Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Anthony Newall et al. study the effects of the influenza vaccine - finding that each percentage point in vaccine uptake saves over a thousand U.S. lives which would otherwise have been lost to the flu and pneumonia. And Kit O'Connell discusses how people suffering from long COVID are advocating for a healthier living environment for everybody.

- Chris Hatch writes that the narrow focus on carbon taxes which dominates Canada's climate change policy discussion misses the far more important realities of a global crisis in progress. And Benjamin Shingler reports on Environmental Defence's latest study showing how the federal government continues to subsidize dirty energy, while Kendall Latimer notes that the official policy of the Saskatchewan Party remains one of strict climate denialism. 

- Daniel Otis takes note of an internal RCMP report showing that we're trending toward disaster on multiple fronts (though of course in ways that the Cons only want to exacerbate). Peter Walker writes that the U.K. Cons along with other right-wing parties are eagerly copying the Trump playbook of constant disinformation and bullying. And Abby Ferber discusses how the U.S.' bigoted right has set back racial progress by decades with a concerted attack ideas as basic as diversity and inclusion. 

- Angus Deaton writes about the lessons he's learned about the failings and frailties of capitalist orthodoxy. 

- Finally, Ian Welsh discusses the converse of the key principle that anything we can do, we can afford: when crisis hits, we can't afford anything which we've abandoned the capacity to accomplish. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Kendra Pierre-Louis discusses the need for journalists to cover the massive health risks posed by COVID-19 even as (or even because of) the failure of governments to do so.  

- Jed Anderson calls out the increasing privatization of universities in Canada (facilitated by the systemic underfunding and corporate-oriented management of public post-secondary institutions). And David Moscrop writes that any form of enclosure and privatization of public spaces like Ontario Place would be problematic - though the Ford PC's entirely cronyist version is particularly odious. 

- Peter Waldman, Sinduja Rangarajan and Mark Chediak document how institutional farm ownership has been exacerbating the strain on California's water supply. And the Canadian Press reports on a new study forecasting a wave of retirements among Canadian farm and agricultural producers - raising the risk of takeovers by corporate forces. 

- Manuel Lopez Rostrepo notes that Generation Z is particularly pro-union - but that a shift in structural power will require work to convert that preference into organization and action. 

- Finally, Rae Deer offers a reminder that trickle-down economics has never been anything but a scam to direct more money to rich people. And Cory Doctorow writes about new research confirming the seemingly-obvious point that heavily-advertised goods on social media are likely to be overpriced junk. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Andre Santa Cruz et al. study the immunological dysfunction that looks to be the norm for up to six months after a COVID-19 infection. And Geraldine Nouailles et al. find that there's substantial room for improvement in the types of vaccines currently available, both in the use of live-attenuated vaccines and a shift to nasal delivery. 

- Holly Williams reports that more UK workers are facing long-term sickness than ever before. Dawn Bowdish calls out how Canada has allowed needless suffering and death by refusing to take basic steps to limit the spread of COVID, with particularly dire effects for elderly people. And Yvette Brend points out how we're falling behind other wealthier countries in avoiding infant mortality. 

- Cory Doctorow discusses how the acceptance and propagation of the laughable assumptions underlying laissez-faire economic models has produced disastrous consequences for the people faced with the resulting decisions. And Annie Nova talks to Matthew Desmond about the reality that poverty is highly profitable - meaning there are vested and well-funded interests fighting to ensure people continue to be trapped in it. 

- Finally, Vivian Underhill and Lourdes Vera discuss how many Americans are drinking water contaminated with toxic chemicals due to governments' refusal to regulate fracking. Kiah Lucero discusses the UCP's choice to conceal the Kearl toxic chemical leak from communities and other governments. And Julia Kane, Lina Tran and Diana Kruzman note that the effects of climate change include dangerous changes to groundwater. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Cate Swannell discusses how research showing the multitude of harms which can result from COVID-19 infection. Calixto Machado-Curbelo, Joel Gutiérrez-Gil and Alina González-Quevedo study how new variants are entering the brain in different ways than prior versions - easing the respiratory damage associated with the coronavirus initially while also causing different symptoms. And Bryce Covert points out how long COVID is affecting the workforce - resulting in labour shortages for exactly the employers who are demanding that employees be forced back to in-person work.  

- Emily Blake reports on the billions of dollars in remediation costs being dumped on the public as large mine operators have left contaminated sites to be cleaned up on the public dime. And Drew Anderson exposes new information as to how Imperial Oil concealed its knowledge about contamination while claiming innocence when people have observed direct damage from their sites. 

- Annie Lowrey discusses how misogyny in the field of economics results in a distorted set of interests and assumptions behind economic research and decision-making. 

