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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp3 Papain-like Protease</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as the biggest life-threatening disease of this century. Whilst vaccination should provide a long-term solution, this is pitted against the constant threat of mutations in the virus rendering the current vaccines less effective. Consequently, small molecule antiviral agents would be extremely useful to complement the vaccination program. The causative agent of COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which encodes at least nine enzymatic activities that all have drug targeting potential. The papain-like protease (PLpro) contained in the nsp3 protein generates viral non-structural proteins from a polyprotein precursor, and cleaves ubiquitin and ISG protein conjugates. Here we describe the expression and purification of PLpro. We developed a protease assay that was used to screen a custom chemical library from which we identified Dihydrotanshinone I and Ro 08-2750 as compounds that inhibit PLpro in protease and isopeptidase assays and also inhibit viral replication in cell culture-based assays.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438804v1" target="_blank">Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp3 Papain-like Protease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of nsp5 Main Protease</strong> -
<div>
The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), spread around the world with unprecedented health and socio-economic effects for the global population. While different vaccines are now being made available, very few antiviral drugs have been approved. The main viral protease (nsp5) of SARS-CoV-2 provides an excellent target for antivirals, due to its essential and conserved function in the viral replication cycle. We have expressed, purified and developed assays for nsp5 protease activity. We screened the nsp5 protease against a custom chemical library of over 5,000 characterised pharmaceuticals. We identified calpain inhibitor I and three different peptidyl fluoromethylketones (FMK) as inhibitors of nsp5 activity in vitro, with IC50 values in the low micromolar range. By altering the sequence of our peptidomimetic FMK inhibitors to better mimic the substrate sequence of nsp5, we generated an inhibitor with a subnanomolar IC50. Calpain inhibitor I inhibited viral infection in monkey-derived Vero E6 cells, with an EC50 in the low micromolar range. The most potent and commercially available peptidyl-FMK compound inhibited viral growth in Vero E6 cells to some extent, while our custom peptidyl FMK inhibitor offered a marked antiviral improvement.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438806v1" target="_blank">Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of nsp5 Main Protease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp12/7/8 RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase</strong> -
<div>
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic has turned into the largest public health and economic crisis in recent history impacting virtually all sectors of society. There is a need for effective therapeutics to battle the ongoing pandemic. Repurposing existing drugs with known pharmacological safety profiles is a fast and cost-effective approach to identify novel treatments. The COVID-19 etiologic agent is the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus. Coronaviruses rely on the enzymatic activity of the replication-transcription complex (RTC) to multiply inside host cells. The RTC core catalytic component is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) holoenzyme. The RdRp is one of the key druggable targets for CoVs due to its essential role in viral replication, high degree of sequence and structural conservation and the lack of homologs in human cells. Here, we have expressed, purified and biochemically characterised active SARS-CoV-2 RdRp complexes. We developed a novel fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based strand displacement assay for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 RdRp activity suitable for a high-throughput format. As part of a larger research project to identify inhibitors for all the enzymatic activities encoded by SARS-CoV-2, we used this assay to screen a custom chemical library of over 5000 approved and investigational compounds for novel SARS-CoV-2 RdRp inhibitors. We identified 3 novel compounds (GSK-650394, C646 and BH3I-1) and confirmed suramin and suramin-like compounds as in vitro SARS-CoV-2 RdRp activity inhibitors. We also characterised the antiviral efficacy of these drugs in cell-based assays that we developed to monitor SARS-CoV-2 growth.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438807v1" target="_blank">Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp12/7/8 RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp13 Helicase</strong> -
<div>
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global public health challenge. While the efficacy of vaccines against emerging and future virus variants remains unclear, there is a need for therapeutics. Repurposing existing drugs represents a promising and potentially rapid opportunity to find novel antivirals against SARS-CoV-2. The virus encodes at least nine enzymatic activities that are potential drug targets. Here we have expressed, purified and developed enzymatic assays for SARS-CoV-2 nsp13 helicase, a viral replication protein that is essential for the coronavirus life cycle. We screened a custom chemical library of over 5000 previously characterised pharmaceuticals for nsp13 inhibitors using a FRET-based high-throughput screening (HTS) approach. From this, we have identified FPA-124 and several suramin-related compounds as novel inhibitors of nsp13 helicase activity in vitro. We describe the efficacy of these drugs using assays we developed to monitor SARS-CoV-2 growth in Vero E6 cells.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438808v1" target="_blank">Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp13 Helicase</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of the nsp14 RNA Cap Methyltransferase</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented itself as one of the most critical public health challenges of the century, with SARS-CoV-2 being the third member of the Coronaviridae family to cause fatal disease in humans. There is currently only one antiviral compound, remdesivir, that can be used for the treatment of COVID-19. In order to identify additional potential therapeutics, we investigated the enzymatic proteins encoded in the SARS-CoV-2 genome. In this study, we focussed on the viral RNA cap methyltransferases, which play a key role in enabling viral protein translation and facilitating viral escape from the immune system. We expressed and purified both the guanine-N7 methyltransferase nsp14, and the nsp16 2-O-methyltransferase with its activating cofactor, nsp10. We performed an in vitro high-throughput screen for inhibitors of nsp14 using a custom compound library of over 5,000 pharmaceutical compounds that have previously been characterised in either clinical or basic research. We identified 4 compounds as potential inhibitors of nsp14, all of which also show antiviral capacity in a cell based model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Three of the 4 compounds also exhibited synergistic effects on viral replication with remdesivir.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438810v1" target="_blank">Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of the nsp14 RNA Cap Methyltransferase</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp15 Endoribonuclease</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for COVID-19, a human disease that has caused over 2 million deaths, stretched health systems to near-breaking point and endangered the economies of countries and families around the world. Antiviral treatments to combat COVID-19 are currently lacking. Remdesivir, the only antiviral drug approved for the treatment of COVID-19, can affect disease severity, but better treatments are needed. SARS-CoV-2 encodes 16 non-structural proteins (nsp) that possess different enzymatic activities with important roles in viral genome replication, transcription and host immune evasion. One key aspect of host immune evasion is performed by the uridine-directed endoribonuclease activity of nsp15. Here we describe the expression and purification of nsp15 recombinant protein. We have developed biochemical assays to follow its activity, and we have found evidence for allosteric behaviour. We screened a custom chemical library of over 5000 compounds to identify nsp15 endoribonuclease inhibitors, and we identified and validated NSC95397 as an inhibitor of nsp15 endoribonuclease in vitro. Although NSC95397 did not inhibit SARS-CoV-2 growth in VERO E6 cells, further studies will be required to determine the effect of nsp15 inhibition on host immune evasion.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438811v1" target="_blank">Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp15 Endoribonuclease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp14/nsp10 Exoribonuclease</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that emerged in 2019 and rapidly spread across the world causing a deadly pandemic with tremendous social and economic costs. Healthcare systems worldwide are under great pressure, and there is urgent need for effective antiviral treatments. The only currently approved antiviral treatment for COVID-19 is remdesivir, an inhibitor of viral genome replication. SARS-CoV-2 proliferation relies on the enzymatic activities of the non-structural proteins (nsp), which makes them interesting targets for the development of new antiviral treatments. With the aim to identify novel SARS-CoV-2 antivirals, we have purified the exoribonuclease/methyltransferase (nsp14) and its cofactor (nsp10) and developed biochemical assays compatible with high-throughput approaches to screen for exoribonuclease inhibitors. We have screened a library of over 5000 commercial compounds and identified patulin and aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) as inhibitors of nsp14 exoribonuclease in vitro. We found that patulin and ATA inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2 in a VERO E6 cell-culture model. These two new antiviral compounds will be valuable tools for further coronavirus research as well as potentially contributing to new therapeutic opportunities for COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438812v1" target="_blank">Identifying SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Compounds by Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nsp14/nsp10 Exoribonuclease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>TMPRSS2 and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase are effective targets of therapeutic intervention for treatment of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 variants (B.1.1.7 and B.1.351)</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 is a causative agent of COVID-19 pandemic and the development of therapeutic interventions is urgently needed. So far, monoclonal antibodies and drug repositioning are the main methods for drug development and this effort was partially successful. Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has been reported in many parts of the world and the main concern is whether the current vaccines and therapeutics are still effective against these variant viruses. The viral entry and viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) are the main targets of current drug development, thus the inhibitory effects of TMPRSS2 and RdRp inhibitors were compared among the early SARS-CoV-2 isolate (lineage A) and the two recent variants (lineage B.1.1.7 and lineage B.1.351) identified in the UK and South Africa, respectively. Our in vitro analysis of viral replication showed that the drugs targeting TMPRSS2 and RdRp are equally effective against the two variants of concern.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.438540v1" target="_blank">TMPRSS2 and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase are effective targets of therapeutic intervention for treatment of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 variants (B.1.1.7 and B.1.351)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain that maximize breadth and resistance to viral escape</strong> -
<div>
An ideal anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody would resist viral escape, have activity against diverse SARS-related coronaviruses, and be highly protective through viral neutralization and effector functions. Understanding how these properties relate to each other and vary across epitopes would aid development of antibody therapeutics and guide vaccine design. Here, we comprehensively characterize escape, breadth, and potency across a panel of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies targeting the receptor-binding domain (RBD), including S309, the parental antibody of the late-stage clinical antibody VIR-7831. We observe a tradeoff between SARS-CoV-2 in vitro neutralization potency and breadth of binding across SARS-related coronaviruses. Nevertheless, we identify several neutralizing antibodies with exceptional breadth and resistance to escape, including a new antibody (S2H97) that binds with high affinity to all SARS-related coronavirus clades via a unique RBD epitope centered on residue E516. S2H97 and other escape-resistant antibodies have high binding affinity and target functionally constrained RBD residues. We find that antibodies targeting the ACE2 receptor binding motif (RBM) typically have poor breadth and are readily escaped by mutations despite high neutralization potency, but we identify one potent RBM antibody (S2E12) with breadth across sarbecoviruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 and with a high barrier to viral escape. These data highlight functional diversity among antibodies targeting the RBD and identify epitopes and features to prioritize for antibody and vaccine development against the current and potential future pandemics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.438709v1" target="_blank">Antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain that maximize breadth and resistance to viral escape</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Functional evaluation of proteolytic activation for the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7: role of the P681H mutation</strong> -
<div>
