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HTML
600 lines
75 KiB
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>22 December, 2021</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>West Virginians Ask Joe Manchin: Which Side Are You On?</strong> - The senator’s blockade against programs that have helped his constituents escape poverty makes some question “who matters to Joe.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/west-virginians-ask-joe-manchin-which-side-are-you-on">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What COVID Burnout Is Doing to New York City’s Schools</strong> - New standardized tests, staff shortages, and unresolved trauma have placed teachers and students under extraordinary pressure. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/what-covid-burnout-is-doing-to-new-york-citys-schools">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is Donald Trump an Anti-Semite?</strong> - A revealing new interview peels back yet another layer. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/is-donald-trump-an-anti-semite">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pope Francis Is Still Trying to Call Attention to the Migrant Crisis</strong> - World leaders have drawn together to combat climate change and COVID, Francis noted, but little has been done to help migrants. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/pope-francis-is-still-trying-to-call-attention-to-the-migrant-%20crisis">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Getting Home for Christmas and Dodging Omicron</strong> - In London, with everything open, evading the coronavirus has felt like a warped game of tag. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/getting-home-for-christmas-and-dodging-omicron">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>How omicron is affecting holiday travel</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A person wearing a Santa hat stands in line at an airport with their luggage." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qYTbdOHMvhPyGjLQzHda6ebAlnE=/307x0:5076x3577/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70305116/AP21354755843381.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A passenger waits in line to check in for her flight to Washington at Los Angeles International Airport on December 20. Throughout the pandemic, Americans — regardless of vaccination status — have been allowed to fly domestically without providing either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test prior to boarding. | Jae C. Hong/AP
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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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Despite the wave of new Covid-19 cases, many Americans will be proceeding with their travel plans.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mIjIYJ">
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The coronavirus seems to really hate the holidays. Within the past week, the omicron variant, which accounted for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/20/us/us-holidays-omicron-cases.html">less than 1 percent of new US cases in early December</a>, has spread rapidly across the country to become the dominant Covid-19 strain. Schools and college campuses <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-new-york-syracuse-6686dfd1111baea6fb54791a26d232b4">have suddenly shut down</a>, and sports leagues, namely the NFL and the NBA, are <a href="https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-covid-
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week-15-game-postponement">delaying games</a> as <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32907444/nba-nbpa-agree-
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allow-teams-short-handed-covid-19-sign-replacement-players-memo-says">more and more players test positive</a>. Omicron seems to be responsible for a record level of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22839742/omicron-covid-19-winter-surge-
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vaccine-booster-forecast">breakthrough cases</a> among vaccinated people, and things are beginning to look a lot like the Covid-filled Christmas of yesteryear.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hlaafO">
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For many, 2021 was the promised year when we could safely attend in-person reunions with no masks and no fear of infecting our loved ones. Omicron has dashed the hopes of an entirely carefree holiday season. It will add <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/our-emergency-
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rooms-arent-ready-for-omicron/621080/">further strain on already-struggling hospitals</a> and could overwhelm the country’s finite supply of <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/16/health-care-workers-suffering-goes-far-beyond-
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burnout-self-care-isnt-the-cure/">health care workers</a>, who are already suffering from burnout.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C1S0fS">
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Despite this, most Americans, whether they are fully vaccinated or not, likely won’t cancel or change their end-of-year holiday plans. The Thanksgiving holiday saw a jump in airport travel numbers, with <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/tsa-screens-most-passengers-since-pandemic-thanksgiving-weekend">TSA screening over 10 million passengers</a> from Wednesday to Sunday, and the airline industry is already expecting Christmas travel to surpass that. Airlines don’t seem to be reverting to pandemic-era policies anytime soon: Tickets are no longer easily refundable, and planes are fully packed with passengers.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zqr6Dj">
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Last year, states like New York, Connecticut, and California <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21563907/holiday-travel-covid19">urged</a> out-of-state travelers to undergo a brief self-quarantine period upon arrival, while the CDC advised Americans not to travel at all. Circumstances have shifted since last December, though: Virtually no one was vaccinated. This year, state and federal officials don’t seem keen to declare any sort of official travel guidance or impose any restrictions. That leaves individuals and families to, once again, independently weigh the risks and rewards of gathering for the holidays.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GUEA4t">
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Americans — regardless of vaccination status — are still allowed to fly domestically without providing either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test prior to boarding. What’s especially concerning is that the delta variant is still surging throughout the country, and the rate of hospitalizations, especially in regions like the Midwest and Northeast, has been on a steady rise. However, some epidemiologists and public health officials don’t think vaccinated Americans should scrap their end-of-year plans but instead adopt risk- mitigation strategies, like testing frequently or limiting social interactions before a large gathering.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5AzOfs">
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“I think there really is a risk-benefit calculation that has to be made, and I think that’s going to be an individual, and family, choice,” David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, recently <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22846323/omicron-winter-holiday-plans-travel">told Vox’s Sigal Samuel</a>. “Make sure that everyone who is going to be at a given gathering feels comfortable with a small (and therefore unvaccinated) child being there. The one thing you don’t want to do is make others in your family uncomfortable.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CEy1Ud">
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In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/20/leana-wen-omicron-holiday-guidance/">an op- ed for the Washington Post</a>, physician Leana Wen echoed Dowdy’s line of thinking and argued that restricting holiday activities is unnecessary and would “serve only to disincentivize vaccination.” Wen, a mother to two children who are too young to be vaccinated, believes “it’s not irresponsible for others to make different choices when the reality of how Covid-19 impacts them is now very different from [hers].”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EtBgnw">
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Caretakers of unvaccinated children and immunocompromised or elderly Americans are, of course, in a separate decision-making boat than healthy, vaccinated adults. Even then, some families are making the last-minute decision to alter — or in a few cases, outright cancel — plans until more is known about omicron.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jM250n">
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Tanya Dua was expecting to reunite with her parents, who were flying from New Delhi to New York, after two years. But with <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/after-
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reprieve-nyc-is-rattled-by-stunning-covid-spike/3461306/">over 42,000 New Yorkers</a> testing positive in the past week, Dua wanted her father and mother, who respectively received the AstraZeneca and Covaxin vaccines available in India, to stay put and not risk a 15-hour international flight.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wwXlj9">
