Not Just a Health Issue

Professor Lidia Morawska just won a quarter million dollar science prize for her work in proving that Covid is airborne, against the WHO's public announcement to the contrary back in March 2020. Her efforts saved lives.

"A renowned expert in air quality and health, Morawska, of the Queensland University of Technology, began contacting international colleagues. She eventually gathered 239 scientists globally to highlight the risk of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The public pressure eventually prompted the WHO and other authorities to update their public health guidelines. ... 'Science and scientists are nowhere near as listened to as in the past, and decisions are not based on science.' It is a problem she hopes to tackle by bringing scientists together as she did during the early years of the pandemic."

That feels like a lifetime ago, long forgotten by many, yet illnesses and death from Covid haven't retreated. 

A US study tracked 150 million workers and absences "since the end of the so-called public health emergency in 2023" to find that absences continue to be 12.9% higher than before the pandemic. "Absences were highest in occupations with the greatest exposure to the public." And last month a global insurance firm "pegged that number of excess deaths at 2% above the pre-pandemic annual mortality rate. ... That's roughly the equivalent of two fully loaded standard commercial jets crashing and killing everyone aboard every day." They cited long Covid as a significant factor. Andrew Nikiforuk reports in The Tyee, 

Basic Christian Morals

I was scrolling mindlessly yesterday morning, on Christmas Day, and came across some outrage around unhoused people being put up in a hotel at taxpayer's expense. The naysayers clearly have never seen Dicken's A Christmas Carol or even Bill Murray's Scrooged. Remember when that line, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses??" came back to bite him in the ass?

Matthew 25:35-40

First of all, what the heck are taxes for but to ensure the basic needs of all?? If we decide that each person has to manage on their own without help from anyone, then we're back to law of the jungle, and we don't need much in the way of government or leadership at all or any social organization. If we're back to might makes right, with "might" referring to the power of wealth, then we're no longer in a civilization. For thousands of years we've known that a healthy, well-functioning society requires a way to care for the less fortunate. From the most base analysis, if we don't help others, they'll be more inclined to steal from us. This stance might claim to want social organization for education and hospitals, but it seems like they just want to ensure they have it for their own families, not for everyone in general. The things that they can afford to pay for somehow don't count as basic needs to provide for all. 

Curious.

What's Good for the King is Good for the Kids

We KNOW that Covid makes kids sick, which affects attendance, and we KNOW cleaning the air will help (since so many have been convince not to wear masks to class), but we'll still only implement solutions for the wealthiest 1%. 

Back in June 2020, the New York Times reported how Covid short-circuits the immune system: 

"In many patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, the immune system is threatened by a depletion of certain essential cells, suggesting eerie parallels with H.I.V. . . . and hints that a cocktail of drugs may be needed to bring the coronavirus under control. . . . Ordinarily, IP10 levels are only briefly elevated while T cells are dispatched. But in Covid-19 patients--as was the case in patients with SARS and MERS, also caused by coronaviruses--IP10 levels go up and stay up. That may create chaotic signaling int he body: It's like Usain Bolt hearing the starting gun and starting to run. Then someone keeps firing the starting gun over and over. What would he do? He'd stop, confused and disoriented. The result is that the body may be signaling T cells almost at random, confusing the immune response."

But then, unfortunately, "aerosol physicists were essentially ignored in favour of medical dogma when attempting to advise the WHO at the start of the pandemic. Many lives would have been saved had public health institutions focused on mitigating airborne transmission." 

Covid, the T-Shirt

Last March I had the funniest experience as a trustee. We were required to attend a seminar about creating inclusive classrooms where everyone can feel comfortable belonging, about mental health and problems with students' executive functioning, and about understanding the brain and how to keep it healthy. Yet there wasn't a mask in sight from any of the presenters or staff or many of the trustees, and they said it would be impossible to bring in a HEPA unit to the room, and I definitely couldn't bring in a CR box. I wrote a bit about it at the time. All those involved didn't see the two-fold irony in this at all. First, they didn't (and likely still don't) see a disconnect between offering an inclusive setting where nobody who was immunocompromised in any way would be safe attending. And secondly, they didn't (and likely still don't) see a disconnect between talking about the health of the brain while refusing to do anything to prevent the spread of a virus that CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE. 

