Kevin Ball

this comment isn’t about the politicization of masking and other COVID mitigations, but it’s a good summary of how we got to super-low vax rates and stigmatizing—even attempts to criminalize—the COVID-aware

"One of the things I always think about is when people take their new babies—their new-ass babies—out into public. Like, this is the same virus that you as an adult hid in your house from for a year, and now you're taking your new baby out that is not vaccinated. Like, don't do that. Like, do not do that. It is still neuroinvasive. It is still a vascular virus that will damage your blood vessels. It will damage your immune system. It will damage your baby."

@juliadoubleday.bsky.social on the “public health is dead” podcast:

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p...

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

All of this goes back to the fact that people don't understand the limits of the COVID vaccines. They don't understand what the COVID vaccines do and don't do. They don't understand the way the COVID virus is mutating around vaccine protection. “So like, I've seen people saying like, oh, well, if you wear a mask, that means you don't trust the vaccine. Well, no, I mean, you're harming the vaccine by not masking because you're allowing the vaccine, which is supposed to be a last line of defense against the virus, to be a first line of defense against the virus.”

if you’re proudly vaccinated against COVID but you don’t bother with other precautions like masking in indoor spaces, you’re actually *undermining the effectiveness of the vaccine*

@juliadoubleday.bsky.social dropping truth on the “public heath is dead” podcast

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p...

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

The sheer dedication to avoiding any mention of COVID when talking about things that we know for certain are heavily impacted by COVID is...impressive.

The "after pandemic" bit is a red flag too - someone's either not keeping up, or deliberately trying to manipulate the narrative.

what’s with the explosion of in-flight selfies lately? i don’t get it, and just find it grating because barely anyone posting one is masked. why is this something anyone’s supposed to be excited about?

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

Kevin Ball @stairway-to-kevin.bsky.so... • 27d → Replied to you 21 after the broadcast, my partner emailed a group of CBC managers and union reps to ask —in light of the quirks & quarks coverage— why it was OK to force us back to the office with no mitigations, especially when our son was too young to be vaccinated. several months later, she received this reply: “Throughout the pandemic, our COVID guidelines and protocols were based on Health Canada and local public health guidelines at any given time, including return to work protocols. These were our minimum standards and at times we went above them. Quirks & Quarks is editorially independent from CBC management and has covered COVID in a number of different ways over the past few years, including the story you heard in March.” ALT

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

the host of CBC radio’s flagship science show was struck with apparent wonder when he asked this on the *fifth* anniversary of the pandemic. and then? it was monday again. that’s a serious problem

🎯

Bad Press — Public Health is Dead Coming Soon

I was delighted to join the great @DaniAtomicus on her stellar podcast Public Health is Dead. Kayli Jamison, a Long COVID activist in Canada who I much admire, was also featured.

I encourage you all to listen & subscribe to support this excellent work.

www.publichealthisdead.com/episodes/bad...

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

“…lied to by omission by our govts and public health …”

and our media—including the CBC itself

bsky.app/profile/stai...

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

How has the media contributed to manufacturing consent for COVID to be “over” (and the decline of public health in general)? New episode ft. @juliadoubleday.bsky.social and @wanderingkayli.bsky.social as well as some comments from former COVID-19 Technical Lead at the WHO, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove

Our Culture of Coerced Infection “You Do You”—unless you are trying to protect yourself from Covid

“… coerced infection—the complete lack of mitigation and the normalization of mass and repeated infection of a debilitating virus—is ubiquitous throughout society.“
open.substack.com/pub/jacobsch...

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

UnHerd CLAIM YOUR BLACK FRIDAY OFFER › How many lives did Covid vaccines really save? BY DAVID PATON 'Any deaths averted would have been almost all in older age groups. News room JULY 27, 2025 - 1:00PM Since the pandemic, research based on modelling has claimed that globally 14 million Covid deaths were averted in the first year of the pandemic alone, including 120,000 in the UK alone. Yet such estimates were always implausibly high, considering real-world data on overall Covid mortality trends. Now, new research published in the journal JAMA Health

We need to free Greta Thunberg She is now too old to serve her purpose All grown up (Tim Whitby/Getty Images) | Kathleen Stock 5 JAN 2024 - 6 MINS Greta Thunberg has never been a party animal. In a 2021 podcast, she said she had never been in a bar, spending "all my waking hours when I am not in school constantly working and being an activist". She also said she had no desire to ever get drunk as this is not who I am as a person". So when she …

France's smoking ban is Covid-era nanny-statism BY ANNE-ELISABETH MOUTET French state intrusion is alive and well. News Groom JULY 5, 2025 - 8:00AM France may not be the first European country to ban outdoor smoking, given that the city of Milan showed the way last January. But, as befits its administrative traditions, it has certainly devised the most Byzantine regulations, purportedly designed to shield children from noxious tobacco fumes.

UnHerd Why men hate short hair (poster’s note: sorry, what?!) The crop has always been entangled with politics 'Don't tell me you paid for that" / Rosemary's Baby Kat Rosenfield 27 OCT 2025 - 6 MINS Long before she finds herself devouring raw meat in a pregnant fugue state, or tormented by bizarre dreams in which she's doing the horizontal mambo with the devil, the titular protagonist of Rosemary's Babymakes a unherd.com

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 👍🏼)

UnHerd Our Mission When the herd takes off in one direction, what do you do? UnHerd is for people who dare to think for themselves.

UnHerd The last of the Covidians The emergency mindset drove them mad Some people are living in the eternal 2020. Ryan Zickgraf 24 NOV 2025 - 6 MINS The way the world learned that podcaster Leslie Lee III died at the age of 43 last week was through a pair of harrowing posts on his own X account - written by his partner,

last on the idiot zickgraf—but you gotta ❤️ the mission statement for the rag hosting his latest screed, “the last covidians”:

UNHERD (get it?) “…is for people who dare to think for themselves. when the herd takes off in one direction, what do you do?”

they re-alived irony just to slay it again

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

Kids are missing more school. Experts say mental health is a factor | CBC News A CBC investigation finds that school time lost due to reported illness is up in all districts that provided data — more than tripling in some places compared to five years ago. While the data doesn’t...

haven’t you heard, jen? they investigated and figured out the root cause. sure, there’s been some illness, but increased absences are mostly due to a mental health crisis sparked by a bullying epidemic that for nebulous reasons skyrocketed sometime in ‘22 or ‘23 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

classic bully-crying-victim behaviour. running around punching people in the nose unprompted and then squealing “they’re ganging up on me!” pre-emptively to try to inhibit anyone from punching back.

“i’ll paint you as crazy and call you perverse but if you say i’m a dick that’s harassment!”

please spare a thought for ryan zickgraf today. apparently shitting on the disabled, medically vulnerable and anyone endeavouring to protect their and others’ health in the face of widespread denial is “a tough one to write for many reasons”—because he might get pushback.

keeeeRYST what an asshole

get off xitter, yes. but also get off meta (FB, threads, IG, whatsapp). just get off.

GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF