Scott Gavura, in Science Based Medicine, on the anti-vaxx campaign to erode confidence in COVID vaccines.Julia Belluz and Umair Irfan, in Vox, on the new South African COVID variant that may challenge current vaccines.André Picard and Adalsteinn Brown…

Lauren Dobson-Hughes, in The Line, reflecting on Canada’s responses to COVID wonders if we are actually a country?Zeynep, in Insight, on the gaslighting of science.And in non-COVID writing, here’s my latest in Medscape How Dare There Be Effective Drug…

When Trump doesn’t succeed on Wednesday to get Pence to “do something” about winning the election, I believe he is going to try to declare Martial Law, thinking that will stop Biden from being sworn in. It’s going to be a nightmare. We’re alr…

James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the promise of a single coronavirus vaccine which would protect us against SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and every other coronavirus-related disease, forever and ever.
David Robert Grimes, in Scientific American, on how COVI…

Damien Cave, in The New York Times, on how Australia is maintaining near normalcy of life in the time of COVID19
James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the Brazilian variant that’s currently rampaging through a city that had been thought to be immune due …

It’s awards season, and DeSmog is getting in on the act. We are delighted to announce that we won Best Specialist News Site at this year’s The Drum Online Media Awards! The prize is recognition for all of the DeSmog team’s hard work over the past 12 months, bringing you groundbreaking investigations on the crossover […]

The post DeSmog Wins Best Specialist News Site appeared first on DeSmog.

Cartoon for @chronicleherald #trump #BidenHarrisInauguration #BidenHarris #TrumpTreason pic.twitter.com/t5Wm5V3OSX

— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) January 19, 2021

And so after four years as a failed president, tomorrow Donald Trump will return to his previous career as a failed businessman.

— Victor Laszlo (@Impolitics) January 19, 2021

It feels a bit like Christmas Eve, but you already know what you’ll get when you open the present. A restoration of American democracy, decency, and hope.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) January 19, 2021

I’m like a little kid on Democracy Eve

— Tom and Lorenzo (@tomandlorenzo) January 19, 2021

would he settle for me launching water balloons filled with cat piss at him as he’s wheeled out of town in a garbage can https://t.co/QtqNmum4ri

— kilgore trout, brad r’s brother (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 15, 2021

Many Americans are surprised to learn that entering Canada with a DUI can be extremely difficult. This is because a DUI is a felony north of the border, and can consequently result in a visitor being considered “criminally inadmissible” and denied entry at the Canadian border. In December 2018, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Government of […]

When you don’t have time for this crap. pic.twitter.com/JzfWuh8dEz

— 𝖠𝖺𝗋𝗈𝗇 𝖶𝗂𝖾𝗇𝖾𝗋 (@Wieneraaron) March 13, 2021

Never has there been a better introductory paragraph to a textbook, nor will there ever be. #higherEd https://t.co/e8TAuwJLGa pic.twitter.com/zp2HRmSszR

— Dr. Alec Couros (@courosa) March 7, 2021

Prince George and Princess Charlotte after the monarchy is abolished. pic.twitter.com/W8s984Ensq

— Rohita Kadambi 🍾 (@rohitak) March 8, 2021

And one more – its hilarious:

I’m never letting this video die pic.twitter.com/QAOXjNLAqk

— Best Videos 🎬🍿 (@30SECVlDEOS) February 7, 2021

everyone’s anti-godzilla until there’s a 200,000 ton boat that can’t be moved— Emma Berquist (@eeberquist) March 27, 2021 So now the world is following the tale of the boat stuck in the Suez Canal, there’s even a website Is The Ship Still Stuck?And al…

Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, in The Guardian, discusses which vaccine you should get.James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, on what summer might look like (in the US mind you, here in Canada, given our exceedingly slow pace of vaccination, this might not apply)

…

Sort of a lousy day, really — stupid cold, and Trump is found GUILTY but he skates away without any penalties so far. Well, anyway, here’s some funny tweets just to lighten the mood for Valentine’s Day:

Just fit in to some of my old clothes from 20 years ago. Feeling pretty proud.
It’s a scarf by the way but its a start.

— mariana Z (@mariana057) January 29, 2021

Just gonna leave this here… pic.twitter.com/VZ8wXkOOVS

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) February 10, 2021

😂😂
pic.twitter.com/sESspGCxxs

— Mystery Solvent (@MysterySolvent) February 11, 2021

Cats, y’all…pic.twitter.com/cmIhWmeGmJ

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) February 10, 2021

Well well, how the turntables…

📹: Imgur user Chingelmarie pic.twitter.com/kHWvi0OkxO

— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) February 11, 2021

Life goals: Find someone who loves you even half as much as this dog loves opera. 🔊 🆙