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the agent behind the current COVID-19 pandemic having emerged in Wuhan China in late 2019 from a yet to be determined animal reservoir. SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7, a variant identified in the UK in late 2020, contains a higher than typical level of point mutants across its genome, including P681H in the spike S1/S2 cleavage site. Here, we performed assays using fluorogenic peptides mimicking the S1/S2 sequence from Wuhan-Hu1 and B.1.1.7 and observed no definitive difference in furin cleavage between Wuhan-Hu1 and B.1.1.7 in vitro. We performed functional assays using pseudo-typed particles harboring SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins and observed no significant differences between Wuhan-Hu1, Wuhan-Hu1 P681H or B.1.1.7 spike-carrying pseudo-typed particles in VeroE6 or Vero-TMPRSS2 cells, despite the spikes containing P681H being more efficiently cleaved. Likewise, we or show no differences in cell-cell fusion assays using the spike P681H-expressing cells. Our findings suggest that while the introduction of P681H in the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant may increase spike cleavage by furin-like proteases, this does not significantly impact viral entry or cell-cell spread. We consider that other factors are at play to account for the increased in transmission and disease severity attributed to this variant of concern (VOC).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.438731v1" target="_blank">Functional evaluation of proteolytic activation for the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7: role of the P681H mutation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparable environmental stability and disinfection profiles of the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern B.1.1.7 and B.1.351</strong> -
<div>
The emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants of concern with increased transmission dynamics has raised questions regarding stability and disinfection of these viruses. In this study, we analyzed surface stability and disinfection of the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 compared to the wildtype. Treatment with heat, soap and ethanol revealed similar inactivation profiles indicative of a comparable susceptibility towards disinfection. Furthermore, we observed comparable surface stability on steel, silver, copper and face masks. Overall, our data support the application of currently recommended hygiene concepts to minimize the risk of B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 transmission.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438820v1" target="_blank">Comparable environmental stability and disinfection profiles of the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern B.1.1.7 and B.1.351</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Syrian hamster model causes inflammation as well as type I interferon dysregulation in both respiratory and non-respiratory tissues including the heart and kidney</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) caused SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) infection is a disease affecting several organ systems. A model that captures all clinical symptoms of COVID-19 as well as long-haulers disease is needed. We investigated the host responses associated with infection in several major organ systems including the respiratory tract, the heart, and the kidneys after SARS-CoV-2 infection in Syrian hamsters. We found significant increases in inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-1beta, and TNF) and type II interferons whereas type I interferons were inhibited. Examination of extrapulmonary tissue indicated inflammation in the kidney, liver, and heart which also lacked type I interferon upregulation. Histologically, the heart had evidence of mycarditis and microthrombi while the kidney had tubular inflammation. These results give insight into the multiorgan disease experienced by people with COVID-19 and possibly the prolonged disease in people with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438843v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Syrian hamster model causes inflammation as well as type I interferon dysregulation in both respiratory and non-respiratory tissues including the heart and kidney</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Health Protocol Sanctions in Sorong Mayor Regulation Number 17 of 2020</strong> -
<div>
This study aims to analyze the legal sanctions for public health protocols in Article 7 of Sorong Mayor’s Regulation Number 17 of 2020. The type of research used in this study is a type of juridical normative research which is analyzed qualitatively with a statutory approach. The results of this study indicate that the sanctions in the form of monetary fines as stipulated in Article 7 paragraph (2) letter a do not have a firm legal basis, and tend to have the potential to disrupt economic activities to improve people’s welfare, especially in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/3hxgr/" target="_blank">Health Protocol Sanctions in Sorong Mayor Regulation Number 17 of 2020</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Network meta-analysis of interventions to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The evidence on the relative ranking of effectiveness measures to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 spread from person to person is crucial for policy decision making. We have conducted the network meta-analysis by extending recent meta-analysis to delineate the relative effectiveness of different preventive measures. We observed properly used N95 respirator provides the best protection against SARS-CoV-2 in overall as well as healthcare set-up. In community settings, social distancing offers the best risk reduction against SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/zwtgq/" target="_blank">Network meta-analysis of interventions to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gastrointestinal infection trends in England, February - July 2020</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective: To establish the impact of the first six months of the COVID-19 outbreak response of gastrointestinal (GI) infection trends in England. Design: Retrospective ecological study using routinely collected national and regional surveillance data from eight Public Health England coordinated laboratory, outbreak and syndromic surveillance systems using key dates of UK governmental policy change to assign phases for comparison between 2020 and historic data. Results: Decreases in GI illness activity were observed across all surveillance indicators as COVID-19 cases began to peak. Compared to the 5-year average (2015-2019), during the first six months of the COVD-19 response, there was a 52% decrease in GI outbreaks reported (1,544 vs. 3,208 (95% CI: 2,938 - 3,478) and a 34% decrease in laboratory confirmed cases (27,859 vs. 42,495 (95% CI: 40,068 - 44,922). GI indicators began to rise during the first lockdown and lockdown easing, although all remained substantially lower than historic figures. Reductions in laboratory confirmed cases were observed across all age groups and both sexes, with geographical heterogeneity observed in diagnosis trends. Health seeking behaviour changed substantially, with attendances decreasing prior to lockdown across all indicators. Conclusions: There has been a marked change in trends of GI infections in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The drivers of this change are likely to be multifactorial; while changes in health seeking behaviour, pressure on diagnostic services and surveillance system ascertainment have undoubtably played a role there has likely been a true decrease in the incidence for some pathogens resulting from the control measures and restrictions implemented. This suggests that if some of these changes in behaviour such as improved hand hygiene were maintained, then we could potentially see sustained reductions in the burden of GI illness.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.21254174v1" target="_blank">The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gastrointestinal infection trends in England, February - July 2020</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy, Immunogenicity and Safety of Inactivated ERUCOV-VAC Compared With Placebo in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: ERUCOV-VAC 3 µg/0.5 ml Vaccine;   Biological: ERUCOV-VAC 6 µg/0.5 ml Vaccine;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Health Institutes of Turkey;   Erciyes University Scientific Research Projects Coordination<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Nurse-Community Health Worker-Family Partnership Model: Addressing Uptake of COVID-19 Testing and Control Measures</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Nurse-Community-Family Partnership Intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   New York University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Dose Finding, Efficacy and Safety Study of Ensovibep (MP0420) in Ambulatory Adult Patients With Symptomatic COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ensovibep;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Molecular Partners AG;   Novartis Pharmaceuticals;   Iqvia Pty Ltd;   Datamap;   SYNLAB Analytics &amp; Services Switzerland AG;   Q2 Solutions<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 the Inactivated Koçak-19 Inaktif Adjuvanlı COVID-19 Vaccine Compared to Placebo</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccine<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Koçak-19 Inaktif Adjuvanlı COVID-19 Vaccine 4 µg/0.5 ml Vaccine;   Biological: Koçak-19 Inaktif Adjuvanlı COVID-19 Vaccine 6 µg/0.5 ml Vaccine;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Kocak Farma<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 on Sequential Immunization of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Ad5 Vector) and RBD-based Protein Subunit Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: recombinant Ad5 vectored COVID-19 vaccine;   Biological: RBD-based protein subunit vaccine (ZF2001) against COVID-19;   Biological: trivalent split influenza vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<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>Omega-3 Oil Use in COVID-19 Patients in Qatar</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Omega 3 fatty acid<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hamad Medical Corporation<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Test BI 767551 in People With Mild to Moderate Symptoms of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: BI 767551 intravenous;   Drug: BI 767551 inhaled;   Drug: Placebo intravenous;   Drug: Placebo inhaled<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Boehringer Ingelheim<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>Tele-rehabilitation Program After Hospitalization for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: TR;   Other: TSu<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA;   Istituto Auxologico Italiano<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>The Effects of Web-Based Training for Covid-19 Patients on Symptom Management, Medication Compliance and Quality of Life</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: intervention group<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Eskisehir Osmangazi University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ENO Breathe vs Usual Care in COVID-19 Recovery: An RCT</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Recovery<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: ENO Breathe group<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Imperial College London;   Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust<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>SERUR: COVID-19 Serological Survey of Staff From the University Reims-Champagne Ardennes</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Anti-SARS-CoV2 Serology<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of a Lyophilized Formulation of BNT162b2 Against COVID-19 in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: BNT162b2<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioNTech SE;   Pfizer<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>Rehabilitation for Patients With Persistent Symptoms Post COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Concentrated rehabilitation for patients with persistent symptoms post COVID-19<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Western Norway University of Applied Sciences;   Helse-Bergen HF<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 DS-5670a (COVID-19 Vaccine) in Japanese Healthy Adults and Elderly Subjects</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: DS-5670a;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of an RNA Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19 in Healthy Children &lt;12 Years of Age</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection, COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Biological/Vaccine: BNT162b2 10mcg;   Biological: BNT162b2 20mcg;   Biological: BNT162b2 30mcg<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioNTech SE;   Pfizer<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ORF10-Cullin-2-ZYG11B complex is not required for SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - In order to understand the transmission and virulence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), it is necessary to understand the functions of each of the gene products encoded in the viral genome. One feature of the SARS-CoV-2 genome that is not present in related, common coronaviruses is ORF10, a putative 38-amino acid protein-coding gene. Proteomic studies found that ORF10 binds to an E3 ubiquitin ligase containing Cullin-2, Rbx1, Elongin B, Elongin C, and ZYG11B…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 drives JAK1/2-dependent local complement hyperactivation</strong> - Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) present a wide range of acute clinical manifestations affecting the lungs, liver, kidneys and gut. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) 2, the best-characterized entry receptor for the disease-causing virus SARS-CoV-2, is highly expressed in the aforementioned tissues. However, the pathways that underlie the disease are still poorly understood. Here, we unexpectedly found that the complement system was one of the intracellular pathways most highly…</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>Drugs that inhibit TMEM16 proteins block SARS-CoV-2 Spike-induced syncytia</strong> - COVID-19 is a disease with unique characteristics including lung thrombosis¹, frequent diarrhoea², abnormal activation of the inflammatory response³ and rapid deterioration of lung function consistent with alveolar oedema⁴. The pathological substrate for these findings remains elusive. Here we show that the lungs of patients with COVID-19 contain infected pneumocytes with abnormal morphology and frequent multinucleation. Generation of these syncytia results from activation of the SARS-CoV-2…</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>Identification of doxorubicin as a potential therapeutic against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) protease: a molecular docking and dynamics simulation studies</strong> - After one year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is still the largest concern for the scientific community. Of the many recognized drug targets of SARS-CoV-2, the main protease is one of the most important target due to its function in viral replication. We conducted an in silico study with repurposing drugs of antibiotics class against virus protease and peptidase using AutoDock tool. The following significant binding energy interaction was observed with protease (PDB: 6LU7) like…</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>Biomarkers of coagulation, endothelial function and fibrinolysis in critically-ill patients with COVID-19: A single-centre prospective longitudinal study</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Longitudinal trajectories of clot lysis time, sTM, PAI-1, and plasminogen may have predictive ability for mortality in COVID-19.