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“It was a tough call,” Dua said. “I’m in the middle of some immigration stuff so I can’t leave the country, but if I was able to travel, I would’ve flown to them. India isn’t even talking about boosters right now, and I didn’t want my parents to jeopardize their health.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8jqrHv">
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Ten days before Christmas, Marlo, a resident of Rhode Island whose last name is being withheld to protect her privacy, sent an email to family members that detailed a pre-gathering testing plan, even though they are all vaccinated with boosters. Marlo, who jokingly described herself as “the family whip-cracker,” has been concerned about her relatives’ lack of mask use in indoor spaces, like restaurants and bars.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vpBAdW">
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“I just want to get us through this pandemic without getting the virus and, heaven forbid, long Covid,” she said over Twitter direct messages. “And since we really don’t know enough about omicron yet, and since there are so many breakthrough cases, and since my parents-in-law are in their 70s, I’m not taking any chances.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IyinYu">
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The plan is to get everyone a rapid at- home test kit from CVS before the holidays so they can swab themselves on Christmas Eve morning before meeting up at her home in the evening. “If it were up to me alone, the entire celebration would be outside, but it looks like I’m going to lose that battle,” she added.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="saGY6h">
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However, at-home tests aren’t so easy to come by, and they cost about $25 for a pack of two. Recode’s Rebecca Heilweil <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/12/21/22848286/omicron-
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rapid-test-covid-19-antigen">reported</a> that rapid antigen tests are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/21/omicron-home-tests-walgreens-cvs/">out of stock</a> at many drug stores nationwide, and lines for PCR tests in cities like New York, San Francisco, and Chicago easily stretch around the block: “The problem will likely get worse as more people travel for the holidays and fuel new outbreaks, long before new supplies of tests from the federal government are scheduled to arrive.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zHvNi7">
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On December 21, the Biden administration announced its plan to expand Covid-19 testing sites across the country and send Americans free home test kits in the new year. These federal initiatives, however, might come too late: Christmas and New Year can easily morph into superspreader holidays if there aren’t enough testing resources.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W8RloQ">
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Still, some people weren’t planning to make significant changes to their holiday schedule unless the worst-case scenario occurred: catching Covid-19. Lauren, whose last name is being withheld to protect her privacy, flew from New York this week to be with family in Florida and was adamant about not canceling her flight unless she tested positive.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YEsTtk">
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“I wasn’t going out that week when everyone got Covid, so I wasn’t too worried,” she said. “Of course I got tested, but I think — and my family agrees — that it would be an overreaction if I canceled my trip. Sure, Florida isn’t the safest place in the world, but we’re vaccinated. We keep to ourselves and wear masks indoors, so my parents had no problem with me coming home.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zw0Ejr">
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Requesting a refund or a voucher through the airlines would’ve also been a logistical nightmare, Lauren added. She had a basic economy ticket on American Airlines, which, according to its website, is <a href="https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/coronavirus-updates.jsp">non-refundable and non-changeable</a> for fares bought after April 1, 2021. Airlines likely won’t reinstate their early pandemic travel policies, whether it be for social distancing or flexible rebooking. That means most economy-level passengers will lose money, even if they decide not to fly out of health concerns. And the rental car market has not been easy to navigate for travelers who want to drive to their destination rather than fly. Rental cars are <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/12/car-rental-shortage-covid/621068/">still in high demand</a>, with vehicles going for absurdly high prices even in smaller cities.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dsgs3T">
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For vaccinated families, this year’s holiday gatherings should be less stressful than the last, but there’s still an uneasiness around how everyone — regardless of vaccination status — is left to play <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/10/pandemic-safety-america/616858/">“Choose Your Own Pandemic Adventure.”</a> Covid-19 isn’t over, but Americans are tired and their vigilance is waning. There isn’t a simple decision, and the choice to change or to keep holiday plans can vary depending on a person’s overall tolerance for risk.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>How the tiny Tamagotchi burrowed into our brains and became an obsession</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="An illustration of two halves of a pink brain with a small Tamagotchi character in the middle." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dJ_5NVUBxNwgRWZXkODsZnxyIjo=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70264804/VOX_Lede.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Efi Chalikopoulou for Vox
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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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Fads are more than a cultural phenomenon — they’re part of our brain chemistry.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-left">
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21899595/VOX_The_Highlight_Box_Logo_Horizontal.png"/>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m2Hwqd">
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Part of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22827789/welcome-to-the-fads-issue-of-the-
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highlight"><strong>Fads Issue</strong></a> of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight"><strong>The Highlight</strong></a>, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BLRb3N">
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The smooth, plastic egg fits in your palm. Brightly colored shell. Gray screen the size of a postage stamp. Below that, three buttons. Pull a thin plastic tab on the side, and the screen lights up. An 8-bit egg appears onscreen. It quivers and rolls and shakes until, finally, your Tamagotchi is born.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9AC39y">
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Inside your head, the squishy, enigmatic organ known as the brain begins firing — not only to process the visual and sensory stimuli, but to generate curiosity in this new object. In fact, the spark of this fixation likely began before you even held this toy, when you heard friends feverishly speak about it and saw it in the clutches of popular kids at school.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uLHPjj">
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Obsession is more than a cultural phenomenon — it’s part of our brain chemistry, and part of what it means to be human. For hundreds of thousands of years, we evolved in environments of scarcity, where social structures were required for survival, and seeking and curiosity were imperative. In the modern era, the same brain chemistry that lured us to the sweetness of fruit and alerted us to the presence of danger now draws us to fads like the Tamagotchi.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XkPmOo">
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“People are born stupid,” says <a href="https://psy.uncg.edu/people/silvia/">Paul Silvia</a>, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and author of <em>Exploring the Psychology of Interest</em>. Many newborn animals already have instincts about their environment and quickly gain mobility. Sea turtles, for example, emerge from eggs ready to seek the sea. Human babies, meanwhile, are notably helpless. “We can’t really move, we can’t feed ourselves, we don’t have a lot of innate behaviors,” Silvia says. “But there’s an epic learning period that happens. You can be born knowing how to take care of yourself, or you could be born knowing how to learn.” That’s where interest comes in.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GzFpCL">
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Humans developed both the capacity for immense learning and a reward system that pushes us to seek out new things. In our brains, that reward cycle originates largely with dopamine, a neurotransmitter. Though dopamine-releasing neurons constitute fewer than 1 percent of the brain’s neurons, they’re incredibly powerful. Dopamine is linked to our motivation and reward cycles and, thus, implicated in everything from love and lust to addiction and our habits as consumers.
