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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 data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 variant dynamics across US states show consistent differences in effective reproduction numbers</strong> -
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Accurately estimating relative transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern and Variant of Interest viruses remains a scientific and public health priority. Recent studies have used the sample proportions of different variants from sequence data to describe variant frequency dynamics and relative transmission rates, but frequencies alone cannot capture the rich epidemiological behavior of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we extend methods for inferring the effective reproduction number of an epidemic using confirmed case data to jointly estimate variant-specific effective reproduction numbers and frequencies of co-circulating variants using case data and genetic sequences across states in the US from January to October 2021. Our method can be used to infer structured relationships between effective reproduction numbers across time series which may be amendable to various analyses including other features related to the effective reproductive number such as non-pharmaceutical interventions or build up of population immunity. We use this model to estimate the effective reproduction number of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest in the United States and estimate consistent growth advantages of particular variants across different locations.
</p>
</div></li>
</ul>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21267544v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 variant dynamics across US states show consistent differences in effective reproduction numbers</a>
</div>
<ul>
<li><strong>Evaluating the number of unvaccinated people needed to exclude to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmissions</strong> -
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<b>Background:</b> Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports (VMVP) for SARS-CoV-2 are thought to be a path out of the pandemic by increasing vaccination through coercion and excluding unvaccinated people from different settings because they are viewed as being at significant risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2. While variants and waning efficacy are relevant, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines reduce the risk of infection, transmission, and severe illness/hospitalization in adults. Thus, higher vaccination levels are beneficial by reducing healthcare system pressures and societal fear. However, the benefits of excluding unvaccinated people are unknown. <b>Methods:</b> A method to evaluate the benefits of excluding unvaccinated people to reduce transmissions is described, called the <i>number needed to exclude</i> (NNE). The NNE is analogous to the <i>number needed to treat</i> (NNT=1/ARR), except the absolute risk reduction (ARR) is the baseline transmission risk in the population for a setting (e.g., healthcare). The rationale for the NNE is that exclusion removes <i>all</i> unvaccinated people from a setting, such that the ARR is the baseline transmission risk for that type of setting, which depends on the secondary attack rate (SAR) typically observed in that type of setting and the baseline infection risk in the population. The NNE is the number of unvaccinated people who need to be excluded from a setting to prevent one transmission event from unvaccinated people in that type of setting. The NNE accounts for the transmissibility of the currently dominant Delta (B.1.617.2) variant to estimate the minimum NNE in six types of settings: households, social gatherings, casual close contacts, work/study places, healthcare, and travel/transportation. The NNE can account for future potentially dominant variants (e.g., Omicron, B.1.1.529). To assist societies and policymakers in their decision-making about VMVP, the NNEs were calculated using the current (mid- to-end November 2021) baseline infection risk in many countries. <b>Findings:</b> The NNEs suggest that at least 1,000 unvaccinated people likely need to be excluded to prevent one SARS-CoV-2 transmission event in most types of settings for many jurisdictions, notably Australia, California, Canada, China, France, Israel, and others. The NNEs of almost every jurisdiction examined are well within the range of the NNTs of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (≥ 250 to 333). This is important since ASA is not recommended for primary prevention of CVD because the harms outweigh the benefits. Similarly, the harms of exclusion may outweigh the benefits. These findings depend on the accuracy of the model assumptions and the baseline infection risk estimates. <b>Conclusions:</b> Vaccines are beneficial, but the high NNEs suggest that excluding unvaccinated people has negligible benefits for reducing transmissions in many jurisdictions across the globe. This is because unvaccinated people are likely <i>not</i> at significant risk — in absolute terms — of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to others in most types of settings since current baseline transmission risks are negligible. Consideration of the harms of exclusion is urgently needed, including staffing shortages from losing unvaccinated healthcare workers, unemployment/unemployability, financial hardship for unvaccinated people, and the creation of a class of citizens who are not allowed to fully participate in many areas of society.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.08.21267162v1" target="_blank">Evaluating the number of unvaccinated people needed to exclude to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmissions</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Proteomic Characterization of Acute Kidney Injury in Patients Hospitalized with SARS-CoV2 Infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a known complication of COVID-19 and is associated with an increased risk of in- hospital mortality. Unbiased proteomics using longitudinally collected biological specimens can lead to improved risk stratification and discover pathophysiological mechanisms. Using longitudinal measurements of ~4000 plasma proteins in two cohorts of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, we discovered and validated markers of COVID-associated AKI (stage 2 or 3) and long-term kidney dysfunction. In the discovery cohort (N= 437), we identified 413 upregulated and 40 downregulated proteins associated with COVID-AKI (adjusted p &lt;0.05). Of these, 62 proteins were validated in an external cohort (p &lt;0.05, N =261). We demonstrate that COVID-AKI is associated with increased markers of tubular injury (NGAL) and myocardial injury. Using estimated glomerular filtration (eGFR) measurements taken after discharge, we also find that 25 of the 62 AKI-associated proteins are significantly associated with decreased post-discharge eGFR (adjusted p &lt;0.05). Proteins most strongly associated with decreased post-discharge eGFR included desmocollin-2, trefoil factor 3, transmembrane emp24 domain-containing protein 10, and cystatin-C indicating tubular dysfunction and injury. Using longitudinal clinical and proteomic data, our results suggest that while both acute and long-term COVID- associated kidney dysfunction are associated with markers of tubular dysfunction, AKI is driven by a largely multifactorial process involving hemodynamic instability and myocardial damage.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21267548v1" target="_blank">Proteomic Characterization of Acute Kidney Injury in Patients Hospitalized with SARS-CoV2 Infection</a>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 and endemic coronaviruses: Comparing symptom presentation and severity of symptomatic illness among Nicaraguan children</strong> -
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It has been proposed that as SARS-CoV-2 transitions to endemicity, children will represent the greatest proportion of SARS-Co-V-2 infections as they currently do with endemic coronavirus infections. While SARS-CoV-2 infection severity is low for children, it is unclear if SARS-CoV-2 infections are distinct in symptom presentation, duration, and severity from endemic coronavirus infections in children. We compared symptom risk and duration of endemic coronavirus infections from 2011-2016 with SARS-CoV-2 infections from March 2020-September 2021 in a Nicaraguan pediatric cohort. Respiratory samples were collected from participants that met testing criteria and blood samples were collected annually. Respiratory samples were tested for each of the endemic coronaviruses from 2011-2016 and for SARS- CoV-2 from 2020-2021 via rt-PCR. 2021 blood samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and a subset of 2011-2016 blood samples from four-years-old participants were tested for endemic coronavirus antibodies. By April 2021, 854 (49%) active participants were ELISA positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Most participants had antibodies against one alpha and one beta coronavirus by age four. We observed 595 symptomatic endemic coronavirus infections from 2011-2016 and 121 symptomatic with SARS-CoV-2 infections from March 2020-September 2021. Symptom presentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection and endemic coronavirus infections were very similar, and SARS-CoV-2 symptomatic infections were as or less severe on average than endemic coronavirus infections. This suggests that, for children, SARS-CoV-2 may be just another endemic coronavirus. However, questions about the impact of variants and the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 remain.