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Evaluation of Ravulizumab in Adults with Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019</strong> - CONCLUSION: High levels of baseline C5 observed in patients with severe COVID-19 contribute to the growing body of evidence that suggests this disease is marked by amplification of terminal complement activation. Data from this preliminary pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic evaluation of 22 patients with severe COVID-19 show that the modified ravulizumab dosing regimen achieved immediate and complete terminal complement inhibition, which can be sustained for up to 22 days. These data support 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>Drug synergy of combinatory treatment with remdesivir and the repurposed drugs fluoxetine and itraconazole effectively impairs SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro</strong> - CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Itraconazole-remdesivir and fluoxetine-remdesivir combinations are promising starting points for therapeutic options to control SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe progression of COVID-19.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vitamin D is a potential inhibitor of COVID-19: In silico molecular docking to the binding site of SARS-CoV-2 endoribonuclease Nsp15</strong> - Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a pandemic threat to public health. Vaccines and targeted therapeutics to prevent infections and stop virus proliferation are currently lacking. Endoribonuclease Nsp15 plays a vital role in the life cycle, including replication and transcription as well as virulence of the virus. Here, we investigated Vitamin D for its in silico potential inhibition of the binding sites of SARS-CoV-2 endoribonuclease Nsp15. In this study, we selected Remdesivir,…</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>Virtual high throughput screening: Potential Inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 PL(PRO) and 3CL(PRO) Proteases</strong> - The pandemic, COVID-19, has spread worldwide and affected millions of people. There is an urgent need, therefore, to find a proper treatment for the novel coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent. This paper focuses on identifying inhibitors that target SARS-CoV-2 proteases, PL^(PRO) and 3CL^(PRO), which control the duplication and manages the life cycle of SARS-CoV-2. We have carried out detailed in silico Virtual high-throughput screening…</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>Evidence that Maackia amurensis seed lectin (MASL) exerts pleiotropic actions on oral squamous cells with potential to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease progression</strong> - COVID-19 was declared an international public health emergency in January, and a pandemic in March of 2020. There are over 23 million confirmed COVID-19 cases that have cause over 800 thousand deaths worldwide as of August 19th, 2020. COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS-CoV-2 presents a surface “spike” protein that binds to the ACE2 receptor to infect host cells. In addition to the respiratory tract, SARS-Cov-2 can also infect cells of the oral mucosa, which also express the ACE2…</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 novel anti-human IL-1R7 antibody reduces IL-18-mediated inflammatory signaling</strong> - Unchecked inflammation can result in severe diseases with high mortality, such as macrophage activation syndrome (MAS). MAS and associated cytokine storms have been observed in COVID-19 patients exhibiting systemic hyper-inflammation. Interleukin-18 (IL-18), a proinflammatory cytokine belonging to the IL-1 family, is elevated in both MAS and COVID-19 patients, and its level is known to correlate with the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. IL-18 binds its specific receptor IL-1 Receptor 5 (IL-1R5,…</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>Silibinin as potential tool against SARS-Cov-2: In silico spike receptor-binding domain and main protease molecular docking analysis, and in vitro endothelial protective effects</strong> - The spread of SARS-CoV-2, along with the lack of targeted medicaments, encouraged research of existing drugs for repurposing. The rapid response to SARS-CoV-2 infection comprises a complex interaction of cytokine storm, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, and pathologic coagulation. Thus, active molecules targeting multiple steps in SARS-CoV-2 lifecycle are highly wanted. Herein we explored the in silico capability of silibinin from Silybum marianum to interact with the SARS-CoV-2 main target…</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>Reply letter to: Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication using calcineurin inhibitors: Are concentrations required clinically achievable?</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>Analysis of glycosylation and disulfide bonding of wild-type SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the etiologic agent of COVID-19, uses its spike (S) glycoprotein anchored in the viral membrane to enter host cells. The S glycoprotein is the major target for neutralizing antibodies elicited by natural infection and by vaccines. Approximately 35% of the SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein consists of carbohydrate, which can influence virus infectivity and susceptibility to antibody inhibition. We found that virus-like particles produced by coexpression of SARS-CoV-2 S, M, 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>Coagulation factors directly cleave SARS-CoV-2 spike and enhance viral entry</strong> - Coagulopathy is recognized as a significant aspect of morbidity in COVID-19 patients. The clotting cascade is propagated by a series of proteases, including factor Xa and thrombin. Other host proteases, including TMPRSS2, are recognized to be important for cleavage activation of SARS-CoV-2 spike to promote viral entry. Using biochemical and cell-based assays, we demonstrate that factor Xa and thrombin can also directly cleave SARS-CoV-2 spike, enhancing viral entry. A drug-repurposing screen…</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>5-(4-TERT-BUTOXY PHENYL)-3-(4N-OCTYLOXYPHENYL)-4,5-DIHYDROISOXAZOLE MOLECULE (C-I): A PROMISING DRUG FOR SARS-COV-2 (TARGET I) AND BLOOD CANCER (TARGET II)</strong> - The present invention relates to a method ofmolecular docking of crystalline compound (C-I) with SARS-COV 2 proteins and its repurposing with proteins of blood cancer, comprising the steps of ; employing an algorithmto carry molecular docking calculations of the crystalized compound (C-I); studying the compound computationally to understand the effect of binding groups with the atoms of the amino acids on at least four target proteins of SARS-COV 2; downloading the structure of the proteins; removing water molecules, co enzymes and inhibitors attached to the enzymes; drawing the structure using Chem Sketch software; converting the mol file into a PDB file; using crystalized compound (C-I) for comparative and drug repurposing with two other mutated proteins; docking compound into the groove of the proteins; saving format of docked molecules retrieved; and filtering and docking the best docked results. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN320884617">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USING CLINICAL ONTOLOGIES TO BUILD KNOWLEDGE BASED CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) WITH THE ADOPTION OF TELECONFERENCING FOR THE PRIMARY HEALTH CENTRES/SATELLITE CLINICS OF ROYAL OMAN POLICE IN SULTANATE OF OMAN</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU320796026">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Peptides and their use in diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU319943278">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL MANAGEMENT OF COVID 19 POSITIVE PATIENTS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU319942709">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IN SILICO SCREENING OF ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL NATURAL COMPOUNDS WITH THE POTENTIAL TO DIRECTLY INHIBIT SARS COV 2</strong> - IN SILICO SCREENING OF ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL NATURAL COMPOUNDS WITH THE POTENTIAL TO DIRECTLY INHIBIT SARS COV 2Insilico screening of antimycobacterial natural compounds with the potential to directly inhibit SARS COV2 relates to the composition for treating SARS-COV-2 comprising the composition is about 0.1 – 99% and other pharmaceutically acceptable excipients. The composition also treats treating SARS, Ebola, Hepatitis-B and Hepatitis–C comprising the composition is about 0.1 – 99% and other pharmaceutically acceptable excipients. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN320777840">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种用于检测新型冠状病毒COVID-19的引物组及试剂盒</strong> - 本发明涉及生物技术领域，特别是涉及一种用于检测冠状病毒的引物组及试剂盒，所述引物组包括以下中的一对或多对：外侧引物对：所述外侧引物对包括如SEQ ID NO:1所示的上游引物F3和如SEQ ID NO:2所示的下游引物B3；内侧引物对：所述内侧引物对包括如SEQ ID NO:3所示的上游引物FIP和如SEQ ID NO:4所示的下游引物BIP；环引物对：所述环引物对包括如SEQ ID NO:5所示的上游引物LF和如SEQ ID NO:6所示的下游引物LB。试剂盒包括所述引物组。本发明在一个管中整合了RT‑LAMP和CRISPR，能依据两次颜色变化检测病毒和各种靶标核酸。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN321132047">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>新冠病毒中和性抗体检测试剂盒</strong> - 本发明提供一种新冠病毒中和性抗体检测试剂盒。所述试剂盒基于BAS‑HTRF技术，主要包含：生物素标记的hACE2、新冠病毒棘突蛋白RBD‑Tag1、能量供体Streptavidin‑Eu cryptate、能量受体MAb Anti‑Tag1‑d2和新冠病毒中和性抗体。本发明将BAS和HTRF两种技术相结合，用于筛选新型冠状病毒中和性抗体，3小时内即可实现筛选，且操作简单，无需经过多次洗板过程。BAS和HTRF联用大大提升了反应灵敏度，且两种体系都能最大限度地减少非特异的干扰，适用于血清样品的检测。该方法可实现高通量检测，对解决大批量样品的新冠病毒中和性抗体的检测具有重要意义。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN321131958">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Infektionsschutzmaske</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Infektionsschutzmaske (1) zum Schutz vor Übertragung von Infektionskrankheiten mit einer Außen - und einer Innenseite (2,3) sowie Haltemitteln (5) zum Befestigen der Infektionsschutzmaske (1) am Kopf eines Maskenträgers, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass an der Infektionsschutzmaske (1) mindestens eine Testoberfläche (6) zum Nachweis von Auslösern einer Infektionskrankheit derart angeordnet ist, dass diese bei korrekt angelegter Infektionsschutzmaske (1) mit der Ausatemluft des Maskenträgers unmittelbar in Kontakt gelangt.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE321222652">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sars-CoV-2 vaccine antigens</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318283136">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-COV-2 BINDING PROTEINS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318004130">link</a></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Finally, Green Infrastructure Spending in an Amount That Starts with a “T”</strong> - But is it enough? And how would we know if it were? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/finally-green-infrastructure-spending-in-an-amount-that-starts-with-a-t">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Meaning of the Democrats’ Spending Spree</strong> - Do President Biden’s stimulus and infrastructure bills represent a moment of political expedience, or a more permanent change? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/have-the-democrats-begun-a-new-era-of-big-government">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sweden’s Pandemic Experiment</strong> - When the coronavirus arrived, the country decided not to implement lockdowns or recommend masks. How has it fared? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/swedens-pandemic-experiment">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Former Obama Official on the “Interlocking Set of Failures” at the Border</strong> - Cecilia Muñoz discusses the Biden Administration’s response to the recent surge of arrivals and how conversations about the border have changed during the past thirty years. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-former-obama-official-on-the-interlocking-set-of-failures-at-the-border">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Can We Continue to Keep Schools Relatively Safe from the Coronavirus?</strong> - Experts warn that any vaccine mandate for educators could backfire. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-can-we-continue-to-keep-schools-relatively-safe-from-the-coronavirus">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The problem with “mom boss” culture</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Illustration of a mom with many arms holding symbolic objects like clothes, money, and a child." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Uyacf5t_blC7wvHsaByq-ivOrJ0=/0x0:6464x4848/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69094482/GettyImages_1290101797.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images/iStockphoto
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mommy blogs and influencers are monetizing the horrible working conditions of motherhood.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QzzrTc">
When I became a mother in 2015, my old life no longer felt relevant. I lost friends; I stepped back from work. I was consumed by the labor of taking care, and I found an odd solace online — a form of recognition — hanging out in mommy forums and on social media.
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I lurked on TheBump’s <a href="https://forums.thebump.com/categories/breastfeeding">breastfeeding boards</a> and the ambivalently political content created by sites like <a href="https://www.scarymommy.com/">Scary Mommy</a>, which reflected the horror and delight of everything I was experiencing. I was taken by the illusion of sisterhood and commiseration online and, not incidentally, by the mothers who answered problems with product. When I dared leave the house for the park or rare mother’s group meetup, women peddled leggings, makeup, belly wraps, oils. Every mother seemed to be in a whole “find what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” mood — a seamless integration between the domestic and the commercial that I found alarming and alluring.