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</p>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2958859/">Here’s how it works</a> at the simplest level: Nearly all dopamine cells originate from the midbrain.<strong> </strong>We experience pleasure thanks to a nerve tract that runs between a cluster of neurons known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and another part of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens<strong>. </strong>The VTA communicates with the nucleus accumbens to respond to rewards, releasing dopamine, which leaves its neuron of origin, passes through synapses, and then zaps receptors on the other end. That action produces feelings of gratification, letting the brain know that what’s occurring is beneficial — perhaps even bound to survival. This activity also primes the brain to remember the pleasurable event by strengthening the synapses in the hippocampus, the brain’s learning center.
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nh8tMo">
|
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|
Though dopamine was once thought only to be involved only in the hedonistic reward system of our brains, “Over time, neuroscientists have come to understand that it may be even more important to the motivation that drives us to get the reward,” says <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/anna-lembke">Dr. Anna Lembke</a>, a Stanford University psychiatrist and author of <em>Dopamine Nation</em>.
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ViYYOR">
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In <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9858756/">a classic experiment</a> conducted at the University of Michigan in 1998, scientists engineered rats that didn’t produce dopamine. “What they found was that when they put food in the rat’s mouth, the animal seemed to experience pleasure,” Lembke says. “But when they placed food just a small distance away, the rat would starve to death, not being motivated to get up to go seek out the food.”
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eBvZ1n">
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In sum, dopamine pushes us to pursue, then allows us to enjoy the bounty of what’s found. In primitive times, that helped humans discover their environment, innovate, and find new resources. Then came modernity, and with it a surplus of goods combined with the development of products designed to capture our attention.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eW8b7p">
|
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Enter the Tamagotchi.
|
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</p>
|
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<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="T6KwMk"/>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nu87KD">
|
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It’s 1997. Colorful Tamagotchi eggs sway from backpacks. Ride slung on belt loops. Dangle from fingers like yo-yos. It’s the kind of toy that is nowhere until, suddenly, it’s everywhere.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fkYqDt">
|
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|
The concept of the Tamagotchi is straightforward. The device houses a tiny digital pet with basic needs for food, play, discipline, hygiene, and, on occasion, medical intervention. You check in on your Tamagotchi throughout the day — though it beeps if it requires immediate attention — and use the simple buttons to interact with it. Fail to care for it, and it dies, requiring a restart with a new pet to continue.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xx0vFK">
|
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|
The Tamagotchi becomes a schoolyard status symbol. Woe to the parent who accidentally buys a GigaPet for their child. <em>It is not the same</em>. In fact, such dupes only reveal how hard you’re trying to fit in.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O1MtwB">
|
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|
|
How did an unassuming, $15 toy capture the attention of millions?
|
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</p></li>
|
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|
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</ul>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Bl1Qe">
|
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|
Created by Japanese toymaker Bandai, Tamagotchi became a smash hit when it was released in Japan in 1996, selling millions of units in less than a year. The <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/050397gadget.html?action=click&contentCollection=meter-
|
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links-click&contentId=&mediaId=&module=meter-
|
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|
|
Links&pgtype=article&priority=true&referrer=&version=meter+at+null">international buzz</a> about the toys made for an effective hook. In 1997, Tamagotchi arrived in US toy stores, and kids lined up outside FAO Schwarz to buy them — <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/052297gadget.html">the store sold 30,000 units in the first three days</a>.<strong> </strong>Bandai made more than $160 million from Tamagotchi in the US that year.
|
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</p>
|
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|
|
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
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<aside id="397fxq">
|
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<q>How did an unassuming, $15 toy capture the attention of millions? </q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
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|
|
</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5hun3Y">
|
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|
Fads have an element of mystery. Some, like the Pet Rock, become almost as famous for their absurdity as they do for their popularity. “It tends to be kind of lightning in a bottle,” says Nir Eyal, author of <em>Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products </em>and <em>Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life</em>. If it were possible to identify exactly what sparks trends, such products could be precisely engineered to succeed. Still, some commonalities do emerge.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3cK9Mw">
|
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|
|
Our brains are tuned to pick up newness. “That’s a cornerstone of what interest is all about,” Silvia says. “How people respond to things that are new, different, unfamiliar, and unexpected.” In long-ago times, this vigilance and attention to change in our environment kept us alive.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YC1OWT">
|
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|
|
While Game Boys were popular for video games on the go, nothing else replicated the precise experience of a Tamagotchi. The toy was ever-present in a way others weren’t — it was created with a built-in keychain so it could be literally attached to the player, and keeping the digital pet alive required constant gameplay. It also marked the advent of digital pets, which would continue to be popular in later years with the introduction of the online Neopets game, the AIBO robotic dog, and others.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DraVil">
|
|||
|
|
To go one step deeper, an object or product becomes increasingly fascinating if it’s constantly changing — basically, if it renews that sense of novelty.
|
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|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P6UP9v">
|
|||
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|
In the 1950s, psychologist B.F. Skinner researched the power of variable schedules of rewards. In a lab experiment, an animal might be given a food reward randomly. Perhaps the animal presses a button and, the first time, it immediately dispenses a treat. The next time, it takes 10 taps before that reward is doled out. That kind of irregularity creates more interest than when the reward is delivered on a set, unchanging schedule.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cl3FmM">
|
|||
|
|
Humans are similarly drawn to this erratic structure. Unexpected rewards result in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2958859/">a greater rush of dopamine</a>. That’s because variability is involved with higher learning — if we’re able to correctly predict a reward, it’s not as interesting to our brains. But if it’s surprising? Now that’s something worth remembering. That’s part of the reason we’re drawn to fads at all. “Knowing what trends or styles are hip has an element of variability almost like a slot machine,” Eyal says.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="QIXUgZ">
|
|||
|
|
<q>If it’s surprising? That’s worth remembering. That’s part of the reason we’re drawn to fads at all. </q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yNlmZq">
|
|||
|
|
A Tamagotchi changes and adapts depending on gameplay. The digital pet trills for attention. You learn how to interact with it. When you check in on your device, there may be any number of steaming little piles of turds for you to clean up. And then — miraculously, as all life is — you check your Tamagotchi one day to find that your pet has grown.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="tTazYT"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A person looks at a Tamagotchi game in their hand with an open-mouthed expression.
