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<title>06 July, 2021</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>POLICY OF TIME ECONOMIC RECOVERY COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN INDONESIA YEAR 2020-2021</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic for almost two years has had a very extraordinary and frightening impact, there have been 2.3 million cases of covid-19 with a cure rate of 84% and a death rate of 2.6% in July 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only created a humanitarian disaster but has an impact National economic downturn, such as negative economic growth, declining purchasing power, increasing poverty and uncontrolled unemployment. The government’s policy by carrying out a two-legged policy, the first is to break the chain of the spread of this pandemic with regulations and health protocol policies. The second is economic recovery during the pandemic with social assistance to the community, SMEs and industrialization so that they still have purchasing power to move the real sector. Inaccurate data, limited infrastructure and budget constraints are the biggest obstacles to economic recovery during the pandemic. UKMM is the final foundation and backbone of the national economy in the midst of an economic recession in its second year.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/rvmcu/" target="_blank">POLICY OF TIME ECONOMIC RECOVERY COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN INDONESIA YEAR 2020-2021</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Collaboration: Exploring the Postgraduate Researcher’s superpower for addressing inequalities within academia</strong> -
<div>
Inequalities within academia are rampant. Sexism, racism, classism and discrimination impose huge barriers to those entering academic work or study. These issues are amplified in times of crisis, such as COVID-19. As postgraduate researchers, we can often feel powerless to address these inequalities. We possess little status in academic power structures, and as such it can be difficult to ‘rock the boat’ or diverge from normalised patterns of discrimination within our fields. In this essay, I argue that while we may lack status, postgraduates can adapt and diversify our collaborations with others to effectively address inequality. I outline how collaboration can be a vital tool for elevating underrepresented voices within and outside academia and examine how students with funding in particular can play an important role in this. In diversifying our citations, networks and methods of collaboration, we can ensure increasing opportunities are available for underrepresented groups throughout the academic pipeline. As the next generation of scholars, postgraduate researchers can change the game for underrepresented groups, and ensuring we collaborate diversely is our superpower for doing so.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/d8et9/" target="_blank">Collaboration: Exploring the Postgraduate Researcher’s superpower for addressing inequalities within academia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Kozak-related non-coding deletion effectively increases B.1.1.7 transmissibility</strong> -
<div>
The high transmissibility acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern (VOC) B.1.1.7 remains unclear and only mutations in coding regions have been examined. We analyzed 875,338 high-quality SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and the epidemiology metadata. The occurrence of a non-coding deletion (g.a28271-) in the B.1.1.7 background immediately causes the rapid spread of B.1.1.7. The number of B.1.1.7-like strains lacking the deletion is significantly less than that of B.1.1.7 strains (n= 259 vs 92,688, P-value&lt;4.9e-324). The same highly significant statistics is observed in different countries, gender and age groups. However, the deletion alone does not cause such high viral transmissibility. The deletion and another mutation (g.gat28280cta) co-affect translational efficiency of the genes N and ORF9b by changing the core Kozak sites. The deletion interacts synergistically with S:p.P681H and S:p.T716I to increase viral transmissibility. Therefore, the Kozak-related non-coding deletion, also carried by the Delta VOC, is crucial for the high viral transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.30.442029v2" target="_blank">A Kozak-related non-coding deletion effectively increases B.1.1.7 transmissibility</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>‘Distancers’ and ‘non-distancers’? The potential social-psychological impact of moralising COVID-19 mitigating practices on sustained behaviour change</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 mitigating practices such as “hand-washing”, “social distancing” or “social isolating” are constructed as ‘moral imperatives’, required to avert harm to oneself and others. Adherence to COVID-19 mitigating practices is presently high among the general public, and stringent lockdown measures supported by legal and policy intervention has facilitated this. In the coming months, however, as rules are being relaxed and individuals become less strict, and thus the ambiguity in policy increases, the maintenance of recommended social distancing norms will rely on more informal social-interactional processes. We argue that the moralisation of these practices, twinned with relaxations of policy, may likely cause interactional tension between those individuals who do vs. those who do not uphold social distancing in the coming months: i.e., derogation of those who adhere strictly to COVID-19 mitigating practices and group polarisation between ‘distancers’ and ‘non-distancers’. In this paper we explore how and why these processes might come to pass, their impact on an overall societal response to COVID-19, and the need to factor such processes into decisions regarding how to lift restrictions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/dbkj6/" target="_blank">‘Distancers’ and ‘non-distancers’? The potential social-psychological impact of moralising COVID-19 mitigating practices on sustained behaviour change</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Broadly neutralizing antibodies to SARS-related viruses can be readily induced in rhesus macaques</strong> -
<div>
To prepare for future coronavirus (CoV) pandemics, it is desirable to generate vaccines capable of eliciting neutralizing antibody responses against multiple CoVs. Because of the phylogenetic similarity to humans, rhesus macaques are an animal model of choice for many virus-challenge and vaccine-evaluation studies, including SARS-CoV-2. Here, we show that immunization of macaques with SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein generates potent receptor binding domain cross-neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses to both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1, in contrast to human infection or vaccination where responses are typically SARS-CoV-2-specific. Furthermore, the macaque nAbs are equally effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Structural studies show that different immunodominant sites are targeted by the two primate species. Human antibodies generally target epitopes strongly overlapping the ACE2 receptor binding site (RBS), whereas the macaque antibodies recognize a relatively conserved region proximal to the RBS that represents another potential pan-SARS-related virus site rarely targeted by human antibodies. B cell repertoire differences between the two primates appear to significantly influence the vaccine response and suggest care in the use of rhesus macaques in evaluation of vaccines to SARS-related viruses intended for human use.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.05.451222v1" target="_blank">Broadly neutralizing antibodies to SARS-related viruses can be readily induced in rhesus macaques</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Increased frequency of recurrent in-frame deletions in new expanding lineages of SARS CoV-2 reflects immune selective pressure</strong> -
<div>
Most of the attention in the surveillance of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has been centered on single nucleotide substitutions in the spike glycoprotein. We show that in-frame deletions (IFDs) also play a significant role in the evolution of viral genome. The percentage of genomes and lineages with IFDs is growing rapidly and they co-occur independently in multiple lineages, including emerging variants of concerns. IFDs distribution is correlated with spike mutations associated with immune escape and concentrated in proteins involved in interactions with the host immune system. Structural analysis suggests that IFDs remodel viral proteins surfaces at common epitopes and interaction interfaces, affecting the virus interactions with the immune system. We hypothesize that the increased frequency of IFDs is an adaptive response to elevated global population immunity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.04.451027v1" target="_blank">Increased frequency of recurrent in-frame deletions in new expanding lineages of SARS CoV-2 reflects immune selective pressure</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 environmental contamination from hospitalised COVID-19 patients receiving aerosol generating procedures</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
ABSTRACT Background. Continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) and high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) are considered “aerosol-generating procedures” (AGPs) in the treatment of COVID-19. We aimed to measure air and surface environmental contamination of SARS-CoV-2 virus when CPAP and HFNO were used, compared with supplemental oxygen, to investigate the potential risks of viral transmission to healthcare workers and patients. Methods. 30 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 requiring supplemental oxygen, with a fraction of inspired oxygen ≥0.4 to maintain oxygen saturations ≥94%, were prospectively enrolled into an observational environmental sampling study. Participants received either supplemental oxygen, CPAP or HFNO (n=10 in each group). A nasopharyngeal swab, three air and three surface samples were collected from each participant and the clinical environment. RT qPCR analyses were performed for viral and human RNA, and positive/suspected-positive samples were cultured for the presence of biologically viable virus. Results. Overall 21/30 (70%) of participants tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the nasopharynx. In contrast, only 4/90 (4%) and 6/90 (7%) of all air and surface samples tested positive (positive for E and ORF1a) for viral RNA respectively, although there were an additional 10 suspected-positive samples in both air and surfaces samples (positive for E or ORF1a). CPAP/HFNO use or coughing was not associated with significantly more environmental contamination. Only one nasopharyngeal sample was culture positive. Conclusions. The use of CPAP and HFNO to treat moderate/severe COVID-19 was not associated with significantly higher levels of air or surface viral contamination in the immediate care environment.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.04.21259945v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 environmental contamination from hospitalised COVID-19 patients receiving aerosol generating procedures</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Angiotensin II receptor I auto-antibodies following SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with endothelial activation and coagulopathy, which may be related to pre-existing or infection-induced pro-thrombotic autoantibodies such as those targeting angiotensin II type I receptor (AT1R-Ab). METHODS: We compared prevalence and levels of AT1R-Ab in COVID-19 cases with mild or severe disease to age and sex matched negative controls. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between cases and controls. However, there were trends toward a higher proportion with AT1R-Ab positivity among severe cases versus controls (32% vs. 11%, p=0.1) and higher levels in those with mild COVID-19 compared to controls (median 9.5U/mL vs. 5.9U/mL, p=0.06). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that AT1R-Ab are not consistently associated with COVID-19 but do not exclude a contribution to endothelial pathology in a subset of people.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.30.21259796v1" target="_blank">Angiotensin II receptor I auto-antibodies following SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Hydrogel-based slow release of a receptor-binding domain subunit vaccine elicits neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
