Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mary Van Beusekom discusses new research showing that a quarter of COVID-19 survivors are still facing impaired lung function (among other health problems) a year after infection. And Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write about the CDC’s approval of new vaccines better targeted toward
Continue readingTag: Privatization
Alberta Politics: United Conservative Party nationalizes privatized medical lab services – who saw that coming?
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, lifelong advocate of private health care, moved unexpectedly yesterday to nationalize the province’s recently privatized medical lab services. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Health Minister Adriana LaGrange made the announcement at what looked like a hastily organized press conference in Red Deer, but she
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Unspent Billions Exacerbating our Healthcare Crisis
From MPP Catherine Fife: “Ontario’s Budget Officer has found that the Ford government failed to spend $7.2 billion of its budget last year, including $1.7 billion unspent on health as ERs are closing and surgery waitlists are growing.” Meanwhile, in just one specific case, three teens who were stabbed at
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Once more unto the breach, public sector lab workers save medical test system from collapse in Calgary after privatization fiasco
With its latest medical lab privatization scheme in a shambles, Premier Danielle Smith’s market-fundamentalist government has turned to the public sector in a desperate bid to keep the system from collapsing in Calgary, Alberta’s largest city. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Or, to put it more colourfully, as
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Back to Basics – Again
Leece’s new and improved education system that he’s flogging all over the place is keen on “Back to Basics” rhetoric, despite it being an archaic mantra. Conservatives love that old-school shit. Besides maybe a few people for whom it’s a dog whistle indicating their anti-CRT side is winning, people have
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Darwin on our Capacity for Love
Linda McQuaig wrote about the Ontario Place debacle: “Ford plans to “spend $400 million building a parking garage for the convenience of well-to-do spa users, while scrimping on the most basic educational materials in Ontario’s schools. That scrimping–education funding has dropped by $1,200 per student under Ford–explains why classroom shelves
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Not So Different from the US
Crutches_and_Spice, an American, has some hard truths for Canadians. She responded to this comment: “23 years old and I’ve never lived through a school shooting in my country, I get surgery for free, as a queer person I’m a protected class. Here’s her response (link): “For now! I would estimate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Richard Murphy points out the stark contrast between the UK Cons’ attempt to pretend that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, and the tens of thousands of excess deaths still resulting from it. Mary Van Beusekom discusses a new study showing that Ontario’s infection levels
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Moral Injury and Definition Creep
In a class this week we talked about moral injury, but it was presented and discussed as if it meant any time there’s a clash of values. One of the examples given was being in university and realizing people in the next bed were having sex. Another explained that people
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Track for Privatization
A couple weeks ago, Texas came very close to passing a bill defunding public education: a “school choice” bill that would provide vouchers for parents to be able to “use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition.” It passed in the Senate, but then died in the house. They’ll
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Why We’re Not Keeping Kids Safe from Covid
I mentioned a bit about McKinnon and Co. in footnote to a recent post on health care privatization, but these threads need a wider audience. I can’t verify any of this, but it all comes with legitimate links and images from the documents. Long story short, Canada put economic recovery
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Pandemic Historic Ties to Fascism
I’m very concerned with the public largely ignoring Covid despite a growing shift to get kids to replace workers who are lost to Covid deaths or disability after convincing us that everything’s back to normal. If it’s no longer an emergency, then governments no longer have to do anything, or –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Emmett Macfarlane discusses how the stakes in Alberta’s election are no less than democracy and the rule of law – as Danielle Smith has made her contempt for both abundantly clear. But Andrew Nikiforuk points out that nothing in the current campaign holds
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Fiona Harvey reports on the World Meteorological Organization’s warnings that we’re more likely than not to breach 1.5 degrees of global warming over the next five years. And Alex Wigglesworth reports on new research concluding that 40% of the land burned by wildfires
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Karl Nerenberg writes about the Parkland Institute’s research showing how privatization has undermined Alberta’s health care system. And Mitchell Thompson warns that the UCP has a similar plan to turn what’s already a housing crisis into a profit extraction extravaganza at the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – David Slater and Charles Rusnell write about the unconscionable lack of any meaningful discussion of the climate breakdown in Alberta’s provincial election even as much of the province has been ablaze and/or facing extreme air quality warnings. Brad Plumer reports on a new
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jakub Hlavka and Adam Rose examine the $14 trillion just in direct economic costs of COVID-19 in the U.S. – making clear how much long-term damage is being done even on an economic front in a futile attempt to avoid taking responsible steps
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Susie Madrak writes about the continued recognition by experts that the COVID pandemic is far from over. Chengliang Yang et al. examine how COVID-19 may be persisting (and causing havoc) in patients’ bodies long after it ceases to be detectable through current testing. Libby
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Dave Davies interviews Jason C. Jackson about the widespread damage from long COVID – and the lack of remotely sufficient efforts either to prevent its spread, or respond to its effects. And Crawford Kilian weighs in on what we’ve failed to learn while
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Even more stuff Danielle Smith says: Privatize major public hospitals? Sure! Alberta’s premier has a plan
A video clip of Danielle Smith outlining how Alberta could privatize major public hospitals like the Peter Lougheed Centre, the Rockyview General Hospital, and South Health Campus appeared on social media last week. The massive South Health Campus public hospital facility in Calgary – targeted by Alberta’s premier for privatization?
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