Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to start your year.

- Shawn Micallef highlights how the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the refusal by far too many people to follow a social contract - including anti-social leaders elected to shape and apply it.

- Owen Jones writes about the dangerous disinformation - spread with far too little thought within the media - that COVID-19 doesn't need to be taken seriously. And Niall McGee reports on the rise in stock promotion scams since the pandemic started.

- James Keller and Jaren Kerr note that hospitals which are already operating beyond their capacity are facing impending disaster as patient numbers rise, while James Keller and Stefanie Marotta point out the further strain on a health care system which will need to work out how to rapidly deliver a vaccine. Lawrence Wright goes into detail about the U.S.' utterly failed response, while Robson Fletcher looks at the causes of Alberta's December spike in COVID-19 deaths. And Moira Wyton discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that while nobody is immune from a public health disaster, the harm falls disproportionately on people already facing severe disadvantages.

- Finally, Andrew MacLeod notes that even John Horgan was taken by surprise by the speed and effectiveness of the B.C. civil service's response to the coronavirus - showing that even our leaders most inclined to accept public-sector action are underestimating what it can achieve when given the chance (while concurrently putting too much emphasis on private interests).