Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Jenna Cartusciello examines the connections between COVID-19 and gastrointestinal issues as yet another poorly-studied and potentially long-lasting effect of infection with a disease we're being told not to worry about. And Omar Mosleh reports on the backsliding in Canadian public health as diseases long understood to be eradicated are surging thanks in large part to anti-vaxxer ideology.

- Steven Lewis discusses the breaches of the Canada Health Act which are already undermining universal public health care while threatening to get worse if left unaddressed. 

- Lisa Harris, Calvin Sandborn, Matt Hulse and Leah Temper write that we can't afford to let oil-soaked disinformation obstruct the action needed to avert catastrophic climate change. And Patrick Greenfield reports on Denis Hayes' rightful condemnation of the use of Earth Day to greenwash environmental destruction by fossil fuel giants.

- Meanwhile, Michelle Lewis reports on the development of a new EV truck battery which offers the prospect of powering a heavy truck for 1.5 million kilometres while being manufactured with less impact than existing options. And Geoff Meggs writes about the combination of social and environmental benefits from the Squamish First Nation's Sen̓áḵw project - while noting the need for far more where it came from.

- Finally, Robert Reich discusses how the Republicans are hurtling ever faster toward fascism by removing elected representatives who dare to assert the humanity of the people they're looking to silence.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- William Anderson sets out a few of the most important realities about the Kraken COVID-19 variant and its place within the ongoing pandemic. Glen Pyle and Jennifer Huang confirm that infection results in a far greater risk of myocarditis than vaccination. And Julia Doubleday weighs in on the fact that the wealthy and powerful gathered in Davos demanded exactly the preventative measures for themselves that they've denied the rest of us.

- Meanwhile, Steven Lewis discusses how a focus on ensuring everybody has access to primary health care would alleviate both health inequalities and burdens throughout our health care system. But Taylor Noakes writes that the federal government may need to take the lead in building a public system where conservative premiers are solely interested in slashing and privatizing.

- David Macdonald offers a thorough look at which industries and recipients are reaping the spoils from inflation in Canada - with corporate profits predictably the main beneficiary. And Jim Stanford corroborates that conclusion with a look at how unit profit costs have soared while wages have barely budged.

- Finally, Michael Barnard discusses the decades of experience with nuclear power which make it clear it can't compete in a fair comparison to renewable energy.

Thursday Evening Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Claire Sibonney talks to Colin Furness about the cell dysregulation which looks to produce many of the most dangerous effects of long COVID. Sabrina Moreno discusses the connection between COVID-19 and a rising number of maternal deaths. And Betsy Ladyzhets offers suggestions for people looking for the most useful information still available about the risks around them, while Phil Tank rightly calls out Scott Moe and the Sask Party for keeping Saskatchewan's people in the dark (and thereby facilitating another COVID wave). 

- Meanwhile, Creeden Martell reports on CanAge's research showing the Moe government also lacks any plan to either limit avoidable cases of dementia, or address its consequences for care providers. And Steven Lewis points out that the growing cost and duration of health care education creates a barrier to filling the large (and growing) number of vacancies in the health care system. 

- Lindsay Ellis reports on the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy's long-overdue recognition that toxic workplaces represent a needless danger to physical and mental health. 

- Finally, Kat Exner reports on a study from the Daily Bread Food Bank showing that most food bank users face deep poverty alongside their lack of food security and other risk factors. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Katherine Wu writes about the much-needed update to COVID-19 vaccines coming this fall - and the challenge getting people to receive them after months of false messaging about the pandemic being over. 

- Steven Lewis discusses how the privatization of health care (including surgical services) stands to undermine our universal Medicare system. And Andrew Gregory reports on a new study showing how the UK Cons' privatization was the direct case of avoidable deaths alongside other demonstrable harm to services. 

- Charles Pierce points out how the hard right has been getting what it's paid for in securing a stranglehold over the U.S. Supreme Court. And Brigette Bureau reports on the intimidation of judges in Canada by Flu Trux Klan terrorists, while Brett Forester reports that the RCMP remains far more interested in infiltrating peaceful land defenders than dealing with the actual violence in our midst. 

- Emily Leedham reports on WestJet's attempts to use scab labour to operate while refusing to provide acceptable wages and working conditions for check-in clerks.

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb makes the case for proportional representation as a means of guarding against anti-majoritarian control over public policy. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content for your Friday reading.

- Gavin Yamey et al. observe that a push for vaccine equity - and the retention of public health measures until it can be achieved - are musts to avoid foreseeable sickness and death from COVID-19. And Gregg Gonsalves calls out the recklessness and hubris of the officials who are insulated from the worst effects of the pandemic - and thus causing it to spread further while laughing at their own irresponsibility. 

