Advocates fighting to save national pharmacare program Ottawa says will expire www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This outbreak matters beyond Andes virus itself. It is also a test of whether global public health institutions have truly learned the lessons of delayed recognition of airborne transmission during COVID-19. So far, it looks like they haven't. 7/

Our central argument: for severe pathogens with respiratory transmission potential, public health agencies should START with stringent airborne precautions and scale back only if evidence later justifies doing so — not the reverse. 6/

The key public health question is not whether Andes virus is as transmissible as measles or SARS-CoV-2. It is whether a pathogen with documented human transmission and a case fatality rate (by WHO's own estimate) of ~38% warrants stronger airborne precautions. We argue yes. 5/

OUR NEW BMJ editorial: Andes virus should reset WHO’s default approach to airborne risk. 🧵 1/ For severe pathogens with person-to-person transmission, the starting point should be precautionary airborne protections — not waiting for definitive proof after spread occurs. www.bmj.com/content/393/...

🚨 JUST IN: A French woman who contracted hantavirus in a cruise ship cluster has developed the most critical form of the disease. She is now on ECMO an 'artificial lung' and is fighting for her life

ICYMI: Elections Alberta received ** two ** tips that the Centurion Project may have had unauthorized access to Alberta's list of electors and twice said it did not have enough info to launch an investigation: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber... w @mattscace.bsky.social

NEW: Mikisew Cree First Nation is suing Alberta and Canada govts over oilsands development effects. They allege industrial development has harmed lands and waterways, disturbing traditional practices and contributing to negative health outcomes.

AI Scribe is in use nationally 😡😡😡😡 globalnews.ca/news/1184434...

Ontario's auditor general says an AI tool for doctors that hullicaintes when transcribing appointments is already out there. In fact, Shelley Spence said a doctor she recently visited was using the tool. #Onpoli globalnews.ca/news/1184434...

Important read re: hanta and respiratory protection trishgreenhalgh.substack.com/p/fb368a53-f...

England researchers tracked 62 million people and found many older adults who died with COVID were not already near death. At least 28% of those over 65 were expected to live 5 more years without the infection. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

I don't think sending cruise ship contacts on international commercial flights without PPE or serial testing, nor mandating quarantine afterwards is smart public health. These are the kinds of decisions that get you into trouble, even if this outbreak stays relatively small.

"Padilla said passengers could not have been tested onboard the vessel because there were no rapid PCR tests for hantavirus available. Any testing would have involved flying samples to Madrid to a specialist lab, a process that would have taken 24 hours."

At this time, the provincial government is forcing hospitals to lay off staff, which is entirely the opposite direction we need to be moving in. It's a failure, by design, to adequately fund Ontario's public hospitals to the level that is required. www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc... 21/

The second recommendation is for the provincial government to develop a health care workforce strategy and capital plan. Ontario lacks a health workforce strategy with provincial and regional solutions to address staffing shortages and capacity challenges. 20/

Costs in the hospital sector have been increasing by about six per cent per year due to population growth, aging, and inflation. But the provincial govt is projected to increase base and targeted hospital funding by only 4% in 2026-27. 19/

The study makes two main recommendations to the provincial government. First, the government needs to immediately increase funding to improve hospital finances and capacity by $3.2 billion. 18/

The Ontario government also suggests that the care economy is not the ‘real’ economy. These claims are used to justify underinvestment in health care and the devaluing of work in the care economy. In 2024, there were 1.4 million jobs in the care economy—representing one in five jobs in Ontario. 16/

As well, FAO analysis shows that the provincial government’s budget plan for 2025-26 to 2027-28 is projected to result in a reduction in staffed hospital beds from 220 beds per 100,000 people in 2024-25 to 203 beds per 100,000 people in 2027-28. 14/

Staffed hospital beds are far below what is required – and it’s projected to get worse 13/

This study finds that Ontario has a significant and growing gap in the number of hospital beds required and the actual hospital beds funded and staffed. Between 4,352 and 6,237 additional staffed beds were required in 2025 to avoid hallway medicine and meet demand for inpatient care. 12/

There is widespread agreement that Ontario’s hospital sector is the most undersized in Canada relative to the size of the population – and it is one of the most under capacity when compared to high-income countries. In 2022, Ontario ranked number 33 when compared to 38 OECD countries. 10/