|
|||
|
|
They have a Tamagotchi character on his shoulder and an egg carton filled with Tamagotchi games in front of them." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lB4cSDs5NwFBwZzjjaMLuN46HD4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23073101/VOX_Secondary.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LqkDH1">
|
|||
|
|
Countless toys stare out from the shelves of stores across the country. But the Tamagotchi isn’t just a cool-looking object, nor is it merely an entertaining game. It’s a symbol of belonging, as were Tickle Me Elmo and Beanie Babies before it. “The thing itself is almost immaterial,” Lembke says. That’s why the GigaPet — a nearly identical toy, in theory — doesn’t cut it. The name- brand Tamagotchi transmits taste, indicating that you know what’s cool and interesting. “That becomes very powerful,” Eyal says.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BKhkOp">
|
|||
|
|
Lembke describes trend-following as akin to the behavior of a flock of birds: No sooner has one bird startled and raised its wings than all the birds around it are in flight. “Humans are wired to know, see, and be aware of what our near neighbors are doing,” she says.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nqc5Xw">
|
|||
|
|
This is amplified in childhood. “Fads spread like wildfire through K-12 schools,” Silvia says. “Some people are into it, then everyone’s into it, and then you have to be into it or else you’ll be a loser.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gOaQmq">
|
|||
|
|
This kind of emotionally driven behavior may be because <a href="https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/learning-and-memory/2018/motivation-why-you-
|
|||
|
|
do-the-things-you-do-082818">the lateral prefrontal cortex</a>, the self-regulation part of the brain, matures slowly. Moreover, from an evolutionary perspective, adolescence is the time when people prepare to leave their families and create their own lives. Children are seeking their place. Consider the hierarchy of the playground, with its “in” groups and “out” groups. Kids play, bully, and suss out who falls where in the pack. Money and class come into play, with expensive, branded goods becoming a divisive force regarding who can afford to adopt fads at all. The popular kids tend to latch onto trends early, influencing the rest of their peers to hop on board — or else suffer being an outcast. “What drives all human behavior, all motivation, is not the pursuit of pleasure, but the avoidance of pain,” Eyal says. “One of the worst pains we can experience is social isolation.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1OT0Eb">
|
|||
|
|
Schools are a pressure cooker for our drive for connectedness and belonging, where children can closely watch what their peers are doing. Philosophical anthropologist René Girard coined the term “mimetic desire” as part of his larger theory of human relations,<strong> </strong>positing that we do not desire things independently, but rather based on what other people want. Eyal summarizes it as: “Monkey see, monkey do.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e6tr15">
|
|||
|
|
It makes a lot of sense when you consider evolution. In a world of risk, it’s safest to follow what others do. Caveman A ate a speckled mushroom, got sick, and died. Caveman B, on the other hand, ate a small brown mushroom, lived to tell the tale, and reported that it tasted delicious. So it’s only logical to eat the second type of mushroom, not the first. This is trendspotting as a tool for survival.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="01ZTWl">
|
|||
|
|
In a modern world of abundance, humans still possess basic desires to sate our hunger and thirst, to seek shelter and warmth. But when it comes down to <em>what</em> we eat, <em>what</em> we drink, <em>how</em> we style our homes, and <em>what</em> clothes we wear, it’s often not enough for something to satisfy our base needs. We’re influenced by peers and innovators.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="Uo4N3u"/>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bC45TI">
|
|||
|
|
There’s a problem with Tamagotchi. The stakes are too high. Ignore the pets for too long — even five to six hours — and they might die. In fact, it’s not enough to merely keep it alive. Fail to care for your Tamagotchi properly, and it evolves into a selfish duck-billed creature as opposed to a well-balanced teddy bear. In 1997, <a href="https://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin010.shtml"><em>Education World</em></a><em> </em>interviewed one exasperated assistant principal in Connecticut.<strong> </strong>“First we were overrun with Beanie Babies, then all of a sudden teachers started commenting that the kids seemed to be taking a lot of long bathroom breaks,” he said. As it turns out, kids were stealing off to care for their virtual pets.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="VArZxi">
|
|||
|
|
<q>There’s a problem with Tamagotchi. The stakes are too high. It’s not enough to merely keep it alive. </q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qCRMVi">
|
|||
|
|
Schools begin to ban Tamagotchis; rebellious kids sneak them into class regardless. Others ask their parents to babysit their digital pets at home.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ioaAOZ">
|
|||
|
|
The shrill cry of the Tamagotchi interrupts family dinner, homework, time with friends. You’re tethered to it — literally, by a keychain, and emotionally, as it depends on you for survival. You bond with this cute digital creature because it has the same characteristics as living animals — seeking our attention, holding grudges, and seeming to act independently. As Harvard computer science researcher <a href="http://www.vivatropolis.com/judith/ArtificialPets.pdf">Judith Donath wrote</a> about our connection to Tamagotchi, “It is obsessive to leave a meeting or dinner because a game requires attention, but it is reasonable to do so if a pet is in need.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Xe7hX">
|
|||
|
|
Humans grow attached to things when there’s an investment. While the Tamagotchi may not cost much money (unless you pay for it with your own allowance, a hefty toll), it costs a whole lot in time. Sweeping away tiny, digital poops with the press of a button. Feeding it a sandwich, a slice of cake, or a piece of wrapped candy. Scolding it when it won’t eat. Checking its weight and age. Administering medicine when it’s sick.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="un0pyY">
|
|||
|
|
The Tamagotchi requires devotion. And the sheer time required to keep it alive only further binds us to it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ExHvUA">
|
|||
|
|
Eyal points to commitment and consistency bias here, also known as the sunk-cost fallacy. This is a sociological concept which essentially says that the more we invest in something, the more likely we are to keep doing it. “Only an idiot would keep putting effort, time, and money into something that’s not valuable, so it must be valuable,” Eyal summarizes. “This circular logic keeps us doing what we always have done. To break the chain is very uncomfortable.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bmSP3J">
|
|||
|
|
But putting on this obsession as a personality — not just playing with the Tamagotchi, but becoming a Tamagotchi player — is also about identity. Adolescence is the time of brain pruning, says Lembke. Neurons become selected for those we use most and deselected for neural circuits we’re not using. “The ones we tend to use a lot are then heavily myelinated, this sort of way of adding insulation to the wiring so it works more efficiently,” Lembke says. Mental architecture is still in formation. “It’s a time of enormous plasticity in the brain.” Synapses evolve and change depending on how we interact with our environment. It becomes a stage when humans try on different personas and go through phases.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="woMX6y">
|
|||
|
|
Plus, taking your Tamagotchi to school, to restaurants, or to the park is about fitting in and demonstrating that you’re a part of a community. When we make human connections, our systems for <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/09/study-shows-how-love-hormone-spurs-
