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HTML
563 lines
61 KiB
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>02 January, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sunday Reading: Resolutions for the New Year</strong> - From the magazine’s archive: hopes for good health in the days ahead. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/sunday-reading-resolutions-for-the-new-year">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Year in Labor Strife</strong> - COVID-19 appears to have lit a match beneath at least a decade’s worth of late-stage-capitalist tinder. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/2021-in-review/the-year-in-labor-strife">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Solo Performances of Hasaan Ibn Ali Expand the History of Jazz</strong> - The pianist’s “Retrospect In Retirement Of Delay” is a historic outpouring of musical imagination. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/the-solo-performances-of-hasaan-ibn-ali-expand-the-history-of-%20jazz">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ringing in the New Year (on Zoom)</strong> - Should auld acquaintance be—wait, I think you’re muted. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/blitts-kvetchbook/ringing-in-the-new-year-on-zoom">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Do You Get Dental Care When You Can’t Afford It?</strong> - At an annual dental fair in Philadelphia, Americans wait in line and hope to get through the door. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/how-do-you-get-dental-care-when-you-cant-afford-it">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>In praise of the humble tote bag</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A person’s hand holding a blank fabric tote bag." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/PyiQ9jAhns__gSWH-GtNcQL-XZM=/119x0:2004x1414/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70338245/GettyImages_1211723299.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Getty Images/EyeEm
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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They say so much about who we are and who we want to be.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XpMTNc">
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Saúl Guzman bought a tote bag in 2010 that has not left his side since. Walking around one day through a small London street fair, he spotted a tote with denim blue fabric, sturdy straps, and a simple illustration of the Daunt Books bookstore.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LBDHJ2">
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Though he loved the bag, Guzman — who was a student at the time — thought that at around 10£, it was a bit pricey. But he decided to buy it anyway after noticing “a really cool label” that said the tote was made by a not-for-profit organization that helps people in India earn a living while supporting the environment. For him, that tag made the tote bag transform, becoming not just a way to carry things but a way to express his personal style while helping other communities.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v9F2Cn">
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“The tote bag was almost like an investment,” said Guzman, saying that he loved how it was cool, but also “that it was supporting a local bookshop, and that it was made with so much care and was helping people.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l8xDWa">
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For many of us, totes are more than just receptacles for running errands, and have instead become an essential part of our daily lives, bringing us a sense of comfort and connection everywhere from the grocery store to our TikTok feeds. Even the ever-fashion-conscious Carrie Bradshaw will be exchanging her <a href="https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/carrie-bradshaw-wnyc-tote-bags-satc">Fendi baguette for an NPR tote bag </a>in <em>And Just Like That</em>, the <em>Sex and the City</em> reboot.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KBWJjH">
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The tote bag didn’t become an omnipresent accessory overnight. Over recent decades, however, it has become a go-to bag for so many people, largely because of the easy, functional way it allows for self-expression.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NBBSEh">
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The canvas of a tote bag is, well, a blank canvas. Yours can say a lot about you: what publications you read, where you align politically, what you believe in, what you dream of, or who you love. All of that can live on a single piece of cloth, neutral or brash, simple or complicated. The customizable, mutable nature of this accessory has helped the obsession transcend generations.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JMHbAq">
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There are drawbacks, of course, to a tote’s simplicity, which is its lack of nuance, in that it becomes easy to talk the talk without walking the walk. Someone might carry a tote bag that declares them to be a “feminist,” for example, but not actually care for the issues women face in their communities. A tote bag with a slogan will not bring us liberation. But for some of us whose identities are inherently political, the tote can serve as an expression of our stances and identities.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sZJ88h">
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Even when they’re falling off our shoulders every five seconds when wearing our coats in the winter, we still love them. They give each of us the power to say who we are, and to do so in a practical, affordable way. Is it any wonder we’re obsessed?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5pNCzb">
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“The tote bag fits a larger trend of the democratization of fashion,” said professor Dicky Yangzom, a cultural and economic sociologist at New York University. “Originally, these textiles [like canvas] were meant for labor. Similarly to utility wear in fashion with the rise of the jumpsuit, this wasn’t designed for mass fashion. It was more geared toward people who do more manual work, right? So all of these categories are shifting.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JyfFov">
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Now, tote bags are everywhere: as marketing tools, as merch for artists, and for designers to have a more accessible accessory to sell. A $6 Forever 21 “avocado” tote, a $15 hand-painted bag from an Etsy seller, the free Vogue or New Yorker canvas carry-all that comes with a subscription to the magazine, and a $3,250 Dior tote bag all fall under the same (fairly lucrative) category: According to market research by Technavio, the tote bag market is worth $334.5 million.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a6oBn4">
