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Island Guy

@tendailies.bsky.social
65 followers 277 following 3 posts

A soon-to-be new parent hoping to connect with COVID-safe folks, parents, care providers, and early educators. Profile photo from Alex Geerts and banner from Mathijs Deerenberg on Unsplash.

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Reposted by Island Guy
Kimberly Prather PhD @kprather.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Amazing that this review paper from 2021 just became my most cited paper of my 30+ yr career. I am honored to have been the lead first co-corresponding author with @ChiaWang8. COVID is indeed airborne--as are most other respiratory viruses. @ucsandiego.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/full/10....
science.org
Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses
A Review discusses the scientific basis of and factors controlling airborne transmission of respiratory viruses including coronavirus.
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Tania J. Spencer @taniaspencer.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
1/ Finally, you can read this public interest story WITHOUT a paywall - #CleanTheAir @drhanwell.bsky.social @mjnabuurs.bsky.social @onschoolsafety.bsky.social @engineering.utoronto.ca @amandalhu.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
theglobeandmail.com
Schools must improve air quality to slow spread of respiratory illness, advocates say
Proper air filtration could help mitigate the rapid spread of flu and other illnesses, say experts and parents
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Tara Moriarty @moriartylab.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Quick reminder that our next forecast will be posted on or around August 18th. Please join us virtually on August 12 at 8 p.m. ET for a Data Discussion of the latest changes to the Forecast model as the sources of data available to us continue to dwindle.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 12/08/2025
NEW: In June, ProPublica reported that the FDA has given more than 20 foreign factories a special pass to send drugs to the U.S. even though they were made at plants the agency had banned. Today, we’re publishing a list of those exempted drugs.
propublica.org
The FDA Let Substandard Factories Ship These Medications to the U.S.
ProPublica identified more than 150 products that were exempted from import bans since 2013. Our list provides the names of the drugs or ingredients and their manufacturers, many of which are no longe...
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Jon Douglas @atranscendedman.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Toronto researchers studied 18 patients with ankylosing spondylitis and found that CD8+ T cells in inflamed joints resist immune exhaustion, staying activated and inflammatory despite expressing checkpoint markers like PD-1 and TIGIT. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
cell.com
Single Cell Immune Profiling in Ankylosing Spondylitis Reveals Resistance of CD8+ T cells to Immune Exhaustion
CD8+ T cells (CTLs) with overactivated, effector phenotypes are overrepresented in AS patients. Tang et al. uncover the heterogeneity of CTLs in AS through mass cytometry and scRNA-seq, revealing that...
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Now the discovery of the 4th gene variant which promotes short sleep (4-6 hours) with full restfulness, potentially a path to a drug for sleep efficiency someday www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
The SIK3-N783Y mutation is associated with the human natural short sleep trait | PNAS
Sleep is an essential component of our daily life. A mutation in human salt induced kinase 3 (hSIK3), which is critical for regulating sleep durati...
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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 03/05/2025
Don't let the diet industry fool you. Carbs are not your enemy. Your real energy is Gannondorf, the Demon King, and his nefarious minions. Their plot to overthrow Hyrule must be stopped at all costs.
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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 20/04/2025
People talk about the "male loneliness epidemic", but all a man has to do is take a jumbo packet of hot dogs into the forest and he can easily make friends with dozens, if not hundreds, of raccoons.
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Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Using a study design from the past, researchers again show COVID-19 is airborne. "The coronavirus evolved to stay alive in the air for quite a long time" Study: academic.oup.com/ofid/advance...
cidrap.umn.edu
Using a study design from the past, researchers again show COVID-19 is airborne
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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die. Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.
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Adam Ellis @adamtots.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Outdoor cat
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 04/04/2025
Please ignore tired pieces in publications like the Atlantic that are still trying to stigmatize mask wearing. Wearing a mask to prevent sickness from airborne viruses is a science-informed position, and it has been that way for over 100 years.
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Threema @threema.ch · 24/03/2025
It couldn’t be easier to make sure there are no external contacts in your Threema Work group chat: only add contacts with blue dots. threema.ch/faq/levels_e... 🔴⚪⚪ external contact 🟠🟠⚪ external address book contact 🔵🔵🔵 verified internal company contact
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WIRED @wired.com · 24/03/2025
Amid growing concerns over Big Tech firms aligning with Trump administration policies, people are starting to move their digital lives to services based overseas. Here's what you need to know.
wrd.cm
How to Avoid US-Based Digital Services—and Why You Might Want To
Amid growing concerns over Big Tech firms aligning with Trump administration policies, people are starting to move their digital lives to services based overseas. Here's what you need to know.
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Philippe J. Fournier @338canada.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
🚨338 Sunday Update: Against the Odds, Liberals Lead as Writ Drops 📊My latest for the 338Canada newsletter ↓ www.338canada.ca/p/338-sunday...
338canada.ca
338 Sunday Update: Against the Odds, Liberals Lead as Writ Drops
The Liberals start the campaign ahead, but it’s a long and bumpy road to 172.
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WIRED @wired.com · 18/03/2025
They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.
freedom.press
Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow
As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy
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Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
New Zealand: Too many catching COVID-19 in hospital, experts say - but precautions being rolled back. "Australian data suggests 10-15% of COVID deaths are from hospital-acquired infections, representing hundreds of people. Avoidable infection and death are also costly to the health system."
rnz.co.nz
Too many catching Covid-19 in hospital, experts say - but precautions being rolled back
Hospital-acquired infections are a billion-dollar burden and cause more disability than road crashes. Why aren't we doing more to prevent them?
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eve6 @eve6.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Alternative rock could be run so much more efficiently. How necessary are a singer, guitar player, bass player and drummer. You could get rid of all of those positions and replace them with one guy who just shows up at the venue and hawks crypto
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 17/03/2025
“A method called ‘baby-led weaning’ has caught on among many parents,” @olgakhazan.bsky.social writes. “Its proponents claim that infants don’t need to be spoon-fed baby food. In fact, they don’t need to be spoon-fed anything.”
theatlantic.com
How Baby-Led Weaning Almost Ruined My Life
This seemingly free and easy infant-feeding technique is anything but.
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Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
How Risky Are Repeat COVID Infections? What We Know So Far. (February 13, 2024) What we do know is that COVID is here to stay, and infection doesn’t give people permanent immunity. It affects multiple organs, and each infection increases the risk of long-COVID. Source: archive.md/UZ4uY
February 13, 2024

