The Bill Kelly Podcast with Guest Host Rick Zamperin:

According to newly released data by the Ontario government‘s science table, the coronavirus pandemic will “likely [recede] in the summer” but variant spread, maintaining public health measures and focused vaccinations will be critical.

GUEST: Chris Bauch, Research Chair in the Department of Applied Mathematics and a Specialist in Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Infectious Disease Outbreaks with the University of Waterloo

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A pilot program is rolling out over the next three days, with the hope that it can be used as a model for getting vaccines to those who need them most, when more become available.The program, green-lit by Toronto Public Health and the province, is run by three Ontario Health Teams: East Toronto Health Partners (ETHP), Mid-West Toronto OHT and North York Toronto Health Partners. The teams are made up of health-care workers, including from hospitals like Michael Garron, and the University Health Network, and community organizations such as WoodGreen Community Services, which runs the Jack Layton building.

GUEST: Dr. Rebecca Stoller, Family Physician with the North York Family Health Team and Assistant Professor, Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto

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This study by Statistics Canada researchers René Morissette and Theresa Hanqing Qiu documents the use of four adjustment strategies by Canadian workers permanently laid off in 2009 — in the middle of the last recession: moving to another region, enrolling in post-secondary education, signing up for a registered apprenticeship and becoming self-employed. The authors examine whether the adoption of strategies varied according to workers’ characteristics and their employment status a year after job loss, and to what extent it differed in the short and long terms.

GUEST: René Morissette, Researcher for the Institute for Research on Public Policy

Before Russian internet trolls tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, they were already using social media in an attempt to sway voters in Canada.

That's according to a new study from Simon Fraser University, which details the ways both Russian and Iranian trolls spread disinformation on Twitter in the lead-up to the 2015 Canadian election won by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Study author Ahmed Al-Rawi said the separate campaigns were designed to disparage candidates on different sides of the political spectrum, and, more generally, to sow division among the Canadian electorate.

GUEST: Ahmed Al-Rawi, Assistant Professor with the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, Author of the study

Canada lags the developed world in COVID-19 vaccinations because it provided insufficient upfront funding to the smaller domestic companies that had potential inoculations in their pipeline, vaccine developers told a federal Parliamentary committee on Monday.

Had the federal government taken the approach of the United States and the United Kingdom, which provided hundreds of millions of dollars to companies with potential candidates early in the pandemic, the country would be on the cusp of making homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, 

GUEST: Justin Ling, Freelance Journalist for the Globe and Mail

U-S President Joe Biden has lifted a Trump-era ban that kept many legal immigrants out of America

ALSO: Investigation on Capitol Hill, Democrats' struggles to stay united & more.

GUEST: Elliot Tepper, Emeritus Professor of Political science, Carleton University

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Ontario’s online portal where people from the general population can book their COVID-19 vaccine appointment will be launched on March 15, and will start by allowing people 80 and over to register first.

ALSO: Health Canada's chief medical adviser said today the department is poised to make a decision on whether to authorize a promising COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca in the coming days.

GUEST: Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, Division Head of Infectious Diseases with Trillium Health Partners Mississauga Hospital

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A C.D. Howe Institute paper compares the annual budgetary projections for spending and the bottom line in the 31 municipalities over a decade and compares them to the results reported in those municipalities’ year-end financial statements. It finds cities’ were in robust health in the run-up to 2020. The 31 largest by population tallied an aggregate surplus of over $10 billion in 2019, with Hamilton’s surplus for that year sitting at $268m.

GUEST: Bill Robson, CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute and author of the paper

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Tracking down John Bell: how the case of the Oxford professor exposes a transparency crisis in the government:

As testing and the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine are hailed as UK pandemic successes, why won’t Oxford University or the government disclose the “long list” of financial interests of a high profile researcher at the centre of both? Paul D Thacker investigates.

GUEST: Paul D. Thacker, Freelance Journalist for the British Medical Journal and a Former Investigator for the U.S. Senate and Safra Ethics Center, at Harvard