The development of effective vaccines that can be rapidly manufactured and distributed worldwide is necessary to mitigate the devastating health and economic impacts of pandemics like COVID-19. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which mediates host cell entry of the virus, is an appealing antigen for subunit vaccines because it is efficient to manufacture, highly stable, and a target for neutralizing antibodies. Unfortunately, RBD is poorly immunogenic. While most subunit vaccines are commonly formulated with adjuvants to enhance their immunogenicity, we found that clinically-relevant adjuvants Alum, AddaVax, and CpG/Alum were unable to elicit neutralizing responses following a prime-boost immunization. Here we show that sustained delivery of an RBD/CpG/Alum subunit vaccine in an injectable polymer-nanoparticle (PNP) hydrogel depot increased total anti-RBD antibody titers and elicited potent anti-spike titers, providing broader protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern compared to bolus administration of the same vaccine and vaccines comprising other clinically-relevant adjuvant systems. Notably, a SARS-CoV-2 spike-pseudotyped lentivirus neutralization assay revealed that hydrogel-based vaccines elicited potent neutralizing responses when bolus vaccines did not. Together, these results suggest that slow delivery of RBD subunit vaccines with PNP hydrogels can significantly enhance the immunogenicity of RBD and induce neutralizing humoral immunity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.31.437792v2" target="_blank">Hydrogel-based slow release of a receptor-binding domain subunit vaccine elicits neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>An Immune Cell Atlas Reveals Dynamic COVID-19 Specific Neutrophil Programming Amenable to Dexamethasone Therapy</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that causes acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), death and long-term sequelae. Innate immune cells are critical for host defense but are also the primary drivers of ARDS. The relationships between innate cellular responses in ARDS resulting from COVID-19 compared to other causes of ARDS, such as bacterial sepsis is unclear. Moreover, the beneficial effects of dexamethasone therapy during severe COVID-19 remain speculative, but understanding the mechanistic effects could improve evidence-based therapeutic interventions. To interrogate these relationships, we developed an scRNA-Seq and plasma proteomics atlas (biernaskielab.ca/COVID_neutrophil). We discovered that compared to bacterial ARDS, COVID-19 was associated with distinct neutrophil polarization characterized by either interferon (IFN) or prostaglandin (PG) active states. Neutrophils from bacterial ARDS had higher expression of antibacterial molecules such as PLAC8 and CD83. Dexamethasone therapy in COVID patients rapidly altered the IFNactive state, downregulated interferon responsive genes, and activated IL1R2+ve neutrophils. Dexamethasone also induced the emergence of immature neutrophils expressing immunosuppressive molecules ARG1 and ANXA1, which were not present in healthy controls. Moreover, dexamethasone remodeled global cellular interactions by changing neutrophils from information receivers into information providers. Importantly, male patients had higher proportions of IFNactive neutrophils, a greater degree of steroid-induced immature neutrophil expansion, and increased mortality benefit compared to females in the dexamethasone era. Indeed, the highest proportion of IFNactive neutrophils was associated with mortality. These results define neutrophil states unique to COVID-19 when contextualized to other life-threatening infections, thereby enhancing the relevance of our findings at the bedside. Furthermore, the molecular benefits of dexamethasone therapy are also defined, and the identified pathways and plasma proteins can now be targeted to develop improved therapeutics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.18.440366v2" target="_blank">An Immune Cell Atlas Reveals Dynamic COVID-19 Specific Neutrophil Programming Amenable to Dexamethasone Therapy</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>To knot or not to knot: Multiple conformations of the SARS-CoV-2 frameshifting RNA element</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 frameshifting RNA element (FSE) is an excellent target for therapeutic intervention against Covid-19. This small gene element employs a shifting mechanism to pause and backtrack the ribosome during translation between Open Reading Frames 1a and 1b, which code for viral polyproteins. Any interference with this process has profound effect on viral replication and propagation. Pinpointing the structures adapted by the FSE and associated structural transformations involved in frameshifting has been a challenge. Using our graph-theory-based modeling tools for representing RNA secondary structures, “RAG” (RNA-As-Graphs), and chemical structure probing experiments, we show that the 3-stem H-type pseudoknot (3_6 dual graph), long assumed to be the dominant structure has a viable alternative, an HL-type 3-stem pseudoknot (3_3) for longer constructs. In addition, an unknotted 3-way junction RNA (3_5) emerges as a minor conformation. These three conformations share Stems 1 and 3, while the different Stem 2 may be involved in a conformational switch and possibly associations with the ribosome during translation. For full-length genomes, a stem-loop motif (2_2) may compete with these forms. These structural and mechanistic insights advance our understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 frameshifting process and concomitant virus life cycle, and point to three avenues of therapeutic intervention.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.31.437955v2" target="_blank">To knot or not to knot: Multiple conformations of the SARS-CoV-2 frameshifting RNA element</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Low dose mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine generates durable T cell memory and antibodies enhanced by pre-existing crossreactive T cell memory</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Understanding human immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 RNA vaccines is of interest for a panoply of reasons. Here we examined vaccine-specific CD4+ T cell, CD8+ T cell, binding antibody, and neutralizing antibody responses to the 25 ug Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine over 7 months post-immunization, including multiple age groups, with a particular interest in assessing whether pre-existing crossreactive T cell memory impacts vaccine-generated immunity. Low dose (25 ug) mRNA-1273 elicited durable Spike binding antibodies comparable to that of convalescent COVID-19 cases. Vaccine-generated Spike memory CD4+ T cells 6 months post-boost were comparable in quantity and quality to COVID-19 cases, including the presence of TFH cells and IFNg-expressing cells. Spike CD8+ T cells were generated in 88% of subjects, with equivalent percentages of CD8+ T cell memory responders at 6 months post-boost compared to COVID-19 cases. Lastly, subjects with pre-existing crossreactive CD4+ T cell memory had increased CD4+ T cell and antibody responses to the vaccine, demonstrating a biological relevance of SARS-CoV-2 crossreactive CD4+ T cells.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.30.21259787v1" target="_blank">Low dose mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine generates durable T cell memory and antibodies enhanced by pre-existing crossreactive T cell memory</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Will Vaccine-derived Protective Immunity Curtail COVID-19 Variants in the US?</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Multiple effective vaccines are currently being deployed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic (caused by SARS-COV-2), and are viewed as the major factor in marked reductions in disease burden in regions around the world with moderate to high coverage of these vaccines. The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination programs is, however, significantly threatened by the emergence of new SARS-COV-2 variants that, in addition to being more transmissible and potentially more virulent than the wild (resident) strain, may at least partially evade existing vaccines. A new two-strain (one resident, the other wild) and two-group (vaccinated or otherwise) mechanistic mathematical model is designed and used to assess the impact of the vaccine-induced cross-protective efficacy on the spread the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Analysis of the model, which is fitted using COVID-19 mortality data for the US, shows that vaccine-induced herd immunity can be achieved if 61% of the American population is fully vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Parameter sensitivity analysis suggests three main factors that significantly affect the COVID-19 burden in the US, namely (a) daily vaccination rate, (b) the level of cross-protection the vaccines offer against the variant, and (c) the relative infectiousness of the dominant variant relative to the wild strain. This study further suggests that a new variant can cause a significant disease surge in the US if (i) the vaccine coverage against the wild strain is low (roughly &lt; 50%), (ii) the variant is much more transmissible (e.g., twice more transmissible) than the wild-type strain, or (iii) the level of cross-protection offered by the vaccine is relatively low (e.g., less than 70%). A new variant will not cause such surge in the US if it is only moderately more transmissible (e.g., 1:56 more transmissible) than the wild strain, at least 66% of the population of the US is fully vaccinated, and the three vaccines being deployed in the US (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson &amp; Johnson) offer a moderate level of cross-protection against the variant.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.30.21259782v1" target="_blank">Will Vaccine-derived Protective Immunity Curtail COVID-19 Variants in the US?</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of regional heterogeneity on the severity of COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: We aimed to assess the impact of regional heterogeneity on the severity of COVID-19 in Japan. Methods: We included 27,865 cases registered between January 2020 and February 2021 in the COVID-19 Registry of Japan to examine the relationship between the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) of COVID-19 patients on the day of admission and the prefecture where the patients live. A hierarchical Bayesian model was used to examine the random effect of each prefecture in addition to the patients9 backgrounds. In addition, we compared the results of two models; one model included the number of beds secured for COVID-19 patients in each prefecture as one of the fixed effects, and the other model did not. Results: The results indicated that the prefecture had a substantial impact on the severity of COVID-19 on admission. Even when considering the effect of the number of beds separately, the heterogeneity caused by the random effect of each prefecture affected the severity of the case on admission. Conclusions: Our analysis revealed a possible association between regional heterogeneity and increased/decreased risk of severe COVID-19 infection on admission. This heterogeneity was derived not only from the number of beds secured in each prefecture but also from other factors.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.30.21259758v1" target="_blank">Impact of regional heterogeneity on the severity of COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 using UVC reveals wavelength sensitivity contributes towards rapid virucidal activity</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