</p>
</div></li>
</ul>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21267537v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 and endemic coronaviruses: Comparing symptom presentation and severity of symptomatic illness among Nicaraguan children</a>
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<ul>
<li><strong>Contribution of endogenous and exogenous antibodies to clearance of SARS-CoV-2 during convalescent plasma therapy</strong> -
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Abstract Neutralizing antibodies are considered a key correlate of protection by current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The ability of antibody-based therapies, including convalescent plasma, to affect established disease remains to be elucidated. Only few monoclonal therapies and only when used at a very early stage of infection have shown efficacy. Here, we conducted a proof-of-principle study of convalescent plasma therapy in a phase I trial in 30 COVID-19 patients including immunocompromised individuals hospitalized early after onset of symptoms. A comprehensive longitudinal monitoring of the virologic, serologic, and disease status of recipients in conjunction with detailed post-hoc seroprofiling of transfused convalescent plasma, allowed deciphering of parameters on which plasma therapy efficacy depends. Plasma therapy was safe and had a significant effect on viral clearance depending on neutralizing and spike SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels in the supplied convalescent plasma. Endogenous immunity had strong effects on virus control. Lack of endogenous neutralizing activity at baseline was associated with a higher risk of systemic viremia. The onset of endogenous neutralization had a noticeable effect on viral clearance but, importantly, even after adjusting for their endogenous neutralization status recipients benefitted from therapy with high neutralizing antibody containing plasma. In summary, our data demonstrate a clear impact of exogenous antibody therapy on the rapid clearance of viremia in the early stages of infection and provide directions for improved efficacy evaluation of current and future SARS-CoV-2 therapies beyond antibody-based interventions. Incorporating an assessment of the endogenous immune response and its dynamic interplay with viral production is critical for determining therapeutic effects.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21267513v1" target="_blank">Contribution of endogenous and exogenous antibodies to clearance of SARS-CoV-2 during convalescent plasma therapy</a>
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<li><strong>Efficient mucosal antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is induced in previously infected individuals</strong> -
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Mucosal immune responses are critical to prevent respiratory infections but it is unclear to what extent antigen specific mucosal secretory IgA (SIgA) antibodies are induced by mRNA vaccination in humans. We analyzed, therefore, paired serum and saliva samples from study participants with and without COVID-19 at multiple timepoints before and after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mRNA vaccination. Our results suggest that the level of mucosal SIgA responses induced by mRNA vaccination depend on pre-existing immunity. Indeed, vaccination induced only a weak mucosal SIgA response in individuals without pre-existing mucosal antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 while SIgA induction after vaccination was efficient in COVID-19 survivors. Our data indicate that vaccinated seropositive individuals were able to swiftly induce relatively high anti-spike SIgA responses by boosting pre-existing mucosal immunity. In contrast, seronegative individuals did not have pre-existing anti-SARS-CoV-2 or cross-reacting anti-HCoV SIgA antibodies prior to vaccination, and, thus, little or no anti-SARS-CoV-2 SIgA antibodies were induced by vaccination in these individuals.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.06.21267352v1" target="_blank">Efficient mucosal antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is induced in previously infected individuals</a>
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<li><strong>Delta Variant SARS-CoV-2 infections in pediatric cases during the second wave in India</strong> -
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The aim of this study was to identify the SARS-CoV-2 lineages circulating in the pediatric population of India during the second wave of the pandemic. Clinical and demographic details linked with the nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs (NPS/OPS) collected from SARS-CoV-2 cases (n=583) aged 0-18 year and tested positive by real-time RT-PCR were retrieved from March to June 2021.Symptoms were reported among 37.2% of patients and 14.8% reported to be hospitalized. The E gene CT value had significant statistical difference at the point of sample collection when compared to that observed in the sequencing laboratory. Out of these 512 sequences 372 were VOCs, 51 were VOIs. Most common lineages observed were Delta, followed by Kappa, Alpha and B.1.36, seen in 65.82%, 9.96%, 6.83% and 4.68%, respectively in the study population. Overall, it was observed that Delta strain was the leading cause of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Indian children during the second wave of the pandemic. We emphasize on the need of continuous genomic surveillance in SARS- CoV-2 infection even amongst children.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21266954v1" target="_blank">Delta Variant SARS-CoV-2 infections in pediatric cases during the second wave in India</a>
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<li><strong>CalScope: Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence from Vaccination and Prior Infection in Adults and Children in California May 2021 to July 2021</strong> -
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Importance: Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence varies regionally across California is critical to the public health response to the pandemic. Objective: To estimate how many Californians have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from prior infection or vaccination. Design: Wave 1 of CalScope: a repeated cross-sectional serosurvey of adults and children enrolled between April 20, 2021 and June 16, 2021. Setting: A population-based random sample of households in seven counties in California (Alameda, El Dorado, Kern, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Diego, and Shasta) were invited to complete an at-home SARS-CoV-2 antibody test and survey instrument. Participants: Invitations were sent to 200,000 randomly selected households in the seven counties. From each household, 1 adult (18 years and older) and 1 child (aged 6 months to 17 years) could enroll in the study. There were no exclusion criteria. Main Outcome(s) and Measures: All specimens were tested for antibodies against the nucleocapsid and spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2. The primary outcome was serostatus category, which was determined based on antibody test results and self-reported vaccination status: seronegative, antibodies from infection only, antibodies from infection and vaccination, and antibodies from vaccination alone. We used inverse probability of selection weights and iterative proportional fitting to account for non-response. Results: 11,161 households enrolled in wave 1 of CalScope, with 7,483 adults and 1,375 children completing antibody testing. As of June 2021, 27% (95%CI [23%, 31%]) of adults and 30% (95%CI [24%, 36%]) of children had evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection; 33% (95%CI [28%, 37%]) of adults and 57% (95%CI [48%, 66%]) of children were seronegative. Serostatus varied regionally. Californians 65 years or older were most likely to have antibodies from vaccine alone (59%; 95%CI [48%, 69%]) and children between 5-11 years old were most likely to have antibodies from prior infection alone (36%; 95%CI [21%, 52%]). Conclusions and Relevance: As of June 2021, a third of adults in California and most children under 18 remained seronegative. Seroprevalence varied regionally and by demographic group, suggesting that some regions or populations might remain more vulnerable to subsequent surges than others.
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<div class="article- link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21267565v1" target="_blank">CalScope: Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence from Vaccination and Prior Infection in Adults and Children in California May 2021 to July 2021</a>
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<li><strong>Patients with benign breast disease and breast cancer need more COVID-19 vaccines</strong> -
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Albeit the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in immunocompromised patients is undermined, it is still found beneficial. Patients with cancer have a much lower COVID- 19 vaccination rate globally, and the vaccination coverage in breast cancer patients in China remains elusive. A total of 23029 patients with benign breast diseases and breast cancers were included in the study, and the vaccination rates of patients with benign breast tumors and other benign breast diseases, nonmetastatic and metastatic breast cancer were 44.0%, 54.7%, 19.2% and 9.6%, respectively. Breast cancer in situ patients had a similar vaccination rate with patients with benign breast tumors (45.9% vs 44.0%) while those with invasive breast cancer had much lower vaccination rates. The overall vaccination rate remains meager in breast cancer patients, and gap was found in patients with lower clinical stage. Hence vaccination should be further promoted among patients with benign breast diseases and breast cancer.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21267531v1" target="_blank">Patients with benign breast disease and breast cancer need more COVID-19 vaccines</a>
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<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Omicron has extensive but incomplete escape of Pfizer BNT162b2 elicited neutralization and requires ACE2 for infection</strong> -
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The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, may compromise the ability of vaccine and previous infection elicited immunity to protect against new infection. Here we investigated whether Omicron escapes antibody neutralization elicited by the Pfizer BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in people who were vaccinated only or vaccinated and previously infected. We also investigated whether the virus still requires binding to the ACE2 receptor to infect cells. We isolated and sequence confirmed live Omicron virus from an infected person in South Africa. We then compared neutralization of this virus relative to an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain with the D614G mutation. Neutralization was by blood plasma from South African BNT162b2 vaccinated individuals. We observed that Omicron still required the ACE2 receptor to infect but had extensive escape of Pfizer elicited neutralization. However, 5 out of 6 of the previously infected, Pfizer vaccinated individuals, all of them with high neutralization of D614G virus, showed residual neutralization at levels expected to confer protection from infection and severe disease. While vaccine effectiveness against Omicron is still to be determined, these data support the notion that high neutralization capacity elicited by a combination of infection and vaccination, and possibly by boosting, could maintain reasonable effectiveness against Omicron. If neutralization capacity is lower or wanes with time, protection against infection is likely to be low. However, protection against severe disease, requiring lower neutralization levels and involving T cell immunity, would likely be maintained.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.08.21267417v2" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 Omicron has extensive but incomplete escape of Pfizer BNT162b2 elicited neutralization and requires ACE2 for infection</a>
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<li><strong>Timing of exposure is critical in a highly sensitive model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission</strong> -
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Transmission efficiency is a critical factor determining the size of an outbreak of infectious disease. Indeed, the propensity of SARS-CoV-2 to transmit among humans precipitated and continues to sustain the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the number of new cases among contacts is highly variable and underlying reasons for wide-ranging transmission outcomes remain unclear. Here, we evaluated viral spread in golden Syrian hamsters to define the impact of temporal and environmental conditions on the efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 transmission through the air. Our data show that exposure periods as brief as one hour are sufficient to support robust transmission. However, the timing after infection is critical for transmission success, with the highest frequency of transmission to contacts occurring at times of peak viral load in the donor animals. Relative humidity and temperature had no detectable impact on transmission when exposures were carried out with optimal timing. However, contrary to expectation, trends observed with sub-optimal exposure timing suggest improved transmission at high relative humidity or high temperature. In sum, among the conditions tested, our data reveal the timing of exposure to be the strongest determinant of SARS-CoV-2 transmission success and implicate viral load as an important driver of transmission.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.08.471873v1" target="_blank">Timing of exposure is critical in a highly sensitive model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission</a>