|
|||
|
|
sociability.html">dopamine and oxytocin</a> (the so-called “love hormone”) are activated. “It’s not really a surprise to learn that we feel pleasure when we make human connections,” Lembke says. “And we feel connected by doing the same thing at the same time, experiencing the same emotion at the same time, wearing the same thing at the same time, watching the same show at the same time.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="sQ4gBC"/>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pU7GRf">
|
|||
|
|
Egg, baby, child, teenager, adult: The Tamagotchi evolves quickly. Each day marks the passing of months or even years in the Tamagotchi world. You’re responsible, caring for your Tamagotchi diligently. But, within two weeks, your adult Tamagotchi grows needy. Tamagotchis require the most attention as newborns and as they approach the end of their life. Some may beep as frequently as every 5 minutes, demanding help. Their needs are a bottomless hole for attention. Your Tamagotchi’s health and happiness diminish. Then, due to sickness or old age or neglect, it sprouts wings and returns to its home planet. Your Tamagotchi has died. Cue the tears and the heartbreak.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n7UQXv">
|
|||
|
|
(That anguish, by the way, is real. Online cemeteries pop up for mourners and, in one English town, children even lay their Tamagotchis to rest <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/18/tamagotchi/">in real pet cemeteries</a>. In fact, the psychological phenomenon for how humans form attachments to machines and AI was named for this emotional connection: <a href="https://theijournal.ca/index.php/ijournal/article/download/28127/20721">the Tamagotchi effect</a>.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7E9SJe">
|
|||
|
|
You restart with a new pet, but it’s not the same. Your first has died and, with it, that initial joy. It’s happening on a broader scale: Because Tamagotchis are now so common, the popular kids abandon them in search of the next cool thing. Your friends discard their eggs. Some of them become frustrated by their pet’s demands, smashing their eggs against the wall or on the ground, accidentally restarting their game.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-left c-float- hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="CvE0Yn">
|
|||
|
|
<q>There’s a psychological phenomenon for how humans form attachments to machines and AI: It’s called the Tamagotchi effect</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AzIpy7">
|
|||
|
|
Remember the seeking aspect of the dopamine reward cycle? That comes back into play here. When we try new things, a rush of dopamine floods the reward pathway, which makes us feel good and reinforces that pleasure. But our brain adapts. This inundation is followed by a dopamine deficit state, which makes us crave and seek. “It’s a craving that drives motivation,” Lembke says. “To restore baseline levels of homeostasis, or to get even higher.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ZoNva">
|
|||
|
|
Our ancestors couldn’t remain in a blissed-out state. “If we did, we wouldn’t look for the next reward,” Lembke says. The brain processes pleasure quickly, tells us that we should get more of it, and has us move on to the next thing.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KzHm7Q">
|
|||
|
|
“Dopamine rewards experiencing something new,” Silvia says. Hobbies that tend to be long-lasting have a sense of infinite learning or a community around them that provides a social benefit, such as crafting or sports. “You could always get better, you could always learn something new,” Silvia says. “There’s a gravity always pulling people in deeper.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gsqo7t">
|
|||
|
|
Fads tend to be static. Pet Rocks and Cabbage Patch Kids didn’t get any better — they were what they were. Sure, maybe your Tamagotchi became more entertaining as you progressed through the first round of gameplay, or perhaps even as you improved your caretaking skills with your next pets, but eventually the thrill dissipated.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FKeELf">
|
|||
|
|
The Tamagotchi fades from the schoolyard, fades from memory. You put yours in a drawer and are free of its beeps and demands.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vwJyWi">
|
|||
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|
Yet <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/10/nyregion/public-lives-far-from-the-pleading-crowd-furby-s-
|
|||
|
|
dad.html">toymakers learned from all this</a> — what worked to get you obsessed and what eventually chased you off. Digital pets? Still hot. Though, perhaps, the toys don’t need to be quite as needy. And what would happen if that faux pet weren’t made of hard plastic but, rather, were as soft as a stuffed animal? Toymakers iterate.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6jE1YE">
|
|||
|
|
By autumn 1998,<strong> </strong>there’s something new in stores capturing the collective imagination.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JUA14Y">
|
|||
|
|
Enter the Furby.
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uJwEyf">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Lexi Pandell is a writer from Oakland, California. Her nonfiction work has been published in the Atlantic, the New York Times, Wired, and elsewhere.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
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<div id="9Kky7P">
|
|||
|
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<div>
|
|||
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|
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|
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</div>
|
|||
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|
</div>
|
|||
|
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</div>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>What’s the best way to measure the omicron wave?</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/BtHWN5tsjyMksEktsVkgQGO2nX0=/385x0:5004x3464/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
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|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70305006/GettyImages_1360245581.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
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<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Local residents are tested for Covid-19 at a free outdoor testing site at Farragut Square in Washington, DC, on December 21 as coronavirus cases surge in the city. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
|
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|
|
</figcaption>
|
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|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Cases and hospitalizations are both important, but all of our data doesn’t matter if we don’t do anything with it.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KR7733">
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g7Xyxf">
|
|||
|
|
A lot of Americans are going to get infected with <a href="https://www.vox.com/22839742/omicron-covid-19-winter-surge-
|
|||
|
|
vaccine-booster-forecast">the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus</a> in the coming days and weeks. The United States is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">currently averaging</a> more than 143,000 new cases every day, already nearly matching the peak of the delta wave over the summer and well on its way toward the record of 250,000 daily cases seen last winter.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o1cbo4">
|
|||
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|
Record case numbers seem likely in the near future. Hospitalizations and deaths will increase to some degree as well; <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/6/21314472/covid-19-coronavirus-us-cases-deaths-trends-wtf">they always do</a>. But how much they increase remains to be seen, since more Americans are vaccinated now than were in previous waves.
