Since a male Alberta resident returned home from overseas several weeks ago, 273 people have died from ebola disease and thousands more are believed to be infected. Other provinces are refusing entry to anyone from Alberta.
The initial case (‘Case X) flew home maskless from Europe while asymptomatic. Case X fell ill and was diagnosed with ebo…
Tag: COVID-19
UK’s Daily Mail misleads on COVID-19 vaccines
Harry Shannon
What is it about people who write or speak for a living? You often hear them proudly announce that they can’t do math. Which really means they are admitting they’re not properly educated.
It has consequences. If journalists are innumerate, they can’t do their job well. Anyone with an agenda can easily mislead them, and in…
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is not up to the task
Harry Shannon
Background: This letter to the Toronto Star followed their editorial outlining some of the problems with how Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been handling the pandemic. I thought the analogy with sports players would resonate with Ford himself, as well as others. The letter was published in the January 22 edition of the paper.
Re…
If they were really pro-life …
Harry Shannon
Many U.S. politicians, especially Republicans, like to proclaim their ‘pro-life’ stance. But while they’re keen to oppose abortions, the rest of their politics don’t match what they say.
If they were really pro-life:
They would cut military aid and weapons sales to regimes that assassinate their opponents and engage …
Dear Albertans
Harry Shannon
I sent the article below to the Calgary Herald as a possible contribution to their Opinion page. I haven’t even had an acknowledgement.
Some context: I wrote this after hearing the Alberta Premier Jason Kenney on the news. Kenney and his government have tried to keep the province’s economy open during the COVID-19 pandemic.…
Anti-maskers join forces with another new group
Harry Shannon
A rally was held today in Houston, Texas by two new groups that have agreed to work together. Don’t Use Masks or Barriers (DUMB) is teaming up with Counter Laws On Drinking (CLOD) to oppose what they call “government interference in the marketplace of behavior.”
DUMB claims that wearing masks to prevent COVID-19 is a plot…
Who is most at risk for COVID-19?
Harry Shannon
Data just released show that “Black people and other people of colour make up 83 per cent of reported COVID-19 cases while only making up half of Toronto's population.”
Quick now – how many times more likely are these racialized people to get COVID-19 than the rest of the Toronto population, i.e., white people? 1 ½ ti…
Time for a Wealth Tax
Harry Shannon
This was written as a letter to the Toronto Star. It wasn’t published, but you can read it here.
Re Covid-19 costs. Time’s up: help cities, Editorial, July 16
The COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc with people’s finances, and governments have had to go into huge deficits to mitigate the impact on people who have lost t…
Models and COVID-19
Harry Shannon
We all want to know how the pandemic will play out. Sorry, I don’t.
But some groups are doing mathematical modelling to try to predict what will happen. The statistician George Box famously noted that all models are wrong but some are useful. His point was that a model is an attempt to describe some aspect of the world in mat…
Trump: ‘I predicted the coronavirus’
Harry Shannon
In a remarkable press briefing today, President Donald Trump told reporters that he had predicted the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Trump had been widely ridiculed for a tweet he made on 31 May, 2017 just after midnight. It read: ‘Despite the constant negative press covfefe” and there was much speculation on what the w…