Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Dr. Katharine Smart highlights the crucial choices which need to be made to avoid a calamitous fifth COVID-19 wave, while Chelsea Nash writes that the most important failings from previous waves have been those of the people with power to make decisions at a social level. And Phil Tank reports on Tara Moriarty's expectation that Saskatchewan has suffered far more COVID deaths than have been reported.

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera's Trapped series offers a desperately-needed look at the lives being lost to drug poisonings and related dangers to individual health and well-being. And Lilian Shyman et al. study the connection between social determinants of health and depression.

- Drew Costley reports on new research showing how many lives have been saved by reductions in carbon pollution from more efficient vehicles. But Barry Saxifrage notes that even as alternatives to natural gas in home energy supplies are readily available, the continued use of dirty fossil fuels in Canadian homes remains the norm. And Olivia Rosane discusses our constant - if usually unknown - consumption of toxic microplastics.

- Hamilton Nolan discusses how unions can save lives when they provide a counterbalance to employers who are willing to risk workers' safety in the name of profit margins. 

- Finally, Beatrice Brooke writes about the desperate need for the wealthiest and most privileged few to contribute their fair share to the societies they exploit.