If it is truly an axiom of practical politics that you can you can never believe anything until it’s been officially denied, we now have confirmation Danielle Smith’s government is bent on privatizing health care in Alberta. Home of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, publisher of Premier
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Dave Hansen et al. discuss the attempt in progress by publishers to attack the Internet Archive in order to restrict access to materials. And Walled Culture examines the problem of trying to preserve any “public domain” at all when the profit motive
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: empire of pain, the secret history of the sackler family
Buried on page 364 of the hardcover edition of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty — almost two-thirds into the book — is one sentence that, for me, defines the most important piece of this urgent story. The opioid crisis is, among other things, a parable about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kevin Jiang reports on the reality that COVID-19 has resulted in a crash in life expectancy (which has already been stagnant due to the failure to reduce the harm of the drug poisoning crisis). And Victoria Wells points out that even ruthlessly selfish
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Luke Savage points out that even biased right-wing polling is finding broad support for stronger social programs and limitations on corporate domination in Canada and the U.S. But Jake Johnson writes that the Biden administration is instead increasing military funding while putting
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Understanding Long Covid
A couple days ago, Martin Kulldorff, a Swedish biostatistician, was at a White House roundtable discussing Covid when he said, “We knew about [infection-acquired immunity] since 430 BC, since the Athenian plague until 2020. Then we didn’t know about it for three years, and now we know again.” Many classicists
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: COVID-19 Pandemic Reflections and The Next Pandemic
Well the pandemic is over, at least according to most governments, science and medicine not so much. So now it is time to look back, and to look forward. Perhaps my biggest reflection is that governments, at least in Canada, did not receive the rational criticism for their failures that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Eric Reinhart discusses the importance of approaching public health from a collective perspective, rather than presuming health is simply a matter of individual-level choices. And Michael Hiltzik highlights the usual combination of dishonesty and ignorance behind yet another set of talking points
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Liam Mannix examines how the scientists with the deepest knowledge of the risks of COVID-19 are protecting themselves from the ongoing pandemic. And Robson Fletcher writes about the attempts of Calgary parents to gather data on how to keep schools safe (in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – E. Wesley Ely discusses the developing – and worrisome – body of knowledge of how COVID-19 affects the brain, while Korin Miller reports on the link between COVID and diabetes. William Brangham and Dorothy Hastings talk to people living with long COVID about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Robert Reich discusses how the concentration of power in the hands of the U.S.’ capitalist class has reached levels not see since the gilded age – and how improvements in general access to consumer goods (driven in part by increased work participation and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lion’s share of UCP health spending announced yesterday is earmarked for finding docs for rural areas
Only $8 million of the Alberta Government’s $158 million “health workforce strategy” announced yesterday is directed to the recruitment of nurses, arguably the most desperately needed component of the province’s health care workforce. By comparison, the United Conservative Party Government earmarked the lion’s share, $119 million, to attract and retain
Continue readingAlberta Politics: NDP vows more access to family docs in what looks like the Opposition’s opening shot of 2023 election campaign
You could argue to the Opposition’s 2023 Alberta provincial election campaign started unofficially but in earnest yesterday with the Alberta NDP’s announcement of a plan to ensure that more than a million Albertans will be able to see a family doctor quickly, close to their homes. The cover of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Evening Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Henry Mance talks to Mariana Mazzucato about the big con by private consultants who have been treated as a substitute for a knowledgeable civil service without having any expertise in actually serving the public. And Cathy Taylor writes about the need to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Catherine Albright et al. study how the wide transmission of COVID-19 – due in no small part to the “let ‘er rip” mindset of far too many governments – has facilitated the development of new variants which escape existing immunity and treatments. And Fisher
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Emergency facilities for people experiencing homelessness
I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness. Chapter 4 has just been published. A ‘top 10’ overview of the chapter can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/emergency-facilities/ The full chapter is available here:https://nickfalvo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Falvo-Chapter-4-Emergency-Facilities-30jan2023.pdf And all material related to the book can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/book/
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Nicoletta Lanese reports on a new analysis showing that COVID-19 has become a leading cause of death among U.S. children. Ewen Callaway discusses what will be needed from the next generation of vaccines to respond to an evolved threat – but as Gregg
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Richard Denniss calls out Australia’s government for its “nothing to see here” approach to an ongoing public health emergency. And Falko Tesch et al. study the connection between COVID-19 infection and subsequent autoimmune diseases, while Tim Requarth discusses the multiple effects COVID can have on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Melody Schrieber reports on new data showing that more Americans missed work due to illness in 2022 than in any other year on record even as the pandemic causing widespread sickness was declared to be over. And Madison Stoddard et al. study
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Kat Eschner interviews John Peters about the growing inequality in wealth, income and influence. And Scott Martin offers a reminder not to conflate the gross disparity in pay between CEOs and workers with anything that’s actually been earned. – Mitchell Thompson discusses how
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