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A year later, former Ralph Lauren CEO Nicole Feliciano articulated the underlying promise of saleswomanship for new mothers in her book <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fw%2Fmomboss-nicole-feliciano%2F1123727633&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fthe-goods%2F22368693%2Fmom-boss-capitalism-scary-mommy" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Mom Boss</em></a>: In the age of social media, she claimed, any woman can “learn how to be a super mom.” In her bio, Feliciano refers to her company Momtrends, which began as a blog in 2007 but now specializes in sponsored content and influencer outreach, as every mom’s business-savvy BFF.
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The <a href="https://www.momtrends.com/page/about">Momtrends website</a> remains, today, similarly chummy: It’s the self-described “girlfriend you always look forward to bumping into at yoga class” (yes, the website is the girlfriend). By way of curated products and entrepreneurial opportunities, the website-friend provides “solutions for the challenges of modern motherhood” for women who want to “live with purpose and passion.” But what it really offers is something that has become central to the story of American motherhood — personal reinvention.
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<q>Every mother seemed to be in a whole “find what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life” mood</q>
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The website-girlfriend says, “Wasn’t it easy before the kids came along? We all managed to look pulled together, travel, stay fit and even entertain on occasion. Well, we don’t believe motherhood is an ending. We think of it as a beginning. A time to edit what you bring into your life.”
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The notion that the ostensibly natural destruction of women under American capitalism is not an ending, but rather just the beginning, is one that has come to dominate the discourse of motherhood.
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Late-2000s mommy bloggers brought an overdue, if disorganized, <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.3138/9781442665231-003/html">correction of the archive</a>, with women sharing stories of maternal discontent all over the internet. For them, motherhood was often a disaster. They depicted everything from their negative feelings about their children to their discomfort with their postpartum bodies. Kathryn Jezer-Morton, a sociologist who has written about the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/parenting/mommy-influencers.html">rise of motherhood culture</a> on social media, <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/online-moms-mommyblogs-instagram.html">calls</a> the early years of the mamasphere “the Confessional Age” and an “emancipation.”
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As with all internet trends, there were issues. Heather Armstrong of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/4/25/18512620/dooce-heather-armstrong-depression-valedictorian-of-being-dead">Dooce</a>, once named “queen of the mommy bloggers,” eventually found herself experiencing treatment-resistant depression. And <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/03/the-rare-disorder-experts-say-drove-lacey-spears-to-murder-her-son-with-salt/">Lacey Spears</a> made the disturbing quest for public power online acute when she poisoned and eventually killed her son with toxic amounts of table salt, the result of what experts have called Munchausen syndrome by proxy (now listed in the DSM-5 as “factitious disorder imposed on another”). She had been chronicling her son’s false illness, and her sacrificial care work, on her blog.
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Mothers quickly learned to monetize their stories, transforming their <em>raw</em> and <em>real</em> platforms into lifestyle brands. By 2015, Jezer-Morton <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/online-moms-mommyblogs-instagram.html">says</a>, following the success of bloggers like Ree Drummond, who became a Food Network brand, and Glennon Doyle, who leveraged her blog, <a href="https://momastery.com/blog/">Momastery</a>, to publish her first memoir, we had entered the “Influencer Age,” with momfluencers like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ohjoy/">Oh Joy</a> and <a href="https://lovetaza.com/">Love Taza</a> depicting “the Insta-perfect life that everyone knows is painstakingly staged, but that we love to follow — and critically dismantle — anyway.”
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Multilevel marketing corporations, which have since the mid-20th century posed as a solution to the boredom and overwhelm of housewifery, also found new footing online in the 2010s. MLMs built their digital mythos around the prospect of power and community, appealing to ordinary mothers who felt alienated from public life by offering up a ready-made digital commons — online communities where new moms could connect, build a life around products, and feel like they belonged again. By 2017, <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/733157/rise-momtrepreneur">more than half</a> of Instagram’s 800 million users were women, and mommy publications were teeming with <a href="https://momhacks101.com/best-side-hustles-for-moms/">listicles</a>, <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/534169205779859502/">memes</a>, and <a href="https://mommyingdifferently.com/successful-mompreneur/?fbclid=IwAR2f_95sTu4MPDhVge3FBpl8wItifBqdm-29epvpgwgGlTkc6ftvdE1RSpg">tips</a> about moms gettin’ that <a href="https://homebusinessmag.com/businesses/gig-economy/8-flexible-side-hustles-women-earn-extra-income/">side hustle</a>, many of which referenced <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/30/18114919/the-dream-jane-marie-mlms">multilevel marketing schemes</a>.
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Large corporate MLMs have since faced <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemcneal/lularoe-settles-washington-state-pyramid-scheme-lawsuit">lawsuits</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/01/anti-mlm-reddit-youtube/617816/">backlash</a>,<strong> </strong>making them less popular,<strong> </strong>though companies like Beachbody — a fitness and nutrition conglomerate that <a href="https://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/us/coach/signup">bills</a> a monthly fee to “coaches” who in turn sell Beachbody shakes and workout products — have <a href="https://time.com/5864712/multilevel-marketing-schemes-coronavirus/">profited off</a> pandemic life, targeting <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2021/02/pandemic-unemployment-multi-level-marketing.html">mothers in particular</a>.
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<q>“The content production of motherhood is still a viable MLM”</q>
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But moms who build businesses online have diversified. Now they helm <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/amp/tag/thebadmomsoftiktok?lang=en">bad mom</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@drunk.moms?lang=en">drunk mom</a> empires on TikTok, create merch lines with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dawsylicious/?hl=en">cheeky phrases</a>, “<a href="https://justchillbabysleep.co.uk/">help families sleep better</a>,” and become <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lynsey_queenofclean/">cleaning experts</a>. As Jezer-Morton told me, while the lure of traditional MLMs may be waning, “the content production of motherhood is still a viable MLM” with moms “creating content and teaching each other to create content.” Moms now sell their ability to sell anything, and they adapt, constantly, to social media functionality. “Anytime that there’s a new platform, there’s going to be this little cottage industry of how-to that can also turn into a low-key MLM,” Jezer-Morton told me. It’s a trend that has led <a href="https://gen.medium.com/motherhood-in-america-is-a-multilevel-marketing-scheme-f4ec1f536b04">some to question</a> whether American motherhood has itself become a multilevel marketing scheme.
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The <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/momtrepreneur/">momtrepreneur</a>, or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/mompreneur/">mompreneur</a>, or more all-encompassing <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/momboss/">momboss</a>, relies on what Jezer-Morton calls the performance of “successful neoliberal selfhood.” These are the obstinate, media-savvy daughters of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-end-of-lean-in-how-sheryl-sandbergs-message-of-empowerment-fully-unraveled/2018/12/19/9561eb06-fe2e-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html"><em>Lean In</em></a>. They live by inspirational stories of women finding a community and a calling, of pushing through what’s tough about working motherhood, playing off the vague “<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/121564/gods-and-profits-how-capitalism-and-christianity-aligned-america">moral therapeutic deism</a>” of American capitalism and the larger <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/opinion/influencers-glennon-doyle-instagram.html">gospel of Instagram</a>. They also sell<em> </em>the prospect of beginning again by positioning free enterprise as a fantastical path toward femme freedom and promising an escape from the isolation and trauma of motherhood under patriarchal capitalism without ever having to speak its name, much less question it as an economic system.
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Lindsay Teague Moreno, one of the essential oil MLM Young Living’s biggest success stories, is now a micro <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lindsayteague/">influencer</a> with a book and podcast, both titled <em>Boss Up</em>. Moreno’s profile serves as an inspo hub for women invested in the fantasy of public power that she represents. Her pre-2020 grid is full of glammed-up anti-entitlement rhetoric: All it takes to succeed, she says, is a little bootstrappin’ in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B0UVVoAnP5x/">the form of</a> putting on your “big girl panties”!
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Her neon, rainbow-colored memes bring surveillance culture to motherhood — <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/By5OPjnHZH7/">one post</a> reads, “Your Kids Are Watching”<em> </em>— and they have a dizzying economic logic. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B06D3ILnrXz/">She quotes</a> <em>Fight Club</em> but also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BxFqhKSH3Ly/">embraces</a> a merit-based pursuit of the dollar, as in, “Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret.”<em> </em>In <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BxuY7NWHt48/">another</a> post, Moreno channels that<strong> </strong>popular phrase some mothers use with kids — “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” — when addressing the gendered wage gap. “Throwing a fit,” she writes in her caption, “won’t help.”
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Empowerment imagined as<em> </em>power, in other words, is often disciplinary.
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Mom bosses harness their power by <a href="https://www.mother.ly/work/10-productivity-tips-to-help-you-unleash-your-inner-mom-boss">bending time</a> or just <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/27/21083527/nanny-ad-ceo-mom-child-care-work">hiring others</a> to care for their kids. They also, therefore, rely on the assumption that mothers’ lives will be devastated by motherhood, but that women should restructure their social, economic, and financial lives accordingly. The larger premise: We can solve the problems of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_division_of_labour">sexual division of labor</a>, the <a href="https://caringlabor.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/silvia-federici-the-reproduction-of-labour-power-in-the-global-economy-marxist-theory-and-the-unfinished-feminist-revolution/">unfinished feminist revolution</a>, and the <a href="https://annehelen.substack.com/p/other-countries-have-social-safety">lack of social services</a> in America by turning to individualism, the market, and work.
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The problem with this thinking is that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/parenting/childcare-history-family.html">antisociality</a>, <a href="https://theestablishment.co/if-not-for-capitalism-would-i-still-have-been-abused/index.html">emotional devastation</a>, <a href="https://inthemiddleofthewhirlwind.wordpress.com/precarious-labor-a-feminist-viewpoint/">job precarity</a>, and the <a href="https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/getting-job-there-motherhood-penalty">motherhood penalty</a>, each compounded by intersections of class, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/02/24/black-moms-facing-the-toughest-childcare-crunch-how-policy-can-help/">race</a>, and <a href="https://www.parents.com/parenting/dynamics/transgender-parents-are-left-out-of-the-parenting-discourseand-the-pandemic-makes-that-abundantly-clear/">gender identity</a>, are not inherent conditions of motherhood; they are the conditions of the ongoing disaster of care in capitalist America. The disempowerment of caregivers, and the suffering that lack of power brings with it, is <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/witch-hunt-class-struggle-women-autonomy">foundational</a> to capitalist economics, which has always relegated women to the home to serve the family, a major economic institution. (For instance, 16th- and 17th-century witch hunts were also disciplinary, targeting women’s contraceptive methods, alternative relations to work, and public power in order to push women into the home — where they could produce laborers.)
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The modern-day American devaluation of sectors like health care and education only provides further evidence that, culturally and economically, we value industry, not care. But this all fades from view under the guise of careerist liberation, where work equals freedom. Instead, failures of American economic and political policy, and the poor working conditions they engender for caregivers, are refashioned as market opportunity — a chance to cultivate resilience, better business sense, and new product markets.