I attended remotely and was lucky to at least garner that accommodation, but it didn't allow me to feel comfortable belonging in that room in the least. 

Now, in a similar unwitting quest for irony, the University of Waterloo just announced a fantastic change to campus: No more tobacco products.

They explained further that, "becoming a smoke-free campus is part of the University's ongoing efforts to foster a healthy and safe campus environment for all . . . it is our responsibility to create environments where health is embedded into campus culture and policy."

It doesn't start for another nine months, so smoke 'em if ya got 'em! 

Symbols of Class

The Titan submersible hasn't been found yet, and the supply of oxygen is gone. Some think they perished days ago from pressure or another type of malfunction, all horrific to think about. That likely won't stop anyone from looking for the vessel in order to recover the bodies. 

It's my worst nightmare to be under water in a container, particularly if it's bolted shut from the outside. 

Lots of comparisons are being made between this submersible containing five wealthy men who paid ¼ of a million dollars each to see the Titanic, stuck somewhere about 700 km off the coast of Newfoundland, to another vessel that went down 100 km from Greece, a fishing trawler carrying 750 passengers, some who gave their life savings to get from Libya to Italy, of which 81 bodies have been found so far. Neither vessels met regulations for travel, but if we have extra time and money to be creative, like make a sub that's run with a game controller, it's called innovation. If we do something similarly questionable or reckless for our own basic survival, it's criminal.

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 and in particular getting women back to work, over children's health and safety. To get women working, they needed them to believe that their kids would be safe in schools and daycares.

First, from Anneke (a bit tidied up for comprehension):

So, remember when I said the Special Advisory Committee on Covid-19 was “the force behind our Canadian pro-infection train?" Well, now I think the "Industry Strategy Council" established by @ISED_CA in May, 2020 was the force that drove them all. Here's the who, what & why… 

On May 8, 2020, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science & Economic Development announced that this new council will serve as “advisory board to assess the scope and depth of Covid-19’s impact on industries and inform government about specific sectoral pressures.” Industry Strategy Council Meetings were held June 8-Sept 15, 2020 where members shared experiences and heard from ministers/industry about hard hit sectors including transportation, air travel, tourism/hospitality, retail and oil and gas, and worked on positioning Canada for "economic recovery." 

And @GovCanHealth only attended two meetings, the 1st to provide "an epidemiological overview of the pandemic and public health approach for restarting the economy" and the 2nd to "present health indicators to guide PHOs in monitoring & preparing for Covid-19 resurgence scenarios as the Canadian economy reopens." Whereas McKinsey & Co attended exactly three Industry Strategy Council meetings. The 1st to provide "supporting materials highlighting economic responses to Covid-19 across the globe," the 2nd to show "health measures other countries have taken as they re-open their economies." At the 3rd meeting, McKinsey & Co "presented economic recovery scenario modelling for the advanced manufacturing, agri-food, health and biosciences sectors" and "international approaches to understand sectoral pressures and cross-sector strategic directions." All meetings are here.  

Leading by Example or What's Good for the Goose...

This is about the Davos World Economic Forum, ending tomorrow. Social media is all atwitter with the incredible precautions they pulled off. Check out their rules here. It's three pages (!!!) of Covid rules and mitigations. Some highlights here:

"To create a safe environment at the Annual Meeting 2023, the Forum is working with the world's leading health experts and virologists. . . . The Forum strongly recommends that participants are vaccinated with the latest available vaccines and take a COVID-19 test before travelling to Davos. Participants are required to get tested in one of the Forum testing centres after arriving . . . with a PCR test. . . . If you fail to conduct a test, your badge will automatically be deactivated. . . . . Masks and disinfectants will be available throughout. . . . State-of-the-art ventilation systems have been installed"

And their masks are FFP2, similar to our N95s. They're not fooling around! On top of the PCR test, "Rapid antigen tests will be available free of charge . . . If you do not feel well, please take a self-tests."