The Next Pandemic Will Be Boring — And That’s the Danger

I submitted this op-ed to the Canadian Science Policy Centre. They may or may not accept it. But because I’m a stickler for archivism, I’m also publishing it here:


 

For policymakers, journalists, and the public alike, the word “pandemic” conjures images of chaos: overwhelmed hospitals, press conferences, and nightly graphs of surging death tolls. Of the many lessons that COVID-19 taught the general public, among them was the erroneous belief that a pandemic is necessarily a novel, shocking, and newsworthy thing. Makeshift morgues to accommodate the overflow of dead, burly security men positioned in front of grocery stores to limit the number of shoppers, nightly news shows dominated by nerdy epidemiologists expressing their latest analyses –these are the hallmarks of pandemic, as the public has been taught to recognize them.

But, in truth, the next pandemic might not look like that at all. It might unfold slowly, with low mortality but high disruption, gradually eroding health systems, supply chains, and trust in public institutions. It might be “boring”, and that’s precisely what makes it dangerous. Policymakers, health administrators, and journalists must be made aware of this possibility. (more…)

Canada Should Act Now to Attract US Scientists Fleeing the Trump Regime

Resist the Randomized Controlled Trials Fetish

The article below has been published in the Canadian Medical Education Journal (CMEJ). But it’s not written in very technical language, so I thought I’d amplify its reach by reproducing it here, as well.  I think it’s pretty important and timely, given the amount of noise in public discourse about the sacrosanct nature of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and how much that noise impacts public perception of public health policies.

If you want to cite his article, though, please use the CMEJ citation:

Deonandan R. Resist the Randomized Controlled Trials fetish: different questions require different pyramids of evidence. Can. Med. Ed. J [Internet]. 2025 Feb. 24 [cited 2025 Feb. 28];16(1):126-7.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.80355

(more…)

The Art of Alison Friend

I recently stumbled upon a series of Facebook pages on which were posted the most delightful images of anthropomorphic animal portraits by an artist named Alison Friend.

I don’t know Ms Friend, and I have not (yet) purchased one of her prints. But I’m sharing many of the images downloaded from those Facebook pages I mentioned.

Of course, I don’t own the rights to any of these images. If you like them, I encourage you to purchase a print from the artist herself, who can be found at AlisonFriend.com. (more…)


- PAGE 1 OF 537 -

Next Page  

loading
×