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<li><strong>Reduced Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant by Vaccine Sera and Monoclonal Antibodies</strong> -
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Due to numerous mutations in the spike protein, the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern Omicron (B.1.1.529) raises serious concerns since it may significantly limit the antibody-mediated neutralization and increase the risk of reinfections. While a rapid increase in the number of cases is being reported worldwide, until now there has been uncertainty about the efficacy of vaccinations and monoclonal antibodies. Our in vitro findings using authentic SARS- CoV-2 variants indicate that in contrast to the currently circulating Delta variant, the neutralization efficacy of vaccine-elicited sera against Omicron was severely reduced highlighting T-cell mediated immunity as essential barrier to prevent severe COVID-19. Since SARS-CoV-2 Omicron was resistant to casirivimab and imdevimab, genotyping of SARS-CoV-2 may be needed before initiating mAb treatment. Variant-specific vaccines and mAb agents may be required to treat COVID-19 due to Omicron and other emerging variants of concern.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.07.21267432v3" target="_blank">Reduced Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant by Vaccine Sera and Monoclonal Antibodies</a>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The prevalence of adaptive immunity to COVID-19 and reinfection after recovery, a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis</strong> -
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Abstract Objectives This study aims to estimate the prevalence and longevity of detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies as well as T and B memory cells during infection with SARS-CoV-2 and after recovery. In addition, prevalence of COVID-19 reinfection, and the preventive efficacy of previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 were investigated. Methods and analyses A synthesis of existing research was conducted. The Cochrane Library for COVID-19 resources, the China Academic Journals Full Text Database, PubMed, and Scopus as well as preprint servers were searched for studies conducted between 1 January 2020 to 1 April 2021. We included studies with the relevant outcomes of interest. All included studies were assessed for methodological quality and pooled estimates of relevant outcomes were obtained in a meta-analysis using a bias adjusted synthesis method. Proportions were synthesized with the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation and binary outcomes using the odds ratio (OR). Heterogeneity between included studies was assessed using the I2 and Cochrans Q statistics and publication bias was assessed using Doi plots. Results Fifty-four studies, from 18 countries, with around 12 000 000 individuals, followed up to 8 months after recovery were included. At 6-8 months after recovery, the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 specific immunological memory remained high; IgG 90.4% (95%CI 72.2 to 99.9, I2=89.0%, 5 studies), CD4+ 91.7% (95%CI 78.2 to 97.1, one study), and memory B cells 80.6% (95%CI 65.0 to 90.2, one study) and the pooled prevalence of reinfection was 0.2% (95%CI 0.0 to 0.7, I2 = 98.8, 9 studies). Individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 had an 81% reduction in odds of a reinfection (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.3, I2 = 90.5%, 5 studies). Conclusion Around 90% of people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 had evidence of immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2, which was sustained for at least 6-8 months after recovery, and had a low risk of reinfection.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.03.21263103v4" target="_blank">The prevalence of adaptive immunity to COVID-19 and reinfection after recovery, a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis</a>
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<li><strong>Exploring selection bias in COVID-19 research: Simulations and prospective analyses of two UK cohort studies</strong> -
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Background Non-random selection into analytic subsamples could introduce selection bias in observational studies of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity (e.g. including only those have had a COVID-19 PCR test). We explored the potential presence and impact of selection in such studies using data from self-report questionnaires and national registries. Methods Using pre-pandemic data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (mean age=27.6 (standard deviation [SD]=0.5); 49% female) and UK Biobank (UKB) (mean age=56 (SD=8.1); 55% female) with data on SARS-CoV-2 infection and death-with-COVID-19 (UKB only), we investigated predictors of selection into COVID-19 analytic subsamples. We then conducted empirical analyses and simulations to explore the potential presence, direction, and magnitude of bias due to selection when estimating the association of body mass index (BMI) with SARS-CoV-2 infection and death-with-COVID-19. Results In both ALSPAC and UKB a broad range of characteristics related to selection, sometimes in opposite directions. For example, more educated participants were more likely to have data on SARS-CoV-2 infection in ALSPAC, but less likely in UKB. We found bias in many simulated scenarios. For example, in one scenario based on UKB, we observed an expected odds ratio of 2.56 compared to a simulated true odds ratio of 3, per standard deviation higher BMI. Conclusion Analyses using COVID-19 self-reported or national registry data may be biased due to selection. The magnitude and direction of this bias depends on the outcome definition, the true effect of the risk factor, and the assumed selection mechanism.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.10.21267363v1" target="_blank">Exploring selection bias in COVID-19 research: Simulations and prospective analyses of two UK cohort studies</a>
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<li><strong>SUMMIT: An integrative approach for better transcriptomic data imputation improves causal gene identification</strong> -
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Genes with moderate to low expression heritability may explain a large proportion of complex trait heritability, but these genes are insufficiently captured in transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) partly due to the relatively small available reference datasets for developing expression genetic prediction models to capture the moderate to low genetically regulated components of gene expression. Here, we introduce a new method, Summary-level Unified Method for Modeling Integrated Transcriptome (SUMMIT), to improve the expression prediction model accuracy and the power of TWAS by using a large expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) summary-level dataset. We applied SUMMIT to the eQTL summary-level data provided by the eQTLGen consortium, which involve 31,684 blood samples from 37 cohorts. Through simulation studies and analyses of GWAS summary statistics for 24 complex traits, we show that SUMMIT substantially improves the accuracy of expression prediction in blood, successfully builds expression prediction models for genes with low expression heritability, and achieves higher statistical power than several benchmark methods. In the end, we conducted a case study of COVID-19 severity with SUMMIT and identified 11 likely causal genes associated with COVID-19 severity.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.21267570v1" target="_blank">SUMMIT: An integrative approach for better transcriptomic data imputation improves causal gene identification</a>
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</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"><strong>Using MOST to Optimize an Intervention to Increase COVID-19 Testing for Frontline Essential Workers</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   COVID-19 Testing<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Motivational interviewing</li>
</ul>
<ol start="1001" type="I">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">counseling;   Behavioral: Text messages (TMs) and quiz questions (QQs);   Behavioral: Peer education;   Behavioral: Access to COVID testing<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   New York University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Australian Phase 2/3b Study to Assess Effectiveness of a Protein-based Covid-19 Vaccine (Spikogen)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Spikogen/Covax-19<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
Vaxine Pty Ltd;   Australian Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Institute;   Cinnagen<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 Administration of Single-Dose Subcutaneous Anti- Spike(s) SARS-CoV-2 Monoclonal Antibodies Casirivimab and Imdevimab in High-Risk Pediatric Participants Under 12 Years of Age</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: casirivimab+imdevimab<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals<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>GlowTest COVID-19 Antigen Home Test Kit QRI Use Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid 19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: GlowTest COVID-19 Antigen Home Test<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Arion Bio;   CSSi Life Sciences<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 Different COVID-19 Vaccine Combinations in Inducing Long-term Humoral Immunity [PRIBIVAC]</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Homologous mRNA booster vaccine;   Biological: Heterologous mRNA booster vaccine;   Biological: Non-mRNA booster vaccine A;   Biological: Non- mRNA booster vaccine B;   Biological: Non-mRNA booster vaccine C<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Tan Tock Seng Hospital;   A*Star;   Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School;   KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of GRT-R910 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Boost Vaccine in Healthy Volunteers</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: GRT-R910 booster 113 days after prime;   Biological: GRT-R910 booster 28 days after prime<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Gritstone Oncology, Inc.<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>Safety and Immunogenicity of COVID-19 Vaccine, Inactivated in Healthy Population Aged From 3 to 11 Years</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine,Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Biotech Co., Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of Immunogenicity Equivalence of a Homologous Third Dose of Covid-19 (Recombinante) Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Covid -19 (recombinante) vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   The Immunobiological Technology Institute (Bio-Manguinhos) / Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz)<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>Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of a Monoclonal Antibody Cocktail for the Prevention of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ADM03820;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
Ology Bioservices;   Enabling Biotechnologies (EB)<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>Communities Fighting COVID-19!</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: COVID-19 Testing Home-based (Aim 1);   Other: COVID-19 Testing Mobile (Aim 1);   Other: COVID-19 Testing Mobile Approach 1 (Aim 2);   Other: COVID-19 Testing Mobile Approach 2 (Aim 2)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   San Diego State University;   National Cancer Institute (NCI)<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>Usefulness of DORNASE in COVID-19 on HFNO</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: inhalations<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
University Medical Centre Ljubljana<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>Communities Fighting COVID Return to School</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: At-home COVID-19 testing;   Behavioral: Family- based model;   Behavioral: Onsite COVID-19 testing<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   San Diego State University;   Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)<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>Phase Ⅱ and Ⅲ Trial of a SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine LYB001</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LYB001;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Yantai Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effect of Micellized Food Supplements on Health-related Quality of Life in Patients With Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Curcumin/Boswellia Serrata/Ascorbic acid mixture<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   PhysioMetrics<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 Recombinant Protein RBD Fusion Dimer Vaccine Against the Virus That Cause COVID-19, Known as Severe Acute Respiratoy Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2 Acute Respiratory Disease<br/><b>Interventions</b>:  <br/>
Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine HIPRA;   Biological: Cominarty (Pfizer-BioNtech)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
Hipra Scientific, S.L.U;   Laboratorios Hipra, S.A.;   National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Vietnam<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>Virus-inspired hollow mesoporous gadolinium-bismuth nanotheranostics for magnetic resonance imaging-guided synergistic photodynamic-radiotherapy</strong> - The anti-tumor efficacy of single photodynamic therapy (PDT) and radiotherapy (RT) has been greatly affected by inadequate tumor uptake of photo/radiation sensitizers, limited laser penetration depth, and radiation sickness caused by high doses of X-rays. Here, we report a biomimetic coronavirus-inspired hollow mesoporous gadolinium/bismuth nanocarrier loaded with a new NIR photosensitizer HB (referred to as HB@VHMBi-Gd) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided synergistic photodynamic-RT….</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>Author Correction: Amantadine inhibits known and novel ion channels encoded by SARS-CoV-2 in vitro</strong> - No abstract</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>The short isoform of the host antiviral protein ZAP acts as an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 programmed ribosomal frameshifting</strong> - Programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) is a fundamental gene expression event in many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. It allows production of essential viral, structural and replicative enzymes that are encoded in an alternative reading frame. Despite the importance of PRF for the viral life cycle, it is still largely unknown how and to what extent cellular factors alter mechanical properties of frameshift elements and thereby impact virulence. This prompted us to comprehensively dissect the…</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>Plant lectins as prospective antiviral biomolecules in the search for COVID-19 eradication strategies</strong> - Lectins or clusters of carbohydrate-binding proteins of non-immune origin are distributed chiefly in the Plantae. Lectins have potent anti-infectivity properties for several RNA viruses including SARS-CoV-2. The primary purpose of this review is to review the ability of lectins mediated potential biotherapeutic and bioprophylactic strategy against coronavirus causing COVID-19. Lectins have binding affinity to the glycans of SARS-COV-2 Spike glycoprotein that has N-glycosylation sites. Apart from…</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 rapid real-time polymerase chain reaction-based live virus microneutralization assay for detection of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in blood/serum</strong> - CONCLUSION: We describe a rapid RT-PCR-based SARS-CoV-2 microneutralization assay for the detection of neutralizing antibodies. This can effectively be used to test the antiviral activity of serum antibodies for the investigation of both disease-driven and vaccine-induced responses.</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>Unexplained arterial thrombosis: approach to diagnosis and treatment</strong> - Arterial thrombotic events in younger patients without a readily apparent etiology present significant diagnostic and management challenges. We present a structured approach to diagnosis with consideration of common causes, including atherosclerosis and embolism, as well as uncommon causes, including medications and substances, vascular and anatomic abnormalities, systemic disorders, and thrombophilias. We highlight areas of management that have evolved within the past 5 years, including the use…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is pregnancy a risk factor for in-hospital mortality in reproductive-aged women with SARS-CoV-2 infection? A nationwide retrospective observational cohort study</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: With the adjustment for intervention that was shown to be an independent factor associated with mortality, pregnancy appeared to have a favorable effect on SARS-CoV-2 infection. Given the immunosuppressed state of pregnancy, this finding is in line with the hypothetical protective role of a weaker immune response that inhibits the production of proinflammatory cytokine. With the adjustment for intervention, pregnancy was found associated with more favorable outcome of COVID-19, in…</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 Report on Multi-Target Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Phytoconstituents from <em>Monochoria hastata</em> (Family: <em>Pontederiaceae</em>)</strong> - This study aims to investigate the potential analgesic properties of the crude extract of Monochoria hastata (MH) leaves using in vivo experiments and in silico analysis. The extract, in a dose-dependent manner, exhibited a moderate analgesic property (~54% pain inhibition in acetic acid-induced writhing test), which is significant (** p &lt; 0.001) as compared to the control group. The complex inflammatory mechanism involves diverse pathways and they are inter- connected. Therefore, multiple…</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>Computational Simulation of HIV Protease Inhibitors to the Main Protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2: Implications for COVID-19 Drugs Design</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 is highly homologous to SARS-CoV. To date, the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is regarded as an important drug target for the treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some experiments confirmed that several HIV protease inhibitors present the inhibitory effects on the replication of SARS-CoV-2 by inhibiting Mpro. However, the mechanism of action has still not been studied very clearly. In this work, the interaction mechanism of four HIV protease inhibitors Darunavir…</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>Involvement of the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR Axis in Pulmonary Fibrosis: Implications for COVID-19</strong> - Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic, fibrotic lung disease affecting 3 million people worldwide. The ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR axis is of interest in pulmonary fibrosis due to evidence of its anti-fibrotic action. Current scientific evidence supports that inhibition of ACE2 causes enhanced fibrosis. ACE2 is also the primary receptor that facilitates the entry of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the current COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is associated with a myriad of symptoms ranging from asymptomatic…</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>Development of a PROTAC-Based Targeting Strategy Provides a Mechanistically Unique Mode of Anti-Cytomegalovirus Activity</strong> - Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a major pathogenic herpesvirus that is prevalent worldwide and it is associated with a variety of clinical symptoms. Current antiviral therapy options do not fully satisfy the medical needs; thus, improved drug classes and drug-targeting strategies are required. In particular, host-directed antivirals, including pharmaceutical kinase inhibitors, might help improve the drug qualities. Here, we focused on utilizing PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras (PROTACs), i.e.,…</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, Safety and Future Perspectives of JAK Inhibitors in the IBD Treatment</strong> - Although development of biologics has importantly improved the effectiveness in inducing and maintaining remission in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), biologic therapies still have several limitations. Effective, low-cost drug therapy with good safety profile and compliance is therefore a substantial unmet medical need. A promising target for IBD treatment strategies are Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors, which are small molecules that interact with cytokines implicated in pathogenesis of IBD. In…</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>The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Management and Outcome in Patients with Heart Failure</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Mortality rates in HF patients infected with COVID-19 were high. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the reduced usage of health services but without increased overall mortality.</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>Prevalence and Outcomes Associated with Hyperuricemia in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSION: In patients admitted to the hospital for COVID-19, higher serum UA levels were independently associated with AKI, MAKE, and in-hospital mortality in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, hyperuricemia was associated with higher procalcitonin and troponin I levels.</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>Discovery of 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene derivatives as SARS-CoV-2 3CL(pro) inhibitors for treating COVID-19</strong> - The epidemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has now spread worldwide and efficacious therapeutics are urgently needed. 3-Chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CL^(pro)) is an indispensable protein in viral replication and represents an attractive drug target for fighting COVID-19. Herein, we report the discovery of 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene derivatives as non-peptidomimetic and non-covalent inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2…</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>METHODS OF TREATING SARS-COV-2 INFECTION</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU344309338">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>REAL-TIME REST BREAK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR WORKPLACE</strong> - The present invention relates to a real-time rest break management system for workplace that comprises of a work desk, wherein first portion is incorporated with a biometric unit 4 for authenticating first user, and a second portion with a telescopic panel 2 associated with a weight sensor 6 and timer unit 7 calculating weight of head/hand manifesting user presence and their resting time period is mounted with an inflated cushion 5, an interactive primary display unit 1 attached over desk enables user to set first/second threshold time for sleeping/taking break, further linked with a tracking interface keeping track of activities and a vibrating unit crafted inside the cushion 5 which is linked to a secondary display unit 8 of second user, giving them access to actuate vibrating unit generating impulses to wake first user when threshold time period is exceeded by the first user. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN342791215">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>P2P 네트워크를 이용한 내장된 화상회의 시스템</strong> - 본 발명은 P2P 네트워크를 이용한 내장된 화상회의 시스템에 관한 것으로, 상태표시부(1), 영상송출부(2), 제어부(3), 광고부(4), 입력부(5)를 포함한다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR342781397">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A DOORBELL SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND RECORDING A PHYSIOLOGICAL DATA OF A PERSON</strong> - AbstractTitle: A doorbell system for monitoring and recording a physiological data of a person The present invention provides a doorbell system 500 for monitoring and recording a physiological data of a person. The doorbell system 500 having a transmitter module 100 and a receiving module 200. The transmitter module 100 is having a TOF sensor module 110, an ultrasound detector 120, and an infrared detector 130. Further, a speech recognition system 150, a facial recognition system 160, and a temperature detector 190 are provided for recognizing speech, face, and temperature of the person by comparing pre-stored data. A controlling module 180 is set with a predefined commands for communicating with the transmitter module 100 and receiving module 200. The collected facial and speech data is compared and matched with the pre-stored data then the temperature detector 190 triggers and the door opens when the captured body temperature of the person is matched within the predefined range of temperature.Figure 1 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN340503637">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A study of contemporary trends in investing patterns, household savings, and economic investment.</strong> - Because household savings and household investments are intertwined and interdependent, they are discussed briefly in this paper. Household savings account for more than half of a country’s capital formation, which fluctuates due to a variety of economic factors such as inflation and interest rates. Households should gradually shift their savings and investments from physical assets to financial assets to avoid a sudden change in wealth. They should also save and invest using a variety of platforms. Trends in investing and saving will be easier to track and measure this way. This year’s domestic saving rate in India is 2.3 percent lower than last year’s and 1.2 percent lower than the year before. Since 2011, general domestic savings have been steadily declining, with the trend continuing into the following year. According to official data, the GDP in 2020 shrank by 23.9%, the least in previous years and the least since the Covid-19 pandemic in previous years. As a result, the information presented in this paper is drawn from and evaluated from other sources - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN340502149">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>靶向刺激体液免疫和细胞免疫的新冠病毒mRNA疫苗</strong> - 本发明公开了一种靶向刺激体液免疫和细胞免疫的新冠病毒mRNA疫苗。