SARS-CoV-2 is a pathogen that can be disinfected using UVC. For effective inactivation strategies, design and implementation of UVC disinfection, knowledge of wavelength sensitivity, and disinfection rate of the relevant pathogen are required. This study aimed to determine the inactivation profile of SARS-CoV-2 using UVC irradiation with different wavelengths, in addition to validating surrogate models for SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, the study determined dosage, inactivation levels, and wavelength sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2. Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 (Strain USA/WA1-2020) inactivation at peak wavelength of 259, 268, 270, 275 and 280 nm was performed using plaque assay method. The UVC dose of 3.1 mJ/cm2 using 259 and 268 nm arrays yielded LRV2.32 and LRV2.44 respectively. With a dose of 5mJ/cm2, arrays of peak wavelengths at 259 and 268 nm obtained similar inactivation (LRV2.97 and LRV 2.80 respectively). The remaining arrays of longer wavelength, 270, 275 and 280 nm, demonstrated lower performances (LRV2.0 or less) with 5mJ/cm2. Additional study with the 268 nm array revealed that a dose of 6.25 mJ/cm2 (with 5 seconds or irradiation) is enough to obtain LRV3. These results determine that 259 and 268 nm are the most efficient wavelengths compared to longer UVC wavelengths, allowing the calculation of disinfection systems efficacy, and providing a benchmark for surrogates.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.30.21259769v1" target="_blank">Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 using UVC reveals wavelength sensitivity contributes towards rapid virucidal activity</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>Cognitive and Psychological Disorders After Severe COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID 19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Cognitive assessment;   Diagnostic Test: Imaging;   Diagnostic Test: Routine care;   Other: Psychiatric evaluation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Central Hospital, Nancy, France;   Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon;   University Hospital, Strasbourg, France;   Centre Hospitalier Régional Metz-Thionville;   Centre hospitalier Epinal;   Hopitaux Civils de Colmar<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>Phase 1 Study to Assess Safety, Tolerability, PD, PK, Immunogenicity of IV NTR-441 Solution in Healthy Volunteers and COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: NTR-441;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Neutrolis<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>COVID-19 Vaccinations With a Sweepstakes</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Philly Vax Sweepstakes<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Pennsylvania;   Philadelphia Department of Public Health<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>Covid-19 Virtual Recovery Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Strength RMT;   Behavioral: Strength RMT and nasal breathing;   Behavioral: Endurance RMT;   Behavioral: Endurance RMT and nasal breathing;   Behavioral: Low dose RMT<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mayo Clinic<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>Safety and Immunogenicity of LNP-nCOV saRNA-02 Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2, the Causative Agent of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: LNP-nCOV saRNA-02 Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit<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 Study to Evaluate MVC-COV1901 Vaccine Against COVID-19 in Adolescents</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19 Vaccine<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: MVC-COV1901(S protein with adjuvant);   Biological: MVC-COV1901(Saline)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.<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>Efficacy of Inhaled Therapies in the Treatment of Acute Symptoms Associated With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: inhaled beclametasone;   Drug: Inahaled beclomethasone / formoterol / glycopyrronium<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   UPECLIN HC FM Botucatu Unesp;   Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.<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>Dapsone Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Trial (DAP-CORONA) COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Dapsone 85 mg PO BID;   Drug: Placebo 85 mg PO BID<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre;   Pulmonem Inc.<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>Covid-19 Patients Management During Home Isolation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Procedure: Oxygen therapy and physical therapy;   Device: Oxygen therapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cairo 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>Ivermectin Versus Standard Treatment in Mild COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin Tablets<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Assiut 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>SCALE-UP Utah: Community-Academic Partnership to Address COVID-19 Testing Among Utah Community Health Centers</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Text-Messaging (TM);   Behavioral: Patient Navigation (PN)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Utah;   Association for Utah Community Health;   Utah Department of Health;   National Institutes of Health (NIH)<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>SCALE-UP Utah: Community-Academic Partnership to Address COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Among Utah Community Health Centers</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Text-Messaging (TM);   Behavioral: Patient Navigation (PN)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Utah;   Association for Utah Community Health;   Utah Department of Health;   National Institutes of Health (NIH)<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>Chinese Herbal Formula for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: mQFPD;   Drug: organic brown rice<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of California, San Diego<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>Remdesivir- Ivermectin Combination Therapy in Severe Covid-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Assiut 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>IRAK 4 Inhibitor (PF-06650833) in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia and Exuberant Inflammation.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: PF-06650833;   Drug: Matching Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Giovanni Franchin, M.D, Ph.D;   Pfizer<br/><b>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>Laser-facilitated epicutaneous immunization of mice with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induces antibodies inhibiting spike/ACE2 binding</strong> - The skin represents an attractive target tissue for vaccination against respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. Laser-facilitated epicutaneous immunization (EPI) has been established as a novel technology to overcome the skin barrier, which combines efficient delivery via micropores with an inherent adjuvant effect due to the release of danger-associated molecular patterns. Here we delivered the S1 subunit of the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 to the skin of BALB/c mice via laser-generated…</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>Phytotherapic Drugs For Covid19 Treatment: A Scoping Review</strong> - CONCLUSION: Altogether, the review presents the action mechanism of plant extracts rich in bioactive compounds and depicted potential antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. These plant bioactive compounds can serve as lead molecules to develop phytomedicine, ensuring all safety regulations in the clinical trials to treat or prevent COVID19 viral infections.</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>Mechanistic Aspects of Medicinal Plants and Secondary Metabolites against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)</strong> - CONCLUSION: Medicinal plants and/or their bioactive compounds with inhibitory effects against SARS-CoV-2 support the human immune system and help in fighting against COVID-19 and rejuvenating the immune 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>Triangle of cytokine storm, central nervous system involvement, and viral infection in COVID-19: the role of sFasL and neuropilin-1</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is identified as the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and is often linked to extreme inflammatory responses by over activation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), cytokine storm, and sepsis. These are robust causes for multi-organ damage. In particular, potential routes of SARS-CoV2 entry, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), have been linked to central nervous system (CNS) involvement. CNS has been…</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>Protein S: function, regulation, and clinical perspectives</strong> - PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Protein S (PS) is an essential natural anticoagulant. PS deficiency is a major contributor to acquired hypercoagulability. Acquired hypercoagulability causes myocardial infarction, stroke, and deep vein thrombosis in millions of individuals. Yet, despite its importance in hemostasis, PS is the least understood anticoagulant. Even after 40 years since PS was first described, we are still uncovering information about how PS functions. The purpose of this review is to highlight…</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>Boswellic acids/Boswellia serrata extract as a potential COVID-19 therapeutic agent in the elderly</strong> - The most severe cases of COVID-19, and the highest rates of death, are among the elderly. There is an urgent need to search for an agent to treat the disease and control its progression. Boswellia serrata is traditionally used to treat chronic inflammatory diseases of the lung. This review aims to highlight currently published research that has shown evidence of potential therapeutic effects of boswellic acids (BA) and B. serrata extract against COVID-19 and associated conditions. We reviewed…</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>Corilagin and 1,3,6-Tri-O-galloy-beta-D-glucose: potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> - The COVID-19 disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, first detected in December 2019, is still emerging through virus mutations. Although almost under control in some countries due to effective vaccines that are mitigating the worldwide pandemic, the urgency to develop additional vaccines and therapeutic treatments is imperative. In this work, the natural polyphenols corilagin and 1,3,6-tri-O-galloy-β-d-glucose (TGG) are investigated to determine the structural basis of inhibitor interactions as…</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>Roles of existing drug and drug targets for COVID-19 management</strong> - In December 2019, a highly transmissible, pneumonia epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), erupted in China and other countries, resulting in devastation and health crisis worldwide currently. The search and using existing drugs support to curb the current highly contagious viral infection is spirally increasing since the pandemic began. This is based on these drugs had against other related RNA-viruses such as MERS-Cov, and…</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 new high-content screening assay of the entire hepatitis B virus life cycle identifies novel antivirals</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: The newly developed high-content assay is suitable to screen large-scale drug libraries, enables monitoring of the entire HBV life cycle, and discriminates between inhibition of early and late viral life cycle events.</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>Graphene Nanoplatelet and Graphene Oxide Functionalization of Face Mask Materials Inhibits Infectivity of Trapped SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Recent advancements in bidimensional nanoparticles production such as Graphene (G) and Graphene oxide (GO) have the potential to meet the need for highly functional personal protective equipment (PPE) against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The ability of G and GO to interact with microorganisms provides an opportunity to develop engineered textiles for use in PPE and limit the spread of COVID-19. PPE in current use in high-risk settings for COVID transmission provide only a physical barrier that…</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>Axonal Regeneration by Glycosaminoglycan</strong> - Like other biomolecules including nucleic acid and protein, glycan plays pivotal roles in various cellular processes. For instance, it modulates protein folding and stability, organizes extracellular matrix and tissue elasticity, and regulates membrane trafficking. In addition, cell-surface glycans are often utilized as entry receptors for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, its roles as ligands to specific surface receptors have not been well understood with a few exceptions such as…</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>Sphingolipids as Modulators of SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic with severe consequences for afflicted individuals and the society as a whole. The biology and infectivity of the virus has been intensively studied in order to gain a better understanding of the molecular basis of virus-host cell interactions during infection. It is known that SARS-CoV-2 binds to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) via its spike protein. Priming of the virus by specific…</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>Treatment with a DPP-4 inhibitor at time of hospital admission for COVID-19 is not associated with improved clinical outcomes: data from the COVID-PREDICT cohort study in The Netherlands</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that outpatient use of a DPP-4 inhibitor does not affect the clinical outcomes of patients with type 2 diabetes who are hospitalized because of COVID-19 infection.