Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- John Paul Tasker writes that Canada needs to push hard to increase the number of vaccinated people to prevent a fourth wave of COVID-19. An anonymous COVID ward worker in the UK expresses well-justified anger that health care workers and vulnerable people will bear the brunt of a conservative government's gross negligence in slashing public health protections. Marianne Guenot reports on an outbreak of 964 cases at a single outdoor music festival which required proof of immunity - signalling the massive dangers of eliminating social distancing as a protective measure. And Emma Sandri reports on new research documenting the many debilitating symptoms of long COVID. 

- Amelia Pollard discusses Pfizer's push to encourage third "booster" shots of little medical value in more profitable markets rather than allowing vaccines to be distributed where they're most needed. And Erika Edwards reports that any approval of vaccines for children under 12 may be on hold until winter. 

- Philipp Heimberger and Sebastian Gechert highlight how corporate tax cuts don't contribute to growth, only to exacerbated inequality. And Mark Blyth calls out the conservative obsession with inflation at the expense of human well-being. 

- Saba Dar examines the history of land privatization in Saskatchewan - and the environmental damage associated with selling off public lands. 

- Marion Werner, Annie Shattuck and Ryan Galt ask why glyphosate is still ubiquitous in both commercial agriculture and home gardens after being recognized as a probable human carcinogen. 

- Finally, Doug Cuthand writes that we're far past the point where empty statements of apology or regret are a sufficient response to broader awareness of Canada's legacy of genocide. And Emilie Nicolas points out the level of ignorance about Indigenous peoples - to say nothing of Indigenous languages - that has been treated as a laughing matter by the same people stoking outrage over Mary Simon's ability to speak French. 

New column day

Here, on how we should be taking the crisis in Greece and other global instability as reasons to ensure Canada retains the authority to act in its own interest - rather than excuses for rendering ourselves just as helpless as Greece itself.

For further reading...

- Mark Blyth nicely documents the origins of the debt now being held over Greece's head, while Sara Yasin and Emilie Munson take a look at who was really bailed out from Greece's borrowing in the wake of the global financial crisis.

- Amanda Taub writes that neither Greece nor anybody else really knew what was being agreed to as the EU was formed:

To the extent that membership in the EU came with obligations, they were presented as something along the lines of polite social commitments, as if joining the euro were akin to extending a dinner invitation to friends because they had you over last month and it would be rude not to return the favor. There was a distinct lack of acknowledgement that all that togetherness and integration could come with truly burdensome obligations, or with unsettling political or social change.

And needless to say, we should avoid the trap of signing on to new international commitments out of a similar sense of mindless agreeability if they stand to drive up health care costs and fetter our democratic decision-making. 

- Meanwhile, Paul Krugman nicely summarizes how Greece tied its own hands by entering into the eurozone, while granting decision-making authority to outside bodies with no interest in its economic stability.

- Finally, Chris Hall discusses both Canada's own fragile economic state and the Cons' efforts to blame what's happening outside our borders. But as I pointed out in this post, one can't have much confidence in a government whose cure for exposure to international instability is more of the disease.