Posts

The Plague-Ground – Do you suffer from Friend Fatigue?

If Zoom Fatigue is what happens when you spend too much time with other people (often strangers) on the screen, what do you call spending even a little time with real friends you haven’t seen in months? Oddly tiring. But in a strange, not-until-COVID…

The Plague-Ground – Where will you be when the vaccine arrives?

If you’re in Canada, you could join the 37 million of us near the back of the line. An article this week in the McGill Medical Journal tells a troubling tale: “75 million syringes but nothing to put in them: what is Canada’s plan for…

The Plague-Ground – Is the cavalry coming?

The fate-of-humankind question isn’t “When will a vaccine arrive?” It’s also: “Who will take the vaccine?” Two things happened last week to help us answer both. Last Tuesday, the heads of five Big Pharma companies offered…

The Plague-Ground – Justin Not-So-True Though

I won’t write about the loucheness of Justin Trudeau, his need to feather his mother’s nest, his whac--a-mole conflicts of interest; nor the conflicts of his Minister of Finance and Chief of Staff; nor forcing his officials to be economical…

The Plague-Ground – Are airplanes our next long-term care residences?

Last week a passenger on a WestJet flight from Toronto to Halifax tested positive for COVID-19 after it landed. This prompted the Nova Scotia Health Authority to warn everyone on the flight to get tested, and especially those in Rows 16 to 21,…

The Plague-Ground – Yanqui Stay Home

This week, the European Union will ban Americans from traveling there. Why? Because America is the worst country on earth in stopping COVID-19 – and is only getting worse. When Europe opens its borders on Wednesday, the citizens of 11…

The Plague-Ground – Plants Have Ears Too

This week in Barcelona, a string quartet played to a full house of plants. The 10-minute concert was put on to reinforce how important art, music and nature are as life opens again across Europe. It was a weird and brilliant idea to give…

The Plague-Ground – It’s an “and-and” thing.

Toronto is one of the last places in North America still largely closed by the pandemic. Good. Because saving our lives or saving our economy isn’t an ‘either-or’ thing, though we seem hard-wired to think that way. And lord knows,…

The Plague-Ground – A New Kind of Political Leader

One million fewer people live in New Zealand than in the Greater Toronto Area. Yet as of last night, New Zealand has 1,504 cases of COVID-19 and 22 deaths. The GTA meanwhile has 10,726 cases and 801 deaths. Just as New Zealand’s success…

The Plague-Ground – What part of “now” don’t you understand?

The awful news out of our long-term care homes punctures whatever myth of exceptionalism we held about ourselves. It will be harder to claim: “We’re better than that” when cockroach infestations are a feature of how we care for the…