📹: Imgur user MonStar1203 pic.twitter.com/neVHObBNzc

— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) February 1, 2021

Cute.🐯🐾⛄️ pic.twitter.com/XAl5hQ1EAJ

— Andrei (@AndreiAndrei63) January 24, 2021

Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer, in The New York Times, explain how the Pfizer vaccine will work inside of your body.Melissa Davey, in The Guardian, digs past the alarmist headlines and breathless tweets and speaks with epidemiologist Gid MK to explore…

Angela Rasmussen, in Slate, on how we can’t rely on vaccines alone to end this pandemic (this is especially true right now in Canada where our vaccination program is barely off the ground)
Alice Lu-Culligan and Akiko Iwasaki, in the New York Times, on…

Helen Branswell, in STAT, with the questions experts still have about COVID.
Justin Ling, in Macleans, with the almost unbelievable story of Ontario’s science table and its recommendations versus what our government is doing. 
Julia Belluz, in Vo…

Dangerous numpty. If you see, ignore.
Peter Hotez, in Scientific American, on the anti-science movement and the danger it poses to global public health. 
Derek Thomspon, in The Atlantic, explains why you should unfollow, unfriend, or at the very l…

Angela L. Rasmussen, in the New York Times, explains how yes, the vaccines will work to stop the spread.
Julia Belluz, in Vox, interviews the inimitable Hilda Bastian, the scientist who has been right on COVID vaccines every step of the way. 

Ca…

You know how when you’re going through an intersection and someone runs the red but luckily they just click your bumper on the way past, and you are shaken but OK and you just drive on?
That’s how I feel about Trump’s defeat.
America has avoided fascism by the merest click.

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) November 8, 2020

Everyone needs to chill out please. They still have to count all of Hunter Biden’s laptops, Greenland, the lost city of Antifa and the hidden suburbs behind the revolving ObamaGate.

— Jesse Lifson (@DoYouEvenLif) November 13, 2020

Johnny Cash spent decades trying to warn us about this. https://t.co/EkqJhSUqdq

— Steve Reilly (@BySteveReilly) November 11, 2020

From the ‘Crap wildlife photography’ group on Facebook #womensart pic.twitter.com/pxMUG35LJT

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) November 11, 2020

When you see your ex and try to play it cool.

📹: Imgur user anlyin pic.twitter.com/PSyXsmPZX3

— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) November 15, 2020

Ever since the owners got this trampoline, the dog spends more time on it than the kids
(viralhog) pic.twitter.com/ToBhFJM2ET

— ༺❆ᗙ Martin 🏳️‍🌈 ᗛ❆༻ Party time🍷 (@KlatuBaradaNiko) November 10, 2020

Obstacle course skills… pic.twitter.com/modMjqwTqK

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) November 9, 2020

This good boy thinks the guys throwing darts on the TV are playing fetch with him… pic.twitter.com/tcLNrKpn0Q

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) November 15, 2020

Sorry my laptop is being looked at-all of a sudden the keyboard wouldn’t work. Not sure how long I will be without it. So – later, dude!

Olivia Veira and Joshua M. Sharfstein, in JAMA, with a roundup of healthcare workers’ candid thoughts on caring for patients with COVID.
Maryn McKenna, in Wired, on the importance of talking about the vaccines’ side effects.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, …

Daniela J. Lamas, in The New York Times, reflects as a front line physician on her vaccination.
Julia Belluz in Vox, on the new COVID variants and their implications for vaccinations

Alex Crozier, in The Guardian, on how lockdowns can’t work without …

What an awful week. I’m still processing the horror of what happened, and what almost happened, in Washington.  It seems pretty clear now that Trump and his grotesque family wanted the mob to invade Congress and lynch them if they would…

The UK government has defended its decision to celebrate representatives of companies involved in Canada’s controversial tar sands industry as “Climate Champions”, ahead of the COP26 UN climate summit it is set to host later this year. A UK-Canada event last week praised 26 “exceptional individuals actively working to move Canada to net-zero emissions”, five […]

The post Government Defends Praising Tar Sands Industry Figures as COP26 ‘Climate Champions’ appeared first on DeSmog.

Michael Mina, in TIME, on why he thinks cheap, rapid, testing could dig us out of our holes long before vaccines start going into arms. James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, with the most important rule to follow to protect yourself from COVID thi…

Akiko Iwasaki, in Medium, on how vaccination might help COVID longhaulers.
Jennifer Murphy, in The New York Times, reflects on her experiences as a NYC EMT during the worst of their pandemic.
Jane Philpott and David Walker, in The Ottawa Citizen, disc…

I’m back – turned out my keyboard had somehow disconnected itself from my laptop operating system and they needed to find each other again. Sorta like this: The great escapeNothing can keep this cat away from his best friend 😻 pic.twitter.com/6W3PP7L0…

Plainly, 2020 has been an awful year.And I know that I haven’t been blogging, but it just feels wrong to be writing about nutrition, medicine, or weight management in the face of our tragic new realities.I do hope this post finds you and yours healthy…

Five environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in a Montana federal court alleging that the way that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues permits for oil and gas pipelines nationwide violates some of the country’s cornerstone environmental laws. This new lawsuit, filed May 3, is the most recent round in a nearly decade-long battle, […]

The post New Lawsuit Challenges ‘Fast-Track’ Permits Used for Oil and Gas Pipelines Nationwide appeared first on DeSmog.