</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: Origin, Evolution, and Targeting Inhibition</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused an outbreak in Wuhan city, China and quickly spread worldwide. Currently, there are no specific drugs or antibodies that claim to cure severe acute respiratory diseases. For SARS-CoV-2, the spike (S) protein recognizes and binds to the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, allowing viral RNA to enter the host cell. The main protease (Mpro) is involved in the proteolytic process for mature non-structural proteins, and…</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>Depinar, a drug that potentially inhibits the binding and entry of COVID-19 into host cells based on computer-aided studies</strong> - CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION: The results of this study were approved by in silico studies and due to the lack of time; we did not test the efficiency of these compounds through in vitro and in vivo studies. However, the selected compounds are all FDA approved and some are supplements like vitamin B12 and don’t cause any side effects for patients.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Differential detection kit for common SARS-CoV-2 variants in COVID-19 patients</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU328840861">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral therapeutic</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU327160071">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因及其应用</strong> - 本发明属于生物技术领域，具体涉及新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因及其应用。本发明的新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因，其核苷酸序列如SEQIDNO.1或SEQIDNO.6所示。本发明通过优化野生型新型冠状病毒南非B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因序列，并结合筛选确定了相对最佳序列，优化后序列产生的克隆表达效率比野生型新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD序列表达效率大幅提高，从而，本发明的新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因可以用于制备新型冠状病毒疫苗。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN328990628">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A POLYHERBAL ALCOHOL FREE FORMULATION FOR ORAL CAVITY</strong> - The present invention generally relates to a herbal composition. Specifically, the present invention relates to a polyherbal alcohol free composition comprising of Glycyrrhiza glabra root extract, Ocimum sanctum leaf extract, Elettaria cardamomum fruit extract, Mentha spicata (Spearmint) oil and Tween 80 and method of preparation thereof. The polyherbal alcohol free composition of the present invention possesses excellent antimicrobial properties and useful for oral cavity. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN325690740">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种检测SARS-CoV-2的引物组合物及其应用</strong> - 本发明涉及一种检测SARS‑CoV‑2的引物组合物及其应用。所述引物组合物包括SEQ ID NO:1~SEQ ID NO:12所示的核酸序列。本发明利用所述引物组合物进行逆转录巢式PCR，并结合Sanger测序，能够快速、准确地获取SARS‑CoV‑2基因信息，从而能够实现快速检测SARS‑CoV‑2以及判断SARS‑CoV‑2突变株，且具备良好的准确性、灵敏度、特异性以及重复性。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN328990422">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>检测新型冠状病毒中和抗体的试剂盒及其应用</strong> - 本发明涉及生物技术领域，具体而言，提供了一种检测新型冠状病毒中和抗体的试剂盒及其应用。本发明提供的检测新型冠状病毒中和抗体试剂盒，具体包括（a）或（b）两种方案：（a）示踪物标记的RBD三聚体抗原，包被在固体支持物上的ACE2，以及，含有0.2‑10mg/mL十二烷基二甲基甜菜碱的工作液；（b）示踪物标记的ACE2，包被在固体支持物上的RBD三聚体抗原，以及，含有0.2‑10mg/mL十二烷基二甲基甜菜碱的工作液；其中，RBD三聚体抗原利用二硫键将刺突蛋白的RBD与S2亚基完全交联得到。十二烷基二甲基甜菜碱会显著提高RBD三聚体抗原与新冠中和性抗体结合速度，提升阳性样本平均发光强度，缩短检测时间。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN328990376">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种新冠病毒肺炎重症化预测系统及方法</strong> - 本发明涉及疾病预测技术领域，公开了一种新冠病毒肺炎重症化预测系统及方法，包括以下步骤：步骤一，采集患者血常规信息和用户信息；步骤二，将患者血常规信息按照用户信息进行等级分类；步骤三，将已经等级分类的患者血常规信息与对应等级的标准信息进行比较；步骤四，当患者血常规信息在标准信息范围内则判定患者为轻症患者，当患者血常规信息在标准信息范围外则判定患者为重症患者。本发明能够准确快速地区分轻症和重症。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN328308318">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MEDIDOR DE SATURACION</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=ES325874099">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>폐마스크 밀봉 회수기</strong> - 본 발명은 마스크 착용 후 버려지는 일회용 폐마스크를 비닐봉지에 넣은 후 밀봉하여 배출함으로써, 2차 감염을 예방하고 일반 생활폐기물과 선별 분리 배출하여 환경오염을 방지하는 데 그 목적이 있다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR325788342">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>백신 냉각 및 해동 기능을 갖는 백신 보관장치</strong> - 본 발명은 백신 냉각 및 해동 기능을 갖는 백신 보관장치에 관한 것으로, 상, 하부하우징의 제1상, 하부누출방지공간에 냉각물질이 충입된 냉각파이프를 설치하되, 제2상, 하부누출방지공간에 가열물질이 충입된 가열파이프를 설치하여, 구획판부에 의해 구획된 백신냉각공간 및 백신해동공간 각각을 냉각 및 가열하고, 보조도어를 통해 백신냉각공간 내에 수용된 백신을 구획판부의 백신출구도어를 통해 백신해동공간으로 이동시켜, 백신해동공간 내에서 백신을 해동함으로써, 즉시 사용이 가능한 백신을 인출도어를 통해 인출할 수 있다. 본 발명에 따르면, 냉각파이프에 저장된 냉매에 의해 백신냉각공간 내의 온도가 극저온 상태로 변화되고, 극저온 상태를 유지하는 백신냉각공간 내에 백신을 저장하여, 안전하게 보관 할 수 있으며, 백신냉각공간 내의 백신을 백신해동공간 내로 이동시켜, 백신해동공간 내에서 백신을 해동할 수 있고, 이 해동된 백신을 인출도어를 통해 인출한 후 즉시 사용할 수 있어 백신을 해동하는 시간이 단축되며, 보조도어를 통해 백신냉각공간 내의 백신을 백신해동공간으로 이동시켜, 백신이 외기에 노출될 우려가 없으며, 백신냉각공간 내의 백신을 백신해동공간으로 이동시키거나 또는 인출도어를 통해 백신 인출시 정렬장치가 백신을 보조도어 및 인출도어 직하방에 자동 위치시킨다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR327274025">link</a></p></li>
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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>What We Need to Learn from the Tragedy in Surfside</strong> - It is possible that South Florida, where climate change is a particularly acute problem, is nearing a point at which even the best-constructed buildings are under threat. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/12/what-we-need-to-learn-from-the-tragedy-in-surfside">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can Infrastructure Spending Save Ogdensburg, New York?</strong> - In much of the country, federal and state funding decide which communities succeed and which ones disappear. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/can-infrastructure-spending-save-ogdensburg-new-york">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Greg Abbott’s Radical Term in Texas</strong> - As part of his quest for reëlection next year, the governor is turning the Lone Star State into a pro-Trump dreamscape. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/greg-abbotts-radical-term-in-texas">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Did the Police Shoot Matthew Zadok Williams?</strong> - Outside Atlanta, a mother and five sisters look for answers. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/why-did-the-police-shoot-matthew-zadok-williams">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This July 4th, Can We De-Adapt from the Pandemic and Trump at the Same Time?</strong> - Although 2021 is only half over, it has brought about two major restart moments—one in politics and the other in public health. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/this-july-4th-can-we-de-adapt-from-the-pandemic-and-trump-at-the-same-time">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Animals are shrinking. Blame climate change.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Rows of dead birds, each with an identification card attached to its feet." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qG1PsrdNHUSpI5uOiMoGl66znDM=/0x1177:2932x3376/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69545081/Drawer_of_birds_in_FM_collections___c__Field_Museum__Ben_Marks.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Birds in the Field Museum’s ornithology collection. 20 percent of them were collected after they crashed into windows in downtown Chicago. | Curtesy of Ben Marks/Field Museum
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Many birds, mammals, and fish seem to get smaller as the temperature rises.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UVVdsK">
<em>This story is part of </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth"><strong>Down to Earth</strong></a><em>, a Vox reporting initiative on the science, politics, and economics of the biodiversity crisis.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9PDcFl">
One fall morning in 1978, David Willard, an ornithologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, walked to nearby McCormick Place convention center — a hulking structure along Lake Michigan — to look for dead birds. He’d received a tip that birds were crashing into the building’s many windows on their journey south.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aaMDVC">
He found a few birds lifeless on the concrete that morning. And as any good scientist might do, he brought them back to the museum to measure them and store the winged creatures in the museum’s collection. His curiosity piqued, he returned to McCormick Place the next morning. He found still more birds and brought them, too, back to the museum.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WkOIZg">
Four decades later, Willard has helped collect more than 100,000 birds from window collisions in Chicago, with help from other scientists and volunteers. They now make up a stunning <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/press/birds-are-shrinking-climate-warms">20 percent</a> of the museum’s ornithology collection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eWD48Z">
While these birds represent a tragic loss of life, they’ve also helped reveal fascinating insights into how wildlife is changing. One especially striking finding from the collection is that these birds have been shrinking — and rising global temperatures are likely to blame, according to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.13434">a 2019 analysis</a> of Willard’s measurements.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BP7kcR">
It’s not just birds. A growing body of research suggests that global warming is messing with the body sizes of all kinds of creatures, from cold-blooded frogs to warm-bodied mammals, and often making animals smaller.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h2YlVy">
Wild animals are already facing a wide range of threats. If they shrink — and especially if they shrink at different rates, as researchers predict — that could push some species even closer to extinction. And it could throw a wrench into ecosystems that humans rely on.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A row of dead birds with identification tags." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vRbTWTnDDvY1zCMrYbQDeaehap0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22695390/Birds_in_FM_collections_from_McCormick_Place___c__Field_Museum__Kayleigh_Kueffner.jpg"/> <cite>Curtesy of Kayleigh Kueffner/Field Museum</cite>
<figcaption>
Birds that collided with Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="UtI1KY">
The link between body size and temperature
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MujN9g">
We already know climate change will impact wildlife in a number of ways, from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00642.x">shifting the distribution of some species</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/06/climate-crisis-causing-male-dragonflies-to-lose-wing-bling-study-finds">altering the color of others</a>.<strong> </strong>But it might be surprising to learn about changes in something as fundamental as body size.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dhwhkR">
In ecology, a principle called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergmann%27s_rule">Bergmann’s rule</a> suggests that individuals of a population of warm-blooded animals like birds or mammals will be larger in cooler climates and smaller in warmer ones. Intuitively, this makes sense: Larger individuals have an easier time conserving heat when it’s cold, and smaller animals have an easier time cooling off when it’s hot.<strong> </strong>This has to do with the ratio of an animal’s body size to its surface area. (It’s the same reason why a large ice cube melts relatively slower than a small one.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JLbdAK">
The idea that warming is linked to smaller body sizes also<strong> </strong>bears out in fossil evidence. During the largest warming event in the early Eocene, about 56 million years ago — when temperatures increased between <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/39/24088#:~:text=During%20the%20Paleocene%E2%80%93Eocene%20Thermal,pH%20decreased%20during%20the%20PETM.">5 to 8 degrees Celsius</a> within 10,000 years — <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1601430">many animals got smaller</a>, including mammals (which scientists learned by measuring fossilized teeth). Another past warming event called the<strong> </strong>Eocene Thermal Maximum 2, which saw temperatures increase by 3°C, was <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1601430">also associated</a> with shrinking animals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FSPuVo">
Scientists look to these warming periods to understand what the future might look like. If current warming continues, we can expect the planet to be 1.5°C warmer <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2018/12/SR15_FAQ_Low_Res.pdf">by 2040</a>, compared to pre-industrial levels. And it will go up from there. “Reductions in body size in fossils,” two ecologists wrote in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1259">2011 perspective</a> for<strong> </strong>Nature Climate Change, “are particularly informative of what we can expect in the coming century.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="baFzHD">
Then again, nature is complicated and tends to surprise even the brightest minds.
</p>
<h3 id="0v8TDM">
Many animals are getting smaller, but it’s not a universal trend
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tC7uik">
In 2019, when scientists examined more than 70,000 bird specimens in the Field Museum collection, they found that individuals from 52 bird species shrank by an average of 2.6 percent between 1978 and 2016. A part of the birds’ legs, known as the tarsus, also got smaller, on average.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6C90dP">
“We had no idea until two years ago that 52 of the most common, well-known species of North American bird have all gotten smaller over the last 40 years,” said Brian Weeks, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Michigan. “It has big implications for what’s going to happen in the future.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h7fXJJ">
Other studies on <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00442-019-04368-2">birds</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1688584/">deer</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3682792#:~:text=influence%20of%20climate-,change%20on%20the%20body%20mass%20of%20woodrats%20Neotoma,arid%20region%20of%20New%20Mexico%2C&amp;text=We%20predict%20that%20additional%20climatic,woodrats%20at%20the%20Sevilleta%20NWR">rodents</a>, <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.12789">insects</a>, and fish show similar patterns. <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/geo2.44">Research</a> in 2017, for example, found that the body size of a small, silver fish called menhaden, which is widely used for animal feed and bait, has shrunk on average by 15 percent over the last 65 years — most likely due to warming. “As the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans continue to warm, the future of menhaden, it seems, will be even smaller,” <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2017/10/04docs_turner_menhaden.php">said</a> R. Eugene Turner, the author of the study and a professor at Louisiana State University.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UWrdEs">
What’s interesting is that fish and other so-called ectotherms don’t generate their own heat, so having a smaller body doesn’t help them stay cool. Instead, they might shrink in response to warming for other reasons, said Jennifer Sheridan, assistant curator for amphibians and reptiles at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the lead author of the 2011 perspective. Warm temperatures, for example, speed up the development phases of frogs, from egg to tadpole and so on, but their rate of growth doesn’t keep up, she said. As a result, they’re smaller by the time they arrive at adulthood.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Dead beetles pinned into rows in boxes in a collection cabinet drawer." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z2f25Vs1NSxyGxf0T1aPdTB60b0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22695401/161408_web.jpeg"/> <cite>University of British Columbia</cite>
<figcaption>
A <a class="ql-link" href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.12789" target="_blank">2018 study</a> used these specimens and others from the University of British Columbia’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum to determine that beetle sizes are changing in response to climate change.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pGO6W4">
But while there are plenty of examples that fit this trend, there are also many exceptions — and a whole lot we still don’t know.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TiEZE2">
If Bergmann’s rule were truly universal, you’d expect individuals of a species’ population to be smaller in warmer parts of their range — smaller polar bears further south, say. But a <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/27166">2017 analysis</a> of more than 950 species of birds and mammals found that “most species had similar sizes regardless of the temperature of their environment.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="myGlZX">
There’s even evidence that certain animals are getting larger, Sheridan said. It’s not totally clear how that happens, but one explanation is that warming holds back winter and extends the growing season, allowing animals that eat plants to bulk up. (Sheridan also said that museums with specimen collections are more commonly found in temperate, wealthier regions, which can create gaps in the data.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H5PfJ4">
The point is that natural systems are really complicated. Even if theory and lab research suggests that animals consistently shrink under warming, the exact result of climate change is messier in reality, she said. “It’s almost always the case that some are getting smaller and some are not,” Sheridan said. “With climate change, there are so many other factors changing at the same time.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y1GHBd">
There are also unanswered questions about how, exactly, animals are shrinking. The big one is whether body-size changes result from natural selection — meaning, they’re passed down from one generation to the next — or occur within the lifetime of a single animal, which researchers call “plastic” changes.
</p>
<h3 id="UCy9C6">
What happens when animals miniaturize
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j01udn">
These details aside, researchers are confident that global warming will mess with the size of animals and make many of them smaller. But is that a problem?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q2hoYZ">
You could argue that Earth has been here before. It’s gone through major periods of warming, and many animals were able to adapt to drastic<strong> </strong>changes — birds, after all, evolved from dinosaurs millions of years ago, and there are some <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166307">10,000 to 18,000</a> species of them today. But then again, today is nothing like the Eocene. We’re warming the planet at an unprecedented rate — <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/">about 10 times faster</a> than the average warming following historic ice ages — which means most animals have little time to adapt. “The idea that they’re going to happily evolve is an oversimplification,” Weeks said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="63qERM">
And to be clear: Shrinking comes at a cost. For many species, a smaller size translates to fewer babies, said Sheridan. “The fact that they’re smaller has implications for their future reproduction, which, in turn, has implications for population size,” she said. “This is one of the reasons why people care so much about body size.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qjYVAM">
For some ectotherms, including amphibians, being small also makes you more likely to dry out during a drought. Body size has implications for species that have evolved specialized body types for long migrations. (Interestingly, the 2019 study on migratory birds found that their wings are actually getting longer, likely to compensate for their smaller body size, Weeks said.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FstVq8">
But perhaps more concerning is that warming will change body sizes in different ways for different species, said Sheridan, and that can screw up the relationships between animals. For example, if a predator shrinks more slowly than its prey, it might need more prey to fill its stomach in a warming world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OmDCKc">
“If everything was getting smaller at the same rate, I don’t think it would be that big of a deal,” Sheridan said. There would still be consequences, she said, such as higher extinction risks for some species, but you would likely just have “a miniaturized ecosystem that is still functioning because all of the elements are still in proportion to one another.” It’s the mismatch, she said, that’s “extra worrisome.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JTVrLQ">
Debates about the role of warming in shrinking animals are ongoing. Sheridan, for one, is working on an update of her 2011 article that will include more data, and it includes more exceptions to the rule. And Weeks is working to understand, among other things, whether the changes in body size he observed in birds were produced through evolution or during their lives: “If you warm up birds while they’re developing, do they actually get smaller?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gSaOhg">
Meanwhile, David Willard, now collections manager emeritus at the<strong> </strong>Field Museum, is still spending some of his time looking for birds. Lately, there haven’t been many to collect, he said, because the bright lights at the convention center that can attract and disorient birds have been off for much of the pandemic. That’s one bit of good news that has come out of his research: It’s possible to <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/24/e2101666118">save the lives of birds</a> just by turning off the lights.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r2Qe9d">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The life cycle of a viral product</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Colorful cosmetics bottles arranged on their sides in a diagonal grid." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9DtAuqr7PrAzoZI7sGWREnZDwRU=/320x0:5440x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69545013/GettyImages_1223714147.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
That’ll be two months’ rent, please. | Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The video app is causing products to blow up — and flame out — faster than ever.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4zF1ho">
A couple months ago, I was hunting for the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/12/18127477/holy-grail-beauty-product-search">holy grail</a>. Somewhere within the chaotic aisles of a Target in the suburbs of Washington, DC, was a magic wand that would somehow transform my very short, very thin, very flat, and very blonde eyelashes into the lash equivalent of a mink coat. Granted, most mascara commercials promise as much, but this was different. I’d actually seen it happen, on TikTok.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="69t28J">
The <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kspader79/video/6910630512226880774">video</a> went like this: A girl shows the vast difference between her normal eye and the one anointed with the mascara, then the video cuts to another user whose lashes curl up in the exact same impossible way. The second video acted as confirmation that it wasn’t all a prank, that These Are Not Paid Actors. It was, in other words, like a really good, really short infomercial.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UV3mG2">
The magic wand’s real name is the Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High mascara, which comes in a rather demure rosy tube but otherwise looks exactly like the other 12 billion products in any makeup aisle. The only way I knew I’d arrived at the right place was when I came across a devastating scene: Two teenage girls staring at a single empty rack.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VM9oRi">
“It’s sold out,” one of them moaned, and I understood exactly what “it” was.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J8E2qVEc3j3ynxH3fmkXfdQCSGI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22691174/Screen_Shot_2021_06_30_at_10.48.16_AM.png"/> <cite>TikTok</cite>
<figcaption>
Videos tagged with #skyhighmascara have a combined 259 million views on TikTok. That’s a lot!