本申请的第一方面提供一种分离的DNA分子组合，该DNA分子组合包括第一DNA分子和第二DNA分子和第三DNA分子中的至少一种。通过第一DNA分子以及第二DNA分子和/或第三DNA分子的组合，利用第一DNA分子最终合成的mRNA诱导高滴度的交叉中和抗体，利用第二DNA分子和/或第三DNA分子最终合成的mRNA诱导新冠病毒特异性的细胞毒性T淋巴细胞，从而高效地同时激活相对独立的体液免疫应答和细胞免疫应答，应对新冠病毒在流行传播过程中产生的突变毒株所引发的突破性感染。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN343418093">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>跨膜丝氨酸蛋白酶2抑制剂在制备治疗和/或预防冠状病毒感染药物中的用途</strong> - 本发明公开了跨膜丝氨酸蛋白酶2抑制剂在制备治疗和/或预防冠状病毒感染药物中的用途。本发明通过亲和垂钓及活性导向分离获得3种化合物，证实该类化合物可以直接地与跨膜丝氨酸蛋白酶2结合，KD&lt;13μM，且能够显著抑制跨膜丝氨酸蛋白酶2的催化活性。在细胞水平上可以有效的抑制新型冠状病毒SARS‑CoV‑2假病毒入侵，表明该类化合物对于制备治疗和/或预防病毒感染药物具有非常积极的作用。化合物1 化合物2 化合物3。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN343418164">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PROLIPOSOMAL DRY POWDER INHALER OF REMDESIVIR</strong> - The present invention is related to Proliposomal Dry Powder Inhaler of Remdesivir and its method thereof for the treatment of viral infections such Coronaviridae (including COVID-19 infection). - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN342291904">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Use of Diminazene Aceturate, Xanthenone, ACE 2 activators or analogs for the Treatment and therapeutic use of COVID-19 on human patients.</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU340325322">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ACTIVE RIDER SAFETY SYSTEM FOR TWO WHEELERS</strong> - The present invention relates to an active rider safety system for two wheelers comprising, a protective case equipped by a user for riding, where the case is integrated with multiple piezoelectric sensor that determines fastening of the case by user, a processing unit linked to the sensor, where the unit detects absence of case upon fetching data from the sensor below a threshold value and thereby terminates operation of ignition by stopping a coupled motor operated via a radio frequency module, an alcohol detection sensor that detects presence of alcohol and send data to processing unit, a temperature sensor that measures temperature of the user, an accelerometer sensor that activates upon ignition us tuned on to determine presence of a crash and a navigation module that via communication module sends location of user to pre saved users and concerned authorities. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN340503361">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
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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>The Secret History of the U.S. Diplomatic Failure in Afghanistan</strong> - A trove of unreleased documents reveals a dispiriting record of misjudgment, hubris, and delusion that led to the fall of the Western-backed government. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/20/the-secret-history-of-the-us-diplomatic-failure-in-afghanistan">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Astounding List of Artists Helped Persuade the Met to Remove the Sackler Name</strong> - Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei were among a group of more than seventy that quietly pressured the museum to end its association with the family that made a fortune on the opioid crisis. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-astounding-list-of-artists-helped-persuade-the-met-to-remove-the-%20sackler-name">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Man Who Predicted Climate Change</strong> - In the nineteen-sixties, Syukuro Manabe drew a graph that foretold our world today—and what’s to come. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/persons-of-interest/the-man-who-predicted-climate-change">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Vegan Bodega Sandwiches That Eric Adams Wants to See in the World</strong> - A New York City startup is putting plant-based chopped cheese, butter rolls, and egg sandwiches on the menu at deli counters around town. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-vegan-bodega-sandwiches-that-eric-adams-wants-to-%20see-in-the-world">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Optimistic Scenario for Inflation</strong> - The key thing for the economy, and for Biden’s political prospects, is whether rising prices turn out to be temporary or permanent. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/an-optimistic-scenario-for-inflation">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Inflation is surging. Joe Biden is still optimistic.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="President Joe Biden gestures from behind a podium in the East Room of the White House on
December 6, 2021, in Washington, DC." src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/Y6O2sHCPmzoK8hJmFy7sYGM0X5c=/250x0:4245x2996/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70259821/1357522384.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the East Room of the White House on December 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biden said Friday that inflation is at its peak, and some prices are already coming down.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3gTXfN">
The price of consumer goods rose by 6.8 percent over the past year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">reported</a> on Friday, the biggest increase since the 1980s. “Essentially across the board,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/22811903/inflation-rate-2021-christmas-holidays-
report-cpi">as Vox’s Rani Molla and Emily Stewart write</a>, everyday purchases from food to gas are costing more, and it’s going to be an expensive holiday season.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qe22jU">
That part isn’t in debate. What is, however, is how worried everyone should be. In Washington, there’s sharp disagreement about what exactly is responsible for surging inflation and what the government can — or should — do about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3BHnwn">
Some of the causes are fairly self- evident: Entering the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US — and much of the rest of the world — is grappling with a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/24/22743104/supply-chain-inflation-shortages-2022">supply chain crisis</a>. That means most goods, from game consoles to oranges, are more difficult to get to store shelves for one reason or another, whether it’s a lack of critical tech components or a backup at ports due to labor shortages. US consumers, however, simply haven’t stopped buying, and that demand-supply disjunction has caused record inflation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Jp4xi">
Some <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/11/10/22775092/inflation-cpi-october-economy-biden-
fed">economists</a>, as well as President Joe Biden, take the view that the pandemic — and the pandemic-snarled supply chain — are the primary culprits, and inflation will ease as the US keeps combating the pandemic and implements supply- chain fixes. On Friday, <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1469405325350551552?s=20">according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins</a>, Biden told reporters that “the reason for inflation is that<strong> </strong>we have a supply chain problem that is really severe.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d9mXZi">
Others, though, are concerned the problem is bigger than that. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, for example, has also pointed to government spending as a reason for increased inflation, and believes it’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/summers-says-policy-makers-may-
have-now-cemented-inflation-at-4">far from a bump in the road</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="cvRD7c">
The Biden administration is projecting optimism on inflation
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NPxOd0">
The optimistic case for current inflation goes something like this: Though <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/24/22743104/supply-chain-inflation-shortages-2022">supply chain</a> problems have led to a shortage in many consumer goods, Americans haven’t stopped buying — and with more money in their pockets, they have the capacity to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UJzkL4">
Specifically, lockdowns and being stuck at home — unable to travel or go to restaurants, bars, and live events — have shifted what Americans are spending their money on. Less money spent on travel or experiences, combined with stimulus funds, has driven many Americans to buy more consumer goods. That, combined with supply chain problems decades in the making, has led to the current, precipitous rise in inflation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2EVQu0">
As vaccines make a return to normal life more possible, however, American spending habits are likely to begin to return to normal, which could also have an impact on inflation. Biden painted a relatively optimistic picture Friday, <a href="https://twitter.com/joeygarrison/status/1469386971411849222?s=20">telling reporters</a> he believes inflation has reached its peak.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FuSBOa">
“I think you’ll see it change sooner, quicker, more rapidly than people think,” Biden said. “Every other aspect of the economy is racing ahead.”
</p>
<div id="eCLYuu">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
President Biden takes a question from <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="kaitlancollins">@kaitlancollins</span></a> on whether we’re seeking the peak of inflation:<br/><br/>“I think you’ll see it change sooner, quicker, more rapidly than people think. Every other aspect of the economy is racing ahead.” <a href="https://t.co/nIZEcOmlRX">pic.twitter.com/nIZEcOmlRX</a>
</p>
— Joey Garrison</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<ol class="example" type="1">
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/joeygarrison/status/1469386971411849222?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2021</a>
</li>
</ol>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VxGeGc">
Surging inflation doesn’t mean bad economic news across the board, either. As Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist and senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/11/10/22775092/inflation-cpi-october-economy-biden-fed">told Vox in November</a>:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dfzHvd">
Both because jobs have been coming back and also because the federal government put out a lot of economic relief, people — especially those who are at the very top of the heap — have, on average, enough money to pay those extra prices in the majority of cases.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YsHcmZ">
Still, while inflation numbers aren’t the only measure of economic health, the reality is that inflation is high after decades of hovering around 2 percent. That, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/11/10/22775092/inflation-cpi-october-
economy-biden-fed">as Sahm said</a>, is a “pain point” as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s one that people notice because they interact with every day at the gas pump and the grocery store. But while the current numbers are higher than Fed targets, it’s nowhere near the level seen during the so-called<a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-inflation"> Great Inflation</a>, when consumer prices shot up more than 14 percent.
</p>
<h3 id="pRX06p">
Some worry Biden’s not doing enough to fight inflation
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y9gRs9">
Nevertheless, some influential voices, including Summers,<strong> </strong>have raised the alarm about long- term inflation problems and pointed to government spending as a driver of inflationary woes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NOOd3s">
In a February <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/larry-summers-biden-covid-stimulus/">Washington Post op-ed</a>, Summers wrote that “there is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qOQstZ">
In the same piece, Summers accused the administration of denying “even the possibility of inflation,” raising concerns that Biden wasn’t adequately prepared for the rise in prices that coincided with sweeping stimulus packages, and didn’t have the proper measures in place to act quickly to bring inflation down.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TVlc1j">
That concern — that the administration wouldn’t act quickly and that inflation would become a longer-term problem, rather than the transitory issue Biden predicted — is playing out, at least somewhat. So far, as November’s numbers show, inflation isn’t letting up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="scVnqU">
While the US has spent trillions in pandemic relief, however, inflation is <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/11/24/22799217/global-inflation-us-eu-germany-uk">also occurring elsewhere in the world</a>, where governments have taken different approaches to dealing with the fallout from the pandemic — suggesting that government spending doesn’t tell the whole story.
