Most people don't understand that COVID had been kind of drills on how much it is possible to cut fuel and energy consumption in private sector and office space.

Poland’s biggest chemicals company, Grupa Azoty SA, has stopped making some of its key products such as nitrogen fertilizers and caprolactam, and trimmed output of ammonia because of record gas prices.

“The current situation on natural gas market that determines profitability of the production is exceptional, fully independent of the company and was not possible to predict earlier,” Grupa Azoty said in a statement Tuesday. It didn’t say how long the measures would last.

The state-controlled company had until now tried to avoid curtailing fertilizer production, even as European gas prices rose more than four fold this year due to reduced supplies from Russia, which triggered an energy crisis. Yara International ASA, Azoty’s larger peer, curbed production last month.

Grupa Azoty describes itself as the second-biggest producer of mineral fertilizers in the European Union. The company is among the largest buyers of natural gas in Poland, consuming more than 20 gigawatt hours of the fuel every year.

For Russia, the conclusions, unfortunately, are not comforting.

• In terms of the increase in overall mortality, Russia is in 221st place in the world out of 236. Close to Belize and Paraguay.
• In terms of life expectancy, Russia is second in the world from the end. In 2020, it decreased by 4.5 years to 69.4 years. Worse than Oman.
• The population decline amounted to 740 thousand people in 2020 - the first place in the world.
• In terms of the total birth rate, Russia is in 20th place. Afghanistan, Vietnam, Kenya and others are ahead.
• But there are a lot of migrants: 320 thousand people. This is the first place in Europe and the second in the world after the USA.
• The birth rate per woman is 1.49 children - 193 in the world and 30 out of 48 in Europe. In 2015, Russia ranked 9th in Europe.
• 6.3% of citizens do not live up to 40 years. Mortality under 40 is 158 in the world and the last in Europe.
• 25% of citizens die before the age of 60. Mortality under 60 is 179th in the world and the last in Europe.
• In terms of mortality among men, Russia is in last place in the world. Ahead of Burundi, Djibouti, Angola, Mali, Gabon.
• According to the general mortality rate, Russia is in 6th place in the world from the end - 17 per 1000 population. That is, 1.7% of the population died in a year. Only five countries are worse.

Plans to reduce the use of fertilizers by Canadian farmers in the name of combating climate change have sparked widespread outrage in the country among farmers and provincial governments. Farmers actively urge the population to support them and take to the streets. “Farms or famine. Take the side of the farmers,” called the farmers today at a demonstration in Toronto.

A meeting of federal and provincial ministers ended in Saskatoon on Friday, at which several provinces said they were disappointed with the government's actions.

The federal government is seeking to mandate the reduction of nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizers, saying it is a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. While the Trudeau government says they want a 30% reduction in emissions, not fertilizer, farm officials say that for now, reducing nitrous oxide emissions cannot be done without reducing fertilizer use.

"The provinces have been frustrated by the lack of flexibility and consultation around the federal target," Minister Lisa Thompson of Ontario said after the meeting.

Several provincial governments and organizations representing farmers have been asked to measure the reduction in fertilizer emissions using intensity metrics - how much food is produced versus how much fertilizer is used. Trudeau's government is demanding absolute cuts in emissions, which farmers say will lead to less food at a time when the world can't afford it.

“The world needs Canada to increase production and become the solution to global food shortages. The federal government needs to show that they understand this,” Alberta Minister Nate Horner expressed his opinion.

"We're really concerned about this inexplicable goal," Saskatchewan-based Minister David Marit confirmed.

Federal Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau called the government's goal ambitious, but says farmers will accept it.

“I meet with many farmers. I know how much they care about the environment and how much they are investing in new methods and new technologies in order to reduce their emissions as much as possible,” Bibo said. "The idea is to produce the most environmentally friendly food in the world."

Farming groups such as Western Canadian wheat growers have said the federal plan will cut crops, cut farm family incomes and raise food prices at Canadian grocery stores.

While Ministers Thompson, Horner, and Marit were successful and professional farmers and ranchers before entering politics, Bibeau was an international development bureaucrat and ran a small tourism-related business.

Similar plans to reduce the use of fertilizers have led to massive protests in Europe, in particular the Netherlands. The country was engulfed in riots, farmers and ordinary residents took to the streets of cities, blocked roads. The Dutch government intends to reduce the number of farms by almost half, and given that this is one of the main types of labor activity in the country, the dissatisfaction of the population is understandable.

The U.S. government is planning to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, and shift the bill onto the health care industry and eventually the consumer—possibly making it one of the first countries to end the practice of giving out coronavirus vaccines for free.

The Department of Health and Human Services will hold a planning session on Aug. 30, the Wall Street Journal reported, to bring together representatives from the health care industry as well as state health departments, to discuss the commercialization of COVID-19 treatments.

The move comes a few days after White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha confirmed on Tuesday that the Biden Administration had taken steps to get past the crisis phase of the pandemic and stop buying vaccines, treatments, and tests as early as fall.

“One of the things we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about in the last many months…is getting us out of that acute emergency phase where the U.S. government is buying the vaccines, buying the treatments, buying the diagnostic tests,” Jha said at an event sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

“My hope is that in 2023, you’re going to see the commercialization of almost all of these products. Some of that is actually going to begin this fall, in the days and weeks ahead,” Jha said.

https://fortune.com/2022/08/19/free-covid-19-vaccines-may-be-coming-to-an-end-for-americans/