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During the pandemic, some pastoral mommy influencers are facing an <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/a35266612/motherhood-instagram-influencers/">identity crisis</a>, but others have simply mapped the language of the “slay” onto <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7HzuoAH_1a/">anti-Covid-vax</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CNLNuSQBxIO/">anti-mask</a> rhetoric, or they are shilling wellness alongside <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemcneal/qanon-influencers-little-miss-patriot">QAnon rhetoric</a>.<strong> </strong>Momtrepreneurs, on the other hand, claim they <a href="https://twitter.com/EmilyGould/status/1364739355374473219/photo/1">are thriving</a>, with some penning enterprising <a href="https://poppybarley.com/blogs/the-read/survival-tips-from-a-mompreneur-during-a-global-pandemic">tips for survival</a>. Moreno took some time off to lose weight and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCpBG1mHbsz/">travel</a>, and often cites, vaguely, the charged political climate in her Instagram content, including her refusal to “just sit at home and be scared of the world right now” and her <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCEjsSZHWTX/?hl=en">belief</a> that mask-wearing is “not good for our health.”
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Meanwhile, the often apolitical and always aspirational qualities of the mom boss remain all over the wider mythology of motherhood.<strong> </strong>As Katherine Goldstein, creator of <a href="https://www.thedoubleshift.com/"><em>The Double Shift</em></a><em>,</em> a podcast about motherhood, put it in a phone interview, “The baseline narrative about being a mother in America is that every individual mother is fundamentally flawed in some way and the way to get out of it is through life hacks and products.”<strong> </strong>For this reason, one of Goldstein’s least favorite mom slogans is “You got this, mama!”<em> </em>because it sends the message that “whatever’s difficult about motherhood, you just need to try harder or buy your way out of it.”
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Some of this discourse is just blandly encouraging, but other mothers, like those behind <a href="https://biglittlefeelings.com/course/">Big Little Feelings</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/drbeckyathome/">Dr. Becky at Home</a>, have monetized the illusion of “winning” at parenting while acknowledging the work is “tough.” They create “sanity-saving” content and courses that are an attractive mix of mental health and parenting philosophy meant to help mothers accept their perceived failings and tap into their inherent “badassery.”
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<q>“The baseline narrative about being a mother in America is that every individual mother is fundamentally flawed in some way”</q>
</aside>
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You-got-this motherhood, in all its iterations, is, at best, a seriously limited rejoinder to the interconnected problems of patriarchy and capitalism and to the mental health struggles that result from their longstanding collusion. The you-got-this mentality also draws on a broader white corporate feminism. As Alice Bolin writes in <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/10/29/the-corporate-feminism-of-nxivm/">her analysis</a> of the MLM-turned-sex-cult NXIVM/DOS and the ersatz feminist support of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett,<strong> </strong>“The fact that many people cannot differentiate between postfeminist ‘empowerment’ and real feminism is a victory for those forces that have systematically opposed real gender equality.”
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At its worst, you-got-this motherhood sounds an awful lot like a primer on both rape culture and capitalist life. A recent viral Nike campaign, for instance, glorifies the mother as “the toughest athlete” and as “someone who deals with the pain, hits her limit, and pushes past it.” Stamping any product with motherhood (and wellness) offers a moral hue that is akin, as Goldstein put it, to greenwashing. Nike <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/opinion/nike-maternity-leave.html">has used the tactic before</a> to deflect from its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/opinion/allyson-felix-pregnancy-nike.html">treatment of mothers</a> and, as Sara Berliner of <a href="https://votelikeamother.org/">Vote Like a Mother</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CMddH5kHzb8/?igshid=1uysuhc1okmjj">noted</a>, its practice of “making billions off our sisters working for subsistence wages in poor conditions at their factories abroad.” In this light, the ad was generally not well received, but<strong> </strong>many <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/this-nike-maternity-ad-featuring-pregnant-and-breastfeeding-athletes-is-so-empowering">still rallied</a> behind the imagery in the commercial — and that narrative of women “pushing, pushing, pushing.” But is this, really, the story of motherhood we want to promote?
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As Naomi Klein writes in <em>The Shock Doctrine</em>, capitalism feeds on periods of shock by “exploiting the window of opportunity” created by “a gap between fast-moving events and the information that exists to explain them.” Motherhood in America has, perhaps, always been a prolonged period of disorientation susceptible to niche forms of disaster capitalism. But over the past year, caregivers have lived acutely within this dark hole — what Klein calls “pure event, raw reality, unprocessed by story, narrative or anything that could bridge the gap between reality and understanding.” She writes, “Without a story we are, as many of us were after September 11, intensely vulnerable to those people who are ready to take advantage of the chaos for their own ends.”
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American mothers are maybe, kind of, moving out of that shapeless lacuna and into some kind of narrative. <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/news/2020/08/12/489178/covid-19-pandemic-forcing-millennial-mothers-workforce/">Policy institutes</a> and reporters are documenting the many crises unfolding at once: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/parenting/working-moms-mental-health-coronavirus.html">Mothers</a> are in crisis, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22254942/covid-19-schools-reopening-cases-cdc-opening">schools</a> are in crisis, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/25/22345214/child-care-covid-19-daycare-american-rescue-plan">child care</a> facilities are in crisis, and, perhaps most importantly and auspiciously, Americans’ relationship <a href="https://www.vox.com/22321909/covid-19-pandemic-school-work-parents-remote">to work</a> is in crisis. In response, mothers are gathering online around <a href="https://www.marshallplanformoms.com/">political action</a> and around the discourse of mental health. But it remains to be seen who will control the next part of the story. There is a lot of mommy internet, and the discourse shifts quickly, but as Jezer-Morton put it, “One thing that doesn’t change in the mamasphere is this constant need to affirm each other.”
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Recently,<strong> </strong>affirmation has gained more urgency. “Right now, it’s very much ‘it’s okay to not be okay,’” Jezer-Morton said, pointing out that moms are <a href="https://www.mother.ly/life/viral-tiktok-has-every-single-mom-feeling-seen">crying on social media</a>. “It’s okay to fall apart, it’s okay to cry.” Goldstein feels that what we’re seeing online doesn’t yet capture the full picture.<strong> </strong>“We have not even begun to deal with it,” she said. “I don’t think we’re actually really seeing, truly, how much moms are suffering online in terms of what people are publicly sharing.”
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<aside id="q5an0z">
<q>“I don’t think we’re actually really seeing, truly, how much moms are suffering online in terms of what people are publicly sharing”</q>
</aside>
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This culture of affirmation is less about productivity — or the empowerment alchemy of turning bad times into capital — and more about “feeling seen” and “holding space.” It’s you-got-this, but with a little more awareness that you don’t. In other words, it’s a mental health project that is tangled in grief and mourning, the politics (and aesthetics) of documentation, the larger <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/a26826429/mom-shaming-resistance/">mom-shaming resistance</a>, and the ubiquity of personal branding. There’s a lot going on.
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“It’s coming from a super-real, incredibly desperate place,” Jezer-Morton said of mothers sharing their pain publicly, “but it’s also turning into a form of accepted discourse.”
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I have devoured the reporting and posts about moms over the past year, but I worry about the familiar consumption of women’s suffering — and about how others may monetize all this affirmation in equally <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/arts/can-hollywood-fix-its-harassment-problem-while-celebrating-itself.html">resonant ways</a>. In some senses, the documentation is working; policy like the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/us/politics/child-tax-credit-stimulus.html">direct payments</a> included in the American Rescue Plan Act seemed implausible pre-pandemic. But even left leaners <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/opinion/child-credit-poverty-work.html">are tsk-tsking</a> that strategy, claiming it will reduce women’s labor force participation; in the process, critics of the tax credit forget the legacy of Black mothers like bell hooks, who <a href="https://caringlabor.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/bell-hooks-revolutionary-parenting/">pointed out</a> white feminism’s limiting quest for power through public work. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/may/13/naomi-klein-how-big-tech-plans-to-profit-from-coronavirus-pandemic">technology</a>, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-private-schools-have-profited-from-the-pandemic">education</a>, and <a href="https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/privatizing-public-health">mental health</a> industries are seizing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/06/naomi-klein-how-power-profits-from-disaster">their chance</a> to privatize. And a Scary Mommy-sponsored ad for CBD that recently popped up in my feed reads, “Ain’t no stress like burnt-out-mom-during-a-pandemic-stress!” So it’s hard to say what motherhood will look like on the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/18/roaring-2020s-coronavirus-flu-pandemic-john-m-barry-477016?utm_source=pocket-newtab">fabled other side</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wjxr4L">
What is clear is that mothers will have to continue situating our collective story, online and offline, within a larger economic and political history, rather than in some fuzzy politics of empowerment, if we want this moment to lead toward a radical restructuring of care in America. And we will have to make part of that story the real task of intersectional feminism, which is the task of rethinking power itself.
