viruses spread through the air.
The results also suggest that N95 masks, also known as respirators, should be the standard of care in nursing homes and health care settings when respiratory viral infections are prevalent and transmission risk is elevated, the researchers said.
Long COVID disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic communities, as FLiRt variant looms by NIcole Garcia / WGBH
Black and Hispanic communities continue to bear a disproportionate burden of cases, hospitalizations and deaths four years into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research from the Boston University School of Public Health shows that COVID-19 death rates in Massachusetts are consistently higher among Hispanic and Black residents compared to white residents across all adult age groups.
As new COVID-19 variants continue to emerge and the virus becomes endemic, Curry emphasizes that people of color suffering from long COVID often struggle to receive adequate treatment. The ongoing lack of comprehensive understanding of the virus among health researchers, exacerbates this issue for communities of color.
Curry said that people struggling with long COVID “are not going back to normal life”.
“When [long COVID] exists, our providers generally aren’t prepared to recognize it,” he said.
Most patients at long COVID clinics and recovery centers in Massachusetts are white, according to data collected by Linda Sprague Martinez, a professor and health equity researcher at Boston University.
“People aren’t believing Black and brown folks and people generally, but particularly Black and brown folks, who have long COVID,” Curry said. “So therefore they’re having to navigate these conditions, these symptoms, without a diagnosis.”
Parental vaccine hesitancy shifted with COVID-19 vaccines by Stephanie Soucheray / CIDRAP
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigators report that about one in five US children had parents reporting vaccine hesitancy (VH) from 2019 to 2022, and VH increased after the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years and declined for children aged 6 months to 4 years.
The findings are published in Vaccine, and come as the US Food and Drug Administration's VRBPAC (Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee) prepares to meet next week to pick COVID and influenza strains to include in updated vaccines.
Undervaccinated health workers had higher absenteeism for COVID than flu, data reveal by Mary Van Beusekom / CIDRAP
COVID-19 accounted for much more absenteeism than influenza among Greek healthcare personnel (HCP) with low vaccine uptake in 2022 and 2023, highlighting the need to stay current with vaccinations against both diseases, according to an observational study led by a National Public Health Organization researcher in Athens.
For the study, published yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control, the researchers tested symptomatic HCP at four hospitals for COVID-19 and flu from November 2022 to May 2023 to estimate the number of missed workdays by disease type. The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant was predominant during the study period.
"To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare the burden of COVID-19 and seasonal influenza among HCP using data from the same season," the authors wrote.
Special Section on Ontario Wastewater Monitoring Cancellation
Deeply disappointed to learn that funding has been cancelled for the wastewater surveillance program in Ontario. This has been critical information not only for COVID-19, but other infectious disease threats (Influenza, RSV, MPox, Polio & now H5N1) in Ontario. / Dr Thomas Piggott (He/Him) MD PhD (@twpiggott) / X
'I was shocked': Ontario to cancel widely used wastewater surveillance program
‘Absolutely brutal’: Ontario to end COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program
Ontario pulls plug on COVID-19 wastewater surveillance | CBC News
Small towns likely to be big losers when Ontario stops monitoring wastewater, expert says | CBC News
Ontario wastewater shutdown | As It Happens with Nil Köksal, Chris Howden | Live Radio | CBC Listen
Province shutting down wastewater surveillance in Waterloo Region | CTV News
If you think you’d love a fresh take on (mostly) classic rock albums, I would highly recommend Abigail Devoe’s Youtube channel. Every Vinyl Monday she does a highly personal take on one of those classic rock albums! The fun part is that she’s early 20s and the albums she discusses are mostly way older than that. I only discovered her recently and am catching up on some of the older videos. The one I listened to today was for one of my favourite albums, Layla by Derek and the Dominoes. She titles the video, Layla, The Album That Changed My Life. For our musical interlude this week, how about the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s version of Layla, featuring Trey Anastasio.