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<title>25 January, 2023</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Transformation of forecasts for evaluating predictive performance in an epidemiological context</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Forecast evaluation plays an essential role in the development cycle of predictive epidemic models and can inform their use for public health decision-making. Common scores to evaluate epidemiological forecasts are the Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS) and the Weighted Interval Score (WIS), which are both measures of the absolute distance between the forecast distribution and the observation. They are commonly applied directly to predicted and observed incidence counts, but it can be questioned whether this yields the most meaningful results given the exponential nature of epidemic processes and the several orders of magnitude that observed values can span over space and time. In this paper, we argue that log transforming counts before applying scores such as the CRPS or WIS can effectively mitigate these difficulties and yield epidemiologically meaningful and easily interpretable results. We motivate the procedure threefold using the CRPS on log-transformed counts as an example: Firstly, it can be interpreted as a probabilistic version of a relative error. Secondly, it reflects how well models predicted the time-varying epidemic growth rate. And lastly, using arguments on variance-stabilizing transformations, it can be shown that under the assumption of a quadratic mean-variance relationship, the logarithmic transformation leads to expected CRPS values which are independent of the order of magnitude of the predicted quantity. Applying the log transformation to data and forecasts from the European COVID-19 Forecast Hub, we find that it changes model rankings regardless of stratification by forecast date, location or target types. Situations in which models missed the beginning of upward swings are more strongly emphasized while failing to predict a downturn following a peak is less severely penalized. We conclude that appropriate transformations, of which the natural logarithm is only one particularly attractive option, should be considered when assessing the performance of different models in the context of infectious disease incidence.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.23.23284722v1" target="_blank">Transformation of forecasts for evaluating predictive performance in an epidemiological context</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Faecal shedding models for SARS-CoV-2 RNA amongst hospitalised patients and implications for wastewater-based epidemiology</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The concentration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in faeces is not well established, posing challenges for wastewater-based surveillance of COVID-19 and risk assessments of environmental transmission. We develop versatile hierarchical models for faecal RNA shedding and apply them to data collected in six studies. We find that the mean number of gene copies per mL of faeces is 1.9×10<sup>6</sup> (2.3×10<sup>5</sup>—2.0×10<sup>8</sup> 95% credible interval) amongst hospitalised patients. We find no evidence for a subpopulation of patients who do not shed RNA: limits of quantification can account for negative stool samples. Our models indicate that hospitalised patients represent the tail of the shedding profile with a half-life of 34 hours (28—43 95% credible interval), suggesting that wastewater-based surveillance signals are more indicative of incidence than prevalence and can be a leading indicator of clinical presentation. Shedding among inpatients cannot explain high RNA concentrations observed in wastewater, consistent with more abundant shedding during the early infection course. We show that the models generalise and can predict summary statistics of held-out clinical datasets. However, shedding prior to hospitalisation cannot be constrained due to lack of samples, and information on viral variants was not available.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253603v2" target="_blank">Faecal shedding models for SARS-CoV-2 RNA amongst hospitalised patients and implications for wastewater-based epidemiology</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Genome-wide CRISPR screens identify noncanonical translation factor eIF2A as an enhancer of SARS-CoV-2 programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting</strong> -
<div>
Many positive-strand RNA viruses, including all known coronaviruses, employ programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting (-1 PRF) to regulate the translation of polycistronic viral RNAs. However, only a few host factors have been shown to regulate -1 PRF. Through a reporter-based genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screen, we identified several host factors that either suppressed or enhanced -1 PRF of SARS-CoV-2. One of these factors is eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2A (eIF2A), which specifically and directly enhanced -1 PRF in vitro and in cells. Consistent with the crucial role of efficient -1 PRF in transcriptase/replicase expression, loss of eIF2A reduced SARS-CoV-2 replication in cells. Transcriptome-wide analysis of eIF2A-interacting RNAs showed that eIF2A primarily interacted with 18S ribosomal RNA near the contacts between the SARS-CoV-2 frameshift-stimulatory element (FSE) and the ribosome. Thus, our results revealed an unexpected role for eIF2A in modulating the translation of specific RNAs independent of its previously described role during initiation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.23.525275v1" target="_blank">Genome-wide CRISPR screens identify noncanonical translation factor eIF2A as an enhancer of SARS-CoV-2 programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Preclinical efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate based on a recombinant RBD fusion heterodimer of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Current COVID-19 vaccines have been associated with a decline in infection rates, prevention of severe disease and a decrease in mortality rates. However, new variants of concern (VoCs) are continuously evolving, making the development of new accessible COVID-19 vaccines essential to mitigate the pandemic. Here, we present data on preclinical studies in mice of a receptor-binding domain (RBD)-based recombinant protein vaccine candidate (PHH-1V) consisting of an RBD fusion heterodimer comprising the B.1.351 and B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 VoCs formulated in SQBA adjuvant, an oil-in-water emulsion. A prime-boost immunisation with PHH-1V in BALB/c and K18-hACE2 mice models induced a CD4+ and CD8+ T cell response and RBD-binding antibodies with neutralising activity against several variants and also showed a good tolerability profile. Significantly, RBD fusion heterodimer vaccination conferred 100% efficacy, preventing mortality in SARS-CoV-2 infected K18-hACE2 mice, but also reducing Beta, Delta and Omicron infection in lower respiratory airways. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of this recombinant vaccine strategy.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.22.469117v6" target="_blank">Preclinical efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate based on a recombinant RBD fusion heterodimer of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVision: Convolutional Neural Network for the Differentiation of COVID-19 from Common Pulmonary Conditions using CT Scans</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
With the growing amount of COVID-19 cases, especially in developing countries with limited medical resources, it is essential to accurately diagnose COVID-19 with high specificity. Due to characteristic ground-glass opacities (GGOs), present in both COVID-19 and other acute lung diseases, misdiagnosis occurs often: 26.6% of the time in manual interpretations of CT scans. Current deep-learning models can identify COVID-19 but cannot distinguish it from other common lung diseases like bacterial pneumonia. COVision is a multi-classification convolutional neural network (CNN) that can differentiate COVID-19 from other common lung diseases, with a low false-positivity rate. This CNN achieved an accuracy of 95.8%, AUROC of 0.970, and specificity of 98%. We found a statistical significance that our CNN performs better than three independent radiologists with at least 10 years of experience. especially in differentiating COVID-19 from pneumonia. After training our CNN with 105,000 CT slices, we analyzed the activation maps of our CNN and found that lesions in COVID-19 presented peripherally, closer to the pleura, whereas pneumonia lesions presented centrally. Finally, using federated averaging, we ensemble our CNN with a pretrained clinical factors neural network (CFNN) to create a comprehensive diagnostic tool.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.22.23284880v2" target="_blank">COVision: Convolutional Neural Network for the Differentiation of COVID-19 from Common Pulmonary Conditions using CT Scans</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Randomized Trial Comparing Omicron-Containing Boosters with the Original Covid-19 Vaccine mRNA-1273</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<b>Background</b> Omicron-containing bivalent boosters are available worldwide. Results of a large, randomized, active-controlled study are presented. <b>Methods</b> This phase 3, randomized, observer-blind, active-controlled trial in the United Kingdom evaluated the immunogenicity and safety of 50-μg doses of omicron-BA.1- monovalent mRNA-1273.529 and bivalent mRNA-1273.214 booster vaccines compared with 50-μg mRNA-1273 administered as boosters in individuals ≥16 years. Participants had previously received 2 doses of any authorized/approved Covid-19 vaccine with or without an mRNA vaccine booster. Safety and immunogenicity were primary objectives; immunogenicity was assessed in all participants, with analysis conducted based on prior infection status. Incidence of Covid-19 post-boost was a secondary (mRNA-1273.214) or exploratory (mRNA-1273.529) objective. <b>Results</b> In part 1 of the study, 719 participants received mRNA-1273.529 (n=362) or mRNA-1273 (n=357); in part 2, 2813 received mRNA-1273.214 (n=1418) or mRNA-1273 (n=1395). Median durations (months [range]) between the most recent Covid-19 vaccine and study boosters were similar in the mRNA-1273.529 (4.0 [1.5-8.9]) and mRNA-1273 (4.1 [3.0-5.6]) (part 1), and mRNA-1273.214 (5.5 [0.4-13.3] and mRNA-1273 (5.4 [0.2-10.6]) groups (part 2). Both mRNA-1273.529 and mRNA-1273.214 elicited superior neutralizing antibody responses against omicron BA.1 with geometric mean ratios (95% CI) of 1.68 (1.45-1.95) and 1.53 (1.41-1.67) compared to mRNA-1273 at Day 29 post-boost. Although the study was not powered to assess relative vaccine efficacy, the incidence rates/1000 person years (95% CI) of Covid-19 trended lower with mRNA-1273.529 (670.5 [528.3-839.3]) than mRNA-1273 (769.3 [615.4-950.1]) and mRNA-1273.214 (633.0 [538.1-739.7]) than mRNA-1273 (711.6 [607.5-828.5]). Sequence analysis in part 2 showed that this was driven by lower incidence of Covid-19 in the mRNA-1273.214 cohort with BA.2 and BA.4 sublineages but not BA.5 sublineages. All study boosters were well-tolerated. <b>Conclusion</b> The bivalent omicron BA.1 containing booster elicited superior neutralizing antibody responses against omicron BA.1 with acceptable safety results consistent with the BA.1 monovalent vaccine. Incidence rates for Covid-19 were numerically lower in participants who received mRNA-1273.214 compared to the original booster vaccine mRNA-1273, driven by the BA.2 and BA.4 sublineages.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.24.23284869v1" target="_blank">A Randomized Trial Comparing Omicron-Containing Boosters with the Original Covid-19 Vaccine mRNA-1273</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Multimodal characterization of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells across SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection.</strong> -
<div>
The human immune response to SARS-CoV-2 antigen after infection or vaccination is defined by the durable production of antibodies and T cells. Population-based monitoring typically focuses on antibody titer, but there is a need for improved characterization and quantification of T cell responses. Here, we utilize multimodal sequencing technologies to perform a longitudinal analysis of circulating human leukocytes collected before and after BNT162b2 immunization. Our data reveal distinct subpopulations of CD8+ T cells which reliably appear 28 days after prime vaccination (7 days post boost). Using a suite of cross-modality integration tools, we define their transcriptome, accessible chromatin landscape, and immunophenotype, and identify unique biomarkers within each modality. By leveraging DNA-oligo-tagged peptide-MHC multimers and T cell receptor sequencing, we demonstrate that this vaccine-induced population is SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific and capable of rapid clonal expansion. Moreover, we also identify these CD8+ populations in scRNA-seq datasets from COVID-19 patients and find that their relative frequency and differentiation outcomes are predictive of subsequent clinical outcomes. Our work contributes to our understanding of T cell immunity, and highlights the potential for integrative and multimodal analysis to characterize rare cell populations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.24.525203v1" target="_blank">Multimodal characterization of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells across SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prediction of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mutations using Sequence-to-Sequence and Transformer models</strong> -
<div>
In the study of viral epidemics, having information about the structural evolution of the virus can be very helpful in controlling the disease and making vaccines. Various deep learning and natural language processing techniques (NLP) can be used to analyze genetic structure of viruses, namely to predict their mutations. In this paper, by using Sequence-to-Sequence (Seq2Seq) model with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) cell and Transformer model with the attention mechanism, we investigate the spike protein mutations of SARS-CoV-2 virus. We make time-series datasets of the spike protein sequences of this virus and generate upcoming spike protein sequences. We also determine the mutations of the generated spike protein sequences, by comparing these sequences with the Wuhan spike protein sequence. We train the models to make predictions in December 2021, February 2022, and October 2022. Furthermore, we find that some of our generated spike protein sequences have been reported in December 2021 and February 2022, which belong to Delta and Omicron variants. The results obtained in the present study could be useful for prediction of future mutations of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.23.525130v1" target="_blank">Prediction of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mutations using Sequence-to-Sequence and Transformer models</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Wastewater-based surveillance can be used to model COVID-19-associated workforce absenteeism</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is a powerful tool for understanding community COVID-19 disease burden and informing public health policy. The potential of WBS for understanding COVID-19 impact in non-healthcare settings has not been explored to the same degree. Here we examined how SARS-CoV-2 measured from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) correlates with local workforce absenteeism. SARS-CoV-2 RNA N1 and N2 were quantified three times per week by RT-qPCR in samples collected at three WWTPs servicing Calgary and surrounding areas, Canada (1.3 million residents) between June 2020 and March 2022. Wastewater trends were compared to workforce absenteeism using data from the largest employer in the city (&gt;15,000 staff). Absences were classified as being COVID-19-related, COVID-19-confirmed, and unrelated to COVID-19. Poisson regression was performed to generate a prediction model for COVID-19 absenteeism based on wastewater data. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 95.5% (85/89) of weeks assessed. During this period 6592 COVID-19-related absences (1896 confirmed) and 4,524 unrelated absences COVID-19 cases were recorded. Employee absences significantly increased as wastewater signal increased through pandemic waves. Strong correlations between COVID-19-confirmed absences and wastewater SARS-CoV-2 signals (N1 gene: r=0.824, p&lt;0.0001 and N2 gene: r=0.826, p&lt;0.0001) were observed. Linear regression with adjusted R2-value demonstrated a robust association (adjusted R2=0.783), when adjusted by 7 days, indicating wastewater provides a one-week leading signal. A generalized linear regression using a Poisson distribution was performed to predict COVID-19-confirmed absences out of the total number of absent employees using wastewater data as a leading indicator (P&lt;0.0001). We also assessed the variation of predictions when the regression model was applied to new data, with the predicted values and corresponding confidence intervals closely tracking actual absenteeism data. Wastewater-based surveillance has the potential to be used by employers to anticipate workforce requirements and optimize human resource allocation in response to trackable respiratory illnesses like COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.22.23284878v1" target="_blank">Wastewater-based surveillance can be used to model COVID-19-associated workforce absenteeism</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Real-world effectiveness of Azvudine in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Current guidelines prioritize the use of the Azvudine in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. However, the clinical effectiveness of Azvudine in real-world studies was lacking, despite the clinical trials showed shorter time of nucleic acid negative conversion. To evaluate the clinical effectiveness following Azvudine treatment in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, we identified 1505 hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the study period, with a follow-up of up to 29 days. After exclusions and propensity score matching, we included 226 Azvudine recipients and 226 matched controls. The lower crude incidence rate of composite disease progression outcome (4.21 vs. 10.39 per 1000 person-days, P=0.041) and all-cause mortality (1.57 vs. 6.00 per 1000 person-days, P=0.027) were observed among Azvudine recipients compared with matched controls. The incidence rates of initiation of invasive mechanical ventilation were also statistically different between the groups according to the log-rank tests (P=0.020). Azvudine treatment was associated with significantly lower risks of composite disease progression outcome (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.43; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.18 to 0.99) and all-cause death (HR: 0.26; 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.94) compared with matched controls. Subgroup analyses indicated robustness of the point estimates of HRs (ranged from 0.14 to 0.84). Notably, male Azvudine recipients had a stronger effectiveness than female recipients with respect to both composite outcome and all-cause death. These findings suggest that Azvudine treatment showed substantial clinical benefits in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and should be considered for use in this population of patients.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.23.23284899v1" target="_blank">Real-world effectiveness of Azvudine in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In-silico Analysis of SARS-Cov2 Spike Proteins of Different Field Variants</strong> -