|
|||
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B0UMTH">
|
|||
|
|
This has led to a debate among some public health experts and media commentators: Which metrics — case numbers, hospitalizations, or deaths — should we be paying the most attention to? In the Biden administration, some advisers are urging the federal government to focus more on serious cases than on overall infections, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/politics/white-house-omicron-warning-joe-biden/index.html">according to CNN</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BGpyxg">
|
|||
|
|
Both metrics have value; they just tell us different things. Hospitalizations and deaths are the most serious outcomes of Covid-19, and the ones many experts are tracking most closely. They quantify the most important toll of the pandemic and tell us when and where hospital systems are coming under strain.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jXHD9O">
|
|||
|
|
“The major public health impact has always been severe disease and death,” Natalie Dean, assistant professor of biostatistics at Emory University, told me this week. “One of the goals of vaccinations is to decouple that relationship” between cases and severe illness.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="87jzd8">
|
|||
|
|
During prior waves, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/6/21314472/covid-19-coronavirus-us-cases-deaths-trends-wtf">cases and deaths moved in sync</a>. Cases rose and, soon after, so did hospitalizations and deaths, in proportion to the severity of the dominant variant at the time. The omicron wave should, in theory, be different, due to the immunity granted by vaccination, previous infections, and booster shots.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DayZy4">
|
|||
|
|
But case numbers are still important, Dean and others emphasized. They are still a signal of how many people are sick and unable to work or otherwise go about their lives. Infected doctors and nurses <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22841477/covid-19-omicron-variant-tests-
|
|||
|
|
symptoms-isolation">who must then isolate for 10 days</a> can add to the strain on hospital systems and lead to the worst-case scenario: people dying because they cannot get medical care. While the vaccines <a href="https://directorsblog.nih.gov/tag/long-covid/">may reduce the chances of long Covid</a>, people who get infected <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03495-2">still incur some risk</a> of developing those long-term symptoms. And, to some degree, cases will likely be a predictive indicator of a wave of hospitalizations and deaths to come.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1jEGXw">
|
|||
|
|
Some of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22813896/omicron-covid-variant-
|
|||
|
|
cases-hospitalizations-vaccines">basic facts about omicron</a> — how much severe illness it causes on its own, how well it can evade prior immunity, and so on — are still murky. But several of the experts I spoke to expect this wave to be different from the ones that preceded it, and said that the measurements that we focus on should change too.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XmbveL">
|
|||
|
|
“The mindset has been to equate cases with deaths. That’s going to change, potentially quite a bit,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “Hospitalizations and deaths are going to be the marker of what’s going on in your community.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZuI5Y3">
|
|||
|
|
Ultimately, though, the biggest question might not be which metric to watch, but how those numbers are used. These data points are supposed to inform which measures are taken to try to control the spread of Covid-19 and to relieve any stress on the health care system. But many experts worry the appetite for public health interventions is waning, meaning these numbers could continue to pile up without any meaningful change in how the nation responds.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right">
|
|||
|
|
<div id="D0RGtH">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="fJGhsJ">
|
|||
|
|
Why experts are focusing on hospitalizations in the omicron wave
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lg8E18">
|
|||
|
|
As Dean pointed out, the goal of the vaccination campaigns has been to break the link between cases and hospitalizations and deaths, to give people protection against severe illness so that fewer and fewer people who get infected end up so sick they are admitted to the hospital. Even if the denominator (case numbers) stayed the same, the numerator (hospitalizations) would shrink.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IUGRkY">
|
|||
|
|
“Some places sort of succeeded in doing that,” Dean said. The United Kingdom’s delta wave this summer is instructive.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NB4Ans">
|
|||
|
|
The UK actually matched or exceeded the US in the number of daily cases, adjusted for population, as delta became the pandemic’s dominant strain. The virus ebbed and flowed over the course of several months; the UK saw peaks of 690 new cases per million people in mid-July, 565 in early September, and 693 in late October. The US barely reached more than 500 cases per million across that time frame.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6OrC2F6GMC2W2sv5uDcaSO3uRpU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23117755/coronavirus_data_explorer.png"/> <cite>Our World In Data</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iSM4AB">
|
|||
|
|
(A reminder: Case numbers depend on sufficient testing, and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-
|
|||
|
|
explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2021-01-01..latest&facet=none&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=total_cases&hideControls=true&Metric=Tests&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=USA~GBR">the UK has consistently and significantly outpaced the US</a>. That is another reason hospitalizations and deaths are seen as a more reliable metric, because they are easier outcomes to measure.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YWVvd8">
|
|||
|
|
Yet over the same period, the US consistently saw more deaths per capita than the UK, sometimes enduring three times the daily death rates during the worst of the delta wave.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/PvsnX4wUpYuUsQRT8rxab1qX2Os=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23117758/coronavirus_data_explorer__1_.png"/> <cite>Our World In Data</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B4yaIX">
|
|||
|
|
Dean’s best guess for why the UK saw more decoupling between cases and serious outcomes than the US during the delta wave is vaccinations. The UK <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-
|
|||
|
|
explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2021-01-01..latest&facet=none&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=total_cases&hideControls=true&Metric=People+fully+vaccinated&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=USA~GBR">surpassed the US</a> in its overall vaccination rate in late June and continues to outperform America.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wrj7OZ">
|
|||
|
|
The UK has done a particularly good job of vaccinating its most vulnerable residents: seniors. As of today, the United States has gotten two doses to 88 percent of its over-65 population. England specifically <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/COVID-19-weekly-announced-
|
|||
|
|
vaccinations-16-December-2021.pdf">has reached</a> more than 95 percent of that population with two doses, and more than 85 percent of those people have received a third dose. The US, by comparison, has boosted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/18/us/omicron-booster-shots-americans.html">a little more than 50 percent of its over-65 population</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BCUxy8">
|
|||
|
|
The UK’s experience demonstrates that a country can make meaningful progress toward decoupling cases and severe outcomes when more people get vaccinated.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AnjWFu">
|
|||
|
|
The US has continued to vaccinate more people since the summer, just not as many as experts would like to see. So while we could see more infections with omicron than ever before, the hope is that a smaller share of those cases will end in hospitalization or death because more people have some immunity.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BOLjNI">
|
|||
|
|
