Saturday, January 08, 2022

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- John Michael McGrath writes that the Omicron wave of COVID may manage to be the most disruptive year, while Alex Press discusses how its effects at an individual level may differ drastically based on one's income.

- Ed Yong warns that the U.S.' health care system is grossly underequipped to deal with the Omicron wave. Ashleigh Stewart reports on the impending nursing shortage in Canada, while Nicholas Frew reports on projections that Alberta will soon see record high hospitalization levels. Lindsay Tanner and Mike Stobbe report on the U.S.' soaring COVID hospitalization numbers among children too young to be vaccinated. Roni Caryn Rabin notes that even children who recover from initial symptoms are at a higher risk of developing diabetes.

- Sharon Kirkey summarizes the current state of knowledge around long COVID - including the devastating effects people have suffered already, and the great unknowns about longer-term damage. Reuters reports on Finland's warning that it may become the country's largest and most severe chronic disease.

- But in case anybody thought greater awareness of the consequences of COVID and its variants would lead to more responsible choices, Adam Hunter reports on the Moe government's refusal to implement any limitations on gatherings even as health officials beg people to be more responsible than their political leaders. Jim Stanford rightly calls out the trend of Canadian employers demanding that employees come to work while infected and infectious, while Alex Press points out the same trend in the U.S. And Katherine Wu discusses the complete lack of logic behind the CDC's latest self-isolation guidelines.

- Finally, Scott Schmidt blasts the conservative messaging machine for having the nerve to blame others for the decisions of right-wing governments to expose people to avoidable risk while undermining any public response.

No comments:

Post a Comment