This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Juliana Kim reports on the growing wave of public health advice recommending masking in order to limit the harm from a “tripledemic” of infectious diseases. Blair Crawford reports on PSAC’s rightful concern that a return-to-the-office order will avoidably expose workers and their
Continue readingTag: Privatization
Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Richard Smith highlights how there’s no general connection between the cost of health care and patient incomes across different models of funding and delivery, but an obvious connection between profit motives and increased expenses which don’t produce improved outcomes. – Meanwhile, K.J. Aiello
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Compensation for hospital workers has declined for years. But Ford still wants more
Despite the urgent attempts of the Ford government to decrease the real wages of hospital workers (via Bill 124 and their plan to appeal the courts declaring that legislation unconstitutional), the truth is that spending on compensation by hospitals has become a smaller and smaller part of hospital budgets for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Belinda Smith writes about the effect COVID-19 has on the immune system – including its making subsequent infections more severe. Karen Landman makes the point (which seemed obvious until COVID denialists started undercutting the very idea of public health) that there’s no such
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Olha Puhach, Benjamin Meyer and Isabella Eckerle examine what we’ve learned about viral shedding from the COVID pandemic so far, while Bhanvi Satija reports on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ warning that we may face plenty more dangerous mutations if we keep pretending
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Benjamin Veness writes that the best way to address the dangers of long COVID is to prevent spread of the underlying viruses. And Daniel Bierstone and Monika Dutt write that it’s never been important to make sure workers have sick leave available
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jessica Wildfire sets out the realities of COVID which are apparent to people on top of the flow of scientific news – even if they’re not being reflected in public policy or government messaging. Larissa Kruz reports on the strain being placed on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s plans for health care? Brace yourself for user fees, co-pays, privatization and sly de-listing
Answers to the major problems confronting Alberta’s health care system, Daniele Smith said in a paper published under her name last year, are found in user fees, co-pays, privatization, and slyly delisting services covered by health insurance by redefining them. The downtown home of the University of Calgary’s School of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dave Yasvinski reports on the growing recognition that repeated COVID infections increase the likelihood of severe illness and death. And John Lorinc discusses how the ongoing pandemic should be pushing us toward a long-overdue focus on improving indoor air quality. – Sheila Block
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The co-op difference: Comparing co-op and market rents in five Canadian cities
The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada has just released a study comparing rents in co-op housing units to rents of similar private-sector market units in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa for the period 2006–2021. I played a small role in writing the report. A ‘top 10’ overview of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Gwynn Guilford and Lauren Weber report on the recognition by economists that COVID-19 continues to be a mass disabling event – even as public health officials and politicians try to pretend the pandemic no longer exists. And Cory Franklin and Robert Weinstein discuss the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted material to start your week. – Jeremy Faust laments the removal of the few remaining COVID public health recommendations when we’ve had ample opportunity to learn about the costs of letting the coronavnirus run rampant. Dave Sherwood and Marc Frank report that Cuba has set an example for other
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Evan Xu, Yan Xie and Ziyad Al-Aly study the long-term neurological effects of COVID-19, finding elevated risks of numerous kinds of neurological disorders even following mild initial infections. – Crawford Kilian discusses the need for a prosocial revolution to deal with COVID
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ed Yong offers an important look at what long COVID’s “brain fog” means for the people suffering from it, while Peter Thurley discusses his personal experience with it. Mark Caro reports on the work being done – and the desperate need for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Bruce Arthur laments the message being sent by Ontario’s government that there’s no need to care about other people in the face of an ongoing pandemic, while Norm Farrell discusses British Columbia’s sliding back into a neglect phase. Anne Flaherty reports on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Martha Lincoln writes about the needless harm caused by public health messaging about being people being “tired” of pandemic precautions which many (if not most) are entirely willing to take. Rachel Gilmore reports on the WHO’s warnings about the continued human toll from
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Wency Leung asks how much more of a human toll we’re willing to accept in order to operate in denial of a continuing pandemic. And Phil Tank discusses how the Moe government has chosen to frame the constant stream of preventable disease
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Linda McQuaig writes about the dangers of treating public health care systems as resources to be plundered by corporate raiders rather than essential services for people. And John Michael McGrath discusses how the Ford PCs are demanding that some of the most
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Privatization in Ontario
It’s vital in Ontario that we understand the problems with privatization because the shift of essential services from the public to private sphere is happening right under our noses. Brittlestar does a great job of explaining it here: The typical disaster capital scheme goes something like this: Wait for a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jason Gale reports on new research showing how COVID-19 can cause impacts on the brain for a period of years (with no apparent end in sight). And Saima May Sidik discusses the long-lasting cardiovascular problems which may also follow from an infection. But
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