Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Chuck Collins asks why the billionaires who have seen their fortunes continue to grow during a pandemic aren't giving anything back to their communities. And thwap points out that to the contrary, it's been a non-negotiable demand that even the slightest bit of relief for everybody else needs to be more than matched with giveaways to the rich.

- Joel Lexchin examines the likely effect of a pharmacare program - which if it merely reduced Canadian drug prices to the OECD average would save billions of dollars while still leaving room for massive profits for big pharma. (Of course, that continued set of gratuitous profits would also hint at the further benefits of a public drug manufacturer.)

- Ryan Patrick Jones reports on Theresa Tam's entirely justified warnings that we'll need to keep carrying out precautions against COVID-19 for a period of years even if a successful vaccine is developed - making for a stark contrast against the determination of so many governments to impose business as usual before there's anything of the sort.

- Peter Beaumont and Rosie Scammell report on the growing body of evidence showing how superspreading events can happen in schools. But PressProgress reports that the Moe government's austerity and neglect are forcing already-stretched school divisions to further cut back on cleaning.

- Finally, Rae Cooper examines the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on women from an Australian perspective, while offering some suggestions for the questions we should be asking to reverse the trend.