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YrTCns">
Here is an incomplete list of products that have become difficult or impossible to buy because of their popularity on TikTok: a mysterious cleaning paste called The Pink Stuff, a specific pair of Aerie leggings and a different pair of Zara jeans, Isle of Paradise tanning spray, Elf concealer, Dr. Jart Cicapair color corrector, Cat Crack catnip, the Prepdeck kitchen organizer, feta cheese (all-encompassing), and an Eos shaving cream that one user promised would “bless your fucking cooch.” My editor often laments that products by her longtime favorite low-cost skincare brand, CeraVe, are constantly sold out because of the company’s exploding popularity on TikTok. Last summer it was almost impossible to find roller skates due to a handful of viral videos of girls speeding through their hometowns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b4DiAh">
There’s now so much stuff that’s gone viral on TikTok that people have opened stores dedicated to it: A 15-year-old student opened a store in his local mall called “Viral Trends NY,” which carries omnipresent TikTok doodads like Martinelli’s apple juice and Squishmallows stuffed animals. “Everything in this store is super high demand and you really can’t find it anywhere else except on eBay fully marked up,” he told a local news broadcast; a similar <a href="https://saltypassion.com/">shop also exists in Indiana</a>. Downtown Manhattan <a href="https://embedded.substack.com/p/emma-rogue-arrives-on-nycs-tiktok">has its own “TikTok Block,”</a> where two big TikTokers have opened shops with curated vintage clothing. There is now so much stuff that’s gone viral on TikTok that the <a href="https://restofworld.org/2021/the-chinese-content-farms-behind-factory-tiktok/">factories producing those products</a> have gotten on TikTok and now have a hand in making them go viral in the first place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cTSVUX">
This is only the first chapter of the “TikTok made me buy it” phenomenon, referring to the culture of compelling product review videos and the many impossibly stylish people who flaunt their lifestyles on the platform. Though TikTok is still in the testing phase for its in-app shopping feature, its Chinese counterpart Douyin netted a whopping <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/12/bbtiktoks-test-of-in-app-shopping-could-pose-a-threat-to-fb">$26 billion</a> of e-commerce transactions within its first year. Currently, <a href="https://seller-id.tiktok.com/university/article?knowledge_id=10000749">TikTok allows</a> certain creators and businesses in the UK and Indonesia to sell products within its TikTok Shop, though the feature doesn’t yet exist in the US. But it’s almost certainly coming. What effect that might have on American consumerism depends on whom you ask.
</p>
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Say you’re a teenager — or anyone, really — who wants to get very famous, very fast. There are worse places to go than TikTok, the app <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/10/2/20891915/tiktok-famous-teenagers-haley-sharpe-yodeling-karen">responsible for the careers of thousands of previously unknown normal people</a> who’ve built up enough of a following to land their <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/5/18/22440937/tiktok-addison-rae-bella-poarch-build-a-bitch-charli-damelio-mediocrity">own pages on the website Famous Birthdays</a>. What TikTok has done to turn an enormous swath of human beings into microinfluencers, it has also done to the music industry, where many of the top songs currently on the Billboard charts are simply the ones that have gone TikTok viral most recently. Now, the same phenomenon is happening to stuff.
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There are a few reasons why TikTok is so adept at blowing up one thing — a song, a beauty product, a trend, a person — very quickly and forgetting about it several days later. The first is its algorithm, which is unmatched at identifying what individual users want to see and serving them more of it, sprinkled with a well-calibrated dose of randomness.
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The course of a viral video tends to go like this: TikTok shows it to a handful of people on their For You pages, and if those people engage with it, it’ll show a few more. Videos that break out tend to snowball quite quickly, often in a matter of hours or overnight. Videos that don’t — the vast, vast majority — peter out entirely. That means that when you open the app, what you’re seeing is the culmination of what everyone else has decided to like or engage with, yet, of course, orchestrated by the invisible hand of the ever-changing TikTok algorithm and the people who control it.
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The other reason is TikTok’s 60-second time limit: People can watch many more TikToks in the amount of time that they could watch, say, a YouTube review. That also gives it a lower barrier of entry, welcoming more creators onto the platform: To run a YouTube channel, you need equipment and some level of expertise, whereas with TikTok, all you need is your phone. The ability to duet, stitch, and share sounds encourages TikTok’s remix culture, wherein videos can capitalize off of each other’s success.
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The prevalence of building off of others’ work has been a boon for a certain type of content: the product test. It was in this sort of video that I was first introduced to the magic mascara, and it turned out that this is how the mascara went viral in the first place, by people reacting to the original video in order to confirm that yes, this mascara was actually magic.
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But the first wasn’t quite as spontaneous. Jessica Eid, a 19-year-old at Arizona State, had joined TikTok last fall as a bet with her friends to see who could get the most views. Jessica, explaining the bet in her first TikTok, won. It was about a week later that a Maybelline publicist reached out, asking if they could send her their new mascara and if she’d make a video about what she thought about it. No money was offered. “I was like, ‘Of course, that’s Maybelline, they’re so cool!” Jessica told me. After the video blew up, Jessica says Maybelline paid her in a five-figure deal to use her video in marketing materials for six months.
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Jessica is only one example of someone who went viral because they recommended a certain product. If the idea of “influencerhood” is someone who advises you how to spend your time and money by making a certain type of life look enviable, recommendation influencers are the ur-example. The internet is full of them — there are influencers devoted to recommending <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/10/24/20909950/target-madewell-everlane-try-on-instagram">Madewell jeans</a>, seasonal <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/11/6/20919173/trader-joes-list-trader-joes-instagram">Trader Joe’s snacks</a>, even <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/9/18174365/that-cheese-plate-cheese-by-numbers-instagram">cheese plate accouterments</a>. Creators who’ve become adept at the skill of evangelizing have built it into wildly lucrative businesses.
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22-year-old Mikayla Nogueira is one such influencer, who, like many people, joined TikTok in March of 2020. Within days, she’d found out that she’d been temporarily laid off from her job at the local Ulta beauty store and that she wouldn’t be able to finish her senior year of college in person. “I needed to find something to do with my time,” she told me.
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That month, a particular transformation trend called the catfish challenge — wherein you show your face before and after putting on dramatic makeup — was popular. Mikayla’s first stab at the format <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mikaylanogueira/video/6807056887805152517">blew up</a>. “Once I went viral, I essentially said to myself, ‘Mikayla, this has been your dream your entire life, to teach the world beauty and talk about makeup. This is your moment,” she said. “So I started putting out videos every single day: reviews, tutorials, lifestyle videos, just to see what people would like.”
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It turns out that the people really, really liked her product reviews, which were peppered with refreshing honesty and a thick Boston accent that endeared her to viewers. While her expertise at Ulta was in higher-end makeup, her audience begged her to incorporate more accessible products they could find at CVS or Walgreens. “A lot of the viral products we see are drugstore products,” she said. “Drugstore makeup is crushing it right now.” Some popular topics: foundation (“People are always looking for a good foundation”), self-tanner, and anything affordable that allows customers to at least be able to try it out themselves, even if they end up hating it.
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“It’s this weird chain reaction,” she said, “One person puts a video up about how that product changed their skin, and then it goes a little bit viral and then everyone else starts buying it and stitching that video or doing their own review.”
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That chain of events isn’t always positive. KVD Beauty’s Good Apple foundation was celebrated widely on TikTok until people began actually wearing it for a whole day and realizing that it left them with <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@lisa.chambers/video/6945440316732230918">creased, oily faces after a few hours</a>. “Then it started going viral for bad reasons, and that was kind of the end of it,” she said. Also, sometimes the advice is bad. “Vaseline went viral for like, slathering it all over your face. I thought that was a little bit weird because … not everyone should be doing that.”
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<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mikaylanogueira" target="_blank" title="@mikaylanogueira"><span class="citation" data-cites="mikaylanogueira">@mikaylanogueira</span></a>
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This honestly shouldn’t even exist… <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/makeup" target="_blank" title="makeup">#makeup</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/beauty" target="_blank" title="beauty">#beauty</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/ROMWEGetGraphic" target="_blank" title="ROMWEGetGraphic">#ROMWEGetGraphic</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/makeupreview" target="_blank" title="makeupreview">#makeupreview</a>
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<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6963281738718448390" target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Mikayla Nogueira">♬ original sound - Mikayla Nogueira</a>
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After about six months on TikTok, Mikayla started receiving her first requests to endorse specific beauty brands. She’d review a product positively, then that video would go viral, then the brand would reach out, hoping to build a longer-lasting advertising partnership. For TikTokers, the first sponsorship offer is a huge milestone; today, she fields messages and emails from brands every day and sometimes coaches them on how TikTok works. She says 99 percent ask for promotion on TikTok versus Instagram. “TikTok is the viral platform, and brands want their product to sell out,” she said. I asked her about how much money she’d made in the past year. “I just finished filing my taxes,” she said. “It’s upwards of a million.”
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According to the last hundred or so years of marketing research, people like Mikayla and platforms like TikTok are almost perfectly suited to sell you things. Unsurprisingly, shoppers tend to buy from brands, or in this case influencers, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1009886520142">they deem trustworthy</a>. On a platform like TikTok, where inauthenticity is rabidly sniffed out and policed, the most popular influencers tend to be the ones who ultimately feel like believable salespeople. TikTok operates <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mar.21256">similarly to traditional word-of-mouth marketing</a>, widely considered the most effective selling strategy that exists. It also incorporates viral marketing, sometimes called “online word-of-mouth,” which allows information and ads to spread much farther.
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People are spending more of their money on social platforms; the number of shoppers buying via social commerce grew by 25 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to an <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/social-commerce-2021">Insider Intelligence report</a>. Not only does social media encourage conspicuous consumption, but social platforms have also tried to erase the friction between seeing a product online and actually pressing “purchase,” as my colleague <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22346750/online-shopping-social-commerce-platforms">Terry Nguyen has reported extensively</a>. A model for what that could look like already exists in Asia, which already has sophisticated in-app shopping features. Yet American consumers seem to want something different from those in China, who tend to view shopping as a hobby. “We have a greater focus on entertainment and community, and allow viewers to build an emotional connection with the seller,” Danielle Li, the founder of the livestream shopping marketplace Popshop Live, told Nguyen.
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TikTok is perfectly suited to build those emotional connections, thanks to its prevalence of front-facing camera videos that often feel as though you’re FaceTiming with a friend who happens to be really excited about something she just bought. With the brevity of a tweet, the intimacy of YouTube, and the ability to riff off of others’ content, there’s nowhere better to make a convincing pitch and have it reach a potential audience of millions.
