Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your year-end reading.

- Allison Maher et al. study how COVID-19 causes fundamental changes to a person's immune system, resulting in far greater vulnerability to other infections. Spencer Kimball reports on the rapid spread of the XBB.1.5 COVID-19 variant - which appears to be rendering previous types of immunity significantly less effective.  And Volker Gerdts, Baljit Singh and Loleen Berdahl write about the need to start planning immediately for future pandemics - including by incorporating knowledge from the social sciences into communications about public health issues. 

- Mitchell Thompson discusses how Doug Ford has chosen to lead Ontario's health care system into a crisis. And Linda McQuaig offers a reminder that the destruction of a universal, publicly-funded system is part of the right's plan to turn people's health into a corporate profit centre.

- David Macdonald warns that the CRA's heavy-handed approach to demanding repayments from low-income CERB recipients may cast a pall over any future social benefits. And John Loeppky discusses the need to ensure people with disabilities have secure access to housing - even as the policy response seems to range from dodging responsibility to outright hostility.

- Tony Barboza writes that it's essential to talk to kids about climate change - even if the continued accumulation of avoidable damage to our living environment is scary enough even for adults. Cameron Wood writes that Saskatchewan's grasslands are among the ecosystems in the most danger due to environmental neglect. And CBC News reports on the benefits Alberta is seeing from a shift to solar power generation. 

- Finally, Eric Blair writes about the need to find alternatives to billionaire-dominated communication platforms.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Gloria Novovic writes about the desperate need to start planning ahead to control the damage done by the COVID pandemic, rather than reacting only to calamities already in progress. Ed Yong highlights why there's no reason to minimize the effect of the coronavirus based on "incidental" infections which still impose massive costs on an overwhelmed health care system. Mary-Ann Davies et al. study the prevalence of severe outcomes in the course of South Africa's Omicron wave, and find that any change in the virus itself (rather than vaccination or other immunity rates) has produced only a 25% reduction in risk of hospitalization or death compared even to the most severe Delta wave. And Christina Frangou offers a look at the effects of long COVID on people who have continued to suffer illness and disability long after even mild initial cases. 

- Michael Osterholm and Cory Anderson call out the misleading message that stubbornly keeping schools open without taking steps to protect staff and students is a remotely plausible option. And Mickey Djuric reports that Saskatchewan's already-strained education system is being forced to carry out contact tracing responsibility abandoned by public health structures. 

- Meanwhile, Olga Khazan notes that the lack of paid sick leave and other supports is forcing people to keep dragging themselves to work while infected. Basit Mahmood points out how the combination of stagnant incomes and rising rents and prices is leaving more and more UK households destitute. And Errol Schweiser discusses how food price inflation in particular is a matter of profit-taking by large corporations with the power to control the market. 

- D.T. Cochrane examines how corporate Canada has already stopped contributing any income taxes to Canadian society to for the year. And Dan Darrah calls out the Canadian Federation of Independent Business for its relentless attacks on workers and people who rely on public services. 

- Finally, Jeff Seal, Chris Libbey and Rick Libbey discuss the importance of moving toward a just cause standard for eviction based on the recognition that housing is a human right. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Charlie Smith highlights how attempts to minimize the ongoing pandemic have reduced the public credibility of both government and public health officials alike in British Columbia (even as they've provided a messaging boost to anti-vaxxers). Nam Kiwanuka laments how parents have been left to fend for themselves, while Dan Sinker notes how the choices have been all the more grim in jurisdictions which sent kids immediately back to school. Bruce Arthur discusses how the misleading spin of a "mild" variant has led both governments and citizens to fail to take a severe threat seriously. And the Globe and Mail's editorial board asks why Canada has so far to go in vaccinating young people when there's ample vaccine supple to get it done. 

- Megan Ogilvie examines how the Omicron wave is devastating Ontario's health care system and the people who rely on it. Josh Rubin reports on the economic losses caused by workers getting sick in the absence of appropriate public health protections. And Angelyn Francis writes about the steps we need to take to protect people with disabilities from the continuing pandemic. 

- Victoria Forster reports on new research suggesting that the Omicron variant reaches peak transmissibility around 3-6 days after symptom onset - meaning that public health rules assuming a 5-day period is sufficient after a positive test may be pushing people back to work when they're most infectious. And Linda Geddes reports on the relatively good news that COVID loses most of its infectiousness within five minutes in the air - though that will only help if we take the steps needed to reduce contacts which raise the potential for short-range infection.

- Bob Weber reports on Alberta's complete failure to deliver on promised environmental monitoring for the tar sands. And David Climenhaga calls out the combination of climate delay and publicly-funded cronyism behind the UCP's attempt to push nuclear power rather than cheaper and readily-available renewable alternatives. 

- Finally, David Hope and Julian Lindberg study the effects of tax cuts for the rich - and unsurprisingly find the result to be worsened inequality without any benefit in total economic activity or productivity.