Saturday Stories: Our Biggest Failing, Anti-Vaxxers' Ongoing Radicalization, And Breakthrough Infectiousness

James Heathers, with a rare must read recommendation, in Medium, on how our biggest failing of the pandemic has been keeping it invisible. 

Ben Collins, in NBC News, on the rapid continuing radicalization of the anti-vaxxer movement

Craig Spencer, in The Atlantic, explains why vaccinated people are far less likely to spread the coronavirus

[And my latest in Medscape - did you hear? Eating an excess of calories doesn't cause obesity AND there's an amazing new paradigm? I did. Sigh.]

Saturday Stories: What Is VAERS, Alberta's Disaster, And Kindness Gaslighting

Meredith Wadman, in Science, explains what VAERS derived data is, why anti-vaxxers love it, and why it's wrong to use it as a dataset. 

Jason Markusoff, in MacLean's, on the disaster that is Alberta and the reason for it - the disaster that is Jason Kenney.

Jillian Hortin, in The Globe and Mail, on the kindness gaslighting of healthcare professionals.

Saturday Stories: Ending Respiratory Illnesses, Collapsing Medical Systems, And Sick Societies

Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on putting an end to all respiratory viruses (not just COVID)

Vishal Khetpal, in Slate, on the collapse of the American medical system.

Jay S. Kaufman, in The New York Times, explains how sick societies trump science and lead to avoidable failures

Saturday Stories: The Next Variant, Long-Haulers, And Waning Immunity

Olivia Goldhill, in STAT, on the race against the next worse variant.

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how COVID long haulers are everyone's problem.

Katherine J. Wu, in The Atlantic, with why you likely need not worry too much about your waning immunity.

Also, I wrote something for Medscape on that story you might have heard about where eating one hotdog apparently shortens your healthy life by 36 minutes

Saturday Stories: The Next Variant, Vaccination Realities, And Medical Exemptions

Katherine Wu, in The Atlantic, on the next worse variant.

Helen Branswell, in STAT, discusses the Delta tuned realities of vaccination

Omar Mosleh, in the Toronto Star, on why you're probably not going to get a medical vaccination exemption

Saturday Stories: Masks And Children, Protecting Unvaccinated Kids, And What's Safe To Do?

Judith Danovitch, in The New York Times, on how masks might help your children to learn.

Lael M. Yonker and Anthony J. Fischer, in Time, on how we can protect unvaccinated kids.

Helen Branswell, in STAT, polled some epidemiologists about what they were and were not comfortable doing this summer.

Saturday Stories: When For the Under 12s, The End of Ivermectin, Delta and Kids, And Now What

Rachel Gutman, in The Atlantic, on the timeline and process to see the vaccines approved for kids under 12.

Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, in Medium, on how though he hopes he's wrong, this latest study likely puts a nearly final nail in the coffin of horse dewormer ivermectin being useful with COVID.

Katherine J. Wu, in the Atlantic, on the dangers of Delta for kids.

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, reflecting on how Delta's changed the pandemic's endgame and now what?

Saturday Stories: Canada's 4th Wave and Canada's Failed Emergency Brake

Brooks Fallis, in The Globe and Mail, on how Canada won't be able to vaccinate itself out of a fourth wave and what we'll need to do to prevent it. 

Jillian Horton, in The Toronto Star, on Canada's broken (I'd argue cut) emergency brake and the failure of our politics and politicians.

Saturday Stories: Children, Long COVID Post Breakthrough Infections, And Vaccine Mandates

Devi Sridhar, in The Guardian, on whether COVID will become a disease of the young. 

Katelyn Jetelina, in Your Local Epidemiologist, discusses the risk of long COVID even for those who are fully vaccinated. 

André Picard, in The Globe and Mail, makes his case for vaccine passports.

Saturday Stories: UK Virus Factory, Canadian Vaccination Mandates, And Masking While Vaccinated

Philip Ball, in Nature, on how the UK's COVID Freedom Day and dropping of restrictions risks incubating far worse variants that will risk us all. 

Andrew Coyne, in The Globe and Mail, makes the clear case for vaccination mandates in Canada. 

Katherine J. Wu, in The Atlantic, with a view that I share wholeheartedly on why she's still masking despite being fully vaccinated.