memorial

Saturday August 28, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 28, 2021

Time to say it: We’re done with the vaccine refusers

December 11, 2020

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the coronavirus, and approvals for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines could follow soon. This could be a significant step in convincing the millions of unvaccinated Americans to finally get vaccinated, even if it doesn’t quickly transform the state of the pandemic.

It’s also an opportunity for us to say to the hard-core vaccine refusers: We’re done with you.

We’ll treat you when you come to the hospital, of course, because that’s how medicine works; while doctors and nurses dealing with the wave of covid-19 patients caused by the delta variant might like to turn away anyone who refused to take a vaccine, they won’t. But it’s time to refocus our outreach efforts and our public and private pandemic policies so that accommodating, understanding and pandering to the refusers is no longer one of our chief concerns.

It remains to be seen how much of an effect the move from emergency-use authorization to full FDA approval will have on vaccination rates. What we know is that a lot of hesitant people said it would make a difference to them; in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 31 percent of the unvaccinated said they’d be more likely to take the vaccine if it had full FDA approval. It’s not that those people had a detailed understanding of the FDA approval process; more likely they’re just looking for additional reassurance.

June 17, 2021

And every little bit — carrots, sticks and even a dose of fear — helps. We’ve seen an increase in vaccinations in recent weeks as the delta variant has plunged parts of the country back into the depths of the pandemic; for some people who may have previously thought we had this thing pretty much licked, the waves of infections and deaths pushed them to action.

FDA approval will also probably convince more companies to begin demanding that their employees be vaccinated. All of this, we can hope, will create an atmosphere in which being unvaccinated by choice will mean voluntarily marginalizing oneself from society. If you’re determined to make that statement about yourself, that you’re the kind of person to whom “freedom” means taking the chance of infecting other people with a virus that has killed millions, we’re going to do everything we can to isolate you.

May 8, 2021

To those who say “mocking those people will never convince them to take the vaccine!”, let me suggest that it’s too late to persuade them. I’m not talking about the hesitant and the uncertain — they can be persuaded, and we need to redouble efforts to reach them. But when you see that in Mississippi — which like many states with low vaccination rates is now being ravaged by the delta variant — the state’s chief public health official felt compelled to make a public plea for people to stop drinking livestock dewormer, since a good number got the idea that it’s a treatment for covid, you have to ask if there’s anything at all that would persuade committed refusers.

Actually, we know how they got the dewormer idea: the supercharged rumor-spreading machine known as social media. Over the weekend, Facebook reluctantly admitted that “an article raising concerns that the coronavirus vaccine could lead to death was the top performing link in the United States on its platform from January through March of this year.”

It’s gotten to the point where at a rally on Saturday in Alabama of his most loyal dead-enders, former president Donald Trump said that while he believes in everyone’s freedom, “I recommend: take the vaccines. I did it. It’s good. Take the vaccines,” and boos rang out.

January 12, 2021

I’m pretty sure that if between swigs of horse dewormer, your uncle is booing his god-king Donald Trump for saying a good word about vaccination, gentle persuasion isn’t going to have much effect on him.

Will one more anti-vax conservative talk radio host dying from covid do the trick for him and his Facebook friends? How about another Republican governor contracting it? Don’t hold your breath.

Experts now say we’ll never reach true herd immunity; rather than covid being eliminated, the pandemic will end with it becoming merely endemic, a part of our lives that never goes away but is suppressed to a level of infections and deaths we can tolerate, like other viruses.

In the shorter term, there is reason to believe that an accumulation of factors — FDA approval, the current wave of covid deaths, more businesses requiring vaccinations, perhaps even simple fatigue after living with this for a year and a half — could convince more and more of the vaccine hesitant to overcome their doubts.

July 3, 2021

But just as the virus itself will always be with us, so will the adamant refusers. They’ll be trying out insane new treatments, while the rest of us shake our heads at people who’d rather gargle with turpentine (or whatever the next Facebook remedy is) than get a free lifesaving vaccine. They’ll keep engaging in unhinged and violent public behavior (like assaulting teachers over mask policies), for which they should just be arrested. Our only concern should be keeping ourselves safe from them; they deserve no more consideration than that.