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“Luxury brands have taken up the idea of the tote itself, which is how capitalism works,” Yangzom said. From Dior to Marc Jacobs, high-fashion brands have designed their own version of totes, complete with their branding and elevated price range. “A tote bag is one of those things that has so successfully — as this mundane, humble object — broken through,” she explained. “Tote bags are here to stay.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0dozL3">
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Part of the reason for the tote bag’s longevity is how the item makes us feel. “It’s like ‘oh, I’m an intellectual!’” Nicki Camberg, a junior at Barnard College, said, referring to the traditional New Yorker tote bag and others used as marketing for literary and journalistic publications.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="prcYan">
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Camberg calls her own totes her <a href="https://twitter.com/nickicamberg/status/1412802627738517509?s=20">“emotional support tote bags.</a>” A tote bag’s utility can be sentimental, as it brings you the comfort of feeling prepared, but it can also be very literal since it can hold everything you could possibly need. “I just need a way to have every possession I have on me accessible at all times,” she explained, whether she’s running errands or just walking around. “What if I need 20 hairbands and a pack of gum?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AjEsCY">
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When she was a freshman in college, Camberg found herself drawn to tote bags for their practicality as well as for how they made others see her.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="10N8h7">
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“I was like, ‘Well, my back hurts,’” after using a backpack for a while, she explained. “And everyone’s really judgmental of backpacks, but no one judges a tote bag. Plus I felt like I looked less like a child.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jQW2U7">
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For Julles Hernandez, a fashion writer and stylist from Puerto Rico also known as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theboldbudget/">“The Bold Budget,”</a> the tote bags she owns are statement pieces that complement her outfits and hold dear memories. “I have $1 and designer totes, probably over 25 in total. They’re my favorite thing in the world,” Hernandez said. (She even has an Off-White tote named after her best friend.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bWBWQt">
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The tote bag has symbolic depths. Yangzom explained that the vital aspect of the tote bag carries a lot of value because of humans’ history of rituals. In the pre-modern age, she said, people had very strong beliefs about religion and what symbols were aligned with their respective religious practices. These institutions haven’t entirely collapsed, of course, but the relationship many have with them, and certainly our collective values, has changed and evolved. However, the human need to hold some object dearly is innate.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cjy5qt">
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“What doesn’t change is our need to believe in something and to have our beliefs solidified by an object or a symbol. So before, maybe you worshiped statues or a photograph or something, right, but how is that any different from the tote bag?” she explained. The ritual of packing our lives into these bags, taking them with us daily, feeling their weight on our shoulders, having their messages visible to all perhaps has become essential to our every day and to our identities.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jajrGa">
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As a proud owner of too many tote bags, I have stories and memories for each of them. They represent parts of me and have brought comfort to my college and post-college life, weaving in my experiences through the years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VXEBaZ">
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My favorite tote bag looks simple, but the words written on it represent everything I dream of for my country of Puerto Rico: República del Caribe: Libre, Mágica, Independiente, which translates to “Republic of the Caribbean: Free, Magical, Independent” in large red letters, designed by an art collective called Macondo Herald. One day at my godfather’s apartment, I showed up with the tote bag and his wife said to me, “You’re always with that tote bag!” I smiled. It has become an extension of me, a reflection of my identity.
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</p></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YB8lPI">
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The truth is this piece of fabric, a simple sack with two straps, can always hug you as you walk around or as you explore a new place, with all its memories, with the strength to carry anything you put inside it, and the ability to share a little bit of yourself with the world anywhere you go.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M8YZQ9">
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<em>Nicole Collazo Santana is a New York City-based journalist and a part of the first cohort of the Vox Media Writers Workshop. Her work has appeared in Refinery29, NPR, 9 Millones, and more. </em>
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Where have all the truck drivers gone?</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/FfLtZ9_jeQudSfjl_bl79D6ik2Y=/0x0:3556x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70338099/GettyImages_1236185975.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Students drive semi trucks while practicing for their commercial driver’s license test at Truck America Training in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, in October. | Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Pandemic supply chain disruptions are exacerbating a yearslong trucker shortage.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DjAMqL">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fj3ES2">
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The thing Mickey Weaver hears most from prospective truck drivers is that they want to be home every night. The second thing they want is money, but, he says, it’s funny — a lot of people are willing to sacrifice the money to be home daily. But that’s also a big ask. “I can get you money, any way you want it,” Weaver said. “If money’s all you care about and you don’t care where you’re driving or when you’re going out, I got 40 ways from Sunday to hook you up on that.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K5GyCm">
