Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Henrietta Cook reports on new data as to the number of people dying in hospitals as a result of the spread of COVID-19, while Adam Rowe reports on the CDC's recognition that COVID's human toll is paired with serious economic damage. And Sophie Rosenblum and Michael Bailey ask why we haven't even applied the pandemic's obvious lessons about the importance of air filtration in schools. 

- Meanwhile, Emily Baumgaertner explores how noise exposure can cause substantial harm to public health. And Chris Hatch discusses how oil barons have effectively trapped humanity in a hot car - even as they continue to demand ritual shows of fealty to their power to endanger us all. 

- Niigaan Sinclair discusses the high cost of austerity in the PCs' Manitoba. And Michael Marmot points out the outright decline in child height and other measures of public health and development to demonstrate the wide-ranging effects of austerity in the UK. 

- Steve Morgan and Nav Persaud make the case for a publicly-funded essential medicines program to make needed medications both freely available and less expensive. 

- Finally, Joseph Stiglitz and Tommaso Faccio write about the much-needed steps by some countries to take minimum corporate tax levels into their own hands as a compromised global process appears to have stalled. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Stephanie Dubois reports on the growing body of research showing that the risk of COVID-19 reinfection is worsening due to the Omicron variants. Troy Charles talks to Ayisha Kurji about the multiple viruses hospitalizing Saskatchewan children as public health rules have been eliminated, while Gail Lethbridge points out the web of contradictions in COVID-19 messaging which is causing massive outbreaks in Nova Scotia. Sarah Wildman writes that vulnerable people stand to be left out as public health protections are removed in the name of returning to an exclusionary "normal". 

- Michael Marmot writes about the lives being endangered by the UK Cons' refusal to provide any help to people whose existing poverty has only been exacerbated by soaring costs of living. And Doug Nesbitt comments on the failure of wage levels to come anywhere close to keeping up with prices - even as anti-inflation rhetoric is used to try to ensure workers are left behind. 

- Meanwhile, Stephen Vance discusses how Ontario's "sunshine list" - based on a far outdated standard - facilitates right-wing rhetoric against front-line public sector workers. 

- Donya Ziaee discusses how the agreement on pharmacare between the NDP and Libs leaves many open questions as to what a system might look like - and argues that we'll need to work to ensure the result actually helps people rather than locking in corporate profits. And Andrew Jackson takes note of the many ways in which the federal budget falls short of the shift toward more progressive policy that people may have expected both as a result of the confidence and supply agreement, as well as the lessons learned in the course of the pandemic.

- Finally, Clem Nocos writes that the Libs' financial commitment and actions fail to match their rhetoric when it comes to housing policy. And Sabrina Maddeaux points out how what's included in the federal budget is particularly insufficient for young people who don't have the advantage of already owning a home.