6 min read

How Risky Are Repeat COVID Infections? What We Know So Far

Four years into the pandemic, many people have had COVID more than once—but the health consequences of repeat infections are not yet clear

By Meghan Bartels edited by Tanya Lewis
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School of Cities @uoftcities.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
We recently launched a major look at Canada's #infrastructure deficit. Written by academics & researchers from across the country, it looks at weaknesses - and possible fixes - in social, civic, #housing, governance, transport & sustainable infrastructure: schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/research-pub...
A collage of the chapter covers from the Canada's Infrastructure Deficit series from School of Cities
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David Fisman. @dfisman.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
This new work from @blakemurdoch.bsky.social is spot on. Denial of airborne transmission was the great crime (yes, crime) of the pandemic. It changed, and broke, everything healthydebate.ca/2025/03/topi...
healthydebate.ca
How denial of airborne COVID transmission broke the world - Healthy Debate
Five years later, the greatest basic science failure in generations caused the pandemic harms highlighted by people across the political spectrum, and broke our social cohesion.
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Hazie @hazie.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Thompson stressed the importance of preventing COVID-19. The disease continues to spread, kill, and disable, particularly in marginalized communities, which often have higher COVID-19 rates and less access to care. “I want less people hurt. I want less people damaged. I want less people infected”
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Rotherham NHS Library @rotherhamnhslib.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Doctors in London have successfully restored a sense of smell and taste in patients who lost it due to long Covid with pioneering surgery that expands their nasal airways to kickstart their recovery.
theguardian.com
Patients with long Covid regain sense of smell and taste with pioneering surgery
Surgeons believe the technique called functional septorhinoplasty (fSRP) ‘kickstarts’ smell recovery in patients
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Reposted by Island Guy
Jaclyn Ferreira - 😷 (She/Her) @jaclynmacrae.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
And this is why ventilation alone will never be enough. Vent and relax ignores source control. And if we're not doing society-wide source control (test, trace, isolate, support), so that COVID doesn't get into spaces in the first place, we need masks. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Screencap from study, black text highlighted in orange, on a white background, reads:

