Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Ed Yong discusses how we may have created a "pandemicine" era by fundamentally changing how viruses are able to mutate and spread. The Globe and Mail's editorial board is rightly aghast that Canadian governments are doing nothing to respond to another approaching wave of COVID-19, while the NZ Herald reports on an International Science Council study warning that we could still be facing regular waves in 2027 if it doesn't start taking the continued pandemic seriously now. And Nicole Lyn Pesce discusses how long COVID has spoiled the career and retirement plans of millions of Americans already. 

- Armine Yalnizyan writes that while a car might have reason to keep Ford in power, any human being should be looking to replace him with somebody more interested in people's well-being. Jessica McDiarmid highlights how the Ford PCs' destruction of climate policies is costing Ontarians billions of dollars (in addition to causing large amounts of needless carbon pollution). DT Cochrane and Toby Sanger examine (PDF) how Ontario's private long-term care operators were able to rake in massive profits with Ford's support while leaving vulnerable residents to die without necessary care. And Mitchell Thompson reports on the PCs' funneling of public money toward anti-union forces, while the Ontario Federation of Labour reminds us that the NDP is working to empower workers instead. 

- Josh Eidelson reports on the U.S. National Labour Relations Board's move toward prosecuting Amazon for intimidating workers. Robert Reich writes about the foreign wealth exerting increasing influence over U.S. politics. Brett Wilkins discusses the activist push for a windfall tax on oil and gas profiteering in addition to the call for an investigation which has already passed in the House of Representatives. 

- Finally, George Monbiot warns that our food system is on the verge of the same type of collapse as the global financial system faced in 2008 - and that it can't be so easily fixed with temporary liquidity. And Tom Perkins reports on Abbott's gigantic payout to shareholders while it failed to ensure that it was capable of production needed baby formula.