</p></li>
<li><strong>3 possible futures for Covid-19 in the US — with hope for a return to normal</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_FlYwP2Rhi5mj49bIKro4DPz8GU=/489x0:5854x4024/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69094381/1215182635.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A mask hangs on a fence in front of the New York Stock Exchange on May 26, 2020. | Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The next month could determine who lives to see normalcy come back.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3XyXDE">
The future of America’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/">Covid-19</a> epidemic can now be distilled into this: long-term confidence and hope, but short-term uncertainty and, perhaps, even despair.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6j8MnO">
Vaccines are rolling out quickly, setting up the country to crush the outbreaks that have warped our lives for the past year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6qHDj3">
But in the short term, perhaps the next month, the US faces a few potential paths. The worst scenario: A fourth surge of the coronavirus outpaces vaccinations and kills thousands more people even as the country nears the finish line with Covid-19. The best possibility: The accelerating vaccine rollout and continued vigilance keep the virus at its current level or, hopefully, results in fewer infections — letting the US cross the finish line safely and with more lives saved. Then there’s a middle path: Cases rise, but vaccines shield the country from more hospitalizations and deaths.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AGtO90">
The path the US takes, though, will be decided by one of the most unpredictable things of all: human behavior.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q1zHBH">
The public could loosen up on Covid-19 precautions too quickly, discarding masks and failing to social distance before enough people are vaccinated. As has already been done in <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22310984/covid-19-cases-vaccine-texas-mask-mandate">some areas</a>, policymakers could push the country in this direction by ending restrictions before the vaccine rollout is truly at critical mass. Either of those things, or a combination of both, could lead to a fourth surge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AnRnV1">
But if Americans hold out just a bit longer, and vaccination rates continue to pick up, the US could reach the end of the current large outbreaks — as cases dwindle down close to zero — before that happens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="26UasE">
The good news is, an end seems to be in sight. At current vaccination rates, the country could inoculate its entire adult population <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2021/3/30/22340007/covid-19-vaccines-coronavirus-july-4-independence-day">by July</a>, leaving us ample time over the summer to start getting our lives back to normal and, hopefully, celebrate with others. One country that has vaccinated the bulk of its population, <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/israel-is-a-vaccine-leader-now-its-economy-is-improving-51616417079">Israel</a>, has shown this is possible, reopening its economy and crushing the Covid-19 curve at the same time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lwgQwi">
“Yes, there are some near-term concerns,” Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told me. “But so far we’re — cautiously — on the other side of it. … If we push ahead and really accelerate vaccination, by the summer we’ll be in a much, much better place.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vG2ZhR">
The question now is what lies between here and there.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="MqMg6O">
<div>
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<h3 id="bVGCqm">
The worst short-term scenario: Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths rise in a fourth surge
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u0uKoH">
This is the worst-case scenario — the one that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said fills her with a feeling of “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/cdc-director-warns-impending-doom-covid-cases-rise-n1262355">impending doom</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HIKRxD">
Here’s how it could play out: In the next few weeks, states continue to loosen the restrictions they put in place to combat Covid-19, opening up businesses (particularly indoor locations) and revoking their mask mandates. The public follows suit, embracing the near-end of Covid-19 by going out and engaging in close-contact activities with family, friends, and strangers, even if they’re not yet fully vaccinated. The vaccine campaign can’t keep up with all of this new social activity, and more people catch the virus than are inoculated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x475Qd">
So the coronavirus spreads, jumping between all these vulnerable people mingling together again, while more-infectious coronavirus variants spread rapidly at the same time, pushing the wave even higher. (B.1.1.7, the variant that appears to have originated in the UK, is now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/us/covid-variant-infection.html">the dominant cause of new infections</a> in the US, Walensky said Wednesday.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t17odb">
That said, it doesn’t seem like the US overall is heading toward the worst-case scenario, at least not yet. A recent uptick in Covid-19 cases might have hit a plateau. The US still has a lot of daily new Covid-19 cases — <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=-21..latest&amp;pickerSort=asc&amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;Metric=Confirmed+cases&amp;Interval=7-day+rolling+average&amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;country=USA~EuropeanUnion~AUS">nearly 500 times</a> that of Australia after controlling for population — but it may not be getting worse.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A chart of daily new Covid-19 cases in the US." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/c34_wGNOZozKYifeodzN1Ox3XEo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22428076/coronavirus_data_explorer.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=-21..latest&amp;pickerSort=asc&amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;Metric=Confirmed+cases&amp;Interval=7-day+rolling+average&amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;country=USA~EuropeanUnion" target="_blank">Our World in Data</a></cite>
<figcaption>
Covid-19 cases in the US seem to be plateauing, but maintaining that relies on vaccinations outpacing the spread of new variants.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j5o9au">
The concern is that could all change — and quickly — due to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22358095/covid-19-fourth-surge-wave-rochelle-walensky-cdc-impending-doom">exponential spread</a>, which causes infections to pick up at an accelerating pace. During the US’s third surge in the fall, it took roughly a month for daily new cases to double from about 40,000 to 80,000. But it took only around two weeks for daily new cases to double once again, from 80,000 to 160,000.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WgEASA">
This might already be happening in Michigan, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/michigan-coronavirus-cases.html">has been hit hard</a> by Covid-19 in the past few weeks. The state’s current surge isn’t quite as bad yet as its previous one, but it’s still leading to more hospitalizations and deaths. If it’s already happening there, it could happen elsewhere.
</p>
<h3 id="wfyuef">
The middle short-term path: Covid-19 cases rise, but not hospitalizations and deaths
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hL7NR5">
Throughout the pandemic, Covid-19 deniers have claimed rises in cases were only a “casedemic,” meaning that cases rose but hospitalizations and deaths didn’t, and therefore there was nothing to worry about.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2GPsTu">
That was nonsense for much of the past year, fueled by a crucial misunderstanding: Increases in hospitalizations and deaths tend to lag behind increases in cases because it takes time for people to get sick, land at the hospital, and die after getting infected.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dijkNo">
But something like this could happen now, thanks to the vaccines. So far, the populations more vulnerable to Covid-19, based on age, have gotten more of the vaccine. The result is that <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">more than 76 percent</a> of adults 65 and older have gotten at least one dose, and <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">more than 57 percent</a> have been fully vaccinated (either by the one-shot Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine or a two-shot vaccine from Moderna or Pfizer). Over the past year, this age group represented <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm">around 80 percent</a> of all Covid-19 deaths in the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BPILA4">
With much of the vulnerable vaccinated, a rise in Covid-19 cases may not translate to a significant rise in hospitalizations and deaths. Younger people may contract the virus, but they won’t show up at the hospital or die at the same rates as older individuals. The virus would lose the race to the vaccines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nsk3st">
So the US may still see a fourth surge in cases. But, as Amesh Adalja at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told me, “It’s going to be of a different flavor than prior waves” because the vaccines “have defanged the virus,” including the variants that have been discovered so far.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bSypru">
This is still speculative.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k9tIeK">
“I think it’s a bit too early to tell,” George Mason University epidemiologist Saskia Popescu said about that scenario. Reducing a fourth surge to a “casedemic” still requires action — ensuring vaccines continue to go out quickly, especially to vulnerable populations.
</p>
<h3 id="AvqZ5m">
The best short-term scenario: No fourth surge at all
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oxwl1Z">
This scenario — where cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all hold steady or continue to fall — is contingent on policymakers not reopening their states too quickly, the American people continuing to follow public health guidelines such as social distancing and masking, and the vaccine rollout improving, or at the very least, maintaining its current pace.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cJXmHQ">
It could also be helped along by warmer weather in most of the country in the coming weeks, pushing Americans to do more in outdoor spaces where the virus doesn’t spread as easily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7VFGGV">
History might not give much reason for optimism. America has generally done a bad job with its policy approach and public adherence throughout the pandemic (hence America’s <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=-21..latest&amp;pickerSort=asc&amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;Metric=Confirmed+deaths&amp;Interval=Cumulative&amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;country=AUS~AUT~BEL~CAN~CYP~CZE~DNK~EST~FIN~FRA~DEU~GRC~ISL~IRL~ISR~ITA~JPN~KOR~LVA~LTU~LUX~MLT~NLD~NZL~NOR~PRT~SMR~SGP~SVK~SVN~ESP~SWE~CHE~TWN~USA~GBR~EuropeanUnion">high death toll</a> relative to many of its developed peers). As Popescu put it, “The US has really struggled when it comes to maintaining vigilance when the finish line is in sight.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MSxric">
But the country could do it. If Americans hold out a little while longer — possibly just several weeks — we could suddenly find ourselves in a world where most US adults have gotten at least one shot of the vaccine. If we get there and avoid the first scenario on this list, it could translate to tens of thousands more of us being around to celebrate.
</p>
<h3 id="ZvKyxR">
The longer-term scenario is more certain — and hopeful
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HOGPrV">
For all the uncertainty surrounding the short term, there’s a longer-term scenario that seems very likely: Thanks to the vaccines, the US will reach the end of the large outbreaks, and the summer will be the beginning of our return to normal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PP8zkb">
There’s a real-world example that should fill Americans with hope: Israel. Thanks to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/14/22215896/israel-vaccine-coronavirus-pfizer-netanyahu">good planning and flexibility</a>, Israel has fully vaccinated <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=334..latest&amp;pickerSort=desc&amp;pickerMetric=total_vaccinations_per_hundred&amp;Metric=People+fully+vaccinated&amp;Interval=7-day+rolling+average&amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;country=~ISR">more than 56 percent</a> of its population, including the vast majority of older demographics. That’s allowed it to almost fully open its economy again as Covid-19 cases plummet to levels not seen since summer 2020.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A chart of Covid-19 cases in Israel." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zgtk6YC9sSzUdL5fUIzemaXye0s=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22428079/coronavirus_data_explorer__1_.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=-21..latest&amp;pickerSort=asc&amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;Metric=Confirmed+cases&amp;Interval=7-day+rolling+average&amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;country=EuropeanUnion~ISR" target="_blank">Our World in Data</a></cite>
<figcaption>
Covid-19 cases in Israel show a drop nearly to pre-pandemic levels after a successful vaccination effort.
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</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HiCZWv">
This is incredibly encouraging. It shows that the vaccines work and are truly a way out of the pandemic. “It’s there,” Adalja said. “The real-world data shows what future we’ll eventually achieve if everything stays on track and we continue to vaccinate.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7CztVV">
The US is well on its way to that point. Already, <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">more than 19 percent</a> of the US population is fully vaccinated. With <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=334..latest&amp;pickerSort=desc&amp;pickerMetric=total_vaccinations_per_hundred&amp;Metric=Vaccinations&amp;Interval=7-day+rolling+average&amp;Relative+to+Population=false&amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;country=~USA">more than 3 million doses</a> being administered a day, the country will be able to fully inoculate the majority of its population in a little more than a month — and all adults within three months. If that trend continues, the US could reproduce Israel’s crushed curve in just months or even weeks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zhM4aM">
Then it will finally happen. We’ll find ourselves back at parties with family, at dinners with friends, and in movie theaters with strangers. What was considered too risky just months ago will be the normal we’ve desired for a year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3vO6Fv">
“I reckon that point will become apparent in retrospect,” Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22334025/covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-vaccines-cases-normal">previously told me</a>. “We will suddenly realize that we are laughing, indoors, with people we don’t know and whose vaccine status is unknown, and we will think, ‘Wow, this would have been unimaginable back when …’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wYys6n">
There are still major challenges ahead. Avoiding the deadliest of the short-term scenarios could save tens of thousands of lives. Ensuring enough people get vaccinated — by both improving access and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22289545/covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-coronavirus-anti-vaxxers">addressing vaccine hesitancy</a> — will be crucial. And it’s a race against time: The possibility that worse variants will emerge increases as the virus continues to spread and mutate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ilChWj">
It’s important to help the rest of the world in its efforts too — not simply for humanitarian reasons, but because the coronavirus and its variants could creep back into the US from other countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0x2AeN">
Still, the happier future now looks like a matter of when, not if. After a year of our futures constantly seeming so uncertain, we now have this respite to look forward to — and it’s likely just a matter of time.
</p></li>
<li><strong>9 questions about Ramadan you were too embarrassed to ask</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Muslims wait to break their fast on the 21st day of the holy month of Ramadan at Jama Masjid on June 6, 2018, in New Delhi, India." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KWyhZ5kaAfnyV9DQFLI1tXwSoCc=/0x0:6399x4799/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54937663/GettyImages_968561996.24.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Muslims wait to break their fast on the 21st day of the holy month of Ramadan at Jama Masjid on June 6, 2018, in New Delhi, India. | Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
</figcaption>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
This year, Ramadan starts on April 12. But what is Ramadan? How does fasting work? Your questions, answered.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ju90JS">
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts on Monday, April 12, and even amid a global pandemic, most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims will observe it in some form.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b9HMtA">
Which means there’s a good chance you might encounter someone — a friend, a coworker, a neighbor, your child’s teacher — who will be celebrating, fasting, and doing all sorts of other activities that are unique to the holy month.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ei6ksB">
But what is Ramadan, exactly? What’s the deal with fasting? And is there anything special you should do or say when you’re around Muslim friends and acquaintances during Ramadan?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a07gn0">
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered: Here are the most basic answers to the most basic questions about Ramadan.