But omicron, because it is so transmissible, still poses a serious threat to the US health system. The numerator of cases could still become so large that, even if a smaller share of them lead to severe illness, the raw number of hospitalizations could still exceed anything we have seen so far. Already, during the summer’s delta wave, some US hospitals were so overwhelmed that they didn’t have the beds or staff to care for all of their patients who were experiencing a medical emergency. <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2021/9/14/22650733/us-covid-19-hospitals-full-texas-alabama">Some of those patients died</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ujHFJb">
|
|||
|
|
That could happen again if omicron spreads too quickly, even if the proportion of cases that turn serious becomes smaller. That is why experts say it is so important to keep track of hospitalizations: That metric will tell us when and where the health system is coming under strain.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JMs2mk">
|
|||
|
|
“I haven’t seen evidence of a full decoupling for these metrics anywhere, though fewer cases are being hospitalized and fewer hospitalized patients are dying compared to earlier time periods in the pandemic,” Spencer Fox, associate director of the University of Texas Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, told me. “I still believe that hospitalizations are the metric to track. Until we can have a pandemic surge that doesn’t threaten health care capacity, we are going to be in a position where we cannot allow unchecked transmission.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="f6B8kB">
|
|||
|
|
Why case numbers are still important to keep an eye on
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fzP3jb">
|
|||
|
|
The more immunity in the population, the more hospitalizations and deaths become the most reliable metrics of how serious the crisis is. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore case numbers entirely. As more infections occur, the coronavirus will have more opportunities to evolve.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KmPwQC">
|
|||
|
|
“We are far from everyone being vaccinated,” Eleanor Murray, a Boston University assistant professor of epidemiology, told me. “Given that every infection is a potential opportunity for a new, worse variant to emerge, we really need to still be tracking infection rates as much as we can.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a98Rp6">
|
|||
|
|
Case numbers will also give us an idea of the toll the pandemic is taking on society beyond those worst outcomes of hospitalization or death. People who test positive for Covid-19 are still supposed to isolate for 10 days, according to the CDC. That means they can’t go to work or go to school. That is an inconvenience for their lives and, depending on who they are, it could also jeopardize essential services for everybody.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="A person in scrubs, gloves, and mask squats on the floor of
|
|||
|
|
a hospital room containing an empty bed." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/-vkEpvujzw5ejteE4JkcotM4zcw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23118559/GettyImages_1235151163.jpg"/> <cite>Nathan Howard/Getty Images</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A nurse waits for her next Covid-19 case to be brought from the emergency room shortly after a deceased patient was removed from the same Intensive Care Unit room at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center in Grants Pass, Oregon, in September.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2A7BDF">
|
|||
|
|
Experts are <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22841477/covid-19-omicron-variant-tests-symptoms-isolation">already worried</a> about a massive number of health care workers testing positive and needing to isolate at the same time hospitals are experiencing a surge of omicron patients. Staffing remains as big of a challenge for health systems as physical capacity, and people will not get the care they need if many doctors and nurses get infected at the same time.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Nv2NF">
|
|||
|
|
“It matters who tests positive,” Osterholm said. “Many health care workers are not going to be able to work. … I think we are going to see a substantial challenge, above and beyond what we’ve seen so far.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xK2mgo">
|
|||
|
|
He also gave the example of police officers or firefighters, essential workers who test positive and then must isolate, as another example of how widespread infections could compromise essential services and put more people at risk beyond the direct effects of the coronavirus itself.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mP0nu4">
|
|||
|
|
And there remains the unavoidable fact that, even in places with high vaccination rates, increasing case numbers will likely translate into increasing hospitalizations, especially with the omicron variant proving more elusive for vaccine-conferred immunity. The relationship might not be as strong as it has been in prior waves because more people are vaccinated, but it will still be there.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1s2vTT">
|
|||
|
|
“Case rates are an early warning for where we are headed with hospitalizations, even in the setting of high vaccine coverage,” said Maya Peterson, associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of California Berkeley. “If you have a huge number of cases, even with a low hospitalization rate, you can overwhelm hospitals.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="DCKANZ">
|
|||
|
|
Whatever the metric, what matters is what we do with the data we have
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rGhsLy">
|
|||
|
|
It’s not as simple as focusing on just cases or just hospitalizations. Both of the metrics tell us something important about how Covid-19 is affecting our society and our health systems.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pyUBdy">
|
|||
|
|
But any of this data is only useful if public health authorities act upon it, said Justin Feldman, a social epidemiologist at Harvard University. There is a widespread recognition among public health experts that, in many parts of the country, no new public health measures are likely to be put in place — certainly not preemptively — and, by the time cases and hospitalizations and deaths are rising, it’s already too late to prevent a crisis.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hY8BRp">
|
|||
|
|
“I believe the argument goes: Case rates may no longer be closely linked with hospitalization rates because large proportions of people are vaccinated, at least in some areas. If we used case rates to trigger certain public health policies in the past, we should now use hospitalization rates instead,” Feldman told me. “My first question is, ‘What public health measures are we even talking about?’ Politicians at all levels have mostly given up on them, even when necessary.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SBz1pj">
|
|||
|
|
Some local governments have started putting more serious measures into place, reinstituting mask mandates and requiring people to be vaccinated to eat in restaurants or attend other indoor events. The Biden White House is announcing this week a plan to make more free tests available and deploy emergency personnel in places hit hard by omicron.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BshRl0">
|
|||
|
|
But even with omicron upon us, <a href="https://www.kff.org/report-section/state-
|
|||
|
|
covid-19-data-and-policy-actions-policy-actions/#socialdistancing">only nine states</a> have mask mandates in place. Many governors are uninterested in closing businesses again or putting any more restrictive policies into place, including banning large crowded indoor events. Some of them are Republicans who have been skeptical of Covid-19 interventions; others are Democrats who <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2021/12/10/interview-gov-jared-polis-mask-mandates-
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covid/">say</a> that they don’t want to punish their vaccinated constituents with new rules.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kCjK0E">
|
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Individuals can still take precautions, and local data may give them an idea of how seriously they should be taking the Covid-19 threat at any given time. But the will of government leaders to act in the face of omicron appears to be selective.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5H94PB">
|
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|
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So without new interventions, all these metrics — case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths — could continue to pile up, with a limited effect on the government’s pandemic response.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="04tc9t">
|
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|
|
As Feldman put it to me: “These metrics are mostly useless if we’re not going to implement additional public health measures.”