</p>
<h3 id="47TajQ">
What is the government doing to contain inflation? What can it do?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7rREaM">
While the Biden administration is doing what it can to fix supply chain issues and drive down rising gas prices, most of tools to address inflation are in the hands of the Federal Reserve.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dvuNhx">
“I don’t think [inflation] is changing very much any time soon,” Jason Furman, the former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/stephanie-ruhle/watch/jason-furman-says-
inflation-may-not-be-changing-very-much-any-time-soon-128399941972">MSNBC Friday</a>. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot the White House can do about it, but for the Federal Reserve, a better economy and higher inflation both tell them they need to continue to pivot to get this under control.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LdkiHv">
One way the Fed plans to cool the economy is “tapering” — gradually decreasing the $120 billion it spends per month on government-backed bonds, which has injected money into the financial markets during the pandemic. In November, Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced the central bank would reduce that amount by $15 billion each month. The purchasing program is supposed to end halfway through 2022, but as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/business/powell-bond-buying-taper.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-
share">New York Times </a>reported in early December, that program could finish more quickly as the Fed attempts to reduce inflation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W1scKy">
“At this point, the economy is very strong, and inflationary pressures are high,” Powell said in late November. “It is therefore appropriate in my view to consider wrapping up the taper of our asset purchases, which we actually announced at our November meeting, perhaps a few months sooner.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tjiEDI">
Along with that could also come <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/business/powell-bond-buying-
taper.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share">interest rate hikes</a>, although the Fed has not announced specific plans to do so. Interest rate increases are a powerful tool in the Fed’s arsenal to slow down consumer spending, and thus inflation. And, as inflation continues to rise, that’s looking like a more likely tack for Powell to take, once the Fed’s satisfied that the economy has reached “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/feds-powell-touts-
benefits-maximum-employment-2021-11-09/">maximum employment</a>” — a signal that the economy is healthy enough to withstand the withdrawal of government support.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AFayg3">
Summers, though, sounded the alarm to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/summers-says-policy-makers-may-have-now-cemented-inflation-
at-4?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=bd&amp;cmpId=google">Bloomberg</a> on Friday, saying that the Fed would also need to increase interest rates — the amount that a lender charges a borrower for a loan or credit — repeatedly next year to help keep inflation in check.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2OMfN9">
“We’ve put in motion, for the first time in 40 years, excessive inflation caused by overheating of the economy,” he said, warning that the government had driven up inflation “way above 2 percent — perhaps in the 4 percent or even higher range,” and that could be permanent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9bh4pe">
Beyond monetary policy, though, the other massive piece of the puzzle is the supply chain — and that’s something politicians and policymakers have much less control over. Biden has attempted to ease supply chain woes by running the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/us/politics/biden-port-los-angeles-supply-chain.html">Port of Los Angeles</a> 24 hours a day, clearing the docks so goods don’t wait for days on cargo ships stranded in the water. And the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/23/president-biden-announces-release-from-
the-strategic-petroleum-reserve-as-part-of-ongoing-efforts-to-lower-prices-and-address-lack-of-supply-around-the-
world/">release of 50 million barrels of oil</a> from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve last month was geared toward reducing gas prices, which have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-09/biden-cheers-falling-gas-
prices-crediting-his-supply-efforts">already begun to fall</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sSE3cT">
Most likely, however, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/business/economy/inflation-price-gains.html">the supply chain will remain snarled</a> for the foreseeable future — keeping inflation higher than we’re used to — and policymakers will have to react to that reality.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>My year of smells</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/LASkZTju1m4hiOu0gNuVZeaBhfU=/225x0:1576x1013/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70258488/smells_covid_board_3.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Christina Animashaun/Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The power of perfume in a plague year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KS72oH">
It was October 2020. The days were getting shorter; the news was getting worse. I was looking for a small distraction, something to look forward to in the coming pandemic winter. After a brief consideration of the limited available options, I decided to get into perfume.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3rLN4K">
After a little online research, I signed up for the subscription box Olfactif because, beyond forking over my credit card information, it did not require me to make any decisions. For the relatively affordable price of $19 a month, the company would pick out three sample-size perfumes on a vaguely seasonal theme and send them to my door. It was a way to guarantee myself something that had been in short supply that year: a nice surprise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KN4b2P">
I wasn’t alone. After a dip at the start of the pandemic, fragrance sales <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fragrance-sales-increasing-during-pandemic-
explained-2021-6">started to rebound in August 2020</a> and were surging by early 2021, up 45 percent from the first quarter of 2020. “Last year was super busy,” Kimberly Waters, founder of the Harlem perfume shop MUSE, told me. Pandemic-numbed consumers “needed to feel like themselves, needed to feel new again, needed to feel <em>something</em>,” Waters said. “And fragrance was that vehicle.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Eujg8">
For me, perfume was a way to feel a little excitement amid the stress and monotony of the pandemic. I might not have been able to eat in a restaurant or see my parents or go a day without experiencing existential dread, but I could open up my Olfactif box and sample, for instance, Blackbird’s Hallow v. 2, a standout from the October collection with notes of benzoin, frankincense, and marzipan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PIb3T1">
I couldn’t tell you what benzoin actually smells like, but I do know that Hallow reminded me of ghost stories, of forests and dark places, of fears that were fun and manageable, intriguing rather than consuming. Amid the long, isolated slog of late 2020 and early 2021, my perfume box became a reliable escape.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5DtiI1">
Then — maybe you knew this was coming — I got Covid, and I became one of the hundreds of millions of people around the world to suffer from anosmia, a partial or total loss of the sense of smell. Anosmia is generally seen as one of the milder symptoms of Covid-19; it’s not particularly dangerous on its own, and people presenting with anosmia tend to have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7380219/#:~:text=Our%20data%20implicate%20smell%20loss,smell%20loss%20(Table%201).">less severe cases of Covid-19</a> overall. This was the case for me — I felt very lucky to emerge from quarantine with a messed-up nose as my only enduring symptom.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zkh9YC">
That symptom, though manageable, turned out to be significant. Covid-19 changed my relationship to smell, even — perhaps especially — as that sense began, slowly and strangely, to return. Learning to smell again came to symbolize resilience and healing, but also simply forward movement: a sign of personal, biological progress in a year when everything seemed stuck in a terrible cycle.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zXgCQs">
Smell, Waters said, is “how we navigate our lives.” And this year, regaining smell has been how I navigate, if not back to the shore we all left in early 2020, then at least to a place where I can recognize my surroundings, and start to make a home.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="AFeNTk"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OGMWk6">
Scientists know very little for certain about how Covid-19 damages our sense of smell. Danielle Reed, associate director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, studies taste and smell; she told me one popular theory is that the virus infects a group of cells called the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00055-6">sustentacular cells</a>, which “support and nourish the smell cells” in the nose. When the sustentacular cells are infected, the smell cells lose their nutrition, and “that’s how things suddenly go south,” as Reed put it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ewAd4M">
Another theory holds that when fighting SARS-CoV2, the immune system produces a substance that switches off the function of the smell cells. That explanation would fit with the experience of people who go to bed one night fine and “wake up the next morning and they can’t smell their coffee,” Reed said. Whatever the cause, loss of smell is extremely common: about 86 percent of Covid-19 patients lose some or all of their sense of smell, <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health-news/loss-of-smell-associated-with-milder-
covid-19-cases#Most-patients-eventually-recovered">according to one study</a>, while others put the figure <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00055-6">even higher</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gO2hEk">
The extent of the effect varies among patients. Some people lose everything, like Tejal Rao, a restaurant critic for the New York Times, who first discovered her Covid-induced anosmia in the shower. “At first, I mistook the lack of aromas for a new smell, a curious smell I couldn’t identify — was it the water itself? the stone tiles?” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/dining/covid-loss-of-smell.html">she wrote</a>, “before realizing it was just a blank, a cushion of space between me and my world.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="97hutI">
Others, like me, experience only partial anosmia — some smells are lost, while some remain. At first, I had no idea I’d been affected at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eSTipR">
Every morning while my family was in quarantine, I put on perfume to lift my spirits. I chose House of James’s Sun King, a citrusy blend of mandarin, green tea, and black agar I’d received in my February 2021 box. While we were very fortunate not to get sicker, the first few days of our illness were tense ones — my husband quarantined in our bedroom, both of us double-masking at all times in a futile attempt to avoid infecting our then-2-year-old son. Perfume was a way to remind myself that I was human, not just a machine for converting raw anxiety into nose wipes, temp checks, and healthy snacks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Exp5C">
By week two, our son was mercifully fever-free (though extremely tired of being indoors), my husband was stuffy but on the mend, and I was sick of Sun King. I had told myself a new perfume would be my reward for finishing quarantine, and so when I finally got the all-clear from the New York City Test and Trace Corps, I popped open a vial of Musc Invisible, the only February fragrance I had yet to try.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b1arAt">
Musc Invisible, by the fragrance brand Juliette Has a Gun, is supposed to smell like jasmine, cotton flowers, and white musk. Long a fan of musk fragrances (like many people, I enjoyed <a href="https://www.fragrantica.com/news/The-History-of-White-Musk-The-
Body-Shop-and-Far-Beyond-12636.html">The Body Shop’s White Musk</a> in the ’90s), I was excited to sample it. But when I sprayed it on, it smelled like nothing with a hint of something — or like someone had wrapped my head in several layers of gauze and then opened a vial of perfume across the room.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bX93Dv">
Once I realized something was off, I went around the house sniffing everything in an effort to gauge the damage. Many objects smelled normal — I remember sticking my nose in a jar of peanut butter and being satisfied at its peanut-ness. Others had lost their scent entirely — the candles my mother had sent me in a birthday care package, once rosemary and lemon balm, were now nothing and nothing.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="sLBsRw">
<q>The candles my mother had sent me in a birthday care package, once rosemary and lemon balm, were now nothing and nothing. </q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dOie3k">
Others still occupied a disconcerting middle ground, not as I remembered them, but not completely scent- less, either. The perfume I wore to my wedding, for example, a rose oil I still keep in a bottle on my dresser, smelled like the faintest hint of its former self — or maybe I was just remembering the smell, and not really smelling it at all?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zuec4E">
Such experiences became commonplace this year, but before the pandemic, they were considered relatively rare. One of the few people to chronicle the loss of smell prior to Covid-19 was Molly Birnbaum, whose 2011 memoir <em>Season to Taste </em>details her recovery from a brain injury that damaged her olfactory nerves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UV5XBp">
“When I lost my sense of smell in a car accident, it was devastating,” Birnbaum said. At the time a 22-year- old aspiring chef, she ended up having to change careers because her loss of smell had also affected her ability to taste. “All of the nuance of flavor, all of the details,” she said, “that was gone.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ECQodH">
To this day I’m not sure if I lost taste along with smell in February. Food in general seemed to taste less good, but I couldn’t tell if I was actually experiencing dysgeusia — the technical term for an altered sense of taste — or simply stress-induced lack of appetite. I experienced my post-Covid sensory change not as a devastation but as a profound murkiness, of a piece with the anxiety and confusion all around me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w1vtzg">
The pandemic had already wiped away so much that had once seemed certain: that children would go to school, that some adults would go to work in offices, that families could gather together for holidays. No one knew when it would be over; no one knew what the next month or week or even day would hold. I remember feeling that even the changing of the seasons was no longer a sure thing — in February 2020, I had told my husband, “at least winter will be over soon.” Then winter came for the whole world, and stayed for more than a year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BRY684">
It seemed fitting, in this context, that I should no longer be able to trust my senses. Indeed, uncertainty is a hallmark of Covid-induced anosmia. There’s no single accepted clinical test, like an eye chart, to gauge people’s sense of smell, Reed said. There are tests used in research, but they aren’t readily available to the general public. That means people are generally left trying to gauge their condition, and their recovery, by trying to remember what things smelled like before Covid — a process that’s flawed at best. “If you take your temperature, you know if you’re getting better,” Reed said. “Your fever was 102, and now it’s 100.1.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lekeoO">
With smell, though, “there’s no real metric,” she said. “It’s very frustrating for people.”
