Saturday Stories: Unanswered Questions, Ontario's Misery, And Vietnam's Triumph

Helen Branswell, in STAT, with the questions experts still have about COVID.

Justin Ling, in Macleans, with the almost unbelievable story of Ontario's science table and its recommendations versus what our government is doing. 

Julia Belluz, in Vox, on Vietnam, not an island, and it's incredibly successful strategy for dealing with COVID 

Saturday Stories: Is Canada a Country, The Gaslighting of Science, And A Non-COVID Piece From Me

Lauren Dobson-Hughes, in The Line, reflecting on Canada's responses to COVID wonders if we are actually a country?

Zeynep, in Insight, on the gaslighting of science.

And in non-COVID writing, here's my latest in Medscape How Dare There Be Effective Drugs for Obesity? which covers the bizarrely negative reaction that effective drugs for obesity face from the medical community and society as a whole

Saturday Stories: The End Of Year One, The End Of Hygiene Theatre, And The End Of The Whole Thing

Stephen Maher, in Macleans, with the comprehensive story of Canada's first year with the pandemic.

Emily Anthes, in The New York Times, on the end of overzealous cleaning.

Gregg Gonsalves, in The Nation, on what comes after the end of this stage of the pandemic. 

Saturday Stories: Anti-Science, The Pandemic's Wrongest Man, And The Not Great Indoors

Dangerous numpty. If you see, ignore.

Peter Hotez, in Scientific American, on the anti-science movement and the danger it poses to global public health. 

Derek Thomspon, in The Atlantic, explains why you should unfollow, unfriend, or at the very least ignore Alex Berenson and question those in your lives who share his ideas.

Dyani Lewis, in Nature, explains the simplest COVID rule of all to remember, if you're inside, you're in danger. 

Saturday Stories: Vaccine Passports, Canadian Vaccine Manufacturing, and Not Delaying Vaccine Boosters For The Vulnerable

Saskia Popescu and Alexandra Phelan, in The New York Times, discuss the unwieldy realities that vaccine passports might face. 

Leslie Boehm and Gregory P. Marchildon, in Policy Options covers the past realities and future needs of Canadian vaccine manufacturing. 

Isaac Bogoch and David Naylor, in The Globe and Mail, present the case for not delaying second shot vaccinations for Canada's most vulnerable. 

Saturday Stories: Africa's Incredible COVID Supply Chain, On AstraZeneca's Vaccine, And Asymptomatic Transmission

Javed Anees, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Reid Wilson, in The Hill, on the world leading way in which Africa approached COVID treatment and prevention supplies. 

David Spiegelhalter, in the Guardian, on why you need not be terribly worried about receiving AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine.

Angie. Rasmussen and Saskia Popescu, in Science, with everything we know about asymptomatic COVID infections and transmission.

Saturday Stories: Vaccines For Longhaulers, EMT Reflections, And Societal Reopening

Akiko Iwasaki, in Medium, on how vaccination might help COVID longhaulers.

Jennifer Murphy, in The New York Times, reflects on her experiences as a NYC EMT during the worst of their pandemic.

Jane Philpott and David Walker, in The Ottawa Citizen, discuss the equitable reopening of society.

Saturday Stories: Windows, Mindestabstandsregelung, And Anti-Racist COVID Responses

Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on the forgotten power of windows in a pandemic.

Luisa Beck, in The Washington Post, on the 1,200 new German words coined for the pandemic.

Aisha Lofter, in TVO, on the need for an anti-racist response to COVID.

Saturday Stories: Vaccines Will Work, The Vaccine Whisperer Hilda Bastian, And The Secret Life of SARs-CoV2

Angela L. Rasmussen, in the New York Times, explains how yes, the vaccines will work to stop the spread.

Julia Belluz, in Vox, interviews the inimitable Hilda Bastian, the scientist who has been right on COVID vaccines every step of the way. 

Carl Zimmer, in The New York Times, on the secret life of a coronavirus.

Saturday Stories: Which Vaccine Should You Get, And Summertime

Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, in The Guardian, discusses which vaccine you should get.

James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, on what summer might look like (in the US mind you, here in Canada, given our exceedingly slow pace of vaccination, this might not apply)

Saturday Stories: No Herd Immunity Without Vaccines, Hygiene Theatre, And Sleepwalking Into Disaster

Michaeleen Doucleff, in NPR, explains how a small town in Brazil has tragically shown us that without vaccines, herd immunity is impossible.

Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, on the waste of resources and the disinformation that is hygiene theatre

Brooks Fallis, in The Globe and Mail, on how Canada is sleepwalking into our next disastrous surge.

Photo by By Jesus Solana from Madrid, Spain - Black sheep . Do u also feel different? // la Oveja negra. Tambien te sientes diferente?, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5050231

Saturday Stories: The Australian Response, The Brazilian Variant, And The Russian Vaccine

Damien Cave, in The New York Times, on how Australia is maintaining near normalcy of life in the time of COVID19

James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the Brazilian variant that's currently rampaging through a city that had been thought to be immune due to acquired immunity from a previously brutal wave in April 2020.

Joshua Yaffa, in The New Yorker, on Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and their race to immunity.

Saturday Stories: Vaccines Alone Aren't Enough, Women And Vaccines, Why Every Country Should Be Aiming At #COVIDZero, J&J And Novavax

Angela Rasmussen, in Slate, on how we can't rely on vaccines alone to end this pandemic (this is especially true right now in Canada where our vaccination program is barely off the ground)

Alice Lu-Culligan and Akiko Iwasaki, in the New York Times, on the safety of COVID vaccines for women of all ages

Michael Baker and Martin McKee, in The Guardian, on the 16 reasons why every country should be aiming for #COVIDZero.

Derek Lowe, in Science and Translational Medicine, on the new vaccines on the block - Novavax and J&J

Saturday Stories: Anti-Vaxxer COVID Playbook, A Potentially Scarier Variant, And Ontario's Abysmal Response To Date

Scott Gavura, in Science Based Medicine, on the anti-vaxx campaign to erode confidence in COVID vaccines.

Julia Belluz and Umair Irfan, in Vox, on the new South African COVID variant that may challenge current vaccines.

André Picard and Adalsteinn Brown in conversation with Matt Galloway on CBC's The Current on Ontario's disappointments in our fight against COVID (do give this a listen, and wow, Dr. Brown's frustration is something to hear)

Saturday Stories: The Myths Of Pandemic Fatigue, COVID Is Absolutely Controllable, And On Being A Female Expert

If you're not already following Dr. Popescu, you should be.

Stephen Reicher and John Drury, in the BMJ, on how adherence to COVID recommendations is reliant more on resources and less on motivation or energy.

Gideon M-K, in Medium, with the plain truth - COVID is absolutely controllable through government interventions and if your government isn't controlling it, that's a choice they've made.

Jessica Gold, in Forbes, on the many layers of added nonsense that women who are COVID experts face online and in the media.

Saturday Stories: Vaccination, Variants, and Lockdowns

Daniela J. Lamas, in The New York Times, reflects as a front line physician on her vaccination.

Julia Belluz in Vox, on the new COVID variants and their implications for vaccinations

Alex Crozier, in The Guardian, on how lockdowns can't work without social supports.

Saturday Stories: Year Two And The New Strain

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, with a typically phenomenal piece (and sadly the last he'll be writing for a while as he finishes up a book) where he discusses the pandemic's year two.

Kai Kupferschmidt, in Science, with what you need to know, and why people are concerned, about the more virulent new strain.

Saturday Stories: Bill Gates' Hopeful Thoughts, COVID Mythbusting, And #COVIDZero

Bill Gates, in his blog GatesNotes, explains the science of why 2021 promises many more advances in the treatment and prevention of COVID and science as a whole.

Gid MK, in Medium, busting 20 myths about COVID

Devi Sridhar, in The Guardian, on how the notion of learning to live with the virus rather than eliminating it is a horrible mistake.

Saturday Stories: Caring For Patients With COVID, Side Effects, And Science

Olivia Veira and Joshua M. Sharfstein, in JAMA, with a roundup of healthcare workers' candid thoughts on caring for patients with COVID.

Maryn McKenna, in Wired, on the importance of talking about the vaccines' side effects.

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how COVID has changed the face of science.

Saturday Stories: How Pfizer's Vaccine Works, School Closures And Life Expectancies, And Your Place In The Vaccination Line

Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer, in The New York Times, explain how the Pfizer vaccine will work inside of your body.

Melissa Davey, in The Guardian, digs past the alarmist headlines and breathless tweets and speaks with epidemiologist Gid MK to explore that study suggesting school closures shortened kids' life expectancies.

Jordan Kisner, in The Atlantic, on the calculus behind the lineup of when and who should be vaccinated first and last