Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Jeff Zuk writes that there are plenty of reasons why COVID-19 case loads still matter - making it a sign of gross negligence that so many governments have decided to stop counting and/or reporting them. Bryann Aguilar discusses the obvious links between Ontario's building sixth COVID wave and the lifting of basic public health protections, while CBC News reports on alarming jumps in wastewater viral loads. Amanda Sealy highlights the importance of ventilation as a means of reducing community transmission (while also carrying other health benefits). And Ryan Masters, Laudan Aron and Steven Woolf examine how COVID has affected life expectancy - with the U.S. ranking as an outlier in seeing a continued decline in 2021 while most peer countries saw a partial rebound from 2020. 

- Sara Mojtehedzadeh, Rachel Mendleson and Andrew Bailey expose how the Ford PCs directed much of Ontario's supply of publicly-funded rapid antigen tests to big businesses and private schools. And Sonia Sodha rightly notes that while there are benefits to remote and flexible work, those are largely concentrated among a relatively privileged group of employees.  

- John Bistline, Inês Azevedo, Chris Bataille and Steven Davis write that there's no excuse for delaying climate action debating over theoretical future possibilities when renewable options are ready to be fully deployed. 

- Randy Robinson points out how Ontario's collapsing public services are the product of a failure to secure public revenue - though it's well worth noting that Alberta and Saskatchewan are going just as far out of their way to avoid collecting tax income. 

- Finally, Christina Clark-Kazak makes the case to lower Canada's voting age in order to allow young people to have a say in the decisions that will affect them more than anybody. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- John Paul Tasker reports on Dr. Theresa Tam's warning that cases of the Omicron COVID variant are set to escalate rapidly. Blake Murdoch and Christopher McCabe discuss why waiting for full confirmation of Omicron's dangers before responding will result in action being taken far too late, while the Globe and Mail's editorial board argues that booster shots are needed now to contain the damage. Brooks Fallis writes that the tools are available to rein in COVID if they're paired with political will which has been sorely lacking to date. And Andre Picard writes that we still have much to learn about immunity to COVID (even as the ground continues to shift). 

- Meanwhile, Jessie Anton reports on the Moe government's decision to restrict the information available about COVID spread in schools, further limiting people's knowledge even as they're admonished to navigate a social crisis through individual choices. And Luke Savage discusses how corporatism is behind both COVID inequities, and the continued mutation and spread of a disease which continues to endanger everybody. 

- Tami Luhby juxtaposes the millions of people driven into poverty by the pandemic against the wealth amassed by the richest few, while Daniel Ziffer notes that the relative health of people who received what amounted to a limited basic income should point toward the benefits of pursuing one more broadly. And Katherine Scott writes about the need for a recovery which doesn't leave people behind, while Nav Persaud et al. offer an important set of recommendations to ensure health equity. 

- Julian Cribb writes about the rise of petrofascism as a means of insulating powerful corporations from either science-based decision-making or democratic choice. Jeffrey Barbee and Laurel Neem expose Reconnaissance Energy Africa's drilling in a protected wildlife conservancy (while buying the silence of local people). And Jeremy Appel points out the oil lobbyists standing in the way of the climate action needed in Canada. 

- David MacDonald examines how only a few types of costs are responsible for nearly all of any complaint about inflation - and how the same right-wing governments demanding austerity to "help" are doing nothing to protect their poorest residents from those. Abhi Kantamneni and Brendan Haley make the case for a national strategy to reduce energy poverty. And Ayla Peacock writes about the difficulty many people are facing navigating a housing crisis while being paid poverty wages.  

- Finally, Aaron Wherry writes about both the case to reduce the voting age to ensure young people can vote on the decisions which will shape their future, and the NDP's work to advance that cause.