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Weaver, who’s based in Arkansas, runs We Hire Truckers and Truck Jobs 4 U, which, if you couldn’t guess from the names, recruit truck drivers to open positions. He started this work a little before the pandemic; in March 2020, hiring slowed down a bit, but last fall it began to skyrocket again. Now, there is no shortage of open jobs. “I’ve got more jobs than I’ve got drivers,” he said.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hOZrs8">
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The United States is experiencing a shortage of more than 80,000 truck drivers, <a href="https://www.trucking.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/ATA%20Driver%20Shortage%20Report%202021%20Executive%20Summary.FINAL_.pdf">according to an estimate from the American Trucking Associations</a>. The ATA also estimates that about 72 percent of America’s freight transport moves by trucks, which shows just how dependent consumers are on the drivers <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22770592/2021-thanksgiving-turkey-shortage-prices">who deliver turkeys to stores</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/22700343/uk-fuel-crisis-brexit-covid-19-european-union">gas to pumps</a> or the Christmas presents to you order to your doorsteps.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGJATf">
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This is not just an American problem. Trucks haul comparable amounts of freight in places like the <a href="https://www.acea.auto/fact/fact-sheet-trucks/">European Union</a> and <a href="https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/news_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/news+and+events/news/impact-
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stories/truckers-in-china-meet-their-freight-match">China</a>, and countries and regions around the world are experiencing driver shortages. The <a href="https://www.iru.org/news-resources/newsroom/new-iru-survey-shows-driver-
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shortages-soar-2021">International Road Transport Union</a> documented shortages in a survey of 800 transport companies in more than 20 countries; according to the survey, about 20 percent of positions went unfilled in Eurasia last year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kRgU3T">
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This is also not a new problem. Analysts and industry groups have <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2012/07/24/news/economy/trucking-jobs/index.htm">warned</a> of <a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-driver-shortage-spreads-to-southern-europe">truck driver shortages</a> for years, around the globe. But <a href="https://www.vox.com/22757240/global-supply-chain-management-shortage-
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covid">supply chain disruptions</a> during the pandemic and surges in demand in places like the US have made this slow- rolling crisis much more acute.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QABKWx">
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The pandemic “opened up Pandora’s box on so many issues,” said Jean- Paul Rodrigue, an expert in transportation, logistics, and freight distribution at Hofstra University.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0xPzLB">
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“Because of this intense pressure, the capacity has been stretched thin and then you start having delays and you have a slowdown,” he added. “All of this creates a domino effect, which makes the shortage of drivers even more salient than before.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pX2gI7">
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Why everyone seems to need more truck drivers is a bit more complicated, and it varies from country to country, where regulations and pay and labor conditions and infrastructure all influence the job. The shortage<strong> </strong>also reflects broader economic trends as, particularly in the United States, <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/11/12/there-are-more-jobs-than-jobless-
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people-in-42-states">labor demand is outstripping supply</a>.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iQrBnVgPeYrZDm3RzXkLjPxTBjM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23115928/GettyImages_1236185990.jpg"/> <cite>Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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A Summit Trucking poster asking for truck driver referrals hangs inside a school for students who are earning their commercial driver’s license at Truck America Training in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, in October.
|
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|
</figcaption>
|
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|
|
</figure>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jKT6vh">
|
|||
|
|
There are always people who want to go out on the road, Weaver said. But they are pickier these days, because they can be. “There are so many jobs out there that [potential drivers] pretty much call you and say, ‘I want ABCDEFG, and if you can’t hit all of those, then I don’t want that one,’” Weaver said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sj8L4p">
|
|||
|
|
All of this comes together so that, around the world, fewer and fewer people want to be truck drivers, or stay at it long enough to replace <a href="https://www.atbs.com/post/where-did-all-the-truck-drivers-go">an aging workforce</a>. Long-haul driving, in particular, can be grueling, with lengthy wait times that aren’t compensated and other costs to being out on a route for stretches at a time. “Why do people not want to become truck drivers? That’s the situation, or the root of the issue. And the reason for that is it’s a shitty job,” said Hanno Friedrich, associate professor of freight transportation at Kühne Logistics University.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="94NP33">
|
|||
|
|
Dynamics are different around the world, but the difficulty of being a truck driver (especially in the Covid era) is universal
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TRaH4k">
|
|||
|
|
The first thing to know about the truck driver shortage, experts said, is that it’s not exactly a shortage. “It’s a recruitment and retention problem,” said Michael Belzer, a trucking industry expert at Wayne State University.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VKXk3Q">
|
|||
|
|
In the US, “there are in fact millions of truck drivers — people who have commercial driver’s licenses — who are not driving trucks and are not using those commercial driving licenses, more than we would even need,” <strong> </strong>Belzer said. “That’s because people have gotten recruited into this job, maybe paid to get trained in this job, and realize, ‘This is not for me. This is not adequate for what I’m doing.’”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RwFn7x">