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="swqFYg"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6gNDDm">
Most Covid-19 patients do eventually regain some sense of smell. But 10 to 20 percent of those affected are still experiencing significant impairment a year after their diagnosis, Reed said. The recovery process itself, meanwhile, can be disorienting, unsettling, and even disgusting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ymfNpC">
Some people experience parosmia, in which smells are distorted — a French wine expert recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/world/europe/france-covid-smell.html">told the Times</a> that during her recovery, “peanuts smelled like shrimp, raw ham like butter, rice like Nutella.” Others are confronted with phantosmia, smells that aren’t there at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KNjyRj">
For me, it was the smell of coffee, which began wafting into my nose (or brain) every afternoon sometime around March, even though I haven’t had a cup of coffee since 2009. Others have more upsetting olfactory hallucinations: Some smell cigarette smoke or even <a href="https://www.webmd.com/brain/what-
is-phantosmia">rotting flesh</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pPEoPT">
For Birnbaum, it was “an earthy, garden-y scent” that seemed to follow her everywhere. At first, “I thought I was smelling my own brain,” she recalled, as though “my recovery process was allowing me to smell what was inside of me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NMJiOw">
But then, slowly but surely, real smells began to come back — first the smell of fresh rosemary, then other pleasant smells, and last of all, bad smells like garbage. “I was living in New York in the summer, and there was trash on the street corner, and I could smell it, which was very exciting,” Birnbaum said.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="wCKbYk">
<q>All spring and summer I had the sense of smells returning to me out of nothingness, like figures stepping out of the dark.</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hsBg3p">
I, too, remember the excitement of recognizing a smell again after its long absence. I was walking in the park one day in May when I realized I could smell fresh grass again. I kept sniffing flowers and smelling nothing until, one day in July, I felt the winey sweetness of a red rose hit the back of my throat. All spring and summer I had the sense of smells returning to me out of nothingness, like figures stepping out of the dark.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4p3prs">
Smell, for me, became a way to measure time — time since our illness, time since the pandemic began, time since we’d been vaccinated and things started to go back to some semblance of normal. I know I’m <a href="https://news.miami.edu/stories/2021/10/the-pandemic-has-played-with-our-perception-of-time.html">not alone</a> in losing my grasp of the passage of time since Covid-19 hit — often I still forget what month it is, even what year. But I know that now I don’t smell phantom coffee anymore, and I can, just barely, smell the lemon balm candle in my bathroom. Something must be progressing, no matter how slow.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="BucUCj"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XiZ2LL">
People who work with smell often emphasize its ability to ground us, to situate us in time and space. Every day during lockdown, Waters, the MUSE founder, says she used some kind of scent, whether it was perfume, incense, or a candle. “It was how I remembered life before the pandemic,” she said. “It made me feel like myself at a time when I was just so confused.”
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tEYkZT">
I also kept using perfume, even after my incident with Musc Invisible. At first it was a source of anxiety — would I be able to smell the next vial? Was White Castitas — a sample from the June box with notes of lemon, sandalwood, and licorice — just very subtle, or was I still missing some crucial licorice sensors deep inside my nose?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEZeA2">
Over time, though, those worries have faded. I’ve come to accept that my sense of smell is different now, that what’s still gone may never be coming back, and that I’ll probably never know if I’m back to “normal.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Owd9dr">
For researchers like Reed, the prevalence of Covid-induced anosmia is a wake-up call that science and medicine need to take the sense of smell more seriously. She and her colleagues advocate for testing of taste and smell the same way we test for hearing and vision, and are at work on a new test to help doctors evaluate a patient’s sense of smell quickly and easily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ck8c8G">
For Waters, the pandemic is a reminder to embrace our sense of smell while we have it. “Continue keeping your nose open,” she said. “We can’t take our ability to smell for granted.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2s1vEh">
And for me, regaining smell is just another small way that I’m emerging, marked, from the last 20 months into whatever comes next.
</p>
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KDEjbf">
I tried smelling Musc Invisible again as I was writing this story. I could definitely detect something: a kind of chemical sweetness, like bubblegum mixed with hydrogen peroxide. I don’t know if it’s the perfume itself or my still-wonky sustentacular cells, but I don’t care anymore. This perfume smells bad to me now. I’m going to throw it away.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rOcVHM">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The one-dose problem is real</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/JdDZ42dRBKZVS3SvvMBVgNb7FuQ=/614x0:5533x3689/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70258331/AP21340669223919.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A person walks off a vaccination bus at a mobile vaccine clinic in New York City on December 6. | Mary Altaffer/AP
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We know lots of Americans skipped their second Covid-19 shot. We just don’t know exactly how many.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="10g9qm">
There’s a public health challenge that has been lurking and largely ignored in the US, and that could become a major issue if <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/11/27/22804556/omicron-variant-covid-19-south-africa-explained">the omicron variant of Covid-19</a> becomes dominant: the one-dose problem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N8G6mk">
There appear to be millions of Americans walking around who have received a single dose of <a href="https://www.vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-
treatment-prevention-cure-vaccines">a Covid-19 vaccine</a>, who may think they are protected against whatever the virus can throw at them — and who could be sorely wrong.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u9FgWi">
“I’m not sure we should regard them as equivalent to unvaccinated people,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, told me. “But they are at higher risk than fully vaccinated and boosted people.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9d9qqh">
That was the early consensus among the experts I consulted, and the preliminary data <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1469376759342985216">shows</a>, as expected, low effectiveness against omicron after one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The effectiveness against omicron also declines over time after two doses but is restored to high levels (76 percent efficacy against infection) after <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2021/12/1/22809878/covid-19-omicron-variant-vaccine-booster-shots">a third dose</a>. This was a fairly small study out of the UK, and more data will be forthcoming, but it gives an initial picture of how the vaccines are holding up against the new variant.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z5YbCc">
People who have received only one dose of a vaccine could conceivably be almost as vulnerable to infection from omicron as the unvaccinated. They may still have some level of protection against severe illness because of the multiple layers of immunity induced by the vaccines. But it’s an open question at this point — and may soon become an urgent one for the Americans who fall into this camp.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eDtoOU">
“I would not be surprised if those [with one dose] were essentially equivalent to unvaccinated when it comes to protection from infection,” Bill Hanage, a Harvard University epidemiologist, told me recently. “Other elements of the immune response might help reduce serious infections, though not to the same degree as those with more vaccination.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W4ZKjL">
Getting those people a second dose — and, eventually, a booster dose — could go a long way toward blunting the impact of omicron. The new variant appears to spread even faster than the currently dominant delta variant (itself already much quicker than the original version of the virus) and, while there is some optimism it will be somewhat milder than those previous variants, it’s also clear that full vaccination provides the best protection. Anything less than that means taking your chances with a virus that has <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">already killed</a> nearly 800,000 people in the United States and 5.3 million people worldwide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NGpt2l">
But there’s at least one enormous obstacle in the way of the United States fixing this one-dose problem: We don’t know who these people are, or even how many of them are out there.
</p>
<h3 id="dkevp3">
Bad data makes it harder to get patients to follow up for vaccines
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LW0bWX">
The CDC vaccination data on which reporters and public health officials have relied is flawed, as Matt Yglesias <a href="https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-cdcs-vaccine-data-is-all-wrong">wrote recently</a>. Without more reliable data, it is really hard to accurately gauge the scale of the one-dose problem. Every expert I spoke to agrees that it exists. Nobody is sure how big the problem is, though, or for whom.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fkCMXT">
People over 65 or who are immunocompromised do not get the same protection from the full two-dose regimen as younger and healthier people. If a lot of those people didn’t even get the second dose, that poses a more serious public health problem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="USwpIm">
“It would be helpful to have more granular data on how many people have not returned for a second dose and who they are,” Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PeSYAZ">
Recognizing the flaws in data, we can still attempt to put some kind of estimate on the number of people who failed to get a second dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine (which are by far most prominent in the US, accounting for <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-vaccine-doses-by-manufacturer?country=~USA">more than 95 percent of shots</a>) and how serious the one-dose problem might be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uhS53O">
To start with the national data: There is about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html">an 11-point gap</a> between the share of Americans who have received at least one dose (71 percent) and the share who are fully vaccinated (60 percent). That means as many as 36 million Americans are partially but not fully vaccinated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OSE9Gt">
Some of those people are simply in between doses: the CDC recommends a three-week gap between doses for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and four weeks for Moderna. But even with the current average of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html">500,000 Americans receiving their first dose</a> every day — which translates to about 14 million first doses across four weeks, though the numbers are always changing — that is not nearly enough to explain the gap.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pe8Btv">
Those people are not as well protected as those with two doses. One study <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2108891">published in August in the <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em></a> found one dose of Pfizer’s vaccine was 30.7 percent effective against any infection from the delta variant (still dominant for now in the United States), but was 88 percent effective after two doses. Experts expect similar patterns to emerge with omicron.