They won’t disappear, but we can treat them like social pariahs. And if they don’t like it? They can go ahead and wallow in their fantasies of oppression and courageous independence. Nobody said “freedom” was free. (Paul Waldman – The Washington Post) 

 

Wednesday March 17, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 17, 2021

The Colorado attack is the 7th mass shooting in 7 days in the US

The mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday took place less than a week after eight people were killed in a series of attacks on spas in Atlanta.

The two incidents are likely to spur discussion about gun control legislation in the United States, where firearm deaths are tragically common.

They are also among at least seven mass shootings in the past week across the United States — including three incidents on Saturday alone.

CNN defines a mass shooting as: a shooting incident which results in four or more casualties (dead or wounded) excluding the shooter(s).

Tuesday, March 16, Atlanta, Georgia: Eight people, including six Asian women, were killed when a White gunman stormed three spas, police said.

Wednesday, March 17, Stockton, California: Five people who were preparing a vigil in Stockton, in California’s Central Valley, were shot in a drive-by shooting, the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Department said. None had life-threatening injuries.

July 25, 2018

Thursday, March 18, Gresham, Oregon: Four victims were taken to the hospital after a shooting in the city east of Portland, police said in an initial report.

Saturday, March 20, Houston, Texas: Five people were shot after a disturbance inside a club, according to police. One was in critical condition after being shot in the neck, the rest were in stable condition, according to CNN affiliate KPRC.

Saturday, March 20, Dallas, Texas: Eight people were shot by an unknown assailant, one of whom died, according to police.

Saturday, March 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: One person was killed and another five were injured during a shooting at an illegal party, CNN affiliate KYW reported. “There were at least 150 people in there that fled and believed they had to flee for their lives,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.

Monday, March 22, Boulder, Colorado: Ten people, including a Boulder police officer, were killed in a shooting at the King Soopers supermarket, according to police.

It’s unclear how this number of mass shootings compares to an average week in the US.

Though some official gun violence data is available, the US federal government does not have a centralized system or database to track firearm incidents and mass shootings nationwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks some gun violence data, nearly 40,000 people were killed in incidents involving firearms in 2019. (CNN) 

 

Wednesday November 11, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 11, 2020

Remember our war dead and a nation that endures

There will be no parades of aging veterans marching to Canada’s war memorials on this Remembrance Day and in this pandemic year.

May 8, 2020

There will be fewer wreaths laid at these monuments to the nation’s war dead and fewer people to lay them or stand silently to hear “Last Post” played at 11 a.m. by buglers who must keep their distance from everyone else. 

In some places, the public has been ordered to stay away from the cenotaphs to stop the spread of COVID-19 and participate at home in virtual ceremonies or, alternatively, to simply put on a poppy and pause for two minutes wherever possible.

That’s how it must be. No matter where you are in Canada, this Remembrance Day will be unlike any in memory, and for this full blame lies with a microscopic and potentially lethal virus.

June 6, 2019

But there’s no reason this Remembrance Day can’t be as meaningful and, yes, instructive as every one that preceded it. In fact, as Canadians cope with a pandemic that has changed every aspect of their lives, what this country went through in the past facing enormous threats under extreme duress can inspire us today, in a very different kind of national emergency.

Of course, more than anything else, this Nov. 11 is a day when every person in this country should recall the sacrifices hundreds of thousands of Canadians made in two world wars, in the Korean and Afghanistan wars and in decades of peacekeeping and even peacemaking missions in the world’s hot spots. 

June 6, 2014

More than 100,000 Canadians died in those 20th century wars and another 158 soldiers from this country perished in Afghanistan earlier this century. Hundreds of thousands of other Canadians have been permanently injured in body or mind by war. 

Those who have served in this country’s military and emerged unscathed by the experience should be in our minds, too. Many of them put their lives on the line. All were in one way or another defending the interests of their country when it called. They all deserve our recognition and unflagging gratitude.

That deliberate act of remembering in this very strange year may bring unforeseen benefits, too. Like us today, the Canadians who lived through two world wars — the second of which was the most deadly and devastating in human history — also faced terrifying dangers, witnessed great suffering, experienced the painful loss of loved ones and had massive changes thrust upon them.

May 5, 2000

But the country got through it. For instance, in the Second World War, which dragged on six years, basic foods such as sugar, butter, tea, coffee and even meat were strictly rationed to Canadians at home so those serving overseas would have enough to eat. 

