I’m feeling a bit frantic today (even more than usual) as it’s two days before school opens again, and wastewater indications show we’re really in the thick of it in my part of the world: Across Ontario, we’ve hit the third highest number of daily hospital admissions since this pandemic
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A Puff of Absurdity: McKinsey’s Effect on Public Health
Almost two years ago, the Canadian government published a Covid response plan that they appear to be largely ignoring. The 3rd edition of the guide was published in March 2022, and it appears to be the most recent edition. They outline the “worst case scenario,” and it’s pretty much what
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Can We Get Some Leadership Here?
Hopefully more people will start paying attention to the dangers of Covid and wear a simple N95 to protect themselves and others now that JN.1 seems to be in the news more. But leadership would help. The concern with JN.1 is that the “variant appears to have an increased affinity
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Is Canada Okay?
Dr. Mike Moffatt explained the six economic problems Canadians should worry about. He starts with red tape stopping things that would benefit us, a lack of state capacity, overlapping jurisdictions that allow things to slip through or remain undone, use of temporary foreign workers, risk aversion, and demographics. Below is all from
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Bernie, #PodSaveJon, and the Rest of Us
On Thursday, Bernie Sanders tweeted about having Covid, and this happened: Favreau got slammed for this comment, and explained his intentions on Friday, “Just to follow up: the brand of person I was referring to is someone who tells people to fuck off if they choose to work from home
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Covid is Finally a Concern!
Maria Van Kerkhove, of the World Health Organization, is worried about Covid. If she’s worried, then the shit has really hit the fan. Van Kerkhove is well known to have said, over and over, that Covid-19 is not airborne so masks aren’t necessary despite it being known to be airborne by January 2020.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Films and Shows of 2023: Speed Reviews
This year was another Covid mess so a great time for watching movies and shows from a variety of streaming services. These are in no particular order, and this is just what I remember seeing this year! Some are linked to longer discussions, and I highlighted a few that are not
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Fruitful Exploration of the Core
Maybe there are seeds of potential deep within ourselves, but maybe there’s nothing there but a collection of signals. Regardless the outcome, we need to dig in to see what we can find. In several classes I took last term, the idea of a core self that’s fluid came through
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Questionable Mindblind Theory of Autism
There was a cute social media post recently that asked kindergarten kids what gifts would be best for 30-year-olds. Of course there were lots of hearing aids and hip replacements in the mix. And it struck me that this could be a good exercise to gently raise awareness of our
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: He Had Her
“I don’t take advice from men.” This TicTok is gaining in popularity. Paige Turner explained the missing pieces from the success story of Casey Neistat. (Who? He’s a vlogger and started a media company, Beme, which was acquired by CNN.) He told a rags to riches story on Diary of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Boiling Frogs Timeline
Globally, Covid cases rose by over 50% in the past month! This article that reported the stats, mistakenly says the WHO “officially declared the end of the coronavirus pandemic worldwide in May 2023.” Here’s what the WHO actually said last May: “I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency. That
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On the Fog of Covid
There’s nothing normal about our lives right now. Simple precautions could change the rate of illness, disability, or death, but that would mean leaders opening themselves to lawsuits if they admit any error. The term “fog of war” refers to how much is unknown and unknowable – the uncertainty of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What Seems Impossible Can Become Inevitable
George Monbiot talked with journalist Rachel Donald of Planet Critical. In a nutshell, Monbiot has many views in common with Chomsky: People with the money have become the people with the power, and the masses are voting based on “presumed consent,” which means we cast a vote before it’s clear
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Expectations of the Season
Today is often a difficult day for many people who celebrate Christmas, and it’s been made worse with the prospect of walking into a family dinner with Covid in the air. Not all of us are surrounded by the people we love today, which can make the day all the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Realistic Faith: Strength for Those Who Look
It can be hard to keep working to show people that N95s and cleaning air will actually significantly reduce the number of sick, disabled, and dying in our communities. Here are some words of solace to keep your fires stoked this winter: Sue J. from Cleaner Air Collective wrote a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Long Covid Tag
Mentioning Long Covid symptoms to people can set off a series of other stories from people with similar symptoms. It’s out there, but we don’t want to talk about it. This is from Nikki S’s thread, a founding member of Long Covid Support in the UK: “I was at a get-together
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Song for the Season
Hellscape Neverland (from Deborah Holloway – I added the bridge and re-worked the final verse) Sirens wail, are you listening?Family tears, they are glisteningThe ERs are crammed The wards are all jammedThis is SARS2 hellscape neverland. Gone away, are the safe daysHere to stay, are the sick daysTo cough and to wheezeSARS2
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Covid Defences Matching Game
Match statements from friends, family, colleagues, bosses, and/or random strangers with “opinions,” to defence mechanism! Dr. Mike Hoerger, a clinical health psychologist in the US, noted several psychological defence mechanisms being used to downplay the risk of Covid. This is his entire thread, well worth saving here for future reference.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Pirola’s Dominating – Cool, Cool, Cool, Cool, Cool
Does everyone else picture Andy Samberg when they read about Pirola too?? Isn’t everyone reading about the hot new variant, Pirola (BA.2.86/JN.1), these days?? The concern with Pirola is that it’s so different from the other strains that it’s unrecognizable to our immune system, and it’s as if we’ve never been vaccinated.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: You Had One Job! On IPACs Refusal to Prevent or Control Infection
The Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) of Canada is a registered charity making some questionable decisions recently. They promote themselves as, “Focussing on infection prevention and control in the community and in healthcare facilities.” Their mission is “to advance infection prevention and control by advocating for our members and providing
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