Metaneos

Yesterday, I was given a list of side-effects from getting my first vaccine shot. However, not listed was one of blistering rage. For near a full year, I'd been undergoing a series of emotions which all joined together into one formless, unidentifiable mess of a blob. I was numb and useless. Recently though, the emotions have begun to separate and I can identify them one by one: great sorrow, and ceaseless anger. And they originate from the same place: the inability of our political and business leaders to confront this crisis in a timely manner that would have saved millions upon millions of lives. Had countries shut down flights from China in a timely manner, the spread of the virus could have been stopped there as the Chinese managed to defeat it utterly. Had our countries, the USA, Canada, the EU, et al, simply shut down for six weeks when the virus was discovered locally, then its spread could have been stopped utterly. However, what we got were halfhearted and token efforts. ...

Lessons learned — and forgotten — from the horrific epidemics of the U.S. Civil War  Johnathon S. Jones—Stat News   If there's only one thing to take away from this article, it's "the rigid enforcement of public health measures saves lives". There has been too much selfishness in peoples' behaviour, the belief that since the fatality rate is so low then everything will be fine, never taking into account the transmission rate of the virus, and that 1% accumulates, and with a high transmission rate, it accumulates very, very quickly. With a high transmission rate, the mutation or adaptability of the virus grows with every new infection, and every new infection leads into a situation where previous methods of combating the virus also need to adapt. However, with the half-hearted measures undertaken by neo-liberal governments, there has only been the lurching response that has severely under-served the public leading to a stark situation where everything done prior co...

  Liberals to release federal budget Monday, with focus on post-COVID-19 economy Jordan Press—CTV News Well, the federal government thinks it's at the point where it can begin thinking about the time to come after Covid-19. Perhaps there's some room for optimism but then again what could be on the horizon may be hidden by the blazing sun. What may be burning is not the sky but instead the landscape. For instance, the news out of India is very concerning. It is as concerning as the news out of China back in November of 2019. The new variant emerging in India needs some serious study; India needs to become a place of concern for travel and trade right now, and flights to and fro should be suspended until more is known. That it is emerging that herd immunity needs only 60% as studies coming out of the UK and Israel is a major relief but if the virus in India is changed enough to avoid current immunization, then any and all efforts right now would be for naught. As things have been...