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The Truth About Morphe Skin Care LINK IN BIO <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/skincarebyhyram" target="_blank" title="skincarebyhyram">#skincarebyhyram</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/morphe" target="_blank" title="morphe">#morphe</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/review" target="_blank" title="review">#review</a>
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<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6916642795168008966" target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Hyram">♬ original sound - Hyram</a>
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When Hyram Yarbro, a 25-year-old in Hawaii, started making online skincare content, he posted primarily on YouTube, criticizing the DIY and natural skincare experiments of celebrities and influencers that came across his feed and educating viewers on science-backed strategies to reduce skin sensitivity and irritation. When he moved to TikTok in March 2020, however, what stuck was product recommendations.
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“On YouTube, it’s giving people the feeling that they’ve walked away from your content learning something pretty substantial,” he explained. “TikTok is more stripped away, because people want content that feels like you’re literally just hanging out with a friend.” He noticed that many of his followers seemed to feel directionless in their skincare routines, and his basic recommendations of affordable products from brands like The Ordinary and CeraVe amassed him a following of nearly 7 million.
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Like Mikayla, he too has had a wildly successful year. Last summer, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/style/Gen-Z-the-content-creator-who-can-make-or-break-your-skin-care-brand.html">told the New York Times he expected</a> to become a multimillionaire within the year; though he wouldn’t confirm that he’d reached that goal, he told me he was excited about the prospect of getting involved in philanthropy and social causes.
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Is TikTok really all that different from more traditional marketing tactics? Jonah Berger, professor of marketing at the Wharton School and author of <em>Contagious: Why Things Catch On,</em> reminded me that the internet didn’t invent the concept of sharing ideas. In his book, he notes six reasons why people share things, all of which seem to apply to TikTok, including sharing out of a desire for social currency and humans’ love of delivering useful information. “The underlying psychological drivers are pretty consistent over time, certain platforms may encourage one or another driver, but the drivers themselves don’t necessarily change,” he told me.
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He also said that many more established brands have often been wary of virality. “Viral is often a flash in the pan; here today, gone tomorrow,” he said. “We don’t need 10 million people sharing our thing today and then talking about something completely different next week. We need them to continue talking about and sharing our stuff, whether online or off.” Another reason to be skeptical of virality, he says, is that if the main motivator for you to share something is solely to show that you were the first person in your group to discover it, that thing will be much more likely to die out quickly. “If it’s all about ‘I was here first,’ it’s not going to have as long of a lifespan.”
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Much like products have had their viral moments on YouTube and Instagram that reflect the features of the platform — think <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/lol-surprise-dolls-and-mystery-toys/576970/">LOL Surprise! Dolls,</a> which relied on audience watch time as the toys were unwrapped to build suspense, or <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/25/18233597/orolay-amazon-coat-upper-east-side">“the Amazon coat</a>,” which spread on Instagram through a word-of-mouth influencer chain — TikTok’s main feature is its speed. That means TikTok products have a higher chance of being a flash in the pan rather than a long-term mainstay. When you look up Google search trends for many TikTok viral products — Maybelline Sky High mascara, KVD Good Apple foundation, Dr. Jart Cicapair, Squishmallows, and Cat Crack among them — you’ll see a huge spike, inevitably followed by a crash.
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What platforms like TikTok and Instagram have allowed companies to do, however, is observe the kinds of conversations that might otherwise be private. Social listening, or the practice of brands checking in on social media discourse, has largely replaced the idea of the “focus group” that conjures images of Don Draper asking a group of women about their favorite lipstick.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CIBx85OlYIs/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Tiara Willis (<span class="citation" data-cites="makeupforwomenofcolor">@makeupforwomenofcolor</span>)</a>
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There is another effect of using an algorithmic, visual platform as a recommendation engine: The algorithm does not necessarily prioritize the truth. Just like the golden age of Facebook News wrought clickbait headlines that overpromised on a given article’s content, TikTok can favor outlandish or extreme reviews that categorize products or treatments as uniformly good or bad. And the stakes can be quite high: As one plastic surgeon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/style/you-may-not-want-to-get-your-beauty-tips-from-tiktok.html">told the New York Times</a> after noticing swaths of clients asking for procedures that had recently gone viral, “We talk about TikTok all the time in my office, and I think it might be worse than other platforms because people are really looking to create content with that wow factor, the thing that will go viral, even if it’s not grounded in science.”
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More knowledgeable creators often complain of TikTok’s ability to flatten nuance in product reviews. Tiara Willis, the esthetician behind the popular Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/MakeupForWOC"><span class="citation" data-cites="MakeupForWOC">@MakeupForWOC</span></a>, laments the amount of factually incorrect claims in efforts to gain views. “It’s a lot of experiments and DIYs, like ‘I put pineapples on my face and it cleared my skin, and now a million people are trying it,’” she said.
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On the flip side, she explains, there’s also misguided fear-mongering about perfectly safe ingredients. “I find a lot of people saying that some ingredient will give you breast cancer and it’s like, wait, in that study that you’re referencing, that was fed to rats, and it was fed an extremely high amount. It’s not always applicable to real-life situations.” Yet when actual chemists and dermatologists try to respond, the videos typically don’t get the same amount of engagement because the claims aren’t as shocking.
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TikTok tends to give its users a sense of urgency and universality, the idea that everyone is doing this thing <em>right now</em>. A video could get a million views — a lot, certainly, but not newsworthy by TikTok standards — and a person watching it might reasonably assume that means it’s massively popular. What they’re less likely to consider is that it’s just one of hundreds or thousands of videos going viral in different pockets of TikTok that day. That’s where you get scores of misleading news articles claiming that “this thing is going viral on TikTok!”: Just because a video of a certain recipe has a few million views doesn’t mean that tons of people are suddenly cooking it. (Take, for instance, the entire existence of “cheugy” or headlines like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/style/sea-shanty-tiktok-wellerman.html">“Everyone’s Singing Sea Shanties,”</a> when in reality there were only a handful of actual sea shanty creators that happened to go viral for about a week.)
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The increasingly rapid trend cycle has made many of the same TikTok users reevaluate their relationship to consumerism. During a year when one of the main sources of joy was waiting for packages to arrive, Hyram also started thinking about his own role. “People are over the huge skincare craze that everyone went through last year where they were scrambling to buy as many drugstore skincare products as they could,” he said. “I think people are less focused on hyperconsumerism and product obsession right now and more critically approaching which products they want in their routine.”
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It is true that many of the products that go viral on TikTok — LED lights, Therabreath mouthwash, boxes for cable management, mass-produced macrame hangings — tend to be cheap and accessible on platforms like Amazon, therefore making them more disposable. Some companies are hoping to cash in by marketing products specifically for TikTok. “Brands have, like, Chief Tiktok Officers now,” said Gregg Witt, a marketing expert who advises companies on how to target young people. “Toys and fashion are areas where you see it a lot. Creating products or experiences that suit themselves for narrow vertical [video] — that’s a real thing.”
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As more brands align themselves with creators, the question of how much that exposure is worth is largely unanswerable. “It’s still the Wild West,” Witt said. “It’s the biggest complaint from creators because honestly, I don’t think that [sponsorship rates] will ever be completely standardized. It’s not the NBA or the NFL, there’s no way that dancing people on TikTok are going to become a union. They’re basing their values off of the deals that have been put in front of them or what their friend has been getting.” He suspects that as more people join the creator economy, those who don’t find their niche and have business and management acumen will be pushed out.
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Brand sponsorships still account for the vast majority of influencer deals; one study from NeoReach and Influencer Marketing Hub found that <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-influencers-make-money-poparazzi-pops-to-the-top">77 percent of creators</a> relied on sponsorships as their highest source of income, three times more than every other revenue stream combined. Yet affiliate links, which net influencers a cut of the sales they make when people buy products based on their recommendation, are growing. Affiliate marketing spending is projected to reach $8.2 billion by 2022, up from $5.4 billion in 2017, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/693438/affiliate-marketing-spending/">according to Statista</a>, and 81 percent of advertisers in <a href="https://supermetrics.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-statistics">a Forrester report</a> said they use affiliate marketing, and more than half said it accounted for more than 20 percent of their annual revenue.
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That’s the gold standard of influencer marketing, when someone actually makes a purchase from a creator’s link. But for many creators and their followers, the point of a product review isn’t always to make a sale. It’s just fun to watch, even if no one intends to buy anything. Viral TikTok products, ultimately, are about the thrill of watching other people try new things; a kind of QVC for kids where there’s always something new and shiny to lust over — until next week.
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TikTok also doesn’t always necessarily circulate total junk: I’m delighted to say that the mascara did actually turn out to be pretty magical. Of course, the goal of actually trying it out for myself also had to do with the desire to participate in the wider trend, to feel as though I’m somehow connected to the strangers on the internet who rallied around the concept of amazing eyelashes. It’s easy to forget, when you’re lured in this way, that what I’m ultimately doing is giving the L’Oréal corporation $10. It’s a pretty sneaky trick, when you think about it.
</p>
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BCkcqy">
Even for entrenched skincare experts like Tiara Willis, TikTok has a particular way of keeping us convinced that the next viral product will be the one that does, actually, change our lives. “I love CeraVe, but I think people are starting to get a little sick of it,” she said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Okay, we get it, it’s great. Is there anything else you recommend?’”
