Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Nicole Grether writes about the hundreds of thousands of young people orphaned by COVID-19 in the U.S. alone, while Kyodo News reports on research in Japan documenting how acute brain syndrome following infection can be fatal for children. Lisa Riley Roche tells the story of a teacher facing the lasting effects of long COVID, while Heather Stewart discusses the fight for fairness in the workplace for people already suffering from the condition. And Lizz Schumer highlights how the lack of action to help people dealing with long COVID fits into the wider pattern of failing to acknowledge and accommodate invisible disabilities. 

- Selena Simmons-Duffin discusses the U.S.' collapsing life expectancy due to multiple avoidable causes of death. Tom Krisher reports on new research showing that ever-larger SUVs and trucks are causing escalating numbers of pedestrian fatalities. And Bonnie Allen offers a memorial for the 1,200 Saskatchewanians who have died of drug poisonings in just the last three years (as the Moe government has gone out of its way to eliminate any harm reduction options). 

- Kim Willsher writes about the role of women on the front lines of France's pension protests in refusing to be told they'll have to work until they die. And Jason Resnikoff discusses how solidarity - not automation - is the key variable in determining whether workers will have the leverage to protect their interests. 

- Andrew Longhurst, Amit Arya and Lesley Barron point out that Western Canada's experience with for-profit surgery has provided nothing but a cautionary tale - even as Doug Ford is determined to barge ahead with corporatized medicine in Ontario. And Patrick Rucker, Maya Miller and David Armstrong expose how one major U.S. health insurer is simply denying claims as a matter of course, ensuring that patients facing medical difficulties are systematically forced to fight their insurer at the same time. 

- Finally, Saber Chowdhury and Ed Markey comment on the need to phase out fossil fuels now, rather than looking for excuses to keep dumping carbon pollution into our atmosphere. And David Schlissel discusses how nuclear reactors are a thoroughly inadequate alternative, costing more and taking far more time to build than renewable energy sources and storage options.