33 canadian elections, booster shots

we’re excited this week to welcome our first TWR contributor, Aziz! we’ll spare you the details - yes, he’s a nice guy, yes, and he’s single - but because of what must be some major childhood trauma, he’s really into canadian politics. so, despite basically no one in the US even thinking about canada this week, he’s bringing us the lowdown on what happened on monday in the great white north.

big idea: canada exists, and had elections

1. Justin Trudeau, canada’s prime minister and latest heartthrob named Justin, called for early elections last month, betting he could increase his party’s share of seats in parliament. canadians voted Monday, and decisively said…”eh?”, delivering an almost identical minority parliament to that before the election.
2. kabul fell to the taliban just hours before calling for elections last month (not a great look) and amid growing concerns over a fourth wave of COVID, Trudeau was and is in the middle of a self-inflicted political nightmare. despite holding onto power for at least the next year or two, his brand was seriously damaged for this miscalculation. how long does Trudeau want to remain at the helm of his Liberal party and will we start to see some leadership rumblings within his caucus?
3. now we know what you’re thinking - what aboot the losers? Conservative party leader Erin O’Toole pushed his party to the center, but still lost. the knives are being sharpened from within his caucus, with many socially conservative members furious with the sudden shift. the progressive party, the NDP, and the uppity french party, the Bloc Quebecois, will likely help Trudeau with key votes, so their leaders are generally assumed to be safe despite technically losing two elections in a row. but really - no one outside quebec really cares about the Bloc Quebecois anyways.
4. our contributor Aziz is just getting started here, so if you want to learn more about canadian politics or how Trudeau’s fortunes turned so quickly - check out his piece on this week’s hottakes

story to watch: booster seats shots are here

1. the CDC and FDA approved third booster shots for the Pfizer vaccine this week. the agencies disappointed Joe by making them available only to those older than 65, nursing home residents, and younger people who work in high risk environments (like health care employees, teachers, and other frontline workers). Joe had hoped the booster shots would be available to pretty much everyone, but there wasn’t enough scientific evidence to back that up.
2. people should get the shots six months after their last vaccine dose, which will be the next couple of months for most eligible patients. Walgreens and CVS are already preparing to ramp up their vaccine availability, with plans to offer the flu vaccine at the same time. of note, the CDC is not making the third shot required for anyone - people who just receive two shots will be considered fully vaccinated.
3. pundits across the political spectrum are applauding the CDC’s move amid continued strains on the healthcare system. ICUs and hospitals across the south are still overwhelmed, and some companies are resorting to hiring nurses from the philippines to fill staffing shortages.

this week’s image: <3 merkel

• (The Guardian) Angela Merkel, our celebrity crush, is preparing to step down after nearly 16 years as germany’s chancellor. we’ll spend next issue celebrating her reign, but for now - enjoy this compilation of her famous pantsuits and...unique hand gesture.

this week’s number: $9.2 billion in suspicious Medicare payments in 2017

1. an investigation by DHS, the governmental agency which oversees Medicare, found that the program made $9.2 billion in suspicious payments to insurers in 2017, the latest year which we have data for. UnitedHealth was called out for receiving about 40% of that sum, a staggering percentage considering they only insure about 20% of the private Medicare market.
2. the payments are suspicious, or at the very least controversial, because insurers use algorithms to read patient charts and identify additional diagnoses which hadn’t already been billed for. an algorithm essentially decides that a patient is depressed (or is malnourished, or bipolar, for example) and adds that diagnosis to the patient chart so the insurer can bill Medicare for its treatment.
3. federal prosecutors have become more aggressive in recent years in recouping taxpayer money for fraudulent insurer claims. the report recommends that Medicare look at UnitedHealth’s billing practices in depth, as it has recently with Kaiser Permanente, Anthem, and Humana.

and, in case you missed it:

• Costco is reimposing purchase limits on products in high demand, like toilet paper, due to continuing supply chain issues
• Microsoft unveiled its new lineup of Surface laptops and tablets
• federally-subsidized flood insurance is getting a makeover due to climate change, with premiums rising for beachfront property
• Facebook is giving up its veneer of impartiality and pushing pro-Facebook and pro-Zuckerberg content in people’s newsfeeds
• a widely used AI platform has been found to be islamophobic. great, now even the computers are scared of us... 

the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal, and Ahmed. learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!