</p>
<aside id="Ch6Alx">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<ul>
<li><strong>All-Consuming</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Aisles in a well-stocked grocery store, shot from above." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_IPEGUqCWgvAH6t5MaZVqs-XX48=/31x0:4770x3554/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69545019/GettyImages_162761880.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Consumer choices, we sure have them. | Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The acquisition of stuff looms large in the American imagination. What is life under consumerism doing to us?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="55yG4h">
Some things are such an ingrained part of our reality that it can feel silly to even take note of them. Oxygen, say, or the popularity of smartphones. The existence of gravity, the practice of semi-regularly cutting the hair that grows from our heads, the linear nature of time, the fact that, hey, America sure is made up of a lot of <em>states</em>, isn’t it?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WPzvAc">
One of the biggest givens of modern American life is that we live in a consumer society. I am not shocking you by saying this. We don’t, as a matter of course, barter for or simply take things of value; we purchase them, and maybe we sell them, too. We are inundated with products to buy and encouragement to buy them, and we put energy and attention into the acquisition of consumer goods at a tremendous, society-defining scale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="05uhnU">
Consumerism wasn’t always such a dominant force in Americans’ lives. Over the past 100 or so years, though — following the birth of mass production in the early part of the 20th century, the codification of the American dream in the 1950s, the perfection of advertising over the next decades, and the increased centrality of the stuff we own ever since — it has metastasized into something unavoidable, inescapable. All-consuming.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IA6dzF">
Over the next month, we’ll be rolling out more than a dozen stories that examine this entrenched reality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5JqDnn">
You might notice a thread of pessimism throughout these stories. You could reasonably feel discouraged — both from buying specific items (bottled water, the subject of a beautiful comic next week, sure won’t come out looking great) and about the system itself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TNL6Ri">
This can be overwhelming and, let’s face it, annoying. For one thing, buying is necessary for most people to survive. Food, shelter, clothing: not really opt-in, rarely free. And buying can also be exciting, comforting, helpful, <em>fun</em>. Consumerism is full of little gifts; hell, consumerism practically invented gifts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NcSUpm">
It’s also a system that gives us a lot of responsibility, and very little control. You should stop buying bottled water, yes — so should I. How many of us have to stop buying bottled water for it to make a difference? And how do you get all those people on the same page?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H2WIYx">
It’s worth realizing what parts of our lives consumerism does or does not control, what parts we want it to control, what parts we need and want each other’s help to change. What does it mean to live in a consumerist society? What does it do to us, to our ideas of ourselves, to our relationships to each other, to our planet? What do we benefit from? What hurts us?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rjehyM">
<em>—Meredith Haggerty, deputy editor of The Goods</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="wnYr6k"/>
<div class="c-float-right">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Natural oil cosmetics with shadows on a pink background. Flat lay style." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/W7c4KTJ90IcZhp0XvKdtUWgNeE8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22691972/GettyImages_1223714147.jpg"/>
</figure>
</div>
<h2 id="tRYj3M">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/e/22319764">TikTok made me buy it </a>
</h2>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mdWBil">
The video app is causing products to blow up — and flame out — faster than ever.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZXaufI">
By Rebecca Jennings
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="6qULHE"/>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A couple and their three children walk through the parking lot from a shopping mall, with a bakery behind them." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9rPPeriXLVTfuEae3agCspwxa3o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22691979/GettyImages_3228051.jpg"/>
</figure>
</div>
<h3 id="YJtER8">
Why do we buy what we buy? | <em>Coming July 7</em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7LLG0f">
A sociologist on why people buy too many things.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JHp95q">
By Emily Stewart
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="atuLIC"/>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9BNQk9aQci4XCXUyCioTwFQuEoc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22693903/GettyImages_1312472686.jpg"/> <cite>Newsday via Getty Images</cite>
</figure>
</div>
<h2 id="83o0eE">
The lie of “expired” food — and the disastrous truth of America’s food waste problem | <em>Coming July 8</em>
</h2>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ve83K5">
Stop throwing your food away.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fd568S">
By Alissa Wilkinson
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="TYIGXU"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fiRV6z">
<em>Editors: Meredith Haggerty, Melinda Fakuade, Alanna Okun, Caroline Houck, Daniel Gross</em>
</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>Brazil beats Peru 1-0 to advance to Copa America final</strong> - Argentina and Colombia will play the other semifinal on Tuesday.</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>Wimbledon | Tomljanovic ends British teenager Raducanu’s dream run</strong> - Raducanu was forced to retire during the second set in the fourth round</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>Junior Federation Cup in Patiala from July 31</strong> - The 19th National Federation Cup junior (u-20) athletics championship will be held at Patiala from July 31 to Aug. 2.The championship is a qualificati</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>Title now against the odds for Mercedes: Wolff</strong> - Toto Wolff admits his team is fighting a tough battle</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>Harika primed for World Cup in Russia</strong> - Says she is glad to have done well in Speed Chess</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>Left, KC(M) encounter their first moment of realisation</strong> - KOTTAYAM The Kerala Congress (M), which ditched its four-decade-long association with the Congress-led United Democratic Front and swung to the other</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>Odisha fears vaccine stock-out for a week</strong> - Urges Centre to replenish stock immediately</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>Images of people thronging hill stations ‘frightening’, government stresses on following COVID-19 protocols</strong> - The government said violations of COVID-19 protocols will lead to further increase in the infections as it stressed on wearing of masks and maintaining of physical-distancing.</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>Researchers at IISER Bhopal to study atmospheric CO emissions</strong> - Innovative data model fusion technique aims to dramatically improve air quality over India</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>Congress to hold bicycle rally on July 7 opposing hike in fuel prices</strong> - The campaign will take place in all 224 Legislative Assembly constituencies of Karnataka</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>Babaryko case: Belarus jails top Lukashenko critic for 14 years</strong> - Viktor Babaryko was banned from running against the president last year and detained.</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>Debris from missing plane found on Russian Far East Kamchatka peninsula</strong> - It is thought that all 28 people on board the An-26 passenger aircraft in Kamchatka have died.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid-19: Germany lifts ban on tourists from UK and Portugal</strong> - People who are fully vaccinated will also not be required to quarantine when they arrive.</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>Paedophile ring sentenced in Germany</strong> - Four men given 10 to 14-year sentences in case in Münster that has shocked Germany.</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>France in a fizz over Russia’s champagne label law</strong> - A law forcing French fizz makers to label their bottles as sparkling wine has left them bubbling.</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>Evolution of the dad</strong> - Most male mammals have little to do with their kids. Why is our own species different? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778248">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Did lead poisoning cause downfall of Roman Empire? The jury is still out</strong> - A new video from the American Chemical Society revisits longstanding academic debate - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778152">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The rumor is true: Rimac is taking over Bugatti with Porsche’s help</strong> - Ars spoke to CEOs Oliver Blume and Mate Rimac about the hypercar deal. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778245">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Old school: I work in DOS for an entire day</strong> - From the archives: Open source MS-DOS alternative lives—but using it nearly killed me. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=498855">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The thorny ethics of displaying Egyptian mummies to the public</strong> - Exhibits are popular, but curators must grapple with issues of cultural, racial sensitivity. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778201">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>I was fucking my wife last night ( NSFW )</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I was fucking my wife last night when she looked back and said ,“i’m feeling kinky tonight , turn off the light and stick it in my arse”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As soon as i did , she screamed
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Maybe next time i should let the bulb cool down first
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Madmaxxxx224"> /u/Madmaxxxx224 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oemegn/i_was_fucking_my_wife_last_night_nsfw/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oemegn/i_was_fucking_my_wife_last_night_nsfw/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A man is alone in an airport lounge.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A beautiful young woman walks in and sits down at the table next to him. He decides that because she’s wearing a uniform, she’s probably an off-duty Flight Attendant. So he decides to have a go at picking her up by identifying the airline she flies for, thereby impressing her greatly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He leans across to her and says the British Airways motto, “To fly, to serve?” The young woman looks at him blankly. He sits back and thinks up another line.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He leans forward again and delivers the Air France motto. “Winning the hearts of the world?” Again she just stares at him with a slightly puzzled look on her face.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Undeterred he tries again this time saying the Malaysian Airlines motto. “Going beyond expectations?” The woman looks at him sternly and says, “What the fuck do you want?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Aha”, he says,… “American Airlines.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PlaneShenaniganz"> /u/PlaneShenaniganz </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oeiv5k/a_man_is_alone_in_an_airport_lounge/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oeiv5k/a_man_is_alone_in_an_airport_lounge/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A married man was having an affair with his secretary. One day, their passions overcame them in the office and they took off for her house.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Exhausted from the afternoon’s activities, they fell asleep and awoke at around 8 p.m. As the man threw on his clothes, he told the woman to take his shoes outside and rub them through the grass and dirt. Confused, she nonetheless complied and he slipped into his shoes and drove home. “Where have you been?” demanded his wife when he entered the house. “Darling,” replied the man, “I can’t lie to you. I’ve been having an affair with my secretary. I fell asleep in her bed and didn’t wake up until eight o’clock.” The wife glanced down at his shoes and said, “You liar! You’ve been playing golf!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/bad-dawg4004"> /u/bad-dawg4004 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oe5p2s/a_married_man_was_having_an_affair_with_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oe5p2s/a_married_man_was_having_an_affair_with_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>No tie, no entry</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Guy decides to go to a swanky new nightclub. He gets to the door and the bouncer stops him. “You have to have a tie to get in”. Guy goes back to his car to see if he has a tie laying around. No dice. So he takes his jumper cables and ties them around his neck. Goes back to the door, bouncer looks him over, says “ok, you can go in, just don’t start anything”.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CommodoreFluffypaws"> /u/CommodoreFluffypaws </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oek7s1/no_tie_no_entry/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oek7s1/no_tie_no_entry/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>My lesbian neighbours asked me to help them conceive and we’ve been going at it for weeks</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I don’t have the balls to tell them I had a vasectomy
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/patoreddit"> /u/patoreddit </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oeet7h/my_lesbian_neighbours_asked_me_to_help_them/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oeet7h/my_lesbian_neighbours_asked_me_to_help_them/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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