Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Wency Leung talks to public health experts about what still needs to be done to rein in the COVID pandemic, while Aisha Dow discusses the importance of continuing to mask even when it's not required. And Justin Fox reports on the impact long COVID is now having on employment data - once again resulting in public health neglect having harmful economic consequences. 

- Meanwhile, Armine Yalnizyan writes about the burnout being experienced by Canadian health care workers - and the temptation of seeking out temporary assignments rather than public service roles in order to escape it. And Patrick Rail reports on Katharine Smart's warning that our health care system is collapsing even as governments operate in denial. 

- Jen Christensen discusses the dangerous effects of extreme heat on people's health and well-being. And Damian Carrington reports on particularly large warming effects in the Arctic. 

- Eric Gardner examines the price of diapers as another apparent example of profiteering by a few oligopolistic corporations. And Catherine Porter, Vjosa Isai and Tracy Sherlock report on the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in B.C. 

- Finally, Jack Monroe offers her account as to how poverty leaves scars which last even after one's financial circumstances improve. 

[Edit: added link.]

New column day

Here, on the need to keep the holiday message of peace and goodwill in mind throughout the year - while working to foster both in our homes and in the world around us.

For further reading, I'll point back to a couple of pieces about the effects of poverty and inequality on individual well-being: Moises Velazquez-Manoff's discussion of status and stress, and Jack Monroe's personal account of life in poverty. Both provide compelling examples of how individual-level peace is impossible for many who lack basic essentials - and I'd think that even a modicum of goodwill would lead anybody to push for a functional social safety net to reduce the damage.