In the last fiscal year (2024-25), 55 per cent of public hospitals ran deficits. In 2023-24 50 per cent and in 2022-23 63 per cent of public hospitals had operating deficits. 2/

The majority of Ontario hospitals had deficits over the last three years: 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. While we have recently learned that more than 70 per cent of hospitals will end fiscal year 2025-26 in deficit, these hospital financials are not yet public. 1/

My new research study finds that the Ontario provincial government's funding austerity is harming patient access to hospital care 🧵 #onpoli #cdnpoli www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Here's the 2nd part of the testimony from Hollingsworth about the real problems with data centers that stakeholders do not want us to know about: #datacenters #pollution #deception

The real problem with data centers: they inherently create a serious pollution problem. There is no "closed-loop system" cooling those centers. They consume large amounts of water and produce toxic byproducts. Studies are compromised to hide these problems. REJECT! /P.1 #datacenters #pollution

Ah yes, we remember the "no tests = no virus" strategy "The passengers will not be tested for hantavirus, as testing is not recommended for those without symptoms, according to a CDC official." www.cnn.com/2026/05/10/u...

In the year leading up the the Hantavirus outbreak, the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the WHO, and fired the CDC teams responsible for inspecting cruise ships and ports.

This is what “multiple use management” looks like when timber wins every time. Ecological health, wildlife habitat, native plant communities all of it gets written off as competition. Link: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Glyphosate application in CA’s forests has quintupled over the last two decades in a year 266,000 pounds were sprayed a record. WHO classifies glyphosate as a carcinogen. The Forest Service is using it at industrial scale, on public land, to benefit private timber interests.

After wildfires, forests naturally rebound with diverse vegetation and wildlife. What’s replacing that recovery is rows of industrial saplings surrounded by silence. No insects, birds, or flowers. It’s just dead zones.

acres of national forest with glyphosate (Roundup) to kill off native shrubs and wildflowers that compete with commercially valuable trees like Douglas firs and sugar pines.

“.. most months it’s the No. 1 consumer of water in the county.” @politico.com www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

1 in 5 Doctors had long covid by the end of 2023. www.bma.org.uk/media/7318/b...

In North America we have Lyme disease (and a few other tick borne diseases that can travel as an ensemble) and deer ticks are expanding their range north as the climate warms up. It used to be that the -20C winters halted them near the border, but warmer winters brings them further north.

Carbon offsets promised climate action. In Peru’s Cordillera Azul National Park, Indigenous communities say they lost land and hunting rights while oil companies profited from carbon credits. Maude Barlow asks: Who does green finance really serve? https://ow.ly/Q5j850YWMZc

Narrow minds devoid of imagination. Intolerance, theories cut off from reality, empty terminology, usurped ideals, inflexible systems. Those are the things that really frighten me. What I absolutely fear and loathe. Haruki Murakami

It's weird that they are angry at people waking up. Is it because the weak-minded are more comfortable being 'shleep' ? Look at how happy dani is here. Next to the nasty krusy noem. Those are her people. She knows Albertans are mad.

Albertans need to take this seriously. We laughed at and mocked MAGA so the threat was mostly ignored until it was too late. We thought they were just a joke, but look at what happened. It can happen in Canada too. Its a slow process, but its insidious. Do not just laugh and turn away.

Danielle Smith: "In Alberta, we are also putting an end to the era of Wokeism. *crowd cheers*

Ironic that she is an unrepentant separatist. Treasonous cowards all of them.

This woman is a traitor to Canada and Canadian values. She's pure MAGA

I think this speaks to the dangers of scientific silos. If I write my science to an audience that does the same thing as me, I may be missing an opportunity to connect with others who can correct me, modify my ideas, or extend them into other domains. That's a critical part of the process.

Btw: yes, overdispersed R was a signature of og sars-2, and yes, that would have been controllable with early acknowledgement of airborne spread. R was around 2, mask use reduced transmission by > 50%, so R < 1. This should have been a major learning from the pandemic but…you know

Parenthetically, the (predictably) missed backdrop to this story is that hanta is a climate sensitive zoonosis. Heavy rains in the dry areas of the americas where the virus is endemic in rodents increase rodent populations (more rain = more food). More rodents = more rodent pee and poop

Who could oppose "freedom of scientific inquiry"? Not me. That's exactly why I found this Nature essay so problematic. My latest.

Behind every piece of health disinfo there are actual patients. Actual kids growing up without parents. Actual parents who could have lived. They don't see that. They don't have to.