/oss/taxonomy/term/5327/all en /oss/article/covid-19/does-covid-19-mess-immune-system <p>Have you heard that, apparently, COVID-19 is “airborne AIDS?”</p> <p>“I think that that epithet is horrifying and beyond offensive,” Edward Nirenberg tells me. He is a science communicator with a degree in biochemistry who focuses his communication efforts on vaccines and COVID-19. “It categorically isn’t. It’s not what the data show.”</p> Fri, 10 Feb 2023 13:59:23 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9386 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition/mens-genitals-meet-coronavirus <p>Maybe we should focus on the penis.</p> <p>I have seen this suggestion proposed by science communicators many times during the pandemic. That the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective doesn’t seem to matter to some men: they see the illness itself as nothing worse than a bad cold.</p> <p>Maybe we should focus on the penis.</p> Fri, 04 Mar 2022 20:53:54 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9043 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/natural-immunity-covid-has-its-limits <hr /> <p>This article was originally posted in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-natural-immunity-to-covid-has-its-limits">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 25 Feb 2022 18:21:27 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9036 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition/why-children-shouldnt-just-be-left-get-covid <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-why-children-shouldnt-just-be-left-to-get-covid">Montreal Gazette</a></em></p> Sat, 12 Feb 2022 03:11:59 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9024 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/debilitating-puzzle-box-long-covid <p>Imagine sitting in front of 40,000 tiny pieces that you have to assemble into a jigsaw puzzle. Except that some of these pieces may belong to a different puzzle. There is no box to tell you what the final image looks like. And in front of you is a massive hourglass, its sand slowly and inevitably flowing down, and as time goes by, more and more people suffer. You must solve the puzzle while minimizing suffering.</p> Fri, 04 Feb 2022 20:36:09 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9015 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/covid-19-air-both-problem-and-solution <p>On March 28, 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, the<a href="https://twitter.com/who/status/1243972193169616898?lang=en"> </a><a href="https://twitter.com/who/status/1243972193169616898?lang=en">World Health Organization (WHO) tweeted out</a>, “FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne.”</p> <p>For medical doctors and biomedical scientists (including me), this made sense. Few diseases were known to be airborne.</p> <p>But to aerosol scientists, this was both puzzling and infuriating.</p> Sat, 15 Jan 2022 09:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8980 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/hospitalization-rates-confirm-covid-vaccines-benefits <hr /> <p>This article was originally <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-hospitalization-rates-confirm-covid-vaccines-benefits">published in the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 14 Jan 2022 20:14:39 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8981 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/shedding-light-illusionary-connections <p>We may have left 2021 behind, but unfortunately, the misinformation that characterized the past year continues unabated. Betty White, comedienne extraordinaire, passed away on December 31, just eighteen days shy of her one-hundredth birthday. It didn’t take long for zealous members of the anti-vax community to link her death with the booster shot she received three days earlier.  </p> Fri, 07 Jan 2022 21:37:05 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8972 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/can-you-fool-covid-rapid-test-putting-vaseline-your-nostrils <p>This notion emerged after some partiers on a flight chartered by a private Quebec club allegedly planned to trick a COVID rapid antigen test to produce a negative result. Their idea was to prevent the swab from picking up the virus by providing a Vaseline barrier. Whether they actually tried this or just blathered nonsensically about Vaseline interfering with the test by “having no pH” isn’t clear, but it is extremely unlikely that this ruse would work. The test requires very few viral particles, and in any case, these would become embedded in the Vaseline.</p> Fri, 07 Jan 2022 21:32:06 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8971 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/some-things-know-about-covid-rapid-tests <hr /> <p>This article was originally posted in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-some-things-to-know-about-covid-rapid-tests">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Thu, 30 Dec 2021 19:01:45 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8967 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/ruminations-rapid-tests <p>To test or not to test, that is the question, to steal a line from Shakespeare. Actually, when to test is a more important query because there is no doubt that appropriate testing of the population can cut down infections by identifying people who may be a threat to others and advising them to self-isolate. The gold standard for detecting the presence of the virus in secretions is the so-called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test which identifies genetic material from the virus. It does this very well, capable of picking up infection just a couple of days after exposure to the virus.</p> Thu, 23 Dec 2021 23:53:20 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8962 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/do-bad-viruses-always-become-good-guys-end <p>In our social media age, talk of virulence has gone viral, with most of us atwitter about the course the new coronavirus is taking. As novel variants move up the ladder of concern, we are left asking the same questions: is this one more transmissible? is it more dangerous to us? will our vaccines stop it?</p> Sat, 18 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8951 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-pseudoscience/are-triple-vaccinated-people-more-likely-be-infected-omicron-variant-unvaccinated <p>You may not have heard of Blachier, but in France TV viewers are as familiar with his face as we are here with Dr. Fauci’s. And he caused the COVID pot to boil over a couple of days ago when he supposedly claimed that data from Denmark show that people who are triple vaccinated are more likely to be infected with the Omicron variant than the unvaccinated. Let’s take a look.</p> Fri, 17 Dec 2021 21:23:39 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8950 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/wider-eligibility-covid-booster-shots-makes-sense <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-wider-eligibility-for-covid-booster-shots-makes-sense">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> <hr /> <p>Recently, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization lowered the recommended age for a COVID-19 booster shot from 70 and up to 50 and up, with the same proviso that it be at least six months after the second dose. It said those ages 18 to 49 could be offered a booster based on their individual risk and the degree of COVID-19 spread in their area.</p> Fri, 10 Dec 2021 21:54:16 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8949 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/why-its-important-vaccinate-children-against-covid <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-why-its-important-to-vaccinate-children-against-covid">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> <hr /> <p>Now that Health Canada has approved the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages five to 11 years and appointments can be booked <a href="https://portal3.clicsante.ca/">on Clic-Santé,</a> with any luck most should be able to get at least one dose before the holidays.</p> <p>But some parents are still hesitant about vaccinating their children.</p> Fri, 26 Nov 2021 21:50:25 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8935 at /oss