Key findings reveal that in patient wards, the short-range viral dose is 10-fold higher than the long-range component, highlighting the critical role of close proximity interactions. Implementation of FFP2 respirators resulted in a remarkable 13-fold reduction in viral dose, underscoring the effectiveness of personal protective equipment (PPE). Additionally, the model demonstrated that an 8 h exposure in a poorly ventilated office can equate to the risk of a 15 min face-to-face, mask-less interaction, emphasizing the importance of physical distancing and source control.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Persistent SARS-CoV-2 virus or its remnants are considered to one of the underpinnings of Long Covid. A new review on the mechanism, candidate treatments, and ongoing trials targeting the virus reservoir www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
H5N1 U.S. Tracker Lots of H5N1 about. Source: www.ginkgobiosecurity.com/h5n1-us-trac...
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Nora Loreto @nolore.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Maybe it's time to share our cheapest recipes? I'm sure you've all got some good ones.
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Tara Moriarty @moriartylab.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Hive mind, Are there any countries (except the province of Quebec in Canada) still doing weekly or biweekly testing-based COVID surveillance? Quite a few do waste water, but you need testing-based surveillance to calibrate this, since waste water to test-based prevalence ratios change.
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Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Here's a fact most Americans don't know: The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is the largest purchaser of wine by dollar value in the world. The LCBO has shut the flow of all American beer, wine, spirits. We will drink "Freedom wines" from our allies and beer from our communities.
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Sean Mullen, Ph.D. @drseanmullen.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
I highlighted the most important part of yesterday’s Nature paper. We’re in year six. Can you please stop saying “during the pandemic” and “post-Covid”? You sound dangerously uninformed or just really stupid when you say it.
Front page of a Nature paper on SARS-CoV-2 immune escape published January 31 2025Excerpt from 2025 Nature paper with highlighted phrase: “Our work suggests that the ongoing pandemic continues…”
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Jon Douglas @atranscendedman.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
A study of 1,196 adolescents in the US found that the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine (NVX-CoV2373) was 73.5% effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection, including asymptomatic cases. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Vaccine efficacy of NVX-CoV2373 against SARS-CoV-2 infection in adolescents in the USA: an ancillary study to a phase 3, observer-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial
Among adolescents participating in the PREVENT-19 trial during the delta (B.1.617.2) variant wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine was highly efficacious against SARS-CoV-2 infection ...
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KimK @kimk-research.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
The “#pandemic of #abandonment" : Navigating friendships five years into #COVID19 thesicktimes.org/2025/01/30/t... #longCovid TY @michaeltikus.bsky.social
thesicktimes.org
The “pandemic of abandonment”: Navigating friendships five years into COVID-19 - The Sick Times
Over the last five years of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many people have experienced significant changes and ruptures to their personal relationships. People with Long COVID and people taking COVID...
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Still more deadly than flu or RSV jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
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Conor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
This dust carrying particles of H5N1 infected feces will then go on to contaminate water sources, thus spreading the virus even further, hence causing more transmission and more opportunities for mutation. The virus is now here to stay in North America. www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...
ctvnews.ca
Wind-blown avian feces may be route of transmission for bird flu, infectious disease expert warns
Flu expert says bird flu virus may be spread by infected feces blowing in the wind.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 24/01/2025
“The current number of Long COVID cases could end up costing society at least $2.01-$6.56 billion, and employers at least $1.99-$6.49 billion in productivity losses.”
The Current and Future Burden of Long COVID in the United States (U.S.) Get access  Arrow
Sarah M Bartsch, MPH,   Kevin L Chin, MPH, Ulrich Strych, PhD,   Danielle C John, BA,   Tej D Shah, Maria Elena Bottazzi, PhD,   Kelly J O’Shea, BSFS, McKaylee Robertson, PhD,   Colleen Weatherwax, MS, Jessie Heneghan, MCP  ... Show more
The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiaf030, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaf030
Published: 22 January 2025
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
I wish it weren't necessary to keep writing about this. But it is. www.surreynowleader.com/opinion/anal...
surreynowleader.com
ANALYSIS: Why are B.C. kids sick all the time? Health experts explain
The consequences of repeated COVID-19 infections are now becoming clear in B.C., across Canada and around the world
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Penny Daflos @pennydaflos.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
John Horgan was known as warm and affable He could also be stubborn and stern -- and didn’t duck tough questions Reporters encountered the many sides of the former premier over the years, and saw how fiercely his staff protected him My condolences to his family bc.ctvnews.ca/former-b-c-p...
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Daniel Summers @danielrsummers.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Patient admitted late-Friday, currently in critical condition. Receiving as much treatment as available, have sourced antivirals. Initial symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever, cough.
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Daniel Summers @danielrsummers.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Dr. Bonnie Henry will be speaking at a press conference @ 2:30pm EST, addressing the H5N1 case in BC: bc.ctvnews.ca/dr-bonnie-he...
bc.ctvnews.ca
Dr. Bonnie Henry to speak after first human case of avian influenza detected in B.C.
Two days after officials announced a teenager in B.C. had contracted Canada’s first-ever presumptive human case of avian influenza, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is set to provide an upda...
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