An economy dominated by billionaires and corrupt, powerful politicians is not the same as a free market economy.

"Influenza A percent positivity is now higher than in any of the past three seasons, with increases across all age groups. Percent positive remains highest in children (5-11 years) at 63.8% and adolescents (12-19 years) at 54.6%." - Public Health Ontario

Ontario Canada's covid-19 activity and short-term outlook remains stable. Test positivity is currently 5.8%. This chart shows the current trend in blue compared to past seasons. #covid Chart: Public Health Ontario www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/Docu...

Flu season is taking off as shown by this Public Health Ontario Hospital Admissions chart up to Nov 29th. We're already at a high level of lab test positivity (18.3%). It's not too late to get vaccinated and reduce your chances of a hospital visit. #flu www.publichealthontario.ca/en/Data-and-...

RFK Jr's hand-picked CDC zombie panel is stopping newborn vaccination for Hepatitis B. Maybe they will roll out a slogan: "Make Hepatitis B Great Again!" (chart U. of Arizona)

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Two comments on the alleged "double tap" of a drug boat by the US military. 1. It's in the DoD War Manual that it is illegal: "orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal" 2. Trump and Hegseth both say they did not issue an order to kill survivors. I simply do not believe them.

How's it going with Trump's cuts to HIV aid earlier this year? "Without swift action to get services back on track, UNAids has predicted there will be 3.3m more new HIV infections by 2030 than expected." www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

I kept an anonymous lurker account on X, mostly to check on sports. But the account was increasingly harassed by young female avatar bot followers and the "For You" default setting fed a continuous stream of right wing posts, rage bait, and misinformation. I deactivated it yesterday. Mental hygiene.

Canadian MSM/SM is filled with advocates for the F-35 fighter. But Canada must make itself as immune as possible from future American threats against our sovereignty. That includes choosing defence systems that cannot be overridden by the American military, like the F-35. What good is a military ...

Misunderstandings about #mRNA #vaccines partly originate from the fact that they are seldom covered in public education in the same way that we learn basic science like astronomy, biology, or geography. A study reported in PNAS (see reply) looks at ways to better protect people from false claims.

The CDC has carefully monitored the VAERS database of reported vaccine reactions. Medical professionals investigate any deaths for causal links. There are ZERO child deaths causally linked to covid vaccinations. 183 US children died from covid. #vaccineswork publications.aap.org/pediatrics/a...

I try to look at rare events from a statistical viewpoint. Eg, if an immigrant commits murder in the US, is that a failure of the vetting system or a testimony to how well the immigrant screening process works? The 1 in the numerator causes hysteria, the thousands/millions in denominator ignored.

Badly needed.

Flashback: Most of you know the effort I put in to cover scientific data during the pandemic when disinformation and crackpot theories were rampant. Looking back, probably the worst moment for me was seeing Eric Clapton become everything I despised. Hero to zero. www.nbcnews.com/think/opinio...

Is it only me that thinks the Trump-Putin peace plan, if accepted by Ukraine, directly imperils the remaining sovereign Ukraine, Moldova, and the Baltic states in the next ten years?

The amount of aluminum in select vaccines is up to 72 TIMES LESS aluminum than you ingest daily from foods and up to 400 TIMES LESS aluminum than is in your body at any time. Oh and it’s ALL filtered and excreted by your kidneys in the SAME EXACT WAY.

Belief-based evidence-making is not the way science works.

I'm by no means perfect when it comes to character but nothing bothers me more than someone who lies to me. Especially if the lie assumes I must be stupid or uninformed. It's why I have spoken up about politics and it's why I disqualify many political candidates from the get-go. Truth still matters.

Convince me I'm wrong: Food price levels in Canada and the US are primarily the result of pandemic disruptions and the food supply chain greedily avoiding cuts in inflated prices once the pandemic subsided. Anti-government populist politicians prefer to blame the government.

An extraordinary 40% of women aged 15-44 say they'd like to leave the U.S. permanently, double the 19% reported for men (Gallup). This represents a dramatic rise, only 10% of women wanted to leave in 2014. Their preferred destination is Canada. www.axios.com/2025/11/13/t...

Important to remember the power of foreign state actors in shaping vaccine hesitancy... Social media and vaccine hesitancy gh.bmj.com/content/5/10... "...a substantial relationship between foreign disinformation campaigns and declining vaccination coverage."