</p>
<h3 id="R1MWaf">
How are we actually doing on getting people second doses?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3gKwKV">
As Yglesias pointed out, state and local data tends to be somewhat more reliable than the CDC’s. So I checked out <a href="https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/#Vaccine">the trends in Maryland</a> and found a similar problem. The state has been averaging about 5,000 first doses per day so far in December. That would translate to as many as 140,000 people in the four-week interval between their first and second doses, if we use the longer Moderna schedule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nJX46l">
But the actual gap between the number of first doses versus the number of second doses? Nearly 500,000. That suggests a lot of people who got that first dose and never came back for a second.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="68Vzhi">
Ohio likewise has <a href="https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards/covid-19-vaccine/covid-19-vaccination-dashboard">a roughly 550,000-person gap</a> between the number of vaccinations started and the number completed. In Washington state, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/4/28/21235170/coronavirus-washington-state-lockdown-end-economy-restart">a paragon of good public health practices</a>, there are still <a href="https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/COVID19/DataDashboard">410,000 more people</a> reported as having initiated their vaccination than are reported to have completed it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RxUiWd">
None of these states are averaging anywhere near enough new vaccinations for the gap to be fully explained by people waiting the prescribed three or four weeks between shots. There is a real one-dose problem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YDmikx">
“I think we can consider them not fully vaccinated,” Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told me. “People just don’t follow up because they are only so attentive to their own health or for whatever reason. Hopefully people don’t think they don’t need the second dose.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jrk9pO">
By <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-
covid19/22163315/covid-19-vaccines-doses-pfizer-moderna">the historical standards set by more routine vaccines</a>, the United States is doing pretty well with getting people their second Covid shots. For other multi-dose vaccines, research has found that as many as half of patients never show up for their additional doses. The CDC’s data has <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total">about 85 percent</a> of people getting their second dose of the Covid-19 vaccines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ZspUc">
But in a pandemic, with omicron looking more transmissible and better able to evade immunity than its predecessors, any gap creates a public health problem. People probably have a variety of reasons for not getting another shot — an allergic reaction, they didn’t like the side effects, they don’t think they need it, they can’t get time off — but, in theory, they’re the low-hanging fruit for the country’s ongoing vaccination drive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sooc8Y">
They’ve already shown a willingness to get the shot. They just need to come back to get another one. Policies like paid sick leave or programs like mobile vaccine clinics could lower the barriers for these people to finally receive their next dose, experts say.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RAcaOS">
“Someone who had bad side effects after their first dose may not get a second dose because of a lack of paid sick leave,” Rasmussen said. “Making policy that improves accessibility and ease of vaccination would make a big difference for the unvaccinated and partially vaccinated alike.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m816kc">
But until the country’s vaccine data improves, finding the people to target with those efforts will be challenging — and omicron is raising the stakes of these failures.
</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>Vishnu and Sijomon fashion Kerala’s sensational win</strong> - Their record unbroken 174-run partnership helps the team stun Maharashtra</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Australian Piastri wins F2 title but must wait for F1 seat</strong> - Piastri, who has built up an unsurpassable 57.5 point lead after five wins and five pole positions, won the Formula Three title at the first attempt last year and the Formula Renault EuroCup in 2019</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>Vijay Hazare Trophy | Samarth guides Karnataka home</strong> - Tamil Nadu defeats Bengal by 146 runs to notch up its third successive win</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>ISL 2021 | Koman saves Chennaiyin’s blushes</strong> - His superb strike helps team share honours with ATK MB</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>Manchester City stays on top</strong> - Sterling netted from the spot in the second half</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>News Analysis | Sedition: CJI’s observations in July show SC has taken judicial notice of misuse</strong> - A 2015 judgment had called for striking down of vague laws which choke free speech and shackle personal liberty</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>‘Kumaraswamy refused offer of support from PM Modi in 2019’</strong> - New biography of Deve Gowda claims offer of a coalition government between the two parties</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>India a country of Hindus, not Hindutvadis: Rahul Gandhi</strong> - A Hindu is one who is not afraid of anyone and embraces everyone, the Congress leader said.</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>Entry for devotees at Meenakshi Temple, only if vaccinated; Screening intensified at Rameswaram</strong> - HR &amp; CE Joint Commissioner Chelladurai said that visitors must possess a copy of vaccination certificate before entering Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple</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>Collector thanks residents of Nanjappa Sathiram in Kattery</strong> - Nilgiris district Collector, S.P. Amrith visited the settlement of Nanjappa Sathiram in Kattery near Coonoor on Saturday to meet residents and thank</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid in Austria: Mass protest in Vienna against measures</strong> - Austria has become the first country in the EU to make vaccinations mandatory, from February.</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>UK warns Russia of consequences if Ukraine invaded</strong> - The foreign secretary says G7 ministers will warn Moscow such action would be a “strategic mistake”.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spanish floods claim first victim as towns are engulfed</strong> - At least one person died when rivers burst their banks in northern Spain.</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>Swedish artist Anna von Hausswolff gives secret gig after Satanic slur</strong> - Two of Anna von Hausswolff’s French gigs were cancelled under pressure from fundamentalist Catholics.</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>Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules</strong> - Judges are reassured by US promises to reduce the risk of the Wikileaks founder taking his own life.</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>Defending quantum chess champion takes the title again in 2021 tournament</strong> - AWS’ Aleksander Kubica defeated Seneca Meeks from Google Quantum AI in the final match - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819918">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The weekend’s best deals: Apple’s newest AirPods, Google’s Pixel 5a, and more</strong> - Dealmaster also has discounts on 4K TVs, Apple gift cards, and tons of video games. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819540">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vivaldi 5.0 makes web browsing on Android tablets fun again</strong> - The latest version greatly improves surfing on larger mobile screens. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819584">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rumbleverse adds a melee twist to the battle royale</strong> - Unleash elbow drops and dropkicks as you leap across streets and scale rooftops. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819574">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mary, Queen of Scots, sealed her final missive with an intricate spiral letterlock</strong> - Catherine de’ Medici and Elizabeth I also secured some letters with spiral locks. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819350">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A guy goes to the supermarket and notices an attractive woman waving at him. She says hello. He’s rather taken aback because he can’t place where he knows her from</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So he says, “Do you know me?” To which she replies, “I think you’re the father of one of my kids.” Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife and says, “My God, are you the stripper from my bachelor party that I made love to on the pool table with all my buddies watching while your partner whipped my butt with wet celery?” She looks into his eyes and says calmly, “No, I’m your son’s teacher.”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Toothpik556"> /u/Toothpik556 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/refwt4/a_guy_goes_to_the_supermarket_and_notices_an/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/refwt4/a_guy_goes_to_the_supermarket_and_notices_an/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
-Emo Philips
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/messypawprints"> /u/messypawprints </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/re21hk/once_i_saw_this_guy_on_a_bridge_about_to_jump_i/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/re21hk/once_i_saw_this_guy_on_a_bridge_about_to_jump_i/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The cheating wife</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A guy thought his wife was cheating on him. So he waited for her to leave that night and jumped in a cab to follow her. By following her he found out she was working in a whorehouse. The guy says to the cab driver, “Wanna make a $100?” The cab driver says, “Sure, what do I have to do?”. The guy replied that all the cab driver has to do was go inside the whorehouse and grab his wife and put her in the back of the cab and take them home. So the cab driver goes in. A couple of minutes later the whore house gets kicked open, and the cab driver is dragging this woman out who is kicking, biting, punching, and fighting all the way to the cab. The cab driver opens the door to the cab, throws the girl inside, and tells the man, “Here, hold her!!” The man looks down at the girl and says to the cab driver, “THIS AIN’T MY WIFE”. The cab driver replied, “I KNOW, IT’S MINE; I’M GOING BACK IN FOR YOURS!!”.
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Icy_Debate_9878"> /u/Icy_Debate_9878 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/re7nu7/the_cheating_wife/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/re7nu7/the_cheating_wife/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Duck walks into a pub…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A duck walks into a pub and orders a beer and a ham sandwich.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The barman looks at him and says, “But you’re a duck”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I see your eyes are working”, replies the duck.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“And you talk!” exclaims the barman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I see your ears are working”, says the duck, now can I have my beer and my sandwich please?"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Certainly”, says the barman, “sorry about that, it’s just we don’t get many ducks in this pub. What are you doing round this way?”.
</p>
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“I’m working on the building site across the road”explains the duck.
</p>
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Then the duck drinks his beer, eats his sandwich and leaves. This continues for 2 weeks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then one day the circus comes to town.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Ringleader of the circus comes into the pub and the barman says to him, “You’re with the circus aren’t you?, I know this duck that would be just brilliant in your circus, he talks, drinks beer and everything!”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Sounds marvellous”, says the ringleader, “get him to give me a call”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So the next day when the duck comes into the pub the barman says, “Hey Mr Duck, I reckon I can line you up with a top job, paying really good money!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yeah?”, says the duck, “Sounds great, where is it?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“At the circus”, says the barman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“The circus?” the duck enquires.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“That’s right”, replies the barman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“The circus?” the duck asks again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes” says the barman
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“That place with the big tent?” the duck enquires.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yeah” the barman replies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“With all the animals?” the duck questioned.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Of Course” the barman replies.
</p>
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“With the big canvas roof with the hole in the middle”, asks the duck
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“That’s right!” says the barman
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The duck looks confused.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"What the f*ck would they want with a plasterer?"……😂😂😂
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MH-S3D"> /u/MH-S3D </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rdz081/duck_walks_into_a_pub/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rdz081/duck_walks_into_a_pub/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I don’t understand why incels are so upset all the time.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Seriously, they’re mad about fucking nothing.
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yatterer"> /u/yatterer </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ree4wl/i_dont_understand_why_incels_are_so_upset_all_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ree4wl/i_dont_understand_why_incels_are_so_upset_all_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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