Zoomers of the Sunshine Coast, BC 🇨🇦

Heliox: Evidence, Empathy, and the Human Tapestry: Season 4 Review buzzsprout.com/2405788/episod… helioxpodcast.substack.com/publish/post/1… Thanks for listening! #podcast #informationoverload #criticalthinking #knowledgeframework #storytelling #evidencebasedthinking #empathy #complexsystems

An AI scribe listened to a patient say "I became ill with something viral." It wrote that the patient had taken "hyperactivated antibiotics" — a drug that doesn't exist — into a permanent health record. This is happening at scale. 🧵 #MedicalAI #AIScribes

Your career map is on fire. And that might be the best thing that ever happened to you. 🔥 We decoded 4 real government AI blueprints so you don't have to panic alone. 🧵 A thread. #AIcareers #FutureOfWork

#Hantavirus Andes Virus Update: What We Can Learn from Chile’s Tracking Strategy! 🇨🇱🦠 At the recent emergency scientific meeting cohosted by @WHO and @UKHSA on 15 May, Dr. Claudia Campillo from Chile's Ministry of Health shared Chile’s incredible strategy for contact tracing the Andes virus in the Los Ríos Region. That is one of the highest incidences of Andes virus in the Southern Cone countries. Here are the key takeaways you need to know: 👇 👥 Not All Exposures Are the Same. Health workers separate people into two groups: "Close Contacts" (family, housemates, sexual partners...) and "Exposed Individuals" (people sharing the same environment). Data shows that in the recent 5 years (2021-2025), only "Close Contacts" turned positive (about 5.7%), while environmental exposure alone didn't lead to new cases in this tracking group! 🏠. 📞 45 Days of Constant Watch Anyone at risk receives a daily phone check-in for 45 days to monitor for symptoms! 🗓️ Close contacts are also tested 4 times (on Days 7, 14, 21, and 28) of RT-PCR to catch the virus as early as possible. 🤫 The "Silent" Infection Discovery A major finding came from tracking a family cluster: a grandson tested positive on Day 14 but NEVER developed any symptoms! 👦🔬 This proves that asymptomatic infections happen with the Andes virus, highlighting exactly why mandatory testing is so crucial even if you feel fine. 🚑 Early Detection Saves Lives Even in rural areas, Chile manages to get RT-PCR test results back within 24 hours. Catching the virus on day one of symptoms—or even before they start—dramatically improves a patient's chances of survival. 🌍 Therefore, while the WHO establishes its guidelines for contact management of the Andes virus, experts refer to Chile's field experience. Chile’s highly organized, standardized tracking system is now serving as a model for the rest of the world to manage potential outbreaks! 🤝💙. Stay informed, stay safe! 🧼✨ #AndesVirus #GlobalHealth #MVHondius #Hantavirus

An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus go.nature.com/3P8GUKS

First plate is done. No Hanta, no Ebola. Flu season is over, and COVID is 100-times lower than it has been. The only respiratory viruses on the rise are Rhinoviruses and Parainfluenzavirus 3, but they always surge in late Spring and I have no idea why.

Below 100,000 New Daily Infections?! That is what the preliminary numbers indicate from 4-29 through 5-12. I will provide a variant proportions analysis tomorrow. This is the lowest since July of 2021. My model indicates a slow increase over the next 2 1/2 months to roughly 250k.

Following this closely.. (will inform if any sequences are made available)

1 of the 4 Canadians in quarantine has tested positive for hantavirus. "Henry said 'the four Canadians isolating in the Island Health region had no known direct contact with the people who fell ill on the ship.'" cbc.ca/news/canada/br… This infection has no known direct contact. That's troublesome.

Scientists say they have found the strongest evidence yet linking a common virus directly to skin cancer. Researchers studying a 34-year-old woman with repeated cases of skin cancer discovered that a form of human papillomavirus called beta-HPV had inserted itself into the DNA of her tumor cells. The finding surprised scientists because this type of HPV was previously believed to only increase cancer risk indirectly by making skin more vulnerable to damage from ultraviolet light. Instead, the study suggests the virus may actively help certain cancers grow and survive. The woman had an aggressive form of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancer. Despite surgeries and immunotherapy treatments, the tumors kept returning. When scientists carried out a detailed genetic analysis, they found the virus embedded inside the cancer cells themselves. It was also producing proteins that appeared to support the tumor and help it continue growing. Researchers said this is the first time beta-HPV has been seen integrating into human DNA in a way that may directly sustain a cancer. The patient also had a rare inherited immune disorder that weakened her T cells, which normally help the body fight HPV infections. Scientists believe this weakened immune system allowed the virus to spread more deeply into skin cells and contribute to the cancer’s development. Doctors later treated her with a bone marrow stem cell transplant to rebuild her immune system using healthy donor cells. After the procedure, her skin cancer disappeared along with several other HPV-related conditions. During the next three years, none of the diseases returned. Researchers stress that sun exposure and ultraviolet radiation are still the leading causes of this type of skin cancer. However, the findings suggest viruses may play a much larger role in some cancers than previously understood, especially in people with weakened immune systems.

You may be thinking to yourself, "oh this is fine, it's in Africa, far from where I live". You can get ten thousand people flying out of the DRC and Uganda a day, to nearly forty countries that connect on to every country. One day one of these outbreaks will go *everywhere*.