Excellent article by @laurenpelley.bsky.social explaining why the flu shot remains important (and if you haven't gotten the shot yet, now is the time - infections are rising). #vaccineswork www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

Canada has lost its measles elimination status. A sad day, a win for anti-vaccine ignorance and politicized public health, a new age where children, families, and communities will face additional health risks for no good reason other than the comfort of joining others with similar fact-less beliefs.

Correct for execs to resign from the BBC after distorting what Trump said. But imagine if all those who lied to the public with "fake news" were forced to resign when caught out. "Double standard" doesn't begin to capture what is happening these days. www.bbc.com/news/live/cd...

We may see a more serious flu season this year, for several reasons, including record numbers already seen in Australia this year, the potential for the H3N2 strain to be less well-matched to vaccines, and the rise of vaccine hesitancy due to misinformation. www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

Tariff = tax. Like all taxes, the revenue goes to the government and comes out of the pockets of consumers and businesses. Too many Americans do not understand this, even though they are the ones paying the tax.

This article presents a fairly clear-eyed assessment of where we are. There are plenty of risks and uncertainty in our economy and the government's budget and intervention is bold. Will we weather this storm well and if so, at what cost? Let's hope we get this right. www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

Maybe Democrats had few options after Trump demanded the GOP gerrymander Texas districts but the blatant anti-democratic corruption of fair elections is now steaming ahead from both sides. The US is a corrupted democracy, more so every day. www.cnn.com/politics/sta...

As you probably know, CBS News succumbed to a RW takeover of their editor-in-chief position. Sundays's 60 minutes provided a platform for Trump to spread 18 more lies, according to CNN's Daniel Dale. Trump has won the asymmetrical war against truth. www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/p...

Fact for today: Canada has climbed from 4th to 2nd in the latest international reputation rankings. The US has dropped dramatically, from 30th to 48th among the 60 top economies. Switzerland ranks first, Russia last. The rankings are often a factor in country investment decisions.

What a great World Series.

How about this Yesavage kid? #BlueJays

I have for years been concerned about Doug Ford's desire to limit and deke around the democratic protections in Ontario. Here he is again chipping away at our foundation, in a way that looks a lot like the Trumpian/MAGA efforts to tilt elections and stay in power. #ontario #onpoli

Whether a feature or a bug of the Trump admin, the effect of Trump's erratic behaviour has the net effect of sustaining a higher level of uncertainty for businesses investing in Canada. This weakens our country's economy every day, something I forewarned earlier this year. The US is our adversary.

Trump and GOP: Repeating various claims that the 2020 US election was rigged. Fact check: ❌ FALSE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: "No evidence for systematic voter fraud: A guide to statistical claims about the 2020 election" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Amazing. The whole stadium sung O Canada. We are proud to be Canadian. #Canada 🇨🇦 x.com/BenVerlander...

How about those Blue Jays? Not bad for "David vs Goliath".

Is there anything that rings more symbolic than Trump's destruction of part of the White House, the icon of American democracy, to pave way for a gilded ballroom fit for royalty? www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

Anyone else concerned about the billionaire class funding the military in a democracy? www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...

Claim: Trump claims the Ontario government ad showing Ronald Reagan strongly opposing tariffs was "FAKE". Fact check: ❌ FALSE. The Ontario ad was 100% accurate. Every word of the Ontario ad can be found in Reagan's radio address on "Free and Fair Trade". www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/spe...

So the justice policy of Trump's version of the far right seems to be "Go to jail if I don't like you, get out of jail if I do." Sounds a lot like corrupt authoritarians throughout history.

Trivia: Right whales remain endangered. But their name tells you why they almost disappeared. Whalers named them the "right whales" to hunt because they were slow, docile, swam near the coast, and importantly, their increased blubber meant they floated after being killed so they could be harvested.

How about those Blue Jays?

Noubar Afeyan tells #STATSummit that political moves to replace facts with opinions won't stop with mRNA vaccines. "It’s going to go to every medicine." www.statnews.com/2025/10/20/m...

How about those Blue Jays?

In a world full of misinformation and myths it is important that we communicate credible scientific evidence and facts. One topic under siege these days is climate change. How do we know more CO2 is causing warming? skepticalscience.com/empirical-ev...

I can only speak for myself but I have zero appetite to buy an American built car that is pumped up by Trump's threats and tariffs against Canada. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The New York Yankees remind me a lot of the American healthcare system: they spend a lot more than the Canadian side but they don't see it in the results.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate the one that is held when the weather is nice and isn't commercialized to the hilt. 🇨🇦