Saturday, February 19, 2022

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Jonathan Koltai et al. study the mental health effects of COVID vaccination - finding a justified decrease in stress among people who have been vaccinated, if flagging at the same time the continued mental health burden being imposed by governments who are determined to tear down vaccine passports and other public health protections. And Elizabeth Payne reports on the spread of the more severe and contagious BA.2 Omicron variant in Canada even as the most basic of public health measures are being stripped away.

- Phil Tank reports on the secretive anti-vaxxers who are now setting Saskatchewan's public health policy thanks to Scott Moe. And PressProgress highlights the role of far-right evangelical churches in promoting and stoking the #FluTruxKlan.

- Gabrielle Peters discusses how the convoy and its demands to surrender to the coronavirus represent a unique threat to disabled people. Rachel Snow writes that the racism laid bare and amplified by the kid-glove treatment of violent white occupiers is all too familiar for Indigenous people. And Vinay Menon laments that Canadian governance has been turned into just another symbol in the U.S.' perpetual culture wars.

- Drew Anderson reports that Alberta is well aware that the province's list of contaminated sites is far more severe than publicly admitted - but that the Kenney UCP is fighting tooth and nail to prevent the public from finding out. Justine Calma discusses how the false promise of carbon capture and storage is being used almost exclusively to paper over the continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels. And Melissa Aronczyk notes that oil industry PR holds far too much sway in determining both our terms of reference and policy choices in trying to avert climate breakdown.

- Finally, Grace Blakeley discusses why it's essential for workers to demand wage increases in the face of both increased demands on employees and corporate-imposed price inflation.

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