and now ‘normal’—fuelled by the “you do you” aggressive individualism of the day and the untold underlying impacts of the virus to our frontal lobes—is also a looking a lot meaner and pushier than we left it back in 2019

i think it would have been much more effective to respond with something like, “while it may be new to many listeners, this is not new information—but wow! it’s downright scary. why do you think more is not being made of it?”

it gives everyone—the audience, the show, CBC management—licence to be ignorant on the matter, & once (& only once) the topic has been broached, for everyone to pat their backs, declare, “well, that was interesting”, wipe their hands & carry on as if it’s but one of a myriad of ways of looking at it

yes, it’s a common technique—but i’d argue it serves no use & is in fact counterproductive in this case, if the intent is to inform the listener of the situation as it is. but more problematic than the “surprising” framing is that this was a one-off; just “one way” the CBC has chosen to cover COVID

(except the on/to grammatical oversight, dangit)

this is a problem that extends to the next generation, one i’ve experienced first-hand with family—if you acknowledge that any & every COVID infection can have deleterious consequences on the long-term health of your kids, how do you come to terms with having put them in harm’s way on a daily basis?

… which, one might argue, makes their failure to adequately report on the risks associated with this disease even more egregious

better placed, perhaps. but how much better are they actually doing when it comes to coverage on COVID? i’d say the difference is negligible

🎯

👍🏼 moved back from toronto in ‘22 (not kelowna)

did not know that, but born & raised in kelowna. my dad and mom were GPs at KGH (the docs’ lounge is named for my dad.) sad to hear.

writer’s in ontario. i’m in bc. same diff, really

“don’t let the bastards grind you down.”

check out some of the other red-hot-poker takes they have on offer:

(never afraid to lazily ask the super-important questions like, “ok, but how many lives did the COVID vaccines actually save?”

their answer: *only* about 2.3 million worldwide 👍🏼)

let’s just not mention the C-word though. it’s so unseemly.