Campaigners are launching a High Court battle against the UK government’s “unlawful and irrational” support of oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. A medical student, the daughter of an oil worker and a former Esso employee are challenging the oil industry regulator’s strategy that aims to maximise economic recovery of oil and gas […]

The post Climate Campaigners Launch High Court Challenge Over North Sea Oil and Gas Drilling appeared first on DeSmog.

On May 6, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) inspector general issued a report rebuking the agency for failing to protect fenceline communities in 19 metropolitan areas from chloroprene and ethylene oxide, toxic chemicals used in industrial processes. The report directs the agency to review its rules, as required by the Clean Air Act, for both of these carcinogenic air pollutants, which […]

The post Inspector General Directs EPA to Update Its Rules for Two Toxic Air Pollutants appeared first on DeSmog.

Here’s a map I found that illustrates the Jan 6 Trump Insurrection: The New York Times has an excellent interactive article which describes how the attack on the US Capital building went, and here’s an article from the Washington Post describing what W…

Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on the forgotten power of windows in a pandemic.
Luisa Beck, in The Washington Post, on the 1,200 new German words coined for the pandemic.
Aisha Lofter, in TVO, on the need for an anti-racist response to COVID.
 &#1…

If you’re not already following Dr. Popescu, you should be.
Stephen Reicher and John Drury, in the BMJ, on how adherence to COVID recommendations is reliant more on resources and less on motivation or energy.Gideon M-K, in Medium, with the plain truth …

For a delightful change of pace, here’s some of the best dog videos now on the web:

Crazy agility by Pink the border collie..

Come for the speed – stay for flying hug…pic.twitter.com/ReL9buvhyi

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) November 27, 2020

Gm tweeties, happy hump day! Enjoy your day everyone.
pic.twitter.com/QdlH6vwcNn

— ༺🦋༻ᗰᗩƳᖇᗩ༺🦋༻ (@LepapillonBlu) November 25, 2020

His favorite toy pic.twitter.com/gFO2N7Q5tp

— The Feel Good Page ❤️ (@akkitwts) November 23, 2020

ok it is time to remember when three dogs thought it was just another day and it turned out to be a great day they are so happy tbh pic.twitter.com/UlhK5MJZbu

— darth™ (@darth) November 11, 2016

These two are Branch Managers.. pic.twitter.com/m23hJhf5QL

— Land of cuteness (@landpsychology) November 27, 2020

Don’t mind him. He’s just trying to fit in.. pic.twitter.com/k2MRNq7gDz

— Land of cuteness (@landpsychology) November 27, 2020

Yeah, I know, but I just wasted an hour of my life watching a TV show that supposedly had the greatest Christmas commercials this year and they were all pretty awful. Here’s some better ones. My new favorite: This one is worth watching until the end: …

Facebook is “fuelling climate misinformation” through its failure to get to grips with misleading content, according to a new report that calls on companies to boycott the platform until significant action is taken. Campaign group Stop Funding Heat, which produced the report, warns that the problem is likely to escalate in the coming months as […]

The post ‘Overwhelming’ Evidence Facebook is Failing to Tackle Climate Misinformation appeared first on DeSmog.

By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. Originally published on Common Dreams, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. From fake oil spills in Washington, D.C. and New York City to a “people mural” in Seattle spelling out “Defund Line 3,” climate and Indigenous protesters in 50 U.S. cities and across seven other countries spanning four continents took to the streets […]

The post Climate and Indigenous Protesters Across 4 Continents Pressure Banks to #DefundLine3 appeared first on DeSmog.

Bill Gates, in his blog GatesNotes, explains the science of why 2021 promises many more advances in the treatment and prevention of COVID and science as a whole.
Gid MK, in Medium, busting 20 myths about COVID
Devi Sridhar, in The Guardian, on how the…

If you live in Oregon, it’s likely you’ve been bombarded with misleading PR from the local utility company, Northwest Natural, about the potential for what the industry is calling renewable natural gas (RNG) — methane captured from places like landfills and repurposed into energy for homes. In recent months, the Pacific Northwest utility rolled out […]

The post Oregon Utility Using Greenwashing and ‘Renewable Natural Gas’ To Push Back on Potential Gas Bans appeared first on DeSmog.

Javed Anees, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Reid Wilson, in The Hill, on the world leading way in which Africa approached COVID treatment and prevention supplies. 
David Spiegelhalter, in the Guardian, on why you need not be terribly worried about rec…