You can’t #stayhome if you have no home – Macleans.ca
In quiet neighbourhoods all over Canada, families are sheltering at home alone, refusing to give the Coronavirus a chance to spread. But tens of thousands don’t have that option.
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Air pollution eases in four Canadian cities as pandemic measures keep people home | CBC News
Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver have seen drops in vehicle traffic over the last few days as physical distancing measures introduced to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus have kept Canadians closer to home.
Images from Descartes Labs of the major cities and surrounding areas show their average levels of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2)— a pollutant created by the burning of fossil fuels, such as gasoline — has plummeted compared to a year ago. The New Mexico-based geospatial analysis group shared the data with some news organizations, including CBC and the New York Times.
The composite images come from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel 5P satellite and show averages over time.
Even as the number of cases in Canada exceeds 6,000 and now touches almost every part of the nation, one in every eight adults is of the view that the threat of a coronavirus outbreak is “overblown”.
Now, a new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute shows this cohort – more cavalier in their approach to the virus that has ground Canadian society to a halt and caused an economic crisis – differs significantly from those who say they take the risk seriously, especially when it comes to distancing and hygiene.
Those who say the attention and worry around COVID-19 is undue are less likely to be staying away from others, from public spaces, or to be regularly washing their hands.
Cleanse the Air to Help #FlattenTheCurve, Doctors Urge – The Energy Mix
All on its own, air pollution causes 400,000 pneumonia-related deaths around the world each per year, including 1,600 in B.C., at a cost of $11.5 billion to the health system, write Michael Brauer of the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health, Christopher Carlsten of the UBC Division of Respiratory Medicine, and Sarah Henderson of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. And in 2003, exposure to elevated levels of air pollution doubled the risk of death from the SARS coronavirus.
“Fortunately, actions can be taken quickly and at relatively little cost or inconvenience,” the three specialists write. Control measures include banning use of home fireplaces that aren’t a primary heating source, cleaning up road dust, banning open burning of debris near population centres, and beginning preparations for this year’s wildfire season.
Basic Income’s Lessons For Health Care’s ‘$1,007 Sandwich’
Today, there are 55 programs designed to help low-income earners, families, and members of other vulnerable groups in Canada. Advocates have argued that quasi-basic income cheques such as Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and the Canada Child Benefit could be collapsed into one cash-transfer program for efficiency’s sake.
> It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
> *Former U.S. vice-president Hubert Humphrey*
To be frank… If you replace low-income earners, families, and members of other vulnerable groups in Canada’s with $1000, You aren’t lifting anyone out of poverty.