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
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|
|
<ul>
|
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|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India beat Pakistan 4-3 to win ACT hockey bronze</strong> - It was India’s second win over Pakistan in the tournament.</p></li>
|
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|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mick Schumacher to take on Ferrari F1 reserve role</strong> - Ferrari finished third overall in 2021, a big jump from sixth the previous season, and Binotto said the team were stronger than before</p></li>
|
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|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Arteta on his two years in charge, the pandemic and 20 year-old striker Martinelli</strong> - Mikel Arteta has said that the last two years have been an “incredible journey” as he reflected on the second anniversary of appointment as Arsenal m</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>Extra pressure on Kohli as he looks for a legacy-validating win</strong> - Few Indian captains have taken on the cricket board in the manner Kohli has, and that too before an important tour.</p></li>
|
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|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ex-gymnastics coach wins appeal on Larry Nassar-related conviction</strong> - Kathie Klages was sentenced to 90 days in jail in August 2020 on felony and misdemeanor counts of lying to police about her knowledge of the former Olympic and MSU doctor’s sexual abuse</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>Harish Rawat says party organisation playing negative role</strong> - “I am filled with thoughts.”I am in a dilemma.”</p></li>
|
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|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kolkata tram users’ body demands restoration of services</strong> - ‘Only three routes are in operation at the moment and none of them offer a reliable service’</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>President Ram Nath Kovind witnesses naval operation demonstration in Kochi; visits IAC Vikrant</strong> - Ram Nath Kovind also visited the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Vikrant and interacted with the Navy officers who provided him with a first hand brief on the progress of the sea trials.</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>Government should revoke OTS scheme, says Velagapudi</strong> - ‘It is only a ploy to harass the poor and earn some money to fund welfare schemes’</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>Bangladesh national killed in BSF firing in Malda</strong> - BSF says jawan was attacked in a smuggling incident along the international border in West Bengal</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>Covid Omicron: European nations reinstate restrictions</strong> - As the Omicron variant spreads across the continent, countries tighten curbs to brace for another wave.</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>Brigitte Macron to sue over false claims she was born male</strong> - Far-right conspiracy theorists have targeted the French president’s wife on social media.</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>Hungary’s Viktor Orban to defy EU over immigration law</strong> - PM Viktor Orban vows to stick by an asylum law the European Union’s top court deemed illegal.</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>Spanish rugby international Kawa Leauma, 32, dies after fall</strong> - Spain international Kawa Leauma dies following an accident in which he fell from a building in the Netherlands.</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>Spain police thwart raffle of Christmas hamper stuffed with drugs</strong> - Police have arrested two men allegedly trying to raffle off a “narco-basket” stuffed with drugs.</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>Google OnHub router will join Google’s list of dead products next December</strong> - Routers won’t stop working, but most functions will be shut off. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822142">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Boeing, Airbus wade into 5G scuffle, ask Biden admin to delay rollout</strong> - Aircraft manufacturers claim 5G radio signals will interfere with altimeters. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822127">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s omicron battle plan includes 500 million home test kits</strong> - President Biden outlined the federal government’s response to omicron’s ascendancy. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822083">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Steve Ballmer’s “parting gift” as Microsoft CEO: Trying to name Cortana “Bingo”</strong> - Former Microsoft product manager talks about Cortana’s development and decline. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822055">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Meta investors are sick of the scandals and want more oversight</strong> - Shareholders want greater oversight of “risks to public safety.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1822072">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>On a tour of the facilities, the CEO notices a guy leaning on a wall.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He can’t believe this guy would just stand around on the job. The new CEO walks up to the guy leaning against the wall and asks, “What are you doing here?” “I’m just waiting to get paid,” responds the man. Furious, the CEO asks “How much money do you make a week?” A little surprised, the young fellow replies, “I make about $300 a week. Why?” The CEO quickly gets out his checkbook, hands the guy a check made out to cash for $1,200 and says, “Here’s four weeks’ pay, now get out and don’t come back.” The man puts the check in his pocket and promptly walks out. Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looks around the room and asks, “Does anyone want to tell me what just happened here?” From across the room comes a voice, “Yeah, you just tipped the pizza delivery guy $1,200.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/muadeebpaul"> /u/muadeebpaul </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rlvl0u/on_a_tour_of_the_facilities_the_ceo_notices_a_guy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rlvl0u/on_a_tour_of_the_facilities_the_ceo_notices_a_guy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Call me Trumper if you must, but I’ve got proof masks don’t do shit.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Last Thursday my wife went on a business trip and they made her wear a mask the whole time - but she got chlamydia anyway!
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/NopeNopeNope2020"> /u/NopeNopeNope2020 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rltmzu/call_me_trumper_if_you_must_but_ive_got_proof/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rltmzu/call_me_trumper_if_you_must_but_ive_got_proof/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Teacher: Use urinate in a sentence</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Johnny: Urinate, but if you had bigger tits, you’d be a nine.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/NJFatBoy"> /u/NJFatBoy </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rllopb/teacher_use_urinate_in_a_sentence/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rllopb/teacher_use_urinate_in_a_sentence/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>One day, Einstein has to speak at an important science conference.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
On the way there, he tells his driver that looks a bit like him:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I’m sick of all these conferences. I always say the same things over and over!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The driver agrees: “You’re right. As your driver, I attended all of them, and even though I don’t know anything about science, I could give the conference in your place.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“That’s a great idea!” says Einstein. “Let’s switch places then!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
So they switch clothes and as soon as they arrive, the driver dressed as Einstein goes on stage and starts giving the usual speech, while the real Einstein, dressed as the car driver, attends it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
But in the crowd, there is one scientist who wants to impress everyone and thinks of a very difficult question to ask Einstein, hoping he won’t be able to respond. So this guy stands up and interrupts the conference by posing his very difficult question. The whole room goes silent, holding their breath, waiting for the response.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The driver looks at him, dead in the eye, and says :
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Sir, your question is so easy to answer that I’m going to let my driver reply to it for me.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Sad_Independent6996"> /u/Sad_Independent6996 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rlwvow/one_day_einstein_has_to_speak_at_an_important/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rlwvow/one_day_einstein_has_to_speak_at_an_important/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>I just scored a 170 on an online IQ test and only had to answer three simple questions.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
1.My credit card number
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
2.My social security number
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
3.Uploading a signed copy of my birth certificate
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Warcraft00"> /u/Warcraft00 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rlmcud/i_just_scored_a_170_on_an_online_iq_test_and_only/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rlmcud/i_just_scored_a_170_on_an_online_iq_test_and_only/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
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|
|||
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|
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|
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