The rationing of gasoline and tires limited travel and getting in or out of the United States became difficult. On the east coast, blackouts were strictly enforced with air raid wardens going door-to-door to ensure blinds were drawn so enemy submarines would not see merchant ships illuminated by city lights. Taxes were hiked as Ottawa ran up massive deficits to fund the war effort.

Pandemic Times

Renowned historian J.L. Granatstein has accurately described that war effort as “a complete mobilization of Canadian society” in which “Canadians consciously and deliberately set aside their individual desires for the common good.”

On this Remembrance Day, wear a poppy for the sake of those who served Canada and, too often, paid the greatest sacrifice in doing it. But remember, too, what other generations of Canadians have endured, what they gave up and how they prevailed. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday September 24, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 24, 2020

Covid: US death toll passes 200,000

More than 6.8 million people are known to have been infected in the US, more than in any other country. 

September 15, 2020

The milestone comes amid an increase in cases in a number of states, including North Dakota and Utah. 

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the new death toll was a “horrible thing” and claimed China “should have stopped” the virus. 

He also defended his record, claiming that had the US not taken action, “you could have two million, 2.5 or three million” dead. 

JHU reported the new death toll of 200,005 on Tuesday. The university has been collecting US and global coronavirus data since the outbreak began late last year in China. The first case in the US was confirmed in January.

President Trump’s administration has been repeatedly criticised over its handling of the outbreak. 

August 26, 2020

“Due to Donald Trump’s lies and incompetence in the past six months, [we] have seen one of the greatest losses of American life in history,” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Monday. 

“With this crisis, a real crisis, a crisis that required serious presidential leadership, he just wasn’t up to it. He froze. He failed to act. He panicked. And America has paid the worst price of any nation in the world.”

But on the same day, Mr Trump said he and his administration had done “a phenomenal job” and gave himself an “A+” for his handling of the pandemic. 

He said the US was “rounding the corner on the pandemic, with or without a vaccine”. (BBC) 

 

Wednesday November 20, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 20, 2019

Why affordability is (was) dominating Canada’s election campaign

(Article published 6 weeks before editorial cartoon was printed)

September 19, 2019

Canada’s political party leaders are making affordability the central talking point of their election campaigns, rolling out targeted measures to alleviate the financial strain besetting voters.

Though broad economic data show the nation’s economy is humming along, Canadians are still feeling tight on cash. The worsening global outlook and unprecedented policy uncertainty are adding to the apprehension.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, along with the leaders of smaller parties are seeking to parlay that stress into votes as the clock winds down on the Oct. 21 election, by promising a slew of tax cuts and other measures to make life more affordable.

“Politicians are putting their finger on something, some form of financial anxiety about rising costs, or concerns about future rising costs, or future standard of living,” said Jennifer Robson, associate professor of political management at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Here’s why consumers are feeling pinched.

It’s old news that owning a home in Canada’s biggest cities has become an almost impossible goal for much of the middle class. Skyrocketing prices in recent years pushed potential buyers to the sidelines. New mortgage lending rules, so-called stress tests introduced by federal regulators in 2017, put ownership even further out of reach for many.

September 12, 2019

Toronto and Vancouver are easily Canada’s two main cities where residents are struggling to find an affordable place to live. The average selling price for a single-family home in Vancouver was $1.51 million in September, and $1.1 million in Toronto. Renting in those cities is no easy feat, either, as low vacancy rates have pushed up prices for accommodation.

Elevated real estate prices are the main driver of the country’s record household debt ratios, now the highest in the Group of Seven. Buyers took out larger and larger mortgages as the housing market heated up, even as incomes failed to keep pace. As a result, household savings rates are hovering near the lowest in decades, and the debt service ratio — which measures the share of disposable income paid toward principal and interest — climbed to a record in the second quarter.

While overall price inflation in Canada has been relatively benign, shoppers have experienced sticker shock on many basics. Prices for fruits and vegetables jumped as much as 60 per cent in the past decade, according to Statistics Canada. Child-care and tuition costs rose upwards of 35 per cent, and public transit prices ballooned by 50 per cent.

To top it all off, wages after accounting for inflation have remained relatively flat, even as costs for rent and basic goods increased. A puzzle for many economists and policy-makers is why unemployment is hovering near record lows, yet incomes are struggling to pick up. (Hamilton Spectator)