<div>
Background: Coronaviruses belong to the group of RNA family of viruses which trigger diseases in birds, humans, and mammals, which can cause respiratory tract infections. The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected every part of the world, and the situation in the world is getting worse with the emergence of novel variants. Our study aims to explore the genome of SARS-CoV2 followed by in silico analysis of its proteins. Methods: Different nucleotide and protein variants of SARS-Cov2 were retrieved from NCBI. Contigs &amp; consensus sequences were developed to identify variations in these variants by using SnapGene. Data of variants that significantly differ from each other was run through Predict Protein software to understand changes produced in protein structure The SOPMA web server was used to predict the secondary structure of proteins. Tertiary structure details of selected proteins were analyzed using the online web server SWISS-MODEL. Findings: Sequencing results shows numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms in surface glycoprotein, nucleocapsid, ORF1a, and ORF1ab polyprotein. While envelope, membrane, ORF3a, ORF6, ORF7a, ORF8, and ORF10 genes have no or few SNPs. Contigs were mto identifyn of variations in Alpha &amp; Delta Variant of SARs-CoV-2 with reference strain (Wuhan). The secondary structures of SARs-CoV-2 proteins were predicted by using sopma software &amp; were further compared with reference strain of SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan) proteins. The tertiary structure details of only spike proteins were analyzed through the SWISS-MODEL and Ramachandran plot. By Swiss-model, a comparison of the tertiary structure model of SARS-COV-2 spike protein of Alpha &amp; Delta Variant was made with reference strain (Wuhan). Alpha &amp; Delta Variant of SARs-CoV-2 isolates submitted in GISAID from Pakistan with changes in structural and nonstructural proteins were compared with reference strain &amp; 3D structure mapping of spike glycoprotein and mutations in amino acid were seen. Conclusion: The surprising increased rate of SARS-CoV-2 transmission has forced numerous countries to impose a total lockdown due to an unusual occurrence. In this research, we employed in silico computational tools to analyze SARS-CoV-2 genomes worldwide to detect vital variations in structural proteins and dynamic changes in all SARS-CoV-2 proteins, mainly spike proteins, produced due to many mutations. Our analysis revealed substantial differences in functional, immunological, physicochemical, &amp; structural variations in SARS-CoV-2 isolates. However real impact of these SNPs can only be determined further by experiments. Our results can aid in vivo and in vitro experiments in the future.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.22.525048v1" target="_blank">In-silico Analysis of SARS-Cov2 Spike Proteins of Different Field Variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVision: Convolutional Neural Network for the Differentiation of COVID-19 from Common Pulmonary Conditions using CT Scans</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
With the growing amount of COVID-19 cases, especially in developing countries with limited medical resources, it is essential to accurately diagnose COVID-19 with high specificity. Due to characteristic ground-glass opacities (GGOs), present in both COVID-19 and other acute lung diseases, misdiagnosis occurs often: 26.6% of the time in manual interpretations of CT scans. Current deep-learning models can identify COVID-19 but cannot distinguish it from other common lung diseases like bacterial pneumonia. COVision is a multi-classification convolutional neural network (CNN) that can differentiate COVID-19 from other common lung diseases, with a low false-positivity rate. This CNN achieved an accuracy of 95.8%, AUROC of 0.970, and specificity of 98%. We found a statistical significance that our CNN performs better than three independent radiologists with at least 10 years of experience. especially in differentiating COVID-19 from pneumonia. After training our CNN with 105,000 CT slices, we analyzed the activation maps of our CNN and found that lesions in COVID-19 presented peripherally, closer to the pleura, whereas pneumonia lesions presented centrally. Finally, using federated averaging, we ensemble our CNN with a pretrained clinical factors neural network (CFNN) to create a comprehensive diagnostic tool.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.22.23284880v1" target="_blank">COVision: Convolutional Neural Network for the Differentiation of COVID-19 from Common Pulmonary Conditions using CT Scans</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Delirium in a Young Predominantly Hispanic Population with COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Abstract Purpose: To study a primarily Hispanic population of adults younger than 65 to determine if COVID-19 patients with a concurrent delirium diagnosis had worse clinical outcomes in terms of hospital stay, ventilation and mortality, than those without a delirium diagnosis. Methods: After approval by the appropriate Institutional Review Board, a retrospective cohort study was performed looking at demographics, vital statistics, and clinical outcomes of patients aged 18-65 admitted to a hospital in the United States - Mexico border region with COVID-19 between March 1 and June 30, 2020. Data were analyzed using Fisher9s exact test, or an unpaired t-test where appropriate, and a univariate analysis was performed to establish relative risk. Confidence intervals were set at 95% and p values ≤0.05 were considered significant. Results: 133 patients with confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses (58% men, 92% Hispanic) were included. Mean age was 50.5 with a standard deviation of 11.7 years (range 20-65 years). The prevalence of delirium was 6%. Fifty percent of delirium patients died during hospitalization compared to 15% of patients without delirium. Patients with delirium were found to spend more days hospitalized, in the intensive care unit, and intubated than their counterparts without delirium. Delirium was associated with increased risk of being placed on mechanical ventilation (RR 3.91, 95% CI 1.46-10.41, p value 0.006). Conclusions: Delirium was associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes independent of age. COVID-19 patients need to be actively assessed for signs of delirium and appropriate precautionary measures should be implemented. Proper documentation of delirium is key to continue learning about the incidence of delirium in COVID-19 patients.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.22.23284879v1" target="_blank">Delirium in a Young Predominantly Hispanic Population with COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A New Approach for Active Coronavirus Infection Identification by Targeting the Negative RNA Strand- A Replacement for the Current Positive RNA-based qPCR Detection Method</strong> -
<div>
This manuscript describes the development of an alternative method to detect active coronavirus infection, in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The pandemic, which was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019, has had a significant impact on global health as well as on the economy and daily life in the world. The current positive RNA-based detection systems are unable to discriminate between replicating and non-replicating viruses, complicating decisions related to quarantine and therapeutic interventions. The proposed method targets the negative strand of the virus and has the potential to effectively distinguish between active and inactive infections, which could provide a more accurate means of determining the spread of the virus and guide more effective public health measures during the current pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.22.525117v1" target="_blank">A New Approach for Active Coronavirus Infection Identification by Targeting the Negative RNA Strand- A Replacement for the Current Positive RNA-based qPCR Detection Method</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Waning Immunity Against XBB.1.5 Following Bivalent mRNA Boosters</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has continued to evolve. XBB is a recombinant between two BA.2 sublineages, XBB.1 includes the G252V mutation, and XBB.1.5 includes the G252V and F486P mutations. XBB.1.5 has rapidly increased in frequency and has become the dominant virus in New England. The bivalent mRNA vaccine boosters have been shown to increase neutralizing antibody (NAb) titers to multiple variants, but the durability of these responses remains to be determined. We assessed humoral and cellular immune responses in 30 participants who received the bivalent mRNA boosters and performed assays at baseline prior to boosting, at week 3 after boosting, and at month 3 after boosting. Our data demonstrate that XBB.1.5 substantially escapes NAb responses but not T cell responses after bivalent mRNA boosting. NAb titers to XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 were similar, suggesting that the F486P mutation confers greater transmissibility but not increased immune escape. By month 3, NAb titers to XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 declined essentially to baseline levels prior to boosting, while NAb titers to other variants declined less strikingly.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.22.525079v1" target="_blank">Waning Immunity Against XBB.1.5 Following Bivalent mRNA Boosters</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</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>Digital Tools to Expand COVID-19 Testing in Exposed Individuals in Cameroon</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Digital based contact tracing<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation;   Find<br/><b>Recruiting</b></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>Evaluation of the Outcome of COVID-19 Patients Discharged Home on Oxygen Therapy</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Phone satisfaction questionnaire<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Centre Hospitalier René Dubos<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></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>Postural Changes and Severe COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Postural interventions based on pulmonary imaging<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Wuhan Union Hospital, China<br/><b>Recruiting</b></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>A Chatbot to Enhance COVID-19 Knowledge</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: chatbot;   Other: Printed educational booklet<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sun Yat-sen University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></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>Study on the Safety and Efficacy of Meplazumab for Injection Patients COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Meplazumab foe injection;   Other: Normal saline<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Pacific Meinuoke Bio Pharmaceutical Co Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></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>Study on the Safety and Efficacy of Meplazumab for Injection in Severe Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Meplazumab for injection;   Other: Normal saline<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Pacific Meinuoke Bio Pharmaceutical Co Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></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>A Phase 2 Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of QLS1128 Orally in Symptomatic Participants With Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: QLS1128;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Qilu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></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>Efficacy of Megadose Vitamin C in Severe and Critical Ill COVID-19 Patients.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vitamin C;   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Vitamin C;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Zhujiang Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></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>Oropharyngeal Immunoprophylaxis With High Polyphenolic Olive Oil as Clinical Spectrum Mitigating Factor in COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: High polyphenolic olive oil. (Early harvest olive oil).