|
|||
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|
When it comes to recruitment, it’s hard to get people into the business, especially young people. There’s often a gap between when people leave school (say, age 18) and when they can legally drive a truck across state lines<strong> </strong>(typically age 21), which means those folks may have already found jobs and aren’t going to be wooed away to become truckers.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PYILRq">
|
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|
There are other barriers to entry, like schooling (the costs of which can vary) and the ability to obtain a special class of driver’s license. Around the world, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58487347">training and testing for truck drivers stalled because of Covid-19 lockdowns</a>. The industry also struggles to attract women into the workforce because of safety concerns and inadequate accommodations along routes and at rest stops.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zg1Opf">
|
|||
|
|
But truck driving also<em> </em>isn’t<em> </em>the job it used to be. In the United States, for example, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/truck-driver-pay-motor-carrier-act-retail-2020-7">deregulation of the industry</a>, which accelerated in the 1980s, alongside the decline of unions, means trucker wages have been shrinking for years. But the work itself hasn’t really changed. It involves long hours, and a lot of that can be time spent uncompensated. “You could spend all day or a day and a night waiting around to get a load at a port site offloaded and loaded up, and you’re not getting paid for any of that time,” said Matthew Hockenberry, a professor at Fordham University who studies the media of global production.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="THE6Zx">
|
|||
|
|
This feeds not just into the recruitment problem, but also the retention problem. Truck drivers are burned out. Long-haul drivers, especially — that is, those who are moving cargo long distances or across states — typically get paid for the trips they take, and they have to go where the cargo needs to go, with little control over when and where. “The route is the route,” as Weaver put it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/irNGV95Gm6JrBKqcZ5lGTmOxs7Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23115997/GettyImages_1320211216.jpg"/> <cite>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A truck drives along Highway 5 in Los Banos, California, in May.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption></figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
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|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NEBkJc">
|
|||
|
|
Anything that comes up along the way — a flat tire, an accident, a traffic jam — could derail that process, and it’s usually up to the truck driver to figure it out. In places like the US, this also adds pressure for owner-operators (truckers who also own their vehicles) or who undertake lease-purchase agreements (paying toward eventually owning a truck). Those hiccups could limit the number of trips drivers make, and with it, their ability to pay off their truck, let alone make a living wage.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SKIrSO">
|
|||
|
|
The pandemic also accelerated some of these trends. The average truck driver previously waited about 2.5 hours at warehouses, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/longest-detention-times-truckers-by-city-2019-2">according to a 2018 figure</a>, but closures during Covid-19 and supply chain bottlenecks have made that even more unpredictable.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CkRcDm">
|
|||
|
|
Around the world, the trucking workforce is aging. In the US, <a href="https://www.trucking.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/ATAs%20Driver%20Shortage%20Report%202019%20with%20cover.pdf">the average age of a truck driver is 46</a>, according to a 2019 report from the American Trucking Associations. Across Europe, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-looming-truck-driver-shortage-trucker-haulier-brexit-hgv/">it’s 44</a>. In the United Kingdom, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/fuel-crisis-brexit-covid-hgv-driver-shortage-
|
|||
|
|
ageing-workforce-1224133">the average age of heavy-goods vehicle drivers is 53</a>. Some of these folks are <a href="https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/business/2021/05/16/ruckers-needed-driver-shortage-aggravated-by-
|
|||
|
|
pandemic/116453634/">nearing retirement</a>, and the risk of getting sick and the uncertainty and early slowdowns of the pandemic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/us/politics/trucker-shortage-supply-chain.html">helped accelerate truck drivers’ departures from the industry</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="27kxYX">
|
|||
|
|
“Think back [to] the beginning of Covid, when everything was shut down. An over-the-road truck driver couldn’t even find a place to take a bath, eat a meal, or a lot of other things, because those places were shut down,” Martin Garsee, executive director of the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, said. “So if you are on the bubble of trying to think about how am I going to retire, at that point, what would be your answer, if you could retire? Or if you could find another job?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jSFuGV">
|
|||
|
|
And for all the reasons outlined above, it can be a struggle to find new recruits to replace them. In the US and Europe, employers have relied on immigrant labor, but, as experts said, that doesn’t fix any of the structural issues, and creates what Belzer called “this constant race to the bottom.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j8kjjJ">
|
|||
|
|
Parts of Western Europe, for example, often relied on labor from poorer European countries to fill truck driving jobs, but as those economies improved, those sources of labor became scarcer. The United Kingdom’s truck driver shortages <a href="https://www.vox.com/22700343/uk-fuel-crisis-brexit-covid-19-european-union">have been exacerbated by Brexit</a>, and the changes to immigration rules that came with it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/28/business/uk-trucking-shortage-poland.html">5,000 short-term, temporary visas to some European truck drivers</a> to ease backlogs around the holidays, but few actually took the offer. As one Polish driver told a British outlet, why come back for a few months just to “<a href="https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/29/polish-
