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,
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – George Monbiot writes that rhetoric about “learning to live with it” has become the go-to excuse to allow preventable tragedies – including the COVID pandemic and the deepening climate crisis – to go unaddressed. Joe Vipond, Kashif Perzada and Malgorzata Gasperowicz argue that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dayne Patterson discusses the continued recognition among doctors that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over (and indeed approaching another particularly dangerous phase). Sumathi Reddy reports on new research showing a starkly more severe risk of diabetes following infection. Nathaniel Dove reports on
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Spending on health must get much larger
The long term fiscal and economic outlook released this week by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) shows that big increases in health care spending are required in the years ahead. The FAO forecasts that provincial government spending on health care will increase from an average of 6.4% of gross domestic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Doug Saunders writes that Europe’s devastating new wave of COVID – like those elsewhere – can be traced directly to politicians pandering to antivaxxers rather than making responsible decisions to protect public health. Yushi Nomura et al. study the retention of antibodies
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #Elxn44 Roundup
The latest from Canada’s federal election campaign. – Jim Stanford writes about the evolution of political and economic thought toward accepting deficits as a readily affordable price of supporting people through a crisis and investing in Canada’s future. – D.T. Cochrane examines the NDP’s plans to close tax loopholes, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Climenhaga discusses how Jason Kenney’s detachment from the reality of COVID is leading to disaster for Alberta. Marilou Gagnon and Damien Contandriopoulos point out how even the beginning of the fourth wave is overwhelming health care workers in British Columbia. Andre Picard
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: The Ford PC government thanks hospital employees by telling them to work harder for less
With as much fanfare as it could muster, the Ford PC government has re-announced its Budget plan of $300 million for hospitals to deal with the backlog of surgeries and procedures caused by the COVID-19 shut down of hospital services. Despite the fanfare, the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) has reported
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Apoorva Mandavilli reports on the CDC’s return to recommending that people wear masks indoors to try to avoid another COVID wave. Matt Elliott asks why nobody is taking the lead on proof of vaccinations when it represents another necessary step to control
Continue readingScripturient: Is Bigger Better? In TVs, Maybe Not.
I read on several websites that for a distance of about 3.6 m (12 ft) from the screen to the viewer, the optimum size of a television should be 85 inches (220 cm, measured on the diagonal). That’s also the distance between someone sitting on our couch and our current
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Doug Ford and the PCs plan another decade of austerity — except even harsher this time
Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) reports that the nominal health care funding increases planned by the Ford PC goverment between 2019/20 to 2029-30 fall well short of the nominal increases over the previous nine years (2010/11-2019/20, the period of public sector austerity that followed the last recession). Indeed, as the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – John Michael McGrath makes the case for optimism about our potential to avoid further waves of COVID as long as COVID-19 vaccinations overtake the risk of community spread. Brian Platt reports on Nova Scotia’s use of rapid testing to catch a substantial number
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tonda MacCharles reports on David Naylor’s justified call for an inquiry into Canada’s pandemic response. And Peter Walker’s report on the rapid spread of the B.1.617.2 variant in the (heavily-vaccinated) UK offers a reminder that the work of protecting public health is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Michael Smart compares Canada’s fiscal response to the COVID crisis to the reaction to previous recessions – finding that benefits for people are being cut back to normal levels in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, while corporate profits continue to soar. And
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Ford PC government plans years of cuts to hospital services
The pandemic led to a brief reprieve from the austerity that has bedevilled Ontario hospital care since the great recession. After decades of being on par with other provinces, hospital funding fell far behind the rest of Canada. At the start of the pandemic the Ontario government was obsessed with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Fahad Razak, David Naylor and Arthur Slutsky discuss how it’s not too late to pull our health care system back from the brink of catastrophe. But Ryan Tumilty writes that we can’t avoid a third wave merely by wishing for vaccines to be
Continue readingAlex's Blog: What would a transformational budget look like?
Reactions to this week’s federal budget have been all over the map. Is it too much, too little? Is this the shock the country needs or a missed opportunity to set a new course? As expected, a number of headlines are preoccupied with the numbers – spending, deficits, debt –
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘I’ve heard that song before.’
It was a confused kindergarten teacher who once asked me why my daughter would tell her and the class that her mother went to hotels at night with men. She was quite relieved when I explained that my wife sang with a 21-piece swing orchestra and they performed frequently at
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Matt Gurney discusses the complete lack of leadership which has led to catastrophic public health results in Ontario, while Haley Steinberg talks to Andrew Morris about the Ford PCs’ utter disregard for evidence-based recommendations to limit the spread of COVID-19. Davide Mastracci
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Peter Lozinski discusses the confusing and conflicting messages from Scott Moe which are making it difficult for well-intentioned residents to know what exactly they’re supposed to do. Christo Aivalis weighs in on Doug Ford’s choice to attack civil rights rather than taking
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