<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hospital General Nuestra Señora del Prado<br/><b>Completed</b></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>A Randomized, Phase I Study of DNA Vaccine OC-007 as a Booster Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection;   COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reaction<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: DNA vaccine OC-007;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Matti Sällberg<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></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>UC-MSCs in the Treatment of Severe and Critical COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Mesenchymal Stem Cell;   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells;   Drug: paxlovid<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shanghai East Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></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>An Investigator Initiated, Randomized, Double-blinded, Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety, Immunogenicity and Efficacy of the Recombinant Two-component COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cell) in Adults Aged 18 Years and Older</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Prevention of COVID-19 Caused by SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Yu Qin<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></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>Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Azvudine in Preventing SARS-Cov-2 Infection in Ousehold in China</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Azvudine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Shanghai Henlius Biotech;   Huashan Hospital;   Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Industrial Development Co. Ltd.;   HeNan Sincere Biotech Co., Ltd<br/><b>Recruiting</b></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>Multicenter Randomized Double-blind Placebo-controlled Study to Investigate Azvudine in Symptomatic Adults With COVID-19 at Increased Risk of Progressing to Severe Illness</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Azvudine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Peking Union Medical College Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></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>Low-Dose Radiation Therapy for Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Low-Dose Radiation Therapy for Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Radiation: Low-Dose Radiation Therapy<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jiangsu Cancer Institute &amp; Hospital;   Nanjing Chest Hospital;   The Affiliated BenQ Hospital of Nanjing Medical University;   Zhongda Hospital;   Central South University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</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>Multi-ligand molecular docking, simulation, free energy calculations and wavelet analysis of the synergistic effects between natural compounds baicalein and cubebin for the inhibition of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Combination drugs have been used for several diseases for many years since they produce better therapeutic effects. However, it is still a challenge to discover candidates to form a combination drug. This study aimed to investigate whether using a comprehensive in silico approach to identify novel combination drugs from a Chinese herbal formula is an appropriate and creative strategy. We, therefore, used Toujie Quwen Granules for the main protease (M^(pro)) of SARS-CoV-2 as an example. We first…</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>Down-regulation of KLF2 in lung fibroblasts is linked with COVID-19 immunofibrosis and restored by combined inhibition of NETs, JAK-1/2 and IL-6 signaling</strong> - Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) has been linked with fibrosis and neutrophil-associated thromboinflammation; however, its role in COVID-19 remains elusive. We investigated the effect of disease microenvironment on the fibrotic potential of human lung fibroblasts (LFs) and its association with KLF2 expression. LFs stimulated with plasma from severe COVID-19 patients down-regulated KLF2 expression at mRNA/protein and functional level acquiring a pre-fibrotic phenotype, as indicated by increased…</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>SARS-CoV-2 evolution influences GBP and IFITM sensitivity</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 spike requires proteolytic processing for viral entry. A polybasic furin-cleavage site (FCS) in spike, and evolution toward an optimized FCS by dominant variants of concern (VOCs), are linked to enhanced infectivity and transmission. Here we show interferon-inducible restriction factors Guanylate-binding proteins (GBP) 2 and 5 interfere with furin-mediated spike cleavage and inhibit the infectivity of early-lineage isolates Wuhan-Hu-1 and VIC. By contrast, VOCs Alpha and Delta escape…</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>Epitope-directed anti-SARS-CoV-2 scFv engineered against the key spike protein region could block membrane fusion</strong> - The newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 causing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) resulted in &gt;500 million infections. A great deal about the molecular processes of virus infection in the host is getting uncovered. Two sequential proteolytic cleavages of viral spike protein by host proteases are prerequisites for the entry of the virus into the host cell. The first cleavage occurs at S1/S2 site by the furin protease, and the second cleavage at a fusion activation site, the S2’ site, by the TMPRSS2 protease….</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>Potent Dual Polymerase/Exonuclease Inhibitory Activities of Antioxidant Aminothiadiazoles Against the COVID-19 Omicron Virus: A Promising In Silico/In Vitro Repositioning Research Study</strong> - Recently, natural and synthetic nitrogenous heterocyclic antivirals topped the scene as first choices for the treatment of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and their accompanying disease, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Meanwhile, the mysterious evolution of a new strain of SARS-CoV-2, the Omicron variant and its sublineages, caused a new defiance in the continual COVID-19 battle. Hitting the two principal coronaviral-2 multiplication enzymes…</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>Neutralization activity of IgG antibody in COVID‑19‑convalescent plasma against SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We evaluated the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels, anti-spike (S)-immunoglobulin G (IgG) and anti-nucleocapsid (N)-IgG, and the neutralization activity of IgG antibody in COVID‑19‑convalescent plasma against variants of SARS-CoV-2, alpha, beta, gamma, delta, kappa, omicron and R.1 strains. The study included 30 patients with clinically diagnosed COVID-19. The anti-S-IgG and anti-N-IgG…</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>Botanical inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 viral entry: a phylogenetic perspective</strong> - Throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the use of botanical dietary supplements in the United States has increased, yet their safety and efficacy against COVID-19 remains underexplored. The Quave Natural Product Library is a phylogenetically diverse collection of botanical and fungal natural product extracts including popular supplement ingredients. Evaluation of 1867 extracts and 18 compounds for virus spike protein binding to host cell ACE2 receptors in a SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped virus system…</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>Potential Self-Peptide Inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M^(pro)) plays an essential role in viral replication, cleaving viral polyproteins into functional proteins. This makes M^(pro) an important drug target. M^(pro) consists of an N-terminal catalytic domain and a C-terminal α-helical domain (M^(pro)C). Previous studies have shown that peptides derived from a given protein sequence (self-peptides) can affect the folding and, in turn, the function of that protein. Since the SARS-CoV-1 M^(pro)C is known to stabilize its…</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>Repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: induction of high-avidity anti-RBD neutralizing antibodies</strong> - CONCLUSION: The data indicate that in cancer patients mRNA vaccine induces high avidity anti-RBD antibodies and neutralizing antibodies that increase after the third dose. The process of induction and selection of high-affinity antibodies is apparently unaffected by the treatment with anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 antibodies.</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>Inhibition of Enveloped Virus Surrogate Phi6 Infection Using Yeast-Derived Vacuoles</strong> - The periodic emergence of infectious disease poses a serious threat to human life. Among the causative agents, including pathogenic bacteria and fungi, enveloped viruses have caused global pandemics. In the last 10 years, outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and Middle East respiratory syndrome have all been caused by enveloped viruses. Among several paths of secondary transmission, inhalation of aerosols containing saliva with…</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>Valproate Coenzyme-A Conjugate Blocks Opening of Receptor Binding Domains in the Spike Trimer of SARS-CoV-2 through an Allosteric Mechanism</strong> - The receptor-binding domains (RBDs) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike trimer exhibit “up” and “down” conformations often targeted by neutralizing antibodies. Only in the “up” configuration can RBDs bind to the ACE2 receptor of the host cell and initiate the process of viral multiplication. Here, we identify a lead compound (3-oxo-valproate-coenzyme A conjugate or Val-CoA) that stabilizes the spike trimer with RBDs in the down conformation. Val-CoA interacts with three R408 residues, one from each RBD,…</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>Causal associations of tea intake with COVID-19 infection and severity</strong> - Tea ingredients can effectively inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection at adequate concentrations. It is not known whether tea intake could impact the susceptibility to COVID-19 or its severity. We aimed to evaluate the causal effects of tea intake on COVID-19 outcomes. We performed Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to assess the causal associations between tea intake (N = 441,279) and three COVID-19 outcomes, including SARS-CoV-2 infection (122,616 cases and 2,475,240 controls), hospitalized COVID-19…</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>SARS-CoV-2 N protein mediates intercellular nucleic acid dispersion, a feature reduced in Omicron</strong> - The coronavirus nucleocapsid (N) protein is known to bind to nucleic acids and facilitate viral genome encapsulation. Here we report that N protein can mediate RNA or DNA entering neighboring cells through ACE2-independent, receptor (STEAP2)-mediated endocytosis, and achieve gene expression. The effect is more pronounced for the N protein of wild-type SARS-CoV-2 than that of Omicron variant and other human coronaviruses. This effect is enhanced by RANTES (CCL5), a chemokine induced by N protein,…</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>6-Shogaol Exhibits Anti-viral and Anti-inflammatory Activity in COVID-19-Associated Inflammation by Regulating NLRP3 Inflammasomes</strong> - Recent global health concern motivated the exploration of natural medicinal plant resources as an alternative target for treating COVID-19 infection and associated inflammation. In the current study, a phytochemical, 6-shogaol [1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)dec-4-en-3-one; 6-SHO] was investigated as a potential anti-inflammatory and anti-COVID-19 agent. In virus release assay, 6-SHO efficiently (94.5%) inhibited SARS-CoV2 replication. When tested in the inflammasome activation model, 6-SHO…</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>Is the information on infection prevention measures against COVID-19 reaching the target audience? A cross-sectional survey among eating and drinking services in Tokyo, Japan</strong> - CONCLUSION: Current information dissemination methods for information on COVID-19 infection control may not successfully convey information or reach their target populations. This study indicates the need for specific expressions and layouts to effectively share information on COVID-19. Also, special means of communication must be established to cater to individuals aged 60 and above.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gun Violence Is America’s Never-Ending Plague</strong> - The mass shooting in Monterey Park was one of dozens already this year. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/gun-violence-is-americas-never-ending-plague">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>On the Picket Lines of Britain’s Shattered National Health Service</strong> - The N.H.S. is the country’s pride. But rolling strikes reveal a system in the midst of collapse. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/on-the-picket-lines-of-britains-shattered-national-health-service">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The N.F.L. Playoffs Offer a Thrilling, Troubling Reminder That Football Hasn’t Changed</strong> - The Bills and Bengals met again, shadowed by what happened to Damar Hamlin just a few weeks before. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/the-nfl-playoffs-offer-a-thrilling-troubling-reminder-that-football-hasnt-changed">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Democratic Party’s Political Gift to Ron DeSantis</strong> - Republicans’ sustained and successful courting of Latino voters in South Florida could be a road map for the G.O.P. in 2024. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-democratic-partys-political-gift-to-ron-desantis">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Argentina, 1985” Gets an Oscar Nod</strong> - The film tells the improbable—and history-making—story of how a military dictatorship was brought to justice. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/argentina-1985-gets-an-oscar-nod">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>We pulled pandas back from the brink of extinction. Meanwhile, the rest of nature collapsed.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5xsf6Oef8ANZZei4IHG-HnzWyF0=/258x0:1758x1125/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71874223/lede_animation_revised.0.gif"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The trouble with the conservation’s cutest mascot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Pz1BE">
On a chilly spring day in 1966, zookeepers in London loaded a giant panda named Chi-Chi onto a commercial plane. The aircraft was bound for Russia. Chi-Chi was bound, you might say, for love. She would soon arrive at the Moscow Zoo to meet a slightly younger male named An-An, the only other captive giant panda living outside of China at the time. The goal was to get the two bears to breed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5hqMXM">
To prepare for Chi-Chi’s departure, British European Airways removed about 30 seats in the front of the plane. The panda was carried aboard in a crate and separated from 37 passengers by a screen. Flight attendants sprayed deodorant to try and vanquish the scent of the 235-pound bear. For lunch, the attendants served passengers a side of bamboo hearts in Chi-Chi’s honor.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo of a panda in a cage in an airplane." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OvPtoyqFaT1TYfxjKWo0g_u5Szw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24339057/GettyImages_3062381a.jpg"/> <cite>Terry Fincher/Express/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Chi-Chi leaves London for Moscow on March 11, 1966.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bvSHpK">
The media breathlessly covered the long-distance love affair. Yet it was doomed from the start. When the bears first met in Moscow, An-An attacked Chi-Chi and zookeepers had to separate them with brooms, <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/09/12/113430915.html?pageNumber=17">one newspaper reported</a>. The pandas stayed in separate cages that summer. In the fall, keepers arranged another meeting, but this time, Chi-Chi “slapped” An-An in the face. Soon after, Chi-Chi returned to London, prompting headlines like “From Russia … Without Love.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vSGPuf">
Although attempts to breed Chi-Chi and An-An failed, they marked the start of a massive, global campaign to breed pandas in captivity. It was fueled by a sense of urgency: The giant panda population was dwindling. In southwestern China, the only place on Earth where the animals live, human development was destroying forests, and pandas were being plucked from their land and placed in zoos. In the 1980s, only about 1,100 bears remained, down from a historical population that scientists believe once numbered in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/25/everything-about-panda-sex-edinburgh-zoo-long-read">tens of thousands</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eytv1R">
As pandas started vanishing from the wild, they grew into powerful symbols of the movement to conserve the natural world. As the plight of wildlife was making headlines, pandas — clumsy, big-eyed bears that look like plush toys come to life — emerged as the perfect mascot to rally support.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AwQ3bY">
The World Wildlife Fund, an influential environmental organization, helped formalize the animals as icons when it chose the panda as its logo in 1961. Chi-Chi, An-An’s wouldn’t-be mate, was the inspiration for the design. (WWF, now known internationally as the World Wide Fund for Nature, chose the panda, in part, because black-and-white logos were cheaper to print.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jtszR1">
As pandas shot to stardom, China, the US, and zoos around the world fueled the captive breeding campaign with tens of millions of dollars in veterinary research. China also created dozens of forest reserves to protect the bears. In 2018, the country announced plans to combine many of them into a single habitat <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/giant-pandas-national-park-china">three times larger</a> than Yellowstone National Park.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jmjACFanCmyGFhH4ojsuKW56QQM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354065/GettyImages_1389303894a.jpg"/> <cite>VCG via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Giant panda cubs rest in a tree at the Shenshuping Panda Base in the Wolong Nature Reserve in China in April 2022.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7czmER">
These efforts have unquestionably paid off for pandas. Scientists learned from Chi-Chi and An-An’s platonic exchange and, in time, they nearly perfected the difficult art of panda breeding and husbandry. That’s the only reason you can see them in zoos today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3LDWc9">
The bears are also recovering in the wild. The most recent estimates indicate that more than 1,800 pandas now live in southwestern China, and their numbers are increasing. That trend prompted the country to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/09/1014593425/china-giant-pandas-endangered-vulnerable-iucn">announce, in 2021</a>, that pandas are no longer endangered. (The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the global authority on endangered animals, delisted pandas in 2016.)