|
|||
|
|
hgv-driver-says-why-return-to-england-to-pee-in-bottle-on-m25-15333985/">pee in a bottle on the M25</a>?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UKse74">
|
|||
|
|
Other parts of the world face different challenges. Stefan Pertz, who’s based in Malaysia and runs Asian Trucker, a media company for the commercial trucking industry in Southeast Asia, told me that in Malaysia truckers make about $800 to $900 a month, a salary that can go quite far there. But, again, at what cost? Drivers are highly surveilled, sometimes only able to stop at certain rest areas. Sometimes poor infrastructure and roadways present additional hurdles. These challenges exist in other lower-income countries, compounded by another issue: You have people willing to drive trucks, but companies or businesses may not have enough vehicles. “It’s not the labor issue, it’s the asset, it’s the truck itself,” Rodrigue said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8dBM6s">
|
|||
|
|
These are longstanding challenges, and the pandemic created a kind of breaking point for the industry, even as the vital link truckers play in the economy became clearer. But the way the supply chain functions may make it harder to fix the global driver shortage.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/wDtuWURovyX5CSU_IAWGGop8qAA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23116045/GettyImages_1236623790.jpg"/> <cite>Allison Zaucha/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Trucks enter the Port of Los Angeles in California in November.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="kAxXfY">
|
|||
|
|
Truck drivers and the human costs of our global supply chain
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rNuUOE">
|
|||
|
|
The toughness of being a truck driver — the long hours, the treks, the waiting at ports or warehouses to get the goods — isn’t an accident. It’s mostly a consequence of being caught up in the demands of the modern supply chain, the one that is under so much pressure now.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4pRkhP">
|
|||
|
|
Experts told me that even as wages for truckers have declined, shipping and logistics companies are increasing their rates. But that hasn’t really trickled down to the truck drivers’ pockets. “The trucking companies fight over the scraps. And the drivers fight over the scraps left over after the trucking companies fight over it. All of this cascades down, and the most powerful party here is always the one to win,” Belzer said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hqodSy">
|
|||
|
|
And, he added, when it came to truckers: “Because of where they stand in the power relations throughout the supply chain, they’re the least powerful people.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hptb8D">
|
|||
|
|
Experts and those involved in the trucking industry said wages for truckers have ticked up because of the labor demand in this stage of the pandemic, just as they have in other parts of the labor market in the US. There may be good signing bonuses to be had, too. But truckers don’t have a say in the routes they drive, or how long it takes for their cargo to be offloaded at a port. The job remains difficult, and it might not be enough.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U3PxMe">
|
|||
|
|
“It’s pretty simple,” Joe Michel, executive director for the Alaska Trucking Association, said. “Pay them more, treat them better, they’ll stick around.” In the US, the Biden administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/16/fact-sheet-the-
|
|||
|
|
biden-%E2%81%A0harris-administration-trucking-action-plan-to-strengthen-americas-trucking-workforce/">announced a trucker retention plan</a>, which includes recruiting more veterans and studying working conditions to improve the industry. But those won’t transform the industry overnight, or be a quick fix to supply chain problems.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="23BErN">
|
|||
|
|
And these questions are arising as the omicron variant of the coronavirus surges, bringing an added uncertainty to the economy. But it’s also a reminder that we rely on truckers to deliver the surgical masks and the Lysol and the food to cook when we’re quarantining. They are the essential workers, and the question really is whether they are being treated as such.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B3LxRe">
|
|||
|
|
During the lockdown, Pertz said, campaigns popped up everywhere describing truckers as heroes. “The minute the lockdowns were erased, all that disappeared again,” he said. “And my challenge is, well, these truck drivers are still stocking my supermarket, nothing has changed for them. Why aren’t they continuously promoted as heroes, and only in the situation of absolute dire needs?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5smfyV">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YgBGrm">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4OS1kS">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sX4xUc">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Despite omicron, Covid-19 will become endemic. Here’s how.</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/6LjLT8DziWID89MIzWmonSG13PY=/158x0:3647x2617/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70326075/GettyImages_1237372003.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A health care worker hands out a Covid-19 test kit at a drive-through testing site in Riverside, California, on December 21. | Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The variant has changed how we get from “pandemic” to “endemic,” but that doesn’t mean we’re back to square one.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F3k4MD">
|
|||
|
|
With omicron rates soaring, you may find yourself despairingly asking when — or even if — this pandemic is ever going to end.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="febgMX">
|
|||
|
|
The good news is that it <em>will</em> end. Experts agree on that. We’re not going to totally eradicate Covid-19, but we will see it move out of the pandemic phase and into the endemic phase.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GPSNfG">
|
|||
|
|
Endemicity means the virus will keep circulating in parts of the global population for years, but its prevalence and impact<strong> </strong>will come down to relatively manageable levels, so it ends up more like the flu than a world-stopping disease.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XQ05nA">
|
|||
|
|
For an infectious disease to be classed in the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00396-2">endemic phase</a>, the rate of infections has to more or less stabilize across years, rather than showing big, unexpected spikes as Covid-19 has been doing. “A disease is endemic if the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/26/21193851/coronavirus-covid-19-staying-home-social-
|
|||
|
|