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein may directly amplify brain inflammation. ➡️ Researchers found that spike proteins can colocalize with amyloid-β (Aβ) and trigger distinct inflammatory responses in microglia — the brain’s immune cells. ➡️ This raises important questions about potential long-term neurodegenerative consequences of COVID-19. 1/

Biobot updated today and shows COVlD at its lowest level since March 11, 2020.

Reminder: Long COVID's disability & suffering will be the pandemic's most devastating long-term global legacy. Neither GBD supporters nor critics anticipated its scale or included it in their policy calculus -and “let er rip” strategies prioritizing widespread exposure clearly worsen the toll. Millions affected, with real costs in lives and productivity (on top of 20 million direct deaths globally, which we should never forget or minimize). nature.com/articles/s4385…

It looks more and more like MV Hondius ANDV outbreak was a super spreader event One person infected 8 to 10 others Very common with airborne pathogens

Venous and arterial thromboembolic events after COVID-19 during the Omicron period in three European countries 🚨OOOOh boys and girls, WE WARNED YOU: With “Mild” Omicron COVID your blood-clot risk is still highly elevated, even if you’re vaccinated. A new 7.6-million-person study just dropped: clots nearly 4× higher in the first month… and still doubled at 6 months!! • Large-scale European cohort study (UK CPRD GOLD, Dutch IPCI, Spanish SIDIAP, >7.6 million pre-pandemic controls, ~780 000 Omicron-era COVID-19 cases) mapped to OMOP model. • Compared incidence of VTE, arterial thromboembolism and other CV events at 30/60/90/180 days post-infection vs 2017–2019 background rates. • Age-sex standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) for VTE: 3.61× (UK) to 4.10× (Spain) in the first 30 days, remaining 1.88–2.37× at 6 months……even in vaccinated populations, • Risks remained raised up to 6 months for pulmonary embolism (strongest signal), stroke, and heart failure, • Highest risks in immunocompromised and infection-naïve individuals. Prior infection and higher vaccine doses blunt (but do not eliminate) the increase, • Vaccination stratified by doses: individuals with exactly one dose showed numerically lower crude VTE/ATE rates (wide CIs, small subgroup),🤔 • Limitations: observational biases (testing, healthcare access, unmeasured confounders), heterogeneous coding across databases, no direct variant sequencing, ‼️Published yesterday, the pre-print “definitive version” of the three-country Omicron preliminary report from 2025, the data are unambiguous: even in the vaccinated, “milder-wave” era, COVID-19 drove a 3.6- to 4.1-fold surge in life-threatening blood clots during the first 30 days and left risk nearly doubled (1.9-2.4×) at six months. Prior infection and higher vaccine doses blunt, but do not eliminate, the hazard. The virus continues to damage the cardiovascular system long after “mild” symptoms fade and by doing so, SarsCov2 remains a potent cardiovascular hazard! #AvoidSars2 #AvoidReinfections #Mitigate #COVID19 #Thromboembolism nature.com/articles/s4159…

HANTAVIRUS OUTBREAK 🧵 Following the WHO press briefing, I wanted to compile a thread with the key points. 1/ ISOLATION OF PASSENGERS Concerningly, it seems the WHO are NOT recommending to isolate cruise ship passengers (even high-risk contacts) UNLESS they develop symptoms.

Past Andes virus outbreaks show that virions can be aerosolized by speech. Saying “hello” within 1–2 meters without physical contact was enough for human-to-human spread. For human-transmissible viruses, speech-range aerosol spread should be seen as the norm, not the exception.

There are now more than half a million scientific publications related to COVID-19 and a rapidly growing body of evidence linking SARS-CoV-2 infection to immune dysregulation, microvascular injury, autonomic dysfunction, clotting abnormalities, viral persistence, and measurable cognitive changes. And to the people constantly sick, exhausted, dizzy, forgetful, exercise intolerant, waking up to feeling like you got hit by a truck on the daily or suddenly developing strange inflammation, heart issues, GI problems, or “mystery” symptoms after repeated infections… At some point you and society as a whole must confront the reality that repeated infection with a vascular and neurotropic virus was never as harmless as everyone wanted it to be. I choose to live in reality. That virus is still here. It is still spreading through the air. And it is still associated with long-term vascular, immune, and neurological consequences for many people. Protecting yourself from that threat — through cleaner air, better ventilation, filtration, vaccination, and high-quality masks in high-risk settings — also reduces your risk from many of the other respiratory pathogens constantly circulating around us. And if you are tired of watching people suffer while being told this is “normal,” then start demanding urgency. Ask why Long Covid clinics are closing instead of expanding. Ask why immunologists, virologists, neurologists, vascular scientists, and pathologists are not being funded at Manhattan Project scale to investigate viral persistence, immune dysfunction, clotting, mitochondrial damage, and cognitive impairment. Ask why billions can appear overnight for almost anything else, but millions living with chronic illness are told to “pace themselves” and move on. Support researchers (the ones who are still focused on Long Covid that don’t conflate the disease) Support clean air initiatives (two strong efforts happening in Illinois right now! Help us!!). Support disability advocacy. Pressure institutions to improve indoor air quality. Stop mocking people for protecting themselves. And stop accepting “everyone is sick all the time now” as a normal feature of modern life.

🚢 Pretty much sums it up from a virologist 👇