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jlU0LJPxR0gqG5SqeKsbLMTv56g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24355311/losing.png"/>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KsilBt">
Imagine that: The panda, the very symbol of endangered species, is no longer endangered.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fk1pph">
But if giant pandas are mascots for endangered species, then their team is, so to speak, losing. In the time that environmental advocates were saving pandas, much of the rest of the planet’s wildlife continued to deteriorate. The world now faces an unprecedented and accelerating crisis of biodiversity loss, with more than <a href="https://ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment">1 million species</a> at risk of extinction. Forests are quieter. The oceans are emptier.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8HFFFa">
The story of the panda is, in a sense, a story of success. Tales of rebounding animal populations are rare. But it carries with it a warning: The model of conservation that lifted up pandas won’t work to save everything else.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="PpRkfQ"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x9vu6M">
The global effort to save giant pandas is rooted in our collective obsession with these bears. It dates back to at least the 1930s, when a New York City socialite journeyed East.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uvHOJl">
The only pandas on American soil back then were stuffed bears in natural history museums. But in 1936, a <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/840252318/?terms=panda&amp;match=1">dress designer</a> in NYC named Ruth Harkness traveled to China in search of a live cub. She was trying to finish what her late husband, William Harkness Jr., had started: Months earlier, the young explorer died from cancer on an expedition to capture a panda and bring it back to the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YyWj6Z">
One November morning, Mrs. Harkness and her local guide heard squealing by the stump of a large spruce tree in the mountains outside of Chengdu, Henry Nicholls recounts in <em>The Way of the Panda. </em>There, she found a baby panda no larger than a kitten. The cub was perhaps less than two weeks old.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AnyDxF">
“I stood for minutes in a trance,” Harkness, known for her deep voice and bright red lipstick, told <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/743006291/?terms=Mr.%20William%20Harkness%20expedition%20tibet&amp;match=1">a reporter</a> in 1937. “I had discovered a most precious thing — a tiny offspring of one of Mother Nature’s greatest and rarest mysteries in the animal kingdom.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wbi04P">
She named the cub Su-Lin and took him back to New York City on a steamship. He was an instant hit. “Wherever she goes, Mrs. Harkness lugs her 10-pound jewel along in a traveling basket,” the Daily News <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/420801509/?terms=harkness%20su-lin%20panda%20new%20york&amp;match=1">wrote</a> at the time. “The infant panda has viewed the interior of some of New York’s best restaurants since its arrival.”
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo of a woman holding a very cute baby panda, roughly the size of a large human infant. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/d4deho_8uPW30uY_L88nP0KHNeQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24339110/GettyImages_515143684a.jpg"/> <cite>Bettmann Archive</cite>
<figcaption>
Ruth Harkness holds Su-Lin in her room at the Hotel Biltmore in New York City in 1936, shortly after returning from China.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZxNCU3xoynZVSXWH2_2Zlteillk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354423/kingdom.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vkNoMN">
What makes animals like the panda so popular? Maybe it’s their looks, their striking appearance, cute and fearsome all at once. Pandas also exploit our parenting instincts. Cubs have round faces with big cheeks, and they tumble about like helpless toddlers. (We also tend to like what we can relate to. Fellow mammals with arms? Sure. <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/10/27/23424362/freshwater-mussels-fish-lure-extinction">Freshwater mussels</a>? Not so much.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4svOny">
Harkness eventually brought Su-Lin to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, where the cub — the first live panda in the US — drew a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/15/arts/the-lady-and-the-panda.html?searchResultPosition=10">record</a> 53,000 visitors on the first day he was displayed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AKnFfO">
It was China, however, that turned the bears into a global sensation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pFrwxF">
In the 1970s, the Chinese government began sending wild-caught pandas around the world as state gifts — a sign of goodwill and friendship, historian Elena Songster wrote in her 2018 book, <em>Panda Nation. </em>There was even a term for it: Panda diplomacy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zmt5QP">
“Giant pandas served the Chinese government as invaluable tools for putting a friendly face on China,” Songster wrote. “These fuzzy creatures thawed Cold War tensions and promoted the idea that warmer relations with the inscrutable Communist power could be possible.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FVQRHm">
Most famously, China gave two pandas to President Richard Nixon in 1972 after a series of successful peace talks. The bears, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, flew to DC on Air Force One and were taken to the National Zoo “under security measures as tight as if they had been Chairman Mao,” the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/18/archives/new-pandas-melt-hearts-at-national-zoo-2-pandas-from-china-melt.html?searchResultPosition=13">reported</a>. (In exchange, the US sent China Matilda and Milton, a pair of musk oxen with some kind of skin condition.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OWR17s">
American pandas were as famous as any celebrity. Two decades after Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling arrived, China sent the US two more bears, Shi Shi and Bai Yun, this time to the San Diego Zoo. News helicopters filmed their high-security motorcade as if they were <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/155514410">heads of state</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fzcxkh">
“Make no mistake: That phenomenon that zookeepers call ‘pandamania’ is back,” the LA Times <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/155517240/?terms=San%20Diego%20Zoo%20Bai%20Yun&amp;match=1">wrote</a> in 1996. “No animal in the history of US zoos brings the crowds and the awe-struck response of pandas.”
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo of several photographers with bulky cameras taking photos of a small panda cub. One of the photographers is crouching, getting a shot at ground level." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tkHkAb502A02Eh9dTCfjSdl7Hns=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24353846/GettyImages_1190896716.jpg"/> <cite>Irving Haberman/IH Images/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Photographers get close-up photographs of a giant panda eating bamboo shoots and leaves at the Bronx Zoo in New York circa 1947.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nu1OCH">
Pandamania was good for zoos and for China. It wasn’t necessarily good for wild pandas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0xSjf3">
In the 1980s, China stopped giving away pandas as state gifts but began loaning them out for a few months at a time, often at the expense of the wild population. George Schaller, then director of science at a large environmental organization called the Wildlife Conservation Society, criticized these short-term loans as “rent-a-panda” programs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zKYfiL">
“I have a nightmare vision of evermore pandas being drained from the wild until the species exists only in captivity,” he wrote in his 1993 book <em>The Last Panda.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9dNzFy">
In those years, pandas were facing other pressures in their homeland. Mines and human developments in Sichuan Province were replacing forests. Meanwhile, pandas were running out of food — stirring up fears that the world’s most beloved animal might soon go extinct.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="EXbwsI"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5NAHSW">
Pandas, like humans, are technically omnivores. About 6,000 years ago, however, they stopped consuming meat, for the most part. Today, pandas almost exclusively eat bamboo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XxrhJq">
While bamboo grows abundantly in China, it has a few critical shortcomings. Like celery, it doesn’t have many calories, so pandas have to spend half of the day eating. Plus, they can’t put on enough fat to hibernate in the winter like other bears.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A graphic illustration of a panda in a bamboo forest." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6vtCYBttQn_zNCEPFUIPmdYVmBI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24358212/middle_image_revised.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h8mkSY">
Bamboo is also a somewhat unreliable food source. Every so often, at seemingly random intervals, entire hillsides of bamboo stalks flower, produce seeds, and die.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yaZQVZ">
Normally, only one or a few bamboo species might flower at the same time, so pandas can just forage for other varieties if they need to. But in the ’70s, multiple species died all at once, according to Songster, causing the bears to starve. By some estimates,<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/188381077/?terms=panda%20bamboo%20flowering&amp;match=1"> more than 100</a> died. Then in the ‘80s, bamboo forests flowered and died once again, fueling concerns that pandas were at risk of extinction (not to mention <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/379230870/?terms=%22Starving%20pandas%20loot%20houses%20in%20rural%20China%22&amp;match=1">reports</a> that pandas were looting food from peoples’ homes).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nuYVrV">
Although it’s not clear whether the second bamboo die-off actually harmed many pandas, it helped ignite the global campaign to save these animals — at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L5iMnL">
China and groups such as WWF relied on two main approaches. One was to establish a system of protected areas that prohibited hunting, logging, and other harmful human activities, as China has done. Another was to build out a massive breeding operation, the likes of which the world had never seen.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A photo of three tiny pandas, each roughly the size of a sweet potato, inside a clear plastic box that resembles a prenatal incubator." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/um8qpzDABZSUMUEN-DeM33OZpQU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354068/AP744505458912a.jpg"/> <cite>Kin Cheung/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
One-month-old panda triplets rest as they receive a body check at the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou, China, in August 2014.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A photo of a newborn panda cub that resembles a fetus more than a baby, with visible pink skin beneath wispy white hairs. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9oYj2P5X9KA0ive0_QY9OfRfSFs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354071/GettyImages_1329461563a.jpg"/> <cite>He Haiyang/Sichuan Daily/VCG via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A giant panda cub is seen at the Shenshuping Panda Base in the Wolong Nature Reserve in China in July 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Eight small panda cubs, the size of a cocker spaniel, but rounder, play and roll on the ground with people in matching jackets. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ury_w4H6zFQgan8pKpN3loud_uQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24353824/GettyImages_73297455a.jpg"/> <cite>Liu Jin/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Breeders play with panda cubs at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, China, in February 2007.