distancing">reproductive number</a> is stably at one,” Boston University epidemiologist Eleanor Murray explained. “That means one infected person, on average, infects one other person.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pY9nJ9">
|
|||
|
|
We’re nowhere near that right now. The highly contagious omicron variant means each infected person is infecting more than one other person, with the result that cases are exploding across the globe. Nobody can look at the following chart and reasonably conclude that we’re in endemic territory.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/cCY078E4oZKa6hPrk7vV0TsgEDk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23132029/coronavirus_data_explorer__9_.png"/> <cite>Our World in Data</cite></figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aISXMy">
|
|||
|
|
Looking at this data might make you wonder about some of the predictions that were floating around before omicron came on the scene. In the fall, some health experts were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/former-fda-chief-gottlieb-expects-delta-be-last-big-
|
|||
|
|
pandemic-wave-us-2021-10-04/">saying</a> that they thought the delta variant might represent the last big act for this pandemic, and that we could reach endemicity in 2022.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2kn1Yn">
|
|||
|
|
The outlook is more uncertain now. So how should you be thinking about the trajectory and timeline of the pandemic going into the new year? And how should omicron be shaping your everyday decision-making and risk calculus?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="spjQLy">
|
|||
|
|
When we’ll know we’re finally in “endemic” territory
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XTuNMG">
|
|||
|
|
Here’s one big question you’d probably like the answer to: Does omicron push endemicity farther off into the future? Or could it actually speed up our path to endemicity by infecting so much of the population so swiftly that we more quickly develop a layer of natural immunity?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u0CDkR">
|
|||
|
|
“That is really the million-dollar question,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, told me. “It’s really hard to say right now.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2TkZRd">
|
|||
|
|
That’s partly because endemicity isn’t just about getting the virus’s reproductive number down to one. That’s the bare minimum for earning the endemic classification, but there are other factors that come into play, too: What’s the rate of hospitalizations and deaths? Is the health care system overburdened to the point that there’s a precipitous space or staffing shortage? Are there treatments available to reduce how many people are getting seriously ill?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0cROmv">
|
|||
|
|
In general, a virus becomes endemic when we (health experts, governmental bodies, and the public)<strong> </strong>collectively decide that we’re okay with accepting the level of impact the virus has — that in other words, it no longer constitutes an active crisis.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IAGM6q">
|
|||
|
|
With omicron surging right now and many governments reimposing stricter precautions as a result, it’s clear we’re still in crisis mode. “But so much depends on the burden it’ll place on the health care system,” Rasmussen said. “And that’s going to be different from community to community.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lr4X1y">
|
|||
|
|
Even though omicron so far seems to result<strong> </strong>in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/health/covid-omicron-lung-cells.html">milder disease than previous variants</a>, a massive increase in cases could still lead to a big increase in hospitalizations and deaths. That could further stress health care systems that are already in dire straits. That’s why Rasmussen concludes that “omicron certainly has the potential to delay endemicity.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uSUUW1">
|
|||
|
|
But there are also some hopeful things to bear in mind. “The incredible number of infections is building up population-level immunity. That’ll be crucial in terms of muting future waves,” said Joshua Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J11wOn">
|
|||
|
|
In addition to omicron potentially building up some immunity in the vast numbers of people who are becoming infected with it, vaccinations and boosters are also contributing to “a significant immunity wall that’s being built,” he said. But he cautioned that “that’s a wall to the variants we’ve seen already. There could be another variant which could evade immunity down the road.” Some experts are already <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/is-omicron-a-new-wave-or-a-parallel-pandemic.html">conjecturing</a> that getting infected with omicron may not give you much cross-protection against other variants, though a small early study showed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/health/covid-omicron-antibodies-delta.html">positive signs on that front</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iJwGaI">
|
|||
|
|
This is why Ramussen says “the key determinant” of when the pandemic ends is how long it will take to make vaccines accessible around the world (and to combat ongoing vaccine hesitancy). Currently, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22808454/omicron-global-vaccination-efforts-covid">we’re not vaccinating the globe fast enough</a> to starve the virus of opportunities to mutate into something new and serious. “If only a very small proportion of people are getting access to vaccines, we’re just going to keep playing variant whack-a-mole indefinitely,” Rasmussen said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CnXxYM">
|
|||
|
|
In the meantime, we do have another ace up our sleeves, which will hopefully also become available around the globe sooner rather than later: <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-
|
|||
|
|
perfect/22841852/covid-drugs-antibodies-fluvoxamine-molnupiravir-paxlovid">new treatments</a> —<strong> </strong>like Pfizer’s paxlovid, recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and Merck’s molnupiravir, also <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/23/fda-authorizes-mercks-covid-19-pill-but-stresses-its-use-should-be-
|
|||
|
|
limited/">FDA approved</a> — that reduce the rates of hospitalization and death from Covid-19.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OlVBPI">
|
|||
|
|
“Very important in the context of endemicity is the antiviral pills,” Michaud said. “If we have those tools, we’re looking at a very different state going into 2022. People shouldn’t feel like we’re back to square one.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="aa0R5h">
|
|||
|
|
We’re not back to March 2020. But it makes sense to modify our behavior during the omicron surge.