</p>
<h3 id="I6KR7j">
<ol type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">What is Ramadan actually about?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uwX0hx">
Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims — the <a href="http://sunnah.com/bukhari/30/9">Prophet Mohammed</a> reportedly said, “When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of hell are closed and the devils are chained.”
</p>
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Muslims believe it was during this month that God revealed the first verses of the Quran, Islam’s sacred text, to Mohammed, on a night known as “The Night of Power” (or Laylat al-Qadr in Arabic).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qi3NSv">
During the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims fast every day from dawn to sunset. It is meant to be a time of spiritual discipline — of deep contemplation of one’s relationship with God, extra prayer, increased charity and generosity, and intense study of the Quran.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="plpLD3">
But if that makes it sound super serious and boring, it’s really not. It’s a time of celebration and joy, to be spent with loved ones. At the end of Ramadan there’s a big three-day celebration called Eid al-Fitr,<em> </em>or the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast.
</p>
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It’s kind of like the Muslim version of Christmas, in the sense that it’s a religious holiday where everyone comes together for big meals with family and friends, exchanges presents, and generally has a lovely time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="60uEb9">
Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic has made many of the more social aspects of Ramadan a lot harder to do safely, given restrictions on travel and the need to maintain social distancing and avoid large, indoor gatherings. But Muslim community leaders are aware of this, and have put out <a href="https://www.cair.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/NMTF-NBMCCStatement.pdf">detailed guidance</a> on how to have a happy and fulfilling Ramadan while making sure everyone stays safe.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lHb4yTTGAcj8i6rsMCwgT6jqczs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22427510/GettyImages_1215352143.jpg"/> <cite>Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Workers disinfect the Blue Mosque before its reopening on the last day of Eid al-Fitr in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 26, 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
</figcaption>
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<h3 id="JBfCA7">
<ol start="2" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">How does fasting work?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="usG0LS">
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars — or duties — of Islam, along with the testimony of faith, prayer, charitable giving, and making a pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims are required to take part every year, though there are special dispensations for those who are ill, pregnant or nursing, menstruating, or traveling, and for young children and the elderly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c34Ayp">
The practice of fasting serves several spiritual and social purposes: to remind you of your human frailty and your dependence on God for sustenance, to show you what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty so you feel compassion for (and a duty to help) the poor and needy, and to reduce the distractions in life so you can more clearly focus on your relationship with God.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GZBNIU">
During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from eating any food, drinking any liquids, smoking cigarettes, and engaging in any sexual activity, from dawn to sunset. That includes taking medication (even if you swallow a pill dry, without drinking any water). Chewing gum is also prohibited (though I didn’t find that one out until about halfway through my first Ramadan after converting — oops).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rfmf8i">
Doing any of those things “invalidates” your fast for the day, and you just start over the next day. To make up for days you didn’t fast, you can either fast later in the year (either all at once or a day here and there) or provide a meal to a needy person for each day you missed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xTAwwu">
Muslims are also supposed to try to curb negative thoughts and emotions like jealousy and anger, and even lesser things like swearing, complaining, and gossiping, during the month. Some people may also choose to give up or limit activities like listening to music and watching television, often in favor of listening to recitations of the Quran.
</p>
<h3 id="nKqLsl">
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">What is a typical day like during Ramadan?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KUZdfW">
During Ramadan, Muslims wake up well before dawn to eat the first meal of the day, which has to last until sunset. This means eating lots of high-protein foods and drinking as much water as possible right up until dawn, after which you can’t eat or drink anything.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dA3aFh">
At dawn, we perform the morning prayer. Since it’s usually still pretty early, many go back to sleep for a bit before waking up again to get ready for the day (I certainly do).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PeLWgI">
Muslims are not supposed to avoid work or school or any other normal duties during the day just because we are fasting. In many Muslim countries, however, businesses and schools may <a href="https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/10/05/2018/Qatar-government-announces-official-working-hours-during-Ramadan">reduce their hours</a> during the day or close entirely. For the most part, though, Muslims go about their daily business as we normally would, despite not being able to eat or drink anything the whole day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lteK5H">
When the evening call to prayer is <em>finally</em> made (or when the alarm on your phone’s Muslim prayer app goes off), we break the day’s fast with a light meal — really more of a snack — called an iftar<em> </em>(literally “breakfast”), before performing the evening prayer. Many people also go to the mosque for the evening prayer, followed by a special prayer that is only recited during Ramadan.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uO6YUxQG3wP8TowZUFxitB6UwcM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22427655/GettyImages_1212828881.jpg"/> <cite>Robin Utrecht/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A Muslim family gathers at the table for the iftar meal after sunset during Ramadan on May 13, 2020, in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ClcQ1-FJuyx75uBkzUFWFkyQ-gU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22427665/GettyImages_1212888128.jpg"/> <cite>Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians gather along the shore of Gaza City to share the iftar meal during Ramadan on May 13, 2020.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u4XAiS">
This is usually followed by a larger meal a bit later in the evening, which is often shared with family and friends in one another’s homes throughout the month. Then it’s off to bed for a few hours of sleep before it’s time to wake up and start all over again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GTx51V">
(Note: There are good reasons for only having a small snack to break your fast before performing the evening prayer and then eating a bigger meal later. Muslim prayers involve a lot of movement — bending over, prostrating on the ground, standing up, etc. Doing all that physical activity on a full stomach after not having eaten for 15 hours is a recipe for disaster. Just trust me on this one.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UIheLm">
Despite the hardship of fasting for a whole month, most Muslims (myself included) actually look forward to Ramadan and are a little sad when it’s over. There’s just something really special about knowing that tens of millions of your fellow Muslims around the world are experiencing the same hunger pangs, dry mouth, and dizzy spells that you are, and that we’re all in it together.
</p>
<h3 id="KjRWiw">
<ol start="4" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">So do you lose weight during Ramadan?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a44wqg">
Some of you may be thinking, “Wow, that sounds like a great way to lose weight! I’m going to try it!” But in fact, Ramadan is actually notorious for often causing weight <em>gain</em>. That’s because eating large meals super early in the morning and late at night with a long period of low activity bordering on lethargy in between can wreak havoc on your metabolism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cZI7sf">
But if you’re careful, you can avoid putting on weight, and you may actually lose a few pounds. One <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23182306">meta-analysis</a> of scientific studies on the effects of Ramadan fasting on body weight found that “[w]eight changes during Ramadan were relatively small and mostly reversed after Ramadan, gradually returning to pre-Ramadan status. Ramadan provides an opportunity to lose weight, but <em>structured and consistent lifestyle modifications are necessary to achieve lasting weight loss</em>.” [Italics mine.]
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9b7Ocz">
So just like with any other extreme diet plan, you may lose a few pounds, but unless you actually make “structured and consistent lifestyle modifications,” you’re probably not going to see major, lasting results.
</p>
<h3 id="vhBgm6">
<ol start="5" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Why do the dates of Ramadan change every year?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1OVh0T">
For religious matters, Muslims follow a lunar calendar — that is, one based on the phases of the moon — whose 12 months add up to approximately 354 days. That’s 11 days shorter than the 365 days of the standard Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the Islamic lunar calendar moves backward approximately 11 days each year in relation to the regular Gregorian calendar.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kq1diQ">
So that means that the first day of the month of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, moves backward by about 11 days each year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VNQlyh">
This has a large impact on how people experience Ramadan from year to year. When Ramadan falls in the winter, it’s much easier to fast: the days are shorter, which means you don’t have to fast as long, and it’s colder out, so not being able to drink water all day isn’t as big of a deal because you’re not sweating as much.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fJpmAf">
Conversely, when Ramadan falls in the summer, fasting can be brutal. In many Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa, summer temperatures can <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/07/16/in-iraq-searing-ramadan-temperatures-prompt-holiday-for-some-while-others-brave.html">reach levels</a> usually reserved for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/world/middleeast/Middle-East-heat-wave.html">the deepest bowels of hell</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Ggraw">
And in some Northern European countries such as Iceland, Norway, and Sweden (where, yes, there are Muslims), fasting can last an average of <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2015/06/13/How-long-is-the-world-fasting-this-Ramadan-A-country-rundown-.html"><em>20 hours or more</em></a> in the summer. (And in a few places above the Arctic Circle, the sun never actually sets in the summer. In these cases, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/07/how-to-fast-for-ramadan-in-the-arctic-where-the-sun-doesnt-set/277834/">Muslim religious authorities have decreed</a> that Muslims can either fast along with the closest Muslim country or fast along with Mecca, Saudi Arabia.)