</figcaption>
</figure></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Io9sUc">
Breeding animals in captivity can theoretically help refresh a dwindling wild animal population. It also helps restock zoos. Without breeding pandas or taking them from the wild, zoos would eventually run out of their biggest attractions. That’s a problem, not only for zoos but for conservation, said William McShea, a scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OTcKGf">
“If you’re going to sell people on giant pandas, you need to show people a giant panda,” he said. (Pandas are “great showmen,” McShea added. “Giant pandas will sit there and essentially do tricks for you all day long.”)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AVtEO1">
Breeding pandas, however, is a challenge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pYjwwk">
Female pandas ovulate just once a year for one to three days. In the wild, males will congregate along ridge tops in the spring and “a stream of visiting females in heat keeps the mating activity intense,” McShea has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pandanomics-is-a-grey-area-but-to-us-the-value-of-giant-pandas-is-black-and-white-112956">written</a>. In captivity, however, vets have to introduce a pair of pandas at just the right time. Even then, the bears may prefer to swat at each other rather than have sex.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8CIZCE-8el9Oi3kdAFtbdWBYlac=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354424/panda.png"/>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9YlQk4">
“There was nothing easy about any of it,” said David Kersey, an associate professor of physiology at Western University who helped develop the National Zoo’s captive breeding program.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="92gBoP">
In several instances, zoos have tried using videos of pandas copulating, a.k.a. panda porn, to get the bears in the mood. This is <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/berlin-pandas-panda-porn-breeding-berlin-zoo-bao-bao-626245">not a joke</a>. At one of the most famous breeding facilities in China, scientists showed a video of pandas mating to a five-year-old female bear named Ke Lin because she kept rejecting her mate, Yongyong.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eDmqyp">
“We played them the film and she took great interest in it,” a spokesman at the Chengdu facility <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/panda-porn-finally-gets-yongyong-and-clueless-and-unenthusiastic-ke-lin-in-the-mood-8536849.html">told</a> the Independent. “After that, there was no stopping her and they mated successfully.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NYPM5I">
Zookeepers have also tried giving pandas viagra and working them out. In 2011, keepers at the National Zoo ran Tian Tian, a popular male panda, through a sort of sex training program designed to strengthen his legs. “We’re building up his stamina,” Brandie Smith, a senior curator at the zoo, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/zoo-getting-pandas-in-the-mood-to-mate/2011/01/13/ABf2PpD_story.html">told</a> the Washington Post. “I think Tian is in pretty good shape, but … we’re turning him into an Olympic athlete.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZYGBsj">
The early years of panda breeding were full of disasters. In one case, a male panda in Japan <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/488270628/?terms=Xing%20Xing%20died&amp;match=1">reportedly</a> died during a routine electro-ejaculation procedure — which involves a veterinarian sending a small shock to the animal’s prostate to get him to produce semen. Zookeepers also had a hard time figuring out if a bear was pregnant until right before she gave birth. Infants are tiny, weighing just <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/giant-panda#:~:text=At%20birth%2C%20a%20giant%20panda,the%20size%20of%20its%20mother.">3 to 5 ounces</a>. During ultrasounds, zookeepers would occasionally confuse feces for a fetus. It was a mess.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tvXDGT">
Yet little by little, the science improved. Vets figured out how to tell exactly when a female is ovulating and in heat. They also learned which males make the perfect genetic match. “We’ve seen the success rate of breeding just skyrocket,” Kersey said.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hAvukna4phG8SIfAR9sXYieI1E4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354437/topalign_tiny.png"/>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="USn6Dp">
Scientists also learned how to keep more babies alive. In the ’90s, the survival rate of captive cubs in China was about 10 percent, according to Qiongyu Huang, a wildlife biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Today, it’s almost 90 percent, he said. There are now around <a href="https://www.pandasinternational.org/education-2/panda-facts/#:~:text=They%20are%20found%20living%20in,zoos%20and%20wild%20life%20parks.">600</a> pandas in captivity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S087sG">
“Veterinary science has done an outstanding job,” said Marc Brody, president of the NGO Panda Mountain, who’s worked on panda conservation for more than two decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KorjlR">
Pandas are a threatened species, still just one step away from the classification of endangered. But along with China’s growing efforts to protect a massive area of forested land, captive breeding has, for now, managed to avert their extinction. “The turnaround in China has just been remarkable,” McShea said.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="tluLu5"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gge0AY">
Pandas are one of several iconic creatures that have for decades drawn the bulk of conservation support and public attention. Tigers, mountain gorillas, wolves, and elephants are other examples.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A82LhE">
Pouring resources into a handful of popular animals was the dominant approach to conservation in the late 20th century, said Jason Gilchrist, an ecologist at Edinburgh Napier University. The idea was to use those flashy species to draw in funding that could trickle down to other animals — in other words, pandas could be tools for conservation, not just diplomacy. Plus, protecting land for one kind of animal can shield a whole host of others.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Fhp3q">
This approach, known as single-species conservation, has worked to some degree, especially for nature’s A-listers. Since 2008, for example, India has doubled its wild population of tigers. The number of mountain gorillas in Central Africa is up, too, as is the US population of gray wolves and bald eagles. Recent <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/conl.12762">research</a> also shows that past conservation efforts have, at least temporarily, helped prevent a number of bird and mammal species from going extinct. <strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zjoq7w">
Still, it’s hard to see this species-focused model as a success, some scientists say, if the ultimate goal of conservation is to protect biodiversity and the countless benefits it provides. On this endeavor, the world has failed.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A graphic illustration of a crocodile on a rock." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/luTwUXWkJCQoP7A4gd2EaxnhMv4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24358225/end_image_revised.png"/> <cite>Praveeni Chamathka for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iMifgh">
Since 1970, as the campaign to save pandas was ramping up, populations of most major animal groups including birds, mammals, and fish have declined by an average of <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/10/12/23399105/biodiversity-loss-wwf-living-planet-index">69 percent</a>. Species without popular appeal are often worse off. One-fifth of reptiles such as crocodiles and turtles are now <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/4/27/23040966/snakes-turtles-lizards-reptiles-extinction">threatened with extinction</a>. <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/10/27/23424362/freshwater-mussels-fish-lure-extinction">Mussels</a> are in peril, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/23016412/coral-reef-restoration-climate-change">as are corals</a> — two animals that provide essential services for us and other creatures. (The latter, for example, provide shelter for fish and <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/23046997/hurricane-ian-coral-reefs-climate-change-hurricanes">safeguard coastal communities from flooding</a>. Popularity isn’t always a sign of ecological importance.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4QG1YS">
Furthermore, parks designed to protect charismatic species don’t always safeguard other animals. A<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1260-0"> 2020 study</a> in the journal <em>Nature, </em>for example,<em> </em>found that four species of large carnivores (the leopard, snow leopard, wolf, and an Asian dog called a dhole) have declined across panda habitat since the mid-20th century. Another <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632072030971X">study</a>, published in 2021, found that populations of several species that overlap with giant pandas, including the Asiatic black bear, Chinese serow, and forest musk deer, have all plummeted, as well. (Panda preserves may have slowed these species’ declines.)
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“Panda conservation doesn’t appear to be benefiting other species, or the wider ecosystem,” Gilchrist <a href="https://theconversation.com/giant-panda-conservation-is-failing-to-revive-the-wider-ecosystem-new-study-143849">wrote</a> about the 2020 study. “These findings shake the foundations of one of conservation’s most enduring ideas — that investing time and money into protecting particular large, influential species can pay dividends for the other species and habitats they coexist with.”
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Put another way, “you’re essentially sleepwalking into losing biodiversity by focusing resources on specific species,” Gilchrist told Vox.
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Breeding animals in captivity — now a widespread practice among zoos — also has questionable benefits for wild populations, according to some researchers. “Captive breeding is not a conservation strategy,” said Jillian Ryan, a researcher who wrote her dissertation at the University of South Australia on panda conservation.
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<img alt="A photo of a panda emerging from a crate while onlookers watch and take photos. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TdmMUP7VKI-LYCZyCVmb0wD4F6M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354346/GettyImages_951566122a.jpg"/> <cite>Xinhua/Xue Yubin via Getty Images</cite>
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Giant panda Hua Yan, from the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas, is released into the wild at Liziping Nature Reserve in Ya’an, China, in October 2016.
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Zoos “carefully breed their animals as if they might be called upon at any moment to release them, like Noah throwing open the doors to the ark,” Emma Marris wrote in the 2021 book <em>Wild Souls: Freedom and flourishing in the non-human world</em>. “But that day of release never quite seems to come.”
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Zoos rarely reintroduce animals to the wild because they don’t often survive, Ryan said.
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A dozen or so captive pandas have been released in China so far, and at least a few of them have died. The first panda scientists ever released, named Xiang Xiang (or “Lucky”), died in 2007, less than a year after his return to the wild. He likely fell out of a tree following a fight with wild-born pandas, according to multiple news reports.
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“Any reintroduction program has an inherent challenge: You’re increasing the potential for the animal to die,” said Jake Owens, director of conservation at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. “The nice thing about zoos is that they do provide really high care.”
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Owens and some other researchers argue that captive breeding can be an essential tool to avert extinction. It’s helped species like the endangered California condor <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/california-condor-recovery.htm#:~:text=To%20offset%20this%2C%20captive%20breeding,and%20sometimes%20a%20third%20egg.&amp;text=Best%20of%20all%2C%20captive%20bred,California%20beginning%20in%20January%201992.">recover</a>, he says. Zoos and breeding facilities also help people fall in love with pandas, he said, which has put pressure on China to conserve their habitat.
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But using zoo animals as inspiration for conservation has its limits, Marris argues. “There’s no unambiguous evidence that zoos are making visitors care more about conservation or take any action to support it,” she writes. People go to the zoo, she added, to be entertained.
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Some scholars also argue that campaigns to save charismatic animals have distorted the human relationship with nature. Pandas, and most other highly charismatic species, are only visible in zoos or protected areas far from cities, reinforcing the idea that nature is something to look at, something apart from ourselves. Yet we all exist within ecosystems and depend on the services they provide, from water purification to crop pollination.
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<img alt="A crowd of people smile while taking photos. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tx-ojLvIkywu-Hl1GrOKyJWsQmw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354087/GettyImages_912861306a.jpg"/> <cite>Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images</cite>
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Visitors take photographs of giant panda cub Xiang Xiang at Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, Japan, in February 2018.
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XPeOrn6SeD4XZ4GlIEZvoJDSPIU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24354097/GettyImages_912861192a.jpg"/> <cite>Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images</cite>
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Seven-month-old panda cub Xiang Xiang rests on a tree stump as adoring fans photograph her.
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Indeed, most of the world’s remaining biodiversity exists alongside humanity — all 8 billion of us. To conserve wildlife, people will need to steward the plants and animals in their own backyards, in cities, in places they consider their home, said David Jachowski, a professor of wildlife ecology at Clemson University.
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The environmental movement is changing. In recent decades, large environmental groups have adopted a more ecosystem-scale approach to their work.
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In a <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/23518769/cop15-un-biodiversity-conference-montreal-biodiversity-wwf">previous interview</a> with Vox, Marco Lambertini, then the head of WWF International, said that using pandas and tigers to inspire the public to care about wildlife was incredibly effective. That approach helped WWF grow into the world’s largest environmental organization. But he acknowledged that the nonprofit could have done a better job at “connecting the dots,” linking wildlife to ecosystems and all the benefits they provide for people. (WWF told Vox that ecosystem-based approaches have always been core to the organization’s strategy.)
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Perhaps, then, it doesn’t make sense to have a single species as the mascot for conservation.
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If there were one animal to represent the movement to conserve the natural world, the panda is probably the wrong one. It could be <a href="https://theconversation.com/weasels-not-pandas-should-be-the-poster-animal-for-biodiversity-loss-192895?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton">the weasel</a>, Jachowski says; they’re predators that help sustain the food chain. Other researchers have argued that even <a href="https://theconversation.com/earthworms-are-more-important-than-pandas-if-you-want-to-save-the-planet-74010">earthworms</a> would be better candidates.
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Worms and weasels might not have the appeal of pandas. But they’re linchpins in a complex web of life that’s unraveling before our eyes.<strong> </strong>To sustain these and so many other underrated animals — the moths and flies, the bats and shrews — is to sustain the world’s ecosystems. It is to sustain ourselves.
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/benji-jones"><em>Benji Jones</em></a><em> is a senior environmental reporter at Vox, covering biodiversity loss and climate change. Before joining Vox, he was a senior energy reporter at Insider. Benji previously worked as a wildlife researcher.</em>
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<li><strong>You may be thinking about animals all wrong (even if you’re an animal lover)</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oLIXaFWx1nBlgCv5xByTLCZicJg=/213x0:2880x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71874217/vox_1.0.jpg"/>
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Gianna Meola for Vox
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Philosopher Martha Nussbaum says humans should grant equal rights to animals, even in the wild. Is she right?
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Martha Nussbaum is a <a href="https://humanities-web.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/philosophy/prod/2022-06/CV6-8.pdf">very, very big deal</a>, the kind of philosopher who, when she publishes a book, makes waves well beyond the ivory towers of academia. Her new volume, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Justice-for-Animals/Martha-C-Nussbaum/9781982102500"><em>Justice for Animals</em></a>, plunges into the animal welfare debate,<strong> </strong>billing itself as a “revolutionary new theory” in how we humans think about other animals. Which makes it all the more surprising that, at its heart, her theory isn’t very revolutionary at all.
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Nussbaum, whom the New Yorker once <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/martha-nussbaums-moral-philosophies">described</a> as “monumentally confident,” contends that pretty much everyone has been thinking about animals wrong — including animal lovers. She rejects the leading ethical approaches to animals and urges us to accept hers: the capabilities approach. And as a philosopher who is also steeped in the<strong> </strong>law, she wants her theory to change real-world policy.
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Nussbaum first co-developed the <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/ge-capab/">capabilities approach</a> in the 1980s<strong> </strong>with humans in mind, working with its original architect, the Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen. The theory argues that a just society should give each human the chance to flourish, which requires the opportunity to access some core entitlements to at least<strong> </strong>some minimum degree — things like good health and physical safety that any living thing requires, but also social relationships and play. These aren’t random; they’re things that human beings have specific<strong> </strong>reason to value because of the type of creatures we are.
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Now, she wants us to extend this approach to other species. Each species will have its own list of core entitlements, tailored to its unique form of life. The animal’s nature — its intrinsic capacities — would decide how it has the right to be treated, as opposed to us humans deciding how <em>we</em> think it should be treated.
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The appeal of the capabilities approach is that it gives us clear rules about what we can and can’t do to animals, an ethical formula that can claim to be<strong> </strong>rooted in something intrinsic or objective. Which would be nice:<strong> </strong>Life is so complicated and messy; it’s comforting to have a formula!
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But ultimately, it does humanity a disservice. The obligations we feel to animals can’t be captured by any immutable formula because they don’t only flow from the animals’ intrinsic capacities; they’re also shaped by the relationships those animals can have with us, and by our own historical, economic, and cultural conditions, which are always changing.