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xMKSwX">
|
|||
|
|
Dire headlines notwithstanding, we’re in much better shape than we were at the start of the pandemic. We’ve discovered a lot more information about how Covid-19 works. We’ve manufactured effective masks, vaccines, boosters, treatments, and rapid tests.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9vSLdt">
|
|||
|
|
We’ve also learned that having to hunker down comes at a real cost to our mental and economic health and wellbeing. The cost of a strict lockdown may have been worthwhile in March 2020, but by and large, that’s not what US experts are advising now.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ha23u1">
|
|||
|
|
They are, however, urging us to take more precautions than we might have been in the weeks leading up to omicron.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CFuECO">
|
|||
|
|
Take Bob Wachter, for example, the chair of the department of medicine at the University of California San Francisco. In the fall, he shifted from being very cautious about Covid-19 to taking some more calculated risks, including <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/14/1055696916/covid-will-be-with-us-for-the-next-several-years-says-ucsf-medicine-
|
|||
|
|
chair">dining indoors at restaurants</a> and even <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/COVID-new-normal-
|
|||
|
|
risks-16557732.php">hosting an in-person medical conference with 300 attendees</a>. But now that omicron is causing cases to skyrocket, he’s being more cautious again.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="id__cao61vmrbjh">
|
|||
|
|
“I see the next few months as a time to fortify one’s safety behaviors,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/1471980512503758853?s=20">wrote</a> on Twitter. Here’s how he explained his reasons:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="ZysA26">
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
… and most importantly people (many MDs/RNs out sick too). Trust me, you want to avoid getting sick when the system is stressed. Third, I see the Pfizer oral anti-viral as a very big deal, and it won’t be available for 4-6 weeks (even then it’ll be in short supply).(10/25)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">— Bob Wachter (<span class="citation" data-cites="Bob_Wachter">@Bob_Wachter</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/1471980526734962690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2021</a></p>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KMl231">
|
|||
|
|
The other experts I spoke to agreed that now is a time to limit risky activities.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8OMpB9">
|
|||
|
|
“I had taken my foot off the brakes in terms of my own behavior. But I’ve now started to put it on again,” Michaud told me. “I canceled plans to go to New Jersey to visit my family over Christmas. I’m avoiding more indoor environments. As of now, it does make a lot of sense to me to take additional steps to prevent yourself and those around you from getting infected.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BQSzbs">
|
|||
|
|
After the omicron wave passes, he said, he envisions relaxing precautions again. Modeling suggests that omicron could peak in <a href="https://covid-19.tacc.utexas.edu/media/filer_public/20/b0/20b055db-78da-41e6-a1e4-d3afaad6167b/omicron_emergence_-
|
|||
|
|
_us_scenarios_-_ut.pdf">mid-</a> to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/12/22/covid-omicron-
|
|||
|
|
variant-ihme-models-predict-140-m-new-infections-winter/8967421002/">late January</a> in the US, with case rates steeply declining — and activities becoming correspondingly safer again — in February.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kkgoku">
|
|||
|
|
Rasmussen is also modifying her behavior in light of omicron, though she emphasizes that’s not the same as going back to a spring<strong> </strong>2020-style lockdown. Although she canceled an international flight over the holidays, she still felt comfortable going over to her colleague’s house for a Christmas meal. That’s because she and they had vaccinations, boosters, rapid tests, and great ventilation working in their favor.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YtagJX">
|
|||
|
|
“We have a lot more tools at our disposal for dealing with this than we did in March 2020,” she said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Do2QqX">
|
|||
|
|
We’ll know endemicity has arrived when those tools — and the long, painful experience of the pandemic itself — has enabled us to fully adapt to the virus, as the virus has adapted to us.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5vcljJ">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Update, January 1, 2022</strong>: This story has been updated to reflect <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/health/covid-omicron-lung-cells.html">new evidence on the severity of omicron illness</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ballerina makes the winning move in feature</strong> - Ballerina, ridden by Suraj Narredu, edged Sensibility by a nose to claim the Byerly Turk Million (Gr. 3), the main event of the Sunday’s (Jan. 2) rac</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Messi among 4 PSG players who test positive for COVID-19</strong> - PSG is playing at third-tier Vannes.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kohli has been phenomenal over the last 20 days despite noise around him: Dravid</strong> - The India head coach lent support to the superstar batter who is locked in a war of words with the BCCI over the way his white-ball captaincy tenure ended</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Shanto, Joy lead Bangladesh’s strong reply against New Zealand on day 2</strong> - The tourists’ bowlers first captured New Zealand’s last five wickets for 70 runs, dismissing the home side for 328</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Frenchman Humbert stuns Russia’s Medvedev at ATP Cup</strong> - The U.S. Open champion broke for 3-1 in the decider, but Humbert hit back to put the set back on serve and was rarely threatened from then on</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rare Green lacewing spotted</strong> - Italochrysa japonica spotted for the first time in country</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>There seems to be no end to NCB’s crooked activities, says Nawab Malik</strong> - NCP Minister claims agency is making witnesses sign on back-dated panchnama papers</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two new plant species discovered in Ghats</strong> - Researchers find them in Thiruvananthapuram, Wayanad districts</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Union government out to destroy PSUs, allege CITU leaders</strong> - ‘United struggle by workers is the only way to prevent this’</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Parliamentary panel that will examine bill to raise legal age of marriage has only one woman member</strong> - TMC MP Sushmita Dev is the only woman among the 31 members</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EU plans to label gas and nuclear energy ‘green’ prompt row</strong> - A European Commission proposal says the two energy sources are key to a green transition.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New Year’s Eve fireworks kill and injure in Europe despite bans</strong> - Among three killed is a 12-year-old Dutch boy who was watching an adult set off a device.