</p>
<h3 id="wb3gj5">
<ol start="6" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Okay, but why is there always confusion every year about exactly what day Ramadan starts on?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HmTHqQ">
There’s a reason “Ramadan start date” is one of the most-searched phrases every single year. That’s because Muslims around the world do not know when exactly Ramadan is actually supposed to start. If you Google it, you’ll see there’s a little disclaimer under Google’s answer that says “Dates may vary”:
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Lcf8JojIeUAjZk1HQ4PBudbsV7c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22424760/Screen_Shot_2021_04_06_at_2.23.44_PM.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YpJNFt">
That also has to do with the moon — as well as disagreements about science, history, and tradition, plus a bit of geopolitical rivalry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GKIuGS">
The beginning of each new month in the Islamic calendar starts on the new moon. Which means the month of Ramadan starts on the new moon. Simple enough, right?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y85KB8">
Wrong.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6At0ki">
If it’s been a while since your high school astronomy class, here’s a reminder of what the phases of the moon look like:
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kZaWK4Jat8qHxRnux20atHHSmc0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22424786/GettyImages_1291272902.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images/iStockphoto</cite>
<figcaption>
The phases of the moon.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R3pKvp">
Back in Mohammed’s day, in sixth-century Arabia, astronomical calculations weren’t as precise as they are today, so people went by what they could see with the naked eye.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AvbGwJ">
Since the new moon isn’t actually super visible in the night sky (as you can see above), Muslims traditionally waited to start fasting until the small sliver of crescent moon became visible. There’s even <a href="http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/sunnah/bukhari/031.sbt.html">a saying attributed to the Prophet Mohammed</a> about waiting to start the fast until you see the crescent. (Some people think this is why the star and crescent is the symbol of Islam, but the crescent was used as a symbol long before Islam.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M82J9R">
This method was a bit messy, though, since things like clouds or just the difficulty of spotting the moon in some locations often led to different groups starting their fast on separate days, even within the same country. Each community, village, or even mosque within the village might send its own guy out to look for the crescent, with rival groups arguing over whether the other guy really saw it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2fRfk7">
Today, however, we have precise scientific calculations that tell us exactly when the new moon begins, and we don’t need to wait until someone spots a tiny crescent in the sky. (In fact, according to the <a href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e845?_hi=10&amp;_pos=1">Oxford Dictionary of Islam</a>, “The need to determine the precise appearance of the hilal [crescent moon] was one of the inducements for Muslim scholars to study astronomy.”)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jZwnVO">
So, problem solved! Except that some Muslim scholars believe we should still wait until the slight crescent moon is visible in the night sky because that’s what Mohammed said to do and that’s the way we’ve always done it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aMrW4i">
<a href="http://www.islamicity.org/2719/moon-sighting-vs-moon-fighting/">Others argue</a> that Islam has a strong tradition of reason, knowledge, and science, and that if Mohammed were around today, he’d choose the more precise scientific calculations over sending the guy at the mosque with the best eyesight outside to squint at the night sky.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xBrxY2">
To make things even more fun, some argue that the whole world should just follow the official moon-sighting decrees of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and the location of its holiest sites.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BpS2Q8">
But not everyone thinks that’s such a swell idea — especially rival countries like Pakistan and Iran, which balk at the idea of treating Saudi Arabia as the ultimate authority on anything having to do with Islam.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1Afnwk">
All this means that each year, Muslims around the world get to experience the delightful lunacy of “moon-sighting fighting.” It’s such a familiar feature of Ramadan that there are memes about it:
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zK_tEwB7nokNcImpUJe_cRYy_44=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6593197/Brace%20Yourselves%20meme.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Yes, Muslims use the “brace yourselves” meme too. There’s really no escaping it.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="fzu4Fr">
<ol start="7" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Are there differences between how Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims observe Ramadan?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VDLtGG">
For the most part, no. Both Sunni and Shia Muslims fast during Ramadan. But there are some minor differences — for instance, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2086309_2086333_2086319,00.html">Sunnis break their daily fast at sunset</a>, when the sun is no longer visible on the horizon (but there’s still light in the sky), whereas Shia wait until the redness of the setting sun has completely vanished and the sky is totally dark.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LtxoYh">
Shia also celebrate an additional holiday within the month of Ramadan that Sunnis do not. For three days — the 19th, 20th, and 21st days of Ramadan — Shia commemorate the martyrdom of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed who was both the revered fourth caliph of Sunni Islam and the first “legitimate” imam (leader) of Shia Islam.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bm5fBz">
Ali was assassinated in the fierce civil wars that erupted following the death of Mohammed over who should lead the Muslim community in his stead. On the 19th day of the month of Ramadan, while Ali was worshipping at a mosque in Kufa, Iraq, an assassin from a group of rebels who opposed his leadership fatally struck him with a poisoned sword. Ali died two days later.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SuTO9D">
Ali is a hugely important figure in Shia Islam. His tomb in nearby Najaf, Iraq, is the third-holiest site in Shia Islam, and millions of Shia make a pilgrimage there every year. Although Sunnis revere Ali as one of the four “rightly guided” caliphs who ruled after Mohammed’s death, they do not commemorate his death or make a pilgrimage to his tomb.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/p5qa5Fn1JtWwsQzgPxMaXpE3GgU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22424801/GettyImages_1144215980.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images/iStockphoto</cite>
<figcaption>
The tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="D7ozP1">
<ol start="8" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">What can I do to be respectful of my Muslim friends during Ramadan?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KUccUL">
In some Muslim countries, it is a crime to eat and drink in public during the day in the month of Ramadan, even if you’re not Muslim.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O8o6XV">
Of course, this is not the case in the United States, where we enjoy freedom of (and freedom from) religion. And most American Muslims, myself included, don’t expect the non-Muslims around us to radically change their behavior to accommodate our religious fast during Ramadan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4rGL42">
I’ve had friends and coworkers who have chosen to fast along with me out of solidarity (or just because it seems “fun”), and that was sweet of them, but it’s not something I ever expect people to do. (Plus, they usually last about three days before they decide solidarity is overrated and being thirsty for 15 hours is not remotely “fun.”)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tvt61S">
All that said, there are things you can do, and not do, to make things a little easier for friends or colleagues who happen to be fasting for Ramadan. If you share an office with someone fasting, maybe eat your delicious, juicy cheeseburger in the office break room rather than at your desk, where your poor, suffering Muslim coworkers will have to smell it and salivate (if they even have enough moisture left in their bodies to salivate at that point).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZBWXwK">
Try to remember not to offer them a bite or a sip of what you’re eating, because it’s sometimes hard for us to remember that we’re fasting and easy to absentmindedly accept and eat that Lay’s potato chip you just offered us. But if you do, it’s okay. We’re not going to get mad or be offended (unless you’re doing it on purpose, in which case, what is wrong with you?).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ciA9mG">
If you’re having a dinner party and you want to invite your Muslim friends, try to schedule it after sunset so they can eat. Muslims don’t drink alcohol or eat pork, but we usually don’t mind being around it. (<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/08/politics/philadelphia-mosque-pigs-head/">Contrary</a> to <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/344750-texas-bair-shoot-muslims/">popular belief</a>, we are not scared of or allergic to pork; we just don’t eat it. It’s not like we’re vampires and pork is garlic.) But do let us know if there’s alcohol or pork in something so we don’t accidentally consume it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="13RG1j">
If you want to wish your Muslim friends or acquaintances a happy Ramadan or happy Eid al-Fitr, you’re welcome to just say, “Happy Ramadan!” or “Happy Eid!” That’s not offensive or anything. But if you want to show them you made an effort to learn more about their religion, the standard greetings are “Ramadan/Eid kareem” (which means “have a generous Ramadan/Eid”) or “Ramadan/Eid mubarak” (which means “have a blessed Ramadan/Eid”).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F4Rtxk">
Even something as simple as learning one of those expressions and saying it with a smile to your Muslim friends will go a long way toward making them feel comfortable and welcome.
</p>
<h3 id="eNUNjL">
<ol start="9" type="1">
<li>So if you’re not supposed to get angry or complain or gossip during Ramadan, how come terrorist attacks by groups like <a href="http://qz.com/439226/isils-call-for-a-ramadan-surge-is-un-islamic-and-highly-effective/">ISIS</a> and <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14920246/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/us-general-more-violence-during-ramadan/#.V1NiBZMrLBI">al-Qaeda</a> always seem to spike during Ramadan?
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yUNL5s">
Because terrorists are assholes.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="hhon2e"/>
<h3 id="jBL7HC">
Watch: Muhammad Ali’s biggest fights were outside the ring
</h3>
<div id="QWkGec">
<div class="volume-video" id="volume-placement-691">
</div></div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Madgaon-Mangaluru DEMU to run as express special from April 12</strong> - The Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd., (KRCL) has reintroduced the Madgaon-Mangaluru Central-Madgaon DEMU Passenger as a fully reserved express special</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>EC should stop Mamata from campaigning for vitriolic and communal speeches: Babul Supriyo</strong> - Mamata Banerjee has taken Bengal’s political discourse to an ‘all-time low’, says the BJP candidate</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>Coronavirus vaccine | India leads globally with average of more than 34 lakh doses given per day</strong> - Eight states — Maharashtra, Rajastha, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala — account for 60% of the total doses</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>Czech Republic vaccines: European court backs mandatory pre-school jabs</strong> - Families had challenged the Czech government’s ban on unvaccinated children entering pre-schools.</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>ENA: Macron to scrap French leaders’ elite training school</strong> - A degree from the ENA has been the passport to the upper echelons of French politics for decades.</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>Navalny: Jailed Putin critic ‘losing sensation in legs and hands’</strong> - The Putin critic has been diagnosed with spinal hernias and his health is worsening, a lawyer says.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Neighbours: Independent review launched over racism claims</strong> - Fremantle Media, which produces the Australian soap, said it did not tolerate discrimination.</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>EU drug regulator: Unusual blood clot is ‘very rare AstraZeneca side effect’</strong> - The EU’s medicines regulator finds the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine outweigh the risks.</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>Best Buy takes aim at Amazon Prime with its own membership program</strong> - The company’s new program should appeal to Geek Squad frequent fliers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1755317">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How a VPN vulnerability allowed ransomware to disrupt two manufacturing plants</strong> - Patching in industrial settings is hard. Ransomware shutting down production is harder. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1755297">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency policy works</strong> - Paper covers IDFA alternatives, rules for Apple’s own apps, and more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1755111">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Twitter won’t let federal archivists host Trump’s tweets on Twitter</strong> - Twitter is taking a hard-line stance on the banned <span class="citation" data-cites="realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</span> account. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1755229">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When asked to fix something, we don’t even think of removing parts</strong> - Across many experiments, participants tried to fix problems by adding stuff. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1755231">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>I caught my son chewing on electrical cords.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So I had to ground him. He’s doing better currently. And conducting himself properly …
</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/Dr_Quantum_Alpha"> /u/Dr_Quantum_Alpha </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmfkuv/i_caught_my_son_chewing_on_electrical_cords/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmfkuv/i_caught_my_son_chewing_on_electrical_cords/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I just got kicked out of flat earth Facebook groups</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
because I asked if the 6 foot social distancing had pushed anyone over the edge yet.
</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/invertedparadX"> /u/invertedparadX </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmaex1/i_just_got_kicked_out_of_flat_earth_facebook/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmaex1/i_just_got_kicked_out_of_flat_earth_facebook/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>It must be hard for people learning to spell in English. For example, there is one silent K in “knight”, four silent K’s in “knickknack”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And three silent K’s in “Republican”.
</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/Henri_Dupont"> /u/Henri_Dupont </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mm1dv4/it_must_be_hard_for_people_learning_to_spell_in/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mm1dv4/it_must_be_hard_for_people_learning_to_spell_in/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What did the blind man say when he touched sandpaper for the first time?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What the fuck did I just read?”
</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/PocketGlove1"> /u/PocketGlove1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmeeic/what_did_the_blind_man_say_when_he_touched/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmeeic/what_did_the_blind_man_say_when_he_touched/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Bravery</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Russian said, “I will demonstrate the bravery of our sailors.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He calls a sailor over and says, “Jump off the ship. Swim under it and climb back up.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The sailor promptly salutes and jumps off the flight deck, swims under the ship, climbs up the davits and stands in front of the admiral and salutes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Russian says, “That, gentlemen, is courage.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The American says, “That’s nothing.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He calls over a PO and says, “I want you to jump off the bows. Swim under the ship to the stern and then return.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The PO salutes, jumps off the bow, swims to the stern, and climbs back up to stand in front of the admiral and salutes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The American says, “That, gentlemen, is courage.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The British admiral says, “That’s nothing. Sailor, come here.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The matelot comes to attention and salutes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The admiral says, “I want you to climb the highest mast on the carrier, jump off, swim under the boat from bow to stern and then from beam to beam then climb up the mast and do it again.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The matelot looks at the admiral and says, “You can fuck right off, sir!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The admiral turns to the other two and says, “And that, gentlemen, is courage.”
</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/kingheet"> /u/kingheet </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmk6q8/bravery/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mmk6q8/bravery/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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