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By clinging to the dominant style of argument in animal ethics — a style that says our obligations to animals are forced on us by the nature of animals themselves or even the <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-korsgaards-kantian-argument-about-animals-doesnt-work">nature of reasonableness itself</a> — Nussbaum’s theory ends up leading to some iffy conclusions. It leads to a focus on helping individual animals, not species. And it prompts us<strong> </strong>to consider<strong> </strong>the idea that we should intervene to help not just those animals we’ve domesticated, which are utterly dependent on human beings, or those directly harmed by our actions, like endangered species, but also <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22325435/animal-welfare-wild-animals-movement">those trillions of animals that suffer and have always suffered in the wild</a>.
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By the end of the book, Nussbaum is declaring things like this: “To say that it is the destiny of antelopes to be torn apart by predators is like saying that it is the destiny of women to be raped. Both are terribly wrong.”
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Like I said, iffy.
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Let’s back up a bit: What are the existing<strong> </strong>ethical approaches to animals that Nussbaum rejects, and where does she think they fail?
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One is what she calls the “So Like Us” approach. It says we should particularly<strong> </strong>protect animals that display intelligence and reason like us. One group that embraces this approach is the <a href="https://www.nonhumanrights.org/">Nonhuman Rights Project</a>, which tries to win <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/14/happy-elephant-bronx-zoo-00039409">legal personhood rights</a> for species like elephants and chimpanzees with arguments that are primarily based on the intelligence of those species.
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But using human-like intelligence as the yardstick for moral value is an <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22373580/animals-intelligent-smart-orcas-chickens">old mistake</a>: Ever since Aristotle developed the idea of the <a href="http://palaeos.com/systematics/greatchainofbeing/scala_naturae.html">Scala Naturae</a>, a “natural ladder” that classified some animals as higher life forms and others as lower, humans (at least in the West) have repeatedly<strong> </strong>underestimated the cognitive complexity of other species. Suffering from an anthropocentric bias, we tend to think something counts as intelligence only when it looks like human intelligence. But researchers are<strong> </strong>increasingly <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/animals-are-much-smarter-than-people-realize-scientist-says">recognizing</a> that every species has its own brand of smarts. Each is perfectly adapted to its unique environment and needs.
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The second approach Nussbaum rejects is that of the 18th-century British<strong> </strong>utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The right question to ask about animals, Bentham argued, is not “Can they reason?” but “Can they suffer?” So instead of using intelligence as the yardstick for moral value, the utilitarian camp uses <a href="https://www.animal-ethics.org/what-is-sentience/">sentience</a>: the ability to experience pain or pleasure. It says we should minimize pain for any creature that can feel it, a position most prominently held today by the Australian ethicist<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/10/27/21529060/animal-rights-philosopher-peter-singer-why-vegan-book">Peter Singer</a>.
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Nussbaum likes the emphasis on sentience. She thinks it makes sense to view it as a clear<strong> </strong>dividing line in nature: Only creatures with sentience deserve rights. But she rejects the utilitarians’ decision to calculate pain and pleasure as an aggregate, with the aim of producing the greatest good for the greatest number. As utilitarian thought experiments <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/1/24/21078196/morality-ethics-culture-universal-subjective">show</a>, this approach can produce a result that’s great on net even while making some individuals deeply miserable. That neglects the importance of individual lives, treating them as interchangeable cogs.
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Nussbaum is determined to preserve the inviolability of each individual animal, and this leads her to investigate a third major theory: that of Immanuel<strong> </strong>Kant, as read through the contemporary philosopher Christine Korsgaard. According to Kant, you should never treat a human being as a means to an end; people are ends in themselves. It would never be right to harm one person even if it benefits many on net.<strong> </strong><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fellow-creatures-9780198753858?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">Korsgaard takes that basic idea and extends it to animals</a>.
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It’s a move Nussbaum applauds. But she takes issue with the fact that Korsgaard still gives special status to humans because of our ability for complex ethical reasoning. Korsgaard says animals aren’t capable of that, so they can only be passive citizens of the world.
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“I think that is just much too simple because animals are very active in indicating what they need and want,” Nussbaum told me in an interview late last year. “They have marvelous, complicated ways of speaking or signaling … and we should be listening to that and taking account of that.”
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So Nussbaum salvages from the utilitarians an emphasis on sentience, and from Kant an emphasis on the inviolable rights of each end-in-itself creature. She thinks combining these two ingredients sets her up for a better approach: her capabilities approach.
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But she ends up hamstrung by the limitations of each view. Sentience isn’t the bright dividing line utilitarians believe it is, and Kantians fail to reckon with the need to balance competing needs with each other.
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Sentience has always been a <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sentient/Jackie-Higgins/9781982156565">squishy category</a>. Some experts<strong> </strong>define it as basic sensitivity — your ability to sense things, like the color red. Others say it’s your ability to feel pleasure or pain. Nussbaum defines it more broadly: You’re sentient if you have a subjective point of view on the world, and there’s something that it’s like to be you (whereas the answer to “what is it like to be a rock?” is “nothing”).
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It makes sense that she’d embrace sentience as a dividing line in nature. She says justice requires giving each creature the chance to fulfill its significant strivings, so she needs a way to tell which creatures are capable of significant striving.
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But if we think of sentience in such<strong> </strong>binary terms — either you’ve got it or you don’t — then we create a sharp border, where those who are “in” have a right to be treated justly, and those who are “out” don’t. This should give us pause because every time we humans have come up with a way of dividing up nature, later generations have overturned it.
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Historically, societies started by thinking that being a male human is what matters, and then expanded the notion to believe that being a human is what matters, and then that being an intelligent animal is what matters, and now that being sentient is what matters. “In light of that history, we should be a little skeptical of our current impression that we happen to now be fully morally enlightened and are including everybody we should be including,” Jeff Sebo, a professor of environmental studies and philosophy at New York University, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22373580/animals-intelligent-smart-orcas-chickens">told me</a> in 2021.
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Philosophers and researchers increasingly believe a binary idea of sentience doesn’t fit well with what we see when we look closely at living things in the natural world. That’s because the more we learn about different species, even<strong> </strong>simple ones,<strong> </strong>the more we find glimmers of sentience.
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For example, people have long thought of fish as emotionally vacant, but recent experimental studies <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22301931/fish-animal-welfare-plant-based">challenge that view</a>; it turns out romantic breakups really suck, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/7/20/20700775/fish-pain-love-emotion-animal-cognition-study">even for fish</a>. The same goes for octopuses, lobsters, and crabs, all of<strong> </strong>which the British government now <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lobsters-octopus-and-crabs-recognised-as-sentient-beings">recognizes as sentient</a>. The <a href="https://www.si.edu/spotlight/buginfo/bugnos#:~:text=At%20any%20time%2C%20it%20is,described%20species%20is%20approximately%2091%2C000.">10 quintillion insects</a> on the planet may be sentient, too, <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/on-the-torment-of-insect-minds-and-our-moral-duty-not-to-farm-them">evidence suggests</a>. In recent years, some scientists have even argued that <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-secret-language-of-plants-20131216/">plants</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/science/plants-consciousness-anesthesia.html">have</a> <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/can-a-plant-remember-this-one-seems-to-heres-the-evidence">sentience</a>.
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Some thinkers have adapted by proposing that sentience comes in degrees. The primatologist <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Mamas-Last-Hug/">Frans de Waal</a> has suggested there are three levels of sentience: sensitivity, experience, and consciousness. And the philosopher <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/daniel-c-dennett/kinds-of-minds/9780786723621/">Daniel Dennett</a> has hypothesized that “‘sentience comes in every imaginable grade and intensity, from the simplest and most ‘robotic,’ to the most exquisitely sensitive, ‘hyper-reactive’ human.”
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But even this is probably too simplistic. If we say sentience comes in degrees, we’re saying it lines up neatly on a single scale, running from “more sentient” to “less sentient,” and suddenly we’re back on Aristotle’s Scala Naturae. <a href="https://rethinkpriorities.org/publications/why-neuron-counts-shouldnt-be-used-as-proxies-for-moral-weight">There is</a> <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Beyond-Neural-Correlates-of-Consciousness/Overgaard-Mogensen-Kirkeby-Hinrup/p/book/9781138637986">reason to doubt</a> whether a creature’s sentience can be measured in terms of just one metric, like its number of neurons. Rather than viewing sentience as running on a single scale, some philosophers now <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41649-022-00230-5">argue</a> that sentience is “a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48628592">multi-dimensional phenomenon</a>.”
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If they’re right,<strong> </strong>sentience will go the way of intelligence. Just as people like Nussbaum want to ditch the older framing of “this species is smarter than that species” in favor of “different species are smart in different ways (that are best suited to their form of life),” we’ll want to ditch the framing of “this species is more sentient than that species” for “different species exhibit different forms of sentience (that are best suited to their form of life).”
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But Nussbaum doesn’t go this route. She is too committed to viewing each individual creature as a Kantian “end in itself” — and that doesn’t come in degrees. It only has one dimension.<strong> </strong>You either are an “end in yourself” or you’re not.
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Nussbaum writes that her view sees “animal lives as having intrinsic value” — with the caveat, “ethically, though not in my political theory.” She claims this is just her personal belief and it doesn’t factor into her theory.
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“What I think metaphysically has nothing to do with it,” she told me. “Because my overall position, in my view, is that in political principles and legal principles, we should never include any controversial metaphysical positions. This is what John Rawls said famously in <em>Political Liberalism</em> — that if we’re in a pluralistic society where people differ about metaphysics, we should never include in our political principles these controversial metaphysical claims about which people differ.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KBJiWH">
But her controversial claims <em>do</em> factor into her theory. In fact, her whole theory has a strong flavor of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-realism/">moral realism</a>, a doctrine that says there is such a thing as objective moral values. Her underlying premise is that we can find out what objective moral rights an animal has by examining that animal’s objective capacities. The animal’s nature forces obligations on us.
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In her book, Nussbaum critiques philosophers who take a more anti-realist stance, who argue that value is a subjective human creation, that it doesn’t exist “out there” to be discovered. According to Nussbaum, that’s a controversial position and should be left out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g7SKc6">
But if anti-realism is a controversial position, Nussbaum’s realism is equally controversial. And it leads her down some very controversial paths.
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<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="OqpgUi"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kkNVis">
For one thing, Nussbaum argues that “for ethics, it is the individual creature that is the end, not the species.” She does acknowledge that preserving an endangered species may have instrumental value, like scientific or aesthetic value. But she insists that a species doesn’t “count as an end for the purposes of political justice” because “a species has no point of view on the world.”
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It’s true that a species doesn’t feel or suffer; that’s what the individual animals that make up a species<strong> </strong>do. But the argument that only individual animals can be wronged runs aground when the needs of different species conflict.
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This is a problem Australia has recently had to face. Hundreds of millions of feral rabbits — which trace back to just <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/world/australia-feral-rabbit-invasion-origins-intl-hnk/index.html">24 rabbits brought over by an English settler</a> in 1859 — have driven some of the country’s native plant species to the brink of extinction and altered entire ecosystems by munching away at vegetation. In 2011, the Australian government <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/rabbit.pdf">noted</a> that rabbits had “reduced Philip Island to bedrock, leaving at least two plants locally extinct,” and announced that it would kill rabbits to conserve ecosystems.
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If Australia had applied Nussbaum’s view, it might have been warier about killing the rabbits, even if it meant some native species were decimated. Rabbits are sentient individuals with a point of view on the world, but ecosystems or plants don’t have a point of view on the world, according to Nussbaum, so they are deemphasized in her theory. Placing so much emphasis on who is a sentient end in itself could tip the scales in favor of individual creatures even when an entire species is at stake.
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Viewing each animal as an end in itself also inflects Nussbaum’s view on our responsibility toward animals in the wild. Partly, she’s driven by the very reasonable observation that there are hardly any truly “wild” spaces left on Earth: Humans control habitats on land, in the sea, and in the air, and through climate change we damage those habitats. It’s disingenuous to say we have no duty to consider the well-being of wildlife. “Wild” versus “domesticated” is a misleading split.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jBYLVM">
But it gets weird when Nussbaum urges us to think not only about remediating human harms, but also about proactively protecting wild animals. Natural types of animal suffering like starvation and disease, which were a fact of life on Earth since well before the first Homo sapiens, trouble her. For her, even the pain of an individual antelope as it’s eaten by a predator is a horrible problem. (Remember her quote from earlier? “To say that it is the destiny of antelopes to be torn apart by predators is like saying that it is the destiny of women to be raped.”) She’s not just worried about whether antelopes as a species survive. She’s worried about each and every end-in-itself antelope, trying to survive in a natural world that is red in tooth and claw.