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New law allowing assisted suicide takes effect in Austria</strong> - The new law allows chronically or terminally ill adults to make provisions for an assisted suicide.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Denmark to make domestic flights fossil fuel free by 2030</strong> - The PM wants domestic flights to go green, as part of ambitious national plans to cut emissions.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid-19: WHO chief optimistic disease will be beaten in 2022</strong> - The organisation ends the year on a positive note but warns about “nationalism and vaccine hoarding”.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How the US census led to the first data processing company 125 years ago</strong> - And kickstarted America’s computing industry. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822873">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>HBO Max rings in a raunchy new year with Peacemaker red band trailer</strong> - “Dude, we’re saving the world! It’s every thing we’ve ever wanted.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822998">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Noblewoman’s tomb reveals new secrets of ancient Rome’s highly durable concrete</strong> - It’s a combo of unique volcanic aggregate and unusual chemical interactions over millennia - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822945">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To learn Klingon or Esperanto: What invented languages can teach us</strong> - NuqneH! Saluton! A linguistic anthropologist studies those who invent new tongues. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822688">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Physicists captured, quantified the sound of champagne’s effervescence</strong> - The production of the sound coincides with the rupture of the bubble at liquid surface. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822847">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>The first Jewish President of the United States is elected</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The night before the inauguration he calls his mother.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Mom, I’d love for you to come visit for the inauguration and stay with me for a few days.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Oh I don’t know, airfare is so expensive these days.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Mom, I’ll fly you out on Air Force One!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Oh, but you know, cab fare is ridiculous.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Mom, the Presidential motorcade will drive you here.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“But accommodations, especially during the inau—”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“MOM!! I’ll put you in the Lincoln bedroom itself!!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She reluctantly agrees, hangs up and starts talking to her friend.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Who was that?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“My son.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
<em>gasp</em> “The doctor??”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
No, the other one."
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/International_Bee653"> /u/International_Bee653 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtxrsr/the_first_jewish_president_of_the_united_states/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtxrsr/the_first_jewish_president_of_the_united_states/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A woman is flirting with a Russian man at a bar…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She says,
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Hi, handsome, what do you do for a living?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Russian replies,
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I work for KGB.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Cool, tell me an interesting story!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“About me or about you?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/iRyaaanM"> /u/iRyaaanM </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtkln5/a_woman_is_flirting_with_a_russian_man_at_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtkln5/a_woman_is_flirting_with_a_russian_man_at_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Day off</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead all work at the same office for a female boss who always goes home early.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Hey, girls,” says the brunette, “let’s go home early tomorrow. She’ll never know.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So the next day, they all leave right after the boss does.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The brunette gets some extra gardening done, the redhead goes to a bar, and the blonde goes home to find her husband having sex with the female boss!
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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She quietly sneaks out of the house and returns at her normal time.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Later, that day…
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“That was fun,” says the brunette.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“We should do it again sometime.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“No way,” says the blonde. “I almost got caught.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/joke_channel"> /u/joke_channel </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtn499/day_off/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtn499/day_off/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A university English professor tells his students</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“In English, a double negative forms a positive. But in some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, in no language can a double positive form a negative.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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But then a voice from the back of the room piped up,
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Yeah, right.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/dkb52"> /u/dkb52 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtwm2a/a_university_english_professor_tells_his_students/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtwm2a/a_university_english_professor_tells_his_students/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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|
|
<li><strong>“Good morning Sir, what’s your name?” “M…M…M…Michael…”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
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|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Oh, i see, you are a stammerer, i am sorry for that!”
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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|
|
“Well no, actually my father was… but the registry office guy was a son of a bitch”
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nikan69"> /u/nikan69 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtgias/good_morning_sir_whats_your_name_mmmmichael/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rtgias/good_morning_sir_whats_your_name_mmmmichael/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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