- Finally, John Bell calls out Danielle Smith's smash-and-grab UCP government. And Katha Pollitt writes that democratic socialism offers reason for hope in some alternative to a capitalist system where greed is the primary consideration in all kinds of decision-making. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Amativa Banerjee writes about the cognitive dissonance involved in living through the COVID-19 pandemic. And Ian Sample reports on scientists' recognition that the UK's deadly second COVID wave was the result of the repetition of mistakes and a failure to learn from the first wave. 

- Needless to say, that makes an especially dangerous and deadly fourth wave all the more preventable and inexcusable. On that front, Mickey Djuric reports on the continuing erosion of care for Saskatchewan residents in need of surgery, while Zak Vescera reports that the province is on the verge of needing to ship ICU patients to Ontario for lack of health care capacity. 

- Meanwhile, Marlene Leung reports that many of the experts trying to help save lives in the midst of a pandemic have themselves faced threats of violence for daring to do so. 

- Norm Farrell writes that David Card's Nobel prize helps to signal how empirical reality is on the side of progressive policy - even as the wealthiest few set up self-serving default assumptions to the contrary. 

- Jacob Lorinc reports on the CCPA's research into the hundreds of thousands of workers who have left thankless and abusive service-sector jobs for ones which offer greater pay and security - and the employers trying to spin that as reflecting a "labour shortage" rather than a need to do better themselves. Robert Reich characterizes the newfound willingness of U.S. workers to reject unacceptable work as an unofficial (and entirely necessary) general strike. And Shannon Waters documents the lobbying by B.C. employers against a basic standard of paid sick leave. 

- Finally, Mariana Mazzucato highlights the need for a new international consensus in which governments plan, and deploy public resources toward, a new economic structure which serves the common good rather than the rich. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Lauren Pelley examines the impact of the Delta variant in Canada. And Marieke Walsh notes that we're facing an increasingly tight time frame to ramp up COVID-19 vaccinations to avoid it resulting in a fourth wave, while reports on U.S. research showing vaccines alone won't be enough to respond to Delta or other new variants. 

- Paul Krugman discusses how COVID-19 has followed political lines in the U.S. due to the irresponsibility of Republican governments. Blake Murdoch comments on the repugnance of Jason Kenney's decision to let a deadly disease run rampant, while Kelly Cryderman notes that an ideological aversion to acting in the public interest is entirely consistent with the UCP's brand. The CP points out warnings from public health officials as to how the recklessness of Kenney's choices will echo far beyond Alberta's provincial borders. And Kendall Latimer examines the risks arising from Saskatchewan's increasing case counts even as Scott Moe likewise insists on removing any protection for people. 

- Rebecca Casey and others review how the pandemic has highlighted the need for paid sick leave. 

- Oxfam highlights how intellectual property restrictions have already quintupled the cost of distribution COVID vaccines, while Reuters reports that Pfizer and Moderna have gone into full-on shameless profiteering mode by hiking the prices of COVID vaccines in Europe. And Linda McQuaig offers a reminder that Canada has chosen to allow big pharma to engage in price-gouging rather than ensuring that medications and vaccines are both accessible and affordable.

- Noelle Allen discusses the folly of relying on market to fix problems with housing which find their root in the prioritization of profits over people's rights and needs.

- Finally, Jane Gleeson-White writes about the patriarchal bias underlying what's presented as objective and neutral economic thought.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Maxime Taquet, John Geddes, Masud Husain, Sierra Luciano and Paul Harrison study the broad and severe neurological impacts of the coronavirus. Pamela Downe and Jared Wesley survey how the public in Saskatchewan and Alberta views the response to COVID-19. And Jason Warick reports on Bishop Michael Hawkins' comment from experience as to how the Moe government is failing Saskatchewan and its people in facilitating avoidable community spread.

- Jessica Wong reports on the concern with students who have fallen between the cracks of Ontario's school systems which haven't been reinforced to withstand the pandemic. And Stephanie Hogan highlights how far too many Canadians haven't been provided the supports they need to follow the direction to stay home if they feel sick, while Patrick Brethour explains why the federal substitute for actual sick leave has seen very little uptake. 

- Simon Enoch highlights how the best one can say about the Moe government's budget this week is that it's mostly put off the type of destructive attacks on services we'd have expected based on the party's 2017 precedent. And Sareth Peiris points out the utter lack of any vision at a time when the Sask Party seems determined to lock in infrastructure spending for its entire term in power.  

- Meanwhile, Saskboy calls out the Saskatchewan Party's attacks on cleaner vehicles and the people who have responsibly chosen to own them. And Laura Woodward reports on the callous choice to keep refusing funding to harm reduction sites which would save both lives and money.

- Finally, Ricardo Hausmann discusses the problems with basing economic thought on the assumption of perfect individual choices. And Vass Bedner and Robin Shaban comment on the problems with Canadian competition policy which favours the accumulation of wealth and power in the name of economic efficiency, rather than providing any protection for the people subject to the use of that control.