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. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Nate Holdren calls out the people in power who have chosen nihilism and social murder over taking any responsibility to limit the harm from an ongoing pandemic, while Stephen Maher notes that months of talking points about COVID being over will only make it more difficult to change course if the need for public health protections becomes inescapable. Eleanor Hamilton examines some of the readily-available options to improve indoor air quality - which have unfortunately mostly been ignored in favour of doing nothing. And Mary Kekatos reports on the CDC's recent findings about the large number of long COVID patients who face long-term difficulty in maintaining their daily lives.

- Andreas Karelas writes about our lack of preparation for the readily-foreseeable effects of a climate breakdown. And Kit Stolz reports on the growing recognition that what was previously considered a "normal" climate has already been destroyed by carbon pollution. 

- Meanwhile, Pete Evans reports on the latest instance of the fossil fuel industry extracting windfall profits by hiking gas prices even while the price of oil has fallen. 

- Damian Carrington reports on new research showing that toxic air pollution finds its way into fetuses' brains, livers and lungs long before they have any direct exposure to the outside world. And Diane Peters writes about the efforts of some Ontarians to escape from constant noise pollution. 

- Joanne Hussey discusses how reliance on developers to determine housing is available has led to a gross lack of stable and secure homes for the people who most need them. And Zak Vescera reports on the effect of union-based cost-of-living adjustments as a key factor in protecting workers from corporate price gouging. 

- Finally, Yanis Varoufakis takes note of the IMF backlash against Liz Truss' round of handouts to the wealthy in the midst of multiple crises - but warns that we shouldn't treat an institution which has deliberately exacerbated inequality for decades as doing anything more than trying to prop up existing financial structures. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Heather Mallick discusses the pattern of right-wing governments obsessing over undoing the good done by their predecessors, rather than paying the slightest attention to the public interest. And Mariana Mazzucato and Josh Ryan-Collins examine (PDF) about the importance of having leaders who work on building public value, rather than reacting only to perceived market failures.

- Matthew Yglesias points out that a contrast in views over public policy which further enriches the wealthy represents one of the most promising wedge issues to split votes away from the U.S. Republicans (not to mention an issue worth pursuing in its own right). David Coletto observes that a similar trend applies in Canada. And Kate Aronoff writes that regardless of any philanthropic contributions, an economic system which generates isolated billionaires rather than widespread power and prosperity is absolutely ill-suited to address the threat of a climate breakdown.

- Joe Vipond and Kim Perrotta highlight how climate change denial is making Albertans sick. James Riley notes that Jason Kenney and Doug Ford are missing the point as to the value of energy efficiency. And Gordon Laxer discusses how the Libs' multi-billion-dollar pipeline purchase and trade sellouts fit into a general lack of serious action to transition toward clean energy.

- Finally, Paige Towers points out how to reduce harmful noise pollution at an individual level. And the Globe and Mail's editorial board suggests that Canadian cities take the lead in turning down the volume at a municipal level.