- Zak Vescera reports that COVID-19 has put even more strain on a Saskatchewan health care system which was already breaking under the weight of Saskatchewan Party neglect. Bashir Jalloh contrasts Scott Moe's eagerness to throw money at empty buildings and beds along with management fads against his refusal to pay the workers needed to keep our health system functional. And Steven Lewis warns that the province's care workers are burned out and demoralized by the constant failures of Moe's government - and will keep going elsewhere if we don't make Saskatchewan a place worth staying. 

- Helena Horton reports on research showing that right-wing populist parties serve as an obstacle to effective climate policy. And that reality may help to explain Canada's place as a rogue super-emitter on the world stage. 

- Jacqueline Best discusses the numerous flaws with shouting "stop printing money!" as a response to inflation - though it's worth noting that Pierre Poilievre has moved on to a "stop stopping printing money!" complaint anyway. And Dan Darrah is the latest to highlight how Poilievre's answer to the lack of affordable housing is similarly off base. 

- Meanwhile, the Canadian Press notes that most Canadians don't buy the elite-driven push for massive defence spending - particularly at a time when help for people is being slashed in the name of post-pandemic austerity. 

- Finally, Richard Feinberg writes about the need to challenge the real concentration of money and power which has left far too many people on the precipice of disaster in order to funnel profits into the hands of the greediest few. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jason Markusoff writes about the human cost of Jason Kenney's false claim that the COVID-19 pandemic was over. Phil Tank points out that Scott Moe is now without question the most negligent premier in the country when it comes to public health protections. And Adam Hunter reports on the call from Alexander Wong and other experts to at least follow Manitoba's path in limiting the spread of the Delta variant, while Guy Quenneville talks to Steven Lewis about the Moe government's insistence on pushing privatization rather than paying attention to what's worked in responding to COVID. 

- Richard Hine discusses the emerging reality of death by anti-vaxxers in the U.S. - which is of course being matched in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Peter Hotez points out how anti-vaxx messaging is spreading in Canada. And Jenny Deam reports on the story of a 12-year-old whose appendix burst while he was stuck waiting in an emergency room as a stark example of how COVID's strain on health care puts everybody at risk. 

- Daniel Quiggin et al. study the compounding risks of failing to avert a climate breakdown by transitioning away from an economy which relies on carbon pollution. 

- Finally, Noah Lanard and Jacob Rosenberg write about some of the indignities bad bosses have inflicted on their employees - and the steps workers have taken to fight back. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Steven Lewis writes that the Saskatchewan Party's mealy-mouthed messaging around the coronavirus looks to be a calculated political choice which is having devastating public health consequences:

There has been a pattern in Saskatchewan's communication about COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. The language is deliberately elastic. It is long on encouragement and exhortation and short on directive. It is more like a public health campaign to reduce smoking rates or encourage physical activity than a mass mobilization in the face of an emergency. 

The subtext is almost therapeutic: you might want to think about this or that, I'm not going to tell you what to do, you have to want to change. You can imagine the fingers crossed behind the back or the permissive wink.

Is this mere bumbling and ignorance of the evidence on how to succeed and how to fail at pandemic control? It's possible but unlikely. The approach is too consistent. No one is winging the messaging after a year of practice. 

Nor is it plausible that the public servants, the public health leadership and the cabinet are unaware of which jurisdictions did what, and the impact of those policies and practices. Yet Saskatchewan consistently drops the ball.

...

(T)he people more inclined to take the pandemic seriously, examine the evidence and listen to public health experts will do the heavy lifting. The gamble is that there are enough of them to give the skeptics and die-hard libertarians a free pass from the consequences of their own choices. 

When the majority takes adequate precautions, the recalcitrant minority also benefits, its safety subsidized by the sacrifices of others. A few hundred cases spread in bars or churches are, on this logic, the price worth paying for keeping the base happy while counting the days until the vaccine cavalry charges to the rescue.

I could well be wrong. Maybe politics has nothing to do with it. The alternative explanation — refusal to learn and adapt, disdain for expertise, bewildering obfuscation — is less flattering to the government. So in the spirit of charity, I cling to the hope that the premier's persistent dodge is artful, the handiwork of a clever strategist rather than one woefully out of his depth.

- Meanwhile, Chuck Collins points out that the U.S. could fund the majority of its COVID-19 relief by taxing back the wealth accumulated by billionaires as the rest of the population has suffered. And Oxfam notes that the Trudeau Libs have decided not to take steps to make Canada's revenue collection more consistent with a feminist recovery.

- Alastair Gee writes about the danger that our climate breakdown may mean the end of forests as they've existed for thousands of years. And Jonathan Porritt warns against the hype that we can avert climate change through nuclear and hydrogen power which will ultimately serve mostly to ensure that an exploitative resource extraction model remains profitable. 

- Regan Boychuk reports on Alberta's belated suspension of SanLing Energy for ignoring obligations to put up $67 million to fund massive end-of-life obligations for its oil facilities. And Sammy Hudes reports on a similar order against Mojek Resources Inc. 

- Finally, Nicole Abbott offers a personal account as to why Canada needs pharmacare for all.