Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jennifer Yang and Kenyon Wallace discuss how the Delta variant makes the COVID-19 pandemic far more dangerous than it had been before - even as far too many governments barge ahead with the elimination of public health measures. The Globe and Mail's editorial board writes about the work to be done to reach people who haven't yet been vaccinated. And Edward Nirenberg and Risa Hoshino remind us of the risk being foisted on children who aren't eligible for a vaccine, but face the threat of both severe short-term illness and long COVID. 

- Katrina Perehudoff, Nav Persaud and Lisa Forman write that we should treat access to needed medicine as a human right (and establish a national pharmacare system accordingly). And Jacob Albin Korem Alhassan, Cindy Hanson and Lori Hanson make the case for a national public transportation system to fill urgent needs which are only growing as provinces and the private sector abandon the field. 

- Elior Cohen studies the effect of providing housing to homeless people, and finds that up-front sticker price is largely recouped in reduced social costs within the first two years. 

- Tik Root reports on new research showing that the Earth is trapping far more heat than at any point in recorded history. 

- Finally, David Sirota and Andrew Perez write about the U.S.' "lottery society", where any sense of meritocracy has been overwhelmed by concentrations of money and privilege. Joe Roberts writes that Canada has historically had both an economy designed around the principle of wealth supremacy. And Andrea Reimer weighs in on the failure of our political system to reflect working class values.