Covid Crime Cavalcade: 'Whacha gonna do when they come for you?'

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly is back to inform you through 2021. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. From Chronicle Companies, organizers of the National Pharmaceutical Congress Winter Webinar Feb. 10, 2021. More info at pharmacongress.info 

⇒ Issue #162 (In numerology, 162 stands for compassion, tolerance, and independence.)
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 02/11: 765,865*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 02/11: 21,007*
⇒ Number of Canadians vaccinated as of 02/11: 1,153,989*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 02/11: 107,422,538*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 02/11: 2,357,047*

February 11, 2021—Good morning, CurveFlatteners. Say, did you ever stop to consider the paradox of how one planet's once-in-a-century lethal pandemic can also provide a golden opportunity for fraudsters, petty scammers, bunko artists, and goniffs of every description? Of course, you didn't. That is because your mom taught you well -- besides which, you happen to work in the most ethically compliant economic sector of them all (clergy notwithstanding), and that is the pharma industry. Indeed. It's Mitch Shannon here at the keyboard today, with your Thursday Covid briefing, subtitled "Dragnet: The Covid Edition."

Global News describes a con currently making the rounds in Toronto, whereby two confederates using a fake taxi are swindling good samaritans by asking them to use their bank cards to help out a cab-driver and passenger caught in a cash kerfuffle. "Why, certainly, I'm happy to help," says the apple-cheeked mark, who is promptly repaid for his kindness by having his debit-card switched and his account drained. The patsy then gets to explain to Sgt. Joe Friday: "I can't believe I fell for it, officer."

However, that would constitute a mere penny-ante grift when compared to the allegedly far grander vision of Sanjay Madan. Mr. Madan, formerly a computer specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Education, is accused of dipping into the province's Support for Families Covid relief fund. According to the Toronto Star, the plan was intended to provide $200 to $250 to parents, and it's alleged that Mr. Madan helped himself to a larger piece of the pie: $11 million worth. The missing money has reportedly been recovered, and the techie was relieved of his employment, which paid a paltry $176,608 a year. Cut to Sgt. Friday shaking his head.

Meanwhile, for those who believe that the purpose behind having rules is so that blockheads can flout them, last Sunday's Super Bowl provided a jamboree of bad behaviour in Whistler, B.C., according to CTV News. In the run-up to the big game, inspectors from two regional health agencies decided to drop into 62 drinking establishments in the mountain resort -- nice work if you can get it -- and proceeded to issue 35 violation orders. Cue the closing Dragnet theme, maestro.

The NPC Podcast is back for another season. The National Pharmaceutical Congress organizers are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Peter's guest this week is Jim Shea, General Manager of the CCPE. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma

COVID CHRONICLE 02/11/2021

• A new study published online yesterday (02/10) in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reports death risk from Covid-19 was 3.5 times higher than from influenza. The study compared hospitalizations for influenza between Nov. 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, in seven large hospitals in Toronto and Mississauga, Ont. Says lead author Dr. Amol Verma, of the University of Toronto: "We can now say definitively that Covid-19 is much more severe than seasonal influenza. Patients admitted to hospital in Ontario with Covid-19 had [...] 1.5 times greater use of the ICU, and 1.5 times longer hospital stays than patients admitted with influenza."

• New research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York finds the second wave of Covid is re-opening economic inequities between demographic groups in the USA. Black, Hispanic, female and young workers had begun to close the economic gap with mid-career and older white workers. According to the fed, that trend came to a halt in late 2020 with the surge in new Covid cases. Read the report here.
• Paraphrasing funnyman Jeff Foxworthy, if yer obese, elderly, and a mouth-breather... well, y'all might be a Covid super-spreader. Researchers at four U.S. institutions have learned that obesity, age and Covid-19 infection correlate with a propensity to breathe out more respiratory droplets, which are key spreaders of the virus that causes Covid-19. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

TODAY CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON

This has never happened previously, but the panellists at yesterday's National Pharmaceutical Congress Winter Webinar were so engaged during the one-hour discussion that they have demanded to be reunited for a sequel episode. Our best scriptwriters are working on a few premises now to see how they test with audiences. I like the concept where our moderator has been exiled to a distant land-mass but overcomes his captors and returns to wreak havoc, leaving it up to our three plucky panellists to save civilization. Yes, the plot has been used several times before, but never with this much aplomb and enthusiasm.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING

It took me a full 14 years to stumble on the works of Tana French, the American-Irish crime novelist behind an acclaimed series of police procedurals set in and around Dublin. It's easy to see how her novels have found an international following. I started with her more recent stuff and have worked backward to the 2007 award-winner, "In the Woods." The author creates ideal intriguing plots, dialogue, and characters, overlays some psychological insights, and inevitable Hibernian blarney. The result is an unusual cocktail featuring a stiff pour of William Falkner and Ian Rankin, with the slightest infusion of Flann O'Brien and a Ken Bruen-like garnish. That's exactly the right blend for mid-winter pandemic perusal. 

COME BACK TOMORROW

The CurveFlattener Friday edition will be reported and painstakingly assembled by Chronicle's Kylie Rebernik. It will be just the thing to get you ready for the Family Day long weekend. Stay safe, everyone.