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So she says “we must use our knowledge — wisely and deliberately — to protect wild animal lives.” When it comes to predation, she acknowledges there are good reasons to hold off on intervening for now (for all we know, getting rid of the antelopes’ predators might topple the whole ecosystem, harming the very animals we meant to protect). But there are other interventions she’s more bullish about, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22325435/animal-welfare-wild-animals-movement">using contraceptives</a> for wild animals to tackle population imbalances.
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She gave me the example of a habitat where elks have reproduced rapidly. Now the elks don’t get enough to eat, and they’re going hungry. “Suppose we concluded that humans have not really caused this problem. I still think that animal contraception should be investigated as part of the solution,” she told me.
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Overall, when it comes to intervening in the wild, she writes, “How much further can we go in this direction? We need to press this question all the time.”
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<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fR6C75">
Other philosophers push back on that stance. Take Elizabeth Anderson, who was once Nussbaum’s student at Harvard and who now teaches at the University of Michigan. She subscribes to the school of thought in philosophy known as <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/">pragmatism</a>, which sees moral truths as contingent, not objective. This results in a story about animals that is very different from the one Nussbaum tells.
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Anderson points out that for most of human history, we couldn’t have survived and thrived without killing or exploiting animals for food, transportation, and energy. The social conditions for granting animals moral rights didn’t really exist on a mass scale until recently (although certain non-Western societies did ascribe moral worth to some<strong> </strong>animals).
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“The possibility of moralizing our relations to animals,” she <a href="https://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil308/Anderson.pdf">writes</a>, “has come to us only lately, and even then not to us all, and not with respect to all animal species.”
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Anderson notes that we feel different levels of moral obligation to different species, and that has to do not only with their intrinsic capacities like intelligence or sentience, but also with their relationships to us. It matters whether we’ve made them dependent on us by domesticating them — like the <a href="https://www.chickenfans.com/chicken-population-stats/">more than 30 billion domesticated chickens</a> alive at any given time, most of them <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21437054/chickens-factory-farming-animal-cruelty-welfare">suffering terrible pain at our hands</a><strong> —</strong> or whether they live in the wild. It also matters whether they’re fundamentally hostile to us.
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For example, if you find bedbugs in your house, nobody expects you to say, “Well, they’re maybe sentient and definitely alive, so they have moral value. I’ll just live and let live!” It is absolutely expected that you will exterminate them.
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Why? Because with vermin, Anderson writes, “there is no possibility of communication, much less compromise. We are in a permanent state of war with them, without possibility of negotiating for peace. To one-sidedly accommodate their interests … would amount to surrender.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EVBW8m">
Anderson’s point is not that animals’ intelligence and sentience don’t matter. It’s that lots of other things matter, too, including our own ability to thrive.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vcNprl">
So her view doesn’t require us to draw one bright line through nature. Anderson is inclined to value all living things, including plants, which she notes clearly have interests. And she’s inclined to think protecting a species in some cases can justify getting rid of non-endangered individuals, as in the case of Australia’s action against invasive rabbits. Individuals’ sentience isn’t a trump card.
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“There’s a plurality of values at stake here, and I’m disinclined to think that any single one of them necessarily overrides all the others,” Anderson told me. “It depends on the context.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GArMYK">
Anderson’s insistence on taking seriously a plurality of values also guides her approach to the question of animals in the wild. She thinks it’s bizarre to worry about wild animals suffering at the hands of predators. Suffering, after all, “is inherent to the animal condition,” she told me. “The idea of minimizing suffering becomes a single-minded goal that doesn’t really grasp the vital importance of predators for ecosystems.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e2xueJ">
It’s possible to wed Anderson’s inclination to value all living things and the ecosystems that support them with<strong> </strong>Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. You can say, “This is the human form of life, and to some extent it is different from other forms of life. All lives are uniquely wonderful in their own way” — and then to apply the capabilities approach by respecting each and every organism’s form of life as much as you can.
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But there are two very understandable fears about adopting this view.
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One is that it’s just going to make things, well, really hard! If every living thing is potentially invested with moral value, that seems to impose on us a crushing amount of responsibility. How could we even move at all in such a world, knowing that every step we take could change that world and the animals that live in it? What would we do when the needs of different species conflict?
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To which Anderson essentially responds, that’s life. The best we can do is look at creatures’ intelligence and sentience and aliveness and relationships to us as clues about their importance. But it doesn’t tell us how to weight those clues and what to do when they conflict.
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“There’s no simple formula,” Anderson told me. “I think that’s a hopeless quest.”
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The other fear you might have is the inverse: Instead of worrying that people will now care about everything, you might worry that people will now care about nothing. If you say creatures do not have objective rights, why shouldn’t we treat nature as a free-for-all — which is largely what humans have done through most of our existence?
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But that’s the point: History shows that saying creatures have objective rights<strong> </strong>doesn’t magically convince people to treat animals well. Most people are not moral philosophers and are not<strong> </strong>swayed by a priori reasoning alone. Where they change their behavior to be more considerate of other beings, it’s often because the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/4/18285986/robot-animal-nature-expanding-moral-circle-peter-singer">economic and cultural constraints operating on them have changed</a>.
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For example, in the early 1900s there was still a perceived need for women to stay home and perform household labor. But by the middle of the century, the invention of new household appliances — like the washing machine or dishwasher — <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/11/10/21363336/vegan-meat-alternatives-technology-melanie-joy">catalyzed the emancipation of women</a> by undercutting the perceived need for them to labor so long at home.
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Similarly, if a society feels it needs to eat animal products to get enough nutrition, it might have a hard time viewing all animals as morally valuable. But if a society doesn’t feel it needs to eat animal products, it may have an easier time looking upon animals and feeling awe or empathy. Our ability to access those sorts of emotions is constrained or bolstered by the context we live in.
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According to that line of thinking, even the cleverest moral arguments may have less influence on animal welfare than<strong> </strong>the advent of <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/11/10/21363336/vegan-meat-alternatives-technology-melanie-joy">cheap and delicious plant-based meat</a>, like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers, as well as plant-based dairy and eggs. This type of tech innovation could free us up to see animals as creatures inspiring awe or empathy, making it easier to adopt kinder practices toward them.
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Ultimately, concern for animals is not forced on us by the nature of animals themselves. And if it’s not forced on us, that means it has to be a choice. Perhaps the best we can do is influence economic and cultural conditions to make it more possible for people to choose to care.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WVhI32">
This is an uncomfortable place for most philosophers to land. Many see it as their job to come up with grand theories, totalizing systems that can compel a certain kind of ethical behavior.<strong> </strong>Nussbaum writes that her capabilities approach “aims to supply a virtual constitution to which nations, states and regions may look in trying to improve (or newly frame) their animal-protective laws.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iTpEmZ">
But even the most convincing of grand theories have never managed on their own to compel everyone to behave a certain way. And<em> </em>any grand theory will be unconvincing for those of us who ask: If morality is conditioned by our cultural context, why would there ever be one universal, timeless formula that tells us how to slice up nature into clear moral categories?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AddI0o">
Nussbaum’s capabilities approach doesn’t need to present itself as a grand theory in order to make a helpful contribution to our world. Although it won’t, on its own, motivate concern for animals, it can be a very useful framework when we’re trying to figure out how to express our concern. Beyond that, philosophy actually has a crucial role to play: If it acknowledges that our moral beliefs are conditioned by cultural context, it can help show us that there was nothing inherently “normal” or “natural” about our ancestors’ cruel practices toward animals, and that those practices are mostly not necessary now. It can free up our culture to tell a new story about ourselves and other animals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZ95Vz">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/sigal-samuel"><em>Sigal Samuel</em></a> <em>is a senior reporter for </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect"><em>Vox’s Future Perfect</em></a><em> and co-host of the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect-podcast"><em>Future Perfect podcast</em></a><em>. She writes primarily about the future of consciousness, tracking advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience and their staggering ethical implications. Before joining Vox, Sigal was the religion editor at the Atlantic.</em>
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</p></li>
<li><strong>Ukraine’s corruption shake-up, briefly explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Deadly helicopter crash in Brovary" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Wr2vJpEAGT8iuCG2G6Ccq4tr-zk=/172x0:4545x3280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71902687/1246324930.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Deputy head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko speaks to the press at the scene of the fatal helicopter crash at a kindergarten in Brovary, Kyiv Region, northern Ukraine. Tymoshenko resigned this week amid a corruption scandal. | Evgen Kotenko/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
</figcaption>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Top officials are ousted or resign in the biggest reshuffle since the start of the Russian invasion.
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A <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-corruption-zelensky-fighting-east/32236992.html">corruption scandal is shaking up the Ukrainian government</a>, with top officials stepping aside as Kyiv seems eager to assure Western partners of their responsible stewardship of <a href="https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/">billions</a> in military and economic aid.
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Among the high-profile exits are Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head in the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and a deputy in the ministry of defense, <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-corruption-zelensky-fighting-east/32236992.html">Vyacheslav Shapovalov</a>, who was responsible for overseeing supplies and food for troops. <a href="https://english.nv.ua/nation/ukrainian-deputy-prosecutor-general-fired-after-scandal-over-spain-getaway-50299569.html">A deputy prosecutor general</a> was also sacked, as were a handful of <a href="https://english.nv.ua/nation/ukrainian-deputy-prosecutor-general-fired-after-scandal-over-spain-getaway-50299569.html">regional governors and a few other government ministers</a>.
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The actual details of what prompted the shake-up are a bit murky, and not all of the resignations and ousters appear to be related, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/defense-ministry-denies-buying-food-095101123.html">but it comes after at least one report</a> in Ukrainian media that the Ministry of Defense had purchased food for troops at extra-high prices. The Ministry of Defense <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MinistryofDefence.UA/posts/pfbid02zYDhmdQJCMM4G6wArjizfPQxUHfj8wep4q4XPFHBvSdtjauvD8uZdNznjUCXNWotl">had said </a>the allegations were a deliberate attempt to mislead, but said it would conduct an internal audit. Additional media <a href="https://bihus.info/">reports</a> in the past week had questioned officials, including Tymoshenko, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64383388">who appeared to be enjoying lavish lifestyles</a>.
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This represents the most high-profile reshuffle since Russia’s invasion last year. More details about the alleged graft are likely to emerge, but it seems clear that Zelenskyy’s government moved fast to tamp down any allegations of widespread corruption, especially from international backers who are providing tens of billions of dollars in assistance that Ukraine depends on in its fight against Russia. Some <a href="https://kyivindependent.com/national/explainer-why-did-zelensky-launch-the-biggest-government-reshuffle-during-full-scale-invasion">critics</a> have also suggested the shake-up is more of a political move, rather than a genuine anti-corruption effort.
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In his Tuesday evening address, <a href="https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official">posted on Telegram</a>, Zelenskyy acknowledged the personnel shifts and said that any internal problems “that hinder the state are being cleaned up and will be cleaned up. It is fair, it is necessary for our defense and it helps our rapprochement with European institutions.”
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Ukraine <a href="https://www.vox.com/22902846/ukraine-russia-nato-zelensky-poroshenko">has previously struggled to root out high-level corruption and bolster the rule of law</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/9/24/20882359/trump-impeachment-ukraine-president-zelensky">despite Zelenskyy promising to do so when he was elected in 2019</a>. Ukraine’s backers in the United States and Europe <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/21/fact-sheet-us-assistance-ukraine">had long put pressure on Kyiv</a> to deal with these issues, especially as a condition for Ukraine’s invitation into Western institutions, including perhaps one day joining the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/world/europe/ukraine-eu-membership-corruption.html">European Union</a>. Russia’s full-scale attack last year shunted some of those corruption concerns aside, as Western governments rushed to back up Ukraine and as Ukraine itself became a global symbol for democratic resistance.
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Within Ukraine, some civil society groups and anti-corruption forces who’d long been critical of the Ukrainian government and Zelenskyy put on hold some of their activism as Ukrainian society fully mobilized in the war effort. <a href="https://eucrim.eu/articles/war-and-corruption-in-ukraine/">According to a report on war and corruption in Ukraine released last summer</a>, about 84 percent of anti-corruption experts abandoned their activities because of the conflict.
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Still, concerns about Ukraine’s approach to corruption <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1112414884/corruption-concerns-involving-ukraine-are-revived-as-the-war-with-russia-drags-o">never totally dissipated</a>. The chaos of conflict — lots of rapid procurements, an influx of funds and supplies moving through many hands — tends to be fertile areas for potential graft and can exacerbate existing problems. <a href="https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/lessonslearned/SIGAR-21-46-LL.pdf">This is true no matter where the war or who’s doing the fighting</a>. Ukraine is no exception.
