October 8, 2020 Epidemiology Dr. Tam’s citing increasing numbers of confirmed COVID cases also requires the denominator of total tests done. Use absolute instead of relative percentage changes. Be consistent with methodology or risk erosion of the public’s trust.
October 7, 2020 Science and Media Reporting If you are the WHO boss suggesting that a COVID vaccine MAY be available by the end of the year, provide the evidence to justify the hope, else be prepared for another journey into the nadir of credibility and subsequent irrelevance if you are wrong.
October 6, 2020 Health Policy Would you allow anyone who is being treated for COVID-19 and remains infectious to come to your workplace or home? In addition, when they do show up, they take off their mask. I leave it to you to come to your own conclusions.
October 5, 2020 Molecular Medicine Logistics of distributing mRNA vaccines (if approved) will be problematic. Excellent article in @TheAtlantic explains why.
October 4, 2020 Sunday House Call Shows Sunday House Call, #759, October 4, 2020: “Cold, it’s so cold!”
October 2, 2020 Health Policy Ontario students will require negative COVID test in order to return to school only if they have either fever, cough, loss of taste or smell, or shortness of breathe. Runny nose or sore throat no longer require testing but home monitoring for 24 hours.
October 1, 2020 Epidemiology Study posits that severity of respiratory failure seen in people with COVID-19 is associated with a gene cluster inherited from Neanderthals. More evaluation required to understand the function of this cluster if shown to be causal.
September 30, 2020 Epidemiology From a frequency of symptoms perspective, fever, cough or shortness of breath occur in about 6 out of ten children 0-19 years of age. Point of care testing needed to help parents and schools avoid misdiagnosis when a child has the sniffles.
September 29, 2020 Epidemiology Media and Public Health commentary on daily numbers in Ontario citing all the false +/- needs to comment on noted exponential change. Smaller true pos numbers can quickly become larger ones and how likely will this be the outcome with present measures?
September 28, 2020 Epidemiology More robust contact tracing site identification required to determine where COVID-19 infections are more likely to occur.
