Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Andre Picard discusses the need for governments to take direct action to stop the spread of the coronavirus, rather than merely sending muddled messages about personal responsibility. And Amir Attaran and Lorian Hardcastle make the case for far stronger action by Canada's chief medical officers to combat COVID-19 as politicians dither and bothsides their way through a pandemic, while Adam Miller weighs in on how federal emergency powers could fill the gap being left by negligent provincial governments. 

- But Murray Mandryk (sadly only after setting an election narrative that we couldn't do better) tells us we can't expect Scott Moe to do anything but serve his corporate masters. In the absence of effective public health measures, Scott Schmidt asks Albertans to be far more responsible than their government in both limiting the spread of the coronavirus, and taking care of the people affected by it. And Zeynep Tufekci discusses the need for us to hunker down through the winter - particularly since the promise of vaccines in 2021 offers the prospect of an end date.

- Pete Evans reports on the anticipated wave of insolvencies and bankruptcies as the worst wave of a pandemic crests after needed supports have been taken away. And Alanna Smith reports that genuine economists - as opposed to corporate mouthpieces - recognize the value in stopping the spread of COVID-19 rather than insisting that businesses have to stay open regardless of the public health consequences.

- Serina Chang, Emma Pierson, Pang Wei Koh, Jaline Gerardin, Beth Redbird, David Grusky and Jure Leskovec study the separate and significant roles of crowding and socioeconomic disadvantage in facilitating the spread of the coronavirus.

- Finally, PressProgress reports that over a hundred private health businesses are lobbying the UCP's Ministry of Health in the midst of the pandemic, sensing the opportunity to swoop in as vultures after universal medicare is executed by Jason Kenney. And Scott Dippel reports on Calgary's conclusion that it has to hire Monte Solberg's lobbying firm in order to be heard by the UCP, as its representatives elected to serve the city's constituents are proving to be of no use whatsoever.