</p>
<h3 id="m8gTZa">
What we know about the Ukrainian government shake-ups
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jV1tcn">
The recent reshuffle appears to be connected to a few different scandals. Perhaps the most high-profile is this allegation, <a href="https://zn.ua/ukr/economic-security/tilovi-patsjuki-minoboroni-pid-chas-vijni-piljajut-na-kharchakh-dlja-zsu-bilshe-nizh-za-mirnoho-zhittja.html">first reported in the Ukrainian media outlet ZN.UA</a>, that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense had signed a contract paying <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukrainian-defense-ministry-overpays-food-161000223.html">two to three times more for food than retail prices in Kyiv</a>. Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov rejected the claims, saying it was a “technical error” and suggesting the leak was<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-politics-military-technology-joint-chiefs-of-staff-lloyd-austin-1b505c88a5a6f331cd482762c62fa29c"> timed to a meeting of Western donors</a>, in an effort to undermine Ukraine. “Information about the content of food service shoppers who have taken up public space is spreading with signs of deliberate manipulation and mislead,” the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MinistryofDefence.UA/posts/pfbid02zYDhmdQJCMM4G6wArjizfPQxUHfj8wep4q4XPFHBvSdtjauvD8uZdNznjUCXNWotl">ministry said in a statement</a>. The ministry said it was opening an investigation into the “spread of intentionally false information,” though it was also conducting an internal audit.
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In response to the procurement allegations, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) publicly announced its own investigation. On Tuesday, Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov reportedly <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-deputy-defense-minister-vyacheslav-shapovalov-resign-corruption-war-zelenskyy/">asked to be dismissed</a>, so as “not to pose a threat to the stable supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a result of a campaign of accusations related to the purchase of food services.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PrRRwZ">
But Ukraine’s government shake-up extends beyond that. On Tuesday, Tymoshenko<strong>, </strong>a close aide to Zelenskyy, announced his resignation, saying it was of his “own volition.” <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/ukraines-minister-internal-affairs-flying-091814182.html">Tymoshenko had a fairly public-facing role during the war</a>, and Ukrainian media had reported last year that he had driven an SUV donated for humanitarian purposes for his personal use (he denied that report). In December, another investigation suggested Tymoshenko had been driving an expensive sports car, and had rented a mansion belonging to a prominent businessman — flashy accessories for a government official in wartime. Tymoshenko has <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/zelenskyy-office-official-tymoshenko-denies-144500867.html">said</a> he rents the house because his own is in an area targeted by airstrikes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEeB1n">
Oleksiy Symonenko, <a href="https://english.nv.ua/nation/ukrainian-deputy-prosecutor-general-fired-after-scandal-over-spain-getaway-50299569.html">a deputy prosecutor general</a>, was also ousted, following reports last month in Ukrainian media that <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-deputy-prosecutor-general-fired-120100893.html">he had gone on a 10-day holiday in Spain during the war</a>. On Monday, Zelenskyy <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/kyiv-officials-traveling-abroad-moscow-border-measures-oleksii-reznikov-volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine-russia/">banned </a>all government officials from leaving the country for anything other than official business.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZSO4y5">
In addition to these high-profile ousters, a few other deputy ministers and regional governors — <a href="https://kyivindependent.com/national/explainer-why-did-zelensky-launch-the-biggest-government-reshuffle-during-full-scale-invasion">including those in Kyiv and Kherson Oblasts</a> — were also fired. <a href="https://kyivindependent.com/national/explainer-why-did-zelensky-launch-the-biggest-government-reshuffle-during-full-scale-invasion">According to the Kyiv Independent</a>, some of these officials have been implicated in graft, while others appear to have just been caught up in the reshuffle.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GCjdkg">
This turmoil also comes days after Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister, Vasyl Lozinskyi, was fired following <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/23/ukraine-deputy-minister-sacked-for-alleged-theft-of-400000?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other">allegations from Ukrainian prosecutors</a> that he stole $400,000 (£320,000) that was intended to go to the purchase of aid, including generators, to help Ukrainians withstand the winter after Russian attacks <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/11/18/23460933/ukraine-infrastructure-strikes-russia-blackouts-war">badly damaged energy infrastructure</a>. He has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/23/ukraine-deputy-minister-sacked-for-alleged-theft-of-400000">not commented</a> on the allegations.
</p>
<h3 id="wZXVFu">
Ukraine corruption is a focus again, a year into war
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xfcqLf">
A few firings and resignations will not fix endemic corruption or rule of law problems in Ukraine, just as Ukraine’s resistance against Moscow will not erase all of its underlying governance weaknesses. A bigger question is how widespread these latest instances of corruption are, and whether the ousters and resignations now represent a real and sustained effort to crack down or are more a political reshuffle and a public show to reassure Western partners and the Ukrainian public.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cLMM0O">
An aid to Zelenskyy tweeted that the moves show the government won’t turn any <a href="https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1617806743718985728?s=20&amp;t=Usd8oVCCjg8Msp3_G8dNtQ">“blind eyes”</a> to misdeeds. Yet some critics have suggested this is more of a political shake-up, and <a href="https://kyivindependent.com/national/explainer-why-did-zelensky-launch-the-biggest-government-reshuffle-during-full-scale-invasion">that other politicians accused of corruption remain in their posts</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DBjR41">
In 2021, Transparency International had <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/ukraine">ranked</a> Ukraine 122 among 180 countries for corruption, making it one of the worst offenders. Even on the eve of Russia’s invasion, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/01/joint-statement-on-the-u-s-ukraine-strategic-partnership/">United States </a>and <a href="https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/DocItem.aspx?did=59383">European</a> partners had continued to put pressure on Zelenskyy to implement anti-corruption and rule of law reforms. Those calls didn’t <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/eu-chief-ukraine-needs-to-give-anti-corruption-reforms-teeth/a-62324723">stop once the war commenced</a>, but the focus, with legitimate reason, was on supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russia and providing military, humanitarian, and economic aid to Kyiv.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZZCwfF">
Within Ukraine, too, some of the government’s biggest critics redirected their energies to the larger war effort, according to a survey of 169 anti-corruption experts who<strong> </strong>responded in April 2022. <a href="https://eucrim.eu/articles/war-and-corruption-in-ukraine/">Around 47 percent </a>reported feeling endangered if they continued to fight corruption during the conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cqA0In">
This, of course, is why war and conflict can deepen corruption. Ukraine is fighting for its existence as a state, so, naturally, that’s the priority above all else. Government resources, attention, and funding all go to mobilizing for that, which means anti-corruption efforts and rule of law reforms fall by the wayside. On top of that, war creates plenty of opportunities for graft, with less time and attention on accountability and oversight.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dlnN0Z">
The recent allegations come nearly one year into the war as the West once again gears up to send Ukrainian massive tranches of weapons — including, now, reportedly advanced US tanks. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/24/us-house-approves-ukraine-aid-including-arms-after-zelenskyy-visit.html">The US alone has contributed about $100 billion toward Ukraine</a>, including military, security, and economic assistance. As of November, European countries and EU institutions have pledged <a href="https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/">more than €51 billion in assistance to Ukraine</a>, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. As the war drags on, some Western lawmakers are questioning the amount of aid flowing to Ukraine — and are calling for more accountability on where everything is going. <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/932e333d-021b-46d9-9e78-0de4fe9ad58a">That includes some of the newly sworn-in Republican majority in the US House</a>.<strong> </strong>Kyiv relies on foreign support in its fight against Russia, and repeated hints of misuse may jeopardize that, so it’s not surprising Kyiv is moving quickly to respond.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZtbiXa">
And that is perhaps one of the big questions: How much of this is for optics, and how much does this reflect a deeper commitment on those corruption promises? The <a href="https://www.state.gov/department-press-briefings/">US </a>lauded Ukraine for making these moves, but a lot will depend on how the investigations play out and what they uncover. Still, Ukraine’s efforts to signal to the world — and a domestic audience who’s sacrificed a lot for the war — still carry a warning to other officials.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f2Q8g8">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FoOtfP">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YRlxlh">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B6JHX1">
</p></li>
</ul>
<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>PSA tournament and India Open juniors at National Stadium</strong> - Sports Bureau</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>Chaposa Springs, Asio, Aurora Borealis and Royal Supremacy shine</strong> -</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>Suryakumar Yadav named ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year 2022</strong> - Suryakumar Yadav had a stellar 2022, breaking an array of records and setting a benchmark in T20 cricket</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>Australian Open 2023 | Sania-Bopanna pair reaches mixed doubles final</strong> - Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna reached the mixed doubles final of the 2023 Australian Open in Sania’s final Grand Slam appearance</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>BCCI announces owners of Women’s IPL teams; combined valuation of ₹4,670 crore</strong> - Three IPL franchises are among the owners of the five new Women’s Premier League teams announced by the BCCI</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>Congress media chief’s tweet delivers propaganda setback to the party ahead end of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra</strong> - The post has reportedly dispirited Congress workers who organised public screenings of the documentary braving the Centre’s “ban”</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>Here are the big stories from Tamil Nadu today</strong> -</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>Andhra Pradesh Governor extends Republic Day greetings</strong> - Biswa Bhusan Harichandan’s message will be aired on All India Radio, Doordarshan and FM Radio on Jan. 26, says Raj Bhavan</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>Pawan Kalyan performs special puja for campaign vehicle ‘Varahi’ at Kanaka Durga temple in Vijayawada</strong> - It is aimed at putting an end to the demonic rule of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, he says</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>Kerala HC directive for compliance with AIS 093 in truck body building</strong> -</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>Germany confirms it will provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks</strong> - Russia has downplayed the impact of the move, saying Western tanks will “burn like all the rest”.</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>MH17: Court ruling due on Dutch case against Russia</strong> - The European Court of Human Rights is to say whether it will hear a case about Moscow’s role in the crash.</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>Andrew Tate claims case against him ‘empty’</strong> - Tate says there is “no justice in Romania” as he is taken for police questioning at a special unit.</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>Top Ukrainian officials quit in anti-corruption drive</strong> - A top aide and deputy defence minister are among those to resign as Kyiv tackles corruption reports.</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>Ukraine: Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw killed in Soledar rescue attempt</strong> - Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were killed in Soledar, eastern Ukraine, family members say.</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>As egg prices soar, the deadliest bird flu outbreak in US history drags on</strong> - Risk to humans is low, but epidemiologists fear a future pandemic by such a flu. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1912393">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>These scientists created jewelry out of the striking shapes of chaos theory</strong> - Not just inspired by chaos theory, but directly created from its mathematical principles. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1912198">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The DOJ sues Google for ad dominance, wants to break company up</strong> - US trust-busters want to take the DoubleClick out of Google. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1912246">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Blizzard studio halts union plans amid alleged management meddling</strong> - Proletariat union cites “confrontational tactics” from CEO that “took their toll.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1912345">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It’s getting easier to buy bigger SSDs for the Steam Deck and Surface PCs</strong> - Special 30-mm-long SSDs are gradually coming to retail, though big names are MIA. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1911921">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why does Chuck Norris never have to flush the toilet?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He just scares the shit out of it.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/hoosyourdaddyo"> /u/hoosyourdaddyo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10kkupw/why_does_chuck_norris_never_have_to_flush_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10kkupw/why_does_chuck_norris_never_have_to_flush_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I like my women like I like my coffee</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Strong and valued in the work place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<span class="md-spoiler-text">E Jesus fuck this joke brought out a lot of fucking creeps</span>
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/vanilla_disco"> /u/vanilla_disco </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10k717e/i_like_my_women_like_i_like_my_coffee/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10k717e/i_like_my_women_like_i_like_my_coffee/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I like my women like I like my snow.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I don’t know how I like it, I’ve never touched or seen any outside of TV.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Alexhue123"> /u/Alexhue123 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10k460i/i_like_my_women_like_i_like_my_snow/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10k460i/i_like_my_women_like_i_like_my_snow/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My girlfriend poked me in the eyes…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So unfortunately I stopped seeing her for a while.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/c0dyw0dy27"> /u/c0dyw0dy27 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10kbzh6/my_girlfriend_poked_me_in_the_eyes/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10kbzh6/my_girlfriend_poked_me_in_the_eyes/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A dyslexic son asked his mum if he can have some McDonald’s for dinner.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He’s mum said ok, but only if he can spell out McDonald’s. The son replied: Fuck it, I’ll just have some KCF!
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/juza83"> /u/juza83 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10k6ane/a_dyslexic_son_asked_his_mum_if_he_can_have_some/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/10k6ane/a_dyslexic_son_asked_his_mum_if_he_can_have_some/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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