Blake Murdoch
@blakemurdoch.bsky.social
JD, MBA. Canadian. Health policy, law, bioethics and inconvenient truths.
Given that long waits prompt would-be voters to leave the lines (that's part of the UCP's strategy for urban areas), conventional get-out-the-vote strategies fall short if they don't encourage people to use advance polls and mail-in ballots. +
Special Ballot Request · Voter Registration Portal
voter registration election elector register
specialballot.elections.ab.ca
Mark Carney promises to take climate change seriously once every other problem on Earth is solved
Mark Carney promises to take climate change seriously once every other problem on Earth is solved
"Things are tough right now. And as the saying goes, ‘when the going gets tough, quit doing the hard stuff and just cling to what kind of worked in the past.'"
thebeaverton.com
Getting a ton of rain in western Canadian cities apparently means nothing, only wind direction is saving us from the smoke hellscape that blankets much of Canada as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, NWT and Quebec ignite en masse. zoom.earth/maps/satelli...
Large study: Covid infection increases dementia risk 18% (similar to other viruses), but 4x Covid vaccination reduces dementia risk by 31%. Interesting implication that dementia risk could be lower when 4x vaccinated + infected vs pre-covid. Lifestyle bias? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
SARS‐CoV‐2 Infection, Vaccination Status, and Dementia Risk: A Nested Case–Control Study
Objectives Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may affect cognition, but its association with incident dementia remains inconsistent. We explored the association of SARS-CoV...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
"Inhalation exposure to [wildfire smoke particulates]... increases susceptibility to respiratory viral infection." All struggles are interconnected. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Woodsmoke particle exposure prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection alters antiviral response gene expression in human nasal epithelial cells in a sex-dependent manner
Inhalational exposure to particulate matter (PM) derived from natural or anthropogenic sources alters gene expression in the airways and increases susceptibility to respiratory viral infection. Woodsm...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
About 6 months ago, Marty Makary, Vinay Prasad and Tracy Beth Hoeg falsely claimed that they had data showing that COVID19 vaccines killed 10 children. The public has never seen those data, and we never will, b/c they have all been booted, as they richly deserve for lying to the people of the US.
A fountain of disinformation from doctors who specialize in it.
jhstoo@jhstoo.bsky.social · 3mo agoEven now, four years later, I struggle to choke down the rage I feel at WSJ Opinion's promotion of physicians who knew nothing abt viral disease, but were nonetheless willing to opine on COVID. The contrast with Rupert Murdoch getting one of the first COVID vaccinations in the UK is, uh, clarifying
Awful news about the cruise ship outbreak. Just waiting for the WHO announcement: “FACT: hantavirus is not airborne”.
Doctors say that vaccines protect children from dangerous diseases. A nepo baby who barbecues dogs and snorts cocaine off toilet seats says that vaccines make children vulnerable to 5G radiation. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust.
February 2026 - the BMJ publishes a piece called "Why covid-19 is “a vascular disease masquerading as a respiratory one” Some of us have been screaming this for years www.bmj.com/content/392/...
Why covid-19 is “a vascular disease masquerading as a respiratory one”
Covid-19 is not just a respiratory infection. Cardiovascular symptoms are seen in both acute and long covid. Katharine Lang reports on what we’ve learnt since the onset of the pandemic Cardiovascular...
bmj.com
You don't need to be an Olympic athlete or an astronaut to wear a respirator Your life is precious too ❤️
If you're having trouble with your mood, don't forget to feed your intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. 😉
Well ain’t that something. The politician “experts” saying more people vaccinated would not have helped. Complete and utter BS. Better build many many more hospitals UCP… or is the plan to just keep letting ABs die in the ED WRs?
Hazel B. 🇨🇦@hab3261.bsky.social · 6mo agoAlberta’s flu season is the deadliest in years, yet the UCP is doubling down on anti-expert rhetoric. While doctors state clearly that higher vaccine uptake would save lives, the government is calling that "false" to cover for their failing health policy. Spin kills. #AbLeg #Abpoli #Cdnpoli
Alberta’s flu season is the deadliest in years, yet the UCP is doubling down on anti-expert rhetoric. While doctors state clearly that higher vaccine uptake would save lives, the government is calling that "false" to cover for their failing health policy. Spin kills. #AbLeg #Abpoli #Cdnpoli
Hazel B. 🇨🇦@hab3261.bsky.social · 6mo ago
I keep saying this over and over: You cannot be pro-infection and pro-vax. Those who have been pro-infection (from the early unicorn kids in magical virus blocking schools to the more insidious 'hybrid immunity' and 'immunity debt' narratives) own a LOT of this.
#1 popular shows on Rotten Tomatoes in the past year that rely on the character trope of child or infant death to "flesh out" their adult characters: 1. His and Hers 2. Stick 3. The Beast in Me 4. Untamed 5. The Girlfriend Probably more. Just fucking stop already
Please push back loudly against the chronic absenteeism propaganda. It’s absence. It’s absence due to illness. That is the no 1 reason for kids missing school. A big driver of that is that buses and school buildings are not safe/healthy for kids or workers. Everyone in school deserves healthy air.
Disappointed to see Jon Stewart & co joke about masking in public. I do it for my medically fragile daughter (Batten Disease). People not masking properly led to her getting pneumonia, which led to her being on life support, which led to me getting price quotes on her cremation just in case.
in a very real way, jon stewart's greatest public accomplishment is premised on a willful and reckless disregard for ppe. if firefighters had worn proper respiratory protection on 9/11, all he'd have is a few peabody awards and some money.
@elypaul.bsky.social · 7mo agoDear Jon Stewart c/o @weeklyshowpodcast.bsky.social I recently watched, with great surprise and disappointment, a weeklyshowpodcast segment in which you and other "personalities," gleefully mocked and derided the relatively small subset of individuals who continue to wear a face mask in public.
Liberals in a nutshell. You just have to wait for their slip up moments then you realize they are actually conservatives from 2020, and some of them would be fascists if given a little scratch. As the saying goes.
@elypaul.bsky.social · 7mo agoDear Jon Stewart c/o @weeklyshowpodcast.bsky.social I recently watched, with great surprise and disappointment, a weeklyshowpodcast segment in which you and other "personalities," gleefully mocked and derided the relatively small subset of individuals who continue to wear a face mask in public.
Look at this chart and remember: 1) the COVID immune damage claim is that after a COVID infection, influenza gets worse vs 2) the "immunity debt" claim is that after a bad influenza season, influenza gets better Now look at how 2022-23 compares to previous years, and ask "Which claim was right?"
Bean & Sprout's Mom@beansproutsmom.bsky.social · 7mo agoWhy not both? Bad flu strain and population-level immune dysfunction from mass, repeat COVID infection. #MaskUp and get vaxxed indeed! P.S. We are at 29,099 cases already this year as of Dec 19. P.P.S. Chart also shows spreading flu is a choice 🤬
I spoke to the people who continue to shape their lives around avoiding [cholera/typhoid/dysentery] and only drinking ‘clean’ water
Mattha Busby@matthabusby.bsky.social · 8mo agoI spoke to the people who continue to shape their lives around avoiding Covid and only breathing ‘clean’ air ‘Refusing to mask during an ongoing pandemic is absolutely violent and it’s undeniably participating in social murder.’ For @telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12...
Quite apart from the misinterpreted and poorly presented science that will continue to get some of his readers killed or disabled, I’d like to point out another glaring factual error. People that wear masks did not and do not refuse to enter society. Society refuses to accept mask wearers.
Mattha Busby@matthabusby.bsky.social · 8mo agoI spoke to the people who continue to shape their lives around avoiding Covid and only breathing ‘clean’ air ‘Refusing to mask during an ongoing pandemic is absolutely violent and it’s undeniably participating in social murder.’ For @telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12...
People I know who were equivocal about climate change a decade ago are now very convinced it's a large threat. These same people are equivocal about the threat of long COVID now. History repeats
I used their results to build this table, I think it is a cleaner way to convey that message
25% reduction in all cause mortality over 4 years for those vaccinated against covid, huge study. Wow, this almost suggests covid is implicated in an unbelievable number of deaths. And that vaccinated people should wear respirators if they want to remain abled. www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/mrn...
mRNA COVID vaccines tied to drop in death rate for 4 years
cidrap.umn.edu
3 children die from influenza A complications in Ontario 💔 Still no airborne virus mitigations in schools, hospitals, healthcare, LTC Even in this article, handwashing is the first bullet listed on how to prevent getting the flu 😡 www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...
3 children die from influenza A-related complications in Ottawa and eastern Ontario region
Three children have died from flu-related complications in the Ottawa area, as officials report a “rapid and significant rise” in Influenza A in the region.
ctvnews.ca
If only there were something we could do to prevent the problems we've chosen not to prevent
