The future is sand, my friends

I had no idea. Been so consumed by the impending WWIII and the global famine that’s just around the corner, not to mention that lingering pandemic, the climate emergency, or, God forbid, a Trump comeback, it was inconceivable that we could be made even more depressed. But I was watching Al Jazeera for a spell, and by golly, apparently we are on the brink of a global sand shortage. Don’t laugh. Apparently sand is the most-utilized commodity on earth after water. You can’t build a road or an apartment block without it. Anywhere. Now that I think of it, I remember being on holiday in Myrtle Beach, thirty years ago, and reading something in the local paper about sand being barged in from Florida or somewhere. So I guess the problem has metastasised. Seems to me this isn’t so much a matter of an absolute sand shortage, but rather, there’s lots of sand, but no easy way to get it where it’s needed. I’m guessing Goldman Sachs has field teams staking out the vast expanses of desert in Saharan Africa and the Gobi desert. Sand merchants will corner the market and become the new billionaire class. The future is sand, my friends.

The "fourth wave" hustle

Not that you'll read about it in The Globe and Mail or on CBC, but there's been a stunning collapse in covid mortality over the course of the pandemic.

1st wave case counts peaked at 1,700 per day in late April 2020 (all stats based on 7-day moving avg.) Deaths peaked about a week later at 176.  10.4 deaths per 100 cases.

2nd wave cases peaked in January 2021 at 8,000 per day. Deaths peaked about a week later at 160. 2 deaths per 100 cases.

3rd wave case numbers crested at 8,800 last April. The daily death count peaked about a week later at 50. .6 deaths per 100 cases.

4th wave cases numbers have been climbing since the third week of July, from under 400 per day to the current 3,400, an 800% increase. Daily deaths are currently at 15, a statistically insignificant increase of 5 deaths per day since the case numbers began to climb. Currently we stand at  .4 deaths per 100 cases.

These are numbers, not conspiracy theories. Given the inconsistency in testing, I suspect the 1st wave mortality to cases ratio was inflated due to relatively less testing than during subsequent waves, and also because by waves 2 and 3 the most vulnerable were already gone. The drop in mortality from the second to the third suggests vaccines have had a positive impact. 

I humbly submit that the current hysteria over vaccinating children and ostracising the vaccine-hesitant is based on something other than the dangers posed by the actual pandemic. 

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I used the graphs at Worldometers because they are clear, simple, and it's easy to toggle between cases and deaths. They use the same gov't stats as the World Health Organization (WHO).